We last left this dynamic duo after releasing their debut album on Mush Records. Since then, the Bell brothers, Jared and Michael, from Tempe, Arizona, have put out a remix album (featuring remixes by The Album Leaf, Daedelus, The One AM Radio and Bibio) and recently re-issued their first EP on their new label, Magic Bullet out of Virginia. The new tracks the band has added for the sharing encompass the wide range of instrumental rock you can expect from these fellows. “Narita” from their new split EP with This Will Destroy You starts out small and subtle with a three-key riff and then gradually grows into a sweeping epic as layers pile onto layers. “Fall Bicycle” from their first album exemplifies the duo’s playful personality and showcases well Jared’s keyboard playing and Michael’s drumming. This summer you can enjoy the sites and sounds of this family roadtrip when they come strolling through your town.
Narita [MP3, 4.3MB, 128kbps]
Fall Bicycle [MP3, 8.0MB, 128kbps]
Truth Skull (Bibio Remix) [MP3, 12.4MB, 128kbps]
Sonically, my Memorial Day weekend has been marked by the sizzle of meat, screams and splashes from kids in the pool, and the hearty blaring of these two tracks from the nearest sound system and my own vocal chords. New York’s The Boy Koan has me geeked to start summer, or maybe I’m just geeked for summer to start. One thing’s for sure, I’m geeked on The Boy Koan—they’re the first band that I’ve ever asked to send me their lyrics. On second thought, that may simply say more about my thorough lack of thoroughness. I get the same tingly sensations from “Beasts from More Rustic Days” as I did when I first heard Grandaddy’s Under The Western Freeway. And “My Russian Doll” fires up pogo reflexes with its ’90s new wave gang vocals giving way to Mark E. Smith-like lackadaisical lilting on the bridge. It’s hard to believe this is the band’s first recorded efforts and that the usual purveyors of all things indie between here and there haven’t been giving this sleeper of a debut more blog space. I’d be surprised if the lack of coverage lasted long.
My last few posts have featured up-jump-and-boogie tracks and it’s high time I settle down a bit before I hurt myself. The Chicago trio, The Layaways, a perennial favorite ’round these parts, return after dropping their festive Christmas EP more than two years ago. Their laid-back, ’60s era sounds are absolutely delightening. Yes, they’re so good that they induce spontaneous neology. On “Keep it to Yourself” they flavor their guitars with just a pinch of fuzz, a dash of reverb, and a sprinkle of backwardness. They turn up the jangle on “All Around the World” and their tag-team vocalists provide a subtle depth to this new full-length, available, by the way, in its entirety on their site in full share mode. Good peeps them Layaways boys. I hope they don’t mind me adding my favorite track, “Come Back Home.” It evokes a hot, languid California Summer circa 1967. Dig it.
French wunderkind label Kitsuné is feeling lucky! The seventh incarnation of their stellar compilation series hits early next month, and they’ve sifted out this nugget o’ hard disco to share as an invitation to grab your sieve and join them in their search for more gold. autoKratz represents the electro side of Kitsuné’s electro-pop spectrum, but neither autoKratz, nor the label allow themselves to be held hostage to pithy genres. They’re explorers! Adventurers! Pop ‘n’ Lockers! Vocoders! They’re all good and Kitsuné Maison #7 will trip you out! (safely and naturally, naturally).
My lady’s gonna love this track. Know why? Because Ms. Velarde’s music has taken me home, specifically the kitchen, and I’m groovin’ and scrubbin’ and scrubbin’ the grooves and scratchin’ the grout. I’m washin’ and dryin’: the dishes, the oven, the counters. I’m whistlin’ while I work, “Let the music CLEAN YOUR HOME!” She’s awakened my inner domestic dude. She’s softened my hands and loosened my caboose while I do the dishes. 
A hot and sweaty dancefloor number just in time for summer. Nickodemus has been ruling the NYC dance music scene since the mid-nineties as a resident DJ at Giant Step up until presently with his work with the Turntables on the Hudson parties. On record, his name is synonymous with sunny grooves and he can always be counted on to bring big-booty-shakin’ bounces. Lately, I’ve been digging his work with Quantic, and his remixes of Billy Holiday, Mexican Institue of Sound, and Ocote Soul Sound. Now he’s ready to drop his sophomore album, Sun People next month on Eighteenth Street Lounge music. Nickodemus touts a cornucopia of world sounds collaborating with artists from all corners of the globe including Mandingo vocalist Ismael Kouyate and New York’s Real Live Show. Nickodemus is to music as 
Photons will be releasing three EP’s this year, the first of which is Glory!, out tomorrow via Insound.com. “Where Were You Last Night” continues the raucous party, still with bassoon.
You’d think i’d break five months of silence with some yet-to-be-released, white-label, promo-only B-side REEEEEmix… No. It’s a Los Angeles band that hasn’t put out a record since 2006. But hey, it’s new to me (discovered via Pandora of all places). Irving serve up carefree pop in a variety of flavors – thanks in part to the fact there are five songwriters in the group. My personal favorite is “I Can’t Fall in Love,” which I can’t seem to listen to less than twice in a row.