Along with the brand new site, The Sound Of Indie is pleased to announce a brand new addition to our unpaid staff, Brooklyn operative Mark. A relative newbie to show recording, Mark attends several shows a month in NYC and has been known to make occasional forays to New Jersey venues. While specializing in electronic and synth-based bands, Mark’s musical tastes cover a wide swath of genres. You may have already noticed Mark’s a-ha show review and tracks last Friday, which is the first of many posts to come. Please put your hands together and give a warm welcome to the newest member of the TSOI staff, Mark.
New Staff! Say Hi To Mark
– June 23, 2010Posted in: Misc. Stuff
I’m a sucker for all things bossa nova, so I was instantly drawn in to this track from the husband and wife duo known as Undersea Poem. Departing from their native New York City, they wrote and recorded their new self-titled LP in Mexico. The full-length was released earlier this year on Six Degrees Records and though this track is my favorite, the entire thing is great. You can currently catch them playing a few live dates on the east coast.
Alan Wilkis stripped this Phantogram track of all it’s shoegazyness and replaced it with 80′s synthpop. If you replaced Sarah’s voice with Madonna, I could easily see this along-side some of the greats from “True Blue.” Alan Wilkis pretty much nailed it.
Purveyors of all things great lately, Labrador Records released the new LP from Swedish pop masters The Radio Dept. a couple of weeks ago. After a four year hiatus, they have put together what will go down as their most memorable release yet. Starting with Thurston Moore speaking some straight-up truth at the beginning, I think you’re going to be hard-pressed to find a catchier tune coming out in 2010.
San Francisco’s Stripmall Architecture gets mentioned in the same breath as media darling bands like Sigur Ros and Metric, but I think there’s a lot more originality going on with them than their so-called peers. Personally, I can’t help hearing nods to some of 4AD’s less-known early-90s releases like Swallow or Insides which I can really appreciate. One thing is for certain though, I’m digging what I’m hearing, even more than their previous incarnation of Halou. They’re playing a string of dates up and down the California coast so I hope to soon catch them live.
Having a friend that plays in band makes you obligated to see them play no matter how bad their band stinks. Multiply that by quite a few friends and you end up seeing a lot of shitty shows over a lifetime. So as you can imagine, when a friend plays in a band that’s actually good, it’s a real treat. That was the case with my friend who played in Low Skies. I was lucky to get advance copies of Low Skies recordings as well as catch them play a half dozen times before they split up a few years ago (in fact, a little know TSOI tidbit, the image of the guitar in the header graphic on the site is actually a photo of Low Skies). When I heard that the main singer/songwriter Chris Salveter had started up the new outfit, Judson Claiborne, I made sure to make a note of it. The new record “Time and Temperature” was released earlier this month, and though I haven’t heard the entire thing (I plan on ordering the limited edition vinyl release next week), the few tracks that have been surfacing on the internet are pretty spectacular.
Generally Monday’s are reserved for a live set, but this week TSOI is trying to clear out our inbox and we will be bringing you some of the best stuff that we’ve been sent the past couple of months. First up is a track off the soon to be released (June 8th actually) Tender Forever record “No Snare” out on K Records. I caught Melanie opening for Mirah here in Los Angeles last year but unfortunately her laptop had completely shit the bed earlier that afternoon, so she only performed a handful of older tracks. It was still a great show, but the tracks off this new record are killer and it would have been great to get a taste of the new tracks in a live setting. This new record doesn’t deviate from her tried-and-true formula of sparse indie-electronic beats backing her thoughtful lyrics. If you’re already a fan, you’ll certainly be pleased. And if you’re not, prepare to be converted.
