Blood Sister - Why Would You

Heavy goodness on a couple of new singles from a new side project by Ezana Edwards of Brooklyn’s Night Manager and Ryan Grubbs of Sacramento’s Ganglians. This single is already under my skin in all the best ways.

Get the San Francisco duo’s single b/w “Bart Simpson” on Bndcmp.

The Colourist - Little Games

This SoCal band is interested in “Ghost hunting. Tropical drinks. Scratchers.” The only thing I know that’s called a ‘scratcher’ is a lottery ticket. I don’t believe these guys will need any winning scratchers if they keep making pop songs this good.

Catch this and their other single “Wishing Wells” from Sndcld.

Freelove Fenner - Wendy Witchcult

Definitely one of my favorite cassettes of last year - one of those that I pop in and allow to auto-reverse three times before bothering to stop it.

feastofbeast:

Freelove Fenner just released an fiendish video for Wendy Witchcult from their OOP Pineapple Hair EP cassette, made by their pal Conor of Brave Radar. 

The Pineapple Hair EP is still available to download, and I’ll continue to press that it was one of the most overlooked gems of 2012.  Definitely in my top ten.  The only crime with that glorious cassette is how damn short it is! Not even 11min with six tracks, leaving you begging for more.  Keep en eye on Fixture Records for their next release, hopefully next time a fulllength.

Previously: “Pineapple Hair”

Cayucas - Cayucos (Dungeonesse Remix)

Back in 2011, I blogged about a band called Oregon Bike Trail. I was captivated by Zach Yudin’s simple, straight-forward approach to sunshine pop song construction. He’s gone on to change the project’s name and repackaged his tunes for release with the good people of Secretly Canadian. Luckily for us, they also work with Jenn Wasner (she of Wye Oak and Flock of Dimes) and Jon Ehrens (he of White Life, Art Department) who took some time to rework this single in all it’s fun-loving glory with their special brand of hyper-kitchy 80’s beatz.

The new Bigfoot LP will be out on April 30th. He’ll be hitting Europe for a string of shows after the mad crush of SXSW, so keep your eyes out for him Euros! 

yourstrulysf:

Four Lambeth, London lads —Will, Pete, Sam, and Chilli— land in New York City to stand before the Joe Strummer mural, taste real ny pizza, and show the crowd at Shea Stadium what the sweat and spit of a rock and roll band stinks like. 

Visuals - Levitation

This project was dreamed up by Andrew Fox (guitar, vocals) and Marshall Ryan (drums) who, as legend has it, met while living in Brooklyn with the Small Black boys. I can imagine that made for some fertile and creative hang-sesh time. If this video is any indication, it was likely influenced by evenings of… let’s call it “looking deeply into the universe.” 

Get this debut track along w single b/w “Goodbye” over on their Sndcld.

Longevity - Frustrated

At first I was like WTF is this, and then, upon seeing the light I was like “Ohhhhh. Yesss.” We need more psychedelic hip-hop in this world.

Video directed by Bradley Smith of GRACEBUNKGINPOP. Get this single on Sndcld.

(Source: longevityla)

Sister Crystals - For So Long

This dreampop single just landed in blogland inboxes around the globe and it’s a miracle we’ve even seen it given the mass of SXSW-related PR smash waterfalling around out there. Totally glad I netted it tho, it’s a beaut.

Look for Chicago duo Lauren Whitacre and Colin Croom’s self-titled LP out in May via Walk-In Records & Feeltrip Records.

Gloss - Front Porch

Minnesota’s Jordan Bleau sent me this top-shelf single and writes:

Hey Mark,

I moved to Minneapolis from Iowa to escape some serious demons, and the isolation that I experienced when I got up here was both live-saving and incredibly alienating. I knew no one when I got up here. I started going to shows by myself a lot, and I often wouldn’t talk to anyone and just get completely absorbed in the music. It seemed like a lot of the stuff I wanted to see didn’t draw a lot of people in a scene dominated by hip hop and bluegrass, which was fine with me.

I’d been recording my own music (that I never released) since I was 14 or so, often playing most of the instruments myself, so when I saw the same group of teenagers at shows two nights in a row (Frankie Rose/DIIV and then The Drums/Craft Spells) I decided to approach them. I told them I’d play whatever instrument they wanted and record them if they wanted to start a band. All of us are fairly detached individuals, but when we met up to practice the first time there wasn’t really a huge need for words. Not that it was spectacular right out of the gate or anything - we started off playing Cure rip-offs in the guitar player Sean’s parents’ house in the suburbs. But I could tell that these kids were excited, and I felt like a big brother to them in many ways, having played in bands before myself. 

We recorded a few songs last Summer and then studied I up on production techniques and spent hours and hours tweaking and refining them before we decided to release a single, “Front Porch”, which led to a massive response both locally and internationally. When I say massive I mean we got over a thousand plays in a couple of months, which is a huge deal to both myself and really any 19-year-old, but especially these kids.

The attention led to an offer from a good samaritan that had recently started a record label to press a 7” for us, an offer from another local label to put out our next release, and a bunch of show offers. Most importantly, we started to make some new friends, which I think can be difficult both for me and the rest of these dudes. And a lot of other humans. The 7” comes out in April via Manic Pop! Records. UK blog One For The People interviewed us about it. We’re going to record an EP at the end of this month and we’ve got some dates at the legendary First Avenue, which sort of still doesn’t seem real.

We’re underdogs, we’re young, and we’re trying to put out some music that disrupts the established local scene here. It’s tough, but I know that helping these kids do what we do and also just making music period is one of the only things that combats the isolation that most of us feel. We don’t party or socialize but when we get together and make music I feel like we can actually make people that certain sense of detachment. I hope you’ll enjoy these songs. Keep doing what you’re doing, and thank you.

-Jordan, Drums

Read more Letters to YVYNYL

CONCLΔVE - Ocean Star

When I first heard this track, I thought it must be a remix of a Lana Del Rey track, but no! This Philippine producer teamed up with his sultry-voiced friend Luxe Calip to craft a blazer of a new single. He says:

luxe and i have this special track dedicated to her recently deceased mother. its the most beautiful thing we’ve done so far. though it pains me to see my friend go through these things. one thing’s for sure. instead of her dwelling in misery, she channeled a much more mature and hopeful luxe for a bright tomorrow, despite it all. I am proud of her. proud to be her friend through thick and thin.

Here’s to hoping they make more excellent work like this soon!

Vanessa Elisha - Home To Me

Right about now, it’s Monday morning in Eastern Australia. I don’t normally publish on the weekends, but I’m proud to make a special exception to make sure you bleeding edgers get your week started off right.  This brand new video - hot off the presses - is from one of my favorite new R&B artists from Down Under. Vanessa’s first couple singles are poppin’ and I feel like the water’s starting to heat up with that effervescent excitement the moment before things really start to boil. Don’t look away too long, or you’ll miss it.

Video directed by Prad Senanyake.

Previously: “Blur”

Joywave - London

These guys make it known that they’re from Rochester, not New York City. But then here they are writing sick jams about London! Go figure.

This new single is from their forthcoming 88888 Mixtape, due in April. Listen to their Koda Vista LP on Spotify and if you’re heavy into it, don’t miss their “Live at the Planetarium 2012” performance captured on video.

Previously: “Winnipeg”