by: Sam Farzin, KUCI Music Director
Final Fantasy – Spectrum 14th Century [Blocks Recording Club]
Cherish this digi-only-but-obviously-not release by everyone's favorite strings arranger and all around nice Canadian violin boy Owen Pallet. Chamber popppp.
Grampall Jookabox – Ropechain [Asthmatic Kitty]
Kitchen sink pop with debts to Tom Waits and Prince.
Wilderness – (K)no(w)here [Jagjaguwar]
Weird slow rock that is arty and epic but not post-nothing. Really...pretty but totally overwhelming and booming.
The Alps – Iii [Type]
Tropi-pop folktronic-style.
French Miami – French Miami [Self-Released]
Cool mildly-proggy jams, but accessible. For all to get their twitch on.
School Of Seven Bells – Alpinisms [Ghostly International]
Ex-Secret Machine teams with twin girls and makes unstoner IdanceM beats with pretty vox.
Danielson – Trying Hartz [Secretly Canadian]
Pipsqueak b-sides and rarities from this happy-go-happier galleon of pop-sailors.
Chop Chop – Screens [Arch Enemy]
Holy moly these songs are pretty. Minimal music sparse sounds and amazing vocals. Listen to thisss.
The Lines – Flood Bank [Acute Records]
Acute releases good music by under-exposed or forgotten 80s post-punk bands (Joy Diviwho?). That said, you know what this will sound like mostly. That's not a bad thing.
Wallpaper – On The Chewing Gum Ground [K]
Why does K always win? This is that winner indie-rock, sort of Pavement but also sort of wackier. K.
The Decemberists – Always The Bridesmaid: A Singles Series [Capitol]
Remember when...
Crystal Stilts – Alight Of Night [Slumberland]
Okay there's this band, they are like when you are sick and then you get something somehow and you're not sick anymore, they are called that thing that makes you not sick. Oh wait, that's a different band.
+/- -- Xs On Your Eyes [Absolutely Kosher]
Chamber-pop with precision as its middle name. Wild musicianship at play here amid that great old emotive indie rock.
Larkin Grimm – Parplar [Young God]
Man this rules. This girl like, grew up in a cult and then went to Yale. Now she's buds with Michael Gira of SWANS and Angels of Light and here she plays folky somethings that range from holler-stomps to sparse slow-jams. Track 2 is killer. I don't recall the name.
Desolation Wilderness – White Light Strobing [K]
Slooooowcore.
Love Is All – A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night [What's Your Rupture?]
Swedes but instead of pop post-pop.
Giraffe Running – Giraffe Running [Australian Cattle God Records]
2-discs. Disc the first is bass-drum broke-dance smashers. Disc 2 is remixes, re-edits, taking aparts, and collaborations based on the disc 1 tracks.
Past Lives – Strange Symmetry [Suicide Squeeze]
Ex-Blood Brother and friends make...post-something punk rock. I wonder if the cover art is a nod to all of Fucked Up's releases?
Juana Molina – Un Dia [Domino]
Actress-gone-acousmatic wonder. Unique tunes every which way.
Various Artists – Perfect As Cats: A Tribte To The Cure [Manimal Vinyl]
The art for this release is amazing.
O'death – Broken Hymns Limbs And Skin [Kemado]
Stomp stomp stomp hit a piece of metal scream like a banshee banjo banjo break your mandolin fury stomp.
The So So Glos – Tourism/Terrorism [Green Owl]
Pop punk, like the Clash in 1983 or something. These dudes are young and brothers and run a rad venue in NYC called "The Market Hotel."
The Bad Hand – In This Line Wish You Happiness [Daly City]
Wacko-jazz. Totally totally rad.
Various Artists – Children Of The Goo [Famous Class]
I love this record label (Famous Class). Someone in Vice wrote something like "I wish all those bands on LOAD RECORDS etc. would sound less like bad noisejazz and more like the bands on Famous Class." Which means fun, exciting, noisy, irreverent. The sound of dudes having the time of their life crafting simple and earwormable popnoise. This is a sampler of their upcoming 2009 releases.
and then three fantastic discs of surf-rock from Finland (none of these are new releases but they are in that section as they are new in our library).
Laika & The Cosmonauts – Absurdistan [Yep Roc]
Laika & The Cosmonauts – Local Warming [Yep Roc]
Laika & The Cosmonauts – Laika Sex Machine [Yep Roc]
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