by: Sam Farzin, KUCI Music Director
Strange Boys - And Girls Club [In The Red]
Some dudes kickin around the garage rock can with dirty finesse. Plus, they're on IN THE RED so you know they're all aces.
The Coathangers - Scramble [Suicide Squeeze]
The gals could sound like they crashed a Strange Boys show, beat them up, and then played the show instead, upon their unconscious male bodies.
Condo F*cks – F*ckbook [Matador]
This is Yo La Tango, playing covers of mostly gnalry 60s...garage rockers.
Anni Rossi - Rockwell [4AD]
Viola-based songs that tap and bow their way on your brain.
Cursive - Mama, I'm Swollen [Saddle Creek]
Do I need to write anything about Cursive that folks who play Cursive need to hear? (No.)
Booker T - Potato Hole [Anti-]
60s piano-and-organ-banger Booker T returns backed by Neil Young (!) and the Drive-By Truckers. You basically can put 2+2 together here. You know how the right channel of the Velvet Underground's "The Gift" is a "sick" rock groove? That track is called "The Booker T" after this man.
Beep Beep - Enchanted Islands [Saddle Creek]
The Show is the Rainbow - Wet Fist [Retard Disco]
Jeremy Jay - Slow Dance [K]
Effortless pop'n'b love songs.
Wonder Wheel - Peter's Plant Food [Number 5 Music]
Dense, packed, taut, affected pop minutes.
The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love [Capitol]
Words words words words. This is sort of like an album-length version of "The Tain."
Swan Lake - Enemy Mine [Jagjaguwar]
Do you like a) Frog Eyes; b) Wolf Parade; c) Sunset Rubdown; d) Destroyer? Then you will probably like this band.
Bishop Allen - Grrr... [Dead Oceans]
Okay I'm starting to fall asleep. Bishop Allen are an indie-pop band with their hairbands and blazers on just right. And they're smart, too.
The Boy Least Likely To - The Law of the Playground [+1]
These dudes are English and make the really cute pop songs that would not be out of place on that mixtape for that gal you want to ask out but are too afraid to.
Gutbucket - A Modest Proposal [Cuneiform]
This is so good. Chamber-art-prog. Or, DEATH JAZZ.
Boo and Boo Too - Boo & Boo Too [Ironpaw]
Pummeling shoe-gazy hitters with a fair bit more punk than shoe.
Blank Dogs - On Two Sides [Sacred Bones]
Blank Dogs - The Fields [Woodsist]
Two full-lengths by this once mysterious song manufacturer. These are like Joy Division's best unreleased tracks, pummeled for 25 years and then reconstructed fragment by fragment with shoddy instruments and shoddier recording equipment. I know the Joy Division comparisons are lame but dude is truly heir to the dark-pop-with-synth throne.
Scott Pinkmountain & The Golden Bolts of Tone - The Full Sun [Howells Transmitter]
Dude, check out that band name. This is EPIC as F indie-rock. Like more epic than 300. But without being conscious of epicnes.
Fast 'N' Bulbous - Waxed Oop [Cuneiform]
Covers of Captain Beefheart abstractions by former Beefheart guitar dude. This is super good, but so is Captain Beefheart, so this is unsurprising.
Matteah Baim - Laughing Boy [DiChristina]
This is pretty experimental. Do you know the band METALLIC FALCONS? That was this girl and one of the Cocorosie dudettes. Soft and calm but unsettling guitaryfolk with lots of sparseness that is pretty dark,.
Hatcham Social - You Dig the Tunnel, I'll Hide the Soil [Fierce Panda]
GUITAR POP from England that is 100% legit.
The Felice Brothers - Yonder is the Clock [Team Love]
This band is like KINGS OF LEON back when they were still 3 brothers with beards, plus less distortion. Wanderer Americana with heart and pride.
Doves - Kingdom of Rust [Astralwerks]
This album sounds like it belongs in a little stadium, what with it's synth climaxes and epic everythings. Do you like heart soul and bombast!?
Schleusolz - Running Out Of Time [Schokokontrol]
Dude this RULES. The tracks are not even numbered, they are LETTERED. This sounds like 20s swing-pop + new wave + circus music. It is mostly instrumental. I am extremely fond of it.
Kelli Rudick - No One Knows You're Foreign [Self-released]
Sorta along the lines of Kaki King. Virtuostic guitar noises. "Neo-classical" guitar. Whatever, this is class.
Gui Boratto - Take My Breath Away [Kompakt]
THIS IS IN RPM. This is the best in minimal techno. Like dance music for your brain. But, not IDM. Necessarily. If you dug "Chromophobia" you will dig tihs.
Various Artists - Nigeria 70 [Strut]
Nigeria rock in the 70s, FTW! This is WORLD section stuff.
Pomegranates - Everybody, Come Outside! [Lujo]
Way fun, sort off-kllter indie-pop. Really fun freshness.
Ramblin' Jack Elliott - A Stranger Here [Anti-]
This is a BLUES release. An old folkie who was buds with Woody Guthrie and mentored Bob Dyland. Here, he tackles depression-era traditionals.
The Handsome Family - Honey Moon [Carrot Top]
Baritone mister singing over country rollers. This is a ALT COUNTRY album. This is vaguely dark and gothic in its delivery. But very appealing!
The Littlest Viking - Labor and Lust [Self-released]
I listened to this and thought: "man, this sure is a god Don Caballero-y record!" And then I found out these dudes are from Whittier! This is the best sort of local tunage I've heard in a while.
DM Stith - Heavy Ghost [Asthmatic Kitty]
Psychy-weird folky contemplation. Fun instrumentation + scary thoughts+ideas.
Dead Heart Bloom - In Chains [KEI]
100% solid indie-rock. Like hearing Arcade Fire for the first time but without the Wayne Coyne scorn.
Chain and the Gang - Down With Liberty...Up With Chains! [K]
Ian Svenonius and Calvin Johnson of Nation of Ulysses and Beat Happening/K Records respectively tear up some pop nonsense.
Crystal Antlers - Tentacles [Touch and Go]
Crazy space explosion rock with the wackiest sounds and the gnarliest everything always all the time.
Gay Witch Abortion - Maverick [Learning Curve]
Okay, yeah. The band is called that. But the riffs! The groove! This is mostly instrumental, way groovy and way heavy guitar and drums "stoner" rock and roll.
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