Tag: indie rock

Posted on

Nick Delffs “As I Sat on a Sunny Bank” (2016)

Nick Delffs - As I Sat on a Sunny Bank

Mama Bird Recording Co.
Buy: Bandcamp

As I searched down the feed of Bandcamp purchases by folks I follow on that wonderful service, I came across the absolutely fantastic Ryan Oxford release that came out a few days ago. I am hoping they will fix their payment processing issues, so that I can buy that cassette. But this is not the real point of this post, the real point is to highlight the Christmas single that Nick Delffs put out on the same label, Mama Bird Recording Co., this past December. “As I Sat on a Sunny Bank” is a traditional English Christmas carol arranged and performed splendidly by Nick. There is a warmth to recording, with the muted, pulsing drumbeat and the shimmering guitar accents, which makes this song sound contemporary, as well as just downright fantastic. Who wouldn’t want to feel the warmth as they sit on a sunny bank?

Bottom Line: A beautiful treatment of a traditional song by the talented Nick Delffs… you have my vote. Which…. doesn’t matter for much, which is why if you buy this track today (Friday, February 3, 2017), you’ll be giving a small slice to the ACLU as they fight for our civil liberties.

LISTEN

Posted on

Three for Silver “Our Rest Has Come” (2016)

Three for Silver Christmas

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

Stubby hipped me to the excellent Portland trio, Three for Silver, when they released the fantastic Three Stones for St. Stephen in 2015. They are back once again, with a less ambitious release (1-song), but certainly with an eye towards the same level of quality. Three for Silver sound like a balkan-Tom Waits, and their style of junkyard folk-punk is a unique seasonal treat. Written in a recent snowstorm when the band had nowhere to go, you can feel the warmth of their studio come through in the production. A lovely antithesis to the dour news of the past few days, this is like a warm cup of coffee when you desperately need one.

Bottom Line: Three for Silver hit me at the right time, and hopefully you’ll find something here too.

LISTEN

 

Posted on

Mac McCaughan “Happy New Year (Prince Can’t Die Again)” (2016)

Happy New Year (Prince Can't Die Again)

Merge Records
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

Holy shit. Just holy shit. Thank you Mac McCaughan, scion of Merge Records and Superchunk (amongst other bands). A highlight of the end of the season, with a sentiment that I can fully subscribe to. This song is a miracle of modern technology. Likely at no other time in our world can a song be written, recorded and released with such quality. As stated on Mac’s Bandcamp, “Happy New Year (Prince Can’t Die Again)” was “Written and recorded Dec 24, 2016 in a moment of trying to look at any possible bright side of the coming new year after the disaster that was this one.” I give you just the first bit here, as it gets less oblique and more acutely political as the song goes on… and I feel it best to be discovered, as you are just smelling the orange in the first verse, now you need to peel it back and taste if for yourself.

It was a year when everybody died
and it was a year when the adults and children cried
for the loss of their hope, for the loss of their youth
and next year might be better, but I don’t see any proof.

and this year it seemed like nothing really mattered
you could say any horrible thing, and rise to the top of this shitheap
So if you still have friends, raise a glass with them
Say it “Happy New Year, Prince can’t die again.”

I am not moving on to New Years songs… I don’t separate them anyways, they all can make a Christmas mix in my book. However, this New Years’ song is so poignant and of-the-moment, that it may never end up on a mix. “Happy New Year” might burn brightly for the next month, only to be extinguished by the suffocating shitstorm of 2017. But for now, let it burn. Let it burn.

Bottom Line: Mac McCaughan, damn.

LISTEN

Posted on

Sleepwalkers “Stop Your Christmas Moanin'” (2016)

Sleepwalkers - Stop Your Christmas Moanin

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

Richmond, Va’s Sleepwalkers have returned with another Christmas release! Their 2013 release, Merry Christmas, remains one of the strongest Christmas indie rock releases of recent memory, and even their short-lived second seasonal release, 2014’s “Under the Christmas Tree” was a stellar effort. So it’s no wonder that “Stop Your Christmas Moanin'” is a stomper that will get you to sit up and listen. And you know what, after you initially appreciate the fantastic music and excellent production, you’ll finally have a moment to realize how wonderful the lyrics are. “Stop your Christmas moanin’ / You can’t always get what you wanted. / You can take all your money and flaunt it, / but you won’t get a cent from me. / So stop your Christmas moanin. / It’s such a sight to see. / Stop your Christmas moanin, / it ain’t hard to be poor in the land of the free.” When a band can write a meaningful song without bashing your head over with schmaltz, then you have written a fucking winner in my book.

Bottom Line: Sleepwalkers are still batting 1.000. I want them on my team. Oh… and grab it before they change their mind and take it down (hope some of you got “Under the Christmas Tree” a few years back!)

LISTEN

Edit: Well… it looks like Sleepwalkers have joined Charlie’s Hand Movements in the practice of taking down all your seasonal stuff when the season has passed… so GRAB IT WHEN YOU CAN.

Posted on

The Ornaments “Flying Home for Christmas” (2016)

The Ornaments - Flying Home For Christmas

Folkmonger Records
Buy: Bandcamp

Mike and Lance (The Ornaments) are back… and dammmmn. This shit is dark. Funny and dark. The song is a story about crashing in a plane on Christmas Day. The sweet guitar picking doesn’t lull you to comfort for very long, shit gets dark quick. The cabin fills with smoke, and he buys in-flight wifi to tell his love goodbye. However, there is a nice balance, as with the gallows humor found in the line: “meanwhile i thumbed through my phone to find a song, a Christmas song, a burl ives song / that’s good to die to.” The narrator goes through the entire crash in a slow-motion mix of bemusement and wry observations. I would love to know more about how this song came about…

Bottom Line: The Ornaments’ dark humor is a welcome break from the sugary sweet songs that dominate the holiday.

LISTEN

Posted on

The Aux – Christmas Isn’t Funny Anymore (2016)

The Aux - christmas isn't funny anymore

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

The Aux have released a really nicely produced, lo-fi Christmas EP the past two years, and can usually be counted on to have one of the most profane and funny releases of the season. This year is a bit different – the profanity is there, but as the title suggests, there is a bit of a shift. The first two songs are both really well written, introspective struggles with life and the season. Trying to find comedy in a year like this leaves you with a lot of those “it would be funny if it weren’t true” situations that can be hard to take. The third track, “all i wanted for christmas was my fantasy football super bowl,” brings out the clever bitter lyrics that I’ve come to expect from Mike. I feel for this song… I lost out on my fantasy football super bowl last year after a Thursday POINT ADJUSTMENT after I had specifically benched my defense as to not have one of those dreaded -1 weeks… DAMN IT. Heh. The final track is the obligatory cover the classic Wham! track, “Last Christmas,” but with way more fucks than usual. The autotune works really well on this track too, and has a great ending, “This song is fucking repetitive and this is the end.” Ha! About time someone cut that song off.

Bottom Line: The Aux are always a refreshing listen, even when the entire song is bitching about something. I do hope that Mike finds some inspiration for next year, and I share his hope that 2017 will be in improvement on what was a supremely unenjoyable year.

LISTEN

Posted on

Polvo de Estrellas (Stardust) (2016)

POLVO DE ESTRELLAS (Un disco navideño compilado por Polvo Bureau)

Polvo Bureau
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

I’m going to do my best to use Google Translate and not make a complete ass of myself. Following the fantastic find that Lie in the Sound had with Jägermeister’s Merry Jäger Christmas, I bring you Argentina’s Polvo Bureau and their new Christmas compilation, POLVO DE ESTRELLAS (Un disco navideño compilado por Polvo Bureau). From the chillwave, Wild Nothing-esque Mi Nave with “Ojos Cuadrados,” to the indie rock Camaleón’s “Fuegos Artificiales,” there are some great-sounding tunes on here. Again, I don’t speak Spanish, but I know great sounding music when I hear it. The dream-pop of Queridas’ “Brillen” is ethereal and spectacular. I just want to put headphones on and walk down a snowy street with my eyes closed. The Spanish language version of Joni Mitchell’s “River” is not just fantastic because it’s the first time I’ve heard it in Spanish, but Superflan’s version shines because of the electro-pop touches they put on it. The lead out on Yuliett’s “Tanto Fuego!” Beautiful! This release is damn special, and I’m so very happy to have happened upon it tonight.

Bottom Line: I might lack the language skills to fully understand these songs, but our common language of music has sweet talked me tonight.

LISTEN

Posted on

Shy Nature “What’s in Your Stocking” (2016)

Shy Nature - My Christmas Tree is Looking at Me

Self Released
Buy: Streaming (for now) | Bandcamp (soon)

Shy Nature has become one of those can-do-no-wrong Christmas bands for me, along with Charlie’s Hand Movements, The Crookes, Christmas Aguilera, Parenthetical Girls, etc. Their latest, “What’s in Your Stocking,” is a stomping great time. The images of “coffee with a whiskey twist” make me want Christmas to come this very instant. They have a wonderful approach to Christmas tunes… it’s as if they are meaning to write a good song, not just a Christmas song. I know… sounds crazy. But there are some crap Christmas songs out there by very good bands. Shy Nature continue to prove that you can be a great band, both inside and outside of the Christmas season.

Bottom Line: Shy Nature continue to impress. It also looks like their 2 most recent seasonal tracks will be available on Bandcamp very shortly… just in time for those last-minute mixers.

LISTEN

Posted on

Home For The Holidays: A Christmas Songbook (2016)

Shelter Scotland Home for the Holidays

Shelter Scotland
Buy: Bandcamp

I’ve been following the progression of this project for a little while now, and it is finally out. This MASSIVE compilation of Scottish/UK bands had their release party just a few days back, and I had no idea as to the extent of this collection. 37 tracks… 37 tracks… some of which you’ll recognize, such as “Cheap Gold” by Frightened Rabbit, or Allo Darlin’s “Will You Please Spend New Years With Me,” but there is still plenty of new stuff to discover here! And hey, I don’t think that Frightened Rabbit track was ever available as something other than a MP3. I seriously can’t take the time to give a full review of the entire collection, it’s just so massive (and so nicely priced!), but who knows… maybe sometime in July? So check out the likes of Broken Records, Kid Canaveral, Withered Hand, Sweet Baboo, This is the Kit, The Spook School, Jonnie Common, De Rosa, and many many many more.

Bottom Line: I’m six tracks in… and there is not a clunker in the bunch so far. And every sale benefits Shelter Scotland, which helps “over half a million people a year struggling with bad housing or homelessness

LISTEN

Posted on

The Nashville Country Cowboys “Blue Christmas” (2016)

Nashville Country Cowboys "Blue Christmas"

Self Released
Buy: Apple Music | Amazon MP3 | Amazon.uk MP3 | Amazon.de MP3 | Amazon.fr MP3

Well how about that? Two posts on one day for the same exact song. Technically, three versions of the song if you really want to get into the nitty gritty. This version is a hell of a lot more fun though. Perennial Christmas Underground favorites The Kansas Bible Company are back with yet another collaboration, this time with fellow Nashville band Okey Dokey to do a psych-brushed take on “Blue Christmas.” These old standards really benefit from fresh sounds, and this super-combo, renamed The Nashville Country Cowboys has hit on something very cool. Still not my favorite song to begin with, but their psych + mariachi horn combo is damn entertaining. Check it out for yourselves!

Bottom Line: The Nashville Country Cowboys find their own entrance into “Blue Christmas” and make it their own.

LISTEN