Dirty Gold

This excellent first EP from Dirty Gold entitled "Roar" will really be appreciated by fans of Beach House and even Yo La Tengo. The cover of the album really says it all; simple, beautiful music for the beach or relaxing around the house. It can be a bit tough to get past the similarities in vocal stylings at times to Beach House, but elsewhere a quite different, almost islandesque (is that a word) rhythm and feel grows present. Check out the whole EP. Its a very cohesive effort and quick listen.

Woodsman!

This band is definitely a grower. Dense, trible beats from Colorado's answer to Animal Collective, the Woodsman seem to not be a fan of any kind of traditional song structure. Their latest album, Rare Forms, is there most accesible to date. At its best, their songs tend to evoke influences from the aforementioned AC to the soundscapes of Sun Araw. Really interesting, heady stuff. Check out their free session on Daytrotter..... A couple of tracks to start on would be "insects" and "serfer."

Check 'em out - The Blank Tapes

This one kind of passed me by until the last few months. The Blank Tapes are led by the prolific Matt Adams. There recordings remind me of a sundrenched Neil Young or even late period guided by voices. Real rootsy and folk oriented, perfect California driving music. Check out most of their catalog for FREE at bandcamp. Well worth your time........

Not in the desert? Go here-

Take me to Coachella, NOW!

New Fucked Up!

So excited for this one. To be honest, any time a record is described as batshit I'm drawn in. For Fucked Up's latest; "David Comes To Life" this is indeed the case as multiple pulications have bestown the literay honor upon this concept album. The last album to get the batshit moniker I enjoyed was Neal Youngs ode to electic cars, "Fork in the Road." Yes Yes Yes!

Check out Fucked Ups first two tracks from the album at their website, and read the story on the album. Then decide for yourself if batshit scream punk is right for you-

FOALS FOALS FOALS - Live Review

Ah yes, Foals at the Great American.

For me, good music evokes colors and elicits senses other than just what you hear. The Foals are the color blue. Blue for the ocean, blue for the sky, blue for the color shirt I happened to be wearing last night. Well, the foals seem to know this as well. Their latest recording, the excellent "Total Life Forever" sounds like it was recorded underwater. Great soundscapes that build to excellent transe like rhythms. Highs, lows.

Live, its apparent that these driving rhythms are the strength of the band. At the core of any good Foals song is a building mellow intro into an explosion of guitars and drums. Great examples of this were present all throughout their set at the Great American. The Foals really seem to know their strength and don't stray to far from this recipe, and why should they.

Lead singer Yannis Philippakis is an avid frontman, really connecting with the crowd and driving the band. At one point last night he attempted to scale to the second level of the theater from stage. I didn't think this was possible and was proven right when he made it halfway up only to realize he was stranded. He did the only reasonable thing at this point, and feel back straight into the crowd who carried him on their backs to the stage. awesome.

The Foals played late into the night, closing with one of their oldest tracks "Two Steps Twice" after a three song encore. They don't play in the US often, and seemed really quite thrilled to share the evening with us. Best of all the most prominent color in their stage lighting; Blue. Hopefully we all don't have to wait years for the next tour....

Side note - Freelance Whales opened (or co-headlined). I just don't get this band. Their certainly talented, but really, just not much there. I'll take Mumford and Sons. Bleh.

Futurebirds

Quick little heads up on a band you should listen to... Now!!!

The Futurebirds rock! From Athens Georgia, this band seams to channel tons of sounds and influences evoking everything from early MMJ to Drive by Truckers to John Mellencamp... I know weird. These guys really seem to have fun, and you can hear it in their recorded works. The music makes me want to drink whiskey on a hot summer day, just to see what happens. Saw these guys at a very scarcely attended show at the Rickshaw stop about a year ago. I was a bit worried that when they saw only ten or so of us in attendance they would be a bit disappointed.

Not to be. Soon ten of us turned to 20, and by the end a good little crowd of 50 or so were white man dancing through the night.

Check out their first self titled E/P. Couple of my favorite tunes of theirs including Dirty D and Megachills kick it off. Their first full length is titled Hampton's Lullaby and pushes the sound a bit more country.

Raddest thing of all, I think every member of the band sings lead at some point throughout..... good stuff!