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Weekend Round-up: #25/7 – Deerhunter, Delorean, Ra Ra Riot + more

July 26th, 2010 · News

July’s been a busy one, especially in terms of those records I find myself feeling obliged to buy. This week saw the arrival at my door of Oxford psych-folk band Stornoway‘s debut album Beachcomber’s Windowsill (a follow up from the rather coldly received introduction on TMW last year), Wolf Parade‘s Expo ’86 (sequel to the 2008′s incredible At Mount Zoomer), as well as the recently nominated Mercury Prize candidate Becoming a Jackal
, from Dublin’s finest (certainly recently, anyway) emerging artists Villagers. The latter is probably the best effort, in so far as I can tell at this early stage. However more details of the successes or failures of the above will follow with adequate explanation in this week’s upcoming reviews.

Back down to the grass-roots of MP3 hype, and this week saw announcements from bands Deerhunter, Delorean, Yuck, Tennis and Ra Ra Riot in the way of new material, as well as some MP3s from Beth at Danger Village by Philadelphia duo Blackhawks, which should be covered very soon. This promotions company spends its time spreading a really great selection of dreamy chillwave, electronic pop and glacial lo-fi in the vein of former blog features Memoryhouse, Millionyoung, Cloud Nothings and most recently Teen Daze. Its roster is definitely worth checking out.

Deerhunter have uncovered their latest single “Revival” with corresponding b-side “Primitive 3D” for free on their website if you enter password “tapereel”. At just two minutes, the track is jangling choral lo-fi with low quality recording all round, but that’s what makes it. This song sounds like Leeds lo-fi surf band Spectrals a decade or two in the future and minus a bit of the reverb. Album Halcyon Digest is due September 28th on 4AD records.

Deerhunter - Revival (MP3)

Denver’s Tennis are a husband/wife duo i’ve mentioned before following the release of their Gigi-esque 60s pop track “South Carolina”. They’ve definitely got a very distinctive sound going on, which comes out just as strong in the new track “Baltimore” – jangling guitars, naive vocals from Alaina Moore and simple, repetitive drum patterns. You can check out the video for “South Carolina” and download the new mastered track below. They’ve also got a new 7″ due for release on Underwater Peoples very soon indeed.

Tennis – Baltimore (MP3)

Ra Ra Riot’s three song Boy EP is merely a taster of what’s to come from the Syracuse six-piece on their sophomore album due this Summer, but its a certainly a very revealing one. Wes Miles’ vocals on title track ‘Boy’ accompany booming punk drums, extravagant backing vocals, twiddles of guitar and Vampire Weekend style synth lines to great effect – and although the track doesn’t really push any boundaries, its a solid return from a band quiet of late, sporting once again in full their distinctive orchestra turns indie pop sound.

Ra Ra Riot – Boy (MP3)

Alternative dance band Delorean dropped the second single from their third album “Subiza” last Tuesday via True Panther Sounds, entitled “Real Love”. Standing at an intense six minutes, the song incorporates Spanish accents, crazed percussion and M83-esque shoegazing electronics. The Spaniards have been blending alternative dance and balaeric beat styles for years, but the latest instalment dropped in March, and was extremely well received. The new single is free to download below.

Delorean - Real Love (MP3) (buy “Subiza” from Amazon)

A friend of mine told me that Yuck outshone Japandroids when he saw them live a few months back in Southampton. I was very happy indeed, the idea that the studio brilliance Yuck had always shown in their recordings was translatable live gave me the same kind of shiver that Girls‘ Hellhole Ratrace gave me the first hundred or so times I played it. Yu(c)k is the piano based side project of the band, whose latest song displays the same, if not more of that kind of restrained grandeur and patient execution that Yuck songs show. “Daughter” dropped recently, and takes the anthemic lo-fi fuzz which characterises both projects to new heights. “Daughter” sounds like one of those songs you’ve heard a thousand times before, in a completely different light. Its from their upcoming cassette tape EP, Weakend, which drops on August 2nd via Mirror Universe. If you like, you can watch their latest video, by Phoebe Beason below.

Yu(c)k - Daughter (MP3)

Yu(c)k – Daughter from Yuck on Vimeo.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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Weekend Round-up: #18/7 – Women, Cut Copy, Interpol + more

July 18th, 2010 · News

All male Canadian art-rock band Women (above) dropped the preview track from their upcoming album “Public Strain” this week. Its a noisy installment of lo-fi punk by name of “Eyesore”, with spindly guitars and fashionably murky recording styles encasing reverb soaked harmonies and jangling leads. Despite the harshness of the recording, the structures are really nice once the song gets going, and the Cali surf influence really shines through the mist at times. The song ends with a winding nostalgia section, garage bass, and harsh, intermittent strumming. “Public Strain” is set for physical release on September 28th worldwide via Flemish Eye/Jagjaguwar records.

Women - Eyesore (MP3)

The new Cut Copy track, “Where I’m Going” dropped earlier this week, from their as of yet untitled third album. Its being mixed this Summer with Ben Allen (Animal Collective, Deerhunter) in time for an early 2011 release. As far as early indications go, the track’s title as well as its sound send out strong signals that  departure from dance music might be something the band are going to pursue. Despite the lack of euphoric synths and dance beats on the new track, its still a thumping 60s Summer anthem which gallops along at pace. The band certainly wear a Beach Boys influence on their sleeve, they called the track “the kind of track Brian Wilson would’ve written if he took ecstasy and hung out in 60′s London instead of California.” Its certainly a little calmer and little darker (like London as opposed to California), but i’m not sure how strong the single is in relation to some of their previous efforts. Listen/Download below, or see tour dates @ The Yellow Stereo.

Cut Copy – Where I’m Going (MP3)

For one reason or another, I have always classed Interpol and The Walkmen together in a similar sort of scene – they’re both from America, have been around for ages, have toured together, and make music which to differing extents draws influence from post-punk. For them both to release new tracks in the same week should have further confirmed my arguably irrational association, but the differences this time around are astounding. The Walkmen’s “Stranded”, as I have already discussed, sounds exactly as the name suggests, but Interpol’s latest “Barricade” sounds as if its preparing to break right through it. The raw energy and classic Interpol urgency comes across from the outset with a huge percussion section and frantic lyricism. Download the new one below, and take note of the self-titled fourth album, due via Matador records on September 7th.

Interpol – Barricade (MP3)

Bedroom chillwave project Millionyoung aka Mike Diaz announced this week that he’d be releasing his debut album via Arcade Sound Ltd in January, and to mark the occasion would be premiering his brand new song via Tumblr blog “The Road Goes Ever On“. “Desperate Measures” is big beat ambient dance music awash with exactly the kind of cold, ethereal tones Arcade Sound is becoming known for. Whilst the song ultimately recalls shadows of icy minimalistic dance, the cold and hazy focus of the song fills out dramatically in the chorus, the percussion acquires a new-found intensity and irregularity only very lightly hinted at from the introduction. There’s a touch of French house quickly replaced in the the latter half of the song by some misty vocal layering. Pick up the new song below and check out Millionyoung’s website. If some back-catalogue is what you’re after, you can pick up the free Sunndreamm EP from my post earlier this year.

Millionyoung – Desperate Measures (MP3)

San Diego fuzz-pop pair Crocodiles announced this week that their second album will be the latest full-length to be added to the September release list. “Sleep Forever” accompanies the June release of the eponymous MP3 from the album, which continues somewhat in the same vein of much of their previous material. My Bloody Valentine style blistering guitars ring throughout, and a visceral urgency and guise of raw 90s energy are openly displayed. There’s a definite garage rock Black Rebel Motorcycle Club sound about this duo, which you can/should hear for yourself below. While you’re at it, visit their myspace.

Crocodiles - Sleep Forever (MP3)

Popularity: 100% [?]

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Album Review: Bombay Bicycle Club – Flaws

July 16th, 2010 · Album Reviews

It goes without saying that in even considering an acoustic album Bombay Bicycle Club have taken a very bold step away from what the majority of their NME brandishing fanbase are going to be comfortable with. Calling the album “Flaws” is similarly, crying out for a critic to twist the title into a cynical review subject line. These bold moves however need to be measured by their intent; this is no ‘token’ acoustic album from a firmly established band, nor is it a cry for attention. “Flaws” essentially appears instead to be an exposition of Bombay Bicycle Club’s true colours, one deliberately timed early enough to prevent any premature evaluation of the band’s true sound from becoming ‘set in stone’ so to speak. My ‘theory’ (if you want to call it that), is that “Flaws” is not a new direction from a popular ‘indie band’ (cringeworthy term I know), but instead the work of a band who have always been far more comfortable in their acoustic skin than in the way they were previously perceived.

“Flaws” certainly gives the impression that, first time round, Bombay Bicycle Club were born into the wrong body. I like to think that now they are reincarnated into this radiant attire, they’ll use it to create many more an album in the same vein, because “Flaws” really couldn’t flow much more easily or naturally. The whole album, at 11 tracks and just over 35 minutes, kind of merges into one if you’re not paying proper attention – with single “Ivy and Gold” and opener “Rinse Me Down” perhaps most likely to grab your attention in a similar way to the material from “I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose” (2009). This gentle acoustic jaunt however, for the most part stays calm and collected, with a mixture of optimistic and melancholy fingerpickings flying around from all directions. The acoustic tones are reminiscent of others from the London folk scene, even with a shadow of Drake about them (see “Jewel”), but the recording retains the echo on the not-so-Drake vocals, one of Bombay Bicycle Club’s most brilliant and distinctive features. The blander parts of the ‘old sound’ have been replaced with gorgeous twee folk melody, and the idiosyncratic vocals have been retained and further strengthened.

“Flaws” brings together a clear aptitude for brilliant songwriting (clear from day one with this band), a wonderfully distinctive, almost grainy vocal, and some near perfectly recorded acoustic tones, joined by at times almost bluegrass instrumentation. It is unassuming and timelessly recorded and can only be described as a wonderful success in my eyes from a band who disappointed (slightly) the first time around. To me, the idea of almost anyone leaving this album on repeat is entirely feasible, and that’s not an insult – there’s elements for those who will appreciate them, and sections for those who won’t; the whole choral feel (see “Fairytale Lullaby” and “My God”) about this clean-tone acoustic album is calming, reflective, and occasionally sinister . “Flaws” has all the calming introspective charm of emerging Australians The Middle East; and ridden with emotions positive and negative, is held together by a thin bound of simplicity and maturity whose turbulent realisations never once detract from the effect. “Flaws” can only be described as a stunning success, from a band from which few could have expected such a swift, solid and eclectic return to the limelight.

Bombay Bicycle Club – Ivy and Gold (MP3)

Bombay Bicycle Club - Jewel (MP3)

Buy on Amazon (US)/(UK)

Popularity: 63% [?]

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Album Review: Teen Daze, Four More Years

July 14th, 2010 · Album Reviews

Teen Daze // Four More Years // Arcade Sound

Teen Daze has taken the internet by storm since he started posting music up on his Tumblr in late April of this year. According to this really interesting interview from Beyond Robson, the project had been going little more than a few weeks before Pitchfork caught wind, and since then he’s gone on to be featured more than five times on the music blog’s esteemed pages. Tracks such as “Shine On You Crazy White Cap” and “Gone For The Summer (Part Two)” circulated across the online music media world in a matter of days following the emergence of this (whatever you want to call it) shoegazing, lo-fi, electronica artist. Ten weeks on, and the Vancouver ambient dance project is seeing its first release via Arcade Sound (digital July 27th, physical August 12th) and on cassette via Wonder Beard Tapes, in what may well prove to be an inadequate print of just 100 copies.

The EP, entitled “Four More Years”, was kindly sent over in June by Arcade Sound – and has been enjoyed over at my end ever since. Its hazy glo-fi groove is very fashionable indeed (if its safe to talk of music in that way), drawing shamelessly and consistently from some of last year’s more memorable sounds, Washed Out and Neon Indian to name but a few. However the influence is most certainly not one-dimensional; musical influences are beneficial so long as something new is brought to the table – and what Teen Daze brings to the table is new emphasis on the chill. The beats behind are no wash-out, but the flesh on the percussive skeleton is awash with more distance than ever before. Any (perhaps) Toro y Moi inspired temptation to drop a hint of Michael Jackson into the mix are resisted by the Vancouver producer, who places his musical emphasis far more on the overall feel and effect than on individual melodies. Saying that however, there is definitely a euphoric French-house drive which is known to take over with little warning. Opening track “Four More Years” displays a touch of Baths’ glitch-hop and a street dance attitude which continues into track four, “Around”.

“Gone For The Summer” is a very different story – its the track where the chillwave influence shines through strongest. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was in fact what prompted Impose Magazine to ask if Teen Daze was the “chillest band on earth?”. Repetitive keys, 80s soft synths in their most unimposing setting and background vocals over a soft regular beat – You don’t get more laid back electronica than this. Remember Sun Visor who I mentioned on the blog a couple of months back? In exactly the same way, the best analogy I can think of is ‘M83, but really high’. “Saviour” is a similar story, with a cascading synth play off added in for (very slightly) more intensity.

“Four more Years” has come remarkably soon from a man who has barely booked in his first US tour as Teen Daze for this August – and who’s experience of music is limited to his less successful but nevertheless interesting folkier side project, by name of Two Bicycles. He’s also been busy collaborating with Houses and remixing Local Natives’ Wide Eyes to great effect. Whatever this guy does he’ll leave you relaxed and your mind drifting off into the unknown. Pick up the “Saviour” from the EP, his Local Natives remix and the Houses collaboration below, and check out his upcoming tour dates and fan-made turned official music video for track “Shine On, You Crazy White Cap”.

8.12 San Francisco, CA @ Milk
8.13 Sunnyvale, CA @ Julian’s House
8.14 Los Angeles, CA @ McWorld’s
8.15 Irvine, CA @ Acrobatics Everyday
8.17 San Diego, CA @ TBA

Teen Daze – Saviour (MP3)

Local Natives – Wide Eyes (Teen Daze Remix) (MP3)

Teen Daze/Houses - Destiny (MP3)

Popularity: 54% [?]

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New Track: The Walkmen – Stranded

July 13th, 2010 · News, Previews

New York City band The Walkmen have been quiet of late – traditionally slotting themselves in next to equally morbid post-punk/indie rock bands in vein of The National, Editors and perhaps even Neutral Milk Hotel – the shoegazing Dylanites occasionally dip into country and rock music not unlike Phosphorescent’s latest offerings. 10 years on from their formation, the latest release from the band in question, is slowed right down – with flailing horns of Elephant 6 and background whirs of My Bloody Valentine these days miserably trailing behind the tired and distant vocals of Hamilton Leithauser. Lisbon is due in the fall, and perhaps best represents the efforts of a band now faded from mainstream attention, and whether this be temporary or permanent may well remain to be seen.

The Walkmen – Stranded (MP3) from Lisbon, due Sep 14 on Fat Possum.

Popularity: 31% [?]

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Album Preview: Best Coast – Crazy For You

July 13th, 2010 · Previews

Everyone’s favourite California surf duo Best Coast are all set to release their debut album “Crazy For You” July 27 via Mexican Summer. Its going to be made up of almost entirely new material, which says something considering the amount of MP3s Best Coast has had floating around the net since her emergence on the scene little under a year ago. She’s dropped EP after EP and single after single, and whilst Crazy For You supposedly covers just the same subject matter – nostalgia, summertime, the beach and boys, it does so with a production flair which simply hasn’t been seen before now.

Despite this, Best Coast’s music is still noise-ridden shoegaze rock, with surf harmonies and fuzzy guitar effects. The whole sound is warming and summery, and this comes across as strongly as ever with the two new recordings “Boyfriend” and “Bratty B”.

But I do find it a little worrying the rate at which Cosentino seems to regurgitate material. Whilst her clear prolificness launched her to success in about a third of the time she should have taken, it may also see her demise come around far more quickly. There’s only so many 2-3 minute surfer songs with power chords you can listen to, no matter how fuzzy the guitars are and how strong the voice. With the album’s release, she’ll have around 20 songs available (if you look hard enough), and in little under a year, I don’t know how long she’s going to have at the current level of hype and fame. Crazy For You may make or break Bethany Cosentino, but until then, what can we do but keep listening.

01 Boyfriend (MP3)
02 Crazy for You
03 The End
04 Goodbye
05 Summer Mood
06 Our Deal
07 I Want To
08 When the Sun Don’t Shine
09 Bratty B (MP3)
10 Honey
11 Happy
12 Each and Everyday

Pre-order Crazy for You from Amazon.com

Streaming now from the Guardian Website.

Popularity: 51% [?]

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Introducing.. Family Trees

July 13th, 2010 · Previews

Brooklyn band and my new inbox favourites “family trees” dropped their Dream Talkin’ 7″ debut at the end of last month, and its been pretty much on repeat since in my player. They have a really nice photo album on their myspace from which I dug out ‘LEGS’ (above), and although the blurriness of the photo above is entirely indicative of the recording quality of the music, the lo-fi feel is 100% appropriate to family trees enchanting folk/surf sounds.

There’s as many echoes of Real Estate as there are of Phil Spector, and other name-drop Beach Fossils also appears accurate. Each track is around two minutes in length, each representing a short musical tribute to the beach, summer, sea and sand. Dream Talkin’ also has a suspicious hint of Grizzly Bear harmony about it, which seperates before the one minute mark in the post-chorus following a pleasant lo-fi guitar intro.

As with most lo-fi bands who choose to lower the case of their official band title, the music is unassuming and relaxed – not aiming to change the world, but merely to observe it. You may disagree, but I find it hard to fault family trees for their debut – the music is about as unpretentious as its possible to be. Hear Dream Talkin’, from what I can tell released on Father/Daughter records, below.

family trees – dream talkin’ (MP3)

Popularity: 26% [?]

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Weekend Round-up: #11/7 – Blonde Redhead, Evan Abeele, His Clancyness + more + more

July 13th, 2010 · News

A whole lot of things have happened since the last round-up, not just in the music world. I’ve been tied down by the band’s gig with Noah & The Whale at Bournemouth O2 Academy a couple of wednesday’s ago, illness, a short holiday to the wonderful Firenze, starting a new job and finishing school forever. Here’s some of the things which have been announced in music whilst all that was going on.

Blonde Redhead announced details of eigth studio album “Penny Sparkle”. The New York trio’s third release will drop on 4AD records September 13, 2010. Here’s what Kazu Mazino had to say about the new record:

“I fell in love with the music like falling for someone you’ve known for a long time. It was dreamy and sometimes was very stormy. At times I felt like a shepherd who was trying to herd five stallions into a yard (unsuccessfully). I felt like I was a link to everyone. I remained still and the others were constantly moving around it. I am not sure what Penny Sparkle is but I hope I offered to them as much as they offered me. I know that we have never made a record this way and if I could go back in time, I would do it exactly the same way again.”

Judging by preview track “Here Sometimes” (below), the new record sounds a little distant in comparison to its more direct and engaging first and second album counterparts. The track in question exerts an offtime drum-beat before sliding into an ambient slow-pop arrangement, featuring Beach House esque vocals and dreamy soft-synths, with a touch of french house in the bass if you’re listening carefully enough. Pick it up below.

Blonde Redhead – Here Sometimes (MP3)

Dirty Projectors associations with Bjork have long-since been known but never quite understood with any real certainty. They played together last year at Housing Works, NYC – but last week the collaboration became concrete with the announcement that a 7-track LP, entitled Mount Wittenburg Orca, will be available through their website for the exact price of $7 – all profits of which go to building international marine protected areas, as described in Longstreth’s famous letter:

“We’ve decided to give away all the money that Wittenberg generates to the project of creating international marine protected areas. Only 1% of the oceans are protected in any way and this is a huge problem. We’re working with the National Geographic Society to create areas of sustainability, so the oceans don’t end up like a giant poisonous corpse hugging the continents.”

Both Longstreth and Bjork have been infuriatingly tight-lipped about the music, although the tracklisting states that “When The World Comes To An End” (as featured on Fallon last year) will feature, albeit this time with Bjork herself somehow incorporated. Enjoy the stripped down live version below.

Dirty Projectors - When The World Comes To An End (Live on Fallon) (MP3)

After interviewing Memoryhouse for the blog last month, I feel morally obliged to keep you updated with what the duo are up to musically. This one’s not under the Memoryhouse moniker, Evan Abeele instead venturing into the realms of ambient music in full detail with his ambient M83-esque “Choir of Empty Rooms” – providing us with preview track “Elena (In The Water)” – all eight minutes of which are attached below.

Evan Abeele – Elena (In The Water) (MP3)

Another great track from Italian-American lo-fi project His Clancyness has surfaced, this one by the name of “How Its Done In Italy”. Its not quite so strong as his other songs (one of my 2010 favourites Summer Majestic isn’t even rivalled), however provides us with a more downbeat recording which shows off the more relaxed sense of nostalgia and melancholy which His Clancyness deals so openly in.

His Clancyness – How Its Done In Italy (MP3)

Owen from London pop band Oh Verona sent over their latest offering the other day, new track Indian Isle acting as a preview track for their latest EP – the launch party of which took place at the Camden Barfly on June 30th. For a band who i introduced back in 2009 for their brand of “intelligent, soul infused pop music” – the new song is more of the same. The chorus is particularly strong on this track, which you are more than welcome to download below.

Oh Verona - Indian Isle (MP3)

Finally, a little update from Kinnie The Explorer – we released the video to our song “Blind Spider” last week – thanks to the wonderful production of Elliott Trent and Jamie Milligan. I’ve embedded it below, in case you haven’t already seen it in the sidebar – and I very much hope you enjoy five minutes of our hostage-based short film. Pick up the MP3 either below or somewhere to your right, and look out for a new single from us in the coming weeks.

Kinnie The Explorer – Blind Spider (MP3)

Popularity: 30% [?]

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Album Review: Milagres – Seven Summits

July 9th, 2010 · Album Reviews

Milagres have been floating around for a while – but coinciding with a name change during 2009 from ‘The Secret Life of Sofia’ to the Portuguese word for ‘miracle’ – the New York City five piece dropped an EP – “Empty Sleeves” in 2009 and an LP “Seven Summits” in May 2010. Having picked up both releases at the same time, its pretty clear to me that while the four tracks on Empty Sleeves are good, Seven Summits contains a selection that is simply stunning. The quality throughout both releases is so good I can’t believe i’m not reading about these guys in the Sunday Times Culture magazine rather than simply from the blogosphere – in this case, I certainly think we have a heavily blogged band set to break out and go places.

Seven Summits marks a progression in sound, but one which at no point ventures too far from the brooding acoustic overtones and eery harmonies the band established themselves with. The album however, does abandon this to an extent – occasionally opting instead for grander ‘indie rock’ in the vein of Arcade Fire. Seven Summits is at times a far more direct record (although it has many a relaxing moment), and isn’t afraid to reveal some of its stadium-filling sound-scapes from the outset on opening track “Fifty Fourteeners”. The track begins with a thumping bass and huge beats which are paralleled later on with “Weathering” and “Moose Collision” – there’s also definitely a hint of Lackthereof/Menomena’s Danny Seim in the vocal delivery, offering a calming tone as opposed to cluttered orchestral arrangements which lie beneath. However this certainly isn’t the only vocal comparison which I am going to draw – there’s an organic edge to both the acoustics (on some of the quieter tracks) suggestive of Jose Gonzalez, a raspier wooden tone to the voice which is never abandoned, washing over every aspect of the music to create bass-driven acoustic jam sections – led purely by one of Seven Summits common traits, apparently directionless harmonies which resolve into new layers within the music.

The beauty of this album is not in its originality or innovative sounds or structures, but in its casual simplicity and orchestrated depth of arrangement. Every tone has been thought through, and every element and instrument sounds as if it has been agonised over and included for a reason. The strings give the music an unparalleled maturity, and from what are ultimately very simple chord sequences emerges wonderful tonality and an awe-inspiring sense of nature. Perhaps this comes out best on track nine “Nanda Devi” – which removes itself from the idle Beach House-esque, “Walk In The Park” feel of many of the early songs by engaging muffled acoustics with simple, warming vocals and honest delivery. The strings are almost trancendent, the whole effect is nothing short of incredible.

Attached you will find track number three from the album, which I am cleared to post, by name of “Outside”. Whilst also being probably the most ‘extrovert’, so to speak, of the tracks on the album, it also covers most of the best features that Seven Summits offers, in around four minutes. The guitars on the introduction are very Spanish indeed, and the vocal harmonies which I discussed earlier are also prominent. Strings emerge in true Milagres fashion, and the wonderful fingerpicking sections accompany Gonzales-esque vocals also as earlier described. Seven Summits will leave you feeling as if you’ve literally climbed mountains, the album invokes effortlessly exactly the kind of stunned silence that would suggest as much.

Milagres – Outside (MP3) (Buy Seven Summits on Amazon MP3)

Popularity: 27% [?]

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Review: Cloud Nothings – Didn’t You 7″

July 7th, 2010 · Album Reviews

Dylan Baldi, the Cleveland 18 year old behind the lo-fi project of Cloud Nothings dropped his latest snippet of material post-’Turning On’ last month with the Didn’t You 7″ single, out on Old Flame Records June 24. Sounds like they all had a great time, the band headed out on tour with Wavves after the single release show at Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory with Nathan Williams himself and Dom. Coming up they’ve got dates with Real Estate and Kurt Vile in Ohio.

The new material comes off the back of features in the Washington Post and in just about every corner of the blogosphere – and marks a much fuller lo-fi sound than the last – think The Hold Steady’s Stay Positive in comparison to its predecessor, you’ll get something of an idea. The exact same punchy guitars still resonate throughout, but this time joined by synth/keys and minus (a lot) of the scratchiness which characterised the debut from this March. “Didn’t You” is irresistably catchy with a DIY punk/pop chant, and B-side “Even If It Worked Out” is much grander than anything the band have recorded before, drawing from 90s indie pop to create a B-side as anthemic as the A-side. Pick up material new (and old) from the Bridgetown Records store.

Cloud Nothings – Didn’t You (MP3) (from the new 7″)

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Popularity: 27% [?]

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