2010FM - July Edition Two

This is a bumper edition of 2010FM and the format will be a little different this time around, as we pile through a diverse selection of artists, which we will cover off as they appear on the player below, so hang on to your hats and here we go.

First up is a 12 track mini LP called 'A Little More Suspicion In Our Fairytales Plz' by Ace Bushy Striptease which is due to hit record shops on 19th July 2010. Ace Bushy Striptease started in Birmingham in October 2007 with thoughts of becoming a twee/progressive pop band. Unfortunately that never really happened but through a few lineup changes and a bit of time, they've found a niche of sorts which suits them well they feel. The band have released numerous free download LPs/EPs but A Little More Suspicion In Our Fairytales Plz is their first record to garner a proper release.   The band site influences like Huggy Bear, Hefner, Pavement and Bikini Kill. The songs are brief, stubbornly avoid repetition and spring along with light melody and fun.

Beehive Opinion - short, buzzing, quirky and fun.
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Echo Orbiter brothers Justin and Colin Emerle are back as a duo and more imaginative than ever. there promo tells us Echo Orbiter has paced forward into a musical terrain of mysterious, experimental, neo-psychedelic and chaotic, and unmistakably indie-rock driven music. Justin and Colin began playing music together before they hit their teens. Back in 1996, the pair started Echo Orbiter, finding themselves immersed in the elite Elephant 6 era at its height, a time when they worked with The Lilys, Kindercore Records, and shared a stage with bands like Of Montreal, Elf Power, Apples in Stereo, Olivia Tremor Control and more.

Produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Justin himself, their upcoming album, 'Euphonicmontage' is a labor of existential-ambiance love. From beat poetry, and writers such as Ayn Rand; a genuine affection of cubism and surrealism; Echo Orbiter is influenced by the creative expressions of authors and art, just as they are by music. Call it jagged indie rock surrealism.

Beehive Opinion - Uplifting and exciting. What Syd Barrett might sound like today.
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Holy Family consists of three members from different parts of the Gothenburg region in Sweden. They started the band in the summer of 2009 with the goal to tour Eastern Europe. Initially, the band was only created to do this one tour and then desolve. They never actually reached Eastern Europe but the band persisted. Later that year, during the economic crisis, they had trouble finding any work other than odd jobs and chose to start working more whole-heatedly with Holy Family. They found themselves getting more and more satisfied with the songs they made and felt that Holy Family  was worth going in for. The band is currently cranking out numerous demos which will eventually become their first proper record.

Beehive Opinion - Alt rock, make a quite complex arrangement seem simple, what is about Sweden which remains a hot bed for indie to ambient talent. 
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Not many musicians can pull off an album about space, time, and theoretical physics, but that's exactly what the Alan Cohen Experience accomplishes with the newest album, Space & Time. Due for releases on August 31st. While reading Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time”, Cohen found inspiration in each chapter for a new song, including the introduction and conclusion. Exploring topics such as gravity, magnetism, black holes, atoms, and all the poetic aspects that tie these to our understanding of the world and universe, Space & Time explores the uncertainty of science and the universe and how these facets play a profound role in life and existence.

Beehive Opinion - Dont be put off by the apparent subject matter, this is good upbeat indie pop with a retro appeal.
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Sara Radle’s most enviable forte is her precious and pure pop voice, able to harmonize with anyone, anywhere. After reforming The Rentals with Matt Sharp in 2005, recording guest vocals with Tokyo Police Club and sharing festival stages with the likes of The Flaming Lips and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, it was about time that Radle returned to her own music. With the solo album release, Four, Radle’s musical career comes full circle. “…It’s been a long time coming,” says Radle. “It’s special to me…it feels like I’m back on track in my path as a musician. It’s like coming back home.”

Playing in handfuls of bands, including playing guitar and singing in the current project Walking Sleep, it’s with this fourth solo album, on which Radle has truly established the strength of her own musical self. Born and raised in Texas, Radle played with pop-punk band Lucy Loves Schroeder for eight years and put out a solo album under the moniker Fred Savage Fanclub. When former Weezer member Matt Sharp reformed The Rentals, Radle moved out to Los Angeles, CA, where she now calls home. With Sharp she helped put a new band together and wrote and arranged songs for EP The Last Little Life. Her vocals soared in The Rentals where she also played guitar, piano, and keyboards.

With all the skills Sara Radle has acquired from playing with so many different types of musicians, in 2010, she now has a new arsenal of talent to work with. Four contains a bounty of beautiful and darling pop songs that tug at the heart (and sometimes punch) with strings and lush layers of vocal harmonies. On Four, Radle reels in her arrangement proficiency all the while with a humble, yet eloquent voice sounding like a member of a ‘60s girl group covering Jenny Lewis. Four is due for release on September 14th 2010.

Beehive Opinion - One to watch out for, loads of name checks above however from what we have heard this lady musically speaking stands on her own two feet.
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Weare told - The discovery of The White Ravens occurred in the research laboratory of Dr. XXXXXX in December of 2003, when the lyrics, vocals, and bass of Amy Bennett were combined with the keyboards and musical compositions of Will Bennett. When mixed, these distinct substances bonded explosively, creating a previously undocumented compound, The White Ravens.

The White Raven compound has been refined in a recording studio environment, resulting in such aural by-products as the 2007 album titled The White Ravens, recorded at Sound Garden Studios, and Gargoyles and Weather Vanes, recorded by Jim Diamond at Ghetto Recorders.

Dynamic indie-pop music is observed to emanate from The White Ravens, featuring the pithy, biting lyrics of Amy, and the quirky, yet catchy, musical compositions of Will. Described as "XXXXXX" by a listener, The White Ravens are known to uniquely provide fodder for the intellect, and rhythms for the feet.

Beehive Opinion - Check them out 'Gargoyles and Weather Vanes' was released July 6th and is a great summer soundtrack, we bet you love them!
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The earnest folk sentiments of Gwyneth & Monko ring with purity on their mostly acoustic EP, Good Old Horse. Lyrics lace together fictional female characters, while the down-home style mirrors the musicians’ earnest lives stemming from their childhood into young adults and touring musicians. With a voice that invokes Jenny Lewis’ solo work crossed with the intimate folk of Gillian Welch; Gwyneth Moreland strums her guitar in subtle chords while Michael Monko accompanies her lyrical stories with trickling mandolin, steady acoustic guitar and folk accents.

Gwyneth’s lyrics and musical style reflects her small town life in Mendocino, CA (population 1,006), a city rich of nature and history. “My parents moved to Mendocino in 1972 after graduating from Stanford University, where they fulfilled their dreams of living in the ‘back-to-the-land’ way and raising their five children,” affirms Gwyneth. As a child, Gwyneth grew up in a household with no TV, CD player or junk food. That lifestyle resulted in a young woman who values the simple things in life. Growing up listening to her parents’ Bob Dylan and Joan Baez albums, her childhood has clearly translated into her adult musical life.

Monko grew up in the San Francisco suburbs, incongruously playing hard rock while listening to bluegrass in high school. As he got older, alongside the bass and guitar, Monko was drawn to classic folk and country instruments like the fiddle, banjo, and mandolin. Monko enrolled in Berklee College of Music online to continue his studies in theory, harmony and music production. It was as he was defining his folkier side, that fate stepped in and he met Gwyneth. He was an instant complement to Gwyneth’s voice and lyrics with his Americana instrumentation.

Good Old Horse EP is released on Tuesday (20th July)

Beehive Opinion - Americana is alive and kicking, this is splendid, gentle, moving music from two very talented individuals (more please!).
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Leopold and his Fiction houses honest and transcendent San Francisco rock ‘n’ roll. The gritty Detroit vintage rock bleeds out from front man Daniel James’ roots, simmering underneath distant genres and unwavering imagination in an attempt to reinvent what each member feels has dissipated from the greater measure of music.

Leopold and his Fiction climbed to number 30 on the CMJ charts for the second album, Ain’t No Surprise and made it into the top 20 with their self-titled debut, while earning praise from NPR, Relix and Big Takeover, among others. Offering a morbid cohesion of California and a gentle open plains reminiscence stimulating a reason and energy for people to listen closely, this new vision in music and thought offers an alternate take to the repetition of a-sides with their own traditional sounds and elaborations.

Beehive Opinion - The inclusion of this band is based on the fact that the song Golden Friends is just about my favorite song at the moment - enough said ? Another one to checkout fast.
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Love this promo introduction to The Famous - Take the ‘50s-era country of Hank Williams, Sr. and filter it through ‘70s punk rock, ‘80s psychobilly, and ‘90s post-punk. You’ll find yourself staring eye-to-eye with San Francisco’s own “Pixies in a cowboy hat.”

“You can pound your fist on my front door / But it’s been too long, I don’t need you anymore.” Laurence Scott sings the opening line of “Better Things,” from the Famous’ 2005 debut Light, Sweet Crude, like he really means it. He might be singing about an old lover, an old friend — heck, even an old car — but the line could just as well be a kiss-off to the staid country and Americana his band seems all too happy to leave behind in a cloud of dust. The band’s latest album, 2010’s Come Home to Me is now available.

Beehive Opinion - Solid, powerful and varied they are more than good enough to get away with being called The Famous.
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The Smittens are a hard-working globe-trotting independent American twee pop band from Burlington, Vermont, who like to think of themselves as friends first and open-hearted indiepop revolutionaries after that.

Max Andrucki, Colin Clary, Dana Kaplan, Holly Chagnon, and David Zacharis switch up instruments, song-writing, and singing to create brilliantly lyrical and hyper-catchy pop songs of all shapes and sizes.

The Smittens’ beautiful pop songs have been lovingly tweaked and transformed into a series of infectious remixes that, whilst not detracting from their indiepop hearts, manage to bring a whole new dimension of dance-ability to their pop sound.   The Stock-Aitken-Watermen-inspired remix of 'Sapphire' by Nixon is one of those rare ‘wow’ moments when a song you already love is given a makeover you'd never thought possible.  It's this playful toying with perceptions of what The Smittens are that makes ‘Dancing Shoes’ such a beautiful and unexpected record.

Beehive Opinion - Addictive music with a real freshness about it, some remixes can really work and add a new dimension, this is one of them.
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Nice Purse began as the brainchild of singer/songwriter France Camp. France was looking for better methods towards spare change and started "busking" around the Minneapolis Uptown area. After an extensive bout with covers, France eventually grew bored and started writing his own songs. France emailed a few of his tracks to his childhood friend Ian "Indian" Davis was instantly charmed by the passionate sounds France was creating. The duo soon signed up good friends Dylan and Elise to join them on their debut album Black Medal, Nice Purse is a blend of Violent Femmes and Bright Eyes, with a tiny bit of the Modern Lovers tossed in. Their songs are celebrations, often with their roots in tragedy.

Nice Purse's songs seem to be wrought with equal amounts of insecurity and confidence. It is this mixture that makes France's insights so poignant. Even if you've never loved and lost, France will pull at your heart strings and pull you into his lush musical world. Their new studio recording (to be released on the Minneapolis label, SoTM, August 10th) show a surprisingly mature side to the sounds of Nice Purse. There are more than brief moments of greatness on their debut album Black Medal.

Beehive Opinion - Have only heard the featured track and lets hope we get to listen to the whole album, this is really great music that begs for sunshine and a drive to the beach.
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Not many blues artists can call themselves “the Doctor of the Blues” without a whole stretcher-full of the idiom’s winking big talk. But Marshall Lawrence can, and with only the slightest bit of irony. The award-nominated Canadian bluesman actually holds a doctorate in psychology, and he knows how to use it—just as he knows how to use his slashing guitar, stinging, lightning-fast slide, and pleading, mournful moan: Marshall’s prescription for a maximum blues remedy.

“Psychology is about talking about the good times and the bad times, about dealing with it and getting it out there,” says Marshall, who recently retired after 10 years of counseling troubled teenagers to devote himself full time to playing the blues. “And that’s also what the blues are about—singing about the good and the bad. So there’s always been a parallel there for me.”

Beehive Opinion - You can write books on playing and singing the blues, you can also find more opinions on this genre than half of the rest put together. This guy has got both the technical skills and the heart for this music, blues lovers will not be disappointed.
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Promo tells us - "Soul Punk." Straight outta Brooklyn, NY, the power trio that is Mama's Dirty Lil' Secret delivers a musical punch that can only be described as the sonic love child born of the torrid love affair between Soul and Punk. With big soulful choruses, catchy riffs, booming bass and thunder grooves, Mama's Dirty Lil' Secret have carved a special niche in the ears of music fans everywhere.

The Deacon heads up this triumvirate with his neo-Romeo vocals and straight-ahead rock/ska guitar stylings. The 2-man frontline is rounded out with the animalistic, bombastic bass of The Monster - the funky punk, punk o' funk. And last but not least, Damn provides the non-stop, pulse-pounding, pimp-your-mama-punk-metal drums that gets you off your seat and on your feet!

Beehive Opinion - Some promo's are actually quite fair and reflect matters as they are, the above we feel falls into that. Punchy wake up music, just dont be too close to your air guitar when you play them.
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Bourgeois Heroes  (Northampton, Mass./Austin, Texas) sing ’60s-inspired pop in the vein of The Beach Boys, The Monkees and The Byrds ... and also draws inspiration from the likes of The Apples in Stereo and The Ladybug Transistor. "Musical Postcards" is a gem of an EP that's already gotten quite a few nice reviews.

They include -  "The orchestral pop and wide ranging influences are a treat for the pop fan looking for clever melodies with whimsical character. … The elaborate baroque “I Wanna Be Nice To You” is a period gem that fans of sunshine pop and The Kinks will be thrilled with. " — Powerpopaholic

"Right, lets not mess around, Bourgeois Heroes are brilliant … ‘Musical Postcards’ is a bloody waltz. A lovely, string embedded baroque number with china fragile vocals and a pretty, ’60s-ish chorus. Really interesting, ambitious stuff." — Brill Dream

"The deep, mystical vocals of Bourgeois Heroes would ft in very well next to a band like The Church or Echo & The Bunnymen or another similar melodramatic 80s group. While the Heroes hint occasionally at that sound on their release Musical Postcards, it also possesses the instrumentation of modern pop bands like Belle & Sebastian. And you can hear select other influences, as wide-ranging as The Pastels and The Zombies." — Fensepost

Beehive Opinion - Love a band that can sound retro sixties whilst clearly having their own original monicker, this is really charming music that will lift you up for the day.
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The Cavemen Go (New Haven/Boston/Brooklyn) channels early rock'n'roll, Motown and British Invasion without coming off as purposefully retro. Fans of Elvis Costello, The  Kinks, Ben Lee and The Cars should find something to like on The Cavemen Go's new full length, "New Lives."

"For more than half a decade, the Cavemen Go have been churning out some of the finest no-frills pop-rock in the Northeast." — Metromix Connecticut

"I could write reams about this album but the bottom line is this, if you like artists like Elvis Costello (lyrics and music), and The Kinks, 60′s pop, harmonies and modern indie rock, and you’d like all this to also sound like something new, then this is definitely a record that would only enhance your record shelf." — Beer and Bands

"I’ve been listening to songs like “Less Than Zero” by Elvis Costello and “So It Goes” by Nick Lowe on an endless loop lately. New Lives fits neatly into that pattern while offering something new." — Side Ponytail

Beehive Opinion - Reminds us of listening to British sixties offshore radio stations like Radio Caroline (yes of course we were to young - obviously hmmm) and yet it switches to a modern feel so I guess in some ways that makes it kind of timeless, enjoy these people, they are good!
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And finally this edition a question posed to us that we will now pass on to your good self. Are you familiar with producer Scott Solter?

He has produced records for John Vanderslice, Superchunk, Pattern is Movement, Mountain Goats and a whole lot more. His project with partner Wendy Allen (Tarentel, The Court and Spark), Boxharp, was recently chosen by David Bowie as one of his current favorite artists in an article in the Guardian (UK). Boxharp's gorgeous new album "The Green" has just been released on Hidden Shoal Recordings.

Beehive Opinion - Who are we to argue with David Bowie, mind you we would just not feature Boxharp were it not for the fact that they are really worth a listen.
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Featured Tracks:

Ace Bushey Striptease - Pain In The Aga

Website: Official.

Echo Orbiter - Mouth Of An Incomplete Twin

Website: MySpace.

Holy Family - Whatever Theres To Know

Website: MySpace.

Alan Cohen Experience - The Uncertainty Principle

Website: Official.

Sara Radle - Song For Adam

Website: Official.

The White Ravens - Tick Tock

Website: Official.

Gwyneth and Monko - Good Old Horse

Website: Official.

Leopold and His Fiction - Golden Friends

Website: Official.

The Famous - Moving On.

Website: Official.

The Smittens - Army Of Popkids

Website: Official.

Nice Purse - Heart Medley

Website: MySpace.

Marshall Lawrence - Going Down To Louisana

Website: Official.

Mama's Dirty Lil' Secret - Cray Cray

Website: Official.

Bourgeos Heroes - The Boy At The Record Store

Website: Official.

The Cavemen Go - Get Back To Me

Website: Official.

Boxharp - Leatherwing

Website: MySpace.