Quality Not Quantity - Good For Your Ears

The Talks are embarking on an extensive UK tour punctuated by European festival appearances, full details & website - Here.

In just a short space of time The Talks have built themselves a compelling live reputation across the UK and Europe for delivering sweaty, high octane, dance floor filling shows, treading the boards with the likes of Madness, The Specials, Rancid, The Beat and many more. 'Commoners, Peers, Drunks and Thieves' was released on 24th November 2014, sale figures continue to rise and the tracks are continuing to attract air-play globally.

They really do have that Ska feel, reminiscent of the Two Tone sound and yet with their own styling and passion. From Hull, England, they are most definitely worth checking out.

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OK read this carefully, we will be asking questions and this is a fail/pass feature! Davey Lane's new single, intriguingly titled "Davey Lane's Duo-Monophonic Explorations Vol.1", is his first in a line of releases for 2015, and a conceptual world first. The double A-side single contains I'll Set U Free, a collaboration with King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard singer Stu Mackenzie, and The First Flung One To Crash, teaming up with Lane’s You Am I band mate Tim Rogers.

Contained within each track of this digital and limited-edition vinyl release, are 3 completely different versions of each song. Listened to in stereo, you hear the collaborative efforts of Lane and his esteemed guests. But with the balance panned to the left, a solo Davey Lane version of the song is revealed, and in turn, panned to the right, you hear Rogers' or Mackenzie's, both in mono (hence "Duo-Monophonic"). Completely independent from each other instrumentally and vocally, yet a cohesive match when played together - a world first in this form.

Now I had to read that a couple of times but that's probably just me, however I was intrigued as to how this might all work out. Actually if all of that had not been explained I would probably be none the wiser, what makes this far more than an interesting exercise is the quality of the music, which is good, the featured track reminds me in part of The Beatles, now that has to be a complement.

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Swedish indie-band The Black Sun's Darling have released a new single 'Our love falls out of'. After the Swedish duo was formed in 2014, Julia & Sebastian started recording music in their living-room. Earlier this spring the band released two singles  "This One's for You" and "Believe In" . The new single "Our love falls out of" is about falling out of love without being able to do anything about it. Their website Here.

'Our love falls out of' has a brooding and emotional feel, which then kicks into life keeping the whole song absorbing. They have also just produced a video for another song - 'This One's For You' which demonstrates the depth and diversity the band have, I like!


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New Zealand band New Gum Sarn have announced a new album 'New Gold Mountain' and tour dates. We are told - New Gold Mountain has just as much to do with the countryside around Puhoi in New Zealand than Auckland, where the band New Gum Sarn formed.

“The (debut) album was recorded where I grew up in a valley in the countryside,” says singer/guitarist Oscar Dowling. “The closest town is Puhoi which is a 15 minute drive along a dirt road. It’s a historic bohemian village, famous for cheese and the puhoi pub. The first time my dad went to the pub the barkeep told him to ‘get f##### hippie’.”

New Gum Sarm also features Sophia Lawler-Dormer on drums, Dave Weir on bass, and Durham Fenwick on guitar (who co-founded the band with Dowling).

The band claim inspiration from the band Television through to Neil Young and others including the East Brunswick All Girls Choir. Whatever the inspiration, there is something quite 'stand out' in the featured track 'Money Talks', more than enough for us to want to feature it.

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Hippo Campus have a considerable amount of 'buzz' going on around them at the moment here's some background - They met in High School and are still yet to hit legal drinking age but following an explosive SXSW - which marked their first shows outside their native town - they released their debut EP ‘Bashful Creatures’ (produced by Low’s Alan Sparhawk). 

The buzz around the band at the Austin music festival was also noticed by the producers of Conan O’Brien’s television show who booked them to perform single ‘Suicide Saturday’ at the soonest opportunity. 

Having just completed their first tour of the US and UK they return for their first UK headline show and a run of dates with Modest Mouse, and also to play at Reading & Leeds festival. In the US Hippo Campus have been confirmed to support Real Estate and My Morning Jacket on their forthcoming tours.

Oh it would be so easy to snub these young upstarts, grumpy old blogger and all that, but the song is annoyingly good, really annoyingly good, so enjoy the buzz but above all enjoy the music!

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2015 - Out Of Our Inbox - June - Three

Here we go a quoting again - Australian singer-songwriter Calan Mai (aka Jordan Lawrence) recently unveiled his new single 'Black Box' and has followed up with a live studio session. It features a new track 'White Dove', a cover of Eminem's 'Stan' and three tracks off his upcoming debut EP 'Days on the Rock Face', out July 10th (worldwide) via Canvas Sounds. 'Live at The Den' was recorded in Gold Coast, Australia a few months prior to relocating to Manchester with fellow Canvas Sounds signers, FAIRCHILD and Lyon Apprentice. The makeshift studio is also were he recorded his debut EP with producer/mixer Adam Lyons. 

It's been a patient build up for the 24-year-old Lawrence who showed his potential years ago as a teenager, winning the 2006 Australasian Children's Songwriting Competition. It's no surprise that his primary focus is still lyrics - often retrospective, grounded in past events. His debut single 'We've Got Love' was released early last year and has notched up over 90,000 Soundcloud plays and received airplay on Triple J, Amazing Radio and debuted at number 10 on the KKBB Singles Charts in the US.

'Black Box' is a fine song, dreamy and gentle as it develops and builds, new layers sneaking in without losing it's original direction and feel. Facebook HERE.

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Their words - Ol’ Silver Tongue, a garage rock duo out of Oakland CA, is comprised of Boronkadonk on vocals/guitar and C. McCock on percussion/vocals.  They are releasing their debut EP Nobody Special independently on June 27th at The Independent in San Francisco CA. C. McCock and Boronkadonk met at a salsa dance party in 2014.  Their conversation quickly turned into a shared interest in music.  Soon after Boronkadonk had C. McCock over to play music in his garage studio.  They have worked on many original tunes and covers by The Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, The Gorries, and others.  Ol’ Silver Tongue artisinally blends American and world music then surrounds it with cherry red hard rock candy.

When not playing crushingly rugged rock music C. McCock cooks with local food pop up Two Mamacitas Kitchen and plays as a session drummer with many groups in the Bay Area. Boronkadonk writes and teaches music while taking care of his 110 pound dog Osito. Website HERE.

Sometimes stripped down, good old basic rock with a strong twist of roll does wonders. For me this is what 'garage rock' is all about, the featured song has some 'Hendrix' vibes, but enough originality for this to be a compliment.

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We are informed - On June 23, 2015, Portland, Oregon-based Chris Marshall & The August Light will celebrate the release of their latest full-length, Some Kind of Dream, a departure from the alt. country/Americana of previous offerings, and an expansion of the new ground they started to chart on 2012's Waltz EP.

Some Kind of Dream is produced by Patti King (The Rentals, Radiation City), who is also a member of - and band leader for - The August Light (which also features Ryan Reetz on keys, William Joertz on bass, and Joel Swift on drums), Some Kind of Dream is a genre-bending punch that proves Marshall is a songwriter able to meld atmospheric rock, spacious melodies, and folk traditions into songs that are both gorgeous and poignant.

Out went the old and in came the rest with Some Kind of Dream. Most notably, the rest includes an array of synthetic sounds. “These Days,” its shadowy emotion buttressed by the lyrical realisation that “these days, I prefer the night,” leans toward doomy trip hop. “Castle” owes to producer Clams Casino, an artist that has played a significant role in shaping the sound of modern hip-hop. 

But “Break Bread” cuts closest to folk. And “Go Straight Home,” written after the death of Marshall’s grandfather, is just a gorgeous soul song with the uplifting horn arrangements to prove it.

This is some album, take a listen to 'Feel Like Running' and if you like it, the album will deliver even more incredibly well produced songs. It's one of those albums where you can never be certain what the next track will deliver, in a good sort of way.

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And the bio reads - It starts simply enough - a chord, a phrase, a riff, a melody. Josh Flagg and his band experiment with these basic ingredients, rearranging and combining them into an unexpected whole. What is not simple is explaining the depth of the material. Josh’s songs can be anthemic, wrenching, smouldering, poetic, dynamic or anywhere in between. He crafts lyrics and sounds that can unsettle or soothe; that surprise and reward you with repeated listens. Once you’ve heard one of his songs, you can’t get it out of your head.

Flagg is following up the taut, beautifully constructed power pop gems on his debut full length Devastate Me with the darker, harder, more complex songs of the EP Lights Out. Featuring a three pronged guitar attack, soaring vocals and asymmetrical songwriting, Lights Out itself is the precursor to Flagg's second full length album due out Fall (autumn for us Engerleesh) 2015. Website HERE.

Lush powerful guitar hooks and an equally powerful voice compete and compliment wonderfully throughout 'Lights Out'. Indie rock with a punch.

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More fine words - Hailing from Sydney, Mary and Chris are Polarheart. Having played alongside each other in previous projects, the duo began writing together in early 2013. They found a strong chemistry, and a year later Polarheart was born.

Their combination of dreamy vocals and abstract soundscapes, now combining elements of garage, trap, and RnB makes for a captivating listening experience. Drawing on a range of musical influences with classical training in common, and a love for pop and electronica, Polarheart continue to explore new sounds and unique ways to convey relatable messages through their music.

Their debut single Paralyse has received airplay in the UK and the US, as well as across Australia. The track has had over 73,000 plays on SoundCloud and was featured on MTV Iggy, Hillydilly and Nylon Magazine US. Their follow up single Livealie received positive on line reviews from around the globe, was played on Triple J, and was played on the runway as part of the Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival Sydney 2015. Moving from strength to strength, the duo’s third single Hypnotise, received rave reviews, and plenty of airtime, including Triple J. Facebook HERE.

Some times you just need a dreamy pop song with fine vocals and a well crafted backdrop. Add some hooks that embed themselves (painlessly of course) and we have something like 'Dystopia'. Best served with a chilled cocktail and canapes.



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Ryan Adams and The Cardinals - Germany - 2006 (Internet Archive)

This is the first in an occasional series featuring legitimate and approved material from the Internet Archive (archive.org). All we ask is that you consider supporting the Internet Archive if you enjoy the material reposted here.

This then is Ryan Adams and The Cardinals and a superb concert performed at Das Haus, Germany, on the 17th October 2006.

One reviewer had this to say about the concert - 'This has become Ryan's most talked about and heavily downloaded show. Its worthy of the praise. Please don't let this be the only Cardinal show you get. This show is a great example of the semi acoustic shows that would follow in 2007 - make no secret in the fact I feel they were the best live act in the world from 2005 to 2009'. Another added - I've never heard Ryan Adams before. Well, once on a Mountain Stage broadcast, but it didn't make a huge impression. I listened to this stream as I dl'd the tracks and can't quite put my finger on what makes this recording so rich, but it's definitely got the 'something special' going for it, like I want to hear this over and over on some long lonely cross-country road trip.

Sound Quality: 16bit: Soundboard. The occasional dropouts between songs are from the original soundboard feed and are present on all soundboard recordings from this show.

Set List:

Disc 1:
01 Intro
02 Magnolia Mountain
03 > Hallelujah
04 Blue Hotel
05 To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)
06 New York, New York
07 She Wants to Play Hearts
08 Chin Up, Cheer Up
09 Freeway to the Canyon
10 Harder Now That It's Over
11 [Fade Out]

Disc 2:
01 [Fade In]
02 Damn Sam (I Love a Woman That Rains)
03 Easy Plateau
04 Peaceful Valley
05 Trouble On Wheels
06 Firecracker
07 Why Do They Leave?
08 A Kiss Before I Go
09 Dear John
10 Cold Roses
11 Bird Song [Jerry Garcia]
12 > Wild Flowers
13 Let It Ride

About The Internet Archive: The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format.

Founded in 1996 and located in San Francisco, the Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and others. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more well-rounded collections. Now the Internet Archive includes: texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in our collections, and provides specialized services for adaptive reading and information access for the blind and other persons with disabilities.

Our download link in comments - Internet Archive link HERE.

Sundays Bumper Alternative Take

Michael Hix is an NYC-based composer and musician originally from Tennessee. His music incorporates synthesizers, guitar and voice to build complex dynamic structures that evolve over time, delving the human condition and the metaphysical dimension. His work draws upon classical minimalism, sacred music and late-Romantic styles. Aeon is Hix's first full length album, a cinematic work separated into six movements which will be released on Tuesday, June 16th. HERE.

Close your eyes, lay back and just drift away. Sounds like words from an advert, however this is music you need to immerse yourself in. Calming and gently changing, a musical journey.


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The world has suffered one of the worst economic crisis ever. 20 years ago the american dream was the main thinking in many people. Nowadays to be optimist is difficult for most of them. This is why Pepe Mateos decided to tell a story about the "Hard Money" times. A song that will make you think about it. An Ep where the Longing is the main ingredient and Pepe Mateos' Vocal is trying to express the Feeling of this people who work very very hard all around the world for what they earn.

Here's a taste of 'Hard Money' the Kane Roth Remix being my favourite plus for deep house fans the original mix of 'What We Still Have' from a while back. Pepe Mateos info HERE. Check him out.


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"Coming off of a stellar interpretation of The Rolling Stone's "Gimme Shelter," Bobby Nourmand is back up to his usual musings, which is re-envisioning timeless classics.

This time around, he's taking on a song from one of the most iconic and storied albums of all time, Abbey Road. Honing in on the highly recognizable electronic harpsichord melody paired with Lennon's guitars, Bobby walks us back into 1969. The vocal harmonies add to the haunting nature, providing a textural soundscape full of incredible depth."

His take on the track BECAUSE is really something (sorry couldn't resist). This is both clever and engaging and it's free to download (HERE), what more do we want? Iv'e also included his mix of The Doors - Peace Frog which I regard as stunning.


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Dimond Saints is an Oakland based duo, that has quickly emerged to push the boundaries of electronic music. Their sound drips of passion and a firey depth. Their live show is both explosive and soulful, creating a place where heavy bass and angelic melodies collide. They recently released Henry Green - Slow - Dimond Saints Remix described as 'A delicate balance of eloquent house & broken bass; comfortably sliding between genres. All ready getting major support from House & Bass DJ's alike'.

They really do slide between genres and what's more they do it eloquently and with style. More info HERE.

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A Copy For Collapse has released their second full-length LP 'Waiting For' via the label No Sense of Place, bringing them closer to indie chill, dance and dreampop territory than ever before.  It is available digitally and on 12'' vinyl through the label No Sense of Place.

This Italian electronic duo is comprised of Daniele Raguso and Aria Myrskya.?  Strongly influenced by artists such as Telefon Tel Aviv, Boards of Canada and Toro Y Moi, they blend such genres as chillwave, electro, synthpop and nugaze, creating a dreamlike sound backed with memorable beats. ?

This is a fabulous album. Shoegaze that you can dance to and become absorbed by, and a host of other genres lurking to gently draw your attention. More about them HERE.

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