The tunes are coming thick and fast again at the moment and keeping up is proving almost impossible. Here are a few of the tracks from the web and our inbox that have caught our ears over the past few days.
First up Okkervil River who are riding high on the critical acclaim for the release of their latest full-length album I Am Very Far. Just this month the band released a new 7-inch for Your Past Life As A Blast. You can listen and download the lead single below.
Download Okkervil River – Your Past Life As A Blast mp3 (from Your Past Life As A Blast 7″)
Dublin’s We Cut Corners have released the first single from their forthcoming debut EP Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards. The track is called Go Easy and sonically, the duo exist somewhere between Burt Bacharach and Death From Above 1979. Recommended.
Download We Cut Corners – Go Easy mp3 (from Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards)
The Fresh & Onlys will release a new 7″ single on Sexbeat early next month and it is, to our mind, one of the best things they’ve done to date. A crackerjack of garage rumble, surf harmonies and guitar jangle.
Download The Fresh & Onlys – I Would Not Know The Devil mp3 (from I Would Not Know The Devil 7″)
Denton, Texas psychedelic-pop band, Sundress celebrated the release of their self-titled EP yesterday. We’ve already posted the excellent Derelict from the EP, but the band have made a second track, Thirteen available for free download. Spoil yourself.
Download Sundress – Thirteen mp3 (from Sundress EP)
Download Sundress- Derelict mp3 (from Sundress EP)
Piney Gir has long been known as the indie Dolly Parton. But her new album Jesus Wept is more Emmylou Harris in her Gram Parsons days… in fact, it sounds like it was twisted through the eyes of a local drunk at the truck stop honky tonk. It’s fun, but it’s dark and you don’t know if you should like it so much but you do, so have another whiskey.
Download The Piney Gir Country Roadshow – Lucky Me mp3 (from Jesus Wept)
Download The Piney Gir Country Roadshow – The Sheriff Of San Miguel mp3 (from Jesus Wept)
Wise Blood’s new EP These Wings gets a release at the end of the month and we’re quite taken with this track, Nosferatu, with its chiming guitar submerged under some swirling electronics, which for once, doesn’t give bedroom pop a bad name.
Download Wise Blood – Nosferatu mp3 (from These Wings EP)
Luke Temple is the frontman of Here We Go Magic and is releasing his third solo album early next month on Western Vinyl. The chugging twang of the upbeat and cajun tinged Ophelia is a really promising taster for the album proper.
Download Luke Temple – Ophelia mp3 (from Don’t Act Like You Don’t Care)
Chad VanGaalen’s recent album, the badly named Diaper Island has some standout tracks on it, and the sturdy Peace On The Rise is one of them. This is the second track he has made available for free and is a keeper.
Download Chad VanGaalen – Peace On The Rise mp3 (from Diaper Island)
Download Chad VanGaalen – Sara mp3 (from Diaper Island)
The Breedings are a brother and sister duo based out of Nashville, TN – home of their debut album, Laughing at Luck. Brought together in the studio by their love of ‘70s country music, the pair have emerged with a surprisingly rock’n’roll album. Theirs is a hard-hitting sound, bringing to mind Fleetwood Mac, Linda Ronstadt and a touch of Tom Petty.
Download The Breedings – Come Summer mp3 (from Laughing At Luck)
On a more experimental slant, both Julian Lynch and Ducktails have made tracks available for free. Try Lynch’s short, sci-fi sounding Dream Of A Thousand Nights and the rather more mellow hypnotic haze of Ducktails Sit Around With Ya.
Download Julian Lynch – Dream Of A Thousand Nights mp3
Download Ducktails – Sit Around With Ya mp3 (from Killin The Vibe 12″)
Shitty/Awesome create a wonderfully noisy hairy cacophony – interested in little more than having fun, dancing like maniacs, and eventually passing out in the backyard! Metaphorically speaking, if garage rock is the champagne of bottled bands, then Shitty/Awesome is a bottle of model glue in the parking lot, and all the better for it. Hang Up is from their planned self-titled album coming from Guestroom Records and has guitars like angry wasps and vocals like someone’s being repeatedly stung. Corking stuff.
Download Shitty/Awesome – Hang Up mp3 (from Shitty/Awesome)
We’ve already given you one track from Bear & Moose, a duo steeped in blues, psychedelia, punk, folk, prog rock and garage. New track Wear The Wolf begins floaty and hypnotic, but soon the peacefulness starts to give way to the chaos of face-melting electric guitar with analog delay, bone-filled rain stick kicks in and the percussion drives it all forward. The subject: lapsing into drinking to numb the pain of a broken relationship. The “wolf” is the out of control side that came out when drinking. Not unlike a werewolf, night and intoxication brought unpleasant transformation. Whether you’ve “worn the wolf” or not, this mercurial song will intoxicate you!
Download Bear & Moose – Wear The Wolf mp3 (from Bear/Moose)
Download Bear & Moose – I’m Back mp3 (from Bear/Moose)
Lastly we have Howlin Woods, a four piece from Santa Barbara who have made a set of demo recordings available for free download on their Bandcamp page here. They combine folky, soulful vocals with sinewy guitar and driving percussion and the hypnotic funk-folk of Boss has been getting repeated plays on the MM stereo.
Download Howlin Woods – Boss mp3 (from 2010 Demo Recordings)
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