New York City’s Chairlift are back to work after some “time off” collaborating with the likes of Das Racist and Washed Out. The duo have released a new single featuring the title track off their upcoming album, “Amanaemonesia.” Currently, the single’s A-side is available for streaming on their website, but you will likely have to wait or shell out eventually for the B-side, “Peculiar Paradise.”
The California-based indie pop band Army Navy have now released their second album, The Last Place, through their own label, The Fever Zone Records! You can stream it in full at Aol Music. So you know what to expect, SPIN Magazine gave it an 8 out of 10, calling it “a feel-bad record you can actually feel good about.” Not entirely sure what that means, but judging from the first excerpt the band has made available for download, “The Long Goodbye,” it seems that Army Navy could easily seduce you with their sweet pop tunes. The band is also set to tour throughout the second half of the year so keep your ears out for more news!
Listen to “The Long Goodbye” below:
Brooklyn based alt-rockers and friends of the site, Life Size Maps, have officially released their new EP, Magnifier. The EP represents an evolution of sound for the band, as this new grouping of tracks is both noisier and more complex.
The band kicked things off with a release party at Monster Island Basement in Williamsburg with Dino Walrus, Total Slacker and Soft Black. Visit the band’s myspace page MySpace page. And, in the meantime, be sure to listen to our exclusive preview of the band’s new track “This Same House,” down below.
New Zealand band Cut Off Your Hands have announced that they will be releasing the follow up to their 2008 album later this summer. The album entitled Hollow will be a mixture of new sounds and a rediscovered passion for playing music from band front man Nick Johnston. After 2008’s release of You & I, the band embarked on a three year tour and endured many personnel changes within the band, all of which left Johnston feeling a little disillusioned about music and wondering what his future would be.
“Something clicked in the time off between records,” says Johnston. “As I stopped worrying about what we should be doing, I began listening to records out of pure fun again and they ended up really influencing my writing.”
The result is a masterful sound of melancholic guitar riffs and melodies influenced by bands such as Echo & the Bunnymen, the Byrds, Bob Dylan and fellow countrymen the Bats and Bird Nest Roys. This time out, the band knew which direction they wanted this album to go and how they wanted this album to sound.
“A big thing for me was getting out of that songwriting slump,” explains Johnston, “realizing that making music is still meaningful for me.”
Hollow will be released on August 16th via Frenchkiss Records. There are plans for a US tour following the release.
Tracklisting
You Should Do Better
Hollowed Out
Fooling No One
Nausea
By Your Side
All It Takes
Oh Hell
Down and Out
Buried
VHS or Beta will release their fourth album, Diamonds And Death, on September 27th via Krian Music Group/Chromosome Records… That’s a long time from now. It’s already been four years since the band’s last album, Bring On The Comets, was released; no doubt you’re getting impatient. While you wait for that day, you can already get warmed up by listening to “I Found A Reason,” the first excerpt from the album that just premiered on AOL Spinner. The track is bound to light any dance floor this summer and sets the bar pretty high for the rest of the album. Listen to it HERE.
If there are still people in this world who believe that the Internet and social networks aren’t completely changing how we access and consume music, this little story should change their mind.
British four-piece The Kooks will only be releasing their new album Junk Of The Heart on September 12th via Astralwerks but the first single off the album, “The Saboteur,” was made available for all to listen to and download at the beginning of the week on www.junkoftheheart.com, but not without Kooks fan doing a little bit of work. In order to unlock the track, all those who wanted to hear had to send out a tweet containing the hashtag #junkoftheheart in order to reveal .01 seconds of the song. You’d think the reveal would have dragged on, but within a few hours, the whole track was out!
“The Saboteur” reflects a growth in the band’s sound. It’s all undeniably British but the songs goes through a series of different moods, from harder-hitting rhythms and guitars to soft piano-based bridges with swift bass lines. The Kooks are taking some risks so it’ll be interesting to hear the rest of the album once it drops!
Modern Mystery 
You must be logged in to post a comment.