Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

01. French Navy
02. The Sweetest Thing
03. You Told a Lie
04. Away With Murder
05. Swans
06. James
07. Careless Love
08. My Maudlin Career
09. Forest and Sands
10. Other Towns and Cities
11. Honey in the Sun

Persistent despair is charming and cute again! Camera Obscura is back with My Maudlin Career, the follow-up to 2006's Let's Get Out of This Country. Title track "My Maudlin Career" signals that the album's tone tends towards the fuzzy, dream-y twee that made up its predecessor. Most of the time it's difficult to make out what singer Tracyanne Campbell is saying amidst all the reverb and spaced-out guitars, but she still manages to make sadness sound sweet and romantic in a way that most of her contemporaries can't match. My Maudlin Career is out April 20 on 4AD...www.prefixmag.com

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

01 Southern Point
02 Two Weeks
03 All We Ask
04 Fine for Now
05 Cheerleader
06 Dory
07 Ready, Able
08 About Face
09 Hold Still
10 While You Wait for the Others
11 I Live With You
12 Foreground

So after finding out what the-album-that-somehow-comes-up-in-every-comment-thread was called, the only outstanding issue was: how exactly do you visually conceptualize aVeckatimest? I figure either you incorporate imagery of the namesake uninhabited isle, or create sort of a hand-drawn collage of various geometric shapes rendered in pastels and earth tones to capture the breadth of emotion and mood-spanning mystery conjured by the title's syllabic string. Oh I guess the latter...www.stereogum.com

Wixel - Clouds

1. Cloud Formation

2. Rising Clouds

3. Cloud Fields

4. In Clouds

5. Fog Rainbow

This is the second edition - February - of my awesome and/or stupid 2009 project. For those unaware of the project: It’s a challenge in which I force myself to record and release a record within each month of the year 2009. 

Unlike the January edition called “Winter” there were no constraints for this record, but I quickly felt like I wanted to continue with an idea for music I already touched in “The Aesthetics of Clouds” which you can find on “Winter”. Dense yet soft sounds, slowly moving and progressing, a bit like ... clouds. Most of the songs rely heavily on a sort of tape delay plugin I have, which I fed any sound I felt was appropriate for coloring the cloud. Some compositions are more electronic, others more acoustic, but always cloudy. As you guessed by know, the record is titled “Clouds”. Comparing it to other artists is not so easy, but I would guess a mellow Tim Hecker drone might come close, or maybe you can sense a little bit of similarity to a Stars of the Lid or Mountains composition. I tried to make it drone out, lots of fuzzy/blurry sounds with an undercurrent of melancholic melodies. You should probably listen if this sounds a bit vague..www.2009.bandcamp.com

Wixel - Winter

01. Acoustic Hum
02. The Bergeron Process
03. Winter Waltz #1
04. Dawn Chorus
05. Aesthetics Of Clouds
06. January 4th
07. Stumbling Music #2
08. Melsbroek
09. Winter Waltz #2
10. Vaarwel
11. Stumbling Music #1
12. Aerosan
13. Stumbling Music #3
14. Winter Sun
15. Reading Music

Welcome to the first edition - January - of my awesome and/or stupid 2009 project. It’s a project in which I force myself to record and release a record within each month of the year 2009. There are certain rules and guidelines which I must obey. You can find those at the wixel website. Due to the limited time of recording, and the constant output, this thing will feel very much feel like a personal journal. I have no clue whether it’s going to be interesting or not. It will just exist, I guess. Some months will be more interesting/better sounding than others. I’ll always explain in these liner notes what’s going on each month. 

For the first record my setup included nothing but an acoustic guitar, a microphone and the ableton live software used as a traditional multitrack recorder. No fancy effects, nor fancy plugins. Just the basic controls of recording, cutting, pasting and adjusting the volume. I thought a constraint in options would result in getting more out of less, and at some points I did come across some marvelous sounds. ‘Melsbroek’ for example is nothing but a few hundred recordings of various singles notes, with the volume turned down at each beginning, then slowly turned up while all notes are placed in a way so the guitar starts to sound like an organ. I quite like the effect. 

The record is titled “Winter” because I feel it could be a nice compagnon for the “Herfst” ep I did with Wixel a few years back. The pictures included were all taken during the month of January. It rarely snows this much in Belgium. I like winter...www.2009.bandcamp.com

Maria Taylor - Ladyluck

1. LadyLuck
2. Time Lapse Lifeline
3. It's Time
4. My Favorite Love
5. 100,000 Times
6. Green Butterflies
7. Broad Daylight
8. A Chance
9. Orchids
10. Cartoons and Forever Plans

Maria Taylor is set to release her third solo album titled Ladyluck on April 7. Teaming up with producer friends Andy LeMaster (Bright Eyes, Azure Ray and a host of Saddle Creek label mates), Mike Mogis and Lukas Burton and featuring collaborations with Michael Stipe, Nate Walcott of Bright Eyes and Mckenzie Smith of Midlake, LadyLuck showcases Taylor's ability to pull at your heart strings while proving she's not a woman down on her luck.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Beware

01 Beware Your Only Friend

02 You Can't Hurt Me Now 

03 My Life's Work 

04 Death Final 

05 Heart's Arms 

06 You Don't Love Me 

07 You Are Lost 

08 I Won't Ask Again 

09 I Don't Belong to Anyone 

10 There Is Something I Have to Say 

11 I Am Goodbye 

12 Without Work, You Have Nothing 

13 Afraid Ain't Me

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy will release his “biggest and most ambitious album,” Beware on March 16th via Domino Records. “Though Beware shares spit with its immediate predecessor released this past summer, Lie Down in the Light, it’s reach is longer and stronger, more grandiose. Where fiddle and steel contribute their rustic timbre alongside guitars and voices, a thickening thud of low tone rolls beneath, giving the record a bottom that’s fun to watch bounce in new clothes”...www.muzzleofbees.com

O! The Joy - Zen Mode

1. Conceivable Test Tube Baby
2. There Is No Such Thing As "Organized Crime"
3. This Fault Is Not Mine
4. Under The Radar
5. 22435
6. The Man And The Secrets
7. We Write The Next Chapter
8. I Just Didn' t Tell You
9. Guiding Role
10. Zen Mode

"If Built to Spill and The Mars Volta spawned a child, it might sound something along the lines of Sacramento's O! The Joy, but never long enough to get too caught up in the aforementioned names. Then again, there is ample evidence O! The Joy have explored the kosmische scene as well on their new record Zen Mob, here & there philosophically echoing Faust's manner of carrying rare tangents to fruition. Having said that, maybe I'm just high, but my favorite tune on the record, "Under The Radar," really reminds me of Joe Jackson, especially on the expansive slow punch of the chorus. Zen Mode shows a seamless weaving of genres, transferring from melodically intense passages to drugged out guitar mania splattering color."

The Boy Least Likely To - The Law of the Playground

1. Saddle Up
2. A Balloon On A Broken String
3. When Life Gives Me Lemons I Make Lemonade
4. I Box Up All The Butterflies
5. The Boy With Two Hearts
6. Stringing Up Conkers
7. The Boy Least LIkely To Is A Machine
8. Whiskers
9. Every Goliath Has Its David
10. The Nature Of The Boy Least Likely To
11. I Keep Myself To Myself
12. The Worm Forgives The Plough
13. A Fairy Tale Ending

"This record should have been released sooner," admits a press release for the Boy Least Likely To's forthcoming sophomore album, The Law of the Playground. Unfortunately, the album got tangled up in label drama, but it will finally see release March 3 via the English duo's own Too Young to Die label in the UK and in North America via +1.

Contrary to a previous report, the follow-up to 2005's The Best Party Ever will not include recently Forkcasted holiday single "The First Snowflake". It will, however, include not-so-recently Forkcasted ditties "I Box Up All the Butterflies" and"Balloon on a Broken String"."The First Snowflake" will be released as a download-only single on December 15, and that will be the only way to get it until the Boy Least Likely To release a greatest hits/B-sides and rarities/holiday album, of course.The Boy Least Likely To's only show scheduled right now is an appearance at a Christmas party at London's Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen on December 15, the same day as the single's release...www.pitchforkmedia.com

Cantaloup - On A Hill Not Far Away

01. Wake Up Call

02. Fireworks
03. When My Girl Walks Through This Garden
04. Last Song
05. Day By Day
06. My Discurse With Mr. Lloyd
07. Wake Up Call (Hoodwink remix)
08. Crooked Rain (feat. Hoodwink) 

Thomas Peter’s brainchild Cantaloup offers a vibrant and enduring stimulus with the distinctive release, On A Hill Not Far Away; it is a record engorged with antiquity, and sounding like voices in the background of a beautiful European mountain. For anyone under the impression that Germany only breeds strange techno/metal artists, you are in for a rude awakening with this one.“Fireworks” is a well oriented distribution of kindness and despair. While “Last Song” serves up a delicious plate of instrumentals with a hint of ambiance. But the brightest star on the hill would have to be the almost frightening melody in “Day By Day”. With echoing vocals, and transparent piano keys, this definitely is a worthwhile six and a half minutes.It’s not that easy to completely comprehend what exactly Peters is getting at with Cantaloup. But, it is obvious that he is riding a musical boxcar all his own. The artistic ingenuity of this album is almost un-comparable to anything created in the experimental...

Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

01. This Tornado Loves You

02. The Next Time You Say Forever

03. People Got A Lotta Nerve

04. Polar Nettles

05. Vengeance Is Sleeping

06. Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth

07. Middle Cyclone

08. Fever

09. Magpie To The Morning

10. I'm An Animal

11. Prison Girls

12. Don't Forget Me

13. The Pharaohs

14. Red Tide

15. Marais La Nuit

On March 3, 2009, Anti- Records will release the eagerly awaited new Neko Case album Middle Cyclone. The fifteen-track collection is Case's first release since 2006's Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, the best-reviewed and best-selling album of her career.Middle Cyclone was produced by Case with Darryl Neudorf and recorded in Tucson, Brooklyn, Toronto, and Vermont. It features Case backed by her core band - guitarist Paul Rigby, bassist Tom V. Ray, backing vocalist Kelly Hogan, multi-instrumentalist Jon Rauhouse, and drummer Barry Mirochnick - along with numerous guests including M. Ward, Garth Hudson, Sarah Harmer, and members of The New Pornographers, Los Lobos, Calexico, The Sadies, Visqueen, The Lilys, and Giant Sand, among others. In addition to twelve new songs written by Case, Middle Cyclone includes covers of 'Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth' by Sparks, and "Don't Forget Me" by Harry Nilsson. In 2006, SPIN Magazine called Case "one of pop music's best" voices, and Interview Magazine hailed her album Fox Confessor Brings The Flood as "one of the most original, beguiling, honest records of the year." The album also earned Case Female Artist of the Year honors from the PLUG Independent Music Awards, and a Top 10 placement in the Village Voice's annual Pazz and Jop Critics Poll of the year's best releases. Fox Confessor was Case's first album to debut in the Billboard Top 100, and has sold nearly 200,000 copies in the U.S. alone...www.anti.com

Dan Deacon - Bromst

1. Build Voice
2. Red F
3. Paddling Ghost
4. Snookered
5. Of The Mountains
6. Surprise Stefani
7. Wet Wings
8. Woof Woof
9. Slow With Horns / Run For Your Life
10. Baltihorse
11. Get Older

For the last three years Dan Deacon has been working on Bromst. Fusing together the growing intensity of his live performances with his background in electro-acoustic composition, the outcome is a collection of pieces that are intense and epic and at the same time down to earth and welcoming. Bromst embodies the same energy and excitement as Spiderman of the Rings, however the craftsmanship and composition onBromst have a wider scope and richer palette...www.radioexile.com

Shout Out Out Out Out – Reintegration Time

01 Run
02 Guilt Trips Sink Ships
03 Bad Choices
04 Coming Home (Feat. Cadence Weapon)
05 How Do I Maintain Pt. I
06 How Do I Maintain Pt. II
07 One Plus Two Plus Three (Feat. San Serac)
08 Remind Me In Dark Times
09 In The End It's Your Friends
10 Reintegration Time

Patients - Patients

1. Tall Tale Number 5
2. The Coldest Hands
3. Not In Nottingham
4. Body Song
5. Mind Ur Manners
6. Doorways
7. Mathematics
8. The Voice Of Our Age
9. Leaves
10. Sad Business
11. If You Come Back To Haunt Me

Akron/Family - Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free

01. Everyone is Guilty

02. River
03. Creatures
04. The Alps & Their Orange Evergreen
05. Set 'Em Free, Pt. 1
06. Gravelly Mountains of the Moon
07. Many Ghosts
08. MBF
09. They Will Appear
10. Sun Will Shine (Warmth of the Sunship Version)
11. Last Year

Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free marks the band’s first album recorded as a trio; Seth Olinsky, Miles Seaton and Dana Janssen became a three piece in 2007 after original member Ryan Vanderhoof left the band that fall, and this shift in their line-up reconfigured the band’s approach to touring. They brought along like-minded musicians such as Megafaun, the Dodos and Greg Davis, both as openers and as members of an ever-changing Akron/Family ensemble, bringing about cacophonous onstage jams interwoven between the band’s songs. Whether it’s the three members of Akron/Family – communicating and interacting with one another onstage with something like the visceral language of the classic John Coltrane or Albert Ayler ensembles – or upwards of a dozen guest musicians joining them, their live shows are becoming a thing of legend.

Sweetheart: Our Favourite Artists Sing Their Favourite Long Songs

01 Death Cab for Cutie - Love Song (Cure cover)
02 Katy Perry - Black and Gold (Sam Sparro cover)
03 DeVotchKa - Hot Burrito #1 (I'm Your Toy) (Flying Burrito Brothers cover)
04 Department of Eagles - Love Me (Elvis Presley cover)
05 Jessica Lea Mayfield - Words of Love (Buddy Holly cover)
06 Ben Bridwell - Your Love Is Forever (George Harrison cover)
07 Kate Tucker - I'm on Fire (Bruce Springsteen cover)
08 Rogue Wave - Maps (Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover)
09 A.C. Newman - Take on Me (a-ha cover)
10 Jem - Yellow (Coldplay cover)
11 Richard Hawley - Early Morning Rain (Gordon Lightfoot cover)
12 Daniel Martin Moore - I Hear Music (Billie Holiday cover)
13 She & Him - I Put a Spell on You (Screamin' Jay Hawkins cover)
14 Lila Downs - My One and Only Love (Frank Sinatra cover)

For you to be in any way remotely amped about this story, the following things have to not make you want to barf: Starbucks, Valentine's Day, NPR-sounding MOR indie, Katy Perry blatantly grabbing for indie cred, cutesy fake-vintage cover art, the idea of anyone covering Coldplay for anything other than a joke, love in general. 

Still with me? On January 30, Starbucks Entertainment will release Sweetheart: Our Favorite Artists Sing Their Favorite Love Songs. Starbucks already pulled this trick in 2005, and apparently the world demanded a sequel. 
The tracklist includes A.C. Newman's previously reported cover of a-ha's "Take on Me", Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses covering George Harrison, Department of Eagles doing a Leiber and Stoller song made famous by Elvis, Rogue Wave doing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and that Katy Perry cover of Sam Sparro's "Black and Gold" that lit up the mp3 blogs a few months back. 
Also, both halves of the newly engaged indie supercouple Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel will be represented here via the Death Cab and She & Him selections, and maybe they'll be singing to each other because awww. (They're covering songs which, respectively, 311 and Marilyn Manson have already had their way with. Make of that what you will.)...www.pitchforkmedia.com

Pia Fraus - After Summer

1 Springsite

2 Yenissey

3 Sailing Yes

4 Doctor Optimism

5 House Eaten 

6 After Summer 

7 Late Again 

8 Mute The Birds 

9 Loveloops 

10 Far Fade Whisper

Clairecords is extremely proud to present Pia Fraus' new album "After Summer". After 5 long years, we welcome the Estonian pop geniuses back to the Clairecords label with open arms.

 

"After Summer" is produced by legendary Glaswegian Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub, BMX Bandits, The Pastels etc). Pia Fraus and Norman Blake kept file transfer programs busy for months to exchange soundfiles; this relationship has created something magical. "After Summer" is the 4th proper album from the Pias, and quite possibly their best album to date. No wonder, if your idol takes producer's chair! The album also features some guest musicians: Estonian electronica stars Galaktlan and Pastacas guest on two of the album's tracks. Moreover, "After Summer" has the well-known and well-loved Pia Fraus sound, quality songwriting, a lot of studio tricks and layers of guitars, synths, and boy/girl vocals. This album will bring huge grins to the mouths of Pia Fraus fans, yet at the same time it is a perfect introduction to Pia Fraus for the uninitiated.

 

For fans of My Bloody Valentine, Stereolab, Chicago Underground Quartet, The Pastels, The Beatles, and – of course - Pia Fraus!...www.tonevendor.com

Free Blood - Parangatang

1. Free Blood - Parangatang 

2. Free Blood - Parangatang (Tim Love Lee Remix) 

3. Free Blood - Weekend Condition 

4. Free Blood - Weekend Condition (Scotty Coats & Wes The Mes Mix)

A great single from DFA signees Free Blood, drawing on brilliant, anything goes no-wave stylings for 'Paragatang', which although sounds well within the parameters of the DFA remit, goes a little further into experimental territory. Tim 'Love' Lee glosses over the more chaotic elements and reshapes the beat into a more organised arrangement. Next comes 'Weekend Condition', another supremely odd composition, situating itself somewhere between Foals, TV On The Radio and Hot Chip. The Scotty Coats & Wes The Mes remix does little to knock some sense into the track, rounding off an admirably strange EP...www.boomkat.com

Bon Iver - The Myspace Transmissions EP

1. For Emma
2. Flume
3. Lump Sum
4. Blindsided

Bon Iver visited with MySpace Transmissions for an exclusive performance...www.myspace.com

The Cavestompers - Introducing

01-Girl In Black
02-Rock'n'Roll
03-Был Один Парень
04-Amphetamine Girl
05-Do You Understand Me?
06-Run Outside
07-Limousine
08-Go Go Go On
09-You're My Girl
10-Louie
11-Shabby Clothes, Shabby Moods
12-Night And Day
13-Promise Me
14-Can't Stop The Stomp

Its great to hear a brand new record that gives off electric sparks and a palpable sense of the teenage spirit that lies behind all great rocknroll sounds. The Cavestompers, six guys of Russian origin, from the city of Moscow. On this, their debut long-player, "Introducing.", The Cavestompers have woven together a truly fine tapestry of sounds - much of it resonating from the valves of vintage Eastern Bloc electronic technology, and instrumentation - breathing new life into familiar noises; building a thumping, swaggering collection of authentic future dance-party favourites in the process. The influence and style of punk rock isnt so far away, and hand in hand with the proclamations of the original Rolling Stones-era have been bound together in The Cavestompers style to form what we can term today as the new breed. So without any further ado, crank up your music machine, cue the disc and let your hips shake, your bootheels stomp and your head swirl, for as the boys in the band are proud to shout out loud: "we all cant stop the stomp"! The record came with a beautifull two sided insert print, photos of the Russian instruments and studios and photos of the band...www.rayelpee.com

Blakfish - See You In Another City

1. Preparing For Guests
2. My Stomach Feels Like My Throat's Been Cut
3. Jeremy Kyle Is A Marked Man
4. Make Your Bed And Lie In It
5. Carnival Carnivore

See You In Another City, the latest release from Birmingham’s Blakfish, almost blasts you there in the second you press play – first song Preparing For Guests is prefaced with a throat slicing, vocal chord cutting, bloodcurdling scream, before the rest of the song kicks in.

It’s the first of five hard emotional punches that knock your heart and brain about with their deadly delivery.

Blending strains of post-hardcore with full-throttle rock and an underlying indie mentality, Blakfish offer up a delicious dish of brutal confessionalism that twists and turns with each intricate guitar note, guttural songs such as the brilliantly titiled ‘Jeremy Kyle Is A Marked Man’ and ‘My Stomach Feels Like My Throat’s Been Cut’, which reach deep down and eviscerate you as you listen, slicing through your guts to reveal your innermost self and leaving it strewn all over the ground.