Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Organisation

Organisation

This is just fantastic, one of the pioneers of synthpop, you can almost imagine it being made today as part of the chillwave movement.

Painted Palms - Canopy

This came out of nowhere and has got me amazingly addicted, like some sort of poppy Animal Collective with Teen Daze'y influence. Even better, it's free! Pick it up from their bandcamp

Small Black - New Chain

New Chain

Not even sure what chillwave means anymore, either way, this is an absolutely fantastic album. Search Party is a must listen at the very least.

Crywank - James Is Going To Die Soon

The final version of his album just appeared, and it's really really good, I'd still recommend getting the demos as well though, there are some quite large changes between some songs on the demo and on the finished album which make it worthwhile to have both versions. Like a slightly more depressing Paul Baribeau.

James Is Going To Die Soon

James Is Going To Die Soon Demos

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

Halcyon Digest

Absolutely amazing, totally agree that it does seem to be a more fleshed out and fully formed version of Atlas Sound (Bradford Cox's solo effort) than a direct continuation of previous Deerhunter albums, although there is a definite lineage.

if that wasn't all the explanation you needed you are beyond redemption.

The Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas

Tied with The Magnetic Fields as one of the few artists where I am yet to find a song that I do not enjoy a crazy amount, given time I will probably end up putting up every one of their albums (definitely no easy task, given the quite literally absurd amount of releases by these two artists)

A truly fantastic album, filled with exceptional lyrics and perfectly constructed acoustic songs, definitely one of the best of its kind, I would seriously recommend giving this a listen, even if you aren't normally into this sort of thing.

All Hail West Texas

Crywank - James Is Going To Die Soon Demos

Acoustic folk punk from a kid up in Manchester (not sure if I can really say that considering he is probably older than me.) Full of emotion and stuff, and he has a really great voice, I hope he gets a bit more popular and starts touring further south. Also he looks so much like someone I know and it amuses me to imagine that all along it was actually him creating these heartfelt songs.

Myspace

James Is Going To Die Soon Demos

Unouomedude - Marsh

Unouomedude (You know you owe me dude, yeah pretty clever huh?) is a Jacksonville, Florida based Lo-Fi artist who really does make some great music, it's nothing especially complex, but it's done exceptionally well, and you can't help but feel really damn good when it's playing, and you know a guy's pretty rad when he adds you as a facebook friend because you joined his group. Download the whole of his new Marsh EP for free on his bandcamp. I mean I seriously feel so good everytime one of his songs comes on it's unreal.

Listen to this song and try and tell me it didn't put a smile on your face/eat cake on your birthday

Cassettes Won't Listen - Animal Ox

This is a strange one, but it's looked for a lot, so I hope someone somewhere will appreciate it, in a nutshell this is a mash up of the excellent New York rap duo Cannibal Ox's The Cold Vein with samples from the Baltimore based experimental super band Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion. This was done by the New York electronic artist Cassettes Won't Listen. This is a mashup of excellent rap with excellent experimental by another excellent artist. And believe me, this really is good, not to mention the album art is freakin' sweet.

This album actually got released for free, but for some reason they decided that they should completely remove all download links after a few weeks. I'm so happy I actually managed to get this before it was taken down, and I'd like to think I'm doing a public service by sharing this.

Animal Ox

Wavves - King Of The Beach

King Of The Beach

Druggy pop surf punk! This is just some nice music that you don't really need to think about, with a healthy amount of reverb, although compared to his first two albums this sounds crystal clear. Also look a cat with a joint!!

Neon Indian - Sleep Paralysist (Video)

Maps & Atlases - Perch Patchwork

Their new album just leaked!! Their sound is kind of hard to describe. Their first album "Trees, Swallows, Houses" was a big ol' ball of math rock turned to 11, yeah that sounded stupid but the leak of this album has put me into such a fever of excitement I honestly have no idea what I'm writing. Their new stuff has certainly turned that down a bit, but it's still far from the standard.

DOWNLOAD. THIS. ALBUM

Here's one of their new songs

and one of their older ones

yeah they've changed quite a lot

DON'T READ THAT BOTTOM BIT

Perch Patchwork

Mock Orange - Nines & Sixes

That guy looks really ill, hope he's made enough money to get some treatment.

Mock Orange is one of those bands that fills me with joy and also deep regret. While this album is amazing and makes me love them, the success has clearly gone to their heads, and they've gone from being one of the best emo/math rock bands to being at best an acceptable Modest Mouse clone. This theme of great bands who put out an amazing first album then become terrible is going to be a common one here. Because I am extremely bitter.

Nines & Sixes was, as I said, the first album released by these guys, in 1998 to be precise. It quickly gained them popularity, mainly due to the expert blending of odd time signature based musicianship with good old fashioned emo sensibilities. Then they went and made some other ones WHATEVER.

Nines & Sixes

Count Your Lucky Stars Record Sampler

Track List:
Into It. Over It._Orlando, Fl
Joie De Vivre_Salt
Boris Smile_Aurora
Football, Etc_Fightin’ Phoenix
Empire! Empire!_Rally The Troops!
Perfect Future_From Me To You
Castevet_I Know What A Lion Is
The Reptilian_So What Are My Torso Options
Annabel_Castles In The Air
Joie De Vivre_That’s The Hot Part
Sirdidymous_Macho Man Randy Savage
Boris Smile_Tut Tut
I Am The Branch_Fight
Driving On City Sidewalks_Farewell To Knowing It All
Empire! Empire!_IDK, My BFF Jill

Count Your Lucky Stars is a little record label with a lot of heart, based out of two tiny towns in Michigan! We have some amazing artists that we need the whole world to hear!

TrY / CYLS / MySpace

Braid - Frame & Canvas

I felt like I was getting a bit too caught up in the chillwave craze, so for now I'll stick to posting things that ARE NOT chillwave. Just to be different

Braid are an awesome mid 90's emo band, these guys basically helped define the genre of emo, and yes I know, it doesn't sound like your shitty My Chemical Romance, but that's because the whole word was absolutely ruined in the early 2000's and has resulted in me being forced to call these bands "mid 90's emo" and therefore sound like a dick.

There's something about this band that sounds kind of smug, but I quite like that.

Frame & Canvas

Teen Daze - Shine On You Crazy Whitecap (Video)

Teen Daze - Shine On You Crazy White Cap

right click, save as is your friend!

Toro Y Moi

Coming in on the tail end of the whole chillwave thing that exploded during the Summer of 2009, Toro Y Moi is probably one of the most talented musicians making this kind of music right now. He's basically made every type of music imaginable, from acoustic folk to, well, to this. Here is a nice video of him recording one of his songs fully in around 3 hours. PLAYING EVERY INSTRUMENT HIMSELF

TORO Y MOI "YOU HID" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

Like jazzy chillwave, there is no better combination. As you can see this bro knows his stuff. Also he makes some killer tracks. NOW, without further ado, let us proceed!

Causers Of This

Blessa (Fuzzier Version)

Washed Out

Washed Out is another one of those chillwave upstarts that has so taken my heart, he samples the hell out of 80's disco tracks, and basically just makes them more...chill

He lives in Athens, Georgia with his parents and makes the songs while they are asleep, so you KNOW this is going to be good. But 4 realz this guy made what is considered to be THE chillwave song of 2009, "Feel It All Around" the fans have made so many videos for this song, it's amazing

If you didn't like that then ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

Of course Skins felt it was necessary to pillage from the latest trendy bands, luckily they picked a great song to do it with: (I refuse to put up the Skins video link, this deserves more hits)

High Times & Life Of Leisure

Wow, a link with both albums in! Oh my! Life of Leisure has all the tracks that people know, I'm not sure why High Times doesn't seem to have had the same impact, maybe people are bored with this guy already?

Lovelife - Jimmy's

If this song doesn't make you happy you are beyond any form of redemption and should be put in an old peoples home where you can listen to your AC/DC dad rock and be vaguely racist

Jimmy's

Tubelord

Amazing Kingston based band, slightly math rock but it's not really the focus of their songs. I'd recommend downloading the "Feed Me A Box Of Words" EP because the songs just seem more energetic and well made, but the full album is a good listen as well.

Feed Me A Box Of Words


Our First American Friends


MYSPACE

M83 - Saturdays = Youth

Saturdays=Youth

Who knew the French were so good at making synth music?!? Great album, and I'll put up the rest of M83's stuff soon.
M83 (named after the spiral galaxy “Messier 83”) is electronic artist Anthony Gonzalez. Gonzalez and former member Nicolas Fromageau founded the group in 2001 in Antibes, France. M83’s style owes a lot to the shoegaze genre, in that there is much emphasis on tonality, extensive use of reverb effects and often softly-spoken lyrics at times submerged in instrumentation.

Japandroids - Post-Nothing

Post-Nothing

Every song on this is uplifting as hell, and I'm not sure why. This is another Canadian duo to throw on the pile along with Death From Above 1979
"Japandroids (JPNDRDS) are a two piece band from Vancouver, BC. This ‘band’ started in 2006 as a creative outlet for the post-teenage angst of Brian King and David Prowse. Originally intended to be a trio, the boys decided to forgo the logistical nightmare of having a ‘lead singer’ and do it themselves. As a consequence, Japandroids were/are/will be 1 guitar, 1 set of drums, and 2 vocalists. They call it garage rock. They don’t care what you call it, as long as it’s not minimal. Japandroids are maximal - a two piece band trying to sound like a five piece band."

Wavelets

Based on the name I was expecting another hyped up lofi surf band with crummy GarageBand recordings. Thankfully this is not the case. Wavelets reminds me a bit of Grown Ups without so much of the pop punk influence. They generously give all their recordings away for free from their blogspot. Enjoy.

Myspace
Download

The Maccabees - Colour It In

Colour It In

Sorry for being so mainstream, but this really is a very good album. Shame they went and became incredibly boring. Oh well, this makes up for it.

Lead singer Orlando Weeks stated once that the band came up with the name by flicking through the Bible and picking out a random word. Despite adopting a name with religious connotations, he affirmed that none of the band are religious.

Debuting in 2004 with the You Make Noise I Make Sandwiches EP (released on Haircut Records), they released their first single X-Ray on Promise Records on November 28, 2005. Receiving just little significant exposure - some evening play on XFM London radio station - the band however scored a minor indie hit with their second post-punk influenced single Latchmere released in April 2006 onFierce Panda Records.
Then inking a deal with the Polydor imprint (and former home of The Cure) Fiction Records the band will release on May 4, 2007 their first studio album Colour It In.
To date (late September 2007) they have released three (widely available) singles from the album (First Love, About Your Dress and Precious Time) with a fourth and final single Toothpaste Kisses released on October 8, 2007.

Spotify

Blalock's Indie Rock Playlists

These are some seriously good playlists, don't be put off by the name he puts everything in. I mean it's free, you have NOTHING TO LOSE. JUST DO IT

All these bloody playlists

Kidcrash

Discography

Screamy math rock. Excellent

“Formed in 2000, used to sound different, have toured the U.S. three times, europe once, and love to make friends.”

Hailing originally from Santa Fe, NM: Alex Gaziano, John Gee, Kevin Brouse, and Buster Ross are the Kidcrash.

The band currently has three full lengths, New Ruins(2004), Jokes (2007), snacks (2009), and a Demo (2006).

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the deals regarding the bands debut album New Ruins, so the band ask people to download it rather than purchase:

“Please don’t order this cd (New Ruins). After spending more than $10,000 of our own money recording it, Lujo Records continues to try to justify their right to continue to collect 100% of the royalties from mp3 sales, after four years of selling the album on itunes and amazon. At one point we requested a box of cds for a show, they sent them way too late and they didn’t arrive for the show. We never ended up selling them, but according to them we still owe them $400 for those cds and with that included they are still out about $500 recouping their $2000 investment. Reality is, we are still out about $8000, and they are honestly out maybe $200-$300 and have plenty of copies of the cd left. But there is no way for us to know how much they have made off of the sales of our mp3s. We have, on multiple occasions demanded that four years is long enough, and that the mp3s be removed from itunes.

Mew - Frengers

Frengers

Danish super catchy experimental pop. Nothing more needs to be said

Mew is an alternative rock band which formed in Hellerup, Denmark in 1995. The band consists of Jonas Bjerre (vocals), Bo Madsen (guitar), and Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen (drums). When on tour, Mew is supported by Dr. Nick Watts (Headswim) on keyboard, and Bastian Juel on bass (original bassist Johan Wohlert left in 2006). The band’s music can be described as experimental pop or as singer Jonas Bjerre mentioned in a recent interview: “I think that we combine pop music with something that’s much more experimental, in our own way. I don’t think I would even try and describe it. It’s difficult.”

The members of Mew started playing music together in 1995. Mew first achieved success in Denmark with their album Frengers, although their debut album, A Triumph for Man, had been met with much critical acclaim back in 1997. At the 2003 Danish Music Critics Award Show, Mew won the awards for “Album of the Year” and “Band of the Year.” Until this point Mew was relatively unknown outside of Denmark; however after a European tour supporting R.E.M. Mew began to attract wider attention. After releasing the critically-acclaimed album And The Glass Handed Kites, featuring contributions from J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr, Mew has built on their success in Denmark as well as attracting attention from the UK. In the summer of 2006, they toured as the supporting act for Bloc Party in the U.S. as well as for Kasabian in the U.S. and Canada in the fall. After these tours, they returned to Denmark to work on new material.

This Town Needs Guns

Animals

This Town Needs Guns

This Town Needs Guns/Cats And Cats And Cats Split EP

In the first eleven seconds of the band’s creation, the ghost of Martha Nesbit entered the castle in which Tim “Supreme Perch” Collins (later changed to Time Collis, then changing his name to the more manageable Tim Collis) battled with the Metal Carp Children in the then best seller ‘Crime Minutes, Lime Sessions’ which sold out before it even went to print. He was armed with seven identical emerald scarabs and a letter signed simply “Wojtek (Soldier Bear)”. Precisely eleven nanoseconds had passed and the switch to wireless power was complete. Tim then studied the life of King Herod at the Addison Sanctuary in 1868 and then the Helen Wolfe School of Paragliding in 1909, gaining valuable valuation skills. This was to be a huge boost to the local community as he acquired a cylindrical six string piano, which he spent all of his spare time perfecting the altered-dominant scale using only a purple heat resistant container.

Add to that Stuart “PS. Don’t knock the renegades” Smith’s hand-leg co-ordination, Chris “Alien Sacrificial Dome/Shelter” Collins (later became a member of the Collis tribe of Easter Island) on a broken bassoon and James “Gayle/Haddock/Surrender” Cooper IV, backing up on session lute and the band were formed. 18 blockbusters and a chain of mince restaurants later they are BACK, and this time they mean business: MEAN BUSINESS. (Sourced from: ‘Hotpoint Dishwasher Study Guide: A-Level’ and ‘Quake 3 Arena: Ultimate Walkthrough’.)

Members:

Stuart Smith - vocals
Tim Collis - guitar
Jamie Cooper - bass
Chris Collis - drums

www.thistownneedsguns.com
www.myspace.com/thistownneedsguns
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Town_Needs_Guns