DOWNLOAD AND VIDEO: McCarthy Trenching - To An Aesthete Dying Young + Cassette Tape Massacre
September 24, 2008
McCarthy Trenching - The Most Attractive Disguise from Team Love on Vimeo.
Listening to McCarthy Trenching’s Calamity Drenching is like a present from an old friend. If you had a friend that was able to take all your feelings about rejection and rejecting ideas, love, beliefs, hopes and put them into perfect 2 to 3 minute ditties. Most of these songs were recorded at home, during a particularly snowy winter on 8-track tape machines, mostly in his living room. Because "that’s where the piano is." Calamity Drenching is the sort of record that almost feels like a mixtape made by someone who knows you well, and wishes you well. There are sweet ballads, catchy honky tonkin songs and (my favorite) waltzes. And they all play like a song written just for you. Grab these 2 songs, watch the video and make a new friend in McCarthy Trenching. Go see him on tour this fall and buy the man a beer.
Sounds Like: Phosphorescent, Orouni, Vadoinmessico, Sam Champion
Download: McCarthy Trenching - To An Aesthete Dying Young
Download: McCarthy Trenching - Cassette Tape Massacre
McCarthy Trenching’s RCRD LBL page
FEATURED: Megapuss Track Over At TheFADER.com
September 24, 2008
With a pechant for naming stuff like they are some theatrical southern metal group (what’s up GWAR?), Megapuss actually play some pretty sunny lounge-rock serenades for the longhairs who enjoy Manhattans every once and awhile. It’s basically Devendra Banhart and Priestbird’s Greg Rogove (along with some guy named Fabrizio Moretti and others) getting together and jamming out coastal California steez: big beards, loose joints, and a lot of early Byrds albums—hypotheses all, but we think we’re close. Our good friends at The FADER have the track “Crop Circle Jerk ‘94” up for download, so head over there for radiant rock awesomeness and tour dates.
Megapuss’ "Crop Circle Jerk ‘94" At TheFADER.com
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Streetlab - NYSound
September 24, 2008
“This is the time for us to get down. What we call this? The New York sound.” That is pretty much all Streetlab offer as a hook in “NYSound”, a magma-bubbling bomb that sounds like Soulwax’s “Another Excuse” and Gorillaz’s “D.A.R.E.” mixed down together and put out on Dubsided. None of those groups are from New York (or America even), and this fidget-disco apocalypse has been blowing out PA fuses across Europe for awhile, especially in Italy and England. But maybe the Streetlab guys go to parties I don’t go to, parties where serpentine bass quashes and a jagged electro-house stutter have commandeered the sound of the city that never sleeps, killing classic disco with one blast of a supersonic laser gun. And while they’ve been shucking out remixes and originals on their website for sometime (including a re-working “Gimme Shelter” and a collabo with the one and only Arthur Baker), Streetlab will drop their first self-titled EP of originals on October 7th. They’ll be doing two live performances this week in support with dudes like Egg Foo Young and Stretch Armstrong, scope the flyers after the jump. Consider this your introduction.
Sounds like: Soulwax, Crookers, Switch
Exclusive Download: Streetlab - NYSound
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: The Gay Blades - Hey She Say + O Shot (Black Jesuses Remix feat. Ant Stone)
September 24, 2008
The Gay Blades’ “Hey She Say” sounds like Ted Leo’s mod miming if dude didn’t listen to so much Madness. Instead of some ska backbeat and bass winding, The Gay Blades shoot straight for the title of Riff Champions, unwinding their tune with some pasty all-over-the-place shredding. The New York duo are releasing their debut album Ghosts today through Triple Crown (buy that here), and in celebration the RCRD LBL signees have given us two exclusive tracks, “Hey She Say” and a rap take on “O Shot” from Red Bank, NJ’s The Black Jesuses and Ant Stone. That one is all gospel choir samples and girthy organ, like Kanye messing with some industrial music or something (hey, it could totally happen…there are 808s And Heartbreak all over Pretty Hate Machine.)
Sounds like: Ted Leo & Pharmacists, Howlies, El-P
Exclusive Download: The Gay Blades - Hey She Say
Exclusive Download: The Gay Blades - O Shot (Black Jesuses Remix feat. Ant Stone)
Previously:
Exclusive Download: The Gay Blades - Mean Muses
Exclusive Download: The Gay Blades - Shake The Graves
DOWNLOAD: These Are Powers - Cockles + Chipping Ice (Remix)
September 24, 2008
Anybody already familiar with Brooklyn’s These Are Powers would know that their self-appointed "ghost punk" tag fits. If not, no need to fret. For some early morning brain direction, here is a puzzle worth unpuzzling: if ghosts could dance how would they dance? So hard! A few weeks ago, I posted live video of the trio churning out their tsunami-ish new track "Cockles" at high volumes. An appropriately raucous introduction to their upcoming EP and Dead Oceans debut, Taro Tarot, it waits for you below alongside a remix of fellow EP track, "Chipping Ice." Both work for their wiggles.
Sounds Like: Sonic Youth, Birthday Party, Public Image Ltd
Download: These Are Powers - Cockles
Download: These Are Powers - Chipping Ice (Remix)
These Are Powers’ RCRD LBL Page
GHOSTLY WEEK EXCLUSIVE: Michna - Magic Monday (Full Album Stream)
September 24, 2008
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All this week we’ll be releasing exclusive goodness from our partners at Ghostly International, who have a bevy of hot records coming out this fall. Check back every day for more tunes, and if you like what you hear, make sure to go cop some records over at their store.
New York-based producer/DJ/instrumentalist Adrian Michna aka Michna aka DJ Egg Foo Young has lurked around the underground since he first emerged as a founding member of Miami’s heralded Secret Frequency Crew, notably working with a budding Diplo, Bonde Do Role, and dropping heaters in clubs all over New York and the rest of the country as a DJ. After some wax and a couple mix CDs, dude has assembled his own heady full-length for Ghostly titled Magic Monday, stewing together a love of classic Miami bass, instrumental hip-hop, slow-tempo funk, and ambient electronic music into a swamp of milky textures and Cutco percussion fills. Think of a well-worn sponge being drained over some classic breaks LPs and you’ve kind of got yourself a starting point. Today is the official release of MM, and to mark the occasion Ghostly have hooked us up with a stream of the ENTIRE ALBUM. Hit the link below to check tour dates, and if you like what you hear (you should), head over to the Ghostly store and nab yourself a copy.
Sounds like: Flying Lotus, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin
Michna’s Magic Monday At The Ghostly RCRD LBL Blog
DOWNLOAD: The Battle of Land And Sea - Saltwater Queen
September 24, 2008
Some songs make you feel like you are traveling a journey. Each pluck or chord change on the acoustic guitar is like an oar pitched into the water, a step on the treadmill, a step down a darkened path. Now, if you don’t know what the F* I am talking about or think I may have been smoking something suspicious prior to this post, just click on the track below. I guarantee you’ll suddenly find yourself drifting out on your back down some sort of mental tributary. Sun blinks behind the clouds above you; water soaks your skin around you. All’s mellow and dreamy, carried along by the gentle cadence. Perhaps that’s why Sarah O’Shura decided upon the name "The Battle of Land and Sea"……as her music gives the sensation you are submerged somewhere in between the firm and the frothy…..and that’s something delightful.
Sounds Like: Sounds Like Fall, Hezekiah Jones, Kaki King, Laura Marling
Download: The Battle Of Land And Sea - Saltwater Queen
The Battle of Land And Sea @ Myspace
The Battle Of Land And Sea @ RCRD LBL
RIP: Willy Graves 1980-2008
September 24, 2008
On September 14th Willy Graves, bassist for RCRD LBL band The Prayers, former bassist for The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower and well-loved figure of the San Diego music scene passed away. Our condolences go out to his family and friends. Enjoy some of the great music Willy made with The Prayers below.
Download: The Prayers - Clandestino
Download: The Prayers - Loose Lips
Download: The Prayers - In A Small Town
Download: The Prayers - Virginia Greene Turns To Gold
Download: The Prayers - Guns Of Marinello
DOWNLOAD: Low Vs. Diamond - Heart Attack
September 24, 2008
Come gnaw on some new generation new wave crunk birthed from the city of angels- a city were silicone dreams and caustic pessimism rest in perpetual gridlock. The vocalist Lucas Field spits darkly about "beautiful people" in a tone similar to between U2 and The Killers; it’s a talk-wail that sounds like he’s crying, hiccuping, and threatening all at the same time. Combine these lyrics with some shoe-gaze guitar fretting - and you see the darker side of "Low Vs. Diamond." After all, it’s Monday, bloody Monday.
Sounds Like: U2, The Killers
Download: Low Vs. Diamond - Heart Attack
Low Vs. Diamond’s Website
Low Vs. Diamond on RCRD LBL
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Dear And The Headlights - I’m Not Crying. You’re Not Crying, Are You? + Talk About
September 24, 2008
Like a younger Okkervil River with less melodrama and some hefty ADD meds, Dear And The Headlights are a bunch of dudes from some desert town (Tempe, AZ) who play agile Americana songs that will fill speaker cones of rock joints both tiny and small in the coming days and months. These guys seem like road warriors—young, prepping their second LP (Drunk Like Bible Times out 9/30 on Equal Vision), packing the requisite facial stubble—and that’s where these songs were meant to live, in transit . Less for homebodies and more for homewreckers, this band plays mischievous rock songs for the everyman, the kind of music that can would work at both weddings and house parties, soaring loudly to make one lose their collective shit. We’ve got two cuts from the upcoming album available for download, so check them out below and thank me the next time you’re bored on a long drive, these sounds will have you slapping the dashboard and yelping along soon thereafter.
Sounds like: Okkervil River, Howlies, Born Ruffians
Exclusive Download: Dear And The Headlights - I’m Not Crying. You’re Not Crying, Are You?
Download: Dear And The Headlights - Talk About
Dear And The Headlights’ RCRD LBL Page