Local band Teenage Moods will be celebrating their new cassette tonight with a release show at Cause (formerly Sauce) with a great lineup featuring Chelsea Boys, Buffalo Moon and Sleeping in the Aviary.  Listen below to a song from the tape, the lo-fi pop of “Grunge Bird,” which nicely represents the sound on the album.  A little bit like Pavement recorded through a four track, the tape is a fun, loose collection of jangly, noisy pop songs.   The tape (which clocks in at an impressive 17 songs and 50 minutes) should be available at the show.   

Teenage Moods- Grunge Bird

     -Josh

Myspace

The awesome folks over at Moon Glyph were nice enough to send us over the first track released from the highly anticipated Velvet Davenport release Warmy Girls, the excellent “Mystery Michael.”  The sun soaked pop of “Mystery Michael” finds Parker Sprout creating his most fully realized sound yet and really has us excited for the full length.  The band has been creating some of the very best lo-fi 60′s pop in the last year or so (locally or otherwise) and from the first sound of Warmy Girls, this may be their best material yet. 

Velvet Davenport- Mystery Michael

     -Josh

Myspace

I have always been a tepid Black Moth Super Rainbow fan.  Not that I didn’t like them, but I was never completely won over, which makes it so weird that I have loved the solo work of the artists who make up the band.   First was the manic, wild eyed instrumental glory of Tobacco.  Next was the Vicodin lullaby of Seven Fields of Aphelion.  Now comes the strangest yet, at least in regard to sounding so different the sound that BMSR were known for.  D R E A M E N D is the name of BMRS member Ryan Graveface, who by leaps and bounds makes the least sounding BMSR record.  I had to check a few times to make sure that “Magnesium Light,” which comes off the groups recently released album So I Ate Myself, Bite by Bite,  was by D R E A M E N D and that the band was in fact related to BMSR.  While the band’s name and song title fit into the general aesthetic of the group’s existence, the Sufjan Stevens like gentle banjo and distant but sweet vocals of the track couldn’t farther from what I expected to hear when I hit play.  No matter if it didn’t match up with what I was looking for, it is still a pretty solid track that makes me hope the BMSR crew will just stay separate and keep pumping out awesome albums.

Dreamend- Magnesium Light

     -Josh

Facebook Page

Our beloved college radio station Radio K just announced plans to launch a new Track of the Day podcast, in which the station will be able to give away free daily songs via three different methods.  For more on this development, see the press release below.  And start cleaning that porn off of your hard drive to make room for new mp3′s.

Radio K:

On behalf of everybody at Radio K, I’m proud to announce that the
station is beginning a free music podcast. It’s our Track of the Day,
and it launches September 1.

After years of only offering our playlist via our signals and streams,
we’re very excited to be able to offer listeners old and new the
chance to hear some of our favorite tracks every single weekday.

We’re pleased that this feature is finally up and running because very
few college radio stations are able to offer this type of content. As
of now, we’re able to offer downloads via three methods: RSS feed,
iTunes podcasting, and single-track download from the TotD page on our
website.

The Radio K Track of the Day will be available at:

http://radiok.cce.umn.edu/blog/trackoftheday/

In our first week, we’re offering songs from Ra Ra Riot, Sonny and the
Sunsets, and new local group Is/Is.

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No Age have done quite well for themselves deconstructing pop music in their haze of fuzz and noise.  They are giving the sound another run with their new album Everything In Between, which is out on Sub Pop this fall.  The first track off the record is the hazy, whirling “Glitter,” which is actually more focused and mellow than the group’s previous work.  The guitars are less grinding and more focused and anthemic, sounding almost poppy.  Not sure if this will be a wholesale shift for the group or if an outlier, but either way the group seems to have found the magic touch again, at least with the first song from their upcoming LP.

No Age- Glitter

     -Josh

Myspace

Thanks to our recent High Five with Eternal Summers today I was reminded of something very important:  San Franciscan post-punk girl group Grass Widow will be coming to town soon (9/21) to play at the Turf Club.  With our local favorites Brute Heart opening it ought to be a fantastic show.

Here’s a taste of Grass Widow for you to sample: “Tuesday” is the closing song off of the band’s recent full length Past Time (8/24 Kill Rock Stars), and it highlight’s the trio’s no-nonsense approach to jangly post punk, sounding like a ballsier, less moon-eyed version of the throwback sound currently hitting the airwaves in the form of Best Coast and the Dum Dum Girls. 

     — Jon Behm

Grass Widow – Tuesday

Grass Widow:          Myspace

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Here’s another single (listen to the first one here) just released off of Minneapolis gypsy/folk band Dark Dark Dark’s upcoming new release Wild Go (Oct 5th – Pre-order here).  “In Your Dreams” features vocals by Nona Marie Invie, a background baritone humming chorus, as well as the band’s ever-present accordion (also played by Invie).  From the sound of it DDD haven’t made any drastic changes to their sound other than to flesh out  their existing strengths.   Find out for yourself at the group’s CD release on Oct. 2nd at the 7th St. Entry or see below for more tour dates, including an extensive European schedule.

     — Jon Behm

Dark Dark Dark – In Your Dreams

Dark Dark Dark:          Site

TOUR:

Thursday, September 16th – San Jose, CA – South Hall (Flood Tide screening + DDD performance, part of 01SJ Biennial)
Sunday, September 19th – San Jose, CA – South Hall (Flood Tide screening + DDD performance, part of 01SJ Biennial)
Thursday, September 23rd – Los Angeles, CA – Hammer Museum (Flood Tide screening + DDD performance, free show, doors at 7pm)
Saturday, October 2nd – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue (CD Release Show with Roma di Luna)
Sunday, October 3rd – Madison, WI – Project Lodge
Monday, October 4th – St. Louis, MO – Off Broadway
Tuesday, October 5th – Louisville, KY – Skull Alley
Wednesday, October 6th – Huntsville, AL – Flying Monkey Arts
Thursday, October 7th – New Orleans, LA – All Ways Lounge
Friday, October 8th – Tallahassee, FL- Charles Mansion
Saturday, October 9th – Atlanta, GA – The Five Spot
Sunday, October 10th – Charleston, SC – Eye Level Art
Monday, October 11th – Swannanoa, NC – Warren Wilson College
Tuesday, October 12th – Asheville, NC – The Grey Eagle
Wednesday, October 13th – TBA (Virginia?)
Thursday, October 14th – Baltimore, MD- TBA
Friday, October 15th – Philadelphia, PA – Venue TBA (yvynyl presents)
Saturday, October 16th – Brooklyn, NY- Glasslands
Sunday, October 17th – TBA
Monday, October 18th – Portland, ME – SPACE
Tuesday, October 19th – Jamaica Plain (Boston), MA- The Temple
Wednesday, October 20th – CMJ
Thursday, October 21st – CMJ – Coco66 (Supply & Demand/InDigest CMJ Official Showcase)
Friday, October 22nd – CMJ
Saturday, October 23rd – CMJ
Sunday, October 24th – Providence, RI- AS220
Wednesday, October 27th – Detroit, MI- The Bakery
Thursday, October 28th – Chicago, IL- The Hideout
Wednesday, November 10th – Paris, France – Glazart
Thursday, November 11th – Tours, France – le petit Faucheux
Friday, November 12th – Nantes, France – TBA
Saturday, November 13th – France – TBA
Sunday, November 14th – Rennes, France – MJC Antipode
Monday, November 15th – France – TBA
Tuesday, November 16th – Toulouse, France – TBA
Wednesday, November 17th – TBA
Thursday, November 18th – TBA
Friday, November 19th – Bulle, Switzerland – Ebullition
Tuesday, November 23rd – Newcastle, UK – Cluny
Wednesday, November 24th – UK – TBA
Thursday, November 25th – Bracknell, UK – Southill Park
Friday, November 26th – UK – TBA
Saturday, November 27th – Brighton, UK – The Albert
Sunday, November 28th – Exeter, UK – Phoenix
Monday, November 29th – Bristol, UK – Louisiana
Tuesday, November 30th – London, UK – Lexington

Sometimes bands really nail their sound with their bands name.  In the same way that Burial pretty nicely sums up the feeling you get from listening to their music, Eternal Summers are a band that are dead set on capturing those fleeting moments of youth, much like their contemporaries in Best Coast.  The track “Pogo” is 1:43 of power chords, “Ah Ahhhs,” wistful lyrics and lo-fi production.  If that sounds like a description of a lot of the “buzz” bands these days, that is probably because Eternal Summers sound pretty much like one of the current “buzz” bands.  From one song I can’t say that they separate themselves from the pack, but “pogo” is a pretty fun song that can soundtrack to a summer that is become increasingly closer to its end.

     -Josh

Myspace

PVT – Window (formerly Pivot) from Warp Records on Vimeo.

PVT (formerly Pivot) are an Australian band that, at least on their debut single “Window,” combine the kind of technical, synth driven wizardry with emotionally jarring post-punk songwriting.  “Window” sounds a little like the post-Talking Heads bands (namely Yeasayer) that currently litter the music world but with a more atmospheric tinge.  The song comes off the group’s upcoming Church with No Magic LP, which is out now on Warp.

PVT- Windows

     -Josh

Official