Ben Kweller - No Mean Feat

From forthcoming LP
Go Fly A Kite
Due 7 Feb on
The Noise Company

Ben Kweller has one of the most affecting voices in rock, and if the samples at Amazon mp3 are any indication, we can't wait till next Tuesday for the full affect [sic].*

Here's a fave from Sha Sha.

MySpace | Amazon | iTunes | eMusic

*Not sure if it's apropos to sic a sic on ourselves, but, hey, . . . "born to be wild."

Summer Twins Warm Our Winter

Oh, but we do care, and very much, for this nifty number by Riverside siblings Chelsea and Justine Brown. The song is from their self-titled Burger Records debut, which you can stream here and purchase here. Six more free and legals are downloadable at Bandcamp. The Twins will be joining The Nerves' reunion tour this Spring, featuring powerpop legends Paul Collins and Peter Case. Thanks to Christen Thomas at Press Wolf PR for the headsup.

Music of the Sphere: Deleted WG, Ride, Yuck, Girls, GbV, Chad & J, Ghost W, M Crenshaw, FOW, Even, Doozies, Ketamines, Sinead O'C, et. al. . . .

Butterface's li'l sister, Excepter

There must always be a catalyst, right? (The correct answer = "Right.") In this case it's finding one of our latest eMusic purchases over at mp3hugger (see below). As previously noted, the hugger don't keep 'em posted for more than a few days, so go check out ". . .Funky Hairdo" now, and we do mean then. (You're probably already too late.) Thanks to all these great bloggers for the tuneage.

Deleted Waveform Gatherings - Brand New Funky Hairdo - mp3hugger

Marshall Crenshaw - Someday, Someway - Popdose

Chad and Jeremy - Yesterday's Gone - You Must Be From Away

Veronica Falls - Thorn In My Side - Raven Sings the Blues

Ghost Wave - Hippy - Rose Quartz - Scroll to #6.

Ketamines - Line By Line - The Finest Kiss - Scroll to #20.

Ride - Seagull - The Decibel Tolls - Scroll to 2011 Reissues #6.

The Doozies - Independence Day - Said the Gramophone
Sinead O'Connor - Mandinka - Said the Gramophone

Bouncing Souls - Low Life - Battle of the Midwestern Housewives
Bouncing Souls - The New Thing - Battle of the Midwestern Housewives

Fountains of Wayne - Little Red Light - Peter's Power Pop
Even - Little Red Taxi - Peter's Power Pop
The Black Diamonds - See The Way - Peter's Power Pop

Girls - Honey Bunny - Music for Kids Who Cant Read Good - Scroll to #18.
Yuck - Holing Out - Music for Kids Who Cant Read Good - Scroll to #40.
Guided by Voices - Exit Flagger & Glad Girls & My Valuable Hunting Knife & Echos Myron - Music for Kids Who Cant Read Good - plus some others on Taylor's Quintessential GbV post

Cardinal's Red Letter Day

Cardinal - Love Like Rain mp3

from 23 January release
Hymns
on
Fire Records

We heard this excellent song streaming at a faveblog several weeks ago and had it slated for purchase on dropday, i.e., this one. Imagine, then, our pleasure at finding it nestled in our emailbox this very day, compliments of the ever-generous Team Clermont. Cardinal, viz., Richard Davies and Eric Matthews, put out their debut album 18 years ago and waited a bit to follow up. Read the story and grip another fine song here.

Amazon | iTunes | eMusic

The Plimsouls' Magic Touch

Here's one from the primo L.A. poppers' forthcoming 16-song live album, Beach Town Confidential, due out on 7 February on Alive Records. We're especially enjoying the persistent guitar's happy hook diddling our left ear. You? Click that down arrow to download it.

The Plimsouls - Magic Touch by Pavement PR

From When The Sun Hits Compilations: Famous & The Sunshine Factory

The excellent shoegaze blog When The Sun Hits has released two compilations, both available for free downloading at Bandcamp. A third is due to drop tomorrow. Here are a couple of poppier items that caught our ears. Many thanks to Amber and Danny for making them available.

WTSH teased us with a promise of more information about Famous, and we're confident we're gonna get it.



As you (might) know, we've spilled sweet cyber over superb Mobile gazers, The Sunshine Factory. The song below can be found at both WTSH's 200,000 Gazes, Volume I Bandcamp site and at one of The Sunshine Factory's Bandcamp pages as a "name your price" download.

Holy Wave Makes the Cut

We just came across this Austin (Texas) psychpop outfit over at NWMusicDX and really like what we're hearing. Do the widget thing and, if you like, left-click the Sonicbids mp3 link to download.

Holy Wave - Golden Truth mp3

The Sonicbids site has three more free and legal downloads. Simply (or complicatedly) click here.

Holy Wave's Bandcamp page has the entire Knife Hits LP ready to stream. It just dropped yesterday, which, if you think about it, makes it a relatively recent release (rrr). Here's one we're bullish on.


So there you have it: some cuts to listen to, download, and further explore. Any way you slice it, we think even Dex would be tickled pink.

We'll Gladly Be La Sera's Third, Fourth, Fifth, Whatever

La Sera - Please Be My Third Eye mp3

from forthcoming sophomore LP
Sees The Light
due 24 March on
Hardly Art Records

Hardly Art says the new album will be "more direct, more aggressive" than last year's, dreamier eponymous debut. Either way's fine with us. Speaking of the debut, we're still adoring this previously posted beauty.

La Sera - Never Come Around mp3

MySpace | Amazon mp3 | iTunes | eMusic

Ho Ho Hozac!

According to our records, on 15 December of this year we found much fine tuneage over at Hozac Records. On this, the second day of xmas of this year, we finally post our five favorites. Please do not hate us for the delay, for 'tis the season of love and hypercapitalism.

Reading Rainbow - Wasting Time mp3 - Hozac Bandpage

The Flips - I Just Don't Know Where I Stand mp3 - Hozac Bandpage

Lover! - No More Reasons mp3 - Hozac Bandpage

Mickey - For You mp3 - Hozac Bandpage

Davila 666 - Primero Muerta mp3 - Hozac Bandpage

Dead Parties Come Alive

Many thanks to When The Sun Hits for the headsup on this dreamy Melbourne fivesome. Read WTSH's excellent interview with guitvoxer Etienne Mamo here.

Music of the Sphere: Resonars, Arlo, Left Banke, Pale Saints, J Coulton, Andrew W.K., Boys, FIDLAR, Bass Drum OD, Wax Idols, et. al. . . .

"Right, that's it, time to post." Thus spake our tiny brain upon finding that excellent song by The Resonars at The Finest Kiss. We're also pretty excited about the other fine tuneage we found at some of our favorite blogs. Thanks, favebloggers, for making us feel that way.

Arlo - Runaround - Peter's Power Pop

The Boys - Do The Contract Hustle - Raven Sings the Blues

Reading Rainbow - Runaways - The Pop Filter

FIDLAR - Oh - Pitchfork

Andrew W.K. - She Is Beautiful - Star Maker Machine
Jonathan Coulton - Chiron Beta Prime - Star Maker Machine

The Resonars - The Golden Age - The Finest Kiss
The Left Banke - Pretty Ballerina - The Finest Kiss
Pale Saints - Sight of You - The Finest Kiss

The Proper Ornaments - Who Thought - Austin Town Hall
Cinema Red and Blue - Walkin' To The Cemetery - Austin Town Hall
Black Twig - Death Scene - Austin Town Hall

Be forewarned that some of this next lot are perhaps a bit harder hitting, perhaps a bit rawer-edged than some pure poppers might prefer. We're not calling anyone wimps and such, just giving a little headsup. Just because they rocked our little world doesn't mean they'll do the same for yours.

Bass Drum of Death - I Dunno - Gimme Tinnitus
Roomrunner - Spinning - Gimme Tinnitus
Roomrunner - Aesthetic - Gimme Tinnitus
Parts & Labor - No Nostalgia - Gimme Tinnitus
Psychic Ills - Mind Daze - Gimme Tinnitus
Wax Idols - Dead Like You - Gimme Tinnitus

Tennis System - Hey, We Tried - Gimme Tinnitus - Wait until at least the 1:20 mark before making any drastic decisions. It picks up pace quiet nicely.

Cloud Nothings - Stay Useless - Gimme Tinnitus
Future Of The Left - i am the least of your problems (demo) - Gimme Tinnitus
Diehard - Back to the Future IV - Gimme Tinnitus
Diehard - Diehard - Gimme Tinnitus - Wait until at least :58 and especially 1:06.
Hunters - Brat Mouth - Gimme Tinnitus
Su - Mountain - Gimme Tinnitus


Incidentally, several years ago we bought at eMusic a bunch of songs by The Resonars, including "The Golden Age," and have enjoyed the group's product immensely. We might mention that we finally found their latest, That Evil Drone, at Bandcamp a couple of weeks ago. It had appeared on many Best-Of lists for 2008, but we hadn't been able to locate it until . . . a couple of weeks ago. We could easily understand why it made those lists. Here's an example.



We don't usually post strictly streaming tracks, but in this case were willing to make an exception. We feel kind of weird but also very, very fulfilled.

Sporting Life's SINGLES

An excellent LP of singles by San Francisco's Sporting Life is available for "name your price" download at Bandcamp. Thanks to Get Off the Coast for the headsup and excellent song, "Immigrant." Here's our favorite from the album.

Going Down Under for a Spot of xmas Cheer with The JAC

From Perth, W.A. come three gifts of xmas cheer, one of which particularly rattles our (J&M) chain quite merrily. Joe Algeri of The Britannicas, Jack And The Beanstalk, The Rockefellers, Stonemasons, The Summer Suns, and pseudonymous The JAC, amongst others (and, yes, you, too, can read all this at his info page), was kind enough to send links to three new songs to the Audities list. You can find them here, here, and here.

That middle here is our favorite, and you can in fact find it right here. (Well, a few centimeters below here.) You might wanta send the kiddies out of the room before clanking/cranking it. On the other hand, frisky/dysfunctional families might want to have a singalong.


(And, yes, we're gettin' all kinds of fancy, what with our green and red customized xmassy widget and all, in case you didn't notice. Thank you.)

Guided by Voices: Fats & Doughnut

Guided by Voices - The Unsinkable Fats Domino mp3

from the forthcoming LP
Let's Go Eat the Factory
coming on iTunes 20 December
and in stores on 17 January

Yes, we know, we should have posted the above weeks ago, you've already gripped it elsewhere, etc., etc., but we just got access to another downloadable (see below) by the classic GbV lineup and hope you'll forgive us. Click here to hear and download songs from our previous GbV posts. "Everywhere With Helicopter" was the first mp3 we ever posted, icywtk. The nice live video that pleased a sometime friend is still here.

Guided By Voices - Doughnut For A Snowman by FIRE RECORDS

MySpace | Robert Pollard Page | Amazon | iTunes | eMusic

The Well Wishers' Dreamy New One Due Next Month

We're delighted to hear from bandleader Jeff Shelton that San Francisco powerpoppers The Well Wishers will be releasing new LP Dreaming of the West Cost on January 24. The song below is downloadable at Bandcamp, where you can also stream the rest of the album. We've loved The Well Wishers for years now, and you can still download some songs we previously posted here and here. We don't usually do end-of-the-year Faves lists, but if we did, last year's Post Modern Romantic most definitely would have been on ours.

MySpace | Facebook | Amazon | iTunes | eMusic

The CRY! Make Us Smile

In the name of Bash the Father, Bash the Son, and Bash the Holy Ghost, Amen.

The CRY! - Girls mp3

The CRY! - Forget It mp3

This young Portland band’s introductory email got right to the point:

“We are the Best New Powerpop band in the world and we are taking over see. To prove it to you mugs we are giving you a free download of our new Album.”

Right, okay, we get that kind of thing all the time. It makes us kinda skeptical. We go through shakers and shakers of salt. But guess what: they deliver. The kids are more than all right: they’re terrific. Our mugs went into smile mode.

By this point, you're probably already starting to make up your own mind, maybe someone else's even. Whatever, don't stop now. Go to their Reverb Nation and official Bandsite pages to learn and play some more. You'll be glad you did. Everything we could tell you here is waiting for you there, so why waste time? OMB, they played IPO! Nuff sed.

How Do We Spell "Relief?" W-E-E-K-E-N-D

Ma and Pa Slumber were "excited and relieved" to let us know that the limited edition of San Francisco band Weekend's Red EP is now in stock, so we certainly are, too. In stock, that is. Okay, we're also excited and relieved, although we're not completely sure why we're relieved, we just are. The following most assuredly shows why we're excited.



Purchase and other information can be found here.

Marvelous Darlings Make Us Want To Party, But We're Hermits, Too, So We'll Just Stay Home And Pine

The LP cover scares us, so we're going with this one.

Marvelous Darlings - I Don't Wanna Go To The Party mp3

from 1 Nov. release
Single Life
on
Deranged Records

We'd just spoil it anyways. (Sniff.)

MySpace | Amazon | iTunes | eMusic

The Cold Volts' Poppunk+

People Noise by L. A.'s The Cold Volts will definitely be one of pp's favorite ep's of the year. Every song does it. "Dope" is more punky than the other three, so if #1 doesn't do it for you, proceed thou to #'s 2, 3, and 5, uh, 4. Thanks to Get Off The Coast for the headsup and to Bandcamp for the earsup.

Music of the Sphere: Knack, House of Love, R. Hitchcock, Black Lips, Thee Oh Sees, Wet Illustrated, League, Imperial Teen, Barreracudas, et. al.

We really hadn't planned to post just yet, but suddenly a gigantic wave of motivation swept over us and here we are. Ta to the hosterposterfolksters.

The Knack - Pop Is Dead & A World Of My Own - Popdose - + 4 more

Wet Illustrated - Gypsy Town - Pitchfork

Cable 35 - Cow Head - Swedesplease - Sail down to Malta.

House of Love - Christine - Star Maker Machine
Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians - So You Think You're In Love - Star Maker Machine

Imperial Teen - Runaway - Austin Town Hall - The Imperial Teen number we posted long ago is still viable here.
League - How Do I Know - Austin Town Hall

Troubadour Dali - Ducks In A Row - 3hive
Soft Science - Put Your Arms Around Me - 3hive

The Barreracudas - Don't Roll Your Eyes - Raven Sings the Blues
Thee Oh Sees - Dead Energy - Raven Sings the Blues

Thee Oh Sees - The Dream - Gimme Tinnitus
Total Slacker - Secret VHS Collection - Gimme Tinnitus
A Place To Bury Strangers - So Far Away - Gimme Tinnitus - 3 more here.

Fungi Girls - Lucie - Requiem Pour Un Twister - More fungi here.
Black Lips - Bicentennial Man - Requiem Pour Un Twister - Another's here.
The Optic Nerve - What's Been Missing - Requiem Pour Un Twister