Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Trevor Forever

This excellent popper is from the forthcoming SSLYBY LP, The High Country, due to drop June 2 on Polyvinyl. We just now noticed Side One Track One has it available for download, in case someone's interested.

Music of the Sphere, Still in Rock Edition, Installment 2: Guided by Voices, Doug Gillard, Mikal Cronin, Ty Segall, Fuzz, White Fence

Okay, so there is a kind of theme here in Installment 2: Les collaborateurs! The first two below were both guided by voices, while the next four were and are more gloriously intertwined than we have the power to suss out. The fact that Thibault of Still in Rock loves them all, too, is one of the many reasons we love Still in Rock. (And thanks, Thibault, for the courteous note.) Installment 1 is still available here.



Guided by Voices - Planet Score - Still in Rock

Doug Gillard - Ready for Death - Still in Rock

Mikal Cronin - Shout It Out & Apathy & Gone - Still in Rock

Ty Segall - Tall Man Skinny Lady - Still in Rock
Fuzz - 21st Century Schizoid Man - Still in Rock
Ty Segall - They Told Me Too & Thank God For Sinners - Still in Rock

White Fence - Like That - Still in Rock - Post has fun interview with Tim Presley.
White Fence - Sandra (When The Earth Dies) & Arrow Man - Still in Rock
White Fence - White Cat & Chairs In The Dark - Still in Rock

By the way, we didn't want to deprive you of the joy of the hunt: Thibault has quite a few other numbers by some of these artists, so tally-ho!

Music of the Sphere, Still in Rock Edition, Installment 1: Eeries, Milk 'N' Cookies, Resonars, Triptides, Mountain Bike, Creation, Winter, Calypso, Paperhead, Magic Castles

It's always exciting to find a blog new-to-us and posting quantities of music we already like, along with much we hadn't yet come across. That happened last week at the Brooklyn-based, French-language blog, Still in Rock. So much did we find there that we will post our favorites in at least three installments. We initially spent four or five happy hours at SiR, and are now visiting every day, but perhaps your schedule will not afford you such leisure. (Frankly, we recommend you carve out such leisure, but hey, "it's your life and you can do what you want" - within whatever delimitations might apply.)

We've kind of organized the three posts thematically, but to try and explain the "logic" involved probably isn't worth the effort. So here we go.

The Eeries - No Fun & Till I Come By - Still in Rock
Milk 'N' Cookies - Broken Melody - Still in Rock
The Resonars - Definitely Crescent Ridge (mono version) - Still in Rock
Triptides - Clementine & English Rain - Still in Rock
Mountain Bike - Russian Roulette Casino - Still in Rock

The Creation - Making Time & Try And Stop Me - Still in Rock
Winter - Crazy - Still in Rock
Calypso - Is Not Now - Still in Rock
The Paperhead - None Other Than - Still in Rock
Magic Castles - Dragonfly - Still in Rock

We might also mention that SiR is helpfully organized, with all kinds of interesting classifications that merit consideration and, perhaps, occasionally, amicable cavil. It is also beautifully written, with depths of insight of which we are neither capable nor wont to plumb. Additionally, reading through Google Translate adds an element of droll whimsicality of which a more thorough familiarity with the Gallic tongue might well rob us.

Recents: Charles Howl, Las Sultanas, Tenkiame, Red Cords, Nancy, Lady

Beavering away in the blogosphere, we turned up the following. Hope you like.


From the psychedelicious Active Listener Sampler 31, as you prob noticed . . .


Maybe you already saw it in our Songdrop widget, but here's the video that first attracted us to these guapas Alicantesas.

Not sure what they're saying word-wise (except "Candy") but the overall effect is eloquent. We also especially like song #3, "You." Found at The Blog That Celebrates Itself, which has a fun interview.

According to Bandcamp, this band is from "USA." (Internal evidence suggests the Northeast, possibly the NYC area.) And here's the one we placed in our Songdrop Currents widget and later found to be a name-your-pricer. We went ahead and paid 'em anyway. (So much for rational choice theory.)

We like #6 a whole bunch, too.

Gettin' Meducated at Tiger High

Is it a feline-mascoted institution of lower learning or a state of elevated, ailurophilic consciousness? You'll have to listen and decide for yourself (or just let it go). We did the latter and have been enjoying these Memphis psychpoppers for several months now, as you possibly noticed in a couple of our pppurcha$e$ posts and Songdrops. The freebie below comes from their recent Volar/Trashy Creatures release, Inside The Acid Coven. The other two we purchased at Bandcamp, which you can, too. The LP can be listened to in its entirety here and here.

Free download here. (It's a big ole WAVE file, so you might want to convert it to mp3 in iTunes or whatever you play with.)

Music of the Sphere: Pet Politics, Institute, Heaters, Perfectors, I Know a Gondola Punter, Mikal Cronin, Theo Verney, Fruit Tones

We're delighted to point you toward that long-time fave by Pet Politics, not to mention that Mikal Cronin ditty. Plus the songs by Theo Verney, Fruit Tones, The Perfectors, Heaters, Institute, and I Know a Gondola Punter. We thank the intrepid bloggers who set forth the bounteous board.

Pet Politics - Taken Away by Aliens - Indie Rock Cafe

Institute - Perpetual Ebb - Austin Town Hall

Heaters - Mean Green - Magnet

The Perfectors - Tiny Radios - Killed By Death Records

I Know a Gondola Punter - Shekan - Cloudberry Cake Proselytism V. 3

Mikal Cronin - Better Man - Rollo & Grady
Theo Verney - Mountain Rose - Rollo & Grady
Fruit Tones - Red Thunder - Rollo & Grady

Celebrating a Blog & Monomyth

We know they call themselves "The Blog That Celebrates Itself" (emphasis added), but we sure hope they don't mind if we join in on the celebration 'cause they consistently turn us on to mighty fine music.*** Music like that from this here Halifax band of psychpoppers called "Monomyth." Monomyth put out "pure pop for noun people," and we really dig it like. We went through all the songs available at Monomyth's Bandcamp pages and chose our faves from some singles and E/LPs that have name-your-pricers. Read the short but sweet interview at TBTCI, visit the band at Facebook, and explore more of their music at Bandcamp.


We also really like #s 2 & 4.






***as evidenced the day before yesterday

Ridin' A MARC Train Home & Elsewhere, Including The Telyscopes & Lenclair

Obviously we don't know Jack (or jack, as you've no doubt noticed), but we think he's on the left in the first two pics and in the middle in the third.

We climbed aboard at The Blog That Celebrates Itself and had a fun couple hours' ride, following various group members to various side projects and such. We found lots of satisfying free and downloadables and also ended up buying some quite tasty pop. The various band members hail from the D.C./Alexandria, Virginia vicinity. We especially want to give props to "the Train's" bassist, Jack Hubble (or Hubbell - we saw it both ways and maybe it's two different homonymic humans, though we kind of doubt it), who has some wicked good powerpop and psychpop in his several solo projects. (We dropped his  "Kaleidoscope" into the Songdrop widget, in case you want to take a listen.) Anyway, here we go.








We like this better than the original. (No offense, Milkers.)

White Reaper Make Me Wanna Die (with Pleasure)

Wow, no sooner do we drop this Caintuck groover into our Songdrop Currents mix than we find it available at Side One Track One. Need we say more?  Thank you. Face off here.

Music of the Sphere: Manhattan Love Suicides, Toro y Moi, Part Time, Two Gallants, Surf City, Safes, Sugar Candy Mountain, Eyelids, Salme Dahlstrom, The Asteroid No. 4, Belle Sounds, Hobbes Fanclub, Luxembourg Signal, Lunchbox

Ell & Sam

Yes, the first several are excellent, but so are the final ten. We got to clicking over at Magnet Mag's blog and just couldn't stop. Well, eventually we did, but we plan to go back. In the meantime, thank you, bloggers all.

The Manhattan Love Suicides - Nowhere Bound - Polaroid - Polaroid's still got their superb "Kessler Syndrome."

Toro y Moi - Run Baby Run - Side One Track One
Part Time - Fallin 4 U - Side One Track One - The second new one by Tame Impala's there, too, but frankly it didn't move us. It might you, though.

Two Gallants - Incidental - KEXP Blog
Surf City - Spec City - KEXP Blog

Sam Vicari - All And Everyday - Magnet - An excellent song, and not even our favorite off the Chicago popper's new LP. Check it out here.
The Safes - Hopes Up, Guard Down - Magnet
Sugar Candy Mountain - Soak Up The City - Magnet
Eyelids - Forget About Tomorrow - Magnet - The two freebs we posted are still available here.
Salme Dahlstrom - Love + Shine - Magnet

The Asteroid No. 4 - Back Of Your Mind - Magnet
The Belle Sounds - Black Stone - Magnet
The Hobbes Fanclub - Stay Gold - Magnet
The Luxembourg Signal - We Go On - Magnet
Lunchbox - Give A Little Love - Magnet

pppurcha$e$ - First Quarter 2015

Looking for music to beg, borrow, buy, or cadge? Well, here's what we acquired by the third means during the first three months of this particular year we're experiencing. Our blog heading gives a fairly accurate idea of the categories in which we mainly invest: powerpop, indiepop, shoegaze, psych, garage, whatever. We've gotten some nice feedback from visitors who find this useful, so thank you. We'll point out again that we've been finding our Songdrop mixes most useful in reminding us of songs we've liked, so you might, too. Previous pppurcha$e$ posts can be accessed here.

Click here 

to hit the sheets.

Propeller's Pure Powerpop

Greg/Propeller thought the San Fran band's new single might be right up our alley, and G/P is right. Of course, he might have gotten a clue from our 4th Quarter 2014 pppurcha$e$ post, although, yeh, we kind of doubt it. Whatever, this is quite excellent, quite pure powerpop, ioho. (That "h" might mean "haughty," but as previously stated, whatever.) Thanks, G/P, for the headsup and excellent Propellerpoppers. Oh, and youse visitors will find more to listen to at Bandcamp and informational-style data and pictures and such at Facebook.

Warm Soda - I Wanna Go Fast

Just yesterday we prontodropped faveband Warm Soda's excellent new one into some of our Songdrop mixes. Just now we found the excellent Side One Track One has made it available for download. So should we wait until we've got five or eight tunes for a "traditional" Music of the Sphere post? Na. So thank you, SOTO, thank you, Jennifer, thank you Matthew Melton, for making some of our favorite music of the past several years. The new Warm Soda LP, Symbolic Dream, drops May 4 on Castle Face Records.