I came across Buke & Gass and it’s the sweetest thing. It reminds me of Dirty Projectors, but less strange, more listenable and pleasant. The songs are carried effortlessly by her lovely voice. I love the new track ‘Medula Oblangata’, it really shows her vocal range. You can grab it for free off their bandcamp, or even below.

Buke & Gass- Medulla Oblongata

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New Born Ruffians track: What to Say. Ahhh, what can I say. I love it.

Born Ruffians- What to Say

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Ambassador Engine came to me by a sweet email exchange and an invitation to listen to his EP ‘Live Dismally’. The ambient slow-moving pulse of tracks like ‘Sleeping Highway’ are used best to slow your heart rate, help you breathe a little easier.

Save the Date sounds something like an explosion, a slow rising one, and when it erupts, electronic waves dissipate, and slow again. It’s really quite beautiful.

Aaron Landgraf is from Greeley, Colorado- a place I’ve never been (or I don’t think I have) but I imagine it to be a scenic, thoroughly-forested place. It seems I can’t be that far off because Aaron is apart of a music and arts collective in Colorado called ‘Act So Big Forest Collective & Family’. I love collectives. I think I saw Candy Claws on that roster, which is awesome. I love them.

Anyway, definitely check out Amabassador Engine- you can even grab the EP HERE for free. Enjoy!

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Ambassador Engine- Niigata (July 16, 2007)

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Ambassador Engine- Sleeping Highway

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Friends Records is a baltimore based project? label? awesome idea? started by two Baltimore dudes, and they’re putting out a compilation record featuring their friends:  Weekends, Future Islands, Height with Friends, Sri Aurobindo, Lonnie Walker,Moss of Aura, Brendan Sullivan, Winks, Jones, Tapes in Space, Shields, Daytime, Lands and Peoples, Bear & Pieces, The Violet Hour.

Check out the song ‘Weekends’ HERE. You can download it for free on their website, I’d rather you just go there than download it from here, it’d do you some good to explore over there at Friends Records. It sounds like Kurt Vile, camping..

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If art is a reflection of society, then what does it mean when every song I hear is lo-fi, shoegaze, chillwave, electronic, ambient, instrumental, fuzzy, folk-pop, hazy etc etc etc. And almost every band is named after tapes, or beachese or memories. And every photo I see was taken twenty + years ago? WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN? You know, and not to demonize any of these bands, they’re just going with the current of what’s hip (and by my acknowledgments, so am I- and I am even worse, with association to music blogger-ness, I am considered a near social-parasite) I get it. I get it. We all want to wear spandex onesies and cheap sunglasses and drink whiskey, and resurrect the sixties. But give me something NEW. Maybe as a musical consumer, my demands are too passive. So I will remedy this by making my own band. And you know, it’s not going to be weird at all. In fact, it’ll be pretty run of the mill.

I’m kidding, kind of. But in all seriousness, there are days when I think- when is this all going to evolve, or is it like the earth’s slow turning, it’s evolving but we can’t see it at all? There seems to be a free medium, open to everyone, so it become 90% bad, and 10% good. Do you know what it takes to find the 10% good stuff being produced out there. It is exhausting, really.

Anyway, here is a band, they’re called Beach Fossils, and it’s quite unfortunate that they should be caught up in this social commentary, because I do like them very much, even if they do sound quite similar to the last artists I’ve mentioned below. Every idea is borrowed anyway. Their self titled LP is out May 25th, so pick it up, just in time for almost-summer. Note: Beach Fossils, I love you, sincerely. I’m going to likely buy your record, and would probably go out with you if you asked me out. Just saying.

Contradiction: thy name is FWBA!

Beach Fossils- Daydream

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I came across Peter Wolf Crier sometime last year and loved the warm Woods-y sound of Peter’s voice. I remember thinking how wonderful they would sound for Daytrotter, and voila, months later- there they were. What a pleasant surprise! And the powerful version of Untitled 101 was a fresh take on the original. I literally can’t stop listening to it. There was new blood pumping through those chords, I imagined what it would’ve been like as I read,

“It’s a sound that pulsates with anxiety and immediacy and everything that throws Pisano into the sort of state that turns him red and sweating – as if you can almost see him swiveling and shifting, rocking and bucking, stomping his feet to the ground as he doesn’t even attempt to sit still as he plays.”

Peter Wolf Crier- Untitled 101 (Daytrotter Session)

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Check out this video of Nathaniel Rateliff c/o Yourstru.ly at this year’s SXSW.

He’ll be joining Delta Spirit, Ra Ra Riot and Free Energy on Daytrotter’s Barnstormer tour, performing shows in barns in small towns throughout Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois and in May he will hit the road with the Tallest Man On Earth followed by a headlining tour of the Northeast in June. Full tour schedule is here: http://bit.ly/4uEUMD

Nathaniel Rateliff “Boil & Fight” from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

So the Get Up Kids are putting out 3 EP’s in 2010, Simple Science being the first, and the first release in SIX years. Isn’t that crazy? They haven’t put anything new out in SIX YEARS. Simple Science boasts nearly no computer technology used. You can hear how much they’ve deviated from their original sound, with more ambient, gritty, lo-fi stuff, but with songs like ‘Your Petty Pretty Things’ still has that pop-punk sensibility. It’s always fascinating to watch kids from class of post-punk assimilate with the hip aesthetic of helvetica on vintage photos of kids kind of thing, know what I’m talking about? Maybe they’ll collaborate with Golden Ages soon.

Pre-order Simple Science HERE

The Get Up Kids- Tommy Gentle

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Memoryhouse – Lately (Deuxième) from Jamie Harley on Vimeo.

california is where I live. canada is my home.

I’m Canadian, have I mentioned that? With all this talk of California, you’d think I’d be pro-America or something. Most of my affinity for this place rests in the lower left corner of the country (ie- this very state) and most of that is because of the weather which is not fairing too well lately. Rain, gimme a break. Anyway, I think I’ll be moving to Vancouver sometime in the near future, so I ask any/all of you graciously, are any of you from Vancouver? What are your thoughts. Will you give me your couch. Please respond to friendswithbotharms@gmail.com

In the meantime, listen to Treasure’s track ‘Canada’. I was going to post the strange, hazy video but I opted not to.

Treasure- Canada

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