I may be late on this, although I’ve written about Dinosaur Feathers before, I just got around to picking up their album that was released last month. Holy hell.. it’s so good. Fantasy Memorial is filled with tribal-y African drumming, gorgeous noises of all kinds, sweeping vocals, and pretty shimmering sounds. It makes me feel like lying underneath the palm tree in my front yard is much more exotic than the San Diego suburbs could ever be.

I don’t know if I could ever get tired of vocals as their own instruments, used in harmonized ways, there is something so peaceful about listening to voices in unison. (Good voices of course, my rendition of Happy Birthday that I just filmed for my best friend was awful, and should never be repeated). The sounds are melted together so perfectly, and not to sound contrived, but to experiment, to bring you to a balmy, meditative state.

You’re in luck if you want to vinyl in San Diego- it’s at M-Theory. And hit up Fingerprints if you’re in Long Beach (sigh…)

Dinosaur Feathers- Teenage Whore

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As I hastily tried to make a roadtrip mixtape last week in the final fifteen minutes before leaving up the coast, I freaked out and scoured my Itunes library for something that would be upbeat enough not to lull us into a coma and veer us into a ditch. In comes: Jaill from Milwaukee, my latest discovery, well not ‘mine’ but you know what I mean. I’ve been obsessed with the track ‘Everyone’s Hip’, it is ridiculously catchy and I can’t get it out of my head. I don’t know I missed their vinyl LP ‘Theres No Sky (Oh My My), they’ll be releasing a new album later this year, I’m excited to hear more of their stuff.

Jaill- Everyone’s Hip

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I just got home from a trip up the coast, cities included: San Francisco, Portland and Seattle- there and back in five days. No one should ever attempt this feat again. I saw a lot, ate even more, and fell in love with Portland. There, we stayed with a couch surfee- a hippie musician who saved us from a stay at the Unicorn hotel at 4am. We explored House of Vintage, and watched Daniel down a fatal bloody mary upon a dare. We nearly lost him.

With Portland so dear to my heart, it was with great pleasure that I received some tracks from the Portland [by way of southern California] band, Archers. They’ve got an interesting sound, perhaps best described by it’s own member, Chris Cantino- who says its got “post-Velvet Underground ramblings and pulsations,  Southern California 90′s punk/garage, and the new Portland lo-fi set.  Everything is crammed full of notes and bizarre time signatures, and the arrangements are nuts.”

They’ve definitely got traces of that California surfer-punk sound, and then you’ve got tracks like brussels truffles that are more pop and rock & roll with the super catchy “ba ba baas”. I’m categorizing this as summertime rage music, best played when critical mass raids the streets of San Diego. Check out the video below, it is pretty epic. And watch out for a release sometime in the near future. Score!

Archers – Brussels Truffles from Chris Cantino on Vimeo.

Archers- Door to All Marvels

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Right Away Great Captain, a project by Andy Hull, better known as the front man for Manchester Orchestra, is making it’s slow-churning return with the release of a new track. He’s got a peculiar and soothing voice, theres something childlike about it. Something bruised and sweetly gingerale, like a young boy. But he writes and sings of things only aged men know. He finds his real self wandering somewhere in the middle, early twenties. His lo-fi bedroom recordings emerge enigmatically, completely stripped of the expansive sound of Manchester Orchestra. The melodies keep harmonious narratives, distorted. But I don’t think he’s trying to sound cool and lo-fi, I think he’s too much of a complicated man for things like that. But what is a man at 22? He’s tapped into some dangerous regions, in the depths of his looming old age, that would appear to be closer than it is by the sounds of these songs. This will be the third album to round out the nautical trilogy rife with murder, battling one’s own demons of the heart. He says this:

“the third and final story/album starts with our hero laying over anna’s lover (and hero’s brother). the brother has been killed. his wife has seen what the children saw and we spend a lot of time inside our hero’s mind and the reality that he is indeed a murderer of his own flesh and blood”

Listen to his new track ‘Health’ streaming here.

Do you like hair bands? Do you like music? Do you like.. badass guitar riffs? You do? Cool, me too. I just got into this San Diego based band Family Wagon via my always delightful, impressively stylish friend Gareth. I met him just recently, he’s involved with this rad artist collective in San Diego called Sezio. You guys need to check this out. I seriously can’t believe I lived a whole year in SD without knowing about Sezio, I was always looking for an artistic community to get plugged into, and there they were- under my nose! We checked out one of their parties last night and it was so great, San Diego is so diverse and so creative, it’s really inspiring to see artists empowered through different events and projects like this.

Okay, back to Family Wagon. They’ve got that grit and that soul, the nostalgic rock and roll that I miss so much with newer artists these days. It’s a lot of hair-in-yo-face guitar shredding that encourages unapologetic dance moves of all kinds. Look out for their EP out sometime this month.

Watch the video below to get a teaser on these dudes. How epic is that hair?

Family Wagon Trailer from Guerilla Film Society on Vimeo.

I found out about Baths from my new friend Cecil (aka GOBBLE GOBBLE) and although we barely know eachother there is already glimpses of friendship sarcasm and resentment brewing. Any true friend of mine knows that they will be violently made fun of over the course of our friendship, but hey, I invite reciprocation. Anyway, regardless- Cecil recommends some great music. He showed me Baths, and I started to re evaluate my musical consumption. Mostly because  just a few months prior to my unapologetic internet nerd-dom, I was on a steady diet of Dave Bazan and other hopelessly lonely acoustic guitar slinging dudes that lull me into a world of introspective sadness. But here I am, now, listening almost exclusively to what would be branded as ‘chillwave’ or variations of electro pop, shoegaze, hip-hop inspired, or just plain weird ass stuff. Basically my room sounds like I could very well be shopping in an elitist hip hop shoe store with grafitti on the wall. Who am I now? I have no idea.

On to baths. More of the same hypnotic beats and soundbites that I consider perfectly fitting bike riding jams, I feel like I can keep a pretty sweet uphill pace with these tracks. It started some time ago with Washed Out, Neon Indian, Toro y Moi, all of that lo-fi stuff. I wonder where music will go next. How bizarre can it really get. I’m enjoying this for now. If you check out his lyrics page, some of the songs are pretty eloquent, and include such profound verses as, “its always the simplest shit that means the most” Well put.

Baths- Mecha Joy

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This passed Saturday I went to Bar Pink in North Park to check out Writer’s free show. A three-piece band called Black Mamba opened up along with some others I didn’t stay for. I never got to see Writer, but all was not lost when I had the opportunity to check out Black Mamba. I’m not sure if it was her supremely sparkly vintage shirt dress, or her soft whispered vocals but I loved it. Granted, the sound at Bar Pink always sucks, and include a Saturday night sized- crowd, and you’re not going to get the full effect.

I didn’t even get the name of this San Diego three-piece, until I was stopped by this rad chick that works at Buffalo on Fifth who pointed out the girl and said I should check out Black Mamba. So I went home and alas, it was them. Score! So here’s the deal, they are awesome, kind of remind me a little of Warpaint, and they’re from SD so check em out. This is the only track I could find from them, but check out their myspace because they have a rad Jamuel Saxon remix of their song Autumn People.

Black Mamba- Holiday

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My insanely talented and unfairly good looking friend Luke Barber collaborated with the Long Beach Film company to put together a music video for their new project Richard Smash & The Fill’me ups. The minimalistic black and white aesthetic filmed through old film reel frames is like the photographic unravelling of the days of Hunter S. Thomspon or any other young men carrying the burden of their artistry, painfully reclusive, ceaseless wanderers. The cinematography is stunning, paired with rife contemplation and impenetrably lonely prose. Why is it that we love all the sad songs?

Check out Richard Smash’s bancamp HERE along with some of Luke’s older stuff HERE.

And explore Long Beach Film Company’s site- they’ve worked with everyone from Cold War Kids, Broken Bells, Against Me! and The Dead Weather.

Richard Smash/Touch It Too Hard from johnraines on Vimeo.

Baltimore’s Secret Mountains came to me by way of hypem, like a lot of other serendipitous hypem moments I immediately took notice, and (double score) felt a certain kinship to their name. Mountains, yes- our magazine. There is something stoic and soothing about mountains. I love them so much so that I’ll be taking a trip up the coast, passing through Big Sur and other postcard- worthy destinations this very evening. And likely listening to Secret Mountains as I make my way. I need to see a redwood before I die.

Their EP Kaddish came out last August, and it’s got all the soothing qualities of Fleet Foxes, female vocals that remind me of Mountain Man [hmm..] or Jessica Lea Mayfield. The echo of voices that sing together on the track ‘Gate/Gate/Paragate’ builds beautiful deep inside the rumblings and choas of instrumentals. This is music that will lull you to sleep in the most perfectly hypnotizing way. You can grab the EP HERE for free.

Check out the video below and you’ll see what I mean.

Secret Mountains – Dead Sea from Secret Mountains on Vimeo.

Gate/Gate/Paragate- Secret Mountains

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Kaddish- Secret Mountains

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The track ‘Cobwebs’ from the Chicago trio Dozens starts off with a soft, brooding and a little sneaky. Like a scene of a film when something questionable is about to happen, then the vocals come in and the drums begin for what will be the giant climax [this is the part of the film where chaos ensues, and something likely just blew up]. It bursts with a surge of sounds, and retreats. The pattern of the song follows this frenzied rhythm until it reaches the end. The track Lacuna reminds me a little of Local Natives or Dinosaur Feathers. Their inventive, jazz-like sound is carried throughout their debut EP available for free download on their bandcamp. Stoked about these dudes.

Check out their bandcamp HERE or click on the player below!