We just wanted to share some new music we’ve come across with you guys today. If you dig what you hear, make sure to stop by the bands’ sites to hear more and maybe even pick up an album… or two or three. One can never have too much music.
Also, if you haven’t done so yet, click here to check out our featured artist this week, Pomegranates, and grab a couple tracks from their forthcoming album, Everybody, Come Outside!
Handsome Furs
“Handsome Furs are not a message band and they are not political, but Handsome Furs are a message band and they are political.”
Got that? Okay then. Let’s move on.
Handsome Furs is the husband and wife team of Alexei Perry and Dan Boeckner. The band signed on to Sub Pop Records in late 2006, and released their first full-length album, Plague Park, in 2007. Their latest album, Face Control, was just released this week, and while we haven’t had a chance to hear the whole album, the band’s bio describes the songs on the album as “fast and up-beat and soulful and smelly and shiny and real. It inspires movement. It is optimistic. It reminds you: we always have life, the blood pumping through our veins and an easy means of letting it out and showering the world.”
Boeckner says that the band is based on traveling, on absorbing places and regurgitating them in music. Their Plague Park album is described as “Scandinavia as the couple experienced and envisioned it”, and Face Control is inspired by the empty skies and frozen plains of Eastern Europe.
The two discuss their commercial potential, saying that they may do “stupid, stupid tours” logistically, but not being financially-minded, their desire is to absorb the world, life and experience. Handsome Furs are in the midst of a tour, which brings them to SXSW this week. Visit their MySpace page for more music and a full list of tour dates.
Your Dig-It Download:
Download: I’m Confused (from Face Control)
Handsome Furs on Amazon
Handsome Furs on iTunes
Story of the Sea
Brothers Adam and Ian Prince began Story of the Sea as a guitar and drums duo. The brothers then added Jon McEwen (bass) to record their first LP, and more recently brought in a second guitarist, Damon Kalar, to complete the band.
They’ve been referred to as a “genre-hopping” band and don’t really sound like anyone else specifically. From their bio, “their sound is more an amalgamation of their vast personal influences than a pinpointed preexisting one. At times propulsive and anthemic, perfecting the tension and release of great 90’s rock. Other times studded with bouncy Cure-like keyboards or a winning Squeeze cover. Chewy pop nuggets to soothe even the most jaded indie critic.”
Of the band, Pat O’Brien of City Pages says, “Overall [Story of the Sea] are shaping up to be a band to reckon with in the early days of 2009. They seem to have come out of nowhere to suddenly be a must-see band and it’s not hype, these guys are the real deal.”
The band released Lunar Co. at the end of January, and this album is a darker, richer collection of songs than the group’s lauded debut effort Enjoying Fire. Stop by their MySpace page for more music and tour dates.
Your Dig-It Download:
Download: The Beast (from Lunar Co.)
Story of the Sea on Amazon
Story of the Sea on iTunes
Elvis Perkins in Dearland
Elvis Perkins has experienced his fair share of tragedy in life. His father, Anthony Perkins (actor in Hitchock’s Psycho) died of an Aids-related illness in 1992, and his mother, Berry Berenson, died in one of the planes that was flown into the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001. Perkins released his debut album, Ash Wednesday in 2007, which was extremely well received by both critics and fans. The album gained Elvis a dedicated and reverent following for its nuanced meditations on death and grief.
Elvis Perkins in Dearland‘s self-titled album was just released on March 10th, and with this release Elvis is now joined by a talented trio of friends that toured with him in support of Ash Wednesday. Along with Elvis on guitar and lead vocals, Elvis Perkins in Dearland is Brigham Brough (upright bass, saxophone, vocals), Wyndham Boylan-Garnett (pump organ, guitar, harmonium, trombone, vocals), and Nick Kinsey (drums, percussion, banjo, clarinet, vocals). Many of the new songs on Elvis Perkins in Dearland were honed on the road by the four bandmates, whose natural ease with one another allowed them to constantly experiment with arrangements on the fly.
“On this new record we wanted to capture the spirit of our performances,” drummer Nick Kinsey said. “The challenge was to get down that spontaneity.” Perkins says, “This album is faster and younger than Ash Wednesday. Being in a studio with three other creatives instead of just one was a new thing for me. It takes four times as long to decide everything… but in the end, this kind of interplay made for much good.”
Check out Elvis Perkins in Dearland’s official site to hear more songs from the album as well as to check out their extensive tour schedule. If you’re heading to SXSW this week, you can catch them there as well.
Your Dig-It Download:
Download: Shampoo (from Elvis Perkins in Dearland)
Elvis Perkins in Dearland on Amazon
Elvis Perkins in Dearland on iTunes
WAND
The artist formerly known as Wooden Wand, James Jackson Toth is a busy, busy, BUSY man. He has just announced the release of two albums under the name WAND for early 2009 and has also just completed work in the studio with The Jescos, which features Timothy Bracy (The Mendoza Line) along with members of Glossary and We Were The State. Toth is also currently writing for his next official full length, a follow-up to 2008’s Waiting In Vain and performing in a new band called Occult Activity On Campus.
Got all that?
Back to his releases as WAND, on March 31st Toth will release the first album under this name. This is a limited edition release to set up the pending release of Hard Knox or “Are You Sure Hank Jr Done It This Way?” (via Ecstatic Peace on 5/26), which is a collection of Wand demos and home recordings. “To quickly address the elephant in the room,” Toth explains, “certainly, collections of demos, outtakes and home recordings are mostly bogus, so let’s cut to the chase. In my defense, all of the cuts contained herein are ‘songs’ in the traditional western sense – my experiments in ‘surf harmonica’ and ‘doom zydeco’ will not be chronicled here, deep and plentiful as those archives may be.”
Like we said, Toth is a very busy man. To keep up with him and his various projects and to hear more of his music, make sure to check him out on MySpace.
Your Dig-It Download:
Download: Arriving (from Hard Knox or “Are You Sure Hank Jr Done It This Way?”)
James Jackson Toth on Amazon
James Jackson Toth on iTunes
Popularity: unranked [?]
No Comments