A great tune. Enjoy.

Sunny Day Sets Fire is fairly happy, poppy stuff but with big dums smacking out something a bit more raw and frenetic. A nice mix. Then you get a bit further in and there are shades of psych, almost proggy, bits. But it feels naturally connected. Nice to see these Londoners shaking the influence-bag a bit. Check it out. Really good stuff.

Mr. Gnome mixes it up in a soupy mix of Cat Power-esque moody/spooky vocals over indie pysch with occasional bursts of kinda-loudness and just a whiff of prog. A good mix I'd say.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee act We Were States cheer along with you for the straight-ahead slop-rock. You know you got it.

This is a smooth, soulful track. Check Atlanta's Willie J, aka Country Boi, out. He comes from the "I'm singing more than I'm rapping" school of Hip Hop - giving this track that leaned-back, smooth vibe. 44's is an ode to 'Lac cruising: "It ain't my self esteem that got me leaning, sitting low. It's the fresh leather seats and the engine when I G.O."

As promised, here's another Decomposure track: Hour 9. As you can hear this track can't easily be described as "Howard Jones sings Nine Inch Nails" as I did for the Hour 5 track. Listen and judge for yourself...

This Is Ivy League sounds a bit like a less morose, American Belle & Sebastian - with a jolly-but-no-too-jolly, retro-pop sound that seems to want more than anything to be on Wes Anderson's next soundtrack. While there's no shortage of bands celebrating their own feyness, This Is Ivy League pulls off their songs of burdenless delight with verve and panache. Carefree yes. Careless no.

This short Decomposure track, Hour 5, conjures 90's Nine Inch Nails - but with a creator, Caleb Muelle, less dissatisfied with his life. Ha. I'd go so far as to say it manages to have a heallthy dollop of 80's pop optimism. Howard Jones sings Nine Inch Nails, anyone? Other tracks on this album aren't as NIN-influenced - though all retain some form of a 90's-ish electronic background and Muelle's noncombative, indie vocals as the constant. Will have to post some more in the near future. Good stuff.

What could be more appropriate this Valentine's Day than to present to you one of Hellthy's more abrassive, chainsaw-smoke-spewing tracks? These Are Powers was founded by ex-Liars' Pat Noecker along with Anna Barie and joined by Brenmar's Bill Salas. This track Chipping Ice is from their Taro Tarot EP (HOSS Records) which is to be officially released April 8th (but you can get it from their label's site now: cd, vinyl or digital download.)

Power loop pop.

Here's a solo project from Dirty Vegas front man Steve Smith (is that why the vocals are so high in the mix?) There are some cool noises in here and Steve gets down on percussion halfway in. If you’re in Miami you can see Smith DJ alongside turntable-isto Paul Oakenfold as part of the annual Winter Music Conference tomorrow (March 28th) at Club Mokai (235 23rd St, Miami Beach).

33Hz is a synthy, sometimes trashy 80's-throw-back pop outfit.

This "Paris, Texas" collection is a little different. 33Hz twisted some arms and ended up with w/ guest lyricists: Houston's Devin the Dude and Paris' Teki Latex on one of their tracks.

33Hz must have liked the result enough to make an album out of this one track. They invited their producer-friends to make a handful of remixes. This is Gentlemen Drivers' go at it - who, for whatever reason, decided to delete 99% of the two featured lyricists.

Other remixers include Architecture in Helsinki, Max Pask, In Flagranti, Curtis Vodka, Victor Rice and DJ Raze.

Check out a friend's band: fuzzed-out, uk-esque, bounce. One Hot Second spent time with 80's, 90's grinding electro outfit Front 242. But there's no confusing the two bands.

Hot Seconds is a project with a strong dedication to pop craft and a less confrontational stance than that earlier band. But perhaps, if one was searching to find connections: there's a bit of a shared mentality of production-invention love and disdain for a motionless audience. Dig that fuzzed-out bass.

For New Yorkers come out with me and see them tomorrow eve (Friday, Feb 8, 2008). They are playing with ex-Morphine saxophonist Dana Colley's new band A.K.A.C.O.D.

Club Midway @ Friday, February 8th @ 11pm
25 Avenue B, NYC
(bet. 2nd and 3rd streets)
Map

And here's some noise pop for you from Boo and Boo Too.

New Zealanders Die! Die! Die! trim the guitar some and make noisey, bass-in-your-face, drums-in-your-basal-ganglia (yeah, I Googled it), rockin' music. (The guitar is rawkus too on this album. It's just usually tucked away in the mix... Not a bad thing.) Listen to that bass. Dope.

Die! Die! Die!'s previous Albini-recorded album got them some attention and had them touring with Slint, Wolfmother and others. "Promises Promises" is their latest American-recorded album which they recorded in The Walkmen's Marcata studio in update NY. Nice and raw - which Marcata is known to help get on tape. In fact, I hear at Marcata the headphones musicians use when recording will disintigrate in your hands - from all the rockin' going on (or, more realistically, from all the drunken, neglectfull, careless abuse).

More songs coming. Release date of this album is February 5, 2008. Go get it. I recommend it. Get it.

Bridges and Powerlines make some synthy / guitar indie pop. Their album Ghost Types drops April 22nd. Enjoy.

The Reed KD I heard on MySpace sounds more of a traditionally collegiate bluegrass-tinged, singer/songwriter pop w/ occasional electronic blips - than the tracks I'm showing here.

These tracks: does Reed KD borrow Elliot Smith's whispering vocals and melodic approach and strumming pop production and happy/morose attitude and...? Seems that way to me. But that's ok I guess. Especially if you are an Elliot Smith fan and suspect that the labels have finally stopped unearthing posthumus songs from the dearly departed.

Is that unfair to Reed KD? I hope not. I like this music despite the fact that it doesn't seem exceptionally unique. But let's be real, singer/songwriters usually aren't the types who care to re-invent the wheel eh? That's usually not their trump card. Differentiating flair never seem to be as important to its practicioners or its fans as whether listeners do or do not connect with the singer - whether they can successfully be intimate without being weepy. Reed KD does well if you look at it this way.

Thankfully there's the mp3 right here so you can listen and judge for yourself. There is another good one that I'd like to post soon as well...

A great tune that grows on you. Give it a few listens. And the video is great too. I hope to get that up here soon too.

Here's another candy-flavored track from Mochipet that sounds like hip hop rhyming to your Nintendo's soundtrack.

If this is true this sucks. Bonde Do Role are one of my recent favorites.

On their label, Domino Record's, website:

"Following the departure of Marina, it is with great regret that Bonde Do Role have had to cancel their Australian tour.

The band will no longer be continuing with the same format, and remaining members Pedro and Gorky are currently working hard to recruit another person.

Bonde Do Role have had an incredible year and have been through some unforgettable experiences together, and still remain friends. Gorky says: 'we really are so sorry for canceling the shows and to disappoint our fans. We're gonna try to make it up to everyone as soon as we can.'"

So get the album With Lasers as it seems there won't be more albums to come with this line up. In honor of this I'm replaying this Bonde song that I had previously published this past May.

On Iron and Wine's just released "The Shepherd's Dog" a slightly more studio-playground feel is present. It's not just a strumming acoustic guitar - yet Sam Beam's familiar, cooing whisper of a voice is still there. And like most indie softies the words seem to be delivered in a purposefully, even lovingly, obscured way. Were you first experience the TONE before the content. With repeat visits the story opens up a little perhaps... Or maybe that's just how I hear ALL music? Ha. Buy cd/vinyl/mp3s here.