Tag Archives: punk

mp3: YOOFS – FRIGHTMARE

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For one reason or another, there has been no shortage of awesomely catchy and sunny lo-fi music coming out of the UK over the past year or so, and I am in no way complaining.  I’m still not completely sure how I ended up following YOOFS on Soundcloud, but this song makes me extremely glad that I did.  ”FRIGHTMARE”, clocking in at just over 2-minutes, is the perfect short light-hearted and upbeat track that I needed to convince me that summer is actually beginning.  Although I don’t know much at all about the Bournemouth-based band, I will definitely be looking out for them in the future.  Stream “FRIGHTMARE” below and link to their Soundcloud for a few more really good songs after that.

-TC

YOOFS’ SOUNDCLOUD

mp3: Fat History Month – Bald History Month

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Boston lo-fi band Fat History Month is prepping to release their second full-length entitled Bad History Month, and have been kind enough to bless us with a single.  Listening to “Bald History Month” for the first time I was reminded of Foxygen’s Take The Kids Off Broadway EP, not because they sound anything alike, but because of the exciting and unpredictable songwriting style.  Just like on songs like “Middle School Dance”, “Bald History Month” ends in a completely different place than it started, and goes through at least 4 different distinct moods between then.  I can’t imagine what a full album would sound like, considering this song by itself is almost like four songs in one, so this has me extremely excited to find out.

-TC

EP: Julia Brown – to be close to you

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I can’t speak for anyone else, but this is probably the project I was most highly anticipating in 2013.  I hopped on the Teen Suicide bandwagon kind of late, so after they broke up I kind of just looked forward to this album by listening to their old music for a month straight. Julia Brown and Teen Suicide show some clear similarities, but also a lot of differences.  With the distortion toned back a huge amount from most Teen Suicide projects, the extreme lo-fi-ness of the project becomes more evident, but Julia Brown use it to their advantage, almost using the fuzz as an instrument at some points by manipulating it with filters.  Most of the similarities are shown in Sam Ray’s songwriting.  With the poppier aesthetic of Julia Brown, it seems like Ray is now focusing more on creating catchy vocal melodies which he has gotten extremely talented at.  Overall, to be close to you met and exceeded my expectations and solidified my opinion that Sam Ray is probably the name to look out for in the indie world in 2013.  Stream one of my favorite tracks from the album below and listen to the whole thing after the jump.

-TC

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EP: R.L. Kelly – Life’s A Bummer

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Remember when I made that post last night where I said that I hoped R.L. Kelly would release her project soon?  Well, this morning I woke up to the pleasant surprise of R.L. Kelly having released this EP.  The EP, aptly titled Life’s A Bummer so far is definitely living up to my hopes.  Clocking in at just around 15 minutes in length, Life’s A Bummer has 7 fairly short tracks that all have the playful over-indulgence in melodrama that the title suggests.  As R.L. Kelly puts it; “sometimes life’s a bummer but it’s all good baby”, so listen to this.  Below is R.L. Kelly’s cover of an Alex G track, and after the jump you can stream the whole album.

-TC

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mp3: R.L. Kelly – you’re not the only monster from hell

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Here is another brand new gem from the 420 Love Songs tumblr from a new artist going by the name of R.L. Kelly.  R.L. Kelly is a new project from Rachel Levy of Kiss Kiss Fantastic and Teen Porn, and this is the first song she has released under this awesome monicker.  Like most of the other songs on 420 Love Songs, “you’re not the only monster from hell” has the melodramatic feel we have grown to love, as well as heavy pop roots.  With fairly basic instrumentation, this song is a perfect example of keeping things simple and focusing on really really good songwriting.  Apparently there is an R.L. Kelly album waiting to be released, so here’s to hoping that release date comes sooner than later.

-TC

mp3: Julia Brown – Nobody

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Julia Brown continue to make good on their mission statement upon ending Teen Suicide of making less-melodramatic pop music with this song.  ”Nobody” is probably the bands most poppy track yet, and it works perfectly.  Keeping things extra lo-fi as usual, “Nobody” consists of a few guitar tracks, vocals, and a drum track that sounds like it could be being banged out on a coffee table with various cooking utensils.  This song is part of a short 4-way split record put together by Top Shelf Records, with The Hundred Acre Woods, Modern Baseball, and Old Gray alongside Julia Brown, and all proceeds will be donated to V-Day to help their effort to end violence against women and girls so stream the Julia Brown track below and then GO AND BUY THIS.

-TC

DONATE/BUY 4-Way V-Day Split

Teen Suicide – Rarities, Unreleased Stuff, and Cool things

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I already knew Sam Ray really liked to make music with his three projects Teen Suicide, Julia Brown, and Ricky Eat Acid but I hadn’t completely realized until recently with the beginning of his 420 Love Songs project and now this compilation just how prolific of a song writer he is.  420 Love Songs, included a bunch of demos that presumably were meant for either Teen Suicide or Julia Brown which were already impressive, but apparently that was just the tip of the ice burg.  This compilation has 25 new songs that were unreleased Teen Suicide demos for the most part.  Most of the songs are recorded without quality in mind and because of this are all coated in a thick layer of fuzz, but Ray’s song writing shines through.  I could see almost any of these throwaway songs fitting really well into an EP or LP which is really impressive.  Stream my two favorite songs below, and listen to the whole thing after the jump.

-TC

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