Two rising bands, BCB favorites Beat Connection and Baths, performed fantastic sets last night at the Comet Tavern. For Beat Connection it was only their second show but the songs from their Surf Noir EP translated great to a live setting. You can hear a new song they performed below as well as a rousing rendition of Baths' "Lovely Bloodflow".
Clogs released the fantasticThe Creatures In The Garden Of Lady Walton a few months ago and now have a video + new download-only EP, Last Song, that features two new b-sides.
The hypnotic and ghostly video above was created by Benjamin and Stefan Remirez-Perez.
Apparently based out of Paris and Berlin, Walter Sobcek is a bit of a mystery, producing only a few remixes and covers thus far (including one of the best 1901 remixes I have heard). Here they have a perfect specimen of R&B tinged synth-pop where vocoder verses give way to the creamy chorus of this Hall and Oates cover. Kind of like that lush, soulful, LA vibe Mayer Hawthorne was going for. There is a lot of 80's in this song (only without the reverbed drums, for which I am very thankful). It comes complete with a video featuring a John Hughes film, which exudes dreamy nostalgia. "She's Gone" may well be about our 80's and early 90's childhood. If childhood is a women, she is gone. And yet here we are ready to remember her absence. From the myspace:
THE STORY: Walter Sobcek is a man. He likes girls, like Traci Lords or Marilyn Jess. However, he is in love with Chelsea. A 20 year old girl. She is blonde. She is beautiful. She left him. To forget her, Walter also left.
Black Cab Sessions just posted this video of cuddle buddy, Cloud Control, performing their excellent song "Gold Canary." Knee slap percussion. Vocal layering and harmonies intact and clearer than ever. So gorgeous I cant stand it.
Here is a fan made video for Broken Social Scene's "Meet Me in the Basement". Heavily political without a spoken word. Fits right in with their perspective on things.
Piano, violins, and slow melodies from a lazy voice. Gem Club are masters of gorgeous melancholy. They released their Acid and Everything EP yesterday on bandcamp. All of these songs are on it.
Ólöf Arnalds is a folk-singer from Iceland, so we already know she is going to make thought-provoking, slow, and just-experimental-enough-to-not-garner-mainstream-success-and-save-her-nation-from-bankrupcy music. In September she will be releasing a new album titled Innundir Skinni, and above is the video for the wonderful title track.
Also check out this rough demo of a song that will probably be on the new album. Its got some Beirut vibes going on. [mp3]Ólöf Arnalds :: Vinur Minn
Nathan Williams has put a lot of thought into this new record and it shows. There is actually a variety of moods and textures on this album! From the upbeat jam "Post-Acid" to the nearly Panda Bear "Baseball Cards," this album delivers almost constant and welcome surprises. I already posted a couple songs a bit ago but I still havent got enough. If you lived through the '90s on early Green Day, Weezer or the like, this will be a familiar and nostalgic update on similar themes.
There are a number of artists that I have been meaning to write about but there are none that I am more excited about than Sonny and the Sunsets.
They make music perfect for a lazy summertime afternoon bbq. Like you can't imagine anything could be all that bad even though you know there are bad things but because you know about all the bad things you know that they are not so bad that you cant sing these songs. Naturally they are from San Francisco, which has consistently turned out non-electronic chill music (for a doo-wop feel, check the video below for "Strange Love"). They have the harmonies down for sure. They exude the same sort of playfulness that made moldy peaches so fun a few years back, only without the self-hating irony. Apparently they put on a good show too.
They released their debut album Tomorrow is Alright on Soft Abuse but it was recently picked up by Fat Possum (home to the likes of Wavves and Andrew Bird). They will re-release the album on August 17 with a wider distribution. Stay tuned.
Porcelain Raft is from the U.K. and according to myspace, consists only of "Mauro R. recording and playing live with guitars, sampler, loops and keyboard." The music takes cues from a variety of electronic based projects and fans of Memoryhouse will find similar winding, melodic guitar lines and aural atmosphere. Just add a strong beat and soothing male lead and you got yourself a raft made from porcelain.
Personalfavorites, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have been relatively quiet over the last year. However, they recently released a single on their label, Slumberland Records, including the songs “Say No To Love”and “Lost Saint”. The former song, with its video above, is a perfect lazy summertime jam that fits right into the vibe of their first album. As for the video, from Stereogum:
In the clip, Peggy misses the band’s indoor/outdoor jam session because she’s too busy eating things, driving with her head and hands out the window, harassing a dog, munching nachos, checking out “Boobies Make Me Smile” t-shirts, and doing generally carefree things. Throughout, animations transforms a kid at a public fountain into an angel, give a pigeon the gift of laser eyes, transport the Loch Ness Monster to a smaller body of water, etc. Just your average sunny twee-pop afternoon.
Yours Truly is killing it. Now and always. Remember that Morning Benders video we all obsessed about? Yours Truly. What about that Tame Impala video from a few days ago? Guess who? And now, BCB favorites, Active Child get the YT treatment. As Scott wrote last month, Active Child seems to have a wide variety of influences: "at one moment you're convinced this is just another Bon Iver side project, at the next some b-side from LCD Soundsystem." This video, featuring a stripped down version of the song "When Your Love is Safe", is much closer to the Bon Iver side project sort of things. After a couple of mic checks (including the adorable "Chivalrous-Syphilis"), its all harp plucks and harmonies. A steady bass line fills the track out but the gorgeous vocals really take center stage here. The harmonies are mesmerizing. You truly writes of the video:
I’m too grateful and too smitten, crushing like a fifth grader with a balled up love-note absorbing sweat from my palm, jealous of whoever this song is actually about.
Thats about right. See the rest of the session here.
If you haven't checked out Ariel Pink's new album Before Today I definitely recommend doing so. Perhaps many people, like myself, formerly found the man's music too lo-fi, too saturated in tape fuzz. Or found his songwriting too...well...strange. If this was the case then don't worry! Before Today, while certainly still an Ariel Pink album, is infinitely more approachable than a lot of his previous offerings.
"Bright Lit Blue Skies" is the second track from the album and is a flurry of upbeat hooks and luscious harmonies. The song is a cover of cover the Rockin Ramrods' 1966 jam of the same name and makes perfect sense as the gateway to an album brimming with sunshiny 60's affectation. The video follows its frantic passion opening with images of a couple going-at-it in a field and waves crashing down. The unsteady manual camerawork adds to the chaos following dudes breaking in to an all girls school (by way of a cardboard trojan horse). They of course then have a fully clothed orgy, which is broken up by the troublesome campus police who is eventually out witted.
The album as a whole explores these adult themes in a consistently childish, which is not to say entirely giddy, way. Be it exuberance or melancholy, Before Today draws from such unbelievably disparate musical influences and takes such dramatic structural turns that these states of mind are invoked in a way somehow both familiar and yet unpredictable. Highly Recommended.
Arcade fire debuted a few new songs at a recent show in Quebec. Someone took videos of a lot of them including this anthemic acoustic rendition of wake up. See the videos and hear the songs here.
Bohemian Cuddle Box likes to support the artists! If you have questions, comments, concerns or would like to send us something, mail bohemiancuddlebox@gmail.com.
All mp3s are for sampling purposes only. If you would like us to take down one of your songs, please email us and we will respond promptly.
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