American Wrestlers - Give Up

If I take my time they’ll bury me alive

"Give Up", the first single off American Wrestler's latest, Goodbye Terrible Youth, is an upbeat, sort of summer-meets-fall ditty where catchy guitars and distorted vocals interrupt, in a good way, an otherwise classic shoegazer. It's sort of indicative of the rest of the album; a nicely-crafted mellow-except-when-your-chair-dancing rock affair that sounds familiar in a way I can't really put my finger on. If you're looking for a chill (except when it's upbeat) backdrop to wind up your week, give it a listen.

RIYL: Library Voices, Nada Surf, The Posies, Vampire Weekend

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Future Islands - Balance

And the sun will leave a wound
And leave you to the night
And that's alright
Because before the moonbeam comes
There's a certain calm
And then there's light

I woke up this morning with "Back in The Tall Grass" by Future Islands stuck in my head. This is a fairly common occurrence. In talking with Kerri about it (ok, singing it to her) I learned that she wasn't familiar with it, or Future Islands. Which, when I think about it, is fairly unacceptable. So, here we go with today's Most Important, going back all the way to 2011 and "Balance" a bright and groovy example of what makes Future Islands great. I'm not sure where they're at, but hoping for some new music from them soon.

BONUS! Here is a great KEXP live rendition of "Back in The Tall Grass", good luck keeping it out of your head. :)

RYIL: Twin Shadow, The War on Drugs, Passion Pit, Neon Indian, Tame Impala, Warpaint

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Nick Murphy - Stop Me

Keep waking up in the night
When my ears turn red
I heard some shit that I said
You're probably trying to be nice
I'm not cold, I just been through way worse times

I'm not dreaming now
I'm in control
You can't bring me down

You can't stop me, I made it this far
Alright
I can't help it
Got things I need to do
Before I wait on you, oh

Nick Murphy is a conceptual singer-songwriter with an electronic twist. Formerly recording/releasing as Chet Faker, the Australian decided to move forward with his given name instead. Fittingly, the video for his 2014 hit "Talk is Cheap" showed the metaphoric life and death of the artist. "Stop Me" is the first single for the upcoming album by Murphy, and has a double-length version to the one included here, which he says is the yang to the first half's ying. I chose the radio-length version instead, since I often don't have patience for an 8 minute track, but it's really beautiful if you want to go ahead and add it to your personal playlist.  

RIYL:  Glass Animals, alt-J, Jagwar Ma, Flume, Bastille

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