The Front Bottoms new album is perfect. Perfectly them, perfectly low key college rock that could also serve as a middle schooler's anthem album, with it's perfectly world-weary, sarcastic tone. Anyway, I sat and listened to the entire thing AGAIN this morning (something I almost never do) and could have picked any track to share so I just went with the first. Also, "You Used to Say" feels additionally perfect at this moment: dramatic imminent death declaration followed by a dance break. I didn't know the band before seeing them at ACL last year but count me as a big fan now.
RIYL: Death Cab for Cutie, XTC, Violent Femmes, Dead Milkmen, REM
gabriel black - freedom
Gabriel black makes music in his room. Alone. At night. And the result is pretty damn cool. His latest track, "freedom", our just a few weeks back, is really interesting. It's guitar-lead hip-hop with a bit of a dark feel to it. In addition to making music alone in his room at night, he makes fun animations for his songs. Check out the "video" for "freedom" below. And, if any of this sparks your interest, read/watch this interview.
RIYL: Why?, Dan Deacon, Panda Bear, Islands
Upcoming Shows
K.Flay - Giver
Every day’s another shot
But all I do is fuck it up
Screaming cause I’ve got it too good to cry
I put the medicine inside my head
Apologize for all the things I said
Girl it takes guts to just surviveI gotta oh, I gotta find another way
I’m learning to live
I’m trying to be better
I’m learning to give
But I don’t know if I’m a giver
Kristine Flaherty was raised in Illinois and started making music while a psych major at Stanford. It kind of blows my mind that she started out as a hip-hop artist and still describes herself as a low-fi hip-hop-rock hybrid because I first heard "Blood in the Cut" last year and thought it was a pretty lame but solidly alt-rock anthem. Come to find out her make-it-up-as-you-go, true indie cred (leaving behind 60 songs written while under contract at RCA), and that her fans range from Taylor Swift to Dan Reynolds, who signed her to his small imprint and put her on tour currently (with Imagine Dragons). Anyway, this single reached my ears this week (from Everywhere is Somewhere, same album as "Blood in the Cut") and I can't believe how much more nuanced and enjoyable it is. Or how she slipped my notice before all this!
RIYL: Bishop Briggs, Lewis Del Mar, Meg Myers, Grieves