Sleep Out

Ok, here is the deal. Recently I've been trying to spend more than one day featuring bands from the same city or area. It won't happen all of the time but if you see that I am featuring something from a location even remotely close to where another good artist is based please let me know. Deal? After nosing around a bit at one of the best music blogs there is, I found another great ORD band. Alan asked a couple of quick questions you should check out. Yep, we are staying in The Windy City for some more good music that I hope you enjoy.



















Not unlike yesterday's featured artists, Sleep Out are from Chicago, Illinois and are a five piece that you will be hearing more from in the near future. The debut album I Was Your Shroud is ready to be released tomorrow, July 14th. There is a subsequent release party involved at Schubas in their hometown tomorrow night also. If you go to the Sleep Out website there is some more info on the band. The new full-length album will be released through the their brand new label(s) March Records / Zero One Infinity. Also check out their MySpace page for more good music. I'm not even going to try to explain the sound you can already hear. This is just some good stuff to get your ears around.

MP3: Old Mare

STAR

One of the bands that inhabits my friends list sent out a bulletin the other day announcing a new song that was available for download on their profile. Like usual, I dropped what I was doing and jumped over to check it out. After the first 20 seconds or so I was ready to feature it. The song is only 2 minutes and 4 seconds so it's a good thing the music here is on a loop. They could have probably stretched it out to triple the length and not lost anyone's attention. The wall of sound created by the accomplished guitars of Scott Cortez combined with Shannon Roberts's self described "vocal terror" seal the deal for me. Lovin' the shoegaze here.















As mentioned above, Chicago, Illinois based STAR features the guitars of Scott Cortez. Scott also has another music project that dates back to the early 90's in Loveliescrushing. He's been putting out that textured and layered guitar sound for quite some. Shannon Roberts writes the lyrics and Theodore Beck rounds out the trio on percussion. Check out the STAR website for three more downloadable songs and also their MySpace page for another song. They have a blog there where you can find two videos also. They just finished recording their first two CDs and will be releasing them soon. More please!















MP3: Pure Gold Reason

Harry's Gym

There are 3 things that make this and the MySpace group worthwhile and of course you have to listen to my drivel on the subject. Most bloggers will agree with me I would hope. 1) Finding the music, which has been the goal here since last November. 2) Having people message us saying that they love and bought music from the artist we've featured. This was only happening a little in the beginning but since the blog started, it is happening daily. I'm not exaggerating at all. 3) The actual artists thanking us for posting them on here and on the ever-growing group. As is usually now the case, today's song is going to have some messages coming our way. This is some really driving pop music that needs to be heard.

Harry's Gym is the indie pop quartet from Oslo, Norway that used to be known as Dharma. They changed names and built the Harry's Gym Recording Studio all in the span of 6 months. They have a promo out now and you can go to the Harry's Gym website to download this as well as two other songs from it. These songs are great. You can also visit the band via their MySpace page and say hello. Below (between pictures) is a quote from the studio website that explains what they have to offer... It is run by drummer Bjarne Stensli and is very nice.



















"The studio is situated along Lo river, Oslo, a calm area about 25 min. walk from the city centre. With kitchen and hygiene facilities it stretches about 120 sqm. This is a small personal studio primarily consisting of one dry recording space and one ambient space. The studio can offer a great deal of live recording possibilities. The equipment is based on classical rock recordings in modern time, that means good pre-amps, sway compressors and last but not least, the microphones!!! Everything is transferred into pro-tools HD system. A tool that enables a world wide selection of processing possibilities."
























MP3: City Rats

The Floor is Made of Lava

I dropped Michelle off at the airport last night and have been down ever since. We sat at the airport bar and had some drinks before she left and then I got lost in the parking garage trying to find my precious little Mazda3 to take me home. I got back to find an empty flat with a couple of things she forgot and needed to pick myself up. What did I do? I started looking for music. I couldn't find anything that fit my mood so I went in the opposite direction. Sometimes you find the coolest things in strangely obvious places and that was my fortune after visiting 3hive for the first time in months.















I can tell you that The Floor Is Made Of Lava are 3 guys from Copenhagen, Denmark and have only been around since March of 2006. This might seem as ridiculous to you as it did me considering the big big sound that matches their big sense of humor. I'm hearing early 90s again here with Chicago bands like God & Texas and a tiny bit of Helmet in the vocals. There is no website for the band as far as I know, so you will want to jump onto the TFIMOL MySpace page to hear more music. The Compton song is great! I'm now going to attempt a cocktail Michelle made for me with Absinthe when she was here... wish me luck. I'm loving this band.

MP3: Do Your Sister

The Wonder Stuff

As usual, Sunday is reserved for digging out an old classic song rather than sharing any of our newer discoveries, and it's about time I featured one of my favourite bands in the world here. Besides, I'm going back home to London (don't remind me) today, so featuring a band I won't need to spend all day researching might be a good plan... and speaking of going home, we have Things To Do, so forgive me if this write-up isn't the best in the world, but it's going to be done straight off the top of my head in about two minutes flat. I was having a hard time deciding which song to go for, but Casey likes this one, so this one it is.














Formed in 1986 in Stourbridge, UK, out of the ashes of From Eden (the other founder members of which went on to form Pop Will Eat Itself), The Wonder Stuff started off as a four-piece consisting of singer/guitarist Miles Hunt, guitarist (and vocalist) Malc Treece, bassist Rob Jones ("The Bass Thing") and drummer Martin Gilks (recruited from The Mighty Lemon Drops). This song, Unbearable, was their first widely-available single release (following the self-released Wonderful Day EP), and came out on Polydor in September 1987; the version you're listening to is a slightly different version from the Eight Legged Groove Machine album which was released in August 1988.

The Wonder Stuff enjoyed considerable success on the UK (and to some extent, US & Australian) indie scene, known as they were for their raucous live performances and for Miles Hunt's big mouth. They split up in 1993 after 18 single releases (including 'Dizzy', recorded with British comedian Vic Reeves which reached number 1 in the UK charts in November 1991) and 4 full-length studio albums, playing their (supposedly) last-ever show headlining at the Phoenix Festival in Stratford-Upon-Avon. However, they reformed in 2000 for a string of Christmas reunion shows, playing to capacity crowds for five nights in a row at London's Forum as well as at JB's in Dudley, where the original line-up had played their first show more than 14 years earlier. More 'greatest hits' type shows were played over the next few years, but in 2004, the band returned with a new lineup (including the band's fourth bass player, Mark McCarthy (Rob Jones had left the band in 1990, and died in 1993) and drummer Andres Karu) and new material; the album Escape From Rubbish Island was released in September of that year on independent label irl. Since then they've been regaining popularity while touring the UK extensively, as well as notching up 35 dates across the US last spring. Their latest album, Suspended By Stars came out in March this year, coinciding nicely with the 20th anniversary of the band's inception.




















Anyway. Like I said, we have stuff to do... enjoy Sunday's chunk of bouncy indie-poppiness, and while you're at it check out their website, the very informative unofficial site Room 512 (where you'll find various audio and video downloads amongst other things) and the band's MySpace page where you can hear some of their new material. Oh, and if you get the chance to check the Stuffies out live at any point (they're playing several UK dates this summer and most likely have a US tour coming up in the near future too), they really are one of the best live bands you could wish to see.















MP3: Unbearable

Saturna

Since we were in Portland yesterday (music-wise, that is), I decided it would be best to stay there for another band that is completely different. I was searching around for other PDX bands and stumbled upon some great music that reminds me of the early 90s. This song actually made me think of everything from the obvious in Jesus & Mary Chain and Love & Rockets to early Urge Overkill and even KISS!! Well... I might be joking about KISS (kind of). Anyway, the dirty guitars are a wonderful listen and well worth a feature here.













It's not clear from the Saturna bio when they were actually formed but in a few other reviews I read, it was mentioned that they've been around for a few years. I'm not one to guess so I'll just tell you that today's song is from their debut six-song CD ...All Night. It is available from CD Baby for $7.99 USD and each of the three songs I heard has a slightly different sound. Some are more shoegazey while others (like this one) are straight-up indie rock. All three were really good. There is a MySpace page to hear more but downloading from there is always a pain in the ass, so I recommend a visit to the Saturna website for this and another song.

MP3: Just For Thrills

Panda and Angel

Guess what?? It's officially Awkward Sentence Day here!! Since I have some other things I need to be doing I'll leave this as a first draft. It's a good thing the music is splendid.















I've got a really nice rock song to feature today so hopefully our hosting site (EZArchive) isn't screwing up in order for you to actually hear it. You might think this is another electronica feature from the first part of the song, but it then builds into wonderfully frenzied guitars throughout the song. Not really a shoegaze sound but still slightly reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine. Panda and Angel are a 5-piece rock band from Seattle, Washington. They formed in 2004 and have a self-titled CD EP coming out July 27th on their new record label Jade Tree. Lead Vocalist Carrie Murphy was in another band, Touchdown Eagle that sounds quite a bit like Salem 66, an 80s band I featured several months ago. The Panda and Angel website is currently under construction so you will need to visit their MySpace page to hear more. The other song there is Mexico and is a little bit different... but equally good.















MP3: Dangerous

Hello Saferide

I googled 4casey4 the other day and came up with much more than I had ever realized was out there. Yep... I drive a Mazda3, listen to Bob Mould and comment on foreign news articles and various music blogs. If you google "Casey Lowry" it comes up with a sub-category for me also (I am not a bull rider btw). Strange stuff, but nothing interesting enough for me not to post the availability of my complete online existence. We've probably all had stalkers at some point and today's song is a good representation of what must be floating through the minds of the bored, curious and obsessive. Add High School into the mix and you have a song that could be an anthem for the next big teenage television drama.















We need to go back to Stockholm, Sweden once again for this artist. Hello Saferide is the banner of lifelong musician Annika Norlin. If you go to her MySpace page you might find yourself there for quite some time. The songs are all as infectious as acoustic guitar based music can be and fantastically twee-ish. Then, of course, there is always the Hello Saferide website with news and more. On June 14, 2006 Hello Saferide released a new EP titled "Would you let me play this EP ten times a day" in Sweden. If you visit Razzia Records you can purchase past and present work... Also, check out Annika's bio to find out why I (too) found myself wishing I was a lesbian.
















MP3: High School Stalker

Larytta

Ok, how cool is this!!! Creaking doors sampled to perfection and twisted around in a sultry, creepy little package. One of the samples creates a sound almost exactly like a saxophone. After finding this song on Music For Robots, I have been playing it continuously for around a week and was going to skip putting it on the MySpace group, instead using it as my own profile music. I'm selfish like that, but then decided the decent thing to do would be to share this interesting music. This is also the first artist(s) I've featured from Switzerland.

Larytta is the duo of Lary Pec and Guy Meldem from Lausanne, Switzerland. They've been making experimental music since 2004. You can hear more of this at the Larytta MySpace page and I have to say that it really is worth the visit. The self-titled 12' EP is available on the band's label that is aptly named Creaked Records. There is no official band website beyond MySpace for now. This song also won the almost impossible approval of my 8 year old daughter. That definitely is no small feat.

MP3: The Money

Terrene

Back to normal business since I actually have to go into the office for a bit today... The summer is full on now and what better way to start off a holiday week than to feature a crisp, clean indie spacerock band that brings the season to your senses? I found this one while browsing the friends list of a favorite band on our combined MySpace friends list. It's one of the many ways I track down music. Good bands usually have good bands as friends, that's a given, but this one was really nice. If you go to the Terrene MySpace page you will find that all of the songs are about as radio-friendly as it gets. I picked this one because the energetic percussion brought me to the edge of my chair while listening. It's all good stuff.













Terrene is based in Seattle, Washington and has been around in its current form since 2003. John Dylan is behind it all after spending the late 90s writing music under a different banner. They released a full-length CD, The Indifferent Universe in 2004 but for some reason I couldn't find where to purchase it. The band is (amazingly enough) not signed to a label, so you might have to contact them directly. If you go to the Terrene website there are more songs and news. You can also pick up this nifty glow-in-the-dark t-shirt there.














MP3: Media Sift (Through Heart Rises)

King Missile

Yup. You've probably realised by now, if you didn't as soon as you heard the intro to this song, that we're segueing from one penis-related song straight into another. A theme weekend, if you will, but after yesterday's offering, He's Got a Penis on His Head, we couldn't resist following up with this one as this week's Sunday classic.


























New York City's King Missile has actually been around in various incarnations since 1986, led by the poet/singer John S. Hall. I'd never heard of them until 1993, though, when I was working in a record shop and the owner brought back boxloads of stuff from a buying trip to the US... he had loads of copies of a sampler CD called Spew 2 and let me have one (I have no idea what happened to that CD... it was a great compilation, I want it back!)... and this song was on it. My sixteen year-old self was highly amused: hee hee, he said 'penis'... and thinking about it, I've clearly not matured much since then, as Casey and I have sat sniggering at the lyrics all weekend.


















The song's taken from Happy Hour, King Missile's fifth album. These days they're known as King Missile III, their last release being 2004's Royal Lunch. A collection of John S. Hall's poems has been published, titled Jesus Was Way Cool. There's a King Missile MySpace page; I'd assumed it was a fan profile, but nope, it seems to be the real thing.

Anyway... no doubt most of you will know this one, but I'd pretty much forgotten about it so it's good to hear it again. We were all set to carry on with the theme, um... theme, next weekend, and were getting very excited about Gynaecology Weekend. Then we realised that nobody's actually written a song on that subject, to the best of our knowledge, so we had to shelve those plans. Although if any of you enterprising bands out there are up for the challenge, maybe we can work something out!

MP3: Detachable Penis

Surplus People

I've been in a goofy mood as of late and so when I stumbled across today's band on the Swedesplease blog I felt obligated to listen. If you check this blog regularly you know I have a penchant for frequently posting experimental electronica. This one might be more along the lines of experimental insanity and thats probably why I love it. The Nintendo Gameboy sounds and the megaphone vocals might be enough for me, but when I realized the subject matter for the song I instantly knew they were getting featured. Come on now... Who wouldn't want to hear a song about a guy with a penis on his head???













Surplus People is a female trio from Stockholm, Sweden. Front woman Magdalena not only uses a megaphone for vocals, but also represents the horn section for the band. They formed in 2001 and, up until recently, used a motorcycle club as a practice space. There are a couple more wild but good songs to download from their MySpace page. You can also visit the Surplus People website to buy the 2006 release, the 2004 release or both. Some of you can buy them through Cocohippo, but all of you can contact the band directly. There is even mention that you can send cash in an envelope!













MP3: He's Got a Penis on His Head

The Living Blue

A great way to start off the weekend is to have a solid indie rock band and that was just what I was looking for. After seeing numerous reviews on this band I was surprised I had never even heard of them. When a song is this straightforward the predictability factor gets thrown out the window. Sometimes a simple formula that relies heavily on energy rather than intricate soundscapes can turn quite a few heads as this band did mine. Simply put... these guys rock.













Although the vocals sound British at times, The Living Blue are an indie/garage rock quartet from Champaign, Illinois. They've been around since 1997 and used to be known as The Blackouts. The song featured today is from their latest full length release Fire, Blood, Water which came out in October 2005. It's available through the band's label Minty Fresh records. There is a nice Living Blue website to get a limited amount of info. I suggest going to their MySpace page to start off with. Some more great songs can be found there. Also, The Living Blue will be touring the US for the better part of the summer, so check the dates for your area.













MP3: Tell Me Leza

Catholic Gaydar

When I ran across this band the name had me laughing. With a name like Catholic Gaydar, I couldn't resist checking out their music. This is probably the shortest song I've featured at 2 minutes and 12 seconds but is really nice and catchy. They probably could have stretched it out to around the 4 minute mark without compromising anything. If you replaced the vocals on this song with those of Stephin Merritt it could easily double as just about any early Magnetic Fields track. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada is home to indie pop group Catholic Gaydar (I'm still laughing a bit). The band is primarily the music of Matt Packman who is also part of Sharp Like Knives.















I heard another one of their songs that sounded more along the lines of experimental folktronica (hate that word). They have a MySpace page to hear more but I couldn't find an official website for them. From what I read Catholic Gaydar's debut album is due to be released some time in 2006. If you can get past the name and pink man panties, the music is really good.















MP3: Don't Let Go

Bonus MP3: Cigarettes and Sleeplessness

More hosting site woes...

Sorry, everyone... yet again EZArchive is giving us grief: the whole site seems to be down this morning, which means that (as just about every song on here is hosted on EZArchive) most of our MP3 links aren't working right now.

So, apologies if you've been trying to listen to stuff and not getting anywhere, but please do keep checking back, because as soon as EZArchive sort out their latest glitch (which, fingers crossed, will be VERY shortly), the links will all magically start working again.

Not happy... there has to be something more reliable than this!

Avec A

If you like noisy rock that is heavily influenced by Sonic Youth you are really going to enjoy the music here today. We actually left the house in search of a few cocktails last night so the write up might be a bit more to the point than usual. Today's song is really good and one I knew was going to be featured here as soon as I heard it. Avec A is an indie rock trio that used to be named Avec Aisance. They are from Amsterdam, Netherlands and formed in 2002. The last album from Avec A titled Vivre Dans l'aisance was released at the very beginning of 2004. It is available through distributor Konkurrent.nl (Dutch language). If you visit the Avec A website, you can contact them directly via email to order it. Also on the website are quite a few songs and 3 videos to download. All of the other songs are this good and even more influenced by the early 90's era SY stuff!



















I read in a couple of the brief reviews I could find that the band makes some of the instruments they use to accent their songs. They are also currently working on new experimental material for a 2006 release. They have a MySpace page with not much info but more good songs to hear. I was jumping around the living room to this... unplugged bass in hand. My downstairs neighbors must love me.

Oh yeah, this is the album to look out for...



















MP3: In The Line of Judy

Bridges and Powerlines

I don't usually accept MySpace friends requests from random bands too often these days unless there is some sort of communication beforehand so when I received a request from this one, I was a little confused by the familiarity. I featured a band from New York City on the MySpace group in February that was probably one of my favorites so far. Sunspots had a song called Carmen and it was only a demo. You can hear that song on the MySpace page we created for this blog. Check that and tell me you are not appalled at this horrible case of plagiarism. Shocking to say the least!! We at Milk Milk Lemonade were simply disgusted, I can tell you.

Of course I'm joking.



























The band decided to change up names to avoid needless legal hassle since they are actually going somewhere and not sweating a minor detail unlike another band that previously trademarked the name. Pffft! Check out the new Bridges and Powerlines website to get more info and obviously their (new) MySpace page to hear more music. All songs are extremely good so there is no need to be reluctant when it comes to release time. Love it.













MP3: Carmen

Wild Honey

Sometimes the most rewarding part of this whole music searching thing is when I can find small bands in really great locations. After spending the entire weekend at the largest non-corporate music and arts festival in the United States (across the street from my apartment), I was definitely in the mood for some outdoor-friendly festival type sounds. I had to search no further than my own MySpace friends list to find the perfect music for the start of the week. We'll just need to go visit one of my favorite cities in the world for this one.















Athens, Greece is home to the exceptional quartet Wild Honey. Annita (Voice), Monsieur Poirot (Guitar, Voice), Paul Joe Alketas Clint> (Bass), Ottomo (Drums) have a crisp clean acoustic sound that deserves multiple listens. There is no official website that I am aware of but you might want to visit the Wild Honey MySpace page to download this and another equally mesmerizing song. If this doesn't make you smile... um.

MP3: 1000 Spaceships

Grr.... technology sucks

Okay, we have been having something of a love/hate relationship with EZArchive, the site (I just typed 'shite', which might be more accurate right about now) where the vast majority of the songs (as well as a lot of the pictures) on here are hosted. That means that for most of tonight, anyone trying to listen to or download any of the tracks on here will most likely have had no luck at all and encountered some nonsensical error message instead.

Sorry about that. Normal service will be resumed just as soon as EZArchive have ironed out whatever glitches they're suffering from right now, so if you've been having problems, please keep checking back. And while I'm on the subject... if anyone knows of any reasonably-priced and (most importantly) reliable hosting sites that don't suffer from downtime on a daily basis, we'd be more than delighted to hear about them.

We have a bloody excellent song to put up on here for today/tomorrow... watch (and listen to) this space.

Ride

I've probably used the term Shoegaze a bit too loosely in the past and need to clear up any confusion I created for people who are just begining to enjoy independent label music and want to know its origins. There are quite a few people here that will be able to correct me or at least add to my geeky thoughts.













The term shoegaze(ers/ing) was jokingly introduced in the UK by a journalist from the NME around 1989 or 1990. It was meant to poke fun at the apathetic and/or shy attitude towards live performance where the musicians made more eye contact with the floor (shoes) than the audience. The droning guitar sound borrowed heavily from US rock bands of the previous few years such as Dinosaur Jr. and Hüsker Dü. There was a dreamy pop spin adopted by some of the more mainstream UK bands to calm it all down and Ride would be a textbook example of the lighter side of the spectrum. I have to be honest and group them in with Teenage Fanclub or The Jesus and Mary Chain instead of attempting to compare them to MBV. I loved the 1990 release Nowhere and think I still have the original casette tape of it in my basement somewhere. I'll probably go search for it later this evening.













Ride were from Oxford, England and formed in 1988. Creation Records was their label and probably should have been the focal point of this writeup but it's too late now (I stopped home briefly from a festival to write this). The song featured is from the band's March 1991 EP Today Forever. There are plenty of sites dedicated to Ride but I recommend starting at the MySpace fan page to hear a few more songs. The Vapour Trail track is there and was really the only song to receive frequent air play here in the states. Frontman Mark Gardener has his own music on his MySpace page you should check and if you like what you are listening to, also visit rideOX4 and ticket2ride. Plenty of good info on both sites. Ride is a great part of the shoegaze phenomenon's beginings.













MP3: Today