Song of the Day

ASOBI SEKSU
Trails

DOWNLOAD: Trails

Yes, I know…..I haven’t been around much the past few weeks…work and the impending holidaze have simply gotten the best of me, but I promise to end the year with a flourish of posts that will inform, delight and entertain! And on the entertainment front, I’m happily gonna stay away from Christmas Carols by tossing out a leak from the forthcoming album from Asobi Seksu, the noisy dream-pop outfit from Brooklyn last featured on The List back in March of 2009. If ‘Trails’ is any indication, Fluorescence…scheduled for a February release…promises to carry on the duo’s signature wall of shoegazey noise and operatic melodies. I’ve always heard heavy doses of Slowdive, The Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine in their music, but Yuki Chikudate’s trilling soprano vocals on this song have really tapped into a Siouxsie and the Banshees vibe! Her voice bounces and swirls around the layered, fuzzy arrangement with such abandon, it’s exactly what I would expect from a band whose name is Japanese for “playful sex”…! So head on over to their MySpace page for more playful sex, I mean…Asobi Seksu.

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Song of the Day

CROCODILES
Sleep Forever

DOWNLOAD: Sleep Forever

It’s been more than a year since Crocodiles graced the pages of The List with Neon Jesus, and their debut album, Summer of Hate, tore up the blogosphere and they toured across the US and Europe opening for bands like Holy Fuck and The Horrors…but now they’re back with more buzzy, swirling, My Bloody Valentine-like psych-rock on this Summertime 7″ release. ‘Sleep Forever’ is meant to whet your appetite for their new full-length release due out September 14th on Fat Possum Records. I’m diggin’ singer Brandon Welchez’s laid-back vocals, but what really stands out is the tight production on this song is a noticeable change from last year’s intentionally punkier, lo-fi album.

You can hang with Crocodiles over on MySpace

Song of the Day

A SUNNY DAY IN GLASGOW
So Bloody So Tight

DOWNLOAD: So Bloody So Tight

Today’s song came out of one of those happy coincidences that happens when social networking actually does more than self-aggrandizement, passing on the latest Lolcat video, or informing you about the awesome tuna melt some a guy you haven’t seen in twenty years just had for lunch! My friend Molly Roberts (who I haven’t seen in a while, but it hasn’t been that long!) posted a link on her facebook page to a song by A Sunny Day In Glasgow, a Dream-Pop/Shoegaze outfit from Philly that her son, Ryan Newmyer, just happens to play bass for. Thanks to the power of Google, within five minute of listening to the song I became an instant expert on the group…they formed about five years ago, have a couple of full-length albums and three EPs’ under their belts and have gone through a Baker’s dozen of current and former members, all the while under the leadership of Ben Daniels.

Anyway…my searching also revealed that ASDIG has a new EP out, Nitetime Rainbows, and one of the more creative videos I’ve seen in ages for ‘So Bloody, So Tight’ that I’m including below. Anybody who loves The Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, Lush, or The Jesus and Mary Chain is gonna go nuts for this stuff. They’re on tour right now, in fact, if you happen to be down at SXSW, they’ve got nine gigs set up this week! Give ’em a look on their website or over on MySpace

Song of the Day

HOPE SANDOVAL
Blanchard

DOWNLOAD: Blanchard

Being a huge Mazzy Star fan, it was like Christmas in July today when I found out that after more than 8 years, Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions are set to release a new album this fall. I probably played ‘Among My Swan’ so much back in the day, my friends might have thought I was suicidal, but it was just that I have always been moved by her darkly-themed songwriting and opiate-induced, sadly sexual vocal style. The Warm Inventions is her partnership with My Bloody Valentine drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig and while the resulting songs are eerily reminiscent of both of their previous bands, the styling he’s brought from My Bloody Valentine is more lush, more meticulously arranged…almost over-ripe…but ambiguous enough as not to overpower her wistful, husky voice which mines new depths of melancholy that only a double-dose of Lexapro can cure. ‘Through the Devil Softly’ is set to drop September 15th, but in the meantime you can check out Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions on her website.