Thee Oh Sees - Carrion Crawler / The Dream

And back to the basics. It's been a long time. Life and such.

Thee Oh Sees, who release an album maybe every 3/4 of a year, are back with a great album from start to finish...no filler, no fluff. This is pure psych garage rock n roll with plenty of reverb, hooks, riffs, driving drums, ohs, ahs, guitar solos, and 10 punches in your face.

Blackbird Blackbird

A symphony of glitchy, dreamy, compression-ridden tracks consumes the music of Blackbird Blackbird. This genius comes from the 23 year old solo vocalist/producer Mike Maramag. His sounds travel a brightened path of psychedelia, chill wave and dream pop. Blackbird Blackbird recently signed to Arcade Sound Ltd. joining the likes of Memoryhouse and Millionyoung. Video of 'Pure' along with some other goodies (free downloads) below. Enjoy.

Give You Everything by blackbird blackbird




Grab Bag

Therapies Son - Touching Down

Now this is what this site is all about. Therapies Son is 19 year old Californian Alex Jacobs whose debut EP Over The Sea is due to be released sometime this March. His music is a very soothing piano-driven psych pop. Video for his track "Touching Down" below, synced to what looks like mainly movie footage, including some from 2001: A Space Odyssey which makes sense considering the track title and lyrical content. I think I am in love with it because the piano portion reminds me of a gentler, slower, more emotional version of a track released by Josh Homme's The Desert Sessions, the song "I Wanna Make It Wit'Chu" off of Volume 9/10 but the songs are not really all that similar..i dunno. But you will love this if you are into psych-alt-country-folk outfit Cotton Jones as well as dreampop group Beach House. Very pleasant music, can't wait for the EP.

PVT - Church With No Magic (2010)

PVT (formerly Pivot) is an Australian group whose influences are all over the place. For the most part, it is pretty much very experimental electro indie rock. It seems like there are no standard song structures and the sound/mood/genre of the music can change drastically from song to song. The album Church With No Magic is very sample-heavy and sometimes even gets into intelligent dance music (IDM) or math-rock territory. Whatever the ultimate classificaton, there is a good chance you will like this if you are into El Ten Eleven, Animal Collective, Yeasayer, Prefuse 73, and/or Wolf Parade (just to hit some potential common ground). The video for their hit track "Window" is insanely schizophrenic and edited very creatively, tracking the band from playing the song in their studio to a live show without moving a muscle. Check it out below:

Star Slinger - Mornin'

We posted on Star Slinger a while back. This sample-heavy electronic beatmaker and producer is back with his debut album (beat tape) Volume 1 that carries a psychedelic thump along with soulful, uplifting, dancefloor vibes. This Manchester-based artist continues to impress. He is most definitely one of the leaders of the space-age generation. When will we have a dancefloor in space/on the moon? Below is a hazy, colorful, and kaleidoscopic video by Alan Jensen for hit track "Mornin'."

Verdena - WOW (2011)

More evidence of the global reach of this current surge in psychedelic tidewaters, Verdena is an experimental Italian psych-prog-grunge group that has been around since 1998. You will enjoy early Verdena if you are a fan of Nirvana and other grunge-era groups. You will enjoy later Verdena circa 2005 to present day if you enjoy a mixture of Radiohead, Pink Floyd, The Flaming Lips, and Sonic Youth. You just might enjoy both periods. They have just released a new 2 CD album called WOW, and it is a combination of acoustic rockers, psychedelic jams, and ethereal space rock, all twisted in the Italian tongue. The whole thing is uploaded on YouTube. Below are a couple of standout tracks.

Shapes Have Fangs - Dinner in the Dark (2011)

Austin, TX is a psych-center for pleasing psych-otic people and pleasing psych-edelic music. New group Shapes Have Fangs will release their debut album Dinner in the Dark through The Black Angels' Reverberation Appreciation Society. Their music is most easily classified as distorted fuzzed-out desert rock. Through their tunes, they sound like peers of The Black Angels with a similar vision, especially with regards to The Black Angels' latest and most upbeat offering Phosphene Dream. The video below for "The Desert (Has a Place for You)", directed by Oswald James, is a journey into their sun-scorched musical road trip. It was apparently all filmed on abandoned Western film sets in the Chihuahan Desert. Grab the album here, only 500 copies! (or digital) : http://reverberationappreciationsociety.com/

Tahiti 80 - Solitary Bizness (2010)

Apologies for the long delay. No more of that. Promising psychedelic indie pop from seasoned French group Tahiti 80. These guys have been around since 1993, forming to share their affinity for indie music, new wave, and 60's pop. At first glance, their music prior to the 2010 EP Solitary Bizness sounds more poppy than psychy. This EP precedes their 5th studio album, The Past, The Present & The Possible which is slated for release in early 2011. A very fitting album title for the current state of music. Hopefully, the album will be comprised of tracks similar to "Solitary Bizness," which at first sounds slightly discordant and uncomfortably poppy but soon resolves this with a nice bass groove, some Ghostbusters-y synths, and entrancing vocal harmonies to accompany the repetitive chorus. As the song builds, you get more layers and it's just a nice little ditty. Alright?