Owner: mp3hugger URL:http://mp3hugger.blogspot.com Join Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2006 10:20:37 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: mp3hugger is an indie music blog that features at least one new band per day. Besides describing the music that has shook our world you also get a piece of music to listen to or download. The intention is to spread the world about the underground sounds t Site statistics:Click here
Bobby Baby - Lucky Moments 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Ellinor Blixt is from Sweden, lives in Berlin and is obviously in love with music. So much so that almost everything she makes is freely available from her website. It's early days and I tend to get overly dramatic when I hear something special but this girl truly has the potential to be a world-beater. How can you tell, well just take a listen to the 2 tracks here. One is an original Blixt Read more:Bobby
, Moments
She, Sir - The Clandestine 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Since it seems Kevin Shields is unlikely to record anything with MBV any time soon we'll have to make do with the slipstream. And they don't come much better than She, Sir (ok, they have some competition from the Fleeting Joys). "The Clandestine' could so easily have sidled alongside the luxurious confines of "Loveless', with unfocused guitars so elaborately layered, percussion that could
The Paddingtons - Sorry 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The Housemartins, Salako and now the Paddingtons. Looks like Hull is building a nice little musical heritage for itself. Bit more than that if you were to go by Poptones supremo Alan McGee's wide eyed assessment of the latter band. He's off the mark of course (and who can blame him for backing one of his own bands), like he was when he labelled Mogwai's "Mr. Beast' as good as MBV's "Loveless'.
Watercress - Candlemaker 2008-03-09 15:15:00 Sunday evenings, don’t you just hate them? I do and get grumpy if I have to chew too intensely on a piece of music. As the weekend crashes to earth around you it really should be soundtracked by an accessible slice of jollity. And this Sunday PM Belfast’s Watercress
will do just fine. This is a band that superseded the Spinto Band by about a decade in their mischievous use of the mandolin in a pop song. ‘Candlemaker’ was their biggest success when released as a single in 1996 and demonstrated the chaos that occurred when the foursome picked up their vast array of instruments. You can also pick up on Dan Donnelly’s strong Northern accent, which is a refreshingly honest approach given the homogenous approach taken by many of today’s acts. Sadly there is little or no information t
Codes In The Clouds - Fractures 2008-03-09 10:34:00 I adore post-rock but the sudden noisy bits sometimes have an unstabling effect on my senses. I’ll give you an example, Explosions In The Sky’s otherwise shimmering ‘Yasmin The Light’ harbours a shocking bolt of white noise that never fails to have me jumping from the comfort of my armchair. Once expelled the tune resorts to type and chimes ever so prettily like all good EITS’s tunes do. Codes
In The Clouds
’ ‘Fractures’ (a b-side from their ‘Distant Street Lights’ single of last year) has similar ambitions but thankfully the loud moments won’t necessarily lead to hearing loss and seeing as they are from Kent they probably have more than enough space to let rip. It all starts out so chimingly, chords are tinkled delicately while a hit-hat is gently brushed which to all
The Gentle Good - Amser 2008-03-09 09:43:00 For about 6 seconds there is complete silence, at which point ‘Amser’ gracefully jumps from the speakers. You’ll hear Nick Drake in the vocals, the svelt finger pickin’ and the lush instrumentation but this is no lost classic (a future one perhaps) it is the work of Cardiff singer Gareth Bonello. The remarkable thing is that Bonello as the Gentle Good remains unsigned and his only recorded output to date has been an EP from around 2005. Things seems to be progressing well on the debut album stakes but surely there must be a savvy label out there willing to push such high quality material. With heart wrenching songs like ‘Amser’ it would be a tragedy if Gentle was to pass unnoticed into that Good night. KDThe Gentle Good - AmserMore Info: Official & MyspaceBuy Songs: The Gentle
The Notwist - Good Lies 2008-03-09 08:35:00 Ah, that was nice, 48 hours in a completely www free environment is the cleanest way to refresh a blogger's appetite. Not that I was completely divorced from new music, I took a couple minutes out every now and then to get down with the Notwist’s new song ‘Good Times’. I am a relative newcomer to the German quartet (‘Neon Golden’ to be precise, 5 albums in) and if ‘Good Times’ is anything to go by upcoming album ‘The Devil, You + Me’ should see them move away from their electro leanings and back to their guitar indebted origins (they recorded the album with some help from the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra so I’m probably way off the mark here). Either way this is a pretty excellent taster for what lies ahead. The Notwist are adept at squeezing interesting sonic patt
The 1900s - Aculiplantar Dude 2008-03-07 13:45:00 Not sure if it still holds true now but from memory the worst insult that you could get from a girl you fancied was for her to label you ‘nice’. Nice being as safe and downright dull a description that could possibly be ever hoisted on a young buck looking for a peck on the cheek. Hearing those 4 letters and your name together in one sentence more often than not meant that the writing was on the wall and love was inevitably not going to be in the air. So how come then that the only word that spins round my head when I hear ‘Aculiplantar Dude’ starts with an n and ends with e. The 1990s are not to be confused (believe me I was) with their Glaswegian namesakes, for one thing they have at least 4 more members and come from the less windy environs of Chicago (!). Their debut ‘Cold &
Oxford Collapse - Let's Vanish 2008-03-06 10:25:00 For some reason the immaculately turned out third outing from Brooklyn’s Oxford
Collapse failed to make the impression the songs it carried deserved. It’s hard to reason why because ‘Remember The Night Parties’ flourished where so many have failed. In peering back to a time when guitars sparkled with shiny ambition your commoner gardener outfit can often get lost in recreating that retro feeling. But Oxford Collapse succeed in sounding familiar without ever losing their own voice which incidentally comes via Michael Pace and Adam Rizer. ‘Let’s Vanish’ is awash with shimmering chords and a bass line that the Ned’s would have been proud to call their own. Oxford Collapse’s time could yet come and with a new album scheduled for release this August it may be sooner rather tha
Dog Day - Sleeping, Waiting 2008-03-05 15:16:00 Seth Smith is the quintessential indie hero. Toiling away at his day job he recorded a CDR and made the grand gesture of burning off a run of 15 copies. Remarkably some of the songs fell into the adoring laps of the right people and pretty soon the CDR was being officially distributed as the ‘Thank You’ EP. Fast forward a couple of years to 2007 and Smith and chums, collectively known as Dog Day, see their debut LP ‘Night Group’ released to widespread acclaim. It is easy to see why when you catch a few minutes of the Nova Scotia quartet’s stock of lovable audio vignettes. I mean by now ‘Sleeping
, Waiting
’ has probably swept you off your feet. It’s shorter than most clocking in at less than 2 minutes but when a band plays this fast they tend to fit a lot in over a short time
Brad Laner - Out Cold 2008-03-04 13:06:00 Not really a song, more an aural texture, something you could see being used to maximum effect in a car advert. And it comes from an unexpected source, namely the man who propelled those nineties noiseniks Medicine. Perhaps time has rounded those rough edges but as any Medicine fan would probably testify there was always a fine tune beneath the squalls of crawling guitars. ‘Out Cold’ is a foray to the land of electronica so perhaps recent collaborations with Dan Snaith of Caribou have somewhat rubbed off. The song is awash with soft fragrances but has a pleasing sense of adventure that means it has the wherewithal to meander down corridors that are bedecked in colourful canvasses. What a lovely change of direction, something sweet to make the medicine go down you might say. KDBrad Lane
Winterpills - Broken Arm 2008-03-03 14:27:00 Today we had a flurry of snow in Dublin, you know the sort of snow that is as fluffy as a rabbit’s tail until it hits the ground at which point it promptly disappears. I’m looking outside now and nothing remains, not even a mound of ice where once stood a hopeless snowman. All this global warming means that the closest thing we are likely to get to a white scene will come in the aftermath of a accident involving an avonmore dairies vehicle. So in a vain and slightly tenuous attempt at recreating the magic of falling snow please find attached a wonderful track from Winterpills. Taken from their sophomore ‘The Light Divides’ is bedecked in some fine vocal boy/girl tangos and instrumentation that seems to levitate mid air despite coming all over heavy in parts. The band have a new alb Read more:Broken
Gerling - High Jackers Manual 2008-03-02 10:58:00 I do hope we haven’t heard the last of Sydney’s Gerling. With frontman Darren Cross twiddling gamely with his new solo project the E.L.F. it seems that the trio’s days could be numbered. Such a shame really because they straddled that near perfect divide between dance and indie. It all started so promisingly on their debut (a lost classic if ever there was one) ‘Children of Telepathic Experiences’ back in 1997 with startling songs like ‘Enter Space Capsule’ and ‘Death To The Apple Gerls’ popping out all over the place. The follow up ‘When Young Terrorists Chase The Sun’ swayed more towards dance but it spawned their biggest minor hit to date ‘Dust Me Selecta’. ‘High Jackers Manual’ is even better and underlines the bands energetic style that preceded the Go! T
Seabird - Let Me Go On (Olaj's Let Me Go Off Mix) 2008-03-02 10:22:00 Most Sunday’s I tend to settle down like most men of my advanced years with something less taxing on the stereo. An acoustic whisper or a pleasant dollop of ambient normally does the trick and serves as a calming ointment for the week ahead. Today for some reason though I have an overwhelming desire to blast some fresh beats from the speakers. So this remix of Seabird’s new tune ‘Let Me Go On’ perfectly fits the bill. Olaj whoever he is manages to sprinkle magic dust on the better sequences of the original and fills the gaps with an inspired frenzy of activity that'll titilate those dancing toes. Seabird are a fresh faced 4-piece from Cincinnati, struggling like most new bands to get themselves heard and release their debut album. That said they have EMI on their side, which should
The Daysleepers - The Soft Attack 2008-03-02 03:37:00 Could well be possible that if the whole shoegaze thing is alien to your ears that ‘The Soft Attack’ may sound a tad underproduced. What you’ve got to understand though is that the Daysleepers (I mean the name alone) have successfully reconvened a sound that has been reappearing in fits and starts since the early part of the century. The genre originated a full decade earlier when its prime movers Slowdive, MBV, Chapterhouse, Lush and Ride were at their peak. ‘The Soft Attack’ best bits come early on when the hazy guitars and ethereal vocals are at their most dynamic. Just listen to that swell of chords and make like its 1992 all over again. The Daysleepers are putting the final touches to their debut ‘Drowning in a Sea of Sound’ and it should finally surface later this year.
Blonde Redhead - Spring And By Summer Fall 2008-03-01 15:19:00 Such finesse, so quick over the ground to share its uncluttered vision, a faultless triumph over mainstream’s empty gestures. Hardly surprising then that BlondeRedhead
operate out of the capital of cool New York. It has been a long road for the band and their 7th album ‘23’ came a full 14 years after their debut. And as you'll hear on ‘Spring
and by Summer
Fall’ the band have lost none of their enthusiasm, not even wild horses (fact) could put the brakes on them on this form. And those Sonic Youth comparisons persist, something that in other hands could become an albatross but Kazu Makino and brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace have the nouse to carry it off with distinction. KDBlonde Redhead
- Spring And By Summer FallWatch The Video To MelodyMore Info: Official & MyspaceBuy Songs:
We're Marching On - 1800s 2008-03-01 11:02:00 Towards the end of ‘1800s’ it starts to sound as if another song is clouding the listening experience. It becomes clear at the end however that in the background a ferocious blend of drumbeats is doing it’s damndest to be heard. ‘1800s’ is a work of many parts and may take a few spins to turn the puzzle into something resembling a comfortable listen. This can be off putting but you should be able to figure out that it is worth it from the word go. We’re Moving On are from Toronto and released the ‘Argh! Umph! Ahhh!’ EP last year. Sort of appropriately named actually given the feast of surprises supplied by ‘1800s’ and the array of instruments that must have been wheeled into the studio to execute it’s ramshackle nature. KDWe're Marching On - 1800sMore Info: Official &
The Dream Academy - The Love Parade 2008-03-01 03:36:00 It may be about as past it as a Glen Madeiras haircut but boy does this tune get the memories flooding back. Times spent in a remote outpost in the West of Ireland where the arrival of the weekly piece of vinyl was always something to was celebrated (the 10 mile cycle in the dark to pick up the Joshua Tree at it’s midnight launch was an adventure of Marco Polo proportions). Back then Dave Fanning’s Fab 50 represented the highlight of my musical year and was eagerly committed to tape (an offence akin to downloading mp3’s today!). Who cares if the same songs turned up every year, this was the sound of the underground amid the piecing din of cow’s calfing. I’d often miss the crucial Top 10 due to the inconvenience of having to go to Christmas Eve mass but there was always next week Read more:Dream
, Academy
, Parade
Electric Penguins - Soft Landing 2008-02-29 15:00:00 It is surprising given their alarming brilliance that we haven’t heard more about ElectricPenguins
. Back home in Dublin the group may as well be from East Java considering the amount of fuss that is made of them. Ah well, perhaps they prefer it that way, gives them more time to tinker with their rust ridden instruments. You see the trio are obsessed by the junkyard yet precious vehicles of electro making noises the Mellotron, the Moog and the incomparable Farfisa (remember them Inspiral Carpets). With these base ingredients and Mark Cummins’ singing Electric Penguins fashioned a stellar debut in 2006 that was cheekily named ‘Goodbye To The Electric Penguins’. There are nods to Air and Kraftwerk yet Electric Penguins give the impression that there's more to them than mere revivalis
Said The Shark - No Getting Over You 2008-02-28 17:43:00 ‘No Getting Over You’ falls into that difficult category of song that you know you like but you can’t reason why. As far as I can work out there is no chorus, the tune just sorta floats along like a helium filled balloon that’s at the discretion of the wind. The breeze in this case is supplied by Maya Saxall, the helium comes via the 3 others in the band behind her. Saxall’s vocals are breathy, at times Sinead O’Connor in nature but forever in a flap trying to make themselves heard. And it’s not like the music is distracting, for most of the time it is positively languid but somehow seems to reinvent itself every now and then. Said The Shark
are from Copenhagen and will release their second album ‘Silly Killings’ next month. ‘No Getting Over You’ is from their 2006 re
Chapterhouse - Mesmerise 2008-02-28 13:46:00 Reading's Chapterhouse were not in any way the perfect band but they succeeded over a short time in writing a couple of perfect songs. ‘Pearl’ is one such, a tour de force that ranks among the best that shoegaze ever threw up (!). ‘Mesmerise’ was another and marked a totally different direction, part electronic but still beating with the mighty heart of an indie classic. The eye-catching video was an advert for summer days, swimming pools, lido’s and long shaggy hair and pretty much summed up the carefree butterfly of the song it showcased. From the off a piano trickle signals the start of something great with the bulging electro brass heralding the arrival of some wonderfully realised ethereal vocals that were so beloved of the dream poppateers. It may be 17 years old but this t
Birdland - Sleep With Me 2008-02-27 13:39:00 Birdland were 4 non-brunettes, 2 of them were siblings. They existed for a short time between 1989 and 1992 but still managed to get the video to this song played on Top of the Pops (it meant something in those youtube free times) after it broke into the UK Top 40. The short jerky tunes that Birdland turned out matched their unpredictable on/off stage antics. In fact said behaviour saw them thrown off a priceless Jane’s Addiction tour after just one date. Lukewarm reviews of their eponymous debut in 1991 marked the beginning of the end for the quartet but worse was to follow soon afterwards when their label Lazy Records went bust. ‘Sleep
With Me’ is a pretty simple affair, within the first couple of seconds you’ve heard the riff that underpins the whole tune and Robert Vincent’s Read more:Birdland
Under Electric Light - This Moment 2008-02-27 00:37:00 Last time we checked Montreal’s Under Electric
Light was heading down a dream pop path that triggered a tingle of delight in our gut. Almost 3 years on and I’m glad to report that nothing much has changed, Danny Provencher is still infatuated with the early 90’s and his softly floating pieces of dream pop illuminate his latest offering the ‘After The Blue’ EP. I wonder how this must sound to someone who has yet to sample the delights of Ride, Chapterhouse or Slowdive. Armed with the knowledge it is a lush reminder of how the pioneers stole our hearts with clouds of fuzz and sweeping vocals. Under Electric Light have the art of the shimmer down to a tee and surely rank alongside Celestial as one of the finest purveyors of contemporary shoegaze. KDUnder Electric Light - This Momen Read more:Moment
Jeremy Warmsley - 5 Verses 2008-02-26 15:30:00 What a strange little song, part pretty, part stained but a story you won’t be able to put down. It may only be a workaday scenario of star-crossed lovers but Jeremy Warmsley details it with such grace it makes for a fascinating drama. There is scope for a neat little indie pop tune here but the London singer songwriter forsakes it by adding variable crunching beats and electronic wheezes. And the funny thing is that it works wonderfully, a boy and a girl in a relationship where honesty is the first victim deserves a tarnished yet likeable soundtrack. Belle & Sebastian so often serve up harmonious ditties where the words utterly belie the music. Jeremy Warmsley ditches such confusion and goes the whole hog so whether you are a student of lyrics or just of the music that accompanies them
Michael Talbott and The Wolfkings - Goodnight 2008-02-26 13:37:00 For some reason you’d think they’d come from Scandinavia but instead Michael
Talbott and The Wolfkings call San Francisco their home. The name references a South Californian myth and there is an equally mystical quality to the music they make. It takes 13 people for the Wolfkings to operate at full pelt but given the hushed quality of the output I’d wager at least half that number are employed on quiet-making duties like door closing and shushing any potential interrupters. And their efforts are duly rewarded when you cock an ear to the pristine nature that goes by the name of ‘Goodnight
’. Everything is its right place; the tinkling piano, the beautifully strung out bass line and Talbott’s deep hum for a vocal just melt into a grand sonic tapestry to caress your weary senses as
Fort Minor - Kenji 2008-02-25 15:37:00 I’ve got to be honest I know absolutely zip about hip-hop or rap, in fact I’m not sure I even know what the difference is. Of course I got in on the Beastie Boys circa ‘Ill Communication’ and the Streets imperious second album ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’ is something I often return to but apart from ‘Stan’ that is my only contact. I heard ‘Kenji’ quite by chance, during one of those aimless shuffling sessions where any one of a couple of thousand tracks could end up playing. As soon as it had run its course though I found myself replaying it several times to try and absorb every word that had been sung. ‘Kenji’ is an emotive piece of music, instrumentally attractive and lyrically innovative and slick it will stay with you long after it has stopped playing. It is Read more:Minor
Mansun - Wide Open Space 2008-02-25 14:32:00 For a while in the mid nineties it seemed that Mansun could devour the world. They had a carefully cultivated image, wrote intelligent p-opuses and had the critics deep inside their pockets yet they never quite cracked it. Perhaps it didn’t help that the monolith known as Oasis stalked the earth during their most creative spells, who needs a Chad that loves you when you could just as easily do it with a doctor in a helicopter? For all of Mansun’s dramatic endeavour’s it was their periodic bows to accessibility like on ‘Wide Open Space
’ that they will be best remembered for. ‘Wide Open Space
’ even came complete with several dishy makeovers which in those hugely bleeptastic times was an essential move. Mansun called it a day in 2003 but have over the last while been spilling th
Tree Wave - Sleep 2008-02-24 13:47:00 And Little Big Adventure’s yang could well be Dallas’s Tree Wave. Well it’s certainly louder and more aggressive but reading their bio it seems that the music they make comes from, presumably soundcard enhanced, computers made in the 1970’s – something that would probably sit quite easily with LBA. ‘Sleep
’ is Tree Wave’s contribution to the SXSW 2008 mp3 fest and a sparkling ditty it is too even if it is taken from a release, the ‘Cabana’ EP, which dates back to 2004. ‘Sleep’ is the ingenious love child of Orbital’s ‘Style’ and the frothy pronouncements of Stereolab’s Lætitia Sadier. In truth it is Lauren Gray that provides the vocals and you’ve got to applaud her generosity along with that other Tree Waver Paul Slocum for dropping the code to a synthesis
The M's - Future Women 2008-03-12 16:12:00 Thems a good band, thems are. Oh sorry, forgot I’d been to school for a few years. The M’s are from Chicago and did what most respectable indie bands were doing in the early/mid section of this decade by having a tune on an episode of the OC. It’ll be interesting to see how rock history will treat such an achievement, perhaps it will be written with dollops of snark. The M’s have a neat view of the world, a world where the Kinks were the only band that mattered. ‘FutureWomen
’ is a dedicated follower yet still sounds utterly fresh and contemporary. It may lose some of its wonder towards the finish but at that stage your pop receiving nodes should be more or less sated. The M’s third movement will be with us later this year or whenever that new series of Grey’s Anatomy gets
Second-Hand Furniture - Nice Try Sunshine 2008-03-12 14:34:00 You gotta love this Swedish band Second
-Hand Furniture
, as much for their music as their carefree nature. On recording their debut EP in 2003 they promptly gave all 100 copies of it away free to indiepop-lovers. Needless to say Second-Hand Furniture’s time together was over in the blink of an eye but not before they recorded another EP and several unreleased tracks. The good news is that hip Peruvian label Plastilina Records have gathered all the recordings together on one retrospective ‘Game, Set, Match…’. That’s where you’ll find the twee pop glory of ‘Nice Try Sunshine’. With appropriately lo-fi production it nonetheless highlights the quirky cool of singer Miralda Madar Johansson. A voice like that is always going to grab the attention and the fact that it’s backed up
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