Grouper - Driving

Grouper's upcoming "Grid of Points" LP cannot get here soon enough.  Listen to stunningly stark an beautiful ballad "Driving" below and make sure to get the record later this month from Kranky.  Pre-order yours here.

SASAMI

Last year at SXSW, i was fortunate enough to see LA band Cherry Glazerr a couple of times.  Well, it now appears that band member Sasami Ashworth has left the group to focus on solo pursuits.  And so we have "Callous," a wonderful first single and signifier of things yet to come.  It's noisy, poppy, strange, and personal little tune that gets under the skin.  Listen below and be on the lookout for an album later this year.

John Maus - Episode

Last year, John Maus released the excellent "Screen Memories" LP and announced an upcoming vinyl box set featuring his entire discography along with an album of rarities and unheard material, appropriately titled "Addendum."  I'm a sucker for Maus's synthy, lo-fi weirdness, so new music from the artist is always welcome news.  Listen to "Episode" below, and get the album later this month on Ribbon Music.

Drinks

Drinks is the collaborative band of Cate Le Bon and Tim Presley, a strange and quirky, and at times discordant lo-fi pop recording project.  Let me let the artists describe their thing for you:

A month spent in an old mill, river swimming, scorpion fear. No wifi. Night sounds, used frogs. Broken music, a crumble, a mysterious place. An album made for each other by one another with no piercing the bubble, the opposite of a typical recording experience. Tim and Cate serve Drinks again!

Sounds pretty cool if you ask me.  And i'll be honest, i was pretty much sold with the retro private press look of the album cover.  Listen to "Corner Shops" below and get the "Hippo Lite" LP from Drag City later this month.

Beach House - Dark Spring

Beach House's new album "7" is due in May on Sub Pop, and the duo has released another new track from it, the dreamy, shoegazey, psychedelia entangled "Dark Spring."  Watch the video for the song below.

RF Shannon

There's something to be said for the dustiest of modern Americana, the troubadours of the nation strumming out their psych, folk, and country tinged ditties for long car rides through the country and hot afternoons.  Austin area artist (Lockhart to be exact) RF Shannon's upcoming album "Trickster Blues" looks to be that perfect combination of psych, pop, and dirt.  Watch the video for the hazy and lazy "Black Madonna, So Divine" below and pre-order the album here from Cosmic Dreamer Music.

SSION featuring Ariel Pink remixed by Johnny Jewel

Earlier this year...like a month ago maybe...i felt a case needed to be made for the Ariel Pink assisted SSION track "At Least the Sky Is Blue" to be considered a very early contender for song of the summer.  I still do, but now we've got a remix and an instrumental version of the song by Johnny Jewel to make an even stronger argument.  Listen to both below and download them here via DERO Arcade.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Lay Llamas

Just in case you were wanting to listen to something a little more frenetic today, here comes Italy's Lay Llamas, and their honking, wiggling, spastic groove-psych.  Taking slices of surf rock, jazz, world music, psychedelia, and some all around wonkiness, the band's upcoming "Thuban" LP blasts sound in your face, smearing your brain along the universe.  And with assists from members of fellow psych troubadours Goat and Clinic, this is one to cram all the way into your headspace.  Listen to "Silver Sun" below and get the record in June on Rocket Recordings.

Girls Names

May brings us new music from Belfast post punk band Girls Names, just in time to darken the skies.  "Stains of Silence" is cold and moody, and brooding kind of record that feels like watching the storm clouds roll in, and cold rain begin to fall.  Listen to the oozing "25" below and pre-order the record here from Tough Love.