New Releases: April 2013

Round up of the most interesting albums and singles released in April 2013 including some of the best Record Store Day limited edition releases:

Albums

THE KNIFE - Shaking The Habitual
YEAH YEAH YEAHS - Mosquito
THE BLACK ANGELS - Indigo Meadow
THE FLAMING LIPS - The Terror
IRON AND WINE - Ghost On Ghost
KURT VILE - Walkin On A Pretty Daze
GUIDED BY VOICES - English Little League
MUDHONEY - Vanishing Point
MEAT PUPPETS - Rat Farm
MILK MUSIC - Cruise Your Illusion
GUN OUTFIT - Hard Coming Down
NO JOY - Wait to Pleasure
THEE OH SEES - Floating Coffin
WHITE FENCE - Cyclops Reap
THE THERMALS - Desperate Ground
BRITISH SEA POWER - Machineries of Joy
COLD WAR KIDS - Dear Miss Lonelyhearts
!!! - Thr!!!er
PHOENIX - Bankrupt!
LA FEMME - Pycho Tropical Berlin
CHARLI XCX - True Romance
GHOSTFACE KILLAH AND ADRIAN YOUNGE - Twelve Reasons to Die
TYLER, THE CREATOR - Wolf
THE HAXAN CLOAK - Excavation
WOLF EYES - No Answer : Lower Floors
KINSKI - Cosy Moments
THE BESNARD LAKES - Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO
BORN RUFFIANS - Birthmarks
UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS - Mind Control
MICK HARVEY - Four (Acts of Love)
IGGY AND THE STOOGES - Ready To Die
A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS - Strange Moon
STEPHEN MALKMUS AND FRIENDS - Can's Ege Bamyasi
RILO KILEY - Rkives

Singles & EPs

NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS - Animal X
THE FALL - Sir William Wray
YEAH YEAH YEAHS - Sacrilege
THE STROKES - All The Time
IRON & WINE - Next to Paradise / Dirty Dream
THE PASTELS - Check My Heart
KIDS ON A CRIME SPREE - Creep The Creeps
TAME IMPALA - Mind Mischief
ANIKA - Anika EP
FACTORY FLOOR AND PETER GORDON - Beachcombing / C Side
GUIDED BY VOICES - Noble Insect / Waves Of Gray / See You Soon
FUZZ - Sleigh Ride 
DIRTY PROJECTORS - The Socialites (Joe Goddard Remix)
PHOENIX - Entertainment
PALMA VIOLETS - We Found Love
COLD CAVE - Oceans With No End
MARIA MINERVA - Bless EP 
THE LIMINANAS - La Fille De La Ligne 15
WAMPIRE - The Hearse
HAIM - Falling
DAUGHTER - Human
PULP - After You
MGMT - Alien Days
BEST COAST - Fear Of My Identity / Who Have I Become
THE HOLD STEADY - Criminal Fingers
SUPERCHUNK - Void / Faith
SURFER BLOOD - Demon Dance
MOBY & MARK LANEGAN - The Lonely Night
THE JOY FORMIDABLE - A Minute's Silence
SHEARWATER AND SHARON VAN ETTEN - Stop Draggin' My Heart Around / A Wake for the Minotaur
WISE LINES - Ahead EP

And here you can stream one of the most anticipated releases of May, Savages' debut album "Silence Yourself", which comes out next week. I think we've just found 2013's Debut of the Year:

The Hit List: April 2013

The already long list of April's fine new releases just got longer with yesterday's Record Store Day goodies. Time, then, for a new Hit List including some of our current favorite tracks and, among them, three Record Store Day 2013 releases that stand out:

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Animal X

The one Record Store Day 2013 release that I currently own, the 7" picture disc of Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds' new single "Animal X", which, surprisingly, was available in Athens' record shops a week earlier than the rest of the world. The track was recorded in France during the recording sessions for "Push The Sky Away" and it's not on the album, although it's definitely one of the best Bad Seeds tracks of the year.

The Fall - Sir William Wray

Fall fans rejoice! Album number 30, titled "Re-Mit", is on its way and "Sir William Wray" was released as a 7" single on Record Store Day to whet our appetite. The single also includes "Hittite Man", another track from the forthcoming album (both are alternate versions on this release), plus the exclusive "Jetplane", a very good reason to try to track down this limited edition single.

A Place To Bury Strangers - Don't Burn the Fires

A Place To Bury Strangers have released a special EP full of Dead Moon covers for Record Store Day 2013 titled "Strange Moon". "Don't Burn the Fires" is the track that opens the record and if you'd like to find out more about Dead Moon, I would recommend to start with the Sub Pop compilation "Echoes of the Past", which I've been listening to again this week thanks to the APTBS release.

Our April Hit List closes with three excellent singles taken from our current favorite new albums, "Mosquito" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Shaking The Habitual" by The Knife and The Black Angels' "Indigo Meadow". More about them soon...

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Sacrilege
 

The Knife - A Tooth for an Eye

The Black Angels - Don't Play With Guns

Found Sound Vol.8: Dead Leaf Echo, Slowness, Kabul Golf Club, Red Traces, Sonen, Hectic Zeniths, Gypsy Eyes

In the Found Sound series of posts we bring you the most interesting music submissions we receive and since our inbox is currently filled with them, it is time for Volume 8. Check out below stand out tracks from new releases by Dead Leaf Echo, Slowness, Kabul Golf Club, Red Traces, Sonen, Hectic Zeniths and Gypsy Eyes:

Dead Leaf Echo - Memorytraces ("Thought & Language" LP)

Dead Leaf Echo, from Brooklyn, New York, have just released digitally their debut LP "Thought and Language" (listen and download here). Its 11 tracks bring together the early '90s shoegaze sound of bands like Catherine Wheel or Chapterhouse with the ethereal aesthetic of the 4AD sound of the same period. The 4AD influence goes further as the album was mixed by John Fryer (who has worked, among others, with Lush) while the artwork is by Vaughan Oliver, the label's legendary designer. A free download of album highlight "Memorytraces" is available here.

Slowness - Calm & Dispel ("For Those Who Wish to See the Glass Half Full" LP)

More dream-pop with a fondness for that early '90s sound, this time from San Francisco. Slowness (who have shared a split single with kindred spirits Dead Leaf Echo in the recent past) released their debut album "For Those Who Wish to See the Glass Half Full" last month on Blue Aurora Audio, with production from Weekend and The Soft Moon collaborator Monte Vallier and mastering by Kramer (Low, Galaxie 500, Bongwater). You can listen and purchase the eight-song LP (which was among our 12 favorites in the most recent Listening Habits post)  here.

Kabul Golf Club - Demon Days ("Le Bal Du Rat Mort" EP)



Explosive punk rock from Belgium that follows in the footsteps of bands like The Jesus Lizard and At The Drive-In. "Le Bal Du Rat Mort" is the debut EP from Kabul Golf Club and features five prime examples of highly energetic, lightning-fast noise rock. Listen to all of them here.

Red Traces - Once Were



Red Traces is led by Los Angeles-based musician Albert Ovadia. The single "Once Were" which brings to mind the atmospheric rock of Blonde Redhead, is produced by Erix S. Laurent (who records his own music under the name Teepee) and is the promising first sample that we get from their forthcoming debut album.

Sonen - Two of You ("Inside the Sun" LP)

SONEN "Two of You" from Sonen Music on Vimeo.

Orgiastic electropop from Atlanta, Georgia, from Sonen, a duo made up of Keith Evans and Holly Mullinax. The band's debut full-length "Inside the Sun" was released on April 9th and you can listen to it in full here.

Hectic Zeniths - Beau Geste ("Type One Era" EP)



"Type One Era" is the new EP from multi-instrumentalist Adam Morgan Prince who records his atmospheric electronic music under the name Hectic Zeniths. You can check out the whole EP, which features collaborations with Brooklyn singer/songwriter Eric Lindley and rapper Sketch Lightly, here.

Gypsy Eyes - REM EP



Debut EP from Gypsy Eyes on Noise Met Sound, the newly founded label by DIY electronic artist LAw. You can download it for free or pay what you can here.

The Soft Moon, live @ Gagarin 205 (Athens, April 05, 2013)

 

And out of a thick fog of dry ice came The Soft Moon... Luis Vasquez with his band made his live debut in Athens in an almost packed Gagarin 205 club to present us the two Soft Moon albums which have become underground hits in Greece despite the fact that they were never officially released here. Another proof of the power of the internet and the insignificance of physical record sales.

For almost an hour, the San Francisco trio evoked the darkest spirits of late '70s - early '80s post-punk with some of the finest songs to be found in "The Soft Moon" and "Zeroes", the two albums that songwriter Louis Vasquez has written and recorded by himself. Aided by bassist Justin Anastasi and drummer Keven Tecon, Vasquez is able to give his songs a gripping live presentation, where the classic guitar-bass-drums rock trinity mixes well with synth and electronic music elements.

Vasquez on guitar, synthesizer and percussion gives an energized performance, while his yelps (more frequent than his actual singing) bring to mind Suicide's Alan Vega. The music uses repetition to build up the tension, while the metronomic rhythms and muscular bass lines create a spiraling groove, driving the songs in a seemingly never-ending cycle. A few of the less strong compositions may veer towards the monotonous, but the overall effect is powerful and hypnotizing. The light of The Soft Moon shines brightly through post-punk's darkest shadows.

Here's "We Are We", one of the highlights of The Soft Moon's performance at Gagarin 205:

The Soft Moon - We Are We (live @ Gagarin 205, Athens, April 5, 2013)

The Men, live @ An Club (Athens, March 31, 2013)

These Men are really working and playing hard. In the 13 months since the last time we've seen them live in Athens, The Men have released two albums that showcase a restless spirit and an ever evolving sound. The anarchic noise punk of 2011's "Leave Home" gave way to the more structured assault of "Open Your Heart", last year's release which showed them opening up their sound to include a wider range of influences, from krautrock to country rock. This year's "New Moon", the band's fourth LP in as many years, focuses more on their inner Neil Young without losing touch with their punk rock roots.

Sunday's highly charged set drew mainly from The Men's last two albums, featuring several of the band's more folk rocking tunes. In the live environment though, even the "ballads" raised the decibel levels to dangerous limits, while their all-out punk rocking tunes were even louder, faster and dirtier.

Based on what we've witnessed here, any fears that The Men might start growing their beards and do a reverse-Dylan by switching to acoustic guitars have been put to rest, at least for the time being. It's still anybody's guess, though, what will they be up to next. My guess would be something very loud and extremely noisy!

Check out below "I Saw Her Face", one of the highlights from The Men's performance at An Club:

The Men -  Saw Her Face (live @ An Club, Athens, March 31, 2013)

Support came from the 60's influenced garage rockers Social End Products and the back-to-basics noise rockers Rita Mosss who did their best to warm up our ears for The Men's onslaught.