Listening Habits: Summer 2018

We’re closing the summer period with the presentation of the new records and reissues that we’ve been listening to the most during this hot season.

At the two top positions of our album list we have a couple of the best releases of 2018 so far, the seventh Beach House LP simply titled "7" and the debut full-length by Australian indie-rockers Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, the excellent "Hope Downs". 

Rolling Blackouts C. F. had already shown us what they are capable of with their first two EPs and especially last year’s stunning Sub Pop debut "The French Press". On "Hope Downs", their Go-Betweens-style pop craftsmanship, bolstered by jangling, multilayered guitars, continues to shine for the duration of 10 excellent tracks that solidify the band’s position as one of the brightest hopes for guitar-rock in an era that the genre desperately needs it.

Meanwhile, the dream-pop journey of Beach House continues and amazingly they seem to keep getting better, slowly evolving and perfecting their sound. Their seventh album in twelve years is undoubtedly one of the highlights of their career so far, successfully mixing contemporary dance-pop elements to their sweet psychedelic swirling sound, while the collaboration with Sonic Boom who took on production duties, proved to be fruitful, balancing perfectly all elements and influences that make up the sound of "7".

The Sub Pop hat trick at the top of our Top 16 Albums list is concluded with another indie-pop gem by Frankie Cosmos, the excellent "Vessel", a record full of melodic, perfectly-formed pop vignettes that stick to your mind despite of (or maybe because of) their brevity.

Other notable entries in our Summer list include "Lush", the debut Snail Mail album that showcases the songwriting and guitar playing talents of 19-year old Lindsey Jordan (who is certainly making her guitar teacher Mary Timony proud), the manic indie-rock thrills of "Snares Like A Haircut" by No Age, the always fine dance-pop experiments of Gang Gang Dance in "Kazuashita", the return of '90s favorites Belly with "Dove", the first LP in 23 years for Tanya Donelly’s successful project after her tenure in Throwing Muses and The Breeders, and the new records by Speedy Ortiz and Soccer Mommy who follow in the path that Belly and their contemporaries created back in the '90s.

And talking about influential bands, a recent reissue that should not go unnoticed is the box set "Seeing The Unseeable: The Complete Studio Recordings Of The Flaming Lips 1986-1990", including the first four Flaming Lips albums on Restless Records plus two more CDs of B-sides and rarities from the first period of the Oklahoma rock mavericks. Essential listening!

Top 16 Albums

1.   Hope Downs - ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER
2.   7 - BEACH HOUSE
3.   Vessel - FRANKIE COSMOS
4.   Lush - SNAIL MAIL
5.   Snares Like A Haircut - NO AGE
6.   Kazuashita - GANG GANG DANCE
7.   Dove - BELLY
8.   Twerp Verse - SPEEDY ORTIZ
9.   Clean - SOCCER MOMMY
10. Rebound - ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER
11. Joy - TY SEGALL & WHITE FENCE
12. V. - WOODEN SHJIPS
13. Marble Skies - DJANGO DJANGO
14. Consolation E.P. - PROTOMARTYR
15. Seeing The Unseeable: The Complete Studio Recordings Of The Flaming Lips 1986-1990 - THE FLAMING LIPS
16. Made To Be Broken (reissue) - SOUL ASYLUM

Top 15 Tracks

1.   An Air Conditioned Man - ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER
2.   Lemon Glow - BEACH HOUSE
3.   Shiny One - BELLY
4.   Heat Wave - SNAIL MAIL
5.   Your Dog - SOCCER MOMMY
6.   Apathy - FRANKIE COSMOS
7.   Wheel of Fortune (feat. Kelley Deal) - PROTOMARTYR
8.   Popper - NO AGE
9.   Lotus - GANG GANG DANCE
10. Surface to Air (feat. Self Esteem) - DJANGO DJANGO
11. Fast Slow Disco - ST. VINCENT
12. Lucky 88 - SPEEDY ORTIZ
13. In Between Stars - ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER
14. Body Behavior - TY SEGALL & WHITE FENCE
15. Red Line - WOODEN SHJIPS

New Releases: March 2018

Round-up of the most interesting albums, singles and EP's released in March 2018:

Albums

All Nerve

THE BREEDERS - All Nerve
HOT SNAKES - Jericho Sirens
YO LA TENGO - There's a Riot Going On
FRANKIE COSMOS - Vessel
SOCCER MOMMY - Clean
THE DECEMBERISTS - I'll Be Your Girl
JACK WHITE - Boarding House Reach
SUNFLOWER BEAN - Twentytwo in Blue
PREOCCUPATIONS - New Material
SUUNS - Felt
ONEIDA - Romance
THE MEN - Drift
GUIDED BY VOICES - Space Gun
CAVERN OF ANTI MATTER - Hormone Lemonade
THE SHACKS - Haze
SUPERORGANISM - Superorganism
AMEN DUNES - Freedom
ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF - Dead Magic
THE VOIDZ - Virtue
ALBERT HAMMOND JR - Francis Trouble
DAVID BYRNE - American Utopia
OF MONTREAL - White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood
BUFFALO TOM - Quiet and Peace
TITUS ANDRONICUS - A Productive Cough
NIGHTMARE AIR - Fade Out
MOANING - Moaning
ROLO TOMASSI - Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It
ALICE BAG - Blueprint
LUCY DACUS - Historian
GWENNO - Le Kov
TRACEY THORN - Record
CZARFACE AND MF DOOM - Czarface Meets Metal Face
YOUNG FATHERS - Cocoa Sugar
EDITORS - Violence
THE VACCINES - Combat Sports
MOUNT EERIE - Now Only
THIRD EYE FOUNDATION - Wake the Dead
DEAD MEADOW - The Nothing They Need
MONSTER MAGNET - Mindfucker
CREEP SHOW - Mr Dynamite

Singles & EPs

The Man

GOAT GIRL - The Man
THE KILLS - List of Demands (Reparations)
DJANGO DJANGO - Surface To Air
MORRISSEY - My Love, I'd Do Anything for You
PALEHOUND - YMCA Pool / Sea Of Blood
LOST GIRLS - Feeling EP
DUNGEN AND WOODS - Myths 003 EP 
NOEL GALLAGHER'S HIGH FLYING BIRDS - It's A Beautiful World
BEN FROST - All That You Love Will Be Eviscerated
SMERZ - Have Fun EP
HOLLOW HAND - Blackberry Wine
PILLOW QUEENS - State of the State
DETOX TWINS - In the Hospital Garden / Transformation
THE HOWL AND THE HUM - Potrait I 
PALE KIDS - Hesitater EP
WAX CHATTELS - Stay Disappointed 
SLOW RIOT - Voyeur / Burn in the City  
LAZY DAY - Weird Cool 
WHENYOUNG - Pretty Pure / The Collector
THE BLIND SHAKE / THE HIPSHAKES - Broad Daylight / Giddy

Frankie Cosmos - Jesse

January - February 2018 Playlist

We had several excellent new releases lately and there is a lot more cool new music coming our way in the next few weeks. Check out below 10 of the best new tracks that made their debut in the first couple of months of 2018:

Courtney Barnett - Nameless, Faceless (from the album "Tell Me How You Really Feel", coming in May)

Beach House - Lemon Glow

U.S. Girls - Rosebud (from the album "In A Poem Unlimited", out this week)

Belly - Shiny One (from the upcoming album "DOVE", the band's first in 23 years)

Car Seat Headrest - Nervous Young Inhumans (from the album "Twin Fantasy")

Frankie Cosmos - Being Alive (from the album "Vessel", coming at the end of March)

 Wye Oak - The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs (from the album "The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs", out in April)

 The Decemberists - Severed (from the album "I'll Be Your Girl" out in March)

Dream Wife - Hey Heartbreaker (from their eponymous debut album)

Goat Girl - The Man (from their eponymous debut album, out in April)

Listening Habits 05-06.2016

At the top of the list of our favorite albums for May - June 2016 we have Parquet Courts' "Human Performance", perhaps the best effort yet for the New York-based indie rockers who have had an excellent run in the last 4 years, offering us a string of outstanding releases starting with 2012' "Light Up Gold".

The same can be said for Woods, also from the Big Apple, who recently released their 9th album "City Sun Eater in the River of Light". Woods have been supplying us with an awesome blend of folk and psych rock for several years now and their latest effort finds them in top form, picking up right where they left off with 2014's excellent "With Light and with Love".

It's no alarm and no surprise that Radiohead's return is also among the best releases of the last couple of months, and the same is true for Bob Mould and Kristin Hersh's 50 Foot Wave, who both add terrific new chapters to an outstanding legacy that goes all the way back to the '80s and two of our all-time favorite bands, Hüsker Dü and Throwing Muses respectively.

We did have a few surprises lately though and perhaps the best one came from The Coral whose "Distance Inbetween" is not only their best job since resurfacing a few years ago, but also a record that can compete with their mid '00s output for the honor of being named their best effort yet.

White Lung have given us evidence in the past that they can rock as inspiredly hard as their '90s indie rock heroes and "Paradise" adds more fuel to their fire, while Frankie Cosmos, aka singer-songwriter Greta Simone Kline, excels at the two-minute pop song, singing elaborate tales that you simply cannot believe how they all have fitted in the brief but wonderful 28 minutes of her new album "Next Thing".

Lots more great staff on offer recently as you can see in our Top 15 Albums list below. Have a listen and make sure to pay us a visit next week to see what will make it in our Top 30 list for the first half of 2016.

Top 15 Albums

 1.  Human Performance - PARQUET COURTS
2.  City Sun Eater In The River Of Light - WOODS
3.  A Moon Shaped Pool - RADIOHEAD
4.  Distance Inbetween - THE CORAL
5.  Next Thing - FRANKIE COSMOS
6.  Paradise - WHITE LUNG
7.  Bath White EP - 50 FOOT WAVE
8.  Patch The Sky - BOB MOULD
9.  Strangers - MARISSA NADLER
10. Funs Cool - THE PRETTIOTS
11. Chaosmosis - PRIMAL SCREAM
12. Kin - THE DUKE SPIRIT
13. Hold/Still - SUUNS
14. Stiff - WHITE DENIM
15. Punk 45: Chaos in the City of Angels and Devils. Hollywood From X To Zero & Hardcore On The Beaches: Punk In Los Angeles 1977-81 - VARIOUS ARTISTS

Top 15 Tracks

1.  Sun City Creeps - WOODS
2.  Burn The Witch - RADIOHEAD
3.  Chasing The Tail Of A Dream - THE CORAL
4.  Dust - PARQUET COURTS
5.  Bath White - 50 FOOT WAVE
6.  Dead Weight - WHITE LUNG
7.  The End Of Things - BOB MOULD
8.  Sinister - FRANKIE COSMOS
9.  Janie In Love - MARISSA NADLER
10. Where The Light Gets In - PRIMAL SCREAM
11. Hands - THE DUKE SPIRIT
12. Stabler - THE PRETTIOTS
13. Real Deal Momma - WHITE DENIM
14. Translate - SUUNS
15. Female Vampire - JENNY HVAL

 Parquet Courts - Dust