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bear mountain

24 May

Yuba

Today’s Indie: Congo / Bear Mountain

Rhythm. Soul. Congo. I present the track to send you off into your three day weekend, wherever it may take you, a song that radiates the art of feeling good so perfectly that it drives tingles from your fingers to your tapping toes. Steady tribal beats meet a choppy chorus and the perfect blend of synth pop, made complete by Ian Bevis’ distinct and captivating vocals. Bear Mountain is comprised of Vancouver BC’s Bevis and friend Kyle Stratham, and what started as a pet project has turned into an official album release this week, XO, via Last Gang Records. They remind me of Tanlines meets Passion Pit, with loads more restraint, and I have been getting lost in the album and smiling to myself all morning.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and have a wonderful safe long weekend. We are unplugging and heading up to camp along the Yuba River in Northern Tahoe, captured above. #indie/tory

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we’re up all night to get lucky

21 May

Today’s Indie: Get Lucky / Daughter (Daft Punk cover)

‘so let’s raise the bar / and our cups to the stars’

London trio Daughter take on Daft Punk’s first single off of Random Access Memories, and the result is an unlikely cover of an inescapable song. The hushed yet fierce vocals of Daughter’s Elena Tonra from the band’s BBC Radio One Live Lounge performance captivated my ears, like just about everything that she sings. As a bonus track, here is Atlas Genius’ take on the same tune.

#indie/tory

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one day

17 May

Today’s Indie: One Day – Reckoning Song (Wankelmut remix) / Asaf Avidan & The Mojos

‘one day baby we’ll be old, oh baby we’ll be old / think about all the stories that we coulda told’

Well we made it to Friday so here is some indie to put a pop into your step as you head into your weekends, a great rework on a song by Israeli folk rock band Asaf Avidan and the Mojos.

It is hard to avoid the recurring chorus of ‘one day baby we’ll be old’ in this track, and songs that focus on the inevitability of the passing of time and our circling around the sun can sometimes cause a fear in me, or a lump in the back of my throat. Yet this one makes me want to get on my feet / dance / run / move / live in the moment in a brilliant way… one day we will be old, let’s have some stories to tell. #indie / tory

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justin townes earle

10 May

Today’s Indie: Am I that Lonely Tonight / Justin Townes Earle

Wont be the Last Time / Justin Townes Earle

‘maybe I broke myself a promise / that I never meant to keep / it won’t be the last time’

Am I That Lonely Tonight starts with, ‘I hear my father on the radio / singin’ “Take Me Home Again” … sometimes I wish I could just get away / sometimes I wish that he’d just call.’ Having a thrice Grammy winning father will do that to you, and the proceeding tracks of the album Nothings Going to Change the Way You Feel About Me Now follow a somber ripple of Justin Townes Earle’s revelations, as he weaves his words brilliantly through addictions and breakups and really, really bad nights.

While there are some great foot tappers interspersed throughout like Baby’s Got a Bad Idea, I am drawn to the slow the world down tracks on the album, with intimate storytelling that feels like it was made to be heard when you are curled up on the couch on a dreary day, taking in the quiet comfort of the rain. Special shout out to the darling Kristen for sharing. Happy Friday. #indie/tory

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kodaline

3 May

Kodaline

Today’s Indie: All I Want / Kodaline

‘all I want is nothing more / than to hear you knocking at my door’

Sometimes we miss things the first time around in this life. For every time we can be at the right place and right time to find something or someone or a song, we can be at the wrong place. Such is the case with these two Kodaline tracks, although my “wrong place” was not wrong at all, but rather the sun strewn sands of Thai islands wrapping up our Asia trip last December. Still the world of coulda-woulda-shoulda and FOMO (fear of missing out) is an everyday part of being a music lover; what if you pass your next favorite artist on the street, make eye contact and walk on by?

Thankfully my second chance for Kodaline came from a friend sharing a killer “Best of SXSW” playlist  this week, which included All I Want.  I apparently also have been living under a rock that would have eventually hit me on the head anyway because the Irish foursome’s track was featured in Google’s 2012 Zeitgeist video.

Still I am happy I found these tracks when I have – All I Want starts with the stripped down earnest emotions of high schooler’s poem on love gone wrong before building into something soaring and stirring, and this take on All My Friends instantly put me back to a few springs ago, driving into a desert with my best friends.

All My Friends / Kodaline (LCD Soundsystem cover)

‘you spend the first five years trying to get with the plan / and the next five years trying to be with your friends again’

#indie/tory

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poet’s row

18 Apr

Today’s Indie: Delivery Shirt Press (Pirate’s Song) / Poet’s Row

‘hot shower then get dressed / but there is tightness in your chest’

Heartfelt Folk. Colorado trifecta Poet’s Row have self defined their genre as such and for the most part it suits them well, but it is the little bite to the vocals of Delivery Shirt Press that got my attention on first listen yesterday. Their sound (impressively) evokes pieces of  Colorado cousins Elephant Revival and The Lumineers with a side of Austin’s Wild Child, and I find myself swaying along as I type away about it. You can hear more from this fledgling folk trio and buy their self titled album which was released this March on bandcamp. Hope to be hearing more from them soon! #indie / tory

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loving every minute ’cause you make me feel so alive

16 Apr

photo (1)

Today’s Indie: Alive / Empire of the Sun

Here is something bright and cheery to warm things up after my bit-of-a-downer post on The National last week – a song with such a catchy and glee-filled chorus that it is impossible not to instantly take note and smile. Even Lilly, the dog we have been watching this week, perked up her ears and cracked a big smile on hearing this (after she got over her initial annoyance at me for lifting her out of her puppy dreams).

Alive comes from the zany Australian duo Empire of the Sun, who have  a new album, Ice on the Dunes, coming out on June 17th on EMI. If the rest of it sounds anything like this initial taste, they are lined up for another hit.  Repeat. repeat, repeat. #indie/tory

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demons

9 Apr

Today’s Indie: Demons / The National

‘when I walk into a room / I do not light it up / fuck’

I woke up on this sleepy Tuesday morning elated to find a new track from one of my favorite bands ready for me to devour, but, alas, my elation simmered back down to sleepiness after a listen. While The National has never been known for tearing down a house or slinging catching choruses, and I love them for it, Demons still feels lackluster relative to their other work – a little too monotone, a little too heavy. It is a brave take on dark subject matter (‘I do my crying underwater, I can’t get down any farther’ ) but Demons is just landing me down with its sentiment instead of stirring something up inside of me.

I am still happy to hear Matt’s signature baritone tackle any new material, but I am hoping the rest of forthcoming album, Trouble Will Find Me, due out May 21st, has more of a pull. When Terrible Love came out, it kept me up for days. #indie/tory

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medicine

5 Apr

Today’s Indie: Medicine  / Daughter

‘you could still be what you want to be / what you said you were when you met me’

In this week’s This American Life podcast, one of the contributors, Andrea Seigel, tells a story about how she has spent her life wired to experience ecstatic brain tinging sensations when she hears soothing voices and sounds because of a biological phenomenon known as ASMR. Random, I know. But I love how she describes the sensation she experiences: “I’d get this tingling throughout my skull… like starbursts in my head, starbursts that open on the crown and then sparkle down to the nape, like this warm glittering water rushing under your scalp.”

While I don’t have any sharp heightened brain activity around sound the way it sounds like folks with with ASMR do, I am lovingly familiar with the more subtle influences it can have on my psyche: a rolling wave of calm, an induced deep breath, a longer-than-usual blink to recharge the eyes and soul. The beautiful vocal’s of Daughter’s Elena Tonra have such an effect, and the melancholy sound of Medicine highlights them at their finest. I continue to be transfixed by this British English folk trio since I came across the wonderful song Candles a couple Christmases ago.

Since it IS Friday, I will also share the remix that brought me back to this track in the first place, a great spin by Chainsmokers.

Bonus Track: Medicine / Daughter (The Chainsmokers remix) 

#indie/tory

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the tropics 2.0

2 Apr

Today’s Indie: Sons and Daughters / The Tropics

‘and oh, oh how we played / oh, oh we should have stayed’

I am delighted to share the newest song from The Tropics, my friend Eric’s band who I introduced last summer with their tracks Running Man and Sleepless. I have heard Sons and Daughters on several occasions live and have been dying to get my hands on a version to play at home on any whim, and here it is: a restless, steady burning track that rustles up bundles of nostalgia for the simpler times in life growing up.

The Tropics’ front lady is Claire George, a 23 year old with an amazing and distinct voice that reminds me of the fierce yet birdlike singing of The Head and the Heart’s Charity Rose Thielien, with the edge of Of Monsters and Men’s Nanna Bryndis Himarsdottir. Her sound met with Eric’s guitar rocking, poncho wearing, mane tossing presence on stage makes for a wonderful performance, and the band has been headlining SF staples of the likes of Bottom of the Hill and Boom Boom Room this winter and spring. You can see one of their shows here and you can download their tracks on Bandcamp here.

This my be my least unbiased post of all time, but trust me on this one anyway. You wont regret it. #indie/tory

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