Las Robertas - "Everything I Wanted to Be"

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Photo by Sofia Seguar

Las Robertas are a Costa Rica based band, and they just released a brand new single. "Everything I Wanted to Be" shows off their 60's psychedelic meets shoegaze sound. The song has a light and hazy feel, with the fuzz of shoegaze coming across in an almost sunny way. By going back to the 60's and psychedelia, Las Robertas have evolved shoegaze into yet another style. The band's influences include The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Lush, and Ride, and those will all be evident with "Everything I Wanted to Be." A lot of shoegaze these days tends to be mixed with pop or a heavier sound, but Las Robertas are moving it in a completely different direction. Something tells me we're going to end up being diehard fans by the time their album comes out.

You can watch the video for "Everything I Wanted to Be" below. All We Need Is Now is due out June 26 on Kanine Records and Spinda Records, and is available for pre-order here. For more on Las Robertas, check out the band on Instagram and Facebook.

On Repeat...

Rocket - "Wide Awake"

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Photo by Tanner Deutsch Rocket have been making 90's inspired alt-rock, but their latest single ups the ante on that sound. "Wide Awake" is a mixture of shoegaze fuzz and the more jagged style of guitars that made me love Sonic Youth. Singer/bassist Alithea Tuttle's vocals have a dreamlike quality suited to dream pop or shoegaze, which contrasts delightfully with the more aggressive parts of the song. Despite not truly sounding like a song made in the 90's, "Wide Awake" has so many elements of that decade to give you little bursts of nostalgia. Plus, the video for the song is like a cross between Blur's "Charmless Man" and Beastie Boys' "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)," in case you need a little more nostalgia thrown in. Rocket say of their new single: “R is for Rocket is about relationships, the most important part of life; relationships with your friends, your parents, your girlfriend or boyfriend, and most impo...
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Yawn Mower - "Rascal"

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Photo by Mary Dorsi Asbury Park's Yawn Mower had two goals for their upcoming album. First, after playing their hometown's Sea.Hear.Now festival, they wanted to write songs that worked on a larger stage. Second, they wanted the album to be their Pinkerton , "A raw, rough around the edges, noisier follow up to [their] debut album." The first song from that album is "Rascal," a song partly about the kids of their friends and family. It's a fun track that includes lines like "Here he comes now what a little asshole." It's a quirky and noisy indie rock track that reminds me of an edgier Fountains of Wayne. As anti-kid as the song may seem, you can tell it's not done seriously and there is a ton of love behind the track. Vocalist/guitarist Mike Chick says of the band's upcoming album: “While Dana Yurcisin (bass), Rudy Meier (guitar),  and Nicole Scorsone (violin) have certainly helped fill out past releases, this was the first time that ...
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Ken's Best of 2023 - #6: Lydia Loveless - Nothing's Gonna Stand in My Way Again

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Continuing 2023's theme of bands leveling up with new albums is Lydia Loveless' Nothing's Gonna Stand in My Way Again. Somewhere else was my favorite album of 2014, and while I've enjoyed her releases in between, nothing Loveless has released has quite connected with me that way since. This new album comes pretty close, though. Loveless has all but abandoned her early alt-country sound and has recently picked up a more pop friendly sound. Nothing's Gonna Stand in My Way Again  finds this great middle ground. A song like "Sex and Money" is nearly pure pop, but with more of an indie rock edge to it. What makes this album so great is how it's a purely unique blend of pop, indie rock, punk, and alt-country. "Feel" is a song that is as beautiful as it is discordant. Loveless' vocals have never sounded better, but musically the song is more art and noise rock than anything they've done previously. "Toothache" is power pop, and ...
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