If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Jenna Foxton UK band Shopping have a great sound that borrows a lot from 70s post punk bands, but still somehow sound fresh. They have a minimalist and aggressive approach from Gang of Four, but the fun of Devo and The B-52s. Their current single, "In Other Words," starts off with a full minute of nothing but a sparse drum beat that sounds like a drum machine and a single new wave surf guitar, before exploding into a frenzy of simple noise, seemingly without adding instruments. Over this are dueling call and response vocals which create a haunting effect, while still being a fun song you can dance to. Shopping self-released their first album in the UK. After selling out almost immediately, they signed to FatCat Records to give Consumer Complaints a US release on May 26. Later this year, Shopping will release their follow up album.  For more information on Shopping, like them on Facebook  or follow them on Twitter . You can also pre-order Consumer Complaints o...

Another busy week combined with a really crazy release schedule means another two day look at the new releases. Here's round one: Torres - Sprinter : Torres is back with a new album that has a tremendous amount of buzz around it. Sprinter , for sure, is miles ahead of her previous effort and also mostly living up to the hype. The album still lacks the sort of hooks that you might be looking for in an indie singer-songwriter record on first listen, but if you're looking for anything a little more complicated, this one is absolutely worth the look. Tracey Thorn - Songs From The Fallen : Tracey Thorn offers up an EP-length companion to the film The Fallen . It ends up being pretty light on most everything, and there isn't much to say on any part as a result. Lyrics Born - Real People : This one was a bit of a head-scratcher for me on a whole, a very strange listen that doesn't make a ton of sense on its own unless, I suppose, this is something you're really i...

Tame Impala is a band I've often struggled to get into, but their new song, "Let It Happen," is getting a lot of buzz, largely due to its dancefloor-style beat and such. Whether "Let It Happen" could be a breakout of sorts remains to be seen, but this is a pretty solid new song out this year.

Besides free music, we also love free concerts. Luckily, being in the Boston area offers a ton of choices. This weekend was the first truly nice weekend since October, and it just happened to be the Harvard Square Mayfair. Harvard Square gets shut down, and they set up vendors and artisans, and multiple live music stages. Club Passim has always had a curated stage, and this year the Sinclair set up 2. It's a great day of street food and live music. Here are some of the musical highlights from 2015 (watched in between shoveling Indian food, barbecue, and ice cream into my face). Photo by Ken Sears The Funeral Advantage I only caught a few of theirs songs, but holy heavily influenced by the Smiths. I don't mean that as a dig at all, just stating an observation. They sounded so much like the Smiths I kept wondering if they were covering the Smiths, which they weren't. Even when they covered the Cure's "Just Like Heaven," it sounded like the Smiths coverin...

I still have a lot of trouble taking modern dubstep seriously, but every so often a group comes along that just hits a few of the right spots for me. Pegboard Nerds did a song that my two year old son actually developed a strange dance routine for, so I'm always looking out for new stuff from them. While Dash isn't so into "Try This," the song does remind me a lot of when The Propellerheads did the James Bond theme, or when Orbital was doing the soundtrack for The Saint . This belongs in some sort of bizarre spy movie, plain and simple. The main riff just won't leave my head.

One of our favorite bands since we started this blog, Mean Creek , have decided to call it a day after 10 years. The band issued a statement over on Vanyaland  yesterday, blaming the struggles of being an independent band that the music industry couldn't categorize. It's a shame that bands that reach the very edge of blowing up on the mainstream can have such a hard time cresting that without giving up what they want to be. As it says on their statement: "We are not a brand. We are a band." And a really goddamn great one, at that. This news would probably be easier to take if the final song released by Mean Creek was terrible, but "Forgotten Streets" is one of their best with their gritty, hyped up 90s and beyond sound. Usually goodbye songs tend to be of the schmaltzy and sappy variety (think Motley Crue's "Home Sweet Home" or Ozzy's "Mama I'm Coming Home"). Instead, "Forgotten Streets" is like if Motley Crue dr...

I don't know how or when I learned of this song. Is it kind of chillwave? Is this what we call chillwave? No idea, but St. South is a new artist for me and this is a song that I've been hooked on for close to a month now. It's really quiet and understated (especially for an electronic piece), for sure, but there's something that just stays burrowed in my head about it. This won't be for everyone, but it might just be for you.

Photo via Imaad Wasif's Facebook Get ready for an indie rock supergroup that may never do anything besides these two songs. Lou Barlow (Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr) has re-teamed with Imaad Wasif, his ex-New Folk Implosion bandmate (who was also in Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and Melvins' drummer to form Tres Padres. Lou Barlow posted two unreleased songs on YouTube and wrote on his Facebook:  i recorded a couple of songs with Imaad Wasif and  Dale Crover  about two years ago at 606 studios ( home of the Foo FIghters ) ..it was meant to be for a benefit 7" which has yet to be released.. in the meantime i've made quick vids for both of the tracks so's you can hear what we did before it possibly vanishes in the haze..  the session was simultaneously documented for a possible pilot for a possible Foo Fighters related documentary series.. haven't heard much about that either The songs sound like a Sebadoh/Melvins mash-up, which is pure heaven to me. You get Lou Barlow's m...

I didn't originally plan to head out to this show, but once Ben Deily announced it would be the final Varsity Drag performance, I had to head out to it. Ben Deily is one of the most underrated songwriters out there today, so when he decides to stop a musical project, you have to make the time to go see it. Varsity Drag's set was pretty much perfect. They opened with favorites "Skinny Ties" and "Summertime." "Summertime" is such a perfect summer song, it fit for the show to be on one of the first amazing spring days of the year. They even played five of Ben's Lemonheads songs in a row (the most I've ever seen them perform in one show), including "Two Weeks In Another Town," "7 Powers," "Ever," and "Second Chance." Oddly enough, there was no mention at any point about this being a final show. They kept the stage banter light and playful. They closed with "Billy Ruane," which was originally...

  I haven't ever really been able to get into Toro Y Moi, mainly because he tends to veer more toward the experimental for my liking. I heard this one on Song Exploder , however, and it turns out that at least this song works for me in a lot of good ways. It's very Of Montreal-esque in parts, breezy but still a little weird, well-produced while still feeling a little lo-fi. Definitely one I've kept in my rotation for a while now.

I wasn't so fond of the latest album by The Mountain Goats, but there were a few good songs in there. One of them is "Foreign Object," which fans of professional wrestling should warm to immediately. Nowaways, with the rise and fall of ECW and an "Extreme Rules" and "Tables, Ladders, and Chairs" event yearly, the idea of worrying about foreign objects in a wrestling ring isn't so pronounced, but I remember it being a Big Deal, and so does John Darnielle. The horns give it a bit of a jaunty lift, and it ends up being a standout track.

Today's song is the new single from Janelle Monae, "Yoga." Seeing as I typically listen to Monae for the ability to have my hunger for R&B about robots satiated, the fact that this is basically a straightforward R&B song that might just be the thing to break her through for good is a little strange, but I love it anyway. There are a lot of sexual dynamics in the song that I'm in no position to be writing about, but taking it merely at face value, it's really just a lot of fun.

As readers have possibly noticed, the only blogging I've really had time for as of late is the weekly new releases, and I'm taking the month of May to change that and highlight some of my favorite songs from 2015 that might have been overlooked or not gotten the love they deserve. 31 days in May, so 31 songs. Let's do this! Today's song is from The Raelyn Nelson Band, "Brother." A band fronted by Willie Nelson's granddaughter, they've released an EP and some one-off songs, and the most recent release, "Brother," is a rocking good time. Nice and rootsy, perhaps a little more twangy than I'd normally like but it's far, far outweighed by just how much fun the song is. It's not breaking any new ground, but maybe that's just why I'm enjoying it so much. For more, you can visit their website .

This is the week we've been waiting for. Heather Maloney - Making Me Break : I've been a fan of Heather Maloney for a while now. A Northampton singer-songwriter, she was on the more rootsy/folksy side of things, and this album really has the chance of being a breakout for her. The closest thing I can compare the maturity and sound advances of this album is how I felt about Amanda Shires's most recent album. It keeps the same tone while really feeling like a strong step forward. I knew I'd like this, but on first listen? I think I love it. Highly recommended, arguably the release of the week. Mew - +/- : Mew is not a band I have a lot of familiarity with, and this is their first album in around 6 years. I think I had always put them in with post-rock bands or other strange stuff from Northern Europe, but wow was I wrong. It turns out Mew is actually a really great listen with some straightforward, sometimes complex, often hooky rock music that fits in well w...

Love Love is the latest project from Boston based singer-songwriters Chris Toppin and Jefferson Davis Riordan. After her time in Fuzzy ended, Toppin took 10 years off to raise her kids. After the two met, they began working on music together, and Love Love was born. With two gifted songwriters, Love Love's songs are tight, poppy showcases of Americana. Their latest video, "I Like You Weird" from their EP released back in September, features Riordan on vocals with Toppin singing back up. It starts off simply enough with a basic guitar/bass/drums mix, and then slowly becomes more lush as extra instruments get added. It's an ideal blend of the mid 90s Boston scene and the contemporary country/folk revival. You can check out the video for "I Like You Weird" below. For more information on Love Love, you can head over to their website or Bandcamp . Their debut full length is due out in May. If you're in the Boston area, you can see them at The Midway Ca...