Moon Duo - "Cold Fear"

Photo by Howard Wise

The first song off Moon Duo's upcoming album, Occult Architecture Vol. 1 is weird. "Cold Fear" is a very stripped down electronic song, almost minimalist. But it's not post punk or new wave at all. It's the kind of electronic music an old hippie would come out with, which means it's both minimalistic and trippy as hell. That combination is not an easy feat. Plus, there's just enough noise kicking around throughout the entire song to remind me of Sonic Youth's late 90s psychedelic period. That's a lot to pack into a five minute song, but it works.

You can listen to "Cold Fear" below. Moon Duo's fourth album, Occult Architecture Vol. 1, is due out February 3rd on Sacred Bones. You can pre-order the album via Bandcamp. For more on Moon Duo, check out there website here. We've also thrown in the dates for their upcoming late winter tour below the song.



Wed. Feb. 22 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Don Quixote’s
Fri. Feb. 24 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
Sat. Feb. 25 - San Diego, CA @ Casbah
Fri. Mar. 3 - Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern
Sat. Mar. 4 - Vancouver, BC @ Cobalt
Wed. Mar. 15 - Newcastle, UK @ Northumbria University
Thu. Mar. 16 - Manchester, UK @ Band On The Wall
Fri. Mar. 17 - London, UK @ Heaven
Sat. Mar. 18 - Paris, FR @ Le Trabendo
Sun. Mar. 19 - Nancy, FR @ L’Autre Canal
Mon. Mar. 20 - Zurich, CH @ Mascotte
Thu. Mar. 23 - Budapest, HU @ A38
Fri. Mar. 24 - Graz, AT @ Orpheum Extra
Sat. Mar. 25 - Vienna, AT @ Chelsea
Mon. Mar. 27 - Leipzig, DE @ UT Connewitz
Tue. Mar. 28 - Berlin, DE @ Bi Nuu
Wed. Mar. 29 - Copenhagen, DK @ Pumphuset 
Thu. Mar. 30 - Oslo, NO @ Bla 
Fri. Mar. 31 - Stockholm, SE @ Kagelbanan
Sat. Apr. 1 - Gothenburg, SE @ Pusterviks
Mon. Apr. 3 - Groningen, NL @ Vera Club
Tue. Apr. 4 - Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Noord
Wed. Apr. 5 - Eindhoven, NL @ Effenaar
Thu. Apr. 6 - Brighton, UK @ The Haunt
Fri. Apr. 7 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club 
Sat. Apr. 8 - Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
Fri. Apr. 21 - Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Sat. Apr. 22 - Detroit, MI @ El Club
Sun. Apr. 23 - Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern 
Tue. Apr. 25 - Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa 
Wed. Apr. 26 - Boston, MA @ Great Scott
Thu. Apr. 27 - Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade
Fri. Apr. 28 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s 
Sat. Apr. 29 - Washington, DC @ DC9 
Sun. Apr. 30 - Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern

First Listen: New Releases for November 11

After a crazy election day and a crazy post-election week, we have new releases! Unfortunately, time is still not on my side, so here's a quick highlight list so you all know what to seek out.

Best Releases of the Week:

* David Wax Museum - A La Rumba Rumba (Surprise release of Mexican folk, excellent listen)
* The Wave Pictures - Bamboo Diner in the Rain
* A Tribe Called Quest - We Got It From Here... Thank You... (LISTEN TO THIS. SO GOOD.)
* Sad13 - Slugger (Speedy Ortiz singer's... dance album? It's great.)
* Emeli Sande - Long Live the Angels (Such an underrated singer)
* Matt Pond PA - Winter Lives (surprise! They're still around!)

Albums That May Be Worth Your Time:

* Nouvelle Vague - I Could Be Happy
* Luke Temple - A Hand Through the Cellar Door
* Wolf People - Ruins
* s a r a s a r a - A m o r F a t i
* Martha Wainwright - Goodnight City
* Sleigh Bells - Jessica Rabbit (As much of a departure as you can expect from Sleigh Bells)

Other Albums Out This Week:

* Wakrat - Wakrat
* Katie Kim - Salt
* Body/Head - No Waves
* Simian Mobile Disco - Welcome to Sideways
* E - E
* Okilly Dokilly - Howdilly Doodilly (Ned Flanders-inspired metal. Yeah.)

I will get my timetables sorted out soon. But at least accept this list as my penance for now. We will Make First Listen Great Again, or something.

Shovels & Rope Curate the High Water Fest

The summer music festival season keeps creeping earlier and earlier every year. Some announcements just started popping up yesterday, and one of them has us ecstatic. Shovels & Rope have put together a weekend festival in their hometown of Charleston, SC (well, NORTH Charleston, but close enough) and the line up might be one of the best of the year. Besides the obvious choice of Shovels & Rope to play their own festival, they're also bringing along some of our favorites including The Avett Brothers, The Shins, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Dawes, Lucius, Margo Price, Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, Deer Tick, JD McPherson, The Suffers, Matthew Logan Vasquez, The Deslondes, and more! If you've been a regular reader of this blog for any amount of time this is pretty much a dream line up for all of us. It's going to be a challenge for any other festival, particularly Americana and roots based ones, to come close to matching High Water this year.

Tickets for the inaugural High Water Fest go on sale Friday November 18 at 10:00 a.m., and the festival itself will take place April 22-23 at Riverfront Park in North Charleston, SC. You can find out more information, including ticket prices at the festival's website or Facebook.

Tristen Covers Edgar Allen Poe

Photo via Facebook

We've been fans of Tristen for quite some time here at If It's Too Loud..., and it's been far too long since we've been able to share any new music of hers. While she does have a collection of poetry coming out this week, that doesn't necessarily scream "Here comes some new music!" Luckily, we do have a new song to share with you. Logic would dictate that to help promote a collection of poetry Tristen would take one of her poems and put it to song. Instead, she has taken one of Edgar Allen Poe's poems and put it with music. "A Dream Within a Dream" may not be as well known as "The Raven," but it's still a poem by Poe. Tristen avoids the obvious, gothed out direction, and makes this song her own. It's bluesy and funky (but with fuzzy as hell guitars), leaning much harder on the songs from her more roots sound of her album Charlatans At the Garden Gate than her more recent, pop-focused album Caves. It's an odd and bad ass experiment that works perfectly.

Tristen Gaspadarek's debut poetry collection, Saturnine Pocket Poetry Series: Volume 1, will be available on November 15. You can get your copy here. For more on Tristen, check out her website. You can watch the video of her version of Edgar Allen Poe's "A Dream Within a Dream" below.

First Aid Kit Covers Woody Guthrie

Photo by Neil Krug

On election night, First Aid Kit appeared on what appears to be a Swedish talk show for their US election coverage. In what might be the best choice for the evening, First Aid Kit and their dad did a cover of Woody Guthrie's immortal "This Land is Your Land." Seeing this post election is even more poignant, although their upbeat take on the song defies most of the nation's current mood, and the fury that inspired the original song. Although I don't know if it is possible for the Soderberg sisters to have anything but beauty in their voice, so anger might be out. They also did an amazing cover of Bob Dylan's "With God On Our Side" on the same night.

You can watch First Aid Kit's cover of "This Land is Your Land" below, although if you're trying to avoid American politics, you might want to listen and not watch since there is a huge banner of both Clinton and Trump behind them for most of the performance. For more information on First Aid Kit, check out their website.

The Van T's - "Fun Garçon"

The forthcoming single from The Van T's isn't particularly unique. "Fun Garçcon" isn't going to usher in a new era of music and kill an entire genre the way Nevermind did. In fact, the blueprint for their sound is in bands like The Donnas and Veruca Salt's Eight Arms to Hold You. But that doesn't mean it's not fucking great. It's just a big, loud rock sound. It's big, loud rock for the sake of being big, loud rock. And you know what? That's been missing lately. There's a hint of bratty punk lyrically. and the whole thing is drenched in feedback. Do yourself a favor: Play this in your car. Loud. While driving fast. 

You can listen to "Fun Garçon" below. The single will be available commercially on November 25th on Bloc+Music. For more on The Van T's, check them out on Facebook and Bandcamp.

First Listen: New Releases for November 4

Happy election day! Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.

But we're all distracted by the election today (and rightfully so) and I really need to learn to do these on the weekend, so a quick hit today:

Great Listens This Week

Artist: STRFKR
Album: Being No One, Going Nowhere
Quick Description: Electro-rock from an underrated group.
Why You Should Listen: It'll get your butt moving.
Overall Thoughts: I just loved this listen and can't wait to go back to it. It's a really solid piece of electronic music that doesn't feel nearly as angry or angsty as the group's name would suggest. A solid listen on a whole, and I feel like it's on par with their other work.
Recommendation: One of the best of the week.

Artist: American Wrestlers
Album: Goodbye Terrible Youth
Quick Description: Solid indie rock.
Why You Should Listen: They sound familiar, but have a great way of putting together some hooky songs.
Overall Thoughts: There's the gut instinct to compare any power-pop sounding group to Fountains of Wayne in my head, and American Wrestlers aren't that, but there's something completely endearing about this album. Full of well-crafted poppy indie rock, it just hit me on all the right levels and was up there as one of my favorites this week. Definitely worth a listen if you have an indie rock itch that hasn't been scratched in a while.
Recommendation: One of the better ones this week.

Also some highlights that you should listen to:

* Adrian + Meredith - More Than a Little (solid folk/roots listen)
* Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions - Until the Hunter (more esoteric than you're expecting, but still solid)
* Slow Hollows - Romantic (I need more time with this, but I loved it on the first shot)

Might Be Worth Your Time

Artist: Jim James
Album: Eternally Even
Quick Description: New solo record from the My Morning Jacket singer/songwriter.
Why You Should Listen: This is easily the most buzzed about album in months.
Overall Thoughts: I'll be honest - this didn't do it for me at all. I feel like all the songs sound mostly the same, and I feel this way about most of Jim James's solo work and, frankly, a lot of MMJ. Honestly, I just think this is less "this is bad" and more "this is not for me." With the amount of acclaim this is getting out there, I would say give it a listen if you're into his work, but if you're looking for an entrypoint, some My Morning Jacket might be where to go first.
Recommendation: Be wary.

Artist: Sims
Album: More Than Ever
Quick Description: Doomtree-related rap goodness.
Why You Should Listen: Are you really not on board with the Doomtree folks yet?
Overall Thoughts: So this won't be for everyone who likes the more indie rap, as Sims is a little more raw and a little more stilted. For me? That's why I loved it. Not the best album of the week but absolutely my favorite, it's something that feels fresh and new without reinventing the wheel, which is very difficult to do. If you like rap, you owe it to yourself to give this one a shot.
Recommendation: Not for everyone, but worth your time if it might be.


* The Darcys - Centerfold (Would be better if they went all in on the pastiche)
* Lee Fields and the Expressions - Special Night (Solid soul)
* Tyvek - Origin of What (Uneven punk-adjacent stuff, has its moments)
* Jessica Williamson - Heart Song

Also out this week:

* Common - Black America Again
* Lambchop - FLOTUS
* Futurebirds - Portico I

Duke Garwood - "Coldblooded the Return"

Photo by Steve Gullick

Folk music can be pretty varied nowadays, but it usually has one thing in common: It sounds nice. It's a pleasant, non-abrasive genre of music. Well... that's not really the case with Duke Garwood's "Coldblooded the Return." That's not to say Garwood sounds bad. His voice is pleasant enough, and it's not like he's mixing folk and noise punk. But... there's just something uncomfortable in his music. It's brooding and dark and just... unpleasant. But it's so good. You want to know how unpleasant his music can feel? Another song, "Sleep," draws from the writings of Werner Herzog. Garwood himself refers to this album as "Beautiful apocalypse love music."

Duke Garwood's new album, Garden of Ashes, will be out February 3 on Heavenly Recordings. You can listen to "Coldblooded the Return" below and pre-order your copy of the album here. For more information on Garwood, check out his Facebook and Twitter.

Punctual - "Eva"

I don't tend to cover much dance music here. It's just not really my thing. Most of the electronic music I listen to is from the late 90s mainstream boom, or at least that time period. That's why I was pleasantly surprised by "Eva," the new single from Punctual. Punctual are a collaboration between Bristol based DJ/producer Will Lansley and John Morgan. It's a great mix of non-whatever they play at raves nowadays, and feels more like an actual creative dance song from the 90s. It has exotic vocals over this upbeat array of music. "Eva" reminds me oddly of Pogo, the guy who mixes a ton of Disney movies into dance tracks. For someone who has barely listened to dance music for 20 years, Punctual are a welcome discovery.

You can listen to "Eva" below. For more on Punctual, check them out on Facebook and Twitter.

Kingsbury - "Easy"

Photo via Facebook

When we last heard from Caroline Kingsbury back in 2014, she was known as The Red-Headed Indian and had released an EP we both loved, Honey. It was one of the surpisehits of that year, with a surprisingly great mix of soul and folk. Shortly after that, she decided to drop the moniker of The Red-Headed Indian (a decision I approved of, since I always felt a wee bit awkward saying it), and was going by Kingsbury instead. Looks like besides just the name change, she decided to become more of a band and start collaborating with Will Hess. Gone is the folky sound of The Red-Headed Indian, and in its place is a decided more poppy, electronic sound. It's not a sound you normally associate with a Nashville band, but it's a great one. It's close to dream pop, with this lovely and lilting synth riff (if that's a real thing) throughout. 

You can listen to Kingbury's debut single, "Easy," below. For more information on Kingsbury, check out their website and Facebook.