This is awesome. Verges from dirty prog to psychedelic 'world' sounds, to tropical, kraut-y electronica with dashings of pop thrown throughout. Amazed this isn’t being released by some super cool tape label yet.
Music is at its most exciting when risks are taken; when the artist doesn't stick to the easiest route; where something could potentially go wrong. Surely one of the main reasons that bands like Elbow, although loved by many, are disliked by arguably many more is that they take few risks, that their music is so very down the middle.
The first I heard of Ohio musician S.R. Woodward was when he emailed me a track a few months back. No introduction, barely a hello, no information on who he was, what he did, or even the name he makes music under – just a few words and the track. Although this isn’t usually the best method of ensuring your music is heard, it intrigued me, and the song even more so. With S.R. Woodward, the music definitely has that risky edge, that potential to go wrong but it comes out the other side all the better for it.
The first track I heard was ‘When The Bunny Chomps’. It’s so unusual, so random, daring, and just plain odd. There isn’t much of a song, more an artist thinking out loud, but you have to admire the risk-taking. It’s S.R. Woodward’s other material where the brilliance is revealed. Songs made by a man seemingly entirely unaware of what music everyone else in the last ten years has been making, it’s so alone in its sound and influences. Listening to it, you really wonder what SR Woodward must be like in person, but the only conclusions you can ever really reach is ‘unusual’.
S.R Woodward - Izzbeon
Songs range from the weird, jaunty, synth-laden retro pop of Girl On The Moon or Don’t Listen To Mr. Dead which sounds like they’ve come straight out of a scene on Sesame Street, to the kind of 50’s inspired acoustic tender, laziness and beauty of I Gotta Right, Three Birds and Tomorrow (Dreams Come True), to the seemingly Zappa influenced oddity of What Do I Know, and the downright psychedelic of Izzbeon.
S.R Woodward - Don't Listen To Mr. Dead
In fairness, sometimes it doesn’t work – that’s bound to happen when you take the odd risk – but when it does work, the risks really pay off: Intriguing, almost confusing at times, but sometimes utterly brilliant. Listen to stuff throughout this post, or grab a whole EP at bandcamp for free.
Just noticed this new track by Red Psalm that popped up on SoundCloud a few weeks ago. Just like the rest of Kansas City-based artist John Dickson's work, it's pretty top.
Red Psalm - Light Sleepers
Also heard that Red Psalm might be teaming up with New York based lo-fi weirdo psych-pop artist Arc Light to put out a split release, which will be well worth keeping an eye on over the next few weeks.
Time constraints mean this isn't the most comprehensive of lists but still, even a list this poorly planned highlights some decent record releases from the alternative crowd.
The other week I posted about New York shoegazers Asobi Seksu, speaking about their latest album Fluorescence as well as getting a bit excited by their upcoming UK tour.
Kindly, the folks at One Inch Badge Records have got in touch to say they'd be more than happy to to give away two free tickets to their show at Brighton Audio on April 21 to one lucky frequenter of this here blog. That's pretty cool, 'cause my guess is it'll be a really good (and pretty darn noisy) show that will be difficult to forget.
To be in with a chance to win the two tickets, all you need to do is send the correct answer to the following question to basementcompetitions[at]gmail[dot]com with an email headed 'Asobi Seksu' (or something like that).
What was the name of Asobi Seksu's second album? Was it:
a) Citrus
b) Orange
c) Lemon
A winner will be picked at random on April 10. One entry per person. If you're entering, please be sure you can make it to the gig. If you're a bit stuck, Wikipedia might be of use here.
Get yourself even more excited by listening to the brilliant Perfectly Crystal below. Find more info on the gig at the Facebook event page.
Struggling to find words to describe this. Kind of an unusual juxtaposition of catchy and fairly light and 'normal' music with shouty, atonal, difficult to understand and certainly unusual lead vocals that ends up as kind of experimental punk? God knows, I dunno. As much as it perhaps shouldn't work, it kind of does and I like it. They're a London five-piece, by the way, just so this blog post has some actual information.
They just played the Hackney Working Girls Club night and got photographed by Vice Magazine, so maybe expect to hear quite a bit more in the coming months. Listen to sounds below.
Just stumbled upon Teens over on I Guess I'm Floating and immediately became excited to listen to new music again. 60s psych influenced lo-fi pop, but not with a fear of showing some balls every so often. They're from Boise, Idaho and this is bloody good.
Listen and download below, or grab the whole self-titled 9-track album over at their Tumblr.
Today I present you some lo-fi indie rock from Seattle’s Coke Candy. It’s nothing overly adventurous or even original. Songs are fairly basic in their set up, guitars distorted to the max and vocals as carefree as you’re likely to hear for a while. But the songs have a great feel to them and seem entirely unforced, plus the riffs are pretty satisfying. If all music was like this the world might be a drab and dirty place, but for me Coke Candy don’t need to be any cleaner or more fancy in their songwriting.
Hear stuff below, or grab some over at their bandcamp.
Being in a band at a young age always carries the risk of turning into disaster. Ideas are yet to fully form, musical tastes and influences are still developing and thus musical output can sometimes be a little questionable. Usually that’s okay because no one ever hears it, but if the band gains some press attention, that’s when it has the potential to inflict some long lasting damage. Sometimes it works out okay. After all, Daniel Blumberg was in the questionable, middle of the road indie band Cajun Dance Party before the massively hyped and increasingly successful fuzzed up Yuck. Still, it’s easy to imagine it not working that way in many instances.
Australia's [edit: New Zealand's] Cool Cult definitely have the potential of being one of those bands whose early start hinders them in the long run, given that some members are barely at the tender age of 18. Putting out an EP last year, the band members themselves already dislike the release, thinking that the songs aren’t and believing it was the wrong musical choice (interview over here). This could be the perfect example of how youth and bands don’t go together. If the music was rubbish, that is, but actually it’s really not.
Said EP Zombies was out in May of 2010 and, although clearly not new, is largely unheard and under-appreciated. It’s all jerky, surf-y, scruffy indie to really great effect and you have to admire the band’s experimental and inquisitive nature whilst also sticking to a sound that is firmly pop. The band themselves may not like it, but I do.
Cool Cult should also be releasing a new EP soon, so at least this post has a little relevance. Don’t expect it to sound much like their first, though. Listen to a song taken from their Zombies EP (available on Bandcamp for free), as well as a track that didn’t quite make it onto their upcoming EP, below.
Congratulations to Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms Manning! Saturday's Kids are indeed from Wales, you are the winner of the competition, and we'll be posting you the prizes pictured above (minus my foot) in the next few days.
Thanks to everyone who entered, and commiserations to those who didn't win. Remember you can still buy the contents of the prize over at Saturday's Kids online shop by clicking on THESE CAPITALISED LETTERS if you like.
Thanks again and keep visiting Basement Fever for lots more good music and perhaps a few more giveaways in the coming weeks.
Apologies for constantly short blog posts. I’m rubbish and seemingly constantly in a rush. Stumbled upon Australia based Alpen on Bandcamp the other day and, although I haven’t had tonnes of chance to give it a proper listen, I’ve certainly enjoyed what I’ve heard.
Firmly electronic, there’s a really progressive and consuming sound built up through textures and layers of beats and guitar here that I find perfect for drowning out early morning bus journeys. I’m not going to call it ‘night bus’, though. That would be silly.
Listen for yourself below, check out more from the Feral Media label, or download the full EP for free at bandcamp.
As unlikely a place as north Wales may seem to the outside world, it’s been kicking out some pretty top bands recently. Most people will already know of Gallops, who played BBC Introducing’s Reading stage to good response a few years back and are currently in Austin for SXSW, as well as instrumental surf wonders Y Niwl. There’s an ever growing list of newer and lesser known acts coming through too - the likes of Under Alien Skies, Swathes, and Mowbird all with strong and interesting output - and now Dancers can be added to the list also.
Coming from Denbigh, Dancers make music the likes of which are pretty well documented up to now. They’re pretty laid-back and downbeat, mostly fuzzy guitar-led tracks – not too dissimilar to the likes of Yuck, as well as Falmouth-act The Black Tambourines – but they’re good enough tracks that, despite the fairly common sound, are still well worth giving a spin. It’s not just a sound that they share with The Black Tambourines, but also some sort of self-awareness with regards to their sound. Both bands fully aware that there’s every chance someone will want to call their music at least slightly ‘surf’, they nip it in the bud immediately; The Black Tambourines titling a track “I Can’t Surf”, Dancers opting for “I Hate The Beach”. It’s certainly not surf music, and in honesty, it's not even close. Got Away With It is kind of fuzzy indie rock - lyrically self-reflecting, mirrored by the seemingly mournful fuzzy guitar layers, and Stay A While? is similarly downbeat and noisey in a fairly shoegazey way.
Whatever you want to call their music, it’s certainly pleasant on the ears. Listen below:
Brighton’s Negative Pegasus - fronted by Todd Jordan formerly of My Device - make noisy, droning, and reverberating psychedelic rock. Best served: mildly heated, in a dark room, loud. Perfect with: a slightly pissed off mood or a bunch of well collated friends. Also a perfect companion for live outings.
These make we want to nod my head aggressively and stomp my feet.
Posted about Triptides a while back - talking about their last 6-track EP/mii-album. It was all surfy indie pop goodness, made even better by being given away for free. (It still is, infact. Click here.)
It's pretty easy to imagine them getting pretty big, given their accessible sound and catchy tunes, and it looks like it might be headed that way. Word is gradually spreading through blogs and word of mouth, and their next EP/album, Tropical Dreams out officially March 29, is being released through BeachTapes. Hear it below.
A few big named and much hyped omissions this week because the output will probably be rubbish, but still a good few (and plenty if you're a fan of folk) album releases next week worth getting excited about.
Only a quick post today, but I think it's a pretty good'un - music from Brighton artist BEACH!.
Fast paced and noisey, 'Summertime' is a fine showing from a project in such early stages. A song with an overriding pop feel, though awash with plenty of echoing shoegazey reverb and catchy surf vibes, it reminds of the likes of Jesus & Mary Chain but yet never feels inferior to the genre's masters.
Expect more top music from (and more words of praise on here for) BEACH! in the near future, hopefully.
BARB is a collaboration of some of New Zealand’s finest output of the last few years – Liam Finn, Connan Mockasin, Lawrence Arabia, Eliza-Jane Barnes, and Seamus Ebbs. Although they’ve been ‘rocking out’ together for almost 12 months, now seems just a good a time as any to write some pleasant words about them seeings, like most good bands, they don’t seem to be getting the attention they deserve.
As you might expect from reading the line-up, if you know anything about the band’s members’ other work, BARB is far from your usual ‘supergroup’. Rather than pooling their individual talents to create a bland, middle of the road rock band (like seems to often be the case with other ‘supergroups’), BARB keep things all kinds of weird and interesting.
Take ‘Leo’. It’s a song, written by Connan Mockasin’s five-year old alter ego, about Leonardo DiCaprio. And it’s quite that simple. Without trying to be clever about it and wrapping the song in metaphors, it features brilliantly basic lyrics (“such a brilliant actor / works out every day / always knows what to say”) that won’t fail to bring a smile to your face (if you have a soul, that is). Musically it’s interesting and catchy psych-pop but, instead of drowned in fuzz or covered with a lo-fi blanket, it’s clear and played with precision. Wonderfully written songs, brilliantly played.
Although there are only a couple of songs knocking around the corners of the internet, they do have a full-length album available from here. Otherwise, check out some stuff below.
Brighton/London androphobes (or perhaps not) Fear Of Men seem to have emerged out of nowhere. A bit like that scene on Toy Story (the only one that matters – numero uno) where the toys come out of the sandbox and freak Andy the fuck out, Fear Of Men ascend from the swathes of other bands, but give you a kiss on the cheek and turn you all bashful rather than sending you into a fear-driven frenzy.
Sex Is Disgusting, as always, are on the ball super early as are the likes of The Pigeon Post (well, Matthew writing for This Is Fake DIY) and Sonic Masala - and it’s with super good reason, too. Their female-led, lo-fi jangly pop songs are not only on the button with the popular trends of today, they’re also really good.
Some bands are really noisey. Noise to a level where there is no melody whatsoever. This is perfectly good. Music is art, and noisier music is just as relevant as pop music and should be appreciated just as much. But sometimes it’s a little difficult to listen to, naturally. Sometimes you want that noise - lots of harsh sounds, guitar reverb, cymbal crashes - but also some cohesion and some melody, just to soften the experience a little.
Well, sometimes I want that anyway. I won’t speak on your behalf. But if sometimes you also would like some melody with your servings of harsh noise then Brighton’s P For Persia might be the band for you. Combining synth-y experimentation with heavily distorted, sometimes shouty vocals (at times through a converted telephone), with plenty of lengthy instrumental moments, percussive smashing, guitar riffing, bass buzzing and general raucous fun, but also with definite hints of pop, P For Persia tick lots of my ‘stuff I like’ boxes. As well as sounding good in their recorded output thus far (full-length Mount Muffin Top was a few years in the making but the effort more than pays off), live shows are good fun too, from what I’ve seen (well, this), and the band know how to bring their element of pissing-around-fun to the stage.
You can check out a short documentary on P For Persia made by Brighton band Illness here. Hear more stuff below, and download aforementioned full-length Mount Muffin Top for free from their bandcamp page.
That's right. Welcome to Basement Fever's first ever competition! We're very happy to be here and we're excited to be giving away free stuff from people that we like. We think it's a pretty decent prize, and we hope you do too. Of course by 'we' I actually mean 'I'. Anyway.
Any even semi-regular visitor to or Facebook fan or Twitter follower of this blog will know just how much we like Saturday's Kids. They've featured a good few times on BF (here, here, and here, and we've also shouted how much we like them at other places, like on The Pigeon Post. Their ever-developing post-punk/post-hardcore sound has had us excited on many, many occasions and new tracks never fail to impress even when taking very new directions.
Kindly they've agreed to give away some free stuff to one lucky reader of this blog. The stuff featuring in the picture above. That is:
- A copy of their 10" split with Kids Return (featuring Theorum, Unattainable and Whisper In My Ear).
- A copy of their 7" vinyl (featuring Three Days, Spider's Legs, and A Dirty Dream)
- And a free t-shirt (in the size of your request).
They might even chuck in some pin badges. My left foot, although wonderfully socked, isn't included, unfortunately. All you have to do to enter this competition is answer one easy question.
Which part of the United Kingdom do Saturday's Kids call their home - England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland?
Email your answer to basementcompetitions@gmail.com with an email headed "Saturday's Kids Competition" (or something vaguely similar) in the next 2 weeks to enter. Entrance to the competition will close on Sunday 20th March, and a winner will then be picked at random. It is a policy of one entrance per individual, though, and address for postage must be in the UK.
And if you've forgotten quite how they sound, have a listen to some tracks below (posted in chronological order to try demonstrating their constant evolution as a group of young musicians).
Saturday's Kids - Social Crimes
Saturday's Kids - Grey On White
Saturday's Kids - Dirty Dream
Saturday's Kids - Whisper In My Ear
Feel free to tell all your friends to increase your chances. Best of luck!
New York jammers The Yes Club are now known as Night Collectors.
Basement Fever posted about them a little while back (here, to be precise) because their raucous, noisey psych-influenced, old-school synth-laden garage rock jams had us getting all excited. We looked forward to hearing lots more music from The Yes Club, but now we look forward to hearing more music from Night Collectors.
To celebrate the name change, they've also got a new song. It's called 7/11. It's good. Hear it below.
Shit. A slightly less new, more established band. Don’t tell anyone I'm posting about them.
It’s with pretty good reason that I write about US shoegazers Asobi Seksu, though. Quite simply they’re really good, and so is their new album.
Now on their fifth studio album, Fluorescence puts the New York band back into more familiar plugged in and distorted territory following the entirely acoustic Rewolf. Although certainly fitting in with the shoegaze movement giving the whirring and noisey guitars, there’s also definite indie pop hints with the high-pitched and beautiful vocals from front-woman Yuki Chikudate and songs still holding a catchy, sing-along feel. Both wonderfully put together and brilliantly executed, it’s an album full of plain old good songs.
If you don’t know of Asobi Seksu then you should start. If you do know of Asobi Seksu, then you might be interested to know that they tour the UK soon. Catch them at the following venues in the following cities on the following dates:
London Electric Ballroom, April 15
Manchester Academy 2, April 16
Glasgow Garage, April 17
Birmingham O2 Academy April 18
London XOYO, April 19
Brighton Audio, April 21 [event info]
I should just stop telling you which bands I’ve found on said blog in the hope that you don’t read that RUBBISH. I should just take all the credit myself. But I’ve got a feeling that’s wrong and I shouldn’t. Plus, The Pigeon Post isn't actually rubbish. Or is it?
Anyway. Tashaki Miyaki is swaying female vocal led slow pop with a nod to the 60s. Very Best Coast-y, but more in a way that they share the same influences rather than Tashaki Miyaki ripping off Bethany et al. It’s really, really nice and the Californian group need to up their productivity – I want more!
We don’t have much more info than that, so just enjoy the music. It’s great. Listen below, or download at bandcamp.
As promised on this St David’s day, today’s featured band is based in Wales – the country of flowing hills, daffodils, and rugby. And my university years. Well, the band is sometimes based in Wales.
My Name Is Ian is another of the releasees of the Plymouth / Weymouth / Portsmouth bedroom label Art Is Hard. Less than me being biased for potential future sofa crashes, however, the regular posts on bands on this label has more to do with their quality. Honest! First appearing on their now sold-out first ever release – a compilation of south-west bands available through purchasing a t-shirt - the one-man band fronted by, you guessed it, Ian is now releasing his ‘Man Club’. A three-part series of cassette releases, the Man Club means that those who pay the £12.79 membership fee are posted the tapes (apparently all varying in genre) one by one, monthly, starting from today. Limited to 20, Art Is Hard warn that these memberships will be sold out very soon (and may even be already for all I know), although I’m sure the music will be available to non-members in digital form at some point also.
It’s another great idea from the label, and made even more appealing given that My Name Is Ian makes rather good music. Influences such as Daniel Johnston, Stanley Brinks, and the Wave pictures are fairly evident but an appreciating for the lo-fi sound has also got AIH stating that the cassettes will also be agreeable for fans of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, Yuck, and Former Ghosts. Often fairly minimal, songs sometimes consist only of Ian’s downbeat vocals and sliding, echoing guitar lines – though they are just as likely to also be ridden with buzzing synth lines and twinkling bleeps. They’re wonderfully put together regardless of their means, though, as well as being honest and emotive songs and I'm looking forward to hearing more.
Cardiff people who like Sweet Baboo will undoubtedly be fans, as will those who enjoy Voluntary Butler Scheme and all of those other bands that have been mentioned thus far. Find out more info on My Name Is Ian at Art Is Hard here and here. Preview some tracks below!
My Name Is Ian - If I Found Out I Was Termanilly Ill
[taken from cassette #3]
My Name Is Ian - Staring at the Sun
[taken from cassette #1]
My Name Is Ian - Give it a Year
[taken from cassette #2]
