Tag Archives: CA

Best New Bands of 2012 HUMMINGBIRD AWARD #2: GRIMES

28 Dec
I'm sure you've heard her this year and that's why she deserves the Hummingbird

I’m sure you’ve heard her this year and that’s why she deserves the Hummingbird

Best New Bands of 2012 HUMMINGBIRD AWARD #2: GRIMES
Hours and hours and hours we debated over our #1 Hummingbird…it wasn’t an easy choice and many bands not only missed out by a hair, they didn’t even make our top 12. Sad but true. Grimes is not a new artist per se. Some of us have been allured by her siren voice since 2009, but it took a stellar LP like Visions for her to really shine and break-through. We put her experimental harmonizing of Halfaxa behind us and truly were treated with a perfect record. Not many artists can move past this phase. I don’t think Cocteau Twins ever moved beyond it and we know that many artists go in the opposite direction and move way too far into the art and we lose them forever. Grimes chose the perfect year to blossom her flower and we loved it. Thank you for “Genesis”, “Be A Body” and my personal favorite no not “Vanessa” from 2011, but “Colour of Moonlight” of 2012. So good. She truly embodies what an artist is and should be in 2012. We look for more over the next 10 years, maybe a little less falsetto harmonizing and some amazing lyricism will push her to #1 in 2013.

Founded: 2009
Hometown: Montreal, Cananda
Members: Claire Boucher
Sonic Soulmates™: Stacie Q, Polica, Class Actress
Trackables™:
“Oblivion”
“Be A Body”
“Colour of Moonlight”

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Hummingbird Awards – ALL YOUR BEST NEW BANDS FROM 2010, 2011 and 2012:

Hummingbird Awards 2012
#12 Rose Elinor Dougall
#11 Fear of Men
#10 The Weeknd
#9 Nude Beach
#8 Class Actress
#7 Johnathon Boulet
#6 DIIV
#5 Hey Sholay
>#4 Alt-J (∆)
#3 Jessie Ware
#2 Grimes
Hummingbird Awards 2011
Hummingbird Awards 2010

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Best New Bands of 2012 HUMMINGBIRD AWARD #10: THE WEEKND

14 Dec
The Weeknd is better than Frank Ocean so we gave him a Hummingbird

The Weeknd is better than Frank Ocean so we gave him a Hummingbird

Best New Bands of 2012 HUMMINGBIRD AWARD #10: THE WEEKND

I hate secrets. Especially when they are about me. So why is The Weeknd such a secretive dude? Why won’t he tell us the truth or remove the shroud and celebrate his greatness. We want an interview! Here is what we do know, his music is absolutely amazing, he is Abel Tesfaye, he released three mix tapes in 2012, he signed to Universal Republic, he has important friends, he is a man, he sounds like Drake and R. Kelly, he is one of our favorite new artists for 2012, he just won a Hummingbird. So here is what we said last month…and enjoy our gift to you! He should be #1, but dude your Trilogy came out too late this year. He skyrocketed up our list around September and held onto to Spot 10. We even got several hundred votes from readers for him.

Vitals:
Home: Toronto, CA
Members: Abel Tesfaye
Sonic Soulmates™: R. Kelly, Drake
Trackables™: Notable tracks from his release Trilogy, but listen to the whole damn thing
“This Morning”
“Wicked Games”
“House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls”

Follow The Weeknd:
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official

Hummingbird Awards – ALL YOUR BEST NEW BANDS FROM 2010, 2011 and 2012:
Hummingbird Awards 2012
#12 Rose Elinor Dougall
#11 Fear of Men
#10 The Weeknd
Hummingbird Awards 2011
Hummingbird Awards 2010

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UNCORKED™ – Best New Bands of 2012 (11.4.12) Christopher Owens

4 Nov

I love Girls but I think we love Christopher Owens more…

UNCORKED™ – Best New Bands of 2012 (11.5.12) Christopher Owens
I don’t know how I feel about this. It would be like Jack White going solo after the first two White Stripes records. Christopher Owens leaves Girls after a second record that quite possibly was the best record of this decade. His solo record is good, which shows us that the band Girls had far more depth. The Tullesque flute coupled with the electric guitar sounds like early Fleetwood and later Midlake combined. I’m sold, but dude don’t burn us and give your Girls bandmates a chance and do another record in 2013. We really do, did and still do love Girls —> read for yourself WE WERE RIGHT!!!

Vitals:
Founded: 2012
Hometown: SF, CA
Members: Christopher Owens
Sonic Soulmates™: Midlake, Girls, Fleetwood Mac, Jethro Tull
Trackables™: “Here We Go”

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UNCORKED™ – Best New Bands of 2012 (10.22.12) GRMLN

23 Oct

GRMLN is Yoodoo Park. Lo-fi great music. Listen to his EP now!

UNCORKED™ – Best New Bands of 2012 (10.22.12) GRMLN
Lo-fi, still living in his parent’s basement and he’s only a Sophomore at UC Santa Cruz. Isn’t that the school where you have clothing optional Wednesday’s? None-the-less it’s a great segue to the stripped down sounds of GRMLN. It’s lo-fi, single guitar, vocals, electronic backing. Think Dirty Beaches, but Yoodoo has melody. It’s clean, crisp and a little Jack Whitey.

Vitals:
Founded: 2012, started making music in 2010
Hometown: orange county to santa cruz
Members: YooDoo Park
Sonic Soulmates™: Lo-fi clean guitar Jack White, Dirty Beaches
Trackables™:
We first heard him with Ben E. Kings “Stand By Me” — Clever

Listen to his new EP Explore here. love “Love.Think.Die” & “Coral”

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UNCORKED™ – Best New Bands of 2012 (5.14.12) Kids on a Crime Spree

14 May

Why we love you? Because you’re just like us, from the East Bay and all full of fuzz. Kids on a Crime Spree

UNCORKED™ – Best New Bands of 2012 (5.14.12) Kids on a Crime Spree

There was a time when new bands were pouring out of our pockets. It’s that the bands dried up, it’s just that good ones have. We’re like fine wines here at NBD, we like to chill with our music in oak barrels and enjoy the finer parts, not just post a band for the sake of posting. Too many shitty blogs create expectations that force them to feature bands they don’t love. Well screw them, we love our NewBandDayians! They are lovely and they are starting to get noticed. We’ve enjoyed our East Bay brothers and one sister for some time now. I think it was May of 2011 that we first heard “I Don’t Want to Call You Baby, Baby” and we’ve begged for more shows, more songs and more love from them. We’re finally sharing our secret stash of bands…here you go.
Vitals:
Hometown: Oaklandish, CA
Members:
Mario Hernandez
Bill Evans
Becky Barron
Sonic Soulmates™: Girls Names,
Trackables™:
“Dead Ripe” Do you like the Play Button from Spotify??? Please tell us

“I Don’t Want to Call You Baby, Baby”

Follow the Kids
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UNCORKED™ – Best New Bands of 2012 (3.1.12) Grimes

1 Mar

Grimes is it

UNCORKED™ – Best New Bands of 2012 (3.1.12) Grimes
By the way, let me just emphatically state this, I LOVE GRIMES! I want that t-shirt made now, hell, just buy it here. She is my muse for the dark times. Maybe she’ll be playing on 12.22.12 when that rolling ball of fire engulfs the world. Whatever the scenario, the new record Visions is a mixture of her 80′s electro-pop obsession from her first two records with a dash of polished digitalism. It’s a beautiful record and one that I would have played over and over and over again in 1986 while playing Ultima IV, or in 1994 playing Sega or today while playing Spotify. We don’t use love lightly around here, but Grimes is our lover and we are obsessed little puppies waiting for our next little aural treat.

Vitals:
Founded: 2009
Hometown: Montreal, Cananda
Members: Claire Boucher
Sonic Soulmates™: Stacie Q, Polica, Class Actress
Trackables™:
“Be A Body” – My prediction for a chart topper…wow

“Colour of Moonlight” - My secret obsession

The entire record:

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Her Website
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UNCORKED™ – Band of the Day (1.11.12) Ryan Stively

10 Jan

The ghosts of Port O'Brien come to life with a record built for a Hummingbird Award - Ryan Stively


Uncorked™ Ryan Stively

Port O’Brien breaking up messed with my head. I loved their last record Threadbare so much, it was a combination of Built to Spill and Bowerbirds. Folky, fuzzy and good. Then they dissolved the unit, Van floated over to WATERS and Ryan Stively, the long-time member and co-conspirator has now stepped out to create some southern fried, San Francisco gems on his debut record Soft Kingdom. It was recorded over the span of 6 months on borrowed and leftover studio time with former tour-mate and Portland multi-instrumentalist Cory Gray (Carcrashlander, Desert City Soundtrack). It’s part Broken Social Scene, part National brooding and a whole lot of Wilco (Tweedy) or even Bridwell’s stylings for Band of Horses…hell even a little M. Wardy. These 8 tracks could rival any record we’ve heard in the past 6 months. Buy it here.

Vitals:
Hometown: Portland, OR, San Francisco, CA (Right in our own backyard)
Members: Ryan Stively (Port O’Brien), Cambria Goodwin (Port O’Brien), Graham LeBron (Rogue Wave, Album Leaf) and Joey Ficken (Sea Wolf) appear.
Sonic Soulmates™: Bowerbirds, Wilco, Broken Social Scene, Rogue Wave, M. Ward
Trackables™:
“We Forget Everything”

“Soft Kingdom”

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Best New Bands of 2011 HUMMINGBIRD AWARD: #4 EMA

20 Dec

California dreaming with post punk love music from Oakland, CA's EMA

Best New Band of 2011
#4 Hummingbird Award – EMA
I had a very hard time choosing this spot. There are about 10 bands that deserve to be in our Top 10 Best New Artists of 2011, but truly, we can’t fit them all. The Hummingbird Award is special. It’s for those bands that make a dent in the universe. Do something extraordinary…create a stellar record, great series of singles, great live artist, whatever it is, the artist needs to make an impression, much the like the loveliest bird on Earth, the Hummingbird. EMA made her mark early in the year. She’s a little bit country, a whole lot of 80′s industrial goth and a layering of folky noise that will make you regret falling in love with her. I think she’s the type of woman that just makes you feel regret, but addiction at the same time. You know what I’m talking about. We just adore EMA here at NBD, and by the way, I’m writing this on BART as I pass by her exit here at West Oakland, so take that EMA.

Vitals:
Hometown: West Oakland … originally from South Dakota
Members: Erika M. Anderson, Nicole Anderson, Nicky Mao, Leif Shackelford
Sonic Soulmates™: Zola Genius, Sleigh Bells, Early Hole
Trackables™:
“The Grey Ship”

“Milkman” – My favorite track by her!

Click here to listen on your iPhone or iPad
EMA – “The Grey Ship”

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Original Post: Band of the Day 5.4.11

WHAT ARE THE HUMMINGBIRDS?
2011 Winners
Hummingbird Award #13: Lana Del Rey
Hummingbird Award #12: WATERS
Hummingbird Award #11: Suuns
Hummingbird Award #10: La Sera
Hummingbird Award #9: Sun Airway
Hummingbird Award #8: White Denim
Hummingbird Award #7: Dirty Beaches
Hummingbird Award #6: Widowspeak
Hummingbird Award #5: Charles Bradley

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Best New Bands of 2011 HUMMINGBIRD AWARD: #7 Dirty Beaches

14 Dec

Emanating from the underground is a new sound that chills the bone - Dirty Beaches

Best New Band of 2011
#7 Hummingbird Award – Dirty Beaches
You might hear Alex and think it’s a novelty, but I assure you that it’s not. The “dirtiness” is a great description, he sounds like the aura of Elvis emanating from an opium den. It’s dirty, etherial and mind altering. Just listen to the tracks below and you’ll find that they’re unique enough to give him the nod for one of the greatest new artists of 2011. Enjoy.

Vitals:
Hometown: East Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Members: Alex Zhang Hungtai; solo performer, sound-smith, and trans-Pacific nomad. Born in Taiwan, Hungtai has made Toronto, Honolulu, Montreal, and Vancouver his homes.
Sonic Soulmates™: Lou Reed, Roy Orbison, Misfits, if Depeche Mode came from the 60′s and early 60′s beat bands…
Trackables™:
“Lord Knows Best”

“True Blue”

“Sweet 17″

Click here to listen on your iPhone or iPad
Dirty Beaches “Lord Knows Best”
Dirty Beaches – “True Blue”
Dirty Beaches – “Sweet 17″

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Original Post: Band of the Day 1.12.11

WHAT ARE THE HUMMINGBIRDS?
2011 Winners
Hummingbird Award #13: Lana Del Rey
Hummingbird Award #12: WATERS
Hummingbird Award #11: Suuns
Hummingbird Award #10: La Sera
Hummingbird Award #9: Sun Airway
Hummingbird Award #8: White Denim

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Best New Bands of 2011 HUMMINGBIRD AWARD: #10 La Sera

9 Dec

Capturing that moment when an artist is about to crack the mainstream...hear La Sera now. Photo by http://www.lesphotosduphil.fr

Best New Band of 2011
#10 Hummingbird Award – La Sera
Ahhh, we love when an artist decides to step out and take a chance on their own. La Sera or Katy Goodman took a pause from Vivian Girls, grabbed a few friends flew to Seattle, recorded an album, two videos and has created one of the purest Spectorian albums of 2011. She is a beautiful specimen.

Vitals:
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Members: Katy Goodman (bass, vox), Jenn Prince (guitar, vox) and Jonathan Weinberg (drums, vox, keys)
Sonic Soulmates™: Tennis, My Bloody Valentine, Phil Spector 50′s ladies
Trackables™
“Devils Hearts Grow Gold”

“Under the Trees”

“Dove Into Love”

Click here to listen on your iPhone or iPad
La Sera “Dove Into Love”
La Sera – “Under The Trees”
La Sera – “Hearts Grow Gold”

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Original Post: Band of the Day 2.2.11

WHAT ARE THE HUMMINGBIRDS?
2011 Winners
Hummingbird Award #13: Lana Del Rey
Hummingbird Award #12: WATERS
Hummingbird Award #11: Suuns

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Best New Bands of 2011 HUMMINGBIRD AWARD: #12 WATERS

6 Dec

12 reasons to love 2011 and WATERS. Stop listening to drivel and listen to WATERS

Best New Band of 2011
#12 Hummingbird Award – WATERS

Van Pierszalowski formerly of Port O’Brien, which is no more (so sad), traversed the coasts from Alaska to Oslo back to SF and he’s created more aqually awesome music. Flowing tempos and Lord Huron vocals make us love him so much more. The tri-coastal hero is superhero amongst us all…Yo La Tengo in nature. The love is gushing and

Vitals:
Hometown: Oslo, Norway; San Francisco, CA; Brooklyn, NY
Members: Van Pierszalowski
Sonic Soulmates™: Yo La Tengo, Phosphorescent
Trackables™:
“O Holy Break of Day”

“For The One”

Click here to listen on your iPhone or iPad
Best New Bands – WATERS “O Holy Break of Day”
WATERS – For the One

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Original Post: Band of the Day 10.26.11

WHAT ARE THE HUMMINGBIRDS?
Hummingbird Award Winners 2011
Hummingbird Award #13: Lana Del Rey

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Band of the Day (11.11.11) Gardens & Villa

11 Nov

Gardens & Villa open your eyes your about to break!


BOD 11.11.11 Gardens & Villa

It’s been awhile and I apologize. Today we’ve found a band that may just be the Hummingbird winner of 2011. Can’t believe these guys have flown under the radar for this long. I’m assuming they will pop up on some irrelevant TV show soon, but in the meantime steal their fame and be the first to follow.

Gardens & Villa are a combination of GOOD Vampire Weekend a splash of MGMT and a great reason to pull out The Shins ancient relics and give them a spin. The boys hail from our favorite turkey time villa of Santa Barbara, CA. Their synth pop indie rock is right in line with the shiat today. This band won’t be under the radar, they’ll be in every commercial right around February. The band formed in 2008, joined Secretly Canadian and befriended our good friend Richard Swift. He influenced this self-titled beauty and you really really really need to get yourself a copy. Buy it on vinyl here

Vitals:
Hometown: Santa f’n Barbara, CA….the album was recorded in Oregon
Members: Chris Lynch, keyboardist Adam Rasmussen, bassist Shane McKillop, and drummer Levi Hayden
Sonic Soulmates™: The Shins, MGMT, Vampire Weekend (the good not lame version), The Police, Richard Swift
Trackables™:
“Black Hills”

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Band of the Day (10.11.11) Library Voices

11 Oct

Don't Be Alarmed, People Still Go to the LIbrary and They Still Whisper


Band of the Day (10.11.11) Library Voices

I still have the urge to post more information about our “Already Profiled” bands that have new records. There are so many, it’s hard to keep up. We can’t forget about the new ones, we really can’t. Today’s band is a Canadian delight. Now that we’re finally over the maple leaf obsession, we get a band from Regina, Saskatchewan, CA dead center of Winnipeg and Calgary. Some of the most beautiful country in the world, but it’s damn cold. The band Bon Iver’d up in a small town of Kronau (population: 209) to record their sophomore record and it’s quite good. The band has not been on the golden road to Oz, their trailers have been robbed, their instruments and studio destroyed in a flood, but the seven piece Reginates are aiming for their own US rocket ship. The record hits next Tuesday and we have a track or two below. Think of the bell clanging female backed Los Campesinos combined with 80′s horn driven favorites like Bruce Hornsby and then sprinkle in some good ‘ol home cooked Canadian bacon like Stars and The Dears and you have Library Voices. Love ‘em and you will be hearing them all over soon.

Vitals:
Hometown: Regina, Saskatchewan, CA
Members:
Amanda Scandrett – keyboards /vocals
Paul Gutheil – saxophone / vocals
Michael Thievin – drums
Brennan Ross – Guitar /vocals
Carl Johnson – lead vocals
Michael Dawson – keyboards / vocals
Eoin Hickey-Cameron – bass guitar
Sonic Soulmates: Los Campesinos, The Dears, Stars, The Range with Bruce Hornsby
Trackables:
“Generation Handclap”


“Traveller’s Digest”

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Library Voices
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