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”
Don't punish us for joining the mainstream, but Lana Del Rey is soooo good. It's hard not to be a lover!
Best New Band of 2011
#13 Hummingbird Award – Lana Del Rey
The Spectorian sounds of 2011 all started back in January or maybe it was the hangover from 2010. Lana Del Rey is talented, but her attention is at it’s peak all without a record. She is due for her LA meltdown at this point..although, her album is due in January and it will sell lots o’lots of records. You be the judge, but we loved her in January and we still love her today.
Vitals:
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY/ Hollywood
Members: Lana Del Rey
Sonic Soulmates™: Stevie Nicks, Dolly Parton (in tone), The Shirelles, Fiona Apple, Tennis, The Ronettes
Trackables™:
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”
Beards were grown, hearts were broken and Megafaun went on Tour
Band of the Day (9.30.11) Megafaun
What do you want me to say, “I’m sorry” or make up some horrible excuse. I’ve been busy and the music just kind of sucks. I have a post coming later today that will explain it all. I truly found a band that you’ll love, trust is key here. Megafaun is 70’s smoke rock, from the open fields of Durham, NC. When I hear the clean slide guitar riffs, I think of The Byrds and possibly even Fleet Foxes but with an electronic edge. There is an association with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver here. He too was from Durham, but moved to Wisconsin to live in a cabin and write a sad successful record. The rest of the boys stayed in Durham, grew beards, hearts were broken, lyrics were written and vans were filled with chips, beer and guitars. I love Southern harmonies, but these brothers are inventive with their sound. Love em and I know you will too.
Vitals:
Hometown: Durham, NC
Members: Phil Cook, Brad Cook, and Joe Westerlund
Sonic Soulmates: The Byrds, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Whiskeytown, Wilco
Trackables:
“Real Slow”
The War on Drugs was no war, but just a name for a cause...good music cause
Band of the Day (8.25.11) The War on Drugs
I’m definitely a kid of the 80’s. Watching Nancy on stage passing out T-shirts telling me I shouldn’t. While Ronnie was on the 11pm news telling us how we’re winning the “War on Drugs” against the Colombians. Do you know what I really think…by calling it a war, it helped fund an industry and kept the economy moving forward. Maybe it was just a ploy to help us get our get our favorite band of the day. Ironically, The War on Drugs is down home Americana, the likes of Dylan and Springsteen…just like Reagan’s war on Angel Dust. TWOD are more of a collective, starting back in 2005, with Adam Granduciel and Kurt Vile touring Oakland, Philly, etc. then Vile bailed and Adam got serious with Dave Hartley and Mike Zanghi. They make up a super trio of electronic Americana. The threesome have Americana roots, with a Adam sounding a lot like Dylan fronting and the boys adding their best My Bloody Valentine. Love the new record Slave Ambient and the tracks posted below. Think Wilco meets Dylan meets Eels.
Vitals:
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Members: Current
Adam Granduciel (vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards, samplers)
Dave Hartley (bass, guitars)
Mike Zanghi (drums, percussion, sampler) Former
Kurt Vile (guitar)
Kyle Lloyd (drums)
Charlie Hall (drums, organ)
Sonic Soulmates™: Bob Dylan, Springsteen, My Bloody Valentine, Eels, Grant Lee Phillips
Trackables™:
“Baby Missles”
White Denim in Austin, TX is like wearing cowboy boots in LA. Fashion Police...
Band of the Day (8.23.11) White Denim
Two words solidify my love for White Denim, no not Meghan Fox no the two words that leave my mouth every time I hear White Denim…Hummingbird Award. Yeah that’s right, they are that good. Yeah and I don’t really give a hoot that they’ve been playing music since 2006. Five years is enough time for a band to really hit their shit. And I swear their new record D is rock your socks off good. I love the diversity of the 80’s deep bass rock, similar to early U2, and the droniness of 2011 found on “Street Joy” like that of Girls. They get all fuzzy at times like our faves here at NBD, Tame Impala. If that gives you any indication of their sound then why the hell are you reading this post. Listen and follow brother. And by the way, you tell me, but I think this qualifies and I do think I declared that 2011 was the re-birth of rock…..
Vitals:
Hometown: Austin, TX
Members: Josh Block (drums), Steve Terebecki (bass), and James Petralli (guitars, vocals)
Sonic Soulmates™: Did you see that I trademarked it…Tame Impala, Boyish U2, Shabazzzzzz
Trackables™: Trademarked that shiat as well.
“Drugs (PBJ Remix)” – My present to you.
90's dirty basement rock, Sleigh Bells vocals and a new record...GOOD STUFF!
Band of the Day (5.4.11) – EMA
EMA – Erika M. Anderson, former lead of the California noise-folk band Gowns, a band she led with her BF, brings a celebratory record. She was the darling of SXSW this year and she is the darling of our eyes. By the way it’s been over 20 years so it’s safe to use Nirvana chords without being ridiculed, but now it’s cool. She cleverly creates self harmonies, layered with those 90’s rock riffs, piano notes and snare drums. She makes me feel so dirty with “Milkman”, but soothes me and clears my guilt with “Breakfast”
It’s cool shiat and I think you’ll find her busting through on 2011 best of lists.
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™:
“Grey Ship”
I’m sitting on a flight to NY on Virgin America with my headphones on listening to a bunch of new bands. Great stuff coming for this week. I’m in a particularly dreamy mood, writing a business plan and thinking about emotional stuff. iTunes was in a weird mood on the flight and my shuffle played three shoegaze tracks in a row. The first two sounded the same, then Slovak Republic played and I couldn’t help but stop working to discover the track. I put the entire album on and I was impressed. Slow moody shoegaze tracks, coupled with melodic self harmonies, then blasted with drums and soft pianos. My favorite track “Alexandria” is amazing. Digging into the band, I see that they recently changed their name from Slovak Girl to Slovak Republic…okay…I am 50% Slovakian so that does help in today’s selection and an extra bonus point for the name change. Derek Lang leads this self produced, unsigned dreamy band. Czech out their two tracks below, then head over to BandCamp to grab the album.
Vitals:
Hometown: Houston, TX
Members: Derek Lang
Sonic Soulmates: Tamryn, Smashing Pumpkins (Without the Corgan whine), Mathemagic
Must hear tracks:
“The Netherlands”
RIchmond's Boas is Tyler Newbold and it's electronic bliss
Band of the Day 3.1.11 Boas
It’s the first day of March and after almost 60 days I don’t think we’ve profiled an ambient heavy electronic solo artist. Well Boas is Richmond, VA Tyler Newbold’s solo effort and it’s tough to place him into a genre or a sonic family. It’s one part experimental, one part psychadelica and a whole lot of cleverness. Take Thievery Corporation and place them in the studio with Stereolab. What do you get a gigantic experimental sound that rival the moodiness of Radiohead. It’s a bold statement and comparison, but what do we care, it’s TRUE. Boas can be that good, this is just the start, so follow now!
Pick-up Boas new LP Grave Dreams for FREE at Band Camp
Vitals:
Hometown: Richmond, VA
Members: Tyler Newbold
Sonic Soulmates: Thievery Corporation Meets Radiohead Meets Broken Social Scene Meets Stereolab
Must Hear Tracks: “A Little Less Familiar” – Heavy beats, high falsettos and a brilliant track
“State of Colliding” – What the hell is this, I happen to adore it. Just get to 4:00 minutes and you’ll be in love
“No Reflection” – Just a disarming amount of layered beats. Wowoowowowo
Vivian Girls peaceful little bird creates a beauty with La Sera
Band of the Day (2.22.11) La Sera
I’m getting the sneaking suspicion that this year’s lot of new artists are falling into two camps. The female led, fuzzy Spectors and the garage rockers. There have been some outliers, but not enough to say that they have a clan of bands. La Sera falls into the Spector ladies. The Vivian Girls are fantastic and their dreamy morbid pop is always beautiful and their spin-offs are getting just as much press. Many of you probably have La Sera’s limited 7″ spinning on your iPhone or you may have picked up their self-titled LP last week. If you have, then you know that they are worthy of the Band of the Day nod. In February 2010 Katy Goodman started working on some new material that birthed La Sera. Her inspiration is part an attraction to early pop hits from the 1950’s and the other part an obsession with choral harmonies. The music of La Sera is less aggressive than Vivian Girls and has a more peaceful choir sound. Katy met Brady Hall (the director of Vivian Girls videos “Moped Girls” and “When I’m Gone”), and they immediately collaborated, flew to Seattle and the two recorded all the vocals, mixed the songs and filmed two La Sera music videos at Brady’s home studio. The albums dozen or so tracks stemmed from these sessions. Hear our three faves below.
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
Must Hear Tracks: “Devils Heart Grows Gold” – Quite possibly the best track from her!
Today is the day….the day my fine feathered friends dropped a little treat onto my hard drive. New Radio”F$%*ing”head…. what do I think??? Well as the Arizona Turk pointed out at 5am this great morning, “They had two years to produce something and it sounds rushed” well it’s first listen and we’ll have more to say after a day of it with headphones. “Little By Little” is a rad as is “Codex” let the debate start. Is this album speaking about the “Death of the Dictator” ???? Listen and learn.
What was next to my Radiohead treat…? Cinemascopes! Brighton garage rockers with a flare for wailing guitars and synth craziness. But then you get to track 4 of the EP and it’s there, the brilliance of the band. I’m hooked badly on this track. It’s called “Lost Children” with a sense of great early Snow Patrol, Bloc Party basslines and just good rock drum and guitar. You be the judge of Leon Morgan, Milo Boyd, Owen Thomas and Steffan Eliades 3 tracks. The new self-titled EP is FREE here!!!
Vitals:
Hometown: Brighton, UK
Members: Leon Morgan, Milo Boyd, Owen Thomas and Steffan Eliades
Sonic Soulmates: Thievery Corporation, Snow Patrol, Bloc Part, Thurston Moore led Sonic Youth, Neu
Must Hear Tracks:
“Lost Children” MP3 –>Cinemascopes Lost Children
It's All Yours Pomegranates, go get the Hummingbird
Best New Bands of 2010 Hummingbird Award: #2 The Pomegranates
Seriously, in November we all thought the #3 best new bands were set. The Pomegranates had a nice single hitting the college radio charts and so we profiled them. Then I spent a few weeks with the new album One Of Us and I was impressed. I spent time with them on my headphones on BART, on my car stereo, on my home stereo. Every time the shuffle pulled up one of their tracks, I stopped to check who it was. It hit me on a trip to Columbus, I listened to “Prouncer” and realized that these guys are worthy of the #1 spot for our Hummingbird Awards. What about The Radio Dept? What about Jim Jones Revue? Well The Pomegranates hit #2 and we’re confident in saying that they are that good. The album is a collection of fuzzy surf sounds, 90’s Brit Rock and early 80’s new wave. They’re Surfer Blood mixed with Blur with a dash of U2 Boy. These guys are GREAT and they are one of the Best New Bands of 2010.
Vitals:
Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio
Band Members: Joey Cook – Vocals, Guitars/Keyboards, Isaac Karns – Vocals/Guitars/Keyboards, Jacob Merritt – Drums, Daniel Lyon – Vocals/Guitars
Sonic Soulmates: Blur, Oasis, U2, The Radio Dept. and of course Surfer Blood
Tracks of the Year:
“Prouncer”
“One of Us” – Spacey, shoe-gaze love track. Might be my fave. A little U2 bass line
Best Bands of 2010
#18 Hummingbird Award – Gamble House
Gamble House is what rock has become. Clean guitars, layered vocals and whole lot of So. Cal vibe. I love Grizzly Bear and the like…but there’s something clever and simple that Gamble House provides that I miss when I’m listening to the others. Maybe it’s the California plucking harmonies, no matter what it is, these guys deserve the love and that’s why they are #18 on our Hummingbird award list. The 18th best new band of 2010. Thanks boys.
VITALS:
Hometown: Silve Lake, CA
Members: Ben Becker, Keith Karman, Ben Cassorla and Brian Mclaughlin
Sonic Soulmates: Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes and Grizzly Bear. Yeah they have The Pet Sound
Tracks of the year:
“Bonny Doon”
NewBandDay 