Jesus Sons
New releases become fewer as we end the year, but we do have the debut of Jesus Sons, a five-piece garage band from Los Angeles.
“Who’s Around”
Shearwater
Shearwater, the indie rock band from Austin, was formed by Okkervil River members Jonathan Meiburg and Will Sheff in 1999.
Since then Meiburg left Okkervil River and Sheff split from Shearwater.
Fellow Travelers is the 8th Shearwater album.
It is a cover’s album including songs from St. Vincent, Coldplay, Xiu Xiu, Clinic and their version of Folk Implosion’s “Natural One”.
“Natural One”
Blood Orange
Devonté Hynes is one of those rare talents who composes, writes, sings, produces and plays a variety of instruments.
This Englishman has written songs for artists from Florence and the Machine to The Chemical Brothers.
He records under the name Blood Orange.
“Chamakay“ can be found on his latest album Cupid Deluxe.
“Chamakay”
Au Revoir Simone
Au Revoir Simone is a Brooklyn-based all-female trio that took their name from a line in the film Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.
Move in Spectrums is their latest.
Listen here to “Crazy” and the free download of “Somebody Who”.
“Crazy”
“Somebody Who”
Dum Dum Girls
New Dum Dum Girls album in January.
Dee Dee, Jules, Sandy and Malia rock our world.
“Lost Boys and Girls Club” is from the forthcoming Too True.
“Lost Boys and Girls Club”
Ducktails
Guitarist Matt Mondanile of the band Real Estate records solo under the name Ducktails.
Wish Hotel is the current 5 song EP.
“Honey Tiger Eyes” is chill for a Friday afternoon.
“Honey Tiger Eyes”
David Bowie and James Murphy
David Bowie just released an expanded version of his album The Next Day.
Included is the James Murphy remix of “Love is Lost”, entitled “Hello Steve Reich Mix”.
This is a reference to the avant-garde composer Steve Reich’s composition “Clapping Music”, performed entirely by clapping.
The song and the video.
“Love Is Lost” (Hello Steve Reich Mix by James Murphy for the DFA)
Frankie Rose
Frankie Rose, an original member of some our fave bands (Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts) has released her 3rd solo album, Herein Wild.
Listen here to the simple pop of the first single “Sorrow” and then her clever cover version of The Damned’s “Street of Dreams”.
“Sorrow”
“Street of Dreams”
Sky Ferreira
Sky Ferreira, singer/songwriter, model and actress, just released her debut album Night Time, My Time.
This talented 21 year old beauty has the attitude and the chops as seen on her compelling and censored album cover and heard on the single “You’re Not the One”.
James Blake
James Blake, the soulful electronic musician, just won the prestigious Mercury Music Prize for his album Overgrown.
The award is given annually to an artist from the United Kingdom or Ireland.
“Retrograde” was the first single.
Active Child
Active Child is Pat Grossi.
This electronic musician created gorgeous sounds on his debut album You Are All I See in 2011.
He continues with the new EP Rapor.
On this song “Silhouette” he gets help from friend Ellie Goulding.
“Silhouette” featuring Ellie Goulding
Cass McCombs
Singer/songwriter Cass McCombs just released the 22 song Big Wheel and Others.
Included on the album are two versions of the song “Brighter!”, one sung by Cass and the other by the late actress Karen Black.
Black starred in such films as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces and Nashville. She sang backup on an earlier McCombs’ album and was able to record this song before succumbing to cancer in August.
“Brighter!” featuring Karen Black