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  CAVEMAN: LIVE AT MERCURY LOUNGE 9/15

  September 21, 2011

  New York’s Caveman played a sold-out recordless record release party last week (9/15) for the digital release of their debut album “CoCo Beware” on Magic Man! Records (which you can get here).  Packed with psychedelic pop jams from beginning to end, we were ecstatic for the chance to catch these guys live.  Their show contained a visual component which was relatively nondescript, but which worked nicely to light the stage in a beautiful way while not distracting the audience from the

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  MILK MAID: YUCCA

  August 31, 2011

  Rating:
  MILK MAID: YUCCA
  LABEL: SUFFERING JUKEBOX / FATCAT
  RELEASE DATE: JUNE 20, 2011
   
  Martin Chohen, bassist turned singer / songwriter and frontman of Milk Maid, formerly of Nine Black Alps, recently recently recorded and released the debut album Yucca. Recorded in Cohen’s apartment in Macnchester, UK Yucca is an intelligent and solid album that offers up gritty guitar and often dark or concerning lyrics over “sweet, sun-drenched pop hooks”.
  Yucca is what I imagine a Sonic Youth album would sound like if they

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  CULTS: CULTS

  June 14, 2011

  Rating:

  Cults: Cults
  Label: Columbia
  Release date: June 7, 2011
  When something seems too good to be true, it likely is – or so goes the old adage. When “Go Outside,” the debut single from New York twosome Cults, was unearthed back in February 2010, the track elevated Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion to instant hype band status – but the question of how they might grow after such an impressive start  remained. How could this pair, so heavily indebted to the bubbly

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  MY MORNING JACKET: CIRCUITAL

  June 12, 2011

  Rating:
  My Morning Jacket:  Circuital
  Label: ATO RECORDS / RED
  Release date: May 31, 2011
  Experiencing a band in a live setting is almost certain to change your relationship with their music. Of course, the way in which it might change isn’t static. A great show could ignite a long-lasting listening binge, while a sub-par outing could shelf a band’s records for a spell. But sometimes things can change in unsuspecting ways. For me, My Morning Jacket is an example of such a strange

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  THE ANTLERS: BURST APART

  June 10, 2011

  Rating:
  The Antlers: Burst Apart
  Label: Fake Four Inc.
  Release date: April 26, 2011
  One of the biggest mistakes a band can make is trying to replicate a truly monumental album. For The Antlers, Hospice represents their mecca: a singular narrative made up of equal parts beauty and emotional wreckage encapsulated flawlessly in its own unique moment in time. And so with the band’s fourth full-length, there is no chasing of elusive ghosts. Instead, Peter Silberman and company have crafted an entirely different memento of

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  PALEO: FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

  May 18, 2011

  Rating:
  Paleo: Fruit of the Spirit
  Label: Partisan Records
  Release date: June 21, 2011

  David Andrew Strackany is an experimental folk artist who performs under the guise of Paleo. More than a poet and musician, Strackany is a road warrior, putting on more than 700 shows since 2005. The running list posted to his otherwise minimal website is awe-inspiring. His music, on the other hand, is something of a mixed bag. Its smart yet challenging, personal yet detached.
  Strackany is another in a long

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  THE SEA AND CAKE: THE MOONLIGHT BUTTERFLY

  May 10, 2011

   

  Rating:
  The Sea and Cake: The Moonlight Butterfly
  Label: Thrill Jockey
  Buy this Album.
  Free MP3 Download:
  Up On the North Shore
  Formed in 1993 in Chicago, The Sea and The Cake have all the credentials of one of indie rock’s best kept secrets. They’ve got eight full-length albums to their credit — nine when counting their newest, The Moonlight Butterfly — as well as a few scattered extended plays and singles. Each of these releases have been well-received, yet still, the band never

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  NEW NUMBERS: VACATIONLAND

  April 28, 2011

  Rating:
  New Numbers: Vacationland
  Label: Musiques Primitives
  Release date: March 8, 2011
  The first time I hit play on New Numbers’ Vacationland, I did so with the volume cranked and the bass high. It was as instantly jarring as it was completely unintentional. “Death and Dying,” the frightfully-titled opening track, begins with the slow crank of gritty feedback backed up by subtle yet effective bass. It was sort of like experiencing a concert in reverse (because, you know, those things often end with

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  YUCK + TAME IMPALA: LIVE AT WEBSTER HALL

  April 26, 2011

  Yuck and Tame Impala played a sold out show at Webster Hall on Monday 25.4.11.
  For a band that formed only a little over a year ago, the London/Hiroshima/ New Jersey foursome, Yuck are quickly becoming one of the best new bands out there.  They might sound like they belong in the early 90′s but they are one of the more technically gifted guitar acts to tour in a long time, and prove themselves to be more than mere “Nineties revivalists” in

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  XYLOS: XYLOS

  April 7, 2011

  Rating:
  Xylos:  Xylos
  Label: 1000x Records
  Release date: April 5, 2011
  Songs about love, lust, longing, and desperation are nothing new. These are tried and true subject matters that work well because they’re something that, to one degree or another, we can all relate to. But every now and again a band comes along and tightly grabs hold of these basic premises, shaking and twisting them in magnificent ways. With their self-titled debut, after three years of touring and video-making since releasing a five-track

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  THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART: BELONG

  April 7, 2011

  Rating:
  The Pains of Being Pure At Heart: Belong
  Label: Collective Sounds
  Release date: March 29, 2011
  Since forming in early 2007, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart have become one of the most buzzed about indie pop bands in years. Their distinctive retro sounding brand of noise pop is a tidy distillation of all the great late 80s/early 90s shoegaze precedents – with obvious nods to early My Bloody Valentine, House of Love, Pale Saints, Rocketship – but with that incredible exuberance

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  Q + A: SUCKERS

  April 5, 2011

  Discosalt’s Rachel Covert sat down with the band Suckers in their Brooklyn recording space to discuss their new album Wild Smile; the epic debut following up 2009′s self-titled EP produced by Yeasayer‘s Anand Wilder. The album, available on French Kiss Records, is a rowdy mix of indie art rock and synth. Equal parts experimental and accessible, at times echoing some of the glam grandeur of Bowie. The three singers/ multi-instrumentalists Austin Fisher, Quinn Walker (Fisher’s cousin), and the mysterious Pan share some insight into their

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