Soundtrack2

Archive for October, 2009

Headlights, Autolux, Paris Angels, After The Weather, Maps & more

Our latest mix of new and old gems from the Interwebs. Very excited about the quality of stuff coming out. And it will only get better as we head into the holiday release period.

You’ll notice lots of global music and a few curveballs in this week’s mix – let us know what you think!

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1.   Trailer Trash Tracies – Strangling Good Guys

Treble lovers unite! Great track out of the UK to start us off.

2.   Culkin – Glow

Coming straight outta Stockholm with some classic-sounding shoegaze.

3.   Moments Shoegaze – Maniquins

Track from a few years back that came up again recently. Off the L’Équilibriste EP but the band is Spanish – of course!

4.   Autolux – Audience No. 2

Somehow I missed this advance track off their next album Transit Transit. Months went by, and two things made me finally add it into a mix. (1) Great article about the band in Wired and (2) someone really into this kind of music hadn’t heard of them. Apparently their next album is due out in January.

5.   True Widow – Flat Black

Now this track is interesting. Seems like an amalgam of about five bands I love, many of them from this band’s home state of Texas.

6.   Headlights – I Don’t Mind At All

Their new album Wildlife is excellent. Poppy, well-written tunes with great lyrics. We need more bands like Headlights.

7.   Sundae – Verano-Invierno

Ok, I was feeling nostalgic for some breezy pop and this Spanish track fit the bill.

8.   Paris Angels – Perfume

Wow, this straight-from-vinyl track blows my mind. Apparently it’s from the Madchester days.

9.   Clinker - Hallucination Generation

Off free download Thru The Fly Machine, this oddball band delivers a solid tripped out anthem.

10.  Phoenix – Love Like A Sunset (Animal Collective Remix – Deakin’s Jam)

Speaking of anthems, AC’s take on this track is just heavenly. If I could do an entire podcast of Animal Collective music, I probably would. Actually, Animal Collective is probably working on that kind of project right now anyway.

11.  Sunshine Factory – My Sugar Cane

Off the free two-song Sugar EP, this track’s sunspot assault is brilliant.

12.  Baa rec – Deadlock

Japanese band uses a great mix of guitars and electronica to keep this track vibrant.

13.  Maps – Turning The Mind

What can I say about Maps that 100 blogs haven’t already said? I can only add: why is he fighting the shoegaze tag? This is just glorious music that shares a lot with other glorious music we play.

14.  After The Weather – It’s Too Loud

Not sure what this is, but I like it. This Montreal’s band’s By Flashing Lights And True Love album is definitely worth picking up.

15.  Starry-Eyed – Nasa

We close with some dramatic post-rock from Seoul, uncovered in one of the many great MML posts about the Electric Muse label. BTW the post-rock we play at Soundtrack2 is usually more rock than post – so don’t be afraid.

The Black Angels and The Raveonettes hit Toronto on Thursday, October 22.  I haven’t read many other reviews of this tour but all I can say is – WOW.

Soundtrack2 favourites The Black Angels managed to actually sound bigger and noisier than on their two albums. The crowd slowly got into their drone-y ruckus after a while, but most waited for the headliner to appear. Personally I’d have preferred to see a full set by these guys – next time I guess. It’s great to see they really are the real deal.

The first things that struck me when The Raveonettes took the stage was that their wall of noisy pop sounded downright tinny compared to the previous band. But my skepticism drifted away with number after number of explosive, tightly-played tunes.

Sune, Sharin and co. played songs from all albums, including their debut – my personal favourite. Despite the fact that a lot of their tunes can be kind of same-y, I was excited to hear a lot off of In and Out of Control that seemed to mess with the formula.

The light show was completely insane (strobes!) and complemented the performances to a T. Add in a few solo tracks by Sune and Sharin and you’ve got a solid show.

If this bill is in your town, I strongly recommend you go. Apologies for the crappy quality of the above photos.

The Raveonettes, Black Math, Circulatory System, Love of Diagrams, Mystery Machine & more

Catching up on some new releases and classic material.

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1.   Black Math -Triumph Burns

Shaking things up a bit by starting with some dreamy space pop out of Chicago. Love the title.

2.   Fuck Buttons – Surf Solar (7″ edit)

Fantastically intense and creative tune recently reviewed here by Pitchfork.

3.   The Clean -Tensile

A drifting, dreamy number off the seminal New Zealand band’s latest album.

4.   Grapefruit – Grapefruit

Ride (& Oasis) member Andy Bell delivers a propulsive instrumental off Japan-only compilation. And please don’t get me started on this reunion business…

5.   For Those Who Know – Grow Old Together and Die

Bombastic, swirling shoegaze out of Austin.

6.   Crocodiles – I Wanna Kill

Nice bit of 80s revival, complete with bright, catchy chorus. Nice review by Exclaim.

7.   The Raveonettes – In and Out of Control (demo)

Dark/light pop number off their new album of same name. Hoping to catch them in Toronto Oct. 22 with The Black Angels.

8.   I, Nosferatu – In the City

If you like any of the dark, drony and reverbed bands mentioned above, this one’s a gem.

9.   Love of Diagrams – Stones Throw

This band is doing interesting stuff – noisy kind of indie rock.  Off last month’s Nowhere Forever – another cut can be found on this audiocast.

10.   The Mystery Machine – Broken

How did I not know about this Vancouver 90s band until recently? Power pop crossed with a bit of Sonic Youth. Their Glazed album is getting heavy rotation here.

11.   Flood – Jealousy Comes To The Rescue

Ringing, exhilerating track by 90s English band highlighted here.

12.   Lavender Faction – In My Mind

Textbook shoegaze. I challenge you not to air drum when listening to this.

13.   Monoland – Yuriko

German band takes us into dreamier territory via this gorgeous track. Highly recommended.

14.   Loco-Holidays – Silly Smile

Nice Japanese shoegaze.

15.   Circulatory System – Round Again

Yes, yes, yes! There’s nothing better than when a favourite band delivers the goods on a killer new track. Fans of Olivia Tremor Control will not be disappointed by this noisy psych pop track off their new album Signal Morning.

16.  The Light Sleepers – Chaperones

This building rocker couldn’t sound more midwestern – but it’s out of Brighton, UK! Props to BOAWS.

17.   Kurt Vile – Hunchback

Must admit I wasn’t familiar with his earlier band The War on Drugs, but I’m really liking what I’m hearing on his new Matador album Childish Prodigy, released this week.