Hey all,
Hope July has been going swell for all of you. We’ve finally hit some nice weather, albeit not today by any means, but eh what can you do? I’ve been exploring the parks, forests, beautiful places and spaces around UConn in between the madness of summer, and I highly reccommend checking the area out if you ever get a chance. It’s an ideal way to spend a day.
It has been a slow month for music so far, at least at the station, but as always, we’ve got some hot CDs fresh off the presses. The new Westkust CD is and and rolling. The band is mostly comprised of members of another band, Makthaverskan, and it’s full of great, feel-good power pop jams. It’s definitely worth a listen if any of that sounds up your alley.
We also have some cool CDs from Damaged Bug, Bully, and Stranger Cat. A lot of CDs for a wide variety of content, all of which you can dive right into here at the station. As always, we’ll keep you updated.
Stay golden folks.
-Jordan
| ARTIST | ALBUM | DESCRIPTION | LABEL |
| Westkust** | Last Forever | Really great noise/power-pop feat. Members of the great Makthaverskan. The songs are super poppy and melodic, but definitely still pack a punch. Alternating male/female vocals nicely complement each other. Try: 1,2,3,4,5 RIYL: Joanna Gruesome | Run For Cover |
| Stranger Cat* | In The Wilderness | Frontwoman has worked w/ some cool musicians (Sufjan, Shins, Sharon Von Etten). This album is atmospheric and ambient. Cool synth textures and washed out vocals. She has a great voice. Occasionally accented by some cool percussion. Try: 1,2 RIYL: Purity Ring | Joyful Noise |
| Damaged Bug* | Cold Hot Plumbs | Guy from Thee Oh Sees doing weird electronic stuff. Weird, groovy, electronic, and pretty sad lyrical content. Draws some influence from krautrock acts like Kraftwerk. Pretty cool. Try: 3,4,6,7 RIYL: Kraftwerk | Castleface |
| Ancient Ocean* | Blood Moon | Very long, ambient, atmospheric instrumental tracks. 4 songs over 41 minutes. Very relaxing and hypnotic, and featuring some cool musicians (Destruction Unit, Woodsman). Not great for radio but great in its own rite. RIYL: Space, Clouds | Beyond Records |
| LA Priest* | Inji | Cool psychedelic/funk influenced tunes. Vocals sound like Prince. Some weird sporadic bursts of abrasive synth lines. Cool sound textures and some solid grooves. Definitely likes to get weird. Try: 1,2,4,5 | Domino Records |
| mewithoutYou* | Pale Horses | These dudes have been around for a while and have seen a lot of sylistic changes. This is a bit of a melting pot of all their phases. Some post-rock elements thrown in here and there. Almost sounds like Interpol at times? Highly emotive lyrics and instrumentation. FCC: 3,11 Try: 2,5,7 | Run For Cover |
| Bully* | Feels Like | Aggressive female fronted garage rock. Packs a lot of punch but also is not afraid to chill out a bit. Great vocals, catchy hooks, and great instrumentation. Makes me want to stage dive. FCC: 1,3,7 Try:5,2,4 RIYL: Sleater Kinney | Star Time INTL |
| Sister Girlfriend* | Knock EP | Mix of synth-pop w/ some R+B and jazz influence. Very sort of free form grooves + jazz structure. Cool use of different instrumentation. Pretty groovy and funky. Some of the songs have good hoooks, but some fall flat. Try:1,2 FCC:4 | Mystic Cave Records |
| Fist City* | Everything Is A Mess | Cool noisey rock tunes w/ some post-punk sensibilities. Hectic and energetic. Draws a lot of influence from classic noise rock acts like Sonic Youth. Cool guitar work and heavily effected vocals. Try: 8,7 FCC: 2,3,4,5,12 RIYL: Sonic Youth | Transgressive |
| Hey Mother Death* | Highway | Pretty cool avant-garde/soundscape type stuff w/ spoken work, over sparse electronic instrumentation. Occasional guitars thrown in. Try: 1,3 | Paper Bag |
| Beck* | Dreams | New Beck Single. Pretty groovy and funky. It’s good, but seems to be a bit too anthemic leaning. Big chorus. | Capitol |
| The Chemical Brothers* | Born in the Echoes | “Big beat”/electronica kings. Electronic duo from England. It’s groovy as all heck with huge pounding beats. These dudes still got it after 25 years. Typical builds and drops, but these guys kind of invented it so it’s okay. FCC:2 Try:1,3,4 | Astralwerks |
| White Reaper* | White Reaper Does It Again | Energetic garage-rock with catchy vox and cool key lines. Some psych rock influence thrown in. It’s fun and has some great hooks. Some 60’s pop influence in melodies. Fuzzed-out instrumentation. Cool guitar solos. Try: 1,2,8,3 FCC:10 | polyvinyl |
| Outfit* | Slowness | Atmospheric, synthy post-punk that emphasizes mood over song structure. A sadder, weirder, more serious Hot Chip? FCC Clean Try: 3,2,7,8,1 RIYL: Hot Chip, Wild Beasts, Talk Talk | Memphis Industries |
| Walter TV | Blessed | Weird psychedelic dream pop in the same vein as Animal Collective or Ariel Pink. Warbly vocals that occasionally get drowned out by hectic textures. Very hectic overall. FCC Clean Try: 2,3,6 | Sinderlyn |
| Jeen | Tourist | Cool female-fronted rock w/ folk songwriting influence but punk energy and sensibility. Trying a little too hard to be anthemic, but overall pretty good. Try: 1,2,4 FCC Clean RIYL: Du Blonde, Torres, Speedy Ortiz | Self-Released |
| Sonny Knight and The Lakers | Do It Live | Live soul/funk. Groovy, funky, but not all that great sounding. Can defnintiely tell it’s a live record. Production aside, the songs are pretty good and there’s some cool covers. Try:3,16 RIYL: James Brown | Secret Stash |
| Ella Fence | Wanderlust | Alternative pop with orchestral melodies and powerful vocals. Her songs show many emotions that will draw you in. Musically similar to Lana Del Rey or Elle Kino. Album doesn’t have a truly unique sound, but if you like those artists, you’ll enjoy this. Try:3 | Self-Released |
| n. Lannon | Falling Inside | Chillwave sounds mixed with folk instrumentation. Essentially it’s an acoustic guitar backed by an 808 machine. Also samples some interesting stuff. Doesn’t quite pull off the mixing sounds. Try: 2,5 | Badman |
| Youth Worship | LP1 | Heavy 90’s alt-rock influence. Vocals are kinda rough, and the instrumentation is pretty derivative. That being said, it isn’t offensively bad, just overall unoriginal. FCC: 5,6,8,9 Try: 1,3 RIYL: Dinosaur Jr. | Self Harm Records |
| Metric | The Shade EP | Pretty straight forward female fronted electro-pop. Some good hooks, but overall pretty unremarkable. Bleh. RIYL: Purity Ring, Chvrches | Fat Possum |
| Renny Wilson | Punk Explosion/Extension | Punk/garage-rock. It’s okay, but overall is pretty lackluster. Try: 1,7 FCC: 2,3,4,5 | Mint |
| Soldier’s Heart | Soldier’s Heart EP | Dreamy, female-fronted synth pop. She has a good voice, but it seems to be lacking something to make it unique. Try: 1,2 RIYL: Chvrches | Self-Released |
| Love Amongst Ruin | Lose Your Way | Essentially just The National mixed with Coldplay. Gross | Ancient B |
| Good Old War | Broken Into Better Shape | Folk-rock made for pop radio. Pounding bass with lots of “hexs” and “woahs”. Also pretty odd production w/ bass drops and swells. Boring. | Nettwerk |
| Jeremy and the Harlequins | American Dreamer | Rockabilly/50s style rock with modern production. Does not mix well, sounds very inauthentic. Bluesy, chuggy, but overall pretty uninteresting. Try: 1,4 FCC: 2 RIYL: The Cramps (but much worse) | Harlequins |
| Heat | rooms | Beery, anthemic, indie-rock with a vocalist who does a bad Lou Reed/Julian Casablancas/Bob Dylan/Tom Petty imitation. Tons of FCC violations. RIYL: The Strokes, The Hold Steady | Kitsune |
| Talkie | Talkie EP | Mostly aggressive rock that sticks with you, a lot of hooks. 4 is a nice sad change of pace. | Milk Carton |
| Bomba Estereo | Amanecer | Elements of dub, reggae, and dancehall mixed with some latin flavor. Sung all in Spanish. Hooks are great, pulsing beats. Big anthemic sound. Try: 1,3 FCC Clean | Sony Music Latin |
| Scotdrakula | Scotdrakula | Jangly garage rock. Very woopy vocals. For whatever reason the levels are really low on this CD. It’s fun and energetic, but nothing super new. FCC:1,2,4,7,8,9 RIYL: Twin Peaks, White Reaper | Self-Released |
| Twin Within | Horizontal Lines | Gentle, folksy indie-pop. Lots of acoustic guitars and floating melodies. Draws influence from Beach Boys and Simon and Garfunkel. Try: 1,3 | Hidden Pony |
| Blackheart Honeymoon | Mountains Speak | The packaging on this CD is so wack. It’s a CD, not an old vinyl record. Acoustic guitar indie-folk w/some americana vibes. It’s not bad, but not too exciting or interesting. Try: 1,2 FCC Clean | Self-Released |
| Gossamer | Automation | Cool jazz-influenced electronic stuff. Very ambient and atmospheric with cool field/sound recordings over groovy, mellow beats. RIYL: Flylo, BBNG Try:2,1,6 | Innovative Leisure |
| The New Division | Gemini | Very ethereal and eerie. A whole lot of new wave vibes on here, but also some house influence. Some more guitar-based tracks that sound like the Cure’s poppier moments. Try:2,5,6 RIYL: The Cure, Tears 4 Fears | Division 87 |
| Fictionist | Fictionist | Some art-rock weirdness mixed with pretty straight forward synth-pop sensibilities. Some cool instrumentation throughout. Try: 1,2,3,8 FCC Clean RIYL: Phoenix, Spoon | S/R |
