Virtual Virtuosos: Caitlin Bell

This week's featured artist is Caitlin Bell, a 19-year-old singer/songwriter from Canada:



Caitlin started posting her originals and covers to YouTube in 2008 (when she was just 15!) but has just recently enjoyed more widespread fame thanks to collaborations with big name YouTube musicians like Sam Hart. If you'd like to see more of Caitlin, she's on Twitter, Tumblr, and occasionally does live shows on BlogTV. You can also check her out on her Facebook here.

Video of the Week

Prepare to be overwhelmed...

It's an exorbitant amount of colors and images that all lay over one another. At some points you don't even realize the song is at the heart of this whole thing. "Matchstick" by the Los Angeles trio American Royalty is reminiscent of an early Animal Collective, a band experimenting with the combination of sounds it can create.

...enjoy.

Listen to the new BEACH HOUSE

I should be sleeping right now but this is just too exciting. Pitchfork just informed me that BEACH HOUSE just posted a BRAND NEW TRACK called "Myth" on their website. It's swooping and gorgeous and I'm already listening to it on repeat. Word on the street says that their new album, Bloom, the long-awaited follow-up to 2010's Teen Dream, is due out May 15. Listen to the new song below and brace yourself to fall in love.

Tunezday!...aka New Music Tuesday!

INDIE ROCK: Andrew Bird, one of the more familiar names in the indie-music scene, returns this week with his seventh solo album, Break It Yourself.  Dedicated Andrew Bird fans will be quick to point out the album’s quieter feel compared to his previous releases; however, the subtlety of Break It Yourself cannot be mistaken for simplicity or brushed off after one listen.  If you listen carefully, the complexity and experimental flare that marked his previous work is still very much present behind the catchier choruses and country-folk guitar. Each song stands as a testament to Bird’s amazing musicianship, including his trademark whistling melodies.  Give this album a couple of listens on NPR’s First Listen and you will be sure to find the beauty and familiar elements in Andrew Bird’s newest sound.

Stream Andrew Bird – Break It Yourself

ELECTRONIC: In a time when ethereal synths seem to be taking over, Julia Holter manages to take the common elements of a popular sound and create something completely unique in her second full-length album, Ekstasis.  Holter blends electronic music, experimental modal melodies, and classical musicianship into one incredibly mysterious and intriguing sound.  Instead of droning out into the background, Holter’s ambient pop sound draws the listener in with an overwhelming desire to focus on every layered element, only to realize the inevitable inability to do so.  Ekstasis is already being heralded as one of the best new releases of the year, so check it out now!

Stream Julia Holter – Ekstasis

FOLK: If you are looking for a more familiar, accessible sound, the folk trio Bowerbirds is releasing their third LP, The Clearing, this week.  The Clearing totes a more classically folk sound with beautifully strummed guitars and strings, dynamic percussion, and perfectly complementing male and female vocals from all three members: Philip Moore, Beth Tacular and Mark Paulson.  The album was recorded partly in a cabin in North Carolina and partly in Bon Iver’s Wisonsin studio, and the intimate woodsy atmosphere clearly permeates into the sound of each song.  In this case, a familiar sound is more than welcome in this gorgeous album.

 

Stream Bowerbirds – The Clearing

Stream a few more of this week’s best new releases here:

Kaiser Chiefs – Start the Revolution Without Me

The Magnetic Fields – Love At The Bottom of The Sea

Xiu Xiu – Always

Get Evian Christ's debut full-length for free (legally)!

If you've been keeping up with the post-dubstep dance music scene at all -- which hopefully you have, 'cause there is some amazing electronic music being made right now -- you've probably noted the pervasive presence of a few qualities: vast empty spaces, ominously echoing beats, seismic-grade bass, chopped-n-screwed vocals, ironically appropriated Top 40 hip-hop/R&B signifiers, and a generally cold, gothed-out atmosphere. Looks to me like it's the combined influence of Burial's Untrue, the Knife's Silent Shout, J Dilla's posthumous Donuts, and first-wave U.K. dubstep in the flattening, democratizing era of the internet. Not too long ago, there was a short-lived subgenre called "witch house" that specialized in a cartoonishly exaggerated version of this very aesthetic; that sound is now largely dead (ironically, for a sound that tried hard to seem like it was already dead...), but the record label that became known for establishing the witch house sound, Tri Angle Records, is still around. Tri Angle is on the vanguard of all this gloomy hip-hop-inflected electronica being put out in the here and now, with such notable acts on its roster as Salem, oOoOO, How to Dress Well, Balam Acab, Holy Other, Clams Casino, and Water Borders.

The latest Tri Angle release is Kings And Them, the debut record from U.K. college student Evian Christ, and it's a perfect encapsulation of the label's aesthetic. Made on his laptop, grounded in gangsta rap and steeped in eerie, vaguely industrial ambience, it's a lumbering, blurry, and sometimes frightening album punctuated by an irresistible danceability. So it's good. Even better, Tri Angle is offering it for free! Get it right here, right now at Mediafire. Additionally, check out an interview with Christ (Evian, not Jesus) and an unreleased track at Pitchfork.

And if you're in the mood for pitch-shifted, nightmarish bass music (or even if you're not), you simply HAVE to hear the latest Burial EP, Kindred. It's one of the best albums I've heard in ages and surpasses even the U.K. producer's 2007 masterpiece Untrue, one of my personal favorite records of all time. Each of the three tracks on the EP is incredible: "Kindred" is driven by a have-to-hear-it-to-believe-it bass drop from hell; the stunning "Loner" is Burial's most open venture into house music territory yet, its jittery synths and fast pulse locking you into an infinite dance loop, but it's still characteristically Burial (i.e. borderline-evil); and the highlight, 12-minute closer "Ashtray Wasp," is the artist's single best track ever, an ultimate Burial composition that's emotionally wrenching, sunken in dark vocal atmospherics, propelled by a clattering, domineeringly militaristic beat, and blessed with one of the loveliest breakdowns you'll ever hear (is that a glockenspiel?!). Check out the each of the three tracks below; I recommend playing them as loud as possible on high-quality speakers or headphones, but make sure your subwoofers (and eardrums) can handle the onslaught.

"Kindred"
"Loner"
"Ashtray Wasp"

UPDATE: Hear the brand new Burial-Four Tet collab over at Pitchfork! Whoa!

Virtual Virtuosos: Brad Doggett

This week's featured artist is Brad Doggett. He's a really great guitar player and an equally great singer:

 

Brad was recently on "The Voice," but unfortunately none of the judges ended up turning around for him. Despite this, he recently moved from his hometown of D.C. to L.A. to pursue his music career. If you'd like to see more of Brad, check out his YouTube and Twitter. You can also listen to all of his covers and originals for free on his Souncloud.

Tunezday!...aka New Music Tuesday!

This is your weekly source of info on the anticipated album releases of the week and where you can stream each in its entirety!

POP: Fanfarlo released their debut album, Reservoir, three years ago, and this week they finally return to the scene with their second LP, Rooms Filled with Light.  This time around, Fanfarlo seems to have dropped the softer, folkier elements of their previous sound, and instead have amped up the orchestral crescendos, heavy brass melodies, and mysterious synths.  Rooms Filled with Light boasts a bigger, more complex sound than we’ve heard from Fanfarlo, and while it isn’t as immediately accessible as Reservoir, when given a little time it proves itself to be a stronger and more satisfying listen. 

 Stream Fanfarlo – Rooms Filled with Light

FOLK: Middlebury College alum Anaïs Mitchell releases her fourth full-length album, Young Man in America, today on her brand new independent label, Wilderland Records. Mitchell has always been known for her musical storytelling and this is no less true on her new album, whose title character she describes as “a restless character on a feverish hunt for pleasure and success.”  Unlike her previous albums, Young Man in America features two percussionists, who add the heaviness necessary to create Mitchell’s part-modern, part-mythical world.  Because this album is not as concept oriented as her last release, the epic folk-opera Hadestown, each song on Young Man in America seems more individually accessible, while still cohering beautifully into an album worthy of listening to from start to finish.

Stream Anaïs Mitchell -  Young Man in America

ELECTRONIC: Mouse on Mars is known as perhaps one of the most prolific bands in electronic music.  I don’t think I can even try to explain them better than they did on their own website so, for fear of failing, here is how they describe themselves (in the third person): “Mouse on Mars is one of the few electronic bands to stand the test of time. Constantly reinventing themselves, they have taken electronica to new heights with a unique blend of sound annihilation, fragmented melodies and an impassioned hatred of conformity. For nearly two deacades, Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner have sweated over burning consoles to create a new musical language, only to twist it again into thousands of myriad distortions.”  Now, after an uncharacteristic six-year break, Mouse on Mars is releasing their 10^th LP, Parastrophic.  The album is 46 minutes of pulsating synths, looping vocals, and heavy, but not overpowering bass all brought together and presented seamlessly such that you barely have time to process what you are hearing. 

Stream Mouse on Mars - Parastrophic

Stream a few more of this week’s best new releases here:

School of Seven Bells – Ghostory

Geographer – Myth

Beth Jeans Houghton – Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose

Willis Earl Beal: Wants To Be The Black Tom Waits

And the bits and pieces of his story over the past couple of years make him seem cool enough to maybe pull it off. For one, Beal will sing to you if you call him (773-295-2135), or at least that was the case before Pitchfork recently posted an interview with him, as he was relatively unknown. The feature on Pitchfork probably changed the game for Willis Earl Beal, perhaps forcing him to leave his identity as a truly 'outsider artist' in the past to some extent, but the attention was deserved. 


Check out Pitchfork's feature and some of his songs here.

Virtual Virtuosos: Daniela Andrade

Hello and welcome to "Virtual Virtuosos," a weekly column devoted to up-and-coming Internet musicians.

This week's featured artist is Daniela Andrade. This 19-year-old singer/songwriter hails from Canada, and has one of the most soothing voices I've ever heard. Seriously, check it out:

Daniela recently won $10,000 in the WhoInspiresU.ca video contest and used the prize money on new recording equipment and a trip to San Diego to record her first EP, "Things We've Said." No release date for the album so far, but hopefully it'll be within the next couple of months.

If you want to see more of Daniela, you can find her on YouTube, Twitter, and Tumblr. You can also stream all of her music for free here.

That's it for this week. See you next Friday!

Santi's Back

Okay, so maybe that's not news, but it's definitely worth mentioning. Santigold, the artist formerly known as Santogold, broke out in '08 with her debut album that included major hits "L.E.S. Artistes", "Creator", and "Lights Out". She was basically absent from the music scene for the following 3 years until last year when she came out with "Go" featuring Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. She also recently appeared on a new Amadou & Miriam track titled "Dougou Badia". Now she's officially back and with a slew of new singles. She released "Big Mouth" earlier this month and "Disparate Youth" just a few days ago, and it's literally all I've been listening to. Her long-awaited second album, Master of My Make-Believe, is reported to be out on May 1st via Downtown/Atlantic. Listen to the new single here. (That's a command.)