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30 May 2009 11:01

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Music: This week’s Saturday Mixtape is so bleeding-edge it hurts

  • 1. School of Seven Bells, featuring one former member of The Secret Machines, feels culled out of 1991 on “My Cabal” – particularly with its drum machine beat and the sweet vocal harmonies.

    1. We love how much Crocodiles sounds like vintage Jesus and Mary Chain. It’s like they borrowed all the old gear used to record “Head On” and decided to go all JAMC for “I Wanna Kill.”

    3. It’s always interesting to listen to a new song by Deerhunter, easily the biggest band on this mixtape. Because you never know what you’ll get. Pop, noise, haze, dust, brood? They’re all possible. “Rainwater Cassette Exchange” is all haze, closer in feel to Bradford Cox’s work with solo project Atlas Sound.

    4. What the heck is a Nick Drake acolyte doing on Ninja Tune, a label known for its DJs and electronic musicians? We don’t know, but we know that Fink’s “Sort of Revolution” is a calm killer – coming off like a more soulful Mark Kozelek.

    5. Japandroids, much like Wavves and No Age and all those other noisy acts, manages to hide some pretty killer hooks under all those layers of distortion. “The Boys Are Leaving Town” will be stuck in your head. Trust us.

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14 Feb 2009 20:12

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Music: Our latest musical crush: The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

  • About the band This NYC band pulls off this neat little trick – initially, they start off heavy and crushing, with noise and feedback bouncing everywhere like the Jesus & Mary Chain, but it slowly becomes obvious that they’re the really the next generation of C86 jangle-pop – which never was all that popular except for people big into Sarah Records acts like Heavenly. Which, strangely enough, we are! source
  • About the band This NYC band pulls off this neat little trick – initially, they start off heavy and crushing, with noise and feedback bouncing everywhere like the Jesus & Mary Chain, but it slowly becomes obvious that they’re the really the next generation of C86 jangle-pop – which never was all that popular except for people big into Sarah Records acts like Heavenly. Which, strangely enough, we are!
  • Where to start The band’s self-titled debut, on the fitting Slumberland Records, is the real twee-pop deal. Worth listening to in particular are the loud-to-lilting “Come Saturday,” and “Stay Alive,” with the most jangly guitars you’ve heard since Toad The Wet Sprocket was still popular. In six months, Belle and Sebastian fans are going to claim that they have a new favorite band. Just you wait. source