Idolator

ear pwr from asheville, nc, is doing some pretty awesome stuff these days. i call it "twee-juke music".

I <3 Ear Pwr!

That Vivian Girls LP hasn't left my player in weeks.

I'm also really enjoying:
Au
Girls
Wale's new mixtape
Frightened Rabbit
Dan Friel
the new Bodies of Water

Meho Plaza is a cool L.A. band, somewhat in the noisy vein of No Age and HEALTH. The band just released a self-titled full length. The opening song "I Sold My Organs" is really fun.

Metro Detroit pure-pop magicians The Pop Project just put out an LP entitled "Stars of Stage & Screen." It's loaded with the hooks and harmonies ears crave!

devon williams is bringing some ruling jangle-pop. that new jim ford collection on bear family is killing it too (swamp-country-soul-rock). upcoming clutchy hopkins disc (under the name misled children). and, to get all self promotional for a second, the botticellis (www.thebotticellis.com), on tour now.

also, not ruling, no age can go suck it!

Milwaukee Presents:

Codebreaker. ex- Citizen King, Wild Kingdom and hordes of other bands present the slickest space-pop-dance-rock this side of Hot Chip.

Chief. More scene vets having fun. Why be a rawk cover band when you can pen original (albeit better) rawk tunes yourself. Awesome live. Self released disk out now.

The Danger. Great Mod-pop. Hell, we I used to help fix their Vespas...before they had the band.

Polkacide. Uncle Kenny in leather pants an accordian with a rotating crapshoot of dudes playing Bobby Vinton and Sabbath covers in 4/5 time.

Alot of vets still "get the band together" for giggles. Couch Flambeau, F/I, the Speedfreaks, all get their gig on. I'm sure you can find them all on Myspace...

Despite Pitchfork's 6.5, I think that Okay's Huggable Dust is unbelievable.

And I second the Botticellis.

Cyne - "Starship Utopia." I actually made some beats on their first ep around 2000. The new album is very good. "Conscious" hip-hop without being too preachy.

Cavalier - "The Breaking." Found this online. Just a pure hip-hop album.

Down here in OC I've been singing the praises of Dan Marriner for a bit, really friendly and thoughtful guy. If you're not into lo-fi/acid-folk type stuff, steer clear, but I think he does more things with the early Marc Bolan sound in the end than Devendra does, say.

I'd never heard the Stones' Black and Blue until a week ago and it is so delightfully dumb I sorta love it. Awful!/awful hot!

And a song called "Every Little Move She Makes" by someone called Tony Burrows that i got from a bubblegum comp.

Mitch Easter.

"Police Story" by Black Flag. Summer!

Oh, and PSB doing "My Girl" by Madness is a number one in a world that doesn't suck.

Aside from the Once soundtrack, I've mostly been listening to Bats and Redneck Manifesto; both from the Dublin area, naturally. Bats play the sort of oddball, jazzy freak punk we used to call post-hardcore before the term became synonymous with overproduced pop punk, while the latter are sort of similar in that they play really tight and intricate post rock.

Cashville represent!

Here's Rebecca Lynn Howard:

Jeremy McComb:

Anne McCue:

There is this local jazz musician, Miles Davis, who I can't get enough of. He blows his trumpet through a wah-wah, you gotta see it!

Richmond may have a music scene that has developed past country/bluegrass or hardcore/emo circa 1994, but I have yet to hear it, so I have nothing local to suggest, really.

Dark Meat's Universal Indians has been blowing my mind lately, though

Kleerup. But he's Swedish and I'm from New York so getting my hands on a legit paper-and-plastic copy of his album is proving to be slightly too expensive for my blood (£24? Hmm. No).

@walkmasterflex: The Marsupials are from RVA and they're effin' awesome.

@kisskisskiss: I can't wait for that album to get a domestic release (speaking of Swedes, I'd also be happy for Kocky, Jenny Wilson or Juvelen at non-import prices). Here's Andreas Kleerup and Titiyo backstage in Stockholm helping Ron Sexsmith cover Springsteen's "I'm On Fire":

@baconfat: Oh, I should add: Sarah White from Charlottesville. Great singer-songwriter. She's got a new guitar player and they've got a real Gillian Welch+David Rawlings vibe going on. Excellent.

@baconfat: thanks, i'll give them both a listen. there's a show out of charlottesville called "acoustic sunrise" i listen to on my ride into work that play a lot of local artists, but i can never remember what any of their names are.

artists I love whom I wish would get more love:

Kay Kay and his Weathered Underground
Graham Weber
The Third Man
Memphis Pencils
Cory Branan
Meg Hutchinson
The Hereafter (John Elliott)
Anthem In (RIYL Rogue Wave, Pinback)
and Voxpop

@loudersoft:
I second the Kay Kay luuurve!

I got into an act called Aetherlone that is pretty awesome, he's realeasing his EP for free if you're interested.

linky! [www.myspace.com]

nice mellow folky electronic with vocals, beautiful stuff!

Robes. Ripping off Primal Scream and JAMC. I'm ok with that.

www.myspace.com/robesphiladelphia

I'm also hooked on Rye Rye.

Weather Is Happening

Imagine if you will some crazy kids in love with 80s vintage SST and Homestead bands, who managed to channel some of that energy and still sound original?

And I got a good live recording of them too. God bless the Zoom H4 and it's ability to withstand dangerous sound pressure levels.

@Cosmic Kid: I know of a trumpet player named "Dizzy" who uses a bent horn! And his cheeks get all puffy when he plays! It's f-in' awesome!

swivel is awesome. they've been playing in LA for the last couple of months and just recently added two more members.

@walkmasterflex: Dark Meat's Universal Indians has been blowing my mind lately, though

Yeah, and totally friendly folks too! Recommended.

Big fan of Torche - Meanderthal (sorta like Karp, but more radio friendly), The Cool Kids, Sun Kil Moon - April, Cheap Time, and Travis Morrison's last one, All Y'all. Really solid stuff.

Things I love out of Toronto right now:
Bonjay (www.myspace.com/woyoyoy)
Thunderheist (www.myspace.com/thunderheist)
Whale Tooth (www.myspace.com/whaletooth)

Plus one not from Toronto:
Walrus - I have a weakness for mall punk and emo, and this band fits that bill. Except there's a girl in the band. A girl! (www.myspace.com/walrus3)

band of horses - everything all the time
casey donahew band - casey donahew band
the draft - in a million pieces
gogol bordello - super taranta!
jets to brazil - orange rhyming dictionary
matisyahu - youth

that's what is in my disc changer for the first leg of the road trip i'm about to take. and i recommend them all.

@walkmasterflex: There's good stuff in Richmond!
I love the Mermaid Skeletons:[www.myspace.com]
I think Liza Kate is pretty amazing: [www.myspace.com]
And Hex Machine, Tulsa Drone, Dead Goats, Snacktruck, Ultra Dolphins and a slew of other experimental and noise bands.

Being from Champaign/Urbana, IL (THE 217!), the only local bands I can think of are Headlights and Shipwreck, and I really don't care for either of them. Shipwreck is alright, but I don't listen to them more than they are on XMU

CRAC, and Blu's solo album from last year are awesome.

Lykke Li is stuck in my head a lot.

I'm digging through my old Mos Def stuff right now too.
To plug Illinois music in general HEWHOCORRUPTS [www.hewhocorrupts.com] is easily one of my favorite chicago bands.
Last plug: As a new resident of Kansas City, KS, I do love Fourth of July [www.lawrence.com]

LEON THOMAS!!

This Kid was in the Flick AUGUST RUSH and he is an extraordinary talent, his song "Time Machine" is incredible, he's got the "Urban Country" thing down way better than Terrence Howard's upcoming sure-to-be-a-disaster.

Please check out "Time Machine" here and let me know what you think of Leon

@TheRunningboard7: Damn, forgot about CRAC Knuckles. Gotta pull that album out.

I'm digging:
-Patrick Wilson - Close to Paradise (Polaris Prize winner that no one listened to)
-Oh Astro - Champions of Wonder (glitchy laptop-ish on illegal art)
-I liked Jamie Lidell, but after seeing him live now I seriously love him. Holy. Shit.
-I've always been partial to Austin rockers Zykos but they never got much appreciation
-Cut Chemist particularly his track "What's the Altitude?"
-Earlimart aren't obscure but their Silverlake/Elliott Smith sound is pretty sweet and the new record Hymn and Her sounds like it's gonna be a pretty good follow up to Mentor/Tormentor which was great.

@fabulousrobots: yeah, i have heard or seen a lot of those bands (tulsa drone, hex machine, snacktruck, and ultra dolphins) and they come off as the same sort of uninspired instrumental/experiemental stuff i have difficulty liking. i will check out those other bands though. thanks!

Heaviness
Last year they released one of the best/most consistent shoegaze records I've heard come out in probably a decade.
[heaviness.se]

C-Mon & Kypski
Meiko
Rebekah LeBeau
Buddy
Brett Young
Joe Purdy
Slayer
Iglu & Hartly
Brendan James
Lionel Neykov

After you recently featured "Breakfast" in the Summer Jam Tournament I'll go ahead and, from Amsterdam, recommend you the entire Le Le album, called Flage. Smartcrazy eurohouse in four languages. From their MySp[ace player I especially recommend their "International Pants" anthem. [www.myspace.com]

The title track on Black Moth Super Rainbow's Zodiac Girls 7" is blowing my mind right now.

Japancakes' cover of My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" album, done all instrumentally with steel guitars and cellos and so on. It goes really really well.

Also if you find Solid Space's "Space Museum" album from 1982 floating around the blogosphere (only released on tape) it's some really good synthpop.

I'm also starting to listen to The Depreciation Guild and their "4AD meets 8 Bit Peoples" sound. Pretty good so far.

As I post, I'm listening to Gillian Welch... folky like Sunday morning. But, on another the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey will change you life, man... Radiohead meets Pink Floyd meets Brian Eno!

The Long Sea from good ol' Milwaukee:

[www.last.fm]

Late posting...hopefully some people still see this!