Listen: Pussy Wizard – “Brave Horatius (2001​-​2011)”

Brave Horatius
Pussy Wizard, lo-fi noise pop project have put out previously unreleased tracks from the old moniker Brave Horatius. Being recorded over ten years, this album encompasses a variety of different musical approaches as his sound evolved into the ability to produce multiple standout tracks. Personal favorites from this release include a gentle love song titled Carolina, Black Eyes, an upbeat track with punk roots, and a Misfits cover of Astro Zombies. Pick up the release on their Bandcamp page on a “Name Your Price” basis, or stream it below.

“I started playing music under the moniker Brave Horatius in 2001 when my parents got me a digital 8-track recorder. My mom had given me a book called Opal. It was the diary of a 6 year old orphaned girl. Brave Horatius was her dog and constant companion. I made a couple of really embarrassing tapes and gave them to a few friends. My punk band had broken up and I was sad because I got dumped for the first time. Typical early 2000’s late-teenage post fuck the system angst all encompassed by the depression of beginning to enter adulthood to a soundtrack of Fevers and Mirrors on repeat. College came with confusion and drinking and smoking and other not-so-hard drugs and more heartbreak and reading Bukowski and thinking “oh I get it now.” Whatever. I made a little zine/CDR EP thing, had a song on a compilation, put out a split, and did a few tours. Moved to San Francisco in 2008. Recorded songs with a 4-track in a vacant apartment above mine. Moved back to South Carolina in 2011 and decided the moniker was exhausted and boring. I worked a decade on trying to capture songs how they were imagined and never got it the way I wanted and I wanted to move on. So I made Pussy Wizard to avoid the seriousness that often leads to huge expectations that often lead to huge disappointments. But here is a time capsule of attempts at making a record I unrealistically imagined for far too long.”

Listen: Julia Brown – “to be close to you”

JB
Julia Brown’s full length album to be close to you has just been released. The release has a lo-fi aesthetic, with toy keyboards, guitars and various other instruments being used in the recording process between Autumn of last year up until last month. The songs as expected are amazing; full of true emotion and anthemic lyrics within an ambient masterpiece of an album. Tonight they are playing a show at College Park with Coma Cinema/Elvis Depressedly, Alex G, Pill Friends and Abi Reimold followed by an upcoming Summer tour.

To support the band, you can buy the album on their Bandcamp page on a “Name Your Price” basis or you can buy the tape version from Birdtapes. The download of the album comes with a fifteen page lyric zine, which is common with Ricky Eat Acid releases and the tape version comes with a sticker by a friend of the band Brad “brohloff”. From the band about the album, “any money paid for this music/donated to us goes towards funding the studio time we have booked between february and april, as well as helping us get the touring setup we need for the summer. please don’t feel obligated to pay, and feel free to grab it for free, but know that if you do donate, the money is helping us make more music.” You can stream the album below and more information about the band can be found on their Tumblr, and Facebook pages.

Listen: R.L. Kelly – “Life’s A Bummer”

R.L. Kelly
R.L. Kelly today released her debut solo album accurately titled Life’s A Bummer. The album was mastered by Warren Hildebrand of Foxes In Fixtion and reminds me of the works of Elvis Depressedly and Ricky Eat Acid albeit with female vocals. R.L. Kelly covers one of my favorite Alex G songs titled Change, which I was content to see on the release. The other five original songs emotionally draw you into the lyrical lo-fi atmosphere  and leave you mesmerised. R.L. Kelly will also be featured on the new Coma Cinema release. The album is available to download from her Bandcamp page and you can stream it in its’ entirety below.

Listen: Ricky Eat Acid – “I can hear the heart breaking as one”

Sam Ray
Ricky Eat Acid has released a new song titled I can hear the heart breaking as one after working on it for a longtime. Surprisingly this track is a much more hi-fi unlike his prior releases under this moniker. However though, his haunting atmosphere is still very present. You can listen to it below and download it from Soundcloud.

In Ray’s own words about the track, “i’ve been having this dream that spans a few weeks and each night in my dream it grows less and less dark until the last few nights it stays completely light out even though there’s no sun and at that point i just stop sleeping and on the last night i go outside at 4 am and the sky is blue and i go inside to grab my camera because of the way the trees look against the blue sky and my dad is in my room reading the bible on my bed with my cat sitting on his lap and he tells me that the end is coming soon.”

Listen: Julia Brown – “library”

Julia Brown
After the disbandment of Sam Ray’s project Teen Suicide, I was hopeful that a formation of a new band would occur and fortunately it did. Sam Ray, whom we have mentioned earlier under the moniker of Ricky Eat Acid, has teamed up with Alec Simke, and John Toohey to form a new band called Julia Brown. This three piece noise pop band already have two songs circulating from the upcoming eight song album, to be close to you hopefully out by the end of February.

You can download one of the songs off the upcoming release called library. It was released through a friend of the band, Mat Cothran’s (Coma Cinema/Elvis Depressedly) blog. Compared to Teen Suicide this track has a much more pop aesthetic with both male and female vocals creating a completely different sound and an all together beautiful track. Fans of any of the bands affiliated with the Unlimited Free Milkshakes Label or part of the 420 Love Songs compilation should definitely check this band out. You can listen to a Julia Brown B-side song titled dizzy below.

Track Listing:

1. ‘im falling in love’
2. library
3. how i spent my summer
4. i will do this for the rest of my life
5. 5/21/11
6. i was my own favorite tv show the summer my tv broke
7. virginia
8. to be close to you