Posted in Indie Rock

Listen: Freelance Whales – “Diluvia”

Freelance Whales is an indie rock band from Queens, New York.  The band’s sophomore album, Diluvia, is currently streaming on NPR. You can listen to it on the NPR website. Freelance Whales has been compared to The Postal Service and Sufjan Stevens, but in their newest release it feels as if they have finally created their own, unique sound.  Diluvia has many of the similar attributes that many fans loved about their first album, Weathervanes, such as use of the banjo and glockenspiel. Check out a number of tour dates and see if the band’s coming to your city. Freelance Whales is a fun band to see live.

10/04 -Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
10/05 – Minneapolis, MI @ 7th St Entry
10/06 – Madison, WI @ Redamte
10/07 – Iowa City @ Maintenance Shop
10/10 – Dallas, TX @ Trees
10/11- Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s
10/13 – Mexico City, MX @ Capital Corona Festival
10/14 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
10/16 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey
10/18 – San Francisco, CA @ Mezzanine
10/20 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
10/21 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
10/23 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
10/24 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird
10/26 – St. Louis, MO @ Firebird
10/27 – Nashville, TN @ The End
10/28 – Atlanta, GA @ The Loft
10/30 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
10/31 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
11/01 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
11/02 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
11/03 – Boston, MA @ Paradise

Listen: Whale Fire – “Wild-Eyed Mistake”

Whale Fire, a four-piece indie rock/pop group from Little Rock, are set to release their 7″ titled Dream of Me / The Fabric on September 29th. After hearing their single “Wild-Eyed Mistake” (listen below) from their forthcoming album coming in October/early November, I am quite excited to see what else they are capable of. Whale Fire splits lead vocals/guitar duties between Clay Grubbs and John Steel while Matthew Steel handles the harmonies/bass, and Will Vick takes care of the drums/percussion.

Referring to their upcoming material in John’s own words, “We recently finished recording material for a 7″ and a full length album with our good friend Michael Stephens mostly between his spare bedroom and our practice space. The process ended up taking a little longer than we thought it would after the laptop we were using broke and it hit another snag when Michael had to move to Shreveport, LA, but we are finished now and happy with the results.”

Pick up their single Wild-Eyed Mistake for free on their bandcamp page now and check out their website for tour dates and more information.

Watch: the xx Live with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

 As a part of the BBC Orchestra Presents… series, the xx has performed live with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in a seaside resort of Bridlington in East Yorkshire, England. In the concert, the xx performed arrangements of songs from xx and Coexist. You can watch the performance below or listen to the archived broadcast on BBC here. The xx recently released their sophomore album Coexist and are on tour promoting the new album. Check out tour dates below the video.

10-05 Vancouver, British Columbia – Vogue Theatre
10-06 Seattle, WA – Paramount Theater
10-07 Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
10-10 Las Vegas, NV – The Pool at the Cosmopolitan
10-11 San Diego, CA – Soma
10-12 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
10-13 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Forever Cemetery
10-14 San Francisco, CA – Treasure Island Fest
10-16 Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex
10-17 Boulder, CO – Boulder Theater
10-19 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
10-20 Chicago, IL – Congress Theater
10-21 Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theatre
10-24 Quebec City, Quebec – Imperial De Quebec
10-25 Boston, MA – House of Blues
10-28 Bronx, NY – Paradise Theater
10-29 Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory
10-30 Baltimore, MD – Ram’s Head Live

Listen: Tearjerker – Hiding EP


Tearjerker recently released their new EP, Hiding. This Toronto based dream-pop/indie-rock band is full of dreamy guitars, soft vocals and easy listening lo-fi vibes. This past summer I fell in love with their older LP Rare, which carries the same, smooth flow as Hiding. I wish it was longer only because it has such an easy feel to it and he tracks flow so nicely in all of their albums. It’s one of my favorite releases of the year and I’m loving the band more and more.

The EP is currently available for free on their Bandcamp, or can be streamed below. There are also limited copies of the EP available in cassette form on their Bandcamp.

Back to School Mix

It’s a new school year for me and that normally means a lot of new music. I like to try and switch it up every year, always exploring different stuff. While there are some favorites, like Coma Cinema, that I’ll probably never stop listening to, there are other bands that I have grown out and thus they must be replaced.

I’m quite awful at stringing a bunch of songs together that flow well, or that even correlate with genre. In my mind it’s all about being open minded and just experiencing different music, the flow of the mix shouldn’t really matter.

Tracklist:
01. “Something Soon” – Car Seat Headrest
02. “Twenty Seven” – Why?
03. “Strangers” – Car Seat Headrest
04. “Frequency II” – Unouomedude
05. “Sometime” – Diiv
06. “How To Cook Everything” – Those Lavender Whales
07. “White Trash VHS” – Coma Cinema
08. “Grim Reaper” – Teen Suicide
09. “Sidewalk” – Tearjerker
10. “Rare” – Tearjerker

Goblin Problems from fanfare909 on 8tracks Radio.