John's New Music Blog

Sorry for being away for a while, I've been a little busy, but I'm back with the video for Summer Camp's latest single, "Better Off Without You," a summery tribute to all things Southern California circa 1973. Their debut album, Welcome to Condale, drops on November 8 on Apricot/Moshi Moshi.





Previously: Fresh New Music -- Summer Camp
                 New Single from Summer Camp

Today's featured band is Austin, TX's International Waters, a four piece consisting of former Voxtrot member Mitch Calvert on vocals and guitar, Ryan Hall on guitar, Alex Gehring on bass and Marcus Haddon on drums. The band describes their sound as "jangle pop" and cite The Smiths as one of their influences; Johnny Marr comes through in nearly every track. The band is streaming their album 1994 via their Bandcamp page as they look for a label to pay for a proper vinyl edition.


The video is for the song "1994," a song that's infused with surfpop and jangly guitar goodness that will have you listening to the rest of the album.


 1994 - International Waters from Mitchell Calvert on Vimeo.

Here is the rest of the album for your listening pleasure:




International Waters is currently working on new material and should be playing dates around Austin soon. In the meantime, their first EP, It Felt Like, is available for download from iTunes.

Today's featured artist is Nashville's Rachel Pearl, an extremely talented singer and songwriter who I had the pleasure of meeting this weekend at the Elephant Talk Indie Music Festival in Atlantic City. Rachel is the writing partner of Merry Ellen Kirk and she's released two jazz albums and is working on a pop album. Rachel's first pop single, "Like A Video," is a Katy Perry influenced song that hits all the pop song high note with none of the irony; she plays it straight and succeeds.

If you're familiar with Rachel's other albums (Love Extravagantly and Keepin' It Old School), you'll notice that this is a big departure for her and her writing partner Merry Ellen Kirk, but after talking with Rachel and Merry Ellen at Elephant Talk, there's a lot of experimentation going on in the indie scene with pop sounds and songwriting techniques and you'll be hearing more poppier sounding indie music over the course of the year. I've already started to hear it in what's coming over from the UK, it's a bit more upbeat and the sound is fresher and not as filled with despair and gloom that indie rock is known for. The video exudes fun and captures the completely mad aspects of pop music, it looked like a lot of fun to make.




Rachel, with the help of some generous friends, self-funded her album and as soon as I have more information on the release date and distribution channels, I'll pass it along. For now you can download the "Like A Video" single from iTunes and Amazon, as well as Love Extravagantly (iTunes and Amazon) and Keepin' It Old School (iTunes and Amazon). I enjoyed meeting Rachel and talking about the new trends in music and learning that Nashville's music scene is more than just cowboys who think they can sing and play guitar. Watch this space for show dates in the Philadelphia area, you don't want to miss the chance to see her live.

Photo Credit: John's New Music Blog Staff Photographer

Summer Camp, the London duo of Elizabeth Sankey and Jeremy Warmsley (previously featured here), have announced a new single from their upcoming debut album. The single, "Better Off Without You," is a summery '80's ode to breakups that could have come straight from The Human League circa 1983; I hope that the video includes a Rover SD1 (Jeremy Clarkson knows where they can get one cheap, just don't mind the water damage).






Summer Camp is self-releasing their debut album on their label, Apricot Recordings, and you can help bring the album to reality by contributing a few dollars to their campaign (they have all sorts of neat thank you's for pledging). I kicked in £50 towards the effort and if you like the single, you should too. Go to their PledgeMusic page to see what they are offering their contributors.

(H/T: Gorilla vs. Bear and Beachtapes)

Merry Ellen Kirk has just released the single, "Field of Dreams" from her upcoming album The Firefly Gardens. We've featured Merry Ellen in the pages of John's New Music Blog a few times (here and here) and Merry Ellen's voice is somewhere between Tori Amos and Sarah McLaughlin with a little Amie Miriello thrown in for good measure. For someone who's only 21 years old, her singing and songwriting show her to be wise beyond her years. Take a listen to Field of Dreams and if you like it, send her a couple of bucks to help finish the album.








The video is for Merry Ellen's song, "Blinding Me," from her Invisible War CD, is about how eyes can actually be a hindrance in seeing what's really important. It's a beautiful song that gives you a good representation of her voice and her songwriting ability.  





The Firefly Garden is still in the works so please help Merry Ellen make the album a reality by investing in her project (I did, you should too). The Invisible War is available from Merry Ellen's Bandcamp page.

Merry Ellen will also be playing the Elephant Talk 2011 Indie Music Fest in Atlantic City on Saturday, August 6th (click here for the schedule).

This is the new video from Cults for their excellent song, "Go Outside." I'm not sure how I feel about it, it's a great song, but the video is more than a little disturbing. The video features clips from NBC's coverage of Congressman Leo Ryan's ill fated trip to The People's Temple in Jonestown with bandmembers Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion digitally added to the scenes.





Go Outside, by Cults from Boing Boing on Vimeo.

I think the video is too clever by half, the band and the director are making a statement about the power of cults (get it, cults and get outside?), but by inserting the band into the clips, the message is muddled and Jonestown might be considered ancient history by their fans (if they even know what Jonestown was).

I love the band and the song, but the video just doesn't work for me. Go get the album from iTunes and Amazon and listen for yourself.

Last February we featured the Portland band Blouse, the Depeche Mode/The Cure influenced shoegaze band that released "Into Black." Blouse is back and recently released a new 7" single "Shadow" via Seattle-based indie megalabel Sub Pop.


"Shadow" is a throwback to the early '80's of Human League and OMD, it covers death and despair in with the cloak of summer.


 Blouse - Shadow by subpop

The B side is "Nights & Days," a shoegaze track that highlights the vocals of singer Charlie Hilton with another '80's flashback. The track could have been released in 1983, but it doesn't sound dated like La Roux, but it's a logical progression from Depeche Mode and New Order's early albums to this track.




Blouse is currently in the studio recording their Captured Tracks debut album. "Shadow" and "Nights & Days" is available on vinyl from Sub Pop and for download from Amazon. Their first single, "Into Black" and "Firestarter" is available from iTunes and Amazon.

Today's featured band is Baltimore's Secret Mountains, a sextet consisting of founders Jeffery Silverstein and Kelly Laughlin and over time added Chris Muccioli, Cory Lawrence, Jake Winstanley, and Alex Jones. The band has a lo-fi, shoegaze sound with a good helping of American folk (it took a couple of listens, but it's there). Its as though Tennis started playing with Fleet Foxes and then met up with Company of Thieves to create a unique and inviting sound that will make you ask if you're still listening to the same band.


The first track is the band's new single, "Weeply Little Fingers," a spacey, shoegaze track that gives you a good feeling for the band's sound and Kelly Laughlin's vocal skills.





 Secret Mountains | Ottobar from Michael Muccioli on Vimeo.

The second track is the title track from the band's 2010 EP, Rejoice. This was my first introduction to the band and this is almost two songs in one. The first part is psych-rock and the second part is part Catatonia and part Belle and Sebastian twee indie pop.


 Secret Mountains - Rejoice from john andrews on Vimeo. 
Rejoice is available for download from Baltimore based Friends Records and the band's first EP, Kaddish, is available from Baltimore's Fall Records, iTunes and Amazon. Secret Mountains is playing at The Mausoleum in Philadelphia on August 12th (details to follow).

(H/T: Beat the Indie Drum)

The June installment of the Radio 104.5 Summer Block Party brought two really excellent bands to town, She Wants Revenge and Company of Thieves for the low, low price of free. I've been a fan of She Wants Revenge since I heard their self-titled debut album and swore they were from Manchester and not really from Los Angeles and The New York Post called the album "...an inadvertent Joy Division tribute album." They have toured with Depeche Mode and Placebo and are currently touring in support of their third album Valleyheart. Here are some pictures of Justin Warfield and Adam Bravin on stage at The Piazza at Schmidts in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia.
















The next band was Chicago's Company of Thieves, touring in support of their new album, Running From a Gamble. The band shot to critical and commercial success with their first album, Ordinary Riches and the singles, "Oscar Wilde" and "Pressure." I apologize for so many pictures of frontwoman Genevieve Schatz, she was the only member of the band consistently in my line of sight and she was very, very easy to photograph.

 



































She Wants Revenge's new album, Valleyheart, is available from the band, iTunes and Amazon. Company of Thieves' Running From a Gamble is available from the band, iTunes and Amazon.

A big thank you to Radio 104.5 for putting on the Summer Block Parties and bringing in great bands, The Naked and Famous and The Airborne Toxic Event  are in town on August 6.

This morning The New Division released their new double single, True Lies///Saturday Night. Both tracks are inspired by early New Order/Depeche Mode, with a dark sound and equally dark lyrics. Both songs are heavy on the synthesizers and drum machines with haunting vocals by frontman John Kunkel.


The first track, "True Lies," is a sparse song that conveys the loss of trust and sadness between lovers; the heavy beat and deep vocal give the emotions behind lyrics extra emphasis, you can hear the pain in his voice.

The second track, "Saturday Night," is a bit more upbeat, almost danceable, but still with the heavy beat and dark vocals. It's about waiting for the perfect moment with the person you love when everything is just right.




The double single is available as a free download from The New Division's Bandcamp page. The band will also be releasing their first full-length album, Shadows, on September 27, so check back for more details.

Manchester has spawned many of the greatest bands of the last 35 years, (Joy Division, The Smiths, New Order, Stella Marconi, The Stone Roses, The Buzzcocks) and now the collective Help Stamp Out Loneliness (HSOL), joins that list. HSOL was started in 2007 by Bentley Cooke and Colm McCrory as a way to recover from their years in the twee indie pop band Language of Flowers but soon found themselves wanting to return to their debauched life in indie pop. Cooke and McCrory recruited four more members, Ben Ambridge and Louise Winfield from Star and Garters, Kath McMahon and their vocalist, D. Lucille Campbell.


HSOL recently released their first album, the self-titled, Help Stamp Out Loneliness, a 12 track masterpiece produced by Smiths producer Craig Gannon. Take a listen to the whole album below:



Help Stamp Out Loneliness is available for download from their Bandcamp site, their label, Where It's At Is Where You Are (scroll down), Amazon and iTunes. You can also download their free Record Store Day release, "Record Store," here. HSOL's previous singles, "Pacific Trash Vortex" (iTunes and Amazon) and "Torvill and Dean" (iTunes and Amazon) are also available for download. HSOL is playing dates in the UK in July, no word on plans to come to the US.