John's New Music Blog

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 fine people at Gorilla vs. Bear have the new single from Seattle-based Seapony (one of the first bands featured by John's New Music Blog). The single, "Blue Star" is taken from their upcoming Hardly Art debut album, Go With Me. If you're a fan of fuzzy indie dream pop, you'll want to check out the new single. It has the sunny feeling of Tennis (compare for yourself here and here) and you can't help but have a smile on your face when you listen to it.


Blue Star by Seapony

Here's their last release, Dreaming:



Seapony - Dreaming from Double Denim Records on Vimeo.

Seapony's debut album, Go With It, will be hitting stores on May 31st and you can pre-order it from Hardly Art. There's a pre-release single with a track that won't be available on the album which is available from iTunes and Amazon.

John's New Music Blog favorites, the Denver-based husband and wife sailing indie band Tennis, has recently released a video to accompany the song "Take Me Somewhere" from their Fat Possum debut album, Cape Dory.


The video, by Ian Perlman, captures Patrick and Alaina on board a sailboat on Chesapeake Bay. By using a 16mm film camera, Perlman gives the video warmth and depth, something that's missing from music videos shot on digital equipment and complements the song's lo-fi sound.



Tennis - "Take Me Somewhere" from Ian Perlman on Vimeo

Cape Dory is available from Fat Possum Records, iTunes and Amazon.

Today's featured band is Denver's husband and wife lo-fi indie band Tennis. Over the summer they released an EP entitled Marathon on Underwater Peoples Records and have since signed with Oxford, Mississippi's Fat Possum Records and January will find the band releasing their first album, Cape Dory. Denver's Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore spent the past year living on a sailboat and exploring the Eastern Seaboard and in the process writing songs inspired by the places they visited. The album's title is the name of their boat, the Cape Dory. Tennis has an upbeat, summer sound that works well, something you don't usually associate with lo-fi and fuzzy guitars. It is unlike anything being currently played on the radio right now and it's the perfect antidote to a gray, cold winter's day. The other two songs on the EP, "Baltimore" and "Marathon" are excellent examples of their style and the theme of exploration that is present throughout the EP.

Tennis -- Cape Dory