Nov
02
2009
Beirut March of the Zapotec & Realpeople: Holland Unofficially released onto iTunes January 27th This is by far, the most interesting release I’ve heard all year long; maybe ever. Beirut founding member, Zach Condon, dropped out of high school at age sixteen and traveled to Europe a year later, where he discovered Balkan folk and …
Oct
31
2009
Bat For Lashes Two Suns Released April 6th on Astralwerks (US) and Parlophone (UK) “Whenever I’m writing music it’s a very visual place in my mind” – Natasha Khan I can’t remember what music blog I discovered this band on, but all I know is that I liked their name and couldn’t wait to hear …
Oct
30
2009
The Avett Brothers I And Love And You Released September 29th on American Recordings This band grew from a side project consisting of brothers Seth and Scott Avett, of the rock band, Nemo. During Nemo’s downtime, Scott began experimenting with acoustic music, thus launching what was known as the Back Porch Project, or Nemo Downstairs. …
Oct
27
2009
Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion Released January 6th on Domino Animal Collective is an experimental/psychedelic, indie-rock band based out of New York, by way of Baltimore. The band starts with childhood friends, Noah Lennox and Josh Dibb, otherwise known by their music names as Panda Bear and Deakin. Deakin later started a band called Automine with …
Oct
27
2009
Andrew Bird Noble Beast Released January 20th on Fat Possum Records Andrew Bird was brought up in the Suzuki method of music learning from the age of four. This method basically involves two things: learning music by ear, and learning an instrument (typically the violin) in small steps at a young age. Bird also …
Oct
23
2009
Amadou and Mariam The Magic Couple Released July 7th on Wrasse Records The story of the blind, Malian husband/wife team of Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia goes back to the ’70s, where the two met at Mali’s Institute for the Young Blind, finding a shared, common interest in music. At the time, Amadou’s own musical …
Oct
23
2009
Akron/Family Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free Released May 5th on Dead Oceans Records “Last year was a hard year, for such a long time. This year’s gonna be ours.” – from the song “Last Year” If there was one particular style of music that could possibly take over the world in 2009, I’d have …
Oct
21
2009
AIR Love 2 Released late September in Japan, and early October everywhere else, on Virgin Records Well honestly, I don’t even know where to begin with this one. So I guess I’ll just start with a little brief info on who this band is, and I can only hope that something good will come of it, flowing smoothly. …
Oct
20
2009
A.C. Newman Get Guilty Released January 20th on Matador Records Most of us indie music geeks know of A.C. Newman (Allan Carl) through his work with the Canadian power-pop outfit, The New Pornographers, but only the most passionate of the dedicated would probably seek out the side projects from the New Porn members, like Newman, Neko Case, …