The Donkeys Surge Onto The NACC Top 200
The Donkeys are off to a great start at the NACC 200. Sun Damaged Youth, the first-ever release on the band’s new Flop Records imprint, debuted at #52 last week! Can they reach the Top 40 this week? We’re sure hoping so… after all, their surfy, radioactive vibe is perfect listening as the heat gets hotter. […]
Indie Voice Blog Gives Paul Givant High Marks
Indie Voice Blog has a review of Paul Givant‘s new Fashion District Adjacent, which it hails as “one of the best [albums] we have heard this year. Mixing elements of Americana, folk, and country, he forges a dynamic new mix that is worlds apart from the music created by his band [Rose’s Pawn Shop]. The […]
Devendra Banhart Shares Animated Video For “Celebration”
Q gave Devendra Banhart‘s Ape in Pink Marble four stars; Uncut called it “excellent;” and stations around the country are still playing songs from the record. This year, Banhart curated a series of workshops titled Imaginary Universes, which opened at Fondazione Prada’s Accademia dei bambini in Milan on May 5, 2018. He led the inaugural workshops […]
ANCHR Gets To Know Naked Giants
What are your first musical memories? The members of Naked Giants recall theirs in a new interview with ANCHR magazine that also touches on the trio’s idea for a New West Records supergroup. “New West Records–what they really love is gimmicks,” says the band’s Gianni Aiello. “New West wants something that people will remember.. so […]
The Donkeys, Reviewed by KEXP, Go On Tour
KEXP has a brief review of The Donkeys‘ new Sun Damaged Youth. According to the Seattle-based radio institution, “This San Diego band’s fifth album is a sprawling concept album about an imagined post-apocalyptic Southern California with the music being a summery blend of hazy psych-pop, surf and more.” Read their full rundown of last week’s […]
The Smoking Flowers, On Tour, Get Love From Bandcamp and The Vinyl Anachronist
The Smoking Flowers‘ Let’s Die Together is “New and Notable,” according to Bandcamp, which featured the album earlier this week on its front page. The album is also the subject of a loving review by The Vinyl Anachronist, which says that “Let’s Die Together sounds much more accomplished” than the band’s last album, 2 Guns. […]
Junun Tours With Radiohead and Plays Colbert – Get The Album From Our Download Page
A few years ago, we serviced an extraordinary album from Shye Ben Tzur, Johnny Greenwood, and an Indian qawwali collective known as The Rajasthan Express. Produced by Nigel Godrich, Junun soundtracks a PT Anderson film of the same name and topped the CMJ World chart for several weeks. Now, the group is opening for Greenwood’s […]
Paul Givant Goes For Adds
Fashion District Adjacent, produced by Grammy Award winner Ted Hutt (Old Crow Medicine Show, Flogging Molly, Gaslight Anthem, Dropkick Murphys), is the first solo release from Paul Givant, the founder of the heralded Americana band Rose’s Pawn Shop. In a departure from that group’s up-tempo and oft-raucous sound, on the new LP Givant dives into a more […]
The San Diego Reader Reveals The Story Behind Sun Damaged Youth
The San Diego Reader has a loving story about The Donkeys, the SD-based, beach-baked trio that just released Sun Damaged Youth. According to the band, it all originated at Disneyland. “We were just in line at Adventureland goofing-off,” says the band’s Anthony Lukens. “We were eating churros and went to throw them away and there […]
No Depression Loves The Smoking Flowers
Let’s Die Together, the new LP from The Smoking Flowers, “is more than about music.” This is according to No Depression, which has a long article about the band, their history in the Nashville underground, and the new album itself. “Kim Collins… plays ferocious drums along with accordion, acoustic guitar, mandolin, and harmonica. Scott Collins […]
Naked Giants, On Tour Starting This Weekend, Get High Marks From AllMusic
“Arriving via a wave of cosmic feedback, fuzzed-out bass, and warbly, distorted surf guitar,” writes AllMusic, the debut LP from Naked Giants “is a fiery amalgam of seismic Pacific Northwest garage-punk, gnarly bubblegum blues, and fiery psych-rock.” The site’s review contends that the trio is “possessed by the kind of nervy, semi-danceable punk fury” that […]
Sonny Smith Talks Rod For Your Love With Jamie Berger
Sonny Smith, the Sonny and the Sunsets frontman who recently dropped the Dan Auerbach-produced solo album Rod For Your Love, recently sat with his old friend Jamie Berger to talk about his the album and his career. According to Berger, “We talked about flying to Nashville to be produced by a rock star (and guests […]
Krrum Takes The 405 On A Tour Of Leeds
Krrum is from the North of England, and Leeds is one of that region’s greatest cities. The group has joined with The 405 to present a photo guide of the town, which was one of the first areas to support the now-internationally known act. The list is great for vegetarians visiting Leeds, as cruelty-averse bandleader […]
Spin Says Mount Eerie’s Now Only is “Essential”
Spin has called Now Only, the most recent album from Mount Eerie and the follow-up to last year’s A Crow Looked At Me, “essential.” According to the magazine, “Less deadpan and more florid than its predecessor, Now Only is heartrending in new, different ways. Sonically, the record doesn’t stray far from Mount Eerie’s elemental standard […]
MIEN Makes Mid-Year Lists From Uncut and Fuzzy Sun
We keep getting farther into 2018, and some publications are beginning to make lists of their favorite records of the year so far. MIEN is on a couple of lists, from the UK's Uncut and also from Fuzzy Sun. The lists find the band in good company, alongside other great releases from 2018 by the […]
KEXP Profiles Naked Giants, On Tour Soon
“Though Naked Giants are greatly benefited by the energy and vitality of youth,” writes KEXP in a recent deep dive into the band’s new album Sluff and the emotional weight behind it, “many of their songs detail the anxiety which comes with spending too much time in their own heads or considering the amount of […]
The Big Takeover Reviews sun on the square
The new record from the innocence mission is full of "lush tone paintings written for a non-existent film suffused with color and gaiety." This is how The Big Takeover describes the record by a band that makes "finely rendered, delicate folk rock with dreamy undertones curling around the edges, and extending its arms with motes […]
The San Francisco Chronicle Reviews Steve Reich’s Pulse/Quartet
Steve Reich is a legend whose revolutionary work stretches back decades. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, one piece on the composer’s recent Pulse/Quartet LP “sounds unlike almost anything else in Reich’s catalog.” Writes the paper, “‘Pulse’ is built around long, tenderly arching melodies and spacious harmonies, and if you stand off to the side […]
The Donkeys Go For Adds
In early 2018, the California trio of Tim Denardo, Anthony Lukens, and Sam Sprague – also known as The Donkeys – found a notebook in an Adventureland trash can at Disneyland. Waterlogged and covered in churro dust, the book turned out to contain flights of teenage science fiction fantasy – whole worlds, in fact. Those […]
The Smoking Flowers Go For Adds
With influences that range from Led Zeppelin to Gillian Welch and The Ramones to Neil Young, The Smoking Flowers are a powerhouse band built around the undeniable chemistry between Kim and Scott Collins. Kim sings with a sensual, simmering voices and dances between drums, accordion, acoustic guitar, mandolin, harmonica, shimmering tambourine, while Scott plays electric […]
