Posts Tagged ‘Boston’

On their debut self-titled record, Horse Jumper of Love present nine intensely intimate songs. Combining the slowed the slowed down indie rock of Codeine and Duster with the melancholy gravitas of Mt. Eerie, Horse Jumper’s songwriting is marked by expertly crafted minimalism.

Initially released on cassette by Boston’s Disposable America, ‘Horse Jumper of Love’ is now available on vinyl for the first time ever with the addition of “Orange Peeler,” a bonus track previously not featured on the album.

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A companion piece to the 2016 LP ‘Strangers,’ consisting of home recordings contemporary to that album’s sessions. Strangers is a beautiful and haunting record,  these recordings are a superb addition.

Marissa brought us a beautiful album full of melancholy..her voice and melodies are taking us out there. All the colors of the dark makes me shivering, and from now on, Marissa is not a stranger for me anymore. Please take time to listen to her incredible record. You will not be disappointed !

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Squirrel Flower is the project of Boston-based songwriter, Ella Williams. Working in a similar realm to the likes of Mitski or Sharon Van Etten, Squirrel Flower’s music is emotionally raw, and musically intriguing. Waves of crashing guitar chords and steady pounding drums creating a base on top of which Ella’s stunning vocals can soar and cartwheel; and what a voice it is, rich, raw and dripping with deeply, human emotion .

Whilst it’s already out, Squirrel Flowers’ latest release, Contact Sports, arrived so late in the year it was almost unanimously missed a tragedy that simply must be put right. Contact Sports was a splendid record, six tracks that effortlessly blended sweet, hushed moments with raw, almost scuzzy guitar thrashing, sparse instrumentation that somehow sounds rich and full, and a central character who seemed hurt, but not broken, as if strengthened by the emotions life has brought out of her. On the stunning closing track Midwestern Clay, Ella sings, “I got no idea what’s keeping me in the air, but nothing’s keeping me on the ground”, if she gets the exposure her music so richly deserves, she looks destined to soar.

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The third album from indie/psych/folk quartet Quilt might come from old demos, but it bucks these common trends by showing that disparity can serve as a creative asset.Quilt expertly constructs solid psychadelic pop,  They get the psychedelic revival correct, using sustained cord changes, modest effects and balance themselves between psych folk and dream-pop as if they’ve got one foot rooted in the past and one in the present.When Anna Fox Rochinski and Butler throw in a key shift on opener “Passerby” that evokes a sitar-like, resonator guitar tone, it’s as if they hit the whammy bar on the song itself during playback. It’s a trick they manage several times throughout this new set, where the entire band, which also includes drummer John Andrews and new bassist Keven Lareau, will suddenly go slack before the arrangement as a whole automatically snaps back like a guitar returning to its default string tension. At these times, usually the band will be cruising along at a pleasant pace before swerving toward a jagged, seemingly out-of-place chord or element, and the overall effect is like a friend suddenly tousling your hair.

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Slightly atmospheric, with a presentation that’s flawless, as if they’ve handed out mood enhancers that sparkle the edges & fill this album with songs that are well crafted, intimate & own the space in which they exist, creating a package that’s downright flammable

Magic Shoppe’s ‘Wonderland’ unfurls its warm & fuzzy tendrils from deep within the grip of a sonic maelstrom. This record has everything from haunting creepy boy/girl harmonies saturated with reverb, to drugged-out swathes of 60’s sounding guitar riffs covered in fuzz and delay. Great stuff from an authentically diverse American band

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Marissa Nadler is an American musician and fine artist based in Boston. Active since 2000, she is currently signed to Sacred Bones Records and Bella Union in the UK. Marissa recently released her seventh full-length studio album, Strangers, in May 2016.

Singing in a mezzo soprano , Nadler has received acclaim for her vocals. Her voice was described as one “you would follow straight into Hades”, and also “textured and angelic, with just a hint of pain captured within her iridescent falsetto”. She has a voice that, in mythological times, could have lured men to their deaths at sea, an intoxicating soprano drenched in gauzy reverb that hits bell-clear heights, lingers, and tapers off like rings of smoke”.  Her music “is rooted in old-school country and folk

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All Songs written by Marissa Nadler*
the Band
Marissa Nadler- acoustic guitar, vocals
Jim Callan- pedal steel
Orion Rigel Dommisse- rhodes, synth, vocals
Helena Espvall- cello
Ben McConnell- drums, percussion
Brian McTear- cymbal swells, drums, percussion
Carter Tanton- electric guitar, vibraphone, synth bass, bass, vocals, tambourine
*Puppet Master written by Marissa Nadler/ Carter Tanton

Produced by Brian McTear

Palehound -

The Boston-based band Palehound released their debut full-length, Dry Food during the summer by way of Exploding In Sound Records. Since then, we’ve seen inventive videos for singles “Healthier Folk” and “Molly” and heard Ellen Kempner’s excellent cover of Kelly Clarkson’s “Miss Independent” This new video for “Cushioned Caging” was created by teens involved in Raw Art Works’ Real To Reel Film School, which is based in Massachusetts. Most of the clip takes place in a nameless waiting room somewhere.

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With the addition of drummer Tim Cheney and bassist Damien Scalise, Jilian Medford’s solo project Ian has evolved into the full band Ian Sweet. But it’s still Medford’s bruised, beating heart that lies at the center of Shapeshifters  twitchy tangles of guitar-rock, and it’s her voice we hear cracking into a strained yelp time again and again. Shapeshifter is a brutal album, an album about anxiety and self-destruction and giving yourself up for someone who only makes you feel more alone. But it’s also a hopeful album about going through the wringer and coming out on the other side with a smile.

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bnb-iansweet

With the addition of drummer Tim Cheney and bassist Damien Scalise, Jilian Medford’s solo project Ian has evolved into the full band now called Ian Sweet. But it’s still Medford’s bruised, beating heart that lies at the center of Shapshifter with twitchy tangles of guitar-rock, and it’s her voice we hear cracking into a strained yelp time again and again. Shapeshifter is a brutal listen of an album, an album about anxiety and self-destruction and giving yourself up for someone who only makes you feel more alone. But it’s also a hopeful album about going through the wringer and coming out on the other side with a smile

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“Slime Time Live” is the lead off single from IAN SWEET’s Shapeshifter, out now on CD, LP, digital, and cassette from Hardly Art records.

Boston indie rock band Animal Flag have two new releases this month an album titled  LP that’s a compilation of tracks from their 2014 and 2015 albums, fully remastered and resequenced, and a music video for “Jealous Lover,” one of the singles on the album.

Frontman Matt Politoski wrote “Jealous Lover” and directed the music video. It’s a neat 2 and a half minutes, most of it left to interpretation. It’s haunting, edgy, and oh so good. I’ll let Matt explain the rest:

“To me that song has a lot of layers and tackles a bunch of shit. It touches on family dynamics, jealousy as an instinct, feminization of God against the normally “he-centric” interpretation of Christian scripture. In my opinion it’s kind of a blur of all of that. So I wanted the video to be just as vague but still express some sort of tragedy. The relationship between the two characters is vague (parent/child, lovers, siblings?), the tragedy itself is vague (accidental death?), but the one thing that is clear is grief. I don’t wanna sway anyone into interpreting the song or video as ONE thing so I like to leave it open.”

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LP was released October 7th via Broken World Media.

Animal Flag are:
Sai Boddupalli: Guitar
Billy Centenaro: Guitar
Jesse Denaro: Drums
Jeff Kinsey: Bass
Alex Pickert: Drums
Matthew Politoski: Guitar, keys, vocals
Zach Weeks: Bass
Paige Chaplin: Vocals
Avery Ballotta: Violin
Chris Gooch: Banjo
Collin Pastore: Pedal steel