Mexican Summer is the type of label that when it puts out an album, you give it your full attention. Unfortunately, I’ve been vacant of late. This is tragic, though the good news is that Mike Wexler has brought me back into the Mexican Summer light. A dreamy psychedelic pop sound, filled with chill ambient sounds, borderline haunting with Wexler’s vocal rasp. It makes songs like “Pariah” very cool. Read More »Mike Wexler: Pariah
Brutal honesty: I’m stuck on Helvetia‘s 2011 album The Lam right now. In particular the first track (“Saucer of Dread”) and track 3 (“On the Lam”). Helvetia has returned with a new track called “A Mirror” and it embodies precisely why I dig this band: epic soundscapes, driving shoegaze riffs, hazy melodies, downtrodden vocals.
Read More »Helvetia: A Mirror [Song Review] 
In a way, I kind of miss the days when Of Montreal gave us songs like “Disconnect the Dots” and “The Party’s Crashing Us” and even “The Past Is A Grotesque Animal”. Paralytic Stalks seems a different beast entirely, filled with further psychedelic pop experimentation than we’re used to from Kevin Barnes and company. The more I listen to it, the more I get it. This album is not supposed to be an easy listen. Read More »Of Montreal: Dour Percentage MP3
Something dark and immense haunts the pop that Ben Heywood (Summer Darling) masters on his new release Skills for the Long Emergency under the name Heywood. From the depths of a post rock, shoegaze haze, Heywood will just as readily produce mind-melting noise as it will dive into an obscure, dream-like melody. Read More »Heywood: Spectacular Violence MP3
To me, being an indie music fan is all about being an explorer, discovering new and untapped realms of audio heaven. One of my favorite things to experience is to stumble upon something astonishing in all its brilliance. An artist I didn’t know. An album that blows my mind. Or a single song that simply appears out of nowhere. I have no clue how Siskiyou‘s “Always Awake” found its way onto my laptop, but boy am I glad it did. Read More »Siskiyou: Always Awake MP3
“Television Youth” blends power pop, garage rock and fuzzy punk for a fun — playful, even — sound that reminds me a bit of the early works by The Thermals. The band is Sonic Avenues, the latest addition to Dirtnap Records. They are four Montreal natives (you can just barely hear that French Canadian accent in the vocals… just) that produce loud, raucous, exhilarating music that simply begs to be heard. Read More »Sonic Avenues: Television Youth MP3
On their 2008 debut, Freedom Wind, The Explorers Club likened their pop music to classics. The harmonies were what did it; saturated in layers and filled with male-on-male falsetto, that album had Pet Sounds written all over it. Nearly four years later, the band has returned with a new EP called The Californian Suite — very Beach Boys-esque, too — and with it, those to-die-for harmonies. Read More »The Explorers Club: Weight Of The World MP3
The great thing about Summer Fiction is that their songs are so, well, summery. Indie pop music is the sort that so often remains unchanged, boundaries un-pushed, and you get a little of that here. But rather than being a hindrance, it’s comforting. “By The Sea” blends soothing male and female vocals with plenty of hooks, a soft guitar strum and catchy bass line, and a playful drum rhythm. Read More »Summer Fiction: By The Sea MP3
“We Were Wild” by Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun is a track like Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up”. It defies all you thought you knew about rock music, takes things in a completely different direction than expected — a direction much more anthemic and epic. Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun draws from an insurmountable realm of influence. Read More »Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun: We Were Wild MP3
FensePost is excited to debut “Sitting On The Edge” off Blue Skies For Black Hearts‘ LP Embracing The Modern Age. The song continues the band’s penchant for classic pop sounds backed by glorious pop-rock guitar hooks, loud drums and late 60s to early 70s-style pop vocals filtered through a haze of 90s indie rock. “Sitting On The Edge” features all of these, blending together elements of The Kinks, Phil Spector and Teenage Fanclub into one blissful, fun pop mess. Read More »Blue Skies For Black Hearts: Sitting On The Edge (MP3 Debut)
