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The Half Open Sky Gives Us Hope Explorer

The Half Open Sky Gives Us Hope: The Explorer [Album Review]

The name The Half Open Sky Gives Us Hope sounds like a song you’d hear associated with a band like Explosions in the Sky or Thee Silver Mt. Zion, so it’s no surprise that this band also fits that ethereal classically-based and/or instrumental genres to which these two bands are occasionally associated. However, two key elements set The Half Open Sky Gives Us Hope apart; namely, the lack of epic noise from the former, maintaining a calmness to The Explorer, and the lack of folk sensibilities which allows the album to possess more of a classical nature than the latter.

Read More »The Half Open Sky Gives Us Hope: The Explorer [Album Review]

Simon Bish: Butterfly Girl [Track Review]

simon-bish

The butterfly is always the easiest and most admired insect to ingest the world of indie rock/pop/whatever with great reason. A butterfly begins its stages as just another creepy, crawly tree dweller before it bursts into the world as a multi-colored miracle floating amidst the very trees it once depended upon to slowly push its existence around. Cue the beautiful girl that strikes her heart and makes an obvious comparison, and you have British songwriter Simon Bish and his wonderfully derived song “Butterfly Girl”. Bish’s tremendously soft and sweet pop melody is at its most tender moments when the violins join the chorus from the fires of simplistic hell and whirl the Brit pop goodness faster than the wings of a, well….butterfly! Read More »Simon Bish: Butterfly Girl [Track Review]

The School: Let It Slip [Video]

The School Band

The School is the latest band to debut on the beloved Minty Fresh label, and it’s easy to hear what attracted them to this band. Their style of pop is extremely uplifting, with tempestuously quick beats and the luscious beauty of 60s girl pop with back-up singers and instrumentation that’s as pleasant as a cool breeze in summer. The School takes the harmony vocals of The Pipettes and smooths out the rough edges, combining it with the melodic instrumentation of masters like Belle And Sebastian. “Let It Slip” is the title track off the band’s debut EP and the first single off their forthcoming LP Loveless Unbeliever. Their video for “Let It Slip” is a testament to the band’s dreamy pop. Read More »The School: Let It Slip [Video]

Uniform Motion: Pictures [Album Review]

  • Cyndi 

Uniform Motion

Something in the world has shifted because yet again I am finding myself setting aside the mastery of electric guitars and songs for slower, seemingly simpler sounds, such as those of the folk band Uniform Motion. While we miss out on their rock art concept of sketches and soundscapes created during live performance, we still manage to experience a layer of unfamiliar, emotional imagery not yet touched upon by the majority of folk artists. The acoustic guitar is doused with melodies reminiscent of Jose Gonzalez, yet the intimately wispy vocals are unique. Read More »Uniform Motion: Pictures [Album Review]

Some Beans: Fear and Loathing in Tipton St. John [Album Review]

Some Beans

Some Beans, aka Andy Fonda, aka ¼ of Noise Annoys Simon, is a pretty soulful cat. It’s a bit spooky at times, but it is always funky. His debut album, Fear and Loathing in Tipton St. John, might actually be a very well-planned dance track tribute to the honorable Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Or not. Either way, this is electronica at its very finest. And that is perfectly alright. Read More »Some Beans: Fear and Loathing in Tipton St. John [Album Review]

A Fine Day For Sailing: My Baby Loves Pop Music [Album Review]

A Fine Day For Sailing

Sometimes a song can just make perfect sense. There comes a time when a pretty indie pop song can be exactly what you need to spawn the most wonderful of memories. Don’t believe it? Then check out A Fine Day For Sailing and their absolutely gorgeous album My Baby Loves Pop Music. You have to be heartless to not recollect your finest moments in life while this Exeter, UK-based group jingles and jangles through finely tuned, low-key symphonies. Read More »A Fine Day For Sailing: My Baby Loves Pop Music [Album Review]

Archie Bronson Outfit: Shark’s Tooth [mp3]

Archie Bronson Outfit

Archie Bronson Outfit‘s single “Shark’s Tooth” seems to be set in a time and space completely separate from existence we know. Its drastically elevated tempo is dance-floor worthy, though precisely too high. It is surf music taken to a brand new, quite radical level. Archie Bronson Outfit has this beat-driven euphoria that is sure to whisk you away to a heavenly place buried in your subconscious, where all you care to do is dance until your feet blister and fall apart. A fair warning needs to be given to the mopey, sad youth of today: Do not listen to Archie Bronson Outfit. You might actually learn to enjoy yourself. Read More »Archie Bronson Outfit: Shark’s Tooth [mp3]

Menhirs of Er Grah: Billy Cross’s Daughter [Album Review]

Menhirs of Er Grah

The always musically vigilant singer/songwriter Thom Carter has some stories to tell on his third release as Menhirs of Er Grah, Billy Cross’s Daughter. And they are amongst the best he has even told. Thom has announced that he has tried to “bury his Eric Clapton CD’s in a casket under the sea”. But, even he will admit that he still has subliminal nods to the king of Cream throughout this amazing album. Read More »Menhirs of Er Grah: Billy Cross’s Daughter [Album Review]

Thrilled Skinny: Just Another Teenage Dream [Album Review]

Thrilled Skinny

Punk is dead. This is, more or less, a fact. Save for the rare new group to break out or the senior citizens out there still rocking hard (Bad Religion, Henry Rollins, etc.), the whole idealism and solid truths of punk rock is long and gone. It seems as though the best we can hope for is a solid pop punk group swaying their spiked hair and stretched earlobes all over the stages of The Warped Tour (Broadway Calls seems to be the elite in this category). Still, things can never be as eventful as they once were. So thank the anarchist Christ that Pop Noise Records had the brilliant idea to distribute Just Another Teenage Dream, a brand new best of collection of loud, fast, and throat cutting tracks from the former back alleys of England superstars, Thrilled Skinny. Read More »Thrilled Skinny: Just Another Teenage Dream [Album Review]

Noise Annoys Simon: You Say It, I’ll Know It [Album Review]

Noise Annoys Simon

What in the hell has happened to alternative pop music? There was a time when sweet guitar riffs and soft-spoken lyrics reigned supreme. Even misery was an exciting topic when a cat like Dave Pirner would spill his guts on a record about runaway trains and frustration as a business plot. The anger of today may have substantially seeped into pop music, but not in every case. Definitely not in the UK’s rising pop stars Noise Annoys Simon. These guys bring back the glory days in a wonderful fashion with their debut album You Say It, I’ll Know It. Read More »Noise Annoys Simon: You Say It, I’ll Know It [Album Review]

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