Bank Robber Music - Film, TV, & Commercial Music Licensing

White Hinterland

"Phylactery Factory"

Phylactery Factory. I was always a sucker for girls who had a strong penchant for alliteration. As if White Hinterland’s 22 year old lass, Casey Dienel needed anything other than her playfully brassy, and effortless voice to leave the Bank Robber transfixed. Having released a previous album on Portland’s cult-folk label, HUSH, under her own name, with Phylactery Factory (Dead Oceans), Dienel marks her debut as White Hinterland.  So what really separates White Hinterland from the legions of other female singer-songwriter hopefuls you ask? Well Phylactery seems to encompass an entire universe; it’s a document born not from the heart of one lovelorn gal, but from the entire landscape of American music. Indeed the album plays like some modern Harry Smith anthology where Cabaret pop, blues, and freak folk all make for blissful bedfellows. Oh, there I go with the alliterations again.
Check Out: "Lindberghs & Metal Birds”

Baby Dee

"Safe Inside The Day"

Drag City’s

Baby Dee does not make it easy for the blurbs. Her music, her being even, seems to be completely unclassifiable. I could name-drop a “sounds like Antony” kudos here, but it’s not really a one to one sonically, and that comparison only seems to exist in the general vibe of her bewitching new album, Safe Inside The Day (Drag City). Day plays like some cult cabaret led by a transgendered Tom Waits-voiced archangel. Sad and beautiful - and coming from completely left-field – it’s music that is uncompromised and enthralling, and like Drag City’s other idiosyncratic arch-angel, Joanna Newsom, there’s some harp on here too. Check out: “Flowers In The Tracks”

A Weather

"Cove"

More Indie Folk from Portland, Or.!?!? It seems like every baby born in the Portland gets a complimentary flannel shirt, hushed vocal, and beard, eh? But before we get all knee-jerk reactionary, Portland-hailing collective, A Weather (that’s right, they are called: A Weather), have a secret weapon: simultaneously sung guy/girl vocals. Holy Juno, we are a sucker for the sweetly sung hushed his and hers ballads on the groups Team Love debut, Cove. Produced by Adam Selzer (Decemberists, M. Ward), who seems to have absolutely perfected the whole dusty, enigmatic, we recorded this on pawn shop instruments in our attic sound, Cove, equally recalls spacey-seminal shoegaze acts like Galaxie 500, and peers like M. Ward. It’s a good thing we like harmonies, and reverb. The perfect companion album to BRM’s other beautiful folk gem, Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar). Check Out: "Spiders, Snakes"

Jennifer O'Connor & Choo Choo La Rouge

"Little Airplane Heart 7""

Keeping the “single” alive, NYC-hailing songstress Jennifer O’Connor has started a new singles-only label, Kiam Records. I’m all for the 7” revival – perhaps it’s a bit soon for this sort of thing but the downfall of iTunes and digital ephemeral product, and yearning for any physical product – dare I say even cassettes (!) – is in the words of the musical Annie, “only a day away.” The first release on O’Connor’s label is Little Airplane Heart, a split with Choo Choo La Rouge, and it is a pure pop for now people gem. One of the best duets since Carly Simon and James Taylor’s “Mockingbird”, minus the drugs and divorce.  Check Out: “Little Airplane Heart”

What Made Milwaukee Famous

"What Doesn't Kill Us"

Holy smokes! When did Billy Joel get cool? I mean I've had a hard on for all things Joel related since basically inception - and it's not just cause I'm Jewish people. It's cause he wrote great songs to play at weddings with tailor-made Karaoke friendly hooks like: "heart att-ack-ack-ack-ack". But no. Bank Robber's big new master-plan of surviving the writer's strike wasn't to buy up Billy Joel's publishing. Instead, we present you with: What Made Milwaukee Famous' new sophomore album, What Doesn't Kill Us (Barsuk). Now look, I'm not sure if these Austin-hailing popsters were straight shooting for the Billy comparison (something tells me they were going more for say, The Shins, and landed in Allentown accidentally), but w'ever, they still kick ass in the most dork-ed out way possible. Kill Us' stand-out, "Sultan," is a perfect example of unashamed hook-laden Joel-ness. Over rollicking mariachi horns, rolling rhodes keyboards, lots of tempo changes, and a drummer Lyle wants me to give extra points to for his "restrained jazziness" we get the long lost sequel Billy never wrote to "Don't Ask Me Why." And yeah, they've even played shows with The Arcade Fire, and have been a band on the rise in both Spin and Rolling Stone. This record won't kill you, but it will make you stronger. I couldn't resist. Check Out: "Sultan"

The Black Hollies

"Casting Shadows"

So while the rest of the “indie” world continues its never-ending 1980’s-nostalgia hard-on, The Black Hollies continue listening to…Peter Gabriel? Kate Bush!? The Field Mice!? Try…um…Revolver. The Hollies’ acid-tinged new one, Casting Shadows (Ernest Jenning Record Co.), may be one of the most successfully literal takes on Beatle-bombed 60’s garage-era psychedelia we’ve heard yet. Yes, Shadows, has lots of sitar on it. But look, if there’s a blistering 60’s-era psych-revival happening right now on the “dl”(see fellow “buzz bands”: King Khan and The Shrines, The Black Lips), The Hollies may just be the most accessible act of them all. Shout out to Blue Cheer, The Nazz, and The Yardbirds, with perfect pop nuggets like “Paisley Pattern Ground (You Better Watch Your Step),” The Black Hollies are posed to make waves in  ’08…just put down that damn Human League cassette.

Various

"Eccentric Soul: The Outskirts Of Deep City"

You must all know by now the “unfuckwitable” track record of Chicago’s master of all things “reissue”, the Numero Group. They’ve released so much amazing music over the past couple years, it’s almost impossible for me to pick a favorite. Well, I mean, the white boy in me totally was enamored with the seminal power pop Yellow Pills compilation, but y’know sometimes I actually like to dance and not just jump up and down. And for that, for actual getting down, no compilation had more beat breaks, and swooning soul jams than Deep City. Memorable in it’s dusty harmony laced glory, it’s with resounding bliss that I announce a Deep City sequel that’s every bit as fantastic as the original: Eccentric Soul: The Outskirts Of Deep City. Listen. Love. Relish how much better it was before Mark Ronson. Check Out: "Knockin' At The Wrong Door"

Various

"Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli"

Also new on Numero, some music for your mind. Or at least your ever blossoming pot habit. Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli is as the title suggests, a compilation of some outstanding private press solo instrumental acoustic guitar folk loveliness. Who knew John Fahey would become so influential in 2008. Beautiful music for the M. Ward fan in all of us. Check Out: "Sailor's Dream"