SNST "Turn Out The Lights"
Look, no one needs to know what I was up to when I was 16 (it wasn’t pretty), but suffice it to say, I certainly wasn’t a member of influential indie band Braid (I was, however, a member of the highly un-influential Francis Nietzsche’s All-Star Groove Extravaganza). Chris Broach, however, was a member of Braid. He’s also spent 2 decades releasing music as The Firebird Band. In 2015, Chris started a Kickstarter campaign with his longtime collaborator Steve Znavor. Deciding that the whole thing needed a new name, they settled on SNST. Turn Out The Lights is the fruit of that labor. Combining electronic music, organic instrumentation, and a pop-punk frankness to the vocals, the whole affair sounds like a stadium sized update of the Death Cab/The Postal Service vibe. Check out the U2 guitars of “Running From the Girl.”
Olivier Alary "Fiction/Non-Fiction"
Recently, uber-talented post-classical composer Olivier Alary signed to Fat Cat’s classical imprint 130701. Before he releases a new album for them, however, they have compiled some of his fine film composing work on Fiction/Non-Fiction. In 2007, after gaining notoriety with his work with Björk, director Young Chang asked him to score his film ‘Up the Yangtze.’ That gorgeous quickly made him an in-demand film composer, and this carefully sequenced compilation is likely only going to make him even busier. Somewhere between Jóhann Jóhannsson and Philip Glass, we have the gorgeous work of Mr. Alary. Check out the strained beauty of “Canon.”
Jay Som "Everybody Works"
Oh, if you like the quieter My Bloody Valentine jams, or the Craneberries mixed with a little Liz Phair, you will dig Jay Som! I mean you gotta at least like two out of three of those new classic vintage reference points. Dreampop? Slow-core? Words i don’t get to type often enough (same with Zamboni, I NEVER get to type that!) – so thank you Jay Som for hitting those marks with ritalin like precision. Check out the bubbling “Billion Dogs.”
Las Rosas "Everybody Gets Exactly What They Want"
I sure do like the garage these Las Rosas guys are playing music in! Dirty, dusty, filled with Rolling Stones albums (mono version of course), and old VHS tapes of the Yardbirds on “Shindig”. Ok, they’ve probably got a few cds lying around by newer bands like The Black Lips and even Twin Peaks, but I think if these guys could get a time capsule, I know where they’d wanna go (honestly, how does Doctor Who do anything other than go to concerts?). So dig into “Boys” and get your freak on!