It's another jam-packed week of great releases! San Diego duo Crocodiles return with their fifth album, which KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes, "was recorded in Mexico City with production by Martin Thulin (lead singer of Mexican band Los Fancy-Free), and he brings some occasional Latin rhythms along with some other subtle Latin touches to their hook-filled blend of fuzzy, shoegazerish psych-rock and energetic garage-rock." Swedish singer-songwriter The Tallest Man On Earth (aka Kristian Matsson) shares his fourth album, which features "a fuller, more produced sound for his melancholy folk-pop and some of his most personal and direct songwriting to date. Alongside acoustic and electric guitars are atmospheric synths, piano, horns and other instrumentation fleshing out songs ranging from plaintive folk ballads to anthemic rockers."
Old 97’s frontman Rhett Miller shares a new solo album, "produced in Portland by The Decemberists’ Chris Funk with accompaniment by members of the Portland band Black Prairie (who share members with The Decemberists) along with Scott McCaughey and Peter Buck. The end result is a typically well-crafted set of roots-tinged pop-rock featuring a warm, often acoustic-oriented sound." London-based band Novella break out with a debut of "dreamy, shoegazerish psych-rock with fuzzy guitars, propulsive, sometimes motorik rhythms, hazy, half-buried vocals and catchy pop hooks." Austin-via-Oakland band Warm Soda release "another smartly crafted blend of catchy power pop and buzzing garage rock with melodic guitar riffs, energetic rhythms and sparkling pop hooks." And Seattle's Nightmare Fortress share their debut full-length of "goth-tinged synth-pop with dark synths, atmospheric guitars and propulsive rhythms accompanying Alicia Amiri’s haunting vocals" which you can listen to on the KEXP Blog here.
It's an especially exciting week for new releases. Beloved Portland duo The Helio Sequence release their sixth self-titled album. KEXP Music Director Don Yates describes it as "another impeccably crafted set of atmospheric pop-rock with shimmering guitars, ethereal synths, hazy vocals, soaring harm…
Lots of great releases this week for your Spring soundtrack: L.A. duo Best Coast return with what KEXP's Music Director Don Yates describes as a "consistently strong set of ‘90s-influenced power pop, featuring a big, punchy sound with fuzzy guitars, energetic rhythms and Bethany Cosentino’s honeyed…