"Go Primal" EP by Nomen Novum: Thanks Nomen Novum!

Instead of a lick, beat, or lyric, the Atlanta-based Nomen Novum open their EP Go Primal with an extended sample of a conversation between two young men and a somewhat loopy-sounding grandma selling trinkets and baubles at the side of the road. Nomen Novum transports the most mundane samples from the ordinary to the extraordinary and shows how ‘found sound’ is done right. The band whips up not just a fine collection of indie rock songs, but a stage on which they can be performed, a whole universe for them to inhabit, in the croaking frogs, hot Fourth of Julys, and drunken karaoke nights of their native South.

Lucky us the entire release is free! Go here to download the EP!

And check out the review here!

"Fantasies" by @MysteryRoar @ Together fest!

You know why your parents liked disco? Because it was smooth and damn sexy! Mystery Roar brings the best of the Me decade back in all its glory-tude with sweeping, slinking, suave sounds of sultriness, and infuses the dance textures with a contemporary sensibility that was a mere twinkle in a Bee Gees' eye...

Catch Mystery Roar along with Southern Belle, DJ Die Young, and Baltimoroder at Great Scotts on 2/11 as part of Together fest! (Plus, rumor has it the first 50 in get a free Narragansett tallboy! SOLD!)

Stream the song below, download "Fantasies" and more at their site, enjoy, and remember, get the full fest schedule and ticket info at the Together site!


Mystery Roar - Fantasies by Mystery Roar

"Over the Balcony" by Quiet Loudy: Thanks @quietloudly!

Quiet Loudly is a quartet out of Brooklyn with an equal affinity for artcore noise and southern soul rock. Not an immediately intuitive combination. But the highs are high enough to produce some real keepers on their recent release Soulgazer. Whatever label you want to put on the band, you certainly can’t call them boring. Quiet Loudly is one to keep an eye on.

If there is a no-brainer single on the album, it’s probably “Over the Balcony”. The song renovates the standard 50’s pop ballad, soups it up with distorted guitars, and adds a heartfelt crooning, wailing outro for good effect.

Listen below, download here, enjoy, and thanks to White Guys With Beards for the track (you can read their great writeup on QL here)!

"O.N.E." by Yeasayer: Thanks @OddBlood!

After a solid debut with All Hour Cymbals (QRO album review) in 2007, Yeasayer caught the attention of the press, the public and a few bluebloods of the industry.  MGMT (QRO live review) invited them on tour, the big international fests came calling, and Yeasayer members even backed up Beck on his Modern Guilt (QRO review) tour.  Quite a whirlwind of activity for a band with only eleven songs officially on the books.  Fast-forward past all the hullabaloo to the present day, and the band finds themselves faced with the same challenge every artist faces: do it again.  On their triumphant sophomore album Odd Blood, Yeasayer ‘do it again’ and more. 

Check out "O.N.E." below, download here, enjoy, and thanks to MOKB for the track!

"I Hate Letters" by Dinowalrus: Thanks @Dinowalrus!

You'd have to go back to the psych-jam weirdness of the late ‘60s and ‘70s to find Dinowalrus' true progenitors.  Back when songs were journeys, ten minutes or more, instead of pop jackhammers incising repetitive melodies into your skull.  Though Dinowalrus doesn't quite break the ten-minute barrier on %, they find some creative ways to deliver their wide-open sound within the confines of the standard pop issue. The standout track of the album is actually two tracks, "I Hate Letters" followed by "I Hate Numbers" (apparently the only thing left not to hate is the ‘%’ sign).  The "I Hate" couplet appears to be a single continuous take, divvied up between a moody, ethereal intro and a more grounded rock odyssey that seamlessly covers and conjoins a great deal of rock and roll history in the space of around nine total minutes. 

Check out "I Hate Letters" from their latest release %, download here, enjoy, and thanks to Pop Tarts for the track!

"Sleepwalking" by Beat Radio: Thanks @wearebeatradio!

Beat Radio is an alt-Americana outfit heavily disguised as indietronica. Since both genres are peaking right now, the recent release Safe Inside the Sound is eminently listenable. The winsome melodies, dressed up in synth progressions and digibeats, will tempt the melancholy onto the dancefloor about half the time (and have them weeping into their drink the other half).

Check out "Sleepwalking" below, download here, enjoy, and thanks to Fense Post for the track!

By the way, you can get the entire album here at bandcamp!

"Fantasies" by @MysteryRoar @ Together fest!

You know why your parents liked disco? Because it was smooth and damn sexy! Mystery Roar brings the best of the Me decade back in all its glory-tude with sweeping, slinking, suave sounds of sultriness, and infuses the dance textures with a contemporary sensibility that was a mere twinkle in a Bee Gees' eye...

Catch Mystery Roar along with Southern Belle, DJ Die Young, and Baltimoroder at Great Scotts on 2/11 as part of Together fest! (Plus, rumor has it the first 50 in get a free Narragansett tallboy! SOLD!)

Stream the song below, download "Fantasies" and more at their site, enjoy, and remember, get the full fest schedule and ticket info at the Together site!


Mystery Roar - Fantasies by Mystery Roar

"Play the Record Again" by AC Slater: Hear AC Slater at @tgthrbstn #tgthr

Which came first? The music or the drugs? Find out at Heartthrob (<3Throb) with AC Slater, Udachi, Red Foxx, Baltimoroder, and Morgan Louis, at the Middlesex Lounge on 2/9! And look up the rest of what's happening at the Together fest...

Check out "Play the Record Again" below, download here, and thanks to Nicky Digital for the track!

"Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" by Das Racist: see @dasracist at @tgthrbstn!

I’m at the pizza hut. WHAT?!
I’m at the taco bell. WHAT?
COMBINATION OF PIZZA HUT AND TACO BELL!

Check out the song below, download here, and go see Das Racist at the Together fest. Thanks to Tashed for the track!

"Grizzly Bear - Cheerleader (@NeonIndian Sega Genesis P-Orridge Remix)" at @tgthrbstn!

Hey, here's an mp3 in honor of the Together fest, the electronic music and arts festival going down in Boston this February. Neon Indian is absolutely blowing up right now on the strength of his psychadelic, electronic Fraggle Rock album Psychic Chasms. Look him up and more on QRO's Together Preview, and get the full schedule at http://www.togetherboston.com/.

Neon Indian works his magic on Grizzly Bear's "Cheerleader"- check it out below, download here, and thanks to MOKB for the track!