Best Albums 2011

10. Bon Iver - Bon Iver








09. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy








08. tUnE-yArDs - Whokill








07. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints








06. Bill Callahan - Apocalypse








05. Destroyer - Kaputt








04. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo








03. Fucked Up - David Comes To Life








02. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost









01. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake




















Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

New music... Los Campesinos!, Kurt Vile, The Antwoord

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The Lanskies

The Lanskies@MySpace

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We Are Augustines

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Typhoon, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour

Portland, Oregon's Typhoon has been catching the attention of many since the release of their new EP, A New Kind Of House, out last month on Tender Loving Empire Records. With a captivating live show, one that was a main attraction at this year's SXSW Music Festival, the band is excited embark on a headlining tohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifur, join the Decemberists for a run of dates and play Lollapalooza, The Newport Folk & Sasquatch Music Festivals. Along with calling "The Honest Truth" one of "The Best Songs of 2011," Paste Magazine raves "Music critics throw around adjectives like 'orchestral' and 'expansive' all the time these days. But here's a band that actually deserves such labels. Portland's Typhoon is an indie rock geek's dream: a dynamic 12-piece with a seemingly unending reservoir of energy, emotive vocals, arpeggiated guitars, horns, multiple drum kits and strings ... Ladies and gentlemen, meet your new critical darlings."

Typhoon - The Hones Truth
Typhoon - Summer Home
Typhoon@MySpace

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The seeds of The Asteroids Galaxy Tour were sown in a Danish small town in the late ’90s when Lars Iversen launched his career as a jazz pianihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifst when he was only a teen. After discovering David Bowie, he turned a corner, incorporating rock ’n’ roll into his repertoire. In his tiny apartment, Lars and his brother built their own studio and began experimenting, making beats and loops, cutting and sampling, learning the basic recording skills that way. Around this time, Lars crossed paths with Mette Lindberg, who he dubbed “the coolest singer in Copenhagen.” From there The Asteroids Galaxy Tour was born. In 2008, the band reached instant global exposure when their song “Around The Bend” was featured in an Apple iPod Touch advertisement. Their music has also appeared in Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries and CSI Miami. “Around The Bend” was also one of the key tracks to the R.J. Cuttler documentary "The September Issue", based on Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.

TAGT - The Golden Age (elecoustic version)
TAGT@MySpace

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SONG OF THE DAY: Mates Of State - Maracas
(from Mountaintops, out September 13th on Barsuk Records)

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Atari Teenage Riot, Mount Moriah, Daniel Isaiah

Reignited German/American cyberpunks Atari Teenage Riot have booked a return trip to America this Fall. With information warfare, net neutrality, government opacity, and human trafficking all in the news, Atari Teenage Riot’s 4th album Is This Hyperreal?, out digitally June 7th on LA Electro-stomp label Dim Mak, is their most topical yet. Atari Teenage Riot starts their campaign for justice across America in September. For a taste of the hardcore digital punk of Is This Hyperreal? check out the riotgrrl energy of "Blood In My Eyes" tale of human trafficking and "Activate!" a hyper-kinetic death ray call to action.

Atari Teenage Riot - Blood In My Eyes
Atari Teenage Riot - Activate!
Atari Teenage Riot@MySpace

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Heather McEntire (of post-punk veterans Bellafea) and Jenks Miller (of heavy-psych/metal outfit Horseback) met in 2005, while working at a record store in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. After collaborating (as Un Deux Trois) on the the stripped-down, pop-inflected Lovers EP (Holidays for For Quince Records, 2007), they established Mount Moriah as an outlet for their mutual interest in classic American folk and rock music. Mount Moriah's 2010 EP, The Letting Go, highlighted the band's thematic range, moving from delicate acoustic narratives to a dark, fuzzed-out, soulful stomper in just three tracks. Mount Moriah's long-awaited, self-titled debut is cut from the same cloth, offering a far-reaching and non-traditional take on classic folk themes like devotion, tribulation, redemption, and an indelible sense of place.

Mount Moriah - Lament
Mount Moriah - Only Way Out
Mount Moriah@MySpace

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Daniel Isaiah was born in Montreal and has been writing songs and leading bands there all his life, from very early teenaged days in the Harry Rags, to his later endeavours with Shoot the Moon and Percy Farm. (He has since begun using an abbreviated version of his actual name, Daniel Isaiah Schachter, as his stage name). He signed to Secret City Records in 2010 to record his first solo album, High Twilight. Daniel is also an award-winning filmmaker, and is just as likely to draw inspiration from Federico Fellini or Ingmar Bergman as Leonard Cohen or Lou Reed. His 2008 short film, Three Mothers, won the A&E Short Filmmaker Award in 2009, and his latest, L’homme qui se croyait l’eau, recently screened at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.

Daniel Isaiah - High Twilight
Dainel Isaiah@MySpace

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SONG OF THE DAY: Richard Buckner - Traitor
(from Our Blood, out August 2nd on Merge Records)

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Maritime, Armand Margjeka, Wolf Ram Heart

Maritime originally formed with members of the Promise Ring and Dismemberment Plan in 2003. They went on to sign to Anti- but released their J. Robbin's produced debut, Glass Floor, on Desoto Records. The latest lineup includes Promise Ring alumni Davey von Bohlen (guitar, voice) and Dan Didier (drums) as well as Justin Klug (bass) and Dan Hinz (guitar). Their newest album, Human Hearts, is being released by Dangerbird Records.

Maritime - Paraphernalia/People Of London
Maritime@MySpace

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People often talk of music opening new worlds for them, but perhaps this means more to someone like Armand Margjeka. Margjeka grew up in Tropoja, an Albanian town at the foot of the Alps. "Tropoja was one of the most isolated villages in an isolhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifated country," Margjeka says. The communist regime he grew up with was oppressive, but somehow a mix tape of American rock n' roll found its way into Margjeka's hands. "Maybe my sister brought it back from university, I don't remember, but hearing Elvis, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard changed my life." It's been a long journey from Tropoja to Birmingham, Ala. for Margjeka, but he's clearly at home making music that brings to mind Sondre Lerche and the beautiful arrangements of Iron and Wine. Margjeka's first solo album, Margo, Margo, is due out August 9.

Armand Margjeka - Alive
Armand Margjeka@MySpace

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A psychedelic-dark-pop group from Ohio, Wolf Ram Heart is bent on marrying art with popular music. Their new album, Betrayal of Hearts, is a hybrid of pop's faded echoing sensibilities, molded into a modern space, and created in a way that allows these sounds to transform. Influenced by the productions of Phil Spector and Brian Wilson as much as 4AD and Creation Records acts of the early 90’s, the band's music at times reflects these heavily layered moments and deceptively complex melodies held together with a string of mood and space, sewn into a beautiful and warm patchwork of something quite new.

Wolf Ram Heart - Humming Doves
Wolf Ram Heart - Viewgirls
Wolf Ram Heart@Facebook

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SONG OF THE DAY: They Might Be Giants - Can't Keep Johnny Down
(from Join Us, out April 26th via iTunes)

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