Free Album... The Morning Benders

The Morning Benders decided to surprise their fans by giving an album for free. The album is a collection of acoustic covers of some of the most beautiful rock classics. The album is named Bedroom Covers and it has been recorded in an apartment using a single microphone and a laptop. More on the album and recording process you can find on TMB blog. Highly Recommended!

The Morning Benders - Bedroom Covers
The Morning Benders @ MySpace

Check Comments for Bonus!

Little Teeth

Little Teeth are Dannie Murrie (Vox, Mandolin, Guitar, Accordian), Ammo Eisu (Vox, Drums, Cello, Violin) and Andy Tisdall (Vox, Bass, Banjo, Electronics). Little Teeth is the union of three strange souls, whose mystical convergence has bred their only faith.

It started in the suburbs of Stockton, CA 1982; Dannie Murrie is born. Being the daughter of a singer/composer/pianist and accordion player, she was taught from a very young age to fire back at life's blows with the cannon of her voice. In a search for feminist rocker chicks, she began posting Craig's List ads in the Women for Women classifieds. After months of sorting through weeds of sexual emails from disgruntled housewives, a light broke through by the name of Ammo Eisu. Ammo and Dannie instantly felt a kinship. It was fate. Dannie left everything, moved to San Francisco and started a life in song with mysterious cyber-minstrel, Ammo Eisu.

It was now the summer of 2004. Ammo had just moved back to California from New Haven, Connecticut after earning a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering at Yale University (where she had been institutionalized for being a hypothetical danger to herself ). Tormented and exhausted from the cruelty of a system that quantizes human value, Ammo was starving to rekindle her long-since stymied artistry/musicality. Together, Ammo and Dannie found an intoxicating tonic in this rare complementation and cross-fire of class, character and calling.

A mix of fate and happy coincidence brought Andy Tisdall into the fold after sharing an audio engineering class with Dannie. Musically the two clicked uncannily, and they soon found themselves along with Ammo, making music together as Little Teeth and laying down the basic tracks for Child Bearing Man.

The bands unique vision led them to spend nearly 14 months tinkering and toiling in their personally designed basement studio. It was important to the band to do all the tracking/mixing/production themselves as to keep the tone of the album 100% true to and saturated in their unique reality.

Child Bearing Man is a record of growls, squeaks, complex wordplay, and melodic cascades, tied together with mandolin, banjo, accordion, rock and roll drums, cello, guitar and Dannie’s wildcat snarl. Dannie’s voice draws you in. It is a little scary, full of pain and world weariness. But what is most mesmerizing about this trio is their transcendent synergy on stage. These three natural eccentrics lead the listener through tracks like “Japanese Candy” with desperate wails and “Between My Ears” with lyrical jabs, “you could cut your face six different ways but they’d all look the same to me”. Together, Little Teeth’s Child Bearing Man is commanding, emotionally and musically conflicted, and utterly moving. Little Teeth’s debut album "Child Bearing Man" is coming out at September 9, 2008 on Absolutely Kosher Records. Highly Recommended!

Little Teeth - Japanese Candy
Little Teeth @ MySpace


Little Teeth - Wiretap Music Featured Band


Check Comments for Bonus!

Loxsly

Loxsly features Cody Grounds, guitarists Garrett Johnston and Justin Douglas, bassist Eryk Lugo, and drummer John Kelley. It began as a solo project in 2003, with one person working a synthesizer, samples and literally anything else that sounded like a good idea at the time. Now, the band Loxsly is five members strong and takes its pop compositions into several different directions.

There is an abundance of highly-charged rhythm and contagious melodies on their album, Maps and Organs, accompanied perfectly by singer and band founder Cody Grounds unique vocals. The happy, shiny-sounding atmosphere created by much of their music is impressively combined with lyrics that are oftentimes darker and edgier. Its intelligent and danceable all at once.

Shortly after the release of Forecast a Brainstorm, Cody was joined by Garrett Johnston on guitar and Eryk Lugo on bass. The three Wacoan’s moved to Austin, Texas, where Loxsly incorporated its fourth member, Justin Douglas, who had also fled to Austin, though not to escape from small town life. He had recently been kicked out of Montreal for being a non-citizen. Justin, an audio engineer, had recently graduated from Berklee and responded to a classified ad that Cody had posted requesting drummers. Justin didn't play drums, but offered his abilities on the pedal steel and a multitude of other instruments. The boys then duped longtime friend John Kelley into learning how to play drums.

In Austin, the band began to blend their new skills and sounds into one that was their own. Live shows naturally ran more smoothly, now that Loxsly had a full lineup. Their shows were theatrical-- including projected images, lighting and sometimes even confetti and bubble machines. In 2005, they released Loxsly's second album Maps and Organs, with home-sewn casings and the skillful production of Justin Douglas. Since the formation of Loxsly, the band has played alongside bands such as The Octopus Project, Elf Power, and Dr. Dog, and, when able to find time between day jobs or schooling at the University of Texas, made quick tours to cities such as Chicago and Athens, eager to spread their sound beyond Austin.

Now four years strong, the guys are taking it another step further. After the release of Flashlights, they are working on a full-length album and a music video (directed by guitarist Garrett Johnston) to follow. Recommended!

Loxsly - Lamprey Eels
Loxsly @ MySpace

Check Comments for Bonus!

Embarrassing Fruits

In the early months of 2006 Embarrassing Fruits began playing stripped down, song-based music in an unheated living room in Greensboro, NC. Swilling cans of PBR, listening to early 90’s indie-rock and eating spicy foods helped fuel the band early on, setting the groundwork for honest, unpolished and unpretentious indie rock that recalls what the genre was about in the first place. After moving back to Chapel Hill, NC, Lee Shaw, a talented songwriter in his own right, joined the band on bass in early 2008. Joe Norkus, Lee Shaw, and John Neville now make up “The Fruits.”

The First Time EP is the band’s first official release on Trekky Records and it is the definition of homemade. Recorded and mixed in Trekky’s home studio, The Owl Room, the CD features screen printed packaging hand printed by The Trekky Records Printing Company and Embarrassing Fruits themselves, all in one house, Trekky Headquarters.

Amid a slew of groups that do nothing but tap and twist delay pedals and scream nonsense into microphones, Embarrassing Fruits rely on bass, drums, guitar and vocals to create music that reminds us of classic, early indie rock like Archers of Loaf, Sebadoh and Pavement. The Fruits are living in the days before iPods, when crowded basement summertime shows and college radio ruled. Divebomb guitars and a slight Southern slant harken back to mid-nineties Chapel Hill glory. Simple, sarcastic anthems such as “Bicycle” will take you on a journey into the mind of the high school sophomore in a grown man’s body. “Drunken Foot” tells the story of a romance that begins with a few beers. “Willing Partner” is a Southern jam about uncertainty in a budding relationship. The First Time will be available in stores and online August 5, 2008. Recommended!

Embarrassing Fruits - First Time
Embarrassing Fruits @ MySpace

Check Comments for Bonus!

Boy Genius

Boy Genius is an indie rock quartet originating from Brooklyn. The band members are two guys, Jason Korenkiewicz (vocals, guitar, harmonica) and Jeffrey Mensch (bass, acoustic guitar, backing vocals)] and two ladies, Lisa Klimkiewicz (drums, melodica, backing vocals) and Marisa Cerio (guitar, backing vocals) (the latter of whom replaced recording guitarist Christopher Amann). Boy Genius has been often compared to bands like Pavement, the Feelies, the Go Betweens and Reckoning-era R.E.M.

They released their debut EP last year, Eureka, and it was met with universal acclaim. Their debut LP, Anchorage, was recorded at Seaside Lounge in Park Slope, Brooklyn with Josh Clark (who recorded the first Beirut album and the most recent New Pornographers record).

Anchorage is an enjoyable collection of eleven pop tunes, delivered in somewhat lo-fi fashion, but still catchy and entertaining. The arrangements are quite simple with frequent twists so that they don't repeat too often. Jason's vocals could probably sound much better if the production would be better. However, backed with Marisa's voice, it still makes a fine lead on this self-released record. This is a solid debut album and should be certainly checked out. Recommended!

Boy Genius - Radio Silence
Boy Genius - Tied In Two
Boy Genius @ MySpace

Check Comments for Bonus!

Esther

South Sweden, early -00. Fredrik, Claes, Per , David and Markus put the band together.
2 month later they named the band Esther, from a book called "never forget about esther", or was it from that women in the hebrew bible? You´ll never know. Like every band at this stage,(except the lucky ones) esther did some shows at their own school and at the local youth recreation centre.

After a couple of years things ended up well for the band. They were playing in swedish television, live on the radio and a lot of liveshows around Sweden. Between 2003 - 2006 they released the single "Hollow, an Ep called "Until our lips meet again" and a green full length album.

The new album ”Lie to me, I love a good story” is produced by Victor Åderman Sandin ( Shoot Charlie, Vienna Heat, Low Season Combo etc.). 10 brand new songs with more energy than ever before. Desperado pop and a pop energetic rock n roll distributed with remember-able melodies, a characteristic tune by the singer and pumping rock riff in an indiepunk spirit. Esther is best to be described as a band with great scene sensibility despite the age of the members and with a hard punch of high charmfactor and obvious attitude. The album release is 30.06.2008. Recommended!

Esther - I Can't Promise
Esther - Throw A Spanner
Esther @ MySpace


Heaven, hell and her video



Check Comments for Bonus!