While Cullen Omori pursues a solo career with Sub Pop Records, two of his former bandmates in Smith Westerns have formed the group Whitney. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls the Chicago band's debut "an excellent set of '70s-influenced folk-pop featuring a consistently strong set of beautifully arranged, melodically rich songs and a warm, summery sound combining sweetly twanging guitars, soulful horns and other instrumentation with plaintive falsetto vocals, breezy melodies and melancholy lyrics."
Captured Tracks shares the sophomore release from Barcelona band Mourn, "a more expansive, diverse and sophisticated take on the band's '90s-influenced indie-rock, combining angular guitar lines and energetic rhythms with Jazz Rodriguez Bueno's expressive vocals and angst-fueled lyrics." L.A. production duo Classixx return with the perfect summer soundtrack, "a well-crafted set of summery electro-pop with propulsive house and disco rhythms, sparkling synths, occasional tropical textures, breezy melodies, often-dark lyrics and a solid lineup of guest vocalists including Passion Pit, How To Dress Well, T-Pain and De Lux." Rather stay indoors? Shoegaze-y supergroup Minor Victories (featuring Slowdive's Rachel Goswell, Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite and Editors' Justin Lockey) debut a "well-crafted set of brooding dream-pop featuring a dynamic, heavily atmospheric sound with shoegazerish guitars and cinematic strings accompanying Goswell's ethereal vocals."
The latest from Brooklyn-based artist Steve Gunn is "impressive new album is his most streamlined and song-oriented to date, with a muscular, psych-tinged folk-rock sound that still leaves plenty of room for Gunn's expressive guitar work." And Dutch artist Annelotte de Graaf -- recording under the more easily-pronounced name Amber Arcades -- releases her debut, a "promising set of shimmering pop-rock with jangly guitars, atmospheric keyboards, airy vocals and dreamy melodies. Produced by Ben Greenberg (formerly of The Men) with accompaniment by members of Quilt and Real Estate."
Nashville band Diarrhea Planet get this week's gold star with their third LP, Turn To Gold. KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes the album "features a bigger, more polished sound for their hook-filled blend of punkish power-pop and epic hard rock, along with crisper, more sophisticated songs with mo…
The Dead have come back to life with Day of the Dead. KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes, "This mammoth 59 song, 5 and a ½ hour long tribute to the Grateful Dead was put together and produced by The National's Bryce and Aaron Dessner as a benefit for the Red Hot organization and their fight agains…