Mississippi-based delinquent duo Bass Drum of Death are the kind of sleazy, leather-jacket-torn-jeans-wearing hipsters you wouldn’t invite to your parents house for dinner. They’re the ohso suspicious-looking youths taking cigarette breaks in shady alleyways that are used to being greeted with suspicion. And they’ve just recorded an album. Amidst funneling guitar riffs and lo-fi vocals these guys definitely aren’t asking for your opinion. With an overall Ty Segall sorta vibe and lyrics about getting with religious girls, stealing and gravity bongs, it shouldn’t come as a surprise the kind of audience this will lure in. Whether or not you can relate to the lyrics, this is the sort of grungy rock n roll thud that makes for an awesome live performance.

GB City

1. Nerve Jamming
2. GB City
3. Get Found
4. Velvet Itch
5. High School Roaches
6. Spare Room
7. Young Pros
8. Heart Attack Kid
9. Leaves
10. I Could Never Be Your Man
11. Religious Girls
12. He’s So Fine

Like so many bands of the current era, Chicago foursome Smith Westerns emerged from the smoky murk of their parent’s garage, releasing a sound that oozed with youthful arrogance and lofty dreams. Dynamic and rebellious, they delivered a noisy percussion driven self-titled debut that often sounded like Wavves-covering-Harlem with evident Beatles/Bowie influences.

Two years later and two years older, the boys have cleaned up their sound and maybe even grown up a bit. With their follow-up album Dye It Blonde, the band has been audibly refurbished, clearing up most of the dizzy scuzz of their debut meanwhile clinging onto the Brit-pop inspiration. Though it can be easy to compare it to Oasis circa Heathen Chemistry and T. Rex, Smith Westerns have certainly concocted something deliciously psychedelic of their own.

Their mastered synergy is evident from the get go with addictive and contagious pop jam “Weekend.” The lyricism is enough to make an angsty teenage girl blush with sweetly flirtatious lines such as “Weekends are never fun unless you’re around here too” (Weekend) and “All of my time should have been, in the end/ with you with you “ (Smile). Perhaps the cornerstone of the album, “All Die Young” is a tumbling tribute to John Lennon with muffled organs and “Something”-esque wails.

Overall, the album is a complete success. It’s got that timeless edge that suits nearly everyday with something to offer nearly every emotion. Even with a clearly established territory, Smith Westerns are eclectic and random enough to keep us wondering what’s next from them. I have nothing but optimism for their future.

Tracklist

1. Weekend
2. Still New
3. Imagine Pt. 3
4. All Die Young
5. Fallen In Love
6. End of the Night
7. Only One
8. Smile
9. Dance Away
10. Dye the World

Free Candy

Girl In Love

Guilty pleasures are a part of life. They’re those things you’ll occasionally come across and just can’t decide or even understand why it is you enjoy it. You just do. But you don’t necessarily want other people to know that you do. Witler’s Guilty Pleasures will introduce you to the artists you wouldn’t hear me talking about in public. Listen at your own discretion.

Michigan native Alex Winston is the musical equivalent to banana chips–you really can’t decide how you feel about it so you just keep munching (/listening) to figure out what the deal is. It’s difficult to figure out whether you find her sound is ridiculously obnoxious or deliciously catchy. But somehow the combo of these two sentiments makes her music something you’ll listen to when no one else is in the room…cause you kinda sorta secretly like it. Her lyrics are strange to say the least, thus wedging this further and further into the guilty category. I don’t know what a “sister wife” is but it sounds like it’s somewhere between incest and polygamy, so if taboo is your thing this is right up your alley. Her jittery angst gives her a sort of Ellie-Goulding-from-another-planet sort of vibe but also sounds like the kind of thing Star Slinger would have a field day with. After a few listens it just might be something you wouldn’t mind squishing into the recesses of your iTunes library. I for one, am guilty as charged.

Sister Wife
Locomotive
The Cave (Mumford & Sons cover)

The CoachellAltDelight series will put focus on the low key Coachella
artists that we at C+A+D feel like you should know about.
Less than a week till we’re all together!

If you’ve got a musical sweet tooth, chances are you’ve already heard of New York City’s The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. It seems appropriate that the band was named after an unpublished children’s book–there’s something sweetly melancholy about their sound, like a story you vaguely remember someone reading to you as a child. As you continue to listen, though, you realize why they seem so familiar: their sound is a fizzy hodgepodge of indie from the past two decades. Something in the vocals and driving bass bears an uncanny resemblance to Belle and Sebastian, meanwhile drawing comparisons to Peter Bjorn and John and even Passion Pit. Sharing the Coachella stage with Cut Copy and The Black Keys, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart just might provide you with a nice musical dessert on Friday.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart-Young Adult Friction
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart-Heart In Your Heartbreak

Two years following the release of their third album Humbug, Arctic Monkeys are scheduled to release their fourth album Suck It and See sometime this summer. The Sheffield quartet released their first single from the album “Don’t Sit Down (Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair)” earlier today as a bit of a taste of what’s to come. The band seems to have picked up right where they left off with Humbug; Don’t Sit Down fits right in with the likes of “Crying Lightning” and “Potion Approaching.” So naturally this will please fans that enjoyed the heavy, foreboding sound of Humbug and will disappoint those thought it tried too hard. It’s the same wall of sound with surrealistic lyrics and mysterious vocals. In true Arctics form, the build up is the strongest aspect of this song. It shouldn’t be too difficult to predict the kind of material we’ll find on their fourth album.

OH and those of you thinking about going to Outside Lands this summer, the lineup was released this morning and Arctics are headlining. *Something to think about: these guys are amazing live.

Don’t Sit Down (‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair)

The CoachellAltDelight series will put focus on the low key Coachella
artists that we at C+A+D feel like you should know about.
Less than a week til we’re all together!

New York five-piece Freelance Whales are among my favorite new-ish bands. Formed in 2008 after connecting on Craigslist, the band is known for their unconventional creativity. They’re awesomely idiosyncratic with their synthesizers, glockenspiels and strange lyrics. Yeah, I don’t know what a glockenspiel is either. Taking the stage on Saturday, they’re a show I wouldn’t miss; they’re the kind of quirky and youthful fun that’s awesome to see live.

Freelance Whales

Freelance Whales-Starring
Freelance Whales-We Could Be Friends

The CoachellAltDelight series will put focus on the low key Coachella
artists that we at C+A+D feel like you should know about.
Less than a week till we’re all together!

Drum ‘n’ Bass greats Chase & Status revolutionized the world of electronic music when they first hit the scene in 2006, climbing the UK charts even as an electric dance duo on an indie label. They have collaborated with the likes of Kano, Plan B, Tinie Tempah and Cee-Lo Green in their most recent album No More Idols and have signed the likes of Nero to their own label. They’re set to storm the Coachella stage on day three and I’m expecting nothing but sheer greatness.

Chase & Status-Invaders Must Die
Chase & Status-Blind Faith

Plan B

Also from the UK, Ben Drew aka Plan B is a bit of a Renaissance man. His 2006 debut Who Needs Actions When You Got Words was a well-received slice of London life in hip-hop form. His most recent album The Defamation of Strickland Banks was something quite different, primarily focusing on soul. The album quickly reached the no. 1 spot in the charts. Between the production of his two albums, Drew gleaned his acting career, appearing in two films between the years 2008-2009. Plan B is also set to perform on day 3 of Coachella, which brings me to my next point….

Plan B-Stay Too Long

Chase & Status (feat. Plan B)

Plan B has done a lot of the vocals for Chase & Status; their colab single “End Credits” reached the top ten in the UK charts in 2009 and what’s more, they’ve been known to play together when they just so happen to be at the same music festival…do you see where I’m going with this? The combined energies of Chase & Status and Plan B is something I hope to experience live in my lifetime, and I’ve got my fingers crossed that it happens next Sunday. There’s absolutely no guarantee that this will happen but if it does, it could very possibly be a life-changing experience and that’s something I wouldn’t risk missing.
Chase & Status (feat. Plan B)-End Credits

Chase & Status (feat. Plan B)-Pieces