There are few things in life I get more excited about than music. There are fewer things in life that I get more excited about than Hockey. The band. (The sport is cool too but we’re not talking about that.) They released their debut album Mind Chaos in 2009 and it was, to say the very least, a thing of beauty. Seriously if you don’t have it, go get it. Now. After three and a half years of minimal communication from the band, they’ve FINALLY given word of their upcoming followup. The album is due out at the beginning of May (and I actually can’t wait). They’ve released two singles thus far, “Calling Back” and “Defeat On the Double Bass Line.” It’s a different direction for them, but that is certainly not a bad thing. It will be exciting to see what happens with the album.

Defeat On the Double Bass Line
[audio:https://controlaltdelight.com/2013/HOCKEY/11_Defeat%20on%20the%20Double%20Bass%20Line-Final%202013.mp3]
Calling Back
[audio:https://controlaltdelight.com/2013/HOCKEY/Calling%20Back.mp3]

Free Candy

Work (Live at Wendyhouse)
[audio:https://controlaltdelight.com/2013/HOCKEY/Work%20-%20Live%20at%20Wendyhouse.mp3]

22-year-old Trevor Powers is a pioneer, diving into and exposing the youth psyche of today’s technology housed culture. A year and a half since the release of his harrowing, self-made debut Powers is back with his sophomore release. This time, he’s dragged his dreams and fears from the bedroom into a studio to produce something massive and weird and potentially ground-breaking. Wondrous Bughouse, experimental and sonic, is proof that the indie genre is alive and well and actually going somewhere from the folk-pop wannabes that dominate the more prominent arena of the indie music scene. It’s out today via Fat Possum. From start to finish, the album dives headfirst into the rabbithole that is Powers’ brain. Much like The Year of Hibernation, it’s psychedelic and booming, textured with hollow echoes that make listening to it a strangely solitary experience. At times it wanders into and gets lost in a dizzy circus melodrama (see: “Attic Doctor”) and stays there, perhaps a bit too long. It’s almost scary, but almost catchy. It’s tracks like that which are bound to amass some attention (and some criticism). Debatably the pinacle of the album, “Dropla,” is a haunting visit to a hospital room where a loved one passes. It’s a reminder of our mortality, but also showcases once again Powers’ immense talent for depressing songwriting.

The album is punctuated with a pervasive sense of proleptic nostalgia. Despite its depressing and lonely undertones, there is something oddly optimistic and youthful about it. Go figure. It’s bound to be a tad controversial, given its experimental edge. Yet its honesty also guarantees it to hit home with a lot of people. Powers is just doing his own thing and I hope he doesn’t stop.

Check out the tracklist and some sample tunes after the jump (more…)

C+A+D essentials Born Ruffians released another taste of their upcoming album Birthmarks today. It’s indicative of a potentially new direction for them. Not going to lie, I was expecting their new stuff to sound more like frontman Luke Lalonde’s solo stuff but it doesn’t. At the beginning, it could almost be confused with a Fleet Foxes song with airy harmonies and gentle echoes. By the end of the song, it is unmistakably Born Ruffians.

CoachellAltDelight brings attention to special artists that will be featured in Indio come April.
Some we love. Some we just discovered. All essential.
Click here for more from this series.
72/79 Days

Some good things go away and never come back. Some good things go away and come back more powerful than before. I thought indie rock essentials Spoon were gone for good, until listening to a song a friend recommended recently. I recognized the voice, the unmistakable voice of Britt Daniel. Years after Spoon broke up, Daniel got together with Dan Boekner of Handsome Furs and Wolf Parade and made one good looking baby. That baby–Divine Fits–is really something beautiful and probably a force to be reckoned with live. If you look at the fine print of the Coachella ’13 lineup, you’ll see their name. That font should be bigger. It’s guaranteed to be an amazing show. Don’t miss them. You won’t regret it.

Check out some choonz and a video

After the jump. (more…)

Fort Lean is five straggly looking dudes from Brooklyn. The frontman is what Taylor Swift would look like on steroids, I think. But I digress. Their music is a truly delightful blend of jangly rock and roll–reminiscent of The Walkmen and Young the Giant–with subtle beach-rock flourishes. I can never get enough of bands like this on my iPod. They’ve released two EPs a single to date. Their most recent release, Change Your Name, was released late last year. Four tracks short, its dreamy and idyllic. It’s sun kissed and yearning and bittersweet, but everso catchy. This is escapist pop-rock, if that’s a thing. Now it is. They’ve clearly mastered a sound, a sunny and feel-good one at that, that is more than likely to garner them some blogosphere attention. Fingers crossed for a full-length album in the next year.

Fort Lean – Beach Holiday
[audio:https://controlaltdelight.com/2012%20albums/FORT%20LEAN/09%20Beach%20Holiday.mp3]
Fort Lean – Dreams (Never Come True)
[audio:https://controlaltdelight.com/2012%20albums/FORT%20LEAN/02%20Dreams%20%28Never%20Come%20True%29.mp3]
Fort Lean – Perfect
[audio:https://controlaltdelight.com/2012%20albums/FORT%20LEAN/04%20Perfect.mp3]

I want to precede this by saying we never do this. It is rare to never that we will post on something we feel negatively about, but in the case of Free Energy’s sophomore album Love Sign, I feel more than obligated to share my honest reaction to an album whose anticipation I have been hyping for several months. Truthfully, I expected much more from the Philadelphia five-piece. Or maybe it would do better to say I expected much less. To put it simply, this album tries way way way way way way too hard. It’s incredibly poppy and obnoxiously polished. It’s so over the top I couldn’t begin to take it seriously, even if it removed about five pounds of makeup and took off its glitter wig. After listening to it all the way through, I feel about eight years younger but not in a good way. With so much “dancing all night” and “waiting around to fall in love,” this album might appeal to you if you’re depressed that the Twilight series is over. No offense. It’s difficult to say what the highs and lows of the album are because every song–more or less–sounds exactly the same. There are definitely moments where I could see how someone with cheap taste in music might say “Oh this is great!” (see: “Dance All Night”) but they are short lived. This is bound to be divisive. Not to be an overly cynical asshole, but this album is, in several ways, a joke to the indie genre. I’d be happy to go back to Stuck On Nothing and pretend Love Sign didn’t happen.

Free Energy – Dance All Night
[audio:https://controlaltdelight.com/2012%20albums/FREE%20ENERGY/Free-Energy-Dance-All-Night.mp3]

Indie pop outfit The Airplanes is actually just one dude, Joshua Vest, churning out carefree jams with a lo-fi edge. He released his debut EP last year and already has more in the works, set to release early this year. Galloping, guitar-driven anthems, this stuff is hard to argue with. He’s on my radar. You should be looking out for him too.

Paper Hearts
[audio:https://controlaltdelight.com/album%20reviews/foxygen/05%20Paper%20Hearts.mp3]