It's all buried in our Reservoir

The new album from this London-based indie bouquet of wonderful is called Reservoir, and it is a striking and bold maturation from the single “You Are One Of The Few Outsiders Who Really Understands Us” (hypem) that I fell in love with so many years ago. There’s beauty here, you betchya, and better yet there are anthems to beauty. Anthems to being swept away by a driving rhythm, by the sounds of a marching band, by the elevating force of melody.

This albums downfall and success both lie in the fact that the sounds on this album are familiar — Arcade Fire is here, Beirut is there, and oh man! Is that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah over there?? Yeah, this band sounds similar to other indie rock bands. But let’s note that all three of those bands are something worth being compared to. All of them swooped in and stole our indie rock hearts and Fanfarlo has come along to heal the hole that is left when a band moves on from you. This band’s songs are intelligently and perfectly crafted into something beautiful, big, orchestral, and lush. And to nicely top it all off, they’re catchy. You can dance to this, you can jump rope to this, you can spin in circles to this. This band has taken the sounds of those we loved and knit them together into something all their own. Something worth taking home.

Remember “Elephant Gun”, Beirut’s testament to changes to seasons to dancing to parties? “The Walls are Coming Down” has the same effect, and sounds similar. It’s a theme worth following. (And hey! There’s a video available here!)

“I’m a Pilot”, the opening track, seduces you with what sounds like a slow marching band spinning through the Tundra. It’s pianos and violins are cold and sparkly but the crunching stomping beat is driving, deliberate, and determined. You’ll get swept away in blue icy dust, no doubt.

There are a lot of tracks available for listening on Fanfarlo’s website, as well as a number of videos from live performances. I’d suggest wrapping yourself in something comforting and beautiful and settling down for some Fanfarlo. Try not to get swept away.

Good night, we love you. Love, Fanfarlo.

Lover of the week: FANFARLO is a post from: KZSC Santa Cruz

It’s time we sit down and cuddle up to something that I personally cannot get my ears to move away from. The band is Air Waves, out now on Catbird Records. This is what happens when you get a copy: your hand is filled with this beautiful, screen printed, yellow artwork on what looks like a 45rpm sleeve.

in love with your sunny afternoon, this is Air Waves

And inside, the sounds inside, are equally as gorgeous, as striking, and as warm. It’s lo-fi in the sense that it sounds like it was recorded in a really sunny afternoon bedroom. And it feels like you’re in that bedroom when you listen to it. The head songstress, Nicole, has a beautiful if not toughened voice that is intimate and trustworthy and heartening. The music is sunny and breezy and relaxing. This is music to lay on your floor and craft to. This is music to sit in the park with. This is music to swing on a hammock with. It’s your summer sweetheart, if nothing else.

Keep listening to KZSC for sneak peeks of this grand self-titled EP. Chances are you won’t be able to wait for that serendipitous moment, which is why you should go to their myspace, listen to some tracks, lay on your bedroom floor, and maybe get your own beautiful Air Waves EP.

I hope someone else falls in love with this record, because really, it’s too warm not to share.

Love,

Caitlin of KZSC

take care!

Lost in the AIR WAVES is a post from: KZSC Santa Cruz

Welcome to summer, KZSC-ers

They’re not quite coming from the beyond the grave; these are our charts from last Tuesday. Next Wednesday will bring new joys, but until them, check out this greatness:

Rock music wins:

Top 5 adds:

Soundtrack to your Motel Motel raptor battle adventure

1 Motel Motel – “New Denver” – We’re messy kids listening to The Walkmen, taking them by storm, upping the pop and having way too much Coffee Cigarette fun. By far one of my favorite new indie rock bands, Motel Motel are doing it right. (The songs “Coffee” and “Cigarettes” are by far some faves)

space.

This is your Neon Graveyard. Love, Gobble Gobble.

2 Gobble Gobble – “Neon Graveyard” – Pop music made on an acoustic guitar by a solemn boy run through a room full of vocal filters, chopped and cut for glitch effect, added blips and spilled out onto a CD. Some songs (esp. “Meteor Eschat”) are incredibly compelling. Honest and intimate despite the amount of sonic experimentation going on.

space.

We believe in indie rock, you can too: You Can Be a Wesley

3 You Can Be a Wesley – “Heard Like Us” –  Okay, let me be honest here. I’ve become disillusioned with this so called “indie rock” banner that us kids have been carrying for so long. That “sound” (you know, the classic one, the one that Spoon stands for) had eluded me, and experimental music took over my heart. Well, until now. Starting this week with Motel Motel and held up halfway by You Can Be a Wesley, my heart is now achingly happy about our genre. This band has enough upbeat pop sensibilities to keep your ADD-kid leg a-hoppin’ and enough indie rock sound to not make you sick from pop-cleanliness.  (Listen to “Stuck in a Battle”, please, for the goodness of your own happiness)

space.

Japandroids will set us all on fire.

4 Japandroids – “Post-Nothing” – We’re alive and well, we listen to Rock and Roll and as much as Los Angeles has made apathy hang on our lips like bummed cigarettes, we still believe in fun. We still have an ounce of hope and with that ounce we’re going to dance around and have fun. Go it? Good. Rock music is still alive, don’t forget. (“Young Hearts Spark Fire” is the soundtrack to this scene, to your new life. Get up, friends.)

space.

We’re youthful and alive: Charts from 6/22! is a post from: KZSC Santa Cruz