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Previous: Episode101 - Ready To Go
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♬Liner Notes♬: Spring has pretty much sprung (at least here on the best coast) and with that comes a wave of new sounds to sail on by Wimps, Quilt, Big Data, Liv Warfield, Eagulls and much more...
Liv Warfield
"Why Do You Lie?"
'The Unexpected'
Kobalt, 2014
Note: This week we'll begin AND end with Pacific Northwest artists! "Once a leading light of Portland’s R&B scene, she got scooped up by Prince in 2009, shortly after the release of her debut, Embrace Me, and indoctrinated into the New Power Generation—from her description, the equivalent of musical boot camp. No wonder, then, that The Unexpected sounds less like a protracted follow-up than a re-emergence. Warfield exudes both a veteran’s confidence and a newcomer’s desire to be heard. Even in the album’s more tender, pleading moments, the message is clear: “Underestimate me at your peril.”... At times, the energy is canned by the studio slickness that plagued those latter-day Prince albums: The pumping “Why Do You Lie,” though still a highlight, doesn’t pack quite the wallop Warfield brought to her Jimmy Fallon performance in January."
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Eagulls
"Nerve Endings"
'Eagulls'
Partisan, 2014
Note: "Maybe it’s appropriate that a year after posting a scathing open letter criticizing essentially every band and their tourmates, Leeds’ Eagulls are at SXSW, where they’re (probably) playing alongside some of the bands that they were calling out, because now they have the chance to show those groups up in person with their breathlessly furious brand of discordant post-punk. The quintet only released their debut full length this month, but they’ve been notorious in blogosphere circles for, among other things, their lawsuit-from-Don Henley-baiting moniker, the aforementioned letter, getting impulsive, drunken tattoos with journalists, and having the police called to their flat for a rotting pig brain in their backyard... “Nerve Endings” has been serving as the band’s opening number for their recent concerts, likely because it’s an eardrum-bursting hand grenade of an introduction." Ooh and they'll be opening for Suede at Royal Albert Hall on March 30th!
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Kins
"Aimless"
'Kins'
Easy City, 2013
Note: "They're weird, they're mysterious, and they're good. What more do you need to listen to them? The name is Kins, a quartet based out of Brighton, England. And their music is absolutely phenomenal. I would have to say that they might even be... kin to fellow British rock band Alt-J, at least in sound and style. On the band's self-titled debut, each track is as luscious and warm as a fine summer's evening. Stand-out track "Aimless" is a prime example of this... By the end of the track, you'll be wanting to hit replay, just to get that hit of pure bliss." This is their second PUTV spin after Episode097 featured the track "Mockasin's", also from their self-titled debut.
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Jessica Lea Mayfield
"I Wanna Love You"
'Make My Head Sing'
ATO, 2014
Note: "Kent, Ohio native Jessica Lea Mayfield matches a grunge-era deadpan with gnarly leftfield roots music in service of haunting, smoldering rock ’n’ roll. She caught some extra attention thanks to her association with geographic and stylistic neighbor Dan Auerbach of Akron’s Black Keys, who produced her 2011 LP Tell Me... Real guitar tones and heaviness abound on “I Wanna Love You,” the album’s darkly entrancing single."
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Big Data
"Dangerous"
'1.0' EP
Wilcassettes, 2013
Note: Holy crap, if you haven't watched the Brooklyn duo's NSFW video for this track, do it now! "Big Data is an electronic pop duo whose music and lyrics focus on the hazards of the Internet age, in particular with respect to user privacy and NSA surveillance. The band's primary purpose and musical theme is to examine the increasingly complex relationship between humans and technology." Me and my buddy Jake got a kick out of that video and thank the boys for the tweet love!
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Supreme Cuts
"Envision" (w/ Channy From Poliça)
'Divine Ecstasy'
Dovecote, 2014
Note: "You know that game where one person draws a head and a bit of neck and then folds it over and hands it to another person who then draws the body and so on? Well, that's sort of how Chicago-based producers Supreme Cuts made their forthcoming album, Divine Ecstasy. Only with music... "The album operates on three levels... The mundane (taxes and parking tickets), earthly pleasures (sex and drugs), and the higher (god and the universe)." There's also a big beating pop heart at the core of new single Envision, which features the vocals of Channy from Poliça ghosting in and out of a percussive, slowly enveloping mesh of ominous house and electro."
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Honeyblood
"Bud"
'Honeyblood'
Fat Cat, 2013
Note: It's yet another beautiful band from Scotland! "“I’ve played in bands before,” says Honeyblood’s frontwoman Stina Tweeddale, “And I just feel like no matter how good a musician is, it means nothing unless you connect with the people you’re playing with.” The Scottish singer and guitarist met drummer Shona McVicar about two years ago, and in that short time frame they’ve developed a definite connection, initially bonding over the guitar pop of Best Coast and Jenny Lewis... While the self-titled debut doesn’t see a release until May 20, we’ve got a preview of the record in time for the band’s first ever SXSW. “Bud” hits hard, alternately chiming and roaring. The crystalline sound matches Honeyblood well: no bathroom “recording studio” could contain this band."
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Bear Hands
"Agora"
'Distraction'
Cantora, 2014
Note: "On February 18th, Brooklyn four-piece Bear Hands return[ed] with their sophomore album, Distraction... the 11-track effort was produced by the band’s guitarist Ted Feldman, mixed by James Brown (Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails), and sees them expanding on the madcap post-punk/indie rock hybrid of their 2010 debut, Burning Bush Supper Club. Following their previous single “Giants” comes yet another wired and walloping number called “Agora”. Fueled by a delightfully erratic strain of energy, the track’s like Jekyll and Hyde on drugs — one second subdued with eerily calm whispers, the next deliriously brash and unabashed."
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Quilt
"Tie Up The Tides"
'Held In Splendor'
Mexican Summer, 2014
Note: The Boston band just blew up SXSW and are also looking for help after a car wreck totaled their gear. "Psych-rock band Quilt are getting ready to drop their new album Held In Splendor soon and have already put out some very nice teasers. First there was the meditatively surreal “Arctic Shark” which came on like that first hour or so of an acid trip, but it was followed by “Tired & Buttered” which charged like a good old Kinks single. This new one “Tie Up The Tides” falls a little bit in the middle, it’s a rock song that exists in a sunny state of tranquility."
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Lambchop
"Up with People"
'Nixon' (2014 Reissue)
Merge, 2000
Note: "For its 25th anniversary, Merge Records is reissuing a number of albums from its catalog that have earned classic status. The first of these is Nixon, the Nashville band Lambchop’s watershed fifth album. Originally released in February 2000, it proved to be the critical breakthrough many thought the band had long deserved. Time has cemented its place as one of the pinnacles of Lambchop’s storied career."
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Courtney Barnett
"Don't Apply Compression Gently"
'The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas'
House Anxiety, 2013
Note: Making her third appearance on PUTV with a third track from her acclaimed EP. "Melbourne-based singer and guitarist Courtney Barnett makes a big impact with her personal lyrics and unfiltered approach. She doesn’t hold back – in her lyrics or on her guitar."
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Wimps
"Secret Message"
'Party At The Wrong Time' EP
Help Yourself, 2014
Note: "Seattle’s Punk Rock darlings, Wimps, get to the point. Frills are not in this trio’s desired arsenal. What is, however, is powerful music that pushes the listener with a combination of humor, attitude and a flare for the musical-dramatic."
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@PumpUpThaVolume Music News:
Watch a teaser for Spoon's (@SpoonTheBand) new album
Featuring Rick Ross, Drive-By Truckers, Missing Persons, Real Estate and more!
Stream Simian Mobile Disco (@smdisco) and @romanfluegel's new 12" "Hachinoko"/ "Ikizukuri" via Pitchfork Advance
My review of last night’s epic @arcadefire show, with pics by @nateryanphoto, on @TheCurrent
Police presence contributed to a premature ending of Saturday night's hiphop show at the Blue Monk.
Relive the reign of The Smiths with this gorgeous new Spotify timeline
You can find all our #SXSW reviews and hundreds of photographs here
Morrissey's fourth solo album, Vauxhall And I, is receiving a 20th anniversary reissue
Bill O'Reilly thinks @Beyonce harms children
Drake lyrics meet @HouseofCards scenes on a glorious new Tumblr
Tyler, the Creator arrested at Austin airport for inciting riot at #SXSW gig
With 'Ultraviolence' on the way, @LanaDelRey announces her biggest North American tour yet
@Neilyoung plots a retro-tech revolution with Pono and his new album 'A Letter Home'
Watch Jimmy Kimmel get SXSW attendees to act like they've heard made-up bands
“@musicmillennium: It's our birthday--buy yourself a present! http://ow.ly/i/4SrSp” Got some great new/used #vinyl, congrats on 45yrs!
(Thanks again to @KEXP, @KCRW, @KUTX, @TheCurrent, @TwilightCircus1 and you!)
