SchnAAk – Cool Drink Town EP

Posted by Indie Music Finds | Posted in Charlie O'Shea, Electro, Independent Music Finds, Other, Rock | Posted on 26-05-2012

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SchnAAk are one of the most interesting acts I’ve come across for a while. The duo from Berlin, Josen Döpping and Mathias Jähnig, create an extraordinary infusion of math rock, jazz and analogue electro that is laid out in a kind of ordered chaos. Their music is largely instrumental and has evolved dramatically since their previous releases: ‘women on ships are bad luck’ a 5 track EP recorded live back in 2009 and their 2011 full length album ‘Wake up Colossus’.

There’s a stronger emphasis on electronic music in the Cool Drink Town EP through the way SchnAAk replicate electronic through analogue instruments in a similar style to Radiohead. Word on the street is that SchnAAk’s next EP, scheduled for release later in 2012, will explore this area further

You can buy the Cool Drink Town EP through bandcamp for just €4/$5 along with their earlier releases women on ships are bad luck and Wake up Colossus for €4 and €7 respectively. There’s also a video for the first track on this EP ‘stampfus’ on its way that was filmed while the duo were in Namibia.

Sigur Rós – Valtari (Track Listing – Release Date – Ekki Múkk)

Posted by Indie Music Finds | Posted in Album, Charlie O'Shea, Electro, Independent Music Finds, Rock | Posted on 29-03-2012

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Sigur Rós have recently announced details about their sixth studio album Valtari. You can listen to the first track to be released from Valtari, Ekki Múkk in the embedded Vimeo video below. Ekki Múkk loosely translates into english as ‘Not Seagull’.

“i really can’t remember why we started this record, i no longer know what we were trying to do back then. i do know session after session went pear-shaped, we lost focus and almost gave up…did give up for a while. but then something happened and form started to emerge, and now i can honestly say that it’s the only sigur rós record i have listened to for pleasure in my own house after we’ve finished it.” – georg

This could explain why Valtari is somewhat late. Ever since Sigur Rós’ 1999 album Ágætis Byrjun, there has been a full studio album released every 3 years, the most recent studio album being in 2008. Valtari was first hinted at by Sigur Rós during an interview following the premier of Inni in November 2011. Valtari was originally expected to be released in the second half of 2012 but the band have come in ahead of schedule with a release date of the 29th of May 2012 in the USA and on the 28th of May for the rest of the world.

The track listing for the new Sigur Rós album is as follows:

1. Ég Anda

2. Ekki Múkk

3. Varúð

4. Rembihnútur

5. Dauðalogn

6. Varðeldur

7. Valtari

8. Fjögúr Píanó

Coachella 2012 Lineup Announced

Posted by Indie Music Finds | Posted in Charlie O'Shea, Independent Music Finds, Other, Rock | Posted on 16-01-2012

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Coachella Lineup 2012

The lineup to the Coachella 2012 music festival has recently been announced and boy, this year’s festival is definitely not one to miss.

Officially known as The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Coachella is held in Indio, California each year and has been since 1999. 75,000 people are expected to attend the festival this year with 3 day passes.

Coachella 2012 is for the first time being held over two weekends during April from the 13th to 15th as well as between the 20th and the 22nd to deal with high demand in previous years. Luckily however, all acts that are playing at Coachella will be appearing during both weekends so you won’t have to choose between seeing two of your different favourite bands.

The headliners for Coachella 2012 consist of The Black Keys on the Fridays, !!RADIOHEAD!! on the Saturdays and Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg on the Sundays. There’s something for everyone during this years Coachella with a remarkably varied selection of artists. Other notable appearances include a Pulp reformation and Arctic Monkeys on the Fridays, and Bon Iver and The Shins on the Saturdays.

In total there are 137 acts performing at Coachella this year, a list of which can be found here and to see the official Coachella 2012 lineup poster visit this page.

Unfortunately, tickets for Coachella 2012 sold out shortly after they originally went on sale but you can find Coachella Tickets here still so make sure you get yours while you still can.

Coachella 2012 Footer

Advances in Mathematics – Sad Xmas Present EP

Posted by Indie Music Finds | Posted in Charlie O'Shea, Independent Music Finds, Rock | Posted on 12-12-2011

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Advances In Mathematics, a damn fine instrumental band from Manchester, have just released Sad Xmas Present. Their sound is characterised by lucid guitar licks underpinned by shuffled jazz drumming that results in a unique listening experience. Sad Xmas Present has been described as an EP despite containing just two tracks: Borders which is so called as the chord progression ‘borders’ on being a country song and Sad Xmas Present which was in fact a tremolo guitar pedal band member Ben received 4 years ago.

Being an instrumental band, the naming of songs can be a bit indirect and somewhat haphazard. ‘It’s Ryan Giggs’ is regarded by the band as their worst song title which despite being funny at the time has since been renamed as ‘Slow News Day’. The name of the band itself even has a somewhat unusual tale as it was randomly selected from a list of scientific journals.

Sad Xmas Present has been made available as a free download from today onwards from the Advances in Mathematics bandcamp where you can also get Sad Xmas Present as a limited edition CD for a mere £3.50 that comes hand wrapped and is one of just thirty copies.

Sad Xmas Present - Advances In Mathematics

Jónsi – Ævin Endar + Gathering Stories (Stream) – We Bought A Zoo Soundtrack

Posted by Indie Music Finds | Posted in Acoustic, Album, Charlie O'Shea, Independent Music Finds, Other, Rock | Posted on 06-12-2011

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Jónsi - Soundtrack - Ævin Endar Gathering Stories Stream

Jónsi, the singer of the Icelandic band Sigur Rós has recently written the score for the film ‘We Bought A Zoo’. The soundtrack to the film contains two original songs by Jónsi, Ævin Endar and Gathering Stories which you can listen to now on Jónsi’s site.

We Bought A Zoo stars Matt Damon alongside Scarlett Johansson and is about a family that use their life savings to buy a rundown zoo in the English countryside. The film was directed by Cameron Crowe, the same man behind Almost Famous as well as Vanilla Sky (which also featured the music of Sigur Rós) and is set for release on the 23rd of December 2011.

If you want to hear the rest of the ‘We Bought A Zoo’ soundtrack, be sure to visit rollingstone.com tomorrow where it will be available to stream for free.

Jónsi - We Bought A Zoo