Nu Rave Brain Wave

I love doing year end roundup coverage and I’m still waiting to put up the bands to watch list, so I thought we’d highlight some of the great bands we discovered over the past year. Some of them made our 2011 bands to watch list, some of them didn’t, some of them aren’t even NEW but rest assured they all rule. As per the usual, you can download a great mp3 from each of the bands at the links.

The Strangers Family Band
Les Rallizes Denudes
Best Coast
Happy Birthday
Neverever
Caitlin Rose
Eternal Summers
Wild Palms
Harlem
Exlovers
White Fence
Spectrals
Cloud Nothings
Hey Sholay
The Invisible Hand
Fair Ohs
Monster Rally
Family Trees
Silver Machine
Tennis
Hot Spa
Fergus & Geronimo
The Jim Jones Revue
Superhumanoids
Jeffertitti’s Nile
Mind Spiders
Shimmering Stars
Young Sinclairs
Son of Rams
Guards
The N.E.C
Balkans
Velvet Davenport
Dominant Legs
The Splinters
Unouomedude
The Vaccines
The Babies
Ducktails
Las Robertas
Heavy Hawaii
Francois & The Atlas Mountains
Myelin Sheaths
Pete Drake
Mess Folk
Black Mekon
Man The Hunter
Navajo Bixby
Wetdog
Demon’s Claws
Cheveu
French Kissing
Whatever Brains
The Castillians
Bass Drum of Death
Dead Ghosts
Swampmeat
Sonny & The Sandwitches
Fanzine
Crusaders of Love
Wombs
Moonhearts
Bleeding Knees Club
Straight Arrows
Hello My Name Is Red
Sauna Youth
School Knights
Tree Hopping
The Meanest Boys
Friends
Ghost Outfit

And due to high demand you can download a track from each artist put into a zip folder right here.

Well, yesterday I got my wisdom teeth out. After a whole lot of fighting, attempting to get my heart rate down so low they couldn’t do it (got it down to 41! mind over body, ftw!) I finally had it done. I’ve been sitting at home with an icepack stuck to my face, guzzling vicodin like it’s my job and attempting to eat soup – so naturally I made a playlist. These are songs I’ve been obsessed with lately, and you’re gonna love ‘em. Fact.

01 Come Down Easy (Demo) | Spaceman 3
02 Wanna Tell You | Woven Bones
03 Leave Me Be | Spectrals
04 Il Fait Beau | My Pet Saddle
05 Don’t Think Twice (Messengers Remix) | J.Period and K’Naan
06 Perverted Girl | Happy Birthday
07 Subliminal Message | Happy Birthday
08 Stone Fox | King Tuff
09 Freak When I’m Dead | King Tuff
10  Dreamboat | Hey Sholay

mp3 | Lost My Wisdom – A Summer Mix

I’ve been doing a lot of searching for the kind of California sound that I’ve been so taken with lately in this cold, cold place I now call home, and it hasn’t been easy. But I’ve found some awesome ones (Sex Beet, Spectrals) and I’ve found another! I got passed Hey Sholay’s myspace through work and fell head over heels in love with their track ‘Dreamboat’. I can’t work out if they are from warm-tropical climates as they claim and somehow just decided to move to Sheffield – but even if they’re just Northern, they infused such a sunny disposition into this song that just wraps around you like warm cotton. There’s something about this that is just clean and to the point, but lately I’ve been drawn to that uncomplicated, unfussy sound and Hey Sholay really encapsulate that into their music. Although there is the tropical element, I really hear something that sounds just so English to me, but I can’t put my finger on it. Regardless, its a 3:32 slice of heaven to get you through the last cold bits of Winter before Spring finally rears her head. When’s that supposed to be again?

DOWNLOAD -> Hey Sholay – Dreamboat