Soundtrack2

La Sera, PS I Love You, R.M. Hendrix, Death Valley Sleepers, Craft Spells & more 

Bring on the long weekend.

Soundtrack2 Ep. 103 [ 1:05:55 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

1.   PS I Love You – Princess Towers
Kick. Out. The. Jams. Their new album Death Dreams just blows the doors off. More coming from that album later.

2.   Sixteen Deluxe – Happy Song
2+ minutes of weekend shenanigans from The Pilot Knob EP.

3.   Free Electric State – All Done Before
Monumental track from album of (nearly) the same name.

4.   And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – Flood Of Red
This song has always reminded me of Sonic Youth covering Hendrix, a la “Third Stone From The Sun.”

5.   R.M. Hendrix – Global Affairs / Crack The Code
And now for some claustrophobic, crooning indie rock.

6.   Cruyff In The Bedroom – Carillon Blue
Starting to slow it down with this almost-instrumental. Great build at the end.

7.   Mercury Rev – Frittering
When MR opened for The Hives (don’t judge) in Toronto back in the day, the tremendous volume pinned most attendees to the sides and rear of the venue. After that, the Hives’ performance band came off as raucous as Esquivel. I wish the Rev had played this tune from Yerself Is Steam.

8.   Gills – Empire of Sweat
Midtempo grungy rock and roll. Also one of the few live tracks we play here.

9.   Mirror Mirror – The Chamber
Dig this strumming, stirring instrumental.

10.  Death Valley Sleepers – Left Me High
Like a lot of this band’s stuff, but this track…you’re loving the verses, then the choruses hit you. Perfect.

11.  First Love, Last Rites – Walk You Home
Now we bring the power pop out of Sweden.

12.  Royal Headache – Down The Headline
Fantastic. The verses are beat nuggets, but the chorus is all drive-ins and sock hops.

13.  La Sera – Break My Heart
Almost too perfect punky punchy pop from their latest Sees The Light.

14.  Craft Spells – Still Left With Me
Soundtrack to dancing around your basement clad in nothing but an oversized sweater.

15.  Coastal – Heart Of Tin
This track reminded me of the overlooked, excellent Crystal Skulls‘ first album. Great melody and kinda witch house-y.

16.  Weird Dreams – Little Girl
Funky dream pop that makes me think of a post-modern day Felt.

17.  Little Chords – Remember
Vancouver crew drop some drifting, beautiful lo-fi: “I fell asleep on a cloudy beach, it was early in the afternoon…” And with that, we’re off into the sunset.

Second day in a row posting videos. Superb art direction of this excellent tune.

The band‘s vibe is captured beautifully. Well done.

Sennen, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Ghost Box Orchestra, Inca Gold, The Cult Of Dom Keller & more

This week’s mix is inspired by the title and artwork of the latest Sennen album.

Soundtrack2 Ep. 102 [ 1:12:45 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

1.   Black Tamborine – I Want You Around

Legendary band regroup for Ramones tribute.

2.   Roomrunner – Disintegrate
A must for lovers of layers of distorted, slightly out of tune guitars.

3.   Starfire Connective Sound – A (Long) Road From Earth To Sky
Brazil band drop sitar drone over guitars and breakbeats.

4.   Brian Jonestown Massacre – The Clouds Are Lies
I loved “Illuminomi” when I first heard it but figured it would be a one-off on their latest Aufheben. The whole album’s got that groovy acoustic dark hippie vibe! Dig the atmostpherics on this track.

5.   Ghost Box Orchestra – Vanished (SCATV Demo)
Props to I Heart Noise for dropping this sinister-sounding psych on Boston Not LA, Volume 2.

6.   The Cult Of Dom Keller – Heavy And Dead
Mysterious UK band manages to somehow cross Suicide with The Doors.

7.  Hollowphonic – Sertraline
You’re probably wondering the same thing I was – it’s an anti-depressant. This Mississauga post-rock crew bring to mind our fellow countrymen SIANspheric.

8.   Neil Young – Change Your Mind
It’s dark and late at night in your dorm room. The DJ of the local classic rock station comes on, saying he wants to play a track from the new Neil Young record that just came out that day. You’re not a big Neil fan but you keep it on as background music. After about three minutes you stop what you’re doing and listen. Holy crap…this is Neil Young? You stand transfixed for another nine minutes…

9.   Chad VanGaalen – Red Blood
Some chilling, passionate folk rock from Infiniheart that I thought would be perfect about here.

10.  Woods – Wind Was The Wine
Rimshots, cool guitar and great voclal melodies from Brooklyn.

11.  Midlake – Young Bride
One of those hard-to-define psych pop tunes that reminds me of great Of Montreal and Gorki’s Zygotic Mynci. Great swirling violins.

12.  Birthmark – Shake Hands
Really dug this tune then it dawned on me how similar it sounds to the criminally overlooked 90s band The Glands.

13.  Moby – Posion Tree (David Lynch remix)
Brooding beats and piano chords punctuated by some disjointed female cries. Even though it’s repetitive it seems way less than its seven-minute running time.

14.  Inca Gold – Atom
“Ooo ooo ooo oooh!” Here’s to chillwave with hooks!

15.  Sennen – St. Jude
Track of the week comes from their latest album Lost Harmony. It’s a big departure from their earlier psych shoegaze stuff.

The Dandy Warhols, Arc In Round, Yuck, The Auteurs, Flavor Crystals & more

Soundtrack2 Ep. 101 [ 1:06:45 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

1.   Terror At Tampa Bay – Indigo Cabana

Getting started with a bit of a buried treasure from 1988.

2.   Arches – Enough
Meshes nicely with some Philly psych pop, recorded some 25 years later.

3.   Dive – Geist
Another week, another great psych/shoegaze band on Captured Tracks.

4.   The Auteurs – Light Aircraft On Fire
The Britpoppers’ track  popped up on my iPod recently, and I fit in its glammy fuzz here.

5.   Is/Is – Lie Awake
Love how this simple grungy shoegaze track just washes over you.

6.   Yuck – Chew
Band de jour appear to channel Smashing Pumpkins on their latest single.

7.   The Dandy Warhols – Slide
Not necessarily a full return to form, but nice to see deep tracks like this on their latest, This Machine.

8.   The Janitors – Long Way Back
Slamming dark shoegaze psych out of Sweden. I actually thought this was Starflyer 59 at first. Can’t believe it took me so long to play!

9.   Still Caves – Rainy Beach
Portland representing twice this week, but this one trumps The Dandys in the drone psych department. Love the screaming chorus.

10.  The Jesus and Mary Chain – Catchfire
Just announced: They’re coming. To Toronto. August 3, 2012.

11.  Black Market Karma – The Way It Was
This London psych band has tons of great tunes like this on their latest, Comatose.

12.  Boy – Up In This Town
An oldie…haven’t heard much from this Yukon boy since 2004′s pretty slamming Every Page You Turn album.

13.  The Laurels – Tidal Wave
Dig yourself some punchy Australian shoegaze.

14.  Arc In Round – Hallowed
Nice change up in the form of some baroque, Pink Floyd-style psych. Apparently Kurt Vile plays on this one.

15.  Flavor Crystals – Mirror Chop
Hm, whatever can this song be about? Read Nile Rodgers excellent biography if you’re still in the dark. In other news, the murky voodoo here is getting me really psyched for Three.

16.  I Can Chase Dragons! – From The Valley To The High Ground
Weird but wonderful chillwave from the interesting Expansión.

17.  The Consoliation Project – We Are Staring In The Sun
The prolific Ron Cavagnaro knows how to arrange a dream pop stunner.