Photo by Andrew Parks
If you’re sick of year-end lists and simply want to hear some decent music, we’ve got a simple solution: start flipping through 12 months of exclusive Needle Exchange mixes, including popular entries from Demdike Stare, Peaking Lights, Anika and Sepalcure. And if you need tracklistings or some words from our artists, just click the “Read More” button underneath each streaming/downloadable player…
Words and Mix by Keegan Cooke of Crystal Stilts
I don’t really like reading tracklists prior to listening to mixtapes myself. A proper sampler gives one the sensation of listening to the radio, and knowing what comes next takes some of the fun out of that moment of recognition, or wonder when you hear something that really strikes you.
This is a digitized version of a cassette I made during a failed attempt at a tape club a couple years ago. I have piles of them all queued up, but never got around to sending them out. This seems like a nice outlet for this one, though. Enjoy!
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As suggested by its Technicolor dreamcoat cover, the new Crystal Stilts EP (due out next Tuesday through Sacred Bones) seems determined to melt fall’s impending frost with retroactive riffs, bright organ washes and lightly marinated melodies. Have a listen below and be sure to check back next week for an exclusive mixtape from the Brooklyn band…
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The Artist/Album: Crystal Stilts, In Love With Oblivion (April 12, Slumberland)
The Details: As guitarist JB Townsend told us in the eighth issue of self-titled, “I want the Crystal Stilts to sound as classic as it can sound. I think the new record is going to be way less weird than the first one. But the first one was also very simple, and there’s a drum machine under the songs and I recorded drums over it. This one has more of a poppy sound, influenced more by the ’60s and its more ‘band’-sounding.”
So there you have it. Read more of our exclusive interview with Townsend and his roommate—Captured Tracks founder/Blank Dogs frontman Mike Sniper—after the jump, right alongside the album’s first single, the jingle/jangle of “Shake the Shackles.”
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Dent May
Have a listen to all that holiday cheer after the jump, and check out more free music here.
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Check out Frankie Rose and the Outs’ tour dates, an MP3, and a flyer for their record release show after the jump…
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While we’ve long been aware of Slumberland Records‘ impact on noise-flecked indie rock, we lost sight of the label’s 20-year legacy a long time ago. Mostly because founder Michael Schulman (pictured above) took a break in 2001, only to suddenly resurface in the past few years with a new-school take on the ‘Slumberland sound’, from the ramshackle rock ‘n’ roll of Crystal Stilts to the pristine C86 pop of The Pains of Being Pure At Heart.
Since Slumberland is set to own the Bell House tomorrow night, self-titled thought we’d go straight to the source and gather a ridiculously thorough guide to the imprint’s decade-spanning roster. Since Schulman is too close to his entire roster to pick any favorites, we asked Slumberland artists from throughout the years to share some of the 7-inches and LPs that made them proud to have an SLR sticker on their sleeves.
If there’s one consensus across the California company’s deep catalog, from Black Tambourine to Brown Recluse, it’s this: we REALLY need every single Aislers Set record. Not to mention most of the releases that dot the special best-of collection we compiled from Slumberland’s site. (The player is detachable and full of free downloads, so you can listen to each release on your own time.)
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[Photos by Sunny Shokrae]
Love Is All‘s latest LP, A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night, is out now via What’s Your Rupture? Crystal Stilts‘ drunken disasterpiece, Alight of Night, is available through Slumberland.
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