Bowerbirds’ Upper Air is a 2009 sleeper, flying just under the radar. Given Phil Moore and Beth Tacular’s simple melodies and delicate arrangements, the acoustic folk outfit won’t stay there for long. After relentless touring, including a performance at this year’s Primavera festival in Spain and an upcoming spot on the Pitchfork Festival’s lineup, they seem destined for nu-folk greatness.

On Upper Air, the loose compositions all share a tender connection with Moore’s acute lyrics and unassuming voice. Where debut full-length Hymns for the Dark Horse focused on the natural world, here we find Moore in a more confessional state of mind. This transition proves to mature the entire sound; more personal lyrics combined with an expanded repertoire of instruments raises the bar for the band. Though the married duo (with Matt Damron on drums) do just one thing throughout the record, they do it well, and without pretense. Soft percussion, accordion and Tacular’s Feist-like harmonies accent this excellent release from Dead Oceans.

Bowerbirds – Northern Lights

Over the past week, we here at WOXY.com have been fortunate enough to be able to bring you a special preview of the upcoming Love & Rockets Tribute album, New Tale To Tell. The album features music from bands like The Flaming Lips, Black Francis, A Place To Bury Strangers and many more.

The program ran a few times over the weekend, but just in case you missed it during your 4th of July celebrating, we have it here for you on demand. Listen below as your host Christopher “The Minister” takes you through this exclusive WOXY.com program. Enjoy!

It has always struck me just how accurate the tagline Cincinnati’s The Lions Rampant use to describe themselves. “Blues Infused, Garage Brewed, Rock N’ Roll.” It’s hard to top that, I must say. The Cincy trio last visited us in the lounge back in the fall of 2007, just about a year after forming, and in the time since have become one of the best live bands in the midwest and certainly in our fair city.

For this performance, we get a special treat. Not only does it contain six brand new songs from their upcoming debut full length album, It’s Fun To Do Bad Things, but we get to hear it performed with the core members, Stuart, Nate and Nick, as well as guests Dan Mecher of The Turnbull AC’s on keys and Cameron Cochran of The Sheds on lead guitar. Cameron also happens to be the man who recorded and mixed their new record.

Enjoy an incredibly fun session with The Lions Rampant, and keep your ears open for the new album, which should be available sometime later this summer.

Track Listing:
Give Me
Lights On
It’s Fun to Do Bad Things
- interview -
Shake
Do You Feel It
Cigs + Gin

The Lions Rampant – Give Me (Live On WOXY.com)
The Lions Rampant – Lights On (Live On WOXY.com)
The Lions Rampant – It’s Fun To Do Bad Things (Live On WOXY.com)
The Lions Rampant – Shake (Live On WOXY.com)
The Lions Rampant – Do You Feel It?
The Lions Rampant – Cigs & Gin (Live On WOXY.com)

The Lions Rampant – Live On WOXY.com (full session download)

This young band from Houston caught our attention with their excellent debut EP Microscopic Metronomes.

Originally formed as a folk duo of Cody Swann and Zahira Guiterrez, the band expanded into a 5-piece and their songs evolved from their earliest arrangements into delightfully catchy sing-along pop that has earned them nominations for Best New Act and Best Indie Rock Band at the Houston Press Music Awards.

In this performance, they play 3 songs from their debut EP and also share 2 brand new unreleased cuts with us.

Track Listing:
Cake (new/unreleased)
Fruit Tea
My Favorites Die
- interview -
Spanish & Jazz
Late Night Television (new/unreleased)

Wild Moccasins – Cake (Live On WOXY.com / new-unreleased)
Wild Moccasins – Fruit Tea (Live On WOXY.com)
Wild Moccasins – My Favorites Die (Live On WOXY.com)
Wild Moccasins – Spanish & Jazz (Live On WOXY.com)
Wild Moccasins – Late Night Television (Live On WOXY.com / new-unreleased)

Wild Moccasins – Live On WOXY.com (full session download)

(Enjoy another excellent writeup from our new contributor Paige Maguire)
Since 1990, Chicago’s Tortoise has effortlessly defied easy categorization. Operating somewhere between Krautrock and prog, post-rock and jazz, the group and their longtime label (Thrill Jockey) have offered indie music much to be inspired by and indebted to.

It’s been five years since the band released a full-length with all new material, and we’re ready for it. Few do what these guys do well, making the remix, electronica, jazz and ambient noise play nicely with deep rhythm sections and patient atmospheres. It’s no easy task, but the veterans show they’ve still got chops.

Tortoise has always been somewhat genre negligent, but this record finds them articulating this flexibility with a stiff sort of force. At times, the songs float in a post-Virgin Suicides Air-powered dance club (“Minors”, “The Fall of Seven Diamonds Plus One”) reminiscent of the Tortoise we’ve grown accustomed to over the years. The real highlights on this album, however, happen in between those moments. “Gigantes” is a six and a half minute, busty jaunt through the band’s more upbeat tendencies, and “Monument Six One Thousand” pays homage to several modern day glitch and avant auteurs (Four Tet, Clark) with dancey blips. “De Chelly” goes post-modern, sounding like Wendy Carlos’ Beethoven performed in Eden. Closing track “Charteroak Foundation” meanders through elements focused on previously throughout the record, but at over five minutes begins to pull its partners down. I can’t help but wish that the album ended with “De Chelly” one minute longer, closed with a John McEntire drum solo heart attack.

Overall the album is meticulously arranged, perhaps too much so. Its brightest moments fuse Tortoise’s unmistakable sound with post-Tortoise inspirations, making it an unbelievably ambitious undertaking — like writing your own biography and finishing the last few chapters with comments on how much your children are like you. Always gorgeous and immensely listenable, Beacons is bound to appear on many end of the year lists.

Tortoise – Prepare Your Coffin
Tortoise – High Class Slim Came Floatin’ In

It’s here! The WOXY.com iPhone application for your iPhone or iPod Touch is now available for free download in the App Store! We are pretty excited about this and hope you will love using it. This is the first version of the app and we hope to add new features down the road to continue to bring you more and more of WOXY.com on the go!

Here is a link to grab the brand new WOXY iPhone App!

Joe gave you this quick preview a few months ago. Have a quick look….

WOXY iPhone App Preview on 12seconds.tv

If you are unable to use the iPhone app though, there are still other ways to stream WOXY.com and WOXY Vintage from your mobile phone. Have a look below at some of these options after the jump…
Read the rest of this entry »

Usually, it takes a year or more for a band to join us for a lounge act after they land in our studios the first time around. That was not the case for Austin, Texas rockers UME. The trio was a big part of our first day in Austin earlier this year for the SXSW festival back in March, and here we are only three months removed from that performance, welcoming the band in again.

One of the most talked about bands at SXSW this year, UME turned alot of heads that week, and everything seems to be taking off for the band in the time since. They stopped by our Cincinnati studios while out on a tour that was planned around an appearance at the NXNE festival in Toronto Canada and treated us to another stellar set of rock n’ roll.

For this performance, you get two brand new songs which were titled on the spot, as well as one from their Sunshower EP and also one that happens to be one of the first songs the band ever created, which turned up on their 2005 debut, Urgent Sea.

Track Listing:
The Means
Slow Girls (new/unreleased)
- interview -
Captive (new/unreleased)
Hurricane

UME – The Means (Live On WOXY.com)
UME – Slow Girls (Live On WOXY.com / new-unreleased)
UME – Captive (Live On WOXY.com / new-unreleased)
UME – Hurricane (Live On WOXY.com)

UME – Live On WOXY.com (full session download)

Here is a recap of week number 9 of the Pampelmoose New Music Hour radio show on WOXY.com. This week Dave features cuts from Portland bands, in fact the whole hour is dedicated to Portland’s rich music scene. You’ll hear The Decemberists, The Builders and The Butchers, Loch Lomond, Mirah, Menomena, The Thermals, Starfucker and more.

The Decemberists – The Rake’s Song
The Builders and The Butchers – Barcelona
Run On Sentence – The Afterlife Pt 1
Autopilot Is For Lovers – Trust
Loch Lomond – Virgin Mountain
Mirah – Nola [Feat. Marisa Anderson]
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
The Upsidedown – Black Rainbow
Starfucker – Myke Ptyson
The Thermals – No Culture Icons
The Planet The – Dreams Of Your Co-Workers
Nice Nice – Nein
Menomena – Coughing Coughing
The Beauty – Abbi

Get ready for a new Pampelmoose New Music Hour tomorrow night at 6pm ET, 3pm PT on WOXY.com!

We had an instant connection to Amazing Baby here at Future Sounds because of our amazing baby logo and that both of us share the common love of the band, Suede. Then we found out that singer Will Roan was formerly in Lions & Tigers, a band we featured way back on FS26, and again we bonded. Turns out, we first played “Headdress” on our former radio show back in May 2008 and have been waiting, holding our breath actually for the full-length to arrive and this single to officially surface. Now it has in the form of Rewild (Shangri-La Music).

The session was recorded at 4th Street Recording in Santa Monica. We walked to find bassist Don Devore sleeping face down on the floor, as the band had flown in from New York the previous evening and looked as though they had fun upon arrival in LA. At first I hesitated to do an acoustic session, worried somehow the Pretty Things-meet-Blur psychedelia that is Amazing Baby would be washed away, but upon seeing drummer Matt Abeysekara pull out the congas and hearing the deconstruction of “The Narwhal” I had a seat and enjoyed the show.

The band is gearing up to hit the road on tour with Phoenix before ending up at Lollapalooza. The full-length, Rewild, is set for a June 23rd release date.

Amazing Baby – Bayonets (Live On WOXY.com)
Amazing Baby – The Narwhal (Live On WOXY.com)
Amazing Baby – Headdress (Live On WOXY.com)

WOXY.com presents a special hour-long preview of New Tale To Tell, a tribute to Love And Rockets. Paying homage to the goth pioneers with their versions of classic L&R tunes are The Flaming Lips, Black Francis, The Dandy Warhols, Maynard James Keenan’s band Puscifer, A Place To Bury Strangers, Film School, and more.

Join Christopher “The Minister” for this exclusive WOXY.com program, airing Wed. July 1 @ 9pm, Thur. July 2 @ 6pm, Sat. July 4 @ 4pm, and Sun, July 5 @ Noon, and then on-demand through the WOXY website.

New Tale To Tell, a tribute to Love And Rockets is released digitally July 28th and in stores August 18th. Look for special bonus tracks and Blue & Red Limited Edition vinyl.