WE ARE THE SLEEPYHEADS : Contact Info

• This Site Represents Many Indie Artists That We Think Are Doing A Great Job, The Purpose For Postings Are For Promotional And Preview Only. For Removal Request Please Contact Me At Mayo_Tizo@hotmail.com. Support The Artists by Buying The Cd's.

• Search:

• Browse the Archive
  Subscribe via RSS

• November 17, 2009

  Beach House - Teen Dream (2010)

  

  Myspace Website Try

  (Indie,Dreampop,Pop,Lo-Fi)

  Recorded in upstate New York, in a converted church called Dreamland with producer/engineer Chris Coady (who has worked with TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blonde Redhead, and a bunch of others) Teen Dream is the third album from the Baltimore-based duo Beach House, and their Sub Pop debut. The new album gives voice to a full universe of unbridled imagination, and the manifestation of Teen Dream has been a welcomed and all-consuming obsession for Beach House the past 9-12 months. Teen Dream will arrive packaged with a companion DVD featuring a video for each song on the album, each by a different director.

  4 days ago
   

• Joe Goddard - Harvest Festival (2009)

  

  Myspace Website Try

  (Electronica,Electro,Minimal-tech,Dance,Hot-Chip)

  Joe Goddard has been a somewhat inescapable figure of the past few years. As vocalist, percussionist and synth wizard in Hot Chip, he’s seduced listeners from both rock and dance spheres over the course of three albums, melding live instrumentation and electronics with an irresistibly twee aesthetic. The group have always been interested in the dance floor, as proven by their remarkably diverse additions to the Bugged Out! and DJ Kicks catalogue, mountain of remixes and hectic DJing schedule, with Goddard spinning records either solo or alongside his Hot Chip companions.

  4 days ago
   

• Zoos Of Berlin - Taxis (2009)

  

  Myspace Website Try

  (Indie,Pop,Experimental)

  Picture tuxedo-pop: red velour curtains, shined shoes, a penetrating gaze, a  raised martini, and a tip back into the head-swimming swirl of a dream. The
  Detroit quartet Zoos of Berlin brings elegance to pop, but still nurtures
  fascinations with pulsing reverb and weird, bent atmospherics. With its
  waltzy punk shred and its gossamer baroque leanings, Taxis will either baffle
  you into some head-shaking, defeated fit, or (hopefully) liberate you into
  some shoulder-shaking flare-up, some eureka-moment blurt at finding a
  delicious blend of weird and pleasing pop, presented in sweeps of stately
  splendor and a burning, guttural coarseness.
  
  Its also a sound that loves the feel of dirt under its suede boots; it can
  pivot at any moment to knee you in the guts, often by way of bristly guitar
  shred or relentless drum barrage. Take Black In The Sun Room, for example:
  tightly locked rhythms burn and punch their way forward with pulsating brass
  echoes and a wavy, churning keyboard buzz that intertwines with the guitars
  through the chorus; the song stomps its way forward like freaked-up aerobics
  with the urgency of escaping a soon-to-be-detonated building. This offsets
  recurring themes of feathery melodies and breathy vocals over softer but
  thickly-layered textures of warm, fuzzy bass and keyboards.
  
  Juan Matus is an encompassing statement of Zoos of Berlins sweet pop,
  stately jazz, and indie-growl. A freer bass shimmies around the edges while a
  surf-toned guitar capriciously warbles out a few licks alongside a sun-soaked
  trumpet blazing out a shuffling yet fiery melody, all while the keys and
  drums lock in for a steady pounding rhythm. This is easily their
  jazziest-sounding song, set to an enduring drum beat, blending the wont-quit
  punch of punk with the expressive boom of rock, while Kevin Baysons trumpet
  awakens from its lazy beachside burn and starts twisting around the space
  like a trapeze artist. This song is indicative of numerous moments on Taxis,
  where the band showcases its meticulous ear for tone and love for feedback
  storms, and where slowed-down vigor-rock runs toward luminescent, dreamy
  trudges. Drums lock in then spill around, while the buzzy keyboards sway and
  burn over heavenly and haunting feedback howls.
  
  Water Town lets keyboardist Will Yates shred on his Roland, first with some
  tinny warbles and then barrel-rolling into a fuzzier lower-range all the
  while pulsed by drummer Collin Dupuis and bassist Dan Clarks fervent
  rhythms and falling into a dynamic echoed guitar explosion. After Clarks
  soothing coo drifts through the pensive, darker ballad Stay by the Ark, we
  fall into the danceable disco-revivalism of Electrical Way, with a
  hustling, hip-shakeable drum beat and funkified guitars set off by Tevor
  Nauds cerebral Bowie/Blunstone delivery and Yates unique clackety-buzzings.
  
  Zoos of Berlin love galvanizing cinematic wonder, a bit of melodrama and
  theatrics, Cuban and Afrobeat, jazz they even love punk. Theres no
  delineation; it all comes together, and it all comes through. Its a weird
  whimsicality that may prove overwhelming. Not completely pop, not completely
  noise experimentation, it is, at its heart, a swath of indie-punk shred,
  gossamer baroque pop stateliness, expressive jazz penchants, and
  goosebump-inducing production.

  4 days ago
   

• The Brunettes - Paper Dolls (2009)

  

  Myspace Website Try

  (Indie,Pop,Electronica)

  The Brunettes have always been meticulous about their craft in the studio. Writing pop songs, that most fickle of forms, requires a precision that comes naturally, making their records ring perfection in every note. See: the 60’s-meets-80’s psych-pop bliss of early favorite “The Moon in June Stuff”; the hyper-aware boy/girl vocals of “Loopy Loopy Love”; the next-level grandiose celebration that is “B-A-B-Y (Brunettes Against Bubblegum Youth)”. Each is a testament to just how much joy can be squeezed within the confines of a pop song.

  Sense of fun firmly intact with new record Paper Dolls, The Brunettes have managed to build on previous work without sacrificing the aesthetic that has gained such wide-spread acclaim, instead injecting their new batch of songs with a sense of modernity. Opener “In Colours” and closer “Thank You” are entrance and exit into this world, as both sit comfortably with previous efforts; in between, however, principle songwriter Jonathan Bree has augmented his pop leanings with drum machines and an intimidatingly wide array of synths to fantastic effect.

  Lyrically, the album combines clever call-and-response levity, an undercurrent of smoldering romance, and a penchant for idiosyncratic storytelling. All are on display in lead single “Red Rollerskates”, which finds Jonathan and (Brunettes co-lead vocalist/instrumentalist) Heather Mansfield solving their relatively ordinary problem (Jonathan walks too fast for his asthmatic girlfriend) with a quirky but playful solution (buying her a pair of red rollerskates and pulling her around with a rope). On “The Crime Machine”, Heather longs to live as a 1920’s Queen-pin, “Bedroom Disco” (fast becoming a live favorite) lives up to it’s title as a stay-at-home party song, and the title track combines surreal lyrics about a stationary fetish with (good) Bond-movie string arrangements and guitar tremolo.

  A short and concise 35 minutes, Paper Dolls reaffirms the glory of a simple melody. “Thank you for the time,” Heather sings to close out the record. So polite, those New Zealanders.

  4 days ago
   

• Bad Weather California - Young Punks (2009)

  

  Myspace Website Try

  (Indie,Rock,Pop,Folk,Psychedelic)

  “(Bad weathe California) channels their American angst into clouds of rollicking electric licks and rousing Rhodes, then churns out cheeky optimism for a better world.” PORTLAND MERCURY

  “…Trying not to go overboard about Bad Weather California is going to be tough, but Jesus, way to steal the show as it’s just beginning… At this moment Bad Weather California are probably one of the best bands playing in Denver, and worth seeing any chance you get.” Westword

  4 days ago
   

• Songs - Songs (2009)

  

  Myspace Website Try

  (Indie,Rock,Psychedelic,Australia)

  Songs are a Sydney based band (featuring members of New Zealand’s post-punk wailers This Night Creeps and Ela Stiles of sisterly-duo The Said Sos) that do only simple things. From their single-syllable handle to their hand-drawn artwork to their music itself; it all has to be simple.
  
  Born in mid-2007, Songs have only been playing to the public as of this year (2008). They have signed a deal with Sydney label Popfrenzy (home to other acts such as The Gossip, Black Mountain, Jeremy Jay, The Ruby Suns and a whole bunch more) and have since played shows with Deerhunter, Beach House, Adam Green, Guy Blackman, The Lucksmiths, Clue To Kalo and a whole stack more.
  
  The group currently have a self-titled EP to their name and are soon to release a split 7” with Melbourne’s very own, Love Of Diagrams.

  4 days ago
   

• Jeremy Sessa - We Blink and We Say That the World Needs a Change (2009)

  

  Myspace Website Try

  (Indie,Folk,Acoustic,Singer-Songwriter)

  Jeremy Sessa is an unsigned indie/folk artist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

  4 days ago
   

• Public Radio - Sweetchild EP (2009)

  

  Myspace Website Try

  (Indie,Pop,Rock,Electronica)

  At first listen, PUBLIC RADIO is intriguing. Then, riveting. Soon, addictive. A dizzying collection of electronic beats, pop hooks and highly emotive vocals, their debut SWEETCHILD is pure, unadulterated “emotronic” if you will. It’s a reflection on contemporary emotional life that will be applauded not only for the sheer strength of its songs, but also for the striking harmony of its individual parts. Lead singer and songwriter Mark Mathis’ voice blends with the subtle electro arrangements so pleasantly, it’s almost as if these songs found him. On a mission to make a difference, PUBLIC RADIO forges songs that are inspiring for personal and social change. Mathis adds “The thing that I love about this album is that it’s aggressive, but it will still make you cry. I still feel inspired when I listen to it. The album isn’t necessarily anti-establishment, but the undertone of Sweetchild is one of resistance to the norm. Music shouldn’t be treated like a commodity, which is often the case these days. It should regarded as a driving force of social change.” A perfect balance of raw energy, crafty songwriting and lyrical sincerity, this powerful debut will keep your ears dancing from start to finish.
  

  4 days ago
   

• Washington - How to Tame Lions EP (2009)

  

  Myspace Website Try

  (Indie,Pop,Folk,Minimalist,Alternative,Female-Vocal)

  How to Tame Lions is the second EP from 21-year-old indie rock  Brisbane singer/songwriter Megan Washington and her band. She was  recently “unearthed” by Triple J and her first single from the EP,  Cement, is already all over the Triple J airwaves.
  
  Since moving to Melbourne Megan has already appeared onstage with the likes of Ben Lee, Tim Finn and Old Man River, which gives you some sense of what her songwriting is all about; heartfelt, clever and just a little bit precocious.
  
  Cement kicks off the EP. A catchy indie pop track that had me singing along in minutes. How To Tame Lions is the second track and tackles the famous romance between Arthur Miller and Marilyn Munroe. Teenage Fury is my pick of the EP, a track that’s very reminiscent of Belle and Sebastian’s first album, Tigermilk, that tells the tale of other sharp teenagers looking for love.
  
  The musical arrangements on the EP are refined and idiosyncratic, and certainly a cut above most of her contemporaries. Having said that, the main drawback for me is that it all sounded just a little too safe and the lyrics just a little too clever for me to really get into the moment. Washington cites bands like The Magnetic Fields and The Decemberists as influences, but while they combine intelligent lyrics with a deadpan humour that hints at a well of emotion, How to Tame Lions always sounds about right, but in the end left me cold.
  
  Overall, Washington has a very polished, mature sound that will go over well with a whole range of audiences. And my guess is that weÆre all going to be hearing a hell of a lot more about Washington. The EP itself has a handmade, oh so pick-up-able, feel with some excellent cover art that features a cut and paste image of a lion with a woman’s eyes; just the kind of thing I’d walk out of a record
  shop with.

  4 days ago
   

• Dark Meat - Truce Opium (2009)

  

  Myspace Website Try

  (Indie,Rock,Psychedelic,Folk,Kraut)

  Athens Georgia’s multifarious psychedelic roadwarriors DARK MEAT have geared up for another get-go of pillage-and-freakout in the name of their newest offering, TRUCE OPIUM. A long period of lineup changes, label complications and heavy touring across North America and Europe has focused the band into a diamond-hard and transformative experience: they’ve trimmed their lineup to a highly-effective and barely-anemic 9-piece, and, in the process, have organically developed an intense and diverse instrumental chemistry. Truly, TRUCE OPIUM retains all the insane eccentricity, rawness and sonic bombast of their infamous live show, and evinces a sharpened essence and unified vision burnished by the last three years spent spraying themselves across the cosmos in their cramped tour-van.

  In terms of heightened vision and sonic-execution, TRUCE OPIUM is a huge step forward for the band — as it augments their celebrated Albert Ayler, Stooges and Neil Young obsessions with more a abstract, cosmic tack: pronounced Eastern influences abide via the use of acoustic drone instruments like tanpura, bulbul tarang and sitar, prayer-like group chants and the study and reverent application of polyharmonic Sygyt and Kargira Tuvan throat-singing. Last year, bandmembers workshopped, rehearsed and performed at The University of Georgia with a carnatic classical troupe from South India. This amazing and humbling opportunity, along with their involvement in several local improv, free-jazz and noise ensembles have broadened the band’s sonic and structural scope.

  Deep Krautrock and Japanoise bearings also surface; their perpetual tour-van immersion in the sounds of NEU!, Amon Duul II, Les Rallizes Denudes, LSD and Boredoms push their willfully improvisational passages into weirder, wilder territory. And the vaunted Free Jazz and New Orleans Marching Band influences persist through The Vomit Lasers, Dark Meat’s longstanding horn-section. However, where the band once enthusiastically essayed pieces by The Ayler Brothers, Pharaoh Sanders and Sonny Sharrock, the ensemble has now organically assimilated the music’s feral energies and rarified colors into its aesthetics of arrangement, dynamic and performance. Make no mistake, though, TRUCE OPIUM, at its twisted heart, is a redblooded psych-rock record, as a lived-in and durable love of Velvet Underground, Yardbirds, MC5, Fairport Convention and Crazy Horse continually and joyously warps main songwriter Jim McHugh’s approach to composition and execution. And the passage of material into the raw hands of his seasoned collaborators dually insures that the resultant High Magic will be spirited, raw and unlike anything else you’ve every heard.

  4 days ago
   

• Savoir Adore - In the Wooded Forest (2009)

  

  Myspace Website Try

  (Indie,Pop,Psychedelic,Electronica,Experimental)

  Two of the biggest trends in alternative music over the past few years have been seemingly diametrically opposed, Americana/alt-country and indietronica. One relies on old sounds, done with a fresh take, while the other uses new sounds, but to more traditional ends. However, both styles have had the flaw of a built-in limit to what they can do, which is why it’s so nice, as well as surprisingly natural, to hear the two put together on Savoir Adore’s debut, In the Wooded Forest.
  
  The Brooklyn band (where else?…) certainly brings a ænaturalÆ feel to Forest, doing it not just in Deidre Manco’s sweet vocals, but also fine synthesizer work. The bright uplift of such tracks as “Sarah’s Secret” and “Honestly” easily charm, and there’s a catch on numbers like “Space Travel” & “Bodies”. Sometimes Savoir Adore go a little more indietronica (“We Talk Like Machines”), other times more Americana (the following “Early Bird”), but mostly nicely marry the two.
  
  At fourteen tracks, In the Wooded Forest is a few songs too many. Some pieces near the end like “Take Hollow Lane” are more than a touch forgettable, and both the ultimate & penultimate “The Garden” & “Wonderlake” feel like airy finishes (and the less said about the disco-mistake “Merp”, the better). But Savoir Adore have married indietronica & Americana to produce a record that is sure to charm
  

  4 days ago
   
• November 11, 2009

  Daisy - Daydream (2009)

  

  Myspace Website Try

  (Indie,Rock,Pop)

  It was November 2004 and we’d just lost our studio, recordings and equipment in a fire. And a bit earlier we’d been sacked by Warner. No studio, no record, no record deal… But quitting wasn’t an option and we started hunting for a new studio space right away.
  
  And so we found ourselves at an old meatpacking facility in a small claustrophobia inducing little hole that smelled like rotting flesh. Or, in other words, in our new studio. We tried to recall our memories from that place but really, there are none. Personally, I (Thomas) only remember that we drunk a lot of beer and Jaloviina there. We had a Lidl right next to us with great offers on Grafenwalder (editor’s note: 0,99 per can!). Then we would get hammered and start jamming on CSNY’s ‘

  1 week ago
   

• The Black and White Years - Nursery Myths EP (2009)

  

  Myspace Website Try

  (Indie,Rock,Pop,Electronica,Experimental)

  Though Scott Butler, John Aldridge, and Landon Thompson, met while attending Nashvilleʼs Belmont University in 2005, The Black and White Years call Austin, Texas, home. The move to Austin has seen the band evolve towards the infectious electro-dance-rock sound that has brought them five Austin Music Awards, radio airplay, and heavy buzz-worthy status during SXSW 2009, one of the worldʼs largest and most renown music festivals.
  
  It was only in 2007 that the band played their first SXSW Festival…
  
  Their “official” showcase was in the parking lot of Opal Devineʼs, far from the SXSW epicenter of 6th Street and Red River. B&WY were the first of a five-band line-up and took the stage to an audience of exactly seven people. One of those seven people, however, was the once-upon-a time Talking Head and Modern Lover, Jerry Harrison. Harrison was captivated by the bandʼs
  performance and over the rest of the weekend he visited them at their rehearsal space, where The Black and White Years performed their entire catalog for him.
  
  Five weeks later the band was in Harrisonʼs San Francisco bay area studio, Sausalito Sound, recording what would become the bandʼs eponymous debut album, The Black And White Years. The band did not have a drummer at the time that the album was recorded, as they had opted for the precision of programmed rhythms. Harrison recruited session drummer, Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Duran Duran, Saturday Night Live, Eric Clapton), to lay down the live drums tracks for the album. Billy Potts was brought on board to join the band as full time live drummer in 2008.
  
  Fast forward, to SXSW 2009…
  
  The Black and White Years are the epitome of a SXSW dream come true.
  
  At the Austin Music Awards, the annual show kicking of the SXSW Music Festival by recognizing excellence in the Austin music community, the band was the big winner for 2009. The Black and White Years took home FIVE awards including Best New Band, Song of the Year (“Power to Change”), Best Rock Band, Bass Player of the Year (John Aldridge), and Producer of the Year (Jerry Harrison). The band also played a series of well-attended showcases, capped off by the prized BMI Showcase where they shared the bill with DEVO, Tricky, and Datarock.
  
  The band’s song, “Power to Change,” has received a fair amount of national attention via modern rock specialty airplay and college radio but also went the distance at WEQX/Albany (#1 for four weeks), KROX/Austin (Top 10 and #1 Requests) and full time adds at stations like CD-101/Columbus and Indie 103.1/Los Angeles.
  
  The music video for “Power To Change,” quite the poignant commentary on society as a whole, was well received in regards to its message and relevance during the 2008 US Presidential elections. A new video for the song, “Zeroes and Ones,” has just been completed and was featured on Kanye West’s website shortly after its release.
  
  The band has appeared at the CMJ Music Festival, Austin City Limits Music Festival, MIDEM and done some limited touring throughout the Midwest and Northeast of the United States. They will be making their debut appearance in the UK at the O2 Wireless Festival on July 4-5 and will embark on their first U.S. tour later this year.

  1 week ago
   

• Pallers - Humdrum EP (2009)

  

  Myspace Website Try

  (Indie,Electronica,Pop,Sweden,Downtempo,Disco)

  “When creating we pour everything out that has been collected in the head during decades of intense listening. One leg is always standing in the green grass of pop while the other leg is out on its own, wandering between places such as dancefloors, sandy beaches, cold concrete and a weightless existence in a bed or a hammock.” PALLERS
  
  The band’s musical visions are clearly reflected in the music and after each listening new details appears. Endless layers of sounds come together, travel around the soundscapes and fades in- and out of the songs.  Desolate choirs floats by, dark arpeggio-synthezisers are constantly changing shape while swirls of treble-ish percussion and echoing guitar figures sounds as if the sun was trying to break through thick clouds.
  
  The debut EP “Humdrum was produced in Spain with a view over over the Mediterranean. During one week of constant sunshine they created the darkest and finest electronica we’ve heard in a long time.

  1 week ago
   

• Guitar - Friends (2009)

  

  Myspace Website Try

  (Indie,Electronica,Pop,IDM,Shoegaze,Experimental)

  Guitar is the idea to produce new unique guitar-based songs and sounds. Let’s say: Free the guitarsound a little bit from the guitarplayer! But don’t misunderstand: I love guitars and i love to play them… After the first Guitar album I decided to open the definition of ‘guitar’ and also work on all kind of instruments that have strings. Ayako Akashiba is the vocalist and co-songwriter of the most albums!

  1 week ago