Fresh Track: Teen Daze “Brooklyn Summer”
For a guy whose debut LP is scheduled to drop later this year, Teen Daze sure has hasn’t been shy of releasing bits and pieces of what could have been parts of that debut album over the past few years. A chillwaver from Vancouver, Teen Daze, aka Jamison to his friends, is the ultimate bedroom musician turned live act. In 2010 he dropped not 1, but 3 mini albums/EPs over the second half of the year including the underrated Four More Years, the ridiculous good EP Beach Dreams, and the eclectic collection of odds and ends material called My Bedroom Floor all on his Bandcamp page. Late last year, he dropped the C.S. Lewis inspired EP A Silent Planet, a shimmery, visual collection of electronic music based on the premise of one’s first encounters on a new world.
“Brookylyn Summer” is the first release off the debut LP of Teen Daze, All of Us, Togerther, which is scheduled to drop from Lefse Records on 5-22-12. It continues the ambient, visceral experience that is listening to Teen Daze. It’s not so much about the sound as it is what you experience from listening to it. While you can stream it below, be sure to head over to the Teen Daze Bandcamp page for a free digital download of the track while we all await the new album later this year.
As always, enjoy, and please spread the word.
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Written by Greg Dahman
Fresh Track: Balue “Australian Summer”
Denver native Eli Thomas is the brain behind a new lo-fi, dream pop project called Balue. Earlier this month, the band released a five-track EP entitled Worry Toobs. The first words of the opening track set the tone for the rest of the release: “Yeah we’re goin’ to the beach.” Balue is the latest, in a slew of indie artists, to build its sound on a foundation of surf, sand and sea shells. The beach has always served as a welcome destination for the mind’s wandering eye. Though the Midwest winter has proved mild this year, a summer escape is never a bad thing – even if only for the length of a song. Thomas does the season justice from his wintery, mountaintop view in Denver. Stream “Australian Summer” below. Pick up a copy of the EP for the price of your e-mail via Balue’s Bandcamp page.
Written by Rob Peoni
Band to Watch: Michael Kiwanuka
Once in a while, an artist comes along with a voice that taps at the deepest, innermost part of the self-conscious. The part that decides just what type of person we are. Such a voice is timeless. It can be played anywhere to an audience of any language and the intensity of emotion will resonate and burn through with equal effect.
Michael Kiwanuka was raised in North-London, the son of Ugandan immigrants. Until last year, he was working as a session guitarist, while gigging tiny London clubs in the evening. Before long, he had caught the eye of The Bees’ Paul Butler, who brought Kiwanuka to Isle of White to record what would become his debut EP, Tell Me a Tale. Listen to the title track below.
Rather than make the inevitable comparisons to the forefathers of soul and R&B that Kiwanuka’s voice immediately brings to mind, let’s settle instead on a statement we can all agree upon: this shit is fucking good. Slap an innocent bystander; snap the hinges off of the bedposts good. Listen to “They Say I’m Doin’ Just Fine” below.
Kiwanuka shot forth from the basements of British pubs like a canon. By the start of this year, he had served as the opening act of Adele’s European tour, released another two more EP’s to account for a total of nine songs, signed with Polydor Records and had been Christened by the BBC as 2012’s next big thing. A meteoric rise for a man that only a year ago was laying down riffs for Tinie Tempah and has yet to turn 25 years old. Regardless of his age or experience, the results speak for themselves. Watch the video for “Home Again,” the title-track from Kiwanuka’s latest EP below.
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Written by Rob Peoni
Thought on Tracks 