Lissy Trullie • Madeleine

We first heard and wrote about NYC-artist Lissy Trullie way back in 2009. And yeah, I know—remember when 2009 wasn’t way back when? Anyway, at the time, signer-singwriter and sometimes-model, Trullie, was said to be working on her debut full-length with famed producer and ex-Suede guitarist, Bernard Butler, at the time, but the imminent release kept getting less and less imminent. Regardless of the reasons for the delay, it’s going to be worth the wait if this first track from it’s any indication. Comparisons to early Velvet Underground are inevitable and, in my mind, welcome, but Trullie of course brings her own voice and edge to the song, building a methodical, warmly distorted drive that slowly tumbles into a gentle crescendo. Like rolling down a shag-carpet-covered hill in Central Park. Check it out. Album due out next March on Downtown Records.  …OR SO THEY SAY!!!

Since we first heard the music of the talented Nashville-based artist, Keegan DeWitt, we’ve written a number of jerky-Blog quips regarding DeWitt’s talent and the degree to which he makes us feel entirely inept in the realm of creativity. But, as you may have guessed, this acting out has merely been an effect of the intense fondness we hold for his driven, totally enticing brand of pop. Fa rizzle. The shizzle’s drizzle. …that last word doesn’t work does it?

Anyway, despite our constant denigration of this poor, gifted man, he’s agreed to ‘sit down’ for an ‘interview’ with us, wherein we speak of such tumultuous topics as regrettable tattoos, mummblecore, and how cats eat your face when you die. I did not bring that last one up.

So, I’ve found that a lot of your newer work follows this particular driving, emotive, high-paced-rhythm peppered with some really nice call-and-response melodic guitar work, but, other than that, and a touch of New Order on one specific song (“Colours”), I have a bit of a hard time pinning down your influences. Can you speak to some of them? And do you feel like the sound’s changed a lot since Islands?

KD: I recorded Islandsbefore I ever really thought of making music full-time. I was super, super young and just beginning to explore what it meant to make music. That entire record is steeped in literature, strings, acoustic and folky sounds. It’s something I feel proud of now, but not something that I feel entirely compelled to explore anymore. I think that’s mainly because I’ve now established two separate worlds for myself that fulfill my desires nicely. I have the composer side where I can deal with strings and orchestration as much as I want, and I have the pop stuff which, in my opinion, is most compelling when it’s appealing to a more primal/dance-y and driven place.

KoR: Well, I TOTALLY agree with the dance-y driven bit. And your sister’s in the NC band,Roman Candle too, right? A friend of ours knows and highly recommends them.

KD: Most importantly, the first two… don’t get tattoos for your 18th and 19th birthdays… maybe not your smartest years. Although, I take that back because my wife got hers on her 18th and it’s incredible. Photo 51. Science nerd stuff.

KoR: Oh, that IS nerdy! Though I have a life-size Yoda from bottom of neck all the way down to…well…. Nickname growing up?

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North Highlands • Steady Steady

This week’s Song of the Week comes from Brooklyn’s own North Highlands. Their sound dances around many lines dividing musical breeds—from retro pop to new psych to good ol’ indie rock—but, for me, the thing that engenders a feeling of emotional attachment to them is the early 90’s K Records feel. Maybe it’s the light, playful guitars or barely there minimal drums or nice, clean poppy vocals, but they immediately bring me back to the days of listening of laying on bedroom floor and listening to Kicking Giant and Lois records. Their song—“Steady Steady”—is a great example of this light genre-bending and it happens to be a solid, cathy pop gem. Front-woman, Brenda Malvini (originally from North Highlands, CA, thus the geographically-displaced nomenclature), and her bandmates just released their debut album, Wild Ones, which you can preview and purchase both below and on their Bandcamp page. “Benefits” is especially awesome.

You can get the record over at iTunes too if you happen to have a gift card burning a whole in your pocket.

Photo: Adam Wissing

Chad Valley • Shell Suite
Well, Reader, it was a helluva CMJ week. Whereas we didn’t get to see everyone we wanted to see, we saw a lot of great music last week. And—you know what?—we learned a few things along the way. Let me tell you what I mean, list-style, brah!

1. We Are Augustines drink whiskey for breakfast. And we firmly stand by the assertion that they’re going to be burning up the indie scene before we know it. See ’em as soon as they get back from across the pond.

2. Orlando Higginbottom of Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs needs a damn roadie. And is likely better suited to 3AM pulsing two-hour sets than rushed through, technically fraught 15 minute ones. Pretty bicthin’ dinosaur suit though.

3. Keegan DeWitt will smash your microphone. I mean, he’s a dick, right? Also, turns out he reads this shit, soooooooooo…hey, Keegan!

4. Canadians still rule. Not only were we blown away by Purity Ring‘s electrically shamanistic set, but fellow Canadians and friends, Born Gold—formerly Gobble Gobble—put on what was easily the craziest show we’ve seen in our lives. “Wait, why do they hockey masks and shovels?” Oh, we found out. We found out. Someones seriously going to lose an eye at one of their shows.

5. Watching a show in a shoe store is about what you’d expect. Brightly lit. Poorly mic-ed. Oddly awkward. Full of people buying shoes.

6. Never pay for a show CMJ week. Seriously. The one we bought tickets for months in advance kind of blew. And we went to one million amazing free shows where bands were just playing their hearts out. Best.

7. Don’t EVER rely on the weekend G train. Especially when you’re trying to get to Williamsburg in time to see Purity Ring. G TRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNN!!!!

8. Go see Chad Valley. We didn’t. We regret it. These brits play some seriously chilled out, beautiful electr-o-pop that woulda’ been pretty nice to see live. Check out this week’s Song of the Week—”Shell Suite”—to see what we mean. And like their Facebook page for a free download of their R+B edits, which is pretty smooth. Especially the Alicia Keys one. Scroll down a bit to check out our CMJ picks if you missed them.

Reader, as you may well know, the College Music Journal—or CMJ as the cool, acronym-loving kids call it—Music Marathon is upon us. And, being the diligent independent music-lovers that we are, we have our CMJ dance card filled up, as it were. We don’t have the wherewithal to go on and on about all of many talented bands playing NYC this week—we’ll leave that to the good people at Oh My Rockness—but we have put together the top ten bands we’re dying to catch at these musical 26 miles and 385 yards. Here they are, along with some of our favorite ditties by said awesome bands!Hah. Ditties.

Purity Ring • Ungirthed Despite the similar name, this band sounds nothing like The Promise Ring. Like, nothing. Canadians Megan James and Corin Roddick, who make up Purity Ring, create glitchy, spastically, creepily beautiful music. And I hear they put on quite a show. Catch them at the Mercury Lounge Friday night  or opening for Neon Indian at Webster Hall…Friday night. I have no idea which set they’ll play earlier, but word on the street is they’ll be setting up one or two more shows before the week’s out.  Now the real question—Would you rather see a Purity Ring/Braids bill or a Promise Ring/Braid bill. Must. Not. Finger point. Edit/10.19.11: Just announced—Paino’s just announced a free Saturday afternoon show with Purity Ring + We Are Scientists, among others. Edit/10.20.11: Purity Ring will also be playing the 1:45PM slot in the front room at Brooklyn Vegan’s Saturday party.

Born Gold • Wrinklecarver Oddly enough, Corin Roddick of Purity Ring used to be a member of another band we totally have to see—Born Gold. Formerly named Gobble Gobble, as you can see from our August write-up, we obviously publicly shamed them into changing their name (that same day, no less). Again, these guys are all about the glitch, but with a lot more…testosterone. At least Gobble Gobble was. We’re interested to see if the name change has led to a quiet evolution in the maturity of the band…or if they still throw mini shirtless sweat-soaked raves at their live shows. Only one way to find out! They’ll be playing a free show with the superb Active Child Friday night at Glasslands and then again with the awesomely smoothed out hippie jam band, Delicate Steve Saturday night at Cameo Gallery. Edit/10.20.11: Born Gold will also be playing the 3:00PM slot in the back room at Brooklyn Vegan’s Saturday party.

Keegan DeWitt • Thunder Clatter Despite the fact that Keegan DeWitt is a total dick, the dude can write some hypnotically intoxicating pop music. In fact, it’s because he writes these songs that I seriously cannot stop listening to that I loathe him so. He is like my aural crack dealer. It must stop. It cannot stop. I plan to heckle him loudly at the Canal Room Wednesday night. For free!

We Are Augustines • Chapel Song We first heard Brooklyn’s We Are Augustines this past July and haven’t been able to stop listening since. Their temperamental, emotional music and driving rhythms set a stirring base for vocalist, Bill McCarthy’s, rough, impassioned singing. Can’t wait to catch them at one of their many shows this week. They’ll be headlining at Bowery Wednesday after playing a free show with old-school indie darlings Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at the Ace Hotel that same day. Then they’ve got free shows at the Living Room Friday evening, at Spike Hill in Brooklyn later that night where they’ll open up for Norwegian synth-posters, Casiokids, and they’ll be playing a TBA time during the afternoon Saturday at Brooklyn Vegan‘s CMJ party at Public Assembly. We’ll update when we hear back on that one, but stay tuned to the less vegan Brooklyn Vegan if we’re not quick enough for ya. Edit/10.20.11: WaA will be playing the 1:25PM slot in the back room at Brooklyn Vegan’s Saturday party. Along with, like, half the bands listed here, it turns out.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs • Garden By all accounts, Orlando Higginbottom is a weird dude. Yes, maybe it’s all simply a ploy to have people write things like ‘Orlando Higginbottom is a weird dude’ and have us all listen to his music, but that doesn’t bother me as I 100% love listening to his music. The oddly named, usually oddly hatted fellow performs under an even more odd moniker—Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs—which weaves tapestries of electro-pop brilliancy that borders on House but is constantly reeled in by Higginbottom’s unsettling deadpan singing. Also, he looks like he’s twelve. We’ll be making sure his hand’s stamped with X’s at Santos Party House Friday, where he plays with about a billion other bands, and at Cameo Gallery Saturday. Edit/10.20.11: TEED will also be playing the 4:30PM slot in the back room at Brooklyn Vegan’s Saturday party.

Gotye • Eyes Wide Open We made a brief mention of Australian artist, Gotye, this past August when we were blown away by his duet with Kimbra (bottom of that blog page). Since then, we’ve been checking the guy out and have very much enjoyed not only listing to his most recent release but also delving into the accomplished musician’s back catalogue. So we were excited to see that he’s traversed the globe to play a free show at smartlounge Thursday, the aforementioned Santos Friday, and opening for Givers and Free Energy—both of whom we love—at Brooklyn Bowl Saturday.

Class Actress • Love Me Like You Used To Brooklyn’s Elizabeth Harper—AKA, Class Actress—releases her debut full-length this week and, from what we’ve heard of it, it’s gonna be hit, we tell ya! A HIT! You can listen to the whole thing and order it over at Insound and she’ll be opening a sold-out show for masters of minimal pop hook, Metronomy at the Music Hall of Williamsburg (RIP, Northsix). Which means we’d advise either hitting up her free show Tuesday night with Cloud Nothings at Public Assembly (RIP, former industrial space) or…eh…at the Union Square Puma Store Thursday afternoon? Maybe there’ll be swag….

Headless Horseman • SH8KR The Brooklyn-via-Allentown duo that makes up Headless Horseman creates bizarre, dreamy, lo-fi music that has a weird way of hooking you with least little musical movement. They’re also contenders for this year’s not-so-coveted Play One Thousand Shows in The Span of Five Days award, won by Oberhofer last year. We’re not even going to bother listing them all—Oh My Rockness once again has you covered.

Wise Blood • Loud Mouths We’re kinda stumped when it comes to trying to describe the music of Wise Blood‘s Chris Laufman. Maybe like if Eminem got really whacked out on shrooms and was convinced he could only rap in whispers lest the electro-demons would eat out his eyes? Something like that. Honestly, you’ve just gotta listen to the stuff, but, love it or hate, you can’t argue against it’s uniqueness. Wise Blood sounds new. And we’re psyched to see what new looks like live. Wise Blood plays with the aforementioned Headless Horsman Tuesday at Cameo, Thursday evening at (le) poisson rouge, then later that same night at the fire-hazaard-y Cake Shop with Brooklyn’s terribly named Cheeseburger, Friday at Piano’s, and then free show at Glasslands Saturday. That last one’s got a free open vodka bar from 8-9, just to make the weird-hop weirder. And more crowded.

Twin Shadow • Changes Finally, Brooklyn’s own Twin Shadow blends the smooth funk of Prince with Bowie’s 80’s-mod croon and rock sensibility. Can’t lose, right? Right. He just released a new single via 4AD Records, which you can listen to above, and will be playing two free shows this week—the first, Wednesday at Santo’s Party House; the second, a Saturday night party at The Standard New York. Also, not to brag, but we totally called Twin Shadow’s awesomeness last July. Just sayin’. We deserve some Puma swag for that or something. Edit/10.20.11: Oh My Rockness just announced another free Twin Shadow show at Converse Rubber Tracks in Williamsburg Thursday night.

That’s it, Reader! If, by chance, you totally hated all those bands, we encourage you to check out Oh My Rockness’ very thorough and very well-updated CMJ list. And yes. We totally want to marry Oh My Rockness. Now get out there and dance!

Phantogram • Don’t Move

There are some weeks where we honestly get to Monday and we’re like, “Meh. Guess we’ve gotta post some music.” Just because we’re not feeling any of the new stuff we’ve been hearing lately, or we’re just overworked with the non-blog, paying stuff, or we’ve just got a serious case of the Mondays. And, whereas, yes, those latter two are kinda true today (Seriously? No one else works on Columbus Day now? When did that happen?), we are seriously feeling this new Phantogram song. Like, deep down, my friend.

We first heard the upstate New York band last Winter and, while we were really, really into their breed shoegazing electro-nouveau-brood-o, this new single from their forthcoming “mini-LP” (think that’s an EP) just gets right into our blood flow and makes us want to dance. In a very “No, no, I’m not dancing,” leaning up against the wall, pretending not to care sort of way.

According to Josh Carter, the beardier of the two founding members, the new release, out November 1st, “is kind of an extension of the whole process of making and touring behind Eyelid Movies [their debut], and it feels in a lot of ways like the completion of what we were doing with the songs on that album.  The two [records] really go together in our minds. Nightlife couldn’t have been written anywhere other than in clubs and hotel rooms during this experience we’ve been having for the last year or two.”

Well we just hope there’s more like this to come. Keep it up beardy and not beardy. Added bonus—here’s “When I’m Small”, a track from their 2010 debut, Eyelid Movies.

Photo by Doron Gild.

Florence + the Machine • Shake It Out

Ah. You know what? It’s really comforting to see that, after all the success won and accolades attributed to her, all very much due her, Florence Welch—AKA, Florence + the Machine—has not gotten lazy. She still delivers beautiful, soaring, dynamic, dramatic pop that’s really, really hard not to like. And to top it all off, by all accounts, she appears to absolutely love what she’s doing. Even if you can’t hear that in her vibrantly powerful voice, you can see it in her live shows and it’s undeniable. It’s also simply refreshing—seeing absolutely no airs being put on, just watching an artist love performing for her fans. That shit’s tight, man.

Reader, we’re going reach far back into the archives here to the summer of 2009, when we first wrote about Ms. Welch and her emotive, operatic music. It was way back when we still wrote reviews and the LA indie record label IAMSOUND was kind enough to send us Florence’s debut EP. Right, back when people still used to send CDs as well. We were pretty hooked right away, as you can tell by the four out of five caws. …did we mention we don’t do reviews any more?

Anyway,going off the couple tracks we’ve heard from it, we do not expect Florence’s sophomoric release, Ceremonials, to disappoint. It’s spooky release date is October 31, but you can hear “Shake It Out” now as this week’s Song of the Week. You can also pre-order the album in all it’s various forms on Ms. Welch’s site. And check out the appropriately theatrical video for the song below.

Keegan DeWitt is a dick. I’m sorry, but he is. Not because the guy stole my sandwich or was talking smack about me on the internet (ahem). No, Keegan DeWitt is a dick in the same way that, say, Ghandi was a dick. He’s one of those guys who just makes you feel intensely bad about your life. Like you don’t do nearly enough with your days on this fine earth, and the things you actually bother to do are kind of shit.

DeWitt—an Oregon native who now lives in both Brooklyn and Nashville, just to maximize the effective creative jealousy nation-wide—is an accomplished film composer, having scored multiple New York Times Critic’s Picks, IFC features, and SXSW selections; an independent film and off-braodway actor who studied under such luminaries as David Mamet and Phillip Seymour Hoffman; he DJs and releases underground mixes under the name “Wild Cub”; and, to make ends meet upon first moving to New York, he helped to open various high-falutin’ restauranteurs and hoteliers open various high-falutin’ restaurants and hotels. You know. Instead of selling old CDs or something.

To top it all off, he can write a mind-numbingly beautiful pop song. JACKASS! Seriously though, having first heard this week’s Song of the Week—”Colour”—last week, I was floored. And then I listened to an older single. Again, floored. Another—floored.

The dude’s. A. Dick.

Don’t believe me? Check out “Colour” and see what I mean. You will totally hate him too. And we highly recommend giving August’s “Thunder Clatter” a listen too. So good. ARG!

Gardens + Villa • Black Hills

I wouldn’t call myself a huge fan of the whole dreamy beach pop that’s sprung up in the indie world over the past few years. Don’t get me wrong—most of it’s far from offensive. In fact, most of it could use a bit of an edge; something you can grab on to; a hook to reel you in or a bright spark that would set it all apart from…well, all the other dreamy beach pop out there.

Santa-Barbara-based Gardens + Villa doesn’t fit exactly into that pigeonhole, but, from the first listen, you get a sense that they share a lot of the same traits as bands who do—sparse, dreamy washes of music accented more than held up by tight, bright drums and sprawling bass lines. All this is tied together with clean, slow-moving lyrics and pleasantly catchy and smooth synths. G+V’s debut, self-titled album came out this summer and, though it’s songs didn’t take hold of me and throttle me with awesomeness, they’ve had a significant slow burn that’s led to an undeniable love of their music. And doesn’t that, in the end, lead to longer-term appreciation of a band’s music—not the calculated hooks that you get sick of after 50 listens, but the fine craftsmanship of a solid, lovely song?

This week’s Song of the Week, “Black Hills,” is a perfect example of just that. You may or may not be wowed from the start, but it just keeps you coming back, making you want to listen to it again and again and again….

You can order Gardens & Villa’s full-length CD or LP through their label, Secretly Canadian, and even listen to and download two other tracks form the album there. They’ll be playing Glasslands in Brooklyn at the end of the month and doing an early show at the Mercury Lounge October 1st. Along with a bunch of non-New-York dates, I assume.