Trailer Trad Tunes: Tycho

Tycho is an ambient group that started out as a one-man art project but grew into a band in 2009. The vision of Scott Hansen, he also creates the group's album covers and videos. His blog ISO50 showcases his art, t shirts, etc. I like this live performance at KEXP's studio in Seattle because it is almost identical in sound quality to their albums.

 An NPR station in a West coast epicenter of hipsterdom, KEXP has a way of showcasing bands that I really like. Very beard and skinny jeans/scarf intensive, many of the artists have that Brooklyn hipster-esque cred that the folks that compile the Muzak for Starbucks, etc. salivate over. Many of the following are not very current but  I still like them for more chill listening. Matt Pond PA is really underrated as is NC and Trailer Trad favorite Future Islands. Speaking of underrated, Dinosaur Junior, it seems to me, is one of the last of what I would consider to be grundge bands from the 1990s. Do you think that they will get their due in that regard?

Trailer Trad Tunes: Dear Raleigh

Trailer Trad Tunes: Summertime Full Albums

Beach Fossils "Clash The Truth"
Surfer Blood "Pythons"
No Joy "Ghost Blonde"
The Drums "Summertime!"
Washed Out "Within and Without"
Best Coast "Crazy For You"

Trailer Trad Tunes: Winter 2014 Playlist

Wintersleep "Echolocation"
The Depreciation Guild  "Through The Snow"
Matt Pond PA  "Snow Day"
Chairlift  "Met Before"
Frightened Rabbit  "The Woodpile"
Yuck "Rebirth"
Arctic Monkeys "505 Glastonbury 2013"

Wintersleep "Echolocation"

The Depreciation Guild "Through the Snow"

Matt Pond PA "Snow Day"

I couldn't decide to put the studio version or this awesome version with just backup singers in an old auditorium along with Patrick Wimberly playing and stomping on the old wooden stage floor. -Really good. However, I came upon the official video and had to show it. - So cute!

Frightened Rabbit "The Woodpile"

Yuck "Rebirth" (Rebirth = a new year. Alright, maybe I was grasping for the seasonal connection but I kind of like the song)

The Arctic Monkeys "505 Glastonbury 2013"
I love this live footage from Glastonbury. The flags in the crowd remind me of waving standards on a medieval field of battle. The explosion of light and noise at the three minute mark heighten this for me. One minor quibble. I like the mod style of their early days rather than the lounge lizard/greaser look that they've taken to now but that is a minor complaint because Alex Turner and the boys never disappoint.

Trailer Trad Tunes: Pure Bathing Culture + A Few Non-elevator Music Additions

Editor's note: Although I like Pure Bathing Culture, I don't like them that THAT much. As a matter of fact, upon listening to them a few times, I'm started to be reminded of cringe-worthy music from the 1980s like Jefferson Starship. So, I've kept one and added a few other peppier new tunes.

If you think that this band seems to almost aim for a kind of easy-listening sound, Pitchfork agrees with you. I don't really care. I heard them on 'KNC the other day and thought the vocals were nice.

There ought to be a law against how good this song is and how it WILL permiate every recess of your skull. You might not believe the 13,000,000 hits on this video if you are one of the very few who haven't heard it. -However, it's just THAT popular. I've loved the song for a while but I just discovered the official video. Royal blue is my FAY-VO-RYTE color.

Two Dollar Cinema Club  "What You Know"
I just found a nice twist on a Chairlift song. I found it while I was looking for their song 'Met Before' to use in my upcoming blog post on Scandinavian Olympic women skiers entitled 'Nordic Gold.' -Look for it.

Chairlift  "I Belong in Your Arms" (Japanese Version)

Wild Nothing   "Take Me In"

Wavves "Idiot"

Interpol  "Pace is the Trick"

The Kooks  "Naive"

Trailer Trad Tunes: Thursday

Trailer Trad Tunes: Nautical Indie Rock 2013

Some nice, nautical ditties to end your summer:

Surfer Blood "Voyager Reprise"
Shins "Girl Sailor"
Shins "Sea Legs"
Modest Mouse "Missed the Boat"
Of Monsters & Men "Lakehouse"
Surfer Blood "Neighbor Riffs"


Surfer Blood "Voyager Reprise"

The Shins "Girl Sailor"

The Shins "Sea Legs"

Modest Mouse "Missed the Boat"

Surfer Blood "Neighbor Riffs"

Of Monsters and Men "Lakehouse"

Trailer Trad Tunes: Shoe Gazer Indie Rock

'Shoe gazer' is a term to describe a sub-genre of alternative rock (there are many) that traces its roots to the UK in the early 1990s with the advent of subdued vocals and dreamy melodies driven by layers of fuzzy guitar and electronic accompaniment. The term 'shoe gazer' actually refers to the way that some of the musicians in these groups kind of stood and played while looking down at the floor, thus 'shoe gazing.'

The style is hard to pin down and some of these are probably not great examples. It's a little like 'post rock' which, by and large, I find monotonous and not good. I think that post rock is similar to the 1990s New Age music movement and therefore I refer to it as 'John Tesche's Revenge.' Shoe gazer also includes some brit pop, psychedelia and even techno dance music but it can differ from these which feature more bass and are more 'danceable' and have less of a dreamy quality.

Old Shoegazer




Recent Shoegazer

Euro Pop Courtesy of Dieter and His Monkey

The Mary Onettes (Sweden)

M83 (France)
DJ Martin Solveig (France)The Raveonettes (Denmark)
The Rakes (England)

Bibio (Stephen Wilkinson) England

Iconic. Idealic. Icelandic.

Trailer Trad Time Travel: College Radio Days

What did you listen to in college? Back before the days of Pandora and satellite radio, if you wanted indie rock, you had to really search for it. My friends and I were lucky enough to man a radio show for a few hours every week at our little college. The Wattage was minimal. The record selection was whatever albums were catalogued in pigeon holed shelves on the broom closet sized studio wall. This encouraged us to be independent in our music line up and to dig up unusual stuff.

The studio was a crows nest of a thing on the top floor of the student center. This made our radio station very secluded and quiet, even on Saturday nights. It was fun to sneak a beer or two in the studio and peer out of the window into the still darkness of our campus with a favorite tune on.

I wanted to include a lesser known track by the Police in the play list but let's face it, 1980's concert videos featuring 'fashion forward' Sting are pretty hideous. I put in the Clash's Lost In the Supermarket instead. -If Joe Strummer had been lost in a wonderful Harris Teeter, it would have been a happy song! I also had to include some Smiths because it doesn't get much better than Johnny Marr with his red Rickenbacker on lead guitar.

This music mix was probably a little geeky and miles from what was on the FM stations at the time. Here is what a half hour set might have included back in the day:

The English Beat - Tears of a Clown
Big Audio Dynamite  E=MC2
Elvis Costello - Every Day I Write The Book
The Cure - Lost In the Supermarket
Echo & The Bunnymen Do It Clean
The Smiths - What Difference Does It Make?
Marshall Crenshaw Some Day Some Way
REM  The One I Love

-I hope that these oldies satisfy those who have patiently indulged my love of new indie rock music! Let me know if I can add a favorite of yours!

Women of Brit Pop

Ever since Petula Clark and and the women of the 'Northern Soul' movement of the 1960s, British pop music has featured many charming lady lead singers and today's British alternative music scene is no acception.

Here are a few good ones and I hope you like'em. Do you have a favorite? 

 Veronica Falls

The Joy Formidable

Goldfrapp

Camera Obscura

War Paint

'The New Year' Death Cab for Cutie (reshown)

Gomez 'Options'

Spooky Trad: Matt Pond PA - Halloween (reshown)

Trailer Trad Hall of Fame (North Carolina Annex): Ben Folds

Summer's Over: Back to the Beach!

Summer's over but very warm afternoons in Raleigh keep sending reminders of the long days now past us. I've compiled a play list of indie songs that bring to mind getting away or perhaps going on that last weekend beach getaway. -As always, most are not really about these things but have such things in the group's name or in the song title (this isn't a Jimmy Buffet playlist afterall -although there's nothing wrong with that).

Best Coast When I'm With You
Boat We Want It! We Want It!
Wild Nothing Paradise
War paint Undertow
Beach Fossils Face It
Smith Westerns Weekend
Surfer Blood Fast Jabroni
Beach House Silver Soul
The Libertines Don't Look Back Into the Sun

A Proud Sponsor of the ATP Tour with a Brilliant Ad

If you are watching US Open tennis on ESPN as I am, you probably have seen this Emirates Airline commercial. I think that the ad captures the excitment of a new, global world exquisitely. The model in the ad is absolutely stunning as is the soundtrack "Trek" by Spencer & Antfood. If you like that song, you may like The Naked and Famous' Young Blood which, although released in 2010, is one of my favorite music finds of the year.

Happy St. Pats!

Yeah, this was on a Soccer Mom Suburu commercial. -What of it?

Gomez "Options"