Wish Key - Orient Express

Summer has started around these parts, but since a good chunk of us out here are unemployed/underemployed there may not be a whole lot to celebrate. Good thing the internet exists to give us free tunes to bob our heads too.

Wish Key were an Italo Disco group fronted by Massimo Berti. I don’t know much about them, but I found one of their records in the 50 cents bin at the local record shop a week or so ago, and it was well worth the price.

Storm the Gates Riff Rawk Cassette

Ethan Miller from Howlin Rain and Comets on Fire is one of my favorite rock guitarists and front men. The first time I saw Comets on Fire at a house show in Santa Cruz in early 2003 it changed my life. I still consider it the greatest rock show I have ever attended, and the fact that it was shared by a meager 50 folks for over 3 hours didn't hurt. The psychedelic-hardcore Comets on Fire pioneered is still some of the most sonically awesome music I have ever heard, and something tells me if you picked up their recent records on Sub Pop, you would agree.

Now that I am finished gushing, Ethan has a music blog on Blogpost as well. He posts outtakes and live shows from his various bands, but has also taken to posting mix tapes and compilations of Riff Rawk that should be heard by all music aficionados. He recently posted a Galactic Zoo Dossier cassette club tape that contains “explosive rock.” He has it free to download at his blog, and I have a sample of what you can expect from this awesome compilation below.

(Stack Waddy - With One Leap Dan Was By Her Side, _Muriel_ He Breathed)


(Smile - Blag)

Swimmers Ear

I loved Tina Kaffeyah's EP that they put out last year, but it appears the band has gone on a hiatus. Sam from the group has started another band called Swimmers Ear, and they have a free cassette to download. Driving, rocking shit that should be enjoyed by anyone who likes music.

Download the cassette here.
01 Bags! Bags! Bags! Help Me! by Swimmers Ear

Boxcutter - "The Dissolve"

From the new Boxcutter record, "The Dissolve." Planet Mu has this to say about it:

"Barry Lynn has already dropped a couple of albums that looked at dubstep from fresh angles before everyone else started to do the same. This time around, on "The Dissolve", things are different, and he’s taken off in a direction that leaves dubstep behind entirely.

The title is a reference to a common video art effect, where one image gradually transitions to another. The album has an unpolished hue to it, created with keyboards, drum machine, echo and tape and sometimes even electric guitar. It sits in a world of its own, but with a stronger affinity to things like Theo Parrish's productions or hypnagogic pop than the latest fashionable electronics created on the newest software - the devil is in the details with this album, it’s rich in twists and turns."

Gets my thumbs-up.