New Music I’ve Been Listening To

Ok, so when I was in high school, I had some interesting musical tastes that I’m sure thrilled my parents.  I had a cheesy RCA stereo with a CD player from which I played my music at a higher than reasonable volume, in a room lit solely by blinking Christmas lights that I wired directly into the light fixture in my room so they worked on the switch.  Matched the flower border perfectly….

Anyways, with that background, I figured I would share some of the new music I have been listening to lately and would recommend.  Recently it’s been pretty much all indie rock, some new this year, and some a little older.

Trav just clued me into a new album “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix“, by “Phoenix”.  “Lisztomania” is the single, but I prefer “1901″ as the catchy song on the album, and “Love Like a Sunset” as the building, sweeping song.  All the songs are pretty solid, well thought out, and well executed.  Definitely a good, catchy summer album

Next up is “Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes)” by “Cloud Cult”.  This has a more electronic feel to it than the “Phoenix” album.  The first track is a great building track.  It starts slowly and builds and builds to a dramatic finish.  There’s a lot of variety and energy in this album.  Recommended.

“Birdmonster”‘s album “From the Mountain To the Sea” is a little more low key than the previous two, so it’s good for a change of pace.  It’s very easy to listen to, with good melodies and a straightforward leading voice.

I’ve probably been driving Julie nuts with “Furr” by “Blitzen Trapper”.  I listen to a couple of songs off this one quite a bit – notably “Furr” and “God & Suicide”.  This is a little more mainstream album, but really well done and solid.  This is one that I’ve listened to straight through a few times.  Probably more than a few if you ask Julie.  Great energetic songs and a lot of variety in this one.

Finally, the other one I have been listening to a lot is “Now We Can See” by “The Thermals”.  A solid, straightforward pop-punk album with lyrics that are definitely more interesting than normal.