Welcome to the next installment of our Monthly Mixtape. We’ve got some great stuff this month and the highlights are too numerous to mention, but it features tracks that TLOBF Offices have been buzzing to. Namely Fleet Foxes (of course), White Denim, James Blackshaw and the latest recruits to Bella Union, The Acorn.

So download, hook it up to your mp3 player of choice, find some sunshine and a beer, and enjoy this one on us.

DOG DAY AFTERNOON (JULY 2008 PLAYLIST)

1. The Acorn - Crooked Legs
2. Fleet Foxes - He Doesn’t Know Why
3. Throw Me The Statue - If This Is It (Huey Lewis cover)
4. White Denim - Mess Your Hair Up
5. Constantines - Hard Feelings
6. J. Tillman - When I Light Your Darkened Door
7. James Blackshaw - Infinite Circle
8. Bowerbirds - In Our Talons
9. Damien Jurado - Gillian Was A Horse
10. The Young Republic - Comes A Time [Live] (Neil young cover)
11. Silver Mt. Zion - Black Water Blowed
12. Plants & Animals - Bye Bye Bye

[DOWNLOAD ALL TRACKS] - right-click and choose save-as

Hungry for more? Delve into the mixtape archive HERE.

Special thanks to Deny Bon for the wonderful photograph used in the artwork. Click here to view his collection of images.

As a child, I had Wagonwheel Blues. As all the other kids on my lunch table chowed down on their disgusting, plasticy, not-fit-for-human consumption ‘treats’, I was exiled for turning my nose up at said chocolate-covered biscuit, and not joining their ‘Wagonwheel Club’. Well, sod you, mean seven year-olds, cos I have my own Wagonwhell club now, with some handy advice on lifestyle choices to boot. And it’s a damn fine club too.

Wagonwheel Blues is the debut release from The War On Drugs, and certainly sets the bar at almost sky-scraper level for their future releases. They don’t have a cute female singer, they don’t sing about dancing or re-hash failed relationships, and I’m pretty sure they don’t wear skinny jeans or T-shirts that are splattered in fluro-vomit. They are, however, very proficient at their instruments, write cracking songs, and are some of the very few musicians who can be compared to Bob Dylan in a good way. Continue Reading

Saul Williams releases his brand new album The Invevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust (try saying that after a couple of pints) on July 8th. To mark this rather exciting occassion, we have a track from the album for you to download. ‘World On Wheels’ was produced by non other that Trent Reznor of NIN.

If you can’t wait until next week to get hold of the album, you can download it via itunes right now. What’s more, the itunes version features 5 exclusive tracks as a bonus! Nice.

You can catch Saul Williams on the following dates, including an apperance at this weekends Wireless Festival in London.

Jul 3 - 02 Wireless Festival London, London and South East
Jul 4 - Arvika Festival Arvika
Jul 5 - Oslo Live Festival, Kontraskjaeret Oslo, Oslo
Jul 6 - Klubi Turku
Jul 7 - Klubi Tampere
Jul 8 - Tavastia Helsinki
Jul 10 - Poolbar Festival Feldkirch
Jul 11 - La Rote Fabrik, Club Raum Zurich, Zurich
Jul 12 - Cactus Festival Bruges
Jul 13 - Chauffer dans la Noirceur Montmarin sur Mer
Jul 16 - SOB’s New York, New York
Aug 3 - Lollapalooza, Grant Park Chicago, Illinois
Aug 23 - Petco Park San Diego, California
Aug 30 - Bumbershoot Festival Seattle, Washington
Aug 31 - Bumbershoot Festival Seattle, Washington

mp3:> Saul Williams: World on Wheels

Jaguar Love (ex-Blood Brothers, Pretty Girls Make Graves) hit the UK at the end of this week and make their London debut at Wireless Festival on Friday (ie. the Morrissey day). Which also happens to be the festival that TLOBF are covering from behind the scenes… keep your eyes peeled this weekend.

Anyway, they’re here to showcase material from their debut album Take Me To The Sea (out 18th August). You can have a taste as well, as the band have offered up a track from it for free:
mp3:> Jaguar Love: ‘Bats over the Pacific Ocean’

Tour dates below:

July
04 Wireless Festival, London
05 The Barfly, Brighton
07 Academy 3, Bristol
08 100 Club, London
09 Cockpit, Leeds
10 Roadhouse, Manchester
12 T In The Park, Scotland
13-July Oxygen Festival, Ireland

The fine folks at Swedish indie label Labrador have put together the perfect compilation to accompany warm and sunny days by the sea - the official Labrador Summer Sampler of 2008. And you lucky lucky people can download the entire 30 track mix for nowt!!

The Labrador Summer Sampler of 2008 is a summerish mix of recent favourites from The Sound of Arrows, The Radio Dept. and Club 8, lost classics from Acid House Kings, Caroline Soul and Chasing Dorotea and sun packed songs by [ingenting] and lots more. Full track listing below. Continue Reading

If you head on over to Merge Records’ site right you’ll be greeted by a very neat free download of Destroyer’s ‘Madame Butterflies.’ The new track from Canada’s hyper-sinuous lyricist. Originally released on Merge’s 7-inch contribution to Record Store Day (which occurred on April 19). As for the actual track its what we’ve all come to expect from the scruffy baroque rocker. Palm muted guitar slow builds into the usual electric theatrics. Check. Bejar inserts some lyrical self-references about the “fucking monsters puncturing the dawn” that appeared on his most recent album Trouble in Dreams. Check! Wordless troubadour vocals about a girl named Sandy? Check and check.

Despite its truncated length and its cookie cutter scheme, if you’re fan of Destroyer you should check it out. Did I mention its free?! Baltimore’s dreamy pop duo Wye Oak also have ‘Prodigy’ available to download. Its a meandering electric guitar number punctuated by muted bass. Jenn Wasner’s voice is particularly arresting but firmly set within the restrained folk-rock mantras she sang on Merge’s rerelease of Wye Oak’s 2007 debut, If Children.

The ever wonderful Damien Jurado has announced that his new record Caught In The Trees will be released on October 27th via Secretly Canadian. The album, a collaborative project between Jurado and band his band members Eric Fischer and Jenna Conrad and judging by the track ‘Gillian Was A Horse’ the album will certainly be worth the four month wait. Download the song at the bottom of the post.

In other Jurado news, he will be heading over to the UK in August to showcase material from the new album. He will headline two regional shows, plus an appearence at the Green Man festival. Dates are:

August 17th - Crickhowell, Green Man Festival
August 18th - Manchester, Trinity Chapel
August 19th - London, Bush Hall

Support on the London date comes from current TLOBF favourites Bowerbirds.

mp3:> Damien Jurado: ‘Gillian Was A Horse’

If there was ever a band perfectly suited to the ‘and now for something completely different’ category, Ratatat is that band. They’re not conventional, they certainly don’t follow the verse-chorus-verse structure, they don’t sing, they mainly use machines to make their music and they give their songs very bizarre names. Therefore, their music is some of the most interesting, and perhaps challenging, to listen to, if pushing boundaries pushes your buttons.

Mainly using synths and various other knob-twiddling, lever-sliding, technical wizardry, LP3 features some downright bizarre tracks and some rather beautiful ones (Mi Viejo). In terms of hanging together as an album, well, it doesn’t. The tracks are simply to varied to give any sense of cohesion when played one after the other, but that said, there are no transitions which sound jarred or the tracks seem to naturally flow into the next. Continue Reading

Formed in late 2006 The Last Dinosaur started out as a project between two friends, Jamie Cameron and Luke Hayden. Brought together by a mutual love of Peep Show, crisps, late nights and kids television programs -surely the vital foundation for any longterm friendship? One evening (possibly after one too many episodes of Peep Show), the pair for no other reason than that they were a little bit bored and felt a tad creative layed down the first fruits of what would be later known as ‘The First Last Dinosaur Song’. A four minute lo-fi jam (and I hate to use the word ‘jam’) that glides over a backdrop of handclaps, piano, organ, saxaphone and what only sounds like a chest of drawers being hit by a wooden spoon - Jesus, I haven’t done a very good job at explaining that have I? It kind of sounds like something from The Bees debut album if you had to pin a tag on it. I have to admit though, ‘The First Last Dinosaur Song’ isn’t a great introduction to the band, it’s more of a mere experiment, simply a catalyst for what was to follow. According to Cameron; “a creative flood gate opened and we started recording more, waiting until it was dark and just experimenting, seeing what happened, playing whatever our fingers told us to”. The only way is up, so they say. Continue Reading

To coincide with Monday’s rather wonderful (and free) 12 track June playlist Laundromat we are thrilled to be able to offer you, dear reader, something a little more of the alternative and experimental nature. The fine folks at Southern Records have allowed us to make a compilation of some of their current acts to offer out completely free. Featuring 7 genre-spanning tracks from the likes of Chrome Hoof, The Owl Service, Bellafea, Racebannon and Asva the mix gives a wonderful insight into the wonderful and innovative London based label. Hopefully you’ll find something you love inside.

TLOBF’s Southern Records Summer Treats

1. Chrome Hoof - Pronoid
2. Racebannon - Sister Fucker
3. Bellafea - Depart (I Never Knew You)
4. Dianogah - A Breaks B
5. Mothlite - The One In Water
6. The Owl Service - A Child Ballad no.49 (or The Rolling of The Stones)
7. Asva - A Trap For Judges

[DOWNLOAD ALL TRACKS] - right-click and choose save-as

Hungry for more TLOBF Playlists? Delve deep into our archive HERE. And remember, everything is 100% free and legal. Continue Reading

Welcome to our mixtape for the month of June, titled Laundromat (no particualar reason), it’s a mega bonanza of some truly amazing artists; something for everyone we think you’ll agree. We have tracks from highly anticipated albums by Broken Social Scener Brendan Canning, Bodies Of Water and CSS. A healthy dollop of Americana in the shape of Wye Oak and Silver Jews.  If breezy Beach Boys apeing harmonies are your thang then The Explorers Club will no doubt fill a huge void. Some afrobeat thrown in for good measure in the shape of Ashanti Afrika Jah. Plus new talent in the shape of It Hugs Back and The Last Dinosaur; two brand new acts we are really rather excited about. Enjoy it folks and relax, it’s 100% legal.

LAUNDROMAT (JUNE 2008 PLAYLIST)

1. Brendan Canning - Hit The Wall
2. Bodies Of Water - Under The Pines
3. Wye Oak - Warning
4. The Explorers Club - Do You Love Me?
5. Ashanti Afrika Jah - Onyame
6. The Last Dinosaur - Home
7. The War On Drugs - Taking The Farm
8. It Hugs Back - Early Evening
9. Ponytail - Celebrate The Body Electric (It Came From An Angel)
10. CSS - Rat Is Dead
11. Silver Jews - Strange Victory, Strange Defeat
12. Dark Meat - Freedom Ritual

[DOWNLOAD ALL TRACKS] - right-click and choose save-as

Hungry for more? Delve into the mixtape archive HERE.

*This compilation is 100% legal. A selection of the tracks are already freely available elsewhere on the internets. Any exclusive tracks present have been sent directly from an official representative of the band.*

Oxford Collapse have just announced the release of their fourth album. Bits is slated to hit shelves on August 5th via Sub Pop. The fourth album from the Brooklyn-based trio, Bits follows 2006’s Remember The Night Parties and will be the second release from the band on the influential Seattle imprint.

The band road-tested much of the new record whilst on their recent stint on the road with borough-buddies We Are Scientists, and recorded the album in chunks over the course of last year with Eric Emm at the Brothers Studios, and Chad Matheny in “spaces all over town”.

The track listing for Bits is:
‘Electric Arc’
‘The Birthday Wars’
‘Vernon-Jackson’
‘Young Love Delivers’
‘Back of the Yards’
‘A Wedding’
‘Featherbeds’
‘For the Winter Coats’
‘Men and Their Idea’

mp3:> Oxford Collapse - Please Visit Your National Parks
mp3:> Oxford Collapse - Lady Lawyers

Norman, Oklahoma’s lysergic glam-popsters Evangelicals will embark on their first European tour this summer, including the following shows in the UK and Ireland. In London they will open for South African alt-rockers Seether.

June
7th - Glasgow, Captains Rest 8pm
8th - Dublin, Whelans 8pm
9th - Belfast, Auntie Annie’s
10th - London, ULU w/Seether

The band’s second LP The Evening Descends was released in February via Secretly Canadian offshoot Dead Oceans. Our very own Bridget Helgoth bloody loved it - read all about it here.

Evangelicals have also made a budget horror-style video for the song ‘Midnight Vignette’, which can be viewed here.

mp3:> Evangelicals - Skeleton Man

So it’s one of THE great debuts by a British band, we’ve established that. But what do The Wave Pictures themselves think of the album? Dave Tattersall (lead singer, guitarist) sat down and wrote at length his thoughts on the classic that is Instant Coffee Baby .

Continue Reading

Will Sheff and his band of merry men continue in earnest to pimp their rather excellent current album The Stage Names. They arrive in the UK this week for appearances at All Tomorrow’s Parties, The Great Escape and a sold out Club Uncut gig at London’s Borderline on May 20th.

They will then fly back to the UK in July for a show at the Trinity Arts Centre in Bristol on the 18th July followed by an appearence at Oxford’s Truck festival the day after.

Not content, the band will then head over here again in November for a full UK tour. Dates are:

November
5th NORWICH WATERFRONT
6th MANCHESTER ACADEMY
7th DUBLIN ACADEMY
9th GLASGOW ORAN MOR
10th WOLVERHAMPTON WULFRUN
11th LONDON SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE
12th BRIGHTON CONCORDE 2

Get tickets for the tour here.

Okkervil River release their brand new single ‘A Hand To Take Hold Of The Scene’ on June 9th.

mp3:> Okkervil River: Our Life Is Not A Movie or Maybe
[From The Stage Names; out now on Jagjaguwar]

The Acorn have been continually playing on our stereos at TLOBF Towers ever since a Canadian friend of ours lent us some mp3’s towards the end of last year. We’ve been completely bowled over by them in fact. Here’s hoping for them to get a UK deal in 2008. In the meantime, we managed to track down main man Rolf Klausener to pitch our notoriously devilsh 20 Questions to him… Continue Reading

In case you didn’t know already - TLOBF are hosting a free mixtape called Building with Strings from the folks down at Something In Construction records. It’s actually frigging excellent and anybody who’s anybody has already downloaded it, so you might want to get your act together and get it yourself before someone brings it up at a party and you embarrass yourself by being the only person there not cool enough to know who’s on it. Anyway, the launch for it was at The Old Blue Last – an e-mail tipping me off about some free tequila and a free gig had me scurrying down there like the freeloading, music-loving boozehound before I could finish reading it, I can only assume that TLOBF intended for me to write something about the night also… Continue Reading

If you believe The Buggles, “Video killed the Radio Star”. Well, I’m afraid to say, they were wrong. Radio is, in my opinion at least, having a bit of a renaissance at the moment. The advent of digital and web radio has seen the number of stations on offer explode, whilst MTV and VH-1 have taken to showing endless repeats of Pimp My Ride and documentaries on Whitney Houston. But I’m straying from the point. Thanks to Huw Stephens, a fellow Welshman (so obviously an all-round great person), played a track one evening that sent me into a bit of a tiz. It was ‘Other cars Go’ by It Hugs Back . Now, I didn’t realise this at first because I missed the intro, so the next day I had to trawl through the filth that is the Radio 1 website to find the playlist… And lo and behold, it was in front of me; It Hugs Back. What a rubbish name… Continue Reading

As May comes into focus, we’ve collected some of the finest new bands around to take part in the latest installment of our monthly playlist. We’ve got the subtle pleasures of Lykke Li competing with the literary pop of the Wave Pictures topped off with the Armageddon noise mongering of Keyboard Choir. A little something for everyone I think you’ll find…

SPRING LOADED (TLOBF May 2008 Playlist)

1. The Futureheads - Broke Up The Time
2. Lykke Li - Dance Dance Dance
3. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
4. Frightened Rabbit - Set You Free (N-Trance cover)
5. The Wave Pictures - We Dress Up Like Snowmen
6. No Age - Eraser
7. Fleet Foxes - Winter White Hymnal
8. Keyboard Choir - Bugs
9. The Dodos - Ashley
10. Flight Of The Conchords - Ladies Of The World

[DOWNLOAD ALL TRACKS] - right-click and choose save-as

Hungry for more? Delve into the mixtape archive HERE. Continue Reading

The Envy Corps are from the rather unglamorous surroundings of Des Moines, Iowa famous for being the place to be for insurance companies and, err, Slipknot. So its little wonder then that this four-piece would seek inspiration from elsewhere. The United Kingdom to be precise. All the big names like Coldplay, U2 and Radiohead are present here with just a smattering of Doves thrown in for good measure.

The result is a pleasant enough listening experience, with summery indie-pop fare like ‘Story Problem’ but The Envy Corps have a tendency to reach for that predictable crowd pleasing anthem sound with ‘99-100′ and the god-awful ‘Walls’ being particular offenders. Talking of God, this band seem to spend a lot of time in His company as He is actually quite a prevalent theme on this record, with ‘The Keys to Good Living’ coming off the wrong side of preachy and we get a message to ’spite the devil’ in the decent ‘Rhinemaidens’. Nah, we all need a little bit of devil in us and Dwell could certainly benefit with a bit more. Continue Reading