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PACIFIC UV
Weekends

We left pacificUV playing their wonderful Chrysalis EP, which was said to be only an anticipation. So now we’ve got to the point. The full-length Weekends is finally out: 12 tracks to lost yourself in, either you take the usual approach and enjoy the grand concept of the album, that follows the arc of the natural trajectory of the weekend itself, or you view it more like a sweet pop record and appreciate each singular track for its individual beauty and softness. That’s it, whichever route you choose, one thing remains unflinching: this album is guaranteed to please.

ARTIST: pacificUV
TITLE: Weekends
LABEL: Mazarine
RELEASE DATE: January 31, 2012
TIME: 39:10 min.
WEB: http://www.pacificuv.com/

01. Friday Night Dream [01:43]
02. Funny Girl [03:30]
03. Just For Kix [03:03]
04. Baby Blue [05:46]
05. I’m Here (but it’s not me) [04:15]
06. Ballerina [03:52]
07. Saturday Night Dream [01:46]
08. High [03:10]
09. Be My Only Shallow Love [03:15]
10. Feels Like I’m Going Home [03:52]
11. Sunday Night Dream [02:21]
12. Unplug Me [03:50]

pacificUV – Ballerina

removed by request

LEONARD COHEN
Old Ideas

From one of the master singer-songwriter, Leonard Cohen, here are ten new songs that mine the heart, shake the body and break the boundaries as everybody knows only Leonard can do. As a signature of our time, these are songs that nobody knows and everyone will treasure. The album was produced with Patrick Leonard, Anjani Thomas, Ed Sanders and Dino Soldo. Complementing Cohen’s wonderful baritone on Old Ideas are the exceptional vocalists Dana Glover, Sharon Robinson, The Webb Sisters and Jennifer Warnes. The album’s cover design and drawings are Cohen’s own.

ARTIST: Leonard Cohen
TITLE: Old Ideas
LABEL: Columbia
RELEASE DATE: January 31, 2012
TIME: 41:27 min.
WEB: http://www.leonardcohen.com/

01. Going Home [03:51]
02. Amen [07:36]
03. Show Me the Place [04:09]
04. Darkness [04:29]
05. Anyhow [03:08]
06. Crazy to Love You [03:06]
07. Come Healing [02:53]
08. Banjo [03:23]
09. Lullaby [04:46]
10. Different Sides [04:06]

Leonard Cohen – Show Me the Place

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XIU XIU
Always

2012 will mark a decade of Xiu Xiu (the brainchild of San Jose’s Jamie Stewart). Now a five-piece after years of being a duo, the band have signed a new deal with UK indie Bella Union and is releasing their ninth studio album via the label. Famed for “telling all”, even when “all” is extremely personal and often completely bleak, Always is Xiu Xiu as their emotive selves. Still, the band’s last album was called Dear God, I Hate Myself, and Always definitely finds them a little happier than that.

ARTIST: Xiu Xiu
TITLE: Always
LABEL: Bella Union
RELEASE DATE: February 27, 2012
TIME: 38:15 min.
WEB: http://xiuxiu.org/

01. Hi [03:40]
02. Joey’s Song [03:38]
03. Beauty Towne [02:43]
04. Honey Suckle [03:14]
05. I Love Abortion [02:34]
06. The Oldness [03:28]
07. Chimney’s Afire (mickensian suicide) [02:46]
08. Gul Mudin [02:28]
09. Born to Suffer [03:26]
10. Factory Girl [02:23]
11. Smear the Queen [03:21]
12. Black Drum Machine [04:34]

Xiu Xiu – Hi

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TRIBES
Baby

One could not accuse Camden’s Tribes of not aiming high, that’s for sure. Their plucky debut Baby does its utmost to feel big at every turn, both in terms of influence and songwriting. The likes of some tracks judiciously mix gritty Pixies quiet-loudness, arch britpop phrasing, and a splash of Razorlight swagger into something urgent and upfront. Pretty much every track here boasts a chorus apparently designed to be sung back by a room, or better still a field, of people. The next-big-thing?

ARTIST: Tribes
TITLE: Baby
LABEL: Island
RELEASE DATE: January 16, 2012
TIME: 40:28 min.
WEB: http://tribesband.com/

01. Whenever [03:36]
02. We Were Children [03:00]
03. Corner of an English Field [03:42]
04. Half Way Home [03:44]
05. Sappho [03:06]
06. Himalaya [05:19]
07. Nightdriving [04:10]
08. When My Day Comes [02:53]
09. Walking in the Street [03:13]
10. Alone or with Friends [04:06]
11. Bad Apple [03:47]

Tribes – We Were Children

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ANTHONY ROTHER
62 Minutes On Mars

Brand new sonic release from Frankfurt (Germany) based electronic music producer Anthony Rother. 62 Minutes On Mars is a metaphor for life: the topic “Mars” represents a society dominated by money and materialism, the results of this we see when we look at the planet Mars of today. The music is a journey in the orbit of this planet: one floats in the highest orbit on the brink of space and thus in the area of conflict between reality and fiction. Synthesizer sounds and rhythms without boundaries.

ARTIST: Anthony Rother
TITLE: 62 Minutes On Mars
LABEL: FAX +49-69/450464
RELEASE DATE: December 11, 2011
TIME: 62:22 min.
WEB: http://www.anthony-rother.com/

01. Cirklon Vally [09:12]
02. Star Orgy [07:49]
03. Phobos [05:52]
04. Deimos [06:22]
05. Iron Dust [04:24]
06. Time Clouds [03:01]
07. Alpha Cephei [06:40]
08. Delta Ringing [06:01]
09. Wave Odyssey [06:18]
10. Thermal Tune [06:43]

Anthony Rother – Thermal Tune

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NADA SURF
The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy

Nada Surf have managed to squeeze in several lives over the course of almost two decades together: they’ve been called one-hit wonders, sophomore slumpers, dead-and-goners, and have emerged relatively unscathed to find themselves in the year 2012. The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy may be a mouthful to say, but the contents within are straight to the point: at the end of the day Nada Surf aren’t particularly sexy or easy to compartmentalize, they’ve simply survived on their songs. Then again, at the end of the day a great pop song is all you need.

ARTIST: Nada Surf
TITLE: The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy
LABEL: Barsuk
RELEASE DATE: Jauary 24, 2012
TIME: 37:15 min.
WEB: http://www.nadasurf.com/

01. Clear Eye Clouded Mind [03:40]
02. Waiting For Something [03:35]
03. When I Was Young [05:19]
04. Jules and Jim [04:24]
05. The Moon Is Calling [03:08]
06. Teenage Dreams [03:47]
07. Looking Through [03:59]
08. Let the Fight Do the Fighting [03:17]
09. No Snow On the Mountain [04:04]
10. The Future [03:02]

Nada Surf – When I Was Young

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK – #91
as seen on radioSpin

ARTIST: Slow Club
TITLE: Two Cousins
ALBUM: Paradise
WEB: YouTube

directed by Lucy Needs

RS HOT SPOT – #02
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Not so much before ending their tour promoting their first full-length A Bunch of Love Songs and Zombies Lava Lava Love release a bunch of remixes of a bunch of songs taken from the album. Remixes features four re-works and experiments, filling their indie-pop tracks with drum-machines and synths, by Tarick1 (Andrea Calcagno of Numero6), Jacopo Gobber, The Darth Faders (Matteo Gosi and Filippo Mannello of Beaucoup Fish) and Nata Ieri (a.k.a. Natasha Romano of Qali). Remixes is dowloadable in digital format on the band’s Bandcamp page according to the name-your-own-price method: that means you can get it for free, but you’re highly recommended to pay something (it’s up to you, of course), because all the profits from the selling of this EP will be donate to ABEO (Associazione Bambino Emopatico Oncologico), an association supporting children suffering from oncological diseases, based in Verona (Italy).

Lava Lava Love – Sparkling Wine (nata ieri remix)

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PORCELAIN RAFT
Strange Weekend

Remiddi‘s androgynous vapor of a voice weaves like a ghost between Nick Gilder and The Alessi Brothers, Julee Cruise and Judee Sill. In more contemporary terms, Porcelain Raft stands confidently on a high hill between the sounds of M83 and Beach House.
Strange Weekend is made of looping and anthemic tracks, gauzy and chiming atmospheres: soft elctronics for sweet minds.

ARTIST: Porcelain Raft
TITLE: Strange Weekend
LABEL: Secretly Canadian
RELEASE DATE: Jauary 24, 2012
TIME: 34:21 min.
WEB: http://porcelainraft.com/

01. Drifting In and Out [03:14]
02. Shapeless & Gone [03:45]
03. Is It Too Deep for You? [03:46]
04. Put Me to Sleep [03:54]
05. Backwords [04:08]
06. Unless You Speak from Your Heart [03:35]
07. The End of Silence [03:10]
08. If You Have a Wish [02:19]
09. Picture [03:03]
10. The Way In [03:27]

Porcelain Raft – Put Me to Sleep

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THE BIG PINK
Future This

The Big Pink represent far more than simply the duo behind the admittedly fantastic earworm single Dominos from their 2009 release A Brief History of Love. That album and Future This, their second full-length, places the band as one of the main representatives of the radical shift that the indie rock scene (and their label, 4AD, in particular) has taken over the last decade.

ARTIST: The Big Pink
TITLE: Future This
LABEL: 4AD
RELEASE DATE: Jauary 17, 2012
TIME: 44:28 min.
WEB: http://musicfromthebigpink.com/

01. Stay Gold [03:37]
02. Hit the Ground (superman) [04:56]
03. Give It Up [04:50]
04. Morphine [03:24]
05. Ask Quietly [03:16]
06. What If [03:32]
07. Jump Music [04:38]
08. Lose Your Mind [04:09]
09. Future This [03:57]
10. 77 [04:42]

The Big Pink – Hit the Ground (superman) (king krule remix)

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GIRLS
Father, Son, Holy Ghost

Girls return with their long awaited second full-length: more spontaneous and stripped-down than either their self-made debut or their lush EP, Father, Son, Holy Ghost is a gorgeous, largely minor-key record, enlivened by flashes of innocent pop and given depth by its wealth of influences and willingness to face sadness.

ARTIST: Girls
TITLE: Father, Son, Holy Ghost
LABEL: True Panther Sound
RELEASE DATE: September 13, 2011
TIME: 52:36 min.
WEB: http://www.myspace.com/girls

01. Honey Bunny [02:33]
02. Alex [04:51]
03. Die [04:50]
04. Saying I Love You [03:58]
05. My Ma [03:57]
06. Vomit [06:23]
07. Just A Song [06:39]
08. Magic [03:27]
09. Forgiveness [07:49]
10. Love Like A River [03:41]
11. Jamie Marie [04:28]

Girls – Honey Bunny

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FARMER SEA
A Safe Place

Farmer Sea, based in Turin (Italy), was formed in 2004 and from the very beginning has been both well acclaimed by the italian press and also by international magazines such as NME (best breaking bands). These general consents were renewed in 2009 with the band’s first full length album Low Fidelity in Relationships produced by Maurizio Borgna (Perturbazione, Zen Circus, Settlefish, Fine Before You Came). Throughout all these years the band kept on touring and playing as opening act for Girls In Hawaii, Lightspeed Champion, You Say Party, Jennifer Gentle and many others. A Safe Place is their second full length album, entirely produced by the band and inspired by north-american indie-pop, renewed with very particular and personal inserts.

ARTIST: Farmer Sea
TITLE: A Safe Place
LABEL: Dead End Street
RELEASE DATE: January 9, 2012
TIME: 40:14 min.
WEB: http://www.farmersea.it/

01. The Fear [04:40]
02. To the Sun [04:23]
03. Lights [03:38]
04. Small Revolutions [02:57]
05. The Green Bed [03:55]
06. Nothing Ever Happened [02:49]
07. Number 7 [03:10]
08. Summer Always Comes Too Late for Us [06:13]
09. Disappearing Season [04:09]
10. For Too Long [04:20]

Farmer Sea – The Fear

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RS HOT SPOT – #01
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On April 2nd, 2011 LCD Soundsystem played their last show at Madison Square Garden, NYC. Now we have Shut Up and Play the Hits, a documentery that showcases this last, incredible set and gives to us a pretty surprising portrait of the band’s leader James Murphy. The film has been directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace. Here’s the trailer.

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