Mike Taylor - Airiel - “Thinktank”, from the CD, The Battle Of Sealand

Formed a decade ago, this Chicago quartet’s debut full-length arrives on August 21st. Recalling more guitar-heavy shoegazers of days past such as Swervedriver, Ride and contemporaries Serena-Maneesh, the band had primarily been playing shows around the Midwest for years, save an occasional jaunt to either coast. As a run-up to the release of The Battle Of Sealand, they just concluded their longest trip to date out west before heading east for a string of dates starting August 10th in New York. If you, like me, are a fan of reverb, distortion, feedback and having a good look at your shoetops, Airiel should be one band you seek out.

Airiel - Thinktank

Matt Shiv - Gabby Glaser- “Naturally High” from the CD Gimme Splash

During my college years, I was a big fan of damn near everything that the Beastie Boys released on Grand Royal. Before long, Luscious Jackson had become one of my favorites on the label. Even though the band has been defunct for several years now, both Jill Cunniff and Gabby Glaser have released their own solo albums within the last few months. Jill’s album had some nice downtempo grooves, but Gabby shows that she is still ready to rock out.

On her album “Gimme Splash”, she works with former Rival Schools members Ian Love and Sammy Siegler. There are some real gems on this record, but I’m partial to this little barnstormer that gets in and out within 2 minutes.

Gabby Glaser - Naturally High

Joe Long - Iron & Wine - “Boy With A Coin”, from the CD The Shepherds Dog.

I had to check back at our previous songs of the week to make sure I had not already chosen this gem from Iron & Wine. Boy With A Coin is an excellent tune that will be on the next Iron & Wine album, The Shepards Dog, due out in September from Subpop. The song takes the hushed vocals of Sam Beam and pairs them with some excellent pickin and hand clapping to make what could be not only my song of the week, but my favorite song so far this summer.

While Beam is better known for his softer side, this one is nice and upbeat and I am hoping that there are some similar cuts on the new album.

Iron & Wine - Boy With A Coin

This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 2:18 pm and is filed under MP3's, Music, Song Of The Week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.