Neil Young’s latest album Chrome Dreams II, a revived shelved 1977 project, is set to hit stores next week. It’ll undoubtedly at least be a decent addition to the Canadian musician impressive catalog, a catalog that many bands had the privilege to sample and cover. Georgia indie quintet Of Montreal is such a band, covering Neil Young’s classic Harvest Moon. Kevin Barnes vocals take on the song, laid upon a simple 2 chord acoustic, make it sound more relaxed and sweeter then the original.

via P4K.

Tags: Neil-Young, Of-Montreal

Washingtion DC noise rock Apes quartet are preparing to release their forth full length album in the form of “Ghost Games,” scheduled to be released February 19, 2008. One of the tracks off the band’s upcoming effort is the synth infused “Beat of the Double.” It’s certainly feels a little different from their previous material, most likely because of new lead singer Breck Bunson refreshing vocals. Liars influences can be felt through out the song. The percussion work on Beat of the Double is particularly exceptional and impressive, add that to the rest of the band’s experimental vibe that it  employs and  you’ve got yourself a wicked song on your hands.

Tags: Apes, Liars

PJ Harvey is undoubtedly one of my favorite contemporary female vocalists, her  unpredictable vocals have always been a mystery to me. Her voice can switch from intimacy to anger as if on a hair trigger, a quality or better yet gift few artists posses and master. Now after 15 years of experience in the music industry Polly Jean released her eighth album this week, called White Chalk, in which she ditched her trademark guitar for quiet and beautiful piano, thus providing some much needed space for her falsettos. She’s an artists that hates to repeat herself and is always on the lookout for new and extraordinary themes. That lead to eight remarkably different, but at the same time familiar LP’s, thanks to PJ’s unique view and femininity, found in all her albums.

“The Devil” is, in my book, the best track of “White Chalk” a testament to PJ’s incredible voice. Starting with a thrilling piano line, then slowing down for a string of falsetto, before bursting in a explosive chorus, after which it plunges into darkness. Perfection.

Tags: PJ-Harvey, White-Chalk

NYC math rockers Battles released a formidable debut full length album in the form of Mirrored, at the start of this year, a record full of experimental synths, calculated,robot like percussions and guitar chops and beats that would cause shame even to the best MC. It also featured vocals for the first time, as in their previous EPs Battles song were only instrumental, if you can call Tyondai Braxton’s munchkins-like vocals singing. “Tonto“, the second single after the highly praised Atlas, incredibly summarizes the whole record and what I’ve said earlier, perfectly. As for the video it’s a lot more darker then I would’ve expect, as opposed to the lively Atlas and very well reflects the song’s dynamic nature and over all weirdness. Always hard to describe experimental songs and videos, better have a look at it for yourself and tell me how you fell about it.

Tags: Battles

Artist name: Animal Collective
Album name: Strawberry Jam
Label: Domino Records
Gender: Experimental/Indie Rock
Release date: September 11, 2007
ZMErating: 10/10
Website: http://www.paw-tracks.com/

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Anyone who at least gave a spin to a Animal Collective album should know that their sound is far from commercial, extremely selective and most of the time plain old inaccessible. They’ve been regarded by most music savvy men as a bastion of quality indie music, alongside such acts as Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes or Surfjan Stevens, fact never reflected in their sales. Their past album “Feel“, although still maintaining the charasteristic experimental band features, opened the way for a more accessible path. “Strawbery Jam“, the seventh AC album, continues down the same road as its predecessor, a lot more catchy and listenable, fact that will assure the band some new fans, but make no mistake still very un-conventional and far from mass consumer friendly. This is a band that will never see mainstream success, and very unlikely to be heard on your local radio station.

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Tags: Animal Collective, Arcade-Fire, Beach-Boys

Portland based experimental band Menomena are back with a new video about “the bird and the bees”, a tale of love or circle of life documentary, you’ll be the judge of that. The “Evil Bee” video has succeeded in diverging my focus entirely on the video, barely noticing the song at all, and that’s a big thumbs up for director Stefan Nadelman. Glasses of redish liquid are carries across assembly lines, until finally they reach a worker bee; he drinks it and regurgitates it back in the form of honey. Sick of the life of a worker bee slave the rebel insect turns against the evil half pigeons, half excavator and flees through the dark caverns, before he meets his female friend. Together they fly out of the pigeon prison and have mate on a nearby flower, making honey the natural way, better then vomiting i guess.

Tags: Menomena

Many thanks to GorillavsBear for posting this amazing cover, of Kate Bush’s smashing 1985 single “Running Up That Hill“, by Seattle based noise rock band Chromatics. Running Up That Hill was always a ’80s favorite of mine, and out of all the covers that have surfaced around the years I definitely think this is the best. Ruth Radelet vocals are excellently suited to the sound of distorted harmonicas and guitar chops, the end result is a stunning track that doesn’t bring any shame to Kate Bush’s classic and provides a excellent listen in your iPod.

Tags: Chromatics

Artist name: Liars
Album name: Liars
Label: Mute Records
Gender: Experimental/Indie
Release date: August 28, 2007
ZMErating: 8.5/10
Website: http://www.liarsliarsliars.com/

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Liars is one of those bands that you simply don’t know what to expect from, they’re totally unpredictable and always experimenting with their music. This has caused some severe loss of fan base over the past years, because of their ever changing albums, each LP with a totally different and weird theme (witches, betrayal, the adventures of a Mr. Heart Attack etc), but this however has caused Liars to have one of the strongest and most loyal fans a young band could possibly wish. Now at their forth album, the self titled release “Liars”, they are ready to set new standards in experimental and post-punk, with yet another artistic sharp turn.

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Tags: Beck, Liars, Muse, Radiohead