Listen Up! No. 77: Wye Oak - Civilian

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Baltimore duo Wye Oak will make a welcome return in March 2011 with their third album, Civilian, due to be released through the City Slang label. The title track, available below, is a typically foreboding little folk number that suddenly erupts in a gleeful crescendo of shimmering distortion as it reaches its conclusion. Add them to next year's 'wish list' if you haven't already.

You Animals give away free EP for Christmas

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Derby sextet You Animals are offering a free download EP to anyone who signs up for their mailing list before Christmas day.

The band - whose reliance on instant melodies and a bustling rhythms bring to mind a less plaintive Tokyo Police Club - have recorded leftfield alternate takes of two tracks ('What You Want/What You Need' and 'What A Shame, Lorraine') set to feature on their debut album, which will be released by This Is Fake DIY Records in Spring 2011.

Fans who get over to their website and sign up sharpish will also get a free download of the original version of recent single 'What You Want/What You Need', which you can see below:

Listen Up! No. 76: Here We Go Magic - Casual

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Luke Temple's Brooklyn psychedelia merchants serve up another rhythmic swirl of repeated guitar figures and chugging atmospherics, taken from their 2nd LP, Pigeons, which was released back in May. Unremarkable, perhaps, save for a bizarrely unnerving video - overseen by Kodak Vision Award winning young directors Nat Livingston Johnson and Gregory Mitnick - which features gallons of fake blood and a 7-foot drummer being born from a 70-year-old woman. Not exactly 'Casual', eh?

Listen Up! No. 75: Shimmering Stars - I'm Gonna Try

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Simple '60s doo-wop melodies, full-band harmonies and understated production values? Ten seconds in and you might think you've heard it all before - and recently - but Vancouver quartet Shimmering Stars offer something more substantial than many of bands contributing to this year's surf-pop zeitgeist. They're singing about love, not lust, and not through a haze of weed smoke; instead a sense of level-headed yearning and wry self-deprecation provide ballast for their relationship laments.  

One look at the video for new vinyl-only single 'I'm Gonna Try', which comes out via Almost Musique on 20 December, confirms that these are the real deal hopeless romantics.


Shimmering Stars - I'm Gonna Try from Salazar on Vimeo.

Listen Up! No. 74: Harrys Gym - Old Man

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Icier than the involuntary December speed-skate to the tube, but balanced with such lush production you'll dream you're wrapped up cosily in a log cabin; those Scandinavians (Norwegians, in this instance) certainly know their way through the brooding, ethereal pop forest.


Harrys Gym -  Old Man from heide on Vimeo.

You can also pick up a free remix of this track by heading here to download.