I’ve been incredibly busy the past couple of weeks (primarily moving, among other things) and I’m just now finally getting settled in. I don’t think I’ve had this kind of incessant time away from blogging since I started this thing, but hopefully things will get back to normal around here.

What better way to kick things off than with The Daily Graboid, as this will be another chunk of the last month or so of releases that I’ve missed. Starting next week I will probably get back to a weekly posting of this, so I’m sure that will at least please the majority of you.

Feel free to recommend anything I may have missed!

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Tags: Anna Ternheim, ApSci, Bad Veins, Balmorhea, Bird and Flower, Black Mold, Bygones, Cale Parks, Darlings, David Mead, Edward Sharpe, Florence and the Machine, Foxtails Brigade, Fruit Bats, Generationals, Guy Fantastico, Japandroids, Julian Plenti, Lightning Dust, Lights, Little Tybee, Magnolia Electric Co., Malcolm Middleton, Medeski Martin & Wood, Megafaun, Netherfriends, New Roman Times, Nurses, Portugal. The Man, Rainbow Arabia, Riceboy Sleeps, Rio en Medio, Robert Pollard, Starlight Mints, Sugarplum Fairies, Talbot Tagora, The Daily Graboid, The Fiery Furnaces, The Most Serene Republic, The Silent Years, The Skygreen Leopards, Throw Me The Statue, Wye Oak, YACHT

One thing that usually irks me quite a bit when I notice labels offering a free download (which is great, don’t get me wrong) to promote an upcoming release, is that you normally don’t hear a good enough song to even pique your interest.  I understand that you possibly want to hold off on making the official single as a free download, but at least offer up something to raise my eye brow a little bit.  I guess I’m still a little bit bothered by that awful downloadable track off the forthcoming Jarvis Cocker record.

Now with that off my chest, let’s take a look at Arts & Crafts, a label that always delivers great downloads for their releases.  They’ve made available a free download of “Heavens To Purgatory” off the third full-length from The Most Serene Republic titled …And The Ever Expanding Universe, which is due out on July 14th.  I’ve always enjoyed this band, dating back to when I first heard Underwater Cinematographer and their tour EP, Phages.  The song is absolutely fantastic; starting off with what sounds like a simple Springtime song, with Adrian and Emma trading vocals back and forth until that killer chorus comes at around the one minute mark.  Can’t wait to hear this album!

You can either download the single here (if you’re impatient/lazy like myself) or click this link to access the download from the A&C website.  Using the latter method will require you to provide a little bit of info to download (email, city, country, etc.).

MP3: The Most Serene Republic :: “Heavens To Purgatory”
MP3: The Most Serene Republic :: “Sherry And Her Butterfly Net” [from 2007's Population]

Tags: Arts & Crafts, The Most Serene Republic

This morning I listened to the new song from The Most Serene Republic’s upcoming record and all I have to say is — wow is this really good! The new album is called Population and will be out on October 2nd via Arts & Crafts. I first heard of the group from their 2006 tour EP Phages, and I honestly didn’t like it too much. I haven’t listened to much of their debut album Underwater Cinematographer either. I’ll have to check it out though if it’s even remotely similar to this song.

Listening to this song though is like hearing something from Stars, only that they didn’t release it. It starts with a hint of muffled strings that you can barely make out in the background which fades into a piano playing. This is where it starts getting good as the piano soon segues with a fury into the opening vocals between Adrian Jewett and Emma Ditchburn along with the rest of the band. It’s my favorite moment of the song even though it’s so early. It gives me this huge rush whenever I hear it as it continues to build it’s momentum towards the end of the song. This is great indie-pop and I highly recommend you check it out.

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The Most Serene Republic | “Sherry And Her Butterfly Net”

Tags: The Most Serene Republic