Maybe it’s just smoke from all the fireworks they’ve been setting off in the Sound It Out offices lately, but I’m really digging the thick haze of “Tell Me How It Is,” the new single from San Francisco rockers Male Gaze. Of course, SIO has been repping Male Gaze since their stunning 2015 debut introduced […]
What happens when whiz kids turn their sights onto straight-ahead indie rock? “Fingerprints,” the new single by Ohmme, provides one answer. A deft juggling act of unfussy melody, nimble vocals, and fluid shifts of tempo and feel, the tune features a cool trick: a tumbling vocal figure, alternated rapidly between Ohmmists Sima Cunningham and Macie […]
I suppose it’s an arguable point, but CAN were probably the greatest of the German kosmiche (a.k.a. “krautrock”) bands. From 1968 through the entire 70s and then a worthwhile reunion in 1989, the quartet pursued an expansive scope of avant-garde improvisation, global groove, acid rock, and European classical music. Each member brought a distinctive style […]
Man, you couldn’t pay me a million bucks to be a teenager again! (Have you seen “13 Reasons Why”?) But for articulating with unironic commitment the feel of a world falling apart, go straight to the source: Agent blå and their latest single “Derogatory Embrace,” all clanging guitars and passing-trains drums. The members of this […]
Huh, I forgot there were still bands who want to rock like this… and now I realize how much I miss them. Sleepy Sun play sweeping alt-rock that swings for the bleachers with a poetic beating heart. The San Francisco group draws on a lineage that winds through the godhead evocations of Pink Floyd and […]
Barely a year after releasing one of 2016’s best debut albums, Big Thief have a new record that gives us a clearer idea of what this band is up to. Capacity discards many of the group’s more obvious alt-rock gestures, yielding an album simultaneously mellow and feral. On “Shark Smile,” peals of guitar reverb and […]
Summer changes everything, doesn’t it? In other seasons, the lackadaisacal indie rock of H. Hawkline could sound a bit daffy, possibly irritating to a body trying to stay warm and get shit done. Then June arrives, the days grow longer, the pressure eases, and now exploring the pointillist arrangement and pleasing bop of his latest […]
North Americans have a rich tapestry of road-trip music to call their own, including the garden-variety “life is a highway” mixtape; the surprisingly vibrant (thanks to Kurt Vile and Steve Gunn) “sad pothead leaving town at sunrise” genre; and my personal favorite, the “get the hell out of Dodge” soundtrack. Endless Boogie are masters of […]
Set the controls for the heart of the sun — or, by the sound of it, a chilly flat in gray England — on the latest single from Jane Weaver. We here at Sound It Out have long championed this Liverpudlian’s intoxicating blend of droning space-rock and spooky Brit-folk. “Did You See Butterflies?” steers her […]
The revival of 1960s psychedelia has been an enjoyable game in rock music, well, since the 60s ended. What indie rocker Doug Tuttle uniquely brings to this game is revealed by his tape cuts. For example, you’re easing into “Can It Be?” — an inspired, full-bodied restoration of electric folk rock circa 1965 — and […]