Howl of the Day: No 160

CLOUD NOTHINGS – No Future/No Past

The thudding beat of the latest track from Cloud Nothings echoes the melancholy title, ‘No Future/No Past’. This despair and dirge may be a little disheartening but it sure does make damn good music, plodding along with an almost grunge-like ethos with heavy handed percussion. It’s no surprise that the man behind their new album is Steve Albini, the man who worked with PJ Harvey, The Pixies and Nirvana. Listen, brood and ponder the pointlessness of it all…in a beautiful way, of course….

Howl of the Day: No 159

MODESELEKTOR – Shipwreck (Feat. Thom Yorke)

The electronic whizzes that are Modeselektor are onto their fifth full length LP and are finally getting the recognition their insanely innovative and inviting electric experiments deserve. Their latest video and track, featuring none other than Thom Yorke, is an awesome tale of a boy in the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse, soundtracked by the dark and savage sonic blur created by the band.

Howl of the Day: No 158

CAVE PAINTING – Midnight Love

Brighton based Cave Painting are releasing their new EP, ‘You’ll Be Running Soon‘, on the 7th November and our Howl today is the opener, ‘Midnight Love’. Aptly titled for its twilight ruminations, the band utilise a Foals-esque vibe, full to the brim of broody synths, comfortably high vocals and tribal ruminations.

Howl of the Day: No 157

CANKUN – Wilder Than Thee

A strangely alluring bit of dream pop for the post-Halloween nightmares comes from Cankun, a French act who are soon to be part of a split vinyl project on Hands in the Dark Records, where the label devotes each subsequent release to artists from specific countries. The ‘Travel Expop Series’ starts with France on 26th November and our Howl today is an ambling slice of Cankun’s netherworld sonics in ‘Wilder Than Thee’.

Howl of the Day: No 156

MOON DUO – Horror Tour

Moon Duo are a droning bunch of aural wandering and are celebrating Halloween with the release of a new EP, ‘Horror Tour’, out today. The title track is our Howl of the Day and is a quiet storm of a track.

Howl of the Day: No 155

NORTH AMERICAN HALLOWEEN PREVENTION INITIATIVE – Do They Know It’s Hallowe’en?

Every year, we get the same schmaltzy rejiggings of Do They Know It’s Christmas with crooners asking if a starving, predominantly Muslim country cares about a Christian, consumerist holiday (Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE CHRISTMAS) and Bono thanking God it isn’t him, the selfish prat. So, how about a charitable record with a little more bite…

The North American Halloween Prevention Initiative is a collection of musicians who came together to record a track for UNICEF. It was released on VICE Records and contains what may be the greatest ever coming together of artists for a charity track. Win & Regine of Arcade Fire, Beck, Feist, Syd of Les Savy Fav, Devandra Banhart, Smoosh, Buck 65, Peaches, Thurston Moore, Jenny & Blake of Rilo Kiley, Russell of Sparks, Karen O, Dan & Spencer of Wolf Parade, the late Malcom McLaren and the always awesome David Cross amongst others. Get your blood and cape on and sink your fangs into this…

Howl of the Day: No 154

THEE CORMANS – Open The Gates

Taken from their upcoming Halloween Record, Thee Cormans take a brash, , old school rock and roll attitude to something a little spooky on ‘Open The Gates’. The ballsy surf punk anthem shatters along at breakneck, ghoulish speed and should get you all worked up for the creepy goings on over the next few nights as the dead start to hammer at the gates….

 

Howl of the Day: No 153

LUSHLIFE – She’s A Buddhist, I’m A Cubist (Feat. Cities Aviv)

Lushlife is a rapper from Philadelphia whose latest mixtape, ‘No More Golden Days‘, treads that delicate hip-hop indie line, with guests including Heems of Das Racist and Tim Meskers of Brown Recluse. It’s a beautifully chilled (not quite chillwave but not quite not…) collection of songs that are truly lush, smoothing out any creases in your mind as they play out. Our Howl is the opener ‘She’s A Buddhist, I’m A Cubist‘, featuring Cities Aviv, a track that’s part Starslinger, part Nas. 

 

Howl of the Day: No 152

THEME PARK – Milk

Theme Park are a relatively new act yet have already garnered the love of the blogosphere with their instantly accessible indie blare, gallivanting along on it’s own merriment and high spirits. There are dashes of 80s new wave and moments of modern tropical indie but it all adds up to the yelp and shudder of tracks like ‘Milk‘, our Howl for today. Check out Theme Park at Old Blue Last tomorrow for the Vice Issue Launch.

Howl of the Day: No 151

NADA SURF – When I Was Young

Brooklyn indie veterans Nada Surf made one of Howls personal indie classics in ‘Popular‘, a screeching indictment of teenage life through the path of a ‘self-help’ book, all with wailing guitars and vocals to boot. Their seventh full length, ‘The Stars are Indifferent to Astronomy‘, is out next year and this first track, ‘When I Was Young’, is a melancholic indie tale of growing up and the fragile dreams of youth. The acoustic peace and inevitable build and blast reveal that Nada Surf show no signs of slowing down…