Melbourne based* Oscar and Martin have been making some cutting edge tracks this last 6 months. They’re also signed to what was today voted (by me) the best record label in Australia so you can understand why the musical elite (me again) have embraced them with open arms. Formerly of FBi favourites Psuche, they’re now blowing up with national airtime and attention on a number of particularly reputable blogs. Their album For You was released April 15. Spend here.

 
Oscar + Martin – ‘Recognise’

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Introducing your new favourite band: Givers. There’s a mesh of influences from bands such as Vampire Weekend and Local Natives and guitar tones that sound like they’ve been sampled straight out of Paul Simon’s Graceland (At least in Up, Up, Up). The intesity of the electric guitar at the end of both tracks reminds me of the almighty Fang Island (who I really should have posted about sometime way back when). Despite all these references they’ve still managed to create their own niche in the global soundscape and it’s working for me.

This five piece formed in 2009 and they’ve since signed to Glassnote Records (the same folks who handle Mumford, Phoenix, Two Door Cinema Club etc) so you know that they’ll be crazy huge, crazy soon. That gives you a one month window to enjoy their music before you decide that “you liked their earlier stuff better”. They’ll have a full-length titled In Lights out on June 7th 2011 (but we’ll all agree to hate them by then). In the meantime though, take this in. Unreal.

Givers – ‘In My Eyes’

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Givers – ‘Up, Up, Up’

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This post featured seven mentions of bands that aren’t Givers and four examples of parentheses. I did stats at uni so I know how to work this sort of thing out.

This week I’ve been buried under the collective wait of Bon Iver’s Bon Iver and Hooray For Earth’s True Loves and between the two there’s been almost no room for me to imbibe any other sonic sustenance. Here with very little commentary is a track from Toronto’s Wilderness of Manitoba that you should have put on your Mother’s Day mixtape. I don’t like to throw the hallowed name of Art Garfunkel around too lightly so it’s with a huge grain of salt that I draw comparison between the vocal lines in Mother Song and Art Garfunkel’s voice (his name be praised). Slowcoustic gave this track away as a free mp3 so I’m going to go right on ahead.

Wilderness Of Manitoba – ‘Mother Song’

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Here’s another from TWOM that Spinner gave away a few months ago.

Wilderness Of Manitoba – ‘Orono Park’

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This is EXACTLY your sort of thing. Buy an album (on Amazon? Really?)

Remember when you created your first email address? At the time you thought you could best sum up your personality with something like [email protected] and you were all up on yahoo chat like it didn’t even matter. Eventually you created a new hotmail address before coming of age and deciding that it was time to take off your training wheels and join the big kids at gmail. All the while, that first email address has sat stagnant, out of comission and worth nothing to noone – until today. Today you can sign that email address up to Bon Iver’s mailing list and receive a free download of the first single of his soon to be released self titled album. Boom.

Or you could just use your current regular address. Whatever works. Have a listen below or just download the thing here.

Bon Iver – ‘Calgary’

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It’s track 8 from the self titled Bon Iver, out June 21st through Jagjaguwar records.
You can thank Rach for giving me the heads up to give you the heads up.

I want to start this by raising the obvious question: What are you going to do when an asteroid strikes the earth sending us into that post-apocalyptic state of affairs that makes for great television but poor personal hygiene? It might be today, it might be tomorrow, heck, it might even be the day after. Ultimately I can’t tell you the when, I just want to empower you to think that little bit further ahead so that when it comes you’re ready. What I offer you is not a spaceshuttle nor a bunker, it’s not even a helmet. It’s a soundtrack. It won’t spare you but I’ll be damned if you won’t feel all sorts of cinematic as you stride through asteroid rain, looting shops and rejoicing in the enormous, the uplifting, the glorious Monsters Build Mean Robots.

I’m a hard sale for a band pitching slow-build post-rock so you know Monsters Build Mean Robots have done something right. Have a listen to the choral sections towards the end of ‘Psalm 57 (or) All That Gold Did Not Help Your Soul’. Make sure you’ve got a nice big pair of headphones on or some speakers with juice then crank that thing. These are the sort of tracks you need to listen to start to finish (ie. All music, you impatient nonce) so make sure you give them the chance to build and build and build. Buy the EP here.

Monsters Build Mean Robots – ‘Psalm 57 (Or) All That Gold Did Not Help Your Soul’

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Monsters Build Mean Robots – ‘Song for the Generals’

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