I’ve been racking my brain to think of current, quality Western Suburbs bands. I was going to push, as the thesis for this post, the idea that the western suburbs are the new breeding grounds for quality music but it just doesn’t seem to be the case. Jonathan Boulet and Parades were all I could think of, off the top of my head. Feel free to let me know any glaringly obvious artists that I’m missing. The reason I raise this is because there is an emerging band from the west that, well, quite honestly rule. They’re called Sleepyhands.

Despite having a name with self-sexual connotations (or so I’m told), Sleepyhands have received a lot of attention. They’ve even been contacted by bigwigs from some decent labels. I know right!? The EP isn’t out yet but this guy right here has a copy and it’s got me buzzing (more than the new Band of Horses AND the new National COMBINED). Yowzer!

I’ll let you pause here so that you can appreciate one of their tracks as you read on. The second track from the soon to be released EP, it’s called We Being Humans. It’s the least produced and simplest of the five songs on the EP.

Sleepyhands – We Being Humans

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The record will be released mid June and I’m unsure about its distribution currently. What I will say though, is that if you want me to get a copy for you and give it to you when I see you then just say so, unless you’re one of my many international readers. I’ll tell you again right now, it’s brilliant. The production (aided by Jonathan Boulet) is cracking and the harmonies are out of sight.

If you want to see them play they’ve got a show on
Thursday the 3rd of June at the Brass Monkey.
I’ll be there. If you go we can carpool! You drive though, I did my part by just letting you know about the show. Sweet deal.

Hear more at www.sleepyhands.com or follow their facebook page

Hell, it’s a good day for streaming. Infinite Arms, the new record from Band of Horses is available now in its entirety. A few of the songs will already be familiar to you if you’ve been following the staggered releases of a few tracks over the past month or so. I can’t confirm that this link actually works since I’m on a uni pc but if you want to check it out and get back to me you can stream the whole guy here

“Factory” from Infinite Arms is available as a free download here
“Compliments“, the first single from Infinite Arms was also made available as a free download. Not the mp3 though, the music video. It’s an mp4 I think. That was downloadable at the Band of Horses website. I’m not sure if it still is but I hope so, because I care for you, reader.

Finally, they’re coming out for Splendour. We can’t all afford that thousand dollar adventure so I plan to attend the sideshow at Enmore Theater on Thursday the 29th of July. Tickets are $61.50, go on sale on Wednesday the 13th of May and are available here.

Yesterday, the debut record from Brooklyn’s Sleigh Bells came out. I’ve been loving Crown on the Ground and Tell ‘Em so I’m pretty psyched on listening to this thing through. Luckily that’s well within my reach. The entire album is streaming for the rest of the week on NPR.

I’m normally antagonistic when it comes to the whispy singer songwriter. This guy, Dan Wythoff, I like. I can’t really say why. I don’t have time for the Joshua Radins, Eric Hitchinsons and the William Fitzimmons’ of this world. There’s something that’s almost too easy about them. Dan Wythoff has slightly more upbeat, more “fun” rythyms. Often you can’t tell whether he is guy or girl and that really resonates with me in this ambivalent, gender confused time that we live. All guys go through periods here they can’t figure out if they’re truly male and need to take a peek to make sure. Right…? I’m pretty sure that’s the case.

Listen to this track. If you’re a girl then you’ll probably like him. If you’re a liberal guy you might too. Hell I do, and I’m all man.

Dan Wythoff – Making Room

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Dan Wythoff – Soft Breeze

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Great news! His EP is out now. Better still, it’s free! Download it here.
On a similar note, I’ve added a couple of links to the side of the page. One of the is which is a pretty awesome page. Scope it.

I can’t be bothered retyping what’s already been suitably typed so here it is, in someone else’s words.

There’s a new supergroup brewing that includes members of The Killers, Keane, Mumford and Sons and Noah And The Whale. Known as Mt Desolation, the collaborative effort will release an as-yet untitled album later this year. So far, two song names have sprung up from home-brew demos, ‘Departure’ and ‘Annie Ford’.

The album will apparently have a distinct country sound, although the writing duo behind it admit that “two English men trying to sing like Hank Williams [is] definitely a recipe for disaster”. It sounds interesting, at least.

The project is spearhead by Keane keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley and occasional Keane bassist Jesse Quin, but will also feature The Killers’ drummer Ronnie Vannucci, Noah And The Whale fiddle player Tom Hobden, Mumford And Sons banjo player Winston Marshall and the Long Winters’ guitarist John Roderick, among others.

– Musicfeeds

Here’s hoping they’ll be half as good as their collective cult following would suggest.