indie music

New York City’s indie rock band Aeroplane Pageant has a new single “Stars Still Pretty” from their new album, Even The Kids Don’t Believe Me, set for release June 9 on Stormy Ice Records. An album release party will be held tonight (May 30) at Pianos in New York.

Aeroplane Pageant creates addictive melodic pop glazed with swirling guitars and groovy base lines. The vocal style of Brian Kelly has been compared to The Beatles and the guitar riffs “curve, duck, cascade and gush rather effusively” (according to Absolutepunk). Engineer Patrick Stoneback (Vampire Weekend and White Stripes) mixed the new album at Treefort Studio in Dumbo, Brooklyn, New York.

Aeroplane Pageant’s 2007 debut LP Wave to the Moon got the band opening gigs for bands like Vampire Weekend, The Hold Steady, Dr. Dog and Tokyo Police Club.

“Stars Still Pretty” - Aeroplane Pageant from Even The Kids Don’t Believe Me

Aeroplane Pageant official website
Aeroplane Pageant on MySpace

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The music on Dare is a million times better than the album cover

Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Labrador Records, is one of my favorite overseas independent record labels. Over the years, they have assembled an impressive line up of bands, including The Radio Dept, Sambassadeur, The Mary Onettes, The Legends, Club 8 and Acid House Kings.

Fast forward to right now. Labrador has released a fresh batch of superb new songs from The Radio Dept., The Mary Onettes, Pallers, The Legends, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names and The Sound of Arrows. Altogether, this is some of the best indie music out right now, thanks to the smart people with very keen ears for good music at Labrador Records.

In addition to the new releases listed below, you can download a zip file of all of Labrador’s free songs, stream them on LastFM and buy the albums of your favorite Labrador bands on Labrador’s website. Find the release dates for the following list of new songs. Cheers to a great indie label!

“Dare” - The Mary Onettes from Dare EP
The Mary Onettes on MySpace

“David” - The Radio Dept from upcoming David EP
The Radio Dept on MySpace

“1999″ - Suburban Kids With Biblical Names from #4
SKWBN on MySpace

“Humdrum” - Pallers from Humdrum EP
Pallers on MySpace

“Always The Same” - The Legends from Over and Over
The Legends on MySpace

“M.A.G.I.C.” - The Sound of Arrows from M.A.G.I.C.
The Sound of Arrows on MySpace

Get more songs from the Swedish label by downloading the Labrador Spring Sample via Pirate Bay.

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Based on the great response from all of you to the In Dee Mail playlist series, we decided to make it a permanent series on IRC. The number of music submissions we get each week is overwhelming, so hang in there if you submitted some music we haven’t gotten around to yet.

First up in this installment of the In Dee Mail playlist series is a band out of Paris called ProXima who are currently recording their second album Music for Pleasure and have recorded songs for short films by French film director Olivier Benel.

This new single, “My Little Princess”, was sent to me by email and has been “selected to be the music for a new upcoming TV series,” according to the band, who assert they cannot say any more about the TV series, such as, whether it is an American or French show.

“Hey Little Princess” (Radio Edit) - ProXima, new single
ProXima on MySpace

The second track from the mailbox is from a Pennsylvania indie rock band that originally formed in 1985 (I know!) called The Long Afternoon. Intentionally obscure for many years, the only remaining band member, guitarist and vocalist Eston Martz, is back with some new members - Greg Elliott and Jeff Edmunds - and a new album titled Signifying Nothing.

“Signifying Nothing” - The Long Afternoon from Signifying Nothing (2009)
The Long Afternoon on MySpace

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This post is simply to wish Bob Dylan a belated happy birthday. On May 24, Dylan turned 68 years old. Dylan is one of my personal all-time favorite musicians ever since I was a kid and easily one of the best poets of the 20th century. Few artists have the worldwide recognition and acclaim that Dylan enjoys.

The featured video above is one of the most famous music videos of all time, not to mention one of Dylan’s best electric songs, “Subterrian Homesick Blues”. Sounds odd in some ways to say so, but SHB is arguably one of the earliest forms of what would decades later be called ‘rap’ music. The song and the accompanying video will persist in music history through the ages.

Dylan’s complete discography is easily one of the best compilations of music in American history and will continue to influence and inspire talented musicians for eternity.

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Brooklyn shoegaze rockers and 1960’s psychedelic revivalists Donny Hue and the Colors will release their sophomore album Letter from New Virginia on June 23. Former OK Go member Burleigh Seaver recorded and mixed the bands new album.

“I Speak of the Hayseed Cousins” - Donny Hue and The Colors from Letter from New Virginia (June 23)

“Steps” - Donny Hue and The Colors from Letter from New Virginia (June 23)

Donny Hue and The Colors on MySpace

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Originally founded in Orlando, Florida, New Roman Times is an indie rock band
based in Austin, Texas. The current line-up of the band includes Daniel Owens (guitar/vocals), Josie Fluri (bass/vocals), Mike Allen (drums) and Harris Thurmond (guitar/synths).

Their 2005 debut record, International Affairs, on Social Recordings got the attention of the right folks in the industry who set the band to open for popular groups like Death Cab For Cutie, Cursive, The Rapture and VHS or Beta. Their sophomore release, On The Sleeve, is due out July 14 on New Granada Records.

“Smoke in Your Disguise” - New Roman Times from On The Sleeve (July 14)

“VCR” - New Roman Times from On The Sleeve

New Roman Times Official Site

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The Danks perform “In Alright” from their first EP
Canadian indie rock band The Danks was formed by Brohan Moore and two former members of Two Hours Traffic - Alec O’Hanley (guitar and keyboards) and Andrew MacDonald (bass), plus Phil MacIssac (drums). The band’s sound is much like that of the popular garage rock band The Strokes, but with a little more pop influence. The Danks have just released a new single, “Die Young”, from their upcoming release.

“Die Young” - The Danks from Are You Afraid of The Danks (June 30).

The Danks on MySpace

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The Danks perform “In Alright” from their first EP
Canadian indie rock band The Danks was formed by Brohan Moore and two former members of Two Hours Traffic - Alec O’Hanley (guitar and keyboards) and Andrew MacDonald (bass), plus Phil MacIssac (drums). The band’s sound is much like that of the popular garage rock band The Strokes, but with a little more pop influence. The Danks have just released a new single, “Die Young”, from their upcoming release.

“Die Young” - The Danks from Are You Afraid of The Danks (June 30).

The Danks on MySpace

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Hey,

One of the top questions we receive at Indie-Music Network is…

“How do I sell my music online”?

Check out the link below to find one of the best tools available
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A good song doesn’t necessarily have to fit a format, especially when it comes to the time lapse of a song. However, the mega-obsessed music industry has pretty much trained millions of people for decades that a song between three to four minutes is the perfect cookie-cutter formula for a hit record. Huh.

There are plenty of songs that can make a big impact in two minutes or less, especially in the independent and alternative music arena. The following are a collection of songs that come in, do their thing and get out. Nothing wrong with that. But too much of a short thing isn’t always satisfactory, especially when it is something that you want to last longer.

Nevertheless, these songs each find their own way to make a short song work well. Included in this playlist are and the now disbanded Phoenix rockers The Format, the mostly unknown solo artist Super XX Man, the under-rated indie pop band Okay, 90’s alt band Bells Of and London’s new eccentric purveyors of pop Micachu and The Shapes .

“Closer” - The Format, unreleased (2007)

“Waiting For Your Return” - Super XX Man from Vol. IX (2000)

“Only” - Okay from Huggable Dust (2008)

“Star And Sun” - Bells Of from Two Dos Or Not 2 (1995)

“Lips” - Micachu and The Shapes from Jewellery (2009)

Other playlist series you might enjoy:

- The Great Unknowns
- The Songs of Spring
- Cover Me Indie Songs

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