2010 Releases You Might Have Missed, Vol. II: The Pass, Secret Cities, City Light, Scanners, Sambassadeur & More
With so many new releases coming out all of the time, it’s impossible to keep up with them all. Sometimes there are new releases that we don’t have the time to feature in the Best New Releases of the Week series, or that we don’t know about until after the fact.
Therefore, it was not only a sanity check to organize recent “missed” releases somewhere convenient, but also a practical idea that friends have told us we should keep publishing to the web. A couple of weeks ago we launched the first of the Releases You Might Have Missed playlist mix, and the response, in numbers, was impressive. So it only makes sense to keep arranging and publishing “missed” tracks and albums to share with all. We hope you find some tracks in the mix that you really dig, and would not have otherwise heard anywhere else.
First up, Louisville, Kentucky’s electro pop quintet The Pass. On February 23rd, the band dropped their DIY debut EP, Colors. The four-piece outfit, with their admiration for 80’s synth music, recently signed to SonaBlast Records, and are now recording their debut LP to be mixed by producer and engineer Alex Aldi (Tokyo Police Club, Passion Pit, Harlem Shakes and The Walkmen). If The Pass’ self-released EP is any indication of what’s to come from their first album, this could be one of the biggest “new” bands of 2010; they’re already one of our Bands to Watch in 2010.
“Crosswalk Stereo” - The Pass from Colors
“Colors” - The Pass from Colors
Secret Cities is a psychedelic electro-acoustic indie band from Fargo who recently signed with Western Vinyl Records in Austin. Last month the band released a double side single and in June will drop their debut LP, Pink Graffati.
“Pink Graffati” - Secret Cities from Bright Teeth/Pink Graffitti single (Feb. 23rd)
City Light is a Seattle-San Francisco Bay Area band born out of the ashes of post hardcore influenced indie bands mixing 8-bit samples with electro-lush synths and raspy Conor Oberst-like vocals. Stream their new album, Burned Out Bright, on MySpace.
“Some Day Maybe” - City Light from Burned Out Bright (Feb. 1st)
“Apologies” - City Light from Burned Out Bright
“Stranded” - Sambassadeur from European (Feb. 23rd)
“Still Again” - The New Monarchs from Blue Prints (Feb. 16th)
“Makes Me Happy” - Undersea Poem from s/t debut - (Feb 9th)
“We Never Close Our Eyes” - Scanners from Submarine (Feb. 16th)
“Eileen” - Lord Numb from Numbskull (out Feb. 15th)
“Learn How to Hang” - David Vandervelde from Learn How to Hang (Feb. 16th)
> David Vandervelde offical website
“Blue-Eyed Universe” - Fictionist from Lasting Echo (Feb. 19th)
> Fictionist website official website
“I’Itoi” - Mako Sica from Dual Horizon (Feb. 16th)
Flashtrack: The Japandroids
This is just a little diversion from the theme of this playlist. This next track comes by way of the Japandroids, a Vancouver indie rock duo who broke through the saturated playing field to gain a rather large following in short order, as well as wide praise from bloggers and the mainstream media. Last summer, the two college buddies released their debut LP, Post Nothing, via Polyvinyl Records. The album was subsequently nominated for Canada’s prestigious Polaris Music Prize.
“Art Czars” - Japandroids from Post Nothing (2009)
> Japandroids official website
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