Honorly Mentions

As I begin to make my year-end lists (a favorite pass-time of mine), I always end up finding a lot of cool stuff that I either forgot about throughout the year or just completely missed my chance to post them. So, instead of just forgetting about them again, I call them honorly mentions (a play on yearly and honorable I guess) and share 'em like this:

Pink Richard - Volume 1 (2014)

Pink Richard is the side project of Jesse Gertz of the Portland electronic (now three-piece) band, Leveret. It's not too much of a stray away from the indie pop gems on Infinity released in 2012, but these stripped down acoustic visions are definitely a separate entity. A little folky, a little poppy, a little singer songwriter-y - a little Pink Richard.

There's a neat drum solo somewhere in there, too:



P.S. If you buy this (very snazzy looking) tape you get 7 separate mp3's rather than the streamable one track deal above.

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Rosetta - Flies to Flame (2014)

After hearing Rosetta's 2013 release, The Anaesthete, I thought we would be getting a lot more hardcore and even less atmosphere on their next effort. Then Rosetta released Flies to Flame  last month and my predictions were all off. No, they didn't go full post rock or anything, but they brought back the atmospheric undertones that was the hooked that fished me in several years ago. Plus, this release still has the intensity that The Anaesthete was bursting at the seams with, but it's spread out again and takes its time getting there. It's vintage Rosetta.

 I'm not saying I didn't like The Anaesthete, it was one of my top albums of last year for sure, but it's almost non-canon Rosetta once you start to listen to this EP.





It's all apples and oranges in the end, and it's all good.

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Bearmace - Aim Low (2014)

Bearmace are a noisy almost violent punk rock band from Montreal. The lo-fi recordings of Aim Low, released at the very beginning of 2014, really echoes the recordings of early hardcore and powerviolence. Don't let Bearmace's retro approach fool you though, this is apparently meant to be played on vinyl.






Maybe I'm just out of touch, but this sure sounds like something I would find on cassette in my friend's cooler-older-brother's room when I was 13. Too bad that scenario never existed...

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Thou - Heathen (2014)

Thou play thick doomed-out metal that demands attention. Heathen is no different. Not only is this 10 track banger a major pain on my neck, it also demands me to sit down and listen to it over and over again or else I have not listened correctly. With that being said, I think Thou's Heathen has incredible listening mileage and will be an album I try to listen to a lot in 2015. It's certainly not a one listen and it's in the bag kind of album, especially not with an incredibly brutal 14 minute opener begging to be familiarized. This kicks my ass the more and more I listen to it.

  \m/ A punch in the face never felt so good \m/

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NFT's December Mix

Lost some creative juices this past week and still haven't finished my part 2 best of whatever list. I have however been making lots of mixes lately. here's one right now:

Enjoy!

PS: There's no Christmas music. 

Monday LXXXXIV Best of 2013 part 1

Just some stuff that's not Yeezus, Reflektor, or Sunbather.

Mylets - Recton (2013)

Mylets is a one-man math rock excursion by Henry Kohen. Using the power of loop pedals and a super catchy vocal arsenal, Mylets is a simple meets complex listening experience. A must for any fan of Tera Melos, Girlfriends, Boyfrndz, Monster Machismo, or Adebisi Shank.

Favorite track: "Hungover Tehran"


Last.fm

Listener - Time is a Machine (2013)

I was surprised to see that Time is a Machine did not receive much attention after the large praise that Wooden Heart got a few years back. Still, Time is a Machine is not far behind where Wooden Heart left off and will certainly hold up in time for when people really start listening again.

Favorite track: "Eyes to the ground for change"


Last.fm

The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die - Whenever, If Ever (2013)

2013 was definitely The World is...'s biggest year to date. From the raise of the shitty "mememo" terms to someone behind Buzzfeed figuring out there's still a genre called emo and it doesn't suck, The World is... seemed to be the front runners of a cool new thing. They have a really long ridiculous name and just as ridiculous lineup, why wouldn't they be the stars of the next "emo revival" generation? Hell, maybe next year The World is... will be on SNL!

Whenever, If Ever really is a solid album though whether you wanna believe the hype or not.

Favorite Track: "Fightboat"



Serengeti - Kenny Dennis LP (2013)

Serengeti's alter ego, Kenny Dennis returned this year with a bang when the Chicago native dropped his LP on the world.  K.D.'s repetitive and sometimes incoherent rap style puts me in a hypnotic trance that makes me want to watch old NBA games and play Sonic on my aunt's Sega Genesis.

Favorite track: "Directions"

Along with Kenny Dennis's LP, Serengeti also released Saal, C.A.B. (a follow-up to C.A.R.), a single featuring a b-side about "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, and his Yoome project's (along with Renee Louise Carafice and Tony Trimm) June album.

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Russian Circles - Memorial (2013)

Russian Circles just being Russian Circles. The groovy post metal lords even throw in a little number featuring vocal duties by Chelsea Wolfe which resembles a True Widow track that never was.

Favorite track: "Memorial (Ft. Chelsea Wolfe)" and "Lebaron" (for the more traditional RC experience)



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Honorable mentions/already talked about:

Foxing - An Albatross
Toasted Plastic - June Highs
A Great Big Pile of Leaves - You're Always On My Mind
Phantom Glue - A War of Light Cones
One Hundred Year Ocean - Where Were You While We Were Getting High?
Rosetta - Anaesthete
The Reptilian - Low Health
Leveret - Infinity

So... what's left?

NFT's 69 + 31 Favorite Songs of 2013!

Despite what my lack of posting may show, I actually listening to a lot of new music this year. So much so that a 69 list just ain't gonna cut it anymore and I'm going to have to whip out the 69 + 31 (that's 100!) list as I countdown all my favorite tracks this year. The list is in order best I could do, but towards the end it was more via what did I listen to the most kind of rating scale.

100. Bubble Butt - Major Lazer
99. The Rind - Aye Nako
98. Separations - Diarrhea Planet
97. Nosebleeds - Best Friends
96. Love and Death - Raein
95. 95 Til Infinity - Joey Bada$$
94. Sum Of All Parts - Crash of Rhinos
93. Havoc in the Forum - TTNG
92. Murmurer - Why?
91. You Can’t Be My Girl - Darwin Deez
90. King Shiv - Man Man
89. Lonely - Danny Brown
88. BATH SALTS - Future Death
87. Our Song - Radiator Hospital
86. Moving Parts - Boyfrndz
85. Bathroom Laughter - Pissed Jeans
84. Dakota - Tiny Moving Parts
83. Gravity, Metaphorically - Touche Amore
82. Yay Yay - Schoolboy Q
81. Dead Nostalgia - Junior Astronomers
80. In Black Roses - AFRAID
79. Watch You Suffer - Weekend Nachos
78. Vs. Jimmy - The Devil and a Penny
76. Dogfood - Sleeping Bag & Rozwell Kid
75. OK Corral - T. Hardy Morris
74. Bruane Brenn - Kvelertak
73. Reading Youtube Comments - Drug Church
72. He’s An Anteater, - Duck. Little Brother, Duck!
71. Sergue - The Explorations
70. Abandon - Baptists
69. Stardate/The Return - Deltron 3030
68. Spaghet - Two Hand Fools
67. I Have the Wine - Sate. Nite Duets
66. Back to School - A Great Big Pile of Leaves
65. Feeders - CUSS
64. everything around me - Trace Mountains
63. Pro Wrestling - Billy Woods
62. Proximity Anxiety - Pyres
61. Lindsey - Little Big League
60. La Resolve - Jel
59. Absurdities & Echoes - Wreck & Reference
58. Orchard - Windhand
57. PLEASANCE (WDGAF) - Kool & Kass
56. Bukowski - Moose Blood
55. HIDING - Pianos Become The Teeth
54. Awkward - FIDLAR
53. Bit by a Dead Bee pt. 1 - Foxing
52. When You Are Close, I Am Gone - My Fictions, The Saddest Landscape
51. Vacations - Dead Confederate
50. Nightshade (Mandragora II) - Botanist
49. Language Juice - Sun Club
48. Don’t Drive Angry - Iron Chic
47. Parking Lot - Kal Marks
46. Fog of Apathy - Vattnet Viskar
45. You might think he loves you for your money but I know what he really loves you for it's your brand new leopard skin pillbox hat - Death Grips
44. No Below - Speedy Ortiz
43. Hospital Town - One Hundred Year Ocean
42. Sweet Chin Music (The Fisher King’s Theme) - Milo
41. Creeper - True Widow
40. Washy - Nai Harvest
39. Fall - Leveret
38. Eyes To The Ground For Change - Listener
37. Pepsi/Coke Suicide - Elvis Depressedly
36. Glasgow - Øjne
35. Bow in the Dust - Phantom Glue
36. Throats & Tongues Alone - The Body In The Kelp
35. Hangout Tehran - Mylets
34. Because The Night - Screaming Females & Garbage
33. In The Middle of the Night Someone Tore Off the Ceiling and Sucked Me into the Sky... - Giraffes?Girafffes!
32. Getting Sodas - The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die
31. Blood In My Veins - Defeater
30. Greater Thinking - Toasted Plastic
29. Directions - Serengeti
28. Haunches - Sannhet
27. Black Dog - Spook Houses
26. Tropic Lame - Tera Melos
25. Blurry - Captain Hollow
24. Deny the Absolute - Pelican
23. You Don’t Turn Down - Marnie Stern
22. Bald History Month - Fat History Month
21. Keif Puck - The Reptilian
20. Watered Down - Swearin’
19. Trial One - LVL UP
18. Phobophobic - Conjjjecture
17. Boobies - Pachangacha
16. Impostor - Sirs
15. Grenville Pt. II - Dungeon Kids
14. Memorial (Feat. Chelsea Wolfe) - Russian Circles
13. Brass - Native
12. Promise - Adventures
11. Big Things Do Remarkable - And So I Watch You From Afar
10. Prayers (demo version) - Pill Friends
9. Visions - Saintseneca
8. Parts Mountain - An Anderson
7. Library (7'' version) - Julia Brown
6. You Are The Apple - Lady Lamb The Beekeeper
5. Paper Thin - RVIVR
4. Unbecoming - RAGANA
3. I’m Your Dad And You’re My Dad - Two Knights
2. VI (Worm Feeds God // God Fears Youth) - Code Orange Kids
1. Twin Size Mattress - The Front Bottoms

Monday LXXXXIII

Busted eardrums will thank you.

Special Explosion - Special Explosion (2013)

Special Explosion are the newest members of the Topshelf Records family. This release is a combination of  pretty much all the material that Special Explosion have released in the past all rolled up into one great little record debut of sorts.



Nice indie rock/pop punk.

Last.fm

Cara Neir - Portals to a Better, Dead World (2013)

Want to bring a little darkness to your holidays? How about some crusty two-piece blackened metal?

Cara Neir's got you covered.


I was pretty surprised to see these guys make Spin's 20 Best Metal Albums as well as Stereogum's however many albums they want to put below Sunbather metal list this year. Hell, Cara Neir even made it onto a College Humor list and labeled as "...great for everyone who would prefer to be dead". I would not go as far as to say that this album would make you want to off yourself, but Portals to a Better, Dead World would definitely make it into my favorite metal things list this year if I had one (even though I wouldn't consider them straight-up metal).

Last.fm

Captain Hollow - Mares Got Strangled (2013)

From what it seems, Mares Got Strangled might be Captain Hollow's "final transmission for a while". As someone who has been following this Bangor/Portland band for a bit now, I'm surprised they haven't broken up yet. Then again, I probably say that every time they return to make one last album.



Mares Got Strangled is without question Captain Hollow's most experimental release. If you get passed the fact that this album is not serious at all, you can really start to enjoy its all-over-the-place-ness.

I also really appreciate the Pooty Tang reference (track 5). The world needs more Pooty Tang references.

Last.fm

NFT's November Mix

Not sure what happened to November. More posts and music coming soon, though.

Lots of pop punk/power pop stuff in this one.

Enjoy!

NFT's September Mix

It's October now. Get your ears on the new NFT mix for the month of September (2013):

Got any mixes of your own? Lemme know!

NFT Summer Sounds '13 mix

It's been a while since I posted one of these things.

Since I was gone for two months recently with very little resources for finding music, I don't really have any mixes made up for June or July - however, each year I make a little mix of tracks I liked to listen to for that particular summer. So, that's what this is. It covers all the goodies I jammed out to from later May until right up until this last weekend. There's a lot of tracks missing, of course, because Spotify (wine, wine), but it's the easiest way to stream music these days. Check it out:

RIP summer 2013. 

NFT is Back!!!

After two months tugboating the Gulf Coast, Nostalgia For Tomorrow is back from the dead and ready to fill your empty music holes on the side of your head some call ears with the steamiest of steaming piles of music from all over the internet and my home state of Maine. Fuck apologies. Here's music:

Atlas At Last - Atlas At Last (2013)

Atlas At Last is a clever name. So is their music. But what could they possibly sound like?

Well, while their description on Last.fm may suggest post-hardcore and are heavily influenced by the Blood Brothers and At The Drive-In, I would have to say they sound a bit more like the punk groups Joyce Manor and Big Kids that I sometimes refer to as "aggressive pop punk". Cringe-worthy, I know, but that's the best I got...

Just listen for yourself:


Last.fm


mnttaB - Welcome to the planet, dear. (2013)

Don't really know what to say about this one... found it in my mailbox and played it while I fell asleep one night. It gave me weird nightmares. One included Queen Latifah when she was on Fresh Prince of Bel Air that time. I don't feel comfortable going into detail on that one.



Last.fm

Snort - Ron (2013)

Snort is a band from a friend of mind's college in Wisconsin. As you can see above, it's one of those hip colleges... but hey, I love me some instrumental rock music described as "twinkly" or "mathy', so really, who am I to judge?

Actually, I'm just jealous I don't go to a hip college.

Anyways, I highly recommend Snort to anyone who enjoys those things I said in those last couple sentences. Especially instrumental twinkly math rock.

Or hip Wisconsin twinkly judge.



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Boston Marathon Relief Mixtape

various artists - Boston Marathon Relief Mixtape (2013)

Another great chance to support Boston in a music related way!

This mixtape, curated by Allston Pudding - a Boston-based music blog - features even more music than The BIG Comp posted below. Fifty five more songs to be exact!

It's awesome to see so much support for Boston and how quickly people have responded to the events this week.

This mixtape of varying acts (that I'm familiar with at least) includes: Speedy Ortiz, Devil and a Penny, Mean Creek, The Box Tigers, Bearstronaut, Old Abram Brown, Royal Wedding, and even Maine's own, Brenda. Like I said though, there's a lot of music on this mix... 130 songs (that's like 7 mixtapes) in all. There's bound to new gems and discoveries. Donate and discover:



All proceeds go to The One Fund Boston!

Allston Pudding

NFT's March Mix

Just finished up this bad boy!

NFT March mix:

Bonus:

If you are a Spotify user like me, I would highly recommend checking out The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die's already super rad mix that they've been working on called, The World is a Beautiful Mixtape. It's got lots of goodies!

Side note: It's always been an internet dream of mine to be able to post mixtapes sent in by bands that I could host exclusively for NFT. Someday maybe, someday.

Anyways, enjoy!

Brave Bird full-length!

Brave Bird - Maybe You, No One Else Worth It (2013)

Brave Bird, yes the Ready or Not Brave Bird from way back in 2010, are still alive and well (and on tour even). This is their first full-lengther, Maybe You, No One Else Worth Is out now on Count Your Lucky Stars.

If you didn't like their EP, Ready or Not (posted way way way back in the day) I would still give these guys a listen. Chances are that you didn't like the vox, I know I know, but the vocals are a little more sustainable now that things are polished up. If you loved Ready or Not on the other hand, I highly suggest you get this album! Even if you don't like the other songs, they still have a few from their fateful 2010 release. If you really liked the song, "See You Next Year" though, you are shit out of luck; that song didn't make it. Sorry. There is "I'll See You at the Ring of Fire" however, which is the closer and also acoustic just like "See You Next Year".

If you do decide to give these guys a chance, I highly recommend getting yourself a nice big cookie and a tall glass of milk... Because if you ever needed an excuse to binge on cookies and milk alone in your room, this album is the perfect reason.

Why?

Because I said so.

...and because that's what I'm doing right now...

Or about to...

Okay. I am.

Highlights: Oh, you know.



Count Your Lucky Stars
Bandcamp
Last.fm

NFT's February Mix

NFT February mix:

Just a reminder:

If you are curious as to what NFT was listening to that can't be found on Spotify, I highly recommend checking out this blog's side project/experiment NFT Presents: Song and Match of the day! 

The site currently needs a little updating so posts will randomly start appearing were there wasn't posts before... Just something to look out for I guess.

TTNG - 13.0.0.0.0.

This Town Needs Guns - 13.0.0.0.0. (2013)

TTNG have a new album.

I'm late to the game, but here it is.

Although this album features the new line-up of Henry Tremain from Pennines as Stuart Smith's replacement, Tim Collis not trying to play every note at once on the guitar, and Chris Collis playing dem drums really really god-like, 13.0.0.0.0. doesn't sound that much different from the solid albums previously released by the pioneers of math pop from Oxford, England.

And while this is very good news for TTNG fans, I'm actually kind of surprised at just how similar it sounds to Animals and their self-title. Honestly, I was expecting a shockingly new style and format from these guys now that Stuart is gone. Then again, I always complain when my favorite "math" related acts go off and try to change up their style (Tera Melos), so maybe the fact that Henry Tremain has completely nailed his role as Stuart down to a science is actually just what I wanted and should be satisfied with what I have. Right?

Why mess with perfection, anyway?

Highlights: "Cat Fantastic", "Havoc in the Forum", "I'll Take the Minute Snake", "Nice Riff, Clichard" (I love me some sea sounds), "+3 Awesomeness Repels Water", and "A Different Kind of Tall (small)"



13.0.0.0.0. still has a different sound to it now that Stuart is gone and I recommend anyone who hasn't listened yet to definitely do so. And if anyone hasn't listened to This Town Needs Guns before... listen to everything you can by them - immediately!

Well, maybe not everything. Original This Town Needs Guns (first demo) is kind of ugly step-child material that nobody really wants to talk about. You can give it a try if you want; it's really not that bad. It's just kind of, well, awkward.

Official page
Sargent House
Bandcamp
Last.fm