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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: free download

  • This Is Awesome: Fanfarlo’s New Song and Video “Replicate”

    Is it dead enough yet? It is still enough yet?
    “Will it replicate inside our bodies now?” That’s the question at the center of a new song from the British quintet called Fanfarlo, and every time I hear that line, it makes me want to go back and listen to the verses to try to discern just exactly what “it” is. And I still haven’t quite got it.

    Fanfarlo’s debut album Reservoir was one of the more charming records of the last couple of years – a collection of lyrical indie-folk songs, delivered in Simon Balthazar’s lilting troubadour tenor over all manner of acoustic strings, horns, piano and percussion, roughly splitting the difference between (the band) James’s most bombastic moments and the The Decemberists’ most modest, with a loving nod to the singer-songwriter pop of the 70s. Not only are they an effortlessly charismatic live act, they’ve also put out some great videos, as evidenced by last year’s Twilight Zone-ish “Fire Escape”.

    Following some extensive touring behind that first record, the band retreated to a “remote slate quarrying town in Northern Wales” to record its follow-up, and are previewing the album with a video (and free mp3 download) of “Replicate”. The song is a surreal and suspenseful compendium of unanswered questions, sung over tense strings, diabolically playful little organ doodles and haunted house woodblock percussion. Its verses feel like an update on a Bernard Herrmann film score, and after asking one last time – Will it replicate inside our bodies now? – the song comes to an abrupt end without reaching any kind of catharsis or resolution. Just: over.

    I can’t wait for this album.

  • Awesome Free Download! The Postelles “Summer Undercovers”

    The Postelles ''Summer Undercovers''
    The Postelles are one of my favorite new bands – a New York City quartet who play great little three minute rock ‘n’ roll tunes that sound like they were made to be heard on 45s. They have all the big beats and melodic guitar lines of a Ventures instrumental, circa ’63; and in lead singer Daniel Balk’s vocals, all the boyish sweetness and vulnerability of the 1910 Fruitgum Co., that illustrious Kama Sutra Records bubblegum group who had a huge hit in ’68 with a song called “1,2,3, Red Light”. The latest single by The Postelles is called “123 Stop”. I don’t think that’s purely coincidental.

    Just weeks after the long-anticipated release of The Postelles’ self-titled debut album, the band has released a new EP called “Summer Undercovers” for free download via their website. And it’s exactly what the title would suggest: four covers that together sound like a ten-minute day at the beach with Frankie and Annette(‘s grandkids).

    It starts with a surfed-up version of The Smiths’ “Ask”, a song that Morrissey first sang in a languid moan 25 years ago (probably before these guys were born) – spending warm summer days indoors writing frightening verse to a bucktoothed girl in Luxembourg. The Postelles play it like a teen idol love letter, and follow it up with an appropriately rawkin’ take on Joe Jones’ (by way of The Rivieras) “California Sun” (an actual surf-rock classic), and UK pub-rocker Wreckless Eric’s yearning “Whole Wild World”. Capping it all off is a live version of The Ramones’ “Beat on the Brat”. Not only is it great to hear these songs given such a fresh treatment, it’s a nice taste of what the band does on their originals, which sound like covers of classic surf-bubblegum-punk-new-wave songs from an alternate universe.

  • Awesome Song Alert! The Postelles “Sleep on the Dance Floor”

    ”The Postelles”
    Last summer, The Postelles put out what turned out to be one of the cutest and most durable singles of the year with a song called “White Night”. An account of a night of clubbing in New York City that ends not-so-well, the song had an irresistible retro vibe that split the difference between late 50s rock n’ roll and late 70s power pop with just a touch of the Strokes, circa 2001. The verses build to a goofily unhappy call-and-response (“Tell me do you like that? I don’t think I like that”) leading into a relentless head-bobbing rave-up of a chorus. It was a great driving song, and it even made a small cameo in the Halloween episode of Fox’s Raising Hope. (I can totally imagine Martha Plimpton, circa 1982, rocking out to a band like The Postelles.)

    Now the band has just announced a June 7 release date for their self-titled debut album and in advance of the album’s release, they’ve put out a second video – this time for the song “Sleep on the Dance Floor”. The song had already been released as part of the “White Night” EP, but the band is currently offering the track for free download on their website. It’s another great little song with all the qualities that made “White Night” such a charmer: bouncy tempos, bright guitar harmonies, and singalong melodies that work hard to cover up a story of nightlife burnout. “Oh your little problems. Well they’re overblown. And you think I’ll solve them. Well I can’t, and I won’t.” The video is appropriately D.I.Y. meets Happy Days. Check it out here: