Mixtapes

Mixtapes have this sort of rapid fire indie-pop-punk thing going on with male/female harmonies and it makes me happier than anything to come out this year. Oh, and both of their releases are up for free download on Death to False Hope Records. The Thought About Growing Up EP is only seven minutes long and it's free and it's perfect and you have no reason not to listen to it.

Myspace

Last.fm

Maps

Thought About Growing Up

Daly's Gone Wrong

Two posts in a day! Ska on a ska blog! Return to former glory? Possibly!

Daly's Gone Wrong are an amalgam of some of the trendy things to do in punk and metalcore these days. They do they pop punk/metalcore verse/chorus switch and they have the humorous bursts of other genres except here they're mostly ska. There's even a straight acoustic love song. It's incredibly catchy through its six songs, with shout-along repetitions and and clean singing/screaming juxtaposition. I think they do it better than anyone else. Recommended if you like The Flaming Tsunamis, A Billion Ernies, or Folly.

Myspace

Last.fm

Exit Where You Belong

Color the Lifeline

I befriended James (Color the Lifeline) on an emo forum a few years ago. We never really had similar taste but we discussed music with each other somehow. He's written a few posts for this place too. I haven't actually heard from him in a couple months, and I miss him, so if you're reading this James get the fuck on AIM.

So he kept me up to date on this EP he was writing for months and of course like many indie artists the release kept getting pushed back and back and then finally, one day, my preordered copy of Absinthismic came in the mail. I have no idea what the title means. You'll have to ask him.

His Myspace page lists his influences, some of which include The Beach Boys, Hellogoodbye, The Academy Is... and Motion City Soundtrack, and he wears all of these on these on his sleeve. The whole album is streaming on last.fm so give it a listen.

Myspace

Last.fm

Buy This Shit from CD Baby

Sorry to my three followers that I haven't posted any full albums for download recently. I promise the next post I write will have some stuff.

Los Campesinos!

Los Campesinos! are my favorite indie pop band. They have seven members, playing the standard lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, and drums plus a violin, a keyboard and a motherfucking glockenspiel. Lyrics from frontman Gareth Campesinos! (They've all adopted "Campesinos! as their surname) are dripping with typically hipster way-too-cleverness, and are all shouted by all seven members of the band. You should shout, too. Their first record Hold On Now, Youngster is an energetic frenzy of twee pop and pop punk, and their newest release Romance is Boring brings them into noise-pop territory. It should be mentioned that they put out new material with amazing speed, having released all three of their full lengths in the timespan of two years. Recommended for fans of Johnny Foreigner and Dananananaykroyd.

Official

Myspace

Last.fm

Sticking Fingers into Sockets EP

Hold on Now, Youngster

We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed

Romance is Boring

Fun question: Which member of Los Campesinos! would you most like to bang? I'd go for the redhead, Aleks Campesinos!

Buck-O-Nine

There's not too much to know about this band. Buck-O-Nine is a southern-Californian ska punk band (surprising to see them here, right?) from San Diego. They were one of the first bands I liked when I first started listening to ska punk on Pandora radio two (or three I lost track) years ago. There's some obvious Joe Jackson influence, which I love. This is the only album I currently own by them, but I'll find more if anyone wants more.

Twenty-Eight Teeth

Myspace

Official Site

Last.fm

The King Blues

The King Blues were, at one point, underground. Then their sophomore release Save the World, Get the Girl got mainstream attention by the British media, and they began touring with "punk rock" (pfffft) bigwigs like Anti-Flag and Rise Against. (You know, those mainstream bands that claim to be rebellious.) Despite its incredibly "mainstream" status, their newest album is an enjoyable mix of ska and pop, and their first record is a hodge-podge of folk, ska, reggae, and punk rock. Here are both of their full-lengths:

Under the Fog

Save the World, Get the Girl

Myspace

Official Site

Last.fm