This fell into our lap courtesy of them nice folks at Melodic recently. Digging the vocals and guitars a lot. Death Masks are from St Helens and are lead by Thom Tyrer if twitter is to be believed.

Shinies hail from Manchester and evidently have a naughty deck of cards, the rascals! ‘Spent Youth’, their only song so far, is a little rough around the edges but that’s half the beauty of it at this stage.

Spent Youth by Shinies

Awesome new four-piece Alabama Shakes hail from Athens. That’s not Athens, Greece or even Athens, Georgia but Athens, Alabama. Don’t worry, the clue is in the band name and if you get stuck just go with Athens and then back away from conversation at speed.

Their debut self titled-EP is available for not much over at their bandcamp and it’s all killer no filler, like they used to say. It comes across like a more polished Lower Dens (that’s no dig at Jana Hunter’s crew - we love them too!).  Here’s a live performance of track 02 ‘I Found You’ from Pegasus Records in Alabama in August.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnVSUH6_oBY

What? Sharon Van Etten recently unveiled the first track from her new album, TRAMP, due out 6th February, it will be her first release for the Jagjaguar label (home to the likes of Bon Iver). ‘Serpents’ is joined by the announcement of a London headline show at Cargo in March. Tickets are on sale now, one not to miss. Grab ‘Serpents’ below.

When? Thursday, March 1st 2012.

Where? Cargo, Shoreditch, London. (GMap)

Tickets? £8.50 here

Sharon Van Etten – Serpents by musicmule

Check out this kinda gorgeous free EP from Philadelphia’s Tech Coast. Stream below and grab over at his bandcamp. No shortage of this sort of stuff out this year but this catches the jaded chillwave ear.

stay ep by tech coast

I Break Horses a.k.a. Swedish Duo Maria Linden and Frederik Balck signed to Bella Union back in 2009, which is actually when ‘Hearts’ was first doing the rounds. The duo though have been lovingly crafting their debut album of the same name since then, which will finally see the light of day on Aug 15th. For now, enjoy this spellbinding free single along with its equally entrancing new video courtesy of Alex Southam of the ‘oof  colelctive’. Roll on August.

I Break Horses – Hearts by Bella Union

Carnivores tore it up as part of our Music Mule split 7″ with Brooklyn buddies Dinosaur Feathers back in December and now they’re back with a new release through their long time label Atlanta’s Double Phantom. The free ‘Chandelier EP’ sees the band’s heavier side switched for the woozy psychedelic pop style toyed with on ‘Dressed For The Rain’ from the aforementioned split 7. Good, good! Excellent in fact.

Look out for May/June UK live dates coming soon but for now tuck your teeth into this beauty!

Carnivores – ‘Chandelier EP’
(mediafire link)

Available Thursday March 3rd, only on Double Phantom Digital.

Tracklist:

1. Darker Days
2. I Like To Be Confused (I Love You)
3. Second Impulse
4. Chandelier

Recorded by Ross Politi w/ Carnivores February 2011.
Mastered by Travis Thatcher.

It’s been a while since we’ve been inspired enough (bone idle) to post some new music but that’s over thanks to Jagjaguar’s new artist Lia Ices who plays upstairs at The Garage tonight. Rare, bewildering beauty ‘Daphne’ is taken from her album ‘Grown Unknown’ and features a special guest*.* Justin Vernon of Bon Iver!

The rest of the album is a wondrous melange of Joanna Newsom, Bat For Lashes and recent loves The Luyas.

Get It! (Purchase CD / Purchase LP)

Hey-ho! Sorry don’t know where that came from. Probably due to supremely high levels of excitement for Guards first UK show(s) less than 3 weeks away! Guards is Richie Follin & others (helpful). Richie’s one half of the awesome Cults and one quarter of Willowz and now basically the whole of Guards. What-a-guy!

Their fantastic debut self-titled EP is available on 200g Vinyl import or for free digitally and should be investigated immediately.

The tracks we’ve posted from that EP feature Caroline Polachek (Chairlift) on ‘Trophy Queen’, Cults lead vocalist Madeline Follin (Richie’s little sis) on ‘Sail It Slow’ and the main man himself on the final cut ‘Don’t Wake The Dead’.

Their sound is a dark cocktail of sounds that Richie describes as “bliss doomed power rock pop”. Hmmm that might not do it justice.

Catch them live in London at White Heat @ Madame Jojo’s on Feb 15th and then The Lexington on Feb 16th alongside the also superb Young Buffalo.

We will be there with retro-bells on.

The Luyas - a new four-piece on the Dead Oceans label - play absolutely stunning space-age-echo-drenched pop from Montreal, Canada. The album ‘Too Beautiful To Work’ (due out Feb 21st) is one of the first must buys and the title track one of the songs of 2011 so far. The band feature contributions from the likes of Owen Pallet and Sarah Neufeld (Arcade Fire) amongst many others. For now enjoy freebie ‘Tiny Head’ along with its video featuring easy on the eyes singer Jessie Stein and some mirrors!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lIqAQvIpo0

Read more and Pre-Order the album direct from Dead Oceans.