Air Waves – Dungeon Dots

You may have heard Air Waves before, but only in small doses. On Dungeon Dots, their first full-length, frontwoman Nicole Schneit offers up hefty portions of great songwriting and catchy folk-pop. The album is available now at Underwater Peoples.

Download/Stream below:
Air Waves – "Knockout"

Pretty sure Jennifer Moore is providing backing vocals on this one.

Air Waves – "Waters"

Cut Copy – "Take Me Over"

Cut Copy, it's been far too long.

Though the band's LP Zonoscope won't drop until February 2011, their single "Take Me Over" is available now! (Head over to Modular to stream and pre-order the album.) 

Download/Stream:
Cut Copy – "Take Me Over"

The Decemberists – "Down By The Water"

Your ears might have heard "Down By the Water" via a YouTube clip of Colin Meloy's solo CMJ performance, but the actual studio version has finally surfaced. The King Is Dead, due out January 2011, is The Decemberists' sixth full-length album and features vocals from Gillian Welch and Peter Buck.

Stream/Download the track in all it's glory:

The Decemberists – Down By The Water


Alternatively, rewind to Colin Meloy's CMJ 2010 showcase.

Braids – "Lemonade"

Montreal-based Braids (formerly called The Neighbourhood Council) will release their debut LP Native Speaker on January 18 via Kanine and Flemish Eye Records.

Stream/Download "Lemonade" below and head over to their myspace to hear the lengthy yet beautiful soundscape "Liver and Tan."

Braids – "Lemonade"
Stream:

Jessica Lea Mayfield – Tell Me

Jessica Lea Mayfield's second album Tell Me will be released early 2011 via Nonesuch Records. For now, you can stream/download "Our Hearts Are Wrong" and twiddle your thumbs while you wait for the other tracks to surface.

Album available for pre-order at: www.jessicaleamayfield.com/store

Faded Paper Figures – New Medium

At times R. John Williams' and Heather Alden's vocals bare resemblance to Stars. Occasionally, Kael Alden's electronic backgrounds can draw comparisons to The Postal Service or Hellogoodbye. Is this the right kind of catchy? Does Faded Paper Figures borrow too much from its predecessors in place of complete originality? Who knows! Just listen. The following songs are from Faded Paper Figures' New Medium, which is available at cdbaby.

"North By North"


"Invent It All Again"


"Limelight"

Thao and Mirah – "How Dare You"

Sometimes you stumble across videos or songs you wished you had seen sooner. This is one of those. Mirah and Thao played a few shows together earlier this summer calling themselves Thao and Mirah and The Most of All. But in case you weren't able to experience that collaborative effort in person, here is a video captured by Yours Truly.

There's also a rumor that the two might be releasing an album together in Spring 2011. Cross your fingers!

Non-Music Update

We interrupt your regularly scheduled music updates to inform you that:

I'm training to run all 13.1 miles of the Surf City Half Marathon as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. I’m running this for people in my life who have been affected by cancer and as a personal challenge to attempt something that sounds impossible.

My goal is to raise $1800 total. Maybe you heard about a song or a band that you liked from this blog. Maybe you have a few extra dollars in your pocket. Any amount helps, really.

If you'd like to make a donation you can go here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/surfcity11/hthomas3ev

Thanks for your support!
--

Now back to the music!

Caveman – "Decide"

The Cavemen in question are Matthew Iwanusa, Jimmy Carbonetti, Stefan Marolachakis, Sam Hopkins, and Jeff Berrall. Stream "Decide" and see if your ears enjoy their soothing harmonies.

Blonde Summer – Eleganza EP

Although their songs carry the focus of a band that's been at it for years, Blonde Summer is brand new. It would be easy to slap a label on Chris Pope, Matt Reid, Chris Livingstone, and Stephen Kurshner and call them surf-rock inspired, slightly lo-fi, indie rock, but such classifications wouldn't do their sound justice. Eleganza is much more well-crafted than that.

Below, an acoustic session filmed by Miguel Sabogal at Ace Hotel NYC during CMJ 2010.

"Scared You'll Get Hurt"

Download: Blonde Summer – Cathode Ray

Buy:
Their EP Eleganza is available for purchase via bandcamp