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[INTERVIEW]: CHVRCHES at Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach

I got to hang out with Lauren Mayberry, Martin Doherty, and Iain Cook from CHVRCHES before their show at Solana Beach’s Belly Up Tavern! They even remembered me from their show at Bristol!

Listen to us as we chat about music styles, social media, UK versus US, touring with Passion Pit, and ladies night in San Diego’s Hillcrest.

I’ll update this later to include a transcript.

Main Point: According to Martin, “CHVRCHES will not do EDM.”

P.S. Correction: Everything But the Girl did NOT “basically start trip hop,” but they did release really great trip hop and trip-hop-influenced albums after they decided to shift styles away from jazzy tracks.

[NEW] Pacific Air Released Their First Album “Stop Talking”

BoxSpeaker favorites Pacific Air (formerly known as KO KO) dropped their first album Stop Talking today.

The 11-track debut includes “Move” and “So Strange,” the track originally released during their time as KO KO – and gained them widespread YouTube play on an outdoor gear ad.

pacific-air-stop-talking-debut-albumWhile the album is filled with indie rock tracks that have a very early 90s influence with an added sunny Los Angeles beach feel, the third track “Roses” sticks out with a sound that’s best described as the resurrection of Lubbock Sound especially the theharmonies and sound Buddy Holly produced later on that heavily influenced the surf pop genre. The track also features Lizzy Land, a Zooey Deschanel-sounding female harmony – this further emphasizes the band’s 1950s redux style because Zooey Deschanel and the Zooey Deschanel style is the musical-interior design-personality poster child of the Pinteresting modern reappropriation of 1950s culture.

Overall, Stop Talking lives up to Pacific Air’s (and many other recent sunny-day-at-the-beach bands’) sound – bringing happy, cute indie rock tracks with a touch of this music generation’s electropop synths and effects here and there.

You can buy the album here and check for more Pacific Air updates on their Facebook page!

How to Have a Bad Day (aka “Accidents” by Wolfbird/One AM Radio)

1. Watch Save the Date.
It’s a movie written by graphic novelist Jeffrey Brown (a BoxSpeaker favorite) and starring Lizzy Caplan, Alison Brie, Mark Weber, and Geoffrey Arend.

2. Look up the song that Kevin “writes.”

3. Find out it’s “Accidents” by Wolfbird (via The One AM Radio)

Continue reading How to Have a Bad Day (aka “Accidents” by Wolfbird/One AM Radio)

[NEW]: “Waterfalls” by Mr. Little Jeans

This afternoon, Mr. Little Jeans released her cover of Paul McCartney’s “Waterfalls,” continuing the oceans theme begun with last month’s “Oh Sailor.”

Adding to Mr. Little Jeans’s list of ethereal, dreampop reduxes of songs, she continues to stand out amongst all the other dream poppers.

“Sea” by Roosevelt

“Sea” by Roosevelt is one of my favorite songs right now.

I discovered them while I was in the UK in February through the magic of the record label Greco-Roman.

Taking on the same kind of beachy sounds of bands like Surfer Blood, DIIV, and Swim Deep, Roosevelt then branches out to add in a disco-inspired bassline turning it into one of the danciest beach songs to rain down from the SoundCloud.

DOLLS: The New Kylie Minogue

The UK has recently launched its response to Australia’s Kylie Minogue – DOLLS.

DOLLS is the electropo project of aptly (stage)named Nikki Awesome. Her voice sounds almost exactly like Kylie Minogue. In fact, “Now Now” sounds like a sped up version of “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” mixed with a dark wave bass beat in the background.

She even channels a little bit of Madonna in her outrageous outfits and makeup.

“Whistle” by Brisa Roche

This song is actually pretty old – I got it from a bunch of French music that my uncle gave me in 2010.

Brisa Roche’s “Whistle” is a modern woman’s interpretation of a cowboy folk The Carter Family type of style with a French-sounding voice, maybe even with a bit of a lofi take on Patsy Cline’s style.

Brisa Roche – though famous for French songs and a very French-accented singing voice – is actually originally from the US.