RIght, I've had a bumper weekend listening to new music, both at home and on public transport to and from Wembley then at work today. My feelings on things:
Rose City Band - as
@oldmanofthemountain of the mountain has said, this really is very good indeed!As has been mentioned, Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo are a good starting reference, for obvious reasons, but, for me, there's more of a country rock vibe to some degree.
Frankie Lee - his second album. Essentially, more of the same well written big sounding Americana of his debut but probably with a slightly bigger budget.
Boogarins - Brazilian tropicalia/psych rock. Slightly low key but enjoyable. All in Portuguese (as you'd maybe expect).
Mavis Staples - produced by Ben Harper on this occasion, after previous albums produced by Ry Cooder, M Ward and (three times) by Jeff Tweedy. This gives her songs a slightly more muscular bluesy feel. Very good, although I prefer the Tweedy albums.
Amyl and the Sniffers - Aussie punk types, with some glam rock overtones. Short, sharp, loud, fun!
Black Mountain - more high quality spaced out psych rock from Stephen McBean and one of his gangs. They should be a lot more well known than they are!
Cate Le Bon - I initially listened to this on the way home on Sunday and it kept me entertained. It's pretty lovely really. She's becoming one of those artists you can trust to be good (aside from that last Drinks album).
BCUC - more joyously weird brilliant Afropsychedelia (their term) from the band whose full name is quite long (Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness). Three tracks, as with their last album, two long and kind of sounding like several songs rolled together and one shorter and more focused. Femi Kuti and Saul Williams both guest. Think they're playing some festivals in the summer.
Guards - pretty decent but by no means outstanding. Got a bit of an Arcade Fire vibe to them at times. Probably the album listed that will appeal most to your more mainstream indie band chums.
Flying Lotus - bit of a disappointment for me. 27 tracks (a lot fairly short). Could easily have been a much better, more focused album.
Sebadoh - it's a Sebadoh album, probably their best in 20odd years. You basically get a history of low-fi (ish) indie rock from the 80s through to today (ish).
Hayden Thorpe - polished and mature. Good songs, good album. Sounds, as expected like Wild Beasts if all the songs had been sung by Hayden Thorpe.
Madonnatron - a big step up on their indie girl debut. This is a really, really good album of irreverent pop songs. The charts await (in an alternate universe).
Faye Webster - she started out as a fairly straight folk singer but has gradually taken in hiphop, soul and R'n'B influences. A good album for summer!
Nots - Three piece female indie-punk band from Memphis. Quite enjoyable but doesn't strike me as the best thing released this week. May be a grower?
Tyler Ramsey - former Band of Horses guitarist. This is his fourth solo album but first since leaving them. I tihnk this has been out for a while. It's really good. Reminds me of earlyish My Morning Jacket and, unsurprisingly Band of Horses.
All in all, FlyLo aside, a pretty good week for new (to me) music!