It wouldn’t be entirely accurate to say that EZTV met while trying out for J. Spaceman’s latest US touring line-up of Spiritualized, but it’s not far from the truth. Songwriter and audio engineer Ezra Tenenbaum had been casually working on solo home recordings on his Tascam 8-Track in the vein of Shoes, Emitt Rhodes and Cleaners For Venus, and, in a desire to round out the songs, he enlisted bassist Shane O’Connell and drummer Michael Stasiak (formerly of Widowspeak). As it happened, the trio’s first chance to play together was an audition for the American touring version of Spiritualized (they didn’t get the job). But, the trio kept meeting and working, turning Ezra recording as a solo artist into Ezra, Shane and Michael playing as a band; thus, EZTV was formed.
With a pool of over 30 demos to work with and Jarvis Taveniere of Woods onboard to produce, the band headed to Thump Studios in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to record their debut LP for Captured Tracks. The result is Calling Out, a cohesive 12-song statement in the long tradition of fully realized debuts, stripped of artifice, but full of hooks and songwriting chops. Tracks like first single “The Light,” premiering today via The FADER, exhibit what you would call the EZTV mantra: presenting songs with only the required embellishments. They’ve got one foot firmly planted in classic American power-pop and college rock while the other utilizes more left-of-the-dial sonic experimentation. The result is a sound that’s both familiar and new, but always about the songs.
In an era of independent music with a lot more emphasis placed on “story” and meaningless twitter feuds, EZTV present a record that speaks for itself. It’s an LP made for an audience that doesn’t want or need any kind of angle or controversy, but desires songs that resonate and have a lasting appeal, something available here in spades.

at the beginning of 2014, liverpool’s outfit found themselves scattered across two countries and three cities, separated by life and love from each other and from those closest to them.
slowness, the band’s second full length lp due june 15 on new label home memphis industries, is the sound of its five members snatching intensive weeks to plant themselves in one place, with the tensions of touring, moving, and transatlantic relationships still weighing heavy in mind, to create an album with bold presence.
slowness paints a portrait of distance using haunting piano, piercing synthesizers and guitars, all underpinned by outfit’s trademark rhythm section. it dwells on physical distance between lovers, the emotional distance when we return, and the ways in which we imagine each other thousands of miles apart.
over the stuttering synths of opener “new air”, the duelling lyrics of vocalist andrew pm hunt and keyboardist thomas gorton are rooted in optimism and beckon an unseen presence to join them in a new life, whilst closer ‘swam out’ sees the band go from beaten and worn down to joyfully triumphant over the course of a song decorated with decaying skype noises and 1am phone calls. the album’s contrasting textures and timbres recall late period talk talk and other more expansive new wave outsiders, but there is a deep sense of modern life to slowness.
following up their critically acclaimed debut “performance”, outfit toured with everything everything, played the 6 music festival, festival no. 6, end of the road and pitchfork paris as well as several sold out london headline dates showing that the band could thrive as much in the live arena as they could in their home studio space- a brutalist block of flats in liverpool.
slowness is outfit’s most cohesive work to date, a marked progression both sonically and emotionally, capturing the harrowing shock of being in love and apart, and the stillness of staring into screens. ultimately, though, slowness sounds like a band coming to terms with themselves as artists and people to create an album that celebrates life’s obstacles: a record made between new york, london and liverpool — a piece of work compelled by distance.

1000 Palms marks a return to Surfer Blood's DIY ethos. Abandoning the big time studio, the band decided to head back home to self-record and self-produce their third full-length album. Free of major-label-influence, Surfer Blood have delivered a uniquely compelling album, unlike anything in their catalog.
The story of 1000 Palms began on January 1st 2014, after playing a New Year’s show in Portland, OR, the band decided to stick around for the rest of the month, renting a practice space and sorting through a backlog of ideas. By February, as their lease ran out, Surfer Blood had recorded demos for most of the tracks that now feature on their third LP.
After a frustrating time at previous home Warner Brothers, the quartet were beyond ready to return to a more DIY recording process, completely void of the middlemen scrutinizing every bar of previous LP Pythons. With the band self-recording it was in the glamorous setting of an attic studio above a doctor’s office where drums were committed to tape. Frontman John Paul Pitts states “fortunately none of us are strangers to DIY recording, so it was a challenge well-suited to our band”.
The making of 1000 Palms also owes a lot to the kindness of friends and family, with the remaining instrument sessions taking place at the home of drummer Tyler Schwartz’s parents while they were on vacation. Following a few days of very little sleep and after the band pooled resources and called in favors, the band had managed to craft everything you now hear on the upcoming record.

The world is growing ever smaller. There are less places to hide and less space to think. Nothing is private. It's a notion that Belgian quintet Balthazar felt keenly as they traversed the world touring their 2012 album Rats. It was an intense period where they clocked up the sort of hard road mileage that can make or break a band but Balthazar's two songwriters, Maarten Devoldere and Jinte Deprez, emerged emboldened. As Jinte explains, "we know each other's darkest secrets now. We grew together. You live together as each other's brother and sister. We discovered we really like each other."
Lives lived in each other's pockets has left its mark on Thin Walls, the stunning new album from the five-piece who are completed by Patricia Vanneste, Simon Casier and Michiel Balcaen. "Thin Walls is all about touring and never having any privacy," says Jinte. The songs were written in a hazy hyperactive state between shows. Balthazar's previous two albums, 2010's Applause and the calculated, searing alt-rock of 2012's Rats, were created in a slow, considered manner back home. This time round, the band had to fit in writing sessions whenever they had a spare day off. "When you're on tour, the mood is very restless and chaotic," says Maarten. "Life on tour is kind of weird, everything is prepared for you and you drink way too much. If you write with a hangover, then you write differently..."

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl rose to fame as the drummer for Nirvana, so it’s fitting that Foo Fighters bass player Nate Mendel is also stepping into the frontman role. Mendel is heading up a band called Lieutenant. The group will release its debut album, “If I Kill This Thing We’re All Going to Eat for a Week,” on March 10.
The first single off the album, “Believe the Squalor,” is currently streaming via Stereogum.
Lieutenant has Mendel singing lead vocals and playing guitar. The album also features a long list of guests, including Foo Fighters’ Chris Shiflett and members of Modest Mouse, Fleet Foxes, the Head and the Heart, Snow Patrol, Helmet and more.

Ocho Mule Records, Guster’s own label, and Nettwerk Music Group are thrilled to release Guster’s most vibrant album yet, Evermotion. Produced by Richard Swift (The Shins, Foxygen, Stereolab), the album bulldozes inhibitions, propelling the band to a harder-charging, more freewheeling sound as heard on lead single, “Simple Machine.” Packed with tight hooks, muscular guitar riffs, clanging percussion and surprisingly dark lyrics, the new album features adventurous turns on slide guitars, brassy trumpets and a glockenspiel, with sax and trombone accompaniment.

London quartet Desperate Journalist - Jo Bevan (vocals), Simon Drowner (bass), Rob Hardy (guitar) and Caz Hellbent (drums) - will soon follow up their one EP and two singles with a self-titled debut album. Recorded almost entirely live in Soho’s Dean Street Studios, the full-length was jointly produced alongside Keith TOTP and mixed by the band themselves.
“The album was recorded over five days at Dean Street Studios,” they explain. “We wanted to make sure the record reflected the energy and directness of our live shows so the way we recorded was live with some guitar and vocal overdubs.
“The songs are all one word titles because: a) it’s hard to name songs without some kind of restrictive structure to it; and b) it reflects the ethos we have of making sure everything in each track needs to be there - we don’t like excess. Everything needs to be immediate and streamlined.”

British songwriter Sam Genders and his project DIAGRAMS will return with a new album in early 2015. Chromatics is the name of the second longplayer which will be released via Full Time Hobby on January the 19th. It follows his debut Black Light from 2012.
And according to Genders you can find a lot of topics on the new longplayer. ‘Relationships are a constant thread. In all their frustrating, exciting, mundane, beautiful, wonderful, sexy, scary glory,’ the musician explains in a press statement. ‘And there’s lots of hope in the songs. They shouldn’t be taken too literally mind you… in my head Chromatics is life in Technicolor; with all its ups and downs.’

Club Meds is the upcoming fourth album by Juno winning Canadian singer-songwriter Dan Mangan set to be released on 13 January 2015. It is his first album to be released under the moniker Dan Mangan + Blacksmith.

The Rural Alberta Advantage will release their highly-anticipated third album, Mended With Gold, on September 30th via Saddle Creek. The twelve-track album was recorded at Toronto’s Candle Recording with the band’s long-time live engineer Matt Lederman (Hayden, !!!, Besnard Lakes) alongside co-producer Leon Taheny (Owen Pallett, Austra, F*cked Up). Mended With Gold’s “Terrified” is available to stream and share via SoundCloud. Mended With Gold can be pre-ordered now on CD, LP, Deluxe LP (clear with gold splatter vinyl) and digitally in the Saddle Creek and Paper Bag Records online shops. The Rural Alberta Advantage has just announced an extensive tour in support of their upcoming release. A full list of tour dates can be found below.
In 2006 singer-songwriter Nils Edenloff, percussionist Paul Banwatt, and multi-instrumentalist Amy Cole came together to release their debut self-titled EP as The Rural Alberta Advantage. The ensuing years have brought two full-length albums (2008′s Hometowns and 2011′s Departing), widespread critical praise (SPIN, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, NPR, among others), two Juno Award nominations (Best New Group, Video of the Year), the Polaris Music Prize Long List, and a hard earned reputation as one of the most impressive live bands you’ll ever see. It was through all of this that The RAA’s latest album, Mended With Gold, took shape.
Nils recalls, “Last spring, I rented a remote cottage up in the Bruce Peninsula on the recommendation of some friends to try to do some writing for the new album. It turned out to be a pretty terrifying place to be alone with your thoughts – locals told me to watch out for black bears, the heat wasn’t working and at night it sounded like the cottage was surrounded by wolves. I slept with a pocket knife at arms-reach. It’s funny the lines that will run through your head when you’re alone like that and trying to get yourself to sleep- they inspired “To Be Scared”, which is probably one of my favorite songs on the record.”
The ideas and moods created in these songs tie back to the album title Mended With Gold, embracing the idea that the breakage and repair of an object becomes part of its unique history and ultimately makes it more valuable instead of a blemish to disguise. The Rural Alberta Advantage have taken all of their successes, losses, adventures, and heartbreaks over the past few years, and forged them together into an unforgettably powerful work of beauty.