The Bloodbuzzed Jukebox Week 76

After Primavera Club Festival we return to our regular TOP TEN Jukebox series. This week we bring you a playlist full of new discoveries like Detective Agency released by our dear friends Discos de Kirlian, or Knife Pleats, the latest Rose Melberg's project, another gem coming out on  Jigsaw Records. Always, without forgetting old friends like The Innocence Mission or Martha Ffion. All these songs are also available at our Soundcloud, so please join us! 


Direct links to 2015 Jukebox playlists
Week 36  Week 37  Week 38   Week 39  Week 40 
Week 41  Week 42 Week 43  Week 44   Week 45
Week 46  Week 47   Week 48  Week 49   Week 50  
Week 51   Week 52  Week 53  Week 54    Week 55  
Week 56   Week 57   Week 58  Week 59   Week 60 
Week 61   Week 62   Week 63  Week 64  Week 65 
Week 66   Week 67   Week 68  Week 69   Week 70 
Week 71   Week 72   Week 73  Week 74   Week 75

The Bloodbuzzed Jukebox Week 75

Today we have a special Jukebox for you, a miscellaneous playlist devoted to the Primavera Club Festival that is taking place this weekend in Barcelona and we are enjoying while we discover new groups from here and there. Just a quick advice before ending! Don't miss the chance to see Novella and Fraser A. Gorman live if you can. So far the greatest shows of the Festival, terrific acts! We'll keep you posted and, as usual, all these songs are also available at our Soundcloud, so please join us! 

Direct links to 2015 Jukebox playlists
Week 36  Week 37  Week 38   Week 39  Week 40 
Week 41  Week 42 Week 43  Week 44   Week 45
Week 46  Week 47   Week 48  Week 49   Week 50  
Week 51   Week 52  Week 53  Week 54    Week 55  
Week 56   Week 57   Week 58  Week 59   Week 60 
Week 61   Week 62   Week 63  Week 64  Week 65 
Week 66   Week 67   Week 68  Week 69   Week 70 
Week 71   Week 72   Week 73  Week 74

Discoverer 126: new indie findings

And here's the second chapter in anticipation of Primavera Club. Three more must-see at the Festival, enjoy!

Algiers. Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, this trio formed in 2007 but it wasn't until January 2012 they released first single 'Blood' via Double Phantom, followed by digital single, 'Claudette' a year later. And now we can enjoy and get freaked out by their eponymous debut,out since this June on Matador. Conjuring the dead sounds to life, Algiers music is a tense, mind-blowing collision of post-punk, gospel, dub and soul. The Birthday Party meeting Suicide meeting The Temptations. Propelled to the stratosphere by Franklin James Fisher howling vocals and politically charged lyrics calling for rebellion and taking a stance against oppression, racism, and the dictatorship of capitalism. Bravest, boldest, most amazing record of the year? Band to follow, in every sense of the word...

Jessica Pratt.  From East to West Coast to meet this young singer-songwriter, based in L.A. and active since 2007 when she got linked to Tim Presley's solo project White Fence, who heard her demos and eventually released her self-titled debut album on his label Birth Records in 2012. The buzz was notorious, with first 500 pressings of the LP selling out in less than two weeks and main music websites and magazines praising it. Now she's back with LP 'On Your Own Love Again' out on January 2015 via Drag City, Vocally magnetic, making you recall folk myths like Joni Mitchell, Sibylle Baier or Karen Dalton, warm and intimate, she summons the spirits of 60's classic folk but still sounds fresh and surprising. Simply irresistible.

Fraser A. Gorman. And we end in Melbourne, Australia, to meet this extremely young (only 23!!) talent, active part of the DIY collective Milk! Records leaded by our beloved Courtney Barnett. Involved in local bands since an early teenager, first in Torquay, his birthplace, and later relocated in Melbourne, his solo project has offered us two releases to date, both this 2015: the single 'Book of Love' and debut album 'Slow Gum' both out in Milk! Records. Country-folk, Americana... and mostly, honest, joyous and heartfelt rock'n'roll with a ridiculous ability to tell stories while arresting you with another infectious hook or a stomping chorus. Fated for greatness!

Discoverer 125: new indie findings

In anticipation of Primavera Club, this weekend we are going to offer you a double dose of our discoveries series, with six bands & artists that are definitely our must-watchs of the Festival. Here are the first three, enjoy!

Chastity Belt. Formed in 2010 in Walla Walla but based in Seattle, WA, this all-female quartet met in college and kicked out the pop-post-punk engine following post-grad shows received with enthusiasm from the city’s DIY community and songs surfacing online around 2012. In summer 2013, after the digital single 'Seattle Party' they put out praised debut album 'No Regerts' that allowed them to tour around the country. No more a party-band, now they are back with 'Time to Go Home' sophomore release out on Hardly Art since March. Without losing their careless and funnily goofy attitude, there's much more here to be enjoyed: instrumental sections that create haze and gray-skies, vocals that infuses anxiety and a pensive, melancholic mood, Shapiro's lyrics dissecting the mundane while at the same time questions existence. I've been to a wonderful party... but then I woke up next morning. Strikingly powerful, powerfully beautiful.

Ultimate Painting. Hailing from Eastern London, the parallel project of James Hoare from Veronica Falls and Jack Cooper from Mazes blossomed fully in the summer of 2014 with their eponymous debut single. It was the crystallisation of a fast growing friendship and music connection that has its origin when Mazes were on tour supporting Veronica Falls and turned into exchanging demos and music sessions after the gigs together ended. Self-titled first LP arrived in October 2014 on Trouble In Mind Records to wide acclaim and tours around the world along Parquet Courts, Twerps and White Fence. But the two quickly got back into studio to record follow-up 'Green Lanes', out since this August. A truly guitar record with a foot on that 60's English melancholia and the other on sunny California, Ultimate Painting delivers sparse, gentle, dreamy, melodic and harmonic tunes that are almost a treaty of what's enduring, eternal pop.

Samantha Crain. Hailing from Shawnee, Oklahoma, Crain began her prolific music career in 2004, beginning touring when she was just 19, defending songs based on her short stories the summer before her senior year at Dale High School. That material became also her first recording, the self-released EP 'The Confiscation', later reissued by Ramseur Records in 2007. Their solo project expanded into a full band, the Midnight Shivers, with whom she recorded the album 'Songs in the Night' in April 2009 but, after the band disbanded, she came back to release under her own name with LP 'You (Understood)' a year later. Then arrived her work alongside John Vanderslice, who produced her 7" single 'A Simple Jungle' on 2012 as well as third album 'Kid Face' in 2013 on Full Time Hobby Records. Now the circle is completed with 'Under Branch & Thorn & Tree', out since July on Ramseur Records. A incredibly talented artist, with a gifted voice and an extraordinary ability for adding a striking, fierce and honest, narrative to an already attractive, melodic army of tunes. What a find!

The Bloodbuzzed Jukebox Week 74

A transition weekend ahead of us, from warm Autumn to the first days of cold (in Barcelona's definition of cold), from relative quietness to action on what regards to work and with a tone of music coming our way next weekend with Primavera Club 2015. It deserves a mostly (requesting permission to Ex Hex) gentle TOP TEN Jukebox, with the likes of Martin Courtney, Camera Shy, The Airplanes or newcomers Florist, Sunturns and Hearts & Tigers to ease taking a breath, gather strength and focus on what's about to come. All this songs are also available at our Soundcloud, so please join us! 

Direct links to 2015 Jukebox playlists
Week 36  Week 37  Week 38   Week 39  Week 40 
Week 41  Week 42 Week 43  Week 44   Week 45
Week 46  Week 47   Week 48  Week 49   Week 50  
Week 51   Week 52  Week 53  Week 54    Week 55  
Week 56   Week 57   Week 58  Week 59   Week 60 
Week 61   Week 62   Week 63  Week 64  Week 65 
Week 66   Week 67   Week 68  Week 69   Week 70 
Week 71   Week 72   Week 73 

Discoverer 124: new indie findings

Dreampop dominates the sound of this week's trio of discoveries. Please dream out loud!

Kissing Party. Slop-pop is coming! Hailing from Denver, CO, this weirdly-sounding self-defined quintet began in 2005, first as a trio (although technically speaking band's founder Gregory Dolan released a self-titled LP featuring him and a drum machine), putting out first proper album 'Hold Your Hour and Have Another' in 2006. A year later came 'Rediscover Lovers' and between 2009's 'The Hate Album' and the follow-up 'Waster's Wall' the Kissing Party's line-up was completed. A very prolific combo, in 2013 arrived 'Winter in the Pub' and now (although it was originally released last year) we can enjoy their latest effort 'Looking Back It Was Romantic But At The Time I Was Suffocating' out since June via Fleeting Youth Records. Where power-pop meets twee, where jangle gets high on fuzz, where urgency and openess swallows C86. A real burst of great pop!

Day Wave. And now we move to Oakland, CA to meet Jackson Phillips and his solo project (which gets expanded live). Former jazz drummer and frontman of the electro-pop duo Carousel, since 2015 Philips has embarked in this delightful synth/dreampop incarnation, offering us self-released debut EP 'Headcase'  in July, which now is going to be followed ny new single 'You Are What You Are/Come Home Now' on House Arrest Records. Melodic and blisfful, like Wild Nothing staring at the sun, or New Order letting hooks guide a phenomenal short stride of contagious songs. Waves of regret, waves of joy... don't forget this name...
Talking Bush. And still into synths and dreampop sounds but now travelling to St.Petersburg, Russia, to meet the latest project of Nikita Bushmanov, with first irresistible tunes surfacing this year. Debut EP 'Ordinary Unusual' arrived in June thanks to our dear friends at Shelflife, and more recently (August and October) two more songs appeared on his social networks, serving as a four teaser track to a forthcoming album in 2016. Like Morrissey enveloped on synth textures, his ultra-melodic approach to gentle pop is hard to resist. Another newcomer to really follow closely!

The Bloodbuzzed Jukebox Week 73

What a great bunch of exciting releases, comebacks (check The Coathangers and Black Honey ace tunes!) new findings and concerts ahead! October never disappoints. So here's a new weekly TOP TEN Jukebox to start sharing with you all our music excitement. All this songs are also available at our Soundcloud, so please join us! 

Direct links to 2015 Jukebox playlists
Week 36  Week 37  Week 38   Week 39  Week 40 
Week 41  Week 42 Week 43  Week 44   Week 45
Week 46  Week 47   Week 48  Week 49   Week 50  
Week 51   Week 52  Week 53  Week 54    Week 55  
Week 56   Week 57   Week 58  Week 59   Week 60 
Week 61   Week 62   Week 63  Week 64  Week 65 
Week 66   Week 67   Week 68  Week 69   Week 70 
Week 71   Week 72

The Bloodbuzzed Jukebox Week 72

It seems that autumn has settled in Barcelona with its trademark changes in the weather. According to some experts, fall makes us more melancholic. So here's a wonderful playlist to fight the feeling or, if you are more inclined, "go with the flow" of the season. Our weekly TOP TEN Jukebox arrives full of exciting comebacks, the mighty Chills and Desperate Journalist, new tunes from Bruising and Night Flowers, as well as our regular dose of new names for you to discover (warning, remember the last one). You'll see, October has begun, musically speaking, in a tremendous way! All this songs are also available at our Soundcloud, so please join us! 

Direct links to 2015 Jukebox playlists
Week 36  Week 37  Week 38   Week 39  Week 40 
Week 41  Week 42 Week 43  Week 44   Week 45
Week 46  Week 47   Week 48  Week 49   Week 50  
Week 51   Week 52  Week 53  Week 54    Week 55  
Week 56   Week 57   Week 58  Week 59   Week 60 
Week 61   Week 62   Week 63  Week 64  Week 65 
Week 66   Week 67   Week 68  Week 69   Week 70 
Week 71

Sufjan Stevens, intimacy for the masses

Sufjan Stevens (+ Austra), Auditori Fòrum, Barcelona, September 29th

Sufjan & Dawn Landes, folk of the heart. Photo: Bloodbuzzed

Despite not being the most fervent fan, or even a regular one, although I love 'Seven Swans' (a song about one of the best short stories of Flannery O'Connor, you have me) and I'm pretty sure 'Carrie & Lowell' is among the best releases of the year, I have to admit I was pretty excited with Sufjan Stevens' gig at Auditori, the first time I was going to see the Michigan artist live. Hipsterland, commonly known as Barcelona, seemed to be all gathered at the Fòrum. The date seemed an unmissable one.

Dark waves with Austra. Photo; Bloodbuzzed

The night didn't started in the most promising way, though. Not to say Austra's music is bad or that their performance was disappointing. Katie Stelmanis is an impressive singer and their songs, if you are into that dark-disco/new wave style, even darker live (her most famous songs, the stunning 'Lose you' sounded gloomy and intensely desperate) are going to appeal you for sure. No, the question mark here is what does she have to do with Sufjan's music? It simply didn't fit there...

No shade in the shadows of the band. Photo: Bloodbuzzed

Anyway, on time at 21:00 Sufjan and his troupe took the Auditori's stage and after opening with 'Redford (For Yia-Yia & Pappou)', they performed 'Carrie & Lowell' in its entirety and almost following the record's order. 'Death With Dignity' and the strikingly beautiful 'Should Have Known Better' were the first two gems to arrive, making the miracle of disarming 3.000 souls with an exercise of intimacy and naked vulnerability so rare to find in popular music (we were lucky to be seated on the first row and we could assure Sufjan looked affected with the performance of several songs). 'Drawn to the Blood', 'Eugene', 'John My Beloved', 'The Only Thing', a stunning collection of tunes performed brilliantly by an impeccable band, where Dawn Landes was beyond terrific on backing vocals and all sorts of duties all night. Even the fragile, somewhat broken voice of Sufjan, seemed to add another piece of wonder to the gig. Unique atmosphere, embellished by the stark but touching visuals that backed the band.

A man, his thoughts, his feelings, his songs . Photo: Bloodbuzzed

But then arrived 'Fourth of July', one of the masterpieces of his latest album, and doubts arised. With Sufjan on piano, the arresting, devastating tune, evolved into an epic monster that for sure left the audience dazed, but changed the vibe of the album and the gig completely. 'No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross' and 'Carrie & Lowell' seemed to return to the previous folkier path. A mirage. Then came 'All of Me Wants All of You', with its electronic R&B beats and Stevens dances. It was the beginning of a concert section where electronics leaded the way, with 'The Owl and the Tanager', 'Vesuvius', imo almost laughable, 'I Want to Be Well' and the visually gorgeous but neverending outro 'Blue Bucket of Gold'. Maybe Sufjan wanted to shift from indie-folk for a while, worried such a big audience was going to "disconnect" from the gig with too many slow, moody numbers. Understandable but, being diplomatic, not my cup of tea. Not a fan of 'Age of Adz'.

The return of the folk singer. Photo: Bloodbuzzed

The show couldn't end that way. And luckily, it didn't. As a matter of fact, the encore felt like a completely different gig, with Sufjan returning to stage dressed as the recognisable folk-singer with baseball cap and colourful shirt, and much more talkative with the audience, to offer a short set of "Sufjan classics", with 'Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois', 'Heirloom', the goosebumps of 'For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti' and the final trio of 'John Wayne Gacy, Jr.', the great 'Casimir Pulaski Day' and, of course, 'Chicago', which lacked its joyful fanfare in a somewhat lukewarm acoustic version. One can't argue: the performance was flawless, immaculate, definitely a thing to watch. It's easy to understand why the public was fascinated and stood up to applaud the band during minutes. Also the universal praise of critics on the following days. But for me, I can't say it was an unforgettable, life-changing gig, because some of the choices made by the artist during part of the gig didn't convince me. Just a matter of taste on an otherwise indispensable artist...