by D-BO • May 2012 Ava Menodza is a busy guitarist. When she’s not throwing in her singular blend of free-jazz/blues-fingerstyle/controlled rock-debris with musicians like guitar paladin Nels Cline, synth-pop fringer Dominique Leone, or collabing on film scores with international East Bay heroes tUnE-yArDs , she’s an essential piece of a burgeoning Bay Area free-rock music scene. All it really takes is one good listen to know Ava’s not just onto something, but has been perfecting her craft for quite some time. While not exactly a secret in San Francisco and Oakland, anyone with a taste for ...

by TMT Staff • April 2012 This year marked the third installment of the New York edition of Unsound , an offshoot of the annual Kraków fest (which will have its 10th installment in October). From April 18-22 and across five different venues — BAMcinématek, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Public Assembly, Lincoln Center, and ISSUE Project Room — Unsound New York 2012 featured music that included everything from warped dub and ambient metal to bass-heavy club music and techno. This meant we were treated to the likes of TMT favorites like Hype Williams, Sun Araw, Heat Wave, Laurel Halo, Peaking Lights, Actress, Demdike Stare, and ...

With Dirty Projectors-esque vocals and virtually unplaceable time signatures taken straight from the Don Caballero songbook, 'Pinata' is as fascinating as it is endlessly frustrating.

"All of Me" MP3 from the album Mixed Emotions 2012 iTunes BY ADAM PAGE | Jonk Music Tanlines seem poised to be the next big indie-dance stars. That's a fact that might strike many who've followed these guys' previous careers as bizarre. It shouldn't. The duo, consisting of Jesse Cohen (previously of dance-punkers Professor Murder) and Eric Emm (of classic indie outfit Don Caballero), are simply joining the long tradition of forward-thinking rockers making a transition to glittering dance-pop. Everybody who knows things has always known there was no real rivalry, or even much of a cultural divide ...

(Image via dippedindollars.com) Usually when I buy an album, I’ll listen to the whole thing one time over and from then on out, only play my two or three favorite songs when I’m in the mood. Such is not the case with Tanlines’ new album, Mixed Emotions . While I only bought the album two days ago, I’ve already listened to the album from start to finish at least five times. Tanlines are an experimental pop duo from Brooklyn (of course). Neither band member is new to the music industry – drummer Jesse Cohen used to belong to ...

Brooklyn’s Tanlines began as a remix project between two sidemen turned producers, Don Caballero ’s Eric Emm and Professor Murder ’s Jesse Cohen. They earned acclaim for housing up tropical-tinged art-pop acts like Glasser and El Guincho , but it wasn’t until Emm started singing that the “next big thing” talk began. On the group’s 2010 breakout “Real Life”—which serves as centerpiece and spirit animal for Mixed Emotions —he gets his Peter Gabriel on, cooing over hand-smacked percussion and big pulsing synths, “For a minute I was lost / I was looking for a home.” Tanlines’ debut LP ...

The East Midlands' (other) finest guttural post-everything instrumental slamdown merchants release second album Medium Bastard on 16th April. Like some unholy Don Caballero/ASIWYFA midpoint nothing seems to be quite the same twice for the first taste's duration, constantly turning its complex riffs inside out MC Escher-goes-math-rock style then hitting the accelerator for no good reason other than it'd be fun to.

Oft earmarked – quite incomprehensibly – as indispensable progenitors of the equally frequently derided 'post-rock' genre, Bitch Magnet were always sparkier than the anaesthetised references hurled their way during their lamentably brief sojourn in the heart and ringing ears of the American independent underground. A formative band for Don Caballero and consequently for contemporary heroes Battles, the trio initially comprised of bassist and lead vocalist Sooyoung Park, drummer Orestes Morfin and guitarist Jon Fine (who coincidentally toured with the former) last year reunited to tour the fuck out of a world that's sorely missed their ravaging presence and in something of ...

Better late than never, ATS’ Top 50 Albums of 2011 is finally here, and trust me, it’s worth the wait. Also, take a listen to tracks from the albums on our Spotify playlist here. Enjoy! 50. Battles- Gloss Drop By Charles With Battles last year announcing the departure of Tyondai Braxton, many wondered what the follow up to 2007′s Mirrored would hold. But it wasn’t as if the remaining members lacked experience – this is, after all, the “super group” boasting members from Don Caballero and Helmet – and they duly pulled through. Pulling in favours from Matias Aguayo ...

Drawing upon the influence of Battles, Russian Circles and Don Caballero, Brontide are a riff-heavy, intelligent instrumental-rock band that possesses an almost limitless scope. Featuring members from I Was A Cub Scout, La Roux and Pictures, Brontide explore and experiment beyond the boundaries of instrumental music with explosive effects. With dreamy melodies cast adrift by frenetic, technical drumbeats and big guitar loops, it's no wonder they have already gained a cult following.

Year: 2011 Genre: Math Rock, Post-Rock, Progressive Rock RIYL: Don Caballero, Mogwai, Maps & Atlases Country: USA Link: Facebook Bitrate: 320kbps Tracklist: 01. Dymaxion 02. You Might Have A Moustache 03. Soft Reset 04. You Are The Motor 05. Everybody's Fun 06. Papi (Da Shra) 07. Ruby Boo 08. Trophy 09. Kings Arms 10. Matchless Sings "The Earth is a Man" Download Buy

Iron Balls Of Steel is metal’s first great album of 2012. If you eff with Melvins, Relapse-era Mastodon, Botch, American Heritage or Don Caballero, this was precision-built for you. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

The now defunct Monitor Records was without a doubt one of Baltimore's finest indie labels. Between the birth and death of the label it forked out releases by a fine dose of artists including great records by artists like Battles, Oxes, Yeasayer, Cass McCombs , Jeff Mueller (June of '44, Rodan and Shipping News), Per Mission, Bellini, INK and the great "Drummer Compilation" that included drummers from bands like Don Caballero, U.S. Maple, Oxes, Redhead">Blonde Redhead, Fugazi and Modest Mouse just to name a few. Read More

Brooklyn trio Pterodactyl just keep getting better. Their 2007 self-titled debut showcased a squalling math-rock act that combined the disjointed angularity of Don Caballero with the noisy atonality of early Sonic Youth . The largely instrumental album was more intriguing than...

a curious venn diagram: skullflower, slint, neurosis, burzum. intersections, ellipses and parentheses. so much subsubgenre-ing, so little interest… by the brutal orthodoxy black metal demands bosse-de-nage verge on nouvelle vague. yeah there’s post-somethingorother lurking here. don caballero xeroxed beyond recognition. even epidermally it’s confusing. the cover’s all modernist sleek but wrapped around pornographic shrieks. french [...]