Two girls; one on guitar, the other on drums. It's a template we've heard multiple times but somehow, it never really seems to grow old. Bleached grew out of Mika Miko, with Jessica and Jennifer Clavin deciding to fire on up their rock 'n' roll motorcycle and head out on the open road. Sharing a similar love for dirty, sweaty guitar music Bleached touch on some familiar influences. Phil Spector style girl group vocals, chugging Ramones-style riffs and drums that seem to runrunrunrunaway like a toddler down a grassy verge. Early singles emerged on West Coast label Art ...

I don’t listen to country music very often but The Pining is a good band to start listening to. Toronto’s Tara, Emma, Julie, Kaili, Dani and Mika began as an un-intentional gathering of girls singing. They got more dedicated when they started to write their own songs. The Pining is an indie-country-folk band. The very first song of the album right away catches your ears! Call It Quits is a very catchy song as are most of the songs in … →

I don’t listen to country music very often but The Pining is a good band to start listening to. Toronto’s Tara, Emma, Julie, Kaili, Dani and Mika began as an un-intentional gathering of girls singing. They got more dedicated when they started to write their own songs. The Pining is an indie-country-folk band. The very first song of the album right away catches your ears! Call It Quits is a very catchy song as are most of the songs in … →

The visual shape of the SoundCloud stream below is telling for a couple reasons. First, that this is a strange and awesome journey. Second, that Kevin Drumm is involved. Who else would make such rapid-fire dynamic shifts seem so uniformly square yet smooth and pummel the eardrums in controlled bursts before reigning back into the droning hum? Yes, the plateaus of sound you see there are indicative of some definite digitalized Drumm-doings, and surely Mika Vainio (of Pan Sonic pedigree) contributed to sculpting the sonic timeline as well. But what you can’t tell from looking at the stream (or ...

Playing on Prefix is a feature on KCRW’s Music Blog in which writers from the eclectic music site Prefix hip you to what’s coming out of their computer speakers each week. Bleached emerged in 2011 as a tighter version of their scattered and frantic previous band, Mika Miko. They swapped punk dissonance and disorder for a closer-knit garage pop sound with vocal harmonies only achievable with the cosmic connection of siblings in a band. Sisters Jessica and Jennifer Clavin write almost exclusively about love. But it’s not sappy love or platonic love ...

Перед вами новый выпуск «Блогоскопа», дайджеста зарубежных музыкальных блогов. Главным «генератором новостей» на этой неделе был выход в свет нового диска американской инди-рок-группы The Shins «Wincing the Night Away». Альбом «утёк» в Сеть ещё несколько месяцев назад, но это не помешало ему стать одним из главных бестселлеров недели и предметом оживлённых пересудов: удастся или нет ему возглавить хит-парад Billboard и оказаться таким образом первым в истории «альбомом-номер-один» для независимого лейбла Sub Pop. На момент написания этого текста результат «чартовой битвы» The Shins и «порно»-RnB-проекта Pretty Ricky ещё не был известен, и предсказания все делали разные. Тем временем Chromewaves и ...

Our irregular round-up of some new-ish cassette, CD-R and vinyl releases featuring Ghastly Spats, The Galaxy Folk, Bad//Dreems, Mad Nanna and the best punk band Australia has produced in ages, Helta Skelta. Words by TIM SCOTT . Ghastly Spats We're Breaking Through the Hymen (EP, Heinous Anus Records) Two dudes and two gals who break out smeared mascara and chipped black nail polish rock. It all sounds kind of feral. The music that a Hollywood production company would use for the soundtrack of an apocalyptic film shot in Marrickville. 'Sordid' has a pulsating and droney vocal chant/mumble while ...

This is a-side of the new 7" from Mika Vaino (Pan Sonic, Ø, etc.), out now via Comfortzone.

Éste próximo fin de semana comienza LEV Festival en Gijón, Spain. Uno de los mejores festivales musicales y de artes visuales que conocemos, y que este año cuenta con artistas de la talla de Prefuse 73, Ghostpoet, Byetone, Mika Vainio, Soap and Skin, Arbol o Komatsu... Realmente fantástico, allá estaremos para contártelo... This next week we will be in the new edition of the LEV Festival in Gijón, Spain. A fantastic music and visual arts festival with artists like Prefuse 73, Ghostpoet, Byetone, Mika Vainio, Soap and Skin, Arbol or Komatsu... Really, really fantastic. We will be there and we ...

Yesterday, we brought you an exclusive on details of Martin Solveig's new album "Smash" and his most recent single, "The Night Out." While the single and its associated remixes have been making the rounds on top internet outlets, Martin has...

CLOT and Mosley Tribes have come together for the first time for a stylish pair of sunglasses for the upcoming season. Employing the likes of Edison Chen, Eddie Cruz, Mika Van Winkle, Kazuki Kuraishi and Miya as principal models, the sunglasses have been designed in a black colorway with crystal laminate detailing throughout. The frame [...] Click here to view full gallery at Hypebeast.com

WHAT : Sweetlife Food & Music Festival WHEN : April 28 WHERE : Columbia, MD WHO : The Shins, A$AP Rocky, Zola Jesus, Explosions in the Sky, Twin Shadow, Kid Cudi, Action Bronson, more WHAT : Rethink Music   WHEN : April 22-24 WHERE : Boston, MA  WHO : GZA, Junior Boys, Mayer Hawthorne, Amanda Palmer, DJ Spooky, Thievery Corporation, Portugal. The Man, more WHAT : LEV 2012 WHEN : April 27-28 WHERE : Gijon, Spain WHO : Prefuse 73, Holy Other, Soap & Skin, Various Production, Robert Lippok, Mika Vainio, Kuedo, Patten, more WHAT : Elements Music Festival WHEN : April 27-28 WHERE : Edmonton, Alberta WHO : A-Trak, Calvin Harris, Sebastian Ingrosso, Pendulum, more

For some reasons, I am not too fussed about the new Scissor Sisters single “Only The Horses”. The band roped in producer-of-the-moment Calvin Harris for the collaboration, and his signature sound is all over it but Scissor’s. This could have been a Mika track even! I don’t know if this is their attempt to conquer [...]

Los Angeles duo Bleached have confirmed a number of European headline dates. If you're a fan of fuzzed out, bubblegum pop inspired guitar music then 2012 is rapidly turning into a deluxe year. Los Angeles duo Bleached are the latest to emerge, with Jessica and Jennifer Clavin becoming the names to drop at SXSW. Splitting away from Mika Miko, Bleached first caught our attention when debut single 'Carter' was released on Art Fag Recordings. A sought after San Diego label, the imprint's backing helped turn up the hype around the pair. After almost 12 months of teasing, Bleached ...

One reader offers us a relentlessly pop-tastic selection of songs. Think you can do better? Get in touch Each week, we invite a reader to share a playlist they've been listening to recently. This week it's the turn of Scott Mildenhall, who blogs at In at Number 40 . Follow him on Twitter here . Loreen – Euphoria Euphoria, Sweden's entry to this year's Eurovision, is the best kind of melodramatic nonsense: wrought declarations of love in the verses leading into - yes - euphoric house chords in the chorus. The live performance is probably better than the record itself, with ...