TAG: Secretly Canadian

May18

Gardens & Villa, “Black Hills” (Video)

Gardens & Villa are going on tour and releasing a debut LP out July 5 on Secretly Canadian. Not only that but they also released their new video for their new single “Black Hills” directed by Ulysses//Onassis. I feel like this is the exact kind of music that The OC would have scored a love scene to, you know? It has that kind of vibe, the kind where many people can listen to “Black Hills” and like it without feeling ostracized. Check out the tour dates after the jump.


...MORE

Jun09

Here We Go Magic – Pigeons (Review)

Here We Go Magic

Pigeons

Released by Secretly Canadian


Here We Go Magic’s history so far reads a bit like a indie success story, even fairy tail. Here was a band (or rather, initially a solo bedroom project by one Luke Temple) whose 2009 self-titled debut, though it seemed to have come out of nowhere, was noticed, and liked, by enough people to eventually get the now-actual-band on the road with Grizzly Bear, and a record deal with Secret Canadian.
Feb22

Yeasayer – Odd Blood (Review)

Yeasayer

Odd Blood

Released by Secretly Canadian


For whatever reason, wanting to go pop and rocking your indie foundation is a sin punishable by having heaps of shit talked about whatever skills you may have stepped-up in order to appeal to wider audiences--even if those very skills are things we all love. Conceived with the mindset of crafting a sound that will become your next favorite record, Yeasayer’s second album, Odd Blood, will make many of those “don’t tell me who you love, but show me” critics hurl pejoratives from their ivory tower. While it almost goes without staying that every band's aspiration is to ingeniously pique the interest of their listeners by reinventing old elements and coupling them with new and creative tones, it seems this record's goal is not necessarily to go without saying, but say it all in the fewest possible breaths. In theory, the record, pulling from both '80s synth-pop constructs and its experimental arrangement, approaches its themes in such a way that it would be an inevitable pop smash. Why is it then, that with all of these irrefutably enjoyable elements that this sophomore effort comes off more as an awkwardly self-aware attempt at commercialism than a genuine artistic venture?