Best New Releases of the Week, Part Two: Seabellies, The Tim and Sam Band, Inspired Flights,
Yesterday, we published the Best New Releases of the Week mix featuring fresh tracks from new releases by The New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene, The Hold Steady and many others. Since there are so many great new releases this week, we broke up the usually one installment into two parts. In today’s mix, Part Two of the best new releases, we feature mostly bands that sent their music to us, including Seabellies, Tim and The Same Band, Inspired Flight, Unbunny, Snowglobe, The Sister Ruby Band, Shodes, Cast Spells, and Gift Horse. As with Part One, today’s mix offers you a chance to hear a lot of fabulous music that you may not have otherwise heard.
Despite an overwhelming consensus among music bloggers who find the North Wales band name, Tim & Sam’s Tim & The Sam Band With Tim & Sam, ridiculous, annoying, and so on, the band has managed to create some great songs that allow for a pass on the stupid band name. The band have toured and performed at In The City Festival, as well as other fests, like Latitude, Swn and The Great Escape. They also opened for bands like Slow Club, Metronomy, Peggy Sue, Maps, and Scouting For Girls.
We’re going to refer to the band as The Tim and Sam Band, and will list them as such on our 2010 Bands to Watch list. It would be smart on the band’s part to shorten the name now, rather than later. Anyways, the band members employ lush instrumentation, craft sweet, melodic songs that are daydream inducing and all just all around luring. Hope to hear more from them soon.
All four members of Tim and Sam Band are accomplished multi-instrumentalists, effortlessly switching between instruments such as glockenspiel, marmonium and clarinet, as well as melodies of light xlophones , accordions and rich choruses during live shows. Their new album, Life Stream, out now, has been in the works for two years. If you like the songs included here, you’ll probably love the album. Their debut album, Put Your Slippers On, was released in 2008.
“Choices” - The Tim and Sam Band from Live Stream
“Hope’s Garden” - The Tim and Sam Band, instrumental single (2009)
You can also hear more of the band’s songs on their MySpace page.
From Sydney, Australia comes yet another Band to Watch – Seabellies. The band is signed with indie label Hub/Albert Music. Seabellies have opened for bands like Mum and The Temper Trap, and also performed at the V Festival along side Phoenix, The Pixies and Pet Shop Boys. Their music is rich and lush, full of ethereal electronic sounds, strings, metalaphones and melodicas, soaring guitars and Scandinavian-influenced melodies.
Swapping instruments throughout the set, the bands onstage presence is akin to bands like Architecture in Helsinki, Broken Social Scene and the Go! Team. They broke through last fall with the release of the single “Orange X” (see video) and their US release include the new single included here, ”
“Feel It Leave” – The Seabellies from By Limbo Lake
The unsigned San Diego indie electronica band Inspired Flight show a lot of promise from what we’ve heard thus far. Rooted in hip-hop and dipping into elements of indie rock, down-tempo, dub and dance, Inspired Flight is taking your pre-conceived notion of what a band and DJ are and merging them into something new and quite appealing. By creatively integrating traditional DJ elements, like sampling and scratching, the San Diego musical duo perform live using multiple laptops, keyboards and turntables while incorporating guitars, kalimbas, melodicas and vocals, translating into the ultimate electric, live experience.
“I Won’t Let You Down” – Inspired Flight from s/t debut
“Pull, Push, Let Go” – Inspired Flight from s/t debut
More of our Favorite Songs from New Releases
“Pioneer Scalps” – Cast Spells from limited 12″ Bright Works and Baton
“Love” – Snowglobe from Little More Lived In
“Rebecca (Just Take It from Me)” – The Sister Ruby Band from A Shot In The Dark
The Sister Ruby Band official website
“My Dear One” – Shodes from My Dear One
“Countersign” – Unbunny from Moon Food
“Missionaries” - Gift Horse from Mountain of Youth
The song by unbunny is actually by the bats from nz
seabellies! wow didn’t think you’d know about them…saw them at silverlake a few years ago
heard their whole album up on da myspace…seems pretty good..jm
Fantastic playlist!
Favorite song on this is probably Pioneer Scalps by Cast Spells
Hey, when are we going to see another Cold War Kids full length album?
i meant to write ‘Tim’ not ‘Time’….uggghh nevermind ;-)
haha…the annoyance of the tim & sam band’s name has already begun to haunt us. in your post headline you call them Tim and The Sam Band, and in your article you call them The Time and Sam Band. either way, they sound nice and i agree with you on the name change. thanks!