After some time away composing, recording and touring, Bay Area musician Jason Roberts Quever has put together another strong collection of dreamy, introspective songs - all taped in analog - for the April release You Can Have What You Want.

Quever carved out his place in the indie music industry with the release of Can't Go Back in February of 2007 on Devendra Banhart's San Francisco indie label, Gnomonsong.

Unlike Can't Go Back, this new release is much more subdued and sluggish whereas Can't Go Back reached out with lighter songs and an emphasis on a mix of electro-pop and folk rock.

In an interview in December 2007 with Salad Days Music, and with the buzz factor on high after the release of Can't Go Back, Quever talked about some of his major influences at the time, stating: "I have been listening to Broadcast a bit. My Bloody Valentine, of course. Leonard Cohen, Beach House, Issac Hayes, [and] Curtis Mayfield. I’m thinking of orchestrated stuff lately…Nuggets, always. Air." All good choices.

The new album is good throughout, but the most notable songs include "Fatal Primitive", "Dictator's Lament" and the title track. If you are a big fan of melancholy, dream-like shoegaze, this album may be worth some of your precious bills. The album's overall sound weighs in heavily on stumbling organ layers with emphasis on vocal reverberations.

After listening to it a few times, You Can Have What You Want is one of those albums that gets better with each subsequent listening, and again, especially if you like retro melancholy indie high on reverb and tracked in analog. You won't be jumping around your apartment so save this one for listening to when you are relaxed or even in a somber mood.

"Future Primitive" - Papercuts from You Can Have Want You Want available April 14th - everywhere or via the band's label, Gnomonsongs.

Other great songs from previous Papercuts' releases:

"John Brown" - Papercuts from Can't Go Back
"Take The 227th Exit" - Papercuts from Can't Go Back

Prefix Magazine compared Papercuts' music to "paisley underground ’60s revival" and repeated the over-done comparison to Beach House with a different spin, which I think is spot on. Here it is: "Comparisons to label mates Beach House wouldn’t be inaccurate, but Quever has an idiosyncratic voice all his own." Indeed and indie.

Listen to more tracks and get more information at Papercuts' MySpace page.

Labels: Gnomonsongs, Indie Album Releases 2009, New Indie 2009, Papercuts, San Francisco

Spirit Spine self portrait
New musicians popping up in recent weeks are beginning to make 2009 look like a promising year for indie rock, electronica and pop.

Yet another relatively unknown talent has caught our attention, and we think his sound will appeal to many people who have reacted so positively to Blind Man's Colours' post a couple of weeks ago.

Joseph Denney, aka, Spirit Spine, is a freshmen at Indiana University in Bloomington, who began a "music project" last fall that friends encouraged. His friends were right to encourage him. The result is a collection of sprawling, dreamy, psychedelic and pop-oriented songs that we keep playing again and again.

"My new album," Denney wrote in an email to IRC, "is self-titled and has been compared to "Panda Bear + MGMT + New Order" and 'The Beach Boys fronted by Lou Reed high on Nyquil and Redbull' I was greatly influenced by Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" Technique as well as Surf Rock and 80's Pop."

That's an excellent comparison. You can hear more of his other influences - like Joy Division and Beck, in Denney's music as well, not to mention the obvious Animal Collective influences.

Denney says he created all of the music using the the computer software program Garageband on the Mac and some 8-tracking. This is an amazing example of how one talented young musician in the technological age can write, record, manufacture, distribute and market his own music for the rest of us to enjoy.

Highlights from Spirit Spine's debut include "Trickledown", "Crashers (Highs and Lows)", "Heart Races", "Raptures" and "Faustian Vice".

Spirit Spine is a force to be reckoned with in 2009, and hopefully many of you will agree. The album Spirit Spine is available on iTunes through Lovegiffrae Records.

"Trickledown" - Spirit Spine from s/t
"Crashers (Highs and Lows)" - Spirit Spine from s/t

Spirit Spine MySpace page

Check back for a follow-up review on this amazing indiest of indie releases for 2009.

Labels: Animal Collective, Artists to Watch, Indie Artist/Group Profiles, Joseph Denney, New Indie 2009, Spirit Spine

During the past year or so, CinCin City's indie pop band Pomegranates has crossed the radar of many music blogs and official publications, thanks most to their 2008 debut LP Everything is Alive on Lujo Records.

SPIN magazine says the "art pop" band "shows a youthful, open-eared quartet enlivened with a kick-ass record collection, ceiling-less imagination, ragged guitars, and songwriting chops for days."

"Whom Who" - Pomegranates from Everything is Alive
"Thunder Meadown" - Pomegranates from Everything is Alive

Check out Pomegranate's record label profile with free MP3s.

Here's a YouTube video from the band for the song "We Could Have Escaped".

Labels: Chad Van Gaalen, Michaela Birtic, New Indie 2009, Pomegranates