If only everyday could sound like Hope Sandoval.
If only everyday could sound like Hope Sandoval.
By Trevor Meyer
Kurt Vile is such a talented artist. “Baby’s Arms” is the opener off of Smoke Ring for My Halo. This is a beautiful, flowing track with patented melodic refrains and that sweet reverberated twang that soothes the soul. To quote my friend, Pat, “Kurt Vile just gets me man, he just gets me.” I think this speaks for all of us.
Kurt Vile – Baby’s ArmsKurt Vile 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.4
“It’s Alright” is new from Kurt Vile and taken from his forthcoming So Outta Reach EP, dropping November 8th via Matador. Kurt is back in top form.
Kurt Vile – It’s AlrightKurt Vile (Facebook)
Rating 8.5
vic chesnutt: lp: “at the cut” / amazon / myspace / jacksonville, fl
anthony valadez: lp: “audio/visual: sounds inspired by all things visual” / amazon / myspace / los angeles, ca
chief: lp: “collabo collection” / amazon / myspace / lausanne, switzerland
kurt vile: lp: “childish prodigy” / amazon / myspace / philadelphia, pa
Vic Chesnutt – We Hovered With Short Wings
Anthony Valadez – Fire Fly (Feat. Kissey Asplund)
Chief – Love Lost (Feat. Co$$)
Kurt Vile – Freak Train
Hello 2016. Goodbye 2015. 2015 was a year. We’ve elected at B3 this year that in lieu of arbitrarily ranking a list of top x-number tracks that we’d prefer to share lists of the favorite songs of the year of each main B3SCI writer. Following later this week will be B3’s choices for top artists of the year and our picks for artists to watch for 2016. Thanks for reading.
Troy
1 Drake – Hotline Bling
2 Drake / Future – Jumpman
3 Kendrick Lamar – How Much A Dollar Cost
4 Justin Bieber – What Do You Mean
5 Major Lazer / DJ Snake & MO – Lean On
6 SG Lewis – Warm
7 Kanye West – All Day
8 Florence + The Machine – What Kind of Man
9 Alabama Shakes – Don’t Wanna Fight
10 NoMBe – California Girls
Mike
1 Deerhunter – Breaker
2 Moses Sumney – Seeds
3 Gallant – Weight in gold
4 Kurt Vile – Pretty Pimpin
5 Midnight to Monaco – Suicide
6 Blur – Go Out
7 Green Buzzard – Zoo Fly
8 Spring King – City
9 Noel Gallagher – Ballad of the Might I
10 Sjowgren – Seventeen
Bruce
1 Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats – S.O.B.
2 Courtney Barnett – Pedestrian At Best
3 Alabama Shakes – Miss You
4 Death Cab For Cutie – Everything’s A Ceiling
5 FFS – Piss Off
6 The Struts – Could Have Been Me
7 The Maccabees – Marks To Prove It
8 Frank Turner – Mittens
9 The Libertines – Anthems For Doomed Youth
10 Hippo Campus – Suicide Saturday
Erin
1 Kenton Slash Demon – Harpe
2 Darius & FKJ – O
3 Lettuce – Phyllis
4 Sango – Dias Melhores
5 J.Louis – Camarillo
6 Rick Ross – Amazing Grace
7 Superhumanoids – Anxious in Venice
8 Egyptian Art- She’s Lovely
9 NoMBe – California Girls
10 HONNE – No Place Like Home
The 2014 edition of Sacramento’s TBD Fest goes live October 3rd through the 5th. Artists at TBD this year include headliners Blondie, Justice, Moby & Empire of the Sun and B3 favorites like The War on Drugs, Kurt Vile, and Goldroom. The three day festival also includes an excellent selection of cuisine from some of SAC’s best restaurants. To mark the festival’s imminent arrival in Northern California, B3 has a pair of weekend fest passes to giveaway; as well as the premiere of a cool new mixtape featuring festival artists from another B3SCI fave and a TBD Fest performing artist, Teen Daze. To win passes to the festival, hit our email by Friday September 19th @ Noon PDT HERE with the subject line “I WANT TO GO TO TBD FEST” and we’ll select soon after one lucky winner! For more info on TBD Fest in Sacramento including how and where you can purchase tickets, head to the festival’s official site, here.
TBD Fest 
(Official)
Although we’ve come to the end of the road, still Adele we can’t let you go. We’ve reached 2011’s closing hour and now it is time: b3sci presents it’s Top 50 Albums of 2011. No one’s even come close to having the year Adele’s had. The most albums sold in a single year since 2004, two of the biggest singles of the year, etc, a truly international breakthrough both commercially and critically on a level we haven’t seen in a long time. Adele, our girl, the crown is yours. 21 is b3sci’s Album of the year.
So where the fuck is Adele on many of these respected-indie-press-dude best of lists? That period between Nov 2010 when “Rolling in the Deep” first broke and the lead up to the album’s release in late January, Adele ruled the blogosphere, the fold was united. Then “RITD” got overplayed to the point of absurdity, your mom bought the record, probably your grandma bought it too; those bros that listen to Foo Fighters and Deadmau5 started bumping “Someone Like You” out their trunk. Soon, the “wrong people” liked 21 and Adele’s brief moment atop the indiesphere was over. Right.
Thanks for reading this year, y’all. We’ve got some big plans for 2012. Stay tuned. Much love.
01. Adele – 21 (Buy It) (Read)
02. The Weeknd – House of Balloons (Buy It) (Read)
03. Drake – Take Care (Buy It) (Read)
04. James Blake – James Blake (Buy It) (Read)
05. Kendrick Lamar – Section.80 (Buy It) (Read)
06. Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx – We’re New Here (Buy It) (Read)
07. WU LYF – Go Tell Fire on the Mountain (Buy It) (Read)
08. Jay-Z & Kanye West – Watch the Throne (Buy It) (Read)
09. The Horrors – Skying (Buy It) (Read)
10. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (Buy It) (Read)
11. Wye Oak – Civilian (Buy It) (Read)
12. Girls – Father Son, Holy Ghost (Buy It) (Read)
13. Real Estate – Days (Buy It) (Read)
14. A$AP Rocky – Live Love A$AP (Buy It) (Read)
15. Sepalcure – Sepalcure (Buy It) (Read)
16. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (Buy It) (Read)
17. The War on Drugs – Slave Ambient (Buy It) (Read)
18. Charles Bradley – No Time For Dreaming (Buy It) (Read)
19. Metronomy – The English Riviera (Buy It) (Read)
20. SBTRKT – SBTRKT (Buy It) (Read)
21. Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica (Buy It) (Read)
22. The Vaccines – What Did You Expect From the Vaccines (Buy It) (Read)
23. Destroyer – Kaputt (Buy It) (Read)
24. The Antlers – Burst Apart (Buy It) (Read)
25. tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l (Buy It) (Read)
26. Beyonce – 4 (Buy It) (Read)
27. Wild Flag – Wild Flag (Buy It) (Read)
28. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (Buy It) (Read)
29. Big K.R.I.T. – Return of 4eva (Buy It) (Read)
30. Clams Casino – Instrumentals (Buy It) (Read)
31. Gillian Welch – The Harrow and the Harvest (Buy It) (Read)
32. Low Roar – Low Roar (Buy It) (Read)
33. AraabMUZIK – Electronic Dream (Buy It) (Read)
34. Active Child – You Are All I See (Buy It) (Read)
35. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues (Buy It) (Read)
36. Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin’ (Buy It) (Read)
37. Cults – Cults (Buy It) (Read)
38. Radiohead – The King of Limbs (Buy It) (Read)
39. Florence + The Machine – Ceremonials (Buy It) (Read)
40. Alex Clare – The Lateness of the Hour (Buy It) (Read)
41. Nicolas Jaar – Space Is Only Noise (Buy It) (Read)
42. Jhene Aiko – Sailing Soul(s) (Buy It) (Read)
43. The Stepkids – The Stepkids (Buy It) (Read)
44. Freddie Gibbs – Cold Day in Hell (Buy It) (Read)
45. Gardens & Villa – Gardens & Villa (Buy It) (Read)
46. Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know (Buy It) (Read)
47. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo (Buy It) (Read)
48. Foster the People – Torches (Buy It) (Read)
49. Explosions in the Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (Buy It) (Read)
Summer Fiction are one of our favorite surprises of 2010. b3sci recently had the chance to catch up with frontman, and singer/songwriter, Bill Ricchini to ask him a few questions about music and life. Check it out:
b3sci: Where can fans expect to see Summer Fiction perform in 2011?
Bill: We mostly play on the east coast, in NY and Philly, but yes, we’re coming to a town near you, hopefully. We’re planning some touring and speaking to some possible booking agents. We also just booked PopFest in NYC for the spring. Possibly SXSW…
b3sci: When people experience Summer Fiction for the first time, is there a particular message that you’re hoping translates?
Bill: I like to leave it pretty open ended and hope the audience or listener brings their own thing to the songs and performances. I will say the music is coming from a place of sincerity and hopefully that comes across on an emotional level.
b3sci: Just listening to the album, you can tell songwriting seems to just resonate in your bones. While your songs seem basic at the core they are complemented by fairly intricate arrangements and counter melodies. What has inspired you to be a songwriter, and what sort of education, experience, or vision leads you down your path of record production?
Bill: Thanks! I’m pretty obsessed with songwriting and arrangement. While I never studied music formally, I think I studied all of my favorite records growing up and somehow that is all in my DNA. I also enjoy producing, I feel it would be hard to give that up to someone, although maybe I will try it if Jon Brion calls.
b3sci: What’s your dream collaboration?
Bill: I’d love to write an album for a female singer and produce it. There are lots of gorgeous pop and torch songs I have ready to go but just need to find my muse… I’d also love to meet Brian Wilson. A while ago, one of the guys from Wondermints passed him one of my demos.. and I heard he liked it! That was kind of surreal… Music for film also excites me. I think Wes Anderson would like this record for some reason. Maybe it is the font choice.
b3sci: Is there a particular track from the album that you feel especially connected to or proud of?
Bill: I think “Kids in Catalina” has been really popping live. I like the construction of that song, the vocal choir and the vibraphone.
Summer Fiction – Kids in Catalinab3sci: How would you say the music scene in Philadelphia has or hasn’t helped Summer Fiction along?
Bill: Philly has been 100% supportive. Bands, journalists, fans all came out for this record and many good friends from other bands contributed.
b3sci: Here’s a question we love to ask people… hypothetical situation, you’re stranded on an island and you can chose between having with you either 30 songs OR 10 albums? Which take the space?
Bill: 10 albums; no question. I like the thematic element of my favorite records, call me old fashioned but I like the way songs brush up against one another and form a complete thought. That’s what I went for with Summer Fiction. One of my choices would be It’s a Shame About Ray which is a perfect record.
b3sci: What are five things you can’t live without?
Bill:
1) Guitar
2) Digital voice recorder
3) Marble notebook
4) Good food
5) Books
b3sci: What are five things that you could totally be cool living without?
Bill:
1) Rent
2) TV
3) East coast winters
4) Hangovers
5) Traffic
b3sci: Has the internet played a role in the development of you as an artist?
Bill: Uh not sure. I tend to focus more on the message than the media, but the fact that the web is a great tool to share my art is gratifying.
b3sci: How do you discover new music?
Bill: Online, jukeboxes, shows, SXSW, radio, my friend Mike…
b3sci: What are you listening to at the moment? Anything influential?
Bill: The last Beach House record kills me. Arcade Fire and Deerhunter are really on their game… Kurt Vile is great too.
b3sci:In your opinion, what are some of the popular misnomers about being an independent and emerging artist/songwriter in today’s music industry, and with the general, casual listening public?
Bill: Maybe just how much discipline and focus it takes to make a good record.
more Summer Fiction on b3science HERE
Summer Fiction – Throw Your Arms Around Me Summer Fiction – To: Alone
