Indie journeyman Dan Snaith readies Our Love his sixth record under the name Caribou. The LP, the follow-up to 2010’s Swim, has a great lead single in the instantly infectious and danceable “Do Without You”. Our Love is out October 6 in the UK on City Slang and on October 7 in the US via Merge.
Caribou 
(Official)
Rating 8.4
Over Sands are a new London-based (via Somerset) duo specializing in cinematic psychedelia-tinged songs with a found-sound/inventive-type percussion element. Aptly, the twosome take on the dramatic sweep of “Falling”, the theme from the David Lynch TV series Twin Peaks on this excellent new cover. The original having the appropriate swirl and space to give Over Sands the right latitude in shaping “Falling” to their taste, it makes for an excellent source material choice. Sample the B3 Premiere of Over Sands’ cover of the Twin Peaks theme “Falling” below.
Over Sands 
(Soundcloud)
Rating 8.4
The Great Escape continues to be an awesome event for new music enthusiasts wanting to get a leg-up on international bands poised to make moves. With the 2014 edition including 400+ bands playing over three days in 30+ venues, there’s no lack of good music to check out. The festival is growing quickly with 100 more bands compared to last year. While The Great Escape (a.k.a. TGE) does share the SXSW danger of becoming too big for its own good, this event (for now) still has far more intimacy than the aforementioned Austin festival. Like always, more bands also means more schedule conflicts, and also like SXSW, even top tier Delegate and Press credentials won’t penetrate lines (or in some cases no lines) at venues. For example, Future Islands sounded great… from outside, and the TGE showcase for Wild Beasts would have been great to review had we also remembered to buy a ticket for it (thought that’s what passes were for)? And so for festivals like this, it seems the best plan of attack is to focus on artists that, to date, either haven’t or rarely play live. Both Bruce and Mike from team B3SCI were on the grounds for TGE and here’s their report:
Some 2014 faves for Bruce included Courtney Barnett, who is not only blowing up in the US but in England as well. She plays a mean guitar as it turns out. The melodic electronic artist East India Youth has been an NME darling this year, and as TGE proved, is doing quite well in England. His one-man show has a clean sound and he’s quite animated on stage. The Isle of Wight brothers, Champs, serenaded us in a church at TGE with their sweet harmonies and were also major highlights. Two UK bands, growing in local buzz, who delivered nicely onstage were Childhood and Jaws. The Australian band Calling All Cars is a metal/electronic hybrid with great songs, and they blew the walls down. Interestingly, they will soon be relocating to Manchester. Fellow Australians Sheppard just had a #1 pop single in their homeland and have a commanding stage presence to back it up. The UK’s Echotape have forsaken their art-pysch direction for a more straight forward rock direction that shows strong potential. Amber Run was a fave (see below). Finally, Portland’s Rare Monk must get a shout out. I joined Mike from B3Sci for their 1:30am set on Saturday night. This Portland band is making major forward strides. Their mid-tempo bluesy rock is played with precise power and competence.
Some 2014 faves for Mike came from both the expected and unexpected. Amber Run won audiences with pitch perfect harmonies and pop songs primed for college campuses throughout the world. The young 3-piece of/from Blaenavon lived up to their radar worthy hype with a stellar rock show to boot – big promise here. Hozier was good, while “Take Me To Church” stole the show; the band dynamic felt a bit on the safe side. After being tipped from a friend, Brussels band BRNS were a favorite surprise of TGE, with an energetic and expressive live show that was, at times, reminiscent of heavy pop pioneers WU LYF and indie rock mainstays Local Natives. Rare Monk’s alluring melange of atmospheric indie rock proved a powerful UK debut. Annie Eve drenched listeners with her knack for clever song and a live band including an accordion no less. Peace performed a pleasant ‘surprise’ set at the NME showcase, which was definitely a highlight, and Khushi was another favorite with his live band set up, showcasing what really counts… his songs.
Have a listen to some of our favorite picks from the TGE Festival below:
The Great Escape 
(Official)
For Damon Albarn, making music has always been a behind the scenes venture. He has, despite his low profile, been very successful exploring his art in new and unique ways. Albarn started his musical career in 1988 while at Goldsmiths College in London, where he and some of his classmates formed a band they would eventually call Blur. After being signed to Food Records in 1990, the band became something of the British counterpoint to the grunge movement happening in the United States at that time. They achieved critical and commercial success in England before breaking up in 2003, then reunited again in 2008.
Of course, most Americans are familiar with Albarn through his other successful venture, Gorillaz, the cartoon alternative rock band he created in 2001. The band has sold tens of millions of albums worldwide, been named the Most Successful Virtual Band by the Guinness Book of World Records, won a Grammy, won two MTV VMA’s, and changed the perception of what popular music could be.
Now, Albarn is preparing to step out on his own with his first solo album Everyday Robots, which was released on April 25th. Although, you might not want to call it a solo record to him, as he told NME “I suppose you could call it a solo record, but I don’t like that word. It sounds very lonely – solo. I don’t really want to be solo in my life. But yeah, I’m making another record.” Keeping with that spirit of collaboration he enlisted the help of producer Richard Russell as well as singers Brian Eno and Natasha Khan, both of whom he recorded duets with for the album.
The resulting album is something of a dark day dream, recalling the hours spent in elementary school staring at rain hitting the window of your classroom. That’s not to say it’s exclusively melancholy in tone; “Mr Tembo” is a particularly uplifting track about baby elephant that Albarn met in a zoo in Tanzania. Along with Paul Simonon, he enlisted the help of a gospel choir from his hometown for the song, which was released as the fourth single from this album. Despite the brief uptick from “Mr Tembo,” Everyday Robots doesn’t shy away from heavy hitting tracks, like the autobiographical “You & Me” which references his past experiences with heroin use: “Tin foil and a lighter, the ship across, five days on, two days off.” He explained the reference to The Guardian, saying “I suppose it’s just me saying, ‘Let’s just get this out of the way. I took heroin for a while and I found it interesting and, yes, it was remarkably helpful in the creative process for a short time. I didn’t go down in the gutter, in fact I was incredibly disciplined about it. Blah blah blah. So what?'”
In an effort to promote his album, Albarn performed for at the SXSW Festival in Austin back in March, which was recorded as a part of DirecTV’s Guitar Center Sessions. Albarn’s hepisode will air on May 11th, and features an interview with Albarn about his experience making his first solo album. While there isn’t an official tour planned, Albarn plans to make a series of appearances at festivals in Europe, the US, and Japan during this summer.
Reviewed by Spencer Blohm
Damon Albarn (Facebook)
Swedish band Movienite merge 90’s disto-rock with modern melodic & rhythm structures and do so well on new one “Yippie!” while not coming off hokey/nostalgic by maintaining the rudder of strong and focused pop writing. A++.
Movienite 
(Soundcloud)
Rating 8.4
Brighton’s best Phoria do well to standout from the UK Alt-R&B trend/scene with a strong follow-up to one of the year’s best tracks “Emanate” on the soothing and spare “Undone”. X Novo will release next month “Display”, Phoria’s new EP from which “Undone” is sampled.
Phoria (Facebook)
Rating 8.4
The great Innovative Leisure will be releasing next week Wayne Interest, the new LP from SoCal band Tijuana Panthers. Debuted on KCRW last week is “NOBO” a reverb-washed, drop-out sort of track that mixes well surf rock elements and classic R&B and is Wayne Interest’s current focus track.
Banks 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.6
Prior to Temples’ recent show at the High Noon Saloon in Madison, WI, Bruce Rave interviews Tom and Sam of the buzzing British psyche-rock collective at WSUM-FM studios. Have a listen to their hang below.
Temples (Facebook)
* Links and playlists from Rave’s weekly new music show can be found on his blog and be sure follow Bruce on Twitter too!
We’re very pleased to premiere “Broken Arrow” the latest track from San Francisco band City Tribe. Excerpted from the band’s new LP Undertow, “Broken Arrow” blends the West Coast easy harmonies of a Fleet Foxes with the chaotic beauty/tempest in a tea-cup quality of Neil Young’s noisier records. Undertow, the LP recorded by former Manchester Orchestra drummer Andy Freeman is out July 29. Sample the B3 Premiere of “Broken Arrow” below.
Olivver (Soundcloud) (Facebook)
Rating 8.4
Orlando FL duo SALES invoke the ghost of Broken Social Scene on the soulfully spare and excellent indie pop of “Vow”.
SALES 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.3
New label, new band. Hailing from West Palm Beach but now calling Brooklyn home, gritty and daring punk outfit SLAVVE throw down on first single “Pity Party”. SLAVVE’s debut EP is due June 24th on the new Portland, OR label Bloodmoss Records – and if “Pity Party” is even the tiniest window into the whole of the EP, we are stoked. Reviewed by Brian Litwin
SLAVVE 
Facebook)
Rating: 8.3
