Covered

Text-art lovers rejoice! The cover to the new single by No Age is a triumph for font- rich, black letters flow with ease across a yellow background, eliminating a need to place an image on the cover. Four rows of tightly-grouped letters reflect the band's sound: brief bursts of beauty placed between hazy spaces left open for interpretation. This is a cover to place on top of one's album pile, it is why art and music blend so boldly.

Kalamashoes

This is the fourth annual Kzoo Shoegaze Fest and playing it are local gazers Glowfriends. If you're in the area, it's totally worth checking out!

Menomena-Mines

On their newest album Mines, Menomena utilize a definite less-is-more approach to sculpting their signature pop songs. At first, the sound is bleak and subtle. Their old rhythm changes and varied instrumentations have been simplified, allowing the band to bare it all. On "Tithe," drummer Dannny Seim sings "Nothing sounds appealing." Interpret this as you will, but what this quote does is function best as an example of the sheer honesty delivered by Menomena on their latest LP. Changes are vast.
What remains the same are Danny Seim's intricately woven drum beats and Justin Harris' usual powerful vocals. Mines is surely an album worthy of repeated listens, in fact its brilliancy is dependent on them. For each time through, the album crawls closer and closer to one's heart, bringing with it the twangy guitars and brassy sax that made you fall in love with Menomena in the first place.

Women

Eyesore, the new 6+ minute single from post-punk darlings Women, is expansive and melodic. Building from the momentum sparked by the release of their self-titled LP in 2008, the band has turned down the guitar drone in exchange for guitar hormonies that stick to your brain. Eyesore sounds as if Television sang on your back porch in the winter; the song moves quickly and with ease, a feat for a single over the five-minute mark. The song is a reminder of why Women are truly one of the most exciting bands alive. They craft intelligent songs that, when listened to, cannot help but inspire musicians to cherish what a gift it is to play music.
Be sure to order Public Strain on vinyl:http://www.jagjaguwar.com/onesheet.php?cat=JAG152
JagJaguwar/Flemish Eye is dropping the album September 28th in the US. Be aware!

Hear it:Eyesore by WOMEN

Cold Pumas-Beat Mystery/Party Drip

Drag yourself out of the water, head wet and pounding. Guitars drive through your ears in repetition: in and out, in and out. Whispered vocals glide over the ever-changing drums beats felt beneath your feet. To your back, a church-like silhouette, above you a flower-petal curtain. Cold Pumas genuinely place the listener in the cover of their new 7" Beat Mystery/ Party Drip. One cannot help but feel as if the guitar lines are carrying them away to the Puma's Brighton residence. There, you will meet a world that lives on such Abe-Vigoda-esque noise rock. It is Cold Puma's sincere knack for detail that distance themselves from all other bands and make them truly a spectacle to behold.BEAT MYSTERY by COLD PUMAS