Hits From The Box #31 - Spring A Ling Ling

It has been busy HFTB wise here lately hasn't it? Im playing catch up, that's for sure. But that also means all the more music to drown yourself in! Plus, it is the first day of Spring here in Australia, so any reason for celebration is a good cause! So without further adieu, let me introduce our seven musical nymphs...


A. Grimes kicks it all off, and there isnt much more to say other than the music. The only line I got from these guys was "We are a four piece psychedelic noise fright band from Atlanta Georgia." And their EP, titled A. Grimes' Sex Tape, is a fair indicator of what is to come... It's actually pretty decent. Well, the below track certainly is...

A. Grimes - Cat In A Microwave

The Ugly Club , a four piece indie-rock band from New Jersey, has a new EP Visions of Tall Girls, and it's pretty darn good. Using Bon Iver + My Morning Jacket + The Walkmen as their launchpad, The Ugly Club hopes to carve the air into rustic swells, pushing you into the wilderness and have you find your way home again with only their music as the guiding light.

The Ugly Club - Visions Part I
The Ugly Club - Visions Part II

Four Years is the debut EP release for Black Elephant, a four piece garage pop group from La Mirada, California. They aim for catchy hooks and sultry looks, and they aim high. They metronome between sardonic and sanguine, and goddamn if they don't pull off shambolic sass with a degree of finesse and a twinkle in the eye!

Black Elephant - Next Time
Black Elephant - Fine Then

Here's something a little different. Reptar have just released their debut EP, Oblangle Fizz Y'all. They are supporting Foster the People this Sept. The Atlantan quartet dish out more funk than is good for you, all wrapped up in a pita bread of eclecticism that fries the molecules. they will make you dance, or implode trying.

Reptar - Stuck In My Id


I don't know much about New Zealand band Milkshakes other than the main guy, Michael, is a real nice guy who occasionally contributes to NZ blog Under The Radar, the band are Auckland based, and the bassist is from another band we spoke of last year, FATANGRYMAN. Self-described as depressing, loud, angry, frustrated, and desperate, Milkshakes have put out a self-titled EP of four angular misshapen tracks that are all the same, as in they are named (or not named) '_________'. So I decided you need to get you some __________, and then head over here for a lil ________ _________.

Milkshakes - _______


Another band hailing from Atlanta, Warning Light (AKA Drew Haddon and a host of contemporaries) new album Wild Silver will be released on September 27th, 2011 on Stickfigure Recordings. The band has been floating about since 2003, yet the two tracks below are the first I've heard of them. Its listed as ambient drone, which it has connotations of, yet there is much more texture here than that. You arent listening to ethereal compositions or swampland aural pummelling, its something outside and of both of these extremes. And that alone has me interested to delve further into their world.

Warning Light - In The Tidal Break
Warning Light - High Watershed


The last on the Spring hit list is a Tennessee post rock band called Station, whose Raygun City EP has been flittering in and out of my playlist throughout August. Its four tracks of atmospherics that follows in some ways the vein of Aussie instrumental act Because Of Ghosts - they don't have the nuance of those guys, but Station do have the force when needs be. My favourite track is the final one, 'Youth', but Ive decided to offer you something else - hopefully you will enjoy and grab the rest here!

Station - You Are A Most Excellent Scientist

Happy 1st day of Spring/Fall/Autumn/September!