The format is simple: one exclusive MP3 delivered via unique download link to your inbox every Wednesday. It could be a b-side, cover, remix, or album cut, but we promise it'll be a song never previously released. (See some examples below.) Each newsletter also heralds a sweepstakes open only to subscribers. We give away cool stuff like
guitars, electronics, and limited-edition band merch.
November 18, 2009
Jersey-born favorites Real Estate slowed things down and classed them up on their self-titled Woodsist full-length. We first heard a speedier "Green River" as a B-Side on the "Fake Blues" 7". Take a listen to the album's languid acoustic version...
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November 11, 2009
19-year-old Santa Rosa multi-instrumentalist Ryan Schmale approaches That Ghost's fuzzy, spacious pop in a way that reminds us more of vintage garage rockers and Robert Pollard than his lo-fi peers. See, for instance, "Shouldn't Leave The Estate," a song from...
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November 4, 2009
We've seen Secretly Canadian ABBA enthusiasts Music Go Music do "Warm In The Shadows" on an invented '70s talk show. This previously unreleased remix by German producer Fred Falke readies the Expressions standout for a different sort of club. We...
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October 28, 2009
David "Moose" Adamson, aka Jookabox, told us "Evil Nite" -- "a song about the infection taking hold of a pure soul in limbo" -- is an early version of "Zombie Tear Drops" from his Indianapolis crew's Dead Zone Boys (Asthmatic...
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October 21, 2009
Ex-Ash guitarist and recent Bat For Lashes touring guitarist Charlotte Hatherley recorded her third solo album (and Minty Fresh US debut) New Worlds in a week in London without demos or overdubs. Fittingly, standout "Full Circle" looks emphatically at stripping...
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October 13, 2009
Laura Veirs' seventh album July Flame is out January on her Raven Marching Band imprint. The collection includes appearances by Karl Blau, Jim James, and Eyvind Kang, among others. It also includes 13 gorgeous songs. See, for instance, standout "Wide-Eyed,...
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October 7, 2009
Former Ghosts is the reverb-soaked, emotionally raw synth project of Freddy Ruppert, Jamie Stewart, and Nika Roza (Zola Jesus). Their debut Fleurs is out 10/20 via Upset The Rhythm. We asked Ruppert about "Unfolding." "Unfolding" is a melancholic, romantic love...
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September 30, 2009
Lightning Bolt's fifth album Garden Of Earthly Delights (Load, 10/13) opens like a riot with "Sound Guardians." It's the perfect place to get acquainted with the collection, so we asked drummer Brian Chippendale about it. How'd you come up with...
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September 23, 2009
Brooklyn quartet Bear In Heaven's second full-length Beast Rest Forth Mouth is out 10/13 on Hometapes. Before that, the collection's first single "Wholehearted Mess" shows up on a 12" EP with three remixes. We asked Bear founder Jon Philpot about...
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September 16, 2009
Brooklyn noise-pop trio Grooms releases Rejoicer via Death By Audio in October. We thought energetic lead track "Dreamsucker" evoked Sonic Youth. This previously unreleased cover of "Wicked Game" offers a nod to a less likely artist. We asked guitarist/vocalist Travis...
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September 9, 2009
Old Canes is the folk-inflected solo project of Appleseed Cast's Chris Crisci. The Lawrence, KS multi-instrumentalist recently signed to Saddle Creek to release his sophomore album Feral Harmonic (10/20). He recorded most of the collection alone in his basement studio...
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September 2, 2009
Castanets, aka Ray Raposa and a shifting cast of collaborators, is about to release Texas Rose, The Thaw, And The Beasts via Asthmatic Kitty, but you won't find this haunting cover of Hank Williams' "Rambling Man" on it. We asked...
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August 26, 2009
Longstanding Icelandic collective múm are releasing album five Sing Along To Songs You Don't Know 9/22 via their Euphono label. At its core the group consists of founding members Gunnar Örn Tynes and Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason, but for touring and...
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August 19, 2009
Judee Sill died of a drug overdose in 1979 at the age of 35 after releasing two classic collections, Judee Sill and Heart Food. Frida Hyvönen offers a gorgeous take on the California folkie's '71 track "Jesus Was A Crossmaker"...
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August 12, 2009
Ramona Falls is the solo project of Menomena's Brent Knopf and various collaborators in New York and Portland. His debut Intuit is out 8/18 on Barsuk, but "I Say Fever" surfaces in this week's Drop. What's the significance of saying...
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August 5, 2009
David Bazan's curse your branches (9/1, Barsuk) is the Pedro The Lion/Headphones main man's first full-length under his own name. We spoke with him about its "Bless This Mess," which debuts in this week's 'Gum Drop. "Bless This Mess" covers...
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July 29, 2009
The decade-old Australian pop quintet Dappled Cities are releasing their third album Zounds 9/15 on Dangerbird. We spoke with co-guitarist/co-vocalist Tim Derricourt about the dusky, grandiose synth-rocker "Answer Is Zero." What are we to make of the fact that after...
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July 22, 2009
L.A. couple Danny and Tiffany Preston concoct a kaleidoscopic blend of electronics, low-tech dance beats and what sounds like a Sublime Frequencies comp on repeat. The duo's second EP Kabukimono is out 7/28 via Manimal Vinyl, but you can listen...
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July 15, 2009
Japandroids, the poppy, playfully angsty Vancouver garage-punk duo of guitarist Brian King and drummer David Prowse formed in 2006, self-releasing 2007's All Lies and 2008's Lullaby Death Jams. Originally circulated by Canadian label Unfamiliar, their newest outing Post-Nothing gets an...
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July 8, 2009
Black Mold is the electronic project of 2009 Polaris Finalist Chad VanGaalen. Debut LP Snow Blindness Is Crystal Antz (out 8/11 via Flemish Eye) is a collection of instrumental sounds created mostly via acoustic instruments, bells, vintage analogue/hand-built modular synths,...
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July 1, 2009
Jesy Fortino, aka Seattle's Tiny Vipers, is releasing her second Sub Pop full length, Life on Earth next week (7/7). It's one of the year's best. We've already posted "Dreamer," now take a listen to the stunning, heartbreaking "Development." What...
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June 24, 2009
Last year Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie, the Microphones) put out Lost Wisdom, a collaboration with Eric's Trip's Julie Doiron and Fred Squire, but the dark, multi-textured Wind's Poem (out 8/18 on P.W. Elverum & Sun) feels like the true heir...
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June 17, 2009
Los Angeles quartet Foreign Born release sophomore LP Person To Person 6/23 via Secretly Canadian. The shuffling "Wander Aimlessly" doesn't appear on it, but debuts in this week's Drop. We asked vocalist Matt Popieluch about it. What inspired the song?...
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June 10, 2009
Seattle BTW Helvetia, aka Swiss transplant Jason Albertini, releases Helvetia's Junk Shop on 9/15 via Static Cult. The lineup for the album included Scott Plouf (Built To Spill, Spinanes) on drums and Clay Parton on bass. Albertini did the rest,...
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June 3, 2009
On April Fools' Day 1994, Patterson Hood moved to Athens, where he wrote an album's worth of songs called Murdering Oscar (and other love songs). He recorded them on a boombox in a friend's bedroom and gave out the results...
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May 27, 2009
The syrupy, psychedelic Kanye and Ed Droste-approved pop duo Blind Man's Colour is the project of 19-year-old Floridians Kyle Wyss and Orhan Chettri. Their proper debut Season Dreaming is out 8/18 via Kanine, but we have the smeary, Tropical second...
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May 20, 2009
Psychedelic Raleigh quintet Birds Of Avalon release their expansive sophomore album Uncanny Valley 6/23 (7/21 on vinyl) via Volcom. We spoke with guitarist Cheetie Kumar and bassist David Mueller about the hazy, disorienting standout "Your Downtime Is Up." The idea...
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May 13, 2009
Almost a year ago, Juliana Hatfield stopped by the 'Gum Drop with the then unreleased "So Alone." Currently working on a followup to How To Walk Away, the perennial Stereogum favorite returns with a demo of a new song with...
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May 6, 2009
My Guilty Pleasure, the followup to Sally Shapiro's Disco Romance, is out in late summer/early fall. First single "Miracle," penned and produced by Johan Agebjörn and Roger Gunnarsson, is out officially via Paper Bag Records on 6/16, but you can...
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April 29, 2009
Ex-Arab Strap wordsmith Malcolm Middleton's back with his fifth solo album, Waxing Gibbous. As he puts it, "This is a very self-aware record, which is hard if you're aware that what you're doing may not be any good." Thing is,...
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April 22, 2009
Incorporating a few releases with relatively bigger labels into his large discography of limited-edition 12"'s, 7"'s, etc., Brooklyn BTW Blank Dogs is quite literally getting easier to watch. See, for instance, the forthcoming In The Red-imprinted Under And Under which...
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April 15, 2009
After Brooklyn quartet Via Audio released its 2007 debut Say Something, drummer/guitarist and co-vocalist Dan Molad, left the group and was replaced on drums by Adam Sturtevant. The rest of the band -- guitarist/vocalist Tom Deis, bassist David Lizmi, and...
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April 8, 2009
The Pink Mountaintops, aka Black Mountaineer Stephen McBean and about a dozen friends, are releasing album three Outside Love on 5/5 via Jagjaguwar. Its ten songs are ostensibly about/influenced by "weddings in Montreal, winter, Pink Floyd's The Final Cut, Christmas...
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April 1, 2009
You know the red tracksuits, but you haven't heard the Kissy Sell Out remix of "Give It Up" from the Norwegians' aptly titled forthcoming sophomore album Red. Screw subtlety! On it, they tried nailing a late '70s and early '80s...
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March 25, 2009
Cosmos is the collaboration between Richard Davies (the Moles, the amazing Cardinal) and Robert Pollard (that Robert Pollard). Their debut Jar Of Jam Ton Of Bricks is out 6/9 via Happy Jack Rock. For fans of smart, singular pop, this...
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March 18, 2009
When we posted the Papercuts' "Future Primitive," we noted that Jason Quever's classic sounding voice was a highlight of the dreamy, psychedelic You Can Have What You Want standout. While still clearly pop, there's a hazy weight to it. There's...
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March 11, 2009
A couple years ago Grandaddy called it quits. Soon the band's former leader Jason Lytle, now living in Montana, will return with Yours Truly, the Commuter. Those who enjoyed his previous work should also dig this gently anthemic, down-to-Earth electro-acoustic...
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March 4, 2009
Cursive's sixth album Mama, I'm Swollen hits stores next week via the Omaha band's longstanding hometown label Saddle Creek. We've heard a couple tracks, including the downcast and then flat-out poppy "From The Hips." When the band submitted their Progress...
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February 25, 2009
Seattle-based Eric Elbogen, aka Say Hi, is releasing his latest album Oohs Aahs at the beginning of March. It's his first for Barsuk. One of Oohs highlights is the thematically similar "Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh." Even...
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February 18, 2009
Swan Lake, the Canadian power trio of Daniel Bejar (New Pornographers, Destroyer), Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown), and Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes, Blackout Beach), are releasing their second album Enemy Mine at the end of March (3/24, Jagjaguwar). It's...
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February 11, 2009
A Camp -- Cardigans chanteuse Nina Persson with husband (and Shudder To Thinker) Nathan Larson and fellow Swede Niklas Frisk -- are set to release a second album Colonia, following 2001's eponymous debut. On it, the trio's joined by a...
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February 4, 2009
From Sufjan Stevens covering Castanets to Shara Worden helping out DM Stith, Asthmatic Kitty acts love in-house collaborations. In this week's Drop, San Diego-based Rafter Roberts joins the party with a remix of AK labelmates Fol Chen. We asked Rafter...
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January 28, 2009
Toronto's Great Lake Swimmers are releasing their fourth album Lost Channels at the end of March (Nettwerk, 3/31). On it, the pristine intonations and detailed lyrical threads of Tony Dekker are surrounded by flute, guitar, drums, bass, pedal steel, other...
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January 21, 2009
Marissa Nadler's fourth album Little Hells is out 3/3 on Kemado. It's her best, most expansive collection to date, mixing her pristine vocals, guitars, and Wurlitzer with a full band that includes Blonde Redhead drummer Simone Pace, multi-instrumentalist Myles Baer...
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January 14, 2009
(a)spera, Mirah's fourth solo album, is her first since 2004's excellent C'mon Miracle. It's solo, yes, but she's not alone: Longtime collaborator Phil Elverum contributed to three tracks and she collaborated with fellow Portlanders Tucker Martine and Adam Selzer along...
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January 7, 2009
We thought it would be wise (and witty) to start the New Year with the New Year, so this week's Drop finds the post-Bedhead Kadane brothers-fronted Touch & Go quintet offering up "MMV," a suitably thematic track from their excellent...
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December 24, 2008
Brooklyn-via-Buffalo songwriter DM Stith entered the Asthmatic Kitty stable via the design work on Shara Worden, aka My Brightest Diamond, albums and the vocals and piano he contributed to her Bring Me The Workhorse. He released the Curtain Speech EP...
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December 17, 2008
In February, longtime California-to-Kansas post-rockers the Appleseed Cast will release their seventh studio album Sagarmatha, the first since 2006's Peregrine. We're told "Sagarmatha" is Nepalese for Mount Everest, which makes sense, considering the epic constructions of their songs. Take for...
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December 10, 2008
When Brooklynite (and Percussion Lab owner) Praveen Sharma and Portlander Thomas Meluch (aka Kranky's Benoît Pioulard) join forces they're Praveen & Benoit. Praveen creates the arrangements, Benoît's the vocal harmonies. The duo spent more than two years putting together the...
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December 3, 2008
Prolific deepwoods Vermonters Matt Valentine (who played in the excellently ramshackle Tower Recordings) and Erika Elder are back with Drone Trailer. They're not shy about releasing recordings (together and apart), but the collections often show up in limited runs or...
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November 26, 2008
The economy's been tricky everywhere, even Scrooge McDuck's homeland, so when the Twilight Sad went on tour with fellow Scots Mogwai, they put together the Goo-referencing The Twilight Sad Killed My Parents And Hit The Road, a limited-edition collection of...
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November 19, 2008
Mark Kozelek's removed both his Sun Kil Moon and his earlier Red House Painters moniker for The Finally LP, a collection of ten covers including Low's "Lazy," Stephen Sondhiem's "Send In The Clowns," Will Oldham's "New Partner," and this week's...
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November 12, 2008
In January, The Lifted Brow, a biannual "50% fiction and 50% everything else" Melbourne-based magazine, is putting out an issue that includes two CDs with exclusive music from Spiral Stairs, the Magnetic Fields' Claudia Gonson, Frightened Rabbit, and Dan Deacon,...
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November 5, 2008
Back in April, Tokyo Police Club released their first full-length Elephant Shell. In this week's Drop, we bring you a brand new UK/Japanese bonus track, "New New Song." The title says it all. Or, at least we assumed it did....
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October 29, 2008
As a followup to Thing Of The Past, psychedelic San Francisco folk-rock troupe Vetiver, aka Andy Cabic & Co., is releasing a companion covers EP called More Of The Past. Accompanying the release is a two-song 7", which finds More...
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October 22, 2008
caUSE co-MOTION! offer a snotty, upbeat approach to stripped-down noise pop. You might hear early Pastels, 14 Iced Bears or Comet Gain in their sloppy, hyper, reverb-soaked sound. Or think of them as the male compliment to the Vivian Girls...
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October 15, 2008
Last month we brought you +/- 's "Snowblind," a dusky, exhilarating track from the Brooklyn trio's forthcoming forth album Xs On Your Eyes (10/21, Absolutely Kosher). In this week's Drop, we're offering up "Reeling In The Years" (not "Reelin' In...
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October 8, 2008
Miami pop trio the Postmarks are releasing a covers collection next month. Covers are nothing new, but the band takes it 12 steps further: By-The-Numbers collects the dozen songs from their monthly cover series, each track including a different number...
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October 1, 2008
The Sea & Cake's eighth album Car Alarm is out 10/21 via Thrill Jockey. A couple weeks ago, we posted the sun-kissed summertime video for electro-infused "Weekend." In this week's Drop, we're offering Car Alarm's expansive, affecting title track. We...
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September 24, 2008
As we've seen from her Roy Orbison at SXSW and Whitney Houston at a karaoke bar, etc., Shara Worden, aka My Brightest Diamond, isn't afraid of tackling covers. In this week's Drop, for instance, she takes on the Edith Piaf...
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September 17, 2008
Magnetic Morning is the project of Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino and Swervedriver frontman Adam Franklin. The duo's previously put out a self-titled six-song EP and recently completed their debut LP A.M. in Athens, GA with the help of the Album...
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September 10, 2008
Vivian Girls excellent self-titled LP comes out 10/7 on In The Red. If you haven't heard the Henry Darger-referencing trio yet, Cassie, Katy, and Ali nail a C86 sound (see Shop Assistants) with layers of J&MC feedback and three-part harmonies...
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September 3, 2008
On 9/9 Nicole Atkins is releasing a four-song EP fittingly titled Nicole Atkins Digs Other People's Songs via Columbia, on which the Jersey girl covers Nada Surf's "Inside Of Love," the Doors' "Crystal Ship," Mama Cass Elliott's "Dream A Little...
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August 27, 2008
Portland songwriter Justin Ringle's evocative vocal twang and sharp lyricism are at the center of Horse Feathers' bedroom Americana. The band's second album House With No Home, which follows 2006's Words Are Dead, finds Ringle's vision fleshed out by multi-instrumentalist/composer...
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August 20, 2008
This week's Drop comes from Texas indie rockers Centro-matic. The previously unreleased wintry tune was produced by the band and Matt Pence during sessions for double-LP Dual Hawks, which is composed of half Centro-matic songs and half South San Gabriel...
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August 13, 2008
Montreal quintet the Stills are poised to release their third album Oceans Will Rise (via Arts & Crafts) next week then head out on an American tour with Kings Of Leon this fall. This installment of the 'Gum Drop includes...
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August 6, 2008
Jeff Hanson's third album Madam Owl comes out on Kill Rock Stars in a couple weeks (8/19). We have the gorgeous, soaring, stringed opener "Night" in this week's Drop. Like the rest of the collection, it mixes Hanson's unmistakable falsetto...
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July 30, 2008
Brighton smooth talkers Fujiya & Miyagi's new album Lightbulbs is forthcoming 9/16 on Deaf Dumb & Blind in the States. (It follows 2006's "Ankle Injuries"-birthing Transparent Things.) In advance of the release, Lightbulbs standout "Dishwasher" premieres in this week's 'Gum...
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July 23, 2008
The XYZ Affair found their way onto our radar with a slime-filled Nickelodeon-packed "All My Friends" video. The Brooklyn band's new Trials EP includes standout "Evening Life," a song that caught our attention before its video clip was even completed....
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July 16, 2008
M83, aka Anthony Gonzalez, toned his sounds down on fifth album Saturdays = Youth, but the emotions remain teenage, achy, and perfectly romantic. Gonzalez is releasing album standout "Kim & Jessie" as a digital single 7/22 on Mute. It includes...
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July 9, 2008
Last summer, Brendon Whitney, aka, Alias, left Oakland and returned to his hometown, Portland, Maine. Resurgam, his first solo full-length since 2003's Muted, is out 9/2 on anticon and includes collaborated tracks from WHY? and the One AM Radio and...
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July 2, 2008
After hearing "Gillian Was A Horse" from Damien Jurado's forthcoming Caught In The Trees, we contacted the Seattle singer-songwriter and asked if he'd want to premiere a track at Stereogum. Lucky for us (and you), it turned out he had...
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June 25, 2008
After a number of EPs and years of critical praise, the brainy and baroque Detroit pop crew PAS/CAL is releasing a full-length: I Was Raised on Matthew, Mark, Luke & Laura is out on 7/22 on Le Grand Magistery. A...
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June 18, 2008
Canadian-born, Germany-based ex-Spaceshits member King Khan has been kicking around the garage long before the current revival, but is making a splash these days due to last year's excellent What Is?!, associations with Black Lips, Deerhunter, etc., and the fact...
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June 11, 2008
The new album Micah P Hinson And The Red Empire Orchestra, by gravelly voiced Texas songwriter Micah P. Hinson and his Red Empire Orchestra, is out 7/14 on Full Time Hobby. The first single, "When We Embraced," showed up 6/2,...
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June 4, 2008
For this week's Drop, Juliana Hatfield passed along "So Alone" from her 10th solo album How To Walk Away, forthcoming 8/19 on her Ye Old Records. We're longtime fans of Hatfield and her blog (she has an autobiography coming out...
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May 28, 2008
Take a listen. It's difficult believing Laura Marling just turned 18 this year, but it's true: The assured, sharp British folk-pop singer-songwriter's full-length debut Alas, I Cannot Swim, which came out in the UK in February, is just getting its...
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May 21, 2008
Bell is Russian-born, Alaska-raised, New York-based BTW Olga Bell. She has a band, yes, but she writes the songs and is clearly the central focus with the central voice. We loved what she did with Björk's "It's Oh So Quiet,"...
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May 14, 2008
We dug Invasive Exotics, Houston crew Indian Jewelry's 2006 long player, but the feedback feels warmer, the structures more assured, expansive, unhinged and less Doors-y/VU-derived on Free Gold!. In fact, even if you didn't like their older work, you might...
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May 7, 2008
Last month longstanding Athens-born E6 crew Elf Power released their ninth album In A Cave on Rykodisc. They recorded "Mutiny" during the Cave sessions. It didn't end up on the final tracklist, but you can hear it in this week's...
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April 30, 2008
UPDATE: Unfortunately a mix-up at the label forces us to remove this track from distribution. Stay tuned for another MP3 premiere next week. Paul Weller needs no introduction. Maybe his ninth solo album does. The ex-Jam and Style Councilor's releasing...
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April 23, 2008
Next month the Dresden Dolls release No, Virginia..., a collection of unheard material from the Yes, Virginia... sessions along with b-sides, compilation contributions, and previously unreleased winter '08 session tracks. (Dresden Doll Brian Viglione told us they look at it...
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April 16, 2008
The Glaswegian crew Frightened Rabbit released their sophomore album The Midnight Organ Fight earlier this week. Elegantly grimy heart breaker "Soon Go" isn't part of the collection, but it is this week's Drop. We spoke with vocalist/guitarist Scott Hutchison about...
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April 9, 2008
Next month, Matmos release Supreme Balloon, a collection of "cosmic pop" tracks, including a 24-minute epic, made entirely from synthesizers. Drew Daniel, one half of the Maryland-based duo, explained that on this follow up to 2006's The Rose Has Teeth...
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April 2, 2008
Cassettes Won't Listen is New Yorker Jason Drake, a one-man electro pop outfit and, interestingly, the Director Of Marketing at Definitive Jux. A couple of weeks ago he self-released his first physical album Small-Time Machine. "Catch Up" isn't on it,...
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March 26, 2008
On Monday 3/31, we launch Enjoyed, our song-by-song tribute to Björk's Post. (Click here for complete tracklist.) When we asked her about about the 1995 album she told us: "I was very aware of it at the time that I...
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March 19, 2008
A couple weeks ago we gave premature love to Man Man's forthcoming Rabbit Habits. Last week, we caught the Philly band's excellent Rabbit-y SXSW sets. Making it full circle, or something, the guys are premiering the super Rabbit standout "Hurly/Burly"...
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March 12, 2008
Retribution Gospel Choir is the dark, heavy Minnesota trio of Low guitarist/vocalist Alan Sparhawk and new Low bassist Steve Garrington (who recently replaced Matt Livingston in both bands) with drummer/vocalist Eric Pollard. Imagine Low, minus Mimi Parker, doing dynamic, moody,...
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March 5, 2008
We're really digging Witch's Paralyzed. The Vermont/Western Mass crew's self-titled 2006 debut had moments, but this new one has many. The nine-song collection finds the band mind-expanding into heavier, sludgier, occasionally up-tempo punk-ish realms. The rhythm section of bassist Dave...
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February 27, 2008
In April, Colin Meloy's releasing his first full-length solo album, the 17-track Colin Meloy Sings Live! (the Morrissey and Shirley Collins collections were EPs). We realize that's a long time to wait for Decemberists fanatics, so this week's Drop offers...
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February 20, 2008
Like a mash between a noise troupe and a classic rock crew, Howlin Rain's self-titled 2006 debut offered a mix of rooted rock and fried psychedelics. Now, expanded to a quintet minus Sunburned Hand Of The Man drummer John Moloney,...
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February 13, 2008
Oakland's George Chadwick, aka Telephone Jim Jesus, grew up in New London, New Hampshire. The folks at anticon call the place "snowy," and you could say the same for his lovely, Baudelaire-riffing sophomore solo album Anywhere Out Of The Everything....
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February 6, 2008
Rafter Roberts, aka San Diego-based multi-tasking Asthmatic Kitty carrot top Rafter, has been composing a "song a day" after the release of his second full-length, Sex Death Cassette. "Fruit," a particularly catchy nugget of weirdness, appears for the first time...
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January 30, 2008
This week's Drop has a stringed, burlesqued, Gypsy-cum-Coloradan air courtesy of Little Miss Sunshine soundtrackers and Siouxsie coverers DeVotchka. Their rollicking, breezy "Transliterator" comes from the quartet's forthcoming ANTI- debut, A Mad and Faithful Telling. Helping us, uh, transliterate, vocalist...
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January 23, 2008
Dropping by this week is Eels with "I Want To Project You," a previously unreleased tune from Useless Trinkets: B-Sides, Soundtracks, Rarities And Unreleased. Useless? No way. On top of it being a catchy little gem, main man E gave...
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January 16, 2008
We've visited West Indian Girl poolside (uh, twice) and at their places of business, but never before to the foot of the Appalachians. That's all changed, because in this week's Drop, the California crew returns with a reworked, banjo-lined version...
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January 9, 2008
Guitarist extraordinaire, Drive XV participant (with Sara Quin), and Golden Globe-nominated Into The Wild soundtracker Kaki King returns with her fourth album Dreaming Of Revenge in March. The follow-up to 2006's ...Until We Felt Red finds King continuing to expand...
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January 2, 2008
Destroyer dude, Swan Laker, and the sexiest New Pornographer this side of Neko Case, Dan Bejar teams up with girlfriend, the visual artist Sydney Vermont as the delicately pastoral Hello, Blue Roses. Their fragile, but somehow robust full-length debut The...
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December 18, 2007
Smartypants ex-Lowercase, Alaska!, New Folk Implosion player and Yeah Yeah Yeahs touring guitarist Imaad Wasif is set to self-release his second solo album, Strange Hexes with his new backing band, Two Part Beast, on 3/18. In anticipation, we got our...
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December 12, 2007
Cold? Today's boozy, body-warming mid-December Drop comes from Portland's Pseudosix. There are six players some of the time (from various PDX crews like Dolorean, Grails, Joggers, the Standard), but when the band started it was just Tim Perry by his...
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December 5, 2007
We have plenty of love for the well-dressed one-time BTW and Andrew W.K. party school grad Joe Williams, so we're delighted to bring you this week's Drop, a joyful, mud-stepping extended instrumental that's making us forget how cold it is...
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November 28, 2007
When you put the words "Brooklyn" and "folk" together a certain image arises, but thankfully Luke Temple shatters the worn picture (frame and all). This week's Drop is the tapping, slightly fuzzed, antique barber-harmonized "Into Fiction," which would pair well...
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November 21, 2007
After Frog Eyes drummer Melanie Campbell stopped by to discuss her job as a nurse and her husband, Frog Eyes's vocalist/guitarist Carey Mercer, provided us with MP3s from the duo's older crew, Prancing Cat, "a band with no future and...
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November 14, 2007
This week's Drop finds New York City expats Ida harmonizing on "Lovers Prayers," the title track to their forthcoming seventh full-length, a series of, yup, prayers for and by lovers. Seems like we've been humming along to Daniel Littleton and...
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November 7, 2007
This week we offer a Danish Drop by rockin' duo the Raveonettes, whose "Aly, Walk With Me" serves as a crackling '60s-noir intro to Lust Lust Lust, Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo's Vice-debuting follow-up to 2005's sophomore full-length Pretty...
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October 31, 2007
For the Halloween edition of the Drop, we contacted autumnal Pacific Northwest Stereo-fave, and jack-o-lantern-of-all-trades Jesy Fortino, aka Tiny Vipers, whose Sub Pop debut Hands Across The Void remains one of the most affecting, goose-pimpling albums of the year. Fortino...
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October 24, 2007
As we cover rather closely, each week Showtime's pot-selling-mom series Weeds' theme song gets a different spin, by everyone from Regina Spektor and Jenny Lewis to Devendra and the Decemberists (and, well, Billy Bob Thornton). One take on the Malvina...
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October 17, 2007
Scottish artist David Shrigley has turned his 2005 book Worried Noodles (The Empty Sleeve) into a 39-track music compilation, featuring Franz Ferdinand, Grizzly Bear, Liars, Deerhoof, and other Stereogum faves. Only David Byrne, however, added to the author's witty, weird...
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October 10, 2007
This week we're delivering you a lovely, previously unreleased piano and harmony-laced power ballad by Lawrence, Kansas post-Get Up Kids quartet the New Amsterdams. They just released their sixth album At the Foot of My Rival on their own Elmar...
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October 3, 2007
Everybody hurts -- true, but for each person it's different. For this week's 'Gum Drop, Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer and Sleepshell's Cormac Bride offer a much different take on the R.E.M. classic than the Meat Puppets' Elvis-meets-Rasputin version, which showed...
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September 26, 2007
This week we're Dropping "These Two Trees," a basement-crammed dance jam by Portland's Panther. The band's now a duo -- breaking main man Charlie Salas-Humara added Joe Kelly, ex-31knots, whose live drums take the booty kicking up a notch. (The...
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September 19, 2007
This week Nellie McKay offers our first Spanish-language 'Gum Drop. The New Yorker's third studio album Obligatory Villagers is out next week on her Hungry Mouse label -- live favorite "Me Gusta Mañana" won't be included, so we thought it...
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September 12, 2007
This week's Drop brings the dusky folk beauty of Marissa Nadler's "The Whole Is Wide," a gorgeous, melancholic ballad she wrote and recorded at Black Hole Studios in Providence. Here's Marissa on "The Whole Is Wide": This is a new...
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September 5, 2007
While Wednesday may mean dealing with never-clever hump-day jokes, it also heralds another installment of the 'Gum Drop, complete as always with a never-before-released MP3 to help you through the week. For the second dispatch, it's a darkly danceable remix...
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August 29, 2007
This week's inaugural tune is an ethereal dispatch from buzzy Atlanta psych-rockers Deerhunter. Here's frontman Bradford Cox on the inspiration behind "So Long": "This is like Atlanta history: My dad attempted to have a mortgage business in a very ghetto...
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