THE RADIO DEPT. - Heaven's On Fire

The Radio Dept. - Heaven's On Fire [mp3 courtesy of Labrador Records]

The weeks are slowly dwindling away in the seemingly never ending wait for the new Radio Dept. album to drop. Clinging To A Scheme still doesn't come out until April 21st, but now we have this new single to tide us over. "Heaven's On Fire" reportedly uses a Thurston Moore sample and features a b-side cover of Sade's "All About Our Love". The official single becomes available on March 24th.

New RADIO DEPT. - David

The Radio Dept. have been working on their hotly anticipated forthcoming 3rd LP for nearly three years. In anticipation of the release of Clinging to a Scheme, the band offers up the lovely new single "David". The single comes out June 24th, while there is no word yet on the album's release date.

The Radio Dept. - David (mp3)

MAPS

My favorite new band this week is MAPS from Northampton. Very much in the vein of THE RADIO DEPT., this band captures a moody, nostalgic sound with gorgeous results. These guys have signed to Mute Records, so hopefully a full-length release is upon us.

A new single, "It Will Find You" is released in the UK today. But in the meantime, here's the video for their last single, "Don't Fear".



mapsmusic.com

On the Topic of Shoegazer

With the mind-altering news that JESUS & MARY CHAIN will be headlining Coachella this year, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at bands on the current scene whose sound is directly influenced by the seminal band and/or the movement they came from.

The sound actually dates back to the 60's with THE VELVET UNDERGROUND. Many years later, 1984 to be exact, a new band exploded with a fresh new sound that drew elements of The Underground's heroin-tinged guitar noise. That band was Jesus & Mary Chain. But ultimately, the genre's most defining album didn't come out until 1991, when MY BLOODY VALENTINE's 'Loveless' was released.

Over the last decade, a whole crop of bands have found a niche in reviving the 'shoegazer' sound - ultimately fuzzy electric guitars, lots of drone, a melancholy voice and a hint of Spector-era melody - including, but not limited to BRMC, RAVEONETTES, AUTOLUX and THE KILLS. EDITORS and INTERPOL also incorporate the sound, but draw more heavily from the post-punk goth hues of JOY DIVISION and ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN.

More recently, a new wave of bands have come onto the scene, solidifying the power of JAMC's defining sound.

THE RADIO DEPT. - recently made famous by Sofia Copola's MARIE ANTIONETTE soundtrack, are as shoegazer as it gets today.

ASOBI SEKSU - at times this NY based band sounds like THE CRANBERRIES modernized, but their overall tone is one of dream-pop, a genre basically spawned by shoegazer, culminating in bands like GALAXIE 500 and COCTEAU TWINS in the early 90's.

SERENA MANEESH - Sweden has a thing for shoegazer right now. These guys probably hit the sound most on the mark as of late. Playing their CD is like stepping back in time to 1991.

DEERHUNTER - an Atlanta band that I discussed previously. Just today one of their songs came on and I thought it was CHAPTERHOUSE for a second.

THE MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES - their Myspace page lists a who's who of shoegazer bands as influences, and from the sound of their song 'Skulls', I can see why.