New Music: Toy- Join The Dots

Usually at this time of year any new song releases or new album news are few and far between. Autumn is a time for the major blogs and music magazines to get their year end lists together and it is rare for them to preview new music unless it is for a 2014 release. There are always exceptions of course, and this year the UK psych band Toy have announced a late year release that will certainly make some people wait to put out their "best of" lists for 2013.

Toy only released their epic self titled debut a year ago and now they have already returned with the follow up, Join The Dots, which is scheduled to be released on December 10th via Heavenly Recordings. Listen to the monumental eight minute title track below:

New Music: Absolutely Free- Clothed Woman, Sitting

Rising from the ashes of Toronto punk band DD/MM/YYYY comes Absolutely Free, a band slightly more psychedelic than what four members used to play in that aforementioned group. The nine minute "Clothed Woman, Sitting" is actually a b-side to a new 12" they are releasing on October 29th via Lefse. The song starts out like an instrumental post rock song before a propulsive beat kicks in and then it is all psychedelic pop bliss from that point on. Listen below:

New Music: Hookworms- Always/ Today + Radio Tokyo

Hookworms are a four piece indie rock band from Leeds who are starting to get a lot of attention in their native Britain and now are making some waves on this side of the pond. The band specialize in making psychedelic rock of the spacey kind, a la Spiritualized and Spacemen 3.

They released their debut LP, Pearl Mystic, back in March in the UK and now they have announced a global release on September 3rd via Weird World Records. The epic eight minute long"Always/Today" is the first taste of the new LP- download the song below plus listen to a bonus non album track' "Radio Tokyo" that also really good.

Five Star Songs: Spiritualized- Cop Shoot Cop

Just because.....

The epic psychedelic space rock closing track from Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space.

New Music: Pond- Xanman

Another psychedelic freak out from Australian band Pond. “Xanman” is the second single to be featured from their new LP, Hobo Rocket, out August 16th via Modular.

New Music: Toy & Natasha Khan- The Bride (Amir Rassaei cover)

English shoegaze band Toy have hooked up with indie pop chanteuse Natasha Khan, aka Bat For Lashes, to re-work an Iranian wedding song into a psych rock masterpiece. "The Bride"is a retitled  cover of the song "Aroos Khanom", which was originally recorded by Iranian artist "Amir Rassaei"

The track has been translated to English using the beautiful vocals of Khan and will appear in limited edition 7" on July 1st. The song was produced by Dan Carey (Franz Ferdinand) who has also put together a compilation album of Iranian psych music titled Zendooni: Funk, Psychedelia and Pop from the Iranian Pre-Revolution Generation. It will be released on the same day as the single on his new label Speedy Wunderground. Listen to the track below:

New Music: Pond- Giant Tortoise + Music Video

I am late to the party on this band. I knew Australian psych rock band Pond shared a record label with their country mates Tame Impala, but did not know the two groups were so tied together. Pond employs the help of both of Tame Impala's bassist Nick Allbrook and drummer Jay Watson plus lead singer Kevin Parker often contributes to their music, as well. Pond comes off a little heavier than their laid back counterparts as demonstrated by their latest song "Giant Tortoise" taken from the band's forthcoming new LP, Hobo Rocket, which comes out August 6th via Modular.

Watch the video for "Giant Tortoise" below and if you like the song, go and grab a free download here.

For fans of Tame Impala, Jack White.

New Music: Dark Bells-- Wildflower

A churning mix of shoegaze and psychedelia from Sydney trio Dark Bells. The group use their psychedelic influences to great effect in the video for their song "Wildflower". Check out the mix of ethereal guitars and a kaleidoscope of colours in the clip below:


For fans of Tame Impala, Toy.

New Music: Elephant Stone- Setting Sun

Elephant Stone are a psych rock band from Montreal who are known for making Indian music influenced records. The former Polaris nominees recently dropped their second self titled record and this LP continues with the same sitar flavoured sounds.

The first single off the album, "Setting Sun" is an exception, as it is a straight out 60-ish psychedelic rocker. The video for the song does have an obvious Indian influence as it shows clips from religious festivals from the sub continent mixed with trippy, polychromatic colours. Watch and listen below:

The new self titled album from Elephant Stone is out digitally via Hidden Pony or you can by the vinyl at Reverbernation Appreciation Society.

Elephant Stone play tonight here in Toronto at The Garrison as part of Canadian Music Week and are back in a couple of weeks to open for The Black Angels at The Danforth Music Hall.

For fans of Tame Impala, Melody's Echo Chamber, Dungen

New Music: The Flaming Lips- Sun Blows Up Today

Psychedelic rock kingpins The Flaming Lips have just announced a new album, The Terror, and to celebrate the band have come out with a fun little non-album track called Sun Blows Up Today which will also be featured in a Hyundai Super Bowl commercial. The Korean car maker will also offer Sun Blows Up Today as a free download on it's website, and the song will be a bonus track on the iTunes release of the album. Watch the lyrics video below:

The Terror is produced by The Flaming Lips regular go to guy Dave Fridmann and will be available April 1st via Bella Union/Warner Bros.

New Music: Vex Ruffin- Same Thing Tomorrow

Last September the Aural Report featured lo-fi psychedelic artist Vex Ruffin and his new single Take It. Now he is back with a more sedated track titled Same Thing Tomorrow which is part of a cassette only compilation of 10 songs taken from the almost 300 songs he submitted to Peter Butter Wolf at Stones Throw Records.

If you are like me and don't have a cassette player anymore, you can grab the digital mp3 for free below:

For fans of Dirty Beaches and Ty Segall.

Psych Pop From Toronto

Great compilation put out by Toronto indie label Optical Sounds featuring many of the diverse bands that make up the local psych rock scene.

The compilation is curated by Will Carruthers, former bass player for Spacemen 3, Spiritualized and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, who spent a year living in Toronto where he got to know many of the groups in Toronto's indie scene. The music of these bands covers a broad range and is not strictly psychedelic rock. The diversity makes this a great album, as there is something for everyone including shoegaze (Volcano Playground), post punk (The Disraelis), lo-fi girl group like the Vivian Girls (The BB Guns), garage psych (Action Makes) and 60's psych pop (the Hoa Hoa's).

Best of all it is free!!!! Download the album below.

Five Star Songs: The Zombies- Tell Her No

Halloween is fast approaching, which means a lot of scary happenings are starting to occur. Yesterday afternoon I was out for a walk in downtown Toronto when I happened upon the city's annual Zombie walk. They have been having this march since 2003, but this was the first time I have seen it. In prior years, the parade was always held in the west end of the city. This year the host's decided to make a festival of zombies at Toronto's city hall and have the undead lurch around the downtown streets.

No, these two hippie zombies didn't eat that old Chinese man. They were probably peace loving zombies and didn't snack on anybody. I bet I know who their favourite band is......60's English psychedelic rock band The Zombies??

The Zombies were anything but scary. They had three U.S. number 1 hits including my favourite song, Tell Her No. Love the chorus of backing harmonies of "No-no-no-no". Great pop tune that was inspired by songwriters Hal David and Burt Bacharach; but in mind sound more like Lennon and McCartney.  Watch them perform the track below when they appeared on the old TV show The Hullabaloo.

Available on the band's debut self titled album which you can buy at Amazon of check your local record store.

New Music: Tame Impala- Feels Like We Only Go Backwards

Just finished listening to the brilliant new album, Lonerism, from Australian psych rock outfit Tame Impala. Hard to believe that these guys reside in the same land as Wolfmother and Jet. I'm probably being ignorant when I say that and there are probably a lot of good guitar bands from down under. If there are, they don't get the publicity in northern climes. The best North American music site to check out Australian music is probably Indie Shuffle.

My favourite track off the album is Feels Like We Only Go Backwards which, coincidentally, is the band's new single. The title of the song suggests a nightmare where we live under some regressive right wing government, but the lyrics are more personal than that. The song is simple but oh so psychedelic. Listen below:

Lonerism is available now. Buy it on iTunes, at Amazon, or at your local record store.

The single Feels Like We Only Go Backwards will be available November 20th via Modular.

Tame Impala are currently on a world wide tour and they will be playing The Phoenix in Toronto on November 12. Check your local listings for a gig near you.

New Music: Feeding People- Island Universe + Music Video

This song is super sweet!! Apparently the young kids from Orange County that make up the band Feeding People are former evangelicals. Now they pray to the gods of psych rock and they have just released a really good sugary pop single called Island Universe. The track is sung by cute nineteen year old lead singer Jessie Jones and is actually a step back from their usual sound of psychedelic rock riffs.

Scenes for the music video for the single were shot at Ray Bradbury's house and at The Salton Sea. Watch and listen below.

Feeding People have just released a 7" for the single via Innovative Leisure, a five track EP which you can buy on iTunes, and they are preparing to release their sophomore album in 2013.

New Music: Six Organs of Admittance- One Thousand Birds

Ben Chasny's project Six Organs of Admittance has plugged in the guitar and turned up the amps for his new album Ascent.

Ben has changed directions from his earlier folk leanings and made a more psychedelic record with the help of his old bandmates from Comets on Fire. The result is a more beautiful version of the raucous jam band with Ben Chasny leading the way.

Listen to the band rip through the 6 minute dark psychedelic second single One Thousand Birds.

Six Organs of Admittance new album Ascent is available via Drag City.