Five Star Songs: Shout Out Louds- Hard Rain

Another iPod discovery, "Hard Rain" came on my shuffle last week and totally surprised me. The song is the last track from the 2007 Shout Out Louds' Our Ill Wills LP, and features singer Adam Olenius' whisper voice, punctuated with the heart breaking sweetness of Bebban Stenborg's singing that all melds into a raucous guitar smeared ending. One of those songs from an unappreciated album that I totally rediscovered this weekend. Check it out below:




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Jack White Collaborates With A Butthole Surfer + Other Great New Music From This Past Week

The busiest man in rock & roll, Jack White, continues to find interesting recording partners for his Third Man Blue Series singles. This time he has recorded with former 90's psychedelic rock singer Gibby Haynes of Butthole Surfers fame. The pair have teamed up to record two original songs, "You Don't Have to Be Smart and "Horse Named George", plus a cover of the hardcore punk band Adrenalin O.D.'s "Paul's Not Home". Listen to fun track below:

The single will be released on Valentine's Day, February 14th, via Third Man Records.

A lot of other great music releases from the week including three great Swedish synth pop tracks and a couple of good shoegazing tunes:

Frightened Rabbit released a music video starring a Jesus look-alike dude for a new track titled "Today's Cross". The song is a B Side to the single "The Woodpile".

Frightened Rabbit- Today's Cross

San Francisco dream pop/shoegaze band Young Prisms debuted a music video for their song "Runner". The song is from their excellent  2012 album, In Between.

Young Prisms- Runner

Toronto shoegaze collective Beliefs have also released a music video for their new song "Violets". The track is taken from the band's upcoming eponymous debut LP.

Beliefs- Violets

Another great song from shoegazing singer/songwriter Rachel Zeffira. Stream her newest "The Deserters" below and watch out for her new album, also titled The Deserters, out March 12th.




Young Dreams have shared a track off of their new LP, Between Places, which is out March 5th. Listen to "First Days of Something":




Swedish producer Lust For Youth has shared a magical new synth pop single titled "Chasing The Light".




The Swedish band Shout Out Louds have shared another new track from their new LP, Optica, which will be out on February 27th. Listen to "Illusions"




Mike Diaz, aka MillionYoung, has shared the title track off of his upcoming new LP, which is out February 12th. Download "Variable" below:




Finally, disheartening news today about School of Seven Bells' Benjamin Curtis. He has been diagnosed with T-cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma cancer. The news was posted by SVIIB's Alejandra Deheza on the band's Facebook page earlier today. You can read it here. Get well soon Benjamin!!!

School of Seven Bells- Put Your Sad Down

New Music: Shout Out Louds- Blue Ice + Music Video

Not to be outdone by their fellow countrymen and similar sounding band The Mary Onettes, The Shout Out Louds have also announced a new album to be released early next year. The LP will be titled Optica and the first single, Blue Ice, with accompanying music video was put out last week. As a promotion The SOL actually gave away 10 free 7" singles which were made of real ice....not sure how that works.

The heartwarming song's video features faces drifting across the cosmos until they end up in Saturn's icy blue rings while diamond asteroids are drifting by through the continuum of space. Watch and listen below:

Optica will be out on February 26th through Merge Records.

The Shout Out Louds will embark on a spring tour which will hit Toronto's Opera House on May 14th. Check your local listings for all dates.

For fans of The Mary Onettes, The Cure, The National.