2015 Favorite: The Big Eyes Family Players

I would like to make a motion that Broadcast should be named a genre in 2016. There are so many musicians making sounds currently that are clear disciples of the band (think 60s soundtracks, library music, psych-rock, sunshine pop, baroque choral groups, electronic music, freak-folk) that I feel like when a comparison to Broadcast is made, we all know the kind of journey our ears will be taken on. It will be interesting, beautiful, and a haunting listen.

The Big Eye Family Players are my most recent obsession along these lines. Imagine if the Cocteau Twins made the soundtrack for The Wicker Man. This is a the kind of gorgeous, dense, dream like fog this Sheffield, England group makes. Their new album Oh! was released earlier this year on Home Assembly Music and lives on my short list of 2016 albums I love so far.





Here is a little playlist I put together to better explain Broadcast as a genre.

Cause & Effect : The Sun + Days

Cause: The Sundays were an English rock band that formed in the late '80s and remained active through most of the '90s.

Effect: Meet The Sun Days, a 5 piece indie pop group from Sweden.

The Day That Got Away From Me

I have a review to post but that will happen tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy one of my favorite bands Girls at Our Best. They were from Leeds, England and existed from 1979 to 1982. The are perfectly pop but still rough around the edges. Fun fact, "She Blinded Me with Science" artist Thomas Dolby was a guest artist on their 1981 LP entitled Pleasure.




Some folks might recognize this song because the Wedding Present covered it.

New Album Alert : Our Girl

Looking forward to Our Girl's Cannibal Hymns out December 11th. They hail from the seaside resort of Brighton, England and began as more of a solo effort of member Soph Nathan but have expanded into a trio that deliver smokey, reverbed slow burners that reminds me of the days when Madder Rose, Lush, and Bettie Serveert ruled the earth. The good news that these days have seemingly cycled back around and more of this brooding, dynamic Pop bathed in shoegazery is back.

New(ish) Album Alert : Kagoule - Urth

Not to keep dwelling on music from the other side of the pond but my interest was peaked when a friend from Earache Records had told me they signed a tremendous new band but that it was not the kind of music we had grown to expect from them. Them being a record label that has released music by the likes of Carcass, Entombed, and Morbid Angel. He went on to say that I should have a listen and hear for myself why they had to sign them. I get it, I really do.

Kagoule is not a traditional metal band but they are still very heavy. They ka-chug-a-chug-a-chug with a bounce some of us old geezers might recognize from the '90s indie Mid-West scene with Albini at the helm. It takes a special band to blur genre boundaries of a well established heavy metal label roster and special they are.

Urth, the debut by this Nottingham, England trio reminds me of so many great non-traditional heavy bands that are also chunky and technical. Bands like Poster Children, Smashing Pumpkins, Hum, PJ Harvey (early years), and Failure are at the top that list. For those who enjoy weighty, highly volatile Pop songs, this is the band for you.