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''Alternative Label of the Year''

Dangerbird Records' free nominated downloads

By MATT ASHARE | October 1, 2007

Dappled Cities

Thanks in large part to the success of the Silversun Pickups, the LA indie label Dangerbird Records has been nominated (along with Astralwerks, Hollywood, Sub Pop, and Wind-Up) as the “Alternative Label of the Year” by the trade pub Radio and Records. To celebrate, Dangerbird (which is also home to Sea Wolf and former Jane’s Addiction bassist Eric Avery) is offering some free downloads that include rare remixes, demos, and Darker My Love’s homonymous debut in its entirety. Here’s a taste of what’s up at www.dangerbirdrecords.com/downloads.

Dappled Cities, “Fire Fire Fire” (Loving Hands Remix)
This Australian band have garnered so many favorable comparisons to the Flaming Lips and Grandaddy that they were able to nab Grandaddy’s Jim Fairchild to produce their debut disc, Granddance, with Peter Walker and Jacquire King (whose credits include Modest Mouse). This remix of one of the disc’s tracks is more neo-new-wave than indie-psych, with its dance-funk bass, eerie echoes, and pillowy synths. Then again, that’s just the sort of left-field move you’d expect from a band like, well, the Flaming Lips.

Darker My Love, “Post Mortem, Post Boredom”
Darker My Love feature two Boston ex-pats, bassist Rob Barbato and guitarist Jared Everett, who teamed up with singer/guitarist Tim Presley and ex-Distillers drummer Andy Granelli in LA and quickly found a home at Dangerbird. Walls of vintage tube amp distortion and deadpan vocal harmonies create a dark, trippy atmosphere for this sinister, druggy track from their debut. Think the Stooges with a heavily medicated Iggy spouting lines like “Gonna kill everyone I know/Gonna kill them just for fun.”

The One AM Radio, “In the Time We’ve Got”
Acoustic guitars and string arrangements adorn this vintage-pop facsimile from one of Ted Leo’s old Yale classmates, singer/guitarist Hrishikesh Hirway. As the One AM Radio, Hirway and violinist Jane Yakowitz specialize in just this sort of hushed melancholy and yearning romanticism on their Dangerbird debut, This Too Will Pass. It’s a bit self-consciously poetic, but pretty nonetheless.

Dappled Cities, “Granddance” (demo)
A complete 180-degree turn from the remix of “Fire Fire Fire,” this is quirky pop at its quirky best, as loose as the “Loving Hands” dance remix is tight. Even with its off-kilter synth tones (or are they just treated vocals?) and cleanly strummed guitar, you can picture the band bashing this out in a garage somewhere in Sydney. The track was previously available on an Australian-only EP.

The Flaming Lips
At War With The Mystics | Reprise
Digging it
Art Brut, Spinto Band, and Tokyo Police Club, Middle East, October 16, 2006
On the racks: August 15, 2006
Christina Aguilera, Panic Channel, Skycycle . . .
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