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Tame Impala, Her Vanished Grace, Arc In Round, Snøskred, Thee Oh Sees & more Texture, courtesy Vanessa Murray 1.   The Oh Sees – Lupine Dominus Start off this week’s mix by imagining you’re at a groovy 60s dance club, but the go-go dancers are posessed. 2.   Landing – We Lie In Fields Veteran ambient crew pick things up on their engrossing self-titled latest album. 3.   Tame Impala – Apocalypse Dreams They’re back! Good to hear their familiar sunshine psychedelia a la Magical Mystery Tour, but hoping their full-length will kick things up a notch. 4.   The Raveonettes – Observations Here’s a group who is messing around with their signature sound on Observator. Great piano and smooth vocals give a much smoother sound, but just as sinister. 5.   French Kicks – Also Ran Digging through digital crates on these next few tracks. Listening to what’s coming out these days now, I wonder if the ethereal groove rock on 2006’s Two Thousand was ahead of its time. 6.   Delays – On Always enjoyed 2004’s Faded Seaside Glamour by this British band. Fabulous guitar and harmonies. 7.   Sam Roberts – Mind Flood My fellow Canadians know Sam as a straight ahead rock and roller. But I’ve always loved this slightly epic tune that explodes into  intense psychedelia at 4:25. 8.   Oblisk – Overcast This tune matches the slow/fast dynamic of the last tune, but swaps the downtempo rock for drone psych. 9.   The Telescopes – There Is No Floor Pushing deep into the red with this classic from Taste. Plus I love this title. 10.  Snøskred – We Are Big up to superb blog Sounds Better With Reverb for pointing me to this great single. Sounds like a shoegaze version of the Broken Social Scene. 11.  Black Market Karma – Cocoon Really digging their latest record, also called Cocoon. 12.  Her Vanished Grace – Break Down Track of the week comes from their latest album Star-Crossed. This killer tune with a chorus that could light up the sky. The album comes with a few very nice nods to the Cocteaus. 13.  Shallow – Out Of Focus Love me some minimal, hypnotic reverb-drenched shoegaze. 14.  Arc In Round – Time Spent I’ve been looking forward to this band’s latest self-titled record for ages. Definitely worth picking up if you like both the smooth shoegaze pop heard here and something harder. 15.  She’s So Rad – Confetti New Zealanders’ latest continues their tradition of wrapping infectious melody around electronic pop. 16.  Saint Saviour – Midnight City (M83 cover) As M83 continues his never-ending tour, here’s a great cover from the UK. To me, this sounds as if Kate Bush has channelled jazz legend Mark Murphy‘s talent for brilliantly vocalizing instrumental parts. 17.  Parlovr – You Only Want It ‘Cause You’re Lonely Montreal “sloppy pop” trio deliver this captivating gem. 18.  Echodrone – Cold Snap This band’s melodic post rock continues to grow on me with this latest album Bon Voyage. 19.  Honey – Cape Canaveral Could’ve sworn this was an American band until I read they’re from Glasgow. Goodnight folks.

Japandroids, Grooms, Bailterspace, The Flaming Lips, Beach House & more Post War Years 1.   Japandroids – Continuous Thunder Kicking things off with the closing track from Celebration Rock, referred to by Songs & Cigarettes as an album “ripped from your youth.” My take? “Heroes” for a new generation. 2.   Wyla – Fill In This band continues to impress on the solid Night Fits album. Love the Autolux vibe here. 3.   Electro Group – Green Machine Stunner from the Lifter/Green Machine EP that has the intensity of the great Bailterspace. Wouldn’t it be great if they came out with some new music? 4.   Swervedriver – The Birds On a bit of a late-period kick for some classic shoegaze bands. This one’s from 1998’s excellent Ejector Seat Reservation. 5.   Grooms – Dreamsucker Some hyper Brooklyn rock and roll. 6.   Eternal Summers – Wonder Propulsive power pop out of Virginia. 7.   Cookie Duster – Two Feet Stand Up Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene leads a new crew to higher heights on When Flying Was Easy. 8.   Ride – Gonna Be Alright More late period Britpop goodness off overlooked Tarantula. 9.   Bailterspace – No Sense New music from this seminal New Zealand dark shoegaze band. Cool to see they didn’t ape their old style. 10.  Grave Babies – Fuck Off An atmospheric, reverb-drenched anthem off Gothdammit. 11.  Pontiak – Royal Colors Switching gears from trenchcoats to brain melting psych. That’s just how we roll. 12.  The Flaming Lips – Children Of The Moon (feat. Tame Impala) Peeling back the onion that is the The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends. So excited to hear some new TI tunes! 13.  Ombre – Cara Falsa Pitchfork tells me this band consists of Julianna Barwick and Helado Negro. Plus their Believe You Me album is on the way. 14.  The Steals – All Coming Back Lovely dream pop from a few years back. 15.  Beach House – Lazuli I wasn’t crazy about first single “Myth” so I’ve slept on this album. Then this track drew me back to the mothership. 16.  Cloud –  Childhood This chillwave track sounds like it’s been playing in my head for years. 17.  Post War Years – Glass House Track of the week: glorious electro pop from the UK. 18.  Diiv – Wait Some nice shoegaze from new album Oshin (get it?) on Captured Tracks. 19.  A Dancing Beggar – Stars Bring Us Closer (Franz Kirmann remix) A slow build, but the atmosphere on this remix just transported me.

A Place To Bury Strangers, Stars, Grizzly Bear, Wild Eyes, Glass Vaults & more Photo by Phil Askew luminouslives.com Lots of strong new releases this week. Not to mention that two of the featured bands have the word “wild” in them. Dig in. 1.   Dan Deacon – Lots Absolutely slamming new anthem starts the party. Download on his site. 2.   Young Galaxy – Youth Is Wasted On The Young Seems with every new release, this band steps further into the 1980s. Not that that’s a bad thing. 3.   Stars – The Theory of Relativity Somebody’s been listening to a lot of M83. Nice to hear fresh sounds from this band, also available on their site. 4.   Wild Nothing – Shadow I can see this fictional airbrushed, longing music video playing in my head. 5.   It Hugs Back – Half American This song hugs me in a very nice way. Imagine a poppier Broken Social Scene. 6.   She’s So Rad – Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart Shimmering chillwave and vivid choruses make this the track of the week. 7.   Wheat Fields – Heaven Is A Place Where Nothing Ever Happens Some beautifully wistful dream pop. 8.   Grizzly Bear – Sleeping Ute Can’t say many other GB tunes stood out for me, but this latest folk electric psych single is just riveting. 9.   Richard Hawley – Leave Your Body Behind You What’s in the water these days? First Paul Weller  psychs out and now it’s RH’s turn to get trippy. A crooner from the Standing At The Sky’s Edge album. 10.  Archers Of Loaf – Dead Red Eyes I was mainly into their early 90s records, but as part of its reissue series Merge has dropped a great track off 1998’s White Trash Heroes. 11.  Exitmusic – The Sea A mysterious quiet/loud mini epic. 12.  Amen Dunes – Bedroom Drum Through Donkey Jaw track that I can’t stop listening to. 13.  Glass Vaults – Into Clear Prodding, almost ambient drifting tune that builds to an amazing finale. Was a little slow to realize how awesome this track is. 14.  Rancho Relaxo – Wisdom Blackout Damn catchy Brian Jonestown Massacre-style psych…I keep finding great tracks on my iPod from these S2 faves. 15.  Broken Water – Drown Fantastic, primal drone psych out of Olympia. 16.  Black Night Crash – Baby It’s You This new shoegaze track off the excellent Drawn Out Days has been driving me nuts. This singer sounds exactly like someone else, but I’m at a loss. Can somebody help? 17.  Six Organs Of Admittance – Waswasa Sometimes you just have to shred. This new Ascent track embodies glorious rock and roll abandon. 18.  Wild Eyes – Ride Chugging motorik shoegaze? Check. 19.  Pagiins – I Don’t Feel Anything The surfers head to the biker bar for an after party. 20.  A Place To Bury Strangers – Revenge Good to hear this band continue scorching the earth on their latest Worship.

The Faux Noise, Cadence Weapon, PS I Love You, Crocodiles, No Joy & more Photo by Phil Askew, luminouslives.com The essential summertime shoegaze mix? Perhaps. 1.   Alligator Indian – Our Love Was A Crime How could it have taken this long for us to feature a post punk band from Asheville? Bucket list one step closer to completion. 2.   The John Candy – Anyway, Anywhere, Anyhow Breathless C86 indie pop from a few years back, complete with delirious guitar riff. 3.   Mandarinaduck – Tenderhearted Destroyer A perfect mixture of tension and soaring choruses out of the Ukraine. I won’t say anything about the band’s name. 4.   PS I Love You – Death Dreams II This band really stretch their legs on the superb Death Dreams. If you’re free and in TO, they’re making an appearance at NXNE this Thursday. 5.   Fort Lean – Sunsick This tune kind of got stuck in my head. 6.   Crocodiles – No Black Clouds For Dee Dee Endless Flowers, one of the most anticipated albums in ages, finally dropped. Of all the tracks this groovy psych number stood out for me. 7.   Miniatures – Midwinter (Air) Melbourne crew dives into some heavy shoegaze on this gem. 8.   Pink Mist – Touchdown Kid “She gives me nothing for nothing…” Brooding intro gives way to a dark Hawaiian dancefloor. 9.   No Joy – Junior Great shoegaze single from one of Montreal’s finest. Coming out soon on Negaverse. 10.  Cadence Weapon – Conditioning We at S2 love hip hop, but we never thought it could fit in our mix. Of course, that’s until we heard this superb new track off Hope In Dirt City. 11.  The Faux Noise – Leave Her To Heaven Curious mixture of beats and dream pop. “Forgive me one more day…” 12.  Autolux – Plant Life Still mining the masterpiece that is Future Perfect. 13.  The December Sound – Truth Hearts Boston band takes us down with drone and shoegaze. 14.  ivansxtc – Yesterday Crooning dream pop tune from a few years back that I only recently discovered. 15.  Brother Sun, Sister Moon – All You Need Turn off your mind… 16.  Bark Psychosis – 400 Winters This sounds like a collaboration betweenTim Buckley and Broadcast. Gotta play more by these late 80s/ early 90s heroes. 17.  Great Northern – Low Is A Height Speaking of defunct bands, my iPod recently served up this stunner from Turning Twilight Into Daylight. 18.  2 Hearts and Chemicals – Froid (ft. Guylaine Vivarat) The mellow vibe rolls on with hushed French vocals and strings out of L.A. 19.  Family Band– Night Song Closing the curtains with an eerie riff and lines like “hold me here till morning takes my eyes…”

Lumerians, Stagnant Pools, Sunsplit, Airwaves, The Lassie Foundation & more. The amount of amazing new tunes has slowed a little bit, so we’re playing some of the great stuff kicking around the iPod. 1.   Stagnant Pools – Dead Sailor Walls of guitar by a band that is getting more essential with each new release. 2.   The Creakies – Arnold’s Song Can’t remember the last time we’ve featured a Seattle band as good as these guys. 3.   The Poumons – Rock And Roll City I’d always associated this band with the 90s Halifax Pop Explosion. But seems they’re from Windsor? 4.   The Clean – Drawing To A Hole Flying Nun…that is all. 5.   Sunsplit – All I Want Discovered this Autolux-like rock and roll band relatively recently. One of the many excellent tracks on Sing For Sunday. 6.   Neutral Milk Hotel – Ghost Sublime, passionate indie rock taken from one of my fave albums of all time, In The Aeroplane, Over The Sea. 7.   Airwaves – Keys Slowing it down a bit with some midtempo Brooklyn indie rock. 8.   Built To Spill – Carry The Zero Fantastic songwriting, please meet smoking playing. Absolutely incendiary. 9.   The Raconteurs – Intimate Secretary Not a typical band to feature for a S2 mix, but this is pretty trippy business. 10.  Chapterhouse – Greater Power Overlooked Blood Music shoegaze anthem. 11.  Celeritas – Girl In The Garden Curious track that sounds like Bob Pollard without ADD. Available on the Nebraska Popfest mixtape. 12.  The Lassie Foundation – Three Wheels Sadly defunct band dropped this shoegaze nugget on Jetstreams a few years back. 13.  Guitar – Sine Waves Gloomy and beautiful soundtrack to a rainy day. Vocals remind me of Kurt Heasley at his most detached…Lilys coming soon BTW. 14.  Maps – Elouise I can’t help but return to the awesomeness of We Can Create: “Hypocrites can’t look me in the eye.” 15.  Caribou – I’ve Live On A Dirt Road All My Life Fantastic floating-in-space electronic psychedelia. 16.  Quickspace – Coca Lola This is all krautrock until you get to the gonzo chorus. It’ll get in ya. 17.  The Dandy Warhols – She Sells Sanctuary This slamming Cult cover belonged in between these two songs. 18.  Lumerians – Track 1 There was no question this voodoo psych groove is our song of the week. Strongly recommend you drop it at a party and see what happens…