Oliver Bouchard

Song Picks of the Week

There are so many cool songs with female names in their title which makes me wish I had one of them too… Kelly for example, a laid-back number by American Wrestlers and our Song Pick of Monday. The Flavr Blue delivers the soundtrack for the lazy July afternoon at the

Releases and Announcements: Heather Woods Broderick // Little Boots

Heather Woods Broderick – Glider If somebody releases music under her real name, in particular if it’s such a long one, it spells seriousness to me, often a tad too much. Glider is a serious album that carries a lot of sadness, but it often opens up to lush soundscapes

Life Soundtrack: Imagination - Just an Illusion

I can’t think of any other song that teleports me to a certain time and place in the same way as Just an Illusion by the British band Imagination. It was ’82 and I was with my dad on vacation on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca. There was a

Album Review: Bully - Feels Like

Bully at Maggie Mae’s (SXSW 2015) I found Bully the first time on the lineup for SXSW 2014. I was intrigued by the story of singer and songwriter Alicia Bognanno, who came to Nashville as a sound engineer. We missed their show back then, but one year later they

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Song Picks of the Week

UK Band Landshapes plays Union Pool on July 16th. That’s why I listened to their song Stay and I really like it, so it’s our Song Pick of Monday. We’re staying in the UK but are leaving London, heading a bit further North to Norwich to listen

Releases and Announcements: Apple Music

Last week Apple Music went finally live and like always when Apple does something, everybody has to say something about it. Probably the most talked about feature is Beats 1, a 24 hours, global radio station poised to make listening to radio cool again. Many love it, including me: there’

PHOTOS: No Joy live at Rough Trade

No Joy is a Canadian four piece, originally founded by Jasmine White-Gluz (vocals, guitar) and Laura Lloyd (guitar), now joined by drummer Garland Hastings and bassist Michael Farsky. They do shoegaze, almost in the literal sense of the word: both guitarists operate an impressive array of technology at their feet

LIFE SOUNDTRACK Kraftwerk - Die Roboter

I think I heard this song first 1979 in music class. We were asked to bring some cassettes to be played in front of the class and a fellow student brought Kraftwerk’s Die Roboter. The kids back then were divided between classical music (those who learned instruments) and 50s

NEW ALBUM: Wolf Alice - My Love is Cool

The first time we saw Wolf Alice was on the second day of SXSW 2015 at The Parish and we were pretty much blown away. The band had so much energy and singer Ellie Rowsell was so intense and beautiful that we both became immediate fans. The same has apparently

Song Picks of the Week

The Song Pick of Monday Come in comes from London musician GEoRGiA (capitalization hers). I love the industrial beat on this track, which is off a four track EP with the same name. More of this please! Are You Happy asks The Outdoor Type in our Song Pick of Tuesday.

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Releases and Announcements

New Releases Wolf Alice – My Love Is Cool Oliver: This week two female-fronted four-pieces battle from both sides of the Atlantic it out for the most love from the critics. London band Wolf Alice released their excellent debut My Love Is Cool on Dirty Hit Records. More about it on

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Ibeyi play a surprise acoustic set at Rough Trade NYC

Ibeyi is one of the new bands I’m the most excited about this year, so it was a no-brainer to rush to Rough Trade NYC last Friday to see them live once more. They played an acoustic set in the store itself, not in the back room venue, which

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Wolf Alice live at Poisson Rouge

When I read about a show at Poisson Rouge in the Greenwich Village, I picture sitting at a table with a glass of wine while nibbling some sushi. You can do that there for some shows, but for a rock band like Wolf Alice, it is turned into a packed

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Song Picks of the Week

Looking for the perfect Song Pick of the Day, we decided on Perfect by ONWE – easy, no? Northside Festival is all about discovering new bands and enjoying shows of long time favorites. ONWE fall into the former category because we never heard them before but enjoyed their performance as part

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Releases and Announcements

New Releases Gengahr – A Dream Outside Elke: The slowly unfolding, ethereally beautiful and highly catchy Bathed In Light might be familiar for many ears and now there’s luckily a whole album of “more” to it. Gengahr a four piece from London, have released their debut album A Dream Outside

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LIFE SOUNDTRACK: David Bowie - Let's Dance

This morning iTunes 80s radio played a Bowie song, which sparked the idea for this throwback. I’ve never been too much of a Bowie fan – I saw him live once in the 90s at a summer festival in Ulm, Germany, which was touted as one of his last shows

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Northside Roundup Day 3 - Sunflower Bean // Merchandise // Bully // The Present // DEF.grls // Little May // Blonde Redhead // PINS

We got a great start into Saturday with catching a few songs by Sunflower Beans on the UO Stage right on Bedford Avenue. The New York three piece has been on our list for a while, so we were happy to see them, even in blazing sunshine. Next on the

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Song Picks of the Week

As announced, this week’s Song Pick of the Day are all come from bands playing the Northside Festival. First up is Somebody Call a Doctor by Sunflower Bean who are playing the UO Live Stage on 06/13/15. Bugs in the Dark are playing Northside next Friday at

Northside Roundup Day 2 - Courtesy Tier // Of Clocks and Clouds // Leverage Models // ONWE // Stranger Cat // Salt Cathedral

One of the bands playing Northside Festival I was most eager to see were Courtesy Tier from Brooklyn, a three piece initially formed by Omer Leibovitz (guitar, vocals) and Layton Weedeman (drums), and now completed by Alex Picca (bass). They played Bar Matchless at 4:20 PM and put on

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Releases and Announcements

New releases No Joy – More Faithful No Joy is a shoegaze band from Canada around singers Jasmine White-Gluz and Laura Lloyd. Their band name is not really a mission statement – there is some joy to find in their music. I will listen often to this. (Out now on Mexican Summer)

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Northside Roundup Day 1 - Monomyth // Sexores // Lower Dens // Dead Leaf Echo // Monogold

The Northside Festival is Brooklyn’s version of South By Southwest in Austin: it packs film, technology (“innovation”) and lots of music into one exciting week. It is much younger and smaller than SXSW, but it is growing from year to year and is well on its way to become

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NEW ALBUM: Zhala - Zhala

I’m In Love was my unofficial favorite song of last year: I just love how it builds, very much like the titular feeling, with anticipation, anxiety and joy until it fades out in uncertainty. After this song opening, Zhala’s debut album it is a challenge to hold that

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Song Picks of the Week

Monday’s Song Pick is written in Nashville, but it’s everything but Nashville music. OOFJ does eerie, cinematic music. The entire album is great, but not an easy listen. With our Song Pick of Tuesday we’re leaving the country and are heading Far East… to Singapore with Ctrl

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MUSIC BUZZ: Releases and Announcement

Elke and I are listening to new music every week. In this new series we select a few albums that we like and you may like too. You also find new album and show announcements. Enjoy! Out Now Northern American – Modern Phenomena Elke: This Week, Northern American, based in Los

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LIFE SOUNDTRACK: Poesie Noire - Verge of Tears

I didn’t know anything about Poesie Noire when I bought this record in 80s – I was just on the hunt for alternative electronic music, which mostly meant to browse a bin in the back of the records store. Maybe I realized at that time that they were from Belgium,