Recommended Music

New Music From The Inbox – Monday Edition! (Apr 08, 2019): The National, *repeat repeat, Nightwatchers, and more!

Artist: The National

Song: “Light Years”

Album/EP: I Am Easy to Find

A calm yet emotional ballad driven by delicate piano, Matt Berninger’s forever-incredible voice, and a haunting vocal duet nestled cozily within gently swelling strings and quietly weeping guitar makes “Light Years” another exceptional tear-jerker from The National. The simplicity of this track and its moments of bleak serenity take minimalistic songwriting to a whole new level.

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Artist: *repeat repeat

Song: “Head On”

Album/EP: Glazed

Hook-filled indie rock pop featuring contrasting distressed/bubbly vocals, hard-working rhythm guitar, and fleeting synth stings. The track plays like an ironic summer jam – bright instrumentals make up the sunny sky, but scorned lyrics betray something more dissatisfying underneath the flighty head-bobbing ear worms.

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Artist: Nightwatchers

Song: “UPCist To The Bone”

Album/EP: La Paix Ou Le Sable

Old-school garage punk with an astonishingly dark narrative bone to pick (the story of this tune references counter-revolutionary mass murders involving the French in African engagements), “UPCist To The Bone” handles like a sonic barrage. Relentless power chords, gang harmonics, sneering vocals, Energizer-bunny drums, and high-octane (plus high-octave) bass lend themselves to an exciting and catchy tune. With bonus historical horrors – how punk!

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Artist: Winnetka Bowling League

Song: “Slow Dances”

Album/EP: Cloudy With a Chance of Sun

Feverish and shimmering indie pop with a curious innocent bedroom-pop influence, “Slow Dances” is a disarmingly sincere, groovy little tune. Pockets of overlaid synths and guitars chock-full of tiny moments of audio oddities – cheery sirens, subtle laser zaps, and the like – layer on top of each other in a mish-mash, like an inquisitive child learning the presets of their CASIO keyboard. Except this kid is a prodigy, and can write a killer hazy pop ditty.

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Artist: My Pleasure

Song: “Five Stars”

Album/EP: Three Singles and a Bonus Track

Sardonic and dry indie alt (everything is indie nowadays, I know) that has no business being as catchy as it is, this silly little observational story-telling exercise has legs. Lo-fi vocals, hooky guitars, and a plucky little drum machine that could elevate this otherwise pedestrian tumblr poem into an ironic, enjoyable breath of musically-explored mundane user behaviour.

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Mathew Kahansky

Once upon a time, Mat studied journalism. That's how he became Alan's one-time intern and current-time contributor, and the rest is ongoing history - get it? Mat also studied biology and music, so he has a strangely specific knowledge set that doesn't really apply anywhere other than useless fun facts. He currently works for a music tech start-up in Halifax, and is a big fan of the em dash.

Mathew Kahansky has 286 posts and counting. See all posts by Mathew Kahansky

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