Radio Exile | Radio Exile mp3 Hype Device III

Radio Exile mp3 Hype Device III

By Tom Williams May 5, 2009 Post a comment | Email the author

If this Hype Device were a Rocky movie, then it would feature Clubber Lang / Mr. T, but (sadly) it does not. We do have bands from Scotland, England, California, and New Jersey, though. Actually, there are TWO from New Jersey. That’s gotta count for something, right?

On with the show.

Check out the Radio Exile mp3 Hype Device III “after the jump”

Here are five bands who who deserve some hype. So tell all your friends.

[mp3] Mr. Sunshine and the Family Band – “The Apple Parade” [MySpace]

Spring is here and the last lingering effects of Seasonal Affect have lifted. Nation, I am happy; 80 degree weather will do that to me. This is a song that sounds like spring time. It’s irrepressibly bubbly and optimistic. It’s not a “new” song, per se (I found it via the E6 Town Hall two years ago), but it is a song that deserves to be hyped and is the catchiest that an accordion can ever be.

[mp3] Sabeel Azam – “Azure Sky” [PureVolume]

I found this song via my “Elliott Smith Friend”. A roommate of mine in college, he introduced me to Elliott Smith and Wes Anderson (and therefore is responsible for half of my cultural obsessions as well as a really awesome Halloween costume a few years back). We chat on gmail often and every couple of months he passes along a new song by the little brother of a friend of his. These songs are inevitably damn near perfect whispy folk songs in the Nick Drake or early Elliott Smith tradition. This song is the most recent one passed to me. It’s far much lush and fleshed out than Azam’s other songs and I think it benefits greatly from it. Indie pop this good will inevitably end up in a movie soundtrack or a car commercial and I’m okay with that.

[mp3] The Homosexuals – “You’re Not Moving The Way You’re Supposed To” [MySpace]

I’m going to make an exception and include an older song because a) it’s one of my all time favorite songs and b) because the band has recently started to record music again and they’re still very much unheralded. The Homosexuals were a legendary UK punk band. Best know for their song “Soft South Africans”, I think this is a far superior song. Undoubtedly one of the top two or three post-punk songs ever released (in my mind at least), it only exists as a crackly vinyl rip. The chorus of this song is a deep release of utter perfection. The Homosexuals have recently resurfaced in Brooklyn (of all places) and play regularly in underground New York venues. I have not yet seen them live but I’ve loved this song for so long that I need to track them down.

[mp3] Real Estate – “Fake Blues” [MySpace]

This is a band that has just started to generate buzz, and deservedly so. This is the best song of 2009 thus far. Period. A New Jersey band through and through, Real Estate is equal parts The Feelies and Yo La Tengo and I cannot recommend this song highly enough.

(Note: Real Estate just posted a newer, cleaned up version on their MySpace. I suggest you check it out and post back here which version you like best.)

[mp3] We Were Promised Jetpacks – Quiet Little Voices [MySpace]

One of the topics of discussion in the van for the 24 hour long drive to Austin for SXSW was “What is the best band name in recent memory?” The consensus pick was We Were Promised Jetpacks. Not even six hours later my “modern music hating” father emailed me, telling me about this great band name he’d seen on the SXSW website; We Were Promised Jetpacks.

So okay, it’s an awesome name. But how is the music? Well, these guys are Scottish (+2) and sound sort of like Frightened Rabbit (+3) sharing an apartment with Antics-era Interpol (+2) next door to the Gaslight Anthem’s place (+2). So what’s that, 9 points? These guys are good.