DOWNLOAD: Guards - Cover Songs 7"

The EP that Guards put out at the end of 2010 is still on heavy rotation in my house, good getting up music, good going out music, good music to work to. What is this music not good for?  They have a winning formula of 60's redressed through new-wave and out into hi-def/lo-fi post-milleniall/modern nostalgia/euphoria.  The fact they just put out a single covering Metallica and M.I.A. cements, melts and double-hardens that last stumbling dissection.  In short, they sound like Arcade Fire with all the fatty flaky self-conscious preciousness thrown to the winds.

I also just noticed that the Greenhorne/Willowz gig screenprint I have in my house is the same Willowz that Richie James Follin and Loren Shane Humphrey used to be in before this band. That's kind of tidy.


They have this three song ep up to download for free from their Bandcamp. Go get.

DOWNLOAD: Guards - Guards EP

Guards
Guards EP
DOWNLOAD

Here's another incredible free album for you, from New York band Guards. 3Syllables are putting this out on limited edition 12" in November, but it is also available to download for free from their Bandcamp right now and it is one of the most exciting and fresh reinventions of recent history I've heard all year - this will make your weekend.  With no web presence other than a recently activated twitter account - possibly at the insistence of friends Cults and Best Coast - and the Bandcamp, Guards offer a fresh enigmatic yet uncontrived take on their self-promotion. Similar to Twin Sister, which I like to describe as Vintage, this is a sound that rolls so many references into it that it sounds instantly classic - IS instantly classic - take opening track Resolution of One; as soulful as a Stax ballad with an injection of garage-rock adrenaline to take it into an altered dimension of musical lineage that continues through the album to mix disparate elements and meld them into a beautifully high-functioning Pop music; a multiverse of free spirited downtuning and dissonance, lilting horns and shimmering waves of chilled surf twang; Cults join them on Sail It Slow, dialling the pace down several notches with a slow-motion take on 50's heartbreaking milk-bar jive; closer I See It Coming matches the epic scale of Arcade Fire with chime backed ooohs and aaaahs but adds a feral a kicking upswing of tenacious rock and roll With an album that's as effortlessly all-encompassing as this they're easily a band that is going to get catapaulted to...you know, like MASSIVE Blog Hype or something even bigger, and deservedly so.

Before the physical album release, they're putting Resolution of One out on 7" through Small Plates now, which you can order from HERE and to celebrate their first ever gig the band have put up new song Swimming After Dark to download from Yours Truly:

DOWNLOAD: Swimming After Dark


They tagged themselves as “alternative, doom, new wave, power pop, rock & roll, New York"  Seem like good people.  Tweet 'em @guardsmusic