5 Years of NFOP

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Listen to the NFOP Radio Show on Berlin Community Radio

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Introducing: Letting Up Despite Great Faults

05 Apr 2010 — NFOP

Fortunately, complicated and overlong band names do not inhibit the creation of inspired and beautiful music. By pure chance, let's take Letting Up Despite Great Faults as an example for this thesis.

Another young and promising band from the City of Angels (Someone should write something about this rather unsettling development sooner or later; here's my thesis, unsupported for the time being: In 2010, the center of musical creativity is finally leaving Brooklyn and resettling in the Golden State. Any objections so far?), the four-piece makes shimmering dream pop akin to shoegaze, with warm synth melodies that are sometimes reminiscent of Beach House, but at the same time more guitar-affectionate and occasionally even played at a danceable pace. All in all, the perfect soundtrack for upcoming warm days in the sun.

Their self-titled full-length debut has already been released digitally by New Words in October.


Watch the video for Our Younger Noise, a cheesy yet charming summer romance:

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Our Younger Noise from Christopher j Ewing on Vimeo.

As usual, you can download the song, too:

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Our Younger Noise


Read more →

Fortunately, complicated and overlong band names do not inhibit the creation of inspired and beautiful music. By pure chance, let's take Letting Up Despite Great Faults as an example for this thesis.

Another young and promising band from the City of Angels (Someone should write something about this rather unsettling development sooner or later; here's my thesis, unsupported for the time being: In 2010, the center of musical creativity is finally leaving Brooklyn and resettling in the Golden State. Any objections so far?), the four-piece makes shimmering dream pop akin to shoegaze, with warm synth melodies that are sometimes reminiscent of Beach House, but at the same time more guitar-affectionate and occasionally even played at a danceable pace. All in all, the perfect soundtrack for upcoming warm days in the sun.

Their self-titled full-length debut has already been released digitally by New Words in October.


Watch the video for Our Younger Noise, a cheesy yet charming summer romance:

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Our Younger Noise from Christopher j Ewing on Vimeo.

As usual, you can download the song, too:

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Our Younger Noise


Can’t wait to hear more.

03 Apr 2010 — NFOP

Gauntlet Hair is so fresh that up until this very day, no one seems to have any real information about these two guys - Andy and Craig - except for the fact that they are best friends and have been making music together since their fifteenth birthday, and that they hail from Lafayette, Colorado - now you have everything that they're willing to give us on their myspace.

Anyway, this exuberant song is promising enough to make us utterly curious about things to come:

Gauntlet Hair - I Was Thinking...

Read more →
Gauntlet Hair is so fresh that up until this very day, no one seems to have any real information about these two guys - Andy and Craig - except for the fact that they are best friends and have been making music together since their fifteenth birthday, and that they hail from Lafayette, Colorado - now you have everything that they're willing to give us on their myspace.

Anyway, this exuberant song is promising enough to make us utterly curious about things to come:

Gauntlet Hair - I Was Thinking...

You’re not really British, right?

03 Apr 2010 — NFOP

Vivian Girls obviously like them, so there's no way for me not to show my unquestioned enthusiasm, too. Though despite all the cuddling, their voices all appeared to be just a little bit overstrained by that certain Lou Reed classic:

Vivian Girls with Male Bonding on Sound Opinions from WBEZ on Vimeo.

Nice try anyway. And they had such a good time, didn't they?

Male Bonding are a three-piece from London, England, but their lo-fi punk sounds so American that one wonders how they can't be from Brooklyn. Consequently, their debut Nothing Hurts, out 11 May, will be released by Sub Pop.

Shortly after, on the 14th of May, they'll come to Berlin to perform at the White Trash Fast Food together with Tweak Bird.

Listen to Year's Not Long below, an energetic track that's just been named Best New Music by Pitchfork.

Male Bonding - Year's Not Long (via Stereogum)

Read more →
Vivian Girls obviously like them, so there's no way for me not to show my unquestioned enthusiasm, too. Though despite all the cuddling, their voices all appeared to be just a little bit overstrained by that certain Lou Reed classic:

Vivian Girls with Male Bonding on Sound Opinions from WBEZ on Vimeo.

Nice try anyway. And they had such a good time, didn't they?

Male Bonding are a three-piece from London, England, but their lo-fi punk sounds so American that one wonders how they can't be from Brooklyn. Consequently, their debut Nothing Hurts, out 11 May, will be released by Sub Pop.

Shortly after, on the 14th of May, they'll come to Berlin to perform at the White Trash Fast Food together with Tweak Bird.

Listen to Year's Not Long below, an energetic track that's just been named Best New Music by Pitchfork.

Male Bonding - Year's Not Long (via Stereogum)

Whatever you command us.

03 Apr 2010 — NFOP

It's that time again. Paris fashion mongers at Kitsuné are about to release the ninth edition of their Maison Compilation to present a selection of what should be considered hip and cool and up and coming among the youth of Planet Earth, in their humble opinion. With more than good reason, one of those ennobled artists is Berkshire's 18-year old sweetheart Sarah McIntosh:


Performing under the moniker The Good Natured, she embraces sugary electro pop without restraint. "Charming" doesn't even begin to capture it. Judge for yourself.

The Good Natured - Your Body Is A Machine

Kitsuné Maison Compilation 9: The Petit Bateau Edition or The Cotton Issue will be out 26 April.
Read more →

It's that time again. Paris fashion mongers at Kitsuné are about to release the ninth edition of their Maison Compilation to present a selection of what should be considered hip and cool and up and coming among the youth of Planet Earth, in their humble opinion. With more than good reason, one of those ennobled artists is Berkshire's 18-year old sweetheart Sarah McIntosh:


Performing under the moniker The Good Natured, she embraces sugary electro pop without restraint. "Charming" doesn't even begin to capture it. Judge for yourself.

The Good Natured - Your Body Is A Machine

Kitsuné Maison Compilation 9: The Petit Bateau Edition or The Cotton Issue will be out 26 April.

Label Focus #1: Not Not Fun Records

03 Apr 2010 — NFOP

No one's gonna have any fun anytime soon. Today marks the day we should finally all let some weirdness into our settled existences. NFOP's first label focus proudly presents Not Not Fun, the Los Angeles imprint that spreads the love for otherworldly psychedelic megalomania to the world. This spring, the label has a couple of amazing releases coming up.

First, there's Sun Araw's new LP On Patrol:


Cameron Stallones' spaced-out production is to be placed neatly between your Robocop DVD collection and that tropical islands coffee-table book from 1988 on the sideboard.

DEEP COVER - SUN ARAW from CatCakes on Vimeo.

No, I don't have a clue what this is about, either. But the making of the video (well, and the music) probably involved mind-expanding drugs for that matter. Anyway, if the music has given you a strange feeling of weightlessness, you can download the song below:

Sun Araw - Deep Cover


Second, Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino's former group Pocahaunted has reformed (Sun Araw's Cameron Stallone is now among the regular members) and recorded a new album, Make It Real, that's already been released:


Great cover, awesome music, again gravitating towards tropical shores and your alter ego's ulterior mind dimension, with slightly more grip and, above all, a stunning organ section.

Pocahaunted - Save Yourself (It's Nice) (via Gorilla vs. Bear)


Last, the lineup wouldn't be complete without just another side-project of Cameron Stallone (making him some kind of west coast Matt Mondanile). Magic Lantern was set up to satisfy his rock, more precisely, kraut-rock ambitions, heavily embracing all kinds of drone music. Their new LP Platoon is due any day now.


Listen to an excerpt of one of the thrilling tracks right here:

Magic Lantern - Dark Cicadas (Excerpt) (via Gorilla vs. Bear)

And now we only have to wait for those hazy summer nights that fit the music.

Read more →

No one's gonna have any fun anytime soon. Today marks the day we should finally all let some weirdness into our settled existences. NFOP's first label focus proudly presents Not Not Fun, the Los Angeles imprint that spreads the love for otherworldly psychedelic megalomania to the world. This spring, the label has a couple of amazing releases coming up.

First, there's Sun Araw's new LP On Patrol:


Cameron Stallones' spaced-out production is to be placed neatly between your Robocop DVD collection and that tropical islands coffee-table book from 1988 on the sideboard.

DEEP COVER - SUN ARAW from CatCakes on Vimeo.

No, I don't have a clue what this is about, either. But the making of the video (well, and the music) probably involved mind-expanding drugs for that matter. Anyway, if the music has given you a strange feeling of weightlessness, you can download the song below:

Sun Araw - Deep Cover


Second, Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino's former group Pocahaunted has reformed (Sun Araw's Cameron Stallone is now among the regular members) and recorded a new album, Make It Real, that's already been released:


Great cover, awesome music, again gravitating towards tropical shores and your alter ego's ulterior mind dimension, with slightly more grip and, above all, a stunning organ section.

Pocahaunted - Save Yourself (It's Nice) (via Gorilla vs. Bear)


Last, the lineup wouldn't be complete without just another side-project of Cameron Stallone (making him some kind of west coast Matt Mondanile). Magic Lantern was set up to satisfy his rock, more precisely, kraut-rock ambitions, heavily embracing all kinds of drone music. Their new LP Platoon is due any day now.


Listen to an excerpt of one of the thrilling tracks right here:

Magic Lantern - Dark Cicadas (Excerpt) (via Gorilla vs. Bear)

And now we only have to wait for those hazy summer nights that fit the music.

Happy Easter.

02 Apr 2010 — NFOP

I just wanted to announce that thanks to WFMU Radio, the world can stop looking for the perfect music, cause the folks have found it already. Seriously. So don't hesitate and go here.
Read more →
I just wanted to announce that thanks to WFMU Radio, the world can stop looking for the perfect music, cause the folks have found it already. Seriously. So don't hesitate and go here.

History repeating.

01 Apr 2010 — NFOP

Now please don't be confused. This may sound like 2009, but of course only if you were sleeping (or too young) when pop history was in the making. Black Tambourine were formed in Washington D.C. in 1989, and although the group only had a very brief career, it more than obviously influenced all those shoegaze/twee/C86 folks that keep on making us happy day after day. This fact presumably is the main reason why the guys at Oakland's wonderful Slumberland record label have decided to finally reissue Black Tambourine's complete recordings, an event you really can't afford to miss.

Below you can hear why:

Black Tambourine - Black Car

Read more →
Now please don't be confused. This may sound like 2009, but of course only if you were sleeping (or too young) when pop history was in the making. Black Tambourine were formed in Washington D.C. in 1989, and although the group only had a very brief career, it more than obviously influenced all those shoegaze/twee/C86 folks that keep on making us happy day after day. This fact presumably is the main reason why the guys at Oakland's wonderful Slumberland record label have decided to finally reissue Black Tambourine's complete recordings, an event you really can't afford to miss.

Below you can hear why:

Black Tambourine - Black Car

Indeed, it’s the year of supergroups.

30 Mar 2010 — NFOP

Katy of our ever adored Vivian Girls (above, she's the one one the right) has formed another side project together with Gregg Foreman, otherwise known as Cat Power's pianist/organist. I can't yet sense where such a combination of talented musicians might be leading to, but you should in any case listen to the fuzzed-out beauty linked below:

All Saints Day - It'll Come Around (via Gorilla vs. Bear)

Read more →
Katy of our ever adored Vivian Girls (above, she's the one one the right) has formed another side project together with Gregg Foreman, otherwise known as Cat Power's pianist/organist. I can't yet sense where such a combination of talented musicians might be leading to, but you should in any case listen to the fuzzed-out beauty linked below:

All Saints Day - It'll Come Around (via Gorilla vs. Bear)

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