The Best New Mixes Streaming Right Now (June, 2015)
June 16, 2015

The Best New Mixes Streaming Right Now (June, 2015)

Source: Moses Wiener, Pigeons & PlanesThe Best New Mixes Streaming Right Now ; Listen for free at bop.fmHeres a different kind of list compiled on a weekly basis by Pigeons & Planes Moses Wiener. It encompasses some of the best mixes available on SoundCloud right now. Among the entrants: a blend of yacht rock by true school hip-hop vets People Under the Stairs, a Sonar Festival preview by the 2 Bears (featuring Joe Goddard of Hot Chip), an Essential Mix entry by tech-house star Scuba, and an intriguing melange of screwed rap-and-B by newcomer Drae Da Skimask.

'90S THROWBACKS
Indie Rock Face-Off: Neo vs. ’90s

The ’90s have never sounded better than they do right now—especially for modern-day indie rockers. There’s no shortage of bands banging around these days whose sound suggests formative phases spent soaking up vintage ’90s indie rock. Not that the neo-’90s sound is itself a new thing. As soon as the era was far enough away in the rearview mirror to allow for nostalgia to set in (i.e., the second half of the 2000s), there were already some young artists out there onboarding ’90s alt-rock influences. But more recently, there’s been a bumper crop of bands that betray a soft spot for a time when MTV still played music videos and streaming was just something that happened in a restroom. In this context, the literate, lo-fi approach of Pavement has emerged as a particularly strong strand of the ’90s indie tapestry, and it isn’t hard to hear echoes of their sound in the work of more recent arrivals like Kiwi jr. or Teenage Cool Kids. Cherry Glazerr frontwoman Clementine Creevy seems to have a feeling for the kind of big, dirty guitar riffs that made Pacific Northwestern bands the kings of the alt-rock heap once upon a time. The world-weary, wise-guy angularity of Car Seat Headrest can bring to mind the lurching, loose-limbed attack of Railroad Jerk. And laconic, storytelling types like Nap Eyes stand to prove that there’s still a bright future ahead for those who mourn the passing of Silver Jews main man David Berman. But perhaps the best thing about a face-off between the modern indie bands evoking ’90s forebears and the old-school artists themselves is the fact that in this kind of competition, everybody wins.