“Letters” is new from soulful indie outfit Wake Owl. Taken from the Vancouver band’s Richard Swift-produced debut The Private World of Paradise LP, single “Letters” does well to focus Wake Owl’s compact, hook-driven, emotive through the sound lens of Swift’s band The Shins (in that the production pulls from a similar palette of wistful tones and lo-fi atmospheres). The Private World of Paradise is out March 4th on Vagrant.
Wake Owl
: (Facebook)
Rating: 8.7
The very consistent Communion Records latest release is “Floating Arks”, new from Kent UK band STORY BOOKS. Previewed from the band’s forthcoming sophomore EP “From Post to Post”, “Floating Arks” is made up of all the component parts of a track that can flat out level Radio 1; including: a great melodic tune, just the right dashes of hope and melancholy, and a pitch perfect piano-tinged instrumental. “From Post to Post” gets a March 17th release on Communion.
Story Books 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.4
L.A.-based trio and B3SCI Presents alums Incan Abraham share single #1 from their debut Tolerance LP. “Concorde” navigates a neat balance between a very current indie sound (you may hear hints of bands like Grizzly Bear and PAPA) and a (in a good way) melodic accessibility that gives the track a quite powerful magnetism and charisma that helps to separate it from other bands/songs that just have the “very current indie sound” component of that equation. Tolerance is out April 8th on White Iris Records.
Incan Abraham 
(Info)
Parquet Courts headlined at the Henry Fonda in Los Angeles on a Friday night last week. Worth noting, The Fonda (as it’s called) has three times the capacity of The Echo — the site of their last LA appearance in January, 2013. Parquet Courts’ buzz has certainly magnified in this last year and the venue upgrade suited them well, the group had no issues covering the larger room.
My personal taste often leans away from ‘jam’ bands, who can sometimes put me to sleep when they stray too far from course. Not the case with Parquet Courts, who really know the right way to stretch out a song. There’s not a whole lot of showbiz at their gigs. The guys basically stand up and play, which is something they do very well. For this set, the band featured a new drummer who played his third show with the band, and he nailed his beats. The crowd devoured Parquet Courts nicely and better-known songs such as “Borrowed Time” and “You’ve Got Me Wondering Now” brought some added energy and enthusiasm to the house. As the band alternated between fast and mid-tempo, there was a bit of a lull about two-thrids of the way in (where a cover song or change of pace might have helped), but the energy returned with a blistering version of “The More It Works”.
The most popular Parquet Courts song to date has to be “Stoned and Starving”. The band were wise enough to play it on David Letterman recently, even though it’s from their Light Up Gold album as opposed to newer Tally All The Things You Broke EP release. Crowd members started calling out for it as early as two songs into the set… yet they did not play the song at all! When Parquet Courts’ hour-long set concluded, it was assumed that an encore was in store, but instead the lights came on right away. The perplexed crowd quizzically looked at their neighbors. Most people hung around and it was a few minutes before the house music began to play, creating abandonment of any hope. Were there technical issues? It’s doubtful that the venue was shutting them down due to time limitations. It’s one thing to leave the audience wanting more, but you never want leave them disappointed. By Bruce Rave
Parquet Courts 
(Facebook)
Hear Bruce’s “Go Deep With Bruce Rave” weekly new music show on Indie1031/Los Angeles and WSUM-FM/Madison. Details and archived shows can be found on his blog and be sure follow Bruce on Twitter too!
