Last Week’s Jams Today (8.8 – 8.12)

We cover a lot of tunes here, but in looking back at last week’s jams, there were so many hits that popped up on our pages. You wanna dance a little? Try the new Cool Sounds or the Dare? Looking for a little wayward jangle? Try on Old Moon or the Slow Summits! Maybe you just want classic pop? Well, check out those Alvvays and Elizabeth tracks! Wait, you need a reissue? Well, there’s great stuff coming out from the Variable Stars and Self Improvement! Plus, we had mellow jams from Old Fire and Kramies, to hit all the right notes. Just hit play and enjoy yourself while I get ready for the first day of school!

Kramies Share Owl and the Crow Video

If you’re looking for that emotionally transportive tune for your day, then might I suggest you invest a little bit of time in this new track from Kramies. Both the video and the song begin in sort of a dense fog, a sort of blur on the edges of an acoustic strum, setting you up for a track that will weave its way in and out of your speakers. An emphatic chorus gives off a heavenly little buzz, aided by an accompanying vocal accent; it allows for the song to push the limits of your expectations, feeling the tune swell through your speakers despite the intimate nature of the acoustic strum. There’s something haunting here too, particularly when listened with the accompanying film, as you never seem able to completely focus, like you’re just barely holding the song in your consciousness before it seeps into the inner-workings of your mind. If you dig, Kramies, the band’s new LP will be out on September 9th via VanGerrett Records.

Kramies Drop New Single with Jason Lytle

There are two big reasons to share this new track from Kramies. The first, is fairly easy, as Jason Lytle of Grandaddy worked on this song, so that sort of cements the important if Lytle believed in it enough to work on it. Second, I feel like I’ve really been missing a good quality sad-bastard folk songwriter since the passing of Nicholas John Talbot; I’ve been searching for something, something ethereal that helps you escape your everyday world. I think the care given to this track, from the way the vocals were recorded to the atmospheric touches that bring the song to life, helps establish that mood. This tune appears on Of All the Places Been & Everything the End, the new LP dropping on October 19th.