this has defnitely been ten or twelve of those days, and the best way to remedy those days is with a bunch of these:

the first band, sublux, is apparently no longer together. theirs was a quite pleasing take on the post-rock thing, and i’d recommend checking these tracks out asap because they’re on one of those “could be gone at any moment”-type sites . . .

sublux – the clear (from nothing that is still)

sublux – ghost of the trench (from nothing that is still)

sublux – dirty walls, lonely plates (from nothing that is still)

they’ve also got a few more up on their myspace from their final recording, the becoming innocuous ep.

benoit pioulard is the pseudonym of thomas meluch, a veteran of a bunch of bands as well as the great ghostly international idol tryouts series. his new album, precis, is out on kranky and the press this thing is getting is truly well-deserved. this album really is a beyond-brilliant combination of atmosphere, organics, and electronics. check out several of his tracks via his site or what the hell, just download a couple first right . . .

benoit pioulard – kids are getting younger (from enge ep)

benoit pioulard – triggering back (from precis)

the love letter band is bad weather california is the love letter band. they are playing with drakkar sauna at the record bar tuesday night, november 14th. there’s more information on the two bands on their site. sample this track from their album fear not my brothers, fear not my sisters, which is on happy happy birthday to me records:

the love letter band – love will be my home

january is, believe it or not, a band. they have a website. they are on must destroy records, which is probably best known for the darkness and goldie lookin chains. even with that being said, january make music worth listening to:

january – someone (from 2004’s motion sickness

january – eyes all mine (from 2001’s i heard myself in you)

i always appreciate when bands post entire albums up for download. it’s sad that this often comes at the end of a band’s life, and it’s just such the case with sweden’s namur. essentially a one-main project for david ahlen (you’ll just have to imagine the variety of tick marks above the letters for the swedish), the full-length music from the valley of baca is available here, thanks to ahlen’s self-run thehourislate label — and if you’d like to sample a few tracks to see what you’ll get, here you go:

namur – valley of baca (from 2006’s songs from the valley of baca)

namur – vesper (fearturing priscilla) (from 2006’s songs from the valley of baca)

namur – brighter than the sun (from 2006’s songs from the valley of baca)

scraps of tape are sometimes soft and sometimes loud. sometimes really loud. and when there are vocals, they are hushed. and they are also swedish. what else can you ask for, really?

scraps of tape – fuckers come to collect (from 2003’s broken note ep, on tendervision)

finally, we have audiotransparent, a dutch band with two albums out on living room records — a self-titled one released in 2003 and nevland, released in 2005. they’ve also secured a spot on one of the best compilation series i’ve seen around lately, vol 1 of club ac30’s shoegaze-tribute never lose that feeling doing a cover of curve’s “frozen”. here’s a track from each of their albums — enjoy.

audiotransparent – two sides (from 2003’s audiotransparent)

audiotransparent – the friday of our lives (from 2005’s nevland)

and we’ll end it on this ethereal, dense and gliding remix of an audiotransparent song by machinefabriek:

audiotransparent – draw yourself a tree (machinefabriek remix)