Other than the blitzkrieg of festival event news and showcase flyer bombardments, the week brought us strange brews and kernels of inspiration. Top news tells us that Azealia Banks covered the Strokes' “Barely Legal” amid tweets of her working with Ariel Pink, a sketchy fatal drive by on French Montana's tour bus left one fan dead, and in what ought to be a new column called 'This Week in Morrissey beefs' we can add Paul McCartney to the list of the latest Mozzer feuds. But with so much going on, let's get our focus game face on and celebrate the following cuts from the week in no particular order.
Bestial Mouths drop a listen to their new songs “White Eyes” and “Hollowed” from a recent split 12″. Like eyes gazing without pupils, “White Eyes” comes in with the crash of keyboards followed by lightning and thunder clasps while the “Hollowed” is an industrial journey reserved only for the thickest veil of smog that lifts like ominous spectres with cinematic dramatist synthesizers that egg the track forward and onward.. Having dropped the DAIS Records Hissing Veil 12″ and the Black Horizons live cassette, the LA mysterions' 12″ split with Deathday is available now from Desire Records / Sweating Tapes. The Mouths also have a cover of “Never Alive” on the upcoming Snowy Red tribute disc, _ever Alive – a tribute to Snowy Red available on Weyrd Son Records this month of March while we continue to await their full length, Egyptrixx produced by slated for spring from our friends at Clan Destine Records.
Friendzone releases the third mixtape in their installment of the Kuchibiru series with the free download of Kuchibiru Network 3 with the video for “Moments Pt. 2” From their “Perfect Skies” productions with Main Attrakionz or the glitzy material East Bay vocal chopped mantra on A$AP Rocky's “Fashion Killa”, there could not be a better time for producers Dylan Reznick and James Laurence who attack with tracks from friends like DJ Kenn, DJ 2$TACKS, Jerome LOL, Gummy Bear, Keyboard Kid, Main Attrakionz, Ryan Hemsworth, SKYWLKR, Silky Johnson, 100, Svengali, Uptowngregg, LWH, Finally Boys, Julian Wass, and probably more. We've been waiting for this for a long time, in the meanwhile get the visuals to “Moments Part 2” here.
In Southern California there is a band that takes you back to that place where it seemed everyone you know was an Ashley, Tiffany, or the name that this indie pop trio has reappropriated with their moniker, Heathers. The LA band with the cult film name consists of Michael on guitars and vocals, Thom on bass and vocals and Ricardo on drums, where the mission statement rings of the jangle instituted sounds of UK indie 1985, the hearts are big with the single “Teenage Clothes” where the sentimentality is worn on their well pressed sleeves as Michael and Thom bemoan; “there's no easy way to say…stay, stay…”. Introduce yourself on the Facebook and listen more on their Bandcamp.
Annie Lewandowski is powerdove drops the new title track “Do You Burn?” ahead of the album's March 19 release from Circle Into Square. Annie's choral hums of “memory ” and “fantasies that don't fade” with invitations to “listen hear the refrain” are given further slow burning kindling for the track with accompanying images of the Midwest.
Religious Girls video for “Dead Dog” is directed by Chris Danko and edited by Sprinkle Lab (of ANTWON music video fame). “Dead Dog” is off their forthcoming record I Want to Believe, available this summer from German imprint Alien Transistor and stateside from the new label Field Conditions. Also our East Bay bretheren Religious Girls have anounced the dates of their U.S. tour stretching from March 1 – April 15 with all the dates and deets on their Facebook. In the visuals for “Dead Dog”, catch those initiating primal howls followed by “wooo ohhh ohhs” as Oaklands 'Girls present to you the good time vibes of house parties, front stoop parties, everything inolving 40s, street vendors, vintage visual semiotics with a contemporary lens on classic analog composition and that adorable dachshund kicking it on the car hood. But the real fun is when the neighborhood block party kicks into full gear, where the “oooohs” are chanted by the group as they and their friends get gross with swapping mouths full of I'm still not sure yet what.
Meet Denver's Britt Rodemich, Miles Eichner, Casey Banker, Marlon Chance, who together are Shady Elders, a group who believe in bringing back the ballroom waltz fused with the most sincere expressions of desire. The drums keep the movement rocking back and forth inside your heart, where the songcraft becomes a collection of love note bits of prose poetics that compromise pretension for pertinence. Like 1, 2, 3, step counts, and “…like the Summer Song, I want you, and you and you alone, you don't know, you don't know…” The former members of The Don’ts and Be Carefuls, Tulip Wars, and Spires, are donning their new Shady Elders and have just joined forces with Denver's Holy Underground family and are expected to release their No Favors EP circa April 6 this spring.
With Psychic Twin's tour kicking off March 7, get all the rapid eye movement visions you can handle with their B-side” Dream State” off of the forthcoming Strangers 7″ available March 5 from Polyvinyl Records.
Austin, Texas rapper Western Tink dropped a brand new Blizzed Out produced cut, “Git It” off the San Antonio art collective Ghost Pizza curated compilation Champions featuring appearances from Antwon, Himself, Left Leberra, Shawdow Runners Click, and others on the come up. Moving to the beat of his own drum, Tink is in pure mobbin' form, asserting his style while NYC Blizzed brings the spectrum equalized syrups and serums to the production mix while Tink keeps his focus on get, get, getting it. “Bitch I'm about to get it, you can say that shit two times, I keep an eighth on me homie you know I ain't never stressing, 10 hos posted, I ain't ever half stepping, like 365 mayne 24/7”.
Also catch the Ghost Pizza released Party Time America Episode 21 with the Mobbin’ No Sobbin’ duo of Western Tink and Beautiful Lou as they talk magazines, music, comic books, that old school Shaq-Fu video game and tons more. Keep your ears and eyes hungry for the forthcoming Mobbin' No Sobbin' album dropping soon from MishkaNYC.
Rush Midnight one ups his +1 EP with the single, “Don't Give Me Your Love” as the Brooklyn based artist Russ Manning works on his debut album planned for winter 2014. Once again, the 80s late night vibes are revisited while synths and echoplexes are measured against lazer guided panning effects and deep somewhere are some vintage dub plate percussions with the controls set for the age of digitized glitz and glamor.
Get down to the the late night dance vibe of Little Boots (aka Victoria Hesketh) with the soundtrack to headlight beaming driving music for the insomniatic set with, “Motorway” from her album Nocturnes available May 7 from Repeat Records.
Sweden's latest indie electro creatures Club 8 give a quick, half a minute listen to “Stop Taking My Time” from their forthcoming May 21 release of their Above the City full-length from Labrador Records.
Catch the Lapalux and Busdriver collaboration on “Forlorn” ahead of the debut full-length Nostalchic available March 26 from Brainfeeder. The Essex born producer Stuart Howard is the only Brit on FlyLo's LA imprint and he presents atmospheric keyboard smoke spheres for Busdriver to bury you in a cloud cover of fast shutter speed rhymes that a poetry college instructor could spend an entire class session dissecting in terms of prosodic metrics alone. Lap keeps the production pulsing and pensive with the vocal sample that loops with, “you can't be what you want”.
Watch Lady Lamb the Beekeeper's video for “The Nothing Part II” directed, shot, and edited by David Meiklejohn in Brooklyn, NY. The film involves a masked fencing kidnapper, and pie eating antics with his captives amid Lady Lamb's lyrical expansive folk prose of, “And oh the sour fear of defeat like wounded soldiers all still and slight lining like silk all the roads to your marrow and all the heaps of hurt, well they've had it up to here with you and further, but when you feel it at your hip, every time how you wish that it was home…”
The Laurel Halo remix of John Cale's “Living With You” is off of the modern master's new album Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood, available from Double Six. Halo brings Cale's piece into what sounds like in utero ultra sounds surrounded by the calls of ambient drones of sea mammals.
The ACBs dropped their gore core Brook Linder video for “Television”. Linder frames the Kansas City indie rockers' single, as a suited, dismembered, disembodied performance that pays tribute to the eras of modern rock and tv after hours horror show influences. ACBs' forthcoming album Little Leaves will be available March 5 from High Dive Records.
Iamsu! drops the Chito 'Daghe' Floriano video for “Mobbin”, from his mixtape $uzy 6 Speed. The East Bay rising emcee has been busy, and recently dropped the collaboration with Comtpon rhyme slinger Problem for the Million Dollar Afro mixtape. See the HBK gang and Su mobbin' around San Francisco, Watch as Su and crew drive the Bay hysterical, getting wild in the Mission, rolling by the impound lot, mobbin' around the Mission, cruising in delivery trucks and practicing the art of rolling deep with a crowd of their own.
Mikey Maramag, aka Blackbird Blackbird has been swooning hearts with next level electro infused pop around SF and drop the video for “It's a War” featuring Aussie's surfer bro Thom Pringle and Shenay Carey.
Arts & Crafts is preparing their decade anniversary compilation entitled Arts & Crafts: 2003-2013, giving you all the retrospective memories from the Toronto imprint this April 16.
Dead Leaf Echo's “Birth” 7″ is available now ahead of their full-length release of Thought And Language available March 5 from Neon Sigh. Get into the dream scapes mixed by John Fryer of Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil fame; get that fresh, just-got-born feeling that is more life affirming than a faith healing tent revival baptismal.
Peep the X & Z video for Melbourne's rock control freaks Total Control with their seaside slow motion visuals for “SWEATY” off their 12″ split with Thee Oh Sees, with whom they will also be touring with this summer along with Ceremony, The Soft Moon, and UV Race.
Thrash out and to Audacity's “Finders Keepers” from their Suicide Squeeze 7″ limited to 500 pressings. Catch them on tour with Nü Sensae, White Lung, Broncho, and making the SXSW rounds.
With Denver's Ron Cole, aka Hollagramz preparing to release a self-titled full-length debut May 14 on Small Plates Records, we encourage you to dive into the ATL-carnal-ballroom-to-the-bedroom-bop of “Sex Potion”.
Check out The Doppelgangaz' video for “Hark Back” directed by EP and Matter Ov Fact ahead of HARK's March 12 release from Groggy Pack Entertainment. Amid an airy beat, a snowed in setting, the message of “we're all going to hell in a hand basket, shit is swell”, surrounded by a bunch of beefy cattle.
Get your listen to Empress Of's “Hat Trick” off the forthcoming Systems EP available in April from Terrible Records stateside and on Double Denim Records worldwide. Look for more of Lorely Rodriguez's color swatch dream pop built from her “colorminutes” song vignette writing processes as she tours this spring with Jamie Lidell as well as making SXSW appearances.
Kacey Johansing's album Grand Ghosts is available now and we have your first stream listen here. Also catch Kacey's San Francisco Noise Pop performance tomorrow, March 2 at the Great American Music Hall with Thao & the Get Down Stay Down and Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside.
Keeping the featured album streams flowing, The Embassy have released their much anticipated full-length Sweet Sensation on their own imprint, International and you can listen to the indie Swedes' latest before anyone else in your hood.
Gensu Dean & Planet Asia drop some SP-1200 styles on their new single “Bar Mitzvah” from their collaborative album, Abrasions available now from Mello Music Group that further features the talents of David Banner, Gold Chain Military, Shawn Pen, Tragedy Khadafi and more friends for the occasion.
Peep the Danielle de Picciotto directed video of psychotropic desert visions for the visual treatment from Australia by way of Detroit's Crime & the City Solution's new single “Goddess” ahead of their forthcoming album, American Twilight available March 25 from Mute.
Get a look at another episode of H∆SHTAG$ brought to you by the Red Bull Music Academy's serial with the latest installment, “Don’t Call It #Beats” with words from Flying Lotus, The Gaslamp Killer, Hudson Mohawke, Shlohmo, TNGHT, XXYYXX, and more appearances. Explore the new rage wave of rhythms and discussions about today's instrumental music constructions with the aforementioned luminaries.
Sydney, Australia's The Laurels drop the SPOD video distortions for “Changing the Timeline” which sounds like something much heavier than a simple Facebook profile update. Their LP debut Plains will be available April 16 from Rice Is Nice Records with a performance at the Austin Psych Fest April 26 with more dates on the way.
Terri Walker and Nicole Wray are Lady, who encourage you to prep yourself up and “Get Ready” with a listen to the 45 single cut ahead of their self-titled's release on digital March 5 and physically March 12 from Brooklyn imprint Truth & Soul Records. Keeping the soul sounds classic and keeping the belief in vintage Hammonds and horn section in tact; this is the groove for your shakedown soiree or pre-party jam while getting yourself all done up in front of the vanity mirror.
Dada Trash Collage, the project of William Freed just dropped the Can't Pause People EP where he spings his jazz expertise and former Madrigal Choir know-how into a new groove of soul felt compositions. Go “Up and Down” and every which way imaginable now.
SL Jones' latest mixtape Trapper's Delight is hot and available now from LiveMixtapes, and we got the Signal Point Studios video for “Flexin N Finessin”. Stretching out and counting the cheddar, Jones' compares his prowess and come up to puzzle games like, “Got blocks on blocks on blocks like I was playing Tetris”.
Grab a listen to the 1973 time warp funk number “Swamp Fever” by John Cameron and Alan Parker that was recorded in Morgan Studios from the forthcoming Music For Dancefloors taken from The KPM Music Library and available April 2 from Strut. So relax, kick back in that special easy chair and listen to the flutes amid the rhythmic guitar and percussion while you wonder why more contemporary tracks don't have more woodwinds.
Watch the Blu, Med, and Madlib video for “Burgundy Whip” ft. Jimetta Rose directed by Paul Demont and designed by RUFF MERCY from their collaborative Burgundy EP out now off the iTunes. Check out the the spring turns to summer LA vibrations of cruising around in the whip with the Ms. Rose riding shotgun. To mark the collaboration, check out the Hit + Run print of The Burgundy Tee available now in the Stones Throw store.
Listen to Titus Andronicus's Patrick Stickles cover Free Energy's “Hey Tonight” off the Energy's new album Love Sign.
Mwahaha's self-titled is being re-released March 26 from Plug Research, and they drop by the deep sea diving electric whirlpool, “Swimmer”.
Give Midnight Spin's unconscious bliss single, “Conchis Bliss” a spin from their debut album Don’t Let Me Sleep as they prepare to tour through April with SXSW dates as well.
Get down, get rave-y, and turn up the Yuksek remix of C2C's “Genius” originally off the album Tetra, as the French letter-number-letter loving dance-turntablist prepares for a US tour this April. Check your local listings for dates, and get your “Genius” remix work out now.
We got more from Evan Caminiti with the latest Barn Owl cut, “The Long Shadow” from their upcoming Thrill Jockey album, V available April 16. Living up to its long casted title, Caminiti forges the kind of ambient, organ church drones and sustains that you would imagine the hollowed out shadow spirit entities play in vacant chapels after Sunday service that got left behind, abandoned and forgotten long after the pious congregation of sheep have left.
Go beneath the water's surface, slip away and listen to Tartufi's vocal round measures in the single “Underwater” off their forthcoming album These Factory Days available March 25 from Southern. But don't dismiss this track for some warble by the waves distortion trip. Tartufi brings the mountain to you, and not just tall natural land structures, but low lands with driving guitars and impassioned voices anticipating and hanging onto the song's every movement and shift.
Green Ova Underground's Hollywood Squadda (Bambino) dropped the Playtime double disc mixtape that brings you 10 Tracks on Disc One, 16 Tracks on Disc Two of what Squadda refers to as, “Months of man hours into the writting, recording of this project. Show love!” And all that works pays off with eclectic production from Skywlkr, Uptown Greg, Blizzed Out, Ammbush, Marlee B, Ryan Hemsworth, Al Jieh, Keyboard Kid, and Karman, taking this East Bay underground thing to all kinds new levels of hype, breaking the trill into the real candy land game of life.
Hanni El Khatib's thrash and dasher “Family” gets a video treatment from director Nick Walker. Here's Mr. Walker's notes on the video process; “I directed the video in the beginning of Jan 2013 up at the Wright Ranch in Malibu. I had written that treatment 3 yrs ago in a notebook with other ideas and concepts. After a few conversations with Hanni about different video ideas… I sent him over some scans from the notebook with a few different ideas. A year after receiving these he asked me if I was still interested in doing the Wild Asian Motorcycle Sex Gang video… And I said of course.” Jump into the wild fray of everything from drinking and biking, underwear romps, topless action, diving for octopi, and more Budweiser guzzling. Hanni El Khatib's Dan Auerbach produced Head in the Dirt comes out April 30 from Innovative Leisure.
Get into the sea of electronic digital magic with Danielle Johnson, better known as Computer Magic with her time flipping video “A Million Years” ahead of the 7″ release March 12 and tour with an upcoming tour with Caveman, dates in SXSW, and a returning tour in Japan.
Bass legend of legends Mike Watt and Il Sogno del Marinaio (that's Italian for 'the sailor's dream') drop “The Tiger Princess” from their album La Busta Gialia. Like gouchos, poets and world travelers hanging around the Mediterranean, get into the motion measured verses like, “stumble, mumble, crumble, and now humble, a tear through the air from the claw of a paw”. Recorded in Northern Italy's Varano Borgh La Sauna studios, with La Busta Gialia available now from Watt's imprint Clenchedwrench.
Grab a listen to Crush Distance, comprised of members from Kid Savant who get all electro pop with “The Comfort” ahead of their debut show tonight, March 1 at NYC's Cameo Gallery at 8pm.
Jamaica Queens rapper and a back-up dancer in a previous life, Nyemiah Supreme is following up her mixtapes BAD and Pre-Gaming with the video for “Nothin” filmed at the famous GBs shoes directed by Shatek for Beats On Film. Nyemiah asserts her superiority with her gal pals with lines like, “a lot of these dudes be fronting” while buying out the shoe store with cash on delivery and denying the card carrying bros.
Lewis Watson drops his cover of SBTRKT's “Hold On” from his The Wild EP availalbe April 2. Don't give Watson the coldest stare, and let the good man sing with pre-order available now from iTunes.
Get your listen to Vondelpark's “California Analog Dream” that presents everything you love about modern day songwriting, no digital anythings, just the mellow vocals of Lewis Rainsbury and his bandmate buddies Alex Bailey and Matt Law. Find this and more on the forthcoming album Seabed available April 1 R&S Records.
Saturday Looks Good To Me presents their first single “Invisible Friend” ahead of their upcoming Polyvinyl full-length, One Kiss Ends it All available May 21. The pop project of Fred Thomas who enlists the new vocal talents of Carol Catherine and Amber Fellows to bring the “I love you the best” posi vibes that ask “are you saying good bye on a Wednesday, I can't comprehend” ringing with girl group twee that describes the good and bad about invisible friends and indifferent lovers.
Get a look at the b/w Cole Juntila directed and edited video for the sucrose coated pop of Sugar Stems as they hang out in the studio for their single “Make Up Your Mind” of the album Can't Wait available now from Dirtnap Records / Screaming Apple Records.
UK director Gary Nurse drops the video for Seravince's down tempo strangers-in-the-night-low-key-love-beats of “Perfect Stranger” ft. Renee Neufville, off the Hear To See album now available from Fat Beats.
We have Yellowbirds' song of great hope and promises with frontman Sam Cohen's latest single “Young Men Of Promise” from Songs From The Vanished Frontier available May 28 from The Royal Potato Family.
Alex Coxen walks with an alternative rock roaring grunge-y Jesus, in the Milk Music single for “Cruising with God” ahead of Cruise Your Illusion's April 2 release from Fat Possum. Catch Milk Music on a massive tour spanning from March through June that features appearances in Monterrey, Mexico for the NRMAL festival and Chaos in Tejas.
Grab a look at Aaron Brown of Focus Creeps video for Starred's single “Mayday” that is a tribute to the formerly accused West Memphis Three Damien Echols on death row prior to his release on accounts of DNA evidence., The single will be released as part of the duo's forthcoming double 7″ that includes “No Good” b/w “Bastard” and “Mayday” b/w “Space” dropping on Record Store Day, April 20 from Pendu Sound.
Grab a look and listen to Christopher Paul Stelling playing his acoustic silver tonged folk-hero heart out with “Every Last Extremist” performed live at the Living Room in NYC from CMJ 2012 as he preps for his spring tour with stops at Savannah Stopover Festival, and the mighty SXSW.
Zion-I's Amp Live dropped the single, “D.H.E.A.” off the Kaleidoscope Theory EP available for free from Plug Research. With a production that oozes the androstenolone and prasterone influenced flying ode to feeling good, follow Amp's vocal treated facts of the matter spit like, “careful with my word play, I won't say, what you say, 'cause what you say is coming from the right place the wrong way”.
Get a glance at Parenthetical Girls “A Note To Self” from the Privilege album available now off of Slender Means Society / Marriage and March 4 in the UK on Splendour. Watch as the gals and guys get into leotards and the almost mandated pouring of syrup on onself complete with frontman Zac Pennington tar and feathering himself for the finale.
Listen to the new Shout Out Out Out Out single “I Hope I Don't Find Out” which thrives on the blissful robotic ignorance amid the synth dance party on demand while they get ready for their US tour happening this month of March that includes the obligatory SXSW appearances. Their album Spanish Moss and Total Loss LP is available now from Normals Welcome Records.
Get a listen to the current era folk progressives from Hand Eye Records with the following free compilation that features cuts from Four Visions, German Error Message, Baobab, and The Antiques, as a little something for you weekend. Upcoming releases from the imprint include German Error Message's forthcoming album The Lifting available April 9, Glass Hopper's self-titled on April 23, and Four Visions' Me & You available April 30.
We know you have been waiting for this because Lord knows we have, so here is Buke & Gase playing around with all the digital tricks and trippers to make your vintage film memories psychedelicized for the mean, chugging musical war prowess of the title track ,”General Dome” available off the album of the same name from Brassland.
The ghostly vocals of Sarah Eakins return with news of broaddaylight's forthcoming anniversaries:reunions, and we have the first album teaser to stir some day light rays in your afternoon, early evening, or earlier nights/mornings. Following up 2005's The Bell Jar EP and 2010's Stars Out extended player; anniversaries:reunions will be available April 2 from Saint Marie Records.
