Week in Pop: FMLYBND, Hammered Satin, Keep Shelly in Athens, Sensual Harassment

Between Impose's Three Nights at Comic Con, Pitchfork Fest deathmatches, and sweltering summer heatwaves; this has been a busy week for all involved and everybody everywhere. Speaking of busy-ness, Jay-Z is now sans hyphen and from here on out will be addressed and referred to as JAY Z, Liam Gallagher's secret baby mama is journalist Liza Ghorbani of Elle/WSJ, and the Rolling Stone cover scandal saw the rest of the mainstream press act as if they had never ever stooped so low as to contribute to give any maniacal derelict or despot to 'Person of the Year', celebrity baller status. But relax, because the good news is that it only gets better from here on out. And with further affirmation and proof of that, this edition of the Week in Pop is proud to present an intimate look at who's inspiring us right now in no particular order.

We got the first single from FMLYBND who switch on the all the generators for “Electricity”. Word has been humming about Santa Barbara's family-electric hitting up Hunting Beach on July 25 for the Vans US Open Of Surfing 2013 and in LA August 2 for the X Games 2013 at Club Nokia with Tanlines, and Robert DeLong. The SB FMLY makes there own brand of post-hypo-gaze pop with all the gadgetry at their disposal to appeal in a manner that utilizes Indiania Jones and the Temple of Doom lyrical tactics to break through like, “you reached into my chest, and grabbed a hold of my heart”. Couple this with the video teaser that has been going around the channels to give early aloof Central Coast vibrations ahead of next week's revelation of, “Far Away“. These key bend-and-blend far off flights could be the sign of a whole new indie underground uprising from the sleepy Santa Barbara coast, and we had to know more. So we reached out to the family in this following dialogue exclusive.

How did you all meet and group together as a FMLY in Santa Barbara, brought together by a shared love for electronic music?

We all met by just doing life together. Our immediate friendships were based off of our love for music, surfing, and skating. But first and foremost, our love for music. We wouldn't say it was a love for “electronic” music per say, but simply just a love for music. The electronic aspect of the music has been our most recent endeavor as a band. We have played under different names, playing different genres over the years. We have been inspired by tons of bands who aren't even close to electronic. We have always just played tons of music together, not ever being limited to one genre or sound. Making the indie / electronic just started because of how much energy it has. We love playing shows and getting super wild with everyone and all of us just go to another place pretty much while its happening. It's like an out of body experience every time, and people can feel that. we just all freak out and go crazy because that's what the music is doing, it's loud and wild with a lot of energy, so we respond to the music, and if the music is wild and crazy, then everyone else will be too. I think that's why we went with that particular sound.

What is the underground scene like in Santa Barbara these days? What about the electro-leaning scene, are there other like minded artists you all are close to?

Ha ha, there isn't any underground scene in SB, at least not one that I'm aware of, and i feel like I would know if there was ha ha. I mean there are a lot of punk bands and metal bands that are, but other than that SB doesn't have a scene. There are a lot of lame reggae bands. people seem to like that. We're not quite ire enough to skank to some Jah-ire vibes all day, ha ha. I mean a lot of times, bands just go from LA to SF, but we're trying to change that. we want there to be a scene. There is a band called Gardens & Villa that is a rad band from SB, we haven't played any shows with them but they're sick. It would be rad if SB got a scene again. Its just a bunch of hippies and health nuts. Everyone is too content to do anything cool. It's like there's no drive in them to see a change and progression in culture. We want to bring part of that change. Write with other bands. Produce other bands. Just be a part of a whole community of artists who are writing the best music in the world…and it all coming out of our city.

“Far Away” seems like an encapsulation of a synth-drenched Summer. How do you go about sending everything, lyrically, vocally, instrumentally, etc, through the process of reverb that sends out signal and sound to that further point?

Well, we wanted to make a sound that was timeless. Something that gives you a sense of nostalgia without having anything actually happen in order to create it. For “Far Away” we pulled influences from bands like Simple Minds and New Order and other amazing bands from that era, while also pulling influence from dreamy french electronic music, and putting all that in a blender with west coast lo-fi hence the the fuzz and reverb on vox. There's not really any stand out bands from the west coast doing exactly what were doing. There are a ton of great bands, but we are just trying to pave our own path with our own sound through a very narrow passage way of genres.

Amid all your beach gigs coming up and everything, what insights can you share with us about any forthcoming releases?

I don't know, email our management haha. No just kidding… but on some real levels, we have some amazing things in the works. We just signed with CAA so we have a lot of promising gigs coming up. As far as releasing the music, we want to be very strategic in how we go about it… just one song at a time for a while until we see fit to release the record in its entirety.

In honor of Hammered Satin's upcoming release of Glamorama on Burger Records / Diamond Fist / iTunes this coming Tuesday July 23, we have put together an advance album stream and discussion treat just for you. Picking up where The Sweet's Desolation Boulevard left off, Noah Wallace fires through the tawdry tales of international hijinks on the lead off title track “Glamorama” complete with a poisoned pool at the Ritz. “Sugar Babe” brings the bubblegum boogie with the “vampire bite” that turns the candy shop corner store pop upside down. “Interstellar Lady” brings the next big thing while shredding up a galactic storm with an over the top falsetto. The lone wolf on the hunt for love gets hot on the beat, and on the prowl with, “Lonely Tiger”, while “Multiple Personality” brings a “na na na” chorus to harmonize along with Wallace's quandaries of the heart. Keeping things geared on overdrive, the interstellar antics continue on “Quasar Queen” that is the best sequel we have ever heard to John Lennon's trashed 70s Spector pop gem cover of “Just Because” on account of some particular opening chord progressions.

One of the real Hammered Satin anthems that cannot be overlooked is the raucous androgen pomp of “Foxy Dude” featuring some of my favorite dumb-righteous lyrics I have heard in a while: “I am your Mr. Cool, I never went to school, I'm so in love with you, oh girl, come stay the night with me, forever”. The action gets even more hopped up with the psychedelic back seat key bump of “Light Speed Driver”, to the “warrior queen of the city nights” ode “of “Barbarian Baby” that continues the band's unfolding homages to tight held loves. Having debuted “Emily” some weeks back, we return to the closer that recounts the Copenhagen heartbreak hotel flight of fleeting fancy about the groupy that got left behind. Noah Wallace caught up with us and guided us through the platform heeled English discos with the glitter strewn floors.

Bringing back the spirit of 1973 for 2013, why is the glam attitude and sound more important now than ever?

We love the Glitter Rock format. Titillating and bizarro lyrical subject matter. Strange, crunchy, rock n' roll guitar sounds. Hook filled to the gills pop music with vocal harmonies at just around three minutes. It's a blueprint for perfection in our opinion.

How did you win over the heads and hearts of Scandinavia?

I met the Swedish glam rock supergroup, The Ark, in the mid 2000's. We shared a common interest in obscure glitter 45's. So we remained close friends, as well as dj'ing together in Europe. Hammered Satin opened up for The Ark in 2011 in Sweden, so a lot of their hardcore fans took to us being glam and all. It's almost like they passed the torch.

What do you feel is the most overlooked and under-appreciated glam rock album(s)/single(s)?

Catapult, Jook, Chicory Tip, Mabel, Hello, BZN, Walkers, Streak, Bonnie St. Clair. I could go on for days…I have over a thousand 70's glam 45's mostly from Europe. But to be obvious, Sweet's 'Desolation Boulevard' falls way too under the radar. It should be up with the Zeppelin's and the Stones ect.

How did Norm Block's assist help develop Glamorama?

Norm is a badass genius. He got a lot of the rock sounds we love and made them current and even bigger sounding than the 70's, catapulting Glamorama into 2013!

If you could attribute a manifesto/thesis for Glamorama, what would it be?

Well, apparently the Germans at a rock club in Cologne, called Sonic Ballroom (part of our Euro tour this August), had this to say about us, 'They come from their own planet, and it's called Glamorama! Seriously!'. But the song 'Glamorama' is really just based on the novel by Brett Easton Ellis. But I think we are going to start telling people that we come from the planet Glamorama from now on! Thanks Germany!

(photo courtey of Tolis Elefantis, taken in Athens, Attiki)

At long last, we bring you Keep Shelly In Athens' “Recollection”, the first proper single from the debut album At Home slated for release September 17 from Cascine. The Athens, Greece duo takes you through their reflective waters as RNR sends the synthesized tide formations running underwater while Sarah P. brings down the clouds from the sky in a Polaroid color splash into an affectionate ocean. While gazing into the track's global bodies of vocal-synth edited waters, “Recollection” provides a sound print autobiography where every note, key, guitar and hush tells a story through pictures for the ear. Following the memory trails of reminiscing on those recalled portraits of the past that display “what we were”, I began to think about how KSiA's collective past releases have contributed in accumulating the components necessary for their current sound. After keeping up with the duo for a handful of years, we had the chance today to talk about the new single through a brief survey lens of recollecting thoughts and memories surrounding just some of their singles, EPs and remixes from recent days, months and years.

“Recollection” has a quality like those items of feelings and memories that are triggered from looking through photo albums, digital and physical of vacations past. How did the art of recollection factor in to the creation of the single?

That was the first song we wrote and recorded when we got back from our US and EU two months tour. Two months of compact memories, much happened during that tour, we felt like we grew up somehow… Things were not always butterflies, but whenever we were getting back to the road, traveling around, everything seemed to be a little better. That was what we wanted to frame with this song, a “true recollection” of what is coming and going, and the feeling that the next stop, the next experience, the next day or night, soon will be a memory of something that happened, at some point in the past.

The road to the forthcoming At Home album for Cascine has been an adventure of the transcendent-trance-centric. We're interested in hearing both of your thoughts, memories and favorite moments surrounding the following releases that are leading up to the full-length's upcoming September 17 release:

In Love With Dusk 12″

The beginning of the adventure. Definitely, for both of us, a really special moment. Lots have changed in these three years time lapse, but we will remember forever this very first release.

Campus Martius 12″

Planet Mu, and KSiA getting darker and more intense…. we enjoyed that one really much! The darker element it is a feature we kept on using, after that release, in our songs.

Our Own Dream 12″

Forest Family trusted in us for once again and we did that EP. Summery, melancholic vibes (as we usually write our new songs during the months of summer), ideal landscapes, ideal lovers, all result of much (day and night) dreaming! Our Own Dream, the song, is one of our favorite songs we ever wrote.

In Love With Dusk / Our Own Dream

A lovely release, collecting our two EPs. It's about time for our first LP.

Hauntin' Me 7″

Another favorite of ours. Another lovely label-that we miss, Transparent. Maybe the most memories come out from this one. A song that was written on the New Year's, 2011. A song talking about a nightmare, that was gone after writing that song! And of course, first show in London, Transparent presents KSiA, among Star Slinger and Disclosure.. and we only had a 35 mins set…

Remixes of Body Language, Crazy P, Porcelain Raft, Tropics, Tycho etc, remixes from Memory Tapes, etc…

Remixes are nice gifts bands are exchanging. We have remixed many artists, so far. Our thoughts on remixing are that when we get a track to remix it we shall give it back refreshed and reviewed. That's the goal to be achieved and that's the bet. Now, as for being remixed, it is a lovely thing! It is as if we sit on the same table with the other artists and discuss on our views in music. There are some we love very much, the ones from Solar Bears, The New Division, Blood Diamonds…

Over time they have given you the Soldier​/​Daddy Long Legs EP, Alpha Draconis and the recent Escape From Alpha Draconis EP, and now Brooklyn duo Sensual Harassment return to make you feel human again with the sweeping found 8mm footage from Hawaii, '65 edited to match their new cut, “Capri Suntan”. The guitar-keys get taken away with the visual of old school red convertible en route on the Kalanianaole Highway to the sun and surf splendor of Koko Head's headlands on the eastern side of Maunalua Bay. The twosome of Mike Sherburn and Todd Thomas edit a vintage vacation of ocean side island romance where the treasured loves of the past bask in the suntanned-surf board wipe outs in a time capsuled land where you won't see anything but sand. We had the pleasure this week to talk a bit with lead singer Todd about the discovery of the Mike P. Miller shot footage and how it was emotionally stitched to the endless Summer outing of Sensual's “Capri Suntan”, and more.

How did “Capri Suntan” become the vehicle to take those 8mm images from '65 into the millennial dream pop sandscapes?

Originally, Mike, our drummer, had written a lot of the music for the song and then I finally wrote some lyrics after coming back from a beach vacation and had been stuck in this mood – like when you don't want the summer to end. After the song was complete, I was really torn at how we were going to recreate that feeling for a video, but I knew there would be some ideas on YouTube. I randomly stumbled across this brief footage of what was clearly a young couple in love in Hawaii in 1965. Completely blindly, I emailed the person who posted it and asked about the story behind it, as well as if there was any chance there would be more of [footage] for us to use to make a video of our own. Turned out it was his parents in the video and the footage he had posted on YouTube was only recently found again after being lost for 25 years or so, which was already pretty eerie. There was so much emotion in the footage that I knew we had to try and make something really poignant. After we got the full uncut footage (basically long, uncut home movies), we were really ready to piece together a video that told a story of some kind. Oddly enough, it seemed to go with the video very well – very quickly, a story developed. A lot of people who we've shown it to were blown away by the undercurrent of emotions between the couple and also nothing that the song and footage were somehow made for each other. Which was really strange when we were editing the video because it was a very intimate portrait of the young couple (who of course we didn't know) and who apparently, according to the son, divorced acrimoniously, a few years after it was shot. We really felt lucky to be working with something that was a really a unique and beautiful time for these people. It was a privilege for the son to even let us into his family's life by sharing the footage. I didn't think about it much at the time, but looking back, we were editing footage in a sort of posthumous collaboration, because the gentleman who shot the footage (and who was a subject matter in the story) had long since passed away. For that reason I felt very strongly that we needed to make something special. Hopefully we honored them by doing something interesting with the video.

Was there a greater concept at work with the editing of filmed memories of the past in how our audio-visual processes are reprocessing and re-appropriating the past for today and tomorrow?

There were a lot of strange realizations while editing the video. I kept asking myself why the footage was so different and unique than most things filmed today. Of course, there was the fact it was filmed on 8mm, but it was more than that. I started to notice how people looked at cameras differently than they do now. People are afraid of them or are too aware of them now – it almost ruins everything. There is so much innocence in the 1965 footage its startling. When I showed the footage to Mike I was surprised his reaction was some sadness because he said it reminded him that people will never be that way again – that naive or innocent, in a good way. I think part of the reason that the footage matched well with the song is because the song itself is really about a feeling you can't recreate, or hold on to, and the footage was definitely something we couldn't recreate either. As much as some things change, like with technology, some things don't – falling in love, enjoying recreation like the beach – those things are timeless for every generation. The technology just offers a different lens with which to remind us of the past. I think the 8mm stuff just had a quality of being uneven, as memories often are, yet still vibrant and getting the finer points across. That's why it seems to be such an evocative tool and something that effects our generation very strongly. Modern digital video is great and has many advantages, but it captures some stuff that's not really important, at least for memories. We live so much of our lives in memories that you want to get it right and this footage we had the privilege of using really captured some amazing things.

Tell us about recording the recent Escape From Alpha Draconis EP and where the name Alpha Draconis came from.

Being from North Carolina originally, its a place full of conspiracy theories. Growing up, we heard all kinds of stuff about Reptilians (blood sucking, shape shifting half human/half aliens) and the New World Orders, etc. Some of it sane, some of it insane. Most of it sounded ridiculous to us, some of it was really interesting (especially the Reptilian stuff). We didn't take it seriously, but we were impressed with the imagery and thought behind all these conspiracy theories. So on one hand it seemed highly implausible, on the other hand, who the hell knows. So we took it and ran with it. We always saw ourselves as weirdos and outsiders, growing up in the South and listening to strange music anyway, so it kind of fit. Alpha Draconis, the name of our first EP, is a star system where the Reptilians supposedly originated and so the name Escape From Alpha Draconis was really about us making changes. We had a line-up change in the band and tightened our sound, so it felt like we were busting out a bit and the name seemed to fit as a follow-up. The Reptilians were leaving their home base and coming to meet the Earthlings head on.

Sensual Harassment has been in the Brooklyn scene for a little while now, what have you observed about the project's developments, and growth along with all the evolutions, fads, and trends around you?

Being in a band, going to shows and going out a lot, you can't help but run into a “scene”. Sensual Harassment arguably has a “sound”, but the promise we've made from the beginning is just write good songs. No rules past that. We have motifs we use and occasionally you'll find consistent imagery and instrumentation, but our sound can also vary widely, listen to our first EP to hear that in an extreme fashion. We never wanted to be beholden to a scene. Take a band like The Clash, who we both love.That band was really about taking the best of their record collection, and the past, and making it their own, while adding something new to the mix. That's all we try to do. Following trends too closely can be very short sided and nothing we're really interested in. Playing synths you're going to get labeled an 80's band sometimes. Its pretty ridiculous to us, but we just ask that people give us a chance and when they do, they usually start to hear a lot more in the music. There are people whose sole purpose is to recreate a sound someone has already done. That's a task in itself and pretty cool when its done correctly, but that's never interested us. You can't be New Order. There was only one. But you can certainly gain influence from them and add it to something new, which for us, is much more interesting. Honestly, sometimes I'm glad someone is doing a trend or a singular style so that we don't have to. It just would't be satisfying to only play surf rock, synth pop or disco, over and over again. But to play surf pop disco? Now that sounds interesting. Going forward, we feel like we've only scratched the surface of what we want to do. The goal again is to make great songs, but how you get their stylistically is the fun part.

Formerly of Chief, LA's Swiiim dropped “I Am God” with word spreading about the forthcoming Cellophane Castle album coming September 3 from Lightwave. Get godly, get ghastly, get ghostly, or get however omnipotent you want to be while chanting along with Danny Fujikawa's “I am” and “I feel” statements.

Funk Volume co-founder Hopsin dropped the “Ill Mind Of Hopsin 6” video with word of the November 26 release Knock Madness. The ill mind conscious brings an anchor weighted, heavy heart, as he opens up about the consequential aftermath of a friend altered and broken in manners more emotional and real than you'll see on Breaking Bad's televised fiction.

Sonny & The Sunsets are preparing to set out on a tour that will feature dates with Kurt Vile listed here, and give you the Sonny Smith video for “natural acts” to give you some of that SF mellow and weird. Sonny & The Sunsets' Antenna To The Afterworld is available now from Polyvinyl.

Now get super weird in the graveyard with Alligator Indian as they go shrieking about with the warped trad harmonies of “Corpsing” off their upcoming More Songs About Animals and TV EP available September 17 from Bleeding Gold Records.

Coke Weed's Back To Soft LP comes out this coming Tuesday July 23 but you can stream our friends' new album here in advance. Also check out our debut of these psych-pilgrims' getting far out with some board busting images in Impose's video premiere for “Anklet“.

AlunaGeorge knows what exactly what you like, what you respond to and what you want to hear with “You Know You Like It” from Body Music dropping July 29 from Island.

Tokyo artist Cuushe is preparing her Butterfly Case album for release September 23 on flau, and sent forth some 3,000 drawings from animator Yoko Kuno's 2 years labor love, capturing the atmospheric heart evolutions of “Airy Me”. A reworked audio version of the song from flau label head Yasuhiko Fukuzono taken from Cuushe's prior Red Rocket Telepathy album; listen and watch as the changing world turns the the ephemeral into integral bits of rapidly evolved DNA genomes. Float to the keys and spry vocals as the illustrations of identities become as changing and shifting as the directions of air and wind.

Coming September 7, Whirr will spin their sonic web Around you but first “Drain” you senses in this tasty teaser from their forthcoming Graveface Records full-length. Just remember that everything goes down the noisiest drain at the 2:20 mark.

Kid Karate gives a little bit of crunchy and fuzzy “Heart”, ahead of next week's Ligts Out EP debut July 23 from the Dublin duo of Kevin Breen and Steven Gannon. Follow the looping key beeps amid Kevin's grinding passions and guitars while Steven kicks out the drum jams.

(photo by by Slyvia Kochinski)

Electro-eclecto genius James Ferraro gives us “Eternal Condition/Stuck 2” off the forthcoming, HELL, NYC 3:00 AM, slated for release October 15 from Hippos in Tanks. The good man dropped the following statement on the new album just to let us, and the world know what's up:

“This record is about my demons just as much as its about society's demons, I was reflecting on both through out the entirety of writing the album. at the time it was blind but I felt everything that was around me coming together inside to make the material that eventually became this album.presenting my environment / location, samples from 9/11 news coverage, surveillance camera audio, TV ads and other sources were used and all arranged together to create a surreal psychological sculpture of American decay and confusion, a map of New York's nihilism and it's self referential hedonism. Within this the songs are moments of clarity, times when something made sense enough to be represented with words, being kind of dark and noir. I don't believe that I offer any pathos but an eternal condition, or a statement about my emotional Hell a statement of my surroundings and my experiences capturing the things I see: rats, metal landscape, toxic water, Junkie friends, HIV billboards, evil news, Luxury and unbound wealth, exclusivity, facelifts, romance, insane police presence, lonely people, all against the sinister vastness of Manhattan's alienating skyline.”

White Knight drops the “Acid Dub” as the release date for Kill Yourself Dancing gets adjusted for availability on September 17 from Still Music. This is the story of The Story of Sunset Record Inc. Chicago 1985-89 as heard and retold through the extensive palatte of Still owner Jerome Derradji like you have never heard before.

Get a look and laugh at Funny or Die's Nick Offerman getting fired up in the Ryan Baxley NSFW video for FIDLAR's cut, “Cocaine”. Catch these wild dudes on tour from August 29 through November 2 with stops in Austic City Limits as well as Bumbershoot, dates here.