In the recent event of the shutdown, the Week in Pop decided to go all out and strike for the gold. So first we peep what the world's power players are up to these days, beginning with MBV's Kevin Shields dropping the claim on The Guardian that “Britpop was massively pushed by the government”, Pusha T and Kendrick Lamar just took on us on a nostalgic walk down Compton's memory lane streets on their “Nosetalgia” video, and according to True-to-You, Morrissey's Autobiography will be released October 17 in the UK and Europe through Penguin Classics. And keeping this vibe thing big, we are proud to present the latest tunes, videos, exclusives, discussions, words and songs from today's trend shaping and twisting artists-in no particular order.
Brazil's DeltaFoxx premiere their video and single, “Can't Stop Loving You”, brought to you by Popinigis and Quizzik just released from Family Jewels Records. Director Tarcisio Boquady takes the song's romantic eagerness to the texted meet ups of picnics, and random road planking and canoodling in excess. Boquady directs Tiago Pinheiro, Isabela Manara, Paulo Carpino, Kael Studart and Juliane Costa in what looks like a high end after school fashion show special, that makes the original 90210 look like it was made in the stone age.
The elaborate synth arrangement is given only the lushest shot compositions and freewheeling visual sequences. Completing the enduring heart sprung pursuits of “Can't Stop Loving You, Yeah!”; hand in hand days in parks, modelling shoots and poses galore underscore the dance music minded lyrics. “I'm going to wait for you to call me tonight, just want to sit and talk to get things right, you know I want to spend my time by your side, right next to you until the day we die”. This is your Brazilian free-loving Summer that is just beginning now in the Fall season.
The DeltaFoxx duo, Popinigis and Quizzik, described to us the translation of their global-Balearic beat of the whimsical “Can't Stop Loving You Yeah!” into a video of modern romance set in Brazil.
“The video reveals a daydreaming young man who's in love with a girl who doesn't correspond the way he expects. Ever been there too? Both are a part of a group of friends and, while she only sees him as a peer like the others, somehow he got caught up by her charms and can´t get her off his mind. Exploring Brasilia’s unique open landscape urbanism and often imposing modernist architecture, the video depicts a mix of the main character´s inner conflicts, his introspective desires and the daily friendly moments with his crew and beloved one.”
And for your strictly listening pleasure, here is the audio only for DeltaFoxx's “Can't Stop Loving You Yeah!” in all of it's coastal-hormone-craze that remains wild at heart.
Halo Circus premiere “Gone”, as Allison Iraheta returns to the stage, through the dusty trails of discotheques and dives offered by way of the Sunset Strip. Today Allison debuts one of the first listens to her a-side off the upcoming single that includes the b-side of “Yo Me Voy”, available October 8 from Manimal Vinyl / Badlands Recordings. Making an entrance that echoes like the darker patches of Cher's confessional 70s epoch; Allison and her Circus stare directly into the gazing-glass with reflections of “looking at someone I don't know, I fight her reflection until I let go, she tells me the feed off the poison I'm sold, keep falling, keep falling, get used to the cold”. The heart moves with a learned eagerness away from things that are too easy to believe, as the showstopping chorus turns the wheels of self-definition and re-invention.
The chorus carries a heavy burden down life's hallways, ruminating over the internal absences and moving forward. Pining over concepts of those previous aspects of being left behind and bits of self taken away; the nothing in return and “nothing left” reflections reinforces Allison's moving on announcement of, “I'm gone”. Here the highs and hurts are sorted out like old polaroids that appear foreign years later, where the lessons of lies and secrets of past speak to a soul coming inside from the outside cold.
This week we had a chance to have an extensive conversation with with Allison Iraheta, where she takes us on an exclusive biographical tour through the wild, real life dreams from a story that begins straight of South Central, LA to her new grounds and new travels along the new circuits with her new project, Halo Circus.
As a natural born chanteuse, how has an LA by Salvadoran heritage impacted and informed your own lifelong musical development, approaches and styles?
I grew up surrounded by immigrants from El Salvador. My mom, my dad and our entire extended family, which there is many, many of, all relocated to the US when El Salvador was a beautiful, but very difficult place to live. My grandmother loved traditional Rancheras and she asked me to learn and sing to her her favorite songs. When I was five, I began performing these songs locally in supermarket openings, community events, etcetera. I grew up in South Central LA, so I could not help but be influenced by the popular music of the neighborhood at that time. Vicente Fernandez, Bone Thugs and Harmony and Mana were a constant in my neighborhood growing up. My mom didn't like me to hang out much in the neighborhood and I spent most of my upbringing indoors, when I wasn't performing. My dad and I would share music and that's how I fell in love with Linda Rondstadt and Paul Williams. Once I was about eight years old, I started performing outside of the community. I began singing with a popular cover band and that's how and when I fell in love with Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison, Brenda Lee and Connie Francis's Italian period.
From your well noted accolades from appearances on Telemundo's Quinceañera: Mamá Quiero Ser Artista to Fox's American Idol; how do you feel these pageants both provide people with a showcase platform by perhaps betraying, exploiting and preying on their talents?
First and foremost, these are talent shows. Every jr. high and high school has talent shows. Generally, these things turn into popularity contests, but occasionally you can find something really special. I think the same is true for these types of shows. Right now, there are a million of them so the concept is pretty diluted. Anytime you have ratings involved, things are crafted in a way to make anything interesting for the viewers. It's a form of manipulation, but it's not new. Performers and artists want to be discovered and they tend to be willing to go to any length to do so. We all at some point have to discover what is true for us and what isn't. Once you know what is true for you, I'm not sure you would enter a contest like that. For me, I was very young and very grateful to meet all those wonderful and talented people. I didn't think like an artist yet and it was a dream come true coming from where I came from. At the end of the day when you enter a competition like that, your goal is instant recognition. When that doesn't happen, you can either try to hold on to any recognition you got or you can try to find out who you really are and risk starting over again like everybody else. Turns out, there are no shortcuts if you are in for the long run.
How had these Artista and Idol experiences effect you then?
I was ecstatic, but I was nervous all the time. I was happy to not have to go to school and my family and friends were very proud of me. That was really fun. For Quincenera, my Mom and I moved to Mexico City for a few months. There were 9 other contestants who each stayed in the same apartment building. It was kind of a scary building and all of the girls shared a room (and a bed) with their Mothers. It was actually a very challenging time for me. The dichotomy of the living conditions and the lights and glamor of the stage was a great preparation for a life as an artist.
Afterward?
As an adult, I look back at these experiences and I am very proud of what I did. I don't love every performance, but I was very young and it was an incredible education. Not everyone knows this, but the Idol brand is a mixed blessing. For those who skyrocket fast, it's a wonderful platform and even a wonderful support system. I consider many of the people I met and performed with close friends and extremely talented people. I loved recording my first album and going on my first tour.I didn't contribute much artistically, but as a singer I am very proud of it. Being dropped from the record label was terrifying. When you are on top, or even seemingly on your way there, there are no consequences. If you are 10 years old and you want to do drink or do drugs, as long as you perform there's nobody telling you no. You are insulated from the outside world and whatever medicine or “help” you need in order to keep up the insane pace of modern promotion is always around. There are managers, labels, publicists, producers, musicians, etc. all around you and it's easy to confuse that for a life. When all of that was taken away, I fell apart. I quit singing and I thought a lot about whether or not this is really something I want to do for the rest of my life. While Idol allows me to have an open door in this industry, nobody wants to take a chance on somebody who didn't sell a million albums from Idol. Certainly, they do not want you to write your own material.
And how do you think your own work has been effected to even now with your work Halo Circus?
I think the biggest piece of my career that affected me the most artistically was my time singing Ranchera music for store openings and singing with the cover band when I was 8. The cover band relied heavily on classic songs from the 50's and 60's and Ranchera music is in my blood. No television show can teach you how to keep an audience's attention. If you need people who want to buy bananas to watch you sing, you have to draw them in. If you are going to cover Patsy Cline and you don't want a drink thrown at you, you gotta do it justice. I think most of my professional career was spent doing my musical homework. With Halo Circus, we all speak that language. Matthew Hager has had numerous successes as a producer and songwriter with legends in jazz, rock and pop and even sang with the Vienna Boys Choir when he was a kid. Veronica Bellino plays drums for Jeff Beck and DMC (RUN DMC) and David Immerman is a Berklee grad who wrote Outasight's last single and has played for numerous major acts. We all just wanna do music and we've completely lost interest in gaining the music industry's approval.
What do you feel is the future of these ongoing star searches, like America/UK's Got Talent, The Voice, etc? Have these kind of pomp and pageantries outlived their functions, what with the rapid rate of music's true progression?
It's either on it's last leg or on it's way to becoming what it's been all along; a popularity contest. Variety shows are nothing new and talent shows are nothing new. They go through phases where they are very popular and then phases when they seem cheesy. A friend once told me that variety shows and musicals are very popular in decades where there is war or economical strife. I don't know if that's true but it makes sense. When people are comfortable, they don't mind exploring things that may make them uneasy or challenge them. When people are uncomfortable, things that are joyous and happy are very healing.
“Gone” has this triumphant slow burning march forward that reflects back on a kind of void without looking or walking backwards. Am I reading too much into this as being an autobiographical statement from leaving behind those previous duplicitous spotlights for the tried and trued proving grounds of The Troubadour, Whiskey-A-Go-Go?
I think 'Gone' was my first admission of what my past had actually taken from me. I can spend hours talking about what good my past brought me and how grateful I am, but at the point of writing 'Gone', I was gone, so to speak. It only looks back enough to be honest about myself so I can move forward. Triumphant is a good word, actually. I think the song is split into two parts. The verses and the chorus. The verses are relentless and are both vulnerable and angry. The chorus is accepting my vulnerabilities and hopefully making something beautiful out of them. We wanted the whole album to feel like a diary entry.
Tell us the scoop on the future rock and roll circus of Halo Circus, along with the any inside the artist's studio glimpses into future Manimal Vinyl releases.
We've worked on this record for nearly two years. Our goal was to carefully find the right home for the songs and for us. We are planning to start touring soon and are hoping to find an audience that likes what we do. Manimal is a label that falls in love with the art. Nobody is asking me to sound like Pink or anyone else. I love Pink, but she already exists and I think she does a great job at being Pink. I just wanna be myself. I wanted to take everything I have learned up to this point and put it all in one musical environment. Halo Circus is the culmination of all of my experiences and is a family of incredible musicians. We've played to 20 people and we've played to 8,000 and we play just as hard to both. We are ready to find our place in this crazy world. I think we stand for something and I'm proud of that. We want a career, not a hit. I think when you explore lyrical territories that aren't solely about relationships or partying, there's a well of songs out there waiting to be written. I think it's endless.
Moran Nagler of Whispertown debuts the visual Double Feature for “Get Happy” and “The Everybody”, taken from found film from The Prelinger Archives and Archives New Zealand by Morgan's brother. Both songs are available as a 2-song EP on iTunes, as Nagler prepare to appear in the upcoming film, Pleased To Meet Me showing at CBGB's Film Festival circa October 10, 11, 12 and 13.
In the Double Feature, the fun begins first with the sun beam blessed found images of “Get Happy”, borrowed from the New Zealand National Film Unit's “Plastiphobia” originally from Fred O'Neill. Starting with a classic instructional on the merits of the projector, Morgan's acoustic guitar is paired by the polymorphous formations made from images of jovial clay balls. From beginnings as multicolored lumps, they turn into happy hands, and then into musical minstrel creatures that provide a strange kind of otherworldly happiness. The excitement from the assembled clay-critters spins an air of excitement off Morgan's all encompassing metaphors for elated and elevated attitudes; “I remember when stormy weather was just a song that the rooftops sang”.
The projectionist then switches an image of enchanted animated witch that kaleidoscopes in assortment of still images of business men on their hustle. Pop art deco images make impressions of faces, corporate leaders of men and women that are called upon in Whispertown's inclusive song that asks you to think about what you wanted to be and how it was; everyone is included within the city limits and county of Whispertown as you sing along to the chorus of, “you are a part of the everybody, you are the heart in the empty body”.
Morgan talked with us for a bit about harmonious living, tailoring music for the ears and music for the eyes, collective conscious thinking, and lots of other really good vibes.
First off, tell us about your starring in the film Pleased To Meet Me premiering at CBGB's Film Fest.
What an amazing cast of characters and musicians. The original story was a This American Life piece written by Starlee Kine. Turns out we went to acting class together as kids, which we realized when we both arrived at the Louisville Airport at the same time. The writer and director, Archie Borders, Louisville native, remembered me for a role in the film, as I had been in a film he directed ten years previous, and we hit it off. The second night of the shoot Loudon Wainwright played in the Louisville Public Library. I cried through his entire set. A worn and shining piece of sea glass apon and endless bar of sand. I also learned to play bass for the film, which is totally radical.
What for you do find similar and different with tailoring music for the ears and music for the eyes?
Music to our ears is completely open to interpretation. It makes us feel things that we then apply to our own worlds, and outward towards others with a ripple effect. So by connecting something visual, the listening experience can become much more specific and also crack open your perception to something possibly outside your own world.
Which takes me to the beautiful double feature for “Get Happy” and “The Everybody” your brother (I believe) put together. How much say did you have as to what visuals were used and how it was edited to match your songs?
I had absolutely nothing to do with the making of this amazing Double Feature. My brother is a highly inspired conceptual artist, and he has had complete creative control and my trust in this crazy ongoing series of videos. Sometimes I don't even know he is making one until I get an email with a mind blowing finished product. It's really somethin'.
How do you feel the vintage claymation in “Get Happy” reinforces the attitudes and vibes of appealing to yourself in order to be appealing toward others?
I feel the claymation is so fitting, as it personifies the juxtaposition of child-like truths with profound ideas, which is a running concept in my work. The refrain, 'Get happy, it's the only thing you can do', pretty much says it all. And yes, happiness breeds happiness. They say a forced fake smile will almost always turn into a real smile of true joy. This video makes you smile. …and also makes you think about it.
In the pictorial assemblage of visuals for “The Everybody”, there is an all inclusive collective community of helping depicted in the images of business folks going about their 9 to 5s, and others teaching others. Does this song and series of visuals allude to a kind of universal collective consciousness?
Yes, it does. I truly believe the answer to almost all of the problems we face collectively and individually lies in the idea of empathy. The illusion of our surrender to a dying planet is forwarded through this 'each man for himself' disease that has spread like wild fire across the globe. Living in harmony is perfect and possible. The prospect of continuing this idea through intention behind the music, and actual physical harmony, is contagious and awesome.
How has the adjustment been for you going from The Whispertown 2000 to the Whispertown on The Parallel and the new EP?
Try as I might to always just go with the flow, there are inevitably dried up river banks, and also roaring rapids. Strange how we generally are alarmed by, and fear change, but change is actually the only thing we can count on. Overall these transitions have been a natural progression, and I have loved this journey through and through. How boring if everything stayed the same.
How does the more stripped down version allow you to express more than you may have other wise or discover even greater artistic freedoms?
I loved being in a band and all of my mates. It's pretty much apples and oranges. One thing is a collaboration and an artistic compromise. Put great stuff in a pot, make delicious soup. It is true though, that usually you figure out all the best ingredients for for one type of amazing soup. Potato leak soup. It's great. On the flip side, where I am now, I may try making tomato bisque or cabbage soup. There's much more artistic freedom. But sometimes you are like, man, this soup is too salty…crap. But it is so much fun to be able realize the songs you are writing changing the recipe at will. My deepest apology for the extended analogy.
What can you tell us about an upcoming third Whispertown full-length?
The next full length is completely tracked sans vocals! I have been in intense speech and vocal therapy the past several months, as I have a polyp on my vocal chord. But I am starting to recover, thank goodness, and predict to cross the finish line before the year's end. I am recording with the epic Nik Freitas. The vibe is a boiled down… I just asked Jake Bellows what the word for some kind of a boiled down potent sauce was… When he realized I was attempting to describe the new album, and not working on a recipe of some sort, he suggested a better description might be, “Pretty fucking good? Pretty fucking good.” …So he likes it.
Morgan, thank you for your beautiful songs and time.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and provoking questions. It's rare, my friend.
Also check out Whispertown's natural imagery of comparative existence studies for the title track, “Parallel”.
(photos courtesy of Jeremiah)
Brazil by France cellist Dom La Nena, the alias of Dominique Pinto, released her title track “Golondrina” from her upcoming October 22 EP of the same name from Six Degrees Records. Spanning her early founded interest in the cello to now, Dominique carefully strums a Franco lullabye that moves between whispered like breaths that abide by the same ethos and acoustic-harmonics of unfurl like rediscovered love notes unscrolled.
Dom La Nena takes the tethered strings typically attached to the chambers of classical designation for the backyards and patios of anywhere and everywhere. On an EP that tackles renditions of Lhasa de Sela's “Con Toda Palabra”, Stephan Eicher's “Dijan's Waltz, to silk strung realignment take on The National's “Start a War”; Pinto shows the global ramifications and reasons why the cello remains one of the world's most elusive and all encompassing instruments around.
We talked with Dom La Nena for a bit about the new EP, the merits of the cello, song adaptations, and the various ins and outs of synthesized sampling verses live string instrumentation.
How did you go about translating The National's “Start A War” for that kind of chamber choral arrangement?
I like the challenge of using only the cello to play pop music. My music style is constructed for arrangements like this… and yet it is amusing to do it with songs that are not at all made for that style. I started to play 'Start A War' in my live shows earlier this year, and as the song has a harmonic simplicity, I was able to create an interesting arrangement using a loop-pedal. I love to create little 'cello orchestras' by myself, and it is also an approach that I prefer to do when I am recording in studio…so I didn't really plan out and write the arrangements for this song, or for all the other EP tracks for that matter, I just start to experimented with various cello parts, then adding my vocals, building the song layer by layer.
What the pros and cons of synthesized sampling verses live string instrumentation in your opinion?
Something that I never do is use loops that are pre-recorded. Very often I went to shows where people used this particular technique, and for me, it felt completely unmusical… as if you were watching a Karaoke performance. I am always very careful because it is quite easy to create boring arrangements with the loop station pedal. Sometimes if the samples are too short, it can become too repetitive – and then boring. I like to sample large musical patterns and structures, which allows me to build an interesting arrangement on top of that, with a verse, chorus, etc…but that approach is more difficult, because you need to have a regular tempo, and also, as the cello is not an instrument like the piano or the guitar that are more easily tuned, you need to do all the individual parts of the loop in a very well tuned fashion – otherwise it becomes impossible to sing over them!
Challenges and achievements do you feel you made in following up Ela with Golondrina?
Recording Ela was a very big challenge for me… I never extended that I would be a vocalists, or that I would have an opportunity to make an album… I only wanted to record my songs! Then things started to take on another color, a new direction – Suddenly, I had a record label, i started to doing my own concert dates, to feel that people were actually interested and touched by my music. When we released Ela, it literally changed my life…now all that I do these days is centered on my music !
Recently I recorded the Golondrina EP, and it was the first time I was producing all of the music alone [as I co-produced Ela with Piers Faccini]…and also, contrary to how Ela was created, this time I worked with a sound engineer and in a Paris studio. For Ela, Piers and I recorded everything in his home-studio. So the EP was a process that was actually very new and different, as compared with Ela, and presented many new challenges for me…
Also catch Dom La Nena's live performance of “Golondrina”, taken from Quebec's Festival d'Eté by Jeremiah with sound by Terry Gabis.
Releasing their debut EP, Strand on Saturday October 5 with a celebratory release show at Manhattan's The Bitter End; The Golden Furs give us a first listen and stream of their new extended player. “Run Back” kicks out the boomerang cycles of second gear, until “Amethyst” brings in the royal violet quartz varietal that brings an unchained passion valued at something greater than a pocket or finger encrusted with diamonds. “O Father” asks for a paternal figure to open up a heart of care, support and guidance, with guitar work that reinforces those sentiments. EP title closer “Strand” does the strand like a tense dance rock step for survival where the guitars churn out their own kind of voice from setting the motion of rhythm to dirges of controlled shreds and squalls of sound.
In the middle of 83 degree NYC weather, guitarist Jamie DiTringo talked to us about their new EP and more.
Curious to hear your thoughts on the making your first EP and release.
Intense. Daunting. Aim for perfection. Sleep deprivation. Bliss. There is no other way to describe the writing and recording process than a mixture of emotions. You strive to write the best arrangement of your songs and attack them in the studio. Upon entering the studio, the goal is to knock the recordings out of the park. You then stumble upon new and interesting ideas at two am that you all step back and say, 'We need to record that. Now.' That happened a few times when recording “Strand” and those moments in time are what excites you most as an artist.
Thoughts on the Brooklyn/ NYC musical atmosphere as of late?
The New York music scene always is breeding new bands and artists. That’s what makes New York so vibrant. It’s a concoction of numerous sounds, sights and vibrations all of which we strive to put into our band. Our sound is reflective of New York because we are constantly looking for something new to incorporate into our writing, much like the ever evolving city. Change and progression are positive things. We always want to be inspired and we see a lot of bands at clubs in Brooklyn and NYC. I feel we all take something from every show we attend. Inspiration surrounds us all in New York.
The Holydrug Couple get into slow mode tripping mode on the water in the video for “It's Dawning”.
Peep David Dutton's video for Hopie's “Love Song”, that kicks it curb site with chilled out b/w visuals.
Peep The Starfolk's video for “The Great Unknown”, off their self-titled available from Korda Records. The assemblage of winter time images, courtesy of Allison LaBonne, were taken from an iPhone and here to let the gentle guitar electrics lull you into the winter time spirit.
Get some “Real Time” with your friend Hugo Manuel with his solo Chad Valley project that continues through the toy town alleys to the country side's glow far from the city. This is Hugo at his poppiest. Everything you knew that Jonquil could bring, and then Manuel reaches into those well thought synth to vocal continuums that present one of the ever enduring figures in the Cascine roster. So play it loud, and as I tell friends, artists and imprints everywhere; remember that Chad Valley made that massive early epic, “Shell Suite”! Chad Valley will tour the States with Keep Shelly in Athens throughout October, as you “Real Time” gives you every silk pop crave in synth tones untold.
From !K7 Records' Tapes series, we have a 20 minute mix from Bloc Party's Kele, giving you a vast span of sound items of interest to tide you over until the full tape comes out October 14.
Leave it to Adventure Galley to take on the Fab Four's “Please Please Me”, off the Beatles Reimagined from Community Music. Listen as Eno-ish synths lifted from Low are used to rejet The Beatle's hey-day in a way your parents' parents never could or would imagine.
The Limiñanas' take you to their own private little underground on their new cut, “My Black Sabbath” off their upcoming Trouble in Mind album, Costa Blanca available November 18.
Basia Bulat casts a “Tall Tall Shadow” in the title track video off her album from Secret City Records directed by Stephanie Comilang shot strictly on VHS in Berlin to create a reflecting minimalist pop art sensibility for the sentimental affectations.
PDX Shy Girls are prepping their Timeshare EP for release on October 29 from Hit City U.S.A./ASL, with Chris Cantino's b/w minimalist video for “Still Not Falling” that focuses on the feelings and/or lack their of.
Lady Lazarus's All My Love In Half Light continues to haunt us via her b-sides from one of our all time favorite discs. A free gift from Melissa Ann Sweat's Bandcamp, “Never Ever Anna” and “Envy Of The Dead” will make you wish you didn't skip out on piano listens, as your other siblings took to the instrument to achieve great heights while you wallowed in your own indolence. Sweat's music becomes only more rewarding with each returning listen, where the places between her vocal song statements and piano key reverberations illustrate the very definition of feeling within the space of acoustic, audio abstraction. Both b-sides are available via Bandcamp for complimentary free download.
Tom Brosseau writes an ode to a woman who adores her mobile device more than her beloved on “Cradle Your Device”, well ahead of the release of Brosseau's Grass Punks release January 21 2014 from Crossbill Records. In invitations of holiday and hop along strums that point toward a world wider than smart phones, I find it interesting the way Tom accentuates the emphasis on root word of 'vice' in the word, 'device'in the titular refrain.
Huerco S.(aka Brian Leeds) has released his Software album Colonial Patterns, firing off “Ragtime U.S.A (Warning)” that sends out static visuals of nature gone jagged, with tense and dense dance doom like air compressor chambers.
Listen to the encoded future synth embedded convection systems on Jensen Sportag's “Rain Code”, ahead of the anticipated release of Stealth of Days available November 12 from Cascine. The trick that the Austin and Elvis pull off is the complete rethinking of what constitutes chill lounge structures and then works everything to fit in newly designed floors and levels that are built like the most beguiling of modern deco environments that are audio facsimiles of man rewriting the natural code.
Juana Molina brings the sounds and vocal winds from Argentina breezed through into your ear buds with, “Sin Guia No” off the forthcoming Wed 21 available October 29 from Crammed Discs.
Fuck Buttons freeze your face with their video for“Brainfreeze” available on a Limited Edition 12” single available October 8 from ATP Recordings off their Slow Focus album. Get heavy and watch the Buttons distort the faces of others upon instant impact.
L’Orange & Stik Figa blow “Smoke Rings” in the Drew Weaver video, taken from their upcoming album, The City Under The City available October 15 from Mello Music Group.
Ladies and gentlefolk, it is time to Tally All The Things That You Broke, with a listen to Parquet Courts' EP of the same name streaming here before it's release October 8 from What's Your Rupture?
Blue Sky Black Death brings along their friends Child Actor, Lotte Kestner, and JMSN on their forthcoming LP, Glaciers, available October 1 from Fake Four. Get an advance stream of their atmospheric sky realm syntheses.
Portland's Aan have completed their new album Amor Ad Nauseum, and now Bud Wilson, Jon Lewis, Jeff Bond and Reese Lawhon need your help to get it out there. In a Kickstarter that runs from now through November 3, help PDX's brave new boys on the block kick it off right.
Fresh from the recent release of their Quite Scientific Pseudoscience EP; Hollow & Akimbo give you some hand-clapping electronic elevated dramatic pop orders.
From his self-titled Nissim (aka D. Black) gives you some education and chutzpah to get you feeling “Revered”. Listen up and get reverent everyone, with this spiritual journey video from Sawyer Purman and Ben Anderson.
Crystal Antlers gives you a slice of Jonny Bell's infectious ear splitting goodness on the cut, “Licorice Pizza”, ahead of Nothing Is Real available October 15 from Innovative Leisure. This might be one of the best rock and roll tracks you have heard all week or all year if this is the first thing you have heard since 2012.
Stars & Letters Records and Ceremony Recordings have announced their joint showcase for the CBGB Festival, October 12 at Pianos, NYC. To celebrate with proper preparty favors; grab a listen to the following mix that features a few of our friends from Black City Lights, GPSYMTH, Prism House, Solar Year, and USF/Universal Studios Florida. Dig.
Ducky gets turnt up by none other than beat constructor Fort Romeau on “U Turn Me Up”, dropping October 15 with another remix from Suzi Analogue.
World's End Press drop the beginning of a new age with their disco video of the future for, “Reformation Age”, from their self-titled available October 4 on Liberation.
Crocodiles' Crimes of Passion LP is available now from Frenchkiss Records, and you can peep the Super-VHS vague-visual-variété video for “Teardrop Guitar” as the Crocs prepare to take on CMJ.
Robert Schwartzman is STARSYSTEM, who dropped the space age trailer for his forthcoming EP Pleasure District, set for release on October 8.
Forest Fire droped the Galen Bremere directed video for “Cold Kind” that throws image captures into the the prism lens in tune to the bass note blare. Get more electro drones on the new album Screens, available from FatCat Records.
Migrations In Rust dropped the serene air splitting title song, “Two Shadows”, ahead of the album's release October 29 from NNA Tapes. These are the songs of shadows, played like classical symphonies that present what we imagine the sciences of climate to earth observations sound like in auditory form. Your needs for the latest cutting edge, ambient-modern-classical has arrived in full.
Swearin' cuss up one gold mine of a scuzz storm with, “Dust in the Gold Sack”, off their upcoming album, Surfing Strange, available November 4 from Wichita Recordings.
Never mind the Miley beef, as Iceage covers Sinhead O'Connor with Jackie, ahead of their To The Comrades 7″ from Matador/Escho.
Originally by The Bahumutsi Drama Group, Iceage takes on the commandeering camaraderie of, “To The Comrades” ahead of their latest venue busting 7″ from Matador/Escho.
David Novick undoes and unties the knot on, “Undo the Knot”, giving out some acoustic folky psych vibes from his upcoming self-titled available through Ty Segall's God? Records imprint on Drag City available October 15.
From Audacity split 7″ with The Coathangers, listen as the Fullerton fury gives you the sci-fi fembot dreams of, “Earthbot”, a garage grinder available now from Suicide Squeeze Records.
RÁJ works his chopped samples, tapes and tones like smoke-spectre pop spirals, on the cut “Ghost”, sure to find its way to you in the most unexpected of walkways and hip department stores of the future.
Happy Jawbone Family Band have something urgent to say, and that something is, “I Have to Speak with Rocky Balboa”, off their self-titled album available October 15 from Mexican Summer.
Ahead of their CMJ dates, Ghost Wave ghost up on The Buckinghams’ classic “Kind of a Drag” with kiwi jangletown tones.
In further big top forecasts, get caught “Under a Spell” with The High Wire's unabashed banger that just goes for it while dropping a few electro kicks and tricks on the way.
Sleepy Sun dropped by the Brandon Moore directed video for their guitar growl and hiss cut, “11:32”, where the boozy antics of what happens at that fateful evening hour ends with beach-side thoughts of, 'what the hell just happened'. Found on their upcoming 7″, available October 15 from Dine Alone Records.
Vadoinmessico dropped some perfectly strange tropic visuals and glittering audio in their video for, “Perfect Strangers”, ahead of their LA gig October 11 at The Echo, and their CMJ appearance October 18 at Cake Shop.
Ki:Theory get wild, wild, with their RadioEditAV comic adventure for title cut, “KITTY HAWK” off the forthcoming album of the same name available October 29.
Get jetset with Rebecca and Ryan Coseboom of Stripmall Architecture in their video for “Jetset Friends” off their new album, Suburban Reverb. Go on a mini-adventure to lands near and far with plenty of dark-dancing winter time feeling.
Sweden's Mapei urges you to” put up a fight” on the finger snapping piano lead single, “Don't Wait”, available November 5 from Downtown Records.
MANICANPARTY, Brooklyn's duo of Jessica Corazza and Patrick Morrisssey bring their pretty pop party of beauty tracks ready for the runway with the sensationalized “It's In Her Eyes” off the forthcoming self-titled EP available October 22. As the synths undulate in ways like slow motion digitized bees, the sparse drums carry the spirits of this party to overtime to a display of large, main stage productions that will grab your attention whether you want it to or not.
It is our duty and pleasure to relay you the following transmission sent from our homemade radios from San Francisco originated group, Exray's, reporting from Vessel VII in the outer dimensions:
1. Retrieve your transparency from the box adjacent to the airlock.
2. Listen to the Sonic Report.
3. Focus your night vision on the remains of our sister ship, Vessel VII.
Exray's have also announced the following SF dates, first at Amnesia October 19 where they will be performing the Exray's XII logbook at Litquake / Ex Verba with Michael Zapruder, and at Milk November 15 performing live, also with Part Time, Epicsauce DJs and others TBA. Listen to the latest music transmission from Exray's XII here, with “b e g i n _ y o u r _ l i v e s”.
