Where to begin? Radiohead stage collapses, dubstep threatens to ruin summer and a couple of my bros went to that EDC thing in Vegas and have not been the same since the week before. Whatever. I digress, because we have bigger fish to enjoy in this week's pop rundown – in no particular order.
Matthew Tammariello, the man behind Shortcircles, linked up with the Mapzzz crew for a live performance of his song “Meatball in Space” from his Shortcircles EP available now from Plug Research. It was filmed and recorded at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, CA for their “Sharkbite Sessions” and the track presents a new interpretation of the song, featuring Forest Floor's Geoff Saba on piano, Empty Pocket's Adam Myatt on theremin and guitar and Mapzzz's own Glenn Jackson on organ.
Tropic of Cancer are the new residents of Room 205, the only indie concert video series made possible by a bland nylon laptop case, where they perform “The One Left.” Director Luis Farfan goes French nouvelle vague in a modern noir treatment of the band's cruising-at-midnight moods.
After dropping The Earn last year, we have been keeping an ear on the rising emcee yU while nodding our heads to Oddissee's remix of U's “I Believe.” Representing the Diamond District, Oddi brings a real unconconscious flanging sustain in between horn bursts to frame the rhymes. Listen for this cut off of The Earn available now via the Mello Music Group on vinyl, CD and digital.
Listen to a stream of The Daredevil Christopher Wright's LP The Nature of Things coming June 26 from the Vancouver label File Under: Music.
Also tune in to the following album stream of DIIV's epic Oshin before the coming June 26 release date from Captured Tracks. Listen, like, love, asap.
Double00 dropped the Beejan Iranshad directed video for “The World We Live In,” keeping it caring and conscious with right slowed down vocal sample. Look out for Double00's mixtape Beast Mode, Vol. 2, along with word of an album in the works with The Jacka.
Grab a listen to The Bilinda Butchers' “hai bby” featuring Tiny Microphone – it never left the stereo this week and makes for a great dreamcatcher. The latest dream weaving pop band to arrive on the San Francisco scene make music like that of the end of the '80s/ beginning of the '90s where it seemed like everybody had a release on 4AD, or had an album/single cover styled after 4AD, or a trendy Pollock-ala Stone Roses' John Squire paint spattered piece. The Bilinda Butcher, taking their name from the legendary My Bloody Valentine singer/guitarist, are Michal and Adam, who met as teenagers and formed this group as a vehicle for their collaborative songwriting and musical translations of vision-sounds. Their album drops August 28, watch this space and stay tuned for more from this duo.
Nouela released her video for “Fight,” where Future Human Productions goes red riding hood chic for our chanteuse in a forest with her huskies. Her debut album Chants is out now from The Control Group.
Listen to the ArtDontSleep Podcast mixed by Elephant & Castle, fresh off the big showcase this week at LA's Echoplex. Enjoy cuts from Shabazz Palaces, Gonjasufi, Ras G, Samiyam, Sonnymoon, Thavius Beck, The Log.Os and plenty more.
From Vienna, Austria comes theclosing, a trio who makes otherworldly percussions that music journalists snarkier than I are by now no doubt hyphenating together more adjectives and nouns in the attempts to pin down the specific Vienna art school sound. Alexander Hengl, Daniela Auer and Lukas Lehnera met while attending the Academy of Fine Arts and have been working together in a meticulous manner since 2004 to not just create analog/digital hybrids of beats and new noise but work too within the mediums of both film and computer generated visuals. Listen to the genre defying “box” and define for yourself. The self-titled LP from theclosing comes out July 10 from Portland, Oregon indie imprint Circle Into Square.
Physical Therapy dropped the track “Drone On” featuring Jamie Krasner. But before the bearded drone loving sects cry afoul over this track not fitting the drone bill; we encourage to let Physical Therapy work their modern day danced up keyboard magic on you with Ms. Krasner's voice to guide you through the drum machine maze. The Safety Net EP came out this week and is available to download from the man himself here.
We got the new Mr. Asante video from Canadian artist Xolisa with her hypnotic bass daydream “Be Felt”, the first single to be released from the upcoming BamaLoveSoul compilation On Deck. Listen to a sampler of the comp here and get more neo-soul grooves from Xolisa on her Bandcamp.
In keeping on the Dent May train, we bring you his cover of the Grateful Dead's “Shakedown Street.” So call up the folks, ring the neighbors' doorbells and start doing the dorky-disco-dad-dance while Dent makes you a reverent, relevant, born-again Deadhead. Dent May's album Do Things is out now from Paw Tracks.
Get ready for this; Hiero Imperium, Summer Tour 2012. The multi-skilled collective that introduced stories from the Bay that would have remained local folk lore if not for Hieroglyphics, Souls of Mischief, Casual, Opio, Pep Love, Phesto Dee, Tajai and more. Catch them on their North American tour from July through August.
More in tour news, Meek Mill is setting forth on the Dream Chasers Tour from the Untouchable Maybach Empire. The kickoff is in early August, check out this cinematic trailer to get yourself motivated.
Get this: Chelsea Wolfe is going acoustic and we have proof with her new live Glassroom, LA session track called “Flatlands.” Dark veil drops, and the electronics stay switched off as gentle guitar strumes and cello strings give way to new heart felt worlds from our beloved songstress. New sounds, new grounds; we look forward to the further musings and reflections of Chelsea's rising, shining star. Look for this song and more on her yet-to-be-titled acoustic LP coming this fall on Sargent House along with summer dates with Russian Circles and Crypts.
You don't have to wait until June 26 to hear the new MMG Self Made 2 mixtape because Maybach Music is giving you a full stream preview below and pre-orders here. Take a deep breath, as this tape packs appearances from Nas, T.I., Bun B, Wiz Khalifa, Kendrick Lamar, French Montana, Nipsey Hussle, Roscoe Dash, Ace Hood, and Gunplay, plus a producer list of Lex Luger, Southside, Drumma Boy, Rico Love, The Inkredibles, Beat Billionaire, Tone Beats, The Beat Bully, Ayo the Producer, The UpperClassmen, Lil C, Young Shun plus a few more for good measure.
Listen to the Blockhead remix of billy woods' “DMCA.” Woods rails against the disposability of the industry, the treatment of music and people as commodities, and the causes and symptoms of a weird mescal vision quest where your charlatan guru who came so highly recommended leaves you stranded in the middle of an arid desert, left to ponder the questions pertaining to the history of western civilization your bald head professors could never tell you. The critiically acclaimed billy woods album History Will Absolve Me is out now.
Warm Weather gave us the single “Stay” from their Looking Through EP out now. It's a taste of what these LA dudes have been up to while recording at Truth Studios for a release coming later this summer. Meanwhile dive into the guitar heavy party as the Warm Weathers seeks to reassure our love for indie LA.
Get a listen to Stones Throw Podcast #74 called Kerriem Riggins Produced That. This Karriem Riggins project probably best showcases my own personal tastes, as someone who loves hip hop, but through hip hop, fell in love with Jazz, Soul, Funk, Rock, Brasilian, etc, etc. Through record collecting and searching for these 'breaks' all over the world, I'm very happy to help push a modern-day artist that has done so much for both hip hop as well as jazz. Download a listen here courtesy of Kerriem and Stones Throw, and be sure to look out for his massive 34 track instrumental adventure Alone Together coming in the fall, also from Stones Throw.
Old school Slumberland Records darling buds Lorelei have reunited with a hot album in the works and an announcement of tour rounds. Take a deep breath as Washington, DC trio Matt Dingee, Stephen Gardner and Davis White pick up where Everyone Must Touch the Stove left off, expanding on their signature jerk and guitar jangle. Enterprising Sidewalks, the band's first album in 18 years, comes out August 16 from Slumberland and you can find Lorelei on the road now.
For your weekend party mixes and the like, give 40Love's “Think Too Much” a spin to get more bounce for the ounce. The trick is here is not to let any unnecesaary over-thinking take over your enjoyment from the Bay Area posse consisting of Miss Haze, G-OFF, and their trusty DJ production team Mikos and The Whooligan. 40Love's Dreams Don't Sleep drops July 24.
For any further dance track needs, get a listen to Gigamesh's “Dream On” off of his EP All My Life, available as of this week from Kitsuné. We have heard the DJ/producer's break dancing video cut “Your Body” from the recent Kitsuné America comp, since the title track “All My Life” debuted this week here on Impose. “Dream On” transports us to a future of French elegant-keyboard disco, or a present watching of found beta taped NFL games from the early 80s where you marvel at the sports car commercials and wonder about the days before power steering and VHS.
We got another House Shoes track and video with “Time” featuring Big Tone. Watch the Mario “Khalif” Butterfield-directed video, dig Tone's flow with Shoes lifting the best electrified moments from the baby boomer anthem “Fly Like an Eagle.” Detroit's House Shoes debut LP Let It Go is in stores now from Tres Records.
The excellent Tokyo Police Club remix of Hot As Sun's “Come Come” gets visualized by Waverlystock with dance moves choreographed and performed by Kenan Peters. Jamie Jackson and Deborah Stoll's re-released self-titled EP is out now from Last Gang Records and our debut of the Blood Diamonds remix “Only A Woman” is here.
Founder of the Brooklyn indie hip hop collective Blue Belt is rapper/producer O-Zi, fresh off of releasing his debut EP Rus L. The man has been neoromantic, an urban contemporary poet and a minimalist composer with a varied approach to his work both behind the board, behind the mic and behind the music in fostering the creativity within his tight knit community.
Haleek Maul released his EP Oxyconteen this week from Merok. Born Malik Hall in 1996, he left his hometown of Brooklyn for Barbados where the sound of the ocean and the internet informed his chief interests in both electronic and hip-hop compositions. Look out for his mixtape collaboration with with Chicago duo Supreme Cuts coming this summer from Mishka, including a live NYC debut at Glasslands July 20.
The master Ultramagnetic, the Doctor and the Octagon, the Black Elvis and MC of many names, Kool Keith is coming at you again with his smooth rider “Acura” featuring A.G. Keith's new album Love & Danger on Junkadelic Music.
We just found out that Swedish duo JJ has declared the official start of summer with their High Summer EP available here. For those early evenings after long afternoons on the beach when your endless loop of “Ecstacy” wears off; switch on this complimentary rite of high summer that follows up the pair's “Beautiful Life” 7″ released last month from Secretly Canadian. BPA-free bottles of water and 5-HTP supplements not included.
Speaking of Swedes, what about the new track “Go Right Ahead” from those barely legal, veni vidi vicious, tyrannosaurus, black and white, lex; The Hives. Their chugging slice of cock rock is the second release from Adult Swim and Kia's singles series that promises 10 more jams between now and September 3. Stay tuned.
“She says that I think it's time to move to Oregon,” proclaims Junk Culture on their latest single “Oregon” from their upcoming Wild Quiet, coming July 31 on Illegal Art. If nothing before has ever made you want to move to the great Northwest, than let Deepak Mantena convince you why there is no better time than now with this following track.
The Zongamin remix of Sandro Perri's “Changes” gets a visual treatment from Alex Giomo with streams of line designs and lots of spherical, animated geodesic formations. Pre-order Sandro Perri's “Changes”/”Love & Light” Remixes on 12″ vinyl or digital from DFA.
Introducing Family Band, a collaboration between visual artist Kim Krans and her husband of Children, S.T.R.E.E.T.S. guitar fame, Jonny Ollsin. Kim made a spectacular video for the looping crash and clap evening odyssey “Night Song” involving her drawings augmenting the video of her face gazing into the camera and singing. A party at their hand built Miller Path cabin is in the works but we hear there is a record release show is happening for sure in NYC, August 1at Union Pool.
And just in case you missed it from the music video buzzosphere, here is Beirut's sea faring, Houmam Abdallah directed video for “The Rip Tide” from the band's album of the same name out now from Pompeii Records.
We got the new single from Parallel Thought with “Right Now” off of the forthcoming Art of Sound album coming from Parallel Thought Ltd. PThought is the production collaboration from Drum, Knowledge, and central emcee Caness, who are building works for the future to shape the beats, rhymes and minds to come and conquer. Mark your summer calendar for Art of Sound's release on July 24.
Get your first listen to Mungolian Jetset's follow up to last year's Schlungs with the new single “Toccata.” Knut Saevik and Paul “Strangefruit” Nyhus continue to take their cues from what they discover and are inspired by between earth, ringing bell patterns that move like a hurried river and a journey skyward toward cumulus azure pastures. The Jetset's new album Mungodelics comes out August 21 from Smalltown Supersound.
So Lushlife and Teen Daze dudes walk into a bar and Lushlife remixes “Brooklyn Sunshine.” Teen Daze's album All of Us, Together is out now from Lefse and you can catch him on the road with White Arrows and Beat Connection on their US tour.
More from our Monaco friends Phèdre, with the release of their new single “Haberdash” in the name of a dutiful cause. The Toronto institution UNLOVABLE just got shuttered and to make the re-opening a reality, Phèdre is donating 100% of the proceeds from their new electro single to aid in the legal fight to re-open the venue. Support now via Daps Record's Bandcamp to purchase “Haberdash” for $1.
4th Pyramid dropped the video for “Feel it in My Bones” in the Johnny Nghiem video. With a Marco Polo Beat, 4th describes breaking his hip with humor from “I'm so hip-hop, my hip popped, shattered into pieces when I hit it on the block,” to more bone breaking rhymes. The Pyramid Scheme is out now from Silk Ivory / Universal.
Big news of Talk Normal's upcoming album Sunshine through a partnership with Joyful Noise this coming October. We present to you the trailer made by Daniel Arthur and Corey Barnes, featuring 'Sheri' from the neighborhood.
