With an entire intro spiel originally planned for this edition of Week in Pop, I ended up scrapping the formalities after my attention got caught in the following media hyperblast diversions. Kim Deal said goodbye to the Pixies, while 2 Chainz may or may not have gotten robbed in SF, while we continue to ponder whether or not the self-ordained “nucleus of culture“ Kanye West is really cheating on Kim Kardashian and what effect will this have on Yeezus's reception in the buzzosphere and how will these ramifications play out ultimately in the coverage from the Buzzmedia owned outlet machines? And honestly, who really cares? Step aside with us as a few of our favorite artists share and discuss the music that enlightened our week in no particular order.
From Johnstown, Pennsylvania meet Can't Dance, a trio comprised of the dual guitar attack of Garrett McKee and Jordan Gorsuch, with percussion engineering and accounting from Kidd Kovach. There is an interesting audiotory passing of the torch from the old guard to the new that can be heard if you listen closely to “Trust Issues”. Those minimalist chords, ecstatic strums, recorded in a similar sense to those dusty stacks of hand me down CDs with the busted plastic jewel case cover hinges. While everyone wants their sound to be mistaken for that certain, fill-in-the-name-of-your-favorite-90s-geezer-hero-here; there are not too many out there who make it sound like this. With their album Comfortably Dumb dropping next week via self-release; we tracked down Garret, Jordan and Kidd to talk out those issues of trust that make for great music material along with words on the recording of their full-length.
Interested in hearing the anger and trust issues behind the making of “Trust Issues”.
Garrett: “Trust Issues” is actually one of the only songs I have somewhat of an explanation for. It’s supposed to be simply just a person talking to him or herself… Then at the end I guess you kinda step back and realize how trivial and stupid it all is… 'It’s Dumb'. The title really has nothing to do with the song, at least not for me. I really hope I don’t sound like I think I’m so 'deep' and 'philosophical' trying to make sense of our own songs…haha.
Tell us about recording the Comfortably Dumb EP.
Jordan: Well, about a year ago we tried to record these demos and they just straight sucked! So we wrote some new stuff that we knew was better and actually, somewhat, prepared ourselves to record. My uncle gave us a bunch of recording equipment to use. He is like a professional hobbyist, like honestly, he goes through about 3 news hobbies a year, and he gets insanely good at them too. He was really into beading, sewing, collecting flashlights, and luckily recording. Because of his support we were able to craft an EP that actually represented us.
Garrett: I guess I ending up doing most of the recording mainly because I’m a dictator. The whole thing took about 6 months. We recorded the drums in this old 80’s style ‘Scotty’ camper my parents have. I hate recording drums, not to mention it was about 30 degrees at the time. After that we just had to find time between school and what not to record everything else. We were just really lazy! But, we’re all pretty glad with how it turned out and we are always practicing new material so it probably won’t be long before we do a single or something.
Kidd: Yeah, basically I just sat there and pushed the record button on the recorder so yeah, that got pretty tiresome.
How about getting Comfortably Dumb?
Jordan: Honestly, the title Comfortably Dumb stems from various things, none of them being serious stances on anything really. I enjoy the play on words, you know, regarding Pink Floyd’s 'Comfortably Numb'. It’s a little deeper than that, I guess. I enjoy the concept of letting go and just relaxing with people you can stand to be around. You don’t have to worry about what you say; you can be a little dumb if you wish. Also, the title just sounds pretty good to me haha.
Any notes you guys can share from the PA, DIY landscape?
Garrett: I don’t really know that we are an authority to speak on the DIY aspect of PA haha. We pretty much just started playing places and what not. I guess we are somewhat DIY though. But we are the lazy kind of DIY. We are not like cool bands who post flyers around town and setup their owns shows or anything… that’s too much work! Haha, we just basically plug our music online and berate people into going to our shows. They seem to enjoy it though so that’s cool!
This week Painted Palms' dropped their Nothing Lasts Long EP this week on their Bandcamp and Soundcloud to interupt the jacuzzi jukebox of their fresh and recent Polyvinyl single, “Carousel“. A pop project between cousins Reese Donohue and Chris Prudhomme, they practically dropped Nothing Last Long out of nowhere continuing their exploits from 2011's Canopy. The ultra-memorable “if you got a thing to say, say it now” hook of “Hypnotic” will not escape you until long after the smart dance rave up ends. “Not Really There” keeps the wide eyed optimism flowing in the veins, “Over Me” employs the John Lennon Mellotron method dosed on a few hits of molly, the interlude of “x” is your medium to the higher states of “Upper Floors” before “Anna” keeps their signature key progression high on an, “I think I love you” chorus leaning toward what we hope may be a full length album. Playing the Bay Bridged's upcoming Phono del Sol in San Francisco July 13, Reese discussed working in environments with no time limits, the monolithic nature of albums, and more.
I'm interested in hearing about the dialogical creative synergy between you two cousins that went from e-mailed song sketches to a full collaborative effort?
When we started making music together, we didn't really have too many options other than emailing tracks back and forth since we lived far apart. It's got its ups and downs. there are lots of ups, but one down is that email and text filter out a lot of personality. What comes across over email maybe isn't as full a picture of someone as the person who also gets angry or anxious or freaks out. That doesn't really sound like a negative at first but I think those things are important to making songs together, and we didn't realize that until we started spending a lot of time together in the same place.
We moved into the same house in San Francisco but we still make stuff by emailing tracks back and forth. Now we can hang in the same room and talk about what we're doing, but all the actual writing is done in isolation. It's nice to have your own environment with no time limits where you can just space out and see what happens. It's more fun to just explore and let things come and go.
Insights on the debut full-length that will someday come from the result of Canopy and Nothing Lasts Long?
Making this EP was a bit of a release. It felt refreshing to make 6 songs with the intention of putting them out immediately. A whole album can seem monolithic and you can easily get lost in your head, so it was nice to write under different circumstances.
With Painted Palms Nothing Lasts Long EP available now for free download, be sure to check out the the swirling psych majesty of “Upper Floors” along with a full extended player that takes you to those higher levels. Also happening on “Floors”, stick around for the surprise supplementary postlude.
Aaron Maine is the central songwriting of Pleasantville by Brooklyn's Porches., and he is readying Slow Dance in the Cosmos for release August 27 on Exploding in Sound Records. The story telling ballad mode he gets into takes you back to the Big Pink house, before The Band would a be a “take a load off Annie” household name. What both Maine and the previous Americana rockers have in common is the tradition of updating the classic folk underpinnings with instruments that get plugged in and switched on but mourn a solemn song of memory, dried tears and a pinch of woe. Maine works with those moving kinds of heart string pulling sounds that effects in ways you can't entirely pin a point on, and wrote us some gear talk, technica-ars-poetica from behind the board.
“So organ sound is courtesy of Hunter Davidsohn, producer of record, vintage Vox Jaguar (Doors organ)…he helps find sounds and old synths and old mics to make that tapey magic. Basically had a pile of songs that I brought up to Hunter and we sussed them out together and brought the band up to piece them together on a Tascam 8 track, mixed and arranged them with Chris Daly of Salvation Recording Studios in New Paltz.”
Ryan Power displays a new kind of head space mentality with the cut,”New Attitude” off the upcoming Identity Picks LP coming June 25 from NNA Tapes. Taking sparse elements from South American and pan-global funk, it gets spun into self-styled impulses of home made, DIY singer-songwriter soul. It is almost impossible to completely capture with even the trickiest catch all term to keep up with the plays Power takes his lyrical stream flow of conscious states that move into the many inner motions and sections of “Attitudes”. Get down with that “New Attitude” after a quick chat with Ryan about the attitude adjustments of “New Attitude” and the kind of searching that takes you to those doors that are marked, 'beware'.
Love the aquarium electro synth ambiance of “New Attitude”, how do you craft such expansive but minimalist soul in your songs?
I like to feel calm on occasion and a nice pad will help me get there. I also like long forms that play with perception of time. Soul comes from what's left of mine.
How do you find those resonating, vague Eastern resounding sounds? It gives your work an ancient relic element of esoterica.
I just search through presets until I find something I like and then adjust it a bit if needed.
Curious in hearing a bit on the soul searching process of crafting Identity Picks.
I look over here, I look over there and find nothing. Then I see a door labelled beware and go in there.
**
Catch Ryan Power on the following Identity Picks release tour.
July
11 – Burlington, VT at The Signal Kitchen with Maryse Smith and Heloise & the Savoir Faire
12 – Boston, MA at Roggies with Guerilla Toss, Blanche Blanche Blanche, Son Of Salami
13 – Portland, ME at SPACE Gallery with Forget Forget
14 – Brooklyn, NY at Glasslands with Co La, Blanche Blanche Blanche and Xander Duell
15 – Baltimore, MD at Coward Shoe with Co La
16 – Philadelphia, PA at PhilaMOCA with TBA
17 – Providence, RI at TBA
18 – North Hampton, MA at Sierra Grille Music with Great Valley
Cloak yourself in the evening's darkness with Detroit's Zoos of Berlin as they get into grandiose form with “I Went Too Shapeless in the Night” off the forthcoming Lucifer In The Rain album available July 15 from Time No Place. The “Our Prayer” like beginning gives no sign of what these Michigan dudes are up to. Things turn Mephistophelean as the central character rifles through the mythological Book of Love, Book of Mormon, and sets out into the night's impenetrable darkness through a riveting theater suite song vehicle. In our correspondence, Zoos of Berlin shared with us a few exclusive words on recording the expansive, multifaceted shape-shifting of “I Went Too Shapeless in the Night” and some of the nocturnal-devil in the details behind the already much lauded, Lucifer in the Rain.
“Early attempts at the LP had us writing short, punky songs—and this is a keeper from those sessions. Like many of the characters on Lucifer in the Rain, it’s unclear, here, whether the narrator is a hero or villain. He has unrealistic expectations of the world and is prone to violence and repetitious behavior. The lyrics are phrases he mumbles to himself, walking aimlessly at night.”
Say whats up to everyone's favorite riot grrrl Kathleen Hanna as she and cohorts return in The Julie Ruin with word of the upcoming album Run Fast, dropping September 3 through TJR Records, distributed through Dischord. The new single “Oh Come On” strips any nicety of smooth edges while Hanna kicks it raw with the rockin' help of Bikini Kill bassist Kathi Wilcox, keyboardist Kenny Mellman, drummer Carmine Covelli and guitarist Sara Landeau.
Raspberry Bulbs get doomed out and gross while reaching out with desecrating intents on “Groping the Angel's Face”. Following up their initial album release of Nature Tries Again, NYC's 'Bulbs got plans in the works to release their second disc Deformed Worship through Blackest Ever Black on August 5.
Oakland, California's Richie dropped the LXXXV EP of lush sound-spheres and real ass rhymes. Read some of Riche's reflections on recording the following tape here, and press the play button now.
Joey Bada$$ was supposed to have released Summer Knights this week, but has pushed it back to July 1 and gives us another listen to the forthcoming disc with, “95 Til Infinity”, produced by none other than our boy, Lee Bannon. Joey kicks up the classic, 'this is how we chill from '93 til” to a few years later, keeping the 90s underground vibe alive while Bannon encourages the track's trippiest kick-back ambience that keeps things smoking on 'til infinity.
Safety Scissors released their album In a Manner of Sleeping this week from BPitch Control, and you can get at limited time preview here. Matthew Curry applies the brightest spaces of bliss, and aspiring soulful ballads and tracks made for daydreaming through any day in the week, and through any season.
Spectrals, the project of Louis Jones relishes in being a few steps behind it's time on visual treatment from Ozzie Pullin on “A Heartbeat Behind”. Jones' new album produced by Girls' J.R. White, Sob Story will be available June 18 from Slumberland.
Peep the Quilt video for “Open Eyes” off the release New Hampshire Freaks split with MMOSS available from Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records that is directed, shot, and edited by Luis and Kim Arnias on b/w 16mm to feel like Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable goes to jangletown.
You know him from his production work with Georgia Anne Muldrow, Oddisee, Olivier St. Louis, Rahel, Tawiah, Fatima and more, and now you can hear them all with their cuts in one place, produced by the UK's one and only Eric Lau on an advance stream of One Of Many. Get in on some of the chillest modern beat-funk before it drops June 17 from Kilawatt Music.
Get ready, and say hello to our buddy Shigeto who has officially leaked plans for his upcoming new album No Better Time Than Now available August 20 from Ghostly International. Zach Saginaw's live drummed world of multi-tracked rhythms and grounded electronics takes you on an industrial side tour of working class America. The highways and byways are heard through the bell ring of keys to percussion and emotional tones that present snap shots of domestic products being made in real time with an audio score to suit it proper.
Cobalt Cranes' central powers of Kate Betuel and Tim Foley roll up everything you adored about the gnarly noughties in their video for “Devils All Around”. The blue-green flannel worn by Tim is only the tip of the ice berg here, as they deliver those faded memories when you hid your MTV watching habits from the folks, back when it had no second (or third, or fourth for that matter) channel option, and reality shows were the so-called lives featured in “The Real World”.
With Hunx's Street Punk dropping onJuly 23 through Hardly Art, get welcomed to Masturbates Theater as you catch all the thrash and trash action for “Bad Skin”, “Everyone's a Pussy (Fuck You, Dude)” and “Don't Call Me Fabulous”. Pop some pimples with Hunx, break some televisions in a rage, and get fired up with Punx cohort Shannon Shaw in the following video trilogy.
His new tape is out, and we got the Iamsu! video, “Rep That Gang,” off the KILT 2 mixtape directed by HBKGADGET. Get it from LiveMixtapes, where Su! kicks it with Kool John, Ty Dolla $ign, Tank, and Keak Da Sneak, with production credits that list Iamsu!, P-Lo, Tha Bizness, Trakademics and more.
From The Horror rises Pop. 1280 with the declaration of their forthcoming album Imps of Perversion August 6 from Sacred Bones Records. Jumping right into the fray, you get the wind and consciousness knocked out of you with “Lights Out” as a hard minor chord rain of guitars buries the rest of you.
Creative Adult is proud to declare that their Bulls In The Yard EP is available now through Run For Cover Records, and these grown up examples of creativity unbound turn in their self-made music video that was filmed off a television tube set in what looks like the Adults performing live. A for effort, B plus for the don't-give-an-eff-attitude, and an E for effort as well (why not). We are proud of you, dudes.
Get into the “Huddle” formation with the Adrian Buitenhuis video off Kisses' recently released album, Kids in LA from Cascine. Check out the duo set up their own after school soap, refashioning the previous few decades glamor obsessions with Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, the 90210 zip code, and the lifestyles of the young, beautiful and disaffected.
Keep Shelly in Athens new album is due this fall, and her new track “Madmen Love” gets the Braxton/Palmer remix treatment. It's Athens by Seattle, and Cascine meets Ceremony, as the the lights get turned on in a dark world of madmen and madwomen. Things get all shook up into the Northwestern electro currents that present the restraint exhibited by Sonny Thomas and his deep understandings of house music's foundations and respect for the Greek beats.
Peep the Ashley Fell and Michael James Wright video for Hooded Fang's “Bye Bye Land”, that depicts some animal masked women duking it out in an arid no-man's-land. It's like Lord of the Flies directed by Russ Meyer, sort of. The Fang's album Gravez is available now from Full Time Hobby / Daps Records with a full tour in effect and dates listed here.
The finest, illest duo alive Main Attrakionz give some big words as Mondre and Squadda step up to the occasion on “Kinfolk”. The big production from Sac-town's Tynethys bounces vocal choir synthetics before the bass drops as the duo expand the narrative the scope in hi-fi in tales of being on the Oakland come up while keeping dedicated family and crew values at all times. Get a look and listen to the first sample of what is to come from the Attrakionz/Tynethy collaborative album coming later this Summer.
From their debut album I Made This from MANIMAL/Frenchkiss Label Group, HOTT MT performs pinball paranormal to brain eating proportions in the David Braun video for “YKWYR”. Read frontwoman Queen Ashi Dala's exclusive behind the scenes album tales here.
Lustmord gets gothed out and ambient like the darkest, stormiest night imaginable on this extract from “Chorazin” off The Word As Power, slated for release July 8 from Blackest Ever Black.
Sixfingerz took over the chill lounge this week adding some of the mellowest keyboard moments while paying ode to the vintage film sample strewn sound web of trip-hop rhythm varieties from back in the day. His new album Music Beyond Belief is coming soon from Cold Busted.
Matt Rizz of Sydney's VOWS dropped both their self-titled and self-made video for getting cryptic in the interior of strange idol patterns and rubrics for runes on “Symbol System”.
In the gathering of all hallowed spirits in the Northwest, Bestial Mouths appears like audio polymorphic creatures, on the enticing track “Reunion”. Their Egyptrixx produced self-titled album for Clan Destine will be available June 25. And while Lynette's tribal calls into the spiritual wild ring fear into the hearts of many, the industrial percussion and key glow keeps things warm.
Get a listen to Coma Cinema's new song, “Virgin Veins” off their pre-humous-upcoming release, Posthumous Release available June 11 from Fork & Spoon Records / Orchid Tapes.
Peep the Crag J. Clark video for TMBG'S “Black Ops” designed to be experienced in a darkened room. Dim the lights, and toast Brooklyn's orginal ambassadors of indie love.
Lake Isle played “Blue Angel” for us this week off their first full length album, Winter Lights. Mark Dougherty, Shawn Smith, Andy Foster, Chris Micca and Owen Burd keep all things smooth and ethereal like adult contemporary rebirth scenes in desert gatherings.
Peep the freakish, NSFW Hobo Stew video for Demon Queen (featuring the talents of Tobacco, aka Tom Fec from Black Moth Super Rainbow and Zackey Force Funk), a project that has just received a new release date for their upcoming Exorcise Tape, available August 6 from Rad Cult. As Tobacco and Zackey set out to growl lyrics to “let those pussies now man”, you got the jagged razor's edge production and bloody visuals to tie everything into one ridiculous package.
LVL UP is off on their Summer Tour in support of their Extra Worlds 7″ from Double Double Whammy, and we got 2 live videos for you while you check out their tour dates via tumblr. First video is up the level uppers rocking out “Graveyard” live at Brooklyn's Seaside Lounge, creating a ruckus to stir the dead.
Next is LVL UP taking on “*_*” off their Space Brothers EP also at the Seaside Lounge.
Big news as London's Fort Romeau just dropped knowledge that the single, Jetée / Desire is coming soon from Ghostly International. Making it even extra sweeter, we have the A-side that sounds like what could be my new favorite audio overlay to 1962's La jetée.
Get a listen to the CFCF remix of Shine 2009's “Eurozone” that surrounds Sami Suova's “let's make it happen” attitude with electronic soccer buzzers. Helsinki's shining 2009 sympathists Sami and Mikko Pykari's second album Our Nation will be available this Fall from Cascine. The Canada by Finland provides wealths of everything dance oriented, electronic loops, key falling progressions, and everything that made house music such an underground in-house secret for so long until those infectious rhythmic cycles found themselves influencing the surrounding ailing and failing conceptual pillars of genre that stand today like ancient, Roman ruins.
Matias Aguayo gets things up and moving on the dance track, “Levantate Diegors” as he presents a new live show this evening in Barcelona at the SONAR Festival and has also confirmed an appearance at the upcoming Decibel Festival in Seattle. Hear more body moving styles from the Chilean beat maker, as his album The Visitor will be available June 24 from Cómeme.
Listen to Caged Animals get their single “Cindy+Me” all danced up/juiced up and mixed up by East London based producer, Billy right before it drops into 9 minutes of strictly dub-wise. The chapter and version approach here from remix to instrumental presents an arrangement array offering on a silver platter of their catchy dance kitsch as demonstrated further in the Carlos Lopez Estrada music video. The single gets dropped on June 17 from Lucky Number.
Meet LA's Flaamingos, the latest signing to felte as they celebrate with life affirming “All I Wanna Do is Live”. The duo of Daniel Koontz and Jerry Narrow take their past histories of playing in a variety of dream pop projects, taking matters into a distinctly fervent yet fragile, mortal psyche of the new romantic synthesizer-versus-key-toned guitars approach, where odes to preserving life are the central philosophy. The Flaamingos self-titled will be available August 27.
UK group Arthur Beatrice delivers the Kate Moross video for “Carter (Uncut)” off the upcoming EP of the same name, slated for release July 23 from Harvest. From the sentimental sensuality of the b/w video, to the piano lead dance jerker; this is an earworm that warrants more than a few listens before you can begin to 'get it'.
From their self-titled EP, The Rub drop the nocturnal trap door stops out on “At Night”.
Light Heat’s shines some natural light and sends one up to the sky sailing birds of flight with their video for “And The Birds” off the self-titled debut LP available June 25 from Ribbon Music.
Get more of that Soft Will from the pop's budding ladder climbers Smith Westerns, breaking into the pantheons of the modern 'indie' pop canon with “Idol”. This is the ode to anyone who has adored a favorite idol, as the guitars pour chord progressions of praise for the mythical figures that live their lives in the PR controlled spotlights as you hold their press pic up to the light with adoration. There is something however very Major Molineux in the closing refrain of, “so you said it was a joke and there's no one else to believe in…” that warrants repeat listens. Soft Will will be available June 25 from Mom + Pop.
Punch the clock, call in sick, and take the vacay of your dreams with an early listen to Vacation's upcoming album Candy Waves, dropping June 18 from Don Giovanni Records. The trio from Cincinnati, Ohio takes the stripped down rock ethics and transforms them through the blown-out-boombox scuzz pop style, courtesy of Jerry, Peyton and Evan.
Aussie duo Them Swoops gives you a glimmer with “Work Around It” off their debut EP, Glimmers, dropping July 16 from +1 Records. Listen to what is about to be invading the college charts for the second half of this summer to the point where you will find it impossible to 'work around' it's omnipresence.
In the wake of Daniel Blumberg's split from Yuck, he has been busy readying the debut of his project Hebronix, with the album Unreal for release July 9 from ATP Recordings. So fall back, and get mellow with Daniel as he kicks it with Sonja Kinski & Stacy Martin ahead of their appearance in Lars Von Trier's forthcoming feature, Nymphomaniac. Ah, it must be pretty chill and pimp to be Mr. Blumberg.
LA's Superhumanoids have switched up the release date of their upcoming LP Exhibitionists to August 6 from Innovative Leisure, as the trio of Max, Sarah, and Cameron give you overcast moods for sunny skies with “Bad Weather”.
Get to know The Garden, and their ecstatic-cock-rocking selves with their Jackie Bidniz video for “What We Are” off their upcoming record, The Life And Times Of a Paperclip which will be available July 23 from who else other than the amazing Burger Records. Need more? We also recomend the visual treatment for these rock Gardeners on the cross dressing video for, “I'm a Woman“.
(photo by Shawn Brackbill)
Celestial Shore takes you down flights of steps beneath the night skies on “Stairs Under Stars” off their forthcoming album 10x coming September 3 from Hometapes and Local Singles Records. The Brooklyn trio makes music that abides and plays according to the rules the 3 set forth. Here progressions start, stop, change, pause, then continue to along harmonizations and various interjected instrument blasts. The celestial beauty of the Celestials is how they create cohesion through an end result that evokes a methodology of throwing all of a song's free-playing components in a tumble dryer.
Get a gander at Rabbi Darkside's having himself a little Brooklyn celebration over at Littlefield as he gets himself and you pumped for the release of his album Prospect Avenue available June 18. You can also find the good Rabbi dropping a little knowledge June 20 at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC.
Lone's Airglow Fires 12″ drops July 9 on R&S Records, and we got the flip side for your lounge chair needs with “Begin To Begin”. On this one, you won't know where to begin as the genesis of a brand new day is relayed through breaths of morning air, sounds of running water brooks and wind chimes guide the direction like wind gusts.
Get a listen to the Susanne Sundfør remix for Maps' “A.M.A.” that makes the situation ultra-electric as Maps frontman James Chapman gets ready to drop the album Vicissitude July 9 from Mute.
Jens Lekman takes on Shout Out Louds “14th of July” from their new album Optica available as of this week from Merge Records. Lekman's organic rhythmic rendering shines a beacon for all of those “looking for the light” on a dance floor lined with shy wallflowers looking for the right moment and astronomical alignment for a chance to break through the awkwardness.
Poliça dropped their “Tiff” NABIL & Mike Piscitelli directed video that features Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. A little 'tiff' turns a conflict of one's own mirrored image into a bloody dualling duality. Their album Shulamith will be available this Fall from Mom + Pop.
Formerly Run DMT, the newly monikered Salvia Plath dropped the video for “Bardo States” off the forthcoming The Bardo Story dropping July 8 from Weird World. Watch footage taken from Baltimore frontman Michael Collins of folks getting weird at the park, weather getting weird, peoples getting weird at the snack machine, and rolling pictures of trees, and water formations gone wild.
Radiation City x G_Force remix album A Different Animal comes out next week on June 18 from Tender Loving Empire. Just when you thought the RC sounds could not be more vast, and rapidly evolving; the Portlanders bring us a marriage between them and G_Force that was forged on the basketball courts and blossomed into new directions from a group already able and capable of doing whatever-the-hell-they-want-because-they-can.
Stars & Letters label operator Mark Roberts is We Are Temporary, and gives the therapeutic journal confessions under the stormy weight of a fascinating array of keyboard choices on “Hurt”. It is as if the math sequencing of the electrical overhead storm serves as the therapy steps to correspond to Roberts' brave gush of hurt emotion deflections and coveyances of past displacements. The single is available now from S&L.
Peep Blue Hawaii's “Reaction II” from the second album from Montreal's ambient-electro mystics on Arbutus; Untogether. The video from Melissa Matos bridges BRAIDS' Ra's vocals and Ag's sense of house music's new grounds with moving images of Carola Wisny exploring dreamscapes bringing reactions for the disparate together again.
The Stepkids get classy-crazy like on their new slo-funk of “The Lottery” as word has spread about their new album Troubadour dropping September 10 from Stones Throw. Feels like Stepkids only get more soulful by the day, as soon they may have to step their moniker up from the diminutive title to The Step-sophomores as more grooves await on their future second full-length.
In a little tribute to Otis Redding, Unknown Mortal Orchestra try on a little soul while expanding their 60s brand “(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay”. So find an old school looking harbor, pop a squat on the dock of a bay while debating whether or not these lo-fi-loving Aussies nailed this standard. The new UMO album II is available now from Jagjaguwar.
If you are into songs that do that “ahhhhhhhh” sung sustain chorus bit for an eternity, than The Love Language's new track “Pilot Light” is just for you. Their album Ruby Red will be available July 23 from Merge Records.
Eleanor Friedberger, one half of the The Fiery Furnaces gives you a sneak peak at the trailer from a short film for the song “She’s A Mirror” from her upcoming Merge Records album Personal Record. You can catch Friedberger's film at an upcoming performance at The Music Hall of Williamsburg, June 28.
Gaze with Jackson and His Computerband into the future with this trailer for the album Glow slated for release September 3 from electro-o.g.s, Warp.
Catch the following sensual Summer trailer for Space Dolphin's upcoming Hawaii '95 release, coming soon to a beachside near you.
Glasgow's Giant Fang drops the single “Aqualung” June 23 from POP unLTD, but in case you were in need of more aquatic moving images of tumultuous sentiments and storms, allow the Anotherworld video to take you to another world of beaches, and seaborne dreams.
Tonight, you know what time it is. Push the Feeling returns and features appearances from Edit Murphy, Glenn Jackson, EpicsauceDJs, and YR SKULL at San Francisco's Underground SF. Further deets are here.
Tonight, White Fence and PAWS perform at South Street Seaport in NYC, June 14. Peep the flyer, and get excited now.
From the proto/post-punk preservationist archivist emporium that is Superior Viaduct; the Bay Area imprint is proud to repress Devo's lesser known collection of lesser known odds and sods with Hardcore Parts 1&2. Hear the de-evolution straight out of Akron, Ohio circa 1974-'77 where the Mothersbaugh and Casale brothers with percussionist Alan Myers brought the radical no-wave before the no-wave had a wave to rage against. Get into the pre-post-modern blues with lost classics like “Auto-Modown”, Jocko Homo”, “Mongoloid” and plenty more to turn back that evolutionary clock counterclockwise.
