It's official, summer is here for real and everyone is going big. Reaffirming the season of sun was Andrew WK rocking out a 24 hour drum-a-thon challenge, Kanye West's progeny was christened after compass coordinates, Ty Segall will give us another garage blaster August 20 with the new Drag City album Sleeper, Trent Reznor gets the Lindsey Buckingham-bump for the new Nine Inch Nails album, and there is a bunch of hubbub about Nirvana lyrics to appear on Jay-Z's new album. Respond to each of these events accordingly, as we celebrate the week in pop with some of our fellow indie brothers and sisters in no particular order.
Portland's Hausu might resemble your favorite alternative groups from recent decades, but don't get too hung up on that. From our recent conversation with the band while marinating on their new album, we found a group that refuses to be sealed within any contrivance of value assigned-era-specification but operates rather on the emotive echoes from the decades yet to be written. The slacker sound of yesterday comes alive for today and tomorrow with Total being released this Tuesday, June 25 from Hardly Art and we have an advance listen for you. “Chrysanthemum” starts the guitar flower power, keeping it scattered is “Leaning Mess”, “1991-2091” roars with a sound to last 100 years, “Gardenia” is a hidden nearly perfect scuzz pop single in it's own right, the alt therapy recipe of “Recovery”, the Akira anarchy of “Tetsuo”, the noise wall pusher man personification of “John Codeine”, cathartic trail dust ups of “Vasari Joust”, math noise equations of “Kool Off”, and the fluttering guitar of “Bleak”. We caught up with Alex, Ben, Carl, and Santi, and explored an aesthetic that is never content to stick with any faddish era.
So “1991-2091”, like your guys' 90s rock stylings; is this perhaps a hundred year guaranteed ethos Hausu retains, and is it a commentary on the expansive livelihood of the sound of the noughties?
An interesting interpretation, but one that doesn’t reflect our original intention. Carl and Santi were born in 1991, like many of our friends, and the song considers growth and problems of immaturity. The 90s were a compelling decade; culturally, references from that time are more prevalent than ever in music, the visual arts, and even in the terms by which people politicize themselves and their artistic output. We are, however, uninterested in making a statement about the time period with any specific valuation. To comment on the 90s, to us, might mean a queering of the references you may have detected in our music, its placement amidst musical aesthetics drawn from many other times and situations. To celebrate is to divert.
Then is the album title of 'Total' a commentary on the all-encompassing expansive nature of the 90s' almost immortal like reaches or something perhaps even greater than that aforementioned decade?
Again, we are glad that you are abstracting the meaning of the word, but it is in no way meant to reference solely the 90s. Total is a word meaning many things. I think that in naming our record, an amalgamation of songs from very different mental states and “periods” of our band, Total, we were closing it as a document. Ideologically, we do not believe in a “sealed,” completed object, that music and records interact in more of a haze and atmosphere wherein all components interact. Total acknowledges the inherent paradox of releasing a record; its done, but it never really is.
So amid the Portland explosion of bands breaking out like Aan, Eat Skull, Radiation City, and so on and so on; what are your feelings about the birth and rebirth of your local scenes and current soundscapes?
Portland is a center far from the center. We exist peripherally in the far Southeast neighborhoods, all full time in school, Carl just graduated, so we don’t get out as much. The all-ages world is not so bright, in fact there is only one venue I can think of that consistently has shows, Laughing Horse books. We don’t participate in the everyday scene that includes Aan and Radiation City, but emerge from outer spaces every now and again. We are not necessarily a Portland band, but a band somewhat from Portland.
What too are some of the Portland bands that you all feel need more buzz and credit?
Industrial Park, Campfires, Cellmate, The Woolen Men.
And lastly, the story behind the name Hausu?
H A U S U : a series of letters. Making meaning, drawing signification from sequence. Hausu sounds good in my mouth. We picked it on a night that began in Carl’s basement in SE Portland, and involved a sojourn in the back room of the local 7-11, the death of an important politician, two loving text-messages sent by my mother, the vomiting of my dorm-mates upon my floor. We were 18, 18, 19, 19.
Lace Curtain dropped the video for “Falling II” off the Falling/Running 12″ disc that got released this this past week from Mexican Summer. The music video directed by Daniela Velickovic and David West captures the Aussie trio of Mikey Young, Dave West and James Vinciguerra the way a fashion couture or interior architect envisions their subject within the confines of spaces. With talents that range the gamut of rages from diverse acts like the hardcore edges of Total Control, to UV Race, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Ooga Boogas, and more; Mikey Young was kind to explain the breakdown of barriers between the respective camps of guitar and/or synth based music.
Do you feel that artists in Australia are more prone not to be too tied up into being either strictly keyboard enhanced DIY or guitar based DIY?
It seems like people don't really give a shit about that kinda thing anymore. Most people I know don't sit around listening to only disco or strictly hardcore records, they have pretty eclectic tastes and it seems natural to me that people would want to make attempts at various genres. For me, it makes music fun to start fresh with new projects and approach different genres with a little bit of fear and trepidation. It's exciting to not really know what the hell you're doing and come out with some happy accidents.
Since before the release of their debut album Alps, there have been murmurs surrounding Motorama, a band from Russian's Southern river port of Rostov-on-Don. And in a geographic ode to their home, “To The South” offers up a brooding but affectionate vocal take on memory descriptions further underscored by the smart, keyboard touched, angular-jangle guitar progressions. What is striking are the vast stlystic reaches that will have you reflecting on the independent music movement sounds from New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, England, to Baltimore. Firmly rooted through the indie pop discographies that would have been banned during the Cold War, borders and time have little to no bearing for Motorama on their upcoming album Calendar from Talitres Records. We exchanged cables with the band to get a closer tour of where their amalgamous pop sounds come from.
Tell us about some of your influences from around Rostov.
We are living in urban part of the city, far away from the river Don. Three fifths of the band are living in the north district near the biggest cemetery in Europe, Rostov North Cemetary. We have one club where it's possible to play such kind of music. We have few indie bands here, like Ritmika, an electronic pop duo and hip hop is extremely popular in Rostov.
What are some of the local scenes of interest out there?
According to Russian indie situation, we have lots of new music from different regions of Russia.
We really like Manicure from Moscow and Palms on Fire from Izhevsk.
You all seem to draw insight from many places, what are some of your musical inspirations?
We are fans of retro pop and 80s soviet post-punk. Lee Hazlewood, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, soviet bands: Zvuki Mu, Kofe, Bravo and Kino.
From Bourdeaux, France, get to know Pendentif (French for pendant), with the affectionate chamber-charm embrace of, “Embrasse Moi,” visually realized by Steven -I-I-I- Monteau. Like a situationist maneuver in the face of France's prevalent establishment of electronic music dominance, they show off the sensationalism of Franco pop's rich histoires with a pulse that is worlds more alive than the reunion buzz from the space-helmeted old guard. Pendentif's Embrasse Moi / Jerricane EP will be available on 12″ wax and digital July 15 with a full-length slated for September from Discograph. Reaching across the waters, we got a chance to get acquainted better, as they divulge strategy tricks from the playbooks of Serge Gainsbourg and Michel Polnareff to combat the all powerful hype of Daft Punk and Phoenix.
How did you all band together as Pendentif?
We were part of the same group of friends. We would spend our evenings together or go to the beach. The guys were making songs in their home studios and they asked Cindy to come and sing on those rough takes. It’s her voice that put things together and gave the direction that we would then follow as a band.
Are you all pendant/pendentif collectors? Do you all feel that pendants have magical charms and/or properties for the group?
It’s actually the first song we wrote, it’s the very beginning of our story. We picked this name because the word has a masculine genre in French but the piece of jewelry is mostly worn by girls. We all have a pendant that we got from a lover or someone in our family. So yes, in this light it can have a sentimental and magical side, some kind of lucky charm that can help going through a rough patch. In France people tend to give pendants for Valentine’s Day, it’s a love symbol too.
Bordeaux is well known the world over for it's fine rich red wines, but what is the music scene like in Bordeaux? Are there other indie pop groups like Pendentif in Bordeaux?
Bordeaux has a punk and garage scene since the 80s, there has always been a lot of bands here since we can rehearse in cellars of old buildings without spending much. Since 2000, the scene got more diverse; there’s hip hop with bands such as Odezenne, indie pop with Petit Fantôme or François and the Atlas Mountain, electro… And that’s true that we are fond of red wines!
“Embrasse Moi” is a hot single, how do you go about blending your English and French pop affinities?
We love sexy and aerial French pop; from Serge Gainsbourg or Michel Polnareff to Sebastien Tellier. The essence of those French artists is to write romantic, sensual and sexy songs. There must be seduction, flirting. You also get that feel with artists such as Prince, Toro Y Moi, or Metronomy, which we love a lot as well. It’s this mix between poetry, French films, Anglo-Saxon elegant and grooving music that defines our own style.
How did the Steven -I-I-I- Monteau video for “Embrasse” happen, mixing fruits, and whimsical sensuality together?
It’s a track that we wrote specially for Cindy in which she turns the head of a guy who will never be able to get her. Fruits in pop music have always been a sex metaphor and we wanted to play with this. In this music video, there are also four girls who represent the four guys of the band and who are almost as sexy as us… We wrote reversible songs that can apply to girls or boys. We like this transgender aspect. The video is a handicraft; we did it in the office of our tour agency, with only a camera and two lights. We like the idea that we can do something with almost nothing and get a result that can compare with big budget videos. We are very proud because it’s getting airplay on several national TV channels in France.
Loved the metal barrel percussion synth of the Memory Tapes remix, how did that come about?
Our bassist is a huge fan of Memory Tapes, so he asked our label, Discograph, if they could get in touch. And the magic happened. We also love the sleighs bells, it’s one of the patterns of the song and that’s what Memory Tapes used to create his remix. He gave the track a colder side, a cold beauty reminiscent of French actresses such as Catherine Deneuve or Fanny Ardant.
With fellow countrymen Daft Punk and Phoenix at the top of the charts, what is the Pendentif strategy on breaking through the main stage noise, and a few words and preview thoughts on the making of the album coming this September?
Well we have a major asset: our beautiful singer! However we would not claim to be playing in the same field, we are at the beginning of our adventure and the road is long. What matters to us is to sing in our mother tongue. This is our strength, to be able to communicate emotions and a groove despite the language barrier. The album will be quite eclectic; there will be a chill, surf, beach and sunny feel coming from our early work, but also a cold funk in a kind of 80s way coming from our latest songs. The album is ready; we made it with Antoine Gaillet who produced albums for M83 and Herman Dune. We recorded for 15 days in a studio near Bordeaux, and we just finished the artwork too. So everything is ready now. We can't wait for the release!
Bringing the UK to San Francisco, the brothers of Louis and Will Jones of Spectrals just released their album Sob Story produced by Chet “JR” White of Girls-and a rising Bay Area producer of interest (rumor has it on good authority that JR is working on Zachary Cole's follow up to DIIV's Oshin). White brings out the honest heartaches and passions that run steady from altar hold ups of “Let Me Cave In”, the confident hang ups of “A Heartbeat Behind”, the summer “ahhh” sway of “Karaoke”, the country honk steel twang of the title track, the mystifying space search of “Milky Way”, the neutral zone despair of “Friend Zone”, the big time stage of “Limousine”, the 96 tears of “Something To Cry About”, vaudeville hop-along of “Blue Whatever”, the clap along stop of “Keep Your Magic Out Of My House”, “Gentle”-twangy radio sounds, and the closing-pleading heart grinder “In A Bad Way”.
Sob Story is available from Slumberland Records, and we got a chance to catch up with Louis Jones who talked about the album's development, the free approach and JR's contribution.
How did the new album's sound and style come about?
I feel like JR's contribution to Sob Story was massive. I felt like I had better songs this time round and JR worked very hard to get the most out of them. We approached every song on the record on it's own merits, we did not feel tied to a certain style or approach, as such the recording felt very free, it wasn't hard or awkward for me to let JR into the process as it has been with producers in the past. I look back on the time spent in San Francisco very fondly and I'm thrilled with how the album turned out!
What music is popular out in Heckmondwike?
Music in Heckmondwike and Thornhill, where I live now, is very thin on the ground, and not really a thing I engage with, that is fine though because I can just get on with what it is I'm doing. My favourite band from here is a glam covers band that a friend of my family does!
Austra's Olympia is out now on Domino / Paper Bag Records and we get the organ key crystal palace cathedral cut, “Hurt Me Now”. The synths swell in time to the tick of the sparse percussion in the pleas to warm off harm while summoning earthbound affections.
Lust For Youth dropped the track “Vibrant Brother” amid their their west coast tour with Pharmakon, who also sets out on dates with Swans through July. “Brother” spins and swirls with minimalist synth dystopia off the Perfect View album from Sacred Bones. Catch LFY and Pharmakon's dates here.
Weekend, the Bay Area by Brooklyn band reminds us “It's Alright” from the upcoming album Jinx dropping July 23 from Slumberland Records. We have always prodded Weekend for their indie-dream-steeped aspirations-inspirations and they have always hinted at something larger than the sum of all the aforestated. This is evidence of just that, right here, right now. Peep their tour dates here.
While on tour, Born Cages dropped the video for “Caiti” off The Sidelines EP available now from Razor & Tie. The Brooks Jones video captures the band hanging out around NYC, giving a little something for the West Coasters to be jealous of in between the Cages' chants, of “I know you like it, I know you really like it”.
Wampire's “Orchards” saw a remix-restructuring courtesy of STRFKR. The Wamps album Curiosity is available now from Polyvinyl Records. The Wamps get their star signs realigned as they trump the illusions of ancient institutions as you are taken through the industrial pop chic where the the track becomes mechanized like an assembly line development.
Andrew Marr Ski Lodge hits the intermediate slopes with “Boy” pondering the sung advice about having “so much to learn”. The coming of age reflective nature is like a journey through the yellowed pages of old photo books before the digital platform of Flickr became today's dormant storehouse for yesterday's family keepsakes. Ski Lodge's album Big Heart will be available August 20 from Dovecote Records.
Out of Florida, meet Dads, made up of dudes from Merchandise and friends. So turn up the treble, and crank out the scuzz-tinny-metal with a listen to to their upcoming 7″ “Invisibile Blouse” available June 25 from Wharf Cat Records. If the defacing of father Lou's Street Hassle LP cover was any indication, these mysterious dudes take the noisy metal machine music groundwork laid down by an ancestry of rock and roll animals for audiences that have no idea what 1978 was about let alone what happened in 2008 for that matter. This is, however, for everyone who likes their garage snarly, snotty, sonic, and squelching with an underlying melodicism.
You waited a while for this one, but hold your breath no longer as indie pop darlings Bogan Via dropped the Freddie Paull directed night noir short film fare for “Kanye”. As Bret Bender and Madeleine Miller are depicted driving about their hometown of Phoenix, AZ they got caught up in dirty dealings, extortion, abductors, and a package of cash with the initials KW that most likely pertains to Mr. West. And hats off to Bret and Madeleine on their timing on this one, waiting to drop this visual around the time of Yeezus-hype-overload where the wonders of SEO magic will bring forward new Bogan Via fans who stumble on them via wayward searches for Yeezy's latest offering of hubris unbound. Bogan Via's Wait Up and their Remix EP are both available now via their Bandcamp.
BEACH's “Love Was A River” takes you out to sea by way of noisy, smokey underground jazz club traditions to explore the metaphor of amor. Karen Mould's album In Us We Trust comes out July 16 via her label Short Story Records.
You can catch Rabbi Darkside on June 20 hitting up The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge, and get a listen to his album Prospect Avenue, available now on digital and physical. As the Rabbi describes his full-length effort in his own words:
“Prospect Avenue is my new solo album, finished after 2 years of studio work, and ready for international release. These are my stories of teaching, learning and evolving in new millennium Brooklyn: an homage to New York City offered in a time of distress, a love letter laced with co-dependence, a tribute to social and civil servants, a prayer for students and teachers. It is written from the hallways of our public schools, from the stages of shuttered venues, from the expanses of bridges traversed on bicycle, from the bandstand and the cypher. From the front stoop of the house on 18th Street, where I've resided for 13 years, I've documented the city changing while growing within its confines; journeying to touch distant points on the globe, always returning, culminating with a ride on the R train to Prospect Avenue.”
Gold Lake's “We Already Exist” got remixed by The Helio Sequence from the Laker's We Already Exist, available now with an upcoming show June 29 in Brooklyn at Cameo Gallery with The Naked Heroes.
We sent out word recently of Shigeto's August 20 release date for the upcoming No Better Time Than Now on Ghostly, and now we got his global drum drenched “Ringleader” that reasserts Zach Saginaw's commandeering creations of electronic arrangements made around the live performance of visceral drums.
The self-titled album from Oakland's Bells Atlas is available now, and we give you a listen to “Kazoo”. Listen as frontwoman Sandra Lawson-Ndu's vocals lead a pool of voices, sound, percussion and more with Doug Stuart, Derek Barber and Geneva Harrison, as they awake the sleepy globe atlas with all the ringing bells and sounds they can muster. Be sure to check out their exclusive sounds and thoughts in their headlining Week in Pop feature here.
Barbarossa, aka James Mathé, drops the Montserrat Lombard directed video for “Turbine”. Barbarossa's Bloodlines will be available August 8 from Memphis Industries with performances at Mercury Lounge in New York on June 20 with Pacific Air, at Brooklyn's Littlefield with Helado Negro, and M.A.K.U. Soundsystem. Watch now as a stranger arriving in a strange city finds himself running amid a hallucinatory metropolis as Mathé's blues soaked sentimental soul steers the adventure.
Detroit DJ extraordinaire House Shoes dropped his album debut Let It Go about 1 year back, and this week dropped the following words.
“My debut LP, Let It Go, dropped a year ago today. To celebrate the anniversary I'm letting it go. For the free. Fuck it. Pass this shit around y'all. It's a good fucking record. All your favorites are on the shit. Buy links are below if you wanna pay some respect out of your pocket. Stay tuned for STREET CORNER MUSIC, the new imprint on Fat Beats Records. More to come…”
Let It Go is available now from iTunes, and from House Shoes himself.
Get your next listen to Alex Shields' latest offering from his A Grave With No Name group-project, as he layers on moods, electric crunch melodies and more instruments to bury on top of you with “Dig Me Out”. The much awaited album Whirlpool will be available July 15 from Lefse / Stare.
Keeping up with the indie buzz circling around A Grave With No Name, we got the Melanie Coles video for “The Steps” that keeps the buzz whirling around their upcoming album Whirlpool slated for July 15 from Stare / Lefse.
Get “Ugly” with Apollo Brown on the wheels of steel with Verbal Kent and Red Pill as they are joined by DJ Eclipse for this following cut off their just released self-titled, Ugly Heroes album from the Mello Music Group. It's like an old school production battle between Apollo and Eclipse as things get Verbal and Red as they take folks to task to see the real beneath the rough and tough exteriors. Because who said that all heroes had to be pretty?
Our Madison, Wisconsin loves The Hussy get amped, psyched, and every other adjective that goes great with a hot pair of dilated pupils in the Eric Allin directed video for “Woodland Creatures” off their new album Pagan Hiss album from Southpaw Records. Trading the pagan symbols for the mean side hiss of Bobby's unrelenting guitars, this is some new grit kind of pagan poetry for those of you who can't even begin to deal with poetry.
This is old news to all you media savy readers but we just got word of the new DIIV rough draft revealed from a practice sesh posted on their tumblr. More details to arrive shortly no doubt, as the band has signaled their follow up to Oshin is currently in the works.
Bitchitronics drops July 16 from Drag City, and the Bitchin' Bajas are here to excorcise out the stress from your mind by summoning the mighty powers of the fiery planet with “Sun City”. This is that mind transporting sound you want to hear in virtually every documentary about space, science, nature, religious cults, or whatever else you're into, while a Walter Cronkite-esque narrator dishes out the avuncular details.
From the East Bay, Chippy Nonstop gets ready to release her new EP #finallyverified June 25 and dropped the following cut “Pimpin Season” revealed through a GIF game on her tumbler. You can play the game or get that 'cha-ching-cha-ching' summer money dance season started now .
Bear Ceuse sent word that their album Don Domestique will see release July 8 from Medical Records, with a celebratory release show July 20 at Brooklyn's Rock Shop with Radical Dads, The Can't Tells and Amy Klein from Hilly Eye and Leda. However you want to pronounce Oklahoma, the alt power-slacker-poppers drop it like, “OK-LA-EE-OHMA”.
Get a look and listen to the song that just wants a little bit of shelter with Temples' video for “Shelter Song”. The video transplants the song's analog haze into the betamax art experiments from a forgotten time with a familiar sound.
Then get even weirder, wilder, and more vintage as Temples return in sound and vision to those strange places where the psych scene morphed and moved into the glam rock realms. Watch as the Ed Miles video for their title track “Colours To Life” resurrects the specter of Marc Bolan through frontman James Bagshaw's uncanny visage. Temples drop their Shelter Song / Colours to Life 7” stateside July 23 courtesy of Fat Possum.
You got to love a trio of bros like Nude Beach are doing the best they can and asking others to do the same with their guitar adorned garage power of “What Can Ya Do”. Nude Beach's II is out now while this single, What Can Ya Do / I'm Giving Up 7″ is slated to drop July 7 from Other Music Recording Co. Get a listen as Northport by Brooklyn's Chuck Betz, Ryan Naideau and Jimmy Shelton show you what harmonizing, kick-backed electric guitars can do and how good they can be.
Dfalt gives you the mirrored moving images of a couple's dance off to “SPCTRPN”, directed by Paola Suhonen, off the Helsinki Beat Tape (Part One) out now on Daylight Curfew.
While on the DC label kick, listen as the breakbeats get even more broken on Ekha's “Siddharth” from the Brooklyners forthcoming debut album BCWTIOT, available July 9 from LA's daredevils of rhythm, Daylight Curfew.
The BLKHRTS crew of Yonnas, King F.O.E, and Karma The Voice take you into “The Space Between (I've Got It All In Here)” where they crank the intensity and electrified enhancements to the maximum levels and preset settings. Get it all now and get more later from their upcoming tape Death, Romance and The Color BLK on July 30.
With another show at Manhattan's Rockwood Music Hall on July 26, Yellowbirds drop the Sarah Lynn Graves and Sam Cohen video for “Mean Maybe” full of silent film, stop-motion style hijinks that involves purloined maguffins and more to go with the 'Birds' mean cut. Their album Songs From The Vanished Frontier is available now from the Royal Potato Family.
Ducky, aka Morgan Neiman, dropped the sun ray pulses of, “Air (Day Version)”. The NYC up and coming producer releases the Air single package that includes the Egyptrixx produced cut, “Night Version” and a remix from Helix.
Toronto's Bird dropped the Spanish guitar driven beat orchestrations of “Maybe Someday” off his forthcoming La Notte dropping July 9 on Lost Metropolis Records.
El Ten Eleven gets remixed by Eliot Lipp on the track, “No One Died This Time!” that strikes one for self-preservation, exuding the joys of staying alive. Find this off Transitions Remixed from Fake Record Label, and catch El Ten Eleven in Honolulu, HI at The Republik on June 29 and on July 27 in Wolf Run Ranch, OR at the WTFestival.
With a boatload of buzz surrounding the release hive from Portual. The Man's Danger Mouse produced Evil Friends, get a listen to “Purple Yellow Red & Blue” remixed by Two Inch Punch before you are forced to hear all your googly-eyed bros singing this on their way back from EDC.
From the legendary Wizard Mountain household, Scraper's debut EP is enjoying a release on Drag City's new vanity print God? on July 16, in conjunction with the label's release of Tim Presley's self-titled White Fence album. In the spirit of the great and almighty WZRD MTN and Make a Mess legacy; listen as these San Francisco scuzz salesmen sell you “Alien Eyes” that is dying to be used in a skate or surf video asap.
The Bangerz dropped their half a dozen strong turntablists “Legends Never Die” from their forthcoming PRiSM LP, dropping June 25. These guys are like The Roots of the DJ platform as they have worked with Afrika Bambaataa, Clipse, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Kid Koala, with member Replay conducting productions for Diplo, Kelis, and so on. Listen here as The Bangerz knock out some long standing beats here on “Legends” as they claim their style is everlasting and mesh together a brew of multidimensional rhythmic proportions.
Flatline remixed and reanimates Portishead's classic “Glory Box” by bringing out the slower tempos and melting modern weird vibes. Flatline made this track to toast their upcoming European tour and to melt new and old minds.
Just wait until Lloyd Kaufman hears about this one, as France's electronic dabbler Simon Delacroix calls himself The Toxic Avenger and makes those big bright electro tracks that reaffirms that everyone else has more exciting love life than yourself. On the title cut from his upcoming July 2 EP (full length dropping October 8) release of Romance & Cigarettes, let Toxie Delacroix show how the other aspiring big timers who aren't Daft Punk show the mainstream how it's done.
Jahzel's sheds all baggage and earthly weight as if every day was Saturday afternoon on “Carefree” produced by Tone P from his latest project In God's Image, dropping July 2. Get spiritual from one of Chicago's most spirited.
Coke Weed captivates with their ankle bracelet chugger, “Anklet” that is mandatory listening and will have you wishing for your own assigned house arrest, if but only to play this song on an endless repeat. Listen to more from these California dreaming popsters with the galaxy-gazing “Sunseekers” also taken from their Mt. Desert Island sessions that comprise their upcoming Back To Soft album, available July 23.
Youth Code, the angry LA duo that has just dropped their Keep Falling Apart 7″ on Psychic TV's Angry Love Productions (one of the few if only artists other than G.P-Orridge himself to do so). We got the b-side “Tiger's Remorse” here that will be sure to break your mellow with gothy hardcore yells and addictive synth gurgles galore.
Pure Bathing Culture hits up San Francisco's Brick & Mortar on Tuesday, July 2 along with Cannons & Clouds and Cocktails. From dreamy songs like the following “Ivory Coast” to the mellow Mediterranean climates of the West Coast; this is music to accompany restless, wistful thoughts to wish on while wading beside the breaking of waves at earth in front of a theater of endless waters.
F. Stokes gives you a litte taste of the Windy City blues in his new cut, “Mission (ft. I Ced)” off the just released album Fearless Beauty. With Ced singing out some moral support, Stokes takes you down the urban paths and interior pathos of family, folks and friends getting to a place of clarity and inner sobriety kicking the harsher side-effects of Chi-town side of corrosive decadence.
Get close to the piano tone touches of Majical Cloudz' “Bugs Don't Buzz” in the crawling natural settings of the musical and surreal from director Gordon von Steiner. The opening line of, “the cheesiest songs all end with a smile, this won't end in a smile” is not lost on Gordon as you are treated to a scene of miniature landscapes getting consumed by flame as Devon Welsh's electronic dissonance gets crazed but not out of control. Impersonator is available now.
Andrew Jernigan, the Brooklyn beat-mancer behind Phaseone presents the mythic adventures of a white horse riding guardian angel in Daniel Garcia's video for “Hunter”, off the Adult Swim-Williams Street release If I Tell U.
The Stepkids are growing up fast and have dropped word of their upcoming disc Troubadour, available September 10 on Stones Throw. It's ladies night in the Nicki Chavoya & Lisa Amadeo video for “The Lottery”, where the games of chance are taken to the smooth, early 80s soul seductions where dancers of destiny await to delight and entrance. This single is available now, with a 12″ dropping in July that will feature “The Art of Forgetting” and instrumental renditions.
Little Daylight retwerks the posh life of Ra Ra Riot's “Angel, Please” in a brand new pair of dance-pants as the Rioteers look toward their upcoming tour in support of Beta Love from Barsuk and on cassette tape via Workingman Records.
Australia's Dancing Heals keep the strong sentiment brewing, with frontman Jon Lee-Farrell asking the soul baring question “is there something going on”; reaching in, reaching out, looking in, looking out. Their second album You Will Never Be Younger Than You Are Now will be available July 5.
Keeping the Bay's muffuggin' heads spinning, your boy Roach Gigz gets googly-eyed and spastic on his “Vertigo” inducing cut, directed by David Camarena with beats by C-Loz. Gigz gots plans to drop the tape Roachy Balboa III July 25.
The Mynabirds are proud to present their sophomore album reworkings with GENERALS: REMIXED dropping July 16 from Saddle Creek and you can get an advance listen to the reimaginings from Dntel and Field Days. Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello gives the track touch tone sequence states of static stasis, while Field Days' rethinking of “Radiator Sister” decks it out like a lost experiment from the new romantics.
Shot entirely on a phone, Louis Slipperz scatters craft day style DIY b/w visuals to accompany Owiny Sigoma Band’s lively “Harpoon Land”, off their Brownswood Recordings release, Power Punch. Catch OSB touring with Atoms for Peace during July at dates posted here.
Alela Diane's album About Farewell is slated for release this Tuesday, June 25 on digital and July 30 from Rusted Blue Records, and we have a live rendition of Alela's rich, soft acoustics of “Lost Land” peformed in Paris's Les Bouffes Du Nord. In a voice larger than Diane's tall projected shadow, the strum to sung minimalism will find you lost in a land in the blue that feels both sad and tender like the safest house of love in all the world.
Beacon's “Drive”, got remixed by No Regular Play as word has spread of their co-headling tour with Shigeto at the above dates. The NRP remix takes the track through futuristic cities in flying cars that come equipped with ambient moods for a complete hovercraft commute experience.
Stop the presses, and look into the glittering, shimmering lights as Delorean gives you elements of light and water with news of what is to be their first album in about 3 years time with, Apar. No release date has yet been revealed or stated, but we will be sure to keep you informed as new religious and time traveling relics float our way downstream. Keep a close watch on Delorean's website for further details.
