As we all try to cope with a world that often feels cruel & unfair, Impose’s Week in Pop attempts to shed some light for these bleak, dog days of spring. With a host of breaking media exclusives from some of our favorite artists, we first bring you some of the week’s biggest buzz with news that Death Grips announced that their new album Bottomless Pit will be available May 6; Afropunk announced their lineup; Coachella weekend two hype; DJ Khaled to open for Beyoncé; Digable Planets announced a full on reunion tour; Grimes dropped the Aristophanes untitled demo produced by Will Butler; Smoke DZA feels the Bern on the new FlyLo collaboration, “Outside My Mind | 4 -19 – 2026 | Petty Murphy”; Mark Pritchard dropped the title cut, “Under the Sun” off May 13-slated Warp album; Kali Uchis dropped the “Only Girl” ft. The Internet’s Steve Lacy & Vince Staples; DIIV covered Cat Power’s “Nude As The News”; Waka Flocka Flame has assured us that Flockaveli 2 is indeed “on the goddamn way”, dropped his remix of Yeezy’s “Real Friends”; Mac DeMarco & keyboardist Jon Lent covered “I Was A Fool to Care” by James Taylor; iLoveMakonnen dropped “Can’t Let It Go” ft. Lil. B; Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes dropped the single “Swimming”; Fetty Wap dropped the tracks “My Environment” & “Wake Up“; Slowdive, Mogwai, Editors supergroup Laser Cuts dropped the cat-laser video for “Scattered Ashes (song for Richard)” ft. Twilight Sad’s James Graham; Snoop Dogg dropped “Late Nights” produced by Mike WiLL Made-It; Johnny Marr’s autobiography Set the Boy Free will be available November 3; Kid Cudi talked with Paul “Pee-wee Herman” Reubens; M.I.A. talked about Black Lives Matter & more; Lilly Allen discussed “victim-shaming” by the police; Billy Corgan got weird on Alex Jones; Pearl Jam cancelled Raleigh, North Carolina concert on account of the LGBT-discriminatory House Bill 2; another college cancelled an Action Bronson show after student protests; we lost Negativeland’s Richard Lyons; and we continue to mourn the passing of Prince.
As we seek answers from the possible promises of tomorrow, it is our pleasure & privilege to present the following exclusives, interviews, & insights from My Favorite, Plazas, Simon Doom, WRITER, Neighbors, CrushnPain, Nerve Leak, Night Idea, PURSES, Yalls, guest selections by Young Fathers, and more—in no particular order.
My Favorite
Big news from Death Party Records boss Michael Avishay as he has moved label operations from LA to NYC, relaunching the DIY imprint with the new 7″ from cult legends My Favorite, premiering their nu-school-romantic a-side, “Christine Zero”. Re-emerging since originally disbanding back in 2005, Michael Grace Jr.’s new lineup includes vocals from Jaime Allison Babic (known previously from Dansettas and Nouvellas, and work on Grace Jr.’s The Secret History group during My Favorite’s break), her husband and guitarist Joseph Babic, with saxophone and additional vocals from Stephanie Cupo release their 7″ b/w “Killed For Kicks” May 3 that continues a legacy that began in Long Island in the 1990s. The new recordings point to a new beginnings from the band that once upon a time gave us the John Peel christened single “Go Kid Go/Absolute Beginners” where the tales of wild & dangerous liaisons and lessons of love, loss, lust, & woe run imaginative arrangement gamuts that only the most skilled musicians can sequence & execute properly.
And like the already much lauded sophistication of “Kill For Kicks”, Michael Grace Jr.’s self-described death disco & purgatory pop of the addictive, alluring, & strangely alarming “Christine Zero” matches the powers of wills with revelations of powerless impotence (or ineffective). Boulevards of crashed-car rundown dreams are delivered in imagined Avalon era jacuzzi mansion parties where sordid details of fatalistic fronts & events are sung & hissed like the character of a jaded interloper crashing the bourgeoisie cocktail party. “Forever and ever until the crack of doom, I will see you in each shadow that’s crawling the room,” Grace Jr. delivers with a ghoulish bag of emotional unease calling out the name of the name of the song title’s subject of affection and anguish. Michael and Jamie duet back and forth through the song’s synth-rich arrangements that create the effect of two voices calling out into the void between two worlds. After the following debut of “Christine Zero”, don’t miss our candid conversation with Michael Grace Jr.
Describe the resurrection of My Favorite. How does it feel now, versus say the feelings you all had as a group from years back…
I don’t even know where to begin trying to answer that. We started My Favorite when we were 19 and could barely play, and broke up over a decade later just as we were beginning to capture people’s attention on a broader scale. But those are tough years to be alive in general, just trying to figure out who you are and where you belong. Near the end it was just strange playing festivals in Sweden, and then returning to a small rented room in Queens on your own. Each success had an exponential aftershock in the form of anxiety and self-doubt for me. I formed the band in the suburbs as an art project for beautiful losers etherea, my friends and my imaginary friends. And the songs were suppose to be homing signals. Then we were playing shows with some of the big NYC bands of the early aughts, in front of A&R people, and if there was one thing I knew about myself at that time, it was that I wasn’t a rock & roll star. So it just got tough to manage my depression and isolation spiked with these really strange waltzes across the spotlight. I was the de facto leader of the group, but I really just wanted to live in a pillow fort on the floor. So I sort of lost it, and my relationship with certain members of the first empire of My Favorite never really recovered. Now it’s ten years later, and I have acquired a certain acuity, a toughness that comes from not only surviving depression, but from surviving New York City. And I have stories to tell, and new ideas as to how to tell them. And that’s what this second empire is all about. There’s a bit of light back in my eyes, and I feel like the magician again. I like to imagine Brian Ferry in 1981, sauntering into a cocktail party knowing he still had one more trick up his sleeve than everybody else.
The other aspect is, I now know that it won’t last forever. It’s important to be present, to surround yourself with collaborators that believe in you, that take pleasure from what we do. Things are just more vivid now, more urgent…and I think that makes the art better. You get older and people’s expectations of life and art get smaller…but I’m not sure our dreams do.
Tell us about the perspectives and sentiments that were involved in creating tunes like “Christine Zero” and “Killed For Kicks”.
Hmmmm… “Christine Zero” is death disco. Purgatory pop. What could be of more use now? It’s about the desires and illusions, not only of our youth, but of our country’s. That is to say, it’s really a song about power and powerlessness within many systems. From your naked body to your naked dreams. The creeping sense that your world is being spun by invisible hands. I think that’s in the s & m pulse of the music as well as the words. Plus my vocals are likely to terrify small children, and I take a certain pleasure in that.
“Killed For Kicks” is one of those songs where you try to establish a slightly new aesthetic that announces your intent to fuck with people. The foundation of rainy My Favorite is there, but it’s the gauche 80s plastic soul elements that I love. And I particularly love them now, because now the plasticity in our culture is so pervasive you can barely even perceive it anymore. So I think something like a Xanax sax or DX-7 synth stab can be like smelling salts. Plus, I want to be the Nick Carraway of indie…and I suppose “Kicks” is what I think that sounds like. In all seriousness, both those songs are deeply-felt walks across rooftops, but that’s really a private thing to be experienced in the dark with headphones on. I just hope people do.
My Favorite has been a cult band to many fans and other artists or bands. I guess we want to know what cult bands are on MF’s top of the charts sorts of lists?
Well…many is a relative term, but I think the quality of our chums is quite high. As far as cult bands I love…well I think The Velvet Underground are like the King David of cult groups….legends now, but that took a bit of time to occur. Other acts like The Smiths, The Cocteau Twins—even Steely Dan—are hugely important artists. But their fan bases—to which I certainly belong—are clannish and devout and misunderstood by everyone else, so I think they qualify.
John Coltrane is a cult artist to me. I mean, he has his own church! Felt are patron saints of the cult indie band. Momus the cult synth pop band. I think Unrest understood the aesthetics of the cult band…while I think Comet Gain understood the pathos of it. And in their own way Public Enemy are a cult band. This answer could go on forever. I think I only like cult bands.
What can you tell us about the next set of My Favorite recordings?
We’ve written and rehearsed the rest of the record and we’ll be continuing to record all summer. I think it’s an interesting balance of the sounds we explored in the past and certain things people are not going to expect. I like how the aesthetics of certain signifier—like goth, for example—can feel like an initiation to younger listeners , and a requiem to older ones. I went into this reinvention expecting it to lean heavily towards electronic music, but the final balance between man and machine is probably just where it should be: a standoff. I’m really proud of what we are doing. I think all the members of My Favorite have brought something special to what is, at its core, a dire collection of songs about growing up, growing older, and trying to outrun your own shadow. I think it’s the kind of record that could help people remember the things about themselves they aren’t quite ready to surrender. So let’s get on with it!
Other notes from Long Island and elsewhere you can leave us with?
Well, we are really starting to spread out as a band. Soon we will have outposts in Brooklyn, Jersey City, Bennington, and Bayville. The entire Northeast will have agents poised to act. Speaking of Long Island, I was doing a little research, reading the Wikipedia page for the murky lake at the center of my hometown (Lake Ronkonkoma), and it actually said that the lake was “rumored to have no bottom,” and “its depressions to be gateways to Hell.” I think that explains a lot about My Favorite. It’s always been sink or swim.
The new My Favorite 7″ ft. “Christine Zero” b/w “Kill For Kills” will be available May 3 from Death Party Records.
Plazas
Occasionally there is that record that shakes you up in ways that make the borderlines between the familiar and foreign feel even thinner and more vague. Such is the case with the just released Empathy EP from Plazas, comprised of the vocals, visions, samples, synth, programming & production from Vancouver artist Savana Salloum-Hedgecock, available today via nbd label. We are delighted to present the premiere listen to Plazas’s Empathy, an exhibition of what initially began as a college project of Savana’s that creates a world of her very own where empathetic responses and feelings are treasured on a level of importance that has been otherwise reduced in many of our global communities.
Empathy is an EP for everyone seeks to find those sacred spaces of shared understanding and warm reasoning. “More Than Words” evokes this place that pushes past the empty semantics for real responsive action and meaningful exchanges that exist behind the rehearsed arrangements of letters and selfish resignations. Savana illustrates a synthesized sort of phenomenon in her DIY approaches, present on “Phenomena” and the blood-red drenched city of perpetual night heard on the sleek futuristic flyer, “Sanguinity”, that strikes with lyrics like “the feel, when the feeling’s gone.” Plazas ricochets sounds & feels that oscillate between the dimensions that Savana sets up and the concrete kingdoms of reality as heard on the heart breaking highlight “2 Leave U Behind”, leaving the listeners with the single “Silent Empires” that reinforces this notion of escaping from futile frontiers to a new quiet calm of an underground, and/or alternate existence that bring about a greater peace and bliss that offers respite from the unruly and unforgiving world we all know only too well. Right after the following debut listen to Empahty, read our interview with Plazas’ Savana Salloum-Hedgecock.
Describe for us how Plazas first started for you, and what lead you to choose that title for your musical moniker.
Plazas first started as a school project. I was going to college in Vancouver, B.C. and got an assignment to create a five track EP, the only criteria was that we had to do all the writing, producing, mixing, and mastering! PLAZAS has become the best outlet for me to release my own ideas beyond the classroom. My songs exist in their own space and time, and the idea of a public open space, like a plaza, conveys the mood that I aim to achieve with my music.
Tell us too about the art of transferring attitudes of empathy into audio channels, as you did with the Empathy EP.
Their was empathetic attitude that was lacking from others in my life and I think it comes through the most in the lyrics of the songs. Lyrically I like to morph my own reality into the songs, and that’s what I’ve done with Empathy.
As a one woman army/band—how do you approach, and setup your own creative platforms for writing/recording/etc?
Writing comes fairly naturally, and I can get the purest incarnation of a song while working on it alone. I like to keep the recording setup compact, and I create my music using a Macbook pro with Ableton live and a nord stage 2 keyboard! Even though my setup is limited, I embrace the limitations, which is a huge part of being solo artist.
What is wonderful these days in Vancouver?
The weather has been wonderful, feels like summer is just around the corner, and the means lots of show, lots of fun, and a lot of local craft brews!
Summer plans & wishes?
Work on writing more music…really want to make a full LP! Also I might be moving to Toronto, and would like to decide before the end of the summer.
Plazas’ Empathy EP is available now from nbd label.
Simon Doom
Introduce yourself to NYC new’s pop icon in the making—Simon Doom; an alt-rock Adonis image ripped from the silver screen, and high-throttling through your stereo-speaker. Known as the lead guitarist in Kuroma, who also works in the touring groups for MGMT & Craig Finn; Simon gifted us the following premiere listen to the forthcoming EP Negotiate With The Monkey available April 29 from Axis Mundi Records, engineered by Ayad Al Adhamy (Passion Pit, Team Spirit), and produced by MGMT’s Ben Goldwasser. The result is the sound of what sounds like a mythic group imagined from the celluloid style of cinema filmstar heroes that rocks & rolls with festival ready savoir faire with the sensible ability to emulate historical pop eras by way of osmosis. The result is like little you will be prepared for.
Negotiate With the Monkey begins with the title track that kicks off like the opening credit roll of the best counter culture film not-yet made. All levels of frequencies are tapped into like experiencing a big glamorous arena-style live set by a big fest headliner that commands the stage and crowd like a shepherd lording at the center of the heard’s gaze & attention. Such matters of idolatry & narcissims are further entertained on the quick-wheeling fuzz guitar gauntlet “To Be Admired” that deals head on with that beautiful face reflecting back in the mirror. Then the surf-storming “Roseate” saturates the scene in rose tinted hues of good fortune, guided by the thundering frenetic & frantic shouts & shakes that send everything speeding & sprialling to a head twisting conclusion. Join us after the following listen to Simon Doom’s new Negotiate EP, for an interview with the group’s fearless leader.
Bring us to the very beginning from when you first began your own solo creative ventures.
Well, as the only member of Kuroma who does not double as a touring member of MGMT, I found myself at home, with nothing to do, quite often in 2013-14 when all my dudes were out promoting MGMT’s last record. So I started writing and recording songs.
Originally, they were all songs I was writing for Kuroma, but after I recorded a couple demos, I kind of didn’t want anyone else to sing them. They were pretty personal. I was used to writing songs for other people to sing because I never considered myself a singer… which, I imagine, has something to do with me not being allowed to sing in my first band (Thulsa Doom) because I hadn’t gone through puberty yet.
As the lead guitarist in Kuroma, with members who also play with the touring bands for folks like Craig Finn, MGMT, etc; how in the hell do you all find the balance to focus on Simon Doom?
The key is to be chill and respectful of other people’s schedules. Chill vibes. No overplaying. Beers. Queso. Make sure there are new songs to learn so we don’t get bored… if it’s FUN people will make time for it, ya know?
Take us through what it was like for you in developing all the songs found on the analog tape fizz & fuzz of your heavy EP Negotiate With The Monkey?
Unlike the previous EP, all the tracks on the Negotiate record were recorded and played by me, without the band. I just got a new recording/demoing setup and wanted to try it out, so I quickly busted out very simple versions of the first three Simon Doom songs I wrote (which had yet to be recorded). I sent the tracks to Ayad just to see what he could do with ’em, and what he sent back sounded super full and impressive. He ran every individual track through a tape machine to tone down the digi quality of my initial recordings and really gave each tune character.
Can you elaborate too on how you and all were able to be able to really hone in on that sound working with Ayad Al Adhamy, Tommy Stinson, and as previously mentioned from MGMT, Ben Goldwasser? How did you all even begin to go about finding those sorts of deep frequencies?
Ben was one of the first people who suggested that Simon Doom become a real project after hearing the initial demos. He and I had worked together on the last Kuroma record, so I was really excited to have his help recording the first EP.
Tommy Stinson heard about us through a mutual friend and invited us up to do a semi-live EP recorded in his house in Hudson, NY. We put one of the tunes (“Punk Problems”) on the self-titled EP and the rest will be released later this year. Total dream come true because we are all HUGE Replacements fans.
But, like I said earlier, only Ayad was involved with Negotiate With the Monkey.
What else is good right now in NYC that the world isn’t paying attention to?
I dunno man. It’s hard to discover things before the internet does. I would say my favorite new local band is, Glyph City. They are the real thing. Definitely wanna give props to Collapsing Scenery. That’s an experience. Everyone should go to Frankel’s Delicatessen whenever they can. I do think most of the cool shit is actually going on in Australia.
What’s exciting everyone in the Simon Doom camp right now?
I would say that the number one most exciting thing is the SIMON DOOM ALBUM we are working on. We just finished tracking at Axis Mundi’s studio in Bushwick and everything is feeling great. We got both Ben Goldwasser and Andrew Vanwyngarden helping out with production duties, Ayad is in the mix, so many people coming out to help with this record. It’s really communal and groovy. It’s like the final episode of Seinfeld except, instead of all the characters from past episodes suing us, they are helping us make a great record. Also, it will hopefully be received better by critics and fans alike.
Simon Doom’s Negotiate With The Monkey EP will be available April 29 from Axis Mundi Records.
WRITER
We have reported on WRITER since the beginning when brothers James & Andy Ralph first graced us with their debut Brotherface, their I Make Neon 7″, and now they have brought us the fun-fuzzy gift of their second album Principle Web (which saw the band enlist their longtime friend & guitarist Joshua Greco) via Small Plates, presenting the Paul Remund video for “Neighborly”. Working as a full-fledged trio; Andy, James, and Joshua further focus and point their shared love for distorted everything to further shape the catchy riffs and hooks that lay at the heart of their kicked-ed up clouds of dust.
Shot in a minimalist b/w style, WRITER’s jam “Neighborly” follows the motions of backward & forward dancing figures that move to & fro in front of the camera lens. Providing some camera effect trickery, director Paul Remund utilizes analog film while applying some modern day magic to add a subtle sensation of glitch-y visual decay to match the the scuzzier side of WRITER’s sound.”For the ‘Neighborly’ video I used an analog tape film process and experimented with live in-camera speed manipulation,” Remund described, “We shot at the Old Pfizer pharmaceutical factory in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, NY.” The ways of “Neighborly” love, care, & affection are observed as a wonky (but chic) dance routine where slow motion style & herky-jerky camera cuts & clips create something of an accompanying visual installation to compliment the “I love you” chants and Big-Muff squelched harmonies. The fancy footsteps and neighbor testimonials keep the spirits soaring high, until the song abruptly comes to the end with an almost obligatory epilogue of explosive collisions and a chaotic fallout. WRITER’s own James Ralph took the time to chat with us in the following interview session featured after the following video.
Describe for us your earliest memories of musical synergy from growing up together, to the making of your most recent album, Principle Web for Small Plates.
Andy and I took guitar lessons from a hippy lady when we were real young. We both played in different bands, practicing in our parents garage and playing gigs all over Southern California. At some point in 2010/2011 we decided to minimize our sound, stop jamming with our different buds and become a two piece. This is when we wrote and recorded our first record Brotherface. It was challenging to write songs as a two piece and it forced us to seek out a new music making process. What ever instrument was laying around in the studio during the recording of Brotherface we used, even if we didn’t know how to play it. Now, this time, for ‘Principle Web’ we kept our respected instruments in our hands and held on tight.
What sorts of webs, principle measures, and more went into the making of your most recent album?
Andy and I wrote and demoed and rewrote and demoed these songs as a two piece multiple times over. Some sounded way different than they do now. We would sit and play the songs over and over again. Drums and guitar. Raw and fast. Then we took this same setup to Brian Herman at Treefort Recordings in Brooklyn and kept playing them over and over as he documented and attached his vibe to the tracks. After, we gave these tracks to our oldest homeboy Joshua Greco and after a couple weeks in our studio he had some killer bass tracks recorded. Back to Treefort for the vocals and trippy sounds. A few more weeks at our Studio where we recorded E. Lee Smith for the voice on “Is You”. Also in that time I put together and layered a bunch of voice memos recorded on Canal St. by Andy and I, added guitars and vocals to make up ‘Canal Trip’. Finally it was back to Brian Herman for numerous late nights of mixing and mastering. At some point the three of us looked at each other and called it done.
What have you all been up to post-release, & what are both of your spring & summer battle-plan blueprints?
We have been playing shows regularly including a release weekend, April 8 & 9 with a show in Providence RI and a show in Manhattan. Spring and Summer we have another video to release, some shows booked, as well as some studio time working on songs for another 7″ and LP3.
Tell us about what sorts of good-neighborly sentiments went into the making of the song, “Neighborly”, and tell us too about both of your thoughts on the Paul Remund b/w minimalist, half-sped dance video.
Mostly the song is commenting on Andy’s block in Bed-Stuy. Loud stoop party’s, fallen trees from hurricane Sandy, feral cats, and the summer drunk guy who try’s to dance with Andy’s girl in the street.
We love Paul’s video. We love it’s minimal analog vibe. It’s hard to watch your self dance some times…but I think we look alright!
What are you all really into into right now, music-wise, film-wise, book-wise, etc?
I’ve been listening to the new DIIV, Quilt, and Hideout record. Andy usually has on some old Springsteen & Suicide or on Sunday’s the Glen Jones / X.Ray Burns radio show on WFMU.
Notes of interest from the Brooklyn scenes that you two care to share?
Go see music and support your friends and the people who’s art/music you like. There is a shit ton of it here.
WRITER’s Principle Web is available now from Small Plates.
Neighbors
No sooner had Impose given Neighbors fun new album Very Rare Expensive Jewelry the Best Music of March 2016 bump when band leader José Díaz Rohena & the gang presented us with the following world premiere of the Claire Buss video for “Angel O”. With their new album available via Malaka Records (on LP) / Help Yourself; Neighbors let us in collectively to enjoy their own cathartic therapy shows that mix humor & honesty in ways that are very familiar. And as always, Neighbors show us a great time all the time (even if our hero José is having the worst day ever, and that’s not an easy feat), and Claire’s new video is further evidence of this.
“Angel O” follows José strolling around Seattle by a Burgermaster, in between performance footage, fun with matches, halved donuts, overflowing and some pretty rad instrument close-ups. Watch milkshakes overflow, ice-cream bars melt before your eyes, while seeing how Neighbors translate their own brand of obsessive compulsiveness into ultra kinetic, pure, excitement. Claire’s video features Neighbors in all their glory, framing as one of the Seattle’s best bands that you need to know about. José & the gang remind us that it’s okay to have our own insecurities & awkward inner-over-thought-monologues but also show us how to have a good time all the while.
Director Claire Buss wrote us this about the making of the video:
I wanted to make something that was clean and cinematic and kind of OCD. We filmed José walking around at 5am in the parking lot of the Burgermaster off of Aurora Avenue in Seattle. The video is about things being taken away or chased after, and I wanted it to feel kind of sad and bizarre and interesting.
José described the making of the video to us with the following succinct words:
We shot it very early in the morning. I was very tired.[laughs]
Neighbors’ Very Rare Expensive Jewelry is available now from Malaka Records (on LP) / Help Yourself (via cassette).
PURSES
Today sees the releases of Athens, Georgia’s PURSES’ album Obsess Much and we give you a debut listen from the southern tune-smiths. Lead by Drew Beskin (previously of The District Attorneys and Party Dolls), this is that down home southern self-made rock sound that is more often than not heard by word of mouth. PURSES contain a kind of realness and heart that is not often heard on the coasts, but sometimes emerges in the southern and Midwestern sections and overlooked corners.
Obsess Much is a working-class song cycle for anyone who has been fixated on anything to a degree that is more than reasonable. The adventure begins with “Hitchhiker” that thumbs a ride like a traveling troubadour making their way from town to town, brining the big hearted valentine of “Clementine”, that rolls into the instant power-pop classic of “In And Over My Head”. PURSES never let you forget their southern roots for too long, depicting some nu-trucking fare on “Melody Shine”, that shines through on the down-home comfort heard on the Rhodes piano dotted “Another Lonely Tune”, the sentimental sides that serenade on “Stella McCartney”, right before knocking you off your feet with “Wheels On The Run”. Haunted hearts and nostalgic odes work in mysterious ways on the moving ballad “Hannah’s Song”, their previous single “White Wire Handle” that continues to show off the band’s range, to the closing farewell for now, hat-tipped gestures heard on Goodnight Kiddo. PURSES pen songs from personal places and then turn them into musical numbers that everyone will respond to according to which anecdotes and chords resonate the most. Obsess Much delivers comfort for the lonely, and that extra something that the content class never knew they needed.
Drew Beskin of PURSES shared some words with us on the making of their new album:
PURSES’ Obsess Much was recorded and mixed over the course of about eight days in Athens, Georgia. Me and a couple of friends of mine quickly learned these songs and tried to get all of the ideas and parts recorded as soon as possible. The goal was “spontaneity” and I think it turned out great. It’s a fun little pop record that isn’t super polished. I love making albums and hope to get into the habit where I can release something once a year. This is my third band/project after The District Attorneys and Party Dolls and the process keeps getting better because I get a little more comfortable each time. I am excited that this record is finally out and I can’t wait to get into the studio and start the next album.
Yalls
Impose vanguard/writer/former senior editor/marketing director extraordinaire recently reviewed the new Yalls EP Shut Down, and we provide a few more thoughts, plus a few quick words from the magician behind the DSI Tetra synth—Dan Casey. The audio adventurer and architect moves from the collective illumination associated among his Bay Area peers for illustrated observations of electronic pop imagined & engineered in the form of sequential aphorisms. Take the opening intro game screen style that enters the listener into the world of Shut Down on “Strategy Guide”, the memory jogging menu screen serenity of “Backyard Bird”, the arpeggiated cranium cartography cascading in “Memory Space”, displaying the digital reading of pure industry moods heard on “Sad Promoter”. Countdown butterflies that create that pre-flight takeoff elation flutter are heard on the engine idling “Turbine”, crystallizing a morning moments stark surprise on “Unexpected Morning”, moving from the atmospheric sustains to the closing clusters of keys that closes out the abstract electric art affair.
Shut Down is a collection of walking music carefully chiseled from air with a DSI Tetra.
CrushnPain
We have been practically counting down until the release of CrushnPain’s All Mountains EP from BLIGHT. Records, and we deliver you with a listen and discussion with group. Made up of Austin Gallas, Benjamin Schurr, & Erik Sleight; the three work to make music that helps to make sense of both our environments and the emotions attached to them. “Enjoined” investigates the alchemy of our own evolutionary urges for connections, and observes this condition as if it were a human-made object of art that exists in it’s own botanical garden.
Our previously premiered track “What Ur Doing” delivers ghostly murmurs from paranormal places, as “Luxor Obelisk” envisions an infinite array of mountains and pyramids that tower and stretch as far as the senses can see. The big synth showdown is saved for last on “Night Terrors”, that illustrates the many facets of fascination that will have you hooked on the extended player. Though some of the muddier sections of the sometimes mumbled delivery and lo-fi definition beg the question of what further focuses and sharpened production values would yield. Nevertheless CrushnPain trades the weights & burdens of the experiences that many can identify with by channeling them into cathartic cathedral chambers of sound. After the following listen to All Mountain, read our latest insightful correspondence with the group’s Austin Gallas.
How does it feel to have the EP completed and out in the world?
It feels great to have this EP out there in the world after months of hard work. I see it as a testament to the workflow we’ve developed as a band over the past few months, and to the general spirit of collaboration that the Blight community is all about.
What kinds of mountainous sentiments on All Mountains EP do you feel really guided the process?
The name of the album actually comes from a poem of the same name by an early twentieth century poet (and patient of Freud’s) named Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), who employed this metaphor of mountains to get at the wild and organic forms that stand in stark contrast to the sharp lines and crushed earth that characterizes the modern urban landscape in which she lived most of her life. I like to think of this formal conflict between the constructed world and the natural environment as the intersection at which these songs operate.
What directions and what sorts of projects are you all entertaining at the moment?
We’re almost finished with a full-length album as well, which should be released sometime later this year. Erik’s solo project, Tölva, should be releasing something soon, Br’er—which features Benjamin and Erik—will be releasing a new record late summer/early fall called “Brunch is For Assholes”. also, and we’ve got the Blight compilation album coming out sometime in June.
What are you all listening to at the moment?
In terms of 2016 releases I’ve been getting into Esperanza Spalding’s newest album, as well as Deakin’s Sleep Cycle. My favorite artist right now is Grimes, but I don’t think everyone else in the group feels the same way I do about Art Angels.
Summer & Spring desires & projections?
We’ve got a few shows coming up around DC in May and June, and we plan on touring for about three weeks from late June through mid July. But we’ll be spending most of the Summer in the studio tightening up the full-length release, which builds on the work we did for this EP in a number of ways.
Nerve Leak
Last year we had the pleasure of introducing Richmond, VA by Brooklyn’s Sam Friedman’s electro-laser sharp productions he makes under the moniker Nerve Leak with the previous summer’s Disconnected EP, and this week saw the release of the anticipated single “DR34M5”. Working in the progressive fusions of electronic r & b, Friedman allows the sparse & intimate nature of the track to speak evocative volumes of feelings from the heart expressed through digital atmospheres. Sam allows room for “DR34M5” to breathe, letting the emotive aspects of the song really resonate in a way where nothing feels rushed but always straddles the edges of that lay between the gulfs of the ephemeral and the material, physical worlds. Sam shared the following reflections on the making of the new Nerve Leak cut:
“DR34M5” started as a skeletal beat—the bare reverb-blurred, thrashing trap drums with pitched-up samples of my voice that you hear in the beginning of the song. After adding some chords, I sat with it for awhile in my practice space, just humming words and melodies until something stuck. I was going through a rough period of falling for someone new while still reeling myself in from the recent ending of an unhealthy relationship. The lyrics came out as a confession that I needed to put myself first, re-learn who I am on my own, before giving myself away again. But I still felt tied up in the intimacy of this new love, and I didn’t know what to do with those feelings. ‘DR34M5’ is my way of trying to make sense of it all—the love, lust, hurt, confusion, and need for self-care.
Night Idea
Sometimes the pressure of our world beats us down. Occasionally the the anxiety and stress from it all leads us to retreat to our inner-comfort zones & spaces to sort it all out and organize all the predicaments properly. These are the moments where the sum of every single iota and fraction of the larger gestalt is spinning around in the mind’s theatrical eye where we often an apropos and cinematic soundtrack to simulate these moods & moments that verbs & nouns never relay. All this and more is true in Night Idea’s animated music video for their single “Easy To Lie”, directed by Emily Kundrot. Found off the Richmond, Virginia group’s recently released album Breathing Cold from JuJu Records; “Easy To Lie” rattles around those inner truths and upset that we hold about all of our shortcomings that exhibits the reasons why we fib through thoughtful tones and subtle sound gestures. Director Emily Kundrot wrote the following about the video:
The idea for the video started out based on my life experience of what it feels like to hunt for a job after schooling. You’re presented with nothing but constant optimism when really thats not the case at all. It really takes hard work, perseverance and an unwillingness to give up, unlike the image of point A to point B that education can present. The character here tries to solve that problem by lying on his resume.
Catch Night Idea on the following dates:
April
22 Providence, RI @ Aurora
23 New London, CT @ Telegraph
25 New Haven, CT @ House of Phibs
26 Lancaster, PA @ the chameleon club
27 Newark, NJ @ Homegrown
28 Harrisonburg, VA @ Golden Pony
29 Charlottesville, VA @ The Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar
30 Dublin, VA @ Progress Fest
Rising pop hero GIUNGLA shares a narrative of evening observation seen from the thick of the woods in “Forest”. The Italy x UK artist continues her streak of captivating EPs leading up to her forthcoming Factory Flaws release, providing an entry into the narrative of “Forest” where dodgy trails become illusory recalled through electro-pop expressions and lyrical reluctance.
As a birthday present for local Stockton buddy/musician/icon Kenny, Confident Hitmakers’ dropped the Happy Birthday Kenny mixtape that gifts a dear friend what is essentially an unreleased MLTD album. Introverted vignettes from “How Am I 22 and Still Haven’t Been Tear Gassed?”, the rare emotive-fi wave of “Katie Wants you to know that You’re Enemies”, plus the more dramatic & subdued version 2, and more, that even includes the ultra unreleased gem “Modesto Goth (Black Marble Show)”. This is the MLTD album that never was finished, and began the stepping stones toward the myriad directions Confident Hitmakers are reaching toward.
As a birthday present for local Stockton buddy/musician/icon Kenny, Confident Hitmakers’ dropped the Happy Birthday Kenny mixtape that gifts a dear friend what is essentially an unreleased MLTD album. Introverted vignettes from “How Am I 22 and Still Haven’t Been Tear Gassed?”, the rare emotive-fi wave of “Katie Wants you to know that You’re Enemies”, plus the more dramatic & subdued version 2, and more, that even includes the ultra unreleased gem “Modesto Goth (Black Marble Show)”. This is the MLTD album that never was finished, and began the stepping stones toward the myriad directions Confident Hitmakers are reaching toward.
Vancouver’s Whitney K. just released Goodnight via Maple Death Records, providing a collection of organic arrangements that are anything but punk. Fronted by Konnor Whitney, the artist brings us tales of daily boot-scooting survival that draws from experiences that span the lands of Whitehorse, Yukon, Montreal, Burnaby, LA, and so on. The opening track “Swans” is one that you swear was birthed from the East Village in the late 60s or something, delivering an anthemic piece of decadent pop art that tomorrow’s new-school of cool are going to live by. Everything sounds like the result of a focused, pleasantly disorganized jam-a-thon amongst friends, like cacophony collection heard on “Favourite One”, the derelict blues that is practically falling-apart heard on “When You’re Blue”, bringing the breakdown full circle on the White Light/White Heat sort-of tribute, “Ode To The Old Ways”, to the closing collapse of “Running Up That Hill” which is certainly not the Kate Bush cover you were thinking but rather a cowboy’s drunken croon.
Scotland’s Close Lobsters (or the self-proclaimed, Post-Neo-Anti-Close Lobsters, if you will) return June 2 with the anticipated Under London Skies EP b/w “Wander Epic Part II” via Shelflife. Your C86 heroes return to bring some of that inner wanderlust songs of thought and wonder that jangle on for an eternity in your ears, mind, & heart, while resonating in memory.
In case you missed it, don’t miss T.O.L.D.’s massive electric-theatrical single “Master of the Species” taken from the forthcoming album It’s Not About The Witches available June 17 from IAMSOUND. Produced by Tom Biller & mixed by Peter Katis, the artist whose full moniker reads The Order of Life and Death (T.O.L.D.) deals in Darwinian operettas built out of the discarded tissues and scattered shrapnel that lay dramatically on a bright lit stage of pure balladry.
Richie Quake’s recently dropped the single “Clarice” that features some sweet saxophone styles with a solo from Jaedon Alvira. Quakes delivers an understated electro-style that works like a pleading love note of formerly untold intimacies that spell out affectionate exchanges through ambient r & b means.
Hear the colliding hearts and electronic-sentiments on “Bolide”, featured off of Kllo’s forthcoming second EP Well Worn available August 5 from Ghostly International / PIAS/Different Recordings (UK, EU & Japan) / Good Manners Records (AU/NZ, ROW). The result is a warm & electrified affair as vocals & synths wrap around percolating percussion programming.
We bring you the nuclear glowing track “Radiation” from Ultrviolence’s upcoming Black Sea EP available May 13 from Northern Light Records. Vocals, vibes, synths, and chords are cast like torrential rain sent down from the weather gods that control the formations and functions of the moodiest, celestial clouds.
Mistah F.A.B. is poised to return with a much awaited sequel with word that Son of a Pimp 2 available May 27 from EMPIRE, we bring you the track “What Yo Hood Like” feat. Jadakiss. Oakland’s F.A.B. rolls with some big bold and boisterous Pete Rock production and Mistah represent real environmental details, stories, and histories, of identities lesser sung. Bless up the Bay.
We bring you the video for “420”, the first single from Streight Angular’s forthcoming album available now via Boston independent imprint Polk Records. Rock along with Streight Angular, and watch as the video follows a pot-head along on his adventures that features cameos from members of groups like Built to Spill, Dilly Dally, The Barbazons, Earthquake Party, The Fedavees, & more.
Downers’ forthcoming second album On Desire will be available this summer, June 24 via Frenchkiss Records and we bring you the video for “Cruel Ways” that features plenty of big passionate, dramatic moments involving frontman Matt Hitt.
From Someday River’s upcoming EP, let yourself wade and then float along the tranquil chord-delta tributaries heard on “Day Changer”. This is for everyone experiencing a stressful day, only to find everything burden-wise becoming lighter than air.
BRÅVES’ EP II is available now, and we bring you a stream from the LA trio. The journey sets sail with “Unwed Sailor”, the hyper-emotive “Straitjacket”, the elegant percussion plays of “Lovely Bones”, the “does your heart hang low” inquires on “Jump The Gun”, the haunted heralding of “Lonely Ghost” that exits the stage in a “we belong together” refrain that is answered by a backdrop echo of sun-setting backup vocals.
Chicago’s Luggage proudly present their Automatic Recordings album SUN. These are testaments and tunes that pay tribute to the ball of fire & fury that gives us the energy & essence of light through epic rippers like the pillar knocking “Nothing To Know”, to the afterburner igniting jams like “Bright Life” that set the controls for a destination on the galactic dial where there is such a thing as a greater, and more enlightened species that may or may not exist on a far-off planet.
Direct from the Newlywed Records family; we invite you to familiarize your ears with Jake S-M that instigates hip & mind shaking grooves with the dazzling array of transmissions that beam forward on “for reality tv”. Like a proverbial coat of many colors, Jake & the gang clothe this in a cluster of ultra bright choice key tones and progressions that will move your emotional meter all over the spectrum here in this nearly 13 minute listen.
OMNI gifted the world the single & pop-art-punky setup video for “Afterlife”, as a fun pre-cursor to their upcoming Deluxe available July 8 from Trouble In Mind Records. Images of the band performing and notions of afterlives meshed together in a brew of surreality.
Glasgow’s WOMPS dropped the single “Plasticine” off their debut album, Our Fertile Forever recorded by Steve Albini available June 10 from Displaced/The Orchard. The Scottish duo with an assist from the living legend bring about a passion, power, and melodic grace that has us awaiting what other gems may await on their upcoming LP arriving soon this summer.
John Robinson’s Water The Plants EP is available now, and you can experience the EP that features appearance’s from JR’s o.g. crew Dr. Oop, Scienz of Life, along with production spots from Count Bass D, DJ Gargamel, DJ Alladin, I.D. 4 Windz, etc. Meditate, and marinate on these hopes and dreams for a sustainable tomorrow.
Enter the ambient chambers of ineffable essences that emanate the perfect bridging of the choral, orchestral, and the electronic together in a perfect congressional union on BARLI’s big single “Speechless”. Discover more audio pearls of beauty via BARLI’s just released album The Blue Rider.
Wise Blood brings out more organic sparse percussion with chorus and verse chants sure to keep your head ringing and nodding long after on the track “Tearing Out The Numbers” feat. Allah Kut.
Mutual Benefit’s album Skip a Sinking Stone is available May 20 from Mom+Pop, readying an EU/US tour spanning April 25-June 24, presenting the“Lost Dreamers” dream journal video directed & animated by Ethan Samuel Young, as the result of a contest.Watch as fantasias of the real and imagined spring from various fragmented views of the worlds that we know sprout like cities blooming like trees and plants from the waters of the lake to soul-soothing acoustic lullabies.
Stand up with Globelamp as the conversation and level of consciousness is moved to the next level of discourse & exchange with the powerful, light-bright Elva Lexa. video for “Controversial/Confrontational”. Touring May 18-June 10, the Globelamp album The Orange Glow will be available June 10 from Wichita Recordings. Read our recent feature with Elizabeth Le Fey here.
Bad Channel you know as producers, heard creating the beat and backup for Antwon’s “Girl, Flex” off the Double Ecstasy EP, return with their own single “Stars”, fluttering and twinkling like a thousand stars from their upcoming album available this fall from Buzz Records. Like the convergences of trap, witch house, the chill sects, trill sets, and trill-wave cults; “Stars” is the single that is made up of the influential fabrics that have informed the sound of now along with some striking, & haunted hints at a glorious tomorrow.
In case you haven’t already, meet VHS (oka violent human system) who presented the chord-plodding single “Art Decay” (possible reference to Bowie’s “Art Decade”), the rips & shred with an unholy impudence about everything. Available June 17 off the Gift of Life album from Sucide Squeeze; let VHS subject you to the scuzzier sides of aesthetic entropy.
Tetherball is readying his second EP of the year (with word that four more are also in the work for later this year), sharing the piano-hopped single “War (Medic)”. War stories and war-torn memories play out in ways of the absurd, horrific, humorous, and musically swinging on the up & up.
Maria Usbeck, the international Isabella Rossellini prepares to release her breakout debut album Amparo available May 27 from Cascine, and we bring you a listen to the new beautiful emotion evoking & provoking single “Uno De Tus Ojos” (along with the previously released cut “Moai Y Yo” just in case you missed it). Maria continues to make music that cuts to the very core of our centers, and does so even more while delivering some of the most beautiful music ever heard or made in the world via her Spanish tongue.
And in case you missed it, don’t miss the new Cascine single from Yumi Zouma, “Keep It Close To Me”, that keeps their original aesthetic and so much more close to heart.
Introducing LA’s latest electro duo OYLS that illustrates some GPS beats and hopes for great expectations and more on “Maps”. These are the “we got nothing to hold on to, we got nothing to respond to” statements that toss aside the frivolity for recitations of, “it’s alright, it’s alright” that makes you begin to believe it (further enforced by some over the top brass that really goes for it in the chorus). Keep a listen for more things coming soon from OYLS.
Greek duo Gioumourtzina just dropped their debut album Blakk Metall through Inner Ear Records and we deliver the journey that is “Chrysostomou Smyrnis” that channels to those deep cryptic catacombs of latent fears you never knew you even possessed.
Psychic Ills dropped some desert-drone twanging, drifter-drifting action with the litany of “don’t wannas” on the mirage mountain majesty of “Another Change”. It’s the perfect song for the sleepy vagabond who questions the length and strength of fears that revolve around change, and making sense of life. Discover this and more on the upcoming album, Inner Journey Out available June 3 from Sacred Bones.
Those looking for that super deep pop dimension feel should listen to “TMNA”, an acronym for take my night away from LA’s Genesee. It’s that style that shines like a drive through Los Angeles nearly endless outlays of streets and city lights that illuminate the evening in beams cast in many synth colors.
Introducing 825 Records latest signee Juliana Wilson, an up and coming pop singer that presents portraits of teen angst and coming of age attitudes
Cerise will self-release her debut album Smoke Screen Dreams on June 24, sharing the single “Shades In Shade” with the video from Kyle Walling that captures the LA by Chicago artist out in the great outdoors. Cerise’s subtle yet warm electric cadence pours all over the song and felt in the video’s sanctuary of trees scenery.
Here the irreversible points of digitized bathed points of no return on “Too Late to Change the Past” from LA trio Pollyn, sampling the legendary Linda Perhacs in the mixed of their plugged-in/switched on brew. Find this and other additions on their album Distress Signals available May 13.
Austin’s star-eyed wanderers Star Parks presented the single “Loose Ends” to provide some organic hymns and modern day balladry to toast up all the things left undone in a life on the go. Hear more hymn on their forthcoming album Don’t Dwell available May 13 from Paper Trail Records.
Introducing Wicklow, Ireland’s Kolumbus who pens songs for heart-strung lovers with epic emotive pop ballads like “Leave the Light On”. The trad styles are indeed somewhat done away, but the steadfast promises remain true. As the understated electro-programming lies deep in the undercurrent, the soft acoustic chords strum hopefully at the surface of it all.
Nelson, B.C. duo Meter Bridge ready their double single Filter/Kite for release May 6, sharing a listen to their synth-sequenced couplet. “Filter” provides a spring lens for keyboard flying fascinations, “Kite” keeps it’s feet, arms, and wings, flying way high above land. Also stay for the “Kite (Mind Veneration 7″ mix)” that presents new clubbed-out opportunities for the hedonistic track.
Richmond, Virginia’s Clair Morgan provided the calculated dummy’s guide to destructive tendencies on the single “How To Set Your Bed on Fire” off their upcoming album, New Lions and The Not Good Night available May 6 from Egghunt Records. Going through the motions of various emotions, the band delivers feelings that shuffle through the various flustered frustrations that entertain the antics of dashed dreams.
Floating Points, oka Sam Shepherd, delivered the live “Kuiper” video from Josh Renaut off the upcoming EP of the same name available July 22 from Luaka Bop (US)/Shepherd’s imprint PLUTO in the UK/Beatnik (Japan) and Inertia (AU/ NZ). With a big spring tour taking off spanning from April 23 through May 22, enjoy the following ultimate Floating Points live experience to close your week out in the finest of fashion. Shepherd introduced the 12″ with the following insights:
Since starting a band to realize the music from my LP, it has sparked a deep interest in the band itself, and so Kuiper is the result of playing with Leo, Alex and Susumu. Each time we play it, its completely different. We set the scene with electronics, and some drum machines that form the foundation to allow the unfurling of the rest of the track. The version on this EP—believe it or not—was recorded at 8am!
The other side—“For Marmish Part II”—is carbon dated by my singing voice. I can’t get that high anymore! It was recorded way before “For Marmish” on the album but the two tracks happened to be written around the same time.
I want to share them because both sides reflect in two tracks where I was right at the start of the Elaenia project, right up to now post-LP release, playing live and going on the road with a band. I hope, like I feel, people will find a common strand in the hypnotic nature of both tracks.
Prism Tats drop their self-titled debut via ANTI- May 6 and we bring you the freak-out fun & weirdness in the video for “Creep Out / Freak Out”. Watch and listen as Garett van der Spek’s fuzzy pop jams are turned into midnight cult movie camp involving freakish pranks aplenty.
Nick Leng shared the beautiful ode to consequence and charged conversation on the infectious single “Playing With Fire” Drivers EP available June 3 from B3SCI Records.
Young Fathers’ Week in Pop
Young Fathers performing at Music Hall of Williamsburg; photographed by Julia Drummond.
Scotland’s Young Fathers recently released White Men Are Black Men Too via Ninja Tune, and are about to play the second weekend of Coachella 2016 on April 24, but first present their following exclusive Week in Pop guest selections:
Gasper Nkhata bay, “Medel”
Young Fathers at Music Hall of Williamsburg; photographed by Julia Drummond.
David Essex, “Rock On
Young Fathers live; photographed by Julia Drummond.
Mickey Lightfoot, “Anxious (Modern Blues)”
Young Fathers performing at Music Hall of Williamsburg; photographed by Julia Drummond.
Dloko School Choir
Young Fathers live at Music Hall of Williamsburg; photographed by Julia Drummond.
Saul Williams, “The Noise Came From Here”
Young Fathers live; photographed by Julia Drummond.
Sam Cooke & Soul Stirrers, “Be With Me Jesus”
Young Fathers at Music Hall of Williamsburg; photographed by Julia Drummond.
Raymond Scott, “Little Miss Echo”
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