Giving you some substance beyond the hype to keep you warm this winter, Impose’s Week in Pop brings you some of the week’s biggest movers, shakers, and ground-breakers. Big news as Pusha T is the proclaimed president of Kanye West’s Def Jam imprint G.O.O.D. Music, and drops “Untouchable”; Ty Segall officially announced his new album Emotional Mugger available January via Drag City; Dr. Dre dropped never-heard-before material on his Beats 1 show “The Pharmacy”; Apple is reportedly shutting down Beats Music November 30; Daft Punk releases new fancy merch ads; Rae Sremmurd to launch SremmFest music festival December 18-20 in their hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi; David Bowie’s new album Blackstar will be available January 8, and he drops the two-minute title track trailer, also sharing “The Last Panthers” theme song, while Danny Boyle said that a Bowie musical never materialized due to the icon’s refusal of permission; Cassie Ramone to release a Christmas album December 11 on Burger Records, shares “Run Run Rudolph”; Young Thug versus Metro Boomin is over, and the two shared “Hercules”; Four Tet claimed he’s in Radiohead’s video for “Creep”; Azealia Banks postpones tour again, also allegedly involved in assaulting a nightclub security guard in LA; Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos has come out as gay; Busta Rhymes pleaded guilty in Muscle Milk shake-hurling incident and will “attend anger management classes;” on the Mad Decent Boat Party sailing between Miami and Cozumel, a woman who went overboad remains missing; two people stabbed at RZA’s residence in Millstone, NJ; watch Morrissey perform “The Bullfighter Dies”, “Speedway”, & “World Peace Is None Of Your Business” on Chilean TV program El Informante; and we mourn the loss of Allen Toussaint, and Motörhead’s Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor.
As the world turns the pages forward, we are proud, pleased, and privileged to bring you the following breaking exclusives, media, and insights from Dave Segedy, Eddington Again, Ocean Hope, Sun Glitters, Versing, Amina Hocine, Antlered Aunt Lord, Dzang, The Head, Jemima Surrender, Ringo Deathstarr, Sierra Manhattan, featuring guest selections by ZEMA and more—in no particular order.
Eddington Again
Introducing LA’s rising star Eddington Again who gives you the lift you need with the bright Bay Area ETA directed video for the Friendzone produced track “Lyft” and the world premiere of “Fav”, produced by Chlorine Mist (Dylan Reznick of Friendzone) and h/o/fr. “Lyft” is featured on Eddington’s Masturgrape mixtape full of west coast feels, and Oneohtrix Point Never samples featured on the Nima Kazerouni (So Many Wizards, Crown Plaza, Human Touch, Nectarine, etc) ode “Nima Trees” and more; the Los Angeles artist is readying his Middle Rhythm EP that features “Fav” and more favorites that showcase the latest ground breaking developments from talents that connect LA to the Bay.
“Fav” finds Eddington apologizing for not singing your favorite song earlier, like a debonair new lounge maestro crooning in front of Chlorine Mist & h/o/fr’s production. The atmosphere gets wavy and smokey the way that e-vapor mists up the visuals of the room, while Eddington Again delivers what his audience has patiently awaited to hear. The cloudiness continues to drift like manufactured dry ice from a fog machine as our LA hero delivers good on the hits that strike all the right appeasing places.
Not just a name of the latest tech-savvy contractor cab company, “Lyft” features Eddington Only’s collaboration with Friendzone as a fun sunny day trip through the various locales of the Bay Area. Eddington asks questions like “what do I need from my life” that pushes past the strife and superficiality of the world toward something better and greater. The ETA visuals present Eddington hanging about Dolores Park, foot bridges, swimming and lounging in a pool, kicking it in the Castro, hanging in Berkeley, and absorbing all the goodness the Bay has to offer. Eddington’s verses bring a deal of heart in a delivery form akin to contemporaries like Antwon or Cities Aviv’s Gavin Mays while Friendzone deal in their signature illustrious sounds that sparkle like mesmerizing sound schemes that bring to mind glittering soundscapes of color. In Eddington’s own words on the video:
So as far as the “Lyft” video goes it was shot in the bay area at the same crib where Friendzone made their first beat. Directed by ETA’s very based style of shooting running around the Bay, Oakland, SF, Berkeley etc with friends capturing the fun raw moments of the weekend.
Eddington also shared a few words on working on with Tomemitsu and others on an upcoming album:
As far as Tomemitsu and collaborating on the new record, its still in the works. Along with a few other producers from the same crew.
The recently dropped Masturgrape tape takes off with the energetic, yet floating, title cut that features production from IJSTAM, right before sharing an ode of rich respect for Nima Kazerouni on “Nima Trees” while sampling Oneohtrix Point Never. The good vibes keeping on coming with “JuJu”, casting beams of lo-fi brightness on “Sunny”, moving to the dimensions of dissonance on “I.E” produced by Felix Snow, sparing an apology on the ghost-tripping trappings of “Oh Sorry”, grooving to the haunted roll and rock riff realm of “George”, right before Eddington shares a blunted freestyle spilled over Nujabes’ “Spiral”. The aforementioned track “Lyft” keeps everything lyft-ed, winding up feelings into the imbricated atmospheres of “Intertwined”, leaving you with the lolkay edit of “Nima Trees”.
Hear the Masturgrape here in it’s entirety:
Eddington Again’s Middle Rhythm EP will be available later in 2016.
Sun glitters
Luxembourg’s Sun Glitters, aka Victor Ferreira returns with the Diving Into Reality EP for Abandon Building Records available tomorrow (November 17) and we are proud to present the debut listen to “Waving Marinella”. Victor has ruled on the interwebs and as the master of the micro-genre collaborating and remixing numerous artists the world over for well over half a decade now, shaping many of the new frontiers of nu-electro imbued styles of arrangements and musical composition. Presenting music made over the course of a two week holiday, Ferreira teases a forthcoming new album coming in 2016 and provides us with a sample of his latest productions.
Built around an initially sparse rhythm structure, “Everyday is a New Start” gets your day off to a good start with a song to compliment brewing your morning coffee, or commencing the day’s affairs and itineraries. Descending notes play about over a sample of a panning bell as flute like synths make their way into the sequential patterns that are wrapped around trademark warm Sun Glitters atmospheres that fall and rise like the fiery planet of Victor’s namesake. The summer sensations of restful leisurely days spent at a beach in France arrive in the tides of “Waving Marinella” where an entire relaxing track is created around the aforementioned bell ring heard on the previous track. Samples of the sea are caught in the mix where eastern synths signals sentiments of a holiday to last throughout the seasons. “Marinella” is a souvenir keepsake of what sounds like the most desirable escape to synthesizers spell out streams of thoughts, feelings, and hosts of internal reflections that play out in pensive manners like an electronic digital symphony to soundtrack your next coastal get-away. Right after the following debut listen to “Waving Marinella”, check out our interview with Sun Glitters, aka Victor Ferreira.
What for you initialized your latest project, Diving Into Reality?
Diving Into Reality is Sun Glitters’ comeback! I’ve been friends with Matthew from Abandon Building Records for quite some time and we finally decided to collaborate together. I made lots of new tracks during a two weeks holiday and had an album in mind first…but then we decided to push the album for 2016 and planed an EP to re-activate the whole as a kind of new start for Sun Glitters after going through some difficulties. That’s also where the title comes from!
What sorts of everyday events, moments, day to day re-generations, and memories gave inspiration to “Everyday is a New Start”?
Lots of things to be honest. For me every day is a kind of of new start in life. It’s always interesting to observe what will happen each day and what types of experiences that day holds. So we should be always prepared for any situation. “Everyday Is A New Start” is a great new start!
What’s the story behind the percolating persistence of “Waving Marinella”?
As I mentioned before, I produced all my new demos during my family holidays in France close to the ocean. I was not supposed to be making music, it was more for relaxing … I didn’t even bring my laptop with me, but I had my iPad and the atmosphere and weather was so inspiring that I just started producing…”Waving Marinella” was the first track from the collection and I named it after the beach where we were going every day.
As someone who is always involved in numerous concentrations, what are some other recent recordings and projects that you are up to?
Sun Glitters recently toured Italy with Arms and Sleepers and we decide to release a split EP to help promote the tour. Lots of good things happened during this tour. Lots of new projects will see the light of day in 2016.
I’m producing a new album with Rome In Reverse from Denmark/Italy, and will also release new music from my side project with the cellist Lisa Berg called GLITTERSBERG. I’m also very active in doing remixes, and working on the new album for Abandon Building Records next year. I’m a very busy guy, ha ha.
What does Victor Ferreira listen to when you’re not working on your own music or working with other artists?
Actually lots of things depends always of my state of mind. But recently I’m listening lots of Hip Hop stuff like Beans, Busdriver, Open Eagle Mike to mention a few but my favorite one is for sure Go Dark, the new project of Doseone and Crash. My pal Botany just released a wonderful new album, and it’s very inspiring.
I can’t wait to hear the new project Nevermen! There’s a single out already and it’s a collaboration between Mike Patton (Faith No More), Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio) and Doseone (Go Dark, Subtle, Themselves, cLOUDDEAD). It’s very promising!
I could mention a huge list but yeah…ha ha…
2016 hopes?
2016 hopes…honestly because of my past experiences I don’t want to think too much about it…there are ideas in mind of course but will take it day by day, step by step and make the best of it. Of course, I hope that this new experience with Abandon Building Records will be a good new start and that it will regenerate where Sun Glitters left off, and the new sound will be appreciated by my fans.
Like I also mentioned before a new thing should happen as well with my pal Mirza from Arms and Sleepers, something that I’m very excited as well and can’t wait to share with you all!
Lets see…
Sun Glitters’ Diving Into Reality EP will be available November 17 Abandon Building Records.
Dave Segedy
Our affinity for Bloomington, Indiana band Sleeping Bag is well documented and our affections continue forth with Dave Segedy’s recent Old Flame Records/Jurassic Pop solo album Lay Up, and today’s world premiere of the video for “Southern Wonders”. The singer and percussionist of Sleeping Bag takes his passion for shooting hoops to the courts and as a therapeutic process he likened to being his own type of yoga (more on that in our following interview feature) where creativity is crossed with the x’s and o’s of gaming sport and focus. And like you would expect from the rest of the Sleeping Bag gang, Segedy keeps the guitars scuzzy, crunchy, poppy, and powerful. The amp blasted electric chord utterances remain in the key of alternative, as Dave maintains harmonies instrumentally and vocally that builds brilliantly off the 90s power pop obsessions and more.
In a video shot and edited by Dave Segedy himself, you are welcome to join the singer and drummer with some of his friends to shoot some buckets while rocking out to the righteous wonder of “Southern Wonders”. As the games carry on, Dave turns the video into something of a self-introduction piece done up in the style of the epic textual prologues scene in the opening sequences of the Star Wars franchise. From here we learn all about Mr. Segedy, working a maintenance job with his landlord, editing videos for a production firm, his passion for writing songs, playing shows, and shooting hoops with his buddies during his free time. We also learn that he is originally from Muncie, Indiana but resides in Bloomington as Dave and pals Reily Shanahan and Trevor Moore play the court and cap off all the action with a pretty sweet dunk. The rhythm riff keeps a mean and grizzled pace throughout while Segedy ensures vocally and chord wise everything abides by a code of absolute harmonic melody amid the the filters and fuzz of dirty, blessed, diamond bright distortion. Right after the following video debut of “Southern Wonders”, read our recent discussion with Sleeping Bag and solo man Dave Segedy.
From focusing so much of your time on Sleeping Bag to your solo work and everything; tell us about how you found the time to develop the scuzzy crunch fest of feels and more on Lay Up.
Well, in SB, the guitarist Tyler Smith is in charge of all that. I let him have control and stay out of his way so he can do his job. With my solo stuff, tone isn’t my area of expertise so I just keep the tone I use when I write and demo. How I get that tone is I play my bass through a guitar amp and turn the gain up. I wish I could give you a more interesting answer!
What was recording solo like for you versus working with the gang in Sleeping Bag, and how did you find Sleeping Bag influences creeping into your solo work during that process?
When I record solo records, I have to trust myself more with creative decisions since the SB boys aren’t around. That’s sort of why I like it, though. Some of my solo songs were originally intended to be SB songs, so there are Sleeping Bag influences all over the place. I do my best to make the bands sound different.
Given the name of your album Lay Up and your video for “Southern Wonders”; how much have you found that shooting hoops and playing b-ball in the yard has affected your musical game?
Playing basketball does a lot for me, it’s very therapeutic. It’s my yoga. Finding a way to score is a very creative thing and makes your mind work in a different way. It gives my mind a break from music, which I obsess about. I’ve found breaks to be very important in the writing process.
What sorts of wonders inspired “Southern Wonders”?
I haven’t spent much time down south, so I have a lot of wonders about the area. I wonder about why their food is so good, why they are known to be hospitable. I have to be honest, though, I just liked the title. It has nothing to do with the lyrics or anything.
What is the Dave Segedy holiday plan?
Hit up my Dad in Pittsburgh, then swing over to my Mom in Muncie, IN. With any extra time I’ll write songs like crazy. Hopefully make some animated music videos.
2016 hopes, dreams, and wishes?
I hope to go from playing small bars to stadiums and arenas, to be frank. I know that probably won’t happen, but ya gotta have goals. Sleeping Bag is about to record, so I hope to make that the best record you’ve ever heard.
Dave Segedy’s album Lay Up is available now from Old Flame Records/Jurassic Pop.
Catch Dave playing the following dates:
November
16 Detroit, MI – Elijas
17 Chicago, IL – The Burlington
18 Indy, IN – State Street Pub
Versing
No sooner were we celebrating Snuff Redux’s new EP Besides You when their fellow Seattle based buddies Versing released their new big debut single “Haunted Hauses” appropriately released this recently passed Halloween. Like their local friends, Versing’s upcoming EP Nude Descending was recorded by Dylan Wall at BLDGs & mastered by Jordan Koop that presents the latest chapter in developments in the micro-communities of the northwest.
Meet Daniel Salas, Graham Baker, Kirby Lochner, & Max Keyes who make ghost-breeze windy-whatever attitudes that float by order of transcendental guitar arrangements. “Haunted Hauses”. The paranormal notion of memory and collisions of nostalgia and presence of mind/place/time are the mind slipping entries that Versing orchestrate with an arrangement of chords that constantly build up stair steps of elation with an emanating metaphysical like mystique. “Haunted Hauses” is a single not just to be enjoyed during All Hallows Eve but for anytime and any place that may or may not be inhabited by paranormal activities. Communications and confrontations with ghosts that materialize from the nether-realms are paid tribute with chords that create the kind of comforts and feelings of another presence regardless of whether you’re by yourself or not. Versing’s delivery and execution is one that is very natural, like the reluctant shoulder shrug of acquiescence in accepting living conditions that also contain cohabiting entities from the cryptic spiritual dimensions. We had an opportunity to get to know the Versing crew a bit better in our interview session featured right after the following listen to “Haunted Hauses”.
Tell us about the beginnings of Versing.
Daniel: The four of us all knew each other through KUPS, the student radio station at University of Puget Sound. Max, Graham, and I started as a three-piece in late 2013 under a different name (I think “Lyla’s”?). We used to play a mean Boyracer cover back in those days. But eventually our sound grew past what I felt we could do as a three-piece. I already knew Kirby from Sun Eater, a psych-rock band we both play in, so I invited him to join as our bass player, with Graham moving to lead guitar. Around that time we moved to Seattle and have just been playing shows and working on new songs ever since.
Describe for us what the making of your Nude Descending EP was like working with folks like Dylan Wall and Jordan Koop mastering in Vancouver.
Daniel: Dylan recorded us to 8-track cassette in May at BLDGs and at his home studio here in Seattle. He’s a great producer and an inspiration to work with. He made our EP sound better than we ever dreamed it could, and even put up with me throwing up in his backyard several times during a harrowing day of vocal takes. I can’t extol his virtues enough.
Jordan was super professional and did an excellent job with the mastering, but unfortunately we didn’t really get to meet him since he lives in Vancouver. We’d love to buy him a beer next time we’re there though!
Kirby: We all had spent some time with home recordings and our first demos were actually recorded in our Seattle apartment by Dan. But it was an entirely different experience altogether booking a studio for a finite amount of time and working with Dylan. It was a great feeling to be able to focus on playing and let Dylan take care of the rest, especially with a limited budget.
What is the Versing approach like to crafting songs together? What are these sessions like?
Kirby: Dan is a fairly prolific songwriter and definitely the driving force creatively speaking. He’ll usually bring us melodies and chord progressions he’s working on to practice and we’ll formulate ideas together as we play through them.
What do you all dig about the Seattle scenes right now, and what do you all find challenging about the current state of the Seattle circuits?
Graham: It is incredible. There are tons of great bands and tons a of really great places to play. When I was living in Tacoma, I was coming up all the time to see shows. Not to say that Tacoma didn’t have lots of cool stuff going on, but in Seattle, the community is just way bigger. I have also been blown away by the punk scene here.
Daniel: The only challenges we’ve faced so far are rush hour drives to Capitol Hill from North Seattle, and venues shutting down. I don’t think we’ve been here long enough to have to have faced some of the worst parts about playing music for people. We’re mostly just happy to be here among so many other incredible bands.
What are you all listening to at this moment?
Graham: Nasti from Olympia came out with a cassette called Ex-Static on Perennial Records and it’s unreal.
Kirby: So Pitted, Jerry Paper, Heaven or Las Vegas, Admas Sons of Ethiopia
Max: So Pitted forever, also a lot of Bowie
Daniel: Look Blue Go Purple, Jerry Paper, and my recently rediscovered CD collection from 8th grade. So much Radiohead.
Versing plan for 2016?
Daniel: Our EP Nude Descending is coming out in early January on Sands Vacation.
Graham: We are so close to putting out our debut EP, so when that comes out, we’re going to try to do a Pacific Northwest tour. We also have enough material to start recording a full length, so we’ll probably start recording sometime early in 2016.
Keep an ear on Versing via Bandcamp.
Ocean Hope
Corinth, Greece brother and sister band Ocean Hope arrived in a shroud of mystery entrancing us with the unbound beauty and audio buoyancy of “By Your Side”. We found ourselves feeling comforted by the duo’s aquatic bathed atmospheres where the warmth hot spring pours senses of a care found only in the tightest and unbreakable bonds. Available today from Hush Hush Records, we are thrilled to premiere Ocean Hope’s Chamber Dreams streaming in full that features the pinnacle of treasured and sacred sorts of ambiance expressed through audio that embodies the very essence and epitome of empathy encapsulated in sound.
Not unlike their fellow Grecian contemporaries Keep Shelly In Athens, Ocean Hope makes music that dips down from those inner zones and illustrates sound-screen-sprayed designs where feeling becomes projected through the latest organic synth-tech devices whilst tapping into those ineffable regions of responsive feeling. Even though Chamber Dreams runs only four succinct tracks long, a plethora of feels are evoked and covered throughout. Keys begin with an oceanic echo on “The Boy”, that introduces the previously mentioned single in a manner consistent with motif, mood, and tuned in with keys that abide by sequences determined by Mediterranean tides. “By Your Side” brings reminders of the importance and presence of the closes bonds in our lives. On the eternal leaning “Forever”, visceral worlds on earths and elsewhere echo in a ever-after wind tunnel of atmospheres and air streaming satin ribbons of vocals. Ocean Hope leaves the the doors of infinity and the unknown wide open on the deceptively title finale “Tame”, where the who-knows-what of the tomorrow that never-ever knows leaves Chamber Dreams wide open for a following extended player or full-length.
The Ocean Hope duo provided us with the following cryptic words on the making of Chamber Dreams:
The EP was created in our house by the sea. We like to imagine that the sound of this EP is serene as the sea but with big wild waves in the very core of it.
Dzang
Dzang is the name of LA artist’s Adam Gunther’s project and imprint who premieres the slick r n’ b single “Spread” off his forthcoming second album Lotion available November 20 on Dzang Recs. Working from improvised recording sessions of raw materials made with friends Molly Sarle (of Mountain Man), rhythm section Henry Kwapis and Patrick Kelly (both of Harriet), featuring Sean O’Brien on synths and lap steel guitar; together their rustic elements combine to create the micro-genre styles of tomorrow that are without pigeonholed tags, and stylistic names. The acoustic and electronic tributaries run parallel courses and often cross in perpendicular manners of syntheses.
“Spread” begins with slow drifting frequencies of smoke, fog, and mirrors that carefully rise and lift with pulsing synths, and keys aligning themselves along the sequential trails of rhythmic orders. As effects slip in and out of the audible frame, Molly Sarle begins singing sensual tales of secondary school trysts in stark and explicit detail that matches the mood and mix made by the Dzang contributors. The tenets, and balances of equality in giving and receiving carnal pleasures and lusts are illustrated in a soundtrack suited for sensual love scenes and playlists for lovers’ sport. The progressions take their time in an orchestration of foreplay that evolves into Dzang’s congress of samples, sounds, rhythms, and more that roll about in a wild romp that ignites the entire senses of one’s being. After the following debut listen to “Spread”, read our interview session with Dzang’s Adam Gunther.
Describe for us the current state of the scenes in Bristol right now.
To outsiders, Bristol is still very much known for trip-hop, dub and reggae and it’s still an important part of the city’s musical identity. For us though, it’s the growing DIY and indie scene that brought us here from neighboring Bath and has kept us entertained as music lovers and musicians. There is a strong sense of a musical community, thanks in part to supportive local press and radio, and also some fantastic labels and promoters that have really driven independent music in the city. It’s an easy place to be yourself without pressure of fitting into a scene. Howling Owl records put out some gloriously strange pop music, and venues like The Cube (an old cinema) and Roll for the Soul (bike café and event space) are home to perfectly curated shows mixing local artists and those from further afield. Right now I am excited about new promoters Thorny, who champion queer and outsider music and performance. Their shows are everything I want from live music, and they are responsible for introducing us to the mesmerizing Many Monika, who played our launch show. It’s a city full of bands desperate to play, so you sometimes have to look a little harder to find the gems, but they are definitely there and making some amazing music.
What sorts of habitats and uninhabited places and things informed the making of The Uninhabited World?
The songs on The Uninhabited World are mostly formed from something real, twisted and transported into a world beyond reality. Partly a mechanism to throw off anyone who thinks the songs might be about them, or even worse, about me, and partly because it makes for more interesting material. A dark, depressing, grimy Paris, as described by George Orwell, ends up being the backdrop to a couple of these stories. It’s an image that has stayed with me since I first read it, a perfect setting for a sinister romance in “Jenny”. The Italian roads and strong colors of Godard’s Le Mepris (which inspired the title and cover art, via Dante) also feature, in my mind if no-one else’s…I also have Margaret Atwood, Hermann Hesse, Poldark, and of course, my ex-boyfriends to thank for the inspiration!
Describe the creative process that you employed that would ultimately create The Uninhabited World.
About half of the songs were written before deciding to make an album, it was an EP that grew at the rate I was writing. Most of these songs started as musical sketches on acoustic guitar, recorded onto my phone. I usually have a lyrical theme and a couple of lines of the lyrics worked out, followed some placeholder gibberish. We didn’t come together as a trio until I’d written these songs, so whereas now I would usually test out stuff in rehearsal, these songs were fully formed by the time we started playing them as a band. Lyrics often start with dialogue, taken from a conversation I’ve had with someone or from a line in a book/movie. I use it as a starting point for a new story and place it in a different conversation. There are always those songs that just appear out of nowhere though and on this record those were The Cull and Poor Copy. It figures, given that they are the most personal, it’s creative therapy. The arrangements on this album happened pretty organically, which I would like to say is a result of my fondness for simplicity and intimacy in music, but is more likely down to my short attention span!
What have you read, heard, seen lately that has inspired you?
Like most sensible people, I have been on a huge Father John Misty kick recently. Serge Gainsbourg is my favorite lyricist of all time, but he has that same mix of humor, drama and honesty that make the songs so special. Adam and I have just emerged from a seven season marathon of Ru Paul’s “Drag Race” (with Andy joining in sometimes after band practice), and whilst I’m not sure that we’ll be producing any dance pop anthems any time soon I am really inspired by the drama and fierceness of it all! Our newer songs are all very personal, much more so than those on this record, so I have been less inspired by books and movies this time around, more by watching amazing people perform. We saw Torres and her band play Bristol recently, the intensity of her performance was spellbinding.
Winter plans for Jemima Surrender?
We have some November/December shows in the South West of the UK and we plan to hibernate in January to book a tour and finish writing/demoing our next release, which we’ll record in early Spring. We all work fairly inflexible day jobs so it can be hard to make the time, but there’s nothing worse than sitting on songs and waiting for them to get old. We’re hoping to book a European tour, so we can eat pretzels, visit old friends and make new ones.
Jemima Surrender’s debut album The Uninhabited World is available now.
Sierra Manhattan
Closing out 2015 on high note, please say hi to Lyon, France’s Sierra Manhattan who stir up a sincere slice of self-sketched pop that needs to be heard by all denizens of the DIY order. Being released through Atelier Ciseaux (in a limited batch of 100 cassettes of different colors) and AB Records on November 24, we bring you an interview with Renardo Duguéto (also operator of AB Records) plus a look at the video for “Dancing” from Apolicarpio.
Featuring the VHS analog looking tape view and feel; share a wonderful day with Sierra Manhattan hanging out with Duguéto along with the Ab Records / Atelier Ciseaux crew. Games of bicycles, gathering bouquets, enjoying coffee, and games of Frisbee in the park are set to the carefree chord strum-fest “Dancing”. Renardo’s lo-fi delivery of forget-me-nots and earnest sweet nothings spill from guitars that recall all your favorite alternative and independent heroes who made guitar music for the bedroom, for the stage, and for pleasant days in the park. Right after the viewing and listen, read our interview with Sierra Manhattan’s own Renardo Duguéto.
What’s the latest from Lyon, France these days?
I had an amazing time seeing the bands Litige and Balladur on stage, lately. They’re really awesome bands and people. There are so many great independent labels like our friends Carpi Records, Manufacture Errata, SK records… There’s also a good agenda for underground gigs called Ville Morte. Collectives like Grrrnd Zero, Cette Mechante Ambiance; Point de Non Retour are always putting gigs everywhere… There’s so many great bands and projects, so many things to see all the time! It’s super exciting and stimulating. Come around here we’ll show you the neighborhood!
How did Sierra Manhattan first start?
I started making music in my small student room 4 years ago and release few digital EPs and an album as Yang. I changed my name to Sierra Manhattan after I got back from an internship in Toronto, and I decided not to make break-up songs anymore. At least I tried. Ha ha. I moved to Lyon approximately a year ago and I asked some friends there if they were okay to try to play some of my songs together and re-arrange them for us four and that’s how we turned into a boys band. I now play with Alexander Van Pelt (Coming Soon, Mount Analogue), Florian (Satellite Jockey, Astronomy Domine) and Rémi (Satellite Jockey, Kcidy).
Tell us about what making the wistful, ‘love-fi’ sound of your upcoming cassette was like for you.
Actually I just didn’t think of it that much. It’s just hard for me to work on a song more than a day or an afternoon. I tend to think about it too much and just never release it. So I just make a song as quickly as I can and bounce it directly to a wav file and try to not change things on it. Ha ha. The b-side of the tape is a live recording with the band in our rehearsal spot near Lyon. We just played each song of the set three times and decided which one we preferred. It was quite simple.
How did you connect with Rémi from Atelier Ciseaux and AB Records for your upcoming tape release?
I started the label AB Records four years ago with my friends Leslie and Valentin in Annecy (french alps) and I’ve always released my stuff on it (as Sierra Manhattan, but also Yang, Bermudaa, or my bands Beauty Camp, Pluie Pluie Pluie, etc). We got invited in Paris to present our work in the festival “La Vilette Sonique” and we met Rémi from Atelier Ciseaux. We met up for some coffees in Lyon several times and he asked me if we were okay to co-release my next tape and we said yeah! Ha ha. It’s real simple to work with him, so we didn’t hesitate that much.
Give us behind the scenes stories on the making of your video for “Dancing”. It looks like the best holiday hangout ever on a weekend that never ends…
Ha ha. We just went to a park next to our place and walked around playing Frisbee and riding bikes. Nothing was really planned and Leslie just filmed everything. We realized that we really sucked at playing Frisbee.
What have you been listening to a lot of recently?
I’ve been listening to Taulard (from Grenoble, Fr) a lot. I listened the album when they released it last year but I never loved it more than now. I also love the Lyon/Brussels/Paris based band Avions, they have this friends-forever feeling that I really love in music. Also a lot of rocksteady, and I some Lee Scratch Perry and King Tubby when I’m home.
What is the Sierra Manhattan plan for 2016?
Nothing’s really planned for now. We’re going on a mini-tour in a few weeks, few gigs in France, Switzerland and Belgium. We talked about releasing some tracks on Mechawolf 3000 (Avions’ record label) as a split tape with his project Hawaii Werewolf. I’d also love to have the time to make a small rocksteady EP or something like this, but yeah we’ll see ! Ha, ha.
Sierra Manhattan’s self-titled will be available November 24 from Atelier Ciseaux/AB Records.
Antlered Aunt Lord
From Athens, Georgia meet Jesse Stinnard, the driving force behind the creative electric outfit Antlered Aunt Lord who presents the world premiere of the Jordan St Martin-Reyes strange forest ritual video for “Hi Beam Hi Priest”. The alt-Appalachian sound from the mysterious Stinnard (who has also played in Tunabunny) will see a proper release from Happy Happy Birthdy To Me on November 20 with his Ostensibly Formerly Stunted (and on fire) LP finally materializing in the world. This here is outsider pop at it’s very best, as Jesse has been drafting songs by the hundreds over the past decade, some of which are presented here on the artist’s forthcoming long-player.
Take the DIY masterpiece of “Hi Beam Hi Priest” that is exists as a bit of pop genius that 4AD and it’s fellow quiet-loud-quiet devotees never delivered. The Jordan St Martin-Reyes video for Antlered Aunt Lord’s “Hi Beam Hi Priest” presents a pagan induction/baptismal/initiation process of the surreal and the downright silly. Jesse himself is brought out to woods with his mouth covered by electrical tape, stripped, doused in pink painted colors, decorated in an earthy coronation of twigs, home crafted wings, and a a stick to resemble a Baphomet of the absurd. Like a tarred and feathered deity idol ripped from the Knights Templar codes of mythology; Jesse is crowned a high priest among his Antlered Aunt Lord court witnessed by the branches, trunks, and leaves of surrounding trees. “Hi Beam Hi Priest” is a single to keep on constant repeat that promises infinite benediction and DIY pop wisdom accompanied by a ceremonial video that brings Stinnard’s independent ethics and aesthetics full circle. After the following debut viewing of “Hi Beam Hi Priest”, read our interview with Antlered Aunt Lord’s elusive Jesse Stinnard himself.
Tell us about how you folks over at Tunabunny went and started Antlered
Aunt Lord.
Actually, AAL had been around, in some form, for years before Tunabunny started. The band is a revolving lineup and tends to change from show to show. Sometimes it could be a folk trio, sometimes it’s 12 guitar players playing C#m for 45 minutes. Sometimes it’s an amps-on-10, feedback-ridden rock show and sometimes it’s just a tape loop playing by itself on stage. Sometimes it’s a solo act. Free jazz space odyssey or a tight 30-minute set of yr new favorite songs. All the Tunabunnies have been involved at some point. Mary Jane is the current bass player and Brigette sings and guitars on the new album.
What is the story behind the name? There has to be some sort of legendary
tale at work here.
The result of legendary compulsive alliteration. The spelling tends to change up, just to keep y’all on yr toes. It’s been Antlered Ant Lord, Aunt Lurid Antlered, Antlrd Antlrd, Antler Read Antlered, Aunt Lure Red Ant Lord. We’ve taken some flack for it’s un-Google-able-ness, but ya just gotta pay attention.
Give us stories on all the stunts that would create your album Ostensibly
Formerly Stunted (and on fire).
Stunts?! Mostly just risking our self-respect and acceptance in polite society. Of course, then there was the time we jumped Snake River Canyon (wait…stunted/stunts, just got it).
Tell us too about the making of the Jordan St. Martin-Reyes video for “Hi Beam Hi Priest”.
Jordan has been making videos and movies locally for the past few years. The “Hi Beam Hi Priest” video is totally his concept. He even picked out the song. Spent a nice afternoon afternoon getting doused by paint and cold water, in the rain. My near-death from drowning and the resulting pneumonia was totally worth it. I love how it came out; Jordan did a great job, helped by Alex, Connor, and all our extras! Hopefully I will live long enough to see it. We filmed it at the Orange Twin Conservation Center just outside of town—if you are quick enough and eagle-eyed, you can just catch the sight of the elves that live there, luckily they never interfered, as we earlier presented them with offerings of vegan pastries and LSD, as per usual.
2016 plans for Antlered Aunt Lord?
Probably another record. Things have been super positive on the label (HHBTM) end. We’ve gotten a lot of great responses from the press already, so I’d love to do another one with them. I’m also thinking of maybe re-releasing some of the old self-released albums, in some fashion. If we can work it out, we’ll
hopefully tour some.
Best things about the DIY scenes of Athens, Georgia, right now?
Lots of experimental, improv-y sounds happening right now, with the inevitable band member swapping and swinging. Tunabunny is finishing up a record. I play bass in Hunger Anthem; we’re recording right now. Labelmates Eureka California are still going strong, just finished recording a new record. New Sound of Numbers, Smokedog, Leisure Service, Old Smokey, Femilee Wireland, The We Can Count, Half Acid, The Real Lord Baltimore, New Wives, Electric Nature, Nice Machine. Actually lots of great things happening in Athens right now. Come play our town!
Antlered Aunt Lord’s anticipated album Ostensibly Formerly Stunted (and on fire) will be available November 20 from Happy Happy Birthdy To Me.
Amina Hocine
Gothenburg, Sweden’s Amina Hocine continues her musical thread of synths, piano keys, viola, and electronics on her EP Amina Hocine 2 for Clandestino Institut mixed by Dan Lissvik of The Studio fame. Her new EP finds Amina working as a radio conduit channeling late night YouTube video watching, Carl Sagan spectral notions, featuring structures, arrangements, and conventions that are all her own. “Sometimes I try to work differently,” Hocine explains, “as with Jar, on this EP. I had an idea that the song would consist only of body sounds. But after a while it a completely different turn and became the song you hear on the record.This EP is released digitally and in a limited edition of twelve inch vinyl, and is the result of a period of almost total isolation in a small cabin in northern Zealand, Denmark.” It was here that Amina drafted and recorded her new EP over the course of two months. “It was more like a recreation room than a real house, eight square meters on Zealand Odde. Once there was a hurricane outside so the whole cottage shook. But mostly it was quiet and the best part was that I could stay in the music for long periods without interruption.”
From here you can hear Amina’s experimentations that ring in some cases like electronic pop songs you have known your entire life. “Jar” brings about all the doubt and misgivings and packs it into electronic vessel that sparkles like gold adorned clay receptacles that sit patiently and tentatively on the shelf. Thoughts and revisions of yesterday are rekindled on the whirling motor minimalism of “Infiltrating the Past” that re-opens the photo albums and journals that documented the days, weeks, months, and years gone past. Local Gothenburg characters make found sound cameos as well such as “Ode to the Woman on the Tram” where the babble of eccentrics riding Swedish public transit are given a proper tribute as Amina creates a wildly imaginative electrified homage all of her own skilled design and arrangement. We discussed Aminda Hocine 2 with the artist in an interview session featured right after the following listen.
Tell us what the making of your Amina Hocine 2 EP was like in Zealand, Denmark recorded in near ‘total isolation?’
Well, I get overwhelmed by the city from time to time and that was why I went there. I wanted to be alone and I wanted time to really dig into my music. It was a really spiritual time, it was only me, the cabin and the ocean. Everyday I went up at five and ran for an hour before the sun went up. And everyday after four pm I didn’t get out of the cabin because the sun went down and I’m scared of the dark. I also experimented with being awake for two-three days in a row to get deeper into my subconscious and find new sounds.
How did ideas of body sounds later become the electronic rhythm pulse of Amina Hocine 2?
Hmm, when I make a song it never ever matters where I intend the song to end. If I’m starting with the idea of a song entirely made with my body’s sound it will definitely end up somewhere else completely. Therefor I feel like I’m not the one making the songs, it’s something else using me as a radio sort of.
What was it like working with Dan Lissvik from Studio?
I’m really pleased with the end results of his mixing. It feels like he really got where I’m trying to go with my songs.
How has Carl Sagan, the city of Gothenburg, and YouTube binging impacted the new EP?
I was really “spacey” at the time. Thinking a lot about me being tiny on a tiny planet. Well, the whole “star stuff”-thing and bending time and micro cosmos. I guess, Carl Sagan became my friend in the cabin, telling me amazing stuff. I just filled up my brain with all this information from YouTube. I’m really an information junkie. And the void, the absence of Gothenburg. In Gothenburg I feel like I know almost everybody and the contrast of that, being so isolated gave me power.
Tell us about your composition work with Folkteatern in Gothenburg, and the upcoming performances: Variation and Not Based on a True Story premiering March 7.
These plays premiered March 7 this spring (2015) so I’m not working on them now. But I can tell you about the play I’m working on now. It’s called The accountant by Gogol. In the play I’ve written the music on an old electrical organ that I play live on stage. It’s sort of a David Lynch/Badalamenti kind of feel to both the music and the play.
What are you the most excited about the forthcoming leg of your tour with Hiya wal Âalam?
I don’t know what to expect at all so that kinda tickles me. I feel like I’m about to bungee-jump or something. Usually I bring three or four musicians with me on stage because my music is so complex and I’ve been afraid to do it all by myself but now I’ve challenged myself to do an equal set by myself and I think I’ve succeeded so I’m really excited to try it out on real human beings and not just walls.
Amina Hocine 2 is available now from Clandestino Institut.
Catch Amina on the following US dates with Hiya wal Âalam:
November
18 Washington DC – House of Sweden
22 Boston, MA – Middle East
23 New York, NY – Knitting Factory
Ringo Deathstarr
Ringo Deathstarr takes on T’Pau’s “Heart And Soul” and adds some of the craziest and coolest guitar applications that makes this cover designed to be played at the maximum volume imaginable. The Austin based purveyors and provocateurs of pure blissful, buzzy noise release their new album Pure Mood on November 20 from Club AC30. Bassist G.G. Alex’s vocals transform the classic into a nu-gazing redux-deluxe where dream beams of sound are cast into all directions as you hear what happens when the old school alternate underground becomes intertwined with new romantic radio pop.
Also watch Ringo Deathstarr’s video for “Guilt” from Elliott Frazier that rocks like the oughts never happened. After the viewing and listen, read our interview with the Deathstarr’s Elliott Frazier, Daniel Coborn, and G.G. Alex.
We have heard about how much attention and energy you all have poured into this album. What felt different this time around making the fifth Ringo Deathstarr album Pure Mood?
Elliott: No one was there to supervise us, I didn’t have to check with anyone’s availability to record vocals or guitars. We recorded it mostly) at our practice space in Austin so we could just keep working on it until we got it right.
Was it in any way inspired by the classic smooth hits compilation (as seen on TV), Pure Moods?
Elliott: Yes, it was! Don’t think too hard about it.
Favorite moments and anecdotes from the recording sessions of Pure Mood?
Elliott: When Daniel was just fiddling about on the drums and I said ‘record that!’ And we ended up looping it and it became the drum part to “Stare At The Sun”. Also when we were recording the vocals to Big Bopper in sunny California and we had to write the lyrics on the spot, we were inspired by the California sun, and rosé. And hamburgers from The Habit.
What do you all love about Austin these days?
Elliott: The yuppies.
Alex: The puppies.
What do you all love the least about Austin these days?
Elliott: I’ll put it to you this way, when I saw Dave Navarro live- it was good to hear a real guitar player for a change.
Daniel: And he was buff.
Alex: The thing I love least about Austin these days would have to be all the guitar players who don’t take their shirts off.
Ringo Deathstarr winter plans?
Elliott: we’ll just be sitting on the patio in sunny Ol’ Austin drinking margaritas with our flip flops on.
What are you all obsessively listening to right now?
Alex: Elliott snoring.
Elliott: I’m obsessing over every note of The Ramones ‘Leave Home’
The Head
Atlanta, Georgia’s The Head release their Millipedes EP today and we give you the following debut listen followed by a few exclusive insights. The trio of Jack Shaw, Mike Shaw, and Jacob Morrell partake in the time tried and true traditions of power pop that have been reinforced further from the group’s work with the likes of John Vanderslice, Doug Gillard, Mitch Easter, Big Star legend Jody Stephens and more. Continuing what brothers Jack and Mike and friend Jacob began during their freshman year of high school, the self-produced Millipedes moves in a variety of directions that finds The Head moving in assured and exciting headstrong directions.
Musings of messianism and more rocks hard on the opener cut “Jesus” and unfolds in ways that present the three working together like a well-serviced savior machine. Matters get serious on “It Ain’t Easy” that recalls the 2012 Newtown school shooting that explores interpersonal connections from father and son dynamics, to examining the balances and imbalances of our surrounding society at large. Storms and downpours burst in the catchy tarp clad “Raincoats” that seeks a sort of shelter for all things from the threat of overhead rain clouds and their emitted contents. Ineffable things left unsaid, forgotten, and unacknowledged are illustrated in the power fist clenched cut “Unspoken”, right before the three leave you strolling to the guitar lick laden stoned strewn pathway of “Pebbles On The Ground”. Developing styles and sounds of their own championed by their idols and contemporaries, The Head have hemmed a five song cycle to keep you warm this winter until word of a forthcoming full-length makes the news rounds.
We bring you the following introduction to the EP with an exclusive preface from singer/bassist Mike Shaw:
In September last year, we made a weekend trip to the Blue Ridge mountains. What started as an acoustic ditty in a cabin bathroom became the beginning of “Pebbles on the Ground.” Jack and Jacob played their guitars, and I locked myself in the shower, searching for the best echo. Later that night, the three of us walked into the woods. It was wet, foggy and muggy. We split into different directions and returned with mud on our shins and a thirst for the contents of the Styrofoam cooler we had waiting on the porch.
Over the next couple months, we wrote the rest of the record in our closet-size rehearsal space. We were eager to make the sound bigger than our crammed room. From these sessions came songs like “Unspoken” and “It ain’t Easy”. We cut most of the songs in Jacob’s basement, fueled by homemade cookies, Jameson and microwave samosas. By winter we were ready to have the tracks mixed at Madison Recording Studios in Atlanta.
Since June, we’ve zig-zagged the East coast, Midwest and Deep South half-a-dozen times. We’ve fallen in love with Wawa convenience stores, slept in an abandoned skate shop, and camped out in an empty theater all in support of our new EP, Millipedes, which comes out [today].
Available now from Cascine, hear what is definitely a contender for one of the year’s best albums with Airbird & Napoleon’s titanic collaboration continued on the album Mr. Foolish that illustrates the genius at work between Joel Ford and Ian Evans collaborating their gifts and talents from east to west, shore to shore, coast to coast. This is not your parents’ dance music. Also grab a listen to their recent Friday Night mix exclusive on Impose.
We give you a listen to the new album Luvadocious from Baltimore artist Al Rogers Jr., featuring production from Drew Scott (of Baltimore’s Blacksage). Al moves the listeners on a sensational r n’ b journey into narratives of love and the metaphysics that exist in between and in that great beyond. In his own words:
Luvadocious is world I made up where people believe God to be a woman and love isn’t feared. When you think of everything good in this world it’s a sense of feminine energy to it; beauty and grace unlike power & greed which could be thought of as a masculine trait. Godina (God) is narrating the entire project voiced by radio personality Ladawn Black. It’s an album speaking on triumphs, falling in love, heart breaks, struggles, family, and faith. I wanted it to feel like God is talking to you and guiding you through my music so it feels as though you’re actually on a voyage.
Blade of Glass follow up their She Was EP with Skydream sharing a listen into their own electro-lust-rose-tinted worlds where floral lens trip into dance floor arenas. Skydreamer
Keeping up with the NX Records tradition established by the collaboration between Goldsmiths and Matthew Herbert; news of their upcoming Crossing Lines III compilation available November 20 and we bring you some sweet on the latest from South East London with Nyx’s perceptive scanning electronic slow and smooth burner, “Out of View”. Featuring vocals from Jesse Belgrave with production by Mikko Gordon (also Femme’s producer), the points of perception and affection move in lyrical and audio designs that alter the observational paths of slowed down time and perspectives.
Mothxr (Penn Badgley & Jimmy Giannopoulos) are readying an album for Razor and Tie in 2016, and we have your listen to the new single “Touch” that reaches out in electro vibe ways. Crooning lover’s rock manners moves about in subdued ways like those intonations of early evenings that turn into early mornings.
Montclair, NJ’s WOOF has recently released Bad Connection and we bring you the following listen plus a few exclusive words from the artist.
Featured in Singles Club Issue 007, hear Michael Nau’s Vermont recorded songs of amour and perseverance on “Love Survive”. Alongside Whitney McGraw (bandmate and spouse) providing accompanying vocals, Nau intertwines an earnest nature where his heart is carefully stitched to his musical contributions. The result of Michael and Whitney’s recent Vermont recording sessions for Nau’s upcoming album boasts sounds of east cabins of solitudes that echo the troubadour purveyors and auteurs of the western shores.
Off his Posto-Echo EP Pineapple Flex; peep the @rotarychicken video for “List It” that deals with the ultimate delivery of pure ego rejection. The elitist guest list life is almost comically thrown back in the face of the present artist. In Devereaux’s own words:
Several people I showed this song to in the early stages found it funny. And, well, I was worried my mark was being missed. I know it’s sassy…but it’s kind of serious. Therein lies the reason the video is so stoic and minimal…I wanted it classy and completely respectful with regards to women.
With their Emo Friends / Honey double single available November 20 from Beech Coma, Bruising shares “Honey” as they prepare for a November tour with Los Campesinos! and January dates with Diet Cig. A re-recording of the first song the Leeds duo Naomi Baguley and Ben Lewis ever collaborated on, the result is some of the biggest, and loudest guitar chord progressions that spew nothing but hooks while Baguley’s voice rises above the wonder pop ruckus like a floral bouquet of balloons.
Beverly began fronted by Frankie Rose who has passed the torch over to Drew Citron as lead front woman who is readying an upcoming album with a title and release date that is still TBD with UK tour dates running from November 14-20. We are thrilled to bring you a listen to the first single “Crooked Cop” that brings some jangle-pop glistening glimmers of melancholia and musings that come from the place of a deceived heart that is still trying to sort the truths from the fiction. In Drew’s own words on the single:
Sometimes it seems like cops can get away with anything, and that’s what it feels like to be led into the weeds by a crush. “Crooked Cop” is about a deceitful relationship, and how hard it can be to get a handle on someone you love. It was a fun way to write a song that’s been written a million times—using cops.
Ummagma’s new album Frequency is available today on Raphalite Records, featuring the latest frequencies and cosmic dreams from the Canada by Ukriane duo Alexx Kretov & Shauna McLarnon. Listen as the cosmos align on constellation of “Orion”, to the eye-opening dreamscapes of “Lama”, also including the Malcolm Holmes’ OMD remix that adds a variety of treated electronic effects and universal rhythmic blends.
Taken from their upcoming Solitaire Recordings EP Underpass; hear Asdasfr Bawd’s club leaning cut “Negative Energy” that lights the dance-floor up with plumes of burnt sage smoke that wards off all wicked spirits. Alex Clayton provides his own take on the Melbourne club circuit by building progression repetitions around hook that casts off any and all unwanted energy advances.
David Dewese and Jerry James are Foxymorons who have just released their album Fake Yoga, and we give you the video for “Always Come Back” that features the band having a ball in time to their catchy and peppy song. In James’ own words, “The video was shot in a very low-key, off-the-cuff way and documented an afternoon of band shenanigans. Incidentally, there was country line-dancing at the wedding which we sort of snuck in there. We are from Texas, after all.”
Big Pooh & Nottz just released Home Sweet Home today via Mello Music Group and we are about to take you to a Raleigh homecoming spiritual tent revival style. Big P takes the pulpit with great conviction and Nottz keeps the arrangement beat busting out with the most massive choir section ever.
Tel Aviv by Brooklyn’s O Mer just dropped the single “Now I’m Alive” that deals in experimental electronics and expressions that bubble to the surface from heart helmed melodies and hummed harmonies. Stirring up a sensational and original arrangement, O Mer attests to his process as a method of thinking ” musically and lyrically in terms of opposites derived from each other, emphasize the way silence and noise are caused by one another.”
Watch the timeless Brian George and Galen Jackson video for Cassandra Violet’s folk strummed “Lady” that turns the tables on expected gender roles in a statement on being your own autonomous person. The video’s vintage “Little House on the Prairie” style finds sisters overthrowing the patriarchy to discover the wide world of LA city lights gazing back that leaves the story set at the beginning of a whole new chapter. Cassandra’s upcoming Body & Mind EP will be available January 29.
Hear High Highs’ new big bright electric single “Cascades” from the album of the same name available February 5 with news of their signing to [PIAS]. The Australian duo of Jack Milas and Oli Chang create music that shines like tubes of neon light to paint the skies and decorums of interior clandestine spaces at night.
With Elephant Stone touring now through November 21; watch the Elba Berganza video for “The Devil’s Shelter” that features contributing vocals from The Black Angels’ Alex Maas. The dark scanning evil heat of the Stone’s psych-pop beat is met by visuals that bring together haunted images of graveyards, train tracks that run on for infinity, and strange occult dances all abound.
Straight out of the hotbed of Raleigh, NC; peep the B. Rain Bennett video for our friends Kooley High’s “Under The Sun” cut. Found off their recent anticipated Heights EP, read our recent interview feature here. Sun baked lyrics and adventures await your senses.
From their Empty Cellar Records 7″ split with The Dry Spells available November 15, check out The She’s new single “Cherry Red” that features Hannah Valente and the gang bringing about a dose of pure grrl pop direct from San Francisco. Produced by the venerable Patrick Brown at Different Fur, your favorite 80s/90s rebels and rockers can be heard encased within The She’s sound featuring lyrical content that surrounds thoughts on coloring your lips the hue of the song’s namesake.
Adult Dude’s record release show for their Animal Style Records album debut Adult Moods is happening November 19 at Union Hall with Dead Stars and Katie Ellen (ex-Chumped’s Anika Pyle, Dan Frelly) and we give you the video for their alt-flannel-fuzz fun of “Bonehead”. Watch what looks like a sequence of yogurt packets getting splattered on the band depicted at various frame-rates.
Philadelphia four-piece Weekender’s EP Floaty Feeling, Blue will be available January 15 from PaperCup Music, and we give you the following title track that lives up to the title’s allusions. As all the great dream pop goddesses and gods of yesteryear are reuniting, Weekender absorbs those soft as snow but warm inside aesthetics and previous institutions into their sound.
Apollo LTD dropped some of that big time pop that brings all the big festival banger sparkle and buzz with the title track from their upcoming EP, What Are You Waiting For.
Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard remixed YACHT’s “Ringtone” with a bunch of new bouncing synth rhythmics and offered the words of adoration with, “I love YACHT; I think their music and their live performances are mesmerizing, and they are just plain good people. For this release, I wanted to make an old-fashioned Chicago banger as if the Eurythmics were remixed by DJ Pierre.”
Taryn Miller, aka Your Friend shared the reflective fluttering and awe-spiring single “Heathering” from her upcoming album Gumption available January 29 from Domino. Beams of dreams and sacred corners of the heart fly forward from Taryn’s delivery that then becomes immersed in the slowly growing surround of effects and atmospheres that envelop the listener.
Fresh from World Champion, get ready to get the into the holiday mode of escaping the trappings of the season with the sweet and smooth sharking “Shakes” off their upcoming debut Avocado Galaxy EP available December 4 from Future Classic.
Located across the pond in Sheffield, SPEARS dropped their new Brit-mathematic pop with a listen to “The Forest” single available proper January 29 via End of the Trail Records.
LA’s The Back Watch returns with their new album available December 4 titled Highs & Lows and we bring you the the single “Pershing / Harvard Square” that rings full of vintage independent rock charm to warm you while winter sets in all around, everywhere.
Watch the intimate and warm video for Marco Rea’s “Time” from his Wallpaper Music album via The Barne Society, lending heart lead piano ballads that convey chronologies and histories that count the meanings in the grains of sand contained from within life’s hourglass.
Their album Untitled (Five Tears) is available now on Barsuk Records, and we bring you Babes’ new video for “I Want Love” from Doug Lussenhop about desires and a love-in that turns weird.
Russia’s Kedr Livanskiy shares a listen to his forthcoming November 20 slated single for 2MR with “Sgoraet” (which translates to “Burning Down” in English) that provides electronic atmospheres from the Moscow musical underground. The single offers variations of the track with the “(Burning Down)” version that operates on a tense level, followed by the instrumental, an a capella version, and the b-side lo-fi traveling beats with “On The Road Again”. In Kedr’s own words on the single:
The sinister synths in “Sgoraet” are inspired by the otherworldliness of Russian winter; Russia in winter is a terrible thing, but it also has a strange romantic presence to it. The drum and bass coda emulates the feeling of impending death and transition to another state when winter is over one’s shoulder.
Playing London’s The Shacklewell Arms on November 30, hear Saint Sister’s new EP Madrid featuring the gorgeous meeting of the harp touched title track, the regal rise and harmonies of “Castles”, folk baroque musings on “Blood Moon”, before leaving you with the solemn parting “Versions of Hate” that emerges and exits back into the smoky like atmospheres.
Zema’s Week in Pop
Kegan Zema (of Journalism, ZEMA, sound engineer, etc) opens his “American Icon” multimedia exhibit November 19 through December 5 at Silent Barn, and we are proud to give you the artist’s exclusive Week in Pop guest selections:
Cultural icons define who we are. They dictate what’s cool, popularizing styles and trends. They become our idols. Each generation strives to be the performers they see on TV and hear on records—to look as fabulous, sound as revolutionary, or move as seductively. “American Icon” deals heavily with this idea of loving and understanding your heroes, even as you rebel against them.
Watching footage of the musical giants of the past is so important to understanding them apart from the ubiquitous imagery. Each one of these videos tells a tiny part of the story of these people’s lives, a glimpse into one moment on their journey through superstardom.
Elvis
This is Elvis’s last ever performance (according to the video title at least). He literally cries and forgets his own words in a drunken slur. “You know someone said the world’s a stage and each must play a part.”
Bowie
This dope rendition of “Young Americans” is from an appearance on the Dick Cavett Show. During the same show he does an amazing and quite lengthy interview that I watched a lot to study Bowie’s mannerisms.
Kurt
Kurt never really stopped being a negative creep despite everything that happened.
Bob
“Oh Sister” is definitely one of my favorite Dylan songs and this video features a pretty gorgeous version of it. Plus, look at that shirt!
Bruce
This video is a trip. The imagery is just so concise. Springsteen as the crane operator and ex-pitcher is so goofy but also incredibly poignant. Make sure you watch the whole part at the end after the song finishes.
Marilyn
A true American Icon.
It’s super important for me to stress that I could not have done this without the help of an amazing and dedicated team of friends and collaborators. I am beyond blessed to have such talented and committed people who believe in what I’m doing. Here are a few music things from the people who helped make this happen.
Bodega Bay
Many of the members of Bodega Bay were heavily involved with this project and are frequent collaborators. Nikki Belfiglio took the portrait series, and Joe Wakeman and Ben Hozie helped with some of the dramatic elements. All of them appear in this claustrophobic video for the first track off their 33-song debut album, “Our Brand Could Be Your Life.”—“Are these new friends or just more heads for your show?”
Operator
I’m always excited when I get to play with Dara Hirsch, and we’re working together outside of the studio. Here’s one of my favorite tracks off their debut EP, Puzzlephonics I (full disclosure: I recorded this album).— “With your face pulling light, I felt, undeservedly high”
Chat Logs
I saw Chat Logs a long time ago; long before I knew either Ryan Downey or Julian Fader personally. I remembered hating it but the important thing was I definitely remembered it all vividly years later! Ryan is an extremely talented performer and I’m really happy to be working with him on this.
Ronnie Stone and the Lonely Riders
Also mad respect for Ronnie Stone and the Lonely Riders! Ride on!
Catch Kegan Zema’s “American Icon” shows at Silent Barn’s Vital Joint Gallery at the following dates and times:
November
19 Inaugural Ceremonies and Opening Night (8 PM)
20 As part of the Title:Point SalOn! Series – (8 PM)
21 With “special guests” (9 PM)
Follow ZEMA on Twitter.
