This week in music. Back by popular demand. Instead of band news, here are political, social and editorial perspectives on music from various web sources. Let’s take the blue pill, shall we?
!) Last weekend played host to one of the world’s biggest music festival: western England’s Glastonbury. The Boston Globe compiled an album of 33 amazing pictures of the festival.
@) Emusic created a list of this year’s most underrated albums. Included is one of my favorite albums of the hour by Here We Go Magic.
#) Mentalfloss’ Danny Gallagher compiled a list of songs to play when torturing. Bookmark this in case you get the chance to waterboard Dick Cheney. Here it is!
$) Indie-Rock in Iran???? Yes. They are called Hypernova. Check the video interview on lp33.tv to see how “you can’t take music away from people” and how they came about under a regime that banned dancing and music.
Rounder Records will release Sondre Lerche’s debut for the label, Heartbeat Radio, on September 8th. The twelve-song album will be his first release since the soundtrack for Dan in Real Life in 2007.
Heartbeat Radio was recorded in Lerche’s hometown of Bergen, Norway, and his newly adopted home of Brooklyn, NY. The album was produced by Lerche with Kato Ådland…it was mixed by Joe Chicarelli (White Stripes, My Morning Jacket, The Shins). In addition to his backing band, The Faces Down, a large group of musicians and contributors were brought into the studio to build upon Sondre’s knack for pop sonics recalling The Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, Prefab Sprout and XTC.
Tracklisting:
1. Good Luck
2. Heartbeat Radio
3. I Cannot Let You Go
4. Like Lazenby
5. If Only
6. Pioneer
7. Easy to Persuade
8. Words and Music
9. I Guess it’s Gonna Rain Today
10. Almighty Moon
11. Don’t Look Now
12. Goodnight
While nothing has been cleared to share from the new album at this point, here’s a little something to listen to until then…
MP3: Sondre Lerche - “Say It All”
MP3: Sondre Lerche - “Two Way Monologue”
While the Apples in Stereo continue working on their seventh album, Travelers in Space and Time, the band has decided to reward their fans with the release of a compilation featuring the best songs from their first six released. The album will be released on September 1st via Yep Roc and is titled #1 Hits Explosion. The release will also contain 16 pages of liner notes including contributions from Elephant 6 fan site maintainer Jeff Kuykendall.
Tracklisting:
1. Energy
2. Go!
3. Strawberryfire
4. Tidal Wave
5. Please
6. The Rainbow
7. Seems So
8. Same Old Drag (check out video above)
9. The Bird That You Can’t See
10. Shine A Light
11. 20 Cases Suggestive Of…
12. Ruby
13. Signal In The Sky
14. Can You Feel It?
15. Winter Must Be Cold
16. Sun Is Out
Here’s one that didn’t make the grade…
MP3: Apples In Stereo - “Thank You Very Much”
I don’t ask any of you to use your imagination very often, but it’s a lot of fun for this entry. If I asked you to imagine (and I’m asking) what group of musicians and artists, featuring members of Foreign Born, We Are Scientists, Glasser and The Fall sounded like…what conclusion would you come to?
Fool’s Gold is an LA collective consisting of Luke Top: Bass, Lead Vocal, Lewis Pesacov: Guitar, Big Search: Guitar, Vocal, Jimmy Vincent: Guitar, Garrett Ray: Drums, Amir Kenan: Keyboard, Percussion & Vocal, Mark Noseworthy: Sax, Percussion, Brad Caulkins: Sax, Percussion and Percussionists: Orpheo Mccord, Erica Garcia, Michael Tapper, Salvador Placencia.
The collective’s influences are listed as benga bass, ju-ju jams, lingala licks and soukous soul. I’m not sure what any of that means, but after listening to the first track cleared from their self-titled debut I’m telling you it rubs me in all the right ways. Speaking of their debut, it will be released on September 29th via IAMSOUND.
OK, back to the imagination request…imagine Vampire Weekend is Jonah and Paul Simon’s Graceland is the whale. The whale’s waste is sorta what Fool’s Gold sounds like (or something). Getting the picture? No?! The hell with it then, just listen…
MP3: Fool’s Gold - “Surprise Hotel”
The new album from Brooklyn-based trio The Jaguar Club is titled And We Wake Up Slowly and will be released on September 1st. The debut full-length was recorded at Marcarta Recordings with Kevin McMahon (The Walkmen, French Kicks, Die Die Die, Frightened Rabbit) behind the controls. “The album was written in a basement with no fresh air and recorded in a huge barn in the mountains, so it’s a nice mix of the two hopefully. We’re really, really excited to finally get it out there. We think it’s excellent,” says lead singer and guitarist Will Popadic.
The Jaguar Club will be throwing an album release party on August 29th at Union Hall in Brooklyn. Several of the trio’s favorite bands will be sharing the stage that evening: Coyote Eyes, Spanish Prisoners, and pow wow!
If you’re interested in attending, advanced tickets have gone on sale and the band are going to be giving away a special lyric & photo booklet to the folks who pick up a copy the new album that night and buy their tickets in advance. Confirmation number/email from Ticketweb will be required, so print a copy and present it at the merch table, please.
Tickets are $8 and available through Ticket Web.
MP3: The Jaguar Club - “Sleepwalking”
Asheville’s Floating Action and New Orleans’ Generationals will make a trek across the Mississippi and Rocky Mountains for a Western US jaunt. Tour stops include cities like Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tucson and many more. Sharing the stage on select date are fellow Park The Van bands Golden Boots (Tucson) and Eagle Winged Palace (Los Angeles). Catch them in a city near you!
Park The Van Tour Dates:
07-22 Missoula, MT @ Badlander
07-23 Spokane, WA @ the Blvd.
07-24 Portland, OR @ Someday Lounge
07-25 Seattle, WA @ ToST
07-27 San Francisco, CA @ Café du Nord
07-28 Big Sur, CA @ TBA
07-29 Sacramento, CA @ TBA
07-30 Costa Mesa, CA @ Detroit Bar w/ Golden Boots + Eagle Winged Palace
07-/31 Hollywood, CA @ Hotel Café + Golden Boots
08-01 Long Beach, CA @ DiPiazza’s (Floating Action only)
08-02 San Diego, CA @ Bar Pink (free) + Golden Boots
08-03 Phoenix, AZ @ the Trunkspace + Golden Boots
08-04 Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress + Golden Boots
08-06 Austin, TX @ Stubbs Jr.
08-07 Houston, TX @ Super Happy Funland
08-08 New Orleans, LA @ the Hi-Ho Lounge
MP3: Generationals - “When They Fight They Fight”
MP3: Floating Action - “50 Lashes”
My friend Mark brought The New Collisions to my attention. The group is being touted as the hottest band on the Boston scene. If you hold female-fronted bands in the vein of Blondie, The Go-Go’s and Missing Persons near and dear this lot is definitely for you.
Sarah Guild recently too time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions for the site…
Give us a little background about the band, please. What events led to its creation? Who are the members?
The New Collisions definitely didn’t happen by accident. Scott and I had dropped out of college together, dissatisfied with the life and options that it presented. We then went through a longish phase of roaming about, trying this and that. We lived in the south, in England, around the northeast, a bunch of places. Music was always a big part of our lives, so we finally decided to settle somewhere and start a serious music project–something that had pop music at its core, but could also draw on everything we loved: fashion, film, art, performance, an explosion of culture. A project, in other words, that could embrace and even push culture–like U2, The Beatles, Blondie–our idols. We officially launched The New Collisions about six months ago, and things have moved very quickly since then. The members are myself–Sarah Guild–on vocals, Scott Guild on guitar, Alex Stern on bass, Casey G on keyboards, and Zak Kahn on drums.
Who are some of the band’s biggest influences?
Though we’re a very new, we were pegged early on as a new-wave act. A lot of influences do come from that era–that period between 1978 and 1983 when punk, post-punk and straight pop were combining to create a new kind of popular music, driven equally by guitar and synth, with an eye to pre-psychedelic 60s pop. I’d say our big influences are The Cars, Blondie, Missing Persons, The Go Go’s, R.E.M., but also The Kinks, The Ronnettes, The Beach Boys, The Beatles. Energetic and melodic music really defines where we’re at and where we want to go. We don’t want to be pegged as an 80s throwback band, because our goal is to make great and timeless pop music. That can’t be confined to one era.
Speaking of influences, The Cars’ Greg Hawkes plays on your EP. How did that come about?
Now that was an accident. Well, almost. We had been searching for a good keyboard player and coming up with nothing. Every time we put up a post, we mentioned Greg Hawkes from The Cars, who embodies the kind of hooky lead synth that we want for our music. Finally, after a few weeks, we googled Greg Hawkes out of curiousity. It turned out that he had a myspace page and lived within 10 miles. So we wrote to him, he wrote back, then he came out to a show, and it went from there. It’s pretty incredible!
Spin Magazine said you’re “The hottest Boston band right now.” Have any labels expressed interest in working with the band at this point?
It’s all happening quickly, but yes, we’ve started discussions with different labels. Beyond that (for the moment anyway) “our lips are sealed!”
Boston’s been a hotbed on numerous occasions, but it’s been somewhat silent for a while now…who are some bands we should take note of making a noise on the scene?
There are some great bands in the local scene right now. We moved to Boston almost on a whim (we knew some people here and thought it was as good a place as any to get started), but we arrived at a perfect moment. It isn’t getting much press yet, but I predict that a true dance-pop explosion will happen here within the next year or so. The electro band Passion Pit just blew up into a national act and are on the cover of NME this month. Though they harken from a much later period of New Wave than us, people are slotting us as the ones to follow in their footsteps. I’d definitely draw attention to Yes Giantess, Televandals, Freezepop, and The Sterns as being at the forefront of this emerging scene. We’re friends with these folks and I feel like we’re all creating an imporant moment–music that is unabashedly fun, danceable, and hooky (like the greats of the 60s and 80s), incorporating older influences but also making something distinct and new. I would say that there’s a real message to this music as well.
If you were making a mixtape for our readers, what are the first three songs you’d choose (from other artists) and why?
I would actually choose some local tracks, because I’m a firm believer in what is happening here right now. I’d suggest “The Reeling” by Passion Pit–an incredible song with a killer video. Next, “This Will Only Hurt For a Minute” by The Sterns. In my opinion, this is a great pop song that deserves global attention. Last, “30 Lives,” by The Motion Sick. The less said about this song the better–it is so simply and infectiously brilliant that you have to hear it for yourself. It also has a show-stopping video.
Tell us something about the band we wouldn’t find doing a Google search.
Hmmm…. Though most people focus on how our music is dancey and fun, we also put an insane amount of work into the lyrics, trying to say something important about our generation, the struggles of our time, all the stuff you feel like mulling over on the dance floor… :) It’s dumb and self-defeating to explain your own poetry, but (in our humble opinion) there’s a lot there. You can’t hear it in the beat or melodies, but Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen are huge influcences on the words, the phrasing, and what we try to communicate about life, love, and the great beyond.
MP3: The New Collisions - “Beautiful And Numb”
MP3: The New Collisions - “Parachutes On The Dance Floor”
Kasabian announce a 10-date UK Arena Tour in November to bring their phenomenal year to a spectacular close.
Kasabian - Serge Pizzorno (Songwriter, Guitar, Vocals), Tom Meighan (Vocals), Chris Edwards (Bass) and Ian Matthews (Drums) release their epic new single “Where Did All The Love Go?” August 10th - the follow-up to their No.3 single “Fire”, which has sold over 80,000 copies.
Their acclaimed No.1 album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum has sold over 150,000 copies in two weeks and is still top of the charts.
All tickets for the tour are priced at £25+ booking fee. Having seen them rip up the Pryamid stage on Saturday night at Glastonbury, I reckon you could do far worse than spend your hard earned on these boys!!!!
Kasabian’s November UK tour dates:
Tue 10th - NEWCASTLE, Metro Radio Arena - 0844 493 6666/ www.livenation.co.uk
Wed 11th - ABERDEEN, AECC - 0844 499 9990/ ww.gigsinscotland.com
Thu 12th - GLASGOW, SECC - 08444 999 990/ www.gigsinscotland.com
Sat 14th - LONDON, Wembley Arena - 0844 815 0815/ www.livenation.co.uk
Mon 16th - LIVERPOOL, Echo Arena - 0844 800 0400/ www.livenation.co.uk
Wed 18th - NOTTINGHAM, Trent FM Arena - 0844 412 4624/ www.livenation.co.uk
Thu 19th - BIRMINGHAM, NIA - 0844 338 8000/ www.livenation.co.uk
Fri 20th - MANCHESTER, MEN - 0844 847 8000/ www.livenation.co.uk
Sun 22nd - CARDIFF, International Arena - 0292 022 4488/ www.livenation.co.uk
Mon 23rd - SHEFFIELD, Arena - 0114 256 5656/ www.livenation.co.uk
Tickets go on sale 9am Friday 3rd July priced at £25 (subject to booking fee) and are available from www.livenation.co.uk
MP3: Kasabian - “Running Battle”
It’s been a while since I featured music from one of our reader’s bands on the site, so I plan to do exactly that. I recently received an e-mail from Louis Daher who is the guitarist for São Paulo-based band Kilivitz. He allowed me to clear the band’s current single with you and translated the bio from their Myspace (or wrote an entirely new one) which I’ve shared below.
“On a struggle to avoid any narrow descriptions to the kind of music they’re playing, the guys from Kilivitz had gone as far as describing themselves as either “Venusian Rock played on the Third Gear” or simply “Third World Rock.” As of now, they’re located in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and as opposed to what you may expect, there’s nothing exotic (or thirdwordly, if you’ll excuse the just made-up term) about the songs they’ve been putting out.
Their latest single “Captain Cool” was described by spanish website Pabelia as “featuring a bass line that might remind you of The Stranglers, maybe even of Australian group Radio Birdman, a voice sounding like someone who could be John Freeman and a general sound that brings back the feel of punk rock bands from the later 70s.” They also offer the (wise) following piece of advice: “make the effort and include this band in your already wide list of bands to keep an eye on.”
The band is about to start recording their debut album, and they promise the best is yet to come. Take the advice and keep an eye out for whatever’s next - you never know when they might be coming to your town.”
MP3: Kilivitz - “Captain Cool”
The pioneering, award-winning Latitude Festival returns to England ’s Sunrise Coast for another spectacular edition. Taking place on 16th – 19th July, near Suffolk ’s stunning seaside town of Southwold , organisers Festival Republic are promising Latitude will be the perfect British summer destination.
OBELISK ARENA: ~ Phoenix ~ The Gaslight Anthem ~ The Rumble Strips ~
UNCUT ARENA: ~ Mika ~ Scott Matthews ~ The Duckworth Lewis Method ~ Emmy The Great ~
SUNRISE ARENA: ~ Charlotte Hatherley ~
LAKE STAGE: ~ Colorama ~
OBELISK ARENA: The open-air Obelisk Arena has been the stage of some epic performances over the past three years and Latitude 2009 will be no different. Lay out your picnic blanket, bask in the sunshine and get down to some of the best music around.
French alternative four-piece Phoenix bring their eclectic ’80s influenced rock-synth sound to Latitude. Cutting their teeth with follow French band Air (they actually acted as Air’s backing band on several UK TV appearances) and with links to Daft Punk the band developed a unique sound that has earned their critical and commercial success throughout Europe . Their fourth album ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’ came out last month and reached the Top 40 in the US and Top 20 in Australia and France .
The Gaslight Anthem were New Jersey ’s best kept secret until their much publicised performance at last year’s Reading Festival. The release of their incredible second album ‘The ‘59 Sound’ saw the band take on an army of new fans and play sold out shows up and down the UK with folk singer songwriter Frank Turner earlier this year. Gaslight’s Springsteen-esque sound and punk sensibilities seem to have a genre defying appeal making them the perfect band for Latitude.
The Rumble Strips had great success with their debut album ‘Girls And Weather’ that featured several chart singles. Currently the band are putting the finishing touches to its follow up with famed producer Mark Ronson and fans can expect the first single in June. Speaking about the band’s new album they said that “Ronson’s kitchen sink production is evident after little more than a minute” with the record sounding “lush”. Let’s hope to hear a sneak preview of some new material at this year’s Latitude.
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