Category: Rock

Rewind Review: The New Pornographers – Brill Bruisers (2014)

The New Pornographers returned in 2014 after a far too long absence to bring us another masterfully crafted album of power pop. The Canadian supergroup’s Brill Bruisers sounds like a long-lost ELO record and is a fine piece of work desperately needed in this world of pop divas, TV show idols, bro’ rock, country-rap, and booty call music.

The opener (and title track) starts with blaring guitars, powerful drums, vocals that swirl with great melodies, and a touch of psychedelic synths. Vocalist / guitarist A.C. Newman and his crew seem to channel the stadium-filling power of early ELO records on it. “Champions of Red Wine” doesn’t refer to my wife and one of her best friends, but is rather a fun song from outer space (judging by the poppy space lounge keyboards) sung by the always mesmerizing Neko Case. The band knocks this one out of the park.

“Fantasy Fools” will have you jumping and dancing, as it’s nothing but joyful. The keyboards on it are the hidden key to the song’s power. Those same keyboards are front and center during “War on the East Coast,” in which Dan Bejar worries more about potentially botching a relationship than about world chaos and bad news. “Backstairs” brings back the ELO influence and is big, booming, and wonderful. I can’t wait to hear this one live. It swirls into mind trip material and is all the better for it. “Marching Orders” is peppy with happy keyboards and Neko Case’s happy vocals. You can visualize her dancing in the recording booth as she sings. I love the way “Born with a Sound” dabbles in electro. The New Pornographers have the luxury of being able to do whatever the hell they want, so an electro-rock cut doesn’t jar the flow of the album at all (and Kathryn Calder’s backing vocals on it are excellent).

If you’re worried the New Pornographers are turning into an electro band, have no fear. “Dancehall Domine” sounds like something off The Electric Version with its big guitars, great Newman and Case vocal trades, and straight-up rock drums, and “Spidyr” sounds like it could’ve been a track from Mass Romantic. “Hi-Rise” and the closer, “You Tell Me Where,” dive back into the synth-heavy sounds, but it all works. “You Tell Me Where” is a nice grand finale and I’m sure is a big set-ender at their live shows.

We needed this record. It’s refreshing and lovely – the best kind of porn, really.

Keep your mind open.

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Castle Face Records to release a rare live U.S. recording of French punk legends Magnetix.

LEGENDARY FRENCH PUNKS MAGNETIX ANNOUNCE LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO

OUT JULY  14TH ON CASTLE FACE; LISTEN TO “LIVING IN A BOX“
Magnetix’ Live In San Francisco is out on Castle Face Records on Bastille Day, July 14th. 

THE COUPLE THAT SLAYS TOGETHER, STAYS TOGETHER

LOOCH AND AGGY, LIKE THE MONIKER OF AN INFAMOUS KILLING DUO
THE F*CKING BUTCHEST BAND FROM BORDEAUX
LOOCH, WITH HANDS LIKE BUNCHES OF BANANAS
AND SONGS LIKE FLAMING ARROWS
THE LOVELY AND TOUGH AS HELL AGGY
CRUSHING THE KIT
HEAVY WEIRD ATTACKERS FROM OUR SISTER COUNTRY
SLUDGE DRIPS
MURDER THE GUITAR
USURP THE AMP
FRY THE MIC
HOWL LIKE BEASTS
MELT THE CROWD
MAGNETIX
WE WERE LUCKY ENOUGH TO GRAB THEM ON ONE OF THEIR RARE U.S. SHOWS
TO RECORD IN A BASEMENT IN SAN FRANSISCO
HERE IT IS IN ALL ITS GORY GLORY
LETS GO TRIPPING……..”

– John Dwyer

 

LISTEN TO  “LIVING IN A BOX”
http://bit.ly/2sUyuuV

LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO TRACKLISTING

1. Growing Up
2. Feel High (When I Die)
3. Lawn Mowers Attack!!!
4. Mort Clinique
5. Impaction
6. Living In A Box
7. LR6
8. Rest Of My Life
9. Break Up The Phone

 

Pre-order Live In San Francisco – http://bit.ly/2sBy9Kp

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Goat – Commune (2014)

I’m not surprised that Goat’s Commune opens with a track called “Talk to God,” because a Goat album (let alone a live performance) feels like a direct transmission from another plane where beings beyond our understanding dwell and bless us with insight and wisdom.

Goat, the mysterious Swedish voodoo rock band, had another solid record that went straight into my “Best of 2014” list with Commune. “Talk to God” hypnotizes you out of the gate with its Arabic / African guitar licks, humming bass, and those sultry, mysterious female vocals (sexily singing “Call my name when you talk to God.”).

“Words,” with droning guitar that sounds like something Giorgio Moroder composed, furthers Goat’s theme of communing with things beyond our ken. The weird, high-pitched chants on “The Light Within” definitely sound like something from beyond this reality, and the guitar solo may well send you there.

“To Travel the Path Unknown” could be the theme of listening to any Goat album. You never know where it will lead you and it may change each time. The opening lyric claims, “There is only one true meaning of life, and that is to be a positive force in the constant creation of evolution.” Heavy stuff, but a Goat album is not for the weak. Don’t play one unless you are ready to face the consequences of an expanded mind.

“Goatchild” continues the band’s theme of using their name in at least one song title per record. It’s also the first song on their first two albums to feature male vocals, which contrast nicely with the duo female vocals throughout most of the tracks as the lyrics take us beyond the moon and sun.

“The spirit world is everything,” Goat claims on “Goatslaves.” They’re right, of course. This world here, in which I am typing a review that cannot truly encapsulate this record, is illusion. We are slaves to it because we fear what lies beyond the veil we keep over our eyes. The beats on this are so good they’re almost terrifying, which is just how Goat likes it. A bit of fear keeps you honest, and liars never do well in the spirit world.

“Hide from the Sun” is a magnificent song to take with you across the desert during your pilgrimage to a holy temple, an oasis full of sweet water and fruits and beautiful naked people, or the treadmill. Just don’t be surprised if you abandon that run on the treadmill for a good sweat in the sauna while listening to this track, because it may make you seek sweat lodge visions.

“Bondye” is a fantastic instrumental with swirling, mesmerizing beats that build to a frenzy best suited for whirling dervishes. Let it wash over you. It’s hard to write this even as I hear it. It tends to overwhelm everything else in your immediate sphere.

The album ends with a “Gathering of Ancient Tribes” (Notice the initials?). The vocals are powerful (chanting “Into the fire!” at one point), and the band behind them seems to be playing from a mountain temple for all in the valley below to hear.   The guitar solo drops from Mount Olympus, gathering cacophony in its wake, until it hits you like an avalanche.

This is one of the most powerful, mind-altering records I’ve heard since, well, Goat’s first album. You aren’t the same after hearing a Goat album. It will bend your brain. Proceed with caution, but by all means – proceed.

Keep your mind open.

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Mamby on the Beach artist spotlight: Flying Lotus

Steven Ellison, otherwise known as Flying Lotus, is probably the biggest name in psychedelic electronica right now.  His sets combine jazz, trance, house, soul, and trip hop with psychedelic electro jams.  I wanted to see him at Levitation Austin last year, but the festival was cancelled due to bad weather and I couldn’t get tickets to his rescheduled set.  He recently announced that he’s performing a 3-D show, so that should be amazing.  He’s also a close friend of Thundercat, so I think the two of them grooving together is a certainty.

Keep your mind open.

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Mamby on the Beach artist spotlight: Cut Copy

Australia’s Cut Copy will bring their electro-pop to Chicago’s Mamby on the Beach festival June 25th.  What started as a home recording project in 2001 has bloomed into a four-man band within the last sixteen years.  I’m hoping they’ll play a lot of tracks off their upcoming (and as yet unnamed) album.  It would be a delight to hear them before a good chunk of the world.

Keep your mind open.

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Mamby on the Beach artist spotlight: Thundercat

Bass guitar whiz, rapper, singer, and producer Thundercat (Stephen Bruner) is one of the funkiest musicians around right now.  His music ranges from funk to soul to psychedelia to prog-rock (and he also plays bass in Suicidal Tendencies).  His collaborations with Erykah Badu, Flying Lotus, and Kendrick Lamar have all earned him wide acclaim (and a Grammy).  His June 25th set at Mamby on the Beach is sure to be a must-see.

Keep your mind open.

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Mamby on the Beach artist spotlight: STRFKR

Portland, Oregon’s STRFKR strives to make danceable pop music, and they’re succeeding.  Their stuff combines electro, disco, rock, new wave, and a little funk.   They don’t take themselves too seriously, which is a rare delight in the music industry nowadays.  They’ll be playing Mamby on the Beach June 25th, so check out their set if you want to party with a bunch of people who don’t really care about labels, your hang-ups, or mainstream music.

Keep your mind open.

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Slowdive announces more U.S. tour dates into the fall.

SLOWDIVE ANNOUNCE MORE US TOUR DATES;
WATCH NPR MUSIC’S FIELD RECORDING

SLOWDIVE IS ONE OF THE BEST REVIEWED ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

Slowdive‘s self-titled album, released last month via Dead Oceans, is one of the best-reviewed albums of the year so far.  Following a sold out North American tour in advance of its release, the band are announcing a return to the continent in the fall, to perform in cities both new and old. Prior to that, they’ll be appearing at FYF Fest in Los Angeles on July 21st.

Also, today saw the release of an incredible stripped back NPR Music Field Recording that the band filmed while in New York in May. Watch below.

WATCH SLOWDIVE’S NPR MUSIC FIELD RECORDING
http://n.pr/2s3U0tC

STREAM SLOWDIVE
https://slowdive.lnk.to/slowdive

SLOWDIVE TOUR DATES (new dates in bold)
Fri. June 16 – Sun. June 18 – Mannheim, DE @ Maifeld Derby
Sat. July 1 – Roskilde, Denmark @ Roskilde Festival
Thurs. July 6 – Trencin, Slovakia @ Pohoda Festival
Fri. July 7 – Madrid, ES @ Mad Cool Festival
Sun. July 9 – Six Four Les Plages, France@ Pointu Festival
Fri. July 21 – Los Angeles, CA @ FYF Fest
Fri. July 28– South Korea @ Valley Rock Festival
Sun. July 30 – Tahar Shi, Japan @ Fuji Rock Festival
Sat. Aug. 19 – Trondheim, Norway  @ Pstereo Festival
Fri. 25 Aug. – Switzerland @ Nox Orae Festival
Sat. Aug. 27 – Paris, France @ Rock En Seine Festival
Thu. Aug. 31 – Salisbury, UK @ End of the Road Festival
Sat. Sept. 2 – Milano, Italy @ Un Altro Festival
Thu. Sept. 7 – Tel Aviv, Israel @ Barby Club
Fri. Sept. 15 – Sat. 16 Sept. – Angers, France @ Levitation Fest
Sun. Sept. 17 – Birmingham, UK @ Beyond the Tracks Festival
Fri. Sept. 29 – Dortmund, Germany @Way Back When Festival
Sat. Sept. 30 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ DR Koncerthuset
Mon. Oct. 2 – Warsaw, Poland – @ Palladium
Tues. Oct. 3 – Berlin, Germany @ Huxley’s
Weds. Oct. 4 – Hamburg, Germany @Uebel & Gefaehrlich
Fri. Oct. 6 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
Sat. Oct. 7 – Brussels, Belgium @ Botanique
Mon. Oct. 9 – Glasgow, UK @ ABC
Tues. Oct. 10 – Manchester, UK @Albert Hall
Weds. Oct. 11 – Leeds, UK @ Town Hall
Fri. Oct. 13 – London, UK @ Roundhouse
Mon. Oct. 23 – Vancouver, BC @ The Commodore
Wed. Oct. 25 – Seattle, WA @ The Neptune
Thu. Oct. 26 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
Sat. Oct. 28 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater   
Wed. Nov. 1 – Denver, CO @ The Ogden
Sat. Nov. 4 – Madison, WI @ Barrymore Theatre
Sun. Nov. 5 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre
Tue. Nov. 7 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
Wed. Nov. 8 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
Thu. Nov. 9 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Hall
Fri. Nov. 10 – Toronto, ON @ CANADA @ Massey Hall
Sat. Nov. 11 – New Haven, CT @ College St Music Hall
Sun. Nov. 12 – New York City, NY @ Terminal 5  
Tue. Nov. 14 – Boston,MA @ Paradise
Wed. Nov. 15 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Thu. Nov. 16 – Baltimore, MD @ Ram’s Head
Fri. Nov. 17 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel

Tickets available from www.slowdiveofficial.com

PRAISE FOR SLOWDIVE

“A precise and altogether gorgeous showcase of their peerless ability at production, mood, and songcraft.” – Pitchfork [Best New Music]

“Listening to Slowdive is like watching the sunrise and sunset at once — an awe-inspiring chorus of the galaxy.” – NPR Music

“Slowdive carries all the right baggage from the band’s past, but the album leaves no question about the direction they’re traveling in. They’re carrying this sound towards the future.” – Stereogum

“Throughout Slowdive, the band use foggy images and slippery transitions as a soothing sort of déjà vu—you feel like you’ve been here before, even though you obviously haven’t.” – SPIN [SPIN Essential]

“With this self-titled record, their first in 22 years, Slowdive definitively prove that some bands have enough creative juice to get back together and make some incredible music.” – Vulture

“The result is as beautiful and stilling as ever.” – AV Club

“Dreamy vocals, thick melancholia, heavy guitar treatments. And ‘Slomo,’ the opening track, is a goddamn minor miracle. Welcome back, shoegaze friends.” – Newsweek

Mamby on the Beach artist spotlight: MGMT

Psychedelic freaks MGMT (Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser) will be closing the Beach Stage at Mamby on the Beach on June 24th. MGMT are known for loud, reverb-laced, synth-driven psychedelia and their show is sure to be a mind trip.  They’ve been nominated for multiple Grammy Awards and sound not unlike a younger Flaming Lips.  Don’t miss out on the freak-out.

Keep your mind open.

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Oh Sees release new single, “The Static God,” from upcoming album.

THEE OH SEES ARE DEAD. LONG LIVE OH SEES

NEW ALBUM ORC, OUT AUG. 25TH ON CASTLE FACE; LISTEN TO “THE STATIC GOD“

OH SEES CELEBRATE 20 YEARS OF UNFETTERED EXISTENCE WITH 19TH ALBUM

Oh Sees are the latest incarnation of songwriter, singer, guitarist (and Castle Face fearless leader) John Dwyer’s ever-evolving rock-pop-folk psychedelic group. Dwyer has been active since the late ’90s, working with several bands, including the Coachwhips, Pink & Brown, Yikes, Up Its Alive, and Swords & Sandals, among others, and he formed OCS (which is an acronym for Orinoka Crash Suite, Orange County Sound, or whatever Dwyer decided it was on any given day) initially as a vehicle for the experimental instrumentals he was producing in his home studio. The project entered its 20th year of existence in 2017.

In time OCS morphed into an actual band, and worked under the usual flurry of names, most notably as The Oh Sees or The Ohsees, and eventually as Thee Oh Sees. The band’s lineup has spawned and  re-spawned a few times before reaching their current incarnation featuring Tim Hellman on bass, Dan Rincon and Paul Quattrone on drums.

And now, the newly shorn Oh Sees waste no time in racing headlong into nightmarish battle with their mighty new record Orc (Dwyer’s 19th album as OCS/Thee Oh Sees/Oh Sees, etc.), and wouldn’t ya know it, they’ve clawed even farther up the ghastly peak last year’s A Weird Exits stormed so satisfyingly. The band is in tour-greased, anvil on a balance beam, gut-pleasingly heavy form, nimbly braining with equal dashes of abandon and menace on this fresh batch of bruisers and brooders, hypnotically stirred into to the cauldron of chaos you’ve come to expect from, ahem, Oh Sees. Quattrone and Dan Rincon form a phalanx of interlocking double drums, alternately propelling and fleet footing shifting ground to pinion Dwyer’s cliff-face guitars to the boogie. Tim Hellman keeps it swinging like a battle-axe to the eyebrows. More evil….more complex, more narcotic, more screech, more roar, more whisper, there’s even more Brigid Dawson. Less “Thee”, but more of everything else, Orc is out on Castle Face Records August 25th. Listen to the blistering first track “The Static God.”
LISTEN TO “THE STATIC GOD”
http://bit.ly/2s27Yix

ORC TRACKLISTING
1. The Static God
2. Nite Expo
3. Animated Violence
4. Keys To The Castle
5. Jettison
6. Cadaver Dog
7. Paranoise
8. Cooling Tower
9. Drowned Beast
10. Raw Optics

OH SEES TOUR DATES
Thu. June 7 – Milano, IT @ Magnolia
Fri. June 8 – Ravenna, IT @ Beaches Brew
Sat. June 9 – Dudingen, CH @ Bad Bonn
Sun. June 10 – Nimes, FR @ This Is Not A Love Song
Mon. June 11 – Bordeaux, FR @ le block
Tue. June 12 – Tours, FR @ le temps machine
Thu. June 14 – Manchester University, UK @ Transformers
Sat. June 17 – San Francisco, CA @ Phono Del Sol Festival
Sat. July 22 – Sun. July 23 – Los Angeles, CA @ FYF
Sun. Aug. 6 – Katowice, PL @ OFF Festival
Tue. Aug. 8 – Hamburg, DE @ Molotow
Thu. Aug. 10 – Oslo, NO @ Oya Festival
Fri. Aug. 11 – Gothenburg, DW @ Way Out West Festival
Sat. Aug. 12 – Copenhagen, DK @ Pumpehuset
Fri. Aug. 18 – Saint Malo, FR @ La Route du Rock
Sat. Aug. 19 – Brecon Beacons, UK @ Green Man Festival
Fri. Sept. 1 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Crescent Ballroom
Sat. Sept. 2 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sister Bar
Mon. Sept. 4 – Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas Outside
Tue. Sept. 5 – New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jack’s
Wed. Sept. 6 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
Fri. Sept. 8 – Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero Theater
Sun. Sept. 10 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw
Wed. Sept. 13 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
Thu. Sept. 14 – Montreal, QC @ La Tulipe I Le National
Fri. Sept. 15 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Theater
Sat. Sept. 16 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
Sun. Sept. 17 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Tue. Sept. 19 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall
Fri. Sept. 22 – Missoula, MT @ Monk’s
Sat. Sept. 23 – Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s
Sun. Sept. 24 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
Mon. Sept. 25 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom

Hi-res photos/album art: http://pitchperfectpr.com/thee-oh-sees/

Oh Sees Online:
http://www.theeohsees.com
https://www.castlefacerecords.com
https://www.castlefacerecords.com/collections/thee-oh-sees