Independent record label Burger Records and Spaceland Presents announced that, following a five-year hiatus, Burgerama will return for an all-day, all-ages mini-festival on Saturday, March 9th at The Echo/Echoplex in LA. Featuring over 30 bands and headlined by cult superstars The Mummies and Burger Records favorites The Flamin’ Groovies, Burgerama 5 tickets start at just $25.00 and are available to purchase at the Spaceland Presents website.Of the show roster for Burgerama 5, Burger Records’ Lee Rickard said; “The Flamin’ Groovies and The Mummies are two of Sean and my all-time favorite bands and rock ‘n roll institutions. We couldn’t be happier to have em both as headliners along with some of our favorite underground Southern California acts.”
Sponsored by Volcom and Uck Off, Burgerama 5 will take over the entire Echo venue complex including The Echoplex, and patio, and includes three music stages, food trucks, and DJs and the Mad Alchemy Liquid Light Show. Beyond The Mummies, performers include Flamin’ Groovies, Pearl and the Oysters, Hammered Satin, Hollywood Stars, Cosmonauts, Tomorrows Tulips, Shadow Show, and in their last show ever, Apache. A complete lineup for the event can be found on the Spaceland website.
Too Free have shared their newest single and video, “No Fun,” the second single off their forthcoming debut album, Love In High Demand, out 2/21 on Sister Polygon Records. “No Fun” follows the band’s first single, the mesmerizing “ATM,” a song that Stereogum says “feels both organic and computerized.” Brooklyn Vegan described it as “a dose of lo-fi, bongo-aided electronic pop that sounds like a cross between mid/late 2000s Williamsburg parties and ANOHNI.”
“‘No Fun’ is a series of affirmations that I wanted to speak into existence,” explains singer and lyricist Awad Bilal. “Reclaiming agency over your mind and your body – accepting love and using it to activate others.”
“The video for ‘No Fun’ is an investigation of the freedom of movement. We went into a dance studio here in DC with just an iPhone 11 and a backpack full of clothes and I gave myself free reign. It’s an homage to one of my oldest friends, John, and the resilience of black, queer bodies like mine.”
Additionally, the band has announced upcoming Brooklyn and DC shows, which are listed below.
Too Free is the Washington, D.C.-based trio of Bilal (Big Freedia, Vasillus), Carson Cox (Merchandise), and Don Godwin (Callers, Impractical Cockpit). Their only mission is a desire to connect with others in the space that music creates. Drawing from improvisation and experimentation, they deconstruct their songs to their most necessary elements, leaning into their collective punk ethos and DIY backgrounds. Drawing equally from elements of South Florida freestyle and Jersey electro into DC’s signature polyrhythms, the record is a continuous refinement of the virtue of motion – each composition rooted in propulsive energy that envelops. Aiming to make something with a more utopian outlook that counters the pervasive pessimism, archaic ideologies and dystopian timelines we interact with on a daily basis, they approach this project with an open-endedness that incorporates higher concepts of what pop art can sound like.
TOO FREE TOUR DATES Sat. Feb. 22 – Washington, DC – U Street Music Hall Thu. Feb. 27 – Brooklyn, NY @ Trans Pecos
Nap Eyes will release their new album, Snapshot of a Beginner, their most concentrated and hi-fi effort to date, on March 27th via Jagjaguwar / Royal Mountain, in partnership with Paradise of Bachelors. Throughout the album, there’s an immediately noticeable leap in arrangement and muscle, one that still holds the raw, nervous energy and the earnest, self-deprecating poetry that make Nap Eyes an enduring cult favorite. The music still brings to mind the bucolic ennui of the Silver Jews and Daniel Johnston’s jittery naïveté, but the new sheen and maturity also now brings to mind the wide-angle appeal of The Jayhawks and the addictive brightness of Green Day’s Kerplunk!.
Lead single “Mark Zuckerberg” is a hi-fi jangle-pop earworm that, at its outset, sounds like it could be the theme song from Party of Five. Less a takedown of any one specific, capitalist tech fascist than it is a poem about the confounding and beautiful swirl of modern life, it is their thoughtful, incisive Hit for The People. “Transcendence is all around us,” Chapman repeats, a freeing incantation and a gift to us all as the coda slows and expands.
On the video, the band notes: “People are scared of Mark Zuckerberg. You look at him before Congress and think, ‘Is this the bogeyman? Is he a CIA plant? Can he read my mind with some sort of God-mode search feature in all my chat transcripts?’ This video leads us to believe that Mark wants to enjoy and surveil whatever world he inhabits, whether it’s starting a band with ghastly apparitions in the spirit realm or changing size according to his whim while observing natural and urban landscapes with equal awe. He wants you to accept his friend request and let him watch over you. ‘When there was only one set of footprints in the sand…’”
Almost all the songs of Nap Eyes are whittled into their final form from frontman Nigel Chapman’s unspooling, 20-minute voice-and-guitar free-writing sessions. Each member — drummer Seamus Dalton, bassist Josh Salter and guitarist Brad Loughead — then plays a crucial role in song development, composing around the idiosyncratic structures and directing the overall sound and feel of the songs.
Until now, that final song construction and recording has been mostly done live in a room. But for Snapshot of a Beginner, the band went to The National’s nuevo-legendary upstate NY Long Pond Studio, working with producers Jonathan Low (Big Red Machine, The National) and James Elkington (Steve Gunn, Joan Shelley), the latter of whom also did pre-production arrangement work with the band. Never has Nap Eyes sounded more ferocious. It took them a long time and a long practice to reach this artistic zen, but one gets the feeling throughout Snapshot of a Beginner that this balance is going to hold. Watch Nap Eyes’ Video for “Mark Zuckerberg” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq2YhOY55zU
Snapshot of a Beginner Tracklist: 1. So Tired 2. Primordial Soup 3. Even Though I Can’t Read Your Mind 4. Mark Zuckerberg 5. Mystery Calling 6. Fool Thinking Ways 7. If You Were In Prison 8. Real Thoughts 9. Dark Link 10. When I Struck Out On My Own 11. Though I Wish I Could Nap Eyes Tour Dates: Wed. March 4 – Toronto, ON @ Opera House % Thu. March 5 – Montreal, QC @ Theatre Fairmount % Fri. March 6 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair % Sat. March 7 – New York, NY @ Brooklyn Steel % Sun. March 8 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts % Mon. March 9 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat % Wed. March 11 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle % Thu. March 12 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West % Fri. March 13 – Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge % Sat. March 14 – St. Louis, MO @ Blueberry Hill % Sun. March 15 – Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room % Mon. March 16 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater % Tue. March 17 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge % Thu. March 19 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos % Fri. March 20 – Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre % Sun. March 22 – Victoria, BC @ Lucky Bar (tickets) Wed. March 25 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge (tickets) Fri. March 27 – San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord (tickets) Sat. March 28 – Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Bar (tickets) Sun. March 29 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah (tickets) Mon. March 30 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar (tickets) Wed. April 1 – Austin, TX @ Barracuda (tickets) Thu. April 2 – Dallas, TX @ Three Links (tickets) Sat. April 4 – Kansas City, MO @ The Riot Room (tickets) Sun. April 5 – Urbana, IL @ Rose Bowl Tavern (tickets) Mon. April 6 – Columbus, OH @ Rumba Cafe (tickets) Wed. April 15 – London, UK @ The Moth Club Thu. April 16 – Liverpool, UK @ Leaf Fri. April 17 – Glasgow, UK @ The Hug and Pint Sat. April 18 – Leeds, UK @ Hyde Park Book Club Sun. April 19 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare and Hounds Mon. April 20 – Brighton, UK @ The Hope & Ruin Wed. April 22 – Paris, FR @ Le Point Ephemere Thu. April 23 – Brussels, BE @ Volta Fri. April 24 – Rotterdam, NL @ V11 Sat. April 25 – Utrecht, NL @ Ekko
% = w/ Destroyer
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Detroit-based girl-group Shadow Show has released the first music video from their upcoming debut album Silhouettes out February 14. The video, for the 60s psych-rock inspired track “Charades,” premiered today exclusively on the IGTV and Youtube channels of Southern California Roller-skate company Moxi, whose colorful Lolly roller skates are featured in the video.
Shot in the band’s hometown of Detroit, and directed by Bobby Harlow of The Go, the video for “Charades” was filmed entirely with a super-8 camera, a reflection of Shadow Shows retro style and sound. About filming in and around Detroit, band member Kerrigan Pearce (drums) said, “we wanted to include all of the things that make Detroit home to us. The live footage was shot at UFO Factory, owned by local musician Dion Fischer. The rest was filmed in various places, such as Belle Isle, Detroit African Bead Museum, and another favorite bar Outer Limits Lounge.”
Shadow Show is a new sound in light of a new era. A power trio of a mysterious hue, Shadow Show combines elements of 60s garage-psychedelia and 21st-century modern pop-art. The trio pushes the boundaries of what can be, yet remain deeply rooted in a raw, untouchable Detroit sound. Comprised of guitarist Ava East, bassist Kate Derringer and drummer Kerrigan Pearce, the group made their debut in August of 2018. The group plan to tour the US and Europe to support the release of Silhouettes.
Shadow Show’s debut album Silhouettes was mixed by bass player Kate Derringer and mastered by Jim Diamond (The White Stripes, The Dirtbombs, Ghetto Recorders). The album will be available on February 14, 2020, via Stolen Body Records in the UK and Europe and Burger Records for the rest of the world.
Canadian garage rockers Dead Ghosts new music video for the track,“Drugstore Supplies” premiered today on the Shindig! magazine website. “Drugstore Supplies” is the first single release from the group’s highly anticipated upcoming album Automatic Changer, out April 24, 2020 via Burger Records and available to pre-order now.
Formed nearly a decade ago in Vancouver, Canada, Dead Ghosts grew out of founders Byran Nicol (vocals/guitar), Drew Wilky (guitar), and Mike Wilky’s (drums) desire to hang out, listen to records and play music. After the trio uploaded a few demos to Myspace, this was 2008, after all, the group were offered the opportunity to release a single via a small Iowa-based punk label. The single quickly led to the group’s first full-length self-titled album. By 2015 the group had joined the Burger Records roster and released two more albums, Can’t Get No and Love and Death and All the Rest.
With time the band added two members, bass player Mauricio “Moe” Chiumento and organist Craig Pettman. Playing a distinctive brand of swaggering, blues-infused lo-fi rock, the five-piece quickly won over transatlantic fans and scored fresh fodder for their lyrics with their punk rock antics.
Keep your mind open.
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Radiohead has opened the doors of its archives by giving us the online Radiohead Public Library. It’s a vast treasure trove of everything from obscure album art and ad-free live performances to cool ephemera like old fan club letters, photos of out-of-print shirts, and rare music videos.
Fans can also download their own library card, like I did.
Be seeing you at the library.
The library is set up with the oldest stuff at the bottom of the page, and I’m sure they haven’t released everything they have in their vault, but the availability of so much free streaming material is a treat for Radiohead fans and music fans alike.
Keep your mind open.
[Check out the subscription box while you’re here.]
Australian punks The Chats announce their debut album, High Risk Behaviour, out March 27th on Bargain Bin Records/Cooking Vinyl Australia, and a North American tour. In conjunction with today’s announcement, they present a video for lead single, “The Clap.” High Risk Behaviour buzzes like an out-of-control chainsaw, propelled by spoken-spit-sung vocals, their three-chords-is-one-too-many approach, and an exacting combination of youth, vigour and drunkenness. It’s a perfect name for an album that does not f*ck around – one that’s over in 28 blistering, funny, sweaty, unforgettable minutes. WATCH VIDEO FOR “THE CLAP” https://youtu.be/POM_98oi0oo
LISTEN TO “THE CLAP” https://orcd.co/highriskbehaviour The Chats – made of Eamon Sandwith, Matt Boggis, and Josh Price – formed in 2016 while still in high school. Since then, they’ve released a self-titled EP in 2016 and 2017’s Get This In YaEP, and have accrued a fanbase that includes Dave Grohl, Queen of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, and Iggy Pop – the latter two who asked the band to open on their respective Australian tours. And despite being the subject of a record label bidding war, they’re releasing High Risk Behaviour on their own label (Bargain Bin Records). It’s indicative of a band that has embraced DIY culture since day one. Their determination to do things “our way” extends to their music, which is why High Risk Behaviour delivers everything you’ve come to love from The Chats – only more of it – and confirms their status as Queensland’s greatest ever export.
To create High Risk Behaviour, the band worked with engineer Bill Gardner in his studio on the Australian coast. It took nearly 18 months to finish and several, quick-paced sessions. “If we’d just done a week and slogged it out we could have had an album before now but we just kept going in there and making newer and better songs so it’s hard to put a stop on it,” says Sandwith.
Its lyrics are drawn from everyday experiences; from paying attention to the kind of stuff so banal that the rest of us don’t even notice it. Such as its lead single, “The Clap,” sung by Sandwith and Price, which is both a cautionary tale and the closest you’ll ever hear The Chats get to write a love song. Its accompanying video was directed by Matt Weston and features the band.
“I just want people to have a good time,” says Sandwith. “I want them to dance around and have a beer and enjoy it. We don’t make songs for people to look at in a fucking emotional or intellectual way. We just make songs for people to jump around and have fun to.”
In support of High Risk Behaviour, The Chats will embark on a North American tour later this spring. A full list of dates can be found below and tickets are on sale Friday, January 24th at 10am local time. PRE-ORDER HIGH RISK BEHAVIOUR https://orcd.co/highriskbehaviour
HIGH RISK BEHAVIOUR TRACKLIST: 1. Stinker 2. Drunk N Disorderly 3. The Clap 4. Identity Theft 5. Guns 6. Dine N Dash 7. Keep The Grubs Out 8. Pub Feed 9. Ross River 10. Heatstroke 11. Bill Backwash’s Day 12. 4573 13. Do What I Want 14. Better Than You
THE CHATS TOUR DATES: Fri. April 10 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Sat. April 11 – Berkeley, CA @ The UC Theatre * Sun. April 12 – Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades * Mon. April 13 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom * Tue. April 14 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon * Fri. April 17 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Sat. April 18 – San Diego, CA @ Observatory North Park * Sun. April 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom * Mon. April 20 – Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf * Wed. April 22 – Dallas, TX @ House of Blues * Thu. April 23 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s * Fri. April 24 – Houston, TX @ Bronze Peacock at House of Blues * Sun. April 26 – Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre * Tue. April 28 – St. Paul, MN @ Amsterdam Bar & Hall * Wed. April 29 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues * Thu. April 30 – Nashville, TN @ Exit/In * Fri. May 1 – Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theatre * Sat. May 2 – Charlotte, NC @ Epicenter Festival Sun. May 3 – Washington, DC @ The Fillmore Silver Spring * Tue. May 5 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts * Wed. May 6 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club * Thu. May 7 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw * Wed. Oct. 7 – Amsterdam, BL @ Melkweg Max Sat. Oct. 10 – Paris, FR @ Maroquinerie Sun. Oct. 11 – Cologne, DE @ Gloria Mon. Oct. 12 – Hamburg, DE @ Gruenspan Tue. Oct. 13 – Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg Fri. Oct. 16 – Southampton, UK @ 1865 Sat. Oct. 17 – Nottingham, UK @ Rock City Mon. Oct. 19 – Dublin, IE @ Olympia Tue. Oct. 20 – Belfast, UK @ Limelight Thu. Oct. 22 – Glasgow, UK @ Galvanizers Fri. Oct. 23 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Academy Sat. Oct. 24 – Newcastle, UK @ Boiler Shop Sun. Oct. 25 – Leeds, UK @ Stylus Mon. Oct. 26 – Brighton, UK @ Dome Tue. Oct. 27 – Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy Wed. Oct. 28 – London, UK @ Electric Brixton Thu. Oct 29 – London, UK @ Electric Brixton
Okay Kaya – the project of Norwegian-born, New York-based Kaya Wilkins – shares the new single/video, “Psych Ward,” from Watch This Liquid Pour Itself, her forthcoming album out January 24th on Jagjaguwar. She also announces initial performances in support of Watch This Liquid Pour Itself. A full list of dates can be found below.
“Psych Ward,” produced by Kaya with co-production from Christoph Andersson (Cautious Clay), follows previously released singles/videos “Asexual Wellbeing,” “Baby Little Tween,” and “Ascend and Try Again.” On “Psych Ward,” Kaya’s scene of nurses making rounds is based on her personal experience of time spent in a hospital. Kaya describes the track and the video in her own words:
“This is basically a Hospital Evaluation Form. The last few days I was in a hospital a nurse unlocked one of the cabinets and let me use the rec room guitar, to play outside of art therapy class. I wrote what I saw to understand how I felt. It turned into this funny bop, I wanted it to feel like a Ramones song or something.
I wrote the lyrics in a very literal way as I often tend to do. When it was time for a music video I took the words ‘do the rounds’ even more literally by making Kaya pole dance in her daydream during her morning fitness routine. The fitness routines were always to an ABBA greatest hits CD, it felt much too ecstatic compared to the heavily drugged hospital bodies, barely out of bed, barely moving. I wanted the video to show that effort, because I am scared to forget. This whole album is filled with moments I am scared to forget, coming right at you projectile style.”
Although Kaya recorded most of Watch This Liquid Pour Itself herself, she also collaborated with producers Jacob Portrait (UMO, Whitney, (Sandy) Alex G) and John Carroll Kirby (Solange, Kali Uchis) to fully realize her ideas for how this record should sound. Each of the music videos for the new record are co-directed by Kaya and Adinah Dancyger, and were shot respectively in Germany, Japan, Norway, and New York.
Additionally, Kaya is pleased to announce that all of her music videos will be screening later this month – January 15th at Film Noir in New York and January 23rd at Now Instant in Los Angeles. She’ll also be performing solo on January 27th at the Van Leeuwen Ice Cream shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn as part of her Van Leeuwen collaboration. Kaya’s special “Eat Your Feelings” a vegan black sesame ice cream flavor, will be available for a limited time at their Williamsburg, Lower East Side and Silverlake (Los Angeles) scoop shops. Watch “Psych Ward” Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nedrz5vDug
Okay Kaya Tour Dates: Mon. Jan. 27 – Brooklyn, NY @ Van Leeuwen Ice Cream (RSVP) Tue. Jan. 28 – New York, NY @ Whitney Museum of American Art (DJ Set) Thu. Feb. 13 – Brooklyn, NY @ National Sawdust Fri. Feb. 28 – Oslo, NO @ By:Larm Mon. March 2 – Paris, FR @ Pop Up Wed. March 4 – London, UK @ SET Sun. March 8 – San Diego, CA @ CRSSD Mon. March 9 – San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord Tue. March 10 – Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan Lounge Tue. March 17 – Sat. March 21 – Austin, TX @ SXSW Fri. May 8 – Berlin, DE @ Pitchfork Festival
“This is as much an atmosphere as a song, warm and leisurely and insinuating.” — The New York Times
“…a meditative, twangy song that blends the band’s Thai-funk proclivities with Bridges’ rootsy vocals.” — RollingStone
“…a sun-baked, languid rock song that coasts on Bridges’ smooth vocals.” — Pitchfork, The Most Anticipated Albums of 2020
Khruangbin & Leon Bridges will release TexasSun, their forthcoming collaborative EP, on February 7th via Dead Oceans, in partnership with Columbia Records and Night Time Stories Ltd. Following the EP’s titletrack, a slow rolling song about the pull of the unique Texas landscape, they today offer its second single, “C-Side,” a shimmering track comprised of wah-wah guitar lines, burbling Latin polyrhythms, and soft vibraphone. Stream “C-Side” below.
Their first time writing with a vocalist, Texas Sun finds Khruangbin—comprised of LauraLee (bass), MarkSpeer (guitar), and Donald “DJ” Johnson (drums)—tailoring their exotic funk to Bridges’ soulful melodies. On the EP, these Texas natives meet up somewhere in the mythical nexus of the state’s past, present, and future—a dreamy badlands where genres blur as seamlessly as the terrain. The state’s music is as varied and wild as its geography, producing Southern rap pioneers GetoBoys and UGK, lysergic trailblazers The 13th Floor Elevators, and genres-unto-themselves like St. Vincent, Gary Clark Jr., and Beyoncé. TexasSun lives here too, a record that calls equally to the chopped-and-screwed hip-hop fans rattling slabs on the southside of Houston, to those who grew up on listening to both mariachi and post-hardcore out on the Mexican borders of El Paso, to the Austin acid-dropping art school kids.
Texas Sun started on the road and wrapped up in the studio. Both Bridges and Khruangbin had been touring nonstop behind their acclaimed sophomore LPs when their paths converged for a joint North American tour in 2018, a run of shows stretching from Los Angeles to New York. Although both of their musical lanes were slightly different, they shared a dusty, laid back vibe. When a Khruangbin session yielded a song that seemed like it might pair well with Bridges’ voice, the band sent it over. Bridges returned the track with his vocals the very next day. They all soon decamped to the studio with engineer SteveChristensen, hoping to make it into a B-side. But everything flowed so naturally, it was obvious this would be something bigger, leading to TexasSun.
Australian band Tropical Fuck Storm are pleased to announce a North American tour in support of Braindrops, their newest album released last year on Joyful Noise Recordings. The band will bring “their good old-fashioned down-under rock kick to the gut” (Chicago Reader) of a live show across the states, including some cities they have yet to visit. Tickets are on sale now.
Tropical Fuck Storm – comprised of Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin (The Drones), Erica Dunn, and Lauren Hammel – was formed around 2017 in the city of Melbourne, Victoria along Australia’s south-eastern coast. Following their debut album, 2018’s A Laughing Death in Meatspace, Braindrops overflows with compelling sounds and visions that reflect the often dark and fractured reality of life on planet Earth as we hurtle toward environmental and social decay at a frighteningly rapid clip. Listening to the album is a jarring and exhilarating experience, full of pulsating grooves, black humour, dissonant experimentation, and unsettling dystopian plot-lines.
Braindrops is an unrelenting work, from an unrelenting musical ensemble. “Tropical Fuck Storm is a full on thing,” Liddiard offers. “Everything we do, we do it to the death.” Purchase Braindrops – https://bit.ly/2ZPsO2Y
Tropical Fuck Storm Tour Dates: Tue. March 31 – Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theater Thu. April 2 – Iowa City, IA @ Mission Creek Festival Fri. April 3 – Detroit, MI @ Deluxx Fluxx Sat. April 4 – Toronto, ON @ The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern Sun. April 5 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz P.D.B. Mon. April 6 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair Wed. April 8 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s Thu. April 9 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg Sat. April 11 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery Mon. April 13 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl Tue. April 14 – Nashville, TN @ The End Wed. April 15 – Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop Thu. April 16 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
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