The line-up for Levitation Vancouver has been revealed, and it’s another good one.
Thee Oh Sees, Allah-Las, Com Truise, and Night Beats would all be high on my list there. I need to research a lot of these bands. One of my favorite things about the Levitation festivals is that they get bands from around the globe. I love discovering bands from Australia, South America, and Europe that I might never hear otherwise.
Keep your mind open.
Knoxville, Tennessee’s Big Ears Festival has announced its line-up for 2016. The festival is one of the best world music festivals around and brings in a great variety of acts.
Where else are you going to find Laurie Anderson headlining on Sunday, Yo La Tengo playing two sets, Tuareg guitarist Bombino, German psych-rockers Faust, and doom rockers Sunn O))) playing in the same festival (apart from a Levitation show)?
They also have independent films from all over the world scheduled the whole weekend, and tickets for the festival are cheap – $135 (plus fees) for the whole weekend. That’s a steal for this much musical talent from around the globe.
Keep your mind open.
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The Raveonettes, ever the innovators, have decided to create an “anti-album” by creating and releasing a different single every month of 2016. The first, “The World Is Empty (Without You),” is now available and it’s a neat electro cut they describe on their e-mailing list as “our take on an 80’s Freestyle beat.” Go to their site, subscribe to their e-mailing list, and you can partake of each track as it becomes available.
Keep your mind open.
Austin, Texas’ White Denim, highly regarded as one of the best live acts out there, has started their spring tour to promote their upcoming album Stiff (due out March 25th). They just rocked the BBC 6 Music Festival, and now they’re back in the United States. You can find all the official tour dates here.
Here’s the new single, “Ha Ha Ha Ha (Yeah)” from Stiff. I look forward to hearing the whole record.
Psych rockers (and a favorite band of my wife) Elephant Stone have released a new single, “Where I’m Going,” from their upcoming album Ship of Fools. As my wife put it, “I was hooked in the first five seconds.” The band has mixed a bit of electro into their raga-influenced psych-rock, and it works very well.
They’ve also announced March tour dates. Catch them if you can.
03/10 – Toronto, ON @ Sneaky Dees w/ Champion Lover and Bad Girls TICKETS
03/11 – Indianapolis, IN @ Joyful Noise w/ Vaadat Charigim TICKETS
03/12 – Little Rock, AR @ Vino’s Brew Pub TICKETS
03/14 to 03/17 – Austin, TX for SXSW TICKETS
03/18 – Memphis, TN @ Hi-Tone w/ R. Ring TICKETS
03/19 – Cincinnati, OH @ MOTR Pub TICKETS
03/20 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right w/ Las Rosas and Fascinator TICKETS
04/14 – Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa w/ The Mad Alcemy Liquid Light Show TICKETS
Keep your mind open.
The fifth annual Spring Awakening Festival of electronic dance music is coming to Chicago for the first time. The festival will be held June 10-12 in Chicago’s Jackson Park. Three-day passes are already on sale for as low as $191.82 (that includes all taxes and fees).
Like many other cool festivals, Spring Awakening offers a layaway option for tickets with a down payment of $47.25 and three payments after that spread out over three months.
This will be the biggest EDM festival in Chicago since the North Coast Fest (usually held in September). A three-day music festival for under $200.00 is hard to beat.
Keep your mind open.
This is a music blog, so when I saw a commercial for tomorrow night’s Grammy Awards I said, “I suppose I have to write about that now.” I wasn’t thrilled about it because I haven’t been thrilled about the Grammy Awards at any point in my life.
I haven’t been thrilled about the Grammys because the Grammys don’t cover music that thrills me. There are no big televised award shows for psychedelic, shoe gaze, dark wave, punk rock, outlaw country, or world music. The Grammy Awards cover music that isn’t on my radar, which shows how far my radar is from contemporary popular music. For instance…
Record of the Year
I’ve heard one of the five nominees – “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars. Before reading the list of nominees, however, I couldn’t have told you who did this song. It was a song I first heard as a parody in a YouTube video about the last Avengers movie.
Album of the Year
I’ve heard of all but one of the nominees (Chris Stapleton). I hope Alabama Shakes win because they actually rock.
Song of the Year and Best New Artist
Two categories in which I have no idea about any of the nominees. I don’t know if I’ve heard any of the nominees for Song of the Year, and you could tell me that all the Best New Artist nominees are actually the members of Slipknot without their masks and I’d probably believe you. Speaking of Slipknot…
Best Metal Performance
Who knew that Slipknot was (A) still making records and (B) nominated for a couple Grammys this year? Not I, because I’m not a fan of “bro rock” or screamo. Good for Slipknot and their fans, I guess, but I think it would be hysterical if Ghost wins since they have their tongues firmly in cheek. I’m also wondering why Motorhead wasn’t nominated, because Bad Magic is the best metal album in years.
Best Dance / Electronic Album
I was happy to see Caribou’s Our Love is nominated. I don’t have the record, but Caribou is playing at Levitation Austin this year and was already high on my must-see list there. Flying Lotus is also playing there, and he’s nominated for Best Dance Recording.
Other categories
I have no idea who any of the country nominees are, and I barely know any of the rap nominees. I’ve heard of some of the rap nominees, but couldn’t name one song by any of them. I haven’t bought a rap album since Mos Def’s last record and I haven’t found a country record I’ve liked since Corb Lund’s 2012 record.
I don’t know if I’ll watch the Grammys. I may be too busy doing other stuff, like writing about music I actually enjoy. Let me know what you thought, however, of the winners, losers, performances, and appearances.
Keep your mind open.
[Rewind Reviews are reviews of albums over a year old that I haven’t heard until now.]
You know a John Carpenter film score as soon as you hear it. His themes for Halloween, Escape from New York, and The Fog (among others) are unmistakable. He, his son, Cody Carpenter, and his godson, Daniel Davies, all got together without interference or input from any film studio and put together Lost Themes – an outstanding collection of instrumental music ideal for films never made.
The album’s opener, “Vortex,” is perfectly titled. Its mournful piano, synths beats, and electro bass pull you down into something dark and brooding. Don’t have this on your iPod during the zombie apocalypse. It will cause you to panic and make some stupid decision like opening that door to see what’s making that weird noise.
“Obsidian” is keyboard-heavy, or perhaps I should say the keyboards bring a heavy of paranoia to the room. They build to frantic pitches as prog-rock guitars snake around them, and then they drop out and become something you’d hear inside a theatre during a Dario Argento film. You can’t miss Carpenter’s love of Goblin (Argento’s frequent composers for his films) and their influence on him throughout this record.
“Fallen” is something from a sci-fi film Carpenter has rolling around in his head. The synths and bass are perfect for a spaceship landing sequence and the exploration of the creepy landscape outside the ship. “Domain” keeps up with the sci-fi groove and races at a pace best suited for a post-apocalyptic action film until it turns into a spaghetti western theme for a moment.
“Mystery” opens the second half of the album, plunging you into some frightening place where a masked killer the size of King Kong Bundy is stalking you and not one person is answering as you run down the street banging on every door. “Abyss” is strangely upbeat for the first half, with almost New Age piano and more progressive rock drumming, and oozing with menace in the second half. You could put this at the end credits of nearly any action or sci-fi film in the 1980’s.
“Wraith” conjures up images of its namesake as it moves around you like some ethereal creature. The synths on it are otherworldly and mix with bass that seems to come from an opening dimensional portal. “Purgatory” might be something you’d hear there as you stroll down dark halls and through madness-inducing mazes. The drumming on it is some of the heaviest on the record as the synths hiss at you.
The closer is “Night,” and it’s a horror doozy. It brings to mind gritty dark streets, trench coat-clad vampires, and hideous shapes lurking in shadows. The guitar work on it seems mistuned low, giving it a weird vocal-like effect. The synths invoke images of a setting sun that brings dread instead of wonder or amazement.
Carpenter has announced Lost Themes II will be out April 16th of this year. It’s already high on my must-own list, as this should be on yours.
Keep your mind open.
Screaming Females (Marissa Paternoster – guitars and vocals, Jarrett Dougherty – drums, “King” Michael Abbate – bass) are, in case you don’t know, one of the best rock power trios of our time. Their album Ugly was one of my favorite discoveries of 2012 and their newest, Rose Mountain, is another great piece of work and the most honest album about relationships I’ve heard in a long while.
Like Ugly, Rose Mountain starts with a good rocker. “Empty Head” gets right to the chugging bass, sharp percussion, and power riffs that Paternoster is making better than anyone right now. It’s about betrayal and annoyance in a relationship (“I’ll take your silence as a sign. You’re a big shot, but who needs who?”) dealt with via guitar.
“Ripe” is about a relationship full of so much passion that it might fly off the rails, much like Paternoster’s guitar riffs on it. When she sings, “I said peel the skin raw,” her shredding practically does it for you. “Wishing Well” almost has a surf vibe to the guitar work as Paternoster sings about regret for screwing up a relationship. “The dial tone is your true love” is a brutal, yet beautiful lyric (as is Paternoster’s solo).
“Burning Car” moves about as fast as such. “Broken Neck” is a song about madness and life in an asylum (although I wouldn’t be surprised if the asylum is a metaphor for a dead end relationship). Abbate’s bass line stalks around the song like a shuffling thorazine addict. The title track is a haunting one about death and Paternoster’s preferred burial site. Her guitar work on it goes from heavy as the Grim Reaper’s blade to weirdly catchy.
“Hopeless” is the saddest song on the record. “Don’t count on me again,” Paternoster sings, “I obsess on our encounters. I want us to be friends. I’m not hopeless, helpless, or begging you to say. It’s just turning out that way.” Who hasn’t been there at some point?
“Triumph” (which is about getting back up after a bad relationship knocks you down – “I want to feel all of the things I’ve been refused and celebrate my first victory, destroy my history with you.”) follows it, and the guitar work on it matches the title. All three of the Females play for the back of the room. Paternoster lays down some of her fiercest riffs on it. She’s one of the best guitar players of this modern age. Watch YouTube videos of the Screaming Females at small gigs and you’ll see men almost twice her size cower back as she plays with the ferocity of that bear from The Revenant.
“It’s Not Fair” seems to be about Paternoster missing her lover while she’s out on tour and “Criminal Image” closes the album with Thin Lizzy-like rock as Paternoster sings about a siren she’s obsessed with and for whom she’ll do anything. A faint piano in the background adds a nice touch as Doughtery’s drums grow in power with each moment. Abbate holds this hold song together with a good groove and Paternoster blazes through the end solo with stuff that would make Prince envious.
It’s another solid record from a solid trio. I need to see them live.
Keep your mind open.
Tamaryn Brown (hereafter known as Tamaryn) Tweeted last year that she felt 2015 had been her least sexiest year ever. I beg to differ because she gave us a lush, sexy, and excellent make-out record in 2015 – Cranekiss.
The title track opener sounds at first like a 45rpm record being played at 33 1/3rpm. The synths appear to be have been recorded at the bottom of a lake and Tamaryn’s lovely vocals appear to have been recorded in an empty YMCA pool. The Cure-like bass make the track something that should be on every “Summer 2015” mix tape.
“Hands All Over Me” immediately counters Ms. Brown’s “non-sexy 2015” Tweet, because I’m sure it’s gotten hundreds of people laid since its release. It’s full of gorgeous keyboards, lyrics about kinks and going for a couple rounds, and a near-industrial feel (especially the ending). It’s one of my favorite singles of 2015.
“Last” is a song by that one early 1980’s New Wave band that has haunted you since you heard it once on a college rock station as you were traveling to your aunt’s house for Christmas. Here it is, full of thick bass, strong synths, powerful and ethereal vocals, and that certain attitude that made you remember it for years. It’s a song about waiting for a lover, so it’s only natural you’ve been waiting to hear this.
“Collection” is bouncy and full of more great synths while “Keep Calling” slows things down and curls around you like incense smoke. It reminds me of early Love & Rockets records. “Softcore” is a genre of adult films, so I again am not buying Tamaryn’s claim of an unsexy 2015, especially when her torch singer voice rubs against you like a purring cat before the track turns into something you might hear in a dark and, ahem, exclusive club.
I think “Fade Away Slow” was recorded in the Black Lodge because it seems to come from another world where time moves slower. The guitar work on it is almost drone metal, but it’s sprinkled with crisp tones that would make Sergio Leone smile. The bass is menacing, the drums simple and effective, and Tamaryn’s vocals rise up around you…or perhaps you sink into them.
I love the guitar work on “I Won’t Be Found.” It has that excellent reverb / shoegaze effect that calms down everything around you, and the pace of the track only helps. This is, again, prime make-out music. Don’t blame Tamaryn if you aren’t getting some by this point on the album, because she’s made it especially easy for you with this track. I mean, for heaven’s sake, the next super-lush track is called “Sugarfix.” How much more help do you need?
Cranekiss ends with “Intruder (Waking You Up).” I can’t help but wonder if it’s about a one-night stand ending in a quick smooch and a thank you for a fun time and the coffee. The fuzzy and echoing guitar increases the “Wow…that was a crazy night.” mood and Tamaryn’s vocals seem to indicate she’s considering not leaving after all.
I know I don’t want to leave this record. It’s like a blissful weekend of good food and drink, late night cocktail lounges, and a lot of sex. If Tamaryn thinks she wasn’t sexy in 2015, then a record of her feeling frisky would probably melt my stereo.
Keep your mind open.