Tag: NY bands

Gustaf claim what is “Mine” and sign with Royal Mountain Records.

Gustaf have announced their signing to Royal Mountain Records, alongside their debut single and video “Mine“. The first recorded material from a band who have played sold out shows around the United States based solely on word of mouth, “Mine” offers an engagingly weird and frantically off-kilter look into the all-encompassing world of the Brooklyn-based art-punk quintet.

LISTEN: to Gustaf “Mine” on YouTube

Vocalist Lydia Gammill explains: “This song is about having a false sense of entitlement. Someone who feels attacked or like they’re being pushed out of their own world and not getting the credit they deserve. Someone with a delusional sense of self whose anger and frustration is humorous like the superintendent in a college frat movie. The opening lines make it seem like the narrator is being criticized by someone else and their retaliation is like “you’ve got to be kidding me, you can’t say that about me! I invented water you punk!” …. sort of.“

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Formed in 2018, Brooklyn’s Gustaf have built a kind of buzz that feels like it comes from a different era. The art punk 5 piece are yet to release any recorded music, but rapidly established a reputation as one of New York’s “hardest working…and most reliably fun bands” (BrooklynVegan), and excitement about their danceable, ESG-inspired post punk has expanded outside of their city with remarkable effect despite their scant online presence. The band have found early champions in all quarters, catching the attention of luminaries like Beck – who had the band open for him at a secret loft party he played around the release of his latest album – the New York no wave legend James Chance, and have shared stages with buzzing indie acts like Omni, Tropical Fuck Storm, Dehd and Bodega, while word of mouth led to sell out shows when they played their first LA headline dates in late 2019. 

While recent events have curtailed Gustaf’s live schedule, the band have remained relentless as ever in 2020, and entered the studio with producer Chris Coady (Beach House, Future Islands, TV On The Radio) to work on their first official release.

Mine 7″ is out on Royal Mountain Records on December 4th. It is available for pre-order here.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Tom at Hive Mind PR.]

Public Practice’s first LP, “Gentle Grip,” due May 15, 2020.

On their debut full length, Gentle Grip, Public Practice reanimate the spirit of late ‘70s New York with their playfully angular yet thoughtful brand of no wave-meets-funk and dark disco. 

Magnetic singer and lyricist Sam York and guitarist and principal sonic architect Vince McClelland (who previously played together as members of the meteoric yet short-lived NYC post-punk outfit WALL) come to the table with an anarchic perspective that aims to eradicate creative barriers by challenging the very idea of what a song can be. Paradoxically, Drew Citron, on bass/vocals/synth, and drummer/producer Scott Rosenthal (both previously of Brooklyn indie-pop favorites Beverly) are uncannily adept at working within the framework of classic pop structures. But instead of clashing, these contrasting styles challenge and complement one another, resulting in an album full of spiraling tensions and unexpected turns.

Lyrically, York explores the complexities and contradictions of modern life overtop dance-inducing rhythms and choruses that disarmingly open up the doors to self-reflection. “You don’t want to live a lie / But it’s easy” York sings on “Compromised,” the record’s brisk, gyrating lead single. As York puts it, “No one’s moral compass reads truth north at all times. We all want to be our best green recycling selves, but still want to buy the shiny new shoes — how do you emotionally navigate through that? How do you balance material desires with the desire to be seen as morally good?” Towards the slinkier end of the album’s aural spectrum, songs like the supremely danceable “My Head” — which is about tuning out the incessant influx of external noise and finding your own internal groove — are more personally political while still hearkening the last days of disco.

But whether they are poking holes in commonly held ideas centered around relationships, creativity, or capitalism, Public Practice never lose sight of the fact that they want to have fun, and they want you to have fun too. After all, who wants to stand on top of a soapbox when there’s a dark, sweaty dancefloor out there with room on it for all of us?

Keep your mind open.

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