Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Shake With Little Boots & Crazy P


While not as amazing as the original, Crazy P's remix of Little Boots' instant classic Shake this stripped down and mellowed out version is non-the-less worthy as hell.  A bit more minimal and less up front this version shakes it slowly and seductively as the track delves into soulful house territory.

With the single launch this week at a warehouse blow-out on Saturday night in London, Little Boots has invited some of her DJ friends including 'Shake' co-creator James Ford, Crazy P, and notorious disco trouble makers Horse Meat Disco and Kris Di Angelis. Little Boots will also be DJing herself and there are more surprises in store!

Find out more in the JPG up above.

Download: Shake (Crazy P Remix)
Watch: Shake

Time To Get Hyper


As a hugely talented producer, remixer, DJ, label boss and composer Hyper has excelled building a loyal and global fan base as well as commanding huge respect from his peers. Having shot into the consciousness of almost every dance head and aficionado ten years ago with the eponymous Y3K compilation series, he has since released two critically acclaimed albums, remixed everyone from Foals to Futureheads, Pink to Paul Van Dyke and released some of the biggest compilation series’ over the last decade.

Now he's back with his new single, My World and as one might expect it's a frickin' whopper of a tune.  Processed guitar's power over precision drum-break edits, chunky synth lines whir and buzz and slabs of sub bass hold the foundation tight below the guttural bars of Dread MC and Genesis Elijah.   Throw in a whole host of remixes that cover ever possible sub genre known to man and you have one hell of a welcome back.  Hyper in the course of one single not only proves how and why he got his name but also why he's still respected to this day as one of the finest producers in all of Britain.

Download: My World (Brioski Remix)
Listen: My World (Original Mix)

Tender Is The Night Has A Golden Glow

Golden Glow is the charming solo project of Manchester singer/songwriter Pierre Hall.

Son of a British father from Trinidad and Tobago, and a Mauritian mother, Pierre's early years were spent near Liverpool before moving to Manchester at 18 for university.

While in Manchester and just as Pierre's previous band, Lead Balloons were ending their time together in 2009, Pierre was in a serious automobile accident that left him unable to walk for nearly six months. Although the recovery was tough, and this was a dark time in his life, it also changed the way Pierre approached his art. Naming his new project Golden Glow as a tribute to the band Felt and their track "Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow" he began to write songs that captured what he was living through.

By late 2010, Pierre Hall had completed the set of songs that were to make up the Golden Glow debut, Tender Is The Night. Rough, raw, and totally DIY the songs are as pure as pure can get and while Pierre thought of re-recording the songs in a more "professional environment," he didn't and the charm of Tender Is The Night was preserved.

Now, Golden Glow’s debut album, Tender Is The Night will be released in all of its distorted beauty by Mush Records with help from the label Bleeding Gold, who will handle a limited run of vinyl. The performances that make up this record are perfect in their obvious imperfections and quite honestly that's what makes the record so good and as a result it's why Tender Is The Night is the record to introduce Golden Glow to the world.

Download: Adore Me

Praise The Old Monk's


The Brooklyn prog-punk trio Old Monk has confirmed the release of their debut album Birds of Belize on Los Angeles's Eenie Meenie Records. The album will hit the streets via compact disc, digital and vinyl formats on January 17th, 2012. The digital version of the album will contain three bonus tracks.

Blending a love for of progressive rock, indie rock and pop punk has produced a sound that will sound familiar to most ears. But the one ingredient that stands out from the rest is the energy that Old Monk puts into their recipe. A raucous sound distinguishes the band from the crowd of over produced studio albums or overly bland lo-fi sounds that has been usual seasoning used by most bands today.

Old Monk are a jittery, frenetic bunch who wrangle their guitars in an almost Futureheads meets Polvo kind of way.  Spiky riffs bounce off speedy drum fills and out of breath vocals to create a ridiculously quick paced songs that will leave you exhausted.  That's just was indie rock should do and Old Monk does with vim and vigor!

Download: Sacred Birds

Kid Sister Never Kisses & Tells


Who better to write the book on fun than the ever crush worthy Kid Sister? The MC born Melisa Young not only spent 2011 tearing down shows all over North America - from the Magic 8 Ball tour with A-Trak to NYC's 80,000 deep Electric Zoo festival - but managed to bring that boundless on-stage energy to studio sessions with some of today's most exciting producers.

The Kiss & Tell EP offers four of Kid Sister's latest jams with a diverse crew of collaborators. "Mickey" is a club workout from DJ innovators Nadastrom  while "Hide N Seek" pairs Kid Sis with rap absurdist Riff Raff and bass maestros Sinden & 5kin& Bone5. Hip-hop hero Scoop Deville (Snoop, Game, Fat Joe) mans the boards for "Cliq Claq" (as featured in Stella McCartney's recent runway shows) as well as a brand-new remix of KS mixtape favorite "Gucci Rag Top," now featuring a guest verse from fellow Fool's Gold spitter Danny Brown.

Still, it's Kid Sister's inimitable personality on and off the mic that brings these team-ups to life with swaggering verses and clever, lipstick-smeared punchlines to spare. Just like the pulpy romance novels that inspired it's title, Kiss & Tell offers pure pleasure for everyone. Word to the rap game Danielle Steel!

Download: Mickey

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun


Electronic. Indie. Dance. Pop. Rock. Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun is all about the collaborative. It’s about the connections between sound and people, it’s about the heart and the head. It’s for mistakes and triumphs, and against arrogance and under-confidence. A band of four: two girls, two boys. Noisy, dancy, loud, sincere, sweaty, lovable, hardworking.

After three EPs and endless touring, it was time to put what they’d become to physical memory: a record they could be overwhelmingly proud of and their current and future fans couldn’t stop listening too. That result is WILDFIRE: a 12 song document of perseverance and a homage to their fans (who helped fund the making of WILDFIRE through a very successful Kickstarter campaign). It’s about changing the things you want to change and doing the things you want to do. It’s about refusing to settle and working hard for what you want. It’s about really seeing your past, present, and future.

The band will be touring for the release....here are the first string of dates...
11.25 • 529 (Rock Science Presents) (Atlanta, GA)
12.02 • The Atlantic (Gainesville, FL) w/ Sleepy Vikings
12.03 • New World Brewery (Tampa, FL) w/ Sleepy Vikings, I Was Totally Destroying It
12.04 • Word of Mouth Cafe (Sarasota, FL) w/ Sleepy Vikings
12.05 • Will's Pub (FREE SHOW!) (Orlando, FL)
12.06 • Burro Bar (Jacksonville, FL) w/ Sleepy Vikings
12.07 • The Jinx (Savannah, GA)
12.09 • The Basement (Atlanta, GA) w/ I Was Totally Destroying It, Stokeswood
12.10 • WPBR Radio Room (Greenville, SC)

Download: Bad Design
Download: We Were Wild

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Say Hello To The Lanskies


French born band The Lanskies are ready to take over the world with their highly anticipated North American debut EP, Romeo, out now via The MuseBox Distribution. The much talked about group fronted by Liverpool born Lewis Evans, made waves at CMJ and Filter’s Culture Collide and are keeping up momentum.

Romeo is an ear catching EP of four tracks that sound something like a long lost recording between The Futureheads and Bloc Party circa 2005. Angular, shouty, and very danceable, this little record packs a big punch.  They call their sound, "Hot Wave," and while it sounds remarkably like stuff that was part of the whole post punk revival, we'll let them call their songs whatever they want simply because they're pretty damn good.

See for yourself...

Download: Porno

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Do You Have Your ID


The ID
don't have a lot of information available about them. They don't really have their ID worked out like that. But here's what the band says about themselves...

From an unusual international coalition The ID has members from Switzerland, Ireland and the UK who formed a musical union through their love of Joy Division.  This fandom coupled with an appreciation of the artistic ideals of Dadaists, the I.D deliver their own slant on the post punk manifesto.

Dramatic and angular, the band have embraced that post punk manifesto and constructed songs that are moody, sweeping, and pretty darn good. If you can imagine the Editors in a bit of a tussle with the aforementioned Joy Division and White Lies you'll get where The ID are coming from.

With manifesto in hand the band have recently produced their debut EP, which will be the first in a series of three.

Download: Friday Night Star
Download: Last To Fall

Eva on the Western Castle Island


Talk about cross cultural, multi-national, global get together's...Eva on the Western Castle Island pretty much define what it's all about.  You see, Eva is a Malaysian/Chinese singer who has been singing as a professional in her homeland Malaysia. A few years ago she moved to Finland and started doing solo gigs. In spring 2011 she met Martin, Ilkka and Eero who were looking for a singer to their new band. Eva liked their melodic tunes and fresh sound and so they ended up doing music together.

Their name is so long, that it couldn't even be used as profile name on Soundcloud. Anyhow, if you look at the names of the members more closely and find someone who understands Finnish, you might figure out what the name stands for.  Until then...just listen to them. 

Eva on the Western Castle Island have just released their first single Shooting Stars & Satellites and you can download it below.

Download: Shooting Stars & Satellites

Monday, November 14, 2011

Catch The Rays from pacificUV


pacificUV
was formed in the late 1990’s in Athens, Georgia. Half the band wanted to sound like a psychedelic Jesus and Mary Chain tripping on Nyquil, while the other half wanted to play one chord for 45 minutes to determine its color. Somehow, what emerged from these disparate goals was their critically acclaimed, 4 years in the making, self-titled debut album that Rolling Stone called a “masterpiece”. The perfect mixture of noise and melody, the first LP was a sprawling ambient landscape that revealed a myriad of influences, from shoegaze to 60’s rock, to slow core to post-rock.

Following a move to Portland, Oregon and the release of their second LP - Longplay 2 - in 2008, the band moved back to its native Athens, Georgia and spent the last two years recording its third, and best, record, WEEKENDS.

The lyrical inspiration for WEEKENDS is the disintegration of a romantic relationship. What does one do on the weekends once love has disappeared? The pill case inspired album art suggests one answer.
From “Funny Girl” and “Ballerina” to the hangover ballads of “Going Home” and “Baby Blue”, WEEKENDS is sequenced to suggest the highs and lows one might experience on any given weekend when attempting to forget the past.

Download: Funny Girl

Friday, November 11, 2011

Thee American Revolution


Self-professed psychedelic cavemen who pound out their primitive songs hastily in the garage, Thee American Revolution bathe fuzz drenched riffs and fill their debut  album Buddha Electrostorm with gem upon gem of Elephant Six like songs. Robert Schneider’s (Apples in Stereo) pop smarts can’t be denied, and paired with Craig Morris, the duo conjure up a mighty tasty racket. Overseen by the mysterious direction of Wm. Shears, Thee American Revolution blaze ahead as if every song was made with cane sugar and was a number one single.

Originally released on Garden Gate Records/Elephant 6 Recording Co., Fire Records couldn’t resist getting golden tracks like the swirl of “She’s Coming Down,” the riff happy sneering “Haircut,” and the hand clapping stomper of “Blow My Mind” into the hands of millions (in theory anyway) the world over. Rounded out with bonus material and fresh packaging, it's the perfect holiday slab of indie pop.  So gather the kids round the stereo, put some apples in the stereo, turn up the volume, and freak out!

Download: Blow My Mind

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Shhh It's The Silent League


The Silent League
was formed in 2004 in Brooklyn by Justin Russo (then keyboardist for Mercury Rev during the classic Deserter's Songs/All is Dream era). File 13 released the band's debut album The Orchestra, Sadly, Has Refused in 2004 to worldwide acclaim. The Silent League has since appeared to be an on-again/off-again relationship between a collective of musicians interested only in periodically making records, playing shows, and disappearing again. This may be true as nobody in New York ever seems quite sure whether or not the band still exists.

Their beautiful second album, Of Stars and Other Somebodies was never released in North America -- until now. Lay tracks through the past 5-6 years worth of new music (take Arcade Fire, Interpol, Beirut, St. Vincent, Stars Like Fleas, Bishop Allen...) and you're going to run over more than a handful of people who began with or spent time creating music under the The Silent League moniker... many of them still do, you just don't know it.

"We don't really care about maintaining a place in the industry. There is enough noise in the world and everyone has other work to busy themselves with," says Russo, "We try to keep it new, detached... We make music when we think we have something to say that isn't already being said."

Download: Let It Roll
Download: The Tolka Not The Liffey

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

You're A Total Slacker


Total Slacker, which is Brooklyn's Tucker Rountree, Emily Jane and Ross Condon, released their debut album Thrashin' overseas in England via Marshall Teller Records and Japan via Sixteen Tambourines earlier in the year.  The trio is now gearing up for the album release in America in early 2012. With titles like, "No Mo 4loko", "Stuck In 93'" and "Shitty Baby", Total Slacker's music is more than a good ol' time, it's a relentless lifestyle.

Lying somewhere between bad fuzzed out metal riffs and the Apples In Stereo on drugs, Total Slacker is an indie pop nightmare that rocks.  It really shouldn't work at all, but yet it somehow does and the songs are ridiculously catchy and unfortunately short.  Trashin' is one heck of a fizzy pop record that's almost not safe for work...I mean why else would someone have a single called, "Secret VHS Collection?"

Download: Secret VHS Collection

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Let's Go To Spacecamp

Jon Wiley (guitar/vox), Steven Mertens (bass), and Chris Egan (drums) met when they toured with Adam Green as his touring band on the 2008 summer tour and Spacecamp was born. Later that year while in Berlin, the guys met Dev Hynes (better known as Lightspeed Champion or Blood Orange) where he asked the band to record nearly all of the music for Hynes' second album, Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You.

In January of 2009, the then named, Spacecamp and Hynes recorded the album at Brooklyn's Mission Sound with producer Ben Allen. Shortly after that, Spacecamp invited guitarist James Pollis to join the band and complete the lineup. In late 2010 and early 2011, the band started playing shows and writing their first full-length album that is scheduled for release in Fall 2012.

Sounding something like MGMT if they got in a fight with the Futureheads and the Police, the band fuses electronics, power pop, and worldly pop music into a dizzying combination that's a bit off centre but really quite good.  Why they're waiting so long to release their debut is beyond me...but until then enjoy the first sounds from that record...

Download:  MikoD.T.B.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Something Like A Phenomenon

The Phenomenal Handclap Band are best known for their single "15 to 20" - which exploded when the band first came on the scene two years ago. The group's debut album was a mix of cosmic disco-funk and psych soul that made for an incredible dance party and landed them a recent tour with Bryan Ferry.

The group is also preparing the release of the follow-up to their acclaimed, self-titled debut album. Form & Control, PHB’s ambitious new work takes their clever fusion of international psych, soul, and cosmic disco a bold step forward. With co-founders Daniel Collás and Sean Marquand at the production helm, Form & Control finds the band once again deftly mixing and matching seemingly disparate musical genres, with a musical palette that now includes prog-pop, new wave and modern leftfield dance.

Form and Control will be released in early 2012 on Tummy Touch Records.

Download: Following