Chicago

Yes Yes Yes

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If you drive south for a few hours to Champaign you with find the smooth and polished ‘70’s Am pop sounds of Elsinore. The band released their latest album Yes Yes Yes via Parasol last week. The band has been working on this album for the last two years and that meticulous approach shows in the details sounds of the album. Singer Ryan Groff crafts personal lyrics to float across these tracks calling to mind names like Ben Gibbard and Sufjan Stevens. The band uses his talents to perfect on this album.

Elsinore will be performing at Lincoln Hall on August 20th.

Nashville

Kingston Springs Album Release, 8/12/10 @ Mercy Lounge

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At first glance, there’s nothing especially striking about the Kingston Springs: they don tried-and-true indie garb (plaid lumberjack shirts and tight jeans), and you can tell who they were listening to when they wrote their songs (Kings of Leon, Modest Mouse, maybe even some Fleet Foxes). But somehow, they’ve come up with the formula for musical success in Nashvegas. Sure, having a legendary pop icon in the family helps—singer Michael McDonald is the uncle of one of the boys—but it’s not everything in this town. After all, the chance to catch a glimpse of the ex-Doobie would not have been enough to draw a crowd of 150 or so on a Thursday night – particularly a Thursday night when the Black Keys and Tom Petty were in town. What these kids have going for them are a transparency and honesty in both their music and persona that are somewhat endangered in the Music City indie scene. Yeah, I have better-recorded EPs in my collection, but the home-recording quirks of their album give it a bit of grit and youthfulness that is infectious (plus, how many of the screaming teenage girls from Thursday’s concert are going to care if the mix isn’t always 100% spot-on?). As for the release show, the Springs were so overjoyed that often they were simply speechless and would just have to keep playing, and play they did. The keyboardist/guitarist/trumpeter astounded with his multi-tasking abilities; the gawky bassist gave Victor Wooten a run for his money; and the drummer was as clean and inventive as ever (you’d never guess that he picked up kit less than two years ago). And of course the handsome lead singer could have charmed the mini-dress off of any adoring high school girl of his choice – if, you know, his mom wasn’t there and all. Yeah, the kids are all right.–Christine Smith

Austin

Language Room Loved in La-La Land

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It takes a lot for a band to play to a packed crowd, especially on a Monday night in Los Angeles, but Language Room rose the occasion August 9th at the Viper Room. The set began with Todd Sapio on his knees conjuring swells of guitar with his pedal board while Scott Graham, Matt Graham, and Caleb Kelly lent their talents to make the bricks and mortar of this wall of sound. The band’s music attacks with an honesty and magic that isn’t as common as it should be.

I don’t think I’ve heard a local crowd cheer as hard as they did for the band. The show was a fitting launch for their self titled album. I wish we could get some of these Austin transplants back.

–Angelo (The Deli Los Angeles)

Philadelphia

The Scary Primal Rock of NYMPH

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We were just talking about dreams involving "random association of thoughts" (see entry about The Tony Castles here), when we stumbled upon Japan/NYC/Philly based NYMPH, signed to Brooklyn’s Social Registry. This band’s music sounds as if it was created to be the soundtrack to your own Dario Argento-style nightmare. More primal than tribal, unintelligible but never chaotic, tense to the point of becoming really unnerving, NYMPH is the musical equivalent to a quality horror movie, in which you won’t necessarily see blood flowing, but that will scare you to the point of making you repeatedly look over your shoulder on your way home.
P.S. By the way, how bands with members scattered miles away from each other manage to even just rehearse consistently remains a mystery to us.
 
– Paolo De Gregorio
 

 

NYC

The scary primal rock of NYMPH

Posted on:

We were just talking about dreams involving "random association of thoughts "(see entry about The Tony Castles here), when we stumbled upon Japan/NYC/Philly based NYMPH, signed to Brooklyn’s Social Registry. This band’s music sounds as if it was created to be the soundtrack to your own Dario Argento-style nightmare. More primal than tribal, unintelligible but never chaotic, tense to the point of becoming really unnerving, NYMPH is the musical equivalent to a quality horror movie, in which you won’t necessarily see blood flowing, but that will scare you to the point of making you repeatedly look over your shoulder on your way home.
P.S. By the way, how bands with members scatters miles away from each other managed to even just rehearse consistently remains a mystery to us.

L.A.

Chief premieres ‘Night & Day’ video

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Swirls of guitars, keyboards, melancholy, and sun drenched days conjure the feeling of ’70s folk rock turned new again. It’s the reason why Santa Monica’s Chief was just recently signed to London’s Domino Records. The good news is that the video for their first single ‘Night & Day’ just hit the streets, the band news is that you’ll have to wait until tomorrow before their debut album, Modern Rituals, is released.

NYC

The Tony Castles announce debut EP + tour with Tom Tom Club

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(The) Tony Castles play a kind of psych pop that defies many of the genre’s usual traits. The droney, guitar-drenched atmospheres are replaced with sparse, staccato keyboard lines, and the mellow, dreamy vocals with melodies which at times are more reminiscent of Motown rather than Mazzy Star or Spacemen 3. Can we still call it Psych Pop, then? Yes we can, although the dream here is more akin to that random association of thoughts we sometimes experience while sleeping, rather than – say – a coherent, climax inducing sexy dream. And that should be taken as a compliment to the band’s originality (although admittedly it might not sound like one). The Tony Castles will release their debut CD on September 17 at Union Pool, recommended show.

NYC

Blonde Redhead announce new release for September + fall tour

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After three years without official releases, NY based Italo-Japanese trio Blonde Redhead announced that a new full length CD (entitled "Penny Sparkle") will be out in September. From a first listen, the new songs sounds more produced and electronic than the band’s previous material – not surprisingly, considering that it was forged with the help of Stockholm based production duo Van Rivers and the Subliminal Kid, the Swedish artists/remixers/producers who have worked with Massive Attack and Bat For Lashes among others. The band is scheduled to tour Europe and the US in the fall, with a November date in NYC. "Here Sometimes", the opening track of the new album, can be downloaded by singing up for the band’s website, or streamed on their myspace page.

Philadelphia

Artist(s) Who Deserve Your Friendship: Gypsy Death and You

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Gypsy Death and You is a duo consisting of Drexel students Emily Cahill and Alex Wilson, who met in a History of Music Industry class their freshman year. Named after a line from The Velvet Underground’s “Run Run Run”, they claim to record “their own brand of dreamy-yet-edgy indie rock”. They do, and I’m lovin’ it! Gypsy Death and You are working on their debut EP, and the initial tracks are very promising revealing a songwriting team with maturity and vision beyond their years. The shoegazey dream-pop of “Time Absolute” with its minimalist drums and textured soundscapes lull you into their hazy world of noise frequencies. While “Crocus” bounces with the spirit of the catchiest of 90’s indie rock with Cahill taking vocal lead demonstrating the potential to someday share the stage with the likes of her buzzy Cali contemporaries Best Coast and Dum Dum Girls. But they are young so give them time to grow. However, keep your eye/ear on them. I will. (Photo by Corinne Ryan) – Q.D. Tran