NYC

Unnatural Helpers Announce West Coast Tour

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The Unnatural Helpers have been banging around Seattle for a few years now as the perennial hobbyhorse of singer / drummer / songwriter / sole consistent member Dean Whitmore, who has also spent time with such Seattle outfits as the Intelligence, Welcome and Dipers.  Despite the myriad lineup changes over the years, the band has managed to retain and expand on its original sound in a steady and cohesive way – anyone who has witnessed the live show over the years will be well familiar with the band’s taut, muscular guitar-rock, driven by Whitmore’s whip-tight drumming and usually caustic, often self-deprecating vocals.  Oh, and the songs are always short.  Very short.
 
No words should be wasted listing off the dozen or so people that have passed through the ranks, and even as this is being typed it remains impossible to guess at who all is playing in the current lineup of the band, so let’s just agree to focus on the folks that played on the record.  Guitar and sporadic vocal duties are held down by Andrew Greager (Scraps, Popular Shapes) and Johnnie Heinz, while Andrew Sullivan (The Trashies) provides swaggering bass lines throughout, as well as some guitar and the occasional backing vocal.  All the way through Whitmore’s half sung / half shouted vocals and lashing drums seem to be racing the rest of the instruments to end of the song.
 
UNNATURAL HELPERS

07/20 – Seattle, WA – Funhouse !
07/21 – Portland, OR – The Know
07/22 – Oakland, CA – The New Parish #
07/23 – Fullerton, CA – Burger Records ^
07/24 – San Diego, CA – Eleven Bar ^
07/25 – Los Angeles, CA – Dark Horse Saloon ^
07/26 – San Pedro, CA – TBD ^
07/27 – Palm Springs, CA – Dillon Roadhouse ^
07/28 – San Francisco, CA – Hemlock ^ *
07/29 – Davis, CA – House party at the Hub ^
 
! – w/ Tit Pig
# – 1-2-3-4 Go! Anniversary Fest
^ – w/ Uzi Rash
* – w/ Eat Skull
 

Unnatural Helpers – Sunshine / Pretty Girls by hardlyartrecords

 

Philadelphia

Album Review: American Radiance – Tin Horses

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There must be something in the water here in Philadelphia that is nurturing the recent wave of retro sounding classic Americana-influenced acts like The War on Drugs and Kurt Vile. Or maybe it’s just six degrees of jamming. Following in the footsteps of the previously mentioned artists are a relatively new band on the local music scene, Tin Horses. The group started out as a side project of Kiel Everett, bassist for psychedelic noise rock outfit Purling Hiss, as an outlet for his more country roots-rock side as a musician. Tin Horses has also given him the chance to share his skills as a lead vocalist and guitar player, which is a drastic change from the rumbling bass riffage that he usually adds to Purling Hiss’ compositions/jams. Helping Everett round out Tin Horses’ sound are: Michael Sobel on guitar/lap steel, Patrick Hickey on bass/backing vocals, and Stephen Rockwell on drums/backing vocals.
 
Back at the end of March, the band released their debut seven-song EP, American Radiance via Bandcamp. After listening to the album for the first time, it was hard not to think of another band with a horse-themed name…Neil Young’s Crazy Horse, but don’t think Tin Horses are just another lame Neil Young knockoff. On American Radiance, Tin Horses sound as if Crazy Horse lived through the underground music scene of America in the ‘90s, where punk bands finally embraced the classic rock groups that had come before them producing acts like Dinosaur Jr., who took their early raw hardcore roots and expanded on the initially limiting genre to create their own brand of rock propelling them to college radio darlings status with J Mascis’ lazy vocal draw and soaring wah-wah drenched guitar solos. What sets Tin Horses apart most from their influences is their non-traditional vocal delivery over the raw Americana twang of their backing tracks. American Radiance is more than just the raw chaotic guitar interplay and thumping rhythms of “Amphetamine” and “Ain’t No Use” though, which gives the album an added musical depth and dynamic that is often missing on debut releases. Everett and company are able to display their more subtle, countrified side with tracks like “Copse Woods” and “Gypsy Lane,” which are based around the good ole acoustic guitar. What stands out on “Copse Woods” are the haunting vocal harmonies singing “I feel I’m getting closer to my maker” over the eerie drone of the cello and the patient rhythm of the song. “Gypsy Lane” is a short instrumental track showing both Everett and Sobel’s prowess on acoustic and lap steel guitars, but the real purpose of the track is to serve as a segue from the album’s laidback middle section back to the raw guitar loudness of the beginning of the album for its final two tracks “What Keeps You Goin’” and “Rebel.” However, the third song on American Radiance, “You Took Care Of Me While I Was Dyin” is the best example of everything that makes up Tin Horses’ sound in six minutes and twenty-five seconds, working perfectly as the solid backbone of the album. The track begins with heavy guitar feedback before beautifully falling into melodic acoustic guitar work that rolls with down-home rhythms while Everett’s vocals are nicely accented by Sobel’s lap steel guitar leads. Midway through the song, the fuzzy, Crazy Horse-esque guitars return for some solos in between verses, and then come back with full force in the last minute and a half of the track that is filled with solos and guitar interplay that would make both Young and Mascis proud (and secretly a bit jealous).
 
You can purchase and download American Radiance HERE. Tin Horses will also be performing live at Johnny Brenda’s on Thursday, August 18 when they open The War on Drugs Record Release Party with NYC’s Caveman. – Dan Brightcliffe
 

NYC

Best of NYC 14: Ava Luna play Union Square for free on 07.14 (tonight)

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Coming in at number 14 on the Best Emerging Artists of 2010 poll (the full results can be seen here), Ava Luna mixes the sounds of uplifting gospel music with electro-pop seamlessly, leaving you unable to help dancing along to songs like "Clips" (boasting lyrics like "I always knew you were a dangerous one, and you might just make me lose my cool"). Their Services EP is available for download for only $2 here, containing four songs ("Clips," "Cement Lunch," "Past the Barbary" and "Won’t You Be Mine"). L Magazine termed them "the most immediately engaging and smart music" currently coming from New York due to Ava Luna’s fresh and invigorating tunes, all of which possess and almost instantaneous magnetic appeal. The music of Ava Luna is toe-tapping at the very least, get-up-and-dance-immediately at its very best.

Portland

Into the Woods Quarterly at Holocene

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The gloriously wondrous sounds of Portland’s favourites representing Portland’s favourite video series come crashing together in a ridiculously underpriced show tonight at Holocene. Come swoon to the captivating sounds of Radiation City, keep a spot open on your dance card for The Reservations, hop around with Pigeons, and sink into the depths of Feelings. For just five measly dollars. Into the Woods, why are you so lovely to us?

The Quarterly from Into The Woods on Vimeo.

San Francisco

Summertime Soundtrack: SF’s Jangle Pop Scene

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Summer, more than any other season, calls for commitment-free, easy listening habits. Despite San Francisco’s foggy views, the sun shines brightly on the bouncy hooks and reverb-laden bedroom stylings of jangle pop.

Gone are the days when college rock heroes such as the Feelies or Aztec Camera were dismissed as trite or underwhelming. Perhaps inspired by the exploding popularity of bands such as Best Coast or the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, the Bay Area is experience a renaissance of spindly, lo-fi tunes where happy-go-lucky sounds shroud heartbreaking lyrical themes. Here is a look at three local bands of the jangle pop variety:

Sourpatch – Sourpatch, hailing from the South Bay, are a four-piece girl/boy delight. Impossible romances combine with danceable dirge. Recalling C86 tape memories, Sourpatch’s infectious noisy bop proves that twee ain’t all that saccharine.

Dreamdate – Swinging guitars and warming vocals contribute to Dreamdate’s unstoppable charm. The three members can certainly get noisy and use piercing riffs to punctuate a comfortably hazy sound. Catch them next at Amnesia on July 21!

The Splinters – Squirming and snarky garage pop from four boisterous Oakland-transplants ignite sincerity into something catchy, but not necessarily cutesy.

–Julianne Wagner

DreamDate – Melody Walks (live) from cleanwhitelines on Vimeo.

Philadelphia

What’s This?: Psychic Teens

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Psychic Teens released their debut digital 7” single last month, and it seems that the trio has no problem laying their balls on the table for all to see. The ominous bass line and jagged guitar work that opens “Yung” hints at the band’s leanings to get loud and noisy. Cavernous vocals momentarily takeover the track with a Jim Morrsion-like (I’m-fucked-up-and-ranting-like-a-lunatic-but-in-a-good-way) swagger before the band unleashes a barrage of sonic artillery on your eardrums that is probably meant to scare away the weak and destroy the feeble. The experimental track has me equally impressed and intrigued about what the gang will have for us next. On the flipside, “CbbK” also exudes badass-ness that is more straightforward but still maintains the slightly unhinged quality that Psychic Teens is surprisingly able to capture on their debut recordings (with I’m guessing many thanks to Bruce Howze, who laid down the tracks at Red Planet Sound). You can download the digital 7” single for FREE HERE (I already did). The band will be taking a brief break to prepare a couple of physical releases and write some new tunes so you might want to swing by Kung Fu Necktie early this Saturday when Psychic Teens open for Yob and Dark Castle. – Q.D. Tran