Carissa’s Wierd, one of the seminal indie rock outfits of Seattle through the 90s and early ‘oughts, have released a b-side track from a batch of new recordings they have reportedly been working on. The band, which formed in 1995, broke up in 2003, with many of its members being disseminated into current chamber-pop and folky groups- including Band of Horses and Grand Archives. Mat Brooke, lead singer of both Carissa’s Wierd and Grand Archives, also went on to found the Redwood bar, which is very noteworthy to me because while living in Capitol Hill I drank many beers and tossed many peanut shells onto their floor (Thank you, Mat).
The band is playing a show August 24 at Neumos, and the rumors about a tour, may or may not be true. Possibly, I would just like to start a rumor that they’re touring, so as to incite a riotous demand for them to tour.
The Bay’s favorite girl group Hunx and His Punx just released the video for "Lovers Lane," the single from their new album Too Young To Be In Love. Led by Seth “Hunx” Bogart (imagine a gay Phil Spector who sings along with The Ronettes), witness the spectacle first-hand during the band’s September tour, which includes dates with K-Holes, the Coathangers and Natural Child. For now, check out the video directed by Hannah Lew of Grass Widow and watch as Hunx is taken in by doppelgangers, sent to the open road, to prom and, finally, Lovers Lane.
Philadelphia has been attracting more and more talented musicians to come live in our gritty, but very real and very creative urban jungle. Whether it’s for the affordable living and practice spaces or rising music scene with its close proximity to key cities for touring, the pool of talented artists keeps getting deeper and deeper. And that also goes for the technicians behind the scenes who make them sound so good. Well, one of the fine young sound engineers that has been building a well-respected reputation for himself in the music industry and has recently made Philly his home is Kyle “Slick” Johnson. His name may not be familiar to you yet as most who sit behind the consoles rarely are, but you’ve probably heard of the artists that he’s assisted in the studio like Fischerspooner, Wavves, Modest Mouse, Cymbals Eat Guitars, and Creepoid just to name a few. I had a chance to spend a fun evening at one of my favorite restaurants/bars in the city, Catahoula, learning more about Slick and picking his brain. There were plenty of laughs since it seems like we have very similar senses of humor and laidback attitudes. He was also nice enough to team up with The Deli Magazine for a contest to give one lucky local act FREE recording/mixing time for two days with the gifted producer (whose work has been chosen multiple times as Pitchfork’s Best New Music) in his Fancy Time Studio. If you’ve ever been interested in what life would be like working behind the boards or working in the studio with Kyle “ Slick” Johnson, check out our interview with him HERE. (Photo by Brandi Lukas)
To be considered for the opportunity to win two days of FREE mixing/recording time in Fancy Time Studio with Slick, all you need to do is fill in the form HERE by Friday, August 19.
In addition to the top prize of two days in Fancy Time Studio with Slick, we’re also giving away 2-days-for-the-price-of-1 for 5 runners-up bands or artists! The giveaway winners will be chosen by the studio’s personnel and will be announced by mid-September. Good luck!
Tonight is the beginning of the Phreak N’ Queer Music and Arts Festival, a 4-day festival from August 4 – 7 in various locations throughout Philly designed to highlight the surplus of LGBTQ talent in our community and will include bands, DJs, visual artists and film makers, performance art, poetry and community space. The opening party is this evening at Elena’s Soul Lounge with GlitterBomb, which will feature art, live performances (from Rainbow Destroyer, Birth Noise, A Stick and A Stone, Wordz the Poet Emcee, and Erik Ransom), and DJs. We had a chance to find out more about the Phreak N’ Queer Music and Arts Festival from Kate Gormley and Sara Sherr, two of the many organizers who banded together to make this idea come to fruition. You can read what they had to say about the debut of this truly alt festival HERE.
Company of Thieves have a session up at Daytotter today. The band performed four tracks from their recently released full-length album Running From a Gamble.
Gold Motel is giving away their new single today and you can grab it over at Nylon. Gold Motel is one of the few (Smith Westerns, The Cool Kids, Maps & Atlases, and Young Man) Chicago bands gracing the stages of Lollapalooza this weekend. They are performing Sunday, Aug. 7th at 12:15pm.
Blane Fonda has announced that their next full-length album, Foolish Croon, will be released on September 23rd. The record release show is scheduled for Friday September 23 at Subterranean. The band began working on the album band in January and recorded Lightbox Studio with engineer Greg Panciera and Gravity.
Heypenny’s swinging through Nashville again Aug. 20 with a show at The End with Tommy & The High Pilots. The two are touring with Stamps for the first half of the month, and you can download a summer tour sampler featuring the three bands here. It’s free, but you can tip if ya want.
MH is the recording name of local musician Martin Hayes, and back in February he released a beautiful folk-influence album called "Black Animal". You can stream the album below and purchase it here. This week he teamed up with artist Joy Whalen to create a video for the track "In The Blackness of Fire".
No, he isn’t a “hologram,” Mister Heavenly is out there…well, at least as a band. The three-piece is made up of indie rock veterans, guitarist/vocalist Nick Thorburn (Islands/ Unicorns), keyboardist/vocalist Ryan Kattner a.k.a. Honus Honus (Man Man), and drummer Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse/The Shins). Mister Heavenly self-describe their sound as “doom wop”, a new genre that they are pioneering on their debut full-length Out of Love. The “doom” part comes from the record’s strange dark lyrical themes, such as a “bronx sniper” and the creepy correspondence between a 10 year old girl and former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega as well as the fascination with ill-fated romance as the album’s title suggests, whereas the “wop” derives from the poppy doo-wop based song structures and vocal harmonies between Kattner and Thorburn found over the LP’s 12 songs. The trio truly has a sound unique to themselves, although there are fragments of each member’s other groups dispersed throughout Out of Love’s sonic landscape. Another important factor into the album’s sound is the fact that the trio recorded and mixed the entire full-length in 12 days, the old-fashioned way on analog tape without the aid of modern recording technology, which gives the songs the warmth and familiarity of listening to your parent’s old vinyl records and creates an interesting duality between the new, but also vintage sounds of the LP.
The obvious standout tracks from the album are the previously leaked “Bronx Sniper” and “Pineapple Girl”. “Bronx Sniper” kicks off Out of Love with a bang. It’s the track that best represents each member’s other bands, as well as giving the listener an idea of who Mister Heavenly is. The off kilter drum rhythm is reminiscent of what you’d find from Modest Mouse, the strange synth patterns are straight from Man Man, and the guitar stylings add a taste of Thorburn’s Islands/Unicorn, while the dueling vocals, dark lyrical themes, and modern take on doo-wop song structures are uniquely Mister Heavenly. “Pineapple Girl” continues the peculiar duality between strange, dark lyrics and innocent, poppy music on Out of Love. The track tells the aforementioned story of a young girl from Michigan and the former Panamanian dictator, over lush doo-wop vocal harmonies that start off humorously with a bit of an Asian flare while a late Beach Boys-esque instrumental with organ and surf-y guitar licks comprise of the verse parts, but then the trio turns on the overdrive for its chorus sections. However, the track that stands out the most on the album for me is the outstanding “Charlyne”. This is probably the most straight forward doo-wop song on the album, with its driving piano rhythm and ‘50s surf rock guitar style, but what really makes the song special is the shift in dynamics around the minute and forty-five second mark, where the band turns it up a notch, and Kattner shouts the name of the song’s main character over Thorburn’s backing vocals until the song culminates with the line “and I always play the fool for Charlyne.” The album is full of loveable tracks like that one and “I Am a Hologram”, while other tunes can transport you to simpler times when sock hops and proms with underwater themes weren’t so passé compared to how we live now. But ignorance can be bliss.
Hopefully Out of Love is just the first in a long list of great albums from the talented creators of, and probably the only “doom wop” band out there (for now). The songs are classic sounding, well-crafted catchy pop tunes with phenomenal vocal harmonies and an edgy indie twist that make them worthy of your attention and repeated listening. Out of Love will be available on August 16 via Sub Pop. – Dan Brightcliffe
The latest offering from Boston’s 28 Degrees Taurus (28DT), Ecstatic Black Static is a quick shot of frenzied psychedelic noise. Across the EP’s 5 tracks 28DT roam the nether-regions of late-60s San Francisco psychedilia, early-70s space rock and SST-era Sonic Youth. They strike an odd combination—maintaining a frantic pace while at the same time stretching out into extended jam-rock noise, both within the same track. Their wispy breathey vocals, whether delivered by Jinsen Lui or by Karina Dacosta, will remind you of Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon.
If you are expecting the noisy pop of 28DT’s 2010 release, All The Stars In Your Eyes, you won’t find it here. Ecstatic Black Static is a much darker outing that explores a completely different side of the band. You will still recognize Ecstatic Black Static as a 28DT record but for this outing you’ll hear them brooding and contemplating the nature of their existence.
Check out the Ecstatic Black Static EP, along with the entire 28 Degrees Taurus catalog on their Bandcamp page. 28 Degrees Taurus will be the headlining band at the Deep Heaven Now IV music festival Saturday, August 6.
NY rockers Wormburner – currently nominated for our NYC artist of the month poll – have a high profile show on August 10, opening for Deer Tick at the Mulcahy’s Music Hall in Long Island. Wormburner play lyrically charged rock with intriguing western movie tinges that will please fans of the Boss and The National. Their latest full length – released in 2010 – is a concept album about two young and desperate characters on the run, seeking salvation on the road while struggling to make peace with a complicated past.
