New Music, Emerging from your Local Scene
Telekinesis recently released a new video for "Country Lane" from their latest album 12 Desperate Straight Lines, featuring footage of hi-jinks on their March tour, as well as live performance clips. Telekinesis are wrapping up their year of touring including dates with the Love Language, Portugal. The Man, Deathcab for Cutie, and The New Pornographers.
Telekinesis Tour (the end of):
Dec 6 Vancouver, BC The Commodore Ballroom
Dec 8 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom
Exploding World is an experiment in the avant garde. Listen to the local outfit’s four-track EP, Pasts, which was released in September HERE, and what you’ll hear is a mixture of all things strange: barking synth keyboard chords, off-kilter vocals that are surprisingly hypnotizing supported by drums/guitar that are creepily present but far from overpowering. Even the slow-moving and lamenting "Highway Grave" has a touch of post-world insanity. But that’s what you want to hear from an eclectic and crafty one-man-show turned four-piece with a moniker that suggests beautiful catastrophe. You can check out the recent Deli Featured Artist(s) Poll winner (read the interview HERE) tonight at Little Bar, where they’ll be performing with rad K Records artist, Christmas. Little Bar, 738 S. 8th St, 9PM, $6, 21+ – Annamarya Scaccia
Harvcore Records, out of West Chester, are hosting a label showcase this afternoon at The Barbary featuring the crushing sounds of Lifeless, Punishment, Agitator, Carrying the Fire, Bottom Out, Burdens and Unite Resist. Agitator will be representing local hardcore with their abrasive fusion of hardcore and metal. The straight edge crew out of Philadelphia/Boyertown recently released their Walls Closing In EP, which has been creating a buzz in the hardcore scene, building on the success of last year’s Enter The Vicelord’s. The last time Agitator thrashed in Philly was for Joe Hardcore’s Birthday Bash and their performance left the crowd devastated from their punishing riffs and double-bass pedal assaults on drums. (The full set is available in its entirety HERE.) It’s an early one. The Barbary, 951 Frankford Ave., 2 pm., $10, All Ages – Dan Brightcliffe
What’s in a name? Don’t ask me. There’s no such thing as a yellow ostrich, but that doesn’t stop Alex Schaaf from insisting it’s alive anyway. And in songs like ‘Whale’ and ‘In The Past I Was an Astronaut’, Yellow Ostrich is making the abstract discernible, and getting a lot of attention for it. This guy raised enough money through his kickstarter two years back to self-release the outstanding album “The Mistress” last year, only to get picked up by Barsuk Records and have the album re-released this year. Things are moving fast! We asked Alex a few questsions about the recording process – read the interview here.
It’s kind of hard not to get psyched whenever Philly’s Constant Hitmaker returns to his hometown to perform a show. And since this will be the first of what’s most likely to be of many times that Kurt Vile & the Violators play the already beloved Union Transfer this Saturday night, it’s sure to be an extra momentous occasion. The crew will be home in support of the deluxe edition of their buzzworthy album Smoke Ring For My Halo, which also includes the new 6 song EP So Outta Reach that has 5 unreleased tracks originally recorded during the Smoke Ring sessions with John Agnello as well as a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Downtown Train”. As a bonus, anyone who attends will have a chance to pick up a limited edition free exclusive 7” while supplies last so you should definitely get there early. You’ll also be treated to lo-fi, psychedelic goth garage rockers Far-Out Fangtooth and recently added avant-noise duo Blues Control. It’s going to be a good one, folks! Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St., 8pm, $15, All Ages (Photo by Elena Morelli) – Bill McThrill
What better way to celebrate tonight’s monumental astrological equation than with the Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival! Although this is not an event restricted to NYC artists, there will be many involved. Famed comedian turned electronic guru Reggie Watts (in the picture) stops in at Cameo tonight for a live set of full on electronic bombast meets vocal percussion. Heavyweights Diamond Rings (in the video) and Matthew Dear will also perform. Full lineup here.
P.S. Those interested in browsing electronic artists organized by web buzz and region should check out THIS LINK.
Boston-based psychadelia trio Quilt celebrated their self-titled record release Wednesday night, at the aesthetically appropriate Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn. Upward spirals of utopian-esque vocals clothed with jangly guitar riffs filled the somber brick building for an hour that has been lost in the space-time continuum. Released on Mexican Summer Records, Quilt, is the awakened love-child of Shane Butler, Anna Rochinski, John Andrews and, now former member, Taylor Mcvay, who was their drummer pre-release and wrote most of the new material.
After the rolling kaleidoscope of Cowboys In The Void and the droned-out, vocal-heavy Young Gold, Andrews pounded the audience into Commodity Spectre, off of their 7’’ release, Agents of Play.
Quilt’s visual hallucination-inducing sound is no surprise given their background as visual art students at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Their namesake gives way to the textured two and three part harmonies, stimulated by lucid tambourine and synth waves that illuminate the band’s strong euphoric vibrations. Their album is available as of Nov. 7th on vinyl and, appropriately, cassette tape.
–Maria Jean Sullivan
Exploring the dimensions of New York City band Indian Rebound transports you to a world of timeless music. Drawing on influences that point towards the original 1960’s English invasion, these super young musicians somehow manage to confer a classic, yet still modern feel to their tunes. The band is now working on a new collection of songs, we’ll definitely keep an ear out. – Read Dave Cromwell’s Q&A with the band here here.
Record label and music collective earSnake, and its leading symphonic virtuoso Michael McDermott who is better known as Mikronesia are no strangers to using multi-media to weave art into their elaborate soundscapes. So it should come as no surprise to anyone in the know that Mikronesia has been hard at work on a multi-media opera for the past 15 years. The end result Pangaea: When The Continents Were One debuts at the Rotunda tonight and conjures up a tale of new mythology about the first humans who lived on the super continent. It will be backed by a 17-piece ensemble of strings, horns, flute, percussion, piano, electronics, and guitars with a lineup of vocalists that include Lillie Ruth Bussey, Steve Quaranta of Paper Masques and Zelda Pinwheel, and Gemini Wolf’s Megan Pandar Cauley among others. This vibrant world will come alive thanks to life-size puppets courtesy of Liza Goodell of Spiral Q Puppet Theater, masks by Tigre Bailando, and intense visuals courtesy of VJ Nico Dominguez. Come experience the spectacle! The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St., 8pm, $10, All Ages – Bill McThrill
Remember that Weird Al parody of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" where he has all the marbles in his mouth? That thought couldn’t help but spring to mind as "Funeral Song" by MINKS was on rotation. The mumbling is endearing, though, as if lead singer/songwriter Sean Kilfoyle is almost too shy to enunciate what he wrote. Instead, under swirling fuzz, chugging bass and melodic guitar strums, he weaves tales about summer and alcohol that only the most developed translator can fully interpret. Their record label (Captured Tracks) compares MINKS to a cassette of Cure demos birthed by Robert Smith. Most reviewers would describe MINKS, if required to peg them to a genre, to be kind of "shoegazey". But, to be quite honest, MINKS is beyond shoegaze. Their music is gazing past your shoes and through the floor. This is earthcoregaze. And again, to be quite honest, it’s kind of glorious. – Read alison levin’s interview with the bands here.
DRGN King are planning the release of a full-length album scheduled to come out next month entitled Paragraph Nights. Below is a chilled out new music video for its title track starring leading man Dominic Angelella, Ritz Reynolds, Norwegian Arms’ Brendan Mulvihill, and Phrequency’s Leah Kauffman. It was directed by Dan King.
Sheila Sobolewski’s brainchild, LUFF, is a Brooklyn based band that fills the gap between shoegazer and post rock with its mid tempo, moody tracks featuring Sheila’s pensive vocals and electric guitar arrangements that range from the intricate and slightly dissonant to the full on, power-chord-fueled wall of sound. They are going to celebrate the pre-release of a new EP tonight (11.11) at Union Hall; if you are into luscious noise and (truly proficient) all female bands, don’t miss this one.
