New Music, Emerging from your Local Scene
Boogaloo! There, I said it. In case you haven’t heard, there’s another dance-crazed revival on the loose here in NY. Only this one has no 808’s. What began in the swinging ’60’s as a local merging between soul and mambo party styles, has today found its way over to our backyard again, and some of the leading curators that keep the Spanish Harlem sound alive are bringing the party to several upcoming nights in Alphabet City. While much of Boogaloo is kept alive these days in Barcelona, superstar DJ Turmix has decided to pack up his vinyl and head out to NYC, reminding us of what makes Nuyorican Soul music such an important part of NYC’s cultural fabric.
Check it out at the next of Turmix’s monthly sets on March 9 at Nublu, where he’ll be joined by Spanglish Fly, an 11-piece Boogaloo revival group set to make sure your tailfeather bounces around the dance floor all night long. – Mike Levine
Ex Deli Artist of the Month Field Mouse just premiered a new single called "Happy". The band has veered decisevely into shoegazer/dream-pop territory in the last year, which is definitely a genre lead singer/guitarist Rachel Browne’s voice is suited for. This song is slightly reminiscent of one of our favorite more obscure shoegazer bands of the 90s – Pale Saints. Enjoy (and dream on)! The band will be present a SXSW with a show at Skinny’s Ballroom on 03.14.
Ampersand Posture is the work of local musician Bill Arteaga. His latest single is called "Asleep" and it called synthed out electro-pop and lo-fi distant vocals.
The debut album from Terrible Spaceship is audio sci-fi. The group blends classic old-time radio samples with inventive instrument rock and jazz. Their new album, Invaders 1938, is at times wild and funky ("Stardust") and at others strange, haunting, and mysterious. For some it will take them back to their childhoods, and other it will be unlike anything they have ever heard.
When the band performs they perform their new multimedia performance “Zontar, the Thing from Venus”. A special preview appearance of the Zontar set is scheduled for Friday March 9th at Martyrs in Chicago. The album and companion DVD will be released in the summer of 2012.
The day Celestial Shore will decide to write a pop song that’s just… THAT, our world will become a slightly better place. These LA/Brooklyn based guys – who played our 29th NYC issue party at Mercury a few weeks ago with Ava Luna – have an outrageous melodic talent, but choose to deform their celestial melodies with avant/progressive experimentation (something they can actually pull off thanks to their noteworthy instrumental skill). Which is still a lot of fun, but fill us with laughter and regret at once. – Read Dean Van Nguyen’s interview with the band here.
Canadian via NYC and now LA based indie-pop band Islands released their 4th album, "A Sleep & A Forgetting," on February 14th, 2012. The title was taken from a William Wordsworth poem and features songs that bring out the inner angst in all of us, with its mournful lyrics and ghostly vocals against a backdrop of the band’s signature catchy instrumentals. The song “Hallways” stands out with its eerie energy mixed with infectious piano melodies. Check out the official video here, with Nicholas Thorburn singing vocals accompanied by a skeleton band. Islands is currently on tour in Canada and has a show at the Bootleg Theater in LA on March 14. Be sure to catch them! – Chelsea Eriksen
do314 has released a new video in their "A Show me Show" and it features Shawn Rosenblatt (aka Netherfriends) performing his track "St. Louis, Mo" in St. Louis.
If you are headed down to SXSW Netherfriends will be performing at several showcases. You can visit his site for details.
Brooklyn’s dark rock band Tyburn Saints announced the release of their new EP "You and I in Heaven" for March 27. Containing four original tracks, the record evokes influences from rock bands from the "peak" of the 80s, like U2 and The Cure, although the lyrical tone and subject matter lean more towards the later. Songs like "Broken Bottles" alternate bright guitar figures against synth lines. "Last Time I Sing For You" positions a solid drum beat central in the mix, allowing shards of strummed guitar bursts to dance left and right through the stereo field, while title track "You And I in Heaven" references a similar 80’s pop-goth vibe, its overall spirit leans more towards Bowie/Psychedelic Furs elements. –Dave Cromwell
