New Music, Emerging from your Local Scene
Part folk, part indie, and part just about everything else, Brooklyn-based band Mail the Horse achieves a melodic blend of throwback rock and charged-up, soulful fervor. The band was formed by college friends in New Hampshire in 2012, later moving to New York to piece together material and work on recordings. Mail the Horse has had several multi-track releases in their relatively short time as a band, with September’s full-length album “Great Kills” being their most recent effort. The album plays like an awakening into adulthood, and has the sonic range of a band like Wilco as sung by Beck. Mail the Horse will perform a New Year’s Eve show at Mercury Lounge alongside Felice Brothers and Yellowbirds. – Devon Antonetti
Photo Credit: Jo McCaughey
In the video for their newest single, "Leave Me Out," JEFF the Brotherhood spared no expense. From artistic shots of glittering oceans to motorcross crossfades, this video has it all. Watch Jake and Jamin perform their latest release from Hypnotic Nights in front of a hilariously (and probaby purposefully) terrible green screen.
H/T to Steregum
Pre War is a band from Brooklyn. Guitar, guitar, drums, and five tracks released on their Bandcamp over the last couple of months: that’s about it, as far as what I know of Pre War goes – but will happily head over to the LES to find out more. Amateurs of fuzzed-out echo-filled melodies & glorious buildups, here’s one for you to follow, at ease juggling harsh noise and a radiant pop edge. The band can be found playing the Cake Shop every Tuesday evening throughout the month of November – and it’s free! Next week, they’ll be playing with local ambient noisemaker Doron Sadja (the full list of shows is available here).
It is no surprise that Sins of the Loose Buttons loves to show off New York City in their music videos. The guys have been running around Brooklyn and Manhattan gigging since 2007, when the oldest member of the quartet was only 15. In more recent times, about a year ago, they busted onto the scene with “Retrobox” and now they are back at it again with their newest single and music video, “I Love Lucy”. “Lucy” will kick off a slew of new releases for SOTLB over the next few months, as well as an east coast tour this winter, so stay tuned for more updates out of these guys in the very near future.
This year was the biggest yet for Midwest Music Foundation’s Apocalypse Meow benefit—a fundraiser for the musician’s emergency health care fund. The event kicked off with a pre-party on Friday, November 3 at Midwestern Musical Co. with Dead Voices and Tiny Horse.
The main event kicked off on Saturday at The Beaumont Club with School of Rock, consisting of more than a handful of tweens and teens masterfully playing covers from bands like Rush, Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters, and many more. The band’s stellar performance set an energetic tone for the rest of the evening, which ranged from acoustic Americana to power pop, surf rock, country, indie rock, and ballistic punk rock.
And finally, a big thank you from all of us at Midwest Music Foundation for supporting our fifth year of Meow. We’re so very grateful for your support of Kansas City and our musical community!
All photos by Todd Zimmer. Please do not use without permission.
–Michelle Bacon
When Big Tree got around to recording Little EP, they didn’t each condemn themselves to anechoic solitary confinement; instead, they took a more organic approach and recorded all three songs together in one hyper-productive, ten-hour session onto a reel of 2” tape. Onto the result, they added three more songs, recorded live at San Francisco’s Rickshaw Stop.
The result is a warm, ecstatic album, human to its very core. Infused with relentlessly singable mantras, raw and emotive vocals, and soul-bolstering instrumentals, the album is a barefoot walk on warm soil where so many others are trips to IKEA. If there is one argument against the over-tinkered immaculacy that pervades so much pop music, Little EP is it.
Read more about Big Tree’s new EP in this interview I nabbed.
Now, down to business: I have a pair of tickets to Big Tree’s Little EP release show on Nov. 15 at Café du Nord, with other local pop must-sees French Cassettes and Chrystian Rawk. The third person to shoot an email to thedelisf@gmail.com gets ‘em.
Stream and download the new EP here. Hint: if you download, you get sheet music for endless sing-alongs.
-Gracie Gutman
Wild Belle is on the road and have posted a visual postcard for their fans. The band returns home on Dec. 9th for a show at Metro opening for Of Montreal.
Things are not looking great for The Civil Wars. As just posted over on the duo’s Facebook wall:
We sincerely apologize for the canceling of all of our tour dates. It is something we deeply regret. However, due to internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition we are unable to continue as a touring entity at this time. We thank each and every one of you for your amazing love & support. Our sincere hope is to have new music for you in 2013. – Joy Williams & John Paul White.
As a nice gesture, however, the band is offering to try to pay for any cancellation fees or service charges that you may have been left with as a result of their irreconcilable differences.
Here’s to hoping that a bit of distance during the holiday season makes the heart grow stronger for these two!
