Many Places have released a new project called "Home + Departed". The new ep was recorded in the span of two days and was self-produced by the band. You can stream the new ep here, and the physical release will be handled by the local label Tandem Shop on Feb. 12th via the Many Places bandcamp site.
Philadelphia
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Instamatic Opening for Beak> at Underground Arts Feb. 8
Lace up those dancin’ shoes extra tight because tonight at Underground Arts you’ve got a double dose of electro outfits ready to fill your head with some space-age sounds. Philly’s own keyboard army Instamatic will be reproducing all of its synthetic sonic delights on stage – not selling the audience short by simply just pushing a play button, but delivering the group’s electronic assault via their masterful orchestration of synthesizers and sequencers. As a special treat, headlining the eveing is Bristol, England’s Beak> with its experimental whirrs. Beak> houses Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and his shape-shifting acid-rock experimentations. Underground Arts, 1200 Callowhill St., 9pm, $15, 21+ – Brandi Lukas
Philadelphia
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Caffeine Machine Building Anticipatory Tension in Sound at Connie’s Ric Rac Feb. 8
Quinn Arlington Waters has a sense for the dramatic in both his professional career having studied and worked as an audio engineer, producer and videographer – notably under the tutelage of Grammy winner David Ivory (The Roots), and his personal life has also seen its share of drama, particularly when he was shot last year while smoking a cigarette in his car around Northern Liberties. With that history, it should come as no surprise that Waters, who performs under the moniker Caffeine Machine, brings that cinematic sense into his music. Marked by the use of instrumentation: viola, violin, cello, trumpet, and guitar, his work stirs the pot showing off his ability to build anticipatory tension in sound. However, while he certainly grasps a sense of cinematic timing, the music doesn’t fall hostage to an artist attempting to go big at all costs. It simply heightens narrative style lyrics and vocals that are spoken/sung from a man whose life has left him with stories to tell. The sci-fi-natured synth-pop of Time Ghost a.k.a. Matt Cannon, who has previously been produced/recorded by Waters, is set as the opener. Connie’s Ric Rac, 1132 S. 9th St., 8pm, $10, 21+ – Michael Colavita
Philadelphia
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Free Download: “Coal” (Feat. Has-Lo) – Curly Castro
Check out this rad, powerful new single from Curly Castro called "Coal," which you can download for free, featuring fellow Wrecking Crew mate Has-Lo and production work by Georgia Anne Muldrow! The track will appear on Castro’s forthcoming free mixtape Fidel that is scheduled for release on February 19 via Man Bites Dog Records.
Philadelphia
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New Video: “Wakin On A Pretty Daze Cover Art Documentary” – Kurt Vile
Matador Records posted a documentary this morning about the making of the mural that will be used as the cover art for Kurt Vile‘s upcoming album Wakin On A Pretty Daze. The video below features Steve Powers, the mural’s creator and renowned Philly street artist a.k.a. ESPO. Vile makes an appearance in the footage as well. The documentary was directed by Don Argott, and you can view the mural in person on the side of an abandoned building in NoLibs at Front and Masters Sts. (Photo by Jesse Trbovich)
Philadelphia
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Congrats to Nightlands’ Dave Hartley & Luke Bonner for Their Successful #LetBonnerShoot Campaign!
Congrats to Dave Hartley, a.k.a. Nightlands, and Luke Bonner on their successful #LetBonnerShoot campaign! The San Antonio Spurs announced yesterday that Matt Bonner will be competing in the Foot Locker Three-point Contest (which will be taking place on Saturday, February 16) at the 62nd NBA All-Star Game weekend. The guys ran a brilliant grassroots social media campaign that garnered support from high-profile folks like Arcade Fire and Eva Longoria. The people have spoken, and we were heard – cheers fellas!
San Francisco
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The Stone Foxes Release New Album February 12th, Rock SXSW March 15th
Like contemporaries The Black Keys, The Steepwater Band, and The Black Angels, SF’s The Stone Foxes summon the days of hard-driven blues-rock.
Their full-length album Small Fires, set to release February 12th, is suffused with fuzzy guitar riffs, heavy, seductive vocals and dark, simple choruses. Their single “Everybody Knows” alludes to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” weaving a sinister theme into a hard-hitting, disconsolate song. Small Fires delivers as pure a dose of rock as can be found today—gritty, spacious, and to-the-point.
Check them out at Amoeba Records on the 12th or in Oakland at the New Parish Music Hall on the 13th. – Tina Aita
Chicago
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Houses “The Beauty Surrounds”
Houses returned this week with a video for their new track "The Beauty Surrounds". The track comes from their upcoming album A Quiet Darkness which will be released on April 16th via Downtown Records.
NYC
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Weekly Feature: Companion (Pepi Ginsberg’s new project)
With a a voice that bears the ghosts of Nico or Patti Smith, and lyrics that touch on her extensive poetry background, Pepi Ginsberg is an otherworldly figure in the New York music scene. The singer and current frontwoman of Companion hails from Philadelphia with an Ivy League education from the University of Pennsylvania, and crafts songs that are as intelligent as they are inspired. Since making the transition from poet/storyteller, to singer/songwriter in 2006, Ginsberg has amassed body of work that includes four albums and collaborations across the spectrum, including an album with Scott McMicken of Dr. Dog and forming the Brooklyn Ladies Choir. In 2010, Ginsberg enlisted some of her choir singers for Companion, a band of rhythm-minded friends from New York which just released the self-titled debut album. – Read Devon Antonetti’s interview with Pepi here.
Nashville
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Announcing Official SXSW Send Off Party
Clear your calendar for March 2nd because you just made plans! Elevent Productions, Third Shift Amber Lager, and our friends over at East Nashville Underground and No Country for New Nashville have just announced a stacked bill for their South By Southwest send off show. The event will take up two of the three venues at 1 Cannery Row, taking place at Mercy Lounge and The High Watt. The Mercy Lounge stage will highlight some of Nashville’s best and brightest on the road to Austin’s renowned music conference, and in addition to the fantastic lineup, Third Shift will be providing a free beer tasting.
The festivities start at 8 pm. The Mercy Lounge stage will host The Protomen, Wild Cub, Patrick Sweany, Luella and the Sun, and The Howling Brothers. Over at the High Watt, you’ve got Alanna Royale, Magnolia Sons, Jacob Jones, Los Colognes, and The Jag.
More information on the event is over at No Country for New Nashville.
NYC
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Upcoming: Vive The Rock – Fundraiser for Académie Lafayette at recordBar, 2.8.13
Join an eclectic bill on Friday, February 8 at recordBar for a special fundraiser for Académie Lafayette, a K-8 public charter/French immersion school in KCMO. All proceeds go to the Académie Lafayette General Fund, which pays for music and arts education, interns, extracurricular programs, sports, free tutoring, etc.
Each band will feature at least one parent of an Académie Lafayette student. The Quivers will kick off the evening at 9:30 with a raucous set of soulful rock tunes, followed by the heartfelt songwriter pop of The Sexy Accident. Rounding out the evening will be the freak pop stylings of The Hillary Watts Riot and the heavy-hitting sounds of Federation of Horsepower. The show will be emcee’d by Cody Wyoming.
T-shirts for the event and raffle tickets will be sold. Tickets to the Friday show are available for $25 at this link. They will be $35 at the door.
–Michelle Bacon
NYC
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Show review: The Growlers/Radkey/UZIS at Riot Room, 2.3.13
While sports fans gathered together over watered down brews and chicken wing cupcakes, The Riot Room celebrated Super Bowl Sunday by opening its doors to a menagerie of leather-clad locals in support of Costa Mesa band, The Growlers. While The Growlers certainly captivated Midtown with their upbeat surf-psych melodies and Brooks Nielsen’s listless shimmying, the band was framed by a full-bodied lineup, including Kansas City bands, Radkey and UZIS.
A newer band made up of familiar faces, UZIS started off the night during the death rattle of Sunday’s game. Mitch Clark and Jessie Brown vocalize well together, their harmonies serving to complement the simple, upbeat energy of their set. Backed by Chris Farmer on drums, the trio executed a neatly compact set of melody-driven, lighthearted punk rock. By starting off the show with “Spider” and “Black and Blue”(a particularly well-written track), UZIS set the tone for the remainder of their performance. What the band lacks in self-indulgent guitar solos, they make up for in accomplished simplicity, reminiscent of a time the term “pop-punk” was not a musical death sentence. Their cover of La Peste’s “Don’t Wanna Die (In My Sleep)” paid tribute to the late ‘70s melodic punk reincarnated by their set. “Shut Your Mouth” evoked a sneering swagger from Clark, which accentuated the mood of UZIS performance with the perfect hint of irreverence.
UZIS, of course, were not the only band to celebrate a throwback to puritanical punk rock during Sundays show. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Radkey took the stage after a sobering break provided by Jessica Hernandez and her band, The Deltas. While their set was well executed and soulful, their placement in the lineup created a break in the pace of Sunday’s show, although I am doubtful that this was the fault of Hernandez. However, whatever energy had waned since the UZIS set was quickly rekindled by the three brothers that have recently turned so many heads in Kansas City.
After being named The Deli’s Emerging Kansas City Artist of 2012, Dee, Isaiah, and Solomon Radke have been stealing the spotlight in Kansas City, and Sunday’s show was another for the boys to add to their ever impressive resume of performances. What blows me away every time that I have been fortunate enough to see Radkey is the stunning depth of sound that they accomplish through their intelligent and well-placed guitar solos (a particularly well-placed solo during the track “Little Man” was a brilliant punctuation to their set), which are simultaneously brief and complex, as well as Dee’s deep and resonating vocals. Most press that the band has received has harped relentlessly on how incredibly young the members of Radkey are, which is understandable. But after the year that the boys have had, they have made it clear that they are not relying on any cheap gimmicks, including their own youth, to draw a crowd to their shows. Bursting out of the gate with “Where Do You Stand,” the brothers set a fast pace….and kept up with it. The track “Cat & Mouse” seems to remain a crowd favorite every set the boys have played, and Sunday’s show was no exception, the solid thumping rhythm of the song commanding attention from the steadily growing audience.
The Growlers, and their touring partners Jaill, wrapped up Sunday’s show with a notably lighter collection of tunes, culminating in the much anticipated set by The Growlers, whose current tour will culminate in their appearance at Austin’s annual PsychFest, hosted by The Black Angels this April.
Radkey will be opening for Illinois duet Local H next Wednesday, February 13 at recordBar. UZIS will be playing at recordBar as well, on Saturday, March 30, with local heroes The Architects.
–Stephanie Bloss
| Stephanie Bloss is an artist and writer living in Kansas City, Missouri. She is currently in residency at The Roost Gallery in the West Bottoms and has been active in the KC music community since 2010. |