NYC

Heaven’s Gate announces new LP + plays Palisades on July 3

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Chilling, haunting, and nightmarish may not be the first words that come to mind when you think of psych rock, but they’re exactly the kind of feelings that Brooklyn locals Heaven’s Gate promise to conjure up on the their upcoming record, “Woman at Night.” Preview track, entitled “Amanda Berry,” derives its name from one of the three women who was held hostage and sexually assaulted by Ariel Castro for over a decade.   The chaotic guitars, heavy breathing, and eery lyrics (using Berry’s own words from her 911 call) come together to forge an energetic four minutes of noisy guitar rock that is at once chilling and empowering. The lyrics of the chorus, “I’m alive, kick out the door, I’m Amanda Berry,” evoke a sense of survival in the face of adversity. Overall, the band manages to create a powerful piece of music that tactfully deals with a terrifying reality. Psych rock fans should also check out the band’s previous full length ‘Transmuting.’
“Woman at Night,” the band’s third record, is set to release sometime this summer. Heaven’s Gate is currently on tour and will be performing at a number of venues in the New York area, including a show at Palisades on July 3rd and Rough Trade on July 30th. – Patrick Wolff

Chicago

Rob Jacobs

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Rob Jacobs released a video, directed by Julia Dratel, for his track "Unknown Hand" this week. The track original appeared in his self-titled album with was released on vinyl and cassette by Chicago’s International Anthem back in February.

This month International Anthem is working in tandem with Rob Jacobs to "present a 4-week curatorial residency of improvisational performances by an eclectic generation of artists" at Comfort Station. Jacobs will be performing with Pat keen on July 9th to kick everything off. Get all of the detail here.

Philadelphia

The Deli Philly’s July Record of the Month: Sonic Praise – Ecstatic Vision

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Heavy-psych three-piece Ecstatic Vision conjures cosmic soundscapes with their debut LP Sonic Praise (Relapse Records). Self-ordained as “primal,” the group’s orchestration is undeniably gripping and visceral, altering the embodied state of its listener at an instant. Pressing past the tropes of genre, Sonic Praise is a hypnotic example of the outfit’s versatility. The release of Ecstatic Vision’s tripped-out LP is hopefully the first of many.
 
Beginning with the well-titled “Journey,” Sonic Praise’s opening track unfolds like a swirling chant that gradually builds to bawdy, passionate dirge filled with buzzing riffs and drums. The song’s lyricism is straightforward yet amplified by the unrelenting progression of its instrumentation. The declaration of “Journey” is unapologetic. It’s not a conversation; it’s an invitation. At its climax, the resonance of the recording brings to mind similarly transcendent tracks like Moon Duo’s “Free The Skull” or Ty Segall’s “I Wear Black.”
 
“Astral Plane” is a tentative tip of the hat to the iconic Sun Ra’s masterpiece Space Is the Place, unfolding with driving riffs and drumbeats that elicit the sensation of being transported into the ether. By the two-minute mark, “Astral Plane” is in full swing, impressive guitar work resounding as the track’s earlier established foundation persists. Each component of the song’s structure expands as frontman Doug Sabolick’s vocals urge listeners to “Look in the mirror and tell yourself/this is the place to be.” Undoubtedly indicative of the cosmos (metaphorically or literally), “Astral Plane” is trancelike, with its instrumentation possessing the power to cast a psychedelic spell that lingers well past the song’s end. Nearly thirty seconds shy of thirteen minutes of length, the temporal duration of the recording is as well warranted as it is executed. “Don’t Kill The Vibe” is equally shamanistic, with riffage that feels psychotropic. The LP’s title track, “Sonic Praise,” begins with primeval distortion comprised of oscillating tempos and forlorn chants. The effect of its prelude is mesmerizing, dark, and strangely beautiful. Thematically cult like, “Sonic Praise” is satisfyingly otherworldly, seducing its listener to give in to Ecstatic Vision’s melodic ethos without hesitation. 
 
Sonic Praise’s final anthem “Cross the Divide” extends the mysticism of the album’s narrative, ending Ecstatic Vision’s debut on a plane similar to where it began – one of enlightenment and pure rock ‘n’ roll. – Dianca London Potts

NYC

BRAEVES release new single ‘Silver Streets’ + play with Good Graeff at Cameo on 07.11

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Crooning since ’09, BRAEVES‘ frontman Ryan Colt Levy lays the foundation for Long Island’s best (and only?) soul-indie act. Their onerously-rendered EP, ‘Drifting by Design,’ was produced by Minuteman Mike Watts, who also assisted As Tall As Lions recently. ‘Drifting’ rides a similar soft beat (boy!) that let’s you, like Dobie Gray, drift away. The band just released a new single entitled "Silver Streets" (streaming below) and they are playing Cameo Gallery on July 11th with Good Graeff, who are coming off a national tour with Mates of State and Hey Marseilles. – Brian Chidester

Philadelphia

Ghost Gum Opening for Wildhoney at Boot & Saddle July 1

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Philly quartet Ghost Gum released a single on a four-way split earlier this year with locals Mumblr, Loose Tooth, and Clique, and only has a handful of promising demos available online. That is why the need to catch the shoegaze/post-punk outfit performing out live carries a heavier weight. The calming lead vocals of Carolyn Hayes combined with pressing yet spacious instrumentation finds you languidly strolling along, consumed by their sonic haze. Tonight at Boot & Saddle, you’ll have a chance to experience all that when they open for Baltimore noise-pop quintet Wildhoney and Mercury Girls, which also features Haynes, former Catnaps bandmate Adrianne Gold and Literature’s Kevin Attics and Chris Shackerman. Boot & Saddle, 1131 S. Broad St., 8pm, $10, 21+ – Alexis V.

NYC

NYC bands on the rise: Zuli tours the NE + plays Baby’s All Right on 08.01

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Marrying the spaciness of Electric Light Orchestra’s "Strange Magic" and the sunniness of The Beatles’ "Getting Better," "Better All The Time" by Zuli is a dazzling piece of pop. Off the New York-based quartet’s May-released EP ‘Supernatural Voodoo,’ the synth-roofed song illuminates a lover’s struggle towards peace with playful sensitivity. The band’s mastermind, native New Yorker Ryan Camenzuli, has expressed affection for Animal Collective and the headiness of those contemporary icons comes across in "Better All The Time." With his gentle voice, Camenzuli appears a romantic, though, and, in the end, "Better All The Time" is a love song. Listen to, and watch the A Clockwork Orange-nodding music video, for "Better All The Time" below. As part of their summer tour, Zuli plays at Baby’s All Right on August 1st. – Zach Weg

Chicago

Radius “Electric” Remixes EP

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Producer Radius continues to innovate in the world of beat making and hip hop production with the release of a remix EP of tracks by composer Greg Spero. The EP is called "Electric Remixes" and pulls from Spero’s 2014 album "Electric". The EP, clocking in just over 10 minutes, is a beautiful downtempo mini-masterpiece.

Austin

Chipper Jones’ Tropics | COSM ” EP of Instrumental Goodness

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Instrumental music is hard to nail if you’re looking for a decent audience in the contemporary age. Either you’re way too technical and/or conceptual, or you’re putting an excessive focus on being weird and experimental, and you alienate a huge number of listeners. Or, you could be Austin duo Chipper Jones, and you somehow both make music that’s both named after a hell of an Atlanta baseball player and which is also instrumental while still being fresh to death and not boring for a second. Their latest work, the Tropics | COSM EP, is not really post-rock, though it can go there in parts of songs like the end of stand-out track "Tropics," it’s not jazz or anything else so well-worn, and it’s not fully pop (that’d take way more of a standard radio structure and some vocals), but it’s somewhere between all of that in all the best ways it could be. At the very least it’s instrumental music with some fucking real energy and little for an ear to apologize for, and you should certainly give the badass "Tropics" a try if you’re a person who can get with the non-vocal music even a tad bit. It’s better than that, but damn, we know it’s hard to convert some of you vocals-needers to the ways of the instrument-only sound. Music is music, g’damnit, but we get that sometimes you just like what you like. Aforementioned all-inclusiveness aside, Chipper Jones is one we think is likely to be a hit with most anyone willin’ to take a swing, and you can below with "Tropics," or you can listen to the whole EP here.

Austin

Magna Carda

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Unless I’m entirely mistaken in my drunk memories of seeing bands in Austin when I wasn’t really plannin’ on it (you know that happens a lot in this town), I first heard Austin hip-hop group Magna Carda when I was vending used books at the now-defunct but formerly-the-shit goods market the Wonder Sale back in early 2014. I was stashed in a corner of a backyard off Cesar Chavez amongst a fuckton of real ATX folks vending real ATX-made objects right by the table where the sponsored and free Shiner was kept (of three types, though one was that not that great non-bock plain Shiner shit you see here and there). Regardless of my own band-hearin’ experiences and whether they are real or entirely dreamed up on 10+ Shiners worth of imagination, Magna Carda is definitely a crew I’ve seen live at some point, and they’re also defintely one that kills it straight dead from the hip-hop perspective. In fact, they just picked up a residency at the sadly soon-to-be-defunct Holy Mountain (Remember when Beauty Bar closing was a bad sign? Yeah, shit is worse now.). They’ve been releasin’ some damn fine hip-hop lately too, like the coolness defining "Banger Jones" that takes some diamond-sharp rapping to instrumentals that kinda sound like somethin’ you’d hear in one of those lava-and-ghost Mario levels in a way that is solid all the way from one piece of the production through to the whole rest of the track. Go see a live-produced Austin hip-hop group that’s as killer and grassroots as it gets July 9, 16, 23 and 30 at Holy Mountain, a bar that’s going the way of the buffalo on October 1, before Austin music just gives the fuck up and moves to California in retaliation.