Portland

Blesst Chest’s New Video Will Turn Heads…into Hands

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On this indulgent day of thanks and forced interactions, enjoy more than just a tryptophanic coma with Blesst Chest’s new music video for "Def Gary." The single, which comes off their official debut album Wish You Were There, is another surrealistic endeavor by video directer and 1/3 of Blesst Chest, Jay Winebrenner. The "Def Gary" video features a montage of humans doing run of the mill things, like dancing alone in a basement, in an alternate reality wherein everyone’s heads have been very creepily replaced with hands. Just like Blesst Chest’s predecessing video, last year’s "Sebedad," their newest is alike in its intriguing discomfort. Watch the awkwardly awe-inspiring video below.

 

 

Wish You Were There will be releasing hopefully before the year’s end, so keep an eye out for it.

 

–Cervante Pope

Philadelphia

The Deli Philly’s Featured Artist(s) Poll Winner: Queen of Jeans

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The trio known as Queen of Jeans quickly caught our attention with their debut single “Dance (Get Off Your Ass).” Crystallizing lead vocals and harmonies with a hypnotic garage/surf ride that pops, Miriam Devora, Matheson Glass, and Nina Scotto are finding the answer to their “three-way existential crisis.” The ladies, who have performed previously in bands such as Work Drugs and The Interest Group, emerged victorious in our latest Featured Artist(s) Poll. Check out our recent interview with Queen of Jeans HERE, where surprisingly you’ll find Hanson popping up more often than you’d think.

NYC

Delicious Audio Feature: Salt Cathedral – see them live at Rough Trade on 12.19.

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If you are fascinated with the idea of parallel worlds, you should immerse yourself in the music of Brooklyn’s (via Colombia) duo Salt Cathedral (the band will perform live at Rough Trade on December 19th). Their gently impressionistic arrangements and celestial atmospheres, combined with Juliana Ronderos’ angelic voice and melodies, might transport you to the closest thing to the seventh heaven you’ve ever experienced – or at least a dancey version of it. We asked Juliana a few questions about the band’s creative process, check out the link below.

Delicious Audio: Salt Cathedral and the Creative Process

Nashville

Boyscott Releases “Goosebumps” Cassette

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 Cassette-heads rejoice! The young bloods in Boyscott, the Nashville based surf rock group, released a new full-length cassette aptly titled Goosebumps, on 11.17, via Pizza Tape Records. Deft guitar tones and sweet male-female vocal exchanges set the tone of a beguiling debut reminiscent of The Drums or Beach Fossils.

 Comparisons aside, where such similar debuts maintained a one-dimensional approach, Boyscott’s Goosebumps offers more versatility, with songs like “Blonde Blood” and “Nova Scotia 500” establishing surf-rock sensibilities, only to be purposefully challenged by the worldly “Marco Polo.”

Other songs simply stun in both tone and composition, none more notably than “Killer Whale,” presumably highlighting an awkward dichotomy between two people recently acquainted. All in all, Goosebumps provides a proper introduction to one of Nashville’s soon-to-be preeminent surf rock groups, Boyscott. -Sean McHugh

 

 

Philadelphia

Creepoid Throwing Down at KFN Nov. 25

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Philly’s own Creepoid collides at the intersection where shoegaze meets stoner rock, clarity meets noise, and melody is deconstructed. The band’s songs move at an ambling pace with a haunting and dazed sluggishness that can be attributed to a deep affinity for gloomy space-rock bands like Bardo Pond and their progeny. But unlike Bardo Pond’s trance-inducing drones and repetition, the quartet is decidedly more focused on song structure and movement. Some songs sweep you through languid explorations of smooth, glassy soundscapes reminiscent of Dead Meadow’s Feathers, while others churn and grind in a quagmire of sound like True Widow. Creepoid will be throwing down this evening at Kung Fu Necktie, and will be supported by Brooklyn’s anthemic pop-punkers Worriers, who produce buoyant, tuneful jammers – most comparable to their labelmates Screaming Females’s style of powerful and driving rock. With this comparison, Worriers may be considered a bit lacking in the shred, but they make up for it in their unrelenting pace and energy. Also joining the festivities will be Mercury Girls, who channel Ecstasy And Wine-era MBV, overlaying dreamy textures over twee-oriented structure and melody, and Legendary Divorce will harness the raw energy of Nirvana’s more esoteric, subversive post-punk, paired with befitting Courtney Love-style vocals, oscillating between throat-rending yelling and strung-out slurring. Kung Fu Necktie, 1250 N. Front St., 8pm, $13, 21+ (Photo by Daniel Jackson) – Bryce Woodcock

L.A.

New to the LA music scene: Dr Fadeaway

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This year has been one of many firsts for Dr. Fadeaway – the dream pop duo recently played their first show at the Lexington, not too long after they released their debut track on bandcamp a few months ago. The aforementioned track, entitled “Felix”, is coated in swooning atmospherics, riddled with perpetual keyboard filigrees alongside a vigorous, yet low-key guitar lead that gives an added flash of color to its waltz-like construction.

“Felix” is the only official recording that exists of Dr. Fadeaway, and yet it bears its own curious mark. Hopefully the duo’s future efforts are just around the corner. – Juan Rodríguez

Toronto

Elvyn Charge You Up w/”Valley Of The Kilowatt Hour”

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 So I came across this band called Elvyn. Let me tell ya; if you’re feelin’ like some easy going pop rock tunes, you’re in for a treat. They happen to have just released their second album "Valley of the Kilowatt Hour". Opening track "Ellie" is a solid tune, like a Tom Petty rhythm section layered in some Blue Rodeo guitar work and some sweet melodies all over it. The vocals could be straight from the 60s. Muchos catchy, that’s for sure. I will be humming this track in my head for a while. They’re mixin’ up some straight power pop with almost a Nova Scotian edge to it and I think you’ll like it. Elvyn is doing a double album release party with Run With The Kittens (as well as the Alpacas) on Friday December 11 at the Horseshoe Tavern.

Kris

San Francisco

New Music: Emily Afton – Someday

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We´re excited to share another premiere today!! Emily Afton’s voice is transporting. Deep and smokey, Emily delivers her emotive and honest songs from a place that feels lodged in the past, rooted in a dreamy barefoot era. You can hear the Georgian lineage on her mother’s side, conjuring a Southern swamp, mixed with urbane pop relevance. Oakland indie-rock meets an after hours quest for mischief, with ribbons of soul and electro-pop interwoven.

"Archetype is an episodic album which explores themes of time passing, love, and the cycle of life/death (It’s also produced by Lila Rose and David Earl). The newest single "Someday" is one that particularly focuses on exploring death and relates it to "falling down the rabbit hole". I wrote it last summer when my mom was very ill and for the first time, was forced to explore what death means to me. It sort of has a mix of blissfulness and existentialism, because it begs us to be in love with our lives while we’re here, while also always remembering that we are inevitably going to die." – Emily Afton on the forthcoming album, Archetype and the single, “Someday”

NYC

NYC Record of the Month: Flower Girl – “Okie Dokie Howdy Doody”

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Talent is talent, but when presented in a sloppy shape, it becomes contagiously charming, and an adorable band name can only boost that perception. This is the lesson we have learned today via Brooklyn’s quintet Flower Girl, who play some kind of lo-fi twangy pop and have been around for longer than we expected (their debut album was out in 2013). Their latest, sophomore LP, entitled Okie Dokie Howdy Doody came out in the summer of 2015 and it’s a very solid, uber-amiable work, full of delicate melodies and qurky moments, that re-elaborates the disorderly genius of Syd Barret and the (early) Beta Band, marrying it with the not-so-traditional approach to… traditional American music of Neil Young and late Camper Van Beethoven. Based on an odd time signature, opening single "Scary Drive" (streaming) is a scruffy, limpy alt-country number a la’ Beck that will make you crack a smile – which is always priceless. Following track "A Platypus" starts as a plodding blues but gradually accelerates in ways only The Feelies could conceive, slowly morphing into a delirious slacker rock tune. Third song Eat Worms flirts again with blues but develops in a gentle, idyllic melody reminiscent of the Flaming Lips at their most tear-inducing – although the lyrics "come to terms/eat that worm that’s feeding you" might conflict with a weeping mood. The remarkable variety of the twelve tracks, with textural ballads like "Romantic Mood" juxtaposed to punkish numbers like "Stop Starin’," doesn’t mine the band’s identity, rooted in an "anything goes" attitude that’s refreshingly unpretentious. 

Flower girl will be performing live at Palisades on December 2nd and at Alphaville on December 11th.

NYC

Eddi Front unveils single “Goldie” + announces debut LP “MARINA” + plays Palisades on 11.25

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We’ve been following Eddie Front‘s Ivana Carrescia (ex Ivana XL) for a considerable amount of time (check out a 2009 interview over here). She spends her time writing beautiful but mostly sad songs, and has developed a unique style that blends the melancholic crooning of the pre-rock’n’roll ’50s with ambient music and dream folk. Hopefully her upcoming album "Marina" – her debut full length – will put this talented singer songwriter in front of a bigger audience, although in this country – sadly – not many people can appreciate music that it’s not upbeat. That’s when Europe comes handy. Check out preview single "Goldie" below, and if you are in the mood for a quiet night, don’t miss her show at Palisades on November 25.