Photo Source: River Giant

River Giant are hitting the High Dive stage this Thursday with The Crying Shame and The Swearengens. 

The trio released their debut full-length this April; the eponymously titled River Giant soars and wails its way through ten tracks. Their fondness for bands ’70’s era bands like Crazy Horse and The Band jumps out readily, but not in an overbearing or detrimental way. They tackle motifs of Americana through their modern lens of alternative rock music.

The strength of their songwriting is what sticks out first – they know how to build a foundation of a song without making it wearily repetitive. From there, they add upon the established contours by working to excitable climaxes, slowing down passages, or letting guitarist/vocalist Kyle Jacobson fly high with his pipes like a wild river on the loose. Their use of dynamics is appreciable in every song.

"Pink Flamingos," "Western," and "Fast Heart" are a few standout tracks, among others. At moments they are straightforwardly country rock, other times heavy rock ignited with feedback, and other songs sound downright folksy – taken in full though, River Giant cannot be pinned down by the confines of a single genre. Good luck getting their songs out of your head once they snake their way in!

They play this Thursday, August 10th at the High Dive for $8. Doors are 8pm; it should be a racuous affair. Check out "Fast Heart" below for a quick listen and carry on their bandcamp to stream the whole record. It is available for purchase for $10.

– Cameron LaFlam

Clementine has always had a strange knack for taking familiar sounds and finding new soundscapes for them to exist in. With band in tow, Clementime & the Galaxy, one of The Deli Magazine’s Best NYC Emerging Artist of 2011, is ready to project those sounds through the stereoscopic lens of her upcoming record.

For first single ‘Complication,’ Clementine overlays an 8-bit tapestry on top of a maze of never ending breakbeats, making her voice the only refuge throughout the track’s breakneck pace. Complicated indeed… but we are happy to follow vocalist Julie Hardy around until she figures it out. No longer playing second fiddle to the likes of Ellie Goulding and St. Vincent, Hardy is now embarking on her own tour with the Galaxy, and is set to release a new album soon.

See her when she hits up 92YTribeca this Friday, Aug 10 with Johanna and the Dusty Floor. Should be the best place to see them if you find yourself stuck inside of Earth’s orbit this weekend. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

What’s most interesting about Puerto Rico/NYC based band Fantasmes’ latest album “Redness Moon” is not necessarily the obvious, but rather what is happening “underneath.” “Cloud Prepositions” emerges through a slow, purposeful, rising groove. Droning background pulses underscore prominent tambourine percussion, tubular-belled guitars and eno-esque treated keyboards. The vocals are muted and obscure, creating mood over storytelling. The title track “Redness Moon” (video below) is more defined, with its driving drums and layered arpeggiated guitar chords. The tom toms rumble like beat keepers on 15th century warships, adding a tense quality to this already mysterious soundscape. “Play It Wrong” keeps the vocals just as vague, but adds a harsher electric guitar to the mix. Distant conversational vocals are just out of earshot, adding to the mysterious nature. This allows the percussion to move forward, sharing prime sonic real estate with aggressively struck guitar chords. “Dance in the Shadows” slows it down again, with gentle acoustic guitar leading the way. Vocal lyrics become clearer, with the line “I should be there” as a repeated refrain. “Passages” brings back the trippy drone, slow building guitar chords and masked spoken word vocals. It is beatless, but again trance-enducing and meditative. A clearly defined rhythm initially drives “Monsters’ Mother” until that too abruptly lurches into a Doors-like humming trance and erratic drum-centric passage. A third movement closes out the track via a fuller (but rhythmically different) driving, with moaned vocal amd guitar-flailing raveup. “Let it Repeat” presents the kind of twisted toy piano plings and chimes over ominous humming that you might hear in a horror movie. That half-a-minute contribution serves as a segway into “Today is Still.” Surprisingly the lyrics can be made out here with the line “there are days like these I’m sure I’m never coming home” setting the stage. Ancient Chinese bell percussion clang and ping over bright guitar picking, creating an atmospheric tour-de-force. – Dave Cromwell

REDNESS MOON – FANTASMES – (MUSIC FILM) from Last Bummer Records on Vimeo.

Wanna hear about split infinitives? How about the proper usage of "who" versus "whom"? Okay, maybe not. But this week we’ll be hearing from Appropriate Grammar‘s very own Steve Gardels. He tells us about his self-taught approach to drumming, his career with the Hopeless Destroyers, and the KCAI "fart box." Catch the beat right here!

On The Beat is a weekly interview brought to you by drummer Sergio Moreno (of Hillary Watts Riot and Alacartoona), and features some of the many talented drummers in the Kansas City area.

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Like everyone knows, hip-hop got its start by DJs continuously looping the hottest breaks of funk/R&B songs at house parties. So a space that was originally about 10 seconds would be stretched to three or four minutes.

I feel like Brooklyn based producer Derek VanScoten’s project – called just D.V.S. – with their new album ‘Coming Up For Air: Vol. 2 dawn‘, has done something similar with electronica. Active in the same musical playground of other groove-happy maximal groups like Ratatat or Fuckbuttons, D.V.S. expands on smaller loops, and builds worlds around these otherwise simple statement. Derek’s twangy, often sliding guitar is the glue that keeps the pieces of this musical universe together.

Album opener ‘The Bending Bloom’ for instance, orbits around a single hook for its four minutes, expanding and contracting for an organic series of turns as unique as it is engrossing. The band even ventures into R&B material the way Flying Lotus updates free jazz for the mobile generation. From their first record’s focus on dusk, to their latest LP’s meditations on dawn, D.V.S. is an exciting group that knows how to make good use of their sources. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Interesting show at new Bushwick venue Delinquency on Saturday 08.11 with Chappo and Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt (which we covered here several times already) and It is rain in my face – a Brooklyn based project we never wrote about. This is a one man group that seems to be of two minds: On the one hand, songwriter/programmer Mat Jones’ material is molded from the tradition of Bread and Neil Young, but this AM rock sound is filtered through layers of electronic tinkering, vocal effects, and drum machines gone crazy. Like if James Blake got together with Thom Yorke and moved to Brooklyn. The project’s first EP is a lush journey of this folk-tronica. Songs like ‘Small Prayer’ and ‘Too Blue’ work as quiet meditations that unexpectedly erupt in breakbeats every so often, but touch back down to reveal the gentle humanity behind each of these carefully crafted numbers. Mat has new material which will see the light of a day in a debut full length scheduled for the fall – see preview track streaming below.. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Congratulations to Spirit Is The Spirit, The Deli KC’s August artist of the month!

With lush arrangements, compelling rhythms and an indie pop accessibility, Lawrence group Spirit Is The Spirit has found wide success since its debut EP Mother Mountain, released back in early 2011. Since then, the band has signed with The Record Machine and has played at the Middle of The Map Festival twice. In May, the six-piece launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to acquire a van to tour around the country, and is currently putting together rewards for all of their supporters. They hope to begin recording a long anticipated full-length album in the fall.

Spirit Is The Spirit promises that its upcoming shows and music will only get better while the band explores more adventurous ideas in both live performance and writing. While Mother Mountain did not involve all six of the members in the process, the next album promises to involve each member in each step of the process.

Spirit Is The Spirit is:
Austen Malone
Noah Compo
Wayne Zimmerman
Josh Landau
Brook Partain
Danny Bowersox

And here’s the music video to the band’s song "Pillows," available on the 12" compilation Secret Handshakes, a collaboration between The Record Machine and Golden Sound Records.

–Michelle Bacon

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Once again, Zambri skews the ordinary in its new video for “From An Angle” with is based on a view of a car wash in motion “from an angle” that we’ve all witnessed (and probably also thoroughly enjoyed as kids) but never really taken in. The music is beautifully complimented by the imagery and melds together in a seamless fashion. The blinking lights and repetitive motions of the car wash become a sort of beautiful dance to the music Zambri provides. The band will be performing at Dumbo Arch in Brooklyn on August 17 at the MTV O Music Awards Presents Unboxed Returns. – Christine Cauthen

For the past decade, Brett Treacy, Jeremy Kolmin and Aaron Nystrup’s paths have crossed, diverged, reunited and evolved, leading the college friends from South Carolina to New York. In 2010, Treacy (vocals, guitar) began focusing on his original material, and he expanded and matured that sound by involving in the project Kolmin (guitar), Nystrup (bass), Nate Becker (drums) and Ryan Roets (keys, vocals). Everest Cale was born, with each member’s own talents building on Treacy’s foundations.. Infused with classic rock influences, with enough of a modern twist to keep things from ever sounding stale, the band’s dynamic indie rock sound walks the line between fresh and familiar. See them live at Spike Hill on August 9. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here). The Deli’s NYC Open Blog is powered by The Music Building.

Before Grizzly Bear drops their own harmony-soaked full-length later this year, be sure to check out the band just as in touch with the rhythm of the rising tide, and all set to compliment your next beach volleyball game better than mopey Ed Droste ever could anyway.

Dinosaur Feathers’ new single ‘Untrue’ (streaming below, off just-released record ‘Whistle Tips’) is something Franz Ferdinand might have made if they spent some time surfing in Mali. The album as a whole feels like the band mic’ed a barbeque and recorded the site live… Another standout is the groove-a-licious ‘Fantasy Memorial.’ The track is so much fun, you’ll feel like you just met the woman of your dreams (who happens to surf in… Mali!)

Check the group out when they come back home in the Fall after an east coast tour with Fang Island, and be sure and listen to the new record on their blogspot. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Not be confused with the Ohio high school mascot of the same name, Brooklyn’s Minerva Lions are quite possibly one of the best bands exploring the realm of “HoboGlam” (though they can also be said to sound more akin to psychedelic-infused folk and dream pop). The quartet has already won the likes of Nicole Atkins, with whom they collaborate and share musicians, and Mikael Jorgensen of Wilco, who remixed their track "For R.A." last year – impressive feats for a band barely two years old. The group released their debut EP "Great Strides, Priestess & Queen" last year, and returned to the studio this past May to record their first full-length album. Minerva Lions will join Jorgensen once again for a shared bill at Mercury Lounge on September 8. – Devon Antonetti