Brooklyn’s Shake the Baron , who played The Deli’s “Best of 2010 Festival,” touch on the ups and downs of song writing, combining light hearted melodies, peppy rhythms, and tender and smooth vocal harmonies with lyrics and inflection that express great yearning and melancholy on their self-titled album. Musically cheerful but lyrically lovesick “Treehouse” opens Shake The Baron’s debut album with effervescence that infiltrates the remainder of the record. “Zodiac Name” is simultaneously bubbly in beat and tranquil in multi-part vocals, and this smooth peacefulness pervades the glowing track, “Sinking Sailor.” Concluding tune, “Telekinetic At Home,” echoes with harp-like guitars and gentle vocals, fashioning a dreamy lullaby. Shake the Baron’s new album satisfies the appreciation for nuance, sentiment, and the serene. – Read Meijin Bruttomesso’s interview with Shake the Baron here.

In the summertime even indie rockers are ok with some 80s "cheesiness", as long as it’s done with class. Fresh Millions offer a mix of feel-good funk eg. Zapp, Midnight Star, Earth Wind and Fire with with Dancey electronics kinda like Justice and Octopus Project. And they do like their vocoder… See them live at Lamberts on August 19 or in September at the Austin City Limits Music Fest.

Translations was one of the most positive notes at our May 2011 B.E.A.F. Fest – their inventive, textural psych rock also earned them a Deli "CD of the Month" in September 2010. The band just released this cover of Nico’s "I’ll keep it with mine" (here‘s the original), taking the opportunity to announce that they will be playing at the South Street Seaport Music Festival on August 11, and releasing our favorite track "Tarantella" on a limited edition 7" on Seaport Records.

Mp3: Translations – "I’ll Keep It With Me"

If the booking has a theme, it’s "big names from lots of genres."

Diverse heavyweights include Swedish pop star Robyn, Idaho indie rock icons Built to Spill and pioneering rap crew Freestyle Fellowship, from Los Angeles — touring with its original lineup for the first time in 10 years.

Also big: American country/rock singer-songwriters Shelby Lynne and Ryan Adams, and Canadian electronic duo Crystal Castles.

The fest’s lesser-known Seattle acts are also strong, representing the top tier of several local momentums: twee pop (Seapony, Witch Gardens), hip-hop and soul (Don’t Talk to the Cops, Metal Chocolates, Allen Stone) and chillwave, the trance-y genre currently taking over America’s dorm rooms (USF, Big Spider’s Back).

City Arts Fest is more than music — the programming involving movies, readings, dancing and visual art. But it’s mostly music. And most of it happens in clubs and established venues, like Chop Suey, Neumos, the Crocodile and the Showbox.

One curveball is the Pacific Science Center Laser Dome, an underutilized space for music — and a cool venue to see Oregon electronic/indie rock band Helio Sequence.

Check the full lineup and schedule at cityartsfest.com/schedule.

-associated press-

Ambassadors is one of those bands that are just impressive in some kind of good old way: band members who can play their instrument, strong and staright-forward onstage presence, interesting sound and songwriting – such a band 10 years ago would have easily been picked up by a major label. To us, their avant-alt-rock seems strongly influenced by a particular sound that emerged in the mid 80s – a musical era perceived as prehistoric (and therefore cool) by many twenty-somthings. It’s the era of Peter Gabriel’s pop rock experiments from the "SO" and "US" period, and of a particular drum sound that is huge but controlled – think of the drums from Robert Plant’s records with The Power Station. In a NYC rock scene that’s been mostly flirting with lo-fi, surf and shoegazer influences (without mentioning the hordes of rather generic alt rockers), Ambassadors’ sound is definitely a welcome addition. See them live at Brooklyn Bowl on August 2.

Twin Sister will celebrate the release of their debut full length "In Heaven" at the Mercury Lounge on September 29, and they also announced additional support dates with Explosions in the Sky, Wild Beasts, and Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Today they are launching this video for "Bad Street," which was shot at lead singer Andrea Estella’s family’s house in Long Island and populated by her band mates, friends, and family.

Fate was cruel to Brian Cherchiglia on July 25th. Even though it had been rainy all day, the roof of his building had somehow caught fire. Now he couldn’t stop breaking strings. Smiling on the stage of The Rock Shop, Cherchiglia, guitarist and lead vocalist for The Bottom Dollars, swapped out his first borrowed instrument (his own had already broken) for a second. Lightouts had already taken the stage and then their gear with them, but final act and Deli Artists of July 2011 The Nuclears had a seemingly endless guitar supply in their rock arsenal, and would never leave fellow musicians in need.
But through the power of positive thinking (and drinking), Cherchiglia, Evan Berg (drums, backing vocals) and Doug Guttenberg (bass, backing vocals) persevered like professionals and rolled out a set of analog rock, suffused with blues and muddled with folk. Imagine The Raconteurs with some Cake, including a "Satan Is My Motor" cover. Near the end of the band’s on-stage odyssey, Dyalekt of Deathrow Tull joined them for a song titled "Peace and Anarchy." And peace (or the rock version anyway) inside of anarchy was just what The Bottom Dollars had accomplished, broken strings be damned. Take that, fate. Now if only the roof would stop smoldering. –allison levin

The Trashies return from a three year dormant period with their new LP Space Jam!  The Trashies, as you can imagine from their name, are not an ambient project.  They’re a thrashy, psycho-garage outfit that incorporate musical elements ranging from The Stooges to Bo Diddley.  They’re not the tightest band in the world, but they’re not trying to be, and if that’s what you’re looking for in garage music of this brand, you’re missing the point.  Sloppy, thumpin’ backbeats lay the groundwork for catchy, hook-laden guitar riffs that even sound sweaty.  The songs on Space Jam are all short punk-jams, clocking in under three minutes, with the exception of "Bug Smoker," which is typical of their last few albums (which I’m obviously just trying to work in here so I can type their very perfect names), Let it be Trashed, Taz Tattoo, and Fartstorm.  "I wanna Destroy," the probable hit of the album, is below, along with tour dates.  Total Fest sounds fun.          

The Trashies on Tour
August 5th @ The Funhouse – Seattle, WA
August 6th @ SMMR BMMR – Portland, OR
August 12th @ Total Trash Fest – Oakland, CA
August 14th @ LA Record Psycho Beach Party – Los Angeles, CA
August 19th @ Total Fest – Missoula, MT

All shows w/Shannon and the Clams. More tour dates will be confirmed shortly.

The Trashies Space Jam by andrews247

Brooklyn via Austin one-man-(electro)-band Neon Indian will return this fall with a new release entitled "Era Extraña", an album entirely written in an efficiency apartment in Helsinki. Alan Palomo is sharing the single "Fallout" with us at www.neonindian.com – in exchange for our email address. Era Extraña, is the follow-up to the 2009 debut Psychic Chasms, which created well deserved waves of buzz in the music blogosphere and beyond. The record is reported to have a darker sound that (quoting the press release) "tosses somewhere between an 8-bit shoegaze record and peering through the fence of a teenage apocalypse drive-in flick." I don’t think we could have come up with a description as intriguing…

NYC’s Savoire Adoire entertained us for quite some time with deliciously well crafted synth pop gems, and we are intrigued to hear that the band’s singer is releasing a solo EP under the DEIDRE moniker. The two songs available for streaming feature a very playful approach, that borderlines bubble-gum pop in the EP single "Classic Girl". The simple arrangement is enriched by interesting production touches, ranging from B52’s inspired naughty keyboard stabs, to atmospheric, heavily effected twangy guitars, and other electronic textural elements. The EP "Curious Parcels" will be released on August 2, don’t miss DEIDRE’s release party at Pete’s Candy Store on July 28 with other entertaining NYC based bands Starlight Girls, Wavebreaker and Little Anchor.

 

What do you get when you combine Arcade fire, Balkan Beat box, Antibalas and Tom Waits’ band together? Captain Planet? Folk Voltron? Well, sort of… The Sway Machinery is a border-crossing five-piece containing a member from each of these landmark bands. Equal parts baroque-pop songwriters and folk music curators, this band takes the Jewish tradition of Cantorial singing and attaches it to a swinging brass section with Ivory Coast percussion holding it all down. It’s something you’re not likely to find at many synagogues, but luckily they’ve found a home here in Brooklyn. The band comes back from Mali where their new LP was just recorded earlier this year (The House of Friendly Ghosts, Vol. 1 off JDub) to play at 92YTribeca on August 2nd. Make sure and come early to see my favorite ethnomusicologist/DJ Awesome Tapes from Africa begin your overseas journey before the band takes the stage at 9pm. – Mike Levine