If you were listening to KEXP’s Audioasis last Saturday, you already know about Sports, and you can kindly consider this post a refresher on something that rocks.  Sports has a solid, 80’s-style electro sound. The tempo is relaxed, and the synths are backed up with reverberating guitars and melancholic vocals. Comparisons to bands like Depeche Mode are unfortunate, but inevitable. Sports played a great set on KEXP’s Audioasis last Saturday, which you can listen to at http://www.kexp.org/streamarchive/streamarchive.asp, though it won’t be up forever.

I’ve always found ambient music a little too uneventful – it’s a cool concept and everything but dude… it’s a little like when you meet a cute but very shy guy/girl who doesn’t say a word to save his/her own life, you know? "Talk to me, dammit!!!"
Brooklyn band Future Shuttle (a band we discovered by browsing through our own live listings on the right) play ambient-ish music that’s eventful enough to keep us interested – and that’s when we find out that the line between ineptly shy and rather charming is very fine indeed. Fronted by ethereal singer Jessa Farkas, this band’s sound is mostly based on droney, gently effected, intertwining electronic pads and sparse reverbered vocals – which add interest to the tunes conveying also a strong mystic element. There are also guitars, percussions and a flute in the mix, all working behind the scenes, in "atmospheric" and mysterious ways. Future Shuttle is playing at Silent Barn on July 6 and at Glasslands on July 9.

Brooklyn psych-rockers White Hills have a brand new album out and they want you to hear it. Titled "H-p1," the collection of 9 songs rails against our increasing dependence on corporate consumerism. "The Condition of Nothing" combines driving, psyched-out guitars and motor driven percussion with vocals that speak to nihilistic delusion, while guitars sounding more like metal hammering against industrial factory walls are the dominant element on the track "Movement." "A Need To Know" builds up gradually from hushed overtones, and the title track closes the album with an ambitious 17 minutes opus that delivers heavy jams for the disenfranchised. Though one wouldn’t be off base to think of very early Stooges (1969 era) or even Spaceman 3, White Hills share a similarly twisted compositional vibe with San Francisco psych rockers Wooden Shjips. The band will be performing live for their CD release show at Union Pool in Brooklyn on July 14 Oneida side project Man Forever and Weird Owl. – Dave Cromwell

Completely unrelated to legendary British prog-rock pioneer Robert Wyatt, Wyatt is a Brooklyn based quintet (via Colorado, New Mexico, and Michigan) that plays what we call "rootsy pop" – with an added indie twist in the production department. Led by Maddy Wyatt’s gentle presence and vocals, the band’s reinterpretation of folky atmospheres is entertaining and stimulating at once, thanks to a musical approach that successfully avoids tired formulas. Wyatt is celebrating their Brooklyn CD release with a show at Union Hall in Park Slope on July 7.

Gowanus’ own Lightouts delivers their music quick, jolting and right down the middle. With enthusiastic yelps delivered over power-pop chords, this trio sways the listeners over with fast power pop combining Husker Du’s steady distorted guitar/fast drums assaults with a more passionate rock delivery. – Simon Heggie

Songwriter Sam Amidon is single-handedly re-defining the boundaries of American folk music. His songs succeed in using grooves and melodies familiar to alt-folk listeners as the backbone that supports all-but-forgotten lyrics from early American folk tunes. Sam’s music gives cultural weight to otherwise outdated, seemingly irrelevant lyrics, bringing new life and accessibility to old American hymns. Not a simple feat, but one that his background uniquely prepares him for. Growing up in a family of folk musicians in Brattleboro, Vermont, Amidon was immersed in a rich musical tradition from a young age. Now based in NY, Amidon, along with his fellow Bedroom Community colleagues, is classing up Brooklyn’s indie scene, one folk tune at a time. With his ambitious new record I See The Sign (Bedroom Community), Amidon furthers his folk revival mission, bringing in guest stars like Beth Orton and Nico Muhlry to help out, as well as adding R. Kelly’s ‘Relief’ to his eclectic Americana catalog. – Read Mike Levine’s Q&A with the artist here.

 

Tanlines are a hard one to pin down. They’re perfectly suited for Brooklyn though. A place that values pastiche world music acts like Yeasayer and Dirty Projectors is a perfect breeding ground for the crazy imaginative, All-of-Epcot-on-a-Record approach to songwriting this duo has come up with. Songwriters/production team Eric Emm and Jesse Cohen have been working together for awhile, (each with their own impressive resumes as ex-members of The Brothers and Professor Murder respectively) but because of their DIY distribution model that includes releasing singles, remixes, videos and other takeaways at entirely random times, they still feel much like a new band. WIth their last EP about a year old, (and who remembers anything from that long ago?) I’m hoping to hear some new tracks soon. This is a band very hard on themselves, searching out new sounds with every song. So where most bands find themselves placing years of pent-up 7-inches on their eventual LP, I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot of brand new material coming from Tanlines for their first full-length, rumored for release later this year. Here’s hoping! – Read Mike Levine’s interview with the band here.

Uuuuuh… we like this combination of words: "playful psych pop with an experimental edge". That’s our attempt at describing the music of Brooklyn based band Celestial Shore. These guys follow on the bizarre and elaborate "avant-pop" steps of acts like Dirty Projector and Deerhoof, with a slightly "mathy-er" approach, and vocal melodies and harmonies that will get Beach Boys fans excited. The way "Pals" – a perfect pop gem – gets truncated and pretty much sacrificed as a "song" to the god of experimentation might irritate the many pop purists out there. Instead, it makes us smile with complicity. Boring song structures are for later in life… 
Check out Celestial Shore with Body Language live at Glasslands on July 1st and at Shea Stadium on July 14.

With a handful of singles and a full length cassette under their belt, Baltimore’s Romantic States are releasing a new six song EP, Still Petals, on July 4 via BEKO-DSL. Romantic States is the creation of Jim Triplett with keyboardist Ilenia Madelaire joining in on live performances. The long-awaited (on my part) album features gorgeous tracks of echoing melodies which can be heard in this preview clip on Youtube- well worth the click!

And for a taste of their past gems, here’s one of their stellar singles…-Dawn

Baltimore’s Small Sur released their new LP Tones this week, currently streaming in full on AOL Spinner, and are currently on tour in support of it around the Northeast.

"Small Sur is the primary musical alias of South Dakota-born, now-Baltimore-based songwriter Bob Keal and current collaborators Austin Stahl and Andy Abelow. The project was born during the spring of 2005 in a friend’s Southern California bedroom, where Keal recorded the self-titled Small Sur EP shortly before relocating to Baltimore. 2008 marked the release of the band’s full-length debut, We Live in Houses Made of Wood, which garnered critical praise from the likes of Tiny Mix Tapes and NPR. With the addition of 2010’s Bare Black EP and 2011’s Tones, Small Sur’s gracefully growing discography emerges as the next great discovery to spring forth from the lauded and active Baltimore scene—refining the band’s singular, understated ability to capture and extend life’s fleeting moments of breathtaking beauty." – Team Clermont

Pick the album up at the official Album Release Show at the Metro Gallery in Baltimore on July 7.

Small Sur – Prettyboy by 1146miles

D.C.’s Beauty Pill (multi-instrumentalists Basla Andolsun, Jean Cook, Drew Doucette, Devin Ocampo and founding member Abram Goodrich) return with their work cut out for themselves. Not content simply putting out a record, they will be embarking on the Immersive Ideal project. Inspired in part by the famous Abbey Road Studio Two window, the group will be creating its new album in full view of the public eye at the Artisphere. Curated by Artisphere’s New Media Curator Ryan Holladay, one half of longtime Beauty Pill pal Bluebrain, the residency runs July 16 to August 2 , with the installation slated for December/January of this year.

"Artisphere is excited to be partnering with Beauty Pill on this groundbreaking project. As far as I know, there really hasnt been a band to do something like this nor can I think of a place better suited for this kind of artistic experiment," says Holladay. "This is exactly the sort of thing we want to be doing. We’re not sure what will happen but we’re glad it’s going to be happening at Artisphere."

Beauty Pill’s Chad Clark says this about the Immersive Ideal project, "The way that we make music involves a lot of stumbling in the dark." Clark adds, "Making that process accessible and visible to the outside world will, if nothing else, be an exercise in vulnerability.” – Courtesy of Terrorbird

Beauty Pill "Anacostia Blue Heron" (detail) by beautypill