With the release of Ice Cream Bones, an EP, in May of 2009, A Lull was a band that was confident, but was somewhat still searching for its sound. After countless more hours in practice spaces, basements and bedrooms, A Lull kept at it, and after over seventy-five songs and partial song ideas, something began to take shape. In May of 2010, A Lull released Weapons For War/Spread It All Around, a vinyl and digital single from its upcoming full-length record, Confetti.
Using a mixture of conventional and non-traditional recording techniques, A Lull employs anything and everything available to create beats, melodies, textures and layers of sound. The music is experimental in the ways that it takes form, but is accessible and captivating.
While writing and recording Confetti, A Lull has played extensively in its hometown of Chicago as well as around the Midwest and the rest of the country with a focus on the East Coast and most recently Austin, Texas for SXSW 2010.
A Lull plans to release Confetti later in 2010 and the band will continue to tour extensively in support of it. This is truly a band that needs to be seen live in order to fully appreciate their talent; as a six-piece with all members playing drums together at times, the energy is top notch and by no means a lull.
The Polyamorous Affair is a nomadic-by-way-of-Los Angeles duo who weave a rich fantasy world into their own mischievous brand of electronic pop. The duo which formed in Denmark in 2007 is comprised of Eddie Chacon and Sissy Sainte-Marie who currently divide their time between Copenhagen and Berlin. Today (August 16th) they release their 3rd album, Strange Bedfellows. Widely acclaimed across the board from NME to Dazed Digital to bedroom bloggers, The Polyamorous Affair have become known for their strategic simplicity, chilly beats and warm vibes, all set in some bizarre frame of opulence. Their latest album finds the two conjuring up a strangely seductive electronic hybrid laced with haunting guitars and live percussion that pull you in, spellbound. Their live show is a multi-media experience featuring pioneering Visualist Mr. Cocoon.
Strange Bedfellows, the third release from The Polyamorous Affair finds the duo offering surprisingly few duets, instead each branching into two distinct styles. The album breathes and pulsates with vibrancy and balance. Eddie reconnects with his soul roots and traditional songwriting while Sissy taps into dreams and trails off on mystical disco byways. The alluringly distant front woman is at times angelic (Softer and Softer, The Avenues) and at times possessed by the Harlot of Babylon (Fantasy, Hypnotized), entities she seems to exorcise on the album’s grande finale, Rebel. Eddie floats with mercilessly beauty in flawless falsetto over big swinging beats (Strange, Shadows) and surprises us with some masterful guitar skills he has humbly hidden up his sleeve (Shadows, Swan Song, Rebel). – Winter Palace Records, 2010
As premiered on Stereogum today, Roman Ruins, solo project of Beach House and Papercuts’ touring drummer concocted this woozy remix of Beach House’s “Lover of Mine”. The remix comes in promotion of his newest PASTOR/AL 7″ available now via Gold Robot Records.
Roman Ruins is Graham Hill’s solo project exploring the mystical link between song and architecture. Like a building, the music is an assembly of components. The pieces are built around a rhythmic skeleton that informs the skin and flesh sounds that surround it. When not crafting songs, Graham plays drums for Beach House and Papercuts.
My House
As announced today, Sacramento’s Ganglians were added to the support slot for Jenny and Johnny (aka Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice) for two California shows. See below for full tour dates.
Falling somewhere between the noise-pop of bands like Wavves and Woods and the blissed-out psychedelia of the Beach Boys, Sacramento, CA’s Ganglians features Ryan Grubbs, Kyle Hoover, Alex Sowles, and Adrian Comenzind. Grubbs met Sowles when he moved from Portland, OR to Sacramento, and met Comenzind, who introduced him to Hoover. They began trading tracks they had recorded at home, and when Grubbs was asked to play a show, Hoover, Comenzind, and Sowles became his backing band. The band’s name came from a cross of the words “gang” and “aliens,” not the term referring to an external bundle of nerves. The band spent much of 2008 recording, and their debut single, a limited-edition split 7″ with Eat Skull, appeared in January 2009 on Dulc-i-Tone Records. The band’s tours and releases came quickly after that, with an appearance at that year’s South by Southwest festival that March and a self-titled EP and a full-length album, Monster Head Room, arriving within weeks of each in May on the hip lo-fi label Woodsist. Where Ganglians was abrasive and self-recorded, Monster Head Room found the band working with an engineer friend who helped them get a cleaner sound that was innocent and trippy at the same time. The band spent the summer playing shows, including a set at the Smmr Bmmr festival in Portland, and closed out the year with a 7″ on Captured Tracks in October. – Heather Phares
Jenny and Johnny Tour Dates (Ganglians Dates in Bold)
09/01 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Rio Theater $
09/02 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall 09/03 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall $
09/05 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
09/06 – Seattle, WA @ Bumbershoot
09/08 – Salt Lake City, NV @ The State Room
09/11 – Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room
09/12 – Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center
09/13 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
09/14 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
09/16 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
09/18 – Boston, MA @ Agganis Arena *
09/19 – Brooklyn, NY @ Williamsburg Waterfront *
09/21 – Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwells
09/22 – Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero
09/23 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
09/24 – Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club
09/25 – Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge
10/03 – Hollywood, CA @ Hollywood Palladium #
$ = w/ Ganglians
* = w/ Pavement
# = w/ Belle & Sebastian
Elephant and Castle is a kaleidoscope of sound; twisting and grooving to create music all it’s own. Based out of Oakland, California, it is the project of musician/sound engineer David Reep. Starting with a love of old vinyl and the endless digging through old thrift stores, Elephant and Castle was formed with the idea of making modern music out of mostly vintage material. Similar to new bands such as Flying Lotus, The Samps, Free the Robots and drawing from the legends such as Madlib, Juan Atkins, and Derrick May, Elephant and Castle attempts to bridge the gap between cheese and soul.
During time spent living overseas as a youth in London, England, David absorbed the early 90′s electronic scene as well as the explosion of Britpop. There he became obsessed with learning the guitar, eventually leading to him picking up bass, keys and drums. Upon returning to Houston, Texas for high school he was primed for the booming rave scene, seeing many of his heros spin vinyl in forgotten warehouses. After moving to California for college, he started the record label Third Culture Records and continues to dedicate his time and effort to support new artists.
Elephant and Castle’s debut release, Analogue EP will be available August 31st via Third Culture Records.
Fielded is the solo project of Lindsay Powell, vocalist of Ga’an and one half of sister songstresses Festival. By mainly using vocals and minimal instrumentation, Powell explores the many moods that can be created through experimentation with voice as leader rather than follower of the amplified instrument. She straddles dark and light, her lyrics reaching into depths; her voice reaching toward the sky. Her set hovers, fluid and with feeling – a church chorus, cacophonous chants, a post-apocalyptic pop paradise but always of the throat and of the heart.
Fielded is set to release vinyl-only Terrageist September 7th via Catholic Tapes. She is currently on the road touring with Psychic Steel (tour dates below).
1. The Watcher
2. Demon Seed
3. Red Queen
4. All the Best
5. Another Time
6. Come the Day
7. Reason
8. Fire Rock Walls
9. Cowershells
Fielded Tour Dates
8/10 Kansas City @ The Blarney Stone (38th & Broadway) with All Blood
8/11 Norman, OK with Universe City @ Bill & Dee’s (311 East Main St.)
8/12 Denton TX with Orange Coax @ Majestic Dwelling of Doom
8/13 Austin TX with Expensive Shit & Soft Healer @ Cheer Up Charlie’s
8/14 Houston TX @ Notsuoh
8/15 New Orleans @ Joey’s House! Join us for a special late lunch show!!
8/16 Atlanta GA @ 529 FREE!!!!
8/17 Columbia SC @ Jefferson Mayday Mayday’s
8/18 Greensboro MAYA GALLERY
8/19 Richmond VA & MY BIRTHDAY
8/20 Baltimore MD TBA
8/21 Philly @ Tire Island
8/22 NYC @ Death by Audio with Lichens and Driphouse
8/23 NYC @ Bruar Falls with Kevin Hufnagel (of Dysrhythmia) and Religious to Damn
8/24 Providence, RI @ Operateque
8/25 Allston, MA @ Problem House (11 Islington St.) with Water & Skimask
8/26 Northampton @ Media Mansion (George’s House)
8/27 Buffalo, NY @ TBA with Shapes of States
8/28 Cleveland, OH @ The Front Room Gallery (3615 Superior Avenue) with Mark McGuire & Pimlo
8/29 Columbus @ SKYLAB
8/30 Louisville
8/31 Lexington
9/1 St. Louis
9/2 Columbia
9/3 Iowa City @ White Lightning Warehouse
“Kathalaugh” video link
Minneapolis’ Nice Purse (along with SoTM labelmates Total Babe) will be providing a new song and music video each week for M@dAbout TV, a new nationally syndicated sketch comedy show geared toward teens and tweens. With character names like Lord Guy Guy and Captain Doorknob, Nice Purse’s fun, upbeat tunes seems to make a perfect match. The pilot airs September 11th, check out the show’s Facebook page for more info.
Nice Purse’s debut record Black Medal is due out August 10th via SoTM
Nice Purse began as the brainchild of singer/songwriter France Camp. France was looking for better methods towards spare change, and started “busking” around the Minneapolis Uptown area. After an extensive bout with covers, France eventually grew bored and started writing his own songs. France emailed a few of his tracks to his childhood friend Ian “Indian” Davis who was instantly charmed by the passionate sounds France was creating. The duo soon signed up good friends Dylan and Elise to join them on their debut album “Black Medal”. Nice Purse is a blend of Violent Femmes and Bright Eyes, with a tiny bit of The Modern Lovers tossed in. Their songs are celebrations, often with their roots in tragedy.
Nice Purse’s songs seem to be wrought with equal amounts of insecurity and confidence. It is this mixture that makes France’s insights so poignant. Even if you’ve never loved and lost, France will pull at your heartstrings and pull you into his lush musical world. Their new studio recordings (to be released on the Minneapolis label, SoTM) show a surprisingly mature side to the sounds of Nice Purse. There are more than brief moments of greatness on their debut album Black Medal.
Black Medal Tracklist:
1. Heart Medley
2. Bloody Tamourines
3. Blacker Water
4. Ice Cream Graveyards
5. That’s the Tude
6. The Loon
7. Hold My Gun
8. Kathalaugh
9. Moonlit Hugs
10. Pharmacy
11. Travel
12. Panther Like Me
Invisible Elephant is the project of one man and his assortment of randomly acquired instruments, ranging from frog guiros to pre-school toy drum kits. These are melded together with found sounds, synthesizers and spectral vocals to create a dream-like wash of psychedelic noise which defies simple categorisation. Veering from ethereal softly-spoken psych folk to walls of monolithic feedback in a heartbeat, it’s difficult to pin the sound down to one genre.
The indefinable nature of Invisible Elephant’s music isn’t really surprising though given the huge influence it takes from the muddied existential narratives of Haruki Murakami as well as the hazy sounds of the likes of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. This informs the sound which fuses the kind of downbeat sincerity of freak-folk with the visceral force of shoegaze and the cinematic euphoria of post-rock. The end result is transcendental music which simultaneously exhibits subtlety, ferocity, discordance, melody and an acute ear for imbuing the familiar with the futuristic.
The Lights Go Out Track list:
1. Communication Part II
2. You Can Have It All
3. Still Falling In The Net
4. Wind-Up Bird
5. Lost In The Woods
6. Time
7. Chasing A Ghost
Atlanta psych rock outfit the Natural Extension Concept (N.E.C.) has never crafted music that conforms to the standards of punk, prog or the avant-garde. Rather, under the direction of vocalist/guitarist and founding member Cyrus Shahmir, the group’s musical explorations flourish in the hidden dimensions of sound that exist in the undefined spaces that separate all three. Shahmir created the N.E.C. in 2000 as a means of pure musical expression by way of expanding consciousness. Over the course of a handful of CDs, cassette tapes, singles, EPs and their most recent album, simply titled Is, the N.E.C. has further honed its free-associations and sonic palette with each successive release.
With an ever-shifting lineup that currently includes bassist James Oh and drummer Justin Newton improvisation plays a strong role in filling the gaps between skeletal song structures, masses of rhythm and perfectly crafted tones, secret harmonies and distortions that shimmer with glacial majesty.
Is Track Listing:
1. It’s Right
2. Digging
3. Dead of Night
4. Eyeball Seeds
5. Tightroper
6. Feral Islands
7. Those (Guilty Pleasures) – click for free mp3!
Tour Dates:
Aug 11 – Atlanta, GA: Star Bar w/ Balkans, the Butchers
Aug 12 – Chattanooga, TN: Discoteca w/ the Butchers
Aug 13 – Lexington, KY: Al’s Bar w/ the Butchers
Aug 21 – Atlanta, GA: Goat Farm: FREE SHOW w/ All the Saints, Selmanaires, Hawks, Balkans, Carnivores, Jovontaes…
Jesse Woods is a 27 year old who was born in rural California and moved to Texas when he was young. He now resides in Austin, Texas, and will record his first full length album with Bill Baird (Sunset) producing in Fall of 2010.
He was asked personally by C3 to play Austin City Limits Festival after only performing in Austin three times.
He was asked personally by Neon Indian to cover a song of his choice off their Psychic Chasms album.
Sunset, the indie-pop recording project for Austin, TX native Bill Baird. Baird describes Sunset as a project “still very much in its formative stages, [which] will probably remain that way for the duration of the project.” The dynamic nature of his approach to songwriting leads to an always-evolving sound, one constantly reaching for its true shape yet never settling in one form. This goes a little ways towards explaining Sunset’s prolific output. In the three years Sunset has been a band, there have been five full-length albums, multiple limited edition tour releases, a seven inch, and a number of Bill Baird solo albums.
Sunset’s 5th album, Loveshines But The Moon Is Shining Too, is set for release in October 2010 on the Austin, TX based Autobus label.
Jesse and Sunset will be hitting the road together beginning this weekend (dates below).
7/25 – unicorn palace – big sur, ca
7/27 – east village coffee house – monterey, ca
7/28 – crepe place – santa cruz, ca
7/29 – sol collective – sacramento, ca
8/1 – milkbar (day show) – san francisco, ca
8/1 – hemlock tavern – san francisco, ca
8/3 – rotture – portland, or
8/4 – high dive – seattle, wa
8/8 – whidby island – missoula, mt
8/10 – urban lounge – salt lake city
8/11 – hi dive – denver, co
