Brooklyn trio Japan Soul new single Transparent is exactly that: a lighthearted funky blue-eyed soul song. It's a step up from their debut Plastic Utopia , which was just a bit too smooth. There is even a bit of rock guitar (Armani not denim). Japan Soul : Jason Paul: vocals, guitars, bass, programming David Rozner: percussion, arrangements and guitars Dave Lipp: saxophones, bass, eclectic instruments Transparent is released thru Wealth & Taste Music [...]
Brooklyn pop band Camera2 have unveiled the video for Wasted , the third episode of their nine-part video series, all starring the same kid: lead singer Andy Chase 's son Julien: I was searching for inspiration to tell me what to do with the Camera2 album I'd just finished. We thought having a young boy wandering the streets of Manhattan would be a great foil to what people would normally expect when listening to the lyrics. We chose my son Julien to be the kid since I had [...]
Garage rock against all odds. That's Berlin based Israeli trio TV Buddhas . A disastrous trip to the USA, where they ran into all rock cliches of shady promoters and cancelled shows and an extensive tour last year got shelved when they were forced to return to Israel to take care of urgent family matters. Now they have picked themselves up again and are ready to continue their never ending tour (they managed 200 live shows per annum in the past). The promotion for their latest EP Band In The Modern World , produced [...]
Quirky post-funk metal rock jazz trio Primus have just announced tow in Alaska, theiir first since 1996. The gigs conincide with the Summer Solstice. Live dates: 06/21 Fairbanks, AK @ Blue Loon 06 22 Anchorage, AK @ Moose's Tooth Pub » primusville.com
PEP updates Fifties doowop. Brooklynites Karys Rhea , Morgan Lynch and Ilana Webber have come up with My Baby and Me , a 4-track EP that spells SUMMER in large friendly letters. And yes, all songs deal with girl-meets-boy or vice versa. A bit of nostalgia for the oldsters and introduction for the youth who will be - hopefully - enticed to check out the originals. Great vocal harmonies that deserve to come blaring out of the speakers from your car stereo, preferably with the top down. [...]
photo: Tonje Karenina Pettersen Norwegian electronic/indie trio Musique Le Pop are serious contenders for your guilty pleasures listening. Christoffer Schou, Jon Kristian Furuheim and Elisabeth Thorsen bring back the heyday of bubblegum synth pop with their new single We Can Be Good b/w Turn To Sand . It's all be done before, but the mash-up clash of musical tastes - Sixties pop ( Elisabeth Thorsen and Christoffer Schou) and dance (Jon Kristian Furuheim) - gives them a head start in the current retro-pop boom. Recommended [...]
Italian rock noir band Belladonna have released a sexy cover of the Guns N' Roses classic Sweet Child O' Mine . Free download from Soundcloud . Their new album drops April 18th and they will be on the road in Italy and the Czech Republic to promote its release. Live dates: 04/13 Black Out, Roma, Italy 04/26 Blues House, Milano, Italy 05/03 Rock'N'Roll Perugia, Perugia, Italy 05/04 Borderline, Pisa, Italy 05/10 Camera Club, Matera, Italy [...]
Ryan Sunderman , Kevin Unwin , Tom Romeo , Sean Hunter are fairweatherfriend , a shoegaze quartet from Tucson, AZ. Their debut single You And I b/w Fairweather Friend is their business card on biking red vinyl, two gentle songs that will appeal to fans of The Smiths, My Bloody Valentine and The Dears. You And I is a 101 of using echo, with the vocals riding on top, catching new waves of guitar and drums as the emerge Fairweather [...]
Phish fans as a breed like to have tons of music of their band and the band's taping policy has ensured that most performances circulate in the community. It would be nice to have all of it on your fingertips for streaming purposes and the newly launched Phishtracks.com comes close. Using the Phish.net API and the Phish Spreadsheet to provide setlist info, the creators allow fans to stream the music from the Vermont quartet. Props for the usability which allows listeners to browse the archive by year and song. [...]
Wolverhampton rock duo Under A Banner are releasing Some Stories as a charity single on May 4th, donating all proceeds to UK veterans organisation Help for Heroes . After a couple of false starts when trying to create a video for the song, they called in the skills of a talented team of undergraduates and post-graduates from their local university. Live dates: 03/19 Tamworth @ Bond’s Bar 03/24 Birmingham @ Cafe Blend, Birmingham 04/19 Shrewsbury @ The Hole in the [...]
Singer Toni Childs has a dream: create a visual music experience. Her Kickstarter campaign ends March 22 and is currently halfway meeting its $100,000 goal: My long held dream has been to create an immersive music driven experience that uses images and motion in order to speak to the spark & intelligence of who we are - TED TALKS meets MUSIC! After a lot of development time and extensive research, we have now assembled a team that will bring my dream into reality... and beyond what I have ever dreamed [...]
Hamilton trio Cowlick play good ol' surf fuzz garage rockabilly. Their new EP Night Vision is the kind of album you hop to find while browsing the underground sixties rock bin at your local record store. Dylan Hudecki , Jackson Hudecki and Ned Nolan deliver their songs almost offhandedly, but they are really tight. The music may sound cheerful, but the lyrics are more serious. How about losing your wallet, your girl, your job and your keys over a single weekend, like the [...]
Chicago orchestral pop band The Steak House Mints have come up with concept album of sorts. Love Songs for Prostitutes is all over the place musically, but the lyrics they the thing together, taking the perspective of lady for hire and all the kinds of shit that are part of her profession - hairy customers, tattoos and pleasing a high-rolling diplomat. The music however can't handle all the moods. The album hits the ground running with three upbeat songs: glam rockers Hi Ya and Yeah Right followed by tex-mex [...]
Franc Cinelli is an Italian singer-songwriter living in London who fell under the spell of the inmates Alcatraz , the notorious Federal prison off the coast of San Francisco, CA. He became enamored with the outlaws after reading a book about murderer John Giles, who got close to freedom after tying to escape dressed in Technical Sergeant’s uniform, an outfit he had pieced together over an eight year period. The Ballad of John Giles became the first song he completed. One thing led to another. He read more about the prison's [...]
NYC singer-songwriter Josh Elkes got lucky when a CD wiht some demo tracks was passed to music industry veteran Neil Dorfsman, who recognized his talent. His debut single Laid Down In Bows serves as a taster for a self-titled EP. Elkes is an old school folkie and thankfully Dorfsman refrained from polishing his sound too much, with the notable exception of the female backing vocalist who only gets in the way and contributes nothing memorable at all. Live date: 03/23 The [...]
NVC indie rockers Anna Bradley have embraced the EP as their favorite format. Their latest is called The Last Great Day Before the Body Was Found , a quircky lo-fi take on the likes of Television and Husker Dü. They've obviously worked hard on their harmony vocals and it has paid off handsomely, deepening the sound. Mashing garage with prog guitar it will find its way to the music geeks who can appreciate the adventure and loosely applied textures in their songs. Deserter by Anna Bradley [...]
Dutch duo Destructive Cult are into electropop and italodisco, two genres that often cross the boundaries of good taste. Rinse and Milan steer clear from the cliffs and come up with songs that would have made them huge in the early Eighties. Their 4-track debut EP is inspired "by 1978, Camus and lone wolves". And that's correct is escapism is your thing. Stand-out track Talk To Me , with its over top vocals, alternates between Bronski Beat and the Human League. » [...]
French avant-garde producer Bulle Plexiglass directed the new Ummagma video for Talk To Her . San Francisco avant-garde soundcrafter Jane Woodman did a remix of Lama . Ummagma - Lama (Jane Woodman remix) The Canadian-Ukrainian shoegaze post-rock duo is creating a buzz thru word-of-mouth and have been picked up by dozens of left-field music blogs all over the world. Talk to Her by Ummagma » ummagma.com [...]
A Swedish singer and an English multi-instrumentalist joining forces in Denmark. The Arctic Wife have released their debut single Constancia , a song drenched in Eighties pop. Singer Maja Westman has a commanding voice an her companion Charlie Douglas Alexander designed a musical canvas that has more layers than the casual listener will realise at first. A guilty pleasure for hipsters and a foray into more advanced music for the mainstream. Constancia is a self-released single Buy it from iTunes . [...]
Plastic Utopia , the debut single by Brooklyn trio Japan Soul is smooth as silk. It's the kind of blue-eyed soul that was en vogue in the early Eighties when bands like Spandau Ballet and Roxy Music in their Avalon phase ruled the airwaves. Center stage synths, funky bass and treated falsetto vocals. The Starbucks crowd will love this, mainly because it won't interfere with their chatter and tale tales. Japan Soul : Jason Paul: vocals, guitars, bass, programming David Rozner: [...]
Here Comes The Flood
Nueva canción de Arctic Monkeys: Do I Wanna Know
Kanye West – Yeezus
M.I.A. – “Bring the Noize”
