September 2014 – Audiofemme

ALBUM REVIEW: Yelle “Complètement Fou”

For the third studio album in their multifaceted and diverse discography, Francophones Yelle have gone insane. The title of their new record says it all: Complètement Fou, out tomorrow on Kemosabe Records, literally translates to completely crazy, insane or bonkers, and perfectly describes Yelle’s unique electric brand. The band, which consists of Julie Budet and Jean-François Perrier, first came on the scene in 2005, and their debut album, Pop Up, was released in 2007. It featured a non-stop array of eccentric, hip-rattling, French glory. Their second album, 2011’s Safari Disco Club reached no.9 in the U.S Billboard 2011 chart in the Dance/Electronic Albums category and gave us zany tracks that we still love, like “Comme Un Enfant”, and lyrics like “animals dance in the safari disco club.”

For Complètement Fou, the duo enlisted all-star pop producer Dr.Luke and features familiar Yelle beats, married with eccentric lyrics (“we danced till we cried tears of joy”) perfectly delivered by Budet in a sunny yet hypnotically sultry voice. The first single from the album, “Bouquet Finale” (Grand Finale) is a beautiful and seductive homage to the empowerment that comes from letting yourself get lost in the moment.

The album’s second and titular single, “Complètement Fou,” perfectly captures Yelle’s growth into a more well-rounded outfit with tighter and more firmly composed tracks. When compared to previous albums, there are subtle differences in the overall sound – no doubt the extra polish of Dr. Luke’s glossy production style – that make the band sound better than ever. And this time around, Budet tapped Tacteel of TTC to co-write lyrics, saying “We used to do everything by ourselves, but we wanted to open the circle this time around because we love people!” They worked together on Pop Up, so it was a natural fit, and no doubt tempered Budet’s characteristic snark just a little.

The whimsical “Ba$$in” and the steamy “Nuit De Baise I” – which is a rather suggestive song about being engulfed in the desire and ecstasy of another – are personal favorites. They both are so completely different from one another, and yet have the ability to make you have the same strong emotional response-auricular bliss. There is something so simplistic yet complex about the valley of rhythms in Yelle’s new album. There is no doubt that this album is the band’s best work yet.

Though I am not 100% fluent in French, I know enough to understand that Yelle has the ability to speak volumes, and reach a vast audience of Francophones and Anglophones alike with their work. Whether you’re a native Frenchie or not, you will be endlessly transported by the music Yelle creates. Bravo pour Yelle, who has enough talent and spunk to drive one complètement fou indeed.

You can stream Complètement Fou now via Kemosabe records, and don’t forget to catch Yelle when they play Irving Plaza on October 10th. It’s sure to be a lively time.

LIVE REVIEW: Panda Bear @ MHoW

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”]

VVPandaBear04 — All photos Lindsey Rhoades

Blame it on the Internet: to make as big a splash as possible with a new album release, bands will try a variety of approaches. Whether that’s U2’s latest LP showing up uninvited in everyone’s iTunes, My Bloody Valentine and Beyoncé suddenly dropping fully-formed albums without so much as a preceding whisper, or the Arcade Fire/Aphex Twin method of guerilla marketing, the last few years have seen an uptick on controversial album rollouts (or lack thereof).

One artist who completely bucks this trend is Noah Lennox, otherwise known as Panda Bear. As a founding member of Animal Collective, he’s ushered his textured electronic washes into more and more of the band’s experimental pop songs, and as a whole they’ve released albums every few years like clockwork. That’s allowed Lennox the freedom to take a different tack with his solo material – one of thoughtful but relaxed percolation over extended periods of time. And the biggest part of his process in vetting new material has always been in a live setting. At last Monday’s sold out Music Hall of Williamsburg show, the air crackled with the realization that this could be his last round of performances before finally outing his much anticipated fifth studio album.

His last LP, Tomboy, came out in 2011, after a succession of 7” singles leading up to its release. But he’d been playing that material live for over two years, since his breakout with Person Pitch in 2007. Even given this trajectory, folks have waited a long time for a new Panda Bear record. It’s clear from perusing setlists and YouTube videos of fan-recorded concerts that Lennox has enough to put to tape, but other than tentative, unconfirmed song titles, collectively alluded to under the cryptic heading Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper, no official announcements have been made about anything.

Recently, Lennox posted a mix to his website that takes some of the more familiar songs from these live sets and gives them full-scale production, bright dubby beats, and blends them with samples – some sourced from other recordings, but mostly built from his own loops – all of it situated into a nest of sketches and songs that have influenced his most recent work. So it’s assured that something is afoot, but there’s really only one access route to his new music, and that’s to see him play it.

The set started with churning house-esque beats, swiftly merging into towering reverb and textured, multi-layer electronic arrangements. Shoegazey washes exploded into slowly burbling tracks while longtime video collaborator Danny Perez’s captivating projections swirled behind Lennox. Even the Tomboy songs seemed re-tooled to better reflect Lennox’s new sonic ideas, and just as he had with the mixtapes he made and traded with his high school buddies in what would become Animal Collective, he presented it all as a cohesive whole, playing a nonstop, immersive set for over an hour.

Highlights included a song that’s been referred to as “Dark Cloud,” in which Lennox chants vowel sounds though a sharp echo effect to create a rounding pattern of syllables between verses. The drippy percussion of “Sequential Circuits,” another new cut that he’s played live pretty extensively, melted into the thudding bass of the next track while a collage of women in alien make-up writhed through Perez’s video. Though much of Lennox’s lyrics are obscured it was possible to pick out lines here and there. He hit his higher registers by shouting them, adding a sort of ecstatic urgency to translate the emotional import of unintelligible passages. Elsewhere, Lennox let the mixes themselves emote, as with an achingly beautiful harp sample that threaded its way through gorgeous, contemplative “Tropic of Cancer,” which will hopefully make it onto the new record despite its more somber tone.

To take the set as a whole is to get the impression that Lennox is approaching perfection with this collection. This is why it feels so important to be in the crowd at a Panda Bear show; though there is nothing on stage but Lennox and his Korg, flanked by a couple of intermittently flashing strobes, and it’s hard to know how much of what he’s playing is pre-programmed and what sounds he’s creating on stage, the feeling of epiphany comes instead from knowing that Lennox is testing the water, watching things grow and change, gauging the way the songs act together and cause the crowd to react. Even if it isn’t totally spontaneous, there is magic there to witness.

[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

TRACK REVIEW: SBTRKT (feat. Caroline Polachek), “Look Away”

Though SBTRKT began his music career working under his given name, Aaron Jerome, he’s spent recent years as a producer and DJ, obscured behind an identity constructed by the masks he wears. Arguably these masks are SBTRKT’s way of subverting the often insatiable gaze the public turns upon celebrities.

It’s no wonder then that his latest release, a collaboration with Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek called “Look Away,” plays with the idea of rejecting someone else’s attention.

Polachek tells listeners to “look away,” over listless, piano-laden production, reminding them that an unnamed woman “was never yours for the having.”

Between the lyrics and the interactive music video where viewers try and fail to lock eyes with the face of an obscured woman, there seems to be an underlying message. Polachek tells us to look away while the female visage featured in the video demonstrates her ability to refuse to engage with the viewer. It’s almost as if the song is pushing us to think about a women’s agency to reject anyone she doesn’t want in her space, including a scorned suitor.

While Polachek’s lush voice feels at home in the entrancing soundscape, it comes off a little lonely. The record perhaps could have been enhanced by an additional guest possessed of a complementary lyricism or tone to Polachek’s singing.

SBTRKT’s highly anticipated full length, Wonder Where We Land, comes out October 7th on Young Turks. His North American tour dates are as follows:

7/10/14 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade

9/10/14 – New Orleans, LA @ Republic New Orleans

10/10/14 – Houston, TX @ House Of Blues

11/10/14 – Mexico City, MX @ Corona Capital Music Festival

12/10/14 – Dallas, TX @ House Of Blues

14/10/14 – Tempe, AZ @ The Marquee Theatre

15/10/14 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Belasco Theater

16/10/14 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Belasco Theater

17/10/14 – Oakland, CA @ The Fox

18/10/14 – Las Vegas, NV @ House Of Blues

20/10/14 – Denver, CO @ The Ogden

23/10/14 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre

24/10/14 – Cleveland, OH @ House Of Blues

25/10/14 – Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre

26/10/14 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5

29/10/14 – Boston, MA @ Royale

31/10/14 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall

1/11/14 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall

VIDEO OF THE WEEK: The Ugly Club, “Passengers”

Brooklyn-based psych-pop quartet, The Ugly Club (Ryan Eagan, Talor Mandel, Rick Su-Poi & Ryan McNulty), has perfected an ability to craft songs that straddle the line between gleaming, exuberant dance hits and infectious, complex garage-rock throwback jams. Since their 2012 full length, You Belong To The Minutes they have shown us that walking this walk is an art unto itself. Each track employs punchy lo-fi drums and blistering electric guitar hooks, lush, orchestral embellishments, and Egan’s retro drawling vocals stretched over top like a layer of hand-woven lace. The result makes us nostalgic for the NYC musical behemoths of yore, who provided soundtracks to our comings of age…Interpol, The Strokes, The Walkmen….sigh.

With their new single “Passengers” out and a video to accompany, we’re getting a sneak peak of a new direction toward which The Ugly Club is meandering. And ironically it’s quite pretty. Unlike what we’ve heard previously from the band, “Passengers” is defined first and foremost by sweltering synth melodies that nod reverently to late 70s new wave and mid 90s dance pop. Funky, slapping bass underpins, while Egan’s vocals are freer and more expressive than ever, suggesting that he’s arrived as an artist. Though this may be the danciest track we’ve heard from the band so far, the boys clearly have not forsaken their signature moodiness. At the end of the song a gritty, grinding electric guitar hook enters the fray, brilliantly mimicking an earlier synth/bass low end melody combo, and somehow manages to anchor the whole thing, as if to bring a hot air balloon back to earth. Throughout, the video shows Egan escaping from what appears to be quite the sinister predicament, winding through various rooms of an apartment like he’s finding his way out of a nightmarish maze. At the end–coincidentally or not, when that garage-y guitar line comes in, shaking the listener out of a disco dream–our protagonist is finally liberated from the moors of what was laying beneath the metaphorical surface. He emerges on a rooftop, for a late afternoon dance party.

Watch the great escape below Via Youtube. The Ugly Club will play Mexicali on 10/16.

https://m.soundcloud.com/theuglyclub/passengers

TRACK REVIEW: DMA’s “So We Know”

When DMA’s signed to Australian indie label I OH YOU this February, the Newtown trio was so freshly minted that they hadn’t even played a show yet. That isn’t to say they were totally green–all three members (Tommy O’, Matt Mason, and Johnny Took) had gigged extensively with previous bands–and under their new moniker, DMA’s nonchalantly released a debut single called “Delete” and a self-tited EP a month after signing to the label. At first glance, they seem like tough guys, wearing flipped-up ball caps, slouchy sweatpants, and matching thousand-yard disenchanted gazes. But DMA’s doesn’t make spacey alt-hip hop. On the contrary! Channeling the lighter side of 90s garage rock, the group grounds its sound in nostalgic, bleeding vocals that can’t help but cull feeling out of a song.

The latest single, “So We Know,” hits new highs of gravelly, emotional vocal prowess. A mostly unadorned guitar swirls absentmindedly in the background, highlighted lightly by strings. It’s a successful experiment in the emotive power of a simple ballad, carried out by a band that–though they’ve been around for less than a year–trusts their melody enough to lay it bare. No frills needed.

Listen to the poignant new track “So We Know,” which will be included on a forthcoming 7″ from DMA’s, below:

VIDEO REVIEW: Young Tongue “Cat Calls”

There is a lot of momentum behind Austin band Young Tongue. Formerly known as The Baker Family, the band has transitioned to a sound that depends heavily on prog rock energy tinged with jarring varietals of guitar and percussion. The band recently released a video for “Cat Calls,” one such that song that lures you into a dark dream world with its catchy, sing-songy guitar picking whilst steadily and stealthily climbing towards a deliciously sinister finish that may leave you concussed and perplexed. It seems fitting that the video sneaks up on you in the same way.

Created in just 48 hours during Austin’s Music Video Race, which pairs bands with filmmakers in a two day marathon of shooting and editing to compete for gear and other prizes, the videos best moments use subtle imagery to reflect Young Tongue’s lyrics. “The light we follow, that won’t stay over you” becomes a cobwebbed bulb glumly glowing while a translucent spider spins around it. Images are projected on the band, clad in white, morphing along with the actual song as it progresses. Streaks of gold paint appear on the band members’ faces, echoing the lyric “we paint our faces ‘til no two look the same.” These finely drawn visual elements are interspersed with scenes of someone being stalked by people wearing rubber animal masks, adding some major creep factor.

By the time the bridge rolls around, the song and video take an ominous turn as a night walk turns into an initiation of sorts. The image we are left with is our protagonist emerging from a seedy hotel pool in a bison mask, and by the end of it all, the menacing mood falls away and becomes something more like a narrative of a rebellion and transformation, reflective of the band’s own transition toward more invigorating, experimental tones.

Only more good things can from a band with such driving sound and artistic energy. Young Tongue releases their first full length album, aptly titled Death Rattle, on November 11 through Punctum and Raw Paw Records.

LIVE REVIEW: Mutual Benefit @ Bowery Ballroom

What started off as a raging race around Lower East Side for a parking spot turned into a placid, serene anchorage at Bowery Ballroom. Bellows, Soft Cat and the halcyonic Mutual Benefit played a hell of a show at one of our favorite spots on Delancey.

It was beyond remarkable to see the whole live band of the evening playing these harmoniously tranquil yet riveting orchestral songs. Vocalist Jordan Lee was definitely not shy at the show, playing alongside his sister. I was lucky to have been a part of the family reunion, for Lee is known for traveling with ever-changing band members. I love the Bowery for its capability of housing a few New York City blocks while keeping its intimacy for fans. Even while posting up back-in-center or front-right, the violin resonated in the joints of my body as though they were being bowed. They opened with “Strong River” and played my favorites “Auburn Epitaphs” and “Advanced Falconry.” “Golden Awake” was as harmonic performed on stage as it was listening to it on my headphones in my quiet home. That was impressive in itself, the audience muted like Central Park’s ‘quiet zone’ to appreciate every band member’s piece.

Mutual Benefit performs live with a sensitivity and tranquility on par with their poetic lyrics. Their 2011 EP, I Saw the Sea, was primarily about the ocean and its alternating and dynamic beauty, as described by Lee. Being a part of the performance washed that grace over me; I was nothing short of mesmerized by the perfect patting on the long bongos or the violinist fiddling with his hands shaking the bow and fingering infinitely with Lee as their captain.

VIDEO PREMIERE: Boyfriend “UDONWANIT”

Boyfriend is back, and we’re all in trouble. Last May, she got down and dirty with an ode to digital stimulation, and the risqué rapstress has done it again. Teaming up with fellow New Orleans hornballs SexParty for “UDONWANIT,” the raucous bounce-tinged track taunts and tantalizes as only this pairing could.

This time around, Boyfriend’s shed some of her quirkiness for a little edge. Thudding beats and aggressive synths form the undulating backbone of the song, while vocals take on a gritty affect as verses alternate between Boyfriend and her bawdy pals. “SexParty typically has a punk edge to their music, and I was really excited about making something harsh, abrasive even,” Boyfriend says of the song. With the music itself echoing the antagonistic vibe of the lyrics, it was only natural they’d make a clip that matched.

“SexParty and I had this deal going where I’d direct their music videos and they’d produce my tracks. This is a glorious converging of those efforts,” Boyfriend explains, and the result is an Office Space homage with the feature-warping affects of Soundgarden’s iconic “Black Hole Sun” video. “I wanted the video to be visually assaulting, bright – as if we’d just quit our day jobs and headed off to exact revenge on these defunct machines that had us trapped. ‘UDONWANIT’ is an exercise in office catharsis.”

The video was edited by Caitlin Richard, whom Boyfriend has known since middle school. “We’ve been getting together and making weird videos ever since we got our periods,” she says. The track is the first from an EP slated for release sometime this fall, and Boyfriend will be taking the new material out on the road when she tours the Southeast in mid-November. In addition to more production from SexParty, the EP will feature a guest appearance from Phoenix metal-drummer-turned-female-rapper Miny.

Check out the video below, premiering exclusively on AudioFemme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh_sEoj1JpI&feature=youtu.be

On Basilica SoundScape & Authenticity

Gamelan Dharma Swara, photo by Lindsey Rhoades

Touted as a cure to “festival fatigue,” this past weekend marked Basilica SoundScape’s third year in Hudson, NY, two hours north of the city. Nestled in that bucolic landscape hulks a cavernous 19th century foundry revamped and rechristened by Hole’s Melissa Auf der Mar and her partner, filmmaker Tony Stone, as an arts collective. With Brandon Stosuy (of Pitchfork fame) and Leg Up! Management’s Brian De Ran organizing a line-up of experimental music’s best and brightest, the shindig also boasts artisanal foods, art installations, and an avant-garde craft fair.

In many, many ways, it is the quintessential “anti-festival” – the only act I remember seeing on actual festival bills this summer was Deafheaven, who played Saturday night. It’s so different, in fact, that you begin to wonder why or how its organizers would even mention “festival” in the same breath as “SoundScape” except as a framing device for people who wouldn’t care in the first place and certainly wouldn’t be attending – those people that like festivals even, who plan to meet up with their crop-topped and cut-offed friends by carrying around some ten-foot, vaguely humorous sign or balloon animal all weekend, those people that don’t get festival fatigue because they live for any opportunity whatsoever to drop molly in a field with a hundred thousand rave-orbing Skrillex devotees. With capital-F Festivals popping up in or around nearly every major American city, this is no longer a market cornered by Coachella and Bonnaroo, but they all have the same vague feel – wide open grounds, multiple stages that make it impossible to see every act, overpriced tickets and overpriced concessions, ‘roid-raging security, and mostly unimaginative line-ups. The thing is, tons of people still go to these events as if it’s the only way to see live music. These people need no “anti-festival.” So who, then, is something like Basilica SoundScape really for?

Unlike most mid-sized towns with relatively small music scenes, New York City’s “scene” is pretty diffused due to its sheer size. But there is a specific intersection of journalists, musicians, labels, managers, PR teams, and their social circles who form the sometimes insular “insider” bulk; this is the subset of people Basilica was curated by and for, and they headed up to Hudson in droves. Though supposedly SoundScape attracts locals, most of the faces in the crowd were familiar to anyone tangentially related to the industry. Much the way SXSW can feel like a vacation for music-industry folks and culture critics (even though we’re all still “working”), SoundScape felt like a bizarro (though admittedly awesome) tailor-made alternate universe for an incredibly niche crowd. While that’s not exactly a bad thing – most of us do what we do because we are actually passionate about bands like Swans – there was a different kind of fatigue to the whole thing, even if it wasn’t “festival fatigue” so to speak.

[/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”]

Julia Holter Basilica — Julia Holter, photo by Lindsey Rhoades

That being said, Friday’s performances were breathtaking. The most appropriately-named band on the roster, Endless Boogie, stretched their searing psych jams to their limits. Julia Holter’s performance was a personal highlight, her hands deftly springing over her keyboard, her vocals emotive and grandiose enough to fill the entire space but remaining somehow intimate. With a more sparse set-up than some of her typical full-band performances, it was a treat to see her play solo. Following her performance, Gamelan Dharma Swara filled the floor of Basilica Hudson, observers posting up all around the ensemble of twenty or so seated behind traditional Balinese percussion instruments. Xylophone-esque, the bars are tamped by hand after striking with mallets, their ornate golden forms producing tones just as gilded, the whole sound a complete wonder. That segued into the transformative drone of electronic wunderkind Tim Hecker, whose complex compositions act on the senses in peculiar ways. His low-end is amped to earth-shattering proportions, so as to produce a very physical sensation in the throat and chest (and even skull) while washes of shimmering melody play just beneath. It’s the best kind of thing to zone out to. Taken together, this onslaught of transcendent performances was worth the trip alone. Afterward, Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry performed his inventive Music For Heart and Breath compositions, all of which are timed to the players’ own breath or heartbeats via stethoscope – a novel idea, although in such a cacophonous space full of distractions it unfortunately fell flat.

So, imagine now the type of person who would soak that all up while sneering at the idea of Outkast-and-Jack-White-headlined, corporate-sponsored Festivals – the music writers, the experimental composers, the record store clerks, the somewhat elistist Brooklynites who’d never be caught dead at Governor’s Ball (unless they were covering it for some internet publication or other). That’s who was there, and that’s who a thing like SoundScape is meant to impress. And yet, there wasn’t any real air of snobbery, because snobbery hinges on looking down at someone, and at Basilica, we’re all in the same discerningly curated boat, our sails full of our own good taste. And that is fine and good, and unsurprising, but let’s not pretend that SoundScape is solving any of festival culture’s actual problems, or even acting as a model for anything other than a DIY-ish version of something more similar to All Tomorrow’s Parties.

Really, one of the more innovative aspects of Basilica programming were the Saturday evening readings by Mish Way (of White Lung), Los Angeles poet Mira Gonzalez, and Perfect Pussy’s Meredith Graves. It’s an interesting concept to bring spoken word pieces into a lineup that features post-hardcore acts like Swans and Deafheaven, and the fact that all three readers were women felt progressive and uplifting. Graves’ piece was published in full on The Talkhouse and dealt with gendered double standards and examined authenticity through anecdotes about Andrew W.K. and the media’s treatment of Lana del Rey. It’s a bit of an odd comparison in some ways, Andrew W.K.’s “persona” having been invented prior to the popularity of the longform thinkpieces del Rey’s been such inspiration for, but at its heart was the very real feeling that female celebrities face far more scrutiny (and for that matter, scrutiny of a different breed) than men in entertainment ever do. Graves used Andrew W.K. as a talking point because she’d recently met him and familiarized herself with his backstory, but I couldn’t help but wish she’d left del Rey out of it and chosen instead to share her own struggle to be taken seriously or seen as authentic. Pop music is a whole other monster – something she touched on in her essay only briefly – because it reaches such a wide audience and by its very nature demands its performers have some sort of gag or gimmick, and that does manifest itself differently for women in pop than it does for men in pop. At Basilica SoundScape though, the kind of authenticity folks seemed most concerned with was proving their own, their presence at such a groundbreaking, culture-altering event the best sort of cache.

So Basilica SoundScape is absolutely worth attending if you truly appreciate a well-curated lineup in which the details and intersections behind every act are carefully thought out by its organizers. For those types of show-goers, SoundScape will likely continue to be that breath of fresh Autumn air as long as the gorgeous venue that hosts it stands. While it may alienate the mainstream festival attendees of today, hopefully SoundScape will act as a beacon that proves there’s always a different way – particularly for those that put big-box events together. If SoundScape can build on this year’s successes and continue the trend of innovation next year, even the Lollapalooza lovers are bound to notice.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

ALBUM REVIEW: Braeves “Drifting by Design”

Childhood friends Ryan Colt Levy and Derek Tramont are the backbone of Long Island ensemble Braeves, but it was a labor of love and experimentation with more recent add-ons Thomas Killian McPhillips IIV and Nick LaFalce that brought forth their melodically-inspired new sound. The group, produced by Mike Watts, has garnered comparisons to Local Natives, The Shins, and Grizzly Bear, undoubtedly owing to their rich, echoing vocals that move over a similar rock/pop landscape. However, there’s a driving quality embedded in EP Drifting by Design that diverges from what we know and moves us graciously toward “Braeve” new territory.

The quartet doesn’t waste any time. From the very first drum lick in “Guest of the Gun,” Levy’s vocals ring out with a captivating presence that bends along the roving refrain. Melody and percussion play off one another, the rhythmic lyrics and sliding vocals crackling with McPhillips’ slick beat.

The EP then moves to more somber, minor-resounding terrain with “Talk Like Strangers,” a percussive rumble continuing to power the album’s course. This track unleashes Braeves’ lyrical prowess with a succinct, familiar tale of two people found foreign to one another in the wake of their mutually faded affection: “We talk like strangers in empty storylines / Stare right through each other, then on to the next lie.” Trapped by false notions of one another, they lean on illusion to ride out the storm: “Ooh, hallucinate yourself the perfect lover / Dressed in best intention, dripping with another.”

Next comes the standout – the lilting, soulful mid-tempo “Souls in Transit.” Keyboards tumble from a daydream, followed by the entrancing ebb and flow of an undulating lyric line. Levy’s vocals are rawer and realer than before, a fresh and gravelly timbre added to both his suspended falsetto and delectably pliable straight tones. Amped, electric strings break out on the chorus, and the refrain lifts from the ground for a few breathtakingly weightless moments before gliding softly back down to the swaying bass line.

At last, the EP goes out on a rolling surge in the form of “While Your Body Sleeps.” Percussion and vocals intermingle once more and throw themselves at the canvas, building to a cacophony of vibrant sights and sounds that reaches its apex, then fades.

What Braeves have brought us in Drifting by Design is that up-and-at-‘em feel that gives their soulful meander indelible purpose. It is a sound untouched by wanderlust and un-plagued by aimlessness, yet one that paints a vivid reverie nonetheless. It manages to tell the tale of that most surreal and ambling journey, remaining firmly planted in the present while at the same time boundlessly moving forward, unstoppable as life. It is Braeves’ arduously crafted design that gives this ode to a drifting trajectory the capacity to soar.

<a href="http://braeves.bandcamp.com/album/drifting-by-design">Drifting by Design by BRAEVES</a>

TRACK REVIEW: Julian Casablancas + The Voidz, “Human Sadness”

Beginning with the sounds of an eerie carnival, the 11 minute single track, “Human Sadness”, off of Julian Casablancas + The Voidz album, Tyranny, screeches through a variety of trance-like melodies from start to finish.

Like a bad dream that seems endless, Human Sadness is a track that will put you asleep and shake you awake over and over.

The track never catches and the focus isn’t clear. Casablancas’ voice is across the board and in a bad way, bouncing from easy tones to noisy yips that beckon you to cover your ears. Much longer than it needs to be, “Human Sadness” makes you yearn for the early days of The Strokes and wonder how Casablancas got so far away from good. Even though the beginning of the song sparks a glimmer of hope, the exposition falls flat, with a inane, grating and repetitive electric guitar melody of the ilk we hoped would’ve died in the 80s. The last two minutes, however, offer up a bit of redemption. While the vocals disappoint, the music itself is nothing short of experimental, which drowns out the horror that is the lyrical shortcoming of Casablancas and makes you nostalgic for a time and space you’ve never yet been to. Don’t get too comfortable- Casablancas is sure to wake you up with a moan soon enough. Let’s hope there’s a stack of tracks more worthy of our time when Tyranny hits the shelves Sept. 23.

TRACK REVIEW: G “Outer Space” (feat. Genevieve)

Hearing Genevieve Schatz’s voice in an actual song again has brought me nothing but pure joy. Since the disbandment of Company of Thieves, I have had to live off of the series of Instagram videos from the artist now known as Genevieve to get my fix of the vocal wonder. But, alas, Genevieve has been featured on one of Jimmy Giannopolous’ tracks from his newest endeavor called “G”. Giannopolous, a member of the band Reputante and producer of Lolawolf and M O T H E R’s most recent albums, embarks on this musical experiment with the lead single featuring Ms. Schatz; the result is an ethereal jam appropriately titled “Outer Space.”

The track opens with a loop of Genevieve’s falsetto laced with warm keyboard tremblings. The sonic bubble created by her vocals layered with tranquilizing piano reverb in the background soon gets punctured with calculated and constant pin pricks of static-y percussion, releasing the sound into an atmospheric ocean that expands to feel like floating in the cosmos. By the end of the first chorus, there are rumblings of unexpected, ebullient sax, but even when the brass takes over the track, it doesn’t cross into cheesy territory. Genevieve’s raspy coo keeps it all from feeling tawdry.

In just over three minutes, this song manages to transcend time and space, which I would attribute predominantly to Genevieve Schatz’s otherworldly vocals. Airy and emotive, there isn’t much she can’t get across. With a lead single like “Outer Space,” G is destined to be an existential musical quest. And hopefully, this is Genevieve’s step back into the spotlight. “Outer Space” is the first release from a full EP recorded with help from engineer/saxophonist Tim Sandusky and Darren Will on bass, which will see release soon on Innit Records.

Check out the new track below:

TRACK REVIEW: Itasca “After Dawn”

As curator of his New Images record label, Matt Mondanile (a.k.a. Ducktails) has quietly assembled and eclectic roster that includes the blistering psych of Spectre Folk, the bright atmospheric drone of Helm, the wonky synth and gamelan collage of Tsembla, and classic Big Star-esque indie of The Shilohs. With the release of Itasca’s Unmoored By the Wind, Mondanile adds the smoky nostalgia of folk singer-songwriter Kayla Cohen to his cohort. Ahead of the record’s October 14th release, Cohen shares newest single “After Dawn,” a soulful acoustic piece tinged with the first blue hues of the sun coming up after a long, hard, night.

Prior to signing with New Images, Cohen released a slew of small-press CD-rs and cassettes as well 2012 LP Grace Riders on the Road. Fans of folk greats like Sibylle Baier and Linda Perhacs will find a lot to love in Cohen’s contemplative tunes; in “After Dawn” she takes the simple act of sitting at the window and turns it into a refined art. “Say my prayer for the day” she hums in a detached, low register, “and the light streams through the window / hours slipping through my fingers / and it’s just like i thought / you wait for a time then you forgot / how to spend each day / trying all the same.” The verse is followed by soporific guitar picking in which she seems to get lost, and a brief, light-as-air flute solo flickers through her strumming like some wandering notions through her consciousness. She’s so meditative that she’s lost, and so lost she’s ambivalent, but rather than a careless shrug, Cohen has chosen to embrace and commemorate that floating feeling. It’s impossible to not want to float along beside her.

When the vocals come back, time has passed; Cohen sings: “After dusk, sit by the window / look out at the people walking by / all my thoughts in the air around / can so easily fall away,” and it’s easy to wonder what cerebral journey she’s been on. For all her reverie, she keeps the thoughts that trouble her to herself, stating cryptically only that they’re lost beyond the pane of glass, shifting transparently like a reflection there. Her lyrics are sparse enough to want more of them, to want to wander in that same trance forever. Unmoored By the Wind promises to offer the perfect soundtrack to a daydream, which makes Itasca daydreaming’s newest muse.

Pre-order the LP from New Images here, and take a listen to “After Dawn” below.

ALBUM REVIEW: Justin Townes Earle “Single Mothers”

The delightfully bespectacled Justin Townes Earle dependably releases a record every year or so, and has done so since 2007. He can be counted on for more than just punctuality, too. Not one of Earle’s records is a dud: at worst, he’s palatable and bland, and at his best, he expertly shines a light into fresh quadrants of the well-traversed territory of outlaw Americana. He comes honestly by his “darlin'”s and “mama”s–the son of Texas songwriter Steve Earle, who gave him his middle name in honor his godfather Townes van Zandt, JTE is the heir apparent of modern country, and despite what’s perhaps an understandable reluctance to fully embrace the Nashville lifestyle, the stuff seeps out of his pores. Every song is a story, piled high with neatly turned guitar work and vocals that can be mournful or flirtatious, contemplative or charming.

Often, in his songwriting, Earle plays the suave but troubled rambler. First there was “Ain’t Glad I’m Leaving,” off his full-length debut The Good Life, wherein he balks at romantic commitment and assures a protesting lover that she’s better off without him. Then came Midnight at the Movies, which included the similarly self-depracatory but audibly grief-stricken “Someday I’ll Be Forgiven For This.” As is often the case, true stories are behind the good lyrics. The years since he released his first EP Yuma haven’t been entirely smooth for Earle, who struggled with drug abuse and an arrest that led him into rehab in 2010.

He’s been sober for a couple of albums now, but his music still dips into the lonely, complicated character that defined the folk singer’s early work. The somber sections of Single Mothers, though, crystallize around the simple and deep-rooted sadness of an abandoned child–as opposed to the empty braggadocio of a loner who just can’t be tamed, not even by the love of a good woman. Maybe this interpretation reads into the title a little too much. The son of an absent famous father, Earle grew up with a single mother of his own.

But the title track–its steady beat and simple, symmetrical lyrical structure–sets the tone for the rest of Single Mothers in terms of gravity and mutedness. Reduced to its essential components, Earle’s songwriting doesn’t always grab your attention the way that his younger, more caddish self might. But there’s a payoff: you get to hear his voice at its most vulnerable.

Which isn’t to say that JTE has totally lost his swagger. “My Baby Drives” provides some rockabilly-ish, dance hall relief from the intimacy of “Single Mothers” and the forlorn next track, “Today and a Lonely Night.” “Wanna Be a Stranger” floats along with all the lightness and insta-nostalgia of small towns you drive through and don’t stop in. As a collection, though, Single Mothers tends towards interior songwriting that favors quiet payoffs over flashy country licks. In fact, it is as if Earle particularly avoided that kind of sexy troubledness that falls to those who walk out of their homes and go wandering, opting instead for the unshowy and exhausted hardship left for the single mothers who remain behind.

Single Mothers dropped September 9th on Vagrant Records, and you can order the album here. Check out the music video for “Time Shows Fools,” off Single Mothers, below!

ALBUM REVIEW: ODESZA “In Return”

Since its inception in late 2012, the Seattle-based electronic duo ODESZA (Harrison Mills/Catacomb Kid and Clayton Knight/BeachesBeaches) has been both prolific and consistent. In particular, the pair made an unlikely fan out of this usually-EDM-ambivalent listener last November with the soulful and sparkly NO.SLEEP Mix.01, which oozed with personality and R&B inflected melodies. In the two years they’ve been together, Mills and Knight have also put out two full length albums, an EP, and a handful of remixes. They already have a cross-country tour under their belt, and played Sasquatch! Festival last Memorial Day weekend in the luminous company of acts such as Bon Iver and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. ODESZA’s strength has always been their ability to infuse their songs with soul; amidst the bevy of synths and over-saturated shimmering, the music never pales to clinical.

In Return, the duo’s release, demonstrates a broad range of emotion, from the elated and catchy opener “Always This Late”–which reminds me of pretty much all of NO.SLEEP Mix.01–to tracks like “White Lies,” which draws on syncopated beats and the sharp harmonies of guest vocalist Jenni Potts, to the impressionistic and heat-sleepy “Sun Models.”

I appreciate the variation, though my favorites from this collection still exemplify the sweet soulfulness that endeared me to ODESZA in the first place. The record is front-loaded, with its catchiest, and ultimately most memorable songs listed as tracks one, two, and three– “Always This Late,” “Say My Name,” and Bloom.” However, on the group’s previous releases, there was a case to be made that their albums got boring in the middle. Some of In Return‘s back-half tracks, like “Koto,” show off new textures that liven up the repertoire and keep the music interesting, if sort of identity-less.

Having mastered lovable vocal riffs and bubbly musical landscapes, ODESZA turns, on In Return, to experimental new depths. The result drops September 9th on Counter Records, and you can go here to order the gorgeous vinyl pressing, or stream via SoundCloud below:

INTERVIEW: Emily Reo talks Olive Juice, DIY Touring, & Basilica SoundScape

Emily Reo‘s swirling brand of bedroom pop is the kind that makes you feel like you are sinking and floating all at once. Recording almost every sound herself, from watery beats to hazy synths to manipulated vocal loops, Reo has produced two albums in the last five years: 2009’s Minha Gatinha and last year’s Olive Juice. The first, for all its lo-fi dreaminess, had a certain sense of mystery that made it irresistible, particularly in a moment where home recording was having a hey day. Looking back, the record feels more like a raw collection of experiments than the fully-realized aesthetic Reo achieved with Olive Juice, which saw the artist revamp some of that early material while adding a batch of exciting new tracks and a stirring cover of Built to Spill’s “Car.”

To compare the songs side-by-side is to see how much Reo has grown in five years, and is an indicator of how far she can and will go as she continues to tour, produce tracks, and write new material. It’s with this in mind that the curators of BasilicaSoundScape, now in its third year, included Reo in this year’s lineup alongside acts like Julia Holter, Tim Hecker, Swans, White Lung, and Deafheaven. Taking place two hours north of NYC at Basilica Hudson in a reclaimed 19th-century factory, the festival features readings, art installations, and a host of sister events and afterparties that, when taken together, fly in the face of the huge, corporate-sponsored festivals that have cropped up all over the US these past few summers. AudioFemme will be on-hand for the event next weekend (September 12-14th), and though weekend passes are sold out, single day tickets are still available. We chatted with Reo about her involvement with the festival, her DIY approach to touring and making music, and the frustrations she faces as a woman in the industry.

AudioFemme: I’ve been a fan since Minha Gatinha. What propelled your decision to re-work some of those songs for Olive Juice?

Emily Reo: That rules, thanks for listening to the early stuff! Over the course of developing some of the songs from Minha Gatinha for my live set I started to prefer the newer versions, and really wanted to share what they had grown into. Minha Gatinha to me feels more like a collection of rough demos than a proper release and I wanted to give some of those songs a better chance.

<a href="http://emilyreo.bandcamp.com/album/olive-juice">olive juice by Emily Reo</a>

AF: How did your ideas about production and your recording process change between the two projects?

ER: Between Minha Gatinha (2009) and Olive Juice (2013) I spent the better part of four years teaching myself more about recording and production while also honing in on a more specific sound that I identified with. Where Minha Gatinha was the process of figuring out how to write songs, Olive Juice was the process of taking songs and turning them into a cohesive package with an intentional aesthetic. More specifically, I started using more advanced recording programs, learned the basics of mixing and EQ-ing, and realized my personal limitations and the benefits of working in a studio with other people.

AF: Now you’re branching into producing other artists’ songs, like Yohuna’s excellent “Para True”. How did that collaboration come about, and is that a role you’d like to take on more in the future?

ER: After I finished recording Olive Juice, I started using midi to create sketches for future songs. In the process, I got really interested in making beats and learned more about production. When my good friend Johanne (Yohuna) asked me last year if I would add a beat to her song “Badges” I was so excited. Next I added a beat for “Para True” as well as mixing the track, which was a first for me and a great learning experience. I definitely see us working together more in the future, it’s something we’ve talked about for a really long time and we’ve sent things back and forth to each other for a few years now without much follow through. Her songs are indescribably gorgeous and it’s so rewarding to contribute something that can take them to the next level.

In general, production is something I would love to get better with and continue working on. Besides being a great skill to have for personal use, music production is generally a male dominated field which frustrates me a lot and just makes me want to learn how to do it myself even more. I know of so many incredible female producers that should be getting a lot more attention than they are, and I hope one day all pop songs aren’t still made by the same ~10 men. It would be really cool to have the skill and know-how to produce hits somewhere far very down the line if I don’t feel like DIY touring when I’m 50!

AF: So you’ve spent the last few years moving around a bunch, from Florida to NYC to Boston to Los Angeles. Has that affected your songwriting process? Do you feel at home in L.A. or are you contemplating another relocation?

ER: I actually just moved back to NYC in July. I loved my time in Los Angeles but haven’t been inspired to stay in one place for very long. And as much as I’d love to feel settled and stable, the process of moving around feels pretty liberating. For the past two years or so I’ve been living in short sublets, which allows me to experience a lot of different living situations between tours.

As far as moving affecting my songwriting process, it can be hard to get into a groove and really concentrate while I’m re-settling into each new place, but it keeps me from falling too deep into a routine. As long as I have somewhere comfortable to sleep and concentrate I can get things done. Until I find a place that really feels like home I’m enjoying spending time and working on projects with friends in different places, and might move again in the spring depending on how things are going.

AF: As much as you’ve remained nomadic, you’ve put down roots in that you’ve affiliated yourself with collectives like FMLY – how did your connection to FMLY come about? How does your affiliation with them help you further your goals as a musician?

ER: Honestly, FMLY is something that introduced me to a lot of guiding principles that I take with me everywhere I go, but it’s not something that I currently feel rooted with. The nature of a large and amorphous community/collective is that it’s ever changing, and because of this it isn’t always something that everyone will align with all the time. At one point it was exactly what I needed – I had just finished college and moved to NYC, and it introduced me to communal values and some really incredible people. But now my interests fall with taking a lot of the things I learned through my experiences with FMLY in a different direction than some other folks aligned with the collective might be interested in. Which is totally fine and great and the point of something like this – it should inspire creative and independent thought, not conformity. Sorry if this is vague or not the answer you were looking for, but I’m asked about FMLY a lot and although I’m super appreciative to have met many great people and been introduced to tons of rad communities through these ties, it’s just not something that has a direct daily impact on me or my music at this point in time.

AF: You just finished a bunch of dates with Cuddle Formation, playing mainly house shows, arts collectives, and other progressive spaces, called Utourpia. Can you talk a little about what organizing that tour was like?

ER: I love to travel and try to go on a long tour at least once a year, and since my partner Noah (Cuddle Formation) and I were planning on moving back to New York for a little while we figured the best way to drive across the country is on a tour. Tours give us the opportunity to visit as many places and friends as possible, while playing fun shows and making some gas money to keep us going. We basically made a list of all of the places we wanted to go, reached out to friends (or friends of friends) who live nearby and managed to book all of our shows. We’re really lucky to know such an incredible network of musicians across America who could help and/or point us in the right direction.

We were actually really surprised and honored that folks took interest in our method of “DIY touring,” which to us as musicians sans booking agents is just the only way we know how to tour and visit friends. The Fader even published a piece about Utourpia, DIY touring and communities in their print issue that just came out which was not something we would have expected going into this humble process!

AF: What were some of your favorite moments from the tour?

ER: Some highlights of the tour were in Vancouver at a space called Fingers Crossed, and a house show in Eau Claire, WI. We’ve always had incredible experiences in Canada between our first show in Montreal (in 2013) and Vancouver this year on Utourpia, and unlike shows we would play in New York or Los Angeles where a handful of people would come out and seem mildly interested these communities in Canada are incredibly supportive and enthused. Fingers Crossed is a gorgeous art space with every wall covered in murals and a bunch of risers built together by the collective. The environment was beautiful, the people that came out to the show were so fucking nice and the entire night was responsibly planned and purposeful. In Eau Claire we had the perfect house show situation, so many friends of the folks that lived at the house as well as parents came out (all-ages at it’s finest). I love when everyone can feel comfortable walking into a room whether they’re watching their friends or their kids play. That’s what it’s all about. The show was over right by 11 because it’s important to show your neighbors that you respect them and appreciate their willingness to have 5 loud bands play next to their windows, haha. And I honestly think Sayth (our friend Eric who also ran sound all night) played my favorite set I’ve seen so far on tour. There was a ton of talent as well as collaboration to make the show happen. I also really appreciated a space we played in Eugene, OR called The Boreal, which kept their safer space show policy on the front door. It’s important for both show-goers and artists to feel comfortable to create the best possible environment for a show.

AF: So what are your feelings, then, going into playing something like Basilica SoundScape? Because it’s oriented around the idea of an arts collective, it’s similar in some ways, but the scale is much different.

ER: I’ve admired Basilica SoundScape ever since it began and I feel so incredibly honored to have been invited to be a part of this. It’s definitely the largest scale festival I’ve been asked to play, and unlike festivals with corporate sponsorships or questionable intentions I don’t feel like I have to compromise anything. I’m also a huge fan of so many of the artists playing, it’s curated beautifully and everyone putting this together has been an absolute dream to work with. I realize that compared to everyone else on the schedule I’m like a kid walking into the first day of kindergarten, but the Basilica crew has treated me with so much respect and kindness I feel completely welcomed entering this prolific community.

AF: On Twitter, you voice a lot of frustrations with regards to sexism in the music industry. What do you feel are some of the biggest hurdles facing female musicians, and what can we all do, regardless of gender, to alleviate some of that tension?

ER: I wish I had a magical solution, but it’s a huge struggle not only for women but queer, POC and other artists of marginalized groups to get half as far doing double the work, and it doesn’t help that we’re constantly being treated in ways that make us feel completely deflated. I voice my frustrations (which are usually induced by sexist statements or actions I encounter both at shows and on the internet in regards to my music) in an attempt raise awareness of the very real experiences we have, and hope by doing so maybe someone out there will think before saying something offensive, or at least not deny that these oppressive acts take place with alarming frequency. I’m not trying to be the PC police, but the only thing I can suggest is for everyone to be extremely conscious of what you say and how you act towards the people around you.

AF: What’s your next undertaking? Can we expect another album soon-ish? More touring?

ER: I’m currently on tour with my good friend Warren playing in his band Foxes in Fiction, opening for Owen Pallett. With some other tour plans in the works. I also have some solo tour plans that I’m working on for early 2015 and am planning on spending the majority of winter writing and recording my next album. I have a smaller release that should be out before January as well, with more details to come next month!

Foxes In Fiction Tour Dates w/ Owen Pallett

09-08 Seattle, WA – Neumos
09-09 Vancouver, British Columbia – The Imperial Theatre
09-10 Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
09-12 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
09-13 Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theatre
09-14 San Diego, CA – Casbah
09-15 Phoenix, AZ – The Crescent Ballroom
09-18 Austin, TX – The Mohawk
09-19 Dallas, TX – The Loft[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Should We Take Ariel Pink Seriously?

Taking a page out of the Sky Ferreira handbook on how to generate buzz, Ariel Pink’s latest press photos feature the Los-Angeles based purveyor of bizarro bedroom recordings lounging on some grass in a flowing white onesie. One hand softly touches his chest in a coy “Who, me?” sort of gesture, the gauzy folds of his Oregon Trail loungewear revealing… why, yes, that’s his nipple.

Now, part of Pink’s charm has always been subverting ideas of normalcy; that’s been the one tenet he’s stuck to since his early forays into the kitschy lo-fi that populated The Doldrums, House Arrest, and Worn Copy (and would later get him noticed by Animal Collective, who signed him to their label Paw Tracks and invited him to tour with them). And I’m a firm believer that anyone may show their nipples at any time they would like – particularly breast-feeding mothers – though I get the feeling that this isn’t exactly a #FreeTheNipple protest piece so much as a cheap sort of laugh for someone whose attitude can be seen as increasingly juvenile.

With the release of 2010’s Before Today and its lead single “Round and Round,” it seemed like Ariel Pink was about to grow up a little, and a lot of people took notice. He appeared on magazine covers too numerous to name. Pitchfork recently named “Round and Round” the second best track best of the decade so far (albeit a somewhat arbitrary distinction considering we’re only three and half years in), second only to Grimes’ “Oblivion.” And after the release of Mature Themes in 2012, Simon Reynolds of The Guardian called him “one of decade’s most influential indie musicians.” That record, though, was a bit ironically named, considering it saw Pink return to his typically terse, goofy lyrics and squirm-worthy vocal percussion techniques on tracks like “Schnitzel Boogie” and “Pink Slime.” At the same time, though, there were gems like “Only In My Dreams” and the dazzling cover of Donnie & Joe Emerson’s “Baby,” which featured Dam Funk.

On November 18th, Pink plans to release a seventeen-track double LP entitled pom pom (you can pre-order it today). The first single, “Put Your Number in My Phone,” straddles that line between earnest and outré as well as any quintessential Pink track will; over softly strummed guitar, his wistfully reverbed vocals implore potential partners to provide him with the digits necessary to make his dreams come true. He wants “time alone,” he wants to “get to know you more,” he wants you to, uhhh, tame his gypsy heart and call him a butterfly. He includes a voicemail from “Jessica” who met him at a taco truck in Silver Lake, according to her message. He hasn’t called her back, and she’s just wondering, you know, when that might happen. Apparently she is unaware he’s been busy penning songs about Jell-O, nude beaches, and something called “Carebear Dinosaurs.”

There’s no way to know, of course, if the message is real. But it does seem Pink’s having some trouble in the dating department, which could account for the OKCupid-profile-esque nature of “Put Your Number In My Phone.” Not long ago, he tweeted that he’d been maced, and in Alexi Wasser’s brilliant series Alexi In Bed, she asked him more specifically what had happened. While Wasser provides some much-needed eye-rolling, Pink goes on to describe being maced by a “feminist” who had “daddy issues” after he listened to her problems all night but refused to buy her a smoothie in the morning. Apparently the woman, whom he dated primarily because she had no idea who Pink was, also damaged his car. He also refers to himself as a genius in the clip.

So while the nip slip in his promo photos might be a goofy little joke from someone clearly unafraid to look like a buffoon, Wasser’s interview shows someone who actually is just kind of out of touch with reality, and might not even know how off the mark he is – a sort of self-absorbed blockhead who can’t really relate to people around him. The boundaries he pushes musically still feel revolutionary, but when it comes to interacting with other human beings, boundaries are there for a reason. It’s fine to make art that is strange, must be pondered, even makes people uncomfortable, but it feels inauthentic when there’s no reason behind it, when it’s just a kid doing it for shits and giggles. And Pink isn’t a kid anymore. He’s very much an adult, though it often feels like he’s clinging to some mischievous adolescent tendencies he’d be better off to leave behind.

http://youtu.be/aVngq_QDhRo

Somehow, there’s always potential for Pink to wow no matter how many missteps he makes. His artistic quirks can be brilliant, and he fearlessly takes them all to their limits. Also, it should be noted that Pink has enlisted a few collaborators for the record, like Kim Fowley, who co-wrote songs with Pink while battling cancer. One thing Pink’s always seemed to sense is his place in the oddball cannon, repping artists like R. Stevie Moore and transforming John Maus from philosopher and classical pianist to avant-garde synthpop wunderkind. Pink says this is the “least solo” record he’s ever recorded, so here’s hoping there were folks around to temper his eccentricities – not so much that they aren’t present on record, but hopefully enough so that listeners don’t have to enjoy it with any caveats or postscripts.

TRACK OF THE WEEK: Flying Lotus ft. Kendrick Lamar “Never Catch Me”

A reanimated corpse that sinuously dances its way through a Los Angeles community after nightfall. A photo of billowing fabric that swirls through the air like a fluid twist of paint in water. The images that are often associated with producer Steve Ellison’s (a. k. a. Flying Lotus) work, such as the short film Until the Quiet Comes and the cover art for his 2012 album of the same name, are almost always surreal and jarring, not unlike his Ellison’s music itself.

The latest digital release from You’re Dead!, an album that Flying Lotus called a meditation on mortality, is no different. “Never Catch Me” is a record that plays with the tension between the jarring and the surreal by underscoring guest star Kendrick Lamar’s rapid fire delivery with faltering jazz piano notes, a chorus of gauzy voices and the steady strumming of a bass guitar. And although Lamar is extemporizing about life after death, the record leaves you feeling you very much alive, like you walked in on a spontaneous jam session at the moment when the MC and the musicians have worked their way into something great. All of this plays out as listeners stare at the static image of a man’s head with a gaping, glowing hole where his face should be. He holds his hands up while the neon-bright outline of a lotus flower surrounds him like a halo.

The first two minutes of “Never Catch Me” are punctuated by Kendrick’s voice, followed by a memorable guitar riff. The song crests and breaks into a bare bones beat that, bereft of Kendrick’s rasp, is supplemented with ephemeral voices that hover over the production. The result is a record that is as spontaneous as it is mellow and as head-bopping as it is meditative.

TRACK PREMIERE: Sariah “Aware, Alive, Awake”

It’s been ten years since heartsick, fed-up girls across the world began belting the lyrics to Kelly Clarkson’s iconic post-break-up anthem “Since U Been Gone,” and in the ensuing decade, pop music and female empowerment have become a rather hot topic. From Nicki Minaj to Katy Perry to Rihanna to Beyoncé to Taylor Swift to Miley Cyrus, media outlets have loved to play the are-they-or-aren’t-they game with pop starlets and feminism. Most times, when the diva-of-the-moment comes up against the point-blank “Are you a feminist?” question, she fumbles – either with a misinformed take on politics or semantics, or with caveats like “I am, BUT…” that incite a whole host of think-pieces. But what that approach often misses is an analysis of what these ladies’ audiences (presumably youngish girls) are consuming, and how they might take these messages to heart. Because in the end, it’s not up to pop starlets to have a position on politics, per se – really, they’re just making music. We can, however, look to that music and evaluate what it communicates about feminism or empowerment, and today, there’s another one to add to the canon: the newest single from Sariah, “Aware, Alive, Awake,” which AudioFemme is happy to premiere.

The Massachusetts-born pop singer has been dropping club bangers since “Deep N Luv” began racing up the Billboard charts last year. She followed that with “All About Sex;” both showcase a young woman self-assured in her sexuality and in control of even the most casual encounters, embracing her sexual freedom. Sariah’s “unashamed to be untamed” motto and powerful confidence is refreshing – she meets the male gaze head on, demanding her own satisfaction first and foremost. Now living in NYC, she’s dubbed herself the “Queen of Hearts” and says “I want to be the fire of nightlife, and I want my music to be its anthem.”

While “Aware, Alive, Awake” is every bit as empowered (and catchy!) as her previous tunes, it’s miles more introspective. Tackling the complicated feelings that come after the body rush of both random hook-ups and long-term trainwreck relationships, Sariah sings “I am bruised and broken, breathless / Nothing that was spoken saves this,” but her voice doesn’t crack once. Instead, she bursts into the track’s triumphant chorus: “I am gonna go my way without you / I won’t stay around you / It’s my turn now and I’m starting my escape / Aware, alive, awake.” Though her previous songs were all about being the party girl, “Aware, Alive, Awake” is a powerful reminder that self-care is essential to maintaining desire and healthy sexuality, that without being able to identify and explicitly state one’s needs to a potential partner we risk losing ourselves. Not content to wander dazed through an unhealthy relationship, she doesn’t stop at the assertion that she’s had enough. She goes on to make a point of telling her partner that she’s leaving and that she can and will do better, buoyed by the three essential A-words in the song’s title.

Though lyrically the song goes deeper than Sariah’s previous output, it’s not somber by any means. The uplifting message is made that much more celebratory by an infectious guitar riff and chorus of crescendoing “Oh oh ohs” that explode behind Sariah’s assertions. It channels Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” vibes in the best ways, and it’s easy to picture clubs full of girls shouting out the words in front of a DJ booth in support of that friend who just got dumped and is now drying her eyes and waking up, too. “This past year has been the most inspirational year of growth and realization,” says Sariah. “‘Aware, Alive, Awake’ speaks to this journey, through the ups and downs, and I see this as my right of passage into the Queen I have become.”

ALBUM REVIEW: Duologue “Never Get Lost”

The many worlds traversed in Duologue’s newest album, Never Get Lost, must be revisited time and time again in order for each crevice of its ethereal soundscape to fully reveal itself to the listener. The emotional experience of this London five-some’s latest work, however, is best summed up by the cover art – a soul continually falling through mist towards a dark forest bathed in unexplainable light. Like a dream remembered in vivid detail, Never Get Lost runs through the mind with a fervid passion for the story it has to tell.

The story is, according to its own creators, that of people isolated in a digital age, and the metamorphosis that their existence and relationships must undergo to adapt to this harsh new reality. Despite this inner dialogue on melancholy and seclusion, the album is no foray into despair. From the onset, Duologue insert their intention to make a statement about this oddly plastic reality we live in. They start with “Memex” (or memory index), a hypothetical technology proposed in the forties to store information and supplement the mind. From those first resounding notes of Never Get Lost, the listener is drawn deep into the swirling undertow of a pensive pulse, the gateway to Duologue’s mysterious land stalked by the beasts of both darkness and light.

Among the most achingly plaintive tracks is lead single “Forests,” a venture into the most mystical corners of the imagination, sparkling with plucked strings and enduringly wistful vocals from frontman Tim Digby-Bell. Each layer of the composition pierces the next with strangeness and mystery; meanwhile, its lyrics mirror the urgency of the beat that anchors the track: “Say the things you need to say / Let me down the easy way.”

“Drag And Drop” is sure to leave an imprint, albeit in an altogether different way, yet complimentary to the album’s scope and the band’s remarkable versatility nonetheless. Imbued with sexy electric rhythms and an intensely addictive refrain that coos and cracks, lamenting in sardonic simplicity “You’re stuck inside my heart,” the track makes good use of Digby-Bell’s richly elastic falsetto. It’s representative of the ways in which the group has grown – for this, their second studio album, they’ve carved away at their eclectic sound to craft a masterful style that melds booming electronic beats with eerily captivating melodies that drift from plaintive vocals.

Never Get Lost is an ironic title for this 45-minute journey steeped in myth and introspection. Above all else, you become exactly that – lost – deep in the folds of cascading melodies and electronic beats. But when you eventually come up for air, breaking the surface to bob a moment before the blue-grey sky, you long to submerge again into that deeply haunting space, finding yourself looking through wider eyes with a pulse calmed by the rocking motion of the waters below. When the pause finally ends and you are ready to move forward, you step off of that visceral cloud and firmly onto the ground, your insides expanded and your consciousness greater than before.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK: Chastity Belt “Black Sail”

“Black Sail” is not the typical fare for the ballsy, brazen females of Walla Walla, Washington’s indie rock group Chastity Belt. Nevertheless, their irreverent 2013 debut No Regerts from Help Yourself Records kicks off with the sonorous, uptempo track, highlighting Julia Shapiro’s powerful, pining tone before diving into the cohort’s staple off-kilter gems like “Nip Slip” and “Pussy Weed Beer”, which showcase their more widely known talent for wry, foulmouthed humor.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the smuttiness – bring it on. Some days you just need a good ole sing-along to “Chips and dip, nip slip!” but “Black Sail” happens to be just as delightful a surprise. A driving beat and inviting chord progression carry on through to the end, and catchy riffs scattered throughout blend seamlessly with the round, entrancing vocals. Now, the track can be savored via its new video accompaniment, although, I recommend you don’t savor your dinner at the same time.

Director Maegan Houang paired the uneasy ache of “Black Sail” perfectly with a tale of weather-beaten Oregon Trail pioneers turned gruesome, Zombie-laden slaughter fest. The surprisingly low-budget, non-union shoot in Morongo Valley, CA yielded a finished product of stunning panoramas, poignant performances, and remarkably believable gory effects. Its final moments – when the last survivor must resign herself to an unbearable fate – will never leave your memory.

INTERVIEW: WIFE

James Kelly, former frontman of Irish black metal trio, Alter Of Plagues, hasn’t been sitting idly since the group’s disbandment in 2013. In fact, he’s been holed up in London working on a debut solo album, which he released earlier this summer under the moniker WIFE. What’s In Between is lush, multidimensional and stylistically cohesive, despite that it’s Kelly’s debut foray into various genres the album encompasses. Each song tells its own story sonically and narratively, moving from light to dark, from bass-heavy to melodically ethereal and vocal-driven. We wanted to hear the stories behind these beautiful tracks, so we sat down for a chat with Kelly about what compelled his departure from Metal, and what the future holds for him.

AF: Hi! Thanks so much for talking to us. We’re huge fans of your work, and we’re super excited about the new album. Can you tell us a little bit about what prompted your transition from Alter Of Plagues to WIFE?

James: Hello! Yes, definitely. I think one of the main reasons has to do with the fact that I moved from a very rural area where I could make loud noises as late into the night as I wanted, to London, where all of a sudden you have to be a bit more considerate of your volume because you’re living on top of other people. And that’s when I started making music with headphones on a computer. As far as writing stuff that was more electronic or pop leaning I think it’s always been stuff that I’ve really loved and had a passion for, but, the band kind of accidentally wound up taking up a lot more of my time then I had ever planned for. Not that I ever regretted it, but after a couple of years I decided it was time to take stock and see where I was, regarding what kind of music I was putting out. I decided it was just time to consciously change things up, and not get stuck doing one thing. And that’s how it initially came about. I mean in terms of how the two feed into each other, I’ve always found that the music I like is often tonally similar, so I’m never too worried about what genre something is or whether something’s… a happy song or sad song. Rather things always kind of have a certain tone and sound that’s consistent throughout. And I think I took over some of the tones and textures of the stuff that I would have used with Alter of Plagues while I was writing What’s In Between.

AF: Yeah, you can definitely hear some of the influences from Alter of Plagues in your new work, but it’s different in some obvious, and indelible ways. Can you tell me a little bit about your musical background growing up in Ireland, and what kind of music you listened to as a kid, as well as what you sort of gravitated toward as you started playing yourself?

James: Yeah I mean when you grow up… I grew up in the countryside in Ireland, when you grow up there, you either join a sports team or you don’t. And I didn’t. So that means you’ve got to find alternative ways of entertaining yourself, so I just got in to music from a pretty young age. When I was pretty young I remember I had older cousins who were into the grunge thing, so I was used to hearing them play Nirvana tapes and stuff like that, which really excited me. And I used to get copies of their Pearl Jam tapes, etc. I had another friend whose older brothers were really caught up in the rave thing, and I remember hearing The Prodigy’s, Music for the Generation, and really loving it. It kind of demonstrates how polar my tastes were as a kid. At one end there was The Prodigy and at the other end there was Metallica and Nirvana. I think I just kept developing that throughout my life. Growing up I would always save up for the summer, with whatever summer job I had, and then I’d buy a beat up guitar or a beat up drum kit and I’d learn how to play them on my own. And because there was no one around to start a band with, I just got in to the habit of being the entire band myself. I’d record the drums and play them off a tape player and play along with my voice and my guitar…Then I guess when I got a bit older (when I was allowed to go to the city) is when I met other guys who liked Marilyn Manson, and being 15 and smoking cigarettes.

AF: Haha, you caught the rebellion bug, yeah?

James: Exactly, and we started doing groups together and that’s when I got more into actually being in bands. So that’s where it all kind of started out. But like I said, it really stems from not being in to sports as a child. That’s what got me into doing music.

AF: Nice. I can definitely relate to the whole not doing sports thing. Anyway, in your bio it says that Alter of Plagues disbanded because it had perhaps reached it’s creative apex. Do you feel like, in pursuing this solo project you’re a bit less limited creatively? I mean, do you feel generally like there’s truth in the notion that once you’ve reached your creative limit with something, you should let it go? And do you feel like this is something that young musicians struggle with these days? Sorry to bombard!

James: Haha, no worries. yeah, so what happened with the band was really more a case of it getting to the point where I was trying to put material into it that was so alien to what Alter of Plague was that I realized it can’t be this group anymore, it has to be something new. And I’ve really come full circle… I used to be into throwing everything out and seeing what sticks in terms of different sounds and styles, but at this point I believe that clarity, and focus in the sense of what you want to achieve in a particular act is quite important (because otherwise you can spend a lot of time making a lot of work that’s quite polar and opposite and doesn’t have any sort of cohesiveness). So, what this allows me to do is a lot of things I couldn’t have done with Alter of Plagues. Just for one example, the song “Fruit Tree”, off the record, is the first time I’ve ever written a really extroverted, happy song.

AF: It’s an awesome song, too.

James: Thanks, Yea that’s the first time I have ever done that. And it was amazing to do that, but it was something Alter of Plagues did not have the capacity for, because it just was not that type of act.

AF: Right, emotionally it wasn’t that kind of music.

James: Yea, exactly. I mean, I think there is definitely a pressure on people because of the nature of music now and the speed at which it comes out, and the fact that when it does come out it’s just buried under new stuff within minutes. I think it’s more important to just focus on setting the mark really high with a small body of work than it is to consistently churn out stuff and have it be mediocre.

AF: Yea, absolutely. Your new album definitely achieves that; it’s the first thing you notice, especially with the fact that it melds together so many different genres, you don’t know if you are listening to pop music or electronic. But I just want to talk about what you are exploring thematically through the album, this idea of duality between light and dark. And obviously nominally it reflects that and all of the songs explore this idea. Was this planned or did it emerge when you were writing the songs?

James: Like you’ve said, to me What’s In Between is open to interpretation… because in many ways when I create work, the creation of the work is me figuring it out myself; sometimes I don’t even know what it means to me until it’s finished. I think the title relates to what is it that exists between two people emotionally and physically, as well as in a bigger sense, what is between the general nonsense and bullshit we stomach from the powers that be, whether they’re politicians; whether it’s Beyonce one day being an angelic figure, and the next day being this half naked woman who is destroying feminism in one fell swoop. It’s just a mix of all these kinds of things. In a lot of ways, if WIFE started because I moved to London, I also think that some of these kinds of sentiments emerged from living in a city like London. It’s a place that’s kind of rife with falseness and people presenting themselves as something they think you want to see, rather than who they are. So I think the title kind of relates to that.

AF: I think along those lines my favorite song on the album is “Tongue”. And you talk about this masquerade that people engage in order to disguise who they really are or appear as something that they are not. I was wondering if you feel like you yourself are… I mean I feel like we are all prone to slip in to that sometimes, and if you’ve struggled with it yourself as an artist, especially with the music industry being so rife with false pretenses and people wanting you to fit in to a certain box creatively. I was just wondering if or how you’ve struggled with that idea yourself? I mean I think that’s why the song resonated with me particularly.

James: I think a lot of it overall is my reaction to it. While creating the album, I slowly became a part of whatever scene it is that my contemporaries and me are part of, just by being signed to the label, triangle, and things. I’ve started just to notice all the people who walk around wearing Givenchy, yet they live in this beat up old apartment trying to present themselves as something they’re not, and almost afraid of presenting themselves as something that they are not. I think what I wanted to do overall was just to be brutally honest lyrically and be brutally honest in presenting myself. Also, I think people have this weird problem with men presenting themselves as vulnerable, or as open, or as emotional in any way. It’s like, Burial is like crybaby music and Drake gets ridiculed for being in any way sentimental. I think that’s a really negative thing and it’s very unhealthy. It’s really harmful towards men who are trying to express something that is very sincere. I think in a lot of ways the sentiment behind the record was my reaction, that I’m going to be 100% honest and I’m going to pour my heart on paper and I’m not going to be apologetic for it, and I’m not going to let myself be open to anyone trying to critique it, because it is like an affirmation for me to do that. It’s empowering.

AF: That’s amazing. It really shows in your work. I feel like when someone can get to that level of self-awareness, and to a point where they’re unmoored from the social conventions that might tell you to deny the energy to make something. It’s getting beyond this that you make the best art, and it really does show through the album.

James:Oh Absolutely. And another thing I did, we were just talking about the light and dark duality there. Another thing I deliberately did, was a very conscious decision to have some tracks that are almost jarring when paired against each other. Like the fourth track “Salvage” is this really aggressive heavy track that almost sounds like it doesn’t belong there, but that’s again my reaction to people like, if you listen to any Katy Perry record or Beyonce record or Brittany record, that record is like a connection of 14 songs that seem to be just checking boxes.

AF: Yea, exactly.

James:It’s like they’re covering their stylistic basis because that’s kind of what pop music is supposed to be, and in getting away from that, in a way, is something that I found very liberating.

AF: Yea totally. I mean I think in that it’s jarring it works thematically with what you’re trying to achieve throughout.

James: No exactly. I mean I’m asking people who listen to it, at the time just asking them a question, it’s like what are they hearing between all of those sounds? What is between all of those polar songs that are on the record?

AF: Yea it is really beautiful. What do you think is your most intimate song on the album?

James: I would say probably the closer. I can’t remember what it’s called again (laughs). I haven’t listened to it since I mastered it. I became so intimately acquainted to it I literally could not hear it for a while. Oh, “Further not better”, is the last track. I Think it’s pretty much because lyrically again going from a band where I screamed the words, to one where I’m quite audibly singing them, I mean there’s a sentiment in that kind of song that I think people… again, it’s just kind of a narrative thing. No one needs to take it too literally and worry that I am going to disappear based on the lyrics of the song, but at the end of the track for me I think its got a lot of heart in it, you know?

AF: Yeah… to the point where you almost couldn’t listen to it you said.

James: Yeah, like the whole record, we had a hard time listening to it for a while, because it’s just such a long, difficult process, by the end of it I needed a serious breather from it.

AF: I can imagine!

James: Because the reality of making a record is, for me, that every track begins as this really explosive thing where there’s this idea that comes out of me, and the first few days of creating it are really exciting and rewarding, and then you get to the point where you have to spend another eight weeks or eight months finishing something that you got the basis of down in like two or three days.

AF: Right, tinkering.

James: Yea it’s just the nature of it unfortunately. No different than making a film or something, where you have to go through the tedious details.

AF: Of course. Do you feel like you’re ready perform them live at all yet?

James: Yea I’m just kind of starting now, and because I had an EP out before this, and the EP was much more of a bedroom production, whereas this is definitely more vocal based I had to really kind of change things up, and right now I do it on my own. It was just kind of hard to figure out what was the best way of performing it, and what I’ve come to conclude is that I just want to keep it as raw as possible and really focus on just giving an intimate vocal performance more so than trying to perform every melody and you know keyboard, lighting and things like that. So I just started doing a few shows, and they’ve been really good so far. And it’s been cool to see people getting in to them, and I’m trying to get this balance between intimacy and rawness while also building it towards something that’s engaging light music.

AF: Right and kind of akin to what it sounds like on the album. No it’s always interesting to know with musicians how their relationship to the music changes when they perform it live. A lot of people have a completely different orientation toward these songs when they’re live versus when they’ve been working on them for a year or two years in a studio. It’s like a totally different kind of emotional relationship with the music.

James: Yea. Well what I like about these songs too as opposed to some of my older stuff is that the way the structures are built and the nature of them, I could literally perform them with just me, my voice, and a piano, or I can make it in to really big live band type thing. It can kind of go both ways, and that’s good because I want to be adaptable to different environments and things like that.

AF: Yea that’s cool. What was it like working with Haxan Cloak on the album?

James: Yea, definitely. I mean, Bobby is like a personal friend first and foremost. He kind of came on board later in the process, but I was just starting to get a little… starting to struggle to see the work through the trees. And I was getting so intimately involved with the work myself, it just helped to have someone who really… who already really was a strong producer. But as well as that we were on quite the same wavelength about things that we like tonally and in terms of production. So it just totally made sense to have him come on board. We worked together quite a lot in studios and things like that, and he was really good for anything, from making a kick drum sound bigger to helping me choose vocal tapes and pushing me harder to perform better. it was a great experience because like I said it got to the point where after working on the material on my own for so long it was great to have a fresh perspective on it, you know?

AF: Absolutely, no it’s always cool to be able to hear the influence of certain producers in the work. It’s kind of… people look that over a lot I think when they’re listening to something, but you can kind of hear his electronic mastermind in a lot of the songs.

James: Yea definitely.

AF: So what was the conceit behind the video?

James: Again, I think just trying to communicate some of the intimacy and vulnerability, and kind of strength and anger and those dualities that I try to communicate in the album. Because what you’re looking at in that video is an athletic human body that’s visually strong to look at, but it’s kind of contoured into all these vulnerable, weak positions and it’s being manipulated in the video where its lost control of itself.

AF: Mhm, yea.

James: I think that’s kind of the premise of it, and you know working with things like the masked figure, where you’re kind of representing lies and things like that. For that I worked with the artist we had before, his name is Ben Ashton. He is a UK artist who’s just won the national portrait prize, and his wife Fiona Garden, who is an amazing photographer and director. She worked with me on it too.

AF: Cool, yea it’s very aesthetically engaging and deep.

James: Yea again there’s a lot of symbology in it and there’s a lot of… in general I don’t like to be too explicit about some of the symbolisms in my work because I like people to… I like to keep it open to interpretation. I mean a lot of what’s going on in that video relates quite literally to what’s going on in the lyrics and the themes that go with the album, like lying for example.

AF: Yea, I mean there’s some direct symbolic correlation, but I think because it’s so visually rich it works, its not too… it doesn’t hit you over the head or anything.

So what’s your plan for the next year or so? Are you going to tour?

James:Yea so right now I’m building up touring and stuff. It’s looking like theres some trips to the US being scheduled. Some stuff in Europe is getting set up. And just yesterday I found out I’m going to be in Tokyo later in the year. I got invited to participate in the Red Bull Music Academy.

AF: Oh great, that’s awesome!

James: Yea, so I’m really excited about that. It’s going to be amazing. I’m going to get to work with some incredible people, and learn so much, and yeah we’re going to do some shows when I’m out there and stuff so yea that’s really exciting.

AF: that’s a really, really cool institution. They just did their whole festival in New York and I got to see some amazing stuff…

James:Yea I mean… when I read the email from them I was just really kind of shocked…

AF: Haha Really? That doesn’t shock me at all that they would pick you.

James: An enormous amount of people apply, ya know? Your odds are just… you might as well be buying a lottery ticket your odds are so slim, and somehow I convinced someone that I’ve got the skills to give it a go.

AF: Well you definitely do. So do you think you’ll remain… I mean you probably have no idea but do you think you will remain as a solo project in the next coming years after this album?

James: I want to collaborate with people… because I’m kind of wearing two hats, I’m a singer but I’m also a producer, so I love collaborating with people and just throwing all of my skills to that, and I’d love to have someone produce a vocal track for me to sing on and me not to have much of a hand in the production, vice versa I’d be interested in working with other singers. And in terms of the live show, as soon as I have it really, really strong on my own… because I think it’s important not to try to reinforce it with extra players when it’s me who needs to nail it first. And when I have it really strong on my own, that’s when I’m going to think about making it more of a live sound.

AF: Yea it’s always a process.

Well we’re super excited for whatever is to come from you, and I really hope that we get to see you soon in New York. I want to hear these songs live, I bet they’re beautiful. But I won’t waste any more of your time, in the mean time. Thank you so much for talking to us, and if you have any parting words of wisdom for, you know, up and coming electronic artists or singers please tell us!

James: Yea sure, I always believe to just focus on what you’re doing and try to shut out what everyone expects of you. Figure out what it is that you want to do and do it, for no one but yourself.

AF: Words that we all need to hear. (Laughs) Thank you so much for talking to us.

(Laughs) Yea, thanks for talking to me.

Hopefully we will see you in New York soon.

Thank you!

WIFE recently announced the launch of a World Wide tour starting next week. Catch him on one of his may dates below:

WIFE Tour Dates:

09-13-14 Leeds, UK – Belgrave Music Hall

09-16-14 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom

09-17-14 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall Of Williamsburg

09-19-14 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer

09-23-14 Los Angeles, CA – Los Globos

09-24-14 San Francisco, CA – Brick & Mortar Music Hall

09-26-14 Seattle, WA – Decibel Festival

10-03-14 Bologna, IT – Robot Festival

10-04-14 Brussels, BE – Ancienne Belgique

10-10-14 Dublin, IE – The Workmans Club

11-06-14 Tokyo, JP – Galaxy Gingakei

11-11-14 Tokyo, JP – Hall Shinseiki

11-19-14 Glasgow, UK – Nice N Sleazy

11-20-14 London, UK – Waiting Room

11-28-14 Moscow, RU – Dewars Powerhouse

11-29-14 St. Petersburg, RU – Da:Da

12-12-14 Kortrijk, BE – De Kreun

LIVE REVIEW: First City Music Festival, Monterey CA

The weekend of August 23 and 24th was a big weekend for music in California. LA’s FYF fest garnered most of the attention with its headliners The Strokes and Phoenix, along with other acts like HAIM and Built to Spill. In the eleventh year since its conception, the festival has grown to be one of the go-to fests of the summer and is obviously the most talked about. But Goldenvoice has another fest cooking up interest on the same weekend. First City Festival is the Northern California counterpart to FYF, featuring Beck and The National as its headliners in only its second year running. While First City doesn’t quite have the recognition of FYF just yet, it very much has some momentum after this year’s events.

First City Festival is held in the city of Monterey, for which it earns its namesake. Monterey, CA is unofficially the state’s first capital, boasting a lot of California’s “firsts,” such as the establishment of California’s first library, public school and printing press. From a musical standpoint, Monterey is somewhat of a musical mecca, having hosted the iconic Monterey Pop Festival of 1967, the first most widely attended rock festival of its kind and, arguably, the festival that ushered in the beginning of “the summer of love.” With 55,000 people in attendance, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Janis Joplin gave some of the most iconic performances of all time on the stage at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. Considering that it is being hosted at the very same fairgrounds as its memorable predecessor, First City Festival has a lot to prove.

First City planners face the task of defining First City’s sound, and many festivals, such as Coachella, are being criticized for lacking luster in the overall defining sound and feel of the festival. FYF very much has its feel for L.A. bands and markets itself on that very characteristic. So how did First City fare in that department? Most of the artists featured at First City were of the acoustic and indie rock vein, each with a unique sound. There were no hip hop or rap acts, and EDM was noticeably, and thankfully, absent. This eliminated a lot of that teenage partier crowd, therefore a lot of rowdiness. Between the vast marketplace of artisan goods, and the artists booked at First city, there definitely was a Monterey vibe floating around. It’s hard to describe what that means; as a California native I have vacationed in Monterey countless times and can tell you it’s not your average beach town. Its appeal comes, obviously, from its history (think John Steinbeck and Cannery Row) but also its eclecticism. It’s an artist town, with its fair share of hippies and hipsters. So yes, there was some patchouli lingering, but more importantly the vibe was definitely that of music connoisseurship. It wasn’t a party festival remotely; it was a festival for people that really enjoy experiencing live music and who appreciate true artistry.

The fairgrounds were quaint but beautiful, with three stages and, oddly, a carnival. At first I thought that this was an attempt on Goldenvoice’s behalf to ride the coattails of Coachella’s popularity (Coachella’s most prominent image is its ferris wheel). But then I realized it was more about practicality – the Monterey County Fair is right after First City (how convenient!). The atmosphere of First City was vastly different from my experiences at Coachella, and this has a lot to do with the lineup. I was open to seeing just about anyone. First on my list was Speedy Ortiz, a Massachusetts four-piece that sounds like it time warped directly from the underground indie music scene circa 1995. Their gritty guitar licks range from clear and concise picking, to fuzzed-out strumming. Paired with Sadie Dupuis’ sing-talky vocals, you’ve got a band with a refined, unrefined sound. Very grungy at times, the band experiments with moments of mellow, hypnotic, verses relying heavily on subtle background guitar feedback and lulling bass lines.

Survival Guide was next on my list. This was one of the few artists that I had listened to quite a bit beforehand, so I knew I was sure to enjoy. To my surprise, it’s actually a one-woman band. The lady behind the music, Emily Whitehurst, manned, or should I say woman-ed, a complex musical setup of a laptop, keyboards, looping machines, and strangely, a telephone. Her sound features a lot of instrumentation that I would never have guessed was created as a solo endeavor. That the music came mostly from machines rather than a full band didn’t detract from the performance in the slightest. Though she was confined to a small spot on the stage, she commanded the attention from the growing crowds of the day as she breezed through an upbeat set of electronic indie pop tunes.

By the time Miniature Tigers hit Cypress stage, the day was picking up and so were the crowds. Though their earlier releases had more acoustic guitar, the set was heavier on the dreamy synth pop of the material from their latest release, Cruel Runnings. The band’s energy was incredible and they garnered a rather large crowd, no doubt lured by their 80’s new wave appeal with a modern dance edge.

One of my favorite parts about First City is the minimal amount of overlap between bands early in the day. It makes for an easy way to discover all of the smaller artists that the event was featuring. By the time Miniature Tigers ended, we were able to head to the Manzanita stage to catch most of Doe Eye’s set. Doe Eye is a San Francisco based artist featuring sultry singer Maryam Qudus. This moody orchestral rock garnered a lot of attention considering CocoRosie was playing the main stage at the same time. The songs never really achieve a high energetic tempo, but tracks like “I Hate You” carry enough lyrical weight to make for an interesting performance underpinned with irony at times, due to Qudus’ saccharine-sweet singing.

Following up Doe Eye on the same stage was one of my favorite acts of the entire weekend, The Lonely Wild. They consider themselves “spaghetti western influenced americana,” and it must be said that there are elements of that description that are absolutely true of this LA group. Their sound explodes the idea of classical folk into climatic and often times cinematic sounds, which makes sense considering Andrew Carroll, the band’s brainchild, studied film before forming The Lonely Wild. “Everything You Need” was the song that hooked me immediately; it embodies the band’s overall sound, with dual male-female vocals, a constant foot pounding rhythm and a horn section that conjures up that desolate old west image. Not only were they a personal favorite of mine for the entire weekend, they’re the type of band that I feel exemplifies First City’s sound best.

After checking out the end of Tokyo Police Club’s set (never a disappointment there), I stuck around at the main Redwood Stage for Best Coast. Like a more well-kempt and much more jovial Courtney Love, Bethany Cosentino proved to be a strong female front with an air of nonchalance and bad-assery. Though Best Coast’s lo-fi sound from the “Boyfriend” era doesn’t do a thing for me, in a live setting I found myself enjoying all of it, and the newer material was great. It was the perfect afternoon set to kickstart the evening hours of the festival.

I couldn’t miss the opportunity to see Phantogram yet again, although it was at the expense of seeing Unknown Mortal Orchestra (the festival struggle is real). But, Phantogram never disappoints and I can’t urge people enough to see them live! Between Sarah Barthel’s general air of natural coolness and Josh “Motherfucking” Carter’s reverb-laden guitar licks, they blew the crowd away with their “fuckin’ beats” (Barthel’s words). With a performance only to be followed up by Beck, day one at First City was fulfilled.

Sunday was a bit more of a wild card for me, with little else besides Naked and The Famous really on my radar. The festival opened with a band called Midi Matilda and was such a good move on the part of the curators; their electro pop sound was not too sugary sweet and their instrumentation was impressive. Singer Skyler Kilborn is a solid front man, with his Misa Kitara style guitar (with a MIDI screen that echoes their name). But drummer Logan Grime is the powerhouse behind this duo. He reminded me of Dave Grohl on drums: precise, intense, and hard to take your eyes off of. “Day Dreams,” from their album Red Light District, was the powerful sing-along of the set, and concluded their performance on a strong note.

The Family Crest was another band to make my top shows of the weekend. With a core of seven band members – a cellist, a violinist, a tenor trombone player, a flutist, and a solid drummer – creating epic orchestral pop, I still find it hard to believe they all fit on the smallest stage at the fairgrounds. Frontman Liam McCormick has the vocal chops to carry them far in the industry, rivaling the ranges of Matthew Bellamy. They began their set with a song called “Beneath the Brine,” a ballsy opener that left jaws dropped and set the tone for the rest of the performance. Their musical grandeur is a sight to see, and their sound is really unlike anything that’s going on right now in music.

Next up was Future Islands, a band I’d regrettably turned down the opportunity to see at Coachella. Admittedly, that oversight was due to the fact that I’ve always been slightly confused by their sound. Their synth-heavy pop paired with Samuel Herring’s, erm, unclassifiable vocals were off-putting for me initially. But the beauty of live music, however, is that a performance can really change one’s perspective on a given band. What were unusual, inconsistent vocals on record, became booming and immense right before my eyes. He is a powerhouse of a vocalist, ranging from a deep rumbling voice, to flat out death metal growls. What I thought was the most strange music and vocal pairing became oh-so-right in every single possible way. He’s also an incredible and unexpected dancer. I never would have pegged this guy for theatrical but man, he was all over the place, kicking his feet into the air, Tarzan pounding his chest, and, gettin’ low. They made my top performance of the weekend hands-down to my complete surprise, mostly because I went from being uncertain about their sound to being smitten by it. Future Islands is a must see in any situation, ya hear?

Though Beck and The National obviously had the biggest sets, Naked and The Famous utilized theirs the best with what I think was the most exuberant stage production of the weekend. At the very same time slot as Phantogram the night before, Naked and The Famous ushered in the night with smoke machines and epilepsy-inducing light shows. Their unique electronic sound is only enhanced in the live performance of their songs, adding a profundity to tracks like “Rolling Waves” and “I Kill Giants.” In their last performance of the year, The New Zealand group put on an endearing show. Singer Alisa Xayalist was humbled by the dozens of birthday roses unexpectedly thrown on stage early in the set, and was almost brought to tears when the crowd later sang “Happy Birthday.”

The festival was quickly coming to a close, but there was one more act I really wanted to squeeze in before The National’s finale. Cults surprisingly drew in the largest crowd I had yet to see at the Cypress Stage, and deservedly so. Clad in a baby doll dress Madeline Follin was just adorable in her stage presence, but the band has just enough edge to make them an enjoyable listen.

So how did First City fest fare in the scope of California music festivals? Overall, I’d say it’s unique; it not only hearkens back to vaudeville days with its carnival appeal and old time-y ethos, but its purpose is to bring new music to the forefront. Sure, using Beck and The National was a way to draw in the crowds, but for the most part, there was never an empty pit at any performance, and the crowd was pretty solid throughout, which can only mean that people really were there to see all of the acts, not just the big ones. Critics complain that there wasn’t much to take in beyond the headliners and sub headliners, but I found myself enjoying every single act that I saw, even ones that I wouldn’t normally gravitate toward and ones that I hadn’t even listened to prior to First City. In its second year, I think First City has accomplished something special; it has established a niche of artists and festival-goers that will more than likely frequent the fest for years to come, a true feat given the proliferation of music festivals in general. It certainly has the momentum after this year to carry on and can hopefully serve as an alternative festival to the grit and grime of LA’s FYF.

FIRST GLANCE: Video Premier, Moxxi “From Here To Oblivion”

“From Here To Oblivion”, lead track off of the forthcoming EP due out 11/25 from MOXXI, is the perfect high energy pop jam to assist in our transition from those languid, lackadaisical final days of summer, straight into full gear for fall, ready to obliterate anything that stands in the way of forward momentum. Full of driving disco beats from start to finish and edgy minor synth melodies lines, the track harkens back to our very favorite 1990s electropop – palpable inducement to nostalgia over first heartbreaks, best friend drama and middle school basement dance parties. MOXXI’s voice -at times dark and sensual, and at others playful and impish- is undoubtedly what carries the track from one motif to the next, from dance-y to low tempo orchestral with tinges of introversion, and back again, and conveys perfectly the song’s underpinning concept: that of leaving someone who hurt you in the dustbins of history, of “burning the castle down” so to speak, and never looking back. Cheers, indeed, to oblivion.

The video, premiering today on Audiofemme, is a twisted adaptation of the beheading of Marie Antoinette, though one wouldn’t necessarily surmise this upon watching it for the first time. It begins with the songstress outdoors at night, covered in what could be described as primordial goo, with a masked, torch-bearing executioner standing behind her. Ominous in its conceit, we watch as layers of dirt and debris are lifted away, as she is consumed by ash, confetti and glitter. At the end a heavy curtain of smog hides her frame, only for her to emerge intact, not destroyed. We find out that our protagonist rose from the metaphorical ashes. That the assailant perhaps became the victim in the end.

Watch the video here, via Youtube, and decide for yourself.

Month: September 2014