2014 – Page 17 – Audiofemme

TRACK OF THE WEEK: Prinze George’s Victor

Prinze George is an exciting new electronic pop trio from right here in New York. Their latest single, “Victor,” is anchored by lush sounding beats and singer Naomi Almquist’s beguiling vocals. The song is a soulful slow burner for the most part, but it steadily unfurls and picks up the pace near its end. It’s only the band’s second released track and it shows a lot of promise from these up and comers. Here’s to hoping we get some more material from Prinze George soon!

Stream “Victor” below or through today’s mix of the day on Spotify!

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ALBUM REVIEW: Held In Splendor

“Everything will regenerate as love.”

“Quilt” is an apt name for this Boston trio, who weave together assorted instruments, genres, and moods on their stirring sophomore album, Held in Splendor. The psych-folk band were already known for their layered vocal harmonies and vintage sound, displayed in full on their 2011 eponymous debut, but Held in Splendor sees the three experimenting with more dynamic arrangements and a pastiche of instruments not previously heard in Quilt’s signature sound. Perhaps it was the addition of drummer John Andrews, who joined founding members/college buds Anna Fox Rochinski and Shane Butler for the making of this album, or perhaps it was the long hours logged in a legit recording studio in Brooklyn, NY, or perhaps it was Woods member Jarvis Taveniere taking the role of producer— something surely gave the band way to blossom beyond its boundaries in these 13 tracks, due out 1/28 on Mexican Summer.

Don’t get me wrong—for those familiar with Quilt, Splendor loses none of the band’s retro sensibilities but it certainly expands on them. “Arctic Shark,” for example, works wonders as the album’s opener, inviting listeners to a warm and happy place with floating sitars and trance-like “Oooh”s layered atop Rochinski’s honeyed voice, singing “Everything will regenerate as love.” It plays like an HD version of one of their earlier songs, as does the later track “Mary Mountain,” recalling textbook psychedelic folk in keeping with The Mamas and the Papas. Songs like “The Eye of the Pearl” and “Talking Trains” brush away the lo-fi fuzz of their previous work so that the vocals are crystal clear, glistening atop a lush blend of piano, banjo, and electronic sound effects in the former and subdued guitar in the latter.

But the album’s stand-outs are the songs that evidence Quilt’s ability to mix things up. “Tie Up The Tides,” for example, is a pop gem at its core, immediately appealing and subtly addicting thanks to that prominent, catchy bass. “A Mirror” is a sprightly song with audible depth that evolves around its upbeat percussion, evoking ‘70s rock and roll with punchy electric guitar licks. And “Secondary Swan” shows off the band’s delicate lyrical prowess (and apparent love of alliteration), with a soft and orchestral, Andrew Bird-esque sound that hides an unexpected, raving rock-out midway through the song, bringing to mind the skittering energy of bands like the Talking Heads or The Feelies. The tracks careen through quite a few twists and turns but many of them bleed into one another, providing a sense of continuity.

With reference points that dot the decades, Held In Splendor is unfettered psychedelic rock, approaching the genre with a wholly contemporary frame of mind. This is what a sophomore album is meant to do: expand on an established sound and provide proof of a budding band’s staying power. And with this release, Quilt make it clear that they aren’t going anywhere.

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TRACK REVIEW: David T. Little “…and there was morning – the Second Day”

David T. Little’s seemingly inborn theatricality complements his music’s strong themes. A classical composer with a rock drumming background who, in the company of an array of edgy and sometimes rock-leaning classical groups–the Kronos Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, and his own project Newspeak, to name a few–flirts with the rock/classical boundary, Little’s got a knack for unlikely but accurate pairings. In “…and there was morning – the Second Day,” the first track released off his forthcoming album Haunt of Last Nightfall, that tension lies between the courteous delicacy of minuet-ish xylophone trills and heavy strains of hard rock.

In early 2013, Little’s evening-long, multi-perspective cantata “Soldier Songs” demonstrated this blend of theme and experimentation on a grand scale. After interviewing soldiers, Little divided the experience into three phases of life–the young soldier playing war games, the fighting soldier, and the old soldier reflecting on his experience–to draw tormented circles around the ultimately incommunicable experience of war. Details like hip hop music filtering out of young soldiers earbuds add sharp, astute, and decidedly Little-ish twists on the music.

In “…and there was morning,” the parallel lines–one light, one heavy–lose separation as the song progresses, the bell-like melody drawn into and eventually transformed by the dark, rock and roll line. For all the new dawn-ness of its title, there’s little salvation in this song. Biblically, the second day marks a separation between the waters, and the creation of the heavenly expanse that sits between them. The song plays with boundaries and borders, considers and inverts the meaning behind their distinctions, but doesn’t seem to end with separation–if anything, the opposite is true. The song begins clear and clean, the xylophone separated into neat phrases, but by halfway through the track this line has been overtaken by chaos, churning electronics and sinister bass line lows. Little’s imagination is active, creating shadows out of clean separations, and a kaleidoscopic image out of a familiar picture.

David T. Little’s new album, Haunt of Last Nightfall, is out February 25th on New Amsterdam Records. Listen to the first single off that album, “…and there was morning – the Second Day” below:

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: “Goodnight Irene”

I woke up this morning to my first Brooklyn snow storm. After promptly deciding that I wasn’t going to leave the my apartment for at least 24 hours, I poured myself a cup of coffee, curled up next to my cat, and put on some folk music.

While some children needed their blankets or teddy bears to fall asleep, I relied on my parent’s rendition of Lead Belly’s American folk classic, “Goodnight Irene.” Some of my earliest childhood memories involve my parents tucking me into bed and attempting (unsuccessfully) to sing “Goodnight Irene” in a two-part harmony.

“Goodnight Irene” was originally sung and recorded by Lead Belly in 1934, but like most American folk songs, its exact origins are unknown. Lead Belly claimed that he was taught the song by his uncles. While he may have borrowed aspects of the melody and structure, Lead Belly modified the song and molded it into what it is today.

Huddie William Leadbetter, or Lead Belly (1888-1949) was an American folk, gospel and blues musician. “Lead Belly” is best known for his unique baritone voice and his prowess as an instrumentalist (specifically on the 12-string guitar). Lead Belly was born into extreme poverty in the countryside of Louisiana. Much of his early life was plagued with criminality and incarceration (twice for homicide and once for attempted homicide). Most of Lead Belly’s songs are subsequently dark, usually touching on racism, alcoholism, depression, prison life and poverty.

During Lead Belly’s final stay in prison he was discovered by folklorists Alan and John Lomax, who petitioned the governor for his pardon. The petition was eventually granted, and between 1934 and 1943 Lead Belly recorded a number of songs for the Library of Congress, one of which was “Goodnight Irene.”

Of course as a child I was oblivious to the song’s dark undertones. “Goodnight Irene,” which was almost definitely not intended as a child’s lullaby, depicts a story of a man who was kicked out by his wife and child for drinking, gambling and infidelity. In the song, Lead Belly mourns and reflects on his actions. A number of the verses contain direct references to suicide (sometimes I have a great notion, to jump in the river and drown // And if Irene turns her back on me I’d take morphine and die), adding another dimension of solemnity to the already grave lyrics.

“Goodnight Irene” might initially come off as a simple song, although upon deeper listening it can be made clear just how emotionally complex it is. The lyrics are accompanied by basic acoustic strumming. Adornment is minimal yet effective. The rolling ¾ tempo and soothing vocals make the lyrical content of the song all the more jarring. It’s almost as if Lead Belly rocks you to sleep with the music yet wakes you up and slaps you on the face with the lyrics. The result is astounding and heartbreaking.

As with a number of key American folk songs, Goodnight Irene has been covered and modified by a number of musicians, including Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton and The Weavers. Although Its success has made “Goodnight Irene” an essential example of early folk music and has carved its place as a fundamental component of the American folk music canon, to me, it was most importantly the only song that could put me to sleep as a child.

ARTIST PROFILE: Erin Barra

Anyone can speak, but to truly have a voice is to affect another’s being by using just your words. This is an art form that Erin Barra has perfected. Barra has mastered this particularly skillful technique by facilitating self-expression through the use of her words, and inspiring young women to do and be more; through her actions. Erin writes music that encourages young girls to be as hands-on as humanly possible. She believes in the idea that women should be an active part of every step of the creative process as musicians. Which makes perfect sense, seeing as she wears so many different hats as a singer, song writer, producer, instrumentalist, teacher, and mentor. Her music is purposeful and captivating. And with the anticipation of her new record Undefined, Erin definitely has our undivided attention. With heartfelt ballads like “Always Almost,” a song that speaks openly and honestly about the disappointment one feels when a relationship just doesn’t make it; and “Still Alive” where Erin sings to us about second chances and coming together to build a stronger unified front, as well as “Visions I see,” a track that inspires the pursuit of dreams. Once it drops, Erin’s new record Undefined is destined to make an even bigger splash than Illusions did. Always a visionary, Barra is finding new and inventive ways to get her music to as many listeners as possible. Her latest video performance is a cover of Daft Punk’s “Up all night”wherein she puts a soulful, electronic spin on the track, beckoning listeners in with its eclectic set of influences, jazz among them . I had the pleasure of conducting an interview with Erin, where we discussed her past, her present and her future. Here’s a how it all went down. After reading this I am certain that all you Audiofemme readers will whole heartedly agree with me on two things: 1). Erin Barra is an amazingly wonderful artist who is uniquely talented, and 2). I desperately need to brush up on my Phil Collins Knowledge. :)

AF: How would you describe yourself as an artist, and how would you describe your music?

EB: Well, I guess I would not necessarily describe myself solely as an artist, I’m like a combination of writer, producer, creative, technical person, so I guess some of the things that define my music are kind of like a rounded depth, you know I’m like harmonically complex, lyrically I kind of take it to more of literary place, and the arrangements are typically pretty complex and involved as well, not only in the elements but in the way that I recorded them as well. And I guess in terms of the sound, I don’t like to limit myself to any specific type of genre and that has been kind of a blessing and a curse; but one blog called my music “electronic progressive soul”, and I think that that’s probably the closest that anyone’s gotten including myself (laughs).

AF: I find that very interesting because the first thought that came to my mind when I listened to your music was: “It’s very soulful.” That’s the first thought that I had, so I think they’re dead on.

EB: Yeah it’s always had this undercurrent of R&B, or some sort of urban element, but it’s definitely not R&B.

AF: What inspired the title for your album Illusions, and what’s your favorite song on the album?

EB: So that record released two years ago, and I spent three years making it, so a lot of the content and the titles and ideas are just directly related to my first five years in New York, which was like a very tumultuous time for me as a young artist; kind of realizing that I wasn’t as important as I had figured I was before I got to New York (laughs). And I kind of went through a process of becoming less naïve, and you know, realized that pretty much everything I thought about life was not the way that it was, so you know, the title to the album; it just came really naturally because it was just very obvious that I was being disillusioned to some degree and things weren’t really anything that I thought they were.

AF: Would you like to tell me anything about your new project before I even get a listen?

EB: (Laughs) Sure. It’s called Undefined, and it’s a lot more mature sounding; it’s simpler. Harmonically, lyrically, melodically, it’s more straight ahead; which is kind of where my life is at right now. And also I went even further into the electronica side of things so it still has this really like organic, analog, alive sound to it, but I did a bunch of midi programming and digital work on top of the organic sound scape, so it’s kind of like a mix. You know, and I released a mixtape as well, after Illusions where it’s just electronic remixes of other songs I had done, so it’s like a combination of those two albums really, it’s like the organic side of things and then a really heavy emphasis on the technical electronic side as well.

AF: I was looking on the website and I read a little about BeatsbyGirlz, but could you tell me a little more about it? Like what the purpose is, and what you would like to see come out of it.

EB: Sure. The purpose is to encourage and empower young women to explore and use technology, not only as a way to express themselves, but as a potential career path. There’s a huge lack of role support and role models that exist for other women to look up to say: “oh you know, this is a possibility for me. I could be a producer, or I could be an engineer.” You know if there were ten other Santigold’s that we could reference. I imagine that that’s where we’re headed. We want to encourage women to get their hands on the technology, learn how to troubleshoot, and get more females on that side of the industry because we are so hugely unrepresented that I really do feel like being one of the few females in this field, it’s my responsibility to pay it forward and encourage other women to take the path as well.

AF: It’s so interesting that you say that, because the next question that I was going to ask was who are some of your favorite musicians and idols? Or just women that you look up to and maybe draw inspiration from.

EB: Somebody that I really identify with a lot is Annie Lennox. As a writer she’s very hands on with like the production and arrangement of her albums. It’s organic, it’s electronic, and it’s deep. And she’s like unapologetically very female, and doesn’t really care how she’s perceived, and I enjoy that. I’m a big fan of Santigold and Tokimonsta. That’s more of like the current artist. Let’s see…who else? Janelle Monae. Her album and just like the fearlessness and creative license that she takes, I find to be very refreshing.

AF: In what ways do you feel that you’ve grown as a songwriter? And has your process when writing songs changed over the years?

EB: Like I said before, I think that my maturity as a human being is reflected in the song writing. It’s much simpler, you know I think I’ve taken a “less is more” approach; whereas before I had sort of a “more is more” (laughs) way of doing things. And my life use to be very complicated and turbulent and I think that that’s the place I was writing from. Before I just had so much to say, and trying to fit all of that into a song can be really difficult. But now as I age, I’ve become a much simpler human being just in general. And I’m far less confused and complicated so it’s been the same with my writing. You know, less chords, less lyrics, less complex rhythms; just kind of focusing on what it is that I want to express, and getting to the root of it. Getting in and getting out (laughs). And I think it’s the best way to write honestly. And I do a lot of melody first stuff now, whereas before I was definitely a lyric first type of a writer.

AF: What is a typical day like for you? And what is a typical day OFF like for you?

EB: Hmm…what IS a day off? (Laughs) Um right now 2014 is insanely busy. I guess I wake up. I do all my email response stuff in the morning. I go to yoga, like I’m very committed to like Nyasa practice. It helps because in order to be creatively grounded your mind needs to be at peace; in order to be on command creatively. Then I go to the studio. This week I had five co-writes, five days in a row. So I was either with an artist in the studio, helping them write songs, or was doing it via Google hangouts for some people that aren’t in New York that I’m working with. And that takes about three hours. And then I spend another three developing different arrangements, doing a lot of file sharing (laughs) and mixing. Then on Tuesdays and Thursdays I’m at the Girls club teaching the girls. And then I also work for Ableton so I travel for them occasionally and I’d be in the Northeast part of America doing retail training, workshops, demos, all sorts of stuff on the technical side. Between what’s going on with the Girls club (Beats by Girlz), Ableton, and me freelancing, I currently have not a single free moment. But I actually prefer that. It’s so much better than being stagnant and kind of not having a lot going on. I’d rather be like towards the overwhelmed side of the spectrum, rather than having huge amounts of free time. My income is directly related to how much work I have, so the more the better in my mind. I can sleep when I’m dead.

AF: Well that’s a great outlook to have (laughs), and what about a typical day off? I know you haven’t had one in a while, but what are some of the things that you like to do when you do have some time off?

EB: Um I like to cook. I’m definitely kind of hands on with the food that I put past my lips. I’m a big vegetable person. I really believe in getting enough fiber (laughs). I just like to shop seasonally. It’s like, New York has such amazing Farmer’s markets so I’ll just buy whatever is in season and then go home and get creative with whatever I have on hand. And I do a lot of Yoga. So I really don’t even do a lot anymore. It’s like, I make music, I practice Yoga, I cook food, and I hang out with my boyfriend (laughs).

AF: Are there any upcoming shows that you would like our AudioFemme listeners to know about?

EB: We are kind of taking a backseat on performing right now. A lot of what I do onstage is really technical, it’s like multiple laptops, multiple synthesizers, and midi controllers. And it’s really difficult to translate that onstage unless you have a controlled situation. And most venues and lineups don’t provide that sort of control. So we’re actually switching gears and putting more emphasis onto video content performance wise, so that we can reach a greater audience, and be in people’s homes. So there’s a video that we just made of a live remix performance of a Daft Punk song.

AF: And lastly, I wanted to play a little game with you. It’s something that I came up with, called: How well do you know you? Where I will recite a line from one of your songs and see if you can guess which song it’s from.

EB: Oh God (laughs) okay.

AF: The first line is: It ain’t black and white, cause I see in several shades of grey.

EB: Um……….that’s from “I’m out.”

AF: Yes! One point for Erin!!

EB: Cool (Laughs)

AF: Next line is: Send me a someone with which my seed to sow.

EB: That’s from “Good Man.”

AF: Yes! Next line is: So why does it always seem to be, me looking at you, you looking at me?

EB: Oh that’s actually a genesis song. It’s a cover, I didn’t write that. Phil Collins did (Laughs).

AF: Oops! Sorry about that! It was a great cover though (Laughs). The last one is: Disguise them in the NY Times, and I’ll snub them out on the sidewalk.

EB: That’s “Skyline”

AF: Wow good job (laughs) you got all of them. Thank you so much for doing this interview with AudioFemme you were great, and I really enjoyed your music.

EB: Aw thank you. And I hope you enjoy the new music as well!

Check out her cover of “Get Lucky” here, and keep your eyes out for her forthcoming EP, Undefined, due 2/11.

While you’re at it, check out Erin’s indiegogo campaign, Beats by Girlz, and show this righteous lady some love.

WEEKLY NEWS: MAKJ announces N. American Headlining tour, Debut solo album from T. Hardy Morris, MT Warnings’ new video, + Sick Individuals tour

MAKJ will be hitting every major stop in the US & Canada on his first full North American Headline Tour, including plays at Coachella, Northern Lights Festival, XS & Surrender, Ruby Skye, Webster Hall, and Winter Music Conference. Pre-sale tickets go on sale today, followed by general on-sale on Monday January 27th at 10am local time. All pre-sale ticket holders will automatically be entered to win a chance to meet MAKJ before each show (five winners will be chosen at random). Follow this link to snag them before they sell out!

T. HARDY MORRIS ANNOUNCES 2014 TOUR DATES WITH DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS, THE AUTUMN DEFENSE, AND ROBERT ELLIS FREE SIX-SONG DIGITAL EP LIVE AT THE GEORGIA THEATRE WITH PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED SONG “DRINKING OF YOU”

DEBUT SOLO ALBUM AUDITION TAPES OUT NOW

T. Hardy Morris is excited to announce 2014 tour dates in support of his debut solo album Audition Tapes, out now on Dangerbird Records. The breakout effort from the Dead Confederate frontman and member of Diamond Rugs, Audition Tapes has been lauded by Stereogum for its “calming beauty,” won acclaim from Paste for its “wildly passionate” songwriting, and described by American Songwriter as “a raw, unfiltered view of an artist evolving and growing in front of our very eyes, setting the scene for repeat listens and years of enjoyment.” The upcoming tour dates, listed below, will pair Morris on bills with Drive-By Truckers, Wilco side project The Autumn Defense, and Robert Ellis. Upcoming tour dates below. Listen to and download Live at The Georgia Theatre Watch the Transistor Six directed music video for the album verion of “Audition Tapes” Watch all the “Audition Tapes From Places In Peril” videos here. Upcoming Tour Dates: JANUARY 31 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel w/ Drive-By Truckers FEBRUARY 08 – Rehoboth Beach, DE – Dogfish Head Brewery w/ The Autumn Defense 11 – New York, NY – Highline Ballroom w/ The Autumn Defense 12 – Allston, MA – Great Scott w/ The Autumn Defense 14 – Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club w/ Drive-By Truckers 25 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle Back Room w/ Robert Ellis 26 – East Atlanta, GA – The Earl w/ Robert Ellis 27 – Athens, GA – Normaltown Hall w/ Robert Ellis 28 – Asheville, NC – Grey Eagle w/ Robert Ellis MARCH 01 – Louisville, KY – Zanzabar 03 – Nashville, TN – The Basement w/ Robert Ellis 06 – Birmingham, AL – Bottletree Cafe w/ Robert Ellis 07 – Savannah, GA – Savannah Stopover Music Festival

Sick Individuals is getting ready to embark on their US tour including Slake on February 7^th

For ticket info visit: http://www.wantickets.com/Events/147694/Sick-Individuals/ LIKE Sick Individuals on Facebook, and tag yourself in this post to win tckts: View Sick Individuals: “Shock”

MT WARNING releases new single 2/17, new video out now for Midnight Dawn

With his debut album set for release on March 28th, MT Warning reveals the video for his brand new single Midnight Dawn. Typical of the sprawling desert Rock, that pervades the album, the single is released on 17th February Check it here: DEBUT ALBUM – MIDNIGHT SET – RELEASED 28th MARCH

Mikey Bee was playing a solo show in Australia, when American film-maker Taylor Steele happened to be in the audience and was intrigued by the performance. The film-maker approached the musician with a different way of writing songs. “How would a song sound from a man sinking into the ocean?” The musician answered with a song washed with anticipation, determined lyrics, and denial. A discovery of new music was explored.

Together they pushed the idea of a song telling a unique story while being part of a visual story, played out over an album which came to represent life’s cycle – a journey from one side of the day to the other, as much as from one side of life to the end.

The outcome is dynamic, an album that is visually thick, sonically sprawling and lyrically subtle in the most poetic sense. A recording of the interactions between us, what lies just beyond and utilizing music as the movie.

TRACK REVIEW: Tropic Of Pisces “More [And More]”

New York-based Mathew Scheiner, aka Tropic Of Pisces is dropping his debut EP Symmetry on February 25^th. Formerly the guitarist for Oberhofer, Scheiner has gone solo to explore a more synthetic sound, one that is far less rock directed than that of his previous band. More [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”][And More]”, the EP’s third track, is exemplary of this desired distance from the confines of a pop-rock grou,.

The song is a dance track without a doubt, but a subdued one. It opens with a crackle and hum that are barely audible; building tension for the punctuating synths that burst it open. This setup reminds me of some of Fred Falke’s most recent work: the song becomes textured with a solid, tinny drumbeat holding down the frolicking synthesizer, which is more dull than aggressive. A funk-laced bass line is my favorite trait of the song, as it recalls those riffs of the French House canon. The bridge features what sounds like a digitized guitar, wailing like a coked-up mall soundtrack.

At first his vocals stand on a solo track, but it eventually replicate into a choral harmony reminiscent of Fleet Foxes, giving the whole thing a folk coating over its electro-dance core. Despite the well arranged beats, Scheiner’s voice is nothing rapturous. He’s on key, and there’s a sweetness to his style, though I can’t say it stands apart from the thousand others creating this genre of music.

Catch Tropic of Pisces at Piano’s on Feruary 15^th, and listen to More [And More] below.

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TRACK REVIEW: Sylvan Esso “Coffee”

What’s better at warming brittle bones in the brutal cold than a piping hot cup of coffee? The only thing I can even think of is the newest track from Brooklyn-based electro-pop outfit Sylvan Esso, and wouldn’t you know, it’s named after everyone’s favorite caffeinated beverage. The song is less about daily roast and more about sensuous evocations of comfort and home. Amelia Meath’s lush vocals deliver salient lines like “I know my words will dry upon the skin / Just like a name I remember hearing” before asking “Do you love me?” Twinkling electronic flourishes and crystalline chimes adorn a thick blanket of bouncy bass, courtesy of Nick Sanborn. Each element is carefully articulated as the track breathes and stretches around Meath’s eloquent longing.

Sanborn is best known for his work in Megafaun, Meath for her folksy Mountain Man project. The duo released a 12″ for their equally infectious debut singles “Hey Mami” and “Play it Right” via Trekky in July. “Coffee” will be released as a 12″ by Partisan Records on March 25th, with a b-side entitled “Dress”.

With playful shout-outs to Tommy James & the Shondells, textural percussion, and vivid imagery, this track is going to stick around like a crush on your favorite barista.

VIDEO REVIEW + OP-ED: “The Apple” and “Everyday Robots”

The video for ”Everyday Robots,” off Blur frontman Damon Albarn‘s forthcoming solo debut, is as minimalist and hypnotizing as the song itself. The imagery’s progression shows the slow creation of a digitalized portrait of Albarn—first a skull forms, with a gold front tooth, mouth and eyes take shape out of what looks like red putty, abstract tubes turn to neck muscles that stretch over the skull’s face. Once completed, the Alburn turns grey and two more identical copies appear, bouncing back and forth along the parameters of a white backdrop, like images floating across a computer screensaver. The video’s design is richly detailed and extremely fun to watch, thanks to creative designer Aitor Throop, but comes off a little clinical—and overstated—given the music it’s matched to.

“We are everyday robots on our phones,” Albarn sings, over a looping stanza of clock-like electronic rhythms and violin trills. The lyrics cast long shadows over a society of alone people, working always towards greater isolation and more total immersion in virtual reality. It’s an unspecial gimmick. Who hasn’t griped about technology dependence? The song, like a piece of Danish furniture, is gorgeous but manicured to hell. Albarn’s voice has always had an impassive transparency to it that helped him sing sentimental lines without overloading on theatricality, but with material so streamlined and dispassionate, the vocals are frigid.

I’m trying to imagine this song pinned against a more obvious kind of music video, something more recognizable as a story line—cold, gray cities, maybe, cars on a highway, Albarn standing still as a blurred crowd rushes by. It probably wouldn’t be as good as the video is in its current form. The details, like the ridges along the skull’s bone and the sporadic, and how machine-ishly the head swivels, offering each of its angles to best advantage, are stunning. The perspective from inside a computer, though—when lopped on top of the subject matter of the song and the pulsing electronic beats—are too much. Especially so when, at the end, the rhythm moves from basso continuo-status up to the foreground of the music, recalling a heart monitor machine, with all of its connotations of melodrama. It’s just so damn serious.

Pop songs that wrap a moral into themselves always walk a tricky line. Of course the music has a history of social involvement. Protest music, jazz, reggae, and soul all arguably emerged in response to a need for music to enact social reorganization. Popular music harnesses large groups of people into an action because of its singalongability, so it’s interesting that both “Everyday Robots” and our next video, “The Apple (For Alan Turing)” repeat melodies and lyrical phrases. Vagueness works well in pop, too: lyrics are short, bendable, mishearable; key shifts can be interpreted according to mood, and what the music means is often linked to a memory or association unique to the person listening to the music. Conversely, when something is so fixedly about what it’s about as “Everyday Robots” is about technological development in society, the scope of the song feels rigid and loses much of its power to surprise us, to be free-flowingly beautiful rather than just, as “Everyday Robots” is, pretty.

If “Everyday Robots” has too much distance from its subject to be compelling, the opposite may be true of Fiction’s “The Apple (For Alan Turing),” which would, I think, gain a lot of precious ambiguity by simply removing the parenthetical. “The Apple” is a retelling of UK mathematician and very early (1950s!) programmer and code-writer, who chose chemical castration over jail time when he was convicted of gross indecency for his homosexuality. In a nod to the Snow White fairy tale, which he loved, Turing killed himself a few years later with a couple of bites of an apple that he’d shot full of cyanide. “Everyday Robots” trends futuristic; this song takes us back, and the video is a black-and-white, home video-like representation of the day of a man’s life. The man—Turing, evidently, because we see him writing equations on a blackboard—goes running through a field, pours wine, has a conversation with a chain-smoking, nervous-looking younger man, and turns to hold eye contact with the camera when the lyric “The code was really nothing much and I just took a bite” comes along. The video is preceded by a full reproduction of a note written by Turing after he learned that he was going to be taken to court.

This video takes us into the details of Turing’s life with as much fidelity as the song itself does, and pound for pound, that’s a lot. It’s fairly common for indie bands to make songs or whole albums that dwell on one historical person, or in a general past era—Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over The Sea was reportedly believed to be inspired by the life of Anne Frank, and Jus Post Bellum recently released Oh July, which followed the lives of a working class married couple living during the Civil War—but Fiction’s track, especially taken alongside the video, leaves little to the imagination. Had they not named Alan Turing in the title, though, the lyrics would be more provocative than biographical. Some lines, like “They’ve been making my mind up, they’ve been turning my body into something it’s not” come across lushly, with the vocal line making its ascent to the highest point in the piece and then cascading downwards on the word “not.” Out of context, they’re intriguing. I would much prefer to have to do some of my own digging to link the song to Alan Turing, rather than see it stated. After all, Neutral Milk Hotel never confirmed that their album really was about Anne Frank. In pop music, the payoff of cultivating mystery is pretty remarkable: ambiguities in songs fade into questions that cult fans can compare evidence over for decades.

The last cut on Fiction’s 2013 debut album, “The Apple”’s subject matter holds relevance today, too. Turing received a posthumous Royal Pardon only this Christmas. But though a reminder of Turing’s story is certainly appropriate in a year of equal rights setbacks and breakthroughs in almost the same measure, the song reads mostly like a love story to Turing’s specific case. The individual admiration on this track is very compelling—though the video is a little lackluster—and I’d forgive the vocal lines here almost anything. Softened with a shimmering, lightly electronic backdrop, Mike Barrett and James Howard’s vocal harmonies emerge with a beautiful delicacy, and a real sense that love is propelling the song.

LOUD & TASTELESS: Sigur Rós

Every Thursday, AF profiles a style icon from the music world. This week, check out the beautiful boys of Sigur Ros, whose inimitably dark and mysterious ethos have ladies (and gentlemen) across the globe swooning.

I’ve honestly never read 50 Shades of Grey, despite the swarm of girls flocking to a Barnes and Nobles to retrieve a copy. Of course I heard (and endlessly saw on Facebook), all about women dreaming of that perfect man while discovering their sexuality. Luckily, I didn’t need that book for either. And if I was still in middle school and needed to read something to spark my inner fantasies, it would certainly be about a boy in a band, dressed in all spectrums of dark. When it came to attitude, he would certainly be a “bad boy.” But what would he wear? I’m thinking of a bandmate who can literally pull off all fifty shades of grey. He would be professionally and classically decked out with hints of rebellion. His music would reflect in his fashion: dark, mysterious, clean, held together with military buttons. I don’t think any of us can pronounce their names quite as melodically as their music sounds, but I think the members of Sigur Ros dresses like that man.

Formed in the largest city in Iceland, current members Jón Pór Birgisson, Kjartan Sveinsson, Georg Hólm, and Orri Páll Dýrason, nailed it after two decades; their style is eloquently elusive. They can sport blue jeans, but rock black slacks with more sophistication, which are usually paired with a wrinkle-free sweater, dark button-up, or a Sherlock Holmes-esque blazer. However, Sigur Ros dresses down too- unwinding with solid v-necks, bright plaid patterns, and stripes. Their clothes are unfailingly form-fitting; they invariably look sharp in every photo shoot. The experimental band carries that shadowy style with them on stage, too. There’s an appreciable amount of live videos that underscore their aphoristic stage presence. Their shows can seem opaque and very dark, but think of it as a nebulous glow, seeing and hearing space, delicately.

Get sartorially inspired by the group’s dapper look, via our Pinterest page. And while you’re at it, listen to ekki múkk via Soundcloud, here:

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TRACK REVIEW: Blondfire “Young Heart”

Kin duo Bruce and Erica Driscoll formed into Blondfire only recently, yet the band has already trailblazed the path for the indie scene, recently hitting the number 1 spot on iTunes Alternative. But get this- they did it without a record label. Nothing more galvanizing than that. In the interim between their attention grabbing debut and their forthcoming sophomore release, they’ve been busy playing every single major festival, and touring with greats like Surfer Blood and AWOL Nation.

A year since “Where The Kids Are” premiered, they are returning with another magnificent dreamy-pop rock single, “Young Heart.” The Driscoll’s have found the perfect formula for the track, emphasizing on the balance of a bouncy synth and guitar-driven melodies . Erica’s vocals are cavernous and entrancing; she sounds like the vernal equinox–each note delivering hope for renewal and the redemption. “Love lost, but look what you found now. Give it to the past ‘cuz you’re such a young heart,” she sweetly croons, giving optimism to those who’ve had love vanish before their eyes like a magic trick.

You can thank the sibling’s unique parental influences for the spark in their songwriting: their father taught Bruce the beauty of noodling on the electric guitar, while their music’s Bossanova undertones can be credited to their Brazilian mother–a classically trained pianist. Check out “Young Heart,” off of their forthcoming full length due out 2/11 on Tender Tender Rush.

TRACK OF THE WEEK 01/20: The Mast, “Luxor”

Riding over ruins on a red balloon twilight

For all those who have yet to satisfy their thirst for experimental electro pop this year, don’t worry, you will soon be satiated. Brooklyn based duo The Mast is releasing their newest album, Pleasure Island on January 28th off of Channel A Records. “Luxor” is their fourth single off of the upcoming album.

The Mast (percussionist Matt Kilmer and vocalist Haleh Gafori) have been constantly evolving as a duo. From the more instrumental beats and subdued vocals of Wild Poppies (2011), to the ethereal, other-wordly sounds emanating off of Pleasure Island, Kilmer and Gafori’s have taken experimentation to a new level.

“Luxor,” the most recent single off of Pleasure Island falls right in line with the album’s first three releases (“UpUpUp,” “Raining Down,” “So Right”) with its intricate and mesmerizing vocal effects. Gafori’s voice entrances, as it soars above the beats, reaching new heights (literally and figuratively), and displaying a range octaves higher than anything off of Wild Poppies. During “Luxor,” she not only collaborates with the beats, but also with her own voice: at any given point there are at least two different vocal tracks interacting with one another.

Percussions on the track took a turn for the experimental as well. Kilmer seems to have put down the instruments and picked up the synth to create beats that are driving and nonabrasive simultaneously, complimenting the vocals perfectly and in turn creating a sense of dialogue, rather than background and foreground, between him and Gafori.

In the true spirit of modern collaboration, Kilmer and Gafori created Pleasure Island while they were on other sides of the world. Kilmer laid down the beats and Gafori added vocals, melodies and her own arrangements. They would send the tracks back and forth to each other for tweaking, until the album was complete. Subsequently when hearing “Luxor,” one gets the sense that the two are listening intently to each other to create musical discourse.

While “Luxor,” the first track off of Pleasure Island is only 3.17 minutes, in no time at all it manages to transport you into another world. Gafori’s ethereal soprano voice over Kilmer’s textured electro pop beats pack enough power to send the listener to Pluto (to start up a dance party) and back. The Mast will be having an album release party at the Mercury Lounge on February 8th.

VIDEO REVIEW: Agnes Obel’s “The Curse”

Danish artist Agnes Obel has recently released North American tour dates in support of her latest album, Aventine. She will be hitting up NYC’s Bowery Ballroom on March 2^nd, and given the video for her song “ The Curse “, I expect it will be a sullen but beautiful set.

The music video was certainly composed with an artful eye; it’s filmed in black and white, yet the palette ranges from crisp achromatic shots to hues of sepia and cream. The opening scenes, which feature almost everything but Obel herself, remind me of the sinister imagery of Ingmar Bergman. In one frame archaic buildings come in and out of focus while birds-or maybe tadpoles-smear across the sky. Cloudscapes, architectural compositions reminiscent of M.C. Escher’s staircases, and showers of sparks all contribute to an unsettling and ghostly short film. The ambiance produced by these visuals is perfectly matched with the moody ballad, which features piano, viola, and cello, as well as Obel’s haunting voice.

Though the video was shot in Berlin, it has an otherworldly quality that can’t be confined to a particular place or time. Enjoy the video, and catch Obel on her tour. If you’re not in New York, see the remaining tour dates below.

Feb 20 – Wakefield, QC – Blacksheep Inn

Feb 21 – Toronto, ON – The Great Hall

Feb 22 – Burnstown, ON – Neats

Feb 25 – Montreal, QC – Gesu Centre

Feb 26 – Quebec City, QC – Palais Montcalm

Feb 27 – Montreal, QC – Gesu Centre – Montreal Winter Highlights

Mar 1 – Cambridge, MA – First Church

Mar 2 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom

Mar 4 – Philadelphia, PA – World Cafe Live

Mar 6 – San Francisco, CA – The Independent

Mar 8 – Seattle, WA – St. Mark’s Cathedral

Mar 9 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir

Mar 12 – Los Angeles, CA – The Roxy

TRACK REVIEW: We Were Promised Jetpacks “Peace Sign”

Attended by controlled and even sort of jittery guitar lines, Adam Thompson’s arena-ready voice soars on “Peace Sign,” the latest single to be released off We Were Promised Jetpacks‘ forthcoming live album, E Ray: Live In Philadelphia. This album, which was recorded while the band was on tour in 2012, marks WWPJ’s first new release since 2011’s In The Pit Of The Stomach. Though a studio album is, apparently, in the works, the band’s in-person energy is undeniably crucial to their aesthetic–“Peace Sign” displays no asymmetry or lack of polish for being recorded live–and E Ray will seek to recreate the experience of being in the same room with these four Scottish rockers.

“Peace Sign” is as angular and anxiety-laden as any of the band’s previous releases, laying guitar and vocals over a cold, ambient layer of white noise. As the track progresses, the sound opens up into something that’s both more complex and more vulnerable. Thompson’s voice operates almost parallel to the music, meeting the guitar lines at the hinges of their rhythms, and in the meantime, free-falling in a melody that’s all the powerful for how impromptu it feels.

We Were Promised Jetpacks’ music has suffered in the past under the weight of its own moodiness, and In The Pit Of The Stomach seemed to be running in place at times, over thinking its themes and splitting itself between too many musical impulses. A live recording seems to solve a lot of those problems for the band, who may be more inclined towards the “first thought, best thought” school, because “Peace Sign” maintains cohesiveness without losing any of the lyrics’ fretful intimacy.

Listen to “Peace Sign” below:

TRACK REVIEW: Neneh Cherry “Everything”

The hype for Neneh Cherry’s upcoming solo album—her first in 18 years—has been building for quite some time now. As we near Blank Project’s release date (Feb. 25th in the U.S.!), we’re getting another preview of the album by way of its closing song, “Everything.” The over seven-minute-long track is the slightly more subdued sister to the previously heard title track of the album, “Blank Project,” with both songs sharing Cherry’s primal energy and minimalist, slightly menacing production by Kieran Hebden (better known as Four Tet).

“Everything”’s lyrics feature lines like “Got my fingers in my ears I can’t hear you / What I don’t hear, can’t upset me,” a visual that corresponds with Blank Project‘s cover photo. At other points it sounds like Cherry is sort of speak-singing off the cuff, with lines like “Shallow water midget mountain high/ Beep me up trust me I’ll hold you down.” The repeating refrain “Everything is everything, good things come to those who wait” is often wrung into different melodies or cadences by Cherry’s rhythmic, poetic singing.

Four Tet outfits the song with a deeply reverberating, viscous bassline that contrasts Cherry’s bright yet raspy vocals. If Cherry’s lyrics and vocals are the song’s soul, Four Tet’s production is its pulsating, almost mechanical heartbeat. As the song comes to its end, Cherry breaks out in a staccato yell that soon turns into passionate, visceral “yeah yeah”s and “hey hey”s, with some laughter thrown in for good measure. Her vocals are cut out for the last minute or so of the song, at which point it loses it’s ominous edge and becomes an understated, twinkling hum before fading away.

Listen to “Everything” below:

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AudioFemme’s Best of 2013

From elaborate roll-outs to surprise releases, 2013 was a banner year for comebacks, break-outs, break-ups, and overnight sensations. The fact that the most oblique content could cause rampant controversy to reverberate through the blogosphere turned every song into a story and made every story seem epic. At the heart of it all are the sounds that defined this particular calendar year, from electronic pop to punk rock to hip-hop to hardcore and everything in between.

[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”][fusion_testimonial company=”AudioFemme Staff” author=”Top 50 Albums of 2013″ image=”http://www.audiofemme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/01MBVmbv-300×298.jpg”]

After much debate, we’re proud of our little list and believe it represents releases that are among the best and most important of the year. Here are our top 50 LPs in two parts: 50-26 // 25-1

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And check out our Top Albums of 2013 Playlist on Spotify.
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[/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”][fusion_testimonial company=”AudioFemme Staff” author=”Top 50 Tracks of 2013″ image=”http://www.audiofemme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/05HaimDays.jpg”]
In a given year, thousands of records are released, many of them having upwards of ten tracks apiece. So it’s actually physically impossible to hear them all, and can be downright daunting to wrangle them into some kind of intelligible countdown. But we certainly have done our best, here cataloging the tunes we just couldn’t stop playing, and stuck fast in our heads when we finally managed to turn them off.

Here’s our Top Tracks of 2013 Playlist on Spotify.

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Staff Lists:

[/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”][fusion_testimonial company=”Lindsey Rhoades” author=”RiotGrrl’s Influence in 2013″ image=”http://www.audiofemme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/kimkathleen.jpg”]
Not only are we as a culture stepping up to finally examine sexism and exploitation and appropriation within the industry, there are more acts than ever completely unafraid to do their own thing – be it overtly political (see: Priests) or revolutionary in its emotional candidness (looking at you, Waxahatchee).
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[/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”][fusion_testimonial company=”Rebecca Kunin” author=”2013’s Best Soundtracks” image=”http://www.audiofemme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Soundtrack.jpg”]
Music has the ability to make or break a cinematic moment. Would Jaws be as scary if it weren’t for the theme song? Or would we cry as hard when Leo Dicaprio sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean if Celine Dion didn’t belt “My Heart Will Go On” every five minutes? Probably not.
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[/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”][fusion_testimonial company=”Lindsey Rhoades” author=”2013: The Year in Music Controversies” image=”http://www.audiofemme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/musicthoughts.jpg”]In the age of the ubiquitous think-piece, here’s another, and this time, it’s about think-pieces. In 2013 what think-pieces mean is that no one is about to get away with anything.[/fusion_testimonial]

[/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”][fusion_testimonial company=”Kelly Tunney” author=”Top 10 Unexplainable Kanye Moments” image=”http://www.audiofemme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Kanye.jpg”]
Mr. West has built up quite a reputation for himself. His musical talent has remained impressive throughout his 6-album career (Yeezus easily made several of this year’s “best of” lists, including our own) but Kanye’s persona has been the subject of parody and scandal for a long time now. This year, though, held several moments of Kanye-crazy that stood out among the plethora of examples from his memorable past.
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[/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”][fusion_testimonial company=”Carena Liptak” author=”Notes From The Road” image=”http://www.audiofemme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BTHEHc8IgAAESY0.jpg-large.jpeg”]
At the beginning of 2013, adventure felt overdue — something about going to new places, with no routine or expectations, opens you up to hear music you’d never think to listen to otherwise.
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[/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”][fusion_testimonial company=”Raquel Dalarossa” author=”Top 7 to Anticipate in 2014″ image=”http://www.audiofemme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/outkast-reunion-big-boi-andre-3000.jpg”]
Between the exciting festival rumors and anticipated album releases, 2014 is already shaping up to be a pretty amazing year (at least musically speaking).
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TRACK REVIEW: “Tie Up The Tides”

Quilt is back with a third preview of their upcoming sophomore album, Held in Splendor, this time sharing the gorgeous “Tie Up The Tides.” The track features a simple base melody with elegantly layered guitars and lush vocal harmonies that we’ve come to expect of the psych-y, folksy pop band. Anna Fox Rochinski sings about feeling alone and unsure, searching for comfort and a “golden home,” saying “I left a world of dreams and entered one anew.” The droney bass is a modern touch to their vintage sound, made possible by the proper studio recording sessions behind the making of this record.

The centerpiece of the song is its bridge: a dynamic break into a slightly more upbeat and catchy refrain that provides a pick-me-up halfway through the otherwise languid, cozy track. The trio behind Quilt are truly great at writing the sort of ditties that get stuck in your head for days. After premiering “Arctic Shark” and “Tired and Buttered,” “Tie Up The Tides” is another promising look into the 13 track-long Held in Splendor, which is out on Jan. 28th via Mexican Summer. Listen here!

ALBUM REVIEW: together PANGEA “Badillac”

Up until now, LA three-piece together PANGEA has perfected an undiluted garage rock aesthetic, with two straight albums filled with track after blisteringly high-speed track of violent, maniacally fun and often sort of garish punk-informed rock and roll. It was kind of one-note, but the note was a good one: the group’s aesthetic trafficked in irreverent energy and sexual frustration, and was bolstered by the disparaging deadpan of frontman William Keegan’s vocals, as well as the spininess of the group’s stripped-down instrumentals. This instrumental simplicity and unchecked energy worked in the young band’s favor. Even when the group lacked breadth, their noise turned to full blast for the length of an entire album, it played into together PANGEA’s disheveled, youthful style.

The group’s new album, Badillac, clearly holds this framework as its headquarters, but doesn’t take long to begin wandering outside of together PANGEA’s well-worn stomping grounds. The production is slightly cleaner and more mature-sounding than what we’ve seen in the past from them, the album is thematically a bit more melancholy, but the most noticeable shift is in the weightiness of the instrumental lines. Heavy, hard rock bass lines add heft to Badillac‘s composition, and serve as a gratifying extra kick to the energy of the album.

By halfway through, you may be wondering whether together PANGEA has finally grown up. The answer, “Sick Shit” will tell you, is no: “My dick is soft/these things mean nothing to me,” Keegan whines, before the song launches into a punchy, moshable hook that would be heartbroken if it weren’t so damn snotty.

“No Way Out,” though, is a bleak, pensive little number: much quieter than the kind of sound for which together PANGEA is known. The song still maintains a very simple structure, lush with cello and vocal lines that cycle broodingly over the track like vultures. Though it isn’t my favorite track on the album—the repetition, ultimately, doesn’t bring us anywhere remarkable– “No Way Out” establishes the low point of a dynamic range that helps the highs hit higher.

However, the next and last track on Badillac, “Where The Night Ends,” is much more satisfactory, and manages to apply the entire spectrum of the album’s emotional range to just one song. Simmering and catchy, “Where The Night Ends” matches the intensity of its dark, power-packed riffs with a vocal line that’s first whispered, then screamed. The deconstructed intimacy the group hints at throughout the album is finally, undeniably realized with the hidden track that emerges after a minute of silence following “Where The Night Ends.” Stripped down, distorted vocals and guitar end Badillac on an introspective, and beautifully weary note. At its close, the album zooms out, away from the music’s violent immediacy, and offers a bird’s eye view of the wreckage left in its wake.

Go here to purchase Badillac, out January 21st, and listen to the title track off the new album below:

FEMME UNFILTERED: Hand Job Academy

Twice a month, audiofemme profiles artists both emerging and established, who, in this industry, must rebel against misogynist cultural mores. Through their music they express the attendant hurdles and adversities (vis-a-vis the entertainment industry and beyond) propagated by those mores. For our third installment, Rebecca Kunin profiles Hand Job Academy, a Brooklyn based rap trio that illuminates the hypocrisies and injustices in pop culture, and has fun while doing it.

Artist Profile: Hand Job Academy

“Catchier than cobwebs in a Crown Heights crawl space” (Their words, not mine), Brooklyn based rap trio Hand Job Academy are making a splash and fighting back against misogyny and heteronormative culture by (literally) shoving their bloody tampons in your face. Consisting of Ash Wednesday, Clara Bizna$$ and Lil’ T, Hand Job Academy rap about pop culture, queerness, relationships and of course, periods. Founded in 2012, Hand Job Academy has released only a handful of singles, leaving me salivating for more.

The groupe possesses the rare ability to sound sexy, clever, hilarious and vulgar all in one line. Whether they are rapping about math (the quadratic formula tatted on my inner thigh // I’ll measure your circumference, diameter times pi), or Stephen King novels (my bed looks like the elevator from The Shining), Ash Wednesday, Clara Bizna$$ and Lil’ T manage sound funny, creative and sexy. They don’t just rely on pithy lyrics, either: Hand Job Academy’s songs thus far have been accompanied by driving, catchy beats and dynamic music videos directed by Meg Skaff (aka Lil’T).

The trio’s punchline-derived and parody-infused rap style often causes them to be called a comedy-rap group, but Ash Wednesday, Clara Bizna$$ and Lil’T maintain that they are a rap group first, and making people laugh is just a happy byproduct.

“Pop (Tumblr Bitches)” is a satirical rap about the need for people to objectify and parade their bodies on social media sites for attention and cyber friends.

I resolve to not put down other women to alleviate my insecurities..

Fuck you ho, I saw your beef curtains that shit was nasty

**********

Like I’m a princess and you’re a siren I hear your titties out and I see you crying

“Pu$$y Chicken” is a song that everyone can relate to, about getting drunk and calling your ex. Apparently, the voicemail that you hear at the end of the song is a real voicemail from one of the band member’s ex-lover’s phone (Number one reason I would never date a musician, I don’t want to be featured on their next track).

Hand Job Academy gives absolutely no fucks. They rap about pretty much everything under the sun, and they do it with immaculate flow and constant creativity.

Shark Week

Most people believe that periods should be hidden. Blood gushing out of our lady parts? Gross.

I got my first period at a very young age, before the sexual health talk in middle school, and I remember being absolutely terrified, confused and embarrassed. I was terrified at the exorbitant amount of blood loss that I was experiencing, confused about how to control the situation, and embarrassed to tell my parents. We celebrate all of our other major milestones in life, 16, 18, 21, yet when we experience probably the most important physical milestone in our life, most of us are too ashamed to even tell our parents? We should be celebrating it right?

I mean, don’t get me wrong, periods are irksome. I’ve probably spent a years’ rent in tampons this past decade, and it’s always awkward when it sneaks up on you at the most in-opportune time. Still, isn’t it literally, biologically what makes us women? Our periods are the physical manifestation of our femininity, right? So why is the world so embarrassed by them?

Well, Hand Job Academy is equally frustrated by this, and unlike my babbling rant above, they strung together a rap about it. “Shark Week” blatantly points out everything that is wrong with the way that society views our monthly flow. Most importantly, “Shark Week” is a celebration of our bodies, our sexual health, and our femininity.

My favorite part about “Shark Week” (and the rest of Hand Job Academy’s music) is that it doesn’t try to be political. It is exactly what it says it is, a celebration of periods. The motives behind the song and the subsequent public response might be politically or socially charged, yet the song is simply a celebration of our bodies.

Mrs wednesday, what’s a period?

Once a month, Your ovary releases an egg

which travels down your fallopian tubes

and embeds itself in the lining of your uterus

This is a 28 day cycle

and after that your eggs gets released

with the lining and shoots down the corridor

and bleeds into your panties.

**********

Hardboil my egg and pump me like a keg

my pad is soft and like Laura Croft

he’s about to raid my tomb motherfucka

I got a bloody womb motherfucka

**********

What, are you scared of this?

It’s just a little blood

**********
You can’t floss on our level?

You wanna know why we use a tampon string

While it’s been almost ten years since I was that little girl who was afraid and ashamed of her period, watching “Shark Week” made me proud of it.

LIVE SHOW 1/9/14

I saw Hand Job Academy perform on 1/9 at Hotel Chantelle in the Lower East Side. I came in with already high expectations, and they were completely blown away about two minutes into the performance.

They started with an opening monologue encouraging everyone to take pictures and videos and post to the internet using #Ikeamonkey.

At one point the group moved into the middle of the floor of the bar, encouraging the audience to surround them. Opening up with their new single, “Pu$$y Chicken,” they quickly greased up everyone’s joints and got the audience moving. They followed up a raucous performance of “U So Mad,” where the trio asked audience members why they were so mad. I was prepared with my answer (rent!) but unfortunately they did not ask me. The band then performed a song (that had nothing to do with Lena Dunham) titled, Lena Dunham, followed by “Take Me 2 Skool,” featuring Chicago Hip Hop artist Big Dipper. They wrapped up the show with “Pop (Tumblr Bitches),” and “Shark Week.” (Clara Bizna$$ pulled an O.B. tampon out of her pocket and confessed that the song was relevant to her life at the moment before embarking on the opening verse of “Shark Week”) before finally concluding their set with a performance of “Wild Girlz,” encouraging everyone to dance with them (I awkwardly shuffled).

All in all Hand Job Academy put on a great performance. While they were sexy, funny and dynamic, most importantly, they rapped their faces off. In the end, it didn’t matter wether they were girls or boys, or what topics they were rapping about, their flow was flawless, their references were witty, and their comedic timing was spot on. Go see them on Thursday, 1/30 at Trash Bar. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

INTERVIEW 1/9/14

After the show I had a chance to have a chat with Ash Wednesday, Clara Bizna$$ and Lil’ T (We hoped to do the interview in the bathroom, but it was just too tiny for all four of us to squish in. We settled for the streets of New York). Here is what they had to say.

AF: How did the name Hand Job Academy come to be?

Clara Bizna$$: The official story is that I was hooking up with some dude…

Ash Wednesday: A loser.

Lil’ T: A grease nugget.

Clara Bizna$$: Well Anyways, I was having casual encounters with this person. I was at his house and my phone was broken. I had to check my e-mail for something, so I went on his computer. You know how when you go online on safari or whatever and it shows top sites? Well sometimes it’s porn and there was a porn site called “Hand Job Academy.” So I told them about it and it stuck.

Ash Wednesday: But the name don’t mean nothing anymore.

Clara Bizna$$: Names just become transparent.

AF: Your music contains a lot of parody. Why did you choose hip-hop as your medium? Is it because of the existing misogyny in hip-hop culture?

Lil’ T – I feel like we chose hip-hop before doing parodies and making it comedic. We’re not comedians at all. We would never be able to do stand up and we don’t really consider ourselves comedians, but when we get together, and say if we have a problem or something, we’re laughing and we’re just poking fun at shit. It’s just fun to us, we just try to have fun with it.

Ash Wednesday- I love hip-hop, I love rap music and I’ve always loved it, but I never thought that I would do it or could do it because I’m a girl. I don’t really know if it’s because I’m a girl, but I never got into it myself. I never saw anyone like me doing it, that looked like me doing it, and then me and Clara Bizna$$ were at this party and this guy started beat boxing. We just started rapping rhymes, freestyling. We got together and started doing it in private. We were like, “this is really fun,” and that’s how it started.

Clara Bizna$$ – When I write stuff on my own for things it’s really emo poetry.

Lil’ T- Yeah, me too.

Ash Wednesday- Taylor Swift.

Clara Bizna$$ – Our intention is not to be like the lonely island. I really want to be a musician and have this be serious. It just so happens that we book a lot of comedy shows because people want the name “Hand Job Academy” on their flier. We’ve had a lot of good opportunities because of that, we’ve opened up for like big comedians and we’ve been on public access shows and stuff, but first and foremost we’re musicians. It just so happens that we’re having a good time, and I think a lot of rap artists are like that. A lot of rap artists have punchlines.

Lil’ T- It all really started as fun, until one video just kind of blew up and it was just like oh, what do we do now?

Clara Bizna$$: Let’s get a manager and go on tour… maybe.

AF: What was the inspiration behind “Shark Week?” Why do you think that periods are so taboo?

Ash Wednesday: I’ll let Clara Bizna$$ take this one.

Clara Bizna$$: This was one of the first songs that we wrote together. It’s been bouncing around in our heads for a while and we performed it with different beats but it really only solidified now. There was a piece in Salon about Petra Collins, who did that shirt for American Apparel where it’s a masturbating woman’s vagina that’s bleeding, and so there has been a lot of like period stuff in art lately… but why periods? I don’t know, it’s universal. For me I always write about pop culture and so my verses cram as many pop cultural references in there as possible. I try to hit them all. Everything having to do with blood, gore, murder and gnarliness. Everyone can relate to it. I think that’s why it got a lot of attention, because it’s universal.

Ash Wednesday: I think that’s really great, it’s what I would say.

AF: Why do you think that it is important to discuss things that some people might be uncomfortable with?

Lil’ T: I direct all the videos, and come up with all the visuals. My style before I was doing videos for them was just to be as inappropriate and have as much shock factor as possible. I did a film before we were even a band, and there was this scene with just popping big huge boils. It grabbed people’s attention. People were like, “what the fuck is this?” That’s kind of what I was going for in “Shark Week” too. Especially the scene where we lined up all the girls and they’re shaking their butts and It’s like, blood! How are people going to react to this?

Clara Bizna$$ : To touch on the earlier topic of the misogyny, with “Shark Week,” our friend and sometimes DJ was like, “this looks like Terry Richardson, but like done by girls.” With the girls sort of shaking their butts “un-twerkingly” it’s almost like, unintentionally, (I don’t know if it was your intention as the director) we poked fun at the whole twerking thing. We shot it before that came out (before the Miley thing came out), but we’re not sexily twerking, we’re wearing grandma panties. There is nothing sexy about it, but I think that there is something subversive, whether it’s intentional or not.

Lil’ T: I didn’t want to make it sexy, because it’s not.

Clara Bizna$$: Right, it subverts that sort of ladies mounting their asses in music videos, you know? But not in a Lilly Allen kind of way, because that shit was wack.

Lil’ T: I was also playing on the typical rap thing where I’m in the pool, smoking a cigar with all these ladies around me, but I’m some queer! Acting like Jay-z, some little boy.

AF: In “Pop (Tumblr Bitches),” you parody people who sexualize themselves through social media for online attention. What was your inspiration for this?

Ash Wednesday: That was exactly our inspiration.

Lil’ T: Brooke Candy.

Ash Wednesday: Well yeah, Brooke Candy- I get really jealous of girls that I see. I don’t even know them. I never met them, but their pictures look very sexy, and I’m like “damn.” This is what dudes are looking at and liking online. This is getting a lot of attention.

Lil’ T: There’s a whole new style coming out of it.

Ash Wednesday: It’s tacky.

Clara Bizna$$: Very ‘90s.

Lil’ T: It’s tacky- kind of playing on the ‘90s. They literally call it “tumblr.” Some girls dress “tumblr,” it’s literally a word now. So we got a stylist who had similar looking clothes. I was wearing some oversized, palm tree, beach looking ass tee, she was wearing sequined dresses.

Clara Bizna$$: In that song I was talking about my insecurities like, “Yeah I am, no I’m not, you know?” I’m giving you my bodily dimensions and then I’m like, “Oh I’m like this.” I’m again talking about celebrities and name dropping. People think that Khloe Kardashian is abhorrent, the fat one and the ugly one, but I think she’s the sexiest one and the nicest one. Now I’m on a tangent. Okay, next question.

AF: What are your definitions of feminism and how do they shape Hand Job Academy?

Ash Wednesday: I think i’m a humanist. I believe in human equality and human compassion. I don’t know, there’s so much talk swirling around about feminism. A lot of the attention that we get is because we’re female. That’s cool, we’ll take attention and stuff but there aren’t dudes being interviewed because they’re dudes, you know?

Clara Bizna$$: Thank you.

Ash Wednesday: When a dude is sexualizing a woman in a song or even himself people aren’t like, “that was very sexy,” but when we do it, they are like, “that was really sexy and taboo.” I mean I love men, and I love women, so, I try not to discriminate between the two.

Clara Bizna$$: I’m completely 1000% a feminist. I grew up on Bust Magazine, and Bitch Magazine, riot grrrl. There’s this website, “amiafuckingfeminist.com” and they ask the question, “do you believe in equality?” and if you don’t believe in the equality of men and women then you’re not and if you do then you are. I think most people can say that they do. Thank god for Beyonce. Here we have a woman of color admitting, saying out loud, “I’m a feminist.” She as an artist has the prerogative to talk about Tina Turner getting beaten up. A lot of people had problems with that but I think as an artist you can kind of say whatever you want. For me, art comes before politics. Art overrides politics. A lot of pop stars are really wishy washy about it (Katy Perry, Lady Gaga). “Oh I love men, I’m not a feminist” No! I believe very strongly about it obviously. I am absolutely completely feminist and anybody who commits to that I commend and applaud.

Lil’ T: I think there are a lot of stereotypes in traditional hip hop and what your place in society is. What some men can do on videos would not be seen as gross. With “Shark Week,” I read the comments. “Shark Week” was on Manrepeller- that’s a pretty feminist blog right?

Clara Bizna$$: It’s fashiony

Lil’ T: It’s fashiony, whatever, but there were some girls on there that were like, “this is so gross, they shouldn’t be doing something like this.” I feel like there are some things that a man can do on a video that, you know if a woman did the same things it would be gross.

Clara Bizna$$: There is still absolutely a double standard. We had a write-up recently in LA Weekly, and what I liked about the author was that he didn’t once say that we were females. He just said, “this rap group is about to blow up, is about to be controversial.” He didn’t ever mention that we’re females. To touch on what Ashley just said, most of the time, we get “female rap group.” If somebody asks me, “are you in a band?” or, if i say I’m in a band, they are like, “oh is it a girl band?” Get the fuck out of here! I don’t ask a white man in a band, “oh there are four white men in a band, do you sound like nsync?” What the fuck. No, they probably sound like My Bloody Valentine or whatever. I was in a rock group before and we would be loading in and people would be like, “do you sould like Sleater Kinney?” and I’m like, “I wish I sounded like Janet Weiss, I love Sleater Kinney, but no, we don’t sound like Sleater Kinney.”

AF: What’s next for Hand Job Academy?

Meg: We’re working on an EP right now. We’ve just been releasing singles but we want to release something that’s more in a package. So we’re working on probably getting five songs out there in March. I would say February, but probably not. We’re working on packaging it up. Packaging some songs up and releasing them all at the same time. We want to do touring, there’s an issue of money.

Clara Bizna$$: Yeah, we want to start playing shows out of town.

Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us, ladies! We’ll catch you next week at Trash Bar.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK: This Stone Is Starting To Bleed

In preparation for the release of their debut full-length, here’s this week’s featured video: Roman Remains’ “This Stone is Starting to Bleed.” The electronic pop duo is the side project of English band The Duke Spirit’s Liela Moss and Toby Butler, who got together with director Marcus McSweeney to bring their first single to life.

“This Stone is Starting to Bleed,” the first track off of the upcoming Zeal, sounds both primordial and futuristic, earthy and industrial, manifested in the video by a shaman character dressed heavily in “native” garb as well as a welding helmet and gloves. He performs a sort of fire ritual on a rocky beach, clouded by a flood of colorful smoke and watched from afar by Moss and Butler.

For the upcoming record, Moss drew inspiration from her travels—from Los Angeles to the Himalayas—saying “You can’t miss out on the metaphors that all the terrain and colour provide, the cornucopia but the shit and glorious untamedness of it too,” which speaks to the visuals in the video as well. Check it out below and keep an eye out for Zeal, due out March 4th on H.O.T. Records Ltd.

ARTIST PROFILE: Øystein Braut of Electric Eye

Electric Eye‘s debut collection Pick-up, Lift-off, Space, Time came out last spring, but three of the group’s four members have been playing together for a decade and a half, since they were in high school in a small city on the west coast of Norway. Even then, guitarist and vocalist Øystein Braut (also of The Alexandria Quartet) loved the grooves and repetitions of psychedelic drone music. In 2012, the band of four–each already established in the Norwegian music scene–officially solidified into Electric Eye and began working on their self-produced first LP.

The record spans a broad range of influences, channeling a groovy, plodding twelve-bar blues on one track and shimmering over Indian seven-note scales on the next. Each song takes its time to develop, growing into a multi-textured soundscape with layers of distortion, synth and long jams that could be a soundtrack to a movie, or a trip into outer space. Though Electric Eye embraces the expansive power of repetition, each instrumental line develops its own set of twists and turns, recalling the psychedelic sounds of seventies drone rock while also rolling a catchy array of pop hooks and bluesy rhythms into the mix.

In between a Portugal tour, Oslo Psych Fest, and coming to Austin to play SXSW this March, Øystein Braut was kind enough to chat with Audiofemme about drone grooves, the psych scene in Norway, and the influences that contributed to Pick-up, Lift-off, Space, Time.

AF: You’ve toured a lot in the past few months, including a trip to Portugal. How have your travels been?

ØB: I’d never been to Portugal before, so that was really cool. It was in the late fall and the weather was getting cold in Norway, so it was nice to head down there and enjoy the nicer weather for a while. We played seven shows, I think. The crowd was amazing. Most of the shows we played by ourselves, without any other band. We had some local support in a few places, but basically we did our own tour.

AF: You also came back to Norway to play Oslo Psych Fest.

ØB: I’m involved in setting up that festival as well–just trying to build a psych scene in Norway. We’re taking the model from the Austin Psych Fest, which I went to last year. [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”][Oslo Psych Fest] was a great weekend, and hopefully it will become bigger in the future. We played with ten other bands. We had Wolf People and The Rolydrug Couple, from Chile, and Disappears played just after us.

AF: What’s the psych scene like in Norway? Is it getting big?

ØB: I mean, Norway is a pretty small country, so everything is relatively small here. For the festival we had maybe two hundred people each day. That’s why we keep trying to get abroad as much as we can. Norway only has about five million people, so we have two or three cities that we call major cities, which are small cities by US standards I guess. It’s easier to go to the UK or Germany or the rest of Scandinavia, maybe the US.

AF: How did Electric Eye come together?

ØB: All of us except the drummer went to high school together in a small city called Haugesund on the west coast of Norway. We started playing together about fifteen years ago, and just kept playing over the years. Two years ago, we all started working on this project, which felt very natural since we’d been playing together all this time. With a new name and new songs, we had a new band. We started in 2012 with some gigs, and then we recorded an album. It’s gone really well so far.

AF: The four of you have played not only in different bands, but in different genres. How did you settle on the music you currently play?

ØB: I’ve always been really into psych stuff, but never had a band that did it. I had a lot of songs that were meant to be really long, and more psychedelic, experimental, whatever you call it. In the music scene in Norway, if you need someone to play bass on your songs, you just call them and ask them. It’s not really separated by genre. Of course there are some separations between black metal guys and pop guys. But the scene is really small and not that separated. We’re all musicians. For me, it’s not that different playing different genres, as long as it’s cool music.

AF: What was it like recording your debut, Pick-up, Lift-off, Space, Time?

ØB: We did it ourselves in our rehearsal room in the summer of 2012. We recorded the drum groove, which are sort of monotonous, and just started layering stuff on top of it. We really like to have a pop hook in there somewhere, even if it’s kind of got a jam sound. We worked on the album a lot during the fall of 2012. We produced all of it ourselves, because we kind of had an idea where we were going with it and knew how it was supposed to sound. It didn’t really make sense to bring in some producer, because we had a good idea of what we wanted it to sound like. So we just did it ourselves.

AF: What’s the significance of the album’s title?

ØB: It’s the first four songs of a Swedish album from the sixties, by a band called Hansson & Karlsson, and the album is called “Man At The Moon.” It uses, like…drums and organs, only. I love that album, and I thought it would bring some nice images to mind. I liked having a long title, as well. It sounded cool, I guess. There’s no hidden meaning. It sounds like a countdown for a space shuttle taking off.

AF: Is there a philosophy behind the instrumental, soundscape-like quality of the album?

ØB: I think we just decided to not be in a hurry with the songs, and not to feel like we had to be in a hurry to get to the chorus. We gave the grooves time to develop. It could be a soundtrack for a movie or something. And whenever we play live, as often as we can we use some visual projections, which seems to work really well with the music.

AF: You’ve mentioned you draw inspiration from India. Tell us how that factors in.

ØB: I went to India the year before we started this project. I’ve always been interested in classical Indian music. We use those types of scales, and some Indian instruments. Something called a drone box? Whenever we play concerts and we have it, it plays one really ambient, background chord. Compared to Western music, Indian music allows stuff to last a little bit longer. It’s more hypnotic. Some songs can last for twenty minutes and that’s not weird, that’s just how long the pieces have to be. That’s also the philosophy for our album. We don’t have any twenty minute songs, but we believe in letting the songs evolve to however long they’re supposed to be.

AF: It must be liberating to decide that you’re not going to pay as much attention to typical song structure.

ØB: We have short songs, but it’s kind of nice to have more space, compared to contemporary popular music, and not be stopped by the four minute limit. I mean, there’s a lot of stuff from contemporary, regular music that’s great. We use chorus and verse structure, but we don’t feel trapped by it. And when we play live, we try to let the song be a starting point and then improvise. It’s really important to try to keep it interesting, of course, and not to lose the hooks of the songs. The easiest thing is just to put on a lot of noise for twenty minutes, without any stuff going on in it. But to do it for twenty minutes and keep it interesting…

AF: There are also a couple of tracks (6 AM, The Road) that feel so bluesy. Is the blues big in Norway? Where does that aspect come from?

ØB: I always loved the blues. Some of the older blues has a lot of the same stuff we like to work with: groove, minor changes, being repeated over and over. That’s kind of what we’re doing as well. Here in Norway, older people listen to the blues more than younger people do. But it’s kind of the basis for all rock and roll.

AF: Do you incorporate traditional Norwegian folk music into your playing?

ØB: No, not really. Norwegian folk music is more dance music. It’s similar to Irish or Celtic music. They have some scales and stuff that we use, but I’m not really interested. I haven’t listened to all that much of it, actually. American pop music is more exotic, or exciting, for me.

AF: You’re coming to America in March, to play SXSW in Austin. We’re so excited to have you over!

ØB: We’re super excited. This is our first trip over. I’ve been to the US before, to Austin Psych Fest, but never played there. I have friends who say that SXSW is crazy, super crowded, super colorful. That’ll be cool. And then we’re going to start recording pretty soon, and hopefully get back to the US, and then get picked up by some huge record label–haha. I don’t know. We really just want to keep on doing what we’re doing.

Thanks so much to Øystein Braut for taking the time to talk with us! You can buy Pick-up, Lift-off, Space, Time here, and check out the ethereal and gorgeously spacey single “Tangerine” below!
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FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Queen’s “A Night at the Opera”

I have been listening to Queen ever since I can remember hearing things. The short drives to our swim practice in the summer were accompanied musically by some Queen album my mother had lying in the car. The one in particular I can recall as having stuck with me at the most susceptible time in my life was A Night at the Opera. I am sure this is the case for most people hearing Queen for the first time, as this album contains the one and only, “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Many a Waynes World-esque sing along has been partaken in on my end, and I’m sure as you’re reading this, you’re recalling similar drunken nights at a party or a bar. When the first harmonizing vocals come on, you can’t help but stop whatever the hell you’re doing and shut up for a second. You then continue to butcher the song into oblivion.

Their 1975 fourth studio effort was, and is, their most prominent album in their catelogue as a band, debuting at #1 in the UK and #4 in the USA. It also took the name from a Marx Brothers film of the same name, which I as a Marx Brothers fan was ecstatic to find out about a few years ago. Additionally, the album was the most expensive one made at that time. Besides “Bohemian Rhapsody”, A Night at the Opera saw the release of other infamous hits such as, “You’re My Best Friend”, a pop ballad now featured on car commercials, and “Death on Two Legs”. The latter was one of those “F-you” songs written about the ex-manager who screws you over, which has been disputed by said manager in a tell all book, and then re-disputed by the band members. Personally, I see it as a great breakup song or if you were wrongly fired for some reason, as I always was when I was younger. At least in my eyes.

Queen isn’t just all about Freddie Mercurys’ amazing showmanship and crazy vocal range, which in itself is something to write about. But also, lends a chance for the other band members to showcase their talents. Brian May is undoubtedly one of the greatest guitar players in existence, and a modern day wizard. He also is a brilliant songwriter, as he penned some of my favorite songs on the album, including the sci-fi guitar ditty “’39” and the multi-layered, Biblical-influenced epic, “The Prophet’s Song”. Their drummer, Roger Taylor, was keen on writing high-energy hits from behind the kit, including “I’m In Love With My Car”. There’s no real theme to the album, and there doesn’t need to be one. Every song on it’s own has the classic Queen sound, with the multi-tracked harmonizing and inclusion of random instruments that blend perfectly with the song.

Queen continued to make classic albums and even went on to write the soundtrack for the movies Flash Gordon and Highlander, in all of their campy goodness, which Queen was perfect for. The death of Freddie Mercury in 1991 brought a break in Queens’ stride. They put together a benefit concert for Mercury in 1992, which independently accounted for some well-known performances by extraordinary artists like David Bowie, Robert Plant, Elton John, and many more. Their tongue-in-cheek attitude towards music will stand the test of time, as they continue to influence modern days artists, even inspiring some to take their stage name from songs (Lady Gaga, from “Radio Ga Ga”). A Night at the Opera is a definite milestone in the music world and and opened my eyes to other artists before and after them, but I always come back to Queen.

Here is Queen performing a medley of “Killer Queen” (a track on their previous album) and “I’m In Love With My Car” in Montreal in 1981.

ALBUM REVIEW: Gringo Star “Float Out To See”

Though the world is hardly hurting for sixties-inspired doo-wop indie rock, Gringo Star‘s latest release, Floating Out To See, skews rock and roll in an irrepressibly colorful direction that’s too much fun not to pay attention to. Brothers Nicholas and Peter Furgiuele grew up raiding their parents’ record collection, and it shows: the Atlanta-based trio composed of the two brothers and, most recently, multi-instrumentalist Chris Kaufmann repurpose sunny riffs and hummable harmonies from sixties rock. Sometimes, their music could fit right onto a record from that decade, but more often a Gringo Star song feels like more than imitation: they recall the atmosphere of blissful excitement behind a Beach Boys song or a Turtles song, but along with evocative chord progressions and a generous helping of reverb, Gringo Star mix in plenty of modern-day psychedelic bells and whistles to bring off the finish.

The name, in fact, is not a Beatles reference. As the group told one interviewer a couple of years ago, it’s inspired by Mexican slang they’d picked up working in kitchens. That anecdote gives you a decent idea of what to expect going into Floating Out To See: the project was entirely DIY, the first of the group’s three albums to be put together without a producer, and the tracks on this thing are short, catchy, and crackling. The album sounds like a brilliantly half-baked bid for glory, but if you listen closer, the distortion on this record cloaks a lot of melodic detail and very strong musicianship. It’s as if Gringo Star wants to make simply-constructed instant hits, but can’t resist slipping him an extra riff or harmony here and there.

Then there are the unexpected instrumental breaks that pepper this album. Though they don’t seem to fit into the rest of the music at all, the musical lines are a pleasure to listen to, both on their own and laid over the rest of the band. The first song on this album, “In The Heat,” barely sees a vocal line, instead giving itself over to an easy beat that saunters through the track from start to finish. It’s an unpredictable opener for a band like Gringo Star, and although so many of the group’s beats and harmonies are well-worn, it’s only one of the ways in which Float Out To See defies expectations. Six tracks in, “Satisfy My Mind” melts from a fast-paced cut-and-copy rock number into an extended drum solo, which lasts for a solid thirty seconds.

With tightly controlled musicality, the album speeds up, and slows down, and speeds up again. Sometimes brooding, sometimes barely containing its excitement, Float Out To See contains an impressive number of elegant shifts in mood and intent. Gringo Star hits a gorgeous balance of immaturity and sophistication here, which, hopefully, will afford them room to experiment for many albums to come.

Find Gringo Star on Facebook, and watch the music video for “Find A Love,” off Floating Out To See, here:

EP REVIEW: Lolawolf

“…I wanna know what love is//I really hope that it’s not you.”

Formed mere months ago, Lolawolf is already one of the most anticipated acts of the new year. Lead singer Zoë Kravitz may have inherited her father’s last name, but he has generously bequeathed her with a fiery voice and rebellious attitude. When not circulating the tabloids for allegedly locking lips with Drake, she makes unruly music with her brand new but far from naive project. Don’t be fooled, for Zoë and her brilliant bandmates have crafted their new EP with a sound entirely unique unto itself.

Contrary to what one may conjure up when they read that Zoë has an already-signed band who is about to release its first EP, there is nothing Lenny Kravitz-y about Lolawolf. In fact she has managed to beat her dad at his own game (making music whose sex appeal is inherent to it’s structure) by quite a wide margin. “Drive”, which we have on repeat in our office, possesses a chilled-out synth pop/R&B foundation and irresistibly raunchy (yet subtle) sentiments, touching on themes of fucking, drinking and avoiding emotional breakdowns (“Would you take me to the west side// would that be alright?// I could stare out your window, and fuck you tonight”). With this track, she announces to the world that she’s neither riding the coattails of her famous father, nor is she interested in playing nice, nor does she lack talent. By the end of the song we’re nodding in agreement.

“Chainz” is the danciest track of the bunch, initially hitting you over the head with 80s pop references. Yet ironically, and what saves it from campiness, or confusion with a Paula Abdul jam, is that it’s the most emotionally fraught song of the five, exploring tropes of turmoil and intimacy, falling for someone whom you perhaps loathe, the trouble with disentangling love and hate, and happiness and sadness… and…well, bondage. “I’d put you in chains if I could change you”, she intimates, yet the drum machine and looping upbeat synth melody lines obfuscate the seriousness of its tone, and in turn create a sort of tension that keeps the listener gripped all the way through.

On “Wanna Have Fun”, the band (which consists of Jimmy Giannopoulos, James Levy, and Raviv Ullman, all formerly of Cult records’ project Reputante) takes a turn for the darker. Musically, it’s the closest to straight up electronic that they get, with low, driving bass lines, fuzzy beats and heavily reverbed vocals. Conceptually it’s elusive, perfectly mirroring its more sinister aesthetic underpinnings. Once again the listener is kept on edge, with lyrics like “you and I and she just could not be”–leaving eyebrows raised.

“What Love Is” is by and far the EP’s masterpiece, which they aptly placed as the last track, pointing us toward what we should expect from a full length. Structurally it follows suit with the synthy, dance-based thematic underpinnings of the set. However we start to hear a little bit of grungier sounding bass lines toward the middle of the song that add dimension and dynamism to each verse, letting them sonically build only to delve back into purist electropop for the choruses. Lyrically it does not betray the sweet and peppy melodic conceit. Kravitz once again reveals her preternatural maturity, delivered with a deadpan, “stoned and sexy” ethos, with the lyrics “When you and I get a little bit older, I’ll get caught telling a lie // Why can’t I get a little bit older ? // I hear it happens all the time”, and in questioning her capacity to remain faithful, remarking “Feeling all your whispers soaking in my skin // would it make me faithful? Why couldn’t I be faithful?” The kicker though is the chorus, in which she sweetly croons “I wanna know what love is // I really hope that it’s not you.” It’s both a kiss off and an intimate peek into the psyche of a young person struggling with the juxtaposition of the tenderness and carnage of love. This level of honesty is rare to say the least.

All in all, their debut is a risque, rebellious exploration of losing and find love, and of lust, distortion, and discovery. There’s no shortage of bands emerging who take stabs at the whole 80’s-synth-pop vibe but few have done it as effortlessly, and with as much balance as Lolawolf has with this damn-near flawless EP.

I guarantee they will be the band to look out for in 2014. Colossal things are in store for them.

Listen to Lolawolf’s two releases, “What Love Is”, and “Drive (Los Angeles)” off their self-titled debut EP which comes out February 3rd on Innit Recordings:

Year: 2014

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LOUD & TASTELESS: Sigur Rós

Every Thursday, AF profiles a style icon from the music world. This week, check out the beautiful boys of Sigur Ros, whose inimitably dark and mysterious ethos have ladies (and gentlemen) across the globe swooning.

TRACK REVIEW: Blondfire “Young Heart”

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AudioFemme’s Best of 2013

Staff Lists:

TRACK REVIEW: “Tie Up The Tides”

ALBUM REVIEW: together PANGEA “Badillac”

FEMME UNFILTERED: Hand Job Academy

VIDEO OF THE WEEK: This Stone Is Starting To Bleed

ARTIST PROFILE: Øystein Braut of Electric Eye

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Queen’s “A Night at the Opera”

ALBUM REVIEW: Gringo Star “Float Out To See”

EP REVIEW: Lolawolf

“…I wanna know what love is//I really hope that it’s not you.”

Ticket Giveaways

Each week Audiofemme gives away a set of tickets to our featured shows in NYC! Scroll down to enter for the following shindigs.

See you there! xoxo