NYC-based pop artist, Oktavian is back on the scene today with a new soulful R&B ballad, “Liar”. Replete with his signature, face-melting, hook-y vocal refrains that conjure a Justin Timberlake/James Blake love child, this track will make you want to simultaneously dance and cry. Check it out below!
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Watching The Weepies perform is like catching up with a childhood friend you haven’t seen in years — but not just an hour-long coffee chat. It’s more like a late night in a bar where you detail everything that’s happened over the past year, complete with photos of your pets and/or kids.
he indie folk band doesn’t tour frequently, but when it does, the audience gets an intimate glimpse into singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalists Deb Talan and Steve Tannen’s personal and professional lives. At Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley, CA last Wednesday, I got caught up on everything from their trip to the Monterey Aquarium with their kids to Talan’s upcoming solo record Lucky Girl, which has raised $57,021 on Kickstarter. The large room was packed, but it still felt cozy, with a crowd spanning all age groups.
Talan and Tannen both have distinctive voices, but they sound best when they harmonize, especially when one lags just a bit behind the other. Their lyrics are bittersweet, and their playful, catchy tunes and innocent motifs belie the mature subjects some of their songs tackle. “Be My Thrill,” for example, compares a lover all at once to a “little white pill,” an “unpaid bill,” a “sweet tooth,” and a “kissing booth.” Another highlight was their emotional performance of the poetic ballad “Painting by Chagall,” which sounds like it belongs in the credits of a romantic indie film.
The couple spilled their hearts out to the audience about everything from the argument that inspired “Be My Thrill” to Tannen’s desire for Talan to appear in an animated movie (which she definitely should because her voice is made for it).
“I don’t go to church. I don’t have a confessional,” Tannen said during the show. “This is it.” Between the couple’s heartfelt songs and candid stories, the show really did feel like a confession of sorts, and the audience had the honor of playing the priest.
In the 1973 film American Graffiti, restless high school students zip around in classic cars, aimlessly careening through the night for the sake of motion alone. Characters wind up in different scenarios; burglaries, burger joints, brawls…kid stuff. But the one consistent element between every car ride is the radio; specifically the station tuned to the legendary, real-life DJ Wolfman Jack. Despite the seemingly chaotic habits of the characters, their differing tolerances for mischief and crime, their ability to drag race-they all tune into Wolfman Jack regardless. His gospel is the only thing they can all agree on: the gospel of rock n’ roll from the lips of a once-revered Disc Jockey.
The kids in the ‘60s may have had Wolfman Jack. John Peel rescued youth culture in the decades after. But for those of us born into an era of pre-programmed radio stuffed to the seams with commercial content, it’s difficult to imagine a golden age of rogue radio DJs. If there was some magical frequency out there playing The Germs or Throbbing Gristle, it sure as shit wasn’t broadcasting in Arlington, Washington. It wasn’t until my dad moved almost an hour south from my small hometown for work that our antenna could pick up the station that would change the way I thought about music, and radio. That station was, of course, 90.3 KEXP.
I am thinking of KEXP now because, well, I am listening to it. Not streaming it online from afar in Brooklyn, but right here, in Seattle. Right now DJ Cheryl Waters is playing “Human Performance” by Parquet Courts. Earlier in her set, Waters spun tracks like Cat Power’s “Sun,” Beirut’s “Elephant Gun,” and the brand new Let’s Eat Grandma cut, “Eat Shiitake Mushrooms” among countless tracks I’d never heard before. Each is song different from the last, abiding by no confining genre guidelines-just exceptional music curated with a whole lotta love.
The publicly supported radio station was founded in Seattle in 1972, originally under the call letters KCMU. The switch to KEXP didn’t occur until 2001, right around the time Seattle billionaire Paul Allen commissioned that multi-colored metal tumor to strangle the base of the Space Needle: the Experience Music Project. EMP and Paul Allen partnered with the station, providing it with operating support for a handful of years. It put the EXP in KEXP, I guess you could say.
The station is now independent and operated by Friends of KEXP, and is largely funded through its audience, holding biannual pledge drives and promoting its donation-based membership program year-round. The weeklong pledge drives are a small price to pay for largely interruption free year of music. Upon first hearing commercial-free KEXP, I didn’t think it was legal to do that…broadcast sans advertising. I figured this must be some pirate radio, Pump Up The Volume starring Christian Slater shit. These guys must be in a bunker somewhere. Surely no one else had stumbled upon this gem. I may have been wrong, but it did feel like my own secret station-a safe and nurturing place I could curl up into.
For someone crawling out of a sleepy lumber town, the thought that any contemporary DJ could possibly spin a Wire song was unfathomable. Not only did KEXP play Wire, they would do so at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday. They didn’t have to hide their more obscure selections in the wee hours.
Each afternoon returning from high school, I would shut myself in my room, spread out the night’s homework, and turn on the radio to soak in the invaluable musical lessons KEXP had to offer. Sitting at my little desk it was often difficult to focus on the seemingly useless algebra and inaccurate history chapters. How could I when there were far more interesting things floating out of my speakers? Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, Fela Kuti, The Cramps, Art Brut…I would jot down lists of the bands I liked, later making a trip to Tower Records (R.I.P.) in the University District or Silver Platters to scavenge for CDs.
The most critical turn in my relationship with KEXP came about in that familiar scenario: sitting at my desk doing homework some weeknight…I think I was preparing for a debate the next morning. I sat, reluctantly flipping through note cards, when a storm rolled over the speakers of my Sony boombox. It was a simple gospel melody, but the voice preaching was nowhere near saintly. It sounded like gravel in a blender, like a diesel truck with emphysema, like an ex-convict whose diet consists solely of petroleum and wing nuts. The song was “Lord I’ve Been Changed” by Tom Waits. Nothing was the same after that. Waits has since become my favorite artist of all time, completely altering my perception of what makes music great, and what makes art worthwhile. I think it’s safe to say that that night changed my life forever, and it was of course all because of the good people at 90.3 FM.
KEXP not only exposed me to music I’d never heard before and to the records I would grow to love, it also taught me how to re-contextualize my tastes and break free from the boundaries of genre. After trying on a new subculture every few years for the better part of a decade, strictly adhering to each one with sonic intake and dress code, it was a relief to let the edges blur a little. I was no longer militant about remaining within the confines of what was punk, or mod, or rockabilly, or ska, or glam-I could eat all of them in one meal and add other flavors should I so desire. KEXP taught me that listening to The Dead Boys one minute and Dolly Parton the next was not only ok, it was totally badass, and far more realistic for the diverse needs of the human mind.
The versatility KEXP champions is not new to the station. Back in the KCMU days amidst a heavy indie rock rotation, they were the first station to play artists like Grandmaster Flash, which is no small thing. Yet another milestone for KCMU, just on the heels of the name change, was that it was the first station in the world to stream high quality (128 kilobit per second) online audio 24/7. That may sound a bit jargony, but think of all the online radio platforms that have followed suit since, and it’s rather impressive.
When people learn that I am a native Washingtonian, they often want to talk about music. And why wouldn’t they? Our alumni include Quincy Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Neko Case, Bing Crosby, Rickie Lee Jones, Kurt Cobain, Mark Lanegan, Mia Zapata, Carrie Brownstein, and countless others. But despite Seattle’s rich musical history, it is maintaining a fruitful present as well. 90.3 provides a sort of congealing community approach to nourish that kind of progress. Music is a main artery here, and I like to think KEXP is the heart of it all, pumping blood for the love of it.
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We’re big fans of Kiran Gandhi, aka Madame Gandhi, over here at AudioFemme. Between her globally-recognized activism, including free-bleeding as she ran the London Marathon last year for period awareness, playing benefits such as Fuck Rape Culture, and doing everything in her power to make the world a better place for young women, she is an endless source of inspiration in an often cynical industry.
On top of all that, Gandhi has somehow managed to commence a killer musical project in there to boot. Madame Gandhi melds her eclectic drum style with synths, looped melodies, and delicious licks of piano, flute, bass, or whatever she feels tickled by at the moment.
Fortunately, Gandhi doesn’t have to compartmentalize her passions, as she sees each discipline flowing into and informing the next. Her Harvard education helps her approach the world of activism more strategically; her music helps give color and voice to the political issues most dear to her, and her proximity to forward-thinking musicians allows her to lead a life that is constantly inspired.
I met up with Gandhi for a coffee earlier this month, to chat about her love of the drums, her upcoming musical projects, and the eternal wisdom of Spiderman.
Audiofemme: What inspires you? What moves you to write music and what do you hope to achieve with the project?
Kiran Gandhi: When I watch other people whose music I like the best, they make it look so effortless, and I think something that’s effortless comes from a really pure place; from a place that’s existed the longest, so it can’t be faked. When I watch artists who are doing so well right now because of that effortlessness, artists like Drake, Kalela, Tuneyards, Alt J… some of my biggest influences are those who really make their music so effortless.
…You’re there, your’e just moving through the song quickly, you know what needs to go where and it’s coming from this very pure place. So, in terms of the actual music creation process and what inspires me, it’s when I feel like my most authentic self is being represented with music.
And then in terms of my message, of course, my message is to make the world a better place for young women. To empower, to elevate and celebrate the female voice. I do really think that we live in a world where young people – young women especially – are taught that their value comes from their looks, and I want young people’s value to come from wherever they choose for it to come, in the same way boys are encouraged: “Oh, you want to be a carpenter? Ok, go be the best carpenter.” Or, “Yo, you wanna be a drummer? Go be the best drummer.”
I still think girls are taught: “Ok, you can be a drummer, but make sure you look hot while doing it,” and that can be distracting. We only have 24 hours in a day. Imagine if three-four hours have to be used to make sure that you have makeup on and you’re skinny. It takes away from our passion.
Can you talk about your relationship with the drums? What do you hope to inspire in future drummers, male or female?
With the drums, a lot of times because it’s not a melodic instrument, it doesn’t have a,b,c,d,e,f,g, we all think that the drums are just to provide a beat for somebody else to shine and that it’s a very personality-less instrument. But actually the drums are the oldest instrument of all time! And the instrument that has changed the least in the history of the world. Imagine; the drums we have today, which is just a skin stretched over a cylinder is exactly how drums were made hundreds of thousands of years ago. It’s the language of communication. And for that reason, my goal is to inspire other people, all genders, to find their voice on the drums, and that there’s no right or wrong answer when you’re playing an instrument.
When I sit at the drums, I mount things differently, I sometimes put the ride on the left side of my kit, even though traditionally it’s always supposed be on the right side. I’ll mount cowbells, I’ll mount bongos…I bought a bunch of drums from India and I inverted them sideways and put them on American snare drum mounts, and that’s actually part of why I got the gig with M.I.A., because my kit was so eclectic and drew from my own inspirations.
So, what makes me happy about the drums is that it’s been this huge tool for self-expression, it’s a place of comfort, a place of power, a place of control.
I also heard that Zildjian is the oldest company in the world.
That would make sense. The Istanbul families in general were the first to make the best cymbals. Right now I’m sponsored by Istanbul Agop. They’re just a phenomenal, phenomenal brand, they take care of their artists. Their cymbals sound like little fairies. Their L.A. distribution center is like three blocks from my house, so I go and visit them a lot.
I’d love for you to talk about your entrée into the world of feminism.
I think, informally, when I was really young, I used to gravitate toward male characters because I thought they were cooler. Like, Aladdin was on the carpet, you know? And Jasmine was always the object, things were done to her. And even in women’s history, the way male stories are told, they’re very in control of their own destiny. Whereas, any time female stories are told, they’re always the object of somebody else’s story.
In Hollywood, and most sitcoms, time and time again you see that the girl is the sidepiece or she’s the victim in his larger story, or in order for him to prove himself to be the hero he rescues the girl from the villain, and she’s never in control of her own story, which is not a reality. We as women are not objects of other people’s lives. We have our own narratives and our own stories.
My entry point into feminism was really identifying this intuitively at a young age. I didn’t have the vocabulary to explain what was wrong, but my feminism came from a very earnest place of being four or five years old and identifying with the male characters and not the female characters.
How do you feel “Fuck Rape Culture” went? What was it like working with Grlcvlt?
I loved working with Grlcvlt. I loved feeling this positive nostalgia from the ‘90s where there was a lot of organization around women’s rights. I felt happy to be in 2016 seeing young women organize around women’s issues to take care of each other. It was good that we had so many powerful women performing and singing. I thought what was missing and what I tried my best to bring to the table was more people on the mic speaking about what it actually means to live in a rape culture. And, where the actual problems lie, and what some of the solutions are to put forward to make the world better.
Systemic problems.
Systemic. What are the systemic problems? Why is this currently an issue? What does it actually look like to be sexually assaulted? I think people imagine someone beating somebody, or someone pinning someone down against their will and forcing themselves on the victim. Most rape cases don’t actually look like that… it’s far more subtle, and that’s why they get overlooked, because we do live in a society that privileges men, and so when things are nebulous we will air on the side of the assailant as opposed to the side of the victim.
I think my only criticism of the event was that I wanted more people on the mic who were either experts in their field when it comes to this topic, or have experienced types of sexual assault themselves and speak freely about this. I obviously had a lot of respect for Rose McGowan for getting on the mic and being so vulnerable in such a public space with so much press in the room, but I was hoping there would be more talk about these events that I could also be learning something.
I’ve heard you speak a lot about how you’ve applied your classic business education to music and the music industry and how you advise the music industry. How do you apply that same education to activism?
One of the most effective forms of silencing the voice of activists is to say that they’re just “being radical.” They’re not “intelligent. They’re not being strategic. They’re not being helpful. They’re just rebels to society. They’re causing problems with the status quo and not actually doing anything.” That’s how people have undermined most activist movements since the dawn of time, whether it’s Occupy Wall Street or Black Lives Matter.
Using my degree helps in two ways:
One, is that for better or for worse, having a degree that’s rooted in certifiable academia and intelligence gives me this credibility that when I say something people maybe give it a second listen.
And secondly, it prevents them from undermining my work and the people who I work with as being radicals and instead they give it perhaps more attention than they might. And because I’m so aware of this dynamic, I very intentionally try to be more strategic, try to choose which lever I’m pulling at different times, whether it’s the radical activism or more academic piece of paper or a speech. When I’m choosing which audience I want to influence.
Coming out of HBS [/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”][Harvard Business School] specifically, they really teach you how to have a voice, how to clearly articulate your thoughts and viewpoint and why you believe one thing is right over the other thing. That’s been so helpful when trying to speak about gender equality because the more you can appeal to someone’s empathy and intelligence when it comes to a political issue, the more successful you’ll be.
It’s like a classical Greek debate; there’s Logos, Pathos, Ethos…
That’s it!!! Yes, exactly.
I’m talking a lot about activism but I think it’s something that makes you very special as an artist-
Thank you.
Could you talk about the importance of artists talking about ethical issues, and what you think the role art plays in activism is?
My thought on that is twofold. The first is that even when I was young I was far more influenced by art and MTV and watching music videos than I was by listening to a political speech. Probably because I didn’t understand the political speech, or I thought it was boring or not visually engaging. And so, artists have such a power because they influence their communities subliminally, and they influence with their visuals, with the emotions, which set into someone’s psyche far more powerfully than a superficial conversation or a talk.
Secondly, art lives so many lightyears beyond where society is. It usually represents where we’re going, because the artists are the forward-thinkers. And, in being the forward-thinkers, they have this power. People take politicians and lawmakers more seriously than they take artists, and I always find that so ironic because in reducing, in thinking that artists are just artists and they’re not that important and not that powerful or influential, you actually give artists more power because they have more free reign to say whatever without being as censored as politicians and lawmakers are.
So then they actually influence far more quickly than politicians and lawmakers. It’s this duality that works in art’s favor. And then, to quote Spiderman: “with great power comes great responsibility.” So, to this day I always feel brokenhearted that the majority of what’s there on the airwaves is very denigrating to women, and does put women in an objectified position as opposed to a wonderful and upheld position.
I want to use my art and the power that comes with it, to offset that and to tell authentic and empowering stories about women that I know.
What’s up next for you? Are you currently putting a full-length album together?
I’m waiting to release my EP, which will be out this year sometime. After that I’ll be working on a full-length album with different collaborators who are in my life who inspire me. I think one of the fun things about being an artist is that sometimes you make one-off pieces of music. Like last night I was in the studio until 3 a.m. in Brooklyn and I made this really fucking cool song…just inspired music. It felt really good to make it, so when I make things like this, I think they’re the kind of thing that I’ll just do one-offs. I was there on the Ableton push just making a bunch of different drum beats and drum rhythms, kind of almost live DJing with drums. And then, adding in bass lines and then a friend jumped in and he added in this really jazz piano riff, and then I did vocals and we sampled vocals and I really want to finish that song.
When you’re an artist, there are songs that are right for the album-to be considered in a complete body of work that have a theme. And then there are other songs that are just moments of inspiration, with no organization to them whatsoever but they still sound beautiful and I wanna put some of those out to keep the fans interested.
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Although The Old Adage and their synth heavy, diy-pop sound is far from old news, we’re just now getting around to showing brother and sister duo Mimi and Nino Chavez’s some TLC. Formed back in 2012, The Old Adage has been trudging along as an independent duo (enduring a name change, a band line-up change and change back) releasing their sophomore album Cycles last year.
Confusing and cheeky, the track “RED” is a bit theatrically challenged and misses some attention to detail (I really wish someone would have ironed the table cloth) but in a way that is chalk full of charm and allure. Opening with what feels like a nod to Alice and Wonderland, the color red is brought to the forefront and we are introduced to Mimi, who takes on the role of distressed woodland witch, and Nino, who seems to have lost his car in a parking garage.
The labyrinthian cat and mouse chase between the two matches the urgency emoted by the songs tempo but throws too much at us to really grasp what’s going on. There are blips of stunning imagery and thoughtful lighting (i.e. Mimi in a studio setting backlit by a smokey red light and Nino’s overhead shot running through the stairwell) but most of the time it seems like an unintentional homage to Tommy Wisseau’s famed disaster movie The Room.
It may be a matter of difference in taste and aesthetic, but I can say that what The Old Adage has done is far from disingenuous. If anything, the kitsch factor (whether intentional or not) is the video’s very saving grace (which is just as confusing of a point as the video is a video). The song is danceable yet brooding enough to warrant a high-energy mysterious video counterpart.
My only wish is that they would have found a way to refine their vision and ditch the tangled story-line to pack a harder punch and to drag the darkness into the spotlight a bit more effectively.
Get caught in the rat race/brother sister chase below:
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Prinze George will play Baby’s All Right on Friday, August 19 in support of their recently released debut album Illiterate Synth Pop.
The pop trio is made up of producer Kenny Grimm, drummer Isabelle De Leon, and vocalist Naomi Almquist. Formed in 2013, Prinze George has quickly exploded onto the indie scene.
“Kenny is the producer, so a lot of the sound comes from his mad scientist brain and his excellent taste, musicianship and obsession with having the coolest and most current toys and sounds. All three of us are very inspired by the home that we share and by this journey we are on together,” Naomi said in an interview with AudioFemme.
The two singles from the record have been praised by Stereogum and SPIN, with the latter calling their song “Wait Up” a “cinematic ballad from retro-pop heaven.” Check out their latest visuals for “Wait Up” below.
This show starts at 8pm and is 18 and up. Purchase your ticket here!
The second the spiraling music of Sleigh Bells starts and the distant “Uh-oh’s” sound, it’s apparent that “Hyper Dark” is a more than appropriate name for this new release. It’s a whole new sound from their past work, which is more upbeat and in-your-face, but it’s definitely a side of Sleigh Bells that we’ve been craving without even realizing it.
“Hyper Dark” is a slower piece that feels like it’s working toward something huge from the get-go. It gets in your head and builds you up until you’re sitting up straighter in your chair, waiting on the edge of your seat for the action. And when it doesn’t quite come, you realize that was never the point of the track anyway. Then you listen to it again, because you can’t and don’t want to shake a quality track.
Get caught up in Sleigh Bells’ new whirlwind of a song “Hyper Dark” as you patiently await the release of their upcoming fourth album.
There’s nothing that makes you feel old quite like seeing some of your favorite bands from high school showcase 10-year reunion shows of albums you can sing in your sleep. But then again, maybe these nostalgic re-enactments are some of the highlights of getting older.
Recently my favorite band from high school, The Hush Sound, went on tour for the ten-year anniversary of their album “Like Vines,” and I was thrilled to catch them at Webster Hall on August 4. I’ve already seen The Spill Canvas this past year and have plans to see Taking Back Sunday with Th e Starting Line in a few months, so yeah, these are undoubtedly the days of my life now. (Go ahead, envy me.)
In high school, Greta Salpeter was essentially my indie rock idol, so being able to see that she’s still as amazing and talented as ever was unsurprising and inspiring. The Hush Sound swept the stage at Webster with the same energy they held at shows 10 years ago—I’m pretty sure the floor was shaking from all the dancing and jumping going on. The chemistry between Salpeter and vocalist/guitarist Bob Morris is undeniable; they play together as if they’ve been jamming and quipping out stage banter nonstop for the past ten years. As they laughed and made us guess what wine they were drinking (obviously it was a pinot noir), they rocked our teenage fangirl/boy hearts with some of our old favorites. “We Intertwined,” “A Dark Congregation,” “Don’t Wake Me Up,” “Magnolia”—have they ever composed even a “meh” track? Maybe “Lions Roar,” but I’m sure there’s someone out there that lost their mind when they played that one last Thursday, too.
After playing through the entirety of Like Vines, the night obviously couldn’t simply end there. Not before they jammed out other hits, which of course included “Crawling Towards the Sun” and “The Artist.” It was one of those performances where I found myself singing along to the guitar and keys parts when there weren’t lyrics to follow.
Salpeter’s tinkling keys were ringing in my ears as I left Webster Hall that night, in a total and complete Hush Sound-induced bliss. Now, if you need me, I can be found wandering the streets of New York with my iPhone 6 playing music that predates its conception.
Looking for a six-piece that you can indulge in? Check out SoCal-based Hunny and their “sadwave” sounds. Infamous among many for their unique style and humor, Jason Yarger, Jake Goldstein, Jacob Munk, Kevin Grimmett, Greg Horne, and Joey Anderson have been making a name for themselves after the release of their debut EP Pain/Ache/Loving last year. Regardless of tight space, Hunny put on a show to remember last Friday at the Knitting Factory in New York – “the windy city, the big pear” as the band joked. Starting off with some better-known songs like “Parking Lot” and “Cry for Me”, Hunny also treated the audience to both their new singles, “Vowels” and “Colder Parts” (which you can hear below), and threw in some even newer tracks that seem to still be in the making. If you’re down for a dance party with a band full of energy and passion, make sure to catch Hunny on their upcoming tour with Bleached and Beach Slang this fall!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlcUI8PvGzM
10/11/2016 Washington, DC Black Cat
10/12/2016 Virginia Beach, VA Shaka’s
10/13/2016 West Columbia, SC New Brookland Tavern
10/14/2016 Orlando, FL BackBooth
10/15/2016 Jacksonville, FL Jack Rabbits
10/16/2016 Atlanta, GA The Masquerade (New) – Hell
10/18/2016 Nashville, TN The Basement East
10/19/2016 Louisville, KY Zanzabar
10/20/2016 Newport, KY The Southgate House Revival
10/21/2016Cleveland Heights, OHGrog Shop
10/22/2016 Pittsburgh, PA Cattivo
10/24/2016 Columbus, OH Rumba Cafe
10/25/2016 Bloomington, IN The Bishop
10/26/2016 St. Louis, MO Old Rock House
10/28/2016 Minneapolis, MN Triple Rock Social Club
10/29/2016 Maquoketa, IA Codfish Hollow
10/30/2016 Omaha, NE Reverb Lounge
10/31/2016 Kansas City, MO The Tank Room
11/1/2016 Fayetteville, AR George’s Majestic Lounge
11/2/2016 Oklahoma City, OK 89th Street Collective
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Phantogram’s latest video for “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore” is an empowering blast that’ll have you ready to cut that lingering crush out of your life for good, while leaving you deeply unnerved. The video is dark, a bit disconcerting at times, and full of bondage. Like we said, it’s empowering as hell, and it’s also going to send more than a few chills down your spine.
Frontwoman Sarah Barthel leads the charge (and wears the bondage), her vocals packing a punch while also coming across as incredibly tantalizing. The video and song are enough to put you on the edge of your seat and get your heart racing, but it’s a feeling you’ll want to keep chasing. In fact, the rush from the video is so addicting that it’s almost ironic given the title. Keep an eye out for their upcoming album Three, which is expected to drop on October 7, and then get your fix and watch the video for “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore” again.
Sounds Good Studio is inviting you to the launch of their new art, music, and technology platform, Artist Partner.
The event will feature works from Indiana-based, multidisciplinary artist Jeron Braxton, who produces music, animation, video games, and Augment Reality applications. Jeron plays with the collision of disparate cultures that stem from his ethnic background and searches for ways to create work around feelings like love that unite all cultures.
At the launch of Artist Partner, Jeron will premier his latest animated short film “Glucose,” followed by a live performance. The event will also showcase some of his custom work, including his visual art pieces, an augmented experience, and an independent video game.
Artist Partner was created a group of friends who are active in the art and music industry around the world who wanted to make something that is simultaneously fun and meaningful. They founded Artist Partner in Beijing, China in October 2015, and the project centers on music and cutting-edge art including paintings, installations, and creative technology.
Artist Partner has been launched in different cities throughout the world in order to stimulate the development of emerging music and art, promoting a cultural exchange between different global scenes.
Join them for this free event, including free drinks on Aug. 13th from 7 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. at Open Gallery Space on 355A Bowery.
Brooklyn Bazaar Is Reopening
It seems like every week we’ve been reporting that a venue is opening or closing – usually closing. This week, we have some good news regarding the Brooklyn Bazaar. The beloved Greenpoint event, which featured live music and vendors, is reopening in September at the cross street of Manhattan and Greenpoint Avenue. As well as housing a music venue, the new space will be open every night of the week and feature a restaurant, four bars, and an arcade. The bazaar will officially open on September 9th with a Clap Your Hands Say Yeah show. Check out the show calendar here.
Listen To The ‘Stranger Things’ Soundtrack
As well as being a freakin’ awesome and addictive show, “Stranger Things” has a surprisingly catchy soundtrack (when characters aren’t singing along to “Should I Stay Or Should I Go,” of course). It was created by the Austin synth duo Survive, aka Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein. Need something to listen to while you ponder what’s hiding behind your walls? Stream the soundtrack via Apple Music below.
Hey, Remember Green Day?
Speaking of nostalgia, Green Day is back with a new track and lyric video. A quick review: it sounds very much like Green Day is supposed to sound/notable, puzzling lyrics are “I got my photobomb/I got my Vietnam” and “I want to be a celebrity martyr.” Watch below:
Chasing Lovely have released a live version of their track “Always and Never Enough,” and it’s definitely enough to pull on your heartstrings and make you feel some pretty serious emotions.
Hailing from Nashville, sister duo Chloe and Taylor are able to weave a vivid tale with their voices and light acoustic guitar that’ll give you goosebumps. This folky pair advocate working toward positive change, and their music is a fantastic reflection of that. “Always and Never Enough” is an introspective peak into how they process the positive yet tragic elements of the human element and everyday existence.
Sit back in a comfortable chair, turn on “Always and Never Enough,” and listen to Chasing Lovely as they offer you a new perspective (which seems particularly necessary as of late).
I am a scavenger, perhaps an opportunist, although that doesn’t sound very rugged. Ever since moving to New York in 2008, I’ve developed a wild thirst for the “hunt” whenever I return to either of my parents’ homes. The “hunt” occurs when after only moments of being beyond the doormat, all I want to do is rip through bookshelves, closets, photo albums, the garage, etc. It is a side effect of my severe addiction to nostalgia; a dangling carrot suggesting that around every nook I might find something exquisite. And, I typically do.
Despite the virtue of minimalism, I’m grateful as hell that my parents, especially my mother and grandparents (who we called Papa Charlie and Yaya), have saved so much over the years. At times, their collections verge on the side of hoarding. I once opened a drawer in Yaya’s house to find, among other useless knickknacks, a mason jar filled with tiny rosettes she’d fashioned from gum wrappers. There was nothing utilitarian about her “collecting,” but how can you deny the artfulness of such a thing? I couldn’t throw them out.
I could write a book gushing over all of Yaya’s clothing and bizarre creations I’ve acquired over the years, and someday I just might, but as I sit in my grandparents’ living room in Huntington Beach, California, it is Papa Charlie’s record collection that is scoring the evening.
Traditionally, I think of the “musical side” of my family as stemming from my father’s half of the tree, with so many songwriters weighing that branch. But, it was Papa Charlie who upheld the musical fanaticism on my mother’s side. As I flip through the dusty stacks of Charlie’s vinyl collection, my mom stands in the kitchen reminiscing about her wily dad.
“Back in the day,” she says, “after my mom would go to bed, he would whisper, ‘Go get another bottle of wine,’ after already drinking two or three, and we would just sit in the living room listening to jazz and big band, getting smashed. He would say, ‘Oh! Oh! Listen to that! Isn’t that marvelous?! Do you hear that?!”
I’ve certainly inherited Charlie’s propensity to always have a favorite part of a song, and then subsequently shove it down peoples’ throats while listening to it. I also share his need for ritual while playing records-attentively putting them on and just sitting and listening.
Charles Priddy passed away in 2002 near the Texas County he was born in. At the time I was on the heels of 13 – in peak preteen misery. I had relinquished the clarinet for electric bass in the hopes of making it as a punk musician someday. Papa Charlie, who was a devout fan of big band clarinetist Benny Goodman, was noticeably disappointed when I abandoned the woodwind. I couldn’t understand why. I had never thought of Charlie as an interesting person when I was younger. I knew he was a geologist, and one of the few members of my family who went to college. I knew he was an immense connoisseur of wine and rich food. I knew that he used to bury fossils from all over the world in his Orange County yard to “confuse future scientists.”
It was only years after his passing that I came to realize we would have gotten on famously. Today, as I flipped through his vinyl, through Django Reinhardt’s Swing It Lightly, Tex Ritter’s Blood On The Saddle, and countless albums of jazz, big band, bossa nova and flamenco, I wished more than anything I could sit with him, a glass of Syrah in one hand, just listening. I wish I could relay to him that my musical tastes have broadened since we last saw each other, and that with all the “noise” I love, I also dig on Artie Shaw and Art Tatum and Sergio Mendes, just like, and probably because of him. We would have a whole hell of a lot to talk about; food, my Yaya’s native Spain, our collective disbelief in god, food, and of course, music.
One of my favorite finds of today has been The Language and Music of the Wolves, which boasts recordings of actual wolves, narrated by Robert Redford. It is the land-dwelling equivalent to one of my favorite records in my dad’s collection: a collection of whale songs narrated by Leonard Nimoy.
Charlie was someone who was absolutely full of surprises, darkly hilarious, and smart as a whip. I credit all of my sarcasm and black humor to him, for better or worse. After he passed my mother was attempting to clean out a closet filled with cases of wine in his California home. Tucked away in a dirty little corner was a stack of Charlie’s vintage Playboys. The scoundrel.
But his reading habits weren’t solely of the centerfold kind. He was a massive fan of Hemingway, and shared the author’s love of Spain. When he married Yaya in the ‘50s, he quickly learned her native Castilian tongue and would take my mother and his wife back to the homeland often, stopping at as many of Hemingway’s old haunts as he could locate. On more than one occasion in such an establishment, my mother would look around at the bar, quickly noticing the dress of the female waitresses.
“Dad, are we in a brothel?” She would probe. Charlie would glance side to side. “Shh. Don’t tell your mother.”
His love for Spanish culture is evident in his record collection as well, with piles of flamenco LPs and recordings by classical Spanish guitar players such as Andrés Segovia.
My grandfather was a scientist and a romantic all at once. He could easily break things down with materialist logic, but he chose to save that for the workplace. He was a sort of bacchant, relishing in life’s edible and artistic pleasures with a pagan fervor.
My discoveries of the day do not shock me for the most part…though there is one outlier I don’t understand. Throughout my sifting I found a fair amount of German folk music. I ask my mom about it and she confirms that he loved polka in addition to Dean Martin, Mel Tormé and Edith Piaf.
“We used to go to this place in Anaheim called the Phoenix club,” she says. “It was a German spot and they used to have live polka music. One night he and I were quite a few beers in and we were dancing all over the place-so hard, that grandpa fell right on top of me on the dance floor. Yaya had to drive us home, cursing at us is Spanish as we drunkenly sang polka songs in the back seat.”
I continue to dust off albums, and there before me is a record that explains it all: For Singing And Dancing: Beer Drinking-Songs by the Zillertal Band. A nice marriage of interests, at the very least.
I of course cannot turn back time, or resurrect the dead. But I can sit in Charlie’s armchair, and put on Taboo by Arthur Lyman with a glass of wine in one hand, shouting “Oh! Oh! Listen to that! Isn’t that marvelous?! Do you hear that?!” to no one in particular. And sometimes, that’s enough.
Emcee, poet, educator, and Detroit visionary, Chace “Mic Write” Morris is unstoppable. Mic Write’s reputation as a renaissance man pales in comparison to the weight of his message and unconstrained fervor. As a slam poetry champion, Kresge literary arts recipient and a main player in the progressive hip-hop collaboration Cold Man Young, Write has tapped into the collective social conscious, delivering striking commentary on race, community, and injustice with an impervious directness by means of jaw-dropping scholarly rhyme schemes paired with beats suitable for both grinding or marching, respectively.
Even when shining a light on systematic oppression and gentrification, Write never waivers in making it a point to remind of us of joy, hope, and gratitude. “It’s been a hell of a year/but if you hear this then you still hear us,” Write proclaims in his latest track, “blak/joi,” a song balanced with care, but not with caution. “Blak/joi” is as much of a story as it is a rap and just as much of a call to arms as it is a love-lorn sonnet to the past and future. One of the most impactful aspects of Write’s performance is that it doesn’t feel like a performance. It isn’t a callused memorization of lyrics or idle notations on cadence or emphasis, rather an in-the-moment, impassioned retelling of a dream/nightmare turned reality where words are both spilling and fighting their way through clenched teeth.
“Oh can you feel it?/ocean couldn’t drown it/chains couldn’t slave it/bullets couldn’t kill it/cops couldn’t beat it/death couldn’t tame it/government couldn’t steal it,” Write professes in what is one of the most hard hitting rhymes on the track, again, dancing the line between hope lost and hope found. The most unassumingly heartbreaking line, though, is the disjointed chorus. The song trails off to Write admitting “Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be/sometimes I trip on how happy we could be” as if he reached for the clouds knowing he would only bring down dust.
Feel the power with Mic Write’s latest, “blak/joi” below:
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In the midst of crisis we assume those who suffer go unheard. And certainly that is how the victim of the Stanford Rape Case must have felt when her assailant Brock Turner was sentenced to a mere six months of prison after leaving her violated and battered behind a dumpster. The culprit for such unwarranted mercy was none other than Judge Aaron Persky, though the organizers of last Monday’s fundraiser at Baby’s All Right would assert the culprit was also the rape culture we live in. “Fuck Rape Culture,” the event put on by NYC’s GIRLCVLT directly donated its proceeds to the campaign striving to recall Judge Persky’s position. Even after the Brock Turner case Persky has been found unfit to rule, as he has sentenced Ming Hsuan Chiang-the man who pleaded no contest to a severe domestic violence felony that left his fiancé beaten to a pulp-to weekend jail. Persky, after his insolently lenient sentence, then bent over backwards to make sure Chiang would be able to get to work on time each Monday.
Fronting the recall campaign is Michele Dauber, a Stanford law professor, sociologist and activist. Dauber was present throughout the Turner case and took to the Baby’s stage last Monday, relaying how in court Persky “paid a lot of attention to Turner’s pain, Turner’s injury, and treated him as if his reputational injury was the injury that really mattered. And we really are here today to say enough is enough. Women and other survivors of sexual violence ― because it’s not only women ― have fought too hard and too long to be treated as if we do not matter.”
The evening was peppered with some remarkable acts including The Skins and The New Tarot. Amber Tamblyn offered an impassioned poetry reading while actress and rape survivor Rose McGowan gave an admirably vulnerable speech. Though the performer that stole my heart for the night was Kiran Gandhi, whose musical project Madame Gandhi finished off the evening with lingering beats and the appropriate amount of optimism to ignite the crowd even more.
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I’d just seen Gandhi at the Girl Power Fest last weekend, and while she never short-changes a crowd, she did seem to have phantom drum set while performing for the small Hester Street Fair. At Baby’s however, Gandhi was fully rigged with her kit, expert lighting, and badass “Ableton Queen” Alexia Riner. Gandhi, who will release her debut EP later this year and a full-length record to follow, interspersed tracks like “Moon In The Sky,” “The Future Is Female,” and “Keep Her Close” (a total banger), with informed discourse on “Herstory.” “I just have a bit of trivia, some Herstory,” said Gandhi. “If you have the answer just raise your hand and we have some merch for the person with the right answer.”
“Who was the first female millionaire?”
(Madam C.J. Walker)
“In the entire history of civilization, how many female world leaders have there been?”
(19)
I admit my hand stayed by my side the whole time. It seemed that the overarching point of this portion of her set was to shine a light on how shamefully little we are taught about women in history.
During her performance, Gandhi read from the Feminist Utopia Project, articulating a vision for the future of girlhood that equips young ladies with tools of strength and wisdom as opposed to focusing solely on their aesthetic traits.
Gandhi’s sets are multidisciplinary experiences, like the performer herself. She sings, speaks with the cadence of a great orator, conducts readings, drums wildly, beat-boxes, and engages with the crowd in ways I rarely see. She is in control while remaining warm and inviting. She is a great hope for the future of music and activism. And that future is female.
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The Brooklyn-based pop trio Prinze George just blessed us with the celestial sounds of their debut album, Illiterate Synth Pop.
The band is made up of Kenny Grimm working production, Isabelle De Leon working the drums, and Naomi Almquist working the mic. The three got together in Prince George’s County, Maryland in 2013 and have been inching their way to damn-near perfection ever since.
Illiterate Synth Pop takes its listeners on the divine journey of life, with its authentic narratives about feeling stuck, feeling love and finding a way to move forward.
The album left me with two take-aways: motivation and tranquility. After listening to tracks like “Move It” and “Wait Up,” you can’t help but feel inspired to do better and become greater.
Each song embodies a flawless sequence of Almquist’s heavenly voice floating over unique electronic synths and the dope beat of De Leon’s drums. It’s quite the combination, as you realize that each track is not only sensationally soothing, but super raw.
You can feel this in “Angels,” as the songs starts with choir-like electronics that get you in a daze, and then the beat of drums comes in hard, switching up the entire style of what you think the song is going to be. The vocals on this song make you feel like you are in the clouds, and angels are serenading you, protecting you. This track is eclectic, and can be appreciated by anyone, regardless of what music genre they’re into.
The album stays upbeat with tracks like “Kisses” and “Freeze” while interweaving the more chill songs like “The Water Main” and “Gonna Get You Out.”
There’s a line in “The Water Main” where Almquists says, “I’m awake and I find it exhausting,” – this is one of my favorite lines, because it shows the feeling of melancholy we all experience at certain times in our life, and kind of just feeling confused.
Illiterate Synth Pop is an impressively moving project, and I got a chance to speak with vocalist Naomi Almquist about its creation.
AudioFemme: I’m obsessed with the title of this album. The term ‘illiterate’ is usually not seen as a positive thing. What did you guys intend for the meaning behind the title “Illiterate Synth Pop?”
Naomi Almquist: Thank you! When we released our second single “Victor” in 2014, there was a blog that reposted the song with the headline “Illiterate synth pop.” They were making fun of the way we spell our name, but we thought it was funny and would make a good album name.
What were your main inspirations for the sound, flow & lyrics in creating this project?
Kenny is the producer, so a lot of the sound comes from his mad scientist brain and his excellent taste, musicianship and obsession with having the coolest and most current toys and sounds. All three of us are very inspired by the home that we share and by this journey we are on together. I write the vocals; most of the lyrics are inspired by the earliest experiences and relationships of my life here.
What does it feel like to be releasing “Illiterate Synth Pop” as your debut LP?
It is very emotional for all of us. It’s been a weird in-between year and a half for the three of us, we’ve been picking up steam professionally, but it doesn’t happen overnight. We took a year to make the record. We’re still living with our parents. We love Maryland but we’re ready to get the fuck out. Making this record was such an incredible experience; we recorded it in Minneapolis and I recorded the vocals in an airstream inside our managers warehouse. Prince’s former engineer, Evan Bakke, tracked the drums and vocals. It was a surreal and wonderful way to make a first record. There were good vibes in the creative space and we are so excited to finally be able to share it.
What type of energy would you like this album to create for people? What would you like people to take away from it after listening?
I just want people to hear it. We don’t get to control the way that people respond to our music and that is the beauty of making something that you mean and releasing it to the world. We’re not on some huge major label, we’re not trying to stuff this down people’s throats. It’s our first record. I’m curious to see what people think of it but I expect nothing. I’m stoked every time someone likes a song. I mainly just don’t want people to lie about the way our music makes them feel. Just don’t lie to me. (Lol)
Who are some of your inspirations creatively and musically?
PG: Kenny’s earliest inspirations were AC/DC and movie scores, Isabelle’s was MUSE, mine were predominantly female singer-songwriters; namely Lauryn Hill. Isabelle and I are both Beyonce fans as well and are obsessed with her new record. I love jack white and the white stripes; they led me to the decision to select and commit to a relentless color scheme in everything we do.
For people who aren’t familiar with Prinze George, what would you like them to know about Prinze George and your music?
We make synth pop, but there is a large range to what we can do. We have a lot of Hometown pride, family pride, and love for one another. We hope that it shows.
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Frank Ocean Album Still Shrouded In Mystery
After impatient speculation about when the singer would release his new album, Boys Don’t Cry, it looked like it would finally be released today after a mysterious live stream began on Frank’s website, featuring people doing woodwork in a large hall while ambient music played and the singer in a Bowie t-shirt. As of now (11am), it’s not here yet. Sources say the album will be released exclusively through Apple Music, so get ready to pay another $10/month subscription if you want to hear it.
Check out one of the tracks in the live stream below.
https://soundcloud.com/thisisallexperimental/frank-6-guitar
RIP Palisades
As we mentioned in June, the venue on Bushwick’s Broadway was shut down during Northside Festival for several code violations. Apparently, the shutdown is permanent, as Brooklyn Vegan has reported the former DIY space is now up for rent. No offense guys, but you were definitely a fire hazard.
Old Rolling Stones Commercial Uncovered
The Jingle was written by the band’s first lead guitarist, Brian Jones, and it’s kind of hilarious to listen to Mick Jagger mumble his way through singing the praises of Rice Krispies, including the slightly aggressive endorsement “Wake up in the morning there’s a crackle in your face.”
Spotify Wants To Replace Albums With Playlists
Via WIRED: “For decades, we all listened by the album: drop it on the turntable, put the needle down, sit back, and let the LP wash over you…. Somewhere in there, we lost the ability to just press play, close our eyes, and enjoy. Playlists are giving that back.” Today Spotify launches Release Radar, a weekly, 2 hour playlist curated just for you! (By an algorithm they use for everyone else, of course).
Friends of mine tend to think that my insistence upon doing things the “hard” or “old-fashioned” way is merely my last cry of pubescent rage sputtering out like a tapped keg. A “contrarian” they call me. A “grandpa.” And I don’t mind. I don’t expect to get away with printing maps of where I’m going for the evening or writing down people’s numbers in my notepad without some ball-busting. I get it. Your grandmother knows how to use an iPhone better than I do and so does your three-year old nephew. Fortunately, this is the one place I don’t have to painstakingly explain my love of vinyl, which to many people outside of our music-website bubble is absurd and archaic. But what about how we acquire vinyl? For some reason I can’t deal with going into a shop to visit the shiny “New Arrival” or “New Release” sections without feeling like I’m phoning it in. I want a struggle. I want to dig. Sifting through piles of Lionel Ritchie and warped Rick Astley singles is a long and grimy endeavor, but the jewel found amongst refuse is always more brilliant.
Of all the junk shops I patronize, I’ve yet to find one as enthralling as Greenpoint’s The Thing. Rarely is an establishment so true to its title; this place is a grotesque organism of its own. An entire eco system of other people’s stuff. With nary a millimeter of free space, the Thing is an institution of sensory overload. Miniature cityscapes are formed by cassette tape skyscrapers, framed by mountain ranges of books, DVDs, and polyester dresses. Getting to the back room is hazardous and requires deft leg weaving through precarious stacks of you-name-it. A magazine asteroid could launch toward your head at any moment. I’d personally recommend a hard-hat.
At first glance, it’s difficult to imagine there could be more shit in the Thing. In the far reaches of the first floor rest thousands of records, leaning like post-storm trees and abiding by no system of organization. There are always a few people scavenging through these heaps, typically men in their mid-thirties, all shading their find with a furrowed brow, like an archaeologist dusting off a shard of pottery. They inspect the spine, note the release date, slip out the onyx disk in the hopes of a scuff-free surface. I suspect to most people this ritual looks as ridiculous as polishing a VHS tape, but to me it’s like local slang.
Much to the hoarder’s delight, this first floor is only the foyer. Teeter down the cement staircase, watch out for the low ceiling, and tiptoe into the basement if you’re up for some extreme rummaging. Down here there are only records. LPs, EPs, singles, ‘45s, maxi-singles, extended re-mixes, etcetera. If the records upstairs were mountainous, the basement is home to Everest. In the past I’ve seen guys down here spelunking for records, fully equipped with respirators and latex gloves. Today I have the cave to myself, and I’m determined to find something great if not rare.
But here exists the dilemma with a junk shop record dive: it’s 99 percent grueling pursuit and one percent success. Couldn’t we just go to a proper record shop? Of course. Will we? Absolutely not. It’s just too easy to waltz into a store and pay $26.75 for a 1980 release of More Specials. From their shelf to yours, with little more than a debit transaction to narrate the experience, it’s just no fun.
Now I’m not delusional; I realize that despite its obscurity, affordability, and hearty population of asbestos, the Thing is a still a store. We may be participating in Capitalism on the slightest level, but we are still consuming. Sure we can slap tags like “up-cycling” and “collecting” on it, but at the end of the day: we are buying shit.
It is not my goal to reprimand those who buy new vinyl instead of used. Nor is it my aim to pat us collectors on the back. That isn’t the point. The point is relaying the experience produced by finding a great record amidst a surplus of awful ones. The thrill of consciously searching for something that is not a necessity, but a pleasure defined by quality and nostalgia, is intoxicating. I like to think of it as cultural vulture-ism: we pick clean the bones of a dead medium.
However it isn’t a venture void of frustration; realizing the appeal of an album’s cover far exceeds its sound is annoying, accepting that an artist’s third album is garbage compared with their first two is disheartening, and not being able to reach that stack of untouched records jammed in a far corner is downright infuriating. I always try balancing on a milk crate, reaching an index finger towards the filmy piles that surely no one has flipped through, only to slip and risk a landslide of vinyl.
Three hours is the average length of time I can spend in these situations. By then my fingernails are piped with grime, my back hurts, and I’m primed for a bout of hypoglycemic rage. I’ll usually have a handful of records that are nothing more than desperate attempts at filling the 12’’ hole in my heart-usually hip-hop maxi singles that will only be heard at a party. All of this, for ten minutes of background music? The head hangs low.
I trudge upstairs and glance at the French DJ guy who has a Whopper-sized stack of records he will be sampling by dinnertime. It’s not fair. If I was a DJ I would be plum-fucking-tickled with the hundreds of unknown disco singles lining the floors of the Thing. All I want is one, just one great record. And yet, as I take a step to exit, I feel the tug.
The tug is the scream of something sought after yet looked over: “Turn around! Look at me! I’m right here!” The tug generally occurs the moment you decide to abandon everything. So I listen, I look, and there peeking out from under a Madonna EP is Squeeze’s Singles: 45’s and Under.
Now, this isn’t a rare record. It’s not even an original LP. It is, as the title affirms, a collection of singles; but it’s been on my list for quite some time.
There are two types of audiences familiar with Squeeze: the one that is privy to their entire body of work, and the other that inquires: “Isn’t that the band who did ‘ Tempted (by the fruit of another ?’” I was, for a very long time, part of the latter group. Seven years ago, when my then-boyfriend suggested I listen to Squeeze, I recoiled in disgust:
“I fucking hate that song. It’s on the lowest rung of the Dad-rock ladder, right there next to annals of Huey Lewis and his News.” He retorted with that typical, yet generally accurate remark: “You just haven’t heard their early stuff.”
Well, I now say the same to you. Though the band’s first three albums Squeeze (1978), Cool For Cats (1979), and Argybargy (1980) should all be heard on their own, Singles is the perfect appetizer to peak interest in a larger meal.
Formed in Deptford on London’s South Bank in 1974, Squeeze was the brainchild of vocalist Glenn Tilbrook, guitarist Chris Difford, and the now-revered pianist Jools Holland. As contemporaries of Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe, the band occupied the space in English New Wave that exalted catchy, pure pop music salted with tongue-in-cheek lyrics. There is something doubly effective about Tilbrook’s honey-sweet voice recounting stories of accidental pregnancy and the ‘ol “Slap and Tickle.” These early years produced wry tracks that are tight yet raw, and a far cry from the overproduced “Tempted.”
The largest account for Squeeze’s shift in sound was the departure of Jools Holland in 1980. I liken his absence to a post-Mick Jones Clash, in which the songs lose a tremendous amount of integrity and quality. The lack of Holland spawned a breeding ground for songs like “Tempted” and “Annie Get Your Gun,” the only two tracks I’d skip on Singles.
The high-points of the album are truly in every other song, but if I had to narrow it down to three, I would recommend “Goodbye Girl,” “Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)” and the painfully infectious “ Up The Junction.”
Despite a slightly nibbled sleeve, the record itself is in wonderful condition. There are no scratches to speak of, and it spins without any signs of warping. These are the nerdy details, but they are important ones nonetheless. These are the details that make three hours of dusty lungs and a debit of $1.99 all the more worth it. As my mom always said: “no pain, no gain.”
Forged from the weightiness of post-war blues and the primally riotous audacity of 60’s garage punk, Detroit‘s scuzz rockers the Gories return to their hometown his Friday. Mick Collins, Danny Kroha and Peggy O’Neill formed the Gories (sans bass) back in 1986 and released three records between 1989 and their tumultuous break-up in ’92. During their undisclosed reign as underground groove-punk royalty, their influence was more wide reaching than their dismal record sales or crusty notoriety. Like true punks, the Gories’ reputation was marred with scowls and “wtf is this shit” variety, mostly due to their raunchy, primitive approach to rock. It’s an attitude that would later have Detroit’s prodigal son and father of Third Man Records, Jack White, exclaiming that the Gories “made people with Les Pauls and Marshall amps look like idiots.”
After a 17 year hiatus (during which punk died, was reincarnated into radio-friendly sewage, died again and is only now beginning to wear its old skin) the Gories reunited in 2009 for a European tour and again in 2010 to hustle their grime across North America. Since then they have played a handful of shows, though sparingly, but enough to remind us that true punk never really dies and what the Gories have given us is more than half-assed nostalgia on life support; it’s a tantrum.
Oozing with sexual deviance, masked by the hip-shaking, beer-bottle smashing juxtaposition of aggravated shimmy and shake, “Nitroglycerine,” from the band’s sophomore record, I Know You Fine, But How You Doin’ manages to box the un-boxable sticky, sweaty, no-fucks-given tale of Detroit’s premier garage punk pioneers. A perplexing mix of John Lee Hooker and the Cramps, the Gories hoot and howl while channeling some Velvet Underground-level chaos as the guitars suffer battling seizures, and the drums find home in a constituent heartbeat-beat reminding us that the band’s homeostasis, although compromised, is far from expired. The lyrics “She’s volatile/she’s my baby” are delivered with some 1950’s innocence or doo-wop cadence but is quickly dismantled by a rapid-fire sex-beat that keeps us guessing even 26 years later.
Get weird with the Gories 1990 video for “Nitroglycerine” below and catch the Gories with Pretty Ghouls, Mexican Knives and Trash DJ’s at El Club Friday August 5th, 2016 | Tickets $20
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Looking for a unique spin on the whole #ThrowbackThursday craze, or perhaps a new way to interpret 90s nostalgia? Well, It Was Romance is five steps ahead of you with the new video for their single “Hooking up with Girls.”
The video pays an homage to Fiona Apple as a shot-by-shot remake of Apple’s 90s hit “Criminal,” which frontwoman Lane Moore went above and beyond to recreate. She sought out similar clothing as to what Apple wears in her video, and aimed to find a matching setting as well. And on top of this already diligent fangirl tribute, it was also recently the 20th anniversary of Apple’s album Tidal. If that’s not dedication to a release, I don’t know what is.
Similar to “Criminal,” “Hooking up with Girls” is emotional, raw, and vulnerable. “I’ve always been obsessed with 90s music videos, and Fiona Apple has been a musical inspiration to me since I was a kid,” Moore shared. “The ‘Criminal’ song and video are both so sexy and frustrated and angry and conflicted, all of which were themes in ‘Hooking up with Girls.” It’s the sort of video that inspires emotional purges and can serve as the track that plays in the background of your own personal documentary as you come to an epic love life realization.”
On top of acting in the video and providing the spine-tingling vocals, Moore also directed “Hooking up with Girls” with a diverse crew, including many LGBT folks. It’s the true definition of a passion project, one that Moore has been working on for over a year. “I love the original video so much, so to be able to take that original and add a queer element, and then tie it to this song that I’ve been dying to release as a single forever feels wonderful.”
Check out the official video below, then head over to It Was Romance’s Bandcamp or Spotify to hear more of their captivating tunes.
This week’s New Music Monday, comes to you from Promises Ltd., a new project from Chrome Sparks’ Jeremy Malvin and Charlie Brand of Miniature Tigers. Their union gives us this sweet track, “Days of Lavender”, which is the first single to be released from their forthcoming self-titled EP that’s due out August 26th.
Promises Ltd. came together as naturally as it could, through a long-time friendship between Brand and Malvin. Comfort seems to be a catalyst to producing great music, and these two seem to have an understanding of each other although their musical background exists on opposite ends of the spectrum. Jeremy Malvin’s Chrome Sparks is heavy with chill-wave beats and synth while Charlie Brand’s Miniature Tigers are responsible for catchy indie-pop songs. Their newest single is a testament to the fluidity of music and the power of collaboration.
Give it a listen below:
Our electropop wonder-boy, Von Sell, is back with a brand new single, “Stay” following his last release, “I Insist“, which came out in April to ubiquitously enthusiastic reviews. His debut EP will be dropping this fall, and “Stay” is the perfect teaser to show us what’s in store. More electronic in conceit than his previous two singles, it begins with a downtempo, glitchy synth line and smooth bass. Von Sell’s signature, attention-grabbing vocals float above the bedrock of the track striking a balance between ambient and sweltering-hot, right in time for August. In the lyrics, he beckons us to “come over, and stay…”, and we can’t help but comply. Of the new song, he waxes personal: “I remember thinking about these archaic roles men and women assign each other in relationships, emotionally, sexually, temperamentally, intellectually. We’ve evolved in every way until it comes to how our relationships actually materialize. It’s like we’re still wearing our kids clothes and they hardly fit but we refuse to buy something new in our size ‘cause of our programming.”
Take a listen to “Stay”, and catch Von Sell at his artist residency this month at Pianos in NYC on 8/10, 8/17, 8/24 & 8/31
10/27 Caroline Polachek @ Bowery Ballroom
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