Shot in a Brooklyn warehouse at 4 a.m., the new video for “CCA” by electronic rock duo KNTRLR features snarling vocals and swift-kicking drums from KNTRLR members Michael Henry and Charles Davis as well as a fast-paced chase between trained fighters J. Parker Wood and Andrew Chaffee.
KNTRLR may be an electronic production duo, but it contains the kinetic energy that can only come from humans beating on instruments. Live they play with friends they know from the NY music scene who help fill out the sound and provide an energy you can’t get with samples streaming out of a laptop.
Also, have a listen to “Stab” below. It’s quite a cool down from the adrenaline rush of “CCA”.
And, just as I promised yesterday, here’s your Halloween treat from Little Ghxst
In the video, President Obama wishes everyone a Happy Halloween and then warns us of a leak at the Fukushima reactor that has caused mutations and a comet passing over the Earth that has rendered electronics useless! A fly with the head of Little Ghxst buzzes over the skyline only to get caught in the web of a Gucci spider. The ghosts of Marilyn Monroe, Biggie, Tupac, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, and GG Allin all make appearances as Little Ghxst struggles.
Last month I posted the video for “Slaver” from the band Pompeya. Now, the US full-length debut is available! Tropical is an ode to 70s disco and 80s new wave in a sound that is pop music in its finest form. The Moscow-based group has seen “Power”, “90”, and “Slaver” as the record’s first singles, each accompanied by all new music videos. The LP will be paired with a remix EP, which features contributions from Psychemagik, Fred Falke, Jimmy Edgar, and more. The official Remix EP will be included as a free download for those that purchase the 12” special edition double vinyl, and will be released officially in December 2013.
Having just completed a blistering run around Australia, DEEP SEA ARCADEblew audiences away with some killer new tracks crafted during their nine-month sojourn to the UK, a preview of next year’s sophomore album.
The band have today dropped a psychedelic visual feast for their new track “Black Cat”, drawing both on footage from their trip and on footage submitted by fans.
The band have spent the best part of the last year soaking up the UK culture and imparting some of their own while working on a slew of new tracks, quickly creating the same buzz in their temporary home of London which lead to them being one of Sydney’s most respected indie acts.
Recorded and mixed by Dan Grech-Margueray (Lana Del Rey, The Vaccines, Howling Bells, The Kooks), Black Cat has proven a worthy followup to their debut album Outlands, which had a worldwide 2012 release through Ivy League Records, with singles heavily supported in Australia by national youth network Triple J and influential community station FBI and in the UK by BBC 1, BBC 6, and XFM.
Aside from a sold out tour Australia’s major cities and a spot on Australia’s prestigious Big Day Out festival, the band have been on the road with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The Charlatans, Girls, Kaiser Chiefs, Cloud Control and Modest Mouse. They have also toured the UK and Europe extensively, including appearances at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound Festival, The Great Escape In Brighton, Liverpool Sound City, Berlin Independent Night, Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg and sold out shows in London before returning to Australia for their recent welcome home tour… a warmup to what is going to be a huge 2014.
Ha Ha Tonkarecently released their highly anticipated fourth full-length album, Lessons, via Bloodshot Records.
The album was recorded at Bright Eyes’ ARC Studios in Omaha, Nebraska and in NYC with producers Dan Molad (Lucius) and The Ryantist. With a sound described as “southern rock meets The Cure” by My Old Kentucky Blog,the band today unveils their captivating live video for album title track, “Lessons.” Check out the entrancing “Lessons” (Live Video)below.
Ha Ha Tonka has become renowned for its authentic, effortless brand of indie-Americana, seamlessly fusing the traditional with modern, contemporary elements. Their track, “Usual Suspects,” was featured in the latest episode of CBS hit series, Criminal Minds.
“A delightful shock from China ….. a sly variant on Seventies New Wave: a dynamic singer, Helen Feng, who bears a strong vocal resemblance to Blondie’s Debbie Harry, fronting a White Stripes-style rhythm section – male guitarist, wicked female drummer – that threaded loops and programming through heavy blues and dance floor rhythms….. – at once rough and digital… my first best of the fest.” – ROLLING STONE (David Fricke, Senior Editor)
If the music planet these days is inhabited by candy colored pop munchkins, ruby red dance floors, and twerking teddy bears, here comes the Wicked Witch of the East. Staunchly opposed to the oh so technicolored predictable dance tracks that have goo’d and gaga’d the world, a band out of China, yes you heard me, China, has produced an electronic EP finally with a nasty, nasty side to drive fear into the all the denizens of OZ.
This is not for the club, but for the lonely, lonely walk home after a night at the club. It’s music for walking through streetsfilled with tranny prostitutes (Beautiful Boys) and coming down from lord knows what (My Song 9). As if emerging from the polluted fog of Beijing, Nova Heart gives you garbled transmissions from an enemy satellite, telling you that for every up there is a down, for every pleasure there is a price.
And this message, like an ominous counterpoint, is filled with sex unfulfilled and builds that lead to a slide into oblivion. Dark analog scenes created by Italian cowboy Rodion are filled to the brim with the siren’s call of lead singer Helen Feng that promises both sex and mortality – all at the same time. Deceptive pop melodies that lead you down the road as if setting you up for the kill before they diverge and you drop down that endless well.
Live, Nova Heart is like watching a gathering at a religious service gone dangerously wrong. The world’s most amazing female drummer, ATOM, the size of a munchkin herself, powers through a show that feels like a voodoo ceremony while Helen holds the pulpit like an evangelical preacher shaking and panting as if she´s feeling some spirit possessing her body and asking for your souls. The guitarist (LOOP), sends only the dirtiest warbliest Floyd-like hooks out in crashing waves as the bassist plays distorted grooves that seems some strange baby called industrial funk.
And from the music and the sound they tease at past hours on that ruby dance floor, dancing around aged genres but never landing flat footed in anything predictable. Perhaps only a group coming out of China can dare to make such predictions, the exuberance of the never ending 80’s finally in coda, and all we are left with is an illusion, the afterglow of the ecstasy, and the fear of facing the consequences of our excess. Perhaps it takes a band that lives in a place where the foibles of a self-obsessed world are exaggerated to 1.6 billion degrees to create the come down album of their generation. This is not a political statement as it is more of a moment of contemplation on just how it feels when the party is over. And if you’re lucky, these are the tracks for the after-after party in purgatory.
Check out the new video for Cut Copy’s title track, “Free Your Mind”. Alexander Skarsgård fans rejoice!!!
Cut Copy’s fourth studio album, titled Free Your Mind, will be released November 5th. The album is now available for pre-order via iTunes. Pre-order comes with an instant-grat download of the “Free Your Mind” single. And check out the remix from Spiritualized below.
10/27: Asheville, NC @ Mountain Oasis Festival
10/29: Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
10/31: Reno, NV @ Knitting Factory
11/1: Portland, OR @ Roseland Ballroom
11/2: Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
11/3: Los Angeles, CA @ HARD Day of the Dead Festival
11/6: Tempe, AZ @ Marquee
11/7: El Paso, TX @ Trickly Falls
11/8: Austin, TX @ Fun Fun Fun Fest
11/9: Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
11/10: Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom
11/11: St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
11/13: Madison, WI @ Majestic
11/14: Chicago, IL @ Riviera
11/15: Toronto, ON @ Danforth
11/16: Boston, MA @ House of Blues
Tastemakers around the US have been buzzing ever since Gossling’s new single, “Never Expire” hit the web in late August, climbing to #7 on Hype Machine at the same time it hit the Top 20 on Australia’s Triple J.
Plucked harps, guitar climaxes, and retro, European disco. Such is the amalgam of sounds that form the musicianship of Melbourne’s Gossling, also known as singer/songwriter Helen Croome. With sonic inspiration found in records by artists such as Goldfrapp and Metronomy, combined with Gossling’s heartfelt, diverse, and seriously enchanting talent and dreamy, startling voice, her upcoming full-length, Harvest Of Gold (to be released in the US in early 2014), insures that another great Australian talent is about to sweep the globe.
“Hopefully with this album the people who’ve only heard my singles will realize the extent of my songwriting,” says Helen, who signed to Dew Process in September 2012 following three acclaimed independent EPs: 2009 debut If You Can’t Whistle, 2010’s Until Then, and 2012’s Intentional Living. “I want listeners to stick with me as an artist, and enjoy the progression I’ve made.”
Gossling has already caught quite a few ears in the US via TV placements in American Horror Story, Gossip Girl, Nashville and Graceland.
October 15 @ Pianos (NYC)
October 18 @ Pete’s Candy Store (NYC)
Oct 19 @ The Delancy (NYC)
Oct 19 @ Arlene’s Grocery (NYC)
Oct 21 @ Bootleg Theater (Los Angeles)
Pompeya is about a month away from releasing Tropical, their first LP in America out on October 29th via No Shame. Today, the band is putting out the single for the third track on the album, “90“, and a music video for the song “Slaver“. While both tracks feature the signature Pompeya groove, they each have their own distinct flavor, showing off the consistency and versatility of the band’s songwriting abilities.
MTV Hive had this to say: “Slaver”, the first single and opening track off ‘Tropical’, is a supreme debut into the celestial world that is Pompeya. With a clear knack for arrangement, the band merges lush synths with spiraling guitars and a rhythm section bringing relentless, heavy funk.“ Click here for the full feature.
Musically Amusing 