HAERTS is a band from New York hailing from Germany, England, and the United States. The group consists of Nini Fabi, Ben Gebert, Garrett Ienner, Derek McWilliams, and Jonathan Schmidt. The band’s first single “Wings” was produced in collaboration with Jean-Philip Grobler (aka St. Lucia). HAERTS’ debut album is due to be released this year.
Category Archives: video
The Last Bison Covers M83’s “Midnight City” AND Releases Debut Album Today
Back in November last year, I posted about The Last Bison with a free download of their track, “Switzerland.” (You can see the post here.) Well now, The Last Bison has officially arrived with the release of their full-length debut album, Inheritance via Republic Records. In support of the release, the band is currently on the road through mid-April, including stops at SXSW, Savannah Stopover Festival, the Tree Fort Music Festival and more. The band also took time to film a BEAUTIFUL cover of M83’s “Midnight City,” which you can watch below.
The Virginia indie folk septet roams in its own pastures, threading together strands of classical, indie, and rock into a vibrant sonic patchwork, which the members have cleverly dubbed “mountaintop chamber.” The first single “Switzerland” whisks listeners away from the rustic heart of the American south into a cold European eve under the winter stars. It also elegantly evinces the group’s robust instrumental fusion and warm, wistful melodies.
The best kind of art is always a family affair, and Ben Hardesty fronts The Last Bison being joined by his dad Dan and sister Annah. Their ranks also include lifelong friends Andrew and Jay Benfante, Teresa Totheroh, and Amos Housworth.
Already, the sounds of the rustically soulful collective have resonated powerfully with the press with their Inheritance EP drumming up widespread acclaim. NPR encapsulate their enigmatic style calling it “classical-influenced Southern folk-rock,” while the LA Weekly praised them for being “At once epic and intimate, great-outdoorsy and fireside cozy.” PopMatters fittingly declared, “Are The Last Bison a Band to Watch in 2013? Most definitely.”
The Last Bison invite everyone to join their family now and enjoy Inheritance.
UPCOMING TOUR DATES:
3/05 – Athens, GA – The Melting Point
3/06 – Decatur, GA – Eddie’s Attic
3/07 – Savannah, GA – Savannah Stopover Music Festival
3/10 – Denton, TX – 35 Denton Music Festival
3/11 – Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s Downstairs (free show)
3/12 – Austin, TX – Blackheart (Paste Magazine/Newport Folk Festival Showcase, 12am)
3/13 – Austin, TX – SXSW
3/15 – Austin, TX – The Wild Honey Pie Showcase @ Uncorked (900 E. 7th St, 3:45pm)
3/18 – Denver, CO – The Soiled Dove Underground
3/20 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
3/21 – Boise, ID – Tree Fort Music Festival
3/22 – Wenatchee, WA – Caffe Mela
3/23 – Seattle, WA – Tractor Tavern
3/24 – Vancouver, BC – Media Club
3/26 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
3/29 – San Francisco, CA – The Rickshaw Stop
3/30 – Los Angeles, CA – The Mint
4/02 – La Jolla, CA – The Loft (UCSD)
4/05 – Kansas City, MO – The Record Bar
4/06 – Ames, IA – The Maintenance Shop (Iowa State University)
4/08 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue & 7th Street Entry
4/09 – Milwaukee, WI – Club Garibaldi
4/10 – Chicago, IL – Schubas Tavern
4/12 – Bloomington, IN – The Bishop
4/13 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom
4/14 – Louisville, KY – Uncle Slayton’s
Filed under Awesome, Check 'em Out!, downloads, listen, new albums, Shows, video, Whoa!
Video: The Leisure Society – “Fight For Everyone”
Double Ivor Novello nominees The Leisure Society are to release a brand new album, Alone Aboard The Ark, on April 16 through Full Time Hobby. The new LP – recorded at Kinks frontman Ray Davies‘ Konk Studios – is the follow up to 2011’s lauded Into The Murky Water, which the band toured in ever distinctive fashion, including a date at the London Barbican backed by the 40-piece Heritage Orchestra. The band is planning to make the trip for the first time across the pond to play in America later this year.
Fittingly, Alone Aboard The Ark sees the band expanding their arcadian, Baroque pop sound with a more diverse array of sounds and inventive orchestration. Following a summer of rehearsals beside the River Ouse in Befordshire, The Leisure Society decamped to Konk Studios to begin recording the tracks that would become Alone Aboard The Ark. Having declared himself a fan of The Leisure Society, Kinks frontman Ray Davies (owner of Konk) originally sought out the band to help him arrange and record his new solo material, and also included the band in his curation of 2011’s Meltdown Festival on the South Bank.
The genesis of The Leisure Society spans back to the friendship made by Nick Hemming and Christian Hardy in their hometown of Burton on Trent. When the pair relocated to London they fell in with the Brighton-based Wilkommen Collective, and with Helen Whitaker, Mike Siddell and Sebastian Hankins, came to form The Leisure Society. The single “The Last of The Melting Snow” from their debut LP The Sleeper was nonimated for a 2009 Ivor Novello (alongside heavyweights such as Elbow & The Last Shadow Puppets), and the band joined an incredibly select group when a year later, “Save It For Someone Who Cares” was also nominated for an Ivor.
Lyrically, Alone Aboard The Ark is an album informed by a palette as eclectic as it’s musical flesh. Album standout “The Sober Scent of Paper” is a hair-raising waltz informed somewhat unconsciously by the demise of Sylvia Plath: “When I began writing” says Nick “I didn’t know what it was going to be about. For some reason, the first line “Chains dredge the great lake around you / Pull you along by the knots in your hair” made me think of her. I guess it’s quite a dark desolate image”. Yet there’s light to this shade, with “Tearing The Arches Down” marrying a wryly observed narrative “The boy with the bloodshot eyes / A legend in your lunchtime” to an ebullient chant.
Having recorded both The Sleeper and 2011’s follow-up Into The Murky Water in home studios, the range of technology both old and new at the band’s disposal at Konk proved to be the perfect foil for The Leisure Society’s ambitious designs. Alone Aboard The Ark was recorded on a 2″ tape machine and a 1970s mixing desk, and the value of recording live, coupled with the band’s minimal approach to arrangement, is borne out across the album. Nick Etwell’s (trumpeter to Mumford & Sons) brass lines permeate “One Man and His Fug”, whilst the electric guitar lines heard on “The Last in A Long Line” were the product of Christian and Mike’s two Gretches recorded playing at opposite ends of the studio. Even the piano part for “We Go Together” underwent a nocturnal reinvention when Christian had ‘a moment of inspiration, whilst deeply drunk at midnight listening to the playback”.
The Leisure Society – Alone Aboard The Ark – Track listing:
1. Another Sunday Psalm
2. A Softer Voice Takes Longer Hearing
3. Fight For Everyone
4. Tearing The Arches Down
5. The Sober Scent Of Paper
6. All I Have Seen
7. Everyone Understands
8. Life Is A Cabriolet
9. One Man And His Fug
10. Forever Shall We Wait
11. We Go Together
12. The Last In A Long Line
Filed under listen, new albums, video
Listen: MS MR – “Fantasy” (Kele from Bloc Party Remix)
Earlier this month, MS MR revealed their first official music video for their new track “Fantasy.” The band explained: “Shot on location in Jamaica, Queens with our dear friend and talented director Austin Peters, the video for “Fantasy” stays true to the main themes and questions behind the track: things we imagine or think we understand are not as they appear. This video presents a world filled with fantasies gone wrong where the mundane, the surreal and the supernatural are all intertwined and what is real becomes a matter of perspective.”
The song is off of the band’s debut album Secondhand Rapture out May 14th in the U.S. on Columbia Records.
Also, check out the “Fantasy” remix by Kele Okereke from Bloc Party.
Listen: MS MR – Fantasy (Kele from Bloc Party Remix)
MS MR continues to enthrall fans around the world with their compelling blend of pop. With “Fantasy” quickly rising to #2 on the Hype Machine ‘Popular’ charts. MS MR is the moniker for Lizzy Plapinger and Max Hershenow. The duo’s debut Secondhand Rapture is comprised of 12 tracks and was produced by Hershenow, with additional production and mix by Tom Elmhirst. The duo recently played a handful of new songs during their sold-out stints at NYC’s Mercury Lounge and headline debut at the Echo in Los Angeles. You can catch the band performing at this year’s SXSW.
MS MR live:
Wed 3/13: C3 – Lamberts, 401 W. 2nd Street. @ 3:30pm
Thu 3/14: Hype Machine – Hype Hotel, 301 Brazos/3rd Street. @ 12am
Fri 3/15: Filter/Columbia – Cedar Street Courtyard, 208 W 4th Street @ 2:30pm
Sat 5/11: Columbia, MD @ Sweetlife Festival
Sat: 5/25: Boston, MA @ Boston Calling
Fri 6/7: New York, NY @ Governors Ball
Related articles
- Video: MS MR – “Fantasy” (musicallyamusing.com)
- New Track: MS MR – “Fantasy” (musicallyamusing.com)
Filed under new albums, remixes, Shows, video
Stream: Conquistador – “I’m Alive”
Conquistador attacks again with another contagious, psych-pop hit “I’m Alive.” Expanding from his trippy persona, Conquistador enters a new realm of intoxicating glam electro. He recently released a video that won this year’s Machinima Interactive Film Fest and was an MTVU Freshman video nominee– check it out below.
“I’m Alive” was inspired in part by the Arab Spring. Conquistador has been involved with the Free Iran organization in Sweden and donated music to them at the height of the Green Movement, which demanded the removal of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Supporters of the green movement wore green as its symbol, and what started as a peaceful protest ended in the removal of a dictator. Another key inspiration for the song is the Zazous, a garishly-dressed subculture in WW II-era France who wore yellow stars that said zazou, which mocked the badges of degradation that the Jews wore in Jewish ghettos all over Nazi controlled Europe. These revolutionaries used style as a form of transgression and wore it like a weapon. “I’m Alive” has a message of survival, both of the joy of making it through a dark time in society and also the melancholy of remembering those who didn’t. While studying anthropology at NYU, Conquistador spent time in the Middle East. He took a musical cue from the region, which can be heard on the track.
Stream: Conquistador – “I’m Alive”
“Fuzzy roller-disco…dark tropical electric-eclectic ’80s …T-Rex-tasy…with Jarvis Cocker-y bravado.” – Billboard Magazine
“Edwardian Ziggy Stardust goes to Transylvania,” –Los Angeles Times
“An amalgam of Bowie, Queen, synth-pop, disco, psych…and the introspection of a sensitive oddball who’s been told many times he doesn’t fit in, but is actually more normal than most people.” – BLURT
“A glam rock peacock.” -Paper Magazine
Conquistador is an LA-based musician and artist whose music is collaboration between himself and Carlos Cháirez of Mexico’s iconic alternative band Kinky. The pair have also received two Latin Grammy nominations for co-writing Kinky songs. A champion of true freedom, his work champions individualism and is defiantly eccentric. His presence alone has a transformative effect on any space. His signature look consists of cat suits, a Ushanka Russian hat, and most notably, his award-winning moustache, which made him the first American, first Jew, and youngest competitor in history to win the title of “World Imperial Moustache Champion” at the World Beard and Mustache Championships, held in Brighton, England in 2007. Conquistador was also #3 in Fuse’s “10 greatest moments of SXSW 2012.”
Conquistador grabbed national attention this fall when he unwittingly became one of the highlights of MTV’s 2012 VMAs and caused a sensation on the red carpet. His music and performance art has lead to Madness and The Whigs inviting him onstage at festival performances. The image and music have always been inseparable for Conquistador. He grew up with Sparks as neighbors and was inspired to wear lycra catsuits by Todd Rundgren and Alice Cooper. The glitter movement inspired him to be exactly who he wants to be at all times and Conquistador is paying the inspiration forward. He has already won a pair of Latin GRAMMY nominations for his co-writing with Kinky.
The Royal Concept Covers Daft Punk
Check out The Royal Concept taking on Daft Punk. With a brand new cover, the Swedish lads add their patented rock ‘n’ roll swing to the legendary French electro duo’s classic from Discovery, “Digital Love.”
Given the quartet’s penchant for danceable grooves and massive hooks, it’s an undeniable interpretation worth spinning again and again. It’s also the perfect tune to hold over fans until the release of the band’s forthcoming full-length debut for LAVA Records/Republic Records later this year.
In addition, after unveiling “World on Fire” online last month, the single is available on iTunes and other digital retailers. The group continues to stir up buzz stateside after cultivating a fervent and faithful following in Sweden. Their song “D-D-Dance” hit No.2 on Hype Machine, while “Gimme Twice” reached No.3.
Download: The Royal Concept – “Digital Love” (Daft Punk Cover)
Filed under Awesome, Check 'em Out!, downloads, listen, Newest Love, video, Whoa!
Video: MS MR – “Fantasy”
Today MS MR reveal their first official music video for their new track “Fantasy.”
The band explained:
“Shot on location in Jamaica, Queens with our dear friend and talented director Austin Peters, the video for “Fantasy” stays true to the main themes and questions behind the track: things we imagine or think we understand are not as they appear. This video presents a world filled with fantasies gone wrong where the mundane, the surreal and the supernatural are all intertwined and what is real becomes a matter of perspective.”
The song is off of the band’s debut album Second Hand Rapture out May 14th in the U.S. on Columbia Records.
MS MR continues to enthrall fans around the world with their compelling blend of pop. With “Fantasy” quickly rising to #2 on the Hype Machine ‘Popular’ charts. MS MR is the moniker for Lizzy Plapinger and Max Hershenow. The duo’s debut Second Hand Rapture is comprised of 12 tracks and was produced by Hershenow, with additional production and mix by Tom Elmhirst. The duo recently played a handful of new songs during their sold-out stints at NYC’s Mercury Lounge and headline debut at the Echo in Los Angeles. You can catch the band performing at this year’s SXSW next month.
Filed under Highly Anticipated, listen, new albums, video
Videos: Rhye
Woman Tracklisting
- Open
- The Fall
- Last Dance
- Verse
- Shed Some Blood
- 3 Days
- One Of Those Summer Days
- Major Minor Love
- Hunger
- Woman
“…full-blooded heat, evoking what would happen if Sade met a caffeinated Air, a sublime voice floating easily on a ballast of clever instrumental touches.” – PITCHFORK“gentle strings and dancing harp lines,…so uncomplicatedly sweet” – THE FADER
” direct, striking love songs that sound like classics the instant you hear them.” – DUMMY
Los Angeles-based Rhye, made their mark on the radar last year with their debut ‘Open’ EP and critically lauded single, “The Fall”, called “one of the most beautiful heartbreak songs” of 2012 by the Fader and receiving Pitchfork’s Best New Music accolade. In anticipation of the release of their debut album, Woman coming March 5th on Innovative Leisure / Loma Vista / Republic, Rhye are excited to announce their first US tour dates, cover art and track listing for Woman, along with a new video for their song “Open”.
In working with Danish director Daniel Kragh-Jacobsen on the nostalgia-inducing video for “The Fall”, Rhye decided to revisit the themes and questions proposed with the same director in a new video for their chill-inducing song “Open”. With Kragh-Jacobsen at the helm to create an extension, or rather second chapter of the narrative in context of the album, Manuel Alberto Claro (Melancholia), was recruited as DP, giving the video the same colors, landscape and stylistic look of “The Fall”. Rhye set out avoid the cookie cutter artist-as-narrator music video and again create a short film to which “Open” could serve as the soundtrack. This time around, we see a young woman teetering between her carefree youth and the challenges of adult life and love. As the bike from “The Fall” became symbolic for the lead character’s inner-quest for happiness, here a reoccurring kite leads the main character to a surprise appearance from some familiar faces.
Rhye Tour Dates
4/01/13 Mon LOS ANGELES, CA Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetary
4/03/13 Wed SAN FRANCISCO, CA Bimbo’s 365 Club
4/11/13 Thu CHICAGO, IL Schubas
4/13/13 Sat TORONTO, ON Great Hall
4/14/13 Sun MONTREAL, QC Cabaret du Mile End
4/16/13 Tue BOSTON, MA Sinclair
4/17/13 Wed NEW YORK, NY Le Poisson Rouge
4/18/13 Thu WASHINGTON, DC Sixth & I Historic Synagogue (downstairs)
4/20/13 Sat PHILADELPHIA, PA World Cafe Live Upstairs
Filed under Holy Freaking Crap!, new albums, Shows, video, Whoa!
Musically Amusing 