Smile’s debut album, A Flash in the Night, is available now!
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- New Collaboration: SMILE (musicallyamusing.com)
Category Archives: video
New Video: Smile – “Eat Dirt”
Filed under Awesome, Check 'em Out!, new albums, video
Highly Anticipated: Bloc Party – Four
Bloc Party will release their fourth album, appropriately titled Four on August 21st. The long-awaited return from their indefinite hiatus finds the band playing select dates this summer, making their debut at HARD Summer in Los Angeles August 3rd & 4th.
Watch the trailer below for some teasers on what to expect from Four.
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- Bloc Party Four Details (stereogum.com)
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Filed under Highly Anticipated, new albums, video, Whoa!
Newest Love: Flagship
North Carolina’s Flagship is poised to break out with the release of their debut EP blackbush. The 5-song EP is out now via Bright Antenna/ILG, and can be heard at Baeble Music, who declare the band “matches the emotional and nearly spiritual alternative rock of U2 circa Achtung Baby, with the deep-throated baritone delivery of lead singer Drake Margolnick ala Ian Curtis from Joy Division and some of the seething anger and rawness of We Are Augustines.” The release comes in advance of an anticipated full-length debut expected this fall.
Helmed by the talented singer/song writer/guitarist Drake Margolnick, Flagship just wrapped a cross-country tour supporting label mates The Wombats, where they performed in front of sold out crowds in New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, Salt Lake City and more. With Drake on lead vocals, his lyrics come to life with the help of lead guitarist Matt Padgett, keyboardist Grant Harding, drummer Michael Finster, and bassist Preston Hayden. The 5-piece band is the newest addition to Bright Antenna, home to such artists as OMD, The Wombats, Magic Wands, Middle Class Rut, Beware of Darkness and more.
Filed under Awesome, Check 'em Out!, listen, Newest Love, video
Video: New Manic Spree – “Sangria”
NEW MANIC SPREE have released their first single Sangria from upcoming EP; delivering the full package of catchy melodies, strong rock vocals, pumping bass, and maniacal guitar that the Brisbane-based four-piece is known for.
Accompanying the single is a new video clip, working in collaboration with Oomph! Studios, and continuing the collaboration on from their last release, Hollywoods and Galaxies. The concept behind the clip was conceived by guitarist, Ed Hiew, and will eventually become part of a short film to be released in full later this year.
Video: MS MR – “Hurricane”
“Beating Lana Del Rey’s record for “1990s influenced Tumblr photos per minute” with the video for their debut single “Hurricane”” – Pitchfork“…feels big, the vibe feels grand – the pop-allure is definitely present.” – Disco Naivete
MS MR has revealed their new video for single “Hurricane,” and it begs to be heard! The New York band will officially release the 7″ in July via IAMSOUND Records. I posted a little while back about them and how they’re going on tour with Marina and the Diamonds.
Get a free download of “Hurricane” from the band’s website in exchange for an email address here.
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- Brand New: MS MR – “Hurricane” (musicallyamusing.com)
Filed under Awesome, Check 'em Out!, downloads, listen, Newest Love, video
New Collaboration: SMILE
The brainchildren behind two of Sweden’s most beloved musical projects have combined to form one artistic force, the result being an infectious pop revolution. Smile is the collaboration of Björn Yttling, world-renowned writer, producer and bassist of international indie-pop powerhouse Peter Bjorn and John, and Joakim Åhlund of bear-masked electro outfit Teddybears. The duo is excited to announce the May 29th release of their debut LP, A Flash in the Night, as the first artist album from the Swedish artist collective, Ingrid. The recording is fully loaded with electro-focused pop tracks, many instrumental and constructed around addictive synth. The vocals that are offered are artfully sparse. The album features the single “Clean Gloves, Dirty Hands,” a standout instrumental track that The Fader has deemed, “excellent”, set amongst the hazy and nostalgic “Jean Michel,” complete with retro future-synth and the dream-pop gems “Crooked” and “Satellite Blues”
Ingrid made it’s official debut on Record Store Day, April 21st. with a 15-track compilation aptly titled Ingrid Volym I . The release features new original tracks from Nordic musicians and label founders Lykke Li, Joakim Ahlund of Teddybears, Miike Snow and Björn Yttling of Peter Björn and John. In addition to solo music projects by members of Peter Björn and John, Teddybears and Miike Snow, additional artists on the compilation include Andrew Wyatt, The Chinamen, Coco Morier, Electrocute, Hortlax Cobra, Little Majorette, Max Von Sydow, Peter Moren and Starlight Serenaders. The story behind the Swedish powerhouse label is anything but ordinary. Now they have all joined forces to record music as a single sonic entity highlighting Sweden’s eclectic music scene, ranging from dark, lush cosmic pop to psychedelic minimalism to melodic kraut.
A FLASH IN THE NIGHT TRACKLISTING
- Jeans Team
- Satellite Blues
- Clean Gloves, Dirty Hands
- Jean Michel
- Eating Dirt
- Med Hopp Om Battring
- Second Hand Smoke
- From Time To Time
- School. Work. Dead
- Have Some Fun Tonight
- Crooked
- Rescue Dog
- A Flash In The Night
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- Smile – “From Time To Time” (Stereogum Premiere) (stereogum.com)
Filed under Awesome, Check 'em Out!, listen, Lists, Newest Love, video
Video: Robert Schwartzman – “Second Chances”
Check out a brand new song and video from Robert Schwartzman. This song “Second Chances” is from his upcoming album Double Capricorn and was inspired by a trip he took to Tibet, during which he spent time with Tibetan Monks and lived in a monastery. (That’s pretty rad, I think. I met Robert when he played a show with his band Rooney in Pittsburgh. Very cool and nice guy.)
“I’d like to thank everyone who helped out to make this video possible. Everyone in the video gave their time to share in the experience and to bring life to the finished piece. I want to give an extra shout out to my Mother, who plays my Mother in the scene where they think I’m possessed, and my brother Jason, who plays my brother/bandmate…(watch his skills at creating the slow motion effect in real time). My Mother was in a Rooney video years ago, but this is the first video where Jason and I got to rock out together.
When you see how other people live in other parts of the world, you appreciate how many good opportunities we have in our country. It frustrates me when I see people here who take things for granted. I wrote the song as a kind of a wake-up call for those people to get it together. I think we all have chances.” — Robert Schwartzman
The Music Box in New Orleans
Watch a video of a past performance at The Music Box
The Music Box is an interactive installation comprised of musical architecture. It was created by non-profit organization New Orleans Airlift in collaboration with 25 artists including the international street art star Swoon. The Music Box features a collection of purpose-built shacks and miniature houses, each containing an instrument or having instruments built into its structure. The wooden shacks that make up this “shanty-town” are constructed from salvaged materials reclaimed from a late-18th-century Creole cottage that collapsed on the site several years ago.
Housing a slew of unconventional and inventive instruments, The Music Box offers its visitors a blank canvas to create music in an entirely new way. Between now and the end of June The Music Box will host a series of recordings sessions and pop-up performances in the space by amazing and diverse musicians including Thurston Moore, longtime Swoon collaborators Dark Dark Dark, the beloved Cajun musician Jo-El Sonnier, the sample-based band Javelin, the Brooklyn pop punk duo Japanther, and noise heroes Black Dice.
A final performance by the Shantytown Orchestra will feature an unexpected and eclectic line-up including local musicians like Donald Miller (of the legendary 1980’s noise band Borbetomagus), to Rosalie “Lady Tambourine” Washinton, a familiar New Orleans character who plays with gospel acts as well as the Neville Brothers. They will be joined by out-of town performers including the transgendered harpist Baby Dee, (a collaborator of Will Oldman and Antony and the Johnsons), Magas, the electronic wizard of Chicago, and the Brooklyn-duo Javelin. These June 8th and 9th concerts mark the very last chance to experience a full orchestral performance at The Music Box before the installation is taken down at the end of June 2012.
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Check ‘Em Out: SSCION
Hailing from Kansas City’s unexpected art-scene, SSION has reached the apex of synth-pop perfection with the album Bent, out August 7th on Dovecote. Led by the charismatically avant gender outlaw Cody Critcheloe, SSION creates music that is simultaneously dance inducing and cheekily crass and that irreverently pokes fun at contemporary culture. Tracks are meticulously crafted with reverbed synth, deep bass and vocals that verge on the addictive. Critcheloe’s creativity is not bounded by music making, as he has been commissioned to produce music videos for a multitude of heavyweights in the unconventional-pop world, including Peaches, Gossip, CSS and Santigold as well as promotional videos for the vibrant outsider designer and fellow Kansas City local, Peggy Noland.
Drawing from a multifaceted artistic background, SSION is a total multimedia experience playfully on the vanguard of culture, replete with high-concept visuals, performance, costuming and make-up. The enhanced hard copy re-release of Bent will include previously unreleased bonus tracks and remixes from MNDR, Grimes, Nightfeelings, Physical Therapy and more.
Bent features the lushly reverbed introverted single “My Love Grows In The Dark.” In the accompanying video, conceived and produced by Critcheloe, the front man portrays himself as the antithesized pop-star, journeying through a surreal house of androgynous dancers and confronted with issues of representation, indifference and intimacy. The track got a dreamy disco remix treatment by Nightfeelings (Nick Weiss of Teengirl Fantasy).
SSION not only nods to the most influential and iconic pop artists of the past, but also stands to carve out its own place in the future as a whole new breed of pop.
SSION will play select live dates across on the east and west coast, appearing with Gossip, JD Samson and Sharon Needles. He will also be performing at this year’s San Francisco Pride.
Tracklisting:
1. Listen 2 The Grrrls
2. Blonde With U
3. Psy-chic
4. Luvvbazaar
5. Earthquake
6. Growin
7. Feelz Good (4-Evr)
8. My Love Grows In The Dark
9. Nothing Happens At Nite
10. Weird Yearz
Filed under Check 'em Out!, downloads, video
Musically Amusing 