“Hollis Brown make music that sounds just as alive today as it would’ve in 1966 and will 40 years from now.”
—SPIN
“Rambunctious, twangy blues-rock…”
—Time Out New York
Born and bred in New York City, Hollis Brown embarked on a pilgrimage to Nashville to capture their authentic sound. They shacked up for two weeks in the backyard cabin/studio of producer Adam Landry (Deer Tick, Middle Brother), and found themselves. They recorded everything live, straight to analog tape. The result was a warm, vintage sound that displays the band’s explosive live energy. Their new EP, Nothing & The Famous No One, takes the listener back to that cabin to experience the raw vibe, smell the smoke, and feel alive. Download “Spoonful” below, which features vocals from John McCauley of Deer Tick.
Click to go listen and download "And Here We Are (Again Maybe)"
“World Blanket boomed like a big-riff rock beast, despite acoustic guitar and violin dressing.” – SPIN
This love of edgy, emotionally driven music with over-the-top traditional production values and classic orchestration is the driving force behind the upcoming World Blanket album 2012 (April 3rd, No Applause Records). Joining Mike Pomranz on 2012 is violinist Katherine Fong, a Julliard trained member of the Metropolitan Orchestra (she has also worked with everyone from John Mayer to Tony Bennett), and bassist Dean Moore (formerly of Jive Records band Dirty Blonde). On drums is Jonathan Flax (also with Freedy Johnston), a co-worker of Pomranz’s at Comedy Central where Pomranz writes for the “Tosh.0” program and earned the credit as the first to post and subsequently create the Rebecca Black “Friday” phenomenon.
The connection notwithstanding, 2012 was not recorded with Ark Music Factory, but with Pete Min, the man behind the boards for the recent hit album by The Airborne Toxic Event. Min had yet to hear the songs for 2012 when the sessions began and the players barely had either. “We met up for two rehearsals and then the four of us got on a plane for L.A.,” reveals Pomranz. Min wasn’t amused. “On our third take, he stopped the tape and asked us if we had ever played together before. It was a real kick in the ass.”
The ass kicking worked. 2012 expands on World Blanket’s established mandate of coaxing a huge sound out of acoustic guitars and violin by leaning on a big rock rhythm section and filling the gaps with some well-placed timpani strikes, a few bars of electric guitar and for three songs, the Calder Quartet which has previously contributed strings to The National, Vampire Weekend, Andrew WK, and many others. “The song ‘Snooze Bar’ was recorded with only the quartet and me on acoustic guitar and vocals,” says Pomranz. “It’s a very Beatles-esque, ‘Yesterday’ arrangement.”
The release of 2012 in 2012 is not just a coincidence. “The record is based around the writings and philosophy of psychedelic drug guru Terence McKenna,” explains Pomranz. “Growing up, I became engrossed in McKenna’s writings, and his perspectives about seeing life in a different light really hit home with me.” Explaining the specific connection to the year “2012”, Pomranz elaborates, saying, “One of McKenna’s best known theories is one that predicts a major transformative event occurring on December 21st, “2012” and this record, both lyrically and musically, is constructed as a preparation for that transformative event, encouraging listeners to come to terms with their own existence and prepare their minds for whatever may lie ahead.” Pomranz is connected to the numbers inherent in the album’s release date as well. “April 3rd happens to be the date of Terence McKenna’s death and also my birthday.”
With the pending release of 2012, Pomranz has been able to satisfy a love of making rock and roll that had taken a back seat to his life of making comedy. It was meant to be though – if a teenager’s basement reveals a hidden guitar, it’s probably for a reason. 2012 by World Blanket will be released on the band’s own No Applause Records label on April 3rd, “2012”.
A brand new free download is available for Greg Laswell’s new single, “Come Back Down,” from his upcoming full-length LP Landline. The album’s to be released on April 24th. “Come Back Down” features Sara Bareilles and Greg Laswell sharing vocal duties. I am so excited I almost started crying while watching the video!
Gordon Voidwell teamed up with NYC’s Kids Table production crew for his new track “XO Boyfriend” to create a music video that draws from Whitney Houston’s “How Will I Know” video. The styling, choreography, set design, and photography all take cues from Whitney’s mid-80’s classic. The homage was filmed in a hot Brooklyn warehouse in the summer of 2011, but GV had been keeping it under wraps until the right moment, which unfortunately arose this week with the untimely passing of the legendary singer.
In regards to the concept of the video, director Steve Pristin says “Gordon Voidwell’s music and style is often compared to artists of the 80’s — rather than fight that notion I wanted to fully embrace it, while paying homage to one of the most iconic musicians and music videos of the 1980’s. Growing up, in my home, Whitney Houston was viewed with a reverence unmatched – she will be deeply missed.”
Gordon Voidwell, who just this past week released his brand new MalcolmXXXMclaren mixtape added, “It’s amazing to think that in 48 short years, Whitney Houston covered the entire range of human emotion through music. From epic love ballads to 808-driven synthpop to gospel music, her voice spoke the complexity and depth of being human. On a selfish level, I’m saddened to think there will never be any new Whitney Houston music. She’s inspired a lot of what i do.”
The High Strung, and especially frontman Josh Malerman, are enthralled with blending fact and fiction. Malerman’s Facebook page declares he worked at “General Faw Faw’s Impossible Meats” in 1852 and that he attended “Fabulous Posture University” for the 95 years leading up to 1902. Because of this, their history and experiences are like big riddles, short puzzles that are as artistic as the albums they’ve made. And of their six albums, none captures this fascination with the absurd better than the new one, rightly called ?Posible o’ Imposible?
When describing how the band formed, Malerman either discusses grade schools and gym classes or, more recently, mental homes, where he says he was a patient and guitarist Stephen Palmer was an orderly, before the two realized they worked well together and busted out.
The rhythm section of Chad Stocker (bass) and Derek Berk (drums) are everything a music fan relishes; explosive, original, and danceable, too. When describing them, Malerman says he can’t remember if they “planted” him or if he planted them but “either way we grew out of the ground and picked each other and presented one another to mother in a vase.”
The songs on ?Posible o’ Imposible? are just as enigmatic. Thinking big is the main thread, but maybe it should be described as “imagining” big. The album is home to many modern characters, most of whom are on the verge of creating a grand spectacle. The hunter who tires of animals and seeks out black holes and planets in “Big Game Hunter”. The man who has toiled in obscurity only to be flooded with opportunities in “On Your Way Up!”. The man who experiences the weather before his peers in “Giant.” And, most notably, the world described in “Rats, Rats, Rats” where “there’s a job opening for a clerk at the Church of Satan” and a “dance tonight at the Church of Raging Hormones.”
The High Strung do not present themselves as ironic; their absurdist scenarios are delivered in a way that reveals they mean it. And the band is on their way up, having scored the theme song for Showtime’s new hit series “Shameless”, starring William H. Macy as an impossibly drunk father.
Live, the band verges on a variety show, traveling hucksters who have, as Malerman says, “between a dozen and two dozen melodies in jars, rhythms too, sentences too, and, on stage, if we get lucky, we open the corresponding jars so the songs make real sense.” The best known document detailing the experience of the band’s live show is a lengthy article in Vanity Fair that covers a two-show trip to Guantanamo Bay where Malerman fell in love with a female soldier, Berk was housed with an over zealous interrogator, and the boys “drank more rum than water.”
The High Strung are a rock band, of this there is no doubt, but one that clearly adores music, successfully injecting all this incredulity, absurdity, and irrationality into ?Posible o’ Imposible? and the shows that will accompany it. It’s the type of album kids will be downloading, illegally or not, as they discuss whether or not it’s true that Berk’s drums talk to him or, as Malerman says, “the first time we practiced together, the very first time we played, the boys all struck a C chord at the same time, without preamble. But I sang a D. And instead of thinking we’d fallen short of some cosmic relationship that was meant to be, I immediately understood we were destined to do something… different.”
New York City’s psychedelic rock beast Spirit Animal has announced plans for their next full-length album, Spiritia Animalia, which will see a release later this year. Today, the band is sharing the first single, “Crocodile Skins,” which is available as a free download through the band’s soundcloud page, along with an album teaser video featuring studio footage of the band at work on Spiritia Animalia. Onstage, Spirit Animal is at once manic and precise, with a non-stop show full of big solos, tight grooves, wild sing-along moments and sweat-drenched performances. Check out this recent live footage from Mercury Lounge for an idea of what their live show is like! With mixing underway on their follow-up full length, Spiritia Animalia is poised to deliver the back-breaking rock and shit-kicking funk missing from the modern music landscape. The band, led by Steve Cooper, has already drawn comparisons to LCD Soundsystem and Animal Collective for their blend of irresistible hooks and riffs, complimented by the bands’ tight rhythm section. Add in a healthy dose of frontman freakout, and you have Spirit Animal.
In 2010, the band released their debut LP, The Cost of Living, a unique and powerful blend of rock, psychedelia and dance. The album garnered broad radio play and earned them placements on ABC’s “Happy Endings” and FOX’s “New Girl.” The band recently released a 7-inch for “I’m Around” on Mecca Lecca Recording Co. The video was also used in an HBO “How to Make It In America” promo.
In the spirit of all things amorous, cynical Texan artist, The Wealthy West, aka Brandon Kinder of indie rock band The Rocketboys, is offering a free download of “Love Is Not Enough” from his Volume 1 EP.
The Wealthy West will perform at Swan Dive in Austin, TX on March 30th. Brandon is also in the studio with his band The Rocketboys who are working on their next studio album, due out later this year.
DJ Massiv G (who helped mix some of My M.O.’s record, Bonfire) drops one for the club to get your 2012 booty shaking on the dance floor.
The lyrics “they gonna get your money some way, times is crazy can we make it through another day?” will resonate with those that are unhappy with the ongoing corruption within our political/economic system.
Musically Amusing 