Magic Wands are a dream pop duo from Los Angeles, California. They are known for their melodic, catchy songs “Black Magic” and “Teenage Love.” Chris and Dexy Valentine create music that centers on their main influence— the love of all things “magic” “love,” and “dreams”. They have recently expanded to a five-piece for live shows. Magic Wands Abracadabra Tour begins this fall in anticipation of their third album ABRAKADABRA due out early spring 2018.
Check out their new single, from the upcoming new album, “Loveline”.
Magic Wands have been remixed by The XX and Crystal Fighters (featured #1 in NME) as well as have toured and shared bills with The Horrors, The Black Keys, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Wombats and The Kills. In 2012 they released their debut album, Aloha Moon, & performed live on BBC1 Radio and XFM followed by Jupiter in 2016.
Check out the latest single “Rorschach” from Typhoon.
The video concept is a play on “the idea of being stuck inside your subconscious, fixated on one memory, while questioning it over and over again.”
“Rorschach” is the first single taken off of “Floodplains“, the opening 4-track movement (released last month) from Typhoon’s forthcoming LP, Offerings. Following the critically-acclaimed White Lighter, Offerings will bethe band’s first full-length release in over four years and will be out on Jan 12, 2018.
The band have also just announced their upcoming North American and UK/EU tours for Winter 2018.
NORTH AMERICAN DATES January 10: Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge January 12: Denver, CO @ Gothic Theater January 14: Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room January 17: St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club January 18: Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre January 19: Chicago, IL @ Metro January 20: Ann Arbor, MI @ El Cub January 23: Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace January 25: Boston, MA @ Paradise January 26: Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer January 27: Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg January 31: Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club February 1: Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle February 2: Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West February 3: Nashville, TN @ Exit In February 6: Austin, TX @ Mohawk February 8: Phoenix, AZ @ The Crescent February 10: San Diego, CA @ Music Box February 11: Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom February 13: San Francisco, CA @ The Independent February 16: Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile February 23: Portland, OR @ The Crystal Ballroom February 24: Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre
UK/EU DATES February 28: Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute March 1: Glasgow, UK @ Broadcast March 2: London, UK @ Lexington March 7: Paris, FR @ Le Petits Bain March 8: Brussels, BE @ Botanique March 9: Amsterdam, NE @ Paradiso March 10: Hamburg, DE @ Knust March 13: Copenhagen, DK @ Vega March 14: Berlin, DE @ Musik & Frieden March 15: Vienna, AU @ Fluc March 16: Wil, CH @ Gar De Lion March 18: Baden, CH @ Royal March 20: Cologne, DE @ Artheater
Producer and musician Dan Molad is CHIMNEY, long-time drummer/producer for Lucius and producer (Pavo Pavo, San Fermin, Luke Temple, JD McPherson, Here We Go Magic). He self-recorded and produced this breakout solo effort. His penchant for sonically adventurous melodies and harmonically complex layers, combined with a stark pop sensibility shine through the breadth of the album.
Produced by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Florence + the Machine), “Mountain At My Gates” builds from the leftfield grooves and angular art-rock that characterized previous Foals’ anthems such as “My Number” and “Miami”. This time, however, the quintet subverts expectations by twisting the track into a frenzied finale with a cacophony of sound.
“I’d recorded the beginning riff on my phone ages ago,” explained vocalist/guitarist Yannis Philippakis in a track-by-track interview with NME. “At the beginning it had a baggy feel, but became less so with more work. The central image – “I see a mountain at my gates” was from me getting more interested in seeing what would come out lyrically where there wasn’t a pre-conceived idea. Normally I write voraciously in books and journals, then harvest a lot of that for the record. This, though, came out instantaneously in the room.”
Foals’ thrillingly visceral return with title track ‘What Went Down’ earned a flurry of Radio 1 support (Hottest Record in the World, Tune of the Week and Track of the Day) as it accelerated past the million views mark at YouTube. The album is now available to pre-order on digital, CD, CD/DVD and vinyl formats, as well as a limited edition box set, which is available exclusively from Foals’ online store. Fans who pre-order the album will receive instant downloads of “Mountain At My Gates” and “What Went Down”.
As with the rest of the What Went Down album, Foals – completed by Jimmy Smith (guitar/keys), Walter Gervers (bass), Jack Bevan (drums) and Edwin Congreave (keys) – recorded “Mountain At My Gates” at the studio La Fabrique which is located in the same village in the south of France in which Van Gogh was hospitalised after savaging his own ear.
What Went Down is an album that grapples with questions that are a world away from the bland bleatings of homogenised pop: permanence and impermanence; life and death; solitude; vulnerability; intimacy; passion; rage; humanity – weighty issues that make demands of the people creating that music, and of all those who listen to it, too.
Sonically, it’s an album that precariously seesaws between primal aggression and naked vulnerability. It’s an approach that delivers a contrast of muscular shocks with the fiery central riff of “Snake Oil” and the menacing percussive march of “Albatross” set against some of the band’s most openly experimentally moments to date such as cocktail of afrobeat and drum machines that underpins “Night Swimmers” and the stripped-back, vocal-led “Give It All”.
The album closes on an astonishingly beautiful note with “A Knife in the Ocean”, akin to both the calm before the storm, but also the stillness and silence after it has passed.
Foals have released three top ten albums to date: Antidotes (2007, album chart no 3), Total Life Forever (2010, no 8) and Holy Fire (2013, no 2). 2013 was the year that Foals broke through (even though I’ve loved them since 2007). Appearing high up the bill at festivals around the world, Foals became festival headliners in the UK, headlining Bestival, Latitude and Parklife, drawing the biggest crowds of the weekends. By the end of 2013 Foals had won another slew of awards: Best Live Act at the Q awards, Best Live Act at The Sun Bizarre awards, Best Single (Inhaler) at the NME awards and a Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize nomination (the band’s second in a row).
“‘Painted’ was actually the very first song we wrote for this next album. It was born in a hotel room in Manchester in 2013 and became a touchstone for everything else we created in its wake, so we’re pumped for it to be your first taste of the record. And there’s so much more to come!”
UPCOMING TOUR DATES
Apr 27 – Toronto, ON – Drake Hotel – Tickets Apr 29 – Brooklyn, NY – Rough Trade – Tickets May 4 – San Diego, CA – Casbah – Tickets May 5 – Los Angeles, CA – Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever – Tickets May 7 – San Francisco, CA – Popscene/Rickshaw Stop – Tickets Jun 3-5 – Mendig, DE – Rock Am Ring – Tickets Jun 3-5 – Nuremberg, DE – Rom Im Park – Tickets Jun 10 – London, UK – Victoria – Tickets Jul 31 to Aug 2 – Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza – Sold Out Jul 31 to Aug 2 – Montreal, Canada – Osheaga – Tickets Sep 12 to 13 – Berlin, DE – Lollapalooza Berlin – Tickets
Check out the latest video from The Offspring, “Coming For You”
Head to store.offspring.com to pick up a digital copy of the single. The song is also available via iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and other digital services.
Catch the band on the road in the coming months and stay tuned for additional US tour dates.
2014 was a huge first year for Oakland duo, Dimond Saints. Emerging as one of the most promising producers to hit the scene with several Hype Machine toppers and massive festival plays. Releasing over 24 songs to critical acclaim from the likes of Billboard and beyond. 2015 is sure to start with a uproar with their first release titled, “Push It Down”.
I’m a fan of k-os since back in 2009, when I heard their album, Yes!
I admit that I wasn’t that big on their 2013 album Black on Blonde, but NOW, they’re back and they’ve unveiled a new song from next year’s highly anticipated LP Can’t Fly Without Gravity.
“Turn Me Loose” is a hard-rocking, four-on-the-floor banger complete with wailing guitars, trippy synths and a message about going out and leaving every worry behind.
The video is set to the backdrop of familiar shots from k-os’ stomping ground, “Walkin’ down Yonge Street on a Friday”, in Toronto.
I love Teddybears. The group and the bears. And now, the group returns with a psychedelic summer jam, “Sunshine”(out now via Big Beat Records) which highlights their signature—pop x electronica x rock n’ roll x hip-hop x reggae x punk—and arrives with a video to accompany that shares an outrageous mix of themes and color schemes.
Featuring Jamaican dancehall star Natalie Storm and Swedish musician Kee Marcello (hailing from mega-bands Europe and Hellacopters); smashing a drum-kit made of ice, this playful video, combined with equal parts electric guitar, gold lamé, and neon illustrations is simply fun to watch – and definitely not like anything else you’ll see all day.
