Monday morning I received an email from these guys…with their song “Monday Morning”!!! Coincidence. Nope. Not at all.
And this song is awesome!
The single is from the band’s LP Day Bed, and it’s their very first full length. The album was recorded and produced by the whole band in both Northern Ontario and Toronto.
From the band:
Day Bed is the place we go to rest in the daylight. A place where memories wash over us; a place where we pause and think about life. It’s a collection of songs that highlights the warmth and happiness of family and childhood, the heartbreak of relationships, and the randomness of social life in the 21st century.
Check out this song, “Runners”, which is a new track from Teeel’s album Hydrostatic (out digitally now via Mush Records, followed by the physical release in November). “Runners” is the follow-up to Teeel’s first single “Disk Go”, which also has a super fun music video (see below).
On Hydrostatic, intricate synth and guitar work dance around bouncing basslines, laying foundation for an album full of vocal hooks. Teeel switches up styles from track to track, delivering dancefloor-ready grooves, dark washes of synthesized brooding, and pop hook after pop hook. If you dig folks like Holy Ghost! or Chromeo, you’ll probably love Teeel.
The Ninjas are a high energy rock duo from Brisbane, Australia returning with their latest single “Never Had Much Time”. Recorded with Australian super producer Magoo this release sees the band take another giant leap forward with slicker production, bigger riffs and a stadium ready sound that is sure to get people dancing. They’re early releases “Yeah Yeah Yeah” and “Kill Em All” gained the band an impressive following online and will all appear on the bands debut EP out this August. If you enjoy The Hives and The Vines, then you’ll love this!
London-based collective Jungle has revealed they will release their debut album in North America on July 15, 2014 (July 14 UK) on XL Recordings. Their eponymous album is set to be one of the summer’s most anticipated debut records, building on the success of their singles “Platoon”, “The Heat” and “Busy Earnin'”. Rolling Stone recently included the group in their “10 New Artists You Need To Know“.
Jungle are based around a core musical duo of lifelong friends known simply as ‘J’ and ‘T’, who expand to a thrilling seven piece live, and make mesmeric, kaleidoscopic modern soul that’s unmistakably born in the UK but has true global appeal (their “Platoon” video has already racked up more than 4 million views). The album was recorded between the band’s own home studio in Shepherds Bush, London and the XL Recordings studio in Ladbroke Grove.
Meanwhile, Jungle will return to North America for their first headline tour to date in the country. The group will perform in NYC at their third sold-out show, as well as San Francisco for a sold-out show at The Independent on June 7, the day after they kick off their tour on June 6at The El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. The group will come back in August to perform at this year’s Lollapalooza (full list of dates below).
JUNGLE North America Tour Dates
Fri, Jun 6 – El Rey Theater – Los Angeles, CA
Sat, Jun 7 – The Independent – San Francisco, CA *SOLD OUT
Mon, Jun 9 – Doug Fir Lounge – Portland, OR
Tue, Jun 10 – Neumos – Seattle, WA
Fri, Jun 13 – Fine Line Music Cafe – Minneapolis, MN
Sat, Jun 14 – Lincoln Hall – Chicago, IL
Sun, Jun 15 – Lee’s Palace – Toronto, ON
Tue, Jun 17 – The Sinclair – Cambridge, MA
Wed, Jun 18 – Bowery Ballroom – New York, NY *SOLD OUT
Upcoming tour mates Grouplove remixed “Mason Jar” together with Captain Cuts. Last week, Smallpools announced their upcoming March/April tour withGrouplove and MS MR, which will bring them back to Austin, TX which they visited for Austin City Limits as well as visits to Washington, DC, Atlanta, Arizona and New York for instance.
Last month, the LA band made their national TV debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live, performing their single “Dreaming”. The foursome consist of Sean (vocals/keys), Mike (guitar), Joe (bass) and Beau (drums), the band will divide their time between the studio working on the full-length debut and live shows.
The release of their self-titled debut EP gained them critical acclaim.Neon Gold calls “Mason Jar” “a sepia splash of power-pop that crystallizes into a starscraping smash before the verse even kicks in, as stadium-sized Of Monsters And Men gang vocals ride high on the buoyant flair of Smallpools’ youthful, Two Door-esque ebullience.”
“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.
SWF is the dream of, and moniker for, the artist, musician, and self-described mystic, Stevie Weinstein-Foner. Stevie’s messages of love and longing roll from his debut album, Let It Be Told, like mantras blasted from the radio of a brightly re-painted VW van, cruising down a metaphysical highway of endless summer with the windows down. Let It Be Told (out October 8 via Mecca Lecca) was recorded in Memphis, and the album’s soulful proclamations are backed by a chorus of fuzzy guitars, vocal harmonies, and very singable hooks. Time Out New York describes SWF’s music as “warm, mellow, scruffy rock & roll.” A few days ago marked the release of his first music video for “Black & Golden”, which you can watch below. The video was shot over the course of an entire year, beginning with the Chinese New Year in 2012 and wrapping on New Year’s Day in 2013.
After spending the summer of 2008 in the Grand Canyon rafting down the Colorado River, Stevie moved to Brooklyn, where he began to study yoga and write the songs which would become the material for Let It Be Told. Leaving Brooklyn to live and work on farms in Central America for the winter, he ended his travels in Memphis in May 2011, recording the first half of his debut album. Upon returning to Brooklyn, Stevie began performing as SWF, gathering friends from the yoga and music communities to act as band members.
After a year of determination, detox, and deep self-study, Stevie returned to Memphis in January 2013 to record the rest of the album. On “Warrior”, he sings, “I let my darkness shine, I let the darkness out, I’ve taken the warrior’s vow”, illuminating his path of sincerity and soul discovery. The songs are odes to a deeper connection to our soul and the challenges and beauty of hoping to attain enlightenment in the 21st century.
Revealed in both the spirit of light and darkness, Let It Be Told is a work of truth, love, and a heart that beats for rock & roll.
Upcoming SWF Tour Dates
9/02 – Brooklyn, NY – Glasslands (w/ Vermont Joy Parade)
10/08 – New York, NY – Pianos (Record Release Show)
The dog days of summer call for a brand new song from The Chain Gang of 1974. The sun soaked vibes of “Miko,” which premiered with Neon Gold yesterday, is the first new offering TCGO1974 has released since 2011 and will be on their upcoming sophomore album.
“‘Miko,’ the barnstorming first taste of [the] next record opens innocently enough, like a waxing moonbeam of meditative pop, unfolding with relaxed candor…But then things go haywire as it slides into hyperdrive, taking off on the pestilent wings of Isom Innis’ studio magic as the Foster The People jack-of-all-tradesman turns in one of his finest production efforts yet. Buckle up and take flight.” says Neon Gold.
“Miko” is the first new track from the The Chain Gang of 1974’s sophomore LP due out in 2014 – the follow-up to the band’s 2011 debut Wayward Fire. The Chain Gang of 1974 is the moniker of genre-jumping singer/multi-instrumentalist, Kamtin Mohager. Since moving from his hometown of Denver to Los Angeles three years ago, in the midst of recording Wayward Fire, Kamtin has now become one with the elements of Southern California. His upcoming album is indicative of his free spirited lifestyle. The upcoming album was produced by Isom Innis (Foster The People) with additional help from Tony Hoffer (M83, Phoenix and Silversun Pickups, among many more).
Musically Amusing 