I drive dinosaurs with bells on

Do you need more ridiculous in your life? Well then look no further than guerilla bike-enthusiasts Funderstorm. When I first saw their band name I almost slapped myself in the face; why hadn’t anyone thought of this before? – Let’s make a band called Funderstorm and put bike bells and radical white boy raps and smashed out boombox beats in our songs. Yes!

And they’re not just any zany two-piece you’ll find in a colourful corner of myspace. Brad Watkins and Marc McKenzie have played “over a hundred high-energy guerilla shows and bicycle rides, secret vacant parking lots, block parties, dirty graffiti havens and forgotten railroad tunnels in LA and all across the USA.” They’ve achieved a fair bit in their three years of existence, including becoming the first band to tour the US West Coast to East Coast by bicycle, unsupported! Read their blog about it here.

Funderstorm’s blender of noise brings to mind Din Glorious‘ riotous toilet trash jams and Best Fwends‘ harnessed chaos. Their rambling songs are ridiculous and hyperactive beyond belief. ‘F.U.N. (Are You Having Fun Yet?’ (replete with joyous chants and bugged out samples) is their manifesto, but “You are Funderstorm” is their motto, as they claim 2000 biker friends to be in their band too.

Though the logistics are confounding, they claim to be the first band to ride and play a full show on a bike ride. They say, “Our shows are known for having unquantifiable energy released over the top of a sonic attack from a fiery assortment of dance punches and crowd-involvement. The energy forms an atmosphere of potluck fun, where one can shoot fireworks and it wouldn’t be unexpected. Last weekend a couple was having sex during the show and nobody noticed! It’s on tape!”

Buy their debut LP, Greatest Hits: The Debut Tribute Album from their website for US$8, and download their EP for free from their website, not here. And for god’s sake, watch their genius and inspiring guerrilla bike protest staged during deadlocked LA traffic and sound-tracked by their song ‘Why Didja Du Eet?’ on their youtube channel. “Ride a bike! You’d be home by now!”.

 Funderstorm- 2000 Kids: MP3

Funderstorm- Website

Funderstorm- Facebook

Posted by Sarah Gooding under California, Los Angeles, U.S.A
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Kaleidoscopic Dreamer

Here’s a cute wee song from Glasser’s debut album Ring, out September 28 on True Panther. Where her previous work amalgamated icy, tribal rhythms and slightly crooked, warped synths, this new track, titled ‘Home’, is scattered with hand claps and clunky teardrops. Gone are comparisons to Kate Bush and Bjork and in come comparisons to Feist and White Hinterland. ‘Home’ sounds like a winter pop song set high in the Himalayan mountains, with previously aligned avant-garde instrumentation having been replaced by orchestral strings, woodwind and bass. Cameron Mesirow’s voice again casts a long shadow; beautifully primitive and striking, it’s perfectly coated in reverb. Having shot to fame via her first two releases, Glasser’s debut album is set to sparkle in the hearts of those awaiting more of her minimalist dream-pop.

Glasser- Home: MP3

Glasser- Myspace

Posted by Nick Fulton under Los Angeles, U.S.A
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Beam Me Up

Don’t let the name put you off – Evan Voytas isn’t the moniker of some earnest singer songwriter, but sounds more like a stuttering, nervous, cathartic girl choir over weird quasi-Jazz drumming. At least on the song ‘ASTRO’, anyway. Searing synths and self-consciously soaring vocals collide light-years above the complicated rhythms. The friendly, eerie feeling of his music may derive from social awkwardness or just his imagination but either way it sounds like the soundtrack to a cartoon of your life. Some of his songs reach a fruitier vein of abstract psychedelic bedroom dance that almost reminds of Scissor Sisters, with Voytas’ voice squealing high pitched in the appropriately titled ‘Getting Higher’. The more ’80s tinkly shoegaze of ‘I Run With You, Spirit Animal’ is softer like a gentle bike ride, where ‘I Have A Dream In My Heart’ takes the skewed kooky pop of Metronomy and slows it down and makes it more contemplative. The most recent, ‘Sad, Like Hearts Can Be’, has an ominous Joy Division-style intro and the vocals are more distant.

Voytas’ story is an interesting one, he moved from rural Pennsylvania to Harlem, where he, according to his bio, “immersed himself in various religious texts and new age paperbacks. He grew a beard, moved to the desert, moved back, shaved the beard, played lead guitar for a few pop acts, toured the world, moved to a farmhouse on a dirt road in Pennsylvania, started recording music, and finally ended up in Los Angeles.” He appears to still play with other bands, having played guitar with Flying Lotus in May.

You can definitely pick up the weird new age vibe in his songs, and his music is not for everyone. But it can put a whimsical skip in your step if you’re willing to try it, especially the playful ‘Give It Back’ where he laughs in the chorus. His EP, The Dynamic Sound of Evan Voytas, came out in May last year, and his album, Sad, Like Hearts Can Be, is due out soon.

Evan Voytas- ASTRO: MP3

 Evan Voytas- Give It Back: MP3

Evan Voytas- Myspace

Evan Voytas- Website

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Los Angeles, U.S.A
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My eyes are turning in on themselves

Hysterical undersea babbling and pan-fried drum machine beats are awash in a sea of fizzing electronics and meandering structures in the latest noisy offering from LA noisenik Aria Jalali of railcars. He offered his recordings to the hands and ears of No Age, Lucky Dragons, Jeans Wilder, Xiu Xiu, White Rainbow and Truman Peyote, and the results are predictably effervescent and varied.

The EP is somewhat divided in two, with four versions each of ‘Castles’ and ‘Cathedral With No Eyes’ (including the originals). No Age’s blistering rendition of ‘Castles’ first up submerges the song in a murky dream and pulls it out dripping with the sculptural beginnings of another. Lucky Dragons get fruity and silly, powering the otherwise slightly demonic original with sugar and sprinkly bells. Alternatively, Jeans Wilder sees ‘Castles’ with bleary, red eyes and slows it down into some weird space jam with the tranquility of circulating satellites. Xiu Xiu’s take on the next song, ‘Cathedral With No Eyes’, is of brain-pummeling drums, squawking vocals and synths slipping slowly into a pool. It changes tack suddenly, into a hissing gun-rattling techno clusterfuck. Clearly Jamie Stewart understands Jalali’s vision well, and this is possibly the most eclectic remix on the whole EP. That is until you hear White Rainbow’s mix of scattered sounds panning mercilessly into a cyclone of synths following that. Then there’s Truman Peyote’s wailing elephants stomping in bio-hazardous waste in a desert of echoes. Viciously visceral, the whole thing is being given away for free, so download it now.

railcars- Cathedral With No Eyes (Xiu Xiu remix): MP3

Download railcars free remixes EP

Get the original album

railcars- website

railcars- myspace

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Los Angeles, U.S.A
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Don’t Give Me Slack

Wait! I see you running away in horror after reading this title, but trust me, it’s not as bad as you might think. To be honest it’s just like Kick Kick Snare said – it feels more like M.I.A. featuring Christina, not the other way round. But semantics aside, the Switch-produced ‘Elastic Love’ is a really good, catchy little song. M.I.A. puts on her trademark swirly, weird effects and the few times Christina features she’s barely recognisable. Plus their analogies shared between plastic tape, rubber bands and gaffer tape are cute.

Last night we held an impromptu Youtube party, reminiscing over great and not-so-great ’90s classics the likes of LFO, Blackstreet, Busta Rhymes, Mase and Destiny’s Child. Naturally Christina came up, so this comes at a perfect time. Who knows how it will age, but for now the kooky lyrics, vocal juxtaposition and spooky synths do the trick.

Christina Aguilera ft. M.I.A.- Elastic Love: MP3

Christina Aguilera- website

M.I.A.- website

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Los Angeles, U.S.A, UK
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Nomadic Dreamers

These four girls from Los Angeles make wonderfully exquisite post-punk music. However we’ve been a little bit slow to catch on to their kindled success, in their short career they’ve already been featured in NME, The New York Times, The Guardian and Dazed and Confused, plus they have been picked up by Rough Trade Records. They’re currently on tour in Europe and will be returning home to tour the US in June, including a slot a Lollapalooza.

Like a semi-concious dream, Warpaint’s music is restless and at times spirals out of control, but it somehow manages to thrive on its own awkwardness. A large chunk of their songs push the six minute mark and they move through time on a passive, non-aggressive path, drawing the focus towards their wavy rhythms and beautifully formed harmonies. Theresa Wayman and Emily Kokal share the lead role and their voices rebound like softly spoken soul singers; all dreamy and candy-coated like a posh little Goth girl walking along Venice Beach under the cover of darkness. And it’s refreshing to hear no element of chillwave, in fact Warpaint ride an anti-chillwave buzz, peddling a sound that has more meaning and a stronger emotional connection with the listener. They’re more akin to CocoRosie if the Casady sisters had Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo playing guitars, or a more winter-y Cat Power if she was joined by Denise Roughan and Frankie Rose.

In 2009 the band released their debut EP titled Exquisite Corpse, produced by John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The sole EP currently forms their back catalogue, but they are half-way through recording a debut album which will be released via Rough Trade Records later this year.  

Warpaint’s singer and guitarist Theresa Wayman also stars in the upcoming film Pete Smalls is Dead, alongside Steve Buscemi, Rosie Perez and Tim Roth.

Warpaint- Krimson: MP3

Warpaint- Elephants: MP3

 Warpaint- Myspace

Posted by Nick Fulton under California, Los Angeles, U.S.A
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Ahead Of The Ranks

All you need is one song to really sweep you off your feet. Fortunately, LA grassroots hip hop artist TiRon has many. Having guested on Pac Div‘s song ‘Paper’, the young LA native has a surprisingly smooth delivery and production to boot, his lyrics spitting love about girls and the city, rumbling with a gutsy musical intention underneath. His latest, off Mustard, is ‘For Your Smile’, an unabashedly romantic but entirely unpretentious or cringeworthy love song, it really shocked me, I was alarmed that this young talent hadn’t come to my attention until now. His syrupy voice recalls Kanye without the egotistical attack, the production is punchy, well-suited and talented. He has two albums for free download on his myspace featuring songs with Pac Div, Ayomari and Blu. TiRon is by far one of the most promising and exciting grass roots rappers to come to my attention in a long time.

TiRon- Throwing My Money: MP3

TiRon- For Your Smile: MP3

Tiron- Tumblr blog

Tiron- Myspace

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Los Angeles, U.S.A
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Pony Drone

LA’s Batwings Catwings spring from the steaming remains of psychotic all-girl trio Puppy Dog and electro free spazz punk band The Press Fire, spouting shouty, wiry punk rock that jerks and jives and rocks out. Their first two demos show the band in the vein of Mika Miko in their twisty, bouncy climbing bass and scratchy guitar. Demo ‘Gold To Black’ debuted on hugely respected 20jazzfunkgreats and it appears the band has yet to be featured anywhere else online, but with their cacophonous blend of posturing post punk bass lines, obnoxiously grating vocals and oddball synths merging droney rock with doomy vocals and a fun party vibe that ultimately melts into a wavey synth dance attack, it could just be a matter of time.

Batwings Catwings- Gold To Black: MP3

Batwings Catwings- Myspace

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Los Angeles, U.S.A
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Cold-blooded Reptiles

Brain Miller from Foot Village just sent me this brutal black metal remix of ‘Grace’s Death’, remixed by Best Coast‘s Bobb Bruno. There’s no images to cause any madcap controversy, but if there was they’d probably broadcast Grace’s eyes being gouged out by a lonely night walker dressed in a long black trench coat, before raising a bayonet above his head and viciously slashing her to pieces like in a sadistic Chinese horror film. It’s even scarier than the original song, which appeared on Foot Village’s 2009 album Anti-Magic. On the original version Grace screams like a wilting flower dying a long agonising death. The boys add a Gothic chant and then the song turns celebratory, dishing up some heavy metal guitar riffs and the Village’s customary multi-percussive drum beats. Bruno’s mashed all that together and the result is pretty fucking devilish. You’ve been warned.

Foot Village- Grace’s Death (Bobb Bruno remix): MP3

Foot Village- Myspace

Posted by Nick Fulton under California, Los Angeles, U.S.A
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Exabibitionist

Brian Miller (Foot Village, 20 Jazz Funk Greats) loves E&E, in fact he loves E&E so much that he has just released their debut album on his record label Deathbomb Arc. E&E is primarily the project of Elijah Crampton, but as you’ll hear on ‘Gate’ he employs Angie Olsen and Ashland Mines to sing a few verses. It was actually Angie’s singing (and her lyrics) that made me fall for E&E in the first place, then I heard Crampton’s crazy instrumentation and I was totally hooked.

E&E come from the same eclectic Los Angeles scene that bought us Abe Vigoda, Foot Village, Rare Grooves and many other amazing artists. But Crampton is definitely one of the weirder ones, making spacey disco pop and alienating everyone with his piano jazz, using midi keyboards and an old piano. There’s a touch of late ’70s sci-fi action going on but it’s on a pretty minimal level; Casio enthusiasts could probably even name the exact keyboard he’s using. It’s the minimalism that makes it cute.

E&E’s debut album is out now through Deathbomb Arc. “This will prob be in my top 3 albums of the year,” according to Brian Miller, so get it!

 E&E- Gate: MP3

E&E- Polvolito: MP3

 E&E- Myspace

Posted by Nick Fulton under California, Los Angeles, U.S.A
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