It’s curtains for you

Shadowy shoegaze dream-punk/pop band Night Manager released a perfectly-formed 7″ via Japanese label Big Love two months back, and yesterday it became available worldwide via Rough Trade. The three-song release captures the essence of the Brooklyn-via-Paris-and-San-Francisco band’s succinct pop with echoey melodies and doo wop-style vocals aching with an on-off nonchalance. Coming across as a softer, day-dreamier Be Your Own Pet or a more complex Best Coast, Night Manager heaps layers of scuzzy guitar reverb over fast drums and singalong-inspiring vocal melodies. Lead single ‘Ghost’ is pure pitch-shifting dreamy grunge-pop heaven, while first b-side ‘Platonic Lovers’ is an alternately sped-up/slowed-down ode in fine form. Final song ‘All Mine’ adds an old-school rock and roll croon-pop vibe to the mix.

Buy Ghost from Rough Trade

Listen to Ghost on Bandcamp

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A
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Pirates of the Weird and Wonderful

The excitement of 9 new Chad VanGaalen tracks landing in my inbox is a little bit overwhelming, especially when it’s delivered with news of a split 12″ with the ever evolving and extremely weird Xiu Xiu. The 12″ is the second release in a series of amazing collaborations being pedalled by German label The Altin Village & Mine Records. The first release came in March 2010, featuring the primal drone of Oneida and the swooping vocal melodies of Pterodactyl. Chad VanGaalen’s contribution displays the eerie brilliance of a modern musical chameleon, whose work continues to evolve and mature. His songs have a confidence that’s been missing from his past two records, sounding less fragile and more astutely balanced. There’s moments of self-indulgence and reflection, but his storytelling is more defined, revealing and romantic. Opener ‘Your Own Mind Ends’ tells off a bitter dispute between loved ones, before jumping into the Simon & Garfunkel-esque ‘Evening Sun’, full of paisley strings and wooing vocal melodies. ‘I Want You Back’ tries hard to be the record’s highlight; a brash reminder that he is not just a folk musician, thrashing out a lively grunge inspired number similar to ‘Freedom For A Policeman’, off his mesmerising second album Diaper Island. ‘Nothing Is Impossible’ continues the assault in classic Jay Reatard style – a speedy guitar-driven punk song repeating the title lyrics. And then proving nothing is off limits, he gently slides into a beautiful folk ballad titled ‘Weighed Sin’, with harmonica and acoustic guitar folding into one another.

Xiu Xiu, or more specifically Jamie Stewart’s contribution requires it’s own lengthy explanation. His side of the 12″ is a spoken word piece that requires the physical record to properly engage with it’s complex (or simplistic, depending on how you view it) lack of musical formality. The record will come with lift out liner notes containing a set of questions. The listener is required to read a question aloud and then to drop the needle anywhere on the record to hear the answer. Stewart has aptly titled his side of the 12″, ‘Fortune Teller’.

The record label currently has no distributor in New Zealand but with any luck you should be able to pick up a copy via the many world-wide distributors listed on the Soundcloud link. The 12″ is officially on sale from March 17.

Posted by Nick Fulton under Calgary, California, Canada, San Jose, U.S.A
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Broken vista

At first a jarring, disjointed combination of jilted synths, aggressive beats and Jamie Stewart’s always-staggering vocals, eventually you’ll find yourself getting lost in ‘Hi’, the first song from Xiu Xiu’s upcoming album Always. Its video, directed by Jamie and David Horvitz, follows Jamie on a roadtrip through upstate New York, with footage of disparate events such as him biting apples still hanging on trees, scrawling lyrics in public bathrooms, shoving copies of Dick Cheney’s autobiography into a rubbish bin or setting his hand on fire. Interspersed with photos from the band’s recent tour and shots of photos in books, it has a disarming and surreal feel but is also at times quite humorous. It is essentially in the nature of everything Xiu Xiu produces: anatagonistic, confronting and dreamlike.

While fans wait for the band’s impending world tour and album, they can head over to their website and check out Jamie’s blog. Just the other day he wrote about sex chat rooms, and how screenshots of their various empty locations are potentially “the greatest performance art space in human history”. He continues, “It is touching and honest and terrifying and stimulating and enlightening and filled with a dear and challenging sorrow and humor.” Much like Xiu Xiu itself.

Always will be released on March 6, and continues the band’s long tradition of working with Deerhoof‘s Greg Saunier, who produced the album and contributed drums and vocals. John Congleton, who has also worked with Antony and the Johnsons, Marilyn Manson and The Roots, mixed it. If ‘Hi’ is anything to go by, Always will be considerably accessible work for the band, encouraging listeners to respond with its inviting lyrics.

Xiu Xiu’s website

Posted by Sarah Gooding under California, San Jose, U.S.A
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Scuzz Puppies

Controversial music critic Chris Weingarten called Pop. 1280 the “hardest working scumbags in the scuzzfuckery business”, when recently raving about them in the Village Voice and on Spin.com. It’s on Spin.com where you can listen to the band’s new album in its entirety, before it’s officially released on January 24 by New York label Sacred Bones Records. Titled The Horror, it’s a haunting hybrid of hatred and harassing post-punk. Violent guitars slice through layers of distortion and tin-pan percussion, while a creepy whisper of feedback adds a late-night deviance and a sick sense of perverted revelry. The album is thick and heavy, with a very dark, filthy finish, but while its grimy sound appears to be its most obvious attraction, The Horror has an oddly metaphorical core, consciously referencing the harsh reality of poverty in New York City. To put some of the band’s subject matter into context, you can read Sarah’s excellent piece written in 2010 reviewing the band’s 12″ record The Grid and explaining guitarist Ivan Lip’s connection with New York’s less privileged underclass.

After a couple of 7″ records and a 12″ vinyl release in 2010 Pop. 1280 seem ready to establish themselves in the scuzzy, grimy punk world, dominated by a growing number of artists associated with Sacred Bones Records. In 2011 the label released records by Zola Jesus, Moon Duo, Crystal Stilts and Psychic Ills, to go with previous releases by Nice Face, Gary War, Amen Dunes and The Pink Noise. Watch this band in 2011 as they climb the popularity ladder – you’ll hear more from them, I’m sure.

Stream The Horror at Spin.com

‘Like’ Pop. 1280 on Facebook

Pre-order The Horror from Sacred Bones Records

Posted by Nick Fulton under New York, U.S.A
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Acid Garage

Knoxville, Tennessee’s COOLRUNNINGS just popped onto my radar with their new single ‘Spirits of the High’, a fuzzy psych-rock blow-out that channels all things from the Mothers of Invention to Wooden Shjips. The band began in 2009 when Brandon Biongo and Forrest Ferguson combined their solo-projects to perform live – they’re now a four-piece with Adam Cottle and Scott Kapuscinski. Together they’ve released two EPs, an album, and a 7″ under the name COOLRUNNINGS, each time evolving to become a more noisier, driving force. Their Fool Moon 7″, mastered at Abbey Road studios and released on British label Too-Pure is an outstanding highlight, full of psyched out synths, chugging percussion and hypnotic vocals. It was released as part of Too-Pure’s Singles Club series – a monthly 7″ release that eventually comprises  twelve 7″s per year and can all be purchased for a single fixed subscription price. The band’s back catalogue is well worth checking out as there’s something for everyone, be it the scuzzy electro-punk of their Babes Forever EP (mostly the work of Brandon Biongo) or the more energetic, artful pop of their debut full-length Dracula Is Only The Beginning. All can be streamed, downloaded and purchased in physical form from the Dracula Horse label website.

Posted by Nick Fulton under Tennessee, U.S.A
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Success Is A Warm Tommy Gun

Starting the year with some hip-hop – this is about the best thing I’ve heard so far in 2012. It comes from an Atlanta artist named Bugus, who released his debut album 2020 in 2011 and he’s been winning some pretty decent praise from my favourite hip-hop blog, Earmilk. A true up-and-comer, 19-year-old Bugus is associated with the DIEMON label, who house a roster of young artists, including Russ and Musa SB. With a mature voice that sounds well-weathered in the hip-hop game, Bugus has the skills and will power to turn first-time listeners into believers. Blending the soul rhythms of New York giants The Roots and Ma$e with the awareness and sincerity of Chicago’s Common, Bugus has his influences down and his own voice well and truly focused. DIEMON released 2020 as a free download and they’ve just dropped a new Bugus track titled ‘Success’. You can grab both from the DIEMON website, along with a load of other free and legal downloads.

Bugus- Success: MP3

‘Like’ Bugus on Facebook

Posted by Nick Fulton under Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A
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Intimacy issues

It’s only been three months since the release of their epic debut album Thrashin, but our pals Total Slacker have already given us an exclusive new demo. Finished only on Christmas eve, ‘You Gotta Touch Yourself’ is on the slower side, with swirling guitars and droning vocals churned up by a guitar rip. In the inspirational ode to self-love, singer/guitarist Tucker Rountree encourages you to “get to know yourself,” saying, “you’ve got to love yourself before you can love someone else”. The Brooklyn band has a knack for combining humour with sincerity in a disarming way. Another sweet grungey song to add to their ever-expanding repertoire, it will be interesting to see how it changes from this original demo to the final product.

The band are also set to release a split 12″ record with Friends, which entails Total Slacker covering their song ‘Friend Crush’ and Friends covering TS’ ‘Magical Date Nite’. The split will be released on the Japanese label Sixteen Tambourines in March.

They also ventured to the MTV headquarters recently to film an interview for VH1′s WTF Wednesday series. A hilarious chat about YouTube adventures, spray-on hair and thigh-masters ensues, spliced with impromptu jam sessions and live demos of yet-to-be-released songs. You should watch it if only for the quote, “If you want to climb the corporate ladder, you’ve got to build the thighs of success.” So much love for these guys!

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A
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Sweet Escape

Wesley Bunch may come from Norfolk, Virginia, but the dream pop he’s written with the help of Elliott Malvas and Jon Reynolds sounds distinctly Scandinavian. The friends’ casual jamming has produced some very easy pop tunes that have a pretty, delicate softness to their ’80s new wave influence. They recorded mini-EP Favorite Friend with Brad Rosenberg a while ago now but the songs still stand up as strong and enchanting. Named ‘Summer Breeze’ and ‘Attractive Smile’, the charmingly simple tunes definitely show a fairly positive outlook and the many layers keep it interesting.

Favorite Friend is available for pay-as-you-like via bandcamp. Below, check out ‘Attractive Smile’ and new track ‘Give Up’, which was released a couple of weeks ago and comes from Suburban Living’s second EP, which is due out next year.

Posted by Sarah Gooding under U.S.A, Virginia
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Superhero Without Superpowers

In early October High Places released their latest – and possibly greatest – album to date. A ten-track, beat heavy opus, minimising their jungle sound into a dynamic daytime horror movie track list. Gone are the tropical loops that dominated their self-titled debut and 2010′s High Places vs. Mankind, replaced by haunting howls, breakbeat percussion and a more serious singing style from vocalist Mary Pearson. It’s easy to imagine Pearson staring down the camera with mad eyes, intimidating you with her thoughtful gaze. That’s exactly how she looks in this new video for ‘Sonora’, easily the most disturbed song off Original Colors. In a Popeye-style horror scene, Pearson plays the role of a dejected, beat-up girlfriend who rescues her boyfriend (Liars’ Angus Andrew) from a group of evil thugs. There’s several graphic shots of Pearson busting a skull open and slitting a man’s throat with a razor blade – all very badass.

Consequence of Sound still has a full-album stream of Original Colors up on their site if you want to listen before you buy. To purchase the album head over to the band’s label Thrill Jockey.

High Places on Facebook

Posted by Nick Fulton under Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A
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Loose Lips

Atlanta’s Turf War make cheap-thrill rock ‘n’ roll packed with fun catchy hooks and drunken vocal choruses. They can be grouped in with fellow Georgians The Black Lips and Florida’s Jacuzzi Boys; joy riding through life without caring much about what the general public think of their reckless attitude. Their music’s got that spit-in-your-face style abrasiveness that makes fans go wild, and evidently they’re gaining a bit of a reputation in their home town. The band originally began in 2008 as a bedroom project for vocalist John Robinson but quickly evolved into a full band, picking up Brian McGrath on drums, Cecil Moss on guitar and Bradley Morris on bass. They recently gained fifth member Ian McDonald, who was so impressed when engineering the band’s debut album that he decided to permanently join.

Turf War just released their debut album titled Year of Living Dangerously, which was produced by Black Lips guitarist Ian Saint Pé Brown. It was released on October 18 through Old Flame Records (Letting Up Despite Great Faults, Millionyoung, Cloud Nothings), and can be purchased from the label’s website.

Turf War- For The Last Time: MP3

Turf War on Facebook

Posted by Nick Fulton under Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A
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