The San Francisco duo’s ragged, androgynous, carefree hit now has a third video in Focus Creeps’ “Hardcore XXX Edit.” Watch here.
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The San Francisco duo’s ragged, androgynous, carefree hit now has a third video in Focus Creeps’ “Hardcore XXX Edit.” Watch here.
Over at his MySpace, Joe Knight, aka San Francisco’s Rangers, refers to his sound as “elevator psych.” Clever, but not entirely accurate in this case. Rangers has a melancholic Twisted Village vibe to it, e.g. something more emotional than you’d expect in an elevator. (Think an updated, less jagged Luxurious Bags minus the star-shredding solos.) Knight’s actual list of influences has a guitar-flavored Hall Of Fame look to it via Nile Rogers, Carlos Alomar, Johnny Marr, Mick Ronson, and Bernard Butler. Perhaps most helpful in this case, though, is Knight’s mention of being into the guitars on the Cocteau Twins’ 1990 album/song Heaven Or Las Vegas. He clearly has an ear for moody strings. Take a listen to what he does with them in the quartered video for the gorgeously fuzzed “Deerfield Village,” a track from the forthcoming Suburban Tours.
Continue reading New Rangers Video - “Deerfield Village”…
As we mentioned when offering him a BTW, San Francisco’s Ryan Lynch, joined here/there by Hannah Hunt, has an autumnal, jittery sound that’s part Belle & Sebastian funk/part Arthur Russell lullaby/part his own details. At times it reminds me of Kelley Polar as a scruffy Bay Area busker. “Clawing Out At The Walls” floats into an icier, more open-ended direction than the two previous tracks we posted, but it maintains all of the qualities that drew us to the guy in the first place.
Continue reading New Dominant Legs - “Clawing At The Walls”…
On Thursday at CMJ the xx played the 66th and 67th shows of the week — one at the Apple Store SoHo, another as the “x-rated” secret guest at the horribly delayed, horribly sweaty Club NME showcase at the Delancey. The sound dudes couldn’t get it together, the subterranean, reverse-gradient pit is perfect for sweltering while staring at the back of people’s heads, but hey, Suckers were outstanding again, and aside from Delorean’s absurd and interminable delay, their dance set is one worth catching if you can. Jessica Amaya stuck around to photograph those two and the rest, including The Antlers, Male Bonding, Bear Hands, Yes Giantess, We Are Enfant Terrible, Reni Lane, and Yes Giantess. (Earlier in the day she ventured out to the excellent, ascendant Mexican Summer label’s in-studio day party at their new co-op/studio space in Brooklyn for Small Black, who are having a hell of a week, and Crystal Antlers.) Meanwhile, Kyle Dean Reinford was holding it down at Brooklyn Vegan party for Freelance Whales, Surfer Blood, Lovvers, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, Peggy Sue, Alec Ounsworth, Rebecca Shiffman, and Sky Larkin, before bouncing to Fontana’s for Local Natives and Happy Hollows at the Aquarium Drunkard shindig. He wrapped up his night at Glasslands for Japandroids and Real Estate at the Death + Taxes release party, and we have photos of every bold-faced band. Whoa.
Perhaps not content with inspiring Where The Wild Things Are or doing an original soundtrack for Richard Kelly’s possibly ridiculous horror flick The Box (”I seriously thought Cameron Diaz was doing that thing where you put on an exaggerated Southern accent as a joke!” -Videogum.com), it looks like maybe Arcade Fire are working on a Neon Bible followup. At least that’s what TwentyFourBit’s trying to piece together. Hey, nice new press photo…
Continue reading Let The Arcade Fire 2010 Rumor Mill Begin…
You could compare Warpaint to Au Revoir Simone for other reasons than being a female trio with fragile melodies, but the Los Angeles crew do something darker. It’s sorta there in the differences between their names. For instance, David Lynch had nothing to do with the dreamy Adam Harding and Burke Roberts-directed video for “Stars,” but its more eerily atmospheric (and shadowy) than “Shadows” even if the title sounds brighter.
Continue reading New Warpaint Video - “Stars”…
Or, as Stevens puts it, “I’m trying to dissuade any kind of conceptual framework and just write music, love songs, pop songs, and just forget all that conceptual mess…” Learn more in Vish Khanna’s latest excerpt from a forthcoming Signal To Noise Q&A.
London trio the Golden Silvers made their first trek to the States this week for CMJ. They’re buzzing overseas (did Jools Holland, won Glastonbury’s New Talent competition in ‘08, playing the festival in ‘09, features in NME, etc.), but so far things are quieter Stateside. In fact, it took a tip from a friend to point our ears in the proper direction. Thankfully they did: We were able to catch them at the IAMSOUND showcase a couple of days ago and if you’ve been following along on Twitter, you already know that set made it so we have no choice but start listening to them all the time now. Their excellent debut True Romance came out earlier this year in the UK and finally got its US release earlier this month. The group, fronted by vocalist/keyboardist Gwilym Gold have a sound perfectly matched to their name. At their MySpace they list Electric Ladyland, Blonde On Blonde, The Magical Mystery Tour, Around The World In A Day, Live Evil, OK Computer and Jay Dilla, among others, as influences. Blend them with a little bit of Blur, Liquid Liquid, and Micachu & the Shapes. (Mica Levi included them on her Filthy Friends mixtape, which you’ll find over here.) Take a listen to “True No. 9 Blues (True Romance)” from their debut along with a version of Clash-y album track “Arrows Of Eros” they did with the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble at Damon Albarn’s Studio 13 this summer. It fleshes out the original into something else entirely.
Continue reading Band To Watch: Golden Silvers…
After this week, it’ll seem like Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss have come out of nowhere to form the outfit on everyone’s CMJ breakout list. But there are roots, dug deep and spread far: Past members of Sleigh Bells went on to form buzz-band Surfer Blood. Derek’s old hardcore band Poison The Well toured with Give Up The Ghost, the defunct hardcore outfit of past BTW Cold Cave’s Wes Eisold. Alexis Krauss is a school teacher with a pop-singer past. All of which gives certain strength to their reinvention in this excellent new outfit.
It bears mentioning that Derek lived (and recorded most of these demos) down the hall from one of our apartments, and that his tracks were passed to us by hand some months ago — a true bedroom project. In that form the songs showed jagged promise, but after seeing them fleshed out and flooring the Hype Machine party at Santos yesterday, they’re no longer an “if” but “when.” In part because the rough edges of those demos’ combustible pop are now more finely razed, in part because of Alexis Krauss’s outsized yet totally natural stage presence.
Sleigh Bells are just a duo — Derek on beat production, guitars, and songwriting; Alexis Krauss on vocals — but their tracks ram together many sonic worlds. Their electronic beats thud with gut-rattling low end; guitars are distorted siren squalls (”A/B Machines”), or heavily gated and thoroughly crunched power chords (”Infinity Guitars”), or playful, beach bum strums (the Beta Band-y “Ring Ring”). Krauss flips easily from hip-hop hook sass (”Beach Girls”), to pop power to sunshined, coquettish coos. The demos that are floating around are all getting re-recorded soon, but you should have a few to get familiar:
Continue reading Band To Watch: Sleigh Bells…
Weezy’s plead guilty to owning the loaded semi-automatic gun found on his tour bus in 2007. He expects to receive a year in jail at sentencing in February. Then in March, he stands trial in Arizona on unrelated felony drug and weapons charges. More at MTV.
