Dark Dark Dark

It’s been a long, hot, humid summer. The kind of summer where your perfect outfit wilts the moment you step outside, where your tiny air conditioner is pushed to the limits of it’s 5000 BTU capacity every single night, where no amount of ice cream or beer can cool you down.

I’m ready for Fall, ready for sweaters, ready to pack on 15 pounds and hibernate for a few months.  To prepare myself, I’ve been listening to Dark Dark Dark on an unending loop.

It might be 90 degrees outside, but on the gorgeous “Bright, Bright, Bright,” Nona Marie Invie’s voice wraps around the group’s arrangements with all longing and melancholy of a crisp fall day, and I just want to curl up inside of it and take a nap.

The new LP from this Minneapolis band is out on October 5, just in time for this heat to break.  To sign up for their mailing list and for more details on how to get your hands on the album, head HERE.

Dark Dark Dark – In Your Dreams

Video and Tunes: Summer Camp

London-based duo Summer Camp were all over the blogs a few weeks back with their video for the song “Round The Moon,” to tease the upcoming, limited-edition 7” and digital release of the single on September 13^th.  Just prior to that, they’ll be releasing a six track EP – the Young EP – on September 6^th.  You can purchase everything from Moshi Moshi Records HERE.

Comprised of members Elizabeth Sankey and Jeremy Warmlsey (sometimes Fanfarlo member), Summer Camp takes a look back at your favorite films – or films you should know – from the 80s and before, to sample music and create songs like “Jake Ryan.”  SWOON.  For the “Round the Moon” video, they continue to get nostalgic, pulling clips from the 1970 Swedish film En kärlekshistoria.  Check it out below, along with their track “Ghost Train.”

Summer Camp – Ghost Train

SUMMER CAMP – Round the Moon from Paddy Power on Vimeo.

Exclusive Voxhaul Broadcast Track

Voxhaul Broadcast is kicking off a national tour this month, starting out West and heading East for about 30+ shows between now thru October.  They’ll be stopping in New York City at Fontana’s on September 8th.  So head to the edge of Chinatown, pick up some dumplings and check out this band.

The four-piece from Orange County, CA was named one of LA’s Best New Indie Bands by the Los Angeles Times Magazine this summer – a well-deserved accomplishment for a band that’s been around for a coupe of years, and a nice accolade to boast as they embark on this tour.

You can check out some old tunes and bookmark THIS SITE for when the new material from their forthcoming full-length drops this month.  Meanwhile, here is a track I really love from an un-released EP…

Voxhaul Broadcast – Lost Along The Way

The Hoof and The Heel

The Hoof and The Heel are Harris, Christine, Al and Farid.  And they are from Canada. The band just released their Fireworks EP, which you can download HERE.  They are also on a short tour on the East Coast, with stops at Pianos in NYC tonight and Bruar Falls in Brooklyn tomorrow.  If you are around, I recommend checking them out.  Here is the title track “Fireworks,” as well as the video, and a nice little chat with the band below.  Love, love, LOVE this song and video.

The Hoof and The Heel – Fireworks

The Hoof & The Heel – “Fireworks” (NSFW) from Bryan Schlam on Vimeo.

Who are The Hoof and The Heel and how did you all meet?
C:  I met Harris and Farid the week I first visited Montreal in 2008, apparently just a few weeks after they met, at the bar that Harris was working at. It wasn’t until a year later did we play together. I was  living in LA, and came to Montreal to pretty much join the band (I didn’t know it at the time until the first day we all got together). While we were recording our EP, I met Al at a rock lotto fundraiser (bands are formed by pulling names out of a hat and they have a week to write 3 songs and perform them). We needed a bass player, and Al and I got along great so he joined the team.

You just released your Fireworks EP on July 13 and embarked on a tour a few days ago.  What’s been the most exciting part of the process?
H: It’s all happened really fast so it’s hard to even take it in. Every day we do what we need to do without thinking too much about it. I have to say personally the most exciting thing is still to get up in front of a new audience and play. Each show is extremely unique right now, going from a 400 capacity venue in the city to a dive bar in a small town or a barn in the country. It’s all sort of equally fun so I think we’re just enjoying the whole thing.

What’s your favorite The Hoof and The Heel song / which do you love performing live and why?
C: Every time we have a new song I think it’s all of our favorite song at the time – so on this tour it’s exciting trying out the new songs in different places to work out the kinks and get the audiences response. Off our EP, I love performing King because it’s the most intimate and I love playing Tigers because it’s the opposite. We have a bi-polar set sometimes.

We’ve seen the video for “Fireworks” and really love the song and the visuals.  Tell us about the process of making the video.
H: We were really lucky, a friend of a friend used fireworks in an indie film called “So Long Lonesome”  and the cinematographer on that was Bryan Schlam. I got an e-mail from him maybe a few weeks after the movie was released asking if he could make a music video for the song. He’s in LA and none of us could get there so I told him to go for it if he wanted. Even though So Long Lonesome was really beautifully shot I was expecting a much lower production on our video, but then a couple months later he emailed me a rough cut and I was amazed at how great it looked and how much work he put into it. I gave him carte blanche on the storyline so it was really interesting to see his interpretation of the song come to life.

When or how did you first fall in love with music? (Your dad taught you banjo, you heard Dirty Diana in a bathroom, etc.)
F: My mother thought that I would become a punk rocker because as a baby whenever we would go past record stores playing loud music I would dance in my pram (stroller, as you guys call it). I’ve been dancing since!

If you could cover any song right now, what would it be and describe what it would sound like?
H: “The day they drove old dixie down” by The Band. I’m not sure how it would sound, but I hope to find out eventually.
C: “Wild Thing”
A: Loving old Whitney Houston right now. Especially “How Will I Know.” It would be fun to play that one (not sure Harris would be comfortable singing the lyrics).

Can’t Stay Awake…

…until you listen to Cloud Nothings, who will do nothing but get you completely amped up and ready to rock with their buzzy, super lo-fi pop.

Old Flame Records is putting out the band’s latest release, Didn’t You – a 7” featuring the B-side “Even If It Worked Out.”  The limited blue vinyl will be out on June 24^th (also digitally), the same day the Cleveland band plays the Knitting Factory with Wavves and DOM as part of the Northside Festival.  This is the fourth stop on a 6-date tour with Wavves (check the schedule below and buy tix to the Knitting Factory show in Brooklyn HERE).

Here’s a little bit about Cloud Nothings from their bio: In the fall of 2009, Dylan Baldi was an 18-year-old college student studying saxophone and sound recording at a small college near Cleveland, OH.  He had played in bands around town since he was old enough to hold a guitar, but recently he’d been putting his solo music on record through the magic of home recordings.  He titled the solo project “Cloud Nothings,” made a myspace page, friended some bands he liked, and sat back to wait.  That’s when a certain NYC show promoter known for putting on shows in unorthodox venues emailed asking if Cloud Nothings wanted to play with buzz bands Real Estate and Woods at the Market Hotel.  This happened to be the same date that Dylan had to play a mandatory performance with his college band or end up failing the class, which put him in the awkward position of having to decide if it was worthwhile to drop out of college to play a very first show with a non-existent band that had only been written about on a couple blogs and heard by a few people.  We are most grateful for his decision.

That’s right!

And for your listening pleasure – although not featured on the upcoming release, but still one of my faves…

Cloud Nothings – Can’t Stay Awake

6.20 IL MOTORE Montreal, Quebec
6.21 METRONOME Burlington, VT
6.22 GREAT SCOTT Boston, MA
6.24 KNITTING FACTORY Brooklyn, NY
6.25 ROCK AND ROLL HOTEL Washington DC
6.26 THE BARBARY Philadelphia, PA

Interview with SUNGLASSES / Giveaway

Tonight is the night — forthebeat Presents: Sunglasses EP release party at Pianos at 9:30 PM with Psychobuildings, Magic Man and Aux Arc.  Are you coming?  YES!

We’re giving away a FREE limited-edition hand-sewn EP, courtesy of Lefse Records.  If you’re the winner AND you happen to live in NYC, we’ll throw you a comp for tonight’s show as well.  Please post the following: “Sunglasses EP Release Party tonight: http://forthebeat.com/blog/events/”  SL and I will search for your posts on Facebook and Twitter and randomly select a winner by 3 PM today.

To prepare for later, read an interview with Sunglasses below, listen to these songs and pick out something sexy to wear to our party…

Sunglasses – Whiplash

Sunglasses – Referee

Your highly-anticipated EP drops on June 15, what’s been the most exciting part of this process?
The most exciting part for us is having a tangible versions of our songs. The experience of rubbing our fingers across our music and smelling the wax. The greatest feeling will be handing the first copies we get to our moms.

What color best describes your band’s aura/vibe?
GOLD

What’s up with the dog in your album artwork?  What’s his name?
Her name is Chloe, she is Sams dog and by the far the greatest dog in the world. Chloe is our mentor and our guardian. Sunglasses would have never taken place if it wasnt for her unforgiving wisdom. Big Ups to Miss Dooges.

What’s your favorite Sunglasses song / which do you love performing live and why?
The song we are most excited about at the moment is our newest song, “Common Sense” which has been extremely fun to play live. The song will be featured on our upcoming full length.

When or how did you first fall in love with music? (Your dad taught you banjo, you heard Dirty Diana in a bathroom, etc.)
Both of our dads are really into music and truthfully are the ones to blame. We were highly exposed to music through them and on the way to soccer games. Sam’s dad was obcessed with R.E.M., the English Beat, Joe Jackson & the Psychedelic Furs. Brady’s dad was really into Frank Zappa, The Who, Yes, Enigma and Seal.

How influential has your time at SCAD been in your musical endeavors?
Huge! Thats where we met, and really found what we came there for. Savannah was a creative atmosphere to grow and meet fellow people with the same goals. We utilized the facalities as much as we could. Shooting sketch comedy and music videos on their green screen studios as well as recording and mixing music in their studios. Also having the opportunity to work on films of all kinds. Our majors in college were Film (Samuel) and Sound (Brady). Our goal is to continue excelling in those creative areas (currently working on a feature length script) as well as incorporating those artistic principles in our music.

New York or Savannah?
We enjoy both really. They both have different aspects that we enjoy equally. Savannah gave us the opportunity to start from the ground up and learn. There was absolutely no music scene before we were there, we had to create it and it was a great learning process. Once we got going and we needed to go the next level, New York was a great vehicle for us to progress as musicians and to get away from small town claustrophobia.

Who do you see in the industry as really doing something different and exciting?
Flying Lotus is currently the only new artist we have been listening to. Also we are looking forward to the new Big Boi and OutKast albums and still have our fingers crossed for a Kate Bush collaboration.

What one song must everyone download RIGHT NOW?
Chaka Khan – “I Feel For You”

What is the most shameful song on your iPod?
Chaka Khan – “I Feel For You”

If you could cover / put a Sunglasses spin on any song right now, what would it be and describe what it would sound like?
XTC – “Its nearly Africa”. We would amp up its jungle rhythms, and vocal harmonies. We would also heighten the sense of atmosphere and hopefully take it some where new as well hold on to what we love about the band and the song. In our minds XTC are horribly underrated and it is our goal to bring public awareness to them. They are massively amazing. Their approach to music is very similar to ours and we hold them high to the sky. If you are care about yourself and the world at large you will purchase English Settlement and/or Drums & Wires!

So proud…

If you haven’t already heard, Hooray For Earth’s EP Momo dropped this week.  And if you haven’t already heard it, you can stream it right now on Spinner HERE.

The boys played the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Tuesday night, opening for The Futureheads, for their record release party.  And it was magic.  Joined by the ladies of Zambri for a few songs, crowd favorites that night were title track “Surrounded By Your Friends” (which we were), “Rolling/Nectarine” (new favorite!) and – OK, all of them.

If you didn’t get to catch them live because you don’t live in NYC, they kick off their tour with The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and Surfer Blood TONIGHT (dates below).  And if you didn’t get to catch them live but you do live in NYC, do not fret – the boys will be back soon!

Here is some sick ride + puppet friends + outer space visual goodness for you:

“Surrounded By Your Friends” by Hooray For Earth from Johnny Woods on Vimeo.

06-03 Milford, CT – Daniel Street
06-04 Rochester, NY – The German House
06-05 Buffalo, NY – The Tralf
06-06 Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom
06-08 Memphis, TN – Hi Tone Cafe
06-09 Birmingham, AL – Bottletree Cafe
06-10 Tallahassee, FL – The Engine Room
06-11 Orlando, FL – Club at Firestone
06-12 Miami, FL – Grand Central
06-13 Jacksonville, FL – Jack Rabbits
06-15 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
06-16 Washington, DC – Black Cat

I am now an Internet Warrior

My name is Noel.  I’m in a band called Hooray For Earth.  I’ve been invited to occasionally contribute to forthebeat, so I’m going to.

This is about the Danish group Oh No Ono.  Most people that know me have heard me rave about them.  The short version of my story is that their second LP Eggs was released in Denmark (they are Danish) in April 2009, and I luckily stumbled upon their gripping, colorfully grey video for the first single “Swim” (thx Johnny Woods) just a few days after the album release.  I was unaware of Oh No Ono before then, but they became one of my all-time favorite bands within a couple hours of discovery.  The songwriting and production are vast and constantly on a journey.  It’s just magic!

This past Fall, they signed to Brooklyn-based Friendly Fire and made their first trip to the states for a few shows in January (one at Mercury Lounge w/ Bear In Heaven, wonderful night).  We immediately became friends and can say only amazing things about them.  Eggs has since been released in the U.S., they returned for SXSW and some more NYC shenanigans, and so on and so forth.  A few weeks ago they released the Internet Warrior EP, which includes Eggs track “Internet Warrior” and a slew of remixes by the likes of Caribou, Zambri, Phenomenal Handclap Band, The Depreciation Guild and more.  Unfortunately it’s not currently available (yet?) in the U.S., but you can grab a few of the tracks if you take 2 seconds to search the internets — but first, below is the “Eleanor Speaks” remix by Zambri.  It’s a sprawling edit-frenzy of vocals and identifiable/unidentifiable noises layered on top of re-arranged instrumental bits with washy reverb and driving-but-not-in-a-hurry beats.

Oh No Ono – Eleanor Speaks (Zambri Remix)

Find all sorts of Ono info and music at ohnoono.com and check out the video for “Swim”:

New Album Review: Coma Cinema

Coma Cinema is one of my favorite artist discoveries of 2010, actually, Coma Cinema is one of my favorite artist discoveries ever. Mat Cothran’s musical magical talent is amazing. I love his songs, all of them, yes all of them. I could listen over and over for hours, and I do. His first album Baby Prayers was beautiful, if you haven’t already, listen to the entire thing and download for free, and start here with Flower Pills. Immediately after falling in love with it, we were fortunate enough to have Coma Cinema come up from South Carolina to play their first NYC show at our spring showcase (with Hooray for Earth & Sunglasses).

Coma Cinema will release their second album, Stoned Alone, on June 1st  (album artwork pictured above). You can catch some of the tracks on their MySpace page now and I’ve listed some below. I can’t pick a favorite track or even a few favorite tracks, I pretty much love them all. The album collectively feels like a dream-like state of clouds floating past your cheeks, tiny hairs stand up with excitement, on the edge of looking out into darkness that responds with lightness floating in a dream the bubble that bursts and fast forwards and then rewinds until you’re standing still but upside down. Yea, that about sums it up.

Highlights of the shimmering excellence:

Blissed – beautiful dreamy float into space close your eyes/open your eyes/close them again delicious nightmare you dont want to wake from and seems to go on and on forever but when you wake you realize it was just under a minute or in this case under two, clocking in at 1:56

Stoned Alone – listen for yourself but a perfect ending to every beginning

Black Birthday Cake – reminds me why i love to cry when i find things emotionally beautiful you know like a waterfall or hot sun on your naked skin before you dive into cold water that kind of stuff that shakes you unequivocally

Her Vore - female vocals on this track along with Mat’s is a perfect pair. This one makes me feel like I’m starring out into a darkened abyss with nothing but everything left unseen all at once.

The album is being released on cassette tape (awesome) and digitally June 1 via Arcade Sounds Ltd, same label as Magic Man, who will be playing forthebeat’s next show on June 11th at Pianos.

You should listen to these LOUD.

Coma Cinema – Her Vore

Coma Cinema – Black Birthday Cake

Coma Cinema – Stoned Alone

Where are they now? SNOWDEN

What happened to Snowden?  I’ll tell you what happened – they just put out a new EP Slow Soft Syrup and you should download it here because it’s FREE.

The Atlanta four-piece, who derive their name from the Catch 22 character Howard Snowden, were mesmerizing when I saw them live a few years back at Mercury Lounge.  After their full-length debut in 2006 titled Anti Anti – a captivating album from start to finish – Snowden started gaining incredible buzz, touring with the likes of Kings Of Leon, Arcade Fire and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, as well as securing the title of “most blogged” band on the internet (according to elbo.ws).

While they were local heroes down in ATL, they seemed to just scratch the surface nationally and have been on hiatus for a while.  So I was excited when I caught wind of this new EP.  Hopefully it will drum up enough buzz prior to their next full-length release later this year to finally catapult them to the next level.

New song…

Snowden – Don’t Really Know Me

Old song…

Snowden – Anti Anti

Three songs too many to post?  Whatever, here’s my favorite Anti Anti track “Black Eyes” remixed by La Castle Vania:

Snowden – Black Eyes (La Castle Vania Remix)