Make Believe: "A Band Room of One's Own" Video
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The Butchies? fourth record is like alpenglow (a reddish glow seen near sunset or sunrise of the summits of mountains) absorbing into your pores ? it simply commands a high-energy, emotionally-stuffed response. Make Yr Life is a colossal, intimate connection between the unrivalled punk-rock trio and their audience. It?s like waking from a coma, or like having your dog lick away your tears, or like the first kiss with that sexy girl with moonlight splashed on her face. But it?s also true that Kaia, Melissa and Alison?s intent with this record is simple: World Domination. If after listening to this 10-track cream dream you don?t feel like you just had one of the biggest epiphanies of your life, you clearly voted for Bush, and are immune to evolution. Make Yr Life is undoubtedly the record that will facilely evolve the music world as we know it (Mothership not included.) Make Yr Life is technically produced more ?professionally? than the previous records, but nothing about it is polished in a plastic, stiff way. The Butchies? latest cd lives in the same world as 3 (2001), Population 1975 (1999) and Are We Not Femme? (1998), but it oozes with more maturity, focus and self-reflection/connection. The trio ritualistically stripped down to the buff and finished recording in 10 days ? it wouldn?t have even taken that long, but Melissa was appointed Thermostat Butchie, and therefore had to stop drumming in 20-minute intervals to stave off the cold. (It takes this kind of dedication to achieve world domination.) As in her Team Dresch days, Kaia squeezes and molds words into an atomic release of emotions that most of us keep darkly lacquered. Her vocals are somewhere between The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the suspended time right before your head spins off into orgasm. Her pipes, combined with nectar-sweet basslines, and thick, thumping drums immediately pull in the listener with the opening track, ?Send Me You?: ?She says I?m crazy, I said oh, really? I?m going to jump on you on the bed/Make me a monkey, make me fall over, make me a cradle, hold me instead/I?m not going to say it, OK, I?ll say it?? Soaring, mammoth guitars wash over you like a tidal wave in ?Lydia,? which repeatedly asks the question, ?Did you get what you?re asking for?? ?17,? which previously has only been recorded on a KRS comp, is included. And since it?s one of their all-time best songs, it?s sure to quench even the most insatiable Butchies fan. The closing track is a remake of the 80s band The Outfield?s ?Your Love.? Live, The Butchies perform this one at a faster tempo than the original. But for this record, producer Greg Griffith urged the band to slow the tempo down, transforming it into a sad, beautiful ballad. The result is divine, as Kaia practically whispers the first few lines: ?Josie?s on a vacation far away, come around and talk it over?There?s so many things I want to say?you know I like my girls a little bit older?I just want to use your love tonight?I don?t want to lose your love tonight?? The title track encompasses all of what this record is about: ?Make your life, souls and stars, swimming with dogs and fish and sharks, fake your fear, fake face, face your fear?? The song is a Stewart Smalley kind of affirmation. It urges the listener to create their own happiness, to grab it and hold on to it. This song is also the one that has a super-secret embedded message, but you have to find your way into the mood of the entire cd before hearing this message, which is simple: We are The Butchies. We will not forcefully overtake the world, but cleverly win it over with raw, honest songstressing ? making the kind of music that sticks, that matters, that truly reaches into the listener?s chest and makes them feel again. Amen. All hail The Butchies! The Make Yr Life tour kicks off SXSW in mid-march. The nationwide tour will begin in mid-April. And it?s no coincidence that this tour takes place in the election year 2004.
THE ADORED combine elements of discopunk, new wave, and pure power pop to create an intelligent yet catchy, different yet danceable sound. Inspired by the likes of The Clash, The Jam, and Blur, scenepointblank.com calls them Garagey, catchy, and as much as I hate the word, sassy. The Adored were born when four best friends and bon vivants joined up to make spiky party music. What came out draws from the more angular elements of early punk & postpunk and the less pompous elements of fin-de-siecle Britpop. Ryan (vocals) and Nat (drums) met in the mid-90s in NorCal and both played with a locally legendary punk band before moving southward. Max (bass) and Drew (guitar) met as students in Boston, studying media, all the while dreaming of a Los Angeles pop life. The four finally came together in LA and never looked back. So far, their adventures as Hollywood golden boys have included shows with eclectic artists new and old like Supergrass, The Zombies, Ima Robot, Bow Wow Wow, The Futureheads and Les Sav Fav. The Adored have also performed at parties hosted by members of buzz bands Mount Sims, Interpol and the Moving Units. The band has also appeared in clips on the UK?s Channel Four and Southern California?s Fox 11 ---as the current LA ?it band?! With mentions in the NME, the California press, and a grassroots network of blogs and webzines have all helped build an international fan base for the Adored. Again and again, they have performed in San Francisco, Las Vegas and Californias beach counties, bringing their music to grateful, music starved suburban scenesters and leaving their mark on the West Coast. The boys finished a successful 4-night mini-tour to New York City this spring and a weekly residency at Sunset Strips KEY CLUB. Following a 4-song demo in 2003, the Adored recorded a 5-song EP for V2 Records in fall 2004, with producer Dave Trumfio and a special guest vocalist friend and mutual fan Pete Shelley [Buzzcocks]. Due in stores January 2005. These 2004 LA WEEKLY MUSIC AWARDS BEST DANCE ARTIST nominees deceptively simple lineup of guitars, drums and three vocals help the four lovely lads produce a rhythm unique to the California scene -- the first stage in their plan to induce global simultaneous Adorgasm.
The Bird and the Bee: "Again and Again"
Over the course of 3 years, Inara George and Greg Kurstin, alias the bird and the bee, whiled away scattered afternoons in Greg's home studio in Echo Park, California, sequestered in a little world of their own making, and creating the ten sunshine-drenched, semi-psychedelic ditties you hold before you. Were these compositions intended for public consumption? Inara and Greg never gave it any thought; they made music together simply for the joy of it. ? with no real goal for the music except to enjoy the journey of making it. As casual as this sounds, the backgrounds of Inara George and Greg Kurstin are nothing to scoff at? Multi-instrumentalist Greg was a jazz piano prodigy by the time he started shaving; he moved to New York specifically to study with leftist Jaki Byard, a jazz icon best known as Mingus' pianist. He returned to Los Angeles and became one of the city?s most well respected musicians, lending his skills to the likes of Beck and Robert Moog, as well as writing with and/or producing The Flaming Lips, Peaches, and Lily Allen, to name a few. Inara George is the daughter of Lowell George, frontman of the eclectic ?70s Southern rock band Little Feat. For several years she was in different bands in the LosAngeles area until she began her solo career releasing 2005's critically acclaimed All Rise. During the making of that record was when Greg and Inara first met.
Adriana Evans also known as Adriana Madera is a singer songwriter that possesses an enormous talent. Her debut album on PMP/Loud/RCA Records was truly ahead of the curve. It was one of the first so-called Neo Classic Soul records.
Adriana hated the over processed sound of nineties R&B. She and her musical collaborator, Dred Scott decided to take their music in a completely different direction. This meant using real strings and horns, a tight rhythm section with actual human beings sitting together playing live music. This was a simple but revolutionary concept at that time.
Music has always been an integral part of Adriana's life. The daughter of a jazz singer raised in the Haight/Asbury district of San Francisco. Growing up she grooved to everything from Afro Cuban music to Led Zeppelin and everything in between.
Now with her new release Nomadic she is once again ahead of the curve. Her new collection is an eclectic mix of Latin, Soul, Rock and Jazz. It is done in a manner that only Evans could accomplish. She has created a sound that is current yet timeless.
Following closely on the heels of their critically-acclaimed Knock Knock Knock EP, Make Up the Breakdown is Hot Hot Heat's debut full-length, recorded with Jack Endino at Vancouver, BC's Mushroom Studios. SPIN Magazine had this to say about Knock Knock Knock: "Some retro new wavers hang themselves on their own skinny ties. While their peers lip-sych to Cure 45s, these Canucks take subtler cues from early-'80s synth disco. Its not new wave worship, it's the sound of punk teaching itself to dance." And the new record delivers on the promise hinted at on the EP. Hot Hot Heat (along with peers like Radio 4 and The Rapture) blend angular post-punk twitch with danceable pop, effectively (and finally) persuading white dopes on punk to get on the good foot.
With their second album Trompe-l'Oeil, Malajube, have created a unique pop/punk/rock sound that will make you scream for more, while it continues to break language barriers all over.
Psychedelic breakbeat funk from Precision Cuts. Precision Cuts are a UK band who perform live breakbeat and release records on their own label Smartbreaks. Precision Cuts are following on in the tradition of Leftfield, The Prodigy and Underworld by pushing a strong UK psychedelic breaks sound that is both uptempo and filled with emotion. Precision Cuts Make music for your mind as well as your feet. This is their first video for the forthcoming MP3 only single - "The Switch". If you like this video please visit the Precision Cuts site where you will find more music for your download pleasure
MUNK are Italian Mathias Modica and German partner Jonas Imbery. They release their own records and also the music of friends like HEADMAN, WHOMADEWHO and TOMBOY on their own little label GOMMA - the label that has achieved a quite good fame for releasing this new sound which mixes the aesthetics of 70ies Disco and Krautrock with modern Electronics and House. In the past Gomma has released the debut albums of avant-garde pop artists like MOCKY, HEADMAN, New York sculpturist THE RAMMELLZEE and NICK MACCARTHY (of Franz Ferdinand) with his former band KAMERAKINO. In early February the new label compilation was released. GOMMAGANG 3. It includes recent tracks from the above mentioned artists and also new remixes and guest appearances of The Rapture, DJ Chloe, Midnight Mike, Dirt Crew. It was mixed by the MUNK guys and shows the sound of the Gomma label of the past two years and also the DJ style of MUNK. MUNK have released their critically acclaimed APERITIVO debut album in 2004. The single "Kick Out The Chairs!" still gets played in clubs around the world. The album is one of the first records that preceded the current "Garagedisco" and "Balearic" trend. Including guest vocalists such as their friend JAMES MURPHY of LCD SOUNDSYSTEM/DFA RECORDS, French DJ CHLOE, MIDNIGHT MIKE from London and BOBBY CONN ? the album still sounds fresher than many similar recordings of now. Since "Aperitivo", the guys have been mostly djing around the world. Their very own hot mix of Minimal house and Leftfield Disco gets appreciated more in more and so they are playing a lot of clubs around the world. From places like The Pulp in Paris, Culture Club in Belgium and Berlin clubs like WMF or FUN to fancy parties like the one of Colette shop in Paris and festivals like Sonar and Melt.
Fresh from the U.K cult success of their debut single 'Gravity's Rainbow' earlier this year, Klaxons (that's Jamie, Simon and James to their local Vicar) are now venturing Stateside with their offerings of post punk sensibilities with their deep love of Rave music described by Jaime as the most short lived genre of all time. It never even existed and classic Pop culture that sticks like knives out of their every chord change. Resulting in an instant mind bending, shoe stomping hit hailed as The most worthy indie dancefloor filler of the year NME Touching down in 2006 from a place undetermined to wrestle the hearts and minds of the nations music lovers from last year's seemingly all-pervading po-faced, post-punk moroseness. The band describes their sound as Josef K-meets-Baby D, with a twinkle in their eye, surely the first to mention those names in the same sentence. American audiences will immediately see the nod towards influential 90's bands such as Happy Mondays and Altern8. Definitions aside, what you hear is post punk psychedelic pop that meets pill popping dance music and it sure works. A trio with heads jam packed with ideas, ideas that layer influences and an imagination with genuine talent. Dazed & Confused Xan Valleys E.P lurches out demonically from a world of distortion and drummatic? madness, stuffing the peaks and breakdowns into moments of a sheer pop meltdown. If ever a band were all about the moment, all about Myspace as a progression of rave cultures underground communication, and all about creating a live experience every bit as exhilarating as their singles, this is the Klaxons signature sound. The opening track Gravity's Rainbow doesn't mess around as it welcomes and steers the listener into an eerie world of pumping psychedelia combined with melodic and romantic vocals blissfully taking you on a pleasantly trippy ride through their wondrous world and another dimension that is Xan Valleys. One listen to Atlantis To Interzone and the several miles of dots between those influences are quickly joined, where screaming sirens and samples straight out of a field in '89 give way to the punked out half-falsetto, half melodic breakneck vocals and drums. Klaxon, a French verb meaning to too certainly alludes to the raving mania of their audiences who frantically get down to the sounds with horns and whistles intact. But also the word's origin is actually a form of tribal drumming, Simon says used to communicate over long distances, pre amplification and telephones. Therefore, these London lads really are practicing the art of channelling a much loved yet equally forgotten musical era now reinvented and given back to us in the form of Klaxons.
Maple is a band from Spain.
