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This live footage from Devo in Japan comes from the DVD "Devo - Live in the Land of the Rising Sun: Japan 2003".
The Juan Maclean: "Give Me Every Little Thing"
"It's been a bit of a sore spot," laughs Juan Maclean, "sitting on this album and seeing this robot stuff pop up all over the place. I have serious robot credentials that go back years and years. Like, a decade! But Daft Punk beat me to the punch." He may be joking, but the man's right. If anyone's earned the right to call their debut album "Less Than Human" and imagine a love triangle consisting of a man, a woman and the man's gay robot friend (as in "Shining Skinned Friend"), it's Maclean. He was guitarist and synth player with acclaimed but obscure, gonzo electro-punk band Six Finger Satellite, who began formulating their blend of rigidly mechanised disco beats, oddly sumptuous synth melodies and razor-shredded guitar work in the early 90s. The brutish but groovy result suggested a cross between Devo, Kraftwerk and Big Black. Then, America was mired in grunge, the famous French robots were still in short pants and the "punk-funk revival" was in the unimaginable future. Six Finger Satellite were just too far ahead of their time and perished accordingly. With "Less Than Human" Maclean has created a precision-tuned rekindling of his love affair with everything from Kraftwerk to Juan Atkins and Derrick May, Funkadelic to Giorgio Moroder and Lipps Inc, DAF to Talking Heads and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. It's full of tics (sin drums, cow bells, Bootsy Collins bass lines, Moog Liberation motifs) borrowed from dance music history, but refuses to engage with retroism, nostalgia or any notion of "the classic." Opener "AD2003" tracks back to Kraftwerk via Orbital, buoyed up by bubbles of percolating glitch. "Give Me Every Little Thing" rewinds through Underworld and Talking Heads en route to Studio 54. "Tito's Way" contrasts acid-house synth squelches and rave whistles with clattering, tribal percussion. There's a constant, though. Even the LP's euphoric epic "Dance With Me," is poignantly subdued, touched by a melancholy that reflects Maclean's own world view. "It doesn't seem incongruous to me to have a lot of that stuff in there," he says of the album's sadness, "because I made a big effort to make an album, rather than a collection of tunes with just one good track that everybody knows. So I never really set out to say, "this is a song that will played for the dance floor," or whatever. "When I started on it, I don't think I had any pre-conceived notions at all, except that I knew I'd always be operating under the same aesthetic principles that I'd held in making music my whole life."
New Young Pony Club: "Ice Cream"
Hot on the heals of previous limited 7" single "The Get Go" New Young Pony Club (NYPC) return with Ice Cream, a sparsely minimal punk funk jerkout that sounds like a distaff version excursion on disco-era Rolling Stones fronted by the Slits' Ari Up and produced by David Byrne and Brian Eno. Partly inspired by LCD Soundsystem and a chance meeting of like-minded band members intent on establishing something potent, Andy and Tahita formed NYPC in 2005. A five-piece comprising of Tahita (vocals), Andy (guitar), Igor (bass) Lou (keyboards) and Sarah (drums), they provide the kind of tight and bass-heavy future discoid noise currently setting hairs on end up and down the country. Ice Cream, their first single on Modular, is already causing a stir online with fans creating myspace pages with lyrics taken from the provocative song. ?A lot of [the lyrics are] about the perceived idea of how women are supposed to be, and putting my twist on it.? Says Tahita. NYPC have quietly set their world alight with a swell blend of disco, pop and punk which they are currently distilling into a debut album for Modular. Undoubtedly, one of THE bands to watch for 2007.
They play DISCO. But not so much mixing it with (Post) Punk and New Wave like so many other bands right now. WhoMadeWho use lot more influences: from Surfrock to Folk to 70ies Funk. And sometimes it feels like the guys heard a dose of Italodisco and Cosmic tapes before recording. One of the interesting things about WhoMadeWho is the fact that all the three members have totally different backgrounds. Tomas Barfod the drummer is known as one of Skandinavia's best electronic DJ's and has published acclaimed records on Get Physical, Kitsune and Gomma under his moniker TOMBOY. Jeppe Kjellberg , guitar player, used to live in NYC where he was established in the local Avantgarde Jazz scene. He even recorded an album with former Lounge Lizzard guitar player DAVIS TRONZO. And Tomas Hoeffding (the bass player) is also member of Danish garage rock band Garbo.. The band released only three singles in the last year - but these 12inches caused a good buzz and heavy rotations with DJ's all over the place. Especially the single SPACE FOR RENT (and The Rapture's remix of it) is currently getting a huge response (Leftfield single of the issue in DJ mag), and their cover version of Benny Benassi's Satisfaction is still a hit in many clubs. The album?s second single OUT THE DOOR was remixed by French producers IN FLAGRANTI and SUPERDISCOUNT and has been getting good exposure in clubs worldwide. Pete Tongfeatured it in his Radio One Essential charts and 2 MANY DJ?s featured a few WhoMadeWho Songs in their latest Radio One mix. MTV in France and Italy and MTV in UK put the video on rotation. The 2 MANY DJ'S/ SOULWAX guys are such huge fans of WhoMadeWho that they invited the band to do their live support on their big UK tour in autumn 2005. Same with MYLO who invited the band to support them on their tours. UK Press quotes: "Brilliant!"(NME) "...focused and brilliant." (iD sept 2005) "while the record is super fun, the band is even better live!" (Dazed & Confused) "Should coax even the shyest of floors back from the death!"(DJ mag) NME about WHOMADEWHO's Remix of MUNK's Kick out the chairs!:One of our favorite dance tracks of the year!
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.
On first listen, it might be easy to aesthetically file away the Long Island boys of Edison Glass - after all, there's more than enough post-hardcore texture and At The Drive In flailing to go around on February 5th's Time is Fiction. But attempting to pigeon-hole this NY quartet is a lost cause. Spend time with these songs and their twists and turns take on vibrant, new life, teeming with hi-hat dances, dueling vocals, gang choruses, and some of the finest melodies any band laboring away on "punk-inspired melodic rock" has been able to muster. All of this is just to say that Fuse can't hold Edison Glass, people. They're simply destined for more ears than that.
A new classic from these well-pierced pop punk giants. MxPx is a Punk/Rock band that was formed in 1992 in Bremerton, Washington. The band originally consisted of Bassist/Singer Mike Herrera, Yuri Ruley on drums, and their friend Andy Husted on guitar. This trio grew up playing garage shows and shows at their friends' houses until their popularity prospered. Andy Husted was later replaced by Tom Wisniewski on guitar to form what we all know now as MxPx. Originally the band went by the name of Magnified Plaid. The name was changed to M.P., an abbreviated form of the original, and was on posters for an early concert. Yuri, the drummer, made the posters; in his handwriting, periods become X's. The nickname caught on and the band has been going by MxPx ever since. Each letter of the name is pronounced individually. They played on Warped Tour in the 1990s. As part of a deal, MxPx was simultaneously signed to Tooth & Nail Records and A&M Records. After A&M was bought by Interscope, MxPx was dropped, leaving them unsigned. In 2004, MxPx signed to Side One Dummy Records, and released a new DVD and Acoustic EP under that label. In the past couple of years, MxPx has been accumulating fame. Their hit single "I'm Okay, You're Okay" received much radio time during the late nineties, as well as their second radio hit "Responsibility" from the album "The Ever Passing Moment". They appeared on MTV in 2002 and can still be heard on many rock radio stations. Their song "Play It Loud" is also in the huge movie production "Lords of Dogtown" and can be heard during its commercial. MxPx continues to work hard and rock stages all over the country. In October 2005, there were some rumours saying that a follow-up to Panic will be recorded in 2006 and released in early 2007.
From First To Last: "The Latest Plague"
?It?s one thing to play a certain type of music,? says singer Sonny Moore dismissively, ?but it?s another thing to have no originality.? This is not just another brash quote from a member of one of the only truly punk bands left, From First To Last. It?s actually more of a mantra. Because when the members of From First To Last?Moore, drummer Derek Bloom and guitarists Travis Richter and Matt Good?began recording their highly anticipated second album Heroine, the pursuit, above all things, was originality. Which, as one spin of Heroine attests, is what they?ve achieved. ?We are so pleased,? Moore says. ?Before we started, we all said, ?We?re not going to make this record unless it?s a record we truly love.? And we did. This is the first time I?ve ever been so proud of a piece of art in my life.? This didn?t happen overnight. Formed in 2002 by Richter and Good in their hometown of Orlando, Florida, it wasn?t until FFTL began recording their Epitaph debut Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has A Body Count that the band?s line-up began to congeal. Living in Los Angeles and half-heartedly playing in another band, the then 15-year-old Moore decided to spend a few weeks with the band in Georgia, where they were recording their debut. His timing couldn?t have been better. Moore arrived just as Good and Richter parted with their original singer and they were in the process of filling in the vocal gap on their own. After hearing Moore singing backups in the studio one day, a decision was made: Moore was in. Perhaps unsurprisingly the remainder of Dear Diary came together almost as quickly. Good and Richter had written the album in two weeks; Moore completed his vocals in the same space. They were barely a band in some senses, but FFTL?s music caught on nonetheless. Due in large part to their constant touring schedule, including three consecutive Warped Tour runs, Dear Diary went onto sell over 100,000 copies. But beyond the album?s success was an often-unnoticed subtext. As Moore puts it on the album?s opening track, with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, ?I?m glad you?ve graced me with your presence/You?re just in time to see me wrestle with my conscience.? Nevermind your broken heart. This was ?screamo? with wit.
From First To Last: "Note To Self"
?It?s one thing to play a certain type of music,? says singer Sonny Moore dismissively, ?but it?s another thing to have no originality.? This is not just another brash quote from a member of one of the only truly punk bands left, From First To Last. It?s actually more of a mantra. Because when the members of From First To Last?Moore, drummer Derek Bloom and guitarists Travis Richter and Matt Good?began recording their highly anticipated second album Heroine, the pursuit, above all things, was originality. Which, as one spin of Heroine attests, is what they?ve achieved. ?We are so pleased,? Moore says. ?Before we started, we all said, ?We?re not going to make this record unless it?s a record we truly love.? And we did. This is the first time I?ve ever been so proud of a piece of art in my life.? This didn?t happen overnight. Formed in 2002 by Richter and Good in their hometown of Orlando, Florida, it wasn?t until FFTL began recording their Epitaph debut Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has A Body Count that the band?s line-up began to congeal. Living in Los Angeles and half-heartedly playing in another band, the then 15-year-old Moore decided to spend a few weeks with the band in Georgia, where they were recording their debut. His timing couldn?t have been better. Moore arrived just as Good and Richter parted with their original singer and they were in the process of filling in the vocal gap on their own. After hearing Moore singing backups in the studio one day, a decision was made: Moore was in. Perhaps unsurprisingly the remainder of Dear Diary came together almost as quickly. Good and Richter had written the album in two weeks; Moore completed his vocals in the same space. They were barely a band in some senses, but FFTL?s music caught on nonetheless. Due in large part to their constant touring schedule, including three consecutive Warped Tour runs, Dear Diary went onto sell over 100,000 copies. But beyond the album?s success was an often-unnoticed subtext. As Moore puts it on the album?s opening track, with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, ?I?m glad you?ve graced me with your presence/You?re just in time to see me wrestle with my conscience.? Nevermind your broken heart. This was ?screamo? with wit.
High School Record follows four awkward 17-year-olds as they struggle through their senior year. Like most high school students, they ride a continual wave of embarrassment: crappy after-school jobs, attempted sex in the science room, tinfoil shorts, guitar-strumming hippie teachers and brushes with the law. The only difference is that their moments of humiliation are all caught on tape - our gang of four are the subjects of a documentary shot by fellow classmates. A journey into narrative anarchy, High School Record is an engaging film partially improvised by its young cast. Written by Ben Wolfinsohn and based on his own high school experiences, HIGH SCHOOL RECORD is a painfully funny exploration of the teenage mind. High School Record is a follow up to Wolfinsohn's critically acclaimed music documentary Friends Forever.
