Anthony Scott Burns is a Toronto, ON-based film director, visual effects artist and electronic music producer, who has released a number of instrumental albums — mostly as stand alone vinyl releases — with his solo recording project PILOTPRIEST. His soon-to-be released Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is slated for an April 28, 2017 release through Waxwork Records — and while the label releasing the 22 track, triple LP effort is best known for releasing the soundtracks of Taxi Driver, The Thing, The Warriors, Rosemary’s Baby, Nosferatu, C.H.U.D., Goosebumps and others, Burns’ latest effort marks some interesting, new territory for the label, as it’s the first release of originally composed material that’s largely inspired by the soundtracks of 80s cult-classic films like Body Double, Manhunter and Legend. And unsurprisingly, the album’s first single “Switchblade,” manages to be mischievously anachronistic — while clearly using analog synths to create a chilly, retro-futrustic and almost dystopian sound reminiscent of the great John Carpenter, backed by boom-bap beats, the song manages to reveal slick, modern production techniques that make it both cinematic and dance floor friendly.
Comprised of 21-year-old Sidonie B Hand-Halford, her 18-year-old sister Esmé Dee Hand-Halford and their 17-year-old best friend Henry Carlyle Wade, the Halifax, UK-based indie rock trio The Orielles have developed a reputation as one of Northern England’s “most exciting local bands of recent years” and their hometown’s best-kept musical secrets, the trio can trace their origins to when the Hand-Halford sisters met Wade at a house party and bonded over their shared love of Stateside 90s alt rock and indie rock.
With a reputation that had preceded them, Heavenly Recordings head Jeff Barrett caught the band opening for their new labelmates The Parrots in late 2016 and immediately signed them to the label. This year may be a huge year for the young British indie rockers as they played at the Heavenly Weekender Festival at Hebden Bridge last year, and they will be embarking on their first UK/EU tour next month; but in the mean time, the trio’s Heavenly Recordings debut single “Sugar Tastes Like Salt” is an expansive 8 minute track that draws influence from psych rock, New Wave and post-punk while lyrically the band makes references to several Quentin Tarantino movies including Deathproof. And the whole thing is held together by a sinuous and funky bass line that sonically reminds me of The Mallard’s incredible Finding Meaning in Deference. And much like The Mallard‘s last album, “Sugar Tastes Like Salt” possesses a surprising self-assuredness that belies their youth. It’s an impressive and forceful release that has me excited to hear more from them.
Based on a concept by the members of The Orielles, the recently released music video for “Sugar Tastes Like Salt” was filmed and edited by Josh Bentley and stars the members of the band, along with Thomas Walmsley, Sam Frost and others in what the band describes as “a tale of hedonism, glamour and deceit . . . ” And as they do so, the band poke some sadistic fun at pop culture, the adulation and pretense of fame for the sake of fame, shitty talk shows, and even themselves.
Emily Hamilton is a Gold Coast, Australia-based multi-instrumentalist and producer, whose solo recording project San Mei, began as a bedroom project that has quickly seen a growing national and international profile — and if you had been following this site over the years, you may recall that I wrote about “Wars,” the follow up to her debut single “Brighter.” However, since then Hamilton has seen praise from major media outlets including NME,Indie Shuffle, NYLONand Triple J, which featured “Rewind” on its rotation.
Hamilton’s fist single of 2017 and latest single, “Until You Feel Good” was produced by Konstantin Kersting, who has worked with The Belligerents, WAAX, and Tia Gostelow, and the mid-tempo single pairs Hamilton’s lilting and gorgeous vocals creating a lush melody, with fuzzy, power chords, a soaring hook and a moody undertone. While being rather radio friendly, the song manages to evoke a complex array of emotions — desire and longing, frustration and the sense of something being unresolved. But along with that, the song reveals some self-assured and ambitious songwriting, as well as a change in sonic direction towards a more organic, indie rock-leaning sound.
Although Johan Angergård may be best known as a member of renowned Swedish electro pop acts Djustin, Club 8 and Acid House Kings, and the head of Stockholm, Sweden-based electro pop label Labrador Records, he’s also had an accomplished solo career, releasing several albums as The Legends — including 2009’s noise pop-leaning self-titled effort and 2015’s It’s Love, which featured lead single “Keep Him.” Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site for some time, you may recall that last year wound up being a rather prolific and busy year for Angergård as Djustin and Club 8 released long-awaited albums, and he released two original singles as The Legends, “Cocaine” feat. Maria Usbeck, “Summer In The City (Living Is For Somebody Else)” and a cover of The Chainsmokers smash-hit “Roses” feat. Rozes — and interestingly those three tracks wound up reflecting a change in sonic direction for him, as he developed a decidedly swaggering, neon-colored, retro-futuristic sound that nods at early 80s Giorgio Moroder, Computerworld-era Kraftwerk, early house and Holy Ghost!’s Crime Cutz as heavily vocoder-processed vocals are paired with tweeter and woofer rocking 808s, processed cowbell and layers of arpeggio synths as you would have heard on the cocksure “Cash” off his soon-to-be released The Legends album Nightshift.
Nightshift’s latest single “In Love With Myself” features guest vocals from Elin Berlin and while continuing with the swaggering, cocksure vibe of its preceding singles while arguably being the most straightforward, dance floor friendly song off the album, as Berlin and Angergård’s breathily cooed vocals float over a slick, retro-futuristic production consisting of shimmering synths, stuttering drum programming, and boom bap beats. In some way, the song sounds as though it were subtly modern take on the boom box rocking sound of the 80s.
Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past year or so, you’ve likely come across a handful of posts featuring the Calgary, AB-based indie rock/darkwave/New Wave/post-punk act Ultrviolence. And throughout their history, the band has developed a reputation for purposefully adhering to old-school DIY principles, for frequently ignoring the clichés and dictates of the music industry machine and perhaps most important, for a sound that draws from the likes of Joy Division, Interpol, Preoccupations and others.
Since the release of last year’s Black Sea EP, the band has gone through a massive lineup change with Nate Jespersen (vocals, bass), the sole founding and original member, collaborating with several members of Vancouver, BC-based indie rock band ACTORS on the project’s much-anticipated, Jason Corbett (of ACTORS) produced follow-up to Black Sea EP, Forty Knives EP. Forty Knives finds Jespersen and the new lineup building upon the moody, post-punk sound that first caught the attention of this site and the blogosphere — while thematically focusing on the dark and seemingly unending solitude that arises when one allows themselves to be completely isolated from the world.
“Guillotine,” the EP’s first single was a hauntingly moody and atmospheric track in which the band paired jangling guitar chords played through reverb and delay pedal, shimmering synths, a propulsive bass line and metronomic drumming with Jespersen’s equally moody baritone vocals. And interestingly enough, the song managed to evoke the lingering and embittering ghosts and ill-feelings of a particularly dysfunctional and/or ambivalent relationship; the awareness of time passing by and of the built-in regret that you’ve squandered the most valuable and important commodity you’ll ever know — time; and that feeling of stepping away from the wreckage of a lengthy relationship and not quite knowing what to do next or how to even go about it. The EP’s second and latest single “Shadows of the Thief” is a swirling and jangling song held together with an angular and propulsive bass line paired with Jespersen’s crooning baritone. And while nodding at Joy Division, Interpol and Preoccupations, complete with a rousing and anthemic hook, the song possesses a subtly bitter yet dreamy and lonely undertone.
Hailing from Darraweit Guim, a small rural town in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, Stonefield is comprised of siblings Amy (drums, lead vocals), Hannah (guitar), Sarah (keys) and Holly Findlay (bass), who can trace the origins of the band and their music careers to when they began playing together at a rather young age — ranging from the youngest being seven and the oldest being 15. And interestingly enough, the quartet’s rise to both national and international attention started when the band’s first song “Foreign Lover” was recorded by the band’s eldest member, Amy Findlay, for a school project — and then was reportedly entered in Triple J’s national, unsigned band competition for youngsters Unearthed High as an afterthought. The sibling quartet wound up winning the contest and within an incredibly short period of time, they had two singles receiving regular airplay and an invitation to play at the Glastonbury Festival.
Since then, the members of the sibling quartet have released two EPs and their self-titled, full-length debut and with a growing international profile have toured extensively, including at some of the world’s largest festivals. Adding to a growing profile, the Australia band has opened for a variety of renowned acts including Fleetwood Mac, Meat Puppets — and a recent Stateside tour with fellow countrymen King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
Stonefield’s sophomore full-length effort As Above So Below is slated for release on Friday through Rebel Union Recordings/Mushroom Records and the album’s first single “Changes” is a dreamy and swirling bit of psych rock consisting of a motorik-like groove propelling the song forward and some impressive guitar work, played through massive amounts of effects pedals — and in some way, the song reminds me a bit of The Mallard’s Finding Meaning in Deference and The Fire Tapes’ Phantoms as the members of the Australian quartet play with a cool, self-assuredness that belies their relative youth — while revealing some ambitious songwriting.
Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site throughout the course of its almost seven-year history, you’ve likely come across a number of posts on the Brooklyn-based Afro-pop/dance pop act and JOVM mainstays Rubblebucket. Currently comprised of founding duo and primary songwriters Alex Toth (trumpet, vocals, percussion), Kalmia Traver (lead vocals, tenor sax, baritone sax), Adam Dotson (trombone, vocals and percussion), David Cole (drums) and Ian Hersey (guitar), the Brooklyn-based act can actually trace their origins to when Traver and Toth met while playing in a Burlington, VT-based Latin jazz act. Quickly bonding over being horn players, a love of Afrobeat and Afro pop and an uncannily preternatural connection, the duo relocated to Boston in 2006, where they did fairly respectable things to survive — Traver spent time as a nude model for art classes, while Toth spent time hustling $50 a performance marching band gigs. And while being broke as shit in Boston, the duo began Rubblebucket.
Relocating to Brooklyn some years later, the members of the Afro pop/indie pop/dance pop act emerged into the national scene with the release of their critically applauded 2011 album Omega La La and an established reputation for a rather relentless touring schedule full of ecstatic, energetic and mischievous live sets which at various times included puppets and bandmembers jumping into the crowd and leading dance circles and dance trains with the audience. By early 2012, the band had made their first nationally televised appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. And over the past few years, the band has been pretty busy as they’ve released a handful of critically applauded EPs and their sophomore full-length Survival Sounds. And while their touring schedule had slowed down a bit, Toth and Traver also a brief period of time touring as backing guests for follow JOVM mainstay act Superhuman Happiness, a collaboration that goes back to when Stuart Bogie, Eric Biondo and company opened for Rubblebucket for a handful of shows up in Burlington, VT. Interestingly, during that time Rubblebucket’s recorded output has revealed a band that has gradually crafted and then cemented a signature sound while also subtly expanding upon it; in fact, on their Save Charlie EP the band retained their genre-blurring sound that possessed elements of funk, pop, psychedelia and Afrobbeat with a populist sensibility but at points you’ll hear elements of boom-bap hip hop and electro pop. But perhaps just as important, in that same period of time, Traver has slowly emerged as a frontperson.
If U C My Enemies, the band’s latest EP was released earlier this year though So Sensation Records, and from the EP’s first single “Donna” the band has further refined their sound — while they retain Traver and Toth’s enormous, swaggering horn lines, the band employed the use of swirling electronics, distorted vocal samples around Traver’s ethereal and coquettish cooing. The EP’s latest single, EP title track “If U C My Enemies” continues along a similar vein as Traver and Toth’s enormous horn lines are paired with sinuous and funky bass and guitar chords, swirling electronics, twinkling synths and a soaring, anthemic hook — and while being a bit more mid-tempo song in comparison to its preceding single, the latest single is arguably the most muscular and forceful song they’ve released to date.
Directed, shot and edited by Ian Perlman, the recently released music video for “If U C My Enemies” draws from classic sci-fi and horror films as it follows a mysterious, faceless, frightening creature of the night, who takes each band member’s soul to an alternate plane because of the time they spent staring at their phones instead of actually interacting with people. And the video ends with the members of the band goofing off, chatting and actually spending time getting to know each other — without their phones. Perhaps it’s a cautionary time for our age, huh?
The Detroit, MI-based proto-punk/punk rock band Death can trace their origins back to when The Hackney Brothers — Bobby (bass, vocals), David (guitar) and Dannis (drums) formed the band back in 1971. Initially, they started out as a R&B and funk-based band — that is until The Hackneys caught The Who and Alice Cooper live. After those concerts, David, the youngest of the siblings pushed his two older brothers towards a much more hard rock-leaning sound, which interestingly enough presaged punk and post-punk and a name change — Death. And as Bobby Hackney explained in 2010, David’s concept was spinning death from the negative to the positive. “It was a hard sell.”
In 1975, the Hackney Brothers with engineer Jim Vitti recorded a handful of songs written by David and Bobby at Detroit’s United Sound Studios. And according to the Hackney family, Clive Davis funded the recording sessions but while doing so, had repeatedly implored that the band change their name to something more commercially palatable. When the Hackney’s refused, Davis pulled out, leaving the band with seven recorded songs instead of the planned for 12. By 1976, the band self released in an extremely limited run of just 500 copies, the “Politicians In My Eyes”/”Keep Obn Knocking” single, recorded from those sessions, followed by their full-length debut with very little fanfare.
By 1977, the Hackneys ended the band, and then relocated to Burlington, VT where they released two alums of gospel rock as The 4 Movement in the late 70s and early 80s. However, by 1982 David had returned to Detroit while Bobby and Dannis remained and eventually formed the reggae band Lambsbread. In 2000, David Hackney tragically died of lung cancer but reportedly before he had died David Hackney told his older siblings that although they were misunderstood and forgotten in their day, history would prove them and their work as Death as being truly revolutionary — even if it was after his own death. In a wild spin of serendipitous fortune that seems written by a screenwriter, several years after David’s death, Bobby’s sons had stumbled upon the original Death masters hidden away in their parents’ attic. And Bobby’s sons were so impressed by what they heard, that they began covering Death’s material during their own sets as a loving homage that began to receive attention both to them and their father’s and uncles’ work together.
Drag City Records, re-released Death’s original recordings in 2009, 35 years after its initial recording and release, and from those recordings the material managed to not just up hold up, but to reveal an important historical place both for American music history and for Black music history, as their sound, which effortlessly meshed reggae, proto-punk, metal and punk rock managed to presage the punk movement by 3 years while serving as a convincing bridge between Parliament Funkadelic and Bob Marley and Bad Brains, Fishbone, Living Colour,Lenny Kravitz, TV on the Radio, Prince and a growing list of contemporary acts that include Unlocking the Truth.
Since the re-release of their demos and full-length debut, the current lineup of Death featuring surviving brothers Bobby (bass, vocals) and Dannis Hackney (drums) with Bobbie Duncan (guitar) have had a documentary about their story, released some new material and spent a lot of time touring and playing some of the country’s largest festivals, including Afropunk Festival, introducing their sound and aesthetic to new audiences.
Death’s latest single “Cease Fire” will continue to cement the band’s growing reputations for pioneering sound that meshes punk, metal, funk and soul while being politically charged and urgent as the song features buzzing and crunching guitar chords and some impressive soloing, soaring synths and propulsive drumming and a sinuous bass line while being politically charged — and in particular, their sound and thematic concerns clearly presages the likes of Living Colour and Fishbone, some 10-15 years before they began playing. As the members of the band explain, their newest single “is a continuation of the social conscious voice that Rock ‘N’ Roll music states to all people. If John Lennon were alive in this world today, we are sure he would echo the same sentiments, because we first have to put the guns down and stop the senseless shooting so we can ‘Give Peace A Chance.'”
II, the soon-to-be released sophomore effort from Austin, TX-based punk trio Crooked Bangs is slated for an April 21, 2017 release through Nervous Intent Records, and reportedly the album and its material are the result of a protracted period of songwriting and recording in which, the initial sessions were scrapped in favor of a much more raw and immediate sound. And unsurprisingly, the album’s preceding single “Rabbit Hole” managed to capture the band playing with the taut, brooding fury of adult angst of someone who has begun to live a life, complete with the recognition that almost everything and everyone around you is surrounded in layers of revolting, hypocritical bullshit, along with the sensation that the rug has suddenly been pulled out from under you, and the realization that life can often be brutally ironic, embittering and unfair, suggesting that there are no easy answers and no easy solutions.
II‘s latest single “No Future” features lyrics in French and English within a frenetic and forceful track consisting of blistering guitar work and a driving rhythm section. and while drawing from early Joy Division, this particular song leans heavily towards furious, hardcore punk. As a result, the song possesses a feral and primal urgency.
The Austin, TX-based punk trio will be touring to build up some buzz for II across the Midwest, Southwest and West Coast. Check out the tour dates below.
Tour dates:
4/27 @ Album Release show at Beerland, Austin, Texas
5/18 @ Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas
5/20 @ El Paso, TX @ Monarch
5/21 @ Phoenix, AZ @ The Lunchbox
5/23 @ Los Angeles, CA @ TBA
5/24 @ Los Angeles, CA @ Star Bar
5/25 @ Oakland, CA @ Octopus Literary Salon
5/26 @ San Francisco, CA @ The Hemlock
5/28 @ Seattle, WA @ TBA
5/29 @ Portland, OR @ Black Water
5/31 @ Salt Lake City, UT @ Diabolical Records
6/1 @ Denver, CO @ TBA
6/2 @ Kansas City, MO @ Blind Tiger
6/3 @ St. Louis, MO @ TBA
6/4 @ Oklahoma City, OK @ TBA
Caption: Statues at Union Station, Washington, D.C. Sadly, this was one of the few things in .D.C. that I actually took a picture of; of course, to be fair during my conference, I was carrying two laptops -- theirs and mine -- so carrying additional electronics just wasn't going to happen. Also, the two laptops were enough as it was.
