Live footage of A Place to Bury Strangers performing “Let’s See Each Other” at LEVITATION Festival 2021.
Tag: A Place to Bury Strangers
Co-founded back in 2018 by three New York music industry vets and longtime friends, former Lorimer Beacon founder and head Mike Bell, Kanine Records‘ founder and label head Lio Kanine and Kepler Events‘ and Dedstrange Records co-founder Steven Matrick, The New Colossus Festival over the course of the past couple of years has featured several hundred handpicked, emerging indie bands and artists from Canada, the UK, the European Union, Singapore, Hong Kong and of course, the US.
By design the festival has taken place about a week or so before SXSW with the idea that New Colossus would be a pre-SXSW stopover that will give the acts in each year’s lineup an opportunity to organically gain exposure while filling a critical void in the city’s festival calendar.
New Colossus Festival’s third edition will take place March 8, 2023-March 12, 2023 and will take place in some of the Lower East Side’s best and renowned independent venues including Mercury Lounge, Berlin Under A, Arlene’s Grocery, Bowery Ballroom, The Bowery Electric, Heaven Can Wait, Pianos, and more. New Colossus Festival closes out the calendar year with the announcement of its second wave of artists that will be playing at showcases across the Lower East Side. And much like the first wave of artists, it’s a highly curated collection of artists who hail from the US, Canada, the UK and elsewhere.
Some of the new additions including Bilk (UK), Demob Happy (UK), Grand Sun (Portugal), Low Island (UK), Yndling (Norway), Kamikaze Nurse (Canada) and A Place to Bury Strangers, who are returning to headline their Dedstrange label party after not being able to perform at the 2020 edition. Additionally, Beverly (US), Eternal Summers (US) and The Depreciation Guild (US) will be playing reunion shows for Kanine Records’ 20th Anniversary Party.
Of course, more details are coming.
SECOND WAVE ADDITIONS:
A Place to Bury Strangers (US)
Beverly (US)
BLACK MARACAS (ES)
Bloomsday (US)
Borito (IL)
Closebye (CA)
Demob Happy (UK)
Emmrose (US)
Eternal Summers (US)
First Crush (US)
GHUM (UK)
Gold Lake (ES)
Gossamer Blue (CA)
Grand Sun (PT)
HNRY FLWR (US)
jackie (CA)
Kacey Fifield (US)
Kamikaze Nurse (CA)
Kryxis (US)
layzi (US)
Low Island (UK)
MAUVEY (CA)
Miesha and The Spanks (CA)
Noah And The Loners (UK)
Nutrients (CA)
Paper Lady (US)
Percocet (US)
S.C.A.B. (US)
The Chairs (TW)
The Depreciation Guild (US)
The Down & Outs (US)
The Silver Lines (UK)
The Vices (NL)
to the wedding (US)
Totalement Sublime (CA)
VLURE (Scotland)
Yndling (NO)
Yo Diablo (ES)
Full list of showcasing artists and bands can be found here: https://www.newcolossusfestival.com/artists2023?utm_campaign=7965f0f8-b1ca-4719-96c9-c158666e5210&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail_lp&cid=ac466ae2-d0c6-4e01-845f-c3b1ed63bbda. Actual schedules and set times are forthcoming, so be on the lookout,
You can purchase a badge here: https://dice.fm/event/ee7n6-new-colossus-festival-2023-8th-mar-various-venues-nyc-new-york-tickets
New Video: GIFT Shares Hazy “Stuck In A Dream”
Brooklyn-based psych rock quintet and newest JOVM mainstays GIFT — TJ Freda, Jessica Gurewitz, Kallan Campbell, Justin Hrabovsky and Cooper Naess — have an uncanny knack for crafting soundscapes that are simultaneously turbulent and gorgeous. As a band, they share the quest of the perfect sound rooted in harmony and radical openness during times of tumult.
As a band, their overall approach is rooted in a desire to live in the moment. And as a result, they’ve created a live show that sees them pushing their material in wildly improvisatory directions. And a result, the’ve been selling out shows in Brooklyn — mostly through word of mouth.
Dedstrange Records, a new label co-founded by A Place to Bury Strangers’ and Death by Audio’s Oliver Ackermann and Kepler Events‘ Steven Matrick signed the rising Brooklyn psych rockers earlier this year. Building upon the growing buzz surrounding the band, the Brooklyn psych outfit’s full-length debut Momentary Presence dropped today.
Inspired by Ram Dass’ 1971 spiritual guide and countercultural landmark Be Here Now, Momentary Presence is a meditation on working through the anxiety and self-doubt that we all, at some point or another, carry. Specifically conceived, written and recorded with the idea of a full-length album being a fully contained work of art, the songs on Momentary Presence reportedly tease something seismic coming around the corner, while featuring dense layered productions that feel and sound self-assured, complete, definitive and impermeable. This is rooted in the band’s belief that each moment has richness, complexity and singularity. And once it’s gone, it can’t be recaptured or repeated.
Thematically speaking, the album asks the listener several key questions: Can you truly be present? Can you open yourself up and appreciate life in its fullness — the ugliness and confusion, as well as the beauty and joy? The members of GIFT believe that the listener can. And their full-length debut is a chronicle of that chase, and a celebration of the eternal now.
I managed to write about three of the album’s singles in the lead-up to its release:
- “Gumball Garden,” a towering ripper centered around an expansive and densely layered arrangement featuring scorching guitar pyrotechnics, fuzzy power chords, glistening synth arpeggios, thunderous drumming and a relentless motorik groove paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and Freda’s gentle cooing. Sonically, “Gumball Garden” brings Join the Dots-era TOY, Minami Deutsch, Kikagaku Moyo, JOVM mainstays No Swoon and others to mind.
- “Feather,” a slow-burning and contemplative song with painterly textures featuring glistening synth arpeggios, skittering, metronomic beats paired with Freda’s ethereal cooing, a soaring hook and a blazing guitar solo. While simultaneously evoking both a feather floating in the breeze, Autobahn-era Kraftwerk and The Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan, the song was written by the band’s TJ Freda the morning after waking from a lucid dream.
- “Share The Present,” a slick synthesis of Join the Dots-era Toy and The Horrors centered around glistening synth arpeggios and a relentless motorik groove paired with wiry bursts of guitar. The arrangement serves as an airy bed for TJ Freda’s breathily cooed, gentle affirmations. The song manages to present the album’s central theme of being present in the present moment — without attempting to look towards the future or dwell on the past.
“Stuck In A Dream,” Momentary Presence‘s fourth and latest single pairs Freda’s dreamy falsetto with gleaming, retro-futuristic synths, thrumming and fuzzy guitars, enormous hooks and a relentless motorik groove. Much like the previously released singles, “Stuck In A Dream” is a lysergic-induced dream that wraps the listener in warm, hazy cocoon.
“‘Stuck In A Dream’ is about being stuck in a loop,” says Freda. “The idea of being stuck in a dream, stuck in the idea of someone or something, and not being able to look at it from the outside, to reveal if it’s good or bad.”
Directed by the band’s TJ Freda, the accompanying video for “Stuck In A Dream” features hazy VHS colors and scan lines that fits the fuzzy psychedelia of the song, while seeking the eject button from the seemingly unending cycles of fast-forward, play and rewind.
New Video: Dion Lunadon Shares Raw and Anthemic “It’s The Truth”
Dion Lunadon is a New Zealand-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and bassist, who has had a rather lengthy career: He started his career as a member of several Kiwi-based acts including The D4 and for a lengthy stint as a member of noise rock titans and JOVM mainstays A Place to Bury Strangers.
During a short break in APTBS’ touring schedule in 2017, Lunadon had a sudden rush of inspiration that resulted in what he described as a neurotic impulse to write and record a bunch of songs right here and then, which resulted in his solo debut EP Com/Broke, a batch of material inspired by the bands he loved as a youngster — including Toy Love, The Gun Club, Gestalt and Supercar.
A few months later, Lunadon released his self-titled full-length debut, which featured the feral album singles “Fire,” and “Howl.”
Lunadon’s sophomore album Beyond Everything is slated for a June 10, 2022 release through In The Red Records. The album marks two significant milestones in Lunadon’s career: His first album released through In The Red, which he believes is an ideal match for him and his music. And the first album since leaving A Place to Bury Strangers.
Written, performed and recorded by Lunadon, the album’s material reportedly taps into a raw, palpable energy that blurs the lines between the music and its creator. The album features drums from Bambara‘s Blaze Bateh and The Black Hollies‘ Nick Ferrante.
“The record was written and recorded sporadically between 2017 and 2019,” Lunadon says in press notes. “I probably wrote about 100 songs during this period. The first album was pretty relentless which I liked, but I wanted to make something more dynamic for the 2nd record. Something that could be more conducive to repeated listens. I’d get in my studio, come up with a song title, and start working on any ideas that I had. For example, with Elastic Diagnostic, the idea was to create a hum that evokes the sound of life coursing through your body. Everything else kind of formed around that idea.”
Beyond Everything‘s second and latest single “It’s The Truth” is a gritty and raw glam-like anthem centered around chugging power chords, Lunadon’s howled and desperate delivery, forceful and propulsive drumming paired with a explosive feedback-driven coda. “It’s The Truth” further cements the Kiwi-born, Brooklyn-based artist’s reputation for crafting anthems meant to be played as loud as humanly possible. “This is one of my favorite songs on the record,” Lunadon says. “It started with the opening drum beat and the rest came together quickly. It’s about me writing songs in my little hovel of a studio and looking forward to my wife’s return home from work. A ‘distance makes the heart grow fonder’ kind of thing.”
Directed by Alexander Barton, the accompanying for “It’s The Truth” was shot on old black and white film, and features Lunadon brandishing a chain — and playing his bass with the chain wrapped around him. It’s dangerous and downright erotic. “In Dion’s live performance he has a wall of sound and noise, it’s very textural and real. About 3/4 of the way through his set, he drags a chain out of a bag like a snake wrangler presenting a cobra to the audience,” Alexander Barton explains. “It’s an exciting moment of the set where he breaks the routine of the rock formula and shares his experimental interests and the audience really laps it up. The cameras pop out and feed his exhibitionism. I make films that feel and use not only the beauty of film, but welcome the noise and error that come with the raw and naive nature of my tools. The chain as an object and material is a fully loaded symbol and historical icon which is a powerful character itself. I wanted to honor the chain for all its brilliance, referencing metal, design, rock n’ roll, violence, sculpture, industrialism, eroticism, and Jacob Marley. ‘It’s The Truth’ is about material and the spectacle.”
New Audio: Montreal’s Yoo Doo Right Releases a Trippy Motorik Groove Driven Single
Deriving their name from one of Can‘s best known songs, the rising Montreal-based act Yoo Doo Right — Justin Cober (guitar, synths, vocals), Charles Masson (bass) and John Talbot (drums, percussion) — have developed an improvisational-based sound and approach that features elements of krautrock, shoegaze, post-rock and psych rock that the band describes as “a car crash in slow motion.”
Since their formation, the members of the Montreal-based band have quickly become a highly demanded live act that has toured crossed their native Canada and the States while making stops across the North American festival circuit with stops at Levitation, M for Montreal, Sled Island and Pop Montreal. Back in 2018, You Doo Right was the main support act during Acid Mothers Temple‘s North American tour — and as a result, they’ve shared stages with the likes of DIIV, A Place to Bury Strangers, Wooden Shjips, Kikagkiu Moyo, FACS, Frigs, and Jessica Moss and several others.
The act’s full-length debut Don’t Think You Can Escape Your Purpose is slated for a May 21, 2021 release through Mothland. Last month, the members of the Montreal-based act released the album’s first single, album title track “Don’t Think You Can Escape Your Purpose,” an expansive, slow-burning and carefully sculptured soundscape divided into three distinct parts: a lengthy introduction with atmospheric synths, tribal drumming and shimmering guitars; a towering middle section with scorching dirge-like power chords, twinkling keys and crashing cymbals; and a gentle fade out as the song’s coda. The song is an exercise in restraint, unresolved tension and delayed release.
Don’t Think You Can Escape Your Purpose’s second and latest single “Presto, Presto, Bella’s Dream” is a layered song that finds the team weaving shimmering and angular guitar riffs, twinkling synths, propulsive drumming and bass lines into a relentless, repetitive and trippy motorik groove. The band’s Justin Cober says of the song “Driving, simple, straight forward repetition, built into a psychedelic haze with no apparent meaning. Like the day the clocks struck midnight on January 1st, 1970. The title is an ode to both the tempo and a good friend who indirectly influenced us, helped us write this song.”
New Video: Montreal’s Yoo Doo Right Releases an Expansive and Brooding Single
Deriving their name from one of Can’s best known songs, the rising Montreal-based act You Doo Right — Justin Cober (guitar, synths, vocals), Charles Masson (bass) and John Talbot (drums, percussion) — have developed an improvisational-based sound and approach that features elements of krautrock, shoegaze, post-rock and psych rock. Or as the band describes it, “a car crash in slow motion.”
Since their formation, the act has become an in-demand live act that has toured across Canada and the States, making stops across the North American festival circuit, including Levitation, M for Montreal, Sled Island and Pop Montreal. In 2018, the band was the main support act during Acid Mothers Temple’s North American tour — and as a result, they’ve shared stages with the likes of DIIV, A Place to Bury Strangers, Wooden Shjips, Kikagkiu Moyo, FACS, Frigs, and Jessica Moss and several others.
The act’s full-length debut Don’t Think You Can Escape Your Purpose is slated for a May 21, 2021 release through Mothland. Clocking in at exactly six minutes, the album’s first single, album title track “Don’t Think You Can Escape Your Purpose” is slow-burning, brooding and carefully sculptured soundscape divided into three distinct parts: a lengthy introduction with atmospheric synths, tribal drumming and shimmering guitars; a towering middle section with scorching dirge-like power chords, twinkling keys and crashing cymbals; and a gentle fade out as the song’s coda. Sonically and structurally, the song is centered around unresolved tension and delayed release.
“Title track. It’s about a person who is losing touch with reality. Who thinks he has a higher purpose, and is supposed to be an ambassador to a higher extraterrestrial race. It’s a looming atmospheric rhythm and crawl,” the band says of their latest single.
Oakland-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jason Hendardy is the creative mastermind behind the post-punk/alternative rock/noise rock project Permanent Collection. Since Hendardy started the project back in 2010, Permanent Collection has gone through a series of different iteration: the project’s debut EP, 2011’s Delirium was a collection of home solo recordings, which he supported with a number of solo shows and tours.
With the release of 2012’s full-length debut Newly Wed, Nearly Dead the project expanded into a full-fledged band with the addition of Megan Dabkowski (bass), Brendan Nerfa (guitar), Mike Stillman (drums), who were in the band for close to two years. By the end of 2013, the band’s lineup became more fluid as the band featured a rotation cast of collaborators that included Terry Malts and Business of Dreams‘ Corey Cunningham (guitar). The project’s 2013 EP No Void was written and recorded as a trio and after a series of touring to support it, Permanent Collection went on a hiatus with Hendardy focusing on writing music for other bands and several different creative projects, as well as work in video and sound design.
Late last night, Hendardy started to focus his efforts on writing new Permanent Collection material, and the end result is his soon-to-be-released and highly anticipated album Nothing Good Is Normal. All June digital sales of the new record, Nothing Good Is Normal, are going to the Anti Police Terror Project.
Clocking in at just under 2 minutes, album single “Breakaway” is a mosh pit friendly ripper full of the scuzzy power chords, thunderous drumming, howled vocals and enormous hooks that brings JOVM mainstays A Place to Bury Strangers and The Jesus and Mary Chain to mind. Play loudly and mosh the fuck out.
New Video: A Place to Bury Strangers’ Dion Lunadon Releases a Power Chord-Driven Anthem for Our Time
Best known for being a member of internationally acclaimed Brooklyn-based noise rock titans and JOVM mainstays A Place to Bury Strangers, Dion Lunadon is a New Zealand-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and bassist, who had a lengthy career that can be traced back to a stint as a member of Kiwi-based act The D4 and a handful of other projects.
During a short break in APTBS’ touring schedule back in 2017, Lunadon had a sudden rush of inspiration that resulted in what he described as a neurotic impulse to write and record a bunch of songs right there and then, with the end result being his solo debut EP, Com/Broke, an effort, which was inspired by the bands that he loved as a youngster — in particular, Toy Love, The Gun Club, Gestalt and Supercar. A few months later, Lunadon released his self-titled full-length debut, which featured the feral album singles “Fire,” and “Howl.”
Interestingly, during this period of confinement and quarantines Lunadon has been rather productive, furiously writing a bunch of material. “During these troubling times, I’m happy to be a New Yorker,” Lunadon writes in press notes. “Anyone that knows me, knows how much I love this city. For me, it’s like living in an amazing dream (although a bit of a nightmare at the moment), where ANYTHING is possible and the sense of community is strong. Over the last year or so, I’ve written A LOT of music and with the current situation, I have been inspired to write even more. I will be putting this music out in the near future and I plan on putting more of my focus towards this and other projects I have in the pipeline. It all starts today!”
Centered around fuzzy power chords, an enormous and rousingly anthemic hook and shouted boy-girl vocals, Lunadon’s latest single, “When Will I Hold You Again” is a grungy, Marc Bolan and Ace Freely-like stomper that’s perfect for strutting and dancing about in your pajamas while in your apartment. But at its core, there’s a real longing for human connection like we had before this. Lord knows when that will happen but when it does, it’ll be a wonderful thing. “Written and recorded during isolation, ‘When Will I Hold You Again’ is about what’s going down in all of our lives. Covid-19,” Lunadon says. “This is for and about all the people around the world that can’t be with the ones they love, for the people that live by themselves, and most of all, for the people of New York City.
Adds Lunadon, “I asked my friend Kate Clover, if she would like to sing on the track, as I felt it would help portray the sentiment better. As soon as I got her track, I was stoked! She helped take to the next level.”
Directed, produced and edited by Lunadon, the recently released video employs a DIY ethos while being capturing people rocking out to the song in isolation — dancing with themselves. We’ve all done this at some point, so no need to be ashamed about it. “My wife said, ‘why don’t you get people to film themselves dancing in isolation and put together a video?’ For me, being in isolation is not so bad, as I have a creative outlet. I liked the idea of being able to give others the chance to also do something creative and get the blood pumping, so I put word out that I needed dedicated groovers for a video and the response was great!” Lunadon says of the new video. “Thank you to all the people that partook in it! Every one of the videos brought a smile to my face when watching them for the first time and wondering what to expect!”
“When Will I Hold You Again” is available for free on Lunadon’s Bandcamp page, and any donations will be split between Campaign Zero, who work towards ending police brutality in America and City Harvest, who help feed New Yorkers in need of food. Dion will also match the Bandcamp donations up to $1,000. So while it’s available for download and streaming elsewhere, if you got a few bucks and can spare it, donate to some worthy causes and listen to some music that kicks ass.
Interview: A Q&A with New Colossus Festival Co-Founder Mike Bell
Co-founded by three New York music industry vets and longtime friends, Lorimer Beacon‘s founder and head Mike Bell, Kanine Records‘ founder and label head Lio Kanine and Kepler Events and Lola Live’s Steven Matrick, the second annual The New Colossus Festival, which will take place on March 11, 2020 – March 15, 2020 will feature more than 100 handpicked, emerging indie bands and artists from the US, Canada, the UK, the European Union, Australia, and Singapore. By design, the festival takes place just before SXSW: the festival’s co-founders view the festival as a pre-SXSW stopover that will give its emerging acts an opportunity to organically gain exposure – while filling a critical void in the festival circuit.
The festival’s second year finds the festival expanding by leaps and bounds: while still featuring showcases at venues across the East Village and Lower East Side including Berlin Under A, Lola NYC, Pianos, The Bowery Electric, Arlene’s Grocery and The Delancey, the festival has expanded to feature showcases at two beloved New York institutions – The Bowery Ballroom and the recently added MOSCOT Eyewear, as well as Ludlow House.
Of course, New Colossus offers adventurous fans and music industry insiders alike an opportunity to catch many of these emerging and buzzworthy bands before SXSW – and in many cases, the festival will offer the unique opportunity of catching some of these acts playing their first Stateside shows ever. Personally, I’m looking forward to catching JOVM mainstays The Orielles, Summer Heart and A Place to Bury Strangers, along with Beverly Kills, Hanya, Bodywash (who I caught at M for Montreal last year) and Jackie – but I’m also looking forward to some serendipitous discovery of new acts and the opportunity run into old friends, and to network and meet new friends and colleagues. And much like its inaugural year, the second New Colossus Festival will also feature panels and talks that will be of interest to the music community.
I got in touch with New Colossus Festival co-founder Mike Bell by email to chat about the second edition of the festival – primarily its rapid expansion, the founders hope for the future and more. Check it out below.
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WRH: This year is the second New Colossus Festival. In terms of the festival, what makes this year’s edition different than last year?
Mike Bell: We’re thrilled to be back! This year we’ve grown from 6 venues to 9 venues while still keeping everything within walking distance on the Lower East Side. We added MOSCOT Eyewear on Orchard Street as a venue, which will host shows all day Friday. It’s pretty exciting to be teaming up with a wonderful Lower East Side institution. We also added an after-party at Ludlow House on Thursday and a late show featuring our friends A Place To Bury Strangers at Bowery Ballroom on Friday.
WRH: The second edition of New Colossus features a packed lineup of over 100 bands. Much like last year, there’s a big representation of Canadian acts. But I also see a few Norwegian acts, a few Spanish acts, a fair number of British acts, an Irish act or two, a couple of Austrian acts, an Irish act or two, an Australian act and even an act from Singapore on the bill. Was there anything specifically that changed in how acts were chosen and booked this year?
MB: Our prime motive is always the quality of the music and how it makes us feel. We’re booking bands who play music that we love. We aren’t targeting a band from Djibouti because they’re from Djibouti. If there’s a great band from anywhere in the world that is able to make it to NYC and are serious about their careers as professional musicians, we’ll certainly consider them. I will say that there are great festivals and conferences like Halifax Pop Explosion, Focus Wales, The Great Escape and Music Finland that have flown us out to find talent because their governments support exporting their music and art.
WRH: Who comes up with the festival playlist?
MB: That’s all Steven [Matrick]! He’s really good at it and puts a lot of thought into song placement. He’s been sending out playlists to his friends for many years. You can hear his “Best of 2019” here:
WRH: This year’s festival sees the addition of two new venues – Ludlow House and the biggest venue in the festival’s history to date, Bowery Ballroom, which will host arguably the most talked about showcase of the entire festival. Does this give you and the organizers a sense of an even bigger future for New Colossus?
MB: By the time your readers see this, we’ll have announced MOSCOT as another venue that will be hosting bands all day Friday, March 13, with our friends from AdHoc. As mentioned previously, MOSCOT has been part of the Lower East Side community for over 100 years. They’re also a huge supporter of music so it made a lot of sense to team up with them.
The Bowery Ballroom show is a big deal and we’re super excited about it. However, we really don’t see this as a showcase nor as a “headline” show. We definitely don’t want to be the kind of festival that makes fans choose between seeing a more established band versus a smaller one. A Place to Bury Strangers are part of our TNC family and we see their show as another awesome band for festival attendees to see after the other showcases have ended. That said, Bowery Ballroom is a great venue and we hope to expand and do more shows with them next year.
WRH: Festivals like Winter Jazz Fest, New Colossus, SXSW and other festivals with a conference segment have featured talks covering a variety of subjects of importance to their audiences, which will predominantly be musicians, music industry professionals and journalists. How did you and the organizing team come up with the subjects for the various talks that will happen this year?
MB: The topics we chose were the ones that we felt were most useful and interesting to the bands playing the festival. We feel it is important to include speakers who would be the most likely to connect with the artists in a meaningful way. In the age of declining record sales, Indie labels, sync and touring have become vital to survive as a musician. The other panels are on activism, mental health and the history of music in NYC, all very relevant to the bands playing our festival.
WRH: Besides making a living off your art and passion, and how to survive the touring life, one of the biggest issues that concern musicians, music industry types and those who love them is their mental health and wellness. A portion of my readers aren’t music industry insiders. Can you talk a bit about why having discussions on the subject of mental health and wellness is so important for the music community as a whole?
MB: Mental health and wellness is something we need to talk about as much as possible. Professional artists’ lives and livelihoods are dependent on maintaining their wellbeing. We are here are for the artist and want to help them with their careers, which includes making sure that issues like mental health are not stigmatized and that they addressed in an open form. Most touring musicians spend a huge percentage of their lives in bars at music venues and it is a struggle for everyone single one of them to be healthy and sane while touring.
WRH: Simon Raymonde and The Charlatans UK’s Tim Burgess DJ’ing a New Colossus After Party? Holy shit, dude. So, how did that happen?
MB: It’s pretty amazing! Tim is also playing his first US solo shows at the festival. Lio has been friends with Simon and his wife Abbey for years and we all love their label Bella Union. In the end it really all came down to them believing and understanding what this festival is all about. Bella Union also sent us two of our favorite bands Penelope Isles and Lowly last year, and Pom Poko and Dog In the Snow this year, as well as the legendary Tim Burgess of the Charlatans.
WRH: Where do you see the direction of the festival next year?
MB: We are already thinking about what we’ll do for 2021 and have some plans that involve integrating more with the community and the neighborhood as a whole. We’d love too partner with a backline company and do more pop up shows in art galleries and stores.
For more information on the festival, including badge and ticket information, check out the Festival’s home page: https://www.newcolossusfestival.com
I’ll be covering New Colossus’ second edition. You can check out festival coverage here:
Twitter: @yankee32879
Instagram: @william_ruben_helms
New Video: Kill Your Boyfriend’s Horror Movie-Inspired Visuals for “Elizabeth”
Since their formation back in 2011, the Venice, Italy-based industrial psych act Kill Your Boyfriend, comprised of Matteo Scarpa (vocals, guitar) and Antonio Angeli (drums), have developed a cold and sinister sound that manages to be simultaneously atmospheric and pummeling. Or as the Italian duo described in an interview, their sound is “a killer that came in the night, violent and cold.”
Over the past few years, the Venice-based industrial psych act has released a handful of singles and an album, which allowed them to tour across the European Union with the likes of Zola Jesus, The KVB, Civil Civic and Zu among others. Adding to a growing profile, the members of Kill Your Boyfriend have shared a stage with JOVM mainstays Preoccupations and they played Manchester‘s The Psych Rising Festival alongside Gnod and The Telescopes.
Officially released today through Depths Records, the duo’s latest single “Elizabeth” is a chilly track that finds them further honing their sound as it features elements of Ministry and Nine Inch Nails-like industrial rock, A Place to Bury Strangers and Sisters of Mercy-like noisey shoegaze centered around a motorik groove, Angeli’s mathematically precise four-on-the-floor drumming and Scarpa’s desperate and anguish-filled howls.
Hot on the heels of the single’s release, the recently released classic Italian horror movie-inspired, Blau!-directed video follows a woman whose obsession with her lover gradually leads her to a world of madness and feverish hallucinations, which feature the members of Kill Your Boyfriend menacing her. The woman’s obsession and hallucinations eventually creates an ironic and horrifyingly tragic ending — of which she can never escape.
Since their formation back in 2011, the Venice, Italy-based industrial psych act Kill Your Boyfriend, comprised of Matteo Scarpa (vocals, guitar) and Antonio Angeli (drums), have developed a cold and sinister sound that manages to be simultaneously atmospheric and pummeling. Or as the Italian duo described in an interview, their sound is “a killer that came in the night, violent and cold.”
Over the past few years, the Venice-based industrial psych act has released a handful of singles and an album, which allowed them to tour across the European Union with the likes of Zola Jesus, The KVB, Civil Civic and Zu among others. Adding to a growing profile, the members of Kill Your Boyfriend have shared a stage with JOVM mainstays Preoccupations and they played Manchester‘s The Psych Rising Festival alongside Gnod and The Telescopes.
Officially released today through Depths Records, the duo’s latest single “Elizabeth” is a chilly track that finds them further honing their sound as it features elements of Ministry and Nine Inch Nails-like industrial rock,A Place to Bury Strangers and Sisters of Mercy-like noisey shoegaze centered around a motorik groove, Angeli’s mathematically precise four-on-the-floor drumming and Scarpa’s desperate and anguish-filled howls. The B side is a remix by Preoccupations’ Daniel Christiansen, retains Scarpa’s vocals and Angeli’s four-on-the-floor drumming but while adding a muscular. industrial clang and clatter to the proceedings.
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I’ve written about and have photographed the Northeastern Pennsylvania-based shoegazers and JOVM mainstays The Stargazer Lilies quite a bit throughout this site’s nine-plus year history. The act, which is comprised of founding duo and married couple John Cep (guitar, bass, vocals, drums, production) and Kim Field (bass, vocals) and a rotating cast of live drummers can trace its origins to when Cep’s and Field’s previous band Soundpool broke up.
Soundpool had built up a national profile, touring with Chapterhouse, Ulrich Schnauss, A Place to Bury Strangers, School of Seven Bells, Black Moth Super Rainbow, TOBACCO, and a list of others, but despite the fact that there was growing buzz surrounding them, Cep and Field desired a chance in sonic direction. And with their Stargazer Lillies full-length debut, We Are The Dreamers, the duo quickly established a signature sound, which meshed elements of dream pop and shoegaze — but with a muscular and forceful insistence. Their sophomore album, 2016’s Door to the Sun firmly cemented their sound and approach while expanding upon it.
Since the release of Door to the Sun, Cep and Field have been relentlessly touring as both an opener and headliner, frequently with JOVM mainstay TOBACCO and his Black Moth Super Rainbow, among a list of others.
Now, as you may recall, the JOVM mainstays long-awaited, third full-length album Occabot is slated for a November 1, 2019 release through Rad Cult Records — and the album finds Cep and Field collaborating with their frequent tour mate TOBACCO (a.k.a Tom Fec). Interestingly, this collaboration can be traced back several years ago to a Stargazer Lillies show that TOBACCO had attended. “It just hit me they were way heavier than they seem,” TOBACCO explains in press notes. “And that wasn’t translating in their recordings. Their old stuff is panoramic and smooth; I wanted 3D and bumpy.”
Wanting to help get the duo where they all felt they wanted to be, Fec signed the band to his Rad Cult Records imprint and agreed to work on their third album. But he didn’t start working with the band right away. He let Cep and Field work on the material in their own idiosyncratic image first. When the members of Stargazer Lilies had completed things on their end with eight raw and primal tracks, Fec then stepped in to distort, bend and burn the material’s overall sound even further.
Cep likens the creative process behind Occabot to what Andy Warhol did with pop art prints and The Velvet Undgeround and Nico. “Lou [Reed] said Andy was the best producer because he basically let the group do whatever the fuck they wanted. Tom did a similar thing with us; he let us have complete creative control, then added splashes of color and made it rough around the edges. Those embellishments make his artistic stamp on the project unmistakable, but leave the essence of our music very much intact.”
Occabot’s first single “Living Work of Art” found TOBACCO scrubbing the material with sandpaper than mangling Field’s and Cep’s work in a blender for a bit, then throwing it into an acid-bath –and while becoming heavily distorted and whirring batch of broken machinery and instruments, with skittering hi-hats, the song manages to retain the gauzy quality of their previously recorded work. Interestingly, the album’s second and latest single “Dizzying Heights” finds Field’s ethereal vocals floating and fight through a viscous haze of heavily distorted guitars, shimmering hi-hat and wobbling drums. It’s a woozy and dizzying swoon of a song that evokes the decay and disorder of the impending end of everything.
New Audio: Brooklyn Shoegazers No Swoon Releases a Slow-Burning Meditation on Alienation
Since their formation in 2016, the Brooklyn-based indie act No Swoon — the core duo of Tasha Abbott (vocals, guitar) and Zack Nestel-Patt (synths) — have received attention locally and nationally for a sound that meshes elements of dream pop, shoegaze, post-punk and ethereal wave. And interestingly, much like BLACKSTONE RNGRS, Lightfoils and others, the Brooklyn-based act have added their name to a growing list of acts that have actively pushed the sonic and aesthetic boundaries of shoegaze and dream pop.
Last year’s critically applauded EP 1 was written in Los Angeles during a self-imposed exile from the East Coast. For Abbott, a native of Ontario, CA, the idea was to get back to her geographic and musical roots with a great deal of time spent driving around the suburbs listening to the goth and new wave that her mom played in the car when Abbott was a little girl (Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, New Order) and the indie rock and punk rock of her teenage years (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The White Stripes).
Now, as you may recall, the duo’s forthcoming Jorge Elbrecht-produced, self-titled debut is slated for a November 1, 2019 release through Substitute Scene Records, and the album reportedly is an ambiguous and urgent affair that thematically touches upon the confusion, frustration and uncertainty of our zeitgeist. Naturally, the result is material that is at times searingly critical, frustrated and despondent everything from misogyny to global power imbalance and inequality with each of the song’s narrators seeking answers to questions that may never be resolved. The album also finds the duo collaborating with Robi Gonzalez, best known for his work with A Place to Bury Strangers and This Will Destroy You, contributing drums.
“Don’t Wake Up, Wake Up,” their self-titled debut’s first single and opening track was a Joy Division-like take on shoegaze, centered around layers of fuzzy and distorted power chords, a motorik-like chugging groove, an enormous arena rock-like hook. But at its core, Abbott expresses confusion, unease and frustration while asking uncomfortably familiar, large questions: has the world gone crazier or is it me? Is this real or is this some horrifying and unending nightmare? “Forward,” the album’s second single was a lush, synth-driven track featuring shimmering and arpeggiated synths, thunderous drumming, a soaring hook and Abbot’s ethereal cooing. And while being their most dance floor-like single of their growing catalog, the song expresses frustration about how we haven’t made progress on racism, sexism. homophobia, inequality and so on. “Faces,” the self-titled album’s third and latest single continues in the same lush vein of its predecessor — but it’s a shimmering and slow burning and meditative song that evokes a sense of alienation and disconnectedness that feels and sounds familiar.
“Faces is the oldest song on the record and worked for us as a kind of pivot from the sound of the EP to the sound of the record,” the band explains in press notes. “We brought in a sampled synth and had more intricate parts and arrangements. Lyrically the song is about floating through a crowded city feeling disassociated from the people you see around and how specifically we begin to internalize that alienation. A day living in a city puts us in proximity to an insane number of people. And that number increases ten fold when you add what we see on social media. Yet so many of our friends are struggling with loneliness. It’s hard to build and sustain a close community. And in many ways, how we are forced to live in this city specifically makes connecting to folks difficult. The generally cramped apartments we share make it hard to have people over, and the struggle to pay rent make it hard to have income to go out. And this is beyond the general exhaustion so much of us feel from hustling.”
New Audio: Brooklyn Shoegazers No Swoon Releases a Shimmering and Lush, Synth-Driven Single
Since their formation in 2016, the Brooklyn-based indie act No Swoon, currently comprised of Tasha Abbott (vocals, guitar) and Zack Nestel-Patt (synths) have received attention locally and elsewhere for a sound that features elements of dream pop, shoegaze, post-punk and ethereal wave. Interestingly, much like BLACKSTONE RNGRS, Lightfoils and others, the Brooklyn-based act have added their name to a growing list of acts that have actively pushed the sonic and aesthetic boundaries of shoegaze and dream pop.
Last year’s critically applauded EP 1 was written in Los Angeles during a self-imposed exile from the East Coast. For Abbott, a native of Ontario, CA, the idea was to get back to her geographic and musical roots with a great deal of time spent driving around the suburbs listening to the goth and new wave that her mom played in the car when Abbott was a little girl (Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, New Order) and the indie rock and punk rock of her teenage years (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The White Stripes).
Now, as you may recall, the duo’s forthcoming Jorge Elbrecht-produced, self-titled debut is slated for a November 1, 2019 release through Substitute Scene Records, and the album reportedly is an ambiguous and urgent affair that thematically touches upon the confusion, frustration and uncertainty of our zeitgeist. And naturally, as a result, the material is at times searingly critical, frustrated and despondent over everything from misogyny to global power imbalance and inequality with each of the song’s narrators seeking answers to questions that may never be resolved. The album also finds the duo collaborating with Robi Gonzalez, best known for his work with A Place to Bury Strangers and This Will Destroy You, contributing drums.
“Don’t Wake Up, Wake Up,” their self-titled debut’s first single and opening track was a Joy Division-like take on shoegaze, centered around layers of fuzzy and distorted power chords, a motorik-like chugging groove, an enormous arena rock-like hook. But at its core, Abbott expresses confusion, unease and frustration while asking uncomfortably familiar, large questions: has the world gone crazier or is it me? Is this real or is this some horrifying and unending nightmare? “Forward,” No Swoon’s second and latest single off their forthcoming full-length debut is a lush, synth-driven track featuring shimmering and arpeggiated synths, thunderous drumming, a soaring hook and Abbot’s ethereal cooing. And while being their most dance floor-like single of their growing catalog, the song expresses frustration about how we haven’t made progress on racism, sexism. homophobia, inequality and so on.
“You know when you’re talking to someone about how fucked the world is (in many ways) right now and they say ‘but it’s better than it used to be, we’ve come so far!’ I hate that, ‘we’ve come so far,’ it’s such a cop-out,” the band says in a statement. “Sure we’ve made progress, some things are better than before and some things aren’t. It doesn’t mean that racism, sexism, homophobia, abuse (the list goes on), doesn’t exist today or that climate change isn’t a real threat to the world. And if that all still exists, we still have work to do. And that’s what this song, ‘Forward’ stems from. That cop-out of an idea that things are better and great. ‘Are the clouds really breaking, or merely moving over?’ Meaning are we really making progress or is whatever problem just shifting, either to someone else, or in a different form.”