Comprised of founding members Marlon Magnée (keyboards), Sacha Got (guitar), Sam Lefevre (bass), Noé Delmas (drums) and Lucas Nunez, along with a rotating cast of vocalists including current lead vocalist Clémence Quélennec, lara Luciani, Jane Peynot and Marilou […]
Tag: psych pop
Swedish singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist David Alexander and his solo dream pop/electro-pop Summer Heart has received international attention for a wistfully nostalgic, 60s psych pop-leaning, lo-fi sound that compares favorably to Caribou‘s earliest material, Washed Out, In Ghost Colours-era Cut Copy, Painted Palms and others; in fact, his 2011 Please Stay EP received praise from The Guardian and The Star topped Hype Machine‘s charts. In his native Sweden, Alexander has a reputation for being a pioneer of Sweden’s burgeoning dream pop movement, a movement that includes Moonbabies, The Land Below, Hey Elbow, Blind Lake and Emerald Park.
Interestingly, Alexander’s international profile has grown as several of his songs have appeared in TV series — including the NBC series, Whitney, which brought him the attention of millions of American TV viewers. Now, if you were frequenting this site last year, you might recall that I wrote about “Nothing Can Stop Us Now,” a song that consisted of jangling guitars, washboard-led percussion, layers of ethereal vocals and cascading synths with a warm buzzing summer afternoon warmth. His latest single “The Forbidden” off his forthcoming EP also named The Forbidden is a slow-burning and shoegaze-leaning single that pairs Alexander’s ethereal cooing with shimmering guitars and synths played through gentle amounts of reverb and jazz-like drumming. And although the song evokes the sensation of waking up from a pleasant dream, just underneath its placid surface is a wistful melancholy that will remind the listener that all things will eventually dissipate.
Alexander along with a backing band featuring some of his dearest friends will be making Stateside appearances at SXSW and Williamsburg Brooklyn’s The Knitting Factory later this month. Check out tour dates below.
SXSW:
Wednesday 16th March
The Townsend – 1:05am
Saturday 19th March
Icenhauer’s – 1am
NYC:
Wednesday 23rd March
Live In Brooklyn – The Knitting Factory –
http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=6437785
Perhaps best known for this time spent in New England-based psych rock band MMOSS, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Doug Tuttle had developed a reputation as a artist of his own right with the release of his solo debut, an effort that had been praised for possessing a jittery, love-lorn anxiety paired with Tuttle’s dexterous guitar work and his carefully crafted psychedelic-tinged pop. Tuttle’s forthcoming sophomore effort, It Calls On Me, slated for a February 26 release through renowned indie label Trouble In Mind Records will further cement the New Hampshire-born singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist’s reputation for crafted psych pop while revealing a subtle yet marked change in sonic direction as the material is dreamier and more ethereal, as you’ll hear on the album’s latest single and album title track “It Calls On Me.” Thanks to some impressive guitar licks played through a variety of effects pedals, paired with cymbal-led propulsive percussion, an equally propulsive bass line, Tuttle’s lilting and cooed vocals, the song sounds as though it could have been released sometime between 1963-1969 as the guitar solo reminds me quite a bit of Robby Kreiger’s expressive and expansive solo in The Doors‘ “Light My Fire,” while the song manages to be subtly modern as it channels contemporary acts such as Raccoon Fighter.
Tuttle and his touring band will play a number of dates throughout February and March to support the new album and it includes a stop in Brooklyn. Check out tour dates below.
Tour Dates
2/17: Detroit, MI – Marble Bar
2/18: Chicago, IL – The Owl #
2/19: Cleveland, OH – Happy Dog #
2/20: Cincinnati, OH – The Comet #
2/21: Nashville, TN- East Room #
2/22: Atlanta, GA- 529 #
2/23: Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
2/24: Richmond, VA – TBA
2/25: Brooklyn, NY – Rough Trade
2/26: Providence, RI – AS220 ^
2/27: Boston, MA – Lillypad ^
2/28: Portsmouth, NH – 3S Artspace ^
# – w/ Paperhead
^ – w/ Herbcraft
Comprised of Evan Blum, Jacob Weaver and Rob Monsma, the Louisville, KY-based trio Murals was formed over 10 years ago while its members were high schoolers. As the story goes, the trio of Blum, Weaver and Monsma experienced several dips and turns with the members of the band eventually returning to their hometown to write and record music in an abandoned childcare center, located on a hill in a shady part of town — the sort of place the band notes, where acid trips and all-day jam sessions would go hand-in-hand.
With the release of “Violet City Lantern,” the album title track and first single off Violet City Lantern, and a subsequent stop at this past fall’s CMJ Festival, the Louisville-based trio quickly received national attention. “Long Bridge,” Violet City Lantern‘s latest single is a slow-burning and moody bit of psychedelia that sounds as though it draws from The Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin,” The Beatles, The Beach Boys and 70s AM radio rock as shimmering guitar chords played with gentle amounts of reverb and wah wah pedal are paired with swirling and ethereal keyboards, gentle yet propulsive drumming and a weary baritone. The gorgeous track slowly unfolds towards the listener in a way that evokes waking from an intensely vivid dream.
New Video: The Psychedelic New Video for Dumbo Gets Mad’s Trippy New Single “Andromedian Girl”
Dumbo Gets Mad is an Italian-born, Los Angeles-based psych pop duo that formed during the summer of 2010. They wrote the material that would eventually comprise their full-length, 2011 debut Elephants At The Door in […]
New Audio: Summer Heart’s 60s Psych Pop Inspired Sound
Summer Heart is the solo dream pop recording project of the Swedish singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist David Alexander. Summer Heart has received attention for a nostalgic, 60s psych pop-leaning, lo-fi sound that bears a subtle resemblance […]
Over the last few years, Montreal has developed a reputation for a rather vital, intriguing and diverse electronic music scene as acts such as Grimes, BRAIDS, Majical Cloudz, Jef Barbara and others. Seoul, comprised of […]
Comprised of Bei Yan (vocals, synth) and Tony Bertaccini (drums), the Portland, OR-based drum and synth duo Wishyunu (pronounced wish-u-new) originally began as a noise and improv project back in 2008, and over the years […]
Surrender The Spirit and Surf Rock Is Dead at Piano’s 1/29/15
Surrender The Spirit and Surf Rock Is Dead Piano’s January 29, 2015 Over the last few years, I haven’t frequented Piano’s as much as I once did. As it has turned out, a lot of […]
Mild High Club is the creative mastermind of Alexander Bretin, a jazz-trained musician, who specializes in a hazy, and woozy psychedelic pop sound comprised of cascading and shimmering synth chords, gently undulating bass, vocals fed […]
Needle Points, Twincest, Paperhaus and Zula at Palisades 12/10/14
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Cochlear Kill is the musical project and brain child of Mot Bollox, a multi-instrumentalist with a ton of effects pedals, a lot of free time and home studio equipment. Heavily inspired by shoegazer rock, Bollox’s […]
When I heard “Wasting, Waiting” the latest single off the Chicago, IL-based Yawn’s forthcoming Love Chills, I was immediately reminded of Violens’ fantastic Amoral. Both “Wasting, Waiting” and Amoral manage to possess an unconventional air as both manage to be […]
Niagara, is the Turin, Italy-based collaborative, experimental pop project of producers and electronic music artists David Tomat and Gabriele Ottino. And as Niagara, the duo have a reputation for creating an off-kilter sound that employs […]
Last August, the folks at Sub Pop Records released Washed Out’s much-anticipated sophomore effort Paracosm, an album that Ernest Greene, the primary creative force behind the project, has said explores the peculiar phenomenon of creating extremely detailed, imaginary worlds. […]