I’ve been awaiting this album since I heard my first Allah-Las song probably back in 2010. I believe it was “Catamaran.” I was hooked by the perfectly laid-back reverb-drenched surf psych. And yes, it’s true, the Allah-Las are a new band. Despite what your ears hear (and your eyes see below), they are not from the ’60s.
KCRW puts it in pretty right-on terms: “Try to conjure up the most quintessential LA sound with a hint of surf, 60s Sunset Strip, downtown city grime, and a trace of Americana desert folk, all mashed together with a healthy dose of wha wha, fuzz and reverb. And then add the pivotal tambourine…and voila!”
After some great 7″ single releases over the last couple years, Innovative Leisure will release the Allah-Las first full-length LP on September 18th. But we have a copy to giveaway to one lucky winner!
There was no better location for the 8th Annual Afropunk Festival than Commodore Barry Park in Brooklyn. Over thirty bands and artists took the stage for two full days of music, art, and skate. I have to admit I’m a bit sad I was only able to attend Sunday’s festivities. Although I was extremely pleased with all of the acts I saw on Sunday, something about seeing Erykah Badu on Saturday would have been the icing on the cake.
Sunday’s lineup was stacked with some of the industry’s most talented acts, including Bad Rabbits, Toro Y Moi, Reggie Watts, and one of the day’s headliners, Janelle Monae. I found myself walking from one stage to the other after each set due to the festival’s perfectly timed schedule.
The first band I was able to check out happened to be one of my favorite bands of all time, Bad Rabbits. Having seen them for the first time two years ago (and proceeding to never miss them again when they were in NYC), I was automatically hooked by their dance moves, insane energy and passion for what they do. Body Language, a band I had seen merely 2 weeks prior, managed to match Bad Rabbits energy with their more electronic-based set.
The shimmering siren song of Stealing Sheep has left me sonically shipwrecked…and I like it!
Hailing from Merseyside, England, Stealing Sheep are an entrancing trio of musical wizardesses whose debut album, Into the Diamond Sun, comes out on September 4th via Heavenly Recordings / Cooperative Music. I have it already and I am fully under the spell.
Luckily, we have a vinyl 7″ single of Stealing Sheep’s “Genevieve” to give away to you to bring a bit of their magic to your turntable.
Just over three years ago, you would have found Daniel “Homeless” Mustard busking on the streets of New York City. He slept in Washington Square Park or in homeless shelters, earning a reputation for playing and singing amazing covers of popular songs. But he doesn’t want to focus on that anymore because at the end of 2009, his life changed forever.
His performance of Radiohead’s “Creep” on the Opie & Anthony radio show in December of 2009 altered his life’s trajectory in ways that boggle his mind today: the YouTube video of the performance went viral, with over 8.5 million views as of this writing. He’s since been dedicated his life to music, gigging around the city, and is in the process of creating an EP of original songs entitled Fragments of Bone.
There is less than a week to go on his Kickstarter campaign for the EP, and Daniel wants it to succeed simply because he wants to be able to keep making music. His songs are so heartfelt, and his ambition is so sincere it would make even a jaded A&R guy weep. Daniel Mustard’s bootstrapped success is more than just a tale of redemption, it’s the story of the discovery of a passion for music that deserves to be told.
We chatted with Daniel via email about how things are going with his “Pandora’s box” style of songwriting, the status of his Kickstarter, and a host of other questions about his remarkable journey.
You write on your Kickstarter that, “I’m finally learning that, after all, it’s not actually all my fault.” That really struck me. What did you mean by that?
I’m glad you picked up on that! A big part of my recovery is realizing that everything that happens is NOT my fault. There are lots of things that are beyond my control. Realizing that and accepting that and not continuing to blame myself is a huge step in my recovery. I always keep thinking to myself that everyone else has it all figured out and that I must have missed that one day in school! Now I realize that no one has it all figured out and we’re just all trying as best we can.
It seems nearly unimaginable that any band can play a 22-song set with the same energy from beginning to end. However, My Morning Jacket proved that it is in fact, very much possible. The band took the stage to a packed house off the Williamsburg Waterfront as the sun set on a wonderful Sunday.
Opening with “The Dark,” the band made way for a two-hour set full of some of their most popular tracks, including many from their 2011 release, Circuital. It was absolutely refreshing to see a band that has such musicality and appreciation for their art.
The set continued with more crowd sing-a-longs and more jumping and shaking by not only the audience, but by the band themselves. “War Begun” and “Off The Record” from earlier releases got the crowd just as excited, if not more, than the newer material. Either way, it was clear that every member of the audience loved this band and the music they produce, both recorded and live.
Legendary Band keyboardist, Garth Hudson, has gathered together some great Canadian musicians who have chosen their favorite tunes from The Band and put them together on this here compilation Chest Fever: A Canadian Tribute to The Band.
It will be released on October 2nd, 2012 but you must crank up this version of “This Wheel’s On Fire” by Neil Young and the Sadies right now.
I just watched this far-out magical Guardian Alien video and just had to share it with you!
First of all, if you don’t know, Guardian Alien is a free wheeling ensemble who have found just the right balance between structured arrangements and wild abandon. Helmed by Greg Fox, who has lent his percussive force to the likes of Teeth Mountain, Dan Deacon, and Liturgy, the ensemble was initially an extension of his solo music. It rapidly took on its own identity and expanded to a core group of Greg (drums, vocals, electronics, arrangements), Alex Drewchin (vocals, synth), Turner Williams Jr. (shahai baaja), Bernard Gann (guitar and also of Liturgy), and Eli Winograd (bass).
Guardian Alien’s Thrill Jockey debut, See the World Given to a One Love Entity, is a 40 minute psychic/psychedelic meditation that is driven by an intensity that is at once expansive, focused, and heavy on multiple levels. The overall arc of the album is transportive and trance inducing.
So now that you’re prepped for the magic, press play, sit back and go on Guardian Alien’s magical journey…
Dudes, I just picked up this massive book by Joel Freimark (aka The Daily Guru on the internets) and have been geeking out, going through and reading about some of the greatest albums ever made.
It’s encyclopedic but insightful. It jumps around from genre to genre, yet has an inherent unifying thread. And the good news is we’ve got one for you.
Joel Freimark posts brilliant daily Youtube videos about music that he loves and stuff he wants to turn you on to under the moniker, The Daily Guru. Check them out by subscribing to his Youtube channel or follow him on Facebook or Twitter.
Evan Caminiti of Barn Owl has a new solo album, Dreamless Sleep, coming out next week on Thrill Jockey. As the day got darker with rain, I melted into the soft beautiful ambience of the sounds and visions of “Absteigend.”
Since we’re all a tight-knit music-lovin’ community, we created this segment so that some of our good friends who are doing good things in the industry of human happiness could share the records that they’ve been diggin’ on lately.
This edition of Grooves Shared features the great NYC shop, Record Grouch. After more than a decade of selling used records in Williamsburg, Doug Pressman launched Record Grouch at the now defunct Monster Island in 2010 and then in a small basement space at 441 Metropolitan Avenue.
In April 2012, Brian Gempp joined Pressman to open the new and improved Record Grouch at 986 Manhattan Avenue in the heart of Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
The show is a soft-launch party for Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records, which will release Prince Rupert’s Drops debut album the Fall.
The festivities kick off at 8:30 and early-arrivers will get free show posters (of the killer artwork above) and/or BBiB Records mixtapes…for those of you that held on to your old cassette decks over the years!
With just a few days left for the Dust & Grooves Kickstarter campaign, we wanted to give you the heads up about it just in case you missed it the first time around. And yes, they’ve reached their goal however, like all Kickstarter campaigns, projects always benefit from a surplus of funds. So if you haven’t checked it out yet, please do. As stated a few weeks ago, the work is quite worthy of support!
Previously: In case you’ve never taken the time to check out photographer Eilon Paz’s vinyl obsessed website, Dust & Grooves, now would be a good time.
For the past few years Paz has been documenting vinyl collectors around the US and beyond, and the results are quite stunning.
And now Dust & Grooves is looking to self-publish a photo book further documenting collectors who have been shot by Paz, as well as folks who he’ll meet on a cross-country jaunt to gather new material later this summer. Check out the video and you’ll see the scope of the entire project—you’ll be impressed!
It’s hard to imagine a time when Mumford & Sons wasn’t playing for 15,000 people nights and nights at a time. But after their impeccable performance at Pier A in Hoboken, New Jersey – why would you need to?
15,000 fans (literally) came out to see the band play an outdoor performance right off the Hudson River, and although forecasts stated it would rain and storm the entire night, the band was able to push the storm clouds away, and make for an absolutely brilliant night of acoustic guitars, banjos, and beautiful weather.
Playing an array of both new and old songs, Mumford and Sons put on what I would consider one of the best concerts I have attended. Although I have only seen the band once before (in the comparatively small 9:30 Club in Washington, DC), they seemed just as together harmonically as I remembered. Crowd favorites for the night included the popular “Little Lion Man” and “Awake My Soul.” It seemed though that the crowd took just as well to the new songs off the forthcoming Babel (“Below My Feet” and “Lover’s Eyes”).
TVD’s Record Score is brought to you by TVD NYC’s own Mike Newman, who recently scored some great records and is now intent on sharing them with you. New stuff and old stuff, straight from the vinyl to your ears!
We’ll always provide links in the playlist where you can score the records online, but always remember to hit up your local independent record store!
The playlist for this fourth edition of the Record Score podcast follows after the jump. Hope you dig!
I’ve been awaiting this album since I heard my first Allah-Las song probably back in 2010. I believe it was “Catamaran.” I was hooked by the perfectly laid-back reverb-drenched surf psych. And yes, it’s true, the Allah-Las are a new band. Despite what your ears hear (and your eyes see below), they are not from the ’60s.
