A break-out artist, the vocalist and songwriter’s latest single “You Don’t Know About Me” tackles the weighty issue of pro-life versus pro-choice. Not someone who has been overtly political for most of her life, having her child in the current climate has naturally brought these issues to the fore for her.
Vos had been singing back-up vocals, or on tour playing keyboards for bands on the LA scene for several years. Her vocals are also featured on “Rolling Dice” a glitchy track by Australian producer, Just A Gent. Though she harbored ambitions to be a front woman, she never found the opportunity or courage prior to falling pregnant.
White Noise,” a song about Los Angeles native Ella Vos’s It’s pronounced “ehya vos” meaning She/You in Spanish. I liked this idea of a kind of relationship name: ‘she’ meaning woman or me, and ‘you’; meaning everyone else. It evolved into a stage name, and I decided to just own it. I struggle with Postpartum depression, so it may not be the most chart-friendly of themes but it has struck a chord. The pairing of her gauzy vocals with sparse electronics was released late last year. Since then, it has had 14 million streams.
Last year British indie rockers Flyte released their debut album “The Loved Ones”, which was far and away one of our favorite albums of the year. After seven long months on the road touring in support of the record, the band took a break at the Isle of Wight in December, where they wrote and produced two completely new songs (which were produced and mixed by longtime friend and collaborator, Burke Reid). This session resulted in the two songs “Moon Unit” and “Victory Girls,” .
“Moon Unit” chugs along with a soothing energy that effortlessly builds up to deliver a chorus that is every bit charming and addictive as all the best Flyte songs are. Its title is a nod to Frank Zappa’s daughter and an ode to the songs their parents would listen to on cassette during long drives.
Then you have “Victory Girls,” a song that showcases the simple, yet efficient use of just their lush vocals and dreamy guitar work providing something that feels completely timeless.
Most impressively, while both efforts have no problem working their magic on a listener fairly instantly, they also have a special growing power that allows them to sound even better with each subsequent listen.
Last year Swedish indie rock outfit Hater released not only their great debut album “You Tried” (which was among my best albums of the year list) but also the EP with Red Blinders.
The band recently stopped into the Danish studio Tapetown to record a “Live At Tapetown” session, giving us a heavenly version of Red Blinders track “Blushing.” Fans of Alvvays should look no further, these guys will be among your new favorite bands. Hater performed the set in Aarhus a few weeks back for a headlining set in TAPE. They were positively grinning from ear to ear when Hater was up for doing a Live At Tapetown session . If you were one of the lucky few who happened to be there, you got a great lil’ show. It might have been the first time they’d performed in Aarhus . The rest of the indie-savvy scene is catching on to them. This might help if you’re new to the ball.
Dan Lyons was previously better known as drummer for South London post-punkers Phobophobes. He has now stepped out on his own as a solo artist, releasing his debut single “Big Moon.” It has a bit of a a classic 80’s songwriter sound but amps things up with a distinct sound and atmosphere heightened by sharp guitar work, haunting backing vocals and some wonderfully placed violin. There’s a bit of The Cure heard throughout this track and that certainly isn’t a bad thing.
The song is out now via Shaker Records and can be bought over at his Bandcamp, along with b-side “22nd Century Boy”.” Lyons will also be making the trip to SXSW next week .
Dan Lyons – Lead Guitar/ Vocals/ Drums Freya Warsi – Vocals/ Tambourine Jack Fussey – Electric/ Acoustic Guitar Robin McCready – Bass Gameliel Rendle Traynor – Cello
In March of 1968, Cream were about halfway through a long tour of the U.S., their popularity on the burgeoning psych-rock scene approaching climax. Their second album, 1967’s Disraeli Gears, had been a huge success, charting high in both Britain and America behind totemic songs like “Strange Brew,” “Tales of Brave Ulysses” and “Sunshine of Your Love.” Their third, the double-album Wheels of Fire was set for a summer release and would land with another thunder clap, with the near-unprecedented talents of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker evolving into further experimental territory. But all was not well with the band. Baker and Bruce couldn’t stand each other, and Clapton complained that the band’s shows were devolving into garish displays of one-upsmanship. It hadn’t even been 18 months since the release of their debut LP Fresh Cream, but the trio had been hurtling forward with such speed and force that they were already out of gas. In May, they decided to break up for good, stunning the music world. As it turned out, this tour of America would be their last.
On March 9th, 1968, Cream were at the Winterland Ballroom for the penultimate performance of a two-week run in San Francisco. For this show, the band broke out a few songs from Fresh Cream, including “N.S.U.,”“Toad” and “Sleepy Time Time.” Even if the band was on the verge of collapse, they sounded no less powerful, with all three members locked into a power groove that couldn’t be equaled at the time, and maybe since. Listen to Cream play the molten blues on this date 50 years ago.
CREAM – 1966 – This band wasn’t called Cream for nothing. They were three top-notch musicians who had cut their teeth in bands like the Yardbirds, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Manfred Mann and Blues Incorporated. They sprung fully formed in London in 1966 and quickly became the first successful supergroup. For two years they reigned, but their volatile personalities finally got the best of them and they packed it in as a group. But not before leaving behind some electrifying live performances with powerful solos from Clapton and Baker on guitar and drums respectively. In fact, their third album “Wheels of Fire,” (the live part – record two) was recorded at the Fillmore in San Francisco and was the world’s first platinum-selling double album. The band was the model for every power trio that followed it, beginning with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Cream was short-lived but one of the best of its kind in Rock history.
The song “Old Heads” is a sci-fi space anthem to technology that constantly replaces itself, proving both necessary and unnecessary at the same time. It’s also a jangly pop gem, a trip through the fantastical that is ultimately warm and relatable. This remarkable coexistence is one of many achievements of Chad VanGaalen’s Light Information, his sixth record on Sub Pop Records.
For an album that’s about “not feeling comfortable with really anything,” as VanGaalen says, Light Information is nonetheless a vivid, welcoming journey through future worlds and relentless memories. The rich soundscapes and sometimes jarring imagery (“I’ll be the host body, yes, for the parasitic demons. They can eat me from the inside out, I already hear them chewing.”) could only come from the mind of a creative polymath–an accomplished visual artist, animator, director, and producer, VanGaalen has scored television shows, designed puppet characters for Adult Swim, directed videos for Shabazz Palaces, Strand of Oaks, METZ, Dan Deacon, and The Head and the Heart, and produced records for Women, Alvvays, and others.
While alienation has always been a theme of VanGaalen’s music, Light Informationdraws on a new kind of wisdom–and anxiety–gained as he watches his kids growing up. “Being a parent has given me a sort of alternate perspective, worrying about exposure to a new type of consciousness that’s happening through the internet,” he says. “I didn’t have that growing up, and I’m maybe trying to preserve a little bit of that selfishly for my kids.”
As always, VanGaalen wrote, played, and produced all of the music on Light Information (save Ryan Bourne’s bass part on “Mystery Elementals” and vocals on “Static Shape” from his young daughters Ezzy and Pip), and designed the cover art. The product of six years’ work, going back even before 2014’s Shrink Dust, Light Information emerged from the experimental instruments that fill VanGaalen’s Calgary garage studio. Among them is a beloved Korg 770 monosynth, which VanGaalen coveted for years before fixing one up and devoting a lot of recent energy to recording “duets” with it. One of these, “Prep Piano and 770,” is the lone instrumental on Light Information, more atmosphere and chord bursts than the rest of the album’s hooky rock narrative.
“If I was going to go out and buy a record, I would probably want it to sound only like that,” says VanGaalen. “That one’s for me.”
Throughout the dark-wave reverb of Light Informationare stories of paranoia, disembodiment, and isolation–but there’s also playfulness, empathy, and intimacy. “I sit and do a drawing, a portrait of my dad,” sings VanGaalen on “Broken Bell.” “I should really visit him before he is dead. Cuz we are getting old. Our cells just won’t divide like they told us. But I’m not really good at this kind of thing.”
But VanGaalen is good at a lot of things–and he’s trying to pursue them for the right reasons. “I’m just trying to get over the weight of feeling like I have to be making something of my time constantly,” he says. “Especially with kids, you get these small breaks where you get to make stuff, and now I try to say ‘you know what, I’m going to make something for me.’”
And if he could make anything for himself, it would be without constraint. “I would love to build a living structure from scratch,” he says. “I’ve slowly been ripping my studio apart and building additions, but you’re always kind of down to this box. I’d love to explore more open forms of architecture, with an endless supply of materials to use, even garbage. Building codes keep us in these boxes–You can’t just build a giant hand made out of wood that’s the size of a house to live in. But we really should be able to do that.”
Both Sides Of The Sky is the final volume in a trilogy of albums (with 2010’s Valleys of Neptune and 2013’s People, Hell and Angels) intended to present the best and most significant unissued studio recordings remaining in the Jimi Hendrix’s archive. The album features appearances by Stephen Stills, Johnny Winter, and LonnieYoungblood and includes 10 studio tracks that have never seen release. available on CD, digital, and as a numbered 180-gram audiophile vinyl 2LP.
Experience Jimi Hendrix like you never have before: A new John Vondracek-directed music video was unveiled on Friday, featuring a previously unreleased song from the late artist, titled “Lover Man” The music video features archival footage of the legendary guitarist performing the song on his iconic “Flying V” guitar, cut between montages of home movies and photographs from Hendrix’s studio sessions. All of this is seen through a trippy, kaleidoscope-like filter.
The psychedelic music video came along with the release of the new Hendrix album titled Both Sides of the Sky, announced last year. This Eddie Kramer-produced album .
Hendrix apparently inserted the theme of the ‘60s-era TV series Batman into this particular recording. This segment can be heard starting at 1:43. The musician would reportedly add these guitar licks to his music to keep things interesting during long recording sessions. “He’d do something really silly and stupid and everybody would be cracking up,” Hendrix’s producer Eddie Kramer “He wanted to keep it light. He’d also do it to change it up a bit and inevitably those lines would work themselves into songs, and that’s Jimi’s sly humor.”
Ezra Furman, currently on tour behind his latest release Transangelic Exodus, stopped by NYC’s Brooklyn Steel . Playing in front of a beautifully-designed set backdrop, Ezra played many cuts from the new record, such as the driving “Suck the Blood from My Wound” and anthemic single “Love You So Bad.” Ezra also played some older favorites like “My Zero,” and covered Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love.”
Furman, who has released solo albums as well as albums with his bands Ezra Furman and the Harpoons and Ezra Furman and the Boy-Friends, identifies as gender fluid. A musician himself, he seems the ideal writer for an exploration into the many iterations of Lou Reed’s persona.
Ezra Furman has also penned the most recent installment in the 33 1/3 book series, which focuses on Lou Reed‘s classic album “Transformer”. Here’s the book’s official synopsis:
Transformer, Lou Reed’s most enduringly popular album, is described with varying labels: it’s often called a glam rock album, a proto-punk album, a commercial breakthrough for Lou Reed, and an album about being gay. And yet, it doesn’t neatly fit into any of these descriptors. Buried underneath the radio-friendly exterior lie coded confessions of the subversive, wounded intelligence that gives this album its staying power as a work of art. Here Lou Reed managed to make a fun, accessible rock’n’roll record that is also a troubled meditation on the ambiguities-sexual, musical and otherwise-that defined his public persona and helped make him one of the most fascinating and influential figures in rock history. Through close listening and personal reflections, songwriter Ezra Furman explores Reed’s and Transformer‘s unstable identities, and the secrets the songs challenge us to uncover.
Ezra Furman will be in Austin next week for SXSW, Ezra is also part of Willie Nelson’s “Luck Reunion” fest at his ranch during SXSW.
The 2018 edition of Belgium’sRock Werchter festival takes place from July 5th-8th at Festivalpark Werchter, and the stacked lineup was just announced. Headliners include Gorillaz, Jack White, Arctic Monkeys, Queens of the Stone Age, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Killers, Pearl Jam, and London Grammar. Other notable acts appearing at the fest include Nine Inch Nails, Fleet Foxes, At The Drive In, David Byrne, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, MGMT, Post Malone, CHVRCHES, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The Breeders, Fever Ray, First Aid Kit, Albert Hammond Jr., and much more. Tickets are on sale now.
Me Not You, the project started by Nikki Taylor and Eric Zeiler, have developed into one of the best indie success stories in recent memory. Their debut single, “Bulletproof”, became a viral hit with nearly 5 million streams on YouTube and counting. Since that momentous day, they’ve played to sold-out venues across the US and opened for Gary Numan on a handful of dates. To keep the momentum going, they released their second EP, Reckoning 2,
The record showcases are band that is not only maturing, but also getting bolder. A band willing to take a few chances in the name of their art. Whereas “Bulletproof” was a trip-hop / electro-pop track, Reckoning is more electro-rock. They exchanged the delirium of their beginnings for a heavier, darker, and edgier approach. It is the sound of a band not prepared to stay in neutral.
Opener “Surfers” immediately opens the doors to Me Not You’s new approach. The synths take a back seat to the coarse rhythms and searing electric guitar, which drive the melody. A haunting chill, as such, develops and envelopes around Taylor’s vocals, who recalls a chance encounter not too long ago that would change her life. Like the band’s reinvention, the song represents Taylor’s awakening. Both transformations continue on the mystifying and cosmic “Talking To Myself”. The tantalizing and trippy “Chemical Cure”, meanwhile, sees the band slightly channel their early day with a Phantogram-meets-Crystal Castles synth number, but Taylor’s message of continuing down this new path remains.
The delicate ballad, “Eventually”, is most straightforward track on the EP, but for original fans it is a welcome treat. With “Everafter”, however, Me Not You take us to the far reaches of the galaxy on this stunning interstellar love song. It commences with a breathtaking introduction before intensifying slightly to make us feel like we’re drifting aimlessly through asteroid belts and pass distant planets. The stark bass line and beats and the shallow strikes of the electric guitar take the song to its dazzling heights.
The record closes with “Straw Man”, which is the band going outside its comfort zones. Suspenseful, brooding, and dark, the duo craft a political song set in the future. As the deep echoes of the bass and beats throb in the background, Taylor tells the tale of the rise of a tyrant whose sole intention is to reign unopposed. Who wants to cut us down to feed his insatiable thirst for power. With more songs like this and more steps into bolder territory, the stars are the limit for Me Not You, and they will be the ones who reign over our hearts and minds.
