Here’s a seaside-ready remix of Victoria Bergsman’s (née Taken By Trees) “Sweetness.” Gothenburg’s Air France warp the original song’s slightly reggae cadence into a hazy, Balearic mantra for the summer months. “The Sweetness of Air France,” appeared as the B-side on Bergsman’s Sweetness 7-inch single. The former Concretes singer is prepping the release of the second Taken By Trees LP. It was recorded with local musicians in Pakistan and is being released September 8th, via Rough Trade. Studio‘s Dan Lissvik co-produced. There’s also a mini-doc clip on the recording of the LP on National Geographic Music. (via Chocolate Bobka)
The Fresh & Onlys
“Invisible Forces” MP3
Jul 24, 2009
Though San Francisco is full to bursting with psych-pop groups The Fresh & Onlys have cut out a distinct market for themselves with a handful of 7-inch releases on a number of labels. “Invisible Forces” is from their forthcoming Woodsist LP Grey-Eyed Girls and conflates post-punk murk with ‘60s pop.
The Fresh & Onlys Summer/Fall Tour:
07-25 Los Angeles, CA -The Echoplex + 07-26 Solano Beach, CA - Belly Up Tavern +
07-28 Santa Cruz, CA - Rio Theater *
09-21 Provo, UT - House Show #
09-22 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge #
09-23 Lawrence, KS - Jack Pot Saloon # 09-24 Memphis, TN - Goner Fest #
09-26 Bloomington, IL - Uncle Fester’s # 09-27 Chicago, IL - Schubas Tavern # 09-29 Ft. Wawyne, IN - Brass Rail #
09-30 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick # 10-01 Toronto, ON - Wrong Bar # 10-02 Ottawa, ON - Babylon # 10-03 Montreal, QC - Pop Montreal #% 10-05 Providence, RI - The Dark Lady # 10-06 Allston, MA - Great Scotts # 10-7 Middletown, CT - Wesleyan # 10-08 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge # 10-09 Brooklyn, NY - The Bell House #% 10-10 Pittshburgh, PA - 31st St. Pub @ 10-11 Chicago, IL - Hideout @ 10-12 Omaha, NE - Brothers @ 10-13 Denver, CO Bender’s @ 10-17 Portland, OR - Scion/Vice Event 10-18 Seattle, WA - Funhouse & 10-20 Oakland, CA - Stork Club & 10-21 San Diego, CA - Bar Pink Elephant &# 10-22 Los Angeles, CA - The Echo &# 10-24 Merced, CA - The Partisan & 10-25 San Francisco, CA - Budget Rock @ Bottom of the Hill
Boston multi-instrumentalist Brian Carpenter loves conflating his Southern roots with scraps of circus music, cabaret, bluegrass, old-timey folk, and funereal chants. His third release for primary musical project Beat Circus is called Boy From Black Mountain (out September 29th on Cuneiform). It’s the second album in Carpenter’s “Weird American Gothic” trilogy and features a cover illustration by Carson Ellis. Ellis is best known for her Decemberists covers and various children’s books. Beat Circus’ last album, 2008’s Dreamland, was in reference to the turn-of-the-century Coney Island theme park that burned down in 1911. Along with the Beat Circus crew, Carpenter collaborated with longstanding musical compatriot Bryce Goggin (Akron/Family, Antony and the Johnsons, Bishop Allen).
Here’s a first taste of Black Mountain, with this backwoods accordion, piano and string piece, “The February Train.” Carpenter’s voice has the air of a man on a journey of self-discovery, akin to some of the slower Pogues ballads. The lazy journalist in me would categorize this under The Decemberists or Rock Plaza Central, but Beat Circus’ arrangements are more deceptive. They expand and contract with the thrum of a great Southern Gothic yarn. And when Carpenter sings “everything is true but nothing’s real” it’s sounds much more than a rock cliche.
As a trivia note, many of the tracks, such as “Boy From Black Mountain” and “Saturn Song” (a duet with Larkin Grimm) touch on Carpenter’s experience with his autistic son. A press note reveals that other songs delve into “fathers and grandparents [and] watermelon farmers in the rural Bible Belt.”
Tickets for the Boy From Black Mountain CD Release Show on September 11th at Cambridge, Massachusetts’ Middle East Downstairs go on sale today at the box office or through Ticketmaster. Grimm (who shares a mic with Carpenter on the album), Reverend Glasseye, Ketman and Mucca Pazza will also be at the event. They’re also playing Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory the next night.
Elizabeth & the Catapult
“Taller Children” MP3
Jul 24, 2009
“We’re all just taller children in the end,” coos singer Elizabeth Abby Lynn Ziman on the title track of Elizabeth & The Catapult‘s Taller Children. The winsome pop single also has a colorful video streaming at Yahoo’s music site. The Mike Mogis-produced LP is out now on Verve Forecast. The Brooklyn (where else?) trio are sharing their youthful musical fantasties around the U.S. now. Tour dates are below.
It’s been over four years since Vitalic (given name: Pascal Arbez) dropped his magnificent 2005 debut, OK Cowboy. His metallic dancefloor anthems quickly burst from the underground and Aphex Twin, 2 Many DJs, Sven Väthfellow and fellow Gallics Daft Punk are still known for inserting several Vitalic cuts into their DJ sets. After a hiatus, Vitalic has returned with Flashmob, a brand new LP. It comes out September 28th on Belgium’s electro/techno label, [PIAS] Recordings/Different Recordings. The atriol-detonating, immediately addictive first single, “Your Disco Song” has a Christine Massy & Brice Van Der Haegen-directed video. Arbez’s driving synths propel the story of a woman with a disco ball head who takes baths full of mirror spheres and plans to go under the knife for a breast augmentation. Stay for the surprise reveal at the end. WAF! produced the video. Below is the tracklist for the new full-length. You can also stream another deep techno banger from Flashmob called “Terminator Benelux” on Vitalic’s Myspace.
Flashmob:
01 See the Sea (Red) 02 Poison Lips 03 Flashmob 04 One Above One 05 Still 06 Terminateur Benelux 07 Second Lives 08 Alain Delon 09 See the Sea (Blue) 10 Chicken Lady 11 Your Disco Song 12 Station Mir 2099 13 Chez Septime
Hearing Zomby‘s glitch-y, 8-bit dubstep played over this clip from a modern Godzilla movie (didn’t know they still made those) is more than a little unsettling. As the citizens of a city flee in terror Zomby keeps the BPM pulse to a low and foreboding frequency. That’s mostly what the minimal beatmaker is going for with his forthcoming One Foot Ahead of the Other EP, soon to be released on Ramp Recordings. Zomby will be opening for Animal Collective in the U.S. soon. He already remixed “Summertime Clothes” for the single earlier this month.
Neon Indian
“Deadbeat Summer” MP3
Jul 24, 2009
Neon Indian is the project of Brooklyn-via-Austin, TX producer Alan Palomo and video artist Alicia Scardetta. Neon Indian’s debut full-length, Psychic Chasms, will be released October 13th via Lefse Records (tracklist below). Now that we’ve got that out of the way let’s pay attention to this ear-worm of a track. “Deadbeat Summer” is unhinged and unfiltered nostalgia intravenously fed into your blood stream. Neon Indian’s restructured sound of a tattered cassette tape unspooling in a boom box is the first highlight and that Korg sure does help too. It also makes sense that Psychic Chasms has songs titled “Terminally Chill” and “Should Have Taken Acid With You.” This is stoned Saturday afternoon music. The screwball guitars and bright synthwork of “Deadbeat Summer” bear that out. A ken sense of the past firms up the musical backbone of Palomo’s forthcoming debut. A little Neon Indian summer perhaps? Neon Indian will be performing at this year’s Monolith Festival, September 12th.
Psychic Chasms:
01 (AM) 02 Deadbeat Summer 03. Laughing Gas 04 Terminally Chill 05 (If I Knew, I’d Tell You) 06 6669 (I Don’t Know If You Know) 07 Should Have Taken Acid With You 08 Mind, Drips 09 Psychic Chasms 10 Local Joke 11 Ephemeral Artery 12 7000 (Reprise)
Kevin Barnes is already road-testing newof Montrealsongs but Stereogum has the first look at the video for “Mingusings.” It’s funny that the id-engaging Skeletal Lamping (out on Polyvinyl) track is already old hat. Those swooping synths still work though. Keep those tunes coming Barnes! Kevin’s arty brother, David regularly turns up at all the shows as a black ninja. Here he shows up for some filmed antics in the band’s hometown of Athens, GA and then Sydney, Australia. The clip was directed by Nick Gould.
