The Tape

Holiday Shores hail from Florida and are about to be a breakout band of 2009. Their fantastic debut, Columbus’d The Whim, is coming out August 4th on twosyllable Records. I’ve only listened to it a couple of times, but upon first listen, I can honestly say that this debut is absolutely awesome. Check out the video (and mp3) for their single, “Phones Don’t Feud”, below.

Holiday Shores- Phones Don’t Feud

The variety of live music is my favorite part of LA. There is always something to do, with the different types of music that come to our fair city each and every night. In two weeks from Friday, Jayber Crow will be making their way from the midwest to grace us in LA at Hotel Cafe. I really didn’t know much about the band until I got an email from one of them a couple of days ago. Here’s a little bit about the folk duo:

Zach Hawkins and Pete Nelson are about as Midwestern as they come. Both grew up in small towns with a few stoplights and plenty of corn-fields. The duo are known for their live shows, “trying to give each audience member a personal invitation to each song.” Despite their deep roots in the middle of the country, these guys have been singing about heading west for a long time. The song “Eugene, Oregon” (from 2005’s The Farmer and the Nomad EP) finds the band imagining a half-continent-long march “toward the setting sun,” until the dry land runs out at the Pacific Ocean. After years of playing the song, Jayber Crow is finally getting around to making good on their promise as they embark upon an eleven-city tour through Washington, Oregon, and California.

The track I’m going to share today is “O My God When I Drop Dead”… A two-minute, up tempo track that has some country undertones, but definitely leans towards the ‘folk’ side of things. One thing I really like about this track is how it balances the fine line of simplicity. The song is very simple, but they add some hand claps and tambourine to spice things up without it interfering with the focus of the track, the vocals.

Make sure to catch them on tour, and download “O My God When I Drop Dead”… It’s a fantastic track.

Jayber Crow- O My God When I Drop Dead

We’re finally back. After a two day struggle with our host, the site is back up. There’s a lot of news to catch up on, but I’ll start with this. Alan Palomo (Vega) has announced album details on his latest project, Neon Indian. Neon Indian created quite a buzz on the internet with his Psychic Chasms EP. On October 13th, he’ll be releasing his first full length with the same title, on Lefse Records. His only upcoming tour date is Monolith, so if you’re heading to that, make sure to catch Neon Indian. Enjoy “Terminally Chill” below, and check out the tracklisting as well.

Neon Indian
Psychic Chasms

1. (AM)
2. Deadbeat Summer
3. Laughing Gas
4. Terminally Chill
5. (If I knew, I’d tell you)
6. 6669 (i dont know if you know)
7. Should have taken acid with you
8. Mind, Drips
9. Psychic Chasms
10. Local Joke
11. Ephemeral Artery
12. 7000 (reprise)

Neon Indian- Terminally Chill

For any other band, it’d be unreasonable to say you want to be the first band to play on the moon, but for us, it only seems natural.

                       -Battlehooch

Just wanted to fill any of our readers who didn’t make it to the show in about the events which transpired that fateful Friday evening. That was unnecessarily foreboding. In reality, it was pretty swell. The bands were great for the most part. To me, the clear standout was the SF Zappa injected Man Man esq Battlehooch. They ignited the venue with their reckless energy, fantastic showmanship, fur coated Spongebob van, theremin playing, and a particularly incredible mustache (those who were there know exactly what I’m talking about). They seemed genuinely ecstatic to be playing and were extremely appreciative. After their set, members could we seen doing interpretive dance, and scaling the wooden pillars in the warehouse, still clad in their eccentric concert attire. The other acts were great including a Kavinsky/Beverly Hills cop reminiscent set by D.A.D, a gritty, garage rock set by the Beijing Blondes, a lively set by Fol Chen, and even a frustratedly distorted set by Nite Jewel. Anyhow, thanks to the bands and all the the people who made the trek downtown to take part in this incredible community arts event and expect more Tape Shows at the PDG in the very near future. Pictures and video should be up shortly and as the Cobrasnake was, for better, for worse, in attendance you might be able to find some Tape Show “party pics” over at his venerable webpage.

Now, to satisfy the other part of my posting agenda-a venue review. The PDG Performance warehouse is tucked away in the dingy warehouse ridden area of downtown L.A. Yet, despite it’s less that gentrified location, the space is one of the most versatile and promising DIY performance spaces I have seen. I feel the word warehouse implies a cavernous, unadorned, and asthetically displeasing  space. The PGD space is anything but that. The venue is spacious enough but at the same time intimate. The artists perform at the level of the audience creating a more personal and less segregated feel, and available bench seating allows for a vast array of seating/standing arrangements. Side rooms host art galleries and office space making the space seem like a sheek, industrial loft, rather than a soulless concrete cave. The warehouse is aimed at being a haven for community arts: supporting local musicians and exposing the underrated, undiscovered, and yet undefined. Any band or promoter who is looking to put on a show in an utterly unique and exciting new space should contact the PDG and join the ever growing scene of artists and musicians working to create an artistic community in Downtown. 

PDG Warehouse

For more info email our good friend and PDG program curator Spencer Ludwig at spencerwig@gmail.com

Here’s some Battlehooch…

Battlehooch-Irreconcilable Differences

We recently received the debut single from Civil Civic, a little known but immensely talented British electro-pop outfit. Their style seems to be in the vein of fellows UK dwellers, Late Of The Pier, yet with a more reckless and noisy approach. The single Less Unless also harkens to the heavily manipulated guitar driven style of Ratatat, again with less shine and more distorted wash(ala Wavves). For more info, here’s the cleverly formatted press release that we were sent…

WHAT THE?

• Less Unless – the début single from CIVIL CIVIC

WHO THE?

• CIVIL CIVIC is a band comprising two seasoned musician/producers, Ben Green (mostly Bass/Noises) and Aaron Cupples (mostly Guitar/Noises), and a brattish drum machine (Drums/sometimes Noises).
• As producers, Ben and Aaron have worked separately with a diversity of acts, from Kool Keith to The Drones.
• As musicians, Ben and Aaron have both performed separately in various bands in the beer soaked Melbourne band scene.
• Most recently, Aaron played guitar for Dan Kelly & the Alpha Males and Ben played guitar for Legends of Motorsport. They have both also engaged in other electronic, more experimental endeavours.
• Despite sharing such a similar background, Ben and Aaron had not even met, let alone worked together, before CIVIL CIVIC. Probably because…

WHERE THE? 

• Ben now drinks his beer under sunglasses in old city Barcelona, while Aaron dons his hoodie in the ‘Grime’ heartland of East London.
• It is hard to say where a band that has never performed in Australia consisting of two Australians who live in two different European countries is from. I can’t help out with that one, sorry.

WHY THE? 

• Upon finding himself immersed in producing albums for other artists, and doing very little of the ‘driving around in vans trying to find venues, setting up a bewildering array of effects pedals, and then bemusing people from stage’, Aaron reached out to Ben and proposed CIVIL CIVIC. As good a reason as any to get out of the studio and back on the road to narcissistic public performance and certain poverty. 
• Ben concurred with a resounding “Fuck yeah!”

HOW THE? 

• To further childishly rebel against their studio habits, it was a condition of CIVIL CIVIC that it be in no way a forum to advertise their production capabilities and awesome sonic dexterity (!). 
• Not completely trusting themselves with this task, CIVIL CIVIC took the precaution to record and release their debut EP on old stock cassette tapes. Taking full comfort in the oxymoron that is the ‘HI-FI Cassette’.

WHEN THE? 

• Immediately! For release this very second! Less Unless, the debut single. For now only available via MP3 download via savvy purveyors that wish to spread the news.
• An EP with Less Unless and 4 other songs will be released later this year on a strictly limited run of 100 screen printed, vintage reel-to-reel style cassettes, in 5 different colours! (to cater for all personalities!) 

OK.

• Ta. For any more info, don’t hesitate to drop the boys some text via: mail@civilcivic.com 

• read about it, hear it, download it  www.civilcivic.com
• just because  www.myspace.com/civilcivic
• press images  http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/thecivilcivic/PRESS?feat=email#

Here’s the single:

Civil Civic-Less Unless

The Brooklyn group is hitting the road this summer to support their latest album, Saint Dymphna. Check out tour dates and an mp3 from the album below.

Tour dates:

August 2nd at Pearl Street Nightclub in Northampton, MA
August 3rd at Bug Jar in Rochester, NY (with Hex Message)
August 4th at Kung Fu Necktie in Philadelphia, PA (with Hex Message)
August 5th at Ottobar in Baltimore, MD
August 6th at Circus in Columbus, OH (with Hex Message)
August 7th at Magic Stick in Detroit, MI (with Hex Message)
August 9th at Lollapalooza in Chicago, IL
August 28th at Troubadour in Los Angeles, CA
August 30th at Rickshaw Shop in San Francisco, CA
September 2nd at Depot in Arcata, CA (with Extra Golden)
September 3rd at The Works at Washington High School in Portland, OR
September 4th at Biltmore Cabaret in Vancouver, BC
September 5th at Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle, WA

Gang Gang Dance- House Jam

Here’s a video for one of my favorite songs off of one of my favorite albums of 2009. The video was directed by Pete Ohs, who has previously worked with The Arcade Fire, The Unicorns, Fiery Furnaces, and Au Revoir Simone. Enjoy!

WAVVES- No Hope Kids

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything Lupe related. Here’s a promo for his upcoming album, We Are Lasers. I’m sooooo psyched.

Just another reminder. Yours truly are putting on a show at the PGD warehouse this evening showcasing some of Los Angeles’ best local acts (see above for lineup). The venue in an incredible up and coming DIY space located at 2485 Hunter Street, right off the 10 Freeway. Tickets are $10 at the door so bring all of your buddies and help support some incredible local music, a great new venue, and of course everyone’s favorite blog- The Tape! Also, I’ve been informed there is ample (and free) parking opportunities right next to the venue. 

HERE’S a map and don’t forget to enter our ticket giveaway for a chance to receive a pair of free tickets to the show…

A new video by Phil and the Osophers for “We Have All Summer”. We do have all summer, but start it off with a bang by coming to our show tonight, it’s going to be a lot of fun. Anyways, the band has a new LP coming out August 4th, entitled Parallelo. Tracklist, video, and mp3 below. Enjoy!

Tracklisting

1. Uses of A Man
2. Extra Weight
3. We Have All Summer
4. Mayan Calendar
5. Cheap Livin
6. Staring Down The Sun
7. Creators
8. Milestones
9. Pineapple
10. Propeller Jet
11. Well Being

Phil and the Osophers- We Have All Summer