Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Indian Handcrafts album out today, new video and full stream posted, tour w/ Red Fang & Black Tusk launches soon

Click image above to watch video

"It leans mightily into a spastic sludge-funk groove that could give chills to fans of Maggot Brain-era Funkadelic and Big Business alike - and maybe pop fans, too, since both dudes have voices that are elastic like metal Minaj. Call it a prog-glurp masterwork." -- SPIN 


Canadian power-duo Indian Handcrafts release their Sargent House debut album Civil Disobedience For Losers today. The entire disc is streaming via SPIN Magazine (Listen HERE) and Bandcamp (Listen HERE). The first official video, for the song "Bruce Lee" is available to watch and share via YouTube HERE and Vimeo HERE. 

Indian Handcrafts also take to the road in November with Red Fang and Black Tusk. Please see complete dates below. 

Pitchfork recently premiered ferocious song "Terminal Horse", available to download/stream HERE (alternate Soundcloud link HERE). And, the song "Bruce Lee" is available HERE via SPIN (alternate Soundcloud link HERE). The Toronto band's sophomore release, Civil Disobedience For Losers was recorded in Los Angeles back in March with engineer Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Big Business).

Everything about Canadian power-duo Indian Handcrafts seems to defy possibilities: a two piece that's louder than a hundred bands, kicking out one of the year's most riff-rollicking albums that was recorded while the guitarist had a broken hand! They're two friendly, soft-spoken Canadian guys sounding like the Funkadelic Mothership crash landing on top of the Planet Caravan in Interstellar Overdrive.

Indian Handcrafts' well honed, massive melodic heft seems to belie the simplicity of instrumentation between drummer/vocalist Brandyn James Aikins and guitarist/vocalist Daniel Brandon Allen. While their songs feature hints of heavy, technically skilled bands like Big Business, Hella and Tweakbird, there are also strong melodies and a vocal intensity inviting comparisons to artists ranging from Death From Above 1979 to Jack White. Top that all off with a rhythmic groove reminiscent of a hybrid of ZZ Top's Tres Hombres and Funkadelic's Standing On The Verge of Getting It On and it's clear that Indian Handcrafts are much, much more than the sum of their parts. 

Bursting out of Barrie, Ontario this pair of charming gentlemen immediately impacted the world with a self-released 8-song debut album in 2011. Cathy Pellow of Sargent House quickly took notice and signed the band on to management and the label. Shortly thereafter, Civil Disobedience For Losers was recorded in Los Angeles with Kasai and featuring special guest appearances by Melvins drummers Dale Crover and Coady Willis. Even with such superfriends assisting the proceedings, Indian Handcrafts prove their own exceptional strengths throughout the album. 

"The doctor said if you go and record that's your problem if it gets worse," Allen explains of recording with a broken hand. "It was a little painful some days, but because of being there in the surroundings it was easy to get around that. It healed fine." Overall, the duo says the recording came together very quickly under Kasai's guidance, but it's the bond between Aikins and Allen that gives Indian Handcrafts its lean, ferocious personality. "We first started this band when playing in another band that was pissing us off," Aikins says. "We were the two who always got along. I can't ever see us having anyone else in the band. Unless Toshi played tambourine."

Civil Disobedience For Losers will be available everywhere on LP, CD and download on October 30th, 2012 via Sargent House. 

INDIAN HANDCRAFTS live:
11/02  Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern

INDIAN HANDCRAFTS with RED FANG & BLACK TUSK:
11/10  Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
11/11  New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
11/12  Brooklyn, NY @ St. Vitus
11/13  Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East (Downstairs)
11/15  Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
11/16  Detroit, MI @ The Magic Stick
11/17  Chicago, IL @ Subterranean
11/19  Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
11/20  Salt Lake City, UT @ The Urban Lounge
11/21  Boise, ID @ Neurolux



Artist: Indian Handcrafts
Album: Civil Disobedience For Losers
Label: Sargent House
Release Date: October 30, 2012

01. Bruce Lee (MP3) (VIDEO)
02. Red Action
03. Starcraft
04. Zombies
05. Worm In My Stomach
06. Terminal Horse (MP3) (STREAM)
07. Coming Home
08. Centauri Teenage Riot
09. Truck Mouth
10. The Jerk
11. Lion at the Door

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Thursday, October 25, 2012

UK electro-dreampop artist Stumbleine premieres new track via Prefix Mag from forthcoming album




"Quite possibly one of the most beautifully constructed songs in quite some time." -- Prefix Mag

"Dreamy 1980s new wave meets glacial electronica on the Bristol producer's beautiful new single."
Hot Tracks -- The Sunday Times

Bristol, UK electronic artist Stumbleine premieres the second song from the forthcoming genre-defying full length debut, Spiderwebbed via Prefix Mag today. The track, "The Beat My Heart Skips" features vocals by CoMa and is available to stream/share HERE. 

RCRD LBL also recently posted Stumbleine's lush and hazy revision of Mazzy Star's 90s hit "Fade Into You", available to stream/download HERE. UK media continue to praise the album, with frequent plays on BBC Radio 1 as well as rave reviews in Mojo, Q Magazine, The Sunday Times, Clash Magazine, et al. 

Emerging from Bristol's ever-fertile music scene (perhaps most famous for legends like Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky, but also widely considered "Britain's most musical city"), Stumbleine has built a sizable following in less than a year with several self-released EPs and a recent compilation album, in addition to collaborative outings with fellow producer ASA. He also reports for active duty as one third of dubstep envelope pushers Swarms, whose music has found favor among tastemaker BBC DJs such as Mary Anne Hobbs.

On Spiderwebbed, his enrapturing, genre transcending full length debut; Stumbleine beautifully showcases the multifaceted nature of his music, seamlessly weaving fractured beats, synths, hazy distorted guitars and soulful vocals to create glowing, expansive sonic vistas. In keeping with the album's title, the music hangs gossamer like, a delicate suspension of sound; beautifully anchored to an array of solid syncopated beats.

Guest vocalists CoMa and Steffaloo contribute their ample talents to the dreamy "The Beat My Heart Skips" and a cover of Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You", and Birds of Passage lend warmth and poignancy to "Catherine Wheel." Elsewhere, silky, spectral R'n'B vocals spin plaintively through the shimmering "Capulet" and "Solar Flare", whilst the chilled, sweeping cadences of "Honey Comb" and "The Corner Of Her Eye" offer perfect counterweight to the taut urban swing of "If You" and "Cherry Blossom."

Spiderwebbed will be available November 13th via Monotreme Records on CD and download as well as 180 gm vinyl LP, which comes with a free copy of the album CD.


Artist: Stumbleine
Album: Spiderwebbed
Label: Monotreme Records
Release Date: November 13th, 2012

01. Cherry Blossom
02. If You
03. Capulet
04. The Beat My Heart Skips (ft. CoMa) (MP3)
05. Honey Comb
06. Solar Flare
07. Fade Into You (ft. Steffaloo) (MP3)
08. Kaleidoscope
09. The Corner of Her Eye
10. Catherine Wheel (ft. Birds Of Passage) 



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Monday, October 22, 2012

Indian Handcrafts stream entire album via SPIN, fall tour with Red Fang, Black Tusk launches soon

Click image above to watch teaser video

"It leans mightily into a spastic sludge-funk groove that could give chills to fans of Maggot Brain-era Funkadelic and Big Business alike - and maybe pop fans, too, since both dudes have voices that are elastic like metal Minaj. Call it a prog-glurp masterwork." -- SPIN 



Canadian power-duo Indian Handcrafts are streaming their entire forthcoming album Civil Disobedience For Losers starting today via SPIN. Listen to the  full album HERE. Indian Handcrafts also take to the road in November with Red Fang and Black Tusk. Please see complete dates below. 

Pitchfork recently premiered ferocious song "Terminal Horse", available to download/stream HERE (alternate Soundcloud link HERE). And, the song "Bruce Lee" is available HERE via SPIN (alternate Soundcloud link HERE). The band recently released a behind-the-scenes video studio shot while recording the album -- featuring cameos from some heavy friends. The Toronto band's sophomore release, Civil Disobedience For Losers was recorded in Los Angeles back in March with engineer Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Big Business, Red Sparowes). Watch teaser video HERE. 

Everything about Canadian power-duo Indian Handcrafts seems to defy possibilities: a two piece that's louder than a hundred bands, kicking out one of the year's most riff-rollicking albums that was recorded while the guitarist had a broken hand! They're two friendly, soft-spoken Canadian guys sounding like the Funkadelic Mothership crash landing on top of the Planet Caravan in Interstellar Overdrive.

Indian Handcrafts' well honed, massive melodic heft seems to belie the simplicity of instrumentation between drummer/vocalist Brandyn James Aikins and guitarist/vocalist Daniel Brandon Allen. While their songs feature hints of heavy, technically skilled bands like Big Business, Hella and Tweakbird, there are also strong melodies and a vocal intensity inviting comparisons to artists ranging from Death From Above 1979 to Jack White. Top that all off with a rhythmic groove reminiscent of a hybrid of ZZ Top's Tres Hombres and Funkadelic's Standing On The Verge of Getting It On and it's clear that Indian Handcrafts are much, much more than the sum of their parts. 

Bursting out of Barrie, Ontario this pair of charming gentlemen immediately impacted the world with a self-released 8-song debut album in 2011. Cathy Pellow of Sargent House quickly took notice and signed the band on to management and the label. Shortly thereafter, Civil Disobedience For Losers was recorded in Los Angeles with Kasai and featuring special guest appearances by Melvins drummers Dale Crover and Coady Willis. Even with such superfriends assisting the proceedings, Indian Handcrafts prove their own exceptional strengths throughout the album. 

"The doctor said if you go and record that's your problem if it gets worse," Allen explains of recording with a broken hand. "It was a little painful some days, but because of being there in the surroundings it was easy to get around that. It healed fine." Overall, the duo says the recording came together very quickly under Kasai's guidance, but it's the bond between Aikins and Allen that gives Indian Handcrafts its lean, ferocious personality. "We first started this band when playing in another band that was pissing us off," Aikins says. "We were the two who always got along. I can't ever see us having anyone else in the band. Unless Toshi played tambourine."

Civil Disobedience For Losers will be available everywhere on LP, CD and download on October 30th, 2012 via Sargent House. 

INDIAN HANDCRAFTS live:
10/17  Kingston, ON @ The Mansion
10/18  Petersborough, ON @ The Red Dog Tavern
10/27  Barrie, ON @ Fitzy's By The Bat
11/02  Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern

INDIAN HANDCRAFTS with RED FANG & BLACK TUSK:
11/10  Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
11/11  New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
11/12  Brooklyn, NY @ St. Vitus
11/13  Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East (Downstairs)
11/15  Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
11/16  Detroit, MI @ The Magic Stick
11/17  Chicago, IL @ Subterranean
11/19  Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
11/20  Salt Lake City, UT @ The Urban Lounge
11/21  Boise, ID @ Neurolux



Artist: Indian Handcrafts
Album: Civil Disobedience For Losers
Label: Sargent House
Release Date: October 30, 2012

01. Bruce Lee (MP3)
02. Red Action
03. Starcraft
04. Zombies
05. Worm In My Stomach
06. Terminal Horse (MP3) (STREAM)
07. Coming Home
08. Centauri Teenage Riot
09. Truck Mouth
10. The Jerk
11. Lion at the Door

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Thursday, October 18, 2012

Boris announce split 7" with Asobi Seksu, UK & EU tour dates including All Tomorrow's Parties



Legendary Japanese trio Boris announce a limited edition split 7" with recent tour mates Asobi Seksu available as a Record Store Day exclusive release on Black Friday, November 23, 2012. Additionally, Boris post new headlining tour dates in the UK and EU, as well as appearances at All Tomorrow's Parties in the UK and State-X New Forms Festival in Holland. See dates below.

The forthcoming split single features each band covering a song by the other. Asobi Seksu takes on Boris' majestic "Farewell" off of their Pink album, while Boris reworks "New Years" from Asobi Seksu's Citrus album here as "Neu Years", a churning dream pop gem. The vinyl edition includes a download card with 4 additional classic songs from both bands. 

Iconoclast trio Boris are widely known for their ability to breach styles and stretch sonic boundaries of all that is heavy, psychedelic, droning and downright cathartic. Their last three albums -- Attention Please, Heavy Rocks and New Album, all released in 2011 via Sargent House -- are perfect testament to the band's vast abilities. Over the span of two decades, the trio, bassist/vocalist Takeshi, guitarist/vocalist Wata and drummer/vocalist Atsuo has issued nearly 20 studio albums, as well as numerous collaborative albums -- including projects with Merzbow, Sunn0))), Ian Astbury and Michio Kurihara of Ghost (who also currently tours with the band as second guitarist) -- EPs and singles on various labels throughout the world.

American dream pop band Asobi Seksu is widely known for their shoegaze influenced effect-laden sound. Since their beginning in 2001, the band led by vocalist/keyboardist Yuki Chikudate and guitarist/vocalist James Hanna has released four albums and various singles. Their most recent album, Fluorescence (Polyvinyl) hit shelves on Valentine's Day 2011 to much critical acclaim. Asobi Seksu toured supporting Boris in the fall of that year, cementing the friendship between the two bands leading up to this endeavor of mutual admiration covering each others' songs. 

BORIS WINTER TOUR 2012
12/04  Brighton, UK @ Coalition
12/05  Manchester, UK @ Islington Mill
12/06  London, UK @ Scala
12/07  Rye, UK @ All Tomorrow's Parties @ Camber Sands 
12/08  Leeds, UK @ Brudnell Social Club
12/11  Cork, IE @ Cyprus Avenue
12/12  Bristol, UK @ The Fleece
12/13  Birmingham, UK @ The Rainbow Warehouse
12/14  Hasselt, BE @ Kunstencentrum Belgie
12/15  The Hague, NE @  The Hague - State-X New Forms Festival
12/16  Karlsruhe,  DE @ Jubez
12/17  Lausanne, CH @ Le Romandie
12/18  Munich, DE @ Feierwerk e.V.
12/19  Dresden, DE @ Beatpol


Artist: Boris / Asobi Seksu
Album: Asobi Seksu x Boris 
Label: Sargent House & Polyvinyl  
Release Date: November 23, 2012 

01. Farewell (Asobi Seksu) 
02. Neu Years (Boris)


Artist: Boris
Album: New Album 
Label: Sargent House
Release Date: December 6th, 2011

01. Flare (MP3)
02. Hope
03. Party Boy
04. Luna
05. Spoon (MP3) 
06. Pardon?
07. Jackson Head
08. Les Paul Custom '86
09. Tu, La La
10. Looprider   



Artist: Boris
Album: Attention Please
Label: Sargent House
Release Date: May 24th, 2011

01. Attention Please
02. Hope   (MP3) (VIDEO)
03. Party Boy
04. See You Next Week 
05. Tokyo Wonder Land 
06. You
07. Aileron
08. Les Paul Custom '86 
09. Spoon 
10. Hand in Hand 

Artist: Boris
Album: Heavy Rocks  
Label: Sargent House
Release Date: May 24th, 2011

01. Riot Sugar (MP3) (VIDEO)
02. Leak -Truth, yesnoyesnoyes-
03. GALAXIANS
04. Jackson Head 
05. Missing Pieces
06. Key
07. Window Shopping
08. Tu, la la
09. Aileron
10. Czechoslovakia
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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Bambi Lee Savage (Bad Seeds, Daniel Lanois collaborator) premieres second song from new album produced by Mick Harvey




Bambi Lee Savage premieres a new song from her forthcoming third solo album, Darkness Overshadowed today. The track, "Nearly Gone" is available for streaming and/or free download HERE. 

The album is produced by Mick Harvey (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey), who also plays most of the backing instrumentation. Check out the sultry Twin Peaks-esque pop of the track, "Oh Loneliness" available to stream/share HERE and download HERE courtesy of MAGNET Magazine.

As with most things in existence, it's the secrets in music that speak truest. The fact that Bambi Lee Savage has remained a secret for so long is testament to that. Over the past 25 years, the world-wandering singer-songwriter has worked with Daniel Lanois as well as members of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds and Einstürzende Neubauten. She counts among her patrons Billy Bob Thornton and Bono. Her timeless ballads and haunted anthems are stark, lush, elemental, and ethereal as smoke. And like smoke, they conceal -- even as they signal deeper mysteries well worth the effort of unveiling.

Savage began life in Florida, but following the death of her father -- a stunt pilot tragically killed during the filming of the Pearl Harbor drama Tora! Tora! Tora! -- her family relocated to Colorado. In Denver, she played in various punk bands, including the Pagan Cowboys, as the '80s raged around her. It was upon moving to England in 1985 that her secrets began to weave themselves. After fronting the post-punk outfit Horseland, she moved to Berlin, drawn by the industrial allure of Einstürzende Neubauten. In Berlin she began working as an assistant engineer at the famous Hansa Tonstudio. There she wound up scoring credits on two definitive albums of the era: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' The Good Son and U2's Achtung Baby.

Behind the scenes, though, Savage was working on her own songs. In 1992, Bono funded a recording session in Berlin that included the Bad Seeds' Mick Harvey and Hugo Race as backing musicians. Shadowy and steeped in a shivering mystique, the four-song recording went unreleased, although Harvey would later cover one of Savage's other songs, "Demon Alcohol," on his 2005 album One Man's Treasure. From there, Savage appeared on the German music documentary Lost in Music: Out of Country, playing two of her songs with Neubauten's Alex Hacke.

By then, Savage's music had taken a turn toward the dark end of the Americana street, driven partly by a homesickness for her native country. Back in the States, she captured another handful of songs with Daniel Lanois, with whom she'd worked on Achtung Baby. One of those songs, the ghostly folk threnody "Darlin'," caught the ear of Billy Bob Thornton, who used the song on the soundtrack to his breakthrough film Sling Blade.

In 2003, she released her first album, Matter of Time, a collection of the various sessions she'd done to date. Although a patchwork, the disc is stunning in its quiet force and sublimated passion. In it, Savage explores illicit substances, spirituality, tenderness, and terror, always with a thrilling tension between myth and confession. In the years that followed, she toured Australia (accompanied by Harvey on some dates) and played a triumphant set as the handpicked opener for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in Denver. She moved to Los Angeles soon after and, with Josh Klinghoffer on guitar (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dot Hacker) she completed work on the daring GJ and the PimpKillers, a conceptual and synthetically textured album that delved into the underworld of sex trafficking. As always, though, Savage's rich, hypnotic, full-blooded voice lends both humanity and otherworldliness to her songs. 

Savage's new album, Darkness Overshadowed, is both a culmination of all she's done before-and a brave move beyond it. From the guttural punk undertow of "Easy Way" to the atmospheric dread of "Elsinore" to the whispery twang of "Waiting," the disc is based around hopes, fears, memories, regrets, and scraps of confessions written on Berlin bar napkins. Produced by Mick Harvey, who also provides most of the backing instrumentation, it's by far the most vivid and chilling of Savage's work to date. Above all, though, Darkness Overshadowed reads as a secret history of the pre-apocalypse, a gnostic gospel decrypted and given human form. Or in Savage's case, something slightly beyond human.

Darkness Overshadowed will be available on CD and download on November 13th, 2012. 


Artist: Bambi Lee Savage
Album: Darkness Overshadowed
Label: Bambi Lee Savage Music
Release Date: November 13th, 2012

01. Easy Way
02. Nearly Gone (MP3)
03. Speed of Life
04. Nicht Mehr
05. Oh Loneliness (STREAM) (MP3)
06. Elsinore
07. Take Me Down
08. Good Advice
09. No Stranger to Sorrow
10. Waiting


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Thursday, October 11, 2012

Boyfrndz launch extended tour dates, stream full new album




Austin trio Boyfrndz launch extended tour dates today on the heels of their just completed national trek. These shows are with El Ten Eleven through the Southwest and Midwest. Please see current dates below. 

Boyfrndz recently premiered the second song from their sophomore album via Pitchfork. The song, "Surf's Up" (download here) comes from the band's new album, All Day Pass which is also now available to stream in its entirety. Album stream HERE.

Boyfrndz began in 2010, shortly after the collapse of We The Granada, a band in which guitarist/vocalist Scott Martin and bassist/vocalist Joseph Raines had cut their teeth. Martin's roommate and sought-after drummer/vocalist Aaron Perez (at the time already playing in three other bands) signed on and Boyfrndz quickly became a priority. The lineup expanded to a four piece with guitarist Kelvin Baron for their self-titled full length debut in 2011. The group enlisted Grammy award winning keyboardist Ikey Owens (The Mars Volta, Jack White) to co-produce and he also played keys on a couple of tracks. Boyfrndz pared down to a three piece following a summer tour in 2011 and soon thereafter set about writing new songs resulting in the And So It Goes... 5-track EP in February 2012 and the band's expansive forthcoming album, All Day Pass.

Kicking off with the droning fade in of "Colts", All Day Pass begins with Martin's vocals mirroring his ringing guitar notes and Perez's thunderous toms and Raines' lithe bass playing drive the song's syncopated rhythm through multiple time signature shifts over the course of the tune's 4:11 duration. "On Point" takes a decidedly more sinister turn, with an ominous build up and rollicking turnaround vaguely reminiscent of the oceanic feel of Jane's Addiction's Nothing's Shocking. Elsewhere, passages touch upon the dreamy haze of Sonic Youth and entrancing melodies of Animal Collective wedded to the warped pop prowess of Tera Melos. Throughout, All Day Pass is a captivating hybrid of technical precision guiding a soaring and ethereal melodic haze.

All Day Pass was recorded live in a whirlwind three days at the Shelter studio in Austin with few overdubs. The resulting album captures the trio's ferocious energy and impressive precision. Engineer Chris Seyler (touring sound man for Dillinger Escape Plan) oversaw recording and mixing, with Dan Millice at Engine Room Audio in NYC mastering (Boyfrndz EP, Hella's Tripper, et al). 

All Day Pass is available as a self-release for download on September 11th, 2012 and LP via Spora Records shortly thereafter. 

BOYFRNDZ LIVE:
10/11  Santa Fe, NM @ Santa Fe Sol Live #
10/12  Denver, CO @ The Hi-Dive #
10/13  Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot Saloon #
10/14  Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room #
10/15  Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry #
10/16  Norman, OK @ The Deli
10/25  Austin, TX @ The Parish
11/28  Austin, TX @ The Mohawk (w/ Delicate Steve)

# w/ El Ten Eleven


Artist: Boyfrndz
Album: All Day Pass
Label: Boyfrndz Records
Release Date: September 11th, 2012

01. Colts
02. On Point
03. Hear Say (MP3)
04. All Day Pass
05. New New
06. Not That Sensitive
07. Moses Jones
08. Surf's Up (MP3)
09. Polite In Public
10. When It's Raining
11. Closer
12. Sooner Or Later

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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

NYC's Sleep Maps announce new EP with Consequence of Sound video teaser premiere

Click image above to watch video


"Much of the best art comes from visionary individuals following their instincts into strange and dark places, and that's certainly the case with Sleep Maps, whose Fiction Makes The Future debut is an unexpected treat. These are definitely ones to watch." -- Rock A Rolla  


New York City heavy-psych band Sleep Maps announce their return this fall with a teaser video premiere courtesy of Consequence of Sound. The band's new long-form EP (4 songs spanning 28 minutes), Medals quickly follows their recent debut full length in May 2012. Watch video HERE (share link).

The latest from mastermind multi-instrumentalist Ben Kaplan is a deeply moving work, both musically and thematically as it addresses the shallow pageantry presented to war veterans, many of whose lives have been forever shattered by their experiences. 

Medals is based upon the Winter Soldier Investigation from 1971. "A group of Vietnam vets held a press conference in Detroit to discuss the atrocities they had seen and sometimes participated in," Kaplan explains. "This was meant to bring attention to the mainstream public about what was really happening in Vietnam. Of course after it was over the government did everything in their power to discredit them and claim they were liars." The powerful, slow building fury of "The Heavens Gaze Empty" underscores the statements made by these war vets as they dispose of their awards of battlefield valor. 

"The image of throwing the medals back is the refusal to be placated by a trinket when your entire life has been ruined," says Kaplan. "The parallels between an era supposedly long gone and the wars of today are too blatant to be ignored. Soldiers coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq have also participated in medal throwing ceremonies, although mainstream media will not cover it." 

Medals builds a chronology across the first three songs using audio snippets from various speeches laid over Sleep Maps' masterful control of dramatic tension as spindling guitars, ominous keyboards and crashing drums weave the sound and theme into a vivid sense of intense emotions. Kaplan again performed all of the instruments on the EP, as he did on the band's debut Fiction Makes The Future. While the group has expanded to a full 4-piece lineup live -- playing its aggressive yet atmospheric songs with poignant visual projections -- Kaplan remains the sole creative force behind Sleep Maps. 

"The Final Weapon" opens Medals with the pulsing sounds of war drums and the all-too-familiar rhetoric used to spur citizens to "fight the good fight." Soaring guitars and anthemic melodies cascade into a military march as things segue into "Blackout Eyes", sounding like a strange hybrid of Sigur Ros and Boyd Rice's NON. The syrupy tune traces a soldier's return to 'normalcy' and the lead up to the tortured intensity of "The Heavens Gaze Empty". Bonus track "Horror In The Telescope" is the band's recent single, previously only available as a download. 

Medals was produced, performed and mixed by Ben Kaplan. It will be available on limited edition CD and download on November 13th, 2012.

Artist: Sleep Maps
Album: Medals
Label: Lost Future Music
Release Date: November 13th, 2012

01. The Final Weapon
02. Blackout Eyes
03. The Heavens Gaze Empty
04. Horror In The Telescope (bonus track)


Artist: Sleep Maps
Album: "Horror In The Telescope" single
Label: Lost Future Music
Release Date: July 18th, 2012

01. Horror In The Telescope (MP3)

Artist: Sleep Maps
Album: Fiction Makes The Future
Label: Lost Future Music
Release Date: May 1st, 2012

01. Men Against The Stars (MP3)
02. The Eternal Wanderer
03. Forbidden Light
04. A Greater Fire
05. Last Future (VIDEO)

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Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Bad Seeds, Daniel Lanois collaborator Bambi Lee Savage premieres song via MAGNET Magazine from new album produced by Mick Harvey



Bambi Lee Savage premieres the first track from her forthcoming third solo album, Darkness Overshadowed today via MAGNET Magazine. The album is produced by Mick Harvey (Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey), who also plays most of the backing instrumentation. Check out the sultry Twin Peaks-esque pop of the track, "Oh Loneliness" available to stream/share HERE and download HERE courtesy of the lauded long-running indie rock magazine.

As with most things in existence, it's the secrets in music that speak truest. The fact that Bambi Lee Savage has remained a secret for so long is testament to that. Over the past 25 years, the world-wandering singer-songwriter has worked with Daniel Lanois as well as members of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds and Einstürzende Neubauten. She counts among her patrons Billy Bob Thornton and Bono. Her timeless ballads and haunted anthems are stark, lush, elemental, and ethereal as smoke. And like smoke, they conceal -- even as they signal deeper mysteries well worth the effort of unveiling.

Savage began life in Florida, but following the death of her father -- a stunt pilot tragically killed during the filming of the Pearl Harbor drama Tora! Tora! Tora! -- her family relocated to Colorado. In Denver, she played in various punk bands, including the Pagan Cowboys, as the '80s raged around her. It was upon moving to England in 1985 that her secrets began to weave themselves. After fronting the post-punk outfit Horseland, she moved to Berlin, drawn by the industrial allure of Einstürzende Neubauten. In Berlin she began working as an assistant engineer at the famous Hansa Tonstudio. There she wound up scoring credits on two definitive albums of the era: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' The Good Son and U2's Achtung Baby.

Behind the scenes, though, Savage was working on her own songs. In 1992, Bono funded a recording session in Berlin that included the Bad Seeds' Mick Harvey and Hugo Race as backing musicians. Shadowy and steeped in a shivering mystique, the four-song recording went unreleased, although Harvey would later cover one of Savage's other songs, "Demon Alcohol," on his 2005 album One Man's Treasure. From there, Savage appeared on the German music documentary Lost in Music: Out of Country, playing two of her songs with Neubauten's Alex Hacke.

By then, Savage's music had taken a turn toward the dark end of the Americana street, driven partly by a homesickness for her native country. Back in the States, she captured another handful of songs with Daniel Lanois, with whom she'd worked on Achtung Baby. One of those songs, the ghostly folk threnody "Darlin'," caught the ear of Billy Bob Thornton, who used the song on the soundtrack to his breakthrough film Sling Blade.

In 2003, she released her first album, Matter of Time, a collection of the various sessions she'd done to date. Although a patchwork, the disc is stunning in its quiet force and sublimated passion. In it, Savage explores illicit substances, spirituality, tenderness, and terror, always with a thrilling tension between myth and confession. In the years that followed, she toured Australia (accompanied by Harvey on some dates) and played a triumphant set as the handpicked opener for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in Denver. She moved to Los Angeles soon after and, with Josh Klinghoffer on guitar (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dot Hacker) she completed work on the daring GJ and the PimpKillers, a conceptual and synthetically textured album that delved into the underworld of sex trafficking. As always, though, Savage's rich, hypnotic, full-blooded voice lends both humanity and otherworldliness to her songs. 

Savage's new album, Darkness Overshadowed, is both a culmination of all she's done before-and a brave move beyond it. From the guttural punk undertow of "Easy Way" to the atmospheric dread of "Elsinore" to the whispery twang of "Waiting," the disc is based around hopes, fears, memories, regrets, and scraps of confessions written on Berlin bar napkins. Produced by Mick Harvey, who also provides most of the backing instrumentation, it's by far the most vivid and chilling of Savage's work to date. Above all, though, Darkness Overshadowed reads as a secret history of the pre-apocalypse, a gnostic gospel decrypted and given human form. Or in Savage's case, something slightly beyond human.

Darkness Overshadowed will be available on CD and download on November 13th, 2012. 


Artist: Bambi Lee Savage
Album: Darkness Overshadowed
Label: Bambi Lee Savage Music
Release Date: November 13th, 2012

01. Easy Way
02. Nearly Gone
03. Speed of Life
04. Nicht Mehr
05. Oh Loneliness (STREAM) (MP3)
06. Elsinore
07. Take Me Down
08. Good Advice
09. No Stranger to Sorrow
10. Waiting


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And So I Watch You From Afar sign to Sargent House for worldwide management and label




Belfast, Northern Ireland's celebrated instrumental band And So I Watch You From Afar announce their signing to Sargent House for both management and record label worldwide. While ASIWYFA released their sophomore album Gangs in North America last November via Sargent House in conjunction with Ireland's Richter Collective, this marks the band's full integration to the ever-expanding SH family. The band's next album is scheduled for worldwide release in 2013. 

Listen to ASIWYFA's Gangs album in its entirety via Bandcamp HERE. 

Known for their unrelenting tours that has seen them play hundreds of shows since the start of 2009, And So I Watch You From Afar don't know how to take a break. Most recently, they've crisscrossed the US several times in 2012 touring with Sargent House label mates Russian Circles, Zechs Marquise, Deafheaven and Indian Handcrafts. And, from appearances at SXSW, Eurosonic, Electric Picnic, Novarock, Canadian Music Fest, Popkomm, Pukkelpop, Sonisphere, to tour dates in Europe, North America, Russia and a support slot for rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, the band has been on the road playing music non-stop since the release of their fan-stirring debut self-titled album. 

In between, the band was nominated TWICE for Ireland's coveted Choice Music Prize for Album Of The Year (for their self-titled debut and Gangs) and XFM's New Music Album Of The Year, released The Letters EP in February 2010 and a stop-gap tour single "Straight Through The Sun" in November 2010.




Artist: And So I Watch You From Afar 
Album: Gangs
Label: Sargent House 
Release date: November 8th, 2011

Track list:
01. BEAUTIFULUNIVERSEMASTERCHAMPION (MP3) 
02. Gang (starting never stopping)
03. Search:Party:Animal (MP3) 
04. 7 Billion People all Alive at Once
05. Think:Breathe:Destroy
Homes
06. Ghost Parlor KA -6 to...
07. ...Samara to Belfast
08. Lifeproof

( 'Homes' couples together tracks 6 and 7)

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