The Vacancies - interview

The Vacancies
by Mike Hammer

[I]The Vacancies (www.thevacanciesmusic.com)are a punk rock commotion. Singing about fear and pain and survival, their sound is a mix of Hot Water Music and the Dead Kennedy’s. The band is made up of 5 guys – between 21 and 34 years old, working jobs for the city and jobs and painters – who grew up listening to the Clash and they deal out a smarmy show of fun and sweat and punk fuckin rock.
They just released a record on Joan Jett’s Blackheart Records (www.blackheart.com) and are hitting the road with the Tossers in September.
I caught up with them, at a dinner table in the basement of the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland and talked to them about punk rock, hot sauce and Joan Jett still being hot.[/I]


[B]Mike Hammer[/B] How does the hot sauce help you get ready for a show? Is that on your rider? Is there a pre show hot sauce ritual?

[B]Vacancies[/B] I wish there was. (points to beer) This is the pre show ritual.

[B]MH[/I] How many beers before you’re ready to do a show.

[B]Vacancies[/B] It’s usually about 3, 3 is a good number.

[B]MH[/B] Ok. So you get buzzed and get get up there and play. You got your pretty straight forward punk rock, rock and roll sound, I used to have a friend who said rock n roll and punk is just the blues sped up, what do you think about that?

[B]Vacancies[/B] Yeah. That’s safe to say. There’s a combination of blues and 50s rock and…. blues is the roots, then there’s rock and roll and it branches off to punk and everything else. It’s all related. Punk is just regular old rock n roll tunes, done a little faster and maybe a little sloppier. I guess cause we’re not as good as musicians. We sing about the same things, the same attitudes, just sped up.

[B]MH[/B] What are the best songs about?

[B]Vacancies[/B] We don’t really sing any love songs. The best ones nowadays are just about being down and out and feeling good about not always having good things happen. We have always kinda tried, not tried, but it’s always worked out where we took something negative and tried to turn something around and make something positive out of it I guess, more so on the last album ([I]Beat Missing or a Silence Added[/I]) our last had a lot of positive message to it. It pointed out things that we thought were wrong and singing about trying to rise above it. But this record is along the same lines. We just sing about stuff that we think is lame and stuff that pisses us off and , we’re just regular dudes that work jobs and see a bunch of crap that’s going on that we don’t like, so what else is there to sing about.

[B]MH[/B] You ever sit down and try to write a love song?

[B]Vacancies[/B] Well, a lot of us are married (3 of the 5 members).

[B]MH[/B] What? You can’t write love songs if you’re married?

[B]Vacancies[/B] I feel that if you sit down and try to write a love song it’s gonna come out like crap. Yeah, you gotta feel it. A good song, that you feel, I think we all think so, comes out like a fart. Just comes out and you’re like ‘Look guys, this just popped in my head.’ We usually feel too, that if you have to work on it, it might not be a good song. Although, sometimes it does work out… so we’re constantly contradicting ourselves. I think a lot of the songs that we get excited about are when somebody brings something to the table and we all jump on it. You kinda know. Everybody just kinda looks at each other and we smile.

[B]MH[/B] How often to you guys practice. You’re all in the same area and you all work other jobs, what is it, 2 or 3 times a week you get together in somebody’s basement?

[B]Vacancies[/B] Twice a week for 8 years. We still screw up though. Unfortunately we don’t have a basement to practice in so we rent a space, but we share it with some other bands so it’s not too expensive. But yeah, you gotta practice. It’s kinda like a little tree fort that we get together and hide out in a way for a couple hours. We put the no girls allowed sign up.

[B]MH[/B] I thought punk rock bands wanted the girls to come out? What do punk rock bands want?

[B]Vacancies[/B] Beer. When three of the 5 members are married then… woah, let’s go back to your first question. This guy (Dave) wants to put Hot Sauce on titties.

[B]MH[/B] Alrigbt, The new album [I]Tantrum[/I] just came out a month ago, how’s that doing do far.

[B]Vacancies[/B] We have no idea. We are the most naïve business people you’ll ever meet.

[B]MH[/B] Can’t you get weekly updates from the label or something?

[B]Vacancies[/B] No, no. It got good reviews. So far we’ve gotten good feedback but I couldn’t tell you if it’s sold 50 or 5,000. We’re just happy that somebody wanted to give us money to put a record out. Honestly, I don’t care if it sells or not. We would be putting it out ourselves if somebody didn’t help us out. So it’s just a great way to get our records out and not have to dig into our own pockets.

[B]MH[/B] Is it the ultimate validation that you guys can play music well enough, with 3 beers in you, that Joan Jett wanted to sign you and pay you to record your stuff.

[B]Vacancies[/B] That’s really what it’s all about. This is a fun thing. That we would no matter what. I always say some people build model airplanes, we play in a rock band. It’s just what we do cause it’s what we wanna do. It’s a big kick and it’s a good chance to get out of the house, drink some beers and tour around the country. If we could make a few dollars in the process for gas money to get to the next spot, that’d be nice.It got a little more fun when Joan Jet said ‘Hey we wanna put out your record.’ We got to do a lot more things, but overall that’s really what it’s about. As long as we can get some free beer out of it and play some shows. Really it’s about playing live and then making records. Above and beyond that it’s just extra bonus. As long as we can play shows and we can make a record, especially when we have somebody who is gonna put it out for us, we feel pretty lucky I guess, just to have that.

[B]MH[/B] How did it come about that you got signed to Blackheart?

[B]Vacancies[/B] We played a couple shows with Joan and the Blackhearts and the second time we played with her she said ‘Would you guys be interested in doing your next record with Blackheart?’ and it was a no-brainer. Just like, yeah, of course. I grew up a fan of Joan Jett and it was awesome to meet her and play with her and to have someone like that offer to work with us, was an honor.

[B]MH[/B] Were you guys kissing ass a lot at that second show. Playing some Joan Jett covers to get on her good side and stuff?

[B]Vacancies[/B] No. Somebody we know, a friend of ours, sent our first record to her, she was playing a show in Sandusky, to try to get us to open the show. And she usually doesn’t have opening bands and they called us up and said ‘Joan likes the record come on out and do the show’ and at that show they asked us to do another show and she asked us to put a record out. And we were like ‘fuck yeah dude.’ Anytime you can hang out with Joan Jett in New York, that’s something I can tell my kids about.

[B]MH[/B] So you recorded the album in New York?

[B]Vacancies[/B] The last one ([I]Beat Missing or a Silence Added[/I]) but this one we recorded at home, the new record, [I]Tantrum[/I].

[B]MH[/B] Is Joan Jett still hot?

[B]Vacancies[/B] Totally cute.

[B]MH[/B] You guys have been around 8 years or so, but she’s been around a lot longer, did she give you guys any advice as a young band? How to go about yourselves?

[B]Vacancies[/B] Not so much on a business side. But, she did from day 1, it was always about ‘don’t drink too much’ and ‘you should probably quit smoking if you want your voice to improve’. I don’t know if that woulda been her advice 20 years ago, but she takes the business very seriously. Being the best you can be live, and she is, she’s awesome live, incredible. She was really courteous to the point of like, when you’re there and you’re nervous and you don’t know how to react, she was like ‘these are important songs, you’re saying stuff that people aren’t saying to often anymore’ and she was encouraging and I think that’s what she added to our band.Not, just go through the motions, but be passionate about it, ‘cause she’s passionate about it and I think that’s what she added to us. And she, she coulda stopped years ago if she wanted to, but she put out another record last year, she’s still doing it.

[B]MH[/B] OK. So Joan was in the studio and produced your album.

[B]Vacancies[/B] Yeah, the last one, [I]Beat Missing or a Silence Added [/I].

[B]MH[/B] Who recorded the new one [I]Tantrum[/I]?

[B]Vacancies[/B]We did. Joan kinda gave us the go ahead to do it ourselves.

[B]MH[/B] How was that different?

[B]Vacancies[/B] When we did the New York one we recorded in like 6 days. We did 16 songs and it was nerves and energy and it was, ‘lets try this, now this, let’s do this again’ and we were hectic and I think it came across, as a really aggressive record. This one we did at home so we could spend more time on it. We worked our jobs during the day and went to the studio at night. We took more time with it, so it wasn’t just boomboomboomboomboom, we recorded it a little differently. I don’t know if it was just better, it was just different.

[B]MH[/B] So, the songs, do you feel like your delivering and saying something new and something relevant on the new album?

[B]Vacancies[/B] I don’t know if it’s anything new, new ideas, it’s more like, I think it’s relevant. I think we’re saying something that’s important. We have songs about poverty – which is kinda a big deal right now especially in Cleveland – we have some anti-racism songs, just anti-hate songs – cause it seems like everybody hates each other still and we’re supposed to be growing and being better as a population, and at times it doesn’t seem like we are – and I think we’ve got better as song writers. I think a bunch of bands come out and you always remember that first record as the great one and I like to think that we’ve gotten progressively better and that [I]Tantrum[/I] is our best one, and it makes me kinda excited to see what’s gonna happen next. Basically we used to suck pretty bad and now we’re OK.

[B]MH[/B] Punk rock overall. Is it getting better? There’s a lot of ‘pop punk’ now but it doesn’t seem like there as many straight punk bands, what do you guys, as a punk band, think of the punk scene and where it fits in with the whole musical landscape.

[B]Vacancies[/B] As far as the scene goes, I’m a little scared right now. We just got back from playing the Warped Tour and it broke my heart to see the direction that that Warped Tours going. We were standing out there with stickers and looking for t-shirts of people walking through the gates, trying to get anyone who is real punk rock fans over to come see us play and we would look for Clash shirts and stuff and out of thousands of kids, it was hard to find a punk rocker. And it was the Warped Tour. It just blew my mind. The types of music that we’re fans of, that style, is not a real popular thing right now. It was in the early 90s or whatever, but its not now and it makes it hard for a band like us to play what we like playing. It would be easy for us to jump on any sort of bandwagon and probably get signed with a major and get on the radio very easily and make money and actually get a tour bus, but that’s not why anybody should be in a band. I think we are just getting older too. And when your parents used to say ‘what is that crap you’re listening to’ we’re doing that now. Like ‘what is this crap these kids like’. You can’t really knock it because kids are lovin it. There are a lot of talented bands out there, but it’s just not necessarily what we’re into. We are older now and the stuff that we grew up with is what we like. There are bands that are new and are great too, we’re friends with The Vandals, that bands still doing it. Against Me, I think is a great band, there are still bands that are popping up that are great but there just aren’t as many. There’s not as much an audience for that. But, trends happen and people will get tired of stuff and.. we wanna be that band that kids graduate to. Like, the listened to Backstreet Boys when they were 12 then in high school they listened to ‘ what’s this Clash band that everybody keeps talking about’ – I’m not comparing us to the Clash, but we wanna be that band that kids take seriously after the trends are over. Right now it’s really scary times right now locally and everywhere, we tend to have the pop music push because it’s lighthearted and you can listen to it and not think about anything, but during all this there’s an underbelly that’s growing and there are gonna be bands that’ll come around full circle, bands that give you something to think about. We might not be part of it, but they’ll be there.

[B]MH[/B] Are you guys going on tour now to get out the new record and spread the punk rock?

[B]Vacancies[/B] In September. East coast and Mid West tour with a band called the Tossers, they’re kinda like Flogging Molly. They’re Chicago dudes.

[B]MH[/B] And that’s for a couple weeks.

[B]Vacancies[/B] Yeah. Then after that we don’t know what’s going on we just kinda going one day at a time. Hopefully we’ll put out another record

[B]MH[/B] You guys just gonna walk around in Cleveland and see if you see some more sad things to write songs about.

[B]Vacancies[/B] You gotta live life to write a song. You can’t write about TV shows.

New Video from Dorena

Gothenburg, Sweden - DORENA Releases HD Video For "The Morning Bus"
Swedish post-rockers DORENA have released an HD video for "The Morning Bus" from their new album About Everything And More (http://deepelm.com/508). The video witnesses the birth of the first day of 2011 from the summit of Haleakala Crater on the island of Maui, Hawaii from 10,023 feet above sea level. In the distance to the right is the world's most active volcano, Kilauea, on the Big Island of Hawai'i. And at the top of the frame you can see Venus.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
The video was directed by Richard Yelland who recently won Best Documentary at the New York Cty Short Film Festival for "Floating: Nathan Gocke Story" (executive producer Morgan Spurlock of "Super Size Me"). Filmed with a Flip Video Mino HD by John Szuch, edited by Matthew Johnston and Spanish filmmaker Daniel Aznar acted as director of photography. Patience, young grasshopper...it's worth waiting for.

Video URL: http://bit.ly/dorena-morning


Dorena Reviews

"About Everything And More rises above the onslaught of decent post-rock releases. Another excellent band from Deep Elm Records, Dorena play post-rock in the vein of Mogwai or Laura. About Everything And More may have been influenced by these greats of the genre, but never mimics them. To create this relative individuality, Dorena incorporate musical ideas that most other post-rock bands do not. For instance, 'From The Window Of My Room' builds to a nearly indie-pop section, complete with catchy synth, about three minutes into the track. Soon, vocals enter the mix to great effect. Singing is used sparingly throughout the record, but never muddies the vibe Dorena aim to craft. 'At Sea' commences with shimmery guitars and background effects, producing a sound reminiscent of a calm day at the beach. The track builds to a climactic finish, as though a torrential rainstorm has upset the ocean, waves crashing in a similar fashion to the guitars of the song. It's the standout moment of the album, demonstrating the stories Dorena tells with their instruments. Another of these musical tales is 'We'll Never Meet This Young Again'. The track lurches back and forth between playful and jovial sections to melancholic, almost nostalgic parts. It seems to reflect a senior remembering his childhood, the fun of that time, the lightheartedness of it all, before becoming conscious again of the cruel reality that those times are long gone, that those are just memories, that death is imminent. Perhaps that's just my take, but Dorena's ability to make you feel, really feel, the emotion driving their largely instrumental music is something often absent from the genre. Because of this, it's an album that's truly meaningful. And perhaps the true beauty is that it will mean something different to each and every person blessed enough to have Dorena's music grace their ears." - MuzikDizkovery

"About Everything and More is Dorena's sophomore effort of instrumental indie/pop on a grandiose scale, the follow up to Holofon. From the very beginning, Dorena establishes themselves as a very tight band, united in vision and in the ideas they wish to convey, which are all apparent from the first track, The Morning Bus. Twnety-two minutes into the album, We'll Never Meet This Young Again arrives just as abruptly and surprisingly as a bright sunny day in Singapore in the midst of a monsoon season. The album begins deceptively simple but as I quickly discover, evolves into a scale of epic cinematic symphonies. This album may be no fuss-no trumpets blaring and orchestras playing, but no less grand, highly obvious in this track. The album picks up from there to emerge into a new day of discovery and reflection. Perhaps the best way to describe this album is the transition from night to day, from a sleepy dream state (cue scenes from Inception) to an awakening to the bright new day of fresh starts, inner hope and peace. DORENA is an an acronym for De Omnibus Rebus Et Nonnullis Aliis, a Latin phrase which roughly means: About Everything And More, which is an apt name for the album, being ambitious, yet not overreaching, as the album remains subtle in its themes and ideas. It possesses the ability to surprise and impress, and perhaps, be the companion to a night of reclaiming our youth, with all its recklessness, emotional rollercoasters, dark conversations in the middle of the night and the skip in your step on that bright morning as the world wakes. I highly recommend this album to both the seasoned instrumental listener, as well as to those wishing to explore the genre and to broaden their musical horizons, for this album is a good introduction. This album should be taken as a whole as it tells a story, and is particularly important in this day and age where singles rule and albums lie disregarded." - Power Of Pop

"Deep Elm seems to have this very unique ability to seek out creative, inspirational bands from all corners of the globe and unveil their untapped potential to the rest of the world, this time wrangling up Sweden's instrumental post-rock luminaries Dorena for their sophomore effort 'About Everything And More'. Carving a path similar to bands like The Appleseed Cast or Moving Mountains, Dorena weave in and out of songs with elegant beauty, atmospheric and graceful dynamics. With a good mix between light and dark tones, these 8 tracks often show the band building the songs up to escalating highs, utilizing poppy keys and memorable hooks along the way. Throwing in some surprises like an acoustic portion and at other times relying heavily on the guitars and even some moments of singing that works so well with the shimmering, swirling mess of gorgeous tension you almost wish this used vocals on each track. Deep Elm scores another winner here with this amazing display of soaring, majestic, textured anthems, songs that invoke feelings from all sides of the spectrum and with a beauty that doesn't need to rely on wordplay to speak volumes. For fans of: Last Lungs, Moving Mountains, Goonies Never Say Die." - go211




About Deep Elm

In 2011, Deep Elm Records celebrates its 16 year anniversary as part of a threatened breed of "true independents" with nearly 200 releases in its discography. Deep Elm operates for glory, not gold...and on a completely self-sufficient basis, the label succeeds in an industry dominated by corporate giants. Deep Elm is responsible for seminal releases by Athletics, Appleseed Cast, Carly Comando, Moving Mountains, Latterman and is well know for its 12 volume series The Emo Diaries. Founded on respect for music and the creative process, a goal of discovering new artists and undying integrity in everything it does, Deep Elm strives to further its reputation as the world's most reliable source of quality independent recordings. Deep Elm offers 99 Songs in Hi-Res Audio to all fans via Deep Elm Digital for no charge. Read this rare Interview with Deep Elm's Founder, John Szuch. Indie 'Til Death...And We Mean It

Papa M Hole of Burning Alms review

Papa M
Hole of Burning Alms
Singles Collection 1995-2000
Drag City

We all know what we’re getting here. Papa M, M, Aerial M, M to the Mmmmth power, whatever he calls himself, David Pajo is a man who manipulates guitars and drums, and anything else he can get a hold of, to produce his own special alterna/folk/rock songs. The 12 tracks on this disc range between driving rockers, and hook-laden, noodling, epics; and give a fair look at Pajo’s prolific output.

Pajo - Slint, Tortoise, Palace – plays songs that are comfortable one minute, catchy the next, and overall resemble your moody sister a lot of the time, and has been a part of some fine projects, but most of these songs were solo outputs. Pajo played all the instruments - or computers … whatever – on 7 of these tracks, and he gives a brief account of each song in the liner notes. He calls “Mountains Have Ears” “an electric brain massage,” he says “Wedding Song No. 3” is the first and last time he ever recorded a live band on his own, and talks about the way the song titles, and artwork, on the original singles for “M is…” and “October” were supposed to fit together “Mad Libs” style.

One of the most interesting/amusing/glamorous/destructive insights in the liner notes is the note with the song “Turn, Turn, Turn.” Pajo’s and friends play a 16-minute version of the song – sans vocals - which came about, Pajo says, after “I stayed up all night partying with locals and doing Mexican speed. At 8 am I woke everyone up so we could record Turnx3. The only rule was, play until the tape runs out.”

Hole of Burning Alms is a pretty typical, solid, slightly melodramatic, album from Pajo – well, not an album, a “collection.” The most surprising parts of the album are the techno jam beat that appears in “Travels in Constants” – only for the first part of the song, before it shifts into Jimi Hendrix “National Anthem” at Woodstock mode – and the slow, sultry and ethereal cover of Danzig’s “Last Caress” on which Pajo sings- for the only time on the CD – and birds sing in the background.

As a nice collection of mostly out-of-print singles, Hole of Burning Alms is worth $7, and the liner notes are worth $3, but hearing Pajo sing “I raped your mother today,” priceless.

Sleepy Rebels “Unbelievable” Video

Sleepy Rebels

“ …interlocking guitar melodies, imbues the project with a dreamy, curious feeling.”
- CMJ

“ …the group combines their jangly-pop with the likes of infectious hand clapping, parachuters dropping into an antiquated village and girl fights.”
- Paste Magazine

“… an über-catchy pop trio who offer a timeless formula of infectious melodies, memorable choruses, and an intriguing visual look“
- PopMatters

Powerful Company formed by Jeremy Adelman and Samanta Balassa will be releasing some breath-taking projects in 2011. The pair are a true mom & pop musical powerhouse who found great success handling original music production and composition for advertising including national campaigns for VW, Hulu, Jaguar, and JC Penney. The first months of 2011 have unveiled several new projects created by this team of talent including three films that serve as music videos for Sleepy Rebels.

The latest video for the song “Unbelievable” invites you on a journey to an unknown history & geography for an unexpected and surreal love story that happens in the most peculiar way. Directed by Christian Loubek, known best for his work on the classic opening title sequence to Six Feet Under, check out the “Unbelievable” video where it premiered on PasteMagazine.com or HERE!

Powerful Company has quickly transformed from a 2 person team into a modern art factory attracting advertising's (and other industry's) greatest talent of freethinking writers, producers, musicians, directors, editors & designers who all share the same need to create content with artistic statements. Their desires to make music outside the confines of the corporate creative process lead them to establish Powerful Company whose establishing project is the development and marketing of Sleepy Rebels. The New York based trio, collaboration comprised of Jeremy Adelman and siblings Bruce and Erica Driscoll, have designs to re-establish the coolness of positive sentiments and ideals. Yellow Tree is the manifesto that soundtracks their rebellion!

AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD live show and mp3

I went and saw AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights on May 8th with my brother. It was a pretty well attended show, the co-headlined with SURFER BLOOD, and it rocked. TRAIL OF DEAD kicked ass, blhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifeeding energy and intensity on stage anhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifd playing sutff from all over their catalog, including some of my favs from Source Tags and Codes and World's Apart.

They totally rocked this song at the show
WILL YOU SMILE AGAIN - from World's Apart


Check out the Trail of Dead Web site and their new album Tao of the Dead here.

Watch video from ETHIENNE "The Old And The New World" (Deep Elm)

Considering the current pace and magnitude of global change, there couldn't be a better time for the release of an album titled The Old And The New World. Coming at any other moment in time, this album would not mean as much. But this isn't that moment. No, this is the moment for ETHIENNE to shine. And shine they do, with a highly impressive debut that succeeds not only because of the fluid balance it keeps between reach and restraint, but also for its inventive indie pop songwriting and overall entrancing pulse. The velvet-like, alternating vocals carry the listener through curtain-raising anthems, atmospheric rhythms, climatic choruses and full-on rock moments with hushed overtones and sweetly placed falsettos that surround the words with warmth and confidence. It's impossible not to submit to the soaring melody of So Goodnight Day or the melancholic appeal of Ultrapop!...and by then you are only two tracks deep. This album is more than a glorious achievement for this young Italian four piece, it's a document of the times. Their times. Your times. Our times.

"This album represents a collection of ideas, a picture, like a sort of reminder of where we were and where we are" says guitarist Marco Longo. "It's useful remembering what has changed both inside and outside of us throughout the years. It's good to see our progress and sometimes unfortunate regress" adds Marco. "Everyday, people bring the old world with them: memories, stories, traditions and feelings from the past that directly effect the new world. We are all shaped by the past, but it's difficult to properly realize how much these things weigh in our everyday life without reflecting on them. With a careful balance between the before and after, this album immortalizes one of the most significant periods of our lives" continues drummer Fabio Burchielli. Vocalist Andrea Sara adds "the album title represents change. It's the evolution and involution of situations, sensations and feelings. I can see my entire life in this album. I don't know if I like it or I am scared of it. I see a little bit of melancholy but I also see a lot of hope. I see my dreams. I am definitely in the new world at the moment."

In the foreboding album closer District Line, Filippo sings "all the lights are burning out." Indeed, they are...but not for this band. Ethienne is just getting started...

Check out the video for "Ultrapop" HERE.

Stream the new Let's Wrestle

Let's Wrestle's new album Nursing Home will be available in stores on May 17, but you can stream the whole album now at PasteMagazine.com!

Stream Let's Wrestle's Nursing Home now!

Paste describes Nursing Home:

English indie rockers Let’s Wrestle straddle the lines between silly and sincere, raw and ridiculous. While their tongue-in-cheek name mirrors the band’s approach to be taken seriously, it’s only a matter of time before their addictive hooks will leave you immersed in their angst-ridden sprawl. For their second record Nursing Home, the trio of Wesley Patrick Gonzalez (vocals and guitar), Mike Lightning (bass and vocals) and Darkus Bishop (drums) traveled overseas to record with heralded producer Steve Albini in Chicago, Illinois. Out of this partnership, the group have emerged from the studio with another compelling batch of songs blending equal parts punk candor and pop sentiment into their darker portraits of suburban life.

Architecture in Helsinki Get Remixed by Javelin, Release New Album, Moment Bends- download remix mp3

Architecture in Helsinki Get Remixed by Javelin,

Release New Album, Moment Bends

Click HERE to Stream/Download Javelin’s Remix of “Contact High”

Click HERE for the Video of Architecture in Helsinki’s Original Version

Masters of modernist pop Architecture in Helsinki release their new album Moment Bends today on V2/Cooperative Music USA/Downtown Records. To celebrate the occasion the band is sharing a remix of their single “Contact High” by Brooklyn duo Javelin. Click HERE to stream/download this lush, shimmering take on the song. Click HERE to watch the video for the original version of “Contact High,” which Paste Magazine calls “summer’s first mixtape must” and Prefix Mag calls “absurdly catchy.” Don’t miss the band as they kick off their US tour next month!

In large parts, Moment Bends is in dialogue with the dance floor, without being a slave to any particular rhythm. Like the best pop albums it bubbles with an immediacy while revealing new layers after repeated listens. It also showcases the band’s most concise and sophisticated songwriting yet. Recorded over a two year period in the their studio space, Buckingham Palace, songwriter Cameron Bird says: “Moment Bends was all about being at one with our ideas, obsessed with popular music and falling in love with our hometown. We wanted to build a record to get lost in. A record that always feels exactly what you are feeling”.


Architecture in Helsinki US Tour Dates:

06/01: Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theater
06/02: San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
06/03: San Francisco, CA @ Slims
06/04: Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
06/05: Vancouver, BC @ Venur
06/06: Seattle, WA @ Neumo's
06/09: Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater
06/10: Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
06/11: Toronto, ON @ Mod Club
06/12: Montreal, QC @ Le Tulipe
06/13: Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
06/15: Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
06/16: New York, NY @ Webster Hall
06/17: Washington, DC @ Black Cat
06/18: Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live

Spring Heel Jack - The Sweetness of the Water

Spring Heel Jack
The Sweetness of the Water
Thirsty Ear Recordings

I used to do a jazz show on the college radio station at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, with my buddy Dave, it was called Krush Jazz. I named the show after DJ Krush, who put out a fantastic album, among many he’s done, called Ki-Oku with trumpeter Toshinori Kondo. The album is a great mix of trip hop/electronica and jazz. It’s a free jazz album that incorporates the new urban sounds, and beats, that are popular today. The album challenges jazz fans and hip hop/dance fans to come together. And I liked that idea, the idea of crushing barriers between genres, so I named the radio show Krush Jazz.

Anyway, Spring Heel Jack has always pushed along the same barriers that DJ Krush and Toshinori Kondo did on Ki-Oku. Spring Heel Jack started in England in the early 90s with members John Coxon – a producer who worked quite a bit with Spiritualized in the past- and Ashley Wales. The group began as a drum and bass outfit, with a jazzy feel to them. They got noticed by the band Everything But The Girl, did some work with them, got more popular, then hooked up with Thirsty Ear Records. Thirsty Ear is a totally sweet label out of New York who has worked with DJ Spooky, Henry Rollins, Pere Ubu, Teenage Fanclub, Brian Eno and others, and they have a series of albums called the “Blue Series” that was started by avant-garde jazz pianist Matthew Shipp.
Spring Heel Jack has released its past 4 or 5 efforts on Thirsty Ear and the band has even done a live outing with Shipp. Slowly, the Jacks are growing into more of a free jazz band than ever before; such is the sound of The Sweetness of the Water. The band has produced a rolling landscape of horns, guitar noodlings and extraneous electronic sounds, among other things. Along for the ride with Coxon and Wales, are trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, sax man Evan Parker, drummer Mark Sanders, and bass player John Edwards.
Random electronic noises and feedback guide about half of the 8 tracks on this CD, but it’s not jarring or redundant, and Edwards displays some fine fingerwork – especially on the opening track. But, Leo Smith and his trumpet are featured most prominently in this recording – screeching in and out of songs and dropping off short bursts of fine horn work.
The songs on The Sweetness of the Water range between about 3 minutes, to 9 minutes, and they each have their peaks and valleys, with hyperactivity at one point, and a soft lulling at the next. The recording is kind of a mix of Ornette Coleman and Tortoise, it is pleasant, for the most part, and enjoyable to listen to for fans of free jazz and “experimental” bands along the lines of Joan of Arc, but it is not essential. It doesn’t do enough to grip the listener constantly. The bass playing on track 1 is a powerfully catchy force, and the piano notes on track 5 perk up listener’s ears before Leo Smith’s spastic horn – reminiscent of a hyped up Terrance Blanchard, or even Miles Davis in his electro funk years – dives in and levels out, but there are too many dead spots on the album. These parts halt any momentum that was being gathered. They’re not bad stretches, per se - they sound more slightly tweaked meditation music from your Tai Chi class - but they just give the album more of a soundtrack feel. Like, a love scene must be playing in the studio now, oops,http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif here comes a fight, maybe a chase scene here, and that’s definitely the ‘someone’s gonna die’ music.
On The Sweetness of the Water, Spring Heel Jack is missing some of the great continuity it had in early songs, on early albums, where they had a sneaky bass line following a symbol beat throughout, tying everything together. The band is really pushing themselves in more of an experimental, free form, direction than ever before, and while the experiments might not all be great successes, they are exciting, and they should help the band in the future, just, not so much on this album.

See and hear some Spring Heel Jack on youtube.com HERE.