Cut Copy – Need You Now from Cut Copy on Vimeo.
More “fun with green screens!” meets Hipster Olympics than actual music video, Cut Copy’s “Need You Now” is goofball enough to hold your attention until it turns into a deadly serious LARP match. Anyway, jam.
As we digest Radiohead’s The King of Limbs this morning (THE KING OF JAMS), here’s the 2002 debut of “Morning Mr. Magpie,” presented acoustically by Mr. Thom Yorke in a webcast prior to the release of Hail to the Thief. Also worth remembering from the same session: the tremendous ballad “I Froze Up,” which maybe the band will revive for LP9. Find that video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
All photos by David Greenwald
MINKS have done their best to stay out of the buzz-band limelight so far. Among the New York band’s revelations: a blog full of black-and-white photos of anything but its members, a press bio mostly detailing their single releases and a debut album distanced by the evocative veneer of reverb. On Thursday night, with the Satellite’s traditional backdrop shimmering behind them, the six-piece act stepped out from behind the curtain to staggering effect. Skipping debut album By the Hedge‘s experimental moments, songs such as “Ophelia” and “Cemetery Rain” emerged as direct, muscular New Wave efforts as MINKS zipped through a teasingly short set. Dressed nearly in all black, the group could’ve been the butt of a Ben Folds lyric, but the Cure’s goth influence suited them — especially frontman Sean Kilfoyle, who offered greasy hair and hinted disdain alongside his vocals and guitar stabs.
Given the moderate crowd and By the Hedge‘s only semi-enthusiastic reception, it’s easy to worry that MINKS will follow the career path of a band like the Clientele — masters of their sonic domain and routine masterpiece-makers who never seem to break through to the levels of trendier, less distinctive acts. Things could be worse: for those smart or lucky enough to make the scene on Thursday, having the band all to ourselves was amazing enough.
It’s a been a minute since we’ve heard from L.A.’s Princeton, but the band’s latest single takes a page from member Jesse Kivel’s chillwave tropic-disco project Kisses — “To the Alps” frames live drums and horns with pastel synth tones and beachfront vibes that seem a more natural fit for the group than their previous chamber-pop incarnation. (Via Stereogum)
Princeton – “To the Alps”: mp3
(The To the Alps 7″ is due 3/29 on Hit City USA)
Summer Fiction’s charming, understated “Throw Your Arms Around Me” gets set to footage from ’60s French film Vivre Pour Vivre, evoking the band’s own retro innocence. Also, crying. Nice stuff. You find the full record on Bandcamp.
Previously: First Look: Summer Fiction – S/T
With expectations kindly lowered by opening act Young Prisms, the Radio Dept. took a Los Angeles stage for the first time in history and proceeded to annihilate their set like Galactus devouring a planet. For a too-brief hour, the Swedish act cruised through catalog favorites (a ferocious “Ewan”!) and more recent tracks (“The New Improved Hypocrisy,” “Heaven’s on Fire”) with a minimum of banter. They say drum machines have no soul, but the group had no problem playing passionately over a laptop’s rhythms, their backing tracks melding flawlessly with the live guitar/bass/synth trio. For a critic seeing his favorite working band for the first time, it was pretty much perfect.
By the end, the audience was so dazed, they could barely muster the strength to cheer the band on for an encore — if not, that was the most bafflingly lazy post-set applause I’ve ever seen. The trio came back for a final song, but even with their Coachella set on the horizon, no set list could’ve been long enough.
Previously: Interview: The Radio Dept. | All Radio Dept. posts
In contrast with the pinpoint professionalism of headliners-to-come the Radio Dept., sludgy San Francisco shoegaze act Young Prisms sounded like cavemen trying to learn the noisier Yo La Tengo songs. Their efforts were so aimless that, in one song, a minor tempo change drew applause. You could call their monotonous drones dreamy, if you’re the kind of person who dreams about being bored at the El Rey. Have fun with that.
A friend described this as Ariel Pink’s Twin Shadow, and that’s about right (except that I don’t like Twin Shadow and this is fantastic). Gatto Fritto, a new act that arrived in my inbox yesterday, plays minimalist space-disco — sex jams for microbes. The group’s first single, “Hex,” reminds me of the similarly subtle terrain being explored by L.A.’s Evan Voytas, whose careless whispers should also be on your radar (and your quietest dance playlist).
Gatto Fritto – “Hex”: mp3
(Gatto Fritto is due April 26 on International Feel)
