Month: July 2016

Radio Muerte: Friday 22nd July

Posted on by davidchittock

Die Antwoord

Zef South African rap-rave duo Die Antwoord have shared the first track ahead of the release of their forthcoming fourth studio album. Following on from the recent Suck on This mixtape, the album is called Mount Ninji and Da Nice Time Kid and features guest appearances from Cypress Hill’s Sen Dog, Dita Von Teese and Jack Black. More information and the full tracklist can be found on Pitchfork.com.

More info: Soundcloud, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and DieAntwoord.com.

Prophets of Rage

Rather predictably, the first release from rap-rock supergroup Prophets of Rage is a cover of Public Enemy’s Prophets of Rage although any band featuring a lineup of this quality (Tim Commerford, Tom Morello and Brad Wilk from Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy‘s Chuck D and DJ Lord, as well as Cypress Hill‘s B-Real) can be forgiven a multitude of sins. I just hope the rest of their output is a little more adventurous.

More info: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and ProphetsOfRage.com/.

De La Soul

From the forthcoming crowd-funded album and the Anonymous Nobody… (due out on the 26th August), hip-hop mainstays De La Soul have shared a new track, Royalty Capes.

More info: Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud and the De La Soul website.

M.I.A. Featuring Skrillex

More info: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and miauk.com/.

Lolawolf

R&B is not normally my bag but Lolawolf’s electropop/R&B/trap clashup style is not your usual bitches and bling fodder but rather tidy urban class that could easily cross over to both mainstream pop and hipster taphouse playlists.

Formed in February 2014 by actress and singer Zoë Kravitz (daughter of Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz), keyboardist James Levy, and drummer/producer Jimmy Giannopoulos. Lolawolf is based in Brooklyn, New York City.

Keep an eye out for their tasty, stripped down track Teardrop</> featuring Miley Cyrus on vocals.

More info: Soundcloud, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr.

Willow Smith

While we’re on a bit of a ‘celebrity daughter R&B’ tip, here’s another track I stumbled across, this time by Willow Smith, the daughter of uber-megastar Will Smith and sometime rockstar Jada Pinkett-Smith, who you may remember from the diabolically catchy ‘Whip Your Hair’. Willow Smith has definitely come of age, delivering a properly sophisticated, minimalist chunk of wine-bar cool with this track 8. Attention seems to have diverted away from Willow since her debut on to her gender-fluid brother but she deserves the limelight to fall back on her if she keeps delivering stuff like this.

More info: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and WillowSmith.com.

Pet Crow

Derby’s finest garage rock outfit Pet Crow have just signed to Reckless Yes records following their recent gig at The Hairy Dog supporting Menace Beach. One to watch, this two-girl, two-boy outfit are gonna be big.

More info: Bandcamp, Instagram and Facebook.

Menace Beach

Like something straight off of 90s US college radio, Leeds-based five-piece Menace Beach will appeal to fans of bands like Pavement, Pond and Seaweed or more recent bands like Marmozets.

More info: Facebook, Soundcloud, Twitter and MenaceBeach.co.uk.

Skrillex & Rick Ross

Another fat jam from Skrillex, this time with a tonne of gangster-shit strapped to it courtesy of Rick Ross and the added weight of the attachment to the forthcoming Suicide Squad movie soundtrack.

More info: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Soundcloud and Skrillex.com/.

Radio Muerte: Friday 15th July

Posted on by davidchittock

La Luz

If an all-female band from Seattle listened to a steady diet of Belly, Cowboy Junkines, Jan & Dean and Dick Dale, they might sound something like this. Label mates to The Julie Ruin and Tacocat, La Luz deliver chilled indie surf guitar with beautifully harmonised vocals. La Luz are Shana Cleveland (guitar), Marian Li Pino (drums), Alice Sandahl (keyboard) and Lena Simon (bass) and they’ve been together since 2012.

More info: Hardly Art Records, Bandcamp, Facebook and Vimeo.

Death Grips

I think it’s probably safe to say that there are very few music videos that revolve entirely around the dismantling of an old shoe, but that’s exactly what two-piece industrial-rap exponents Death Grips new video for ‘Giving Bad People Good Ideas’ does.

More info: Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and ThirdWorlds.net.

The Atomic Bitchwax

One of the new batch of announcements for the Desertfest Antwerp festival this year, the Atmoic Bitch wax are often referred to as a ‘Super Stoner Rock’ band as a result of their three members already having had successful careers in other bands. The Atomic Bitchwax are Chris Kosnik (bass & vocals, currently of Monster Magnet, formerly of Godspeed and Black NASA)
Bob Pantella (drums & percussion, formerly of Raging Slab, currently of Monster Magnet) and Finn Ryan (guitar & vocals, formerly of Core).

More info: Facebook, TeePee Records and TheAtomicBitchwax.com.

Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation

A beautiful slice of slowly building ambient electronica from the Soundcloud pages of Rocket Recordings, Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation have featured on this blog before and I’m a big fan. Here they are remixed by Russian trio Gnoomes.

More info: Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Facebook and Josefin’s website.

Gnoomes

Having found their remix of the Josefin Öhrn track, I went in search of more to see what their own material sounds like. Gnoomes are Russian musicians Alex, Pavel and Dmitriy.

According to their bio..
‘Gnoomes initially didn’t want to tie band’s music to existing tags and made their own – stargaze. Stargaze is like a human state, when you’re lying on the grass with your friends, telling funny stories, and watching shooting stars.’

Hard to tell you what to expect from them other than it is ambient, floaty, psychedelic oddness. Go in with no preconceptions and you’ll have a great time.

More info: Bandcamp, Facebook and Soundcloud.

The Picturebooks

Falling into the same group as The Graveltones and Royal Blood, The Picturebooks are another awesome two-piece outfit. Originally from Germany but living in California, these guys are all about the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle – riding motorbikes, skateboarding in the sun and bringing exciting, visceral electric blues-rock. Soon to be embarking on their European tour, catch them somewhere near you soon if you can.

This track is from their debut album Imaginary Horse, which can be bought from Riding Easy Records.

More info: YouTube, Riding Easy Records, Twitter, Facebook and thepicturebooks.com.

Red Fang

One of the greatest rock bands in the world, Red Fang have shared the first single of their forthcoming fourth album Only Ghosts which is available to pre-order in a variety of beautiful formats from Relapse Records.

More info: Facebook, Bandcamp, Twitter and RedFang.net.

Blood Orange

More info: Twitter, Soundcloud and bloodorange.nyc.

Rattle

Experimental Nottingham two piece consisting of just two girls and their drumkits. Rattle are Theresa J Wrigley and Katharine Eira Brown. Their debut album is due out early in August this year.

More info: Facebook and Bandcamp.

Grimes

Easily knocking pretenders to the electro-pop crown sideways with her mad production and songwriting skills (Charli XCX, I’m looking in your direction), Claire Boucher aka Grimes comes back with another all-round polished performance in this new video for her song <I from her fourth album Art Angels.

Also listen to Grimes break down the production of this song on the Song Exploder podcast.

More info: Twitter, Facebook, the 4AD website, instagram, Tumblr, Soundcloud and Grimes’ Website.

Be Forest

Top quality shoegaze/nu-gaze from Italian combo Be Forest. Be Forest consists of Costanza Delle Rose (Bass and vocals), Erica Terenzi (Drums and vocals) and Nicola Lampredi on Guitar. As well as the links below, there’s a nice little write-up about the band on wwnb.net.

More info: Facebook and Bandcamp.

Radio Muerte: Friday 8th July

Posted on by davidchittock

Mitski

‘Your Best American Girl’ from Japanese-American New Yorker Mitski Miyawaki’s new album and follow-up to 2014’s ‘Bury me at Makeout Creek’ Puberty 2, which already looks set to be one of the must-have albums of 2016. Out now.

More info: Bandcamp, Facebook, Twitter and Mitski.com.

Gum Takes Tooth

Dramatic post-rock instrumentalism from London. Their Bandcamp bio says it better than I ever could:

“Two man everything machine endlessly seeking what-the-fuck aural mesmerism in a maze like arrangement of sound system culture, riffs and pan-cultural psychedelics. Dark primal frequencies are felt and not heard, unremitting circular drums shatter and rebirth whilst a cast of vocal characters provide an astral guide through these dizzying new sound worlds.”

More info: Bandcamp, Soundcloud, and gumtakestooth.com.

The Pixies

Without question, one of the most influential guitar bands ever. Black Francis and friends have released some of the greatest guitar noise over the years. Playing a one-off gig in the UK at Brixton Academy next week ahead of a new album Head Carrier, this is the newly released track.

More info: Facebook, Soundcloud and pixiesmusic.com.

Courtney Barnett

Although it seems to have been around forever, Courtney Barnett is only just releasing Elevator Operator from the album ‘Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit’. She’s also shared a star studded video for the single too featuring Wilco singer Jeff Tweedy, Kath And Kim actress Magda Szubanski, Sleater Kinney, The Drones and Australian musicians Tim Rogers and Paul Kelly.

More info: Soundcloud, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Facebook and Courtney Barnett’s website.

Graveltones

In the current crop of hot two-piece bands (White Miles, Picturebooks, Royal Blood, Deap Vally) Graveltones are among the finest. Jimmy and Mikey can rock any room with their sweaty, energetic live performances and they have just released their first live album Live at The Lexington and are currently on tour with the Brooklyn Brewery delivering the free beer.

More info: Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and thegraveltones.com.

Vodun

Described as ‘Aretha Franklin fronting Royal Blood’, Vodun are a shot in the arm to rock music. Playing african-influenced psych-doom-blues, they will be visiting Nottingham next week for a gig with local space-glam outfit Abracadabra.

More info: Facebook, Bandcamp, Twitter and vodunband.com.

Novadriver

More awesome seventies-style rock from Small Stone records in the shape of The Stooges and MC5 meeting Ted Nugent and ZZ Top at the drive-in. Proper solid vintage rock and roll.

More information can be found on their section of the Small Stone Records website.