MP3: Neon Indian - “Terminally Chill”

An elusive new project from composer Alan Palomo. Neon Indian delivers equal parts synthetic nostalgia, Dreampop lullabies, and grinding guitar noise to create something eerier than the sum of its parts. Forged after a hazy winter gathering in Texas, this initial batch of tracks were the result of field recordings, record samples, a collection of bizarre synth sounds. Soliciting the visual acrobatics of Video artist Alicia Scardetta, this project is setting out to be a multimedia maelstrom. Orbiting around the themes of drug induced heartbreak, weary afternoons, and lost chances, this music provides a lush soundtrack to the deadbeat exploits of teenage ennui. Neon Indian’s bedroom ballads have already forged the upcoming Psychic Chasms, the debut full-length, set for release this Fall. They’ve been compared to New Order, Future Bible Heroes, and most recently said to sound like a saw-wave cutting a Doobie Brother’s song in half. Expect much racket to be had from this fresh faced crew.

NEON INDIAN

Sep 12 Morrison, CO Monolith Festival

Neon Indian
Psychic Chasms
(Lefse)
Street date: Oct. 13, 2009

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 LINKS:

MySpace - www.myspace.com/neonindian

Label Page - lefserecords.com

MP3: Ganglians - “Lost Words”

“This album is pure naive headphone acid pop to drive to, at least that’s what was going through our heads.”- Ganglians

Sacramento’s Ganglians want an island somewhere where they can soak in the sun and prowl the canopy by night. It’s not often that they do get out, but they can get down for that. Recording sometimes as one, sometimes as four it’s a real game to figure out where the entity comes from and where it’s going. First and foremost it’s about uncertain pleasures. It’s a bit like choose your own adventure. There’s “codeine balladry”; a slightly upsetting tempo that is quickly flushed into an aural high, the next moment you’re in the toy strewn abyss of the bedroom and then out to the tribal caves of the natives. The planets align and the sun beats down, palms tingling, and you are on the island they’ve built, the scenery constantly shifting for a better view, of you.

“If you ask them, Sacramento’s Ganglians consist of “the whole of the Ganglian race” as well as “the squirrels in the walls that bounce acorns across the ceiling in the dead of night.” So far, I’ve resisted the urge to look too hard to find out more. What I do know is that the group, who creates all-over-the-map damaged-and-psychedelic noise-pop, is about to release an EP and LP on Woodsist. The label’s already had a banner year and change via Crystal Stilts, Wavves, Blank Dogs, Vivian Girls, etc. Add this to the trophy case. Really, Ganglians’ sound isn’t as easy to peg as some of their cohorts — listen to three songs and you’ll hear three different approaches with some similar threads running through. See, for instance, “Hair”’s rollicking dark surf and the more pastoral (and considerably epic) “Valiant Brave.”- Brandon Stosuy, Stereogum

GANGLIANS

07/04 Brooklyn, NY 979 Broadway Backyard - Woodsist / Captured Tracks Fest
08/23 Portland, OR Smmr Bmmr

Ganglians
Monster Head Room
(Woodsist)

1. Something Should Be Said
2. Voodoo
3. Lost Words
4. Candy Girl
5. Valient Brave
6. The Void
7. To June
8. 100 Years
9. Cryin’ Smoke
10. Modern African Queen
11. Try To Understand

GANGLIANS LINKS:

MySpace - www.myspace.com/ganglian

Label Page - www.woodsist.com

MP3: Lewis and Clarke - “Petrified Forest”

MP3: Caroline Weeks - “Elegy”

Lou Rogai is a man and Lewis & Clarke’s main-man; Caroline Weeks a woman, but not a weak woman. They met when L&C opened a tour for Bats for Lashes when Caroline was a member of Natasha Khan’s band. Musical sparks flew and they agreed to tour together one day, with Lewis & Clarke’s transcendental “I don’t cut my grass” peace-of-mind folk and Caroline Week’s Victorian “don’t tighten the corset” British folk, as folk man and folk wo-man. The time is now. L & C’s full ensemble of Karen Codd, Tom Asselin and Brothers O’hara will all be sharing with Caroline their favorite episodes of This American Life and discussing their favorite recipies, out of body experiences and Pentangle records (Rae Kwan, too) in a 15 passenger Ford Econoline Van while bringing you the finest Trans-Atlantic organic folk sounds since Sandy Denny and Jackson C. Frank.

Lewis & Clarke

The most recent sound in the organic musical lineage of Lewis & Clarke can be described as “new-folk”, “avant chamber folk”, or “neo-baroque”. Call it what you want, but it’s haunting and gorgeous. Pitchfork calls Blasts of Holy Birth “Eight tracks of delicate Beauty” and The Onion’s A/V Club notes: “Lou Rogai finally puts the lame-ass freak-folk label to rest by making an album that’s as grounded in real life as it is sublimated in ether….Rogai has a gift for speaking plainly while tonguing poetry, and his meditations on life cycles and pastoral philosophy blossom and collapse with organic grace.” (La Société Expéditionnaire)

Caroline Weeks

A veteran of more than one incarnation of the Bat For Lashes backing band since the very beginning, Caroline Weeks has kept things nice and simple on her debut solo album Songs For Edna, fingerpicked Spanish guitar motifs and subtle washes of clarinet and piano to Caroline’s simple, unadorned phrasing, sweetly lulling and cajoling the brain into a hazy state of bliss. (Manimal Vinyl)

LEWIS & CLARKE AND CAROLINE WEEKS

07/24/09 - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church (chapel) #
07/26/09 - Brooklyn, NY - Union Pool #
07/27/09 - Boston, MA - Middle East #
07/28/09 - Portland, ME - Space #
07/29/09 - Hamden, CT - The Space #
07/30/09 - East Stroudsburg, PA - McMunn Planetarium
07/31/09 - Pittsburgh, PA - Garfield Artworks #
08/01/09 - Chicago, IL - Hotti Biscotti $
08/03/09 - Milwaukee, WI- Sugar Maple #
08/04/09 - Iowa City, IA - Public Space One #%

# w/ Corridor
% w/ Caleb Engstrom
$ w/ Mako Sica

CAROLINE WEEKS ONLY

08/09/09 - Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
08/11/09 - San Francisco, CA - Hemlock Tavern
08/13/09 - Portland, OR - Holocene
08/14/09 - Seattle, WA - Jewel Box Theater

LEWIS & CLARKE LINKS:

MySpace - www.myspace.com/lewisclarke

Press Materials - www.la-soc.com/lewis&clarke.html

Artist Page - www.lewisandclarkemusic.com

CAROLINE WEEKS LINKS:

MySpace - www.myspace.com/carolineweeks

Label Page - www.manimalvinyl.com

MP3: WAVVES - “So Bored”

This is the first official music video from WAVVES, directed by Pete Ohs, who has previously worked with The Arcade Fire, The Unicorns, Fiery Furnaces, Au Revoir Simone, etc. It was shot mostly on the band’s first European tour. WAVVES has three US dates coming up…..

WAVVES

07/15 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom*
07/18 Chicago, IL Pitchfork Fest
08/28 San Diego, CA Street Scene

* = w/ Woods, Real Estate

WAVVES
WAVVVES
(Fat Possum)
Street date: March 17, 2009

1. Rainbow Everywhere
2. Beach Demon
3. To The Dregs
4. Sun Opens My Eyes
5. Gun In The Sun
6. So Bored
7. Goth Girls
8. No Hope Kids
9. Weed Demon
10. California Goths
11. Summer Goth
12. Beach Goth
13. Killr Punx, Scary Demons
14. Surf Goth

WAVVES LINKS:

MySpace - www.myspace.com/wavves

Band Page - ghostramp.blogspot.com