MP3: Music Go Music - “Warm In The Shadows”

The members of ‘Music Go Music’ met at a party in the home of a man who was, at that time, called “The Condor.”[1] Over the rager’s din we made a connection. It was mild at first, but fermented for a couple of weeks until Torg invited me and Gala Bell over to make a song together. We met several days later and, in the space of an hour, the first Music Go Music song was written. We recorded it over the next few days and went our separate ways, but reconvened enough times over the course of the following year-and-a-half to record eight more songs.

Initially, I thought that we’d play these recordings for our nearest and dearest and then lay them aside, but circumstances conspired against these plans, and now they’re working their way out into the world. Though unexpected, this is a welcome turn of events. No happier thought passes through our minds than that of a bevy of middle-aged women dancing to our music,[2] and now it seems like our vision may be within reach.
Something must be said here about the music itself.[3] Music Go Music make pop music but, fortunately, the term means very little these days. What kind of pop music is it? Rock and Roll, Disco, Metal, Boogie, Trans-Hand, Psychedelic? How does it work? Perhaps this will mean something:

As we move through life, there is a “curtain of fantasy”[4] with which we cover a murky reality, a curtain on which we project a clear and comforting image of ourselves and the world. The slightest shifting of it fills us with dread. But imagine that the curtain is raised to reveal a more profoundly resonant version of what was on it in the first place; a “Technicolor” reality. So enchanted are we by this scene that we fail to notice the second, dark curtain in the background.[5]

Music Go Music’s immediate plans are to continue to make music that’s visual and funks. Hopefully we will meet you where you live.[6]

-Kamer Maza, Summer 2009

[1] What happened to this man? He disappeared from us, like some wayward angel
[2] This may change
[3] This kind of thing must be talked about in abstract terms - why describe music that can be so easily listened to? Just go to a site and listen. There is no reason for me to waste your time banging on cauldrons, when an mp3 can bring the stars to pity…YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN
[4] Ortega y Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses (New York: Norton, 1957), pp. 156-157
[5] Even if we do catch a glimpse of its folds, we are too fixed on the foreground to give them much thought
[6] You know what I mean

What the press has already said about Music Go Music:

“When people talk about the rebirth of disco, this is how it should be, manic zombifications reanimated from the Abba songbook, wired withPhilip K Dick paranoia and Donna Summer euphoria.” -NME

“They begin with a bright-eyed Scandinavian sashay and end with a ten-minute Mediterranean disco romp featuring programmed drums, making detours along the way into rainy day ballads and guitar infernos. The cumulative effect plays like the greatest hits of dance saviors that never existed…and indeed, they probably should only be performed from inside an aquadome at the bottom of the Caspian Sea, or at least during a summer-long residency in Ibiza.” -The Fader

“Music Go Music could be the 21st century answer to ABBA. The LA trio’s sharp articulation, flamboyancy and brilliant ability to create timeless disco-pop is totally irresistible.” -The Fly

“There is a late seventies, post-’I Feel Love’ disco feel to ‘Warm in the Shadows,’ and, whethter or not it was their ambition to find that sound, it’s nonetheless a mightily refreshing dose of looseness and euphoria…One thing is for sure: the ambition for a long-lasting dynasty of overblown, slightly crackpot pop excess is there.” -Stool Pigeon

MUSIC GO MUSIC

09/18 Los Angeles, CA The Roxy w/ Little Boots
09/19 San Francisco, CA The Independent w/ Little Boots

Music Go Music
Expressions
(Secretly Canadian)
Street Date: Oct. 6, 2009

1. I Walk Alone
2. Thousand Crazy Nights
3. Light of Love
4. Reach Out
5. Explorers of the Heart
6. Love, Violent Love
7. Just Me
8. Warm in the Shadows
9. Goodbye, Everybody

MUSIC GO MUSIC LINKS:

Label Page - www.secretlycanadian.com/artist.php?name=musicgomusic

Press Materials - secretlycanadian.com/press/musicgomusic/musicgomusicpress.php

MySpace - www.myspace.com/musicgomusic

MP3: A Sunny Day in Glasgow - “Ashes Grammar / Ashes Math”

Opening with a ten second homage to Estonian composer Arvo Part, it’s immediately apparent that A Sunny Day in Glasgow’s new album, Ashes Grammar, is going to be a much more visceral outing than their 2007 album debut, Scribble Mural Comic Journal. It takes a few minutes for the record to even begin to reveal itself, as a swarm of 1950s acapella (”Secrets at the prom”) gives way to resonant drones, room noise, and sub bass (”Slaughter killing carnage”). It’s here that “Failure” unexpectedly kicks in with a tribal stomp and a fluttering guitar acting as a pair of wings, lifting the circular chants of the song’s melody off the ground. It’s all at once joyous, insecure, and blissed-out-and sounds nothing like we’ve heard from A Sunny Day in Glasgow before.

Bandleader/songwriter Ben Daniels wanted to approach the making of Ashes Grammar differently than Scribble Mural Comic Journal-a one-microphone, bedroom-recorded album that seemed to catch the independent music world by surprise, with music tastemakers such as Pitchfork, Drowned in Sound and many blogs all giving high praise to the Philadelphia-based group’s re-imagination of dream pop. Riding high after a successful 2008 European tour, Ben wanted to leave the bedroom and try recording in a, well, bigger room. He found a dance studio in rural New Jersey that would let the band take over the huge space on the weekends. Not having to worry about neighbors and landlords, it was the perfect place for Ben and drummer/recording engineer Josh Meakim to experiment with sounds. Everything, including synths, samples and drum machines, went out into the room first through a borrowed PA system and any amps they could find. The two spent countless hours moving microphones around, playing instruments and noises out into the room and re-recording those sounds a la Alvin Lucier’s “I Am Sitting in a Room.”

While the sessions got off to a good start, they would unexpectedly lead into a tumultuous couple of months for A Sunny Day in Glasgow - literally transformative. On the day he was to begin laying down his parts, bassist Brice Hickey fell while loading his equipment into his car, breaking several bones in his left leg. Though a blow to morale, Ben would be able to handle the bass lines on the album, but this would also affect the involvement of ASDIG vocalist Robin Daniels - Ben’s sister and Brice’s girlfriend - who would now have to tend to her bedridden boyfriend for the next several months, making it impossible for her to spend any significant time in the studio. And with Ben and Robin’s other sister, ASDIG vocalist Lauren, attending grad school in Colorado, the group would essentially be without the two singers so integral to A Sunny Day’s celestial melodies. Band newcomer Annie Fredrickson, a classically trained cellist and pianist, would find herself stepping into another role as singer, along with Josh who - off the record - has an incredible vocal range, just tones short of a castrati. Ben, Josh and Annie would spend many late nights in New Jersey together developing a new melodic strategy and generally opening things up to anyone’s ideas. Annie’s friend, Beverly Diser (nom de guerre, Beverly Science) would come by from time to time to add vocal parts here and there; and one time touring bassist/in-it-for-life-member Mich White also contributed ideas from his home in Austin, TX.

In hindsight, those obstacles, coupled with A Sunny Day in Glasgow’s creative determination, reshaped the band in ways they never could have imagined. The resulting Ashes Grammar is far more nuanced than Scribble, but there’s still a cellular logic at play throughout. The brief, shimmering loop that is “Lights” turns out to be the very pulse behind the sun-kissed, ambient pop of “Passionate introverts,” a feel-good song perfectly suited to accompany daydreams or dancing alone in your bedroom. In contrast, “Shy” is about as close to rocking-out as ASDIG have ever gotten, as layers of Annie’s voice float over a steady beat and sparkles of synths, samples and noise. Still, even at their most accessible, there’s an indescribable otherworldliness flowing through the band’s music, one that is fully revealed during “Blood White.” Like Lucier’s aforementioned experimental touchstone, you can practically hear the shape of the room resonating in the washes of voices and samples that had been amplified, recorded, replayed and recorded again and again, resulting in lots of undulating tones and deep sub-aquatic bass before the track slowly drifts into the kosmische, carried by a light, Ashra/Gottsching-esque bed of bubbling electronics and guitar.

From the addition of new vocalists and strings, to a completely different recording environment and method to the proceeding, there are certainly many differences between the band’s first album and Ashes Grammar, but with Ben continuing his role as the principal songwriter, there’s no doubt that this is any other group than A Sunny Day in Glasgow. And once again, dream pop has been re-imagined.

A Sunny Day In Glasgow
Ashes Grammar
(Mis Ojos Discos)
Street date: Sept. 15, 2009

1. Magna for Annie, Josh, & Robin
2. Secrets at the prom
3. Slaughter killing carnage (The meaning of words)
4. Failure
5. Curse words
6. Close chorus
7. Shy
8. Lights
9. Passionate introverts (Dinosaurs)
10. West Philly vocoder
11. Evil, with evil, against evil
12. The white witch
13. Nitetime rainbows
14. Canalfish
15. Loudly
16. Blood white
17. Ashes grammar
18. Ashes maths
19. Miss my friends
20. Starting at a disadvantage
21. Life’s great
22. Headphone space

A SUNNY DAY IN GLASGOW LINKS:

MySpace - www.myspace.com/sunnydayinglasgow

Band Page - www.asunnydayinglasgow.com

Label Page - misojos-discos.com

MP3: LAKE - “Madagascar”

LAKE’s new album Let’s Build A Roof [KLP213], produced by Northwest legend Karl Blau, is sweet, funky and nostalgic - a paragon of psychedelic pop. Their previous album, Oh, the Places We’ll Go, contained lighter, more upbeat numbers, but its theme of wonder and idealism foreshadowed the next album to come. Let’s Build a Roof is like a travelogue of the places they went, the stories they encountered on the way, and the memories that were unearthed from those experiences, be they good or bad.

Eli Moore and Ashley Eriksson’s radiating songwriting chemistry serves as the foundation of Let’s Build a Roof. Their retro-jingly pop aesthetic is further fleshed out with thicker instrumentation (featuring a rotating cast of synths, keys, guitar, flutes and assorted percussions) and tempo shifts that fracture into kaleidoscopic sounds and harmonies.

Every track stands out as a unique gem. The album opens suddenly with the rolling, pulsating song “Breathing.” A bell rings, a door opens, and an ominous chord is struck on the piano. The strong force of apop journey is about to begin. Like a storybook, each song unfolds new characters and different walks of life, or death, as is the case in the dubby, slow-groove track “Madagascar.” Although there are many divergent styles on the record, the elements that tie the songs together are in the images and lyrical themes; like the image of the collapsing home, or of fear itself.

The second song, “Gravel,” with its marimbas and chilling, punchy horns, is an African funk-infused portrait of a fragile figure caught up in a whirlwind of responsibilities. “Sing 99 and 90,” a rendition of a medieval folk song, is a trip to the past with 70s rock influences and call and response harmonies. Similarly, “Loose Wind” is an excellent example of LAKE’s history as a Fleetwood Mac cover band. An alternately bubbly, prog-ditty, “Winking Sign,” juxtaposes an unlucky dining experience with a little girl afraid of murky water. And if the stories start to make you feel like life is hopeless, or you too have become overwhelmed with life’s terrors, you will feel a change of heart with the motivational disco-soul song, “Don’t Give Up.”

Without sacrificing the wonder and childlike beauty that has been the face of LAKE for the past four years, Let’s Build a Roof proves that wonder and beauty aren’t just kids stuff. This is LAKE’s most sophisticated record to date.

LAKE
Let’s Build a Roof
(K)
Street Date: Oct. 6, 2009

1. Breathing
2. Gravel
3. Madagascar
4. Sing 99 and 90
5. Acorn
6. The Roof Caves In
7. Loose Wind
8. Winking Sign
9. Remote Control Cars
10. Don’t Give Up
11. Christmas Island
12. Collapsing Homes

LAKE LINKS:

Label Page - www.krecs.com/html/artists/artistbio.php?interest=107

Artist Page - www.laketheband.com

MySpace - www.myspace.com/lakemusicmusic

Also contributes to the soundtrack for Where The Wild Things Are

**PLEASE HIT US UP WITH ANY PROMO / INTERVIEW REQUESTS**

In another life, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Imaad Wasif might have been a poet or a priest. He draws inspiration from beyond the veil, seeking connections and cosmic patters in the hopes of expressing the simplest but most profound message to his listeners: We are not alone. The urgency of that communication, and his need to convey it, give both his delicate guitar ballads and his fervent rock songs a ferocity and focus that resonates with every note.

Wasif goes far beyond the here and now in his music, but he is very much of this time. He is a rock musician who came of age in the Coachella Valley of the 1990s. Early on he played live and in the studio with Lou Barlow’s Folk Implosion. In 2006, Kill Rock Stars released Wasif’s self-titled solo debut, an acoustic psych gem. Around the same time, he was enlisted as a touring guitarist and opening act for Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Sophomore album Strange Hexes revealed Wasif’s varied influences. The album was recorded with his band Two Part Beast (Bobb Bruno and Adam Garcia) and self-released in March 2008. That album was the first to hint at the distinctive sound Wasif has ultimately crafted for himself; a blast of post-modern psychedelic rock that is at once potent and refined. The album will be re-released by Tee Pee Records in 2010.

Having gained a reputation for his intense live shows while opening for RTX, The Raconteurs, Neko Case, Arthur Lee’s Love and Sebadoh, Wasif has plans for an extensive tour in the fall of 2009. He can also be found playing guitar on “Little Shadow” from the YYY’s latest album, It’s Blitz! and Lou Barlow’s forthcoming solo album, Goodnight Unknown. His collaboration with Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, and “Little” Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs and Dead Weather on the score for the Spike Jonze-directed film adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are hits theaters in October.

The theme of love in its many guises, both as redemption and call to arms, is one that Wasif returns to again and again in his songs. Its mythical quality becomes a springboard from which he explores the mysteries of life and the universe on his third album, The Voidist. Recorded with Two Part Beast, plus guests Dale Crover (Melvins) and Greg Burns (Red Sparowes), by Chad Bamford (Weezer) with additional recordings by Mathias Schneeberger (The Obsessed, Gutter Twins), the release is due from Tee Pee Records in October 2009.

Imaad Wasif
The Voidist
(Tee Pee)
Street Date: Oct. 13, 2009

1. Redeemer
2. Priestess
3. Fangs
4. Widow Wing
5. Our Skulls
6. Return to You
7. The Hand of the Imposter
8. Daughter of Fire
9. Her Sorcery
10. Another
11. Razorlike

IMAAD WASIF LINKS:

Myspace: www.myspace.com/imaadw

Label Page: www.teepeerecords.com