VIDEO: “Vinterbarn”

MP3: “Locked In The Basement”

Fredrik started out in late 2006 as the songwriter/sound artist duo of Fredrik and Lindefelt. The idea was to attempt narrative structures in music through the combination of electroacoustic composition and folk-infused musical form. Before the release of their critically acclaimed debut, Na Na Ni, the lineup was expanded to a 6-piece.

On stage the sextet could be seen playing banjo, clarinet, cello, wind up music boxes and hand made instruments along side bass, guitars and drums. The band ventured stateside for a buzz worthy 3-week winter tour, starting with a live national television appearance on election night, from the Embassy of Sweden, to a string of packed shows along the northeast.

The following 6 months saw Fredrik back in Malmö recording new material in the form of an EP-trilogy. Each one was surreptitiously self-released on highly limited 3″ CDs in hand made origami packaging. Having finished a short film collaboration with Dutch film maker Iris Piers and several music videos, Fredrik and Kora present the release of the EP’s as a proper full length entitled Trilogi.

This second outing is more consistently inward-looking and takes on themes like social realities and subconscious geography. The melodies are more serpentine and the textures decidedly darker. However, Fredrik’s warm, sensitive lead voice and operatic choir work still lends the material the same comforting elegance as on the debut. The three EP’s bear the titles “Holm“, “Ava” and “Ner“, all fictional names roughly signifying “Frozen Forest Island”, “Water Through Sound” and “The Inside Underground”. Together they represent a trilogy of contemporized viewpoints of the Lovecraftian dream passage - orientation at great cost and understanding at the risk of sanity.

Fredrik
Trilogi
(The Kora Records)
Street date: Jan. 26, 2010

01 vinterbarn
02 milo
03 holm
04 den sista fabriken
05 vanmyren
06 ava
07 flax
08 under vattenverket
09 ner
10 tretusen violer
11 viskra
12 locked in the basement
13 omberg

FREDRIK LINKS:

Label Page - thekorarecords.com/

MySpace - myspace.com/fredriktheband

MP3: “Blessa”

Toro Y Moi (a.k.a. Columbia, South Carolina’s Chaz Bundick) is the sound the world has been waiting for. This multi-cultural juggernaut gathers up the best musical elements from around the globe- R&B, Indie Rock, Electronic Dance and Psychedelica -and creates something-freaking-else! Over the course of his first groundbreaking full length Causers Of This, Toro Y Moi turns the aforementioned musics upside-down with his breathtakingly innovative approach. The incendiary power of Toro Y Moi’s funky synth and guitar play, pumping digital rhythms and gorgeously bright vocal harmonies makes for a formidable combination. A soon to be masterpiece of a currently unnamed genre.

Bio:
Toro Y Moi is 23 year old Columbia, South Carolina native and resident Chaz Bundick. After earning a BFA in Graphic Design at The University of South Carolina, Chaz decided to push his music further now that he has more time on his hands. His mom came from the Phillipines to the United States, where she met her future husband (who’s African American) in college. They lived in New York City taking in all the wonderful cultural influences the city’s rising underground scene had to offer at the time (late 70s/early 80s). Deciding to slow down and be closer to family, they moved to Columbia, South Carolina where they had their first child…

Chaz Bundick’s methods are constantly changing and evolving. Heavily influenced by his parent’s vinyl and tape collection, he also possesses great admiration for contemporary influences like Animal Collective, Sonic Youth, J Dilla, and Daft Punk. Like most prepubescent teens, he had his punk band and once that died out, the “side project” soon became the main focus.

Toro y Moi started in 2001 as a bedroom project but quickly grew into the live performance realm. The songs are born from a plethora of different genres, from freak-folk to R&B to French House.

Before any full length album has been released, Toro Y Moi has already received praise from music websites like Pitchfork and Gorilla Vs. Bear as well as print features in the NME and Dazed and Confused.

TORO Y MOI

12/10 Washington, DC DC9 *
12/11 Philadelphia, PA Kung Fu Necktie %
12/12 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Bowl
12/13 New York, NY Cake Shop
12/15 New York, NY Mercury Lounge #
12/16 New York, NY Mercury Lounge #
12/17 Baltimore, MD The Ottobar
12/19 Columbia, SC The Spyda Zone %

* = w/ Tickley Feather, Future Islands
# = w/ Neon Indian
% = w/ Tickley Feather

Toro Y Moi
Causers of This
(Carpark)
Street Date: Feb. 2, 2010

1. Blessa
2. Minors
3. Imprint After
4. Lissoms
5. Fax Shadow
6. Thanks Vision
7. Freak Love
8. Talamak
9. You Hid
10. Low Shoulders
11. Causers Of This

TORO Y MOI LINKS:
Band Page - toroymoi.blogspot.com

MySpace - myspace.com/toroymoi

Press Materials - carparkrecords.com/toropresspage

VIDEO: “Drain The Blood”

MP3: “Don’t Haunt This Place”

“Drain the Blood” is the first official single from the Hometowns LP and will be released on 7″ vinyl (w/ download code) and digital formats on Jan. 12. The single includes the newly recorded B-side cover of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”.

The Rural Alberta Advantage was born out of singer / songwriter Nils Edenloff’s exodus from the province that inspired the band’s name and many of the songs from their enthralling debut album, Hometowns. To cope with the homesickness and isolation of his move from Edmonton to Toronto, the shy songwriter penned a series of odes to his former home, celebrating the country’s wild rose, the purple skies and “The Dethbridge in Lethbridge”.

The band just launched a run of Dec. tour dates where they will hit the Midwest and the West Coast, and has added dates in Jan. and Feb. in the Northeast, Midwest and all over Canada.

Video Credits:

Director: Ante Kovac
Production Company: The Field Inc.
Executive Producer: Cherie Sinclair
Producer: Collin Wiancko
In-house Music Video Coordinator: Adam Shanfield
Director of Photography: Michael LeBlanc
Editor: Graham Chisholm @ Relish/567

THE RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE

12/09 St. Louis, MO Off Broadway +
12/10 Oklahoma City, OK The Conservatory +
12/11 Austin, TX The Parish
12/12 Dallas, TX The Cavern +
12/14 Phoenix, AZ Rhythm Room +
12/15 Los Angeles, CA Bootleg Theater +
12/16 San Francisco, CA Bottom of The Hill +
12/18 Portland, OR Backspace
12/19 Seattle, WA Vera Project
01/06 Philadelphia, PA Kungfu Necktie
01/07 Hoboken, NJ Maxwell’s
01/08 New York, NY Terminal 5 &
01/09 New York, NY Mercury Lounge (two shows, early and late)
01/14 Milwaukee, WI Mad Planet
01/15 Minneapolis, MN The Cedar Cultural Center
01/16 Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall
02/09 Winnipeg, MB West End Cultural Center
02/10 Saskatoon, SK Amigo’s
02/12 Calgary, AB Broken City
02/13 Edmonton, AB Pawn Shop
02/15 Vancouver, BC Queen Elizabeth Theatre
02/16 Victoria, BC The Lucky Bar

+ = w/ Shaky Hands
& = w/ Passion Pit

The Rural Alberta Advantage
Hometowns
(Saddle Creek)
Street date: July 07, 2009

1. The Ballad of The RAA
2. Rush Apart
3. The Dethbridge in Lethbridge
4. Don’t Haunt this Place
5. The Deadroads
6. Drain the Blood
7. Luciana
8. Frank, AB
9. The Air
10. Sleep All Day
11. Four Night Rider
12. Edmonton
13. In the Summertime

The Rural Alberta Advantage
Drain The Blood Single
(Saddle Creek)
Street date: Jan. 12, 2010
Formats: 7″ vinyl, digital
Pre-order link here

01 Drain the Blood
02 Eye of the Tiger

THE RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE LINKS:
MySpace - myspace.com/theraa

Band Page - theraa.com

Saddle Creek: saddle-creek.com

MP3: “Shout It Out” (Fol Chen Remix)

Inspired in part by Yo La Tengo’s annual run of Chanukkah shows, Princeton will play a special Chanukkah themed show in LA on Dec. 12 with guests Parson Red Heads. The show will feature surprise collaborations, and eight hand-picked Chanukkah gifts to be given out to audience members over the course of the evening.

The show will also serve as a homecoming show for the band, who have just recently wrapped up a 3 month tour supporting Ra Ra Riot, Art Brut and OK GO.

Bio:

Los Angeles-based Princeton released its debut record, Cocoon of Love, September 29th on Kanine Records. Growing up on Princeton Street in Santa Monica, the group now lives in an aging green house on a hillside in the Eagle Rock district of LA where their album was recorded.

Among the many detrimental effects that love has on the mind, one of the more subtle is the way it litters the memory with a batch of misplaced associations - places, figures, products and (especially) music that, through chance, become invested with deep personal significance. This detritus of love is scattered all over Princeton’s, Cocoon of Love, right down to its title, taken from a chance line on a long-ago-cancelled children’s show. Stacks of herbal tea, a glow-in-the-dark monument, paperback writers, the Wall Street Journal, a departing Mercedes, The Metamorphosis, a series of Cambridge-commissioned paintings, video arcades, graffiti, and a cyclist on the Autobahn all figure prominently into Princeton’s musical sketches.

Princeton is twin brothers Jesse & Matt Kivel, Ben Usen and David Kitz.

PRINCETON

Dec. 12 Los Angeles, CA Spaceland - Chanukkah show w/ Parson Red Heads

Princeton
Cocoon of Love
(Kanine)
Street Date: Sept. 29, 2009

1. Sadie and Andy (feat. Meredith Metcalf)
2. Show Some Love, When Your Man Gets Home
3. Calypso Gold
4. Korean War Memorial
5. Stunner Shades in Heaven
6. Martina and Clive Krantz
7. Shout it Out
8. Sylvie
9. I Left My Love in Nagasaki
10. Worried Head
11. The Wild

Princeton
Shout it Out (Digital Only Single)
(Kanine)
Street Date: Dec. 8, 2009

1. Shout it Out (album version)
2. Moonbeams
3. Shout it Out (Fol Chen Remix)

Princeton
Calypso Gold 7″ Single
(Jodie & Victor)
Street Date: Jan. 18, 2010

PRINCETON LINKS:

Press Materials

Label Page - kaninerecords.com

MySpace - myspace.com/princetonmusic