MP3: KISSES - “Bermuda (Active Child Remix)”

MP3: KISSES - “Bermuda”

KISSES is a Los-Angeles based disco project featuring Jesse Kivel and Zinzi Edmundson.

Though primarily inspired by long-format, instrumental disco (Cerrone, Gino Soccio) KISSES has developed a uniquely concise songwriting style that is equal parts FM radio pop and expansive four-to-the-floor.

Early in life, Kivel developed a friendship with venerated cult disco producer Alec R. Costandinos, who rose to prominence in the late 1970s on a wave of ambitious concept albums and club singles. As Costandinos made available his knowledge and a healthy vinyl collection, the seeds for the KISSES album were sewn — the KISSES name chosen as a nod to Costandinos’ erstwhile ‘Love & Kisses’ project. As this creative relationship blossomed, Jesse took a day job as a travel writer to help make ends meet. His editors asked him to review hundreds of exotic hotels and resorts, many of which he had never seen or heard of before. The imagery used to write these reviews wove itself through the lyrics of songs like ‘Bermuda’ and ‘Women of the Club’, as well as the overall sound of The Heart of the Nightlife.

The modern-day resurgence of Costandinos’ music, notably sampled on The Avalanches classic 2001 LP Since I Left You, allowed for an easy synthesis between current dance music trends (Lidstrom, Air France) and the panoramic ambitions of disco’s commercial golden age. Nine songs were composed for the project, each exhibiting a refined pop sensibility evocative of Arthur Russell’s later-period romantic works. There is a subconscious embrace of simple emotions and sentimentality on this record. It is a minimalist approach to pop music that revels in the celebratory moments of life, those fragments of time that we only remember in postcards or faint recollections. The Heart of the Nightlife takes these elusive moments and celebrates them openly, without fear of scorn.

Kisses celebrates the release of their first single, Bermuda, today with a party at Origami Vinyl. Bermuda features the single and a remix by rising LA artist, Active Child. Future plans include a KISSES live band, a full-length, and much more.

KISSES

04/27 - Los Angeles, CA - Origami Vinyl (7″ Single Release Party)
05/12 - Paris, FR - Chez Moune (DJ Set: Maman Records Party)
05/13 - London, UK - Pitch (The Camp) (DJ Set)
05/18 - London, UK - The Social (DJ Set)
05/21 - Madrid, ES - TBA (DJ Set)
05/22 - London, UK - The Hobby Horse (DJ Set) #
05/29 - Los Angeles, CA - Pehrspace

# = w/ Active Child

Kisses
Bermuda 7″
(Surrounded By Sound)
Street Date: April 27, 2010

Tracklist:

Side A
1. Bermuda
Side B
2. Bermuda (Active Child Remix)

KISSES LINKS:

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/blowkissess

Artist Page: http://blowkisses.info/

Label Page: http://surrounded-sound.com/

UK Label: http://www.transparentblog.com/

STREAM: “Suffering Season”
MP3: “I Was Gone”

With a title like At Echo Lake, the fifth album from New York’s Woods intimates a modern rock aesthetic fully informed by historical manifestations of teenage along with a concomitant feel for the specifics of time and place. The distance between 2007’s At Rear House and 2010’s At Echo Lake may at first seem only semantic but it more properly represents a move from a kind of informal back porch jam ethos to a fully-committed vision of the infinite possibilities of group playing.

Over the past few years Woods have established themselves as an anomaly in a world of freaks. They were an odd proposition even in the outré company of vocalist/guitarist/label owner Jeremy Earl’s Woodsist roster, perpetually out of time, committed to songsmanship in an age of noise, drone and improvisation, to extended soloing, oblique instrumentals and the usurping use of tapes and F/X in an age of dead-end singer-songwriters. Recent live shows have seen them best confuse the two, playing beautifully-constructed songs torn apart by fuzztone jams and odd electronics.

At Echo Lake feels like a diamond-sharp distillation of the turbulent power of their live shows, in much the same way that The Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star” single amplified and engulfed the planetary aspect of their improvised takes. Some of the material here - the opening “Blood Dries Darker”, the euphoric “Mornin’ Time” - is so lush that lesser brains would’ve succumbed to the appeal of strings and horns but At Echo Lake is more Fifth Dimension than Notorious Byrd Brothers, nowhere more so than on “From The Horn”, a track that is as beautiful in its assault on form as “Eight Miles High” or Swell Maps’ “Midget Submarines”. But despite the instrumental innovation that the album heralds - G. Lucas Cranes’ psychedelic tapework on “Suffering Season”, guest musician Matthew Valentine’s harmonica and modified banjo/sitar on “Time Fading Lines” - At Echo Lake is all about the vocals.

Woods’ secret weapon is the quality of Earl’s voice, osmosing the naive style of Jad Fair, Jonathan Richman and Neil Young while re-thinking it as a discipline and a tradition. Here he is singing at the peak of his powers, in a high soulful style that is bolstered by heavenly arrangements of backing vocals. At Echo Lake feels like the transmission point for teenage garage from the past to the future. Deformed by contemporary experiments, bolstered by magical traditions from the past, it’s the sound of now, right here, At Echo Lake.

-David Keenan/Glasgow/March 2010

WOODS

05/13 - New York, NY - Abrons Art Center / Joshua Light Festival
06/07 - Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern #
06/08 - Vancouver, BC - Media Club #
06/09 - Portland, OR - Holocene #
06/10 - Arcata, CA - Jambalaya #
06/11 - San Francisco, CA - Slims #$
06/12 - Big Sur, CA - Henry Miller Library / Woodsist Festival #$%
06/14 - Santa Barbara, CA - Jensen’s $%
06/15 - Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex / Woodsist Festival #$%
06/25 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg (Northside Fest / Woodsist Showcase) %^

# = w/ Art Museums, The Mantles
$ = w/ Kurt Vile
% = w/ Real Estate
^ = w/ The Fresh and Onlys, Moon Duo and Sic Alps

Woods
At Echo Lake
(Woodsist)
Street Date: May 04, 2010
Formats: CD, Vinyl, Digital, Cassette

1.Blood Dries Darker
2.Pick Up
3.Suffering Season
4.Time Fading Lines
5.From the Horn
6.Death Rattles
7.Mornin’ Time
8.I Was Gone
9.Get Back
10.Deep
11.Til the Sun Rips

WOODS LINKS:

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/woodsfamilyband

Label: http://woodsist.com

Check here for updates & more info (the new Woodsist blog) -
http://woodsist.blogspot.com/

Woodsist, a record label based on the East Coast, (Warwick, New York, to be exact), has decided to bring some of its good vibes to the West Coast for a pair of miniature festivals this June. The first of the two fests will be held in Big Sur at the Henry Miller Library from 3pm to 11pm - full line-up is below - you can buy tickets here. There are also several camping options in Big Sur for anyone attending from out of town - see details below. The second fest happens in Los Angeles a few days later on June 15 where Woodsist will take over both The Echo and Echoplex stages for a night with a total of ten bands ranging from the universally loved Real Estate, to LA’s own Abe Vigoda, to All Saints Day, the new project from members of Vivian Girls and Cat Power. Buy tickets for the LA fest here.

WOODSIST FEST LA - JUNE 15TH, ECHO & ECHOPLEX

REAL ESTATE
WOODS
KURT VILE
ABE VIGODA
THE ART MUSEUMS
THE MANTLES
NODZZZ
SUN ARAW
ALL SAINTS DAY
THE BATHS

***

(((folkYEAH!))) Presents: WOODSIST FEST BIG SUR June 12,
Henry Miller Library

REAL ESTATE
WOODS
KURT VILE
MOON DUO
THE FRESH AND ONLYS
THE ART MUSEUMS
THE MANTLES
EAT SKULL
SPECTRE FOLK

***

CAMPING OPTIONS IN BIG SUR

Bottchers Gap Campground
Camping Big Sur
805-434-1996

Andrew Molera State Park
www.parks.ca.gov
Hwy 1
Big Sur, CA 93920
(831) 667-2315

Kirk Creek Campground
www.campone.com
Hwy 1
Big Sur, CA 93920
(805) 434-1996

www.woodsist.com

MP3: “When the Morning Comes” -
http://www.forcefieldpr.com/woodsmanmorning.mp3

Woodsman is an experimental ambient post-psychedelic band based in Denver, CO. The quartet contains two totemic percussionists and two sonic animators who employ electric guitars, feedback loops, and recorded samples to build the dreamy astral soundscapes that define Woodsman’s sound. Influenced by hazy mountain passes, the cinema of Stan Brakhage, and early 1970’s improvisational recordings by Miles Davis Woodsman has crafted aural offerings that are uniquely their own.

WOODSMAN

May 16 Quixote’s Denver, CO
May 26 Hi-Dive Denver, CO
Jun 01 Astroland Boulder, CO
Jun 05 House Show Denver, CO
Jun 07 Revlis Albuquerque, NM
Jun 08 Universe City Norman, OK
Jun 09 Cheer Up Charlie’s Austin, TX
Jun 10 The Cavern Dallas, TX
Jun 11 The Groj Fayetteville, AR
Jun 12 The Tavern Jackson, MS
Jun 14 Wonderroot Atlanta, GA
Jun 15 House Show Charleston, SC
Jun 18 tba New York, NY
Jun 19 87 Guernsey St. Brooklyn, NY
Jun 20 Copperworks Pittsfield, MA
Jun 21 Embassy Vinyl Scranton, PA
Jun 22 Believland Cleveland, OH
Jun 24 tba w/ Campfires Chicago, IL
Jun 26 Hexagon Minneapolis, MN
Jun 28 Public Space 1 Iowa City, IA
Jun 30 Vaudeville Mews Des Moines, IA
Jul 01 The Slowdown Omaha, NE
Jul 02 Replay Lounge Lawrence, KS

Woodsman
Mystery Tape EP
(Lefse)
Street Date: June 01, 2010

1. Beached
2. When the Morning Comes
3. Hocus Pocus
4. Balance
5. Smells Like Purple

WOODSMAN LINKS:

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/woodsmanman

Artist Page: http://woodsmanman.tumblr.com/

Label Page: http://lefserecords.com/