ALBUM STREAM: King of the Beach

MP3: “Post Acid”

King of The Beach, originally slated for an Aug. 3 release date, will now be available via iTunes exclusively on July 1, all other digital outlets on July 13 and the physical street date (CD / LP) remains Aug. 3.

Bio:

In the life of Nathan Williams, the year of 2009 will go down as both a highlight reel and a total shit show. Meteorically, feverishly and somewhat improbably, two albums worth of naïve punk rock he recorded behind his parents’ San Diego home as Wavves became a sensation in the world of indie music. As a result, passports got filled, capers got pulled off and lots of good things got said about the music in both print and digital ink, plus in actual human voices. At the same time, fights got fought, situations got hairy and people got indignant and mean.

Oh well. Fuck it. All of it.

What’s important now is that, in the beginning of 2010, Williams made King of the Beach, the new Wavves album. King of the Beach is an adventurous and ambitious record. It cuts deeper into the bleeding throat catharsis and ’60s sunshine soul that Wavves is known for. It also unexpectedly flips out with elements of primitive electronics and psychedelic studio experimentation.

“There was a conscious effort going into this that I didn’t want to make the same record again. I already made the same record twice, with the same fucking cover art,” says Williams. “It wasn’t overbearing, but I didn’t want to recreate something I’d done. I wanted to make something bigger, something stronger.”

Unlike Wavves’ previously released material, recorded in haphazard bursts on Williams’ laptop, King of the Beach was toiled over for three months at Sweet Tea Recording, a world-renown studio in Oxford, Mississippi. Sweet Tea is also the home of Dennis Herring, producer of the last two Modest Mouse albums, and the man who dismantled and re-assembled the sound on this record.

All the rumors are true: Herring is a studio perfectionist. Williams is not. “There were some definite ‘I want to wring you neck’-type moments,” Williams says of the sessions, but he also understood that, with the resources he had available to him, he’d be stupid not to make the album sound exactly how he wanted it. “When you’re not watering it down with a load of shit and reverb, it’s a lot harder to make a record, because you know every part is going to be heard perfectly. You can’t half-ass anything,” says Williams. “A lot more effort went into this than with previous Wavves records.”

Another marked difference in the making of King of the Beach was that Williams wrote and recorded two songs with bassist Stephen Pope and drummer Billy Hayes, the duo who became his touring band at the end of 2009. Pope and Hayes formerly backed recently departed garage rock force of nature Jay Reatard. Williams met the two after his infamously disastrous performance at the Primavera Sound Festival in Spain. “I think we all agree that they squeegeed me up, because I melted down.” says Williams.

Though there is a confidence in the scope of the album-from the title track’s denim on sand anthem-baiting to the tweaked pop of “Convertable Balloon” to the unabashed prettiness of “When Will You Come”-Williams’ usual lyrical themes of self-loathing are still impossible to ignore. “I think everybody feels that way sometimes. I know everybody feels that way sometimes. You’re a fucking liar if you don’t,” says Williams. “It wouldn’t make sense if I’m feeling a certain way to not write about it. There are songs about hating myself, but there are also songs about driving in a car with a balloon and playing Nintendo too.”

In the end, though, King of the Beach is not an album for the miserable. While the verses of “Take on the World” enumerate the things Williams hates (his writing, his music, his self) the chorus resolves into a simple, bold repeated phrase: “To take on the world would be something.”

The album title King of the Beach isn’t meant to be ironic or a self-deprecating joke. It’s a declaration. “Without sounding cheesy, we all wanted to make something inspiring,” says Williams. “It’s the type of thing where you have this much, but you could have more, so go get it.”

WAVVES

Fri-Aug-06 Chicago, IL Lollapalooza
Sat-Aug-07 Chicago, IL Empty Bottle / Lollapalooza afterparty *
Thu-Aug-12 San Diego, CA Museum of Contemporary Art / San Diego
Fri-Aug-13 Pomona, CA The Glass House
Sat-Aug-14 Portland, OR Berbati’s Pan #
Mon-Aug-16 Santa Barbara, CA Soho
Tue-Aug-17 Santa Cruz, CA Crepe Place
Wed-Aug-18 San Francisco, CA Rickshaw Stop
Wed-Aug-25 Seattle, WA Neumos
Thu-Aug-26 Vancouver, BC Biltmore
Fri-Aug-27 Victoria, BC Sugar
Mon-Aug-30 Sacramento, CA Sol Collective
Tue-Aug-31 Visalia, CA Howie and Sons Pizza

* = w/ Harlem, Fergus and Geronimo
# = w/ The Cool Kids

Wavves
King of the Beach
(Fat Possum)
Physical Street date: Aug. 3, 2010

King Of The Beach
Super Soaker
Idiot
When Will You Come?
Post Acid
Take On The World
Baseball Cards
Convertible Balloon
Green Eyes
Mickey Mouse
Linus Spacehead
Baby Say Goodbye

WAVVES LINKS:
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/WAVVES

Label - http://www.fatpossum.com/

MP3: “Good Feelings (Memoryhouse Remix)”

VIDEO: All Our Noise Session - “Oh, Ivory!”

AON Sessions: Light Pollution, “Oh, Ivory!” from All Our Noise on Vimeo.

Midwesterners often feel obligated to apologize for/complain about their landscape. Chicago’s Light Pollution does not. The contrasting feelings of wonderment and isolation evoked by the frozen Midwestern plains deeply pervade their sound.

23-year-old songwriter James Cicero grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, the son of Italian and Spanish Catholics. His grandfather was a poor trumpet player, and his father a strict military man. As a result, when Cicero bought his first guitar at the age of seventeen, his father took to locking it in the attic. Cicero left for college in Dekalb, IL, met drummer Matt Evert, obsessively wrote songs in class, and soon dropped out. Over the following years, the two honed their skills and sensibilities, eventually acquiring Nick Sherman and Jed Robertson; evolving into what is now Light Pollution.

Cicero wrote the album over the course of a long, stoned, agoraphobic winter spent isolated in a heatless warehouse west of Chicago. In a piss-poor living environment, filled with anxiety, he removed himself from the outside world and sought spirituality in seclusion. Lyrical themes developed within the warehouse walls. Various apparitions were translated into long ambient tape and synth drones. Dreams of the Virgin Mary resulted in late night sessions on an old church organ.

These strange happenings resulted in Light Pollution’s devestatingly beautiful and spiritually heavy debut album, “Apparitions.” Swirling analog synths, shimmering arpeggios, and washed out tape noise are embedded into combinations of 90’s shoegaze, chill-wave and vocal psych-pop. Thanks to a unique blend of hi-fi and lo-fi tracking and their Midwestern demeanor, they are able to create hazy, psychedelic, layered sounds that set them apart from recent waves of lo-fi pop bands.

Light Pollution released Apparitions on 6/15 via Carpark Records. The band has been on tour recently with Phantogram, A Place To Bury Strangers, and Memoryhouse, as well as various dates supporting the likes of Deerhunter, Best Coast, and Mike Snow. Light Pollution will play Forecastle Festival (featuring the Flaming Lips, Massive Attack, Spoon, Devo, etc.) as well as upcoming shows with Small Black, Glasser, and Delorean.

LIGHT POLLUTION

06/30 - Austin, TX - Emo’s Jr.
07/01 - Frisco, TX - Lochranns
07/09 - Louisville, KY - Forecastle Festival %
07/11 - Chicago, IL - West Fest *
07/16 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle $
09/23 - Cincinnati OH - Midpoint Music Festival

% = w/ Flaming Lips, Massive Attack, Spoon, Devo, Cap’n Jazz and more
* = w/ Small Black
$ = w/ Glasser and Delorean (Pitchfork Fest after party)

Light Pollution
Apparitions
(Carpark)
Street Date: June 8, 2010

1. Good Feelings
2. Oh, Ivory!
3. Drunk Kids
4. Fever Dreams
5. Deyci, Right On
6. Bad Vibes
7. All Night Outside
8. Witchcraft
9. Ssslowdreamsss

LIGHT POLLUTION LINKS:

MySpace: myspace.com/lightpollution

Press Materials: carparkrecords.com/pollutionpresspage

MP3: “Little Brown Haired Girls”

Frankie Rose has a reputation around here. And by here, we mean Brooklyn. And by reputation, we mean her minimal, Maureen Tucker-like beats and iconic presence in such buzz-stirring bands as Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls, and Vivian Girls. Those groups spearheaded a scene that mixed the sounds of lo-fi garage, big reverb-drenched Phil Spector-produced 60s girl groups, the noise aesthetic of the Jesus And Mary Chain with a touch of Velvet Underground and a strong DIY ethic to create a sound that’s influenced a new generation of bands around the world.

At least that’s what she’s been known for up until now. As you’re about to hear on her new group’s self-titled Slumberland Records debut, Frankie Rose and the Outs have their heads in the clouds a bit more than Rose’s previous projects. Listening to the ghostly golden-oldie grooves of songs like “Girlfriend Island,” “Candy” and the pedal-pounding “That’s What People Told Me,” it’s as if the Cocteau Twins and Shangri-Las tracked a split LP with the help of a time machine and a freshly-acquitted Phil Spector.

“I tried to make this album as hi-fi as possible while sticking to the sounds that I’ve always loved,” explains Rose. “I grew up listening to a lot of musicals and Gilbert and Sullivan operas, so harmonies are a given. I also was drawn to anything spooky as a kid-’Good Vibrations’ still kinda scares me. Reverb puts a haze on everything, you know?”

Oh we know. And you will too, as the singer/guitarist/drummer-aided by fellow Outs bassist Caroline Yes, guitarist Margot Bianca, and drummer Kate Ryan- explores her dream-pop side on the album’s darker numbers, from the oscillating organs, spooky sleigh bells and melancholic melodies of “Hollow Life” and “Lullabye For Roads and Miles” to the disembodied balladry of “Save Me” and “Memo.”

All in the name of making “beautiful, serious music” that reaches well beyond simple Wall of Sound nods. That’s because Rose is more concerned with maintaining a specific mood than rehashing the hooks your parents lost their virginity to. Sometimes that means channeling the psych climaxes of Spacemen 3 (the chord-gnashing lead guitar of “Thee Only One,” Rose’s solo Slumberland single from 2009), and sometimes that can mean fusing a rickety rhythm section and galloping riffs with the spectral trails of Julee Cruise (the Rose-penned Vivian Girls cut, “Where Do You Run To?”).

Frankie Rose and the Outs is full of such lovely juxtapositions. From the galloping reverb symphony of “Little Brown Haired Girls” to the tough garage swing of “That’s What People Told Me” and “Don’t Tred” to the soaring chords and angelic harmonies of the well-chosen Arthur Russell cover “You Can Make Me Feel Bad,” it’s clear that Rose has finally found the perfect vehicle for her musical inspiration.

“To be honest, I like so much music,” says Rose, “and never know what influences are going to come out. For me, songwriting is more about evoking certain feelings than the lyrics or anything else. Hell, sometimes I don’t even know what the songs mean.”

FRANKIE ROSE AND THE OUTS

08/05 Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Bowl
08/27 New York, NY - Cake Shop / Dance Magic Night

Frankie Rose and The Outs
Frankie Rose and The Outs
(Slumberland)
Street date: Sept. 21, 2010

1. Hollow Life
2. Candy
3. Little Brown Haired Girls
4. Lullubye for Roads and Miles
5. That’s What People Told Me
6. Memo
7. Must Be Nice
8. Girlfriend Island
9. You Can Make Me Feel Bad
10. Don’t Tred
11. Save Me

FRANKIE ROSE LINKS:

MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/saintoftheros
Press Materials - http://www.slumberlandrecords.com/press/frankie-rose/fr.html

VIDEO: “You Hid” (Yours Truly Session)

TORO Y MOI “YOU HID” from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

MP3: “Leave Everywhere”

Carpark presents two vintage summer jams from Columbia, South Carolina’s Toro Y Moi (a.k.a. Chaz Bundick). And by vintage we mean 2006. Those thinking Toro Y Moi’s sound is all about his debut full length Causers Of This might be in for a bit of a surprise. You’ll find no electronic sounds or beats here. These songs have a classic early rock n roll feel to them with only electric guitar, bass, drums, and xylophone(!) as the instrumentation. Yet one more facet of the Toro Y Moi sound (and there are more!) These tunes will prepare listeners for Toro Y Moi’s next full length, which will have yet another completely new vibe.

Toro Y Moi is currently on tour opening for Caribou and is playing with a full live band for the first time ever on the road - the band is also thrilled to announce they will be joining French favorites Phoenix for a string of shows later this Summer (more dates with Phoenix will be announced soon).

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.

TORO Y MOI

07/01 - Brooklyn, NY - Glasslands Gallery
07/02 - New York, NY - Whitney Museum !
08/08 - Chicago, IL - House of Blues ^ (Lollapalooza After Party)
08/09 - St. Louis, MO - The Pageant ^
08/10 - Des Moines, IA - 7 Flags Event Center ^
08/12 - Minneapolis, MN - State Theatre ^
08/13 - Council Bluffs, IA - Harrah’s ^

! = w/ High Places
^ = w/ Phoenix

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
Leave Everywhere
(Carpark)
Street Date: July 20, 2010
Formats: 7″, digital

1. Leave Everywhere
2. First Date

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

MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/toroymoi

Press Materials - http://www.carparkrecords.com/toropresspage.html