MP3: “En Memoria” (feat. Tune-Yards)

STREAM: “En Memoria” (feat. Tune-Yards)

We’re pleased to introduce you to Elephant & Castle, with this amazing new single “En Memoria” featuring guest vocals from Merrill Garbus, aka Tune-Yards, from the forthcoming debut full-lenth LP, Transitions, due on Plug Research on March 13. We also recommend checking out this mix that Elephant & Castle made for Mary Anne Hobbs / XFM as a nice introduction to his work.

Bio:

David Vincent Reep isn’t really from any one place. The young musician has already lived in Colorado, Texas, London and California in his lifetime. The son of working parents, music wasn’t something that held prominence in the house during his formative years. Through some combination of intuition, curiosity and boredom during his seven year stay in London, David picked up an acoustic guitar and dove into the world of the blues and soul music for a while. He was also an avid skater at the time, spending hours in Southbank, London, with occasional trips to the infamously dreary Elephant and Castle area (that place that would later become his music moniker). Upon return to the U.S., David was enamored with the rave scene that had spawned here and recalls being captivated with DJ Shadow’s music. It was during this time that he first picked up the SP-303 and began to experiment with his own musical ideas.

Despite his musical curiosities, David’s originaly had his sights set on journalism as a career and moved to California to pursue it. But after leaving UC Santa Cruz because they canceled their journalism program, he relocated to the Bay area and enrolled in audio-engineering school. While enriching his knowledge of music and sound at school, David had the opportunity to intern at Studio 880, home of Amp Live of Zion I and a general hub for East Bay music in general. Through his tenure at Studio 880, David stumbled on the bright idea of starting his own DIY music label after realizing he probably would not be able to be hired at a label as he once thought. In 2007 and 2008, he self-released a handful of 7″’s and full length efforts by friends and musicians he had met in his years in the Bay. He continued his own musical explorations on the 303 but they were still contained to the realm of impassioned hobby, until one fateful South by Southwest a few years ago. David was all set to attend the heralded music and media showcase in Texas when he ran into a roadblock: his flight was overbooked. Disheartened but not deflated, David set out to Oakland’s Groove Yard record store bent on making a project he describes as “modern sounding, but from records only.” A month or so later, his Analogue EP was born. On a whim he asked the Godfather of Low End, Daddy Kev, if he would consider mastering the project. Much to David’s surprise, Kev said yes and like that David was on his way down to LA to sit in the session at the famed Echo Chamber in downtown. After receiving an unexpected pep talk from Daddy Kev (as well as a shot at playing Low End Theory), David sent out the EP to a few blogs and it soon found its way on Pitchfork. This combination of events propelled David to take his own music a bit more serious.

Putting his label ambitions aside for the time being, David spent the better part of last summer working on the Transitions LP, to be released on Plug Research. Compared to his previous EP, David says, “this album is way more ambient. It’s not as beat oriented, it’s a little more jazz influenced, has a few songs with weird time signatures, making it a bit more complex of a record. During it’s creation, I was making music that was much more spacial and flowing.” The mostly instrumental project contains influences from DJ Shadow, Flying Lotus’ early work, Burial and matthewdavid. but it’s ambitions lie a bit further than just another beat-music record. “Anything emotion-based is usually my favorite kind of music. With this project, I chose music that resonated with me because I’ve found that if I get a strong emotional reaction from something, chances are other people will feel it too.” David, as Elephant and Castle, has grown into a versatile producer, employing both technical proficiency and intuition to push his music forward.

Elephant & Castle
Transitions
(Plug Research)
Street Date: March 13, 2012

Track List:

1. Adjoining Souls
2. Rise
3. Derni / Paralysis
4. Altered Scones
5. En Memoria (Feat. Tune-Yards)
6. Oakland Stroll
7. The Hangar
8. Formatting… (Feat. Rachel Fannan)
9. I Will
10. RGB<<
11. Distance To The Sun

Links: Facebook//Bandcamp//Twitter//Label

STREAM: “Goodbye Again” (John Denver cover, live on Sirius XMU)

VIDEO: “July” (Dir. by Tyler T Williams)

Due to severe weather conditions in the NorthWest, Youth Lagoon has been forced to move its Seattle show, originally scheduled for tonight at Neumos, to Monday, Jan. 23. Youth Lagoon also added a run of dates in late April and May, opening for Death Cab For Cutie’s orchestral tour — this is in addition to Youth Lagoon’s already scheduled dates in March and April which also includes the band’s first appearance at SXSW.

Bio:

Twenty-two year old Trevor Powers, whose musical venture is called Youth Lagoon, has had a long year. Not because he’s been endlessly touring or pursuing some wild dream, but because of life - the life of a kid going to college, being in love, dealing with heartache, and just living.

“Youth Lagoon isn’t me.” says Powers. “It’s merely a part of me. I was in and out of different bands in high school and always tried to define myself by what music I played. I tried to find a sense of meaning by being in a band. But it wasn’t until this last year - when I realized I was more than just music - that I was able to create music that means something to me. And that is Youth Lagoon.”

Throughout the course of 2010, Powers began to write an album about things he had a hard time talking about. He claims that when he tries to talk about it to people, he doesn’t make sense. So he wrote an album about it titled The Year of Hibernation.

“For my whole life I’ve dealt with extreme anxiety.” says Powers. “Not anxiety about passing a test or somewhat normal things, but weird.. bizarre things. Things that only I know. I sometimes feel like I’m literally being eaten up inside. So I started writing these songs. Not just songs about my anxiety, but about my past and my present. Songs about memories, and all those feelings that those bring. I know that if I can be honest about what is inside my mind, there will be others that will be able to relate to it.”

Although his music seems somewhat dreamy with the first listen, the lyrics show a different side to the matter. Hidden beneath the melodies is a voice that is eerie yet nostalgic. Powers claims his music is like letting people read his journal. “I don’t think I could ever write a completely happy album. It’s not that I’m not a happy person,” claims Powers, “but I just have too many things in my mind that haunt me.”

Tour Dates

1/20: Biltmore, Vancouver
1/21: Doug Fir, Portland
1/23: Neumos, Seattle
3/10: Urban Lounge, Salt Lake City
3/11: Larimer Lounge, Denver
3/12: Jackpot Music Hall, Lawrence
3/14 - 3/17: SXSW, Austin
3/18: Fitzgerald’s, Houston
3/19: One Eyed Jacks, New Orleans
3/20: Club Downunder, Tallahassee
3/21: The Social, Orlando
3/22: Drunken Unicorn, Atlanta
3/23: Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro
3/24: Rock N Roll Hotel, Washington DC
3/26: Union Transfer, Philadelphia
3/27: Bowery Ballroom, New York
3/28: Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn
3/29: Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge
3/30: La Sala Rossa, Montreal
3/31: Lee’s Palace, Toronto
4/02: Radio Radio, Indianapolis
4/03: Firebird, St. Louis
4/04: Metro, Chicago
4/05: Turner Hall, Milwaukee
4/08: Indie O Fest, Mexico City
4/11: Porter’s Pub @ UCSD, San Diego
4/12: Troubadour, Los Angeles
4/13: The Independent, San Francisco
4/27: Beacon, New York *
4/30: Strathmore, Washington DC *
5/01: Tennessee Theatre, Knoxville *
5/03: ACL Live, Austin *
5/04: McFarlin Auditorium, Dallas *
5/06: Mesa Arts Center, Mesa *
5/07: Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles *
5/08: Fox Theater, Oakland *
5/13: Paramount Theatre, Seattle *

* = w/ Death Cab for Cutie

Youth Lagoon
The Year of Hibernation
(Fat Possum)
Street Date: Sept. 27, 2011

1. Posters
2. Cannons
3. Afternoon
4. 17
5. July
6. Daydream
7. Montana
8. The Hunt

LP comes with a bonus 7″ single (also available as digital bonus tracks):

A: Bobby
B: Ghost to me

Links: Soundcloud//Facebook//Twitter//Bandcamp//Label

STREAM: Golden Silence” (Mater Suspira Vision Remix)

VIDEO: “Summer of Love”
(Dir. by Prince Rama, Shot by Ian Perlman)

Drawing from a collective mine of times and spaces, Prince Rama (made up of sisters Taraka and Nimai Larson) takes the threads of ancient symbolism and ritual and weaves a surreal universe that is wholly their own. Their often-unpredictable live shows graze the space between psychedelic ceremony, performance art and initiation rite.

Trust Now, their 5th full-length album and 2nd album to be released on Paw Tracks was born out of this fantastic ritual space. Spawned from the vernal heat of the Florida swamps amidst swirling patterns of pine orchards and pre-Columbian artifacts, Prince Rama was whispered into the ears of Taraka Larson, Nimai Larson, and Michael Collins in the summer of 2007 by the clanging of prayer bells and goat-skin drums. They left the Hare Krishna farm where they were living to attend art school and form a creative nucleus in Boston. The visceral, devotional and raw “Threshold Dances” and “Zetland” were released as the culminations of those early collaborations. At this time Taraka also began working for the controversial visionary artist Paul Laffoley, and inspired by his architectural diagrams of utopic space, composed Architecture of Utopia.

After a series of extensive tours (one of which resulted in a tragic car robbery where all their equipment got stolen), the trio moved to Brooklyn, rebuilt themselves from the ground up and wrote Shadow Temple, produced with the help of Avey Tare and Deakin of Animal Collective and released on Paw Tracks in September 2010.

A few months later, Michael Collins took a hiatus from the band and the two sisters went on to refine and reinvent their sound through the recording of Trust Now, recorded in a 19th century church with Scott Colburn (Sun City Girls, Animal Collective, Arcade Fire). Just this past year Prince Rama was also chosen to be artists in residence at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, where they currently reside and continue their exploration of the link between music and utopia, conducting group exorcisms to the score of old VHS workout music and re-staging apocalypses through chopped and screwed pop songs.

Tour Dates

02/23 Brooklyn, NY Glasslands *
03/06 Charlottesville, VA Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar
03/07 Knoxville, TN The Pilot Light
03/08 Savannah, GA Savannah Stopover Festival
03/13 - 03/17 Austin, TX SXSW
03/18 Dallas, TX Bro Fest 2012 @ Club Dada
03/19 Hot Springs, AR Valley of the Vapors Festival #
03/20 Lawrence, KS Jackpot Music Hall #
03/21 St. Louis, MO 2720 Cherokee #
03/22 Chicago, IL Hideout #
03/23 Cleveland, OH Happy Dog #
03/24 Pittsburgh, PA Assemble #
04/27 - 04/29 Austin, TX Austin Psych Fest

* = w/ Gary War, DJ set by Brian DeGraw (Gang Gang Dance)
# = w/ Psychic Ills

Prince Rama
Trust Now
(Paw Tracks)
Street Date: Oct. 4, 2011

1. Rest In Peace
2. Summer of Love
3. Trust
4. Portaling
5. Incarnation
6. Golden Silence

Links: Official Site//Facebook//Myspace//Twitter//Press Materials

AU “Solid Gold” by Hometapes

Portland’s AU is releasing its third full-length album, Both Lights, on Hometapes on April 3 and in the UK via The Leaf Label on April 2. That’s the cover art above, and the track list below. The band will take its frenetic, high-energy live show on the road in February and March (and beyond), playing shows with The Dodos and Deerhoof along the way, as well as hitting SXSW and the Treefort Music Festival.

About Both Lights:

Both Lights hit me like a wave. I walked right into it, eyes open.

The music writer Bob Palmer once described “a fusion of music and poetry accomplished at a very high emotional temperature.” He called it “a gigantic field of feeling…something enduring, something that could be limitless.”

Palmer was talking about the Blues. But all I can think about is AU.

Like all waves, it keeps on coming. AU’s third album, Both Lights, is a recurring dream. Eleven songs made by the Portland, Oregon-based duo Luke Wyland and Dana Valatka, it’s a story of Time. Three years to be exact: since their critically-acclaimed 2008 album Verbs and its 2009 EP evolution Versions, there’s been a long exhale. A little defiance of the double-speed countdown of the indie hype clock. And a hell of a lot of living. Turn it on. More than a mere accompaniment, it’s a gleaming mirror. It’s an exaltation, an exhalation, a monument of extreme composition, the child of collaboration and isolation, a preamble to a wild live show, a statue intact in the violent wind of art and commerce, and, simply, a record about love. It’s for itself, and, in being that, it’s an album that can be understood like a person. “It’s the topography of me,” says Wyland. So you follow the coordinates.

The record begins with “Epic” — count it among the world’s greatest lead tracks. Complete with earth-cracking saxophones by man-machine Colin Stetson, “Epic” defines ascension — from the slow motion of an Oregon sunrise to a ‘67 Barracuda barreling off a bridge. It’s a thesis statement for an album that began as a series of improvisations in Wyland’s attic, a one-man tug of war with love, loss, pain, anger, and desire. Wyland calls “Epic” a “real re-introduction to the band” and it encompasses that extreme confidence. It sets the tone for Both Lights, illuminating the frantic energy that drives AU, on and off stage.

Titled like a directive, second track “Get Alive” marks the first reveal of Wyland’s soaring vocals. Multi-tentacled, he’s playing banjo and keys as Valatka turns his drum kit into a veritable mode of transportation. He’s crossing over. You can hear the cymbals bending mid-air. Nick Sweet and Alex Milsted, who make appearances throughout the album on brass, keep step up the mountainside. Portland’s Holland Andrews is waiting at the top for a climactic last-verse duet: “I’ve been alive for so long, you’ve been dead all these years, if love is what we wait for, I’ve made you wait.” “Crazy Idol” hovers at the peak, a hymn in classic AU style, the deep breath before the dive into the machine-like, breakout-dance-jam “OJ”. “Coded language, hidden thoughts, a shroud of technological wonder…almost a subliminal expression of my insect state.” Wyland’s description of “OJ” extends into a laid-bare definition of AU. Both Lights is a homemade album. It’s about breaking up. It’s about finding oneself, again and again. It’s about the struggle to make what you make and give it to the world. It’s the glowing spectrum of carnival lights and it’s the pitch-black wooded walk home. It’s your heart racing.

By “The Veil”, the last song on side A, you are breathing at just the right pace to accompany the piano, a first-take improvisation from beginning to end, recorded on a long summer day. Flip the record. “Solid Gold”, unveiled this past December on a limited edition 7″, ushers in side B and marks Colin Stetson’s second appearance on the album. You can feel it. Like the fight song for an imaginary sport, this single defines AU’s transcendent freneticism and abundant tenderness. It permeates everything they touch. It sets the stage for the supreme freak-out ecstasy of “Why I Must” and the continuous three-song suite that closes out the album by opening it up even further. You can hear guest vocalist Sarah Winchester’s voice tremble on “Old Friend,” an ode to a singer who’s been on every AU album: her.

In its eleven songs, Both Lights constructs new sonic and psychological terrain for the listener. It unfolds like a story, both in its hyper-attentive, graceful, and often fierce instrumentation — the language of Wyland and Valatka — and in its heated and naked emotion. “This is all inner struggle, inner growth, inner seeking,” said Wyland. Set to music, life sounds like AU.

-Sara Padgett Heathcott, Hometapes

AU - Both Lights will be released on LP, CD, and digitally by Hometapes on April 3, 2012, including an exclusive license to The Leaf Label for release in Europe that same week. AU will tour North America in February and March, including appearances at SXSW. The AU “Solid Gold” 7″ is available now from Hometapes.

Tour Dates

02/25 - Sacramento, CA @ Bows and Arrows - w/ Appetite
02/26 - San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall - w/ The Dodos
03/03 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir - w/ Tu Fawning + Parenthetical Girls
03/08 - Santa Cruz, CA @ Crepe Place
03/13 - Santa Fe, NM @ SOL @ Santa Fe Brewing - w/ Deerhoof
03/14-17 - SXSW
03/20 - Denver, CO @ Hi Dive
03/21 - Boulder, CO @ The Shack
03/22 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
03/24 - Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Fest

AU
Both Lights
(Hometapes / The Leaf Label)
Street Date: April 3, 2012 (US) / April 2, 2012 (UK)

1. Epic
2. Get Alive
3. Crazy Idol
4. OJ
5. The Veil
6. Solid Gold
7. Today/Tonight
8. Why I Must
9. Go Slow
10. Old Friend
11. Don’t Lie Down

AU
Solid Gold
(Hometapes / The Leaf Label)
Street Date: Dec. 7, 2011 (US) / Jan. 9, 2012 (UK)

1. Solid Gold
2. under / Epic (feat. Colin Stetson)

Links: Facebook//Bandcamp//Press Assets//Worldwide Label//EU Label