NEW ALBUM FROM THE COOL KIDS FEAT. GHOSTFACE KILLAH

On July 12th Chi-town’s The Cool Kids will release their long-awaited full-length album, When Fish Ride Bicycles on Green Label Sound. The album will feature 11 new tracks featuring  Ghostface Killah, Bun B, Mayer Hawthorne, Asher Roth, Travis Barker and Pharrell Williams.

Track listing:
1.  Rush Hour Traffic

2.  GMC

3.  Boomin’ (featuring Tennille)

4.  Sour Apples (featuring Travis Barker)

5.  Penny Hardaway (featuring Ghostface Killah)

6.  Bundle Up

7.  Gas Station (featuring Bun B)

8.  Get Right

9.  Swimsuits (featuring Mayer Hawthorne)

10. Roll Call (featuring Asher Roth, Chip Tha Ripper, Boldy James)

11.Summer Jam (featuring Maxine Ashley), Produced by Pharrell Williams

 

ARIEL PINK’S RE-FREAK GETS A RE-MIX FROM DAM FUNK

Check out this remix of Ariel Pink’s  “re-freak” from Galactic Funk Federation founder Dām Funk which appears on Ariel Pink’s Fright Night 12″ single.  Give a listen below:

mp3:
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti :: Fright Night (Nevermore) (Dām Funk Refreak)

 

PALEO: FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

[rating: 2]

Paleo: Fruit of the Spirit

Label: Partisan Records

Release date: June 21, 2011

David Andrew Strackany is an experimental folk artist who performs under the guise of Paleo. More than a poet and musician, Strackany is a road warrior, putting on more than 700 shows since 2005. The running list posted to his otherwise minimal website is awe-inspiring. His music, on the other hand, is something of a mixed bag. Its smart yet challenging, personal yet detached.

Strackany is another in a long line of folk singers who weren’t born with the suitable means to be technically proficient singers. Such a list has too many names to list, but right there at the top is Bob Dylan, owner of one of the most cringe-inducing voices in all of popular music history. But like Dylan, Strackany gets by. His words are often a shield against the sandpaper abrasiveness of his voice and his instrumentation, though off the beaten path of traditional American folk, is regularly enough a nice distraction. “Lighthouse,” the opening track on Fruit of the Spirit, is a great example of this. This cut plasters Strackany’s strained voice over top of rugged acoustic instrumentation. You can hear his fingers against the fretboard as he switches chords, even amidst the constant fluttering percussion. There are moments almost identical to this scattered all throughout the album. But as many brilliant moments as Strackany sets up and knocks down, there are that many truly agitating ones waiting just around the bend.

“Poet (Take 1)” takes some of the most brutal instrumentation you’re likely to hear all year — the clunking, rhythm-devoid instrumentation isn’t experimental, its painful — and throws it over top of ironic lyrics about the fallacies of considering yourself a poet. In a sense, this song is like hearing Strackany rebel against himself. Taken that way it doesn’t seem like such a bad creation; artists don’t often skewer their own music and mock their songwriting so freely. But taken as simply another song amongst a collection of them, it represents a turn-off of staggering proportions. Strackany’s Kristian Matsson-meets-Jackie Greene-meets cheese grater voice isn’t intolerable (all the best singers have deficiencies, anyway) but is a challenge, so it would seem logical to make things sound as appealing as possible otherwise, not take the complete opposite course. And especially not twice — “Poet (Take 2)” is essentially the same architecture recycled.

While Fruit of the Spirit does have its charms — the aforementioned “Lighthouse,” “Over the Hill and Back Again,” and “In the Movies” are all worthy standouts — they are ultimately weighted down by its shortcomings. Its clear that Strackany doesn’t have a good voice, but what remains uncertain is whether or not he’s aware of this. Throughout the album there are moments where he strains too far, stretching out to latch onto notes that he shouldn’t even be thinking about. These instances tend to hurt. And while the instrumentation backing him up may maintain a certain level of consistency (save for those two atrocious “Poet” tracks), that simply isn’t enough to make this an album worth digging too deep into.

SLASHER? I DON’T EVEN KNOW HER: ANR’S HORROR FLICK

“It all started with the idea of shooting spear hooks through this girls back, through her boobs, into her boyfriends hands.” That’s what ANR’s singer/ drummer, Michael John Hancock, told us was the premise for the bands new slasher film project.  We took the bait too.  So here it is, the music video edit of ANR’s slasher film based on “Big Problem” directed by Lucas Leyva, crewed by the fine folks at Borscht Film Festival, and starring a cast of Miami heroes.  It’s a 5 minute horror epic along the line of  Thriller. Check back with us for the extended 12 minute unrated short film version coming soon too.

WH’NTCHA BACK THAT APP UP

Posted in discosalt, top story

We are creating an exciting new, interactive iPad Magazine app. for indie junkies to get their fix of the latest independent music, film, and art. Back our App on Kickstarter and be a part of our project.

CLICK HERE TO PLEDGE AS LOW AS $1.00 TO DISCOSALT MAGAZINE FOR iPAD:

After you back it up, then stop, what what what? drop it like its hot.

 

Each quarter we will bring you the very best of discosalt.com with exclusive feature articles not available on the web, plus reviews, interviews, new music, art and more.

We are currently raising funds to sustain discosalt magazine indefinitely, but, in the meantime, we are racing against the clock to bring you our first issue, SUMMER 2011. We need your help to do so.  Please take the time to learn more about discosalt by visiting our website discosalt.com, and reading below.

Help spread the word about our project and share with your friends!

wobbly wobbly wobbly


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





  

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

THIS WEEK AT ROOFTOP FILMS: THIS IS WHAT WE MEAN BY SHORT FILMS AND FREELOADER

Posted in top story

[Will Oldham in Pioneer]

Opening Night of the 15th Annual Rooftop Films Summer Series is this weekend! and we are pretty excited about the more than 200 films they are bringing to the city throughout the summer. On Friday, May 13th, you can check out a special screening of  “This is What We Mean by Short Films,” a collection of short epic stories that could save your life. Then on Saturday, May 14th, you can watch the World Premiere of New York Filmmaker Zachary Raines new black comedy Freeloader.

Details below:

Friday, May 13th

Opening Night: This is What We Mean by Short Films

Venue: Open Road Rooftop, 350 Grand Street @ Essex (Lower East Side)

Subway: F, J, M, Z to Delancey Street-Essex Street; B, D, Q to Grand Street

8:00 PM Doors Open

8:30 PM Live Music by Dustin Wong

9:00 PM Films Begin

11:30 PM After Party at Fontanas

Tickets and more info at: http://rooftopfilms.com/2011/schedule/this-is-what-we-mean-by-short-films-2/

A simple line drawing fleetingly becomes a recognizable face, then morphs into something disturbing. An obliterating splatter of paint describes the history of the universe. A prophesy of doom comes blissfully alive. The forces of creation and destruction battle epically within and around us at all times, at atomic, 8-bit and astronomical levels. David O’Reilly’s masterful fragmented universe The External World reminds us “Remember this is merely a cartoon. None of this is real. . . . There is only a silent emptiness spreading infinitely in all directions.” But at this, the start of Rooftop’s 15th year of existence, we begin with short films that celebrate creativity as a necessary means to survival. The piano players know, “She can’t kill me while I’m playing.”

 

The Films:

LOVE & THEFT (Andreas Hykade | Germany | 7 min.)

The driving pulse of transformation reveals moments of terror and beauty amidst images familiar and domestic.

OOPS (Chris Beckman | Springfield, MO | 10 min.)

Conjuring creative connections out of mundane happenstance, Oops—composed entirely of appropriated YouTube videos—lies somewhere between a home-video mixtape and a postmodern travelogue.

THE EXTERNAL WORLD (David O’Reilly | Ireland | 15 min.)

A boy learns to play the piano.

THE PIANO TUNER (Olivier Treiner | France | 13 min.)

Adrien is a young piano prodigy. He now works as a piano tuner. He pretends to be blind in order to infiltrate his clients’ intimacy. Since he sees things he should not, Adrien ends up witnessing a murder.

HEARTPOCALYPSE (Matthew Silver | Brooklyn, NY | 7 min.)

In a dynamic bit of spontaneous street art, a crazed doomsayer ranting underneath a Brooklyn subway track brings to life his worst nightmares—and the crowd loves it.

BIG BANG BIG BOOM (Blu | Italy | 10 min.)

This ingenious animation uses the city as its canvas in a short unscientific story about evolution and its possible consequences.

LEDO AND IX BATTLE EPICALLY (Emily Carmichael | Brooklyn, NY | 4 min.)

The third in a series of films about two adventurers in an old-school fantasy video game. Ledo, the tiny 8-bit heroine, has been obsessively upgrading her weapons and tirelessly honing her attacks, all in preparation for great battles that have never materialized. Supported by the Rooftop Filmmakers’ Fund.

YEARBOOK (Carter Smith | New York, NY | 10 min.)

The yearbook photo never tells the whole story in this creepy portrait of small town high school sexuality from the award-winning creator of Bugcrush.

PIONEER (David Lowery | Dallas, TX | 15 min.)

A father (Will Oldham) tells his little boy the most epic bedtime story ever.

 

Saturday, May 14th

World Premiere: Freeloader

Venue: Open Road Rooftop, 350 Grand Street @ Essex (Lower East Side)

Subway: F, J, M, Z to Delancey Street-Essex Street; B, D, Q to Grand Street

8:00 PM Doors Open

8:30 PM Live Music by Emily Reo

9:00 PM Film Begins

11:30 PM After Party at Fontanas

Tickets and more info at: http://rooftopfilms.com/2011/schedule/freeloader/

FREELOADER

(Zachary Raines | New York | World Premiere)

A special World Premiere of the new black comedy from New York based filmmaker Zachary Raines.

It’s not easy being heart-broken, down on your luck, and out on your own in New York City—particularly when you’re a Grade A jerk.

All of us know someone like Frank (Kyle Espeleta). He’s kind of clever, but a little too much of a smart ass. He’ll make you chuckle—until he aims his sarcasm at you. He’s a bright guy, but he hasn’t held down a job in a while. It’s true he’s over-qualified for the menial job you landed for him, but did he have to be so dismissive when he quit? It may seem easy to write off someone like Frank, but it’s hard to take your eyes off him as this insightful dark comedy makes you squirm awkwardly.

An establishing shot outside a Brooklyn apartment shows a graveyard, telling us it’s morning, and it’s not going to be a good one. Inside, Frank is hung over (again). He would’ve overslept work if he had a job, but he has missed his opportunity to have that relationship talk with Pearl he so desperately, drunkenly wanted to have late last night. It seems like Frank just can’t catch a break—or is it that he keeps breaking things?

When Pearl (Vassi Spanos) tenderly tries to break up with him, Frank (as usual) makes an awkward situation more difficult than it has to be: he simplifies things, spins them around, and simultaneously goes on the attack while feigning victimhood. It’s a masterful maneuver, as far as dick moves go. As uncomfortable as Frank’s faux pas are, they’re always uncomfortably funny.

Perhaps Frank’s gripes are justified, but he’s always digging in for a fight, overtly passive-aggressive, and he manages to make everyone involved feel badly. Even while living off the gifts of others, Frank makes sure to his best friend Bud (John Siciliani), his ex-girlfriend Pearl, and anyone else he encounters won’t be happy with or without him. At last, while shacking up with overly-eager Ray (“with the pedophile smile”), it appears that Frank might be recognizing something about himself, coming out of his bitter shell. Frank goes to Ray’s (Jesse Wakeman) comedy show—a blinding bomb of a performance that serves as the metaphoric epicenter of the movie—and for the first time Frank earnestly tries to project empathy. It’s almost tragic how badly that comes off. This is, after all, a dude who’s even sarcastic to the sea.

Writer-Director-Editor Zachary Raines delicately draws sharp and nuanced performances out of the entire cast, and cuts the naturalistic dialogue crisply, keeping each scene light and funny, even when the subtext sinks further and further into negativity. Freeloader is on some level a fantastic farce, set in a New York City neo-realism that satirizes some of our society’s delightfully nasty tendencies.

 

 

NEW! IRON & WINE, MOGWAI GIGPOSTERS AND LOST HIGHWAY ART PRINT FROM DOE-EYED

Posted in New Art, top story


Eric Nyffeler has some sick new prints available at doe-eyed posters.  Two gigposters for Iron & Wine and Mogwai, as well as a really sweet Lost Highway art print for a David Lynch show at the Phone Booth Gallery.  Check out some of his work below or stop by his web shop and pick up a print.

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OFFICIAL VIDEO + MP3 FROM PALEO’S NEW RECORD

Check out a new mp3 and video from the the amazingly talented & prolific Paleo (think Daniel Johnston and Bob Dylan meets the Violent Femmes). The track is ‘Holly Would’, off his upcoming Partisan Records release Fruit of the Spirit , out June 21.


BRAVESTATION “WHITE WOLVES” REMIX BY YOUTH AND TEEN DAZE

Toronto’s Bravestation just released remixes of their new single “White Wolves” by Youth and Teen Daze. The band will be heading across the Atlantic for their first ever UK tour, which includes a main-stage play alongside Iggy and The Stooges, Caribou, Two Door Cinema Club, The Kills & more at the Evolution Festival.  “If Foals moved to Canada and joined Wolf Parade, they might sound something like Bravestation”(Flavorpill)

Download “White Wolves” MP3

Download “White Wolves (Youth Remix)” MP3

Download “White Wolves (Teen Daze Remix)” MP3

 

MUSIC RADAR: BARBIE HATCH (FOR FANS OF BEST COAST/ SHE & HIM)

Fans of Best Coast and She & Him should check out Venice, CA artist Barbie Hatch. She’s an indie/electro/pop singer, signed by Squeak E. Clean of N.A.S.A to his own Spectrophonic Sound label who just popped up on the discosalt radar. She’s making some really sweet music, collaborating with Canadian Hip Hop artists Swollen Members and appearing alongside RZA and John Frusciante. You might also recognize her voice from the N.A.S.A. track “I Wanna be Your Lover” on the remix album The Big Bang alongside the artist Maximum Hedrum.

She has a new single called “Stars”.

Check it out below:
MP3: Barbie Hatch – “Stars”

 

 

STREAM GANG GANG DANCE’S NEW RECORD: EYE CONTACT

Check out the new  Gang Gang Dance record, Eye Contact in its entirety below and grab a free track:

mp3:

Gang Gang Dance :: Mindkilla

NEW TRACK FROM WASHED OUT: EYES BE CLOSED

Grab Washed Out’s  new track “Eyes Be Closed” off their forthcoming LP Within and Without, out July 12 on Sub Pop:

mp3:
Washed Out :: Eyes Be Closed

 

ANGLOPHILIA’S LATEST, GREATEST AND WHITEST HOPE: THE VACCINES

 


[rating:3.5]
The Vaccines: What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?
Label: Columbia
Release date: May 31, 2011 

You’ve heard this song before.
You’ve heard this album before.
You’ve seen this band live before, but it’s been so long – do you really care anymore?

The Vaccines are a UK band who, in the UK music press (read: NME) have been hailed as the new brit-pop darlings you must worship and adore lest you face the harsh ridicule of anyone claiming to be cooler than you.

Anglophiles both casual and fanatical will agree on this to a certain degree.
Anglophillia or the severe interest/obsession with UK bands (or as a Greek goddess once put it “lad rock”) has been going in and out of style since the very first British Invasion. For every Guided By Voices geek, there’s a Manic Street Preachers nutter just like there’s a Strokes devotee for every Libertines junkie.

Some years are better for anglophiles than others. American Indie Rock has been kicking serious limey ass for a while now that the British Hype Machine hasn’t successfully reached our radars since Tony Blair left office and Arctic Monkeys were still culturally viable.
Enter The Vaccines, a really young London foursome with a scrappy pub rock yet anthemic retro pop sound.

The Vaccine’s singer, Justin Young, has a strong, clear and distinctive yet still familiar voice (you might recall and compare to Doves, Embrace, Kaiser Chiefs, etc).
Most of their debut, What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? is comprised of short one-two-punch numbers that concentrate more on the release and less on the build. It’s the aural equivalent of several satisfying quickies ( If You Wanna, Blow It Up, Post Break-Up Sex, Norgaard) and at least one incident of premature ejaculation (Wreckin’ Bar).  Like I said, they’re still young.

The Vaccines found their man with the megaphone in Zane Lowe, who is no Tony Wilson by any stretch, but he is a BBC radio dj. Add to this, Tom Cowan of The Horrors is your older brother (Freddie, guitar) and multiply that by the fact that it’s one of the driest times in British music history for guitar bands and you start to see the stars align for The Vaccines.

Don’t get me wrong, What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? is a fun album but it’s upsetting that the band with the The Horrors connection gets this much attention for doing the same thing that virtually every other band both in the UK and here stateside is doing, which is playing tried and true bar band/pub garage rock with  pop sensibility (See: Airborne Toxic Event, Gaslight Anthem, Detroit Cobras, etc) and some might argue, much better.

 

NEW SINGLE FROM BLACK LIPS: MODERN ART

Black Lips just released the first single from the Mark Ronson produced LP,Arabia Mountain, “Modern Art”.  The track premiered over at Spin but you can grab it below.  It’s a much more structured sound than 2009’s 200 Million Thousand, with more kink-like riffs and 13th Floor Elevator tweak-outs condoning drug use.

MP3 Black Lips “Modern Art” [Download Mirror]

 

 

 

NEW NUMBERS: VACATIONLAND

[Rating: 3.5]
New Numbers: Vacationland
Label: Musiques Primitives
Release date: March 8, 2011
The first time I hit play on New Numbers’ Vacationland, I did so with the volume cranked and the bass high. It was as instantly jarring as it was completely unintentional. “Death and Dying,” the frightfully-titled opening track, begins with the slow crank of gritty feedback backed up by subtle yet effective bass. It was sort of like experiencing a concert in reverse (because, you know, those things often end with stray instrumental noise even as the band has stopped playing and is exiting the stage). From there the band descends — or, more appropriately, ascends — into their own brand of pavement-smooth rock.

 

Those first moments of “Death and Dying” don’t only jar, but they kind of deceive too. From just those few seconds it’d be easy to expect something of the lo-fi, Times New Viking-meets-punk-rock concatenation. Rather, New Numbers are actually quite the rubbery outfit. There’s an unmistakable 1980’s aura on many of the songs (the vocals on “Verbal” are prime 80’s real estate), glimpses of standard issue, modern day indie rock, and even synthesizers blended in amongst the otherwise guitar and drum driven tunes. This may just be a debut — and a self-financed one at that — but its nice to hear that the band isn’t overly pushy with immediately establishing their own definitive sound. There’s a cohesion to it all, but the boundaries of such uniformity are pretty liberal.

Perhaps more than anything else, Vacationland is an album that makes you wonder — and much of that goes back to the whole self-financed thing. On this release, New Numbers seem poised and ready to make an impact. Hell, on tracks like “Islands” and “Creature Comforts,” they not only leave such an impact, but they do it better than a lot of label-supported artists. So the question then becomes: what if these guys had some backing? By no means is this the kind of record you’d easily fawn over, but its pretty easy to hear that the ingredients for such a thing. Just imagine if they had the resources afforded to many of the groups we switch in and out of our listening rotations. New Numbers could be a big thing.

Above all, Vacationland is exactly what the title suggests: an album chock full of fun cuts. There’s no overbearing pretentiousness or forced gimmicks. Its just a nice little do-it-yourselfer that deserves a spot somewhere on your summer soundtrack.

Andrew J. Bailey

BEAUTIFUL AND DAMNED: POST-URBAN POP ART

Pam Glew’s forthcoming show features icons from the Roaring 20s, from silent movies to the golden age of cinema. The next generation post-urban pop artist uses her signature style of dyeing and bleaching vintage materials to create poignant portraits of the beautiful and the damned.

‘Beautiful and Damned’, the shows title, is of course taken from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1922 novel, which explores the listless lives of moneyed society during the Jazz Age. This captivating era, drenched in glamour yet tinged with tragedy is the decadent setting for this extraordinary series of work.  The exquisitely beautiful movie starlets, society icons and characters on display capture the spirit of the age all who are caught in the unforgiving glare of the limelight and some sadly burn out before their time. As Pam states, “the tragedy amongst the beauty is what has inspired this show, the sharp contrast between a blessed life and one that ends in scandal, hedonism or destitution”.


For this latest series, the artist uses found materials from the same period. This is the first time she has incorporated antiques into her work. Each piece is deconstructed, dyed, and repeatedly bleached until a portrait emerges from the cloth. Rather than add pigment, Glew takes away the pigments in layers, creating ghostly figures, which appear almost woven into the cloth. This technique, mastered by the artist, can also be seen in the ‘Flag’ series and ‘Circus’ series, these prolific luminaries’ faded portraits are not only responsive to the vulnerability of the characters but are also loaded with connotations of the fragility of all human life and the transcendent nature of all our lives. However, in this new body of work Glew explores colour and pattern as a contemporary re-invention of found materials. The vintage materials and antique techniques used, such as crewelwork, further highlight and bring to the surface the precious and tenuous lives of the characters featured.

Household names of the time feature in this ever so evocative exhibition, such as world famous vaudeville performer Josephine Baker, sultry screen goddess Marlene Dietrich and the pioneering aviators of the time Amelia Earhart the first female pilot to fly solo over the Atlantic, who went missing attempting to fly around the world and Charles ’Lucky Lindy’ Lindberg, whose child was notoriously kidnapped and murdered in the ‘Crime of the century’. These highly iconic figures, each with their own personal distressing life stories, represent the true spirit of the age.

Glew acknowledges the influence of some of the great Pop artists like Johns and Warhol while we also see a nod to women’s installation art and post-modern film theory allowing her to comment on contemporary society in a more poetic and subtle way than we usually see in the urban scene.  Her gentle and feminine approach to a sensitive subject matter could be the reason why she has been picked up by the likes of the actress of the moment

– Gemma Arterton.

 

 

YUCK + TAME IMPALA: LIVE AT WEBSTER HALL

Yuck and Tame Impala played a sold out show at Webster Hall on Monday 25.4.11.

For a band that formed only a little over a year ago, the London/Hiroshima/ New Jersey foursome, Yuck are quickly becoming one of the best new bands out there.  They might sound like they belong in the early 90’s but they are one of the more technically gifted guitar acts to tour in a long time, and prove themselves to be more than mere “Nineties revivalists” in concert. Drawing obvious inspiration from grunge and shoegaze bands from over a decade ago, they somehow manage to sound all their own, frontman Daniel Bloomburg channeling a bit of a young Dylan-esc stage swagger on a raw version of  “Georgia”, and the band showing a more melancholy dreamlike side on “Suicide Policeman”. Substance o

If you haven’t seen Yuck live yet, there are still Tickets available for their  Headline show at Bowery Ballroom on May 27th or you can head over and catch them play a free in-store at Other Music TONIGHT.

Aussie musical ensemble Tame Impala took the stage last and is a beast. Their 70 minute psychedelic hypno-groove melodic rock performance was packed with enough emotion and atmosphere to keep your head swirling around like the light show they project behind them.  With 9 flat screen monitors featuring a psychedelic light show rigged up to their guitars, the band tightly ripped through the entire Innerspeaker album, some lesser known tracks off their debut EP and even covered “Angel” by Massive Attack!  Check out the full setlist and some pictures from the whole show, below:

Tame Impala

 

VIDEO PREMIERE: NEW NUMBERS: TALK ABOUT YOURSELF

Brooklyn musical duo New Numbers have a new Midnight Cowboy inspired music video, directed by Matt Collison  for “Talk About Yourself”, which is premiering right here on Discosalt! The track comes off their self-released debut full length album Vacationland, released on their own label Musiques Primitives.  As an added treat… to go along with the release of the video, the band is  giving their album away FREE all month.  Just click HERE for a direct download.

And to catch the band live, come out and support them this Friday night at The Rock Shop in Park Slope with Hawk and Dove and Kleenex Girl Wonder, 10pm sharp!  Check out a video flyer below and we’ll see you at the show:

 

 

 

 

 

 

MOON DUO’S MAZES MOVES TOWARDS MORE POP-DRIVEN SOUND

Moon Duo, the soulfully noisy psychedelic space-rock side-project from Wooden Shjips guitarist Erik Johnson and keyboardist Sanae Yamad, have a new single and a new video for “Mazes”.  Like so many other great artists from Bowie to Liars, the duo transplaned their recording process to Berlin for this album. But, while you might expect a more darker sound, “Mazes” surprisingly moves the band towards a more accessible pop-driven sound, which works in their favor. Watch the video for “Mazes” directed by band-mate Sanae Yamada right here:

THE PASS: LIVE AT PIANOS/FONTANAS

Kentucky is not the first place you would expect to find a dance rock band of the caliber of The Pass, but these Louisvillians aren’t one to let their geographics tie them down. Which is lucky for us, considering we had two opportunities to see them play this past weekend in New York. Selling out venues across the country (twice selling out NY’s Pianos and even the 700 person Headliners in their hometown of Louisville), The Pass are nevertheless one of the more underrated bands of the scene. That was, perhaps, until Friday night when the line to get into Pianos stretched around the corner of the block and dozens of people that we spoke to were unable to get into see the band. For a young band still out to prove itself, there are certainly worse problems to have.

Drawing influences from Justice and LCD Soundsystem (R.I.P.), The Pass create a basement party kind of sweaty dance rock that packs crowds in and keeps even the most rigid hipsters moving. Recently featured on the CMJ and SXSW websites, big things are coming for this band who have found their music in primetime television and several CW and MTV televisions.

The sets at Pianos and Fontanas navigated the usual hits with all of the songs for which videos have been produced (except Criminal) making their appearance, but we were fortunate to be treated to two brand new songs, “It’s Less Dangerous” and “Hologram,” both of which were written in the last few weeks with kinks still getting worked out. The first of the new records had the anthematic quality showing the promise of that truly great record the labels are always looking for and the second displayed a really interesting wah wah kind of sound showing an exploration and development of guitar leads in their sound. Perhaps the tweet from Bank Robber Music said it best when they said “Wow. Suspicions confirmed at Pianos. @ThePassTheBand can’t write a bad song.” While they didn’t have the birdmen look this time, they put on a great show as always. In their feature, CMJ said “The courageous quartet pours passionate lyrics into a whirlwind of synthesizers and upbeat rhythms, all while catering to the perfect dance party environment” and notes that “the Pass’ music draws inspiration from dance parties, relationships, making out, the power of positive thinking and whatever rests in between.” It couldn’t be clearer from this week’s performances how true those statements are.

The Pass are definitely a band to keep up with so that you can be the guy or girl who knew about them before they blow up, and we’ll definitely be at the next performance (if we can get in the door).

Setlist:
Trap of Mirrors
Hologram
It’s Less Dangerous
Girl Don’t Wait
Treatment of the Sun
Crosswalk Stereo
How to Live
Colors
Vultures

The Pass: Live at Pianos

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Cassette Kids: Live at Pianos

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The Pass: Live at Fontanas

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