World's Fair

New York is already being bestowed by a bounty of good music these next months, but the glory isn’t reserved for the East Coast. Los Angeles, too, is opening its sprawling arms to a number of beloved World’s Fair artists.

The Grey Race

Just recently off a tour with Teddy Thompson, the Grey Race are back in the States for just a few shows before heading off to Europe to play as Teddy’s back-up again.
 
 
 
 
Thursday, September 18
Coronet Theater
366 N. La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
$25
Doors @ 7pm

There’s a glimpse of what’s to come in their video for “On The Chin”…Bring your gloves!

 
 
World’s Fair
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Central Park’s SummerStage may have finished last week, the McCarren Park Pool may be over, and while that may herald the end of the free show season, it does not indicate a dearth of good live music. In fact, it means anything but.

Here are just a couple for the next month or so.

Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queen. Here are the facts:
-Naomi will change your life.
-She plays at Fat Cat every Friday from 9-10pm.
-It only costs $3.
-She will change your life.

STREAM “What Have You Done”

World’s Fair
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On By The Numbers, a collection of cover songs and the newest release from indie-pop darlings The Postmarks, there’s a mood, a uniformity, that Francoise-Hardy-meets-John-Barry spin only the Miami-based group knows how to do best. Despite the fact the original versions spread fluidly across genre barriers, The Postmarks have a specific mindset when it comes to covers. “I think in doing covers, there are two ways of approaching it,” explains the band’s Christopher Moll. “One, you scientifically-backwards engineer the original and try to recreate it down to a ‘t.’ The other, you use the arrangements of the original as a starting point and let the creative and sonic precedents you’ve laid down with your own music guide you. For us, it had to be the latter; taking many of these disparate originals and resculpting them into something that worked within our universe to create something that felt like a whole.”

Cover records have been done before, it’s true, but hardly with such unique direction. No mere collection of favorites or inspirations, the tracks on By The Numbers are united not only by their ability to meld to Tim Yehezkely’s breathy vocals and Christopher Moll and Jonathan Wilkins’ lush arrangements, but also by the fact that their titles consecutively climb from one to eleven – the twelfth song is cleverly left for the Pointer Sisters’ “Pinball Number Count,” made popular by Sesame Street – a calendar’s worth of material that traverses everything from the Cure (“Six Different Ways”) to the Jesus and Mary Chain (“Nine Million Rainy Days”) to the Ramones (“7-11”) to Antonio Carlos Jobim (“One Note Samba”).

Despite the diversity of the originals, each rendition fully encapsulates The Postmarks’ sound, a sound that has only continued to develop and deepen since their 2006 self-titled release (on Unfiltered), an album that has quickly established the trio as a hometown favorite and crush band to indie-pop fans worldwide. By The Numbers continues this, but it also pushes the group forward into even more complex territories. “Three Little Birds” is a particular standout, much in part because The Postmarks are able to take a reggae standard and reinterpret it, respecting and paying homage to the original while still making it utterly their own. The same can be said for “11:59,” from Blondie’s 1978 classic Parallel Lines, a track that was, according to Moll, “one of the most difficult to do,” because the band had no desire to sound like they were trying to do new wave. They don’t: The Postmarks’ version contains the important elements of the original – the faintly apocalyptic feel, the bouncy drums – and it’s a darker edge the group is willingly embracing; yet there’s still the casual Brigitte Bardot airiness that surrounds their production, the sunniness of Southern Florida or France.

With the gorgeous instrumentals and delicate sadness the band is known for, By The Numbers not only is itself a satisfyingly complete Postmarks album, it also alludes at what’s to come, promising an even more nuanced look at love and heartbreak and happiness, music that pulls us towards it with its unabashed openness and verity, holding us there until we’ve found it all ourselves.

Artist: The Postmarks
Album: By The Numbers
Label: Unfiltered
Street Date: November 11, 2008

CONNECT: World’s Fair | Myspace | Website

In their constant quest to take over the world, herding everyone into their white jumpsuit-wearing singing cult, Colourmusic (whose excellent debut full-length, f, monday, orange, february, venus, lunatic, 1 or 13, comes out September 9) has released another video. Perhaps you remember the fist-pumping antics of Yes!, or the name-calling “You Can Call Me By My Name,” but you are assuredly not prepared for the terror that is “Motherfather,” in which the band carefully document their plans for absolute domination.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Colourmusic will be on the road in September, luring unsuspecting Midwesterners into their harmony-driven death traps. Watch out.

Sep 5 - Norman, OK @ Guestroom Records
Sep 6 - Oklahoma City, OK @ VZD’s
Sep 9 - St. Louis, MO @ The Bluebird
Sep 10 - Columbia, MO @ Mojo’s
Sep 11 - Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Sep 12 - Urbana, IL @ Canopy Club
Sep 13 - Tulsa, OK @ Soundpony Lounge
Sep 20 - Stillwater, OK @ Eskimo Joe’s

Artist: Colourmusic
Album: f, monday, orange, february, venus, lunatic, 1 or 13
Label: Great Society
Street Date: September 9, 2008

CONNECT: World’s Fair | MySpace | Website | YouTube

If you were in New York this past weekend, and thinking clearly, you were at Central Park SummerStage, enjoying Daptone Records‘ series-closing revue, where you might have noticed they have been amassing quite a nice number of fans. You also might have noticed that while the hard-driving funk and soul of Sharon Jones is certainly front-and-center, the Bushwick-based label knows how to do other genres, as well, like the soul-meets-Afrobeat-meets-Ethiojazz of Menahan Street Band or the electrified gospel of the always magnificent Naomi Shelton.

Continuing in this vein, Daptone is proud to present their very first full-length record outside of the soul-and-funk realm it’s built its name on. Out today, August 19, COMO NOW: The Voices of Panola Co., MS, is an a cappella gospel album produced by music researcher Micheal Reilly, who went down to Como, MS, a town ripe with musical history, two summers ago to record the local singers he met had there live.

The 16 songs on COMO NOW feature performances by every one of the singers that came down to Mt. Mariah Church on July 22nd, 2006. Though their music is steeped in tradition, it should not be filed away as some sort of academic field recording. It was not made for the archives of the Library of Congress, nor for the benefit of musicologists and anthropologists. COMO NOW is a contemporary recording of contemporary people.

Daptone made an entire mini-documentary about the album, which can be seen here.

You can also watch a special performance by the Como Mamas, one of the groups included on the compilation, on YouTube’s music homepage, or below.

Download the video for the Como Mamas’ “Trouble In My Way” here
Download the mp3 for “Trouble In My Way” here

Check out the feature on National Geographic here.

Here’s what critics have been saying…

“The album itself exudes austerity, uplift and release” — The New York Times

“COMO is proof that, with its success, Daptone has foregone climbing the pop ladder and remembered its roots, understanding that there’s a higher musical power depending on them.” — Paste

“…The a cappella gospel recordings share those acts’ sonic purism, approaching a form of black American music at its roots. As on Daptone’s more danceable records, Como Now unearths a slew of powerful and previously underexposed voices, including the Como Mamas (a related trio whose grandfather recorded for Lomax) and Brother and Sister Walker (an elderly married pair whose voices overlap with a naturalness most weathered couples reserve for bickering). The album’s star is not one individual act, but rather the collective voice of the region, antiquated and proud.” — TimeOut New York

On September 26, the COMO NOW crew will give a special performance at the
Levitt Shell in Memphis, TN, but Daptone is also throwing a party tonight at Savalas, in Williamsburg. Daptone DJs Gabriel Roth, Neal Sugarman, and the Honeydripper, among others, will be spinning. The event starts at 10, and yes, there will be food and drink specials.

Album: COMO NOW
Label: Daptone Records
Street Date: August 19, 2008

CONNECT: World’s Fair | MySpace | Website | YouTube

In 1873, French writer Jules Verne published Around The World In Eighty Days, a story that glorified the new Age of Exploration and the Machine. Not long after, Antarctic exploration was in full swing, and in the US, the romanticism of the power of the railroads dominated the landscape, both physical and mental. Times were ripe for discovery, and invention flourished. Of course, there were also less savory effects: colonialism was at its peak, and as industry began to dictate the economy an increase in pollution and environmental destruction followed. It is from this mindset, the positive and negative aspects of the period between 1850 and 1930, that Spindrift approached and found inspiration for The West, their first official full-length (out November 11) and companion to the soundtrack they wrote for The Legend of God’s Gun. (In theaters on July 18, 2008, the film, in which they also starred, was fourth highest charting new release in sales.)

DOWNLOAD/STREAM “The New West”

Already widely recognized as a touring force, a tireless group that frequently crosses the country, Spindrift recorded The West over a period of three years, in that rare time between shows. The album is, in the words of frontman Kirpatrick Thomas, a “pastiche,” music that pulls from earlier eras, from the Spaghetti Western, Eastern European klezmer, the sea shanty, Spanish flamenco, and American blues, but ties in notions of the present – druggy California pysch, Bruce Haack’s work in the electronic realm, Spacemen 3, over-population and over-consumption, and mostly, a respect for and affinity towards the last of the great unknown.

The mood for The West is immediately set: “The Isle of Lost Souls,” the opening track, weaves through Spindrift’s various influences without fully settling on one, yet still whole and purposeful. This description in fact, could fit the entire album as well, which, despite the various styles the band explores, is united by a feeling of vastness and discovery, of the constant search — aided by swirling, reverbed guitars, the steady, portentous drum and, when they occur, Thomas’s distant vocals. “Goin’ Down” is druggy and rolling and bluesy, but there’s a quiet levity to “A Celebration of the Human Body,” a song that could almost fit into the West Coast pysch-folk canon. Some tracks, like “Colt’s Crime,” the closer, were recorded in one take, while others, like “The Wind,” took months to find their shape. All, however, retain a sense of mystique and adventure, stories from the past threaded with insight from the future. The West is an expansive, sweeping album, the work of many musicians coming together with a common goal, a defined purpose, in the process creating what ends up being a tone poem of contemporary society itself.

Spindrift embarked on another nationwide tour beginning August 16, and will play everywhere from Austin, Chicago, New York, and DC to Nashville, Cincinnati, Boise, and Rapid City, with plans for more touring nearer to The West’s release.

LISTEN TO “The New West”

TOUR DATES

Aug 16 - San Diego, CA @ Beauty Bar
Aug 17 - Las Vegas, NV @ Beauty Bar
Aug 18 - Tempe, AZ @ The Clubhouse
Aug 20 - Oklahoma City, OK @ The Conservatory
Aug 21 - Austin, TX @ Beerland
Aug 22 - Ft. Worth, TX @ The Chatroom
Aug 23 - New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jack’s
Aug 24 - Memphis, TN @ Hi Tone Cafe
Aug 25 - Chattanooga, TN @ JJ’s Bohemia
Aug 26 - Nashville, TN @ Exit / In
Aug 27 - Atlanta, GA @ Star Bar
Aug 28 - Boone, NC @ The Black Cat
Aug 29 - Charlotte, NC @ The Milestone
Aug 30 - Norfolk, VA @ The Boot
Aug 31 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Khyber
Sep 2 - New Haven, CT @ Cafe Nine
Sep 3 - Brooklyn, NY @ Grasslands Gallery
Sep 4 - New York, NY @ Cake Shop
Sep 5 - Wilmington, DE @ MOJO 13
Sep 6 - Somerville, MA @ Abbey Lounge
Sep 7 - Baltimore, MD @ The Metro Gallery
Sep 8 - Washington, DC @ Velvet Lounge
Sep 9 - Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
Sep 10 - Columbus, OH @ Cafe Bourbon Street
Sep 11 - Athens, OH @ Casa Cantina
Sep 12 - Cincinnati, OH @ Gypsy Hut
Sep 13 - Detroit, MI @ Northern Lights Lounge
Sep 14 - Chicago, IL @ The Beat Kitchen
Sep 15 - Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
Sep 16 - St. Paul, MN @ The Turf Club
Sep 17 - Rapid City, SD @ Imperial Inn
Sep 18 - Denver, CO @ Bender’s
Sep 19 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Salt Lake City
Sep 20 - Boise, ID @ Neurolux
Sep 22 - Seattle, WA @ King Cobra
Sep 24 - Portland, OR @ Dante’s
Sep 25 - Arcata, CA @ Big Pete’s
Sep 26 - Chico, CA @ Nick Night’s Club
Sep 30 - San Francisco, CA @ Hemlock Tavern

Artist: Spindrift
Album: The West
Label: Beat The World
Street Date: November 11, 2008

CONNECT: World’s Fair | MySpace | Website

 
Daptone is releasing the a cappella gospel compilation COMO NOW: The Voices of Panola Co., MS — their first record outside the immediate grasps of funk and soul — this upcoming Tuesday, August 19, and to celebrate, they’re holding a party at Savalas in Williamsburg, featuring Daptone DJs Gabriel Roth, Neal Sugarman, and the Honeydripper, among others, and they’ll be screening the documentary. It starts at 10, and yes, there will be food and drink specials.

The album was just reviewed in Time Out New York, who gave it 4 stars and said:

“…The a cappella gospel recordings share those acts’ sonic purism, approaching a form of black American music at its roots. As on Daptone’s more danceable records, Como Now unearths a slew of powerful and previously underexposed voices, including the Como Mamas (a related trio whose grandfather recorded for Lomax) and Brother and Sister Walker (an elderly married pair whose voices overlap with a naturalness most weathered couples reserve for bickering). The album’s star is not one individual act, but rather the collective voice of the region, antiquated and proud.”

Hear it for yourself this Tuesday.

Album: COMO NOW
Label: Daptone Records
Street Date: August 19, 2008

 
On “Dreaming of Dreaming,” an exclusive non-album track from New York’s the Secret Machines, the band creates a space in which both melody and experimentation have equal weight. The song, the first new music since 2006’s Ten Silver Drops is available for download now — an early taste of everything to come.

Hear it here:
“Dreaming of Dreaming” (exclusive, new non-album track)

The track begins with Josh Garza’s tight, concise drumming, holding the place for the guitars that layer and crescendo until the song breaks and Brandon Curtis starts to sing, his voice careful but on the edge of longing. “I’m dreaming, we’re dreaming, we’re way past believing/I caught a glimpse it was all a lie” he confesses, acknowledging, but not resigning to, what he’s discovered.

If Garza’s drums are the backbone, then Phil Karnat’s guitars are the ribs and nerves, enveloping the song in contained dissonance, giving it a sense of shape and heft. And it’s only at the end, when he falls into a pattern, that Garza allows himself to expand. The song explodes, and with each member closely attuned to rest of the band, responding to the others’ movements, “Dreaming of Dreaming” achieves that rare balance of spontaneity and control. This is the Secret Machines at their best: accessible yet intelligent, meandering yet focused, and wholly compelling.

The all-knowing RCRD LBL premiered the song earlier this morning, saying, “this song sounds like everything we ever loved about the Secret Machines (read: losing braincells sonically), building and building over eight minutes until even the drums have slap-back delay on them and the whole thing sounds like the Hale-Bop comet crashing into the Garden of Eden.”

You can download it at the link below.

“Dreaming of Dreaming” (exclusive, new non-album track) STREAM/DOWNLOAD

Artist: The Secret Machines
Album: Secret Machines
Label: TSM Recordings
Street Date: October 14, 2008

CONNECT: World’s Fair | MySpace | Website

The video for “The Legend Of The Last Of The Outlaw Truckers AKA The Ballad of Sheriff Shorty,” the first single from the Dandy Warhols upcoming album …Earth To The Dandy Warhols…, had its world premiere today on MySpace. Directed by Mike Bruce, the video is set in a drive-in theater, which ends up being a perfect setting not only for the on-screen Dandys but also for some moviegoers to particularly um, enjoy themselves.

Check it out below!

Their first video from …Earth To The Dandy Warhols… (out next Tuesday, August 19), the very excellent “Mission Control,” premiered last week on MTV Subterranean, and you can see it for yourself here.
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The Postmarks — “Eight Miles High” [FREE DOWNLOAD @ EMUSIC]

This month’s thoughts come from Christopher Moll:

“Released as a single in 1966, The Byrds’ ‘Eight Miles High’ was instrumental in ushering in a new strain of rock and roll in the mid-1960s known as psychedelic or acid rock. The obscure lyrics, penned by Gene Clark, are about the group’s plane trip touring England in 1965. There is heavy conjecture that David Crosby and Roger McGuinn were primarily responsible for most of the lyrics with Clark only contributing to the opening lines. Regardless, for us those opening lines were a source of haunting inspiration and that’s what we chose to focus on.

We also deliberately chose to inject a heavy dose of Ennio Morricone via a spaghetti western sandstorm in our version of ‘Eight Miles High’ because it felt like a natural interpretation of the hugeness of the original.

Start Small…Finish Big…”

Get the rest of “By The Numbers” exclusively at eMusic - for free mp3 download!
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