Din Glorious
Sunday, April 27, 2008
"Sounds like Nervous Gender ass-raping the Dead Kennedys"
EMJ managed to have a brief email chat with Daniel from New York band Din Glorious. We got the inside scoop on the band's future plans and a special track off their debut album.
Thanks to myspace and good old friends-of-friends sifting, I stumbled across Din Glorious. After about an hour of listening and dismissing a number of bands, their track 'I Drive Dinosaurs' jumped out at me. With piercing laser-beams and spastic synths fused with horror-film style vocals, Din Glorious were the exciting band I was looking for.
So, about Din Glorious! They formed like many bands, I suppose: "As a result of being bored on a Saturday night."
"I was drinking Vermouth with my friend John, and we decided to make our own fun" explains Daniel. "He said 'hey let's start a band' and the idea just took off! We wrote some basic ideas out for songs, improvised some lyrics by intentionally mishearing conversations and snippets of other songs, and sent the word out."
Before long, the word was out that Daniel and John had something cool going on; helped by the vast array of musicians living in New York city, the band started to evolve. "We were contacted by two fine young fellows who took an interest in our young project; a synth player named Zac and a drumming fellow named Justin. After adding and dropping various other people, we eventually got our final member, the dynamite Kyle, and we started writing actual songs."
Fast forward to 2008; the band has just finished and had a limited release (300 copies) of their debut album
Blump Up The Jamz! The first run of CDs has already completely sold out, mostly due to fans who turned out to see them play on their recently completed West Coast tour. Another run of CDs will be released shortly.
Blump Up The Jamz! is an extremely well-crafted, mish-mash, whopping great mess of an album. Influenced by bands like Crystal Castles, Strip Mall Seizures and HEALTH, Din Glorious fits the mold, but like the aforementioned, they have unique, well-defined characteristics.
"The types of instruments we use can be anything from radios tuned to static, oil drums, power drills, vintage synthersizers, umbrellas, tennis rackets, saxophones...we like mixing noisy and discordant (sounds) with found sounds and objects, interesting electronics, guitars being used in unneccessary ways and goofy idealism."
In the mean time the band is already hard at work on new material: "I've started work on some new songs, and we're planning on doing collaborative split 7"s with some of our favourite bands" says Daniel.
Tiger Tones
Friday, April 25, 2008
Let's Get MINCED!
One of the country's most exciting, innovative, danceable bands is finally coming to Auckland, playing their album release party at Whammy Bar! Expect to stay up all night under the Parisian lights with Christchurch's Tiger Tones, supported by Frase+Bri, Golden Axe and Mean Street. I had the pleasure of interviewing guitarist James Grant from the seriously photogenic band, here are some excerpts!
Finally the album is released! How did the making of it go?We recorded it all ourselves in our singer Mark’s lounge, just onto his laptop. Frase from Frase+Bri helped us out with a couple of tracks and there was one track that we did in a studio. We knew this guy and he teaches an audio course, and he said 'come in and I’ll record you guys and do a track for free', so we did that.
We had a song, The Siamese Republic, and we hadn’t got a structure for it, we just played it live. So that was kinda handy to have it done in the studio, cos we didn’t have the gear and everything else ourselves.
Then we got it mastered by Steve at Flagtown studios here in Christchurch and it was really amazing! I didn’t realise how important mastering can be, but it made it sound so much more like a whole, you know?
The band had been recording on and off
until about two or three months ago...Tim from Pinacolada records first talked to us in about September last year, and originally we were gonna have it out in November last year, but we got a bit of an extension on that because we didn’t wanna rush it. We thought that would be a bad idea, cos we started recording and we thought 'damn, we didn’t even
think about recording an album!'. So we just had a whole lot of bits. But then when we got the extra time we started to focus on making it more of a cohesive whole.
This doesn't look like a band that
jumps on the bandwagon...We might jump on a bandwagon for one of our songs but when it comes down to it we just play what we want to play.
We're not consciously weird; we do other stuff, we're not one-trick ponies.
And we don't always wanna play a really intense gig, sometimes we just wanna have a party!
The song Forever
has a nice connotation to it: do you think you'd like the band to go on forever?Somedays that sounds like it could be really nice and other days it would be hell, so I don't know.
You look like a band that has a lot of fun – do you have a mantra?Just to try not to take ourselves too seriously... and have fun!
I'm VERY excited about this band.
Make sure you check them out!
Holiday With Friends
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
W
TF
HWF
We Can Never Thank You Enough
It's with deep regret that we announce Holiday With Friends have taken an indefinite hiatus. In an email to EMJ earlier this evening, vocalist and keyboard player Gemma Syme said , "I really enjoy HWF (obviously), but I think we need at least a break from each other for a while...the future is rather unclear, but none of us will stop making music. I know that!. It ain't over to the fat lady sings, and fat ladies are quite easy to see- and I can't see one at the moment". In another email, guitarist and vocalist Buck Beauchamp said "We thought we'd be like an old crusty rubber band, stretching and stretching and raising tension but never breaking. Hey guess what, it broke."
Through these photos, we hope to pay tribute to one of Wellington's most loved indie bands. Over the past few years HWF have provided so many people with amazing memories. For an indefinite term, they will be sorely missed.
The one positive is that the band should still release their EP. I heard it last week and can report it sounds pretty damn good, capturing HWF live energy and so much more.
Snowfield
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Roll back Neo-Fascism
it's not what we voted for
*****
About a month ago I meet Snowfield in a Wellington cafe. Over a cool bottle of Foxton Fizz and a warm vegetarian samosa we chatted about music, politics and his latest zine.
Snowfield is Alex Mitcalfe Wilson, a shy, well mannered and extremely down to earth young man from Wellington, New Zealand. Earlier this year he released his first album called Obvious Errors: Poor Execution and recently he has put out a split 7" with Alps of NSW. As well as this, Alex writes his own zines, Cupcake Monsters and Hectic Lifestyle can be found in selected shops around Wellington or alternatively you can contact Alex via myspace.
Through his music and his zines, Alex has found a forum to express himself and his concerns about humanity. As we sat there talking, it became apparent to me that I was sitting next to an extremely motivated and compassionate person. Alex talked about his concern over the recent terrorism raids in New Zealand, speaking with a clear understanding and compassion towards the people caught up in the raids (some of whom were his friends). As a strong advocate for indigenous rights, he spoke of the governments imperialistic style rule over the Tuhoe people, seeing the terrorism raids as yet another example of racism and the breach of peoples civil liberties.
As a liberal minded young man, Alex is unafraid to put action into song. His topics range from pro-abortion and indigenous rights to his disgust over the government tapping phones and turning activists into criminals. He's DIY and proud of it, creating uncomplicated music with a clear message to educate people young and old. Whether you like his music or not, Alex Mitcalfe Wilson is an outstanding person. A fine song writer and wonderful primary school teacher, Alex's gentle words are extremely sincere.
HEALTH
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Saturday's Coffee
No amount of nature's nectar
can wake one as much as good HEALTH
Some people take their HEALTH too seriously. The "extremely pleasant noise" band (as
Vice put it) is not 'going disco'; their forthcoming sophomore album just so happens to be named HEALTH//DISCO.
In keeping//with that forward///slash/trend,//HEALTH//have been previously//described as/encompassing////ethereal chanting/screeching noise/gauzy atmosphere/, and is most easily comparable to Liars, the most brutal of Animal Collective's work, and Black Dice (note: the latter Black Dice period, according to Dave Clifford from Fanatic Promotions). I think they just sound like a big rock falling into the ocean and hitting a few hundred squids along the way down to the murky ocean floor, where deep sea trawlers have devasted the population and it's like the apocalypse, or something.
HEALTH//DISCO, to be released on May 13, is a collection of remixes – a first, for the band. In an open letter to fans, they said:
“This is not your typical remix album. Every artist on the record was hand-selected and contacted by us with the hope of combining our sounds and musical ideas with those of electronic artists we admire, several of them doing remixes for the first time. It is not about market saturation or crossover appeal. It is purely about the music, and we are proud of it. This is an album, and meant to be listened to as one. The goal of this record is not only to present all these songs at once, but also to ensure that they are not forgotten in the constantly updating, content hungry internet music world.” Here, here.
And in keeping with that tradition of continuous celebration, allow me to once again extend my unfaltering, everlasting love for Crystal Castles. Their fucked up beats drive most of my days, and I couldn't be happier for it. Thanks to them I became aware of HEALTH, and seeing the two collaborate together and then go on to do a massively successful tour of the states recently is just all too awesome. Listen to the tracks below (they're from their first album), if that coffee isn't quite giving you the kick you need. Though they're fairly slow and sombre in pace, they are unashamedly jarring and will kick your hangover out of your head, I swear!
My Disco
Thursday, April 17, 2008
¡Achtung!
Is German For Attention
Cheerleaders for good music unite: An exciting, jarring and arresting listen from the get-go, Melbourne's My Disco have come up trumps with their sophomore album.
An amazing prog-punk/experimental/drone/minimalist rock band with elements of jazz and Die! Die! Die!-esque loops, My Disco are approximately five years old and hail from Melbourne. They put on an absolute killer live show and are as relentlessly, exhaustingly entertaining as they are technically proficient, which is sort of a hard combination to maintain, if you ask me. They're not really like any other band I've heard. They're probably the most exciting band you'll hear today. I hope. Because I really want them to succeed even more than they have done already and I really want to relive that glorious gig in 2006 at Hamilton's Ward Lane. Clambering for the ceiling in a sea of psyched-out Hamiltonians, the only relent was if the band paused between songs to have a sip of water.
The new album highlights these efforts; so layered and elaborate in attack, it is ice-cold and punchy to the core, with guitars threatening to sear through your ears. Fortunately this LP is just short enough to leave you wanting more, as I have read remarks of this abbrasive sound wearing thin on some people. But those people
can't handle the truth!
Though abstract and alienating in delivery, they make up for it in the strength of their human elements. Reeking of desperation and desire, these traits shine through the foggy befuddlement of the tangents of twisted Wire-sounds, and automatically erases any inklings of pretension.
Hopefully the release of this, their epically awesome and intense sophomore album
Paradise (out on Stomp/Numerical Thief and distributed in New Zealand by Rhythmethod), will see them embark on a trans-Tasman tour. After all, it's been a while since that infamous gig at Hamiltron's Ward Lane! But it sure was a good one. Welcome to
Paradise... (sorry), and congratulations My Disco on an outstanding album!!!
The B-52's
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Do All 16 Dances
After sixteen years, one of most influential new-wave bands of all time is back. The B-52's have re-emerged to prove they still have the goods to make everyone dance.
Funplex, the bands new, exciting album, has been described by many critics as the band's best album since their ground breaking debut way back in 1979.
The original members have all returned, Katie Pierson and Cindy Wilson continuing to spread sweet harmonies, Fred Schneider again bouncing back and forwards with some rather silly splashed out lyrics and Keith Strickland finding more catchy guitar hooks to catapult the band into the 21st century. The synth-pop, dance-irific B-52's are back, sounding like it's been weeks rather than years since they last popped into the studio.
Funplex can not just be dismissed as 'nest-egg' album, the band have definitely made this because they want to shimmy and shake. "It's loud, sexy rock and roll with the beat pumped up to hot pink" says Strickland, who is the bands main songwriter. And like the B-52's of old, Funplex is full of dance floor anthems, "I had been listening to a lot of electronic dance music and early rock and roll. I was inspired to use these two aesthetics together with our own sound to make some shameless dance-floor party music" explains Strickland.
The B-52's will be forever remembered for their influence on alternative music, but while they have been away from the spotlight they have themselves been influenced. Leaving with a final quote from Schneider "Funplex sounds like us, updated...it's the B-52's now- or fifteen years from now".
The B-52's- Hot Corner: MP3
The B-52's- Funplex: MP3
The B-52's- Myspace
The Hungry Caterpillar
Monday, April 14, 2008
West Coast Hip Hop
Meets
The Little Drummer Boy
Graphic artist, spherical engineer, contemporary soul singer, blues guitarist, hip-hop masher-upper and one of the best drummers on earth...Ben Thompson, this is your life!If you haven't heard The Hungry Caterpillar yet, you better get right clicking. Since early 2007 I've been obsessed! No one makes spacey, midi sci-fi electro soul like Ben Thompson. The Melbourne-based Kiwi, originally from Hamilton has so many things on the go it's hard to keep up. The Hungry Caterpillar is his solo project, combining elements from all facets of the musical realm and all fragments of his imagination land.
Essentially his music is a fast, beautiful mess, with tangled synths, futuristic softly-spoken vocals and live drumming that will blow your mind. Who'd have guessed he's a shy, twee indie kid. So shy, that some of his hip-hop mash ups sit on Sarah's computer, remaining unheard and unspoken of (until now).
The first Hungry Caterpillar album,
Weekend, can be downloaded free from his myspace page. It was released last year and is only available as a download. His second album, titled
Patchworks, from which two songs can be downloaded here, will be available soon. In the meantime, Ben is working hard on other equally important projects; like his own design project
Simian Lines, designing for Vice magazine and drumming for his long-time band Amy Racecar (who are touring New Zealand in early May!).
There are rumours that Amy Racecar may play some Hungry Caterpillar songs live. Check out the gig poster further down this page and make sure you head along.
Kimya Dawson announced!!!!
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Remember That I Love You
KIMYA DAWSON NZ DATES finally ANNOUNCED!!!
The inimitable, wordy and undeniably adorable twee Queen
Kimya "both my thumbs are opposable"
Dawson has finally announced her tour dates in New Zealand! The wonderful Galesburg is bringing the indie idol and anti-folk hero, who has been brought to mainstream attention of late with her sizable contribution to delightful indie-darling film
Juno. Now we can finally experience her pants-wetting wit and delightful charm all for ourselves! (Gosh I'm excited!!!)
Tickets are $30 + booking fee and are available now from Real Groovy and Slow Boat Records. This one's sure to sell out, with the ex-Moldy Peaches singer and soon-to-be Sesame Street singer proving a firm favourite in strange cults of people who like their singing obnoxiously fast and funny... Check out the track below and you'll understand, *hopefully* :)
Morons Say CSS Suxxx
Sunday, April 06, 2008
From Sao Paulo to New Zealand
'You know you wanna dance'
CSS was recently in New Zealand for two shows with Glass Candy; we were there, and so was Moron Says What?!?!. It was one of CSS's last shows before the release of their highly anticipated second album, which we can reveal is going to be called
Donkey. The exact release date has not yet been revealed, but the two new songs they played live in Auckland were the best songs of the set.
So, what do we know about the new CSS album? Adriano Cintra recently said in an interview that the band are tired of being dubbed an "electro" band by the press, "Live, we are a rock ’n’ roll band and that’s how we want to be known. It’s really stressful to read 'electro' band". Perhaps then we can expect a rock 'n' roll album from CSS, after-all the new tracks they played live in Auckland did have an obvious rock 'n' roll jive. One thing definitely noticeable was the band's maturity, after spending the whole of 2007 touring they are now a much tighter unit, Cintra saying "live, we are really organic".
Two new songs have done the rounds since their 2006 debut. We have already posted their take on Sleater Kinney's 'I wanna be your Joey Ramone', cleverly twisted to be 'I wanna be your J-Lo' and they have also recorded a cover of L7's 'Pretend We're Dead'. Now we've got our hands on a recent cover of Grizzly Bear's 'The Knife'. The song appears on Grizzly Bear's
Friend EP.
While CSS were conquering the world last year, Auckland band Moron Says What?!?! were dreaming of one day doing the same. Yesterday MSW?!?! sent us two, brand new, fully mastered recordings. We can report that they are super rad, and exceeded even our expectations. At just sixteen years of age, the girls have such an amazing future ahead of them. The mere fact that we are mentioning them on the same post as CSS must mean something.
I was lucky enough to hang out with the girls last weekend when they played in Wellington, and was so impressed by their maturity. Drummer/vocalist, Alessandra, told me about their first ever show with So So Modern, saying they told her to remember to always have fun, and reminded her of the importance in remaining true to their fans and to never become pretentious. Words clearly evident in their stage performance and enthusiasm for life.
Right now their biggest obstacle seems to be playing in bars. At sixteen they still need their parents present (luckily enough they have wonderful mums), but after recently supporting Architecture in Helsinki hopefully things will change.
We have talked a lot about MSW?!?!, and now we finally have the recordings to back up our claims. If you were one of the skeptics when we first posted on MSW?!?! in December 2007, please download these mp3s and give them another chance.
Soundpool
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Close Your Starry Little Eyes
******
Soundpool is a five-piece shoegaze band based out of
New York City. Their music can be described simply as dream pop, pulled together with saturated guitars, sweet girlie vocals, lush synth arrangements, and set to a backdrop of self produced psychedelic effects.
Formed in 2005, Soundpool’s achievements on the shoegaze circuit have passed by relatively unnoticed in New Zealand. That aside, their chart topping debut record
On High, released in late 2006, gained a cult following and received extensive airplay on alternative radio stations throughout North America.
Their recently released sophomore album, titled Dichotomies & Dreamland, sees the band continue their work as a cult shoegaze band, with sharp, whimsical dreamy rhythms, laid over a danceable foundation of keys and drums. Keeping to a formula firmly cementing them in the shoegaze genre, Soundpool don’t offer much to convert new fans. But for fans of ethereal, densely layered noise pop, Soundpool do demand attention.
Soundpool- The Divides of March: MP3Soundpool- Pleasure & Pain: MP3Soundpool- Myspace
Child Bite
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
The miniaturization sequence in “Innerspace”
******
Detroit, the city famous for The Stooges and the MC5, has again spawned another great band. Child Bite is an experimental, no wave, post punk outfit who's unafraid of being abrasive and comes backed by one of music's most famous legacies. It's official! PUNK is still alive and well in the
motor city.
Their nervous, disjointed guitar rhythm is the driving force that attracts me to Child Bite. While obvious comparisons can be drawn to ¡Forward, Russia! (a band that I find quite unassertive), it's the attention-grabbing, angular rhythm section and smooth vocal melody that gives Child Bite some sensibility.
The band's debut LP
Wild Feast was released in late 2006 to a limited audience in North America; one reviewer describing it as "spastic sped-up funk". Their second record, titled
Fantastic Gusts of Blood, is to be released in the coming months. Mastered by Roger Seibel, who's also worked with Modest Mouse and Tortoise; it concentrates more on No Wave guitar-driven rock, with the funk substituted for a bouncier, bone-crunching dance beat. Fans abroad of Devo or Block Party should have no problem being comfortable in the company of Child Bite's angular, disjointed melody.
EMJ managed to have a brief email chat with Daniel from New York band Din Glorious. We got the inside scoop on the band's future plans and a special track off their debut album.
Fast forward to 2008; the band has just finished and had a limited release (300 copies) of their debut album Blump Up The Jamz! The first run of CDs has already completely sold out, mostly due to fans who turned out to see them play on their recently completed West Coast tour. Another run of CDs will be released shortly. 
