Parts of “Flyaway” by Keep Shelly in Athens have a late 90s Everything But The Girl feel – mostly the sudden eruption of hi-hats and snare beats at the 57-second mark that juxtapose the relaxed, even lounge-y slow space-y 4-note riffs and breathy 2-lines of vocals that preceeded it, which are actually sandwiched by the staccato notes that the song began with.
Despite those staccato notes, Kelly P’s vocals keep the song leveled, like a moment of clarity in the middle of a cocaine binge.
Breakdown Valentine is set to release their debut EP “Beautiful Distraction” on Thursday, September 26 at the Rickshaw Stop, but BoxSpeaker is giving you an exclusive preview right now!
Breakdown Valentine mixes electro beats with darkwave style synths and an 80s-inspired percussion to give you eerie dancey tracks.
You can buy the EP through their Bandcamp on Thursday and coming to you soon on iTunes!
P.S. They also do a really great cover of Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” – which isn’t on the EP but totally should be.
Much like Young Fathers, Prides mixed rap, electro synths, and slow tempo drum beats with Louie/Hector Bizerk‘s raps to create their genre blend track “Run & Jump.”
While a lot of the Australian bands and musicians BoxSpeaker’s been reviewing lately have leaned more toward the electropop and nu-disco portions of the music genre spectrum, MT WARNING has more of an indie rock (with a tiny bit of a rugged alt-country feel). Think of MT WARNING as Australia’s Pete Yorn with some synths/keyboard notes.
Mikey Bee even recorded all the instrument for the song by himself in one night – similar to how Pete Yorn is credited for almost every instrument in his studio-recorded albums.
The Bilinda Butchers are a San Francisco-based band that takes a lot of influences from the 90s shoegaze sound, dreampop, and even what sounds like a traditional Japanese sanshin strumming style in some of their songs (first 25 notes of “The Lovers’ Suicide”!)
Even their album art and lyrics show the traditional Japanese art influence. Their album cover has modern (maybe even 60s-inspired) color combinations juxtaposed by the traditional Japanese woodcut art style. And according to their SoundCloud, their lyrics were inspired by Lafcadio Hearn’s story “A Street Singer,” which takes place in Japan and was written in the mid to late 1800s.
The Bilinda Butchers’ style across mediums shows their appropriation of influences not just from one recent era (or even national identity) of sound, sight, and storytelling but across centuries and oceans to create new music. All of this giving even fuller meaning to their work.
Are you in San Francisco? Did you go to The Colourist and Ghost Loft show at Popscene last night?
Relive the night with some of BoxSpeaker’s favorites by both bands 🙂
BoxSpeaker Favorite “Yes Yes” by The Colourist
“Fix This” by The Colourist
“Seconds” by Ghost Loft
“Heat Lightning” by Icky Blossoms – remixed by Ghost Loft
Blood Orange‘s Dev Hynes released a new track this week – “Chamakay,” which features Caroline Polachek of Chairlift.
The epitome of cool and suave, Blood Orange mixes his vocals with his female duet partner to use his voice to give the track a soft but deep foundation of vocals that then is juxtaposed by Caroline Polachek’s breathy higher pitch.
After 7 years as a band, We Barbarians have posted that they’re playing their last two shows tomorrow (September 19) at the Wiltern with Cold War Kids and on Friday at Culver City’s Paul Loya Gallery.
In 2010, I got to meet the band during their show at Spaceland with my friends Sucker for Pumps – who were also playing that night as part of a residency. The Union Line and The Fling also joined in that night of local performers.
It was really fun hanging out with the bands between their sets and asking them about their music. I also got some of my best photos from there. This was when I had first started blogging and photographing concerts. I was still really new to it all, and it was cool that these bands I hadn’t met before let me pretend to be a music writer while snacking on tamales that someone was selling near the door.
The respect I was given  as a “music journalist” (even though I was a complete amateur with posts containing too many exclamation points) by all the bands and especially by We Barbarians – who were the headliners was amazing and also very encouraging for me at such an early part of my music writing experience. For that, I’m extremely grateful to We Barbarians.
See ya We Barbarians – and thanks for the great music!
Stax Osset (aka Megan Kent) joins BoxSpeaker’s growing list of electropop acts emerging from Melbourne, Australia.
The “self-sufficient composer, musician and performer” shows talent as a producer and a singer and even is the only person in her own music video for “Flash.”
Utilizing mid-tempo, higher-pitched beats that are dancey in their staccato taps mixed with her relaxed, more controlled vocals, Stax Osset is arriving at the starting line with tracks that are both Say Lou Lou dreamy and ready for RAC-style dance remix.
“Flash”
Official BoxSpeaker Music Blog Prediction: Stax Osset will be featured in all the music blogs by the end of the year.
NPR is streaming a preview of CHVRCHES’s upcoming and much anticipated album The Bones of What You Believe!
BoxSpeaker’s counting down the days until the album’s release on September 24.
Finally hearing the mastered versions of so many songs we’ve heard throughout the year across both California and the whole UK (remember that time I went crazy and ran away to the UK to figure everything out?) is mindblowing.
The live versions will always provide an unique intimacy, but the mastered versions definitely contain little auditory details that unfortunately get lost in the reverberation against concert venues’ walls.
Remember to listen to the NPR stream here:Â http://www.npr.org/2013/09/15/221714011/first-listen-chvrches-the-bones-of-what-you-believe#playlist
Cheers and Happy Monday!
