Author: BoxSpeaker

[VIDEO + ALBUM ALERT]: CHVRCHES – “Gun” / “The Bones Of What You Believe”

This morning, CHVRCHES released the music video for their single “Gun,” and it’s really fucking cool.

They took the kaleidoscope effect and just ran with it while overlaying the triangle and chevron design themes they’ve featured on their EPs. The video even features a dancer who gets multiplied kaleidoscope style.

The news of their video release also came with an update on their upcoming album The Bones of What You Believe which will drop on September 23 in Europe and September 24 in the US.

[SHOW ALERT]: CSS, MS MR, Io Echo in SF TONIGHT

CSS, MS MR, and Io Echo will follow up last night’s concert at the Independent with a second show at the Great American Music Hall tonight.

Check out CSS’s latest track “Hangover”:

MS MR’s “Fantasy”:

MS MR’s “Hurricane” Remixed by CHVRCHES!:

Io Echo’s “Ministry of Love”:

Sidenote: Io Echo is so great live and their frontwoman Ioanna Gika is really nice off-stage, too! I met Ioanna Gika on my way to the portapotties at Coachella. I was ready to hurl because I’d gotten heat stroke, but I recognized her and told her I enjoyed her set – she was really sweet!

[INTERVIEW]: CHVRCHES at Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach

I got to hang out with Lauren Mayberry, Martin Doherty, and Iain Cook from CHVRCHES before their show at Solana Beach’s Belly Up Tavern! They even remembered me from their show at Bristol!

Listen to us as we chat about music styles, social media, UK versus US, touring with Passion Pit, and ladies night in San Diego’s Hillcrest.

I’ll update this later to include a transcript.

Main Point: According to Martin, “CHVRCHES will not do EDM.”

P.S. Correction: Everything But the Girl did NOT “basically start trip hop,” but they did release really great trip hop and trip-hop-influenced albums after they decided to shift styles away from jazzy tracks.

[NEW] Pacific Air Released Their First Album “Stop Talking”

BoxSpeaker favorites Pacific Air (formerly known as KO KO) dropped their first album Stop Talking today.

The 11-track debut includes “Move” and “So Strange,” the track originally released during their time as KO KO – and gained them widespread YouTube play on an outdoor gear ad.

pacific-air-stop-talking-debut-albumWhile the album is filled with indie rock tracks that have a very early 90s influence with an added sunny Los Angeles beach feel, the third track “Roses” sticks out with a sound that’s best described as the resurrection of Lubbock Sound especially the theharmonies and sound Buddy Holly produced later on that heavily influenced the surf pop genre. The track also features Lizzy Land, a Zooey Deschanel-sounding female harmony – this further emphasizes the band’s 1950s redux style because Zooey Deschanel and the Zooey Deschanel style is the musical-interior design-personality poster child of the Pinteresting modern reappropriation of 1950s culture.

Overall, Stop Talking lives up to Pacific Air’s (and many other recent sunny-day-at-the-beach bands’) sound – bringing happy, cute indie rock tracks with a touch of this music generation’s electropop synths and effects here and there.

You can buy the album here and check for more Pacific Air updates on their Facebook page!

How to Have a Bad Day (aka “Accidents” by Wolfbird/One AM Radio)

1. Watch Save the Date.
It’s a movie written by graphic novelist Jeffrey Brown (a BoxSpeaker favorite) and starring Lizzy Caplan, Alison Brie, Mark Weber, and Geoffrey Arend.

2. Look up the song that Kevin “writes.”

3. Find out it’s “Accidents” by Wolfbird (via The One AM Radio)

Continue reading How to Have a Bad Day (aka “Accidents” by Wolfbird/One AM Radio)