Monthly Archives: June 2012
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Last month our Under The Cover series examined modern bands who covered classic 80s songs. We have also had several discussions about modern bands who cultivate the classic 80s synthpop/new wave sounds that we all grew up with. With all of this talk about 80s bands, we should all take a moment to notice that several of these bands are still putting out new music today. The last several years has featured new releases from O.M.D, Simple Minds, a-Ha, Duran Duran, Blondie, and so much more. The last several weeks has produced new releases from Ultravox and yes…Men Without Hats!
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Klaus Von Barrel is the mastermind behind The KVB, a musical project that fully encapsulates the darkness that is inherently found in the shoegaze sound. The KVB is based in the UK (London/South Hampton), and has a strong presence there in the independent post punk and dark wave scenes. Von Barrel’s somber, mysterious lyrics, clever lo-fi synth work and post punk attitude combine to create a dark shoegazey force to be reckoned with.
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The criminally under-rated Montreal Indie-Rock band Stars have announced a release date for their forthcoming 6th studio album. The North will be released on September 4. It will be their first since 2010, when The Five Ghosts was nominated for Canada’s Polaris Music Prize.
The band debuted the lead track, The Theory Of Relativity today; a fresh burst of Electropop offsetting the always infectious boy/girl vocals of Torquil Campbell and Amy Milan.
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M83 is currently in Europe in the middle of their 2012 world tour in support of the Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming album. They have just announced a series of fall dates in the US. Many of the Strangeways listeners got the chance to see them earlier this year and they have reported back to us with rave reviews. From the mesmerizing light show to the pure energy of the band members, this is a show you don’t want to miss. Take a look at the new dates below and see if they are coming to a city near you!
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Posted on June 21, 2012 in Tour Dates
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Tagged M83
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Do you consider yourself one of those people that choose friends and mates based on their musical taste? Are you disgusted by meeting a potential match only to hear, “Oh I listen to whatever’s on the radio?” Ever find a great band in town but nobody to go with? Do you believe in the credo of High Fiedlity’s Rob Gordon?
“I agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like… Books, records, films — these things matter.
If so, Tastebuds.fm is here to save the day!
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The Bristol shoegaze band The Naturals have just released a new track called I’ve Become Everything recorded at Mark Gardener’s OX-4-Sound studio. The Naturals have been making music since 2004. They have a slogan – ‘Making guitars sound like bees’ and the epic finale to this video embraces this theme.
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Continuing in the vein of recent releases from Blouse, Cosmetics, Soft Metals, Beach Fossils, DIIV, Craft Spells and Wild Nothing, Captured Tracks seem to have another winner on their hands with Heavenly Beat.
Heavenly Beat is yet another offshot of Beach Fossils, with bassist John Pena stepping out this time. Previous side projects include guitarist Zachary Cole Smith’s DIIV and drummer Tommy Gardner’s Crush.
Heavenly Beat’s debut LP, Talent is due in July and singles like Faithless, Suday and Messiah have fans and critics rabidly awaiting its arrival. While you wait, click the link below to go to the Strangeways Radio facebook page to access a free download of Messiah.
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Some may have painted Two Wounded Birds into a corner as rock n roll revivalists, Ramones wannabes or even the UK’s answers to The Drums, and whilst there are germs of truth in such views, Two Wounded Birds eponymous début reveals there’s far more substance to them than merely a band blithely plundering rock n’ rolls illustrious history. To dismiss Two Wounded Birds as jejune revivalists is to miss the point, and to overlook the genuine depth of emotion and natural sense of melody that front dude, guitarist and songwriter Johnny Danger crams into his songs. Although they may resemble a psycho-billy biker gang from hell who have kidnapped a young Debbie Harry forcing her to play bass as if her life depended on it, they are actually all nice folks!
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Violens is the Brooklyn-based trio of Jorge Elbrecht, Iddo Arad, and Myles Matheny. Formed in 2007, Violens (pronounced “vy-lenz”) has become known for their gorgeously psych-pop guitar sounds, shoegaze-y atmospheres and synth-based vocal harmonies. The band self-describes their music as being about nightmares, the passing of time, and accounts of hallucinations; they cite influences as diverse as 60s psychpop, thrash metal, and Miami freestyle. Essentially – they are trippy.
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Part Time Punks is proud to present the world’s first Shoegaze Festival, Sunday, June 24, 2012 at THe Echoplex in Los Angeles, CA. The daylong event will showcase the legacy and future of beautiful noise. With an 11 band bill split evenly between classic Shoegaze bands of the early/mid 1990s, the new wave of Shoegaze bands (aka Newgaze), and Synthgaze, the futuristic hybrid bands fusing Shoegaze textures and electronic music.
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The summer may have just got its official jam. Saint Etienne has set June 25 as the release date for I’ve Got Your Music, the 2nd single from their new LP, Words and Music.
The single will be available as a digital download EP as will as physical 7″ and 12″ versions. The 7″ single has unreleased demo called Lullaby as its B-side. The 12″ and digital EP are backed with remixed by Leo Zero and Glden Filter as well as a previously unreleased track, Lullaby.
The 12″ also comes with an exclusive 20″X30″ poster for the Saint Etienne film What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day, which chronicles the redevelopment of London’s Lower Lea Valley backed by original Saint Etienne tracks.
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One of the hardest working bands in the biz is at it again. The Raveonettes are a non-stop music making, touring machine. Following a year in which they released a full length album (Raven In The Grave), a 27-track B-sides and Rarities compilation and a full scale tour, you would think they would take a breath. Not this duo! Their latest EP, Night Comes Out was released at the end of April and they have just announced a slew of North American dates. Before you think that it is it for 2012, they have also promised another full length record before the end of the year. Breathe, Raveonettes…Breathe!
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One of the most beloved Soundtracks in recent memory is getting its own tour! The Soundtrack to the film Drive, is full of dreamy mood-setting pieces by composer Cliff Martinez. Along with the instrumentals are the thumping opening theme Nightcall by Kavinsky ft. Lovefoxx and a couple of tunes from Italians Do It Better label head Johhny Jewel with his projects Desire and Chromatics.
However, there may not be a song that standouts more than A Real Hero from College ft Electric Youth. College is composer David Grellier also of the outfit Sexy Sushi and the Collective Electronic blog, Valerie. Along with Valerie collaborator Anoraak, and Canadian Electropop duo Electric Youth (featured on A Real Hero), Grellier has put together The Drive Tour. The tour will take the trio of artists across North America this summer.
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When we discovered Velvet Two Stripes we were, to use a time honoured phrase, blown away. This was due in the main down to the simple fact that their songs were just so f**king good and that their sleazy psych-blues riffing combined with an innate sense of rock n roll cool seemed be so natural and uncontrived. We described Supernatural, the lead track from their début E” as a “dirty, sleazy, sexy, prowling curb crawl of a record” and “filthy genius.” What surprised us was that this beautiful, visceral noise was produced by three pale, slim young girls who hail from a land better known for cuckoo clocks and well ventilated cheese rather than for channelling the spirit of rock n roll. The Swiss trio decided to form a band in February 2011 after Franca and sisters Sophie and Sara had been arguing for hours over who were the most influential artists from a musical trinity of BB King, Janis Joplin or The Ramones.
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Ride front man Mark Gardener and Robin Guthrie from the Cocteau Twins have announced that they will collaborate on a single called The Places We Go, with a release date planned for July 2012. We don’t have any further information on this collaboration, and are not yet sure if it will lead to a full length album. We will stay on top of this story and bring you updates and song samples as soon as they become available.
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