Category Archives: Artist Spotlight
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The Austin, TX based Dark Wave/Indie band Love Hate Affair is making a big splash during the 2012 summer festival tour. The band has drawn comparisons to Interpol, Depeche Mode, White Lies, New Order, and She Wants Revenge. The Strangeways Staff particularly notices the White Lies resemblance. The press is starting to notice these guys as well. Under The Radar magazine has recently named them “one of the next up-and-coming bands”.
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To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of The Smiths’ swansong, Strangeways Here We Come, Detroit-based Smiths + Morrissey Tribute band, The Smiths United will do something The Smiths themselves never did….play Strangeways, Here We Come LIVE!
The event will take place at The Magic Bag Theatre in Metro Detroit on Saturday, April 28. The Smiths United will perform Strangeways, Here We Come in its entirety, followed by a smattering of other classics from The Smiths. At a normal Smiths United show, fans are treated to selections from the entire discography of not only The Smiths but Morrissey solo tracks as well. For this special event, no Morrissey will be on the docket…it’s nothing but The Smiths.
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Nedry, a three piece trip-hop act out London, just released their follow up to their 2010 album ‘Condor’. The new album is called ‘In A Dim Light’ and it is a welcome new release for Strangeways listeners who have been craving new trip-hop material from this genre that seems to have been slowing down.
The vocals on Nedry remind us of Icelandic acts Bjork and Emiliana Torrini. Violaceae captivates us with a downtempo vibe reminiscent of Massive Attack, while Post Six brings to mind Lamb-like drum and bass. If those comparisons sound welcome to you, then by all means give this band a listen. Trip-hop is alive and well with Nedry and that should make us Strangies very happy!
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Skeleton Hands, a Dark-Synth duo from Cincinnati, OH employ that Retro 80′s New Wave sound we love so much. With no full length release under the belts yet, their sporadic tracks have quickly become favorites amongst the Strangeways Radio DJs and listeners.
Skeleton Hands is comprised of only two, Lazer Bat, master of rhythm, atmosphere, and words; and Astro Wolf, an axe-wielding, melodic beast of prey who gets his powers from the moon. However, together they concoct a sound reminiscent of both the pioneers of electronic music as well as the post-punk movement all with a joyful darkness that rumbles the floor and circles the atmosphere.
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In honor of the 54th birthday of one of the most notable pioneers of electronic music, we take a brief look at his birth. We don’t mean his actual birth as we’re sure he came into the world like the rest of us. We’ll take a look at his musical birth. Perhaps popular culture knows him best for “Cars” which appears on just about any “Best Of The 80s” compilation you can find, but there was a lot that happened before “Cars” was a huge success.. let’s explore…
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Strangeways Radio sent DJ Pleasurekitten to the land of Skype to check in with Ronan Harris of VNV Nation. VNV Nation is currently on the second leg of their world tour for their most recent album, 2011′s “Automatic” and will be visiting the Strangeways Radio homebase of Michigan next Wednesday, March 7th, at The Necto in Ann Arbor, MI. In anticipation of the show, we’ve posted some of the highlights of the conversation, which you can hear in it’s entirety using the links below. Ronan spoke to Kat from Colorado Springs about the second half of the tour covering the towns they weren’t able to reach in the first half – the midwest, the prairie states and the towns in between.
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The Berlin post-punk band, The Wars, have been previewing one song off of their upcoming release called Healings each week. This week, they released their first single and video off of Healings called Parsec. By the sounds of Parsec, and the other album previews that can be heard at http://www.thewars.net/, Healings looks like it will be one of the best of 2012. Healings will be released on March 23rd.
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The New Division is a Synth-based band out of Riverside, CA. Can you guess their influences by their name? If you can’t then their sound will be a dead giveaway. John Kunkel (vox/producer), Micheal ‘Janzie’ Janz (sequencing/synths), Mark Michalski (synths) and Brock Woolsey (guitar) have taken the essence of their heroes New Order and Joy Division and melded it with their love of New Wave, Italo Disco and Chillwave. The result is a sound that still comes of as Fresh but with strong roots in the past.
They released their debut 6 song EP, the Rookie in January 2011 and caught the attention of several Strangeways Radio DJs with the striking Synth-driven single, Starfield. Flash forward later that year and the band made good on all the promise they showed by delivering the brilliant full-length LP Shadows in September 2011. The record featured track after track of infectious beats and melodical synths. Standouts include Shallow Play, True Lies and Opium.
The New Division are not only talented as hell, but generous to boot. Check out the Soundcloud below to grab absolutely FREE unlimited downloads of many of their best album tracks and remixes.
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The new wave/shoegaze band from Copenhagen, The Foreign Resort, has just released a brand new video for Take A Walk off of their self titled EP. The video was shot on location at Copenhagen’s Distortion Festival in 2011. For those of you who are new to The Foreign Resort, Gaffa Magazine described them as ‘The Cure embedded in noise with Tears For Fears-ish melodies and the energy burst of Joy Division’.
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Miserylab is a post-punk-goth band spearheaded by Porl King. They have been getting some love on Strangeways lately both from the DJ’s, and several listeners who have wrote in requests to hear more Miserylab.
Miserylab has recently released a video for Say What We Mean, which is taken from a limited edition digital download only EP called Somewhere Between. The EP also comed with an extended remix of the track that introduced Strangeways to Miserylab, People. The digital EP is limited to just 120 copies so you might want to hurry up and get your order in.
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Daniel Victor is a different kind of Rock Star. Make no mistake about it though, he is most definitely a Rock Star. From his time at University of Windsor in Ontario, CA Daniel eschewed the prototypical band. Drawing influences from film soundtracks, compilation albums and Hip-Hop collaborations, Daniel embarked on a project where the songs would be the star. This project, Neverending White Lights drew its name from the sense that humans have an energy that doesn’t go away when they die. While the physical body stays on earth, the light escapes. That is what we’re made of, that never-ending light.
His records tell a story; with the albums themselves serving as ‘Acts’, the songs as ‘Scenes’ and his various collaborators as ‘Actors’. His ambitious first record was called Act I: Goodbye Friends Of The Heavenly Bodies and dealt with themes of death, spirituality and angels. Drawing influence from Brian Eno, Craig Armstrong, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Kent, and Massive Attack, Daniel wrote the compositions or ‘Scenes’ and then sent them off to some of his favorite vocalists whom he thought would be good fits for those scenes. He scored collaborations with the frontmen of such Alternative bands as 311, Ours, Hum, Finger Eleven, Shudder to Think, Our Lady Peace and Starflyer 59 amongst others.
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The Toronto based dark and moody synthpop band Trust has just released a new single called Sulk off of the forthcoming full length album TRST. TRST is set to be released on the Arts & Crafts record label on February 28, 2012 and they are taking pre-orders for the new album on their website, http://www.ttrustt.com/. Every pre-order comes with a free download of F.T.F (Dinamo Azari For The Humanities Re-Edit).
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New Look is a ‘Future-Pop’ Husband and Wife duo who reside in both Brooklyn, NY and Hamilton, Ontario. The duo is comprised of multi-instrumentalist Adam Pavao and the stunning, Synth-playing chanteuse and former model, Sarah Ruba. Like so many of us in our own relationships, music was the catalyst behind Pavao and Ruba’s connection.
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Thieves Like Us are an Electropop band featuring American vocalist Andy Grier and 2 Swedish musicans, Bjorn Berglund and Pontus Berghe. Named after the 1984 New Order song, the Paris-based band first caught the attention of the Strangeways DJs in 2009. Their debut LP, Play Music featured infectious singles like Drugs In My Body and Your Heart Feels. In 2010, they furthered their vintage electronic sound, wearing their influences on their sleeves, with Sophomore record Again and Again as well as the 2 CD Again and Again Remixed.
2011 was a big year for the band, signing to one of our favorite labels, Captured Tracks for the Your Love Runs Still EP. Now, in 2012 the band is gearing up for a full length record on Captured Tracks. Their 3rd record, Bleed Bleed Bleed is coming soon and the band have just released the stellar first single, Marie Marie. Just TRY to get this one out of your head!
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Lux is a boy/girl Seattle-based duo that is set to make a big splash in 2012. When David Chandler moved from LA to Seattle he began to search for a female musician to share his love of Indie and Underground music (Pavement, The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, The Magnetic Fields, The Jesus & Mary Chain, New Order, Blondie). At the same time, singer/songwriter Leah Rosen was looking for a male musician to collaborate with. Thru a little luck, and a Craiglist ad, the two came together to form Lux in 2010.
We are pleased to note that the duo’s time back in the basement has resulted in their debut album, We Are Not The Same, due April 3. The lead single The Window already has us buzzing, but we aren’t the only ones!
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