Monday, January 24, 2011

Quintron Announces New Album, "SUCRE DU SAUVAGE," Out April 12th on Goner Records!




Quintron and Miss Pussycat's shows are no Von Trapp home theatre. Instead of yodeling, this duo likes to color their live plays with synthy drums, distorted accordion wheezes and tripped-out disco beats. Mix in a little of the punk-rock attitude the duo's label, Goner, is known for, and you get an idea of what a spectacle a Quintron/Pussycat show can be. - Paste Magazine

New Orleans-based Quintron is no stranger to making a scene. The avant-garde musician constantly turns heads with his Drum Buddy, a hand-built, light-activated analog synthesizer that is "played like a turntable" and creates otherworldly electric sounds. - Filter

Seeing Quintron and Miss Pussycat live is a unique experience. I know we rock writers like to say that someone is “peerless” or “one of a kind” or “does something no one else does” and that isn’t really true. For Mr. Quintron, that is entirely accurate. Most artists work within the bounds of their instruments. Mr. Quintron invents his. - Three Imaginary Girls

You will dance; you will sweat; you will likely be amazed. - Time Out New York


Remember when you were a kid and you went to a serious art museum and you could not wait to leave because it was so boring? The lives of painters and their subjects seemed so far removed from your pre-teen reality that you could not possibly drag yourself into caring. No matter how hard you tried, you just wanted to go home and listen to your music, read your comics and dream a little dream.

Well imagine being a kid in 2010 and you find yourself on a trip to the famous New Orleans Museum of Art. You pass by the Rodin sculpture on the grand marble stairway and the vaults of ancient Japanese pottery on the third floor; You breeze through the French impressionists, the Faberge collection, the Joseph Cornell, and the Warhols in the modern wing. Then suddenly you pass through a soundproof glass door into a room with a crazed looking person wearing headphones, banging on an organ and screaming into an old microphone. Is this an exhibit? The cacophonous display is indeed behind a velvet rope with a sign cautioning us not to speak to the screaming man. Hmmmm, why are there portraits of sexy ladies covering every inch these solemn white walls? What the F@#!!K is going on here???

What's going on here is that you are witnessing the recording of the latest Quintron album “SUCRE DU SAUVAGE” (sugar of the savages). From January 29th through May 2nd of 2010, Quintron punched a time clock and reported to work at NOMA to write and record this album in a public gallery space. The official title of the entire exhibit, which also included a Drum Buddy retrospective and an enormous Miss Pussycat puppet display, was “Parallel Universe – Quintron and Miss Pussycat Live In City Park.” Quintron's intent behind the museum recording studio was not to entertain visiting museum goers with any kind of performance, but to completely ignore them and go about the business of making this record. When needed, viewers would be pulled into the process and used for backing vocals, hand claps, grunting, etc.

During the final seven days of recording, Quintron chose to imprison himself within the museum and its surrounding grounds - a beautiful swampy nature preserve called “New Orleans City Park.” He would roam the park by night making field recordings and then weave them into the final mixes of the album by day. The week concluded with a blindfolded listening party in the NOMA auditorium (see album cover).

The result of this experiment is a severely schizophrenic dual album. Part one is Quintron writing the way he usually does but with far wider instrumentation. Tympani, vibraphone, whistling, and tape loops join the ranks of Drum Buddy and electric organ. There is also a noticeable increase in the number of chords used per song compared to previous Quintron albums - like from one chord to maybe more than one chord. There are also two dreamy Miss Pussycat tunes entitled "Banana Beat" and "Spirit Hair." You can hear noise and field recordings creeping into this first half of “SUCRE DU SAUVAGE,” attempting to take over the songs but failing.

In part two the noise and field recordings win the battle hands down as music and structure completely give over to the urge to let all these disparate sounds join hands and run wild. Electronic and acoustic instruments blur together with ducks, insects, birds, water, and even museum elevators until they all become brutal hypnotic madness.

The NOMA sessions produced literally thousands of hours of tape. What you have here is the cream of that crop - the sucre du sauvage. There was no post production or overdubs. When the exhibit closed, the album was finished. It is what it is and it probably ain't happening again any time soon.

“SUCRE DU SAUVAGE” FUN FACTS:

1. Quintron claims to have listened only to M.O.T.O., KEITH FRANK, and PHILIP GLASS during this three month period.

2. For visual inspiration, The New Orleans Museum Of Art allowed Quintron to curate the paintings that were hung on the walls of his recording studio from their extensive permanent collection. He chose only female portraits (mostly from the 19th century) and one portrait of George Washington, America's first president.


“SUCRE DU SAUVAGE” TRACK LIST
1. Ring The Alarm
2. Face Down in the Gutter
3. New Years Night (Boogie Children)
4. Kicked Out of Zolar X
5. Banana Beat
6. Sucre Du Sauvage
7. All Night Right of Way
8. Spirit Hair
9. Elevator
10. Deer in the Clouds
11. Bells
12. Train Ride
13. Jazz Bar
14. Morning


About Quintron:
Quintron has been making genre-defying noise and "Swamp-Tech" dance music in New Orleans for over fifteen years. The majority of his 12 full-length albums have the psychedelic soul of New Orleans garage R&B filtered through a tough distorted Hammond B-3 and a cache of self-made electronic instruments. He has also released strange soundscapes based on inner-city field recordings of frogs and neighborhood ambiance. Quintron regards his most significant creation to be his patented instrument called the DRUM BUDDY, a light activated analog synthesizer that creates murky, low-fidelity, rhythmic patterns. Notable DRUM BUDDY clients include performers Nels Cline of Wilco, Laurie Anderson, Fred Armisen, and DJ Mr. Dibbs.

About Miss Pussycat:
Miss Pussycat is a New Orleans based photographer and puppeteer who has toured the world with Quintron for the past 15 year conducting puppet shows in rock clubs and at international festivals. Her three full-length movies, North Pole Nutrias (2002), Electric Swamp (2005), and most recently Trixie and The Treetrunks (commissioned by VBS TV in 2007), have featured the voices of numerous New Orleans musical, political, and literary celebrities. In addition to her full length puppet movies she has also worked on several puppet-cast music videos and will definitely be creating one or two for "SUCRE DU SAUVAGE"!



Quintron and Miss Pussycat Live!
Mon, Feb 21 - Mobile, AL @ Alabama Music Box *
Tues, Feb 22 - Tallahassee @ Engine Room *
Wed, Feb 23 - Orlando, FL @ Backbooth *
Thurs, Feb 24 - Miami, FL @ GRAND CENTRAL ^
Fri, Feb 25 - Bruise Cruise (from Miami to Nassau Bahamas and back, hopefully) &
Fri, Feb 25 - Special Bruise Cruise Nassau show @ Senor Frogs
Sat, March 5th - New Orleans, LA - Mardis Gras @ SPELLCASTER MARITIME BALL $
Mon, Mar 7th - New Orleans, LA - Mardis Gras @ One Eyed Jacks - annual Lundi Gras show !

9th Ward Marching Band (100 piece band directed by Quintron and Miss Pussycat) Parade Schedule:
Fri, Mar 4th - Krewe De E'tat - 6pm roll time, uptown route
Sat, Mar 5th - Spellcaster to Siberia Parade - 2pm (time subject to change) roll time, exact route secret until roll time
Mon, Mar 7th - Krewe of Proteus - 5 or 6pm roll time, uptown route

* = w/ Ty Segall
^ = w/ Vivian Girls, OH Sees, Strange Boys, Ty Segall, Turbo Fruits, DJ Jonathan Tobin, More.
& = w/ Black Lips, Vivian Girls, OH Sees, Strange Boys, Ty Segall, Turbo Fruits, DJ Jonathan Tobin, Surfer Blood, Jacuzzi Boys.
$ = w/ Cave, Thee Oh Sees, MC Trachiotomy
! = w/ The Black Lips, Vockah Redu, Turbo Fruits, More TBA

Full Summer Tour w/ Wizzard Sleeve, Cave, and Jeff the Brotherhood Coming Soon!




For more information, visit:
www.quintronandmisspussycat.com
www.goner-records.com

Caspian Announce US Tour w/ Native * Live DVD + Documentary Out Later This Year




Boston's instrumental-rock juggernaut Caspian have announced an upcoming, headlining US tour with friends and contemporaries Native and Chiaroscuro. The tour will take the bands down the East Coast and into the South, where they'll then ultimately head to this year's SXSW marathon.

In addition, Caspian have announced plans to record later this year for a new album due in 2012, as well as release their first ever live DVD that will include a full live performance from Germany filmed in November 2010, a short documentary of the band's recent UK tour, and other bonus materials (both courtesy of The Mylene Sheath). Full details on all new releases coming soon.

Caspian Live!
Mar 4 - Baltimore, MD - Golden West Cafe $*
Mar 5 - Vienna, VA - Jammin Java $*
Mar 6 - Richmond, VA - Strange Matter $*
Mar 9 - Charlotte, NC - Snug Harbor $*
Mar 10 - Nashville, TN - The End $*
Mar 11 - Athens, GA - Caledonia Lounge $*
Mar 12 - Orlando, FL - Will's Pub $*
Mar 13 - Gainesville, FL - The Atlantic $*
Mar 15 - Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon $
Mar 18 - Austin, TX - SXSW / Mylene Sheath Showcase - Valhalla !

$ = w/ Native
* = w/ Chiaroscuro
! = w/ Junius, Lavinia, Gifts From Enola, Eksi Ekso, Herra Terra


Nothing less than an exemplary and genuinly revelatory excercise in emotionally devastating post-rock. 8/10 - ROCKSOUND

Caspian, a Massachusetts post-rock crew, knows that "epic" doesn't have to mean an album of five 16+ minute songs, and the crew have the melodies to prove it. - BROOKLYN VEGAN

This batch of songs is anchored by brilliant, restless songwriting. No boring twenty-minute crescendos here. Tertia is full of surprises... There's scarcely a better post-rock record on the horizon. 9/10 - PREFIXMAG

Tertia is just as effective when it sparkles as when it storms. Caspian has the instrumental firepower to make a big noise when it feels like it. But the melodies, timbres and harmonics are so fully realized that "Tertia" would be mighty, even without its climaxes. - THE WASHINGTON POST

A dense work of post-rock with purpose. - RHAPSODY




For more information, visit:
www.myspace.com/caspiantheband
www.mylenesheath.com

Lifeguards Premiere New Song "Paradise Is Not So Bad" * New Album Out February 15th on Ernest Jenning / Serious Business




Hear a New Song From Robert Pollard's Lifeguards



Lifeguards is one of the many musical projects that the insanely prolific Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard currently maintains. In Lifeguards, Pollard teams up with former GBV member Doug Gillard. And on February 15, Serious Business Records/Ernest Jenning Record Co. will release their new album Waving at the Astronauts.

On this album, Gillard wrote and recorded instrumentals, then sent them to Pollard to handle the lyrics and vocal melodies. Up above, you can download the leadoff track "Paradise Is Not So Bad", and we've got the tracklist below.

Waving at the Astronauts:
01 Paradise Is Not So Bad
02 Nobody's Milk
03 (Doing) The Math
04 Product Head
05 You're Gonna Need a Mountain
06 Sexless Auto
07 Trip the Web
08 They Called Him So Much
09 Keep It in Orbit
10 What Am I?

(((Read more and download "Paradise Is Not So Bad" here!)))

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The Mylene Sheath Announces 2011 SXSW Showcase * AOL's Noisecreep.com Talks To Metal Supergroup Lavinia




The Mylene Sheath 2011 SXSW Showcase
Friday, March 18th @ Valhalla, 7:30pm
(710 Red River Street Austin, TX)
w/
Caspian
Junius
Gifts From Enola
Eksi Ekso
Lavinia
Herra Terra

(((Read AOL Noisecreep's interview w/ metal supergroup Lavinia here!)))

Thursday, January 13, 2011

RCRD LBL Spotlights New Music from La Dispute!




DOWNLOAD: La Dispute - How I Feel + First Snow In Grand Rapids



The Midwest's La Dispute has posted on its site some lines from an excellent John Berryman poem. There is little more you could do to woo me, aside from offering up a track to a for-charity Christmas album and putting out two of the most lyrically engaging records of the past year.

(((Read more and download music here!)))

The Giraffes Announce Final Show w/ Frontman Aaron Lazar, February 5th at The Mercury Lounge in New York




On Saturday, February 5th at Midnight, longtime Brooklyn surf-metal mischief-makers THE GIRAFFES take the stage of the Mercury Lounge for an extended set of songs, drawing from the entirety of the band’s career thus far. The show will be the last to feature heart-attack-addled singer Aaron Lazar, who is amicably abdicating the mic after ten years.

But, this departure does not spell the end of the band, as THE GIRAFFES are currently in the process of auditioning new singers to fill Mr. Lazar’s estimable motorcycle boots.

In addition, THE GIRAFFES have begun producing a weekly podcast, available on their website, containing a mix of previously unreleased tracks, instrumental demos of new material, and NC-17 updates on the state of the band. The podcasts can be found at thegiraffes.com, and are available free through iTunes.

Crustacean Records will release THE GIRAFFES' previously-unreleased full-length album RULED, the band’s most audacious disc to date, in hard copy and available for download on iTunes in March. Heady, heavy, dense, tense and unpredictable, fans of the band’s shout-along choruses and punishing rhythms, razor-sharp wit, and guitar pyrotechnics will find this to be their greatest work. Newcomers will have the perfect introduction to the band in all their volatile glory. RULED is the last studio release Lazar recorded with THE GIRAFFES before announcing his departure.

* Check back frequently to thegiraffes.com for routine updates on the status of the band.

The Giraffes Live!
Saturday, February 5th @ The Mercury Lounge New York, NY (Last Show w/ Singer Aaron Lazar) tickets

For more information, visit:
www.thegiraffes.com
www.myspace.com/thegiraffes

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Forms Premiere New Song feat Matt Berninger of The National + Dates w/ The Dismemberment Plan!




Listen: The Forms With the National's Frontman
New York duo teams with Matt Berninger for "Fire to the Ground"



On February 15, Threespheres/Ernest Jenning will release Derealization, new EP from New York indie duo the Forms. On this EP, the group reworks some musical ideas from their previous releases, accompanied by an impressive supporting cast. Shudder to Think's Craig Wedren and Pattern Is Movement's Andrew Thiboldeaux contribute guest vocals, and up above, you can download "Fire to the Ground", which features the National's Matt Berninger. (Check out "Steady Hand", featuring Thiboldeaux, over at Stereogum.) The EP also features a string section that includes members of Dirty Projectors and St. Vincent.

The Forms Live!
1/28 Boston, MA @ Paradise w/ Dismemberment Plan
2/12 Brooklyn, NY @ Rock Shop - Record Release Party
2/17 Pittsburgh, PA @ Lava Lounge
2/19 Cincinnati, OH @ Southgate House
2/20 Chicago, IL @ Metro w/ Dismemberment Plan
2/21 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
2/22 Ann Arbor, MI @ Arbor Vitae
2/23 Milwaukee, WI @ Mad Planet
2/24 Daytrotter Session
2/24 Madison, WI @ Project Lodge
2/26 Omaha, NE @ Barley Street
2/28 Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar
3/2 Nashville, TN @ The End
3/4 Chapel Hill, NC @nightlight
3/12-13 New Orleans, LA @ Foburg Music Festival
3/16-19 Austin, TX @ SXSW

+ More Dates Coming Soon!

(((Read more and download the new track here!)))

Monday, January 10, 2011

Native Announce West Coast Dates w/ RX Bandits and Fake Problems




Clearly growing up under the influence of classic post-punk bands like Fugazi and Shellac, Native have succeeded in forging something original from the discordant madness of those bands and the catchy, intricate guitar interplay of '90s Midwest staples like Braid and American Football. - Exclaim Canada

Being this EP is close to a year old and about to enter its fourth pressing or so, I imagine we might get something new from the band later this year. If We Delete; Erase is any indication, it's something to look forward to. - Punknews.org

It lands somewhere between a pissed off Minus the Bear and a caged up Botch. - Surfing Magazine

Native’s self-released debut EP, We Delete; Erase, has been recently unleashed online, and their fresh, confident sound is filling their listeners with hope for some great things to come. - CMJ


Sargent House recording artists Native will set out on a series of US tour dates kicking off later this month and extending into February 2011, in support of their latest album "Wrestling Moves," and will be joined by fellow label mates RX Bandits and Side One Dummy artists Fake Problems.

The band is also giving away their critically acclaimed debut EP "We Delete; Erase" for free this week only (fans can download the record here) and look out for more dates to be announced for their March tour with Mylene Sheath recording artists Caspian that will end at SXSW.

Native Live
Jan 15 - Valparaiso, IN @ BlackBird Cafe
Jan 17 - St Louis, MO @ Lemp Art Center
Jan 18 - Oklahoma City, OK @ The Conservatory w/ Fake Problems
Jan 20 - Flagstaff, AZ @ Orpheum Theatre **
Jan 21 - Las Vegas, NV @ Hard Rock Cafe - Vegas Strip **
Jan 22 - Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues **
Jan 23 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo w/ Fake Problems (AA early show)
Jan 26 - Santa Barbara, CA @ UCSB Storke Plaza at NOON - Free open to public
Jan 27 - San Luis Obispo, CA @ SLO Brewing Company **
Jan 28 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill **
Jan 29 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill **
Feb 01 - Mesa, AZ @ The Undergeround w/ St Ranger
Feb 03- Austin, TX @ Red 7 w/ Brother Ghost & Pswingset
Feb 04- Fort Worth, TX @ 1919 Hemphill
Feb 18 -Indianapolis, IN @ The Hoosier Dome

** = w/ RX Bandits & Fake Problems




For more information, visit:
native.bandcamp.com
www.sargenthouse.com


follow Sargent House at
twitter.com/sargenthouse

Friday, January 7, 2011

The Associated Press Names New Into It. Over It. / Koji Split An Overlooked / Best Album on 2010




Into It. Over It. / Koji, "IIOI/KOJI" (No Sleep)



Best friends and singer songwriters Evan Thomas Weiss and Andrew Koji Shiraki pulled off a wonderful musical mind-meld on their split release album, "IIOI/KOJI." Each man handled one side of the album that is filled with heartfelt rock songs that proved both cohesive and candid.

(((Read the full review on Yahoo here!)))

(((Read the full review on ABCNews.com here!)))

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Wires Under Tension Partner w/ Ableton Software For New Live Packs




Watch the new video for "Mnemonics In Motion" here!


Bronx duo Wires Under Tension play a fluttering post-'90s post-rock churn without the introspection or meandering--in essence, they go in for the kill. Like Tortoise fueled by Hot 97, the cycling minimalist rhythms of violinist Christopher Tignor and drummer Theo Metz (both of YIMBY vets Slow Six) are more a suckerpunch than a slow boil, aiming straight for the chiming, resonant and anthemic in five-minute bites. The songs on their debut album, Light Science (due February 8 on Western Vinyl), explode with multi-layered walls of strings, Eyvind Kang-informed horn lines, and all sorts of digital love--all held down by the roiling and naked drumming of Metz. First taste "Mnemonics In Motion" is more music than two men should reasonably be able to make at once, Tignor's violins going through a gauntlet of funhouse mirrors while Metz holds down a devilishly funky groove. - The Village Voice

South Bronx duo Wires Under Tension have partnered with music software developers Ableton to bring the band's fans and technology's users a free Live Pack to ring in the New Year. Their "live pack" includes all the sounds, instruments and programming used to create their new remix "Bronx Science." Built from material from their forthcoming debut "Light Science," Ableton users can now tweak the track out for themselves. Using pitch shifted violins, fractured drum breaks, and pulsating electronic filters, they've invented a neo hip-hop landscape which celebrates the energy of their home turf. Named after the public high school, "Bronx Science" is a lesson in new-school instrumental alchemy with an addictive urban bounce.

Be on the lookout for the new Wires Under Tension mp3 created using the Ableton technology premiering soon. Tignor describes the experience: "The cold snap has arrived here in the Bronx. Feral cats huddle together for warmth beneath old Chevys. It was on such a winter's day that I began experimenting with the violin loops that I record live while playing the song "Wood, Metal, Bone" off the new Wires.Under.Tension record Light Science. This violin technique, known as bariolage, makes use of high-energy string crossings to create melodic arcs which convey the very essence of the instrument. That song gets a lot of practice because the technique is challenging, but more importantly, all that bowing is a great way to keep warm down here in my underground studio.

We're always looking to get the instrumentally idiomatic to speak in new tongues. By taking these samples and subjecting them to some automated transformations, a sort of neo hip-hop flavor fell out. Using drum samples taken off another track, "Mnemonics in Motion" played by Wires.Under.Tension's better half, Theo Metz, these fantastic, off-kilter hi-hat grooves arrived. The core sounds of the band then all found their way in: digitally extended glockenspiel melodies, punchy brass hits and even some overdriven clavinet. Theo and I were impressed at how the whole thing uncannily expressed the vibe of my newfound neighborhood and in a nod to the public high school of the same name, "Bronx Science" was born.

I've divided the song up into many finely grained scenes. In each scene name, you'll see the number of bars that I let each last before moving on. Of course, feel free to linger or hurry as you like or skip the script entirely.

So season's greetings and enjoy. Maybe take a break between meals to reinvent what you can do with strings, drums and the rest. You've earned it. And if living as a musician has taught me anything, it's that to keep pushing what excites you is to keep warm."

* Fans can download the free Ableton Live Pack here. Wires Under Tension's debut album, "Light Science," will be released on February 8th on Western Vinyl.



Light Science Track List
1. Electricity Turns Them On
2. Irreversible Machines
3. A List of Things To Light on Fire
4. Wood, Metal, Bone
5. Position and Hold

6. Mnemonics in Motion
7. Сказал, Сказала

Wires Under Tension Live Dates Coming Soon!



For more information, visit:
www.wiresundertension.com
www.westernvinyl.com

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

NPR's All Songs Considered Names Harvey Milk and Pyramids "Best of 2010"




2010's Best Metal And Outer Sound
(2.) Harvey Milk, 'A Small Turn Of Human Kindness'




A Small Turn of Human Kindness is like one long, depressing joke. But as Harvey Milk albums tend to go, it's the longest the Athens, Ga., trio has gone without cracking up. From what I can gather, it's a story about a broken man and the potential for grace, but Creston Spiers wrangles every ugly memory out of his guitar and howls at every gaping wound in what might be the sludgy Southern rock band's most fulfilling album yet.


The Best Cassettes Of 2010
(3.) Pyramids, 'Wvndrkmmer'




R. Loren has a penchant for large-scale collaboration. In 2010 alone, the musicians involved in two of his projects -- Sailors With Wax Wings and White Moth -- read like a dream-list of metal, drone and ambient music. But with Wvndrkmmer, he outdid himself. Spread over five cassettes and six hours of music, 52 drone, ambient and noise artists were selected to remix, reinterpret and rework audio segments by his avant-metal band Pyramids. No two tracks are alike, yet all convey the unique sound-world of the Denton, Texas-based band. Key contributors include Nicholas Szczepanik, Exit in Grey, Jeremy Bible, Josh Lay, Wicked Messenger and Windy & Carl.