Formed in 2003 in São Paulo by a group of friends with an unquenchable thirst for good times and indulgence in all things pop and art, CSS rose to notoriety with the help of a thriving creative community, underground club scene and a little thing called the internet. Pulling together their numerous talents, the band drew legions of international followers entranced by a universally accessible, albeit original and off the wall, look and style.The first South American band to be signed to the label, their debut album Cansei de Ser Sexy (Portuguese for "Tired of Being Sexy" - something Beyoncé Knowles once said she was) was released on Sub Pop in July of...
From August 1991 to November 1998 five friends had an obsession with the music they created as the underground band OVERCAST. Motivated by having fun and playing songs that went against the grain, they stayed true to themselves by writing music they wanted to play ... fashionable or not. Money was never an issue back then mainly because there wasn't any to be had. Sometimes they would play for gas money, most times for far far less. Only through sacrifice and perseverance did they make it work. Firsthand experience and trial and error provided the path. Years and years of weekend warrior tours took OVERCAST places they normally would never have gone or seen.But all things co...
Sunfold is the musical vision of Kenny Florence. A songwriter since the age of 11 years old, Florence has always intuitively known his way around a guitar, and even at just shy of reaching the drinking age- he is a seasoned front-man, an accomplished vocalist, and an undeniable guitarist.Toy Tugboats is the culmination of years of musical exploration and experience. Kenny's scope for music is as expansive as it can be dramatic, and perhaps what shines brightest about his first full length collection of songs- is the range of styles between the tracks. Skipping stones between jazz, folk, pop, and rock- Sunfold achieves an impressive level of comfort within each realm it choos...
40 years after the Summer of Love (and 30 years after the Summer of Hate), MGMT is celebrating the grand re-opening of the third eye of the world with Oracular Spectacular, the duo's much-anticipated first full-length album, an enigmatic and prophetic collection of hallucinatory sounds and hook-riddled pop tones for the new millennium.MGMT is: Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, two psychic pilgrims whose paths first intersected in the green pastures of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, circa 2002. "We weren't trying to start a band," Ben remembers. "We were just hanging out, showing each other music that we liked."Andrew and Be...
Skumlove crawled out of the dark and dirty streets of Hollywood, California. Live performances has continued to entertain a loyal following of fans. Their energetic, in your face, undeniably sing-along hooks and big choruses mixed with dark, heavy driving bass, crunching guitar, pounding beats and electronic overtones has made it easy for them to invade different genres from metal, industrial, rock and goth. Skumlove has not and will not compromise themselves to the latest trends like other bands in the L.A. Music scene has. As you will notice on their first full length album "Songs of Lust and Corrosion"...
When you hear a new band for the first time, it's only natural to try to place it in context with the familiar. Upon first listen, Springfield, IL's The Graduate may drum up images of print hoodies and guyliner, but the truth is, this humble five-piece is simply a bold rock band experimenting with a myriad of sounds that move them. Given this, allow yourself to be introduced to The Graduate.Formed in 2005 from the ashes of several other bands, The Graduate is a collaboration between long-time friends Tim Moore, Corey Warning, Matt Kennedy, Max Sauer and Jared Wuestenberg. The band gained momentum quickly on the Midwest ‘indie-circuit' due to the memorable songs, interactive live show and friendly disposition...
Life is short and the last thing we want to do is waste your time. By now, you already know the myriad feats Cute Is What We Aim For have accomplished since forming in 2005. The band's 2006 debut The Same Old Blood Rush With A New Touch spent countless months on the Billboard Top 200 Charts; the group successfully headlined Alternative Press' Bands You Need To Know tour (and graced the cover of the magazine) and Cute Is What We Aim For were named one of Rolling Stones' 10 Artists To Watch-all while the group were still teenagers living in the dreary blue-collar town of Buffalo, New York. While the band managed to exceed even their own expectations with their debut, being thrown into this type of whirlwind succes...
A note from Tim Lambesis:Ahhnold is the embodiment of everything brutal and stereotypically metal, so he is the perfect front-man for each of these songs that I wrote in less than an hour. If you think that shows any sort of disrespect or makes me less of a fan than you are, then I'd like to hear the entire CD you wrote in tribute to the governator. Plus, let's be honest, it came out a lot better than a lot of bands who are totally serious and practice all the time. Everything I put into my other band (As I Lay Dying) is heartfelt and full of passion. This, on the other hand, is an outlet of pure testosterone and stupidity. I hope you're ready... chances are you already kn...
Taken from Mimicry label site:<p> Nothing is true, everything is permitted. - Hassan-i-Sabbah Legend has it that 11th Century Persian sheikh Hassan-i-Sabbah inspired fanatic, even suicidal, devotion from his legions. His method of initiation was to kidnap and drug his foes' fiercest soldiers, then bring them to his fully functioning Garden of Earthly Delights, which was complete with exotic delicacies, fountains of wine, and good-to-go virgins. When his captives came to, dazed and suggestible in their psychedelic stupors, they were told they had died and entered heaven. Sabbah had only to promise that each of his subjects would return to Paradise if fortunate enough to martyr himself in his service. F...
Brooklyn's The Honorary Title began as a moniker for Jarrod Gorbel's solo folk musings but in the last few years it has evolved into a full-fledged quartet about to release its second album and major label debut, Scream and Light Up the Sky- a beautifully ragged collection of subtle indie pop with hints of Americana, Britpop, and punk. Back in 2003, The Honorary Title was Gorbel and multi-instrumentalist Aaron Kamstra, who plugged away on the New York City club circuit before signing to indie label Doghouse Records. In 2004, Gorbel and Kamstra released their debut Anything Else But the Truth, which combined the unbridled passion of Gorbel's vocals with pop hooks and keenly observed, poetic lyrics. Produced by Roger Moutenot (...
Write songs. Record songs. Release album. It seems simple enough, but for anyone who has spent anytime within the convoluted and cracked walls of the record industry, it's never this easy. And yet there is a new project which has cut ties from the current paradigms of making and releasing recorded music. A heart-felt solo project from an already successful songwriter, Wolftron is a pure attempt at creating art and getting it to the ears of music lovers.It may seem a bit melodramatic for a 23 year old kid from the Pacific Northwest to be challenging the status quo, but for Kenny Choi, the heart and voice behind Wolftron...
In Flames was formed by Jesper Strömblad back in 1990. The band as it was at the time consisted of Jesper, Johan Larsson and Glenn Ljungström. A demo was recorded and soon after the band got a record deal and released “Lunar Strain” and it did not take long before the album was a classic in the fast growing Scandinavian death metal scene.With a new line up consisting of Jesper, Johan & Glenn along with two new additions: Anders Fridén on vocals and Björn Gelotte on drums, In Flames signed a license deal with Nuclear Blast Records and soon started recording the follow up: “The Jester Race”....
Since its inception in 2005, Los Angeles band Hour of the Shipwreck has sought to create fantastical settings through their use of cinematic influenced arrangements with melody driven compositions. Their music influences range from Muse and Radiohead to the film scores of Danny Elfman and the avante rock of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Their debut full-length release, The Hour is Upon Us, has an underlying influence in film, particularly by the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the imaginative animated work of Hayao Miyazaki. To capture the cinematic mood on the The Hour is Upon Us, Hour of the Shiwpreck ...
From the pit of your stomach, you can feel the small semblance of a rebirth. A reinvention. For Jamison Covington, the dark eyes and sharp mind behind E For Explosion, this collection of shoe gaze and new wave inspired songs, is a rebirth in almost every way. In another life, Jamison Covington was the unwilling hero of the warped tour set, signing a major label deal at the age of 18, as one half of JamisonParker. Now years later, free from major label entanglements, Jamison has begun making the music that speaks to him with a crystalline certainty. "From writing the songs and fine tuning tones to engineering and production, there's not a part of the writing or recording process that I don't completely immerse myself in...
In the world today, many people are held in esteem for the mistakes they have made, rather than the efforts they make to correct them. In the case of Sacramento's JAMIES ELSEWHERE, a rare band of six are determined to make a name for themselves in the right. A Guidebook for Sinners Turned Saints, their Victory Records debut, is a true tale of lessons learned, told through melodic and incredibly detailed rock.JAMIES ELSEWHERE began with roots in family, with brothers Matthew (guitar) and Anthony Scarpelli (drums) writing songs together throughout their youth. In December 2005, they set a goal to make a career out of their love for music, and went forward with a search for the perfect mesh. Anthony Carioscia (guit...
I first met the members of Wolf Parade in Manhattan at a diminutive venue called Pianos where I’d booked the band as part of a show to benefit a literary magazine. This was several months before the release of Apologies to the Queen Mary, Wolf Parade’s Sub Pop debut. They drove eight hours straight from their hometown of Montreal to play the show. On the way they were detained once at the border and then again somewhere on I-84 South by a New York State Trooper bearing a speeding violation. They barely made the soundcheck. Only three of the four members actually appeared—-keyboardist Hadji Baraka, they told me, was pruning conifers somewhere in British Columbia, living in a burlap tent and eating raw honey...
In the packed confines of clubs around their hometown of Chicago and throughout the world The Cool Kids' irresistible, hooky rhymes and club cramming beats seamlessly bridge the old and new schools of hip hop while assuring them a sure-fire path to world-wide attention. In their short amount of time as a duo The Cool Kids have been featured in Rolling Stone, XXL, The Source, Spin, Paper Magazine, CBS News, The New Yorker, The Fader, and on the cover of The Urb - all without a single release to their name!Chuck Inglish (23) and Mikey Rocks (20) met on MySpace in 2005 while Chuck was attending Illinois Art Institute in Chicago and Mikey was still in High School. In August 2006, under a year from their formation, t...
Formed in the psychotropic bowels of Austin, TX, The Roller emerged in late 2005 with a sound as annihilating as it is heavy. Vacillating between the drone of classic doom and the faster, unpredictable tempos of sludge-metal, the foursome provide the ideal soundtrack for a hesh sesh or all night fuck-fest of mind-bending and calamitous proportions.The Roller freed some of their first recordings in 2006 on a limited-release, 250-press demo, before permanently recruiting Axes to the Sky alumnus Theron "Groady" Rhoten on guitar. With the current lineup complete, Rhoten, along with drummer Jeremy Jenkins, bassist Ed Davis and vocalist Mike Morowitz launched into a US tour in support of Austin brethren The ...
The voice that leads And We Wept the Black Ocean Within is now dead.No, tragedy hasn't struck since the album was recorded. The debut release from Brooklyn, NY trio A Storm of Light is anything but posthumous. However, within its murky, suffocating depths there lies little certainty about the origin and veracity of the words bellowed by guitarist Josh Graham (also Neurosis visual director, Blood and Time, Battle of Mice and formerly of Red Sparowes) as mouthpiece of the album's protagonist.The unreliable narrator as a literary device -- familiar to the works of authors like Edgar Allan Poe and William Faulkner -- places readers within an intractable mind in a severely compromised state. Inte...
Teaming up with Sean Slade (Radiohead, Dinosaur Jr., Hole) and Matthew Ellard (Morphine, Weezer, Elliott Smith), the month-long recording process features songs that have been in the works for years. Inspired by The Beatles, Elliott Smith and David Bowie and drawing upon personal experiences, Blackmarket brings a refreshing sound to the music industry. “It was great working with Sean and Matthew,” Daryl says, “the contrast between Sean’s ability to capture the feeling of a song and Matthew’s technical standards really contributed to the overall sound of the album. For a group of kids that have played together for so long, the album feels more like an accomplishment th...
Mar’s Debut Album, ‘The Silence’, featured Jimmy LaValle of The Album Leaf and Black Heart Procession and Samuli Kosminen of MúM. ‘The Silence’ was recorded in Iceland when Sigur Ros opened their studio to Mar in Mosfellsbær. Due to a longer than expected mixing session for their last album ’Takk...’ Mar moved the production to Syrland Studio where Bjork, Sigur Ros, and Emiliana Torrini have all recorded albums. The album was produced by Gunnar Tynes Of MúM, Iceland’s Axel Árnason, Jimmy LaValle and Samuli Kosminen....
By Kevin SellersOnce, there were two. Childhood friends with passions for the hard rock sounds beginning to bubble up from the ooze of blues and rock'n'roll, Geddy Lee (or Gary Lee Weinrib; "Geddy" comes from his mother's pronunciation) and Alex Lifeson (or Alexandar Zivojinovich, "Lifeson" is simply a semi-literal translation of his last name) were prevalent in their local Toronto music scene before ending up as 2/3rds of Rush. At first, the members consisted of Lifeson, bassist/vocalist Jeff Jones and drummer John Rutsey. It didn't take long for Jones to be replaced by Lee. This incarnation of Rush would tour the local high school circuit; the typical underaged bars, birthday parties, and any...
Meg & Dia Frampton are sisters from Utah. Meg writes, sings, plays the guitar and occasionally the piano/keyboards. Dia co-writes, and sings on lead vocals. They self-released their debut album, Our Home Is Gone, in 2005, which featured a mostly acoustic style of music, and toured extensively in support of it, sharing stages with such national acts as Limbeck, The Format, Melee, An Angle, Koufax, and Steel Train.In the fall of 2005 they signed to Doghouse Records, and in January 2006 recorded a second album, Something Real, with producer Stacy Jones of American Hi-Fi. As a teaser for the album, Meg & Dia released an EP titled What is It? A Fender Bender., on both iTunes and the Tower Records website in July of 2006. W...
"There's a certain uneasiness to the Toadies," says Vaden Todd Lewis, succinctly and accurately describing his band-quite a trick. The Texas band is, at its core, just a raw, commanding rock band. Imagine an ebony sphere with a corona that radiates impossibly darker, and a brilliant circular sliver of light around that. It's nebulous, but strangely distinct-and, shall we say incorrect. Or, as Lewis says, "wrong.""Things are done a little askew [in the Toadies]," he says, searching for the right words. "There's just something wrong with it that's just really cool... and unique in a slightly uncomfortable way."This sick, twisted essence was first exemplified on the band's 1994 debut, Rubbernec...
The story starts years ago in Chicago, Illinois, USA. 1982 was the year, that this band started. The band consisted of Ian Tafoya-guitar, his brother Sparks Tafoya on bass and his cousin Nicky Tafoya on drums. They play a wild form of speed metal. After some thinking, they decide to call their band SNOWHITE. Nothing special you might say. But it becomes a rather special name, when you know these three wild animals have a black skin. A rather ironic name for a band with three black guys in it. But their music is very popular in those days and the only missing link on their ladder to success is a good singer. 'Till the day they discovered that their manager, who was also Ians class mate, could also sing. She decided to become a me...
Somewhere between memory and echo lie the stories and sounds of Amateur Radio Operator, living in the silence between the big parts - the reverb after sharp, tense sound… the propagation of entropy. They chase the ghost stories of work, old dogs, broken radios, industrial rivers, rust, and death, by knocking on the tops old guitars and decaying snare drums or forcibly colliding walls of overdrive with the upper temporal-limits of delay. With a faraway voice, Amateur Radio Operator makes a rich, cinematic sound, blending the stories and characters of sepia-toned places with dynamics, volume, and variation while bridging the gap between rock and alt. country. Created by a dense, multi-talented coh...
Tabloid life surrounds us. Artifice has replaced art, style trumps substance. Sincerity and honesty got lost along the way. Once in a while though, something breaks through. It can crack the shell of bitterness and send a memo reminding us that it’s entirely possible we haven’t become too jaded, at least not yet. That’s where The Uglysuit and their self-titled record come in.Made up of six friends from Oklahoma City ranging in age from 20-23, The Uglysuit brings a different mentality to what they do – remarkably fresh-faced and honest, the band believes in letting loose, fostering a heartfelt atmosphere of hope and love, ...
Supergrass sit round a table in an Oxford pub, drinking lunchtime lager and coffee. Six albums in and barely out of their twenties, the four guys who made Diamond Hoo Ha are raring to go. They're back, not limping but sprinting.It's fitting that, a dozen years after Supergrass (Gaz Coombes-Vocals & Guitar, Mick Quinn-Bass & Vocals, Danny Goffey-Drums & Vocals, Rob Coombes-Keyboard) were the teenage sensations at the great Britpop party - the boys teaching the dadrockin' men how to write proper, roaring pop songs - 2008 should find the band back on home turf. For this al...
“We never broke up,” exclaims Shai Hulud guitarist and founding member Matt Fox. “[Bassist] Matt Fletcher and I never said we were hanging this up.” Instead of making new Shai Hulud music 24/7, Fox and Fletcher were working on the Zombie Apocalypse side project, touring overseas, parting ways with vocalist Geert Van Der Velde, and searching for members to fill out vacant slots; all while writing and demoing Misanthropy Pure, their Metal Blade Records debut. So, don’t call it a comeback. It’s not a reunion. It’s an emergence from a hibernation that included plenty of activity. Shai Hulud have returned to the forefront of a scene they helped create. While the current ...
Indie in content, metal by index, Amplexus inhabits a musical space unchallenged by genre, and inspired by a unique exploration in storytelling. Assembling in Kent, Ohio, in the fall of 2005, the six-piece take a fresh path into the untold and limitless story of the imagination through a post-hardcore blend. Alongside aggressive, hardcore tendencies, they reveal prominent harmonies and impassioned hooks; the songs off their debut full length album, Deus ex Machina are determined to take hold of the listener and take them to another state.Lyrically inspired by the works of director Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish) and...
