Jasmin Nash

Flying Lotus ft. Kendrick Lamar: “Never Catch Me”

Posted on by Jasmin Nash

Flying Lotus, aka Captain Murphy, recently released an audiovisual teaser for his forthcoming album, You’re Dead!, with stunning graphics and audio samples. The already released tracklist promises jazz legend Herbie Hancock, Kendrick Lamar, Thundercat and Snoop Dogg.

Flying Lotus’s track, “Never Catch Me,” featuring Kendrick Lamar, debuted on Kendrick’s hometown L.A. radio station earlier this month.

The track starts with a simple piano intro before the beat kicks in and Kendrick begins keeping in tune with FlyLo’s quirky, jazzy, schizophrenic beat and rapping about the album’s namesake – the fear of inevitable death and anonymity.

The best parts of the single are after FlyLo speeds everything up – the fast drumbeat, the funky bass lines and the quirky, bubbly synth noises. Its when the piano progression from the intro comes back, the drums slow down and Kendrick tones down his spit-fire verses into a sing-songy voice that taunts the Grim Reaper saying, “you’ll never ever catch me, no.”

The song is madness. Speeding up and slowing down, it’s as if the song repeats itself four times, and yet, in true FlyLo fashion, still has you listening to the whole thing over and over again.

The album and the graphics included in the audiovisual are stunning and strange, making them perfectly suitable for his album, set to drop on October 7. The artist, Shintaro Kago, is a Japenese guro manga artist. FlyLo’s collaboration with Kago gave the album a zombie apocalypse/Halloween in a comic book feel, and its perfect.

Having teased You’re Dead! bit by bit in these last few months, and only two weeks left until the set release date, he is sure to have a few more teasers lined up – maybe the next one will give us more of the sampling of the Snoop Dogg track that we got to hear a snippet of in the audiovisual released.

Athfest 2014: Powerkompany x Vinyl Mag

Posted on by Jasmin Nash

I got the chance to talk to Athens’ own Powerkompany during Saturday night’s portion of Athfest.  Guitarist/vocalist Marie Davon (Venice is Sinking) and guitarist/violinist Andrew Heaton (Packway Handle Band) sat down with me after their show at the World Famous to talk about the bands’ dynamic, where they’d like to see Powerkompany going, and their love for Athens.

Vinyl Mag: First off, I was trying to get into the World Famous in time to catch your set, and it was one in, one out. You had a packed house during Athfest!

Marie Davon: Oh, really?! It was so, so amazing in there. Really good energy.

VM: And the crowd definitely felt the same way! I was talking to the people around me, and they all said they had seen you before and were raving about your voice, Marie. They had all seen you play in Athens and Atlanta a few times before. So what’s it like playing during Athfest versus your own shows?

MD: It’s always different during Athfest. It feels like there’s more love. It feels like a family reunion. Every year, you get to see all of your friends, because usually they’re all touring or just being reclusive. That’s like us – very reclusive. We’re always either on tour or at our house.  Not to mention there are different people out, too – people that wouldn’t usually be out to see a show.

VM: I noticed you had a keyboardist. In the past it has just been the two of you performing. Are you guys trying to expand and create a different stage presence?

MD: I’m really into musicals and plays and stuff, and I have had the luxury over the past couple months to have the time to dedicate to live performances, so tonight was kind of a rehearsal for continuing on and doing more.

VM: I was also really impressed with your stage set up with the balloons and backdrop. They were all very beautiful and ethereal and tied into the beautiful vocals and violin the both of you were playing. Who has the creative direction in the band?

MD: I guess I am technically the creative director, the main song-writer. Andrew is my editor, producer. Because of the lack of band members right now, we have to somehow figure out a way to play with a drummer who doesn’t exist. So we both really get to experiment and play around. We’re actually scientists. We’re doing music because it is our passion now; it’s almost like a science. The old-fashioned kind of experimentation, making electricity and making things pop.

Andrew Heaton: What ends up happening is she writes the songs and then she brings it to me, and…I put it altogether and add the backing tracks.  She’s at the point. She’s at the front. She writes the songs, brings it to me. I will produce things that I think will work well both for the live set and when we’re recording. Sometimes those are similar, sometimes those are different, and then it will bounce back to her, and she decides how it will be expressed on stage visually.

VM: It’s refreshing seeing something different than the typical band set up.  Between the two of you and Jillian, the keyboardist, it kept my attention more than some of the other talent I have seen during Athfest, where a lot of the five-piece bands all sound pretty similar. You guys have a comfortable stage presence. Where are you trying to take the band from here? Are you trying to get out of playing in Athens and Atlanta?

MD: In the past two years, we have been developing our sound, we have been doing small weekend tours, or we would take a week up to New York and back, but it’s been mostly regional shows. Ideally, it would be amazing to go on tour with someone like, in our wildest dreams, Kishi Bashi or Lykke Li or Grimes. People we look up to but we also feel like we have a comparable, yet different sound. We have such an odd, eclectic sound, and it’s very hard for us to find people to tour with. With Kishi Bashi and him living in town, it’s like a dream come true.

I played on of Montreal’s last album, so it’s cool being in Athens, because we do run into people who are national acts, and that is our goal. It’s a great place to live. As an artist, it’s perfect, because you can go on tour and come home and not get bombarded with daily life. You can lock yourself in your room in your house and then work. And then go out.

AH: Seriously. There’s like 10 million people in New York City, right? And we all know of some bands that come out of New York and get really big, but not really the proportion it should be. We’ve got 120 thousand people in Athens, and the number of bands…there’s so many!

MD: Sometimes, we’ll play on a random night in Athens, and there won’t be very many people there, and that’s fine because we get to use it as a practice. That’s another plus in Athens – you get to break your new material to not very many people.

 

Be sure to catch Powerkompany on their current tour!  Really. You want to.

Dates:

Tue, 08 Jul Athens, GA Georgia Theatre

Thu, 10 Jul Greenville, SC WPBR Radio Room

Fri, 11 Jul Columbia, SC Conundrum Music Hall

Sat, 12 Jul Atlanta, GA Mammal Gallery

Wed, 30 Jul Athens, GA Flicker Theatre and Bar

Tue, 30 Sep Atlanta, GA WREK Radio: Live @ WREK

AJR x Vinyl Mag

Posted on by Jasmin Nash

New York based trio of the Met brothers, AJR, takes DIY to a new level.  Adam, 23; Ryan, 19; and Jack, 16, produce, edit and mix all of their own music, including producing their music video for their single, “I’m Ready” (which now has over two million views on YouTube – see the video below).

AJR’s single is climbing the charts.  They have already toured with the likes of Demi Lovato and Hoodie Allen.  They just signed a joint venture with Warner Music Group and are gearing up for a summer tour and their album’s release later this summer.

I got the chance to talk to Jack about how they were able to go from busking in Central Park and Washington Square to getting their big break after successful singer-songwriter Sia reached out to them for a meeting over breakfast in Soho one morning.

Vinyl Mag: I’m the oldest of three girls, and I could barely share a room with them, let alone collaborate with them. What was it like growing up with your brothers and creating a unique and cohesive sound?

Jack: You know, a lot of people ask us that expecting us to fight and for it to be a difficult situation, but it really wasn’t. Growing up in the same room and in the same house, it gives us a chance to be completely honest with one another. We’ve been so close our whole lives, so when we are writing and producing together, I can be completely honest with Adam  and Ryan and say, ‘no, I’m not feeling this tune,’ or ‘I’m not feeling this track.’  We really work together, so this has only brought us closer and able to be honest with each other.

VM: I know your songs are very eclectic; they have a lot of influences and sounds. Are the three of your creative forces similar, or do you each add your own twist to the songs?

Jack: We definitely all have the same vision, but we do have different aspects of the song that comes from each of the three of us. It’s a full collaboration, and Ryan actually writes and produces pretty much most of the music, but we each add our own different styles. We each have our own favorite genres of music; I’m more into singer/song-writer, hip-hop, and Ryan likes today’s pop music. So we take influence from each of those genres and put it into the music.

VM: Your video for your single “I’m Ready” now has two million views on YouTube, and I know you guys produce, edit, record and pretty much do everything. What is it like to be garnering this much success from your own efforts? 

Jack: We’re all so thankful for it. Like I said, we started out street performing with absolutely nothing – just the band. We record, write everything from our own living room. For so long, it was just the fans supporting us. We did not have this record label. So, until a month ago when we signed this joint venture with Warner where we have creative control still, it’s just unbelievable that it’s 100 percent our work. We are just nothing but thankful, and just so surprised and shocked and happy every single day that this has happened to us.

VM: You’ve been compared to Imagine Dragons and fun. – you’re also being called “The Next Big Thing” and getting attention from Billboard and VH1, among others. Are you ready? Excited, nervous?

Jack: I am absolutely ready for this, but in the meantime, I have no idea what’s coming. We have no idea what could happen next. Right now, we’re watching the song climb the iTunes charts, and we never even imagined that could happen. So it’s just been a new surprise everyday, and it’s been nothing but enjoyable. So I’m so ready for this to happen.

VM: What do you feel like most influences your music now?

Jack: We try to include a bunch of different genres, ranging from music from the 50’s and 60’s to today’s pop music so anything from The Beach Boys and Simon and Garfunkel to today’s music such as fun., Imagine Dragons and even Kanye West. We try to include a bunch of different sounds.

VM: You hear stories about how bands get their big break, but what was it like when you heard back from Sia just from tweeting out your video. Did you think that that would be successful, or was it just a shot in the dark?

Jack: Well, for about seven years before that, we had been trying to make it with no success whatsoever. So, when Sia tweeted us, it was a huge surprise but at the same time we were [wondering if it was real]. So we actually didn’t know what to think of this, but a couple days later, we met up with her downtown, and she actually got things going for us. It was a real thing. It blew us away. Things started happening; she introduced us to people in the industry — it was just a shock to all of us, and it still is.

VM: On your previous tours, you got to open for Demi Lovato, Hoodie Allen and The Wanted, so I’m sure you got exposed to the stardom that you’ll most likely be receiving soon. Did you enjoy touring and being out on the road? I guess being out with your brothers makes it a little easier.

Jack: Yeah, I was homesick at times, but I’ll give you something; Hoodie Allen’s tour was unbelievable. We went onstage expecting to be booed off the stage, but we got on stage and we started playing, and they absolutely loved us. Hoodie Allen’s audience is 60 percent boys and 40 percent girls, and we just realized what a wide diverse audience we have. So it really opened our eyes and made us realize our age range and style is just incredibly diverse. So, touring has been a great experience for us.

VM: You’re also going on tour again this summer, with some already sold out dates. 

Jack: We’re going on tour with Lindsey Stirling. We’re doing a bunch of dates starting with Montreal and going down the East Coast into Louisiana and Tennessee and then Texas. So I’m really excited; she’s incredibly talented. I’ve seen a bunch of her videos, and her style is so unique, so I’m very excited to see her show and to perform.

Jun 16    Metropolis   w/ Lindsey Stirling   Montreal, Canada
Jun 17    House Of Blues   w/ Lindsey Stirling   Boston, MA
Jun 18    Terminal 5   w/ Lindsey Stirling   New York, NY
Jun 20    Starland Ballroom   w/ Lindsey Stirling   Sayreville, NJ
Jun 21    the Space   w/ Lindsey Stirling   Westbury, NY
Jun 24    Echo Stage   w/ Lindsey Stirling   Washington, DC
Jun 26    The NorVa   w/ Lindsey Stirling   Norfolk, VA
Jun 27    Fillmore   w/ Lindsey Stirling   Charlotte, NC
Jun 28    Ryman Auditorium   w/ Lindsey Stirling   Nashville, TN
Jun 30    Track 29   w/ Lindsey Stirling   Chattanooga, TN
Jul 01    Masquerade Music Park   w/ Lindsey Stirling   Atlanta, GA
Jul 02    Jannus Landing   w/ Lindsey Stirling   Tampa, FL
Jul 03    Hard Rock Live   w/ Lindsey Stirling   Orlando, FL
Jul 05    Sunset Cove Ampitheatre   w/ Lindsey Stirling   Boca Raton, FL
Jul 07    Iron City   w/ Lindsey Stirling   Birmingham, AL
Jul 08    House of Blues (18+)   w/ Lindsey Stirling   New Orleans, LA
Jul 10    Bayou Music Center   w/ Lindsey Stirling   Houston, TX
Jul 11    Stubbs   w/ Lindsey Stirling   Austin, TX
Jul 12    Southside Ballroom w/ Lindsey Stirling   Dallas, TX

Party in the Park 2014

Posted on by Jasmin Nash

Party in the Park took over Centennial Olympic Park this Saturday, May 17th to a huge crowd of flower headband adorned teens, hipster parents with well-dressed hipster children and drunken college students alike. The weather had cleared up perfectly, amidst horrid rumors of yet another rained out outdoor Atlanta event.

Aside from an already impressive lineup featuring the likes of Girl Talk, MGMT, The Joy Formidable, Minus the Bear and Stokeswood, Party in the Park featured a food village including vendors from Chick-fil-A and Papa Johns and an exclusive tent by the Party in the Park sponsors, the one of a kind Desperados tequila flavored beer.

The Desperados Tent, conveniently located in an ideal concert viewing space, was open strictly to those over 21 years old and featured a graffiti artist and various acts throughout the night – including sword swallowers, acrobatic dancers, and hula-hoopers in full body makeup.

Desperados, the new beer by Heineken, is blended with tequila barrel-aged lager. This mixture tones down the bitterness typically associated with beer and adds a smooth, sweet flavor because of its spirits influence. Desperados is perfect for a night out with its unique style, taste and dynamic packaging.

The crowd was enjoying themselves laying in the grass, in the Desperados tent or just arriving during Stokeswood high energy, easy-listening set that suited the mood instilled by the beautiful weather and environment of Atlanta’s day long festival in the park.

Desperados in hand, I joined the crowd seated on the grass and waited for Minus the Bear to take the stage. The crowd welcomed the Seattle, Washington natives with loud cheers. Starting their set off with “Summer Angel” off their 2010 album, Omni, Minus the Bear brought loud energy and a twangy guitar sound to re-energize the crowd. Mid-guitar change, Jake Snider welcomes the crowd and tells us how excited he is to be back in Atlanta—with a few references to the legality of pot in Washington with answering whoops and cheers thrown in—and proceeds to play a crowd favorite off of their 2005 album, Menos El Oso, “The Fix.”

Dave Knudson brought an amazing energy whenever he took center stage with an equally incredible response from the crowd, especially during his guitar solo in “The Fix.”

Minus the Bear ended their set with “Pachuca Sunrise,” which Jake Snider delivered beautifully.

Hailing from North Wales, The Joy Formidable was next to take the stage. With Ritzy Bryan as lead vocals and guitar and Rhydian Dafydd as bass and backup vocals, the two create a powerful force of energy and put on a fervent performance. Matthew James Thomas intense drum-banging added to the loud punch the band brought on. Overall, the Joy Formidable put on a powerful punch, playing crowd favorites like “Maw Maw Song” and “Whirring” and got me even more pumped to see one of my favorites, MGMT.

MGMT’s performance was everything I expected it to be – trippy visuals, a seemingly half-lucid Andrew Vanwyngarden and a performance that was exuded then filtered through a kaleidoscope of whimsical talent. Whether you were standing in the middle of the crowd in right by the stage or lying on the hill faraway watching MGMT’s performance as the sun set, both experiences would have been equally blissful.

By the time “Kids” came on, I had gotten to the lying down part of the show. When the first few notes were played though and recognition swept the crowd, everyone around me ran towards the crowd because of how infectious the energy was.

One of my favorite parts of MGMT’s performance only lasted a few seconds, but its simplicity and beauty was mind blowing. While some of the band members were changing out their instruments, Vanwyngarden began strumming the chords on an acoustic guitar to Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Dream” and sang a few lines of the timeless song.

Last to take the stage was Gregg Michael Gillis, better known as Girl Talk –and I say that loosely, because Girl Talk as well as about 50 festival-goers all took the stage together. Girl Talk was hidden behind two inflatable sneakers and a huge table, but his energy was explosive as the stage was filled with guys and girls dancing. The entire crowd was dancing and jumping along to the entire set – his first in three years.

Aside from the rambunctious, and sometimes inappropriate, ramblings of the hype man, British Nick, Party in the Park was one of the first outdoor Atlanta event in a while to deliver on all fronts – good drinks, an excited crowd, beautiful weather and amazing music all day.

Gunakadeit: “South”

Posted on by Jasmin Nash

Natasha Kozaily’s new pop project Gunakadeit (pronounced Goo-na’-ka-date) is named after a Tlingit legend about a sea monster that brought prosperity and good luck to a village in crisis.

Natasha was raised by a Lebanese father and a native Islander mother on the small island of Grand Cayman in the Caribbean.  She studied ethnomusicology in Wales and now lives in San Diego, California.

Her choice in moniker and worldly, nomadic upbringing are all insights into Natasha’s exotic, ethereal influences and sound, evident in Gunakadeit’s new single, “South”.

“South” begins with minimal instrumentation, primarily a tickling electric guitar sound playing behind Natasha’s piercing vocals building up to a catchy drum beat.

Her swooning, melodic voice sings of a lover that has grown cold towards her. She no longer knows what to say or do where she lives now – her dreams are escaping her, and the town is dead. There is nagging voice telling her to escape, and, of course, for Natasha that means moving away to a happier, warmer place.

As the song progresses into the chorus, it becomes more electronic-pop influenced, with layered drumbeats and vocals, up-tempo cymbals and a deep bass pulse.

Gunakadeit’s first single,“South” bodes well for Natasha Kozaily, as her voice leaves a sense of mystery and intrigue, enticing us to listen to her tell more of her stories.

Sounds like: St. Vincent, Tune-Yards.

3/5