Athens, GA-based dream-pop duo Powerkompany (Marie Davon and Andrew Heaton) are debuting their music video for their sexually frustrated (aren’t we all?) trip-fest “Learning to Love.”
“Every time I listened to the song, it pushed me into another world of excitement and frenzy,” said Davon of the track. “And that’s what I tried to create in the video, which was filmed and edited over the course of about six months of experimentation. The party scene was filmed by Ethan Payne with lighting help from Pascaldmx in the Fuel Hot Yoga studio with some of my favorite women in Athens: Moriah Piacente, Gracen Daniels, Sienna Chandler and Farida Gasser. The other scenes were filmed with help from Zelium who has a great little photography studio in the Chase Street warehouses. And like mixing ingredients and spices together to create a feast, I edited and messed with the footage, whipping it into the delirious experience that you see now.”
Watch the exclusive premiere of “Learning to Love” below.
Catch Powerkompany in Atlanta this Sunday July 30 at Dirty South Yoga Fest. You know that sounds awesome.
The Majorleans are a New York-based lo-fi rock project led by singer-songwriter Nick Francis DiFonzo and guitarist Chris Buckle, with Christian Bongers on bass and Colin Brooks on drums.
Today, they’re debuting their titillating new single “Dancing With The Darkside.”
“I had originally written this song for the band Mother Feather, or with them in mind at least,” said DiFonzo, who typically channels organic, roots-based songwriting for The Majorleans. “They passed on it, and I realized that even though it was stylistically a bit different from our other stuff, that we had fun indulging some of the more rock-club, dancefloor vibes that we dig but aren’t a huge part of our sound. The lyrics just came in a whirl like they always do, and the chorus was certainly emboldened by the post-election malaise here in NYC last winter. I’m not a topical writer, but the sentiment seemed apt to the times.”
Check out the exclusive premiere of “Dancing With The Darkside” here!
New Yorkers, be sure to catch The Majorleans at Union Pool with the newly re-united Des Roar on August 20th. See you out there.
If you’re one of the lucky ones heading out to Louisville KY for Forecastle Festival this weekend, we know you’re gonna flock to see the headliners—and we’re right there with you. Forecastle’s big guns form quite the armory this year with sets from Run The Jewels, LCD Soundsystem, PJ Harvey, Spoon, Weezer, and Sturgill Simpson. Not to mention the glorious return of the beloved Screaming Eagle himself, Mister Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires.
That said, if you scroll on down the lineup, it’s fully packed with exciting, dynamic acts right down to the very end. Here’s a list of the top 10 bands it would be criminal to miss.
Big Thief
Brooklyn’s Big Thief’s music, rooted in the songs of Adrianne Lenker (guitar, vocals) paints in vivid tones. Their highly anticipated second record Capacity was release last month and shows us the gentle side of being ripped open, and then recounts the second act of pulling oneself back together to prepare for it all to happen again.
Whitney
Whitney tries to make the kind of songs they’d be jealous of if someone else got there first. Formed from the core of guitarist Max Kakacek (ex-Smith Westerns) and singing drummer Julien Ehrlich (ex-Unknown Mortal Orchestra),the band itself is something bigger, something visionary, something neither of them could have accomplished alone.
Aaron Lee Tasjan
East Nashville-based musician Aaron Lee Tasjan has always considered himself a songwriter first and foremost, writing his own off-kilter folk-inflected songs since he picked up his first acoustic as a teen guitar prodigy. His New West Records debut, Silver Tears, shows his artistic ambitions and solidifies him as one of the most intriguing singer/songwriters to emerge in sometime.
Adia Victoria
Adia Victoria is establishing a fresh reference point on the musical landscape. From blood-born howls to idiosyncratic phrasing, she is the big red dot saying You Are Here. The Nashville-based artist travels the lands of rock, afro punk, and country, squarely situated in the continent of the Blues.
Mondo Cozmo
Born in Philadelphia and now based in East Los Angeles, Mono Cozmo raised a big middle finger to all opposition, and in 2016 began releasing songs that could’ve been cut under the influence of a “Champagne Supernova” inside a Seattle warehouse if this were the nineties…but it’s not. His latest work, Plastic Soul, will be released in a few weeks. He did it all by deconstructing everything you know and reconstructing it with a rawness the world hasn’t felt since Pearl Jam’s Vs. or Springsteen’s Born To Run. That’s Plastic Soul.
John Moreland
John Moreland’s latest album, Big Bad Luv, is the record he made after, after everything in his life changed. For the better. He sings in one of those accents from flyover country that’s impossible to locate and implausible to mimic. (Texas, by way of Northern Kentucky, but mostly Tulsa, as it happens.) He sings directly from his heart, with none of the restraint and filters and caution the rest of us would apply for public protection. He sings with resolute courage.
Twin Limb
Forecastle will be a hometown throw down for Twin Limb. Louisville’s own Twin Limb is proof that a band can be a powerful trio without being a “power trio”. Friends, Lacey Guthrie and Maryliz Bender decided they were going to build a musical edifice together, with the producing prowess of Kevin Ratterman. Together, an organic blend bringing post-punk guitar sprinklings to a yearning, but militaristic amalgam of soaring vocals, percussion, and slowly-kneaded accordion.
Lucy Dacus
Sharp lyrical observations, playful turns of musical phrase, hooks that’ll embed themselves in your frontal lobe for days is what you’ll experience at Lucy Dacus’ set this Saturday afternoon. She has a keen sense of self and that shines clearly on her debut No Burden.
Pell
Born and raised in New Orleans but forced, at 13, to relocate with his family to Jackson, Mississippi when Hurricane Katrina hit and destroyed their home—has been praised for fusing precise lyricism and soulful singing into an eclectic sound, entirely his own.
Sun Seeker
Sun Seeker has drawn applause for their unhurried breed of Cosmic American Music and with BIDDEFORD (Third Man Records), their long awaited debut EP, the Nashville-based band more than affirm their promise. The EP – which follows Sun Seeker’s widely acclaimed Third Man debut single, 2016’s “Georgia Dust” b/w “No One Knows” (TMR322) – sees Alex Benick (guitar, vocals), Asher Horton (bass guitar, vocals), and Ben Parks (drums, vocals) exploring nostalgia, melancholy, and emotional turmoil via laidback psychedelia pollinated with tight harmonies, classic folk songcraft, and country rock spirit, an ageless approach that is simultaneously archetypal and now utterly their own.
We handed a disposable camera (remember those?) to the members of Canadian rock band Arkells and asked them to document their day at Atlanta’s Shaky Knees Music Festival. Take a look at their shenanigans below, and be sure to catch them on tour like, right now. This is not a live performance you want to miss.
Day One of Shaky Knees kicked off bright and early with a set from Cymbals Eat Guitars over at the Ponce de Leon stage. Not a bad way to jump start your day, with front row head-banging right at the crack of noon. The lineup for Friday was overwhelming in the best way, with no down time from one kickass band to the next. We’re genuinely surprised we even found time to eat anything. We ran straight from Cymbals to Zipper Club, then on to Temples followed quickly by Margaret Glaspy (hero), and from Glaspy we hauled over to Car Seat Headrest. Post Car Seat at the Peachtree Stage, we made it to The Growlers on the Piedmont Stage for half a set, and then booked it back to Ponce to catch everyone’s new favorite band, Pinegrove.
Pinegrove’s set was one of the most anticipated of the day for us (although, with this bottomless smorgasbord of fantastic artists, it was hard to choose which set to get the most pumped for), and we weren’t alone. Though the Ponce stage was the smallest of the three, the New Jersey band commanded a crowd, and personal space was impossible to find. The six-piece folk rock band took us through most of 2016’s Cardinal, only leaving off third to last track “Waveform,” which…yeah, we get. Even though we’re probably never going to see them play our favorite track “Peeling Off the Bark” from 2015’s Everything So Far, they did pull out “Angelina,” “Problems,” “The Metronome,” and “Recycling” from their debut release, so we were more than satisfied. They also played big guns “Old Friends” and “Aphasia,” and ended with our latest on-constant-repeat obsession “New Friends” for the finale.
From Pinegrove, we settled in at the main (Peachtree) stage for Wolf Parade, followed immediately by Portugal. The Man, and then Cage The Elephant.
Cage The Elephant. Photo courtesy of aLIVE Coverage
Matt Shultz’s presence as Cage The Elephant frontman Friday at Shaky Knees is not the first time that crowd chatter has compared him to Mick Jagger. Shultz’s stage presence is memorable, to put it lightly. While he isn’t exactly Jagger, he has surely proven himself as an epic (and we don’t throw that word around too often) performer time and time again. Cage’s Shaky Knees set was mega high energy and captivating.
Post-Cage, we fought our way to a good vantage point at the Piedmont Stage for Pixies‘ set, which was a lot easier to obtain after a third of the crowd dispersed halfway through the set once the band finished “Where Is My Mind?” (really, guys?). Side note: bless Shaky Knees for booking the Pixies for two years, first in 2015 and again this year. Anyone who missed this set made a huge mistake. We’re still reeling.
Legends in their own right, headliners LCD Soundsystem took the stage Friday night of Shaky Knees like the kings of electronic rock they are. They walked onto the stage to the Peech Boys’ anthemic “Life Is Something Special,” a fitting opener to one of the best and most highly anticipated sets of the weekend. James Murphy then commenced orchestrating a giant festy dance party as the group worked through a setlist that catered to all, especially lovers of their debut self-titled and 2007’s Sounds Of Silver, breaking down into a beautiful, swaying close with “All My Friends.”
Day Two
Day Two was definitely the slower day of the festival, on top of being the rainiest of the three. (Though to be real, it only seriously rained for about five minutes and was a welcome refresher from the heat.) While Friday and Sunday both boasted lineups that were destined to have us well over our daily “steps” goals with all of the time-overlap sets we’d be running to, Saturday’s offerings gave us a little more down time to catch some shade or, you know, actually taste the food truck fare we were scarfing down.
The day started promptly at noon again, this time over at the main stage for North Carolina duo Flagship followed by LA’s The Record Company, and then on over to the Piedmont Stage for British pop singer Bishop Briggs, who you may recognize from her mega hits “River” and more recently “Wild Horses.” Since “River” first released in January 2016, Briggs has been rapidly climbing the charts. While her soulful performance was a great introduction for new fans, we would love to see Briggs break away from sounding exactly like her recordings and bring something extra to her live performance. We’re super excited to see what is in store for the emerging artist, and we’ll be keeping an eye on her for sure.
Dr. Dog. Photo courtesy of aLIVE Coverage
Dr. Dog was the most anticipated set of the day for us, and we posted up at the Piedmont Stage to catch the psych rock band for their early evening set. The band took the stage and wasted no time on teasing the audience, launching right into fan favorite “How Long Must I Wait” off of 2012’s Be The Void, later on also gifting us with tracks “That Old Black Hole,” “These Days, and “Heavy Light” from the same album. The rest of the set consisted of a good mix of their catalog, surprisingly lacking heavy focus on this year’s Abandoned Mansion and also exploring 2013’s B-Room as well as 2010’s Shame, Shame, with a couple of tracks from 2008’s Fate and last year’s The Psychedelic Swamp for good measure. They closed the set with their signature cover of Architecture in Helsinki‘s “Heart It Races.”
Day Three
Day Three was a beast. Starting off with Hoops at the Piedmont stage at 12:30 p.m., it’s hard to pinpoint what the highlight of the day was between sets from Whitney, Hamilton Leithauser, Fruit Bats, Third Eye Blind (might be a real contender, because #nostalgia), The Shins, Ryan Adams (who basically just made fun of The Shins the whole time), and Phoenix.
Fruit Bats. Photo courtesy of aLIVE Coverage
That said, we’re a little bit nuts for Fruit Bats over here, and we were front row rail for the entire set, taking enough videos to make our phones complain that we were running out of storage. Our obsessive fandom was rewarded later on during The Shins’ set, when Fruit Bats frontman Eric D. Johnson (former member of The Shins) jumped in with them on tambourine.
Despite personal favorites, it has to be acknowledged that Phoenix was genuinely, indisputably incredible. Their hour-and-a-half set was masterful, complete with the coolest backdrop we’ve ever seen—a slanted mirror aerially reflecting the stage below, with the floor projecting trippy visual effects. The entire surrounding crowd was near hysteria throughout the entire show up until their encore which included—obviously—2009’s smash hit “1901.”
Phoenix. Photo courtesy of aLIVE Coverage
Final Thoughts
We’ve talked about this before, but we are all about the sustainability factor of refillable water stations in lieu of plastic bottles, and Shaky Knees was one of the first festivals we ever saw implement this system. We’ve been seeing this more and more on the festival circuit, and we’re so glad that it’s becoming a best practice. Shoutout to Shaky for being proactive here.
Also want to note that Centennial Olympic Park is a great location. When they hosted the festival at Central Park in 2015, we thought it was perfect and wondered if it could get any better. Plenty of shade, stages far enough apart that their sound didn’t step on each other…it seemed like the ideal spot to plant this festival, and when we heard about the move in 2016, we were skeptical. It turns out our doubts were unfounded. Yes, Centennial is a smaller park, but this didn’t, as we worried, result in overcrowding. There were less stages than before, but this mainly resulted in easier transition from stage to stage without feeling like you had to leave a set 10 minutes after arriving in order to be on time for the next. In short, this festival is excellently planned, and runs like clockwork. We’re believers.
Since its inception, Shaky Knees’ consistently stellar lineup has made it stand out, and it remains one of our all-time favorite festivals, from soup to nuts. The bottom line is, the lineup is always unbeatable and, more importantly, uncompromising. Keep it up, guys, and we’ll keep insisting that this is the festival that should not be missed.
Comedian Eliot Glazer’s web series turned live show, Haunting Renditions, turns all of the best bad pop songs of yore and repackages them into beautiful(ly ironic) ballads, shining a giant spotlight on just how cheesy your favorite pop lyrics can get.
The series, which started as a “vanity project” for the Broad City and New Girl writer, features a variety of musical and comedy guests. We spoke with Glazer about the creation of his project, as well as his hopes for adapting Haunting Renditions for television.
Vinyl Mag: How did this concept first form? What made you decide that you wanted to incorporate music into comedy?
Eliot Glazer: My friend Seth Keim and I simply made it as a vanity project. Seth works on Jimmy Fallon, but we grew up together and always collaborated, literally starting in 9th grade. After we worked on Shit New Yorkers Say, [my other web series] It Gets Betterish, and Eliot’sSketch Pad (for Above Average), we made five Haunting Renditions videos honestly just for ourselves based on an idea I’d had for a while—a sendup of MTV Unplugged or Austin City Limits.
Mike Fram, the musical director of my college a capella group, helped arrange the songs and played the piano, and from there, the show naturally progressed into a live show.
VM: Not all of your songs are blatantly lyrically amusing, but their comedy comes out in the context of the performance. What do you look for in the music you select?
EG: Yeah, leaning into silly lyrics with self-serious music is accessibly funny on the surface. But playing with the context or artifice of the song is more challenging. But when it’s about context, the joke tends to come from the arrangement: it’s in the way a song is sung and played. Visual aids also help, too, but it’s really just a matter of sonically breaking down a song so that it stirs up feelings of nostalgia, which then hopefully make you laugh. Or at least remind you that you knew every word to this song, but never stopped to think about what they really mean.
VM: What about nostalgia appeals to or inspires you?
EG: So much of nostalgia brings you back to childhood. It’s funny to apply your adult brain to your child brain, for better or worse.
VM: Do you come up with the concept and then figure out the guest, or the other way around?
EG: We always figure out a fun bit with guests, not the other way around. It should always feel personal for them.
VM: Is everything rehearsed, or is there an element of improvisation in the performance?
EG: There’s certainly improv in the way I sing, but everything is tightly rehearsed.
VM: How does your classical music training inform the series?
EG: Not very much! I know my vocal ability is based more in pop/R&B, so any operatic training doesn’t really apply.
VM: Who are some of your dream guests, both comedians and musicians?
EG: Erykah Badu, Maya Rudolph, Fred Armisen, The Roots, and I really need to get my buddy Eric Andre sometime (he’s a jazz musician).
VM: Will you be continuing HR the web series?
EG: We’re pitching an adapted version of the web series for TV with a production company, so hopefully we can make the jump later this year.
VM: What are some of your favorite performances so far?
EG: Performing a Toni Braxton song with Thorgy Thor for 420 was pretty incredible. I always love when I can share the stage with my sister, which has become a holiday tradition. And having Abbi Jacobson reprise her alter ego, Val, from Broad City, was super fun. Doing bits with Pete Holmes, Gilbert Gottfried, and Mamrie Hart were also super special.
VM: What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned since your first show? How has the vision changed since then?
EG: The show started out with me acting like some egomaniacal musicologist, and I’ve slowly become more myself onstage, less of this “character.” It’s been a real boost of self-confidence to not feel like I had to hide behind an alter ego.
VM: What is coming up for Haunting Renditions? What is your vision for it in the future?
EG: The hope is to adapt it for TV, which we’re working on with a fantastic production company. It would be really cool to see the brand continue to develop and grow, but ultimately I just want to keep having fun. Bringing it to festivals, even internationally, would be really cool, too.
Joseph King, former frontman of Canvas and Deadbeat Darling, is back and better than ever with his new project. Joseph King and the Mad Crush is a Brooklyn-based pop rock quartet with a penchant for catchily heartbreaking lyrics and delicious, surfy reverb. The band dropped their I Miss Everything EP earlier this year.
We asked the Austin, TX native to create a playlist for us of some of his favorite tunes, and we’ve got the mix below, along with the King’s track-by-track commentary. Enjoy, and—for those of you in the NYC area—be sure to come out tomorrow to see the band play at Brooklyn Bazaar at 10 p.m.
1. “Forget That You’re Young’ – The Raveonettes
“I originally heard this song in the background at a restaurant, and the melody reminded me so much of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark.’ I went searching for it, and once I found it, fell in love.”
2. “Pass This On” – The Knife
“The lyrical content of this song is so hot and so dark. One of The Knife’s best for sure.”
3. “Ambulance” – TV On The Radio
“TVOTR is one of my all-time favorite bands and biggest influences. This song reminds me of a very specific summer I spent in Austin; it was my driving song. ‘I will be your one more time if you will be my one last chance…'”
4. “Multi-Family Garage Sail (Bargin Bin Mix)” – Land of the Loops
“I discovered this song recently. The vibe is so thick and puts me in a very specific headspace. It’s a daydream.”
5. “Ride On / Right On” – Phosphorescent
“The title of this song fits so perfectly—another driving song that hits me perfectly, and reminds a bit of early Arcade Fire.”
6. “Giants” – Bear Hands
“I played with Bear Hands and AWOLNATION awhile back at Webster Hall and have been a fan ever since. ‘Giants’ is a great song with a killer chorus.”
7. “Black Water” – Timbre Timbre
“Timbre Timbre is a band who creates a very specific mood and does it in such a beautiful unique way. This song breaks my heart every time; it’s my sunrise song.”
8. “Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf)” – Pixies
“Pixies are one of my all-time favorites. I was at Rosemary’s Tavern in Brooklyn years ago with an ex of mine, and this song came on and became our sort of anthem. That relationship ended in flames but I still love the song, especially this version.”
9. “Angst In My Pants” – Sparks
“You can never mistake a Sparks song—such a trademark sound. I love the quirkiness of this song. Very much in the Roxy Music tradition.”
10. “Don’t Kiss Me Goodbye” – Ultra Orange, Emmanuelle
“Another song that breaks my heart every time. I’m always a sucker for sweet, melancholy ‘goodbye’ songs. This one is perfect.”
11. “California Sunrise” – Dirty Gold
“This song washes straight over me like a coastal breeze—puts me in an early morning island trance. Dirty Gold is a new discovery for me; their vibe is so thick.”
12. “Out Of Time Man” – Mano Negra
“Before Manu Chao went solo, he had a band called Mano Negra that was part of the Parisian rock scene. This is my favorite song from that band, and what I feel is the seed for all his solo material. Manu Chao is one of my top five all-time favorite artists.”
13. “Tobacco Road” – The Nashville Teens
“My mom used to have this on an old 45. I love this era of rock and roll—dirty, loose right to the point.”
14. “Can’t Seem To Make you Mine” – The Seeds
“Another song from the era of rock I love the most. So sloppy, and so dirty and sexy.”
15. “Sleepwalk” – Santo & Johnny
“I’ve always said if I could be one song, this would be it. It’s my all-time favorite.”
Local acts will be performing at The Side Bar, located at 602 E. 7th Street in Austin, Texas during SXSW. The party will occur from noon to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 18.
Artists in attendance will include Cindy Wilson of the B-52’s, Mothers, Muuy Biien and a crapload of other killer acts.
Emily McBride:
David Bowie – Blackstar
Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker Fruit Bats – Absolute Loser LVL UP – Return to Love Lemon Twigs – Do Hollywood
Drive-By Truckers – American Band
Whitney – Light Upon the Lake
Margaret Glaspy – Emotions and Math
Marlon Williams – Marlon Williams
Angel Olsen – My Woman
Jackie Citero:
Lady Gaga – Joanne
Sia – This is Acting Catfish and the Bottlemen – The Ride Glass Animals – How To Be a Human Being A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here…Thank You 4 Your Service
Jimmy Eat World – Integrity Blues Gwen Stefani – This Is What The Truth Feels Like
The Marcus King Band – The Marcus King Band
Flume – Skin
Childish Gambino – “Awaken, My Love!” The Chainsmokers – Collage
Darby McNally:
Rihanna – ANTI
ZAYN – Mind of Mine
Beyoncé – Lemonade
Ariana Grande – Dangerous Woman
Solange – A Seat at the Table
Fifth Harmony – 7/27
TWENTY88 – TWENTY88
The Weeknd – Starboy
Bruno Mars – 24K Magic
Alicia Keys – HERE
Stephanie Alejandro:
Justin Bieber – Purpose Beyoncé – Lemonade Chance the Rapper – Coloring Book
Kanye West – The Life as Pablo
Frank Ocean – Blonde Sia – This is Acting
Lady Gaga – Joanne
Ariana Grande – Dangerous Woman
Drake – Views
The 1975 – I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It
Emily McBride:
Whitney – “No Woman”
Fruit Bats – “None Of Us”
Lemon Twigs – “These Words”
Bon Iver – “33 ‘GOD'”
Angel Olsen – “Shut Up Kiss Me”
Tennis – “In The Morning I’ll Be Better”
Palmas – “Flowers”
Frances Cone – “Arizona”
Maggie Rogers – “Alaska”
Jimmy Eat World – “Get Right”
Jackie Citero:
FRENSHIP – “Capsize”
The String Cheese Incident – “Believe”
The Chainsmokers – “Don’t Let Me Down”
Lady Gaga – “Diamond Heart”
Catfish and the Bottlemen – “7”
Glass Animals – “Life Itself”
Sia – “Alive”
Phantogram – “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore”
Panic! At The Disco – “Don’t Threaten Me With A Good Time”
Børns – “American Money”
Gwen Stefani – “Used to Love You”
Darby McNally:
Fifth Harmony ft. Ty Dolla $ign – “Work from Home”
Beyoncé ft. The Weeknd – “6 Inch”
ZAYN – “Borderz”
Rihanna – “Yeah, I Said It”
The Weeknd ft. Lana Del Rey – “Stargirl Interlude”
Bruno Mars – “Versace On the Floor”
TWENTY88 ft. K-Ci & JoJo & Detail – “2 Minute Warning”
Solange – “Don’t Wish Me Well”
Ariana Grande – “Touch It”
Alicia Keys – “Where Do We Begin Now”
Stephanie Alejandro:
The Chainsmokers ft. Halsey – “Closer”
Justin Bieber – “Love Yourself”
Ariana Grande – “Side to side”
The Chainsmokers – “Don’t Let Me Down”
Rihanna ft. Drake – “Work”
Drake – “One Dance”
DJ Snake ft. Justin Bieber – “Let Me Love You”
ZAYN – “Pillowtalk”
Gnash ft. Olivia O’ Brien – “I hate you, I love you”
Ariana Grande – “Dangerous Woman”
