Review: King of the Beach

It’s the dog days of summer and King of the Beach is its soundtrack! Here’s an extended review from this month’s issue:

4/5

There is a clear indication that bands like Wavves and Best Coast are introducing a new regional sound. King of the Beach is an eclectic mix to say the least, and is not all that surprising if you’ve heard anything about Nathan Williams. The album’s cleaned up production quality has stripped away some of the signature fuzz, leaving tracks like “Idiot” and “Super Soaker” transparent to Williams’ Blink-182 influences. It’s fun and even sincere, but by the time we arrive at the more experimental, Beach Boys-like sounds of “When Will You Come”, it is clear that this is the direction that Wavves was meaning to take. “Take On The World” evokes the spirit of Kurt Cobain, and tracks like “Convertible Balloon” and “Mickey Mouse” exercise your serotonin levels like a gram of mushrooms. The mixture of influences is powerful for King of the Beach can especially be appreciated for its variety and genre melding.

-Ali

Cut Copy: Where I’m Going

RCRD LBL keeps the jams flowing with a brand new single from Cut Copy. Cut Copy are prepping their follow up to In Ghost Colours, which, in my opinion, is one of the best albums of this past decade, so in my book they pretty much have a “get out of jail free” card to do whatever the hell they want this time around. So what are they choosing to do with their well earned good will? If this track is any indication, apparently some 60s inspired psychadelic party music (in which case, the Keith Haring esque album art is a “red herring”, pun intended). Works for me.

Listen and Download @ RCRD LBL

Zola Jesus – Sea Talk

Let’s check in with one of our female artists to watch in 2010 (remember that writeup from our April issue?): Zola Jesus. Still great. Now she’s blonde. Hear a new song called “Sea Talk.” Fall in love again.

Listen + Download @ RCRD LBL

New Release: Mahjongg

If you haven’t noticed, our friends in Mahjongg have finally dropped their anticipated third LP, Long Shadow Of The Paper Tiger on K Records. You may have caught our interview with Mahjongg’s Hunter Husar in the June issue of Sundae (and if you didn’t, go read it!).

Anywho, looks like the boys picked up a positive 6.9 from Pitchfork today, and the review features such compliments as “it’s hard to find a dance party as distinctive as the one Mahjongg are throwing here,” and “The Long Shadow is the band’s most focused and cohesive work.”

If you’re in the mood for some dance music that makes you think, you can’t go wrong with this one.

-Jack

(Real) Superhero Hype

If you haven’t heard already, Edward Norton will not reprise his role as Bruce Banner in the forthcoming Avengers flick slated for May 2012. Joaquin Phoenix is rumored to hulk-out in Norton’s place, that is, if he decides to come out of retirement after a successful go at a rap career. Le sigh. These genetically altered man-monsters are so fickle. We obtained a copy of Norton’s reaction to the snub from the actor’s Facebook page:

Geek out even more with this superhero hype gallery here, Courtesy of NBC.

Here We Go Magic Announce US Tour

Buzz band Here We Go Magic hits the road for a U.S. excursion through November 2010. If “Collector”, the perky shoe-tapper off their latest LP, Pigeons (Secretly Canadian) is any indication, their live performance will be just as satisfying. Check out the video for “Collector” and US tour dates below.

Here We Go Magic US Tour

7/17 – Schuba’s – Chicago
7/18 – Pitchfork Music Festival – Chicago, IL
7/29 – Troubadour – West Hollywood, CA *
8/01 – The Rhythm Room – Phoenix, AZ *
8/03 – The LOFT at the Palladium – Dallas, TX *
8/04 – Emo’s Outside – Austin, TX *
8/06 – The Earl – Atlanta, GA *
8/07 – Cat’s Cradle – Carrboro, NC *
8/08 – The Black Cat – Washington, DC *
8/09 – Johnny Brenda’s – Philadelphia, PA
8/11 – CoCo 66 – 826NYC Benefit – Brooklyn, NY
10/16 – Phoenix – Toronto, ON #
10/18 – Town Ballroom – Buffalo, NY #
10/19 – Beachland Ballroom – Cleveland, OH #
10/20 – The Crofoot – Pontiac, MI #
10/21 – Vic Theatre – Chicago, IL #
10/23 – First Avenue – Minneapolis, MN #
10/25 – The Waiting Room – Omaha, NE #
10/27 – Urban Lounge – Salt Lake City, UT #
10/30 – Vogue Theatre – Vancouver, BC #
10/31 – Doug Fir Lounge – Portland, OR
11/02 – Crystal Bay Crown Club Room – Crystal Bay, NV #
11/03 – The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA #
11/06 – Belly Up Tavern – Solana Beach, CA #
11/08 – Orpheum Theatre – Flagstaff, AZ #
11/09 – Sunshine Theater – Albuquerque, NM #
11/10 – Academy of Contemporary Music – Oklahoma City, OK #
11/11 – Palladium Ballroom – Dallas, TX #
11/13 – Warehouse Live Ballroom – Houston, TX #

* w/ Beach Fossils
# w/ Dr Dog

TELETHON Interview

PEOPLE EAT HUMANS OR HUMANS, THE HUMAN ANIMAL 7″ DUE AUGUST 31st 2010

Due to it’s amazing length, only part of my interview with Matt Kamm of TELETHON was featured in the print version of Sundae Magazine. So, in all it’s absurdist glory, here is the full complete interview:

Sundae Magazine: For those who aren’t in the know, why don’t we start by having you give the folks at home a 2-sentence synopsis of who you and the band are, and try to included the word quixotically.

Matt Kamm: TELETHON is an experiential experiment in which we try to meet the visually fantastic worlds of Jim Henson and the raucous rock-punk of David Bowie, quixotically. Even though that has already been done in the film The Labryinth we do it differently – OUR WAY.

SM: Thank you. Now, you have a number of releases out to date, and almost every one of them features a different moniker. I know that many of those were solo albums, but more recently you’ve been recording with a number of other people in the band. Tell us a little about the origins of TELETHON, your first couple of releases, and the significance of those various nom de plumes.

MK: In it’s inception, the project began as a world that takes place in a different realm than ours. It started out as the story of a regular boy, “Tele,” (full birthname: Telethon Veginald Cheeseburger) who was possessed by a ghost of the past, present, & future, who he named “The Ghost of Our Lord,” or T-GOOL. TGOOL forced Tele into a trance in which he finished his debut album, Tele & The Ghost Of Our Lord’s “Beach Party Blast/Quasi Immaculate Deception,” [2007] in a period of 24 hours and released it online for free. Even though Tele was pissed about his masterpiece being released for free, he understood that T-GOOL did most of the raddest work on the record and gave Tele the credit, so he was thankful and bit his tongue… off.
The second record, released as Tele & Big Tie Moldies’ “Future Frontier,” [2008] is an album set in a post WWIII 2015, looking back at a simpler, more naive way of life. Tonally, it depicts a savage world in which children carry weapons to “schools” in which they are trained to constantly run for their lives and kill to survive. It also reflects on living without luxuries in a world where water and food, possibly even air, are commodities. It was recorded at gut-wrenching volumes through the shittiest equipment possible and as a result, is the loudest album on Earth and elsewhere to date. The third release, Tele V. Cheeseburger’s “Hydrophonia,” [2008] is a lot less complicated. I was experimenting with tribalism, the Beach Boys as synth-pop, and songs that were a little bit closer to dealing with our present world than on the previous works. An expose based on the present , as opposed to other realms, while still showing that our world does contain a layer of magic that we are unable to see that rests in the back of our minds, beckoning us to answer its call. It was around this point that the full character, Telethon Veginald (or “Veggie”) Cheeseburger was born.

The-Dream: Trilogy (Video)

A wise man named Dr. Steve Brule once said, “You can’t kiss a beautiful girl and have a cool uncle.” This applies to all aspects of life. For instance, you can’t be a brilliant singer/songwriter and producer and dance. Looks like The-Dream may not have come to terms with Dr. Brule’s “rule”, judging by whatever he’s trying to do in the first part of this “Trilogy” video.

You can’t really complain, though, as musically he’s doing his best Prince impression (which is a very good impression) via “Yamaha,” which then bleeds into “Nikki Pt.2” and the “Cry Me A River” cribbing “Abyss” (complete with crying/watery imagery). Just listen to the jams, folks, and be happy he’s serving ’em up!

But really – you don’t see Yeezy pretending he can dance after that “Gold Digger” video, do you? He already has a cool uncle, and he knows it.

Wait a minute, Dream, WTF is going on with that girl in the shower? #creepedout

-Jack

The Goddess Returns

Is she the crowned princess of dance music? Nope, think bigger. Queen? Closer, but still light years off. Goddess? Yeah, that’s the ticket!

Aphrodite, to be exact. No, that’s not just the name of her new (and 11th) album (Try counting that many albums on your fingers, little babies! No? Add a toe!), that’s actually Kylie’s literal identity. She is, in fact, the goddess Aphrodite. She is just chilling on earth for the past 20 years or so, so you’d better enjoy this shit while she’s dishing it out, before she goes back into outer space where all the other gods party without us!

Wanna hear her new album for free online before you trip over yourself trying to whip out your debit card to buy 10 copies in a week? NPR is here for you.

Wait, I mean, here for you.

-Jack