Indie/Alternative Rock
[MP3] Sir Sly – High
One from the inbox last week that we were digging:
Hello, this is Hayden from Sir Sly and I am writing the press release for our new single “High”.
Initially, we had someone else write it and they did a nice job—in fact, my favorite quote said that our new song “turns a hotel-room panic attack into a creative breakthrough” (true!). Still, I wanted to give you a bit more background, in chronological order, formatted by bullet points
April 20, 2014: It’s a day off on tour with The 1975. We’re colonizing a beige, Spartan room at the Courtyard Marriott in Oakland. Landon, our front man, steps out for a smoke.
Shortly thereafter, he becomes one with the universe. Additionally, my man sprawls out on the bathroom tile, smiling, scared, and stoned, naming off a list of people to whom he must give this newly discovered, all-encompassing, cosmic love.
September 16, 2014: The trip subsides, we finish the tour, and release an album called You Haunt Me. It does pretty well. My Mom tells all her friends about the time we played Conan, and how she heard us on the radio.
Deep inside, I’m a little disappointed because I read somewhere on the internet that we were supposed to be the next Coldplay, yet I still drive a 2001 Nissan Pathfinder with a check engine light.
Over the next six months, we start, and later abandon, a sophomore album full of minimal electronic songs. The lyrics are mostly outward facing, obtuse, anxious. It was good, but Jamie xx we are not.
June 2015: Back at square one and thinking hard about words like “sonic” and “identity,” Jason makes a round, booming instrumental in his studio in Costa Mesa. I cobble together a sampled, sauntering drum beat on a bus in Italy. Landon comes up with this sticky melody that’s part talking, part singing, all feel. We get in a room and they meld together.
It ends up being a revisionist retelling of that April 2014 night with a wink and some rose-colored glasses, borne of a desire to have a song to dance to every show.
We feel like it’s good sh-t.
I play it for an anonymous Uber driver and he’s all in. My Dad hears it and says it is “poppier” than our old stuff. My brother loves it and posts it to his Instagram months before it’s released because he thinks it’s already out.
Now: “High” comes out. “It’s an upbeat anthem about ego death” lead singer Landon Jacobs told the biographer, while I was on the other line of the conference call. “It really opened up the honesty of the record.”
Fittingly, it’s the first song from a forthcoming album that is lived-in, loose, and against all odds, a celebration. Thanks for listening.
So there you have it. Y’all dig?
[Concert Review] Adam & the Ants, Live at The Danforth Music Hall
Who: Adam & the Ants
What: Kings of the Wild Frontier tour
When: Jan. 29, 2017
Where: The Danforth Music Hall, Toronto ON
Long-time readers know I was born and grew up, until my very early teenage years, in the UK (we are not the self-described “Trill OG Blog” for nothing!) One of the first music acts I got into back then was Adam & the Ants, a new wave/punk band that drew influences from glam, British musical theatre and history, African Burundi drumming and other elements, some of which might be considered dubious or a tad non-PC in today’s era, to create a singular persona and sound that dominated the UK pop charts around the turn of the 80’s.
Truth be told though, my sister, staff photog for The Kitchen, and the auteur behind the shot above, was the true fan. We were both excited though when we heard we’d be given an opportunity to go see Adam at the Toronto date in his Kings of the Wild Frontier tour where he was set to play his hit 1980 album the tour was named for in full including some songs that had never been performed live on stage before.
Upon arriving at DMH we learned the show was seated, not my preference as, even though we were there in a professional capacity, we fully intended on jumping around and dancing like loons in anticipation of hearing part of the soundtrack to our youth being recreated live on stage. Openers, Glam Skanks, an all-female, 70s-inspired, ‘glitter-rock’ band were fine if you are young or uncool enough that you have never heard of The Runaways (an iconic proto punk/glam, female rock band if either of those things apply to you), but what can I say, we were really there for the main attraction.
And luckily, when he finally hit the stage, Adam did not fail to (stand and) deliver! (Well other than I was holding out, hope upon hope, that his legendary band mate and songwriting partner, Marco Pirroni would be in the house on stage too, but alas it was not to be…) Besides that minor quibble though, Adam looked fantastic. He’s still rocking his trademark period costuming which, in hindsight, has been an obvious influence on the look for Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow Pirates of the Caribbean character and he’s in amazing shape, maybe even better than during his 80’s prime. He didn’t move a ton on stage but he also looked far from being a tired old man which some of these punk/new wave era heritage acts on the nostalgia circuit can often come across as. He also didn’t do much in the way of in-between song banter (other than in the middle of the show when he poignantly dedicated the performance to his guitarist and musical director, Tom Edwards, who had passed away just a few days before the date in Toronto)
Hearing Kings of the Wild Frontier live in sequence in this setting (still with two drummers, yes!) was amazing. The best songs from the album have lost none of their kick, freshness or urgency and Adam performs them like they’re brand new songs and not almost 40 years old. He also blessed fans with a few other musical highlights from his career post-Kings plus a cool cover of T-Rex/Marc Bolan‘s “Get It On” although sue me if I wanted to hear “Ant Rap” and “Deutscher Girls” too! All in all though, it was a great show and I can’t imagine many true fans left at the end of the show unsatisfied.
Set List:
Dog Eat Dog
Antmusic
Feed Me To The Lions
Los Rancheros
Ants Invasion
Killer In The Home
Kings Of The Wild Frontier
The Magnificent Five
Don’t Be Square
Jolly Roger
Making History
The Human Beings
Beat My Guest
Christian Dior
Stand And Deliver
Vive Le Rock
Cartrouble
Desperate But Not Serious
Zerox
Never Trust A Man (With Egg On His Face)
Encore:
Lady/fall In
Goody Two Shoes
Prince Charming
Red Scab
Get It On
Physical
Bonus:
Spotify listeners, check out the Kings of the Wild Frontier album below. Tidal listeners, go HERE.
[MP3] BeachSeason – Tribes
Debut single from a new Canadian act, out of Calgary, AB of all places, called BeachSeason. Here’s the PR drop on them:
BeachSeason is the moniker of musicians Sam Avant and Simon Blitzer – a Calgary based duo recently signed to Universal Music who combine R&B vocals, luscious synths and bass heavy undertones to create a sound of ambient dreamy beats that takes you on an irresistible sonic daydream. Unmatched with their unique take on modern music and first-rate with their remixes/features with artists such as Rainer + Grimm, Humans, Mt. Eden – it’s no wonder that they are starting to build an international following. “Tribes” is the debut single from their forthcoming EP Libra Year – it’s lush, vibrant, experimental and everything that Beach Season has always been – completely inimitable. Their recent collaboration with Rainer & Grimm “Do It Right” quickly hit one plus million streams on Spotify.
Sounds like a bit of knockoff of The Weeknd but there’s enough originality and quality going on here to warrant your attention, I think. Curious to hear what subsequent music sounds like. Dig it? You can stream it via your favorite service (iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube etc.): HERE
[MP3] Zeds Dead – Stardust Feat. Twin Shadow
New joint by Toronto EDM duo, Zeds Dead with Twin Shadow. Dooope!
[MP3] AUDeGO – I Don’t Need You
I’m still digesting their excellent Glaciers EP but Kitchen faves, Audego (now being stylized as AUDeGO??) are back with even more new music from a forthcoming new EP to be co-released through Bad Panda records, the sublime “I Don’t Need You”:
“I Don’t Need You” is about the uncertainty that surrounds wanting to be somebody’s somebody but not wanting to give yourself up. It’s about that sometimes awful feeling in the beginning of a crush where you’re trying to be cool but really your heart is about to fall out of your chest.
I’ve been there! Trust me….