Showing posts with label Slow Down Molasses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Slow Down Molasses. Show all posts

And The Beat Goes On: Ine Hoem - No Monster Club - Neil Brophy Band - Slow Down Molasses - The PepTides

Ine Hoem - Moonbird.

Background promo - Ine Hoem´s voice hits you right in the heart. Her vocal strong sound has elements from both modern electronic music and the jazz universe.

Her debut album "Angerville" received tons of positive reviews, and her single "This year" gained a lot of airplay in her native Norway. That song was also used in the Canadian/US TV series "Degrassi".

Ine Hoem has spent the last 12 months in a studio in Gotland, Sweden, together with producer Tobias Fröberg (Ane Brun, Loreen, Anna Bergendahl) and the musicians Lars Skoglund (Lykke Li) and Robert Elovsson (Robyn).

The result is the album "Moonbird", due to be released February 10th. These nine strong songs creates a dark musical universe, and makes you think of artists like Kate Bush and Lykke Li. The first single, and title track, "Moonbird" is out now.


With rich swirling synth sounds 'Moonbird' grabbed my attention before Ine Hoem had even begun to sing. Once she did, then wow! what a fabulous voice, and vocal range. Melodic through and through, this is one fabulous song.

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No Monster Club - Hippocampus Circus Maximus.

Background - No Monster Club has just released the first track from their forthcoming 7" EP - it's a catchy, tropical-tinged pop march that elicited an impromptu conga-line during its debut airing at Electric Picnic over the weekend.

No Monster Club is the cartoonish art-pop brainchild of Dublin's Bobby Aherne - a project that has already produced around a dozen albums containing "the kind of tunefulness that makes a joke of so much contemporary pop music" (The Irish Times).

Emotional Response are proud to announce the release of No Monster Club’s debut US release, which is also the bands’ debut foray into the 7inch vinyl medium! Skillfully mastered to ensure maximum fidelity, this immediately catchy and classic pop EP contains Four jump-up-and-down solid gold bangers, heralding Aherne’s songwriting as it blossoms into dazzling brilliance.

Catch them on tour later this month:
9/24 Louie’s Back Room, Kalamazoo, MI
9/25 Burlington Bar, Chicago, IL
9/26 Pinky Swear, Chicago, IL
9/27 Stone Tavern at Michel’s, Kent, OH
9/28 Coyote Joe’s, Dubois, PA
9/29 The Dev, Utica, NY
9/30 TBA, NYC
10/1 Our Lady of Perpetual Hope, Hempstead, NY
10/5 New Funky Jungle, Providence, RI


'Hippocampus Circus Maximus' may well have been featured just for the song title alone. That it is a bright and uplifting fun tune, secured it. That pop can still make me smile and feel good, is something pretty special, as is this song.

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Neil Brophy Band - Fear of Fear.

Background - Folk Rock from Copenhagen via Northampton, Neil Brophy Band combine powerful lyrics, upbeat folk guitar and iconic banjo & whistle melodies to deliver an infectiously catchy song with a serious political message in the outspoken new single “Fear of Fear”, out 21st October. Infused with a raw, brash Celtic soul sound that recalls the likes of Billy Bragg, The Pogues and Ewan MacColl, “Fear of Fear” mixes reflective lyrics and driving instrumentation to create a catchy and politically charged anti-anthem, bursting at the seams with defiance.

“Right-wing news channels and politicians feed us with their propaganda machine, breeding hatred and fear, which they use to misguide us. ‘Fear of Fear’ as the title suggests, lays out in black and white the lies we are fed.” - Neil Brophy. Brophy originally from Moulton, Northamptonshire, left the UK in 1990 on a backpacking trip and never made it back on a permanent basis. The prolific songwriter busked his way around Australia, NZ and the States for several years picking up songs and stories along the way, honing his craft by combining elements of his travels with social commentary & revelry and moulding into song.

Led by singer and song smith, Neil Brophy, the band has toured extensively in Northern Europe and Scandinavia becoming firm favourites on the festival circuit including multiple festival appearances in Germany, Holland and Belgium. UK festivals include Beautiful Days, Big Session and Middlewhich Festival. Now based in Copenhagen, Denmark, Folk Rock band Neil Brophy Band has been recording and touring since 1998.  With several releases under their belt, the English-Scottish-Danish band’s last single ‘The Record Collector’, released on Record Store Day, was championed by Steve Lamacq, receiving substantial airplay on BBC 6 Music.


Neil Brophy Band will be returning to the UK in October to play a selection of exclusive shows including dates with Blackbeard’s Tea Party.
                
12/10 The Dublin Castle - London
14/10 Adelphi - Hull - Supporting Blackbeard’s Tea Party
15/10 Telford Warehouse - Chester - Supporting Blackbeard’s Tea Party
16/10 FAC251 - Manchester - Supporting Blackbeard’s Tea Party


Music with a message is alive and well with songs like 'Fear Of Fear'. Musically it's something of a modern day folk piece with a sprinkling of Celtic influences. Melodic and catchy, the lyrics cut to the chase, getting the point across, whilst the harmonies, make it just so likable.

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Slow Down Molasses - Levitation Sickness.

Background - Levitation Sickness is the new single from the bands third studio album 100% Sunshine. This follows up from last years record Burnt Black Cars, the record which helped propel the bands career forward and gained support from Q Magazine, Noisey & Clash Magazine to name a few drawing comparisons to Slowdive, Toy and My Bloody Valentine for their blend of shoegaze and stoner rock. Th album was released 2nd September 2016 via Noyes.

Formed in 2006 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Slow Down Molasses rank among Western Canada’s finest musical exports. Their third album, 100% Sunshine, will be released on September 2, 2016 on Noyes Records, and forges new sonic territory for the band while retaining their unique hybrid of ’90s Anglophilia and contemporary Canadian rock. 2015’s Burnt Black Cars was hailed as “drug-drenched psych-pop” by Q magazine and “immediately memorable and timeless” by The Line of Best Fit, with the band going on to share the stage with the New Pornographers, Swervedriver, Built to Spill, Preoccupations (fka Viet Cong) and the Besnard Lakes. 


Veterans of festivals across North America (SXSW, CMJ, NXNE, Sled Island) as well as European (Incubate, End of the Road, Liverpool Sound City, Great Escape, Reeperbahn, Nouvelle Prague), the band are renowned as a euphoric live experience, with Exclaim praising their “huge, stadium-ready sound and colourful presence”. Slow Down Molasses are singer/guitarist Tyson McShane, drummer Jordan Kurtz, bassist Chris Morin, guitarist/keyboardist Aaron Scholz, guitarist Levi Soulodre and keyboardist/singer Jeanette Stewart.

Live Dates:
6 Sept @ Club Kukuun ­ Hamburg
7 Sept @ Culture Container - Berlin
8-11 Sept @ Incubate Festival, Tilburg, NL
16 September @ Amigos, Saskatoon - record release show.


'Levitation Sickness' is the second song we have featured from Slow Down Molasses new album. The bands distinctive sound, remains quite hypnotic, with lush powerful music and vocals packed tightly into the mix.

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The PepTides - Don't Believe in Love.

Background - Hailing from Ottawa, Canada, The PepTides is a nine-member band with a distinctive larger-than-life pop sound. The five vocalists and four instrumentalists draw on funk, electronic and disco influences. They have been described by the Ottawa Citizen as “the B52’s crossed with The Manhattan Transfer backed by Arcade Fire.”

A snapshot of Canadian diversity, The PepTides is a collection of women and men with a kaleidoscope of identities: English, French, Ukrainian, Mexican, Guyanese, Cree, Acadian, Armenian, Scottish and Lgbtq. The group is noted for its extravagant live performances featuring thick vocal harmonies, theatrical choreography and colourful visuals. The PepTides’ songs juxtapose upbeat music with lyrics that comment on far-reaching themes like love, hate, revenge, sex, religion, war—and getting ready for dates.

In 2013, The PepTides garnered national attention by producing a full-length album in collaboration with Stuart McLean of CBC Radio’s Vinyl Cafe. They performed selections from the album live on the 20th anniversary recording of the show. Their 2014 release Love Question Mark was lauded by Exclaim! as “an ambitious collection of fun, daring, unadulterated, true blue art.” For Those Who Hate Human Interaction (2010) was named best album of the year by the Ottawa Citizen.

The PepTides EP, released in September 2016, features all-new recordings of the band’s greatest hits—including the summer single “Don’t Believe in Love,” which aired on commercial radio from coast to coast in Canada and received positive reviews from DJs internationally. The band has charmed audiences at major music festivals (RBC Bluesfest, Ottawa International Jazz Festival), bars (Blacksheep Inn, Horseshoe Tavern), showcases (NXNE, Folk Music Ontario), and theatre festivals (SummerWorks, Undercurrents).

M3TV’s take on The PepTides says it all: “Mixing their stunning vocals with funk beats underneath a soulful sound, an abundance of theatrical dance moves and kitschy quirks, they defy any genre or description. One must simply see them to believe them.”
 

Upcoming Fall Tour dates (with more to come):
 Sept 9 - Thyme and Again - Ottawa, ON
Sept 10 - Live on Elgin (matinee & evening shows)- Ottawa, ON
Sept 15 - Queens Univeristy - Kingston, ON
Sept 30 - Junction City Music Hall - Toronto, ON
Oct 22 - Gallery Studio (CS Art) - Ottawa, ON
Nov 1 - venue TBD - Montreal, QC
Nov 11 - Heartwood Concert Hall - Owen Sound, ON
Nov 12 - Old Town Hall – Almonte, ON.


Beyond being a vibrant and colourful live act, The PepTides create melodic and hook laden songs as the featured track 'Don't Believe in Love' demonstrates. One of six on the bands latest release, it's a consistently creative collection of music that mixes funk, pop and soul vibes with a huge element of energy.

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Genre Wander: Hilary Woods - Slow Down Molasses - Ablebody - The Wolfhounds

Hilary Woods - Sabbath.

Background bio - Hilary Woods is a music and visual artist from Dublin, Ireland. As a teenager she recorded two double platinum selling albums on Columbia Records as bass player in Irish indie trio JJ72, touring extensively in Europe, the US and Japan. At twenty two she hung up her bass for a paint brush, left the band and welcomed the arrival of a baby girl that same year. She enrolled in fine art college just as her friends were all graduating and dropped out midst her first group critique, opting to study English Lit and Film instead. Throughout college she became increasingly restless, suffered long bouts of insomnia and was slowly drawn back to what had stuck; basic piano chords her father had taught her as a child. She started piecing together ideas for piano thru headphones as her flatmates slept and after drifting in and out of various bands around the city, she made a decision to concentrate on her own material, tentatively crafting songs and exploring a sound world which culminated in the making of her debut solo EP “Night”.

“Night” was curated and launched alongside her experimental film of the same title as part of a performance art piece in 2014‘s Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival to critical acclaim. Since then she’s played a handful of underground gigs in Dublin, London, Paris and Berlin, and spent the entirety of 2015 quietly writing and recording tracks at home and in the studio. On June 10th 2016, Hilary released her follow-up EP “Heartbox” on the UK independent label Blood Orange. Her new record has been described as a sonic nordic noir. Far more electronic in sound than her last outpouring, it is a mood-driven lyrical three-track trilogy; part ethereal apocalyptic synth-gaze, layered over bass laden beats.


Over on BeeVids we have the new video for 'Sabbath', on this page we have the audio. Having been into JJ72 since the first song I heard by them, I am always keen to hear Hilary Woods solo work. 'Sabbath' is quite stunning, it has other-worldly vibes, and slowly builds into something quite dramatic, whilst always refined. From a personal perspective the EP Heartbox, is a must have.

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Slow Down Molasses - Moon Queen.

Background - Formed in 2006 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Slow Down Molasses rank among Western Canada’s finest musical exports. Their third album, 100% Sunshine, will be released on September 2, 2016 on Noyes Records, and forges new sonic territory for the band while retaining their unique hybrid of ’90s Anglophilia and contemporary Canadian rock. 

2015’s Burnt Black Cars was hailed as “drug-drenched psych-pop” by Q magazine and “immediately memorable and timeless” by The Line of Best Fit, with the band going on to share the stage with the New Pornographers, Swervedriver, Built to Spill, Preoccupations (fka Viet Cong) and the Besnard Lakes. Veterans of festivals across North America (SXSW, CMJ, NXNE, Sled Island) as well as European (Incubate, End of the Road, Liverpool Sound City, Great Escape, Reeperbahn, Nouvelle Prague), the band are renowned as a euphoric live experience, with Exclaim praising their “huge, stadium-ready sound and colourful presence”. Slow Down Molasses are singer/guitarist Tyson McShane, drummer Jordan Kurtz, bassist Chris Morin, guitarist/keyboardist Aaron Scholz, guitarist Levi Soulodre and keyboardist/singer Jeanette Stewart. Moon Queen is the first single from the bands third studio album 100% Sunshine.

31 August @ Sebright Arms, London, UK
1 Sept @ the Cellar, Oxford, UK
2-4 Sept @ End of the Road Festival, Wiltshire, UK
8-11 Sept @ Incubate Festival, Tilburg, NL
16 September @ Amigos, Saskatoon - record release show


'Moon Queen' is a sonic wall of psychedelic rock'n'roll  mixed with shoegaze and a few other ingredients. With live dates and a new album on the way, they are definately worth keeping an eye on.

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Ablebody - Backseat Heart.

Background - Ablebody is an LA-based duo comprised of identical twins Christoph and Anton Hochheim (members of Pains Of Being Pure At Heart / Depreciation Guild). They've been quietly releasing music under this moniker since 2013, self-releasing an EP and 7" single, crafting remixes and demoing original material as well as a myriad of covers.

Drawing from the raw grandeur of the 60's, the melodicism of soft 70s pop and the sophisticated side of romantic 80s synth pop, Ablebody stand suspended between decades; students of the past but far from retro fetishists. Their musical prowess is evident but the songwriting remains tastefully direct at all times, with arrangements that bend and move in surprising ways but tastefully blanket the overarching sentiment of the songs in a way that we rarely hear in this decade.

The duo have recently taken their sound from the bedroom to the studio, working with Cole M. Grief-Neill (Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Nite Jewel, Julia Holter, The Samps) and Kenny Gilmore (Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti) to craft songs with a more visceral edge than they've explored in the past. Daniel Rosenbaum (Pomar) and Jordan Sabolick (Mt. Ossa) have joined the duo to help bring the songs to life and add new dimension to the live dynamic. Their debut full length record Adult Contemporaries will be released by Lolipop Records on October 14, 2016.


'Backseat Heart' is fresh sounding and a very catchy song. Overall I would describe their sound as indie pop, with a nod to the past, however with their production firmly in the present. This is a bright summers day type song, that brings it's own lift with it.

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The Wolfhounds - Now I'm A Killer.

Background - Thirty years on from the influential C86 compilation, indie-pop pioneers The Wolfhounds are back with their sixth full-length Untied Kingdom (…or how to come to terms with your culture) and are sharing the first single ‘Now I’m A Killer’. The single is a riotous blast of guitar music, maintaining the same expert delivery and charm that has seen them continue to churn out some of the best in indie-rock for three decades. It’s an engrossing mix of the 80s indie they themselves coined, carefree post-punk and anthemic pop propelled by biting, jangly guitars and snarling vocals.

The C86 compilation to this day is seen as a pinnacle point in the history of indie-pop, a cassette compilation put together by NME with the idea of collectively recognising and championing the best in underground music at the time. One of those bands was The Wolfhounds, whilst some of the C86 alumni (Primal Scream, The Pastels, The Wedding Present and more) went on to acquire worldwide success and a cult following, The Wolfhounds maintained their prominence in the DIY community and are an acknowledged influence on the ongoing history of underground guitar music including Nirvana and Manic Street Preachers as well as numerous modern indie-pop and post-punk bands.

Originally formed as teenagers in 1984, The Wolfhounds appeared on the legendary and influential C86 cassette, and released four critically acclaimed LPs and many singles before disbanding in 1990, after touring the UK and Continent extensively, on their own and with The Wedding Present, House of Love, My Bloody Valentine and McCarthy, among others. The band reformed in 2006 at the invitation of St Etienne’s Bob Stanley to celebrate 20 years since their debut release and C86 at the ICA in London, and since 2012 they have been recording and releasing new material.

After last year's recent singles compilation Middle Aged Freaks and the almost simultaneous reissue of their 1986 debut Unseen Ripples From A Pebble,  the band will be releasing their first standalone LP since 1990's Attitude.


'Now I'm A Killer' has something a little frantic and unsettling about it, created in part by the constant beat and surging guitar work. The lyrics demand your attention, in what is a raw and uncompromising piece of genuine rock music. I would not expect anything less, from a band of this calibre.

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Bumper Catch Up featuring: Rubblebucket - Mollie Elizabeth - Lilly Hiatt - The Kearns Family - WILDES and St Francis Hotel - Lucette - Caroline Strickland - Mon Rayon - Lala Salama

Keeping the comments a little shorter so we can cram a few more songs in than usual, this is our first bumper catch up of some really fine r...