Review: JEFF the Brotherhood - Hypnotic Knights EP

By Ruby Perez

Jeff the Brotherhood’s live performances involve plenty of sweat, head banging, and mind melting guitar riffs. The Orall brothers carry a kinetic energy that transfers to the crowd, leaving us to remember why we even go to shows to begin with. That’s why it’s no surprise that their forthcoming EP, Hypnotic Knights, would be just as fucking epic.

The single off the EP, “Six Pack”, is the perfect summer jam. The track includes all the things we love: six packs, ooh-ing, and how nice it is to get away for the summer. The track is sickeningly catchy, with JTB dipping deeper into their pop roots more than ever. As usual, they’ve stuck to the simplicity often found in their songs, however if this EP represents anything that is to come later this summer, the brothers have certainly matured. Maybe it’s because it’s produced by the Black Key’s Dan Auerbach or because it’s their first release on Warner Bros., but Hypnotic Knights is giving us a good feeling about what to expect in the future from this Nashville duo: classic shred-heavy guitar riffs, signature pop oohs, and some classy production.

Tracks such as “Leave Me Out” are more matured reflections of what we heard in We Are the Champions. Psychedelic rhythms with hints of sitar sprinkled in are found throughout the EP, but this time JEFF have crafted them much more nicely. Listen to “Mystic Portal II” to get the full effect.

JEFF the Brotherhood - Mystic Portal II

Video: Part Time - Is It Magic?

By Joseph Rodriguez

San Francisco groove-pop master, Part Time just dropped a new video for “Is It Magic?”, the lead track off of his self-titled cassette release on Voice Academy Records. The video shows the day in the life of a nerd who tries to win his dream girls heart by practicing dance steps with a cardboard woman and crossdressing. We’ve all been there before, right guys?

Giveaway: Lauren Records

For today’s giveaway, you dudes get to decide on your prize, thanks to Lauren Records  from Corona, CA. Stream their sampler below and browse their webstore (we’ve reviewed some of their records here and here). Comment on this post with your prize of choice. 

Review: Grass Widow - Internal Logic

By Becca Capers

Grass Widow’s third album is an unguided tour through the halls that echo the band’s illustrious vocal rehearsals. Internal Logic (HLR Records) is self-aware of the fact that when Raven, Hannah, and Lillian sing simultaneously, they refract a note and make it envelope the room. The reserved sass they lyrically dollop is more obscured than usual by reverb, and they even emphasize this angelic aesthetic with celestial high-note backtracks and an a cappella ending on “Under the Atmosphere”.

On first listen, the attention they pay to their voice boxes seems to be sacrificially one-sided. Their instruments chug predictably towards a neatly parceled conclusion in every song. Maybe there will be a layered riff or two, but nothing as soul-grabbing or tortuously triumphant as we heard on Past Time. All of this repetitive cycling, however, powers a sight-seeing dirigible ride to the moon, during which it’s somehow possible to stick your head out the window and feel the vacuous space breezes. And if the vocals bring light to this foundational fuel, Raven Mahon’s chromatically unpleasant guitar solos bring darkness. In “Disappearing Industries” and “Milo Minute”, both offered up as blissful, summery singles before the release of Internal Logic, this uncomfortable feature is cautiously explored. The melodious mist of the vocals brings a nostalgic grin to your face almost as quickly as the grumpy, amelodic guitar makes you forget what was ever comforting about that memory.

This dichotomy between easy and difficult to hear builds the brain space you have to inhabit to fully hear the album, from which it is simple to see how solo instrument pieces like “A Light in the Static” and “Response to Photographs” shade an already contemplative album with solitude. The result is a cerebral trip on the subject of what makes music right, apart from just feeling right.

Grass Widow - Disappearing Industries

Interview: Dirty Laundry TV

By Mariana Timony

If you’ve spent time scouring the internet for interviews with your favorite underground bands chances are you’ve come across Dirty Laundry TV: a series of short video interviews with some of the coolest musicians around conducted in a laundromat in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. (Touring bands doing their laundry, get it?) Originally hosted by ex-Marnie Stern bassist Malia James and now helmed by the spunky Karrie K of Delta Mirror and guest hostess Katy Goodman of La Sera/Vivian Girls, DLTV has spoken with everyone from punk legends like Mike Watt and Keith Morris to upstarts like Audacity and Tropical Popsicle. They’ve put on shows at CMJ and SXSW and posted the live performances on the website, all of it 100% free. Now they need help to keep the thus far self-funded “passion project”, as DLTV founder Michael Grodner describes it, going, growing, and bringing punk to the people. Enter a Kickstarter campaign.

Before you start whining about public begging, know this: Dirty Laundry TV provides an essential service to music fans that’s hard to find in our corporate-dominated culture. DLTV’s simple concept and lo-fi approach are cool enough, but keeping it ad-free also means that the interviews can be refreshingly candid. Clicking around DLTV unearths such gems as Lee Ranaldo discussing Sonic Youth’s hiatus and GET BENT faves Natural Child opining on Jack White. No annoying pop ups, no rules, and no PR hackery getting in the way of honest music talk. The entire enterprise is filled with the indie ethos that shuns selling out and instead relies on the community for support when times get rough.

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Track: Gary War - Superlifer

By Joseph Rodriguez

Solo artist Gary War will be releasing his first full length album in nearly 3 years. Jared’s Lot will be out through Editions Mego’s new offshoot label Spectrum Spools this July. War has taken a slight turn from his previous efforts on that of Captured Tracks and Sacred Bones, and well, has just gotten that much more “out there.” “Superlifer,” the first leaked track from the new record, is maybe what you would hear if all the members of Kraftwerk were simultaneously playing different Nintendo games. Check it out for yourself below.

Review: Gap Dream - Gap Dream

By Lisa Parisi

Dreamy, pensive pop with melancholy undertones, Cleveland’s Gap Dream’s self-titled tape out on Burger Records will tear at the heart strings and inspire long sessions of just staring out the window watching the clouds drift and blades of grass sway and billow in the wind. There’s something so lovely about the harmonious pop, crackle, and fizz that comprises their aesthetic. Dewy and melodic in a manner that evokes the sunny warmth of ‘60s psychedelia, few words come to mind.

Reflective in lyrical content, tales of love found and lost make Gap Dream for both the lovelorn and the smitten. Featuring the sizzle of distortion, tingling soft howling, and sedating drumbeats, tracks like “Leather”, “Scary Dennis”, “Cover It Up”, (nay, never mind, all the tracks) evoke a particular aura that oscillates between ebulliently dreamy and gloomy. Pop open your portable tape recorder, take Gap Dream along on a summertime picnic, and sway to the mellow melodies like those blades of grass in the wind. Maybe bring along some extra grass.

Interview: Pangea

By Mariana Timony

About a month ago, up and coming L.A. pop band Pangea played at the Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. It was the first time Pangea singer-songwriter William Keegan’s co-workers had seen his band play, and they were confused. “They asked if there was another Pangea,” recounts bassist Danny Bengston. “We said, Yeah there are a few. ‘We thought so because Ryan Adams tweeted about a Pangea.’” He beams. “And we were like, ‘No that’s us!’”

Wait…Ryan Adams tweeting to Pangea and planning to record them? A song debuting on Red Bull’s website? Not to mention yards of press from underground music blogs? This much is clear: if you haven’t heard Pangea yet, you’ll be hearing them soon. The band has certainly been working hard. They’ve toured more in the past 6 months than they have before and they’re halfway through recording their new album, to be released in October on Burger Records. That is if William is ever satisfied with the material. When asked about immediate goals he quickly answers, “To write better songs,” but if all you ever knew of this band was what you read on the Internet, you’d probably think the answer would have to do more with getting black out wasted.

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Giveaway: Far-Out Fangtooth 7”

Philly sludge beasts, Far-Out Fangtooth finally delivered a follow-up to their solid debut LP on Siltbreeze. It came out about two weeks ago from Hozac Records (we posted about “Occasion of Sin” here). Stream the EP below. If you like what you hear, comment on this post (don’t forget to leave an e-mail address) with your favorite track to win a copy. 

Remember, we’ll be giving away something new everyday for the next few weeks - check back because we’ve got some choice items for you guys!

Review: Mujeres - Soft Gems

By Burgers Rana

Mujeres are four post–grads of cinema that, in a little under four years, have risen from playing small pub clubs in Barcelona to almost trans-Atlantic fame. With numerous 7” singles, a couple of home CD-Rs, and one proper full-length, the quartet have defiantly not let the lethal sophomore slump affect their Mediterranean rock voodoo meets Southern surfabillly good vibes. Soft Gems is a focused “garage rock” album with a clear message of getting you up and going. From start to finish, this album exudes every type of fiber and swagger that makes soul, surf, psych, and punk cool.

It’s not just that the songs are catchy as hell, but as the album continues to photosynthe-rock (flower punk), you catch yourself feeling as if you have already heard this album. You know the hooks, you know when the solos are coming up to air guitar to, and yet the tunes still sound fresh. Through unconscious muscle movement you begin to move and react uncontrollably to certain songs, like the classic house party pogo dance (“Seattle Waves” and “Salvaje”) or the two-stepping “Far Away”. “How I Am” is three minutes of cool chugging along the psych train with the groove of the Ventures, but the energy of early Spacemen 3. Basically, you wish it could be your entrance music in a Tarantino film.

Each one of these tracks that make up this album seem to embody the love child of the Troggs, Billy Mure, Sam the Sham, and ? & the Mysterions. As time goes on, I have gone from liking one song more than another and so on, claiming it being the best track on the record. Today I’m jamming “I’m Over With You”, but tomorrow “See the Light” could become the saving grace of rock ‘n’ roll. Pick up this album from Spanish label Sones. And be on the look out when these boys return to the states and play with your favorite local drug punks.

Mujeres - I’m Over With You