MP3: Vivian Girls - “Blind Spot” (Daisy Chain Cover)

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**PLEASE HIT US UP WITH ANY PROMO / INTERVIEW REQUESTS**

Bio:

As recounted in songs by Comet Gain and Walker Kong, the Vivian girls are the seven sisters who featured in Henry Darger’s posthumously published fantasy epic, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. They’ve also been paid tribute by everyone from poet John Ashberry to Sufjan Stevens, …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Camper Van Beethoven, F***ed Up, the Residents’ Snakefinger, and ex-Maniac Natalie Merchant. And now by Brooklyn noise-pop band the Vivian Girls.

With their debut 7″ on their very own Plays With Dolls Records already sending out waves of panic and adoration to the outer limits of the underground pop contingent, they have become the newest breakout sirens of the New York loft-pop brigade. Within seconds of hearing their seductive three-part vocal harmonies lushly interwoven with chest-pounding rhythms of beautiful feedback, it’s obvious that their songs are hard to resist, especially if you find yourself keen on the mid-80s noise pop trifecta of Jesus And The Mary Chain, The Vaselines and the Shop Assistants.

The Vivian Girls self-titled debut album appeared recently on Mauled By Tigers records in a vinyl-only edition of 500 which sold out before the band had completed their recent three week US tour. In The Red is now proud to bring you the re-release of this essential pop platter in both vinyl and compact disc formats. Swirling noise topped with sweetly angelic vocals is practically a can’t-miss concoction, so expect your fruity neighbors and your attention-starved friends to chime in with unabashed praise when you spin this record.

The re-release of the Vivian Girls album will be preceded by a seven inch single with two exclusive songs. The re-release will be followed by much touring of the US and Europe.

“The Vivian Girls drop sweet girl-group melodies into proto-shoegaze squalls the way the Jesus & Mary Chain used to and the way groups like the Aislers Set, C86s-ers the Shop Assistants, and the Manhattan Love Suicides have done with female vocalists. They keep the Shangri-Las’ melodrama to boot”.
-Pitchfork

VIVIAN GIRLS

Fri-Sep-26 Memphis, TN GONER FEST
Sat-Sep-27 St. Louis, MO The Stable#
Sun-Sep-28 Atlanta, GA The Earl#
Mon-Sep-29 Knoxville, TN The Pilot Light#
Tue-Sep-30 Charlottesville, VA Outback Lodge
Wed-Oct-01 Baltimore, MD Ottobar#
Fri-Oct-03 New York, NY Rocks Off Concert Cruise%
Sat-Oct-04 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY Bard College
Sat-Oct-11 Queens, NY Silent Barn / CD Release Party!
Sun-Oct-12 Boston, MA Great Scott $
Mon-Oct-13 Danbury, CT Heirloom Arts Theatre $
Wed-Oct-15 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom $
Thu-Oct-16 Brooklyn, NY Market Hotel $
Fri-Oct-17 Baltimore, MD Sonar $
Sat-Oct-18 Philadelphia, PA The Barbary $
Sun-Oct-19 Washington, DC Rock And Roll Hotel $
Sun-Oct-26 New York, NYC Santo’s Party House !
Sat-Nov-08 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom &@
Mon-Nov-10 Boston, MA Paradise &@
Sun-Nov-16 Los Angeles, CA Echoplex
Mon-Nov-17 San Diego, CA Casbah
Tue-Nov-18 Los Angeles, CA The Smell
Thu-Nov-20 San Francisco, CA Bottom Of The Hill
Sat-Nov-22 Portland, OR Backspace
Sun-Nov-23 Seattle, WA Nectar Lounge
Fri-Nov-28 Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda’s +
Sun-Nov-30 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom +

# = with TYVEK
% = with DARK MEAT
$ = w/ F***ED UP
& = w/ Deerhunter
@ = w/ Times New Viking
! = w/ Jay Reatard
+ = w/ King Khan

Vivian Girls - S/T (In The Red)
Street Date: Oct. 7, 2008
01. All The Time
02. Such a Joke
03. Wild Eyes
04. Going Insane
05. Tell The World
06. Where Do You Run To
07. Damaged
08. No
09. Never See Me Again

Vivian Girls - I Can’t Stay single (In The Red)

01. I Can’t Stay
02. Blind Spot

VIVIAN GIRLS LINKS:

Band Page: www.viviangirls.net

Myspace: www.myspace.com/viviangirlsnyc

Label Page: www.intheredrecords.com

MP3: Telefon Tel Aviv - “Helen of Troy

Chicago by way of New Orleans duo Telefon Tel Aviv has signed to BPitch Control, who will release the band’s third official full-length, Immolate Yourself on January 20, 2009 - it’s the band’s first official full-length in five years. The band has remixed tracks for the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Apparat and Bebel Gilberto, to name a few. The band’s previous albums were released via Chicago label Hefty Records. They will also tour North America this Fall with Ghostly artist Matthew Dear.

Telefon Tel Aviv on the making of Immolate Yourself:

We started making this record in early 2007, without a very specific direction. We knew that it would be created almost entirely with analog synths, and that we were ready to burn the Rhodes. A disinterest in guitars followed quickly - they do not appear on the record at all, which is a strange thing for us. We slowly began the process of writing the songs, lazily, for nearly a year, while working on other music and playing some one-off shows which were mostly in support of the remix record which came out in May 07. This was the first time that we actually demoed the songs first, performed them live, etc. We concentrated first on obvious things like lyrics and melodies, thinking that we’d add the scattered electronic flourishes later. Admittedly, a creeping suspicion arose in our minds that perhaps we wouldn’t go through with it again. We realize that we are strange for thinking that the most basic approach to making music is, well, strange.

At the very start of 2008, we looked at what we had, and realized that it was a record, with almost all of the writing done. We began the actual production of the record in January and completed it in April - again, lazily, as we were both working on other things here and there, and dealing with life and its myriad problems (both personal and global), exacerbated by the Chicago winter. We finished nine songs, and with the help of friends, realized we needed one more to anchor it. A lyrical idea was brought to the table which spawned “Helen of Troy”. We knew then, after completing this song, that we were in fact finished with our record.

We also realized that without thinking about it, so much of our sound had changed, or been forsaken; left on the side of the road to wither in the sun. Gone are all of the high-definition micro-edit minutiae in favor of a new approach to texture for us - long form. The arrival of a tape machine in our studio gave way to experiments that are decades old in practice but entirely new to us - creating loops of drums, string synths, etc., running them around microphone stands in the studio, and striping them back against themselves - timing off, tuning suspect, noise abundant, texture rich. So our attention to detail strayed from the micro and wandered into the macro - for example, things such as the tape loops of church music that I found with Turk Dietrich of Belong, on an old reel that was given to him that neither of us had ever had the presence of mind to listen to in all these years, until this ripe time came upon us.

The record is still entirely Telefon Tel Aviv, but through a cross-processed filter; saturated, grainy, distorted, dusty, distressed. The whole idea of modern sounds in an outdated setting became the sonic focal point of the whole record, and almost instinctually so. Our meters were buried throughout the most reactionary and speedy mixdown of either of our careers. To use a hackneyed axiom as our own, we weren’t thinking - we were feeling. But it was in the dark without a torch, and running full speed for the nearest wall or the deepest unseen precipice.

The subject matter this time around is still based in what songs have been based in for decades - relationships, self-loathing, disgust, fear, beauty, wonder, and awe. The way they are treated is entirely new for us - in lieu of looking back wistfully or longingly, we felt that we were living it exactly as we were writing it, and that if we kept at whatever destructive lifestyles had nearly engulfed us, we would be destroyed. This is how inspiration arises for some musicians - for Charlie, specifically, it’s the wonder or terror of the moment that strikes him dumb with ideas and makes him reach for a napkin and a pen. For me, it always comes later, in the form of a dream - sometimes waking, but it is never a conscious moment or a decision. It is always the result of a semi-lucid state - half asleep, 5 a.m., sleepwalking, restless ideas of sine waves yelling in my mind. I knew I was out on the wolds and the storm was coming and I had to make a tree for shelter or I would perish in the torrents, while Charlie looked over the brink and considered another way out.

TELEFON TEL AVIV
all dates with Matthew Dear

10/08 Seattle, WA Chop Suey
10/09 Portland, OR Holocene
10/10 San Francisco, CA Mighty
10/11 Los Angeles, CA Avalon
10/15 Montreal, QC Club Lambi
10/16 Toronto, ON Wrong Bar
10/18 Ann Arbor, MI The Blind Pig

Telefon Tel Aviv
Immolate Yourself
(BPitch Control)
Street date: Jan. 20, 2009

1.The Birds
2.Your Mouth
3.M
4.Helen of Troy
5.Mostly Translucent
6.Stay Away From Being Maybe
7.I Made A Tree On The Wold
8.Your Every Idol
9.You Are The Worst Thing In The World
10.Immolate Yourself

TELEFON TEL AVIV LINKS:
MySpace - www.myspace.com/telefontelaviv

Band Page - www.telefontelaviv.com

STREAM: Beach House - “Used To Be”

The very first Beach House seven inch single! Carpark and Beach House present a limited edition single featuring the new song “Used To Be” from the Baltimore duo. Recorded over the summer of 2008 after many exhaustive months of touring, “Used To Be” contemplates the spiritual and physical effects of life on the everchanging road, love and getting older . The b-side is a four-track demo version of “Apple Orchard” (from the Beach House S/T album) recorded three years to the month before the new song. It’s one of the first things Alex and Victoria recorded together as Beach House. With this tiny single, one can hear a small history of the band, where they came from, and where they’re going.

BEACH HOUSE

Sep. 27 Big Sur, CA Fernwood Resort (Festival in the Forest)
Sep. 28 San Francisco, CA Swedish American Hall
Sep. 29 Santa Barbara, CA Muddy Waters
Sep. 30 Los Angeles, CA Spaceland
Oct. 02 Boston, MA Mass Arts / Pozen Center +
Oct. 04 Montreal, QC Pop Montreal +
Oct. 06 Buffalo, NY Tralf Music Hall +
Oct. 08 Detroit, MI Museum of Contemporary Art +
Oct. 10 Chicago, IL Epiphany +
Oct. 13 Oberlin, OH Oberlin College +
Oct. 15 Philadelphia, PA Starlight Ballroom +
Oct. 17 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge +
Oct. 22 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge (Carpark CMJ Showcase)
Dec. 11 Northampton, MA Iron Horse Music Hall

+ = as part of the Baltimore Round Robin Tour

Beach House
Used To Be
(Carpark)
Street date: Oct. 21, 2008

1. Used To Be
2. Apple Orchard (Virgin 4 Track Recording)

BEACH HOUSE LINKS:

MySpace: www.myspace.com/beachhousemusic
Single Press Materials: www.carparkrecords.com/usedtobepresspage.html
Devotion Press Materials: www.carparkrecords.com/devotionpresspage.html
Band Page: www.beachhousemusic.com

MP3: These United States - “Get Yourself Home”

VIDEO: These United States - “Get Yourself Home”

Sick, tired, torn, and frayed, These United States let no dust settle under their soles this spring as they made the pilgrimage from DC to Lexington, KY just 9 weeks after the release of their debut album, sights set on a rock-and-roll reformation. The result is Crimes, TheseUS’s sophomore album, recorded in six short days at Shangri-La Studios, and out to the world September 23.

One part Rolling Thunder Revue, one part banged-and-bruised balladeering, two parts just plain strange, Crimes sees the band hitch an American folklore ride down diverging tracks from A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate to the Garden of Eden’s trembling psych-folk tendencies. Bandleader Jesse Elliott’s casual croon careens more often towards a yearning yelp - desperate times, you know? - as his merry gang of Obviously Five Believers vamp all piss and vinegar, hoot and holler, multi-instrumental mischief and sly saloon smiles.

In place of Picture’s lovelorn protagonists, Crimes supplants the classic characters of a world gone wicked: bad men in boots and boats, all-too-able Cains, wolves in fresh-shorn sheepskin, sold-out sirens of the seashore, knife-wielding big-talking drunk drinkers, Moriartys, don Quijotes, Samuel Clemenses, and all manner of disillusioned Appleseeds in between - with the occasional dogged optimist thrown in for good measure, of course; even the world itself can’t be all bad all the time. As self-effacing as they are scathing, though, Crimes‘ critiques are ultimately an empathetic eye towards the sins, schemes, devils, and delusions that bind us all. Dreams, in other words.

Hot off pressing the ‘08 flesh from Paris to Portland and Glastonbury Fest to SXSW, These United States will of course continue their mad march to - well, any sea that will have them - in support of Crimes.

THESE UNITED STATES

Sept 20 Sat Lexington, KY Al’s Bar
Sept 22 Mon Rochester, NY Bug Jar
Sept 23 Tues Toronto, Ontario Sneaky Dee’s %
Sept 24 Weds Kingston, Ontario Grad Club
Sept 25 Thurs Montreal, Quebec Mon Tre House
Sept 26 Fri Burlington, VT The Monkey House +
Sept 27 Sat Waterville, ME Colby College
Sept 28 Sun Boston, MA PA’s Lounge *
Sept 29 Mon New York, NY Cake Shop $
Sept 30 Tues Brooklyn, NY Union Hall ^
Oct 02 Thurs Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda’s !
Oct 03 Fri Baltimore, MD Metro Gallery
Oct 04 Sat Washington, DC Rock and Roll Hotel #
Oct 14 Tues Los Angeles, CA Silverlake Lounge
Oct 16 Thurs San Francisco, CA TBA
Oct 18 Sat Merced, CA The Partisan
Oct 19 Sun Santa Cruz, CA The Crepe Place
Oct 22 Wed Spokane, WA Whitworth University
Oct 23 Thurs Portland, OR Holocene
Oct 25 Sat Seattle, WA Sunset Tavern
Nov 21 Fri Swarthmore, PA Swarthmore College @

% = w/ Entire Cities
+ = w/ Nick Jaina
* = w/ Grampall Jookabox
$ = w/ Pepi Ginsberg, Backwords
^ = w/ Band of Annuals, The Loom
! = w/ Buried Beds
# = w/ Evangelicals, The Silent Years, Parenthetical Girls
@ = w/ Bishop Allen

These United States
Crimes
(United Interests)
Street Date: Sept. 23, 2008

1. West Won
2. Susie at the Seashore
3. Get Yourself Home (In Search of the Mistress Whose Kisses Are Famous)
4. Pleasure and Pain and Pride and Me
5. We Go Down to That Corner
6. Honor Amongst Thieves
7. Six Fast Bullets (Five Complaints)
8. Heaven Can Wait
9. Study the Moon
10. Those Low Country Girls
11. Old John Chapman Takes a Good Long Walk
12. When You’re Traveling at the Speed of Light

THESE UNITED STATES LINKS:
Press Materials: www.becomeinvisible.com/press/these-united-states

MySpace: www.myspace.com/theseunited

Band Page: www.theseunitedstates.net