MP3: Tara Jane ONeil - “Drowning”

The work of Tara Jane ONeil has always innately crossed genres and boundaries - like several genies emerging from a single lamp. Every singer wants to be a painter, every guitarist a singer, every songwriter a poet and every producer an alchemist. ONeil is skilled at all these things and on A Ways Away [KLP207], her fifth album and first for K, she has wielded all of her powers. A Ways Away is a song cycle, generous and concise, direct and uncompromising.

TJO’s new LP is primarily the offering of a singer-songwriter, but there is an elegant attention to detail in the mix that will please all those in need of great headphone jams, electronic minimalist drone magic, and heroic adventure. But A Ways Away is driven by the singer and the songs. On this record, she has put her voice out front, and as in the past, the vocals are perversely and meticulously arranged and gorgeously sung. There’s compassion and concern, wisdom and heartbreak, moving on and waking up in these songs.

The elements of her live show and her studio craft meet here. There’s some sorcery and exorcism, and there are questions that stand on their own. As a dream is surprising and mysterious, so can be her performance, haunting, masterful, arresting. Her ability to divine the finest players in any town to create shifting and often spontaneous bands makes each show unique, a thing of legend. TJO conjures up all of your favorite singer-songwriters, painters and poets as if they are all there in her songs, a dialogic meeting in the air. It is an expansive and dynamic mystery sound. There is space in it, there is volume and electricity in it, and there is no fear. ONeil coaxes gamelan sonorities or tiny gongs out of her guitar, thick dissonant tone clusters or rapid finger picking to support her mellifluous call.

Contributions on A Ways Away came from Jana Hunter, Mirah, Osa Atoe (New Bloods), Geoff Soule (F***), Jean Cook and Daniel Littleton (Ida) and The Ecstatic Tambourine Orchestra. While writing her own music, Tara Jane ONeil has also collaborated with Papa M, Ida, Mirah, Michael Hurley, Jackie-O Mother****er and King Cobra, among others; she has scored soundtracks for film and theater; and records instrumental music under the moniker Strange Clouds. TJO was a founding member of some influential and prescient bands back in the day, like Rodan, Retsin, and the Sonora Pine. ONeil is also an accomplished visual artist whose paintings and drawings have exhibited worldwide; Wings. Strings. Meridians. A Blighted Bestiary, her second book of paintings to appear in the last decade, was published by Yeti last year.

TJO will be practicing her meticulous extrapolation, her ecstatic melody, her sorcery, in locations all over the globe in 2009. In May she starts in Europe and moves slowly westward.

TARA JANE ONEIL

Feb 26, 2009 - Brooklyn, NY Cinders Gallery *
Feb 27, 2009 - Annondale-on-Hudson, NY Bard College *
Feb 28, 2009 - Brooklyn, NY Market Hotel (Benefit for Arthur Magazine) *
Mar 01, 2009 - Baltimore, MD Zodiac *
Mar 18 - 21 - Austin, TX SXSW
Apr 1, 2009 - Anacortes, WA The Department of Safety #
Apr 3, 2009 - Vancouver, BC Biltmore Cabaret #
Apr 4, 2009 - Portland, OR Aladdin Theater #
Apr 5, 2009 - Arcata, CA TBA #
Apr 30, 2009 - Portland, OR Fontanelle Gallery

* = w/ Jana Hunter
# = w/ Mirah

Tara Jane ONeil
A Ways Away
(K)
Street date: May 5, 2009

1. Dig In
2. In Tall Grass
3. Drowning
4. A New Binding
5. Howl
6. Pearl into Sand
7. Beast, Go Along
8. A Vertiginous One
9. Biwa
10. The Drowning Electric

TARA JANE ONEIL LINKS:

Artist Page: www.tarajaneoneil.com

MySpace - www.myspace.com/tjoistarajaneoneil

Press Materials - www.krecs.com/html/artists/artistbio.php?interest=174

MP3: Ear Pwr - “Future Eyes”

Blistering thumpers with infectious melodies, Disco chants with wild-eyed electro anthems: all part of the unique electronic vision of Baltimore’s Ear Pwr. Devin and Sarah, the fiery young duo known as Ear Pwr, have blended together bits of Italo Disco, Baltimore Club, and twee indie pop to create a nuclear party grenade that will blow your mind. Their booty-shaking aesthetic has never sounded more enticing than on their new record Super Animal Brothers III. This scorcher of an album is hitting the pavement at full throttle. No party is complete without it!

Bio:

Devin Booze and Sarah Reynolds found each other in the spring of 2005 after Sarah became of loyal fan of Devin’s party-punk band, Hide and Seek. That summer, the two began meeting up nearly every afternoon for 2-person dance parties. Not long into their courtship, they started improvising new words to their favorite songs, feeding off of each other and mesmerizing their buddies. It soon became evident that they “had the same brain.”

One evening, while admiring their ancient tape player and wondering just how old it was, they noticed the word “EAR” above the headphone jack and “PWR” above the power input. They decided that they were EAR PWR, even though they weren’t quite sure what that meant. At the close of the summer, Sarah departed Winston-Salem for a one-year stay in Italy and Devin began college in Asheville, NC, but their commitment to the idea of “EAR PWR” never wavered.

In Sarah’s absence, Devin (also a concert tubaist and drummer) wrote a multitude of danceable electronic jams using analog devices. When Sarah returned, she wrote the lyrics. Their immediate goals were simple: Make people dance. Make people happy. Soon after, they took their project live, playing shows all over North Carolina and steadily brought the dance party to the entire east coast. During this time, they also recorded a full-length album and an EP. In the summer of 2008, the pair kicked off their first U.S. tour with good friends, Future Islands, at Whartscape and were introduced to the wonderful world of Baltimore where they will soon reside full time.

As much fun as their recordings are, it’s during their live shows that EAR PWR truly shines. Armed with only a suitcase of synths and a megaphone, their enthusiasm and mutual admiration sparks into a fun-loving barrage of body-moving electro and infectious silliness that’s hard to ignore. Sarah lays down rap-style vocals and simple melodies that glide easily over the beats to become unshakably ingrained in your psyche for days on end. Devin, the seemingly innocent hype man, bobs and weaves in-and-out of the crowd like a man possessed, while frantically spewing his dance floor sales pitch, punctuating Sarah’s vocals and generally rousing the rabble like a an Afro-ed pied piper.

EAR PWR’s sonic aesthetic has never sounded more enticing than on their new record Super Animal Brothers III. They have blended together bits of Italo Disco, Baltimore Club, and twee indie pop to create a nuclear party grenade that is sure to blow your mind.

Ear Pwr Tinnitus

- These North Carolina natives have recently moved to Baltimore where they’ll be keeping it real with fellow dance party specialists Dan Deacon, Adventure and Future Islands.
- Armed with only a suitcase of synths and a megaphone, Ear Pwr have been bringing to their kinetic live party to underground spaces all over America.
- Devin has recently completed his studies in the Bob Moog founded music technology program at UNC-Asheville where he learned to create the synths that give Ear Pwr its distinctive sound.

EAR PWR

3/12 Baltimore, MD TBA
3/13 Asheville, NC Bobos
3/18 - 3/21 Austin, TX SXSW
3/21 Little Rock, AR Rad Hizzy
3/28 Durham, NC Duke Coffee House
5/13 Chapel Hill, NC The Nightlight
5/17 Baltimore, MD The Zodiac
5/29 Toronto, ON Primary Colors

Ear Pwr
Super Animal Brothers III
(Carpark)
Street date: May 19, 2009

1. Tripodium
2. Beam Of Light
3. Super Animal Bros. III
4. Future Eyes
5. Sparkley Sweater
6. Cats Is People Too
7. You Are The Bom
8. Boys II Volcanoes
9. Jams O Jamz
10. Diamonds Liquor Leather
11. Goofy Award
12. Discover Your Colors
13. Ghostride The Buffalo
14. Mexican Newspaper
15. Epic Suitcase
16. Secret Stars

EAR PWR LINKS:
MySpace - www.myspace.com/earpwr

Press Materials - www.carparkrecords.com/earpwrpresspage.html

MP3: Bell - “Magic Tape”

Moscow-born, Alaska-grown Olga Bell has spent the past three years methodically transforming herself from conservatory-trained classical pianist into anything-goes electro-pop omnivore. The six songs on BELL’s self-released 2008 EP garnered accolades and atta-girls from, among others, Pitchfork (”at once ethereal and firmly emotional”), SPIN, Gorilla vs. Bear, NYLON, MetroPop, Paste and Stereogum (”windswept and ambitious…intensely personalized and spare”); the limited-run pressing is nearly out of print.

With this hand-numbered 7″/digital single, twosyllable and BELL invite you to don your cushiest sneakers and romp all the way back to hypercolor, friendship bracelets and epic birthdays. Created and recorded entirely by the band (now a trio, with percussionist/fellow beat-spelunkers Jason Nazary and Gunnar Olsen), the maximalist delirium of “MAGIC TAPE” is celebratory music for hard times—-skittish, bumpy half-time verses (smacking slightly of Timbaland’s early work with Aaliyah) shimmy, simmer and eventually set off a confetti mushroom-cloud floor-slammer of a chorus, with 808 bass and heroic keytar designed to eradicate personal anxiety and (by proxy) economic strife.

BELL

Mar 2 La Sala Rossa - Montreal, QC *
Mar 3 El Mocambo - Toronto, ON *
Mar 4 The Pike Room at Crofoot Ballroom - Pontiac, MI *
Mar 5 Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL *
Mar 6 Illinois Wesleyan U.-Young - Bloomington, IL *
Mar 7 7th Street Entry - Minneapolis, MN *
Mar 10 Chop Suey - Seattle, WA *
Mar 11 Doug Fir Lounge - Portland, OR *
Mar 13 The Independent - San Francisco, CA *
Mar 14 Troubador - Los Angeles, CA *
Mar 15 The Casbah - San Diego, CA *
Mar 16 Detroit Bar - Costa Mesa, CA *
Mar 18 Club De Ville (Brooklyn Vegan SXSW Showcase) Austin, TX
Mar 19 Scholz Garden (twosyllable / I Guess I’m Floating SXSW party) - Austin, TX
Mar 23 Bloomington, IN - Cinemat #
Apr 25 Washington, DC - Rock ‘n Roll Hotel %
Apr 26 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church %
Apr 27 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge %
Apr 28 Brooklyn, NY - Monkeytown %
Apr 30 Boston, MA - TT The Bears

* = w/ Asobi Seksu
# = w/ Lemonade
% = w/ Bowerbirds

BELL
Magic Tape
(twosyllable)
Street date: Mar. 24, 2009

A: Magic Tape
B: Housefire 2.0

BELL LINKS:
MySpace - www.myspace.com/whoisbell

Label Page - twosyllablerecords.com

MP3: Bricolage - “Turn U Over”

The symbiotic relationship between Glasgow and an indefinable, distinct breed of extraordinary pop is a subject of limitless fascination. Virtually from the moment the legendary Orange Juice transformed the once barren Scottish metropolis into a wellspring of tuneful, literate, joyous music, special new bands have continued to flow from its environs. From the early-’80s explosion that begat Altered Images, The Pastels and many others, to latter-day heirs such as Teenage Fanclub, Belle & Sebastian and Franz Ferdinand, the city is as synonymous with the abstract notion of ‘indie’ as Detroit is with the Motown sound or New York with early punk. And now, with the release of their self-titled debut album, Bricolage rightfully take their place as part of Glasgow’s peerless pop lineage.

Bricolage - Graham Wann, Wallace Meek, Darren Cameron, and Colin Kearney - formed in late 2005, united by their love of Postcard Records’ evergreen “Sound of Young Scotland” and similarly iconoclastic post-punk heroes including Vic Godard and Fire Engines. In less than two years, the band released three 7-inch singles and toured solidly, sharing stages with the likes of the above-mentioned Godard, a reunited Fire Engines, Franz Ferdinand, even the Sun Ra Arkestra.

Bricolage, the album, is the realization of those singles’ huge promise. Produced with sparkling economy by former Altered Images guitarist Stephen Lironi, its dozen tracks are the product of its influences, but also a path beyond them. From the swooning romanticism of “Plots are for Cemeteries,” to the lovesick giddiness of “Turn You Over,” to the Northern Soul-style stomp of “The Waltzers,” this is pop full of melody, verve and wit - for a modern world that is about to discover how badly it needed it. Bricolage may be a new strand in Glasgow’s ongoing musical history, but for Bricolage themselves, this is where their own stunning history truly begins being written.

“They’re the most exciting post-Franz band, with wit, style and memorable tunes, and are an awesome live act.” - SoundsXP

“This is easily the fizziest C86 edged pop to bubble by for a while, with spiky Vic Godardesque tunes and vocal harmonies to lose yourself in and get your toes tingling.” - Spacelab.tv

“..possesses a refreshing air of vitality that actually sounds like the artists have made an effort to write a catchy tune rather than simply bludgeon the listener to death under a halo of white noise.” - Drowned In Sound

Bricolage
Bricolage
(Slumberland)
Street date: May 12, 2009

1. Bayonets
2. Flowers of Deceit
3. Footsteps
4. Plots are for Cemeteries
5. The Spoilsport’s Retort
6. Looting takes the waiting out of wanting
7. A Terrible Souvenir
8. Turn U Over
9. 6th Form Poet
10. On The Omnibuses
11. Sleepwalk To Me
12. The Waltzers

BRICOLAGE LINKS:
MySpace - www.myspace.com/bricolagetheband
Press Materials - www.slumberlandrecords.com/press/bricolage/bricolage.html