MP3: “The Art Teacher and The Little Stallion”

24 visual artists were asked to respond to/remix/reimagine Holopaw’s new release, Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness. The name of the project was derived from a line in the song “The Lazy Matador” that reads, “In the retelling let it be rendered just a pinprick, just a puncture, just a scratch.” The remarkable contributions to The Retelling took the form of painting, drawing, collage, video, film, and performance.

The band is also welcoming your submissions to this ongoing project at holopawmusic@gmail.com

Band Bio:
“The Art Teacher and the Little Stallion” is the first track on Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness. the third offering from Holopaw. The song introduces the character the Little Stallion who inhabits most of the songs to come. “Toy piano tinklings punctuate his every step” as we follow his coming of age. His journey is marked by lost sailors, boys on motorbikes, lazy matadors, hobbyists and foxes lurking in fake gas lamp light. The Little Stallion welcomes these characters, seduces them with “polished pearls” or is, in turn, seduced by their “horseplay, towel whips and bathing suits rolled down off sunless hips”. He falls in love with them and, more often than not, betrays them causing him to lament, “So many sailors lost to this drunken sea, so many sailors lost to me.” There is sweetness and grit, longing and potential violence.

Holopaw musically plays with similar tensions: lulling strings are undercut by anxious guitars, lilting “la’s” turn sinister and demanding. In “Little Stallion with a Glass Jaw” horn blasts announce a charge that is quickly clipped to a hush. The bounce of “P-a-l-o-m-i-n-e” stumbles towards chaos at the bridge only to be righted by a whimsical Bay City Rollers-esque chant. The last song on the record, “The Hobbyist and the Conductor (Avalanche)” begins with bright, carillon chimes that stand in stark contrast to the thunderous din that ends the song like a slack jawed finale to a fireworks display. Triumphant “la’s” punch through the smoke and ash to have the final say.

The band articulating these musical tensions is Holopaw’s strongest yet. The core songwriting team of John Orth and Jeff Hays has remained constant. The lineup has contracted and expanded in the swampy heat of Gainesville, Florida to now include Patrick Quinney, Matt Radick, Jeff McMullen, Christa Molinaro and Jody Bilinski. Throughout the record Pink Razor’s Erin Tobey lends sublime backing vocals and harmonies to buoy these otherwise troubled tales.

The album was recorded over a year and several trips to New York by Jeremy Scott (Woods, Vivian Girls, These Are Powers) at The Civil Defense studios in Brooklyn, USA. Holopaw is joined by members of Taigaa!, the Good Good, and Mahogany who add violin, clarinet, and trombone. Their additions further embellish arrangements that include trumpet, pedal steel, organ, accordion, piano, cello, clavinet, pianet and rhodes. After two records on the Sub Pop label (Holopaw, s/t and Quit +/or Fight), the band considered both self-release and working with Glacial Pace Recordings (owned and operated by John’s friend and collaborator on the Ugly Casanova record, Isaac Brock) before deciding to join the Bakery Outlet family.

The last line of Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness. calls out, “The trains that you sent screaming into tunnels (boot black) will spill into the light. La, La, La, La, La!” Oh, Glory. Indeed.

Holopaw
Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness.
(Bakery Outlet)
Street Date: Nov. 3, 2009

1. The Art Teacher and the Little Stallion
2. Black Lacquered Shame
3. Boys on Motorbikes
4. Cherry Glow
5. The Conductor and the Hobbyist (Avalanche)
6. The Last Transmission (Honeybee)
7. The Lazy Matador
8. Little Stallion with a Glass Jaw
9. Oh, Glory
10. P-a-l-o-m-i-n-e
11. Snow-packed Hush

HOLOPAW LINKS:
MySpace: myspace.com/holopaw
Band site: holopawmusic.com
Label Page: bakeryoutletrecords.com

STREAM: “Be Brave”

“The Strange Boys appeal to me because of their brilliant recasting of the roots of rock and roll with a seditious modern twist” - Geoff Travis, Rough Trade

“”The Strange Boys make music that can only come from Texas, a perfectly formed, totally accomplished and spot-on executed rock n’ roll band. I didn’t even know they made them like this anymore.” -Larry Hardy, In The Red Records

Recorded by: Mike McHugh at The Distillery, in Costa Mesa, Ca. September 2009
Ryan Sambol: guitar, vocals, harmonica, piano
Greg Enlow: guitar, organ, piano, background vocals, glockenspiel
Philip Sambol: bass, background vocals
Seth Densham: drums
Jenna Thornhill-DeWitt: saxophone, background vocals
Tim Presley: background vocals, bass

The Strange Boys are a phenomenal young group from Austin, Texas.

They are at the same time, both timeless and refreshingly avant garde. They have signed to Rough Trade Records for the world excluding the US (where they remain on In The Red Records). Set to appeal to anyone who has a liking for top quality beat and blues influenced rock n’ roll, The Strange Boys have provoked excitement and reaction in the Rough Trade offices the like of which has been unseen since the signing of The Strokes. They played their first UK shows this summer to wild reaction and their live return to the UK is hotly anticipated. Having played across Europe this summer, they’ve since returned to the US and recorded their 2nd album in Costa Mesa. Entitled, Be Brave, it is the follow up to their debut and Girls Club, which was released on In The Red in the US and became a hugely popular underground record in the UK via import copies alone.

Ryan Sambol explains the background of the new record:

“We got back from Europe and I worked out the songs that I had already started, wrote some more and sent cassette tapes of the songs to Tim, Jenna and Seth. When they got the tapes they all called me back and said they didn’t know what they were going to play, but they were interested to try. Then the three of us; Greg, Philip and I, drove out from Austin and played a few shows to get to LA. We met up with Tim, Jenna and Seth, went over to our friend John’s house, and rehearsed for a couple hours. The next day, we played FYF Fest, two days later we went to Costa Mesa, and two weeks later we came out with Be Brave.”

A limited edition 7″ vinyl single to be released on January 25th in the UK and on Jan 26th in the US will precede the new album. Title track ‘Be Brave’ will be backed by different, non-album, b-sides on the UK and US editions.

“..this is a careful, studied slouch: the loose limbs of garage-rock, rendered through a psychedelic fuzz, with melodies plucked from the blues and 1950s country music. “Heard You Wanna Beat Me Up” sounds both aggressive and aggrieved, and much of this impressive debut album manages wistfulness without sacrificing its knowing edge.” - NY Times

“It’s passionate, yowling guitar rock at its best” - Rolling Stone

THE STRANGE BOYS

Friday Feb 19th Austin @ Emo’s *#
Sun Feb 21 Marfa TX @ Padre’s *
Tues Feb 23 Phoenix, AZ @ Trunk Space *
Wed Feb 24 Isla Vista, CA @ Biko Garage *
Thurs Feb 25 San Diego, CA @ Casbah *
Fri Feb 26 Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo *
Sat Fat 27 San Francisco CA @ Elbo Room *$
Sun Feb 28 Reno, Nevada @ Rainshadow Community Charter High School *
Tues March 2 Salem, OR @ The Space *%
Wed March 3 Olympia, WA @ Northern *%
Thurs March 4 Seattle WA @ Comet Tavern *&
Fri March 5 Vancouver BC @ Media Club *
Sat March 6 Portland OR @ East End *
Sun March 7 - Boise, ID @ Visual Arts Collective
Mon March 8 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
Tue March 9 - Denver, CO @ Hi Dive
Wed March 10 - Boulder, CO @ University of Colorado - Club 156
Fri Mar 12 - Lubbock, TX @ Bash Riprock’s

* = w/ Chain and the Gang
# = w/ Yellow Fever
% = w/ The Hive Dwellers
& = w/ Lovvers
$ = w/ Ty Segall, Nodzzz

THE STRANGE BOYS LINKS:
MySpace - myspace.com/thestrangeboys

Label Page - intheredrecords.com

VIDEO: “Rusty Gold” (NSFW)

LIVE: Or, The Whale on Mountain Stage

MP3: “Rusty Gold”

“Voices everywhere, caught again in the devil’s snare,” belts lead vocalist and guitarist Alex Robins of San Francisco-based Or, the Whale on the second song of the band’s newest album. The song, “Datura,” is a rollicking ode to the hallucinogenic properties of jimson weed, but could just as easily be a description of the band itself. The soaring vocal harmonies and Neil Young-inspired guitar riffs found on Or, the Whale’s self-titled sophomore album yield a fiendishly potent listening experience, which may even provoke your own hallucinations.

On the heels of 2007’s Light Poles and Pines (which featured the band’s debut single “Call and Response” and helped earn them a 2008 Hollywood Music Award for Best Americana/Roots Artist as well as a coveted spot on Radio & Records Top 100 Americana Artists of 2008), Or, the Whale cannot so easily be pinned down. Tracks like “Black Rabbit,” which features a gale-force chorus above electric feedback and pounding drums, play out as if in an effort to prove just how hard the band can rock. At other times, as on “Never Coming Out”-a paranoid and agoraphobic rail ride that explodes into a final a capella starburst-Or, the Whale showcases their ability to present a reflective, stripped-down arrangement (no small feat for a band with seven members). Likewise, the creeping “Keep Me Up” shows how Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter” might sound if re-imagined through the mournful wail of pedal steel.

Like any good San Francisco band, Or, the Whale partially owes its inception to the online bulletin board service Craigslist; at one point, Robins and Matt Sartain (guitar and vocals) posted an ad titled “Wanna Form a Sweet Country Rock Band?” and recruited fellow vocalist Lindsay Garfield from a listing she had written looking for a guitar player. From there, the three set about enlisting bandmates Julie Ann Thomasson on keyboards and vocals, Justin Fantl on bass, Jesse Hunt on drums, and later Tim Marcus on pedal steel guitar.

Four years later, after a live appearance on Good Morning America, attention in USA Today, Paste, Magnet, and Billboard magazines, sold-out engagements on both coasts, and shows with the likes of Fleet Foxes, Devil Makes Three, The Dodos, and Two Gallants, Or, The Whale has grown into something that is neither country nor rock, but exists somewhere in the space between the two.

And “space” is certainly the new name of the game for this band. After recording Light Poles and Pines in a single extended weekend, the band made sure to take their time with their new effort, meticulously arranging each song to allow room for each instrument to contribute in the most effective way possible. The result is an album with more complexity and shape, not to mention diversity and emotional impact.

Or, the Whale is a band that will rock you, make you dance, and maybe even inspire you to contribute to their amazing vocal pyrotechnics-voices everywhere, indeed.

OR, THE WHALE

12/19 - San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall^
3/9 - Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge*
3/10 - Seattle, WA Tractor Tavern*
3/11 - Cottage Grove, OR Axe and Fiddle*
3/12 - San Francisco, CA The Independent*
3/13 - Los Angeles, CA Hotel Cafe*
3/14 - San Diego, CA Bar Pink*
3/15 - Tucson, AZ TBA*
3/17-20 - Austin, TX SXSW

^ = w/ The Mother Hips
* = w/ The Maldives

Or, the Whale
Or, the Whale
(Seany)
Street Date: Sept. 22, 2009

1. No Love Blues
2. Datura
3. Rusty Gold
4. Never Coming Out
5. Count The Stars
6. Keep Me Up
7. Black Rabbit
8. Giving Up Time
9. Shasta
10. Terrible Pain
11. No Death

OR, THE WHALE LINKS:
MySpace - myspace.com/orthewhale

Label Page - seanyrecords.com

Band Page - orthewhale.com

MP3: “Stumbling 22nd St.”

San Francisco’s Moon Duo was formed in 2009 by Sanae Yamada and Erik Johnson (Wooden Shjips). Inspired initially by the legendary duo of John Coltrane and Rashied Ali, Moon Duo counts such variant groups as Silver Apples, Royal Trux, Moolah, Suicide, and Cluster as touchstones. Utilizing primarily guitar, keyboards, percussion and vocals, the duo plays space against form to create a primordial and disorienting sonic stew. The group released two acclaimed records in 2009: the debut 12″ single, Love on the Sea, on Sick Thirst, and the Killing Time EP on Sacred Bones. Their follow-up long-player, Escape, on Woodsist, marks the fullest realization yet of the young group’s evolving sound.

Moon Duo
Escape
(Woodsist)
Street Date: Feb. 16, 2010

Side A
Motorcycle, I Love You
In the Trees

Side B
Stumbling 22nd St
Escape

MOON DUO LINKS:
Label Page - woodsist.com

MySpace - myspace.com/moonduo