Girl About Town

Dig the New Breed: (Stockholm Edition) Television Keeps Us Apart, The Pale Corners + The Mary Onettes

Stockholm, Sweden's duo "Television keeps us apart" have been messaging with us about their mini-album "A Slight Change of Light" which is now available for free download. If you enjoy artists on the Labrador label, specifically the soft electronic and new wave pop of groups like The Mary Onettes, or say, The Radio Dept. then TVKUA should fit right into your cosmic balance. The short-player is available for download via Soundcloud and although the mini-album was originally released in 2009, the band has also just released a new single called "Death by Sister Five" which includes two newer tracks that are also available for download as well. The band is also working on another EP release which should be out at some point this year. From Carl: "Right now we are about to finish a EP, we have not yet decided how to release it. We are not actively looking for being picked up by any label, in fact we have already turned some offers down. But it all depends on who wants to work with us and how." Labels and producers take note.

Television keeps us apart - Soundcloud
Television keeps us apart - band site

Speaking of Stockholm, independent label Since Records' will release newly reformed group The Pale Corners' latest single "REM" which is a follow up to their last single "Fireflies". Both were mixed by Philip Ekström from The Mary Onettes (who, if you missed it, back in February released their own band's limited-edition "Love Forever" EP as well). The Pale Corners new single will be released on the 4th of April, 2012. Here's a little history behind the release: "In the summer of 2009 The Pale Corners went down to the summerhouse in the Karlskrona archipelago in south Sweden. Started to recorded new songs, the work went well, but when the band came back to Stockholm, they started fighting. After a year of conversations, midnight text-messages and discussions of ideas and sound they agreed and began to complete the songs in the end of 2010." 

The Pale Corners - REM
The Pale Corners - band site / since records

Dig the New Breed: Roman Photos, I'm Not A Band (electronic digest)

If you're searching for something a little "minimal" in your rock-steady diet, you may want to check out the band Roman Photos. The group has a brand new 7" coming out on small boutique label Double Phantom (Selmanaires, Carnivores) on December 7th of this year, and has opened for acts like Philadelphia's Cold Cave....Drew Haddon also plays in his own project "Warning Light". The name of this group, however, is apparently a play on the title of a track by now defunct-French cold-wave artist Ruth. The download track "Decline" from this artist's forthcoming 45rpm; is stark, softer, and gauzy in its light rhythm and breathy refrain....and also, a bit of a change-up from previous compositions.

Roman Photos - Decline

Roman Photos - band site / myspace

I'm Not A Band are actually a duo, Stephan J. and Kassandra P.―both hailing from Berlin in Germany. They've brewed up a complex electronic sound, bordering on the emotional, occasionally saccharine, and all-at-once shout-y vocals (female vocalist Kassandra P. standing out like a Josephine Olausson from Love Is All, if we're being truthful here). In the interest of setting themselves apart, their use of violin tends to give their songs a kind of unique jig-and-off-kilter effect, which meshes well with the beats they create, producing a folk, but not hokey, lift to their light 'prêt à partir' dance-y vibe for these fast-paced, and fun tracks. The group will be releasing a new album soon, with the first single due out on November 26th on the AdP records label. The original track (also featuring remixes by MMMatthias, Jumping Jack Flash, Tonspender, Alle Farben and Rampue), is included in the following links (a teaser, if you will) for the upcoming release. Please note, however: these tracks are exclusive downloads and will be gone within the week, so get them here while they're hot!

I'm Not A Band - Crazy
I'm Not A Band - Crazy (MMMathias Remix)
I'm Not A Band - Crazy (Tonspender Remix)
I'm Not A Band - Crazy (Jumping Jack Flash Remix)

I'm Not A Band - AdP records / myspace

Dig the New Breed: Toy Soldiers

   

  

South Philly's Toy Soldiers is the core duo of Ron Gallo (vocals and guitar) and Mike Baurer (drums).  Friends from Temple University, this dynamic duo has been on the Philly music scene for about a year-and-a-half, entertaining audiences with their own stamp of blues-laden indie rock.  With the recent addition of Tyler Beck on bass, Toy Solidiers is ready for what's next.  Proteges of local promoter Derek Dorsey, the band will start recording their first full length debut (entitled "It is What It Is, Is It What It Is?") this month at The Fire's Studio (where favorite Philly band The Teeth recorded). Currently they have a self-recorded six song demo/EP that the band sells at shows, but the hope is that the new album will be released in the Spring, perhaps April.  Expect somewhere between 12-15 songs, most of which will be engineered by Pete Veloski of Falkonr.  Also expect the brash, down-and-dirty sound these boys are known for, up the same alley as The Strokes, The White Stripes, and The Black Keys....swampy guitar, jittery vocals, and crashing drums - albeit with an ever-so-slight rockabilly bent.  If you didn't know Toy Soldiers was a young current band from Philly, you may even think they are from another era, like the Sun Records house band.  The band isn't ashamed to harken back to the past, since they know how to twist the songs into their own howling version, not unlike the other bands who also riff the blues.  While we wait for the release of the new album, you can catch Toy Soldiers on the road with another Philly band, The Armchairs, in March.

Toy Soldiers - myspace

Dig the New Breed: Deaf Not Dead

Delaware's Deaf Not Dead rose from the ashes of Lolita Nation, a band that formed at the University of Delaware in Newark.  Lolita Nation was a Brit-pop inspired group that fed off of guitarist and WVUD DJ Rick Martel's love of shoegaze and distortion.  Once Lolita Nation had run its course, Martel joined up in 2007 with fellow band mate Brian Bartling for a new sound and a new direction.  Moving away from the shimmery guitar pop that Lolita Nation offered via strong influence of Echo and the Bunnymen, Deaf Not Dead takes a different approach by paying homage to a different musical hero - Joy Division.  The vocal similarity between Ian Curtis and Martel cannot be denied, and this sets the tone for the rest of the band's music: dark, gloomy, and thoroughly captivating.  Intensely loud and experimental, the band relies on synthesizers and guitars for their melodies, while the bass and drums propel the songs along at a steady if not brisk clip.  Martel (vocals, guitar, keys) and Bartling (bass) are joined by Kirby Sankus (keys) and Sean Mis (drums), and together this foursome sinks their teeth into some pretty weighty material.  Their debut full length album "Commotions" was released this past May, while the band continued over the summer to write and record.  "Commotions" offers ten tracks of substance, and if the band continues to find its stride, their future will be bright (or dark and gloomy, as we like it).  Don't miss Deaf Not Dead when they play in Philly on December 18th at The Fire.

Deaf Not Dead - band site / myspace

Dig the New Breed: The Ruling Class, Natalie Portman's Shaved Head

The new 'monkey-men'? Sunshine bright, waterfalls and rainfall...

Someone call Ian Brown, John Squire, Andy Bell and Mark Gardener already; because there's a few lads who've heard The Second Coming, and they've made it their personal mission to turn it into their own. Dead-ringers for The Stone Roses, Ride, and newly signed to London's fiercest of indies; Fierce Panda records (the label that brought us the earliest releases from bands such as Coldplay, Ash, The Bluetones and Art Brut--and of course "Wibbling Rivalry", the Liam/Noel Oasis interview)--brand new indie The Ruling Class is treading heavily (heavily!) on 90s "Madchester" holy ground and not even hiding that fact. We also swear that there's even a part in their song "Umbrella Folds" (from Tour De Force) that is channeling Lou Reed's "Take a Walk On the Wild Side". Call us stuck in the past, or, longing for a time when we could just throw on a Love record and dance into the late afternoon sunset lighting things on fire and throwing colored paint on paper, but these songs are so made; it's like The Ruling Class are actually covering tracks from a 90s reel-to-reel of lost shoegaze numbers they found hidden in someone's closet straight down to the vocals, lyrics, bass lines and the flower-beaded and jangly acid-drenched guitar that's straight out of Shaun Ryder's mystical brain sayin', 'Call the cops!'. But we love it, and we're so wound up that we can't even talk about it anymore....just listen. If you know and love the sound and long for more, you can pick up their first two releases (an EP and two singles) via mailorder through lovely pop-makers Shelflife Records, or Label Fandango (aka Fierce Panda) now. The band has already been added as an opener for up-and-comers Glasvegas in the UK for one of their quickly-selling round of tour dates, and we know that means business.

The Ruling Class - band site / myspace

It's a raging disco party, and there is a grooving synth-rhythm that beats in the fiery heart of all stigmatized early twenty-somethings hitting the summer pool party scene this year and longing for a hold on the concept of 80s style, new-wave, and maybe even a piece of the spandex and slap-bracelet action. We get all of that, and apparently, so do Natalie Portman's Shaved Head. "Me and your daughter, hotter and hotter...so don't make us go home ever again...!", we get the quirky lyrics about romancing someone's daughter (Me + Yr Daughter) and the cute electronic beats that format the sound of this youthful quartet... "Keep it strictly on the dancefloor, otherwise what's your booty for?", they advise. We couldn't agree more, Natalie Portman's Shaved Head (most recently spotted opening for CSS here in Philadelphia--Lovefoxxx loves them). And we'll have some fun listening to you this year and reminiscing about our Aunts working out to Jane Fonda jazzercise videos; you are wisely joyful, and shallowly entertaining. "Hot damn, sexy facial hair! It's everywhere!" Download a track from their latest EP release, Glistening Pleasure so you can feel the shaved head and get down with all of its 'glistening pleasure.'

Natalie Portman's Shaved Head - Slow Motion Tag Team

Natalie Portman's Shaved Head - myspace