8:00 PM
to 9:00 PM
NewVillager
27 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists NewVillager
event::about NewVillager are multi-media artists from San Francisco and New York. The two founding members, Ben Bromley and Ross Simonini make new pop music as a means of illustrating the NewVillager mythology, a system of thinking, which is partially 'found' and partially created by the group and their collaborators. In an interview with the band, they describe their mythos as, 'not a story, but a lens to look at the world. It's a ten-part framework of understanding the process of change. How does an object or a person or an idea go from one state to another state? It's a question everybody asks any time anyone tries to create anything and the mythology is just our attempt at answering it.' NewVillager represents the mythology through symbols, drawings, photographs, film, and installations, all of which are documented on their website (www.newvillager.org). The band's first single, Rich Doors/Genghis On was released by Two-Syllable records and Moodgadget in 2009, and was acclaimed by Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, the Irish Times, Stereogum, TimeOut New York, RCRDLBL and the NME, who described the band as 'pop shamans taking meticulous steps towards a mysterious, musical nirvana.' Ben and Ross met from opposite coasts in 2006 to begin a 4-year process of creating their debut self-titled album. The first portion of the album (Cocoon) was created in Hayward, California, inside an empty, skeleton of house in which the band squatted. The second portion (Forest) was created in Forestville, CA, in a cabin by the Russian river, beside a 'meth house.' The final portion of the album (LightHouse) was recorded in Port Townsend, Washington, in a small house near the ocean, adjacent to a haunted castle. The album was finished in several studios throughout New York, NY, where the band currently resides. The band's working methodology combines writing, producing and mixing into a unified process. For this album, they recorded 10 versions of every song, each with different melodies, chords, rhythms, production, and lyrics, in an attempt to find the best overall representation of the NewVillager mythology. Over the course of the recording process, the band took 3 breaks to tour, including trips to SXSW, CMJ, a full-scale installation in an art gallery, and openings spots for High Places and Sunset Rubdown. At every show, the band performed the ThreeTimes, an on-stage game involving a 9-foot, form-shifting sculpture called 'BlackCrowBoy.' In January 2010, NewVillager co-curated Ecotones, an integrated event in an art gallery in San Francisco which explored the concept of an ecotone (the boundary between different ecosystems). For the exhibition, the band built a stage on which they performed for two consecutive nights and constructed a private 'LightHouse' room in which the public could perform the Three Times game along with sound and light animations. Other contributors to the exhibit included the band, Lucky Dragons, editors at McSweeney's literary journal, members of the OuLiPo literary group, noise artist Chen Santa Maria, along with several filmmakers, painters, and poets. SF Weekly described the experience as, 'a thrilling new world of performance, art, and performance art.' In March 2010, NewVillager organized the RichDoors game, a 27 person integrated event in the RedHouse, the band's home and performance space. The event was filmed by director, Ben Dickinson and director of photography, Kevin Phillips. It was released as a music video in late 2010. NewVillager maintains a blog at newvillagermusic.blogpspot.com, in which they describe their mythology through life experiences, photography and interviews. They have contributed drawings, music and writings to arts journals around the world, including Australia's The Lifted Brow, HtmlGiant, and Hobart. In 2011, NewVillager will release their debut with IAMSOUND records along with a video for their first single, 'LightHouse,' and a narrative trailer for their album. In 2011, the band will build a interactive physical environment in New York City and publish a 1000 page book.
event::tags 21+
9:00 PM
to 10:00 PM
Dinosaur Feathers
51 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
10:00 PM
to 11:00 PM
Reptar
30 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists Reptar
event::about ZUMdAR sees you! Peek-a-boo! Reptar is a band from Athens, GA. We play music that has been likened to space chasm electro dance zone. It makes you want to cummm over to mommys house! There are 4 young gentlemen in the band who prefer to be refered to by the first letter of their last name: K, E, U, and of couse M. We have been playing music for about 1 and a half years. We are working with producer Ben H. Allen (Animal Collective,Gnarls Barkley, Deerhunter, Cut Copy) who produced our first single and our upcoming EP. Reptar is working on a full length album set to come out in the summertime. Get ready to have fun wit your friends. Come be our friend!
event::tags 21+
11:00 PM
to 12:00 AM
The Kickback
12 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists The Kickback
event::about The Kickback is a group of four young Midwestern men that wouldn't know what to do with themselves without music. After years of assaulting the Grain Belt's indie-rock circuit, brothers Billy and Danny Yost, along with longtime friend Zachariah Verdoorn, made the pilgrimage from sunny South Dakota to slightly-less-sunny Chicago in mid-2009, adding Tyler Zee to the lineup shortly thereafter. The newly assembled lineup issued its first statement with their Great Self Love EP, released in early 2010. The EP earned the group critical acclaim and led to a distribution deal with Los Angeles-based Sidecho Records. Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "If your only exposure to the Kickback is via its recordings, including a dynamic, well-recorded, exquisitely arranged and very dramatic new disc called the 'Great Self Love' EP currently streaming on its Myspace page, you might think that guitarist-vocalist Billy Yost and his drummer brother Danny have escaped the usual sibling drama. But since the group, which is completed by guitarist Tyler Zee and bassist Zachariah Verdoorn, immigrated here from South Dakota last summer, the stories have begun to spread about its explosive live performances, with the members cheerfully owning up to the occasional broken chairs and bloody knuckles." The band continued performing throughout the Midwest, gradually incorporating new songs into their live set that would eventually comprise their next EP, Mea Culpa Mea Culpa. Recorded (and re-recorded) throughout the latter half of 2010, this effort displayed the group with a rawer edge than Great Self Love, while retaining the undeniable hooks and infectious melodies that anchor the bedrock sound. It was released in early 2011 and music blogs were quick to sing its praises, adding acolytes across the interwebs. The Kickback are currently writing and rehearsing what will mark their first full-length release. A task that will be tracked and mixed by the Yost brothers, the record has been pledged to be a rawer yet more musically ambitious effort than the group's past releases. 2011 will also mark the band's debut at the celebrated SXSW Festival in Austin, TX.
event::tags 21+
11:59 PM
to 12:59 AM
The Hounds Below
24 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists The Hounds Below
event::about
The Hounds Below is a new band comprised of lead vocalist Jason Stollsteimer (of the Von Bondies), guitarist Ben Collins, drummer Nick Adams and bassist Gjon Gjavelini. The band was originally formed in 2008 after Stollsteimer wrote a group of songs dealing with a previously unexplored emotional territory. Jason's songs encompass a refreshing yet nostalgic aesthetic, creating a distinct sound that is captured in every reverberating note - Think modest mouse with Roy Orbison as the singer. Stollsteimer's genre-defying songs transition effortlessly through a variety of musical styles. From the heart-aching 'Crawling Back to You' to the hauntingly beautiful 'Cumberland's Crumblin,' each song showcases Stollsteimer's solid song-writing and versatile vocal capabilities.
1:00 AM
to 2:00 AM
Black Cards
16 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
8:00 PM
to 9:00 PM
Geographer
101 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists Geographer
event::about In the summer of 2005, after a series of deaths in the family, Michael Deni left his hometown in New Jersey for San Francisco. He spent the next several months with his guitar and a synthesizer, turning that tragedy into the songs that would soon become the foundation for Geographer. With the additions of cellist Nathan Blaz and drummer Brian Ostreicher, Geographer spent the next year cutting their teeth in the Bay Area, winning over crowds with the heart-pounding epics that make up their debut record, ‘Innocent Ghosts’. After being selected one of three ‘Undiscovered Bands You Need To Hear Now’ by SPIN Magazine and garnering considerable word-of-mouth praise from their energetic live shows, the band signed to San Francisco-based label Tricycle Records, releasing a 7” single for the song ‘Kites’ in October 2009. ‘Animal Shapes’ follows up ‘Kites’, building on the synth-driven aesthetic of the single, while flirting with darker, more esoteric underpinnings. The record merges Geographer’s aptitude for crafting beautiful, haunting melodies with textural sounds and polyrhythmic energy, marking an evolution of their distinct style. With the overwhelming response to the release of ‘Kites’ and ‘Animal Shapes’, punctuated by a dynamic and engaging live set, the band has already begun to make an indelible mark on the ears of music fans worldwide.
event::tags 21+
8:40 PM
to 9:40 PM
The Chain Gang of 1974
111 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists The Chain Gang of 1974
event::about “My brothers and I were surrounded by music growing up,” explains Kamtin Mohager, the shape-shifting singer/multi-instrumentalist behind the Chain Gang of 1974. “Not Beatles albums or anything like that; more like the Persian records our parents played all the time. And when we got older, it was up to us to discover everything.” Born in San Jose and raised in Hawaii, Mohager spent his first 13 years obsessing over inline hockey and the idea of being drafted by the NHL one day. A series of life-changing events were set in motion once Mohager’s family moved to Colorado, however. The first of which involved the final scene from Real Genius—quite possibly Val Kilmer’s finest hour—and its penultimate ‘popcorn song’, a.k.a. “Everybody Rules the World.” “I love ‘80s music, but not typical new-wave stuff,” says Mohager. “Like I’m way into Tears For Fears and Talk Talk, the other side of the spectrum, really.” That’s abundantly clear on White Guts, a record that’s nearly as restless as Chain Gang’s previous collection of early recordings, Fantastic Nostalgic. The way Mohager sees it, his first proper release was “all over the place, from a piano ballad to songs that sound like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Primal Scream or Justice.” White Guts, on the other hand, funnels three years of instrument-swapping, sample-splicing experience into a lean, focused listen. So while “Stop!” and the rather epic “Hold On” hint at everything from LCD Soundsystem to Talking Heads, they make perfect sense in the context of deep cuts like the synth-flecked “Don’t Walk Away” and bass-guided “Matter of Time,” shimmering power ballads that could have been on the soundtrack of Sixteen Candles or Pretty in Pink. What sets the Chain Gang of 1974 apart from other Reagan-era revivalists is Mohager’s innate sense of rhythm, a skill he acquired at an early age. And we’re not just talking about his parents’ punchy, groove-riding record collection. We’re talking about family gatherings and traditions that taught Mohager how to make a crowd of cool kids uncross their arms and dance like there’s pistols pointed at their feet. “Everyone lets loose at our shows,” says Mohager. “It’s a party, man. If only I had a dollar for every time someone bum-rushed the stage or grabbed one of our instruments.” Things are bound to get worse, too, as his live band—a quartet that’s a far cry from Mohager’s original iPod/bass setup—spends the next six months spreading the Chain Gang gospel far beyond its Rocky Mountain beginnings. Or as the man behind every last beat puts it, “I’m letting the music just be, and if something’s meant to happen, it’s meant to happen.”
event::tags 21+
9:25 PM
to 10:25 PM
Jimmy Gnecco (of Ours)
41 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists Jimmy Gnecco, Jimmy Gnecco (of Ours)
event::about Jimmy Gnecco - The Heart (Bright Antenna - released 2010) Growing up in New Jersey, all I wanted to do was escape. I could see New York from my bedroom window and spent the majority of my teen years playing in clubs all over the city. The chaos of the city inspired and shaped me as a musician, and it wasn’t until I was an adult that I recognized the role that New Jersey had played in my music. Always the first to lend a hand or grab a piece of gear that needed loading or unloading, I connected with other musicians to form a band and also worked with other writers’ in their bands for a few years. It was through Ours, formed in 1992, that a real relationship with the audience was born. Ours’ first records, Distorted Lullabies and Precious, were solo driven endeavors strengthened by the individual aesthetics of my friends performing alongside me. Mercy, our third album, produced by Rick Rubin and me, was a true collaboration, incorporating each band member’s interpretation of the music, building around their arrangements as well as my own. For The Heart, my first entirely solo effort, I drew upon a similar approach to Distorted Lullabies and Precious. This time, though, it needed to be through my own vision and performances alone. My intention for this album was to write songs that could be supported by only a voice and guitar or voice and piano. Throughout three albums with Ours, I sang about the frustrations and pains of my childhood and our world. For The Heart , I found myself in a place where I wanted to sing about my appreciation of it. I hope that you enjoy it.
event::tags 21+
10:20 PM
to 11:20 PM
The Lonely Forest
57 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists The Lonely Forest
event::about Set between ancient forest and the forest-green waters of Puget Sound at the very edge of the continental US, Anacortes, Washington, population 17,000 sees a lot come and go. Ferries docked here delivers thousands of itinerant hippies, millionaires, and sightseers to farms and mansions dotting the remote San Juan Islands while Navy bombers and helicopters based nearby perform ear-splitting flyovers. Through all the coming and going, the local DIY community remains remarkably consistent and strong; an expression of defiant, end-of-the-line creativity. From that community come The Lonely Forest, a rock band of four Anacortes natives with no intention of leaving. From the outset The Lonely Forest -singer/guitarist/keyboardist John Van Deusen, guitarist Tony Ruland, drummer Braydn Krueger, and bassist Eric Sturgeon- has been about inclusion. In 2005, a raucous garage session inspired the guys (Braydn, Tony, and Eric) to join forces with Van Deusen's piano-pop. The newly formed entity, now called The Lonely Forest, played their first show while two band members were still in high school (the other two having recently graduated). Since that show, The Lonely Forest have racked up miles; steadily becoming heroes of the Northwest all-ages scene through relentless gigging around the region. From their first show at the Department of Safety, center of Anacortes' all-ages DIY scene, to their high-profile appearance at Bumbershoot 2009, a sold-out concert at the Showbox in Seattle last fall and a coveted spot on 2010's Sasquatch Festival, the accolades for The Lonely Forest have grown along with their fanbase. As grows their fanbase, The Lonely Forest 's music is continually expanding and evolving. At its core, the music features Van Deusen's soaring vocals and keyboard melodies wrapped tightly around Ruland's expansive guitar anchored by a heavy yet nimble rhythm section. The contrast of brilliant pop songs featuring lyrics about spiritual longing wedded to an almost prog-rock sensibility appeals to broad swath of listeners, from wide-eyed teenagers to jaded scenesters. As always, inclusion is important to these guys! The Lonely Forest will continue their steady climb to prominence from modest Northwest roots with the March 22nd release of their new album, Arrows, for Chris Walla's label imprint, Trans Records. Walla, guitarist and producer for Grammy-nominated rock band Death Cab for Cutie, made The Lonely Forest his first signing when he launched Trans with the support of Death Cab for Cutie's major label home, Atlantic Records. Trans and The Lonely Forest will be released through ILG, Warner Music Group's Independent Label Group. In addition to his role as label head, Walla produced and mixed Arrows at Sound City studio in Los Angeles, Tiny Telephone in San Francisco and his own, Portland-based studio, Alberta Court. He also mixed three tracks - 'Be Everything,' 'Turn Off This Song' and 'Live There.' The rest of the album was mixed by John Goodmanson (Girls, Nada Surf, Owl City).
event::tags 21+
11:20 PM
to 12:20 AM
Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys of OMD
75 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
12:05 AM
to 1:05 AM
Middle Class Rut
31 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists Middle Class Rut
event::about Middle Class Rut Zack Lopez- Vocals/Guitars Sean Stockham- Vocals/Drums The path to success is rarely short or simple to traverse. It takes time to get where you’re going, and it’s usually the journey there that transforms you into what you will become. Middle Class Rut is proof of this. Theirs has not been an easy path, but their journey has defined who they are now. The group’s two members, Sean and Zack, have been playing together since they were teenagers, camping out in Zack’s mom’s house in Sacramento to write and record the songs they wrote. The duo’s first band, Leisure, dissolved in early 2003 after a few false starts, sending Zack to work construction and Sean to labor as a studio runner in LA. But they soon realized stopping wasn’t an option. Sean moved back to Sacramento and Zack began driving up every weekend from LA to write and rehearse music. After a year of commuting up and down the California coast, Zack relocated as well, solidifying a future for the pair’s new band, Middle Class Rut. The band has spent the past four years crafting new songs and allowing the style and sound of their project to evolve and establish itself. The pair records every song they write together almost immediately in their rehearsal space, capturing the instantaneous spirit of a track while still in the moment. This means that each number is imbued with a distinct sense of urgency, almost like a snapshot of the moment of inspiration. The band’s debut, No Name No Color, is a collection of these recordings, which they elected to use rather than attempt to recreate the spark of the original tracks later in a studio. “Recording our own music has been a part of our process since we were 13,” Sean explains. “It integrated itself into our process from an early age. We like being able to listen to whatever we’re writing right away. It’s like when you look in the mirror you’re seeing your face but it’s different than when you see a picture of yourself. It’s the same with music. You need to hear it come out of a stereo to understand it. That’s just what we do. We write music and we record it so we can listen to it. Now hopefully other people will get to listen to it as well.” The record compiles 12 songs from a span of several years, showcasing a breadth of time without ever losing its clear impression of cohesion. A few tracks have appeared previously on the band’s three EPs, which they released in 2007, 2008 and 2009, but the album as a whole is a new construction that reveals a band with a unique creative process. The majority of the songs have been tested on the road during tours in the U.S. with Social Distortion, Them Crooked Vultures and Alice In Chains, and in Europe with The Bronx and …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. Middle Class Rut’s music artfully toes the line between heavy and melodic, showcasing the band’s skill for raw, energized rock and roll that is equally complex and immediate. The record is enormous and rowdy, propelled by the duo’s ability to make heavy music tasteful and accessible. The record sounds the product of far more people than the two who made it. Opening number “Busy Bein’ Born” represents the rest of the disc, setting a tone and pace for the impassioned tracks that follow. “It takes everything this band does and puts it into one song,” Zack says. “It’s hard to do that. We’re were able to capture the heavier and mellower side of our music in one song.” Releasing this disc marks a moment of catharsis for these two musicians. The road they’ve traveled to get here has been long and uphill. But never has Middle Class Rut lost sight of why they make music—a fact that is reflected in the genuine, honest nature of their songs. There is something grounded and relatable about these tracks and that comes from the band being homegrown and independent, and truly loving being musicians. “I feel like the music we make needs to be heard,” Zack says. “Maybe everyone feels that way about their music, I don’t know. We struggled for a long time to find something that was us and as soon as we decided that we would do it ourselves everything clicked. Realizing we didn’t need anyone but ourselves to do this was important for this band. Now we want to get this out there and really get our own audience for our music.”
event::tags 21+
1:05 AM
to 2:05 AM
The Hours
63 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists The Hours
event::about On November 16 Adeline Records will release The Hours’ first full-length US album, It’s Not How You Start, It’s How You Finish, to all digital outlets, with a deluxe edition exclusive to iTunes. The album sees The Hours put their own twist on Brit-pop with songs fueled by soaring choruses and powerful ballads. Produced and mixed by the band and renowned producer Flood (U2, Depeche Mode), the album features the band’s iconic “Ali In The Jungle” – heard in Nike’s 2010 Winter Olympic TV / web campaign “The Human Chain” and two new songs, “1000 Years” and “Born To Be”. The Hours, one of the most dynamic and provocative rock ensembles on the London music scene today, got their start when singer-songwriter-guitarist Antony Genn (whose BritPop credentials include stints with Pulp and Elastica), and multi-instrumentalist Martin Slattery (whose resume includes playing with Shaun Ryder's Black Grape) formed The Mescaleros with then-former Clash-frontman Joe Strummer in 1999. The Mescaleros performed their first gig in Genn's hometown of Sheffield in June 1999 and Antony (who'd been all of 8 when London Calling first hit the record store racks) co-wrote and co-produced Rock Art and the X Ray Style, the highly-acclaimed album that marked Strummer's long-awaited return to music. The Hours’ music has inspired contributions from a variety of high-profile artists. Damien Hirst, the controversial post-modern UK artist, threw his support behind the band and developed the representative clock-eyed skull logo used in The Hours’ artwork and onstage set. An exclusive video for “See The Light”, featuring actress Sienna Miller and directed by the legendary Tony Kaye (American History X), will be serviced to video and online outlets.
event::tags 21+
8:00 PM
to 9:00 PM
The Belle Brigade
45 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists The Belle Brigade
event::about Like many siblings, Barbara and Ethan Gruska had their ups and downs over their years growing up together in Los Angeles. “Oh, we hated each other as kids,” Barbara says with a laugh. “And by hate, I mean ‘love dearly,’ but we could never get along. We started to become friends for the first time when Ethan was 15 and I was 21. Then we became best friends and four years later we started writing songs together and formed The Belle Brigade.” Listening to The Belle Brigade’s self-titled debut album, you could never tell that these two were ever not in perfect sync. The Gruska’s familial chemistry, not to mention their obvious songwriting gifts, have resulted in one of the most thrilling debut albums you’re going to hear all year. Inspired by the duo’s love for Fleetwood Mac, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles, and Stevie Wonder, their artfully arranged, freewheeling songs brim with breezy, California melodies and bracing pop harmonies, fueled by the driving rhythms Barbara plays on drums. As performed by Ethan and Barbara and their talented group of backing musicians, Bram Inscore (bass), Blake Mills, (electric guitar), Aaron Arntz (piano), and Jimi Hendrix/Joe Cocker keyboardist Mike Finnigan (Hammond B-3 organ), songs like “Sweet Louise,” “Where Not To Look For Freedom,” “Lucky Guy,” and “Lonely Lonely,” are tailor-made for road-tripping up the coast with the car top down, sunshine on your face, and the music blasting into the roar of the wind. “We didn’t want to make something small and precious,” Barbara says. “We wanted to make something big and exhilarating. Recording this album was an incredible lesson at walking the line between holding on and letting go. Every note is intentional, but we gave up the reigns to let the music go freely where it wanted to go. We wanted to make a record that was personal and aching, but still uplifting, relatable, and fun to listen to.” Barbara and Ethan credit their co-producer Matthew Wilder (No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom) — a family friend who offered his services after hearing a few of their songs — with helping them to keep open minds. “He created an environment where it was safe to try anything,” Ethan says. Adds Barbara: “If you had told us that we’d be using our screaming voices, have a 30-piece orchestra on a song, or use reverse guitar-looping effects, we wouldn’t have believed you. With Matthew and our engineer Csaba Petocz’s help, we let go of our inhibitions and fear of being uncool or too exposed.” The liberated mood of the music dovetails beautifully with the duo’s thoughtful, emotionally resonant lyrics. “A lot of this album has to do with the struggle to let go of our fear of being judged and our judgments of others in order to find powerful connections,” Barbara says. The thematic centerpiece is “Losers,” on which Ethan and Barbara sing in perfect harmonic unison: “Don’t care about being a winner / or being smooth with women / or goin’ out on Friday / Being the life of parties… Or if I am a loser” and declaring “So I wanna make it known / that I don’t care about any of that shit no more.” “The song is about being insecure and jealous and letting go of all the terrible things you can feel about yourself and realizing that life is not a game,” Ethan says. “It’s not a competition. It’s kind of a pep talk to ourselves to remember that.” Other songs reflect on disillusionment (“Belt of Orion,” “Punch Line”), yearning (“Rusted Wheel”), and awkward romance (“Sweet Louise”). Then there’s “Lucky Guy,” a song about how fortunate we are to be alive. After the duo sing “But now everything’s all right / Even though I think about dying,” they complete the phrase in harmony with a Beatle-esque “Ooh!” — which distills, in the simplest way, the happy-sad paradox within their music. “That balance between happy and sad was intentional,” Barbara says. “When I was Ethan’s age, I wrote a really sad song and played it for my dad. He said, ‘I dare you to write a happy song. It’s so much harder to write a happy song,’ and he was right. That really stuck with me. I love the combination of sad lyrics with happy music and vice versa. Too much of one thing feels like going overboard.” It was just one lesson that Barbara would get from her father. Jay Gruska is a songwriter and composer who released two albums of his own on Warner Bros. Records in the early ’80s and wrote a number of hit songs for other artists (including Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, and Dusty Springfield), as well as hours of music for films and television. His studio, in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, was in the family’s backyard so musicians were constantly coming and going. “My dad was like my songwriting coach, but he was never overbearing,” says Ethan. “He’s always the person we test our new songs out on,” Barbara says. “If he cracks a smile it’s a keeper. If he doesn’t, it’s usually back to the drawing board.” Barbara and Ethan’s maternal grandfather is Oscar- and Grammy-winning film composer John Williams (Star Wars, Jaws, E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark), someone they both cite as a huge musical influence. Not surprisingly, both Barbara and Ethan began playing music at a young age. Ethan has been singing since he can remember. He took a few piano lessons as a kid, but really began playing piano and writing songs in earnest at the age of 14. He studied classical composition for a year at Cal Arts in Valencia, CA, but “I never really felt that fire with it like I did when I write a little, stripped-down pop song,” he says. As for Barbara, when she was nine, she fashioned a drum set out of random objects in her room (“I hung a pan lid on my pull-up bar to use as a cymbal,” she says) and played that until her uncle gave her her first drum kit. Barbara studied jazz drumming at both Oberlin College and Cal Arts before dropping out to hit the road with The Bird and The Bee’s Inara George, followed by tours with Benji Hughes and Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis. The musicians mentioned above who play on The Belle Brigade album are all friends of Barbara’s from the Los Angeles music scene. “There’s a really high level of musicianship and creativity coming from all the guys on this album,” Barbara says. “They are all our close friends and it was an incredibly rewarding experience to be surrounded by these amazing musicians. I like to hear other people in the music. That's what the album is about; it was such a group effort. It’s just more fun to make things with other people. Hopefully what comes across is that we work hard and love what we do and are grateful for the opportunity to actually be artists.” Warner Bros Records ###
event::tags 21+
9:00 PM
to 10:00 PM
Scars On 45
32 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists Scars On 45
event::about Making music was the furthest thing from Scars on 45 co-founder Danny’s mind until the professional soccer player for England’s Hatsfield Town F.C. broke his foot at 21 and his world came crashing down. “I was in limbo, without knowing what to do with myself,” he says. It wasn’t the first time that fate would intervene in the band’s formation. Danny put down the soccer ball and picked up for his father’s guitar. “I’m quite an obsessive person. I became kind of addicted,” he says. “I used to lock myself away and try to write songs and try to record on four-track recorder.” Those early years led to the formation of Scars on 45, a quintet from Leeds, England, that combines the gentle melodic intensity of Snow Patrol or Keane but features the added allure of co-ed vocals. Highlights on the group’s self-titled, 11-song debut include the gracefully propulsive “Heart on Fire,” on which Danny and Aimee play out a couple’s anguished conversation, and the lilting, yet melancholic, “Give Me Something,” as Danny longs for some sign--any sign--that there’s a reason for him to believe in a lasting love. But that’s getting ahead of the story. After teaching himself guitar, Danny and one of his football buddies, Stu, began playing together in various bands. “We were awful,” Danny laughs, but “we were always passionate about it and had this belief that we’d probably make it some day.” Soon keyboardist Nova joined the pair and the trio began recording demos and playing live around Leeds. This is where Oasis’ Noel Gallagher and country legend Emmylou Harris come in. “A friend of ours who was drumming for Noel asked us if we wanted to meet him,” Danny recalls. “He said, ‘This is Danny and Stu they’re in a band.’ Noel said, ‘What’s your band’s name?’ and we said, ‘We don’t really have one.’ Noel said, ‘A band without a name? What kind of fucking band is that?’ and walked off.” Indeed. On search for a name, the nascent group ultimately picked Scars on 45, taken from a radio interview that Danny heard with Harris, in which she recalled her father telling her as a young girl that she better not get any “scars on his 45s” as she played them. The trio became the axis of the band, with other members coming and going. “We must have been through at least 500 members,” Danny says. And then, amid the revolving door, the second serendipitous event occurred that firmly set Scars On 45 on its path. Danny wrote a song that required a female voice. Out of the blue, Nova heard his friend Aimee singing along with the radio to The Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love.” Although she wasn’t a performer and had never sung in public, he was struck by her innocent, sweet voice. She ultimately, joined the band, ditching plans to travel around the world with a friend for two years. “I just started singing along when Nova rushed in seeming really shocked,” Aimee recalls. “I thought his dad had a heart attack or something! He made me stand there in his living room and sing another song to him which was the scariest thing ever at the time. At first I wouldn’t do it but he wouldn't shut up so I just put my tea down, shut my eyes and sang ‘Rhiannon’ by Fleetwood Mac just to stop him pestering me. Danny recorded me on one of the songs and it just seemed to work. The next thing I knew I was in the band. When I told my family and friends they were saying, ‘but you can't sing, can you?’” Then began a series of joys, heartbreaks and near misses. The band, now expanded to a quintet with the addition of drummer, Chris, placed songs on A&E’s since-cancelled series, “The Cleaner,” and came close to signing with a major label only to see the deal fall apart at the last moment. Then came the moment they had been waiting for: “CSI: New York” selected the group’s song, “Dutiful and Wild,” for an extended closing scene. The music caught the attention of noted music supervisor, Alexandra Patsavas, who signed the band to her Atlantic Records-distributed label, Chop Shop Records. The band members… recorded the self-produced “Scars on 45” on their own, first starting in “Fawlty Towers,” as Danny and Stu called their crumbling apartment, and then moving to the basement of a church that a friend has purchased to convert into apartments. “He let the congregation live there for awhile, so there was this little rock and roll band recording in the basement and we had a lot of praying going on next door,” Danny recalls. “They were lovely people.” Although enjoyable, the studio is “the work part,” Danny says. As the band continues its tour of the U.S., following its first American shows at South X Southwest last March, the fun comes in playing live. “When people listen and react to one of your songs, there’s no better feeling,” Danny concludes. “When you see someone else enjoy it, there’s not really anything bad about that at all.”
event::tags 21+
10:00 PM
to 11:00 PM
Other Lives
34 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
11:00 PM
to 12:00 AM
Twin Shadow
224 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
12:00 AM
to 1:00 AM
The Republic Tigers
58 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists The Republic Tigers
event::about Chop Shop Records’ experimental indie pop band The Republic Tigers will release a much-awaited 4-song EP, “NO LAND’S MAN,” on April 16, their first release since their 2008 debut album, “KEEP COLOR.” Self-produced and recorded in the band’s hometown of Kansas City, MO, “NO LAND’S MAN” includes three new songs, plus “The Nerve (Nervous Dancing),” an uptempo reworking of the song “The Nerve” from “KEEP COLOR.” “NO LAND’S MAN” will be available exclusively at independent record stores in celebration of Record Store Day on April 16. The digital configuration of the EP will be available the following Tuesday, April 19 at all online retailers. In addition to the EP, the band will release a colored vinyl 7” piece featuring “Merrymake It With Me,” the first track on the EP, and “Whale Fight,” an exclusive b-side. Prior to the release of “NO LAND’S MAN,” The Republic Tigers will hit the annual South By Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, TX. 2008’s “KEEP COLOR” drew widespread critical praise for the quintet. Blackbook described the album as “a tapestry of instruments and perfected harmonies,” and Filter asserted that the album “begs repeat listens.” Following the release of “KEEP COLOR,” The Republic Tigers performed their breakout song, “Buildings & Mountains,” on “Late Night With David Letterman,” and toured for months on end, opening for Travis both in the UK and Stateside, in addition to several U. S. headline runs of their own. In other news, the band has begun work in Kansas City on their second full-length album, expected to arrive later in 2011. THE REPUBLIC TIGERS --“NO LAND’S MAN” EP Available April16 through Chop Shop Records 1. Merrymake It With Me 2. The Infidel 3. Lonely As I Was 4. The Nerve (Nervous Dancing)
event::tags 21+
1:00 AM
to 2:00 AM
The Naked and Famous
175 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists The Naked and Famous
event::about Everyone knows that the very best music can meddle with your mind, plunging you into the opposite extremes of both happiness and sadness all at once, in intense three minute bursts. It can transport you temporarily to a realm where anything is possible and nothing is out of reach. The latest key holders to that illusive turf are New Zealand's The Naked And Famous. These five young Aucklanders have at their disposal a seemingly effortless ability to capture the giddy fun and relentless hooks one has come to expect from the very best electro-pop, while at the same time striving for something grander, more brooding and atmospheric. It’s this special proposition that has landed the band triumphant success on their native soil (their single ‘Young Blood’ debuted at number one in the NZ chart, as did the album Passive Me Aggressive You on its recent release, both on the group’s own Somewhat Damaged label), and has meant that containing their sounds to their homeland has been something of an impossibility. One of 2010’s genuine organic buzzes has already yielded results that overshadow most hype-bands. Over the past six months the antipodeans’ fantastical glitching gems have scorched through the blogosphere like a hot knife through butter, culminating first in the international release of ‘Young Blood’ on none-other than the most notorious pop-picking label on planet earth, Neon Gold (Marina And The Diamonds, Ellie Goulding etc) and then with the group finding a home away from home on Fiction Records. Now, with Down Under virtually conquered, and ‘Passive Me, Aggressive You’ readied for full international release, the band’s sights are set far and wide. And in keeping with their music’s edifying powers, anything seems possible... Thom and Alisa met at music college in 2008 and formed a songwriting partnership that would become the life force of TNAF. Aaron, a high school acquaintance of Thom’s, was also studying at the same college and soon became a production foil to the duo as they toyed with song and recording ideas after hours in the college studio and various bedrooms. These eventually became The Naked And Famous’s first releases, the twin EPs No Light and This Machine. Forming a live band was secondary to the studio for Thom and Alisa. After the couple’s first tentative steps using backing musicians, they coaxed Aaron out from his role as their live sound engineer to assume suitable knob-twiddling duties onstage - as a sort of electronics overlord - and eventually the perfect rhythm section was found in the shape of another two of their high school mates, Jesse and David. Working furiously throughout 2009 on developing a new live set and dozens of demos, The Naked And Famous embarked on an expansion of their sound, as together they experimented with the epic turns and cinematic moods that define them today. "I feel like a lot of the greatest pop music is the stuff that taps into the really powerful memories or emotions," ponders Alisa. "Just because it's music that can be fun and you can party to, doesn't mean you can't touch upon stuff that can be challenging or heart-wrenching." As early domestic radio love and international cult status began to snowball, a kinship with the widescreen fairytale dance-pop of Empire Of The Sun, MGMT and of course, the ongoing evolutions of LCD Soundsystem, became evident. 'Passive Me, Aggressive You', the debut long-player from TNAF came together at scattered small studio locations around Auckland. Operations, as ever, were overseen by self-confessed 'control freak' Thom, the song ideas coloured by Aaron’s input as he and Thom shared production duties on the album, and constantly guided by Alisa's unique melodies. Singles 'Young Blood' and 'Punching In A Dream' could well do for 3-D synth anthemia what 'Time To Pretend' and 'Kids' did for new psychedelia a few years back. On the record, at its most mountainous, the likes of vacant leviathan 'No Way' and urgent throbbing ascent 'Eyes' work a strange kind of magic. 'Jilted Lovers' wrestles with an unruly synthetic discordance in the vein of the group’s greatest shared and acknowledged influence Nine Inch Nails, while 'A Wolf In Geek's Clothing' takes that same stormy heart and cranks it to near doom-laden bulldozer effect. From fleeting soundscapes like 'The Source' to 'Spank's urgent swamping surge of glitches and fuzzed-out refrains, TNAF never shy away from deconstructing normal indie comfort zones. It stands proud, in a time of quick-fix singles culture, as a genuine album. But anyone who's witnessed TNAF emerge from what they like to call their natural studio habitat to step onstage – where their songs become a truly enveloping experience – will testify to the sheer epic proportions of album closer 'Girls Like You'. Perhaps TNAF at their most realised, it is a complete collision of swooping, chanting hooklines and otherworldly expanses of sound. This is a band set to blow a crater in 2011’s musical landscape, a young group of warped sound merchants making do-or-die, heart-in-mouth, chart-bound pop to invest your heart and soul in.
event::tags 21+
7:00 PM
to 8:00 PM
Wolf & Cub
34 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists Wolf & Cub
event::about It’s been over three years since Australian quartet Wolf & Cub broke cover with their debut album Vessels. The album was released around the world and the band found itself touring Japan, Europe, the UK, and the States, as well as appearing TV On The Radio, The Killers, Queens of the Stone Age, Wolfmother, and Primal Scream. Once their uproarious lives settled down a bit, the guys of Wolf & Cub headed back Down Under to get started on some new material. But given the restlessness at the core of Wolf & Cub’s creativity, there was never any chance things would be done the same way a second time. New influences, new gear, and new ideas necessitate a new approach. A major part of this new approach was the band’s decision to work with fellow Australian producer Chris Colonna (aka Bumblebeez), someone guaranteed to challenge the band in intense new ways. Colonna’s hip-hop cut-and-paste production style seemed an odd fit at first, and was originally shrugged off as too left of field even by the band’s standards. However they were intrigued enough to make the trek out to Colonna’s studio in his hometown of Braidwood just outside of Australia’s capital city Canberra, to work on a track they had previously demo-ed. And that’s where Science & Sorcery began. What had originally concerned the band now inspired them; there was energy in Colonna’s take on their music that they could feed off the excitement in operating outside their comfort zone. Existing demos were built on, disassembled, reconstructed, sidelined, rediscovered, and reassembled. New material was built from the ground up. During the early stages nothing was considered stable, everything had the possibility to change, evolve, disappear and be reborn. Through this process the body of work that constitutes Science & Sorcery eventually took form. Science & Sorcery is a continuation in the ever-evolving sound of Wolf & Cub. Main songwriter Joel Byrne captures the whole experience when he says; “This album was made amidst a sea of conflict; conflict within the band, between the band and Chris, within myself, so in order to actually complete it we were all forced to address and deal with certain issues that were becoming road blocks. This album is really about trying to move forward in life and overcoming those tactics you unconsciously put in place to sabotage it. It’s about fear of change. Overall, it’s not an attempt by us to change “our sound” or do something completely different from previous releases, it’s more a case of us trying to alter or experiment with the process that creates the outcome. I’ll leave it up to others to decide if the sound has gone anywhere else, because I don’t know where it was before. It’s still Wolf & Cub, just another piece of the puzzle.” Wolf & Cub is: Joel Byrne – Guitars/Vocals Wade Keighran – Bass Marvin Hammond – Drums/Percussion/Keys Joel Carey – Drums Science And Sorcery Out Now on Last Gang Records
event::tags 21+
8:00 PM
to 9:00 PM
An Horse
87 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists An Horse
event::about Anyone who’s ever punched a clock has a work buddy. If you’re lucky, they might be a true friend; someone you spend more time talking with than you do with your family, maybe even your partner. Imagine if the two of you had the chance to leave your jobs behind and go on a crazy, incredibly fun, sometimes stressful but ultimately mind-blowing two-and-a- half-year musical adventure across continents and time zones, racking up accolades from the likes of Rolling Stone, Spin, People and Pitchfork. To the Australian indie-rock duo of Kate Cooper (singer/guitarist) and Damon Cox (drummer/singer), An Horse — who went from rehearsing after hours in a Brisbane record store to playing “Camp Out,” the single from their 2009 debut, Rearrange Beds, on Late Show With David Letterman — making their second album, Walls, isn’t just a chance to set the agenda for their next phase. It’s also an opportunity to reflect on the fantastical journey that has carried them here, a pipe dream made thrillingly real. “We'd worked in the record store together for a couple of years and talked every day — even on days off — mostly about music and film, which we continue to do every day now.” says Damon. “After listening to music all day together at work for two years, we had a really clear idea of what we liked and disliked musically.” That bond was the backbone of Rearrange Beds; after two years of relentless touring, though, including stints out on the road with Tegan & Sara, Death Cab For Cutie, Cage the Elephant, Silversun Pickups and The Big Pink, An Horse had become a different animal altogether. Cooper, like Cox, is frank in her assessment of their earlier album. “With Rearrange Beds, we made a record of two people learning how to play together. I don't think you can hear that on the album per se, but that's what it was.” This time, the pair decided to make a record that reflected their bond not just as music aficionados, but as musical collaborators. “Walls was really deliberate,” Kate explains. “We had hundreds of shows under our belt and we had figured out how to play off each other.” Regrouping in Vancouver after recharging their batteries in their respective homes — Cooper in Montreal, Cox in Melbourne — An Horse brought in Howard Redekopp (who has lent his sonic wizardry to The New Pornographers and Tegan and Sara as well as An Horse — Redekopp mixed Rearrange Beds) to produce the album. Now the duo would figure out how to play off the studio, too. “We had many lengthy discussions with Howard before we arrived in Vancouver to record,” says Damon, “and did five days of pre-production — pulling the songs apart, putting them back together, throwing some songs away and even creating new ones — which is something we'd never had the luxury of doing.” The atmosphere was comfortable and creative, which was just what they needed. “During the recording, Howard brought his old dog Fanny into the studio,” Kate explains with a wry chuckle. “One day I was getting up in Fanny's face while Damon was recording with a video camera. I was talking to her, telling her she was such a lovely dog, but Howard quickly intervened when he found us. He told us that Fanny had personal space issues and, had I gotten any closer, Fanny would have had my nose! A few weeks earlier, Fanny had bitten our assistant engineer Jaret's face and he had to be rushed to the hospital with Fanny sitting beside him in the car.” Walls has plenty of the whip-smart, energetic rock that propelled An Horse half-way across the world. The album’s opening track, “Dressed Sharply,” is as fizzy and explosive as a shook-up bottle of champagne, spraying the listener with showers of melody and noise. It’s no surprise that the tune is a fan favorite already, thanks to having been previewed in their recent shows. But on the song that follows it, “Not Mine,” the craft and care that went into Walls’ making becomes even clearer. Kate and Damon’s passionate vocals, weave into a pattern with Kate’s chiming guitar, building the intensity slowly and deliberately as Damon’s drums nudge the momentum along. It’s a powerful tension, one that marks the separation between Rearrange Beds and Walls, where the duo frequently return to that place where anything can shrink into a whisper or explode into a howl. “They’re my favorite songs on the record; songs like ‘100 Whales,’ where the mood fits in the middle. We wanted to make a record that sounded way bigger and more powerful, but not so big and crazy that it didn't sound like two people,” Damon says. The result is a towering sound that doesn’t buckle when it gets quiet, or for that matter, serious. Walls’ songs span a wide spectrum of emotions, which came to the surface after Kate had moved to Montreal. “I was really stoked because I had met a girl and was having a good time, but there were also a lot of really terrible things that had happened.” More specifically, the lyrics deal with the wrenching angst of being stuck on tour while a family member falls ill. Plenty of songwriters have observed the monotony of endless hours logged on the interstate, but when your mom phones you to tell you that she has to have major surgery and you can’t run to her side all the way in Australia, suddenly you’ve got bigger problems than the lack of roadside scenery between Buffalo and Pittsburgh. “No one in my family told me about my mom’s condition because they didn’t want me to come home,” Kate explains. “They said, ‘we didn’t want to worry you.’ So eventually I had this conversation with my mum where she said, ‘Alright, well, I’m gonna go in now and get this done,’ and I was, like, ‘Alright, bye...’ it was crazy. I was struck with this sense that I would have to spend as much time with everyone I care about now because they could die, but I’m going to be on tour, so I can’t.” There’s a disarming intimacy in Kate’s lyrics, whether she’s relating the experience of waiting for her mom’s results in “Brain on a Table,” or the less dramatic but vividly observed “Windows in the City,” where she describes games people make up on the phone when things like geography or work come between them. Both a sense of playfulness and feelings of longing are never far from the surface. Kate: “I think most of the songs for Walls were written in December 2009 to January 2010, when I was in Montreal. I was discovering a new city but I was missing everyone back home. And I was definitely getting frustrated with feeling lost. “When it’s minus 30 degrees out and my girlfriend’s working and my friends are away, and it’s like, what do I do in this apartment? I just wrote songs. Which was cool, I was really productive. ”In the apartment, there was a bird that wouldn’t shut up. His name was Uncle Pete and his painful ‘cheep cheep’ is all over the demos. I had to send them to Damon with notes like ‘at 2:23, TURN DOWN’ because Uncle Pete's chirps were so loud,” Kate recalls. When all was said and done, the album had become every bit as rich and varied as the time in their lives that it capped the end of. “It was a really rewarding and emotional process making Walls,” Damon says. “We could kind of reflect on what a crazy two and a half years we'd had. When we finished up I felt like I could breathe again, like a massive weight had been lifted. The warm Vancouver summer felt like an old friend guiding us though it all. It was a really exciting time.”
event::tags 21+
9:00 PM
to 10:00 PM
Cloud Control
48 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists Cloud Control
event::about For a band that started on a whim, entering the local University band comp was a turn of fate for Blue Mountains Rock & Rollers Cloud Control. Forming just 3 weeks prior, they took out the title and turned their songs and winnings into a self titled EP which saw them pick up a bunch of local accolades, including Sydney’s Fbi Radio SMAC award for Best Newcomer and the opportunity to tour with Vampire Weekend, Supergrass, Josh Pyke and Yves Klein Blue. After paying their dues on the tour circuit for two years, the band released their critically acclaimed, debut album Bliss Release (Ivy League) in May 2010. The album has gone on to win Best Independent Record at the Australian Independent Music Awards as well as collecting 3 ARIA award nominations and a J Award nomination for Triple J album of the year. Having recently toured the country to sold out audiences nation wide, Cloud Control are heading back over to the UK for the month of November to release and tour their UK debut single with Infectious Records (home to The Temper Trap, Local Natives) before returning to Australia to getting ready to see out the year at some of Australia’s best known Summer Festivals.
event::tags 21+
10:00 PM
to 11:00 PM
Washington
26 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists Washington
event::about She weighs half as much as her keyboard but she could punch out your Dad. Yes, she is a female singer songwriter…but she’s not shy and retreating or cute. BUT: she’s not 10 tons of slut in a mini skirt and nipple tape, belly dancing on a crucifix. Her voice will stop you in your tracks. It brings grown men to tears on live television (seriously). It soars, then falters, then soars again and it is full off sorrow even when it is full of joy (soft, broken, soaring, sorrow, spitting, sneering, smiling etc etc etc). And she can dance. She grew up in Papua New Guinea, so she is a wild girl that knows which tree has water in it’s trunk, but she speaks French and wears couture even though she can’t afford groceries. She was Triple J Unearthed. She’s the Vanda and Young Song Writing Competition. She’s an APRA Ambassador. She now has 6 ARIA nominations and a Gold Record under her belt. She made an album called “I Believe You Liar” and it’s not like other records. It’s better and it’s hard to tell why exactly. They’re all pop songs but not like you think. They are really, REALLY wordy twisty complicated key changing sons of bitches that you’d have to go to music school for 6 years to play (she did) but after they’re done you can remember every chorus and every hook, and on the second listen you may be able to sing back most of the words. “I knew as soon as I heard Megan choosing not to rhyme “Clementine” with “wine” that here was someone unpredictable. Australia, you have a new and original troubadour to lift your spirits and warm your hearts.” Tim Finn (Crowded House / Split Enz)
event::tags 21+
11:00 PM
to 12:00 AM
The Jezabels
58 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists The Jezabels
event::about Few bands have made more of the past 12 months than Sydney quartet The Jezabels. Since releasing their second EP, She’s So Hard, in November 2009, the four-piece have toured the country supporting Tegan & Sara, Katie Noonan and Josh Pyke, and as headliners in their own right (selling out shows nationally in the process). They’ve watched Hurt Me, the lead single from She’s So Hard, receive heavy rotation on radio in Australia and abroad, a feat also achieved by its follow-up, Easy To Love. Fittingly, The Jezabels have seen their fanbase grow every step of the way – sometimes in the most unexpected places. “I think the biggest spin-out was when someone from Germany sent us a YouTube clip of them dancing to one of our songs,” grins 23-year-old vocalist Hayley Mary. There have been lessons learned along the way. The constant touring has, says 24-year-old keyboardist Heather Shannon, made the band – completed by guitarist Sam Lockwood (24) and drummer Nik Kaloper (25) – much tighter. Sharing the stage with Tegan & Sara, they learned how to work the biggest rooms of their career. Best of all, the long hours travelling betweens gigs and the routine of performing every night has solidified the band’s understanding of what it is that makes them tick. “I think we have a more consolidated idea of ourselves,” nods Mary. Which brings us to The Jezabels’ new EP, Dark Storm. The third and final release in a trilogy of EPs that began with 2009’s The Man Is Dead, its five songs represent the band’s most confident outing to date – moody, mysterious and epic, yet buzzing with the quartet’s ever-present knack for an irresistible pop hook. Not that writing it was an easy process. “We had a bit of writer’s block,” offers Mary. “We were all stressing and being passive-aggressive, and then someone said, ‘I’m really worried that this isn’t going to be like Hurt Me!’ It was as obvious as that. And we were all like, ‘Yeah, me too!’ As soon as it was said, it was a lot better. We decided to write whether we had a single or not. We realised we can’t function in that way.” Freed of such self-imposed pressures and constraints, the band set about crafting an organic and heartfelt collection of tunes – and, in the process, ended up writing arguably their best songs to date. For the first time in The Jezabels’ career, they allowed the music to grow and evolve in the studio. “We had to put a lot of faith in ourselves working together,” says Shannon. Experimentation was the key word, with Lockwood employing an eBow on the song A Little Piece, and Kaloper using what Shannon calls “a weird percussion instrument” to summon the sound of thunder in the moving title track. For Mary, the new songs provided her with an opportunity to finetune the lyrical themes that informed the band’s first two EPs. “I think the themes of gender and romance that people seem to pick up on are there on the first EP, but they’re much more conscious on the second and third. And because we were linking all the EPs together you could do that – it was like, well, it’s a trilogy, so let’s really explore this.” She is, however, keen to make one thing clear. “We do think it’s funny how dramatic our songs are, and I think you could misconstrue how seriously we take ourselves. There is happiness in there, but it is really cool to write this epic thing and call it Dark Storm! It’s a really serious name, but it’s obviously very melodramatic.” With that cleared up, all that’s left now is to head out on the road again. An October tour of America and Canada will be followed by a headlining trek across Australia, culminating with appearances on festivals such as Wave Rock Weekender, Peats Ridge and the Falls Festivals. It’s a long way from The Jezabels’ humble beginnings in a Sydney University band competition in 2007. “None of us had any expectations at the start of what we were going to do or where we were going to go,” smiles Shannon. “We’ve achieved everything we could have hoped for 10 times over!”
event::tags 21+
12:00 AM
to 1:00 AM
Art vs Science
37 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists Art vs Science
event::about Art vs Science are an indie dance-rock three piece from Sydney, Australia who were 'unearthed' by national broadcaster, Triple J.. They have released 2 EPs in their home country, both of which have gone Gold. They are perennial live favourites and have ascended to almost-headline status at festivals and regularly sell out their own national tours. They are preparing to release their debut album The Experiment in Australia in Feb 2011. Rolling Stone awarded the record 4/5 stars. Art vs Science are booked by CAA in UK/Europe and Windish Agency in the US..
event::tags 21+
1:00 AM
to 2:00 AM
Operator Please
34 schedule::attendees
Location
Maggie Mae's Rooftop
eventtype Music
Artists Operator Please
event::about BIO: Take everything you think you know about Operator Please and put it aside. The Queensland-based band defy all expectations on their second album, Gloves, with the youthful enthusiasm and teenage angst that gave them worldwide recognition making way for a more sophisticated and developed sound. The energy is still there, it's just been channelled in a new direction as the band has grown in expertise and knuckled down to produce their latest body of work with band members Amandah Wilkinson and Tim Commandeur stepping up to take on the role of producers for the project. In effect, it's a tighter, more focussed band which is set to conquer the charts all over again. Gloves had its inception towards the end of 2008, when the ARIA Award-winning five-piece returned home after an exhausting 18 months spent touring the globe to promote their debut album, Yes Yes Vindictive. Buoyed by the success of it and in particular the infectious hit single 'Just A Song About Ping Pong' the band travelled throughout Australia, Europe and Japan, with a series of gigs that included performances at Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds Festival and Splendour In The Grass, as well as support slots for bands such as Kaiser Chiefs and Arctic Monkeys. Such a frenzied schedule could have ended in disaster, but instead the experience helped unify the band's line-up and instil each member of the group with a greater ambition and commitment. 'All the experience of living in each other's pockets for years on end, you learn how to be more patient and respectful of each other,' Amandah says of the band's dynamic after their world tour. 'And on a personal note, I think I became a better person because of it. It most definitely broadened my horizons and extended my mind.' Barely pausing to catch their breath, the band quickly went into songwriting mode with new inspiration. 'I was really ready to get straight into writing,' Amandah recalls. 'I'm a bit of my own worst enemy. I thought, 'I need to just chill out', because we'd been on tour for ages, but I felt really lazy because I didn't have anything to do and I'd start writing demos in my downtime. There are a lot of songs that are self-affirmations - about pushing yourself forward.' Amandah wasn't alone in wanting to extend herself artistically and push forward. For Tim, who was a relative novice at writing, his determination at being more involved this time around not only resulted in personal growth for him as a songwriter and producer, but was symptomatic of the whole band's frame of mind going into Gloves. Refusing to let themselves become complacent with the success they'd already enjoyed, Operator Please knew they had to keep the momentum going and work as hard as if not harder than they did on their debut album. Were they nervous? Sure, which band wouldn't be when tasked with recording a follow-up to a successful debut? But Operator Please thrive under pressure and, while there was stress and the odd breakdown during the writing and recording process, the quintet had a strong desire to make it work and do whatever it took to achieve the result they wanted. Take a listen to the lyrics of the songs on Gloves and you can hear those ambitions and uncertainties, as well as an overriding sense of a band taking control of its own destiny. From the assured assertiveness of 'Logic' and 'Catapult' to the more reflective 'Losing Patience' and 'Oh My', Amandah's lyrics provide a window into the challenges Operator Please faced in making this record. With 11 songs written (one didn't make the cut), the band had a body of work to take into the studio and just as the songs themselves pushed the envelope, so too did the approach to recording and the new direction Operator Please wanted to take with their sound. They spent part of 2009's winter months at The Music Farm, a remote studio in Coorabell, NSW with Amandah and Tim on production duties, and engineers Justin Tressider, Ben Tolliday and Andrei Maberely on hand to help them out. For Amandah and Tim, there was no question that they wanted to handle production themselves. They knew exactly what they wanted and how they wanted each of their songs to sound just as they had on Yes Yes Vindictive, which the band co-produced but this time, there was no hesitation about taking the reins completely into their own hands. Tim and Amandah both speak proudly about their attention to detail, spending several more weeks in Amandah's living room following their studio sessions polishing the album. Their collaboration as producers was an easy extension of working closely together writing the songs and was a true partnership in every sense of the word. 'I think we both grew and learnt off each other with our skills,' Amandah says. Tim adds: 'We recorded for about two to three months. We did the first album in four weeks. That's how we had our chance to experiment and make sure we were both happy with every single part of the record.' Sonically, Gloves sees Operator Please strike out in a different and somewhat unexpected musical direction. Thrashing guitars and shouted vocals are out, and richer synths, funky basslines and a throwback vibe are in. Influenced by '80s era Eurythmics, Prince and Janet Jackson, the album fuses elements of synth pop, funk and hip-hop with Amandah's distinctive vocal and the band's unique instrumentation. The album's title, Gloves, is a reference to adding, as Amandah explains, 'something a little bit extra' to what you have in the first place. It's not a complete rebirth, but it's an added dimension. In the same way that you dress up an already slamming outfit with a pair of gloves, the sound and feel of Gloves gives the band an extra spark. The first single lifted from Gloves is 'Logic', a pop anthem that slinks sexily from the speakers in the verses, before bursting out with the energy you'd expect from Operator Please in the chorus. The band decided to stream the track on their MySpace page prior to its official release, resulting in an overwhelmingly positive reaction. 'MySpace helped us start originally and that's how we built our fanbase so we always like to refer back to that and give the fans back whatever we can,' Tim explains. Operator Please are confident their fans will follow them on their latest musical journey, embracing the band's new sound with as much fervour as they've supported them up until now. Just as the band have grown wiser and more intuitive over the past few years, so too have their fans become more discerning and developed more mature tastes. 'I think it's a good balance between bridging the gap to the last record and pushing forward into what's coming next for us as a band,' Amandah says. 'It's a good representation of where we all are as a band and where we want to go.'
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