11:00 AM
to 6:00 PM
NYC Startup Meetup
103 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Unofficial Party
event::about
We are thrilled to bring some of the most exciting startups in New York City all under one roof. Our goal is to introduce the NYC startup community to Austin and all SxSWi attendees. Grab a drink and some food, check out a few demos, mingle with founders and team members, and maybe even find your next job.
Startups that will be presenting: 10gen, Aviary, blip.tv, Buddy Media, BuzzFeed, Etsy, foursquare, Harvest, hashable, How about we..., Kaltura, Knewton, Lot 18, Meetup, Pixable, secondmarket, shapeways, Socialflow, Solvate, Squarespace, yipit, Zemanta
Come early to hear Albert Wenger, Partner at Union Square Ventures present on the emerging state of the NYC start up community.
This event is open to all 21+ SxSWi attendees. RSVP is required. See below for more details.
Sponsorship opportunities are available via greg at zemanta dot com
Share: @NYStartupmeetup #NYCSXSW
event::tags sxswi, nyc startup, party, free drinks, demos, networking, jobs
9:00 PM
to 11:00 PM
PBS & Friends Speakeasy
184 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Party, Interactive
event::about
Join PBS, NPR, FRONTLINE, ITVS, P.O.V., blogads, StoryCorps. Knock twice and wink.
8:00 PM
to 9:00 PM
Ivan & Alyosha
89 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
Artists Ivan & Alyosha
event::about There’s a scene in Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov where the main characters Ivan and Alyosha discuss the existence of God. Ivan, in particular, questions the idea of God. Alyosha, on the other hand, is a monk, a believer, some may say, a holy fool. Talk of faith and exalted things is rare in indie rock today. Enter Seattle band Ivan & Alyosha. Throughout their second release, the five song Fathers Be Kind EP, the band chart their own course between divinity and disbelief. “I left my family and my home/to fight the battle on my own I stole a car and drove away/but in my hate St. Paul did say ‘Glorify the Lord above/with your drink and making love Glorify the Lord my son, with your whisky and your gun.” Ivan & Alyosha began as the solo outlet for Tim Wilson but in spring 2007 the band formed after Tim met Ryan Carbary through a former band mate and mutual friend. Ryan and Tim began playing and recording together and a trip to Los Angeles to work with Eli Thompson (Richard Swift, Delta Spirit) spawned the name Ivan & Alyosha. According to Tim, Thompson is a huge Dostoevsky fan and the name stuck. With that, Wilson and Carbary released The Verse, The Chorus, their debut EP on Cheap Lullaby Records (Joan as Police Woman, The Silver Seas, Teitur). The stand out track “Easy To Love” earned NPR Song of the Day honors as “a propulsive, sweetly booming ode to love as a feat of endurance.” The name Ivan & Alyosha is apt for a band cutting its teeth. As Ivan in Brothers Karamazov moves through the novel with doubts, Ivan & Alyosha navigate the indie rock world contemplating their path as a band. Tim says he writes songs about what’s current in his life. He recently married and had a son. Songs like “Living for Someone” and “Fathers Be Kind,” reflect Ivan & Alyosha grappling with the idea of being in a band and trying to fashion a career. Not only to follow their dreams but to earn a livelihood and support their families; a feeling he expresses in the former song, “Expecting our first child / Amid the great recession”. Despite the uncertainty, Ivan & Alyosha’s soulful folk tunes suggest a band inspired, hopeful and longing; a band unafraid to probe their collective faith and doubts. Plus, things are different this time around. Tim and Ryan are joined by two others – Tim Kim and Pete Wilson, Tim’s brother. The band built a studio in a barn at Ryan’s parent’s house in Snohomish, 45 minutes outside of Seattle. Snohomish provides an idyllic setting with a charming main street lined by bars and little distraction. Self-recording their upcoming EP allows the guys more time together to create and perfect the new songs. Recently the band spent a week in New York playing gigs at 92Y Tribeca, Maxwell’s in Hoboken and Brooklyn’s Littlefield. They also took a trip to NPR Headquarters in Washington DC to record an NPR Tiny Desk Concert, and opened a run of shows for the Jayhawks’ Mark Olson. In the Brothers Karamazov, when Ivan asks Alyosha to renounce his beliefs, Alyosha refuses. Rather, he kisses Ivan on the lips. Seattle’s Ivan & Alyosha are not nihilist indie rockers but a new brand of tender dreamers. And non-believers be damned! God, or no God - these guys are no holy fools. They have their music to prove it.
event::tags 21+
9:00 PM
to 10:00 PM
Fidlar
11 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
Artists Fidlar
event::about The loud, garagey, rock 'n' roll sounds of FIDLAR hit you like that first rip of weed you took during class in the bathroom at high school. Raised on early 80's west coast punk, Zac Carper and Elvis Kuehn write trashy nuggets with a melodic CCR sensibility. Based in Highland Park, where they record demos and make weird youtube videos for every song they have, these dudes blend the brattiness of Redd Kross and the party mentality of Black Lips to form their own sound that is FIDLAR.
event::tags 21+
10:00 PM
to 11:00 PM
1,2,3
30 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
event::about Hailing from the steel city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1, 2, 3 consists of long time friends Nic Snyder and Josh Sickels. Originally started as a side project from the The Takeover UK, Snyder found himself increasingly drawn to 1, 2, 3 and the freedom it gave him to express his own musical ambitions. In May 2010, having only been together for a few months, 1, 2, 3 released their first UK single, ‘Going Away Party’, on hot tastemaker label Chess Club. Surrounding the release, the band played their first live UK shows, including The Great Escape festival in Brighton, plus an amazing Club NME performance at Koko in London. The limited edition 7” combines Safe as Milk-era Captain Beefheart guitars, Dr. John style freaked-out tingling percussion and Snyder’s night-crawler vocals, while the B-side, ‘Feeling Holy’, is no less arresting: a sci-fi lullaby that comes over like a stoned Mercury Rev and shows a softer side to Snyder’s voice over sepia tinged guitars, looped vocals and woozy synths.
Snyder grew up inspired by a steady diet of Mercury-era Rod Stewart, Neil Young, Bacharach and his all-time favourite, Roy Orbison, but he was lured into writing his own music by his father. A collector of punk 7’s back in the seventies, his dad was also a piano player in Pittsburgh’s monolithic Iron City Houserockers, probably the biggest band to come out of the Three Rivers area in the 1970/80's. Surrounded by photos of his dad on stage with Springsteen and B.B. King, Snyder was inevitably influenced by Blues and Motown as well. Drummer, Sickels, who himself has a diverse musical palette, has been playing with Snyder for over a decade. Josh confirms, “Nic listens to literally everything and I think you can hear that in our songs.” Being able to explore new musical directions without any existing boundaries has allowed the duo to experiment and create a handful of songs that are all remarkably different, yet complimentary to each other - the common thread being Snyder’s defiant, soulful vocals and a yearning nostalgia. Since November 2010, 1,2,3 has signed with Frenchkiss Records, released a second Chess Club UK single (“Little Cure” b/w “Big Beige”) and recorded their debut album New Heaven with Nicolas Vernhes (Bjork, Dirty Projectors, Animal Collective). The band will hit the road in February and March, including a number of showcases confirmed for SXSW. New Heaven is scheduled for release late Spring / early Summer 2011. Web: http://www.myspace.com/1comma2comma3
event::tags 21+
11:00 PM
to 12:00 AM
Young Man
34 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
12:00 AM
to 1:00 AM
The Antlers
264 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
Artists The Antlers
event::about Sometimes you have to put yourself first, no matter how difficult that notion seems; no matter how much time and effort you’ve already put into this one person — the person who’s reduced your very being to its absolute core. Just ask Peter Silberman, the string-pulling founder of The Antlers, a solo project that suddenly went widescreen on the self-released Hospice LP (now receiving a proper widespread pressing through Frenchkiss). The first Antlers effort to feature two key permanent players — powerhouse drummer Michael Lerner and the layer-lathering multi-instrumentalist Darby Cicci — it’s an album with a sound that’s actually as ambitious as its concept. “Hospice came from the idea of caring for a terminal patient who’s mentally abusive to you,” says Silberman. “You don’t have the right to argue with them, either, because they’re the one who’s dying here; they’re the one that’s been dealt a wrong hand. So you take it, but you can only take so much. Eventually, you realize that this person is just destroying you.” Appropriately enough, Hospice’s 10 distinct chapters resonate on debilitating sonic and lyrical levels, from the hypnotic harp and tension-ratcheting build of “Two” to the sing-or-sink choruses of “Bear” and the speaker-rattling peaks of “Sylvia,” easily one of the year’s most immediate epics. It’s here, amidst contrasting shards of ambient noise, sweeping strings and smoky horns, where The Antlers truly transcend Silberman’s singer-songwriter beginnings — a striking escalation of expectations first hinted at on 2008’s New York Hospitals EP. The progression doesn’t end there, either. In a move that could be taken as the riff-raking extension of his thorough guitar training (from the age of 6 ’til right before college), “Atrophy” and “Wake” delve into sheets of distortion, subtle shades of soul, cicada-like effects and enough movements to fill an entire EP. “We were going for something that’d be dense but not too complicated,” explains Silberman. “I hate the word ‘lush,’ but I guess that’s the best way of describing it. The structures are like pop songs — verse/chorus, verse/chorus — but the sound is a little more shoegaze-y or post-rocky.” It’s about to get even more complicated, too, as The Antlers’ Technicolor-tinged trio take all of Hospice’s songs — and three previous releases — in a completely different direction, jettisoning a note-for-note rendition of the record for “a massive sound” doused in delay, reverb and unrehearsed chaos. And to think Cicci was a stage actor with a desire to drop it all for music just a few years ago. “Hospice was the clear indication that this isn’t a singer-songwriter thing at all,” says Silberman. “Whatever we record next is going to define the three of us as a ‘band.’ He continues, “I always figured I’d be the ‘shredder’ in a group... But things somehow ended up this way.” We wouldn’t have it any other way, either.
event::tags 21+
1:00 AM
to 2:00 AM
The Dodos
289 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
Artists The Dodos
event::about The Dodos No Color (Frenchkiss) The drums hit you in the chest first, spraying your speakers like swift gunshots. But then Meric Long's finger-picked chords kick in, cascading across Logan Kroeber's brass knuckle beats like only the best Dodos songs can. This forward motion feeling has driven the duo since 2005, but several key changes lift their fourth LP (No Color) to another level. For one thing, the band reunited with Portland producer John Askew, the man behind the boards of the Dodos' first two full-lengths, Beware of the Maniacs and Visiter. Having an old friend around was like adding an honorary third member; a voice of reason who can isn't afraid of vetoing ill-fated ideas. Ideas like glossy layers of vibraphone that lost their luster halfway through. The main focus of No Color was to bottle the frenzied folk approach that's been there since the beginning. And it works damn well, from the dagger-drawing dynamics and brain-burrowing choruses of 'Black Night' to the hairpin turns and splashy percussion of 'Good.' And then there are the songs that'll make you want to dub old episodes of 120 Minutes, including the instrumental break of 'Don't Stop' and the sneak attack solo that weaves its way around the steely rhythms of 'Don't Try and Hide It.' 'I have a love for '90s riffs that I haven't gotten to showcase in this band,' says Long. 'The most fun I had with this record was when I got to strap on the electric guitar and come up with Billy Corgan riffs while the tape was rolling.' It's as if Long's finally got to live the flannel-era fantasies that started when he was a teenager, tearing guitar tabs out of magazines at a local pharmacy. The catch? There's less room for error than there's ever been. 'We're more naked this way,' explains Long. 'You can hide a lot of your mistakes on an acoustic, but with an electric, every single note is much louder and more piercing. So I have to be way more on top of my playing now.' And so do we.
event::tags 21+
12:00 PM
to 6:30 PM
NPR Music Presents Live from the Parish
310 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Unofficial Music
Speaker/Artist(s) Info
The Antlers (5pm), The Joy Formidable (4:15pm), WILD FLAG (3:30pm), Khaira Arby (2:45pm), tUnE-yArDs (2pm), Colin Stetson (1:30pm)
event::about
Doors open at 12:00 PM, Showcase starts at 12:30 PM.
Free beer and NPR swag (tote bags, T-shirts, etc.) while supplies last!
12:30 PM
to 1:00 PM
Colin Stetson
50 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Unofficial Music
event::about
NPR Music presents...
1:00 PM
to 1:30 PM
tUnE-yArDs
220 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Unofficial Music
event::about
NPR Music presents...
1:45 PM
to 2:15 PM
Khaira Arby
27 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Unofficial Music
event::about
NPR Music presents...
2:30 PM
to 3:00 PM
Wild Flag
177 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Unofficial Music
event::about
NPR Music presents...
3:15 PM
to 3:45 PM
The Joy Formidable
229 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Unofficial Music
event::about
NPR Music presents...
4:00 PM
to 4:45 PM
The Antlers
287 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Unofficial Music
event::about
NPR Music Presents
8:00 PM
to 9:00 PM
DATAROCK
169 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
event::about DATAROCK formed in Bergen (Norway) 10 years ago, and were straight off signed to indie label, Èllet / Tellé Records, pairing DATAROCK with a roster of local artists such as Røyksopp, Kings Of Convenience and Annie. DATAROCK went right out on an endless run of shows in underground clubs and festivals across Europe - a perfect breeding ground for alternative dance music, leading up to DATAROCK's current mix of dance music, new wave, Manchester rock, funk & punk. Four years later DATAROCK established their own label, YAP Records, internationally distributed through VME - infamous for representing black metal artists such as Burzum. And so, in 2005 their debut album "DATAROCK DATAROCK" was released with tracks such as "Computer Camp Love" & "FA FA FA" - taking DATAROCK's touring to a global level. So far DATAROCK's done more than 700 shows in 33 countries on 4 continents. DATAROCK has toured America alone 17 times, playing more than a 100 clubs and festivals like Coachella (CA), CMJ (NYC), WMC (Miami), SXSW '07 & SXSW '09 (Austin), Download (San Francisco), Detour (LA), Virgin (Toronto), Montreal Jazz Festival (Montreal), MX Beat (Mexico City), Planet Terra (Sao Paolo, Brazil) and Personal Fest (Buenos Aires, Argentina). These tours all vary but includes a 42 cities run across North America non stop the summer of 2008, and a 26 cities craze for the release of DATAROCK's second album, September '09. Thanks to the acclaim of both the albums DATAROCK's been fortunate enough to establish a world wide profile - even in a markets as tough as the US, where DATAROCK's appeared on a number at household TV shows like MTV's Jersey Shore, NCB's Chuck, AOL's Spinner, Yo Gabba Gabba (Nick Jr.), ABC News and ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live (where DATAROCK's second appearance was on the outdoor stage for the very release date of their second album). DATAROCK is now signed to US booking agency, The Agency Group, and publishing company Artwerk - a joint venture between Nettwerk One Music and gaming giant EA (Electronic Arts). This alliance has in effect led to having tracks featured in an unprecedented number of video games such as Fifa '08, Fifa '09, Fifa '10, Fifa Street, Sims 2, Sims 3, Need For Speed, Madden NFL, and the iPad hit Tap Tap Radiation. In total 22 of the highest-grossing games on the planet features tracks by DATAROCK, reaching out to a credible estimate of 250 million gamers minimum. DATAROCK's tracks have also been featured in campaigns for brands such as Apple, Coca Cola, Samsung, FOX and RadioShack. In addition, their tracks have been featured in a number of adds, TV series and films across the world - including commissioned work for Disney. Since 2007 DATAROCK's career has been very much focused on North American grounds. Simultaneously DATAROCK's been touring the rest of the world both prior and parallel, playing clubs and festivals all across the planet: Summer Sonic in Tokyo & Osaka in Japan, Good Vibrations, Falls, Field Day, Southbound, Sunset Sounds, Come Together, Future Music and Meridith Music Festiva in Australia, Sonar and Benicassim in Spain, ArezzoWave in Italy, Sudoeste in Portugal, Stereoleto in Russia, Be2gether in Lithuania, Pohoda in Slovakia, Les Ardentes in Belgium, Transmusicales and Microcosm in France, Eurosonic and Metropolis in Netherlands, Berlin Festival, PopKomm, Hurricane and South Side in Germany, Koneisto in Finland, Airwaves at Island, Arvika and Hultsfred in Sweden, Roskilde '05 and '07 in Danmark, Reading, Leads, O2 Wireless, Camden Crawl, The Great Escape, Loop, Latitude, Lovebox, Dot To Dot, Orange Evolution, Eurocultured, In The City and Oxygen in the UK, and numerous festivals in Norway such as Øya, Quart, BergenFest, NattJazz, Lost Weekend, +47, EKKO, NuMusic, Midnattsrocken, Bygdalarm, Utkant, Pereferi, Storås, Pstereo, UKA, Stavernfestivalen, Månefestivalen, Malakoff, Oslo Live, Ekstremsportveko, BaleJazz, MaiJazz and by:Larm. DATAROCK's albums are both critically acclaim across the world, and even their debut album was nominated for a Norwegian Grammy. Later on it came in at 36 on NME's list of "best albums of 2006", and the same year (out of 660.000 registered votes) "Computer Camp Love" came in at number 12 on Australia's national radio's list of listeners favorite tracks - Triple J's Hottest 100. For the US release in 2007 Spin Magazine listed the track "See What I Care" as an "essential download of the summer", and "Computer Camp Love" came in at 88 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the best tracks of the year. DATRAOCK's second album "RED" was also nominate for a Norwegian Grammy, the album was "critics choice of the week" in New York Times, the singles ended up on heavy rotation on Norwegian national radio for seven months (NRK P3), and stateside MTV even headhunted a video for "True Stories" and put it in rotation - bizarrely as this single was never commercially released outside of Norway. DATAROCK is now pretty much a global name. A few indications are the number of listenings on DATAROCK's MySpace profile (3,200,000), the number of views on DATAROCK's YouTube clips, the number of fans on on DATAROCK's Facebook profile, the number of followers on DATAROCK's Twitter account, the way DATAROCK is able to tour globally, and the nature of their world wide distribution. Despite this fact the band is still very much DIY - exclusively signed to their own imprint and pretty much handling everything themselves. So far they've been licensing their releases to Nettwerk Records in Canada and Ministry Of Sound in Australia, but for the upcoming release of their new material DATAROCK breaks new ground by teaming up with San Francisco based designer toy company SUPER7. DATAROCK - LIMITED EDITION is an "urban vinyl" character designed by designer toys legend Brian Flynn and inside the character you'll find a USB stick featuring a brand new DATAROCK EP called "Catcher In The Rye", a brand new DATAROCK LP called "Music For Synchronization", a brand new DATAROCK concert film called "NEVER SAY DIE" and more than 1500 private photos. The release date? SXSW 2011! PRESS QUOTES ON DATAROCK'S SECOND ALBUM - "RED" New York Times - "a frothy elixir out of 1980s synth-pop, art-rock and new wave" Pitchfork - "this band can nail any sound they want, cheekiness be damned" NME - "Irresistibly slinky new wave" BBC - "a hefty percentage of top tunes" Uncut - "The ultimate 1980s homage" Mixmag - "As mischievous as a Scottish terrier trained to operate a spud gun" Clash Music - "the opening of this album is pure science fiction cinema" The Fly - "Still plundering the best of 80's pop as only they can" Artrocker - "Robo rock" Music Week - "High energy indie dance with a sense of the absurd" Metro - "Smart casual really doesn't get any funkier than this" Time Out - "Datarock are really, really good" Kruger - "Superb" Attitude - "The rock have mad one of the bolder 2nd albums of recent times" Teletext - "Cherry-picks the era's best and emerges fresh" Super Sweet - "Great album by one of the most exciting bands around" Glasswerks - "Exciting romp of dance-punk mentalist" Music-News - "Red is a confident statement of self assurance from the Bergen dance due" Female First - " 'Give it up' is the awesome comeback single. A brilliant slice of eighties pop" Ilikemusic - "Datarock's Red is no less than a masterpiece" Planet Notion - "With lyrics that make you smile and dance a happy dance" Efestival - "Red tracksuit wearing Danish electro-funk superstars" Spaceship for Sale - "Brilliant slice of eighties inspired pop" Nerdy-frames - " 'Give It Up' is an irresistible slice of electro euphoria" "No revenge of the nerds. They were champions from the start." Bergens Tidende 6/6 "This is a very clever mindfuck of an album" Dagbladet 5/6 "Warning! This album might lead to increased demand for red tracksuits..." Aftenposten 5/6 "Datarock has grown as a band and as songwriters..." NRK, Lydverket 5/6 "...Datarock is extremely varied, they try on a number of genres, and they master them all" musikknyheter.no 8/10 PRESS QUOTES ON DATAROCK'S DEBUT ALBUM - "DATAROCK DATAROCK" "Doubting Datarock is the future of indie dance? You're taking the pis…
event::tags 21+
8:40 PM
to 9:40 PM
Sasha
53 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
event::about There are DJs who turn up, play records and make people dance. And there are producers who make the dancefloor-igniting records those DJs will kill for. There are very few people in dance music that can do both and Sasha is the leader of the pack. Ever since he stepped behind the decks at the legendary Shelley's in Stoke back in the late 80's, that magic touch has made Alexander Coe one of the most famous, most revered DJs on the planet. It's because of what he can do with music the way he can make good records sound better, great records sound awesome, and everything he plays into his own. The way his mixes take elements from across the spectrum of electronic dance, from trance, breaks, progressive and deep house, and create a languidly hypnotic liquid groove. The way his understanding of both melody and momentum can tease, taunt, and en-trance a dancefloor before unleashing a record that will have people not just leaping up and down but bursting with emotion. The best DJs know that Djing is first about being able to read people and then about being able to tap into that human experience and take it on a journey. Sasha has always been noted for being a master at this and it is this universal appeal that he has tapped into that has established his strong fanbase around the globe. Do not be mistaken, this kind of recognition does not happen overnight. Born and raised in a small town in Wales, Sasha was exposed to Motown records when he was just a baby and it was in the home that his talent for playing the piano was developed. His stepmother forced him to take lessons. At the time, he hated them, but after his first studio session and this is typical Sasha he phoned her to say thank you. His first exposure to house music was at Manchester's Hacienda, just as dance music exploded into the summer of love. One visit and the young pony-tailed Sasha was hooked. 'The smoke machine, the strobe lights, everyone trance dancing, wearing bandannas and smiley T-shirts,' he smiles now. 'It definitely had a fuck-you attitude compared to the rest of pop music.' This impact encouraged his move from Wales to Manchester. His first exploration into Djing was when a DJ in a local pub announced he was looking for people to play club dates. Sasha volunteered and now says that he "had about 30 records and basically just blagged it". After honing his deck technique, Sasha's first big break came when he was offered a residency at Stokes legendary club Shelly's. When all the other DJ's were playing US House, Sasha's style was much more uplifting, and he encapsulated clubbers with his mixture of piano led Italian House whilst playing acapella tracks over the top. This combination alongside a wide variety of anthems kept dancefloors full and elevated Sasha to hero status. And, lets not forget, in a world where the DJ had too often been bespectacled nerds, here the headline DJ had the looks and charm to match his growing following. In classic rock n' roll style, here was a star that boys wanted to hang out with and girls wanted to get just that little bit more close to. Shelly's was the launch pad for the residency at Renaissance, where Sasha created his niche and helped forge a new style in UK house music. At Renaissance two major things happened; Sasha mixed the first ever UK DJ mix album and he met John Digweed which cemented the partnership known as "Northern Exposure". Sasha and John have played together on five continents, have mixed 3 "Northern Exposure" albums which have sold to over 1 million people worldwide. This special brother like relationship that Sasha and Digweed have on the decks, is what landed them the monthly residency at New York's "Twilo", following in the footsteps of Vasquez and Tenaglia. The first DJ cover star - on Mixmag in early 1991 the still shy DJ was freaked. 'I was so used to going to places and just hanging out. Suddenly there was a stream of people coming up,' he recalls. 'Of course it's bound to happen. You go to Liverpool and you're the first 'pin-up' DJ and you're going to get shit. Frankly, It still weirds me out.' Today he still remains shy at heart. 'I'm not very good in social situations where I'm put on the spot,' he says. 'Like meeting new people, small talk. Just never been good with that.' It's this contradiction - the coyness that Alexander Coe has when it comes to being Sasha that's at the core of the Sasha myth. Although Sasha has clearly reached a celebrity status, it's his generous personality, his love for his peers and of course his completely candid humour that has enabled him to maintain such a likeable high profile in the often-fickle world of club culture. Sasha has gone from DJ to superstar status in America, where "Sarsha" is a household name for many teenagers - a gruelling three month tour took their sound further out into deepest America, preaching a gospel of repetitive beats and imaginative mixing from coast to coast, and right through the mid western heartland of the States. A punishing gig-a-night schedule that must make nights like the opening of Space in Ibiza in June seem like a holiday by comparison. There followed a move back into releasing his own music, collaborating with the former Underworld mainstay, DJ Darren Emerson on 'Scorchio'. For Sasha, music is his first love, and what gives him a buzz is being able to share his music with others. Soon after 'Scorchio' came the first concrete proof of the long-awaited, debut Sasha longplayer. 'Airdrawndagger' took his nose for the dancefloor's g-spot and combined it with the ears for a heartstring strumming melody, a smile inducing hook and dirty great b-line to create a 69 minute symphony that sounds as wistfully enchanting doing the hoovering at home as it does reaching for the lasers on Saturday night. Like the best Sasha DJ set you ever heard, it has melancholy mixed with euphoria, downtempo introspection mixed with jump n' shout excitement. Across the 11 tracks, there's the time and space to reflect his love for music that rarely gets the chance to shine in clubs, whether that's punishingly gnarly breakbeats or glittering modern classical film scores. It's a symphony for all ravers that grew up but never grew out of chasing that buzz. A record of a journey that began, as so many did, in the smoke and strobes of Manchester's Hacienda nightclub and has now taken him to midwestern stadia and around the globe. And that's an award-winning journey. The Delta Heavy Tour that consisted of Sasha, John Digweed and Jimmy Van M and took in 35 gigs between March and May in 2002 and was awarded Best Dance Event at the Dancestar Awards 2003. It was a series of gigs that took DJing into unprecedented waters two mammoth tour buses, visuals by the company behind hit movie 7even's intense opening credit sequence, and crowds of up to 15,000 clubbers crammed into arenas, warehouses and theatres across the United States. In early 2005 Sasha started to perform his trademark power-packed, emotional sets on his one-of-a-kind, custom-made MAVEN controller crafted specifically for his Apple computer/ Ableton Live Software set-up. Creating a live 100% digital experience, he left turntables behind. First tested and honed at Sasha's monthly Fundacion residencies in New York and Los Angeles in '05, the controller allowed Sasha to not only exhibit his stellar track selection and mixing skills, but to literally redevelop music live. With the ability to sample, loop, and fuse elements from multiple songs at once through digital technology, Sasha truly revolutionized his live DJ performance. The 2005 residency nights in America served as the testing ground for the Maven controller. Its success took Sasha on a world wide seven-month tour with sell-outs in major destinations like London, Tokyo, Beijing, Sydney, and Buenos Aires as well as such out-of-the-way locales as Mumbai, Marrakech, and Istanbul. Today, Sasha still uses the Maven but alongside the Pioneer CDJ 2000 giving him complete freedom and choice with what and how he plays. Starting out in the late '80s as a club DJ, Sasha got his first big break when he was hired by the noted UK dance club Shelly's as a r…
event::tags 21+
9:30 PM
to 10:30 PM
Afrojack
49 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
10:30 PM
to 11:30 PM
Calvin Harris
131 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
11:30 PM
to 12:30 AM
Marco Carola
7 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
Artists Marco Carola
event::about Marco Carola is the recognized global ambassador of Italian techno. It's a position he treats with the utmost care and respect-and one that stands him among the hallowed company of contemporary techno's leading practitioners. Hailing from Napoli in the south of the country, Marco was among a small group of DJs and promoters who quite literally built the city's scene from scratch back in the early-'90s. In 1995's First Planet EP he became the first Neopolitan artist to commit techno to vinyl, paving the way for an entire generation of producers. These days Marco is a mainstay of Richie Hawtin's Minus and Plus 8 labels, who, much like Marco himself, are one of the driving forces behind techno's permeation of the worldwide dance scene. Napoli, 1993, and the enduring flame of the Italo house sound had begun to smolder. The young DJ Marco Carola had at this point been spinning house music for a number of years- but as commercial club music began to assert a stranglehold over Italy, and the hopelessly insular media of the country's north continues to shun the south, a change is afoot. Fuelled by a groundswell of local DJs, clubbers and promoters; visits from DJs like Richie Hawtin and Jeff Mills; and Napoli's long held propensity for underground music, the city's techno scene enters into its embryonic stage. Marco along with friends Davide Squillace, Gaetano Parisio, Danilo Vigorito, Rino Cerrone and Random Noize are at the vanguard of this early movement, and with no one outside of the city to take cues from, the Neopolitan scene becomes a force unto itself. If they're doing their job properly every DJ will have a calling card, and as Marco puts it, he was "born" with a three-deck style of mixing. This fast and furious approach also lent itself to use of a sampler, which would later provide the grounding for Marco's work as a producer. By 1995 he had amassed a considerable body of music, but with no indigenous labels to put-out his creations, Marco was forced to take matters into his own hands. Design Music was set up with a humble aim: for people to experience the music of Marco Carola. But as sales on its initial release, First Planet, entered into the tens of thousands and Sven Vath became an ardent early supporter, it was clear Design, and by extension Carola, were set for far bigger things. Aiding this ascent was Marco's concise approach to the release of music. The remainder of the '90s saw him establish the Zenit, Question and One Thousand labels-all with a clear musical aim, and, in the case of the latter, a defined number of releases. In 1998 he relocated to Frankfurt in order to further his advancement in the burgeoning techno scene. This new home base unlocked myriad opportunities for him to export his now famous three-deck style to clubs across the globe, although by 2001 he was already seeking a fresh challenge and thusly moved on to the electronic music stronghold of London. In retrospect the year proved to be pivotal. Marco released his second album, Open System (following on from 1998's The 1000 Collection), to widespread critical acclaim. Key German publication Groove deemed its multifarious, texturally rich approach to broken beats, techno and electronica worthy of their album of the year accolade. Renewal: for a 20-year veteran such as Marco, shedding your creative skin and following your instincts are fundamental means of remaining relevant. By 2004 he had reached a plateau of sorts, and was torn. The harder techno sound he'd been pushing for so many years had elevated him to the scene's top tier, but inside he harboured a burning desire for musical upheaval; a lust for refinement, to slow things down and get back to the groove. Now residing back in Napoli, Marco began a process of reinvention, starting with a focus on bookings at smaller clubs with more underground sensibilities that better suited his new, more considered style and offered the opportunity to hone it over the course of longer, extended sessions. Domestic Minimal Noise was set-up as a bridge between the Marco Carola of old and new, evidenced by the label's pacey yet undoubtedly funk-fuelled output. The encapsulation of this transformation came a couple of years later, however, as Marco reneged on his stance of not recording mix CDs (he always felt his three-deck, club-ready style was inappropriate for the form) and agreed to contribute to London club fabric's seminal mix series. Fabric 31 was a lesson in sleek, future-facing minimalism. The disc introduced Marco to an entirely new audience and clearly illustrated an artist revelling in a fresh creative perspective. 2007's Apena would also prove to be hugely significant. The release heralded his first collaboration with Richie Hawtin's Plus 8/Minus stable. This family environment has since established a platform from which Marco has been encouraged to express himself with unbridled creative freedom. The most widely recognized example of this was 2008's undeniable earworm "Bloody Cash" which garnered Plus 8 with one of that year's biggest techno tracks. Both Minus and Plus 8 have continued to host his 12-inch productions at regular intervals (Plus One, Plus Two and Walking Dog to name a few), and in 2M Marco has been granted his own sub-label (strictly limited to 2000 copies per release) to curate as he sees fit. Ibiza has become more and more of a key destination for Marco through the years, and in 2010 this was solidified by his residency at Cocoon's Monday night Amnesia sessions. Party ringleader Sven Vath showed further faith in Marco by asking him to mix Cocoon's Party Animals CD alongside Nick Curly, building on the foundations laid down by Marco's double-disc Time Warp 2009 mix, which married the deeper house end of his range with his now trademark groove-ridden techno. When it came to following up Open System Marco knew it must be with something exceptional. "I've been working like crazy on Play It Loud," he says on the travail behind his latest full-length. "I've never been working like this, not even when I was a kid and I wanted to be known!" The resulting album is the perfect amalgamation of Marco's DJ and production sensibilities. Play It Loud's 18 tracks are presented in mix form and explore what proved for Marco to be a highly fertile middle-ground between home listening and the dancefloor-a reduced tempo and complete creative license from Minus allowed Marco to burrow deeper into his sound than ever before. "I always try to do something new," he says. "When I produce, or when I DJ, I don't really think about where I want to go musically, I just start to feel."
event::tags 21+
12:30 AM
to 1:30 AM
Richie Hawtin
63 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
Artists Richie Hawtin
event::about Artist, DJ, conceptualist and ambassador, more than anyone else in modern electronic music, Richie Hawtin has relentlessly proved himself to be a true innovator. The one-man mogul behind acclaimed Techno imprints Plus 8 & Minus sends signals out all over the world from his HQ in an old fire station in Windsor, Ontario – just across the border from Detroit Techno City. The signals are constantly evolving, his Plastikman persona gave Techno a unique face with a series of four ruthlessly minimal albums of skeletal beauty, while breathtaking festival live sets at Glastonbury and Tribal Gathering helped invent stadium Techno. His “Decks, EFX & 909” album released on Novamute in 1999 expanded the concept of a DJ mix album beyond the imagination of most DJs. As a pioneering DJ and party promoter he was banned from entering America for 18 months. Yet this jet-setting international futurist is as at home exhibiting alongside acclaimed modern sculptor Anish Kapoor as he is headlining a bush rave with Josh Wink somewhere in Western Australia. More of a decade into his career, it’s no surprise that the every-youthful Hawtin is up to something new. This time, he’s reconstructing the DJ mix album even further with “DE9: Closer To The Edit”, the groundbreaking new album set for release on the novamute label in September 2001. His first mix album, for the Mixmag Live series, saw him use extra effects and drum machines as long ago as 1993, “Decks, EFX & 909” cut laser-style between tracks and now, “DE9: Closer To The Edit”, sees Hawtin use his sampler to tear the skin and the flesh from the tracks until there’s just a skeleton left, which he reassembles into a kind of Frankenstein’s robot. The result is a mix album like you’ve never heard before. Hawtin describes this unique process “I recorded, sampled, cut and spliced over 100 tracks down into their most basic components. I ended up with over 300 loops, ranging in different lengths. I started to recreate and reinterpret each track and then put the pieces back together, as if an audio jigsaw puzzle – using effects and edits as the glue between each piece”. A classic like Carl Craig’s ‘4 My Peepz’ (under his Paperclip People guise) breathes in and out in less than a minute, like a lonely spirit lost on the hard drive. “I don’t like mix CDs, everyone’s being lazy, so I gotta do something different,” says Hawtin. “Some people think it’s about me using some extra equipment – a drum machine and some effects - but it’s a whole philosophy really. ‘Let’s take it to the extreme, to somewhere that’s it never been before’ “ Hawtin believes the whole DJ thing is stuck in a groove. So beyond “DE9…” he is championing a new DJ system developed in Holland called Final Scratch, with Plus 8 partner John Acquaviva. Dance and Electronic music is the most technology-based genre of all, but to Hawtin’s frustration it’s still rooted in a music delivery system developed in the 19th Century: the gramophone record. Even though more and more DJs play tracks burnt onto CD, vinyl still rules because it’s easier and instinctive to control. Final Scratch links up to the normal two-turntables-and-mixer set up, but lets you play tracks stored on a laptop using a special piece of vinyl as a ‘mouse’, or controller. You can access literally thousands of tracks, and scratch, cut, slow and mix them just like normal records using this special piece of vinyl. It’s nothing short of revolutionary. As Hawtin enthuses: “It feels and acts like a regular record.” He’s already using Final Scratch to play unreleased tracks by Josh Wink and Speedy J, and special re-edits of some of Hawtin’s classics and personal faves. Born in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, on June 4th 1970 Hawtin emigrated with his family when he was nine to Windsor, Ontario, where his dad Mick still works as a robot technician in the General Motors car factory (his mother, Brenda, is in real estate). Richie cheekily borrowed his dad’s persona for his house alias Robotman. His brother Matthew, who shares the Windsor fire station studio complex with Richie, is a visual artist. By 15 Richie was creeping out of the house to cross the border and go clubbing in Detroit. By 17 he was DJing at The Shelter, a dark basement club where he mixed House and Techno with Industrial music by Nitzer Ebb and Front 242. He had his own show on Detroit’s 96.3FM – inspired by a late ‘80s Detroit radio DJ called The Wizard, now better known as Jeff Mills. As a teenager Hawtin, already into Breakdancing and Electro, was stirred by the radically beautiful machine music being fashioned by Detroit Techno pioneers like Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. In 1989 he set up Plus 8 Records with John Acquaviva to release their own tracks and push new artists. They started running parties in Detroit. But far from welcoming them, the tight-knit Detroit Techno scene initially turned a cold shoulder on the two renegade Canadians. “It pissed a lot of people off because there wasn’t anyone else in the city doing it – it took someone from the outside to come in and say, ‘Look, wake up,’” Richie recalls. “These guys [May, Atkins and Saunderson] have left. They’re doing their thing overseas.” Plus 8 began to gather momentum with a richly varied catalogue of hard-nosed, cutting edge Techno from artists like Speedy J, Dan Bell and Kenny Larkin. Along with the resurgence of Detroit’s confrontational Underground Resistance, this marked the second wave of Detroit Techno. “We all put the focus back on Detroit for a while, we didn’t want to make traditional Techno, we were inspired by traditional Techno. Derick, Kevin and Juan had sent these waves all over the world and we were the first to feel the rebounds of their ripples”. By 1993 Richie Hawtin’s Detroit parties had become legendary intense affairs as freaky dancing clubbers lost themselves in strange, dark warehouses transformed into disorientating warrens by walls of black plastic sheeting. Inspired by this, Hawtin elected to take Techno one stage further and develop his virtual Plastikman alter ego: a red and black gremlin that is tattooed on his forearm. He didn’t want a collection of tracks; he wanted to make an album that swallowed up the concentrated energy of those parties and spit it back out as something new. An album, “Sheet One” was recorded in a rollercoaster 48 hour studio session and released on novamute in early ‘93 and was soon followed by the brilliant ‘Spastik’, a single recorded three weeks later after a long night dancing to Derrick May. Hawtin was already shifting identities like a spy changing roles: his 1992 album “Dimension Intrusion”, under his Fuse alias, had played a key part in the Warp label’s groundbreaking “Artificial Intelligence” armchair-Techno series, but he wanted to reach further. He remembered the strange shapes that his friends threw at those warehouse parties, the different creatures they almost became. “Like plasticine,” he says. “That was the whole idea of Plastikman, it was all very viscous and pliable and moveable.” Plastikman wasn’t just a clever alter ego – it was a role for you to try on too. The sound was rubbery and sparse; its moments of melodic steel arriving unnervingly. The first album, “Sheet One”, played up Hawtin’s reputation for LSD and was promoted with a free sheet of fake acid tabs. Hawtin developed a Plastikman live show that still tours the world. Huge audiences at Glastonbury and Tribal Gathering twitched to its twittering insect rhythms, lost in a soundtrack far freakier than anything else those events had to offer. In 1994 the second album on novamute, “Musik”, let a little human warmth seep onto the clattering Plastikman rhythms, but despite its closing robot lullaby ‘Lasttrak’, it was, if anything, even more discomforting. Just as the little Plastikman gremlin was becoming an international phenomenon, American immigration officials banned Hawtin from entering America for working illegally. He was barred from entering the Stat…
event::tags 21+
7:30 PM
to 8:30 PM
Times New Viking
150 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
Artists Times New Viking
event::about The title in 2008 was Rip It Off. It wasn’t prophetic – quite the opposite – it was a slogan, an instruction as simple as play, record, fuck, and do drugs. If you’ve been in a band since then (or, correctly, since Dig Yourself appeared in 2005) and this isn’t how things go, you’re kidding yourself. Back then, were you an inhabitant of any frustrated scene like Columbus, Ohio, USA, re-happenings were circumstance, lo-fi was necessity, and in this gnarly landscape you had to do it yourself. Actually you still do, always have. That’s if you want to make a lasting impression. There’s middle class poverty out there now, prolonged adolescence in half-way homes. Punk is about a lot of things, but these days kids without internet are punk. Times New Viking have always embraced this code. By avoiding the pratfalls of trends and the impersonality of technology, instead handcrafting their wares, ink stains on their fingertips, they’ve managed to hang on in a fickle reality. Though forever tethered to the ‘90s renaissance of bands like Pavement and Guided By Voices (two bands with which Times New Viking have shared extensive tours with in 2010), there’s has never been a slacker indifference or aloof whimsy – it’s a sharp, determined, grind. Always an exercise in “romantic nihilism,” the three of them, Jared, Beth, and Adam, busy bees out making art, love, friends and enemies. 'Dancer Equired' is a return to the hive, even if the record’s creation was out of their usual boundaries. It should be known that for the first time the trio escaped to a studio. Between Columbus Discount Recordings and the famed Mus-i-col (closest thing to Muscle Shoals we got) during the Summer of Violence. With the help of Adam Smith and Dustin White, Times New Viking produced and recorded and album that sounds like a mellow night out. Though it abandons the pissy histrionics of the past, it remains loud and brash, with mammoth guitars still piled on, only magnifying the bright beautiful traits of the band has nurtured since the beginning. Now they say “It’s a Culture,” and as the nuanced melodies of 'Dancer Equired' appear directly on the surface (as opposed to, say, buried underneath) you begin to believe it. It would be easy to describe the album as a new chapter, but in knowing the forward-thinking, never-settled energies of Times New Viking, this is an entirely new book. Rip it up and start again. There’s a new wave in the driving anthem “Fuck Her Tears,” a new bohemian in “California Roll,” new slogans at every turn. Whether it is to “Try Harder,” a see-saw stomp directed towards the band and their audience, or “Don’t Go to Liverpool,” a song that questions the trash fantastic life on the fringe, the action is usually “go,” the refrain being as important and foreboding as it is fleeting and ephemeral. The most telling evolution for Times New Viking comes in the sway or the grown-up measures the band focuses upon with detailed precision in songs like “Want to Exist,” and especially Dancer Equired’s first single “No Room To Live.” In the latter, that impenetrable shell that may have kept average listeners at bay is finally shattered, the fuzz and hiss sits on a bench arms crossed, the elegiac hum of two voices sticks around longer than usual, inviting you inside this time around. No longer the end of all things – here’s to the sweet side. Wumme Wenders Columbus, Ohio November 24th, 2010
event::tags 21+
8:15 PM
to 9:15 PM
Apex Manor
75 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
Artists Apex Manor
event::about On January 25, Merge Records released The Year of Magical Drinking, the debut album from Apex Manor. Ross Flournoy founded Apex Manor after the 2009 demise of The Broken West. Named after his Los Angeles zen place, Apex Manor was the idyllic apartment of his close friend and long-time collaborator Adam Vine. Having relocated from the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles to Pasadena, Flournoy was enjoying suburban tranquility, but his car wouldn't start and he found himself isolated. He whiled away the days cleaning the house, sitting on the porch, and splitting tallboys with the gardeners who worked nearby. And battling a case of writer's block. Enter an unlikely source of inspiration: an online songwriting contest. NPR's Monitor Mix was soliciting original songs from readers, giving the prospective songwriter one weekend to write, record, and submit. Flournoy decided to give it a go and set about writing and recording at home. At least he would be doing something with his time. The song, Under the Gun, turned out to be about the process itself. Now feeling inspired for the first time in months, Flournoy began writing at a feverish clip, penning more than 25 songs, nearly a third of which were co-written by Adam Vine. Flournoy then teamed up with former Broken West bandmate Brian Whelan to record some proper demos, and Apex Manor was born. The Year of Magical Drinking was recorded at three different studios around LA and was produced by Dan Long (Film School, Local Natives) and Brian Whelan.
event::tags 21+
9:00 PM
to 10:00 PM
Telekinesis
153 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
9:45 PM
to 10:45 PM
American Music Club
90 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
Artists American Music Club
event::about Mark Eitzel biography 2010 As both a solo artist and the front man for enduring cult favourites American Music Club , Mark Eitzel established himself among the truly powerful forces in contemporary music; a hauntingly evocative singer, he earned even greater notoriety for his brilliance as a composer, combining the energy of punk, the pastoral beauty of folk, and the melodrama of lounge music to build one of the most impressive and darkly poetic bodies of songs in the modern pop canon. Born January 30, 1959 in Walnut Creek, CA, Eitzel's military upbringing led him everywhere from Great Britain to Columbus, OH; as a teen, he became a born-again Christian, but at the age of 16, he rejected religion in favour of alcohol, his love/hate relationship with the bottle going on to fuel much of his subsequent work as a performer. Inspired by punk, he eventually formed his own group, the Naked Skinnies, and with them relocated to San Francisco in 1980; there the band quickly dissolved, and three years later he formed American Music Club . AMC's 12-year existence was tumultuous, to say the least; Eitzel, prone to facing his demons while onstage, earned a reputation as a loose cannon, and despite the lavish critical praise heaped on albums like “California”(’89) , “Everclear” (‘91) and “Mercury”(‘93), their first for Virgin Records which went on to sell over 70,000 in the UK and Europe with sold out shows at the London Astoria and Forum but the group was never able to rise above this point. Eitzel quit the band on numerous occasions, once joining another Bay Area group, the Toiling Midgets ; in 1991, while still fronting American Music Club , he issued his solo debut, “Songs of Love” , a live acoustic set recorded in London (British audiences being much more receptive to his music than their American counterparts). A subsequent solo single on Matador, the lovely "Take Courage," increased rumours of the band's impending break-up, but they did not truly implode until after the release of 1994's “San Francisco” . At that point, Eitzel began pursuing his solo career in earnest, debuting in 1996 with the jazzy “60 Watt Silver Lining” . Eitzel's subsequent solo career soon found him following a wildly eclectic path. In 1997, Eitzel teamed up with R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck , and in a matter of days they wrote and recorded “West” , which matched Eitzel's verse with Buck 's intelligent and engaging pop melodies for Warner Brothers. His next album, 1998's “Caught In A Trap…” , was an unusually stark and downbeat affair, recorded in part with the assistance of Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and James McNew from Yo La Tengo saw him change labels again to Matador. Eitzel next embraced both pop and electronics with 2001's “The Invisible Man” , and in 2002 he recorded two albums of covers - a tribute to the work of other songwriters on “Music for Courage and Confidence” , and a look back at his own songs for American Music Club as performed with a group of Greek folk musicians on “The Ugly American” . After the recent re-union of American Music Club which included sold out shows at London’s South Bank Centre and the new album “Love Songs for Patriots” in 2004. The new album was given 5 stars and Album of the Month in UNCUT calling it a “brilliant return to form”. Mark then returned with a new solo album on Cooking Vinyl records entitled “Candy Ass” which was primarily electronic and instrumental based. In early 2008 American Music Club return with a new line-up and renewed vigour with the release of “The Golden Age”, again the album received glowing reviews and UNCUTs Album of the Month whom said it was their best album since Mercury and the band embarked on their longest ever tour. Mark is currently working on his first musical “Marine Parade” with UK Olivier Award winning play write Simon Stephens which will debut in 2010. Mark is about to release his primarly acoustic based new album called “Klamath” which was written in the Klamath mountains in the Happy Camp retreat. The album will be released throughout Europe this Oct. Mark is readying himself for his tour in support of the album where he will be joined with Marc Capelle on piano leaving Eitzel to do what he does best…sing. “America’s Greatest Living Lyricist.” – The Guardian
event::tags 21+
10:45 PM
to 11:45 PM
11:45 PM
to 12:45 AM
Wye Oak
237 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
Artists Wye Oak
event::about On March 8, Merge will release Wye Oak’s third album, Civilian on CD, LP and digital download. (March 7 on City Slang in Europe) Wye Oak wrote what became Civilian between December of 2009 and July of 2010. The songs “are, as a whole, about aloneness (the positive kind), loneliness (the horrible kind), moving on, and letting go (of people, places, and things),” lyricist/guitarist Jenn Wasner reveals. After recording and mixing the previous two albums themselves, Wye Oak brought in mixing engineer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Shearwater), who played a pivotal ... [read more] role in the sound of Civilian. “JC definitely pushed us into some exciting and sometimes scary new territory,” multi-instrumentalist Andy Stack says. “It was the most that Jenn and I had ever relinquished control of our music to someone else, but it gave us a chance to step back and see the big picture, whereas on previous recordings we got embroiled in the technical details.” Civilian is a kind of 21st-century folk music, imbued with dense shoegaze guitars, nearly melodic rhythms, and impeccable splashes of electronic color. Without leaning on conventional structure, the songs beguile with fascinating chords and melodies, Jenn’s voice and riveting lyrics, mesmerizing rhythms, and an intoxicating aural landscape. Just as good writing has meaning between the lines, Civilian has meaning between the sounds: the combinations of harmonies, timbres, and words summon vivid and ineffable associations just beyond reach. Jenn sums up the meaning of the album saying, “this collection of songs is called Civilian because I believe everyone wants to be normal, but no one truly is.” Wye Oak is Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack.
event::tags 21+
12:45 AM
to 1:45 AM
Wild Flag
196 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
Artists Wild Flag
event::about WILD FLAG is a Portland, OR and Washington, DC based quartet consisting of Carrie Brownstein, Mary Timony, Rebecca Cole, and Janet Weiss. The members of WILD FLAG have played in numerous and notable bands, including but not limited to: Helium, The Minders, Croissant Cocktail, Feeble Knees, Quasi, Dogz, Sleater-Kinney, @@@, Asia, The Consortium, and Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks.
event::tags 21+
8:00 PM
to 9:00 PM
Yip Deceiver
15 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
9:00 PM
to 10:00 PM
Joan of Arc
64 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
Artists Joan of Arc
event::about Although most bands struggle with distancing themselves from the seemingly infinite number of musicians who have come before, when Joan of Arc set about writing its new record the innovative group had only one past example to compete with: itself. "I think it's harder for a band to make a tenth record, than it is to make a first record," says Tim Kinsella, who remains the one permanent member of the Joan of Arc lineup. "There is more freedom to be daring, but there is also your own standard to live up to and surpass." It's obvious that Kinsella has succeeded in doing just that. Given the unconventional music style that characterizes the group's discography, Flowers pushes new boundaries by housing 13 songs that seamlessly glide together in a unique fashion. Here, the band weaves organized, structured pieces with frequent instrumental stretches to create a very natural flow from start to finish. To complete this collection of songs, Kinsella and the latest incarnation of his live band entered the studio with no instruments, and hardly any completed songs. Instead, the group simply did what felt right, using what was available to all the musicians who had recorded there previously "pianos, acoustics, and synthesizers" to create a new batch of music after only two days. The song "Fasting"is one of Flowers' more expressive instrumentals. A consistent, electronic droning illustrates the mood and paves the way for the following track "Explain Yourself #2." This song is strikingly opposite with a concise, driving drum beat matched with random bursts of guitar and organ. Kinsella sings, "No one wants to die with a couple hundred bucks still stuck in the sock drawer." Wanting to counteract the raw emotional overtones of Boo Human, Kinsella describes Flowers as "more like sculpting a garden as a whole. Even before we started, we knew Flowers would have to be a little cooler and more formal." That's not to say this record doesn't contain the unique characteristic staples Joan of Arc is known for. On songs like "Fogbow,"Kinsella dabbles with gargling electronic synthesizers while stating the painfully obvious: "Some people try not to eat too much. Some other people try to eat enough." These contradictory associations are what Kinsella illustrates so well in Flowers. Just as the title Flowers could suggest the album is an offering for everything in life 'love and death, celebration and consolation," also could be read in the sense of growth. Birthing new forms and techniques are what make Joan of Arc who they are, and Flowers illustrates this idea of maturation perfectly. Over the course of a year in four different sessions with four different lineups, Flowers evolved into what it is now. Recorded and mixed by Graeme Gibson (Califone, The 1900s, Catfish Haven) at Chicago's Clava Studios, Flowers encapsulates the idea of improvisation and growth perfectly. This experience summarizes the spirit of Joan of Arc. It is a mentality that embraces contradictions and tears apart common musical structures only to rebuild them without a blueprint. Joan of Arc continue to succeed in doing what many strive for with a new album: creating an obscure combination of familiar, obvious ideas while sticking with the notion that "if it feels good, do it."
event::tags 21+
10:00 PM
to 11:00 PM
Casiokids
118 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
Artists Casiokids
event::about In an age when virtually everything -- especially music -- is instantly accessible and easily transmitted from anywhere in mere seconds, it's no small wonder that Europe has managed to keep Casiokids to themselves for this long. But, Topp stemning pa lokal bar is poised to place Casiokids on the tips of tongues across the U.S. (Even if most would be hard-pressed to correctly pronounce the album's title!) Hailing from the same celebrated Bergen scene that has produced Datarock and Annie, Casiokids were so-named for the beat-up old keyboards with which the band members first conceived their club-ready sound. Formed with the intention of making electronic music more visual, the band has since added guitar and drums to produce a collection of incredibly catchy tunes often sung in their native Norwegian and influenced by afro-beat, techno and out-and-out pop. Like former tour mates (and now labelmates) of Montreal, Casiokids put on a theatrical live show -- incorporating a blend of shadow puppets, video projections and animal costumes -- that is not to be missed. Whether playing for the truly young (as during a 12-date kindergarten tour in Norway) or the young at heart (at almost all of Europe's largest festivals and on tour with Hot Chip), Casiokids generate the kind of unrestrained party mood that inevitably transforms any audience into a joyous, dancing mass. And yet, apart from a few much-buzzed about performances at CMJ and SXSW, as well as a short headlining tour in Fall 2009, the quintet has remained relatively under the radar stateside -- an undeserved status that will surely be changing soon. Featuring the first Norwegian-language pop music ever to be released in the U.S., Topp stemning pa lokal bar contains the type of addictive melodies, distinctive vocal harmonies and danceable pop hooks that translate flawlessly no matter where you're from. Spanning the widths and breadths of bass heavy pop, synthy dub and darker percussive club moments, Casiokids makes its music felt as much as heard. The songs on Topp stemning palokal bar were previously distributed in Europe via Moshi Moshi, both as part of the label's renowned Singles Club and as a series of double A-sided 7"s. For this debut US release, all eight tracks have been re-mastered and are accompanied by a bonus disc of new material (including six remixes and two covers). With Casiokids, even if you don't understand the words, you'll soon find that the music speaks for itself.
event::tags 21+
11:00 PM
to 12:00 AM
Asobi Seksu
179 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
Artists Asobi Seksu
event::about The signs in Chris Zane's (The Walkmen, Passion Pit, Tokyo Police Club) studio couldn't have been any clearer: "Don't Overthink It" and one simple word: "BOLD." Or as Asobi Seksu guitarist/singer James Hanna puts it, "This time, our agenda was to not have one at all; to be mellow about the entire process instead of obsessing over everything." Maybe mellow isn't the right word, unless he's comparing the band's fourth proper full-length (Fluorescence) to a coiled-up cobra or unconscious crocodile: temperamental types that are one false move away from striking. After all, "Coming Up" sets the scene by plowing into beehive-like synth lines and warp speed washes of dream-pop that leave you wondering just what the hell is going on. Things don't let up on "Trails," either, as singer/keyboardist Yuki Chikudate sets her immaculate melodies against a barrage of battery-powered chords. Catchy and chaotic to the core, the sky-scraping song pays homage to the pitch-perfect songwriting of the '60s by chartering a yellow submarine to the moon. And when the Brooklyn-based quartet (rounded out by bassist Billy Pavone and drummer Larry Gorman) finally hits the ground, their color-saturated soundscapes don't get dull or cold. They get even brighter, as Fluorescence's many shades shift with each passing song. That includes everything from the expansive/erratic -- and yet, oh-so-poppy -- prog movements of "Leave the Drummer Out There" to the weightless balladry of "Ocean," a track that channels its title with swollen synths and beats that bob and weave through the murkiest waters around. "James likes to get a lot more abstract with the music," says Chikudate, "So Chris (Asobi Seksu's longtime producer) will often try and reign him in." "I like to see how far we can take a song before pulling back a bit," explains Hanna. "Like I'll say that 100 vocal tracks would sound great in a spot where we only need 40." And since Asobi Seksu have spent the past decade refining their bombastic but beautiful blend of hailstorm hooks and fog-shrouded 4AD-isms (including last year's special acoustic album, Rewolf), they knew exactly what to do with all of that restlessness: embrace it.
event::tags 21+
12:00 AM
to 1:00 AM
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
210 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
event::about Let It Sway isn't just the title of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yelstin's third full-length -- it's a philosophy that ultimately helped save the band. After enduring numerous tension-filled sessions while self-recording 2008's Pershing, the band members decided it would be best to relinquish control over production and pursue new options when it came time to record their next album. "With Pershing we tried to micromanage our sound and it wasn't a fun process," recalls drummer/vocalist Phil Dickey. "So for the new record it seemed like a good idea to try something we've never tried before." Plus, as guitarist/vocalist John Cardwell adds, "It just seems lazy to not want to make the best-sounding record possible." Not knowing which producer to contact, they began their search by reaching out to Death Cab For Cutie guitarist and respected engineer Chris Walla -- a fan and friend of SSLYBY since the release of 2005's Broom -- to see if he had any recommendations. Unexpectedly, Walla quickly replied he had the perfect person in mind -- himself. And so, at his suggestion, SSLYBY made the trek from their hometown of Springfield, MO to Madison, WI -- home of the famed Smart Studios (Nirvana's Nevermind, Smashing Pumpkins' Gish). Working with Walla (Tegan and Sara, The Decemberists) and resident producer Beau Sorenson (Death Cab For Cutie, Sparklehorse), the band members crafted the final list of 12 songs that appear on Let It Sway. "When we got to the studio the songs were about 75 percent completed, which ended up being perfect," says guitarist Will Knauer. "It allowed them to grow naturally -- with Chris and Beau guiding the songs with sounds we wouldn't have had access to and ideas we wouldn't have thought up ourselves." The influence the producers had on shaping the finished album is especially evident on "Sink/Let it Sway," a song that Walla and Sorenson helped sculpt from ideas, fragments, and four different demo versions into a complete whole, as well as "In Pairs," a short, infectious track the band had never played together until Walla heard the opening riff while setting up mics and exclaimed "We have to record it!" "For the first time, the goal was to write good songs and not worry about how they were going to be produced," says Dickey. "We trusted Chris and Beau 100 percent." That faith was certainly not misplaced, as Let It Sway takes cues from the band's quiet Broom-era bedroom recordings and couples them with the polished sound of Pershing to create a whole new aesthetic most evident on songs like album opener "Back in the Saddle" and the slow burner "Stuart Gets Lost Dans Le Metro." Ironically, despite its high-profile studio origin, the record has a more authentic and "live-sounding" feel than if the group had recorded at home. "We generally tracked one song a day and just used the best performances -- even if there were little flubs," reveals Dickey. "Chris and Beau decided to do it that way, which is good because we're perfectionists and would probably still be recording the album today." In the end, the circumstances surrounding the making of the record -- in which the band rode bikes to the studio each morning and slept on the floor of Sorenson's home (while Walla inhabited a tent in the backyard) -- was exactly the kind of environment SSLYBY needed to recapture the essence of what it is to be a band. "Recording the album reminded me of how everything was when we first started playing together," says Dickey. "Everything about making music with your friends seemed fun and perfect all over again." As Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin learned firsthand, when pressure is mounting, sometimes you just gotta Let It Sway.
event::tags 21+
1:00 AM
to 2:00 AM
Starfucker
180 schedule::attendees
Location
The Parish
eventtype Music
Artists Starfucker
event::about In the past, Portland, OR-based Starfucker (STRFKR) has received almost as much attention for its not-always- accessible moniker as for its immensely accessible dance hooks. But, having flirted briefly with a couple of name changes, the group is now firmly settled on Starfucker and so the focus can rightly return to what got people talking in the first place: the quartet's endlessly catchy, hook-laden pop. And there's no better place for that conversation to begin than with Reptilians, the band s second album and first with Polyvinyl. Lyrically, Reptilians focuses primarily on death and the end of the world, two intertwined subjects at the forefront of songwriter Josh Hodges mind following the passing of his grandmother. Yet, amazingly, the record manages to be not the slightest bit depressing. In reality, it's quite the opposite -- a trait likely attributed to the fact that the band, like British philosopher Alan Watts (whose lectures are excerpted at various intervals), believes death is responsible for giving meaning to life. For Starfucker, this comforting notion is expressed musically via vibrant crescendos, explosive drum beats, and layered synth melodies that drive a theatrical live show where dance party meets Roxy Music. As such, Reptilians effortlessly marches from the stripped-bare psychedelia of "Born", which conjures David Byrne's ghost, to the funeral parade of "Bury Us Alive" (a track that greets death with open arms in a moment of animated celebration), to "Death as a Fetish," where the title becomes a liberating mantra sung over an immediately hummable keyboard-driven loop. Just as with the band s previous two releases, Reptilians was written almost entirely by principal songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joshua Hodges. This time around, however, the group s sound is bolstered by the addition of Keil Corcoran (whom Hodges describes as a human drum machine ) and producer Jacob Portrait (The Dandy Warhols, Mint Chicks). Hodges first recorded the album's primary tracks in his bedroom and on the road while the band, rounded out by bassist Shawn Glassford and guitarist Ryan Biornstad, relentlessly toured the country this past year. Then, Starfucker convened with Portrait at various Portland studios to record the drums as well as add a few final flourishes. The result is Starfucker's most well-rounded and full-sounding album to date -- a blissfully buoyant affair that will have you dancing to songs about death while having the time of your life.
event::tags 21+
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