All photos by Connor Fields
Purchase Helado Negro’s latest record This Is How You Smile out now via RVNG, Intl. Find Helado Negro’s upcoming tour dates here.
Transmitting live from Black Mountain at 2,500 feet above sea level is Floating Action with the first single “Burst of Ordinary Light” from an upcoming full-length Old World Camels. Join in on some hydrotherapy in the new video for the single filmed by Kevin Ratterman starring frontman Seth Kauffman, David Givan, and Jim James.
Stay tuned for more information on the LP release.
Arranging sequences of minimalist electronics, lo-fi spiritual jazz, and pastel hip-hop loops, Will Miller returns with a full-length dose as Resavoir. The debut, self-titled record is out June 28th via International Anthem, the authority in exposing Chicago’s deep class of boundary-defying young artists.
Preorder Resavoir’s upcoming self-titled record out 6/28 via International Anthem.
Photo by James Sharp
Following their self-titled EP released earlier this year, Modern Nature, the new project from Jack Cooper (Ultimate Painting, Mazes) and members of BEAK>, Woods, and Sunwatchers, the band has announced their debut full-length How To Live and a video for the first single “Peradam.”
Modern Nature’s namesake focal point reacts to the congruence of the natural world and the colossal infrastructure of an advancing human race equated in their recordings as pastoral folk arrangements harmonize with synthesized electronics and motorik drum tempos.
Preorder Modern Nature’s debut LP How To Live out 8/23 via Bella Union.
Photo courtesy of Indigo Sparke
Watch the video for the latest single “For The Old World” from the fifth full length record Dolphine from Erin Birgy as Mega Bog and first on Paradise of Bachelors. The record features contributions from members of Big Thief, Hand Habits, and iji.
Preorder Mega Bog’s upcoming record Dolphine out 6/28 via Paradise of Bachelors.
The cult 1977 album from Akiko Yano, Iroha Ni Konpeitou, is scheduled for its first international vinyl repressing equipped with an OBI card due May 31st via the Paris-based WEWANTSOUNDS who have already outdone themselves with two other Yano repressings as well as Hiroshi Sato’s Orient and Jack Wilkins’ Windows, all of which were long overdue for their second birth onto wax.
Preorder Akiko Yano’s Iroha Ni Konpeitou out May 31st via WEWANTSOUNDS.
Tick tock the clock of eternity, marks off the moments on by one. Unlock the time temporarily. Today was meant for everyone to see the shining of the sun.
Marj Snyder // Let The Son Shine (1971)
Scott Gilmore’s latest release, Two Roomed Motel, has the magnetic tonality of Eno or Yellow Magic Orchestra crafted with the lovable quirk and offbeat personality of home-recording messiahs like R. Stevie Moore or Ariel Pink.
Two Roomed Motel is your latest release and first on the Belgian label Crammed Discs. How does the records title accompany the tone of the record?
I wasn’t thinking of the tone of the music in relation to the title. My ideas about the music pertained to its composition and production. I don’t feel as though I can accurately say what the tone of the record is. The title is an acknowledgement of a specific feeling of sterility that colors the neighborhood I live in. I think this feeling is very common to most suburbs. They are always eerily empty. The forms of living are present here, houses, cars, occasionally a person, but feelings of vitality are ever absent. To feel alive in the suburbs is to feel at odds with them. To me there is a similar feeling that exists in motels. In a motel you're granted an intimate experience with a room that is utterly sterile. It appears to offer the comforts of home, but remains eternally uninhabitable. To fully inhabit the room as it exists, you must become as dull as the paintings on the walls - the room acts as an audience to the experiences within it.
You're based in the San Fernando Valley on the edges of Los Angeles. Your music has always felt like it exists on the fringes or outer rim of other genres whether that's pop, experimental, or ambient. How is your physical relation to a city with the magnitude of Los Angeles reflected in your work?
There are so many people making music in LA. I have a lot of friends who make music completely different than my own. It doesn’t feel like there is a scene, just tons of people scattered about the city working on art. I enjoy this disconnected feeling. It makes it feel like there isn’t any single overarching paradigm. Because I live so far out in the Valley, I’m constantly reminded of how vast LA really is. It takes a lot of effort for me to drive into the city, so many nights I end up staying home and recording. I think my physical distance from most other musicians adds to this disconnected feeling I experience. I’ve come to appreciate how being out in the Valley creates a sense of mental space to exist around my creative pursuits.
Your records have always featured a wide mix of synthesizers, drum machines, and non-traditional instruments. Did you approach the new record differently as far as recording equipment and instrumentation goes?
On my previous albums I recorded eight tracks onto tape and would then transfer those onto the computer where I would continue layering. On Two Roomed Motel, I recorded everything into the computer. Working this way from the beginning opened up a lot of possibilities. I got into writing melodies in the computer and then sending the midi messages out to external synthesizers. This process allowed me to get really detailed with sequencing modular synths, which opened up a whole new realm of exploration for me.
When some artists are working on a record, it helps to isolate themselves from outside influences and social media distractions. What’s your ideal scenario for recording an album?
I don't set aside time to work on an album, I'm always recording. Having my studio at home makes it very integrated into my daily life. There is never a question of whether I'm inspired or not. It’s just about maintaining the habit of recording every day. For reasons of productivity, I definitely find that distance from social media is helpful. I consciously don't engage with it too often. It disturbs me when I am suddenly, without making a conscious decision, staring at some social media app on my phone. I think repetitive use of social media makes us all forget how to sit and do nothing. Boredom is a very good motivator for an artist. The use of social media for purposes of entertainment lulls a person into a thoughtless state in which they only seek a distraction from boredom - in effect, extinguishing a moment, which would have potentially led to the idea for a new song. To scroll away at a stream of completely unrelated images is a very thoughtless act. It seems like this type of behavior and thinking is the antithesis of art making; which in a way is the practice of making a series of intentional decisions.
How are your influences or creative fuels consumed and digested while you’re working on new material?
While making this album I wasn't listening to much music at all. I could only listen to one or two songs before I would feel overwhelmed by ideas and I would have to go back to the studio and record. I didn't listen to much except for the classical radio station. Classical music was easier at the time to digest because I would mostly hear the melodies and the harmonic structures. When I would listen to something produced in a studio, there was so much for me to analyze in regard to production that it was very overwhelming for me. Since I wasn’t listening to much when I recorded Two Roomed Motel I was also using faulty memories of songs to help me come up with original ideas. I would be riffing off of an idea of some song I used to listen to all the time, but since it had been so long since I actually listened to it, I would be referencing an incorrect memory. In effect I was referencing something that actually didn’t exist. This process was helpful in coming up with some interesting ideas. I don't like it when my music sounds too familiar. I enjoy feeling as though I am exploring and discovering something new. For that reason, it’s helpful for me to not have an endless encyclopedia of music in my mind. If I did, there would be too many walls around me when I am creating. I enjoy at least believing in the fallacy that I am making something new.
Do you go off-the-grid or rather immerse yourself in the sounds and environments your art is born from?
The environment that my music is born from is the studio and all the instruments and machines inside. I don't go into my surroundings for inspiration. I am actually disturbed by the neighborhood I live in. The suburbs are an absurd, lifeless place. In a way my studio is somewhat off the grid, in the sense that it feels as though it exists apart from the environment outside. But, I am definitely not isolating myself. I am regularly collaborating with several musicians and have just finished an album with Eddie Ruscha V (aka, Secret Circuit). I have many ongoing musical collaborations, all of which sound very different from each other.
As an artist who experiments visually and sonically for each recording, do you feel pressure to think obscurely about how music is created?
No, I don't feel pressure to think obscurely about music. Often the quality in music that attracts me is something that is unexpected. I am not attempting to be obscure. I am trying to write music that is engaging and enjoyable to listen to.
Has being associated with experimental music had any impact on how you create and release your art?
I’m glad to be associated with experimental music. I have no desire to make one type of sound, or to make something that is easily classified. It allows me a sense of creative freedom when I’m recording and working on new material. If you’re labeled an experimental artist there is essentially nothing that exists externally to tell you when you can't do something. The only barriers that you have to confront are internal.
As you’ve gotten older, how have the things that motivate you to create changed?
My motivation for making music hasn’t changed. In high school, when I started to really get into recording my own music, I was listening to a lot of R. Stevie Moore, Sensations Fix, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Arthur Russell, and the outtakes from the Beach Boys Smile sessions. I’d drive around listening to all of that music and this feeling close to euphoria would come over me when a song I really loved would come on. What most moved me about those artists is how their music seemed to exist in its own world. Whenever I came across another song that had this quality, I would be so happy, and I’d listen to it endlessly. Those moments have always been a source of inspiration for me. My motivation for recording lies in my appreciation for these types of songs - songs that don’t do what the listener expects and the overall sound isn’t immediately familiar - songs that take risks.
Had you developed any new fascinations while writing and recording Two Roomed Motel?
I really got into the sounds of the vocoder when making this album. It was a long process to find the one that I ended up using on the record. The sound I was going after was very clear in my head, but difficult to achieve. I went through a lot of different models before I settled on an old Roland Vocoder. I got pretty close to the sound I was after. I’m still curious about the Sennheiser vocoder, but I think those are upwards of several thousand dollars...
Purchase Scott Gilmore’s latest record Two Roomed Motel out now via Crammed Discs.
Gutter Girls are a Melbourne punk quartet applying the pressures of overtightened snares, scummy guitar amps, and unapologetic, yelled vocals to bring their debut EP to a steaming boil.
Reincarnated lyrics from the powerful “Beautiful Strangers” build the foundation for Kevin Morby’s divine full-length record, Oh My God, his fifth coming as a solo artist. With a heaven-sent group of sonic disciples including Sam Cohen, Meg Duffy, Cochemea Gastelum, and Mary Lattimore, the record’s canticles explore salvation, atonement, and other uncertainties of the pulpit and invites the faithless and devout to the sanctuary to wonder together.
Purchase Kevin Morby’s latest full length Oh My God out now via Dead Oceans. Find Kevin Morby’s upcoming tour dates here.
Stream the new video from the solo project of Babe Rainbow drummer Domingo Mariani for the first track “Wife” from a single out now via Doggo Agostino.
Animation by Tessa Kugel.
Watch the new video from Babe Rainbow for their new single “Something New” directed by Sam Kristofski with animations from Journeyman Foothead.
All photos by Abby Miller
Purchase Meg Baird and Mary Lattimore’s latest record Ghost Forests out now via Three Lobed Recordings. Find the duo’s upcoming tour dates here.
All photos by Angela Betancourt
Purchase Gun Outfit’s latest record Out of Range out now via Paradise of Bachelors. Find Gun Outfit’s tour dates here.
In her own La La Land routine held in a Latino strip mall, Jackie Cohen choreographs the visual piece of her latest single “Chico Chico” from her upcoming full length Zagg out May 10th via Spacebomb Records. Jackie swirls and twirls with the locals for the latest joint from the Jonathan Rado and Matthew E. White produced record.
Preorder Jackie Cohen’s upcoming record Zagg out 5/10 via Spacebomb. Find Jackie Cohen’s upcoming tour dates here.
All photos by Emily Galvin
Purchase Drugdealer’s latest record Raw Honey out now via Mexican Summer. Find Drugdealer’s upcoming tour dates here.
All photos by Connor Fields
Purchase Hand Habits’ latest release placeholder out now via Saddle Creek. Find Hand Habits’ upcoming tour dates here.
On their slinky and kicked-back return, Drugdealer’s crisp delivery of pop rock balladry and psychedelic soul grabs the baton from the studio hit-makers of the AM gold era. Songwriter and 360-flip specialist Michael Collins along with a topflight crew of contributors including Natalie Mering, Jackson MacIntosh, Shags Chamberlain, and Dougie Poole cultivate the nectar of the Los Angeles underground into Raw Honey, a product that’s savory for classic rockers and freaks alike.
Light a candle for the underground
Purchase Drugdealer’s latest record Raw Honey out April 19th via Mexican Summer. Find Drugdealer’s upcoming tour dates here.
Like the story of Sidney Franklin, the pioneering Jewish New Yorker bullfighter in Mexico and Spain, Eric Slick’s latest record Bullfighter is a work of creative bravery delivered with a powerful degree of elegance. Slick’s vocals drape over a charging string section like a matador’s muleta in a ceremonious four-part act for a masterful showing of Slick’s artistic versatility.
Purchase Eric Slick’s latest record Bullfighter out now via Boiled Records.
