Media Mansion/Toy Prison

Show last night at George's house was very very good. I suppose the house can be called the Media Mansion/Toy Palace, which is very fitting. They have almost every board or non-board game imaginable, stacks of VHS tapes and art and ransom business all over the place, very cool even to walk around in. Anyway, the bill went Bunwinkies, Caboladies, Dead Luke, Wet Hair and finally Crystalline Roses.

Bunwinkies was melodic, folky and beautiful. I talked to them after and apparently they're putting on a little festival called the Wickermania Festival at the end of August. More info on that probably at a later date. Caboladies was a bunch of louder sounds, heavy beats and the like, two gentlemen manning a bunch electronic do-dads on rickety tables. Dead Luke played a guitar, summoned sound from a keyboard and other boxes with flashing lights and uttered muffled voice sounds/words into a microphone, producing a generally groovy echoing haze, which I enjoyed thoroughly. Wet Hair was also very cool, Shawn Reed on voice and electronic pedals and keys and buttons and Ryan Garbes with a mustache playing drums and keys. Crystalline Roses (a.k.a. dude from SQURM + Mudlark but I can't remember his name for the life of me) finished off the night with some truly beautiful solo acoustic guitar work. He said it was sloppy, but I thought it was rather moving. He's got a three-way split with Justin Pigott + Peter Bonneman on Pigott's label Devine Noise which you can taste for free here (via icoulddietomorrow).

Really, check out all these bands.

Magic Goat Music

Well, this post started off with Kira Kira Kira putting up a new song on her Myspace, "Wreck A Poom Poom," which follows the only other song I've heard from her, the excellent "To Know About Little Girls" (download/stream at Delicious Scopitone HERE).


Anyways, through Kira Kira Kira's Myspace I found Magic Goat Music, which is a small sort of Utah-based label (I believe) which specializes in free digital releases as well as a couple physical products and comics. Most intriguing are the albums and eclectic array of artists. All the albums are available in .rar format which can be directly downloaded from the site. Some highlights include:


Mario Kart's first release Independence Day came just a couple days after the Fourth, a speedy 13 tracks packed into 20 minutes of what Magic Goat calls "buzz-saw skater punk," a fine recreation in the absence of a sunny day to skate and a friend to beat in video games.

Mario Kart - Out of Time

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Navigator's Bad Children dropped in May. Navigator is Braden J McKenna. He's also in Mario Kart. A combination of blown out fuzz, boppin soul and Americana as carefree as loiterers 'round yer local strip mall.

Navigator - Change

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Magic Goat has three WYLD WYZRDZ albums available, but you can grab a whopping five for free here. Drones, deep beats, ambient nap music and loops.

WYLD WYZRDZ - YES

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Lastly, for now, is Sakryd Dagger, of which I know next to nothing about, offering some heavy bizarro metal noise beats on the album All Seeing High. Pretty intense overdrives, everything's got an epic final battle air to them, possibly because Magic Goat describes the sound as "Super Metroid Vs. Star Fox Vs. F-Zero Vs. Castlevania."

Sakryd Dagger - Rainbow Stormz

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All these albums can be downloaded either HERE or HERE for FREE. Support the artists when possible, but thanks to Magic Goat's Digital Magic Series for making it all available to hear.

Screaming Females Interview

New Brunswick, NJ's Screaming Females are about to head off on tour with The Death Weather. Just a couple months ago they played at The Room at Rebel Sound Records OPENING for Prick Bastard among others. What an evolution. Jarrett, Marissa and the rather reserved King Mike took a minute to answer some questions and provided insight into Pittsfield's lackluster burritos, their favorite White Stripes record and an art teacher mom.

Friendship Bracelet: First of all I know you guys played in Pittsfield a couple months ago. Go anywhere particularly interesting/eat any particularly delicious Pittsfield delicacies/do anything remotely cool?

Jarrett: The show we played seemed to be about the coolest thing going on in town. We got to see Masshysteri play, who are from Sweden. We ate some mediocre burritos that made me feel a little sick. It was SUPER cold and I was in a bad mood because of the weather.
Marissa: No.
King Mike: No.

FB: Unfortunately I couldn't attend that show, but I've seen the comical flyer which billed you lower than Prick Bastard. Few months later and you've played a show with Dinosaur Jr. and you're about to tour with The Dead Weather and Jack White. Hows the transition from playing smaller shows (ie: The Room) to opening presumably larger venues?

Marissa: Well, being billed below Prick Bastard was nothing short of an honor. We were put on that show last minute... I understand why we opened the show, it's really not a big deal. Personally, I am equally comfortable with playing small and large venues. Not too sure how I'm going to feel playing in front of 3,000 people yet... but I'll let you know. So far I haven't had much of a problem. I'd say we prefer to play smaller places that are a bit more intimate... but I can't speak on behalf of my band mates on that one.

FB: Are you down with any of Jack White's previous musics? If so what's your favorite? What'd you think when you were asked to tour with them?

Jarrett: I love the White Stripes. De Stijl is one of the best albums ever.
Marissa: I also love the White Stripes.
King Mike: Me too.

FB: I'm real down with one of your more melodic tracks "Humanity Arranged" as well as some of your more brutal ones. What makes you want to make songs both gorgeous and melodic while also making songs so abrasive and primal? Is this at all a combination of your personal tastes and the range of your influences?

Jarrett: When a lot of bands get together they decide what they are going to sound like before they even start playing together. People say things along the lines of, "I want to start a band that is a mix of Ramones melodies and early 90s dance beats with heavy breakdowns." Then anything they play that happens to fall outside of those lines isn't usable. We never decided to have a particular sound so that means anything we play and like we can use.

FB: This also seems to pour into the whole aesthetic of your album art, flyers, etc, which I think is very attractive. Who creates all the cool/creepy/weirdo flyers and art?

Marissa: I make all of our album art, and I typically draw most of the flyers. My mom was an art teacher and I've been drawing and painting ever since I was old enough to hold a pencil.

FB: What do you guys think about the whole bunch of bands popping out of and getting talked about from New Jersey semi-lately (ie: yourselves, Titus Andronicus, Vivian Girls, Real Estate, etc)?

Jarrett: All those bands are super cool but aren't really the bands that make up the core of the New Brunswick, NJ DIY scene that we consider ourselves part of. Everyone should definitely check out The Measure [SA], SLAW, Seasick, Full of Fancy, Snowboy, You without Teeth, Mimi and Cristian, The Ergs!, Hunchback, The Atomic Missiles, Plastic East, etc, etc, etc.

FB: What's next for the band after this upcoming tour plus all the West Coast shows scheduled in August? More touring? Thinking about any more recording yet?

Marissa: We have about five new songs completed right now. Not time for a new album yet. Soon enough. We'll be touring again in the fall.

Magik Wednesday

Right now Auditory Magik will enter the air. New musics from Ducktails, Julian Lynch, Best Coast, Sun Araw, Truman Peyote, Pterodactyl, Neon Indian and many many more. Stream liquid from wmua.org, hear vibrant dots through an FM speaker at 91.1 spaces down the dial.

"clasp hands and boldly venture out"

Underwater Peoples blasted me over a bunch of info on that Ducktails/Julian Lynch split 7" they're putting out, which will actually be released this coming Monday July 13. In their own words, the split is "a sonic pilgrimage wrought with diverse adventures," which is a fair description considering the bubbling, Lay-Z-Boy nature of all sounds found here.

When you BUY the 7" you will also receive a DVD of two music videos by Richard Law to accompany the songs, all for the 7"-appropriate price of $7.

Oh, and Martin Courtney from Real Estate was the "artistic director" for the symmetrical and rad cover art (found up there) which was shot by David Hisler.

EDIT:

Here's Ducktails' clear blue water side, "Parasailing."

Ducktails - Parasailing

ALSO:

Check out Julian Lynch's version of "Human Nature," his contribution to the upcoming BUTTERxFACE Michael Jackson tribute album, HERE. The original is probably my favorite Thriller track even up against all the big guys. The album is apparently called Chum Onah and the girls are still taking submissions (BUTTERxFACE@GMAIL.COM) for another week and a half.

One last note - When Sawyer from Underwater Peoples emails you he includes many treats including:

R.I.P.

Once again order the 7" + DVD HERE.