Results tagged “lediamantbrut”

What’s the Deal: Quirky, capricious and dreamy are all adjectives you could use to describe the music of New York’s Freelance Whales. The five piece experimental folk pop outfit has experience playing in locations ranging from decent sized venues as on their current US tour with Fanfarlo to busking on sidewalks and train stations in New York City. They’ve been very busy since their start in late 2008, and this past August saw the release of their debut album, Weathervanes. It’s comprised of vast, melodic arrangements using everything from harmonium and banjo to glockenspiel and waterphone built up around bright, glittering to eerie choruses.

What’s the Deal: Fun Fun Fun Fest has built a reputation of bringing in “What the… I never thought I’d ever have a chance to see that band” bands over the past few years with groups like Dead Milkmen, Bad Brains, Danzig and The Jesus Lizard. In most cities, The Jesus Lizard reunion shows probably wouldn’t be a main event to the masses. But, here in Austin, where an almost unnatural lust for the music we loved from a bygone era (even though the 90s aren’t that long gone) mixes with the fact that the group formed here about 20 years ago before relocating to Chicago, their performance is at the top of many Fun Fest goers’ must-see lists. Also, it doesn’t hurt that the group has a reputation for putting on exciting and ferocious live shows.

What’s the Deal: Not to knock musical threesomes or anything, but when one makes themselves sound like there’s a lot more going on than just a guy on guitar, a guy on bass and another on drums they stick out from the pack. Russian Circles have been called post-metal and post-rock, but really they’re a thick, evolving, expanding instrumental group making the most out of their equipment, drawing forth everything from metallic chugs and thrashes to flickering chimes and climactic cymbal crashes. Fun Fun Fun Fest this year will welcome the Chicago group as they tour in support of their third album, Geneva.

What’s the Deal: As far as instrumental groups go, Austin has its fair share - Balmorhea, Explosions in the Sky, Calm Blue Sea. Why not add San Marcos’ This Will Destroy You to that score card? After all, it’s only about a 30 minute drive to the building and bursting of this foursome’s ambient to supernova sound. Their music is full of atmospheric guitar tangles and sparse but powerful rhythms. The band began gaining positive buzz the same year they formed, in 2005, with the release of their first EP, Young Mountain. Later came their self-titled full-length on Magic Bullet Records. And, this year, they released a split with another Magic Bullet band, Lymbyc System.

What’s the Deal: Fun Fun Fun Fest is always a yearly fix for punk lovers from Austin and beyond. And, bands like the L.A. noise/punk fivesome Miko Mika are responsible for bringing the stuff that makes the voices stop… or start. They have an energetic punk sound full of snappy drumming, power chord distorted guitars, catchy bass riffs and female vocals that make you miss groups like The Slits and The X-Ray Spex. They have a long list of 7 inches, self-released tapes and other recordings under their belts, but none do justice to their live show.

What’s the Deal: Austin isn’t really a place that you would count among the cities in the nation with a thriving metal scene. No, it’s more of a folk, singer/songwriter, country blues, indie rock kind of place. But, one of the few metal outfits the city can boast is Pack of Wolves. The band - Trey Ramirez (vocals, guitar), Tyson J Swindell (guitar), Adrian Carrillo (drums) and Alec Padron (bass) - released their sophomore album, Betrayer, on vinyl earlier this year on Austin’s Arclight Records.

What’s the Deal: According to Dr. Dog, they’re interested in “three-part harmonies, the out-of-doors, hoagies, vegetables and diminished chords.” And, that’s not a bad way to describe them. They’re a slightly eccentric Philadelphia five-piece who play music that’s a little folk, psychedelic, pop, soul, bluegrass and other. The band, all with nicknames like Taxi, Trouble and Tables, have been fortunate to be considered a band’s band by many, helping land them tours with groups like My Morning Jacket, Wilco, The Black Keys, The Cave Singers, and many more fairly early on. With a handful of releases tucked under their collective wing since 2001, the band is set to release another record in early 2010 on Anti- Records.

What’s the Deal: Ah, supergroups. Where would we be without them - The Highwaymen, Traveling Wilburys, Temple of the Dog, Velvet Revolver, Angels & Airwaves, The Dead Weather, and the list goes on? Now, there’s Them Crooked Vultures, a project sure to sell out tours and churn out crave-worthy songs built on the strength of the millions of albums sold of their independent projects. Them Crooked Vultures is vocalist/guitarist Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), drummer Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) and bassist/ keyboardist John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), with Alain Johannes as a live guitarist. They have yet to release a recording, and the only music out there is from snippets of songs released by the band and live recordings on YouTube, which surely, combined with the fact that they haven’t played a date in the U.S. since their debut post-Lollapalooza performance, has hard rock fans chomping at the bit to really see what they’re made of.

What’s the Deal: This New York dance rock foursome will be stopping in at this year’s Austin City Limits between shows in Germany and France to give Austin a taste of the music that’s been scuffing up dance floors in New York City clubs since before the release of their self-titled debut last year. They’re a little funky, a little new wavy and a whole lot of club pop. With at least one former model in the group and a whole heap of songs about young hook ups and coke brunches, the band would be an ideal candidate for shows like Gossip Girl. It will be interesting to see music with such a metropolitan feel make an impact in the heat of Zilker park.

What’s the Deal: The Night Marchers are the latest project of singer/guitarist John Reis, whom you might remember from Rocket from the Crypt, Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu or the Sultans. And, if you are hoping for the same badass guitar riffs and SoCal punk style vocals you’ve come to expect from Reis, then you’re in luck. However, The Night Marchers’ debut, See You in Magic, is more expansive in terms of musical influence than much of Reis’ previous work. On the debut record, released on Vagrant Records and Reis’ own Swami Records, the music this foursome creates bops around between the sounds of hammering alt punk, surf guitar rock, soulful garage rock and other.

Mi and L’au met in Paris, where the Mira Romantschuk was working as a model and Laurent Leclère was a soundtrack musician. The Finnish woman and the French man fell in love, and then tucked themselves away in a cabin for four years in Helsinki writing songs and living humbly. The music that arose from those fire-side song sessions is sparse and emotionally rich folk music often relying on only guitar, voice and a light speckling of other random instruments, making a sound that would no doubt woo Devendra Banhart fans with great ease.

What’s the Deal: Starting out with an introduction to the band through the video for “Aluminum Baseball Bat” is a great idea. It’s a longer, old school, fifties pop love song with soulful vocals, sock hop guitar numbers and spoken word about heartbreak over background doo wops. The video follows the lovesick singer down Lucy Street in Atlanta (Howlies’ hometown) as he grooves along, meets various characters, uses the occasional prop to further the lyrics. There’s even a street party breakdown complete with roller girl, robot and everyone else from the random people committee. It gets a tad obnoxious by the end, but they get major points for creativity.

What’s the Deal: It’s common practice for members of bands, especially punk bands, to spread themselves out and play in many different projects at once. It’s a great way to exercise musical muscles that don’t get enough attention in your current project, and it keeps you busy, prolific and growing. But, with the amount of talent, energy and irresistible punk rock pouring out of this foursome from Denton, it’s almost a crime they don’t concentrate solely on the project. It didn’t take them long at all to become an appreciated addition to Texas punk and rock and roll scenes, especially in Austin. But, maybe we’ve horded them for too long. The Marked Men released their fourth record, Ghosts, this year in their usual DIY, record, produce and mix themselves fashion. The 15, two-minute or so, speedy and somewhat poppy punk tracks on the record earned them high marks with critics as usual.

What’s the Deal: This Boston-based group lead by multi-instrumentalist/singer/songwriter Brian Carpenter has undergone several lineup shifts and some directional changes since their formation in 2002. They began as an improv instrumental group frequently using a circus music vibe as a jumping off point with instruments like sax, accordion, banjo, musical saw, and others. That was during the Ringleaders Revolt recordings. For the release of their second album, Dreamland, Beat Circus moved toward a narrative music style and centered this concept album around historical events in turn-of-the-century New York and Coney Island. Now, their latest is set to be released in September. Boy From Black Mountain is “a collection of very personal songs about children, fatherhood, dreams, lost love, lust, revenge and redemption,” according to Carpenter. The music, which he says is inspired by his son, true stories from his family in the South, and Southern Gothic literature, mixes the sounds of bluegrass, Appalachian strings and a touch of southern gospel into a pot with a stygian, circus orchestra vibe.

What’s the Deal: At Herm’s helm is Dubliner Kevin Connolly, and while he tends to steer his musical craft a little erratically through the chop bouncing between feelings and sounds on his debut album, Monsters, released this year, the independent- minded tunes can all stand tall and strong on their own. They might even prefer it. Connolly and his Hermanos, a backing band he sometimes records and plays shows with, create a wide range of dark blues, melodic and jangled rock, and touching indie folk.

What’s the Deal: There are bands you need to hear, and then there are bands you need to hear. Sin Fang Bous is definitely in the latter camp. The outfit is the handy work of Icelandic 20-something music man Sindri Mar Sigfusson, who you could recall as a founding father of Reykjavik’s folk-pop pride, Seabear. Sin Fang Bous is Sigfusson’s solo project, and he just released the debut full-length, Clangour, this year to nowhere near enough praise. The music is full of imagery, thanks in part to Sigfusson’s choice of singing in English over his native tongue, samples, and sound effects abound giving the project a densely layered yet well constructed sound.

What’s the Deal: They are a young duo - Kyle Wyss and Orha Chettri - making some elemental electronically inclined music fattened up with sounds and effects and landing somewhere in the vicinity of Animal Collective jacked up with psychedelic experimentalism. These two St. Petersburg, FL college students have received shimmering endorsements from a few blogs recently including Kanye West’s. They’ve released self-produced recordings in the past, but their new CD/LP, Season Dreaming, is due out August 18th on Kanine Records.

hey’re not really sad accordions. They’re more like moody guitars, or melancholic keys. But, either way this Austin five-piece’s sound is peppered with folk, indie and atmospheric noise while glistening then dripping and coated with a bittersweet emotional vapor.

Rarely these days is a jazz musician able to puncture the mainstream and even make a dent in contemporary music outside of music schools and dank jazz clubs serving gin and tonics and unfiltered ‘cool’ by the glass. But, there is a small niche of young jazz artists around these days who are keeping the music alive and in some cases taking it places the old guard never did. Christian Scott is a trumpeter from New Orleans who graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2004 and has since released two full-length recordings and a live CD/DVD from his performance at the 2008 Newport Jazz Fest.

What’s the Deal: It almost doesn’t make sense. This guy should be a huge mainstream success. He’s played with John Mayer and David Gray, and he even shares the melodically raspy vocal style of the former. His recordings are near spotless, with gorgeous acoustics and catchy choruses. It’s got to be his total lack of interest in writing meaningless, rhyming lyrics for the club about a girl and how her body is a “wonderland” Instead, his songs, which stay true to the storytelling style of folk songwriting, involve subject matter that’s much more serious and at times pretty dark. He sings about the Iraq war, his brother’s drug addiction, cancer, vengeance and even the Holocaust. There’s a definite dichotomy of light and dark, heavy and weightless going on in his music. The words are weighty, the sounds are airy. He sings some about God and an afterlife, but with a certain amount of fear, honesty and vulnerability. The self-destructive and fragile nature of the human condition is a major theme.

One half of The Gentle Guest’s songs sound like an American hobo ho-down that might go on in the very latest hours of the night after they’ve abandoned their stoops and street corners and headed down to the old railroad tracks. The songs are full of clamoring drums, tambourines, plucked and bowed stringed instruments, eerie horns, and shanty-esque group singing that sounds like a dark and folky good time. The other half of the songs are moody, acoustic pieces featuring just Eric Rykal, his voice and a guitar.

What’s the Deal: Gaby Moreno is a Guatemalan singer/songwriter living in Los Angeles. Her bilingual tunes blend acoustic, soul and pop into a sound that’s strong enough to win the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, which is part of the Maxell Song of the Year awards.

YOUNG LOVE What’s the Deal: Young Love’s new album, One of Us, released on Island is available for sale at Target, but we won’t hold that against them. To be sure there are countless bands who would gladly sport the red dot. For those who are not already in the know, Young Love is a NYC-based synth rock group whose lead singer, Dan Keyes, fronted the Austin group Recover and gained substantial indie popularity around aught-two. So, if the name sounds familiar, that could mean you were paying attention to your local music scene in the early 2000s. Prior to the release of One of Us late last month, Young Love spent plenty of time playing and touring off the songs of their 2007 debut, Too Young to Fight It, which got them listed in Billboard as one of “2007’s Best Bets” and brought them the attention of the mainstream music heads at MTV.

They’re a Swedish post-punk, new-wavey outfit who draw consistently positive examinations of their music. They trio’s music has been described as “the missing step between Joy Division and New Order,” and their sound often transitions back and forth between the thrum of synth and agitated noise-punk. Their debut, An Object, came out about a year ago on Sweden’s Novoton, which is home to groups like Antennas and Norma. The band, who refer to themselves as kraut-punk, is comprised of members of The Bear Quartet and Audionom.

These two brothers, Ryoichiro and Kenichi Yoshida, are huge in their native Japan, but they’re just starting to crack the states. The Yoshida Brothers are masters of the Tsugaru-shamisen, a fast and percussive three-stringed instrument with a long history in Asian music. What sets these guys apart from most other shamisen players out there, and there actually are a lot, is that the Yoshida Brothers are revitalizing the sound by playing it with the same vigor as rock and roll guitarists, and they’ve injected outside influences like jazz, folk and blues. The brothers sometimes play solo, with just them clad in kimonos and hakama pants and their instruments, and other times with different incarnations of a band with electric guitar, keyboard, bass and drums. It gives them a traditional-meets-new, East-meets-West sound that’s refreshing and altogether difficult to forget.

They’re a bouncy rock and roll four-piece full of energy and that extra somethin’ special from Huntsville, Alabama. They played South by Southwest this year to less-than-impressive crowds, which is not a testament to their music but instead says something about everyone’s willingness to seek out new music on their own. They are the perfect band to snap you out of that South by funk that all too often takes root in the final laps. With their guitar/bass/drums/organ setup pumping out a sound that’s built of punk, blues, garage, pop and other, you’d have to be as cold as a corpse to not find something there to rattle your bones.

“Ain’t Over” from People Skills is one of the more immediately remembered songs on the album. It has a very sing along-friendly chorus that feels more than a tad over the top at times. The electronic buzz and beats behind some very spoken wordy vocals are easily enjoyable and whimsical.

The subject of today’s installment must be supergroups because here’s one more reason to like Austin music, and it starts with a name you may already know, American Analog Set.

Here's a look back at a few entries from the vaults of Le Diamant Brut. These are bands we've profiled in the past who are playing SXSW this year. Following a little about the artists is a list of shows they're playing during the fest, and we say it's a musical imperative that you make it out to at least one of them.

Eric Ronick and Than Luu have spent a large portion of their music-making careers backing up other groups. Now, the two Brooklyn multi-instrumentalists have joined forces to craft some of the most melodic, atmospheric, melodramatic tunes merging pop, indie rock and electronics that two natural musicians can muster. Their debut, Rush, came out earlier this year, and it utilizes the infectious sounds of keys, strings, guitars and beats to create a lullaby that’s hard to wake up from.