Today's Hotness: Big Deal, Swirlies, 11:59, Cannons

>> Hotly tipped London indie duo Big Deal have disclosed at long last that its debut full-length, Lights Out, will be issued by Mute Oct. 11. The release will be preceded by a single for the song "Chair" Aug. 30. The barely year-old pairing of Kacey Underwood and Alice Costelloe arrived on the scene last fall with the desperately beautiful and delicate acoustic single "Homework," released by Records Records Records. The new, 12-song long-player was co-produced by Mr. Underwood and a fellow named Dean Reid, which is interesting to note because we reported here last October that the band was working with former Strokes producer Gordon Raphael. Perhaps Mr. Raphael engineered? Who knows. A quick search of Soundcloud turns up a Big Deal track we had not yet heard which appears on the track listing for Lights Out (although we can't say for certain this version will be on the album, of course). The tune is called "Talk;" check it out below. Big Deal spends seemingly the rest of the summer playing UK festivals, so if you are inclined to go to a festival, perhaps check the complete list of engagements right here to make sure you get to see what Big Deal is all about.

Talk by Big Deal

>> The Swirlies mini-tour we first mentioned here last month has announced all of the currently confirmed dates. Sadly, as of yet, there is no Boston performance slated, although there is a faint rumble from Allston about pigs being greased or some such, so perhaps all is not yet lost. But for now, here are all of the dates that are fully pig-greased. In case you've forgotten how awesome Swirlies are, check out the awesome video for "Bell." Every time we watch, we are transported to the back bedroom of a bungalow in Central Pennsylvania, Fall 1993. Magic!

07.21 -- Baltimore, MD -- Talking Head
07.22 -- Washington, DC -- Rock & Roll Hotel
07.23 -- Philadelphia, PA -- Johnny Brenda's (2PM)
07.24 -- New York, NY -- Beekman's Beer Garden (3PM)

>> Billing your band as an amalgamation of three styles is a daring proposition, and it is downright fool-hardy, these days anyway, to state one of those styles is ska. So we were very pleasantly surprised when we listened to two new tracks from 11:59. Firstly, because neither of the upstart trio from Sydney, Australia's songs were ska numbers. But mostly because the threesome plays angular guitar pop in the vein of all the youthful UK greats of the last decade. 11:59 has issued a series of singles and EPs during the last four years, and its most recent is a digital single entitled Ou Est Le Tissier. Released in May and comprised of two tunes, it is the latter number, "Girls Girls Girls," that captured our ear, with its vocal harmonies, guitar attack and uptempo rhythm. You can stream the tune via the Soundcloud embed below, and we highly recommend that you do. We were so moved we included it in our New Music Night DJ set last month. It's a spikey guitar-pop anthem, a perfect anthem for summer nights and beer drinking with the mates.

1159 - Girls Girls Girls by oneonefivenine

>> Philly-based post-hardcore concern Cannons have returned with a new EP that expands the quartet's palate to include not only satisfying, brawny punk but now also quirky Stylophone instrumentals. The collection is called Cuddled By Giants, and it's a bit odd, but it fits with Cannons' personality (Cuddled By Giants opens with a track called "You Might Be Scum," for example), first made evident on the band's crackling 2010 debut Friendly Muscles, which we wrote about here. In the interim between the two releases Cannons downsized from four to three members and released the free teaser The Japam Demos to the Interzizzles via Bandcamp [download]. One of the highlights of the new EP is the hooky hard rocker "All The Glue You Can Huff!," which amusingly alternates la-la-la backing vocals with scritchy, Pond-esque guitars. You remember Pond, right (we hope so, as the Internet can barely remember)? Cannons released Cuddled By Giants May 26, and you can grab the whole shebang at Bandcamp right here for three paltry American dollars. You should do that. By way of appetite-whetting, stream "All The Glue You Can Huff!" below.

Rock Over Boston North Adams: Wilco's Solid Sound Festival

[Photos from Wilco's Solid Sound Festival at MassMOCA in North Adams, MA 6/24-6/26/2011. Photos by Michael Piantigini.]

It rained. Like, a lot. I'm generally skeptical about big music festivals. Overcrowded, hot, overpriced concessions, and acts I'd rather see in a dark club at night rather than a massive dusty field in broad daylight. But I'll be damned if Wilco don't have this all figured out. I doubt you'd find very many of the reported 6300 (at its max) attendees of Solid Sound with anything bad to say, even about all that rain. It was a nuisance at the time (and I have the shoes to prove it), but it already seems like a distant footnote.

Sure, the letters crawling down the clock tower at the entrance spelled Wilco, but the vibe here was more celebration than marketing opportunity. I suppose some more cynical than I (if that's possible) could argue that Wilco's latter-day reasonableness is their weakness, but here at Solid Sound, at least, it was decidedly in our favor. Beers topped out at $5, sandwiches at $6 (with chips!), the crucial rain ponchos were $2, Popsicles were a buck, and bottles of water - also one damn dollar. By Sunday, I was almost begging to be ripped off in some way. The closest I came was the money I seemed to be separated from in Euclid Records' extraordinarily good pop-up record store on site, but since I got a bunch of great records in return we'll call it even. The man I assumed to be the store's owner told me "yeah, for one weekend you might have the best used record store in the country." We may have.

Handpicked by Wilco, the bands at the festival covered a fair amount of territory. The edges of noisy garage psych were covered by festival-openers Purling Hiss and Sic Alps, folkies Sara Lee and Johnny (that's Sara Lee Guthrie, of course) got Saturday started, while indie pop was later covered by Brooklyn's Here We Go Magic. Sixties soul was covered by near-legend Syl Johnson (who loves to talk - justifiably - about how Wu Tang Clan paid him a boatload of money for a sample, and about his recent box set), 70's roots rock by The Band's confirmed legend, Levon Helm, and 80's pop was taken care of by legend-in-some-circles Neil Finn and his new band, Pajama Club.

As is fitting the family atmosphere at Solid Sound, the various Wilco side projects well-represented: Mikael Jorgensen's Pronto was missed by this reporter, but John Stirratt and Pat Sansone's The Autumn Defense played to an overflow crowd in the smaller Courtyard C, and Glenn Kotche and Nels Cline were inescapable), Neil's son Liam Finn played a crackerjack set on Saturday. He sounded at times like his father, but with a much bigger, more rocking sound that warrants further investigation.

Courtyard D's brick borders were filled by Nels Cline and Thurston Moore's guitar duo Pillow Wand's squalling one hour noise improv barely 90 minutes after JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound's solid Chicago soul and funk groove had people dancing in the same spot.

Our hosts Wilco headlined playing full 2-hour sets on Friday and Saturday night, and played only a couple of songs twice: their new taut new-wavy single "I Might," and another new one, "Born Alone." The small handful of other new tracks they debuted hinted at a peppier, poppier new album when The Whole Love is released this fall. Any Wilco fatigue I might have been experiencing dissipated rather quickly as they dug into their catalog highlights both old ("Shouldn't Be Ashamed," "I Got You (at the End of the Century)" on Friday; "Box Full of Letters," "Passenger Side" on Saturday) and new ("Impossible Germany," "Bull Black Nova" on Friday, "Hate It Here," "One Wing" on Saturday). A festival like this was made for guest spots, of course: they followed up their "I Got You" on Friday night with Neil Finn joining them for his similarly titled Split Enz classic and Saturday brought some guest guitar work from Liam Finn on "You Never Know," and some vocals from Sara Lee Guthrie (and her bandmate Johnny Irion) on her grandfather Woody's lyrics to "California Stars."

Levon Helm and His Rambling Band closed it all out with "The Weight," of course, though some of us were winding the mountainous Route 2 back home by that point. We saw enough of his set to regret it, though. He's a legend for a reason, and his band has a confidence and a gravity befitting that legend. Glad I got the chance to see him. He does a regular series of concerts in his home studio in Woodstock, NY for a small audience. Might be a worthwhile pilgrimage.

MassMOCA - and North Adams in general - were gracious hosts and it's easy to see why Wilco would want to base their showcase here. Plus, the remoteness of the spot keeps the numbers manageable. It was not at all difficult to keep running into friends - and members of Wilco and the other bands - all over the museum's campus. Might has well have been in a friend's backyard.

-Michael Piantigini


WILCO: Intertubes | Facebook | Twitter | Solid Sound

Through The Kaleidoscope: An Interview With Ringo Deathstarr's Elliot Frazier

Clicky Clicky has worshipped at the altar of Ringo Deathstarr since we were turned onto the band by the Spoilt Victorian Child blog and record label in early 2007. The Texas-based shoegaze titans (back then we think HQ was Beaumont, but these days it's Austin) made a formidable first impression with beautiful, delicate demos and squalling guitar anthems, and -- as we note below -- singer and guitarist Elliot Frazier has consistently delivered on the promise of those early recordings. The band's performances are riotous, the Deathstarr's "fuck it" attitude is refreshing, and we couldn't be more excited for the trio's show this Saturday at Great Scott in Boston, Mass. Although Twitpic currently places Ringo Deathstarr at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio studio, and the band is in the midst of an ambitious U.S. tour, we were able to convince Mr. Frazier to sit still long enough to type up responses to a couple rounds of questions, which we present below. The Deathstarr has local support for Saturday's show from Young Adults, making the night a no-brainer. Check out the interview below, then come on out for the filth and the fury. We reviewed Ringo Deathstarr's hotly anticipated debut full-length Colour Trip right here in May.

CC Ever since the time I first became aware of Ringo Deathstarr in February 2007, the band's aesthetic has remained fairly consistent. Even accounting for the more articulated, dancey rhythms of the recent singles and the full-length, Ringo Deathstarr's vision hasn't drastically changed over the last four years. Frankly, as a guy who has had his share of disappointments with bands changing their sounds too drastically (say, Rocketship's transformation from twee-gaze dynamo to the more electronic/dance oriented stuff), we are extremely grateful you've stayed the course. Is consistency something you consciously consider as a songwriter?

EF Yes, we feel your pain. We don't want to change our methods for playing music, i.e. gradually get softer or less guitar-oriented. But, we don't want to do the same record twice. Our sound will evolve, but I don't think we will stop playing fuzzed-out songs with poppy melodies any time soon.

CC Is there still some musical perfection you're trying to attain? Have you ever written a song and said, "well, it's never gonna get better than that one."

EF No, I've never thought that. I do think we can't get our next record to sound any more like Loveless, for example. We don't want to either. So, we will just try and have a different vibe, maybe more energy or whatever.

CC Will the band ever record a studio version of "Your Town?" Do you guys ever play it live?

EF There is a studio version on Sparkler, which is coming out on vinyl next month. We have played it a few times.

CC I think I read Sparkler is getting issued in England now?

EF Yeah, [it's] gonna be on vinyl. Why should Japan be the only place with that album?

CC As far as I can recall, your first release was via a small U.K. label. And the footage of the Japanese shows in particular suggests that Ringo Deathstarr is far bigger in Japan than the U.S. From your perspective, does it seem like non-U.S. audiences "get" Ringo Deathstarr more than domestic fans? If so, can you think of anything to attribute that to? The disparity perplexes me.

EF Yeah, I suppose the other countries get it more, probably because they are smaller... the same thing has been true for many bands in the past.

CC Have you (or anyone in the band) ever had your heart broken by a band that just changed too much, all at once?

EF Death Cab For Cutie, Green Day, Interpol...

CC You work at American Apparel. Alex's Tumblr (I'm not a stalker, I swear) gives me the sense that she is more about fashion than you are. Is the gig at American Apparel just a job, or do you have any greater interest in fashion at all?

EF We are into fashion for sure. I used to aspire to be a fashion photographer, but I didn't move to NYC or LA right after high school so it didn't work out. I like used clothing stores the best. American Apparel is just a job though. I receive and send shipments.

CC Given that interest in fashion photography, it seems odd that Ringo Deathstarr is, shall we say, under-merchandised? I think I've only ever seen one Ringo Deathstarr t-shirt design, and that was recently on Facebook. I don't even know if you actually sold it. And we read things and talk to bands all the time talking about merch being a high-margin, potentially formidable revenue stream for a touring act. Is there something distasteful you find about merchandising Ringo Deathstarr, or is it just a matter of limited resources?

EF We have been making our own shirts since the beginning of this year. but it takes a lot of time and money to make the amount that we need. Time is the biggest resource that we lack.

CC How did you get away with playing a dozen shows at South By Southwest this year? I am surprised promoters in Austin don't come back to you with a little, "well, you guys are here all the time...."

EF SXSW is just its own entity, so it doesn't affect the promoters at all. We try not to play too much in Austin, we did Chaos In Tejas recently in May, and won't play there again 'til July 16th. SXSW is more about playing to as many people as possible, since there's a lot that are from out of town.

CC Do you already have songs for a new record? Will there be new Ringo Deathstarr music in stores before the year is out?

EF Yeah we have some songs. I can't say either way if it will be released before year's end. Probably a single or something.

CC Ummmm. Weren't you a quartet for a while?

EF The band has been a 3-piece, a 4-piece, a 3-piece again, a 4-piece again, now back to three.

CC You collect VHS tapes. Your house is on fire -- which cassettes get stuffed in your pants as you flee the inferno?

EF "Kids," "Encino man," and "Goodfellas."

CC Really? A Pauley Shore movie is in your top 3? Or are you more of a Brendan Fraser fan?

EF If you're edged cuz I'm weezing off your grindage, just chill. Cuz if I had the whole Brady Bunch thing happenin' at my pad, I'd go grind over there. So don't tax my gig so hardcore, cruster.

CC You got it.

Ringo Deathstarr's "Imagine Hearts"

Footage: Archers Of Loaf's "Harnessed In Slums"

The web exclusive from the band's appearance Friday night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Jimmy Kimmel Live. Strong. [A hat tip to The Koomdogg for the correction and another to Mr. Breeze for sending us the link in the first place].

Young Adults with Ringo Deathstarr | Great Scott, Boston | July 2

We don't know how to make this more plain: next Saturday night's show at Boston's Great Scott with Austin-based shoegaze assassins Ringo Deathstarr and local ambient punk heroes Young Adults may very well be the show of the summer. By our count it is The Deathstarr's third area gig, although coincidentally (or not?) we've been violently ill for the trio's past two Boston dates and therefore we have yet to see their brand of deafening chaos live. We'll have an interview with Ringo Deathstarr online later this week and will offer more exposition about them then. Saturday will also be the first time we've seen Young Adults, again due to a series of unfortunate circumstances. Bostonians with their ear to the ground can breathe a sigh of relief: while founding Young Adults bassist Demitri Swan has left the band, Chris and Kurt Villon have recruited a successor and plan to continue Young Adults' remarkable rise out of the basements of Allston-Brighton and into the regional and even international consciousness. Tickets are allegedly still available for the show; don't be stupid. Prague-based Amdiscs is still selling Young Adults' debut full-length Black Hole as an LP or digital download right here.

Young Adults' "Let Us Out"

Today's Hotness: Fonda, Lilac

>> It's an all-too-familiar story: good band releases three records, drops off the map, and the word is the band members are doing "adult" "stuff" like earning a living, starting a family, finishing the advanced degree, et cetera. What happens much less frequently than we'd like has fortunately happened to dream-pop lifers Fonda: after an eight-year hiatus, the LA-based act has returned to making music. Fonda first formed almost two decades ago when core members David Klotz and Emily Cook (now married with children) met in Hollywood. We didn't know Fonda's work the first time around, but its forthcoming Better Days EP's arresting presentation of sounds first made famous by My Bloody Valentine, Ride and Slowdive is quite engaging. We were particularly intrigued to learn that former The Mighty Lemon Drops guitarist -- and former producer for Clicky Clicky favorites The Hush Now -- David Newton was once part of the band, although he is no longer. Better Days closes with the humming, pulsing delight "Summertime Flight," which the band was cool enough to allow us to post for download. The song opens with a subdued verse before bursting open into a strident, elegiac smiler, during which Mr. Klotz and Ms. Cook blissfully harmonize "you've wasted your life, you've wasted your life on me."

Fonda -- "Summertime Flight" -- Better Days
[right click and save as]
[buy Better Days from Fonda at Bandcamp right here]

>> A lot of fizzing 60's jangle (guitars! organ! tambourine!) and a little bit of shoegaze make Lilac's self-titled EP something we've been returning to again and again. The relatively new, San Francisco-based quartet describes itself alternately as "pop religion" and "heavy driving acid grunge dream," neither of which makes sense to us. But the music on Lilac's new EP -- in addition to being remarkable and efficient -- suggests a broad vision that implicates elements of Rocketship and The Stone Roses and The Kinks and The Monkees, and those are all good things. The resulting music is wholly immediate, but if we had to point our finger at a stand-out track from the new EP we'd have to select "Days," which commences with an insistent bass line and the sort of guitar jangle that is hard-wired into our hearts; an over-driven, riotous bridge and chorus around the two-minute mark transforms the song into an undeniable summer anthem. Lilac has been available on ITunes and presumably other digital storefronts since June 7; the EP will be available on vinyl from Omega Records July 19.

Days by LILAC_MUSIC

Footage: Yuck's "Shook Down"

Premiered by Consequence of Sound, pimped by Pantsfork, but if you still haven't watched this video for Yuck's terrific mid-tempo strummer "Shook Down," you really, really should. It features naked people in it, but we're tired of calling things not safe for work; you are either a grown-up who is allowed to know what a human body looks like, or you are not. Can't wait to hear new material from these guys. The London-based quartet/sometimes quintet releases "Shook Down" as a double A-sided singled with "Milkshake" next week, as we first wrote here in mid-May. Here's an embed of "Milkshake" in case you missed it first time around.

"Milkshake" by Yuck