New Young Pony Club are a five piece indie/electronica band from London, England. Taking influences from New Wave bands such as Talking Heads and Blondie, and combining them with dance rhythms and synths, they are perhaps more deserving of the “Nu Rave” tag than many other bands in the sub-genre such as Klaxons and SHITDISCO. However, like other bands associated with the label, they are quick to dismiss it.
The band are keen to take their cues from a whole range of sources, and try not to risk becoming too close to the sound of any one other band. Their own take on their music is “We marry the dance ethic with the pop ethic, and make something that you can dance to and sing along to.”
MSTRKRFT (read as “Master-kraft”) is an electronic music group from Toronto (East York), Ontario, Canada who are signed to Last Gang Records. The group was started in 2005 by Jesse F. Keeler formerly of Death from Above 1979 and Al-P (Alex Puodziukas) formerly of the Mississauga electropop group Girlsareshort. Al-P was also the producer for Death from Above 1979’s second album You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine as well as several of (Jesse’s former band) Black Cat #13’s records. MSTRKRFT also produced Die Mannequin’s first EP, How to Kill, and Magneta Lane’s second LP, Dancing With Daggers.
[tags]mstrkrft, electronica, techno, mixes, cds, music, artist of the day[/tags]
John Baldessari is a conceptual artist. His work often attempts to point out irony in contemporary art theory and practices or reduce it to absurdity. His art has been featured in more than 120 solo exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe.
[tags]i am making art, john baldessari, conceptual art, absurdist, videos, crazy art[/tags]
Someone once said Louisville KY based “Your Black Star is a long stretch of highway on a hot summer night. It is a blanket of pitch-black sky pocked with thousands of points of light. It is your headlights searching the road ahead, a mystery unfolding as you roll forth into the darkness. It is a sense of calm as you roll off into the void, more curious than frightened.”
Now the indie band who has released “Sound from the Ground” on Wonka Vision Records and the ep “Beasts” this past July on indie Hawthorne Street Records is ready to bring some of this mysterious new rock back to the east coast with a run of dates this February.
Feb 12-Harrisburg, PA-Ceoltas Irish Pub
Feb 14-Washington, DC-The Velvet Lounge
Feb 16-Providence, RI-The Penalty Box Bar
Feb 17-NYC-The Annex w/Fresh Kills, Apollo Heights, Irv Irving
Feb 18-VA Beach, VA-South End Pub
Feb 22-Athens, GA-Go Bar
Mar 15-Louisville, KY-Headliners w/Pelican
*more dates to be announced shortly.
Your Black Star was formed in 2001 by singer/guitarist Jeremy Johnson and drummer Andrew Osborn, two kindred spirits bonded by their love of bombastic, fearless rock ‘n’ roll. Like a lot of bands, the birthing process proved difficult; bassists came and went before a true fellow traveler was discovered in Brandon Duggins. They have taken a decidedly unorthodox approach to building a fan base. Rather than fall into the trap that some bands fall into, Your Black Star resisted the temptation of becoming a bunch of local heroes who only play before adoring friends and neighbors. Rather, they threw themselves on the crucible that is the never-ending tour, taking the show on the road to test themselves before unfamiliar audiences. A friendship with the Japanese band Drum:Kan prompted Your Black Star to venture to Japan, where it quickly developed an unlikely connection with rock-starved fans. Tours of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom provoked a similar reaction, as well as positive international press and numerous spins on the influential BBC. “You can sit around and wait for that one big break to happen,” said Johnson, “Or you can put yourself out there and give yourself as many opportunities as you can.” Overseas buzz led to deals with labels in Japan, England and Australia, but the band was a bit of a mystery back home, more well known in Tokyo and Sydney than in the nightclubs of Louisville. Seeing this as less a problem than an opportunity, Johnson, Osborn and Duggins have spent the better part of the past two years rampaging through the states, playing in the esteemed South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin and the CMJ Festival in New York as well as sharing the stage with Sleater-Kinney, The Hold Steady, Pelican, The New Pornographers, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Catfish Haven. -Thomas Nord
What are others saying about Your Black Star?
“Epic indie rock with big, hairy balls.”
-Kerrrang!
“Kentucky’s your black star might be the band to spark American indie-rock’s true resurgence.”
-Prefix Magazine
“A lightning bolt straight out of kentucky. 9/10”
-Blunt magazine
“Soaked in intensity, choking on dark, sprawling soundscapes.”
-Fasterlouder.com
“Sonic landscapes and stoner vocal vibes that make Explosions In The Sky sound like Westlife.”
-Roots and Branches
“If this is what happens when the punks grow up, I’m all in.”
-Punknews.org
Au Revoir Simone is an indie pop band from Brooklyn, New York that formed in late 2003. The group consists of Erika Forster (vocals/keyboard), Annie Hart (vocals/keyboard), and Heather D’Angelo (vocals/drum machine/keyboard). Forster and Hart became friends while traveling by train from Vermont to New York. The band’s name comes from a line Pee-Wee Herman says to a minor character (named Simone) in Tim Burton’s Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.
