Wah Together Drop 7″

I’m surprised given the pedigree of the members in Wah Together that the band aren’t getting more hype; the group features members of Longwave, LCD Soundsystem and the Rapture, so they’re cool in my book before they even started singing. But, with Jaiko Suzuki on vocals, singing in Japanese, the band take this blend of sort of skronky post-punk and rev it up into this mashing of pop and noise. It’s this swirling mixture where drums crash heavily while the rhythm section spastically pushes you forward, all of it circling around the gravitational pull of Suzuki. I can totally get behind this; you can too buy grabbing the 7″ from the band HERE. They’ll have an album out next year via Dedstrange in March.

Have A Nice Weekend

Jay-Z is playing ACL.

LCD Soundsystem has released two songs into the digital wild.

Resume your regularly scheduled programming.

Here is a the latest track from Beacon, realized I hadn’t shared it yet. According to a bookface post, it is a hint of what to expect from the new record pending on Ghostly. When artists are given the ultimate freedom of the digitally (or analog in the case of classic synths) crafted soundscape, I am disappointed how often that soundscape can be squandered or derivative. The creation of the tones and waves, how they transition and fall into the feeling of the track, maybe a half beat early or late, pitch-shifted or hot cut, will often decide whether or not I will spend two seconds or all day listening to a track. The foundation and eventual fall of the primary groove here, the transition between notes and octaves, the way it disapperas as the track progresses and leaves behind the refrain closing the song, but is still present in melody is why I spent more than two seconds listening.

…and what I say here stands for the bangers and the ambients, dance pop and deep house, you gotta do something with it.

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ACL WE2 Sunday in Photos

acl-we2-3021Hi.

Austin just went through another “festival” with what appears to have been a rather successful Formula One race weekend. I am an F1 fan and the three days out at the circuit are treated as a staycation for the wife and I. Why am I telling you this? I do not know.

Back on topic, The final batch of photos from ACL are ready for your consumption. Sunday was a sleeper day. The fest was sneeky-fun and I had a great day with my photo friends. The weather was amazing again and we had some big WE2 exclusives.

First, I did not go anywhere near that crowd for Willie. It was INSANE!!! A friend went up in a cherry picker and took twenty some-odd wide angle photos and stitched them together into an impressive panorama. Instead, I watched the set via festival TV and relaxed. Ra Ra Riot, on the other hand, was an early in the day highlight of festival hits. Amasa Hines was the surprise, think blues guys doing Interpol covers. Also on the BMI stage, Atlas Genius drew the biggest crowd I have ever seen at our favorite stage at ACL. NF did an Eminem impression, just grabbed photos on the way to Pete Yorn. Local Natives ooh-ahh’ed straight into our hearts. St. Paul and The Broken Bones brought the soul review to life, though I was concerned the Saint’s jaw would unhinge and swallow one of us whole. Miike Snow filled a gap; too much fog. Young the Giant got sexy and dirty to a fanatical crowd obsessed by frontman Sameer Gadhia while the band seemingly went through the motions.

And finally the second bucket-list shoot, LCD Soundsystem gave us the end-of-the-fest dance party. Seeing their set two weekends in a row, you realize that it is scripted and I guess that is understandable given the number of synth, percussion and instrument changes required. Didn’t stop WE2’s dance party from being any less awesome…

Click through for the pretty photos.

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ACL 2016: Weekend One From The Crowd

nd4_0348Kicking off some official ACL coverage beyond our social media blitzes from the world. Weekend One was the version of ACL where we get to see bands, spend time with friends and get snarky about the future of America and the music industry.

This gallery will feature some artists, mostly crowd related action and some highlights, calling out Lucy Dacus. Lucy’s set at the BMI stage was great. She and the band were sweet people and we’re fans.

Click through for the shots and a couple of random notes…

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Gimme 5 ACL: Corbu

unnamedAs we get ready for ACL this weekend, team ATH has been trying to find new ideas for providing coverage for this year’s festival in unique and exciting ways. An idea was given to me recently to have a group highlight some of their favorite bands on the bill by way of a 5 song playlist. I jumped at the idea and asked New York City based outfit Corbu to be our very first playlist band. Maybe you’ll find something you like or rediscover an oldie that you forgot about. Check out the band’s words and playlist after the jump.

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Festival Recap: Day 1 of Primavera Sound 2016

LCD SoundSystem 05Heineken_EricPamies

Photo by Eric Pamies

While each day’s slated program of Primavera Sound 2016 was filled with great bands from all over the world, Thursday, the first day of the festival at Parc del Forum, was for me, the busiest of them all. Thursday had me bouncing around from stage to stage, and hustling to make the most of my time while keeping the headliners in the back of my mind. Read on after the jump to hear what were the best parts of day one and see some pictures.

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Groove to the Beat of Kisses

kissesI feel like somewhere I gravitated away from dance music in the last few years. I hit it hard for awhile, then I sort of went the opposite direction again; it’s the cycle of my musical life. Anyways, I can definitely hear remnants of the 00s dance greats like LCD Soundsystem and !!! in the groove crafted by Kisses on this new track. It’s about as funky as anything they’ve done (that might be the reason for the title “Jam”), and it doesn’t hurt that they’re tossing out names like Talking Heads and Orange Juice in all the press literature. Wanna get down today? Wanna get down on October 9th? Then check out their new effort, Rest in Paradise.

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Something Different ft. London O’ Connor

londonIt’s always been hard for me to really indulge in my friend’s hip-hop interests. There’s just never been something that really sucked me in to that world.  Sure, I can appreciate the more poetic styles, but today I’ve been hooked on something a bit different, coming from London O’Connor.  This tune from the producer has him rapping over various parts, but there’s this huge swell of pop construction that operates as the chorus; that’s precisely the piece that sold me on this track.  It’s almost like late LCD Soundsytem with your little brother rapping in and out. He also created a video game for you to play with the song; you can check that out HERE.

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Contest: Ticket Giveaway for Pat Mahoney of LCD Soundsytem

1149650_600371506701037_1279571646_oAlright all you dance-ateria types, we’ve got a great deal for you courtesy of our friends at Learning Secrets.  They’re putting on an incredible dance party this Saturday night at Kingdom featuring Pat Mahoney as Museum of Love; he’s one of the founding members of LCD Soundsytem.  You can definitely hear how the beats were constructed for the old group, though Mahoney has a different spin on the vocal take than James Murphy (deeper).  Plus, not only do you get to hear Mahoney and his friends throw down, but the boys in Learning Secrets will be opening up the night too, taking on a two hour set starting at 10.  Tickets are $15 HERE, or you can pay $20 at the door.  Your best option is to leave us a comment telling us why you deserve to go to this; it’s that simple. Contest closes Friday at Midnight.

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My New Best Friend, James Murphy…

We are pretty lucky to live here in Austin. Friday night, the wife and I started out at the friendly confines of The Mohawk, caught a kick ass set from Flesh Lights, chilled at a picnic table, had beer, whisky, and Topo Chico with good people that also love our music scene.

Red7 played host to a DJ set from James Murphy thanks to Learning Secrets. The wife got tix and that means that we became besties with the leader of one of my favorite things, LCD Soundsystem.

Click though for evidence…

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