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Representing Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, FYM showcases original artwork, thoughtful well-written feature stories about our favorites in art, music, and culture on the West Coast.
Saturday’s forecast may call for rain in Seattle, clouds and temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s in San Francisco, and temperatures in the mere 70’s in Los Angeles, but, believe it or not, summer is in full gear.
Just like how the British have their own special annual race to the top of the charts during Christmas, America has always had a special affinity for some purely bright and warm songs of Summer. The pop charts are always flooded with these songs (see: “California Gurls”, “Umbrella”, “Best I Ever Had”, etc.), but the indie community sees their fair share of these songs as well.
The first of three such songs that will surely dominate Last.fm charts of users of all kinds is “Go Outside” by New York City via San Diego band Cults. The song is absolutely infectious and should indeed inspire you to back away from your computer and exit the great indoors:
“Rill Rill” by Sleigh Bells is actually one of the more uncharacteristically quieter songs from their excellent debut Treats, but it’s easily the most danceable and its steady beat is downright hypnotic:
Because it’s a slightly fresher release, we’re going with the ‘Armour Love Remix’ version of last year’s fantastic Major Lazer’s “Can’t Stop Now” over the original. This version is from the recent Major Lazer/La Roux mixtape Lazerproof, which takes “Can’t Stop Now” from 2009’s Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do and mixes it up with the La Roux track “Armour Love”:
Saturday’s forecast may call for rain in Seattle, clouds and temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s in San Francisco, and temperatures in the mere 70’s in Los Angeles, but, believe it or not, summer is in full gear.
Just like how the British have their own special annual race to the top of the charts during Christmas, America has always had a special affinity for some purely bright and warm songs of Summer. The pop charts are always flooded with these songs (see: “California Gurls”, “Umbrella”, “Best I Ever Had”, etc.), but the indie community sees their fair share of these songs as well.
The first of three such songs that will surely dominate Last.fm charts of users of all kinds is “Go Outside” by New York City via San Diego band Cults. The song is absolutely infectious and should indeed inspire you to back away from your computer and exit the great indoors:
“Rill Rill” by Sleigh Bells is actually one of the more uncharacteristically quieter songs from their excellent debut Treats, but it’s easily the most danceable and its steady beat is downright hypnotic:
Because it’s a slightly fresher release, we’re going with the ‘Armour Love Remix’ version of last year’s fantastic Major Lazer’s “Can’t Stop Now” over the original. This version is from the recent Major Lazer/La Roux mixtape Lazerproof, which takes “Can’t Stop Now” from 2009’s Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do and mixes it up with the La Roux track “Armour Love”:
The lineup for the 2010 FYF Fest has been unveiled/leaked:
This festival takes place at Los Angeles’ State Historic Park near downtown, which was going to be the site of the recently canceled HARD Festival (headlined by M.I.A. and N*E*R*D). Los Angeles authorities nixed that particular event supposedly due to the one death and 100+ injuries sustained during last month’s Electric Daisy Carnival.
Cancelations or not, FYF 2010 boasts the best lineup for any Californian music festival this summer. Just going through the lineup: The Rapture, Panda Bear, !!!, Delorean, Best Coast, Wavves, Dead Man’s Bones, Ted Leo, The Blow, Cults, Man Man, Abe Vigoda, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Washed Out, and Warpaint are absolute can’t-miss bands. You won’t spend a better $25 this summer.
Nice to see FYF book some artists that have seemed to be absent for a while, including The Rapture, Sleep, Man Man, and The Blow.
Keep your eyes peeled on For Young Moderns for some posts dedicated to several of these FYF artists. For starters, here’s a video (recorded by For Young Moderns) of energetic Spaniards Delorean performing “Seasun” (from the excellent Subiza) at the Echoplex in Los Angeles back in April:
The lineup for the 2010 FYF Fest has been unveiled/leaked:
This festival takes place at Los Angeles’ State Historic Park near downtown, which was going to be the site of the recently canceled HARD Festival (headlined by M.I.A. and N*E*R*D). Los Angeles authorities nixed that particular event supposedly due to the one death and 100+ injuries sustained during last month’s Electric Daisy Carnival.
Cancelations or not, FYF 2010 boasts the best lineup for any Californian music festival this summer. Just going through the lineup: The Rapture, Panda Bear, !!!, Delorean, Best Coast, Wavves, Dead Man’s Bones, Ted Leo, The Blow, Cults, Man Man, Abe Vigoda, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Washed Out, and Warpaint are absolute can’t-miss bands. You won’t spend a better $25 this summer.
Nice to see FYF book some artists that have seemed to be absent for a while, including The Rapture, Sleep, Man Man, and The Blow.
Keep your eyes peeled on For Young Moderns for some posts dedicated to several of these FYF artists. For starters, here’s a video (recorded by For Young Moderns) of energetic Spaniards Delorean performing “Seasun” (from the excellent Subiza) at the Echoplex in Los Angeles back in April:
It has taken For Young Moderns a week to finally get around to posting a review on FYF Fest, and if it weren’t for exhaustion being brought on by a big job interview, illness, and traveling to three major metropolitan areas in the past week, I’d blame FYF Fest solely for being barely able to lift a muscle all week long.
FYF Fest was indeed that exhausting. It was set in what seemed like an area that was mere yards from the burning sun in the expansive Los Angeles Historic Park (a.k.a. big dirt field by the train tracks — the stages were named after towering trees (Sequoia, Oak, Redwood) which seemed like a cruel joke). The promoters did a fantastic job in securing a great lineup and, up until the end of the festival, also did a superb job in making sure all the bands played on time and sounded good, but unfortunately, that’s pretty much where the organizational skills ceased. Everything else about the festival seemed incredibly half-assed. A critical amount of festival time was spent standing in various lines.
We stood in the line to get in for about 90 minutes, thereby completely missing such early acts as The Growlers, Abe Vigoda, Let’s Wrestle, The Blow and most of Cults, among others. We stood in line for about 20 - 30 minutes to buy some $4 water bottles and a $7 hamburger (a few times). We had the option of standing in what looked like a 45 minute line just to get to one of the few water fountains there.
The two FYM staff members who attended FYF had won a pair of VIP tickets via a Facebook contest way back when the lineup was initially announced. After we had stood in the first line to get in for an hour and a half, we told one of the volunteers working the will call table that we had won 2 VIP tickets, and she immediately proceeded to give us two regular tickets just based on our word alone (we never stepped foot in the VIP section). No contest winners’ names were on any sort of list, no IDs were checked. Anybody could have walked up and said they were ticket winners and would be handed a free ticket, no questions asked. So of course, friends were texted and instructed to come down and do the same. The general censuses amongst the other people in all the lines was a baffling scoff in regard to how poorly organized the whole thing was.
Anyway, even though we came for the music but stayed for the lines, it was the bands that was most important.
Cults
When we finally walked in, NYC-via-San Diego indie pop darlings Cults were playing their last two songs. We were able to hear their lovely summer jam “Go Outside”, I noticed that singer Madeline Follin looks a lot like a girl I crush on, and I wondered when they were ‘finally’ going to drop a full-length LP.
Warpaint
After watching the final two Cults songs, we wandered over to the vast forest of the Redwood stage to catch L.A. locals Warpaint, who seem to be catapulting in popularity more and more every week.
Warpiant has yet to blow us away with anything they’ve recorded and released so far, but after being completely WOWed by their live set multiple times in 2010, their upcoming debut full-length, The Fool (out October 25 on Rough Trade), is still one of the most anticipated releases of the second half of 2010. Plus, singer/guitarist Emily Kokal is one of the most mesmerizing frontwomen in any band to come around in a long time.
Best Coast
Best Coast did their usual great thing, playing a set that was dominated by songs off of Crazy For You and a couple from earlier EPs. The crowd was noticeably massive for a mid-day set. It seemed a bit criminal for Best Coast to be playing at such an early time, as they were recently named the #1 Best New Band in the world by Britain’s NME and are undeniably surging in popularity, as other bands who played later, such as Man Man, have been barely active and sputtering lately. However, Best Coast’s songs are the musical embodiment of the California sun, so it’s fitting, after all.
Wavves
FYM saw Wavves frontman Nathan Williams at the end of the festival watching Panda Bear’s set, and one of us went up to him and told him Wavves was awesome earlier in the day. “…despite the bass guitar issues” could have been added to the compliment but any kind of negativity seemed unnecessary. But it was true: Wavves did battle through some bass amplifier overheating problems to deliver a strong set.
The crowd fought to stay entertained during the technical issues by bouncing around Mountain Dew-branded Wavves beach balls:
and Williams himself helped out by partially dropping his pants and underwear because “it’s like Blink 182”. But those who stayed with Wavves were rewarded with good music and lost of dust in the mouth and clothes thanks to the slam pit kids. They closed their set with “Post Acid” which Williams said was “about soda”, which was pretty hilarious.
Dead Man’s Bones
There were several miracles performed during Dead Man’s Bones’ set, including, but not limited to: Ryan Gosling fangirls keeping their high-pitched squeals under control for the most part, and the brave, talented kids on stage not freaking out at all over the massive crowd of fans in front of them. Everything seemed perfect during Dead Man’s Bones set at FYF Fest: the sun was setting right behind the band, the crowd was in a cheerful, sing-a-long mood (maybe because they were delighted to see the sun finally go away), and the ladies got to see Ryan Gosling rock his omnichord.
More miracles: Dead Man’s Bones managed to not only squeeze in festival-stealing set, but also a costume contest and a little kid/singer, barely older than a toddler, smash an acoustic guitar on stage. It was the heartwarming, feel-good performance of the night; almost good enough to make you forget about all those lines you had to stand in all day. Almost.
!!!
At FYF, you had a few options as to where you could dance your ass off, and of course your best bet is always on !!! if they’re in the lineup. At this point, !!! seem like they’ve been doing this thing forever, but they show absolutely no signs of aging and when certain people left !!!’s set early to catch Delorean, they quickly came back when the Spaniards weren’t on stage in time. The transition into “Must Be the Moon” from the previous song in the middle of !!!’s set was probably the most chills-inducing moment of the whole day.
Delorean
We don’t quite know what happened here, but we left !!! a bit early to catch Delorean only to see School of Seven Bells was playing way past their scheduled end time. When SoSB finally ended, Delorean took their sweet time to get set up, and we had bail their set to catch Panda Bear. It was sad to have missed Delorean, but they DID just announce a Troubadour show in November, so hopefully we’ll see them there.
Panda Bear
Panda Bear as a headliner is a pretty big gamble. Everyone knows his Person Pitch songs are awesome, no one’s quite sure what to think of the new Tomboy material quite yet, and no one’s also sure how one man with a guitar and a table full of effect gizmos can pull off his kaleidoscopic sound live. It turns out it’s a pretty mixed bag. Panda Bear, who barely moved on the stage the entire set, started off with Tomboy track “Drone”, which happens to be the most accurately titled song of all time. Noah Lennox’s show started off with these remarkably loud synth chords and his own choir boy vocals for what seemed like 10 - 15 minutes. Things then seemed to be going on the right track afterward as he hinted a performance of Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion track “Daily Routine”, but it remained just a hint.
A noticeable amount of fans seemed to trickle out quickly throughout the performance and, predictably, the crowd only got really moving when the euphoric hymn of Person Pitch’s “Comfy in Nautica” were heard. After he got through “Nautica”, many headed for their cars and the trains. It was a bit of an anticlimactic ending to a long, hot, and sometimes frustrating day.
It has taken For Young Moderns a week to finally get around to posting a review on FYF Fest, and if it weren’t for exhaustion being brought on by a big job interview, illness, and traveling to three major metropolitan areas in the past week, I’d blame FYF Fest solely for being barely able to lift a muscle all week long.
FYF Fest was indeed that exhausting. It was set in what seemed like an area that was mere yards from the burning sun in the expansive Los Angeles Historic Park (a.k.a. big dirt field by the train tracks — the stages were named after towering trees (Sequoia, Oak, Redwood) which seemed like a cruel joke). The promoters did a fantastic job in securing a great lineup and, up until the end of the festival, also did a superb job in making sure all the bands played on time and sounded good, but unfortunately, that’s pretty much where the organizational skills ceased. Everything else about the festival seemed incredibly half-assed. A critical amount of festival time was spent standing in various lines.
We stood in the line to get in for about 90 minutes, thereby completely missing such early acts as The Growlers, Abe Vigoda, Let’s Wrestle, The Blow and most of Cults, among others. We stood in line for about 20 - 30 minutes to buy some $4 water bottles and a $7 hamburger (a few times). We had the option of standing in what looked like a 45 minute line just to get to one of the few water fountains there.
The two FYM staff members who attended FYF had won a pair of VIP tickets via a Facebook contest way back when the lineup was initially announced. After we had stood in the first line to get in for an hour and a half, we told one of the volunteers working the will call table that we had won 2 VIP tickets, and she immediately proceeded to give us two regular tickets just based on our word alone (we never stepped foot in the VIP section). No contest winners’ names were on any sort of list, no IDs were checked. Anybody could have walked up and said they were ticket winners and would be handed a free ticket, no questions asked. So of course, friends were texted and instructed to come down and do the same. The general censuses amongst the other people in all the lines was a baffling scoff in regard to how poorly organized the whole thing was.
Anyway, even though we came for the music but stayed for the lines, it was the bands that was most important.
Cults
When we finally walked in, NYC-via-San Diego indie pop darlings Cults were playing their last two songs. We were able to hear their lovely summer jam “Go Outside”, I noticed that singer Madeline Follin looks a lot like a girl I crush on, and I wondered when they were ‘finally’ going to drop a full-length LP.
Warpaint
After watching the final two Cults songs, we wandered over to the vast forest of the Redwood stage to catch L.A. locals Warpaint, who seem to be catapulting in popularity more and more every week.
Warpiant has yet to blow us away with anything they’ve recorded and released so far, but after being completely WOWed by their live set multiple times in 2010, their upcoming debut full-length, The Fool (out October 25 on Rough Trade), is still one of the most anticipated releases of the second half of 2010. Plus, singer/guitarist Emily Kokal is one of the most mesmerizing frontwomen in any band to come around in a long time.
Best Coast
Best Coast did their usual great thing, playing a set that was dominated by songs off of Crazy For You and a couple from earlier EPs. The crowd was noticeably massive for a mid-day set. It seemed a bit criminal for Best Coast to be playing at such an early time, as they were recently named the #1 Best New Band in the world by Britain’s NME and are undeniably surging in popularity, as other bands who played later, such as Man Man, have been barely active and sputtering lately. However, Best Coast’s songs are the musical embodiment of the California sun, so it’s fitting, after all.
Wavves
FYM saw Wavves frontman Nathan Williams at the end of the festival watching Panda Bear’s set, and one of us went up to him and told him Wavves was awesome earlier in the day. “…despite the bass guitar issues” could have been added to the compliment but any kind of negativity seemed unnecessary. But it was true: Wavves did battle through some bass amplifier overheating problems to deliver a strong set.
The crowd fought to stay entertained during the technical issues by bouncing around Mountain Dew-branded Wavves beach balls:
and Williams himself helped out by partially dropping his pants and underwear because “it’s like Blink 182”. But those who stayed with Wavves were rewarded with good music and lost of dust in the mouth and clothes thanks to the slam pit kids. They closed their set with “Post Acid” which Williams said was “about soda”, which was pretty hilarious.
Dead Man’s Bones
There were several miracles performed during Dead Man’s Bones’ set, including, but not limited to: Ryan Gosling fangirls keeping their high-pitched squeals under control for the most part, and the brave, talented kids on stage not freaking out at all over the massive crowd of fans in front of them. Everything seemed perfect during Dead Man’s Bones set at FYF Fest: the sun was setting right behind the band, the crowd was in a cheerful, sing-a-long mood (maybe because they were delighted to see the sun finally go away), and the ladies got to see Ryan Gosling rock his omnichord.
More miracles: Dead Man’s Bones managed to not only squeeze in festival-stealing set, but also a costume contest and a little kid/singer, barely older than a toddler, smash an acoustic guitar on stage. It was the heartwarming, feel-good performance of the night; almost good enough to make you forget about all those lines you had to stand in all day. Almost.
!!!
At FYF, you had a few options as to where you could dance your ass off, and of course your best bet is always on !!! if they’re in the lineup. At this point, !!! seem like they’ve been doing this thing forever, but they show absolutely no signs of aging and when certain people left !!!’s set early to catch Delorean, they quickly came back when the Spaniards weren’t on stage in time. The transition into “Must Be the Moon” from the previous song in the middle of !!!’s set was probably the most chills-inducing moment of the whole day.
Delorean
We don’t quite know what happened here, but we left !!! a bit early to catch Delorean only to see School of Seven Bells was playing way past their scheduled end time. When SoSB finally ended, Delorean took their sweet time to get set up, and we had bail their set to catch Panda Bear. It was sad to have missed Delorean, but they DID just announce a Troubadour show in November, so hopefully we’ll see them there.
Panda Bear
Panda Bear as a headliner is a pretty big gamble. Everyone knows his Person Pitch songs are awesome, no one’s quite sure what to think of the new Tomboy material quite yet, and no one’s also sure how one man with a guitar and a table full of effect gizmos can pull off his kaleidoscopic sound live. It turns out it’s a pretty mixed bag. Panda Bear, who barely moved on the stage the entire set, started off with Tomboy track “Drone”, which happens to be the most accurately titled song of all time. Noah Lennox’s show started off with these remarkably loud synth chords and his own choir boy vocals for what seemed like 10 - 15 minutes. Things then seemed to be going on the right track afterward as he hinted a performance of Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion track “Daily Routine”, but it remained just a hint.
A noticeable amount of fans seemed to trickle out quickly throughout the performance and, predictably, the crowd only got really moving when the euphoric hymn of Person Pitch’s “Comfy in Nautica” were heard. After he got through “Nautica”, many headed for their cars and the trains. It was a bit of an anticlimactic ending to a long, hot, and sometimes frustrating day.
2010 is mere days away from expiring, and whether or not you’ve had a good year or a forgettable year, hopefully you reveled a bit in some of the breakout bands of 2010. Some of the better musicians to find success for the first time included Best Coast, Janelle Monáe, The Black Keys, Delorean, Nicki Minaj, and, depending on who you ask, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti.
Today, for Young Moderns looks ahead to 2011 and provides you with a list of some of the potential artists aiming to blow up next year. Enjoy prophesying:
Active Child HQ: Los Angeles, California Notable Release: Excellent 2010 EP Citrus Lane The Details: Active Child is the creative output by Los Angeles musician Pat Grossi. Grossi employs a variety of tools, including an electric harp and and synthesizer aided by a laptop, to create his unique and vast soundscapes. Grossi’s signature choirboy falsetto rising over the icy musical landscapes gives his sound a definite dreamlike quality rarely heard elsewhere. You can’t miss the strange video for ”I’m In Your Church At Night”, in which Grossi cooks up his own hypothesis about where babies come from:
The Coathangers HQ: Atlanta, Georgia Notable Releases: Self-titled 2007 LP, 2009 LP Scramble The Details: Back in March 2010, for Young Moderns attended the Waved Out Festival at the Echoplex in Los Angeles, expect good sets from favorite such as Best Coast and Moon Duo. While those aforementioned bands indeed played solid sets, we walked out of the show with one (well, four) things on the mind: THE COATHANGERS. Atlanta’s The Coathangers came out of nowhere and completely killed, and we’ve been hooked ever since. They’re a four-woman, complete rock & roll party, and their third full-length album is due sometime in 2011. Check out a live performance of their song ”Tonya Harding”:
Cults HQ: New York City, New York Notable Release: 2010 Daytrotter Session The Details: Cults, now based in NYC after originally ailing from San Diego, created quite a stir in 2010 even though, to date, they have officially released a mere four songs. Three on their Bandcamp page, and one via a promotion through Adult Swim. With only four songs garnering so much attention, it’s going to be a pretty big deal when their full-length debut drops sometime in ‘11. Check out the adult Swim-affiliated video for “Oh My God”:
Gauntlet Hair HQ: Denver, Colorado Notable Release: 2010 single “I Was Thinking…” The Details: Denver has always been a pretty great city, but never have there been a lot of great bands to come out of there (though, Pictureplane and The Apples in Stereo come to mind). Gauntlet Hair take big, delayed, fuzzy guitars that seemed to be favored by a lot of bands these days, but add their own unique explosiveness, especially when it comes to the pounding percussion and soaring vocals. It’s kind of like lo-fi Best Coast sound meets Sleigh Bells’ over-the-top heaviness. We like it. Check the very Coloradan video for ”I Was Thinking…”:
Happy Family HQ: Baltimore, Maryland Notable Release: Split EP Banana Split with Run DMT The Details: Happy Family are a pretty mysterious, little-known-about Baltimore music collective affiliated with the Wigflip Records label in Baltimore. Their sample-heavy, insanely catchy, psychedelic pop number “Youtube” (which you can listen to just below) got some pretty serious plays here at FYM for a good part of 2010. Most Happy Family-related released tend to be very lengthy noise and ambient pieces (nothing wrong with that), but here’s to hoping we can hear some more of this pop flavored material again in their near future:
Heavy Hawaii HQ: San Diego, California Notable Release: 2010 EP HH The Details: We covered Heavy Hawaii and their perfectly crafted surf-psych jam “Teen Angel” on our Best Songs of 2010 list last week, and judging by this song and their HH EP, they easily have the potential to blow up a little bit like their fellow San Diego musicians Wavves and The Soft Pack. Listen to “Teen Angel” right here:
La Sera HQ: Los Angeles, California Notable Release: Self-titled debut album due the day after Valentine’s Day The Details: La Sera, the new project from Vivian Girls singer Katy Goodman, fits wonderfully in the Los Angeles scene in which its risen from (Best Coast, Wavves, Abe Vigoda are all affiliated with La Sera in various ways). Goodman is a master of catchy melody and has a voice to match those skills. Expect La Sera’s self-titled debut to be the soundtrack of your sunshine-y days in 2011. Check the video for “Never Come Around”, in which Goodman plays the most adorably demented serial killer ever in a video that pulls off both cutsey and sadistic:
Matthew Friedberger HQ: Brooklyn, New York Notable Releases: The entire incredible Fiery Furnaces discography, plus a 2006 solo double album The Details: Matthew Friedberger is probably the most established musician on this list, as he is half of The Fiery Furnaces, who may be the best and most under-appreciated band of the past decade, but his goals for 2011 are absolutely noteworthy. Aside from working on a new Furnaces album or two (one of which may be only sold in form of only its sheet music — as the band claims that people don’t buy music anymore, so they can make it themselves), Friedberger is about to launch a series of eight solo albums, each to be released every other month in 2011, and all only available on vinyl as part of a subscription service through Thrill Jockey Records. Friedberger will focus on one musical instrument for every album, and the series will be concluded with some bonus music featuring collaborations with other musicians. The whole project is quite the spectacle and should be paid attention to by people who truly appreciate a talented and ambitious mind. The first of the albums is the piano-centric Napoleonette, which will feature the song “Shirley”:
Memoryhouse HQ: Guelph, Ontario, Canada Notable Releases: 2010’s The Years EP and a slew of fantastic singles The Details: This Canadian duo rode the chillwave fad into 2010, but by the end of the year, they established their own identity apart those bands overdosing on lo-fi synths. Memoryhouse’s sound has a melancholy, dreamy feel to it that simply isn’t present in the respective sounds of other synth-pop bands out there today. their eagerly-awaited full-length debut album is due soon. Here’s the video for the Eternal Sunshine-borrowing”Lately”:
The Middle East HQ: Townsville, Queensland, Australia Notable Release: 2008 album The Recordings of the Middle East (reissued as an EP in 2009) The Details: The Middle East may be one of the best bands of 2011 that we’re lucky to even have around these days. After putting out their debut album in 2008, The Recordings of the Middle East, the Australian band broke up for a while before wisely reforming and hitting the road on some very noteworthy tours in 2010. They started out the year opening for Pavement’s triumphant reunion tour, and For Young Moderns were blown away by their phenomenal opening set at what was already a grand occasion even without them: Pavement’s first North American show since 1999. After stunning crowds across the States with Pavement, The Middle East brought their excellent live act on tour opening for Mumford & Sons, where presumedly they killed it every night, making Mumford & Sons look like cheap Middle East knockoffs. The Middle East are expected to finally drop their second album in 2011. Expect something along the lines of an Australian Arcade Fire album, with a live show just as good. Check out a live performance of ”Blood”, from their debut album:
Zola Jesus HQ: Los Angeles, California Notable Releases: Stridulum II, an album made of of two EPs The Details: For Young Moderns has been raving about the wonderfully haunting music of Zola Jesus for some time now. There was no debate that, even though she was a prominent fixture for our ears in 2010, she deserved to be recognized for potentially dominating in 2011 as well. She’ll likely be coming off an excellent year with another full length album, which we will be anticipating feverishly. Check out the video for “Night”:
FYM’s Senior Writer (MVP) in Los Angeles, Will Sellers, REALLY digs making thoughtful intelligent lists about music that YOU our reader, needs to know about. Click HERE (we literally are having to reroute this feature to it’s own page, because it’s so obsessive and insightful) to read about, and listen to Mr. Sellers TOP picks (so far) in 2011. Cheers, FYM
The Cults / Guards / Writer tour de force rolled into Los Angeles last week and saw the New York City-based bands perform several shows in the Southland in a matter of days. Headliners Cults hit the scenic Mondrian Skybar in Hollywood on Tuesday night, then the trio of bands played the Troubadour Wednesday, and forYoungModerns caught the same show on Thursday night at the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts.
(Above: Cults - Photo by Will Sellers) Cults, whose excellent debut full-length is out now on Lily Allen-operated In the Name Of Records, played a relatively short, encore-less set yet was still strong due to the band’s high quality songwriting. The band stormed through a set that, of course, consisted heavily of their self-titled album and also threw into their setlist “The Curse”, a highlight from last year’s debut EP.
Even at the end of one portion of a lengthy tour (and only two hours north from several members of the band’s hometown of San Diego — where they said they would soon “nap for 14 hours straight” from exhaustion) the band still radiated energy, most notably during singer Madeline Follin’s explosive croons at the end of Cults dream-paced reverie “You Know What I Mean”, which the young Eagle Rock crowd completely ate up.
(Above: Cults - Photo by Will Sellers) Madeline’s brother Richie Follin fronts fellow NYC rockers Guards. Guards set themselves up in a remarkably similar way which Cults did: by offering free downloads of their music on their BandCamp page.
Their self-titled EP was originally made available a year ago and features seven solid tracks that sound like Guards and Cults were feeding off of each other creatively when they recorded their respective material. Whatever creative energy that radiated from one another during those times paid off very well as both bands have released nothing but stellar material.
(Above: Guards EP) Guards also released a 7” of three cover songs (Metallica’s Motorbreath”, Vampire Weekend’s “Taxi Cab”, and M.I.A.’s “Born Free”) which they completely transform into their own unique style. Most notably, their M.I.A. cover takes the chorus of the original song and makes it into a two-and-a-half minute super-charged punk rock rollercoaster. Both releases can be downloaded for free here: http://guards.bandcamp.com
(Above: Cover Songs 7”) I didn’t quite have my stopwatch handy, but Guards’ set on Thursday night felt lengthier and more dynamic than headliner Cults’ own set. Perhaps this was punctuated by the style of Guards’ songs compared to those of Cults. Guards’ songs often have a certain Midwestern folky twang which can sometimes breed into lengthy guitar jams (as opposed to Cults’ strictly pop-friendly song lengths), making their set feel very robust. It nearly seemed like Cults’ set was giving the kids what they wanted, but what the band really wanted was to check out Guards like they were a cool little secret.
(Above/Below: Guards - Photo by Will Sellers) It would not be the most shocking thing in the world if Guards remained a “secret” for not much longer. They have similar strong songs like those of Cults as well as a bit of a mysterious aura about them: two things that helped launch Cults as upstart indie sensations.
Thoughts. Will Sellers. Graphic. J Thomas Codling. Cheers, FYM
