I decided to title my first post on new music in a while in honor of the band that only days ago captured my heart. We Have Band, a three-piece electro/pop/rock/whateveryoucallitcallitgreat group from London whose debut album surfaced sometime in the last few months and absolutely rocks. My friend Chris innocently enough told me about them the other day, not realizing that within 24 hours I would become a ravenous junkie for their music. Go to their website, buy their album and check out their awesome music videos. Visually they remind me of a cross between Daft Punk and Liars.
http://www.wehaveband.com/Let me follow with what is, upon first viewing, the best music video I have ever seen. By and large I detest music videos, but some people do cool things with them and Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ Grinderman’s single is definitely one of them. A few weeks ago I jabbered for a few paragraphs here about the frenzy I was working myself into for the new album from these guys and since purchasing tickets to see them here in LA and the release of this music video have only ramped my frenzy up all the more.
‘Heathen Child’, the lead-in ‘single’ from Grinderman 2 is amazing because, aside from the pastiche of insane and often disturbing imagery I found myself laughing my goddamn ass off while watching it. This is of course all the more special when you consider the fact the greater fact that this video showcases a kind of humor we’re not used to seeing from the often exasperated, melancholy or ludicrous Cave and crew. Dada, yes, but deadpan goofy? Gladiator suits? Is that Warren Ellis’ bum? Delightful madness I tell you…
KROWNE is a electro/hip hop artist whose music I discovered recently via the ever-charming Fairtilizer website*. Krowne just happens to hail from my favorite city in the world – Edinburgh, Scotland and his stuff reminds me of the late-night, low-light nameless music bars my friends and I stumbled into (Honey Comb? Box something?) more than a couple years ago. Crisp beats that pop out of the speakers and rigid yet often reverbed tones that buzz and percolate beneath sometimes orchestral, sometimes fuzzy synth-narratives wrap around the ambiance and advance the flow from track to track in that late night pint-and-smoke kinda way. Go to his myspace or his label, Black Lantern‘s site and buy Krowne’s record and look for me to publish an interview with him here next week!!!
http://www.myspace.com/krowne85
http://www.blacklanternmusic.com/oneep.php?subid=23&partid=1
Archie Bronson Outfit is another British band (the British are better than us, you know) that I recently discovered, with extra special thanks to one of my FAVORITE music writers, Melissa Fowler over at Ghettoblaster Magazine. A strange miasma of ethereal, quasi-psycho-delic guitars, trash-can drums and vocals often obscured by too much echo create a rolling feeling of unease with these guys – they make you feel happy, bouncy and downright afraid all at the same time. Really cool.
And finally, Excepter. You want to know where the heir to Throbbing Gristle’s Burroughsian, cut-up Magick-as-motive for your art throne went? It’s these guys. If ‘Heathen Child’ is the best music video I’ve ever seen Excepter’s ‘Teleportation: KAL’ is the most frightening.
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* A nice replacement to help stem the tide of loss when LaLa closed it’s metaphorical doors about two months ago.