Yuna - “Rescue” + NYC Show

Malaysian songstress Yuna recently released a video for her song “Rescue”.  The track is from her latest album, Nocturnal.  Take a gander below.  If you haven’t had the chance to see her live, she’s one to check out.  I saw her a couple of years ago in a stripped down set and, um, wow.  She’ll be at Highline Ballroom on Thursday, January 9.  Also on the bill that night is Hurray for the Riff Raff; we enjoyed seeing them this summer.  They have a new album, Small Town Heroes, scheduled to be released on February 11.

Yuna

Hurray for the Riff Raff

Rebel Tumbao / DJ Joaquin Joe Claussell

Thursday, January 9

Highline Ballroom

431 W 16th Street

New York, NY

Doors: 6PM / Show: 7PM

Tickets: $20 advance / $25 dos

Control Group Release Debut EP + NYC Show

Control Group, the new band comprised of Evan Reynolds (vocals, bass, guitar); Darren Korb (vocals, guitar, drums) and Jeremy Parker (vocals, guitar, drums), recently released their debut EP, Shoes Of The People.  Check out the track, “Leave It Alone” below. And, if you want to go and show them some love live, they’ll be at Arlene’s Grocery on Wednesday, December 4...see below for full details.

Control Group

Wednesday, December 4

Arlene’s Grocery 

95 Stanton Street

New York, NY

7PM

Tickets: $8

21+

Control Group is a new band comprised of three singer-musicians with some impressive Indie cred: between them they have recorded three BBC Peel Sessions, won Best Original Score at the Spike Video Game Awards, sold 200,000 albums, got NME's Single Of The Week, won a Rock Band® National Championship, had a Swirlies’ song named after them, and toured with bands like Girls Against Boys, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and The Damned. Having left their previous projects behind with the other detritus in rock music’s roiling wake, Control Group found each other in the creative petri dish of Brooklyn. There they set about discovering their new style, expressing the spirit of their surroundings. 

The band say their inspiration derives from their method as much as from their musical influences. They spontaneously record their instrument parts without a master plan, like splattering paint on a canvas. Then each of the three takes ownership of a skeletal musical form and breathes emotion into it by adding vocals. Many tracks don’t make the cut, but some of these experiments result in wonderful, gut wrenching treasures. As singer Evan Reynolds observes, “The name Control Group is kind of ironic, because everything is so incredibly out of control.” 

The band’s debut 7” single contains two such treasures. It’s a limited edition, hand-labeled, hand-packaged labor of love. Recorded mostly live in a Bed-Stuy basement, this record is gritty and raw. Its heavy dynamic shifts and dark sound capture the the band’s nervous energy. Control Group has already drawn comparisons to the Scottish trio Paws, London Pitchfork darlings Yuck, and the still-vital Western Mass veterans, Dinosaur Jr. The digital version of the single was actually mastered from the vinyl, so it retains all the graininess of its physical origins. “We liked the feel of the vinyl versions so much, we wanted to keep that sound in the digital versions”, says singer Darren Korb.

Upcoming: Firehorse at Mercury Lounge on 12/3

Firehorse

Gold Lake

Tuesday, December 3

Mercury Lounge

217 E Houston Street

New York, NY

Doors: 9:30PM

Tickets: $10

21+

Check out the track “Fool” from their album Pills From Strangers.

These Animals - “Oak” + NYC Show

Check out the clip for “Oak” by These Animals.  The track was directed by Samuel Aaron Bennett and is from their full-length, debut album Pages.  The band will be at Mercury Lounge on Friday, December 6.  Doors are at 6:30PM and it will cost you $10.

Upcoming: HITS at Mercury Lounge on 12/4

HITS

Chainwave / Faulkner

Wednesday, December 4

Mercury Lounge

217 E Houston Street

New York, NY

Doors: 8:30PM

Tickets: $10

21+

U.S. Royalty - “Into The Thicket”

U.S. Royalty released their new single, “Into The Thicket”.  The track is from their sophomore album Blue Sunshine which is scheduled for release on January 21.

James Bay - "Clocks Go Forward"

James Bay released a new video last week.  It's for the song "Clocks Go Forward" which is from the EP, The Dark Of The Morning.  The clip was directed by Alex Shahmiri.  Check it out below.

Avec Sans Release Video For “Shiver”

London based duo Avec Sans have released a video for their track, “Shiver”.  The clip was directed by Sing J Lee.  Check it out below.

Samantha Kushnick Releases One Room House

Samantha Kushnick released her solo debut album, One Room House, last week.  Check out a couple of tracks from the record below.

One Room House was recorded and mixed in Portland by Lee Howard at Mystery Machine Studios (Y La Bamba, Nick Jaina) and mastered by Tom Swift at Swift Kick Productions (Miles Davis, BB King). The album is graced with performances by some of Portland’s finest musicians. Nick Jaina and Matt Berger (drummer for the Portland Cello Project and Laura Gibson) appear on the record as do Anna Fritz of the Cello Project and Jay Cobb Anderson and Mimi Naja of the string band Fruition. 

Based in Portland, Oregon, Samantha Kushnick is a cellist, singer and songwriter in the folk tradition. She performs with the Vancouver Symphony in Washington state and has toured nationally with the Portland Cello Project and Typhoon, Portland’s thirteen-piece indie rock ensemble. Sami graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory in 2007 with a degree in cello performance. She was raised in New York in a musical family (her great-uncle, Fred Hellerman, is a founding member of the folk quartet The Weavers). Sami began playing cello at the age of ten and has studied with renowned cellists Matt Haimovitz and Hans Jensen.

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - "Unearth"

Check out the new video from Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin.  The clip is for the track “Unearth” which is from their latest album, Fly By Wire.

Made in Japan while they were on tour and taken from their fourth album, Fly By Wire, available now on Polyvinyl, band member Phil Dickey elaborates:  "I think tour music videos are inherently boring. We had no intention of making one until my wife found this little dancing robot at a novelty shop in Kobe, Japan." Over the course of tour, the band busted out the robot at shows, toting him to tourist spots and karaoke bars as well. "We knew we had a winner when we took him to Miyajima," Dickey said. "It's a tiny island outside of Hiroshima with a huge amount of shrines, temples, and tame deer." 

For this new album, the members of SSLYBY returned to the attic where they made their debut full-length Broom, but first they took a 5000 mile detour. After the Boris Yeltsin Foundation in Yekaterinburg, Russia extended an invitation to the band, Phil Dickey, Will Knauer, and Jonathan James spent a whirlwind six days in their namesake's home country this past January: meeting with Yeltsin's close friends and personal translator (who gifted them seven bottles of expensive Russian vodka) and performing at an elementary school after the U.S. consulate named them cultural ambassadors for a day. The band is releasing a documentary about their life-changing trip this winter, called Discussions With Russians. Watch the trailer here.