YACHT have unveiled the cover art to their new album, See Mystery Lights, due out in July on DFA. The actual artwork will include special holographic foil, so YACHT created an “animated online display” to give people an idea of what the real thing will look like:
The See Mystery Lights cover and concept was born from the hand of Boyd Elder, of Valentine, Texas.
Boyd Elder is perhaps best-known for his legendary album art for the Eagles, notably their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, an iconic fragment of the rock history of the mythical American West. YACHT became disciples of Elder in early 2008 while isolated in the far West Texas desert, where the majority of See Mystery Lights was written and recorded.
Elder has not produced an album cover like this for many years, and we are honored to host his psychedelic return to form.
See Mystery Lights is inspired by the “Mystery Lights,” an unexplained paranormal and optical phenomenon indigenous to triad sites around the world, including Marfa, Texas. In homage to this, the album art is printed with a holographic foil which renders the art ephemeral, susceptible to tricks of light. It is impossible to get a feeling for the effect without holding the actual album in your hand. We have animated the online display in order to approximate this phenomenon.
Boyd Elder is a healer and desert-genius. -Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans a.k.a. YACHT
Tracklisting: 01. Ring The Bell 02. The Afterlife 03. I’m In Love With A Ripper 04. It’s Boring / You Can Live Anywhere You Want 05. Psychic City (Voodoo City) 06. Summer Song 07. We Have All We’ve Ever Wanted 08. Don’t Fight The Darkness 09. I’m In Love With A Ripper (Party Mix) 10. Psychic City (Version)
With infectiously catchy pop punk and an impending tour with The Secret Handshake, the Dangerous Summer are poised for being more involved with summer in more than just name: they’re going to take it over. Bethany spoke with these guys over some breakfast tacos at SXSW. Check it out:
BS: How did you guys form? TM: High school kind of. We had all been in bands together throughout all of high school and we started playing and just sort of combined forces in a way.
BS: Ok. Where did you guys come up with the band name? Is it a Hemingway reference? AP: It is actually an Ernest Hemingway novel and we thought that it was fitting for the band at the time. BS: Are you a big fan of Hemingway then? AP: Yeah, I love all of his books. They're awesome. BS: And the rest of you have read Hemingway, too? CP: Not so much personally. BC: I have yet to read the books.
BS: I was really impressed with how young you all are, but you've shown yourselves to be really mature and have some impressive influences. What are some of the influences that you have? AP:Third Eye Blind. Jimmy Eat World. We have some U2 in us. I like Against Me a lot, some Rise Against. Lots of stuff really. DS:Underoath. Some Copeland. BS: Haha. Wow. Every genre. So you guys checking out Third Eye Blind, while you're here? AP: We wish, but I think we have a dinner to attend. BC: Plus we don't have passes. We chose to get paid instead of getting passes.
BS: Yeah. Money is nice. Well, you have a new album coming out in May and I know you were doing a thing with fan listening parties. How did you come up with that idea and how did they go? TM: I think that was kind of just us like wanting to show people the songs because we had been waiting for four months with no one hearing them and we just wanted to show people. AP: Yeah, it's almost hard to play the old songs every night because we have all these new songs that we want to show people and be like, we're not that band anymore. We're a new breed or something.
BS: So how does the new album sound? AP: I would say it is a lot more mature, a lot bigger. CP: Yeah, we've really grown up on it. When we wrote the EP, we were all so high school. We had just gotten out of high school. AP: Yeah, it was the beginning of our high school. We wrote the EP and then six months later we got signed. It was a quick time. Now it's like two years later. We've experienced music, we've experienced everything. BC: I think it has a lot to do with experiences we've gone through like when we stopped being a band for a little awhile, we went back to our personal lives and learned a lot from that and that got represented on a lot of the music that we wrote after that.
BS: I know in a blog you kind of talked about that and how "Surface" was the return to music. What happened there? AP: I quit the band for awhile, so it was a break-up type thing, but really we just took a break. We all sort of knew we were coming back into it. We started writing a few months afterward and we just stayed home for awhile and when we came back, we all knew we needed to come back. We wrote some great, crazy songs that we thought would be awesome and we're just sort of inspired to go out there and do it.
BS: Was that from pressures from just being straight out of high school or personal? AP: Pressures from personal life. I was living out of my car for awhile and we're all sort of poor. It's hard. BS: Yeah, I think a lot of people can relate to that in this economy. CP: Yeah. And music is bad. The industry is bad. You almost get paid to be homeless at first. It's crazy.
BS: So what are you most excited for people to hear from the new album and just get out there? AP: Just the new sound. We're a new band really. Everything is different about us. We've all gotten better at our instruments and just have something to say right now and we said it on the album.
BS: Finally, what are you guys most excited about being here at SXSW? BC: Just partying. The streets are crazy. It's like Mardi Gras music festival. TM: It's fun and easy to meet people. AP: And there's so many industry people. We're playing a show and these people are watching us and we can build connections. It is just real cool.
Minnesota indie pop band Halloween, Alaska released their third album, Champagne Downtown, this week and Popwreckoning has three to give away!
Their mellow, complex and thoughtful indie pop-rock sounds are akin to those of Athlete and American Music Club, chock full of simmering textures and literate lyricism. Melding an expansive range of inventive sounds with anthemic indie-rock hooks, Champagne Downtown straddles the boundary between the electronic and the organic to create a novel rethink of what pop music can mean in a new millennium.
Halloween, Alaska is comprised of James Diers (voice, keyboards, guitar), Matthew Friesen (bass, sampler), Jacob Hanson (guitar, keyboards, voice), and David King (acoustic and electronic drums) - the latter also serving as the enigmatic drummer with modernist jazz giants, The Bad Plus. Though founding keyboardist/programmer Ev has since left the official touring line-up, he remains on board for recording and assorted sound manipulation.
To win a copy of Halloween, Alaska’s Champagne Downtown, leave a comment! Winners will be drawn at random.
Tour Dates: Apr 09 - House of Rock / Eau Claire, Wi. Apr 10 - First Avenue / Minneapolis Apr 14 - University of Minnesota / Duluth May 08 - SPACE (Evanston) / Chicago May 09 - Brillobox / Pittsburgh May 10 - M Room / Philadelphia May 11 - Harpers Ferry / Boston May 12 - IOTA / Arlington May 15 - Joe's Pub / New York City
This spring, Santigold will take her endless dance party across the US before heading back into the studio to record the follow up to her smash self-titled debut. Santigold will be performing with a full band and dancers for the first time in North America to bring her genre-blending sound to life. Virgin Records artist Trouble Andrew, who can be heard on the Santigold track "I'm A Lady", along with Downtown Records' singer/MC Amanda Blank will support.
Santi recently released "Brooklyn Go Hard", a duet with Jay-Z produced by Kanye West that samples her current single "Shove It", which is the lead single from the Notorious B.I.G. biopic Notorious. She recently performed "Shove It" on the debut week of “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”.
Tour Dates: May 21 - The Warfield / San Francisco May 22 - Empire / Sacramento May 24 - Cuthbert Amphitheatre / Eugene, Or. May 25 - Sasquatch! Festival / George, Wa. May 28 - First Avenue / Minneapolis May 29 - Peoples Court / Des Moines May 31 - Rams Head Live / Baltimore Jun 01 - House Of Blues / Boston Jun 03 - Phoenix Concert Theatre / Toronto Jun 04 - Metropolis / Montreal Jun 06 - The Roots Picnic @ Festival Pier / Philadelphia Jun 07 - The NorVa / Norfolk, Va. Jun 09 - Terminal 5 / New York City Jun 10 - 9:30 Club / Washington, DC Jun 12 - Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival / Manchester, Tn. Jun 13 - Barcardi B Live @ The Pageant / St. Louis Jun 15 - Stubb's Waller Creek Amphitheater / Austin Jun 17 - House Of Blues / Houston Jun 18 - House Of Blues / Dallas Jun 21 - Hollywood Bowl / KCRW World Festival Series / Hollywood
Duncan Sheik is most remembered as a pop one-hit-wonder from the ninety’s, specifically, for his hit “Barely Breathing”. But for PopWrecker Mona and I, he’s an overlooked musician whose music we’ve adored for years. We’ve discussed vehemently in past conversations which albums were the strongest, which songs the most beautiful, what his influences might be, and of course which song would we most want to hear live. Concerning that last question, Mona and I have agreed on the haunting and bare-boned “Home” from Duncan’s self-titled album, whose simple lyrics sound like they came from an undelivered high school poem. That’s really Duncan’s charm, his simple lyrics are no less profound for it because he’s able to impress a feeling of innocence and authenticity. It can also be heard in his voice, he has the voice of a dreamer, you can hear in its sound that he’s not afraid to believe in something.
Mona was originally supposed to visit me in Boston so we could go to this show together and do a joint PopWreckoning review, but due to complications she was unable to make it in time for the show and instead ended up seeing Duncan Sheik in Philadelphia instead.
Opening for Duncan Sheik was a group of young musicians who are also members of Duncan’s band. Lauren Pritchard, Holly Brook, Louis Schwadron, and cellist Ben Kalb performed a number of promising pop songs which sounded wonderful in the amazing acoustics of The Berklee Performance Center. The sound here was amazing; I had almost forgotten how GOOD a show could sound just on the merit of venue alone. Amidst all the expert care with the sound, there was one annoying problem with the lights, much to the chagrin to all of us in the front rows. The overhead lights would reflect off the lacquered guitar fronts and straight into our eyes, it was really quite bothersome.
I had always been a fan of Duncan’s first three albums, but have lost touch with his more recent work in the days since. I have, however, caught enough in passing to know that Duncan Sheik has been receiving moderate success and accolades with his work scoring the recent Broadway hit, Spring Awakening. I was interested enough to check out the award-winning soundtrack from my local library and decided right away that it wasn’t my cup of tea. Honestly, as I was heading to the show I became suddenly terrified that the majority or all of the show might turn out to be musical numbers from Spring Awakening.
Duncan Sheik started his set with a few personal songs and then, sure enough, proceeded into a clump of songs from Spring Awakening. Duncan did his best to preface each song with back-story, but hearing them out of context made them sound awkward and uncompelling. I think its great that Sheik has seen success with his Broadway work, but blossoming and angsty teens singing about their feelings just fails to interest me.
Duncan then proceeded into a block of songs from his newest album, Whisper House, which he described as something of a concept album, or a preface to an upcoming play that he and his colleagues were working on. The play is about a young boy whose father dies in World War II and whose mother goes mad with grief. The boy is subsequently sent away to live with his Aunt and the ghost who live in a haunted New England lighthouse. Where the setup for the Spring Awakening songs failed, they flourished for the songs on Whisper House. This is partly because I found the story much more compelling, but mostly because the songs were so rich in storytelling and personality that if you closed your eyes you could imagine it all unfolding in your head. I don’t think that I could listen to Whisper House on its own, but hearing the songs performed live is an almost magical experience.
The eerie mood of this ghost-inspired tale is set with the opening song, “Better to Be Dead”, a song which introduces the tragic ghost characters, sung by both Holly Brook and Duncan Sheik. The songs in Whisper House are clever and witty with intriguing arrangements that translated well on stage. I found the most enjoyable to be the ballad called “The Tale of Solomon Snell”, a macabre song about the tragic demise of an over-cautious gentleman named Solomon Snell, letting us know that no one is ever truly safe. Sheik responded to the vehement applause at the end of his set by coming out and playing a surprising encore cover of Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees”. Of course I was hoping for the long shot that he would choose to play an old gem like “Home”, but it was not to be.
Mona, of course, called me immediately after her night's show in Philadelphia to brag that not only did he play “Fake Plastic Trees” for the encore at her show but he actually followed it with “Home”.
“I think that my show was better than yours,” she said to me confidently over the phone.
After tirelessly trekking across the globe with his Eagles of Death Metal cohorts, front man Jesse “Boots Electric” Hughes will make it back to the good ol' US-of-A for his role as the ambassador of Record Store Day on April 18th. Check out a message from the man himself about why this day is special for him, and why it's so important to support your local record stores.
The Eagles camp will also use the occasion to drop the vinyl edition of Heart On, last Fall's dirty and danceable, rock hard batch of rock tunes. Rock 'n roll's most lovably outlandish outlaws will also celebrate Record Store Day with a special performance at Rhino Records in Claremont, California.
Scotland Barr and the Slow Drags released a stellar album last year, and judging from the front man’s answers below, the next album is going to be even better. Unfortunately, in the midst of what should be the bands shining moment, Scotland Barr was diagnosed with cancer. Amazingly, after a relatively short period of time off, he’s returning to the stage to open for Clem Snide on Friday night at the Doug Fir. I couldn’t be more excited to hear him and the Slow Drags play my favorites off All The Great Aviators Agree and, with any luck, some of their new songs.
Earlier this week, he graciously took the time to answer a couple of my questions about his health, the progress on the album, and some more upcoming shows. Those familiar with his band’s good-timing country and roots rock won’t be surprised at the black humor and positive outlook infused in his answers.
Jesse Gelwicks, PopWreckoning: Do you mind talking a little about your illness? How are you feeling? Where are you in the process? Scotland Barr: Not at all. As of now, today, I feel great. Lately things have been going well, feeling better in general. Overall it is like having a bunch of little evil creatures running around in my gut, all with minds of their own and bad intentions. Lately they have been behaving themselves. With this type and stage of cancer the process is basically one of just staying alive and functioning as long as possible since it does not go into "remission" as with most other cancers. We keep up all the treatments that work until the end. I am, however, more cavalier then that and have declared myself cancer free. And I am very serious about that statement!
PW: How did you decide to play live? SB: I figured it was better than waiting until I was dead!
PW: How does that affect your show (or your health)? SB: It depends on the day/night and what demons are at play. No matter how I feel before a show, I always feel good once we start playing. My health issues do add a certain urgency to the live shows I think. And there is no better feeling then playing a good show.
PW: I see you have a new album, We Will Be Forgotten. How is that coming? SB: It's moving along. Not as quick as I would like, but that is always the case. We are taking our time with this one and with over 20 songs on the project we got our work cut out.
PW: When can we expect to hear it? SB: I think this record is larger on all scales. First of all, the primary format is going to be a double vinyl LP. It is far more epic in scope and follows a very thin thread of a "concept" in a random abstract way. You will probably pick out influences as diverse as Pink Floyd and Merle Haggard.
PW: How does it compare to your last one? SB: Well, besides the above mentioned aspects this record is really the first "full" band record we have done. The core group of the band was far more involved in the arrangement of the material then on past records. Also, all the songs on this album were written during the lifespan of this band so it reflects the group and its overall influences in a much more comprehensive way. This record leans a lot less towards the alt. country mantle then the past records.
PW: Did your illness change how you wrote or recorded your new album? SB: Most of the songs for We Will Be Forgotten were written before my diagnosis. Oddly, however, the songs are very fitting and timely, strangely so.
PW: Did you integrate it into either the lyrics or tone of the new album? If so, did it help to write about the experience? SB: There is definitely a shroud over the whole recording process for good or bad, probably both.
PW: Are there any songs that you are particularly proud of? SB: This group of songs are my favorite of any CD so far. As far as favorites, I am very partial to "Love Is Pavement".
PW: So, what’s next for you and the Slow Drags? Do you have any more upcoming shows people should know about? SB: Lots coming up! We will be opening for Clem Snide at the Doug Fir on Friday, April 10th (9:00 sharp) and then our big resurrection and comeback show (also at the Doug Fir) is Saturday, May 2nd. We have an Eastern Oregon and Idaho tour just booked for August and a fall tour through California, Arizona, and New Mexico coming up. Other than that we will be working hard on the CD for a late summer release.
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