chop siouxy x s.o.terik at sxsw!
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S.O.TERIK is Proud to Present Chop Siouxy on tour in Austin, Texas for SXSW! We've compiled a book with the musicians bios that will be performing at Clive Bar for our NOW ART! TAKE ((P))ART SHOWCASE!TRANSCRIPT
Ar#sts Index:
*Chop Siouxy fit
1. Ab-‐Soul 2. Chet Faker 3. Class Actress * 4. Delta Spirit 5. Electric Touch 6. Friends * 7. Gardens and Villa 8. Grimes * 9. Idle Warship* 10. Jay Rock 11. Kendrick Lamar 12. Kids These Days* 13. Kimbra * 14. MNDR * 15. New Build 16. of Montreal * 17. PAPA 18. Polarsets 19. Polica * 20. ScHoolboy Q 21. Tycho 22. Voxhaul Broadcast 23. YACHT *
Ab-‐Soul is an emcee from Carson, California and is one-‐fourth of the high-‐powered group, Black Hippy. As a member of Top Dawg Entertainment, Ab-‐Soul is working hard on releasing classic Hip-‐Hop music with releases such as Longterm-‐2 and Long-‐term Mentality.
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Shrouded in secrecy, hidden behind an alias and disguised by a beard, Chet Faker is an ar#st that enjoys the mystery. Hailing from the #ght-‐knit deep disco scene in Melbourne, Australia and taking elements from an acous#c past, Chet Faker has carved out his own style that fuses personal stories of love and loss with an electronica soul, which reaches far beyond his homeland. Chet quickly came to everyone’s acen#on when his cover of ‘No Diggity’ hit number 1 on the worldwide indie music aggregator, Hype Machine. But far from rushing into the limelight, Chet sought about building on the popularity of ‘No Diggity’ through releasing a series of tracks online, crea#ng an insa#able hunger from his fans for more. Now Chet Faker is poised on the next phase of his development. His live show is under work, an EP is underway, and his plans for quietly and assuredly bringing his music to a broader audience are well in the works.
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CLASS ACTRESS �
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Class Actress is a synthpop band formed in 2009 in Brooklyn, New York City, USA. The group consists of the singer-‐songwriter Elizabeth Harper and the producers Scoc Rosenthal and Mark Richardson. Their music has been compared with ar#sts like Depeche Mode, The Human League, OMD and Madonna. Elizabeth Harper is a former drama student from Los Angeles, USA. Harper also pursued a solo career as an indie rock singer-‐songwriter. She released a studio album Elizabeth Harper in 2004 (2005 in the UK and 2006 in Japan). Ajer the producer Mark Richardson remixed a song, she preferred Richardson’s version to the original, and the two eventually reconvened in Brooklyn. They began fusing Harper’ songs with sampled drumbeats and synthesized instruments and named the collabora#on Class Actress. Later, mul#-‐instrumentalist/engineer Scoc Rosenthal joined the group. In 2010, Class Actress released the 5-‐track EP Journal of Ardency on Chris Taylor’s (of Grizzly Bear) Terrible Records.
D E L T A S P I R I T!Ajer the San Diego-‐based emo oulit Noise Ratchet called it quits in 2004, co-‐founders Jon Jameson (bass) and Brandon Young (drums) decided to ditch their punk-‐influenced sound for something more rootsy. The two lej Rick Rubin's American label (which had signed Noise Ratchet several years prior) and joined forces with vocalist Machew Vasquez, guitarist Sean Walker, and mul#-‐instrumentalist Kelly Winrich to form Delta Spirit. Pitching its style between the indie rock and alt-‐country camps, the group issued an EP en#tled I Think I've Found It in 2006 and hit the road alongside Cold War Kids and Dr. Dog. Delta Spirit's debut album, Ode to Sunshine, was released by the band mates themselves in 2007. It reappeared one year later in re-‐mastered format courtesy of the band's new label, Rounder Records. Reviews for the record were highly favorable, and the group toured heavily before traveling to Prairie Sun Studios in 2009 for the crea#on of a second album. The finished product, History from Below, was released in June 2010. Andrew Leahey, Rovi
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Like this Aus#n, TX-‐based band’s name, which brings to mind similar clashing concepts like Clockwork Orange or Ar#ficial Intelligence, Electric Touch combines opposing forces into one giant, rock and roll whole. From the very start, when Nopngham, U.K. vocalist Shane Lawlor met up with Texas-‐born guitarist Christopher Leigh and his fraternal twin brother, drummer Louis Messina, Jr., the band combined a love for classic American rock with a passion for Bri#sh punk, a one-‐two punch that comes across loud and clear on their major label debut for Island/IDJ Records, produced by Grammy-‐nominated Producer of the Year Howard Benson [3 Doors Down, P.O.D., Daughtry, Creed, Hoobastank, Saliva]. The backbone of the band is the bulletproof rhythm sec#on, now infused with the power of members, Isaac Strycker (Keys/Vocals) and Portland Musser (Bass). The band delivers a pounding beat, big enough to fill a stadium, and punctuated by killer bass lines. Dynamic guitars bring angular melodies refreshing in simplicity one moment then exploding into frenzied fury the next. Vocal hooks and harmonies delivered like an urgent call to arms scream “The future is now.” Strangely enough, it was Lawlor who grew up revering stateside rock pioneers like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis, while his stateside band mate Leigh was enamored with speed-‐punks like The Clash, the Sex Pistols, the Buzzcocks and the Undertones, as well as Bri#sh Invasion groups like The Beatles, the Kinks and later, Black Sabbath. Throw in drummer Louis Messina Jr.’s passion for classic arena-‐rock from both sides of the pond, including Aerosmith and Kiss, as well as the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and the Yardbirds, and you have what he describes as “our different tastes all formula4ng into one Electric Touch sound.” The band’s mission statement is “Tales of Ordinary Life in Glorious Technicolor,” and the first single, “Don’t Stop,” sets the template, a ferocious push-‐pull of sex and romance, from the highest highs of ecsta#c union to the lowest lows of heartbreak, with a garage-‐rock pulse that wouldn’t be out of place in a song by The Strokes. “These are real stories, episodes taken from our lives and the lives of our friends and loved ones,” says Lawlor, who first met Leigh while in Aus#n with his previous band IV Thieves, releasing an album If We Can’t Escape My Precy, on New West Records in 2006. “We set out to write songs that connected with people while presen#ng them in a way that would make the audience want to hear them over and over.”
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Formed in late 2010 while four fijhs of the group were swea#ng it out in a vegan restaurant, the band, fronted by edgy seductress Samantha Urbani, has quickly risen to prominence this side of the Atlan#c. Featured in NME’s top 50 ar#sts of 2011, and now part of the BBC’s “Sound of 2012”, this recogni#on was echoed by the heavy demand for #ckets to their sell-‐out European tour, culmina#ng in an appearance at the 800-‐capacity XOYO in Shoreditch on Wednesday night. The secret to the organic success of the band was plainly evident the moment Urbani sauntered onto stage, casually men#oning that the metal barrier separa#ng her from the audience was going to have to go. The emphasis the band places upon engaging with their public shows how switched on they are to the power of social adver#sing. Not only does Urbani spend much of the set dancing with the crowd, or aiming fruit into their mouths, at one point she even no#ced a reveller she’d invited to the gig ajer having a Skype conversa#on with him late last year. It really is textbook adver#sing for the early twenty-‐first century, an MBA with catchy lyrics and a synth. Given they’ve only released four tracks so far, most of the hour-‐long set featured new material. Dis#nctly Friends in sound, with a full helping of the same dreamy-‐glitzy pop that’s propelled them thus far, the newbies were dispersed with crowd pleasers such as ‘His Girl’ and its hypno#c bass-‐line, the infec#ously seduc#ve ‘Friend Crush’, and their geek-‐chic cover of the eigh#es track ‘My Boo’.
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In the year of the saxophone, Santa Barbara's Gardens & Villa give us the flute. And along the way, G&V effec#vely wipe clear the vaseline from the murky bedroom funk of recent days. G&V bang out instant classics -‐-‐ each crystal clear and immaculate, but no less sweeping or languid. Their debut is a youthful explora#on of just how opulent and pop starkness can go. It also leaves an impression of California in the way that Richard Diebenkorn's Ocean Park series or the pool party scene from The Graduate both do, always sensed more than stated outright. Gardens & Villa channel all the taut pop precisions of 90s Britpop of bands like Blur (borrowed from the 60s anyhow), and send it through an 80s synth filter both undeniably coastal and modern. It's Spoon's Kill The Moonlight lost in a daydream, but with that same hungry energy. Gardens & Villa may simultaneously pull from Gary Numan, The Kinks and odder prog within one composi#on. And like a fine sweet tea, it's made just that right kind of sugary -‐-‐ though even the most upbeat tunes have an undercurrent of the bicersweet and the lost at heart. Gardens & Villa are Chris Lynch, Adam Rasmussen, Levi Hayden, Shane McKillop and Dusty Ineman.
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G R I M E S Grimes is the alias of Claire Boucher, a Montreal-‐based, Vancouver na#ve, ar#st. Grimes fuses contemporary instrumenta#on with classical vocal prac#ces from around the world. She recently released a split 12” with D’eon #tled Darkbloom. In 2010 she released a cassece #tled Geidi Primes and the full-‐length Halfaxa through Arbutus. In 2012, she will release Visions, a full-‐length which is being described as “post-‐internet” by Grimes herself. Boucher, born in Vancouver, Canada, came to Montreal in 2006. Her experience as a performer is deeply embedded in the illegal DIY loj culture of Montreal, where Grimes was one of the prominent figures in the scene surrounding Lab Synthèse – a 4600sq j. re-‐appropriated tex#le factory. She developed in a scene where punk ethos and pop music collide, resul#ng in a dis#nct sense of community, religiosity and psychedelic revelry.
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Idle Warship
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Idle Warship is a perfect example of how a whole can become greater than the sum of its parts – and that is saying quite a lot given the musical components of this project. A collabora#on between long#me friends and collaborators, hip-‐hop luminary Talib Kweli and cri#cally acclaimed soulful singer and songwriter Res, Idle Warship was born out of sheer experimenta#on in the studio. But some of the best things in life happen when least expected. When fans of Talib and Res heard and reacted to some online MP3s of what these two had created during their off-‐the-‐cuff sessions, it became clear that that something much bigger was brewing. Since making a huge splash at SXSW in 2009 and comple#ng a successful European tour, Idle Warship made Party Robot – their mix tape with master DJ Mick Boogie and singer/songwriter Graph Nobel – available for free download in 2010. It only lej the fans craving more, and now the wait is over! With an obvious chemistry, a dedica#on to free crea#ve expression and now a new album, Talib and Res’ partnership has become a musical force to be reckoned with. Habits of the Heart effortlessly shijs from the rhythmic hand-‐clapping blast of “Laser Beams” to the off-‐kilter futuris#c track “Driving Me Insane” to the unbridled, hearlelt piano ballad “Beau#fully Bad.” With guest spots from Chester French and John Forte on “Covered in Fantasy,” and Michelle Williams on “Katya,” Habits of The Heart takes you on one thrilling journey.
TALIB KWELI & RES
“Some of the best things in life happen when least expected….”
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Born in Wacs, CA, hardcore rapper Jay Rock was raised in the city's Nickerson Gardens Projects. With most neighborhood teens joining a gang, it was a no-‐win situa#on for Rock since hanging with any of his childhood friends meant he has engaging in "an#-‐social behavior" according to the law. Two such incidents found Rock viola#ng the area's gang injunc#on and landing in jail. These hard #mes influenced the rapper's lyrics and soon appearances on local mix tapes found him rapping in a hard style reminiscent of local hero the Game. With the help of Top Dawg Entertainment, he shopped his demos and mix tapes, eventually landing a deal with Warner Bros. The major label released his single "All My Life" with guest star Lil Wayne in 2008, and then partnered him with the Game for the West Coast anthem "Follow Me Home”. A year later, the lacer cut would become the #tle track to his debut album.
K E N D R I C K L A M A R
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Kendrick Lamar was born and raised in Compton, California where he quickly became fond of hip-‐hop music. At the age of eight, in 1995 Lamar witnessed his idols, Tupac and Dr. Dre film the music video for their single "California Love," a very significant moment in Lamar's life. In 2003 at the age of sixteen he released his first mix tape, Youngest Head Nigga In Charge under the name K. Dot. The mix tape was able to garner enough acen#on for Lamar to get a record deal with Top Dawg Entertainment. He then released a twenty-‐six track mix tape two years later #tled Training Day.[7] More recogni#on came Lamar's way ajer a video of a Charles Hamilton show surfaced, where Hamilton goes in the crowd and bacles rappers at acendance. Lamar didn't hesitate and began rapping a verse over "Keep it Real", that would later appear on a track #tled "West Coast Wu-‐Tang". In 2008 Lamar made a cameo appearance on Jay Rock's "All My Life (In the Gheco)" music video. Ajer receiving a co-‐sign from Lil Wayne, he released his third mix tape in 2009 #tled C4, heavily themed around Tha Carter III LP. Soon ajer, he decided to drop his stage name K. Dot and go by his real name. This resulted in him releasing a self-‐#tled EP; the Kendrick Lamar EP in late 2009.
Kids These Days is a Chicago-‐based hip-‐hop/jazz/soul fusion band. What’s wrong with Kids These Days? Not a heck of a lot – “All These Interrup#ons”, the Vancouver-‐based quintet’s debut album is an astonishing collec#on of carefully crajed and sundry indie-‐rock tunes. Everyone sings and writes in the Kids and tracks range from the angular pop of the synth-‐for#fied opener, “About Every 12 Hours”, which is led by the choirboy clarity of Jason Starnes, to the harmonica-‐gilded “The Details”, a plain#ve, twangy ou#ng showcasing the weary-‐voiced Marc Morrissece. Other members include Peter Doig, Rob Josehpshon, and Ryder Havdale. Kids These Days were formed in 2002 when Morrissece recruited some of his buddies to compete in a Vancouver radio sta#on’s bacle of the bands. This led to North by North East, Pop Montreal and 3 full tours including CBGB’s and The Knipng Factory (in both New York and Hollywood, CA!). It was evident that Morrissece’s new found band mates were capable of doing far more than merely backing him up, and the group turned into a showcase for all its members songs. Since the release of “All These Interrup#ons” last fall by Vancouver indie collec#ve White Whale Records, cri#cs have already been stymied in their efforts to describe Kids these Days. References have been made to Pavement, Radiohead and Broken Social Scene but the Kids aren’t imita#ng or borrowing. They have created an imagina#ve collec#on of original, inven#ve melodies with a refreshing approach to songwri#ng.
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New Zealand pop singer Kimbra is soulful vocalist with a bent toward jazzy R&B and indie rock-‐influenced dance music. Born Kimbra Johnson in Hamilton, New Zealand, Kimbra first began taking guitar lessons around age 12 and was performing live by her teens. A 2007 Juice TV video award caught the acen#on of the Melbourne Australia-‐based label Forum 5, who signed her to a recording contract. In 2011, Kimbra released her debut album Vows via Warner Bros., featuring the single "Secle Down." Also in 2011, she appeared on the single "Somebody That I Used to Know" with Australian-‐Belgian singer Goyte.
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Warner moved from Oakland, California to New York City in 2008 to work as a songwriter for hire. It was only ajer mee#ng Wade that she began to consider fron#ng a musical act herself. MNDR has opened for bands like YACHT, Massive Acack, and Deerhoof and frequently collaborates with visual ar#st Jamie Carreiro, who provides visual effects for MNDR's live shows. Warner and Wade uploaded four tracks to Myspace in 2009, and those tracks eventually became MNDR's debut EP, E.P.E.. The band is currently working on their first full-‐length album. The song "Fade to Black" from E.P.E was re-‐recorded in the Simlish language of The Sims and is featured in The Sims 3: High-‐End LoC Stuff. Warner is featured on the song "Bang Bang Bang", the first single taken from Mark Ronson & The Business Intl.'s third studio album, Record CollecGon. The song was co-‐wricen by Warner, Wade, Ronson, and Q-‐Tip. Daniel Kreps from Rolling Stone describes MNDR as providing "the song's indelible French-‐laden hook" while "a debonair Q-‐Tip absolutely slays on his verses." Warner subsequently provided vocals for a parody version of the song, called "Dom Dom Dom", wricen by Chris Moyles and Dave Vicy. She is also featured on Ronson's 2010 tour in support of his album. On January 17, 2012, MNDR released a single #tled "#1 in Heaven" on Ultra Records.[4] Warner told Spin magazine that the lyrics are inspired by kidnapped heiress Pacy Hearst, commen#ng, "The lyrics to the chorus are her words [...] Ajer she was arrested for robbing a bank where someone was murdered, her only press statement was, 'Tell them [my brothers and sisters] I am smiling and send my gree#ngs.'"[5] The accompanying music video was directed by SSION lead singer Cody Critcheloe and takes inspira#on from "strong iconic" women such as Jane Fonda, Wendy O. Williams, and Valerie Solanas. The duo's full-‐length debut album is scheduled for release in summer 2012, also on Ultra.
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Members of LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip have formed a new recording project, New Build. Based in London, New Build is centered around Hot Chip’s Al Doyle and Felix Mar#n, plus engineer Tom Hopkins. Doyle, you’ll recall, was a fixture in the line-‐up of LCD Soundsystem un#l James Murphy pulled the plug on the band earlier this year (2011). Apparently conceived of as a collec#ve, embracing contribu#ons from a rota#ng cast of friends and players, New Build’s early sessions have featured LCD drummer Pat Mahoney, and their debut single, ‘Misery Loves Company’, features a remix from Planningtorock.
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of Montreal
The brainchild of singer/guitarist Kevin Barnes, euphoric indie popsters Of Montreal were among the second wave of bands to emerge from the sprawling Elephant 6 collec#ve. A na#ve of Athens, GA, Barnes was inspired to form the group in the wake of a broken romance with a woman from Montreal; signing to Bar/None while living in Florida, he subsequently moved to Cleveland and Minneapolis in search of compa#ble bandmates, finally returning home to collaborate with bassist Bryan Helium (also a member of Athens' Elf Power) and drummer Derek Almstead. Of Montreal's debut album, Cherry Peel, appeared in mid-‐1997, followed that autumn by an EP, The Bird Who Con#nues to Eat the Rabbit's Flower. Ajer Helium lej to focus on Elf Power full-‐#me, Almstead assumed bass du#es, and keyboardist Dope Alexander and drummer Jamie Huggins joined the lineup; s#ll, the second Of Montreal full-‐length, 1998's The Bedside Drama: A Pe#te Tragedy, was recorded primarily as a Barnes solo project. Mul#-‐instrumentalist A.C. Forrester signed on for 1999's sublime The Gay Parade; the singles retrospec#ve Horse & Elephant Eatery followed in the spring of 2000. The group con#nued with the release of Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse in April 2001 and Aldhils Arboretum in September of 2002, both for Kindercore. With the folding of Kindercore, the departures of mul#-‐instrumentalist Andy Gonzales and Almstead, and Barnes' marriage, 2003 proved to be an up and down year for the group. Barnes' wife, Nina, joined the band and they signed to Polyvinyl Records, delivering one of their best records, Satanic Panic in the Apc, in early 2004. 2005 found Barnes exploring a bouncier, synth-‐driven avenue with the release of Sunlandic Twins, but things began to get complicated in his personal life around this #me. He moved to Norway with his wife in order to have their baby there. Deprived of familliar touchstones, Barnes fell into a deep depression and, upon returning to the States, things went progressively downhill. He and his wife separated for a #me and she returned to her family in Norway with their new daughter. Through the emo#onal turmoil, Barnes concocted what was to be his darkest, most personal and most ambi#ous album Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? in 2007. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
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Darren Weiss & Daniel Presant = Papa Los Angeles, CA
Sunny Side Up Records
Polarsets are a three-‐piece band from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. They have been ac#ve since late 2009 and have enjoyed significant success in the North East. Ajer a winter of wri#ng, Polarsets recorded the Leave Argen#na single, which was released in 2010 on Bandcamp. Both this track and its B side Just Don't Open Your Eyes Yet were instrumental in gaining the band a dedicated following and formidable live reputa#on. Selected to open the Main Stage of the Evolu#on Fes#val in Newcastle in 2010 and with support slots for Ellie Goulding, Delphic and Field Music amongst others, the band released their next single Morning on Bandcamp in late 2010. In April 2011, the band released their second official single Sunshine Eyes on Kitsuné Records. Kitsuné have also included Sunshine Eyes on their most recent compila#on Kitsuné Maison 11, and their Summer playlist Going To The Beach With Kitsuné . Jensen Sportag's remix of the track also appeared on Kitsuné's Club Night mix, produced by head-‐honcho, Gildas Kitsuné. Sunshine Eyes has enjoyed considerable play on Radio 1, with plays from Hew Stevens, Jaymo & Andy George and Zane Lowe -‐ who made the track his 'Next Hype' in May 2011. Polarsets also played the BBC Introducing stage at the Radio 1 Big Weekend 2011. In June 2011 Polarsets supported Two Door Cinema Club, who are fans of Polarsets, at the Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth. In August 2011 Polarsets released their current single Morning on 7" Vinyl through Neon Gold Records. Other Neon Gold releases include Ellie Goulding's 'Under The Sheets' and The Naked and Famous' 'Young Blood'. Jaymo & Andy George's label Moda are due to do the digital release of Morning in September. 18
POLIÇA (pronounced po-‐lisa) began as a collabora#on between fellow Gayngs’ members Channy Casselle and Ryan Olson in June of 2011. By July they had completed 11 songs, made the key addi#ons of drummers Ben Ivascu and Drew Christopherson, bass player Chris Bierdan, and headed into the studio. Ajer Mike Noyce (Bon Iver) lent his voice on “Lay Your Cards Out” and “Wandering Star,” the record was brought to Aus#n, TX to be mixed with Jim
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ScHoolboy Q
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Quincy Machew Hanley (born October 26, 1986), becer known by his stage name ScHoolboy Q is an American recording hip hop ar#st from Los Angeles, California. Hanley is signed to Top Dawg Entertainment and is a member of Black Hippy along with Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar and Ab-‐Soul. In 2008, ScHoolboy Q released his first mix tape #tled, Schoolboy Turned Hustla and followed up in 2009 with Gangsta & Soul. In 2011, he finally released his first album #tled, Setbacks Dividing his #me between socially conscious rap and bud smoker’s anthems, ScHoolboy Q makes quite the impression on his debut “street album”: the polished, funky, well-‐balanced, and rewarding Setbacks. Think Mos Def meets Murs on an especially hazy, West Coast weekend and you’ve got the idea, but this ScHoolboy offers some unique ideas on top of it. He’s a complex, mature young man who worries about his kids consuming too much fast food (the straight forward “Figg Get Da Money”) but he’s also a dude who can’t help lepng go, diving headfirst into a bong when work is done (the dreamlike “Light Years Ahead”). “What’s the Word” with fellow Black Hippy member Jay Rock, is a radio-‐friendly number that deserves a lavish party video while the following “iBETiGOTSUMWEED” is the kind of looped, scratchy soul the Madlib and Stones Throw crowd crave. Talented on either end of the spectrum, ScHoolboy Q delivers both with the same skill and cool head, all while keeping his own iden#ty up front. Setbacks wants to come off as just slightly more important than a mix tape, but this casual release is a big contribu#on to the “true hip-‐hop” movement.
Tycho
Tycho debuted in 2002 with The Science of Pacerns, a self-‐released four-‐track EP. Sunrise Projector, his first album, was released in 2004 on the Gammaphone label. Ajer the 2006 album Past Is Prologue, recorded for Merck, he secled in with Ghostly Interna#onal, where he released a trio of singles and EPs (“The Daydream,” “Adrij,” “Coastal Brake”) prior to the 2011 album Dive.
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Tycho (Scoc Hansen) is a producer and ar#st based in San Francisco, California. While Boards of Canada's blissful/melancholic IDM is an obvious inspira#on, many of Tycho’s produc#ons play out like complete electronic dream pop songs in isola#on rather than vigneces or extended mood pieces.
Voxhaul Broadcast
We are ojen told to make the most of each day. But Voxhaul Broadcast, a four piece band from Orange County, California, took this mantra to the extreme. Frustrated with the formulaic nature of today’s indie rock scene, the band decided to record and mix their debut EP “Rocen Apples” live. In one day. So on a sunny day in June the record was recorded live by Dwayne Larring, mixed by Dave Larring and later mastered by Mark Chalecki at Capitol Mastering. It was a decision that came naturally to these childhood friends. Having played together in various incarna#ons for years, David, Tony, Phil, and Kurt began to consider themselves more of a live band than a studio one. Previous recorded efforts had been mainly done at home, laying down songs they had the chance to pick apart and overanalyze. The results of this process bordered on stale, an adjec#ve that is far from reflec#ve of the energy and passion they exude on stage. Ajer signing with Retone Records early in 2007, Voxhaul decided to take a page from some of their favorite ar#sts and embrace the kinks and mistakes that make live records so great. By harnessing a sound that reflects a range of influences from James Brown and Al Green to The Beatles and Donovan, the group composed tracks with smart lyrics and undeniably catchy beats. In turn, the results of their labor are 8 songs full of raw enthusiasm, echoing the sort of musical honesty that turns even the most preten#ous listeners into fans.
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David Dennis-‐ guitar, vocals Anthony Aguiar-‐ guitar, organ, backing vocals
Phillip Munsey II-‐bass Kurt Allen-‐ drums
YACHT is a musical moniker created by electronic musician and mul#media ar#st Jonathan Warren Bechtolt (A.K.A. Jona Bechtolt, born December 2, 1980). YACHT has since 2009 included musician, writer and media ar#st Claire Evans whose vocals had been featured on previous YACHT recordings (I Believe In You. Your Magic Is Real). YACHT is based in Portland, Oregon, United States. Bechtolt was born in Astoria, Oregon and began playing music as a teenager, dropping out of high school to play drums in his brother’s touring punk band. He started working with electronics in the late 1990s and began releasing solo records under the name YACHT in 2003. Nearly all of his recordings have been distributed by both marriage records and States Rights Records. Claire Evans came of age playing in bands in the underground noise scene of Los Angeles, and was part of the Portland-‐based The World Court. She has presented her PowerPoint performances at MoMA PS1, The Kitchen and the Portland Ins#tute for Contemporary Art and has collaborated with Bechtolt on literally hundreds of projects since they met in 2004.
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