Public Works Division
RBTS WIN
RBTS WIN's music is many-faceted, both dark and ephemeral, tough and tender, scary and comforting. It's a fantastic study of electronica, pop, rock, chillwave and trip hop that transcends all of those elements and surfaces in a new place. Lush, rhythmic, star-lit, cool and expansive it manages to both suck the air from the room and breathe into space.
Track Record
Javelin
Javelin is the creative endeavor of George Langford and Tom Van Buskirk, cousins from New England.
Javelin began making music in 2005 under the auspice of the Providence, RI art/noise scene. They wielded a mobile boombox soundsystem that used FM transmission to pump out pop-influenced sample collages, and their aesthetic aimed for surrealist block party in-a-box.
In 2008 they performed at MoMA's Poprally event and moved operations to Brooklyn. They quickly made a dent in the extensively musician-populated borough and were featured in Pitchfork's "Rising" section. Pitchfork also named "Vibrationz" Best New Track, and gave honorable mention to the self-released CD-R Jamz n Jemz in their Staff List 50 Best Albums of the Year (2009). Javelin released two 12" EPs on Thrill Jockey that were housed in dollar bin record sleeves and silkscreened with their name, actualizing the thrift store / dollar bin / sampled art aesthetic that had been their hallmark.
In 2010 Javelin signed to Luaka Bop, David Byrne's psychedelic world music label, who released their debut LP No Más. The album artwork and booklet featured spray painted record cover collages by Tom Van Buskirk. Javelin played shows and toured with Yeasayer, Sleigh Bells, Future Islands, Matt & Kim, Warpaint, Major Lazer, performing at Lollapalooza and The Whitney Museum, as well as parties across the US, Europe, and South America. They booked the flights themselves.
In 2011 Javelin joined up with a wagon train and headed West. The Kickstarter funded psychedelic cowboy short film Canyon Candy, directed by Mike Anderson, and the Canyon Candy EP (Luaka Bop), found Javelin exploring a junk store cowboy aesthetic. The project culminated in a multimedia art installation with Mike Anderson at the Clocktower Gallery in New York, which stayed up half the year into 2012.
The new record is called Hi Beams. It represents a more holistic approach to writing and recording than previously attempted by the band. Lyrics and vocal harmonies for the first time are foregrounded in decidedly songlike forms. Songs made to be performed in concert rather than as a patchwork of fragmented if glittery shards.
The songs cover a broad range of territories: homage to the strangeness of being a performer; encountering beauty & the void in the natural world; how mundane aspects of work/life distract and alienate us from our desires; advice to internet-based musicians; an assurance to someone who has isolated themselves; light, sky, stars, moon; gravity, delivered with levity...
Hi Beams was recorded and mixed at Machine With Magnets (Pawtucket, RI) using proper microphones, vintage mixing desk, an array of amplifiers, real plate reverb -- in the traditional sense a "studio album." Previous work had been cobbled together in home studios and mixed on computer. On this record, Javelin aimed for a sound they could not have achieved by themselves.
Of note, "Light Out" was written with samples from "Hey" by Moss of Aura, aka Gerritt Wilmers (keyboardist in Future Islands). "Drummachines" came from a track recorded by Javelin with Travis Murphy on guitar, of the now defunct Killer Whales.
In performance, the beaten down tower of boomboxes will make their reappearance in mutated form -- like a phoenix rising from the ashes -- as the visual backdrop for the new stage show. A large wall sculpture of dozens of boxes stitched together with industrial velcro and lit up with LEDs will provide a taste of the old show flavor, and will make any room feel slightly more like home (or like an eccentric stereo repair shop, who knows). Changes to the sonic and light show setup are expected as well.
From Javelin: "The last thing we'll say about the new record is that we are sincerely proud of it. We chose the name Hi Beams because the songs evoke to us a sense of sky, stars, night, and warmth -- they are bright bodies of light that wave hello. Please enjoy the fruits of our collective labor."
VQ Creative
The Swayback
The Swayback's sound is a mix of blues swagger and early punk bite that's cut with art-school gloom. Their revved-up live performances have led them to share the stage with such diverse bands as: Gang of Four, Girls, The Raveonettes, Dead Meadow, Dum Dum Girls, Portugal. The Man, Akron/Family, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Swervedriver, Hold Steady, Cage The Elephant, and Place to Bury Strangers. Swayback's album Double Four Time was recorded with legendary British producer Andy Johns (Television, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin) and released on LGL Records.
Kanine Records
Bleeding Rainbow
Nevermind the constant threat of a cease and desist letter, when Carrie Brownstein tells you that your band name is weak, you change it. But it isn't as simple as a name change for Philadelphia's minimal noise pop duo Reading Rainbow, significant line up additions facilitated the adoption of a new moniker. So...drum roll please...as we reintroduce Philadelphia's Bleeding Rainbow, now a full-blown, Brownstein-approved, rock quartet. The name better represents the band's evolving sound and is all around more badass and trippy as sh*t. The founding members, Sarah Everton, who moved from drums to bass to give her vocals a better chance to shine, and vocalist/guitarist Rob Garcia are now joined by Al Creedon on lead guitar and drummer Greg Frantz.
While 2010's album release Prism Eyes gained significant attention and raised the band's profile among the indie elite, even that set might not be aware of the previous self-released album Mystical Participation. If Prism Eyes is, by their own description, their attempt at writing pop songs, and Mystical Participation emphasizes an aesthetic of loud and drone-y guitars instead of focused song structure, Yeah Right, the band's third album set for release January 29th, 2013 on Kanine Records, is the merging and maturation of all these ideas and sounds.
For Yeah Right, the band has opted for a bi-polar approach to production, pushing the extremes of murky, ominous and sometimes harsh and fuzzed-out guitar onslaughts ("Pink Ruff") as well as a strong repertoire of hushed, ethereal moments ("Cover the Sky") aiming to evoke a nostalgia for 90s slacker culture without sounding bored or contrived. While previous releases reside in the reverb-soaked psychedelic pop realm, Bleeding Rainbow says, "the sound this time around was more directly influenced by bands from our teenage-hood such as Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, and Yo La Tengo to name a few." Mixing hints of Greg Sage's anthemic, anxiety-ridden punk riffs, with equal parts drone and noise swells reminiscent of Kevin Shields at his most inventive, and overlaying of boy-girl harmonies has Bleeding Rainbow channeling the Mamas and the Papas as if backed by early Smashing Pumpkins.
With the inclusion of two long time friends and supporters of the band, Bleeding Rainbow has not only freed itself from the limitations of a two-piece, but given themselves a chance to delve deeper into the mood of songs and allow for extended instrumental sections ("Drift Away"). A more collaborative songwriting approach has resulted in more complex songs, but that does not mean they are without pretty sounds or pop moments. So while Yeah Right opens up easy and welcoming ("Go Ahead"), the end will leave you feeling as if a wall of noise has permeated through your body ("Get Lost"). Bleeding Rainbow set out to create something beautiful from harsh noise, and Yeah Right succeeds wildly at doing just that.
Riot Factory
Therese Aune
Therese Aune (NO) plays expressive dream pop with influences from both mainstream indie and classical minimalism. Cinematic soundscapes where melodic beauty and sophisticated playfulness go hand in hand.
Whilst writing the songs herself, Therese Aune brought along a whole score of great musical friends when recording the album, all of which contribute to the album's subtle, but stunning, beauty. Ida Løvli Hidle (accordion), Hanna Furuseth (violin), Katrine Schiøtt (cello), Heida Karine Mobeck (tuba) and Hans Hulbækmo (drums) accompany Therese as she sings, plays the piano and harmonium.
Therese's music is elegant, seamless, and full of small surprises and dramatic moments. It feels warm, enveloping and compelling, with a slightly ominous shimmer surrounding it, all contributing to a wonderfully haunting album.
Her short musical career has taken Therese to Iceland Airwaves (ICE), Popkomm (DE), by:Larm (NO) aswell as a vast array of cities around Europe, amongst them Moscow, Oslo and Berlin.
Therese Aunes debut album, out November 9th, 2012, is produced and mixed by Icelandic superproducer Mio Þórisson (Björk, Owen Pallett, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Ane Brun).
Riptide Music Group
Cab 20
Cab 20 is a four piece rock & roll band from El Segundo, California that formed in 2010. They've earned a growing amount of critical acclaim through their energetic live performances and their well produced albums in a genre that is noted for it’s mostly casual, lo-fi approach to music. With two releases already under their belt, they have released a highly anticipated full length studio album, Holy Denim Faded Vibrations, in February of 2013. No strangers to the spotlight, Cab 20 has already shared the stage with such bands as Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Howlin Rain, Hacienda, FIDLAR, and Night Beats. They've had songs featured on Degrassi, Burton and more. Truly a band not to miss out on.
Riptide Music Group
The Sights
Detroit's masters of heavy soul, The Sights, are a five-piece rock 'n' roll band renowned for both their incendiary live shows and acclaimed song-writing. Think Big Star & Badfinger fronted by Steve Marriott and you'll get a pretty good idea of what makes these guys tick. Hailed by critics and fans alike, they continue to build on an incredible 14-year legacy of uncanny blues-rock meets power pop.
Ghost Town, Inc.
Wildcat Strike
Band of snowboarders from Salt Lake City. Men of few words.
Ghost Town, Inc.
Futurebrite
Futurebrite is singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Karen Kanan Corrêa's radiant first solo project. Produced and co-written by Josh Grant, mixed by Alex Aldi (Passion Pit), and featuring a small collection of incredible guest musicians (rapper Staf Sharif, drummer Sekou Lumumba of Bedouin Soundclash and 24/7 Spyz, and string players from New York's composer-collective Anti-Social Music), Futurebrite is chimerical, dark, romantic electro-pop. Prior to Futurebrite, Karen led the "dizzyingly addictive" indie trio Demander. After two albums, tours across the US and Europe with the likes of The Hold Steady, New Model Army, and Art Brut, TV song placements and video collaborations, Karen decided to go solo. While writing the songs that will become the first Futurebrite album, Karen toured as bassist for Swedish rocker Moneybrother, played with the composer/performer collective Anti-Social Music, sang on UK artist Gary Go's newest album, and won both an artist residency at the prestigious Millay Colony for the Arts and a spot at the ASCAP Lester Sill Songwriting Workshop in LA.
Badman Recording Company
Lovers
If neural physics has taught us one thing, it's that together, three female minds form a super brain. In the triad Lovers, Carolyn Berk, Kerby Ferris, and Emily Kingan balance, accentuate, and harmonize their unique talents. With animated honesty and unrelenting humor, Lovers enthusiastically draws an audience into the darkly colorful world of their hearts, where throbbing pop textures and a steady electronic pulse transform tender introspections into room-shaking anthems. The result is an expansive sonic landscape of colorful wonder and hope, and an interactive and engaging performance that strives to leave audiences inspired.
Since 2001 songwriter Carolyn Berk has established her unique voice under the Lovers moniker with four acclaimed, haunted, heart-broken releases. The addition of waveform artist Kerby Ferris and multi-talented instrumentalist, Emily Kingan (of the hardcore due, the Haggard) focuses three wildly ambitious and boldly sincere artists on hooky beats and interactive performance.