BeeVids: David Bowie

David Bowie - No Plan

Background - No Plan is an EP by English musician David Bowie. It was released posthumously in digital form only on 8 January 2017 through Columbia and Sony, coinciding with what would have been Bowie's 70th birthday. The songs "No Plan", "Killing a Little Time" and "When I Met You" first appeared in the Broadway musical Lazarus and were originally recorded during the Blackstar sessions. All songs on the EP had already been released in physical form on the Lazarus: Original Cast Recording CD and LP in October 2016. The release was accompanied by a music video for "No Plan".

Beautiful.

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Quality Not Quantity: Grumby - Frederick The Younger

Grumby - Stuck (feat. Sola Fide).

Background - “Stuck” comes as our first taste of Grumby's forthcoming EP and a humble reminder of the duo’s knack for genre-melding production. Featuring fellow New York-based songstress Sola Fide (aka Overcoats), percussive keyboard arpeggios build through the intro and then burst into an acclamation of affection with pounding drums and heavy synths. 

Ultimately this story of an addictive relationship ends with a heavy head bob of acceptance as the love interest moves forward.

Out February 6th, the duo's album ‘Changes Pt II’ is starting to sound real good right about now. Website here. Facebook here.

With rich and smooth synthy vibes and vocals that just glide and fly above the soundtrack 'Stuck (feat. Sola Fide)' is already getting considerable attention, and deservedly so.

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Frederick The Younger - Tell Me.

Background - Louisville's Frederick The Younger released their new single “Tell Me” a couple of days back. Louisville’s vintage pop powerhouse Frederick the Younger are gearing up to release their long-awaited debut album Human Child on February 3, 2017. The album is a bigger and more exploratory progression of their debut EP Warm Front (2016), which established their identity as a female-led quintet with a perfect balance of rock energy and pop melody.

Produced by veteran sonic wizard Kevin Ratterman (My Morning Jacket, Andrew Bird, Twin Limb, Houndmouth), Human Child is a bigger and more exploratory progression of their debut Warm Front EP from 2016, which established their identity as a female-led five-piece with a perfect balance of psych rock and vintage pop. The band wanted to create a more textured sound… on top of the tracks are Cochran's captivating vocals that harken back to the powerful female voices of the 1960s. Facebook here.

Upcoming Tour Dates
2/03 - Louisville, KY - Headliners (album release show)
2/23 - Chicago, IL - Elbo Room
3/02 - MOTR - Cincinnati, OH
3/04 - Neenah, WI - Short Branch Saloon
3/23 - Knoxville, TN - Barley's
3/31 - Grand Rapids, MI - Mulligans
4/07 - New York, NY - Rockwood Music Hall
4/08 - Philadelphia, PA - Ortlieb's 

This is one splendid song! 'Tell Me' is as the promo above suggests a song that takes vintage pop sensibilities and merges them with some beautiful psych rock overtones. When I use the expression 'catchy' perhaps this can be used as a benchmark and explanation. One of eleven really fine tracks on the forthcoming album, this is a band that are full of ideas and create some pretty definitive and delightful music.

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Genre Wander: Mercy Weiss - Kim Free - Playboy Manbaby

Mercy Weiss (ft Christopher and Erin Pellnat) - War.

Background - Mercy Weiss is an unsigned singer-songwriter from Brooklyn, who currently lives in Los Angeles.  Her unique songwriting and jazz-influenced vocals can be heard on a variety of collaborations with different musicians and producers.  In 2016, she released the "Mercy EP"  Bandcamp here - a collaboration with Christopher Pellnat, who is also the guitarist in the Poughkeepsie, NY based band, The Warp/The Weft. 

"War" is another collaboration with Christopher Pellnat, with the addition of background vocals by Erin Pellnat, of the Brooklyn band, Caretaker.  Mercy wrote war after talking with two homeless drunk veterans at Union Square Park in NYC one day.

It was in late August last year that we first featured Mercy, and the new song 'War' confirms (if ever it needed confirming) that Mercy Weiss is one very talented song writer and a beautiful singer. It's well worth checking out some of her other material and collaborations here.

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Kim Free - Make Me Yours.

Background - Kim Free, is a violinist/songwriter from Los Angeles. She recently released “Make Me Yours,” the first EP from Slips.

Throughout 2017, she will be releasing several digital EPs in the run-up to the album. This record is produced by Alex DeGroot from Zola Jesus, and features Wavves drummer Brian Hill. 

Kim Free will be playing two shows in LA this spring, at the Smell on January 27, and the Hi-Hat on March 28. Website here, and Facebook here.

The title song and first of three tracks on the EP 'Make Me Yours' is dreamy, melodic and blissful piece. Kim uses the violin in moderation allowing the other musicians space to contribute (Allen Bleyle – bass, Brian Hill – drums, Alex DeGroot – acoustic guitar). The second song 'Maui' continues the style and quality and for violin lovers third track 'River Park' really does showcase Kim Free's notable violin abilities. Looking forward to the next EP already!

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Playboy Manbaby - You Can Be A Fascist Too b/w I'd Like To Meet Your Parents.

Background - Playboy Manbaby is the contradictory soundtrack to the contemporary life experience. Grimly sarcastic yet youthfully nihilistic music that seems to crash into things with a semi-coherent deliberation that can only be generated by a group of frail but over-caffeinated and eternally anxious young adults. Playboy Manbaby is the theme song to the sentiment “what the fuck am I doing with my life?” Indecisive in both message and genre but never lacking in sheer intensity.   

The group hail from Phoenix, Arizona and consist of Robbie Pfeffer (vocals), Chris Hudson (bass), TJ Friga (guitar), David Cosme (trumpet), Chad Dennis (drums), and Austin Rickert (sax). Having been a regional powerhouse for over five years with two previously released cassette albums on their own Rubber Brothers label, these lads have have shared the stage with the likes of: Mike Watt & The Missing Men, King Khan & BBQ Show, King Khan & The Shrines, Rocket From The Crypt, Thee Oh Sees, Cosmonauts, The Spits, Black Flag, The Descendents, The Replacements, The Slackers, Teenage Bottlerocket, among countless others.

They've just wrapped up the mastering of their long overdue new LP "Don't Let It Be" (soon to be co-released by Dirty Water and Lolipop Records ) and these desert area DIY-veterans have just released with Dirty Water Records the first single off the album,"You Can Be A Fascist Too" in the run up to the US presidential inauguration on January 20th. Singer Robbie Pfeffer explains, “So, we weren’t supposed to put this out until February, but in light of recent events we feel like every societal catastrophe deserves a proper theme song." However one might feel about the election result and the seemingly endless division and hostility it has produced the world over, this track is sure to strike an abrasive chord in 2017.

On the B side and in their latest music video “I’d Like To Meet Your Parents", viewers are forced to watch two lovebirds looking to enjoy a night out at a place presumably called Crapriotti’s or La Doo Doo which serves only the best Rasberry Creme Shasta and Spaghetti ala Ketchup.

“We shot this video in my living room and tried to make it a terrible Italian restaurant,” says Pfeffer. “I wanted to make a video where the band is playing but aren’t really an important or central part of it. I didn’t tell the guys what the idea was, I just told them to show up at a certain time and then started yelling at them to paint their faces etc. I’m super glad how it turned out and I think everyone did a great job embracing their characters.” Website here, and Facebook here.

I just have to feature both songs from the new single by Playboy Manbaby. 'You Can Be A Fascist Too' is wonderfully manic with its full on punk desperation. 'I'd Like To Meet Your Parents' really comes to life with the video, the album is eagerly awaited.

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Weekend Wonders: Linah Rocio - Joel Gion - Gentoo - Said The Whale

Linah Rocio - Kill The Monsters.

Background - Linah Rocio is a singer-songwriter whose music - a fervid mix of jazz and indie, soul with hints of avant-pop - is passionate and powerful, intimating all manner of behind-scenes torment and drama. Showcased on her compelling new album Warrior Talk, it is beautifully arranged, with instruments ranging from electric guitar, piano and drums to banjo, trumpet, cello and double-bass. Each musician helped to shape the direction of the songs they performed on, adding to the free form nature of the recordings.

The songs on Warrior Talk are richly detailed yet loosely constructed, with a jazzy spontaneity to match the self-styled diminutive warrior’s appealingly careworn - now caressing, now clamouring - voice, capable of communicating sorrow and despair, ecstasy and desire. There is a hair-trigger quality to her singing and piano-playing, both likely to erupt at any moment, with abrupt changes of tack and pace. There is a rawness and intensity here suggestive of a wild, unpredictable and untrammelled talent, one who operates best with a free rein and over a wide range.

She titled her album Warrior Talk because “it’s like a conversation you had with yourself, where you went through something - like a war,” she explains. “An inner war.” The front cover shows a translucent picture of Linah’s head transposed over an image of the universe: she has travelled through (inner) space to bring you these meditations on emotional collapse and self-cancellation, death and rebirth.

Warrior Talk is an album of extremes, of dynamic melodies reflecting the violent vicissitudes of a life lived on the emotional edge. It’s an album, ultimately, about fighting - with others, with yourself - to assert control of your destiny. Linah’s triumph is to make the carnage accessible to all. She circles back to the matter of the album title. Before you go into battle you have to see what your surroundings are and prepare,” she declares, finally. “Warrior Talk is a talk between me and, well, everyone. Because everyone struggles.” Website here.

From the new Warrior Talk album we have 'Kill The Monsters'. It's typical of the quality of production across the release, but only a small taste of the differing melodies and direction each song takes. Sometimes the music is quite intimate and the lyrics feel very personal, at other moments the energy levels are up taking us somewhere else. As a collection this is a really fine LP, worth checking out in full.

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Joel Gion - Tomorrow.

Background - Joel Gion is releasing his new single 'Tomorrow' and it is the psych rock tune we all need to welcome 2017.  Perhaps best known for his long and strange career as the legendary 'Tambourine Man' with The Brian Jonestown Massacre, in recent years, this percussionist has also emerged as a singer-songwriter in his own right. He has released various singles, as well as the well-received full length album 'Apple Bonkers'.

'Tomorrow' is being released ahead of Gion's forthcoming sophomore album, which should be released in early spring 2017. A reflection on the much maligned year that was 2016.

"I wrote and recorded it earlier this year while the Democratic party campaigns were the big topic... So the tune does some BS-calling out of the rising classism in the USA and at the same time sending a message out to not let things get you down too hard – but then nobody in the free-thinking world have ever dreamed things would wind up going this far south in the end," says Joel Gion. "Still, having said that, this is the only life you have, so you have to enjoy it no matter how stupid things get, ‘cause we always have each other and you always have yourself."

The upcoming album was recorded in separate phases between legs of the 2016 Brian Jonestown Massacre world tour. The sessions involved fellow BJM members Collin Hegna, Dan Allaire, Ryan Van Kriedt, and Robert Campanella, as well as other various friends from around the modern psych and indie scene. Website here and Facebook here.

'Tomorrow' packs a bit of a punch, with upfront vocals surrounded by some solid psych rock sounds. As a teaser for the planned new album, it does the job well!

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Gentoo - This is as far as we go.

Background - Gentoo is the brainchild of electronic producer and multi-instrumentalist Damon Kelly. On the new album Structures (release date January 20th 2017), Kelly used live drums, guitar, and bass creating a rich, and enchanting mixture. Structures still embraces Gentoo’s trademark minimalism, slow arching waveforms, and transcendental vocals that invite us to explore our own perceived universe.

With a background in photography and literature, Damon Kelly spends a good deal of time exploring the way we interact with the physical space in our lives, and finding places where we can shield ourselves from the sonic clutter of living in a society of sensory overload. Members/Instruments: ​ Damon Kelly (synths, bass, guitar, programming, photography, design), Jeff Ryan: drums on Listen and Oslo, Aaron White: guitar on Libra. Bandcamp here, Facebook here.

Again we have a new album where the featured track 'This is as far as we go' is but a small taste of what's in the collection. Overall it's a collection of ambient music, which flows and veers off in many differing directions. Melodic and often relaxing, it's never boring, more hypnotic and pleasing.

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Said The Whale - Step Into The Darkness.

Background - Following the announcement of their fifth studio album, Vancouver’s Said The Whale has released lead single “Step Into The Darkness”. As Long As Your Eyes Are Wide, out on March 31 via Hidden Pony Records, was recorded during a time of significant change. Previously operating as a five-piece, the current trio - made up of frontmen Tyler Bancroft and Ben Worcester and keyboardist Jaycelyn Brown - entered the studio with no preconceptions and no concrete plan. With the help of We Are The City’s Cayne McKenzie on production duties, the finished product is Said The Whale’s most collaborative, focused album to date. Previous records highlighted the contrast between the two founders’ eclectic rock influences and salt-of-the-earth folksiness. Here, their styles become one.

“Step Into The Darkness” exemplifies this cohesiveness. When writing and demoing the song, Ben limited himself to only a drum loop and bass synth, which left room for creativity in the studio. The song came together organically once the band and producer stepped in. Though finalizing the track was a group effort, it still remains incredibly personal and meaningful to Ben: "Step Into The Darkness" was written after a devastating break-up with my girlfriend of six years. The song is me reaching out to comfort my love, reassuring her that she is safe and despite the immense sadness and feeling of loss, perhaps good things will come. We got back together shortly thereafter.”

A decade since the JUNO Award-winning band’s formation, they have now taken the project back to its freeform roots while simultaneously venturing forward into uncharted art-pop territory. Despite the album’s many adventurous sonic forays, it remains true to the spirit of their classic work. At its core, As Long As Your Eyes Are Wide is a singer-songwriter record, guided by introspective lyrics and alchemical group harmonies from Ben, Tyler and Jaycelyn.

After so much change and uncertainty in recent years, Said The Whale has emerged as a unified force. They’ve evolved, but the DNA is the same, and the group’s musical partnership is more fruitful than ever. Facebook here.

'Step Into The Darkness' is one splendid piece of indie pop. Vocals and the music are bright and melodic, leaving the forthcoming album eagerly awaited.

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