Thursday Three: Jumpcuts - Matt Stillert - The Sticklers

Jumpcuts - Headlights.

Background - Baltimore electronic new wave rock band Jumpcuts will release a limited edition 7” vinyl single and embark on a tour of the East Coast this October and November in support of their sophomore album Fiber Optic Bondage, due for release this spring. Following several national and regional tours, singer and multi-instrumentalist Andy Shankman tracked the songs “Headlights” and “Curses and Verses” at Baltimore’s Mobtown Studios with producer Mat Leffler-Schulman (Future Islands, Dustin Wong). Fiber Optic Bondage blends atmospheric synths, danceable beats, and Shankman’s introspective lyrics.

Jumpcuts' resume includes tour dates spanning the eastern half of the U.S., opening slots for Phantogram and School of Seven Bells, collaborations with producers of Beach House and Celebration, and a featured performance slot on WFUM's Live From Cleveland. This fall’s string of shows will feature Steve Bryant, the NYC-based producer and drummer most recently known for his work as the drummer for the band Young & Sick. Shankman, known for his angular guitar work, will incorporate simultaneous singing and guitar looping for much of the new material. More information on Jumpcuts is available on the band’s official website.

Fall Tour Dates for Jumpcuts

Sat, Oct 24 @ Denton, TX, J & J's Pizza
Sun, Oct 25 @ Houston, TX, Super Happy Fun Land
Wed, Oct 28 @ Panama City, FL, A&M Theater
Wed, Nov 11 @ Carrboro, NC, The Station
Sun, Nov 15 @ Sanford, FL, Rabbitfoot Records
Wed, Nov 18 @ Charleston, SC, Tin Roof
Fri, Nov 20 @ Charlotte, NC, The Milestone Club
Sat, Nov 21 @ Baltimore, MD, Reverb.

This song has that addictive something. Music and vocals interweave, it's so well layered and atmospheric, that a second listen was almost compulsive.

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Matt Stillert - Shoe Boycotter.

Background - Based on the Sunshine Coast but always on the move, Matt Stillert is quickly becoming one of the hardest gigging blues n’ roots artists on the East Coast of Australia. With 2012’s debut EP ‘Don’t Fear The Beard’ turning several years of performance into product, all focus is now on upcoming full length ’Shoe Boycotter’ which lands November 21. Driven by the just released title track single, ‘Shoe Boycotter’ is self-produced with Matt playing nearly every instrument featured on the album, having painstakingly slaved over eleven tracks to achieve impassioned lyrical and musical fulfilment. While Matt’s sound and spirited live show has been described as "an alternative blues onslaught”, it must be noted that the rambling troubadour has a soft side with a penchant for sweeping poetic melodies, ultimately colouring his treasure chest of material.

Recent support slots for CW Stoneking, Hat Fitz & Cara and Marshall Okell compliment the ever growing list of festivals Matt has appeared at which now include Byron Bay Bluesfest, Woodford Folk Festival, Caloundra Music Festival, Gympie Music Muster, Mitchell Creek Rock N’ Blues Festival, Mary River Festival, Palm Creek Folk Festival, Perigean Originals and the Australian North Coast Rock N’ Blues Event. It’s safe to say you’ll see the word festival and Matt Stillert on a poster this summer! With a record collection that boasts early blues greats such as Son House and Skip James to the universally admired Tom Waits, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin, Matt Stillert has chosen an inevitable path where living and breathing music is a vital way of life.

Yes the comparisons are there, for me Seasick Steve sprang to mind, its inevitable when you pen a rootsy blues song, and deliver it with so much natural flair. Whatever names are mentioned, this track has its own legs and is just so cool.

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The Sticklers - Breakfast In Hell.

Background - About ‘Breakfast In Hell’ Part song, part romantic revery, ‘Breakfast In Hell’ is undoubtedly The Sticklers at their most fully realised. Channelling the bookish melancholia of The Smiths with the upbeat pop euphoria of Dexy’s Midnight Runners, The Sticklers’ nostalgic latest single is the stuff breakout tracks are made of. Lyricist Gabi Garbutt paints a vivid, breathing, and magical portrait of two lovers in a damned republic, while Lee Milward’s violin communicates the feelings that can’t be vocalised. A pop song in the classic sense: concise and hook-laden with a perfectly executed middle eight key change, it’s little wonder why they were selected to support The Libertines at the Manchester Ritz before the shows sudden cancellation. ’Breakfast In Hell’ is a compact gemstone of brilliance that’s sure to see them reaching a whole new sea of possibilities in their career. 

About The Sticklers “We create music that is passionate, honest and lyrical, fusing hard headed rock’n’roll, soaring soul and nimble-fingered folk fiddle.” At a time when poetic guitar pop is in short supply, waylaid by the increasingly tech-dependent and often soulless production values of new shoegaze and psychedelia, The Sticklers cut a defiantly beatific figure in their hometown of London. Forming in and around their local Camden pub The Wheelbarrow, they released their first EP ‘Hold It Up To The Light’ in 2013. After embarking on a series of live dates in London and beyond during the autumn, they eventually holed up in studio at the end of the year to record the pivotal single ‘Mr Needlove’. Its release was accompanied by a video that saw them playing on a moving barge, buoyed by impassioned melodies and poetic lyrics that eventually wormed their way into the ears of XFM’s John Kennedy, giving them vital radio play.

There is no one fulcrum on which The Sticklers’ sound rests. Vocalist Gabi Garbutt provides much of the romantic sentiment in her lyrics. Both a guitar player and a published poet, her lyrical approach stems from her interest in the pop poetry of literary musos like Patti Smith and Leonard Cohen. Violinist Lee Milward and lead guitarist Chris Brambley melodically reinforce her wistful commentary with their honeyed and nostalgic accompaniments, while Tom Newis and Lorenzo Levrini form the pivotal rhythmic backline. It’s a combination that produces instinctive chemistry.  There is little doubt that new single ‘Breakfast In Hell’ is only the start of a journey that promises to inject more colour, poetry, and imagination into the barren landscape of British indie music. The Sticklers may be colossal sentimentalists, but they’re finely-tuned pop writers too.

What a talented band The Sticklers are. Add to that a new single, where the B-side ('Down By The Waterside') is screaming for as much attention as the A-side and you know you have come across a band that promises superb music.


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Midweek Muse: Thrushes - Day One - Tiger Choir - East Of Here

Thrushes - Joan Of Arc.

Background (with bird facts) - Thrushes; part of the Passerine bird family. The songs of some species are considered to be among the most beautiful in the avian world. Baltimore's Thrushes bring a similar beauty to the human world with Exposing Seas, their first full length in 5 years. 

Formed in 2005, the band's previous efforts (2007's Sun Come Undone and 2010's Night Falls) garnered the kind of glowing praise most indie acts could only hope for. Now, with Seas and its swirling, reverb-drenched guitars and dreamy, yet plaintively delivered vocals, the album brings to mind a mix of the classic shoegaze era-gone-by, Hounds of Love 'Bush-isms' and a splash of 90's emo-progenitors Rainer Maria resulting in Thrushes most focused work to date. 

On the band's approach to this new album, singer Anna says "Exposing Seas is an album that shows our growth as a band. We worked so hard over the past few years to create songs that were larger and louder than before without losing the ethereal mood (of the band's previous work)."  Lyrically, she says "a lot of the songs have a dark feel, or a hint of longing.  I guess that's just where I end up when I write even if the words aren't autobiographical." 

Recorded and produced by J. Robbins (Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Office of Future Plans) at Magpie Cage Studios (Baltimore, MD), Exposing Seas was released around a month ago, on Florida's New Granada Records.

As the music gradually builds, the vocals add another layer, that blends beautifully within this shoegaze anthem. Whilst some seek to turn the genre into a harder 'wall of noise' sound, Thrushes demonstrate that there is plenty still to be explored on the melodic side.

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Day One - Eon (Ft. Isabel Higuero) [EP Version].

Background - Day One, who was one of the first artists to release with Monstercat back in their early days, has just released an EP as a comeback with SectionZ Records (his first new material since 2013). The EP is called 'Serenity,' and explores the softer, more beautiful side of electronic music.

Featuring gorgeous vocals from Isabel Higuero and Aloma Steele, respectively, the two vocal tracks "Eon" and "Serenity," find Day One using lush piano, bell backdrops, a driving backbeat, and some subtle basslines to create breathtaking backdrops for both of these talented vocalists. The instrumentals "Moonburn" and "Antarctica" take on more dancefloor-friendly sounds in the realms of house and drum and bass, respectively.

Day One has played shows with artists like Katy B, Krafty Kuts, and Fox Stevenson, and his last few releases in 2013 reached the Top 10 Overall on Bandcamp and the Top 25 on Beatport's Dubstep  chart, along with breaking into the Top 100 on Beatport DnB. This EP is meant to represent, in the artist's own words, "a one-man journey through space, with 'Eon' being the launch of the spaceship from Earth (depicted stunningly in the artwork), the two middle tracks 'Moonburn' and 'Serenity' being about travelling through space (Serenity is also about memories of Earth whilst in deep space) and the final track, 'Antarctica', about the homeward journey and arrival back on Earth."

'Eon' demonstrates just how 'natural' electronic music can be. On the featured track Isabel Higuero delivers stunning vocals, if you like this as much as I do, then this EP is a must. On 'Serenity' Aloma Steele is equally delightful, you can't really go wrong with this one.

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Tiger Choir - Interstate.

Promo Words - When life gets hectic, the stress of work shoots way past boiling point, and everything feels like a mammoth effort, we all turn to the same four words to comfort us: "I need a holiday". But if you don't have the time or funds to actually take off someplace different, Tiger Choir has the next best thing: their hazy, jubilant anthem to getting the hell outta dodge, 'Interstate'.

Enveloped by a comforting blanket of muffled reverb, the harmony-driven track sports a decidedly retro vibe that makes it essential summer play list fodder. Following the success of indie pop gems 'Shani' and 'All Time', it's the third single from Tiger Choir's second LP - to be released in the very near future.

Recently wooing crowds at Bigsound, Tiger Choir have also shared stages with the likes of Courtney Barnett, The Preatures, The Drums and Deerhunter. They've shown their worth on the festival circuit too, scoring spots on the lineups for Falls Festival, Camp A Low Hum (NZ), Dark Mofo and A Festival Called Panama. With a hat-trick of feel-good singles now under the belt, album number two is promising to be one well worth the wait - and Tiger Choir show no signs of slowing down.

As the song unfolds the vocals at first reminded me of Mark Burgess from UK band The Chameleons, well until the chorus, when they go places Mr Burgess can only dream of (or keeps to himself). Seriously this is unpretentious, upbeat indie pop, with enough natural, mood lifting energy, that professional miseries will struggle not to submit to.

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East Of Here - Don't Need You.

And we quote - "Youth is wasted on the young" - this is the sentiment portrayed by Sydney duo East of Here in their latest single 'Don't Need You'. The track lunges straight for the heartstrings, invoking aching regret and melancholy with erratic percussion and tortured vocals. It's a tale that hits all too close to home, inspired by what is popularly referred to as "hook-up culture". Raw, honest and stunning 'Don't Need You' is a song that you definitely need.

After a stint earlier in the year at Mountain Sounds Festival playing alongisde the likes of Safia, The Kite String Tangle and Northeast Party House, and later a support show for Gordi, the dynamic duo are ready to take matters into their own hands. East Of Here will launch 'Don't Need You' in a not-to-be-missed performance at The Oxford Art Factory on the 29th of October.

As 'youth is wasted on the young' if it can be passed on, I'm up for any going spare. Actually it's surprising how easy it is, to forget the angst of younger times. Leaving that aside this is a really good song, whatever the background.

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Dan Croll - One Of Us

Dan Croll - One Of Us.

What we are told - Liverpool's experimental, genre-defying Dan Croll is excited to announce the release of a new single - 'One Of Us' - the follow up to 2014's critically acclaimed debut LP 'Sweet Disarray' ("full of infectious harmonies", so said NPR). The track is available digitally now and is the first taster of what you can expect from Dan's second full-length, details of which will be announced soon. 

While 'One Of Us' lies at the heavier, more energetic end of Dan's spectrum it is still undeniably pop-infused. Much like the majority of his other material, 'One Of Us' was written and performed solely by Dan, with a pace and energy of this track showing his multi-instrumental prowess. Lyrically, the song touches on the various forms of peer pressure that he has witnessed around him - “Heard you can’t beat the rush, give in and be one of us. Told you 10,000 times that you'd rather be on of us".

Bold statements aside, Dan stays true to his genre hopping ways, delving deeper in to the likes of late 80's hip-hop outfits (De La Soul, The Pharcyde), layered electronics (Caribou, Tame Impala) and sci-fi films (Moon) as inspiration for this second album. With previously sold out headline tours on both sides of the Atlantic, including The El Rey in LA, New York's Bowery Ballroom and Koko in London, Dan Croll will be playing a handful of intimate headline shows this November across Manchester, London and Liverpool (dates below). 

Tour Dates:

09/11 - Manchester, Deaf Institute
11/11 - London, Hoxton Hall
12/11 - Liverpool, Buyers Club

In recent times Dan has picked up fans far and wide in the fashion, sport and entertainment worlds, ranging from British labels Burberry (who took Dan to Taipei in 2014 to launch of their new Trench collection) and Paul Smith (who personally hosted Dan’s album release party in his Soho store), to US TV stalwart Jimmy Kimmel (Dan recently made his US TV debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live), to the British Embassy inviting Dan to be a cultural ambassador during the World Cup, performing his first show in Brazil ahead of the opening England match.

It's one of those songs that kids me it's going to go one way, then takes a twist and chooses a better route. Add in the bubbling energy, top it with superb vocals and you arrive with 'One Of Us'. The soundtrack is equally engaging, so I guess what I am saying is, I like it!


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Two Distinctly Different: Calling All Astronauts - The Hummingbirds

Calling All Astronauts - Empire.

Them background words - It’s been two years since Calling All Astronauts (featuring members of pop punk pioneers Caffeine, goth stalwarts The Marionettes and seminal UK rap-metalers US:UK) unleashed their debut album “Post Modern Conspiracy”. Those two years have seen these London based alternative electro rockers release seven singles, gain massive radio and blog support worldwide (including BBC 6Music and XFM), build a 400,000 strong Twitter following and open for the likes of Roger Daltrey, Echo & The Bunnymen, PWEI and A Place To Bury Strangers.

Following a 20-month stint hard at work in their own recording studio, CAA are back, with a brand new single, “Empire” hitting all stores on November 27th. “Empire”, is the first single to be taken from their hotly anticipated second album “Anti-Social Network” (out in February 2016), and has been described as what you’d get if Johnny Cash had ever duetted with Jimmy Eat World! Intriguing right?

It's been getting a little soft around here of late. Calling All Astronauts deliver the energy in container loads. 'Empire' just works on so many levels, vocals are a little bit Bauhaus versus Sisters Of Mercy, with an artillery battle taking place behind. I'm supposed to be resting after an operation, fat chance with bands like this.

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The Hummingbirds - Out Of The Rain.

Background Promo - Always synonymous with great music, there’s no doubt Liverpool has a fantastic musical heritage, birthing a unique sound traced through the songs of musical icons such as; The Beatles, Cast, The Coral, Echo & The Bunnymen, Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Farm, The Zutons, The La’s, The Merseybeats, Teardrop Explodes and more recently Circa Waves… maybe it’s the accent, maybe it’s the culture, perhaps its just growing up surrounded by the unbeatable music of those who have gone before. For sure there’s something special and undeniably recognizable about a band coming out of Liverpool, The Hummingbirds are no exception. It’s impossible to discover this band without a frisson of excitement, without doubt there’s a strong possibility they are destined to join the line up of Mersey’s greats.

The Hummingbirds are a born and bred Liverpool five-piece, with Jay Davies on lead vocals / guitar, Mic Kountis on guitar / backing vocals, Matty Brougham on rhythm guitar, Ryan Lewis on bass and Richard Smith on drums / backing vocals.  Growing up on the streets of Merseyside the 23 year old lads have been heavily influenced by music from the 50's / 60's but deliver a 21st Century take on that heritage, creating their own contemporary melodies, hook - laden choruses and dropping harmonies into Americana tinged acoustic guitar riffs, like sugar sweetening a great British brew.

Friday 6th November sees the release of the band's first EP, ‘Out Of The Rain’ with accompanying tracks, ‘Awaiting Your Call’ and ‘Home’, on their own label, Gladstone Recording Co. They will be playing dates around the country during October / November / December with 2 London dates - 14th October at The Islington and 8th December at The Barfly, and The O2 Academy Liverpool on 28th November. Their debut album ‘Pieces of You’ is due for release March 2016.

'Out Of The Rain' has the audiophile quality to challenge any modern sound system, and yet transports you along a timeline anywhere from the sixties until today. This is no tribute act, they are the real deal, whatever the decade, superb music.

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Ummagma - Frequency (EP).

Ummagma - Lama (From the EP 'Frequency').

Background - Canadian-Ukrainian duo Ummagma have confirmed details for the UK release of their EP ‘Frequency’. This mini-album will be available through Raphalite Records and is slated for release on November 13th. Alongside five original tracks, the EP features remixes from Cocteau Twins legend Robin Guthrie, Wales' celebrated Lights That Change, and Malcolm Holmes of Orchestral Maneouvres in the Dark (OMD).

Ummagma consists of Shauna McLarnon, who hails from Canada's Yukon, and Alexander Kretov, who is from Ukraine. Since bursting onto the music scene in 2012, they have made a significant impact on the underground music scene. Their potent combination of uplifting and melancholic textured dreampop, shoegaze, postpunk, ambient and electronica rapidly gained them a sizeable international following despite the numerous issues they faced living between Canada and Ukraine.

‘Frequency’ follows the band's two debut LPs 'Antigravity' and 'Ummagma', which were simultaneously released in 2012. This release represents a slight departure from the first two albums, which whisked the listener through the romanticism of first meetings, big love, adventures abroad and optimistic dreaming through to the realities of birth, loss, death and departure. In contrast, 'Frequency' explores such themes as space and distance, timelessness, escapism, and the search for tranquility.

Canadian-Ukrainian duo Ummagma have blazed quite a trail for themselves in their short history. They've landed press coverage and radio play in more than 50 countries, including Rolling Stone Russia, and have managed to strike an endearing chord with a good number of 'first wave' shoegaze and dreampop artists, particularly from Creation Records and early 4AD rosters. "Ummagma have something very special about them that you don't find in many bands, that is an honest, believable & beautiful lyric delivered by an honest, believable & beautiful voice," says Malcolm Holmes of OMD. "When you combine this with the swirling ambience of lush layered guitars, this duo end up with their own unique sonic landscape."

Dreamy, ambient, gentle and smooth, oh! and throw in lush for good measure. Just what the music doctor ordered. This EP is everything the above promo promised and more.

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