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L.A. underground favorites HEALTH hits the road this fall. Cold Sweat Records signs on to release LP version of forthcoming album.

L.A. underground favorites HEALTH hits the road this fall. Cold Sweat Records signs on to release LP version of forthcoming album.

The impressive word-of-mouth excitement about L.A. underground quartet HEALTH that has surged throughout that city like a series of rolling blackouts has quickly become an international phenomenon. The band recently ripped a swath across the U.K. — garnering praise from the NME, BBC radio and many more — and this week HEALTH announce tour dates throughout the US beginning on September 25th (see complete dates below.) The band’s live shows are sweaty, packed fits of beautiful noise that could perhaps be best compared to Liars, Animal Collective and latter-period Black Dice.

HEALTH‘s self-titled debut full length on the ultrahip Lovepump United label hits shelves on September 18th. Soon thereafter, L.A. based Cold Sweat Records (Battles, Phantom Family Halo, This Moment in Black History) will issue the vinyl version of the album. As if that weren’t enough HEALTH activity, the band has announced a slew of commissioned remixes to follow hot on the heels of the album. The impressive list of remix collaborators includes Pink Skull (Minneapolis), David Gilmore Girls (Amsterdam), Crystal Castles (Toronto), Curses! (NYC), Toxic Avenger (Paris), CFCF (Montreal), Juiceboxxx (Milwaukee), Narctrax (Tokyo), Lovely Chords (Buenos Aires), et al.

The group’s surging notoriety is also due in part to the magic of the Interwebs. “Crimewave” was the #2 most blogged about song according to Elbo.ws. Likewise, HEALTH was recently the #5 most blogged about band according to that blog aggregator, and #9 on Hypemachine.com. Anthem Magazine recently shot an amazing live performance of the song “Glitter Pills” at The Smell (where the HEALTH album was recorded) in downtown L.A., which can be seen HERE. Additionally, director Nik Mercer shot a collaboration between HEALTH and Aa (Big A Little a) reworking the band’s “Crimewave” that can be viewed HERE.

Regarding the remix onslaught, the band issued the following statement: “HEALTH likes to make scary noises, we like to chant until our faces go red, we like to beat on drums until there’s blood on the floor. But we also like to boogie, and sometimes we need help from people we admire. There is a great big world full of music and there is no excuse for standing in the corner with your eyes closed. You can always make friends with the other kids in class, even If your favorite band is Slayer and theirs is Bell Biv Devoe, so let’s hold hands.”

Instead of finding a room where the only thing one can hear is their heartbeat, HEALTH recorded its debut full length in one of the band’s favorite places. The Smell is an all ages music venue in downtown Los Angeles. It is open and brick and dirty and dark, but when you sing a church hymnal or hit a drum as hard as you can the sound is beautiful. They did both of these things on the record. They also went out and found equipment built the same time as The Smell, mostly ribbon microphones designed by the BBC for radio broadcasts in the 1930’s, things George Martin liked to use, and other things they didn’t know about. The record is 11 songs in less than thirty minutes – on it there is new music with old sounds.

HEALTH was six months old the first time they played for real people. Before that, there was more talk than music, mostly about art, food, sex, animals, records, drugs, politics and sleeping. After two more shows in Los Angeles, the group self released a 7” and went on tour. While they were traveling, people told them their music was weird. When they got back they played on a bill with Ex-Models and Death Sentence Panda. They felt like grown men. After that, people let them play shows more often, mostly at all ages art spaces like The Smell and Il Corral. They became friends with other L.A bands like No Age, The Mae Shi, Mika Miko, BARR, Captain Ahab, Anavan, and Abe Vigoda. Then they went on three more tours and a trip to SXSW.

HEALTH has also had a hand in 8-bit glitch duo Crystal Castles’ recent success. In addition to a Crystal Castles/HEALTH split 7” (to be released concurrently on Lovepump United with HEALTH‘s LP), Crystal Castles highly anticipated Crimewave EP is named for a HEALTH remix for which the two bands recently shot a video.

HEALTH Live:

* w/ Crime Novels
^ w/ Yip Yip
09/25 Phoenix, AZ The Modified*
09/27 Denver, CO Rhinoceropolis *
09/28 Lincoln, NE Pile of Kevins*
09/29 East Moline, IL Mixtapes*
10/01 Bloomington, IN Uncle Festers*
10/02 Madison, WI King Club*
10/04 Oberlin, OH Oberlin College*
10/06 Montreal, QC Pop Montreal^
10/07 Rochester, NY Bug Jar*^
10/08 Poughkeepsie, NY Vassar College*
10/09 Middletown, CT Wesleyan College*
10/11 Northampton, MA House Party*
10/12 Boston, MA Obrien’s Pub^
10/13 Providence, RI May N Kevin 4 Eva^
10/14 Pompton Lakes, NJ Mainstage Club^
10/16 Purchase, NY Suny Purchase*^
10/17 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY Bard College*
10/18 Philadelphia, PA Danger Danger Gallery*^
10/19 New York, NY Knitting Factory CMJ^
10/21 Baltimore, MD The Depot
10/22 Washington, DC Civilian Arts Project*^
10/23 Charlottesville, VA Bridge Progressive Arts Space*
10/24 Charleston, SC Cumberlands*
10/25 Savannah, GA Jojos Backyard*
10/26 Atlanta, GA Lenny’s Bar*
10/27 Birmingham, AL Bottletree*
10/29 Houston, TX Proletariat*
10/30 Austin, TX Emos*
10/31 Denton, TX Eighth Continent*
11/01 Lubbock, TX Bash Riprocks*
11/03 Los Angeles, CA The Smell*

HEALTH Tracklisting:

Stream The Album HERE

Release Date: Sept. 18, 2007

01. Heaven
02. Girl Attorney
03. Triceratops (MP3) | (CFCF Remix MP3)
04. Crimewave (MP3)
05. Courtship
06. Zoothorns
07. Tabloid Sores
08. //M\\
09. Glitter Pills
10. Perfect Skin (MP3)
11. Lost Time

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interviews music videos press releases

Illegal Art’s first release of Fair Use mayhem following Girl Talk’s Night Ripper is the latest from artist James Towning, aka Realistic

Illegal Art’s first release of Fair Use mayhem following Girl Talk’s Night Ripper is the latest from artist James Towning, aka Realistic.

“Following the aesthetic of Negativland and John Oswald, Realistic borrows material from every possible source: classic rock, disco, self-improvement records, soap operas [and more]. Towning demonstrates a knack for unconventional looping, sonic accumulation, and a good joke.” – All Music Guide

Realistic’s third album, Perpetual Memory Loss, features sixteen tracks of intricate sample-based compositions – a beautifully sophisticated celebration of found sound, recorded media, technology, and electronic composition. Slices of field recordings mesh with surreal electronic melodies, which creates enjoyably odd multi-layered musical fun. Realistic is the guise of sound collage artist James Towning, by day a Brooklyn-based motion-graphics designer.

With this release, the Illegal Art label continues to challenge the restrictions of copyright as perceived by the larger music industry. The uniqueness of Realistic in comparison to other artists on the label (Girl Talk, Oh Astro, Steinski) further illustrates that sample-based music is strikingly some of the most original, innovative, and exciting music being made in the 21st century. Illegal Art claims Fair Use for all of its releases and has professional legal counsel nearby if needed.

Towning has been a fan of electronic music since his college days, mostly the UK scene. Artists like Human League, Soft Cell, Cabaret Voltaire, Wire, Art of Noise, and Meat Beat Manifesto were early influences, while Mu-ziq and Kid Koala can be counted as contemporary ones. In a recent interview Towning says, “I also go off on binges of Queen, ELO, XTC, The Beatles, and Bowie.”

A recurring source in Towning’s compositions is the nostalgic sounds of 70’s and 80’s techno-pop and rock artists that were personally influential over the years. As well as using computer-based waveform editing and sampling, Towning carries a portable digital recorder to capture various audio environments on a daily basis. Whether the source samples are found around the house, on TV, on a busy Chinatown street, or a crackly sound effects record, Realistic‘s juxtaposition of head-spaces always creates something surreal and altogether new.

“There’s such a rich texture of sound and visuals in New York. I’m constantly entertained with the sounds that I record,” said Towning in a recent interview. An ever-increasing collection of thrift-store records and cassettes is another likely source of audio inspiration. “I love composing little sound pieces using whatever source material I choose. It’s a cathartic, fun, and essential part of my life.”

With Perpetual Memory Loss, the Realistic sound has evolved into a tighter and more structured mesh of musical patterns and mangled beats. Tiny rhythmic patterns and subtle textural layers are revealed upon repeated listening. Sampled dialogue is used more sparingly than in previous Realistic releases allowing the musical voices to be heard more clearly. Each complex track is its own self-contained little world, with disjointed characters, funky grooves, and odd but familiar musical samples. Throughout the 45-minute album, expressionistic patterns of sound twist and fold into one another as the tracks evolve. At times the entire audio spectrum degrades and distorts in groovy syncopation. The tracks on Perpetual Memory Loss are more complex and refined, but what remains is the underlying sense of humor, rich production, and an offbeat composition style that is distinctively Realistic.

Regarding the album’s unique artwork, Towning explains, “The CD art was designed by me. It consists of many thumbnails of snapshots I’ve taken over the past three years or so. That timeframe coincides with the production of the audio tracks, too. The snapshots represent memories in a very literal way. They vary in subject matter from pictures of my cats, still-lifes, industrial landscapes, detailed textures, and random found art. The inside artwork reveals more snapshot thumbnails in varying degrees of clarity.”

Towning further elaborates, “Beneath the CD, a collage of found images and photographs explodes and bleeds over into the snapshots. The technique of collaging with found and personal imagery reflects the style of the audio tracks too. The primary colors of red and green that I chose were inspired by and derived from a vintage Christmas card I received from a friend a few years ago. Again, a nostalgic reference.”

As for the title Perpetual Memory Loss, Towning says it “speaks to the process of growing older and the mind’s ability to store, lose, and constantly distort memories. And how sometimes those memories are recalled in a random and overlapping order. As we get older, more and more memories are stored while others are buried deep or lost. The title also references the similarities between the ever expanding human mind and a computer’s finite hard drive and its ability to retrieve random and corrupt data.”

Videos From Previous Realistic Releases:

“Private Moments”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJAaDZZawLo

“Music for Voyeurs”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzIUnevtrFc

“Angel 2001”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ0eKMJKnm0

“Spectacle of Slop”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bTYS2HQqqI

Perpetual Memory Loss Tracklisting:

Release Date: October 23, 2007

01. The Camera Track (MP3)
02. Music in the Round
03. Conversation Hearts
04. Post-Corporate Fantasy
05. Amazing Fall
06. Welcome to Heaven
07. Brand Name Sunday
08. Library Music
09. Wandering Aimlessly
10. Have a Nice Trip
11. April and August Sixth
12. There is Always More
13. In Loving Memory
14. Snowday Plaything (MP3)
15. The Numbers Test
16. Uneventful Fall

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music videos reviews tour dates

Bits And Pieces

Need good information? Hit up the rumor mill…it may not be accurate, factual or otherwise credible, but it’s always entertaining.
Rumor has it, that NOFX (Fat Wreck Chords) is putting together a new live album (their second), slated for an early 2008 release. It should tide over fans who haven’t seen anything new since 2006’s “Wolves In Wolves Clothing.” The new album should be content heavy considering the band has been globe trotting as of late, playing far away venues in mystical lands(Japan, South Korea,China, South Africa). It will be NOFX’s second live release, the first, 1995’s “I Heard They Suck Live” was well received. Rejoice.
“Rise To Your Knees” the latest offering from proverbial psychedelic-punk rockers The Meat Puppets provides listeners (and bandmates) an unexpected twist. The brothers Kirkwood together again. Following a hiatus of little more than a decade, brother Cris (on bass) has rejoined the line-up alongside brother Curt (on guitar) in creating the legendary bands newest release. Once refered to by his brother (Cris) as a “suicide in progress” Curt has seemingly overcome his struggles which have included a stint in jail, drug abuse, and best of all a gun-shot wound. Oh the irony.
Gearing up for the start of their North American tour; Strung Out (whom I’m still undecided on). The band will return from Europe and kick things off August 31st in California. They’ll follow up with a second leg (primarily East Coast and Mid West dates)starting in September. While supporting their latest effort “Blackhawks Over Los Angeles” the boys will tour with Evergreen Terrace and I amGhost.
Fuse T.V. aka (MTV 3, the network you love to hate) has been doing some cool things as of late. Warped Wdenesdays’…your weekly Vans Warped Tour wrap-up is fun a couple hours of relatively good music. I love the idea, but would like to see better excecution. Also on the air “Crusty’s Dirt Demons” the first reality show worth watching. Heavy Metal, motorcycles, and mayhem! How much do I have to shell out for tickets to that party? For those of you not in the loop, The Crusty Demons is a group of tight -knit riding buddies (FMX/Motocross) who pioneered the FMX video scene in the mid-nineties. The group includes O.G.’s the likes of “Mad” Mike Jones, Larry “Link” Linkogle, Seth Enslow, Mike Metzger, the loveable redneck Bubba, and of course multi-media magnate Dana Nicholson. Contestants are brawling for a spot on Team Crusty and the chance to take their career to new heights. Hey I ride, and I have more tattoos than resident loudmouth Sean Highland…I want in. Additionally check out www.punknews.org for a cool contest link to Fuse TV (it’s also a great site), where you can win your very own Nintendo Wii. Sweet.
And although the news is over a week old, people love to wax intelluctual regarding the Horrorpops recent line-up changes. Get over it! In Geoff Kresge’s case it was inevitable. Viva Hate was his dream. It was half the reason he left Tger Army in the first place. Good for him, even the band supported his move. But in regards to Naomi and Kamilla Vanilla, are you f@#*ing kidding me? People these are dancers, last time I checked NOT an important ingredient. Besides threesomes rule. On the subject, what is with Psycho-Billy? Great style of music, so why should the fans ruin it, old dudes with six inch Vanilla Ice pompadors died black, busty Bettie Page wannabe wives. Scenesters. It’s not f-ing Halloween!
And last but not least Rants and Raves!
Rave: The Aggrolites newest self titled release. Only lately has the groups music become “main stream” music store accessible (doesn’t hurt to be Tim Armstrong’s backing band). Think true, dark, dance hall reggae with a pinch of Cali attitude thrown in for good measure. Full length review coming soon.
Rave: Rock of Love With Brett Michaels’ the offering from the folks over at VH1. Let me just clarify, I hate Poison, always have, always will. The only things real about that band were their sexual escapades and drug problems. Musically they were never innovators, or particularly talented but they were pretty. And at the time, American women 15 – 30 years of age liked their men pretty, the possibilities were endless; hairspray for two, huge makeup collections, and double dates with the hair dresser. Huh now that I think of it, kinda like todays Emo generation. Distaste aside, I love Brett Michaels, he’s rude, arrogant, and honest. Besides he’s been placed in a room full of chemically polluted, silicone enhanced toys (strippers and porn stars) and given carte blanch. Keep an eye on Tiffany, possible split personality/substance abuse problems…She should make for some quality entertainment.
Rant: New School big-label A&R guys who think every band with a pop-punk sound should dress in black and wear eyeliner a la Davey Havok (sell out extraordinaire). What the f#@%? You take great bands and ruin them. Go back to booking Maroon 5.
Rant: “Honest Goodbye” the new Bad Religion single. First I question the bands judgement. Then I see it performed live a few weeks ago, it grows on me, and I begin to dig it for what it is. Then my son loops it 9,000 times for 4 straight days, and every “alt-rock” radio station in the good ole U.S. of A. blasts’ it every hour on the hour. Alas I don’t blame them, I blame the band. Why did you release that song as a single? Brett you’ve got Epitaph and Hellcat, Greg you’ve got your P.H.D., what gives? You really need more dough? Try touring more (not on the Warped Tour) write books, shine shoes, anything just please N0 MORE SHITTY SINGLES!
And finally…Serius Punk 29, satelite radios’ “edgy” channel. You started so strong. Original playlists’, cool hosts’ we’d been waiting for a channel like you. Now just repetative and boring. While getting tattooed yesterday (July 18) I heard the same Bad Religion tune 4 times in 4 hours. Ok the song is classic, but 4 times in 4 hours? On the same page, does Jello Biafra (egomaniac du-jour) own a large stake in Sirius? Jello and The Melvins, the D.K.’s, his spoken word garbage, it goes on and on and on and on. Enough already. With a catalog as thick as W’s record of wrong doing, originality should be the focal point. Hey Sirius, I’m available.

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music videos reviews

Bad Religion – New Maps Of Hell

Bad Religionwritten by Mike Cox

P.H.D. toting punk –rocker Greg Graffin has done it again. Fans rejoice. Critics be silenced! 27 years and 14 full-length albums into it, Bad Religion has rekindled the fire burning in the moral minority.

“New Maps of Hell” the bands first studio release since 2004’s (mostly) disappointing “The Empire Strikes First” showcases the bands depth and resilience. Baptized by fire and armed with a six man front including a three guitar arsenal, listeners are treated to a ferocity reminiscent of late eighties, early nineties Bad Religion. Evident just a few bars into the albums opening track “52 Seconds”, the band lets loose a sonic tidal wave that goes on to flood almost every track on the album.

Long fueled by Graffins’ lyrical proselytizing, 2007 finds the band breaking new musical ground, fusing their traditional melodic skate punk sound with a little hardcore, producing the darkest sounds to date in a long celebrated career. Lyrically Graffin stays true to form, highlighting social inequity and political injustice. His conviction remains just as powerful as his command of the English language, solidifying his reputation as one of the more intelligent songwriters of our time.

So deep is the lyrical content, that trying to interpret each individual track could amount to writing a senior thesis sure to enrage Theologians and Poly Sci professors around the world. Bad
Religion is vehement in chastising our overbearing, judgmental society. “New Dark Ages” a blistering track warning the unnamed and aforementioned of some metaphoric Armageddon really hits hard. Like brick to skull hard.

Though the first single “Heroes and Martyrs” was ill received true fans will appreciate it, which may not be the case with the likely second single “Honest Goodbye” a radio friendly rant full
of the signature Oozin Aah’s…lets just hope an accompanying video is NEVER produced.

Love it or hate it, Bad Religion is back, punkin’ the government, condemning the puritan masses, and invigorating the moral minority. RESPECT.

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music videos press releases

Girl Talk goes topless for Playgirl, eats hot dogs with Congressman Doyle and Newsweek

Girl Talk goes topless for Playgirl, eats hot dogs with Congressman Doyle and Newsweek, quits his job and goes on tour with Dan Deacon.

Although you’re more likely to see Gillis strip down to his skivvies at a Girl Talk show, half a million people saw Gillis exposed in June’s “Man of The Year” issue of Playgirl Magazine. When discussing what he likes to do in his free time, Gillis says, “I enjoy swimming, playing basketball, lighting off fireworks, snacking it out, and bro’n down.” About the issue, Gillis says, “I didn’t know it was out, and a friend actually spotted it in a women’s restroom at this pretty dive-y bar in Pittsburgh. She didn’t know I was in it, she was just browsing. Pretty funny situation.”

What some might find even funnier is the fact that Gillis ate hot dogs with Newsweek journalist Steven Levy and Congressman Mike Doyle shortly after the Playgirl piece hit stands. Levy and Congressman Doyle flew to Pittsburgh to meet Gillis at local hot dog joint Franktuary to discuss Doyle’s recent statements supporting Girl Talk ’s sample based music on the floor of Congress. Read all about it (LINK).

Gillis recently was granted the freedom to do the above mentioned things, as he recently resigned from his job as a biomedical engineer that up until now has also kept him from taking on more remix projects and touring on a regular basis.

“I couldn’t keep up with both worlds,” Gillis says. “It was just too much. I keep getting sick because I’m in a constant state of running somewhere else. Music has always been my main interest, but I never really thought of it as a possible career. I think I’m extremely lucky to be in the position I am in now, where I can dedicate at least a year of my life to music and stay afloat.”

According to Gillis’ booking agent Sam Hunt at The Windish Agency, “It shouldn’t have too great of an impact on his live schedule. There’s something awesome about only playing on the weekends, and we’d like to do our best to keep that going,” Hunt says. “However, there have been a number of uniquely awesome opportunities that have been impossible because they took place during the week. Also, there’s a chance he’ll be able to do a more thorough/actual tour involving multiple consecutive shows!”

Gillis’s resignation also granted him the opportunity to go on tour with Dan Deacon, more flexibility to perform at special events during the week and also more time to work on Trey Told ‘Em, a band he started with friend and collaborator Frank Musarra (Hearts of Darknesses). The duo has already completed one remix for Tokyo Police Club, and has many more in the works including tracks for Simian Mobile Disco and Professor Murder.

Girl Talk was one of the highlights of this year’s Coachella festival (VIDEO), with Paris Hilton (mere weeks before her incarceration!) and Perry Farrell dancing alongside him and throwing confetti. As usual, Gillis had a crew of dancers join him on stage, with gigantic bright yellow balloons tied to their wrists. Girl Talk was also a hit at this month’s Bonnaroo Festival and the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona.

Who ever thought you would see the day when the words Playgirl, Newsweek and Paris Hilton could all be used in one of our press releases? In true Girl Talk fashion, he never ceases to amaze.

In addition to the tour with Dan Deacon, Gillis is excited to be playing several more summer festivals, including Pitchfork and the Winnipeg and Montreal Jazz Festivals. He will also put his fan base to the test this July by playing Red Rocks in Colorado with Violent Femmes and Blues Traveler, soon to be followed by a show with Widespread Panic in Boston. This just further illustrates Girl Talk ’s notorious “down for whatever” attitude about music.

Girl Talk Live:

* w/ Dan Deacon

07/04 Morrison, CO Red Rock Pavillion
07/14 Chicago, IL Pitchfork Music Festival
07/18 Boston, MA Bank Of America Pavilion
07/27 Seattle, WA Capitol Hill Block Party
07/28 Louisville, KY Forecastle Festival
08/04 Baltimore, MD Pimlico Race Park
08/09 Indianapolis, IN Talbott Street
08/10 Baton Rouge, LA Spanish Moon
08/24 Tulsa, OK Cains Ballroom
09/08 Portland, OR Roseland Theater
09/12 Toronto, ON Phoenix*
09/15 New York, NY Webster Hall*
09/17 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Church*
09/20 Charlottesville, VA Satellite Ballroom*
09/21 Asheville, NC Orange Peel*
09/22 Atlanta, GA MJQ Concourse*
09/27 San Diego, CA Epicentre*
09/28 Los Angeles, CA Echoplex*
09/29 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore*
10/04 Lawrence, KS The Granada Theatre
10/05 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
10/06 Iowa City, IA The Picador
10/11 Calgary, AB The Warehouse
10/12 Edmonton, AB The Starlite Room
11/01 Houston, TX Engine Room
11/02 Dallas, TX Palladium Loft

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music videos tour dates

Black Moth Super Rainbow to tour with Flaming Lips in September, Aesop Rock in October

“A lot of neo-psych bands get the trippiness right, but can’t find that magical mix of tunefulness and sonic invention that makes listeners want to take their trip more than once. On Black Moth Super Rainbow‘s third album, Dandelion Gum, the mysterious Pennsylvania combo builds songs out of scratched fragments of roller-disco, sunshine-pop, and what sounds like intercepted interstellar broadcasts. Songs like “Jump Into My Mouth And Breathe The Stardust” are dense and fuzzy, with layers of vocoder, shrill synthesizers, and twangy guitar, but they also maintain a basic structural integrity. Even though Dandelion Gum opens with “Forever Heavy,” one of the best mind-bending album-starters since My Bloody Valentine’s “Only Shallow,” Black Moth Super Rainbow is effective because it isn’t afraid to let songs float off like brightly colored balloons.” — Noel Murray, The Onion

The rural Pennsylvania psych-damaged bubble-gum-pop enigma known as Black Moth Super Rainbow continues to tantalize and melt minds with its stellar third album Dandelion Gum and mesmerizing live shows. And, this September, The Flaming Lips has invited the swoozy quintet to support its U.S. tour. Furthermore, the band will soon announce west coast dates with Aesop Rock for October. What next… a tour with the Rolling Stones? Please see current dates below.

To add extra lysergic to the trip, a bizarre and somewhat eerie home video depicting the band members in their natural environment, traipsing through the woods at night has been posted on the RollingStone.com web site (LINK). The influential magazine’s “Artist to Watch” feature on the group describes its sound as “Air + Grateful Dead + CIA = Black Moth Super Rainbow.” The accompanying video clip shares more in common with the spookiness of the Blair Witch Project than a simple psychedelic rock band’s home video.

Whatever it is that drives the rural group’s aesthetic, it appears to have caught the fancy of many influential writers. David Fricke of Rolling Stone previously cited the band as one of four standout acts that performed at this year’s South By Southwest Festival last March. “Musically,” Fricke writes, “this bucolic-futurist quintet was a firmly directed trip: pillowy synth chords and day-glo songcraft nailed to Earth by insistent back-beats.”

Likewise, Jon Pareles of the New York Times raved over Black Moth Super Rainbow‘s live show, writing, “its songs are pulsating neo-psychedelia, driving and dizzying, with vamps that keep on building as the keyboard sounds go whizzing, bubbling, zapping and swooping above the beat. Vocals are run through a vocoder for a vintage robotic tone, repeating lines like ‘I love to be with you,’ and ‘this time we’ll rise’ or ‘We miss you in the summertime.’ Above the band, a screen showed eye-popping video animations: wildly proliferating plants, cartoon people and food in metamorphosis. The band’s albums revolve around stories and concepts–its current one, Dandelion Gum, is a tale of witches in a forest–but onstage, its music was one glorious buzz.“

Similarly, many of the nation’s finest music magazines have affirmed their affinity for the Pittsburgh group, including praise in Spin, Blender, Vice, Pitchfork and many more.

More about Black Moth Super Rainbow:
Black Moth Super Rainbow comes from the woods of Western Pennsylvania. An actual, five-person band not comprised of the expected laptops and sequencers, Black Moth Super Rainbow is a psyche-pop group in early ’70s electronic clothing. Some songs feel like local folklore of witches in the forest filtered through a brightly saturated Japanese candy store. Some are like pagan rituals in a sugarcoated fairyland. Others are like sad thoughts on the happiest days…. all played and lovingly assembled by real people with real hands. Black Moth Super Rainbow lives and makes music in its own lollipop neon folktale world.

Dandelion Gum is a concept record loosely-based on witches who make candy in the forest. Each of its 16 songs represents a different candy-induced freakout in the gooiest and sweetest ways possible. Songs that are built to stick in listeners’ heads for hours meet textures that are impossible to scrape off your teeth. You might not even realize that the sunny melody you’re humming to yourself all day has so many hidden layers behind it — all hummable as well. It’s as accessible of a record as it is abstract, and as bright on the surface as it is moody underneath. Dandelion Gum feels as colorful and sticky as its name suggests.

Recorded over the course of three years, the album is a product of the woods. It is deeply inspired by stories passed down from relatives and ones the band created themselves after long nights in the cabin. The best of those stories, and one that we hope could be true, is of the sisters who refused to leave their shack deep within the forest. The sisters (or witches as they are lovingly referred to in local folklore) were truly scary and it is said they would concoct all kinds of sugary treats for anyone foolish or adventurous enough to wander that deep. Most likely, this is an allegory for drugs and you can come up with whatever seemingly appropriate type of operation those women were running. But the stories of the individuals who made it back home are some of the most twisted stories around. Some are really bright, some are really sad, and some are designed to make you think about life and rainbows and death. Black Moth Super Rainbow wants you to feel that when listening to this record. And then they want you to remember it all day, and try it again tomorrow.

Black Moth Super Rainbow‘s first sad/happy/nostalgia-for-something-that-never-existed record, Falling Through A Field (2003) was three years of four-track and sampler recordings that shows how the band came from an almost folk beginning. Printed initially in a limited quantity of 500, the disc has been out of print since its initial release. A reissue on Graveface is in the works.

The band’s sophomore record, Start A People (2004) was about recreating the sounds of childhood public broadcast television and applying them to the Black Moth Super Rainbow formula. It’s a blissful, hazy, fuzzy record that can make you feel good whether you were a kid in 1982 or not. The concept of Start A People is the face Black Moth Super Rainbow is best known for and a thread that runs through everything they do.

Putting together the live show, the group started developing around this time as the extremely psychedelic pop band it is today. Echoplex freakouts and gong smashes with drums spinning all over the place are part of the repertoire now. Noise plays with melody, and old synths that aren’t used by anyone anymore might help you remember why it can be fun to wiggle or jump or cry.

Black Moth Super Rainbow lives on Graveface Records, and although known as somewhat of an enigma, has come out of the forest in 2006 to play at the request of bands like Of Montreal and The Black Angels. They have released a wild full-length collaborative record with The Octopus Project and are working with such diverse artists as Dreamend, Laura Burhenn (Georgie James), and Anticon’s Passage on their future projects.

“It’s hard to imagine that any other artists are treading ground anywhere near this. Hell, it really doesn’t matter anyways – because if anyone was, it sure as hell couldn’t be as good as this.” – Delusions of Adequacy

Black Moth Super Rainbow Live:

w/ The Flaming Lips

07/06 New York, NY Seaport Festival
08/11 Santa Fe, NM Santa Fe Muzik Fest
08/17 Philadelphia, PA Khyber
08/18 Brooklyn, NY Aladdin’s Garden Party
09/07 Chciago, IL Aragon Theater*
09/09 Minneapolis, MN The Myth*
09/12 Kansas City, MO Uptown Theater*
09/18 Vancouver, BC Orpheum Theater*
09/19 Portland, OR Roseland Theater*
09/20 Seattle, WA Paramount Theater*

Dandelion Gum Tracklisting:

01. Forever Heavy
02. Jump Into My Mouth And Breathe The Stardust
03. Melt Me
04. Lollipopsichord
05. They Live In The Meadow
06. Sun Lips
07. Rollerdisco
08. Neon Syrup For The Cemetery Sisters
09. The Afternoon Turns Pink
10. When The Sun Grows On Your Tongue
11. Spinning Cotton Candy In A Shack Made Of Shingles
12. Drippy Eye
13. Lost, Picking Flowers In The Woods
14. Caterpillar House
15. Wall Of Gum
16. Untitled Roadside Demo

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65Daysofstatic hand-picked to support The Cure in the fall, summer U.S. tour launches July 18th. New album The Destruction

65Daysofstatic hand-picked to support The Cure in the fall, summer U.S. tour launches July 18th. New album The Destruction of Small Ideas album hailed by Kerrang magazine as “utterly peerless.”

“Kicking off with their trademark electric crackle, it’s clear that with their third album 65daysofstatic have resisted the urge to tone down their quite frankly mental tsunami of noise and make a play for the mainstream sales potential of an ever scene-conscious world. Instead, they have done what they’ve always done — thrown the rulebook out the window and grown organically. With such clinical conviction 65DOS are utterly peerless in their chosen field of post-rock.” — Razio Rauf, Kerrang Magazine

“65daysofstatic have made their masterpiece, or something close to it; three albums in, in the most dirty, shallow decade of music we’ve known, who else can say that? A handful, not enough. The Destruction of Small Ideas is a weight, a tower of babel, a journey, learnings, understandings, communication, evolution. I’ve been waiting. I was promised this or something like it. The rise and fall. All so deep, so rich, so comically dynamic and detailed and powerful for it that it makes me want to cry. How to make a record. Play loud.” — Stylus Magazine

British post-rock quartet 65daysofstatic has been hand-picked by goth-pop legends The Cure to support its entire North American tour this fall. The tour begins September 13th and runs through October, taking the band to arenas and amphitheaters nationwide — including the legendary Madison Square Garden in NYC and Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles (see complete dates below.)

But, that won’t be the first chance for American audiences to experience the band that’s been all the rage in the UK, Europe and Asia for several years now. 65daysofstatic launches its first U.S. tour on July 18th (see complete dates below) with co-headliners Fear Before the March of Flames.

In the first week of its release, 65daysofstatic‘s new album The Destruction of Small Ideas sold out of its first pressing, forcing the label to scramble to meet the overwhelming demand. Likewise, press response overseas for the album has been phenomenal, with Kerrang magazine deeming the Sheffield, England quartet’s latest “utterly peerless” in the post-rock genre, awarding the album a 4/5 K-rating.

The new video for the first single from the album, “Don’t Go Down to Sorrow” has been posted online. Click HERE to watch.

The Destruction of Small Ideas is the highly-anticipated followup to its massively popular sophomore album. The 12-song collection released worldwide on April 30th via Monotreme Records. A three-song single “Don’t Go Down To Sorrow” preceded the album on April 9th, building upon the critical and commercial success of One Time For All Time in the UK, Europe and Japan which catapulted the band to festival stages and pages in the NME, The Wire, Rock Sound and many more since its release in 2005. That album was released in the U.S. in fall 2006.

65daysofstatic made its American live debut to an enthusiastic audience at the SXSW festival this past March at the Fanatic Promotion showcase. (We don’t want to gloat, but we’ve been telling the press for a year now that they’d be huge and it now looks like 65daysofstatic‘s ascent has begun!) Stylus magazine calls the album a masterpiece and American press has begun to pick up on the band, including forthcoming coverage in Magnet, Paste and Harp magazines.

In the past year, the group has packed venues and headlined festival dates overseas, as well as recording three radio sessions for BBC Radio One. Recently, MTV Asia aired an interview and live set from the band’s performance in front of more than 10,000 fans in Tokyo at the 2006 Summer Sonic festival.

During much of last year’s activity, 65daysofstatic‘s UK label Monotreme Records inked a deal for an American release of the refreshing gene-splice of electronic glitch and guitar girth heard on One Time For All Time for fall 2006. The album’s futuristic tone makes for a seductive score for an unwritten sci-fi epic that melds cutting guitars and electronic tones with sampled beats, live drums and computer glitch. But where IDM culture cuts out in the low end, 65daysofstatic delivers a thunderous wall of guitars that’s reportedly still shaking some festival grounds since last summer’s performances.

Following the European release of its acclaimed 2004 debut album The Fall of Math, 65daysofstatic spent several months touring the UK, playing to packed venues and festival tents. With the UK release of their second album, One Time For All Time in October 2005, 65daysofstatic further cemented its position as one of the most innovative bands to emerge in the UK, with its groundbreaking blend of drum’n’glitch beats, walls of guitar noise, broken laptop clicks and overwhelming melody. A relentless touring schedule in the UK and mainland Europe has seen the band share stages with the likes of Mono, Wolf Eyes, Hundred Reasons and Mogwai. The group headlined the Kerrang! Stage at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton, followed by a headlining Kerrang! ‘Most Wanted’ sponsored tour.