M83‘s Morgan Kirby has announced her debut solo project, White Sea. White Sea’s first release will be the This FrontierEP due out digitally October 5.
“While on tour with M83, I was exposed to so many new things,” Kibby explains. “When I returned home, I sat down and taught myself Pro Tools, and how to produce. I’ve really spent the last year figuring out what music I’m excited about making.”
The 5-song indie pop release explores cinematic elements paired with big bass lines and synthesizer melodies with Kirby’s sweet voice adding a final texture.
Kibby also is set to release a remix of School of Seven Bells‘ “Dust Devil” on Sept. 14 with the release of her single, “Heart is Strange.”
Lawrence indie rock trio Cowboy Indian Bear has just released the perfect video to close out summer and transition all music lovers into fall. The band went to a county fair and put together the above video for “Saline.”
“Saline” is off their Record Machine debut, Each Other All the Time. The release can be streamed and ordered here.
Another highlight of this past year’s Lollapalooza was Jukebox the Ghost. The piano rockers are releasing a new album, Everything Under the Sun, on Sept. 7. Bethany caught up with them at Lolla and asked them a few questions about their real biography, playing Lolla and the upcoming release. The full interview is below:
Bethany, PopWreckoning: Ok, first off, I was trying to find some information about you guys online and really all I could find is a biography of President Taft. What’s up with that? Tommy Siegel, Jukebox the Ghost: Haha. I think I have to answer this. Do you guys even know about this? I’m Tommy, by the way. I play guitar and sing sometimes. We set up the Facebook bio and instead of putting an actual bio, I put the Wikipedia entry for Howard Taft. So now when you search on Facebook for Jukebox the Ghost, it says Jukebox the Ghost – indie rock – and underneath it says, “Born in 1837″ or whatever. PW: You guys are anti-slavery under influences. It says that as well, so that’s good. TS: Yeah, that’s good.
PW: So what’s your real background story? How did you guys all meet? Ben Thornewill, Jukebox the Ghost: We met in college at George Washington University in DC. I lived next door to Jesse and met Tommy Sophomore year, so we started there. I’ve lived in Philly for three years. Some of us live in New York and some of us in Philly.
PW: How does the distance thing work with the band with practicing and touring? BT: We barely practice as it is. Touring is our practice. We would practice like two or three times a year, doing like a marathon: eight hour days for like a week and a half. We’ll keep doing that and it doesn’t really matter where we do it.
PW: Is this your first time at Lollapalooza? How does it compare to other things that you’ve done in the past like club shows? BT: This is our first Lolla and it is (a) way better than any other festival that we’ve done, for sure. And (b), it is sort of like a perfect show. We had like people as far back as we could see. It is the biggest show we’ve ever played.
PW: And you’re doing an after show for free. How is that going to compare what people saw already at Lolla? TS: It will be longer, there will be 1/100th the number of people, but it will be fun. We’re playing with two great bands: Skybox, whom we’ve toured with before from Chicago, and Spinto Band, whom we’re fans of but have not met.
PW: Lolla is an extreme festival compared to others. Do you guys have like a survival kit or anything that you’ve learned on how to make the most of it? BT: Not really. They have golf carts that take you, artists and others, from place to place. That’s the greatest thing. Tommy has advice. TS: My advice is just to act confident. Because anyone who is a security person, they might ask you a question, but they’re way less likely to if you just act like you know where you’re going. So act confident and you can get all sorts of free stuff that’s not really free here. Jesse Kristin, Jukebox the Ghost: This is Jesse. I play the drums. My Lollapalooza 2010 tip is bring your cell phone charger with you because there are outlets everywhere. You just got to find them. I was watching the Strokes and charging my phone. It was great. They actually have electricity in this wilderness.
PW: So, the Strokes must have been a must-see for you, but were some of the other acts that you were excited for this year? JK: Miniature Tigers. They’re one of our best band friends and they just put out a new record. It’s just phenomenal. They’re small for the festival, but we’re pushing them really hard because we love them and they’re going to be huge. We have other friends that have played and are playing. These United States, Freelance Whales, Skybox, so a lot of friends here and we’re pushing for them. The big ones are fun, but it is special to see these small bands play on these big stages.
PW: What are your plans post-festival? BT: Post-festival we’re just driving back to the East Coast and playing some small album type stuff. The album comes out Sept 7 on Yep Roc Records. Then we’ll go on tour after that for like five weeks. So until Sept. 3, keeping it easy, practicing and maybe learning a new cover.
PW: For people who didn’t get a chance to hear the new songs here, on the upcoming album, what can they expect? TS: They can expect a more mature version of what we had done before. It’s nothing wildly different, but it is definitely moving in a new direction. There are some prog rock elements, but there are a lot of just straight retro pop elements. We got into a very Beatles-y phase. There are a lot of songs that reflect that aesthetic. We’ve been playing a lot of these songs live though for awhile. Most of our hardcore fans will already know what’s in store. PW: Sweet.
The best part about Lollapalooza is not seeing some headlining act that you probably couldn’t afford during a regular tour, or hanging out next to Lake Michigan, or the excuse to start drinking at 11 a.m. No, the best part is the discovery. Perhaps you heard a band name in passing, you got tired and just plopped down in front of a random stage, or (as was my case) you had a friend just rave about an act you just have to watch: at a big music festival, you’re bound to discover some sort of new band that you’ll keep listening to long after they’ve torn down the stages from Grant Park.
This year, my big discovery band was Skybox. My friend had just met the lead singer at her job in Kansas City, so I was surprised and excited to learn that a Lolla band had a connection to my hometown. Live, they were one of my favorite acts at the festival, delivering a high energy and very catchy pop rock set.
I caught up with the lead singer, Tim Ellis, to talk about how the band divides its time between Chicago and KC, their music, Lollapalooza and more. The full interview is below their video for “In a Dream.” They’re touring this fall and for my fellow Kansas Citians, they’ll be at the Riot Room on September 14. Be sure to check them out.
Bethany, PopWreckoning: How does the split KC/Chicago-base thing work with like practicing and writing? Tim Ellis, Skybox: Well, I’m actually out here a lot. I’ll come out here like a week before we play to get really rehearsed. Like I’ve been out here [before Lollapalooza] since Tuesday. We rehearsed, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and play today [Saturday]. Before tour, I’ll come out at about the same time, a week or so before, then we’ll tour. After the tour, if we’re writing, I’ll come out here for writing purposes.
PW: Are you from Kansas City originally then? TE: Yeah. PW: So that’s why you decided to live there and the rest of the band stayed in Chicago. TE: Yeah. And we [my wife and I] just moved to KC recently, so we’re getting back to the city recently. We just moved downtown in February. PW: It’s a good city. A little more affordable than Chicago. TE: Definitely.
PW: So how did you guys form Skybox? TE: We released our first record in ’06. That’s usually when I tell people that Skybox was officially Skybox was that first record in ’06. However, we did form about a year before that just writing, figuring out members and the whole dynamics of how it was going to work. It was primarily, well, I was in a folk kind of project before Skybox, me and a good friend of mine from Kansas City, we were just playing folk music. We moved to Arizona during the whole folk thing. After about a year, we just started getting some good press and started getting some people kind of helping us out and putting us on the road and stuff like that. Doing some folk stuff on the road we realized, we’re just so young and we really want to be in a rock band again. We missed it. We had done that our whole lives in high school. So we went ahead and did some home recordings and throwing around ideas. Once we had some solid foundation, that’s when I called Christian [Fields], which is our piano player/guitar/vocals. He had played drums with me most of our lives. He actually was born with me. His mom and my mom were best friends before we were born. So we were born around the same time and were both playing together since we were real young. So I gave him a call to see if he could move to Phoenix and play lead guitar for the band, ironically, coming from playing drums. But we really needed a lead guitarist and keyboard player. So he decided to do it. After a lot of convincing, he finally moved out. From there, we added a few more members and started recording our first record, Arco Iris?, and released it in ’06. Then moved to Chicago.
PW: If a person hasn’t seen or heard your band before, how would you describe your sound? TE: When people ask me, I usually say just weird pop music.
PW: How would you describe your live show to them? TE: It’s different. It’s a lot of fun, a lot of energy and just a really fun, strange show.
PW: How do you come up with the costumes and outfits and the occasional theatrics? TE: We definitely like to mix it up at all our shows. We hope that if somebody comes to see us they’ll like it and the next time they come it will be a little bit different for them. We’re all ADD in the sense that it’s a little hard to stick with one thing or one sound and we hope that we can give something fresh back to the audience if they have the same schizophrenic feelings.
PW: Who would you cite as some of your influences, whether for show fashion or musical sound? TE: The whole fashion thing is kind of glam, I guess like Iggy Pop and all that kind of stuff. We also like really big sound. Like ELO was a huge influence for us. There are a lot of great modern bands that we’re listening to a lot like Dirty Projectors. We got to go backstage with those guys the other day, so that was cool. I’ve been listening to a lot of Genesis lately, getting into that again.
PW: With Lollapalooza being as big as it is, what have you learned from the festival and making the most of the three days? TE: This is my first time here, so I’m learning the ropes myself. The golf carts have been great to get around, but I don’t think everyone has access to the golf carts. There are so many good bands playing here that you can really go anywhere and it is going to really inspire you and motivate you to be artistic.
PW: What are some of your favorite bands at this year’s Lolla? TE:Devo. We got to see them. Dirty Projectors was good. We even saw the Strokes, which was awesome. We’ve been looking forward to Yeasayer and Grizzly Bear. Empire of the Sun, I’ll go see. X Japan. There are others.
PW: With your Chicago ties, what is a must do for anyone coming here for a show? TE: There are a lot of great venues. There’s Lincoln Hall, which is a cool place to adventure to and they’re always having great bands. Burlington is a cool bar. Wicker Park, in general, Uptown area, Logan Square, that’s where we used to live. Lots of good places to go and good food. The Bead is a great restaurant.
PW: So what are your Fall plans for Skybox? TE: We’re touring in September, the West Coast, with a band called What Laura Says. They’re really great. So we’ll be starting Midwest and going out West, which will be awesome because we haven’t been out to Phoenix, our former hometown, in about year. So that will be a homecoming of sorts for us, so we’re pretty excited.
PW: Finally, anything else that you want to get out there or something that I didn’t cover that you think people should know about your band? TE: Well, one thing that has been really, really huge for us is giving away free music and we do that at our website, Skyboxmusic.com. It’s just a huge thing for us to go to a city that we’ve never been to and have people singing our songs and being familiar to our music. It’s a testament to the artist’s freedom, giving free music away. PW: Sounds great.
1. Leave a comment on this article letting PopWreckoning know what your favorite local music memory is.
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PopWreckoning only has four pairs of tickets up for grabs. The contest will end at 2 p.m. the day of show (Sept 18). The show is all ages. Winners’ tickets will be at the door when you arrive at the show.
Please also include your full name and email in the comment so that we can get in touch with the winners of the contest.
Maximum Balloon, the debut from David Andrew Sitek; guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and producer for TV On The Radio, as well as such critically-acclaimed and popular bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Karen O and more artists (including TV on the Radio band mates) from his producing history guest perform on this debut. Maximum’s debut is set for a release on Sept 21, but you can pre-order on iTunes now here.
We’re giving away the following:
- 7″ vinyl: “Tiger” single (feat. Aku) with “Quantum Exit” feat. Todd Simon & Stuart Bogie as the B side
- CD: “Groove Me” single (feat. Theophilus London)
- two Maximum Balloon red balloons
To win, simply comment and say what Maximum Balloon collaboration you’re most excited for on this release and why. We’ll pick a winner Sunday, Sept. 12 at 12 p.m. CDT.
Tuesday night is not normally a night when one would think to find a large amount of screaming teenagers hanging out. But when the MySpace Secret Show for the band Never Shout Never happened to roll through Lawrence, Kansas on a Tuesday night, it was met with an excellent sized crowd, all with excellent sized vocal chords.
As Mr. Christofer Drew Ingletook the stage that night, he was met by a mostly female audience that acted like they were seeing Paul McCartney. Shouts of marriage proposals and love affirmations continued throughout his 45 minute set. But that didn’t stop the 19 year old from filling the night with his upbeat, genuinely fun, music.
The music of Never Shout Never has been classified as Acoustic Pop. And while touring and acoustic don’t really go hand-in-hand, Chris was still able to portray that acoustic feel pretty well. A good example being with the song “CheaterCheaterBestFriendEater” where the instrumentation is simplistic enough all one would need is a guitar and a maraca. Yet it’s the lyrics that really shine as they move from lullaby crescendos to words spoken so quickly and with just the right amount of attitude, they’d border on a rap.
And when the song “Can’t Stand It” came out, the tone turns to pigtails and skipping rocks. Well that and the lyrics: “Everything you do, is super duper cute and I can’t stand it,” which when set to our favorite guitarist and a tambourine, comes out as a perfect soundtrack to a happy-go-lucky kind of love story: naturally, a crowd favorite for the night.
In a time of OwlCity, Plain White T’sand Train with their insanely catchy lyrics; it was easy to see why NSN wrote a song like “I Love You 5.” This was a song that not only did nearly every person in that venue know, but nearly every person fully participated in. Who knew that something as simple as getting your audience to count along with you would cause such glee? But the most entertaining part for me was the “shoo-boo-bee-doo” that fit so nicely on top of a percussion section whose sound came so closely to that of a toy makers shop with all of its little machines running.
It was apparent to see that the crowd at this Secret Show would’ve much rather preferred a set much longer, but when you’re all ages, that’s what you get. Though after the night was over, Never Shout Never had pulled out the best of the best for their short set. Feet were tapped and voices were lost. So sources would say, that makes a good show.
Brighton, England duo Blood Red Shoes will be touring North America in October. They will also make appearances at CMJ Music Marathon in mid-October.
The alt-rock act’s second album Fire Like This will be released stateside on October 5 on V2 Records. Watch the dark promo video for one of the tracks on the album, “Light It Up”, below.
Tour Dates
Oct 12 – Media Club / Vancouver
Oct 13 – Sunset Tavern / Seattle
Oct 15 – Rickshaw Stop / San Francisco
Oct 16 – Muddy Waters / Santa Barbara
Oct 18 – Bootleg Theatre / Los Angeles
Oct 19 – Casbah / San Diego
Oct 20-21 – CMJ / New York City
Oct 22 – Red Palace / Washington, DC
Oct 24 – Great Scott / Allston, MA
Oct 26 – Casa Del Popolo / Montreal
Oct 27 – Horseshoe Tavern / Toronto
Oct 28 – Grog Shop / Cleveland
Oct 29 – Subterranean / Chicago
Things are looking up for New York band the Postelles. They wowed crowds at South by Southwest in March. In May, they toured the UK as support for Sunderland, England’s Futureheads and played a headlining gig at famed London venue Koko. They toured with Alberta Cross in June, and then in July, they played a sold-out show at the Bowery Ballroom (and you can watch some backstage antics in the video below). And now they’ve just announced tour dates for the fall.
Tour Dates
Sept 05 – Northeastern University / Boston%
Sept 09 – Billy Reid store / New York&
Sept 18 – DC9 / Washington, DC*
Sept 24 – Great Scott / Allston, MA *
Sept 30 – Bar St. Laurent / Montreal $$
Oct 06 – Bowery Electric / New York City#
Oct 13 – Bowery Electric / New York City#
Oct 20 – Bowery Electric (CMJ Official Showcase) / New York City #
Oct 23 – Hideout / Chicago*
Nov 27 – Webster Hall / New York City**
Nov 29 – La Sala Rossa / Montreal **
Nov 30 – Mod Club / Toronto**
Dec 02 – 9:30 Club / Washington, DC**
Dec 03 – Royale / Boston**
Dec 04 – Water Street Music Hall / Rochester **
Dec 07 – Culture Room / Fort Lauderdale**
Dec 09 – Social / Orlando**
Dec 10 – Covenant College / Lookout Mountain, GA**
Dec 11 – Loft / Atlanta**
Dec 13 – Paramount Arts Center / Ashland, KY*
* headlining gig
% with Manchester Orchestra
& New York Fashion Week Event
$$ Pop Montreal
# Bowery Electric residency (free shows)
** with Fun. and Steel Train
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Concert Calendar
Nov 23, 2011
HaHa Tonka @ Recordbar, Kansas City MO
Nov 25, 2011
Thee Oh Sees @ The Granada, Lawrence KS
