It’s finally here Cannibal Cheerleaders, the new SpinneretteGhetto Love EP has arrived and none too soon for our ears. It seems that ex-Distiller Brody Dalle has been reincarnated as a nightmarish punk burlesque dancer, wrapped in layers of electronic decadence while still maintaining the poignant and fierce lyricism on which she’s built a name. Dead romance, blood mixing with tears, makeup running down one’s face, all wrapped in pleather in a smoky, shady bar corner, that is Spinnerette (our kind of band!). Check the video for “Ghetto Love” below and head here to purchase the new EP (only five bucks people, quite the deal we’d say).
Today we begin our ‘end-of-year’ wrap-ups, mercifully soon so we can get back to the real business of music journalism! Seems like every blog does their “best of’s” around this time so we figured we’d hop onboard, with a few Cannibal Cheerleader touches of course. Our first category…
TOP FIVE LOCAL AUSTIN BANDS
SOUTHERN DRAMA
Whether you interpret this local all-female trio as a wildly imaginative Vaudevillian act or a indie-pop folk band wrapped in old-time mystique one thing’s for certain, Southern Drama is easily the most original and creative act currently playing in Austin and one of our favorites of the year.
With the release of their stellar sophormore LP Pardon Me, Are Those Your Claws in My Back, the Faceless Werewolves have cornered the Austin market on furious blues-rock and garage-punk, cementing themselves as one of the Capital City’s most treasured acts.
Soaring in on a wave of delicated strings and hushed arrangement, Balmorhea has made good use of one short year, finding themselves poised to be the next big thing in neo-classicist cum indie-rock and making it easily onto our 2008 best local band list.
With a fiery carnage matched only by the band’s steadfast determination, Prey For Sleep have brought the brutality back to the Austin metal scene, whipping the small but vengeful community into a fury behind their debut LP and carving a spot into our end of the year list.
Swirling down on a wave of guitar squalls, Ringo Deathstarr single-handedly have revitalized the flagging shoegaze scene in Austin with an MBV-referencing sound and a distinction for being lost in a vortex of white noise, though they managed to find their way onto our top local band list with ease.
With girl-group vocals and shoe-gaze guitars all combined into a surf-rock playing style, the Vivian Girls have proven themselves as a formidable new act through relentless touring, capturing a sound long thought dead and revitalizing a genre with the ease of a reverb pedal.
With a level of delicate instrumentation and unique percussion almost unheard in indie rock, High Places have taken lilting pop ballads into the realm of wild experimentalism and are on the crest of a wave of musicians combining creativity with indelible songwriting abilities.
With a torrent of positive press flying their way after the release of their sophomore LP, the Gaslight Anthem have gone from celebrated underground Jersey punks to acclaimed rock and roll stars all in the course of one short year, due to their combination of lovelorn Springsteen-referencing lyrics and Social Distortion riffs.
Blazing onto the scene on the backs of several fiery singles and EPs, Heartsrevolution took punk-electro to new heights, combining dance-rhythms and electronic whirlings with shrieking vocals and violent imagery, making them one of the most original and exciting acts of the year.
Equal blues rock and female fronted indie-pop, Grand Ole Party deliver fiery vocals and spidery guitar lines in a fierce package of minimalistic garage punk that heralds this trio as an act to watch for years to come.
RINGO DEATHSTARR UPDATE It’s a weekend update of epic, lovelorn, shoe-gazing proportions, starting off with this post from Austin’s favorite swirly guitar masters Ringo Deathstarr. Here’s there most recent Myspace post:
“this just in…we have been working on new material lately….we are going to start playing it at shows starting now. we also just finished tracking a couple of new tunes that are now in the process of being mixed. thanks to the band JET, mixing has been delayed as computer boy has been kidnapped by them and is being held at the bubble(the recording studio) but i hear they are treating him well. we are trying to get these 2 songs that we have done to be released on 7” vinyl for your pleasure…but in the mean time, we will release them on cassette and CD-R and make them available at shows only until something is worked out. SVC records of course will make these tracks available digitally when the time is right. we have been getting lots of e-mails from our faithful fans that want us to play in their city,, and trust me we want to as well,but due to gas prices and not being on a record label that has lots of money to pay for a tour, we are doing our best to get the hell out of texas. thanks to a deal that southwest airlines had going, we are flying to the east coast for a few days and taking the china town bus to our shows. we are awaiting confirmation on a couple of shows but hopefully we will see yo there! we also finally just filmed a video for sweet girl which will be released sometime next week. we are soon going to film a video for one of the new songs “summertime” (featuring alex on lead vocals).we will egin recording a full length or something very soon as well.“
The band’s next show is August 30th at Emo’s, so you know we’ll be there with bells on. Check out this rad video for the band’s upcoming EP, sounds stellar! Summer Mini Tour
Ringo Deathstarr – “Down On You” ******************************************************************** TRYOUTS: FIGHT BITE’S EMERALD EYES Considering that there are only two members present in the Denton, Texas based fuzz-filled experimental band Fight Bite, it’s astounding just how much depth and layers the songs seem to incorporate. From the waves of passion and synthesizers in instant classic “Swissex Lover” to the melodic keyboard, starry-eyed drum twinkles, and soaring vocals of “Strings”, Emerald Eyes begins and ends as a masterpiece of headphone-heavy, lilting pop music, bringing a delicate touch to a genre recently mired in loud-quiet-loud dynamics. The subtleties of Fight Bite are wistful and unique, as the band refuses to play to either shoegaze tenants or chamber-pop standards, instead electing to combine elements of both into an intimate mix of lonely teenager background tunes and the epic sweep of a hot wind over a cloud-covered field. Reminiscent of the the latest work of M83 in parts, Fight Bite dives deep into the realm of the dreamiest of pop standards and comes across on the other side of the universe with one of the best releases of the year. Definitely makes the team, though it’ll probably just sit in a corner and write in its diary during practice.
Fight Bite – “Spring Rain” Fight Bite – “Strings” ******************************************************************** TRYOUTS: HIGH PLACES’ HIGH PLACES Of all the bands one reads about online, there remains only a select few that eschew standard melodies and pop rhythms so completely as Brooklyn’s High Places, who with their self-titled debut have crafted an intimate realm of whirls, clicks, sounds, and noises that magically combine into, what else, but awe-inspiring music. Beginning with the bang of “The Storm” it becomes clear that High Places is lifting us far away from Kansas and having left our comfort zone the band refuses to let us settle in comfortably. Truly, the ingenuity of the instrumentality of this record is nothing short of astounding, with waterdrops taking the place of drumbeats, rainmakers dipping in and out of the dynamic mix, and light keyboard tapping remaining the only familiar instrument in the bunch. The vocals drift in and out of each verse with the carefree abandon of a flitting hummingbird, though it compliments the drumwork so completely that it seems the perfect marriage of voice and form. The strength of the band’s earlier work 03/07-09/07 lied partly in its penchant for constructing tiny vignettes with song ideas and never overstaying its welcome, and High Places manages to capture the same essence, each track dancing in and swimming out like a bee shooting between sunflowers. Overall, the record stands as a testament to the ingenuity of modern indie-rock, which could stand a facelift every once in a while, and what better way to shake things up than throw out everything we’ve ever known. Definitely makes the team and probably will come up with some wild new cheers that are probably illegal in competition.
FINALLY PUNK ANNOUNCE NEW RELEASES Here’s the latest Myspace bulletin from long-dormant Austin punk giants Finally Punk:
“We uploaded our new track: “Hypertension”, to promote our forthcoming 4-song EP on M’Lady’s Records this Fall.
Germs of Youth will be releasing a 7″ single: “Six Years Doing Time” b/w “Negative Creep” and maybe another?
PPM is releasing a DVD compilation, “New Video Works”, with videos by: ABE VIGODA, BARR, BLACK BLACK, DEERHUNTER, ERASE ERRATA, FINALLY PUNK, HAWNAY TROOF, HIGH PLACES, DAVID HORVITZ, JAPANTHER, KIT, LUCKY DRAGONS, MIKA MIKO, NO AGE, POCAHAUNTED, THE SADS, SILVER DAGGERS, SISSY SPACEK, SOFT BOILED EGGIES, SOFT CIRCLE, SOILED MATTRESS AND THE SPRINGS, DAVID SCOTT STONE AND XIU XIU
We plan to tour the UK/Europe before the year is over, but school/work/nomadic endeavors has kept us put for the time being.”
Holy snap, just when we though we’d never hear from these awesome ladies again they go and churn out 4-song EP and plan to appear on a DVD comp with some of our Cannibal Cheerleader favorites (Mika Miko, High Places, Xiu Xiu, etc). Here’s to you girls, we’ll definitely be picking up the EP!
Finally Punk – “Manatee” ******************************************************************** GRAND OLE PARTY TOUR WITH BLACK LIPS In what’s sure to be an epic tour for the ages, Southern flower-punks the Black Lips are heading out on tour with Cannibal Cheerleader fave Grand Ole Party for some California dates. Here’s hoping this duo swings through Texas and soon!
Grand Ole Party – “Look Out Young Son” ******************************************************************** TREASURE MAMMAL BACK IN THE STUDIO? Recent mumblings on the Treasure Mammal Myspace along with confirmations from Abe himself point towards the fact that our favorite spazz-rocker/motivational speaker is in the studio recording tracks for what might hopefully be the followup to the excellent You Wish I Was Channeling Your Spirit. Of course, anything our friend Abe touches turns to gold, including the recently uploaded Improvisational tracks with Corey of the Mae Shi which are a testament to the experimental creativity of the T. Mammal. Check ‘em out on the ‘Space y’alls.
******************************************************************** THE CANNIBAL CHEERLEADER ZINE IS OUT Where can I find this monstrosity? How can I get my hands on this limited edition first run of the Cannibal Cheerleader magazine? Well yours truly will be hard at work tomorrow planting the zine at strategic locations. These include:
Waterloo Records The Parlor MonkeyWrench Books Sound on Sound Records Book People Kerbey Lane (Guad location) SpiderHouse Cafe FlightPath Coffee Shop Epoch Zen’s (Guad location)
Because the zine is expensive to make I will only be dropping off a few at each location so grab it fast! However, if you’d like your own copy delivered to you, just email me at cannibalcheerleader@gmail.com and I’ll shoot one your way. And if you find a copy, be sure and hang onto it and let me know what you think.
HIGH PLACES REVEAL ALBUM DETAILSKnown more commonly as the ‘Brooklyn duo with the weird drumset’, experimental artists High Places have revealed the tracklist (below), album art (above), and release date (Sept. 23rd) of their new self-titled album on label Thrill Jockey. This of course follows the band’s meteoric rise since the digital release of singles’ collection 03/07-09/07 and you can read the full details over at Pitchfork. Here’s the tracklist:
01 The Storm 02 You in Forty Years 03 The Tree With the Lights in It 04 Vision’s the First… 05 Gold Coin 06 Papaya Year 07 Namer 08 Golden 09 A Field Guide 10 From Stardust to Sentience
This is shaping up to be one of our favorite releases of the year but that baby cover up there is reminding us of a bad trip! Yikes!
CARISSA’S WIERD OFFSHOOT BANDS COME TO AUSTIN Our favorite post-Nirvana Seattle band and ‘sadcore‘ artists extraordinaire Carissa’s Wierd had a multitude of bands form in their wake, most notably Band of Horses. However, two of those bands, Grand Archives and the solo project of SeraCahoone will be hitting up Stubb’s on June 21st. Two great acts featuring ex-members of CW, so be sure and hit them up when they come to town.
Carissa’s Wierd – Sofisticated Fuck Princess Please Leave Me Alone ******************************************************************** NEW BAND CHEER – HIGH PLACES Although much blogged about, Pitchforked, and generally well-reported on, Brooklyn duo High Places are just now coming into rotation on the Cannibal Cheerleader playlist. Electronic noodling and whispy female vocals combine to make strange, ephemeral pop tunes that swim by easily but leave a smoky haze in their wake. Very unique in sound, this duo promises to go places with their upcoming full-length, as reported by Stereogum. Check them out, they’re definitely worth a listen.
High Places – Head Spins (Extended Edition) ******************************************************************** M.I.A. CANCELS EUROPEAN TOURThe seemingly endless tour of our favorite female rapper M.I.A. has apparently hit a snag, as the songstress has just announced she will be cancelling her upcoming European tour in order to avoid burning out. So sayeth Miss Maya:
“I’m canceling because I feel like physically I just have to stop for a second,” she said. “It’s too insane. I was losing a sense of just, like, reality, you know what I mean? I think for an artist like me, it’s so important for me to be in the streets and go to the same shop every day and see the same people and, like, communicate. And it’s really difficult to do that when you’re in the city every day for 24 hours. Like, I love connecting with my band, but I want to actually help them and be a part of peoples’ lives. Which is really hard when you’re on tour.”
Seems reasonable to us. Here’s hoping the time off produces a new record like last year’s Cannibal Cheerleader approved Kala.
One of our favorite blogs Stereogum is releasing a tribute to Bjork’sPost (a fantastic album in its own right) called Enjoyed and they’ve got some excellent contributions this time. CC faves such as Liars, Bell, and High Places are all represented so check it out in this player or download all the MP3s at their site. Great stuff.
******************************************************************** NEW INTERPOL FAN VIDEO
In what is apparently a more and more regular occurence, a fan-made video for a band has received the act’s approval, as is this case with this fan-made, Interpol-approved clip. Featuring “Rest My Chemistry” from last year’s underrated Our Love to Admire, the video of swirling lights seems incredibly fitting. Here’s hoping they do “Pace Is The Trick” next.
******************************************************************** POSTER SALE IN AUSTIN
Here are some rock posters readers of CC might be interested in! They are from Bryan Keplesky’s (of Misprint fame) personal collection and they include such CC faves as Death Cab and the Wrens. Apparently Bryan will deliver them to your house if you order so call him up and get some!
