It’s been far too long since we’ve posted something about one of our absolute favorite bands of all time the Action Design and since we missed them when they swung through Austin the last time in July we’re a little behind on the arrival of the band’s new 7″ single “Desperation”! It’s a fantastic tune that packs M’s blasting vocals with their manic Metric-esque dance-punk and wirey guitar lines worthy of Silent Alarm-era Bloc Party. With a level of production that sounds assured in its addition of new layers of fuzz and synths, the group seems poised to head in a new, electric direction on subsequent releases.
Currently the Action Design store has completely sold out of “Desperation” 7″ (oh no, none left for Cannibal Cheerleader guys!?) but fear not, the group should be putting a few back online now that their tour has wrapped up – at least, here’s hoping! Listen to the track below.
Cartwheeling out of Manchester the mysterious foursome known as Egyptian Hip Hop shred a brand of post-punky dance-rock with a penchant of yelped lyrics and wirey basslines. Sounding every bit a recall of classic Manchester rockers like Happy Mondays with a dash of new found lo-fi goodness and a punk ethos these fellas seem poised to get the young-uns grooving like it’s 1985 again. Check it and have a good weekend!
We’ve been waiting with bated breathe to see if our favorite London-based garage-poppers of yesteryear Pull In Emergency could followup on the aplomb of their excellent double single “Silence” and “Planes” and with the recent release of their first single “Everything Is The Same” from their self-titled debut due out Sept. 6th we’re highly convinced we’ve got one of the finest albums of the year on our hands. Featuring the same lo-fi production and girly growl with an extra ounce of bounce that’ll keep your feet moving PIE seemed poised to breakout – here’s hoping we can hear the album soon! That’s the cover up above and the tracklist is below.
In the same vein as other solo-artists chained to their laptops and grinding out electronic horrorworks, we have San Francisco’s The Soft Moon, a one man operation of slinky, creepy post-punk instrumentals and whispers, creating a delicate and dark wonderworld where one expects Siouxsie Sioux to start belting out a chorus at any time. Having released a few 7″s for Captured Tracks here’s hoping this artist releases some new tunes ASAP – the suspense, soundtracks by the woeful cries on “Parallels” is truly killing us.
We here at Cannibal Cheerleader are huge comic book nerds, and one of our favorites of all time is the Scott Pilgrim series. With its electric take on post-collegiate life, love, and music the comic book reads like an autobiography of the last few years of our lives – and of course that’s all too true for the soundtrack to the film version of the books as well. Featuring songs written by Beck under the pseudonym of Scott Pilgrim’s fictional group (Sex Bob-omb) as well as bands like Metric, Broken Social Scene, and the Bluetones. Overall a fantastic record making us that much more excited for the film!
Austin’s a town of guitar-heroines, with Cannibal Cheerleader favorites like the Faceless Werewolves and Ume shredding and face-annihilating audiences up and down the blood-soaked streets with unimaginable licks and killer technique, and one of our favorite finds of 2010 Megafauna are no different, with Dani Neff wielding the axe like a instrument of torture. Still, what’s truly surprising about the band’s new LP Larger Than Human is not the guitar wizardry on display, formidable as it might be, but the depth with which the sound is incorporated into the group’s layered and mysterious sound. One moment Neff acts the chanteuse, lithe and nimble in her articulation, bubbling softly over waves of propelling rhythm care of bassist Will Krause and drummer Cameron Page, and the next the beast of her guitar roars to life, searing a certain passage or rip-roaring through a particular breakdown with hot wreckless abandon. The record delights in unusual song structure, strutting about with garage-rock forwardness on tracks like “No Humans” before dipping into a noodly-indie-rock lesson in guitar proficiency on songs like “Speck”. Then it’s back to a slow, heartfelt verse in the singer-songwriter style as on “Warm House” before once again smashing down in a grungey corpse-strewn mess as on “Butter Cookie”. To say that Megafauna defy simple definition would do Webster a disservice – the group has it all, wrapped in a small three-person-package, and its weird and haunting and erratic and inspiring and wonky and frightening and wonderful all at once. If you’re looking for something new, check ‘em out.
The band’s having a record release show at Hole in the Wall on August 21st here in Austin – be sure and make it down!
A busy week at Cannibal Cheerleader but we will be back in full force next week once the hullabaloo of moving has finished. In the meantime enjoy M83’s dazzling new piece “Black Hole” from the Black Heaven soundtrack. Sounding like a shoegaze take on a Goblin-scored horror movie soundtrack, Gonzalez absolutely storms through what’s sure to be the film’s quintessential theme. Give it a listen below and seeya next week!
Sorry for the delay (moving all weekend) but the wait was worth it, much like the lengthy between time for Ra Ra Riot’s sophomore LP The Orchard. Featuring a level of growth and maturity one might not think capable of these young upstarts, the record features the same bumpy rhythms as their previous effort but leans heavily on the depth of atmospherics and lyrical ingenuity for many of the LP’s stronger tracks. Case in point, “You And I Know” a slow-burning absolutely stellar track featuring one of RRR’s female members on lead vocals that starts with a minimalist piano tinkling and builds to a cacophony of strings and guitar lines. This track in particular features this incredible group at their finest and easily is our favorite track by any band so far this year. Check it out below:
Running out of the door today but here’s a brief taste of what we have cookin’ for tomorrow (or sometime this weekend, it’s moving time after all!) – a full review of Ra Ra Riot’s new record the Orchard. Better than the Rhumb Line? A progression of the band’s sound? Or a dip into the middling territory where similar promising acts like Annuals dipped? Check in and see!
The Cannibal Cheerleader crew got a first listen (albeit a highly downgraded and low-quality one) at Interpol’s new self-titled work, and our first impressions are that the NYC foursome has readopted the realms of swirling, surrounding guitar-lines masquerading as terrific guitar licks, completely immersing the listener in swaths of dark rhythms and Banks’ snarling, haunting voice and lyrics. Beginning with the traditional push and pull of rip-roaring dance-guitar trade-offs on the likes of “Success” and “Memory Serves” the detour quickly makes itself apparent with album highlight “Lights”, moving into the “Heinrich Maneuver with more-feeling” track “Barricade”. With the swooning addition of “NARC-esque” tracks “Always Malaise” and “Safe Without” the album careens into an obscure world that Interpol has never penetrated before, beginning with “Try It On”, a tinkling piano track reminscient, if perhaps distantly of “Hands Away” if only for its stark inclusion. “All of the Ways” features Banks devoid of song structure or dynamic contrast, floating on a sea of black with only his heart-wrenching lyrics to steer him, while “The Undoing” stands as Interpol’s best closing statement since “Leif Erikson”. Overall, a smooth and wonderful effort, though we eagerly await a more polished copy for our perusal!
We here at Cannibal Cheerleader are huge comic book nerds, and one of our favorites of all time is the 
Austin’s a town of guitar-heroines, with Cannibal Cheerleader favorites like the Faceless Werewolves and Ume shredding and face-annihilating audiences up and down the blood-soaked streets with unimaginable licks and killer technique, and one of our favorite finds of 2010 
