Dawn Fauna - Indian Summer Mosquito Shake | Track Feature

Dawn Fauna is a sweet breeze or descent into bliss. An easy ride through the New England brush by way of Laurel Canyon. The pieces are in place for some prime psychedelic folk-rock here. The group includes Anna Rochinski whose distinct voice and bits of nagging melodies may be familiar to some as being an integral part of like-minded jangle inflected songsmiths Quilt. It is an almost wispy sound akin to a eyes on a long expanse about to be undertaken or face to the breeze attitude.

Dawn Fauna's lone bandcamp track "Indian Summer Mosquito Shake" is an incense infused folk rock gem, which incorporates moments of the genre's great moments of years past and present. The guitars are jangling and some backwards organ moves begin to seep into the mix. The sound may not extend much further than what Rochinski normally attends to in Quilt, along with giving a clue into her role in that group, but why try and fix something that isn't broken?

Dawn Fauna's "Indian Summer Mosquito Shake" is available now via the group's Bandcamp.

Last Nights Presents: Spectre Folk, Images, Scott & Charlene's Wedding, + Gem Trails 10/7/12 @ Big Snow in Brooklyn

Last Nights Presents:

Spectre Folk

Images

Scott & Charlene's Wedding

Gem Trails

Sunday, October 7th 2012

Big Snow

89 Varet St. Brooklyn, NY 

Doors: 8pm | Tickets $7 | All Ages

Facebook Event Page

Robust Worlds - Best Wishes | Track Feature

Robust Worlds is some mighty fine music to roll on into fall with. The man rambling and jamming his way through this pretty killer set of tunes is Chris Rose. De Stijl Records, who are releasing his debut album Emotional Planet, claims to have first seen him playing barefoot soI believe it is safe to say he probably isn't too stuck up. You may even want to hang out for a hour or so and unwind. Best Wishes may be one of the immediate of the album tracks from start to finish. I shines in its place on Emotional Planet.

"Best Wishes" isn't leaps and bounds any other tracks but is something of the greatest distillation of what Robust Worlds is does. It maintains a subtle blend of emotions that shine even though there is a significant blurriness to the proceedings. It is hard pressed to make a word out of what he's saying most of the time and that could possibly be the greatest flaw as it seems like the words are in place. Regardless that may be an irrelevant point that world at large is generally obscured mixture of he said she saids anyway. This is definitely one to spin a few times and spend some time with before hoping for another to see how Rose builds as a songwriter.

Robust Worlds track Best Wishes is available on the album Emotional Planet via De Stijl Records. Also be sure to check out his tourdates below

9/28 Denver, CO @ Rhinoceropolis w/ Paw Paw

9/29 Albuquerque, NM @ Moldspores w/ Alan George Ledergerber

10/2 Los Angeles, CA @ Human Resources

10/8 Portland, OR @ Howling House  

10/10 Seattle, WA @ Comet Tavern

10/11 Missoilas, MT @ Top Hat w/ Shahs

Silent Servant - A Path Eternal | Video Feature

Noise is knocking on the doors of techno and techno is just knocking back. There has been a good bit written and discussed recently about musicians operating in the noise and drone underground making forays into a more dance friendly or at least groove oriented music. It is as if suddenly the sounds of minimal techno are have slowly crept into the subculture. As such it is fantastic to see the "crossover" continue with Hospital Productions release of Juan Mendez's Silent Servant. Mendez has been involved with first class techno label which lends an

Silent Servant's ice cold production lends itself well to the darker and more occult side of Hospital Productions material and fan base. The sparse composition of "A Path Eternal" plays out like some subtle and creeping soundtrack to the dystopian film near you, or rather the incantation used to raise the dead.

Silent Servant's album Negative Fascination is available now via Hospital Productions.

Last Nights Presents: Sun Foot & special guests this Wednesday, September 26th @ Death By Audio in Brooklyn, NY

Last Nights Presents:

Sun Foot

Devin Gary & Ross

Volunteers Park

Ice Balloons 

Wednesday September 26th 

Death By Audio

49 S. 2nd St. Brooklyn, NY 

Doors 8pm | Music 8:45pm SHARP | Tickets $7 | All Ages

Facebook Event Page

The Go - Secular Century Man | Track Feature

The Go seem to hold some sacred place on the totem pole of the garage rock totem pole. It's not hard to see why with tracks such as "Secular Century Man" whose attitude can put some swagger in your step. Their music is deceivingly simple dipping into the pools of 60's and 70's rock music that only those from the Paris of the midwest can do. The group have been built a mammoth of an underground rock legacy since releasing their first album in 1998 on Sub Pop and as such have also built up quite the back catalogue of music that never saw the light of day. This is where the ever reputable source for garage rock glory comes in Burger Records to release a 5 cassette box set of unreleased music by The Go spanning the years 1996 - 2007.

"Secular Century Man" shows the group wearing shoes of classic mod forebearer's from the swinging 60's. The track opens with powerful and crunching guitar hook that will lead down the rabbit hole of hard rock-isms to come or have passed. This wouldn't be out of place on an album by The Creation or The Who for that matter. After all The Go don't sound as if they are reliving any particular moments in time rather living in them.

The Go's compilation album Unreleased: 1996-2007 is available now via Burger Records.

Father Finger - Temper | Video Feature

Glamor by way of punk or minimal wave by way of the 21st century bedroom musician may be an apt descriptor for Father Finger. Kylie Lance's (aka Father Finger)  "Temper" is a driving almost retro minimal synthpop tune that takes cues from the darker more occult site of the pool. You are more likely to find elements of Psychic TV's acid house period than anything New Order or say ever did. Just like much of the classics of the genre this is some outsider and punk inspired music. 
The video created by Christine Jones matches the spirit of DIY experimentalism that Lance's music rests upon. There is grainy VHS-like footage that has a bewitching nature to it through constant changes in speed and reversals of the film. The outsider and cold characteristics of "Tempter" is also brought further to life in the footage of modern day alienation. Lance and company travel throughout some tourist infested boardwalk seemingly utterly out of place wearing all black with matching lipstick.   
Father Finger's self-titled debut album is available now via Not Not Fun Records. Also be sure to catch her upcoming tour dates including a large handful with Maria Minerva. 

Panache Booking + Last Nights Unofficial CMJ Showcase with Gap Dream, MV & EE, Paperhead, & Herbcraft Saturday October 20th !!

Gap Dream - Generator | Track Feature

Sometimes a good tune can travel a long way. The fall is coming on but Gap Dream's "Generator" is keeping me warm. Something of a bubble gum biker tune if you will. The track's guitars never seem to keep still, squirming, and dancing their way to the finish. Think of Gap Dream as an alternative of what would happened if after Spacemen 3 dissolved Sonic Boom felt the calling of the warm west coast breeze and left to go fill his lungs with some medicinal smoke. 
Fulvimar's harmonies smoothly swirl by in a similar manner as like-minded psych-poppers Woods have in recent years. You could peg Gap Dream as part of the never ending mining of 1960's west coast psychedelia and concise almost teeny bopper style pop. The guitar jangle is just right and the organ keeps the textured pulse moving. You can even almost tell that Gap Dream has a photographic memory of each and every melody the Beach Boys ever created. But that would be unkind as this is no revivalist retro one-offs, rather an update on classic motifs. 
Gap Dream's track "Generator" will be available via Suicide Squeeze this September 25th. 

Last Nights Presents: Sun Foot, Devin Gary & Ross, Volunteers Park, & Ice Balloons @ Death By Audio 9/26

Last Nights Presents:

Sun Foot

Devin Gary & Ross

Volunteers Park

Ice Balloons 

Wednesday September 26th 

Death By Audio

49 S. 2nd St. Brooklyn, NY 

Doors 8pm | Music 8:45pm SHARP | Tickets $7 | All Ages

Mike Shiflet / Pete Swanson - "Bedside" b/w "College View" | Album Feature

Amish Records returns with another entry into their Required Wreckers Series and just in time for the crisp autumn days ahead of us. Mike Shiflet & Pete Swanson's split LP entry marks the fifth release in the ongoing series that has previously seen releases by Ben Vida, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Ensemble Economique, Gregg Kowalsky with Jozef Van Wissem, & Son of Earth. The series focus on the outer limits of artistic sound creation & each releases elegant packaging design sets it apart in a sea of over ambitious label's setting out to make a mark for themselves.

The split LP begins with Mike Shiflet's "Bedside" a beautiful, almost pastoral, electroacoustic composition. The track showcases a wide spectrum of sound and quality that incorporates multiple different sources a sound creation and processing. This ranges from the lo-fi hiss of distant field recordings to soft and lulling synthetic tones. As a listener I personally always enjoy it when a recording artist is able to seemingly blend together the history of recorded sound and new composition so thoroughly with each other.

Pete Swanson's side continues the rhythmic white noise explorations that he has been exploring for some time now. Screeches and crashes permeate the mix with a general air of chaos that is rendered with an edge of clarity that few "noise" compositions are able to capture. This isn't a sludge fest of blurry brown noise that seems to gobble up all other surrounding sounds like a black hole. There are indeed slight melodic phrases swimming throughout the fluorescent buzz and flickering bits of electronic overload.

Mike Shiflet & Pete Swanson split LP is available now via Amish Records.

holus-Bolus - The Earth for My Father | Track Feature

Here we are again. Finding ourselves face to face with the history of jazz music in the 21st century. It is an inexhaustible struggle between man & tradition. One half of the party is content to ride the rippling remains of a once great wave while the other is in a constant battle to learn how to destroy it. holus-Bolus is not a jazz group though and if they are then they fit snuggly into the second category previously mentioned. This is some seriously composed music one that requires strong musicians to complete but also falls apart into pure abandon in ways that only jazz-informed musicians really seem to know how.

"The Earth for My Father" is a turbulent affair that eases into its own existence, its own skin if you will. Slowly but surely saxophones and a clarinet begin to spin and swirl in background before the whole compositions itself turns into a tumbling cacophony of chattering woodwinds. It is not before long though that they reach their dizzying peaks and guitars chords and clattering drums precise as can be in their rambling nature. There is a lighthearted nature to the work which suites it well, making for a nice evening listen.

holus-Bolus's album Pine Barren is available now via Prom Night Records.

White Hills - I Write a Thousand Letters | Video Feature

There are some psychedelic rock bands that are able to so thoroughly overcome the stagnant and repetitive niche that can so easily overcome lesser groups working within the genre. It is something akin to an act of nature or divine inspiration that allows some musicians to move beyond the potential and easily unavoidable pitfalls. After a few years of activity White Hills come equipped with just enough carnal energy and stoic demeanor to catapult them into not only mainstays of the scene but also puts them in league with other current innovators such as Wooden Shjips or Psychic Ills. 
Their video for "I Write a Thousand Letters", taken from the groups most recent full-length Frying On This Rock, does quite a bit to prove how far White Hills have come. The group are shown at the height of stylization bobbing, weaving, & playing guitar solos in slow-motion to the sounds of screaming guitar lines, pounding drum rolls, and the occasional burst of keyboards.  The video directed by Delo Creative is a sublimely epic affair that is able to match the group's menace and sense of mystery. 
White Hills album Frying On This Rock is available now via Thrill Jockey Records. 

Last Nights Presents: Drainolith, SSPS, United Waters, Colour Bük @ Death By Audio Sept 9th

Last Nights Presents

Drainolith

SSPS

United Waters

Colour Bük

Sunday September 9th, 2012 

Death By Audio

49 S. 2nd Street Brooklyn, NY

Doors 8pm | $7 | All Ages

Facebook Event Page

Spectre Folk - Please Come Home | Video Feature

Over the years Spectre Folk has mutated and matured into one of the finest dare I say "all star" groups in recent memory. Pete Nolan and company, usually ranging from Pete Meehan, Steve Shelley, Aaron Mullen, & Mark Ibold among others inhabit some sacred space left behind from the glory days of classic slacker / stoner rock. The group has become a smoke covered beast compared to it's earlier days as the more hermetic solo venture of Nolan (though it was equally shrouded in a cloud of herbal smoke). 
The video for "Please Come Home", taken from Spectre Folk's latest full-length The Ancient Storm, show the band in their element so to speak. It combines a mixture of live video from the band and shots from the open road. Spectre Folk are in fine form in the recording which tightens up their loose folk-rock aesthetic. I must also note that the video was recorded at one of my favorite DIY venues in Brooklyn, NY Big Snow. It all plays out like some whacked out home movie that fits the vibe perfectly. 
Spectre Folk's album The Ancient Storm is available now via Vampire Blues Records. 

Phemale - "A Colonial Fire" | Track Feature

Phemale's "A Colonial Fire" and entire album Root Terror for that matter is at a cross roads somewhere between  classic sci-fi soundtracks of year's past, the industrial thrust of much of underground electronic music of the 1980's, and some kosmiche music thrown in to spice up the pot a bit. There is nothing like the electronic solo artist to really get to the heart of total weirdness. Maybe it is the solitude of solo work that does it, a certain degree of isolation that brings one to the outer limits. But who knows maybe Phemale is a social extrovert party monster at heart.

I mention this because there does seem to be some idea of writing "hits" or at least music that steps beyond the readily inaccessible. "A Colonial Fire" wouldn't be out of place in some apocalyptic film from the 80's. It could be the soundtrack to some lo budget Blade Runner. Where the composer working with what's in front of them produces the haunting ambiance which maybe the flicks only resounding success, even with the tape hiss at maximum capacity.

Phemale's track "A Colonial Fire" is available now on Free Music Archive.

You'll Never Get To Heaven - It's All Over | Vide Feature

You'll Never Get To Heaven's track "It's All Over" is about as romantic as the first snow fall on a cold winter night. Everything seems to be on it's way out. The daylight quickly evaporates leaving the landscape a bit more barren. This is all possibly funny or daunting think about as the summer is gently beginning to ebb towards the fall. Regardless melancholia knows no boundaries and there are those who can use a little something to slow down these fast times.

"It's All Over" is mesmerizing in it's simplicity, in it's subtlety. The song structurally rests upon a slowly loping looped sample that seems to be primarily made up of a piano or synthesizer. The focus quickly turns to the bedroom soft vocals which shrouded in reverb becomes part of the sonic landscape then offering any direct narrative flow. After a guitar line sweeps into the mix just in just he right manner picking everything up even for just a second the listener nears the ending which fades out into oblivion. You can take reference points such as Shoegaze and what seems to have become a bastard genre title as of late Slowcore (maybe this is for good reason). But these references only go so far before becoming lost in some dark winter night of their own.

You'll Never Get To Heaven's debut full-length will be available for pre-order this September 6th via Divorce Records.