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Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta New York. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta New York. Mostrar todas las entradas

lunes, 2 de marzo de 2020

NADA SURF - "Never Not Together" (Ernie Records, 20)

Desde 1992 NADA SURF viene forjándose, sin hacer ruido, una de las trayectorias más regulares y satisfactorias del panorama musical actual. En su noveno álbum de estudio Never Not Together (Ernie Records, 20) el cuartero de Nueva York permanece seguro dentro de su zona de confort. Siguen a lo suyo, haciendo lo que nos tienen acostumbrados, canciones con suficientes argumentos como para dejarnos con una media sonrisa tras su escucha.

Nueve canciones con sus cuarenta y dos minutos de placentera audición, con algún que otro himno colándose por ahí. Como lo son sus tres avances; el radiante y enamoradizo pop del arranque de álbum "So Much Love"; la rompedora y reivindicativa “Something I Should Do”, un enérgico canto a la unión, generosidad y preocupación por el prójimo dentro de la raza humana; y la tan tremenda como reflexiva balada "Looking For You" (videoclip insertado a final de post), casi seis minutos donde se intercala la dulzura de unos coros infantiles con arpegios guitarreros, para ir sumándose a la fiesta electricidad y arreglos orquestales varios hasta alcanzar la apoteosis con su épico final.

Never Not Together contiene más momentos donde NADA SURF pueden tocarte la fibra. Como con el medio tiempo "Come Get Me" y un desarrollo donde la estrofa y el puente se repiten hasta la saciedad, hasta que llega el estribillo in extremis desencadenando una culminación gloriosa. La ensoñadora balada "Just Wait", con unos sutiles coros a modo de guinda a una escucha que te resultará placentera a la vez que reparadora. La enorme "Crowded Star", delicada como ella sola, y un estribillo que eriza el vello, con sorprendente cierre incluido, lo tiene todo.



La experimentación también tiene su hueco en  Never Not Together  con la progresiva "Mathilda" y sus más de seis minutos de recovecos y cambios de ritmo. Una estructura con intro, vigoroso desarrollo, que por si mismo podría volar como canción independiente, y un lánguido desenlace. Todo con cierto regusto a los The Beatles más psicodélicos, pura maravilla.

jueves, 4 de diciembre de 2014

Made In America - ARVID, "Old Factory Living" (2014)

I was more than presently surprised when I recently came across the new album by Rochester, NY artist Arvid, "Old Factory Living". At the same time I was a little angry at myself for missing it's release over the spring.

Luke Ross, who records under the name Arvid, previously released a digital album under the name Fuzz Daniels last year. With Fuzz Daniels and now under Avrid, Ross's leanings are clearly toward the 90's lo-fi/alternative set, which suits my ears just fine. With tinges of Built To Spill and late era Pavement or solo Stephen Malkmus sprinkled throughout, Avrid has managed to make his influences his own and has turned out a very nice album.

martes, 2 de diciembre de 2014

FOO FIGHTERS - Sonic Highways (2014)

Parece ser que Dave Grohl se pasó gran parte del año pasado recorriendo Estados Unidos para recoger la esencia de la historia de la música popular made in USA. De esta experiencia ha salido una serie documental que se retransmite actualmente por la cadena de televisión HBO  (en España puedes verlo por Canal Plus) y este álbum. Sonic Highways (Sony Music 2014) está compuesto de 8 canciones grabadas e inspiradas en otras tantas ciudades norteamericanas.

Foo Fighters se encuentran actualmente en el Olimpo de las bandas de rock en activo y por supuesto pueden permitirse experimentos de este tipo, además pensamos que con buena dosis de acierto a nivel globarl. El resultado, teniendo en cuenta la dificultad añadida de construir las canciones en parte a medida de que iban haciéndose a la ciudad motivo de la misma, es más que aceptable.

martes, 29 de julio de 2014

GREMIO DC al asalto de La Gran Manzana

Desde el pasado jueves 24 julio el frontman de la banda de Orihuela GREMIO DC Juanma Fabregat se encuentra en Nueva York de promoción que se verá ampliada durante los próximos días también hasta la ciudad de Boston.

¿Qué cómo ha surgido esta aventura? Fácil, la calidad de los alicantinos no ha pasado desapercibida al otro lado del charco y el director neoyorkino Ray Hungría fue presa de su talento en cuanto les descubrió.

Este pasado fin de semana (25-26-27 julio’14) Ray Hungría ha iniciado la grabación de su nuevo cortometraje en el que se incluyen dos temas de GREMIO DC en la banda sonora “Stop” y “Al verme” y en el que además ha querido contar con la presencia del mismo Juanma Fabregat para el film que llevará el título de “The Game”.

jueves, 17 de julio de 2014

Made In America > EX-PET, "Green Accent" (2014)

Greg Nissan writes catchy-as-hell, lightly-sweetened yet cynically themed power pop under the name Ex-Pet. As part of the New York music collective Mama Coco's Funky Kitchen, Ex-Pet recently released their debut album Green Accent.

In the vein of The New Pornographers, Ex-Pet's pop is breezy and ephemeral in a way that makes you feel like you are well into summer and quickly approaching the second half where you're running out of time for that, if I can quote Lloyd Dobler, "dare to be great" situation, that fleeting romance, or you're just trying to eke out those last minutes of an orange summer afternoon before packing up and leaving those memories behind.

jueves, 26 de junio de 2014

Made In America - OUGHT, "More Than Any Other Day" (2014)

Art-punk quartet Ought formed as students at Montreal's McGill University in 2012. Soon after, the band made up of vocalist/guitarist Tim Beeler, keyboardist Matt May, bassist Ben Stidworthy and drummer Tim Keen, released their EP New Calm via Bandcamp. Ought's initial release hinted at the bands angular and experimental approach to song craft that set them in the same light as the forefathers of art-rock Talking Heads and descendants Cap N' Jazz.

Ought's full-length debut More Than Any Other Day, out on the Constellation label, maintains that skewed approach for the most part but also highlights the bands ability to maintain direction without straying too far off the beaten path with post-punk gems like Habit, The Weather Song which sets them slightly apart from their forebearers.  Other songs like title-track, More Than Any Other Day, are slow-burners which set you up and ease you into a beautifully raucous crescendo.

lunes, 16 de junio de 2014

ANDREU MARTÍNEZ - Tick Tock (2014)

Andreu Martínez de vuelta de Nueva York, donde llegó a los 22 años y se empapó de su escena jazzística y blusera, publicó tres discos instrumentales hasta atreverse con su vertiente vocal con su primer álbum como cantante, Colours (2008). El experimentado guitarrista y cantante barcelonés presenta en este 2014 Tick Tock, su nuevo álbum autoeditado . 

Estamos ante un trabajo heterógeneo donde tiene cabida tanto la columna vertebral de la formación musical de Andreu (rock, jazz y blues), como nuevos matices sonoros que lo modelan hasta formar una mezcla que por momentos se arrima al pop, al soul e incluso al funky. Su voz ayuda y mucho en esa aproximación, con un color que bien podría ser una mezcla de la de los dos James (Blunt y Morrison).

jueves, 22 de mayo de 2014

Made In America - CRETIN STOMPERS, "Looking Forward to Being Attacked" (2014)

Billy Hayes (The Barbaras, Wavves, The Jay Reatard Band), Big Muff (Big Muff Radio, The Delay) and Alex Gates (The Barbaras, Wavves) make up Cretin Stompers, a new band currently based in Staten Island, New York. The band has roots that span the width of the U.S. with Wavves in Los Angeles, The Barbaras out of Memphis, and Big Muff Radio operating out of New York.

This national influence allows Cretin Stompers to deliver a delicious mixture of psychedelic power-pop, glam-rock, and straight up garage-punk straight to your ear holes.

jueves, 24 de abril de 2014

Made In America - CROW BAIT, "Sliding Through The Halls Of Fate" (2014)

An amalgamation of several local area New York bands including Iron Chic, Sister Kisser, American Hellfire Club, and Jonesin', Long Island, New York punkers Crow Bait formed in 2011 around their love for bands they grew up listening to from the 90's indie/pop-punk scene. Since their formation they've released a few singles, the Three Tickle Guys EP, and covered Husker Du's Dead Set On Destruction for the "Something To Du" tribute.

Crow Bait are set to release their full-length debut album Sliding Through The Halls Of Fate on May 20th via Don Giovanni Records, a label that continues to sign more and more bands that are right in my wheelhouse.

jueves, 27 de marzo de 2014

Made In America - BIG UPS, "Eighteen Hours Of Static" (2014)

New York band Big Ups have been building up to their full-length debut Eighteen Hours Of Static, out on Tough Love/Dead Labor Records, over the past few years now. The heavy handedness of this album evokes the post-punk and hardcore era of bands like Fugazi and Black Flag and maybe some later-years Minor Threat. It certainly brings me back to those salad days. Lead singer Joe Galarraga skillfully switches between melodic singing and full out rant mode, the "loud-quiet-loud" modus operandi of the aforementioned bands, but the influences don't seem as direct as it is me automatically looking for bands to compare them to.

jueves, 13 de marzo de 2014

Made In America - PERFECT PUSSY "Say Yes To Love" (2014)

The first time I saw the name Perfect Pussy I immediately wrote them off as another band trying to garner attention with it's name that wouldn't be able to back it up with it's music. The build up of buzz over the preceding months became too much to ignore so I succumbed to the elephant and gave them a listen and I am happy to admit that I was wrong to pre-judge.

The Syracuse, New York five-piece formed untraditionally two years ago when singer Meridith Graves (Shoppers) was asked to form a fake punk band for a cameo in a low-budget movie called Adult World. After filimg, Graves, along with Ray McAndrew (guitar), Garrett Koloski (drums), Greg Ambler (bass), Shaun Sutkus (synths), all full-fledged members of the local punk/hardcore community, decided to make it full time and formed Perfect Pussy.

jueves, 6 de marzo de 2014

Made In America - JUAN WAUTERS, "North American Poetry" (2014)

Juan Wauters immigrated from Uruguay to Queens, New York in 2002 and did factory work with his father to save enough money to bring over the rest of his family. During that time Wauters embraced music as a means of coping with the struggles of moving to a new country and in 2004 met bassist Jose Garcia and formed garage folk-rockers The Beets.

Last month Wauters released his debut solo album North American Poetry on the Captured Tracks label. Wauters has become know for his simplistic but philisophical songwriting in the same manner that made Daniel Johnston so influential but adds a level of worldliness by singing in both English and Spanish. The sparseness of sound and intimacy of words, often it's just Wauters and an acoustic, is what pulls you in close as if it was only you in the room listening. North American Poetry will quickly become your lazy Sunday afternoon go-to record.

jueves, 28 de marzo de 2013

Made In America - Shark?

At least a couple of times a week I’ll spend a few hours at night trolling the depths of the internet for new music. This both alleviates occasional boredom and feeds my obsession for ear candy. I like to think that I have a pretty good finger on the pulse of what’s out there but in all reality I don’t, not even close, and more often than not, I’ll miss out on a band with some worthy tunes. One of those bands was Brooklyn, New York’s, Shark?


I caught Shark?, yep, pun intended, as one of the two openers for post-punk icons Mission Of Burma a couple of weeks ago at The Earl in Atlanta, Georgia. They were at the tail end of a small tour with a stop through Austin at South By Southwest on their way back home. I must admit that they didn’t get to me at first. Even now I wouldn’t be able to pick out the opening song from a playlist. I only remember that it was a somewhat mono-drone, fuzzy experience and I could even be wrong about that. It was probably as awesome as the rest of the set ended up being. 

Frontman Kevin Diamond knows how to write a song with a head-bobbing groove and a hook that will land the dourest of listeners. I know, the fishing puns, can’t stop, won’t stop. While inching my way towards the front of the stage I invisioned Shark? as a rock and roll love child between The Pixies and The Strokes who received the choicest DNA from both bands. 
 
But the song that did it for me and has been on constant repeat for the last two weeks is the song Shark?, from their 2012 album True Waste. The song was the set closer and it closed the deal for me. I immediately darted for the merch table and netted a copy of the album, on cassette no less. Thankfully there was a digital download card.

So enhance your life a little and check out “You Don’t Love Me Anymore”, fall in love with this band like I did, and then listen to their latest single “California Grrls” from their upcoming album Savior on Old Flame Records, expected to be released sometime this summer.




Here's a link to Shark?s latest single "California Girls" via Soundcloud.
More Shark? music available for a listen on their Bandcamp page.