Athens psych-trio Chickn shares the first track from their upcoming debut album

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MEN ARE DEAD, MEN ARE GONE, BUT SOME CHICKN CARRIED ON”

Chinkn’s Aleppo sounds like a lost Aphrodite Child demo dipped in classic rock fanaticism.

Chickn is a modular music group formed during the Christmas holidays of 2012 in Athens, Greece. They recorded their first demo in the summer of 2013, when they obtained their current form. Chickn are Angelos Krallis (vocals, guitars, lute, ,tsambouna, udu), Evangelos Aslanides (drums, percussion, djembe, darbuka, bendir) and Pantelis Karasevdas (drums, percussion, congas, djembe).

Chicken’s debut, self-titled, LP will be out 10/10/16 on Inner Ear Records. This is a radio zapping on a 68-minute car drive. This is a field unfolding in front of your very eyes and at the same time a call of wandering. This is an attempt of some people to invent themselves through playing. This is Jetztzeit rock. A sound conceived as jump in the free sky of history.

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SINGLE REVIEW: The Spiders Give America the Single They Deserve with “Election Day”

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If you’re American, it didn’t really matter where you fell on the political spectrum after this week’s presidential debate; you were angry to say the least. The general sentiment being that neither option on the ballot is really ideal, it was to be expected that the musical tributes to our impending dissatisfaction began rolling in. While you might find your mood best matched by some enraged anarcho a-la Crass, that’s not even close to what we’re offered by New Jersey rock trio The Spiders and their timely new single “Election Day.”

However, perhaps what they present is a bit more appropriate for the edge-of-apocalypse vibe in the U.S. Opening with some good ol’ fashioned Southern rock riffage, it’s not long before head Spider Nick DeStefano’s cock rock-inspired vocals sneer into the spotlight, narrating the dismal decision the country faces this November. Over the next 3 minutes, he airs out the country’s communal grievances, highlighting that while this election has left us fairly divided, we are united in our crippling disappointment. The choruses come across as a sarcastic fist pumping pep rally right at home in the heart of a song about America’s baffling present circumstance.

At the end of the day, if I’m feeling angry, I’m probably going to listen to some late ‘70s punk. But between the generic rock riffs and all-American vocals, The Spiders do drive home the point that politics isn’t a niche genre; it’s a saturating universal which is pretty disturbing.

LINKS

http://www.thespidersband.com/

WEIRD. Announces Live Video, Teases New Single and Announces Tour (starts Sept. 15)

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After a short summer break and the writing of material for their third album nearly complete, WEIRD. have announced there is a new single on the horizon first, for which they are offering a work-in-progress teaser, a somewhat minimalistic version of the track-to-come. They have also announced they will tour this month, with dates confirmed in various cities in Italy, France and Switzerland, and have just released a new live video of ‘Infinite Decay’ as a taste of what to expect.

During the Italian leg of the tour, they will tour with New York’s legendary shoegaze outfit THE VELDT, key protégés of Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins) and contemporaries of A.R.Kane. The Veldt will be touring Italy for the first time as part of their wider European tour, in promotion of their new EP ‘The Shocking Fuzz of Your Electric Fur’.

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OUT FRIDAY Rachel Mason ‘Tigers in the Dark’

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Renowned performance artist and musician Rachel Mason, freshly signed to Los Angeles-based Cleopatra Records, has announced her forthcoming single Tigers in the Dark, along with an accompanying video, directed byMatthew Spiegelman and choreographed by Haylee Nichele. This is the first single from the forthcoming album Das Ram’. The single, which is due out on September 9, will be followed by the ‘Das Ram’ LP, to be released digitally by Cleopatra Records and on limited edition cassette by Practical Records.

This song is written from the voice of an imaginary animal-human hybrid, who expresses the idea that real life only occurs on the stage, as it represents the creative dimension where everything is possible.

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NOTHING shares “Curse of the Sun” video + Kicks off EU tour

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Credit: Stella Asia Consonni

Ahead of their six-week European tour, NOTHING have shared a new music video for “Curse Of The Sun”, taken from their critically acclaimed second album, Tired Of Tomorrow, out now on Relapse Records.

Filmed at shows through New York City, Philadelphia and Washington on NOTHING’s headlining ‘Tired Of Tourism’ tour through North America this past May, “Curse Of The Sun” was directed by Jimmy Hubbard (Baroness, Carcass etc). Speaking of the track’s ideals, frontman Domenic Palermo explains:

“This song is a nothing more than a declaration of war with the Sun. It’s the center of the universe that’s to blame for spawning this epidemic of life that is laughably plagued by death. The dark Casanova sprouting humans who live to have everything they can get their hands on, just so they can die and litter it all behind. I’m often reminded by this when we’re playing these big venues filled with hundreds of humans, so it only seemed natural to film in a live setting. That’s the only reason I chose to do a live video actually. They’re normally fucking stupid. Well, that and because Jimmy was filming it all.”

NOTHING have toured solidly across North America since the release of Tired Of Tomorrow. In addition to headline dates, the band have shared stages with Jane’s Addiction, Dinosaur Jr, DIIV, Relapse label mates WRONG and California’s Culture Abuse, as well as festival appearances at Lollapalooza, Governor’s Ball, Spillover, Shaky Knees, Levitation, Forecastle and more. Following a sold-out album release show at Hackney’s MOTH Club earlier in the year, NOTHING return to the UK on September 11th starting a run of UK dates at Bristol’s Start The Bus.

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SINGLE REVIEW: The smallest Creature Share Short But Bittersweet Single “Reboot”

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The new single from Cyprus-based pop rock trio The smallest Creature is fittingly titled “Reboot” as it conjures sonic reminders of late-‘90s radio rock and post-Britpop tunesmithery, whether intentional or not. A vulnerable repetition of rhythmic acoustic guitar chords set the tone with distant vocals calling across militant drums, a well-rooted bassline and gusts of strings which bring a golden warmth to the otherwise cold inevitability of the verse.

Yet, as “Reboot” explodes into its emotionally wailing chorus, it becomes evident that the song’s true power is in its quitter moments, when the intensity of the emotion has room to breathe and build. While the chorus drags you back to some secluded point of 1997, the verse has a timeless whirling quality defying the stern drum cadence and gray melodies, propelling us ever forward.

We’re left in torrents of frigid guitar playing off the chorus melody before pulling back into a contemplative feedback-strewn skeleton of the verse. Short but bittersweet.

LINKS:
www.thesmallestcreature.com
facebook.com/ThesmallestCreature
twitter.com/TsCreature
http://thesmallestcreature.tumblr.com/

Stream Band Aparte’s debut album via Impose, out this week on Manifesto Records

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Photo Credit: Chustin C.

From down the end of Los Angeles, the barebones gravepunk duo Band Aparte strips down and combines elements of gothic rock, synthpunk, and beachy lo-fi as macabre appreciation simmers in the gut of the city. Vocalist Brian Mendoza effortlessly channels Joy Division and Nick Cave, crooning into a death bouquet with his shirt unbuttoned. But he’s not doing it to imitate Morrissey’s aesthetic — Band Aparte’s shows are fast and fierce, and the crowd works up a sweat at every venue they play.

It’s a dangerous mixture that has crushed nights alongside such bands as Cruelty Code, Roses, Ghost Noise, and Terminal A.

Stream the band’s debut album ‘Memory On Trial’ in its entirety a day early over at Impose Magazine and on SoundCloud.

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Roses announces debut LP + Shares new single via Stereogum

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Camera Trouble is the lush first full-length record from L.A. band Roses. Across 10 brooding songs, the drum-machined trio makes something fresh using familiar pop sounds from decades past. The reference points – from The Cure and Cocteau Twins to Adore-era Smashing Pumpkins and what feels like a million little things in between- are never hidden or obscured. And the record is stronger because of it.

Roses is three California boys: Juan, Victor, and Marc. They’ve been making reverbed dream

pop together since 2013, when Juan Velasquez, a founding member of late-aughts punk band

Abe Vigoda, met Marc Steinberg at a gay bar in Silverlake. They bonded over cool old music,

started jamming, and something clicked. Once Juan hit up Victor Herrera, a longtime friend

from the L.A. scuzzy rock underground, Roses became a living, breathing thing. The trio put out

a four-song EP in 2014, and played shows with DIIV, Dum Dum Dum Girls, and Wild Nothing. But it’s on Camera Trouble, out this fall on Group Tightener, where these three really come into their own. They’ve gained confidence, both as individual adult humans and as a songwriting unit, and the payoff is dazzling.

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EP REVIEW: Chameleon Technology Explore Multimedia Pop Punk on Blank Canvas

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Pop punk doesn’t have to be a bad thing, a point made over the course of 5 songs on Chameleon Technology’s latest EP Blank Canvas. The project of renowned drummer Max Histrionic, Chameleon Technology (sometimes simply referred to as ChamTech) produces guttural bass-driven punk rock-influenced bursts with melodic guitars and vocals conjuring the full spectrum of hardcore. Yet, the one-man band takes things a step further by turning each live performance into a multimedia art installation in which high quality audio recordings are synced up with video of Histrionic performing each instrument, while he actually plays guitar and sings live. Histrionic virtually and literally becomes his own backing band. The fusion of pop art and sound is Gorillaz meets Gorilla Biscuits.

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ALBUM + SINGLE REVIEW: Jim Peterik Turns It Down a Few Notches for Career Retrospective

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The Omega Man as a lounge singer is already a strange concept but imagine that last man on earth is Jim Peterik (of Survivor, 38 Special, etc.) and you’re getting close to understanding how his latest solo record The Songs comes across as a bizarre affair. If you’re not familiar with Peterik, then you’re actually just not familiar with his name. His tunes are pretty much synonymous with ‘80s hard rock action moments, especially those starring Sylvester Stallone. If that’s still not ringing any bells, “Eye of the Tiger” is Peterik and if you still don’t know what I’m talking about, then welcome to Western civilization. The Songs is an apt title for Peterik’s latest solo effort as it takes a slew of his best known radio hits (and there are a lot of them), strips them down, and re-imagines them with a team of hired guns in Nashville. Instantly recognizable ‘80s hard rock anthems are jarringly presented as loungey piano pieces, acoustic pop, light country, and even swelling orchestral lusciousness.

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