FRICTION NYC

Kevin Shields Reveals Info on NEW My Bloody Valentine Album, Out by Year’s End

With the first wave of My Bloody Valentine reunion shows all wrapped up and a seemslikeforever gap until their North American debut at ATP New York, fans like myself away from the action are filling the void with questions like “when is the band going to release new material?” It seems, according to a recent article in the August issue of UK rag MOJO, that we’re not going to have to wait very long. Shit, we’ve already been waiting seventeen years, so what’s a couple more months or even a year?

After scooping up the MOJO Classic Album for 1991’s classic album Loveless in June, the magazine caught up with Kevin Shields who states:

We’ve an album that was half finished in the ’90s. As usual with me, basically there were periods of productivity, then nothing. We were wary that we were plodding. It seems like that from a distance but when you’re doing it it’s like a few great days then not really doing much for the rest of the week, or two weeks. We’re not doing any gigs in October-November. That’s when I’m going to try and finish it off, to be out by the end of the year in some fashion. At the moment it’s only got vocals on about two tracks. It’s mostly just guitars and the basic backing tracks.

Shields continues, dropping hints about what we can expect from the yet to be named mystery album:

It’s kind of a bit less poppy and more sort of expanded. More melodic but less poppy melodic… There’s no kind of hooky, dinky binks or anything. The main thing about it is the guitars and some of the drums are way heavier and tougher, way more kind of, ‘That’s interesting…’ A much more growling and screaming sort of sound.

Sweet. Seems ambitious to see this thing released by the end of the year, but, then again, I never really expected these reunion shows to happen after years of rumors.

[MP3]: My Bloody Valentine  ”To Here Knows When (Live)”
Live at London’s ICA; June 13, 2008

Keep It Slow

Over the years, I’ve taken my fair share of late night train rides. Getting myself and whatever else I may have with me frantically to the station and aboard the train uses up the last of the day’s energy. Once onboard and situated, there’s nothing else to do except for sitting back and enjoying the ride. In my book, there’s not a more calming and relaxing way to travel. For the time being, stresses and “to-do’s” are tucked away in bags stuffed into the overhead compartments and the next day feels just out of reach. With heavy eyes, the car’s gentle rocking gradually seduces you into slumber as the train rumbles onward into the wee hours of the night. Gazing outside, fading in and out of consciousness, the landscape takes the form of abstract streams of light flowing past like bright colors of paint streaked on a black canvas. Multiple bobs of the head soon give way to a peaceful slumber, and at some moment you wake up, always at your designated destination. Briefly the thought of staying on board and letting the train take you wherever it goes swims in and out of your mind – but reality sets in and all those “to-do’s” tucked away neatly start to make their way back into your pockets. Luckily, there’s music that can have the same effect, that’s what this is, this is music for that late night train ride to nowhere.

[MP3]: Low Motion Disco  ”The Low Murderer Is Out At Night”
Keep It Slow, Eskimo Recordings; 2008

My Bloody Valentine Returns

With the original lineup, shoegaze icons My Bloody Valentine returned to the stage on Friday, June 13th for the first time in 16 years at London’s ICA. I wasn’t there, but many were and feedback was generally positive. After listening to the mp3s from their live set, I’m BEYOND stoked to see them here in the States in a few months. Amazing.

[MP3]: My Bloody Valentine  ”Only Shallow (Live)”
[MP3]: My Bloody Valentine  ”When You Sleep (Live)”
Live at London’s ICA; June 13, 2008
Get the entire set from Friday, June 13th here (setlist above)

FRICTION w/ These New Puritans on Sunday, Soundpool

The Puritans are coming (and so is a heatwave)! FRICTION returns to Music Hall of Williamsburg this Sunday with the trance-inducing post-punk Brits These New Puritans. Supporting will be Brooklyn faves School of Seven Bells and shoegaze darlings Soundpool. Effi Briest had to cancel this show because they are still busy in the studio on a new record. However, the lineup hasn’t lost a beat with the addition of New York City’s Soundpool, who we’ve been crushing on since hearing their second album, Dichotomies & Dreamland, earlier this spring.

Beat the heat (and humidity) on Sunday and come out to Music Hall of Williamsburg for this solid FRICTION bill. They have air conditioning there, right? Anicet spins between sets. Tix

Download Autolux’s “Audience No. 2″ for Free (or Pay)

A month or so ago, I mentioned that Autolux was set to release their first recording since 2004 in the form of the single, “Audience No. 2.” Well, after making the track available iTunes last week, the Los Angeles trio has decided to make the it available to download for FREE, since folks overseas were having issues getting the song. Follow the link below to download the high-quality .wav version of “Audience No. 2.” In the spirit of Radiohead’s In Rainbows you can pay what you want too. It has been well worth the wait.

No further details on Autolux’s second full-length, Transit Transit…yet.

[.WAV DOWNLOAD LINK]: Autolux  ”Audience No. 2″

Single, Self-Released; 2008

Aunt Dracula Will Cater to Your Soul

How many times have you gone to a show and see a werewolf pouring batter into a waffle iron on-stage? That shtick has been repeated time and time again, but for Aunt Dracula-sidekick Waffle Wolf that time has come to an end. Maybe he was getting too many of his coarse hairs into the waffle batter or maybe he mamed a soundguy because they were out of Aunt Jemima (waffle eating werewolves dig on Aunt Jemima, none of that Whole Foods Pure Maple Syrup shit, they live for high fructose corn syrup). I digress; I’m making myself hungry for waffles now and getting away from the point of this post, which is Philadelphia’s Aunt Dracula.

Aunt Dracula’s sound would be what Philly bands evolve into if global warming continues to raise southeastern Pennsylvania temperatures and turns the Delaware River into prime tropical beachfront. On their debut, Face Peel (produced by Jeff Zeigler, Swirlies/Relay), the Philadelphia trio crafts LSD-infused psychedelic folk à la Animal Collective infused with a heady mix of textured stuttering shoegaze guitars and tropical impulses. Songs awash in hippyish ambiguity tell tales of weirdo characters among paranoid shifts in tempo. Aunt Drac’s loyal followers, used to leaving live shows satiated, will instead have to fill up on the band’s spacey psychedelic nuggets, something I’ll take any day over waffles.

The group celebrates the release of Face Peel this Saturday at Johnny Brenda’s with an impressive lineup of local acts including Papertrigger and Hermit Thrushes.

[MP3]: Aunt Dracula  ”Mongo”

Single, Self-Released; 2008

FRICTION Recap: 5.5.08 w/ Fuck Buttons, Sightings

Thanks to everyone who made it out to FRICTION last night for Pattern Is Movement, Sightings, and Fuck Buttons. Philly’s Pattern Is Movement kicked off the show with a stellar set of polyrhymic pop, warming up a soundsystem that was likely exhausted by the end of the night (much like my ears). What followed was something between a searing drone/distortion fest and club-like rave. Sightings and Fuck Buttons both fashion experimental noise in different ways, Sightings – via drums, guitar, bass, processors, and plenty of pedals, while Fuck Buttons employ mainly electronics, Fisher Price-like toys, and gadget’s I’ve never seen before. However different, both erupted from the stage last night with bigger than life sounds. Sightings tends to be more sonically violent, but still rhymically drving, crafting a primal sound that most bands wish they could do with a mouse and laptop. Fuck Buttons make you wonder how noise can be so beautiful, inducing a euphoric-like haze only to be snapped out of it by electro house beats and cutting distored vocals.

Thank you to to all three acts for playing the show along with Mercury Lounge for being such great hosts. Check out pics from the night below, on our Flickr page, and also at Self Titled who has some amazing black and white shots of Fuck Buttons.

FRICTION moves across the East River to Brooklyn for back to back shows in late May and early June at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Jump below the pics for details and stay tuned for updates!

////////UPCOMING FRICTION SHOWS////////

5/28 – DARK MEAT @ MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG
[MP3]: Dark Meat  ”Dead Man”

DARK MEAT are an Athens ensemble mixing elements of blues, punk rock, psychedelic jams, jazz and Zappa/Beefheart styled explosions. Imagine The Stooges meets Crazy Horse with killer Stax / Funeral / Marching band horns, wailing gospel-style female backing vocals, ripping guitar leads and free jazz freakouts. -Orange Twin

6/8 – THESE NEW PURITANS @ MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG
[MP3]: “Numbers”

THESE NEW PURITANS have done a lot in their brief time. This is symptomatic of a band whose identity is rooted in mystery, and which first began to emerge in the form of oddly filmed webcasts and a website splattered with cryptic writings and links to pictures of boiling water and trees speeding past car windows. -Domino