NEW FACE TO FACE ALBUM + FREE MP3

 Face to Face have reunited following their 2004 break up to the delight of rock fans everywhere.
Their latest album Laugh Now, Laugh Later was released in May and finds Face to Face pumping out pop-punk riffs as if they never split up. Formed twenty years ago in Victorville, California, Face to Face has undergone many line up changes through out the band's history. Laugh Now, Laugh Later reunites Terver Keith with Chad Yaro, who parted with the band before 2002's How to Ruin Everything. Keith and Yaro are joined by Scott Shiflett on bass and percussionist Danny Thompson.
Download the track It's Not All About You today (June 22-23 only) free from Amazon.com.

What You Came For


Should Anything Go Wrong

INTERVIEW WITH CLAUDE SPEED OF AMERICAN MEN

Tulta Behm photo

 I first heard the synth rock band that is American Men on an indie compilation earlier this year. Their track Good Po-lice immediately caught my attention. Throbbing yet upbeat, American Men's music manages to sound retro and progressive all at once. Below is my interview with Claude Speed (no, not that guy) who generously took the time to speak with me about where their cryptic name came from and what's next for the Scottish four piece. Visit American Men's tumblr or LuckyMe's homepage for more American Men music and info.
  

Bradley: What was the inspiration behind the name American Men?

Claude Speed: There's no one answer to this, so here are some possibilities:

(1) American Men supposedly got their name by randomly selecting two pairs of numbers and looking up the corresponding page/word in a copy of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow.

(2) American Men supposedly got their name by finding a phrase which would be statistically the least likely to produce a relevant result on Google.

(3) American Men supposedly got their name after weekend in Barcelona, when the members woke up unable to remember anything that had happened the night before. The only evidence of their activities was a smashed Ouija board and a grainy VHS depicting underwater pyramids and a pitched down voice chanting “American Men” over and over again.
 
B: How would you describe your music to our readers?
 
CS: Chasing the future, a hundred years too late. A sad computer imagining what Chavez sound like just from reading the wikipedia entry; failing. Reconstructing the contents of your hard drive from memory.
 
B: How would you describe the electronica scene in Scotland? And in Europe?

CS: There's been a lot of good electronic music in Scotland for as long as I can remember. I was fairly obsessed with Boards of Canada in the '90s and Benbecula records were doing pretty good records in the last 5 years or so. The obvious reference points in Scotland for us are LuckyMe and Numbers. They are both doing pretty awesome things.

I'm not that familiar with the electronica scene as a whole in Europe, but a lot of the music I've been into in the last few years has come from England, there's too much to mention, the Netherlands, like Beat Dimensions, Rush Hour, Kindred Spirits and Nod Navigators and Spain, such as Mweslee, BFlecha and Arkestra collective. There's also a great radio show from Athens, Greece that my girlfriend and I listen to every weekend called Black Athena. And Machinedrum just moved to Berlin!

B: Would you say it differs from the North American scene?

CS: I'm probably more attuned to the similarities between US/Canadian artists (particularly LA, New York and Montreal) and the Scottish ones than I am the differences. I think that when myspace was a big thing the concept of a geographical "scene" lost importance. People would link up online and location became way less relevant. I think the camaraderie was built up in a virtual space rather than a real one. A lot of the artists I listen to I hear about are from friends who linked up with those people online.

B: What is the American Men writing process?

CS: It used to be that I'd write what were essentially guitar songs, and then transpose them to synths. The idea was that those synths would sound somewhere between a distorted guitar and a Boards of Canada type sound.

Now the process is that one of us comes up with an idea for a song, sketches it out on the computer and then sends it to everyone else to comment on and work on. We all have fairly busy schedules and don't all live in the same city so that's generally the start/middle of the process for now. We do try to meet up to finish songs in person either in the studio or in my flat. We have two drummers now, hi ya Robbie, which should make the process more interesting too.

B: What is coming up next for American Men?
 
CS: We're in the midst of writing an album to come out on LuckyMe next year. We have pretty much no idea how it's going to sound; although we've written the bones of twelve or thirteen songs that's mostly restricted to the melodies, chords and basic rhythms. So a lot of the fleshing out is still to be done. Particularly picking the right sounds. Once we're happy with 20 minutes or so of new music we'll play some low key shows I think. 
 
B: Is there anything I neglected to mention that you want our readers to know?

CS: 1. The new Dutch Uncles and Gang Gang Dance records are tremendous.
2. I'm doing a solo album as Claude Speed which I'm enjoying a lot and I'm hoping will be awesome.
3. Don't Ever Antagonise the Horn.

Cool World

TRUE BLOOD SEASON 4 SNEAK PEEK

 The first eight minutes of True Blood's new season have been leaked (watch below) or released as promotion, whichever you choose to believe. The teaser shows that Sookie Stackhouse's fairy relatives are not as benevolent as they first appeared; in true ridiculous TB fashion. True Blood's life force may be vampires but there are many other supernatural beings lurking in the bayous of Louisiana. HBO's blood thirsty series has presented a serial killer, a maenad and werewolves as main antagonists so far. The sneak peek hints that fairies (or are these elves in the clip masquerading as fairies?) will bring the pain this time around, yet it has been reported season four will prominently feature witches in addition to delving deeper into the fairy realm. The inclusion of Wicca wretches this year stays true to Charlaine Harris' fourth book in the Southern Vampire Mysteries series (which has been re-branded the True Blood series, naturally), Dead to the World. Aside from Sookie's perilous journey to another plane, there are still many questions lingering from last season's finale. Where did Tara go and will she come back to Bon Temps? How will Jason handle Crystal's deserted derelict family? Who emerges victorious in the Bill versus Sophie Anne confrontation? Viewers will learn the answers when the new season premieres June 26.

BON IVER'S NEW ALBUM + MORE GEOCENTRIC SONGS

 This post began as a continuation of my post on geocentric songs. As I listened to and looked over Bon Iver's new eponymous album I noticed that many of Justin Vernon's latest songs reference cities and locations. So this post is really "10 more great geocentric songs; plus three from Bon Iver."
 Hailing from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Vernon has quickly risen out of indie obscurity to become the trendy titan to watch in a few short years. His frostily effective 2007 self-released debut, For Emma, Forever Ago, demonstrated his sweetness with tracks like Skinny Love and Flume. For Emma would secure a wider release on Jagjaguwar in 2008. The Blood Bank EP followed in 2009. The EP's title track is slow paced and haunting and remains one of his best. Blood Bank also found Vernon experimenting with auto-tune, which was met with varying critical reactions. With the exception of Flume, I tend to prefer Vernon's baritone vocals over his soprano style singing- and could do without the auto-tune altogether. Whether high, low or auto-tuned, Bon Iver's music is frequently catchy and manages to captivate. His new self-titled album is no exception.

Calgary

Perth (Intro)

Wisconsin

10 MORE GREAT GEOCENTRIC SONGS

Sea of Japan
Earl Greyhound

New York City
Cub

California Run
Neil Nathan

Zurich is Stained  
Pavement

Of Montreal
The Stills
 



Baltimore Blues No. 1
Deer Tick(Also see Huston, TX) 

Hong Kong Garden 
Siouxsie & the Banshees 

(Also see Israel) 



Paris Blue
Lykke Li

Talking Lynndie England
Oh No Ono

Rendondo Beach
Patti Smith

MADRID

This interview with Duncan Christie originally appeared on Soundproofmagazine.com.

Christie (left) and Perry. Photo courtesy of Madrid.

 
 Duncan Christie has a message for fans of his electro-pop band Madrid. Although it has been eight years since Madrid's debut, Warm Waters, they did release an EP in 2007 titled First Message. First Message was a precursor to their recently released full length Original Message.

 Christie says the time between albums is due to the fact that Madrid, which also features Adam Perry and Eric Lightfoot, chose to make the music found on their new record in a completely different way than the sounds they had previously created.

 "We are definitely traveling uncharted waters in a sense that there's no formula for our music," Christie said. "So the recording process takes a lot more time. We're inventing genres and styles as we go. We're not following any kind of traditional way to make music. I think that Original Message has a wider range of influences. Warm Waters, I think was a great album because it was very singular; whereas with Original Message, we kind of opened our song writing process to all kinds of other influences."

 The change in Madrid's sound influenced the band to switch labels after Warm Waters. The group started out on Aporia Records but now calls YYZ home.

 "Being on Aporia for our first record was perfect," Christie explains. "We were pretty new to the game and they had a roster that was ethereal kinds of music and we fit in to that. Yet we knew that when we started working on new sounds that we had to be in the hands of someone more entrenched in the electronic scene."

 In addition to making music Christie is also a prolific player in the Canadian film industry. Christie attended Humber's film program and says he is fortunate he went to Humber during the time period that he did.

"In the film course I was able to make movies on 16mm film; which was great freedom. A lot of people going to film school now don't use the same sort of old technology and learn the basics that way. I feel fortunate that I was in one of the last years that were able to truly call it a film school," Christie said.

 Christie worked extensively on the cult show Kenny vs. Spenny and directed the cult film Confessions of A Porn Addict.

 "I was working with some really close friends on that project" Christie said of Confessions of a Porn Addict. "Part of our shoot was in Toronto; here we had time and structure. The second half we shot in Los Angeles and the atmosphere was crazy while we were there. It was ultra-guerrilla film making. We had no real structure; we had no real support in place. It was five guys running around the San Fernando Valley chasing after these weird porn people and making a comedy at the same time so it was a ton of fun."

With all of his success in the music and film industries, Christie likens the rhythm that comes with playing music to the rhythm ones needs to edit film.

 "I think there are a lot of the same sensibilities. Especially with editing, it's rhythm. It's very musical the way I approach it. I think the two definitely go hand in hand. I've been fortunate that I've never had to choose between the two careers. They just both co-exist side by side. I approach it creatively from the same place."

Out To Sea


Easy

MOM/CHILD RELATIONSHIP SONGS

 The impetus of Mother's Day comes from Ancient Greek and Roman times. The Roman festival of Cybele eventually progressed into the Christian festival of Mothering Sunday that honoured the Virgin Mary and the "mother church."
 Honouring mothers would be modernized in the 1870s as an observance for mothers who lost children in the American Civil War. Then on May 9 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared Mother's Day a national holiday and the day of maternal merit in May spread around the globe.
 I happen to love my Mom and have a great relationship with her. However, talk to enough people and you'll know that isn't the case with everyone. Moms are human and can make mistakes. Mother/child relationships are as varied as a bouquet of carnations purchased last minute on a highway off ramp.
 Below you'll find songs that suit whatever the status of your relationship with your mom may be.  
 

For love/hate mother/child relationships

My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Momma
Mothers of Invention

For those who are distant

Mother Mother
Tracy Bonham

For kids who still live with their moms

Tie Your Mother Down 
Queen



For nosy, meddling moms

Your Mother Should Know
The Beatles

For explosive relationships

Mother
Pink Floyd

For those with fun moms; the kind who will go to the club with you

Take Your Momma Out
Scissor Sisters

For those who never had a mom

I Need A Mother
Eels

For mamma's boys

Mother's Little Helper
Rolling Stones

For those who miss their moms

Momma I'm Coming Home
Ozzy Osbourne

For those who are or will be moms

I Think I'm A Mother
PJ Harvey

POLY STYRENE (1957 – 2011)

 Lead singer of the influential and incendiary '70s band X-Ray Spex Poly Styrene succumbed to cancer on April 25.
 Born Marianne Joan Elliott-Said in Bromley, Kent, England, Styrene was raised by her single Caucasian mother. Her father, a Somali aristocrat, was not present in Styrene's life.
 Styrene ran away from home at 15 and lived a nomadic hippie lifestyle. She eventually hooked up with a boyfriend/manager who would take her around to record company offices, attempting to secure studio time. This approach eventually wore thin.

 "I got a bit bored with being a solo artist as I was working with all these session musicians who were a lot older than me and who I had little in common with," Styrene told Penny Black Music in 2005. "I wanted to have a band, and that is really why I formed X-Ray Spex. I was writing and recording, writing and recording, writing and recording, and then I got a bit fed up with it because nothing was really happening, so I thought I’ll put a band together. I put X-Ray Spex together after I saw the Sex Pistols for the first time."

 Poly Styrene was not Elliott-Said's stage name of choice. Her manager suggested the moniker and at first she refused it, using it instead for her small fashion label. Eventually she embraced the plastic pseudonym.

 Before the release of X-Ray Spex's Germ Free Adolescents, their only full length release, the band spent nearly a year as the house band at the Man in the Moon pub, a bar on King's Road. Styrene was generous to other up and coming acts, giving bands like Adam and the Ants and the Tourists stage time.

 One of their most famous tracks, Oh Bondage, Up Yours!, was inspired by the suffragette movement. Bondage was X-Ray Spex's first released recording in 1977. In 1978 Germ Free Adolescents was released receiving moderate success and critical praise. In 2001 Spin ranked the album at #5 on their list of the 50 Most Essential Punk Records.

 "I wrote Identity after I saw this girl Tracey slash her wrists at the Roxy. She was a sales assistant in Vivienne Westwood’s shop, Seditionaries. I didn’t write that song about myself at all. I think the idea that I did came from Jon Savage and England's Dreaming," Styrene said.

Identity


I Am A Cliché


I Am A Poseur


 During one of the many tours in support of Adolescents, Styrene claims she saw a UFO and the experience had a traumatic effect on her. At 21 she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital where doctors told her she would never work again. This was effectively the end of X-Ray Spex. Upon her release from hospital Styrene released a solo album, Translucence, in 1980. Her solo work was jazzy and dissimilar from X-Ray Spex's sound. Styrene cited the tranquilizers she was prescribed for the change in her music. Many fans cried foul but most critics embraced the morph. 

 "I got a bit slated for it," Styrene recalled. "It was like 'Look what happened to her. She was this gung-ho punk revolutionary. Where... [has it] all gone?'"

Shades


 When Styrene fronted X-Ray Spex there were few lead singers of colour, especially in the punk scene. Her change of tempo on Translucence was seen as an unconventional move; given the success she found with harder music. As if these oddities of her identity weren't enough, her next move would be the most surprising yet. Styrene joined the Hare Krishna movement.

"I have kept the philosophy, but I haven’t stuck with the organisation," Styrene said in 2005. "Philosophy is one thing, but organisations and corruption are other things. I am not saying that the Krishna movement is completely corrupt, but there was some strange stuff happening, and I decided to disassociate myself from it."

 Styrene went on to release Flower Aeroplane in 2005 and Generation Indigo earlier this year. The track Black Christmas (below) was co-written with her daughter, Celeste, who is also featured on the song.

Black Christmas


 In February 2011 Styrene revealed in an interview with The Sunday Times that she had recently been treated for breast cancer but it had spread to her spine and lungs.

"I had a guru who left the mortal world in December," Styrene said in a March interview with The Quietus. "He gave me a meditation on the spirit, it was a female spirit, very beautiful but it made me think about how this body is just a material body, like an outer shell. It will deteriorate and die, but we can leave something behind in our music or art."

Virtual Boyfriend