Ahh yes, Flyposter has indeed been shortlisted in the Best Podcast Category at the Digital Music Awards this year… We think its fantastic! But we need your votes! so please CLICK AND TICK and make us fabulous!
Rebecca Zeller (violin)
Milo Bonacci (guitar),
Wesley Miles (keyboard/vocals),
Mathieu Santos (bass),
Alexandra Lawn (cello),
John Pike (drums, former)
Combining indie songwriting and string chamber flourishes, Eclectic indie pop…
Ra Ra Riot formed while the band’s six members whilst at college in Syracuse, NY.
They formed in January 2006. A self-titled EP released in January 2007.
Ra Ra Riot joined the roster at V2 Records later that year before switching their American management to Barsuk Records, which signed in May 2008.
The Rhumb Line is the band’s full-length debut iAugust 2008.
The whooollleee interview with Mercury Rev, GrassHopper, Jeff and Jonathan…
Mercury Rev Biography…
Jonathan Donahue (vocalist/acoustic guitar)
Grasshopper (moth-light guitars, clarinet)
Jeff Mercel (drums, piano, keyboards)
Dave Fridmann (bass explore)
Although the members of Mercury Rev initially came together to record soundtracks for experimental student films and to make tapes for friends, the band from rural upstate New York would become one of America’s most successful experimental groups.
Mercury Rev’s 1991 debut became a favorite in Great Britain.
The Melody Maker and the Independent, hailed the album as one of the year’s best.
Mercury Rev survived the odds of personal conflicts to go on and record a list of acclaimed albums through the 90s, including 1998′s Deserter’s Songs, the group’s best-seller.
In 1999 interview with the L A Times, Donahue remarked “There’s a lot of emotions tied up in the record…We went through a few tough years. It’s just a very genuine, honest record. You can’t buy that or fake it in the studio.”
Mercury Rev have finally made their ‘great life-cycle album’. MERCURY REV have finished recording a brilliant new album, SNOWFLAKE MIDNIGHT which will be released on September 29, 2008.
Damn but summer demands a motown beat, doesn’t it?
Luckily, Gotye knows this golden rule, and has kindly supplied us with one in this single taken from his album Like Drawing Blood.
For those of you who remember the deconstructive tuneful chaos that was The Avalanches, you’ll be delighted to hear they have a successor in this young chap from down under. That’s Australia, not some east end of London club. Spector beats, Supremes melody and production all his own – this is one of those tracks that you may have to pull your car over for, for fear of contravening some uptight road safety regulation. You know, like enjoying driving, or humming along to a modern day pop classic…..
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hahahahaha. They will actually kill me for that if they see it. But that’s unlikely as Jonathan, Grasshopper and Jeff are far too busy promoting their excellent new album Snowflake Midnight and its sister release Strange Attractor. We hooked up with them, sadly in the downstairs room of a hotel and not in the back of their tour bus yomping across the wastes of upstate New York, but you can’t have it all. Or in my case, anything. Suffice to say we were in garrulous spirits, which resulted in us all failing to conform to the perception that the Rev are miserable, glum, intense musicians and instead resulting in a rather strange but highly amusing conversation taking in a world petting zoo tour, the contractual obligations of their album artwork bunny rabbit, and, er, Jonathan’s lack of glumness. Dammit guys – why d’you have to be so funny and so talented? I feel small.
Keep your eyes peeled for the interview in the next episode of Flyposter. Not a dry seat in the house……
You gotta try this…!
Micachu is a young 21 year old indie-punk gem.
From a young age, Mica studied the violin, viola along with musical composition; before being awarded a scholarship at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Mica is currently making waves in the experimental and indie music scenes, along with her band the Shapes. Check out Gill’s exlcusive interview with Micachu and the Shapes here.
Atop The Old Blue, Shoreditch, Gill catches up with Micachu the unusual poptastic lady with her home made instruments- its a bit like a ukulele with a spare wire dangling down, hmmm, but pretty cool stuff…
Regular readers will be only too familiar with my shortening patience for the rash of poorly organised, brand rich, experience short festivals, so after the Lovebox / Latitude weekend I went through last weekend, I was somewhat nervy about hitting the secret garden festival in cambridge this weekend. I had actually attended before, and was astonished by just how mashed everyone was. Watching a stage crew member trying to load a bass drum into the wheel of a ford fiesta has been my ‘most mashed roadie ever’ story for a few years now, and one I hoped to top. Within 10 minutes of arriving on site, I had!
The guest list co ordinator ( I say this in the loosest possible sense of the word) had the shakes worse than Amy Winehouse after a meth binge, which we (most of the press corps attending) all guessed was the reason he couldn’t find any of us on the palm pilot he was juddering in his clammy paw. No matter, one of the upsides of this being such a charmingly scruffy festival was that the wrong pass rarely meant you couldn’t get to where you wanted to go. And go we did, in search of tents, stalls, welly chucking, cream teas, theatre, science camp, comedy, morris dancing (google it americans), sock wrestling, mud slinging, tractor tyre rolling and a few bands chucked in for good measure.
Suffice to say Grace Jones was the highlight of the weekend for many, although her smacky hi fashcamp persona and music isn’t really for me, I was certainly in the minority. It quickly became clear that this was not a festival for major labels to foist their bands upon, yet there were still some highlights. The wonderful Micachu gave, for my money, the set of the weekend which will be going in to the next show. We also grabbed some time with the up and coming Man Like Me ahead of his set promoting his spanking new single Carny before heading up to the Silent Disco (yes, it’s silent. You hear the music through headphones you are issued, and my top tip for fun is – grab some headphones then dance to a different beat to everyone else. They get very, very confused…) and finally turning in to our beach hut to sleep, which at the time seemed like a great idea, but come 7am with 27 degreee heat mercilessly beating down, seemed less so…
All in all though, an excellent alternative festival wit a high mashed up randomness rate and low score for current bands. But we soon came to realise, most of the kids had come for the giant pirate ship and cider stalls, not the breakout set from the Shortwave Set. We live and learn to fight another day.
