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Enjoy a collection of tracks from artists with whom we are currently working. Open the player below in a new window if you’d like to keep listening as you continue browsing.
Noah Fardon (Good Service) was born in Nashville in 1994 and raised in an old stone house west of town. When not in school – a very traditional, all-male, former military academy where football will always reign supreme – he sought creative and conversational freedom and inspiration each day on the front porch of a nearby coffee shop that was a main haunt for prophetically deep thinkers, brilliantly singular personalities, and artists of all mediums and ages. Buoyed by their passion and the atmosphere of encouragement, he took his limited musical chops out of the shower, where they’d long been waging a losing battle against Hamilton Leithauser, picked up a guitar (and a guitar teacher) and started a band. Things went well for a few years, and then faded away as we all found new places to call home.
Fardon then moved to midcoast Maine in 2012 and, after a few years translating Ancient Greek, decamped to nearby Portland, into a repurposed laundry facility owned by a mustachioed, Twizzler-hoarding, self-proclaimed pirate. There, he set up shop in a 9’ X 7’ wooden box (sawdust on the paint-stained concrete; it had most recently been a carpenter’s workspace) that occupied one corner of a large white-walled room (now the New System Exhibitions gallery space). Fardon spent the next two years writing and recording in musical and spatial isolation, aiming to see if, in so doing, he couldn’t shed some habits that had begun to make the whole thing feel stale.
Please is the result of that effort; alternately sweet and unsettling, it is a wonderfully strange and engrossing thirty-one minutes, thematically informed and contextualized by Good’s sudden need to reckon with a rapidly unwinding perspective on mortality in light of his grandmother’s terminal diagnosis and subsequent passing a year and a half later. As the album’s bookends, “And a Foot” and “The End,” are also its most direct confrontations with death, each peeling through varying layers of anxiety, regret and despair to uncover the beauty and lightness hidden deep within the folds: that necessary inspiration to trudge on, to be patient, to choose to accept life. “And a Foot” settles hesitantly though encouragingly on a plan to turn things around: “Twenty-three, obsessed with death, regretful of the only love I’ve left, I smoke as much as fills my chest, but I’m trying to get right again.”
And yet, as the album plays out, Good’s resolve to choose and cherish life is subsumed by an inability to breach the sea of distractions – those much more immediate and prescient than mortality – that all but defines the restless sprawl of each day. Meaningful commiseration becomes tied in with increasingly unhealthy patterns of substance use that demand nonetheless occasionally still feel effective and revelatory (“Summer Muses”/ “MaPaw”); a love lost years before, now distant in time and space, creeps its way into a new start in a new city (“Washington Avenue”), cutting through the din of social life and the current of a budding romance with the sharp edge of vivid memory (“94”). By “The End,” Good, having lost family and friends alike to whatever it is that comes next, has grown more fully aware of the way mortality manifests in even the smallest windows of time, and embraces this unearthed truth reluctantly: there is no linear path to follow, only cycles of birth, death, and rebirth, that we must repeatedly opt into as we discover who we are before we simply are no more (“If now were the end, it wouldn’t get to me much; I feel so spent, though I know we’ve only just begun). But it is not the end. Good Service is a beginning.
What you will hear within first had to pass through the hands of his trusted, capable, and generous friends, Vaughn Hunt (additional recording; synthesizers) and Jamie Joyce (drums), and then through those of Roger Moutenot (additional recording; mixing), who brought a true sense of life and identity to this music — without him this record would simply not be what it is.
There’s so much more: a desperate and defeated return to Nashville; a New Jersey cemetery swelling under the billowing and pulpy heat of a midday in August; the misidentified shallot that brought him closer to Springsteen’s quiet side and the notion of chosen family; two deceptively quiet brushes with death in the sap and sweat of a New Orleans predawn; eight cats, a puppy, three drunk infants, “customer is king,” orange kouign amanns and spelt ciabatta…If you want to know any of it…just ask!
Praise and Testimonials for Team Clermont - Music PR & Radio Promotion
Felix Bechtolsheimer – Team Clermont are as good as it gets. We are a UK-based label and we were warned off hiring a US publicist. I’m so glad that we ignored this advice and decided to go ahead with these guys. We did an EP last year, which got fantastic results at both press and radio and we are currently in the middle of a full album campaign. Bill and Nelson are some of the nicest people we’ve worked with and they are coordinating and integrating amazingly with our UK and European publicists. We will certainly be using them for our future projects. Can’t recommend them highly enough!!
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year”.
Here to make our year is “Wonder Lensed,” a new track from Witchita musical amalgamation, The Wonder Revolution.
This song spotlights the talents of guitarist David Lord (Francis Moss) and producer/singer/songwriter Les Easterby (The World Palindrome, The World Palestine). Lord’s alternative guitar tunings provide a weighted grace that relaxes the track, but steers it from “spa music”. Every chord will provide you inner peace, as if you were surrounded by a lush greenwood.
Brooklyn anti-band Vensaire‘s newest concept album, Perdix, provides you with all of the escapism you need to get you through ‘til summer. Blending Western pop and indie-rock with a host of international folk influences, the album spans four continents, and each song’s instrumentation reflects the voyage. Like Homer’s Odyssey (the basis for the album), Perdix melds the familiar with the foreign, layering pop predilections with a sweeping indie rock determination.
A marriage of five distinct personas, the group synthesizes the guitars and vocals of Alex LaLiberte and indie darling Robert Earl Thomas (Widowspeak) with the vibrancies provided by club DJ Hunter Hawes, drummer Alex Jacobs and violinist Renata Zeiguer (Landlady).
This fusion of talent may sound like the hottest mess around, but Perdix is crafted with care. Recorded by Grammy-winner Scott Colburn (Arcade Fire, Animal Collective, Prince Rama), the album showcases his signature use of samples and electronic beats to further texturize the tracks.
Check out Vensaire at Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right on April 14.
With the four years of studio work leading up to their debut LP, Bright Fire, The Honey Trees allowed themselves the perfectionist’s time table to paint their sonics with the rich, amber hues of a sepia-soaked production. Premiering at Paste, “Nightingale” coos with the lush, dreamy wash of the California coast as Becky Filip’s vocals channel the blithe heartbreak of Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino; guitar driven, indie pop-rock that lines their halcyonic walk in the woods with an array of pillowy string arrangements and sparkling trimmings and chimes. Warm yourself with the California duo’s “Nightingale,” below.
Contrary to the title of her newest album, “Wayfindings,” it seems as though this 17-year-old folk star knows exactly where she’s going. “Numb and Blue,” a bluesy, candid farewell tune, is imbued with more maturity than Taylor Swift could ever muster as a teen (or now).
Reardon sure can keep up with the big kids, proof of which is evident as she is featured alongside many folk legends on the soundtrack for the up-and-coming documentary For the Love of the Music: the Club 47 Folk Revival.
We know your fingers are already frosty; come commiserate with our girl:
“Brilliance” is a word commonly associated with Cambridge, MA, but who knew it was also a wealth of musical genius? For The Love of the Music: The Club 47 Folk Revival reintroduces us to a forgotten springboard of burgeoning Americana. Club 47 was quiet but powerful, a folk music hub from 1958-1968, influencing and inspiring the likes of those who once performed there — Joan Baez, Taj Mahal, Judy Collins, Tom Rush, and Bob Dylan, to name a few. If you have two ears and a heart, make sure you don’t miss this stellar documentary (and badass accompanying soundtrack), premiering on DVD and Blu-Ray April 1.
Jim Rooney & Peter Rowan’s “Blue Ridge Mountains”:
Check out the new video for the stellar PT Walkley track “Don’t Forget About Me.” Dusty Wright premiered it last week on his phenomenal blog, Culture Catch
If you’re not yet familiar with PT, you’re more likely to be after the Grammys this weekend. He’s created all of the music for a lengthy, star-studded Pepsi commercial that’s going to run during the show; kind of a Grammys “Half Time Show.” Read about it in this USA Today piece.
What Polar Vortex? With his newest song, “Natural,” off the upcoming Shadow Songs, indie-folk prince Lovinggood has delivered us the greatest antidote to the winter blues since spiked hot chocolate. The buoyant synth and bold guitar heard here will make you forget all about your frozen fingers.
Ditch the beanie and warm your ears with this sunny number:
Yesterday Polly Scattergood‘s video for “Subsequently Lost” premiered and we want to share it with the world. The song is from her fantastic 2013 album Arrows (out on Mute Records), and the video was directed by Tom Payne:
The mighty HeadShy released their debut triple-EP La Belle Epoque last Tuesday and celebrated with an amazing Record Release Show at The Scottish Rite Theater, Saturday night. Since we all couldn’t be there, we’re doing our own form of celebrating, by sharing their new single for stream or download. “The Light That Guides The Blind” is the first track on the third EP, _The Base Chord.” We were all convinced it was Spiritualized, before we found it was our very own HeadShy. Enjoy!
Alana Amram and The Rough Gem’s “Should I Go Now” is the kind of classic slow-burning country tune that conjures up images of heartbroken, wayward souls sipping on bottles of beer at the nearest hole-in-the-wall. It may come as no surprise then that the first track released from Amram’s forthcoming Spring River, to be released March 4th on Kingswood Records, originated as scribbles on the backs of receipts Amram kept while tending bar a few years ago. Those lyrical scribbles, which conveyed how Amram was fed-up with her current situation, make up the bulk of “Should I Go Now,” a song left with a considerable amount of room to breathe. “With a song like this, you just have to know when it is time to put down the paint brush and let it dry,” says Amram.
Take a listen to “Should I Go Now”, premiered by CMT Edge, and keep an eye out for the full-length this March!
March 11 will see the release of the first full-length release from William Flynn, aka Sleepers Work.
The first shared track from No Turn Before The Shoreline was premiered by Treble last week. Here’s what Treble’s Jeff Terich had to say about it. “Brooklyn musician William Flynn has worked with the likes of St. Vincent, Acrylics, Aufgang and The Prids, but as Sleepers Work, he produces a more atmospheric form of hypnotic, electronic music. He’s releasing his debut album, No Turn Before the Shoreline this spring, which contains “Basment Lights,” a gorgeously dreamy track with hazy effects and a sonic warmth you can wrap yourself in like a blanket.”
Welcome to the soundtrack that starts off our every day here at Team Clermont.
Seattle’s Jupe Jupe recently announced that their third album, Crooked Kisses, will be released on March 4th of this year. We’ve been with these guys since the beginning and couldn’t be more excited about this new one; their best yet!
Surviving The Golden Age premiered the first single “Pieces Of You”, just last week. Check it out and tell us what you think!
It’s that time of year where it seems that everyone is posting their favorite albums of the year lists, so we thought we’d follow suit and share ours too! We spend all year talking about our FAVORITE albums, the ones that we have the privilege of doing PR and radio promotion for. Ask anyone at Team Clermont and chances are their true Top 10 lists would be nothing but Team Clermont artists. With that said, we decided to share with you our favorite NON-Team Clermont albums instead:
ALYSSA:
(in no particular order) Majical Cloudz – Impersonator Parquet Courts – Tally All The Things That You Broke EP Jungle – The Heat EP Mikal Cronin – MCII Savages – Silence Yourself T. Hardy Morris and the Outfit – Audition Tapes Deafheaven – Sunbather Autre Ne Veut – Anxiety Kurt Vile – Wakin On A Pretty Daze Thee Oh Sees – Floating Coffin
ANDY:
1. Dinosaur Bones – Shaky Dream
2. Washed Out – Paracosm
3. Caveman – Caveman
4. Phoenix – Bankrupt!
5. The National – Trouble Will Find Me
6. Deerhunter – Monomania
7. Local Natives – Hummingbird
8. Toro y Moi – Anything In Return
9. Youth Lagoon – Wondrous Bughouse
10. Minks – Tides End
BILL:
1. Phosphorescent – Muchacho
2. Phoenix – Bankrupt!
3. Washed Out – Paracosm
4. Steve Martin / Edie Brickell – Love Has Come For You
5. Au Revoir Simone – Move In Spectrums
6. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away
7. Midlake – Antiphon
8. Junip – Junip
9. Deerhunter – Monomania
10. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
Honorable mentions: Tennis, Local Natives, Autre Ne Veut, Pure Bathing Culture, Foxygen, Chvrches
NELSON:
1. Radical Face – The Family Tree: The Branches
2. Phosphorescent – Muchacho
3. Duquette Johnston – Rabbit Runs A Destiny
4. The National – Trouble Will Find Me
5. John Grant – Pale Green Ghost
6. Midlake – Antiphon
7. Bonobo – The North Borders
8. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
9. Justin Timberlake – The 20/20 Experience
10. Chvrches – The Bones Of What you Believe
SHIL:
1. Mikal Cronin – MCII (Merge)
2. Kurt Vile – Wakin On A Pretty Daze (Matador)
3. Jamaican Queens – Wormfood (s/r)
4. Halasan Bazar – Space Junk (Crash Symbols)
5. Thee Oh Sees – Floating Coffin (Castle Face)
6. Baptist Generals – Jackleg Devotional To The Heart (Sub Pop)
7. Mutual Benefit – Love’s Crushing Diamond (Other Music)
8. Akron/Family – Sub Verses (Dead Oceans)
9. William Tyler – Impossible Truth (Merge)
10. Cassandra Jenkins – EP (s/r)
STEVE:
1. The National – Trouble Will Find Me
2. Small Black – Limits Of Desire
3. Drake – Nothing Was The Same
4. John Grant – Pale Green Ghosts
5. Washed Out – Paracosm
6. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
7. Brothers – Street Names EP
8. Phosphorescent – Muchacho
9. Junip – Junip
10. Savages – Silence Yourself
Honorable Mentions: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., Little Daylight, Kanye West
A new movement has been brewing in Hotlanta, one that acutely mixes psychedelic freakiness with old school hip-hop ethos. Enter The Difference Machine, a rap duo consisting of producer Dr. Conspiracy and rapper DT. Their latest music vid for “So Hip” premiered on Potholes In My Blog today. In its two-minutes-flat blitzkrieg, DT finds enough time to lay down criticisms of the current scene. “When I hear so many rappers talk about they flows/And I got so many I can’t think of one I haven’t chosen” he spits over a crackling bass-heavy beat. In the background, Dr. Conspiracy lives up to his name in an OBEY hat, surrounded by gas masks. The group lives up to their name too. They forgo the current top 40 trend of rapping about Maseratis and Dom, instead choosing societal critiques; fewer still come up with such inventive, diverse beats.
By this point you must know how Team Clermont feels about bands with serious jam chops. Hint: we freakin’ love them. Enter New Zealand’s (yes, they have the awesome accents to boot) Orchestra of Spheres, a band with a name that perfectly describes them even if you can’t articulate exactly why. The fuzzy, Hendrix-y feedback and wah-wah of ‘Journey’ creates the vibe of an alternate-reality Woodstock, supplied with weirder rhythms and way more dissonance. ’2000000 Years’ is a jam freakout of epic proportions, featuring frantic, off-kilter synths. Both tunes exhibit the band’s strong suits – eerie, catchy chanted lyrics that shift seamlessly into Raconteurs-esque guitar work and Tommy James/Shondells-esque keyboard interludes. In other words, they’re pretty adept at creating classic 60s psych-rock for the tech age. Flight of the Conchords ain’t got nothing on the Spheres.
Imagine if Tom from ’500 Days of Summer’ had grown up in the aughts instead of the 80s, and had missed the boat on “sad British pop music.” Instead, HeadShy might be his favorite band.
HeadShy hail from (Keep) Austin (Weird), Texas, having formed by members of influential psych-pop group 7% Solution. With their January 14 release coming up, the group has strangely delved into the world of perfumery, making heady connections between musical notes and the notes found in complex scents. So what’s the thinking man’s nu-goth posterband to do? Split their debut into three separate EPs that each have their own musical “scent” – The Head Chord, The Heart Chord, and The Base Chord. And the three releases will also be available as a box set that, appropriately, contains three different bottles of perfume. Sounds like a good deal to us.
Their first single ‘Coma’ is a somber, minor key love dirge that imagines a Sleeping Beauty happily-ever-after gone wrong. Lead singer Lisa Lipkin offers up noir Amy Winehouse vocals as she sings forlornly of drifting silently to sleep and getting stuck that way. The sparse drums and grooving bass are so laid back as to be behind the beat, giving the tune the sluggish, dream-like feel it requires. And of course there’s some spooky keys to complete the ensemble. Listen below:
Songstress Lisa Papineau’s new album ‘Blood Noise’ swims through your speakers like an endless, spare, moody melody (if you’ll let it). The avant-pop maestro combines vocal trills from the times of olde with modern production techniques, creating what sounds like a Henry VIII-commissioned church choir transported to 2k13. You might even recognize her voice from collabs with the likes of Air and M83. Make sure you check out choral masterpiece ‘Radio on on On’, the dark synth groove of ‘Early Spring’, and the propulsive, breathy ‘Frozen Blue’.
Lafayette, Louisiana bayou bros FIGHTs make a worldly kind of indie rock. Their sound is informed by the creole culture they grew up with – songs like ‘Four Leaf Clover’ (below) feature bar band horns, and on ‘So Down So Down’ they jack some rhythms and chanty vocals straight from ‘Graceland’. The guitars are always loud, the keys are always bold, the lyrics are always effortlessly cool.
Their debut full-length ‘Music For Villains’ comes out in a couple short weeks. Judging by their striking EP ‘Summer Hits’, the album will feature catchy indie rock a la Black Lips all synthed up. Be warned – they’ll put a spell on you.
Scott & Charlene’s Wedding? More like Rocky and Adrian’s Wedding! I’ll be here all week, folks. Anyways, in the latest S&CW vid for ‘Jackie Boy’, lead singer Craig Dermody does his best 80s workout montage as he runs, punches, and trains his way through a Philly warehouse district. He even chugs raw eggs – the dude is not kidding around. We would NOT want to run into Craig the boxer in a dark alley. Craig the musician, on the other hand, creates delightfully unkempt Wavves-meets-Black Lips-meets-Parquet Courts punk rock. So we would LOVE to run into him in an alley, dark or otherwise.
D.C. artpunk vets The Dismemberment Plan are back after a decade-long material hiatus with a new album due out October 15. And lucky for us, they’ve released some tracks from it, the latest of which is ‘Daddy Was A Real Good Dancer’. Lead singer Travis Morrison is presumably singing about his own father, whose death was a major catalyst behind their 1999 breakout record ‘Emergency & I’.
The track opens with chiming guitars that recall ‘The City’, and it’s (shockingly) in 4/4 time. And it totally works. The song is bittersweet and reflective. “When they finally lay my cold and creaky bones to rest / I hope I’m not a mystery to those who knew me best” sings Morrison, connecting his father’s death to his own eventual one. He also sings vaguely of parental responsibilities and absenteeism – DPlan have never been a band to shy away from writing an emotionally difficult song, but they sure know how to make it sound good.
Leverage Models, the pen name behind producer Shannon Fields “and friends”, have an upcoming LP due out October 1. It features the likes of Yeasayer and LCD Soundsystem folks, plus Sharon Van Etten. Allow us to incontestably prove why you should be excited as hell.
‘Sweep’ is an inspiring, uplifting song featuring violins, an urgently strummed guitar, jungle-y drums, and a soaring chorus filled with ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’-esque synths. The churchy handbells add a beautiful touch too, giving the tune the feel of wintertime in Brooklyn. Leverage Models have the uncanny ability to go from complex sonic tapestries to arrestingly sparse arrangements in seconds flat.
Sister Sister… Sister? Damn straight. HAIM are your new favorite band, mostly because they sound like a super-amped up mix of all of your OTHER favorite bands. The LA trio of sisters have cut their teeth for a while, from playing with the rest of their family to playing with Jenny Lewis or Julian Casablancas to playing huge overseas festivals. And they aren’t your run of the mill indie princess whatevers. Take a listen:
That was AMAZING, right?! Somehow they’ve perfected this formula: 70s pop a la Fleetwood Mac + 80s keyboard schtick a la Pat Benatar + 90s R&B a la Destiny’s Child = HAIM. All the while they dress like Girls characters but don’t make you vaguely uncomfortable in the process. Bottom line, these women get harmonies, they get rhythms, they get aesthetic, and they sound like no one else out there. And here’s the kicker: their debut album doesn’t come out until September 30th. Mark your calendars, folks.
The follow up to Challenger’s debut LP is in the works and due out this fall, but in the meantime, the Brooklyn group are kind enough to share with us a new video from The World Is Too Much For Me and the title track from the forthcoming Back to Bellevue. Listen here. Watch here.
NYC’s Memoryy just released the video for their 80s inspired electro pop tune “Don’t Give Up” off Electric City EP, due out June 4. Fun facts: the video was loosely inspired by the Fruit Ninja iPhone game and one of the two directors also created the YouTube hit Kitten Inspired By Kittens. Watch on YouTube or at Baeble Music!
Chicago via UK brothers Oscar and Harvey Baker and their friend Tom Fry are set to release their sophomore EP Open Arms April 9 and shared a new single “More Than You Can Chew” today in advance of the release!
You can check out the premiere on MTV Hive, stream the track on our Soundcloud, or download it from Fletcher’s Bandcamp.
Experimental synth pop outfit VYIE just released their debut effort, Nightingale, via Post-Echo and saw the newly launched Made of Chalk debut the stand-out cut “Johnny”. Check out the song here and purchase the record here.
Loveskills and No Shame want to wish you a happy Valentine’s Day with the release of the Multiplicity EP, out today digitally and on limited edition 12” vinyl. The brand new video for “Flash in the Dark” debuted this morning on The Deli NYC and you can catch Loveskills live tomorrow night at Mercury Lounge for his record release show!
The prospectors at Fire Records have hit gold after the discovery of some rare and precious musical gems from Down Under. Being aficionados of highly collectable treasures, Fire have mined Australia’s vibrant underground music scene, to uncover nugget after nugget of premium talent. From the likes of scuzzy psych rockers Blank Realm, the subtle suburban country of Lower Plenty and the slacker-pop genius of Scott & Charlene’s Wedding, local experts say that they could not recall any nuggets even approaching that quality being discovered in the area previously.
BLANKREALM Go Easy
14 May (US)
‘Go Easy’ by Aussie psych pop band Blank Realm, is out on 4 March on Fire Records. Blank Realm combine grit with raucousness to make dirty rock’n‘roll, with a sludgy, dense slowness, whilst dabbling with pop, psych and sludgy lo-fi scuzz. The record is a stunning collection of catchy, sweaty, messy songs. More info/pre-order here.
LOWERPLENTY Hard Rubbish
2 April (US)
Lower Plenty’s enchanting no budget lofi pop gem Hard Rubbish is due out in April. Having been voted Album of the Year 2012 on Aussie indie bible Mess + Noise, Lower Plenty are THE band on everyone’s lips in the bars of Melbourne. With no online or social network presence to speak of, word of their wonderful album spread through word of mouth from turntable to turntable. More info/pre-order here.
SCOTT & CHARLENE’S WEDDING Two Weeks
12 March (US)
Scott & Charlene’s Wedding continue with their unique take on tales of the everyday that lit up their debut Para Vista Social Club with a new mini-album which sees them going that much further both musically and thematically with more fantastic soundbites of everyday life. Developing his scraggy, slacker pop to a whole new glorious level of laconic, melodic magnificence, here we see Craig Dermody really finding his voice with some of the memorable messes of noise we’ve ever heard. More info/pre-order here.
On today’s installment of NPR’s World Cafe: Next, you can hear two tracks from singer/songwriter KaiL Baxley’s debut double EP. “Don’t Matter To Me” and “Heatstroke” made the playlist, and you can download “Say Goodbye to the Night” from NPRhere.
Heatstroke / The Wind and the War will be released March 19 on Forty Below and you can catch him playing in LA at Hotel Cafe on February 7.
Today, we’re happy to share the DJ Self Help reworking of “God Is The Loneliest Of Lovers” from Dolfish ‘s debut LP, I’d Rather Disappear Than Stay The Same. Have a listen where it premiered at Baeble Music!
Fresh off of their performance at the New West Records showcase in NYC for this year’s CMJ Music Marathon, Here is Ponderosa’s brand new video for the single “Navajo”! The track is from their amazing 2012 release, Pool Party!
The new video for “I’d Rather Disappear Than Stay the Same” off Dolfish’s new record of the same title, saw it’s premiere on American Songwriter last Friday. The record comes out October 30 on Afternoon Records, but you can listen in it’s entirety now via the album stream on Paste Magazine.
Identical twin brothers Gibb and Clint Cockrum, reared in western Maryland and relocated to Virginia Beach, utilize a variety of acoustic instruments and rely heavily on vocal harmonies to create their unique folk-rock sound. Listen to “The Dark Haired Queen” from their debut self-titled record on American Songwriter . The record comes out Tuesday, October 23 on Good Soil Records.
Finally, join us for our 3rd annual hangout at Barcade (388 Union Ave) on Saturday, October 20th from 2PM-6PM! After a long week of walking from one venue to the next, you’ll want to relax with some excellent craft beers, old school video games, and new and old friends before making your way out for one more night of live music.
See the full post on Pitchfork.tv!Opossom’sElectric Hawaii is out now via Fire Records! It’s available on a beautiful 7” set, three brightly colored 7“s in an trifold booklet. Go get it!
See the original post on My Old Kentucky Blog! Mad Planet’s Ghost Notes goes for adds at radio on 8/20 & 8/21, and will be available to purchase on 8/28!
If you don’t know already, David Baker (formerly of Mercury Rev) is one of the driving forces behind Variety Lights, and they’ve just released their newest video for “Feeling All Alone.”
Watch below.
The new album, Central Flow, is available now via Fire Records.
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Past Live dates:
08.22•Mercury Lounge [early show] (New York, NY)
08.24•Public Assembly w/ Dinowalrus & August Wells (Brooklyn, NY)
08.25•Kung Fu Necktie w/ Vapour Theories (Philadelphia, PA)
08.26•PJ’s Lager House w/ Fuxa and The Crooks (Detroit, MI)
Our 15th anniversary showcase is only a few weeks away, and so far we’ve already announced amazing acts like The Olivia Tremor Control, Bear In Heaven, Dent May, Crooked Fingers, and more. We have another artist joining our Friday night lineup, and it is Akron/Family!
The long weekend consists of two nights of showcases and one finale party called Prom, all of which are open to the public. Over three nights, Thursday through Sunday, July 26, 27 & 28, two showcases will be held at the Georgia Theatre, and the third night (Saturday July 28) will be Team Clermont’s infamous prom held at The Melting Point.
Astronautalis (aka Andy Bothwell) will be performing Saturday morning at the return of the highly competitive “K’s vs W’s Kickball Showdown.” In addition, we will be hosting our first record fair with Team Clermont’s label partners, individual local vendors and community record store friends.
Three-day wristbands are available now through TicketBiscuit for only $25!
About Akron/Family:
Akron/Family is a folk influenced experimental rock group formed in 2002, currently comprised of Dana Janssen, Seth Olinsky, and Miles Seaton. The group spent the end of 2009 and half of 2010 exploring the future of sound through Bent Acid Punk Diamond fuzz and Underground Japanese noise cassettes, lower case micro tone poems and emotional Cagean field recordings, rebuilding electronic drums from the 70’s and playing them with sticks they carved themselves. Upon miraculous resuscitation of the original AKAK hard drive, the album layers thousands of minute imperceptible samples of their first recordings with fuzzed-out representations of their present beings to induce pleasant emotional feeling states and many momentary transcendent inspirations. The resulting record, released in February, 2011 is titled S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT.
Here at Team Clermont, Helado Negro has become a household (office-hold?) name. The “sound sculpting” Asthmatic Kitty artist has released some really fantastic albums as of late (in both English and Spanish) and it seems he always has something in the works. He is a frequent collaborator, teaming up with folks like label mate Julianna Barwick, Prefuse 73, and lending his album mixing skills to the likes of Bear In Heaven and DM Stith.
Next month, Asthmatic Kitty will release the debut of OMBRE, 10 tracks from the collaboration that is Helado Negro and Julianna Barwick.
It’s no surprise then that the name Helado Negro is spreading, and this past week, he was voted MTVIGGY’S Artist Of The Week! You can check that out here, along with the video for “Mameber” from this year’s Island Universe Story One.
We’re excited to announce that this year’s prom theme is “Back To The Future”. Time to track down a DeLorean you can rent for the evening to transport your date, and start planning which era or character you’ll channel with your outfit. We invite you to dress as a character from any era the films visit, meaning 1885, 1955, 1985 or 2015!
It’s all part of the return of the Team Clermont Summer Showcase and Prom presented by Normaltown Records, as the Athens, GA firm celebrates 15 years of excellence in music publicity and radio promotion.
The long weekend also consists of two nights of showcases, all of which are open to the public. Over three nights, Thursday through Sunday, July 26, 27 & 28, two showcases will be held at the Georgia Theatre, headlined by critically acclaimed national act Bear In Heaven (Brooklyn, NY) psych-pop pioneers The Olivia Tremor Control (Athens, GA)
The third night (Saturday July 28) will be our prom held at The Melting Point. A favorite for out-of-towners and locals alike, the Prom takes the attendees back to the times of cover bands, questionable outfits, photo booths and punch bowls, without all of the awkwardness of being a teenager. Get ready to dance, as Yacht Rock Revue performs a set of 80s cover songs they call “Reagan Rock Prom!”
Also scheduled to perform: Dent May, Crooked Fingers, Pattern Is Movement, Wild Moccasins, Astronautalis, and more!
We’ve been releasing details about our upcoming Team Clermont Summer Showcase & Prom, where we will be celebrating our 15 year anniversary with concerts, a prom, a kickball game, a record fair, and more!
We’ve already announced our two showcases, which will be headlined by critically acclaimed national act Bear In Heaven (Brooklyn, NY) and psych-pop pioneers The Olivia Tremor Control (Athens, GA.)!
The weekend will culminate in a Team Clermont tradition, the Prom, to be held at The Melting Point on Saturday night. A favorite for out-of-towners and locals alike, the Prom takes the attendees back to the times of cover bands, questionable outfits, photo booths and punch bowls, without all of the awkwardness of being a teenager. Today, we announce Yacht Rock Revue as our Prom band, who have prepared a set of 80s cover songs they call “Yacht Rock Revue Presents Reagan Rock Prom”!
We’ve also made available for purchase Three-Day Passes ($25) for the weekend through Ticketbiscuit. Quantities are limited, so be sure to purchase yours now!
This is the music video for “Happy Pills”, from her latest album, Little Broken Hearts. The album was produced by Danger Mouse, who had previously collaborated with Jones on the 2011 ROME album.
Thank you to our friends at The Owl Mag for hosting the video premiere for Cheers Elephant’s fantastically fun new video for the lead single from Like Wind Blows Fire. Click here to watch the video.
There are 56 classic idioms being acted out by K and his of Montreal bandmates. There’s a fill in the blank contest running on Kishi Bashi’s site, and you could possibly win $100 to the awesome Joyful Noise online store!
The Green Seed’s award winning video for “Crack Kills” premieres on mtvU’s The Freshmen today, along with four other videos from around the world. Vote now to help them win this week’s Best Freshmen Video!
The winning video will be added to regular rotation, so vote now and vote often! Click here to vote!
Polls are open from Monday April 2nd at 11:00 AM EST to Friday April 6th at 2:00 PM EST.
We want our interns at Team Clermont to learn how to digest music, think about records from a critical standpoint, and turn those thoughts into words. What better way to hone this skill of communicating about music than reviewing our very own artists?
‘From the Peanut Gallery’ is our interns’ outlet for record reviews of current bands on our roster. No biased gimmicks here, just some college-aged music lovers giving us their thoughts on our music!
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pacificUV – Weekends
Written by Adam LaHaie
As the title suggest, Weekends “spans” Friday through Monday framed by three unstructured ambient interludes (“Friday Night Dream,” “Saturday Night Dream” and “Sunday Night Dream”) lasting about two minutes each. Weekends starts with the dark strings and whimsical noise of ”Friday Night Dream.” Stepping out of the dreamscapes and onto the dance floor, pacificUV introduces playful lyrics over dance floor-ready percussion with “Funny Girl.”
A slightly more subdued “Just4kix” leaves plenty of room for some sonic exploration and experimental noise before leading into a slow burning, blown-out “Baby Blue.” The track brings a nice change of pace to the album with an epic orchestral culmination of space pop and experimental effects swirling together.
A far cry from dream-pop, shoegaze or anything I was expecting to find on this album, the vocoder-heavy “Ballerina” shows these veterans are not stuck in genre boundaries. More chilled-out, hazy atmospheric soundscapes (what pacificUV does best in my opinion) await your ears in “High” and its instrumental introduction, “Saturday Night Dream.”
Just as you may expect, this weekend adventure begins to come to an end
with “Going Home.” Slow building, organ-like synths made this woozy, yet epic track one of my personal favorites.
Hopping out of one genre and into another throughout the album, you will get a taste of ambient dreamscapes, synth-pop, shoegaze and even a little electro dance at times. Without one solid direction, Weekends reminds me of a road trip with no predetermined destination. That is okay though as we are often guilty of sticking to the plan rather than letting an experience happen. With only their third album in 14 years, it is apparent pacificUV does not have a predetermined destination and that is not a problem at all.
In late January, Mission of Burma severed their ties with independent label Matador, home to Sonic Youth, Fucked Up, and Stephen Malkmus. The post-punk rockers have now signed to another heavy-hitter indie label, Fire Records. With a world-wide release deal on the books, Mission of Burma are currently in the studio working on their 5th LP (4th post-reunion). The album, reportedly “their most ambitious, progressive and vibrant recording yet,” has a tentative release date set for July 10th.
Howlin Rain’s album The Russian Wilds comes out on American Recordings on Valentine’s Day 2012. Relix.com has posted this short film by Pamela Littky which documents Howlin Rain’s story to this point.
Howling Rain will playing in the following cities over the next few weeks, and you can see all the dates and the video after the jump!
Tour dates:
02.07•Mercury Lounge (New York City, NY)
02.08•Brooklyn Bowl (Brooklyn, NY)
02.09•Johnny Brendas (Philadelphia, PA)
02.10•Red Palace (Washington DC)
02.11•Cafe Nine (New Haven, CT)
02.14•Detroit Bar (Costa Mesa, CA)
02.15•Casbah (San Diego, CA)
02.16•Echo (Los Angeles, CA)
02.17•SoHo (Santa Barbara, CA)
02.18•Independent (San Francisco, CA)
02.19•Audie’s Olympic (Fresno, CA)
02.21•Humboldt Brews (Arcata, CA)
02.23•Biltmore (Vancouver, BC)
02.24•Sunset Tavern (Seattle, WA)
02.25•Doug Fir (Portland, OR)
03.06•Cellar Door (Visalia, CA)
03.07•SLO Brew (San Luis Obispo, CA)
03.08•Fingerprints (Long Beach, CA)
03.09•Harlow’s (Sacramento, CA)
03.10•St. James Infirmary (Reno, NV)
03.11•Crystal Bay Casino (Crystal Bay, NV)
03.12•Urban Lounge (Salt Lake City, UT)
03.13•Larimer Lounge (Denver, CO)
The sophomore release from San Francisco trio, Night Genes, is streaming free on AOL/Spinner this week in celebration of the album’s release tomorrow, January 31. The band also premiered their newest single, “Soaring Through the Chromosomes,” today on The Atlas and the Anchor!
Charleston, SC indie rock trio Run Dan Run are set to release their third record, Normal, via their own Hearts & Plugs label tomorrow, January 10. You can listen to the entire release streaming on AOL/Spinner all week!
New Zealand’s Surf City have released a new video for “Crazy Rulers Of The World”, which premiered on Pitchfork.tv . To make it a little easier on you, we’ve also embedded it here!
F.Stokes new EP Love, Always drops Valentine’s Day 2012! The lead single, “My Simple”, is the MP3.com MP3 of the Day! F.Stokes has also released this teaser lyric video for the single, created by artist Drew Puchalski:
Listen to the new record from rural California indie rockers, Built Like Alaska, streaming on AOL/Spinner! In Troubled Times… comes out tomorrow on Future Farmer Recordings! Listen here!
Andy Bothwell, better known as the genre bending hip-hop artist Astronautalis, stopped through the Paste studios in Atlanta today on the Eastern leg of his nation-wide tour to lay down some tracks for a Live From Paste session, set to be available on PasteMagazine.com in about a month.
In the meantime, check out his newest record, This is Our Science, released September 13 courtesy of Fake Four Inc. Available on iTunes and Amazon!
“Leaves The Ones That Left” is premiering over at Alternative Press . “Leaves The Ones That Left” is one of the many awesome songs on their debut record, In Parallel, that comes out tomorrow! Want to hear it? It’s streaming over at Absolute Punk this week! The release week festivities continue Wednesday, with their record release show at the Mercury Lounge in NYC.
This week, Durham N.C. trio and former Justin Vernon bandmates Megafaun released their fourth LP, the self-titled Megafaun. The album was the #3 Most Added record at CMJ this week, and already the reviews are rolling in! Check out some of the initial praise below!
“Megafaun have quietly completed the smart, sizable stylistic shift they started on last fall’s Heretofore EP, drawing back on the burly backwoods weirdness of their earlier work while widening their stylistic scope and pushing compositional delicacy to the forefront. And Megafaun may be their most immediately ingratiating, rewarding LP yet” – 7.8
“No matter how you frame it, Megafaun is a stunning, expansive, and utterly satisfying record. It’s roadworn but hopeful, melodically fascinating, and never misses a step on its wandering, restless path” – 8/10
“With opener “Lucky Penny,” Jean Caffeine slides into a groove so familiar that Geckos in the Elevator tricks you into thinking this veteran rocker spent the last decade honing these 11 celebratory, confessional, autobiographical, and gorgeously patterned songs here in Austin instead of Durham, N.C.”
Geckos follows the troubadour’s usual folk/country/rock template fairly closely – there’s nothing here the average No Depression fan wouldn’t clasp tightly to his/her breast. But the LP isn’t a series of clichés, either, given Caffeine’s very personal outlook on the world. Her smarts, sensitivity and, most of all, conversational style elevate the political commentary of “Devil I Know,” the storytelling waltz of “Sadie Saturday Night” and the hometown salute “Hey Austin” far above formula.
“Caffeine’s vocal idiosyncrasies at times create a sense of listlessness and her preference for simple Reed and Smith-like arrangements offers more of the same. When it works, almost inexplicably, on tracks such as “Hey Austin” and “Mary O’ Shea” and punk rock memoir “Sadie Saturday Night” the results are undeniably memorable and winning.”
Catch Jean Caffeine Live:
Sept. 3rd, 3pm, Antone’s Records In Store, Austin, TX
Sept 3rd, 7pm, Lucky Lounge, Austin, TX with Chelle Murray.
Sept 4th, 7pm, Roadhouse Rags, Austin TX
Jason Ajemian has released a live video of him performing a little country medley of “Our Love Keeps Us Together” and “Automobile” at Union Pool earlier this year.
If Jason is your jam (and by God he ought to be!), you still have three more days to help out his Kickstarter campaign. New Atlantis and Sundmagi Records, two musician-curated labels from the mid-Atlantic USA, are joining forces to present a new series of releases that will document rising voices from the creative music underground, and unearth historic archival recordings from established myths. The first trio of offerings from the two labels are slated for an August 9th release. The free jazz-meets-trunk-thumping-indie funk of Jason Ajemian and the HighLife‘s Riding the Light into the Bird’s Eye; the fire-breathing, dazzling ‘free rock’ rockers of Matta Gawa’s Tambora; and the spacious, dynamic solo electric 12-stringer-ringer guitar compositions of Nick Millevoi’s Black Shadow of a Bird each demonstrate the unique, eclectic identity of these two labels.
From Imaginary Johnny:
“This video features Imaginary Johnny’s “Small Prices” accompanied by a series of intimate portraits by filmmaker Matthew C. Mills. We are grateful to Matt and to the many stars of the film.”
Director’s Statement:
“I was primarily raised by a single mom who always worked. I’ve always been impressed by the ability of women to juggle careers and families, seemingly with more poise and grace than men. When I first heard “Small Prices,” it seemed to me a song that championed women. As such, the subject matter for my video is dedicated to women in the workplace. I set about my neighborhood on a very snowy Friday & Saturday, asking various women I know and don’t know if they’d volunteer. Out of the 22 I asked, I only got three no’s. I am grateful to the women who let me take their video portraits. They are: Nellie, Angelica, Anika, Chika, Hazel, Danielle, Susan, Frankie, Davinnia, Stacey, Wendy, Darinka, Zein, Seryn, Emily, Milana, Gloria, Giovanna and Philippa. Thank you all. Thanks as well to my friends Brian & Elke who assisted me on the shoots and to my wife, Kristen, for letting me disappear for three days with 19 other women.” – Matthew C. Mills
Credits:
“Small Prices” written and performed by Imaginary Johnny. Video by Matthew C. Mills. Produced February 2010 by Space Station Media and Unfinished Side Productions. Song produced, recorded and mixed at Strange Weather Brooklyn by Marc Alan Goodman.”
We had the chance to check out The Rosebuds last night in Atlanta alongside Other Lives as they continue to support the recently released Loud Planes Fly Low. The show was amazing, and it being Kelly’s birthday, they even brought her out a cake just before midnight!
The band will be switching gears next month as they will be the opening support for Bon Iver’s national tour.
Loud Planes Fly Low, the band’s fifth release is full of some amazing tracks, especially the album’s first single “Woods”. The video for this track was directed by Steve Choo, and was released today. We’ve included it below, as well as The Rosebuds headlining summer dates before their stint with Bon Iver.
Hailing from Roma, Italy, the five-piece outfit Saint Lips have released their second full length release, Charm through the unique North Carolina “anti-label” No More Fake Labels (Sing For Your Meat:Guided By Voices Tribute).
Their latest LP was produced by Bobby MacIntyre (Twilight Singers/Mark Lanegan drummer and producer) and it features the super catchy track “LIttle Sister”. The band recently released a video for this track, which showcases the perils of hitchhiking vixens along the coastline. Check out the video, which is embedded below:
Megafaun are everywhere at once right now! They’re currently on tour with John Darnielle’s The Mountain Goats, contribute vocals on the new All Tiny Creatures album Harbors, and have premiered the new video for “Carolina Days” on Pitchfork.tv today!
See the video and the rest of the tour dates with The Mountain Goats after the jump!
Tour dates:
04.01•Paradise w/ The Mountain Goats (Boston, MA)
04.02•Castaways w/ The Mountain Goats (Ithaca, NY)
04.03•Opera House w/ The Mountain Goats (Toronto, ON)
04.05•Vic Theatre w/ The Mountain Goats (Chicago, IL)
04.06•Mercy Lounge w/ The Mountain Goats (Nashville, TN)
04.07•Variety Playhouse w/ The Mountain Goats (Atlanta, GA)
04.08•Cat’s Cradle w/ The Mountain Goats (Carrboro, NC)
04.10•Grey Eagle w/ The Mountain Goats (Asheville, NC)
04.11•Wexner Center for the Performing Arts w/ The Mountain Goats (Columbus, OH)
04.12•Mr. Small’s w/ The Mountain Goats (Pittsburgh, PA)
04.14•The Ottobar w/ The Mountain Goats (Baltimore, MD)
04.15•Theater of Living Arts w/ The Mountain Goats (Philadelphia, PA)
04.16•Music Hall of Williamsburg w/ Sharon Van Etten (Brooklyn, NY)
Join Team Clermont and our friends at Greyday Records for our official SXSW showcase!
Time: Thursday, March 17 at 8:00pm – March 18 at 2:00am
Location: Easy Tiger Patio (formerly Habana Calle 6) · 709 E 6th Street · Austin, TX
Lineup:
1am – Surf City (New Zealand)
12am – The Heligoats (Bellingham, WA)
11pm – Kids of 88 (New Zealand)
10pm – I Was Totally Destroying It (Chapel Hill, NC)
9pm – Gospel Claws (Tempe, AZ)
8pm – Street Chant (New Zealand)
There will be free tote bags, tee-shirts, and a vinyl giveaway!
Longtime Team Clermont friends Akron/Family have recently released their latest album S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT to the masses after quite an interesting story:
“Finally, after over a month of unanswered emails and text messages, blown deadlines, and pleas to finish and turn in their new album, a large brown cardboard box showed up at the Dead Oceans doorstep. It had “SHINJU TNT” scrawled across the bottom of the box in black magic marker, and the return address read only “AK, Detroit.”
Opening it revealed a sincere but poorly made diorama of futurist swirling spaces filled with toy astronauts and dinosaurs, four blown out song fragments on a TDKCDR in a ziplock bag, three pictures, a track list written in crayon, and a typewritten note from Akron/Family. A post-it on the bag declared the band refused to send the full album to anyone but the vinyl pressing plant, for fear of leaking and possible lost revenues.”
The record has received tons of early praise, and now the band has released a video for the albums first track “Silly Bears”!
Tucson, AZ’s Giant Sand is still cruising here in 2011! Their late 2010 release Blurry Blue Mountain from Fire Records released 25 years after the band’s debut album Valley Of Rain. The new record has already seen success on the college charts, and has been met with some great reviews!
Today, NPR is featuring “Brand New Swamp Thing” as their Song Of The Day!
The voices of NPR have started posting their Top Ten Records of 2010 and we are happy to announce that our very own Heligoats made Stephen Thompson’s Top Ten at #10!
Stephen Thompson is an editor and reviewer for NPR Music. He also curates Song of the Day and appears as a frequent panelist on the podcasts All Songs Considered. Of the Heligoats wonderful Goodness Gracious, he says “The Heligoats’ Chris Otepka doesn’t write songs so much as he stuffs them with ideas until they brim over with imagination.”
Check out the rest of this piece and other NPR notables lists here.
For those of you clamoring for more from The Heligoats, you’re in luck. They have a split 10” coming out in January with their pal, Sam Humans called Live Free/Let Loose. Check out the first single below!
Raleigh, NC band Lonnie Walker have a Daytrotter session live today !
The recording features “Compass Comforts” and “Grape Juice” from These Times Old Times , the record that will see national release one week from today (12/14/10), “Love Turn” from their split 7” with old friends Future Islands, and a brand new one, “Teenage Poem”.
The reception for Sufjan Stevens latest full length release The Age Of Adz has been pretty amazing! In addition, we’ve seen the album top the CMJ Top 200 charts three weeks in a row!
This morning we have a double dose of Sufjan for you! First, Sufjan Stevens has released a video for his new album’s lead track “Too Much”!
We also have Sufjan’s performance from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Friday!
The wonderful New York City outfit, The Flying Change, have put together what looks to be a fantastic show for you lucky New Yorkers.
Wednesday night, December 1st, the band will be playing the Rockwood Music Hall (Stage 2). But this not your typical show. With The Flying Change, it never is. The title of the evening is “Endings, Beginnings and Eternal Return: Quantum Mechanics and Free Will.”
They’re giving away free posters (seen here) and Hanukkah gelt! Plus, there will be free course readers on the topic of the show. And that won’t be all. But you’ll probably have to go to find out more. The festivities begin at 9:30 pm.
Go to the show for us and tell us how it was! We’ll be sitting here in Athens, patiently waiting for Flying Change frontman, Sam Jacobs, to finish their new record… Living At The Movies.
Duck Kee Sessions, the new EP by Carrboro, North Carolina quartet, Schooner, is available now exclusively through CYTunes.org . Named after Cy Rawls, a NC music scene staple and friend of the band that lost his struggle with brain cancer, Cytunes is a website where musicians can upload music (Superchunk, The Rosebuds, Polvo, and many more artists have exclusive material on the site), and fans can purchase music with 100% of the proceeds going to brain cancer research.
Schooner recognized Cytunes as the most meaningful place for it’s newest songs, Duck Kee Sessions, recorded at the legendary Jerry Kee’s Duck Kee Studios (Superchunk, Kingsbury Manx, Polvo). A variety of album covers for Duck Kee Sessions are available with numerous North Carolina-based artists contributing unique works for the project. Contributing artists’ artwork will be featured at the Duck Kee Sessions EP release party.
Duck Kee Sessions EP release party:
February 19, 2010 at The Pinhook – Durham, North Carolina
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Here's to 20 Years of Team Clermont artists & bands. Thank you all!
We surely couldn’t have made it 20 years without all of you, our artists. See our full roster, the whole list of the 2,238 artists, singers, bands and true creatives we’ve had the privilege of working with so far during our company’s (first) 20-year history. – with love from co-founders Nelson Wells and Bill Benson
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