Thursday 30 July 2009

Woods 'Rain On' live in New York City

Ray Conception who filmed the beautiful Real Estate live videos, has filmed Woods performing 'Rain On' live in New York City:



The Woods single is out on Monday 10th August, available to pre-order from these places:

HALF MACHINE SHOP
ROUGH TRADE
NORMAN RECORDS

Tuesday 28 July 2009

Jumble Sale ... presenting Jumbling Towers


















Do you remember Eerie Indiana? A show that sees a young actor called Omri Katz (loved by most pre-pubescent girls, but most of all my sister) move to a fucked up town called Eerie, home of all sorts of ghoulish and other worldly inhabitants, there to scare the shit out of you every Sunday morning. Well, in these days of rehash and remake, I'm sure it's not long before it is brought back with a a shiny new Disney Club star as the lead role, for us all to enjoy all over again... if it does, let's hope it'll be soundtracked entirely by St. Louis' excellent Jumbling Towers.

Recorded, like all the best music in the world, in a garage, we hear Mercury Rev meets Clap Your Hands Say Yeah style vocals collide with marching nursery rhyme melodies. Their forthcoming album is written about a non-existent city called Kanetown, that conjures images of a middle America desert town with greying post apocalyptic horizons (as seen in the recent PS3 nuclear shooter Fallout 3..I swear I'm not a virgin) Its the sort of music to listen to whilst you share a ball of spasm flavoured ice cream with your girlfriend who has buttons for eyes.

Half Machine are proud to announce the release of "The Kanetown City Rips" backed with "Gilberta" on 7" released on Sept 10th 2009. You can pre order the single by visiting our shop and download Gilberta by clicking this. We hope the bass line makes you bug out as much as we did.

pj

The Magic
























The Magic are one of my favourite bands, I've listened to them almost every week for the past year or so.

Formed by brothers Geordie and Evan Gordon who also back one time Unicorn Nick Thorburn's new band Human Highway (who I once, drunkenly, insulted for no real reason when Islands were playing in London).

They were also the best band I saw at this years SXSW. After getting an excited phone call telling me the Magic were splitting Human Highway's set and would be playing across town in 15 minutes, I ditched my strawberry frappuccino (a boy needs to keep cool sometimes) and hot footed it over to the other side of town to see their power disco pop in all it's glory. They looked incredible:























Anyway, I love the Magic. You will too.

Thursday 23 July 2009

Alex Bleeker & The Freaks



Alex Bleeker & The Freaks is Bleeker's (bassist in Real Estate) solo thing. Sounding much more 70s Neil Young country folk rock than his other band, but still with that lovely beach pop vibe.

The Freaks backing him here are Martin Courtney (Real Estate singer/ guitarist) on bass and backing vocals, Matt Mondanile (aka Ducktails) on drums and Julian Lynch, who's putting out a split 7" with Ducktails soon, on guitar.

Get the 7 minute "Summer Song > Epilogue" (Live At Silent Barn) from Stereogum

Monday 20 July 2009

Real Estate on Pitchfork/ Sunday Times



Real Estate, whose debut UK single is out today have been interviewed on Pitchfork for their Rising section, where they said things like " Real Estate specialize in hazy, shimmery summertime pop music. Rather than using tape hiss as a punk affectation, Real Estate's muffled sound lends their songs a dreamy, faraway oldies radio feeling. Their songs don't bash, they unwind gently"

Pitchfork - Rising

There was also a couple of lines in the Sunday Times Culture's Hottest Downloads section this week- Sunday Times Culture

Order the single:
HALF MACHINE SHOP
ROUGH TRADE
PURE GROOVE
NORMAN

Real Estate - Fake Blues - Single - Fake Blues

There's also a review of Real Estate's gig with Woods on Chocolate Bobka

Tuesday 7 July 2009

Monday 6 July 2009

WOODS - 'To Clean' b/w 'Rain On Radio' 7"


















‘To Clean’ b/w ‘Rain On (Live on WVKR)’ 7” and download

Released Monday 10th August 2009

Half Machine Records, Cat no. HMR015

“Consistently awesome lo-fi pop” – Gorilla vs Bear

“A distinctive blend of spooky campfire folk, lo-fi rock, homemade tape collages, and other noisy interludes, all anchored by deceptively sturdy melodies.” – Pitchfork

WOODS are set to release their debut UK single on Half Machine Records on Monday 10th August 2009. The lo-fi Flying Nun-esque,‘To Clean’, backed with the skeletal psych folk of exclusive acoustic version, ‘Rain On’, recorded live on WVKR radio.

Both tracks feature on their recently released fourth album, ‘Songs of Shame’, released through their own Woodsist label and cassette tape label Shrimper.

WOODS are primarily the duo of Jeremy Earl (owner of Fuck It Tapes and Woodsist) and Jarvis Taveniere (Meneguar and Wooden Wand), and aided live by friends G. Lucas Crane on tape effects and Kevin Morby.

Jeremy’s Brooklyn based label, Woodsist, has recently released Vivian Girls, Wavves, Kurt Vile, Sic Alps and Crystal Stilts, among many others.

BUY

DOWNLOAD


Thursday 2 July 2009

Real Estate 7"























The 'Fake Blues' 7"s turned up today. They look and sound hottt. Order one from here. It's only £2.99. That's well cheap.

Click to download the b-side 'Green River' HERE

Peter Gordon & The Love of Life Orchestra

















Peter Gordon's Love of Life Orchestra kick off James Murphy and Pat Mahonie's Fabric mix with 'Beginning of The Heartbreak', the perfect opener to any mixtape (with added sax solo).

Friend and collaborator of Arthur Russell, LOLO have been around forever (well, since the 70s) and released very few records. They are still pretty fucking great though. You can download loads of stuff from Peter's website, where you can also read about his soundtrack work for Desperate Housewives, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Joe Versus The Volcano. It's probably one of the ugliest website on the internet, but still...

Anyway, download 'Beginning of The Heartbreak/ Don't Don't' here