Alternative – Page 5

August 6, 2019

August 6, 2019May 19, 2020 Mew Zikwryder

BONNIESONGS Loses Her Head In Monstrous Music Video ‘Frank’

Fresh from Australian support slots with Joan As Police Woman, Bonniesongs, aka Bonnie Stewart, is pleased to reveal a ghoulish new video for her latest single ‘Frank’—an ode to the reanimated monster from Mary Shelley’s classic 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

‘Frank’ is the latest track to be taken from the Australia-based Irish art-folk virtuoso’s forthcoming debut album Energetic Mind, set for release on Small Pond Records in the UK on 6th September 2019. Aussie experimental music label Art As Catharsis will be handling the release Down Under.

In support of the new record, Bonniesongs has also just announced a rare run of September 2019 UK tour dates supporting labelmate Natalie Evans (see below for full listings).

“I’m just trying to portray honesty, and imagination,” says Stewart of the often metaphysical inspirations behind her songwriting. “I’m someone who is led by heart not head. I’m a very emotive doer and thinker and I think this complexity of processing emotions comes out through my music. Where I might be singing about things like monsters or zombies, there’s a dark and deeper feeling that is more complex—whether that’s a sense of place, missing home, being misunderstood and underestimated, or nostalgia and old memories.”

Commenting on the hair-raising new video—which sees Stewart quite literally lose her head in a series of gruesome laboratory experiments before shuffling off around town as a zombie—she says: “It’s been so great to make music videos for a couple of the tracks. I’m a pretty visual person, so even when I’m writing lyrics, I’m usually picturing a scene or image. I particularly enjoyed making the video for ‘Frank’. We got to fulfill our lifelong destinies to dress up as zombie monsters and it was the best thing ever!”

The album’s lead single ‘Ice Cream’ (also out now) picked up international radio plays from Amazing Radio, Triple J, FBi Radio, and RTRFM, with press coverage from London In Stereo, Paste Magazine, The 405, The Line of Best Fit, CLASH, Crack in The Road, For The Rabbits, Nialler 9, Joe.ie, The Thin Air, Tone Deaf, Everything Is Noise, A Closer Listen, Overdrive Magazine, and a whole host more.

Energetic Mind is released 6th September 2019 via Small Pond Records (UK) and Art As Catharsis (AUS)

Bonniesongs live w/ Natalie Evans:

18.09.19 – Leicester – The Cookie
19.09.19 – London – The Islington
20.09.19 – Bristol – Cafe Kino
21.09.19 – Cardiff – The Dojo, Pontcanna
23.09.19 – Leeds – LS6
24.09.19 – Canterbury – Bramleys
25.09.19 – Brighton – Nowhere Man

Follow Bonniesongs:

Facebook | Soundcloud | Bandcamp | Website

August 1, 2019

August 1, 2019May 20, 2020 Mew Zikwryder

K.Flay reveals her new music video ‘Sister’

Following the release of her third full-length album Solutions, which dropped earlier this month on Night Street/Interscope Records, GRAMMY Award-nominated artist K.Flay has delivered another compelling visual, this time for her latest single ‘Sister’.

Picking up from where the ‘Bad Vibes’ video left off, ‘Sister’ is the second part of a visual trilogy that continues the themes of sisterhood and support. Having escaped captivity (from the ‘Bad Vibes’ video), K.Flay and a female companion have broken free, only to find themselves in a world where everyone else seems to be moving backwards.

The video was directed by Clara Aranovich and shot in Downtown Los Angeles. Fun fact: Kristine (K.Flay) and her ‘Sister’ are the only ones moving in forward motion while the world around them is moving in reverse – To create this, Kristine had to learn the song completely backwards (in phonetic gibberish).

Solutions has arrived as a breath of fresh air in this somewhat bleak climate, as K.Flay finds catharsis in these arduous times. The acclaimed album has been highly praised internationally by the likes of the Observer, Sunday Times, Dork, Gay Times, Financial Times, Rock Sound, Classic Pop, Nylon, NPR, Under The Radar, The New York Times and many more.

This autumn, K.Flay brings The Solutions Tour to stages across the globe, with a 19-city run in North America before coming to the UK and Europe in October where she will play in Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester, London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Berlin and more.

UK TOUR DATES – OCTOBER
18th – Birmingham, UK – O2 Academy2
19th – Bristol, UK – Thekla
21st – Glasgow, UK – St Luke’s
22nd – Manchester, UK – Gorilla
23rd – London, UK – Heaven

In other news, K.Flay has launched the first of its kind music-focused “microcast” (a shorter form podcast) expressly designed and produced for smart speakers (Amazon and Google Home) around the world. “What Am I Doing Here” is hosted and curated by K.Flay and features conversation, jokes, musical interludes and special guests including Sam Harris (X-Ambassadors), Bishop Briggs, Michael (Fitz and the Tantrums) and many more friends and family.

Equipped with a mobile studio including high quality microphones for her iPhone, apps for recording phone calls and more, “What Am I Doing Here” is recorded 100% live. Whether she decides to record in a supermarket, on the tour bus, or on the phone with her mum or kindergarten age niece, the idea is to transport the listener into her world versus the standard studio recordings. To listen on Alexa, simply say “Alexa, enable K.Flay show” and on Google Home, say “OK Google, talk to K.Flay show.”

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April 11, 2019

April 11, 2019May 20, 2020 Mew Zikwryder

Announcing the official reissue of Thee Oh Sees ‘Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion’

Oh Sees have announced the reissue of Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion which will be out 5/24 on Castle Face Records. The band also recently announced a run of Fall North American tour dates. You can check out where they are playing below and also check out their forthcoming Spring/Summer shows that include stops at Shaky Knees Fest and Solana Beach.

“Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion / Live Performances Sans Stages And Whatnots With Thee Oh Sees (2008), is a film we made just over a decade ago, and this record is the soundtrack. I loved making it, and I love all that were involved. I’m honestly blissed-out proud to hear over the years that it somehow is loved by so many others, too.

I first met John Dwyer on Flag Day. I was blown away by a trio of roving Coachwhips guerrilla street shows that climaxed at the the scenic vista parking lot high above San Francisco atop Mt. Sutro. Amongst the gathered uninitiated hordes of souvenir sweatshirt selling families, and puzzled elderly global tourist translators, and a white weirdo tuxedo wedding party, was the sonic corruption of the Coachwhips that was collaborating with the all-female, fake-pregnancy, jump-rope-y, real-pit-bull-shredding-fake-plastic-baby fantasy majesty of the performance artist crew Double Dutchess. I’m certain that this exact event was the idea seed for Thee Hounds Of Foggy Notion, and that it saved my life a little bit.

When JPD asked me to consider making a video for Thee Oh Sees with the sole stipulation that he didn’t want to do anything fake-y to playback, my head started swimming. What we mutually agreed upon was to essentially reprise Flag Day, and film Thee Oh Sees performing live, but not on stages. My own secret undisclosed personal caveat was to see this as an opportunity to document his process by mixing in some interstitial interviews between the roving live shows. He shut the ‘interview’ idea after I asked the very first question. Instead, what we got was infinitely more true to the free fun reality of the scene in the form of a multitude of glorious stories.

I rented a 15-passenger van, a generator, and the minimal cinematic equipment my trusted cinematographer friend James Wall deemed we needed. Everything sound wise was JPD territory and went through an ancient mixing board that Johnny had housed within a Samsonite suitcase. We ran all the plate mics from the drums, and the lil pedestal mics from the amps through this old mixer, and we all believed that all would be well and swell. As an emergency audio backup, I also grabbed a 12” Sennheiser directional mic in a fluffy wind muff that directly fed into one of our Canon XL-2s. My residual fear that the only thing that ruins docs or indie films is shit sound came true when we discovered that all the multi-tracking through the mixer was hopelessly covered in geiger counter static tics. All of the audio that you hear on the LP is sourced from that single Sennheiser mono mic that we then dual-mono’d in post.

As great as JPD is as a live performer, he was in absolute alpha epic story-teller genius mode during every single spare second of the journey. Brigid Dawson added some delicious gems as she always does. Petey Dammit is a pretty quiet private guy, but even he proved to be very funny when he gets loose. Patrick Mullins on the other hand is literally Castleface. After editing through 40+ hours of footage of live performances and interstitial stories, it became very shockingly clear to myself, and editor Akiko Iwakawa, that his expression never ever ever changes. He is Castleface incarnate.

Massive Love yous and Thank yous to all involved and to all of Yous toos” – Brian Lee Hughes

It’s out on Castle Face Records May 24th

May
3-5 Atlanta, Georgia Shaky Knees Fest

18 Manchester Albert Hall

19 Glasgow QMU

20 Belfast Limelight 18-20

21Dublin Button Factory

23 Cardiff The Tramshed

24 Derby Bearded Theory Festival

June
7 Nelsonville, OH Nelsonville Music Fest

14 Solana Beach, CA San Diego Belly Up
W/ Bronze And Fuckwolf

July
11-13 Carnation WA Timber! Festival

August
9 Pioneertown, CA Pappy and Harriet’s

23 Charleville Cabaret Vert festival

24 Guéret Check-in Festival

27 Ravenna Hana-Bi (Free)

29 Vienna Arena

30 Munich Strom

31 Berlin Kreuzberg Festsaal

September
1 Brussels Les Botaniquesen

3 Bordeaux BT 59

4 Toulouse Le Bikini

5 Paris Le Bataclan

6 London Troxy

7 Amsterdam Paradiso

30 San Francisco The Chapel

October
1 San Francisco The Chapel

2 San Francisco The Chapel

4 Portland Crystal Ballroom

7 Vancouver Rickshaw Theatre

10 Minneapolis First Avenue Ballroom

11 Chicago Thalia Hall

12 Chicago Thalia Hall

14 Toronto Danforth Music Hall

15 Montreal Le National

16 Cambridge The Sinclair

18 Brooklyn Warsaw

19 Brooklyn Warsaw

20 Brooklyn Warsaw

22 Philadelphia Union Transfer

23 Carrboro Cat’s Cradle

24 Nashville Mercy Lounge

25 New Orleans One Eyed Jacks

26 Austin Hotel Vegas

27 Austin Hotel Vegas

29 Albuquerque Sister Bar

31 Los Angeles Teragram Ballroom

February 12, 2019

February 12, 2019May 21, 2020 Mew Zikwryder

Indie-pop trio Lex Audrey shares video for pulsating track, ‘Winter II’

Already one of the most promising artists in the scene, Austrian trio Lex Audrey has released the music video for their acclaimed single, ‘Winter II’. The song was released on the 1st of February while the video came out 4 days later on the 5th.

The Vienna-based trio consists of Niklas Pichler (vocals), Patrick Pillichshammer (drums and samples), and Lukas Staudinger (synth and bass). Each of them started playing instruments from a very young age as it allowed them to express themselves freely through the use of music. With Niklas on main songwriting duty, the group comes together to create a track around his creations as each idea comes to fruition. Having been part of the Austrian music scene for almost two years now, their debut album sees Lex Audrey ready to take on the global market as they rely more on electronic soundscapes instead of traditional instrumentation.

The Rupert Höller directed music video is quite simple in its nature, but manages to keep the viewers attention throughout the whole track. Cleverly using a wide array of lighting effects, the video sees the trio performing their track in a darkened room while masterfully choreographed lighting rigs move around them, transforming the ‘dull’ room into an exciting visual treat for the eyes.

Pre-order their debut album, No Intention of Changing the World, here.

Lex Audrey explains the theme of anti-superficiality in “Winter II”; “All they do is yell, and they‘re searching for attention without words, attention for hollow minds”.