Music Features

Interview: Post Animal's "Forward Motion Godyssey" Powers Through the Storm

Bassist Dalton Allison talks to Popdust about the Chicago band's second album.

Post Animal - How Do You Feel [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]

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MUSIC

Leon Bridges and Khruangbin: Texas's Sun-Drenched Dream Team

Bridges and Khruangbin invite you to soak up the Texas sun.

Photo by: Jonathan Velasquez / Unsplash

There's something particularly satisfying about seeing incredibly talented artists collaborate with each other.

Today, an unexpected but beautiful collaboration entered soundwaves when Leon Bridges and Khruangbin announced their forthcoming joint EP and dropped their first single.

Khruangbin is a group inspired by '60s and '70s Thai rock, borrowing from psychedelia, funk, surf rock, and Zouk, Indian, and Middle Eastern music. Leon Bridges is a soul singer-songwriter who also draws from '50s and '60s styles, but the two artist's music is most similar in terms of its emotional resonance and peaceful, expansive atmosphere.

Leon Bridges - River (Video)www.youtube.com


Khruangbin - Cómo Te Quiero (Official Video)www.youtube.com

They're also tied together by shared roots: Both groups are from Texas, which might explain their connection. There's no question that their forthcoming EP's lead single—called "Texas Sun"—is inspired by their homeland.

Cinematic and distinctly evocative of the desert landscape, "Texas Sun" feels like it could easily soundtrack the next dreamy Western or Americana masterpiece. Centering Bridges' weather-worn voice and Khruangbin's distinct beachy, reverb-soaked guitars, it's a masterful melding of talents.

Their EP, also called Texas Sun, will be released on February 7th, via Dead Oceans and Columbia Records. It will consist of four tracks, "Texas Sun," "Midnight," "C-Side," and "Conversion."

Khruangbin & Leon Bridges - Texas Sun (Official Audio)www.youtube.com

MUSIC

Mountain Head Premieres "We Stole Your Head"

Psychedelic alt-rock designed to split open your skull.

Photo by Bryn Young on Unsplash

Meet Mountain Head, a psychedelic alt-rock band made up of the Hannah Brothers, an enigmatic duo premiering "We Stole Your Head" on Popdust.

According to Mountain Head, "'We Stole Your Head' is a reminder to be here now, and connect with life. There are a lot of things out there looking to take your head and lead it down an endless labyrinth. But us? We'll give it back to you."

Like Moses, the mysterious duo wandered through the wasteland and arrived at a mountain, which they scaled. At the top, they discovered a shaman who changed the brothers' lives and way of thinking forever.

Descending the mountain, they channeled Johnny Cash, Flavor Flav, and Billy Gibbons. Dressed in black denim, rocking solid gold grills and long beards, their eyes were obscured by heavy shadows from the brims of their black hats.


The most startling change was their music, full of subterranean grooves, a plump cavernous bass line, and a jangly, grungy guitar. Their sound blends psych-rock, alt-rock, and elements of electro-pop and jangle pop into unique and potent sonic concoctions.

Mountain Head's goal is to travel to your city and steal your head by means of mesmerizing vocals and contagious melodies. They're skull bandits, but polite ones, because after they steal your head, they give it back to you. According to Mountain Head, the only way to hold on to your head is to lose it.

"We Stole Your Head" opens on thrumming synths and a massive bass line, pulsing from the bowels of the earth. A voice enters, infusing the tune with alluring timbres and sighing inflections. Popping accents accompany a fluent synth tone. As the music climaxes, shimmering colors suffuse the harmonics.

Cool and stylish, "We Stole Your Head" will definitely pilfer your senses and your skull.

Follow Mountain Head Facebook | Twitter | Instagram


Randy Radic is a Left Coast author and writer. Author of numerous true crime books written under the pen-name of John Lee Brook. Former music contributor at Huff Post.


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MUSIC

Black Pumas Release Vibrant Single "Colors" Ahead of Debut Album

Motown gets a modern, psychedelic update in latest Black Puma single.

Psychedelic soul duo, Black Pumas, comprised of vocalist Eric Burton and producer Adrian Quesada, once again deliver their unique blend of classic soul, funk, and East Coast hip-hop in their latest single release "Colors."

In an exclusive with Afrojack, the band said their third single was inspired by the vibrant colors found in a setting sun and touches on "themes of mortality and togetherness." Quesada shared that the track was written on the rooftop of an uncle's house and that "Eric woke up midday and started the song as the sun was going down. He was inspired by the rich multi-colored hues of the sky."

"Colors" is full of attention-grabbing hooks and vintage soul stylings with a twist. Burton's deep, raspy voice alongside Quesada's inventive instrumentation and production pulls listeners in and makes us reminisce about a different time. Beginning with a simple and plucky blues guitar line and a gospel-like organ accompaniment, Burton sets the scene, singing, "Woke up to the morning sky first/Baby blue just like we rehearsed."

From there, the song builds up layer after layer in dynamics and emotional intensity, making it the kind of song you feel in your gut. Burton belts out the chorus with soulful runs that make the lyrics — "All my favorite colors, all my favorite colors, my sister and my brothers, See 'em like no other. It's a good day to be, a good day for me, a good day to see all my favorite colors" — hard to ignore. The Black Pumas are resurrecting the iconic Motown era with a modern update, making music steeped in nostalgia that still manages to be uniquely novel.

The Austin-based duo's star is only rising higher, having made an impression at this year's South By Southwest with their bold and invigorating live performance. Additionally, the band recently announced that they will release their self-titled debut full-length album on June 21 via ATO Records. Black Pumas will make their New York City debut at the Knitting Factory on May 15 before heading out on the European leg of their tour. The band will also play a number of festivals and headlining dates this summer.

For more from the Black Pumas, check out their website here. Listen to "Colors" below!

Black Pumas - Colors (Official Audio)www.youtube.com

Tour Dates

5/15 - Knitting Factory - Brooklyn, NY

5/21 - Bush Hall (w/ The Heavy) - London, UK (SOLD OUT)

5/23 - La Maroquinerie (w/ The Heavy) - Paris, FR (SOLD OUT)

5/24 - De Helling (w/ The Heavy) - Utrecht, NL (SOLD OUT)

5/25 - Lido (w/ The Heavy) - Berlin, DE (SOLD OUT)

5/28 - Trinity Centre (w/ The Heavy) - Bristol, UK (SOLD OUT)

7/2 - Summerfest - Milwaukee, WI

7/4 - Drake Hotel - Toronto, ON

7/6 - Festival d'été International de Québec – Quebec City, QC

7/10 - Club Cafe - Pittsburgh, PA

7/11 - WTMD First Thursday Festival - Baltimore, MD

7/12 - The Basement - Columbus, OH

7/14 - Third and Lindsley - Nashville, TN

7/16 - Triple Crown Whiskey Bar & Raccoon Motel - Davenport, IA

7/17 - 7th St Entry - Minneapolis, MN

7/18 - Shitty Barn - Spring Green, WI

7/19 - Space - Evanston, IL

7/20 - El Club - Detroit, MI

7/23 - Brighton Music Hall - Boston, MA

9/27-29 - Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival - Columbia, MO


Alessandra Rincón is a journalist, writer, and photographer from Baton Rouge, Louisiana living in New York City. She loves covering music, art and culture news and you can usually find her at a show or with her nose in a book. In her spare time she is a musician, comic book nerd and wannabe cook.


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MUSIC

Tame Impala Dances To Heartbreak on "Borderline"

The Australian psychedelic-rock outfit's second single this year is a foray into heartbreak, buoyed by a new sonic confidence.

Mairo Cinquetti/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

For Kevin Parker on "Borderline," heartbreak is no longer just a possible future: it's arrived in the present.

Tame Impala, Parker's beloved psychedelic-rock project, has returned with "Borderline," the second of two singles from an as-yet-untitled upcoming album, was released on Friday after premiering on Saturday Night Live the week before. The track indicates an exciting new depth in Tame's signature atmospheric rock and maybe even hints at a newfound musical maturity.

Which isn't to say Tame's sound has been reined in or stunted with time: the Australian band's hallucinatory sensibility remains intact, headed up as always by Parker's lilting vocals and obsessively tight production. But "Borderline" is still a notable step away from both the stoner rock of their first two albums and the shimmering synth-pop of 2015's massive super hit, Currents. It's the sound of recalibration, as Parker carefully centers the track on the uncoiling of a groove. Crisper drums and bass and a de-emphasized fuzz, bubble under a sound somewhere between chamber-pop and funk, as Parker infuses a sonic clarity into a song ambiguously about ending a relationship. "We're on the borderline / Dangerously far and all forgiven," Parker floats over the music, a sadness buoyed by Tame's renewed sense of curation.

Thematically, Tame Impala has always danced with ambiguity, the paralyzing uncertainty of what's to come in life and love. "Patience," the first of Tame's new releases, grasped for some understanding of the passage of time, seeking a balance with this uncertainty, but "Borderline" pushes this fear even further, into the bitterness of love lost. The song is willfully trapped in a moment, doubt and anxiety juxtaposed with a confident growth in Tame Impala's sound. It's a bracing change, and only makes the prospect of their new album all the more enticing.

Borderline



Matthew Apadula is a writer and music critic from New York. His work has previously appeared on GIGsoup Music and in Drunk in a Midnight Choir. Find him on Twitter @imdoingmybest.


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MUSIC

Son Step Is Psych-Rock For An Uneasy Age

The video for new single, "Fossilillies," released ahead of next month's album of the same name, is a terrifyingly detached vision of a post-human world.

We've now advanced far enough past the first decade of the 21st Century to see the emergence of bands clearly influenced by the music of the early 2000s.

One of those influencers is Animal Collective, whose giddy, frenetic, densely polyrhythmic and multi-layered sound immediately set them apart when they hit the scene in the mid-to-early 00s. The release, in particular, of their 2009 commercial hit, Merriweather Post Pavilion, was a massive ocean liner whose wake has continued to affect the tides ten years after its recording.

One band who bobs in that wake, in the best sense, is Philadelphia's Son Step. There's is a beautifully stratified sound that combines electronic and analog elements seamlessly, a marriage which can be heard on their new album, Fossilililies, to be released May 17 by Grind Select.

To get fans ready for the new album, the band has released a video to accompany its title track. Director Bucky Illingworth conjures, via a collage-like parade of unsettling images, the kind of "apocalypse angst" we can all relate to these days. The track itself is both densely baroque and catchy, its breezily delivered lyrics calling up a world where mankind, while currently a dominant, destructive force, is ultimately as insignificant as a pile of dried leaves.

Son Step, whose first work was released in 2011, is clearly a well-rounded, tight unit. On "Fossilillies," though, the contribution of drummer Matt Scarano sticks out. Indie rock isn't full of drummers with jazz-ready chops, so Scarano's work, particularly on the latter track, is notable for its precision, complexity, and dominance in the mix.

To hear more of Scarano - not to mention Jon Coyle and Joel Gleiser (synths and vocals) and bass player Chris Coyle - go to sonstep.bandcamp.com. You can also try and catch them somewhere along their album-supporting tour (which includes a June 6 album release party at Brooklyn's Alphaville). Click here for details.

Son Step - Fossililliesyoutu.be


Matt Fink lives and works in Brooklyn. Go to organgrind.com for more of his work.


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