Breaking Artists

Breaking: She and Him

March 5, 2008 3:42 PM

Who: She and Him, a collaboration between indie rock troubadour M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel.

Sounds Like: On their debut album Volume One, She and Him merge Bright Eyes, Emmylou Harris and Guided By Voices into expansive Phil Spector-inspired songs, with the entire package held together by Deschanel's vocals. "This was her first record, and she was discovering all the things she's capable of," says Ward.

Vital Stats:

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Breaking

Breaking: Apes & Androids

February 27, 2008 5:05 PM

Who: Aptly named New York quintet Apes & Androids, who merge primal classic-rock influences with futuristic song structures.

Sounds Like: A dance floor-ready cocktail of Queen's bombast (complete with Freddie Mercury's falsetto), 1980s Prince, Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie and Beck's Midnight Vultures. On their debut album Blood Moon, A&A pump out sing-alongs like "Hot Kathy," party starters like "We Don't Understand You" and simmering burners like "Riverside." "We tried to build the record into something that would be a journey when listening to the whole thing," says A&A's Brian Jacobs, who shares vocal and guitar duties with bandmate David Tobias.

Vital Stats:

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Breaking

Video: Estelle's "American Boy" Featuring Kanye West

February 26, 2008 4:55 PM

Thanks to Kanye West's frequently updated blog, we were alerted to the video for "American Boy" by British R&B singer Estelle, one of Rolling Stone's 10 Artists to Watch. West, who raps on the track, co-stars in the black-and-white clip along with a sampling of other, well, American boys — including John Legend. Check it out:


Breaking: Howlin Rain

February 20, 2008 5:34 PM

Who: Oakland, California, quintet Howlin Rain. Fronted by Comets on Fire guitarist Ethan Miller, the band plunges deeper into 1960's influences on their sophomore album Magnificent Fiend.

Sounds Like: A psychedelic cocktail of Crosby, Stills and Nash, the Faces, the Damned and author Raymond Carver. "Everyone dabbles in the history books to get their licks," says Miller, "We use the same roads and highways. But the weather, lights, cars and people, they're never quite the same."

Three Things You Should Know:

  1. The band is approved by super-producer Rick Rubin, who will co-release Magnificent Fiend on his American Recordings label with indie label Birdman.

  2. The band is heavily influenced by pulp art, especially the writings of sci-fi author Michael Moorcock.

  3. Growing up in Humboldt County, California, Miller avoided the hemp culture and aligned himself with punk music. "I haven't turned my back on my lessons in punk, even in this stuff," says Miller, "We keep hitting you, but not just with bombast."

Hear It Now: Magnificent Fiend is out March 4th. Until then, check out their MySpace page for some songs, and watch the band behind-the-scenes and onstage performing "12 Galaxies" in the video above.


Breaking Artist: Crystal Castles

February 13, 2008 2:58 PM

Who: Toronto duo Crystal Castles, who, after a string of EPs and acclaimed remixes are ready to flood your eardrums with their own self-titled full-length debut on March 18th.

Sounds Like: An amalgamation of Klaxons' nu-rave dance, the Velvet Underground's more cacophonous moments and the 8-bit aesthetics of famed Nintendo composers Yoshihiro Sakaguchi and Koji Kondo. The band was shocked when they discovered how quickly their music (literally) moved people. "One of our first shows, the venue said 'We've been hosting shows for years, but no one really dances at our shows,' " multi-instrumentalist Ethan Fawn says, "but people like dancing to Crystal Castles."

Three Things You Should Know:

  1. Fawn and Alice Glass, the other half of the duo, met while reading to the blind as part of a community service sentence. "I was doing things under the table, like desperate things for cash — things that led me into getting into trouble," says Fawn. "I'd have to do community service work to get out of trouble. She got busted too, so that's how we met." The rest is music history.
  2. Despite their sound, the band isn't named after the old arcade game. Instead, the moniker was nabbed from an old She-Ra (of Masters of the Universe fame) toy commercial that boasted "Crystal Castle, the source of all power." "I had a female cousin who was really happy because she got the Crystal Castle for her birthday," says Fawn, "I never forgot how happy she was. It was the happiest I've ever seen anyone in my life."
  3. After remixing the likes of Bloc Party, Liars and their friends Klaxons, CC were offered "more than thirty" commissions for remixes, which Fawn declined in order to work on the Castles' debut album. "We turned down some huge acts, but I can't name names," Fawn says (at least, we think it was Fawn: Ethan admitted he used to have a friend pretend to be him during interviews over the last few years).

Hear It Now: Listen to a couple of CC's tracks over at the band's MySpace page. While you wait for their new album, click above to check out the video for "Crimewave."


Breaking

Breaking Artist: Beach House

February 6, 2008 3:59 PM

Who: Baltimore duo Beach House, comprised of vocalist Victoria Legrand and keyboardist Alex Scally, who create atmospheric dream pop that serves as an auditory escape from the rough Baltimore streets portrayed in The Wire.

Sounds Like: A pastoral mix of Mazzy Star, Yo La Tango and Phil Spector-bred girl groups. On their sophomore album Devotion, the duo creates dreamlike songs using Scally's army of vintage keyboards and Legrand's atmospheric coo and stream-of-consciousness lyrics.

Three Things You Should Know:

  1. Legrand's uncle is the great French film composer Michel Legrand, who scored films by Jean-Luc Godard (A Woman is a Woman, Band of Outsiders) and was nominated for Academy Awards for scoring The Thomas Crown Affair and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

  2. Avoiding the White Stripes route of band relations, the duo is admittedly not romantically-involved. Legrand has a boyfriend, while Scally dates a chef on the Food Network's Ace of Cakes.

  3. The band is a product of Baltimore's exploding indie-rock movement. After the center of renaissance is the Wham City artist collective, which boasts CMJ favorite Dan Deacon as its poster child.

Hear It Now: Devotion hits shelves in CD stores and digital music services on February 28th. In the meantime, check out their video for "Master of None," off their self-titled debut album.


Breaking

Breaking Artist: The Shackeltons

January 30, 2008 5:56 PM

Who: Five twitchy post-punk (pink) flag-bearers from sleepy Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

Sounds Like: The Shackeltons provide a stout combination of clean, straight-lined production and cacophonous bursts of sound on their self-titled debut. Their blasts of angst, which are equal parts danceable bliss and seering noise, are held together by the jittery, literate lyrical musings of frontman Mark Redding.

Three Things You Should Know:

  1. The band is named after Earnest Shackleton, an explorer who most notably attempted to cross Antarctica on foot in the early 1900s.

  2. The band has a few obvious influences (Pixies, Joy Division), but according to guitarist Dan Schuchman, the group also draws inspiration from soul crooner Otis Redding and gutteral rapper Busta Rhymes.

  3. Redding’s stage presence can get quite manic — he will often collide with his bandmates onstage. In one early gig, he had a bit of his scalp and some of his hair taken off by a ceiling fan.

Get it: The band’s self-titled debut is available for download at iTunes. Check out the video for "The Breaks,” directed by Sam Jones (the same man responsible for Wilco’s I Am Trying To Break Your Heart film) above.


Breaking

Breaking Artist: White Denim

January 23, 2008 3:16 PM

Who: Garage-rock trio White Denim, an Austin outfit whose frontman, James Petralli, nearly followed his family into a career in professional baseball, but turned to rock when he got busted for too much partying.

Sounds Like: On their loud and raw EP Let's Talk About It, which was written and recorded in a 1940s Spartan trailer, the band combines the Stooges' raw power, Hendrix's psychedelic flourishes and the White Stripes' stripped-down blues rock.

Three Things You Should Know:

  1. Petralli and drummer Joshua Block once performed in a noise-rock group called Parque Touch, who became infamous among Austin crowds as the band that stole beers out of the hands of fans in the front row.

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Breaking

Breaking Artist: Kate Walsh

January 16, 2008 3:46 PM

Who: British singer-songwriter Kate Walsh, whose homemade album Tim's House rocketed to the top of the U.K. iTunes chart thanks to the success of her single "Talk of the Town." Now, she's conquering America the old fashioned way: by infiltrating the soundtrack of a Grey's Anatomy spin-off.

Sounds Like: The acoustic Tim's House finds Walsh strumming ideal-for-late-night-listening classics in the style of Joni Mitchell and the calmer side of Fleetwood Mac. The home-recorded, do-it-yourself feel of the album is being praised as quite charming.

Three Things You Should Know:

  1. "Talk of the Town" was inspired by Walsh's youth, during which she was forced to change high schools four times because of small-town bullies that lambasted her for dreaming big and wanting to ditch her small fishing village. "I felt I'd never be satisfied there, and people misconstrued that as arrogance," Walsh says.

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Breaking

Breaking Artist: Black Mountain

January 9, 2008 3:52 PM

Who: Vancouver quintet Black Mountain, a band of psychedelic hard rockers who have already garnered buzz on the strength of their 2005 eponymous debut and high-profile gigs like their stint opening for Coldplay.

Sounds Like: A high-voltage mix of Black Sabbath riffs, Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett-era psychedelic sensiblity and the Flaming Lips' eccentricity. On their sophomore album In the Future, the band embraces their lava lamp-worshipping side, balancing stoner-rock opuses with ambient harmonies. "It's heaviness mixed with fragility," says frontman Stephen McBean. Case in point: the eight-minute epic "Tyrants," which bounces from the softer moments of Black Sabbath's Masters of Reality to the crunching guitars of Black Flag's Damaged.

Three Things You Should Know:

  1. During a show in Oklahoma City in 2005, the band realized the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne was in the crowd. Impressed by what he saw, Coyne invited the band to crash at his house. "In the morning, we looked outside, and Wayne had all these bubble machines going," says co-vocalist Amber Webber, "He gave us one, and we used it on tour."

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