Electric Tickle Machine (Myspace)
Hometown: East Village, NYC
Album: Blew It Again (Vinyl – Tour Only)
Label: Unsigned
Electric Tickle Machine (Ft. Mared Lenny) – Women Are The New Men
Woodsman (Myspace)
Hometown: Denver, Colorado
Album: Collages (December)
Label: Mexican Summer
Woodsman – Sunglass
Woodsman and Young Prisms are playing L’KEG Gallery on January 5th and
January 6th at The Smell (more info).
“Work Me Like My Back Ain’t Got No Bones”
She Keeps Bees (Myspace)
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Album: Nests (Buy)
Label: NAMES
She Keeps Bees – Gimme
Forest Fire (Myspace)
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Album: Survival (Buy)
Label: Infinite Best
Forest Fire – I Make Windows
The Sky Drops (myspace)
Hometown: Wilmington, Delaware
Album: Bourgeois Beat (Download – iTunes)
Label: Fridabear Records
The Sky Drops – Long Way
The Black Atlantic (myspace)
Hometown: Groningen, Netherlands
Album: Reverence for Fallen Trees (Free Download – TheBlackAtlantic.com)
Label: Beep! Beep! Back up the Truck
The Black Atlantic – I Shall Cross This River
The Black Atlantic – Dandelion
For Fans Of: Bon Iver, A.A. Bondy, Hush Arbors, Jose Gonalez
Seon Gomez
Nicholas Kopernicus is an instrumental duo from Brooklyn, consisting of producer/pianist Jason “classicbeatz” Minnis and guitarist Seon Gomez. Their debut album Audiocentric is the perfect soundtrack for the holiday weekend. It offers up everything from funk, reggae, hip-hop, blues to mellow jazz tracks. Minnis does an excellent job of adding live instrumentation to the tracks.
For fans of Antibalas, St. Germain, Poets Of Rhythm, Budos Band, The Apples, Quantic.
Jason “classicbeatz” Minnis
MP3: Nicholas Kopernicus – The Southside
MP3: Nicholas Kopernicus – Natural High
Download:
Nicholas Kopernicus – Audiocentric (eMusic)
Emily Kokal – Image by Dan Monick
Warpaint has an undeniable presence. After one of their live shows or even one listen to their music, you know you’re experiencing something special. Yes, they’ve got God-given talent, and yes they’re beautiful, but they’ve worked hard to get where they are now. The Echo Park based quartet of Emily Kokal (vocals, guitar), Jenny Lee Lindberg (bass, vocals), Theresa Wayman (vocals, guitar) and Josh “Jocelyn” Klinghoffer – have drawn comparisons to Cat Power, Sonic Youth, Mazzy Star and The Slits.
Earlier this year they self-released their debut EP, Exquisite Corpse – which went straight to #1 on Amoeba Records local artists charts. Exquisite Corpse will be re-released worldwide on Los Angeles indie-label Manimal Vinyl next month.
I recently caught up with Emily Kokal by phone to discuss the origins of Warpaint.
R&G: Warpaint has been very active this past year.
Emily: Yeah. It’s been really fun and gradual. It seems like it’s all been right on time. When we’re ready to move forward or we get better, it happens naturally. We did a residency at Spaceland last August, and after that, we started playing a lot more local shows and more shows led to opening slots for bands like Little Joy. It’s been really fun and exciting playing a lot of shows in LA, getting better with each other, writing more songs, and now touring and playing for strangers, which is really nice. We’re so used to playing for all of our friends, which can be a tough crowd when they’ve seen you play 15 times in the same venues. I think you come to know what to expect a little bit, whereas being on the road, you’ve got to deal with different PAs, different crowds and places you’ve never been. You just have to let go, do your best, play your best and not really care. Just find the best way to play with each other no matter what the circumstances are. We’re loving it.
R&G: How important was it to self-release your EP this year?
Emily: It was especially important because we recorded it almost two years ago. It was like being pregnant too long. Getting it out there has been really fun. Releasing something is great, because for so long we were playing shows without any music that you could listen to in your car. Having a product for people to play and listen to has been really good for just raising awareness so people can come see us play live. That, to me, is the best part of what we’re doing right now – the live stuff. Especially because the EP was recorded a while ago. I’m really proud of it and there have been just so many changes. Getting it out there gives us room to make another record and put out what we feel is happening with us now.
R&G: You guys formed in 2004, why did it take so long for Warpaint to release an EP and tour outside of the Los Angeles area?
Emily: We were just learning how to play together and more than having any ambition to really get out there, it was a little bit more innocent and about the process. We all lived together, played music together and wrote songs together – it was about discovering how to write. Everything we did was completely new. When we would write a song, we would be like, “Oh, I can’t believe we just did this.” We jammed on things forever and never wrote – just played. We never really mapped out songs. In fact, we would map out songs and before we ever played shows, they would change like five times because we’d want them to go somewhere else or be more interesting to us. Then, when we started playing shows, that’s when we really had concrete songs. We still change our songs all the time though. It’s hard to keep playing the same songs the same way.
