Smallpools, Magic Man, and Panama Wedding at Emo’s (Live Review)

On November 13th, Smallpools performed at Emo’s in Austin, Texas with Magic Man and Panama Wedding. As this was their first headlining tour, it came with much excitement that they were coming through Texas.

Being a year and a half old, the band has received much critical reception for their EP, Have a Great Summer!, it comes to no surprise that the band has flown under everyone’s radar. Personally, having seen the band twice already open for Grouplove and Neon Trees, I already could tell the show was going to be fun and energetic, especially since they were going to perform songs from their new album, which, they hope, will come out early next year.

Originally, the three bands were billed to perform at the Parish in Austin, however, they soon changed it to Emo’s in order to fit a larger crowd.

Panama Wedding was the first band to come on that night and raised the spirits on the shivering crowd. Known for their two singles, “Uma” and “All the People,” Panama Wedding has a very 80’s synth-pop sound to them. The band performed songs from their Parallel Play EP and had an enthusiastic performance overall.

Magic Man, the synth-pop band behind Before the Waves, played after Panama Wedding and danced their set away. Opening with the opening track from their album,”Texas,” and ending with their hit, “Paris,” Magic Man got the crowd going and singing along. Lead singer, Alex Caplow seemed to never stand still, moving and dancing to the music.

Smallpools set, in the slightest of terms, started in grand terms. Walking on stage, Beau Kuther, drummer, Michael Kamerman, guitarist, and Joseph Intile, bassist, it seemed like an odd choice for the band to enter with classical music. But, once Sean Scanlon, singer got on top of an amplifier in a shirt and dress coat, pretending to conduct, it all came together. After this grandiose entrance, Smallpools went into “No Story Time.” The energy in the room sky-rocketed from this entrance and went on for the entire set.

The set included songs from their EP and new songs from their upcoming album, including “Bruce Lee.” The onstage banter was enjoyable as the band made witty remarks and interacted with the crowd. Scanlon told a story about how in the beginnings of the band, they would search for themselves online only to find rants about killer whales being kept in small pools. This, incidentally, lead to their latest single, “Killer Whales.” As usual, the band threw inflatable killer whales into the crowd, including a massive one with the band name spray painted onto the stomach. As an ongoing tradition, before the band performed their last song, “Dreaming,” they took a picture of the crowd with their two small dogs.

All three bands had lively sets and it will be interesting how each of them will do next.

Flying Lotus and Kendrick Lamar unveil previously unreleased collaboration

A clip of an previously unreleased collaboration by Flying Lotus and Kendrick Lamar has appeared online.

The pair worked together for the track, “Never Catch Me,” on Flying Lotus’ new album You’re Dead!, They also have worked together on Lamar’s verse on Eyes Above, however, it did not make the final cut because of “political reasons”. Flying Lotus has been performing song on his current tour, completing it with Lamar’s verse.

Kendrick Lamar has revealed recently that his 10-year-old brother has the only copy that is available of his upcoming album.

The follow-up to Good Kid, Maad City is planned to be released before the end of the year. Lamar also released the official video for “i” earlier this month. This song is the first from the upcoming album.

YouTube launches own music streaming service

The music industry has evolved over the last 30 years. In Recent years, music streaming has dominated listening. Streaming services such as Spotify continue to be the major places where music fans from all over the world can listen to their favorite artists and discover new ones.

After having some legal hiccups about how to properly compensate indie labels, YouTube has revealed their new streaming service, Music Key.

The streaming service is prepared to launch in a “beta mode” for a small group of people on Monday, and to the general public in 2015 for a $10/hour subscription. There will be a focus on mobile devices rather than browsers on the desktop. The service will allow its users to listen to their music while using other apps at the same time as well as allow music videos to be cached for offline use.

The service will not change the site, but it will change the way tracks will be organized. Songs will be organized through artist and album, like iTunes and Spotify, thus making it easier to search. Music Key will allow for its users to switch between its streaming service and the Google Play download store.

Kindness releases video for his Robyn collaboration, “Who Do You Love?”

Kindness, the alias for UK singer Adam Bainbridge, releases a video for his Robyn collaboration, “Who Do You Love?.” The video features portraits of both singers’ family and friends. Bainbridge explains, “This video and this song is about people and connection, and how you can identify who you are by those you love. Those people say a hell of a lot about you.”

Along with the video, Kindness announced the first leg of his 2015 tour to support of his sophomore album, Otherness. The dates includes a few shows in February, as the tour gains momentum in March. More shows are yet to be announced.

Kindness 2015 Tour Dates:
01/16 – London, UK @ Electric Brixton
02/25 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey
02/28 – San Francisco, CA @ Mezzanine
03/05 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
03/06 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
03/07 – Vancouver, BC @ The Biltmore Cabaret
03/08 – Calgary, AB @ Commonwealth
03/10 – Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock
03/11 ­– Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
03/13 – Toronto, ON @ Wrongbar
03/14 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
03/15 – Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade
03/18 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
03/19 – Washington, DC @ U Street Music Hall

Riot Fest owes Humboldt Park $182,000 in repairs

We all know music festivals are expensive to coordinate and plan, thus making unwelcome weather a costly aspect. The Chicago Tribute reports that Riot Fest owes Humboldt Park $182,000 in repairs from the festival this year. This is triple the amount the festival owed in 2013.

Rain was a factor in this year’s Riot Fest making Humboldt Park a muddy mess. Park district spokeswomen Jessica Maxey-Faulkner stated that there are currently repairs in progress, park district spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner said.

There are some stretches where grass seed was put down and are fenced off in order to let the grass grow. However, according to the park district, the park should be ready for the public in the spring.

Officials estimate that the landscape repairs to the park would make Riot Fest organizers owe $182,000, which is more than triple the $54,300 that was estimated to have costed the organizers in grounds repairs last year.

This year, organizers say that Riot Fest was twice the size of last year’s site. The festival was on park property which has borders on North Avenue to the north, Division Street to the south, California Avenue to the east and Kedzie Avenue to the west.

The Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist

1. The Human Condition – Jhameel

2. Tongues – Joywave

3. Kids – Lady Danville

4. Into the Wild – LP

5. Walk On By – Noosa

6. The Way We Touch – WE ARE TWIN

7. Breathing Electricity – The Electric Sons

8. Crystalize – Fire in the Hamptons

9. High – Sun City

10. Keep Pace – Christopher Norman

11. Crystal Ball – Emil & Friends

12. Pyramid – Nightbox

13. 1978 – Germany Germany

14. Grande Comore – Southern Shores

15. Autumnal – Teen Daze

16. Heat – MMOTH

17. Fame or Shame? – Amtrac

18. Home and Consonance – Tropics

19. Moonstruck – Two Inch Punch

20. Changes – LOL Boys

Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist

Stream Foo Fighters’ new album, Sonic Highways

Foo Fighters are releasing their new album, Sonic Highways, on November 10th. The album can be streamed in full on iTunes Radio in anticipation for the release.

Sonic Highways is the follow-up to Wasting Light, and the band recorded each song on the album in studios in different cities across the country, which was documented by the HBO series with the same name. Each song is lyrically inspired by each location and has collaborations with a local musician. These collaborations include Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen (Chicago), Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard (Seattle), Joan Jett (New York City), Gary Clark Jr. (Austin), The Eagles’ Joe Walsh (Los Angeles), and New Orleans Preservation Hall Jazz Band (New Orleans).

Pre-order the album via Amazon.

Sonic Highways Tracklist:
01. Something From Nothing (feat. Rick Nielsen)
02. The Feast and The Famine (feat. RDGLDGRN)
03. Congregation (feat. Zac Brown Band)
04. What Did I Do?/God As My Witness (feat. Gary Clark Jr.)
05. Outside (feat. Joe Walsh)
06. In The Clear (feat. New Orleans Preservation Hall Jazz Band)
07. Subterranean (feat. Ben Gibbard)
08. I Am A River (feat. Joan Jett)

 

Gotye’s political group, the Basics, gains official party status in Australia

The political group that singer-songwriter Gotye is a part of, The Basics, has received official party status in Australia.

The Victorian Electoral Commission granted the party status after they gathered the 500 registered members required by officials. Kris Schroeder and Tim Heath were put forward by the group as upper house candidates for the northern metropolitan region in the upcoming election.

Schroeder and Heath are the bandmates of Gotye, the musician behind “Somebody That I Used to Know.” The Basics have a new EP out in anticipation to the election at the end of the month.

The Basics state that their elements are “innovation, education and rock’n’roll.” Some of their goals are improving indigenous education in Victorian schools, compulsory first-aid training in high schools and having more access to music in rural areas.

Lollapalooza to expand to Berlin

Lollapalooza has expanded from Chicago over the last few years and has had several festivals in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. Lollapalooza was supposed to branch into Israel but was was scrapped for security reasons. The here are rumors that there could be a Toronto incarnation, however, the organizers of the festival are looking to Europe.

Lollapalooza announced that they have plans for a Lollapalooza Berlin which would take place September 12th and 13th at the Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, Germany.

The head of William Morris Endeavor’s music division, Marc Geiger, stated: “We have very carefully considered bringing our festival to Europe and frankly, were intimidated by the rich festival history Europe has had for 50 years. Berlin feels like it is ready to explode as a city and cultural center and we want to be there to grow with the city.”

Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic, also stated: “Over two decades since its inception, Lollapalooza is more than ready to break new ground and bring the experience to new audiences, offering not just music, but fashion, food, plus an environmental awareness that is so important in the future of music festivals. Working with C3 and Melt! Booking to bring the Lollapalooza brand to Europe gives me great pleasure in not only building upon my relationship with these global partners but allows me to return to the iconic Templehof site in September.”

Details such as artist lineup and ticket info, will be announced soon. The South American Lollapalooza’s festivals will occur during the course of three weekends during March: Lollapalooza Chile in Santiago from March 14th and 15th, Lollapalooza Argentina in Buenos Aires from March 21st and 22nd, and Lollapalooza Brazil in Sao Paulo on March 28th and 29th. Rumored acts playing at these festivals include Jack White, Robert Plant, and Foster the People.

Listen to Phantogram’s Black Out Days remixed by Danny Brown

Having worked with artists on tracks such as Vampire Weekend, Charlie XCX, Purity Ring, and Portugal. The Man, there is no surprise that the MC, Danny Brown, has teamed up with Phantogram for a remix of their single, “Black Out Days”.

With the help of Brazilian producer Leo Justi, the song is turned into a club anthem.Take a listen here.