Author Archives: Barry Belkin

Video Watch: The Haunting Voice of Chelsea Wolfe in Flatlands

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Photo by Kristin Cofer

Chelsea Wolfe released Unknown Rooms: A Collection Of Acoustic Songs last year on Sargent House and has just released a new video in collaboration with Converse x Decibel Magazine, Flatlands. The beautifully directed video by Charlene Bagcal is instantly mesmerizing and I’m sure will add to the “doom-folk” mystique of Chelsea Wolfe who I’ve still yet to see perform live. Thankfully, that is about to change since she’s currently on a short acoustic tour to play songs from the album.

You can catch her tonight, February 1st in Houston at Fitzgerald’s, Feb. 5th at Phoenix’s Crescent Ballroom, and next Friday, February 8th at the First Unitarian Church in Los Angeles along with Deradoorian from Dirty Projectors fame opening the show. She’s also performing on April 20th at the Desert Daze festival in Mecca, CA along with Warpaint. Check out her video for Flatlands and grab a ticket to one of her upcoming shows for what I’m sure will be a beautiful evening of music.

LA’s He’s My Brother She’s My Sister Release Debut LP, Nobody Dances In This town

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He’s My Brother She’s My Sister performing at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood, CA.

Los Angeles’ own He’s My Brother She’s My Sister recently released their debut LP, Nobody Dances in this Town on Park The Van Records. They also just played their first ever sold out hometown show at the Troubadour to a very enthusiastic crowd, myself included.

Their energetic live performance is really something to see… it’s hard to not dance to this band which makes me laugh at the title of their new record. The band consists of brother and sister Rob and Rachel Kolar on vocals and guitar, Oliver Newell on upright bass, Aaron Robinson on slide guitar, and then there’s Lauren Brown who plays drums. Well, she’s not just a drummer, but a tap dancing drummer. She actually stands on top of the bass drum and tap dances on it while keeping the beat, it’s pretty fun to watch. If you like Neko Case and Rilo Kiley, with a little sprinkle of John Doe and X thrown in, you’ll love this band!

They are currently touring across the country with stops at the Independent in San Francisco on Feb. 2nd, One Eyed Jacks in New Orleans on Feb. 24th, Miami’s the Vagabond on March 2nd, as well as SXSW in Austin from March 13-18th along with many dates in between and after. Check them out if you want to see a great live performance and definitely pick up a copy of their new album so you don’t feel alone when everyone else is singing along.

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Adam Green & Binki Shapiro’s New Late 60′s Inspired Folk-Pop Album

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Photo by Lauren Dukoff

Former Moldy Peaches singer and artist Adam Green has teamed up with Little Joy‘s Binki Shapiro and made a sun-drenched, late 60′s inspired folk-pop album. Adam Green & Binki Shapiro‘s self-titled record is out January 29th on Rounder Records and is really just the perfect little summertime album. The short, but sweet record is filled with catchy arrangements and beautiful vocals, but only clocks in at just under 28 minutes in length. I know I’ll be wearing it out in no time just like I did with the Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger and Smokey & Miho, both wonderful duet projects as well.

The collaboration came about when Adam who’s released a number of successful solo albums sang back up vocals on Little Joy’s debut record. That led to a supporting slot on their tour in Brazil where he got to know Binki better and the idea blossomed from there, “I really, really liked Binki’s voice – it’s just amazing — and she was the number-one person I wanted to collaborate with.” 

The duo is about to embark on a mini West Coast tour starting on January 27th at the Griffin in San Diego and ending on February 2nd at the Chapel in San Francisco. Tickets are also still available for their record release show at Los Angeles’ Bootleg Theatre on January 29th via Ticketfly. Definitely pick up their new album next week as well as a ticket to one of their upcoming shows before they sell out, which should be any day now.

 

New Music: Dog Bite Premieres Single and Readies Debut LP, Velvet Changes

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Photo by Katherine Cooper

Washed Out keyboardist Phil Jones’ Dog Bite is about to release their debut LP, Velvet Changes on Carpark Records on Feb. 5th. Paste Magazine recently premiered the second single Forever, Until and I’ve been playing it non-stop since I first heard it. If you like your dream-pop and 90′s lush sounds like I do, you’ll love what Dog Bite is doing.

Dog Bite will be heading out on the road with Toro Y Moi starting on January 30th at the Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix, AZ and ending on March 3rd at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles with a ton of dates in between. Definitely check out the new song and grab some tickets to an upcoming show via Ticketmaster.

Video Watch: Scotland’s Django Django Hand of Man

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Photograph by David Drake

Django Django released their self-titled debut record last fall on Ribbon Music and was not only nominated for a Mercury Prize, but was also listed in Rolling Stone and NME‘s top 50 albums of 2012. They’ve been touring since last January when their album was initially released overseas. I missed them when they performed at Bardot in Los Angeles for School Night last September and they unfortunately had to cancel their Iceland Airwaves appearance due to illness. Lucky for me and you, they are back on the road with dates across the U.S. starting in March including two nights at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg with the last show of the tour arriving on March 23rd at LA’s Fonda Theatre.

Last week they premiered their new video on Nowness for the Hand of Man directed by Bafta Award winner John Maclean, brother to Django drummer/producer Dave Maclean. Way to keep it in the family guys! Check out the video and grab some tickets for an upcoming show via Ticketmaster.

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Video Watch: Sky Ferreira’s Lost In My Bedroom

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Sky Ferreira is back with a new video for Lost in my Bedroom directed by Grant Singer. This is the third video from her Ghost EP along with Everything is Embarrassing and Sad Dream. The video comes with a warning that it may induce an epileptic seizure so be careful out there.

New York Magazine just named Everything is Embarrassing their song of the year for 2012. You can see her perform tonight on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon backed by the Roots and you can look forward to the release of her debut LP later this year and hopefully an extended tour.

Angel Olsen’s Voice Shines Bright on her New Album, Half Way Home

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Angel Olsen has one of those rare voices that deserves to be heard. You might actually have already heard it and didn’t even know it from her work with Bonnie “Prince” Billy and The Cairo Gang, but when I first heard her debut Strange Cacti a while back, I was instantly mesmerized by her unique voice. She self-describes it as, “Never changing, always changing” which makes perfect sense after listening to her newest album Half Way Home from Bathetic Records. I was lucky enough to ask her a few questions regarding what she’s learned from being on the road, as well as how she came up with the cover art for her new record.

In regards to the cover art for Half Way Home… “The cover work for the album began as a photograph of a girl looking out into the mountains from a high point. It was taken from the top of Knapps Castle, just outside of Santa Ynez. I asked Steve Krakow/Plastic Crimewave  to make a drawing based upon that image. I’ve always been a fan of his magazine, Galactic Zoo Dossier, and his column in The Chicago Reader “The secret history of chicago music”.  He’s been a friend for years and I thought if anyone should work on this, it should be him.” As for why she didn’t use a photo… “I didn’t want to use a photo of myself in the end. I felt that I shouldn’t be framed this time around, something else should be.”

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Synthpop band Y△CHT Celebrates Its 10 Year Anniversary

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YACHT’s Claire L. Evans perfoms at their 10 yr Anniversary Celebration – Echoplex 12/ 8/ 2012

Celebrating 10 years of making music as YACHT, Jona and company played to a sold out crowd at LA’s Echoplex on December 8th, 2012 playing songs from their whole oeuvre. With DJ Jacques Renault warming up the crowd (or was it angering… chants of YACHT could be heard from the first few rows) with an ear shattering, extremely long set.

With YACHT starting almost an hour late, the excited crowd (myself included) got right into dancing as soon as Jona took the stage, with Claire L. Evans and the rest of the band following shortly after. The celebratory performance was a best of set that included crowd favorites The Afterlife, Utopia, and Dystopia (The Earth is on Fire). Let’s hope YACHT has another 10 plus years in them. Check out YACHT’s new single and video, Second Summer in collaboration with ADHD.