Saturday, August 27, 2016

Denver-based rapper, Time teams with producer, Ephelant on new album Vice calls “an anarchist hip-hop rallying cry.”

The “dark, emotional, slithery” full-length “How To Sew Wounds With Words” can be heard streaming via Noisey now.

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Time as photographed by Sean Gruno

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Hear “World War Me” from the new album How To Sew Wounds With Words by Ephelant & Time





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“An anarchist hip-hop rallying cry.” – Vice

How To Sew Wounds With Words, the latest album from Denver-based rapper Chris Steele (aka Time), is a pairing with producer Stephen Vining (aka Ephelant.) The album is available now from Denver’s Dirty Laboratory imprint, co-founded by Steele in the mid-2000s.

As a rapper and lyricist, Steele’s efforts are informed by life-changing personal experiences (he tragically witnessed a murder at the age of ten) and perspective-altering cultural ones (at just 13, he met and became linked with Jeru The Damaja, Main Flow and Dead Prez at a documentary screening about activist Mumia Abu-Jamal.)

Today, Steele brings this world view to his work as a political journalist (he befriended and interviewed philosopher Noam Chomsky for Chomsky’s “Occupy: Reflections on Class War, Rebellion and Solidarity” in 2012), as well as his music as Time, which has seen him issuing several solo albums, and collaborating with artists as diverse as Common, Kool Keith, C-Rayz Walz, Xiu Xiu, and Sole.

Producer and rapper, Stephen Vining (aka Ephelant) can also be seen working as an actor. Slated to appear in the upcoming “Guardians of The Galaxy” sequel, Vining is currently most recognizable in his role on the hit television series “The Walking Dead,” where he plays “The Water Walker.”

Vining’s production style (think Massive Attack) on How To Sew Wounds With Words has been referred to as “dark, emotional,” and “slithery” by Vice, which goes on to call his sounds “light and airy, melodic and bright,” while also noting Steele’s “tales of predatory real estate developers, vampiric banks, poisonous patriarchy, Bolshevik ghosts, and the soul-sucking pursuit of capital.”

Ephelant & Time’s collaborative album How To Sew Wounds With Words, featuring cover art by radical comic and graphic novel artist Seth Tobocman, is available now for “pay what you want” download via the band’s Bandcamp page, and can also be streamed in full via Noisey. An all-new Time full-length is currently in the works.

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Ephelant & Time
How To Sew Wounds With Words
(Dirty Laboratory)
Out Now


 Track Listing:

01. Under A Complicated Sky
02. Falling Up
03. Letter to a Hostage (ft. Giuseppe) (STREAM)
04. Foreclosed Ghost Story (ft. Church Fire) (STREAM)
05. How To Sew Wounds With Words
06. My Shadow (ft. Ephelant)
07. The New Scum
08. World War Me (STREAM | MP3)
09. 2:15 am

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Ephelant & Time Links

TIME – ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : SOUNDCLOUD : BANDCAMP : YOUTUBE | EPHELANT – WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER

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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion

WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : TUMBLR : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : LAST.FM : BLOG : E-MAIL


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Monday, August 15, 2016

Steel Cranes members portray militant coaches of misbehaving track team in new video inspired by 15-year-old Gatorade commercial.

Oakland-based band continues 40-date tour in support of “Tango,” called “one of the year’s most compelling albums” by Popmatters.

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Steel Cranes (L-R): Amanda Schukle, Tracy Shapiro. Photo credit: Lisa Gilligan.

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Check out “Today Is The Day” by Steel Cranes courtesy of Curve and SFist or via the links below!


[STREAM]: https://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/steel-cranes-today-is-the-day


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[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-k9lItMbbk  
 
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“Rollicking drums and bass collide with salacious guitar licks.” – SF Weekly

“‘Tango’ is a struggle between two forces. And it is worth every step.” – Innocent Words

“One of the year’s most compelling albums.” – Popmatters

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“Playing militant coaches of a misbehaving track team wasn’t too far of a stretch for our acting abilities,” jokes Amanda Schukle of the Oakland-based band Steel Cranes.

“I had a Gatorade commercial from 15 years ago that featured women’s soccer stuck in my head,” Schukle’s band mate Tracy Shapiro elaborates. “But due to the soaring cost of shin guards, we landed on the delinquent track team motif.”

See the music video for “Today Is The Day” by Steel Cranes here

Described by MTV as possessing “the slo-mo heaviness of a 2,000-pound pendulum” upon the release of the debut Steel Cranes album in 2013, Schukle and Shapiro are offering up an evolution of that sound on the new album Tango, released August 5th on the heels of the bands launch of a 40-date tour on the 4th. See below for full itinerary.

​Tango is a more dynamic take on the “grit” and “raw, relentless power” that MAGNET and Bitch called out in 2013. With a vision for the sound of the new album that was more expansive, Schukle and Shapiro were initially stalled when considering the logistics of accomplishing these time-consuming sonic refinements in a studio environment. It soon became clear that the best option was to record and mix the record themselves.

“Amanda has been recording her own music for years, and she began obsessively learning more about recording and mixing,” Shapiro remembers.  “As soon as we decided to do everything ourselves, the control freaks in us were unleashed!”

This education ultimately yielded the more passionate and layered version of the Steel Cranes sound that is heard on Tango.  Once freed from the confines of creative deadlines and traditional studio environments, Shapiro and Schukle took full advantage of their new work paradigm.

“We wanted time and space to let ourselves stretch in new ways,” Shapiro says. “In ways that don’t come easy when you’re aware of how much it costs to spend three hours experimenting with the fucked-up tones on your old Casio keyboard.”

Most of all, a year versus five days meant more of everything that made the first Steel Cranes album special.

Schukle continues, “We’d been playing some of these songs live for a while and we heard more in them.​ ​More texture. More nuance. More melody. More guitar tones. Definitely bass. With each song, we were​ ​careful to record the guitars in a way that left plenty of space for additional instruments. Tango has​ ​a lot more of a post-punk vibe, definitely some grunge, maybe a little classic rock, and also some generally weird shit that I’m not sure how to describe. But it is also more beautiful.”

Tango by Steel Cranes is out now. Amanda Schukle and Tracy Shapiro are available for interviews.  Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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Steel Cranes – On Tour

Past:

08/04 Tucson, AZ @ Flycatcher
08/05 Phoenix, AZ @ Rips Bar
08/06 Los Angeles, CA @ Redwood Bar & Grill
08/07 San Diego, CA @ Tower Bar
08/09 San Luis Obispo, CA @ SLO Donut Co.
08/10 Fresno, CA @ Dynamite Vinyl
08/12 Santa Cruz, CA @ The Crepe Place
08/13 Oakland, CA @ The Golden Bull
08/14 Pacifica, CA @ Winters Tavern

Upcoming:

08/16 Medford, OR @ Bamboo Room at King Wah’s
08/17 Eugene, OR @ The Boreal
08/18 Portland, OR @ World Famous Kenton Club
08/19 Seattle, WA @ Blue Moon Tavern
08/20 Olympia, WA @ McCoy’s Tavern
08/21 Tacoma, WA @ Real Art Tacoma
08/24 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
08/26 Denver, CO @ Lion’s Lair
08/27 Omaha, NE @ Barley Street Tavern
08/28 Lincoln, NE @ Vega
08/29 Des Moines, IA @ Vaudeville Mews
08/30 Iowa City, IA @ Gabe’s
08/31 Minneapolis, MN @ Amsterdam Bar
09/02 La Crosse, WI @ Root Note
09/03 Madison, WI @ BOS Meadery
09/06 Milwaukee, WI @ Linneman’s
09/07 Chicago, IL @ Township
09/08 Bloomington, IN @ The Back Door
09/09 Evansville, IN @ PG
09/10 St. Louis, MO @ Schlafly’s Tap Room
09/11 Columbia, MO @ Cafe Berlin
09/12 Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot Saloon
09/14 Wichita, KS @ Kirby’s Beer Store
09/15 Norman, OK @ Red Brick Bar
09/16 Albuquerque, NM @ Burt’s Tiki Lounge
09/17 Santa Fe, NM @ Boxcar

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Steel Cranes
Tango
(Mister White Tights Records)
Out Now


Track Listing:

1. Ebb
2. Pretty (STREAM | MP3 | VIDEO)
3. Today Is The Day (STREAM | MP3 | VIDEO)
4. Her
5. Sandglass
6. Happy
7. Take Me Down
8. What Am I Doing Here
9. The Poet

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Steel Cranes Links

ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : BANDCAMP

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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion


WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : TUMBLR : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : LAST.FM : BLOG : E-MAIL
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Thursday, August 11, 2016

Emmy award-winning music editor of Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” David Klotz, and vocalist Amanda Tate form pop duo People and Stars.

L.A.-based band’s first single is “both brand-new and comfortingly familiar,” “lovingly shaped from pop’s past.” See “You’re Not Alone” now.

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People and Stars (L-R): David Klotz, Amanda Tate. Photo credit: Theo & Juliet.

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See the video for “You’re Not Alone” from the debut EP by People and Stars via Collide now!
  

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“Sounds both brand-new and comfortingly familiar.” – Collide

“Lovingly shaped from pop’s past, equal parts Motown and British Invasion.” – Buzzbands.LA

“Rings with the spirit of new beginnings. Charming.” – MAGNET

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“We filmed the ‘You’re Not Alone’ video ourselves on an iPhone 6s all over Pasadena,” explains David Klotz, one half of People and Stars, the Los Angeles-based duo comprised of the former Fonda front man, and vocalist Amanda Tate. “We wanted to point that camera at images that embody some of the conventional symbols of love, commitment, and hope.”

An Emmy award-winning music editor by day of shows including Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” and FX’s “American Horror Story,” at night Klotz was the front man of Fonda, a longtime favorite in the L.A. indie pop scene spanning nearly 20 years.  But when Klotz’s marriage to Fonda front woman Emily Cook came to an end in 2013, so did Fonda.

“We were 95% done with another album which still sits unreleased,” says Klotz, who immediately decided he would carry on with solo work.

“‘People and Stars’ was one of my favorite songs I wrote when I was in Fonda, and it was one of the first songs I recorded, engineered and mixed completely on my own.  It was a symbol of creative independence for me and I thought it would be a good name for my solo project.”

As it turns out, when Klotz began hearing the results of his collaborations with Tate, he quickly abandoned thinking of the project as a solo outing, and has now amassed nearly two albums worth of material, including the three songs released as the debut People and Stars EP, out now via Minty Fresh.  “You’re Not Alone” is a perfect example of the band’s brand of breezy pop that blends with a brash Motown beat and a sweeping string section, exceeded only by an intertwining vocal and trumpet melody.

While Klotz continues working in television when he’s not busy recording tracks for the debut People and Stars album (“A lot of the songs are a little more synth-pop oriented,” he says), Tate, who was born and raised in Beverly Hills, is a comedic improviser and actress, in addition to her talents as a singer.

The apple didn’t fall far from the tree, as both of Tate’s parents are also actors. Her father has notched over 100 guest appearances on television, and her mother can claim a classic movie line, having played the barmaid in The Blues Brothers who, when asked what kind of music they usually have, memorably exclaims, “Oh, we got both kinds! Country and Western!”

The debut EP by People and Stars is out now via Minty Fresh. David Klotz and Amanda Tate are available for interviews.  Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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People and Stars
EP
(Minty Fresh)
Out Now
  

Track Listing:

01. You’re Not Alone (STREAM | MP3 | VIDEO)
02. The Future Is Right Here Today
03. Hold Me Forever

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People and Stars Links

ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : MINTY FRESH

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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion

WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : TUMBLR : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : LAST.FM : BLOG : E-MAIL


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