Thursday, May 29, 2008

Multinational surreal pop group Sunny Day Sets Fire announces limited U.S. dates surrounding premiere of Paramount Pictures documentary American Teen.

Sunny Day Sets Fire has announced a very limited stateside engagement in late June, when the band of musicians from many lands and backgrounds will perform a handful of shows surrounding the premiere party for American Teen (LINK), a documentary on seniors in an Indiana high school and their various cliques. The Paramount Pictures release features songs by Sunny Day Sets Fire, which the band will perform at a private launch party as well as select venues and radio appearances around Los Angeles. See complete show details below. These will be the band’s only U.S. dates until the fall 2008 CMJ New Music Festival.

Ostensibly a band founded in London, Sunny Day Sets Fire is a group with many homelands, many talents and many sounds. The quintet’s unique brand of hummable surreal pop is a perfect soundtrack to summertime that could perhaps best be compared to artists like Blonde Redhead, The Flaming Lips, Architecture in Helsinki and Band Of Horses. The mid-summer release of its IAmSound full length debut Summer Palace will certainly establish Sunny Day Sets Fire as a reference point unto itself.

In a swirling event of coincidence and musical attraction, band founders Onyee and Mauro found each other between paychecks and popcorn. Both were ushers at their local repertoire Chelsea cinema in London when they realized their similar palates for bands, artists and sounds exacted a nice beginning for some collaborative efforts. Ideas occurred and the two recruited friends to fulfill orchestral duties. An act was born. Sunny Day Sets Fire dug their toes into the ground, and got pumped for the future comings of their psych-pop band life.

It is a landscape that is both rich and broad. Any band can drown themselves in old vinyl for some choice inspiration, but the Sunny Day worldly influence and background provoke a top spirit and caliber to their topsy-turvy psychedelic stack-up. Collectively, the band hails from Hong Kong, Italy, Sardinia, Canada, and of course, London. The result is something of a pop hybrid where 60’s beach rock collides with new patents. Catchy melodies spill into astral instrumentation and kaleidoscopic guitar tangents. These tunes are very much alive and optical.
Lead guitarist Max, deriving from Sardinia, says it best: “Our music is the result of the clash of five different backgrounds that in most cases, come out in a very unconscious way. Any input coming out from anyone of us triggers something from the musical and visual imagery of the rest of the band members. [This] adds to initial ideas of the songs and in a way that often transform them into something a bit different.”

Mauro, originally from Italy, is the lead vocalist, 12-string guitarist and occasional drummer of Sunny Day Sets Fire. He cites director Harmony Korine, black metal bands and Surrealism as personal influences, and acts as the band’s main songwriter and composer. When his rounded and endearing chorals flirt with the whimsical electronics, the result is snappy and fun. The rest follows as effortlessly as a picnic.

After Onyee (a Hong King native) and Mauro found each other at that fateful cinema, the two performed as a duo for a handful of exhibition openings and artist video projects. Onyee contributed her appreciation for Velvet Underground, 60’s Motown girl groups, and Leonard Cohen, as well as the “pure memories and emotions you get from watching gigs, [and] from looking at a work of art or performances.”

Evolution knows how to ignite. When Mauro whipped up a set of songs with a mint-fresh direction, Onyee (sporting her talents with back-up vocals, drums, synth and glockenspiel) got motivated and pulled Max from shaking cocktails to play lead guitar. Now things were rolling, now music was being made, gigs were being played, and bands like Sunny Day Sets Fire were really covering ground. A year and a half later, Ed joined on the bass, the band’s only London native.

So, Ed, what influences you? “Touring and the exposure to new sounds, attitudes and altitudes. Fearless freaks. Michel Gondry... James Jamerson... Paul McCartney and The Beatles’ Sgt. Peppers... Salvador Dali.” Ed’s addition adds another layer of novelty and complexity.

But that wasn’t enough. “We needed a Timpani player! So thanks the almighty we found Matthew,” Mauro says. “We started playing as a four-piece and after having some fun, guess what? We wanted to have much more fun.”

In addition to his percussion roles, Matt the Canadian toils in synth and backing vocals. He notes favorites in Sonic Youth, Television, Stereolab, Chuck Berry and more. Daydream Nation “taught me about what a band should be.” Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs “taught me that music could be like a book” and Television’s Marquee Moon “taught me about musicianship and striving for excellence.” Surely, he nested into the forward-thinking Sunny Day Sets Fire just fine.

In the summer of 2006, the band signed to American indie label IAMSOUND Records with the four-song Brainless EP released later in the year. On February 26th, 2008, IAMSOUND issued a remix EP featuring CSS and XXXChange from Spank Rock, The Cool Kids and Mad Decent/Diplo. The EP has been wrangling in excitement for Summer Palace, the Sunny Day full-length set for July 8th, 2008. One can only begin to envision the sorts of cakewalks Sunny Day Sets Fire crafted for these upcoming 14 tracks. It’s the kind of project you can easily get stoked on.

Yet, no one is as excited as Sunny Day Sets Fire. Like Mauro says, “Here we are now. The fantastic five looking for adventures in the sublime jungle of frequencies.”
Sunny Day Sets Fire Live:
06/22 – Los Angeles, CA The Roxy (w/ Oxford Collapse and Frightened Rabbit)
06/24 – Los Angeles CA Spaceland
06/25 – Los Angeles, CA Henry Fonda Theater (Paramount Pictures party for American Teen. Private event – e-mail for invite.)

Summer Palace Tracklisting:
Release Date: July 8th, 2008

01. Wilderness
02. Stranger
03. Teenagers Talking
04. End of the Road
05. All Our Songs
06. Smallest Heart on Earth
07. Mandarins
08. Siamese
09. I Dream Along
10. Adrenaline
11. Hollywood
12. Brainless (MP3)
13. Map of the World
14. Lack of View

Tools and Hi-Res Photos:
www.fanaticpromotion.com/rosterdetails.php?indexkey=1337

On The Web:
www.sunnydaysetsfire.com
www.myspace.com/officialsunnydaysetsfire
www.iamsoundrecords.com
www.myspace.com/iamsoundrecords

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Die! Die! Die! tours the U.S. with Von Bondies, assails the rest of the world with brilliant new video.

“If the name didn't tip you off, Die! Die! Die! have little patience for pop concessions. Abrasive and bare-bones, the band makes a lot out of a little... ...the result is mind-numbingly satisfying.” – Spin

The relentlessly touring Dunedin, New Zealand trio Die! Die! Die! has launched yet more U.S. tour dates, this time with Detroit garage rockers The Von Bondies throughout May. While the energetic trio can't be everywhere at once (though if you've ever seen their live show, they certainly try) the band has posted a new video HERE. The cleverly animated clip is for the song “Sideways, Here We Come” off Die! Die! Die!’s recently released epic Promises, Promises.

Die! Die! Die! was recently featured on the cover of CMJ New Music Report and earned considerable praise in Alternative Press, Spin, Paper Thin Walls and more. As if that weren’t enough excitement, Die! Die! Die! was also recently chosen as one of the highly-sought-after featured artists on MySpace.com, resulting in the band receiving tens of thousands of plays for select songs culled from Promises, Promises.

Die! Die! Die! has been compared to an intriguing mix of bands, including ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Wire, Sonic Youth and kiwi faves like Bailter Space and The Clean. The boys in the band -- vocalist/guitarist Andrew Wilson, drummer Michael Prain and bassist Lachlan Anderson -- traveled to Chicago two years ago to cut its first self-titled release with Steve Albini in a brick basement (responsible for some of the greatest records of all time). Needless to say, this record sent the trio on a whirlwind series of countless tours (supporting Blood Brothers, Wire, Slint and Wolfmother) and gained it considerable world wide notoriety which no band from their native Dunedin, New Zealand had seen since the Dunedin sound heyday of the 80’s.

In August 2007, Die! Die! Die! recorded Promises, Promises with popular New Zealand songwriter Shayne Carter producing. The record was engineered by Kevin Mcmahon in upstate New York in The Walkmen’s Marcata studio.

Reminiscent of the spirit and sounds of Black Flag, The Pixies, The Wipers, Wire, and Bailter Space, Die! Die! Die! delivers an unfiltered and powerful stage show. The band’s relentless tour schedule and onstage antics has earned it a reputation as one of the most energetic and hardest working bands around. Shows for Die! Die! Die! go on with fearless and confident delivery. In a wild fit, Wilson occasionally removes his guitar (with microphone in hand) to enter the crowd. This is a most effective way of dissolving the invisible crowd/performer boundary as Prain and Anderson keep the pummeling rhythms flowing without missing a beat.

The trio embodies a vitality that has long since made its way into the recent rock and punk circuits. There isn’t a rehearsed set of messages or stage antics, no glitter, no make-up, no phony sass. Cutting to the quick, Die! Die! Die!’s songs and live delivery are nothing short of awe-inspiring. These three are on the forefront of a new revolution without the aid of gimmicks or pretense.

Cathartic, direct, indispensable… You will know the sound as Die! Die! Die!

Quotes From The Press:

“This trio has called Dundedin and Auckland their home but are in actual fact more like confrontational musical nomads plying a situationist international inspired lifestyle and calling it a band. The fact that they can make a simply brilliant noise along the way has been duly noted by fans around the world.” – CMJ

“This hit the player and eye’s shot up! Totally in your face, like they're playing vaccum cleaners, and their vicious, spare, distorto-punding and vocals are hair rasing like a splatter film.” – The Big Takeover

“Willful dissonance is often the terrain of effete art rockers, but Die! Die! Die! pull it off with cool aplomb, recalling the abrasive hypnotism of mid career Sonic Youth and the noisy vigor of Jesus Lizard.” – The Sentimentalist

“This first full-length from New Zealand’s Die! Die! Die! is a shattered, angular masterpiece of animal instincts and serrated edges.” – Exclaim!

“...full of an indescribable power and beauty.” – Chord Magazine

“Play this record to really f***ing appreciate your own dull ache, to wallow in the disaster of your own creating - and secretly enjoy every last wail.” – Plan B

Die! Die! Die! On Tour:
* w/ The Von Bondies
05/30 Victoria, BC @ Sugar Nightclub *
05/31 Vancouver, BC @ Richard's on Richards *

Promises, Promises Tracklisting:
Stream the album HERE
Release Date: February 12, 2008

01. Blinding
02. Britomart Sunset
03. Sideways, Here We Come (MP3 VIDEO)
04. Death To The Last Romantic
05. Whitehorses
06. A.T.T.I.T.U.D. (MP3)
07. Maybe: Definitely
08. People Talk
09. Promises, Promises
10. Hold Me
11. Echo Echo
12. Throw A Fit
13. Blue Skies (MP3)

Tools and Hi-Res Photos:
www.fanaticpromotion.com/rosterdetails.php?indexkey=20

On The Web:
www.diediedie.net
www.myspace.com/diediedienz
www.safrecords.com
www.myspace.com/safrecords

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Jex Thoth throws down psychedelic hard rock gauntlet with debut album, transnational band features skull-thwacking riffs and soaring female vocals.

Jex Thoth, a psychedelic hard rock band named after its enigmatic singer, has announced the release of its self-titled debut album courtesy of Swedish imprint I Hate Records. The transnational quintet features a bevy of skull-thwacking riffs and folk-tinged tones supporting Thoth’s gloriously soaring voice. The band also includes the impeccable musicianship and creativity of former Wooden Wand leader James Jackson Toth (Grim Jim) on bass and guitar, backing the frontwoman who had previously lent her remarkable harmonies to his former group. Likewise, members Silas Paine (guitars / bouzouki / flute), Zodiac (keyboards / studio wizardry) and Johnny Dee (drums, percussion) gathered from fields afar, solidify the Jex Thoth totem pole.

Jex Thoth does not fall into predetermined categories. Its sound is far from “stoner rock” or cookie-cutter doom often associated with similarly thunderous metal-leaning urchins. Rather, Jex Thoth is a bright shining phoenix rising from the drudgery of predictable metal formalism. Taking its influences from sources obvious (early Danzig, Ozzy) and not so obvious (avant garde chanteuse Catherine Ribeiro, over-the-rainbow psych-folk savant Bobb Trimble), the band, led by the beautiful and commanding goddess Jex, follows its muse wherever it leads them. The band is not afraid to take cues from progressive rock and folk, and the band's debut album (which follows an EP released under the name Totem) marks a huge step forward for Jex Thoth. From the vociferous opener “Nothing Left To Die,” a statement of intent that begins with Jex singing “You think you know me / but you won't believe your eyes,” to an ambitious cover of Bobb Trimble’s psychedelic masterwork “When The Raven Calls,” Jex Thoth is out to prove they are peerless when it comes to intrepid, bone-shaking rock and roll. Reverent while maintaining a defiantly original sound, Jex Thoth embraces all that is good about the past and shuttles it defiantly into the future.

Jex Thoth Tracklisting:
Stream The Album HERE

01. Nothing Left To Die
02. The Banishment
03. Obsidian Night
04. Separated At Birth (MP3)
05. Son of Yule
06. Warrior Woman
Equinox Suite
07. a. The Poison Pit
08. b. Thawing Magus
09. c. Invocation Pt. 1
10. d. The Damned and Divine
11. When The Raven Calls
12. Stone Evil

Tools and Hi-Res Photos:
www.fanaticpromotion.com/rosterdetails.php?indexkey=1332

On The Web:
www.jexthoth.com
www.myspace.com/totemdoom
www.ihate.se
www.myspace.com/ihate666

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