As epic as it sounds: Gloom Balloon’s Patrick Tape Fleming plays 32 instruments, collaborates with 22 musicians on new album with 20-word title.

 Gaze at “Sgt. Pepper’s” jacket while absorbing “So Bergman Uses Bach To Get His Point Across, I Feel Like I Have Chosen Rock But At What A Cost.”

 

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Patrick Tape Fleming of Gloom Balloon as photographed by Joelle Blanchard

 

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Fanatic Promotion · Gloom Balloon - Long Distance Love (Waterloo Sunset)

[STREAM]: https://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/gloom-balloon-long-distance-love-waterloo-sunset

 

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“Dropping in with a funky beat that brings to mind Bright Eyes with a hip-hop groove, Patrick Tape Fleming layers in soulful background vocals and harmonies along with a cacophony of instruments and musical effects to give the song a shimmering pop psychedelia.” Hear “Long Distance Love (Waterloo Sunset),” the first single from the epic new album by Gloom Balloon, out Sept. 25^th, 2020 via Grand Phony Music. Click to listen via Glide Magazine or at the link above.

 

 

[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI-8pRpqelQ

 

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Also now playing! Check out the lyric video for lead track “Tru Love Waits” off of Bergman Uses Bach To Get His Point Across, I Feel Like I Have Chosen Rock But At What A Cost, which features what feels like a church choir preaching its only lines, “Don’t you ever say goodbye. Don’t you make your baby cry. True love waits, it never dies.” Streaming now at Ghettoblaster or the link above.

 

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Gloom Balloon | In The Press

 

“Full of surprises... Blindsides the listener in such a totally welcome way.” — SPIN

 

“Vaulted, vigorous indie-pop... into the experimental realm of spacey-jazz and electro-lounge grooves..” — Paste Magazine

 

“Deep soundscapes that play with lo-fi sonics and swelling strings. ” — Speak Into My Good Eye

 

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Gloom Balloon

So Bergman Uses Bach To Get His Point Across, I Feel Like I Have Chosen Rock But At What A Cost

Sept. 25^th, 2020

(Grand Phony Music)

 

 

Track Listing:

01. Tru Love Waits (LYRIC VIDEO)

02. Bergman Bach Rock (Not Burt Bacharach)

03. All Is Phair

04. Long Distance Love (Waterloo Sunrise)

05.. Beer Friend Forever

06. A Second Chance

07. In Our Dreams We Are Beautiful and Free

08. Did Anybody Leave Any Toothpaste Here?

09. Burnt Bridge Over Troubled Waters

10. Nicotine Glaze

11. Les Miserable

12. The Grass Is Always Green

13. Credits Roll Up, Tears Roll Down, Your Love Is Like The Sound Of The Rain Hitting The Ground (STREAM | VIDEO)

14. Advice On How To Write A Song

15. Sweet Women With The Sepia Stare

16. Bat Stick Crazy

17. Libras Don't Like To Be Alone (Except Logan)

18. Long Distance Love (Waterloo Sunset) (STREAM)

19. All My Feelings For You

20. Don't Call It A Comeback

 

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Gloom Balloon | About

 

In name alone, Gloom Balloon represents grand ups and grand downs.

 

The new album from Des Moines, Iowa-based mastermind Patrick Tape Fleming does, too. From its Sgt. Pepper’s-riffing cover (a theme of visual homage that has stretched across three full-lengths) to its compelling short story of a title (So Bergman Uses Bach To Get His Point Across, I Feel Like I Have Chosen Rock But At What A Cost), to the record’s sweeping opening track, “Tru Love Waits,” featuring what feels like a church choir preaching its only lines, “Don’t you ever say goodbye. Don’t you make your baby cry. True love waits, it never dies.”

 

Tape Fleming lists no less than 32 instruments attributed to himself (including Static Electricity, Box of Bulbs, and of course, Balloons) in the album’s liner notes, before going on to rattle off another 22 participants in this recording. At a time when we as a people are isolated, and artists are making recordings that reflect isolation, Gloom Balloon’s latest (Grand Phony, Sept. 25^th) sounds communal, and that’s needed.

 

On the nearly six-minute epic “Credits Roll Up, Tears Run Down, Your Love is Like the Sound of the Rain Hitting the Ground,” Tape Fleming breaks your heart by letting you into his: “I know what it feels like to put my arms around you. But I don’t know what it feels like to make it last.”

 

“Music has always been my way of explaining and dealing with feelings,” he says. “So that’s a reason for all of the music references and homages.”

 

True. In addition to the brain game songwriters hall of fame cover art, Tape Fleming’s knowledge of modern music history makes for a fun game in the grooves, too.

 

“Most of the songs have references to song lyrics or the musicians that made them,” he says. “From ‘Waterloo Sunset’ by The Kinks to ‘Waterloo’ by ABBA, and the lyric, “All Liz Phair in love and war when you fuck and run,” in the song “All Is Phair”.

 

“Long Distance Love (Waterloo Sunset)” is in fact the album’s first single, a funkier, more optimistic version of the tonal lament that is the song’s companion piece ‘Long Distance Love (Waterloo Sunrise),’ which appears earlier in the album.

 

Tape Fleming sings, “Long distance love is not the worst. But it always makes a young lover’s heart feel like it’s going burst.”

 

With the tune coming late in the record, it kind of saves the day and reminds that balloon follows gloom and not the other way around.

 

Bergman Uses Bach To Get His Point Across, I Feel Like I Have Chosen Rock But At What A Cost, the third album by Gloom Balloon, is out Sept. 25^th, 2020 on Grand Phony.

 

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Gloom Balloon | Links

 

ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : SPOTIFY : GRAND PHONY

 

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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact

 

WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

Speaker Face turns violins, cellos into groove instruments; Earth meets electronics on “Crescent” album from JUNO-winning members of The Fretless, out Oct. 9th.

 See trio’s “gorgeous... graceful... dramatic” video for “Phosphorescence” now; “Work Friends” single feat. Ruby Randall’s haunting voice, premieres today, out Friday.

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Speaker Face (L-R): Eric Wright, Ruby Randall, Trent Freeman. Photo credit: Jen Squires.

 

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“Gorgeous... graceful... dramatic climaxes and moments of beautiful grandeur.” See the video for “Phosphorescence” by Speaker Face now at Treble or at the link above.

[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR0epNXu3uI

 

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Fanatic Promotion · Speaker Face - Work Friends

“An entrancing electronic sound that’s simultaneously familiar and completely original,” says MXDWN today of the upcoming Speaker Face single “Work Friends,” out this Friday.

[STREAM]: https://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/speaker-face-work-friends 

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 “‘Phosphorescence’ is a complicated love song for the west coast of British Columbia,” says Trent Freeman of Speaker Face. “While we feel so welcomed by the land and connected to the nature where I grew up, many people were displaced to allow our presence. ‘Phosphorescence’ is a thank you letter to those who were here long before us, specifically the Malchosen and the K’omoks first nations, and the early 1900s Japanese settlers, who were interned during WWII. We hope to see this beautiful place through their eyes.”

 

Freeman continues, “‘Phosphorescence’ was recorded at our home studio in Toronto. We love all the tactile hammer sounds of the Rhodes and the fingers plucking the violin, we wanted to have them present and tickling the ears. Capturing the violin part as a cascade of drips helped paint the west coast landscape. Ruby’s voice was recorded three different times in unison and mixed all around your head, so it feels like you’re swimming in the ocean of her voice. Working on this video with choreographer Jade Whitney was a dream. She connected so well with the song and moves in such a descriptive way that I can no longer separate the song from the dance. In my mind they grew simultaneously.”

 

As for the band's new single, out this Friday, Freeman comments, “‘Work Friends’ speaks to the masks we wear in the workplace. Forced relationships playing out in environments unnaturally curated to make us our most productive. This track is a covert dance party for the freak hiding behind a tightly buttoned shirt and uncomfortable shoes. The tension built through the verse gives way to warmth and understanding in the chorus as layers of voice and violin sweep our thoughts to our deepest friendships.”

 

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Speaker Face

Crescent

Oct. 9^th, 2020

(S/R)

 

 

Track Listing:

01. Phosphorescence (STREAM | VIDEO)

02. Trevor

03. All My Mind

04. Work Friends (STREAM)

05. Please, allow me to show you something

06. Call Me Out

07. Rest

08. Dusted

09. Sick Mind

10. Crescent

 

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About | Speaker Face

 

Toronto, Canada’s Speaker Face is a meeting of earth and electronics from two members of the JUNO award winning band The Fretless. Trent Freeman and Eric Wright are joined by Ruby Randall, whose voice haunts with an honest beauty that can’t be forgotten.

 

The band’s transportive new album Crescent (Oct. 9^th, 2020) is an immersive experience, layered with keys, beats, and atmospheric production, but also incorporating the propulsive strings that have made Freeman and Wright essential players in the mainstreaming of traditional Irish folk music with The Fretless.

 

“The violin is a very unique element in this genre of music,” Freeman says. “I approach it primarily as a groove instrument. I love the pulse and foundation it can create.”

 

Wright is a cellist in The Fretless and he brings the bass in Speaker Face, too.

 

“My inspirations are mostly derived from a hip-hop sensibility,” he says of the hypnotic beats he contributes to the album. “I’ve been making beats since I was 13-years-old. 2PAC, Dr. Dre, and Wu-Tang Clan were on repeat. For this album, I sampled crate vinyl for kick sounds and merged those with my own samples. The sampled vinyl with the liveliness of the natural samples creates the soundscape.”

 

Randall gilds the frame with her ethereal voice, which was recorded three different times in unison and “mixed all around your head so it feels like you’re swimming in the ocean of her vocals,” Freeman explains.

 

“I’m so excited to share these Speaker Face tunes with the world,” Randall adds. “Trent has poured himself into these songs and it has been an honor to be able to bring my voice to them.

 

Crescent, the latest album by Toronto-based trio Speaker Face arrives on Oct. 9^th, 2020. The lead single “Phosphorescence” is out now. Members of Speaker Face are available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

 

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[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/SpeakerFace-Phosphorescence

 

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Hear “Phosphorescence,” the lead single from the upcoming new album Crescent by Speaker Face, at Atwood Magazine or at the links above.

 

“It’s easy to get lost in the intimate waves of Speaker Face’s lush sound: They cultivate a strong hypnotizing presence that arrests the senses, tickling the ears while reaching out to each of us on a far more visceral level. They describe their sound as “the feeling of a twilight festival stage and a summer swim,” hoping listeners resonate with the richness of their tones and their beat’s natural qualities.” – Atwood Magazine

 

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Speaker Face | Links

 

ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM : SPOTIFY : APPLE

 

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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact

 

WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

The Pinx team with Mad Alchemy (King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard) for mind-bending oil projection “Hammer of The Dogs” video.

 Atlanta rock foursome’s scorching new tune is taken from just-released “Electric!” EP. RIYL: Fantastic Negrito, Goodbye June, Joyous Wolf.

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The Pinx (L-R): Cayce Buttrey, Adam McIntyre, Chance McColl, Charles Wiles. Photo credit: @_rexway.

 

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[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8orWnq7_TA

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“‘Electric!’ may only be five tracks in length, but it’ll wear you out.” – V13

 

“‘Hammer of the Dogs’... an obvious ode to the innovators of hard rock Led Zeppelin and the ‘hammer of the Gods’ lyric from their 1970 classic ‘Immigrant Song’... a scorching tune that pulls no punches in its approach, something typical of the group’s brand new EP...” Check out the premiere of “Hammer of The Dogs” by The Pinx at V13 or watch the video at New Noise Magazine or the link above.

 

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“We deliberately created the most lean, energetic rock guitar fest that Chance (McColl, Lead Guitar and Vocals) and I could muster,” says Adam McIntyre of Atlanta-based rock band The Pinx. “Chuck (Wiles, Bass and Backing Vocals) and Cayce (Buttrey, Drums and Backing Vocals) brought the thunder to our lightning and I feel like my singing on this EP puts my best rock foot forward. My solos are some of the favorites I’ve ever recorded, too.”

 The EP’s latest single and video is the burn-your-fingers-to-the-bone scorcher “Hammer of the Dogs,”, the obvious Zep reference being something McIntyre is fine with copping to.

 “I figured if Greta Van Fleet can so transparently graft Led Zeppelin onto their songs, I should be able to get away with it.”

 The “Hammer of The Dogs” video was created by Mad Alchemy featuring oil projections by Lance Gordon.

 “It's still a mystery how or why these lifelike faces appear in the video, but I guess that's where the magic begins!,” Gordon says. “Mad Alchemy art is a combination 60s San Francisco analog light show utilizing ink, dye, mineral oil and rubbing alcohol sandwiched between glass plates. These plates are spun on converted overheads with LED light sources. Each plate has a video camera filming these liquid combinations with signals going to laser projectors. ‘Hammer of The Dogs’ was performed with four sets of plates, projected and then re-filmed live, no Photoshop!"

 McIntyre says, “First off, both Lance and I were stunned to see the face of a dog as the video starts. Lance doesn’t have the ability to make those plates create faces or characters; it’s just oil and clear plates and a feel for the music that happens throughout. It requires skill to make the show work but there’s no way to say ‘I’m gonna make this plate make the face of a dog in the oil.’ Lance just has a really good feel for working with the oils while listening to the music and giving us something cool to look at.”

 Mad Alchemy has worked such festivals as Desert Daze and projected their oil light show at Red Rocks. They have worked with Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Circles Around The Sun, Earthless, Graveyard, Radio Moscow and more.

 “Electric!,” the latest EP by Atlanta-based rock band The Pinx, is out now. Adam McIntyre of The Pinx is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

 

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The Pinx | In The Press

 

“Authentic tribute to classic American rock & roll.” — PASTE

 “Perfect soundtrack for a dangerously reckless summer.” — Classic Rock

 “Would make Alex Chilton proud.” — FLOOD

 “Affecting and exhilarating.” — Creative Loafing

 “Elegance and chaos.” — Glide Magazine

 “Shakes the surrounding geography.” — The Southern Sounding

 “The players can rip, and rip righteously.” — Minneapolis City Pages

 

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The Pinx

“Electric!” EP

Out Now

(S/R)

 

Streaming Link:

STREAM FULL EP

  

 

Track Listing:

 

01. Victimless Crime

02. Bad Behavior

03. Hammer of The Dogs (VIDEO)

04. It’s Electric  (STREAM)

05. See You Later

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 The Pinx | Links

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

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 Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact

 WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL