There’s no rest for the Jesse Elliot and his These United States mantra. Not only does he tour more often than Tony Robins (less teeth and motivational speaking) but he somehow found time to cut his upcoming sophomore release Crimes in just six days. Due out October 7th, the album serves as a follow up to last years under appreciated A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate to the Garden of Eden [review] and his tales of a world gone wrong with sin and delusions. Judging by the first single ‘West Won’, Crimes leans on a much fuller if not complete sound than his previous attempts.

 mp3: These United States ‘West Won’

Criminal Tourage:

08-08 IOTA - Arlington, VA
08-09 IOTA - Arlington, VA
08-11 Fort Reno - Washington, DC
08-13 Gypsy Hut - Cincinnati, OH
08-14 The Hideout - Chicago, IL
08-15 Slowdown - Omaha, NE
08-16 Hi-Dive - Denver, CO
08-17 Kilby Court - Salt Lake City, UT
08-18 Record Exchange - Boise, ID
08-19 Caterina Winery - Spokane, WA
08-22 Dept. of Safety - Anacortes, WA
08-23 Sunset Tavern - Seattle, WA
08-24 Holocene - Portland, OR
08-26 TBA - San Francisco, CA
08-27 Echo Curio - Los Angeles, CA
08-28 Plush - Tucson, AZ
09-03 The Billiken Club - St. Louis, MO
09-05 Bear’s Place - Bloomington, IN
09-06 Magic Bag - Ferndale, MI

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• These United States - A Picture Of The Three Of Us At The Gate To The Garden Of Eden
• Unveiling Notes: These United States Interview

Gliding from hip-hop and rock to blues with frightening ease is the second coming of schoolyard funk in the form of Oakland trio High Decibels. Composed of childhood friends Chief and Duke Johnson, who freestyled at an early age, they evoke the 80’s sounds of Beastie Boys but with style and frightening chemistry. Take one listen at their latest single ‘Miss Cindy’ and you’ll get the picture and groove instantly. Their self titled debut is set to drop on September 2nd care of Rolling Jack Records.

mp3: High Decibels (HD) ‘Miss Cindy’
from The High Decibels

Tracklisting:

01 Miss Cindy
02 That Dude
03 Crash With No Cushion
04 Who Knew Duke
05 Duke Gonna Get Em
06 Eye of the Storm
07 Home Run Hitters
08 No Peace In the Streets
09 A Word I Said
10 The Great Must Last
11 Prophesy
12 Bossman Blues

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Ah Nap-Town, you hold a special cringe in my heart. Apparently they do the same for label Asthmatic Kitty Records who today announced signing Indianapolis based artist Grampall Jookabox. The label will release his second album, Ropenchain on November 4th in conjunction with Joyful Noise Records. Somewhere between hip-hop and indie-pop lies his works - probably large in part by his uncle’s grade school four-track loaner. The two mixed together well into his puberty. Fast forward a decade plus and now we have a punk underbelly to its house hip hop roots.

mp3: Grampall Jookabox ‘The Girl Ain’t Preggers’

Tracklisting:

01 Black Girls
02 Let’s Go Mad Together
03 Ghost
04 Old Earth, Wash My Beat
05 The Girl Ain’t Preggers
06 You Will Love My Boom
07 I Will Save Young Michael
08 The One Thing
09 We Know We Might Be Fucked
10 Strike Me Down
11 I’m Absolutely Freaked Out

He’ll be kicking off a US tour that will of course set sail in Indy.

Jooked Tour:

09-06 Spin - Indianapolis, IN
09-08 Hideout - Chicago, IL
09-09 House Cafe - Dekalb, IL
09-10 TBA - Iowa City, IA
09-11 Gardner Lounge - Grinnell, IA
09-13 Monolith Festival - Morisson, CO
09-14 Monolith Festival - Morisson, CO
09-16 Record Bar - Kansas City, MO
09-17 Mojo’s - Columbia, MO
09-18 Billiken Club - St. Louis, MO
09-19 Forward Music Festival - Madison, WI
09-20 Pygmalion Music Festival - Urbana, IL
09-21 TBA - Bloomington, IN
09-22 TBA - Cincinnati, OH
09-23 Brillobox - Pittsburgh, PA
09-24 The Hosiery - Washington DC
09-25 The Green Line - Philadelphia, PA
09-26 Death By Audio - Brooklyn, NY
09-27 Cake Shop - New York City, NY

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With the bevy of upstart music in the past decade it was only a matter of time until a band soaked it all in like a sponge and decided to wring it out on their own album. Enter the interracial Floridians aptly titled Black Kids and their all encompassing good times sound. While their Wizard of Ahhhs EP showed us a glimmer of hope and subsequently a stir in the journalistic community, it took a jog across the pond and a sit down with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler to iron out the bands flurry of noise. The end result is a social gathering of influences that simply wants to dance its pants off with Partie Traumatic.

From frontman Reggie Youngblood’s shouts (Los Campesinos!) to the funk party atmospheres (CSS) and its abundance of synth (Killers), the five-piece kids have a hard time finding their authentic sound. But what’s wrong with that? From the Go! Team-like bash shouts on the albums’ title track to the closing curtains of hellishly hip ‘Look At Me (When I Rock Wichoo)’; beats ceaselessly surge. And when they don’t fit just right, the lyrical banter takes on a first rate task: for being green beans these kids have human knowledge as old as time. Simple is the new complex when you are talking about these Dr. Suess rhymes: I must repeat: I think you’re sweet / But ain’t no way that I’m gonna meet / your mother, your father, your dog or your brother, your nephew and niece, girl, / I just can’t be bothered. These kids take solace by seemingly laughing it off.

What Partie Traumatic does ask of you is time. In fact, most of the songs are borderline asinine to the point of saccharine sweet with their slick as shit production. Yet you’ll find yourself humming and revisiting each track in your head if not on the dance floor. In fact, one could argue that Youngblood and Co. may just make mainstream what we’ve known for the past few years - the indie dance scene is much more ubiquitous than hip-hop, retro night at the club, or rap has been for decades. Sure it’s a shame that those influences may never reap due credit but if they would have done it this well we’d be singing a different tune - possibly theirs.

Sean Kendall

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Oh where have you gone Lukas Hass, our Nation turns it’s lonely eyes to you… Or at least to the latest Death Cab for Cutie video off their recently released Narrow Stairs entitled ‘Cath…’. Where-in, the nowhere man star tries his best Dustin Hoffman Graduate impression. Hasn’t this been done before?

video: Death Cab For Cutie ‘Cath…’

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What do you get when you mix Chromeo, Black Kids, and Justice Vs. Simian? Besides one crazy sound, you get the latest video from Melbourne act Midnight Juggernauts. The ‘Into the Galaxy’ video was created by international design collective Surface 2 Air who’s previous works produced videos for said acts. The video was filmed in the Pyrenees fregion of France and is a psychedelic trip on wheels - literally.

video: Midnight Juggernauts ‘Into the Galaxy’

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Brazilian train wreck sounding CSS flipped the indie field upside down a few years back with the release of their inaugural Cansei de Ser Sexy and its brand of irregular angst and hallucinating party bleeps. Hailing from the Sao Paolo vista, they appeared poised to marshal in a new brand of art, fun, and rickety music stateside and across the pond. But in the two years since they’ve stepped into the studio, the bubbly went flat, the DJ forgot to connect with his crowd, and the party is busted. As a result, Donkey finds the band somewhere between post-punk angst and disco delusion.

Donkey disposes most of what made up their inaugural effort - and its arty style - so paranormal. Gone are the animated oddities replaced by comatosed plugs like those found in the more mix than mastered ‘Reggae All Night’ or the Sonic Youth-isms of ‘Left Behind’. While there are romps to take advantage of, like rager ‘Rat Is Dead’ and soaring ‘I Fly’, little is of the same nor as fuck-you-confident as it was on Cansei de Ser Sexy. Sure you’ll still find the same themes of sex, drugs, and hipster fundamentalisms galore but it feels more contrived. This coming from a band who lyrically refuses to grow up. There is nary a moment when the band is set free to explore a sound all their own and instead rely all too often on generic replications.

Perhaps if you can look past the stamped out oddity that made CSS such an appealing performance originally and see them for what they’ve always been - possibly just a straight forward post-punk outfit - then Donkey folds with spades. For me, the bizarre-o world that was has now bottled up its own creativity. Those who recognize the band for what they were know they don’t lack buoyancy or coolness. But at times Donkey is short a backbone for which to stand its own with and rides about as smooth as one.

Sean Kendall

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• video: CSS Rat Rager
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• CSS - Cansei de Ser Sexy

Femme fatal led indie outfit Duke Spirits are springing from their LA digs and touring across the US this summer in support of their latest effort Neptune [reviewed]. Along the way they will stop off at numerous festivals including the Download and All Points West Festivals along with an appearance on The Tonight Show.

Spirited Away Tour:

07-15 Belly Up Tavern - Solana Beach, CA
07-17 The Hammer Museum - Los Angeles, CA
07-19 Download Festival - Mountain View, CA
07-20 Download Festival - Los Angeles, CA
07-23 Bottom of the Hill - San Francisco, CA
07-24 Doug Fir Lounge - Portland, OR
07-26 Nectar Lounge - Seattle, WA
07-28 Amoeba - Hollywood, CA
07-30 Webster Hall - New York, NY *
08-01 WXPN/World Café - Philadelphia, PA
08-01 The Saint - Asbury Park, NJ
08-02 Download Festival - Camden, NJ
08-04 Ottobar - Baltimore,MD
08-05 T.T. The Bear’s - Boston, MA
08-08 All Points West Festival - Jersey City, NJ
08-09 New American Music Union Festival - Pittsburgh, PA
08-10 3rd & Lindsley - Nashville, TN
08-12 The Basement - Columbus, OH
08-13 Magic Stick - Detroit, MI
08-14 Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL

* with Supergrass

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The compound of a group I’m From Barcelona looks to be going Columbo on their second album. The Swedish googolplex has announced their sophomore effort Who Killed Harry Houdini due out October 14^th care of Mute Records. The follow up to their 2007 debut Let Me Introduce My Friends will be a tricked out recording of some 20 plus members performing their pop intricacies helmed by both Emanuel Lundgren and Fabian Torsson. The album is said to be inspired by Harry Houdini’s success and ultimate failures. Judging by the tracks listed below, much of the song’s meanings are just as much a mystery as his passing. We can only guess ‘Paper Planes’ delves into his fascination with aviation and ‘Ghost Box’ refers to his famed escape utensil. Let’s hope the album doesn’t have the same demise.

The first single off the album ‘Paper Planes’ is scheduled for August 19th.

Tracklisting:

01 Andy
02 Paper Planes
03 Headphones
04 Music Killed Me
05 Gunhild (feat. SoKo)
06 Mingus
07 Ophelia
08 Houdini
09 Little Ghost
10 Rufus

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Everyone knows the music industry is in peril. With most major record labels shutting down or in the process of shutting down, new music has been reduced to American Idol winners and Disney television shows. We the Living has sought to change that. Taking their careers in a drastically different direction, the quartet decided to self-produce and self-promote their 2007 LP Heights of the Heavens, a sophisticated melange of piano rock, with no help from any record label. We talked to lead singer John Paul Roney and bassist Jasper Austin about the band’s work philosophy, reading Ayn Rand novels, and their recent shout-out from Perez Hilton.

Pensatos: How did you guys come up with your band name?

John Paul: We’re all really into literature and philosophy and so it’s from a Russian author named Ayn Rand, it’s one of her books and it’s actually the only book of hers that I haven’t read.

“The music industry stopped being an honest place. It stopped being people who honestly loved music and it started being people who could follow a formula and make a million dollars in a year.”

(laughs) That’s ironic.

John Paul: Yeah, I got like halfway through it when I realized it was just a romance novel and I asked myself, “How am I going to read this?” It’s good words though.

I saw your video on your website where you speak about your band straying away from the major label circuit and was really interested in your decision to do that.

John Paul: All of them are out of business, like EMI went out of business, Sony’s about to go out of business, Warner’s unofficially out of business but going to be soon. All the majors are gone. We didn’t know that last year. Last year all the majors were still in business and saying they had all these new plans. The music industry stopped being an honest place. It stopped being people who honestly loved music and it started being people who could follow a formula and make a million dollars in a year. So slowly the honest people got filtered out and then the only people left are rewarded by how many records they can sell right away. The only people that survived are people who can put out another Hannah Montana record, put out Daughtry, make sure Nickelback makes another record this year. We realized there needed to be another way because people still wanted legitimate music that was honest and that bands were writing themselves and really cared about. If we wanted to be just another band that was like, “Alright well we have this record and people like it so let’s go to a major label, let’s have them throw it on radio and see if it sticks and see if that works,” we’d be copping out just like everybody else. Really, we were interested in being one of the first bands to figure out the new way for real bands to exist outside of all that because that is a system that is rotted from the inside. We decided just to go with our gut, we’re just going to play shows, meet people, be good to our fans, and that’s it.

And so you do lots of your promotion through your fans and word of mouth.

John Paul: Absolutely. Basically radio and television were an artificial word of mouth. One person would say it’s good and then they could put it in the household of everybody. We realized that if the big money that made that happen was going to be gone, then we would have to go back to the fundamentals. If one person could hear our music and pass it on to one other person, that’s all we could hope for. That’s the best possible scenario, that people might get more than they normally do. So it’s been 100% of what we’ve relied on so far and it’s been very, very good to us.

“The lady was not a drag queen. She just wasn’t an attractive lady.”

Are you guys towards the end of your tour or still going on tour constantly?

John Paul: This style of tour and band promotions means constantly being on the road. What it use to be was you would spend three million dollars and put the band on television, radio, and print and then they would hit the road for three months and then hope to sell as many records as you could and then you’d stop, write a new record, record, and start all over again. Since there’s no more three million dollars in the equation we have to keep this constant interest, it has to grow like this (motions hands steadily upward) instead of going like this (motions hands rapidly upward and then downward). So we’re going to be touring for a while.

So living in a van is so far satisfactory?

Jasper: Well I’m ok with it. We have friends luckily across the country so it’s not like every night we’re sleeping with each other’s feet in our faces. Though we do occasionally. But it’s fun to see the country and meet people.

That’s an impressive work ethic. I don’t think I could do that. I need sleep. Jasper, I know you just recently joined the band. How is it so far?

Jasper: It’s my dream come true, playing music. I fell in love with We the Living last summer and everything that they had to stand for and so, I don’t know. I didn’t expect to be a part of it. It was a really huge surprise that they offered me the gig. I was traveling with them prior to that as tour manager and running sound and light and I was being inspired by three, four awesome guys every day. Just positive influences and intellectual conversations all the time and so now that I’m playing the music, my biggest passion, it’s just the best of both worlds. So yeah, I guess I like it.

I read on your blog that Perez Hilton gave you a shout out. How did that happen?

John Paul: I think we sent him a record when it came out. We’re friends with Rumor Willis and so we kind of knew him through that. He had the record for six months and my friends in LA would see him out and be like “You got to write about We the Living!” and was like “Yeah, yeah whatever” and then it just came out and it was a total surprise. I wish I knew anymore about how that happened. I was just very, very happy that it happened.

Sorry, I got distracted by the drag queens.

Jasper: Me too.

Lisa: The second lady was not a drag queen.

Oh my bad.

Lisa: Yeah, she just wasn’t an attractive lady.

+ Band’s Site: We The Living
+ video: We The Living ‘Best Laid Plans’

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