2014 (II)

After one year of Covid, we highlight the songs our artists have created during quarantine. Featuring new tracks from Deerhoof, Ohmme, Kishi Bashi & El Ten Eleven, plus an interview & music from the infamous Rob Crow (Pinback, Goblin Cock, Optiganally Yours, Thingy, Anal Trump, etc.).

Hosted by Karl Hofstetter, founder and curator of Joyful Noise Recordings.

Background music by Dumb Numbers, Joan of Arc, and Thor & Friends.

Intro by David Woodruff, featuring music by El Ten Eleven.

For more, visit joyfulnoiserecordings.com

Joyful Noise Radio Hour - Episode 3, with Rob Crow

Tycho "Awake" LP on Ghostly International
Release date: MARCH 18, 2014

Purchase "Awake": shop.iso50.com/collections/awake

formats:
CD/LP/DIGITAL

artwork by:
ISO50

For nearly a decade, Tycho has been known as the musical alias of Scott Hansen, but with the release of Awake – his second LP for Ghostly International – the solo project has evolved into a three-piece band. Relating closer to post-rock than ambient soundscapes, the record is situated in the present, sounding more like Hansen than drawing from his influences. “This is, in many ways, the first true Tycho record.”

Following 2011’s Dive LP, the San Francisco-based designer toured extensively, and with a full band on stage, his sound coalesced into a percussive, organic whole. Zac Brown (guitars, bass) rejoined Scott on the road for this tour, but it was the particular addition of Rory O’Connor’s live drumming that ultimately sent Hansen back to the studio with a more precise vision. “After the tour, I decided that I wanted to capture the more energetic, driven sound of the live show on the next album,” Hansen recalls. Bringing musicians into Tycho’s creative process was a step towards expanding his own songwriting and advancing the project beyond its current sound.

In a cabin near Tahoe last winter, Zac and Scott began fleshing out the structure of the new record, but it wasn’t until they set up shop in the hills of Santa Cruz with Rory that it all fell into place. “It crystallized the vision of how the drums would come to the forefront on this record,” says Hansen. The sound was much more stripped-down and concise with more organic instruments in the fold. Songs like “Montana” and “Awake” are a departure from Tycho’s previous material – unique to the group effort poured into the songs on the new record – while “See” and “Dye” echo ideas from previous works, bridging a middle ground between the old and new. Working with Count Eldridge, who also engineered Dive, the team could fixate on the pulses that Tycho might previously layer under synthesizers and exhume them with distinct bass and guitar patterns.

Also known for his design work as ISO50, Hansen’s visual and sonic efforts have dovetailed throughout the course of his career. “This is the first time in my life I've dropped everything to focus on one artistic pursuit,” notes Hansen. Previous Tycho releases came to fruition when an amalgam of songs were nearing completion, but Awake is where music becomes the focus and true expression becomes the result.

WEB - www.tychomusic.com 
TWITTER - www.twitter.com/iso50 
FB - www.facebook.com/tychomusic 
YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/user/iso50 
INSTAGRAM - @iso50

Awake

Flesh War

Pre-order from iTunes: http://smarturl.it/tpo-wh-itunes

Slumberland Records is pleased to announce the signing of London-based neo-psychedelic pop group The Proper Ornaments. Mining the rich territories of The Velvet Underground and The Beach Boys, their debut album proper "Wooden Head" features fourteen thrillingly taut and melodic pop songs with a deep, dark undercurrent. Comprised of Argentinian Max Claps and James Hoare (also of Veronica Falls) – who both sing and write the songs – and joined by Daniel Nellis (bass) and Robert Syme (drums), the band have already shared stages with the likes of Real Estate, Woods, Crystal Stilts, Toy and Metronomy.

Maximo Claps arrived in London in 2008 on a one-way ticket from Buenos Aires, aided by former Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham. Oldham had produced a record by Claps' Argentinian band of the time but the group had fallen apart in a mess of drugs and acrimony and Claps' family were attempting to intervene by sending him to a mental hospital. The only option seemed to be to flee the country. As Claps recalls, "The day before flying to the UK I got run over by a car and had to escape hospital in order to make it so I arrived with bandages and my head all stitched up."

A few weeks later Max walked into the vintage clothes shop where James Hoare sat behind the counter reading a book on The Velvet Underground, and attempted to cause a diversion while his kleptomaniac girlfriend stole a pair of boots. “She didn't steal them in the end,” says Max. “They weren't her size”. However, the shop assistant and the would-be accomplice bonded over a mutual love of the Velvets, Love, Felt and West Coast pop and began writing together, taking their name from a song by the pioneering soft psych band The Free Design. In 2010 they released their first single, "Recalling", following it up with a five-song EP for London label No Pain in Pop. In 2013 Lo Recordings released all their output to date on a collection titled "Waiting for the Summer", followed by the single “First Step Out” in February 2014.

Their new album was recorded at a studio in Hackney, as well as at home in their old flat in Whitechapel on a broken 8-track reel-to-reel bought off eBay from an angry guy who threatened to shoot them and chop off their balls when they attempted to return it - a terrifying experience for a pair of skinny indie boys. Taking inspiration from Berlin-era Lou Reed, Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Darklands”, The Television Personalities and West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, the songs are breezy and easy on the ear, with sublime harmonies and chiming Byrdsian guitar, but with a darker twist and a pervasive air of melancholy. Stand-out tracks include the beautiful but sad “Summer’s Gone” (about mental illness), “Magazine” (an upbeat number written from the perspective of a bullet in the barrel of a gun) and “You’ll See” (about how when you die you’ll see everyone you know, all there lined up in a row).

With "Wooden Head", The Proper Ornaments prove that it is still possible to create an album of pure pop perfection. Max's girlfriend may not have stolen the boots, but The Proper Ornaments are about to steal your heart.

“The joint project of James and Max, through romantic drama that borders on that of The Libertines. And when you hear The Proper Ornaments you’ll see why it’s all worth it. It’s like they’re meant for each other, like Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts” - Loud & Quiet


The Proper Ornaments - Summer's Gone

Geronimo! - Spitting In The Ocean

snowflyer - ep

Sleeping Bag sounds different, you guys. On their third LP, "Deep Sleep", Dave Segedy (the group's drummer, songwriter and primary vocalist) has taken the band into heavier, more epic territory. The sunny jangling guitars and fun whistle choruses are gone; obliterated in a full on fuzz-guitar assault.  Dave sings, "I want to free the dog that I am." and he means it.

Segedy's signature pop songwriting style is still in full effect, now brought to life by guitarist Tyler Smith and bassist Glenn Meyers. Tracks like "Hush" and "Wrestle" exemplify Sleeping Bag's honest, bedroom-pop approach and Malkmus-deadpan vocal delivery, but compared to the sunny disposition of the previous records "Deep Sleep" sounds downright tuff. Drenched in distortion & reverb, the album culminates with the nine-minute closer, "The Portal" - an epic shred-fest, equal parts My Bloody Valentine & Weezer "Only In Dreams". It's quite an affair. 

Sleeping Bag - Wrestle

From the album Freedays, released by Joyful Noise Recordings, 2/17/17.

To say that Mike Savino is an innovator would be an understatement. Touring under the moniker Tall Tall Trees, the banjo-wielding bard has reshaped the landscape of what is possible with the instrument. On stage and in studio, Savino breaks down the banjo into its most basic iteration, reminding audiences that the banjo is, at root, a drum. Coupled with his mastery of electronic effects, loops, toy ray guns, and heaps of spontaneous creativity, Tall Tall Trees has been encapsulating audience members worldwide with his mystifying solo shows, as well as playing alongside fellow innovator Kishi Bashi.  

His latest album Freedays is, in a way, his debut album. Having recorded two previous albums in a traditional collaborative band setting, Freedays is the first album Savino wrote and recorded as a solo project. Beginning in 2015, Savino took a much-needed respite from New York City, where he had spent a decade and a half honing his craft, and assumed the role of sole caretaker at an abandoned health retreat nestled in the green mountains of northern Georgia. The Bird’s Nest, as it was called, completely surrounded by national forest, provided the freedom and space to work without time constraints or interruption. 

Composed and recorded over a period of eight months, Freedays tells the story of a man in transition and documents an artist alone at the crossroads of the life he has and the one he wants. The album begins with “Backroads”, which drops the listener into a darkened forest amidst a chorus of wailing coyotes and quickly takes off on a midnight drive. Tracks like “Being There”, “A Place to Call Your Own”, and “CLC” provide an honest look into the author’s thought process and decision making. Although it’s often hard to imagine, most of the sounds on the album are experiments with the banjo, and they all reflect the innovative musings of one of the freshest sounds to come out of the Appalachians in decades.

Purchase 'Freedays' here: http://joyfulnoi.se/Freedays

Purchase The Album

Tall Tall Trees - Backroads

From the album "Moh Lhean", released on Joyful Noise Recordings 3/3/17.
Get the album here: http://joyfulnoi.se/MohLhean
Tickets at http://www.mohlhean.com

WHY? - This Ole King

"He's Got The Whole This Land Is Your Land In His Hands" releases on Joyful Noise Recordings January 20th, 2017.

Order here: http://joyfulnoi.se/newJoanofArc

He's Got The Whole This Land Is Your Land in His Hands

Joan Of Arc - Full Moon And Rainbo Repair

Psychic Temple - Turn Off The Lights

In 1970, Southern soul music maverick Jerry Williams, Jr. made the most radical move of his career. Frustrated with music business politics Williams reinvented himself as Swamp Dogg, an irreverent anti-hero smashing the conventions of commercial R&B music. Swamp Dogg’s debut release Total Destruction to Your Mind featured a post-apocalyptic take on the Muscle Shoals’ sound, with lyrics inspired by the revolutionary politics and psychedelic drugs of the late ‘60s. The music on Total Destruction to Your Mind stood worlds apart from the formulaic pop tunes Williams started cutting in 1954 under the name Little Jerry, and Swamp Dogg hasn’t looked back since. 

But the music business wasn’t ready for Swamp Dogg, nor was the rest of America. His bizarre album titles and wild cover art turned the average consumer off, while his subversive lyrics earned him a spot on Richard Nixon’s infamous enemies list. Swamp Dogg was not deterred. He seemed to relish operating from the margins of the music business, consequently becoming one of the quintessential outsider figures in American music. 

Now, nearly fifty years after his debut release, Swamp Dogg stands on the precipice of another radical reinvention. His latest creation, Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune, is a nine song collection featuring production by Poliça’s Ryan Olson, and finds Swamp Dogg’s bluesy southern soul colliding head-on with 21st Century electronic music production techniques.

Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune

LP/CD/Digital

I'll Pretend

This is an unauthorized mashup of Alan Watts' "Do You Do It or Does It Do You?" and Sigur Rós "Liminal Sleep". Best experienced while sleeping or in an altered state of consciousness.

The Pattern (Alan Watts & Sigur Rós)

Featuring new and unreleased tracks from Joyful Noise Recordings, plus a candid and philosophical interview with Tim Kinsella. 

Songs from: Sleep Party People, Swamp Dogg, jess joy, Danielson, Kishi Bashi, Dale Crover, Anal Trump, Alan Watts & Sigur Rós, Big Business, and Joan of Arc. 

Background music by El Ten Eleven, Joan of Arc, and Dale Crover. 

For more, visit joyfulnoiserecordings.com

Joyful Noise Radio Hour - Episode 1, with Tim Kinsella

Featuring new and unreleased tracks from Joyful Noise Recordings, plus an interview with our artist and friend Dale Crover (aka, legendary drummer of the Melvins, Nirvana, Redd Kross, etc.). 

Songs from: Paul Leary, Serengeti, The Ophelias, Dumb Numbers, Joshua Virtue, Toshi Kasai, Dale Crover, and Melvins. 

Intro by David Woodruff, featuring music by El Ten Eleven.

Background music by El Ten Eleven, Joan of Arc, and Thor & Friends. 

For more, visit joyfulnoiserecordings.com

Sleeping Bag - Wrestle

Joyful Noise Recordings

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