In Case You Missed It: Dance Gavin Dance – Downtown Battle Mountain
For those of you that haven’t been paying attention, I’ve been going on and on lately about a new album coming out from a little band called Dance Gavin Dance. Instant Gratification will be the follow up to 2013’s Acceptance Speech, and their second album with Tillian Pearson (formerly of Tides of Man) on lead vocals. Pearson was an immediate fit with the band, they put out an album that made it sound like they’ve been making music together for their entire careers. It was a seriously impressive album, and proved to be the biggest leap forward for Dance Gavin Dance since their debut full length Downtown Battle Mountain. Which is incidentally, precisely what we’re here to talk about. There is a ton of hype surrounding Instant Gratification, but this is the perfect time to reflect back on one of the original classics that will always be a huge milestone in the history of the band.
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News: Nocturnal Wonderland Announces Initial Artists for 20th Annual Festival
–Written by Kevin Madert
Long-running Insomniac venture Nocturnal Wonderland is set to take place for the 20th year this Labor Day weekend, and today announced the first round of artists who will be joining in the celebration. Bassnectar, Pretty Lights, and Armin van Buuren are among the headliners tapped to take the stage September 4-6 at the San Manuel Amphitheater and Grounds in San Bernardino, CA. Insomniac doesn’t appear to have the ability to go any way besides big, so expect much more to come between now and Labor Day.
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Review: Hotel Books – Run Wild, Young Beauty
I’ll be honest, I’ve been waiting for the new Dance Gavin Dance album for a long time now. Acceptance Speech was one of my highlights of 2013, and their follow up has been marked to top my album of the year list since it was announced. And of course, they released it for streaming last night. That’s the same night that I was supposed to review the new Hotel Books album, Run Wild, Young Beauty. I honestly wasn’t quite sure how I was going to do that. I wasn’t sure how I was going to stay focused long enough to not jump back to DGD. It’s not that I’m not a fan of Hotel Books, but the build up to the DGD album had proved to be a bit too much for me to handle, apparently. I could not have possibly been more wrong. Midway through the opening track I was eating my words. If I had no integrity in my journalistic presence, I would have simply just published my notes, but seeing as they are mostly comprised of the word “wow”, I figured I take a crack at writing something of some substance.
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News: Frank Ocean’s Follow Up to Channel Orange
Frank Ocean hit the scene with the initial wave of Odd Future hype, and floored everyone with his very un-OFWGKTA mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra. It drew me in with the orange E30 M3 on the cover, but I don’t expect that to mean anything to the majority of you. He was a soulful, deep r&b revival-esq beacon of light lost in a wave of dick jokes. He was hard to ignore, and not many people even tried.
New Tune Tuesday (4/7/15)
–Written by Kevin Madert
A smattering of new music from across the genre spectrum. Did we leave out your favorite band’s latest material? Let us know!
Kill The Noise & Tommy Trash – Louder
Having lived a relatively math-free life since I skated a B- in my requisite lecture hall course freshman year someone may have to check my calculations here, but I’ll give it a shot. A longtime bass music powerhouse + a longtime house music don = one hell of a tune. Accompanied by Rock City on vocals, Kill the Noise and Tommy Trash turn in here a dark hard-electro tune that’s got a little bit of everything: growling basslines, massive syncopated drum hits, shouted lyrics, and a surprisingly nuanced drop that’s sure to tear up festival mainstages this summer. In tandem with the release, the duo announced a short co-headlining tour – including a stop at Washington, DC’s Ultrabar. You can find more information about that here.
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