Another day down, another great batch of streams and videos to show for it. First off: a full record stream from The Growlers, who have a career-best on their hands with Chinese Fountain. Representing the music video side of things, there was YAWN’s fascinating video for “Flytrap” and then a whole host of great single song streams. New Orleans duo Caddywhompus started to gain some attention on the back of “Stuck“, Glish made a deep impression with their towering “Pretty Car“, and Radical Dads carved out a place for themselves with the jumpy “In the Water“. Sonic Avenues’ second exclusive track for the deluxe version of their classic self-titled surfaced, as did great brand-new songs from FF, Doe, and Allo Darlin‘. However, despite all those great candidates for a feature, there was one thing that kept creeping back up; Allah-Las music video for “Follow You Down”.
From the immediate outset, it becomes apparent that “Follow You Down” isn’t going to be overtly conventional. Mixing the band’s trademark 60’s garage-grit revivalism with a quasi-Western, the video coaxes as much intrigue out of that contrast as possible. With both mediums emphasizing the lo-fi (and the low-key) aspects of the band’s presentation, things in the Sasha Eisenman-directed clip get fairly ridiculous pretty quickly- but that doesn’t stop it from being compelling or losing any momentum. The actual story in the video’s a fairly straightforward narrative that plays out, in full accordance with their chosen style, like a great Western- right down to the quietly tragic/humorous ending. “Follow You Down” on its own was a fun rock n’ soul-tinged throwback but the video manages to give it new life. All in all, it’s an absolute blast and goes quite a ways in proving that sometimes the best videos come out of a band letting their guard down and allowing themselves to have fun.
Watch “Follow You Down” below and order the just-released Worship the Sun (which “Follow You Down” is taken off of) over at Allah-Las’ bandcamp.
It’s been an absolutely monstrous week for great new music and we’re not even halfway through it. First and foremost, it should be noted that Stereogum is now streaming LVL UP’s Hoodwink’d in full (this site’s current front-runner for Album of the Year), along with great new records from Spray Paint, Lower Plenty, and S. NPR, as always, has a few gems available in their First Listen series, King Tuff’s Black Moon Spelland Perfume Genius’ Too Brightamong them. Wander on over to the unending sprawl that is bandcamp and there are a few new things to unearth, like Cancers’ Fatten the Leechesand the unreasonably compelling split that comes courtesy of Follies and Wishbone. Similarly, Pitchfork Advance is offering up an early stream of upcoming stunners from Whirr and Foxes in Fiction, Stayand Ontario Gothic, respectively. On the single song side of things, there were outstanding new tunes that surfaced from site favorites Krill, a revitalized The Twilight Sad, a resurgent The Jazz June, and an intriguing new shoegaze project born out of the Deafheaven camp going by the name Creepers. As if all of that weren’t enough, there were also standout music videos emerging from a few intriguing corners of the musical spectrum that generally gets covered here, mostly from artists that exist on the fringes of their genre- Kevin Morby, Angel Olsen, Hiss Golden Messenger on the folksier side of things and the punk-leaning acts being well represented by Pet Sun and PS I Love You.
With all of that now existing in the world, anything getting the feature spot today had to be spectacular. Mitski (who recently made an introductory appearance on this site via Watch This) proved up to the challenge with the gnarled-but-beautiful basement pop rager “Townie”. Unsurprisingly, this song (and Bury Me At Makeout Creek, the upcoming record it’s attached to) comes via Double Double Whammy- who, between LVL UP, Follies and Wishbone, Krill, and this, had themselves one hell of a day- cementing that label’s reputation as one of the most exciting things in music. Pulling in an equal amount of influence from punk, post-punk, 90’s scuzz, powerpop, soul, and 50’s pop, “Townie” reveals itself to be something immediate and sublime before the gift of a chorus kicks in. Easily one of 2014’s best songs, it skyrockets the expectations for Bury Me At Makeout Creek and acts as an unforgettable introduction-at-large for Mitski. Everything here works on an extraordinary level, from the floating vocals to the tambourine attack to the feedback screeches to the fucking theremin section. “Townie” is as defiant as it is triumphant, adding an impressive amount of gravity with an unflinchingly honest lyric set. Package it all together and it becomes something completely irresistible that approaches levels of transcendence. Music doesn’t get much better than this.
Listen to “Townie” below and pre-order Bury Me At Makeout Creek from Double Double Whammy here.
And so it begins; the photographs are undergoing their respective editing phases, the videos are being uploaded, and the countless thoughts pertaining to this year’s NXNE are being organized. There will be a lot of coverage that gets run here in various formats: video features, summaries, pictorial reviews, full reviews, and more. Virtually all of it will be posted immediately after the final edits are made so expect a wealth of daily content to close out this week and throughout next week as well. With all of that out of the way, let’s move on to the photographs and video that got captured during Day 1 of NXNE 2014- and the summaries to help give them some context.
Day 1 began with a stunning contrast; the manic post-everything insanity of Guerilla Toss vs. their unusually elegant surroundings (The Great Hall). Arriving a little bit late to Guerilla Toss’ set didn’t prove to be too much of an issue- the crowd that had gathered for them was abysmally small- but they played like they always do, unleashing virtually everything they’ve got (and showcasing some very promising new material in the process). It wasn’t too long before at least one band member had lost an article of clothing (though they’re notorious for losing much more) and were coercing everyone up onto the stage. With the crowd now split, half on the stage and half still in the standing area, the band instructed those that were on the stage to promptly get off of it, then join hands and surround the audience members who didn’t come up in a circle. From that point forward, the hand-held circle was now instructed to run counterclockwise at the start of their next song, increasingly tightening around the audience in the middle in an effort to force them out and onto the stage. This somehow lasted for close to three songs before it dispersed- and Guerilla Toss left soon after, looking visibly spent and more than a little ecstatic.
After Guerilla Toss’ well-intentioned shenanigans, The Great Hall was abandoned for Toronto’s best sweatbox: Smiling Buddha. Arriving just after a dispute of some sort had broken out inside the venue caused a brief delay while the police were called to the scene. After everything had fallen back into pace, people were admitted once again- and just in time for Mexican Slang. It may have been due to whatever the disturbance was (no one seemed to know the specifics) but Mexican Slang wound up playing the shortest set of the festival. While they weren’t NXNE’s most engaging or energetic live band, it’s worth noting that their sound was very tight-knit and the last song of their set was one of the very best of Day 1.
Greys took the stage soon after that, tuning and setting up as usual before doing something very unusual: they announced they were done before they played a single song. Instead of starting their set, they cleared the stage for their labelmates The Beverleys and allowed them a couple songs. There were many speculating this was a reaction to NXNE’s problematic “radius clause” that prohibited several bands from participating in conflicting non-festival shows (this clause was, thankfully, lifted before the festival came to a close). The Beverleys took full advantage of the opportunity and played with genuine heart making for the festival’s first truly great moment.
Greys then took their mantle back up and guitarist/vocalist Shehzaad Jiwani delivered a heartfelt speech which addressed the young musicians in the audience, making sure they remembered that they didn’t work for the music industry- that the music industry worked for them. Following that, the band tore through a blistering set that leaned heavily on their extraordinary just-released Carpark debut If Anything. All of the songs seemed to melt into each other, giving the whole thing a feeling that was as relentless as their music. It was easily the best set of Day 1 and even found time for a ferocious cover of Mission of Burma’s “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate”. By the time their set had come to a close, it was evident that more than a few people would be making sure to see them at least one more time before the festival came to a close. Packaged with everything else, it was a fairly strong start to what would prove to be an incredibly memorale festival.
Watch a slightly blown-out sounding video of Greys performing “I’m Okay” below and look through the photo gallery of Day 1 beneath the video.
Heartbreaking Bravery 