It's been almost 10 years that I'd heard about Fonda. A friend sent me their first ep 'Music for Begginers', from 1998 and I had a blast listening to it. Then years past... and imagine my surprise and delight when David sent me an email last week talking about their new release.
It's been 8 years since Fonda's latest release.The once band now is the couple/duo David Klotz and Emily Cook. Both work on the entertainment industry and have successful careers: David is the music editor for the TV hit 'Glee' and Emily is a screenwriter and among her works are 'Gnomeo and Juliet' and 'Ratatouille'.
Fonda is the unique combination of shoegaze, brit pop, 60's pop, layers of sound and boy-girl singing. And "Better Days", their new ep, is somehow a pretty evolution from the 8 years that passed without new music from them. It's bright, tight and perfect to be listened in the middle of the day, surrounded by the sun and potent speakers/headphones.
In time, here's 'Better Days EP' for your listening pleasure... You can also download the title track here. The EP will be out on June, 6. Better Days - EP by fondaband
The Telegraph Reverb ~ Mind Universe EP (BFW Recordings, 2009)
The Telegraph Reverb is a shoegaze-electronica duo from Bandung, Indonesia. Vicky takes care of programming and ambient sounds and Marino plays with synths.
The only musical register we have from them (so far?) is this little ep released on BFW, a netlabel specialized in ambient, shoegaze, experimental electronica and based in Manchester.
'Mind Universe' runs through an engaging and melodically heartfelt field, sometimes resembling early Ulrich Schnauss.
The ep is available as a free download on the BFW website...
01. The Blue Sea
02. Cloud N Trees
03. I Am Looking Something at Trees
04. Lightning of Harmony
Little Chords ~ Little Chords EP (Independent, 2011)
Here's a little gem in form of 4 tracks filled with reverbs, laid back melancholic melodies and pure lo-fi bliss. This seems to be a side project from prolific canadian electronic act Teen Daze. Here, electronics give space to strummed guitars and shoegazy elements.
The last track is a beautiful take on Yuck's Shook Down.
Great for a balcony with a warm breeze and a sunset. And a heart.
(I hope there's more...)
01. in the guest room
02. summertime
03. valentine's day
04. today
05. shook down (yuck cover)
There’s music that reaches a place inside of us that seems to put us in contact with something ancestral, ancient inside of us; something like you being aware of this long line connecting you with the first human beings and their effort to, culturally, evolve.
My Heart Belongs To Cecilia Winter hits me in that way. It is extremely contemporary but it has this medieval feel to it (melodically and also visually speaking). Of course, the idea of death permeating the album also gives an extra help to create this sort of bond with once-upon-a-time-being-and-feelings…
This trio from Switzerland released their first album ‘Our Love Will Cut Through Everything’ a few months ago. A beautiful, strong and deeply evocative collection of songs that surely stands out as one of the most creative things of the year.
I talked with Thom (vocals and guitar) about who’s Cecilia Winter, influences, death, the album, comparisons with Arcade Fire and the indie scene in Switzerland. Check his (beautiful) words…
Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowland are Crocodiles.They’re two friends from San Diego making energetic shoegazy-noise pop wth surfey krautrock feeling. It has hints of the noisy, most distorted phase of The Jesus and Mary Chain and some psychedelic flirtations with Spiritualized, Spacemen 3. But of course, it’s not only that.
Their story starts with ‘Neon Jesus’: an infectious song that took bloggers and music lovers by surprise in 2008. At a first listen, one can see what the fuss was about and the potential of the song. Being from the sunny California, you might expect a bright sound and, don’t get me wrong, is that what you get most of the time, but it’s the kind of sunny that blinds you because it’s too bright. But there’s a twist: a rebel, dark and unsettling feel…
‘Summer of Hate’, the debut album, came out in 2009 released by Fat Possum Records. I disagree with a lot of people that says that the album is too influenced by the bands mentioned before. Maybe the elements that would give more personality to their sound weren’t that present as in their subsequent album (‘I Wanna Kill’ and ‘Here Comes the Sky are a must hear!).
A few months ago, ‘Sleep Forever’, their second album was released. It has, indeed, much more personality than ‘Summer…’.
Songs like ‘Mirrors’, ‘Sleep Forever’ and specially ‘Hearts of Love’ are brilliant.
‘Hearts of Love’ has one of the best videos of the year and expresses perfectly what Crocodiles are: sunny and bright at first with an ‘evil’ and obscure atmosphere that slowly builds up.
the band in heaven is a storm coming and you can see it from your window. when arrives, it rains in slow motion and the time seems to be stretched.
the band in heaven is actually located in florida. it has layers (beautiful layers) of guitars and moody, echoey vocals. on their myspace they make their references quite clear and objective: it is 80’s, it is 90’s and it is today. and black tambourine. i would add to that the pop-ish side of jesus and mary chain.
‘high low’ is a song that you hear and know/feel that’s ready to be huge… it builds up – layer by layer – into a fuzzy and electric catharsis of distortion and voices. It is, I warn you, one of those addictive songs that stuck in your head. and most likely is the song you would play if you suddenly decided to run away in the middle of the night.
(don’t know why, but the first time I heard this song, it made me think about radiohead’s album ‘the bends’ and how tom yorke should take a listen to this band and try to give us (the good) radiohead back… remember ‘pablo honey’? ‘ok computer’? and the already mentioned ‘the bends’?)
‘high low’ is enough to make you fall for the band in heaven, but then you see that they have a cover for ‘dreams’, my favourite the cranberries song. and it’s not just a cover. while the cranberries version has dolores extremely evocative and dramatic vocals, this one has this inconsolable hopelessness that gives a completely different shade to the song. the fuzziness, spacey instrumental – i don’t have to mention – is there.
on their bandcamp you can download a live performance recorded on club sandwich. 6 songs (including ‘high low’ and ‘dreams’) awesomely performed in all their layered complexity and as powerful as the ‘studio’ ones. in fact, ‘dreams’ assumes some kind of angriness in a slightly more rapid version that’s pretty interesting.
if you live in a place where hurricanes, typhoons are frequently visiting and you are melancholic, this is your music.
i know this will sound extremely obvious (a bit tacky, also) but if I knew heaven had a band and it played music like this, I wouldn’t mind go to bed tonight and never wake up.
ferns is this 5 piece act from kuala lumpur (malaysia) that, back in 2007, left indiepoppers completely in love with their debut album 'on botany'.
fast forward three years and here we are: me, writing this article; you reading it and ferns preparing the release of their new album entitled 'fairweather friends'.
the album will feature 8 new songs:
01. missing lyrics
02. dismay
03. miss stormcloud
04. a funny feelin'
05. anti social scene
06. hey ok
07. i should be having more fun
08. when you fall sleep
before we talk with warren, check the preview of 'hey ok', one of the songs featured on their new album... the song is not yet finished.on warren's words: "that's a demo / work- in- progress yeah?".
interview with warren... 1. tell us a bit about your history... how it all began… and where the name ‘ferns’ comes from?
well, we're a bunch of long-time friends from kuala lumpur, malaysia who got together with the simple aim of making catchy, interesting pop music. we'd all been playing music for many years with a diverse background in loud sounds - metal, hardcore, indie-rock - you name it. in our slightly advanced ages, we decided that pop was the way to go for the sake of our eardrums and sanity :)
when we first started out, there was no scene or bands of a similar ilk to us at the time over here. indiepop, twee and whatnot were pretty much unheard of as well. so we pretty much did what we thought was cool and interesting and hoped that people would like it. some years down the line, the situation's different. due to the internet making everything more accessible, i believe the asian indiepop scene has been growing considerably. though I'd have to say that malaysia is still lagging behind, as we're still pretty much the sole representative :)
the name ferns came about because we looking for the most ubiquitous yet nondescript thing possible. and we dig one-word names, kinda like wilco - whom we love!
02. if your music were a planet, what would it look like?
a lovely green, verdant earth - a couple of million years ago before bi-pedal humanoids crawled out from the primordial muck and took to throwing their garbage all over the lawn.
03. name a few influences (music, film, comic book, historic figures… anything).
musically, we've always mentioned influences that nobody ever thinks we actually sound like - mercury rev, flaming lips, grandaddy, wilco, and of course any form non pre-fabricated pop music.
It's been almost 10 years that I'd heard about Fonda. A friend sent me their first ep 'Music for Begginers', from 1998 and I had a blast listening to it. Then years past... and imagine my surprise and delight when David sent me an email last week talking about their new release.
