Music News

THE CHAINSMOKERS (IN EXCLUSIVELY) – PAUL KALKBRENNER – GUY GERBER – KAYTRANADA – KUNGS – SAM PAGANINI – STEPHAN BODZIN – VALD – AAZAR – ARTBAT – BON ENTENDEUR (DJ Set) – BOOMBASS/CASSIUS – BOYS NOIZE – FOLAMOUR – KAS:ST (live) – LA MAMIE’S (DJ Set) – MATHAME – MEDUZA – MYD (DJ Set) – FLIM – SOLSTICE – SUNLEE

NYC-via-Seoul electronic producer, DJ, and vocalist Yaeji has announced the release of a new mixtape titled WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던, due out April 2 on XL Recordings / Remote Control Records. To introduce the new project, her first full-length mixtape and release on XL Recordings, Yaeji has shared a new animated music video for the lead single ‘Waking Up Down’.

Inspired by classic anime opening sequences and based entirely on Yaeji’s own original character designs and illustrations, the music video for ‘Waking Up Down’ was created by Yaeji with direction and further illustration by her close friend Annie Zhao and production by Studio Yotta.  Entirely self-produced, the song walks the line between DIY pop and underground club music, with English and Korean lyrics about the simple euphoria of young adulthood. Throughout the song, Yaeji celebrates the little things in life, small victories like staying on top of to-do lists, making home-cooked meals, and having empathy for others, while admitting these don’t come easy. In the end Yaeji, with the help of some friends in the form of “masters” of her daily tasks, achieves her final form as she reaches her goals.

WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던 is titled intentionally; for Yaeji, the title captures the spirit of the project as a whole which she explains, “is so much about friendship, family, gratitude and support – support that I’ve felt, that I’ve given, and that we all share.” Produced entirely by Yaeji over the course of two years, she started writing the music for WHAT WE DREW with no specific narrative in mind, each track becoming a snippet of her life, a look into her diary. This total sense of freedom in her newly-built design and recording studio in Brooklyn allowed her to draw on a wide range of sounds, including the Korean indie rock and electronica that she listened to as a teenager in Seoul, and late ’90s and early 2000s hip hop and R&B she grew up listening to. The guests featured on the project represent her community in New York City and beyond, including Brooklyn-via-Oakland rapper Nappy Nina, London performance artist Victoria Sin, London producer Shy One, and Tokyo DJ and producer YonYon; tracks like “FREE INTERLUDE,” featuring Lil Fayo, trenchcoat, and Sweet Pea, capture the open and collaborative spirit of afternoons at Yaeji headquarters. Although the mixtape is much indebted to Yaeji’s newfound laser-focused creative vision and self-taught production work, it’s largely informed by her network of close-knit collaborators and friends.

Since the release of Yaeji’s 2017 EP’s (Yaeji and EP2), which broke her out as one of the most exciting new voices in dance music, she’s produced remixes for Charlie XCX and Robyn, sold out two headlining worldwide tours, and was included on the BBC’s Sound of 2018 list. In the midst of her swift rise, she has remained devoted to New York’s underground dance music scene; in 2019, Yaeji curated and organized Elancia, a massive Brooklyn warehouse rave where she gave her favourite local parties headlining slots. An artist who many pegged as the one to watch, Yaeji now aims beyond expectations, with an eye toward the worlds of music production, visual art, game design and more.

Pre-save Yaeji – WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던 via https://yaeji.ffm.to/whatwedrew.

Before the hangovers from their massive national tour with Dune Rats, Ruby Fields and Dear Seattle have even subsided, TOTTY today announce their own national headline tour alongside news their hotly awaited sophomore EP ‘Garden’ will be released on the 8th of May through Ratbag Records/BMG. 

The Garden tour will take in Sydney, Wollongong, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide this May and June and the band can’t wait to hit the road, saying “We’re so excited to have our very own headline tour to show yas the new songs and rock as hard as we can. We’ve been working on these songs for a long time and we cant wait for you to hear them and sing them with us.” Joining them on all shows will be punk-rock duo Debbies who are celebrating the release of their latest single ‘Waking Up In LA’.

Last year the Wollongong shed-rock three piece lifted the lid on the first single from the EP in ‘Lucky’ which resonated with radio. It was swiftly added to rotation at triple j and sat in their Top 50 Most Played for a month, ultimately reaching #13. They then completed their own headline tour full of sold out dates, and fronted the camera for an Aus Music Month shoot with General Pants. The second offering came at the end of last month with the release of ‘Fairies’, a loud and more grungier track showing of their raucous energy.

Never ones to shy away from the tour van, TOTTY have played alongside names like SKEGGS, Hockey Dad and Slowly Slowly as well as the festival stages of Falls Festival, Yours & Owls, Fairgrounds, Farmer and the Owl and Grow Your Own ensuring they know how to enthral a crowd – and they will this winter.

TOTTY
‘GARDEN’ EP
OUT MAY 8TH VIA RATBAG RECORDS/BMG
PRESAVE HERE

GARDEN TOUR

Saturday, May 16th
The Lansdowne, Sydney

Friday, May 22nd
La La Las, Wollongong

Friday, May 29th
Crowbar, Brisbane

Friday, June 5th
The Tote, Melbourne

Saturday, June 6th
Exeter Beer Garden, Adelaide

TICKETS AT www.tottyband.com

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DRAB QUEEN 
GIRLS OF THE INTERNET – ‘I DON’T WANNA LOSE YOU’
FT. OLIVIA LOUISE 
OUT NOW

Girls Of The Internet have been on an unstoppable trajectory over the last few years, with their brand of future facing house and soul music. They now step into the new decade with ‘I Don’t Wanna Lose You’ ft. Olivia Louise, the first single taken from their forthcoming second album ‘Girls FM’ out on their own Drab Queen imprint. The album will follow the Girls Of The Internet signature sound and individuality, with the singles artwork featuring a newly painted piece for all nine signatures by Girls Of The Internet’s writer and producer, Tom Kerridge.

“The new album as a whole, pushes the role of Girls of the Internet ‘the band’ even further than we did with “SYRUP”. I have grown up around sampled music, and I love it dearly, but how much longer can we keep pinching loops from 70’s soul and disco records? We play every rhodes piano, every bass guitar, we write our own songs. I want to see house music moving into the future, and that seems difficult if we’re still sampling the same records they did in the 90’s.”
– Girls Of The Internet

2019 saw them release their debut album ‘SYRUP’, to universal acclaim. Achieving the accolade of being included in BBC Radio 6’s ‘Albums Of The Year’ List, further radio support came from esteemed broadcasters such as Gilles Peterson, Mary Anne Hobbs, Tom Ravenscroft, Mista Jam, Nemone, Lauren Laverne and Toddla T. Playing at iconic venues around Europe, Girls Of The Internet has earned key stamps of approval across the board from The Black Madonna, Basement Jaxx, Claptone, Axel Boman, Nightmares On Wax, Joe Goddard, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Saoirse, Mark Broom and Horse Meat Disco.

After fielding offers from a variety of record labels, Girls’ have decided to keep hold of their independence and the rights to their music, joining a long list of successful artists who are taking on the music industry on their own terms.

“I was very keen to work with Olivia again – she delivered the standout cut on our debut, and aside from “When U Go”, it’s the track we get most attention from. Our mix of techno/disco with her breathy R&B is so interesting to me, and a concept we are continuing through “Girls FM”.”
– Girls Of The Internet

Setting the scene of what’s to come, ‘I Don’t Wanna Lose You’ sees the band take the conventions of disco and house and propel it into the future. Featuring vocalist Olivia Louise, who appeared on one of the standout tracks from 2019’s, ‘SYRUP’; Olivia delivers her trademark smooth RnB vocals over Girls’ disco bass, saturated analogue chords and thumping drum machines. Girls Of The Internet deliberately blur the lines between electronic and live music. In a world of sampling others, Girls proudly create their own sounds.

Girls Of The Internet ‘I Don’t Wanna Lose You’ ft. Olivia Louse is available now via Drab Queen.

Connect with Girls Of The Internet

““Cynical Serene” is typically, wondrously PEARS. It’s 139 seconds of punk fury with a vocal breakdown seemingly recorded in scenic Laurel Canyon, California, enhanced by bongloads of righteous boo. And while you may be familiar with the band’s brevity and velocity, you’re going to wonder what happened at the end of the song. (Spoiler alert: That’s where the “serenity” comes in.).”
–ALTERNATIVE PRESS

“PEARS high energy tracks have stemmed from their deeply seeded punk roots that have defined a resurgence for their musical scene with their own brand of hardcore-punk.” – HYSTERIA MAGAZINE 

“I was perfectly prepared to have my Blue Album already,” Quinn says, laughing. “That whole fucking cliché of ‘Our best record’s behind us.’

With the release of PEARS on Fat Wreck Chords), Quinn says, “Maybe not!” But there’s no maybe about it. PEARS is a significant step forward for a band that has grown by leaps and bounds on each album.

Recorded with Chris Fogal (The Gamits) at Black in Bluhm Studio in Denver, PEARS is 14 songs and 31 minutes of the band’s signature hardcore: heavy, melodic, blistering, pointed, and surprisingly catchy. While it continues down the path set by Green Starand 2015’s Go to Prison, PEARS finds the band taking a different creative approach.

“The last PEARS record, almost every detail was worked out before we ever stepped foot into the studio,” Quinn explains. “This record, we went in with skeletons of songs and put things together on the fly. ”

“We never could afford the studio time to be in there 24/7,” adds guitarist/vocalist Brian Pretus. “A couple of songs ended up being stuff that we wrote on the spot.”

Those include “Naptime,” which moves from loping pop to group-chant hardcore in the space of two minutes, and penultimate track “Traveling Time,” which Pretus describes as a “palate cleanser.” Basically, a mid-tempo pop song, “Traveling Time” began as a Quinn solo track but found its way onto PEARS thanks to the band’s more open studio approach.

“Collectively, we figured we’ve danced around pop music our entire career so far,” Quinn says, “but we were like, ‘Let’s just do a full-on fucking pop tune. Why not?”

“Full on” is a good descriptor for PEARS in general. The album opens with feedback at the beginning of the riff-heavy “Killing Me” and closes when the even riff-heavier “Cynical Serene” (whose opening plays like Nirvana by way of Hum). In between are 12 songs that shake with can’t-sit-still energy, as the band—rounded out by the ace rhythm section of bassist Erich Goodyear and drummer Jarret Nathan—shifts on a dime between parts and sounds. Elements of prog and grunge intermingle with classic hardcore and hook-laden rock—and it can happen in the space of one song. (In this case, “Worm.”)

Atop all of it are Quinn’s voice and words, which took a different approach as well on this album.

“I thought that I was going to continue the absurdist poetry thing that started with Go to Prison and amplified on Green Star,” he says. Describing Green Star as “The Iliad with shit and cum,” Quinn notes that this time, “The songs are about shit.”

Not shit in the “shit and cum” sense. Quinn writes directly about getting older (“Traveling Time”), moving past anger (“Nervous”), and the prospect of never having a family (“Daughter”), among other topics, all with the wit and candor PEARS fans have come to expect from the explosive frontman.

“It makes perfect sense that this is the third act, but it’s not what I would have predicted it to be,” Quinn says. “I wouldn’t have guessed that the album would end on a bittersweet note. It’s more uplifting than either record that we’ve done, but it’s not a happy record.”

It’s a great record regardless. PEARS will take it on the road extensively in the coming year, with tours in the U.S., Europe, Australia, Japan, and South America.

PEARS – AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2020

May 28 – Singing Bird Studios, Frankston
Tickets
‪May 29 – Bendigo Hotel, Melbourne
Tickets
‪‪May 30 – Hotel Metro, Adelaide
Tickets
‪‪May 31 – The Den, Perth
Tickets
‪June 1 – Margaret River Football Club, WA
Tickets at the door
‪June 3 – Transit Bar, Canberra
Tickets
‪‪June 4 – Hamilton Station Hotel, Newcastle – Free Entry
‪‪June 5 – Bearded Lady, Brisbane
Tickets
June 6 – Vinnie’s Dive, Gold Coast
Tickets
June 7- Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney – Free Entry

Tickets on sale now. 
For complete tour and ticket information, visit: 
pearstheband.com