Fang Island: Major (Sargent House, 7/24/12)
If you’ve never seen high-fiving feel-good five-piece Fang Island in concert, you’re missing ear-to-ear grins and über-melodic riff bonanzas. Here’s the band performing “Asunder,” from last year’s Major, in the studio. You won’t see a crowd basking in the musical euphoria, but you’ll see the band rocking it all the same.
Based out of Wexford, Ireland, the hyper-melodic and spasmodic sounds of Adebisi Shank immediately caught our ears when Sargent House reissued its sophomore album in 2011. (Interview here, MP3 premiere here, and year-end list here.)
Now, in advance of an album hopefully later this year, the trio has unveiled an in-studio video of a new track tentatively dubbed “Thunder” (real title TBD). Do yourself a solid and pick up Second Album after watching.
This interview appears in ALARM #40. Subscribe here to get your copy!
Fang Island: Major (Sargent House, 7/24/12)
“Seek It Out”
Fang Island is laughing. Fang Island is constantly laughing. Jason Bartell and Chris Georges, the two primary songwriters for the Brooklyn-by-way-of-Rhode Island outfit, are sitting in the Greenpoint bar where they played their first show in New York. They sip Brooklyn Lagers on a muggy evening while wearing nearly identical jean jackets. The duo is discussing whether drummer Marc St. Sauveur would don the “Denim Daddy” attire on stage, ultimately deciding that he would refuse. Bartell and Georges giggle at the thought.
Last month ALARM presented its 50 favorite albums of 2012, an eclectic, rock-heavy selection of discs that were in steady rotation in our downtown-Chicago premises. Now, to give some love to tunes that were left out, we have our 50 (+5) favorite songs of last year — singles, B-sides, EP standouts, soundtrack cuts, and more.
This content appears in the iPad-exclusive ALARM 39. Download it for free and subscribe to our new print edition.
Marriages: Kitsuné (Sargent House, 5/1/12)
“Ride in My Place”
Emma Ruth Rundle has a belated Christmas gift for you. While most of us braved awkward reunions with relatives last winter, the guitarist/singer and her new band Marriages were cooped up in a studio, challenging the very notion of what it means to be “post-rock.”
Northern Irish math rockers And So I Watch You From Afar have released “Like A Mouse,” a massive, euphoric single from their forthcoming album, All Hail Bright Futures.
Another year, another torrential downpour of albums across our desks. As always, we encountered way too much amazing music, from Meshuggah to The Mars Volta, Converge, Killer Mike, P.O.S, and many more.
Indian Handcrafts: Civil Disobedience for Losers (Sargent House, 10/30/12)
“Red Action”
Indian Handcrafts: “Red Action”
If one is company, two is an all-out riot. That’s the reigning message championed by this newest effort from Indian Handcrafts, the Ontario-based duo of Brandyn James Aikins (drums) and Daniel Brandon Allen (guitar).
Fang Island: Major (Sargent House, 7/24/12)
The second of three singles from Fang Island’s Major, “Sisterly” is the first from the anthemic album to get the video treatment. Watch below as the band and backup singers enact an ’80s-style TV performance, only to be manipulated by a mysterious hidden hand (Doctor Claw style).