[Watch] Steady Holiday - "Open Water"

From her forthcoming debut album, Under The Influence, LA songstress Dre Babinski aka Steady Holiday has unveiled the video for her latest single, "Open Water". It's possible that in the recent past you've caught a glimpse of Babinski perform live as she's been in a several LA bands in addition to opening for the likes of Fitz and the Tantrums and Fun.. Since then she's decided it was high time to step out on her own, thus here we are today. 

"Open Water" is equal parts seductive, melancholic, and almost saccharin-level-sweet. In this particular instance, I liken Babinski to a siren who is breathlessly luring us all out into open water, where the depths of our darkest memories could swallow us whole. The accompanying video is just as entrancing as the song itself. 

If you're heading to Coachella for either weekend, Steady Holiday will be performing on both Sundays, so be sure to keep an ear out. LA fam who aren't going to Coachella can catch her at her residency at The Satellite every Friday in May. 

Under The Influence is out June 24th courtesy of Infinite Best Recordings. 

Steady Holiday On Tour
04/17 - Indio, CA @ Coachella
04/24 - Indio, CA @ Coachella
06/06 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite
06/13 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite
06/20 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite
06/27 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite

[Night Out] Electric Mantis, Said The Sky, & Illenium @ Highline Ballroom (04/01/2016)

You thought I was done going to shows for the week!

THAT'S ADORABLE! 

How could I POSSIBLY quit my streak when one of my new favorite finds was in town!?

I can't remember exactly what took place that one fine day a few months back on Soundcloud when Anchorage producer Electric Mantis fell into my lap, but I have been vibing out to his tracks ever since. The track that sold me on his abilities was "The One"but i've made sure to spend some quality time rifling through his Soundcloud profile feeling him out.

While he hasn't quite hit his stride of cranking out nonstop bangers yet, I can tell that the homey has just started to find his footing and is starting to dig into his signature sound. Let me be clear: this dude is going places. I mean, the dude has already racked up a few MILLION streams on Soundcloud. (Calm down, that wasn't all me, although I definitely have contributed to those numbers since then.)

Also, remember when like 100k streams per song felt like a huge ass deal? That feels like another lifetime now. #MySpace 

ANYWAY. I had completely spaced on this show. I knew it was coming almost a month ago but the date just got away from me. Luckily, despite it being a sold out show miracles do happen and about a half hour before our hero took the stage I found out I was able to step foot inside Highline Ballroom and confirm my suspicions that he is in fact the real deal. I sadly arrived late to his set because I was camera-less in Bushwick getting shit done with StyleIt, who graciously lent me her camera so I didn't have to double back to Harlem to get mine. It was quite the scramble to get there to make sure I got maximum exposure to someone who is typically 4,500 miles away from yours truly at any given moment.

It was definitely worth all the effort. Despite not including a ton of his original material in the part of his set I was able to catch, I reveled in all of the creative decisions he made. Even in his remixes I could hear the little bits of his personality peppered in. It's not often that a producer's style translates from his original tracks to his reworks this early on, which is why I can confidently infer that we're patiently waiting on a diamond in the rough to get trimmed down and polished with this guy. 

It's admittedly been since the night of the Don Diablo interview that I really spent a full night at an "EDM" show. Even then, I wasn't really... out with "the people", per say. I forgot how many characters will come out of the woodwork to take drugs and dance the night away. 

This show started fairly promptly at 7 though, so the exponential "lit-ness" part was confusing. I did have a few favorite fans from the night. There was the GoPro #teen that was engrossed in getting quality footage of all of the DJs for the night. He was next to a quintessential EDM bro in his baby blue tank top who was rolling like crazy and was convinced I was trying to snap photos of him all night (I did get snap video of how ridiculous he was acting but that's about it). 

I live for this sweet GoPro #teen tbh

And then there was #EDMShey. It's coming up on a year since Sprout and I went across the pond to drink and get in as many hugs with Shey and Kim, so occasionally when I find myself missing one of them I end up running into their doppelganger in some random place. I don't think #EDMShey was on drugs, but man was he high on life. #EDMShey was so happy and danced harder than anyone else in the front row. He noticed that I was trying to capture him as he danced the night away and chose to pause to pose for a snap. 

#EDMShey is bae, but cannot replace actual Shey

I should say that Said The Sky and Illenium both nailed their sets as well, I just wasn't as emotionally invested in them as I was Electric Mantis, who was great. 

Did I mention Electric Mantis is great?

He's great AND he's going to be heading out on his first official tour in May on the west coast! It's going to be great, if you're on the left coast, you should definitely make it a point to check him out. 

You can check out my photos from the show below along with the dates for Electric Mantis' upcoming tour. 

[Night Out] The Saint Johns @ Gramercy Theatre (03/31/2016)

With such a plethora of music happening in NYC at any given moment it's often overwhelming to attempt to squeeze in as much awesomeness as possible. Lucky for me on Thursday night I was able to make time for former Florida fam The Saint Johns' set at Gramercy Theater before beelining it to the Soundcloud Go launch party at Flash Factory. 

The Saint Johns aren't *actually* Florida fam in the sense that we all knew each other as we were growing up in Florida (them in St. Augustine while I was in Orlando). I simply consider us to be kindred spirits because we all have had stints in Florida, NYC, and Nashville, the only difference being they went from NYC to Nashville and I did the opposite. At any rate, Nashville suits them well as they performed cuts from their latest album, Dead of Night, which turns a month old today. 

It was a good warm up show for the night I was about to have, that's for sure! Have a peek at the photos from the show. If you're not in NYC, the band is currently still on the road, so scroll down just a little bit more to see if they'll be in a city near you soon! 

The Saint Johns on tour w/ Judah & The Lion
4/5 - St Louis, MO - Off Broadway
4/6 - Fayetteville, AR - George’s Majestic Lounge
4/7 - Dallas, TX - Granada Theater
4/8 - Austin, TX - The Parish
4/9 - Houston, TX - Warehouse Live Studio
4/13 - Waco, TX - Common Grounds
4/14 - Tulsa, OK - Cain’s Ballroom
4/15 - Omaha, NE - Waiting Room
4/16 - Denver, CO - Gothic Theatre
4/19 - San Diego, CA - The Loft
4/20 - West Hollywood, CA - Troubadour
4/21 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel
4/22 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
4/24 - Eugene, OR - Hi-Fi Music Hall
4/26 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Complex

[Night Out] YAK @ Berlin (03/30/2016)

Sometimes I don't want a big fancy show where I'm singing along with 700+ other people smart enough to like the same artist as me. 

Sometimes I just want to sweat and have some sassy guitarist randomly fling himself in the middle of a crowd and almost knock me on my ass in the process. 

This was the case with last Wednesday night at Berlin. As a #teen this was a regular occurrence for me, so where some people would get really irritated to have someone fling their entire bodyweight in your direction or get sprayed by a bottle of water, but these kinds of shenanigans leave me squealing in delight. 

Fresh off their stint at SXSW, London's noise-rock trio YAK has thrashed their way around North America and directly into my heart. As soon as singer Oli Burslem wandered onto the stage with his pants and belt undone yelling about how he just needed to take a piss before they started their set, I immediately knew that I would need to be on high alert for the next 30something minutes of my life or else I might get kicked in the head or something of that nature. 

YAK are as playful as they are loud. Burslem made sure to multitask his beer breaks, occasionally playing guitar using his beer bottle or enabling the occasional sip for drummer Elliot Rawson like he was giving a baby some milk. This was before the occasional thrash about into the crowd, which sent other folks snapping photos into a frenzy every time.

The nice thing about being a band who doesn't give a fuck is if you feel like playing a song over because you think you could do it better the second time around, you just do it. This was an added bonus for me considering of all of their songs I attempted to learn as quickly as possible, my favorite is "Victorious (National Anthem", which is the one that received the special do-over treatment. 

YAK's debut album Alas Salvation will be dropping on May 14th, courtesy of Octopus Electrical. Be sure to have a look at my photos from the show below to see all the fun you missed out on / prepare yourself for awesomeness for when they roll into your city! 

YAK ON TOUR

Apr 7       Amsterdam Paradiso w/The Last Shadow Puppets
Apr 15      Festival Printemps de Bourges
May 11      Birmingham The Rainbow
May 12      Sheffield Bungalows & Bears
May 13      Glasgow Stereo
May 14      Manchester Deaf Institute
May 15      Leeds Brudenell Social Club
May 17      Reading Purple Turtle
May 18      Bristol The Exchange
May 19      Leicester Cookie
May 20      Southampton Joiners Arms
May 21      Oxford The Bullingdon
May 24      London Dingwalls
May 26      Paris Point Ephemere
May 28      Lille La Peniche
May 29      Gent Big Next Festival
May 30      Nijmegen Merleyn
May 31      Amsterdam Paradiso
Jun 1         Hamburg Molotov
Jun 3         Nimes This Is Not A Love Song
Jun 4         Clermont-Ferrand Europavox
Jun 30       Garorock Festival
Jul 2          Eurockennes
Jul 7          Lyon Les Nuits De Fourviere

[Watch] HUMANS - "Water Water"

I have been hypnotized by Vancouver outfit HUMANS' latest track, "Water Water" for the past couple of weeks now. You may have enough noticed how I low key included it in last week's diSKOAver weekly playlist, all 9 minutes and 47 seconds of its sexiness. Now the song (the radio edit of it anyway) has a video, which is mostly just an ad for these baller jackets that feature the artwork from last year's album, Noontide, which is currently up for a Juno for Best Electronic Album. I should make myself clear that when I say baller I mean this on multiple levels. In addition to looking really awesome, you literally have to be a baller to afford one at it's actual retail price of $600. Oof. The band admits that the jackets are, "'spensive" but hopes that you will pony up because co-founder Peter Ricq apparently has a crush on the girl who embroiders these baller jackets, so "by ordering this jacket you are likely being a great wingman / winglady."

For those of you who are at SXSW sipping margaritas while having a skim here, the band will be performing a handful of shows throughout the week so if you are free during any of the times during the flyer below be sure to check them out. For everyone else, the band will be heading out on tour in support of their new EP Water Water, which just dropped via Mom + Pop. Obviously I will be at Baby's because I love myself, so be sure to say hi if you're there, too! 

HUMANS TOUR DATES

March 25 - Celebrities - Vancouver

March 26 - Velvet - Toronto  

April 7 - Underground Arts - Black Box - Philadelphia

April 8- Baby's All Right - Brooklyn, NY

April 9- Middle East Upstairs - Cambridge

April 26 - Schubas Tavern - Chicago

April 27 - Soda Bar - San Diego

April 28 - The Echo - LA

April 29 - Swedish American Hall - San Francisco 

April 30 - Barbosa - Seattle

[Watch] XO - "Divine Disaster (feat. James Chatburn) (Official Video)"

What's that? You've been itching for some thump with a little pinch of wobble in your life? I gotchu fam. Enter: Staffordshire producer/songwriter XO and his first ever music video for his latest track, "Divine Disaster", which features Sydney's own James Chatburn on vocals. You may recognize the location of this video even if you're not located across the pond because it was featured in a fairly memorable scene in the film A Clockwork Orange. The single, which also includes the b-side "Night Time Solace" is now available for you to purchase (and you should because both tracks are quite delightful). 

Once you've found yourself wanting more XO in your life, be sure to check out his previous two EPs, which are equally as awesome. 

[Watch] You Wont - "Ya Ya Ya (Official Video)"

As a self-proclaimed lover of all things weird but totally awesome I can't begin to tell you how equally confused and delighted I am by the video for Massachusetts duo You Wont's single, "Ya Ya Ya". I am always the first to admit that I am bad at "getting" videos, but honestly I don't think there was an actual point to this video other than to make something for the sake of the lulz. I get that the powdered wig getup is a hint towards their forthcoming sophomore album, Revolutionaries, which drops on April 29th. Anything past that though? I'd rather not overthink it and just enjoy it, which you absolutely will. This tune will leave you involuntarily swaying and head bobbing. You'll also probably attempt to yodel along and feel embarrassed that you won't be as good at it. That may or may not have actually happened to me. This is probably a silly way to describe their sound, but I liken them to Wilco's more upbeat cousin. I think you'll hear what I mean courtesy of the video below. 

Like any good hard working band should, You Wont will be hitting the road in support of the album, which kicks off the day of its release. NY fam you have 2 different chances to catch these guys live so you have no excuses. I will probably go to both because I love myself, so I look forward to seeing you there! 

You Won't Tour Dates, Spring 2016

4/29 - Portland, ME @ One Longfellow Square

4/30 - Portsmouth, NH @ Birdseye Lounge

5/03 - Brooklyn, NY @ Knitting Factory

5/04 - New Haven, CT @ BAR

5/06 - Boston, MA @ Sinclair

5/07 - New York, NY @ Berlin 

5/08 - Northampton, MA @ Parlour Room

5/10 - Toronto, ON @ The Drake

5/12 - Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle

5/13 - Madison, WI @ Frequency

5/14 - Minneapolis, MN @ Turf Club

5/16 - Bloomington, ID @ Bishop

5/17 - Nashville, TN @ Hi Watt

5/18 - Atlanta, GA @ The Earl

5/20 - Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle Back

5/21 - Washington, DC @ DC9

5/22 - Philadelphia, PA @ Boot and Saddle

[Listen] Summer Heart - "Pretty Haze" x "The Forbidden"

It's so damn lovely out in NYC and these are the jams you should be playing as you twirl around in the sunshine. Like the name of the song hints, "Pretty Haze" sure to leave you in a lovesick haze.  Likewise "The Forbidden" continues to envelope you in subtle serenity. Both tracks come from Summer Heart's forthcoming EP, which drops later this year. These songs going to be the soundtrack to couples cuddling on blankets in McCarren Park this summer, so if your relationship survived cuffing season, you're welcome in advance for the inevitable swoonfest you'll experience from this. 

Per his tweets and snaps, the Swedish mastermind behind the project, David Alexander is currently in Brooklyn working on more music, so it's most likely that yours truly is going to be making him #SKOAfam very soon. 

If you're one of those patient people with money heading to SXSW in the next couple of days, make sure to add at least one of his performances to your daily agenda alongside the BBQ eating and standing in long lines. If SXSW isn't in your sights, you can always come to the Knitting Factory near the end of the month and hang out with me. 

Summer Heart On Tour
16 – The Townsend (1:05am), SXSW, Austin
19 – Icenhauer’s (1am), SXSW, Austin
23 – The Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NYC