Past the graphic title of "Orifice Origami" is the first chord of summer. Reptar, a band about to rise somewhere between Givers and MGMT circa 2008, unleash an absolute burner behind the lyrics, "Something's not alright here" as synths buzz and shiver as if they were struck with a gigantic, youthful gong. The rest proves a summertime anthem with little doubt that this will be one of the breakout bands of the next few months as they tour with GROUPLOVE and make their way into the hearts of thousands of relentless, face-painted youth. Stream below, like the band on Facebook for a free download or, just click here.
GROUPLOVE's Atlantic/Canvasback LP will be out later this summer with lead single, "Itchin' On A Photograph" due June 19th. If we recall all the way back to the band's first single, "Colours" when there were only a few of us writing about this curious little LA outfit with the big song and the sticky hooks, it was 13-months ago and even then they seemed destined for this type of break out. "Itchin' On A Photograph" is rooted in a simple downward progression, some hand claps and, most importantly, Christian Zucconi's soaring vocal, one of those busting-the-veins-in-your-neck, half-screams that takes us to the top of the room and stays there. This is the summer where a ton of kids who have no idea who this band is will learn of and then love them. This is the summer where you, if you've been with them since last spring, will need to stick by the band because their ethic has always been about communal understanding of affection. It will be a season of the more the merrier. This is, as always, just the start of something and the end of something else.
LA's Grouplove took us out at the knees last year with their demo for "Colours." It made our year end list and they made our feature on bands set to blow up in 2011. They are set for a spring LP release on Atlantic/Canvasback that will finally bring them the attention of the kids who want to like them but don't know it yet. Above, you'll find the official video for "Colours," an over-dramatic visual take which nonetheless features some awesome footage of front man Christian Zucconi running through a field. The camera is attached to his waist and pointed at his face, the perfect picture of energy, youth and exuberance. Below, spin through the Captain Cuts remix of "Colours," a chopped up and completely shuddering take on the original, featuring buzzing synths and a clap track big enough to claim "We Will Rock You" as a grandparent. It is the first excellent remix of 2011, edgy enough to bring this California band into the dark dance clubs of the Lower East Side. It's only the next stop on a tour that will bring this band just about everywhere.
As is the custom in the indie rock universe in this coming second decade of the 21st century, it is not simply enough to know about something, you must know about it first. Furthermore, you must make outlandish predictions regarding the future success of said thing. In this case, it is music. In this case, it is 2011 and our predictions for the bands and artists who will be taking off wildly in the coming year. After the jump in no order, with regard for your future listening and the wisdom of the crowd, your Elevator 2011 bands.
10. Crystal Castles - "Not In Love" [Ft. Robert Smith]
Crystal Castles, mostly known for their ripping electoclash, found a slice of pop brilliance in 2010 with an assist from Robert Smith. "Not In Love" was rooted in a simple chorus of industrial synths and Smith's lithe, rye vocal modulating the title lyric. It was a cover of a Platinum Blonde original, but that robbed none of the top-shelf pop in the chorus, a 1980s tune recast somewhat anxiously as one of the best hooks of the year.
The Jezabels were the darlings of all the bands we saw this year. Their Kate Bush-tinged pop was best framed on "Mace Spray," a song that lyrically addresses the need for self-defense in an increasingly pessimistic age. The piano chords are spacious and the vocals from singer Hayley Mary eventually take the elevator to the top in the chorus, where the arrangement crashes around her voice, sounding equal parts vulnerable and threatening. With one of the best singles of 2010, the Jezabels already marked themselves as one of the best young bands to watch in the next 12 months.
Over the summer we saw the two singers from GROUPLOVE kiss each other on the mouth. This wasn't necessarily scandalous, and our voyeurism was joined by the other fifty or so people in Los Angeles' Troubadour. It was a moment of raw emotion of exactly the kind that the band describes in "Colours," a song rooted in a simple acoustic guitar progression that ends sailing and screaming over a fractured landscape. The band insists on "leaving the ground to find some space," before assuring us, "it really ain't that bad." The final movement is a tautological edict, "We call it ... life!" GROUPLOVE was uniquely positioned to describe this great, common human experience, screaming, shouting and floating above it.
7. Spoon - "Got Nuffin"
There was no more menacing combination of drums and guitar in indie rock in 2010 than on Spoon's "Got Nuffin." It defines the very need for down stroke guitars, before spiraling off and finding a few demanding piano chords to go with all the purpose of Britt Daniel's structure of guitar, bass and drums. The lyrics describe a moment of hope in an era of hopelessness. "I've got nothing to lose but darkness and shadows," Daniel reminds us as, we assume, he spends all this time losing only to find the freedom from constraint as the necessary descendant. It isn't a grand social gesture, some weak marching orders against the backdrop of a broken American life, just the private commentary of one man who sees his way out of the tunnel.
"Girls Night" was the one song of 2010 that seemed to unflaggingly cross boundaries, unifying disparate people behind a single bouncy keyboard progression. The vocals, the male-female back-and-forth kind, circle each other flirtatiously, throwing looks across the room and daring the other to come over. Their overlap is part of the charm, weaving in between one another, roping us closer and closer to First Rate People, a fantastically promising group from Toronto. No one else brought R&B to indie rock this year; no one else made something this irrefutably catchy. No one else is building these kind of would-be-hits for a mixtape you haven't made yet. This song is the hope that these two voices will cross the room and talk to each other, the hope that this is great and the hope that you will tell someone about it.
GROUPLOVE have a story that would put most bands to shame, an updated, rock-music Kerouac. Lead-singers Hannah Hooper and Christian Zucconi met in New York, took to Greece after only a few days, met the rest of the band (I'm paraphrasing here), began making music, ultimately tattooing the word, "GROUP" on their forearms before deciding to all throw away their private pursuits and move to Los Angeles to become a band. This means a lot to these five people. Zucconi stares at Hooper before their last song of the night at Los Angeles' famed Troubadour and kisses her flush on the mouth. It is a moment of raw, unfiltered emotion, something between the joy and lust of youth and people who have nothing to lose because they've given it all away.
Of course, if GROUPLOVE were just a dramatic story, a chance meeting of fresh-faced, agreeable people, it would end in that moment. As it happens, this story of mortgaged futures and unbridled hope comes with a stunning first single, an excellent EP and a next 12-months as bright as any band in the United States. On this night in LA, the band is tight and loud, with Zucconi's vocals alternating between the soaring yips from the Issac Brock catalogue and a richness and purity all his own. Over a seven song set the band will play 80-percent of their self-titled EP, plus a stunning version of new cut, "Close Your Eyes And Count To Ten" and a few others we presume will show up on a full-length in 2011. Zucconi works himself into a frenzy, pushing the limits of what this writer has ever seen anyone do while holding an acoustic guitar. All of this leads, nearly inexorably, to the band's best song and set closer, "Colours."
Predictably, "Colours" is a broadly cast, meta-analysis shot through the rosy hues of youth. Unpredictably, it might be the best unsigned song of 2010. As a visual intro, Zucconi kissing Hooper is one of those shocking moments that feels desperately appropriate after the fact. "Colours" proves stunning, complete with the band screaming, "We call it ... life!" in one of those this-is-everything moments that feel like you're being pushed back in your seat by the acceleration of an airplane. And that's what this is, the moment before take off for a band on the verge of something seriously big, having cut themselves loose all just to get up in the air.
Sean: The Freewheelin' -Bob Dylan Hannah: Punk in Drublic- NOFX Christian: Les Preludes - Liszt Ryan: Rubber Soul- the Beatles Andrew: Fattie Fattie- the Heptones
32feet: You seem to exhibit the old attributes of a "music collective." Is this the goal, to create something big and democratic, with a lot of moving parts? Or is this a total misread on the GROUPLOVE narrative?
GROUPLOVE: Not a misread. We all bring it.
32feet: What is something you hope people never say about your band?
GROUPLOVE: "Your second album SUCKS."
32feet: Imagine GROUPLOVE is on a sinking ocean liner and there are only two life jackets left. Who gets them and why?
GROUPLOVE: We'd throw the life jackets overboard and go down with the ship.
32feet: At gunpoint, in total mutual exclusivity, fame or credibility?
GROUPLOVE: Fifty Cent got shot nine times.
32feet: What is the one thing people don't know (or never might know) about your band that they should absolutely remember?
