Long Walks On The Beach :: "We're Growing Up"

There is no good way to leave the world and only few good ways to get old in it. Long Walks On The Beach, one of our favorite projects for myriad reasons, offer a case for maturity that is both clear-eyed and stupidly romantic. The lyrical references chart territory regarding the power of "moonlight", and lines like "in our dreams, the crowd swells" all over shabby guitars and crystalline strings. The final shambling conclusion brings the arrangement to a moment of self-actualization around the tautology of the title, "We're Growing Up". Never has this felt more true and more valuable and, blessedly, without the specter of nagging injuries, day jobs, consumer debt, the grinding uncertainties of adult life that never make the cut at college commencement addresses. If there exists a good way to get old, this is surely it, three minutes of perfect pop music and a sense that all cannot be lost when so much unfolds to the vanishing points forward.

Spacecamp :: "Miko D.T.B."

It will have been a long time since you had this much fun listening to a rock band from New York City. Spacecamp with their debut EP Alibi just released on Tuesday, offer up lead single, "Miko D.T.B" or, if we can gather from the song's first lyrics, "Miko dropped the ball." What emerges is a song in two movements, the first a glittering array of synths and angular guitars that almost recall the dulcet tones of Tigercity (although, for other animal references, there's some Wolfgang in there too), centering on the lyric, "Pull yourself together", a useful and pragmatic notion if there ever was one. The second half of the arrangement is fuller, climatically organized around a sea of backing vocals and a finishing kick that feels like a Local Natives jam shot full of amphetamine and rocked into outer space. Spacecamp still urges you to "Pull yourself together" but the bass line is so alive and well, so bordering on out of control, that it's hard to believe they mean it. Instead, maybe the point is to lose your damn mind.  

The band plays their EP release party at The Wooly in the Financial District with Computer Magic on December 1st.

Miko D.T.B. by SPACECAMP

Wolf Gang :: "Dancing With The Devil"

London's Wolf Gang are preparing to release second single, "Dancing With The Devil," due in the UK on March 21, backing debut heater, "Lions In Their Cages". As is the theme with Max McElligott's compositions, "Dancing" is a glossy and spacious ride, relying on the quality of a soaring and instantly memorable chorus. This was the track he was playing in the middle of his sets during a brief two-gig swing through New York in the fall, only hinting at the quality of the eventual Wolf Gang full length LP due out later this spring. If you wondered, "what the hell is that great song?", now you know. Next time Max is through town, make sure you sing the words.

Wolf Gang - Dancing With The Devil by wolfgang

Wolf Gang :: "Lions In Their Cages" [Memory Tapes Remix]

Wolf Gang's stunning single, "Lions In Their Cages" is getting the rework from the Memory Tapes folks. Mixing the original's penchant for elevation with the cold medicine space of Memory Tapes sonics seems antithetical, until you hear the walking bass line step out underneath Max McElligot's soaring vocals, somehow both detached from and connected to their original intentions. Memory Tapes settle in on the central lyric, "Check the time/'cause time keeps moving on and on," pulling it out with greater and greater authority. The bridge sees a glittering array of synths explore every direction of your headphones before we again return to McElligot's reminder to look at our watches. It is, after all, almost over.

Wolf Gang - Lions In Cages (Memory Tapes Remix) by radarmaker

On The List :: Wolf Gang @ Glasslands [10.14.10]

It was nearly midnight in a bit of industrial wasteland tucked against the East River before Wolf Gang took the stage. Seeing the band in these circumstances is seeing the reflection of the murky and quite possibly brilliant future of Wolf Gang and front man Max McElligot. Opening with 2009 single, "Pieces of You," it was obvious that, yes, this band might easily grow to level the pop landscape and yes, right now, they are only playing in an art space in Williamsburg. You pause. Then again, this is likely the moment before The Moment; the second before the drums kick in, the clouds open and the whole thing makes undeniable sense. Wolf Gang are about to be almost nothing you see in this moment at Glasslands in the last months of 2010.

The band plays the same set they pitched at Santos the night before, this being their second ever New York gig. Hitting "Nightflying," their first demo, early in the set before finishing with "Back to Back," absolute stunner, "The King And All Of His Men," and a new, profoundly Talking Heads-ish, cut sandwiched before closer, "Lions In Their Cages, there was a clear momentum to the methodology. Even with none of the lush strings of the originals, McElligot's sense of melody fills the space before the band packs their things to return to the UK. They will be back, a record out in the coming months, with room to grow and expand into the space between what you see in this place and what is left to come. This is, after all, the moment before The Moment. Wolf Gang will never be back here and that is not entirely unfortunate.

Listen :: Wolf Gang - "Lions In Their Cages"
Listen :: Wolf Gang - "The King And All Of His Men"
Listen :: Wolf Gang - "Pieces Of You"
Listen :: Wolf Gang - "Back To Back"
Listen :: Wolf Gang - "Nightflying"

Interview :: Wolf Gang [10.13.10]

Max McElligot, front man and mastermind of Wolf Gang traded emails with us last week on the eve of his first two New York shows. With a string of fantastic singles and a stunning full length on the way, Wolf Gang take to Glasslands tonight for McElligot's last show in New York until his tickets are hard to come by and he's playing with a full string quartet. Don't say we didn't warn you.



32feet: Top 5 Desert Island Records?

Wolf Gang:

Paul Simon's 'Graceland'
Joni Mitchell 'Turbulent Indigo'
Jimi Hendrix 'Are You Experienced'
Kate Bush 'Hounds Of Love'
Miles Davis 'Kind Of Blue'

ps this answer would change on a daily basis...

From the beginning the Wolf Gang demos were incredibly ambitious, but "Lions In Cages" has clearly gone to another level after the recording here in the States. What was the journey like, working with Atlantic and moving toward this LP release?

Signing to Atlantic gave me the opportunity to record the album in America, which I could never have afforded to do otherwise, so it was really exciting to be given that chance. I was trying out recordings in London with a couple of producers but wasn't really finding the character and personality that I had sort of unwittingly captured in the bedroom demos. When I listened to the things Dave had produced I got pretty excited by the prospect of going out there and working with him, and by the time he was talking to me on the phone telling me to pack my snow boots I had a strong inkling it was going to sound interesting. Now a few months down the line with it all wrapped up, I'm very excited for people to hear the finished thing.

Was there ever a frustration at the pace from the Spring '09 to now?

There were definitely times when I wanted things to be moving quicker, but I think so many artists have their project rushed by their label, and get sort of spat out only half formed, so I count myself lucky that everyone was patient and willing to wait until I was completely ready.

Let us in your process a bit, how does a Wolf Gang song take shape?

I'll usually have an idea of a melody or chord progression in my head, then it's just a case of sitting down and recording the various parts in my bedroom, guitar, piano, then bass and drums, etc. I'll have some vague notion of what the lyrics might be, but these get refined constantly right up until when I'm laying down the vocals on the final recording. But the whole process is a very natural one, I'm never more happy than when I'm in the middle of writing a song.

What are the influences in your music that no one ever picks up on? (And consider I mixed you in with The Police, Kate Bush and Arcade Fire, so clearly I was grasping at straws)

I think I find quite a lot of influence in classical music actually, the layering up of instruments and chord progressions can be pretty incredible, and so charged with emotion, my mother is a violinist so I've always been exposed to the genre from a really young age. But then I think you can also hear a classical influence on the three artists you mention above too, it is a constant source of inspiration for a lot of musicians of all genres.

What is one thing people don't know about Wolf Gang that they should absolutely never forget?

I much prefer Winter to Summer and have a totally irrational fear that if I swim in a lake I might get eaten by a stray shark.

Wolf Gang - "Lions In Cages" by 32feet

Wolf Gang - "Lions In Cages"

Wolf Gang suggested a dense potential from the first Max McElligot demos to hit the Internet two springs ago. With an uncanny sense of melody, he attracted the interest of major label scouts, eventually signing with Atlantic records who funded a wildly isolated recording process in upstate New York. Of course, in the interim, he unleashed single after single of a style of pop that is both old old fashioned and absolutely new. As an English sentence, this is what The Police would sound like if Kate Bush wrote their songs and they had spent their formative years in post 9/11 Montreal listening to Arcade Fire records. With reshaped and re-recorded single, "Lions In Cages" debuting yesterday, McElligot is officially the fully-rendered version of himself that he only sketched 18-months ago. Try not to stare.

Wolf Gang - Lions In Cages by radarmaker

Wolf Gang :: "Back to Back"

Wolf Gang was unquestionably our favorite discovery of 2009. He began the year by blowing our doors off with "Night Flying" and "Lions In Their Cages" before brightening our Los Angeles summer retreat with "Pieces of You" and living up to his major label potential with the year closing, "King And All Of His Men."

Willing to chase his sound to darker corners, Wolf Gang has returned with the demo for "Back to Back." The same shabby guitars and soaring harmonies color the chorus, with ethereal, down-tempo verses. Perhaps the lyrics say it best, "When everyone is thinking that I must be depressed/the point that they're missing is/I don't want nobody else." With a backing that almost recalls the xx during the second verse, Wolf Gang holds on for the slow drive before the ascending chord-progression of the chorus takes us to the soft center of the pop universe. Wolf Gang's mastery continues; if you don't find him, he will certainly find you. Stream and download the demo below.

Wolfgang - Back To Back by Atlantic Records UK

Top 50 of 2009 :: 10-6 [Am I free or am I tied up?]

10. Miike Snow - "Animal"

One of my favorite things about music is how much more "sense" a band makes after seeing them in a live environment. Sometimes that "sense" is bad, forever coloring their music with the stink of a terrible live show. But other times, that "sense" comes to the stage wearing white plastic masks and rocks so hard you can't see straight. Miike Snow are in the later category, walking to the stage at the Mercury Lounge in September wearing featureless, Vanilla Sky-inspired masks. "Animal" proved to be the most approachable song from their self-titled record. Upstroke guitars and a bubbling chorus gave us something that, though profoundly electronic, felt warmer than sunshine. Even if you couldn't read its features exactly, the sense was more than undeniable.

9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Heads Will Roll"




The Yeah Yeah Yeahs went for broke this year, releasing an appropriately-titled record, It's Blitz, with cover art featuring a human hand obliterating a raw egg and electro-rock jams meant to cut. Track two was the shimmering, frustrated and committed, "Heads Will Roll." More plea for pleasant slaughter than a call for direct revolution, "Heads Will Roll" encouraged us to, indirectly, lose our minds ("Off with head") so we could dance until we were dead. It rhymed and we were helpless.

8. The Killers - "Four Winds"

Full disclosure: "Four Winds" isn't an original Killers' cut. It's a Bright Eyes track but I'm no special fan of Bright Eyes. With no sentimentality for the original, The Killers' take on the track approaches the furthest reaches of epic synth-pop. Churning with a massive down-beat and the faux-richness of big keyboard chords, "Four Winds" delivers every bit of the apocalypse Oberst's original lyrics promise. It is the third verse where Flowers finds himself as the shaking ringmaster at the front of a rising arrangement, singing, "And I was off to old Dakota where a genocide sleeps/in the Black Hills, the Bad Lands, the calloused east." He then describes four winds, the four horsemen, leveling the pines. Big, synthetic bells chime all around him and you can't help but think of all the things we've helped destroy.

7. Small Black - "Despicable Dogs" (Washed Out Remix)

It is odd to put your favorite song of the year as at number seven on a list of your favorite songs of the year. Small Black proved to be one of the better things to come out of the New York music scene this year and "Despicable Dogs" proved to be their best song. Then, a few months later, came Washed Out's take on the track, a looping, wistful, cold-medicine take on the original. Pulling out the song's natural lyrical nostalgia, "do it without me/do it when I'm gone," Washed Out filled our ears with lazy synth chords and dancing loops. The original soundtracked my flight out of LA. The remix soundtracked the rest of my year.

6. Wolf Gang - "The King And All Of His Men"

Wolf Gang wasn't a tough band to call but, boy, did we ever call them. Back in March when only one other publication on whole Internet was writing about them, we told you that Wolf Gang would blow up. It was only based on a rough, poorly recorded demo but you can't listen to what it sounds like - you have to hear what it could sound like. "The King And All Of His Men" was exactly what Wolf Gang could and sound like. Opening with big, tribal drums, followed quickly by sweeping keys, vocals and a chorus as crystalline and catchy as anything out this year, Wolf Gang proved to be exactly what we said they were. We wrote about this band more than any other in 2009 and we're calling an even bigger 2010.

Wolf Gang :: "The King And All Of His Men" (Kid Adrift remix)

Wolf Gang's shimmering single, "The King And All Of His Men" is one best songs of the year. Kid Adrift is one of the newest and most talented DJs and remixers on the UK scene. I don't have to do the math for you. Kid Adrift turned his ear and hand to Wolf Gang's source and the product, while not exceeding the original, is a new and crushing take on the same chord-progression. The remix is bent on creating a buzzing, slow-ride, club-ready version of the track, in the same way that MTV's Jersey Shore is making the Real World-franchise slightly less-credible, but infinitely more fun. This might not be for the mixtape you're making for the girl who returns your calls periodically, but it might be perfect for the second-half of your holiday party when the ceiling fan, the floor below, falls straight out of the plaster.

Listen :: Wolf Gang - "The King And All Of His Men" (Kid Adrift remix)

Wolf Gang :: "The King and All of His Men"

We posted the video for Wolf Gang's newest single, "The King and All of His Men" last week but we've got the mp3 today. It is the end point, or maybe a beginning, of a months long process towards their debut record. "The King and All of His Men" delivers every ounce of the promise of previous demos ("Nightflying") and smash-single "Pieces of You." This is the sound of a break out. This is the moment right before a band gets very, very popular. I've been telling you to listen to this band for months. It's not entirely too late.

Listen :: Wolf Gang - "The King and All of His Men"

Wolf Gang :: "The King And All Of His Men"

Wolf Gang are making up and breaking out just like we said they would. We've written about the band a few times over the last few months but never more prophetically than in our writing about one of their first demos, "Nightflying" last March.

"Maybe 2009 is the year for Wolf Gang. Given how roughed around the demos are, it could be 2010 by the time anyone really hears this but for now, let's call it: This band is going to blow up ... It's hard to picture now, but close your eyes and try anyways; richer production, maybe some strings, a real clean vocal mix, and those piano peel-offs in perfect crystaline hi-fi. It's hard to envision but the framework is there. I Promise." - 3.02.09

And here we are today, with the release of the band's latest single, "The King And All Of His Men." It all happened. They signed to Atlantic, made a big, clean album. "Richer production, maybe some strings, a real clean vocal mix, and those piano peel-offs in perfect crystaline hi-fi." And that was exactly the way it went.



"Wolf Gang, for all its ambitious sound and arrangement, will need to clean up their records. Bear this in mind when one of your friends plays you an over-produced version of this song (or another by the band) in 9-months. This is the fun part. You were there at the beginning ... sort of." 6.12.09

Listen :: Wolf Gang - "Pieces of You"
Listen :: Wolf Gang - "Nightflying"

Wolf Gang :: "Pieces Of You" (Baby Monster Remix)

Over dinner last evening I mistakenly thought it was Monday night. It wasn't. We laughed. In this way LA has a familiarity and also lacks boundaries. When the weather never changes and the people intentionally deny the relevance of aging, it can be awfully hard to place yourself in time and space. I mean, this looks real.

This town is a completely surrealist reimagining of the American city. It's a piece of post-modernism in a few steps.

First, take the center out and spread it around. Downtown? Yeah, that's way over there - and no one goes there unless they have to. For your purposes, learn the neighborhoods. Each one has a different localized gravity but no overall coherence. Downtown, it's in a million little pieces. You'll pick it up.

Second, take the best parts of other places and make them louder or brighter or bigger. You like it sunny? We can do that. All the time. Warm? Done, how 'bout hot? You like driving your car? Sure, keep it - there will just be 9 million other people who also keep their cars. You want to live near the beach and in a city? Sure, it's doable; maybe a geographical deal with the devil, I mean, we put it on a major fault line. You could always just fall into the ocean. It's the price you pay.

Third, unlike other towns with a diversity of industry and profession, we will center everything around one industry - which, believe it or not, is an industry all about make-believe. Yes, everyone will work promoting or selling or defending or marketing or suing or hating entertainment. This is a town of people in bed with fiction. It's art. Completely. Divorced. From meaning. You can't make this up.

Which makes LA kind of like a remixed version of a good song. Weird, not particularly original, but maybe better in some ways - teasing the best parts out and making them louder. Putting the chorus first. You should already know Wolf Gang. But here's the remix of "Pieces Of You" by Baby Monster.

Listen :: Wolf Gang - "Pieces of You" (Baby Monster Remix)

Wolf Gang :: "Pieces Of You"

We wrote up Wolf Gang back at the beginning of March. We predicted that they would blow up this year or next. While it's hard to predict an exact timetable for success, new single "Pieces of You" is certainly a step towards that eventuality.

First, the minuses. The recording quality is still low. We'll imagine this is intentional or maybe necessary. We'll imagine that at some point, someone will give these guys enough money to clean up the recordings. Remember the first Black Kids' demos? They showed promise but sounded like they were recorded in a bathtub. Wolf Gang, for all its ambitious sound and arrangement, will need to clean up their records. Bear this in mind when one of your friends plays you an over-produced version of this song (or another by the band) in 9-months. This is the fun part. You were there at the beginning ... sort of.

The pluses: This song is great - really great. Wolf Gang is perfectly lush and flourishing, while never losing momentum. The verses have a no-nonsense down-beat and the chorus is soaring. The lyrics: "You think that you understand/I've got pieces of you in my hands" don't do justice to the sweeping melody which might be one of the best of 2009. Let me put it simply: if you're not listening to this now, you're doing yourself a disservice. I don't ask for a lot. Listen to this.

Listen :: Wolf Gang - "Pieces of You"

Elevator :: Wolf Gang

Maybe 2009 is the year for Wolf Gang. Given how roughed around the demos are, it could be 2010 by the time anyone really hears this but for now, let's call it: This band is going to blow up. Define that? I'd bet you dollars to donuts (hard to say where this phrase comes from) that this band signs with the indie imprint of a major in the next 12-months. It's just going to happen. If Wild Light can end up on Columbia, where the hell could this band go? I mean, this is actually good.

What do they sound like? A little Arcade Fire, a little TV On The Radio, and a little Kate Bush (a male-fronted version). We've got one song, "Night Flying" that runs on a rough-shod guitar progression and some group vocals in the chorus. It's hard to picture now, but close your eyes and try anyways; richer production, maybe some strings, a real clean vocal mix, and those piano peel-offs in perfect crystaline hi-fi. It's hard to envision but the framework is there. I Promise.

Listen :: Wolf Gang - "Night Flying" (click through)