On The List :: LESANDS @ Echo Curio [7.28.10]

Wednesday night we continued our Pan-American journey and headed to Echo Park's Echo Curio to catch one of our favorite new bands, San Diego's LESANDS. Much of this favoritism was based on the strength of one song, "Pretenders" and a lights-out EP their management sent over a few weeks back, leaving us in search of the live iteration. The Echo Curio might not have seemed like the perfect location for a band on the rise (no stage monitors, about the size of your parents living room, all tile) but it turned out perfectly: sweaty kids, a good crowd and enough decibels to vibrate your drink in your hand.

After a surprisingly loud and stunningly good set by LA's Roughed Up Folk, and a quick trip across the street for $2 Margarita night (Echo Park has downs but she has ups), LESANDS hit the stage around 11. A four-piece plus sampled synths and loops, the band is a wall of sound live. Of course, this says nothing of the live (and studio) strength of the song-writing on "Pretenders," the night's second song and a dead-ringer for a dubby version of Temper Trap's "Sweet Disposition." The band also played "Glowing," even more enjoyable in echoing, shuddering volume. The lead singer apologized before their second-to-last song because he felt it was a little, "hip-hoppy." It wasn't, but it was absolutely enormous with peeling loops and samples washing over the audience like a well-directed and favorable swell.

The crowd spilled out onto Sunset and waited for the final band of the night to play. LESANDS packed their gear and you had to feel this band won't be playing 500 square-foot storefronts much longer. They didn't play like they were above this, but soon it will certainly be behind them.

Listen :: LESANDS - "Pretenders"

Clubfeet :: "Teenage Suicide [Don't Do It]"

An international trio in the musical spirit of Teenagers or Hot Chip, Clubfeet released their debut record, Gold On Gold on Tuesday. We're more than happy to share a former single, now album staple, "Teenage Suicide," as ironic and cheeky as the band's name itself. Breathy synths and pensive club drums form the foundation of a glossy electro-pop slow-drive. The moment of elevation comes after the bridge when hints of U2-style guitar push through the haze and offer an anthemic twist on the the chorus' sublimely silly mantra, "Teenage suicide/don't do it!" These aren't marching orders, rather a friendly reminder of something you already know, like synth-pop with a back beat.

Listen :: Clubfeet - "Teenage Suicide [Don't Do It]

First Rate People :: "Gentleman's Club"

Undeniably one of our favorite bands of the 2010, the genre-smashing First Rate People return with a challenging, fantastically catchy single, "Gentleman's Club." Built on an elastic, rubberized riff and the strong, if light-hearted, interplay between male and female vocals, "Gentleman's Club" sounds like a distant call to a half-remembered summer single from 1984, a simpler time where UB40 was allowed on the radio and people weren't so nasty to each other. In rough metaphor, this is futuristic nostalgia. Musically, like the rest of the First Rate People's work, it is instantly addicting, insanely hard to pin down (this is intentional), and so full of hooks you'll feel like you woke up in a tackle box.

Listen :: First Rate People - "Gentleman's Club"

On The List :: GROUPLOVE @ The Troubadour [7.27.10]

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.

Listen :: GROUPLOVE - "Colours"

[Contest] Eastern Conference Champions :: Sante Fe EP

We're giving away a signed copy of Eastern Conference Champions Sante Fe EP. There will only be one winner and we'll be picking using our super-sophisticated, randomly generated system. Yes, we'll be closing our eyes and clicking on one of your emails. Shoot us a line at 32feet(at)gmail.com with "SANTE FE" in the subject by 5PM Friday, July 30. Good luck.

Yu(c)k :: "Daughter"

The UK's Yu(c)k have a fresh new cut called "Daughter." A far away piano progression backing some distant vocals, it sounds little like their hurricane of fuzz-pop, "Georgia." This is not a little bit haunting with oblique references to "the future" and empty space in spades.

Listen :: Yu(c)k - "Daughter" [zshare]

Eastern Conference Champions :: "Bloody Bells" [M.Zero Mix]

Eastern Conference Champions were a favorite before we ever heard their music, their name seeming to invoke an age of the 1990s where the Knicks, Bulls, Heat and Pistons beat each other over the head to win their eponymous moniker. However, since, we've fallen for their music, dating back to 2007's "The Box" and all the way to their more recent work on the Twilight Eclipse OST. Surprising, and still good. The band is set to release a new record while still touring off their Sante Fe EP. Up for download is a synth-heavy, sped-up version of "Bloody Bells." It's excellent and propulsive, but it is entirely up to you whether this makes you think of Alonzo Mourning.

Listen :: Eastern Conference Champions - "Bloody Bells" [M.Zero Mix]