THE WHIP TOUR NORTH AMERICA WITH LATE OF THE PIER AND
DEADMAU5; U.S. TELEVISION DEBUT ON JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE IN APRIL!
UK electro-rock act, The Whip, kick off their North American tour this week in support of their debut album, X MARKS DESTINATION. The band played multiple shows at SXSW and will perform at Winter Music Conference followed by a tour with Late of the Pier and DeadMau5. The Whip will also make their U.S. television debut on April 22nd on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!
It’s been quite a year for the Manchester band, touring non-stop at some of last summer’s biggest festivals like Glastonbury, and Reading as well as U.S. stops at SXSW and CMJ. Now The Whip bring their blend of dance-rock stateside with propulsive songs like “Trash” which Spin called “a killer single…can wreck a room” and the more ethereal “Dubsex,” which was recently featured on MTV’s, The City.
On their debut album, X MARKS DESTINATION, now available in the U.S. on Razor & Tie, The Whip aim to be the sound of your night out. Live, their music becomes the soundtrack to a hedonistic dance party, expertly capturing the exhilarating feeling of being at a festival and dancing till dawn.
Pansy Division: Life In A Gay Rock Band!
Undeniably one of the most important and influential gay music acts in the last twenty years, Pansy Division pioneered the “queercore” genre long before other gay musicians had the confidence to come out of the closet. With album titles like Undressed (Lookout! Records, 1993) and Deflowered (Lookout! Records, 1994), and song titles like "Bill & Ted's Homosexual Adventure," their bluntness and humor stood out amidst the '90s alterna-rock scene.Raised on 60s pop and 70s punk, Pansy Division wrote in-your-face lyrics with a sense of humor, defying stereotypes in both the rock scene and the gay community, and launching a queer punk movement that also included bands like Tribe 8, Team Dresch, God Is My Co-Pilot and Fifth Column.
The band released six albums in six years in the 1990s and toured extensively, sharing stages with other queercore bands as well as other punk bands. In 1994 label mates Green Day took Pansy Division on tour at the height of their breakthrough album Dookie, giving Pansy Division a chance to blow the minds of, and in many cases inspire, tens of thousands of high-school kids across America.Pansy Division‘s newest album, That’s So Gay -- the band’s eighth studio album (and their first new album in six years) -- is raucous and raunchy as well as being serious-minded. Featuring some of the band’s catchiest and most rocking songs ever, the album includes a duet with legendary punk icon Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys) on “Average Men.”
The band is also releasing a DVD documentary, Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band, a fast-paced, intimate and humorous account of one of rock’s most fearless acts. Using original and archive footage and covering over fifteen years as a group, from their first days in San Francisco’s underground music scene to a full-fledged stadium tour with Green Day and beyond, the DVD features interviews and appearances by Lookout Records founder Larry Livermore, Jessie “Luscious” Townley (The Criminals, Alternative Tentacles), Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys, Alternative Tentacles), Rob Halford (Judas Priest) and Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day). With a bonus disc containing live concert footage, Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band provides an essential history of a genre of alternative music that is only now beginning to be appreciated.
LISTEN TO "CATERPILLAR" FROM THE RUSSIAN ROULETTE EPThe six incredible tracks found on UK songwriter Ed Harcourt's new EP, Russian Roulette, are as personal as they come. Each song recounts the many emotions and thoughts he's experienced, embracing both the high and low times one endures. The track "Caterpillar" points to a particularly intense and emotional moment in Harcourt’s life when earlier this year, his newborn daughter Roxy had been placed in an incubator, deeply worrying both Harcourt and his wife as they sat idle, waiting for their Roxy to recover. Describing the song and experience, Harcourt goes on to say, "It's the first song I've written about her. She was a little ill and we waited for her in the hospital for the chrysalis so we could take her home."
Children's debut thrash metal wailer Hard Times Hangin' At The End Of The World is out May 12th on Kemado Records. Formed through jam sessions by guitarists Skyler Spohn, Jonny Ollsin (formerly of Vancouver’s S.T.R.E.E.T.S.), and drummer Adam Bennati (of Early Man), the NYC trio laid waste to clubs in and around the city beginning in late 2006, releasing their "Death Tribe" 12" single in early 2008. Hard Times' six massive tracks marry intricate, narrative dual guitar work with a frenzied, wired demeanor.
The band has crafted a set of meticulous compositions, including several marathon-length tracks that stretch past the seven minute mark. Produced by Joe Blaney (whose hundreds of credits include the Clash's Combat Rock ), the band tracked the songs live at Applehead Studios in Woodstock, NY, on all analog gear and 2" tape for a truly thick, punishing and fluid sound.
Bells & Whistles
(June 9th; Esperanza Plantation)
Though he’s a twenty-something year-old from the small town of Mountain Home, Arkansas, Chase Pagan’s music sounds like it grew out of a man who has soaked in the spirit of a vast array of musical eras and subcultures.
His new album, Bells & Whistles, channels everything from honky-tonk theatricality to the stripped-down intimacy of a folk troubadour to the visceral nature of independent rock music. Ultimately, it’s Pagan’s unique and commanding voice that truly defines and distinguishes his music.Whether it’s a hushed croon, soaring falsetto, or another permutation, Pagan’s voice adapts as necessary to paint the pictures of his lyrics.
Similarly, as an accomplished multi-instrumentalist he has a rich platter of sounds to call upon at any given moment. Pagan, who co-produced the album, plays the vast majority of instruments including piano, drums, bass, guitar, accordion, and banjo. The juxtaposition of the first two tracks alone show off the album’s range.
On the opening number “The Lonely Life,” Pagan employs a ghostly coo over a two-step country groove to sing as a father communicating with his estranged son. “Life Garden” immediately follows with a contrasting palette of cabaret-like piano, marching band horns, and psychedelic guitar.
Throughout the album, Pagan has a chameleon-like ability to embody various characters. This is most evident on “John and Betty,” where he writes from the perspective of prostitute-turned wife-to-be, ‘Betty,’ as well as “Don’t Be Gay (Working Title)” – the tale of two parents and their contrasting reactions to their son’s burgeoning sexuality.
Whether he is singing with minimal accompaniment or engaging in vocal gymnastics over a large scope of sound, Pagan is perpetually earnest in his delivery.
It is this steadfast sincerity, his decision to convey every note and every lyric with equal fervor, that makes it a pleasure to go on the album-long journey with him.
Hockeytown Cafe is ready to dance! 
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