Category Archives: #spotlight

Spotlight: Feathers

By rachelb |
Mar 19 2012

Anastasia Dimou, formerly of Cruel Black Dove, relocated from New York to Austin last year. It was there that she formed Feathers, an impressive spectral pop project from whom we’re expecting great things in 2012. Recruiting an assemblage of (very beautiful) ladies to accompany her live conception, the band made their live debut at famed Austin venue, Mohawk, just last October supporting Washed Out.

Remarkably, yet unsurprisingly, they’ve since booked performances in LA, New York, this month’s Jeff Mangum-curated ATP festival in the UK, and several (official) sxsw appearances. According to their twitter, an official release is coming “soon…”, and in the meantime let “Soft” satisfy your curiosity.

Spotlight: Kuroma

By rachelb |
Feb 1 2012

An introduction to Athens, GA’s Hank Sullivant is more often than not accompanied by an obligatory list of his prerequisites, founding member of The Whigs as well as a former touring member of MGMT. However deserved these bragging rights may be, his current project Kuroma is a force in and of itself.

His latest release under this moniker, Psychopomp (Holy Owned Subsidiary, 2011), is a delirious romp through pop obscurity for which Sullivant cites Psychic TV as a primary influence.

Tomorrow night he’ll be performing with a newly formed, guitar-heavy, line up comprised of friends and members of Ill Fits and MGMT, respectively. This is definitely a do-not-miss!

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Kuroma is playing Glasslands Thursday, February 2nd with Young Heel (Record Release Party!) // Blonde Valhalla // Tygerstrype

Get yr tickets HERE

Spotlight: Abadabad

By amelia | @meeelzz
Dec 8 2011

Brooklyn five-piece Abadabad has been on our radar lately, playing a couple shows at Glasslands and most recently picking up a Keep Shelly in Athens remix for their track “California Birds”.

They’ve got that ‘shimmery’ Brooklyn guitar thing going on but their vocals and arrangements are far more tenacious than their sonic brethren and it gives the whole vibe a serious breath-of-fresh-air feeling. You should keep an eye on these guys too, there’s a lot of choice material to explore over that their Bandcamp.

Abadabad is returning to Glasslands on Tuesday, December 27th with Yalls // Kites Sail High // Night Shining

Get yr tickets HERE

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

By amelia | @meeelzz
Jul 13 2011

The cat and mouse game between bands and blogs has produced countless overnight success stories in recent years, and Unknown Mortal Orchestra is definitely one of the lucky few. But the man behind the project, Ruban Nielson, wasn’t catapulted from an art school dorm room or post art school loft; Nielson is the former guitarist of the Flying Nun signed New Zealand-based art-punks The Mint Chicks, a band that despite their immense popularity in the southern hemisphere, never quite found the same success stateside.

Following a particularly dramatic demise of his former band, Nielson relocated to the cloudy lush of Portland with his family. It was there that he recorded the Unknown Mortal Orchestra project all alone in his basement. “I was able to go on tangents that would be hard to explain to a collaborator” Nielson explained, suddenly able to flex new muscles after being a piece in a band for so many years, “I made the album for myself”.

After “Ffunny Ffriends” was sent into the blogosphere, it received attention from almost every major blog. Quite literally overnight the internet demanded a presence from Unknown Mortal Orchestra: a bio, a picture, more tracks, and, most importantly, a band! Nieslon said, “I asked my friend Jake Portrait to play bass and he knew the drummer Julien Ehrlich from way back”.  Done.

As a fan of early psychedelia, Nielson cites influences from the greats like Love and The Zombies, tuning into the less melodramatic side of the genre and recording on various tape machines. “People put the lo-fi label on it but I think the record sounds exactly as it should. It could have easily been cleaner, but I wanted it to seem confusing in terms of what time it was made, ” Nielson explained. And it works, the recordings could very well be anything from a familiar worn-in vinyl to, well, a guy with a tape-recorder in his basement.

The theme of “I wanted people to not be sure when the music comes from” sort of mantra, the enigmatic name, the picture of a decaying Yugoslavian compound, all these pieces fold into one another and make for the perfect storm of the project’s disorienting aesthetic. With a quick sign the to good old Fat Possum and a recent (and phenomenal) self-titled debut release, it seems like Nielson has found his solo stride.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra will return to Glasslands on Thursday, September 15th

Woven Bones // Blouse // Man/Miracle

Get yr tickets HERE

Hunx And His Punx

By amelia | @meeelzz
Apr 14 2011

What can I say that hasn’t already been ogled about the explosion in your face that is the leopard clad Hunx and His Punx? Fronted by the pathologically charismatic Seth Bogart with his vamped-out backing Punx (which includes the vocally endowed Shannon Shaw of Shannon and the Clams), these guys really know how to give the little people what they want, turning live shows into bizarre striptease/comedy hour extravaganzas and run of the mill interviews into unending quotable quotes.

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Former member of the demented quartet Gravy Train!!!, current salon owner/hairstylist, Hunx lives by the kitch he’s peddling. As early era Spector fetishists, the band turns those 50′s paradigm sing-songs into punk infused jaunts about boys who like boys–leather jackets, bobby socks, and top-down cruising included.

After experiencing these guys live a couple times, we are very, very excited to welcome Hunx and His Punx to the Glasslands stage on Saturday, April 23rd following the release of their official debut Too Young To Be In Love via Hardly Art.

Fellow fan/writer @emancipationofj had a lil boy on boy time with Hunx via email, check out the super cute interview and then buy the album and then come hang out at Glasslands!

How did Hunx find his Punx? Were you guys all friends before or did you go out recruiting rad chicks to back your solo extravaganza?

They were my babysitters when I was younger – SERIOUSLY

So you’ve got a crotch shot on Gay Singles and torso action on Too Young To Be In Love are we gonna get a facial on the next release?

I was picturing a close up of my feet –all wet, oily and sensual.

If your songs are any indication, you’ve got a real knack for seducing straight boys. Any tips?

Lower your IQ and standards.

Joey Ramone shows up in a few of your songs. If you could get lucky with any of your music icons (alive or dead), who would it be?

Daniel Pitout from Nu Sensae.

I heard you singing along to “You’re So Vain” at a show once. Do Hunx and his Punx have any covers of classic diva standards in the works? I bet you do a mean Stevie Nicks, too.

You were spying on me?!?!?!?! Haha

For months I’ve been reading about the variety show you’re working on with Brande Bytheway. When will “Hollywood Nails” be on the air? (If it hasn’t been picked up yet—where can I sign the online petition?)

We’ve been having some Hollywood Meetings with Hollywood Producers but nothing has been decided yet. When I get home from tour were gonna finish filming episode one.

The last time I saw you play (SXSW, Trailer Space), the audience was filled with gaybies in high school. What’s it like to be the wet dream of every gay jailbait hipster in America?



Actually it’s a very recent thing that gay teens are at our shows. It makes me feel really good!

Craft Spells

By amelia | @meeelzz
Mar 23 2011

Craft Spells is the newest kid on the ever cohesive Capture Tracks roster, armed with sun bleached guitar sheen and fronted by the cool nonchalant vocal stylings of founding member Justin Vallestaros.

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Craft Spells was born out of Vallestaros’ bedroom project goings on, living and perfecting his craft in Stockton, CA, he eventually decided to split suburbia for some perennially hip Seattle digs.  Justin explained, “When I came to Seattle a few months back, we jammed with Jack playing bass, & Peter playing live drums. We always used pre-programmed drums before, but when we played two shows with live drums, the response was really positive”.

With full band in tow and a few tracks floating around the interweb, Craft Spells experienced the sort of Cinderella story that every young, unsigned band dreams of–a record label came a-calling.  Justin reveled, “Captured Tracks contacted me. They emailed me out of nowhere, it was surreal”.

Sharing a roster with such sonically like-minded bands such as Beach Fossils, MINKS, and Widowspeak, its a wonder Craft Spells didn’t cite them as influences next to the aforementioned standards like Beach Boys and Joy Division.  When asked if he had been influenced by the label’s distinct sound Justin told me, “Not at all. I was into Blank Dogs but I didn’t know that they were on Captured Tracks. I don’t pay much attention to labels”.

Some things are just meant to be, I suppose.  Craft Spells will be releasing its debut record Idle Labor via Captured Tracks on March 29th!

Craft Spells is playing with Cloud Nothings Saturday, April 9th @ Glasslands

Get yr tickets HERE!

Bass Drum of Death

By amelia | @meeelzz
Jan 13 2011

Tearing up Glasslands on 1/18 all the way from Oxford, MS is scuzzy garage duo Bass Drum of Death.  The brainchild of singer/guitarist John Barrett, Bass Drum of Bass was a one-man band before John got lonely and picked up Colin Sneed to beat the drums.

“Colin had never even played drums when I asked him to join, I just thought he was a rad dude that understood what i was going for and would have fun doing it – he’s been crushing it ever since”.

John spent a year and a half on Bass Drum’s debut LP GB City – writing, playing, recording, and mixing it on his own, “I’m both a procrastinator and perfectionist, so it took a while to get everything nailed down to my liking”.  The fuzzed out album, loaded with quick driving garage jams, is due out in late February via Inflated Records.  “I mainly just wanted a record that would play well front to back, with all the songs having a similar vibe but not sounding the same”, and the final product is most definitely cohesive – in a cracked out party kind of way.

ur venue is cooler than my venue

Bass Drum of Death is tied in with the Cats Purring Collective, a tight knit circle of bands that includes Dent May, Young Buffalo, Junk Culture, and Dead Gaze to name a few.  John noted  “for being such a small town in a ‘nothing’ state, we’ve got a pretty good thing going in Oxford” – a good thing that didn’t just come around by happenstance.  Besides being a sort of home base to all these fantastic acts, John told me “between all of us we play/book shows under the name Cats Purring and we’ve been able to get a bunch of great bands to come through a usually overlooked town”.  Sounds so dope, wtf am I doing in Brooklyn.

Idiot Glee

By amelia | @meeelzz
Dec 9 2010

Contrary to what we previously announced, Young Buffalo will not be playing our Friday show at Glasslands. Wah wah.  Instead, Idiot Glee stepped up and grabbed the opportunity – so now I’m gonna say a few nice things about him. Reciprocity is a beautiful thing.

James Friley aka Idiot Glee is a dude from Lexington, KY who plays a keyboard and sings do-wop inspired slow jams over tape loops of his own harmonies with a sort of chilly intimacy I really dig. Many moons ago, we presented his first show in New York City. OooOo check out our exclusive video of him performing “Let’s Get Down Together” shot by our good bro Ian Perlman :

James recently took a trip across the pond with Women for a little touring and scored a place on the coveted European label Moshi Moshi.  Idiot Glee then jumped on an inspired Christmas EP with a few other like minded artists including Summer Camp.  He also got into a weird disagreement with Viceland about being a Mormon.  Big year.