San Francisco’s Moon Duo was formed in 2009 by Sanae Yamada and Erik Johnson (Wooden Shjips). Inspired initially by the legendary duo of John Coltrane and Rashied Ali, Moon Duo counts such variant groups as Silver Apples, Royal Trux, Moolah, Suicide, and Cluster as touchstones. Utilizing primarily guitar, keyboards, percussion and vocals, the duo plays space against form to create a primordial and disorienting sonic stew.
The Stepkids are three singer/songwriters. “A lot of what excites us about this band is this band itself,” says bassist and keyboardist Dan Edinberg. “It’s not either of us; it’s about creating an entity where the entity itself is what’s important.” As a result, every song on the Stepkids self-titled debut album is written with equal input from each member. “All three of us write and all three of us sing,” says Jeff Gitelman, who resigned from touring as Alicia Keys' guitarist to concentrate full-time on recording the Stepkids self-titled debut album.
Van Dyke Parks (born January 3, 1943) is an American composer, arranger, producer, and musician, noted for his collaborations with Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys on the legendary album "SMiLE." As a child Parks acted in the 1956 movie The Swan, which starred Grace Kelly. He also worked steadily on television as a child actor between 1953 and 1958, including a role as Ezio Pinza's son on the NBC television show Bonino, as well as a recurring role as Little Tommy Manacotti (the kid from upstairs) on Jackie Gleason's The Honeymooners.
Hype Williams, comprised of Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland, is named after the film maker responsible for Belly. Starring rappers Nas and DMX, it was a hyper-stylised, Nihilist mess and this London duo borrow its finer traits, its strut and loathing. From beneath a medicated haze they lace twanging Americana with seams of swaggering dread. They are Bobby Peru made music. The band's sound consists of very lo-fi, homegrown recordings incorporating hip-hop and '80s references—and the persona going along the band is equally as bricolaged as the tracks.
The Mercy Beat is a 3-piece alternative rock band formed in Ancaster, Ontario. Currently the band's lineup consists of: Rob Honey (Lead Vocals, Guitar), Grant Somerville (Drums, Backup Vocals), and Ryan Shields (Bass Guitar, Keyboards). They've recorded one EP to date entitled, Tired & Inspired. They draw inspiration from a wide range of influences, combining sounds from every facet of rock, to create a mishmash of alternative, psychedelia, and metal.
Kurt Vile & the Violators are a rock band from Philadelphia PA, United States. The band draws influences from lo-fi, psychedelic and classic rock. Founded by frontman Kurt Vile (guitar, vocals), the band currently consists of Jesse Turbo (guitar, slide), Mike Zeng (percussion) and Adam Granduciel (guitar, bass). Kurt and Adam have played music together ever since the early 00's with each one contributing to the other's projects, most notably in The War on Drugs which is fronted by Granducial.
Toxis is the name of (at least) four artists: An Israeli psychedelic-trance producer, a romanian hard n' heavy band, a Norwegian rock-group, a german short-term indie-rock apparition and an austrian hiphop producer. Toxic is Avi Aboresi from Israel. This project started in 2001 as a dark metal influenced trance and evolved involved into a powerful dancefloor trance. Toxic has collaborated with artists such as Azax Syndrom, Psychotic Micro, Abomination, Winter Demon, Seroxat and others. His releases can be found in labels such as Time Code, Acidance, Yabai, Pi, and more.
There is more than one artist with this name. 1) Spectrum is a project of Peter Kember, a British musician more usually known as Sonic Boom, and founding member of the band Spacemen 3. Sonic Boom's first solo album, Spectrum, was recorded in 1989 while Spacemen 3 were still together, and featured the other members of the group. However, when Spacemen 3 disbanded in 1991, Kember recruited new musicians for the group Spectrum.
Skip the Light FanDjango Django Django The triple distilled essence (and sensibility) of an artistic huddle of mischievous musicals, the deft purveyors of an acutely infectious amalgam of neo scoto-irish bop to the pop sentiment. Fruitily looping and catchily hooking our hungry ears with their finely crafted fly hooks; fly hooks finely tied and then melodically unknotted, by well feathered professionals.