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In the Mix

SXSW 2016: B3SCI x Disco Naivete x Hype Machine

B3SCI Disco HH SXSW 2016 Poster WebRES

B3SCI is pleased to announce that we’ve teamed up with the very awesome Disco Naivete to host and curate a showcase this year at Mazda + Hype Machine’s Hype Hotel. This year’s line-up features the esteemable Minnesotans Polica, R&B star in the making Gallant, faves Honne, and a pair of cool pop up and comers, Transviolet and Coast Modern, PLUS a DJ set from Louis The Child. The show opens up at 12 Noon on Friday March 18th at 1100 E. 5th St. in Austin. Many thanks to DN, HM, Mazda and all the other sponsors who helped make this showcase a reality. We are psyched! See you there.

RSVP: here
FB: here

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Polica

gallant4
Gallant

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Honne

transviolet4
Transviolet

coastmodern
Coast Modern

reviewed by
03-04-16

Mixtape: Danger Village – No Guest List Required

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Mixtape art: Brock Lefferts

Today I am so excited to be sharing with you the inaugural edition of our monthly No Guest List Required feature. People are constantly asking me what I am listening to that should be on their radar. To answer that question, Danger Village is now curating a monthly playlist of hot new artists that we are placing our bets on.

As a launching pad, we have created a mix of artists that you have already heard from us like Miya Folick, BISHOP and Barrie Rose, and have added a few new artists like The Wild Wild, BECA, KYYN, and Shape King that we think you should have your attention.

In the past, my seasonal mixes included the first songs from many artists who went on to become successful artists: Chvrches, Lorde, Banks, SOHN, Benjamin Clementine, Neon Indian, Jungle, Jagwar Ma, and many more. Our No Guest List Required feature seeks to draw attention to more new artists that we think you should be watching out for.

Thank you for listening and checking out more from each artist! Please share the songs and playlist.

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1. Goldroom“Till Sunrise”
Tastefully rising and falling with its sun-drenched instrumental, “Embrace” is an exquisite piece of pop music. The vocals from Mammals twist and turn at will, carrying the song’s sticky melodies and undeniable chorus.

2. The Wild Wild“When We Were Young”
With vibrant synths and vocals darting in and out, “When We Were Young” is exciting, danceable pop, as relatable as the subject it covers: the sun-splashed days of youth and summer.

3. Hawai“In My Head”
Anchored by earnest vocals and easy-flowing rhymes, “In My Head” manages to be cinematic and casual at the same time, a harmonious duality that is usually hard to capture.

4. BISHOP“River”
With punishing horns, a massive chorus, irresistible handclaps and stomps,
“River” is a musical tour de force that firmly establishes BISHOP as a breakout artist of 2016.

5. Miya Folick“Oceans”
A reflection on fighting off the fear and panic associated with potential and desire, “Oceans” is a dimly lit daydream that builds to a biting rock ballad, trembling with emotion over a ghostly, echoing guitar.

6. BECA“Enabler”
Propelled by a relentless backbeat, “Enabler” is insatiable, driving forward with timely flourishes of 80s influenced production and BECA’s ethereal vocals.

7. KYYN“Walk On Water”
Backed by sparse production, KYYN’s sultry vocals welcomes the listener into her dark and brooding world. Her voice ranges from soaring to an intimate whisper to a stirring and haunting effect.

8. Shape King“We Are Together”
From its whimsical opening keyboard line to the gloriously chaotic ending, “We Are Together” is brimming with good vibes and a charming ode to love without ever being syrupy or saccharine.

9. Greg Hvnsen“What Would You Have Me Do”
Taking electronic music’s charming elements, “What Would You Have Me Do” is masterfully crafted with its earnest hooks, breezy demeanor and an exuberant instrumental break.

10. Barrie Rose“Laffy Taffy”
Built upon a foundation of an infectious hook, throbbing synths and a touch of harp, “Laffy Taffy” is a poignant track that affirms Barrie’s unwavering commitment to her artistic aspirations.

11. Scot Sier“The Painter”
Stripped and baring all, “”The Painter” is a wistful love song comprised of twinkling piano notes, tender vocals and lightly strummed guitar chords.

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MØ, Goldroom and Beth at the Danger Village SXSW showcase 2014

With each playlist, we’ll be including a song and three question interview from one of our legacy Danger Village artists. This month, we have been honored to have Goldroom answer a few questions that I have been wanting to talk to him about for a while. I started working with Goldroom in 2012 to release his song “Fifteen.” Together, we developed his career and Danger Village was proud to land him press placements on Pitchfork, FADER, USA Today, MTV, The Guardian, Last Call With Carson Daly, The LA Weekly, NYLON and many more notable outlets. I also was able to introduce him to MØ and Alpine, and Goldroom crafted two of his most memorable remixes of those artists.

I have noticed a lot of hit songs now using piano synth lines that sound like what we were promoting from your music three years ago. What do you think of the current trends of Tropical House hitting mainstream music and do you think that EDM has hit its peak?

I think it very much depends on how you define a “peak”. We all know things move in cycles, and I’m sure there is a generation of kids getting older that think that standing around watching a DJ is the lamest thing you could ever do. The idea that EDM festivals will continue to be the gathering locations for the entire youth of America is pretty silly. We’ve probably seen the peak of that world. But that said, we’ve crossed a threshold with electronic music within popular culture to the point that I think you can say across all music fans that people aren’t scared or turned off by electronic sounds anymore. If you had synths in your music 10 years ago, you could just write off reaching a significant group of people. Thanks to EDM’s rise over the past 5 years, I don’t think that barrier exists anymore, which is great for me and anyone else making music with synthesizers.

As for Tropical House, I think the term and most of the music is incredibly corny. Like a lot of flash-in-the-pan music genres, its built on a vibe and a feeling and not so much at all in songwriting and writing important and timeless music. To be honest I don’t relate to most of it so I’m glad that my name has stayed pretty outside of that conversation. It’s definitely a bit of a bummer to have marimbas and congas used to blatantly to appropriate a vibe and a vibe alone.

You started off as a solo artist and now are playing big festivals with a full band. How does the process work in translating your music to a live setting, and does this affect your songwriting process?

I try as hard as possible to not let the live show influence the songwriting at all. Having been lucky enough to play in festival settings, I think it’s really easy to start to imagine playing
festival songs. You see it a lot in dance music, where producers will start make obviously club or festival friendly music once they’ve started to play a lot of shows, even though the music that got them their popularity in the first place came from their hearts, in their studios.

In writing my record, which I’m wrapping up now, I was really careful to separate the writing process from the fact that I’ll be playing it live. I want to write music that people will be playing for years on their record players. The way I see it, my job as songwriter/producer and my job as live band director are two completely separate jobs. I have to deal with how to play these songs only after they’re completely done.

I’ve always been in bands, and so the Goldroom live show really reflects that. We play as a six piece band, with tons of live percussion, real synths, guitars and bass. We’re bringing a live experience that’s pretty outside of the normal electronic space, and I think it starts and ends with the personalities on stage. I play with some incredibly talented people, and its the sum of our parts that makes the live show great.

At the Grammy’s we saw that all of Taylor Swift’s producers were men, and it’s unusual to see women like Grimes who are in charge of all of their production. How would you encourage young women to get into production and what do you think can be done to even the playing field for men and women for the future?

There are lots of unfortunate barriers that keep women from going down that road. They’re usually encouraged to be the face but not the brains, which is a huge bummer. I’m sure that has been true forever. The difference was, for someone like Joan Baez, there was a fairly obvious path. She just needed to pick up a guitar and learn how to play it. That feels like a tangible goal. Learning how to produce complicated music on a computer is an almost Herculean task if you’re looking at it from square one. So I think its pretty easy to discourage girls who are just getting started.

My advice would be the same advice I’d give you a guy asking me the same question. Start working! Start trying things! Most of the music you’ll make will suck, but very slowly you’ll get better and better. There’s no substitute for the work in this case, because it is hard to make electronic music.

reviewed by
02-23-16

Rave’s Fave: The Record Company – Off the Ground

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A well-deserving trio is starting to see the national light of day. The Record Company, headed up by Chris Vos, have become major players in the LA scene since their 2011 formation. Just back from a European trek, they’ve toured with such diverse luminaries as Brian Setzer, Buddy Guy, B. B. King, and Social Distortion. They sound fresh, and I think of it as hard, blusey roots-rock. They cite influences from John Lee Hooker to punk bands to the Rollling Stones. You’ve probably heard their tunes on TV over the years. “Off the Ground” is already getting radio love around the country. It’s a grimy mid-tempo track that features Chris’ smooth, deep pipes and slide guitar in front of a killer rhythm section as he prods himself to “pick myself up off the ground.” The Record Company can also rock it uptempo with the best of them and should definitely be seen live. Their Give It Back to You album is out February 12. Reviewed by Bruce Rave.

Check out Bruce’s weekly “Go Deep” radio show; air dates and times for “Go Deep” as well archived past shows can be found on Bruce’sblog. Don’t forget to follow Bruce on Twitter too!

The Record Company (Facebook)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
02-02-16

Rave’s Fave: Teleman – Fall in Time

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The UK band Teleman has returned with a track that portends potential major band status for them. This group has always had the ingredients in their melodies, arrangements, and overall skills. “Fall In Time” begins with vocalist Tom Sanders and his beautiful vocals over basically a piano before the rest of the band kicks in. The song builds into an accessible yet complex collaboration that should be magic to the ears of anyone listening closely. It has a rhythmic feel that provides a somewhat different sound for Teleman but we’ve seen indications in the past that the band has always had this kind of direction in them. Check this out and see them live. Label Moshi Moshi drops their Brilliant Sanity album April 8. Reviewed by Bruce Rave.

Check out Bruce’s weekly “Go Deep” radio show; air dates and times for “Go Deep” as well archived past shows can be found on Bruce’sblog. Don’t forget to follow Bruce on Twitter too!

Teleman (Facebook)

reviewed by
01-20-16

[B3SCI PRESENTS] SWIMM @ The Echo, L.A. on 01/25

Night 4 print

Team B3 is happy to announce we’ve paired up with Roll Call Records to present Monday’s (January 25th) SWIMM show at The Echo in Los Angeles. Night 4 the band’s month-long Monday night residency at The Echo, the show will feature cool support from New Electric Sound, TOLD and Good Graeff. As an added bonus (!) there will be a video crew at the show to shoot the band and the gig, so if you do attend, you also have a shot at becoming famous too. SWIMM’s excellent “Beverly Hells” EP is out now and you can stream the neat pop of single “Belly” below. For further details on the gig, check the Echo website. Be square or be there on the 25th.

SWIMM (Soundcloud)

reviewed by
01-20-16

Rave’s Fave: The Last Shadow Puppets – Bad Habits

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When the Coachella lineup was announced, a major highlight for me was that The Last Shadow Puppets would be part of the lineup. This of course is the collaboration of Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys and Miles Kane. You aren’t onto Miles? The UK knows him real well from his solo and group work, and he’s under-appreciated here in the US. If you’ve heard the 2008 album The Age of the Understatement from these guys, “Bad Habits” will surprise you. It’s got a quirky groove, horns, and vocals not so much in the familiar style of either Alex or Miles. They were crushing it live last time they toured the US, so expect the same this time around. Their new full-length album is recorded and is expected to drop this spring. Reviewed by Bruce Rave.

Check out Bruce’s weekly “Go Deep” radio show; air dates and times for “Go Deep” as well archived past shows can be found on Bruce’sblog. Don’t forget to follow Bruce on Twitter too!

Last Shadow Puppets (Youtube)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
01-19-16

B3SCI Best of 2015: Artists of the Year

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Thank you for reading.

adele

Adele

catfish3

Catfish & The Bottlemen

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Courtney Barnett

drdre

Dr. Dre

drake4

Drake

fettywap

Fetty Wap

future2

Future

jamiexx

Jamie xx

bieber

Justin Bieber

kendricklamar

Kendrick Lamar

leonbridges3

Leon Bridges

mo2

ohwonder3

Oh Wonder

tameimpala

Tame Impala

theweeknd

The Weeknd

reviewed by
01-07-16

B3SCI Best of 2015: Artists to Watch in 2016

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B3’s coverage of the “Best of 2015” continues with our choices for 15 artists to watch for prosperity/success in the coming year. We’ve included all 15 artists in a new Spotify playlist here. Thanks again for reading.

alessiacara

Alessia Cara

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Alina Baraz

billiemarten2

Billie Marten

brysontiller

Bryson Tiller

gallant3

Gallant

kiaara

Kiaara

midnighttomonaco2

Midnight to Monaco

muramasa

Mura Masa

nao

Nao

nombe3

NoMBe

phoeberyan2

Phoebe Ryan

tender2

Tender

thejapanesehouse

The Japanese House

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Transviolet

xylo

XYLO

reviewed by
01-07-16

B3SCI Best of 2015: Staff Favorite Songs

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Hello 2016. Goodbye 2015. 2015 was a year. We’ve elected at B3 this year that in lieu of arbitrarily ranking a list of top x-number tracks that we’d prefer to share lists of the favorite songs of the year of each main B3SCI writer. Following later this week will be B3’s choices for top artists of the year and our picks for artists to watch for 2016. Thanks for reading.

Troy

1 Drake – Hotline Bling
2 Drake / Future – Jumpman
3 Kendrick Lamar – How Much A Dollar Cost
4 Justin Bieber – What Do You Mean
5 Major Lazer / DJ Snake & MO – Lean On
6 SG Lewis – Warm
7 Kanye West – All Day
8 Florence + The Machine – What Kind of Man
9 Alabama Shakes – Don’t Wanna Fight
10 NoMBe – California Girls

deerhunter

Mike

1 Deerhunter – Breaker
2 Moses Sumney – Seeds
3 Gallant – Weight in gold
4 Kurt Vile – Pretty Pimpin
5 Midnight to Monaco – Suicide
6 Blur – Go Out
7 Green Buzzard – Zoo Fly
8 Spring King – City
9 Noel Gallagher – Ballad of the Might I
10 Sjowgren – Seventeen

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Bruce

1 Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats – S.O.B.
2 Courtney Barnett – Pedestrian At Best
3 Alabama Shakes – Miss You
4 Death Cab For Cutie – Everything’s A Ceiling
5 FFS – Piss Off
6 The Struts – Could Have Been Me
7 The Maccabees – Marks To Prove It
8 Frank Turner – Mittens
9 The Libertines – Anthems For Doomed Youth
10 Hippo Campus – Suicide Saturday

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Erin

1 Kenton Slash Demon – Harpe
2 Darius & FKJ – O
3 Lettuce – Phyllis
4 Sango – Dias Melhores
5 J.Louis – Camarillo
6 Rick Ross – Amazing Grace
7 Superhumanoids – Anxious in Venice
8 Egyptian Art- She’s Lovely
9 NoMBe – California Girls
10 HONNE – No Place Like Home

reviewed by
01-07-16

Rave’s Fave: The Gods Themselves – Tangerines

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Here’s a Seattle 3-piece that’s hard rock, psychedelic, slightly retro, dancy, and much more. The Gods Themselves list their genre as Psychedelic Dance Music and the bottom line is they sound fresh as hell on “Tangerines” from their Pink Noise album. If you’re hooked on guitar hooks, this track will probably slay you. The tune launches with a winning riff that you’ll swear you’ve heard a million times–but it’s slightly bent. There are a few curve balls in this tune, such as the sudden synth solo that feels like a cool lemonade on a hot day. I find their music goes well with The Dead Weather, with Astra Elane’s raw rock guitars and vocals. They just completed a tour of the Pacific Northwest. No further dates are listed but let’s hope they hit some more distant destinations very soon. Reviewed by Bruce Rave.

Check out Bruce’s weekly “Go Deep” radio show; air dates and times for “Go Deep” as well archived past shows can be found on Bruce’sblog. Don’t forget to follow Bruce on Twitter too!

The Gods Themselves (Facebook)

reviewed by
11-11-15

Rave’s Fave: The Fratellis – Dogtown

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The Fratellis latest album Eyes Wide Tongue Tied probably hasn’t received its due here in the US. As usual for this band, the album’s packed with interesting tracks. Dogtown is a mid-tempo stomper with a catchy guitar hook and a somewhat surprising horn section that will probably hook you even harder. They’ve also included a keyboard part that sounds straight out of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition”. The Fratellis are best known for the huge UK #1 hit and Chicago Black Hawks theme song “Chelsea Dagger” and their biggest US hit “Flathead” that got its boost from an Apple commercial. The fact is that these guys have so much more to offer. If you’re in the US, see them on tour this month. Reviewed by Bruce Rave.

Check out Bruce’s weekly “Go Deep” radio show; air dates and times for “Go Deep” as well archived past shows can be found on Bruce’sblog. Don’t forget to follow Bruce on Twitter too!

The Fratellis (Official)

reviewed by
10-13-15

B3SCI on Spotify

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Hi. We love Spotify (check out our profile here). You’re probably into it too. Join Team B3 at the big green sphere in the internet/sky on our two brand playlist creations. “Playlist Officiel”, check it out here, features a handpicked assortment of favorite breaking tracks (the sort of music or summat you’d find on B3). We’re also curating a selection of B3SCI Records tracks from label artists past and present incl. Jungle, Zella Day, Marian Hill, Aquilo and POWERS (check that here). Thanks for reading and we can’t wait to see y’all on Spotify!

reviewed by
10-09-15