We dig New Yorker Trevor Dickson’s new track for “Summer Legs”. Recalling in a strange way early Bowie (if he were way more fun to be around and got out in the sun a little more) not only vocally but thematically, there’s also a generous bit of other early 60’s and late 70’s influences and sounds to be had here. “Summer Legs” is the title track from Trevor Dickson’s new EP which is available now via Swoon Records.
Trevor Dickson 
(Bandcamp)
Rating 8.3
We loved Aussie band The Preatures excellent soulful-in-half-time single Is This How You Feel?. The Sydney-based act follow up with the darker, a bit tougher to crack (dare we say Fleetwood Mac-y), but certainly no less soulful groove of “Revelation”. So that’s two fabulous singles down for Preatures, we can only hope an album (or at the very least an EP) is not too far in the offing.
The Preatures 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.3
It’s been years and Franz Ferdinand is finally back upon us with a new single from their forthcoming late-August Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action album. It’s got the bouncy hooks and jangly strums you’d expect from the Glasgow boys. This track was produced by Joe Goddard and Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip. Look for a US tour this coming October. By Bruce Rave
anz Ferdinand — Right ActionPrimal Screen 
(Facebook)
* Links and playlists from Rave’s weekly new music show can be found on his blog and be sure follow Bruce on Twitter too!
Temple Songs, not to be mistaken with Temples, (well actually it wouldn’t be the worst thing that could happen as you’ll probably like them both) is a great little noisy psych band from Manchester. “Dinosaur Alley” is the b-side to “Passed Caring” another swirling lo-fi pop gem which is out July 1st on RIP Records. Let Temple Songs soundtrack you morning/afternoon/evening and be happy. By Nathan Hetherington
Temple Songs 
(Facebook)
Rating: 8.3
During their recent stint through Los Angeles, UK based indie math-pop rockers Everything Everything brought their A+ musicianship and equally impressive melodic songwriting to this live B3SESSION for their track “Cough Cough”, from the excellent new Arc LP. Frontman Jonathan Higgs has explained about “Cough Cough’s” broader meaning “(It’s) about the power of money and the desire to get away from it. It’s also about waking up and seeing the world as an unfair place and then slipping back under the spell of greed… It’s about having no money, and wanting more money, and wanting nothing to do with money at all.” Catch the live session below and be sure to catch Everything Everything when they tour Europe this fall.
Audio mixed and engineered by Pete Min. Special thanks to Jason Kramer.
Everything Everything (Official) (Buy Music on iTunes) (On Spotify)
We hipped you to Lionlimb earlier this year and their awesome track for “Bound Widths”. “Rot”, the title track from the Chicago band’s upcoming EP, is it’s second single. Dreamy but still firmly rooted to more earthly persuasions (incl. an incredibly catchy set of choruses and some great leads as played-through-a-giant-hose guitar work), “Rot” is very very strong indeed. Dear Lionlimb, We need that EP in our email ASAP! Help a bro out, Thx.
Lionlimb 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.1
Lovely. The mighty Eliza and the Bear knock out another fantastic track w/ the triumphant drama of new track “Friends”. “I got friends, I got family here”, be prepared to not only be shouting that line by the second or third chorus but expect to have it in yr head for at least the rest of today (it’s definitely stuck in ours). Absolute A+. We need more music, guys!
Eliza and the Bear 
(Facebook) (Soundcloud)
Rating 8.2
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. We are party to another winner from Aussie risers Snakadaktal with new track “Hung On Tight”. We loved previous song “Ghost” a lot (maybe our favorite track of the last month) and wow “Hung On Tight” is equally strong. As we highlighted in our review of “Ghost”, the interrelationships between different pieces and parts of melody and the different rhythmic elements in Snakadaktal’s music (and present again here in quality on “Hung On Tight”) is very very special and is indicative of a band populated by highly skilled and well-schooled songwriter(s). Liberation Australia will be releasing Snakadaktal’s debut Sleep In The Water LP on August 5th.
Snakadaktal (Facebook)
Rating 8.6
New York newcomers Blue & Gold channel the best and most soulful parts of the classic rock canon w/ brand new track “It’s Only You”. The warmth and care of the melodic stylings and choices of singer Alex Kapelman highlight an instrumental that would be just as much at home on a Black Keys record as it would on a Stax record release; that and the track features a most excellent and most emotive guitar solo (!) where not a single note is out of place or wasted. Check out our premiere of Blue & Gold’s “It’s Only You” below and look for the band’s self-titled EP July 16th. p.s. if you’re in NYC, catch Blue & Gold @ Piano’s on July 17th,
Blue & Gold (Facebook)
Rating 8.1
A well-executed reverb-drenched beach guitar is truly a sound/wonder to behold. Context that w/ summertime and a truly strong track e.g.: Austin band La Vega’s “Key West” and there’s nothing we B3’ers can do really to resist it. Look out for La Vega’s debut Wave LP August 13th on Major Nation Records.
La Vega 
(Tumblr)
Rating 8.0
If you frequent b3sci, then it should come as no surprise that we’re excited about this advance stream of Solitary Trip, the debut EP from spaghetti western friendly, psychedelic-rockers, Men’s Adventures. In fact, we’re so excited that Brian Litwin from the team caught up with both Jimmy and Alfie from the band for a quick chat about the new EP, affinities for vintage comic books, time era rock and roll and more. Have a look at the interview as well as sample the forthcoming Solitary Trip EP below, officially available on June 25th via Dirty Bingo Records.
B3SCI: Your debut EP Solitary Trip is due out June 24th. Is there anything that you guys will take away from this release… that you can tell as of now?
Jimmy: Yeah all I’ve ever wanted to do is make records, and having something published has been an interesting experience, a good one too! I look forward to and will be taking everything I’ve learnt making this record and applying it to the next one.
B3SCI: Is there anything that you expect listeners to take away?
Jimmy: The band and the record is supposed to take you on a journey, what kind of a journey is obviously down to the listners interpretation. I would say that’s just one of the meanings behind the title Solitary Trip
B3SCI: We’ve read that you’ve explained your incredible single “Feeling Bad” as a song that forms into something which could be in a Tarantino movie. Must say, I totally agree. Are you fans of Quentin? Does he influence your work?
Alfie: I don’t think we ever actually said that, alot of people have said “Feeling Bad” especially could be heard in one of his films which I understand. But yea, big fan of his films and his soundtracks, I couldn’t say they’ve ever directly influenced our music but I would love to work on a soundtrack or score for one of his films someday.
Jimmy: The biggest influence someone like Quentin Tarantino has on our music is the fact that he is a genre director and we are essentially a genre band. At the moment we are heavilly shrowded by western comparisons, which is fine and we’ve kinda asked for it, but there is a lot more to us than that…
B3SCI: You site Ennio Morricone as an inspiration. Do you forsee large symphonic orchestration, and possibly film score focus, in the band’s future?
Jimmy: Well we have put some strings on “Welcome Home” and “B.B Vulture”, we worked with Dan Merrill on those, he was a pleasure to work with and I am still blown away with what we achieved there. I would love to work more on music for films. I hope some directors or film makers will read this and get in touch. In a band, you have to stagger releasing stuff and playing stuff live. With something like a film score, the inspiration is right in front of you, the director has provided that for you. You take that, write something, record it and leave it there. That’s really appealing to me!
Alfie: My dream is really for Men’s Adventures to keep getting bigger as a band and to start doing stuff like this live. As i previously said, all my words are with images in mind and that very much applies to films as well. A friend of mine at the BFI has been putting on musicians playing new original scores over classic films and that’s definitely something we plan to do when the time is right.
B3SCI: The whole brand that is Men’s Adventures is engulfed in 60’s and 70’s throwbacks. What are some your favorite aspects of that time period?
Alfie: I’d throw in a little of the 50’s and the 80’s too. I think the innocence and romance of alot of songs and films from the 50’s and 60’s, you dont get that anymore. I would’ve loved to have joined my parents and uncles and aunties at alot of the gigs they attended in the 70’s and 80’s. The clothes and the vinyl they have handed down to me from that period have been a huge influence. I have pink Cramps vinyl sleeves and posters on my bedroom walls that they gave to me, maybe thats why I chose pink for our EP cover.
B3SCI: Is there a tie-in with your passion for comic books? I don’t usually mention the album artwork but something about it caught my eye. Tell us the deeper meaning of this background and the woman raising her arm.
Alfie: It’s not so much comic books, originally we were inspired by men’s adventures magazines and the stories they would tell, always about a guy and a girl but always set somewhere far away and exotic or dangerous, they provided cheap thrills and to me they flowed like songs when reading them, so I wanted to do that with my lyrics. For me, when writing our songs I always have the illustrations from those original magazines in mind but we don’t want to use them in our artwork as hopefully the words help the audience to paint that picture themselves. This is very much the western adventures though. As for the woman, she’s there because the songs are all about women I guess, everything revolves around them. She was actually used on the cover of our first EP too so i guess she becoming a bit of a logo. The sun was inspired by the artwork for the film The Big Country.
B3SCI: Did you grow up listening to this era of music and at what point did this music become a major influence?
Jimmy: I grew up on a stable diet of Westerns, Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy films. They all had beautifully crafted songs and pieces of music to accompany them. When you really listen, you cannot help but be moved by that. I have never stopped loving those films I grew up on. We had a lot of time to think, write and record after the demise of both our previous bands and out of that time came Men’s Adventures.
Alfie: Yeah, I think after our last bands which were much more punk and rough around the edges with pretty pointless political or self indulgent words we had to think what we really wanted to do. My mum and my grandma would sit me down and watch Westerns with me constantly, my granddad did the same with Laurel and Hardy too actually haha. So I guess I grew up listening to this type of music in films and its just stuck, it naturally creeped out.
B3SCI: We’re giving you guys a free ride in our B3SCI time machine. Where and when are you going… and why?
Jimmy: To be honest if that were a genuine possibility, I think I’d just wig out and accidently pick somewhere really lame, then spend the rest of my life hating myself for the wasted opportunity OR just spend my entire trip worrying that I’m gonna fuck up in the future, and end up not really having a good time. It’s probably best I don’t get in…
Alfie: I’ll get a little high and get in. 1881, Tombstone Arizona at 2.45pm, to watch the gunfight at OK Corral and see what Wyatt Earp’s sayin. Or! in true Men’s Adventure fashion I would obviously take it back to before ‘she’ left me…
Interview By Brian Litwin
Men’s Adventures (Facebook)
Rating 8.3
The Arctics have released a single just ahead of their Glastonbury gig the final weekend of June. They have told us they expect to head back to the harder, darker sound of their “Humbug” album. For my personal taste, that was their least appealing effort to date. “Do I Wanna” know does have a heavy guitar, but it’s a slower, fairly melodic track. It may or may not be an indication of what’s to come, but it’s a win in my book. By Bruce Rave
Arctic Monkeys (Official) (Facebook)
* Links and playlists from Rave’s weekly new music show can be found on his blog and be sure follow Bruce on Twitter too!
