Finding Musical Nuggets In This Denver Goldrush

This is an incredibly exciting notion - a festival run by three ace of base blogs! Pity its in Denver...too far away! The rad dudes from Tome To The Weather Machine, Magic Teepee and Speaker Snacks have united to present the first annual GOLDRUSH Music Festival, in two weeks' time, September 16th and 17th at the Hi-Dive Rock Club and Sputnik in Denver, Colorado. This two-day event will cover a wide, varied selection of musical styles from across North America, featuring rock, electronic, pop, and ambient from over 30 nationally renowned artists, headlined by Tennis, CVLTS and How To Dress Well. The Tome's Crawf and Ryan H., Magic Teepee's Ryan P., and Speaker Snacks' Jake Martin are all longtime friends and avid supporters of all things music. Each site has had a careful hand in picking out the artists performing this year, making the artist invitations/acceptances and pending performances extremely personal and sacred. These musicians have been obsessively listened to, worshipped, and then subsequently written about—and for good reason. Its a veritable who's who od SM-endorsed artists like Vitamins, Junior Low, Tjutjana, School Knights, Candy Claws, Seven Feathers Rainwater, Slow Magic, StaG, the Kevin Costner Suicide Pact, Steffaloo and Teen Daze, plus a shedload more, GOLDRUSH promises to be something special.

The guys put together this compilation to showcase the event, and its pretty spectacular. You can get tix for the event here! Its uber cheap and will be an amazing weekend, so get on board!!

VIDEO VACUUM - Mickey Mickey Rourke, Cerebral Ballzy, Vitamins, Apparat

Time for some visual shenanigans, and this Video Vacuum is all about Back To The Future - four bands that we have championed extensively in the past, showing clips of where they are headed in the future. Exciting times...

First up is Miller Rodriguez, or as we know him, Mickey Mickey Rourke. Its been a bit quiet on this front, but he now has a rather slick video for his track 'Satanic Youth Brigade' off his Magic User EP. Its an arresting video, also augmenting the warped production of the song, thus making it more accessible and Im appreciative of this. Its a solid track, for sure.



New York reprobates Cerebral Ballzy have been going gangbusters this year, pushing their self-titled LP to all and sundry. Their connection to Adult Swim has certainly done wonders for their exposure, and here is another visual treat that showcases a track from Cerebral Ballzy. Featuring 'Junky For Her', it's all pretty straightforward, albeit reminiscent of the grimy horror of the 80s - much like the band itself.

CEREBRAL BALLZY "JUNKY FOR HER" DIR BY VICE COOLER from Vice Cooler on Vimeo.

Denver act Vitamins impressed the hell out of me with their No Notion Of Anything Just Whatever Is What/The Disappearance of David Lee Powell 7" earlier in the year, and we showed both film clips for those tracks here and here. Now is their new clip, a nicely warped video for 'Vimanas', which precedes the exciting news that there is a full length release in the works!

VITAMINS-VIMANAS from Matthew Daniels on Vimeo

Lastly we have Apparat. The amazing sound LP The Devil's Walk is almost upon us, and here is the video for the great track 'Black Water'. The video is typically arty, slick and slightly dark, just like the German himself...

Apparat - Black Water from Liberty Wilson on Vimeo.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

VIDEO VACUUM - Explosions In The Sky, Fucked Up, Vitamins, Harmony Acapella

Its been about a fortnight since we celebrated a few moving images that accompanying a suite of sound otherwise known as a song, so lets get sucked up in the Video Vacuum and see what transpires, hmmm?

First up is monumental. Texan instrumental gods Explosions In The Sky have actually done their 1st ever video! Its for 'Last Known Surroundings' off this year's stellar Take Care Take Care Take Care, and it is an animated gem. Not that you need visuals with music this beautiful, but let's see what happens, ok?

Last Known Surroundings from Explosions in the Sky on Vimeo.

Next we have Canadian powerhouse punks Fucked Up, and the six-minute video for 'Queen Of Hearts' off their opus David Comes To Life. 80 minutes of Fucked up in a recorded environment, regardless of whether its conceptual or not, is heaven to me, so this video has certainly been on repeat the past week...



Denver group Vitamins have graced Video Vacuum a few times this year, and now its their time again. They have a video for the B-side of their current 7", called 'The Disappearance Of David Lee Powell'. Great. Now can you hurry up and put some more music out please? I love this 7", but two songs does not sate me!

Vitamins - The Disappearance of David Lee Powell from Motion Sickness of Time Travel on Vimeo.

Finally we have a special video of the three chanteuses that make up the backing choir of my new favourite Australian band - nay, just new favourite band - Harmony, doing some vocal warm ups in a stairwell. The acoustics are haunting, the intertwining vocals beguiling. A great way to finish methinks!



NOW GET BACK TO WORK!!!

Vitamins Give Us The Good Stuff

Just thought Id offer up these tracks from Denver act Vitamins (we gave you a taste of their stuff here). Their 7" No Notion Of Anything Only Whatever Is What gives us two tracks of excellent kinetic Krautrock - the titular A side and its counterpart 'The Disappearance of David Lee Powell' is all shimmering guitar, echoing angelic Syren-esque vocals and motorik drumming, although the B side has more of a rolling thunder to it. We mentioend they were getting a vid done by Rob Feulner - it is below also. You can get the 7" (out via Hot Congress) in April - preorder at the site. Make sure you do - this is an absolutely kick ass release!

Vitamins - The Disappearance of David Lee Powell

Vitamins - No Notion Of Anything Only Whatever Is What from Rob Feulner on Vimeo.

Vitamins For The Weather Machine

I was talking to Crawf over at Tome For The Weather Machine before the Xmas break, mainly riffing over how amazing Tjutjana's self-titled LP was, and he threw me this video from his own act, Vitamins. They've been rocking Denver for about three years, so are well versed in all things Tjutjana, as well as getting chummy with Woodsman. they have been playing with the likes of Tennis and Gauntlet Hair too, which is pretty rad. There is talk of a new release in the works, and they may be doing a vid with Rob Feulner (who's done some wicked vids for CFCF and Hobo Cubes) so keep tuned...

Liquid Crystals-Original Score by Vitamins and Shyman from Matthew Daniels on Vimeo.