Mekong Delta

Liars ‘No. 1 Against The Rush’ Vince Clarke Remix

mekongmusic — Fri, 18 May 2012 02:25:16 +0000

Okay, so never in the history of Mekong Delta, I’m pretty sure in saying, have we featured two consecutive posts for the same artist and we could have tagged this on to the end of our earlier article of course, however, the remix of Liars new single ‘No. 1 Against The Rush‘ by label mate and electronic/synth innovator and producer Vince Clarke really does deserve it’s own entry.

It’s a powerhouse of hard synth stabs, crushing beats and deep bass patterns and it utterly shakes our asses EVERY time we listen to it. The 55 second breakdown/build up from 5 mins onwards make us want to kiss someone hard on the mouth it’s that euphoric and intense! And you can hear what we mean by pressing play below to listen via Mute Records soundcloud upload.

Liars Tour Dates Announced

mekongmusic — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:03:13 +0000

(Photo: Zen Sekizawa)

Liars have announced details of their summer tour in support of newest album WIXIW out June 5 via Mute. The trio will be busting out the tunes in the UK and Europe in June before heading over to the US later that month and for the bulk of July, including a Portland date (7/7) at Doug Fir Lounge.

The album release and tour are preceeded by the first single “No 1 Against The Rush” out May 29 and it features remixes from some of the bands Mute label cohorts including Vince Clarke and Matmos. Check out the video for the single below.

Tour dates:

June

02 London, England – Field Day
07 Paris, France – Nouveau Casino
08 Utrecht, Holland – Tivoli De Helling
09 Brussels, Belgium – AB Club
10 Berlin, Germany – Roter Salon
12 London, England – XOYO
15 Manchester, England – Ruby Lounge
20 New York, New York – Webster Hall
22 Los Angeles, California – Music Box

July

05 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
07 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
08 Seattle, WA - Neumos
09 Vancouver, British Columbia - The Biltmore Cabaret
11 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
13 Denver, CO - The Bluebird Theater
14 Lawrence, KS - The Granada
15 Omaha, NE - The Waiting Room
17 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
18 Milwaukee, WI - Mad Planet
19 Chicago, IL - Metro
20 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
21 Toronto, Ontario - Lee’s Palace
23 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa
24 Boston, MA - Paradise
25 Washington DC - U Street Music Hall
26 Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
27 Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop
28 Columbus, OH - A&R Music Bar

[Video] iamamiwhoami – Rascal

mekongmusic — Wed, 09 May 2012 01:17:58 +0000

Aahhh there’s nothing like the sun beating down on you at the height of summer. Unless you’re iamamiwhoami and you happen to be stuck in the middle of desert I guess! Still, as this video shows with the sweet R&B-lite tune of Rascal in the background even dying of thirst and/or sun stroke can be artistic in the hands of the right director.

Sasquatch Music Festival May 25-28

mekongmusic — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:04:33 +0000

Over Memorial Day Weekend, May 25-28 Washington state will see the annual Sasquatch Festival arrive at the Gorge Amphitheatre, in George, once again!

This event has grown hugely in its 10 year history and 2012 showcases some of the biggest names on the indie rock circuit as well as a vast array of upcoming and breaking artists you’ll be hearing about for years to come as their careers rise too.

The line up for this years event sees five stages in action over the four days and features big names like Jack White, The Roots, Bon Iver, James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem) DJ set, Tenacious D, Mogwai, Spiritualized and Beck.

We’re just as keen to see the likes of Purity Ring, Grouplove, Shabazz Palaces, Hospitality, Active Child, tUnE-yArDs and many more.

Tickets for the event are $315.00 for a 4-day pass, which includes standard camping and they’re going fast so if you want to attend buy them today or run the risk of being very disappointed.

We’ll also be covering the event in much more detail as it happens, including live Tweets hopefully (get us!) so keep your eyes and ears tuned to these pages for more upcoming features.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Fall Tour

mekongmusic — Mon, 07 May 2012 07:24:21 +0000

Post-rock’s monumental founding fathers – well, in our eyes at least – GY!BE reformed pretty recently for some exclusive festival dates and it seems they’re keen to keep the reunion going longer as they’ve announced details of a North American tour. Alongside some big US festival shows they’re also venturing around the states for some less obvious dates. Book now even though they’re not playing most of these until October as the shows will undoubtedly sell out!

July

14 – Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Music Festival

September

23 Asbury Park, NJ – ATP I’ll Be Your Mirror NJ

October

01 Boston, MA – Orpheum Theatre
02 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
03 Baltimore, MD – Rams Head Live
04 Carrboro, NC – Cats Cradle
05 Atlanta, GA – Buckhead Theatre
06 Birmingham, AL – Bottletree
07 New Orleans, LA – Tipitinas
09 Austin, TX – The Mohawk
10 Austin, TX – The Mohawk
11 Dallas, TX – Granada Theatre
12 Nashville, TN – Cannery Ballroom
13 Louisville, KY – Headliners Music Hall
14 Detroit, MI – Majestic Theatre

Here’s a bonus audio track of GY!BE’s ‘Outro‘ via Soundcloud from the Constellation Records compilation Song of the Silent Land.

[Video] iamamiwhoami – Idle Talk

mekongmusic — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:42:34 +0000

The latest iamamiwhoami video/song in this recent run is online to view now. It’s called Idle Talk and is more contemplative and sedate than some of the pacier songs released previously but this retains an underlying beat that keeps things ticking over quite nicely thank you. As well as featuring a yawning synth sound that’s hooky as hell.

Purity Ring ‘Obedear’ Download And Tour

mekongmusic — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:29:46 +0000

Purity Ring have made available a new song “Obedear” via their website that features on the album we told you a couple of weeks ago was due in July, they’ve also given the album a name and supplied a tracklist (below) full of cryptic hybridized titles like their former singles. The song in question has that inherent Purity Ring ‘sound’ lots of synth waves and chimes and stuttering beats washed over by Megan James vocals, similar in tone to Belispeak too. The image above features the album’s final artwork.

Now playing: Obedear

Shrines Tracklist:

01 Crawlersout
02 Fineshrine
03 Ungirthed
04 Amenamy
05 Grandloves
06 Cartographist
07 Belispeak
08 Saltkin
09 Obedear
10 Lofticries
11 Shuck

And finally (for now at least) there’s some additional tour news where the duo are mostly out playing festivals over the early summer before returning to North America to play alongside Dirty Projectors (marked *) in July.

April

27 Rockdale, TX – Nocturnal Wonderland Texas

May

22 Montreal, Quebec – Casa Del Popolo
23 Ottawa, Ontario – Café Dekcuf
26 George, WA – Sasquatch Festival
31 Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Festival

June

03 Dublin, Ireland – Forbidden Fruit Festival
05 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Vondelkirk
08 Berlin, Germany – Berghain Kanteen
11 Paris, France – Chez Moune
12 London, England – White Heat @ Madame Jojo’s
14 Toronto, Ontario – NXNE @ Wrong Bar

July

06 Toronto, Ontario – Danforth Music Hall *
07 Montreal, Quebec – Club Soda *
08 Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club *
10 Brooklyn, NY – Celebrate Brooklyn *
11 Millvale, PA – Mr. Smalls Theater *
13 Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Music Festival
14 Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theater *
15 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue *

[Upcoming] M83 & I Break Horses at Roseland Theater 4/25

mekongmusic — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 23:21:09 +0000

M83, I Break Horses @ Roseland Theater | April 25 | $Sold Out | 8pm | All Ages

Now playing: Midnight City

From 2008 and the release of his fifth album, the sublime, dreamy Saturdays = Youth Anthony Gonzalez, for he is M83, was carefully crafting the double album opus that was to become Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming released October 2011. In between a rash of remixes, a movie soundtrack – Black Heaven – and live tours supporting Kings of Leon, The Killers and Depeche Mode.

The lead single from Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming was a magical wake up call for the album in the form of Midnight City a brasher take on the instrumental leanings of the bands past and an immediate chart hit as a result. So M83 now leads the line with his own headline tour of the US dropping by Portland’s Roseland Theater fresh from stints at both the Coachella festival weekends.

Now playing: Hearts

We made I Break Horses album Hearts number one in our Best of 2011 round up because their mix of Maria Lindén’s ethereal vocals, haunting aural textures and persistent beats gave a fresh lease of life to an ambient/shoegaze sound that desperately needed a shot in the arm.

Almost without effort – of course that’s probably far from true – Lindén and partner Fredrik Balck exuded a Northern European cool and calm delivering just the perfect balance of mood and tunes. We’re really excited to see them play and hearing these songs fleshed out on stage so we’ll be in the crowd swooning most likely. Probably along with everyone else.

The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends Album Out April 21

mekongmusic — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:21:58 +0000

Wayne Coyne and his band The Flaming Lips have been in the lab concocting all manner of collaborative projects over the last year or so and on Saturday April 21, Record Store Day, the culmination of these efforts The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends sees the light of day. It’s limited to 10,000 copies of 2 x vinyl in beautiful packaging as always.

There is indeed a ‘heady’ mix of people featured alongside the Lips themselves including Ke$ha, Erykah Badu, Neon Indian, Lightning Bolt, Chris Martin, Plastic Ono Band, Prefuse 73 and Bon Iver to mention just some. We’ve only heard snippets of the album so far but to say we’re excited about this is the biggest understatement ever. But you don’t have to hear this from us, listen to Coyne himself giving you the lowdown below on why you should ‘buy the shit’ out of their album at your local record store this Saturday and what to expect from the music.

Interpol Alter Ego Julian Plenti Lives

mekongmusic — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:30:58 +0000

Paul Banks, Interpol‘s singer and main songwriter, has announced a follow up EP to his solo album of 2009 “Julian Plenti Is Skyscraper”.

The five song EP is called “Julian Plenti Lives…” and features two new Banks compositions the brooding “Summertime is Coming” and an instrumental track “” alongside three covers of songs by artists who’ve inspired him – J Dilla, Frank Sinatra and Harold Faltermeyer.

Track listing:

1. Perimeter Deactivated
2. Summertime Is Coming
3. Mythsysizer
4. I’m A Fool To Want You
5. Cavern Worship

The EP is due out on June 12th in limited edition physical formats, CD (1500 copies) and vinyl (2300) and of course as a digital download. You can pre-order it from the Matador Store now. There looks like there’s an album planned for later in the year too but there’s scant news on this at present so enjoy the video below from one of our highlights of Banks’ first solo outing Games For Days.