By the powers of SPF420 and Fortune500 combined, there is the Fortune 420 vaporwave concert, just a button-click away

What kind of place would a vaporwave festival be held in? Maybe some gleaming, commercial-monstrosity of a space, with faux-foliage attempting to provide a fantasy tropical setting? Perhaps some kind of theoretical, constructed electronic vacuum, plastered with damaged stock images, clip art and GIFs long robbed of their original context? To truly match the atmosphere and flavor of the genre, the best space for the beguiling, almost meta-critical, cultural mimicking/pilfering that is vaporwave might be the average home office. That is, after all, where most of the eye-damaging, brain-petting touchstones of the genre first made contact with our retinas and tympanic membranes.

I have no doubt that this crossed the collective minds of the SPF420 venue when they initially concocted their series of events. What better merging of spaces could there be to experience the digital miasma of vaporwave than the very private space of a home and the very vast and abstract space of a digital venue? This combining of location and music may also explain why these SPF420 events have become so popular; one event, held in March, capped out at 325 viewers. Probably helped that the lineup was damn intense.

For their next drool- and nostalgia-inducing feat of computer invasion, SPF420 is teaming with label Fortune 500 to bring the first in a new SPF420 concert series to many a home computer screen. They’re calling it Fortune 420, and the suitably impressive lineup has been listed below for the browsing pleasure of neophyte and old-hand alike:

ESPRIT 空想:

ショッピングワールドjp (ShoppingWorldJP):

회사AUTO:

WINDOW:

SAINT PEPSI:

The people putting on the whole shebang are so generous that they have also procured the services of Luxury Elite to DJ in between sets. If, in the often anonymous and ever-changing world of vaporwave, there is a royalty, Luxury Elite is at least a Baron. All of this can be yours for the low, low price of logging onto the mystical land of Tinychat on May 1, 10 PM EST. The future is being able to watch Window perform from the comfort of your own home, while you are wearing only underwear, with one hand stuffed down your pants. That future is now.

• SPF420: http://www.facebook.com/spf420fest
• Fortune 500: http://fortune500.bandcamp.com

RIP: Cordell “Boogie” Mosson, Parliament/Funkadelic bassist

From The Star-Ledger:

Cordell “Boogie” Mosson (born Cardell Mosson), a Plainfield musician whose rubbery bass guitar gave the classic albums by Parliament and Funkadelic much of their buoyant, elastic, bouncing-off-of-the-walls character, died on Thursday at 60. No cause of death was announced.

Mosson also played drums and electric rhythm guitar — and, like most everybody else in the P-Funk empire, he added his voice to the group’s joyous group choruses. He contributed to almost all of the great mid-’70s Parliament-Funkadelic classic concept sets, including “One Nation Under a Groove,” “Mothership Connection,” and “The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein.”

The bassist was, by the outrageous standards of P-Funk, a tempered spirit. Unlike many of his fellow believers in the expressive power of the funk, he often chose not to be flashy; his playing sounded like a deep, happy, comfortable chuckle. But Mosson was a virtuoso of feel, a tasteful and thoughtful player (even when dressed as an intergalactic angel) and a gleeful contributor to the trancelike grooves that P-Funk always generated. His thick bottom end was the trampoline that his fellow funk musicians leapt upon.

• Cordell “Boogie” Mosson: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordell_Mosson

[Photo: David Schwartz]

Animal Collective try to announce remix EP and summer tour, but their throats are just too sore!

Hey there, cosmopolitan music fan. You know how Animal Collective have historically followed up their pretty excellent run of LPs with some equally awesome and totally worthwhile EPs that are often comprised of leftover material and new tracks and are just as (if not moreso) interesting and cool than the LP tracks in whose gravity they orbit?

Well, forget that you know that, I guess. Because they’ve just announced the Monkey Been to Burn Town EP, a set of four remixes of the tracks “Monkey Riches” and “New Town Burnout” from last year’s Centipede Hz (TMT Review) (also known in some circles as “the one after Merriweather”) set to be released on 12-inch and digital by Domino on May 18.

Still, you’re a cosmopolitan music fan, so you’ll be glad to know that the EP features such cosmopolitan remix artists as Gang Gang Dance’s Brian Degraw (for your noise/dance needs), Shabazz Palaces (for your hip-hop cred), Teengirl Fantasy (to impress your underground dance friends), and even Traxman (so you can finally use AnCo to get your juke on!). And if you pre-order now over at the Domino store, you get to download the Brian Degraw remix of “Monkey Riches” right the hell now! What are you waiting for? Click those “Buy” buttons and make these monkeys rich!

Oh, shit, I almost forgot! They still seem to be a functioning live band too, so they’re headed out for a North American tour this summer (they added a date or two since we updated you last too, so make sure you get excited about this entire list all over again). Sorry to let you down like that, reader. I guess I just got swept up in all of this worldwide “Animal Collective Announce Remix EP” hysteria.

Monkey Been to Burn Town EP tracklisting:

01. Monkey Riches (Brian DeGraw [Gang Gang Dance] Remix)
02. Monkey Riches (Tha Traxman Teklife Remix)
03. New Town Burnout (Shabazz Palaces Remix)
04. Monkey Riches (Teengirl Fantasy Remix)

Animal Collective Tourdates:

05.22.13 - Nimes, France - Paloma
05.23.13 - Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Sound
05.25.13 - London, UK - Field Day
05.27.13 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Holland Melkweg
05.28.13 - Brussels, Belgium - AB
05.29.13 - Paris, France - Trianon
06.08.13 - New York, NY - Governors Ball
06.10-12.13 - Washington, DC - 930 Club
06.14.13 - Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo
07.02.13 - Helsinki, Finland - The Circus
07.04.13 - Roskilde, Denmark - Roskilde Festival
07.06.13 - Gdynia, Poland - Open’er Festival
07.09.13 - Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall *
07.10.13 - Ottawa, ON - Ottawa Blues Fest
07.12.13 - Albany, NY - Camp Bisco
07.14.13 - Louisville, KY - Forecastle
07.15.13 - Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Hall *
07.16.13 - Cleveland, OH - House of Blues *
07.18.13 - Covington, KY - The Madison Theater
07.19.13 - Nashville, TN - Marathon Music Works
09.08.13 - Salt Lake City, UT - Depot *
09.09.13 - Denver, CO - Ogden *
09.11.13 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
10.16.13 - Madison, WI - Orpheum *
10.17.13 - Chicago, IL - Riviera *
10.24.13 - Kansas City, MO - Midland Theater
10.25.13 - St. Louis, MO - The Pageant

* Dan Deacon

• Animal Collective: http://myanimalhome.net
• Domino: http://www.dominorecordco.us

Will Oldham’s facial hair finally validated as tourdates with Dawn McCarthy in Yukon Territory are announced

Good news for all TMT readers from the Great White North! For the first time in the site’s history, we bring news of a tour that will be stopping in Canada’s Yukon Territories. Dawn McCarthy and Bonny ‘Prince’ Billy will be performing a string of dates in Alaska and neighboring YT during the small window of non-winter that these far northerly environs experience on an annual basis. This part of the world apparently features only two seasons — cold and warm. Not hot, just warm, and it only lasts from May to September, with the hottest recorded day on record reaching a comfortable 73 degrees. If the presumed mosquito bloom doesn’t turn you off, then this might just be the perfect summer getaway when we’re all struggling with the oppressive heat common to the lower 48 in late July.

There being a “warm” season in Yukon seems quite appropriate because if there’s one word I’d use to describe Dawn McCarthy and Bonny ‘Prince’ Billy’s collaborative output, that word would be “warm.” The two produce nectar-sweet folk ballads with a country twist that go down as smooth as a tall glass of iced tea. Take that ultimate road trip into the wilderness this summer and be able to claim you saw Will Oldham perform in a place that most likely sports just as many beards as you’d normally see at a Bonny Billy show, but with way less irony.

Dates:

07.17.13 - Palmer, AK - Vagabond Blues
07.18.13 - Anchorage, AK - Tap Root
07.20.13 - Dawson, YT - Dawson City Music Festival
07.21.13 - Dawson, YT - Dawson City Music Festival
07.25.13 - Detroit, MI - Trinosophes
07.28.13 - Newport, RI - Newport Folk Festival
07.29.13 - New York, NY - Town Hall
07.30.13 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
07.31.13 - Washington, DC - Sixth & I Historic Synagogue

• Dawn McCarthy & Bonny ‘Prince’ Billy: http://www.dragcity.com/artists/dawn-mccarthy-and-bonny-billy
• Drag City: http://www.dragcity.com

Nightlands goes on tour: a story involving professional pinball and silver body paint

Dave Hartley, Philadelphia-based professional (?!) pinball competitor, NBA superfan/dude who started the “Let Bonner Shoot” campaign on Change.org, and music guy who plays bass in The War on Drugs and does his own thang in a lil’ group called Nightlands, must be stopped. How can one mere man hold so much power in his hands? Nightlands just wrapped a month-long tour with Efterklang, during which dude was reppin’ Oak Island, his sophomore album for Secretly Canadian, and he’s about to embark on his first headlining tour as Nightlands, shooting from club to club, his music ricocheting off the bumpers (and other stuff that’s involved with pinball) of our hearts.

The unstoppable Mr. Hartley recently premiered a video for his track “Born to Love,” directed by She Policeman, which can be viewed below. Featuring footage culled from six hours (!!!!) of VHS tape showing Hartley applying silver makeup for a previous video shoot and inspired by Andy Warhol, the video is a fantasia on what it would be like to sit through six hours of footage of a dude putting on silver makeup in a vaguely creepy way, all through the lens of a nostalgic Instagram filter and cut down to about three magical minutes. Alas, Nightlands probably will not be slathered in silver paint during the majority of the dates of his East Coast tour, but Hartley will be swaddled in the musical harmonies of Anthony LaMarca (drums), Jesse Moore (synth), and Eliza Hardy Jones (Wurlitzer organ). Wurlitzer Organ!!!! Slather it on.

Dates:

05.29.13 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
05.30.13 - Washington, DC - DD9
05.31.13 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brendas
06.02.13 - Boston, MA - TT the Bear’s
06.03.13 - Toronto, ON - Drake Hotel
06.04.13 - Chicago, IL - Schubas

• Nightlands: http://www.nightlands.us
• Secretly Canadian: http://www.secretlycanadian.com

Surfer Blood announce sophomore record, tour, look for time machine to take them back to 1997

Is the wave of 90s light-alternative rock nostalgia that swept through 2010 and early-2011 thanks to bands like Yuck, Best Coast, and Surfer Blood sustainable three years in? Quality output this year from stalwarts of the genre like Yo La Tengo seems to indicate “yes,” but the success or failure of Surfer Blood’s sophomore album, titled Pythons and to be released June 11 on Warner Bros. (‘bros’ being the important part), may be a better barometer of the revived sound’s staying power, especially in light of the public’s new-found love affair with another long-lost 90s genre, R&B. Have we moved on, or will Surfer Blood’s throttled power-pop, bolstered this time by veteran producer Gil Norton’s (Pixies, Catherin Wheel) production skills, be enough to keep people interested?

To help prep folks for the record, Surfer Blood have released a video (below) for the first single off Pythons, titled “Demon Dance.” Directed by Dum Dum Girls’ Malia James, the clip looks like it would have fit in nicely between a classic Foo Fighters video and the sepia-infused output of No Doubt from back when videos were actually played on MTV. While the need for videos is pretty clear in this age of YouTube dominance, the clip further enforces how easy Surfer Blood could have had it back in 1997. They’d certainly have a whole mantle full of moon men and would probably be hosting cruises for nostalgic 30-somethings by now, interest fueled solely by their glory days…

But alas, all the members were born at least 10 years too late for that, so they’re stuck touring incessantly to try and make some money. Check them out as they criss-cross the country with the likes of Foals, and for one date in Pittsburgh, Silversun Pickups, before and after Pythons is released this summer.

Tourdates:

04.25.13 - Houston, TX - Fitzgeralds %
04.26.13 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues %
04.27.13 - Austin, TX - Emos %
04.28.13 - New Orleans, LA - House of Blues %
04.29.13 - Pensacola, FL - Vinyl Music Hall
04.30.13 - Atlanta, GA - Goat Farm %
05.01.13 - Charlotte, NC - Neighborhood Theatre %
05.03.13 - New York, NY - Terminal 5 %
05.04.13 - Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory %
05.05.13 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club %
05.06.13 - Clifton Park, NY - Upstate Concert Hall %
05.08.13 - Providence, RI - The Met %
05.09.13 - Boston, MA - House of Blues %
05.10.13 - Montreal, QC - Club Soda %
05.11.13 - Toronto, ON - Kool Haus %
05.13.13 - Cleveland, OH - House of Blues %
05.14.13 - Cincinnati, OH - Bogarts %
05.15.13 - Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall %
05.17.13 - Indianapolis, IN - Deluxe %
05.18.13 - Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre %
05.19.13 - Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall %
05.20.13 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue %
05.21.13 - Fargo, ND - The Aquarium @ Dempsey’s
05.23.13 - Missoula, MT - Stage 112
05.25.13 - George, WA - Sasquatch Festival
05.29.13 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom %
05.30.13 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore %
05.31.13 - Seattle, WA - Neptune %
06.03.13 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot %
06.04.13 - Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre %
06.05.13 - Lawrence, KS - Granada %
06.07.13 - St. Louis, MO - Pageant %
06.09.13 - Pittsburgh, PA - Stage AE % #
06.10.13 - Baltimore, MD - Ram’s Head %
06.12.13 - Asheville, NC - Orange Peel %
06.13.13 - Columbia, SC - Jillians %
08.10.13 - San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands Music Festival

% Foals
# Silversun Pickups

• Surfer Blood: http://www.surferblood.com
• Warner Bros: http://www.warnerbrosrecords.com

RIP: Richie Havens

From the representatives of Richie Havens:

RICHIE HAVENS was gifted with one of the most recognizable voices in popular music. His fiery, poignant, soulful singing style has remained unique and ageless since his historic appearance at Woodstock in 1969. For four decades, Havens used his music to convey passionate messages of brotherhood and personal freedom. Billboard Magazine writes, “This acoustic soul giant truly seems to be getting more inspiring and graceful with age.” From Woodstock to The Isle of Wight to Glastonbury to the Fillmore Auditorium to Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall, Richie played the most legendary music festivals that ever were, and most of the world’s greatest concert venues. But even when performing in a Greenwich Village coffeehouse or a small club or regional theater, he was eternally grateful that people in any number turned up each time to hear him sing. More than anything, he feels incredibly blessed to have met so many of you along the way.

• Richie Havens: http://www.richiehavens.com

Actress’ disintegration of techno continues with Legowelt and Dinos Chapman remixes in tow

You would think by now it would be hard for Actress (Darren Cunningham) to do anything but see the forest for the trees. After exhibiting the capacity to rearrange techno in toto, why would you care to go back and restructure but one unit of that whole, re-dress and rework a single track? Who knows; thankfully, Cunningham remains a bewitchingly unpredictable creator, and in turn we’ve profited from some absolutely fascinating remixes. Remixes that, in the shadow of R.I.P.’s exquisitely vague patterns and sedated beauty, remain surprisingly relevant.

Most recently, Cunningham lent his penchant for chopping & screwing to fellow knob-twiddlers Legowelt and Dinos Chapman. The remixes of Legowelt’s “Elementz of Houz Music” range from hypnotically minimal to rhythmically anesthetized, both steeped in Actress’ trademark codeine fog, while the latter Chapman reworks are of a different sort altogether.

In February, Chapman — a visual artist turned sound designer — released his ear-catching debut Luftbobler, an LP of oblique IDM sketches and Stockhausen-y electronics. At some point thereafter, Actress picked up these ideas and carried them off to his nocturnal deep house alter-dimension. They reappeared as new creations on April 20, newly reanimated, newly corkscrewed, and strangely impressionistic. As FACT reported, these pressure-cooked remixes can be heard on the 500-copy limited pressing Luftbobler Remixed/Remastered EP via The Vinyl Factory.

Listen to some of both artist remixes below, and hopefully (hurry hurry) you can still snag a copy or two over at Honest Jon’s Records.

• Legowelt: http://www.legowelt.com
• Dinos Chapman: http://www.jakeanddinoschapman.com
• The Vinyl Factory: http://www.thevinylfactory.com
• Honest Jon’s: http://www.honestjons.com

Brian Eno readies special music for hospitals, because he is by our side in sickness and in health

The concept behind Brian Eno’s ambient classic Music for Airports may have worked in part because so many people have personally gripped the red tape inside airports. We can relate to, and perhaps subsequently joke about, all of the strain and stress-inducing stuff that occurs because, after all, most of us don’t have a choice in the matter, aside from the airlines we choose — and because, if we’re being honest here, most of what we have to endure just isn’t that serious in the long-run. Temporary outrage at being molested in the name of security leads to late-night fantasies in your subsidized hotel room. Or is that just me?

For a stark change in venue, let’s move to hospitals, which are more or less synonymous with suffering and death. Tact assumes a role of greater importance for any artist choosing the hospital as their subject, which is probably why Brian Eno plans to limit his upcoming soundtrack and light installation to (for the time being) one hospital in particular, as opposed to disseminating the work(s) to the general public. Yeah, sorry.

Eno has two sound and light installations set for debut at the Montefiore Hospital in Hove, England. The first, “77 Million Paintings for Montefiore,” is for the reception area, while the second, “The Quiet Room for Montefiore” is a specially designed space for “patients, staff, and guests” to escape more serious, non-TSA-related stresses. Serenity and mental healing is the stated goal here, while patients will presumably start giving equal prayer time to both Jesus and his cooler, younger, follicular opposite.

To reiterate, according to The Independent, a spokesperson for Eno said, “It’s true to say that ‘The Quiet Room for Montefiore’ is an album that can only be heard in the Montefiore Hospital.” It might just be worth exposing oneself to illness.

• Brian Eno: http://brian-eno.net

NYMPH sign with Northern Spy, announce new album New Millennium Prayer with a seductive wink

Oh NYMPH, where have you been all my recent life!? From the moment of my musical maturation, it’s like a tiny light has been flickering inside my being, calling out for some revitalizing amalgam of free jazz, psychedelic rock, and music of vaguely Middle Eastern inspiration. Sun City Girls, it may said, capably filled that role at various points, but I can’t tell you how enamored I am to hear that NYMPH haven’t gone the route of the equally psychedelic Magic Lantern and preemptively called it quits, despite the warm reception. Instead, they’ve rescinded their social registration and signed with Northern Spy, through which they’ll be releasing their second LP (and first for the label) New Millennium Prayer on June 25.

A few notes on the band’s history: despite having but one formal release under their belt so far, NYMPH have been active participants in the New York psych scene for seven years, starting off as a project of Matty McDermott and Eri Shoji, who later expanded the band to its now seven-member composition. Since 2011, they’ve doubled as The New Quiet Screamers and served as the ensemble under free jazz musician Arthur Doyle, through whom they’ve undoubtedly honed their improvisational chops.

That would make New Millennium Prayer the band’s first release since The New Quiet Screamers became a thing. Anticipate it, supporting live dates, and coax your spirit over yonder with older track “U.F.O. Over Dome Rock.”

• NYMPH: https://www.facebook.com/bandofnymph
• Northern Spy: http://northernspyrecords.com