Baby Robot Media

SPIN premieres Voli’s latest single, “Burn Everything”

New Jersey-born, Los Angeles-based artist Voli has dropped his latest single, “Burn Everything,” a genre-blending preview of his forthcoming album, The Wall. The new track swirls together fat-bottom grooves, anthemic pop hooks, and party-life swagger (“Flashback: pre-game beer pong and flip-cup / Power hour, every Snoop song we drink up”) — a high degree-of-difficulty recipe that Voli’s charisma saves from sounding overcooked. Stream “Burn Everything” below, and run like hell to get The Wall, which arrives February 24. LISTEN HERE…

by Baby Robot Media

Grand Vapids back at Stereogum with “Aubade”

We heard “Kiln,” the first single from Grand Vapids forthcoming record Guarantees back in November, and yesterday the Athens-based band released a follow-up track. “Aubade” picks up where “Kiln” left off — it’s instrumentally lush, understated indie rock reminiscent of a more celestial take on Deerhunter’s “Desire Lines.” LISTEN HERE…

by Baby Robot Media

Consequence of Sound premieres “Aubade,” the latest from Grand Vapids

This year has been one for the books for Atlanta indie rock outfit Grand Vapids. OK, so technically it’s their first full year together, but the quintet has been nonetheless busy throughout 2014. In addition to touring the country alongside the likes of Pure Bathing Culture and White Violet, the group spent time in the studio with producer Drew Vandenberg (Deerhunter, Of Montreal). Those sessions led to their debut full-length, Guarantees, which will be released on January 20th, 2015 via Mumblecore.

The record’s latest single, “Aubade”, sounds like the whimsical result of a young band experimenting in the studio setting. The pulsing drums and echoing vocal effects create a sense of constant movement in the track; nothing is ever hurried, and each moving part feels defined and purposeful. LISTEN HERE…

by Baby Robot Media

No Depression reviews Book Club’s new album, One-Way Moon (out Feb. 17)

Atlanta’s less-is-more, indie-folk septet, Book Club is currently putting its finishing touches on their second full-length album, One-Way Moon, due out February 17, 2014 on the Cottage Recording Co. (Small Houses) & Bear Kids Recordings. A harrowing collection of decimal songs with a conglomerate of roots and stylings held together by melodious yet old-timey lyrical delivery, spotlighting the unorthodox harmonic meld between frontman/singer/songwriter, Robbie Horlick, and songstress Rachel Buckley. Formed in 2011, Book Club has procured a lush touring docket, having honed their stage skills with the likes of Roadkill Ghost Choir, Richard Buckner, and Deep Dark Woods, amassing the attention of Grammy nominated producer Matt Goldman somewhere along the way. Goldman was tagged to produce and record One-Way Moon at his Atlanta based, Glow in the Dark Studios. A definite breath of fresh air for Goldman who has gained his stripes primarily producing Christian hardcore acts the likes of Underoath and As Cities Burn.

Sometimes opposites attract and a beautiful bi-product can be birthed. Book Club’s debut record, 2011’s Ghost, was contrived a complete 180 degrees, about face from the tactics employed by Goldman. Book Club gelled with Goldman and his seemingly old-school recording tactics. He gathered the band facing each other in a circle and recorded everything live, as it should be. No bells and whistles, just artists and instruments. A set-up not unfamiliar to the band as this is the typical lay out for a Book Club rehearsal gathered in Horlick’s living room. What’s left is a “warts and all” finished product with imperfections quite possible being the perfection. “Each of us was positioned so that we had a direct line of sight to every other band member—we could see and hear exactly what was happening at all times. You play differently in that setting. I’d always been about layering track after track, but this time, myself and Will Raines (Mastodon, West End Motel) were a live, two-piece string ensemble. It was beautiful, Bill Callahan-style—sinister and simple”, adds cellist and Book Club co-founder Matt Jarrard (Royal Thunder, Oryx & Crake). READ MORE…

by Baby Robot Media

PopMatters premiere Lowbanks’ “Treatz”

At a meager 1:22, “Treatz”, a track off of the Atlanta-based punk outfit Lowbanks’ new EP The Dogs, doesn’t have a lot of time to waste. Fitting, then, that the tune dives straight into a haze of shouted vocals, fuzzy distortion, and ear-piercing guitar leads right away, making its intentions clear and assertive. The raw punk energy, however, is balanced out with almost poppy production and convivial mood that’s bound to connect with live audiences.

Lowbanks’ singer and guitarist John Gaffo tells PopMatters, “‘Treatz’ was the first song we wrote after our second guitarist quit and we started playing as a trio. We were kind of swimming in uncharted waters at the time, trying to write parts that would fill up the space and sound full when we played live. Our songs became more raw and energetic as we stripped them down, and we just kind of ran with it. Originally ‘Treatz’ had this long intro that practically doubled the length of the song. We tried recording it with this producer who really didn’t get what we were trying to do, and it came out sounding really flat and dead and boring. So we decided to rerecord the song with our friend Trey Rosenkampff for The Dogs. He suggested we scrap the intro and add all these weird psyched-out synths and pitch shifters to fill out the sound. It turned out way better than we’d imagined. Lyrically, it’s just a dumb rock & roll song about drinking, getting trashed and falling in love. Which is super cheesy and lame but it’s easily one of my favorite songs to play live—just catchy, fun, loud and fast as hell.” LISTEN HERE…

by Baby Robot Media

CMJ premieres Book Club’s “You Say It So Glacial”

Atlanta’s Book Club is not a book club, but a band, though that doesn’t mean they’re not literary. Despite their music’s pastoral simplicity (they call themselves a “rural pop collective”), there’s a narrative weightiness to their sound. Take You Say It So Glacial, a single off their upcoming album One-Way Moon. Dripping with little but soft strings and the delicate harmonies of guitarist Robbie Horlick and Rachel Buckley, the song creates an atmosphere in its lyrics like, “You say it’s so glacial/like Mars or the moon/another world sometimes/in your room.” Here’s what Horlick had to say about the track and the experience of writing it immediately following a family trip to Iceland:

Some songs you slave over, and some just pour out of you. It’s a mystery. And one of the most exciting parts of that mystery is when songs come to you whole. Paul McCartney dreamed all of Yesterday. I Love How You Love Me was written in five minutes on a cocktail napkin. George Michael wrote the sax melody for Careless Whisper on the back of an envelope on a plane. There’s something really pure about songs that come into the world fully realized. And that’s how it was with You Say It So Glacial.

All of the lyrics for Glacial came to me in about five minutes. And when I got home [from Iceland], I picked up my guitar for the first time in a week, and the chords and music just fell out of me too. The song is about relationships, but not just between people—between places, histories, intentions. It’s about distance, but not necessarily physical distance. It’s about how close two people can be, and how far away at the same time. Or maybe someone will hear it, and draw something completely different from it. That’s one of the beautiful things about songwriting—once a song is out there in the world, there’s no telling what it might mean to someone. It’s like the last line of You Say It So Glacial: ‘It’s steam sometimes, what comes out of your mouth. I never know when you’re gonna go.’

One-Way Moon is out February 17 via the Cottage Recording Co. and Bear Kids Recordings. LISTEN HERE…