311 live stream their full show from Burgettstown, PA, in celebration of the release of VOYAGER!! 6 HD cameras will catch 311 rock the house. Tune in and spread the word!
Photo: Brian Bowen Smith
LINKS:
https://facebook.com/official311
https://twitter.com/311
https://instagram.com/311
-
ToBy – 90’s Babies
Toby Season Volume 1 is a reflection of ToBy and Aleksander Vinter’s experience in the public domain as artists and equally, as humans. As such, “90’s Babies” acts as the perfect bridge into the world ToBy lyrically unfolds for listeners, track-by-track in Toby Season Volume 1; a project entirely composed in the few months ToBy has lived in Los Angeles full-time. “90’s Babies” lends itself to the idea of people being so distracted by their phones that have an ‘in real life’ conversation with anyone anymore is impossible.
ToBy says of the single: “When coming up with the ’90’s Babies’ concept we took a long hard look at the ideas of storytelling outlined in Joseph Cambell’s Hero of a Thousand Faces. We wanted to create a universe spearheaded by the version of ToBy that acts as the “zero to hero” type, ambling through life until he comes face-to-face with powers beyond his understanding. The choice to go 3D in the music video came from studying different styles of art that both Aleks and I grew up with; namely anime and mecha tv shows and comic books. ’90’s Babies’ was the first song we had ever worked on together (2 or 3 years ago), so it felt right to give it the spotlight as the single for the upcoming mixtape.”
ToBy concludes: “My sense of humor and Aleks’ artistic intuition collides together in what we feel like is poised to be one of the most interesting videos to come out in the modern rap scene.”
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more information on ToBy’s upcoming mixtape.
LINKS:
http://tobyseason.com
https://twitter.com/official_toby
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialToByMusic
https://soundcloud.com/officialtobymusic -
Drew Davies – Mrs Taylor
Last week we brought you the review for Drew Davies’ new single titled ‘Mrs Taylor’ and told you how special the meaning behind the music is. This time around we concentrate on the video, which just dropped.
The video perfectly encapsulates said meaning with a symbolic journey via car and foot through what I think is one of the more beautiful countrysides in this world. The scenes are cut to the beat which punctuates the track and enhances the driving tone of the song as a whole. Topped by interesting guitar and chord changes that give soul and take score, ‘Mrs Taylor’ is one of those beat-centric anthems for the #indie scene.
ABOUT ‘MRS TAYLOR’
London-based rock soloist Drew Davies has announced his single ‘Mrs. Taylor’ set for release on 1 November. The track is lifted from his upcoming debut EP via AD1. The EP was mixed by Steve Honest (Oasis, Eurythmics) and mastered by John Webber (David Bowie, Super Furry Animals). Davies has been featured by the likes of Clash Magazine, Atwood Magazine and Music News amongst others. He has seen radio play from BBC Radio York’s Introducing with Jericho Keys, BBC Wales, Radio X, and as a previous member of The Mercy House, the band saw support from Kerrang, Classic Rock Magazine, Metal Hammer, MTV and BBC Radio 6 and Radio X. He has toured extensively in the UK and Europe, had music featured on the Rock Band video game, played Download Festival, London’s Scala and the iconic Troubadour.
ABOUT DREW DAVIES
Hailing from South Yorkshire, Davies comes from a long line of singers and musicians. He has spent the better part of the last decade treading the boards of venues and festivals across the UK and Europe with various bands, working in musical collaborations, writing for other artists and singing in session gigs to get by. Through successes, setbacks and everything in between, he has poured himself into his musical labors and has now produced his most personal work to date.
Pulling from a wide array of influences, Drew Davies is inspired by everything from 50’s rock n’ roll to electronica, citing acts such as The National, Scott Walker, Vangelis and Tom Petty. From this palette of familiar reference points, he has created a genre-bending and timeless sound that bears semblance to the likes of Sam Fender, Future Islands, and The War On Drugs.
On ‘Mrs Taylor’ Davies displays impressive vocal polish, bringing the lyrics colorfully to life against a full musical arrangement. Propelled by energetic instrumentals, the songwriting and hooks are brilliantly written and expertly executed. Thematically, the track traverses melancholic subject matter, but Davies tackles it with gusto and positivity choosing to highlight memory of life, rather than a reminder of our inevitable mortality.
Davies gives some background to the track:
Mrs Taylor is a song about childhood. Growing up in the South Yorkshire countryside it wasn’t always easy to get around. My oldest friend’s mother Mrs Taylor used to ferry us around a lot and take care of us if we ever got into scrapes. When I learned of her passing I immediately started writing lyrics and music; ‘Mrs Taylor’ was written then and there as an ode to childhood and to those who took care of me in those formative years.
LINKS:
https://www.drewdaviesmusic.com
https://www.facebook.com/drewdaviesmusic
https://www.twitter.com/drewdaviesmusic
https://www.instagram.com/drewdaviesmusic
https://drewdaviesmusic.bandcamp.com -
The Mootekkis – Against the Ropes
This booze-loving Tokyo-based 5-piece – Australian, American and 3 Japanese – garage rock’n’roll band was formed midway through 2008 by Jude (guitar) and Mike (vox) and two years later were featured on the front cover of Japanzine after winning the magazine’s nation-wide battle of the bands with their 2010 EP track “Hey…What You Want?”.
More recently a number of their tracks from 2014 debut album “Heckling the Dawn” have been used for the Skateboarding Japan podcast while their tune “The Whiskey” is the theme music for drinkers and skaters delight podcast Got Faded Japan.
Prior to this, in August 2012 they embarked on a 10-day tour of New York where they played Manhattan hot spots Bowery Electric and Piano’s as well as New Haven’s Elm Bar and a handful of basement and loft parties in Brooklyn – before this trip 2 members had never been outside Japan.
Brooklyn’s Ishmael Osekre, an organizer of the festival Aputumpu, had this to say after seeing The Mootekkis at a Bushwick loft party: “This was pure rock’n’roll in a way that most people around here haven’t seen for a long time…it was just amazing.”
The Mootekkis have had the good fortune of having a lot of good people behind them. In 2013 they crowdfunded their debut album and in 2014 they finished in the top 10 of Tokyo’s 126 bands trying to earn a spot at Summer Sonic thanks to immense local and foreign support.
They’re truly humbled and wholly committed to giving rock’n’roll lovers something new with decades of respect for what has come before.
The Mootekkis are:
Mike (vocals)
Jude (rhythm/lead)
Koji (rhythm/lead)
Yo’cchan (bass)
Takahiro (drums)LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/themootekkis
https://twitter.com/themootekkis
https://themootekkis.bandcamp.com