Randy “The Arsonist” Cooper is back. The former founding member of Texas Hippie Coalition returns to red dirt metal with a southern hybrid mix of Motley Crue meets Pantera. Victory Season’s bone-breaking father/son, bass & drums section are a force to be reckoned with, lighting the way for our warriors to be victorious. Ash’s melodic and demonic vocals are often said to mimic some of the greatest vocalists in music.
D.Conn, invited Gary Jefferies to RefraZe Studios to check out what we had going on. That’s when the magic happened. After we wrapped up, we took this picture. From left to right, Randy Cooper, Ron Pease, Ash Starr D. Conn, Tim Root, T. Conn, and Gary Jefferies.
Victory Season is:
Randy Cooper – Guitars
Aaron “ASH” Starr – Vocals
Duane Connaughton – Bass
& Tor Connaughton – Drums
LINKS:
https://www.reverbnation.com/victoryseason
https://www.facebook.com/VictorySeasonBand
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Herman Dune – Dreamin’ is Over, Callifornia
Herman Dune is David Ivar’s musical project. It was started in 1998 in Paris, France. David is a French/Swedish citizen who began playing antifolk in Paris at a time when no DIY scene existed, let alone with songs performed in English. In 2001 he started the MOFO music festival in Paris which featured acts like Daniel Johnston, Bonnie Prince Billie, The Silver Jews, Dinosaur Jr., and The Moldy Peaches.
After spending years in a Lo-Fi territory with the label Shrimper (The Mountain Goats), 2006 found Herman Dune signing to EMI/Source (UK Virgin) and releasing two albums. The album “Giant,” was certified Gold in France and both records had Herman Dune touring non-stop for the next two years. Herman Dune played 42 States in the USA and many festivals including; SXSW, End of the Road, Green Man, Benicassim, Primavera Sound Festival, All Tomorrow’s Parties, and Central Park Summer Stage festivals.
In 2008, Funny Or Die-produced the video for the song “Tell Me Something I Don’t’ Know,” featuring John Hamm and a puppet made by Jim Henson’s Studio.
Through a “Never-ending” life on the road, Herman Dune has toured with Arcade Fire, Jolie Holland, Kimya Dawson, Of Montreal, and opened for Sleater Kinney and Wanda Jackson. Whenever in the UK, he was always welcome at BBC1 to record exclusive sessions and holds a record for tracking 10 John Peel Sessions with the mythical British DJ.
David Ivar has also been recognized as a visual artist and his work has been seen in Playboy, Flaunt, and Spray magazines. His art has been shown at the FIAC in Paris, Art Basel in Miami, Triennale in Milano. He’s had multiple exhibitions in galleries in Paris (Nivet-Carzon, Agnes B), New York City (Cinders Gallery), Los Angeles (Small World Books), and institutions and galleries in Europe. David Ivar has written and recorded the soundtracks for theatrical movies like Mariage A Mendoza (Edouard Deluc), Blockbuster (July Hygrek, a NETFLIX film), and Chasing Bonnie & Clyde (Olivier Lambert).
David Ivar – On writing the album:
“Sweet Thursday” is the third volume of the Cannery Row trilogy by John Steinbeck. After leaving France in all kinds of clashes and hurries, I felt that in my new home in San Pedro, California, I had found my own Cannery Row. I moved to Santa Cruz Street, by the harbor, where life starts at 4 AM. The nine songs of “Sweet Thursday” were recorded live with my band (Kyle McNeill & Lewis Pullman) and produced by myself and Kyle. It was then mixed by Adam Selzer (M.Ward, Langhorne Slim).”Now an Immigrant in California, I set up a studio in my backyard, gave up my phone, stopped touring and started working intensely on music and art. I also drove around the South Bay in my 1992 Toyota with its old cassette deck. Most songs on “Sweet Thursday” are inspired by this new life and the doubts and fears of being an alien resident in the shift of the US during this current administration.
At a recent show of Mike Watt & The Missing Men in a warehouse on the docks near my house, Mike shouted out to the audience, “Release your own stuff! Put out your own music!”. I felt like the King of the San Pedro Punk Scene was pointing at me to inspire me in my process of going back to doing things myself, my own label, my own everything!
The album has strong visual themes to me and I decided to work with video artist Brett Sullivan of the NYC antifolk band American Anymen to help realize music videos for the entire album. I really dug his editing style in connection to music, so when he came up with the idea of a video campaign for “Sweet Thursday”, almost a movie, I really jumped on the idea and we got to work filming music videos about San Pedro that inspired the album so much.
LINKS:
http://www.davidivar.com
https://www.facebook.com/HermanDuneYeah -
Kepa Lehtinen – It is Ok to Be Sad and Dark
Kepa Lehtinen was born in Helsinki, Finland in 1971 and began studying music in childhood, eventually learning to play piano, synthesizers, theremin, and drums. He went on to study Sound Design at Finland’s Aalto University and has since written music for many films, commercials, and TV productions. He routinely works as a composer, sound editor, and sound designer. His work has appeared in award-winning Finnish titles such as Kimmo (TV series), Almost 18 (feature film), and A Stone LeftUnturned (short film). He released his first solo album, Playing Theremin, in 2018. In 2019 he released Helsinki in November. Spring 2020 is coming album “It Is OK To Be Sad And Dark”.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/kepalehtinenartist
https://songwhip.com/artist/kepa-lehtinen -
Where We Sleep – The Desert
London-based dark and dynamic pop project Where We Sleep has announced their debut EP ‘Experiments In The Dark’. Ahead of that, they present the lead single ‘The Desert’, a jaded and winding psych-infused track traversing similar addictive territory as PJ Harvey, Curve, and Garbage.
At Where We Sleep’s core is Beth Rettig, perhaps best known as the vocalist of alt-pop darlings Blindness. But this project also involves collaborations with various other artists. ‘The Desert’ sees Rettig collaborate with Axel Ray of United Ghosts (and also The Black Windmill and Cadet A) on lead guitar.
Dark and rough around the edges, this EP combines synth and live elements. This release also features contributions from Ben Pritchard, formerly of The Fall and currently in Manc Floyd, and former Blindness bandmate Debbie Smith of Curve, Echobelly and SPC ECO fame (and also Snowpony with My Bloody Valentine’s Debbie Googe and Moonshake’s Katharine Gifford).
‘Experiments In The Dark’ is a five-track offering, recorded in studios between London and Manchester. This follows up Where We Sleep’s single ‘The First One’, released in August 2018, preceded by Where We Sleep’s debut single ‘Veins’ in June 2018, also featuring Debbie Smith, and b-side ‘Crawl’, mixed in Addis Ababa by Guy Fixsen.
Raised in Africa (Nigeria, Botswana and South Africa) and saying goodbye to the days of her Johannesburg band High, Beth Rettig returned to the UK in 2000 and eventually hooked up with Debbie Smith to form Blindness. They had a good run until playing their final gig in 2016, followed by ‘The Monsoon EP’ in 2007, their final release.
“When Blindness ended – solely down to a change in my personal life – I didn’t know if I was going to write again. Where We Sleep is the result of discovering that you don’t know how not to make music,” says Beth Rettig.
Rettig’s music is rooted in an array of influences, including Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Curve, EMA, Nine Inch Nails, Jesus and Mary Chain, Garbage, Kate Bush, Massive Attack, Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, Pete International Airport, White Rose Movement and The Fall.
About ‘The Desert’ video, Rettig explains, “The road footage in The Desert video was taken when Axel and myself took a road trip to the Mojave Desert in California, with trips to Pioneertown and Joshua Tree National Park. It seemed a shame not to use those visuals, albeit affected, for the song. As the song came first, it was a cool realization that two people who did a song about driving through the desert together were taking a road trip through the desert together.”
‘Experiments In The Dark’ is slated for release on May 31 and will be available across digital stores and streaming platforms. It can also be pre-ordered via Where We Sleep’s own Bandcamp site.
LINKS:
http://www.wherewesleep.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/wherewesleep
https://wherewesleep.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/wh3rewesleep
https://www.instagram.com/where.we.sleep
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb68iXZZOJKK7qV3sMnQo7Q
https://soundcloud.com/wherewesleep
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3FFR8UDRIgrRmnZIH3AB2L