Listen up, boys and girls, and try not to wet your pants: HEALTH just dropped their new album Get Color yesterday, and you better move quick to get your hands on some of this. Just when we thought they couldn’t get any better, they toss out this gem of an album that is less gritty electhrash and more trapped in a hot cave of psychadelic paranoia with your heartbeat reverberating about the walls, shards of diamond raining from the roof, and clockwork locusts buzzing just around your peripheral. Now don’t you worry, they havn’t gone soft on us or anything; its still all madness and frenzy in there, just with a new enlightened perspective on things. Check out when we interviewed them.
Are you sitting on the edge of your seat now? Are you dying to see what the skinny-jean-vibrating, ear-drum-busting live experience is all about? Well then lucky you, because they happen to be playing the Troubadour tonight; I would be there in a millisecond had my scholarly obligations not been so cruel as to prevent me from attending, but do me a favor and go melt your mind tonight, for my sake.
HEALTH’s band-directed video for “Die Slow” is finally online! We’ve been waiting on this one… If the environment looks familiar, it’s because it was filmed at Out of Asia where a number of 2009 FMLY shows took place including BEACH DAZED. I only hope we can expect more seductive and semi-religious videos from from 2009, really adds a charm. HEALTH is opening for Nine Inch Nails in Los Angeles this weekend and then hitting the road with Pictureplane so keep an eye out for dates in your hood
HEALTH just released a very laid back CFCF remix of Get Color’s “Before Tigers.” Definitely a tune to sip margaritas to, good thing we still have some summer left. Don’t forget to check out our interview with HEALTH that was posted yesterday.
If you like your tones filthy and your vocals interpretive then there’s really no need to look further than HEALTH. Los Angeles’ experimental dream team have picked up quite a bit of press over the past few years and on the cusp of releasing their second full length album we thought it’d be appropriate to check-in. I don’t intend for this to seem romantic, but a few weeks ago I had a sit down brunch with HEALTH, minus Jake, and Jake Friedman of Lovepump United. We met the day after the band played the Williamsburg Waterfront, when I wrote this, and the day before they took off for Europe. Previous to this I spent a few days with the dudes in Los Angeles assisting their shoot for “Die Slow” in our ol’ Out Of Asia warehouse putting us already a few Tecate and Kombucha deep into a lovely bromance story…
HEALTH: Lovepump is family, that has always been the motto.
The fact that it’s music by musicians put forth as an effort from musicians is just the way to go about it rather than an industry dictating what music is. Jake, since it started with your band Glitter Pals are there any other labels or collectives that Lovepump works closely with?
[John] No. [pause&laughter] Actually, Cityslang. Starting tomorrow we’re hitting up Germany with them.
[german gibberish and some side conversation I shouldn’t talk about]
Speaking of dicks [told you I shouldn’t talk about it], who made the Lovepump logo?
[Jake] The Lovepump logo was made by SERIPOP who are a design team in Montreal and coincidentally two of the members in AIDS Wolf – one of the first bands we released on Lovepump. Yeah, I was the model but you know what, it’s not even about being a severed penis just as much as it’s not music for your mom and that’s kind of the way it should be. [John] I would have to agree with that statement. [BJ] I had no idea there was a dick bone.
[the next ten minutes was spent talking about large animals’ dick bones, Mr. Hands, keeping it up, horse dicks, whale dicks, internet hyped dicks, dudes cutting off their dicks online, etc…needless to say we scared away the dude sitting next to us in the cafe. interview continues after the jump]
Another great week of new music. Check out those new WAVVES and HEALTH tracks at the top after the jump and don’t forget to download the artists for the party at Junction Block this Friday.
It’s 4am and I thought that I was about to go to bed…then this “Die Slow” remix by Tobacco pops up. Standing somewhere between what a “Die Slow” remix should encompass and “Feel The Drip” Tobacco once again delivers an impressive interpretation of a difficult to dissect arrangement. Imagine walking into a 1980s themed club in the year 2300; the smell of stiff clothes, the way which your shoes slide across the floor and the novelty that has become a simulated memory. Tobacco has captured that discomfort, that subconscious dis-ease, and given it a sound.
Last month, HEALTH filmed their music video for “Die Slow” in FMLY’s Out Of Asia warehouse. The video hasn’t been released yet, but take a sneak peek at these photos.
Playing a theatrical set sprinkled with a dope amount of HEALTH and a fair amount of Get Color, Health allowed the time to pass by for a half-enthusiastic crowd of head bobbers and Trail of Dead fans that certainly weren’t acting their age. Now don’t get me wrong because Health’s set was more than fantastic, but I felt like I was the only person in the audience who felt the need to publicly express my gratitude for their presence…and I hadn’t even hit up the beer tent yet. To get past my bitching Health rocked, the audience generally sucked.
Alright, sucked is a bit harsh, but when you’re checking out a band that is obviously pouring their heart into the music it’d be nice on your part to do a bit more than clap between songs and bob your head. At least uncross your arms! Thankfully, the nu-hippie standing next to me and his unshaven girlfriend shared the same anxiety to get moving so that’s exactly what went down. My highlight? “Perfect Skin” of course. I lost a moccasin and my arms were sore, but someone has gotta rep the Health love in New York. Black Lips also ruled, but it was a slow set for the folks that weren’t on the frontlines being covered in 40z and receiving security assault. And Trail of Dead had to cancel, lightning struck, I found cover in a nearby party with a human shield to protect the record spinning DJ. Great day.
Health shows coming up with Nine Inch Nails final performances and Lovepump label-mate Pictureplane, all dates on the MySpace.
Other Health news? Our LA boys recently recorded their video for “Die Slow” in our own Out of Asia and I’ll be sitting down with them tomorrow afternoon to talk about the new album. Any questions for the band? Leave them in the comments or email me.
I have an unhealthy fascination with musical equipment and I often find myself pushing my way to the front of a crowd simply to get a good look at a band’s gear. At a recent HEALTH show on the 26th I did just this and managed to get a pretty good look at their wide array of pedal effects.
The above board is guitarist/vocalist Jake’s. The pedals from top left to bottom right are:
Amp switcher- Used to switch between distorted and clean channels on his amp though I’m pretty sure he usually had it on distortion.
Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man- For the massive delay sounds.
Zvex Tremorama- Stuttering effect heard on “Triceratops”.
Boss Reverb- Adds that metallic sheen on the guitar.
Boss Tuner- For tuning purposes as well as turning the noise on and off. He uses the pedal to cut all sound out at times.
Electro Harmonix POG- Used for all that bizarre atonal octave stuff.
On a lovely Thursday evening I made the trek up to Echo Park to see some fine young and talented musicians. Arriving at the Echo I could already feel myself getting excited for the show to come. Who am I kidding, I was stoked.
Next Thursday HEALTH will be playing The Echo. If you have some how missed every show HEALTH has played so far, you are really missing out on an experience and emotions you have never felt before. We want to help get you there this time. We have two pairs of tickets for you. Just email me at cameron@thefmly.com. Tell me the first time you saw HEALTH or if you’ve never seen them, let me know!
In two days FMLY will be whooping it up with the Love Pump United Gang at the Knitting Factory Hollywood and we want you to come too! So I am giving away another 5 pairs of tickets for you to come see the best in experimental, noise, electro, and metal. Bring your ears, legs, hearts, and dancing feet to see Genghis Tron, LA’s own HEALTH, Yip Yip, and Clipd Beaks. I want you to have these tickets so email me at cameron@thefmly.com for your chance to win! If you have never seen these bands live, you are in for a real treat. If you aren’t feeling so lucky, feel free to buy tickets here or text TRON to 467467.
Thank You Come Again
Lady Bird Lake Trail
March 20, 3PM
w/ dead gaze, easyboy, mistlefinger, big whup + pizza!, white fang, jonesin', tempo no tempo, dream panther
FMLY Group Hug
Dominican Joe, 515 South Congress
March 20, 8pm
w/ MillionYoung, Truman Peyote, Michael Parallax, Wampire, Idiot Glee, I Am The Dot, Magic Man, Philip Seymour Hoffman fbook event
Los Angeles
Kria Brekkan & Drawlings
McWorld
March 24th fbook event
Evan Voytas, WAMPIRE, Battlehooch, Pizza! + Afterparty for Tobacco (of Black Moth Super Rainbow) and The Hood Internet
McWorld
March 25th Fbook event
FMLY RIDE
April 3rd 2010
Dinowalrus, Tempo No Tempo
May 1
Santa Cruz
FMLY RIDE
April 3rd 2010
Pacific and Water
Boston
FMLY / Breakfast of Champs Fest
PPALMM's Chinatown Loft
April 16
New York
FMLY / Breakfast of Champs Fest
April 18
Tobacco (of Black Moth Super Rainbow) & Philip Seymour Hoffman
The Knitting Factory
April 24 fbook event
IcyDemons, Truman Peyote, Trouble Books
Glasslands
May 2
San Francisco
Thank you Come Again
The Neighbors, Wes Leslie, Shaw, Maus Haus, Mistlefinger, Goliath the Giver
March 21st
Dolores Park f book event
Questions? Comments? Want to play a FMLY event? Want to learn how you can play an integral role in your FMLY? Shoot us an email anytime, we're usually around. We also accept demos, songs you're into, songs you've made and bribes.