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Gone are the Toy Story bleached-out Woody bandanas and wiped semi-clean are both the mysterious and cryptic red carpet tumblrs used to introduce the recently unmasked WU LYF. No for now, thanks to an upcoming tour followed by a full-length from Manchester’s World United Lucifer Youth Foundation (WU LYF for short), the group of UK kids are ditching the V for Vendetta “we are no one, we are everyone” all-encompassing claims of anti-establishment and taking a more direct approach. Still viral marketing, but this time with a clearer shot of their unmasked, not Arctic Monkeys, faces. Read More…

Here’s the long-awaited new single from Chicago electro dancers, Gemini Club. Released digitally yesterday, “Ghost” is a quick dance number that features an upbeat bass crawl under a shattered ceiling of falling synths. The trio just returned from a successful round of shows down at SXSW and you can listen to the original track, along with about seven remixes (including ones from Hey Champ and Midnight Conspiracy) below.

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Sometimes the club drone shoveled through the speaker wall that drug money built is as cold and lifeless as the too-old-for-glitter darling that insists on doing a lackluster Bernie in a desolate dance house. Then there are times when that frigid club drone is actually a softened string of warm synths able to turn even the most uninspired robot jerk into a morphine drip disco queen. Reduced to nothing more than a pool of relaxed nerves and cosmic caution to wind. “Too Much to Lose” is the latter. Jump down to hear it. Read More…

If you haven’t had the chance to catch the Brooklyn band Ex Cops performing live (which is understandable as they’ve only played a handful of shows thus far), the new project from HYMNS’ Brian Harding is best understood through a filter of mid-Sixties pop rock luster. Read More…

With just two more days left in the 2011 edition of SXSW, the music festival is currently on its final breaths. Initially beginning in 1987 as an industry only meeting of music’s puppets and puppeteers, the spring shindig has since evolved into one of the yearly go-to destinations for bands and fans alike with the number of performances only rivaling the number of Lone Star empties crushed and overflowing Texas garbage cans. (The growth in music event registrants alone, from just 700 in 1987 to 2011‘s nearly 12,000, shows the festival’s rapid expansion.) But back in 1998, before the internet had proper legs and music blogs were called magazines, it was still limited to those in the know. It was also the year comedian Fred Armisen (then drummer for Chitown’s Trenchmouth) decided to head down to Austin and film a five part video “guide.” Posing as various journalists (from offensive to ignorant to very funny), he misleads both famous and non-famous industry types in bits that are more amusing than the majority of his later comedic work (including SNL and his current Portlandia vehicle). Among others Steve Albini, Janeane Garofalo, and Pavement all get interviewed and the fine folks at Stereogum were nice enough to post/host all five segments. It’s not equivalent to actually attending the Austin festival, but then again, a few laughs is far better than actually fighting the crowds for a free PBR and a chance to see Tyler the Creator play a heedless joke on his newly initiated OFWGKTA cult. Head here to watch the clips.

Self-described stonegaze trio True Widow hails from Dallas, Texas and produces thick rock closely packed with dustbowl dirt and about a handful of druggy pills that’ll slow the clock (and your thirst) just long enough so the 30 pack of piss warm Budweiser you’re knocking boots with in the backyard lasts for-ev-er.

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Their album, extensively entitled As High As The Highest Heavens And From The Center To The Circumference Of The Earth, is set to arrive March 29th via Kemado and the morbidly named “Skull Eyes” is taken from it.

Here’s a new bare bones number from London duo Big Deal. KC Underwood and Alice Costelloe’s “Talk” offers up an abundance of emotional baggage with as little as a few post-love letter lyrics and an afternoon of distorted guitar. The consequences of being young and in love I’d suppose.

Talk is out on Moshi Moshi next month with a debut album from Mute coming later this year.

Seeing as how SXSW had the balls-out audacity to fall upon the green beer holiday of St. Patrick’s Day (yes, as it does every year), chances are at least a few of you stilling swimming in the shadow of the NYC skyline looking to rehearse your faux-Irish (or authentic Irish) drinking degeneracy. If that is indeed the case, you should put on a green sweater and come to Brooklyn’s Beauty Bar tonight. DJ Robot Jerkoff, along with NY’s Wolf Crystal, will be spinning rock ‘n roll disco dance music from 6-10. Drink specials and all that goddamn Irish joy will be in full-effect. More info here.

I saw a towering trio of Danish cold weather perform the other night in a conference ro0m at New York’s Scandinavia House. They’re called Giana Factory and what they lack in natural testosterone, the three girls from Copenhagen more than make up in electronic minimalism. Dressed like a troupe of Xena Warrior Princesses adorn in TopShop heels and bone black rainbows, they ran through a frigid set of restrained percussion and atmospheric keystrokes that easily darkened the fluorescent lights flooding the oddly-lit and carpeted setting they performed in. And while their black crystal aesthetic tends to lean a little heavy on Three Wolf Moon, it’s acceptable because they’re making music that burns like a cool sapphire flame. Currently stateside for a handful of SXSW shows, Giana Factory’s debut full-length is already out in Denmark but you can expect it to see a worldwide release sometime in 2011. Jump down to watch a video of them performing their song “Trippin.” Read More…

Forever-young disco queen Robyn assisted fellow Swedes, Teddybears, by offering up her vocal chords for “Cardiac Arrest,” the group’s newest single. To be noted: VEOBA does not now, nor will we ever, condone self-induced heart attacks via shaking one’s “bone maker.” The track’s currently available on iTunes. Listen below. Read More…