
looking for something specific? search our archives:
[SONG OF THE DAY] KINGSWOOD - "Messed It Up"
So fun true story, on Tuesday night at the opening night party of Mondo.NYC I was on the rooftop of The Delancey and I caught the eye of a tall gentleman who I could tell was trying to place how he knew my face. Suddenly it hit me like a ton of bricks.
Below is the hilarious recreation of the moments that transpired after:
Me: “I KNOW YOU! I’VE INTERVIEWED YOU!”
Him: *heavy Australian accent* “YES!”
Me: *brain goes into overdrive* “YOU’RE IN KINGSWOOD OH MY GOD MOTHER FUCKING KINGSWOOD IS BACK IN NYC HOLY SHIT”
Him aka Alex Laska (guitarist, Kingswood): “YES! AHHHH!”
*hugs all around to Fergus and Braiden and briefly catch up*
For those just tuning in, during CMJ 2015 I chatted with these awesome Aussies about the singles that were the beginning stages of releasing their debut album, Microscopic Wars, in the US. Since then the four-piece released their follow up last year, After Hours, Close To Dawn, and are now gearing up for album number three(!). The band is kicking things off for the forthcoming album with a new single, “Messed It Up”, a song that centers around the story of a relationship fracturing following a series of avoidable mistakes that seemed necessary at the time and where to go when it seems as though there's no way back. This is a different kind of vibe for the band, self-described by Laska as, “fucking Thriller vibes”. We love. 💖
I won’t be able to make it out to their set tonight (10/4) at Pianos (who now charges 10 DOLLARS for their margs when it’s not happy hour what the actual fuck), but I was informed that tomorrow (10/5) the dope ass dudes will be playing at a free show at Freehold in Williamsburg so I will be at that one plotting my inevitable move to Australia muahahaha.
Okay I just ignored an entire panel I g2g ttyl!
KINGSWOOD NYC SHOWS
10/4 @ 7pm - Pianos
10/5 @ 10pm - Freehold
#skoaradio 10/24/2015 liner notes
artist rendition of my convo with Alex from Kingswood after I shut the mic off post-interview.lol
Hey fam!
Things refuse to slow down in SKOA HQ, but I'm not complaining! I wrapped up CMJ with a day in Aussie Heaven where we interviewed KINGSWOOD prior to watching them totally kill it. I can't believe how much fun I had. Kinda wish it had never ended tbh. Oh well. Time to prep for Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival, which is coming up super fast. I've got a couple of new tracks on this week's show. As always would love to hear your thoughts so @ me bb if you liked what you heard!
See you next week!
<3
- Battle Tapes - "Valkyrie"
- Debut album Polygon drops on November 20th!
- BOOTS - "Bombs Away"
- New track "C.U.R.E." out now
- Debut full length Aquaria drops November 23th!
- BOOTS is playing Rough Trade for his release show! You've officially missed your chance to get tix :(
- Good Morning - "You"
- Official writeup of my interview with them from last week's CMJ show coming soon!
- Car Seat Headrest - "Times To Die"
- New album Teens of Style drops October 30th!
- Shows coming up in the UK & US.
- Weaves - "Motorcycle"
- Did you know that THE NEW YORK TIMES reviewed one of their CMJ shows!?! AMAZING!!
- Monarchy - "Black Widow"
- Sam Sparro - "Hands Up"
- Sam's new EP Quantum Physical Vol 2 is out now! GO GET IT!
- Kenna - "Sleep When We Die"
- Dude just finished up 35 days of traveling to shoot his "Sleep When We Die" video. The NYC Core got some hugs with him while he was here.
- Go help fund Songs For Flight!
- JR JR - "Gone"
- JR JR available now.
- Slum Sociable - "All Night"
- Go grab TQ now
- You can also see pitchas of these guys from my CMJ coverage. I may or may not have seen them three times :)
- Little May - "Boardwalks"
- Caught these little darlings this week at Mercury Lounge. Show review coming soon!
- Go grab their album For The Company asap okay
- Don Diablo & Matt Nash - "Starlight (Could You Be Mine)"
- Don Diablo moved up like a gazillion slots to NUMBER 30 IN DJ MAG'S TOP 100 DJS LIST OMG YAYYYY!!
- Interpol - "All Fired Up"
- If you don't have their latest record, El Pintor well then shame on you (this track is from Our Love To Admire tho)
- The Dead Weather - "I Feel Love(Every Million Miles)"
- Dodge and Burn is good fam, you needs it.
- KINGSWOOD Interview!
- KINGSWOOD - "Ohio"
- Hope you enjoyed this interview. Don't worry, imma pull out the good bits to write up all official :)
- Mr. Hudson - "Dancing Thru It"
- I'M. SO. HAPPY. HE'S. BACK!!!!!!!!!
- Can't be too mad considering he was off working on the new Duran Duran album, which is great tbh.
- Also the Souncloud page for this says MORE MUSIC COMING. YES YES YES YES YES.
- Magic Sword - "Battlefield"
- Have you read the comic for this btw? Pretty cool stuff.
- Official write up for this interview is coming soon too. :)
- Sami Switch - "Self Destruct"
- This guy's story is so cool. You have to watch this mini docu about his trajectory in the past few years. He's gone from homeless to selling out shows in London. Good for him.
- Wrabel - "I Want You"
- Still tryna figure out why "bae-bel" still hasn't upped this to iTunes/Spotify/Whatever yet. It's on YouTube and Soundcloud at least? And you can haz for $FREE.99
- Anyway you can grab his first EP Sideways to show love. I think that's fair right?
THINGS I TALKED ABOUT ON THE SHOW THIS WEEK INCLUDE:
#skoaradio 10/17/2015 liner notes - THE #CMJ2015 EDITION
#CMJSELFIE, basically.
GUESS WHO'S TIRED?
"I GUESS KIBBE"
YOU GUESSED RIGHT!
But in all seriousness, I am having a blast at CMJ 2015 this year and I can't believe all of these little band babies are going to leave me. #RUDE.
Anyway I'm too exhausted to be witty rn. I'm gonna go grab coffee before my first Pianos margarita of the day.
Until next week!
<3
kibbe!
UPDATE: Grab this week's mixtape on iTunes.
- Luna Aura - "Dancing With Your Ghost"
- Valise - "Charlie Gray"
- Car Seat Headrest - "Times To Die"
- Good Morning Interview!
- Good Morning - "You"
- Jake Isaac Interview!
- Jake Isaac - "Home"
- Jesse Ruben Interview!
- Jesse Ruben - "Fearless"
- Hooton Tennis Club - "P.O.W.E.R.F.U.L. P.I.E.R.R.E."
- Weaves - "Tick"
- KINGSWOOD - "She's My Baby"
- Dirty Ghosts - "Cataract"
- BLXPLTN Interview!
- BLXPLTN - "Start Fires"
- Magic Sword Interview!
- Magic Sword - "In The Face Of Evil"
- Son Little - "The River"
- Crooked Colours - "Step"
- Slum Sociable - "All Night"
[Night Out] OMG CMJ 2015 Day Four & Five: Controller, Slum Sociable, Good Morning, Methyl Ethel, Step-Panther, Pierce Brothers, Kingswood, Sui Zhen, Client Liaison, & SAFIA @ Pianos & The Delancey
Controller @ Pianos
The last 48 hours of CMJ were a total blur. My big brother came to town early before a cruise he was going on and since family comes first my venue hopping came to a screeching halt. Bro was a champ and helped me pick out the featured images in Day Three's post and got an exclusive first listen to the interviews I did with Good Morning, Jake Isaac, Jesse Ruben, BLXPLTN, and Magic Sword. I did manage to drag him out to Pianos go see my good friends Controller. He also got to finally meet Sprout! It was nice to have my two favorite people in the world in one room. We decided to cut the night short after Controller finished so I could rest up to go all out of the last day of the fest.
After spending the afternoon on Saturday with my brother I scurried over to The Delancey or as I will be referring to the day as "Aussie Heaven" (but really it was the Aussie BBQ). I soon realized as I was confirming which stages Slum Sociable and Good Morning were playing that I haven't been exaggerating all week when I've told people that Australia dominated this CMJ in a huge way.
I'd soon get some intel from Alex Laska, Kingswood's guitarist, about why it felt like I had been hit by a semi truck of awesome Australian music all at once. It never occurred to me that in Australia because it's such a huge country that's mostly populated along its coastlines that being a committed band is a hell of a lot more effort than anything anyone in the US could ever imagine. He explained that driving from one major city to the next could sometimes take at least up to 26 hours. We are spoiled rotten, my fellow Americans! That all said, Laska went on to say that because this is the case that the bands who want to tour are the ones who put in the time to make it worth their while so they're all very talented individuals. They're also very supportive of each other because they usually end up eventually all touring together. He really wasn't kidding when he said, "Every single band that's here deserves to be here." It was really great chat overall, I can't wait to air it next week on #skoaradio.
Kingswood getting their face-melty on @ The Delancey.
Post-my interview with Laska I saw the entire day completely differently. He was totally right, you could tell by the way the bands all interacted with each other that the community there was incredibly close knit. It was actually really refreshing to see bands watching each other perform. I know that's not a rarity here per say, but it felt more genuine and less obligatory. I'm sure that has to do with the abundance of bands that are at one's disposal here so the air is more competitive vs communal. That's really a bummer when you think about it. It'd be nice to find a way to swing that there. I guess maybe that has to happen state by state?
Anyway, the only bummer on Saturday night was when I had to call it a night and head home. After finally having a moment to befriend the Slum Sociable guys I tagged along with them going from stage to stage to see all their friends play. I finally got to see Methyl Ethel after Good Morning told me during our interview that I *had* to see them! I caught a total of 9 bands whilst in Aussie Heaven and I loved every single second of it. Glad to have caught Good Morning and Slum Sociable multiple times. Can't wait to get to know Step-Panther, Pierce Brothers, Sui Zhen, Client Liaison, and SAFIA better. Side note: Client Liaison is crazy in the best possible way. Really glad the Slum fam made me stick around for them. Kingswood was face melty. I'm really excited that I'm getting pulled back to gritty guitars to compliment all the synth-driven pop/rock I've been into lately.
I honestly can't think of a better way to end a CMJ than how I did. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sleep for 72 hours and see how long until the caffeine withdrawal headaches go away.
Have a look at the photos from Day Four & Five in the gallery below. You can also have a taste of Aussie Heaven for yourself courtesy of this handy dandy Spotify playlist I put together.
[NIGHT OUT] OMG CMJ 2015: Kibbe's Picks For This Week
It's that time of year again! You know, the one where I bounce back and forth between lower Manhattan and Brooklyn to see how many new bands I can fall in love with. I HAVE SO MANY NEW BAND CRUSHES YOU GUYS AND I HAVEN'T EVEN STEPPED FOOT INSIDE A VENUE YET!! *PRAISE HANDS EMOJI*
If you're out and about in NYC for CMJ, you can catch me attempting to attend all of the following events. If you can't be in NYC but want to follow along, you can add me over on Snapchat: heylookitskibbe (original amirite?).
If you see my smiling/exhausted face grab me and say hi!
TUESDAY OCTOBER 13TH
- Valise @ Rockwood Music Hall - 3pm
- Holiday Mountain @ Pianos - 5:10pm
- Good Morning @ Cake Shop - 7pm
- Garden of Elks @ The Living Room - 8:45pm
- Jake Sherman @ Pete's Candy Store - 9pm
- Jake Isaac @ The Living Room - 9:30pm
- WALTZ @ Cameo Gallery - 9:50pm
- SYKES @ The Living Room - 10:25
- Jesse Ruben @ Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3 - 11pm
THURSDAY OCTOBER 14TH
- Car Seat Headrest @ Pianos - 2pm
- Luna Aura @ Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2 - 2:15pm
- Pinact @ Pianos - 2:30pm
- BLXPLTN @ Arlene's Grocery - 2:45pm
- Expert Alterations @ Pianos - 4:30pm
- Weaves (!!!!!!!) @ Pianos - 5:15pm
- Beverly @ Pianos - 6pm
- Hooton Tennis Club @ Santos Party House - 8:15pm
- Slum Sociable @ Cake Shop - 10pm
- Pompeya @ Pianos (Upstairs) - 10:45pm
- Cardiknox @ The Studio At Webster Hall - 11:15pm
- Lara Snow @ Fat Baby - 11:45pm
- Magic Sword @ Cameo Gallery - 12am
THURSDAY OCTOBER 15TH
- Womps @ Cake Shop (NYC Taper Showcase) - 1:45pm
- Vomitface @ Cake Shop (NYC Taper Showcase) - 2:20pm
- Dirty Dishes @ Cake Shop (NYC Taper Showcase) - 2:55pm
- Walking Shapes @ Elvis Guesthouse - 4:15pm
- Dirty Ghosts @ Cake Shop (NYC Taper Showcase) - 5:30pm
- Cardiknox @ Ganesvoort Hotel (Meatpacking) - 6pm
- Soft Sirens @ The Flat - 7:15pm
- Kevin Garrett @ Rockwood Music Hall - 9pm
- Saint Pé @ Matchless - 10:45pm
- Skaters @ The Living Room - 12am
FRIDAY OCTOBER 16TH
**my brother is going to be in town Friday & Saturday so unless he wants to come out to stuff I'll only be out after dark :/ **
- Controller @ Pianos - 8pm
- Dirty Ghosts @ Baby's All Right - 9pm
- Lara Snow @ Leftfield - 11:30pm
- KINGSWOOD@ Fat Baby - 12:30am
SATURDAY OCTOBER 18TH
- Slum Sociable @ The Delancey - 5:30pm
- Frankmusik @ Rockwood Music Hall - 9pm
- KINGSWOOD @ The Delancey - 10pm
Please enjoy a sampling of the bands I'm going to go check out via the playlist below!