Apes and Androids BROKEN UP? - Golden Prize video

12/7/09 8:53pm

sucker got pulled. And the band may be in-effect broken up.

http://stereogum.com/archives/video/apes_androids_golden_prize_video_unveiled_months_a_103881.html

Blood Moon is available via apesandandroids.com. Right now Brian Jacobs is doing things like producing Cale Parks' recent EP, David Tobias is working on solo material, other members of A&A are in the band Sigmund Droid (who did the theme song for Gabe & Max's 100 Seconds) ... but we can look forward to an Electric Dream Machine/Apes & Androids album one day. Maybe!

-Cale Parks myspace. I'm checking the Brian Jacobs-produced (I thinl) ep "To Swift Mars" soon.

-no idea about info for David Tobias's music. No luck with facebook. But I'd love to hear and support it whenever I can.

-Sigmund Droid has a myspace there. I'm not sure how much appeal their music will be for me or other A&A's fan necessarily, given the members from A&A's presumably didn't do much if any of the writing in A&A's.

edit: but I'm actually liking some of this stuff on the myspace. The post-punk energy sounds like it's working. They have an ep called "Maximum Grind" that was released recently.

However, I can't help but fear/worry that we could see a Jellyfish kind of pattern here with the members doing other decent work, but not to the level when they worked together.

No matter what happens, it would really be good to

a) read some kind of official quote from David or Brian about them breaking-up or their status in general.

b) that video be made available at some point online for others to see. Unless the band aren't happy with it, which I'm not sure why they would be. Brian and David are even in it afterall, lol.

edit: here's a live version.



>

apes & androids - golden prize from thatgo on Vimeo

This video was made? by That Go I guess. I should know that name/reference, but I'm drawing a blank.

As for the video itself, rather ironic and twisted, but it's the guys and the video/filmaker doing the Glam-Art thing anyway. So it's not all that surprising really, much like a couple of their other videos.

More significant is, from what I know/have seen, this is the 1st sign of ANYTING from them online since April. I went to the Apes and Androids myspace last night and the last login was on October 12th. Facebook? the activity as far as I can tell, goes back to June I think.

So to see something David Tobias and Brian Jacobs are involved-in, frankly, ANYTHING, even non-A&A's related, online, is encouraging and a relief. Especially with the recent band breakups and the economy. But I've believed for quite some time, the guys in the band don't just do A&A's, obviously to make their living. Dayjobs or producing or something, I dunno. It may be worth trying to contact them and ask or just mention this new video. Also hit-up a few more boards, like the selF and The Dear Hunter forums, where there are at least a few fans known there.

edit: I am liking this Sigmund Droid stuff and the Cale Parks ep impressed me as well today. More on thos rather soon I imagine.

Late of the Pier - Blueberry Pie (2010)...The Age of Rockets update..

Here's the 1st single "Blueberry"



I'm very excited for this sophomore record from the British-based Indietronica band.

Apes and Androids new album in 2010? who knows. But at least these guys and The Age of Rockets will have new work out to fulfill the Indietronica fix I and many others have.



And I should announce, The Age of Rockets have officially raised $8,165+, enough money (actually more than enough) to record, mix, master the 30 tracks for their upcoming concept album!

link

$8,165 with 12 days to go! I can't be more happy for them. Now, hopefully the record will fulfill the promise of that idea and successful 1st step.

Apes and Androids Video/Interview + Halloween'09..

http://www.hilfigerdenim.com/gb_en/#/artists/page/apes-&-androids

Interview

Creepy Girls
Hot Kathy
New Song
Sweetest Secret
We Don't Understand You

the new song had a kind of 80's Dance element to it. The key solo almost reminded me of Marillion from that period.

I think that performance was taken from 1 of the shows they played in the UK last April. I'd love to find out more of what they are up to, as their web presence over the last 6 months has been pretty quiet. But for now, this will have to do. And it's cool that it is Halloween as they are kind of into costumes/dressing-up and Halloween in general.

Got much to add. Tons of leaks and new releases: Pain of Salvation, Devin Townsend + all the 10/27 released titles.

Biffy Clyro, Annuals and Revere are really the only known releases (that I can think-of/know-of) that haven't surfaced yet. Annuals EP "Hi-Hat" not even artwork has been put up nor a tracklist.

Goes back to my whole thing with end-of-year/last-minute release of info.

Pretty much, if your album doesn't come out or at least have a set-in-stone release date by the 1st week of October, it's pushed back until the next year.

December: nothing comes out. New movies? yeah, but with music, it's just Holiday albums, live stuff or compilations. And November is starting to be the same way.

Fuck, I'm tired, so i don't have the energy to mention everything I'd like to.

100Ft Snowman are in-effect broken up. The offer from some producer/mgr for a deal was going to have them give up 50% of their earned $. Yeah, right: as I posted on their page last week.

Oct 25 2009 11:03 PM

I just purchased an EP, t-shirt and DVD from your website store. I just feel really really bad about what you guys have to do. You guys are just WAY too talented a band to get insulted with a record deal as ridiculous as that, losing 50% of your revenue. Whose the clown who drew that up? Honestly, reminds me of the idiots at that at-1-time-respected-progrock label MAGNA CARTA who kept screwing band after band over contractually. Requiring rights to their master tapes and naming rights..all false promises and bullshit.

The music BUSINESS can be a dark, soul-less industry, and it pains me to see groups like you guys be the casualties. It's just not fair. But I guess at least if you guys will continue to make music, in other capacities, I am happy about that no matter. Best of luck Snowmen, in whatever the future holds.

without a potential debut album from them, it has me thinking about other groups whose debut albums are likely in the near future, but unfortunately 100Ft Snowman won't be included.

Local Natives (this Monday in the UK/March 2010 US likely)

Water & Bodies my guess is early 2010

Distrails

Warpaint (Spring 2010)

The Flying Tourbillon Orchestra (2010 it sounds like)

Tangled Thoughts of Leaving (2010)

Periphery (2010)

Between Two Skies (2010 depending on what happens with their demo)

The Bewitched Lot of songs, hopefully they'll find the time and $ as well.

Sound & Shape 2010 maybe?

Eroica it says "2006-2009" on their myspace name. I'm unsure if that means anything more than how long they have existed.

Dead Letter Circus 2010 seems likely.

Children of Nova

Meniscus 2010?

deretla 2010 perhaps?

Total Babe 2010 or 2011?

We Valedictorians 2010 possibly as well. It may depend on time and $ of course, but they are working on it currently which is a good sign.

the last 2 I saw last night (or 2 nights ago now) at The Music Box Theater in Minneapolis. A really nice venue. Small theater, but honestly, it would be great to see more concerts there. I guess they are trying to get a liquor license and that may open a lot more opportunities for them. Because between there and say The Entry, The Rock, The Triplerock, 400 Bar, Big V's, or even The Barfly, etc that venue is WAY nicer. Sure it's seated, but so what? if you have to stand, you can in the front.

The Ritz Theater and The Woman's Club Theaters are 2 similar venues I suppose, and I've attended 1 concert at both of them. But none since. That shouldn't be the case honestly. Guess we'll see in the near future.

Afa WV and Total Babe, both are very promising new groups. I just picked up Total Babe's new EP "Heatwave"



no idea how good it is as I won't be playing it until likely on Monday at work. But from seeing them live twice, and the myspace samples, they really have something I feel. Kind of experimental pop, but not too out-there. Less-is-more without being exactly derivative or half-baked. They're a group of mostly high school kids, so where their music goes is uncertain, but perhaps they'll find reason to continue doing music together for a long time. I certainly hope so.

And We Valedictorians also played last night and certainly got my attention. Jordan Gatesmith, it seems is the front-man and organizer of this group. He actually also is in Total Babe, so it's apparent he's a rather ambitious musician which is a good sign. Hopefully his work in both bands will flourish as some musicians are able to juggle multiple music projects well. When you're in HS as well? hopefully that won't be as difficult as it may sound.

Their sound, I'm still getting a handle on I guess I'd say. They're sort of wall-of-sound in that they have a large ensemble of different players in many of their songs. Violin, oboe, 2 drummers, cello, etc. They remind me of some of the chamber-pop/rock bands of the last 10 years especially in that respect. The Decemberists, The Dear Hunter, Margot and the Nuclear So and So's, etc..even our own Cloud Cult perhaps. The Arcade Fire was the name mentioned as well..and I guess in being tactful, I'll just say I have a bit more intrigue about them than I ever have had with TAF, but that's more a matter of personal taste. I am not into Radiohead nor Tool of course, yet I dig dozens and dozens of bands who are similar.

So to conclude, Total Babe, WV, Jordan and The Music Box Theater (who should get The Musical Box Peter Gabriel-period Genesis recreation band to play. But of course the 2004 failed-attempt at The Fitzgerald Theater may always prevent that) are all something to take away from Halloween'09.

I also did see deretla ("Altered" backwards) last night at Big V's, and my friend Cr8tron was not there. He's not in the band anymore I guess, but still is working with them. Musically, they are not vastly different than many other progressive death metal bands. I do like when they have the clean guitars over the double-bass. The demo Creighton put up on his Minnesota Artists dot org page really impressed me. I don't question Creighton's perfectionist approach to working with them (depending on how much he actually does. I'm not sure exactly what kind of schedule and time-frame they and he will have with that just as an outside observer). So, certainly if and when they have their 1st release available, I'm optimistic at what they do based on seeing them last night and that demo.

Big V's otoh, i dunno how often I'll end up there again. Frankly, it made the Turf Club look big and nice. But, I suppose for bands, it's $ and better than some spots. If I end up gigging and writing music which may be a ways away, but that will depend on $. The fact is, I got music in my head, I'm certain of that. Just no current means to get it down in some format right now. I need actual ProTools (and not a demo-version) or a Mac for garageband.com. But I may not be as keen to end up there as some other places (Celtic Junction?..aka kind of the new Cedar).

Mew and Immi on the shelf today

2 of the highly anticipated cds are released today in Mew's "No More Stories" and Imogen Heap's "Ellipse."

Andre Matos new album also is released this week, except I suspect will not be stocked at any store I shop at considering his last cd never was either. Possibly something to look for at ProgPowerUSA in a few weeks.

Although last week was kind of big too in Mute Math, Ramona Falls and As Tall as Lions

BLK JKS debut lp "After Robots" requires more time, and I won't deny, I'm fishing for something new, different, and with good songwriting. This could be 1. I was impressed by it anyway, yesterday and the brief amount of time today I replayed it.

Thrice new album kind of underwhelmed me. I'm not sure if they are a band I'll ever get that into.

And Of Montreal I may say the same about having revisited one of their older albums today. They have their moments, but for one thing, they are a lot more like The Apples in Stereo than Apes and Androids. Way more power-pop, and more analog-sounding. I can't get the ELO/Jeff Lynne influence out of my head. But I'm really not sure if they even compare favorably to The Apples, let alone Call Florence Pow or A&A's.

Speaking of CFP, I'm continually amazed the talent Brian Jacobs and David Tobias have for songwriting. Even though we have yet to hear a ton of it from them, every song they've done, I appreciate the thought that was put into it. I started a new list on rateyourmusic called "A-List Modern Songwriters" (and mean to create 1 or 2 others, involving A-lists involving Actors/Directors and Live Acts) and it hasn't been published yet, but beyond 2 obvious names, I'd put the tandem of Jacobs and Tobias right behind them in the best songwriters working today (or in the last couple of decades). Which is why I sincerely hope they give us as much new music as they can over the next 5-10 years at least. The idea of prog + Electronica being a new genre like prog + alternative rock was in the 00's could quite possibly happen. And these guys I might trace as the forefathers of it (with Matt Mahaffey being the grandfather).

I really can't get enough of their stuff, in that i probably have a number of more entries to focus just on them. If not sooner, certainly when any news comes out about the next Apes and Androids, a whole backstory analysis/review should happen again, as I think they're the most fascinating musicians I've enountered in many years.

In Plain Sight: I finally caught the season finale. No, Mary's not dead. But it was a different way to end the season, with a cliffhanger of sorts. The girl she was protecting; something was messed up about her judgement. She either should have come across as more careless, looked-that-way, or perhaps there's more to her character than we know yet. Because by wanting to hang with those thugs across the street, even the way she treated that government rep, and his whole approach to throwing Mary into the job with her. I dunno, it didn't seem very accurate of all the characters, the writing. She would have been more concerned for Mary and how hostile those thugs seemed. The drug traffic too. Which of course raised the idea of them doing a crossover with Breaking Bad, given where both shows are set. The network conflicts I suppose hurts that, but in a better world, that would happen. Maybe one of Walt's family members ends up a witness, or Mary deals with Walt's brother-in-law who works for the DEA. A story could happen really easily.

But given it began in April, it was a good, long season. I'd have gone for a Winter comeback again, but maybe once Monk is gone, that'll happen.

Warehouse 13 and Royal Pains I'm playing catchup on now. Hopefully before the TV Previews, those will be all done, since it will be a potentially busy non-network fall with Psych and Monk along with another new USA show White Collar airing. Plus Caprica and however long Warehouse 13 goes on skeefee.

I'm headed to see local Cabaret duo The Bewitched this evening at Bryant Lake Bowl. My 3rd show seeing them since January? Maybe a belly/cabaret dancer will be there too. And it's an early show thankfully at 7:30, given it's a weeknight.