ANTI Records Recent News

ISLANDS ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM, VAPOURS, OUT SEPTEMBER 22nd

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:06:00 -0700

ANTI TO RELEASE MONTREAL BAND’S THIRD STUDIO ALBUM ON SEPTEMBER 22nd   

Nick Diamonds' polymorphous pop band, Islands, is back with their third studio album, Vapours. The 2006 debut, Return to the Sea, found eccentric and mellifluous pop tunes performed with a cast of characters from Montreal's thriving music scene (including members of Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade), helmed by Nick Diamonds and Jamie Thompson. Thompson departed amicably from the group shortly after the album was released, and 2007's Arm's Way found the band turning in a new direction towards lushly orchestrated, guitar-driven prog-rock. Thompson has returned to the band for Vapours, a record that flits back and forth between moody synthesizers and drum-machine-heavy beats, while remaining firmly rooted in the classic pop sensibilities and multitude of melodic hooks that Islands is known for. 

Produced by Nick Diamonds and Chris Coady (who has worked with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blonde Redhead, TV On The Radio, among others), this is the group's most stunning work to date.  

Select Press Quotes on Islands:
Islands winks at pop convention but transcends the formulaic pop genre with layers of instrumental solos that teeter on discordant drama and uncontained feverish mirth…Full of frolicking jovial pop ditties – and even tinkering with rap – Return to the Sea brims with childlike whimsy showing that well-executed pop is back. –SOMA  

"Each song plays out like a mini theatrical production wherein the narrator is stabbed in the heart and attacked by a pack of dogs. It's dark and dramatic, yet behind all that lies ex-Unicorns member Nick Thorburn's penchant for pop music, meaning catchy hooks and melodies are among the commotion." BILLBOARD

"Taking near-theatrical turns, the band's sprawling indie pop skips from genre to genre, trying on arena rock and neo-psychedelia while following ringleader Nick Diamonds' whims like a mythical beast across so many islands." -PASTE

Kyp Malone's Rain Machine Signs with Anti- Records

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:06:00 -0700

Anti- Records, home to other musical visionaries such as Tom Waits, Neko Case and Nick Cave, is thrilled to announce the signing of Rain Machine, a startling new musical venture from Kyp Malone. "It's thrilling to hear this side of Kyp," says Anti- president Andy Kaulkin. "The songs are emotionally raw and passionate yet still experimental and full of surprises."

Malone, known to many as guitarist-singer for soulful art rockers TV On The Radio, explains the origin of Rain Machine: "I've been writing and recording songs alone since I moved to NYC in 2000, at first alone because I didn't know anyone, then through the years by choice because of a particular freedom that going it alone afforded. I've played regularly since then, at first under the name Black Lights until some kids in Texas told me they were already using that name. Then under my own name but I didn't like how "Kyp Malone" looked on mock ups of t-shirts and fliers, thus Rain Machine."

Produced by Ian Brennan (Ramblin Jack Elliott, Lucinda Williams, Jonathan Richman), Rain Machine's debut, set for release this fall, offers an enthralling mix of innovative song structure and sound entirely in service of Malone's emotive singing and evocative lyrics. Malone describes the Rain Machine sound as "a nearly full spectrum of frequencies audible to the human ear - a reflection of a variety of emotions and situations real and imagined, some rhythm and some rhyme."

"People might be surprised that anyone is still working in a long format recorded medium considering the economic climate, current trends in dissemination and consumption, i.e. the internet and mp3 players," Malone continues. "There is so much work being produced in this moment, in this, the age of readily available prosumer recording equipment and an internet hungry for content, not to mention the mountains of old songs that exist for most listeners who, in a lifetime, will only skim the surface of that magnificent library. People might be surprised that, with all that weighing against it, buying and listening to this album will be more than just pleasurable, more than just horizon expanding. This record will bring the listener to a higher level of consciousness, that peace and happiness are attainable through bathing in its sounds…LOL!!! Really though, I had a great time making this record and I hope listeners enjoy it."

Stay tuned for more information coming soon from Rain Machine.

Screaming Lights Announce Details of New Single & Headline U.K. Tour

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:06:00 -0700

Liverpool's Screaming Lights have announced details of the release of a new single, Volts, through ANTI on July 27th 2009.

The band have announced a series of headline shows in July - these follow their dates supporting Nine Black Alps in May. The full list of dates are as follows:

JULY
3rd Liverpool Everyman
4th Glasgow King Tuts
7th Leeds Cockpit

Tickets for the headline shows are priced at £5 and are available via www.seetickets.com.

They recently completed their debut album with Dan Grech at the The Hospital studio in London’s Covent Garden – it follows in the tradition of great Liverpudlian acts of old; vintage Scouse psych with shades of The Teardrops, The Yachts, The Pale Fountains and even a touch of The Chameleons from down the M62.

Due for release in the early Autumn, the as yet untitled album, shares a restless sense of psychedelic adventure, out-of-step bloody mindedness and a classic-songwriting nouse that has long seen Liverpool bands marked out as truly unique innovators.

THE WEAKERTHANS TOUR WEST COAST IN JULY, LIVE ITUNES SESSIONS AVAILABLE 6/30

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:06:00 -0700

Canada’s favorite indie poet laureates The Weakerthans have announced a string of tour dates that start at the Vancouver Folk Festival on July 17th and travel down the west coast of the US before ending in British Columbia on the 26th. Fresh off the Rolling Tundra Review, an exhaustive Canadian tour with the Constantines that spanned almost two months, The Weakerthans promise to be in fine form.

On June 30th, the band will be releasing a live iTunes session that was recorded at Metal Works in Mississauga Ontario and includes three tracks of their most recent release Night Windows and two off of 1999’s Fallow.

The Weakerthans on tour:
7/17 Vancouver, BC @ Vancouver Folk Festival
7/18 Seattle, WA @ Neumo's
7/20 Santa Cruz, CA @ The Crepe Place
7/21 San Louis Obispo, CA @ The Downtown Brew
7/22 Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy
7/23 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
7/24 Eugene, OR @ WOW
7/25 Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theatre
7/26 Nelson, BC @ Spirit Bar

The Weakerthans iTunes Session:
1. Night Windows
2. Anchorless
3. Civil Twilight
4. Fallow
5. Reunion Tour

Legendary Brazilian Tropicalia Band Os Mutantes sign with Anti- Records

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:06:00 -0700

Still Psychedelic, Influential, Political and Playful after all these Years – Os Mutantes Craft Triumphant Return with First Record in 35 Years

Founding frontman Sergio Dias Baptista and his new incarnation of the near-mythical Os Mutantes have signed with ANTI- Records with plans to release Haih – their first record in 35 years – on September 8th.

Os Mutantes were formed in Sao Paulo Brazil in 1966 by Sergio Dias and his brother Arnaldo, who blended their love of English rock n roll, culled from shortwave radio broadcasts, with American psychedelic in the spirit of Jimi Hendrix and traditional Brazilian music to create an entirely new sound to match an equally turbulent time in Brazilian history. While Os Mutantes were leading a growing youth mobilization as part of the Tropicalia movement alongside the likes of Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, their country was reeling in the midst of a military coup and ensuing artistic crackdown which eventually left Gil and Veloso imprisoned and exiled.

In the short years they were active, Os Mutantes crafted a distinctive, riotous and modern sound, experimenting with homemade instruments studio effects, traditional forms of Brazilian music, field recordings, unorthodox song structures and time signatures - and combining those with international influences in the form of pop music being exported out of England and the US in the late 1960s. Coupled with an overt political message embracing libertarian expression and artistic freedom, the few records Os Mutantes recorded have become enduringly influential. In the mid 1990s, 20 years after their last recording, Kurt Cobain famously issued a plea, begging for a reunited Os Mutantes to open for Nirvana. Since then, the band’s importance has been cited by current alternative superstars ranging from the Flaming Lips and of Montreal to Devendra Banhart to Beck, who wrote "for years it [Os Mutantes] was pretty much the only thing I listened to."

Now Os Mutantes have found a home with other likeminded provocateurs such as Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Mavis Staples and Billy Bragg on the Los Angeles independent label ANTI- Records. 2006 saw a reunion of sorts, with the band playing a handful of shows in London, New York, the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago, San Francisco and supporting the Flaming Lips at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, but it is the release of Haih in September that will mark the band’s first recorded material since 1974 and their very first album to receive a worldwide release. Conceived by Sergio Dias with collaborations with other Brazilian legends Tom Ze (lyrics) and Jorge Ben (who wrote the song "Minha Menina"), Haih is a vibrant and timely return from one of world music’s most important bands.

"Living the conception and birth of this album, as an individual, was the most intense experience, for it was as if time has ceased to exist, and I was bouncing from life to life, decades through decades, revisiting myself as a 16 year old boy playing guitar and feeling so free and, as any teenager, indestructible." Sergio Dias, May 2009

Sage Francis "Sick Of Wasting…" free download today!

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:06:00 -0700

Hip hop rabble-rouser Sage Francis releases the Sick of Wasting mixtape today! Part of his hilarious and popular "Sick of…" series - which has also included Sick of Waiting Tables and Sick of Waging War, among others - Sick of Wasting is now available free on on-line portals including Anti.com and Francis' own record label Strange Famous.

Free Download click here!

Sick of Wasting tracklist:
1) Strange Fame (2009)
2) S.A.G.E. Bastard (prod. by Buck 65, 2009)
3) I Trusted You (beat by Buck 65, 2009)
4) Needle (beat and scratches by Buddy Peace, 2009)
5) House of Bees (feat. B. Dolan, beat by Buck 65, 2009)
6) Jaw of Steel (beat and scratches by Reanimator, 2009)
7) If I Go To Hell (demo, 1997)
8 Conspiracy to Riot (beat & scratches by Reanimator, 2008)
9) Be a Star (beat by Buck 65, 2007)
10) Sea Legs (feat. B. Dolan & Sleep. Scratches by Buddy Peace. Additional vocals by Jared Paul and Curtis Plum. Beat by Aupheus, 2009.)
11) Flashback 96 (home recording, 1996)
12) Masturbate Your Brain (AOI demo, 1997)
13) SFR Pays Dues (feat. B. Dolan & Prolyphic, 2008)
14) Pump (beat and scratches by Buddy Peace & Reanimator, 2009)
15) Revenge of the Ogre (interlude w/ Trinity)
16) Who Farted? prt 1 (courtesy of XAUL ZAN)

Bettye LaVette Releases "Change Is Gonna Come Sessions" EP Exclusively On iTunes

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:06:00 -0700

BETTYE LaVETTE is releasing her new EP, titled Change is Gonna Come Sessions, exclusively available on iTunes tomorrow June 16. The following week on June 24, Bettye will be performing the title track from that new EP on the “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.” The last time Bettye was seen performing the Sam Cooke classic was to an astonished worldwide television audience on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at President Obama’s “We Are One” inaugural celebration.

According to a review of the EP in the Detroit Free Press: “LaVette’s ‘Change is Gonna Come Sessions’ (**** out of four stars on Anti) features a new studio version of the song, plus smoky and subtle versions of jazz standards ‘God Bless the Child,’ ‘Lush Life and ‘Round Midnight.’ ‘God Bless the Child’ has particular significance to LaVette, who used to sing the tune as part of the touring company of ‘Bubbling Brown Sugar,’ where she appeared alongside legendary Cab Calloway.”

Martin Bandyke continues in his review: “On the night he was elected president, Obama referred to Cooke’s civil rights anthem when he said, ‘It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, change has come to America.’ It’s been a long time coming as well for LaVette…What an absolute thrill to see her finally gain the long-overdue recognition she so richly deserves.”

Meanwhile, Bettye has been on the road for most of this year and will continue through the fall. During her time off in between dates, Bettye will begin recording a new CD to be released later this year. Of her performance last week in Minneapolis, Jon Bream of the Star Tribune proclaimed: “She remains the most deeply emotional and physically emotive R&B singer on the planet. When she sings, she gets in touch with the deep recesses of her psyche and soul. Imagine Otis Redding’s pleading style of Southern R&B rendered with Tina Turner’s leathery lungs, delivered with more emotion than Janis Joplin could summon.” You can find her tour dates at www.bettyelavette.com

You can find her EP on ITunes HERE!

Joe Henry Reveals Artwork for Blood From Stars - out August 18

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:06:00 -0700

The songs and sounds on Joe Henry's raw and emotionally vital new record Blood From Stars are matched by the moodiness of the album artwork, which makes use of W. Eugene Smith's iconic photo "Dance Of The Flaming Coke" as well as an electrifying and haunted previously unpublished cover image (Untitled, 1952).

Part of Smith's epic, unfinished Pittsburgh series, the photos - shot in the early to mid 1950's -
represent two of over 10,000 photos Smith took of the city as part of an ambitious, multi-tiered project that occupied the photo essayist for over three years of his life.

Speaking the same terse language, Blood From Stars, Henry's 11th album and third for Anti- Records, charts a darker journey for the prolific singer, songwriter and producer. Undoubtedly influenced by two recent records he produced – Allen Toussaint's The Bright Mississippi and Ramblin' Jack Elliott's A Stranger Here – Blood From Stars marries blues song form with jazz liberation; folk narrative with beat articulation. Henry has explored such genre confusion before, but never with more purpose. With simple characters that feel their way through fragmented narratives, the songs uphold Henry's reputation as a truly poetic lyricist, creating an album that is as immediate as it is evocative.

Blood From Stars is out August 18th.

Anti- Records Launches First Podcast

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:06:00 -0700

Label President Andy Kaulkin takes an In-Depth Look at Two New Releases - Busdriver and the Field

Anti- Records, home to such singularly talented artists as Tom Waits, Neko Case, Nick Cave and Bettye LaVette among others, has launched its first podcast via iTunes and Anti Label Blog.

Hosted by Anti- president, Andy Kaulkin, the inaugural podcast will feature an in-depth examination of two of Anti-'s latest releases, the machine-gunning social commentator Busdriver and Sweden's rising ambient electronic star the Field, and also features music from the Mills Brothers, Eddie Jefferson, Freestyle Fellowship, Flying Lotus, Leon Thomas, Steve Reich, Underground Resistance, and GAS.

A dashing young figure in the Los Angeles underground hip hop scene, Busdriver's latest Jhelli Beam is both smart and smart-ass, theatrical without being pompous, and, as always, funny as hell. BD's legendarily breath-defying flow teeters precariously on top of samples of classical music, jazz drumming and proggy guitar parts, without ever losing sight of the electronic music that helped define his sound, enthralled fans and stood out from the soggy beats that weighed down much of his contemporaries' work. Sound schizophrenic? It's not. The sum of Jhelli Beam's seemingly disparate parts creates a record that is mindfully engaging and booty shaking at the same time - a wholly unique take on what an underground hip hop album should be. "To think of Busdriver's music as hip-hop is to think of Frank Zappa's as rock, Raymond Scott's as jazz or George Clinton's as funk. The classification doesn't quite cover how much more the music says." – Jim Fusili, The Wall St. Journal

On his follow-up to 2007's internationally lauded From Here We Go Sublime, The Field (born Axel Willner) populates his unmistakably airy electronic reverie with a wider cast, adding live percussion and vocals to create the complex and textured Yesterday And Today. With his self-proclaimed love of music ranging from the influential ambience of Gas to the dazed onset of My Bloody Valentine, Willner's craft also places him within the continuum of modern minimalism that flows from the classic space-rock of Brian Eno and Tangerine Dream to 20th century classical in the vein of Phillip Glass or Steve Reich. "Like an electronic Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, Axel Willner's music as the Field uses rhythm, repetition and unexpected melodies to make a captivating sound that can be too much for some listeners. But to fans of top-flight techno craftsmanship, it's nothing less than spellbinding." - Scott Sterling, Los Angeles Times

For more information:
www.myspace.com/busdriver
www.myspace.com/thefieldsthlm
www.antilabelblog.com

Bob Mould and his Band Announce October Tour

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:06:00 -0700

Electrified Sets Promise Career Highlights Ranging from Husker Du to Sugar to Mould's Latest Life And Times

Bob Mould, who has stirred audiences for the past 30 years, first with his post-punk band Husker Du, followed by his power pop creation Sugar and finally as an unparalleled solo artist, will continue to expand his legacy as he leads the Bob Mould band on tour in North America in October.

Mould's latest release, Life And Times, touches upon aspects of his earlier decades of work, and adds an unrelenting honesty and growing perspective to reveal an artist still climbing his creative peaks and unafraid to plumb his own emotional depths. Critics and fans alike have responded:

"Passion, beauty, intelligence, grace: it's all here." – Filter

"This newest collection, on the theme of fragile relationships, is moody and minimalist, and it showcases Mould's introspective side. The most compelling songs evoke the speed, energy, and passionate commitment that justly made Mould an icon." – The New Yorker

"Life and Times does manage to reflect each facet of Mould's career, from his punk roots through his current electronic leanings. Most importantly, Life and Times offers hook after giant hook." – Pitchfork

"Dirty lyrics, messy punk growls, and the wide spectrum of sound and storytelling Bob Mould fans haven't heard in a while. Like his first solo album, Workbook, Life and Times is a stripped-down return to the basics Bob does best." – LA Weekly

The Bob Mould Band on tour:
10/5 Toronto, ONT @ Mod Club 
10/7 Boston, MA @ Paradise
 10/8 New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
 10/10 Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club 
10/12 Chicago, IL @ Metro 
10/13 Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave. 
10/15 Seattle, WA @ Neumos 
10/16 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir 
10/19 Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour 
10/20 San Diego, CA @ Belly Up