Desario is back with fourth LP

[Repost from Scene Point Blank; by Loren Green, July 9, 2022]

Desario, a shoegaze band from Sacramento, Ca, will release their fourth album next week, Signal and Noise, courtesy of Fort Lowell Records.

The album officially comes out on Jul 15, 2022 and features dark-tinged indie rock with post-punk influence.

Check out a single here:

New album: KITIMOTO || Vintage Smell

[Repost from Add to Wantlist; by Dennis, July 1, 2022]

I’ve been enjoying myself all week with Vintage Smell, the full-length debut album by Phoenix-based indie rock quartet KITIMOTO, but I still can’t quite grasp it. As if you’ve seen a movie that won’t let go, you’re convinced it’s very good and something special, but you’re aware that you did’t understand all the metaphors and references.

Jonathan Marion Douglas (guitars, vocals, keys), Zane Gillum (bass), Cavan Noone (drums, percussion) and Jason Woodbury (guitars, vocals) have known each other for over 15 years, and reportedly the 10 tracks here came slowly but surely into being, took long shaping and refining. It was worth the time and effort. All the songs – there are no weak moments – are bewitching and addictive, color outside the lines of genres and expectations, with intense guitar duels, poetic lyrics and convincing vocals. This is an ultimate example of a record that has to grow, that continues to fascinate, one with a past but for sure also with a future.

Vintage Smell out now digitally and on vinyl LP through Fort Lowell Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

Tracy Shedd + Lauds live concert photographs from Ocean Grill & Tiki Bar, Carolina Beach NC

Tracy Shedd

Lauds

We Heard Wonders - music review podcast from Scotland

[Repost from We Heard Wonders; by Iain McKinstry & Andrew Hall, June 29, 2022]

Episode Forty Two - New Music! Julia Jacklin! Minami Deutsch! Gorillaz feat. Thundercat! JPW! Alison Cotton! & the VINYL WORD!

On this week’s We Heard Wonders, GORILLAZ join forces with THE THUNDERCATS in the greatest cartoon crossover team-up OF ALL TIME!!! Er, sorry, our mistake - it’s actually Gorillaz featuring elastic-bass-supremo Thundercat...still pretty cool though, right! Elsewhere, singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin returns with something strident; Iain Googles Japanese kosmische-rockers Minami Deutsch with baffling results; Aquarium Drunkard contributor Jason P. Woodbury turns creator of wonderful widescreen music on his project JPW; and experimental folk artist Alison Cotton produces something appealingly eerie. Plus, obligatory Glastonbury chat and the Vinyl Word. 

"The track takes its time and encourages you to lean back & take your time with it, relax into its vibe."

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW

Phoenix Indie Rock Quartet KITIMOTO Makes Stunning Debut with 'Vintage Smell'

[Repost from Blood Makes Noise; by Dana English, June 24, 2022]

For their debut studio album, Phoenix-based foursome KITIMOTO has made an undeniably grand entrance by blending classic indie rock with inflections of surf, punk and psychedelia on Vintage Smell. 

Within its 10 tracks, Vintage Smell makes short work of revealing a group wise beyond its years. The album boldly covers a lot of ground, showcasing the members’ songwriting chops and highlighting their musical range as veterans of the industry. 

Despite KITIMOTO being a relatively new formation, its members met via the Phoenix DIY art-punk scene more than 15 years ago and have each independently had their hands in on top-tier indie projects for decades. 

With bandleader Jon Douglas (A Technicolor Yawn) at the helm, supported by guitarist Jason P. Woodbury (Aquarium Drunkard), bassist Zane Gillum and drummer Cavan Noone – the quartet took to Oracle Recording at the famed Rancho Linda Vista in late 2020 to lay down the tracks inspired by the archives of frontman Douglas’s songbook. 

Vintage Smell spans a wide range genre-wise, citing inspiration from indie darlings like Parquet Courts, Built to Spill and Pavement, alongside some of the most celebrated names in American rock, like The Velvet Underground.

The album makes a strong entrance, kicking off with the punchy “Bats!” – a rebellious 90s-era punk track that is as fun as it is bold, before cooling it off with the easy, rollicking summer ballad “Mexico.” 

We’re treated to Pavement-esqe fuzzed-out guitars on “Seventy,” while tracks like “Sephamore” easily steer us into psychedelic pop territory by way of the mellotron. 

On “How Do You Keep,” KITIMOTO questions righteousness and morality, repeatedly challenging listeners to self-reflect, while veering into surf rock with its sun-bleached riffs. 

Vintage Sound also provides a nearly picture-perfect indie rock track with the apathy-soaked summer anthem “Time Saved.” In the era of doomscrolling and dissociation, the lyrics are beautifully on-the-nose, calling out a society on the brink of collapse: 

It takes a lot to give a little 

Everyone is dead 

No one is around 

Everyone can see through one another 

I say, that's time saved 

A more fitting title couldn’t exist for an album that so effortlessly melds modern indie music with stylistic callbacks to the eras by which it was inspired. Vintage Smell invokes a particular brand of musical déjà vu – the kind of nostalgic sound that makes you feel as though you might have heard something like it before, despite being an entirely unique experience. 

One can’t help but wonder if the studio location’s rich history affected the album’s outcome, helping to provide the worn-in sound that unifies the tracks into a cohesive work. Like terroir, but for music. Either way, Vintage Smell is the kind of record that makes bands a household name and considering this is their debut, there isn’t a doubt KITIMOTO will be just that. 

Overall rating: 8.5/10 

"Bats!" from the forthcoming album Vintage Smell

Available June 24th

Order the album here from Fort Lowell Records

Color Temperature at Reggie's, June 16, 2022, Wilmington NC; photographs by Tanner Lackey

Fort Lowell Records is excited to announce that Color Temperature will be the 'Indie Rock' artist featured on our next edition of This Water is Life, Vol. II.  They have a very special project lined up for the release that we can't wait to tell you about.  For now, check out Color Temperature's latest album me talk pretty, self-released June 17, 2022.  Enjoy!

WL//WH Track Of The Day: DESARIO “Things We Left Behind”

[Repost from White Light // White Heat; by Febrizio Luzzo, June 25, 2022]

Formed in early 2004, Californian 4-piece based in Sacramento, Desario return with their fourth album, “Things We Left Behind”, after a five-year hiatus from“III” in 2017 on Test Pattern Records, joining the roster of Wilmington, NC‘s independent label Fort Lowell Records, to ‘churn out another tight set of Indie Rock tunes that mines darker-tinged Shoegaze rooted in British Post-punk and New Wave’.

After the heady, fizzy and crystalline jangly meanderings of the first preview “Strange Shapes”, it’s time for the somberly meditative and immersive shoegazing title track, “Things We Left Behind”, to be unveiled.

The song, lyric-wise, sheds regret and sorrow from the unfulfilled aims shared by a heartbroken couple.

Ticking cymbal lilts trigger radiant skyward resonances, reverberating over a vaporous warm carpet of dilated blissed-out dizzy haze of droning fuzz-laden guitar layers, weighed down by subtly latent tension and distress, to swell, punctuated by smooth yet steady rhythmic pulsations, in a sparkling wistful release, echoing airy, nostalgic vocals weaving achingly pensive melancholy through an excruciating tapestry of disenchanted dreams.

Desario‘s fourth full-length album, “Things We Left Behind”, is due to be released, on 12inch Vinyl + Digital formats, on July 15, 2022, via DIY label Fort Lowell Records. The CD version is available on pre-order from Sunday Records.

Keep up with Desario:

• Facebook
• Bandcamp
• Twitter
• Soundcloud
• Instagram
• YouTube

The Friday Five

[Repost from Aarik Danielsen; June 24, 2022]

KITIMOTO, “Vintage Smell” / An abundance of guitars—some ragged, some refined—plus crater-deep grooves and subtly artful flourishes. There’s just so much to like from this Arizona band’s (featuring my friend, the musical raconteur Jason Woodbury) new album. This is everything you want from rock and roll, that in-the-bones feeling, with so many other sweet touches.

OUT NOW: KITIMOTO 'Vintage Smell' [Debut LP]

For fans of Built to Spill, Fontaines D.C., Love as Laughter, Parquet Courts, Pavement, The Pixies, Sebadoh, Spoon, Superchunk, Tapes 'N Tapes, Velvet Underground

CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY!

KITIMOTO: Vintage Smell

[Repost from Here Comes the Flood; by Hans Werksman, June 16, 2022]

Rambling garage rockers KITIMOTO hail from Phoenix, AZ. They are on a quest to cram the best of lo-fi, feedback driven music that was released since the late '60s into the songs of their debut album Vintage Smell. Fronted by band leader Jon Douglas the band rummages through the discography of the Velvet Underground, Television, Big Star, the Pixies, the Wedding Present, early R.E.M., and the Replacements. The result? A 21st century desert rock that paints a picture of sun-beaten small towns, wherein the inhabitants are trying to cope. It helps if the listener has a more than superficial knowledge of cult bands, but the uninitiated can enjoy it as-is: a collection of texture driven yet melodic songs.

Vintage Smell caters to a niche audience, but lucky for them that is where the people hang out who are still willing to fork over the cash to listen to music. This a band that can write a song about flying mammal (Bats!) without naming in the lyrics and pay tribute to old school tech (Semaphore). Sounds Like Something sums it up nicely: "Yes, it sounds just like something. Don't mean nothing at all". If that is actually true is up for debate and food for thought for hair-splitting English language professors.

KITIMOTO:

Jon Douglas: guitar, vocals

Zane Gillum: bass

Cavan Noone: drums

Jason P. Woodbury: guitar

Vintage Smell is released via Fort Lowell Records (vinyl - 100 copies, digital). Release date: June 24th.

Tracks:

1. Bats!
2. Mexico
3. Sounds Like Something
4. Get out Alive
5. Seventy
6. Waltz on Air
7. Semaphore
8. How Do You Keep
9. Time Saved
10. Lapid

» KITIMOTO on Facebook

Kitimoto unleashes their Vintage Smell

[Repost from Scene Point Blank; by Loren Green, June 18, 2022]

Fort Lowell Records will soon release the debut album from Kitimoto, Vintage Smell. The band formed in Phoenix, AZ and played fuzzed-out, '90s influenced slacker rock. 

The album will release next Friday, June 24, though a single is available for preview now, "Time Saved" (below).

Lauds at Reggie's, June 16, 2022, Wilmington NC; photographs by Tanner Lackey

"There is nothing but hits on this upcoming record!"

[Repost from Blood Makes Noise; June 16, 2022]

BAND:  KITIMOTO

BloodMakesNoise Rating: 10/10

Genre: Jangle Indie Rock, Garage Rock

What the band says they sound like: Built to Spill, Parquet Courts. and The Velvet Underground

What we think they sound like:  You know when someone says "This is right up your alley", well this is right up my alley. It's bits of Pavement, Built To Spill but with a great 60's feel to some of it. The vocal delivery really helps this stand up over a lot of other stuff in this genre. It's part Stephen Malkmus, part Lou Reed and that's a great thing. At times this record reminds me a little of Vampire Weekend too. There is nothing but hits on this upcoming record!

Songs to add to your playlist: Bats!, Mexico, Time Saved, Seventy, Semaphore

OUT NOW: Desario "Things We Left Behind" [Digital Single]

The first single -- "Things We Left Behind" -- from Sacramento, California dreamy jangle pop rockers' -- Desario's -- fourth studio album -- Signal and Noise [out July 15th]-- is available now on all music platforms.  For fans of Arctic Monkeys, Catherine Wheel, Citified, Doves, Echo & The Bunnymen, Interpol, Jesus & Mary Chain, Lauds, Lush, New Order, The Ocean Blue, Ride, Tracy Shedd, The Smiths, Summer Set.

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER FULL ALBUM    

The latest from KITIMOTO sounds like all of your favorite classic indie rock artists!

[Repost from If It's Too Loud...; by Ken Sears, June 14, 2022]

When a press release compares an artists to legendary indie rock icons like Pavement, Built to Spill, Spoon, Sebadoh, etc., I'm going to be very skeptical. I've pretty much already decided I don't like any artist with such lofty comparisons. But then I hear a band like Kitimoto and all of those comparisons are dead on. The Phoenix band's latest single, "Time Saved," sounds like vintage 90's indie rock. You're going to swear you've heard this before. It could have been on some much beloved compilation or soundtrack, or maybe you heard it on your college radio station but never figured out who it was. "Time Saved" sounds so much like my college years that it's making me nostalgic despite being over twenty years too late for that.

You can listen to "Time Saved" below. Vintage Smell is due out June 24 on Fort Lowell Records. The album can be pre-ordered through Bandcamp. For more on Kitimoto, check out the band on Facebook and Instagram.

only the good shit

[Repost from Aquarium Drunkard; Instagram Account, June 13, 2022]

Archie Bell and Drells once quipped, "we don't only sing, but we dance just as good as we walk.” A similar sentiment could be said of AD editor, and Transmissions host, Jason P. Woodbury per his forthcoming debut LP, "Something Happening/Always Happening", out this fall via Fort Lowell Records.

It’s a collection of songs you might hear on the radio after a cosmic camping trip, familiar but far off. Songs for stepping out of the spaceship to crack a cold one on a blurry summer day, taking a moment to enjoy the smell of freshly cut grass.

Pre-order available now ...

HeyDay Guitars presents:

Mark Burgess of The Chameleons UK + Lauds (Wilmington NC) at Monstercade in Winston-Salem NC on Tuesday, July 12th live in concert. Both artists will deliver an acoustic performance. This is an event not to miss! 🖤

CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS NOW

JPW, Live Concert Photographs by Nadya Sanchez of Pajarita Creative from the Linger Longer Lounge, Phoenix AZ; May 28, 2022

La Cerca West Coast Tour Dates

• Saturday, June 4 at Hotel Congress in Tucson, Arizona
• Sunday, June 5 at Permanent Records Roadhouse in Los Angeles, California
• Thursday, June 9 at Lucky Dime in Everett, Washington
• Friday, June 10 at Kenton Club in Portland, Oregon
• Saturday, June 11 at Cryptatropa in Olympia, Washington

Song Premiere: "Strange Shapes" by Desario

[Repost from The Big Takeover Magazine; May 17, 2022]

Sacramento, California’s Desario premieres “Strange Shapes” with The Big Takeover, including a remix by Peter Holmström of The Dandy Warhols.

Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of “Strange Shapes”, the new single from Sacramento-based Desario, who return with their fourth album Signal and Noise on July 15, their first LP since III on Test Pattern Records in 2017. Signal and Noise finds the four-piece jumping to Fort Lowell Records, an independent label out of Wilmington, NC, and churning out another tight set of indie rock tunes that mines a darker-tinged shoegaze rooted in British post-punk and new wave.

Signal and Noise starts off like a lighthouse sending out a solitary beam of light, piercing the night sky and stretching deep toward a dark horizon. That ray in “Lonely Lights” seems to move slowly at the most distant point in its rotation, guitars whirring to life, and appears to pick up speed as it rounds the bend and approaches with the rhythm section kicking in. But the record hits its stride on lead single “Strange Shapes.” The marriage of a dream poppy, jangled guitar with a melodic bass line and that tick-a-tick 16-beat centered on the cymbals is great on its own. And then the fuzzy guitars join the fray on the chorus.

But Desario have other tricks up their sleeves on this one as well. They slow things down on “Things We Left Behind,” a brooding song that echoes something like MBV’s “Sometimes” but with an airy, ethereal vocal line placed more up front in the mix. “Wired Wrong” pushes things in a poppier if not peppier direction. It’s a simple enough pop song where the bass part grabs you before giving way to the repeated mantra-like “everything went wrong when you went away” chorus.

Look, if you eagerly line up under the banner that reads shoegaze for your music, then you hope they are playing Signal and Noise when you get there. The five year wait for new Desario is over and it is an album that should tide listeners over. There are enough layers to like about this one.

Desario · Strange Shapes

Desario · Strange Shapes (Pete International Airport Remix)