The solo project by Ricardo Monteiro with an interesting choice for names, Screaming Culture, hails from London and is working on the EP, Death is a Promise. He is very into tattooed zombie chicks as you can tell from the album cover and with song titles from his 2009 record like, Learn to Survive, Insanity, and Do Not Be Afriad I think the obsession might be hardcore. The music however is not. It’s a bit of a simple experimentation with music, simple drumbeats, piano, pretty melody and noise tracks. I’m not sure the zombie image fits with the music, but it is a good listen. You can purchase the new album on iTunes and many other internet locations including amazon. You can listen to the songs here.
We are very excited to announce that work on issue number five of Sergeant Sparrow Magazine has begun. We are now accepting submissions for art, and literature.
Anyone can submit work to Sergeant Sparrow Magazine!
Submit!
Send this to your friends and get your work in print!
Sergeant Sparrow Records is an independent record label that publishes contributed work by unknown and DIY musicians, artists, and writers. We also publish a contributor based music, art and literature magazine entitled Sergeant Sparrow Magazine and run the blog www.sgtsparrow.com where we promote new work submitted to us weekly. We strive to give artists a place to express themselves and not gloss over who they really are. The intent of Sergeant Sparrow is to support and aid unknown and DIY artists, writers, and musicians to further their careers and give them a place to show their work and in that build a community of creators. We accept contributions from people all over the world and are not limited to our locations as we are currently located in different places across America. If your work is interesting, unique, thought provoking, unknown, or just plain awesome we would love to showcase it!
Sergeant Sparrow Magazine:
In our magazine we feature musicians from all over the country who we think have an interesting sound. The magazine contains information, interviews, and a compilation CD from the featured musicians. These artists, though not signed to Sergeant Sparrow Records have agreed to release their music to you, through the magazine. It is not, however, limited to music. Throughout the magazine you will find art and literature from our contributors.
Each magazine features at least four musical acts and comes with a compilation CD of their music. Our base of readership for the magazine is nation wide including cities such as Boston MA, Baltimore MD, San Diego CA, Portland OR, and Seattle WA.
Thank you for taking the time to learn about Sergeant Sparrow. We look forward to continuing our promotion of music art and literary works.
Sincerely,
The Staff
Send submissions to Angel @
angel@sergeantsparrowrecords.com
Letters to the Editor:
angel@sergeantsparrowrecords.com
Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium.
Email Submissions and guidelines
Music
• a link or mp3 of one of your songs
• bio or story (limit 300 words)
Art
All types of art are welcomed: photos, sculpture, art jewelry, paintings, prints,
drawings, illustrations, comics, lithography, photograms, collage, and
performance art (video submissions for web, email with inquiries).
• emailed submissions must be over 1 mb in jpg or tiff format
• artist statement (limit 300 words)
Literarature
Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, rants, experiments, interviews and articles
(any kind) should be sent in pdf, .doc or docx format. rtf is okay too. Do
not paste them into the message field.
• poetry limited to approximately 200 words
• all other forms of writing limited to approximately 2000 words
Liverpool based singer-songwriter Simon Maddison who goes by the name, ‘Silent Cities’ has a familiar voice, like you’ve heard it before in a freeway tunnel echoing along with the hum of wheels and curved brick. He lulls you to calm by whispering his lyrics to you and then turns in to a warbling bird calling for it’s lost mate. He uses many finger styles to pluck his ever present guitar and you are left alone with him almost lost in time while he takes you someplace better, or makes you think that’s what he’s doing. His Dream EP has six unique songs that are totally his own.
-Em Brownlowe
Through the generous help of their friends and fans, Kim and Alice of Eagle and Talon celebrated the victory of raising over $5,000 via Kickstarter to release their new EP, In Manila, on their very own record label BI/AKKA RECORDS. The album is available to the public on a limited pressing of 700 CDs and the music may as well be the soundtrack to a crazy celebration of the fact that yes, art fans do come together to support the creators.
On Eagle and Talon’s previous release, Thracian, the self proclaimed “leotardrock” duo began to experiment with garnishing their angular indie-pop with primitive electro devices. This trend continued in the writing of In Manila, maturing into glossy, tropical jams that still stay true to Eagle and Talon’s talent for pop songwriting. The production is crystal clear on this record, showcasing both Kim and Alice’s golden vocal talents. It is light and airy and oh so catchy. Title track “In Manila” bounces in with great energy encompassed by a wave of vintage keyboards and disco beats. The album’s moodiest song “Modified My Knife” is in perfect contrast to the dance numbers and is a nostalgic look into Eagle and Talon’s musical past.
Kim and Alice have never been the type of band to stand still in one niche sound and are continuing to move forward. We had the chance to chat about their partnership and what is next for the band.
Interview: Your sound has surely evolved over the years from being more of a rock band to more pop. How would you describe your music’s growth?
KIM: If I had to pick one word to describe our music’s growth, I would use the word organic. The
changes our sound has endured recently are all a result of the band’s dynamic changing. We also
arranged and wrote much more collaboratively on this release than in the past. On “Cares” and “Thracian,” most of the time I would bring a completed song to Alice and she would add her parts and we would arrange/produce the tracks together. This time the approach was us meeting closer to the middle, that’s probably why it sounds different. The music was created within a different balance.
What changes have you seen in your inspiration over the years?
KIM: If I had to generalize I would say my inspiration in writing went from personal issues to more general issues (culture/cities/human constructs). Then on “In Manila” I was mostly inspired by being broken down, frustrated and laying wrongful blame. Fun times!
What prompted you to experiment with different instrumentation?
KIM: Necessity. The songs were empty with just keyboards and drums; they needed more. This became especially obvious to us when we tried to play those songs live. It simply didn’t work without all of the other parts.
What was the songwriting process for In Manilla? Recording? How does it compare to previous works?
KIM: Like I mentioned, most of the songs came together while we were in the same room, so that
was a change for us. We mostly tracked with our friend/favorite engineer, Pete Min. He is very patient with our extensive in-studio experimentation, which is a huge gift. Some engineers we’ve worked with haven’t liked that side of us so much. Also, on this record we changed up the production a bit by adding horns, violin, combining live drums with imitation drum sounds and man vocals by Reggie Watts to help color things in.
How did the record label concept come along?
KIM: I had wanted to start a label for a while and we wanted to remain independent, so it just seemed like the right time. We were not looking for outside labels to release “In Manila” so it just made sense. Also, we were in a bit of a rocky place in our partnership, so I thought it would be a good way to seal what we had together.
What’s the story behind the name BI/AKKA?
KIM: Again, kind of a result of what was happening within the band but in title, a way to bind us. BI = the two of us, and “A” & “K” are the first initials of our names, pretty simple. The name suddenly came to me and eventually Alice agreed to it!
Do you plan to sign other artists?
KIM: Yes, there are a few bands we would love to sign. We have been very busy with the “In Manila” release. Once that settles down and we can afford to we would definitely like to sign some bands that we’re fans of that need help getting their music out. The only other records we’re releasing at this time are by one of our favorite LA bands, Anchors for Architects.
What inspired the AMBIENT KARAOKE PARTYTIME project?
ALICE: It’s fun to sneak outside E&T’s amniotic sac once in a while and let the songs interact with outside elements. Also, I kind of hate how lipsyncing is the standard when you make a music video. It works but I’ve always wanted to make one where you’re hearing some live sounds or seeing the singer actually singing in real space, real time. “I Want Everything” was the perfect specimen because it’s our one and only instrumental song. So, we just invited a bunch of our most unsavory friends to sing, play, and bathe over the original.
How did you find the artists? What were some of the covers that surprised you the most?
ALICE: We had tryouts. Actually no, they’re all just friends who are amazing musicians in their
own right. It was pretty great to see what everybody came up with, though nothing was really surprising. I mean, our friends are weirdos, we know we can’t control them. I will say I was surprised by what a great sport my mom is (she plays wine glass in the Mentor & Protege video). I should also mention that Fort King actually recorded a really pretty studio version of the song which you can hear here:
What’s next for Eagle and Talon?
KIM: We would both love to tour again soon if any great opportunities come up, so we are
waiting to see what happens on that front. In the meantime, Alice and I are taking a little vacation
from the band and are working on other projects). Alice is in New York doing a recording project with the incredibly talented Kono Michi and I am currently playing with LA based band “Traps PS.” Alice and I have spent piles of time making music exclusively with each other, so we think this pause will be a creatively productive one for the band.
The offset is a new band submitted to us recently. They are from Washington D.C. and members include Mike Richards (vocals), Burd Boonyoo (guitar), Jonny Franks (bass), and Ken Yang (drums). It reminds me of lounge music performed by folk rock artists but would be more appropriately called alternative rock and directed towards fans of Incubus and The Foo Fighters minus the distortion. Their new EP includes three songs the last being the most enthusiastic. Their music is very straightforward and will most likely please the general populace.
Interview:
Where are you located/from?
Washington D.C.
How does D.C. influenced your style?
D.C. has brought us up listening to a variety of things around the area and definitely inspired us with some of the artwork and musicians we’ve met. It has also really brought a great group of musicians that are dedicated to getting something worthwhile done and I think that makes us a little bit perfectionist when it comes to the songwriting process, so it makes releases a bit lengthy sometimes.
What inspires your songwriting and lyrics?
Life in general, getting through breakups and self realization in a general sense. The music we make we just want it to be simple but complicated in certain ways. Not too much of either but not too boring or hard to listen to. If it’s fun we jam on it, boring, eh fuck it.
Where did you record your EP? Who produced it?
The EP was recorded and produced at Cue Recording Studios by Blaine Misner.
What’s Next?
We’re doing things a little backwards, and getting new material ready to start gigging heavily for the summer, and hit the studio again hopefully sometime in the next year for a full album. We’ll also be releasing our new EP on iTunes and through our sites in the late March timeframe.
Brian Dettmer has taken recycling to a totally new level by transforming the giant books of old into works of art. He uses surgical knives and tweezers to cut the sculptures out page by page. In what I am sure is an exhausting exercise he slowly unfolds a work of art from what many would call an obsolete object due to the rapid changes in the way we store our information. (Unless of course zombies attack and then we will be back to hoarding books and will probably be pissed at Brian for cutting up medical texts. . .) In his artist’s statement he says “The age of information in physical form is waning. As intangible routes thrive with quicker fluidity, material and history are being lost, slipping and eroding into the ether. . . The book’s intended function has decreased and the form remains linear in a non-linear world.” His solution to this quagmire is destroying it’s intended purpose and then rediscovering what is hiding beneath those would have been moth eaten pages, much like Michelangelo would uncover the form hiding beneath stone.
This is how he describes his process: “In this work I begin with an existing book and seal its edges, creating an enclosed vessel full of unearthed potential. I cut into the surface of the book and dissect through it from the front. I work with knives, tweezers and surgical tools to carve one page at a time, exposing each layer while cutting around ideas and images of interest. Nothing inside the books is relocated or implanted, only removed. Images and ideas are revealed to expose alternate histories and memories. My work is a collaboration with the existing material and its past creators and the completed pieces expose new relationships of the book’s internal elements exactly where they have been since their original conception.”
Here is a video from Elk City’s Renée LoBue discussing the title and artwork for their latest album, House of Tongues, out on Friendly Fire Records.
The Tallest Buildings has a four song EP entitled “Post Traumatic Address” dedicated to the destruction of a family much in the same way the Microphones capture life and death. PTA embodies abstract melodies over floating guitar and violin tracks. Their drum beats recall The Dodo’s in their stick clicks and sparse locations throughout the tracks. Band members include Cameron Mahoney (lead vocals, guitar, piano) Austin Peters (vocals, drums, guitar, keyboards) Alexis Mahler (vocals, drums, violin, glockenspiel). Vocalist Cameron Mahoney is the perfect indie front man with his melodious crooning. After what seems a very long intro the band morphs into a rock band but only a glimpse of one, then they change their mind and try something else. Their odd song direction and intricate parts evoke Animal Collective and Van Dyke Parks “Song Cycle”.
New video from Phil the Tremolo King’s kickstarter funded train tour. Phil was a featured artist in issue number 4 of Sergeant Sparrow magazine and one of featured our artists of the week. You can get more information about his tour here.
This is a track from his kickstarted compilation CD. A cover of Magnetic Fields.
The Root Cause has a new album out entitled, “Let the Music Do the Talking”. It reminds me a bit of Boston guttural rock bands with a bit of country thrown in which makes sense because they’re from Chicago. There’s a lot of strumming and softly dramatic vocals. Their description says if your a fan of 90′s folk story tellers you’ll like this band which is probably true. They are an interesting new band and I think if they got a little more hard and a little less studio sound they could be great. I think their drummer needs a metal pot to bang on to make it sound a little more real.
On this recording, Jake Bouquet lead guitar, Scot Stewart rhythm guitar/various, Dorian Duffy bass, Matt Kooi keys, Sammy Del Real drums
Colin Tyler has a back woodsy sound about him. Like he just spent the better part of the winter living off of bear meat and building ramshackle shelters out of their hides. I’m pretty sure he owns a gun. I’m also pretty sure if I don’t review him in a positive light I might get it. His music is bawdy and graceful at the same time. It’s sad and introspective one minute and then really pissed off the next, like being sad in the first place is what made him so angry and screw you for listening in the first place! Then he hollers and the song is over. You kind of want to curl up in a ball. Then he lulls you back into a sense of security again with another song but your not quite sure what he has up his sleeve. Is this coldplay? Where did the mountain man go? In his EP “The April Sessions” (listen below) you can hear a myriad of styles but his presence remains the same; intimate, forceful and penetrating, kind of like muscly romance novel cover boys. Just don’t shoot me for that comparison, Fabiozly Adams.
