Holiday Shores - Phones Don't Feud

Favorite lyrics: And my words, they fly through the closet door,
and they slip in bed, right next to you

This song is perfect for a somber adventure; like skating down a dark street, under tourist lights, with a bottle of soda pop in your hands. The singer slips between slow vocal waterfalls and quiet melodic shouts; it makes messy noise, but is comforting in a beachy, empty-ocean way. And there's something in the way the music moves back and forth that goes with the regret-based lyrics, like a mix of past and future.

Glitter Pox rating: 63% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

The Dirty Dishes - Stolen Apples

Favorite lyrics: you stole my apples, big mistake

The aggressive music in this song is like poison in a cup of nectar - dangerous and malicious, but damn good. The vocals play out like a violin, as if you were to take a bow to a voice box; haunting and drawn out. The imagery the lyrics create can put an entire story in your mind - one of a nightmare orchard filled with black apples - and the sound that accompanies that image is grungy and gritty and ungentle in a very good way.

Glitter Pox rating: 55% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

Stolen Apples by Dirty Dishes

Purity Ring - Belispeak

Favorite lyrics:

there's air beneath my bed

and it whispers

and it whispers when I rest

The electronic sound mixed with the unearthly vocals in Belispeak resembles a kind of Metric sound. The music itself is fast paced and has an otherworldly, fantastical feel to it, while the vocals are slower and have a more grounded quality solely in sound. The lyrics themselves are like a stream-of-conscious poem written next to a storybook picture. It gives off the same airs as a fairytale, too, excepting that the ending is as abrupt as the beginning, leaving you unsatisfied in a weirdly enjoyable way.

Glitter Pox rating: 68% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

Mother Mother - Miles

Favorite lyrics: My lover, my maker, my breaker, take me by the hand. We could go walking for miles, once we reach the sand.

The girls who harmonize with the lead singer in Mother, Mother have such contradicting, interesting voices, they could rock the front of a hardcore girl band on their own - but added to the different sound of the lead vocals, it's an entirely out-there experience. Their voices, separately, don't sound like they would mix together, but they do. Really, really well. And the music is just as unique as the voices, with a subtle but quirky attitude. There's something entirely different about this band's sound, but it's not in a blatant way - it's just inherently original.

Glitter Pox rating: 90% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

Say Hi - Devils

Favorite lyrics: but the devil's caught on like the teeth of a shark and I want to make it back from the dark dark dark

There are only so many songs that make you feel invincibly badass. 'Devils' is one of them. It has that villainous non-caring demeanor in the vocals, and in the music there's an exceptional amount of bass notes that make your bones vibrate. It's one of those songs that you roll down your window to, just to make yourself seem way more hardcore than you really are. With a sound a little bit like The Black Keys, they have a solid song in 'Devils' all the way until the dream-sequence-esque ending.

Glitter Pox rating: 87% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

Gardens & Villa Q&A + signed CD giveaway

Thorncastles by gardensandvilla

Gardens & Villa is a band whose psychedelic sounds and brain-whirring lyrics create something ethereal. Hearing them live is a smoky, heated mix of synth and and wood flute that combines into something entirely surreal. We've seen them a few times, ever since their tour with Foster the People, and each time they took over the entire venue with enough energy to charge a nuclear plant, much less the stages they played on. So we wanted to get to know the inspiration behind their music, and Levi, the drummer, answered some of our questions. Check them out and enter to win a signed cd by all of the members of Gardens & Villa that we picked up at their last Cleveland show.

Musicians: 
Levi Hayden: Drums
Adam Rasmussen: Piano, Synth, Vocals
Shane McKillop: Bass, Vocals
Chris Lynch: Guitar, Lead Vocals
Dusty Ineman: Percussion, Synth, Vocals

Have any of you guys been in bands before, and how did you all decide to collaborate together?
We've all played in many band[s] before this current project, many of us have been playing before we even got to high school. In Santa Barbara though, Chris, Adam and myself met early on in college and began playing music shortly there after. We play[ed] in a psyche/post rock band with a couple other friends before it fizzled out and we started Gardens as a folky three piece. We had met Shane and Dusty many times before, because SB's music scene is so small. Shane moved into the house where we were living, we recorded the album shortly after that and then Dusty joined.

Can you pick one of your songs and tell us the inspiration behind it? 
Thorncastles was a song that was purely inspired by our time spent recording with Richard Swift. We thought it would be fun to write a new one while we were up there and so Adam and Shane began to work out a riff and Swift was into it right away. I added drums and Chris wrote lyrics in less than a day. The lyrical inspiration came from camping in Swift's backyard, being surrounded by blackberry bushes and particularly a young kid by the name of Riley. He was around the house just about everyday during the recording and is also the star of the video Black Hills.

You use synth mixed with nontraditional instruments, like wood flute, which makes your melodies really involved. How long does it usually take you to piece everything together and finish a song, from idea to completed track?
It can take a long time to really feel like a song is a completed track. Especially when we're on the road, writing can be difficult. But every song is different. I'd say that no song is really finished until it is recorded. Like with most songs on the album, it was always exciting to see what finishing touch Swift would add.

What's your favorite song to perform live, and what's your favorite lyric to sing?
I think we all enjoy most of the songs in our set. Orange Blossom has been a favorite at times. Chris really enjoys singing, or rather screaming, "realize I am the sculptor" on Space Time. For me, ending with Starfire is always fun if we nail it properly.

Thorn Castle is a song that brings on a lot of nostalgia. What kind of songs do you hear now that remind you of your childhood?
Salt n Peppa, Cindy Lauper and TLC. Maybe the Above the Rim single by Nate Dogg and Warren G.

Can you share a fun tour story with us?
This summer had its fairs share of memorable moments, from Montreal to Atlanta and most places in between. What stands out in my mind is when our van broke down. We were 240 miles outside of Portland with a show that night. A random guy, really the only person around sold us his van on the spot. We hitched up the trailer, made it to the show only to find that we left the trailer keys with the tow company. The next day we had to saw open the trailer, but then locked the keys in the new van. It was like 48 hrs in the twilight zone. Stressful at the time, but became just plain laughable.

If a (Glitter) Pox epidemic were to break out, apocalypse-style, what would the title of your last song be?
Kiss the Icon, Slay the Valkyrie

To enter to win a signed G&V CD, just check the form below. (It might take a minute to load.)

Veronica Falls - Bad Feeling

Fav lyrics: Tryin to remember
If you were even real

The old-fashioned film noir feeling to this song is easy to adore. The background singing gives it some vintage appeal, like a faded Polaroid picture set out in the sun too long. The bass undertones push it even further into that funky, old-edged sound - kind of a mix between the Beach Boys and new wave. Basically, it's a fast-paced session of both the antique and the modern, and both the vocals and instruments reflect that.

Glitter Pox rating: 70% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

The Darlingtons - It Hangs

Favorite lyrics: and maybe I will tell myself/maybe I will try a little harder/maybe I will try

The synth-laden beginning, quiet middle, and chorus ending of this song makes 'It Hangs' a track to really listen to. It speeds up and slows down in just the right moments, making time almost imperceptible in that it's not overt that the song is moving forward. You never get distracted by anything else while the music is playing, because the distractions are inside the music, in its changing melodies and pace. The strung-out guitar is perfect for the vocals, and it all has a Bravery feel to it - that symphony of angst and that contradictory placid vibe that they give off so well. Their music is just generally fresh and fun to listen to.

Glitter Pox rating: 65% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

Analog Rebellion - Holy Atmosphere

Link.

Favorite lyrics: lets see where your conscious lied

This song sounds somewhat like Carney, in its slow lingered out rock. It's a little like being slapped by a velveteen glove, in that it hits you with words as sharp as a barber's blade, but with music that's easier to fall into than a langoliered-floor. It's somehow equally disarming and enchanting, a duo of bitterness and melody. When words and music work this well together, it's hard not to continuously hit the play button. The lyrics in Holy Atmosphere are blatantly intense, and dangerously, the vocals could seduce anyone into believing them.

Glitter Pox rating: 81% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

Memoryhouse - Lately

Link.

Favorite lyrics: Shut me off / Shut me up

'Lately' is a very dreamy song, sounding like it's sung in that state between asleep and awake, where you're neither but also both. The lyrics are very distraught, similar to the insomnia of wanting to fall asleep but not being able to, but in contrast, the melody is calming and cloudy. It feels like a walk through fog with nothing but a lantern as a guide and nowhere to go. It's slightly alarming in words, like being in a nightmare and wanting to escape, except it's in reverse, where the desperation comes from wanting out of reality. It's a Grimm's lullaby, in that it's as soothing as a cotton blanket but as obtrusive as the monster in the closet.

Glitter Pox rating: 75% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox