Kid Congo
and the Pink Monkey Birds
Philosophy & Underwear

 

Grand Mal
Love Is The Best Con In Town

 

Kid Congo Powers
Solo Cholo

 

MC Trachiotomy
featuring Quintron
Rowdy Life

 

Dimestore Ensemble
S/T

NYNT - 004:
Viva l'American Death Ray Music


In the Meantime... CD/LP
price: $12
release: September 15, 2006

pre-release web-only CDs and pre-orders of vinyl available!

$ buy now! $

 

They sound like Television and have the drummer from the Polyphonic Spree. Rather obviously, they are ace.

- NME, 2006 (“What's on the NME Stereo?”)

Viva l’American Death Ray Music’s long-awaited fourth album, In The Meantime… is as stylistically restless as the members’ rootless lifestyles. Touring extensively in Europe the last few years, singer/guitarist Nick Ray, drummer Jeff Buock, and bassist Harlan T. Bobo currently reside in New York, Austin, and Memphis respectively. Cutting their teeth in acts as diverse as Polyphonic Spree, Reigning Sound, 68 Combeback, American Death Ray, in the first years of the 21st Century, formulated an artful fusion of glam and soul unparalleled on their recordings for Sympathy Record Industry. Perhaps the best description of that sound comes from Rolling Stone editor David Fricke:

The vocal acid of Lou Reed; Jerry Harrison's churning garage organ in the early Modern Lovers; Andy Mackay's sequined, squealing sax in Roxy Music; the crusty fidelity of old Sun 45's. With fun like that, who needs radios?

In The Meantime… is V.L.A.D.R.M.’s first full-length domestic release since 2003’s A New Commotion A Delicate Tension (And The Exquisite Corpse Of Mr. Jimmy). The evolution since their Sympathy period has found the band gradually de-emphasizing the glam and R&B influences and exploring their latent dub, no wave, post-mod, and post-punk tendencies in greater depth. While the fragments that reference these subgenres are readily identifiable, adding the familiar feel of the subcultural classics you’ve never been able to abandon, as always, Viva l’American Death Ray Music, with the other hand groping in the future, struggles to avoid retro-trappings – retaining a sound and general aesthetic that’s beyond category, distinctly their own, and super-soulful.

By far their most abstract, raw, and skeletal effort to date, In the Meantime… plays with space, repetition, and groove, while retaining a rough punkish edge, danceablity, and a catchy pop-conscious songwriting sensibility. Though you’ll never be able to put your finger on it, try to imagine an obscure intersection of canonical works like Here Come the Warm Jets. Jane from Occupied Europe, Adventure, Unknown Pleasures, and Grotesque (After the Gramme). You can’t? Well maybe should try... This is your subliminal subterranean favorite album of the year… And a creeping addiction...

Most of the tracks were some of the last recordings made at Memphis' legendary Easley McCain Studios before it's tragic fire.

Of the vinyl, 800 limited-edition vinyl will have standard covers, 100 will feature one-of-a-kind hand-screened art by Will Lemon and 100 will feature one-of-a-kind hand-screened art by Andrew Porter. Due to popular demand, we've made it possible to reserve copies ahead of time. You can pre-order here.

 

Click below for hi-res...

Track Listing:

1. Pleasure Principle #19
2. Needle to the Heart of the Matter
3. Certain
4. Oh What Day
5. Thieves Oh Glorious Thieves
6. Same Suit Different Tie
7. Dub S.S.
8. Thieves Glorious Thieves (fucking twee version)

 

Listen to "Needle to the Heart of the Matter" MP3
Go to NYNT's Viva l'American Death Ray artist page
Download In the Meantime... one-sheet

Read a French review
Read a German review
Read another German review
Read a Spanish review
Read another Spanish review
News | Releases | Artists | MP3s | Store | Live Dates | Booking | Press Kits | Links | Contact