Goldroom has been the sole purveyor of endless summery remixes for over a year now, and with his original tracks coming in just as hot these days, he's starting to inspire some pretty big time remixes. On The Room's newest, "Only You Can Show Me," The Knocks turn down the tropical atmos and turn up the club potential on a remix that finds the perfect middle ground between sunset and sunrise.
And in return, Goldroom has blessed The Knocks' forthcoming heater "Modern Hearts" (featuring the one and only St. Lucia) with a blissed out remix of his own. Catch the trailer for "Modern Hearts" above to help pass the time until the full length original and Goldroom mix roll out in the weeks to come, and don't miss Goldroom making his live debut at Popshop this Thursday (advance tix still available HERE).
DOWNLOAD: "Only You Can Show Me (The Knocks Remix)" - Goldroom
With a string of upcoming singles leading into a debut full length later this year , St. Lucia is about to dominate your summer 2012. And just in time for spring break, this brilliant Viceroy remix of EP finale "Closer Than This" arrives to usher in the fairer months with all the sunswept synths and gold-dipped island drums you can handle. Best enjoyed poolside, it's a nu-disco pitcher of coconut water that tastes like heaven and feels right at home with Jean's wistful verses and exultant harmonies. Live the St. Lucian dream with us at our May Popshop, where they're headlining alongside HAIM and Goldroom, with advance tix still available for a limited time HERE.
Time to unveil the special guest for POPSHOP014, which will also be doubling as the official launch party of the Neon Gold Tour. We're thrilled to welcome Chiddy Bang to the Popshop stage for a very special underplay for the duo, celebrating the release of their debut album Breakfast earlier that week on February 28th. In order to bring you this supersized lineup we've had to bump the ticket price up to $15 adv and $20 day of show, so congrats to the large number of you who followed our advice and cashed in on the $10 early bird tickets over the last few weeks.
With less than two hundred tickets to remaining and this being our biggest Popshop bill yet, we'd recommend you RUN, not walk, to our Popshop ticket page to lock down your spot for March 1st. This should sell out in a heartbeat, so don't sleep NYC. Oh and shouts to Bomb Lager for the one hour of complimentary beer for 8pm-9pm, as if you needed another reason to come out for this. TICKETS // TICKETS // TICKETS // TICKETS // TICKETS // TICKETS // TICKETS
Tomorrow is a BIG day. Not only is it the second week of St. Lucia's residency of Pianos, but it also marks our "We Got It Wrong" 12" release day. Oh, and it's Valentine's Day or something too. So to celebrate all of the above, we're teaming up with Pianos to bring you two floors of incredible free entertainment, in a double decker Valentine's blowout for the ages. On the main floor, we have the inimitable St. Lucia back for round two after a massive kickoff performance last week, as well as Brooklyn synth wizards Tiny Victories and future superstar Devin Therriault making his Manhattan live debut. Popping off upstairs will be a DJ set from MNDR, plus leftfield pop connoisseurs Psychobuildings and (who else?) Make Out keeping your hearts in check on the live stage.
Valentine's Day, the most fragile of holidays, can so easily be ruined with one wrong decision, so get it right and make it out to Piano's for a glorious night of live music and merrymaking, absolutely FREE with doors at 9PM. If you have a date, bring him/her. If not, fuck it, make new friends. We are a singles label, after all.
At long last, we're thrilled to bring you our very first Neon Gold Tour, a powerhouse mini-tour launching in NYC at Popshop on March 1st and wrapping up at SXSW at the official Neon Gold Records showcase two weeks later. Headlining are our resident partystarters The Knocks, with support from our beloved dreamers Savoir Adore and our very first albums signing (!!!) St. Lucia. That's right, we're very proud to announce the amazing and talented St. Lucia as our first albums signing, but more on that next week.
For now, it's all about gearing up for our biggest live undertaking yet, as we bring together three of our favorite bands in the game and set them loose on the unsuspecting masses of the eastern seaboard. And if we missed your town on this run, worry not, this tour will be the first of many. Tickets for all shows (except Trinity College) are on sale now and can be found at our new Neon Gold ticketing hub HERE. We'll have a few special guests joining the tour in various cities, and if you're in NYC you're going to want to get your tickets NOW because we've got one hell of a special guest headliner lined up for the launch party, and tickets will sell out overnight once the cat's out of the bag. Consider this fair warning. Full dates and audio below:
March 1st -- NYC -- Santos Party House (POPSHOP014) March 2nd -- Boston -- Middle East Downstairs March 3rd -- Trinity College -- The Mill March 6th -- DC -- U Street Music Hall March 7th -- Philadelphia -- The Blockley March 8th -- Savannah -- Savannah Stopover March 11th -- Atlanta -- Masquerade
STREAM: "R.O.Y.L." - The Knocks DOWNLOAD: "We Got It Wrong" - St. Lucia
Another day, and yet another reason to salute St. Lucia as New York's new pop savior. With an outpouring of original material that's been nigh-on flawless to this point, it was only a matter of time before he took his talents to the remix trade, and in a turn of events that should come as a surprise to precisely no one, the result is exquisite. It's London's next huge things Morning Parade who are wise enough to join St. Lucia on his maiden voyage to the remix promiseland, and the NYC pop maestro doesn't disappoint here, taking the Parade's already epic stadium anthem of a new single and elevating it to even greater heights.
The original is a force to reckon with in its own right, and the remix steamrolls along like a younger, rougher-around-the-edges Thom Yorke, as St. Lucia effortlessly swaps the original's superpowered guitars for groaning synths and heartwrenching strings. You'd be forgiven for assuming the song's climax arrives with those uproariously massive choruses, but just wait for the breakdown. After a brief sonic respite, the electronics kick into high gear and escalate until they culminate in a legendary arpeggio that sounds like the product of Yes Giantess tripping spaceballs and George Lucas drinking from the fountain of youth. It's a special one, sounding at once vulnerable and simultaneously too big to fail, and we're proud to bring you the exclusive download ahead of The Saint's performance at Popshop Thursday night. Expect sonic miracles, and don't miss out on the last few $10 early bird tickets (less than ten remaining!) HERE.
We know we're all still in serious recovery mode from CMJ, but it's time to break out those raging shoes once again, because POPSHOP011 is coming in hot next week with another big lineup for y'all. Hot on the heels of the release of their critically acclaimed debut album and a sold out tour supporting Metronomy, Class Actress are our flourishing headliners this month, with Wild West up and comers The Chain Gang of 1974 - fresh off a string of dates supporting our Neon Gold fam The Naked & Famous - keeping things real in the direct support slot. Then we've got our beloved St. Lucia, coming in STRONG after establishing themselves as one of the most buzzed about bands at CMJ last week, and Philadelphia's finest CSLSX getting things started early. SERIOUSLY excited about this lineup.
As usual, to tend to all your raging needs we've got an Absolut Vodka open bar getting things started from 8pm-9pm, and you can cop your advance tickets HERE. We've got an extremely limited number of early bird tickets available for $10, before the price jumps to $13 in advance and $15 day of show, so act fast. This is going to be a GREAT one.
We've been telling y'all St. Lucia was the one to watch since foreverago, but last week the rest of the world caught up as the band played their debut NYC shows at CMJ, culminating in a powerhouse set at our New Shapes party on Friday. It was also the masses' first chance to experience some of the as-yet-unreleased highlights from the band's immaculate forthcoming debut EP. Lead track "We Got It Wrong" has been racking up a dangerous playcount as one of our favorite tracks of the year, and though we gave you a little taste with a streaming premier on Lenno's CMJ megamix before CMJ, we're here with the real deal mp3 for you now.
Hit play and within seconds, the world starts to swirl around you, your senses begin to blur and you find yourself in another space and time completely. More awestruck than disoriented, you're off on what feels like a runaway train, galloping along at dangerous speeds on the wings of euphoric synths and shouty group vocals. There's a surprise around every turn (that synth breakdown in the middle? AMAZING.) and before you know it the ride is over, as "We Got It Wrong" switches gears entirely and fades back into the mists of pop from whence it came with a wistful brass arrangement. It's completely and utterly brilliant and our favorite track from the St. Lucia camp yet. If this is what it sounds like when they get it wrong, then god dammit, WE DON'T WANT TO BE RIGHT.
Now that Alex Winston is wrapping up her debut album and well on her way to super stardom (see below), one might wonder what The Knocks have in store for us next over at their HeavyRoc Music studios. Well wonder no more, as it's time to introduce you to the latest addition to the HeavyRoc family, St. Lucia. Arriving just in time for the endlessly bleak winter of NYC to give way to the long light of summer, St. Lucia is the sound of childhood holidays and faded photographs of faraway places.
Inspired by his homeland of South Africa, his journey through the UK and eventual relocation to Brooklyn, St. Lucia's debut offering "This Old House Is Gone" plays like a lucid dream that you never want to wake up from, drifting by on an ethereal chord progression that recalls The Shins' "Sleeping Lessons" as viewed through the kaleidoscopic lens of Animal Collective's "Did You See The Words". A winning mix of heavily layered percussive elements, technicolor synth flourishes and tropical electro vibes, it's a little bit of Australia in our own backyard, coming off like The Temper Trap as produced by Cut Copy with shades of Empire of the Sun thrown in for good measure. So basically, dreams DO come true. Expect big things.
