We’re really excited to announce that we’ve signed to Warp Records!
From Flying Lotus to Grizzly Bear to Gang Gang Dance to Broadcast, Warp have released some of our favorite records in the last few years and we feel ridiculously lucky to be keeping this kind of company.
Since our last shows in May, we’ve been living in the bunker, writing, writing, writing. We can’t wait to share all the things we’ve been up to but of course we’re going to have to be patient while we see everything through.
We’ll have more updates soon.

It’s a beautiful June evening in Brooklyn and word just broke about Michael Jackson’s passing. I saw the report and had to run across the street to top-up my phone and text Eleanore the news. The Spanish radio station at the bodega was telling the story, three cars went by with MJ songs playing.
“What!? How?!” Eleanore wrote back.
“Heart attack.”
We’ve been locked away writing songs for the past month. It’s a strange process, sometimes really difficult and challenging going deep into words and sounds and it’s funny the games you invent to try and unlock the ‘secrets’. MJ had the key, and there’s been more than a few times recently that we’ve both sat around listening to his records trying to dissect what It was.

I’ve always thought that just humming the bass line to ‘I want you back’ will put a smile on your face. That bouncing line descending around that high vocal is one of my very favorite moments in music. Like Stevie Wonder, doors were first unlocked for MJ at Motown. There, at the feet of some of the most talented songwriters and musicians the pop world has ever seen, the young boy learned. His childhood might have been lost in a sequined whirlwind of James Brown moves sliding across the stage from one side of America to the other but, along the way, MJ was absorbing. By the time he went solo, he was ready to unlock the kingdom.

Both ‘Off The Wall’ and ‘Thriller’ are still so mind blowing it’s almost supernatural. “It’s magic,” Eleanore said one night as the first woo broke open the tight clap and boom of ‘Don’t Stop.’ And it is, something of alchemy and conjuring a whole universe in sound. Both records are the product of two absolute geniuses. MJ and Quincy Jones were touching something that truly comes around once in a lifetime. The production is so staggeringly complete. Every space and frequency filled with instruments and parts that combine to perfectly frame the rhythm and melodies. Quincy knew exactly how to bring it all together but the brilliance, the inspiration, and magic was all there in Michael evidenced by the svelte production on his home taped demo version for ‘Don’t Stop’.

MJ’s later life was of course plagued by controversy as his eccentric behavior began to overwhelm his gifts. Now, in his passing, let’s hope that madness can recede and instead we can remember how incredible his music really was.

The valentine’s show we played at Glasslands was so much fun, with our great friends Kyp Malone & Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson aided by Marques Toliver both turning in gorgeous sets to get arrows unquivered and hearts shivering. But it was closer Wild Yaks who bust those hearts in uncontrollable, sweaty shouts of joy and so this seems like as good a time as any to mention, Wild Yaks might just be the last great pure punk rock band in America… or maybe it’s just cupid’s tomahawk got me feeling giggly for ‘em. 

Rob Byrn doesn’t stop. He’s stoked, a dude so committed to the cause of keeping the party going that he literally shakes with enthusiasm; he also might be the first guy since the boss to believe, really believe, Rock And Roll could save A life. It’s not showmanship and it’s not an act, it’s just a full and total commitment to the words and sounds coming from his body. It doesn’t hurt that he’s also blessed with an unaffected Wolf Man Jack voice and a true sense of plain spoken poetry.

Rob’s Wild Yaks, (Zack Davis: guitar, Martin Cartagena: drums, Dan Scinta: bass) take over rooms with storming full voiced shouts of joy & damnation spewing guitar solos and pugnacious beats. Cables come loose, clothing comes loose, guitar-straps slip from shoulders, sweat pours and love, poetry, laughter and pure, un-tainted punkrockgaragegopselsoul music comes crashing down all around.

They should have been on SST or Rough Trade back in the day, but they will be at SXSW and house parties and I hope to god soon on a record.

“If you love me as much as I love you and we agree that our general goal is the same, for the best possible thing to happen at any moment, then my faith in you and your methods is beyond question.”-Rob Byrn
Amen, brother.