NEON GOLD PRESENTS: NEW SHAPES // CMJ 2012

Another year, another CMJ, and that means another star-studded double-decker New Shapes blowout at Santos Party House. If you were on the front lines with us last year, you experienced the US live debut of Gotye and oh so much more. And this year - as always - we're looking to go even bigger, as we team up with our UK brothers-in-arms, National Anthem and Chess Club, to bring you the show to end all shows Thursday night at Santos.

Upstairs, we have Brooklyn heartthrobs Lovelife, synth-noirists Citizens!, electro-superstars Strange Talk, UK stadium-indie rockers Morning Parade, and west coast supergroup extraordinaire JJAMZ. This all before headlining beauties Icona Pop shut it down in the coveted headline slot, an honor claimed by Gotye, Grouplove and Theophilus London in years past. Downstairs, we've got newborn ruffians Busy Living, Brit-crooner Gabriel Bruce, jungle-pop Aussies Jinja Safari, and west coast sunkids Pacific Air and Blondfire, before Sky Ferreira and Capital Cities closing the night out in style.

All this for the impossibly low price of $5 advance, $10 day of show, plus free entry for a limited number of CMJ badges (so arrive early!). Mark your calendars for 6pm sharp on October 18th and get your advance tickets HERE, this is one for the history books.

UPSTAIRS
07:30pm: Lovelife // DOWNLOAD: "Me After You"

08:30pm: Citizens! // DOWNLOAD: "True Romance"

09:30pm: Strange Talk // STREAM: "Cast Away"

10:30pm: Morning Parade // STREAM: "Headlights"

11:30pm: JJAMZ // STREAM: "Heartbeat"

12:30am: Icona Pop // STREAM: "I Love It"

DOWNSTAIRS

07:00pm: Busy Living // STREAM: "It's A War Out There"

08:00pm: Gabriel Bruce // STREAM: "Perfect Weather"

09:00pm: Jinja Safari // STREAM: "Peter Pan"

10:00pm: Pacific Air // STREAM: "Float"

11:00pm: Blondfire // STREAM: "Where the Kids Are"

12:00am: Sky Ferreira // STREAM: "Everything Is Embarrassing"

01:00am: Capital Cities // STREAM: "Safe and Sound"

YOU CAN MAKE IT BETTER.

It's a rainy day on the coast, so what better time to cast a spotlight on the dark, ominous tones of London's own Stylus Dust. Working under his previous moniker Lull, the remix maestro was responsible for some truly amazing reworks of everyone from Bloc Party to I Was A Cub Scout, including a truly masterful take on the Gotye anthem "Heart's A Mess" that remains one of our all time most cherished remixes to this day. Suffice it to say we were thrilled when he agreed to have a go at The Knocks' "Make It Better", and the result is one of his best efforts yet. Completely subverting the carefree ebullience of the original, Stylus Dust takes us from the sun-drenched beaches of Cancun to the dreary solitude of the London nightbus circuit with athletic ease. It's all haunting echoes and plunging basslines for the song's majority, until the heavens suddenly open up and a resplendent keys progression twinkles across the mix at 3:17 in one of the most uplifting moments you'll hear in music this year. Seriously though, it's kind of emotional.

MP3: "Make It Better" (Stylus Dust Remix) - The Knocks

ALONE IN THE DARK.

This band is like a pot of synth gold at the end of the pop rainbow. Gypsy & The Cat are Xavier Bacash and Lionel Towers, two chill bros from Melborne, Oz creating some of the best new soft-pop sounds around. Within the first few seconds of “Jona Vark” I pretty much had a flashforward to singing this chorus at a bus stop in five years time, because This. Song. Sticks. It’s just swimming in a hazy soup of reverbed Fleetwood Mac vocals, acoustic guitars and smooth blasts of synth, and you know how we love a bit of synth. We’re a sucker for the whole blissed-out pop aesthetic Australia seems to have mastered with the likes of Empire of the Sun, Gotye, PNAU and Tim & Jean so when these guys hit our peripherals we were eager to hear more, but as they're still yet to put out an official release, we’ll just have to keep this on single repeat in the meantime.

MP3: "Jona Vark" - Gypsy & The Cat

GOLD 008: LITTLE RED

With our Gotye 7" now in the shops and awaiting your purchase, it's time to look ahead to our next release. We're staying in Australia for this one, this time to bring the debut international single from Melbourne's Little Red into the world for all to cherish. Without a doubt the hottest new band in Oz, Little Red self-released their debut LP Listen To Little Red to rapturous critical acclaim down under and now have their sights set on the rest of the world. With this release we're teaming up with our friends at the UK's brilliant Lucky Number Music label to bring you Little Red's breezy doo wop anthems "Coca Cola" and "It's Alright" on another fresh double A-side release, a last gasp of summery guitar pop before autumn sets in and it's time to get back to real life.

Coming off like the best unsolicited advert for Coke ever, "Coca Cola" is an ode to fizzy summertime refreshment, bouncing along on a chorus of "my one and only advice / is cold Coca Cola and ice". "It's Alright" shines on the AA-side and has proven to be every bit the hit as its flipside counterpart, already garnering early radio support from the likes of XFM and BBC 6Music, where it's currently their handpicked single of the week. This record is pretty much the most fun you can have this side of Chuck E. Cheese, so drop down and get your preorder on before it's too late. As usual, the Neon Gold Shop and Puregroove are your friends.

MP3: "Coca Cola" - Little Red [exclusive]

COME ON DO IT AGAIN.

Our latest single on Neon Gold comes courtesy of Australia's favourite son Gotye and hits shops this week, and to celebrate the occasion we're here to drop the hotly anticipated Passion Pit remix of the stellar A-side, "Learnalilgivinanlovin". Keeping the throwback guitar and drums of the original intact, Passion Pit take the blueprint laid down by Gotye and dress it up in all manner of synth riffs and washes in keeping with their signature electronic aesthetic. If you haven't already gotten your preorder on from the Neon Gold Shop or Puregroove, you better get a-steppin' as a record this special doesn't tend to sit around on the shelves for long. And fear not Australia, we've got your back and are working to get this bad boy in your record shops as soon as possible.

MP3: "Learnalilgivinanlovin" (Passion Pit Remix) - Gotye [exclusive]

GOLD 007: GOTYE

As previously professed, Gotye is one of our favorite artists of all time and one of the reasons we're even messing about in this whole music biz thing in the first place. Thus, we're deeply honored to be releasing a very special, very limited edition 7" run of his smash hit "Learnalilgivinanlovin" that will step out as his first ever physical release in the US. The track's already been released in other territories but still has nowhere near the exposure it deserves, so sweetening the deal for our international customers is a brilliant remix from Passion Pit, whose debut 7" single "Sleepyhead"/"Better Things" was the first record ever to brandish the Neon Gold logo on its sleeve. And like our first ever release, this record also features gorgeous artwork from the brilliant FRAUGRAU, Germany's best kept secret when it comes to stunningly unique design work.

"Learnalilgivinanlovin" exudes a vibrant versatility and comes together like a classic Motown hit produced with Phil Spector's widescreen sunshine visors on, an ebullient blend of racing drums, triumphant horns, and the sweetest soul falsetto you've never heard. A huge summer anthem in his adopted home of Australia, it grooves along on a timeless instrumental with a breezy melody that's the perfect soundtrack to the classic urban summer we've been dreaming of, where kids while away hot afternoons chasing the ice cream truck down the street and dancing around in the cool relief of fire hydrant showers. It's not too late to give up hope on that elusive summer dream, and you can preorder the single from the Neon Gold Shop or Puregroove before it's August 17th release. Limited to only 300 copies worldwide, act now before it's too late.

MP3: "Learnalilgivinanlovin" - Gotye

DESPERATE TO CONNECT.

Our favorite artist Gotye finally gets the stateside exposure he so rightly deserves tonight when "Hearts A Mess" will wrench the heartstrings of teenage America on Gossip Girl. The song is one of our all time favorites (as is the video, above) and we're thrilled to be putting out his first-ever US release later this summer. Here's what we said about "Hearts A Mess" this time last year:

“Hearts A Mess” is a pastiche of borrowed sounds and samples culled from record store bargain bins and passed-down vinyl heirlooms, yet the result is a remarkably unified sonic vision: swirling strings, atmospheric percussion and a heartwrenching chorus for the ages all converging to result in the most majestic single you’ll hear all year. A cinematic pop masterpiece just begging to be plugged into any number of primetime network dramas (you feeling me, Alexandra Patsavas?), the track soars and swells into an orchestral gem the likes of which haven’t been heard in pop music since Sebastien Tellier made eyes water across Europe with the stirring beauty of “La Ritournelle”. Similarly, “Hearts A Mess” sounds like nothing else out there right now, a timeless pop classic unrestrained by genre or critical expectations, and it’s the kind of special, once-in-a-lifetime single that rarely comes along in this increasingly homogenized indie scene.

Looks like Ms. Patsavas was feeling us after all.

MP3: "Hearts A Mess" - Gotye

// Brendan Cook //

HERE COMES WHAT YOU NEVER REMEMBER.

Holiday hiatus over. 2008 was a good year for us. We got up our grassroots operation up and running, put out one of the best bands we've ever heard and laid the foundation for a big year in 2009. The first half of '09 will see us releasing records from Marina & The Diamonds, Gotye and Theophilus London, and we'll continue to work with Giantess in a managerial capacity until they've signed a billion dollar record deal and we all become rich and famous. Enough about us though, other people are going to be fucking some serious shit up in 2009 as well. Our next few features will be highlighting some of the fresh new talent that'll be coming up through the ranks next year to make some serious noise on the charts.

While Passion Pit and Marina are pretty much no brainers for big league triumphs next year, there's no safer bet for supernova success than Clare Maguire. Recent years have seen like-minded, big-voiced starlets like Winehouse, Adele, Duffy et. al ascending the charts with fluid ease, establishing their kind as the prototype for guaranteed chart success. Thus, Maguire, who's bros with Marina Diamond and produced by Primary 1, seems like the safest bet for surefire mainstream dominance in '09. A lengthy A&R struggle saw Maguire on the receiving end of one of the biggest deals we've heard about in an age, and "Strangest Thing", her brilliant white label debut, is already getting play on Radio 1 and has the future looking blindingly bright for this one.

MP3: "Strangest Thing" (Demo) - Clare Maguire

And since you were wondering, below are our favorite songs of '08.

1. "Sleepyhead" - Passion Pit
There's been no shortage of praise thrown at our debut release and we don't think it's a dick move giving the top two slots of this list to Neon Gold artists, rather it just shows how blessed we feel we are to be working with such incredible talents. "Sleepyhead" sounds like nothing else before it, a completely original musical thought that's straight up one of the best songs we've ever heard. Hands down our song of the year and we hope it's yours too.

2. "Obsessions" - Marina & The Diamonds
The demo of this was our most listened to song of the year until Passion Pit strolled onto our radar, and Liam Howe's production on the recently unveiled single version just makes it even more special. Available worldwide on Valentine's Day '09, this was one of the defining tracks of the year for us and we're honored to be able to release it to the masses in February.

3. "Daylight" - Matt & Kim
Matt & Kim followed up their impressive '07 debut with two shit-hot singles in 2008. The more recent of the two, "Daylight", goes down as one of the year's most infectious tracks and hints at huge things to come on the duo's upcoming sophomore album. Twinkling keys hook you from the start, before a monumental drumbeat drops in and the song takes flight on a catchy-as-fuck vocal structure and oscillating synths. Special.

4. "Hearts A Mess" - Gotye
One of our favorite records of all time since it's initial release in 2006, Gotye's cinematic masterwork finally saw release beyond Australian borders courtesy of Lucky Number Music last spring. We're thrilled to announce our upcoming collaboration with the Australian maestro, which will come to fruition when we issue Gotye's first-ever US release this spring. Yeah, we're pretty excited.

5. "Get Over It" - Guillemots
Guillemots' "Trains To Brazil" was the best thing to happen to music in 2006 and they came damn close to topping it with "Get Over It". In the weeks leading up to its unveiling buzz around the industry was that Guillemots' had written the perfect pop song, and fuck if this isn't one of the most inspiring, euphoric tracks we've ever had the pleasure of listening to.

Concise, yet effective - these were the songs that really mattered in 2008. Let's see if '09 can do any better, shall we?

// I Need Chemical //