Cardiknox are a new NYC two piece primed to turn heads in the flourishing New York dance scene. Debut offering "Hold Me Down" is a death-defying breath of crisp air, all girl gang shouts and grimy roller disco synths that run circles around your head. It almost sounds like a gritty Lower East Side Icona Pop bristling with the dangerous energy of a Tarantino Bride, recalling the ice cold femme fatale pop of mid-2000’s standouts like Ladytron and New Young Pony Club in the process. Get familiar below.
As the year comes to a close, we can't think of a better way to thank you for your ongoing support than by queueing up one of our biggest bills of the year for the final Popshop of 2012. In the live headline slot, we have London-based, Zealand-bred kid superstar, Willy Moon, whose debut anthem "Yeah Yeah" is currently going supernova on the back of that new iPod advert. Supporting him we've got NYC's Black Light Dinner Party bringing their dark electro charm to the mix and Cantora's favorite sons, Slam Donahue, kickstarting the night early. And if that wasn't enough, it's all going down as the official afterparty for Marina & The Diamonds' Terminal 5 show with Icona Pop earlier that night, with the lovely ladies of Icona gracing us with a headline DJ set after Monsieur Moon. And did we mention admission will be F-R-E-E after midnight? Looks like Christmas came early, guys. $10 advance tickets are available HERE, so mark your calendars now and we'll see you December 6th at Santos to send out 2012 with a bang.
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"
We only have love for the Icona Pop girls, two Eves in the Garden of Sweden. So it's with great pleasure that we team up with our friends at Popgun to bring you their next NYC show this Wednesday at Santos Party House. Getting things started on the ones and twos early are future-gaze dance-punk kids, Heartsrevolution, and fists of fury DJ duo, PUNCHES, Popshop alumni of yesteryear. It’s all going down at 8:30pm sharp, with advance tix available HERE. So join us Wednesday night for this momentous occasion because when Icona Pop is in town, NOTHING ELSE MANNERS.
It's been a longgg minute since we last had Icona Pop in NYC, going all the way back to when we put on their US debut alongside Oh Land and Friends (unreal bill in retrospect huh) at Popshop back in the Tammany Hall days. But we're pleased to announce the wait is over, as we team up with Popgun to present their first ever New York headline this Friday at Glasslands. Plus they've got support from our main man Xaphoon Jones and The Pop Manifesto's Ille, so yeah, BIG night. Move fast though as there's less than 50 tickets remaining, expect this to sell out in the next 36 hours and don't say we didn't warn you. Cop HERE.
Two years ago we put on the first ever London headline show of an up-and-coming young lady by the name of Ellie Goulding at Cargo in Shoreditch. The rest, as they say, is history. Now we're back again, this time with an equally promising pop siren by the name of Niki & The Dove, who's quickly becoming one of the most hotly tipped new acts in Europe. The occasion will also mark the first ever Popshop UK show, as we bring you a Popshop Preview of sorts before we launch the London edition of our monthly club night full time in 2012. Going international y'allll.
It's a serious honor to be putting on Niki & The Dove's first London headline show, as the Swedish duo have quickly established themselves as one of our favorite new acts of the year, with new single "The Drummer" shining as one of the best singles we've heard this side of 2010. And with the duo expanding their live show to an eight-piece band and developing a custom light show for the night, you better believe this is going to be completely amazing. Furthermore, we'll have live support from our beloved Sound of Arrows and at least one other special live guest (shhhh... it's a secret), plus DJ sets from everyone's favorite queens of the night, Icona Pop and Kitty Radio House Mafia. And just who are Kitty Radio House Mafia, you ask? You'll just have to come out and find out for yourself now won't you.
This Scandinavian takeover is all going down Wednesday 16th November at Cargo, and the best part? We're bringing all this to you free of charge. That's right, FREE ENTRY. We know it's crazy, but we just love y'all that much and want to make the dawn of the Popshop era in the UK one for the ages. The show will be first come, first serve, and you better believe this is going to be a packed house so come early if you want to be a part of the magic. Don't say we didn't warn you.
We just can’t hide our unabashed and undying love for the regal pop bliss of Icona Pop. We’ve been peddling their debut offering “Manners” - a single so perfect it's already inspired a bounty of incredibleremixes and scored the starring role in the new Chiddy Bang single "Mind Your Manners" - since we released it last March, so when the duo finally sent through the neon daydream of a music video they’ve put together for the track, we were drooling out of dropped jaws. Cue quick cuts, kaleidoscopic acid trips, and mouths overglowing with emotion. We were already truly, madly, deeply in love with everything about the Icona girls and their creative output, but now they’ve gone and taken everything to another level with the kind of video Neon Gold dreams are made of.
Cue then, Step Brother (a production team so mysterious they lack so much as a URL to attach to their name), who hit the scene with impeccable timing on this new gloriously lush new remix of the track. Keeping it in the Neon Gold family, Step Brother use “Manners” as the perfect synth-fueled vehicle to lure you in like quicksand, when time is visibly relevant, and captures the precise moment when icy stares melt away in the heat of the night. We didn’t think it was possible, but this re-imagining in itself is even more a siren song likely to make men weak at the knees, so honestly don’t feel bad when you’re won over within seconds.
So Monday night was a fucking blast, but if you missed out on the fun worry not, as we'll be going harder, better, faster, stronger Friday night in Brighton at our official Great Escape showcase with Walk The Moon, Post War Years and Wolf Gang at The Loft in central Brighton. Together with our bros-in-arms Chess Club, we'll be bringing you three of the best bands the festival has to offer late night from 11pm to 3am, plus DJ sets from our beloved ANR running things on the decks the first half of the night and the brilliant and beautiful Icona Pop girls killing it into the early hours. Set times and streams ahoy, see y'all in Brighton.
Icona Pop's "Manners" has seen some remixing in its day but none quite like this. Moody British new wave types The Kill Van Kulls give it a go and reinvent it in an entirely new light, stripping away the layers of textured electronics that defined original and replacing them with organic keys and moments of reverb drenched, borderline Jeff Buckley-esque guitar riffs. The result is a beyond beautiful, a sophisticated and ambient remix that sounds like a long lost Cocteau Twins or even Portishead B-side - to put it simply, this one's a headphones track, y'all. The KVK crew turn the electro power ballad into a more introspective affair and reveal the amazing versatility of the track - this song is just a gift that keeps on giving. Seriously, we could not love this remix more.
The Kill Van Kulls are currently prepping their new single "Lost & Found" for release later this month (catch the video above) and will take to the stage at our next Neon Gold UK event Monday supporting Walk The Moon and Polarsets, so get out early as these guys are definitely ones to watch.
Did we mention Popshop was coming up this Thursday? Well it is, and to ring it in we've got another Popshop Radio minimix from The Knocks featuring some seriously hot exclusives in the form of unreleased new remixes from Lightwaves and The Knocks themselves, both of whom take it to another level with shit-hot reworks of Strange Talk and Foster The People respectively. We've also got another amazing Popshop clip from our friends at Jackpot In The West, who've truly outdone themselves this time with their latest video recap of Popshop featuring Icona Pop and Oh Land. Check the video above, cop the minimix below and get ready for the glory on Thursday. Going to be a LARGE evening, friends.
1. "Pumped Up Kicks" (The Knocks Remix) - Foster The People 2. "Sister Wife" (Starslinger Remix) - Alex Winston 3. "Big Problem" - ANR 4. "Anna Sun" - Walk The Moon 5. "The Jackson Pit" - Xaphoon Jones 6. "Sparrow" - Savoir Adore 7. "Eskimo Boy" (Lightwaves Remix) - Strange Talk
Captain Cuts exploded onto the scene earlier this year with their 1000% gamechanging remix of Grouplove's "Colours", and now we're thrilled to have them back with their sophomore effort on our latest Neon Gold release with Icona Pop (available here at the Neon Gold Shop). We've already made our feelings known about "Manners" (basically that it's pop music perfected), but now here's the Captain Cuts remix coming over the hill, ready to pound your town to hell with a fire in its eyes and an insatiable appetite for destruction. It starts off innocently enough, pristine synth tones drawing the listener in before the Captains rain down a metric ton of synths and percussion on an out-of-nowhere haymaker of a chorus that hits harder than Mike Tyson on PCP. Even caps lock can't do the unrelenting MASSIVENESS of the track justice, just turn the speakers up to 11 and hope you make it through. Hide your children. Hide your spouse. Shit just got REAL.
This went up with our official SXSW showcase announcement earlier this week, but it's so brilliant it really deserves it's own feature. Elof is one of the hottest up-and-coming producers in Sweden at the moment, having already worked wonders with Erik Hassle, Niki & The Dove and Icona Pop (have you heard his production on "Top Rated"? It's INSANE.) and his remix work doesn't disappoint either. Penguin Prison's "The Worse It Gets" was already a masterstroke of dark, brooding pop at it's most paranoid, but the Elof remix is even more destabilizing, dramatic piano chords and ominous bass laid bare over a sonic tapestry literally falling apart at the seams as we listen.
While Elof continues to tear it up across the pond in Sweden, Penguin will be down at SXSW next week, where he'll be playing our official showcase with his full band set up on Wednesday night, before going unplugged to headline the Acoustic Stage at our unofficial New Shapes day party at 4:40pm on Saturday. Enjoy the black magic of Elof's Penguin remix below, and keep checking back throughout the weekend as we continue to leak the lineup of our Saturday New Shapes party (which will be FREE to all with RSVP) before the full announcement on Monday.
Last month we introduced you to our favorite new band, the lovely and talented ladies of Icona Pop. Next week they bring their amazing sounds to our stage at Popshop (tickets going fast here), and shortly thereafter we'll be bringing their dangerously amazing AA-side debut single "Manners"/"Top Rated" into the world on Neon Gold. It's easily one of the most special singles we've ever worked with, a truly spectacular double drop of Swedish pop majesty.
On the lead side is the triumphant "Manners", an anthemic call to arms for jilted lovers everywhere that has been owning our hearts and minds since the day it first graced our ears. It's absolutely immense... cascading drums and oscillating synths give the track it's backbone while the singalong "ba ba baaa" chorus will stick with you for months. Not to be outdone, "Top Rated" picks up where "Manners" left off with another round of synth-drenched ex-lover vitriol that might actually end up the bigger single of the two. For now though enjoy a free download of the new and improved single version of "Manners", available below.
This amazing package comes featuring artwork from Slobodan Zivic and is out March 21st, available for preorder now from the Neon Gold Shop and our friends at Puregroove in the UK.
Another Popshop is upon us this Thursday, which means another round of Popshop Radio courtesy of The Knocks. This time we're back with even more oven fresh exclusives, including the world premier of Icona Pop's massive "Top Rated" and a brand new Starsmith single, a summery slice of French disco called "Lesson One" co-produced by Alan Braxe and the first Starsmith track featuring lead vox from the man himself. It's all available for download from the Soundcloud player below, so get your download on and make sure to get your tickets HERE so you don't get left out on the cold on what's sure to be a night to remember.
1. "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" - The Knocks 2. "Top Rated" - Icona Pop 3. "Need You Now" - Cut Copy 4. "Lesson One" - Starsmith 5. "Sun of a Gun" - Oh Land 6. "Cold Dust Girl" (Gemini Club Remix) - Hey Champ! 7. "I Follow Rivers" (The Magician Remix) - Lykke Li 8. "Friend Crush" - Friends 9. "Under Cover of Darkness" - The Strokes
Popshop 003. It's on. After selling out January and February we're back with a very special March lineup featuring some of the best up-and-coming talent from both sides of the Atlantic. But first a look back at February's Popshop, in which The Knocks and Penguin Prison had Tammany Hall going off unlike anything we've ever seen from a Manhattan crowd in a small LES venue, courtesy of our friends Jackpot In The West who were on the front lines once again documenting the mayhem first hand.
Moving on then to bold new frontiers with the March edition, we've got what just might be our most exciting lineup yet. Opening up the night is Brooklyn's hottest new band Friends - currently wrapping up a national tour with Darwin Deez supporting their brilliant debut single "Friend Crush" (stream below) - followed by our beloved Icona Pop's first ever show outside of their native Sweden and capped off by a headlining set from Denmark's inimitable Oh Land. And rounding out the lineup is a truly special DJ guest in the amazing Starsmith, the icing on the cake on what's already a very special lineup. As usual, it's popping off the first Thursday of the month - March 3rd - at Tammany Hall, with doors at 8pm and lasting until the early hours. $10 advance tickets available HERE, with $13 tickets available on the door if any remain. The first two Popshops sold out in advance though, so we'd recommend you to book now to ensure you don't get shut out. Set times and downloads/streams below:
10:00pm: Icona Pop // STREAM: "Manners" (Extended) 11:00pm: Oh Land // DOWNLOAD: "Sun of a Gun" 12:00am: Starsmith (DJ) // DOWNLOAD: "Give Me A Break" (Starsmith Remix)
Icona Pop just might be our favorite new band. Like the perfect combination of Passion Pit and Robyn, the Swedish duo of Caroline Hjelt and Aino Neheh Jawo have been owning our hearts and minds since first gracing our radar last summer. Making their debut on the most recent Kitsune compilation with the INCREDIBLE "Manners" - honestly one of our absolute favorite songs of the past few years - they're back with a second helping of their charming Swedish pop in the form of "Still Don't Know", an effervescent joyride of buoyant percussion and off the wall synths. It doesn't quite top "Manners" (see above) - although let's be real, that's a tall order - but between this and a few other tracks the band have passed our way, we're extremely excited to be working with these girls in 2011. Watch this space...
Cardiknox are a new NYC two piece primed to turn heads in the flourishing New York dance scene. Debut offering "Hold Me Down" is a death-defying breath of crisp air, all girl gang shouts and grimy roller disco synths that run circles around your head. It almost sounds like a gritty Lower East Side Icona Pop bristling with the dangerous energy of a Tarantino Bride, recalling the ice cold femme fatale pop of mid-2000’s standouts like Ladytron and New Young Pony Club in the process. Get familiar below.
It's been a longgg minute since we last had 
