BROOKLYN, New York
United States

Industrial / Psychedelic / Pop

According to their MySpace page, their excellent album "Travel Book" can be downloaded at:
www.arpline.com

released 16 February 2010
ArpLine "Travel Book"

All songs by Sam Tyndall

ArpLine:
Adam De Rosa- guitars
Oliver Edsforth- keyboards, saxophone
Nathan Lithgow- bass, back-up vocals
Michael Chap Resnick- percussion, programming
Sam Tyndall- vocals, additional guitar, additional bass, programming & synthesizers

Additional back-up vocals by Andrea Hendrickson

Letting Up Despite Great Faults is an indie/electronic music act founded by Los Angeles, CA native Michael Lee in 2006. They have been compared to similar artists such as The Postal Service, M83, and The Radio Dept.


"...an unexpected pleasure...Layering lush synth and a shimmering New Order guitar tone, 'Steps' prettily evokes the tipping point from full bloom to slow decay, as the warm summer days give way to a wet, windy fall..."
-Pitchfork.com

"Lovely LA band gets right the balance between tight strumming and swooping electronics,
turning out light, charming songs that are long on both melody and heartache."
-Rock & Roll Daily, Rolling Stone

"'In Steps' feels like walking through the park on a sunny day in a sepia world"
-I Guess I'm Floating

"Letting Up is awash in wistful melodies, layers of shoegaze guitars, ringing synthesizers and a static-y drum machine."
-Exclaim!

"Shoegaze gauziness covering electronica beats--think Air and Fischerspooner with some type of Brit-pop swagger."
-DeckFight

"Bashfully bittersweet shoegaze from L.A. that wear their hearts on every inch of their body...the sort of dreamy indie pop that boys want to make and girls want to fall in love with..."
-Earworm, Much Music

"so good"
-kid_for_today

"Resting somewhere between a more sentential Radio Dept and a more accessible American Analog set, Mike Lee and his gang of collaborators are out to break a few hearts and...dance? Yes."
-Confessions of a Would-Be Hipster

"one to watch"
-Scottish Friction

"The indie-tronica sound gets me every time...Tough luck trying to talk to me while Letting Up comes up on the speakers; I'll be in a different world."
-Knox Road

"The album's fuzzy synth-pop..is an homage to the shoegazey side of Sarah Records..twee-poppers such as the Radio Dept. and..the Morr Music family.."
-BuzzBands.la

"simply gorgeous"
-BandsOfTheBay.com

"Letting Up Despite Great Faults is the warm little center of the universe. And you are close to the heart of it."
-32ft/second

"Dreary-tinged, easy fun...It's the perfect slouchy cableknit for breezy days and changing seasons."
-Luxury Wafers

"Catchy guitars, almost dancey beats and Mike Lee's soft vocals coupled with shoegazey synths deliver enchanted melodies that make you feel all sorts of warm and wonderful."
-No Conclusion

"The band knows how to craft the ideal electro-pop track and they do so in a manner that will help keep you warm as these winter nights hit freezing temperatures."
-FensePost

"loving every single minute of it..."
-Indiehere

"...the perfect soundtrack for a teenage romance."
-In This Week

"The perfect soundtrack for snow gazing out a train window."
-5 Acts

"A great mid-tempo shoegaze/electronic hybrid record that will appeal to fans of bands like Radio Dept., Yo La Tengo, M83, My Bloody Valentine, etc. They meld traditional instrumentation and electronic elements with beautiful airy vocals into a seamless work of art."
-Off The Radar

"Make sure to check these guys out, because they're going to blow up very soon."
-The Tape

"Come and get lost in the beautiful euphoric tones of Letting Up Despite Great Faults."
-Einstein Music Journal

"The debut album from singer/songwriter Michael Lee and his band serves up the listeners a delectable electro-shoegaze, sounding like a perfect marriage of M83 and Slowdive."
-QRO Magazine

"4 stars"
-Groovemine

"...a band that borrows its undefined-by-one-word sound from countless genres including Shoegaze, Indie, Noise-Pop, Electronica, Ambient, Unconventional Folk and Synth among many surprising styles spicing their good-for-your-health audio products"
-Ohh! Crapp

"4/5"
-Baeble

"A-"
-Pop Tarts Suck Toasted

"all kinds of shimmery ambient crescendos crashing like the waves in the Pacific. "
-Cause=Time

"meet my new favourite band"
-This Is Not Scene

"If you love the built up sonic wall of sound that you get with M83 and Cut Copy but also love that peppy-pop fuzz-y rock outs you get with Pains of Being Pure at Heart, this album is right up your alley."
-DBF-Music

"It almost takes you to another place, somewhere better and way more gorgeous than wherever you are at the moment."
-coolthanks

"...introspective, electronic-inflected indie pop..."
-L.A. Times

"Wow. This is music."
-The Burning Ear

"Their music easily transitions from an upbeat and bouncy soundtrack befitting happy moods, to the perfect accompaniment for those dreary rainy days."
-Noise Pop Fest

It is five in the morning and still dark outside. Your eyes flutter and open heavily. You see a disembodied blue glow pulsating on the ceiling. You have no idea where you are, but you know you are alone. The only sound you hear is the hiss of a nearby radiator, but in the movie version of your life this moment would be punctuated by the music of Home Video.

Home Video are Collin Ruffino and David Gross, transplants from the misunderstood landscape of New Orleans, before The Great Deluge, now living in the brooding brownstones of Brooklyn, New York. Here they revel in a self-created world of references to Edward Gorey, Massive Attack, The Brothers Quay, Smashing Pumpkins, and a dusting of Chopin, references that they have been collecting for nearly ten years.

They connected in high school art class in 1997. Under the instruction of an eccentric painter, who claimed to have been raised in a Louisiana chateau where servants peeled grapes for him to eat, they spent hours drawing still lives of twisted vegetables and rendering the chiaroscuro of adolescent self portraits. Outside of art class, they made a short narrative video starring David, and directed by Collin, a collaborative set up that continues still and perhaps an influence for their band name.

At the time, Collin wore all black, listened to Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins, and was in a band called The Great and Secret Show. David, a classical pianist in training and the son of two classical musicians, had been sheltered from the Top 40, or anything composed after 1900. It wasn't until Collin played him a cassette tape of The Great and Secret Show that David realized pop music had the potential to be as emotionally impacting as classical. Collin continued pulling him into the 20th century, introducing him to albums like Mezzanine, Dummy, and OK Computer. David started playing keyboards for the band.

College scattered the members of the Great and Secret Show, David in Boston studying music and philosophy, Collin in New York studying film, but they remained in touch and created music together during summer breaks. Once the distraction of higher education was out of the way, they reconvened with New York as home and soon discovered a new sound as their latest incarnation, Home Video.

The first Home Video song came to them in the dead of winter, the blizzard of 2003. As the piling snow erased the landscape outside his window, David huddled over the warm vibrations of an analog synthesizer creating the simple loop that first inspired their minimalist sound. The fear and anxiety of New York's atmosphere at the time had eaten its way onto the pages of Collin's tattered notebooks and became his confessional style of lyrics. Underlined by a thumping, bass-rich beat, the pairing of the two worked well and the song evolved into "Melon," the first Home Video song created and the closing track on the album. Inspired by their new philosophy, other songs quickly followed and the band sent out demos.

Originally discovered by Warp Records, the label released Home Video's first two EPs in 2004, both packaged in sleeves illustrated by Collin's dark, Gorey-esque drawings. That You Might, a 10" single, immediately picked up considerable attention in Britain from BBC Radio 1 and the NME, while the five song Citizen EP earned the band a feature in Rolling Stone.

As electronic-rock producers and performers, they record everything themselves, then adapt it live into a full on rock show with live drums and hypnotic visual projections. After sharing a bill in London, at the start of Home Video's 2004 European tour, Blonde Redhead were so impressed that they invited the band to support them for three weeks of shows in North America. They have also opened for such diverse acts as Pinback, Colder, Radio 4, and His Name is Alive.

Surrounded by the trend-infested-quick-high of the New York music scene, Home Video are slow-burning pop that will invade your dreams and memories. The full-length debut album, No Certain Night or Morning, was released October 3rd, 2006 on Defend Music.

Home Video - Official Site

"MillionYoung's hypnagogic, late night, loping pop loops bloom in the shadows of delirious dream territories; Mike Diaz's aching, arching, always overhead vocals floating lonely above an effervescent, imagined coastal paradise of found tribal drum snippets, syrupy synth rushing and brilliantly colourful, drawn-out circular guitars that just absolutely refuse to fade or break, shading braincells in never-lived nostalgia; making stomachs shift with strange sickness in a beautiful, unshakeable way."

love like deloreans is the electronic collective consciousness of band members lorna krier, derek muro and peter pearson. the band was born of synthesizer dreams and drum machine wishes. drawing from the heady krautrock of bands like cluster to the infectious wish-i-could-stop-dancing grooves of 80s new wave, bubblegum, and disco, love like deloreans creates a sound world that is somewhere between a submarine ride on europa and the best prom night ever.

Mystery Roar are a dream force of crazy elaborate, deep-space disco. Although they formed less than a year ago, Mystery Roar have already become Boston's premiere dance-pop band. Glowing media attention came quickly, including declarations that Mystery Roar are "the number one band to watch in 2010!" by both the Boston Herald and Phoenix. In recognition of their ability to get a crowd amped and dancing, Mystery Roar were asked to share the stage with national acts like Delorean, Neon Indian, Das Racist, Tiger City, and Har Mar Superstar, gaining new fans with each appearance simply through the skill and joy of their playing, and the strength of their songwriting and showmanship.

Mystery Roar are a diverse crew of individuals that share an intense love of music. Like Hunt and Tony Sales, the late, great Soupy's kids who played with Iggy Pop and David Bowie, Patrick and Andrew are brothers who play bass and drums. But they do so with the extra-sensory precision that comes with being identical twins. Born in the city of steel and Andy Warhol, Tia is especially adept at transforming the metallic tones of vocoders and synthesizers into pop.

Jake, Joseph, and Nathanael were three hardscrabble kids trying to make it out of Scranton alive, and they did: together, to Boston. Joseph studied audio production and Jake studied art -- skills that continue to inform their cerebral and soulful musicianship. The pair provides guitars, synths and also sing the high and middle vocal harmonies. Nathanael -- a once-awkward gay kid, now a confident and formidable frontman -- provides the unique silky baritone voice that keeps hooking new listeners.

Early on, Dopamine Records recognized a camaraderie with Mystery Roar. Dopamine has on their roster both guitar bands and dance DJs, and Mystery Roar navigate that wonderful space between. Mystery Roar's danceable music has been remixed by Soul Clap, Jensen Sportag, the Bodega Girls, and label mate DJ Die Young. Mystery Roar's self titled EP will be released by Dopamine Records on 4/13/2010. The release is vinyl and digital only.

The R&B-styled dance-pop gems that comprise Mystery Roar are melodically adventurous and instantly arresting; but repeated listens reveal their rich sonic layers and rhythmic complexities. Accompanied by phenomenal collagist artwork designed to be stared into, the EP ranges from uptempo psych-disco to lovelorn quiet storm ballads. Critical comparisons have included Talking Heads, MGMT, Hall and Oates, Chromeo, Passion Pit, and Roxy Music. The band members themselves might add Afro-beat, deep disco, and Italo as influences.

"Mystery Roar couch tremulous, crooning vocals in beds of shimmering disco and hip-throwing grooviness." - The Phoenix
"Music to pour a glass of red and lay naked on a bear-skin rug to, this Roar screams next big thing." - The Herald
"Hand clap beats, filthy bass grooves and cooly effected vocals in a scandalous man on machine love affair." - The Metro
"These keyboard-wielding buddies have made impromptu groove-a-thons a habit as regular as eating breakfast or brushing your teeth." - Weekly Dig
"A winkingly retro-minded band that's never met a Casio it didn't like, Mystery Roar mashes up its penchants for '80s new wave, freestyle, and a seriously deep love of Giorgio Moroder." - Boston Globe

*2010 The Phoenix Best Music Poll: Best New Act nominee
*2009 Boston Music Award: New Act of the Year nominee