To celebrate the release of Serena Maneesh’s excellent new album, S-M 2: Abyss in B Minor, we are giving away 2 tickets to see the band at Kung Fu Necktie on 4/6 as well as a copy of their “Ayisha Abyss” 7″!!!!

You can stream the new album in full HERE and snag some free mp3s below:

{MP3} Serena-Maneesh – “Ayisha Abyss”
{MP3} Serena Maneesh – “I Just Want To See Your Face”

TO ENTER: Simply post the name of your favorite Serena Maneesh song (from any release) in the comments section of this post. Be sure to include a valid e-mail address before submitting a comment.

Contest ends on Sunday, 4/4 and I will notify a random winner on the same day. Prize must be claimed by Monday 4/5.

***Note: Winner must be in the US and have a non PO box shipping address.

Good luck!

Remaining Serena Maneesh tour dates after the jump…

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Fun! Fun! Fun! Girls! Girls! Girls!

{MP3} Girls – “Lust For Life”
{MP3} Dum Dum Girls – “Jail La La”

Girls w/ Dum Dum Girls + The Making Time DJs
Friday April 2nd, 2010
1221 St. James St.
Philadelphia, PA
9pm-3:30am
9-11 OPEN BAR w/ FREE PBR AND SPARKS!!!
$12.00 in advance/$15 at the door

Art In The Age Presents…An Interview with Woods at SXSW from Art In The Age on Vimeo.

My trip to this year’s SXSW for Art in the Age was certainly a productive one. Between seeing live shows, eating BBQ, and getting to know the city, I managed to catch up with some really awesome bands and interview them for the AITA blog. Having our artist tees and ROOT Liquor with me didn’t hurt of course.

Above you can watch our interview, which turned out to be one of our best, with the highly entertaing G. Lucas Crane — noisemaker for the band Woods.

Watch interviews with The Golden Filter, Warpaint, Bachelorette, First Aid Kit, Talk Normal, Suckers and Real Estate after the jump…

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Some Yugoslavian minimal synth shit coming at ya, courtesy of the Cold Waves tumblr. The girl in the video is super hot, but is also super into heroin. Don’t judge!

Designed by the Silent Giants

This new song from Here We Go Magic’s upcoming album Pigeons is the perfect fusion of early Kraftwerk and late Beach Boys sounds. I’m hooked.

{MP3} Here We Go Magic – “Collector”

It’s everything you ever imagined it would be…and then some.

(via The Chuckler)

Review + photos by Julie Drexler

This past Thursday Philly was blessed with the presence of two amazingly talented bands. Like an astronomical phenomenon that only occurs every 3 years, AIR is touring North America, and the infamous French electro pop duo hand-picked Los Angeles based artist AM to accompany them on tour.  As a huge fan of French electronic music, this was a highly anticipated show…

Tulsa-born and New Orleans-raised, indie artist AM set the stage for a night of cosmic melodies. With his electrified presence, AM seemed just as excited to be playing with AIR as the crowd was to hear them perform. The stripped down, three member band consisting of a vocalist/guitarist, keyboardist and drummer played a short, yet sweet set consisting of songs off their latest album Future Sons & Daughters. It’s hard to describe the exact genre of AM, but their uplifting set was like a mouthful of fruit punch pop rocks! They have this experimental combination of global sounds, folk-rock, pop, with a hint of funk. AM’s vocals were definitely the highlight of their performance -  “Self Preservation” was pitch-perfect. It was an ideal set to start the night off and get the crowd warmed up for some Frenchy flirtation.

Seeing AIR walk out on stage was surreal. The French duo consisting of Nicolas Godin and JB Dunckel were accompanied by British drummer Alex Thomas from Bat For Lashes and Badly Drawn Boy. Dressed in all white, Dunckel stood manning the synthesizers and gazing into the crowd with this presumptuous smirk, while Godin effortlessly rotated between bass, guitar, and synth. The duo performed a number of songs off their latest album Love 2, interspersed with some popular goodies from their previous albums.  Their performance was like a journey through space and they lifted the night off with “So Light is Her Footfall” and “Love”. In between songs, Godin amused the crowd by talking through a vocoder, which transformed his delicate French accent into a sci-fi robo voice. AIR left  the stage  to a robotic “Kelly Watch the Stars!” before returning for crowd-pleasing encore featuring “Heaven’s Light”, “Sexy Boy”, and “La Femme d’Argent”.

Overall, the night was a solid, spacey delight fueled by a French artistry not often seen here in Philadelphia.

More AIR photos and set list after the jump…

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Check out this stellar rendition of the classic “Ceremony” from the up-and-coming Active Child live at this year’s fest. It’s followed up nicely by his own ‘Wilderness”, which is finding its way onto all of my playlists lately…

(via Yours Truly)

A beautiful Spring day in Philly and a this video from Cults is the perfect accompaniment.

{MP3} Cults – “Go Outside”

(top left: Seabear, bottom left: Surf City, right: Bachelorette)

SXSW was a fun time, but I didn’t get to check out half the bands I wanted to due to promoting Art in the Age (which was fun too, don’t get me wrong). Luckily 3 cool bands are making their way into Philly this week. New Zealand bands Surf City and Bachelorette will be at Kung Fu Necktie tomorrow night (3/23) and Icelandic band Seabear will play the venue the night after.

Listen to some mp3s below and try your best to catch their live shows — well worth it!

{MP3} Surf City – “Dickshakers Union”
{MP3} Surf City – “Headin’ Inside”
{MP3} Bachelorette – “The National Grid”
{MP3} Seabear – “Lion Face Boy”

During the next few days I’ll be in Austin witnessing what is sure to be a monumentally insane experience while I gather video interviews for Art in the Age. To a select few bands I interview, I’ll be giving away ROOT as well as some yet-to-be released AITA Tee designs. Totally excited!

Bands I’m looking forward to seeing include: Best Coast, Octopus Project, Moon Duo, Woods, Dum Dum Girls, Talk Normal, First Aid Kit, Banjo Or Freakout, Serena Maneesh and  CFCF.

To see what I am up to during the festival and/or to get in touch, follow Art in the Age on Facebook and Twitter. Regular posting will resume next Monday.