LA TIMPA SHARES NEW ALBUM, MODERN ANTICS IN A DESERTED PLACE, OUT TODAY

MODERN ANTICS IN A DESERTED PLACE OUT TODAY VIA SLOW RELEASE

WATCH AND SHARE “QUARTERBACK” HERE

WATCH AND SHARE “POMISEA” HERE

BUY / STREAM MODERN ANTICS IN A DESERTED PLACE HERE

Photo Credit : Timothy Schaumburg & Taylor Thoroski  // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today, LA Timpa shares Modern Antics In A Deserted Place, a surprise full album release from the Nigeria-born producer and songwriter who immigrated to Canada as a child. The LP follows up 2019's Equal Amounts Afraid and is a similarly vulnerable, gauzy expression of outsider soul.

Out today via Slow Release, Timpa says, "I started writing Modern Antics In A Deserted Place early 2018 right at the beginning of my living in London. If Equal Amounts Afraid, my first album, was one tortured in doubt and uncertainty within my being, Modern Antics In a Deserted Place is freedom living in assured pain - coming to grips with the reality of my being and actions. I’m guided by attitude, spirits, and physicality whenever making anything. For me, this helps break the mold or contrive nature of things. It’s bigger than me… it's more so what the moment is asking for. It’s a part of my spiritual practice - this album is an outcome of prayer and meditation."

BUY / STREAM MODERN ANTICS IN A DESERTED PLACE HERE

LA Timpa is also sharing two videos for album tracks, “Quarterback” and “Pomisea”. 

The video for “Quarterback” features haunting digital video footage of Timpa synced to the song’s jagged, gut wrenching rhythm and vocals. “‘Quarterback’ felt/feels to me like the moment when you're kind of stepping/ tippy toeing back into the dating world after just getting out of a long term relationship,” says Timpa. “There's a newness and burst of energy to that but at the same time you're not betting on anything lasting. Instrumentally it feels a bit clustered and empty/ spare at the same time - which probably speaks to this period/feeling I mentioned above...seeming like I'm meeting a lot of new people but still coming home at the end of the night or morning only to embrace my isolation and being alone.”

WATCH AND SHARE “QUARTERBACK” HERE

“Pomisea” “came about thankfully through the NTS artist development grant/program,” says Timpa. “I was able to record at ten87 studios in London, I remember a lot of the song was written out of a 30 min noise jam with the engineer there. It's very dense, melodic with a lot of moving parts. This was one of many ‘aha moments’ while making the album because I tend to write my favourite songs when an instrumental I produced has many or few parts constantly moving and doing their own thing but fall in and out harmony, tone, tune or rhythm to create several micro musical moments through the duration of a track. I tried to realize/practice this method through the album and in my music I think subconsciously at this point it can be a difficult thing to achieve when producing electronic music. I've always attached the word ‘grief’ to this song. I remember actually crying real tears while listening to it back at some point during the album recording process. That's the second time that's ever happened to me with a song of mine.”

WATCH AND SHARE “POMISEA” HERE

Modern Antics In A Deserted Place releases on limited edition silver vinyl and digital formats everywhere Friday, 20 November 2020. 

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MODERN ANTICS IN A DESERTED PLACE TRACKLIST
1. Quarterback
2. Deaf In Three Corners
3. Pomisea
4. Common
5. Master
6. Wicked
7. Best Friend
8. Spin (Trade)
9. Outro (Tongue Tear Drum)

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MODERN ANTICS IN A DESERTED PLACE TRACKLIST
1. Quarterback
2. Deaf In Three Corners
3. Pomisea
4. Common
5. Master
6. Wicked
7. Best Friend
8. Spin (Trade)
9. Outro (Tongue Tear Drum)

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DAN MANGAN RELEASES THIEF, A NEW COLLECTION OF COVERS, OUT TODAY

THIEF, A COLLECTION OF COVERS FROM LAURYN HILL TO NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL, R.E.M, AND MORE, OUT TODAY VIA ARTS & CRAFTS

LISTEN AND SHARE “WALTZ NO. 2 (XO)” ELLIOT SMITH COVER HERE

BUY / STREAM THIEF HERE TODAY

JOIN DAN MANGAN FOR AN ALL COVERS LIVE PERFORMANCE ON NOVEMBER 21ST AT 3 PM EST

Thief Album Artwork // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today, JUNO Award-winning singer-songwriter Dan Mangan has released Thief, a diverse collection of covers that've been released sporadically over the last decade collected into a single compilation. Including renditions of songs from pop superstars like Robyn and Lauryn Hill as well as 90s alternative favourites like Neutral Milk Hotel's "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" and Elliott Smith's "Waltz No. 2 (XO)" (performed with Blacksmith and Zeus) the interpretations have amassed over 10 million streams worldwide.

“Songwriting is about flexing a muscle enough times to zero success that eventually, you accidentally lift a car when you’re not paying attention,” says Mangan. “Every great songwriter is a thief of their own subconscious - maybe a melody from their childhood seeps out, or a phrase from a sandwich board a decade ago. When you’re young, you learn covers because it makes you feel connected to the swirling tornado of music that you so long to be a part of. As an adult, it’s a matter of sanity. I get sick of the same taste in my mouth and I need to sing someone else’s song to cleanse my palate. My approach is that it’s nearly impossible to do a great song justice, and so I need to change it enough from its original form that it can no longer be compared to the source.”

LISTEN AND SHARE “WALTZ NO. 2 (XO)” ELLIOT SMITH COVER HERE

BUY / STREAM THIEF HERE TODAY

Over the past 10 years, Dan Mangan has transitioned from a bearded 20-something troubadour playing open mics to earning top ten radio hits, scoring Hollywood films, winning multiple JUNO Awards, and selling out legendary venues like Massey Hall. In November of 2018, Dan Mangan released, More Or Less, his most personal album to date that grapples with being a new father in an increasingly tumultuous world. He followed that release with two world tours, his debut appearance on American late night television (Jimmy Kimmel Live!), and the re-release of his breakout album Nice Nice Very Nice (10th Anniversary Edition), which serendipitously was certified Gold the month it was released. 

Mangan had planned to tour the reissue in celebration of its 10th anniversary, but the Coronavirus shutdown put a stop to that. However, as the co-founder of Side Door Access, an alternative concert booking start up, he pivoted the business to host ticketed livestream concerts and has been holding regular events for thousands of fans throughout the pandemic. 

On November 21 Mangan will perform a very special All Covers performance at 3 PM EST. Tickets can be found HERE.

THIEF TRACKLIST
Losing My Religion (REM)
Love You Madly (Cake)
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (Neutral Milk Hotel)
Waltz No. 2 (XO) (Elliott Smith)
Have A Little Faith In Me (John Hiatt)
Hang With Me (Robyn)
Ex-Factor (Lauryn Hill)
Stairway (Yukon Blonde)
Chances Are (feat. Amy Millan) (Bob Marley)

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RICH AUCOIN SHARES NEW WRESTLING VIDEO FOR “KAYFABE”

WATCH AND SHARE “KAYFABE” HERE

UNITED STATES OUT NOW VIA HAVEN SOUNDS

“On United States, beauty and sadness, hope and pain are shown not to be mutually exclusive — the album demonstrates a jolting acknowledgement of reality combined with an electrifying hope of what could be” Exclaim!

“peppered with Beach Boy harmonies, ’70s soul grooves and dance beats that move the body while his lyrical pleas move the mind. ...powerful, motivational” The Halifax Chronicle Herald

"Aucoin is Ennio Morricone armed with a Korg and a decade-spanning set of samples. He’s Steven Spielberg with reverbed vocals. And you can listen along to his imageless movie, United States, laying out a montage in your mind’s eye" The Coast

"Aucoin’s upbeat pop sound remains as universal as ever, and even though on the surface the lyrics and themes on this fourth LP are tied together by something specific, the world is always watching" - CULT MTL

BUY / STREAM UNITED STATES HERE

“Kayfabe” Video Still

The idea for Rich Aucoin’s new album, United States, was to have a song for each of the states he cycled through during a cross continent fundraising bike trip in the Spring of 2018. For the album’s opening track, “Kayfabe”, Rich says, “I wanted it to have a Californian feel and try to recreate a modern-day Beach Boys style track mixed with hip hop sampled beats. The song is a great introduction to the record as it has the warm glow of the Beach Boys male vocal group sound thanks to my roommate at the time having a pretty rad sounding group of four singers (Pete Macdonald, Ryan Hawes, Steven Perry, John Council) that covered “I Get Around” with all its complex harmonies, juxtaposing that with the soulful rhythmic chant provided by James Baley and Tarik Henry. The song also features surf guitar provided by Jason Vautour and a viola bass by Pete Macdonald who played most of the bass for the album. 

Lyrically, the song is loosely based on Celine’s Journey To The End Of The Night and earlier drafts had more lyrics about working in a Ford plant, etc., like the protagonist of that American epic as told through the lens of a French author. It talks about the loss of the American Way and it being sold in the auction of capitalism’s excess greed. It also takes its name from the world of professional wrestling with the term meaning the portrayal of staged events within the industry as “real” or “true”. There are arguments made that, because of Reality TV blurring the lines between truth and entertainment and then having a star of that world becoming the President of the United States further blurring those lines, that we’re living in a world where truth is dead (at least to a certain percentage of the population). The arguments continue saying that a fan of wrestling or a fan of Trump knows it’s fake but chooses to commit to that truth because of whatever they get from membership; entertainment in the case of wrestling and of existential relief from their problems in the hope for something better with Trump’s fanbase.”

The video that accompanies “Kayfabe” was originally supposed to be a “buddy wrestler video about a Face and a Heel travelling around post-apocalyptic United States putting on vaudevillian shows for the survivors with the twist being it set in actual locations of the current United States that I cycled across,” says Aucoin. “But, then the pandemic happened. So here is what I shot on my phone with action figures instead.”

WATCH AND SHARE “KAYFABE” HERE

MORE ABOUT UNITED STATES

Aucoin wrote United States, observing America from the ground level, while cycling across it for Mental Health America and the Canadian Mental Health Association. While taking this Robert Frank approach, Aucoin composed a song for each of the 12 states he pedalled through. The record is as much about the current socio-political climate of America as it is about states of consciousness; as much fuelled by the burgeoning American protest movement or Hedges’ social commentary as it is fuelled by McKenna/Pollan world of psychedelics and meditation apps.

Rich Aucoin has never been short on ambitions or concepts. From his first EP, Personal Publication—on which he played over two dozen instruments and wrote it to sync to How the Grinch Stole Christmas—to We’re All Dying to Live’s 500 performers, to his death mediation Release, the pop anthemist has always dug deep and gone big.

WATCH AND SHARE “RESET” HERE

But this is the first time he’s written a record from the grounds of a crumbling empire. In the spring of 2018, Aucoin set off from Los Angeles on one of his customarily challenging (and eco-friendly) tours. Final stop: New York City. Vehicle: Bicycle.

He travelled the perimeter of the United States, down the west coast, across the south, and up the eastern seaboard. He saw a country, two years into a dictatorship, divided and hurting. A pair of wheels and his own two feet took him through landscapes varied in their construction and grandeur, from the boarded-up storefronts of Route 66 to the fountain formation of Red Rocks. Tiny towns and major cities. Thriving and fading. 

WATCH AND SHARE “WALLS” HERE

At night, after cycling dozens of kilometres in a day, he would write about and demo the things he saw. Two years later, with its namesake country on the precipice of ruin, he’s turned that travelogue into United States, a journey through the states of consciousness that unite us all.

He began with an idea in each state, and fleshed those out lyrically while staying connected to something in that state, creating a living historical document.

WATCH AND SHARE “HOW IT BREAKS” HERE

In addition to the physical territory Aucoin traversed, he’s travelling new artistic ground as well: This is the quickest he’s ever made an album, recording it in a handful of studios across Canada. It’s got just 16 collaborators. It doesn’t sync up with an existing film. It’s a deliberately minimal work from a joyously maximal artist. True, he had to power himself across an entire country, but he came out on the other side with his most focused, deeply realized, catchiest album yet. 

As the United States reckons with its narcissistic leader, its splintering systems, and a fed-up populace determined to have its voice heard, United States offers a soundtrack for these unwieldy, unpredictable days. It doesn’t pull any punches or sugarcoat any truths, but it’s got faith, and hope, and heart.

Aucoin has been long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize twice. His music video for “Brian Wilson is A.L.I.V.E.” won the Prism Prize. Aucoin has built a reputation as one of the best live shows in Canada according to CBC Radio3. His albums all sync to old movies like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon with The Wizard of Oz. He has performed dozens of festivals including Osheaga, The Great Escape, Les Eurockéennes, Berlin Music Festival, Art Basel Miami, Luminato Art Festival, Iceland Airwaves, SXSW, and Pop Montreal.

Photo Credit: Riley Smith // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

PRAISE FOR RICH AUCOIN

“A bold talent, his grasp of sonics is interlinked with a desire to express something, to challenge both himself and those around him.” - Clash Magazine

"’The Middle’ is an extremely earnest, charming-as-hell reflection on the self at the midpoint of life and death." - Noisey

"This is an anthemic collection of head nodding and foot tapping electro-pop" - PopMatters 

"Easily one of the most mesmerizing tracks we've heard so far this year." - CBC Music (2018)

“Aucoin, a characteristically ambitious artist” - Paste Mag 

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