Week in Pop: Jared Mees & the Grown Children, Sonny and the Sunsets, Melted Toys

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As Noise Pop concludes over here in SF, we look at this week’s popular movements. In news that has nothing to do with the Bieb’s new hairdo, or Rick Ross getting down with some bloody meat in a Kanye video, I heard that Dam Mantle is streaming his new album First Wave over at the Fader, Radiohead is rumored to play SXSW, and Charlie Sheen’s Two and a Half Men has been cancelled so the actor can make us another “Major League” film. But despite all this, here is this week’s rundown in no particular order.

In local San Francisco news, we have received word that Sonny and the Sunsets have made plans for a sophomore album titled Hit After Hit, coming April 12 on Fat Possum. The story here begins with an ill-fated triple album that Sonny and company embarked upon in 2009 before their studio was hit by a hurricane. The remnants are on the new album and you can get a taste here.




Sonny and the Sunsets, “I Wanna Do It”

And if you live in southern California, Sonny and the Sunsets are playing near you soon:

March
31 San Diego, CA Soda Bar with the Sandwitches and Earth Girl Helen Brown

April
01 Los Angeles, CA The Echo with Earth Girl Helen Brown

Get excited because San Francisco’s Papercuts are set to release their new LP Fading Parade this upcoming Tuesday, March 1 through Sub Pop. To that end, there are three tracks you can download on the house from the good folks of Sub Pop, or if you’re too inpatient to go through all the e-mail registering rigmarole you can listen/download the single “Do What You Will” from the album here. Tell me if you get a Fresh & Onlys vibes from the ‘Cuts:

Papercuts, “Do What You Will”

In keeping up with our Portland friends, record shop owner Jared Mees and his band the Grown Children have an album coming out May 10 entitled Only Good Thoughts Can Stay, on his label Tender Loving Empire. And if his record store’s cameo on that Portlandia show wasn’t enough, Mees is offering a taste of the PDX scene’s joyful sounds in a post-Decemberists Portland.

Jared Mees & the Grown Children, “Hungry like a Tiger”

Architecture in Helsinki has put what I have been told to believe is their first single in four years time from their upcoming Moment Bends record due May 3 on V2/Cooperative Music USA/Downtown Records. Of the record two years in the making, Cameron Bird said, “We wanted to build a record to get lost in. A record that always feels exactly what you are feeling.” Their single “Contact High” will feed your lust for 80s synth pop gems.

 


Architecture in Helsinki, “Contact High”
 


Architecture in Helsinki North American tour dates as follows:
 


June
01 Los Angeles, CA at Henry Fonda Theater
02 San Francisco, CA at Great American Music Hall
03 San Francisco, CA at Slims
04 Portland, OR at Wonder Ballroom
05 Vancouver, BC at Venur
06 Seattle, WA at Neumo's
09 Minneapolis, MN at Varsity Theater
10 Chicago, IL at Lincoln Hall
11 Toronto, ON at Mod Club
12 Montreal, QC at Le Tulipe
13 Boston, MA at Paradise Rock Club
15 Brooklyn, NY at Music Hall of Williamsburg
16 New York, NY at Webster Hall
17 Washington, DC at Black Cat
18 Philadelphia, PA at World Cafe Live
 


Panda Bear neé Noah Lennox has another single coming out on Kompakt March 14 entitled “Surfer’s Hymn.” The new PB album Tomboy still is not out until April 14 but we think that this album track “Last Night at the Jetty” will more than satisfy your thirst.




Panda Bear, “Last Night At The Jetty” (Tomboy album version)

Melted Toys from San Francisco have put out their self-titled debut on Underwater Peoples this week on February 22 and features Maurice Deebank (the other Johnny Marr of the 80s but better) signature guitar amid dreamy vocals.

Melted Toys, “Come On”

If you were into the Davila 666 jams I touted last week, here’s their touring schedule in support of Tan Bajo which is set to be released Tuesday, March 1.

March
01 Miami, FL Churchill's
03 Orlando, FL Will's Pub
04 Talahassee, FL Mocking Bird Café
05 Atlanta, GA The EARL
06 Nashville, TN Third Man Records (all ages matinee)
06 Nashville, TN Springwater Supper Club
07 Mobile, AL OK Bike Shop
08 New Orleans, LA Siberia
10 Huntsville, AL Horizontal House
11 Memphis, TN Hi-Tone Café
12 Tulsa, OK The Eclipse
13 Denton, TX SXSW Conferette Festival
14 Houston, TX Rudyard's
16-19 Austin, TX SXSW
21 Santa Fe, NM Corazón
22 Tempe, AZ Yucca Tap Room
23 Mexicali, MX Monaco Beer Club
24 San Diego, CA Til-Two Club
25 Los Angeles, CA Blue Star Bar
26 San Francisco, CA Thee Parkside Lounge
27 Sacramento, CA The Hub
29 Portland, OR East End
30 Seattle, WA The Funhouse
31 Vancouver, BC Railway Club

April
02 Calgary, AB Broken City Social Club
05 Fargo, ND The Aquarium (Upstairs at Dempsey's)
06 St. Paul, MN The Turf Club
07 Milwaukee, WI Cactus Club
08 Chicago, IL Empty Bottle
09 Bloomington, IN The Bishop
10 Cleveland, OH Now That's Class
12 Detroit, MI Magic Stick Lounge
13 Toronto, ON Parts and Labour
14 Ottawa, ON Babylon
15 Montreal, QC Il Motore
17 New Haven, CT Café Nine
18 Cambridge, MA Charlie's Kitchen
20 New York, NY Cake Shop
21 Poughkeepsie, NY at The Mug at Vassar College
23 Brooklyn, NY at the Knitting Factory
24 Washington, DC Back Stage @ Black Cat
25 Richmond, VA at Strange Matter
26 Durham, NC at the Casbah
27 Charlotte, NC at The Milestone





Hunx and His Punx would like you to listen and enjoy the title single from the album of the same name,”Too Young To Be in Love” in dazzling mp3.




Hunx and His Punx, “Too Young To Be In Love”

Along with the recent news about Hunx’s appearance at our upcoming Austin Imposition II, here’s the rest of the Punx’s SXSW schedule:

March
16 Waterloo Records In-Store 5pm

16 Trailer Space / Burger Records Party set time TBA

17 Impose / Thrasher Party at the Scoot Inn 3:30pm

17 Psychic Lunch set time TBA

17 Force Field PR Party at Shangri-La set time TBA

17 Big Freedia Party set time TBA

18 Sub Pop / Hardly Art Showcase at Red 7 10:15pm

While we’re still within the throws of SXSW mania, the good people from Force Field PR & Terrorbird Media have announced the details pertaining to their fourth annual SXSW Day Party. The party begins at noon Wedsnesday March 16 at Red 7 until 6pm. Don’t worry yourself over RSVP or wristband details, it’s free and the line-up is as follows:


Toro Y Moi, tUnE-yArDs, Screaming Females, Lower Dens, Braids, Cloud Nothings, Nite Jewel, Weekend, The Soft Moon, Generationals, Pictureplane, The Death Set, Lord Huron, Rainbow Arabia, Exray's, Violens


Start streaming the party here:

Terrorbird Media / Force Field PR SXSW Sampler by terrorbird

Now I leave with you the latest from pop deviants Hot Dogs in the Sun with their latest cut “Magical Hands.” From the minds of Monterey Bay’s heshed out electro heads comes a sordid tale of wizards, a cracked out elf flipping burgers at an Arby’s, moral lessons and beats to accompany a strange cautionary tale of the mystical trash aesthetic variety.

Magical Hands by Hot Dogs in the Sun