“I think of it as being kind of like the space program in 1960s,” said Daniel Armbruster when asked about the level of experimentation involved in creating Joywave’s latest release. “Each mission was about accomplishing a certain goal that ultimately was about putting a person on the moon. ‘Alright, Mercury we’re going to have people circle the Earth. Gemini, we’re going to have crafts docking.  Eventually, we’re going to get there.’ That’s kind of the same philosophy I guess we take to our music.”

If you were to look at the cover art for Joywave’s new mixtape, 88888, the satellite circling the 8 would clue you in that the band has launched into orbit. It may be a step in the right direction in terms of evolving the sound of the Rochester electro-pop outfit, but not yet accomplishing the ultimate goal. What that goal is remains an unknown to lead singer and songwriter Armbruster and his band mates, but their identity has been forged and they are venturing onward into uncharted territories.

The mixtape—a unique characteristic of Joywave’s existence—has a long tradition in the world of music. What started as a piece of merchandise sold in truck stops in the 1960s and 1970s has evolved into a cultural staple. Music fans create them to express their feelings to loved ones, and they have become a vital source of promotion for up and coming hip-hop and electronica artists.

Enter Joywave. The band introduced itself to the world using the mixtape method—something that is highly unorthodox in the indie rock scene. “It’s a chance to experiment with music,” said Armbruster. “On our first one, we were trying to establish an identity.”

That first mixtape, 77777, included songs consisting of samples from artists such as The Flaming Lips, Beach House, LCD Soundsystem, Miike Snow, and Drake. Add in a cover of Robyn’s “Hang With Me” as well as a couple of original songs, and Joywave provided a recipe for an ideal mixtape. As a playlist, 77777 covers the gamut in styles—from slow burners such as “Winnipeg,” to disco-inspired dance numbers like “Titan.”

“The first one was much easier to create because we literally just sampled songs that we liked or we were into at the time,” said Armbruster. “We straight up took the mp3s, stripped out what we wanted, and put vocals over the top.”

The workhorses that they are, Joywave has not slowed down since that first mixtape. In addition to 77777, the band’s resume includes the following: a 7” release of the single “Ridge;” a concert at the Strasenburg Planetarium; numerous concerts around Rochester, Buffalo, and New York City; multiple performances at South by Southwest in 2013; weekly sets with the DJ collective Cultr Club; producing and playing on the Fuck Jams EP for Rochester electronica group KOPPS; releasing the seven-song Koda Vista EP; an electronica side-project with Alan Wilkis named Big Data, and now a return to form with the second mixtape.

With the arrival of 88888 on April 15, 2013, Rochester and the music blogosphere were treated to further proof of the versatility and originality that exists in Joywave’s music.  Artists and musicians often go through phases, looking for ways to reinvent themselves and their work. On 88888, instead of taking the music in a different direction via samples from other artists, the band reimagined themselves.

“The stuff we sampled on the new mixtape is from Koda Vista, mostly,” explained Armbruster. “Vocals from Koda Vista, things that we liked from Koda Vista, everything on the mixtape was created by us. Before it was let’s repackage things that we like and put a twist on it. This is all Joywave.”

Creating a new piece of work from an original piece is a project that brings the band’s thought processes to a higher level—a level that goes beyond what Armbruster experienced being part of the defunct Rochester pop-punk band, The Hoodies.

While artistically unsatisfied playing pop-punk, Armbruster was still able to take away important and usable lessons. “You get a good sense of melody from pop-punk,” he explained. “The music relies exclusively on vocal melody to draw you in because you take away the vocals and everything else is the same between songs.” That melody has carried over into Armbuster’s vocal stylings, but not just with the lyrics and at live performances. On 88888, vocal melodies are sampled and looped in ways that stretch the tone and create spastic electronic blips, creating unique progressions that craft the atmospheres of the songs.

Take the track “Tongues” for example, which contains these vocal samples from KOPPS vocalist, Patricia Patrone. While the words may be incoherent, sounding like an electronic version of scatting, they contribute to establishing the mood of the song. It is a characteristic unique enough to have one question how these attitudes, features, and electronic elements are replicated live with a five-member band, particularly when 88888 is also the first release from the band that includes hip-hop songs. Two songs to be specific, which include the rhymes of Atlanta-based rapper Sugar Tongue Slim, known by his stage name, STS. With an eclectic track list like this, it becomes an enigma to try and crack the band’s writing style.

Turns out that deciphering Joywave’s songwriting process is difficult because it is consistently inconsistent. Case in point: Armbruster explained how he wrote and recorded the track “Ridge” by himself. Once it was in a place he was pleased with he then took it to the other band members so they could collectively figure out how to play it live. The final result being that the live version features heavier guitar levels than the recorded version, which instead emphasizes synthesizers.

This differed from the process used on 88888, since more samples meant spending more time finding the puzzle pieces, putting them together, and then overlaying the vocals. For this, Armbruster explained that bassist Sean Donnelly also contributed a large portion of the sampling and mixing. Now the next step for the band will be bringing these songs to the stage.

Rochester has been receptive to Joywave since the band’s formation and the band has returned the favor by being supporters of their hometown. “One of the things I like about living and playing here is that I don’t feel the pressure to fit into something specific,” said Armbruster. “That’s been really important to our development. Not that Rochester is an island, but it kind of is. There aren’t a million bands that are trying to do the latest coolest thing.”

The support for the Flour City can be found sewn into various pieces of work. From the cover art of Koda Vista to the final song on the EP, “Smokestacks,” which refers to the billowing towers of Kodak Park in Greece where a majority of the band’s members grew up, the band is proud of its heritage.

“Our entire band is a byproduct of Eastman Kodak,” recounted Armbruster. “My dad is from Ohio, but he moved here right after college and got a job at Kodak. Either someone’s parent worked at Kodak, or Travis [Johansen, guitarist] works at the Eastman House. Without Kodak, without George Eastman, none of us would know each other. I probably wouldn’t be making music, I probably wouldn’t have met the right people to influence me.”

As far as the next mission for Joywave, Armbruster promised new original music from the band. He found his songwriting stride post-Koda Vista and said he has written numerous songs since the EP’s release. The objective behind the 88888 mixtape, while a testament to the bands evolving creativity, is to serve as a bridge connecting Koda Vista with the next release of original music. Armbruster said that a series of EPs is likely, but with Joywave it is best to not make predictions and let the band’s creativity run naturally.

Joywave play with KOPPS at the Bug Jar on Saturday, May 18, 2013.

Where have I heard Hunter Hunted’s “Operating” before? Was it in a dream? (More likely, it was in a commercial, or in the background somewhere when I wasn’t paying attention.) But the song is instantly familiar, like I’ve known it all along, a lingering vestige of some previous life. “Operating” is destined for highway drives, for scenic overlooks, for iPhone commercials that you hate to love. If you could Instagram songs, this one would be best in a kind of hazy, sepia tone.

The band’s debut EP – a five-song, self-titled affair – is available right this minute. You can stream the whole thing on their Soundcloud page if this one song hasn’t convinced you that you need to buy it.

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Go back and look. You’ll find that we talked about MS MR way back in August 2011; if you look at Hype Machine, you’ll see that we’re right there among the first to have picked up what they were putting down. And now they’ve attained some superstardom status, with their songs being used by the likes of HBO and reaching the pinnacle of the popular pages on Hype Machine and all that. An unofficial, shaky conclusion: there’s a direct link between a band blowing the fuck up and being posted on tympanogram.

I bring this up because the band’s debut album, Secondhand Rapture, is due out this coming Tuesday, and it would behoove you to take the time to listen to it. You might not have the first time we told you to, and you might make that same mistake in the future. But don’t say we didn’t warn you.

The whole affair is streaming on Hype Machine, but we’re particularly enamored of this rework of “Hurricane” that was done by fellow capitalization-heavy outfit CHVRCHES. Put on your most sequined shirt and let’s go dancing.

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We’ve been blogging long enough to remember the fall of Drink Up Buttercup, who seemed to be coming into their own in the early days of 2009 when this blog was in its infancy. The Philadelphia-based outfit produced odd psych-pop, and their debut full-length, Born and Thrown on a Hook, was released in early 2010, and the band called it quits around a year later. Their run was brief but much heralded, and the fact that this new project out of Philly called CaveWomen caught my eye is because it boasts a former member of that band.

CaveWomen, however, isn’t a revamped version of Drink Up Buttercup, if that’s what you’ve come to hear. With only two members, the project is decidedly fuzzy, and a bit more straightforward, though this is an opinion based entirely off of the one song the band has put into the ether. “Sympathy for the Hook Man” is only two-and-a-half minutes, but it makes good use of every second of them, sounding like a snotty punk twosome that could be stealing the show as the opener for Wavves.

Grab the track, the pair’s only available music at this point, and prepare yourself for more in the months to come.

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CaveWomen // Sympathy for the Hook Man [mp3]

We’ve been after the guys in Bravestation to get themselves to Rochester for a show, but so far, our pleas have been to no avail. Then again, we aren’t putting on shows anymore – or even writing with any regularity – so that could be part of the reason, though I think it has more to do with the fact that the United States doesn’t make it easy for a Canadian band to come down and play a one-off show. But if you’ve been listening to what the Toronto outfit has been doing over the past couple of years, you’ll understand why we’ve been anxious to get them here. After releasing their debut full-length last year, the band is back with a new, four song EP that will be released this coming Tuesday, entitled simply IV.

This track, “Somewhere We Belong”, is the second the trio has released from the EP. (You can hear the first one – “All We Have Is Us” – at their Soundcloud page.) It’s indicative of what the band does best: a blend of synth-heavy, future-tinged pop – a sort of future tropical, if I can be so bold as to coin a new genre. Lyrically, the song bears the hallmarks of the band’s first single, “White Wolves”, from their 2010 debut EP. It’s a nice pair of bookends around last year’s full-length.

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Bravestation // Somewhere We Belong [mp3] from the forthcoming IV

Los Angeles duo Boardwalk haven’t been around long; according to their brief bio, the outfit formed last summer, and in the intervening year they’ve managed to secure a guitar and bassist in Mark Noseworthy of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, as well as a spot on Stones Throw Records, who will be releasing their debut album at some point this summer.

“I’m To Blame” is the first track that’s been released into the wild, though I’m not sure if it’s a one-off single or if it will be on the eventual album. It was put out on flexi-disc as part of a single series through Stones Throw, and it’s a quiet, slow burning four minutes that feature Amber Quintero’s understated vocals alongside a trembling electric guitar. Think fondly of Mazzy Star and let this wash over you. I played it with the windows wide open, and the birds chirping sounded like they were in tune with the music. Gorgeous.

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Benoît Pioulard is a name I previously recognized, yet failed to associate with any particular sound or notion. As the moniker for Michigan based singer-songwriter Thomas Meluch, the pseudonym adds a greater sense of intrigue to his persona and music – perhaps an exotic foreignness – that his given name doesn’t quite convey. This sense translated into and emboldened the first track I believe I’ve heard (though I can’t be certain), yet is undoubtedly the first that captured my attention and held it. That track is “Margin,” and it’s from Pioulard’s latest LP Hymnal.

[mp3] Benoît Pioulard // Margin

Pioulard has been quite prolific since the early aughts, self releasing a number of CD-R’s before graduating to a few 7″ releases and label released LP’s. Hymnal – his fourth under the alias – took root in his relocation to Southeast England, where along with his Catholic background, the region’s surroundings – awash in religious iconography amidst a vast array of cathedrals – served as nourishing subject matter. Religious tones emerge throughout in the lyrical content and mood evocation, especially through little flourishes such as the church bells ringing at the close of “Margin.” Thus far “Margin” remains the standout amongst these foreboding lo-fi experimental folk tracks, but I just got my vinyl copy yesterday and that may change.

If you didn’t know, Dave and I both do some freelance work for the local alternative newspaper, City. Surprisingly, we write show previews for the paper – quick pieces talking about bands that are coming to town in an effort to get people out to the shows, or, at the very least, give the band(s) a listen. This week I was tasked with writing about The Lighthouse and The Whaler, who will be plying their trade at Bug Jar on Sunday, May 12. We’ve written about the band before – back at the end of 2010 – after their debut album came out. And since that initial writeup, I hadn’t given the band much of a thought.

This morning, however, in looking at their website, I ran across their most recent single, “Venice”, from their 2012 album This Is An Adventure, and it floored me immediately. It’s a straightforward love song, breathless and new and perfect for these days when the weather is gorgeous and everything is back to blooming. And I’ve listened to it ten times in the past hour or so. Chances are, even if you have heard it before, you might do the same.

Tonight the band opens a four-pack of shows with Ra Ra Riot, starting in their hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.

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The band has a new song out this morning entitled “All Summer Long”, which is just in time for getting on all your summertime drinking playlists, and for your road trip playlists, and for whatever else you do with your longer days and warmer nights. Mine generally involve grilling and beer.

I’m putting the mp3 below, but I encourage you all to sign up for the band’s mailing list as well via the embedded form below, which is how I got it. Trust me, you want to know what these guys are putting out in the future.

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French Films // All Summer Long [mp3]

As it turns out, Cedermark is the former guitarist for Titus Andronicus, though if you’d only heard this track, you might not be able to tell. On its face, the track reminds me of a cross between Damien Jurado and Andrew Bird, though Cedermark can turn up the twang in his voice when the need arises.

“Canis Major,” for the non-astronomy fans, is a constellation that’s best viewed in the month of February, and is one of Orion the Hunter’s (another constellation) two dogs, the other being Canis Minor.

There’s something perfect about the song on a day like today, when the temperature eliminates the need for a jacket and necessitates that windows are open. “Canis Major” is scuffed up and broken in perfectly, like the jeans and t-shirt you’ll be wearing to the bar for a post-work week beer.

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