L.A.-ers, your time to check out American Apparel's warehouse/grab some new summer clothes for cheap is winding down. The store's L.A. Factory Flea Sale ends this Sunday, July 1. To wrap things up, we've got a few good Viva DJ's spinning in-store all weekend. I hope someone plays a dance remix of Sufjan Stevens' "That Dress Looks Nice On You," or something equally subliminal.

On Friday, Hugs and Strokes' Jason Jury opens the closing celebration with a set from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., followed by ex-Ariel Pink/Beachwood Sparks member Jimi Hey (that dude up there), a man that isn't Viva-affiliated but is awesome nonetheless.

On top of that, Mark Walat of Sly fame (pictured above) will be spinning on both Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Meanwhile, Maxwell Williams from Maximum Thrills closes out Saturday night from 5-8 p.m.

Stay tuned, as the lineup will expand throughout the week.

Lust For Youth, the synth outfit of Malmö, Sweden's Hannes Norrvide, released its second full length back in April via Italy's Avant! Records. Titled Growing Seeds, this LP fully taps the potential that the group's 2011 debut Solar Flare only hinted at.

From its earliest days, the band managed to stand out from the rest of the coldwave-wave, merging austere industrial drones with romantic synth lines and vocal delivery (a nice break from today's current wave of synth bands singing romantic lyrics with the delivery of an anthropomorphized refrigerator).

Since Solar Flare, Norrvide's replaced female conspirator Amanda with backup from Loke Rahbek (of War/Sexdrome), allowing the band to reach UWP (ultimate white-boy potential). Rahbek's influence feels most felt on tracks like "We Planted a Seed" and "Cover Their Faces," allowing high-pitched oscillations to cut through the equally-angular synths. On the opposite end of the spectrum, however, I suspect Norrvide's been listening to a lot of the Tough Alliance lately, because he's crafted some incredible pop songs that, in comparision to his older material, I would have never anticpated.

Stream the entire album below:

Pick up the LP via U.S. distributor Sacred Bones here.

J Montag and Eugene of FACE crew are in effect for Summer 2012. They have a brand new playlist (Episode 13) up right now featuring some very earthy jams to set your day straight.

It's kinda like dropping major shrooms throughout the work day. Not that I would know anything about that. Needless to say J and Eugene have been traveling about the North American continent lately and this mix is very telling of their cool travels from sea to shining sea!

Take a listen to their latest playlist now and other assorted archives always available on FACE at Viva Radio!

Kindness - House
Jonny Rock - Bad Instr
TNGHT - Bugg'n
Lockah - Goons & Roses
Lol Boys - Changes ft. Heart Streets
Actress - The Lord's Graffiti
Nina Kraviz & Amine Edge - Ghetto Kraviz (Amine Edge Mix)
Adriatique & Audino - All The Ladies
Rudimental - Feel the Love
Oliver S - Doin' Ya Thang
ETC!ETC! & Brillz - Bueller (Dub)
Baauer - Harlem Shake

Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you what's been dubbed as "the best Me + You episode so far (as voted by uh, the featured artist)."

Our newest comes from Man Forever, and I've gotta say I'm interested to see how this one plays out on the American Apparel storefront. Consisting of Oneida's Kid Millions, Yeah Yeah Yeah's Brian Chase, and Dave Kadden's Dave Kadden, Man Forever has been dubbed as Metal Machine Music for drums.

Based around a couple guys playing overlapping drum patterns on a single snare drum, these guys play a hypnotic style of drone that, half the time, doesn't even involve strings.

Live, the band opened things up with a four minute snare drone appropriately titled "Snare Phases," followed by a 15-minute (!) version of "Surface Patterns" from their recent Pansophical Cataract LP. In between transcending states in our studio, Man4Ev and host Tedward took a trip back in time to discuss the evolution of the NYC music scene, their plans to thwart a high school marching band's world record, and what exactly a "woodie" is.

Decide for yourself if this is the best Me + You episode ever (and if you like shaming high schoolers and woodies, it just might be) when it airs today at noon on Viva Radio.

Also, New Yorkers: Catch Man Forever at the Stone on July 11.

Viva DJ's will be spinning in solidarity for gay pride this weekend at American Apparel's 205 Bleeker St. location.

Tomorrow, Glen Szabo from Absinthe & Presents spins from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday finds Sambarella from Gruv Gallery running things from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., followed by two hours of tunes from the mayor of Gay Beach himself, Tedward, starting at 3 p.m.

See you there!

Check out more on American Apparel's Legalize Gay campaign here.

Black Keys protégés Hacienda released their third full length, Shakedown, via Collective Sounds yesterday.

These four guys from San Antonio play a strand of throwback rock'n'roll that's definitely indebted to the Keys; however, the band pulls it off with a poppy, early 00's sensibility reminiscent of both Beck and the Strokes. We've got the video for their new single "Savage" down below. It features the band performing in a studio that might also be a kitchen and everyone looks super stoked, which is probably because they're performing in the largest music studio I've ever seen (I haven't seen many music studios. However, ours is small and doesn't look like a kitchen. That does not stop it from smelling like pizza).

The whole album's streaming over at Paste. And just for good measure, here's the artwork for a completely different band called Hacienda that I found upon googling "Hacienda bandcamp:"

Pick up either one today!

Brothers Simon and Josh Frank play in a duo called Hot & Cold. Their debut LP Border Area – the follow-up to 2011’s Conclusion/Introduction cassette – will be available on July 17th via the Chicago-based Moniker Records.



Border Area sounds like a pair of brothers, pissed and anxiety-ridden, went down to their parent’s low-ceilinged basement and built a blanket fort. Sitting cross-legged and back-to-back beneath their huge grey blanket, they plugged in. It was late. It was dark. They weren’t speaking. Soon, one was chugging at a bass, and the other was smashing his keyboard, repeatedly, against his forehead. There was a simple, cheap drumbeat, too – for a semblance of security amidst the chaos. Playing, they grew excited and began to move around a bit. They stood up suddenly in unison, and rushed their foreheads against the fort’s impressionable perimeter. It gave and fell around, dressing them as charcoal grey ghosts. It got hot, but they continued to play because the tape was rolling and dammit we don’t waste tape in this fort. This went on for some weeks.



Though they borrow heavily from proto-everything groups such as Neu and Suicide, Hot & Cold is keen to the fact. They sound all the more fresh for it. Check out their Bandcamp now.

The Prefab Messiahs, that ultra-proto early 80s group of Dada-addled dreamers that we love but are only beginning to understand, well, they are turning thirty this year! To celebrate the occasion the group will be offering a very special performance featuring fellow weirdos Spectre Folk, Bobb Trimble’s Flying Spiders, and Weyes Blood & The Dark Juices. Manning the DJ booth is Viva’s very own Jason Jones – host of the weekly show Divers Songs. Needless to say, this is not to be missed. So don’t.



It all goes down Friday, June 8th at Death By Audio (49 South 2nd Street) in Williamsburg. Just 8 bucks to weird out all night long – and we’ll let you decide just what exactly that means.

Viva’s first taste of the sweet, Brooklyn ice cream that is Helado Negro, AKA Roberto Carlos Lange, came via the multimedia collaborative project, Norte Sonoro. An ambitious project, Norte Sonoro combined the talents of world-renowned producers such as DJ/Rupture and White Rainbow with the very best musicians of Northern Mexico in order to record music distinctly regional yet undeniably transcendent of any borders whatsoever. After that they put on a festival. Success. The recorded fruit of this collaboration – the Norte Sonoro 1 EP – is available for free here, and it's nothing short of mesmerizing. Among the best of that lot is “Dime,” and it comes from Lange. “Black Ice Cream?” I thought. I tucked the name away to return to at a later date.



I spent a month away from my Viva cubicle, and when I returned, I was promptly alerted that Helado Negro had released an EP all his own, Island Universe Story One, earlier in the year, on February 28th 2012. According to Bandcamp, the EP is the first of an infinite series and is defined by its exclusive use of a Scully 280 ¼ inch tape machine and the Teenage Engineering OP-1 synthesizer. The record’s less gear-heady ambition (and more philo-heady goal) is “to chart new constellations and family lineage for the lonely souls and stars of the deep universe of existence.”



Whoa. But if Lange’s methods and outwardly lofty ambitions turn you off, just give him a few minutes more. Sure, you might not recognize the Scully purring or the OP-1 synth, but you will get a sense of the usefulness of his restraint. The cosmic cartography, too, begins to take shape. Take “Paz A Ti,” for example, a track founded on a receding, non-imposing synthesizer pulse. Here Helado lets everything breathe; he lets us look up and around a bit, even as he croons atop the pitter-patterings of the OP-1. I think of digital spiders webbing the sky in time. Success Again.

You can stream and/or purchase Island Universe Story One at Helado Negro’s Bandcamp right now. Also, be sure not to miss his performance at the Mercury Lounge with the legendary Sam Prekop and the wonderful Archer Prewitt on Saturday, June 30th.

Brother-Horden hails from way ‘cross the Atlantic, broadcasting his long-running Viva show, N. Soul UK, from the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England. The show is, without a doubt, a great one: the one-and-only home to some of the most obscure soul cuts around. But really, for Horden, it’s only the tip of a great soul-music iceberg. Just a few minutes with the brother and he reveals the impetus of his life-long musical project. It begins with the story of the historic Catacombs – the epicenter of the short-lived Northern Soul scene (for more details, check out his website, and carries on by the ceaseless spirit of the search for the artifacts of that time: some of the rarest soul 7”s in the world. It’s all part of Brother-Horden’s philosophy of life and passion. With his 200th Viva show airing this week, we think it’s about time we gave the man a voice. Read on for some Horden history and listening recommendations. Listen on every Tuesday at 9:00 P.M., right here on Viva-Radio. And Brother, keep on keepin’ the dream alive.


Behold: The Seal of Great Northern Soul

VR: How’d you first become involved with Viva-Radio?

BH: This is a story that started in April 2006, on my second visit to the USA, this time visiting New York City (my first visit was in 2004 visiting Los Angeles). My brother Stewart – who lives in New York City – and I met on 42nd street outside the Port Authority Bus Terminals and decided to search for the “Last Of The Rare Stuff” (60's American Soul Music), which was pressed on 7” vinyl records. In Great Britain, we call this music “Northern Soul”. One day, Stewart was taking a shortcut through a back street in Brooklyn searching for the music; he stopped and started talking to Neil Molitoris who was a show curator for Viva-Radio. Correspondence between United States of America and Great Britain was set up and on the 19th of September 2008 our first show: “N Soul UK,” was broadcasted from the United Kingdom to the United States of America and then went around the world for Viva-Radio.

VR: What do you hope listeners will take away from your show? What are your goals as the program’s curator?

BH: We can only be the caretakers of this great music - we call it Northern Soul. We hope that the listeners enjoy our shows and share the track treasures, passing them on to the next generation of soul brothers and sisters. Our goals are to take part in media projects, doing live outside broadcasts in New York, Los Angeles and across the world for Viva-Radio on special occasions.

VR: What would you consider the single most important record in your life and why?

BH: Tobi Legend - “Time Will Pass You By” on the label Mala. This is a song about no more tomorrows – its message is that today is the most important day of your life. It’s about doing something and being someone, trying to be the best against all the odds. She sings, “Don't be a pebble on the beach” because “time will pass you by.”



VR: What are the records/tracks you find yourself consistently returning to over the years?

BH: The Who - “Rain”, The Beatles – “Fool On The Hill”, Randy Crawford – “One Day I'll Fly Away”

VR: Okay, so lets say it’s the perfect night out with the best of company. Where are you? Who are you with, what year is it and what's the DJ playing.

BH: A friend and myself own the film script copyrights to the “Rarest Tamla Motown” record in the world. We are at the opening night of the film in Hollywood. The film is entitled “Chasing Wilson,” a true story of events, about one man's search for the rarest Tamla Motown record in the world. [Tamla is a record label started in 1959 by Berry Gordon Jr. of Motown Records fame.] We are with the cast, the crew and all the soul brothers and sisters from all walks of life. The DJ is playing “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)” by Frank Wilson Label. Soul and the film is a huge success.

On that note, HAPPY 200th SHOW, BROTHER! Here’s to keeping the dream alive, and here’s to 200 more. Tune in to N. Soul UK every Tuesday at 9:00 P.M. as always, exclusively on Viva.