Pages tagged “battles”

Forget math rock. Battles bring it to you Rubik’s cube style, with drums, bass, guitar and (recently added) vocals interlocking into a complex whole. Like that famed puzzle, it’s a sound that seems bewildering at first, but once you learn the rules, it just sort of clicks. The group’s latest album, Mirrored, has been burning it up with the critics, and now the group wants to win the public’s heart, too.

To that end, a new EP: Tonto +. Think of it as the deluxe luxury edition of “Tonto,” one of Mirrored’s standout tracks. The EP, coming out Oct. 22 via Warp Records, features the title track, remixes of Battles material from Four Tet, the Field, DJ EMZ, and live cuts. Also included: a DVD with music videos and a “making of ‘Tonto’” featurette.

For those seeking the genuine article and not just a hump of plastic, Battles will be raging across North America in the near future:

October
27 - Las Vegas, Nev. @ Vegoose Festival
29 - San Diego, Calif. @ Epicentre
30 - Los Angeles, Calif. @ Henry Fonda Theater *

November
1 - San Francisco, Calif. @ Great American Music Hall *
2 - Portland, Ore. @ Hawthorne Theater ^
3 - Seattle, Wash. @ Neumos
4 - Austin, Tex. @ Fun Fun Fun Fest
7 - Minneapolis, Minn. @ Fine Line Music Café %
8 - Chicago, Ill. @ Metro #
9 - Ann Arbor, Mich. @ The Blind Pig %
10 - Toronto, Ontario @ Lees Palace %
11 - Montreal, Quebec @ Le National %
12 - Boston, Mass. @ Paradise %
13 - New York, N.Y. @ Webster Hall %

* w/ No Age
^ w/ Parts & Labor
% w/ White Williams
# w/ Caribou, Born Ruffians

Related Links:
Battles HQ
Battles at MySpace
Battles "Tonto" Video (YouTube)

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Hometown: New York, NY
Members: [l-r] John Stanier (drums); Ian Williams (guitar); Dave Konopka (bass, guitar); Tyondai Braxton (guitar, vocals)
Fun Fact: Battles claim a close spiritual kinship with Stanley Kubrick, going so far as to half-seriously describe their music as "the soundtrack to the ever-evolving Kubrick film constantly being played in our minds."
Whey They’re Worth Watching: Like a juicy Philip K. Dick novel, the music of Battles is both fun and forward-thinking.
For Fans Of: Animal Collective, Tortoise, The Go! Team

If bands like Lynx, Don Caballero and Helmet had achieved widespread popularity, Battles would be hailed as a supergroup. As it stands though, the quartet, which coalesced after a string of encounters on the streets of New York City, will have to settle for being merely a collection of technically gifted players able to deliver idiosyncratic recordings and sweat-soaked performances.