Remix of the Gypsyblood track Superstition from the album Cold In The Guestway

(Source: soundcloud.com)

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In 2006, I was introduced to a band by Dave Davison of Maps & Atlases out of Chicago called Karma with A K. I fell deeply and madly in love with them. They never even got around to releasing an album before they disbanded.  I was so sad when I heard they called it quits without ever having really left Chicago. But I kept dibs on the boys of the Karma unit for years waiting. Then one day Dave Davison emailed me two demos of songs that blew my mind and he said “Remember Karma with A K ? Well this is Adam and Kyle’s new band GYPSYBLOOD. The rest is history. I signed the bloods and this my friends is that story.

So, May we Introduce you to GYPSYBLOOD? All this week their album Cold In The Guestway is FREE for download HERE. They have mellowed, my Karma boys but oh what sweet tunes they make. So, what have you got to lose? Get turned on, I know I did. And if you love our “May We Introduce You” Free downloads thing make sure and help us spread the music! - SARGENT HOUSE /CP

 

(Source: sargenthouse)

Rock A Rolla Magazine reviews Gypsyblood’s Cold In The Guestway in this months Issue #32 with label mates Boris on the Cover. 

gypsyblood

Cold In the Guestway (Sargent House)
When it comes to the genre of “garage rock,” most listeners take the “been there, done that” attitude. It’s just hard to find something new — or rather, a new take on the genre. Chicago’s Gypsyblood blow that attitude out of the water with their debut, Cold In The Guestway. Their garage rock is combined with some noise pop and the best elements of surf rock (part of a recent trend pioneered by the likes of Surfer Blood and The Drums). There is even some Rolling Stones era bluesy-twang thrown in the mix for good measure (“Dirty Thieves”). Even though this is their debut album, it is clear that the band has fallen into a good groove.

From the reverb-heavy “Take Your Picture,” which starts off the album on a bombastic, Midwestern rock note (the influence of fellow Midwesterners Guided By Voices is apparent), to the frenetic “In Your Blood,” Gypsyblood flex their guitar-swinging muscles. Throw in the oddly creepy “2-4-6 IntheDark,” and the anthem “My RKO is M.I.A,” and it solidifies: there is no doubting that Gypsyblood has created an album worth talking about. The occasional pop-driven swingy tunes like “A Song Called Take 2” and “Superstition” provides the pre-requisite accessibility, but there is no mistaking the fact that Gypsyblood don’t mess around when it comes to boisterious garage rock.
Reviewed by JUDY NELSON 

A while back we turned the spotlight on Chicago’s Gypsyblood, a noisy little combo with a history of in-fighting, codependency and a snazzy debut in the form of, Cold In the Guestway. Today we’re happy to report that the band is still alive and well, and what’s more, we’re pleased as punch to be premiering the video for Take Your Picture, a noisy little number that starts with an innocuous-sounding U2ish riff before taking a hard right into more abrasive, albeit still pop-friendly, territory.

Chicago’s own Gypsyblood play a FREE show TONIGHT May 16, at the Empty Bottle (9:30pm, 1035 N. Western Ave.) in support of their newly released full length LP Cold In The Guestway. We recently caught up with Gypsyblood guitarist/vocalist Adam James, and got to ask him a few questions about the record. We’ve also got a copy of the new LP to giveaway to one lucky person, so keep reading to find out how to win!

The Vinyl District: The new record just came out last month on Sargent House, what’s the meaning behind the album’s title Cold In The Guestway?

Adam James: To us, it speaks more to color and tone. When everything has lost its meaning, you can only know how you feel. The viscerality of being in a place at a moment. Like an old soul who knows their being is true when everything is telling them otherwise. When reality has been proven to be the variable within society, we are here to tell you that your being is true and Cold in the Guestway.

TVD: How’d you get hooked up with Sargent House?

Adam: We’ve been in bands playing in and around Chicago for quite sometime and along the way we’ve gotten to know some remarkably talented people. Musicians, artists, vagabonds, mercenaries, hobos, and visionaries. In saying, we’re both pretty bad at self promotion, you just do what you love and the rest will come.

So Kyle was driving around giving one of the album mixes a car test, and ran into longtime friend Dave Davison of  Maps & Atlases/Cast Spells. Dave liked what he heard and got a copy with which he sent over to Cathy and Marc at Sargent House and that was that.

The great thing about Sargent House though is that they are a genuine family. Before they make any moves on a band they spread it around the office to get everyone’s take, and if everyone’s jazzed they go with it. That kind of atmosphere has always appealed to us.

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Gypsyblood - Cold In The Guestway
Sargent House
ESM Rating: 8/10

Ronnie Wood will not be pleased. The Rolling Stones guitarist and former member of The Jeff Beck Band and The Faces proudly flaunts his gypsy heritage. According to an interview with Keith’s fellow axe slinger on “Top Gear” — the British one, people — Ronnie was the first in his family to be born on land rather than on the traditional English-canal-navigating houseboat. So when a couple of dirty looking guys — vocalist/guitarist Adam James and vocalist/drummer/bassist Kyle Victor — hole up in an old Chicago building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for the winter, emerging with the spring thaw as a wild noise-rock band named Gypsyblood, you might worry that Ronnie would take offense to these young tossers. Give Cold In The Guestway one listen, though, and you’ll realize that Ronnie and his gypsy relatives should welcome James and Victor with open arms.

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DOWNLOAD THEN SEE: Gypsyblood

If the year was 1991 instead of 2011 Gypsybood would be on Matador Records. Spin magazine would be creaming their pants extolling the band’s praises. Stephen Malkmus and Bob Pollard would be at their shows bobbing their heads in the back of the room. Their debut, Cold In The Guestway, is immediately familiar but never tiring. The Chicago duo of Adam James and Kyle Victor are creating music from a different age that sounds better than ever today. Download 2 tracks HERE and then catch them at their album release show at Liar’s Club  + Cast Spells tonight 4/29/11/ FREE 21+

Another band we kept hearing about during last month’s South by Southwest festival was Chicago’s Gypsyblood. The bandformed in 2009 and just released their debut full-length, Cold in the Guestway, which spans a range of sounds—all raw, all rough, and all undeniably appealing. One of our favorite tracks from the album, ”In Our Blood,” is this week’s Song of the Week. Gypsyblood’s Adam James took a few minutes recently to sit down and talk with us about their sound, why Chi-town’s awesome, and getting crapped on at shows. 

Kindness of Ravens: So, alright, first thing’s first: Really awesome record. Original sound too—very raw and rough but still surprisingly melodic and catchy. Though there are seemingly some definite nods to a few bands I adored in my high school years, Jesus and Mary Chain prime among them. Were you two looking for a particular sound or is it just something that was born organically?

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The music of Chicago’s Gypsyblood has been compared to Pavement, Guided by Voices, Dinosaur Jr., Throwing Muses, Archers of Loaf and dozens of other 90′s alternative bands. To me those comparisons are flat out lazy. I’ll admit certain elements of the early to mid 90′s (sludgy guitar riffs, strained vocals, brooding lyrics) vaguely hover around Gypsyblood’s latest LP Cold in the Guestway; but like musical gnats, hovering is as close as they come to picking an obvious reference to land on.

Often 90′s rock isn’t a touchstone at all, one could just as easily find bits of 80′s punk, 60′s psychedelia and 70′s glam in standout tracks “My R.K.O. is M.I.A.” and “Take Your Picture”. Jesus and Mary Chain, who I would consider more of an 80′s band, is a more valid comparison often cited, especially on a track like “A Song Called Take 2″, given the shared vocals and general noisy ethos. Only in a recent interview frontmen Adam James and Kyle Victor claimed they had not heard Jesus and Mary Chain until the comparison was made in the press. Whether or not that is true doesn’t matter because wearing your influences on your sleeve is nothing new to pop music. After all, Jesus and Mary Chain were reinterpreting the Beach Boys and The Stooges, Pavement did the same with The Fall and Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. loved them some Neil Young and Wipers.

What matters in the end is not necessarily the originality of the band’s aesthetic but the ability of that aesthetic to stir up something unique in the listener. Something Gypsyblood’s Cold in the Guestway achieves with their hazy, ragged but nonetheless hook-heavy approach to classic pop.

Cold in the Guestway is streaming now on Gypsyblood’s bandcamp

Chicago is, in my humble opinion, one of the best cities for truly creative work. Granted, I am bias since it’s where I call my home, and also where I’m involved in the arts, but when it comes solid music, theater, and art, Chicago is where it’s at. Other cities have a lot of creative people doing creative things, but Chicago artists seem to still have a strong foothold in reality. There’s a difference between being artistic and jerking off. As far as I have seen, folks here know when to put the Vaseline away.

Case in point, Chicago’s own Gypsyblood. It would be very easy for these gentlemen to take their noisy and fuzzy intensity to a sonic extreme just for the thrill of making the audience think they are “deep” and making everyone shift in their seats. Instead, Gypsyblood pushes out some damn fine dance tunes and melodies from the fuzz. Their debut album, Cold in the Guestway, is a tight amalgamation of influences with a sprinkle of Chicago punk grime.

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For a debut record, Gypsyblood‘s Cold In The Guestway seems to, no pun intended, hit all the right notes. Elements of ragged guitar rockery and noisy bedroom pop are tightly weaved together on Cold In The Guestway. And yet perhaps the band’s biggest accomplishment is that the record, while it does at times throwback to the early 90′s alternative-rock-era, doesn’t sound angsty or take itself too seriously. Among the thick guitar phrases and punchy percussion is a perfect amount of lightheartedness that keeps the music lively and infectious.

When the double guitar attack of “Take Your Picture” blasts out of the gate, the chugging riffs sound like they’re being beamed straight from a 1993 airing of MTV’s 120 Minutes. But when the band’s dual vocalists and guitarists of Adam James and Kyle Victor enter with their elder statesman-like delivery, which reminiscent of …Trail of Dead’s Conrad Keely and even has a bit of an Amanda Palmer-esque bite, you’ll know this is not your uncle’s grunge.

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Gypsyblood’s Cold In The Guestway comes out officially on 4/12 but have a listen early if you like.

Gypsyblood /Cold in the Guestway
Sargent House
Street: 04.12

Gypsyblood = Pavement + The Clean

Cold in the Guestway is a channeled testament to the inescapable dark energy of frigid Chicago winters. I’d like to think of it as the musical version of Mike Brown and me smashing our kitchen. There’s a noticeably raw element to these catchy pop songs, with cool melodies and interesting layers of noise and percussion blanketing the album from top to bottom. It was recorded in a building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, an old warehouse that was later converted into a practice space, and the faint sounds of other bands mixed with street noise bleed through on multiple tracks, providing for a unique recording. Sure, the guitars are fuzzy, the drumming is fairly aggressive and the vocals are pulled from multiple pop sources, but what makes this record stand out is simply the feeling of it. In my opinion, this album is solid, and I recommend you check it out. –Mike Abooya

Gypsyblood does a great job mixing numerous genres and influences into a nicely distorted, full-assault on lo-fi bands on the Sargent House debut Cold in the Guestway.

The opener “Take Your Picture” is an all-in-one idea of what Gypsyblood explores on the rest of the album. Driving bass lines, strong almost surf-rock guitar riffs, distorted vocals that function more as an instrument themselves than as a vehicle to deliver the songs lyrics and a loud chorus that barrages listeners with a wall of sound culminate into a shoegaze explosion.

The first half of the album is dance and post-punk inspired.

The second track “In Our Blood” employs a heavy guitar riff to guide and carry the song and showcases the group’s diversity not only in playing style, but in vocals as well, which sound like a hardened punk rock singer’s. This quality is consistent throughout the album, especially on “2-4-6 In the Dark,” where listeners are introduced to the deep and low tone of the singer’s voice on this Joy Division inspired track.

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