Sargent House and 1656 Music presents their official SXSW show lineup for Friday, March 16th at Bat Bar - 218 E. 6th Street with the following bands.

Deafheaven - 1:00am
Zechs Marquise - 12:05am
Chelsea Wolfe - 11:10pm
And So I Watch You From Afar - 10:15pm
Indian Handcrafts - 9:20pm
Marriages - 8:25pm
Gypsyblood - 7:30pm

W/ special guest sets from Eureka The Butcher between bands

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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)

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 will be celebrating the release of their debut album Cold In The Guestway with a hometown Chicago show on April 29th. Yes, we know its two weeks after it comes out but we are doing a mini tour first with Maps & Atlases & Delicate Steve. And who better to join us than the man who brought Gypsyblood to Sargent House,  Dave Davison, Mr. A&R himself will be playing his own Cast Spells on this fine evening at the Liars Club. Don’t miss it Chicago.

(Source: artistdata.sonicbids.com)

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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It’s a good time to be making crunchy, guitar-driven music that sounds like 90s alt-rock. The ever-churning pop-cultural nostalgia machine is almost finished with 90s rave culture, and lately Doc Martens and flannels have been trendier than at any point in the past 15 years or so. Two of the most anticipated releases of the past couple months, Yuck’s self-titled debut album and Dum Dum Girls’ He Gets Me High EP, wouldn’t have sounded odd to anybody in 1992, when there were lots of other bands chasing the coattails of Dinosaur Jr. or late-period Throwing Muses.

So it’s probably also a good time for Gypsyblood’s Cold in the Guestway, which comes out next week on Sargent House (home to fellow Chicagoans Russian Circles and Cast Spells). It’s packed with what seem like nods to the fuzz-addicted indie rockers of a generation ago—Dinosaur, Archers of Loaf—but the band claim to have arrived at their sound without any conscious influence from those acts.

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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 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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An Interview with Gypsyblood - by Adam Pfleider 

One of Sargent House’s newest signings, the two main men of Gypsyblood have been playing music for years and are rooted in the Chicago music scene. This time around, they sound more honed into making it as organic and in your face as possible. After their set Saturday night, I pulled the guys aside to talk about their upcoming debut and how the possible need to have the record separate from the live show.


So, just for a little background, I hear you guys were playing music together and then you weren’t playing music and now you are again. How natural did that feel to get back together?

Kyle Victor: Honestly, we just got in a fucking room and I got on the drums. When Karma [With a K] first started, the band prior to this, I was playing drums. I always tried to get [Adam] to play music with me, but he always thought I was an asshole at that time. Finally, I was like, “We’re all into the same fucking shit, let’s get in the room and see how this goes.” So we got in the room, seven years later, you learn to deal with everyone else. There’s other people in the band. There’s so much going on. It ended at its highest point. That was a good thing.

Adam James: Not only that, it was to the highest point in terms that we were all on stage, and everyone is gathering their gear after the last song and no one knows where Kyle is. We’re getting in the van, and we still don’t know where Kyle is. Come to find out three months later, he just walked home from the show…

Victor: I was just a mess at that point…

James: It’s not even that. To this day, we’re at each others throats. There were a few shows - thank god we were borrowing other people’s bass drums, because I was just going to kick it in and say, “Hey, good luck playing the rest of the shows.”

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Have you ever been cornered in the restroom and barked at with questions? No? Well, Chicago’s Gypsyblood has – at least when Cluster 1 and the fantastic duo decided to knock heads in the stall. Well, not literally. Or even metaphorically. Ack! ANYWAY, check out this adventurous interview which has Cluster 1 pestering Adam James and Kyle Victor with questions about their time at SXSW, recording in a structure built by Frank Lloyd Wright, signing with Sargent House, and the band’s upcoming debut, Cold In The Guestway, due out April 12th. Check it out…and then wash your hands, please.

damn, gypsyblood have dirty mouths.

Thank you, Gypsyblood. Thank you for taking the tired terrain of indie and turning it on its head, for doing something innovative with your lo-fi vocals, for proving that surf isn’t just a cover for technical inability. Here’s to the three minutes of “Take Your Picture” that take fuzz to infinity and beyond. And here’s to Sargent House, who release Cold In The Guestway on April 12.

Gypsyblood - Take Your Picture 

Gypsyblood store is now open for business. “Cold In The Guestway” out on April 12, 2011 on Sargent House - pre orders ship on or around 4/1.