08.08.13
Watch Shirlette Ammons in the latest Summer of Love video from the Hopscotch Music Festival. Shirlette performs a cover of Method Man and Mary J. Blige's classic "I'll Be There For You/You're All I Need To Get By".
07.12.13
Check out Cliff and Javi from RBTS WIN taking a few minutes to talk with Mountain Xpress about the making of their latest album Palm Sunday.
| Date | Band | Venue | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9.5 | Shirlette Ammons w/ sookee | Pinhook | Durham, NC |
| 9.6 | RBTS WIN | The Radio Room | Greenville, SC |
| 9.6 | Shirlette Ammons w/ sookee | Cirque De Vol Studios (Hopscotch Day Party) | Raleigh, NC |
| 9.6 | Shirlette Ammons | Tir Na Nog (Hopscotch Showcase) | Raleigh, NC |
| 9.7 | Shirlette Ammons w/ sookee | Tir Na Nog (Hopscotch Day Party) | Raleigh, NC |
| 9.7 | Toon & The Real Laww | Tir Na Nog (Hopscotch Day Party) | Raleigh, NC |
| 9.12 | Shirlette Ammons w/ sookee | Shiprocked! @ Snug Harbor | Charlotte, NC |
| 9.13 | RBTS WIN | Fallfest '13 | Clemson, SC |
| 9.13 | Shirlette Ammons | Churchill's On Elm @ Queer People of Color Collective Pride Event | Greensboro, NC |
| 9.14 | Shirlette Ammons w/ sookee | Red Dog's | Wrightsville Beach, NC |
| 10.5 | Heads on Sticks 'Phantasm In Tutu' Release Show | Kings | Raleigh, NC |
| 10.11 | Toon & The Real Laww | Kings | Raleigh, NC |
| 10.25 | RBTS WIN | Mountain Oasis Festival @ Emerald Lounge | Asheville, NC |
You know that moment when you jump off of a rock bluff into the gleaming gem-blue sea? Not the moment of leaping or of splashing, but of being in the moment, in the bright sky, in your own primal scream. That's the blood-pumping, soul-soaring moment that RBTS WIN taps and captures and expands over and over on full-length Palm Sunday.
The album is the band's most fully-realized effort to date, a culmination of years of experimentation, trial-and-error, personal growth, deepening friendship and an unrelenting exploration of melody, beats and words.
Palm Sunday melds chill-wave, neo-soul and electro-pop with nods to post-modern folk and hip-hop, but the album also transcends its various pedigrees. RBTS WIN push farther and dive deeper — "Mountain Child" swirls in nocturnal wilderness, its rhythms and sonic tapestries an organic and dizzying tempest. "Purple Smoke," "When I Think Of You" and "There Is A Light" are sophisticated, groove-heavy slow jams; "So Celebrate" is parts glitch, parts dance, all shimmery-cool with sounds bouncing like light refracted on that same gleaming sea.
As much as Palm Sunday eschews formula or convention, there are themes (love, spirit, connection, nature) throughout, along with musical references to the natural world — as filtered through synthesizers and beat machines. Instrumentals "Bodega Trip" and "Take Me Up" are pitch-perfect complements to the vocal tracks, though there's no surpassing the emotional breadth and velvety amplification of songs like "Stay Wavy" and the album's gorgeous single, "Death Magic."
Palm Sunday is available now on 12" vinyl LP and digital download.
