EARMILK EARMILK
  • NEW MUSIC
    • DANCE
    • ELECTRONIC
    • EXPERIMENTAL
    • HIP-HOP
    • INDIE
    • POP
    • ROCK
  • INDUSTRY NEWS
    • DOCUMENTARIES
    • EVENTS
    • FASHION
    • LIFESTYLE
    • MUSIC GEAR
    • MUSIC INDUSTRY
    • TECHNOLOGY
  • OPINION
  • ALBUM REVIEWS
  • GEAR REVIEWS
  • INTERVIEWS
  • FEATURES
    • FESTIVALS
    • EXCLUSIVES
    • LISTS
    • CONTESTS
    • Photo Journals
  • SERIES
    • Artist to Watch
    • Under The Crust
    • Flashback Friday
    • Suicide Sundaes
    • Daily 2%
    • The Club
    • Weekend Selector
    • Mashup Mondays
    • Artist Remixed
    • Wobble Wednesday
    • Night Rumours
    • Indie Sabbath
    • Straight No Chase
    • Straight From the Teet
  • Jobs
  • About EARMILK
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Submit Music
EARMILK EARMILK
EARMILK EARMILK
  • NEW MUSIC
    • DANCE
    • ELECTRONIC
    • EXPERIMENTAL
    • HIP-HOP
    • INDIE
    • POP
    • ROCK
  • INDUSTRY NEWS
    • DOCUMENTARIES
    • EVENTS
    • FASHION
    • LIFESTYLE
    • MUSIC GEAR
    • MUSIC INDUSTRY
    • TECHNOLOGY
  • OPINION
  • ALBUM REVIEWS
  • GEAR REVIEWS
  • INTERVIEWS
  • FEATURES
    • FESTIVALS
    • EXCLUSIVES
    • LISTS
    • CONTESTS
    • Photo Journals
  • SERIES
    • Artist to Watch
    • Under The Crust
    • Flashback Friday
    • Suicide Sundaes
    • Daily 2%
    • The Club
    • Weekend Selector
    • Mashup Mondays
    • Artist Remixed
    • Wobble Wednesday
    • Night Rumours
    • Indie Sabbath
    • Straight No Chase
    • Straight From the Teet
  • Album Reviews
  • Feature
  • Indie
  • Synth
  • Synth Pop

Urban Cone – Our Youth EP [Premiere]

  • December 6, 2012
  • Ronnie Evans
Total
0
Shares
0
0

Winter is coming. That much is certain. As we prepare for the oncoming chills and towering skeletons that haunt our yards and woodlands, it's important to stock up on uplifting, joyous tunes. Unless you aim to wallow in your misery, winter is no time for dark melodies. After the Holiday season, Winter takes a turn for the worse, handing us a solid few dreary months to endure before the flowers greet us with open arms come Spring. Not to drone on about the gloomy months ahead, or make too many Game of Thrones references, but I just finished the second book of GOT and it's dreadfully cold outside. Thankfully I've been asked to premiere Urban Cone's US release of their new Our Youth EP, jolly enough to prompt a jive in even my snarly, sickened and sore legs.

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/64519291" iframe="true" /]

Admittedly, Our Love first impressed me as another bit-ridden compilation of tunes I felt I'd heard plenty before, and I was quite frankly ready to dismiss this project before even starting. Yet, after dropping the sulk and giving it a few listens, it grew on me— and rather quickly. While it certainly doesn't boast a resume of completely new and fresh ingredients (more than half the contents are available in well done Video form for a while now), it doesn't need to. The EP exemplifies what Urban Cone is at it's finest, staying true to their roots and presenting honest, gritty, Dance/Pop.

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/69849713" iframe="true" /]

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/66436804" iframe="true" /]

Respectively, my  initial hesitation on the album stemmed a bit from a year that has been full of cookie cutter Indie Pop, and across the board more sub par music than not. Urban Cone is not, and will likely never be, cookie cutter Indie Pop. Just from a quick glance on their history, one gathers their reliance on artistic integrity, something we are seeing less and less in today's twisted musical industry. They have managed to sign with arguably the most influential and wide spread media company in the world with Universal— yet have stood their ground, and done things their way. They record and produce in-house, design their own logos and artwork, and deliver a product that is truly them, nothing else. That in itself is a modern miracle in terms of up and coming bands signed to a major. Add in the fact that they've maintained their control and done it well– well… that's not short of extraordinary.

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/68065980" iframe="true" /]

The EP bumbles along the wings of some familiar works, notably "Urban Photograph" and "Kings & Queens", while tying together in proper fashion with some lesser known and fresh new content. From start to finish the EP only loses steam once, doing so in order to reel the listener in for "Black Ocean", the one song on the album that doesn't maintain jolly agression throughout. In 5 tracks, the EP is short, yet thus is the nature of an EP. However short, the EP is energetic and quite frank, delving blatantly into the struggles of youth and the trials of rising up in this tumultuous world— yet it does so on the chord of happiness, and delivers a solemnly relatable message without being overly emotional, thus allowing the listener to find the joy in concepts often far from it. To me, that defines a perfect Winter album. It doesn't blind with far fetched fantasies, but it doesn't hanker reality down upon the listener in a way that burdens the mind. The EP delivers truth on the wings of infectious, ruffled Pop, and that in itself brought me out of the early Winter blues. I assume it will do the same for you.

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/69849714" iframe="true" /]

Along with the EP, the band is hitting the US full throttle. They've put together a short burst of shows for us Yanks, so check the dates below and see if you can meander your way to one of these events:

THU 1/24 NEW YORK, NY Mercury Lounge  w/Field Mouse
FRI 1/25 BROOKLYN, NY Glasslands w/  WIM, Heavenly Beat
MON 1/28 LOS ANGELES, CA Bardot  w/ Wildcat! Wildcat!
TUE 1/29 LOS ANGELES, CA Bootleg Bar  w/ Hot As Sun 
THU 1/31 SAN FRANCISCO, CA Rickshaw   w/ In The Valley Below, Tom Odel
  • Urban Cone Official
  • Urban Cone on Facebook
  • Urban Cone on Twitter
  • Urban Cone on Soundcloud
Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Share 0
Share 0
Related Topics
  • Urban Cone
Ronnie Evans

Music Blogger/ Indie Music Consultant/ PR Representative/ Musician/ Artist/ Entreprenuer/ Comedian/ Music World: Contact Me. Upon this day, I declare that Indie music is leaps and bounds more pure than anything else, and the Term "Indie" means not that a band isn't mainstream, but that a band has been able to hold on to its roots, even through fame and fortune. While the wonderful thumps and womps of electronic music gets me grooving, it will always be the Alternative Indie Rock that guides me to the homeland. And for that -- I both thank it and applaud it -- for it has brought me great pleasure in the past and will so in the future.

Previous Article
  • Ambient
  • Post-Rock

Lowercase Noises – Passage [EP Review]

  • December 6, 2012
  • Phillip Yung
View Article
Next Article
  • Hip-Hop
  • Rap

Pusha T – "Blocka" (Feat. Popcaan and Travi$ Scott)

  • December 6, 2012
  • Charles David
View Article
You May Also Like
View Article
  • Indie
  • Indie Pop
  • Indie Rock
  • Interviews
  • Pop

Mistine chats environmentalism, new album and a fun touring moment [Interview]

  • May 23, 2025
View Article
  • Electronic
  • Indie
  • New Music

Buscabulla Returns With 'Te Fuiste'

  • May 23, 2025
View Article
  • Indie Pop
  • Mainstage
  • Singer/songwriter

“Back to Her” is Amelie Lucille’s beautifully haunting coming-of-age ballad

  • May 23, 2025
View Article
  • Electronic

Gio and Austin Water's “Yeah3x” is the sonic escape you didn’t know you needed

  • May 23, 2025
View Article
  • Indie Pop
  • Mainstage
  • Pop

"Object of Desire" is manny moura’s anthem for the unseen

  • May 23, 2025
sunrise in jupiter
View Article
  • Alternative
  • Indie
  • Psychedelic

"It was messy, loud, and unfiltered just like the music" – Sunrise In Jupiter Discuss Music Eras, Their Live Show and New Music [Interview]

  • May 23, 2025
Tristan Roberson
View Article
  • Indie
  • Mainstage
  • Pop

Tristan Roberson turns a broken heart into a good time with ‘One Night in Dallas’

  • May 22, 2025
View Article
  • Electronic
  • Festival

Field Day 2025 is Packing a Punch with Performances from Electronic Icons: Peggy Gou, Folamour, Bubble Love & More

  • May 22, 2025
Popular Music
  • Mistine chats environmentalism, new album and a fun touring moment [Interview]
    • May 23, 2025
  • “Back to Her” is Amelie Lucille’s beautifully haunting coming-of-age ballad
    • May 23, 2025
  • Gio and Austin Water's “Yeah3x” is the sonic escape you didn’t know you needed
    • May 23, 2025
  • "Object of Desire" is manny moura’s anthem for the unseen
    • May 23, 2025
  • sunrise in jupiter
    "It was messy, loud, and unfiltered just like the music" – Sunrise In Jupiter Discuss Music Eras, Their Live Show and New Music [Interview]
    • May 23, 2025
Recent Scoops
  • Matt Oakley is redefining country music with heart, soul and modernity
    • May 5, 2025
  • Texas’ Blacktop Mojo does rock music the way it should be done
    • April 29, 2025
  • Tha Rapper Haiti blends authentic style with musical passion
    • April 28, 2025
  • Glorybots redefines rock with latest album 'mad.end'
    • April 10, 2025
Community Voices
  • From Machismo To Mujeres: Women As The Face Of Reggaeton
    • July 14, 2022
  • Tyler the creator
    4 things I learned on the 'Call Me If You Get Lost' tour
    • March 31, 2022
  • 4 things every artist needs to think about in 2022
    • January 27, 2022
  • The TikTok Takeover of Hip-Hop
    • January 11, 2022

EARMILK EARMILK
  • Jobs
  • About EARMILK
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Submit Music
All Milk. No Duds.

Input your search keywords and press Enter.