Icy Demons
Miami Ice (Obey Your Brain)

Miami Ice is the upbeat and wide-ranging third full-length album from the Chicago/Philadelphia ensemble Icy Demons. As on previous Icy Demons releases, the band plays an altered form of pop music that seems to draw on a whole world of musical vocabulary, sometimes within a single song. Featuring co-founders Chris Powell, aka Pow Pow (Man Man, Need New Body) on drums, Griffin Rodriguez, aka Blue Hawaii (Need New Body, Bablicon) on bass and vocals, and guest musicians Jeff Parker (Tortoise) on guitar, Josh Abrams (Prefuse 73, Sam Prekop) on upright bass, the highly esteemed Chicago improviser Tomeka Reid on cello and Russell Higbee (Man Man) on guitar, Miami Ice continues in the Icy Demons tradition of focusing on rhythm and melody, transporting the listener to exotic locations. Songs are about dreams and endurance, alien paranoia and community, time travel and the western frontier. Though it was recorded throughout the course of a very busy year at the Shape Shoppe, Blue Hawaii’s recording studio in the south loop of Chicago, Miami Ice has a naturalness and excited energy that could be likened to the warming of the senses in spring following a long winter. They used an odd assortment of vintage keyboards and ethnic percussion to create this warmth and to evoke a past that seems, through a combining of disparate elements, like the future.

Pow Pow and Blue Hawaii’s collaboration began in 2000 when Hawaii recorded the first Need New Body album. This initial project opened up a pipeline between Philadelphia and Chicago that has produced an amazing string of records made by a wide variety of musicians from both of these soul cities, including the newest Man Man album Rabbit Habits, and Buffalo Stance by Jamey Robinson of Need New Body. Shape Shoppe has acted as a nexus for this activity throughout the years and has recently received a major upgrade. Some recent acts to record albums at the studio include Beirut, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, The Akron Family, Josephine Foster and Pit Er Pat. After working on so many releases together, Pow Pow and Hawaii have decided to take the logical next step in their collaboration and form the label Obey Your Brain, named after an early incarnation of Need New Body.

Icy Demons has an exciting new touring group that will be blazing trails throughout the states this summer into the fall, including members of the Chicago electronic funk group, the Chandeliers, Tomeka Reid and Dylan Ryan (Michael Columbia, Bronze). Previously acting as support for Slint, Arcade Fire, Man Man and more, Icy Demons' live shows are energetic and fast paced as the multi-instrumentalist members dance around the stage playing interlocking rhythms.

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