It all starts with The Wran: hailing from the mountains of County Waterford, the four brothers of The Wran are yanking Irish trad-folk to a new frontier.
With psychedelia, punk, and storytelling at the heart of all they do, they’re a captivating presence in the new wave of Irish music that’s building momentum from all directions. Your expedition into this exciting new world starts with The Wran.
Filmed on a hike to ‘The Stone Man’ standing stone in Bearna na Madra, Comeragh Mountains. Huge thanks to all our family and friends who joined us on the day.
HMLTD have posted the video for the title-track of their new album “The Worm”, directed by frontman Henry Spychalski.
“The video for The Worm shows the final stand of the resistance,” Spychalski said. “We shot the video in an abandoned, desecrated church in London’s East End to emphasise the spiritual nature of the song and its themes of struggle and salvation.”
It was inspired by the films of the polish auteur Andrzej Żuławski, and in particular his unfinished masterpiece ‘On The Silver Globe’. The chorus of extras which make up the congregation are all fans of ours who answered a general callout on Instagram, without whom the video would not have been possible – so our eternal gratitude to them here cannot be overstated.
Hark! A tale of yore that befalleth our fair England and the brave Grunter rebels who didst fight to save it! A most foul Worm didst wake and ascend from the bowels of our Earth once disturbed, threatening to swallow the land whole. But lo! The Grunters didst rise to the challenge, and with courage and wit, they didst attempt to carry their great duty to fulfil their destiny! Herein lieth the tale of the Grunter rebels and the laidly Worm, a tale that shall be remembered for evermore!
“In the video, I wanted to show man’s inner demons physically manifested as real, living, breathing entities – the Worm within man.”
Art punks HMLTD return this week and it has to be said, it is a ludicrously impressive outing with “The Worm”. It was created over the last two years with a cast of fifty musicians to include a 16-piece string orchestra and a gospel choir. The audacity of this album really is something to behold as it moves through themes, styles and textures. We’ve been enjoying diving into this one.
A cast of 47 musicians including a gospel choir and 16-piece orchestra came together to work on this wildly ambitious second album from HMLTD. It took over two years to put together and is not so much a concept album as a fully realised musical universe that crosses all genre and medium boundaries. It is set in a version of Medieval England steeped in sci-fi fantasy and is part a political polemic and part a moving and psychological journey. Frontman HenrySpychalski draws on his own struggles to tell a modern tale about the impotence of people feel stuck inside system of power.
Capturing one of the most acclaimed bands of recent times in their natural habitat, Warpaint release a new live collection, “Artifact”.
Emily Kokal, Theresa Wayman, Jennylee Lindberg and Stella Mozgawa’s first full record since their 2022 album “Radiate Like This”, and following on from standalone single “Common Blue”, which marked the group’s return to original label Rough Trade Records, the 16-track album brings together some of Warpaint’s greatest and most distinctive live recordings and boasts a host of fan favourite songs captured across several special performances.
Recorded both in the wake of “Radiate Like This” release and at gigs marking both the 15th anniversary of the band’s debut EP “Exquisite Corpse” and during shows celebrating their 20th year as a group, the live recordings captured not just the uniqueness of these occasions but also goosebump-inducing atmospheres and heart-swelling emotions that are conjured up whenever Warpaint take to the stage.
“Between 2022 and 2024 we released our most recent album, “Radiate Like This“, celebrated the 15th anniversary of our debut EP, “Exquisite Corpse“, and also our 20th year as a band. We played a handful of shows for each of those occasions, and luckily we documented a few of the performances,” the band say of “Artifact’s” germination, which brings together some of their most beloved and cherished songs, including “Undertow”,” Love Is To Die”, “So Good” and more, all recorded in front of audiences in Houston, London, Porto, Dallas, Phoenix, Brussels, Amsterdam, Los Angeles and New York City. This perspective across several gigs and years has created a unique document that showcases Warpaint at their freest and most affecting best.
“Listening back, we’re very proud of the music we’ve created together, the connection between us and that there are people who enjoy our music and come to see us,” the band add. “This collection is a snapshot of the sound and energy of our shows and an experience that we’ve felt so lucky to share.”
“Artifact” 2LP set from Warpaint released through Rough Trade Records
Whatever might come certain career artists will stand by you when the time comes, late-1970s Tom Petty for instance which is my way of leading into sharing some quite important news directly from the Tom Petty Estate.
And that news is this: In celebration of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ 50th anniversary, a comprehensive new 5LP/1DVD/1BD box set titled “Origins 1971-1978″ is scheduled to come out on November 6th, 2026, via UMe (in addition to some other related incarnations I’ll get to in a bit).
The massive “Origins 1971-1978” collection has culled 27 previously unheard of-era tracks from Petty’s extensive vaults in order to chronicle the band’s “sonic formation” (those are their words, which I wholeheartedly agree with) in a most formative 1970s-period that leads directly into their emergence as an American rock powerhouse. The 51 tracks on “Origins” inclusive show Tom Petty &The Hertbreakers’ collective dexterity in creating music across a number of genres such as country, folk, punk, reggae, rock, and soul.
Each cut on the five 180gm LPs included in Origins 1971-1978 has been newly mixed and remastered from the original multitrack tapes—including those on the 50th-anniversary editions of the band’s first two albums that appear on LP2 and LP3, respectively—by longtime Tom Petty producer, engineer, and confidante Ryan Ulyate.
“Origins 1971-1978” will be made available in three configurations the 5LP/1DVD/1BD box set b) a 4CD box set and c) an uber-deluxe edition.
The centrepiece of the expanded vinyl editions is an 88-page fanzine featuring liner notes by David Fricke and BudScoppa, track-by-track annotations from the original bandmembers, complete album credits for the above-noted first two albums, and a trove of unearthed archival photos and memorabilia alongside Polaroids, postcards, collectibles and more.
At the core of the “Origins” collection is LP1, which is subtitled “No Sleep Til L.A.”. More than a rarities compilation, “No Sleep” is a 12-track document of Tom Petty becoming Tom Petty—tracing the years between the earliest recordings of Mudcrutch and the subsequent formation of The Heartbreakers, as Tom searched for (again, in their words, which I wholly endorse), “the right players, the right sound, and ultimately the right band.”
To get a taste of what to expect, check out the following official YouTube clip for the first track on Side 1 of “No Sleep“, the quite intriguingly (and rightly) named “Parade of Loons.” (You may even recognize some of the Hollywood faces that appear in this clip.)
“No Sleep” follows the band’s journey from their first-ever studio session at Criteria Studios in Miami in 1971 through the formative sessions held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, wherein Petty and guitarist Mike Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Tench, drummer Stan Lynch, and bassist Ron Blair all learned to make records together—which ultimately led to them cutting tracks in Los Angeles, where everything finally clicked into place.
Seven of the 12 cuts on “No Sleep” have never been released before, and the other five have been newly mixed. As someone who was able to track down a vintage white-label Mudcrutch 45 for “Depot Street” b/w “Wild Eyes” without breaking the bank, I’m quite happy to get both of those tracks available in better-mixed incarnations on longform vinyl.
Origins 1971–1978 also includes metallic limited-edition versions of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ aforementioned November 1976 self-titled debut album (LP2) and its May 1978 follow-up, “You’re Gonna Get It! (LP3). On those two LPs, you’ll get extended versions of eleven tracks, including “American Girl” (LP2, Side 2, Track 5), “Breakdown” (LP2, Side 1, Track 2), and “Restless” (LP3, Side 2, Track 4).
LP4, subtitled Live From the Record Plant 1977, features a highly sought-after, fan-favorite broadcast, now released in its entirety for the first time (officially, that is). Recorded for San Francisco’s KSAN-FM at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California, this 14-track recording captures the band’s intense energy already readily apparent during their early period, and it includes a guest appearance by Al Kooper on electric piano on “Fooled Again (I Don’t Like It)” (LP4, Side 1, Track 7).
I can also tell you that the Record Plant version of “Luna” (LP4, Side 1, Track 8), originally found on the S/T debut LP, features a tasty organ intro provided by Tom Petty himself.
LP5, subtitled “The Cut Out Bin”, continues the exploratory spirit of No Sleep, gathering five tracks that show Petty working as a solo artist alongside session musicians—including a (yes, in their words!) “yacht rock track” with LeonRussell—before ultimately concluding that The Heartbreakers were the right vehicle for his songs.
“The Cut Out” songs like “Save Me” (LP5, Side 1, Track 1) could have just as easily been released at the tail end of the 1980s as solo Petty tracks and no one would have batted an eye, or necessarily picked up on them having been recorded in the prior decade. I’d say a somewhat similar thing about the 1974 version of “Making Some Noise” (LP5, Side 1, Track 2), which shows the building blocks of a track that later appeared in a quite raucous form near the end of Side 2 of July 1991’s “Into the Great Wide Open“, albeit then sans the “g” in the song title’s first word. All five “Cut Out cuts appear on the first side of LP5, so I’m awaiting a confirm about what appears on Side 2—perhaps a cut-out etching of some kind? .
The box set closes with the full video of the band’s 1978 UK performance on the classic BBC show “The Old Grey Whistle Test” on the DVD, while the BD features the complete collection of all 51 “Origins” songs in high-rez stereo, 5.1, and Atmos mixes, all courtesy Ryan Ulyate. when it comes to Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ “Origins 1971-1978”, you’re gonna get it—and you’re no doubt gonna love it.
A Song for Gram — In collaboration with The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, we are excited to announce an extraordinary lineup of artists will be coming together in celebration of Gram’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and what would have been his 80th birthday this year.
This concert will be held on November 11th at the Troubadour in West Hollywood and benefit the Friendly House Foundation and Backline, two organizations supporting addiction and mental health
The New Jersey setlist included “For What It’s Worth” and “Love The One You’re With,” the latter of which first appeared on “Stephen Stills” and later on the CSNY live album “4 Way Street”. Other Stephen Stills cuts played that night were “Cherokee” and “Go Back Home.” The set contained the title track to Stills’ 1978 solo album, “Thoroughfare Gap”, and its “You Can’t Dance Alone.” There was also a cover of Robert Johnson’s “Come On in My Kitchen,” songs from Manassas and “Cuba Al Fin” which was performed at Havana Jam.
Setlist:0:00:00 – Precious Love 0:05:01 – For What It’s Worth 0:09:11 – You Can’t Dance Alone 0:14:56 – Cuba Al Fin 0:20:17 – Go Back Home 0:28:16 – How Wrong Can You Be 0:34:05 – Love The One You’re With 0:39:23 – Make Love To You 0:51:48 – Cherokee 1:00:34 – Rock & Roll Crazies / Cuban Bluegrass / Jet Set 1:16:20 – Uncle James 1:21:08 – Thoroughfair Gap 1:25:41 – Come On In My Kitchen Personnel:
Stephen Stills – guitar, timbales, vocal Gerry Tolman – guitar Mike Finnigan – keyboards, vocals George “Chocolate”Perry – bass Joe Vitale – drums Joe Lala – congas, percussion Bonnie Bramlett – vocals, percussion
It’s been exciting to watch Dummy’s evolution over the past five years from fairly reverent Stereolab homage to something far more complex, as they burrow deep beneath the neo-psych sheen and Lætitia Sadier homage of their 2021 debut “Mandatory Enjoyment”. After 2024’s “Free Energy” opened the door to the sounds of the early-’90s baggy movement, this week they’ll drop what is their most experimental release to date, as well their most politically fueled. Much of “Do You Love the Color of the Sky?” feels like first-gen shoegaze chopped up and reconstructed to fit a more contemporary musical and sociological context.
Case in point, the record’s final pre-release single is called “N of 1,” and takes aim at the Flockification of daily life. Vocalist Emma Maatman’s vocals keep cool across the single’s five-minute runtime as the backing instrumental feels like a much more soothing interpretation of the whirring of overworked power generators. “‘N of 1’ is a plea to both the proprietors and the more complacent subjects of the ever-encroaching surveillance state,” Maatman shares of the track. Meanwhile, guitarist Joe Trainor speaks to the song’s structure, which reflects that of the album more broadly: “I liked the idea of taking glacial guitar drones and cutting ’em up into new forms, infusing those dreamy walls of sound into a D&B context. To me, so much of the record is like the remixed versions of pop songs you’ll never hear.”
The track’s music video features Maatman in full hacker garb tracking down each of her bandmates on Google Maps as they may or may not be traversing the Buzludzha monument. “Typically our videos aren’t such a direct visual representation of the meaning of the song,” adds Maatman, “but I had just gotten it into my head that the zooming action on Street View would go perfectly with the meter and energy of the song, and the rest sort of fell into place after that.”
“N of 1” is taken from Dummy’s new album, “do you love the colour of the sky?” – out now via PolyvinylRecords
R.E.M. have shared a new visual for “Supernatural Superserious” from their 2008 album “Accelerate” after the song was featured in Jane Schoenbrun’s latest film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. “With Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Schoenbrun has somehow made the funniest, deepest and most transgressive film of the year,” Michael Stipe shared today alongside the video. “On par with Being John Malkovich.”
First released on the band’s 2008 album “Accelerate”.
In other R.E.M. news, the band is gearing up to share a new 25th anniversary edition of “Reveal” on November 20th. Check out the new visual for “Supernatural Superserious”
Celebrating the 25th anniversary of R.E.M.’s Reveal, The Black Sessions Revealed captures the band live in Paris on May 7th, 2001, in a performance recorded for Radio France.
The 2-LP gatefold set features 17 songs, pairing tracks from “Reveal“, including “Imitation Of Life“, with favourites such as “Losing My Religion” and “Man On The Moon“.
At the beginning of this year, Dry Cleaning released their new album, “Secret Love”. The third album from the London-based group consisting of lyricist Florence Shaw, guitarist Tom Dowse, drummer Nick Buxton,and bassist Lewis Maynard received glowing accolades across the globe.
Dry Cleaning shares an expanded version of the record, “Secret Love (Deluxe Edition)”, featuring three brand-new tracks recorded during album sessions with producer Cate Le Bon last year; ‘Grass’, ‘I Have The Key’, and the recently released single, ‘Sliced by a Fingernail’. “Secret Love (Deluxe Edition)” also features alternate Erica Eyres artwork.
Of the Deluxe Edition, bassist Lewis Maynard comments: “As difficult as it is to choose the final tracklist, we’ve learned with previous records that songs which don’t make the album will see the light of day and sometimes even receive more attention. This is the first time we’ve released a deluxe edition, and we’re especially excited because it includes some of our favourite songs from the session.”#Vocalist Florence Shaw goes into detail on each new track, saying: “The three new songs have a lot of tenderness and vulnerability to them. They’re about feelings of love and loss but also humour that comes along with those heavy feelings.”
“‘Sliced by a Fingernail’ is about looking for places to hide; fantasies like packing yourself into the centre of a huge flower bud, but also more everyday ones like being part of the crowd at a karaoke bar.”
“‘Grass’ is about grieving for someone still alive. The lyrics use some metaphors from nature inspired by two trips, one to see the melting Rhône Glacier in Switzerland and the other to Laurissilva, the ‘living fossil’ ancient forest on the island of Madeira. Whilst it has lots of imperfections and was a bit improvised, Cate had a real affinity for the vocal performance we chose for this track.”
“The lyrics to ‘I Have The Key’ came from a feeling of sadness and helplessness at the state of the world. The genocide in Gaza had begun around the time I was writing some of the lyrics. The saxophone part wasimprovised by Bruce Lamont at the Loft studio in Chicago, and the structure and delivery of the vocal, as well as the choice of words came as a response to his playing.”
Accompanying the “Secret Love (Deluxe Edition)”, BULLYACHE (who choreographed visualisers for all eleven songs off “Secret Love“), joined forces with the band again to produce dedicated visuals for the three new tracks, all shot at the Mandrake Hotel in London.
“The band delivers Shaw’s postcards from the edge with music that’s appropriately ironic and mordant, but also varied and at points even kind of rousing, from the Eighties college-pop strum of ‘Blood’ to the street-rock strut of ‘The Cute Things’.”- Rolling Stone, The Best Albums of 2026 So Far
“It’s an album of unusual pleasures—the assured musicality provides the immediate hook, holding you over until you focus on the lyrics. Once that happens, Ms. Shaw’s uncanny magic takes over.” – Wall Street Journal
“Dry Cleaning is one of those bands with the capacity to change your life.” – Paste
Heavens to Betsy—the pre-Sleater-Kinney duo of Corin Tucker and the Husbands’ Tracy Sawyer—haven’t released an album since 1994, but their comeback LP, “Baby’s Gone”, has been even longer in the making. The record brings together 16 tracks from multiple releases: a long-lost demo the pair recorded in 1992, the following year’s “These Monsters Are Real”, and 1994’s “Direction 7” recordings.
Older and wiser but as full of conviction as they were all those decades ago, Heavens to Betsy remind us that righteous feminist fury never loses its relevance or power.
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