Dehd have announced that their fifth studio album, “Poetry”, will be released on May 10th via Fat PossumRecords. Alongside the announcement, they’ve shared the lead single “Mood Ring,” which comes paired with an accompanying video. The song, about falling for a boy with a motorcycle, features raucous distortion, eager drum fills, and a charming doo-wop-inspired rhythmic underbelly.
Following the success of the band’s fourth album, “Blue Skies“, Dehd turned a writing session into a road trip. They hit Taos, New Mexico; a borrowed cabin on the Puget Sound; and, eventually, returned to their Chicago warehouse space. They recruited Ziyad Asrar of Whitney to co-produce the album alongside Dehd’s own Jason Balla at Palisade Studio.
Dehd’s “Mood Ring,” off of their new album ‘Poetry’, due out May 10th, 2024, on Fat Possum.
The Lemon Twigs (aka brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario) are releasing a new album, “A Dream is AllWe Know“, on May 3rd via Captured Tracks. This week they shared another song from it, almost title track “A Dream is All I Know,” and announced some new tour dates.
Brian had this to say about the track in a press release: “This song is about impermanence and the dreamlike nature of our day to day lives. It was written when I was feeling a strong sense of unreality in my kitchen. Unfortunately, ‘Unreality In My Kitchen’ didn’t have much of a ring to it so we had to go with ‘A Dream is All I Know’ as the title.”
“A Dream is All We Know” includes “My Golden Years,” a new song they shared in January via a music video. The band performed it on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which is when they first announced the new album.
“A Dream is All We Know” is the quick follow-up to“Everything Harmony”, which came out last May via Captured Tracks The D’Addario brothers mixed and mastered the album themselves, recording it on period-specific equipment. The band previously released 2020’s “Songs For the General Public” 2018’s concept musical “Go to School”, and their 2016-released debut album, “Do Hollywood“.
La Luz are releasing a new album, “News of the Universe”, on May 24th via Sub Pop Records. Now they have shared its second single, “Poppies.” The band is led by guitarist, singer, and songwriter Shana Cleveland, who was diagnosed with breast cancer two years after the birth of her son, which led to the postponement of shows in 2022. She had this to say about the new single in a press release: “‘Poppies’ is about the surreal feeling of going through the horror and isolation of a cancer diagnosis and treatment and then suddenly being out in the bright world again, trying to make sense of it all, feeling like I’m walking through a waking dream, seeing the first wildflowers come out and feeling a similar sense of rebirth.”
“News of the Universe” follows 2021’s “La Luz”, which was released on Hardly Art, Sub Pop’s sister label, which makes this their debut on Sub Pop proper.
“Seeing the cycle of life, seeing things grow out of decay, the decay of other living things—was super comforting to me. I had to get to a place where I felt more comfortable with the idea of death,” Cleveland said of the new album in a previous press release.
News of the Universe features a changing of the guard in terms of La Luz’s lineup—it’s the first appearance for drummer Audrey Johnson and the final ones from longtime members Lena Simon (bass) and Alice Sandahl (keyboards).
La Luz worked with producer Maryam Qudos (Spacemoth) on the album and the collaboration went so well that Qudos has joined the band as their new keyboardist.
“There are moments on this album that sound to me like the last frantic confession before an asteroid destroys the earth,” said Cleveland, summing up News of the Universe.
From the upcoming album ‘News of the Universe,’ out on May 24th
South London trio Goat Girl are releasing a new album, “Below the Waste”, on June 7th via Rough Trade. This week they shared the album’s second single, “motorway,” via a music video.
Goat Girl is Lottie Pendlebury , Rosy Jones and Holly Mullineaux
In a press release, Pendlebury says “Motorway” was “born out of a desire to write a song where the main focal point was the voice. In listening to lots of music where the vocal line commanded all the attention through unexpected turns and developing melodies, I knew I wanted to try something similar. I sat with a simple sub bass line and experimented with letting the voice move however it wanted and recorded a video of myself to capture the moment. ‘Driving on the motorway’ were initially the only lyrics I had and would annoy everyone by repeatedly singing them. It became this really catchy riff that found its place as the track’s opening line and of course, main theme. It conjured up feelings of being a kid in the backseat of a car, not knowing where you’re heading but feeling content, or the fleeting moments you spend in new cities, and how the journey rather than destination sometimes feels like the main component.
“Instrumentally writing together, we naturally gravitated to a more electronic sound which suited the pop-esque style of the track. As a band we have a shared love for pop music of the noughties and would reference tracks like Kid Cudi’s ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ or ‘Day n Nite’ to try and reflect in the song. We really lent into the epicness of this track and its pop sensibilities, through Holly’s melodic sub bass synth that constantly weaves between the vocals, Rosy’s drum beats that in their space create heaviness, and the Juno 60 that chimes away throughout the chorus. Whilst leaning in we also wanted to subvert the classic pop ballad trope and include organic instruments, like the air organ that plays the main chords heard in the chorus, placing the sonic in a unique place.”
Holly Blakey directed and choreographed the video and had this to say: “Goat Girl are some of the coolest and most inspiring people I’ve met recently. We wanted to make something that had a continual exasperation to it, rooted in fantasy, slightly broken and a playful reimagining of our ride on the motorway. The band spoke about these long drives they would go on as children or on tour and it reminded me of the times in my life when I’ve arrived at places, and also when I’ve left. I suppose in those moments I’m always observing, and when I do that, I find this curiosity into my own life. I guess I wanted to exploit the privacy we assume of our anonymous lives, our obsessions, our avoidance, our need for togetherness.”
Lionlimb is the New York-based project of Stewart Bronaugh and Joshua Jaeger.Bronaugh and Jaeger have also both performed in Olsen’s touring band. They have a newly titled album, “Limbo”, on May 24th via Bayonet Records. This week the band shared its second single, “Dream of You,” which features Angel Olsen, who also appears in the video.
“Our new song ‘Dream of You’ featuring the astonishing Angel Olsen is out today. I wrote it about my dog I lost two years ago,” says Bronaugh in a press release. “I was having a recurring dream that he was still alive and I got to hug and kiss and smell him again. It was so realistic and though the song may not reflect it, it was the happiest feeling ever.”
Olsen said “I’ve been a fan of Lionlimb since 2012, and for a time – part of the band toured with me and recorded on albums “Burn Your Fire For No Witness”, and “My Woman,” . “So naturally when Stewart asked me to sing on ‘Dream of You’ I knew it would be vibey and beautiful. I tried to enmesh myself in the recording and sing in more of a way that complemented the dreamy backdrop of the song and story of “Limbo.”
Previously “Limbo’s” first single was, “Hurricane,” A press release says the new album was “inspired by a palette of ’70s Italian film soundtracks, ’60s girl group music, and funk and soul ballads.”
“When I’m working on music, it’s like I’m trying to make my own world,” Bronaugh says in the press release. “It’s that feeling of wanting to exist somewhere else. I’m trying to express something and get out of my head and body.”
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band touched down in Uncasville, Connecticut, on Friday night for an intimate show at the 10,000-seat Mohegan Sun Arena. It’s the tiniest venue they’ve hit since returning to the road in February 2023, and one of the few casino gigs Springsteen has played in his entire career.
“We’re back!” Springsteen said when taking the stage. “Somebody lost their money! Somebody lost their money or we wouldn’t be back. We’ve got to get paid. But I don’t care if you lost your money or you won your money, tonight we’re going to make you the luckiest people in the world!”
The show kicked off with a pair of 1992 songs that felt appropriate in the casino setting: “Roll of the Dice” and “Lucky Town.” He played “Roll of the Dice” last month at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (which was somehow just the third Vegas gig of his career), but this was the first “Lucky Town” of the year. A much bigger surprise came a few songs later when the band broke into “Seeds” for the first time since a June 2016 gig at London’s Wembley Stadium.
“Seeds” was recorded during the 1983 “Born In The U.S.A”. sessions at The Hit Factory in New York City, but fans didn’t hear it until the summer of 1985 when he started playing it live. It’s about a desperate man that brings his family down to Texas with the hope of finding work in an oil refinery. They wind up sleeping in their car and tents alongside the highway.
“Parked in the lumberyard freezing our asses off,” Springsteen sings. “Kids in the back seat got a graveyard cough/I’m sleeping up in front with my wife/Billy club tapping on the windshield in the middle of the night/He says, ‘Move along son, move along.’”
A live version of “Seeds” from a September 1985 show at the Los Angeles Coliseum was released in 1986 on the “Live 1975–85” box set. It was played at the vast majority of Tunnel of Love Express shows in 1988, and the Great Recession inspired Springsteen to bring it back for most “Working on a Dream” concerts in 2009, but it’s been a real rarity throughout the past decade.
The last Mohegan Sun surprise took place after “Because The Night” when Springsteen launched into “I’m On Fire” for the first time this year. “I’m on Fire” is one of the biggest hits on “Born In The U.S.A.”, and it remains in regular rotation on classic rock radio, but it’s only sporadically performed live. Of the 12 tracks on “Born In The U.S.A.”, only “Downbound Train” and “I’m Goin’ Down” have been played fewer times.
Many times throughout the show, Springsteen joked that he literally didn’t know where he was. “Uncasville!” he roared near the start of “10th Avenue Freeze-Out.” “Where the fuck am I?” Before wrapping up the show with “I’ll See You In My Dreams,” he addressed the crowd one last time. “I love Uncasville, wherever the fuck it is,” he said. “Matter of fact, I’m moving to Uncasville tomorrow!”
U.K. band the Wild Things have enlisted the help of Kiss’ Tommy Thayer, Trixie Mattel, and their longtime rock and roll godfather Pete Townshend, for a new EP, “Friends With Benefits,” out April 26th via PEG Records.
A full track list for the collaborative project hasn’t been released yet, but it’ll feature a new song, “BreakingMadonna,” written and recorded with Thayer after he and the Wild Things met on the 2022 Kiss Kruise. It’ll also include one of the Wild Things’ previously-released singles with Townshend, “Only Attraction”; their recent rendition of Mattel’s “Red Side of the Moon” with the musician/drag queen; and the band’s cover of ABBA’s “Does Your Mother Know.”
In a statement, the Wild Things’ collaborators had nothing but praise for the band. Thayer said “Friends With Benefit“ shows off the true magic of rock n roll,” while Mattel revealed how struck she was when she first heard the band cover “Red Side of the Moon”: “I always imagined it being sung by a woman, so I basically forced them to record it. So happy this song has a second life.”
And Townshend was effusive as ever, saying, “I love the Wild Things. Their songs are great, their performances strong. The dedication and work-ethic is supreme but they always seem to be having fun. ‘Only Attraction’ is so damned good.”
To celebrate the release of “Friends With Benefits”, the Wild Things have a special Los Angeles takeover in the works. On April 27th, they’ll perform at a surprise location with Thayer, after which they’ll deliver a full concert at the Bourbon Room.
“This EP is a celebration of us working with some of the greatest musicians — and friends — we know,” the Wild Things said. “It’s also a great reason to name drop at parties.
The Wild Things formed after lead singer Sydney Rae White and guitarist Rob Kendrick met in a touring production of a musical adaptation of the Who’s Quadrophenia. The pair linked up with White’s brother Cam (bass, producer) and their friend Pete Wheeler (drums) to form the band (White and Kendrick also fell in love and got married along the way). Townshend became an early supporter and mentor, even inviting the Wild Things to make their U.S. debut opening for the Who at Madison Square Garden in 2022.
The Wild Things released their debut album, “You’re Really Something”, in 2018, and since then, they’ve dropped a steady stream of singles. They’ve also spent the past few years working on their second LP, Afterglow, which Townshend co-produced, though there’s still no official release date yet.
Live recording from The Myrrors’ appearance at one of the first Fuzz Club Festivals held in London, 2015. This show was one of the final dates of a two-month tour traversing almost the entire European continent, and although there is perhaps some weariness to be heard in these grooves, it is also one of the best-recorded samples of this era of the band. Most of the material comes from the then-just-released “Arena Negra” album, though fan-favourite “Warpainting” gets a radical reworking behind several otherwise-unrecorded instrumentals and improvisations. This was without a doubt the most guitar-heavy lineup of the band, and one can hear shades of everything from Trad Gras och Stenar to White Heaven in the twisted interplay of Nik Rayne and Connor Gallaher’s strings (as a side note this combination is also on good display in their sporadic side-project, Curved Entrances).
Following this tour the band underwent a sonic shakeup and begin to push their sound even further towards the cracked, cyclical jazz and minimalist textures of 2016’s (arguably transitional) Entranced Earth and 2017’s entirely guitarless Hasta La Victoria.
From Picadilly Records:
“Back in 2015 Arizona-based desert drone outfit The Myrrors were invited to perform at the Fuzz Club Festival London festival hosted by Fuzz Club Records and local promoters Bad Vibrations. Taking their otherworldly ‘Sonoran trance music’ to the stage of London Fields Brewhouse, The Myrrors unleashed a breathtakingly transcendental and all-consuming performance that across its three ‘parts’ – rarely deviating from the solitary note held throughout the set – spectacularly joined the dots between everything from classical minimalism and drone music, through to psychedelic rock, desert blues, Eastern folk and free jazz; perhaps the sort of music La Monte Young might have made if he tuned his mystical drone meditations towards rockier territory and swapped the artsy NYC avant-garde scene for the Sonoran desert that The Myrrors call home. Some four years on from that now-mythologised show and Fuzz Club, having sat impatiently on the live audio for years, will finally be releasing the performance on vinyl and digital for all to immerse themselves in.”
released August 14th, 2021
Captured live in London, UK on November 14th, 2015.
Nik Rayne: lead vocals, electric guitar, flute, bells, percussion, loops Grant Beyschau: drums, percussion, transverse flute Miguel Urbina: amplified viola, loops, percussion Connor Gallaher: electric guitar, backing vocals, bells, percussion, loops Kellen Fortier: electric bass, loops
Joe Pernice has been writing for a long time—most of his life, in fact—and has crafted a remarkable catalogue that boldly reinterprets and recasts classic American pop. “Who Will You Believe” may be his most moving and nuanced album yet; it’s certainly his timeliest. “These songs were all written during the same time period,” he says, “and they all seemed to tap into a mood I was in at the time. I go through spells where I’m a certain way for three or four months. I might be more reticent than usual, or more outgoing. With all of my records—and especially with this one—the songs all feel like they belong together, probably because they all arrived during the same stretch of time.”
In a single six-month stretch he was left reeling from the deaths of three close friends, including David Berman, poet and songwriter for Silver Jews and Purple Mountains, and Gary Stewart, the Rhino Records co-founder and tireless Pernice Brothers supporter since their first album in 1998. “That was such a bad patch when David and Gary both took their own lives. And my cousin Joe Harvard, who started Fort Apache Studios in Boston and was like a brother to me—he died, too. It was such a tough year. I was thinking about them a lot and watching how divided America had become. I was doing my best to try and take nothing for granted.”
Pernice has been releasing albums for over 25 years. And with age comes a greater patience and an immense appreciation for the act of creation. “Who Will You Believe” showcases a beautiful balance between such sadness and moments of solemnity with warm humor and camaraderie.
The Fat Angel Sings 