Folk trio and a capella angels Mountain Man—aka Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath, Daughter of Swords’ Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Molly Sarlé have released a new live album called “Lookat Me Don’t Look at Me” recorded in November of 2018 at Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle. It contains songs from their 2018 studio album Magic Ship, as well as covers of Fiona Apple’s “Hot Knife” and Michael Hurley’s “Blue Mountain,” which you can hear below.
The Look at Me Don’t Look at Me Tour was our first tour together in 10 years – it was a wild and magical ride and we are excited to share a live recording from a show we played at a beautiful verbed out church in Seattle! One of our favourite things in life is singing together to a bunch of people in a room. We hope this recording brings you some of the joy you may have been missing until the next time we can all be together.
Toronto indie-punk trio Tough Age have shared their new album “Which Way Am I?” ,via Mint Records, following singles “My Life’s a Joke & I’m Throwing it Away,” and “Repose.”Which Way Am I? is the follow-up to 2017’s Shame. Taking cues from Flying Nun indie-pop and speedy ’80s punk, “My Life’s a Joke & I’m Throwing it Away” is the sound of melancholy whiplash. It’s part happy-go-lucky breeziness and part painful self-destruction, and either way, it’ll get you all riled up.
Like most of their crate-digging contemporaries, the new record explores all kinds of new directions, experimenting in different areas of post-punk while implicitly nodding to the pocket-sized punk of Dirtnap Records .
The first single the group is called “Repose,” and while it is one of the record’s sleepier cuts, it’s by no means tame. Clark takes on vocals for this song—as she does with many of tracks—before the five-minute track gives way to a sprawling John Dwyer–like guitar odyssey. “‘Repose’ is me trying to write a song about peaceful things after all of my misery songs on the previous record and 7″,” she shares. “I had mixed success in achieving my goal. I always write the melody first and then I decide what I want the song to be about, and then I write the words (sometimes words slip in during the melody part and then I have to write around them). To me, ‘Repose’ sounded like a calm and solitary night, so everything in that song happens at night.”
“I wrote the music for ‘Repose’ one morning when I should have already left for work,” Samson adds. “It came very quickly (but not quickly enough to avoid being late), but didn’t feel like something I could write a melody for. We practiced the song without Penny singing, so the first time we heard her vocals were live in the studio as she recorded them, and Jesse and I both were stunned. It felt like a real left turn for Penny, and I think shows the depths of talent she sort of just tucks away and dishes out when she feels you’ve earned a piece of it.”
Tough Age – “My Life’s a Joke & I’m Throwing it Away” From the album ‘Which Way Am I?’ out on Mint Records released on August 7th, 2020
Born in the Philippines and raised in London, Bea Kristi began recording music as Beabadoobee in 2017. At just 20 years old, Beabadoobee has built her huge, dedicated Gen-Z fan base with her flawless output of confessional bedroom grunge pop songs and DIY aesthetic. Fake It Flowers is her debut album wear she wears her heart on her sleeve backed by music that has a strong grunge and slacker feel. It’s instant, joyous and absolutely golden.
Bea Kristi, the 19-year-old singer/songwriter behind Beabadoobee, signed with Dirty Hit (the label giant behind The 1975, Wolf Alice and others) two years ago and has been climbing the ranks ever since. Through her early singles and recent EPs (2018’s Patched Up and 2019’s Loveworm and Space Cadet), Beabadoobee has perfected her tender acoustic pop, floaty dream pop and distorted indie rock. Also a self-described ’90s obsessive, she’s won over hordes of Gen Z listeners, landed an opening slot for Clairo in the U.S. and became a BBC Sound of 2020 finalist.
Following the release of the single “Care” in July, London-based artist beabadoobee has shared another track from Fake It Flowers, her forthcoming album set for release on October. 16th via Dirty Hit. The single, titled “Sorry,” recalls the disintegration of a close friendship as Bea owns up to her own mistakes. “It’s the idea of dismissing something because it felt too close to home and a personal reminder to never take for granted what that person could have had,” she says.
Known for her soft, lo-fi folk sound, London’s Beabadoobee, first emerged online with her sweetly attenuated 2017 viral single “Coffee.” Only 17 at the time, she signed with the Dirty Hit label, which issued her second EP, Patched Up, in 2018.
Born in London to Filipino parents, She first became interested in music around age seven, and grew up listening to a mix of OPM (Filipino traditional and modern original music compositions and ’80s pop/rock. By her teens she had discovered indie rock and was listening to artists like Kimya Dawson, Karen O & Yeah Yeah Yeahs, (Sandy) Alex G, and Florist, as well as the Beatles and Chet Baker. In 2017, at age 17, she received her first guitar and quickly taught herself how to play by watching tutorial videos online. That same year, she recorded her song “Coffee” in a friend’s bedroom, and uploaded it online. A mellow ditty inspired by her relationship with her then-boyfriend, the song went viral, with its video getting over 300,000 views, and gaining even more hits on streaming services. The labels took notice, and Bea issued her debut EP Lice on Columbia before signing with the independent Dirty Hit (home to the 1975, Pale Waves, and Wolf Alice). In 2018, she issued a second EP, Patched Up. Another EP, Loveworm, arrived in April 2019, followed several months later by the single “She Plays Bass.” .
Hello good people of the world! It comes with great pleasure we can FINALLY, FINALLY announce our second full LP. ‘Amanita Pantherina’ is out Friday 25th September on our very own brand spanking new label Brassica Records. The work has been completed for a number of months now but due to world events we’ve taken the steps to adapt and can now reveal it in all its Technicolor glory.
Manchester band Cabbage have released a wiry tribute to the nerve-jarring electricity of their home city, with new rack ‘Get Outta My Brain’. They’ve taken the release as an opportunity to also formally announce their second album, “Amanita Pantherina”.
The latest collection will be released on 25th September through their own label, Brassica Records. This is their second single of 2020 after ‘You’ve Made An Artform (From Falling To Pieces)’ and is paving the way for a new collection of “punk fuzz with the iconic dance attitude”.
‘Get Outta My Brain’ inhabits Cabbage’s post-punk sound, as it shows hints of early Nirvana, with vocals reminiscent of the late Sex Pistol’s frontman, John Lydon. However, the band credited a musician who is closer to home for the album’s inspiration in Shaun Ryder, particularly Black Grape’s late-90s era. The band have said that the song “pays tribute to our city, a torrid tale about the consequences of pressure and the way we choose to tackle some of our hardest endeavours in life.”
Co-Frontman, Lee Broadbent, says of the single: “The title of the track has two meanings and it’s about the balance of how the two meanings constantly fight each other – some people just want to run away and some people intoxicate themselves to run away. It’s an attempt to channel the spirit of Manchester and is purposely amped to become a choice cut when we get out to do it live.”
The phaser-sounding effect on the bass guitar drives the song, along with a variety of sounds on the electric guitars. Amanita Pantherina is the band’s first self-produced album, which is apparent in how creative Cabbage have been. After reaching the UK Top 30 with their debut album, ‘Nihilistic Glamour Shots’, Cabbage will want to follow in the footsteps of Irish post-punk band, Fontaines D.C, who achieved their highest album chart finish with their second album, ‘A Hero’s Death’.
Burning deep in Girl Friday’s music is an unquenchable will to survive. The LA-based band don’t blunt the impact of the themes they work through in their ferocious, knotty rock songs, but they don’t let the more harrowing aspects of being alive and young in the 21st century daunt them, either. Taking full advantage of the dystopian shades of post-punk and noise rock palettes on their arresting debut LP, “Androgynous Mary”, Girl Friday nevertheless suffuse their music with abundant optimism. The world is a hellscape, but the four of them are in it together.
The seeds of the band were first planted when guitarist Vera Ellen walked into a friend’s house at UCLA and saw Libby Hsieh playing bass on the couch. Drawn by her unique playing style, Ellen introduced herself, and the two musicians immediately bonded. After a year of playing together, they decided to grow their collaboration into a full band. Drummer Virginia Pettis and guitarist Sierra Scott caught wind of the project from friends of friends, and quickly jumped on board. The fledgling group’s chemistry was undeniable; writing and playing together felt generative and thrilling.
With bold, dramatic guitar lines and tightly wound vocal harmonies, Girl Friday negotiate the stress and alienation that comes with being side-lined from normative society on Androgynous Mary. “Does the average man feel like he’s on the outside?” goes the beginning of “Public Bodies,” a wistful jangle-pop gem that shudders open into a snarling punk coda. Taking cues from longtime boundary-pushers Sonic Youth, Girl Friday depart from traditional song structures, favouring the rush of jarring turns over the safety of well-defined pop taxonomy. Looking to queer provocateurs like Placebo, they cherish the frisson of incongruous musical elements soldered together: “really dark, heavy things mashed up with quite beautiful things, whether that be a distorted guitar line and a sentimental vocal or vice versa,” as Ellen puts it.
That duality dovetails with the thematic friction running through the album, the alternating despair and hope that intertwine in the fight to stay alive as any kind of unfairly disenfranchised person in the US. Written during a year of personal struggle for all four band members, Androgynous Mary reflects the solace they took in each other – as a band, but also as a microcommunity and a chosen family. “It feels so rejuvenating to be there for each other and protect each other,” says Hsieh. Ellen adds, “We’ve definitely been through a lot together, but we’ve come through it by sticking together and loving each other regardless.”
On the record’s final song, “I Hope Jason Is Happy,” Girl Friday sing in unison against a resolute drumbeat: “My head is on your chest / In the end I’ll be happy if you do your best / You’ve got to fight to keep your breath in this world.” It’s a testament to the power of their bond, and a gesture of solidarity with all those listening. Alone, we suffer under the weight of everything designed to keep us down. Together, we stand a fighting chance. Girl Friday place their hope squarely on that chance – on what we can do when we show up for each other, where we can go when we’ve got each other’s backs.
As far as I can tell, this is not what “This Is Not the Indie Rock I Signed Up For” is about, though the title—combined with its lilting, upbeat verses—dreams up a shift in our culture to permit a new indie rock, one inclusive of all genders for the sake of being inclusive of all genders. I’m so happy Girl Friday are here.
“This Is Not the Indie Rock I Signed Up For” from Girl Friday’s album Androgynous Mary (Release Date: 8/21/2020)
The opening riffs to Double Grave’s “Long Drive Home” sound like Kal Marks covering Dikembe’s viscous cover of “If It Makes You Happy.” That all kinda changes when Jeremy Warden’s relaxed vocals take over, steering the single in the direction of its eventual (still grungy) slacker-rock guitar solo. It’s the kind of early single that keeps you guessing as to what kind of album Goodbye, Nowhere! could possibly be.
Performed and recorded at home by the band over the first half of 2019. The Band:
Jeremy – guitars, vocals, songwriting
Seth – drums, engineering, mixing
Bree – bass, artwork
Released via Forged Artifacts releases August 7th, 2020
Chicago’s beloved rock trio Dehd have released a new single, “Month,” from their forthcoming sophomore LP “Flowers of Devotion”, The album released July 17th via Fire Talk. This follows the release of “Flood” and “Loner,” which both portray the thoughtful direction Dehd is heading in with this new record. This track is softer and slower than most of their material, vibrating with quiet harmonies and tame riffs. With Jason Balla’s vocals at the forefront, he grapples with time and the way it affects his feelings.
Jason Balla cooly alludes to “This never-ending new summer feeling.” I imagine this wasn’t the summer feeling he had in mind when he wrote “Month,” but at this point it’s gonna be hard to untangle the two most monumental events to hit the city in the summer of 2020.
From Dehd’s new album “Flower of Devotion” out July 17th on Fire Talk
Best Coast’s instant-classic debut album “Crazy For You” recently turned 10 years old, and core band members Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno are celebrating with a guest-filled livestream later this month. They’re also celebrating the album, and today’s Bandcamp Friday fundraiser, by releasing a new version of “Boyfriend” to benefit The Trevor Project, a national organization which provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ young people. Here’s more from Bethany about the reimagining:
When I was 22 years old I wrote a song about a guy I was quite literally, obsessed with, called “Boyfriend.” This obsession took up a lot of my time and mental energy. In the decade since writing this song, I have had a lot of time to reflect on not only that obsession, but the way in which I have at times, glorified obsessive and toxic romantic relationships in my song writing. This song in particular started to feel problematic to me around the time I really started working on myself at age 30. I would listen back to my lyrics and think about how much I was neglecting myself and how I made this guy the protagonist of my own life and story.
Somewhere down the line, I started noticing that this song in particular seemed to be a bit of an anthem for the LGBTQ+ community. I would get tagged in social media posts of guys proposing to their boyfriends with the song in the background, I would get countless messages from fans about how they put this song on a playlist for their crush and then their crush became their partner, I met lesbian and gay couples at shows who told me they had their first kiss to this song. Suddenly I realized that it had a whole new meaning than the one it did when I first wrote it. That is one of the most special parts of art – what the artist creates can be interpreted in so many different ways by the people who experience it – and the experience of this song through the eyes of the LGBTQ+ community of Best Coast fans, is truly the way I want it to be experienced.
With all that being said, here is a new, reimagined version of “Boyfriend” that includes everyone. For TODAY ONLY, this version will be available to buy on our Bandcamp, with all proceeds going to The Trevor Project, an organization that focuses on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth. The core of Best Coast songs have always been about struggling with your identity while trying to keep your head above water, so I deeply care about any organization that focuses on mental health awareness.
Thank you so much to the people who have messaged me or told me their stories in person over the years – you are what inspired the new version of this song and I hope you enjoy it.
The Man Upstairs released back in 2014, made with producer Joe Boyd (Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention) and was envisioned as “a kind of Judy Collins 1965-era album: half covers, half originals.” Robyn Hitchcock has now shared an album of outtakes from the record, naming it the “The Man Downstairs Demos & Rarities” it is now available for download and limited edition CD exclusively through Bandcamp.
These songs were recorded by Charlie Francis and Jessica Corcoran in 2013 in the lead up to making “The Man Upstairs” album. These previously unreleased versions of “River Man”, “Arnold Layne” and “I Pray When I’m Drunk”, as well as demos for “All Love And No Peace” and “Cavendish Square” extending the concept of the original album.
“These songs were mostly recorded in 2013 as demos for ‘The Man Upstairs,'” says Robyn. ” in his attic, and in many cases didn’t survive being re-cut with Joe Boyd in London when it came to session time.” Listen to the whole thing below.
Robyn Hitchcock is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. After leading The Soft Boys in the late 1970s and releasing the influential Underwater Moonlight, Hitchcock launched a prolific solo career. Robyn has also been selling some of his paintings online, and giving a portion of the proceeds to help touring musicians during COVID-19. The five he initially put up on Ebay have all sold but maybe there will be more.
Robyn also recently told us about the music, movies and books he’s been digging during pandemic lockdown.
In the autumn of 2013 I moved into the upstairs apartment of a house in Freshwater Bay on the Isle of Wight. It was just along the road from the house in the photo (left). Charles and EmmaDarwin had stayed there in 1859 and found it a tad damp and chilly, apparently. 154 years later, central heating had yet to arrive. I’d already been recording demos for the album I was scheduled to make with Joe Boyd producing, back in London, the week that I moved in. So I had a lot of quality time on trains and ferries, which was fun, in a slow, eternal way. By November the whole of “The Man Upstairs” was recorded – and a slew of other recordings too. Hence “The Man Downstairs: Demos & Rarities”, out now on Tiny Ghost Records, which is basically a companion piece to the album released on Yep Roc in 2014. Only one song overlaps, but the mood is pretty continuous, and I’m pleased to be able to share some performances that slipped away when Joe and I tried re-cutting them for the official album. RH.
You can also catch Robyn and his partner Emma Swift on their regular Stageit livestreams. Their next performances are August 12th at 5 PM Eastern and August 14th at 11 AM Eastern. Emma also has an album of Bob Dylan covers out August 14th.
All vocals: Robyn Hitchcock
All instruments: Robyn Hitchcock
“Purple Noon” is Atlanta-based producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Ernest Greene’s fourth full-length album, and it doesn’t disappoint. Mixed by long time collaborator, Ben H. Allen, “Purple Noon” delivers a lush, cinematic soundscape. There is a strong hint of Sade’s influence on this album both sonically and vocally. Not a bad thing.
Washed Out’s air conditioning still works, if “Purple Noon” is any indication. Vaporous and immersive, the airy new album from songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Ernest Greene’s pet project is a cool, ultra-modern cave of powdery Chillwave luxury and leisure that harkens back to Washed Out’s debut EP, Life of Leisure. That record established the artistically restless Greene as one of the genre’s up-and-coming visionaries, before he started experimenting with stylish synth-pop, full-band psychedelia and hip-hop and samples, not to mention his creative adventures in audio/visual splendor and animation.
To see him assume the role of Bryan Ferry is an unexpected twist, as the young man’s fancy turns from escapism to widescreen romance on Purple Noon. “Too Late” is suave and seductive, with breathy vocals, gentle finger snaps and soft throbs setting the mood, as “Face Up” commits the sweetest taboo of slow dancing with Sade. Drinking in the breezy island grooves and languid beats of Ibiza, “Paralyzed” and “Time to Walk Away” lay around poolside, while the lush and dreamy “Hide” is pure ‘80s pop pleasure that tastes like New Order. Have a fruity cocktail. It’s Purple Noon somewhere.
Almost a week out from the release of Purple Noon, so I thought I’d share another snippet. This song is called “Hide” and its another one of the slightly darker moments on the album. While I wouldn’t go as far as saying that Purple Noon is a concept album, it does focus solely on one major theme. It basically examines the various stages of a love-affair – from an initial meeting, to early infatuation, all the way through the heartbreak of when things start to fall apart. “Hide” is about that place in a relationship where its unclear whether its best to just try harder to make it work or to just completely cut ties and move on…
Washed Out the album “Purple Noon” (Release Date: 8/07/2020 on Sub Pop Records
