Heading into the spring of 2020, T. Hardy Morris had 12 demos that he thought would make-up his next album, then, everything changed. The world took a break and so his plans to record did as well. As we all watched and waited out the storms; viral and societal, we seemed to wake up scrolling through a whole new century, a time Morris began to refer to as The Digital Age of Rome.
He scrapped the demos and began a collection of songs in quarantine where the unprecedented times and topics were unavoidable. He wanted to document the era sonically and lyrically in some way.
“I wanted it to sound like how the world felt to me in the second half of 2020. Uncomfortable and chaotic, dystopian but still beautiful.”
The Digital Age of Rome was recorded in a deserted downtown Athens, Ga. With long-time collaborator / producer Adam Landry.
Releases June 25th, 2021
The Band:
Lead Vocals: T. Hardy Morris Additional Vocals: Faye Webster, Shelly Colvin, Adam Landry Drums: Brad Morgan (Drive-by Truckers), Adam Landry Bass: Vaughn Lamb, Adam Landry Electric Guitar: Charlton Eugene Woolfolk III, Adam Landry, T. Hardy Morris Acoustic Guitar: T. Hardy Morris, Adam Landry Steel Guitar: Matt “Pistol” Stoessel Keys: Adam Landry Percussion: Adam Landry, T. Hardy Morris Programming: Adam Landry, T. Hardy Morris, Nate Nelson
Rock ‘n’ roll is often hard to define, or even to find, in these fractured musical times. But to paraphrase an old saying, you know it when you hear it.
And you always hear it with The Wallflowers. For the past 30 years, the Jakob Dylan-led act has stood as one of rock’s most dynamic and purposeful bands – a unit dedicated to and continually honing a sound that meshes timeless song writing and storytelling with a hard-hitting and decidedly modern musical attack. That signature style has been present through the decades, baked into the grooves of smash hits like 1996’s Bringing Down the Horse as well as more recent and exploratory fare like 2012’s Glad All Over.
But while it’s been nine long years since we’ve heard from the group with whom he first made his mark, the Wallflowers are silent no more. And Dylan always knew they’d return. “The Wallflowers is much of my life’s work,” he says simply. That life’s work continues with “Exit Wounds”, the brand-new Wallflowers studio offering. The collection marks the first new Wallflowers material since Glad All Over.
Exit Wounds, which, true to its title, is an ode to people – individual and collective – that have, to put it mildly, been through some stuff.
“I think everybody – no matter what side of the aisle you’re on – wherever we’re going to next, we’re all taking a lot of exit wounds with us,” Dylan says. “Nobody is the same as they were four years ago. That, to me, is what Exit Wounds signifies. And it’s not meant to be negative at all. It just means that wherever you’re headed, even if it’s to a better place, you leave people and things behind, and you think about those people and those things and you carry them with you. Those are your exit wounds. And right now, we’re all swimming in them.”
Jakob Dylan: vocals, guitar Butch Walker: guitar, keyboards, percussion, backing vocals Mark Stepro: drums Whynot Jensveld: bass Aaron Embry: keyboards Val McCallum: guitar Shelby Lynne: vocals (Maybe Your Heart’s Not In It No More, Move The River, Darlin’ Hold On, I’ll Let You Down (But Will Not Give You Up)) Brian Griffin: drums (Move The River)
Dinosaur Jr. offered another preview of the band’s upcoming album “Sweep It Into Space” with the new single, “Take It Back”. “Sweep It Into Space” is out on Friday via Jagjaguwar Records.
Following the release of the Lou Barlow-penned “Garden“, this latest single finds singer/guitarist J Mascis back at the helm. While the song opens with bright sonic tones compared to “Keith Richards’ Jamaican explorations” in a press release, these quickly give way to a more conventional Dinosaur Jr. tone. What could be construed as a catchy, radio-friendly hook gets ruffed up just the right amount by J’s raspy delivery to give “I Ran Away” a comfortable edge of grit. Meanwhile, the stop-motion animated video by director Callum Scott-Dyson makes some of the lyrics’ straightforward messaging a bit more ambiguous and abstract.
“[I] really wanted to use the creature on the front of the album sleeve for Sweep It Into Space as an inspiration and springboard for its own little adventure, exploring some simple notions of creation, dependence, coming of age and searching for another like yourself,” Scott-Dyson said in a press release. “I wanted to mix those themes with my style of stop motion animation, everything being very DIY and handmade, using any materials I could get my hands on to bring the idea to life and give it a surreal and otherworldly feel. I’ve always been a really big fan of Dinosaur Jr, so I was working extra hard to do something that could add to such an awesome track and sit alongside it.”
New Album “Sweep It Into Space” will be out April 23rd! Check out the first song, “I Ran Away,”
“Take It Back” the new song by Dinosaur Jr. from the album ‘Sweep It Into Space’, out April 23rd on Jagjaguwar Records.
Australian heartland rock/alt-country-leaning punks Amends have shared a new single off “Tales of Love, Loss and Outlaws”, and this one finds the band harmonizing and duetting with Against Me vocalist Laura Jane Grace, whose voice is perfect for a song like this,
Starting in the mid 2010s as an emo-rock revival outfit, Amends have expanded to incorporate a sound more focused on alt-country, heartland rock and folk-punk. Building their style across EP’s and their debut album ‘So Far From Home’, led them to support acts such as Lucero, The Menzingers and Luca Brasi. The strong development of the band’s style and sound is evident in their new record, ‘Tales Of Love, Loss and Outlaws’.
Joining in on the record are Murder By Death Cellist Sarah Baillet and Against Me! leader Laura Jane Grace. The former contributes strings on the ballad “I Gave My Heart Away A Long Time Ago,” while the latter duets on “Walking Backwards.”
‘Tales of Love, Loss, and Outlaws’ demonstrates and solidifies Amends status as one of Australian music’s most unique and endearing prospects.
Taken from our album “Tales of Love, Loss and Outlaws” Out on the 23rd of April via Resist Records.
Cold Moon the jangly indie rock band with members of pop punk bands The Story So Far and Set Your Goals — have shared another song off their upcoming Jack Shirley-recorded debut LP “What’s The Rush?” (due 5/7 via Pure Noise). It’s closer to Real Estate or Turnover than to the members’ more famous bands, and they do this kind of thing very well.
By mid-2018, the Northern California-based quartet—vocalist/guitarist Jack Sullivan, bassist Will Levy, guitarist Kevin Ambrose and drummer Mike Ambrose—were deep into the writing of their debut EP, “Rising”: a collection of instrumental indie-rock songs that culled influences from legendary emo acts including American Football and icons like Wilco, as well as more analytical post-rock impulses.
Musically, the songs Cold Moon wrote were miles removed from where the band came from (Levy plays guitar in pop-punk stalwarts The Story So Far, while Mike Ambrose was a long time member of the hardcore-tinged Set Your Goals), but they still carried the same intrinsic urgency and emotional resonance that coloured their other projects.
After demoing Rising and preparing to hit the studio to track the final versions, the childhood friends soon stumbled upon the power of Sullivan’s voice, as well as the influence singing could have on their song writing. It immediately changed everything for the band, who began using vocal parts not to define their music, but rather drive it—adding yet more melodic textures to their songs
“I don’t know if it was the right approach to song writing,” Sullivan says with a laugh, “but it felt good. It was like a nice coat of finish on a completed piece of art.”
As such, Rising (released May 10th via Pure Noise Records) is the sound of band painstakingly placing every instrument and note, both played and sung, alongside one another to build intricate, at-times dense and mathy soundscapes. This attention to detail gives Rising’s six songs—from the hypnotic, ominous riffs of “Stevie” to the acoustic-based pitter-patter of “Green Eyes” and cascading guitar movements on the set-closing “Lessons” a cinematic quality, while the tracked-to-tape nature of the EP imbues the songs with breaths of authenticity and humanity a digital process would have sorely lacked.
Throughout its songs, Rising tackles themes of change and vulnerability, looking out into the vast expanse of the unknown and mustering up the courage to face it head-on. In many ways, it mirrors the approach the band took while writing it: Life’s big moments—and, perhaps more often, the small ones, too—disrupt our comfortable state of equilibrium and force us to examine who we are and what we really want
Ultimately, it’s only by fearlessly following them that we’re able to arrive at our final form. Chasing that inspiration is what brought Cold Moon together, and it’s what changed the band’s direction forever during the making of Rising. It’s steeled them both personally and professionally, and they’ll carry this forward-thinking mindset with them throughout the course of their career.
“We didn’t know what was going to happen when we got in a room together, but it was a real safe, comfortable space,” Sullivan says. “It was a positive atmosphere for all of us, where we weren’t worried about making mistakes. We just let the music happen.”
Lord Huron have shared the title track (and third single) off their upcoming album “Long Lost”, and this one finds them combining their trademark indie folk with sweeping, string-laden, vintage balladry. Lord Huron announced the new album, Long Lost, and so far, the group has shared a pair of songs from it: the driving single “Not Dead Yet” and the breezy “Mine Forever.” Now they’re back with another preview of the album (which is set for release on May 21st), the title track.
“Lonesome Dreams is the album from rising pop experimentalists Lord Huron, led by Michigan-born songwriting prodigy Ben Schneider. A joyous collision of Appalachian percussion, rustic guitars and sumptuous harmonies lit up by lens-flare flashes of electronics, it’s a record inspired by the rust coloured canyons and characters of the Wild West, with the emphasis on wild. Tales of the great American outback have always been an inspiration, according to Schneider. “Sometimes I feel like I’m living in one of those stories,” he confides. “I wanted to look at my life and lives close to me as though they were tales from some frontier novel.”
Los Angeles’s La Luz have released a new Numero Group 7″ single where they cover “Tale of My Lost Love” which was originally written and performed in 1966 by Female Species. The flip side features the original song and it’s out to promote the new Female Species compilation the label just released.
Our Los Angeles friends La Luz just cut this cover of “Tale Of My Lost Love,” originally written and performed in 1966 by Female Species. The surf and undertow-inspired La Luz are one of the best in the business right now—check their three albums on Hardly Art if you don’t know. Their compelling version of “Tale” is the first fresh take on a Female Species original in many a moon. We suspect it will not be the last.
Behold the Female Species! A once-in-a-decade discovery of two sisters, married to music for life, always charging forward, indefatigable, indomitable, at last seen and heard. From their origins as the archetypal mid-’60s southern California girl group to their destiny as top-flight songwriters in the ’80s and ’90s Nashville country-industrial complex, Vicki and Ronni Gossett have never been much further than 20 feet from stardom. Fifty-five years into their remarkable story,Tale Of My Lost Love was the Gossetts‘ debut album – an ode to what could have been, and still might be.
Tale Of My Lost Love (Cover) · La Luz released through Numero Group on: 2021-04-16
Tegan and Sara join Beach Bunny for a new version of the track “Cloud 9” from their 2020 debut “Honeymoon”. “We’re massive fans of Beach Bunny, and when we heard ‘Cloud 9’ for the first time fell in love with the brilliant lyrics and addictive melody,” the say. “We love that Lili was up to let us experiment with changing the pronoun in the chorus to she. The efforts made to make the song relatable to everyone, isn’t just about inclusivity, we think it’s a great indication of the flexibility and creative spirit of the band at its core!”. The new version of ‘Cloud 9’ not only features Tegan And Sara but has also been updated to include gender-neutral and feminine pronouns in its lyrics.
The original version of the track was released on Beach Bunny’s debut album ‘Honeymoon’ last year.
Cloud 9 (feat. Tegan and Sara) ℗ 2021 Mom+Pop Records Released on: 2021-04-16
“Life in this industry can be incredibly isolating and difficult,” Alanis writes. “Backline provides a safe, private, and immediate place to go for help. Available for free to artists, managers, agents, crew, producers, labels, and their families, Backline programs offer case management, support groups, and wellness programs to meet the needs of this unique community.” Her new ballad “I Miss The Band” benefits the organization, which provides mental health and wellness resources for the music industry.
Alanis Morissette is aching to play live music again. But, of course, she can’t do anything about it for now given the hellish pandemic. For the meantime, the Grammy-winning artist released a new single titled “I Miss The Band.” There’s a wistful quality to the piano-decked new song from the “Ironic” singer.
In it, Alanis romanticizes being on the road and travelling around the world with a band and playing music. She croons, “We’re on a plane, we’re in Japan / in baggage claim I ask, what city we just landed in / the paper slips under the hotel door / I’m shaking all hands as the hum-of-the-road keeps me happy.”
Yes, the song is about her yearning to play live again.
I am deeply yearning to play live music again….the sweat, the rapture, the movement, the love…i miss seeing your faces & being with my bandmates soon…we’ll be back together.
A sample of the song’s lyrics goes: ‘Inside joke, well understood / the nudge nudge wink wink and finishing each other’s harmonies / the late night drive through Italian roads / trains pulling out and we’re all in on the secret.”
Alanis’ lyrics are straightforward, singing “I miss the band,” and later admits “I am imploding without you / and there’s not a day that goes by / where I don’t hear our music in my head / where I don’t miss traveling in your company.”
Alanis was supposed to play in Manila back in April 2020 for the 20th anniversary of “Jagged Little Pill.” But as Covid-19 loomed and became a full-blown world pandemic and lockdowns became the norm, her concert at the Mall of Asia, which supposed to have been her first time back in Manila after her album “Jagged Little Pill” became a worldwide phenomenon back in the late 90’s, was cancelled along with every other show and concert around the planet.
“I Miss The Band” and ‘Such Pretty Forks in the Road,’ out now
This is the first single off Caged Animals’ upcoming “Underneath The Spell” album. Caged Animals is the recording project of Jersey-born, Brooklyn-based songwriter Vincent Cacchione. Cacchione emerged from his role fronting Soft Black (whose members included DIIV’s Zachary Cole Smith) to form Caged Animals alongside his sister Talya, partner Magali Charron, and childhood friend Patrick Curry. Since 2011 they have released three LPs of their soulful and noir-tinged indie-pop.
Trading Soft Black’s live-to-tape psychedelia for a meticulous, bedroom-born style, Caged Animals make soulful, character-driven pop for an increasingly digital time. The live show is a family affair with a band comprised of Vin’s sister Talya, partner Magali Charron, and childhood friend Patrick Curry. On their upcoming fourth record, Underneath The Spell, Caged Animals have crafted their first “band album” during the least band-friendly moment.
Although the recordings began in 2019, the project took a long pause when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold and Vin and his family unintentionally relocated to his wife’s Canadian hometown in Sackville, New Brunswick. What began as a pre-COVID family visit turned into a major lifestyle change when the virus and a closed international border conspired to keep Vin’s family within the safer confines of “The Atlantic Bubble.” Having left their Brooklyn apartment with just travel bags, the young family and musical couple had to get creative about life and art.
Through the kindness of Sackville’s creative community the Caged Animals crew landed on solid ground. Underneath The Spell got its finishing touches in late 2020 after Canadian musician Jon Mckiel helped Vin and his family find a place to live and work.
While the project’s sonic palette has expanded, the homemade spirit remains intact. It features the core Caged Animals lineup plus the spacey guitar of Dane Zarra, hypnotic alto-sax of Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers, Modern Nature), and psychedelic pedal steel of Jon “Catfish” DeLorme (Psychic Ills).
Underneath The Spell’s ten songs feel oddly tuned to the frequency of our shared, strange moment, building a cinematic world out of contemplative moods and isolated characters. From the foxhole spirituality of “The Ghost Of Jesus” to the mournful solitude of “The Coldest Place On Earth,” the album weaves its narrative on a thread of alienation and yearning; each character and melody pushing for renewal. It was born in a moment of slowing down, as Vin became a father and began to look back on the moments that shaped him.
On the title track, Vin’s character laments a life lived “in a circle, underneath the spell,” evoking our current Groundhog Day reality but hinting at the possibility of release each time Dane Zarra kicks at the fuzz pedal. For “My Friend Dave,” Cacchione delivers a drone-kissed elegy mourning the loss of a departed friend: singer-songwriter Dave Deporis. “The Coldest Place On Earth” is a plainspoken remembrance of his father, while “Mirage” delivers a pop duet lit by headlights, as Vin and Magali trade verses about a romance on the brink.
On the serpentine “Dream World,” a lush, somnambulant landscape unravels over looping arpeggios, a sample of Vin’s daughter Alaska, and the album’s most hypnotic groove, pushing towards one of Spell’s most poignant conceits: “we’re living in a dream world but we’re running out of night.”
In addition to Caged Animals, Vin Cacchione is an esteemed collaborator in the contemporary fiction podcasting scene, working with John Cameron Mitchell on his ground breaking Anthem: Homunculus podcast, as well as shows by Julian Koster of Neutral Milk Hotel, and John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats. Caged Animals music has been used in popular podcasts like Conversations With People Who Hate Me and Welcome To Night Vale.
Cacchione also produced the critically acclaimed debut album of author, Bob Dylan cohort, and John Cale collaborator, Larry “Ratso” Sloman, a record which gave him the chance to work with Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, and Yasmine Hamdan.
Vincent Cacchione – Voice, Guitar, Keys Talya Cacchione – Bass Magali Charron – Keys, Voice Patrick Curry – Drums and Loops Dane Zarra – Guitar
with Jeff Tobias – Alto Saxophone Jon “Catfish” DeLorme – Pedal Steel Alaska Cacchione – Dream Recitation Bertholet Charron – Lullaby
All songs by Vincent Cacchione, excluding “Au Clair De La Lune
“Like a hip-hop influenced Velvet Underground” – The New Yorker
“If Alan Vega was 40 years younger, he’d be doing this. Or if they remade Blue Velvet, this could work as the soundtrack.” – The Guardian
“Beneath the japing lies a searing emotional truth.” The Sunday Times
“The heart of Vincent Cacchione’s newest project continues to pump blood through the veins of poetic narratives and escapism.” The Line Of Best Fit
The Fat Angel Sings 