A sting in the summer blossom, “Ultimate Success Today” is Protomartyr’s fifth full-length album. Following the release of Relatives In Descent, the band’s critically acclaimed headlong dive into the morass of American life in 2017, Ultimate Success Today continues to further expand the possibilities of what a Protomartyr album can sound like. The album was recorded at Dreamland Recording Studios, a late 19th century church, in upstate New York and co-produced by the band and David Tolomei (Dirty Projectors, Beach House) with mixing by Tolomei. Featured guest musicians on the album include Nandi Rose (vocals), jazz legend Jemeel Moondoc (alto sax), Izaak Mills (bass clarinet, sax, flute), and Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello).
Ultimate Success Today is Protomartyr’s fifth album. Following the release of Relatives In Descent, the band’s critically acclaimed headlong dive into the morass of American life in 2017, Ultimate Success Today continues to further expand the possibilities of what a Protomartyr album can sound like. Another perfect Protomartyr album that somehow manages to explode past its predecessor.
So excited for this! Best rock lyricist out there today, Ultimate Success Today – three words that barely would have crossed one’s mind when thinking about Protomartyr. In those three simple words though, they once more managed to outline a certain state of being and feeling, many of us are constantly confronted with: The societal imperative of winning. Where modesty, failure and perspective are met with suspicion, contempt or at least ridicule. Protomartyr are at a point at which they masterfully match and simultaneously break with expectations. Post punk is definitely still one way to describe it. Musically though, they transcended that description long ago and this record is just as much rooted in a drone and free jazz framing. A frame in which Joe Casey’s lyrics nest like a nervous, meandering flicker; a moth circling the light.
PJ Harvey’s entire catalogue is to be reissued on vinyl over the course of the next year by UMC/Island and Beggars Archive/Too Pure.
The reissue programme includes the two albums she made in collaboration with John Parish, as well as standalone versions of her album demos. the long awaited 2nd press of Rid Of Me is finally here! Thus completing the first 3 albums + companion demos set
Next in the re-issues series will be her 1996 collab. with John Parish “Dance Hall at Louse Point”, arriving later this week. We’re expecting the series to continue with Is This Desire?, Stories From The City etc. sometime in 2021. Stay tuned, and feel free to get in-touch to put your name down for future re-issues.
First up is the reissue of her landmark 1992 debut “Dry”, released on July 24 along with “Dry – Demos” – a collection of demos that was released with limited early copies of the album but hasn’t been available since. It features brand new artwork with previously unseen photos by Maria Mochnacz.
PJ Harvey, British singer/songwriter, and rock legend, has announced plans to reissue her entire catalogue of solo albums, collaboration albums, and demo tracks. Dry, Harvey’s 1992 debut studio album, will be the first reissue on July 24th through Beggars Archive/Too Pure Records. This re-release will be accompanied by a collection of demos from Dry (aptly titled Dry—Demos), which will be available on all formats. Be on the lookout for the rest of her catalogue, which will be reissued throughout the year.
Check out the first track from Dry—Demos, a rough draft of PJ Harvey’s “Sheela-Na-Gig” below. Pre-order the reissue of Dry and the new collection of Dry—Demos.
Island Records recording; ℗ 1992 PJ Harvey, under exclusive licence to Universal Music Operations Ltd.
Seigner may not see herself as a femme fatale, but Diabolique, the debut album by new collaborative band, l’Épée (the Sword), certainly does. A heady combination of 60s psych, yé-yé, lounge and drone rock, over which she purrs lyrics such as “I’m the Queen of Furs/The Earthquake Lady”, it’s as seductive as Serge Gainsbourg and as druggily alluring as the Velvet Underground. It also comes with the obsessive eye for detail you would expect from her collaborators on the project. L’Épée is a four-piece band comprised of Emmanuelle Seigner (Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle), Anton Newcombe (The Brian Jonestown Massacre) and Lionel + Marie Limiñana (The Limiñanas).
The collaboration came about last year, when husband and wife duo The Limiñanas recorded an album (‘Shadow People’) with Anton Newcombe. A track featured French musician, actress, model and muse Emmanuelle Seigner on guest vocals. When she came into the studio to record the group dynamic clicked and a natural collaboration ensued. Inspired by melancholic movie scores and the mythology of Rock’n’Roll music, from Lou Reed to the Rolling Stones, ‘Diabolique‘ is infused with light, shadows and layers of psychedelic fuzzy guitars.
The title is a nod to Mario Bava’s 1968 cult movie classic Danger: Diabolik, while the lyrics – mostly by Lionel Limiñana – were written as musical short stories in the spirit of Italian film director Dino Risi. “I come from a theatre background, but I grew up loving Lou Reed, the Stooges and the Rolling Stones,” she says. “I always wanted to be in a band like this, but I started modelling at 14 and my life took a different path.” Throughout her film career, Seigner has released commercially successful pop albums – with French outfit Ultra Orange in 2007 and her own solo records (Dingue in 2010 and Distant Lover in 2014). But it was only in 2016, when she heard the Limiñanas’ track Down Underground while watching an episode of Gossip Girl with her daughter Morgane, that she realised her musical ambitions might still be fulfilled. She got on a plane to meet Limiñana and his wife, Marie, who plays drums, at their studio in Cabestany in the south of France. They recorded a song for the band’s album Shadow People, with Newcombe producing. “The result was so good that he suggested we should all form a band together.” It was recorded between Lionel and Marie’s home place Cabestany (FR) and Anton’s Cobra Studio in Berlin. The collective have named themselves L’Épée, meaning “the sword” in English, after it came to Anton in a dream. Newcombe provides the rock’n’roll credentials. As the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s charismatic leader during the 90s, he operated as, effectively, a one-man Rolling Stones. His status as rock’s most mercurial madman was captured in Ondi Timoner’s classic 2004 rockumentary, Dig!.
Emanuelle Seigner wife of Roman Polanski new project in L’ Épée [The Sword]. Aside from being an actress and a model she had long been into the music game having released two solo albums herself and a collaboration with Ultra Orange. On this project, she teams up with Anton Newcombe, Lionel Limiñana, and Marie Limiñana, the latter of Les Bellas and Les Limiñanas. The record is a throwback to late 60s and early 70’s psychedelic rock with touches of dream pop and shoegaze. Drenched in feedback and reverb, the album is a wonder of neo-psychedelia and Seigner’s vocal delivery is a nod to chanson and yé-yé. From opener “Une Lune Étrange” to “Last Picture Show”, the album goes from psychedelia to shoegaze to gothic rock to dream pop only to end with a garage rock stomper.
I was aware of Emanuelle Seigner ever since Roman Polanski’s 1999 film The Ninth Gate and have loved her as well in The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, Frantic, Bitter Moon and 2013’s Venus in Fur. I had no idea she was such a great singer, and on Diabolique she proves in it spades in what is hands down one of the most impressive psychedelic rock albums of 2019.
L’Épée – “Dreams” first EP available on May the 17th L’Épée, the band are Emmanuelle Seigner (Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle), Anton Newcombe (The Brian Jonestown Massacre) & Lionel & Marie Liminana (The Liminanas)
The band was based in San Francisco throughout their history from 1980-1993. They were comprised of two outstanding songwriters – Kevin Hunter and Kurt Herr (the later quitting the band after 1985’s Between Two Words to be replace by Jeffery Trott for all subsequent albums), the native Swede Anders Rundblad on bass, and Argentinean Federico Gil-Sola on drums (left after their first album to be replaced by Brian McLeod for all subsequent albums). BGO is a three-for-one release on 2 CDs from this Bay Area alt-rock band originally released on Columbia between 1983 and 1985 including In a Chamber, recently reissued in an expanded edition by Supermegabot.
The sound of the band on “…In a Chamber” is chorus-guitar driven new wave/post-punk Bono has said that “…In a Chamber” was his favourite album of 1984. The guitars are bright and blend together beautifully, and there is a lot of nice interplay between the two guitarists. In the album’s opening track “I’ll Do You,” Kurt Herr’s chordal riffs in the middle of the song are colourful and dreamlike, and really just sound amazing. Other songs like “Never”, “Chamber of Hellos”, and “Slow Down” are also very strong in this area. When it comes to the rhythm section, all I can say is very, very tight. Federico Gil-Sola but his tight, fast beats (which were even faster live) serve well the band’s dance inducing songs, and give them a lot of their energy. Anders Rundblad’s bass playing is very tight as well and serves as a rock solid guide for the rest of the band. His tone is very round and warm, which blends into the sound nicely. The bass lines, like the drums, are more simple, but nonetheless good. What is most striking about Wire Train though, is how excellent their song-writing is.
1985’s “Between Two Words” is a slightly more produced record, having a more mainstream power-pop sound, and less post-punk. However, the transition isn’t a huge one and the band still retain their tight rhythms and bright guitar driven sound. The song-writing has not lessened in excellence either, with several stand out tracks like “Last Perfect Thing” “Skills of Summer” “Love,Love” and “I Will.” Lyrically, both albums shine, but this one in particular is filled with thought provoking poetic lines from Kevin Hunter.
Not many pop bands in ’84 ’85 had a sound as raw and guitar driven as Wire Train
5-episode Documentary series about the fascinating musical career of Paul McCartney. Episode 1 focuses on 1970-1975. this is a most outstanding documentary, probably the best I have seen on McCartney done with flair, care, expertise and with such a touch of magic that by making it so very special it easily transcends the usual formulaic dirge we’ve been given over the years about The Beatles and their solo careers. I sincerely hope that MPL gets wind of this and realises what a genius they could add to their stable or at least get involved with future McCartney projects. This also will mean such a great deal to the true fans who transcended from The Beatles to the Solo Beatles including myself.Ironic that as Paul was slipping into depression in the autumn of 69 while we were all bathing in the wonderment of Abbey Road….Without question though imo 70/71 was Pauls finest, the quartet of McCartney/Ram/ Wild Lifestill retain such a magical aura all of their own.
I loved BOTR & Venus & Mars, but it’s always those first 3 albums I return to again and again. For anyone’s interest Little Lamb Dragonfly on the Red Rose Speedway album was actually recorded in the Ram sessions, and when you learn that fact you realise that it really does belong on Ram. The essential inclusion (and often overlooked) thoughts, feelings and observations of Denny Seiwell , Denny Laine & Henry McCulloch are so vital to the first Wings lineup and very moving too. Their own words reflect how much respect they had for Paul, and really it shows how sadly too they were let down financially leaving Denny Seiwell and Henry no alternative but to leave. Had Paul perhaps paid the same attention to their payments of salaries that he did to his music they would have never walked out. Linda sadly got a lot of stick at the time but her vocal harmonies (with Denny too) were pure magic and a musical legacy her to be rightly proud of.
As the Beatles were breaking up in 1969–70, McCartney fell into a depression. His wife helped him pull out of that condition by praising his work as a songwriter and convincing him to continue writing and recording. In her honour, he wrote “Maybe I’m Amazed”, explaining that with the Beatles breaking up, “that was my feeling: Maybe I’m amazed at what’s going on … Maybe I’m a man and maybe you’re the only woman who could ever help me; Baby won’t you help me understand … Maybe I’m amazed at the way you pulled me out of time, hung me on the line, Maybe I’m amazed at the way I really need you.” He added that “every love song I write is for Linda.”
One of my favourite elements about this series is how much input there is from people who actually got the chance to work and collaborate with McCartney. Having that kind of “outside” perspective is especially useful when one’s main subject is not very much given to self-examination. And it’s amazing to see how much love and respect Paul creates around him, more clearly observed in the people whose feelings didn’t get distorted by hurt, envy, and bitterness.
5-episode Documentary series on Paul McCartney’s fascinating music career. Episode 2 spans 1975-1980,
Following the addition of guitarist Henry McCullough, Wings’ first concert tour began in 1972 with a debut performance in front of an audience of seven hundred at the University of Nottingham. Ten more gigs followed as they travelled across the UK in a van during an unannounced tour of universities, during which the band stayed in modest accommodation and received pay in coinage collected from students, while avoiding Beatles songs during their performances. McCartney later said, “The main thing I didn’t want was to come on stage, faced with the whole torment of five rows of press people with little pads, all looking at me and saying, ‘Oh well, he is not as good as he was.’ So we decided to go out on that university tour which made me less nervous … by the end of that tour I felt ready for something else, so we went into Europe.” During the seven-week, 25-show Wings Over Europe Tour, the band played almost solely Wings and McCartney solo material: the Little Richard cover “Long Tall Sally” was the only song that had previously been recorded by the Beatles. McCartney wanted the tour to avoid large venues; most of the small halls they played had capacities of fewer than 3,000 people. Wings followed Band on the Run with the chart-topping albums Venus and Mars (1975) and Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976). In 1980, McCartney released his second solo LP, the self-produced McCartney II, which peaked at number one in the UK and number three in the US. As with his first album, he composed and performed it alone. The album contained the song “Coming Up”, the live version of which, recorded in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1979 by Wings, became the group’s last number-one hit. By 1981, McCartney felt he had accomplished all he could creatively with Wings and decided he needed a change. The group discontinued in April 1981 after Laine quit following disagreements over royalties and salaries.
5-episode Documentary series about the fascinating musical career of Paul McCartney. Episode 3 focuses on the 1980s. McCartney participated in Live Aid, performing “Let it Be”,
In September 1989, they launched the Paul McCartney World Tour, his first in over a decade. During the tour, McCartney performed for the largest paying stadium audience in history on 21st April 1990, when 184,000 people attended his concert at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.That year, he released the triple album Tripping the Live Fantastic, which contained selected performances from the tour.
5-episode Documentary series about the fascinating musical career of Paul McCartney. Episode 4 focuses on the 1990s.
In 1991, McCartney performed a selection of acoustic-only songs on MTV Unplugged and released a live album of the performance titled Unplugged (The Official Bootleg). During the 1990s, McCartney collaborated twice with Youth of Killing Joke as the musical duo “the Fireman”. The two released their first electronica album together, Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest, in 1993. McCartney released the rock album Off the Ground in 1993. The subsequent New World Tour followed, which led to the release of the Paul Is Live album later that year
5-episode Documentary series on Paul McCartney’s fascinating music career. Episode 5 is a “double album” covering some of Paul’s greatest works spanning a total of two decades: Part 1 focuses on 2000-2010, Part 2 covers 2010-2020.
In 1997, McCartney released the rock album Flaming Pie. Ringo Starr appeared on drums and backing vocals in “Beautiful Night”. Later that year, he released the classical work Standing Stone, which topped the UK and US classical charts.[155] In 1998, he released Rushes, the second electronica album by the Fireman. In 1999, McCartney released Run Devil Run. Recorded in one week, and featuring Ian Paice and David Gilmour, it was primarily an album of covers with three McCartney originals. He had been planning such an album for years, having been previously encouraged to do so by Linda, who had died of cancer in April 1998.
McCartney did an unannounced performance at the benefit tribute, “Concert for Linda,” his wife of 29 years who died a year earlier. It was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 10th April 1999, and was organised by two of her close friends, Chrissie Hynde and Carla Lane.
McCartney’s enduring fame has made him a popular choice to open new venues. In 2009, he played to three sold-out concerts at the newly built Citi Field, a venue constructed to replace Shea Stadium in Queens, New York. These performances yielded the double live album Good Evening New York City later that year. McCartney remains one of the world’s top draws.
Worriers are a band from Brooklyn, New York, centered around the songwriting of Lauren Denitzio, with the help of friendsMikey Erg, Nick Psillas, and more. They released their 2nd LP Survival PopSideOneDummy Records and have toured with John K Samson, Against Me!, Julien Baker, Anti Flag, and more. Worriers’ debut album “Imaginary Life” was produced by Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!
Lauren Denitzio has been one of pop-punk’s sharpest songwriters, and Survival Popis the personal, affecting album that scene has long needed. Worriers are a melodic punk band from Brooklyn. The band’s music is centered around the songwriting of Lauren Denitzio, withthe help of friends Mikey Erg, Lou Hanman, and Nick Psillas, among others. They’ve released records with Don Giovanni, No Idea and Yo-Yo Records. Worriers‘ first LP “Imaginary Life” was produced by Laura Jane Grace and was released on Don Giovanni Records in 2015.
Katie Ellen’s debut album, 2017’s Cowgirl Blues, saw frontwoman Anika Pyle kicking against the traditions and norms that come with adulthood—namely, love, major life changes, cohabitation, and domesticity. She penned the anti-marriage anthem with “Sad Girls Club,” a standout track that featured the defiant heartbreaker of a chorus: “Sad girls don’t make good wives.” On the Philly band’s new, five-song EP, Still Life, Pyle is still trying to wrap her head around these things. On opener “Lighthouse,” Pyle reckons with warring thoughts—wanting to be brave enough to swim into life’s uncharted deep end, but feeling tied down by the anchor of fear and anxiety. Later, on the EP’s title track, she surrenders to the idea that love is more powerful and wild than our capacity to tame it: “You can’t make love stay / Do your best to hold it in place.”
Musically, Pyle flexes a few new tricks she’s trying out, like on “Still Life,” where her voice spirals into borderline operatic delivery, a far jump from the quick and dirty style she cut her teeth on in her former pop punk project Chumped. Was so excited at the news of this EP, considering that Cowgirl Blues was one of my favourite albums of 2017. I’ve had this on repeat since it came out. “Still Life” is particularly resonant for me. It feels so different as Anika showcases her vocal skills even more, with a fuller band sound and even backup vocals, but the emotional quality and content of the song still feels 100% like Katie Ellen.
Matt Sweeney, produced this Country Westerns album. Singer-guitarist Joey Plunkett left NYC for Nashville after making a name for himself in legends The Weight & hustling bass in Gentleman Jesse. In 2019, Sabrina Rush joined on bass. Nashville drummer Brian Kotzur was a member of Silver Jews and David Berman encouraged them to record with me and Fat Possum Records gave them a record deal.
Country Westerns is a three-piece rock band from Nashville that sounds nothing like its name. Drummer Brian Kotzur (Trash Humpers, Silver Jews) and singer-songwriter-guitarist Joseph Plunket (The Weight, Gentleman Jesse) began working on songs together in 2016, after bonding over the shared desire to be in a band in a town full of solo artists and guns-for-hire. Following a couple of years writing and playing shows with varying lineups, Sabrina Rush (State Champion) joined the band as bassist. The now complete Country Westerns recorded their debut album in New York and Nashville, encouraged by friend and producer Matt Sweeney. Plunket’s raspy bravado and subtle twang, his insistent 12-string guitar riffs, Kotzur’s dynamic and metronomic drumming, and Rush’s harmonic bass playing create hyper catchy rock songs, with lyrics that bend towards poetry and punk rock sneer in equal measure. Their self-titled debut is slated for release in 2020 on Fat Possum Record. This is guitar-driven garagey americana that doesn’t sound like anything else out there right now.
Released June 26th, 2020
Country Westerns played a private set at Grimey’s Music in Nashville to celebrate the release of their self titled debut album on Fat Possum Records. Love everything about this. It’s got the primo vocal gravel with an infectious rhythm and upbeat tone. Great mix of punky twang polished and mixed like a modern Manhattan in the calloused hands of an urban cowboy gone rogue.
Slow Nights 00:14 It’s Not Easy 3:32 TV Light 6:47 Gentle Soul 10:17 I’m Not Ready 13:19 Close To Me 17:35 Guest Checks 20:16 Times To Tunnels 23:48 At Anytime 26:51 Margaritas At The Mall (Purple Mountains) 30:15
In addition to the album announcement for their new album, they’ve shared the haunting single “Trials”, along with a mesmerizing video directed by Jeff Striker. Cults on “Trials”: “Trials” focuses on the power that addictions and harmful ideologies have to transform. The chorus walks a tightrope between a metaphor for gaslighting and a despairing worry about the person you still hold out hope for.
Host is a radical reimagining of both the band’s sound and its dynamic. Written more collaboratively than ever before and recorded primarily with live instruments for the first time, the album explores the sinister dynamics at play in a parasitic relationship. Rather than dwelling in the discomfort, it charts a cathartic journey towards freedom and self-reliance, revelling in the power that comes from standing your ground and declaring independence in the face of exploitation and manipulation.
Cults have returned with the announcement of their fourth studio album “Host”, out September 18th via Sinderlyn ‼️
Blitzen Trapper shares “Dead Billie Jean,” this is the third track from their Yep Roc Records debut, Holy Smokes Future Jokes, out September 11th.
BrooklynVegan premiered the song and video, noting that the song “works in the title star of Michael Jackson’s 1983 hit — not to mention a few dead rock stars — into the heady psychedelic universe of this album… a groovy, jammy Blitzen Trapper-style folk number.” Led by existential questions about life and death, Holy Smokes Future Jokes finds frontman and lyricist Eric Earley ruminating on the intermediate period between a person’s separate lives on earth, “and what it means to escape the cycle of birth and rebirth.”
Of the track he notes, “Pulling together Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo and MJ’s Billie Jean wherein the real Billie Jean has indeed killed herself as she promised Michael she would and now living in a state of rock and roll immortality kicks it in the Intermediate States with Jim Morrison, Brian Jones and Abraham Lincoln(?!) smoking mad dope, though she remains unaware of her death somehow as though her death ultimately was an awakening and reinvention.”
On August 28th, in support of independent record stores, Blitzen Trapper will release Holy Smokes Future Jokes on limited edition red, yellow & blue splatter vinyl EXCLUSIVELY two weeks before the September 11th official street date.
The Fat Angel Sings 