Joan Shelley is a songwriter and singer from Louisville, KY. Often joined by guitarist Nathan Salsburg, she has shared shows with the likes of Jake Xerxes Fussell, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Daniel Martin Moore, the Other Years, & Michael Hurley. This live set is truly special. For many reasons. As soon as I saw this amazing bunch touring these songs across the US I was like: “Please, please come to the UK!”. This LP shall more than do for now.
Recorded at the Bomhard Theater in Louisville, KY on December 13th, 2019 with the Best Hands Band: Jake Xerxes Fussell, Nathan Bowles, Anna Krippenstapel, and Nathan Salsburg. Guest appearances by Julia Purcell and Bonnie “Prince” Billy. Best live LP in its genre of the year so far.
Proceeds from this album go to support the BEST HANDS BAND that supported me. With their own tours delayed and the future uncertain, they deserve some love!
The support I have felt from you all recently has been moving beyond words. I thank you for keeping music close to your hearts right now. Love to everyone.
-Joan
released April 9th, 2020
The performers:
Joan Shelley – vocals, guitar
Nathan Salsburg – vocals, guitar
Jake Fussell – bass
Nathan Bowles – drums
Anna Krippenstapel – vocals, fiddle
Julia Purcell – vocals
Bonnie “Prince” Billy – vocals
Linda Ronstadt – The biggest shout out to the great Linda Ronstadt celebrating her 74th birthday today. From the great sprawling Southwest on a ranch in Tucson, Arizona sprang Linda Ronstadt, destined to be among the greatest singer’s of her generation. She was exposed to a wide range of musical influences in her home during her formative years – Rock, Folk, Country, R & B, Pop, Light Opera, Doo-Wop and Mariachi – which she heard on the radio or sung by family members. Her home then was the incubator for her eclectic tastes over a 40-year career. Is there anyone in popular music with a more powerful voice, with a greater range, and with a stronger emotional connection to a lyric? And is there another female singer who has combined such wholesomeness with such sexiness?.
Ronstadt’s first taste of success came with the Folk-Rock group the Stone Poneys in 1967 with the Michael Nesmith song “Different Drum,” a Top 13 hit, which became a signature song for Ronstadt. The band broke up after a year and three albums, and Ronstadt went solo, scoring her first hit, “Long Long Time,” (1970) a beautiful ballad that was a precursor of things to come. For the next five years success eluded her. But she worked with Sweetwater, an early, notable Country Rock band, and the original Eagles for a short stint in 1971. While recording “Don’t Cry Now,” her third solo album and biggest seller to date and feeling the need for a producer with a compatible vision, she teamed up with Peter Asher (One half of the English Pop group Peter & Gordon and the brother of one-time Paul McCartney flame Jane Asher), which was the turning point for Ronstadt, and the partnership yielded immediate rewards with their professional relationship lasting from 1973 until 1988.
With the album “Heart Like a Wheel,” their first collaboration in late 1974, Ronstadt enjoyed her first #1 album with the hit singles “You’re No Good,”(#1) and “When Will I Be Loved,” (#2) on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. This was the first of six top Ten albums, including “Hasten Down the Wind,’ (1976). By the time of Simple Dreams (1977), Linda Ronstadt had few peers as an interpreter of rock, country and pop. Her unerring ear for material and incandescent vocals made her one of the decade’s most successful performers – that 1977 Asylum release includes a pair of songs from early rock ‘n’ roll greats Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison that became Top 10 singles (“It’s So Easy” and “Blue Bayou”), more recent rockers from The Rolling Stones (“Tumbling Dice”) and Warren Zevon (“Poor Poor Pitiful Me”), and a country hit recorded with Dolly Parton (“I Never Will Marry”). Add the talents of some of L.A.’s best session players, and Simple Dreams couldn’t miss – it became Ronstadt’s fifth consecutive platinum LP, and spent weeks at No.1, knocking Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours out of the top slot.
“Living in the USA,” (1978) – the latter two both hitting number one. By decades end, Ronstadt had become the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s – the reigning queen of album sales.
In the 1980s she branched out in new directions appearing on Broadway in “The Pirates of Penzance (which ran for nearly two years), and collaborating with conductor Nelson Riddle on three Pop standard’s albums, one of which “What’s New,” (1983) climbed to #3. A collaboration with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton in 1986 resulted in “Trio,” an album garnering a Grammy Award for Group Country vocal. The ensuing album in 1987 “Canciones de mi Padre,” an album of traditional Mexican songs, inspired by her childhood, also copped a Grammy Award for Mexican American album which went double platinum (2 million units sold). Finally, there was her collaboration with Aaron Neville in 1989 “Cry Like a Rainstorm,” featuring the smash duet “Don’t Know Much.” Flush with massive success, Ronstadt entered the 1990s on a high note. Though album sales dipped during the decade, there was “Mas Canciones,” a second album of Mexican songs (and yet another Grammy award winner), and a second “Trio,” album, with both faring well.
By the dawn of the new Millennium, Ronstadt had won every conceivable award (too many to cite here), and had collaborated with the crème de la crème of recording artists including Warren Zevon, Johnny Cash, Paul Simon, Frank Zappa, Neil Young and a host of others. She has sold in excess of 100 million records and has had 10 Top 10 albums of the 36 that have charted, and three chart toppers. She finally received a long overdue award – an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, and in 2017 received a lifetime achievement artistic award at the Kennedy Center of Performing Arts in Washington DC… Ronstadt retired in 2009 and announced her Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2013. She has retreated to her home in the Sea Cliff section of San Francisco overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge…. It is a cruel irony that Ronstadt who was blessed with such a magnificent voice should be silenced by this disease, but her spirit is strong and she will always be loved by her multitude of fans, and will be elevated to the pantheon of the greatest vocalists who have ever walked this earth.
Following Brutalism (2017) and Joy as an Act of Resistance (2018), two releases that garnered global critical acclaim, IDLES return with their highly anticipated third album – “Ultra Mono”. Sonically constructed to capture the feeling of a hip-hop record (including production contribution from Kenny Beats), the album doubles down on the vitriolic sneer and blunt social commentary of their past work. Not far beneath the surface of their self-admitted sloganeering lies a deeply complex and brutally relevant album that chews up clichés and spits them out as high art for the masses. This is momentary acceptance of the self. This is Ultra Mono.
‘A HYMN’ from the new album Ultra Mono” released on 25th September 2020 on Partisan Records.
‘GROUNDS’ from the new album ‘ULTRA MONO’ released on 25th September 2020 on Partisan Records
Fire Talk is excited to announce the signing & new EP from Cindygod, the project which saw Gauntlet Hair’s Andy Rauworth and Craig Nice reuniting, are announcing their second effort, following their 2018 Demos EP, under the new name with EP2 out August 14th on the label. The lead single “Rhys” takes a darkly sinister route, with Rauworth’s ghostly vocals flickering between Nice’s driving rhythms, culminating in a potent post-punk-meets-new-wave warped reverie. “Rhys” establishes the new direction Cindygod are taking with confoundingly pummeling rhythms cut with oscillating riffs that lend a sonic unease to the lyrical unease at the heart of the first single. EP2 is full of familiar yet skewed sonics, simulacrums of dream pop sit atop menacing angular guitars while the occasional yelps from Rauworth agitate between dreamy synths. The sublimely idiosyncratic amalgam of genres on Cindygod’s EP2 points not only to how far the duo have come since disbanding Gauntlet Hair in 2013 but the new EP succinctly soundtracks our ongoing descent into a fully realized dystopia.
EP2 is the second EP from Cindygod the new project is due out July 10th 2020 on Fire Talk. Stereogum noted 2018’s EP1 filled with “new wave shimmers and hooks… a sort of ramshackle and scrappy charm.” The new EP doubles down on the hollowed-out saccharine sound of Rauworth’s recent work, while retaining glitchy agitated electronics that pierce together the best of dream pop, post-punk and indie nostalgia. Fans of Gauntlet Hair rejoice! Cindygod is an honest creative extension of some of those original ideas, a little darker & sinister around the edges.
Conveniently enough the only song available at this moment(“Rhys”) happens to be absolutely stellar, though if you’re lucky enough to have already heard “Not Right” you might agree that it combines the magic of “Simple” and “Top Bunk” into yet another banger from Andy and Craig. Impossible to pick a favourite track but then if you’re a longtime fan of Gauntlet Hair it’s a familiar and welcome problem to have. Demos B-Sides in due time?.
An absolute gem and a massive recommendation . After a head warping intro “Men And Their Work” kicks into eight driving postpunk rockers full of angst, confidence, feminism, melody, grit and a sense of direction not commonly found in a debut album. Shit, most seasoned bands don’t even make albums this coherent. It’s a smart moniker as All Hits certainly lives up to the promise. There is a 60/40 split of familiar comfort and provocative mystery inherent in every song. You get shouted sloganeering backed with barbed melody and finessed power-ups massaged into the sweetest spots.
We can’t put our finger on exactly what it is that makes this record so special but whatever it is there is a lot of it. Destined to be a modern classic. For fans of Wipers, Raincoats, early Wire and Sleater-Kinney.
We can’t put our finger on exactly what it is that makes this record so special but whatever it is there is a lot of it. Destined to be a modern classic. Destined to be a modern classic. So much so, that Rough Trade has deemed it their “Record of the Week” for June 26th. Lovely.
300 black, 100 translucent smoky blue and 100 coke bottle clear (a Rough Trade exclusive color)
Full length album “Men And Their Work” out June 26th on Iron Lung Records.
One of Canada’s most promising post-punk groups, Crack Cloud is a mixed-media collective based out of Vancouver, BC. Modelled around harm reduction philosophy, Crack Cloud operates as a rehabilitative outlet for a revolving cast of multi-disciplinary artists across Canada. Vancouver DIY art collective Crack Cloud (which also features members of N0V3L) emerged in 2018 with their self-titled debut EP, an idiosyncratic collection of post-punk, art rock and synth-punk with bold personality. The following year, they returned with a new single, “The Next Fix,” an intensely rhythmic, beautiful funk-pop song, which was written to remember those they’ve lost to suicide and drug overdose. The group formed over shared beliefs in the power of harm reduction, local organizing and DIY art communities, which leads one to believe they’re far more than just a band—they’re a chosen family.
Like Psychic tv before them, Crack Cloud have a philosophy and one that they are not afraid to wear on their sleeves – while their anarchic, phantas- magorical visuals, heavy use of symbology, and seemingly never-ending cast of colourful collaborators have often invited cult comparisons, this really does the collective no justice.
There is no apocalyptic death drive here; no cult of personality; no hierarchy of power. while frontman and lyricist Zach Choy is in many ways the face of the group, the collective is one founded on equality, and in his cryptic lyrical blend- ing of poetics, polemics and personal experience, Choy is truly the mouthpiece of something far larger than himself. nowhere else is this more apparent than on the album’s first single, ‘The Next Fix.’
What begins as a caustic, claustrophobic account of addiction swells into a sprawling, euphoric hymn as Choy is joined by a choir of seemingly endless ce- lestial voices. less a cult then; more a church. listening to this song or watching its accompanying self-directed video is a truly spiritual experience, and in its building, jubilant movement it offers a glimpse of Crack Cloud’s most vital message: using community to turn adversity into hope. this isn’t just bravado; its a story born of deep, personal experience. crack cloud operate on the frontline of Canada’s out-of-control opiate crisis, mobilising and organizing in Vancouver’s harm reduction programmes.
The group themselves have had their fair share of trauma, and the collective offers its members a vital vehicle for rehabilitation and recovery. as the tagline on the album’s back cover makes clear then, this is absolutely ‘based on true shit.
Part One of the PAIN OLYMPICS 2020 series, made DIY by the Crack Cloud Collective,
Will Butler has been a member of the band Arcade Fire for over 10 years. This is his first release under his own name. in the five years since Will Butler released his debut album, policy, he’s toured the world both solo and as a member of Arcade Fire, released the Friday Night Live album, recorded and released Arcade Fire’s international #1 album everything now, earned his master’s degree in public policy from Harvard, hosted a series of touring town halls on local issues (police contracts, prison reform, municipal paid sick leave, voting rights), and spent time raising his three children.
He also found the time and inspiration to write and record a new album, “Generations”. “my first record, Policy, was a book of short stories,” Butler says. “Generations” is more of a novel despairing, funny, a little bit epic… a big chunk of this record is asking: what’s my place in American history? what’s my place in America’s present? both in general as a participant, as we all are, in the shit that’s going down but, also extremely particularly: me as Will Butler, rich person, white person, mormon, yankee, parent, musician of some sort, I guess. what do I do? what can I do? the record asks that question over and over, even if it’s not much for answers.” while the songs on Generations contain their fair share of dread and regret, there is ultimately a lightness that shines through Butler’s music. that brightness is at its most intense when he and his solo band Miles Francis, Sara Dobbs, and Julie and Jenny Shore perform on stage. their electricity is palpable throughout Generations, with the bulk of the new songs having been worked out live. wild synth production gnarly bass synths with live drums and anthemic backing vocals as on first single “Surrender” are punctuated by intimate, direct moments.
Butler’s voice cracking on “Fine” as he conjures his ancestors, and “promised,” a meditation on friendship, how lives are built together, and how and why they drift apart. generations was recorded and produced by Butler in the basement of his home in Brooklyn. tracking finished in March 2020, as New York closed down for the pandemic. half the record was mixed in Montreal by longtime Arcade Fire engineer Mark Lawson, the other half by Brooklyn-based producer Shiftee (who is, incidentally, bandmate Julie Shore’s husband and Will’s brother-in-law). generations opens a dialogue with the world. it posits answers and deals with those answers being refuted. ultimately, it navigates the conversation as a way to find the truth… or at least a way forward.
In the five years since releasing his debut album Policy, Arcade Fire’s Will Butler has toured the world solo and with his band following their international #1 album Everything Now. He’s also earned a master’s degree from Harvard, raised three kids and written – quite frankly – a brilliant sophomore solo album. If Policy was a book of short stories, Generations is a despairing, funny and epic novel.
The Band:
Will Butler: singing, synths, piano, guitar, bass guitar, percussion, drum machines, snare, claps
Miles Francis: drums, drum machines, percussion, synths, acoustic guitar, singing, claps
Sara Dobbs: pre-production, singing, claps
Julie Shore: synths, piano, electric guitar, singing, claps
Jenny Shore: synths, singing, claps
Stuart Bogie: clarinet, tenor sax
Matt Bauder: bass clarinet, tenor sax, alto sax, baritone sax
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.”
Every now and then an album comes into your life and utterly wrecks you. It resonates with you on a level where you can’t tell if it’s easing the knife out of your wound or if it’s twisting it more. But you keep coming back even if it’s destroying you because as painful as it might be, living without it is even more painful. Katie Ellen’s ‘Cowgirl Blues’ is one of those albums. I can honestly say that this album kept me from spiralling out when I was at my lowest and I’ll forever be grateful. It’s full of sparkle pop twang punk fuzz core.
From The Ashes of Chumped comes Anika Pyle’s first solo foray.
Great Alt-Indie Pop/punk flow with the same biting lyrical content that made her former band a joy to behold with just enough edge to keep things real.
Pearl Charles lives in the moment, seeking excitement whether it leads her down a dark, dusty road or into the arms of a trouble-making lover. Her full-length debut album, “Sleepless Dreamer”, describes late night revelry, love affairs, running away and running towards, serenading the sunrise through whirlwind stories of her native Los Angeles, the city, the canyon, the desert, and the road. On a quest to discover the truest version of herself, Charles embraces the feeling of not being settled, a person who always restlessly wants more from life and is willing chase it, wherever it may lead her.
Sleepless Dreamer found her soulful, often sultry voice gliding through songs tinged with cosmic Americana, a little disco, some classic rock & roll, and a whole lot of that smooth AM gold. Passion, psychedelics and heartbreak inform the highs and lows she rides through the album. Finally able to see clearly through the smoke and mirrors of her surroundings, Charles departs on a consequent journey of questioning and soul-searching, eventually hitting the road in the inevitable search for answers.
“Charles‘ record takes cues from movements all over the American map. There are hints of Southern folk and alt-country, Midwest Americana, and West Coast acid rock.” – Pitchfork
“Think of Pearl Charles as a stoner Lana Del Rey or a Jenny Lewis with grit.” – NME less
Public Practice, the Brooklyn-based quartet who blends elements of new-wave, punk, funk and ’70s era New York disco in order to create uniquely danceable tracks, have the disadvantage of their reputations preceding them. Ever since the release of their 2018 EP Distance Is a Mirror, they’ve proven their penchant for clever song writing, instrumental prowess and, especially among New York fans, a live show that entrances so successfully that it’s almost physically impossible not to shake one’s ass. Yet, on Gentle Grip, the band’s debut full-length album, there’s a sense that the formerly embedded scrappiness and punk edge were sacrificed for slicker, more stylish sounds. This isn’t to say there aren’t gripping moments of sonic intensity on Gentle Grip that more than satisfy the more frenetic yearnings of Distance Is a Mirror.
While magnetic singer and lyricist Sam York and guitarist and principal sonic architect Vince McClelland (who both played together as members of the meteoric yet shortlived NYC post-punk outfit WALL) take an almost anarchic approach to song writing, Drew Citron, on synth and bass, and drummer/producer Scott Rosenthal (both previously of Brooklyn indie-pop favourites Beverly) bring a more traditional, pop sensibility to the table. These contrasting styles challenge and complement each other, resulting in a sound that is full of spiralling and exhilarating tensions. Lyrically, York explores the complexities and contradictions of modern life overtop grooves and choruses that disarmingly open up the doors to self-reflection. “You don’t want to live a lie / But it’s easy / Your house is important / Your car is important / Your shoes are important / Dinner’s important“ she sings on “Compromised,” begging the question: how does one balance material desires with the desire to be seen as a good person? Changing pace, the supremely groovy “My Head” is about tuning out the influx of external noise and staying true to your inner creative force.
But whether they are poking holes in commonly held ideas centered around relationships, creativity, or capitalism, Public Practice never lose sight of the fact that they want to have fun, and they want you to have fun too. After all, who needs a soapbox when there’s a dark, sweaty dancefloor out there with room on it for all of us?
