Now a two-piece led by founding members Jonny Allan (vocals) and AshKenazi (drums), London outfit Happyness have shared their third album Floatr, which follows 2015’s Weird Little Birthday and 2017’s Write In. They describe the years since Write In as “the best and worst years of our lives,” which included the departure of original member Benji Compston and an unannounced hiatus. The band’s return was marked by Kenazi’s onstage emergence as a drag queen and a new five-piece lineup featuring Max Bloom (Yuck), Anna Vincent (Heavy Heart) and Scott Booker Roach (Social Contract). Floatr sees them rev up their slacker rock engines once more, but as usual, their idiosyncratic touches keep things fresh and their heartfelt yearning still cuts deep. “Bothsidesing” features Allan’s heavenly whispers, “Seeing Eye Dog” is powered by gorgeous guitar bluster and “Milk Float” melds snug lo-fi with a vague aura of mystery.
Hey everybody, it’s been a loooong time coming, but we are over the moon to share Floatr with you guys: We recorded it in a lot of random places over a few years when things seemed very crazy and unsure in our lives. It’s been our way of making sense of that feeling, so in a way it’s an appropriately messed up time for it to be coming out.
There are loads of people we want to thank, in particular a massive shout out to Richie Walsh and Nicky Ber2 for helping us kintsugi ourselves back together too many times to count. Also Max “Impact” Bloom, Anna “Bolic” Vincent and Scott “iesPanties” Roach for helping us realise the songs in real life and just generally being massive babes. And to all our friends who have supported us and made us feel hell yeah instead of hell no.
ALSO most of the album was mixed by the living legend that is Mark Nevers. We are massive fans of the Lambchop/Silver Jews/Vic Chesnutt records he’s made and we were super star-struck when we Skyped him (although maybe he won’t know that until he reads this) thank you Mark, big up! ALSO Max Bloom who mixed “Ouch (yup)” with us, double shoutout for you Max Bloom!
It’s weird to not be playing these songs to actual people in actual places, we can’t wait to see y’all later this year and do this thing properly. Ash Kenazi is hungry for fresh focus to pull, so prepare yourselves. Enjoy listening, keep sane, keep safe, love yourselves, support the NHS and each other
Originally starting as The DIY home recording project of Angus Lord and Claudia Serfaty, The Stroppies have now evolved into what some might call a “proper band”. Following on from their 2017 demo cassette and a sling of singles, 2019 saw the release of their debut LP Whoosh!, a studio-based affair that evolved The Stroppies sound, underpinned with a newly discovered melodic classicism. Look Alive!, their latest effort which was recorded only months after the bands return to Australia after their second European tour of 2019, represents a marriage of the two different styles of Stroppies recordings and rounds out an incredibly productive twelve months for the group.
Look Alive! Is the sound of The Stroppies honing their craft under new and unfamiliar conditions. Written mainly on the road then finished and recorded at home with whatever was on hand with only three of the four members present, it is according to the band’s singer/guitarist Angus Lord, “an EP forged in circumstance. A sum total of fleeting vignettes on scraps of paper, voice memos and iPhone notepads all collated between soundchecks and long stretches in a tour van pieced together over weekly jams. We didn’t want to waste much time when we got home so we opted to record it ourselves”. For a band who began with the initial idea to create “open-ended music, collaged quickly and pieced haphazardly together”, it is in some sense a return to their true self.
Lead single ‘Holes In Everything’ presents the band at its pop best: “If I could disappear into the atmosphere, I would be around you all the time” sings Lord, before swiftly throwing shade on the sentiment in the chorus, “It’s always frightening what I think”. It’s this penchant for push and pull of light and dark splashed against the backdrop of trepidation and humour that make The Stroppies records so endearing and open-ended. Though undeniably pop structure orientated, the bands propensity for re-inventing and re-appropriating their recording and writing process ensures that nothing starts to fossilize. Indeed, Look Alive! is that most intriguing of records precisely because it represents two ideas at the same time – the sound of a band in flux, but also the sound of a band becoming more sure footed as they walk their crooked line.
I kinda feel you’re either all in on Woods or you just don’t get it. I obviously fall in the first camp, and have loved everything they’re put out for many years at this point. This release sounds like it will be more great psych tinged garage folk which honestly there’s just not enough of. Take a listen to the first single down below, neat video as well.
“Dreaming doesn’t come easy these shadowed days, which is why Strange To Explain by Woods is such a welcome turning of new colors.
It presents an extended moment of sweet reflection for the 15-year-old band, bouncing back to earth as something hopeful and weird and resolute. Like everything else they’ve recorded, it sounds exactly like themselves, but with subtly different shades and breaths and rhythmic feels and everything else that changes, the natural march of time and the intentional decisions of the musicians moving in what feels like an uncommonly organic alignment.
Strange To Explain trades in a different kind of dependability, maintaining a steady connection to the voice on the other side of the record needle. After quickly recording and releasing 2017’s Love Is Love in response to the tumultuous events of their (and our) 2016, Jeremy Earl and company took their time with what came next. Parenthood arrived, as did a short songwriting pause. The band went bicoastal when Jarvis Taveniere headed west. And when they returned to their posts, there on the other side of this particular mirror, they made this, an album that not only catches and holds and shares the light in yet another new way, but recognizes that there’s still light to be caught, which is also no small thing.
A bend beyond the last bend beyond, Woods keep on changing, thoughtfully and beautifully. The colors were always there, like trees blossoming just slightly differently each season, a synesthetic message coded in slow-motion. Recorded in Stinson Beach, the kind of place that seems like an AI simulation of an idyllic northern California coastal escape, the familiar jangling guitars recede to the background. John Andrews’s warm keyboards and twining Mellotron rise around Earl’s songs and dance across the chord changes like warm sunlight off the Pacific. The music feels a karmic landmass away from the creepiness of the uncanny valley.
Just dig into “Can’t Get Out” or “Fell So Hard” and it’s easy to spot the affable hooks and fuzzed-out bass and third-eye winks and fun harmonies that Woods have produced reliably since way back ‘round 2004 (which, in the buzz-buzz world of psych-pop really is a grand achievement, too). But listen carefully, also, to the sound of our (and their) world in transition, the ambient humming of spring peepers behind “Where Do You Go When You Dream.” Especially sink into the intention-setting opening trio of songs, emerging from (and shimmering inside) an atmosphere that could only be made by musicians who’ve been working together for nearly 20 years, as Earl and Taveniere have. It’s hardly a secret language, but you try verbalizing it, let alone communicating in it.
“Where Do You Go When You Dream?” Woods singer Jermey Earl asks on the lead single of the Brooklyn folk band’s 11th LP. It’s a question we all seem to be asking ourselves a lot more these days, as our dreams have had to suffice as our only true journeys out of the house in the desperate times we’re living in. To record Strange To Explain, Woods headed to Marin County’s bucolic Panoramic House Studio. Depending on where in the time-track one stands, it’s their 11th full length (not counting collaborations, split LPs, EPs, and singles), and the 99th release on Earl’s Woodsist label. By any standards, Strange To Explain is the work of a mature band, capable of both heavy atmospheric declarations like “Just To Fall Asleep” and extended-form pieces like the album-closing “Weekend Wind,” unfolding in layers of trumpet and vibraphone and ambient guitars and stereoscopic percussion. There are backwards messages and forward ones, lyrical and otherwise. There are melodies that (at least to me) come back nonlinearly but happily throughout the day when I’m not listening to the music itself, finding some hidden perch and maybe soon transforming into the folk songs of the mind. Woods shared another song from it, “Can’t Get Out.” A press release says it’s “a track about fighting to move past the low points of depression.” The propulsive song is backed by synths and might be the yummiest taste we’ve gotten of Strange to Explain thus far.
For contemporary heads, it can be nearly a full-time job to filter out all the bad energy being blasted through nearly all media channels from every conceivable direction. But not all media channels. These benevolent, Mellotron-dabbed dream-sounds constitute some of the more welcome transmissions on these shores in a Venusian minute, just what my kosmik transom was designed to accept. They’re sure to brighten any desert solarium, LED-lit pod, portable Bucky-dome, eco-fit Airstream, or whatever other cozy dwelling your time-mind is currently occupying.
Katie Von Schleicher’s new album Consummation is due out May 22nd via Ba Da Bing Records, and she’s shared another new single, the upbeat “Wheel.” It’s accompanied by a video directed from isolation by V Haddad using self-shot footage from the artists who appear. “When I listened to Katie’s song ‘Wheel’ I immediately felt elated, connected and empowered,” Haddad writes. “Her lyrics lead me to imagine what those feelings could look like in this moment: we reached out and collaboratively made a music video with 25 people who created their own video-portraits of their life right now. They show personal and collective power, perseverance and joy in a time of isolation, uncertainty and hardship. Through this collaboration we found a really special sense of hope and possibility even while being apart.”
This Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Katie Von Schleicher was nominated the Best of What’s Next back in 2017 on the tail of her album Shitty Hits’ release. It’s a sturdy indie effort, full of bouncy melodies and Von Schleicher’s emotions laid bare. “Paranoia,” a ghostly glance inside the swirling unease of an anxious mind, is the stand-out track.
Since 2017, Von Schleicher has stayed busy playing in labelmate Lady Lamb’s touring band. On her next solo effort, Consummation, however, she seems to have settled into her own groove even more. These songs, while tricky to grasp at times, are much more assured. Lead single “Caged Sleep” is a blast sonically, while it taps into that same eerie underworld that “Paranoia” did back in 2017, diving deep into the vivid and frequently spooky land of dreams. “Wheel” is a lot spunkier, the kind of steady indie-rock jam you might sway along to at a festival (remember those?). The album itself has many different moods, but Von Schleicher masters them all with her keen rock sensibilities. While we had our eye on her back in 2017,Consummation could be Katie Von Schleicher’s biggest jumping-off point yet.
From the album Consummation, out May 22nd, 2020
on Ba Da Bing Records and Full Time Hobby Records
Sometimes a synth-pop song’s only purpose is to make you feel alive on the dance floor, and that’s fine. You can still feel a deep emotional connection as you latch onto its pulse and forget your worries. But the kind of life-affirming synth-pop that makes you cry—think giants like Robyn or LCD Soundsystem—are the artists that will ruin your life (in the best possible way). New York City’s Nation of Language have been releasing singles since 2016, and their lead singer and songwriter Ian Devaney recently collaborated with Strokes drummer Fab Moretti on a project called machinegum for an album last year.
It was obvious, even several years ago, that Devaney was an unusually consistent songwriter—every song was capable of making you pull over your car for a quick sob or triumphantly stick your head out of the sunroof with outstretched arms. His ’80s-indebted electro-pop meshed beautifully with the dance-punk sounds of the city’s yesteryear, and his songs had an emotional immediacy that was unrivaled. Now ready to unveil their debut full-length, which contains some of those incredible early singles, it feels like Nation of Language have more of a right to claim the “soaring synth-pop” mantle than anyone else right now.
Salt Lake City’s Choir Boy dropped their debut album Passive With Desire in 2016, and they’ve been honing their gothic new wave and synth-pop ever since, becoming a staple touring band with the likes of Cold Cave, Ceremony and Soft Kill. Lead singer Adam Klopp has a tender voice you won’t forget—when someone nails the poignant, melodramatic croon, you cling to them for life. On their second album Gathering Swans, Choir Boy sounds bigger, and it feels like Klopp has more room to roam free with his vocals more at the forefront of the mix. “Complainer” is possibly the best Choir Boy song to date. His voice flutters with heart-rendering Morrissey-isms, which is great because you don’t have to deal with the unnecessary guilt of listening to the Smiths leader. Another standout “Toxic Eye” is the kind of pensive, downtempo goth-pop to wind down an epic night out or a spectacularly dejected night in.
The first single from indie pop outfit Choir Boy’s second album, Gathering Swans. Out May 8th, 2020. “Complainer” is a sarcastic examination of self pity. The video reveals Choir Boy’s involvement in a seedy back alley fighting ring.
I’ve been giving my keyboard an extra thoughtful beating, now over 400 pages of and double spaced plus 8 hours ++ of audio versions posted up and available now. Master of maraca science. Writer at The New Cool School. Absurdist. Intoxicationist. Beatnik. Last of the bit time jingle janglers.
As the long term percussionist of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Joel Gion has helped pioneer the current Psychedelic Rock movement. Now as a songwriter, he steps up to the mic to deliver his own tunes
Recorded at The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle.
22-04-17
The Band:
Dan Willson – Guitar and Vocal
Malcolm Benzie – Electric Guitar and BVs
Fraser Hughes – Bass
Owen Williams – Drums
Pete Liddle – Keyboard and BVs
Released May 1st, 2020
Special love and thanks to: The band and our families, all friends and fans, Chris Trew at Prancy Dog for being a true believer, Chinny Reckon for the laffs, Ian, Peter and Joe for capturing us all lost in song that night. Always a pleasure, see you all farther along…
The ‘Cosmonauts’ are an alternative garage/psychedelic rock band from Orange County, California. If you mention Cosmonauts in most LA, nods of recognition will ensue, followed by a proud reference to someone’s friend doing a stint in the band, and several enthusiastic adolescent memories of shows gone by. A longstanding project of core members Alexander Ahmadi and Derek Cowart, Cosmonauts sit as one of the acts most strongly — and deservedly — associated with the boom of local label Burger Records. At 10 years, and countless shows in, Cosmonauts have solidified their status as both indie touchstone and hometown heroes, a source of cultural pride amongst suburban-bred kids who watched them make the scene.
It was apparent even then that Cosmonauts had a clear vision. They took their sound seriously, turning up their noses at effects pedals while simultaneously turning up their amps as far as they could go. They worshipped the drawn-out melodic drone of Spaceman 3 and The Jesus and Mary Chain, two bands whose influence was unabashedly apparent on the debut.
While Burger Records has grown to stand for, and sound like, any number of things, there’s always been more to Cosmonauts than lo-fi-surf and half-baked garage-pop. Razor-blade riffs and relentless walls of sound (see the audio assault of “Seven Sisters” and the fire-alarm guitars and self-destruction of the massive “Wicked City (Outer Space)”) shatter out the shambolic jangle of their psych-rock peers with power and intention. The punch-in-you-gut intensity comes courtesy of the duo’s mission to go back to basics.
Released June 11th, 2010.
All songs written and performed by Cosmonauts
If You Wanna Die Then I Wanna Die 12″ LP
“If You Wanna Die Then I Wanna Die” Burger Records. ‘Motorcycle #1’ is by the amazing ‘Cosmonauts’. It was released in March 2012 as the b-side to the single ‘Emerald Green’. It is also the first track on the ‘Cosmonauts’ second album ‘If You Wanna Die I Wanna Die’. They don’t sound like this so much anymore, but every song on the record is a winner.
We should say that when ‘Motorcycle #1’ was first released there wasn’t a video so as it’s one of our favourite tracks of 2012 we just wanted to try and put something together for it so we edited the final scene from Ghost Rider II so, we hope its does some justice to what is such a cool tune.
“If You Wanna Die Then I Wanna Die” Burger Records The track ‘Motorcycle #1’ is by the amazing ‘Cosmonauts’. It was released in March 2012 as the b-side to the single to ‘Emerald Green’. It is also the first track on the ‘Cosmonauts’ second album ‘If You Wanna Die I Wanna Die’
All songs written & performed by Cosmonauts.
Recorded in August 2011 by Adam Ashe at Thee Men’s Warehouse in Anaheim, CA.
Persona Non Grata
“I was only 19 years old when Derek and I released the first Cosmonauts record,” explains Ahmadi, “So pretty much everything I’ve learned as an adult, I learned from being in the band.”
“Yeah, clearly we haven’t learned much,” Cowart adds, “I guess I’ve learned that hype and trends come and go, but great songs last forever, The dynamic between Cowart and Ahmadi has always been the foundation of Cosmonauts’ sound and the evolution of their musical partnership deepens with every new release. Though they’ve always sung in unison (but never harmony), they’ve increasingly started to employ call-and-response in their music, singing different things at the same time to each other and to the audience, balancing two opposing points of view within one song. While it’s tempting to divide Cosmonauts’ catalogue into “Alex songs” and “Derek songs,” the band doesn’t approach their songwriting in a bifurcated way.
California sun-soaked shoegaze songs about boredom, feeling out of place, and trying to work through weird relationships.
It’s an idea that’s toyed with throughout “Star 69”, the band’s fifth studio album and follow-up to 2016’s A-OK!. “Love my little bubble / love my little scene,” they sing over the drug-laden slide guitar and back beat of the Odelay-like opener “Crystal,” the sneer in the delivery hinting that the love may be double-edged. Then there’s the entirety of “Medio Litro,” an ode to conversations we’ve all had out on smoking patios at varying stages of that night’s bad decision-making. Lines like “We’ll go to the party / If we can find parking” and “Get another manager / and another publicist / Call me when you get this / Make it on the guest list” are delivered with the perfect detachment of a band that is well-acquainted with the game, and still has no intention of playing by the rules.
“It was really important that Star 69 was recorded as live as possible,” explains Ahmadi. “We needed to record the album in a more immediate and demanding environment. I think in the age of Ableton, the energy and urgency of a live band really can’t be overstated.”
Psych, punk, shoegaze, and always something else, the Cosmonauts sound is Spaceman 3, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Jesus and Mary Chain through a 75-and-sunny, strip-mall lens–it’s UK by way of So-Cal, the lucid lyrics and heat-shimmer guitars so indicative of the now-familiar sound they created.
Star 69 finds them at the height of those powers, the trip or two around the block injecting the album with a confidence and completeness that gives tossed-off lines like “I wish I was high or dead, or something” (the gorgeous and unexpected “Heart Of Texas”) a kind of hungover, squinty-eyed poetry. Everything from almost-love songs (“The Gold Line”) and odes to untimely death (“Suburban Hearts”) are given the usual yawn and stretch treatment–a deceptive casualness that underpins the level-up songwriting and intricate musicality of the band’s strongest effort yet.
Released September 6th, 2019
A-OK!
The band, for this album is made up of Ahmadi and Cowart plus bassist James Sanderson III and drummer Mark Marones, their fourth albumA-OK!. It’s their first LP in 3 years, and is perhaps the prettiest record Cosmonauts have ever made. The vocals are clearer, the beats dancier, the tones janglier, and there’s more diverse instrumentation than on records past (plus for one: they use pedals now). They have a preternatural ability to transpose their many musical influences into songs that capture the feel of an era rather than imitating an exact style. While the band is still, and probably always will be, very much indebted to ‘80s and ‘90s.
The songs on A-OK! show a natural progression from the leaner sound of 2013’s Persona Non Grata, fleshing out Cosmonauts’ talent for bending noise into irresistible pop. They’ve dialed down the noise and started favoring subtle atmospheric shifts and sweetly melodic sections, which balance out the darker elements that have always underpinned their sound. The vocals are less affectless than before, giving A-OK! a sonic depth that’s new for the band. The menacing creep of “Doom Generation” slowly ramps up the anxiety before plunging the listener into a well of reverberating guitar.
Cosmonauts – Short Wave Communication feat. Shannon Lay. On “Heavenspeak,” Cosmonauts punctuate an undulating dance rock groove with a wash of white noise. Though (lots and lots of) guitars are still the anchor of Cosmonauts’ sound, A-OK! has instrumental surprises aplenty: a synth burbling below swaths of reverb on “Shortwave Communication” (which also features honey sweet backing vocals courtesy of Shannon Lay of Los Angeles band Feels) or a Wurlitzer going toe-to-toe with the guitars on the buoyant “Good Lucky Blessing.”
“Party at Sunday,” the record’s first single, is a languid, longform lullaby with a placid guitar lead that’s as soothing as it is sad. The accompanying video, a flickering array of beautiful people moving through a softly-lit, pink-and-blue world with an extended shower make-out scene at the conclusion, has racked up 20,000 views on YouTube. In typical Cosmonauts fashion, despite its gorgeous imagery, the song itself is a complete bummer. The denouement: “I fell in love and I hated it.”.
Released August 19th, 2016 Cosmonauts – “A-OK!” from album, ‘A-OK!,’ out August 2016 on Burger Records.
The incredible Incredible String Band record is frankly amazing. It’s just very different. It’s fairly indescribable. The closest description would be a sort of folk, sometimes termed psychedelic folk: Whichever way you like to describe it, it polarises listeners – many love it, many hate it. It has enjoyed much reverence from musicians and critics. Paul McCartney, Dylan and John Peel were fans. McCartney selected the album as his favourite of 1968. Led Zeppelin were apparently heavily influenced by it, particularly around the time of producing their III album. It frequently features in “greatest albums of all time” lists. Yet many find it unlistenable.
“Plas man” on amazon describes it as “amateurs playing various instruments, and different tunes, all at the same time.” Another amazon customer was even less charitable describing it as “by far the worst album I ever bought. What the hell were they thinking or indeed smoking. Utter and complete garbage.”
In one amusing review they write: “What I find incredible about this group is that they were ever allowed in the studio in the first place. They have all the talent of third-rate buskers, the kind of street performers whose sound makes you dash to the opposite side of the street as you approach the spot from which their horrible noise emanates.” She goes on to damn the music as “the most repulsive music I have ever heard.”
To many western ears it sounds out of tune the singing is described as beyond any notes found on any scale known to humankind! Fantastic stuff. I don’t know about you but anything that elicits such extreme views has got to be worth a listen.
In the style of a good court room drama I’m pleased to take the role of the defending barrister putting the case for the defence of this album. I will present three pieces of evidence which I will show prove beyond reasonable doubt that The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter is in fact an amazing record. In fact I can do this by an examination of the first three tracks only.
The opening song Koeeoaddi There There are enough ideas in this 5 minute piece for a whole career let alone a single album or song. The structure of the song, like a lot of Incredible String Band songs is all over the place but in my opinion it holds together and works. It’s actually a masterpiece!. The lyrics present a description of childhood to which many of us can relate, particularly the “shadowy fingers on the curtains at night”: There is also a mention of Mike Heron’s enigmatic girlfriend Licorice in a Dr. Seuss inspired verse: But me and Licorice saw the last of them one misty twisty day Across the mournful morning, moor motoring away, The girls in the band are an interesting case. They were Christina “Licorice” McKechnie and Rose Simpson. I’m not sure whether they were more important as musicians or girlfriends – certainly it appears they were the latter before the former. Licorice was partnered with Robin Williamson and left the band in 1972 after their romantic relationship ended. Rose was Mike Heron’s partner and allegedly was invited to join the band only because Licorice had been invited too. By all accounts there was a fair bit of rivalry between Williamson and Heron personally and professionally. The girls didn’t get on either! you know, In the middle of the night she (Rose) left Robin’s sleeping bag, crawled in with Mike, and stayed with him for the next three years. you know, the swinging sixties, and just look at that cover! Or was that Rose?.
The Minotaur Song which is an enjoyable call and response marching song. It features Richard Thompson and Judy Dyble from Fairport Convention. Roll up your sleeves and sing-a-long:
The thirteen minute epic A Very Cellular Song, a kind of circular suite that opens with a wavering organ riff and harpsichord refrain which ebbs and flows, and leaves and returns throughout. The lyrics are out of this world, literally:I have heard the last verse before as a yoga mantra. I had assumed this was a traditional mantra but apparently the mantra was lifted from this original ISB song.
Apparently the spiritual leader of Kundalini Yoga, Yogi Bhajan, once came into a room where a group of yoga students were singing the ISB song. Yogi asked them to keep it up, and from then on requested them to sing it after his classes. It quickly became a tradition that continues today at the end of every Kundalini Yoga class taught throughout the world.
When the Incredible String Band toured the States in the late 60s May the Long Time Sun was always the closing song at their gigs. They were invited to play Woodstock but didn’t make the edit for the original film. Originally scheduled to play the more acoustic Friday evening as one of the headliners they were bumped to the heavy rock Saturday due to the famous rain and didn’t go down so well. An opportunity lost.
The Woodstock setlist:
Invocation
The Letter
Gather Round
This Moment
Come With Me
When You Find Out Who You Are
Oddly there were no songs from “Hangman”.
listeners need to investigate, or reappraise, this most unusual and fascinating album. After Hangman the band fell within the clutches of Scientology and despite some decent later albums and continuing good sales (much of the proceeds they invested in the Church) they gradually lost their edge: Soon the new compositions began to lose their wild melodic beauty. In the studio, there were fewer moments of surprise and inspiration. Joe Boyd The band broke up in 1974, both leading members going on to take up solo careers with the occasional short lived reunion. The enigmatic Licorice, like one of her front teeth, sadly went missing in the late 80s, presumed dead.
To read more about the Incredible String Band, along with all the other artists Joe Boyd managed and produced in the late 60s – Fairport Convention, John Martyn, Nick Drake, early Pink Floyd etc. I highly recommend his brilliant and very readable White Bicycles memoir.
