Here’s The Kyvu Tapes Vol.3, Some more tracks I’ve found from my cassette transfers a couple of years ago, and re-explored recently to see what else is there. It’s a strange thing, going down a lot of memory lanes and remembering the people I met, the way that I felt.. or the people I didn’t meet and the alienation, an alienation that seems similar now.All the tracks were recorded between 1989-92 . Most tracks were recorded in Cornwall at my mum’s house in a village called The Lizard. A mesmerising part of the world overlooking the Atlantic and Kynance Cove, a strange rock that adds to the mystery of the place. These were times of intense self-exploration, ocean gazing and loneliness.
Other tracks were recorded in a basement flat in Shepherds Bush, London where I lived on my own for a few months in 1991. I have some nice memories of being there seeing lots of great bands and spending a lot of time working in peace, having moved to London for the first time.
And finally I think Zero Point may have been recorded when I lived in Cambridge for a while or in Seven Sisters back in London. I moved around or moved house/town/city quite a lot back then but would often, and inevitably, find myself retreating back to the tranquility and desolate beauty of The Lizard where I would find and lose myself, recuperate, dreams and fears intertwined, walking across a strange and dramatic landscape, staring at the sea and wondering what might lie ahead if only I could make something happen.
I can now hear elements of what would become The Oscillation.
It’s a great liberation and consolidation to get these old recordings out there. I ain’t claiming to split the atom here, but thanks for listening, and if you enjoy any of it, or it helps your mood or day, that makes me happy.
Blues favorite Joe Louis Walker releases the single “Old Time Used to Be” featuring Keb’ Mo, with John Sebastian on harmonica, ahead of his upcoming guest-filled album “Blues Comin’ On,” to be released June 5th on Cleopatra Blues.
Joe Louis Walker’s new Cleopatra Blues album “Blues Comin” On features Keb’ Mo’, John Sebastian, Jorma Kaukonen, Mitch Ryker, Lee Oskar, Albert Lee, Waddy Wachtel, Eric Gales and more special guests.
Blues Comin’ On features guest performances by fellow blues icons Keb’ Mo’, Eric Gales, and Albert Lee, plus Detroit hit singer Mitch Ryder, John Sebastian, formerly of The Lovin’ Spoonful, harmonica virtuoso Lee Oskar, known for his work with War, Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna fame, punk rock vocalist Charlie Harper, legendary session guitar player Waddy Wachtel, and many more. The album explodes with the passionate playing and soulful melodies that have made Joe Louis Walker a favorite among true blues aficionados including The Rolling Stones.
Originally from San Francisco, Joe, a Blues Hall of Fame inductee and four-time Blues Music Award-winner, celebrates a career that exceeds a half century. His musical legacy as a prolific torchbearer for the blues is proven by his 26 albums. A true powerhouse guitar virtuoso, unique singer, and prolific songwriter, he has toured extensively throughout his career, performed at the world’s most renowned music festivals, and earned a legion of dedicated fans.
Joe says, “From the opening track to the final note, the guests and fellow musicians on this album made this one of the best musical journeys I’ve ever had, and I hope it is the same for you.”
“Blues Comin” Released on: 22nd April on the Cleopatra Blues label,
This tour existed only to exist, not to promote a new album or celebrate a milestone. No, Sylvan Esso simply wanted to do something fun. For themselves, for their fans, and for us, their friends, who got easily roped into being in the ten piece band. We were all sent the song list in advance, with just a few written ideas of what some of us could do on each song, but largely it all remained open for interpretation and when we convened in the house to rehearse in Durham for the first time. On the first day we played the song “Wolf,” checking the pulse of the band, how would we sound together, how would we arrange together, and how much homework did everyone actually do? The first take of that song put everyone immediately at ease and also turned up the temperature. Because it went really well. We knew how good this could sound, how different it could be from the original recordings and how special that would feel for the crowd, and for us. “Wolf” ended up being the first song in the set. “Wolf” became the anchor, before the rocket ship would take off each night. Yes I know I made a boat analogy early. And now I’ve shifted to space. That’s an accurate representation of how this show ended up.
The first four days we would just keep chipping away at songs, written on a large piece of butcher paper on the wall in fat marker, and we’d cross them off one by one as we hit them. The first day was a dream because we learned five songs and they all sounded great. The second day was impossible, because we had to learn five more songs, and then suddenly the songs from the first day weren’t so perfect anymore. That’s the big problem with getting better. Your ceiling goes up, the standards rise, and the goods can always keep improving, which means, in more pessimistic terms, it can always also keep sounding worse. There were twenty songs to learn, so there was a lot of bucking and bobbing back and forth between feeling over-confident and supremely challenged. Sometimes that had to do with how hungry we were.
After the family style rehearsals concluded, we headed to Los Angeles for tech rehearsal. To get there involved thirteen of us, band and crew, flying on an airplane. Thirteen people each checking three bags. Thirteen people moving through the airport together is insane. It’s like a school trip. Sometimes, you know, you’re flying alone you’re at a gate and realize there’s a school trip there too, and you think “oh fuck, a school trip!” This was like that, except the kids on the trip don’t think “oh fuck”, they think “fuck yeah, a school trip, fuck yeah a Hudson News it’s peanut m&m time” and so on, and that’s exactly how it was for us. The airport is almost great with that many friends. Almost.
After the tour was done Nick and Amelia remarked on how ridiculous it was that we didn’t do any warm-up shows, how insane it was that we jumped into the fire at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, a Frank Gehry designed space for the LA Philharmonic where a portion of the audience sits behind you. But we did it. For over two thousand people on night one, we did it, and we did it surprisingly well. We had our expectations set to cautious, because sometimes the first show can be a true disaster, it almost is supposed to be, but everyone cared so much and worked so hard and the stakes felt so high that somehow a meltdown just didn’t happen. Somehow there were zero disasters. Some nights the band felt more on than others, but we knew that the caliber of the show was always at a high enough level to be proud of, and so we’d go to sleep with the songs looping in our heads, and try it again the next day.
The spaces were wild. I’d never been a part of a show in such beautiful rooms, for such large and welcoming audiences. The Beacon Theater was a dream, the Ryman Auditorium even more so. We could really feel the shape of that room when we played there, and afterwards we rolled out the back door into Robert’s Western World to watch the best living country musicians do it right and proper and we would while we were awake enough to dance. That was the very best night of tour, from start to finish, without a doubt.
The last two shows were homecoming shows in Durham, at the very large and official-feeling DPAC, which is short for ‘Don’t Play A Crappynotethisisbeingfilmedforofficialrelease’. This was a proper performing arts center, a little different feeling from the classic theaters, and these were the shows that were filmed for what you’re seeing here and now. I’m excited to watch it just so I can see the light show from the front. We were so sad when it ended but there wasn’t a formal goodbye. Folks trickled off to go home, and a bunch of us watched a movie the next day. It’s implied that we will be together again, we’re just not sure how or when. Those of us who don’t live in North Carolina feel ourselves threatening ourselves to move there, but I don’t see it happening for me. I like being called to serve and being swept into the vortex, then returning home to wait for the next vortex to assemble. See how I’ve moved from space to vortexes? It’s like I don’t know how to describe my feelings properly anymore. Or maybe it’s just time for this to end, for now.
“We weren’t intending to share this song right now,” says Everything Everything’s Jonathan Higgs, “but in the age of coronavirus, we wanted to be responsive to the changed landscape, and ‘In Birdsong’ unexpectedly emerged as the most appropriate song to reappear with.” The song really does take flight, elegiac with gossamer guitars and EE’s trademark falsetto vocals. “‘In Birdsong’ tries to imagine what it would have been like to have been the first self-aware human,” says Higgs. “The theory claims that the eventual melding of these two minds into the two-sided human brain we have now was the dawn of mankind’s consciousness.” Ponder that while watching the single’s mind-expanding video.
‘In Birdsong’ is the new track from Everything Everything.
UK group Mr Ben & The Bens will release new album “Life Drawing” on July 12th via Bella Union Records. Bandleader Ben Hall says of new this widescreen folk-rock track (which might appeal to fans of Beirut or Pete & The Pirates) it reminded me of the Kinks or the Leisure Society, “‘Watering Can’ is a gently-swaying brassy ode to small town life. I took up gardening recently as our band obtained an allotment and I loved the image of a watering can becoming a metaphor for good intentions. Lyrically the track deals with the themes of lost love, claustrophobia and aspirational dreams that somehow never seem to be realised. The song is the finale of the new album and I wanted it to be that very specific combination of uplifting melancholy.”
‘Life Drawing” will be for Mr Ben & The Bens the occasion for a real change of scale, We will study with all the more interest the rest of the journey of this engaging project, which seems poised to succeed in an unexpected and promising synthesis between the indie classicism of Belle & Sebastian, the eccentricity of the Welsh school (Cate Le Bon, Euros Childs)
‘As woodwind, brass, and twilight-hued acoustic guitars shuffle along, its apparent that Mr Ben & The Bens have a knack for making anything and everything sound delightful… even wistful swathes of melancholy.’
Vermont indie-folk singer/songwriter Henry Jamison releases his new EP Tourism on May 15th via Color Study, and this new song features guest vocals by Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste, who adds a bit of a Veckatimest-style touch with his harmonies. In an era in which the magnitude of cultural sickness is coming to light, Henry Jamison has had some time to reflect. On his second record, Gloria Duplex, the Vermont songwriter deconstructs ideas of masculinity from boyhood to adulthood and what it means to be a white, middle class male in America today. “All of the images that were coming to me were of boyhood or of manhood,” says Jamison. “It ended up that every song on the record is in some way addressing that subject.” It’s a lot to unpack.
Recorded over a two-week period in New York City during January 2018, Gloria Duplex features an all-star cast including producer Thomas Bartlett (Sufjan Stevens, The National, Yoko Ono, St. Vincent, Florence & The Machine) string arranger Rob Moose (Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, Laura Marling, Perfume Genius, Phoebe Bridgers) and mixer Patrick Dillett (Rhye, David Byrne, Glen Hansard).
Punk legends X have surprise released a brand new album called “Alphabetland”. Better yet, it’s the band’s first full-length featuring all of its original members in 35 years. Formed in 1977, X quickly established themselves as one of the best bands in the first wave of LA’s flourishing punk scene; becoming legendary leaders of a punk generation,
X’s Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom, and DJ Bonebrake recorded five songs for the record back in November 2018 — one of which was a redo of “Delta 88 Nightmare” — with producer Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Beck). In January of this year, they reunited with Schnapf to record seven more songs. And thus, an album was born. According to The Los Angeles Times, the album was originally due out in August, but the band chose to move up its release due to the COVID-19 crisis. “When your heart is broken, you think every song is about that,” John Doe said in a statement. “These songs were written in the last 18 months and it blows my mind how timely they are. We all want our family, friends and fans to hear our records as soon as it’s finished. This time we could do that. Thanks to Fat Possum and our audience.”
Alphabetland comes with some warped, colorful album artwork, which you can find below alongside the tracklist. As it turns out, that drawing is by none other than Wayne White, the set designer for the legendary Pee-wee’s Playhouse.
“When your heart is broken you think every song is about that. These songs were written in the last 18 months & it blows my mind how timely they are,” explained John Doe. “We all want our family, friends & fans to hear our records as soon as it’s finished. This time we could do that. Thanks to Fat Possum & our audience.” The bands record label, Fat Possum, listened and agreed. Plans were quickly set in motion to release the new music via Bandcamp and have said they’re working to get the record available elsewhere as quickly as possible.
The Band:
Billy Zoom; guitar, saxaphone, piano
DJ Bonebrake; drums, percussion
Exene Cervenka; vocals
John Doe; bass, vocals
Additional guitar on All The Time In The World: Robby Krieger
Rob Schnapf, additional guitar
Pre-orders for Alphabetland are currently ongoing. In addition to a digital download on Bandcamp, the album is available on CD, black vinyl, and special vinyl variants like green (limited to 500), red (limited to 300), and yellow (limited to 200). The latter two colours have already sold out, so act fast if you’re trying to own a special vinyl version.
The release of Alphabetland coincides with the 40th anniversary of X’s debut album, Los Angeles, this weekend.
Car Seat Headrest have shared “There Must Be More Than Blood,” the latest song from their forthcoming album Making a Door Less Open. The song is a lengthy one, clocking in at around seven-and-a-half minutes. The new album will be out next week and the band has shared another new song off of it. It follows the singles “Hollywood,” “Martin,” and “Can’t Cool Me Down.” Below, find the official song and acoustic version, performed by Will Toledo’s alter ego Trait, the album’s protagonist, who was wearing a mask before it was cool. The chorus: “There must be more than blood that holds us together/ There must be more than wind that takes us away/ There must be more than tears when they pull back the curtain/ There must be more than fear.”All of them are good. Spoiler alert: The whole album is good! But we’ll have more to say on that later. In the meantime, here is one more good song to pique your interest.
Making a Door Less Open is out May 1st (via Matador) and marks the first studio album from Toledo and co. since the release of Twin Fantasy in 2018. Last year, the band also released the live album Commit Yourself Completely.
The band’s leader, Will Toledo, planned to conduct business for his entire album cycle in a modified gas mask. He planned this (you guessed it), before the pandemic. “It was supposed to be sort of an exotic alternative to reality — like a challenge, I guess, to normal life,” Toledo said. “And now it just feels a lot more pointed in a way that I wasn’t planning on and don’t really take any pleasure in.” That new album, “Making a Door Less Open,” is a very different type of record for this indie-rock band with such a fervent fan base.
Nottingham indie rock newcomers Do Nothing have shared a new track. ‘Fits’ that comes with the announcement that they’ll be releasing EP ‘Zero Dollar Bill’ on 10th April, which will also include previous single ‘LeBron James’. Zero Dollar Bill EP is the debut release from Do Nothing, childhood friends vocalist Chris Bailey, guitarist Kasper Sandstrom, bassist Charles Howarth and Andrew Harrison on drums. Speaking about new single ‘Fits’, Bailey said: “This song came about relatively naturally. It’s about that sad little feeling of drifting away from things that meant a lot to you when you were younger. I wanted to write something about my big brother, and what came out sounds somewhat sarcastic, but is actually a quite sincere love song to him and our childhoods. He’s called Benji, and I don’t see him enough.”
The EP muses on the state of the world as well as Bailey’s own personal experiences in the past several years since the formation of Do Nothing. “There’s a lot of finger-pointing, yelling and confusion,” he begins. “And as much of an ordeal as that sounds I think it’s quite fun. The point is that confusion is important! It’s basically the currency that I deal in.”
‘Fits’ is the ideal counterpart to ‘LeBron James’, a window into the band’s incendiary live show, providing more acerbic lyricism in the lineage of LCD Soundsystem and an air of Talking Heads’ intoxicating pop – it marks another watershed moment for the band following a remarkable rise last year. Do Nothing have also shared the video for rousing track “Contraband”, taken from their excellent five track debut EP out now on their own imprint Exact Truth.
Their mix of skewed art-pop, full on acerbic rage and mordant black humour are all well to the fore in the video!. Of the new song, frontman Chris Bailey explains: “This song came about relatively naturally. It’s about that sad little feeling of drifting away from things that meant a lot to you when you were younger. I wanted to write something about my big brother, and what came out sounds somewhat sarcastic, but is actually a quite sincere love song to him and our childhoods.
Zero Dollar Bill is their debut EP by Nottingham’sDo Nothing.
We know time has lost all meaning in these lockdown weeks but it does feel like we’ve been waiting for The 1975’s ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ for ages. The end is in sight, though, and what better way to carry us through the next month than the absolute bop that is of another shared track from the forthcoming release, The 1975 have shared “If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know),” the latest single from their forthcoming album Notes on a Conditional Form. Check out the music video, directed by Adam Powell, below. The song is still driven by rose-tinted joy.
this song is shamelessly huge. The aching guitar line is immediately recognisable, the mark of an instant classic, and Matty’s cry of “Oh yeah” – before the uproarious sax takes over , offers perhaps the greatest endorphin release you’ll find this side of lockdown.
But even at their biggest and most uninhibited, The 1975 still keep it wonderfully weird. The first minute of ‘If You’re Too Shy…’ is a glitching tease of what’s to come, broken up by Twigs’ wordless vocals as an ominous styled drone stalks the track. The song itself tells the story of an online lust affair that occupies the subjects’ every thought, with Matty desperate to “see the girl on the screen.” It’s never that simple with this band, “There’s something about her stare that makes you nervous and you say things that you don’t mean,” Matty sings, allowing relatable vulnerability to creep through. Elsewhere, he confesses how much he needs the fake courage of alcohol (“Sometimes it’s better if you think but this time / I’m going to drink through it”) to escape the real world.
Notes on a Conditional Form follows 2018’s A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships. The 1975 have now shared seven of the new album’s 22 songs. Along with “If You’re Too Shy,” the band has released “The 1975,” “People,” “Frail State of Mind,” “Me & You Together Song,” “The Birthday Party,” and “Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America.”
“If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know”) from the new album ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ available through Dirty Hit, under exclusive licence to Polydor Records and Interscope Records
