Hailing from Mungia, Spain, quartet Belako play very catchy indie rock influenced equally by new wave and punk, and sound like they could’ve come out of the early ’00s new rock renaissance. The band’s new album, Plastic Drama, is due out in May and you can check out first single “Tie Me Up,”
“Tie Me Up” talks about the assembly chain that we make up both human and oppressed or oppressive. Tai Chi is an event of resistance that immediate to time, representing lost balance and its origin millennia, turns its activity into remembrance of fighting an invisible enemy.
Band Members
Josu , Lore , Lander , Cris
Official Music Video for Tie Me Up from upcoming album “Plastic Drama” (Belako Rekords, BMG 2020), out on May 8th.
Marble Arch is, for all intents and purposes, Paris-based musician Yann Le Razavet who has been crafting hazy guitar pop for the last five years or so. His second album, “Children of the Slump”, dropped last year via French label Geographie and it’s a cool, groovy, kinda sexy record, with a focus on melody, keeping things interesting, and not overstaying its welcome. (You can also hear things like My Bloody Valentine, New Order and House of Love in their hazy dreampop sound.) Live, Marble Arch is a full band and they’ll be making their U.S. debut soon.
Named after the London based monument made of white marble and located on Oxford Street, Marble Arch have really though their second record through, having less artistic torments than financial issues – hence the title Children of the Slump. Meanwhile, Yann Le Razavet had some time to think about the musical tone and sounds of his new record. He didn’t want it to be labelled shoegaze nor dream pop. As a matter of fact, we’d be more likely to hear reverberated pop (Reminiscence), saturated pop (the infectious song “I am on My Way”), nostalgic pop (Moonstruck), synthetic pop (Instant Love) or even contemplative pop (Gold). “I think of Children of the Slump as being my real first album as opposed to the former one which was more like a collection of demos” the thirty-years-old artist confessed. The nine songs were mastered with the support of Barthelemy Bouveret (Good Morning TV, Brace! Brace).
We could easily couple Marble Arch and its vaporous and heady repertoire with bands such as The Radio Dept., Slowdive, The Wake (the Sarah Records period) and Deerhunter for they all have a common taste for shady guitars and pop-like melodies.
Two years of writing are summed up in the ending title “Children of The Slump” in which the author goes from laughter to tears. The Lannion born has enriched his leaning towards melancholy much like the roses on the grey Mercedes of the album cover. Children of the Slump by Marble Arch is the first release of the Géographie Label co-founded by Nicolas Jublot (Point Éphémère, Hello Acapulco) and Rémi Laffitte (Atelier Ciseaux). It is already one of the best records of 2019 first quarter.
Of all the shows on The Who’s legendary “Quardrophenia” tour in 1973, none stands out more than the penultimate show in Philadelphia on December 4th. Parts of this show were broadcast on the King Biscuit Flower Hour and titles surfaced almost immediately taped directly from the radio broadcast.
The first is the famous “Tales From The Who” (TMOQ) which featured one of William Stout’s most well known covers featuring the band in cages a la a box of animal crackers cookies. Over half of this two-record set is devoted to selections from the then-new Quadrophenia, and there’s an amusing story about this recording. Normally when the King Biscuit producers put out live concerts for commercial broadcasts, they carefully bleeped out any obscenities, but in this case they overlooked some. The New Orleans radio station that aired this program was unaware, like the show’s producers, that “Dr. Jimmy” contained a four-letter word, and it was duly broadcast. However, whichever station provided the broadcast that served as the source material for this bootleg had a station manager or program director familiar with the song, so they duly dubbed the KBFH disc to reel-to-reel tape and spliced out the offending word prior to airing the program (producing the bizarre line “Her fella’s gonna kill me/Aww, f-ill he”), but even they missed another one slipped into “My Generation.” The bootleg label’s claim that this is a quadraphonic release was a bit laughable, because it couldn’t been taped off the radio in quadraphonic, and trying to convert it after the fact would have had all the success of the pseudo-stereo records of the 1960s. According to William Stout, who designed the colorful cover that was a knockoff of classic horror comic book covers, only 120 copies of this two-record set were released, as the operators of TMOQ knew that the FBI was on their trail and, in a fit of panic, they destroyed all other copies of the release (as quoted in Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry by Clinton Heylin).
Like most King Biscuit broadcasts, the sound isn’t quite as good as typical commercial live rock records, but this collectable is far better-sounding than any other bootlegs featuring the Who, and its extreme rarity makes it a very valuable recording to own, superseded only by the original King Biscuit Flower Hour LPs distributed to the network radio stations for the broadcast.
This release was copied on “Who Are You” (Ruthless Rhymes), copy of the TMQ release with five songs from a 1971 audience recording. The Ruthless Rhymes release was copied on the German release “Mods & Rockers”(Ruthless Rhymes) and on another German title called Mods & Rockers (Slipped Disc) in 1974.
The final vinyl release was Decidedly Belated Response (TAKRL). This new release contains the recently surfaced, more complete version of the Spectrum show for the first time ever. “Substitute,” “The Punk And The Godfather,” “5:15,” “Drowned,” “Naked Eye” are new to on this release with only “Love, Reign O’er Me” being the only song missing from the setlist.
The sound quality on this release is nothing short of phenomenal. Given the phenomenal performance, this is simply a fantastic release. The set begins with a few older numbers to warm up the audience. After a moment of audience buzz the band launch into “Substitute” and “I Can’t Explain.”
The Band:
Roger Daltrey: Vocals, Harmonica John Entwistle: Vocals, Bass Keith Moon: Vocals, Drums Pete Townshend: Guitar, Vocals
As frontman of The Charlatans (or The Charlatans UK in the states) for decades, Tim Burgess has become an alternative rock statesman. Arising in the early ’90s during the thriving Madchester and Britpop crazes, The Charlatans have dipped their toes in a lot of styles over the years, but Burgess has remained an interesting figure and compelling songwriter all these years later. Burgess is also an author of several books and an adept solo musician, and his fourth solo album, I Love The New Sky, which was announced with playful lead single “Empathy for the Devil,” is due out May 22nd on Bella Union Records.
Tim Burgess has brought us a lot of joy this past month or two. He’s spoiling us because his brilliant debut for Bella Union Records, “I Love The New Sky” featuring label fave Peter Broderick no less, is imminent.
There’s a very limited edition of the SPLATTER vinyl with signed postcards
While in The Charlatans, Tim’s indefatigable energy has been a consistent fuel for the band across thirteen high-charting albums, his solo adventure has been no less extraordinary, scaling new heights in 2020 with his fifth solo release to date: it features wonderfully connective songs of everyday minutiae and universal experience, of love and anger, of loss and belonging, all united by elaborate yet natural arrangements and an effortless but deceptively expert way with melody.
‘I Love The New Sky’ differs from its predecessors in that all twelve tracks were self-penned. “In the past, I’ve written collaboratively,” says a characteristically, but rightfully excited Burgess. “(2012’s) ‘Oh No I Love You’ was written with Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner in Nashville, and then ‘Same Language, Different Worlds’ was a collaboration with Peter Gordon who had worked extensively with Arthur Russell.”
The twelve tunes of ‘I Love The New Sky’ were authored, he says, “in Norfolk, in the middle of the countryside, with the nearest shop eight miles away. There are no distractions, and I guess that way things happen. I wrote everything on acoustic guitar, and the chords were really considered. The guitar lines would lead the melody, and the melody would inform the lyrics – just dreaming away with music.”
So far, so Laurel Canyon, though ‘I Love The New Sky’ would end up sounding anything but hippie/folkie, thanks to a connection Tim made while living in a warehouse space in gritty Seven Sisters in North London, before heading to Norfolk.
“The Quietus had their office there,” he recalls. “I used to know pretty much all the stuff they were writing about, but then their album of the year for 2013 was ‘Glynnaestra’ by Grumbling Fur, and I really fell in love with it. I started talking to the band about working together. To cut a long story short I recorded a song with Grumbling Fur,
Lyrically, this might almost be a defining collection from Burgess after thirty years honing his craft. There’s plenty of typical lightness of touch of ‘Only Took A Year’s joking reference to the album’s twelve-month gestation period,
Scottish rockers Catholic Action released their debut album, In Memory Of, back in 2017, and had it dropped in the ’00s when bouncy, vaguely garage rock was all the rage, they could’ve made a big splash. Their sound rests on perfectly distorted guitars, distinctly genial and commanding vocals and jumpy bass lines that are almost too good to be true. Their forthcoming second album, Celebrated By Strangers, is due out on March 27th via Texas label Palo Santo Records, and despite its political bent, they can still write the hell out of a pop song.
Holy Wave is an experimental dream-pop band originally from El Paso, Texas. After seeing a life-altering performance by My Bloody Valentine in 2008, the band moved to Austin to pursue their own vision of Texas psych, their sweet melodies dyed in carefully constructed noise.
Over the course of four albums, the band have cemented themselves as a staple force in the international indie scene, with key performances at Levitation, Desert Daze, and nearly every psych gathering on the planet. They’ve toured the world, and shared the stage with heroes such as Slowdive, Spiritualized, Hope Sandoval and The Black Angels. Their body of work has received critical acclaim from Pitchfork, Consequence of Sound, Paste Magazine and countless others, and in 2020 they are prepared to release their latest body of work.
Interloper sees the band adding new layers to their lush and mesmerizing songwriting style. Written about the duality between life at home and life on the road, it sees the band expanding on their most esoteric and thought-provoking themes. “I’m Not Living in the Past Anymore” is a mantra about breaking the cycle of the mundane, “Escapism” is a dream-like meditation. “Interloper” serves as the centerpiece for this self-expanding record, asking, what happens when the world beneath your feet changes so much that you feel like a stranger in your own shoes? The band turns inward, to blissed-out moments on album opener “Schmetterling”, the saccharine haze of “R&B”, and the freak-out catharsis of live favorite “Buddhist Pete”.
With Interloper Holy Wave weaves together a contemplative tapestry that can serve as a road map for the diffident, a soundtrack to self-realization, or simply an invitation to escape.
Interloper sees the band adding new layers to their lush and mesmerizing songwriting style. Written about the duality between life at home and life on the road, it sees the band expanding on their most esoteric and thought-provoking themes. “I’m Not Living in the Past Anymore” is a mantra about breaking the cycle of the mundane.
The Reverberation Appreciation Society is proud to announce Interloper, the new record from Holy Wave, out May 8th, 2020.
Brooklyn post-punk outfit Public Practice built up a wave of buzz with their debut EP, Distance is a Mirror, back in 2018, and for good reason—its New Wave-infused post-punk was as sharp as it was funky. The band, which features members of Wall and Beverly, recently announced their debut album Gentle Grip is out on May 15th via Wharf Cat Records, and the news arrived with one of their best tracks yet, “Compromised”—a motoring punk-pop romp.
Public Practice is band based in New York City
Members include Sam York = Vocals, Vince McClelland = Guitar, Drew Citron = Bass/Synth/Vocals, Scott Rosenthal = Drums
From the debut album Gentle Grip out 5/15 on Wharf Cat Records.
Beat Poetry For Survivalists is the new collaboration between Peter Buck and Luke Haines. Peter Buck was the guitarist for the biggest band in the world – REM. Luke Haines was the guitarist for the Auteurs. The Auteurs were not the biggest band in the world. They were pretty good though. Luke Haines also does paintings of Lou Reed.
One day, Peter Buck bought one of Luke Haines’ Lou Reed paintings. They had never met before but decided that the fates had brought them together and they should write some songs together and make an album.
Beat Poetry For The Survivalist is that album. With songs about legendary rocket scientist and occultist Jack Parsons, The Enfield Hauntings (of 1978), a post-apocalyptic radio station that only plays Donovan records, Bigfoot, and Pol Pot.
Beat Poetry For Survivalists is the new collaboration between Peter Buck & Luke Haines. ‘Jack Parsons’ is the first single and track from the new album
Peter has two new albums out this month including a collaboration with Luke Haines (ex-Auteurs) called Beat Poetry for Survivalists as well as new material with the No Ones called The Great Lost No Ones Album.
Beat Poetry for Survivalists which Peter calls “a freaked-out post-apocalyptic beast of a record,” was released on March 6yj on Cherry Red Records (UK) and Omnivore (USA) while The Great Lost No Ones Album will be released on March 27th on Yep Roc Records.
In addition, Peter will be touring in support of both records this spring,
Written following a bout of heavy touring, eventual hiatus of previous incarnation EZTV and amidst the degradation of multiple relationships, the songs that make up ‘Carousel’ were culled from an obsessive trove of over 50 home recorded demos. Sounds oscillate from jangly meditations (“Turn the Time), drum machine fueled heart pangs (“Picture Taker), and the ethereal ruminations of a shut in (“Loud Sounds)”. After tracking live at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Studios, guitarist Ezra Tenenbaum and drummer Michael Stasiak fleshed out knotty hook-filled arrangements at home with the help of a rotating crew of friends.
Bambara have been around long enough that you should know by now what to expect from one of their séance-punk records, but “Miracle” is still a “Smells Like Teen Spirit”–caliber opener. If vaguely familiar VH1 talking heads ever heard this song, they’d be like, “I remember exactly where I was when I heard Bambara’s ‘Miracle,’ and I remember I just froze. I was like, ‘umm, what is this!?,’” or something to that effect. With Stray being particularly infused with themes of death, the album’s opener introduces the impending macabre with chilling gothic blues that strip Pop. 1280 of their title as best Nick Cave homage.
