Archive for the ‘CLASSIC ALBUMS’ Category

Homecoming

Treading the line between Pixies, Hole, and a particular guitar pop je ne sais quoi, Du Blonde’s fourth album is a punchy splash of acerbic melodic colour. written, recorded and produced by Du Blonde (aka Beth Jeans Houghton), ‘Homecoming’ is a refreshing taste of pop-grunge finery, featuring guests including Shirley Manson, Ezra Furman, Ride’s Andy Bell (ride/oasis), the Farting Suffragettes, and members of Girl Ray and Tunng among others. the album began as a few songs hashed out on a porch in la in early 2020, as Houghton’s desire to create something self-made and self-released merged with the then incoming pandemic.

Fans of Du Blonde’s previous two studio albums (2015’s ‘Welcome Back to Milk’ and 2019’s ‘Lung Bread for Daddy’) might be surprised to find that ‘Homecoming’ takes on the form of a pop record. the garage rock, grunge and metal guitar licks that have come to define Du Blonde are still there in spades, but as a whole the direction of the album is pop through and through. Houghton’s freak flag is still flying high however, a fact that’s no more apparent than on ‘Smoking Me Out’, a bizarre mash up of 80’s shock rock, metal and 60’s pop group harmonies. this defiant and energetic attitude can be heard throughout ‘Homecoming’, whether writing about her medication (30mg of citalopram, once a day), her queerness on ‘i can’t help you there’ (“I’ve been a queen, I’ve been a king, and still I don’t fit in”), to the joyous and manic explosion of ‘Pull The Plug’ (“say that I’m deranged, but I’ve been feeling more myself than ever”), Houghton is nothing if not herself, full force and unapologetic in her approach to writing, playing and recording her music.

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Due for release in April 2021, ‘Homecoming’ is the first record to be engineered, produced and self released by Du Blonde. Written and recorded over several sessions between Los Angeles, London and Newcastle, ‘Homecoming’ is a no holds barred collection of Garage, Glam and hard rock finery, featuring a couple of tear-your-hair-out slow saddies for good measure.

Releases April 2nd, 2021

May be a closeup of 4 people, beard and sunglasses

Since 2007 these DIY sonic alchemists have been creating whacked out soundscapes and songs that appear to have been born from another universe, all from the confines of their sonic bunker

The Cult Of Dom Keller make the kind of experimental goth-tinged psych that, has thus far, eluded 2016. Fans of Swans and The Icarus Line will find plenty to entertain them here – this is a band unafraid to take risks.

The band have pushed themselves sonically on this album, it’s by far their most experimental release to date. It’s also an album rooted in darkness. “The new album deals with the theme of uncertainty, and put more simply – the end.” That theme resonates throughout the entire album.

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Goodbye To The Light released April 1st, 2021 on FUZZ CLUB Records.

dinosaur jr

Dinosaur Jr. have shared a new single and music video, “Garden.” The track was written by co-founder and bassist Lou Barlow, and it marks the second single off their forthcoming record “Sweep It Into Space”. The new video was shot in Western Massachusetts. It was directed by Lou and Adelle Barlow, with John Maloney contributing illustrations and Chloe Hemingway providing animation.

“Everyone seemed to want a disruption in the order of American life, it seemed necessary. Then it happened,” Lou Barlow says of the track. “It began as a bitter lamentation but as I was finishing the lyrics, singing over the instrumental version of the song while driving to J’s through the miles of farmland that separate his studio in Amherst and my home in Greenfield (Massachusetts), I saw a sign on a shed: Back to the Garden. I was looking for a resolution, where do we go when faced with such dramatic confusion? Back to basics, back home, back to the garden.”

The single is a wash of colliding influences as ’60s Brit-pop tones give way to Barlow’s ’00s alt-rock delivery. Aesthetically, a certain attitude of apathy coalesces with the paradoxical image of the band exploring a snow-capped garden in Western Massachusetts. The video also features shots of a scenic bend in the Connecticut River, which Barlow noted isn’t far from the site of the first-ever Dinosaur Jr. music video, “Little Furry Things”. In addition to the live-action shots of the band, the “Garden” video also hosts artwork by the band’s tour manager John Moloney, who routinely sketches caricatures of the band.

Dinosaur Jr.’s new record is due out April. 23rd.

Dry Cleaning

The latest single from their debut LP “New Long Leg”, Dry Cleaning have shared a video for their new song “Unsmart Lady,” the latest single from their debut album New Long Leg. Check out the Tilly Shiner–directed clip, which features the band performing in a South London carpet shop, Dry Cleaning’s Florence Shaw, who wrote the lyrics, said in a statement: ““Fat podgy, non make-up’—I was thinking about these things that are supposed to be a source of shame about your appearance and wanting to use them in a powerful way. Just trying to survive when you feel knackered and put-upon and shit about yourself, but you say, ‘I don’t care what I’m supposed to be.’” 

New Long Leg is the band’s first release since signing to 4AD Records. Dry Cleaning have previously shared videos for “Strong Feelings” and “Scratchcard Lanyard.” The band released two EPs in 2019: Sweet Princess and Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks.

You’ll be hearing more about Dry Cleaning in the coming days, but at the centre of it all is New Long Leg, their forthcoming debut album, which we’ve been looking forward to for months. Their stylishly alchemic art-rock juxtaposes nervy instrumentation from guitarist Tom Dowse, drummer Nick Buxton and bassist Lewis Maynard with vocalist Florence Shaw’s hypnotic spoken-word delivery, running hot and cool at the same time. From locked-in opener “Scratchcard Lanyard” to sprawling closer “Every Day Carry,” New Long Leg is an enthralling first full-length effort from the London quartet.

‘Unsmart Lady‘, from Dry Cleaning’s debut album ‘New Long Leg’. Released 2nd April on 4AD records. 

Angel Olsen Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories

Angel Olsen has announced a new box set called “Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories”. The release—out May 7th via Jagjaguwar recordings the release includes her last two albums, All Mirrors and Whole New Mess, as well as a bonus LP with bonus tracks, alternate takes, remixes, a cover of Roxy Music’s “More Than This,” and more.

Originally conceived as a double album, All Mirrors and Whole New Mess were distinct parts of a larger whole, twin stars that each expressed something bigger and bolder than Angel Olsen had ever made. Released in 2019, All Mirrors is massive in scope and sound, tracing Olsen’s ascent into the unknown, to a place of true self-acceptance, no matter how dark, or difficult, or seemingly lonely. All Mirrors is colossal, moving, dramatic in an Old Hollywood manner. Recorded before All Mirrors but released after, Whole New Mess is the bones and beginnings of the songs that would rewrite Olsen’s story. This is Angel Olsen in her classic style: stark solo performances, echoes and open spaces, her voice both whispered and enormous. All Mirrors and Whole New Mess presented the two glorious extremes of an artist who, in these songs, became new by embracing herself entirely.

Now, with Songs of the Lark… And Other Far Memories, these twin stars become a constellation with the full extent of the songs’ iterations: all the alternate takes, b-sides, remixes and re-imaginings are here, together. Alongside, a 40-page book collection tells a similar story, not just through outtakes and unseen photos but through the smaller, evocative details: handwritten lyrics, a favourite necklace, a beaded chandelier. As if it could be more plainly stated (there’s nothing more),

The box set will also come with a 40-page book. “It feels like part of my writing has come back from the past, and another part of it was waiting to exist,” Olsen said of the box set in a statement.

Among the tracks on the Far Memory bonus LP are Johnny Jewel’s remix of “All Mirrors” and Mark Ronson’s remix of “New Love Cassette.” There’s also an alternate version of “Whole New Mess” called “It’s Every Season (Whole New Mess),” which you can hear below.

Angel adds one cover here: a loving, assertive rendition of Roxy Music’s “More Than This.” It is a definitive collection, not just of these songs but of their revelations and their writer, from their simplest origins to their mightiest realizations.

Angel Olsen Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories

Buy Online The Yardbirds - The Yardbirds (Roger The Engineer) Super Deluxe Limited Edition

The Yardbirds,(often known as ‘roger the engineer’) recorded by the classic line up of Jeff Beck, Keith Relf , Jim McCarty, Chris Dreja and Paul Samwell Smith, the band began exploring new sonic territories, pushing their blues rock sound into the realms of the avant garde, psychedelia and indian music. Using the original tapes, this super deluxe edition features new and definitive remastering by Phil Kinrade at alchemy mastering at air, overseen by original album producer Paul Samwell Smith,

Both versions include: Yardbirds in mono remastered from the original British ¼” mono master tapes, newly transferred for this release at Abbey Road Studios. pressed on 180g blue vinyl, housed in a replica of the original British album sleeve. Yardbirds in stereo considered by producer Paul Samwell Smith to be the definitive version of the album, the stereo mix has been remastered from the ¼” master tapes which were newly transferred for this release at alchemy mastering at air. pressed on 180g red vinyl, housed in a replica of the ultra rare German sleeve.

Happenings ten years time ago 7” the classic psychedelic single (featuring future Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones) has been newly remastered for this release. pressed on white vinyl.

3 cds featuring the mono and stereo mixes of the album on cds 1 and 2 and bonus tracks on cd 3. highlights on cd 3 include newly remastered non album singles, rare alternate versions, and a previously unreleased early mix of ‘Turn Into Earth’ which reveals a searing guitar solo by Jeff Beck. 24 page 12” x 12” booklet includes rare memorabilia and photographs, an exclusive introduction by Jeff Beck, testimonials by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and MC5’s Wayne Kramer, plus an extensive essay and track by track liner notes by David French based on new interviews with Jimmy Page, Paul Samwell Smith, Jim McCarty and Simon Napier Bell. A2 fold out poster inspired by the original ‘over, under, sideways, down’ single release advertisement.

“Remastering this album has been a joy. To hear the tracks sounding just as we heard them all those years ago while we were recording them – energetic, edgy, and in your face – is an unexpected treat. In 1966, it was a rare and exciting opportunity to be given a recording studio for 5 days and allowed to experiment. That excitement still shows.” – Paul Samwell-Smith.

“This is what rock ‘n’ roll beauty is – the true freedom of creative impulse.” – Thurston Moore

“The Yardbirds produced some of the most compelling musical art of the 20th century.” – Wayne Kramer

180g standard black 2lp + 3cd + 7″ (24 page booklet, a2 fold out poster)

The Yardbirds “Roger the Engineer” super deluxe box set released on Demon Records

Francis of Delirium deliver powerful homegrown indie rock on “Red.” The track comes ahead of their forthcoming EP “Wading” and follows the track “Let It All Go.” The Luxembourg-based duo offer choppy, repetitive verses against a fuzzy guitar, giving the band their signature grunge-infused indie sound. In the chorus, singer Jana Bahrich repeats, “It all turned red when it all made sense / and it all turned red,” which she explained in a statement as lyrically describing “the pushing away of someone and justifying it with your anger rather than rationally discussing your feelings. It’s believing something you thought to be true and then that being switched. It’s the loss of trust in a relationship.” The song arrived with an animated music video, created by Bahrich. 

Today the band are back with another new song from it, “Red,” which features the same sort of hypnotic repetition and surging urgency.

Red is the pushing away of someone and justifying it with your anger rather than rationally discussing your feelings. It’s believing something you thought to be true and then that being switched. It’s the loss of trust in a relationship,” the band’s Jana Bahrich said in a statement, continuing:

You’re left angry and confused, unsure of yourself, or who to trust. Instead of communicating effectively, you start to push away, preemptively moving into isolation as a defence mechanism to stop yourself from more hurt. Simultaneously the song challenges the goodness I see in myself, as a good friend, someone filled with love is gone, which distances you from this idea of yourself even further. So you’re pushing away someone else and pushing away a version of yourself you enjoy.

Most of this footage was taken by my grandfather around the 70s and part of the footage is of me as a child, me at the age I am now. Lakes explores identity and feelings of being lost. We are all bodies that feed into each other to make our own individual lakes. I found a great deal of identity through community and through isolation that sense of self was lost. Through the music video I wanted to find identity through family and heritage. I never really developed a relationship with my grandfather and I found a large sense of self through making the video. Many tears were shed.

Wading follows the band’s previous EP, 2020’s All Change. The band consists of 19-year-old singer/songwriter Jana Bahrich (from Vancouver, British Columbia) and drummer/producer Chris Hewett (from Seattle, Wash.), who’s several decades her senior.

Due on 9th April on Dalliance Recordings

Dry Cleaning’s guitarist Tom Dowse, drummer Nick Buxton, and Lewis Maynard had been friends and musical collaborators for years; at first Dry Cleaning was simply their latest project, formed after a karaoke night and based out of the miniscule garage next to the house of Maynard’s mum. One day, however, after a mutual friend’s exhibition, Dowse played some snippets of what they’d been working on to Florence Shaw, a visual artist, picture researcher and drawing lecturer. A few days later, she came to his flat armed with a copy of Michael Bernard Loggins’ Fears Of Your Life to read out over the music, and later still started contributing words of her own. Before long she was the group’s frontperson, her dryness, wit, and linguistic acrobatics acting as the perfect counter to the musicians’ taut instrumentals. Eventually they produced two thrilling EPs, 2019’s Sweet Princessand Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks. On stage, the contrast between the stillness of Shaw and the emphatic energy of Dowse and Maynard became even more pronounced. They swapped influences from Black Sabbath to Augustus Pablo to Yuzo Koshiro. “It all absorbed,” says Dowse. “Then when we got back to writing, we felt like we were drawing very organically from a collective palette.”

UK band Dry Cleaning will release their debut album, “New Long Leg”, on April 2nd and they were just on long-running BBC series Later with Jools Holland (via London’s Moth Club) to play the album’s lead single, “Scratchcard Lanyard.”

We’d really recommend checking out Dry Cleaning’s recent performance on Later… with Jools Holland! We mentioned it above, we’re mentioning it now and no doubt we’ll mention it again in a matter of days. It’s great, what can we say?!

Watch Dry Cleaning perform Scratchcard Lanyard filmed at the Moth Club (Live on Later)

Bay Area’s amplified and electric artful dodgers Fake Fruit have become one of the most exciting and talked about local acts as of late. With much fanfare surrounding the arrival off their self-titled release.

Post-punk lovers have a new act to follow in Fake Fruit, a Vancouver-bred, Bay Area-based quartet whose self-titled debut is out now on Rocks In Your Head Records. The band cite Pink Flag-era Wire, Pylon and Mazzy Star as influences, and Fake Fruit bears that synthesis out: You’ll find the first two acts’ versatile, hard-edged, bright- and fast-burning guitar rock (“Old Skin,” “Yolk”), as well as the last one’s engrossing quiet-loud dynamics (“Stroke My Ego”).

But that specific stylistic fusion is only a jumping-off point: “Keep You” finds singer and guitarist Hannah D’Amato’s melodic vocals overlaying hypnotic shoegaze guitars (courtesy of Alex Post on lead) and a clattering low end (Martin Miller on bass, Miles MacDiarmid on drums), while album closer “Milkman” finds D’Amato sharing vocal duties over deft guitar harmonics and a motorik backbeat. And an X factor in all this is Fake Fruit’s mordant lyricism: “My dog speaks more than you did tonight,” D’Amato sneers on “Keep You,” a laugh line on an album that shows serious potential.

Hannah D’Amato has been leading Fake Fruit though various line-ups and various cities for five years, but didn’t find her footing until landing in San Francisco with a steady, talented group of bandmates and a champion in Sonny Smith (Sonny & The Sunsets) who tried to get band signed to a proper indie before just putting this album out himself. “Fake Fruit” has the energy of a debut but the assuredness and nuance of a third album, using standard indie rock parts but making them feel brand new.

The Band:

Hannah D’Amato- Vox + Guitar
Alex Post- Lead Guitar
Miles MacDiarmid- Drums
Martin Miller- Bass

“No Mutuals” , the new single from the debut record of Oakland’s Fake Fruit, available on Rocks In Your Head Records March 5th.

Like a scene from a medieval tarot card come to life in brilliant technicolor, Tele Novella’s psych-pop opus “Merlynn Belle” rides a pale horse through a lonesome land in search of something once lost. No strangers to realm-hopping psychedelia, the Lockhart, Texas duo’s musical craft reaches elegant new heights on their second full-length with the addition of dusty country-western accents and pastel baroque-pop flourishes fleshing out their romps between worlds. There’s something sweepingly cinematic about Tele Novella’s songs, which are painterly in their composition and evocative in their lyricism, the yearning tales of crystal witches, wishing shrines, and faded love prettily adorned with colourful vintage sounds straight out of a magic thrift shop and beautifully anchored by Natalie Ribbons’ velvety, emotionally-rich vocals. Though one could wax poetic about its many enchanting embellishments, Merlynn Belle’s truest revelation lies not in its aesthetics but in its intuitive understanding that resilience is as potent a spell as heartbreak, and twice as strong.

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Tele Novella is a project out of Lockhart, Texas–a small town lost in time–where their classic and sincere pop song writing is slowly processed through a loner medieval-tonk machine and then captured on cassette 8-track. Their forthcoming record, Merlynn Belle, was the music they wanted to be making all along but didn’t know until it happened accidentally.

It comes out February 2021.