Waxahatchee (aka Katie Crutchfield) has shared “Lilacs,” the latest single and video from her highly anticipated new album Saint Cloud, out March 27th worldwide. “Lilacs” received a Best New Track nod from Pitchfork who also announced Waxahatchee as part of their 2020 Pitchfork Festival line-up.
Of the song, Crutchfield says:
“Lilacs” was the last song I wrote for the record, and it’s mostly just about obsessive/negative thought patterns. It’s about backsliding into old behaviors that don’t serve you and sort of letting your worst self get the best of you. I think that when people are in that mindset, they can really try to turn the blame onto other people, so the song sort of plays out like a conflict you’d have with someone you love. It’s meant to capture that moment of heat that happens right when you realize you’re wrong or that your issue is more with yourself than with someone else—being flawed and fragile, but making progress inch by inch. The chorus serves as a sweet little resolve. I wanted it to feel like the light at the end of the tunnel and the reminder that it can always and often does get better.
Watch the previous glowing video for “Fire” which stars Katie and was co-directed by her and Andreina Byrne.
Saint Cloud is available for order on CD, standard LP in a single jacket, and coke bottle-clear Peak Vinyl housed in a gatefold jacket (both vinyl editions include a large full-color poster) in the Merge Records store,
The modern post-punk landscape was in danger of becoming a reductive cliche of itself as it softened its spikes, but Philly trio Control Top are razor-sharp and full of fire in their delivery with their debut full-length Covert Contracts. It’s an extreme case of the personal, political and technologically terrifying converging at the forefront of the conversation as well as attacking your senses, with lead singer and bassist Ali Carter acting as the live wire mouthpiece with a maximalist current from drummer Alex Lichtenauer and guitarist Al Creedon downloading a surge of dark truths from their secret server. In the age of information overload, Control Top are here to tear down capitalist walls and the algorithms set up to pocket millions off of it one piece of the hate machine at a time. When it’s over, Covert Contracts has hopefully hacked a staying power in your brain as well.
If Siouxsie Sioux decided to join the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to make frayed-edge dance-punk, it would probably sound like Control Top. Ali Carter’s voice maintains the ethereal and haunting style of her predecessors, but with a channeling a contemporary aggressive force when she commands: “Quit your job today!” Diligently releasing new music for the past three years has paid off with their 2019 breakthrough tantrum Covert Contracts, and they summarized early 2020 by releasing the one-off single “One Good Day,” as in wishing for one. In light of the recent national protests, they’ve spread awareness about Black issues and raised proceeds for the Philly Community Bail Fund and the Black and Pink Bail Fund. But it’s their feral tunes that make them Philly’s best contemporary punk band, so the Dead Milkmen better watch their backs.
“Betrayed,” from Covert Contracts, sums up everything you want to scream at the top of your lungs in 2020: “Betrayed by the nation, betrayed by the fight / Betrayed by the cronies on the left and the right.
Out of all of EMI’s new reissues of The Nice’sCharisma label back catalogue is among the most interesting, this two-disc set totaling over 90 minutes is likely to be of most interest to fans of The Nice.
Whilst the song titles will be familiar this is the first time this concert at New York’s legendary Fillmore East has been released. Where the studio albums were often a little too variable for their own good, hearing the set flow from start to finish gives us a greater appreciation of how powerful and cohesive a unit The Nice were in concert the British Psychedelic/Art Rock band featuring a previously unreleased performance taped at the Fillmore East in 1969. Digitally re-mastered from the original eight track tapes. Including alternate unedited performances of “She Belongs to Me” and “Country Pie”, along with material previously unreleased on either vinyl or CD. The Nice would go down in history as one of the most exciting live acts of their age and as the creators of a series of excellent albums that would fuse the worlds of Rock and classical music, taking in elements of Jazz, Psychedelia and Rhythm & Blues on the way, effectively spawning the genre of Progressive Rock in their wake.
Whilst Keith Emerson’s off-the-cuff quotes of Bach and other popular classics may sound a touch arch by today’s standards, it’s easy to forget how hard-edged and radical this was to audiences largely fed on a diet of bluesy guitar jams. This, coupled with his theatrical mauling of his Hammond organ, added not only an arresting visual dimension but the resulting ear-bleeding atonality of such pre-meditated destruction gave the group something of an avant-garde frisson as well.
Though Lee Jackson’s sandpaper-rasp of a voice suited the rockier repertoire, his limitations are spotlighted in the quieter parts such as their imaginative reading of Tim Hardin’s sublime Hang On To A Dream. Nevertheless, Jackson’s bass playing was entirely dependable and together with drummer Brian Davison’s always elegant but robust swing, the pair provided an unswerving rhythm section that was in effect the safety net to Emerson’s high-wire act.
Surprisingly is the Tim Hardin cover “Hang on to a Dream”, ‘normally’ played on the piano, completely played on the organ also. But Emerson played the piano on several other tracks, solely and/or in combination with the organ. The band made clear where they stood for in those final days: an amalgam of pop, jazz, blues, rock and classical music. With only 3 people aboard they could produce a lott of noise. Emerson tried everything to make the organ sound more abrassive, agressive and louder. He played it like an leadguitarist with use of feedback, overdrive and distortion, in an unusual way, by mistreating the hapless instrument and even with the help of armyknives, thus creating before unheard sounds and effects. This can be heard on the “Karelia Suite”, among others. Lee Jackson added an earthly sounding bass-guitar and his gruff vocals, whilst Brian Davidson used everything he could fit to bash on.
When this show was recorded The Nice were only weeks away from breaking up. Yet the risk-taking that went from Dylan to Dvorak remains exhilarating, edgy and largely underrated.
Vocals, Bass Guitar: Lee Jackson , Vocals, Organ, Piano: Keith Emerson , Drums: Brian Davison
Tracks: Rondo, Ars Longa Vita Brevis, Little Arabella, She Belongs to Me, Country Pie, Five Bridges Suite, Hang On to a Dream, Intermezzo: Karelia Suite, America, War and Peace.
Personal Trainer are a garage-pop trio based out of Brooklyn and Philadelphia. The members originally met while studying at Vassar College, apparently bonding over their shared love of, “academia and Alanis”. Originally formed in the summer of 2018, they’ve been honing their sound ever since and emerged this week with their superb debut single, “Backyard”.
Discussing the track, Personal Trainer have suggested “Backyard” is a song about missed opportunities, of growing up and afraid to express yourself, a track, “for anyone who cares to re-imagine what their childhood may have looked like had they been unafraid to love honestly”. Throughout, Personal Trainer pitch us back to images of teenage parties, to moments of kindness and insecurity, to wanting to kiss someone and stopping yourself, “you’ve got long hair just like mine, you’ve got lips and so do I”. Musically, the track is punctuated with a steady heartbeat like bass-drum, you can almost feel it bursting out of a collective chest, as it’s adorned with lush harmonies, driving bass and delightfully twiddly guitar lines. Yes, this is as early in Personal Trainer’s musical journey as we could possibly join them, they couldn’t sound more ready though, a single track that makes a compelling case for declaring Personal Trainer your new favourite band.
Having started performing, with the accompaniment of a responsible adult, at the age of just twelve, Emily Keener is something a youthful musical veteran. Nine years on from when she started earning a living from music, the Cleveland indie-folk singer is set to return this Spring with her latest album, “I Do Not Have to Be Good”, her first since 2017’s acclaimed Breakfast.
This week ahead of that release, Emily has shared her latest single, Do You Love Me Lately. It’s a track that instantly shows the subtle shift in Emily’s music, with the pensive folk sounds coming forward and the Americana roots, while still present, sliding into the background. To the fore throughout is Emily’s subtly jaw-dropping vocal, there’s a touch of Julia Jacklin to the vibrato and fabulous inflections. Discussing the track, Emily has suggested it was inspired by staring into space day dreaming of what it would be like to date a woman, and how Emily’s own self doubts started to creep into view. As she explains, “I found myself painting this woman as an unavailable dream-girl way out of my league. I saw the relationship as one that would shine a light on my deepest insecurities”. Instantly this feels like an exciting new setting for Emily’s music, a progression that keeps everything that was already in place and morphs it into something more intriguing than ever before.
The single depicts the fragility of romantic love as Keener’s smoldering vocals float around a slowly pulsing, retro groove. It’s off the album, “I Do Not Have to Be Good”, due out May 22nd.
Just two years after her debut “Quit the Curse” introduced us to her lackadaisical, warm guitar-driven pop, Anna Burch’s sophomore album “If You’re Dreaming”pivots into deeper poetic lyricism and darker metaphors, all strung together with the same lush vocals. Upon the release of her latest single “Party’s Over” on Tuesday, she premieres the music video .
The song itself is an anthem for the emotionally exhausted. Like a mantra, she breezily repeats, “I’m so tired” over a 12-string guitar, which lends a certain ’60s sound that she translated straight into the accompanying visuals. “It’s kind of strange but I already started envisioning the video as we were listening to the playback during recording,” Burch told us. “I was originally picturing a runaway bride scenario, but I pivoted to runaway groom with the ’60s sci-fi angle… A lot of my close friends and family have gotten engaged or married in the last year so weddings have been on the surface of my psyche as well.”
In case the chorus’ mantra wasn’t enough to drive it home, Burch’s album title If You’re Dreamingis very literal. “I talk about sleep, or not being able to sleep, a lot throughout these songs,” she said. “I wanted the title to have a hopeful connotation. I’m thankfully sleeping a lot better these days.”
“Party’s Over” is taken from Anna Burch’s sophomore album, If You’re Dreaming, out April 3rd, 2020.
Sometimes the simplest feelings are the most universal. When Beach Bunny lead singer Lili Trifilio sings, “You love me / I love you / You don’t love me anymore, I still do / I’m sorry / I’m trying / I hate it when you catch me crying” on “Rearview,” a slow pop-punk ballad that builds to a thrilling, hands-in-the-air finish, it’s hard not to think back to some time where you, too, have felt the exact same way.
It’s a cliché to say that this record’s lyrics read like a diary entry, but Honeymoon truly does: With the same raw energy as Camp Cope’s Georgia Maq or Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino, Trifilio sings—and occasionally screams—of her innermost desires and heartbreaks over some of the smartest and catchiest pop-punk songwriting in quite some time. It’s easily the most fun album I’ve heard so far this year, a record that’s just begging to be played at parties once winter finally ends.
Brooklyn punk trio Thick have seen a lot over their six years as a band. They’ve seen venues close, and they’ve been repeatedly tokenized by men in the music scene, so they’re not sorry who’s offended by their in-your-face punk. Last year, they signed to Epitaph Records, and their debut album, “5 Years Behind”, is finally coming out on March 6th. Expect jumpy, melodic punk where the personal is political. Samples of men using phrases like “Girl bands are really in right now” characterize “Mansplain” while the rambunctious title track perfectly depicts internal combustion: “I wouldn’t feel so overwhelmed / If I didn’t let time take control.”
The band’s third EP and first release since signing to Epitaph Records, THICK bottles up the reckless energy of their live set and adds new textures to a gloriously scrappy sound they’ve labeled “girlwave.” The three-song release also reveals THICK’s particular brand of lyrical genius: calling out the stupidities of the status quo and claiming their own space apart from the masses.
THE BAND:– Kate Black, Nikki Sisti, Shari Paige
“5 Years Behind” by THICK from the album ‘5 Years Behind,’ available March 6th
“You can actually reinvent yourself in America, step off the plane, say ‘my name is whatever,’” says Teddy Thompson. Speaking more about New York City, where the singer-songwriter has lived since moving there as a teen with his parents British folks singers Linda and Richard Thompson, the city also helped him fuse together his sixth studio album “Heartbreaker Please”(Thirty Tigers), out May 8th, as he’s dissecting his own heartbreak, unraveling a portion of it on the album’s title track.
Extracted from the end of a relationship, Heartbreaker Please also references Thompson’s conflicted feelings about the city he loves—and hates. “I feel like all these years here have made me a New Yorker, but 20 years in New York can weigh you down,” he says. “There’s nowhere like it, but it can be exhausting.”
In a sense, Thompson has been finding himself through the past two decades since releasing his self-titled debut in 2000. His first album since 2011’s Bella, Heartbreaker Please, Thompson admits pulled him back to his roots, into a 1950s vortex of Chuck Berry, Hank Williams, and The Everly Brothers, all part of his musical base since childhood. Always obsessed with this era of music, in his younger years Thompson was listening to Sam Cooke but found it easier to talk about pop with friends in his earlier years.
Still, the ‘80s are still a powerful force for Thompson—an avid fan of everything from Prince to A-ha and earlier ABBA—and he effortlessly fuses soulful pop through tracks like “Heartbreaker Please.” He’s obsessed with that three-minute pop song, and his is a brew backed by stealthy Americana, folk roots. Written several months after a breakup, the title track is not only a woeful, breaking up is hard to do, but more about about its aftermath and one’s movement forward.
“It usually takes a while for the heartache to work it’s way through the system,” says Thompson “When you find someone that seems ideal, it’s easy to be untrue to yourself in order to try to match that ideal.
The full Heartbreaker Please album will be available worldwide on May 8th, 2020.
The Brooklyn foursome Pom Pom Squad are fine purveyors of rough-edged indie rock. On their 2019 sophomore EP, “Ow”, lead singer Mia Berrin takes listeners along on a journey to find her best self, and that means untangling past hardships. Her often painfully vulnerable songwriting meets gnarled guitars, and this collision is demonstrated most powerfully by the EP’s slow-building climax “Again” and anthemic indie-punk highlight “Heavy Heavy.”. The Brooklyn-based four-piece — made up of frontwoman Mia Berrin, bassist Mari Alé Figeman, drummer Shelby Keller, and guitarist Alex Mercuri — has been a fixture of the city’s DIY scene since 2017.
Pom Pom Squad’s 2019 debut EP Ow also incorporated the rebel cheerleader aesthetic, with a grungy, inextricably punk sound. At the core of Pom Pom Squad is inverting the normalized conventions of what it means to be a woman, to be queer, to grapple with identity.
“Red With Love” is reminiscent of Soccer Mommy and Patience-era Mannequin Pussy, but it also holds its own. Pom Pom Squad frontwoman Mia Berrin’s wry, breathy vocals add an extra layer of charm and grit to the song, which perfectly contrasts the haute designer dresses Berrin wears in the video and the gleam of pom poms strewn around the crowd.
“A funny thing happened—after performing, writing and recording songs that are mostly about my depression for the last few years, I started to feel really really good,” Berrin says. “Which isn’t to say that I don’t still deal with the darker parts of my brain, but it posed an interesting writing challenge. ‘Red With Love’ is my first proper love song and a pretty unguarded look into my heart, my relationship anxiety, and my acceptance of my own queerness.”
POM POM SQUAD IS Mia Berrin, Mari Alé Figeman, Shelby Keller Ethan Sass
