Archive for the ‘CLASSIC ALBUMS’ Category

WIRE – ” Mind Hive “

Posted: January 18, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The post-punk legends Wire announced a new album, “Mind Hive”, and shared its first single, “Cactused.” They also announced some tour dates. Mind Hive is due out January 24th, 2020 via the band’s own pinkflag label.

Mind Hive is the band’s seventeenth studio album and the follow-up to 2017’s Silver/Lead. Wire’s line-up consists of founding members Colin Newman (vocals/guitar), Robert Grey (drums), and Graham Lewis (bass guitar, vocals), as well as guitarist Matthew Simms, who has been with the band since 2010.

Wire exhibit little inclination to look back – rather they remain resolutely focused on producing music which is smart, vital and defiantly modern.

“Mind Hive” is the group’s first newly recorded material since 2017’s “Silver/Lead”. that album garnered rave reviews and career best sales. yet, if “Silver/Lead” set the bar pretty high, “Mind Hive” seems to have no problem vaulting over it. be like them is a super-angular composition, utilizing a recently rediscovered Wire lyric from 1977. Colin Newman and Matthew Simms’ guitars constantly mesh and diverge, whilst the rhythm section ensures the song prowls forward with an unstoppable menace. cactused is the first of Mind Hive’s pop moments. the vocal is wide eyed and wired, with effects-heavy guitar work creating a bright web of noise, with the song’s stop/start moments providing a series of precise energy bursts. primed and ready rides out on a tightly pulsing synth sequence punctuated by icy slivers of guitar.

This is Wire at their most compressed yet propulsive. “Off the Beach” is another prime pop song. with its breezy, optimistic melody, and blend of electric and acoustic guitars, the song initially sees the group seemingly celebrating the joys of everyday life but things are destined to turn a shade stranger. unrepentant explores the kind of bucolic soundscape early Floyd would have been proud to call their own. boasting one of the album’s finest texts, the song radiates out into a shimmering sonic heat haze. “Shadows” pulls the classic Wire trick of placing a dark and cruel lyric in a musical setting of tender beauty. never has the recounting of atrocity been so seductively pitched. “Oklahoma” is the muscular and dramatic joker in the pack. Lewis’ dark vocal swims through a rich compound of guitar textures and synth tones, building into a masterclass of tension and release. hung is the album’s centrepiece. this 8-minute excursion matches a brief but evocative lyric with a dense, mesmeric guitar grind. Simms and Newman’s keyboards add a plaintive note, as the song moves through a series of sections, each with its own distinct atmosphere. humming is a beatless autumnal drift fashioned from delicate keyboard textures and rich soaring guitar tones. Newman delivers a state of the world lyric with a touching sense of innocence, whilst the piece ends with Lewis’ husky baritone listing locations and their difficult associations. an elegiac end to a supremely confident album. Mind Hive arrives at a time when wire are being cited as an influence by yet another generation of bands. a career spanning feature documentary called people in a film is due for release late 2020. quite how a group that has been operating for such a long period is still able to produce such exciting and essential work is difficult to understand. and yet here we are

“MIND HIVE” – release date 24.01.20

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PEGGY SUE – ” Vices “

Posted: January 18, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Peggy Sue have always looked to the darkness as well as the light, often playing each side of the coin out in the same song. The album cover art, a photograph of a glass of orange juice by Joana Polonia, taps into that fundamental equivocation, which is such a big part of “Vices”. “It’s so bright and full of energy and light,” says Young, of the photograph. “That’s the simple energy we wanted for this album. But we also loved the ambiguity of it as something that could equally be a vice or a remedy.”

“Vices” was a working title initially, but it soon came to feel as if it suited the record in its entirety. “Lots of songs on the record are sort of messed-up love songs for things that feel good, but aren’t necessarily good for you – like getting staying out too late, or taking too much comfort from certain people,” Young explains. “That kind of interplay between the positive and the negative has always been in Peggy Sue songs, but it’s particularly true of this album. It’s about the things you do to lift you up when you’re down, or distract you when you’re sad, that can end up circling back.”

After four years, Peggy Sue have found themselves again. “I know, from looking at your mouth, how you’re going to sing something” says Slade, addressing her bandmate; “I know what harmony to add. We’ve been singing in Deep Throat Choir, and it’s beautiful to be among those voices, but your voice is the voice that I know the best.”

“We’ve never had an album that bookmarks such an incredible period of time,” says Slade. “It’s a really powerful thing. It has seen us through very difficult times personally, and as a band.” That Vices has ended up sounding so positive and so celebratory is a testament to the power of the songs that emerged from those living rooms.

Band Members:
Rosa Bowler Slade,
Katy Beth Young,
Benjamin Gregory,
Dan Blackett

“Validate Me” from Vices out February 21st.

UNCLE TUPELO – ” Anodyne Uncle ” Vinyl Reissue

Posted: January 18, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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When Americana pioneers Uncle Tupelo released their major-label debut, “Anodyne” on October 5th, 1993, it should have been the beginning of something big. They were following up their left-turn acoustic record, March 16-20, 1992, recorded with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, with their best record yet

Recorded live in the studio amid mounting tension between singer / songwriters Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy, “Anodyne” proved to be Uncle Tupelo’s last and finest album. These final sessions find Farrar and Tweedy crafting a seamless mesh of country, folk and rock that both encompasses and exceeds the range of previous albums.

Anodyne smoothed the jarring, start-stop rhythms of the band’s first two records, No Depression and Still Feel Gone, into a straight-ahead steamroll behind new drummer Ken Coomer. Farrar’s barbed guitar riffs sear on “Chickamauga,” where he compares a crumbling relationship to a Civil War bloodbath. Quieter moments such as the title track flex the strength of new multi-instrumentalist Max Johnston, who played dobro, banjo and fiddle, and former guitar tech John Stirratt, who held down bass when Tweedy switched to guitar.

With the straight-up country of Acuff-rose (a tribute to the famed songwriting duo), and the folky New Madrid, Tupelo displays the traditional leanings found on March 16-20, 1992, while both the bass-heavy The Long Cut and the barnstorming Chickamauga broaden the punk-tinged sound of No Depression and Still Feel Gone. While Anodyne also features a raucous collaboration with the late Doug Sahm on Give Back the Key to My Heart, its most transcendent moments are the world-weary Slate and the sublime title track, one of the most beautifully bittersweet songs penned since Neil Young’s Helpless. Although anodyne proved to be the end of the line for Uncle Tupelo, it opened up more expansive roads for Farrar and Tweedy,

Eventually, the friction between lifelong friends Farrar and Tweedy brought down the band at their biggest moment. Tweedy rushed the remaining members of Uncle Tupelo into the studio to record Wilco’s 1995 debut A.M., while Farrar took the long cut and found success with the hit single “Drown” on Son Volt’s Trace a year later.

Farrar has continued to wrestle with obscure, early country and folk music and his textured guitar wranglings over eight solid albums. Wilco has evolved from a Tupelo-twin to an engine of reinvention, from the deconstructionist country-rock of 1996’s Being There to the shimmering heartbreak of 1999’s Summerteeth and 2001’s experimental Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

KIWI Jr – ” Football Money “

Posted: January 18, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Ask a dozen people to define the term “indie rock” and you’ll probably get a dozen different answers that include word combinations like “Archers of Loaf” and “Foster the People” and “indie rock is dead” . Artist: Kiwi Jr. Album: Football Money. Football Money is a 10-track album that has been five years in the making. The album opens with the track “Murder In The Cathedral.” Right off , I knew this was going to be a different kind of album:

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As the term has evolved over the past few decades—from its origins denoting music released by an independent record label to a vague descriptor of a certain kind of sound—it’s no wonder the words have lost much of their meaning. Make no mistake, however: Kiwi Jr. is an indie rock band. You can hear evidence of that all over their fine debut album “Football Money”, which has been released worldwide by Mint Records. (It came out only in Canada last year.) Someday, other band names will disappear from Kiwi Jr.’s reviews as the quartet further develops its sound.

Football Money is evidence they’ve clearly got the ability and the point of view to do exactly that. Until then, they’re working from a world-class playbook.

Band Members:

Brohan Moore: Drums, Backing Vocals
Brian Murphy: Guitars, Backing Vocals
Jeremy Gaudet: Vocals, Guitars, Keys
Mike Walker: Bass, Backing Vocals, Keys

Aaron Goldstein: Pedal Steel
Alec O’hanley: Backing Vocals, Keys
Hunk and Junk: Backing Vocals
Peter Rankin: Keys

Kiwi Jr. – Salary Man From the LP “Football Money” available on Mint Records (Canada) Available everywhere Friday 1/17/20 via Persona Non Grata

The DONNAS – ” Spend The Night “

Posted: January 18, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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By the time they had released “Spend The Night”, the members of The Donnas had been playing together since their days at Palo Alto High School, which may explain why the 2002 collection sounds so tight. The quartet’s fifth studio album (and first for a major label, Atlantic Records) delivers the punchy Ramones-meets-Runaways attack of previous releases while adding sharper production and more accomplished performances.

Party anthems and tales of teen romance and rivalry abound on these 13 originals, which include “Take Me to the Backseat,” “Who Invited You” and “Take It Off,” a single whose success helped put the album on the Billboard chart – a first for the group. Hard rock fans looking for a good time should Spend The Night with The Donnas.

Guitar: Allison Robertson Bass Guitar: Maya Ford, Drums, Percussion: Torry Castellano

Provided to YouTube by Atlantic Records

TORRES – ” Dressing America “

Posted: January 18, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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This summer, Torres (aka Mackenzie Scott) announced that she was readying an album with her new label, Merge Records, after being dropped by 4AD in 2018 for “not being commercially successful enough.

The return of Torres, the project of New York-based musician Mackenzie Scott, might just be one of the most exciting events of the musical year. While never quite hitting that break through moment, Torres is a songwriter we’ve always loved, and with each new single she shares, her upcoming album, “Silver Tongue”, just seems to get all the more exciting. Possibly the best to date came this week in the shape of the sublime, Dressing America.

“Dressing America” is a track that seems to gently unfurl itself, as the initial strum of muted guitar gradually blossoms, into a Bowie-like slice of hypnotic New Wave glamour, resplendent with motorik rhythms and Mackenzie’s strikingly commanding vocal delivery. Lyrically, it seems to set Mackenzie as a wannabe romantic-hero, a macho cowboy, who might not understand the subtleties of the human heart, yet is ready and waiting to go rescue a damsel in distress, “you’re always telling’ me I don’t know who you are, come on, woman, I tend to sleep with my boots on should I need to gallop over dark waters to you on short notice”.

From the singles delivered, Silver Tongue already feels like Torres’ most immediate release to date, a study of infatuation, lust and human connections, that might just end up being her break-out moment.

Along with the Silver Tongue album announcement, Scott released the lead single, LP opener “Good Scare.” Like the material on Three Futures, “Good Scare” melds oceanic guitar, percussion and synth, offering a lush and layered complement to Scott’s gravelly lows and tender falsetto. The new track takes up the stops and starts of a budding romance, when the prospect of love feels both terrifying and predestined.

Silver Tongue is out January 31st via Merge Records.

STRANGE BREED – ” Closer “

Posted: January 18, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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If there’s some justice in this world, Strange Breed could be the next big thing in rock music. Comprised of four talented musicians from Vancouver, British Columbia, this all-female, all-queer band channel Veruca Salt, Hole, and Sleater-Kinney on their excellent debut album “Permanence”. They are confrontational, political, and raucous, but also capable of a wicked hook, as anthem-in-the-making “Closer” suggests. Led by the powerful voice of Nicolle Dupas, Strange Breed bring a refreshing sense of inclusivity and positivity to the overt – and tiresome – heteronormativity of modern rock music.

Strange Breed are a four piece garage rock band based out of Vancouver, BC. The official video for “Closer” was filmed at the legendary Hipposonic Studios in Vancouver, BC. It was produced, filmed and edited by Section 4 Films. This video was partially crowdfunded through a successful Indiegogo campaign, and we can’t thank our amazing supporters enough. “Closer” is a story about desire, but mostly it’s a jumble of emotions. The desire to find love and to love yourself. The desire to reach your dreams. The desire to embrace your queerness, or otherness. The desire to love yourself. This video was a collaboration and an artistic community project of some beautiful and talented individuals that we feel completely embody the future of our community, and of our core values as a band. We love you!

Band Members
Nicolle Dupas – Vocals/Guitar
Terra Chaplin – Guitar
Megan Bell – Drums
Jess Dubois – Bass

DRIVE BY TRUCKERS – ” The Unraveling “

Posted: January 18, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The kings of country-rock and outspoken wisdom, Drive-By Truckers, are returning this year with their 12th studio album, following 2016’s American Band and the 2018 release of the long-lost Adam’s House Cat album Town Burned Down, which featured Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley before their Truckers days. “The Unraveling” arrives after a prolonged period of writer’s block for Hood and Cooley, easily one of the most impressive songwriting pairs in music’s recent history ). On The Unraveling, they pick up right where American Band left off, with searing political commentary and a sharp look at the harsh realities of modern American life.

“The past three-and-a-half years were among the most tumultuous our country has ever seen,” Hood said in a press statement, “and the duality between the generally positive state of affairs within our band while watching so many things we care about being decimated and destroyed all around us informed the writing of this album to the core.” And there you have it. It’s a new decade, but the Truckers remain dedicated to the same cause: relaying the truth—no matter how difficult it is to speak—by way of deep-rooted, multifaceted and, perhaps most importantly, southern rock ‘n’ roll.

From “The Unraveling” out January 31st, 2020

Band Members
Patterson Hood,
Mike Cooley,
Brad Morgan,
Jay Gonzalez,
Matt Patton,

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ANDY SHAUF – ” Things I Do “

Posted: January 18, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Canadian indie-folk musician Andy Shauf has already released a few charming singles from his forthcoming concept album “The Neon Skyline”, including “Things I Do.” Shauf’s captivating storytelling lays out a crumbling relationship on the single, one piece of the bigger tale told across the record. “Things I Do” opens with a laid-back groove highlighted by a soft chorus of saxophones that give way to Shauf’s anecdote. “Seems like I should have known better / Than to turn my head like it didn’t matter,” he sings at the beginning. In a similar fashion to Shauf’s 2016 record, The Party .

The Neon Skyline’s structure follows a storyline that takes place over the course of a night, according to a press release: “The interconnected songs on The Neon Skyline, all written, performed, arranged and produced by Shauf, follow a simple plot: The narrator goes to his neighborhood dive, finds out his ex is back in town, and she eventually shows up.

“Things I Do” by Andy Shauf from the album ‘The Neon Skyline,’ available January 24th, 2020

FUTUREBIRDS – ” Teamwork “

Posted: January 17, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Athens, Ga., has been a hotbed for great rock music (and music of all types) for the better part of the last 50 years, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change in the next 10. Raspy roots-rockers Futurebirds are four albums deep a decade into their career, but the arrival of their fifth is still a cause worth commemorating. Their earnest brand of country-tinged, sultry singsong fits right in alongside all your favorite indie-folk and Americana records. But Futurebirds are doing something different from many of those bands: Their three-part harmonies range from heartbreaking to chill-inducing, yet most of their songs possess a laid-back summery feel.

The songs on album number 5, “Teamwork”, find Futurebirds leaning into the psychedelic side of things, yet they’re as twangy as ever. “Trippin” takes delight in human error, “All Damn Night” is an escapist mountain holler tune and “Dream, Fam!” is a suspicious jam.

This record could take Futurebirds to the next level—bigger venues, heftier touring schedules—but for those of us who’ve been around with this band since the beginning, Teamwork is just another chapter in this century’s great southern rock story.

Futurebirds’ new song, “My Broken Arm”, from the new album Teamwork, out January 15th

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