Conceived over a bucks fizz binge in Birmingham UK early 2018, Cherry Pickles comes at you like the basement band you always wanted to start.
Priscila B brings from Brazil her love of early Tropicalia and the kind of ‘let’s be bad’ attitude that can only come from a land chock full of Catholic guilt. Mimi B brings her love of stripped down, bare essential rhythm. If two drums are good enough for Peggy O’Neill then they should definitely be good enough for you. Together they bonded over a mutual love of 50s malt-shop-pop, 60s minimalist garage, no wave, fuzz and all forms of outsider art. ‘Art damaged’ isn’t a slur, it’s a compliment. Anything lost in translation with this transatlantic duo only doubles the charm.
Played entirely on thrift store instruments with the kind of enthusiasm and naiveté severely lacking in a lot of today’s music this is not some clever re-imagining or ironic take on lo-fi, this is the real deal! Technique and skill be damned, the message comes through strong and that message is “Don’t think about it, just cross the line and enjoy it.” All rolled together with gum, glitter and stickytape in the studio by fellow Birmingham noisemakers Black Mekon, the result is slightly wrong-sounding but infectious one-minute-garage-pop with gusto. One guitar, 2 drums, the basement band you always wanted to start.
Cherry Pickles’ debut LP Cherry Pickles Will Harden Your Nipples will be released on April 5th 2019 via PNKSLM Recordings following the band’s US debut at SXSW.
It’s been a while but the uber talented Cat Clyde is back with a new single and accompanying video. Cat Clyde powerfully haunting vocals shine through in her latest single, “All the Black.” This soulful Canadian artist’s voice transcends generations, providing a fresh take with inspiration from Etta James, Janis Joplin, and Lead Belly. The diversity of her influences has shaped her music into an unparalleled blend of soul and folk that has found its way onto over 96,000 different Spotify playlists.
“All the Black” tells the story of an unconventional love story. From meeting someone for the first time, to falling for them, Clyde takes us on the, sometimes painful, rollercoaster of love in her latest single. The mutual feeling of loneliness between Clyde and the subject of her song is what initially brings them together. The bleak outlook of both parties in the relationship is conveyed through the lyrics: “I know you know this life is shit, but maybe I could keep you company.” Despite the collective feeling of sadness and loneliness, the two bring each other consolation by slaying each other’s demons and “kill[ing] the pain.”
I’ve got to say if “All The Black” is a hint of what is to come on a forthcoming album, this should launch her into the stratosphere. I loved the folksy-bluesy charm of her first record Ivory Castanets but with a song as good as “All The Black,” her sophomore record just became one of my most anticipated releases of the year .
Cat Clyde has a voice that is naturally mesmerizing. Haunting, but sweet. Powerful, yet quiet. This is not just hyperbolic excitement.
If the apocalyptic album title doesn’t set the tone for The Feels’ sophomore album, there’s this brilliant verse from opening track “Cars”: “All smiles DJT / War dogs on the street / The land of the free / One nation under fraud,” Laena Geronimo sings, adding just the right amount of acidity to the final word. You’d think more rock bands would have stepped up as social commentators the past couple of years; thankfully, thankfully Geronimo, Amy Allen, Michael Perry and (the now-departed) Shannon Lay did. A mix of post-punk and garage-rock, with stinging lyrics and licks worthy of the riot grrrl artists of the past, “Post Earth” assails the present.
The world is burning, and while we’re enjoying our last dances, the people in charge are worrying about whiter teeth. As for the future, the title track wryly wonders about “the one percent’s new life on Mars.” If only they’d leave sooner.
Feels post punk rock + roll whatever band born and raised in Los Angeles, CA and taking the world by storm with the wild energy of their live shows and their 2019 release POST EARTH released on Wichita Recordings. Also check out their Ty Segall produced, self-titled debut LP, released in 2016 on Castle Face Records (LP/CD) and Burger Records (cassette).
There’s an immediacy to the sheer joy, velocity and whimsy of Parsnip’s delivery. Bass player and most-of-the-time lyricist Paris Richens is the first to admit that she finds inspiration in children’s verse and the sonics of nursery rhymes, That said, Richens’ bandmates – drummer Carolyn Hawkins, guitarist Stella Rennex and keys player Rebecca Liston – are quick to remind her that nursery rhymes are almost always pretty twisted.
Second single from Parsnip’s forthcoming debut LP, “When The Tree Bears Fruit”, out August 9th in AU/NZ through Anti Fade and out worldwide August 30th through Trouble In Mind Records.
No one is being baked into a pie in a Parsnip song, but they deal in themes of loneliness, longing, the unknown and the mundane, almost as much as they dream of travel and make a romantic spectacle of the everyday. Across the album, transport and movement recur as an image, mostly alluding to a dreamy sense of possibility:
The Melbourne group Parsnip’s latest single, “Feeling Small”, which came out November 2018 on Anti FadeRecords. A snappy little single, takes under five minutes to listen, but years in the making and worth keeping forever! Following their debut 7” release on Anti Fade (S/T, November 2017), Parsnip have been as busy as ever playing jam packed shows around Australia, with the likes of King Gizzard, ORB, The Aints, The Babe Rainbow, Shonen Knife, Real Estate, RVG, Terry, Amyl and the Sniffers and many more. Just listen to “Feeling Small” now and see why everyone goes nuts for the nips.
Just listen to “FEELING SMALL” now and see why everyone goes nuts for the nips. Jangly pop music from Melbourne. Released November 30th, 2018
Bloomington, Indiana’sThe Cowboys 4th album ‘The Bottom of a Rotten Flower‘ came out on Valentine’s Day and is a veritable box of rock and roll party tricks. But somehow we’re just getting around to featuring it and its 16 tracks of glorious classic sounding power pop.
It’s melodic, and catchy, with moments of Replacements recklessness. It’s sometimes a little quirky but in the best way not unlike pop masters Stephen Merritt, Elvis Costello or Ray Davies.
This is the fourth album by the Cowboys is kinda like a modern Midwestern version of THE WHO SELL-OUT or SOMETHING ELSE BY THE KINKS–a basic R&R band stretching its wings to embrace more varied musical elements and dig into deeper subject matter. The Cowboys grow up! And they grow in number too, with Chris Kramer (Nobunny/Slushy) joining the brilliant Mark McWhirter for a killer guitar team. Vocalist/songwriter Keith Harman alters his whooping nasal-punk a bit, with a more naturalistic approach when it fits the mood. His songwriting skills are mighty. Zackery Worcel (bass) and Jordan Tarantino (drums) provide a solid, relentless groove.
There are 16 hooky gems in this new LP. To compare the Cowboys’ songs to Pete Townshend and Ray Davies was no casual thing up front. Check “Doghouse Rag” for primo late-60s Kink-kwality pop. Then there’s the insanely hooky “Some Things Never Change,” with its nod to early 70s Sparks. And dig “Bodie, Don’t Jump” in all its bubblegum glory! The deceptively short “Deuce” with its 70s-style pop exploding into VU-like noise, “The Witch” originally performed by The Sonics.
released February 23rd, 2018
Keith Harman – vocals
Mark McWhirter – guitar
Jordan Tarantino – drums
Zack Worcel – bass
There’s no shortage of L.A. indie-rockers doing variations on psychedelic pop/rock/folk, but few have created a document so lush and cinematic as singer-guitarist Dylan McKenzie and bassist Jonathan Schwarz. Their debut comes a full seven years since their first release; its handcrafted feel owes to the production of Tim Carr and Gregory Uhlmann of Fell Runner, as well as the duo. Serpentine melodies, strings, aching harmonies and rich imagery added up to an uncommonly understated beauty. Enjoy this one in quietude.
Derde Verde’s new album ‘Slow Light’ – out October 11th
Timothy Showalter was done. Despite the acclaim that greeted Strand Of Oaks’ fifth album, Hard Love, the guitarist and songwriter found himself in a hole, and was on the verge of quitting music altogether. Then his friends in My Morning Jacket decided to pull him out, dragging him into the studio and providing an elite backing band to create his most impressive album yet, Eraserland.
“I didn’t really wanna do it anymore,” says Showalter, the artist also known as Strand Of Oaks. That’s quite an attention-grabbing admission, but in these clickbait-heavy times, he’s keen to emphasise that this isn’t just a good marketing line. “It’s not for dramatic press. I know that’s how this game works – put a fireworks show up so people wanna write about it. But when I was trying to explain the record to people, that’s the only way that I could. I think it was an identity crisis.”
Back in 2017, Tim was promoting and touring his new album, Hard Love, but despite the album being well received by both critics and fans, something wasn’t right. “I released Hard Love a year after I made it, and I was singing about someone who I wasn’t anymore,” he reflects. “I was pretty wild for a little while there. But over the course of that year making Hard Love and being home, I changed in a good way. I loved the record and playing those songs live, but I had this idea of, ‘What am I doing? I’ve been doing this for 10 years. Who am I?’”
The changes may have been positive, but it coincided with Tim finding himself stuck in a rut, and unable to write new material, which in turn brought up a host of other issues. “Most of my life, playing guitar and singing, and writing songs, was an escape route out of anxiety and life,” he admits candidly. “That was my safe place… and then I was like, ‘Shit…’ Because being a musician is most of my identity – if you were to speak to friends or family, they would say: ‘Oh, he was really depressed.’ Like clinically depressed! But I equated it to, ‘I’m just not feeling the tunes right now!’”
Such was Tim’s disconnect from music at this time, he barely registered his label’s decision to take the wealth of unused material from the Hard Love sessions to create a brand-new album, Harder Love, which came out in 2018. “I forget that Harder Love even came out!” he exclaims. “I had very little to do with that. There was some good stuff on there, and the label kind of approached me and said: ‘People should at least hear these songs…’ And I’m like, ‘That sounds good. I’m gonna hike in the woods for a while!’”
And then something quite remarkable happened. “I got a phone call from my manager saying: ‘Are you making a record with My Morning Jacket?’ And I went, ‘What are you talking about?!’” Tim remembers. “He said: ‘WelI, I just got a call from all of them and they say they have studio time booked…’ and I didn’t have any songs written!”
Renowned indie-rock bands don’t just go around booking studio time with songwriters on a whim, and what was actually happening was something of a rock ’n’ roll intervention…
“They’re friends of mine, and the producer Kevin [Ratterman] is also a dear friend, and to their endless credit they caught wind that I wasn’t in a good spot, and they dropped everything,” he reflects wistfully. “For Chrissakes, Bo [Koster] the keyboard player… he’s Roger Waters’ keyboard player! And he had two weeks off in the midst of the The Wall Tour, and he decided to spend those two weeks with me in a studio in Louisville. It’s the last place he should have been – he should have been on a fuckin’ beach or something!
“My epiphany truly started when all these people started to come to my aid, and my first inclination was, ‘I need to write good songs, ’cos I can’t give this band mediocre shit!’ So I began writing the opposite of how I usually write – unselfishly! It gave me enough room to get out of my own head, and because of that, it became a pure form of expression that I couldn’t have planned on. And the songs just came – I don’t know where from! I still need to learn chords for half of them. I don’t remember writing them. I hope I did!”
Working with a very short deadline was a new one for Tim – “Sometimes I’ve written songs where there’s like a three-year gap between writing a song and putting out a record,” he admits – and with just a few short weeks to write an album, he headed for the beach to write…
“I love beaches in the off-season,” Tim explains. “I don’t know why, it’s just romantic. It looks like death, but a beautiful death! And the songs just kinda varied depending on my mood from day to day, or even what the weather was like at the beach! Like if it was a rainy day, it would be more introspective, but if it was sunny, the major chords would come flying. It all happened so fast.”
If the writing and demoing process was a breeze, when it came to recording, the reality of the shoes he was filling rendered things a lot less comfortable. “I had a panic attack the first day at the studio, because we recorded everything live in this huge room, and I was standing where [MMJ frontman] Jim James should be standing!” Tim recalls. “And if anyone knows Jim James, I can’t sing like him – 99 per cent of the planet that’s ever existed can’t sing like him. I’m like, ‘What am I doing here!? I shouldn’t be allowed in this party!’
“But that night, the guys went for dinner and I stayed at the studio because I wanted to get my guitar tone working. And while I was there on my own, I walked around the studio and I saw that they all had extensive notes that they’d written. That to me, was like this moment of like, ‘Oh, they are so involved with this.’ This is not like when a label sets you up with a bunch of studio musicians. These are friends and they’re invested. Yes, they’re extremely accomplished and you look up to them, but this is not the moment to be starstruck. This is the moment to collaborate.”
With that hurdle overcome, the chemistry between Tim and the rest of the band was immediate and the recording process was remarkably smooth.
“It’s a testament to what good musicians they are,” he enthuses. “We really set ourselves up for failure, because we’d never played together before! But outside of maybe a few overdubs, everything was live. Even if it was nine minutes long. That’s the performance.”
Operating with that one-take mindset really gave Showalter an appreciation for how good his new backing band was, and one member in particular. “Tommy [Blankenship], the bass player, is a perfect bass player.” he insists. “After five days, a few of us went out for dinner, and he went somewhere else, and we had this realisation… ‘Guys, Tommy hasn’t messed up yet…’ He never hit a wrong note! You’re supposed to do something wrong, to make everyone else feel better! It’s like, ‘Tommy, please, I messed up my own lyrics on that last track!’”
When it came to the album’s guitar sounds, Tim found himself in the unusual position of not being the primary lead guitarist, with MMJ’s Carl Broemel filling that chair. “Usually, I have a ‘space station’ pedalboard and everything. But my stuff was really simple, it was strictly for rhythm,” Tim recalls. “I was mostly playing a Frankenstein Telecaster – that for some reason I put mini-humbuckers on – through what looked like a Magnatone, but it’s got a single 12 in it – I don’t know if one of Kevin’s friends made it or what.”
Taking a back seat on the lead guitar side did give Showalter a chance to appreciate the creativity and uniqueness of Broemel’s playing, however…
“He has a Duesenberg that’s like a tour de force of tone,” Tim enthuses. “But his secret is that he would be sitting down in front of this pedalboard, and he had an Echoplex. And as he was soloing on stuff like Weird Ways or Forever Chords, his right hand was constantly working that as he was playing.”
Showalter has developed a reputation as a fan of extended jams, exploratory solos and a general tendency to wig out whenever possible, but by not really playing solos on the album, he began to look at things from a different perspective.
“The thing I love about Eraserland is that there’s very little jamming,” he admits. “It’s extremely structured, and I think that to me always felt unappealing in the past. But when you think about The Dark Side Of The Moon, in your memory, it’s almost as if Gilmour is soloing the whole time. Like an epic jam. But then when you go back and listen to it, it’s actually so composed and orchestrated.
“In my past records, like Hard Love, I was just like, ‘Let’s just jam, fuck it all, start the track!’ And that was fun and all, but for something like Forever Chords, we had it down to a measure. Technically, there are only like three solos on this album.”
One of those three solos was reserved for a very special guest – Jason Isbell. The guitarist is another friend who wanted to help Tim get back in the saddle, and leant his considerable skills to the track Moon Landing.
“Jason and I go way back,” Tim explains. “I played shows with him maybe 10 years ago? We’ve remained friends and played off and on together since, and he’s a wonderful person. He has such a beautiful voice and writes award-winning songs, and we sent him the most crazy and dissonant song on the record.
“He really wanted to be on it, but was touring so he couldn’t come to Louisville, so we sent him the track after we were done with it, and we were like, ‘Well, what’s he gonna do with this?’ And then he came back with like a Hendrix-level Machine Gun solo! And I think that I’m most proud of that – because you see it with him live, but I want more people to know that he’s one of the most inventive players around.
“My god, if you listen to the raw track of Moon Landing and his solo, there’s things in there that sound like he’s eating his guitar or something! How is he doing that?! And it was bone dry – no delay or reverb, or anything, just deadly tone. Love that.”
After coming so close to jacking it all in before Eraserland reignited his creativity and love of music, we can’t help but conclude our chat by asking Tim how he’s feeling about the whole thing now…
“I wanna make more records,” he affirms. “But I have to put this album to rest as a piece of art in order to open my brain up to make the new. I always tell friends that the two weeks after I get the master, I have this golden moment where I listen to my own record, and I listen to it, and I like it… and then it’s done forever. I’ve given it to the people.
“It feels good to know that maybe in six months, I’ll be able to maybe start the next one, but I just need to have that moment to let go. It took me a long time to let go of Hard Love, but that enabled me to do this, which was such a positive experience. Hopefully, I won’t have to go through that again this time, though… these dramatic stories, I’m just tired of them!”
London-based band HÆLOS releasd a new album, “Any Random Kindness”, last May via Infectious Records. “Another Universe,” which will be the album’s last single.
The band’s Lotti Benardout had this to say about the song in a press release: “The first lyric – ‘Come down from heaven now’- came out almost subconsciously. A few months later my dad sadly passed away in an accident. It’s eerie for me to listen to now because the song is almost like a prediction, written to help navigate the difficult questions that came with his loss – If you took a different decision, where would you be now? Would things be different?”
Any Random Kindnessis the band’s second album, the follow-up to 2016’s debut full-length, Full Circle, which was released via Matador. The album includes “Buried in the Sand,” a new song the band shared back in October via a video and “Kyoto,” a new song shared in January . Then they shared another new song from the album, “Boy / Girl.” That was followed by “End of the World Party” .
HÆLOS were originally a trio (Arthur Delaney, Dom Goldsmith, and Lotti Benardout), but have now added touring member Daniel Vildósola. On their debut the band pulled from ’90s trip-hop sounds originated by Massive Attack and Portishead for inspiration.
Orlando Leopard produced the album, which was recorded at Baltic Studios in East London and at their home studio. Matt Wiggins (Glass Animals) and Marta Salongi (The xx) mixed the album.
A press release points out: “The latter part of the recording was especially tense, with many near breakups. However, this process led to a new, optimistic perception of each other, and music that explored the push and pull of relationships. A new, increasingly dance-floor oriented direction to their sound emerged.”
We still can’t get enough of Whitney‘s debut, Light Upon the Lake – it’s the perfect record for any season, mood, or time of day. It’s rarely left the turntable since it came out back in 2016, and since then we’ve found more ways to fall in love with it. So we’re excited to announce that the Light Upon the Lake: Demo Recordings, which was set for a November 10th release. We’ve also got a previously unreleased track, “You and Me,” to share with you, too.
Light Upon the Lake, the debut from Whitney, was born from early-morning songwriting sessions during one of the most brutal winters in Chicago’s history. Vocalist/drummer Julien Ehrlich and guitarist Max Kakacek began writing unflinching, honest songs about everything from break-ups to the passing of Ehrlich’s grandfather. The pair leaned on one another for both honest critique and a sounding board for working through their newly-discovered truths.
The brief, intense period of creativity for the band yielded Light Upon the Lake’s exceptional, unfussy combination of soul, breezy Sixties/Seventies rock, and somber heartbreak woven together by hopeful, golden threads. After critical acclaim and nearly nonstop touring since the album’s 2016 release, Ehrlich and Kakacek are going back to their roots for the first time, with the full demos from Light Upon the Lake . After a whirlwind year following the debut, the demos offer a way for listeners to get a glimpse into the very beginning of Whitney’s sound.
“After almost two years of non-stop touring we decided we wanted to close the chapter on Light Upon the Lake by releasing the songs in their earliest incarnations alongside a cover of a band favorite by Allen Toussaint, and an unreleased track called ‘You and Me.’ We’re looking towards LP2 as we finish out the year on the road.” – Love, Max and Julien.
Whitney“You and Me” from Light Upon The Lake: Demo Recordings out November 10th on Secretly Canadian
There’s nothing cheerful about Wilco’s weary new release, “Ode to Joy”, but Jeff Tweedy’s sullen, even sardonic, songs on the band’s 11th studio album are no less appreciable for their dark matter. The decaying guitar tones, sorrowful flourishes, and incessant stomp of “Bright Leaves” sets the tone from the outset, as Tweedy sings, “I never change/You never change.” Some songs here are personal (“Hold Me Anyway”), others political (“Citizens”), but Wilco accompanies them all the same with their incredible chemistry and a restrained instrumentation that keeps Tweedy’s questions front and center. “I blow my horn for the whole band,” he sings.
“Ode to Joy” is Wilco’s eleventh studio album, and it seems informed by maturity, which is less a newfound dimension than a deepening of the band’s growth over the past decade. Jeff Tweedy’s relative calm in the face of turmoil is the defining force underlying the record, and it’s clear from the outset: his vocals on opener “Bright Leaves” sound like they were recorded as the rest of the room was napping. The song appears to address his marriage; that topic would have been mined for something caustic and even sinister on, say, Summerteeth, but here it is marveled at for its consistency and durability, warts and all. This isn’t head-in-the-sand naiveté, but rather a calculated effort to shun the grim perspectives Wilco may once have embraced.
Everyone’s perennial alt-rock favorites Wilco just want to feel joyful. Is that so much to ask? In 2019’s dire, dreary political climate, maybe it is. Maybe we should risk our individual happinesses to better our community; maybe there’s a way to materialize that joy into political action. That’s the central tension in the band’s song, “Love Is Everywhere (Beware),” It’s the lead single from their newly announced 11th album, “Ode to Joy”.
Ode to Joy – Wilco’s 11th studio album – released October. 4th , 2019 via dBpm Records. The album features 11 new songs written and produced by Jeff Tweedy and recorded by Wilco at The Loft (Chicago, IL) in January 2019. “Love is Everywhere (Beware)” is the first single from the album release.
