The two great men in tandem, Dan Willson of Withered Hand lore is the best writer of melodies currently alive (believe me, I’ve looked). He hasn’t written a song I don’t adore. The streak continues here. I’m also happy to report that the songs from a Singer of Songs are also quite lovely, especially the last.
I spent a few days on a small organic farm in Barcelona at the end of last year. Although I did do some garlic planting, I was invited there by my Belgian friend Lieven, with the intention of us both writing songs from scratch. I had no great expectations. I tried to relax into the pace of life at the farm, and the couple who lived and worked there left a great impression on me. I managed three songs, Lieven managed three and a half. We recorded the six songs on the farm before I left, using the little studio there and with help from Frank, the engineer/drummer. We played on each other’s songs where it seemed right. This will hopefully continue to be possible with new artists taking our place.
The project is called Among Horses and the ltd edition EP is out on CD with a little Spanish label called Son Canciones.
The recordings are the result of recordings on the final days of this retreat. Some represent unfinished business maybe but this is the fruit of our time together. A brief harvest. New songs dreamed up on the farm, recorded on the farm. It is all in here somehow, from the dark nights to the dogs on the dusty road and the saints of the holy mountain. We remain, at your service, ghosts of two friends laughing in the yard with an old guitar while dogs sleep at our feet.
An organic farm in the middle of nowhere. Dry wind through dry leaves. Dogs sleeping a siesta in the sun. Rain that never comes. And horses. Always horses. This is the scenery in which Withered Hand and a Singer of Songs wrote and recorded the EP “Among Horses I”. They did it all in one week, and even had time left to plant some garlic. “After The Rain” is the first single of the EP. Buy “Among Horses I”
what a wet week we have had, there’s a good deal of lovely records this week to soothe the aches and (possibly?) time to dry the socks..
The Nick Cave album Ghosteen that everyone has been asking about is OUT! today, It sees Nick and band in fine form, but there’s no mistaking there is a measure of catharsis in both the words and overall tone, understandably. It’s a wonderful piece of work though, despite the sombre atmosphere and flows with Cave’s singular ability to craft a narrative. I am very excited for the deluxe CD reissue of Gene Clark’s opus ‘No Other’ with a lovely booklet inside and an extra CD of rarities and alternate versions, and I was particularly psyched for the wonderful new LP from fave Ryley Walker and superb jazz drummer Charles Rumback. If you liked Grails (or Holy Sons for that matter), then this is a great one for you. Psych folk guitar with hints of Americana and a languid acid jazz backline,
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Ghosteen
Ghosteen is the new two part album from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. Ghosteen is the seventeenth studio album from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, following 2016’s Skeleton Tree. The album was recorded in 2018 and early 2019 at Woodshed in Malibu, Nightbird in Los Angeles, Retreat in Brighton and Candybomber in Berlin. It was mixed by Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Lance Powell and Andrew Dominik at Conway in Los Angeles.
Ghosteen sees Cave restrained and introspective, half singing, half speaking over a mix of piano and slow drifting electronics. He sounds vulnerable but not beaten. There are a lot of mentions of love in the lyrics, soft supportive backing vocals and an attractive warmth to the way Galleon Ship’s high synth sounds open the song wide, or the surprise falsetto he acquires late on in Sun Forest.
It’s a double LP with one album of conventional length songs then on the second – one short song and two of 12 and 14 minutes. They are more complex and grand. There’s a lot to take in but it’s totally absorbing.
Lucy Dacus – 2019
Recorded in here-and-there studio spurts over the last two years, 2019 is made up of originals and cover songs tied to specific holidays, each of which has dropped / will drop around their respective date: Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day (and Taurus season!), Independence Day, Springsteen’s Birthday (not an official holiday, though we’re told Chris Christie often took that day off), Halloween, Christmas, and New Year.
Dacus uses her gift as a songwriter to help understand and cope with the world around her, including making sense of national holidays, often more geared towards social media boasts and manufactured consumerism than authentic celebration. “What is going on,” she asks herself on these days, retreating from the heightened expectations of holidays to figure out what to make of them and to find her own meaning. “I’ve collected some songs from trying to answer that question,” she says, and “this EP seems like the right place to put them next to each other. These songs are self-contained, not indicative of a new direction, just a willingness to do something different and sometimes even out of character.”
Pond – Sessions Live
There are very few of this live album from one of our favourite current bands Sessions is the first ever live album from Australian adventurers Pond. Featuring recent singles Paint Me Silver, Sweep Me Off My Feet and Daisy from both their last two albums, Tasmania and The Weather, as well live versions spanning their whole career, including fan favourite Don’t Look At The Sun (Otherwise You Will Go Blind) from their hard-to-find debut album Psychedelic Mango. This release has been two years in-the-making and underlines their reputation as one of the most exciting live acts around.
“We wanted to capture how the band has been playing live lately and commit that to tape while we were in the middle of a long tour,” reveals Pond’s Jay Watson. “As you play the same song for years, or even as a single tour rolls on, the way you play the songs mutates. Little inflections and fills become part of the song, and the structures and even the overall feeling and intent of the songs change. I always loved listening to my favourite bands’ Peel Sessions and wanted something of our own in that vein.”
Josienne Clarke – In All Weather
In All Weather is a new collection of songs, in which Josienne Clarke goes it alone; musically, as this is her first solo record, and in her own life, laid bare and played out in the leave-it-all-behind-and-start-anew nature of the lyrics. The songs were written in on the Isle of Bute in 2018, where Josienne relocated for a year, overlooked by a snowy Ben Nevis.
Josienne accompanies herself on pared-back acoustic and electric guitar throughout. She’s joined on the record by experimental piano prodigy Elliott Galvin, innovative jazz drummer Dave Hamblett, celebrated Scottish harpist Mary Ann Kennedy and guitarist / bassist Sonny Johns who co-produced the record with Josienne.
White Denim – Last Day Of Summer
White Denim, dubbed the “last great rock n’ roll band” by The Guardian, has launched Radio Milk Records with a remastered reissue of their 2010 fan-favourite Last Day of Summer. Once impossible to find on vinyl due to a limited pressing of 500 copies, the album has been remastered by Joe La Porta at Sterling Sound, and pressed to heavy translucent green vinyl. This will be the first time the album is available in record shops! Recorded in a 1940s-era Spartan trailer in Driftwood, Texas, the self-produced album is full of “experiments, detours, and well- taken chances” [-Pitchfork]. The cuts on Last Day of Summer range from jazz instrumentals to folk to psychedelia, and showcase the band’s range better than any album in their catalog. Future Radio Milk Records releases will include live recordings from White Denim and other local and international bands.
Giant Sand – Glum – 25th Anniversary Edition
1994s Glum was to be Giant Sand’s largest record and in order to make it so, Howe Gelb invited everyone along to the party. This carnival help create Giant Sand’s best record to date andGlum is now proudly re-issued by Fire Records.
A conceptual masterpiece, complete with a second disc capturing a classic KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic session just prior to the original album’s release in 1994. An epic windswept desert dry encounter with one of America’s greatest bands that traverses genres and styles to create a complete masterpiece.
John Fogerty – 50-Year Trip: Live at Red Rocks
This concert was recorded on June 20, 2019 as part of John Fogerty’s 50 year celebration of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Woodstock performance. The 19-song concert features such Woodstock highlights as “Born on the Bayou,” “Green River,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Proud Mary,” “Keep On Chooglin’,” and “Suzie Q,” alongside later hits like “Centerfield” and “The Old Man Down the Road.”
The Nazz – Open Our Eyes: The Anthology
Purple Pyramid/Cleopatra reissue the 2002 double-disc, 35-song anthology from Todd Rundgren’s early band The Nazz, right down to the original foldout artwork.
What Would the Odd Do? was born from bandleader Kassie Carlson’s opiate-related near death experience. This is the band’s second release since Carlson’s recovery, but the first to address the situation head-on. The EP’s second single “Future Doesn’t Know” is a triumphant look forward with a more rock-oriented edge than its predecessor. Recalling the chiptune power pop of their peers Crying as much as the godfatherly wonk of Deerhoof, “Future” could only be found in the middle of a Guerilla Toss album.
On their new EP What Would The Odd Do?, the art-rock experimentalists Guerilla Toss are addressing a crisis from a deeply personal angle. Upon the release of lead single “Plants,” Kassie Carlson opened up about the addiction that resulted in open-heart surgery to remove a blood clot. “Statistically, women are more likely to hide addiction and keep feelings inside, making it potentially much more festering and toxic,” she wrote. “Drugs affect people of all backgrounds, regardless of race, class or gender. Addiction hits us all, and it hits hard.”
The band shares the EP’s second single, “Future Doesn’t Know.” It’s one of the poppiest songs Guerilla Toss have ever released, yet still fried and off-kilter, Carlson calls it “a song about the personification of the future, and finding your own truth.” She continues, “So often we look to others for the meaning of life or what to do next, but really the only answer is within.”
Chris Farren’s second solo album, “Born Hot”, can best be described as aphrodisiac synth-punk, or Illinois-inspired power pop, or, most specifically, pop-punk written by someone who has been hot for so long that self-confidence has never really been an issue and therefore never feels the helpless longing that typically invigorates the genre.
On his Polyvinyl debut “Born Hot”, Chris Farren opens with a question he’ll spend much of the album trying to answer: Why do I feel out of place in my own outer space? Telegraphing his inner narrative with a childlike candor, the Florida-born artist lays bare his most intense anxieties and—in the very same breath—documents the mildly soul-crushing minutiae of everyday life: the strange indecency of blasting AC/DC bangers through an iPhone speaker, the inexplicable bleakness of a Starbucks franchise tucked inside a Target. But with his irrepressible sense of humor and utter lack of self-seriousness, Farren defuses the pain of even the deepest insecurity, gracefully paving the way for pure pop catharsis.
“Love Theme from “Born Hot”” is taken from Chris Farren’s new full length album, Born Hot, out October 11, 2019
Back in September Josienne Clarke released her excellent single, “If I Didn’t Mind”, It’s stripped back and raw, be warned: there is a powerful emotional punch to this album. As an account of a life laid bare, there are also some remarkably tender moments – and some joyous ones too. “In All Weather” is undoubtedly an artistic triumph, and certainly Josienne’s most assured work to date.
The first taste of her debut album, “In All Weather”. With the album now out this week Josienne has shared the latest taste of it, the pleasingly titled, “Slender, Sad and Sentimental”.
Discussing the track, Josienne has suggested it’s a somewhat cerebral affair, “I was writing about writing a catchy single in the style of a catchy single. I’ve possibly hit peak self-reference!” Self-referential or not, there’s an undeniable catchiness to elements of the track, the chorus combining Josienne’s impressive, Martha Ffion-like vocal style, with a bass-line Girl Ray would be proud of. Yet there’s a restraint to the song’s pop tendencies too, just as it threatens to slip into purest-pop, it makes a detour into a melancholic folk breakdown or a minimal keyboard line. Slender, Sad And Sentimental never quite commits to being a full blown pop song, and is all the more intriguing for it.
Josienne provides vocals and sparse acoustic and electric guitar throughout the album, joined by Elliott Galvin on piano, jazz drummer Dave Hamblett and renowned Scottish harpist Mary Ann Kennedy. Additional guitar and bass is provided by Sonny Johns, who also co-produced the album with Josienne.
She writes, ‘I exiled myself, moved to an island, literally and metaphorically, broke up with everything but songwriting. To re-make myself, to learn to let it all go in peace.’ Personal and professional relationships cast aside – along with a physical relocation away from London to be isolated on the Isle of Bute – provides a powerful backdrop to the songs. And reveals that the themes of separation, independence, determination, dissolution and reawakening are not solely metaphorical…
In All Weather is out November 8th via Rough Trade Records.
From their humble beginnings in Lodi, New Jersey in 1977 as a garage band to selling out Madison Square Garden in 2019, the Misfits remain one of the most important bands in the history of punk. blending punk and other musical influences with horror film themes and imagery.
Founded in 1977 by vocalist, songwriter and keyboardist Glenn Danzig, and drummer Manny Martínez. He named the band after actress Marilyn Monroe’s final film, The Misfits Eventually Jerry Only joined on bass guitar and Danzig and Only were the only consistent members throughout the next six years, during which they released several EPs and singles, and with Only’s brother Doyle as guitarist, the albums “Walk Among Us” (1982) was released in March 1982 through Ruby and Slash Records. It was the first full-length Misfits album to be properly released, and the only album to be released while the early incarnation of the band was still active. “Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood” (1983), both considered touchstones of the early-1980s punk movement.
Heavyweights such as Metallica, Green Day, and Rob Zombie site the Misfits as an influence. Even pop-punk acts such as My Chemical Romance, Alkaline Trio, or Blink 182 wouldn’t exist without the inspiration. Combining elements of hardcore, gothic imagery, and campy horror movie aesthetics, their sound is just as important. Even if you’ve never listened to a single track, odds are you’re familiar with the iconic “Crimson Skull” badge that adorns all their merchandise. It’s arguably just as recognizable as the Rolling Stones’ lips emblem.
Despite their influence and importance, the Misfits don’t have a large body of work.
Without counting the releases recorded after 1983 (the Jerry-fits are weak and the less said about the Michael Graves-lead variation of the Misfits, the better), they only released 2 full-length albums and a handful of singles/EPs. If you’ve never listened to the Misfits but want to know what the fuss is all about,
here are 10 songs that perfectly sums up the experience. 10 songs is a considerable amount of music for a band with under 40 songs! , If you like these songs, you’ll probably be interested in the plethora of music Glenn Danzig was responsible for post-Misfits.
10. “Death Comes Ripping” – Just like the intro to each of the modern reunion shows, “Death Comes Ripping” opens the show with rapid-fire drums, chaotic guitars, and faux-goth lyricism. I can’t think of a better introduction to the world of the Misfits.
9. “Attitude” – There’s an indescribable satisfaction hearing an up-beat pop-punk guitar riff behind lyrics of anger, frustration, and violence as the answer. If you’ve never sung this at the top of your lungs to release the tension of an unforgiving workday, you’re not me.
8. “Where Eagles Dare” – Continuing the theme of major chords and pent up aggression comes this charming little diddy about standing up to the oppression society inflicts on its people. In fact, it just might be the most punk of punk songs ever recorded!
7. “Cough/Cool” – Despite being such an important punk band, the Misfits utilized atmosphere far more than guitars. With keyboards and synthetic rhythms as it’s fuel, “Cough/Cool” is closer to the likes of early Ministry or Depeche Mode (who’d show up long after this song was recorded).
6. “London Dungeon” – Equal parts goth and surf, “London Dungeon” is a black-eyed love song recounting the infamous story of the band being arrested for accusations of grave robbing and thrown in jail while on tour in the UK. This description is textbook Danzig and I adore every second of it.
5. “Die, Die My Darling” – The kiddies will recognize this by the Metallica cover years. And while those dudes do a serviceable version of “Die, Die My Darling”, nothing compares to the atmosphere and raw emotion Glenn and the boys offer up here. As a kid, I always thought the keyboard or guitar riff (whatever it is doing that beeping sound) was emulating a heart monitor, especially as it fades then abruptly stops at the end.
4. “Hybrid Moments” – As a strong contender for one of their most recognizable melodies, this song sounds just as powerful now as the very first time I heard . It’s not only one of my favorite Misfits tracks, its probably one of my favorite songs period.
3. “American Nightmare” – They don’t call Glenn Danzig the Evil Elvis for nothin’. There really isn’t much more I can say about this track. If you dig old school rock n’ roll seasoned with murderous imagery and gothic swagger, this should be your favorite song
2. “Last Caress” – No matter what anyone says, who compiles it, or who listens, there can’tbe a list of iconic Misfits songs without “Last Caress”. It’s ugly, offensive, and magical when singing along in public while getting all sorts of dirty looks from your peers.
1. “Astro Zombies” – Early 60s chord progression, lyrics referring to a campy B movie, and the most satisfying “whooaaaahs” of any song ever recorded, “Astro Zombies” may not be the best song from the Misfits, but it definitely sums them up in just over 2 minutes. Every sensational second of this song properly represents everything I’ve loved about this band since the moment I was introduced to them all the way to the time I’ll be laid to rest. Its the perfect combination of IDGAF attitude, ferocious energy, and unmistakable attitude. All presented with a certain self-aware wink as if they’re having just as much fun playing it as we are listening and singing along. If I had to pick a single track to introduce someone to the Misfits, it would be, without question, “Astro Zombies”.
If this playlist is your first introduction to the Misfits, I hope you have a good time as I did when I was first introduced to them.
The Doors will include a trove of previously unreleased recordings on the upcoming 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of their 1969 album, The Soft Parade, out October 18th.
The Doors’ fourth studio album, The Soft Parade, became the band’s fourth straight Top Ten album when it was released 50 years ago on July 18, 1969. Despite featuring one of the group’s biggest hits – “Touch Me” – it remains the most-polarizing record of The Doors’ career thanks to the brass and string arrangements that embellish several tracks.
To commemorate the album’s 50th year anniversary, Rhino reimagines The Soft Parade on a newly expanded 3CD/1LP set. The set includes the original studio album – and the B-side “Who Scared You” – newly remastered by Bruce Botnick, The Doors’ longtime engineer and mixer. The collection is a limited edition of 15,000 individually numbered copies and also includes the original album on 180-gram vinyl along with liner notes by noted rock journalist David Fricke.
The core of the new collection is comprised of more than a dozen unreleased songs. Among the highlights are newly remixed “Doors Only” versions of five tracks where the horns and strings have been removed (“Tell All The People,” “Touch Me,” “Wishful Sinful,” “Runnin’ Blue,” and “Who Scared You.”) The set also features three of those stripped-back versions with new guitar parts added by Robby Krieger (“Touch Me,” “Wishful Sinful,” and “Runnin’ Blue).
The collection also uncovers three songs from studio rehearsals – with Ray Manzarek (a.k.a. Screamin’ Ray Daniels) on vocals – that include an early version of “Roadhouse Blues,” a song that would be released the following year on Morrison Hotel. These three songs include newly recorded bass parts by Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots, who joined Krieger and John Densmore at a tribute concert for Manzarek in 2016, three years after the organist died of cancer.
A trio of studio outtakes collected on the set’s final disc feature the much-bootlegged, hour-long jam, “Rock Is Dead,” which appears here in its entire, surviving form for the first time ever. The track finds The Doors riffing through the entire history of rock ’n’ roll, from early delta blues through surf music, ending with the death of rock.
The band teased the project with one such rarity: An raucous early version of their 1970 track “Roadhouse Blues” — which would appear on the band’s next album, Morrison Hotel — sung by organist Ray Manzarek, who’s cheekily billed as “Screamin’ Ray Daniels.”
The Soft Parade is one of the most controversial albums in the Doors’ catalogue, due to the string and horn arrangements on several tracks (one such song, “Touch Me,” did become one of the band’s biggest hits). The 50th anniversary edition of The Soft Parade will notably include “Doors only” versions of five tracks — “Tell All the People,” “Touch Me,” “Wishful Sinful,” “Runnin’ Blue” and “Who Scared You” — where the strings and horns have been removed. There will also be additional stripped-down versions of“Touch Me,” “Wishful Sinful” and “Runnin’ Blue” featuring new guitar parts from Robby Krieger.
The 50th anniversary edition of The Soft Parade is available and will be released as a three-CD, single LP set that will be limited to 15,000 copies.
I never knew how much I wanted to hear Dan Bejar front a shoegaze band until I heard Greet Death, whose recent signing to Deathwish is good news for metalcore fans who almost certainly wouldn’t have found out about the group otherwise. Pivoting from the somewhat straightforward slowcore of their debut, the Flint, Michigan trio are diving headfirst into the aesthetic attached to their new label for their forthcoming LP New Hell, with the standout single even toting a macabre and undoubtedly Converge-approved refrain of “All we seem to love is the darkness.” With all sorts of post-punk and grunge undertones mixed in , I guess you could convince me they don’t belong on a label alongside such heavy bands as Code Orange and Hesitation Wounds, as long as you could make a stronger argument for another already-existing scene they’d feel more at home in.
Band Members
Logan Gaval – Guitar, vocals
Sam Boyhtari – Bass guitar, vocals
Jimmy Versluis – Drums
Hailing from Brooklyn, Jeanines are the indie-pop duo of Alicia and Jed. After catching the ear of many with their recent self-titled LP, released via the legendary Slumberland Records, the band are currently plotting touring plans for 2020. This week the band have shared their first ever, “proper”, music video, for their seasonally titled, album stand-out, Winter In The Dark.
Brooklyn’s Jeanines specialize in short bursts of energetic but melancholy minor-key pop. With influences that run deep into the most crucial tributaries of DIY pop — Television Personalities, Marine Girls, early Pastels, Dolly Mixture they’ve crafted a style that is as individual as it is just plain pleasurable. Jeanines specialize in 60s-meet-80s melodies that combine with timeless guitar jangle in a way that recalls the UK’s C86/C88 era, when smart young bands crafted perfect pop gems enlivened by the inspiration of punk. Clearly, with 16 great songs included, there is a lot at work here on this standout debut album. Jeanines have been compared to such cult pop icons as Dear Nora, Black Tambourine, and more recent acts like Veronica Falls and Girl Ray, but their dark, modal melodies and pensive, philosophical lyrics ensure them a place of their own in today’s crowded but boisterously healthy DIY pop scene.
Winter In The Dark is a fine example of Jeanines’ sound, a style pitched between 60’s pysch-folk and C-86 jangle-pop, Alicia spits out her words like a stream of consciousness, as bright airy guitars sit beneath contrasting the sublime bass-runs and urgent rhythms. With Slumberland turning thirty in December, you’d forgive them a little nostalgic naval gazing, instead with bands like Jeanines, they remain as exciting and forward thinking as ever, here’s to another thirty!
The Jeanines’ self-titled LP is out now via Slumberland Records. Taken from their self-titled debut album, out now.
DMA’S have announced a new album to be released 24th April 2020.
The Australian trio – who are comprised of Tommy O’Dell, Johnny Took and Matt Mason have announced they will visit London’s O2 Academy Brixton on Friday 6 March 2020.
A chance to buy tickets for the Delete rockers – who play live as a six piece with Joel Flyger on rhythm guitar, Thomas Crandles on bass guitar and Liam Hoskins on drums. CD + LP Album & 7-inch bundle Limited to 500 copies.
Our new single ‘Silver’ is out now. Watch the official video
