A ‘companion collection’ of live, whole takes recorded to 2” tape.
“I was very lucky to have 3 afternoons alone at Roundhead studios, in late 2017 and early 2018, when as a band we were just about finished mixing the full band versions I’m so proud of. Those had taken a long time to realise; it was a fun, beautiful, big project. So much happened during the process… I felt a need to get a snapshot of the songs at the end of it, with all that learning, reflecting on where they’d begun, and where they’d ended up.”
sisters Tegan and Sara Quin are releasing a new album, Hey, I’m Just Like You, on September 27th via Sire Records. Today they shared another song from the album, “Don’t Believe The Things They Tell You (They Lie),” via a lyric video for the track.
Sara had this to say about the song in a press release: “Our mother tells a story about watching the 1980s television show Punky Brewster with us when we were four years old. The episode’s morality tale focused on lying, and near the end of the show, she describes one of us climbing onto her back, sobbing into her neck and confessing a lie we’d told her earlier in the day. At 15, we started telling lies again, and we absolved ourselves constantly in the lyrics of our songs.”
Previously Tegan and Sara shared the album’s first single, “I’ll Be Back Someday,” via a lyric video for the track directed by Sara . Then they shared a full on video for “I’ll Be Back Someday” that featured the Quin sisters waiting for the phone to ring, as in an old school corded phone mounted to the wall. Then they shared the album’s title track, “Hey, I’m Just Like You,” via a Sarah M Worden-directed lyric video featuring old VHS footage of the Quins.
Hey, I’m Just Like You features Tegan and Sara reworking old unreleased songs they originally wrote in high school and were thought lost for over 20 years. It is due out only three days after the release of their first memoir, High School, which is being released on September 24th . The shows in their upcoming tour will include readings from their memoir. $1.00 from every ticket will be donated to the Tegan and Sara Foundation.
In a previous press release, Sara had this childhood memory to offer about the period in which “I’ll Be Back Someday” was written: “We had been begging for an electric guitar, and on our 16th birthday, we got one. Of course, we had to share it, so it became a weapon that we stole from each other’s rooms, barricading ourselves behind locked doors with guitar in hand. Screaming over the small amplifier, we tested our voices by writing punk songs, shredding our thumbs on the strings.”
The band discovered 40 songs they wrote in high school, which led to Hey, I’m Just Like You. “While working on our memoir, we discovered lost cassette tapes that had been unheard for over 20 years,” said Tegan in a previous press release. “They contained dozens of our first songs, written between the ages of 15 and 17…we immediately recognized the songs as an essential part of our high school story.”
“With only minor tweaks to lyrics and structure, we tried to remain true to the original essence of each song,” added Sara.
Hey, I’m Just Like You was recorded in Vancouver, Canada in April and May 2019. The previous press release pointed out that it is “the first Tegan and Sara album created with a team of all women.” This includes producer Alex Hope (Troye Sivan, Broods), Rachael Findlen (engineer), Beatriz Artola (mixing), Emily Lazar (mastering), Annie Kennedy (assistant engineer), Carla Azar (drums), and Catherine Hiltz (bass).
Tegan and Sara summed up Hey, I’m Just Like You with this previous press release statement: “This is the record we never could have made as teenagers, full of songs we never could have written as adults.”
When High Schoolwas announced it was dubbed “the origin story of Tegan and Sara.” It recounts their high school years, with alternating chapters written by each sister.
Tegan and Sara previously offered this joint statement about the book: “How did you start your band? When did you know that you were gay? What were you like before Tegan and Sara? We have spent 20 years answering those complicated questions with simple answers. Writing High School gives us the opportunity to tell the intricate stories that shaped our relationship as sisters, musicians, and queer girls.”
Don’t Believe The Things They Tell You (They Lie), from our new album Hey, I’m Just Like You is available now on all platforms. Full album out September 27th.
Chastity Belt’s energy is like a circuit, circling around the silly and the sincere. Tongue-in-cheek shit-shooting and existential rumination feed into each other infinitely.
Theirs is a long-term relationship, and that loop sustains them. That’s a creative thesis in and of itself, but isn’t that also just the mark of a true-blue friendship?
The band talks a lot about intention these days—how to be more present with each other. The four piece—Julia Shapiro (vocals, guitar, drums), Lydia Lund (vocals, guitar), Gretchen Grimm (drums, vocals, guitar) and Annie Truscott (bass)—is nine years deep in this, after all. It seems now, more than ever, that circuit is a movement of intentionality, one that creates a space inside which they can be themselves, among themselves. It’s a space where the euphoria of making music with your best friends is protected from the outside world’s churning expectations. It’s a kind of safe zone for the band to occupy as their best selves: a group of friends who love each other.
Their fourth record, Chastity Belt, comes out of that safe space. After a restorative few months on hiatus in 2018, each member worked on solo material or toured with other bands. “So much of the break was reminding ourselves to stay present, and giving ourselves permission to stop without saying when were gonna meet up again,” says guitarist Lydia Lund. “It was so important to have that—not saying, ‘we’re gonna get back together at this point,’ but really just open it up so we could get back to our present connection.”
Their discography is an album-by-album documentation of a manic desire for human connection that invariably leads to the slow unhinging of the ego—and by extension, a constant series of self-destructive choices; this is explored at length on the indelibly sad 2017 album I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone. On their self-titled, fourth LP, the Seattle band don’t get any closer to clarity, but they do arrive at an emotional détente of sorts: there won’t be any catharsis, at least not yet, or perhaps, never.
Chastity Belt’s sound has flattened out since their earliest releases, the sonics becoming more insular as the moods became more nebulous. Here, working alongside producer Melina Duterte the group imbue their songs with a superficial serenity that’s similar in feel to vocalist and guitarist Julia Shapiro’s recent solo record, Perfect Version. The songs on Chastity Belt flow seamlessly into each other, drifting along on an even ebb of gentle rhythms and even gentler vocals; Shapiro has dropped her bellows and spends more time singing in her higher registers.
Chastity Belt’s placid surface is further emphasized by Shapiro’s tendency to repeat platitudes in her lyrics, almost as if she’s talking to herself. “It takes time to really get it right / Let go of control,” she sings on the dreamy “It Takes Time,” her voice hovering lightly over a lazy looping guitar line as the band sinks into the amorphous atmospherics behind her. But the surface-level tranquility serves only to obscure. Later, on the brutally pretty self-critique “Drown,” Shapiro softly confesses what’s been true all along: “Repeated meaningless words don’t work / Speech is pointless.”
There’s nothing glamorous about the personality crisis happening on Chastity Belt: We’re not drowning our sorrows on a Grecian isle, we’re just going to the bar in a Toyota Rav-4 (“Rav-4.”) This is a record about giving up, with no anticipation of better things on the horizon. But at least we’re among friends. Chastity Belt derive their singular strength from group solidarity, and on this self-titled release they circle the wagons in an even more rigid lockstep, their deepening musical bond offering temporary shelter from the perpetual blues. The generosity between the players on Chastity Belt suggests that, if there is any way to be saved from disappearing completely in a lonely world, it’s through the healing energy of the group hug, or, in this case, the rock band.
Their experience navigating adult life within the strange seasons of the music industry has Chastity Belt orienting themselves towards whatever gets them to feel the most present with each other, in any part of the band grind. With the luxury of spending several weeks in the studio with Jay Som’s Melina Duterte, Chastity Belt was able to experiment. The new self-titled album is the work of the band playing “old songs, and trying new things on top of it,” like adding more dynamic harmonies and violin, says bassist Annie Truscott. Lydia, Gretchen, and Julia all share lead vocals on different tracks on the album. The result is their most sonically developed and nuanced record yet; one that’s not only a product of, but a series of reflections on what it means to take what you need and to understand yourself better.
Many of Chastity Belt’s signature dynamics, from the silly to the sincere, have read as feminist gestures: the Cool Slut DGAF-iness, the shrugging off of the “women in rock” press gargle, the fundamentally punk act of creating music on your own as a woman, and being lyrically forthright. What the making of Chastity Belt reveals is that the band has tapped into a deeper tradition of women making art on their terms: the act of self-preservation in favor of the long game. In favor of each other. In this cultural moment, taking space like this to prioritize the love over the product seems progressive. Chastity Belt’s intentions have resulted in an album deeply expressive of four people’s commitment to what they love most: making music with each other.
We’ve made a video for No More Pennies from our album Devour You (due out October 11th)! Check it out here
For the video, we started with an archive of 16mm film that Gilbert Trejo shot with us on tour and at home over the last year. I (Arrow) was editing it together with Jonathan (King) and we were both drawn to a lot of the shots of us around Los Angeles. So we jumped in a car, and shot the video performances around town trying to capture the feeling we get when we’re all together back in the city. We had our friends with us – Gilbert, Annie Hardy (Giant Drag), Mary James, my uncle Jimmy and Jonathan’s chihuahua Earth Angel. It’s got a feeling that captures the dreaminess of the song.
The first single, Bet My Brains, was consistent with their debut. On the latest, No More Pennies, it kicks off an early 70s Stones vibe. Arguably my favorite track I’ve heard from them.
While much of the forthcoming Devour You dynamically captures the aggression of Starcrawler’s gloriously unhinged live shows, today’s sneak peek, “No More Pennies,” acts as the record’s country-tinged centerpiece, showcasing a more nuanced, and more grown up Starcrawler for the first time. The video was directed by singer Arrow de Wilde and Jonathan King.
There’s probably no sweeter SoCal sound circa 2019 than this band as the title track from their upcoming album, “Let It Burn,” It should come as no surprise that GospelbeacH sound is favorite for us, their 2017 offering wound up on many of our contributors’ best-of releases for that year, “The band’s debut album, 2015’s Pacific Surf Line, wasn’t shy about its Cali worship; two of GospelbeacH founder Brent Rademaker’s other groups, psychedelic warriors The Tyde and mystic Americana wranglers Beachwood Sparks, have shared similar sentiments.
We don’t like to disappoint, (the feckless leaders in D.C. have that role handled) so here’s a first listen of the song “Let It Burn,” the title track off the band’s soon to be released new LP. The song boasts a cameo by the brilliant, late Neal Casal who passed away just weeks ago.
“Let It Burn’ became a secret little mantra in my head while dealing with some heavy changes in my life, mainly loss. Letting go wasn’t good enough I had to burn those negative feelings before they killed me,” said singer-songwriter-guitarist Brent Rademaker.“Trevor [Beld Jimenez] and I came up with some verses to my open C-minor tuning and we cut it live with a cool flat dry 1970s production by Jonny Niemann. The great Nelson Bragg orchestrated the perfect So-Cal harmonies.
“Little did I know I would need to call on that mantra again, when just months after finishing the album we would lose our dear brother Neal Casal. Neal’s otherworldly guitar playing weaves this whole song perfectly together and the outro solo that closes the whole album says more to me than any lyric we could’ve written. Neal made GospelbeacH legit, when we told him we were making a “rock” record he just shook his hand and shushed me up, plugged in and played his guitar…no second takes, he just let it burn.”
Band Members
Brent Rademaker, Jon Neiman, Jason Soda, Neal Casal, Will Scott Ben Redell, Derek Brown w/ a cast of friends
GospelbeacH’s Let It Burn will be available October 4th
Number 9.Brown Acid is back, right on time, with a fresh batch of the dankest hard rock, heavy psych, and proto-metal bangers you’ve never heard before. As usual, all of these tracks were licensed legitimately and the artists were paid. It ain’t easy, but it’s the right thing to do! And although the quantity keeps rising, our quality control hasn’t suffered. You won’t find even one throwaway track here, or on any volume, just pure unadulterated heaviness from the after-Altamont era. This Trip is All-American, and in addition to the eight 45 sourced jams and one hard rock holy grail LP track, it includes a previously unheard song by a completely unknown band that’ll melt your mind. So crack a cold one, crank the volume knob, and let the Brown Acid seep into your skull yet again.
Garage turkeys have long been familiar with the Minnesota-based group The Litter, who have some very collectible 45s and LPs, but the related band, White Lightning, isn’t nearly as well-known. White Lightning released only one single and one LP (under the name Lightning), but they had far more recordings than they released, and “Prelude To Opus IV” is just one of the band’s many outstanding unreleased tracks. White Lightning took the chops the ex-members developed in The Litter and kicked it up a notch in the heaviness department. They were risk-takers and innovators and were the first Power Trio and first to play through Marshall full-stacks in the Upper Midwest. Their guitarist was the first to play a Flying V in the region. They also happened to be named after LSD. Brown Acid material all the way!
Jon Uzonyi’sPeacepipe released one single in 1969 on the eclectic California-based Accent label, and it’s one of the most scarce Brown Acid inclusions. It’s crunchy as hell from the get-go, and the psychedelic touches only add to its allure. Lyrically, it’ll empty your half-full cup in a heartbeat, and the thunderous drums and gigantic guitar riffs will make you want to refill your glass immediately… with the hard stuff.
In 1975, Tom Stevens and the rest of Magi went into Uncle Dirty’s Sound Machine in Kalamazoo, Michigan and recorded nine tracks. Just 1000 copies of the LP were pressed, and its title and lead-off track is “Win Or Lose” from their self-released 45. The long-player has been bootlegged at least twice, but until now, Magi’s recordings have never been legitimately reissued. This revved-up, rural proto-punk cut has enough snarl to start a fight, but the vibe leaves you with the impression that the brawlers will bond over beers no matter who comes out on top!
“The Rise of Flood” by the New York group, Flood, is one of the best LPs released in 1970. Its extreme rarity is the only logical explanation for its ridiculous underrated-ness. Before Flood, the same group released a 45 under the, obviously radical name, Fiberglass Vegetables. The laid-back heaviness on this rural banger will hook ya immediately. The B-side is a non-LP track which you’ll be hearing on a future Trip if you choose to stay turned on and tuned in!
Sid Bradley is Erik. Erik is Sid Bradley. And he self-released this 45 on his own Eden imprint back in ’73. “Rebel Woman” is an up-tempo banger that resides where hard rock and prog overlap. The composition, performance, and recording quality is exceptional. It probably sounds like a magnum opus compared to some of the other stuff we’ve included in this series, but it still fits. By the way, Sid is still writing and recording music, which is not surprising considering how accomplished he is. His recent releases can very easily be found online.
Stonewall’s story is one of the most tragic in rock history. These guys should have been huge, and to say that they were robbed, is the understatement of the century. A very different story of rock stardom could have been told if it weren’t for egregious mismanagement, and a loophole in the law at the time that allowed labels to blindly rip off bands in order to minimize their tax liability. However, like a phoenix from the ashes, the Stonewall record survived over 40 years of neglect, and it now holds its place in rock history as one of the greatest records that almost never saw the light of day. “Outer Spaced” is just one of the eight tracks that we could have included on here from their sole LP, which was recorded in 1972, and “released” on Tiger Lily in 1976. In 2019, Permanent Records legitimately issued it for the first time EVER on vinyl and digitally.
The Zukus 45 has been in the collection for quite some time, and for that amount of time, we’ve been “looking high, looking low” to track down the members of the band. If Zukus were a snake, they would’ve bit us! Right under our noses, Zukus had an online presence unlike any other band we’ve worked with before, but, under a different name: Ice, which is the preferred moniker of Jim Lee’s group. “For some reason,” they used the name Zukus (pronounced zuck-us) for their sole 45 on Toya Records back in 1972. Pack this organ-driven, break-beat-laden banger in your pipe and smoke it!
Space Rock was comprised of a group of Macedonian immigrants living in Detroit, Michigan, none of whom spoke English. At one time, the vocalist, George Bisinov, even won first place in a Macedonian music festival in Detroit! Despite the language barrier, they rocked like red-blooded Americans and both sides of their 45 are top notch. The A-side “Dark Days” is a dirgier affair, whereas “Going Down The Road” locks into a speedy riff fairly quickly after the bizarro circus intro, and it never lets up. According to George, Space Rock recorded numerous other original songs, but they’ve been lost to tape deterioration. If only we could have saved them!
On the phone, Jim Fulton of Buckshot is a very soft-spoken, polite, and humble Texan. Hard to believe considering how macho his delivery is on “Bar Star”! This track is generally cocky in the best possible way. Dual lead guitars take center stage on this shreddy groover and, at just over two minutes in length, it’s a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am jam if there ever was one. Hamilton St. Records out of Houston supposedly released this back in 1976, but based on how rare it is, it’s hard to believe it was ever released at all.
Brown Acid can be found in some of the least likely places, as long as you can pay close attention. One iota of distraction could’ve caused 29.9 to have remained in obscurity for another 50 years! This band came into our lives while watching the cult horror film Effects. The film is entertaining to say the least, but the star for us is a very short clip of background music in a scene where one of the characters is looking through a stack of bondage polaroids. As the photos are being flipped through, a boombox blasts a Pentagram-esque hard rocker that caught our attention immediately. We tracked down the director of the film, John Harrison. Turns out the song in Effects was by a band John played in with his brother, Doug, and a couple of other guys in the late-60s. They called themselves 29.9, and they recorded “Paradiddle Blues” and a few other tracks, but never released any of them, until now.
Thank YOU for supporting the Brown Acid series. The Tenth Trip is just around the bend.
New York City’s Toebow, are the kind of band that is quintessentially New York, with a bunch of friends and former bandmates from here and there finally getting together and putting out that album after years playing together. That album is Themes, which came out back in May, and it’s a bubbly treat of candy-coated weirdness. Part Delicate Steve, part Dirty Projectors, part over-the-horizon, part instrumental and a whole lot of fun. Try not to wiggle your toes to this one, it’s a real treat!
Toebow is a cartoon psych pop party. Originally conceived in 2013 by friends and alumni of indie dream-pop group BOBBY(formerly active via Partisan Records), the band has been marinating and simmering their music in the NYC music scene for a few years. Their first full-length record “Themes” is out May 24th on Imaginator Records.
LA-based band, Kills Birds, have released their self-titled, debut album via KRO Records. A fuzzy, incendiary record of jagged guitar-driven melodies and slow-burning dynamics, they have marked the occasion with a brand new video for the track Volcano.
Watch it below and check out the previously released singles, Jesus Did, Worthy Girl andOw.
Kills Birds is a Los Angeles-based rock band. What started as a secret project between vocalist Nina Ljeti and guitarist Jacob Loeb, Kills Birds evolved into a band when Fielder Thomas (bass) and Bosh Rothman (drums) joined in 2017. Shortly after, the band began performing around Los Angeles. With Nina’s urgent and raw stage presence and Jacob’s feral guitar melodies, anchored by Bosh and Fielder’s monstrous drums and bass, the band quickly generated buzz for their thrilling and unpredictable live performances.
In 2018, they recorded their debut album with Justin Raisen in only eight hours, to capture the magnetism that their live shows are known for. In late 2018, they released their first single, “Worthy Girl,” which quickly garnered the attention of the legendary Kim Gordon, who gave it her stamp of approval. The response the track generated is rare for a first single, but Kills Birds has nabbed just that. Their unforgettable blend of emotionally charged performance and deliberate musicianship, is what makes their debut album mandatory listening.
Our debut record is out September 20th on KRO Records.
Hovvdy’s music is the sonic equivalent of a hug. Austin-based Charlie Martin and Will Taylor have been enveloping listeners in their soft, cozy, slow rock since 2014, when they released their debut EP on Bandcamp. Now, after five years, two split releases, and two albums (2016’s Taster and 2018’s Cranberry), they’re announcing their third album. Heavy Lifter will be released on October 18th via Double Double Whammy s.
Hovvdy have always had an uncanny ability to create a comforting effect with their songs, even when those songs are about fear, anxiety and their own personal shortcomings. Fans of their zoned-out, slowed-down indie-pop have come to rely on the duo for their consistently soothing music, and it’s a mantle they’ve gladly taken up. “I was really trying to make something that would make people feel better,” Martin says of Heavy Lifter, on the phone from his bandmate Taylor’s house in Austin. “And I think they have served that purpose for me too, just from making them.”
While Heavy Lifter does come off as familiar, the record also expands their sound. Working in close collaboration with engineer and producer Ben Littlejohn in various makeshift studios around Texas, they’ve refined their languid melodies and expanded on their previously muted production.
It arrives after Hovvdy’s tour with Lomelda, with whom the band recently released a split EP of covers.
I am regularly astonished by the vividness of the imagery Bianca Blackhall’s music creates in my mind. On her debut self-titled EP, she demonstrates her prowess as a teller of stories imbued with the textures of our country’s vast and varied landscapes.
The slow burning ‘Sharks’ simmers and heaves, and the members of Blackhall’s band melt together to form one swelling organism. The clamorous blare of a CFA siren slices through the haze at the song’s peak, before the surging tide turns and ebbs and the waves subside.
From the Apple Isle comes Bianca Blackhall and her four piece band, stepping into the fracture of alt country and moody pub rock. Propping up shimmering vocals with lurching rhythms and wily guitar, Bianca Blackhall brings you music of the lucky country – it’s land, loss and love. Songs to lean back and have a long guzzle of your Cascade to. Grief and apathy. A commentary of Australian life from the bewildered perspective of a 27 year old woman.
The band have played every dog-eared pub in Hobart as well as Falls and Unconformity Festival. Their first EP is out in July 2019 and can be found on band camp.
Debut single from Tasmanian artist Bianca Blackhall.
Band Members
Bianca Blackhall -vocals
Nick Milnes- lead guitar
Trent Thomas – bass
Hans Christian Ammitzboll – drums
