Frankie Cosmos have announced a new record called “Close It Quietly” due out September 6 via Sub Pop Records. The lead single “Windows” arrives with a music video directed by Eliza Doyle and Frankie Cosmos frontperson Greta Kline. The visual captures a day in New York. Watch below.
“This song takes place during the waiting period of healing, not knowing how to proceed or how to find the path to forgiveness,” Greta Kline said of “Windows” in a statement. “The inner versus the outer—learning to see yourself as part of the whole. For me the lyrics cover some of the slow movements of relationships, the shifts that occur in ways of thinking over time.”
Frankie Cosmos—Greta Kline, Lauren Martin (synth), Luke Pyenson (drums), and Alex Bailey (bass)—recorded Close It Quietly in Brooklyn with engineer/co-producer Gabe Wax. It’s the band’s follow-up to 2018’s Vessel.
Close it Quietly (Release day: September 6th, 2019)
We have previously covered Cultdreams back when they went under the name Kamikaze Girls who released one of favourite albums of 2017. This week the band have announced their long awaited return, with their new album, Things That Hurt, will be coming in August. The band also shared the first new material from it, “We Never Rest”, which features Katie Dvorak and David F. Bello of The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die.
Discussing the upcoming record, vocalist and guitarist, Lucinda Livingstone has suggested it’s a record that is more political than it’s predecessor, a look at modern Britain, and how it can be hard to find a place in it. We Never Rest, in particular, looks at the difficulty of balancing life in a bubble, and the reality of the world outside it. As Lucinda explains, “I very much live in a bubble—people couldn’t care less about how I live, who I live with, how much money I do or don’t earn, what I look like, or how I choose to spend my time, but then it’s so easy to get used to the bubble, and once you’re out it’s not like that anymore.” If the record is taking on less personal themes, musically it’s as affecting as ever, drummer Conor still hits the drums harder than anyone we’ve ever heard, Lucinda’s guitar work and passionate vocal howl remain very much in place. A bold next step, from a band who remain one of the most exciting bands the UK has to offer.
Things That Hurt is out August 16th via Big Scary Monsters.
When Julia Shapiro flew home from a cancelled Chastity Belt tour in April 2018, everything in her life felt out of control. Dealing with health issues, freshly out of a relationship, and in the middle of an existential crisis, she realized halfway through a tour supporting her band’s third album I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone that she was going through too much to continue. “I was really struggling; I was really depressed. I felt like I couldn’t sing or be a person,” Shapiro recalls. “At that point I couldn’t even imagine playing a show again, I was so over it.”
Returning home to a newly empty Seattle one-bedroom apartment, Shapiro had wanted for a long time to learn how to record and mix her own music, and out of the uncertainty of the future of her music career and her health, she began to record the songs that would become Perfect Version, her solo debut for Hardly Art. What she created in the space of ten songs is an intimate and beautifully self-aware examination of feeling lost in the life you’ve created for yourself. It’s an album of shimmering guitars and layered vocals that feels vast in the emotional depth it conveys and masterful in the way each song is intentionally crafted and recorded.
Throughout the record Shapiro tries on different ways of living, all thematically centered around the idea of what it would be like to be a perfect version of yourself. “How can someone be so blindly confident/I wanna know that trick,” she wonders on “Natural,” the opening track that begins using another person as a mirror and then pans back to a bigger picture: what would it take to really love yourself? The album is peppered with ideas of what self-improvement could look like—whether it’s learning a skill and living out in the woods, going to bed at a reasonable hour, or even more playful, deeply relatable lines like “I should really delete my Instagram.”
Shapiro has a knack for turning simple images into something profound, drawing influence from songwriters like Elliott Smith to capture complicated moods. The everyday act of circling the block trying to find a parking spot becomes a metaphor for trying and feeling like you can’t quite get anything done. “All my problems feel like paper/I can finally rip them up,” she sings on the title track, describing a moment of lightness in hanging out with friends who can find humor in your failure “at least I have my friends to laugh at what I’ve done.”
Over the course of a tumultuous year of trying to find stability amidst depression and surgery, Shapiro ultimately rediscovered the parts of music that she loved through the process. Her perfectionist qualities create an album that shines in tiny lyrical moments and meticulous guitar parts. “When the rest of my life felt out of control, I felt like this was my chance to be in control of everything,” says Shapiro. She plays all the instruments (save for a mouth trumpet solo by Darren Hanlon and guest violin by Annie Truscott) and after recording and mixing the first batch of four songs at the Vault studio with Ian LeSage decided to record the final six tracks alone in her apartment, adding drums in the studio later and learning to mix them with the help of her friend David Hrivnak.
Perfect Version is a fully realized vision from a gifted songwriter finding a more intimate voice. “So what comes next?” she questions on the album closer “Empty Cup” which explores the quiet satisfaction of being alone with yourself and creating a blank slate. “A lasting sense of self,” she concludes.
Warner Music will issue a limited edition 40th anniversary version coloured vinyl edition of Joy Division‘s debut studio album “Unknown Pleasures” next month.
The album will be pressed on ‘ruby red’ 180g vinyl and will come packaged in alternative artwork – a white sleeve that resembles the original Peter Saville design concept.
In June 1979, Joy Division released the bleak masterpiece that is ‘Unknown Pleasures’, a record so majestic it changed the face of music. There can’t be many people left in the civilised world who haven’t, at one time or another, sat down and discussed the influence of ‘Unknown Pleasures’ over the last few decades. But reeling off a list of indebted bands that’s longer than time itself is now only one facet of why Joy Division’s first album is so significant.
The story of how Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and Ian Curtis teamed up with their peerlessly innovative producer Martin Hannett to make the album is so fascinating that it has provided for more books that most people will read in their lives. That’s to say nothing of the numerous documentaries which have provided a nice little earner on the talking head circuit for anyone who spent more than two weeks in Manchester during the late 1970s. Let’s not forget the two major motion pictures —24 Hour Party People and Control — that also depicted the album’s recording and which were widely celebrated for it.
This August will see Joy Division’s legendary bass player Peter Hook join forces with The Metropolitan Orchestra to bring his brand new project Joy Division Orchestrated to Australia. The shows will see classic tracks from the seminal UK post-punk outfit performed in a new light with a full orchestral arrangement. This is the first time that an original member of the group has taken part in such a project.
Ahead of the tour, we’ve decided to look back at the group’s 1979 seminal album Unknown Pleasures and the key players outside of the band – Hook, frontman Ian Curtis, drummer Stephen Morris, and guitarist Bernard Sumner – who helped shape the classic release.
Peter Saville – graphic designer
Even if you’re not familiar with the album itself, chances are you’ve seen its cover across someone’s t-shirt in Fitzroy, Newtown or anywhere else across the globe. Saville’s work goes much further than just Joy Division, and subsequently New Order, having gone on to produce artwork for the likes of Peter Gabriel (1986’s So), Martha & The Muffins (1980’s Metro Music), Wham! (1986’s Music From The Edge Of Heaven), Roxy Music (1980’s Flesh & Blood). He was a founding member of Factory Records, the label that would release Joy Division’s work. Last year, he redesigned Burberry’s logo and just this week, he walked the catwalk for Ferragamo.
Martin Hannett – producer
Hannett first met Hook, Curtis and Sumner between 1976 and 1977, when they first appeared as Warsaw and he was booking shows around Manchester; he added Warsaw to his roster soon after. In 1978, Hannett would first work with the group to produce their tracks Digital and Glass. Hannett would ultimately go on to record both Unknown Pleasures and their final work, Closer. He was tasked with producing U2’s debut album, Boy, but passed up the opportunity following the death of Curtis. Hannett work continues to influence long after his own death in 1991, at age 42, helping shape tracks from artists like Happy Mondays, Buzzcocks, Stone Roses and more in their formative years.
Rob Gretton – manager
Gretton met the group soon after they began booking shows with Hannett; it was during 1977 that they crossed paths at Rafters where Gretton was the venue’s resident DJ. He’d recently began managing local acts and the newly renamed Joy Division soon joined this roster. Gretton scored rights for the group’sIdeal For Living back from RCA Records early on and was fundamental in the transition from Joy Division to New Order. Following the dissolution of Factory Records in the ‘90s, he started his own Rob’s Records.
Tony Wilson & Alan Erasmus – Factory Records co-founders
Perhaps at the centre of the Joy Division world is the iconic, and infamous, Factory Records; the label that launched them. Founded in 1978, the label would go on to helm the Madchester music scene, in part through its influence with nightclub The Haçienda, which was co-owned by the members of New Order. Wilson would pass away in 2007, following a long career as a journalist in addition to his many music industry roles. Erasmus has kept a pretty low profile since the closure of Factory Records.
This new coloured vinyl edition of Unknown Pleasures will be released on 14th June 2019.
There is an entire sub-genre of poetry devoted to rivers and their persistent, meditative flow. Emily Dickinson’s “My River Runs to Thee” compares them to the cycle of life, while Alfred Tennyson’s “The Brook” deems them eternal and Kathleen Raine’s “The River” muses on the dream-state they evoke. For transcendent folk-pop artist Shannon Lay, the river is all of the above: It’s the metaphor driving her latest album, the exquisitely uplifting “August” (Sub Pop Records, out August, 23rd)—which doubles as an aural baptism renewing her purpose for making music. “I always picture music as this river. Everyone’s throwing things into this river, it’s a place you can go to and feed off of that energy,” she says, “and feel nourished by the fact that so many people are feeling what you’re feeling. It’s this beautiful exchange.”
The album’s name, August, refers to the month in 2017 when Lay quit her day job and fully gave herself over to music. This was her liberation as an artist, and the album is devoted to paying that forward to her listeners. “It’s a thank you to the universe,” says the L.A. artist. The title track is a mystical, folk-psych expression that builds into a gentle gallop. “Open the doors that you cannot,” she sings with a feathery lightness. Notes Lay: “Everyone is capable of so much, but we have a tendency to stand in our own way.” The steady movement of the song captures the rapids of a river. “I was thinking about creating something with momentum,” she continues. “I started out with just the guitar and Laena Geronimo came in and added that gorgeous drone and when NickMurray put his drum touch in there it was exactly what I never knew it would be.”
Shannon Lay may be the most chilled-out artist you’ll ever meet. Despite fronting her tranquil solo act and being a guitarist/singer in the indie-rock band Feels, she never pressures herself to overachieve. (Even though she regularly does—in a glowing review, Pitchfork anointed her last album, Living Water “captivating.”) “I learned to not beat myself up if I’m not writing all the time,” she says. “Music really does come in these waves of inspiration.” During the album’s graceful finale, “The Dream,” Lay addresses embracing uncertainty. “I’ve always felt like a lucky person, life is a dream and it is yours to manipulate. Create the world you want to live in, create your own reality, create your path. We have so much more control that we could ever imagine.”
With her life devoted to music, the artist often spends hours a day simply playing the guitar, challenging herself to become better “It just feels so good, doing something that is so much bigger than myself. I think so much of music is that, realizing that it’s coming from something beyond and you are just the messenger” says Lay, who took guitar lessons at age 13, which introduced her to Neil Young and The Beatles. After high school, she moved from Redondo Beach, Calif., to Hollywood and joined an indie-rock band. “It was an energy I needed to release,” she says. The exact type of energy may have changed, but her drive hasn’t. Her recent practice pays off transcendently in songs such as “Nowhere,” a wistful kindred spirit to “August” that evokes Nick Drake. “It’s about getting somewhere and not doing anything or meeting anyone,” Lay says, “the idea of just having a quieter journey, zero expectation.”
Jacco Gardner is a baroque pop multi instrumentalist. He creates a unique sound by combining the sounds of harpsichord, strings, flutes and other classical instruments with raw psychedelic effects.
“Fading Cosmos” and “Autumn In Lisbon” were both recorded in Lisbon during the Somnium recording sessions, but they were not included on the album. The reason for this is that they are while being thematically similar, significantly different in their approach. Somnium was intended as one 43-minute journey, while these two tracks respectively interpret the concept of transformation within 8 minutes of improvisation. The concept of a journey of exploration, mixing cinematic and electronic sounds with a more jazz and folk, live improvisation type of performance has been very inspiring while working on this EP. I’ve been listening to a lot more jazz and progressive than I had before, mainly because I was introduced to a lot of really inspiring stuff by my girlfriend María Pandiello, who is performing Somnium with me right now on synths. Her presence has been very influential, but also the sense of adventure and discovery she brings. Some influences I feel like were major inspirations on this EP are Popol Vuh, (early) Vangelis, Bo Hansson, (early) Patrick Cowley, Francis Bebey, Piero Umiliani, Silver Apples and of course some (mainly Saucerful Of Secrets era) Pink Floyd. All these artists come from different parts of the world, but I still see them very connected on a basic principle, creating a psychedelic progressive trip through the process of experimentation with electronics, a foundation of Synthedelia.
During the creative process, the line between what was calculated and what was a total “happy accident” became very blurry, and I just went with that, which resulted in the type of sound that it has. Live sequencing synthesisers while jamming to this on other instruments, like bass or electric piano, seems like a pretty basic concept, but I had not really explored this interaction and it’s full potential in depth before. I found it a very exciting and liberating feeling, to feel both focused and precise and totally free at the same time while working alone in the studio. I’ve always been able to immersive myself in something very intimate and personal, and to really escape to another place while I’m working alone. Also, the mood of Lisbon and the area where I live became very present, as I often went on solitary walks, mainly at night. To me, the city holds something almost mystical and very powerful, which can be very present in the area I live, and it undoubtedly found its way into these two tracks.
The first ideas for “Fading Cosmos” came after conversations I had with my brother, about the tragic reality that the endlessly rich cosmos around us is rapidly becoming invisible because of an increase of artificial light, leaving us in the solitary darkness of human progress. I wanted to offer some potential visibility into our cosmic neighbourhood with this track, but also to escape into a world of wonder and mystery.
“Autumn in Lisbon” was written after walking around on a beautiful but stormy autumn day in Lisbon, not long after I moved there. The air was full of changes and a mysterious future was showing her powerful presence while hiding her face.
Both tracks feature acoustic guitar, synths, bass, drums, percussion and electric piano, all greatly manipulated via analogue tape. It was mastered by Simon Heyworth, who did an amazing job on it. I felt the same about his work on Somnium, so I naturally asked him for this EP as well, and I’m very happy with it. Every time I can feel the immense experience he has in making otherworldly creations feel truly immersive. I’ll likely work more with him in the future if he’s up for it as well.
released June 14th, 2019 “Fading Cosmos” is released on 12″ vinyl on Full Time Hobby (ROTW) and Excelsior Recordings (BENELUX), and digitally on Polyvinyl Record Co. (US).
V.V. Lightbody (Vivian McConnell from Chicago bands Santah / Grandkids) is playing music that is self-described as nap-rock. V.V. released her debut LP, ‘Bathing Peach’, in June of 2018. Her songs have cocktail lounge vibes; layered with flutes & lyrics about dried fruit. Think of glitching mermaids with dozing and comfortable songs.
Just a few weeks when we last raved about Chicago’s V.V. Lightbody, yet with the release of her new single this week, we’re more than willing to do so again. The track, Car Alarm, is the latest taste of where V.V.’s music is going following last year’s Bathing Peach.
“Car Alarm” is a somewhat darker affair than the bossa nova shuffle of V.V.’s last single, Baby, Honestly. Discussing the track, V.V. has suggested it came to her in around 10 minutes, combining her, “humid nap rock”, with a more driving quality. There’s a nod to the more 1970’s leaning moments of Angel Olsen’s My Woman, as Car Alarm bounces on a chunky lead guitar riff, even finding room later for a twanging, beast of a solo. Lyrically, it finds V.V. pondering death, yet finding a quiet humour in it, “the thought of me hypothetically trying to contact everyone in my life to let them know that I’m dying made me laugh. The chorus pokes fun at being a selfishly dark artist, taking small human moments and exaggerating them into song”. Another thrilling trip into this songwriting mind, V.V. Light body is a musician on a roll.
Bonniesongs is the musical project of Irish-Australian songwriter, Bonnie Stewart. After spending the last few years catching the ear of an ever growing Australian audience, Bonnie is set to go global, with the September release of a brand new EP, “Energetic Mind”. Discussing the record, Bonnie has suggested it combines the folk-leaning of her previous material, with a, “a lot of darker grungy undertones”, as evidenced by the release, this week, of her new single, Ice Cream.
Discussing the inspiration, it’s perhaps unsurprisingly about the joys of summer, “it’s about fun, summer, friends, ice cream, being silly and not taking yourself too seriously”. The apparent joyful lyrical content, is somewhat contrasted by the musical content, which through pounding drums, clattering guitars and layered vocal howls, feels all together more serious and chilly. The whole track ends with the repeated cry of, “I’ll have vanilla”, although if you plan on buying Bonnie an ice-cream she advises, like most sensible people, she actually prefers the delights of Mint Choc Chip. Whatever flavour you fancy, Bonniesongs has got your gelato soundtrack covered.
Feel the heat in this new music video for Bonniesongs – ‘Ice Cream’. Taken from her forthcoming studio album ‘Energetic Mind’,
Energetic Mind is out September 6th via Small Pond Recordings.
The Black Keys‘ ninth studio album, “Let’s Rock”is a return to the straightforward rock of the singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney’s early days as a band. “When we’re together we are The Black Keys, that’s where that real magic is,” says Auerbach, “and always has been since we were sixteen.” “The record is like an homage to electric guitar,” says Carney. “We took a simple approach and trimmed all the fat like we used to.”
The Black Keys have shared a public service announcement. And remember, when you get your friends to pre-order the band’s new album, “Let’s Rock,” you can say: “This is the coolest thing you’ve ever done in your life.”
The band also shared their new video The Black Keys their new song “Go,” from their upcoming album “Let’s Rock.” The video is directed by Bryan Schlam and finds the band struggling to reconnect after five years apart. Pat Carney says, “It was great making this video with Bryan, partially because it was filmed at the very type of place it is making fun of,” and Dan Auerbach adds, “The video was fun, but we still haven’t spoken.” Watch the video for “Go”
“I want the power in my music to come from lyrics and melody rather than trickery of the brain,” Marika Hackman said back in 2015, just before the release of her full-length debut We Slept At Last. Fast forward four years and one more album, and the singer-songwriter continues to live up to this promise on late single “i’m not where you are,” all about “breaking up with people, or self-sabotaging relationships,” as Hackman explains in a statement. Between her sultry, languorous delivery and synths that are at once toe-tapping and melancholic, the English artist once again crafts a powerful melody with lyrics that reveal a fraught emotional underbelly. Hackman adds that “i’m not where you are” meditates on “[t]hat feeling of not trusting one’s emotions because you can’t seem to get to the same place as the other person. On the surface, it seems like an arrogant ‘everybody falls in love with me’ kind of song but it’s actually incredibly lonely, introspective and self-deprecating.”
British singer/songwriter Marika Hackman is releasing a new album, Any Human Friend, on August 9th via Sub Pop. This week shared another song from the album titled, “the one,” which was the first song written for Any Human Friend.
It also might be Hackman’s catchiest song to date. In a press release Hackman concurs, saying “the one” is “probably the poppiest song I’ve ever written. I loved the idea of inhabiting this ridiculous arrogant rock star character who has totally fucked their career by writing too many sad songs.”
Previously she shared the album’s first single “i’m not where you are”
Any Human Friend is the follow-up to her 2017-released breakthrough release, sophomore album I’m Not Your Man. Hackman co-produced the album with David Wrench (Frank Ocean, The xx, Let’s Eat Grandma).
In a previous press release Hackman summed up the album this way: “This whole record is me diving into myself and peeling back the skin further and further, exposing myself in quite a big way. It can be quite sexual. It’s blunt, but not offensive. It’s mischievous.”
Hackman added: “I’m a hopeless romantic. I search for love and sexual experience, but also I’m terrified by it.”
Hackman is unabashed about tackling these themes, even if her only family is a little less enthused. “I sent ‘all night’ to my parents and they were quite shocked,” she said in the press release. “Why does it sound shocking coming out of my mouth? Women have sex with each other, and it seems to me we aren’t as freely allowed to discuss that as men are. But at no point am I disrespecting the women I’m having sex with. It can be fucking sexy without banging people over the head with a frying pan. It’s sexy sex.”
Out now on AMF / Sub Pop Published by Transgressive Records Ltd.
