When you are a fan of an artist for a long period of time; consisting of multiple albums; it is natural to have you favorites and albums that you never play. Most people favour the early albums; Justin Townes Earle is one of those artists for me. While I really liked his album, Kids In The Street, I almost always find myself reaching for the older stuff. But I’m here to say that The Saint of Lost Causes is among his best work to date, his voice never sounding better. For his eighth album, Justin turned his gaze out – toward the state of America. Like the excellent,The Seduction of Kansas by Priests, Justin Townes Earle isn’t hitting you over the head with his rage. His imagery is pointed, yet subtle enough to requiring the listener to really listen.
The Saint Of Lost Causes is the 8th album from American roots troubadour, Justin Townes Earle. Earle’s latest album finds a songwriter and artist who is unflinching and unequivocal in his truth. When writing this album, Earle focused on a different America – the disenfranchised and the downtrodden, the oppressed and the oppressors, the hopeful and the hopeless. There’s the drugstore-cowboy-turned-cop-killer praying for forgiveness (Appalachian Nightmare) and the common Michiganders persevering through economic and industrial devastation (Flint City Shake It); the stuck mother dreaming of a better life on the right side of the California tracks (Over Alameda) and the Cuban man in New York City weighed down by a world of regret (Ahi Esta Mi Nina); the used up soul desperate to get to New Orleans (Ain’t Got No Money) and the sons of bitches in West Virginia poisoning the land and sea (Don’t Drink the Water). These are individuals and communities in every corner of the country, struggling through the ordinary and sometimes extraordinary circumstances of everyday life.
Over the course of the dozen tracks, Justin Townes Earle paints little stories of Americans that are getting left behind in this current shitstorm. He isn’t shy in pointing out his targets. It’s a powerful album digging so much deeper than the horrible outcome of a dead policeman.
Releasing such an outward looking album after the deeply personal and inward looking Kids In The Street was a nice touch. And he absolutely nailed it.
There’s an inherent flaw in the perennially alternating “rock is back” and “rock is dead” arguments: they are based on the idea that rock music is a logic-based choice a person consciously chooses to make. Contrary to the critics who are looking to suss out cultural trends and movements (but have never actually lifted a greasy bass cab onto a stage in order to entertain a couple dozen people), the decision to play loud, distorted, unabashed guitar-rock isn’t a strategic move but a higher calling (or curse, depending on one’s point of view). Some might say the pursuit of rocking out via deafening amplifiers, crusty drums and a beer-battered PA is a spiritual one, an affliction that either strikes or doesn’t. Few groups today embody this sentiment like Melbourne’s aptly-named Deaf Wish.
Australian band Deaf Wish will release new album Lithium Zion on July 27 via Sub Pop Records. They’ve shared two tracks from the album so far and you can check out “The Rat is Back” and ripper “FFS” below.
“The Rat Is Back” from the album Lithium Zion (Release Date: July 27, 2018)
They’re more likely to ask a fellow musician what they do for their “real” job (for one, guitarist Jensen Tjhung works as a builder) than talk shop about publicists, ticket counts and online promotions. They’re a grisly rock group and they’ve already signed to Sub Pop, which is to say they’ve already succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, so anything that comes after (performing in strange new cities, meeting like-minded souls, maybe even selling a t-shirt or two) is a bonus.
Lithium Zion is their fifth full-length album (and second for Sub Pop following 2015’s Pain), and while it’s a rare case that a group’s fifth album is their best, particularly any band operating under a “loud fast rules” ethos, Deaf Wish make a strong case as the exception. Their previous albums were all recorded in makeshift studios (Is that a basement with some quilts stapled to the ceiling? Now it’s a “studio”!), which of course is a wise aesthetic choice for capturing the hazardous riffing, chemically-stained vocals and fiery rhythms conjured by a group such as this, but this step toward a slightly more professional sound only enhances their power – think of the difference between a tangled pile of firecrackers and a red stick of TNT lodged in a hornets nest. The record opens with “Easy”, a languid rocker in the rich Australian tradition of groups like X and The Scientists. From there it’s onto “FFS”, a moody downhill rocker sung by guitarist Sarah Hardiman (“I feel like a fool / out playing pool / hitting on you”) that confirms Deaf Wish’s relation to fellow Sub Pop employees like feedtime and Hot Snakes. “The Rat Is Back” is tense and epic; “Hitachi Jackhammer” pays a brief and noisy tribute to Hitachi’s second most notable device (you’d be forgiven for assuming this song is about vibrators). Lithium Zion is a veritable buffet of garage-punk energy, post-punk pathos, sardonic wit and the fearlessness that comes with Aussie rock, a natural consequence for anyone living on a continent teeming with grapefruit-sized spiders and man-eating mosquito swarms.
As has always been the case, the whole group shares vocal duties, even drummer Daniel Twomey (you know the band is slightly unhinged if they’re letting the drummer sing). Hardiman and Tjhung are as ragged and hairy as ever, chugging along as though krautrock was trying to speed past the late ‘70s but got caught in the sticky grasp of punk. Such is the way of Deaf Wish, a group destined to write songs that are simultaneously stupid and sublime, vulnerable and ferocious, and play them with the unbridled intensity they demand. Anyone serving a life sentence to rock will surely concur.
“FFS” from the album Lithium Zion (Release Date: July 27, 2018) Sub Pop Records
Pittsburgh four-piece The Gotobeds‘ new album Debt Begins at 30, due out next week, is their idea of a punk/indie rock equivalent of a trap mixtape, featuring guests on every track. Those include Protomartyr’s Joe Casey on the fierce “Slang Words,” his bandmate Greg Ahee, who contributes atmospheric guitar on the introspective “On Loan,” and Pavement’sBob Nastanovich who brings his spirited voice to the sharp “Dross.” There’s also Silkworm guitarist Tim Midyett on the anthemic “Parallel,”Tracy Wilson of Positive No contributes to the very catchy and Pavement-y “Twin Cities,” and there are two different versions of the title track — one featuring Bob Weston of Shellac/Mission of Burma, and a Spanish language version with Victoria Ruiz of Downtown Boys. And more! It’s an ambitious record, but one that never doesn’t sound like The Gotobeds.
On May 31st, The Gotobeds – Cary, TFP, Eli and Gavin – return to the fray with their third full lengther, Debt Begins at 30
New York-born trio Guards have a new album due out after their six-year hiatus with each new single they put out the upbeat howler “You Got Me” the latest offering from their long overdue sophomore album Modern Hymns.
A guitar-buzzing, rollicking romp of noisy sonics, “You Got Me” is a breathless sprint from start-to-finish that has frontman Richie James Follin wailing in sweet surrender.
Guards themselves were formed back in 2010 between Follin, Loren Humphrey, and Kaylie Church—after Follin had completed work with his sister Madeline Follin’s band Cults. Like Cults, Guards has a penchant for taking vintage sounds of the 60s-70s and overlaying those textures with modern sleekness. Follin’s vocals crack and fray over the static of clashing guitars and rushing percussion on “You Got Me,” and while the song has its callbacks to some unhinged rock classics, it’s injected with a personality that’s all Guards own.
“This is a rock and roll song and the world needs more of those right now. Not in a holy preaching kind of way, but I think the world will always need more reinterpreted rock and roll music. I wrote this song after listening to “State trooper” by Bruce Springsteen. I love the howl. It’s a basic blues riff, which is something we don’t really get into, but it felt right so we kept working on it. Lyrically, it’s got born to lose type of theme. Being aware it’s not going to work, but going full on into it, because you are hooked. It’s about a feeling, and the process of the journey more than the end result.“
Guards previous single release “Beacon” was another impressive track. Follin says, It is my birthday today & I couldn’t have asked for a better gift than for this record to finally be released. This is the best I can do…haha…all of myself is in this record. So, I hope you love it. I hope this music makes your life a little better in any way it can. That’s what I get from music and hope to give that back to anyone listening. I am so thankful to everyone involved…especially my musical partner in crime Loren “Ted” Shane Humphrey.
Guards first album in six years Modern Hymns is out May 22 via AWAL.
The St. Louis band’s rise has been both rapid and bumpy, first emerging on the emo-revival scene with The Albatross in 2013 before slipping somewhat out of that style with the divisive (though excellent) Dealer in 2015. Last year’sNearer My Godexposed them to a larger audience at the possible expense of some of their older fans, but this was a risk Murphy and his bandmates were willing to take in order to make something impactful.
Murphy isn’t shy about expressing his ambition. He wants Foxing to be a band who releases great records and also performs great live shows—the latter of which has already undeniably been accomplished, reaching near-mythic proportions. With that aspect of Foxing’s attack fully-formed, they’ve relentlessly pursued perfection in the studio on their upcoming fourth LP, in hopes of equaling Nearer My God. That album presented its ideas nakedly, unflinching and unafraid. It was big and bombastic, an explosion of punk and rock and emo that never committed to any of those ideals fully. In short, it was tremendous, and Murphy might be pursuing a fool’s errand in trying to make a record that will appease rabid fans of their live shows. Still, his goal of embodying the best possible iteration of Foxing propels the band forward. He just wants to see them get bigger and better.
While the album touches upon the universal angst felt by many people in the nation, Nearer My God is also deeply personal. The standout track, “Five Cups,” is a haunting nine-minute dirge where Murphy recounts the desperate moments of trying to communicate with the recently deceased. He name-checks several friends who have died, lamenting how these losses have left him with a void that cannot be replaced.
Murphy’s evocative lyrics and elastic vocals — which shift at times from the baritone of the National’s Matt Berninger to the caustic screams of Desaparecidos-era Conor Oberst — highlight the album, but Foxing are far from a one-man effort. Guitarist Eric Hudson helped produce the album (alongside Death Cab for Cutie vet Chris Walla), and each track reflects equal creative contributions from the band (guitarist Ricky Sampson and drummer John Hellwig round out the quartet).
When L.A. punks The Regrettesformed in 2015 and then released the “Feel Your Feelings Fool!” album two years later, they offered something refreshingly different to a scene in danger of stagnating. There was no forced snottiness or Hot Topic fashion, little in the way of tired ska influences — and it wasn’t overtly riot grrrl, either.
The Regrettes, are led by the inimitable Lydia Night — who previously smashed her way into many minds with her duo Pretty Little Demons — are not about posturing. They’re not postcard-punks, requiring a “uniform” of spiked hair, safety pins, and torn clothes. Rather, the band is all about real-life tales of their genuine experiences. Even that debut album title is a reference to not holding anything back.
The sound is a glorious mix of melodic punk rock and 1960s girl-group. The second Regrettes album is due out this summer and, judging by the “Dress Up” single that just dropped, power-pop elements have been added to the mix. It’s a potent brew. Night is the songwriter, and she’s gifted — poetry and melody are comfortable of bedfellows in her care. That said, on this new album, Night says that the other members have been more involved.
The new album is “so ready to go,” Night says. “It’s all done. I’m so fucking excited about it, oh my God. We’ve been working on it ever since our first one came out really, because of the writing. It’s been happening for a few years. Recording was about five weeks. I think every artist grows, some more obviously than others. We definitely have. This album’s a lot more of a collaboration between the band. It’s just different. I’m just older, and so the music feels more mature.”
“Dress Up” is a suave, driving pop-punk gem that Night says is indicative of the direction on the new record, while stressing that each tune is different. That’s great though, because there are shades of Joan Jett and Suzi Quatro badass-ery on there — and a bit of Chrissie Hynde, too. Night puts that all down to a newfound confidence that naturally comes through growth, as well as some of the cool jams that she’s been cramming into her rapidly evolving mind.
“I’ve been listening to a lot of early Strokes, a lot of Exploding Hearts, and The Replacements,” Night says. “Lots of Blondie. All over the place, really. But you can hear a lot of those particular things, I think, influencing this album. I’ve had an obsession with The Replacements. I’m a big power-pop person. This album’s a lot more like that.”
At the end of 2018, The Regrettes put out “Poor Boy,” a much-needed anti-Brett Kavanaugh anthem and a rare foray into politics. Night says that, while that song was something they had to get out of their system after watching the confirmation unfold on TV, they also knew that the album would be a much more personal affair.
“The album is a love story — the good and the bad,” Night says. “That’s what influenced it — falling in and out, and hating someone that you have also loved. Figuring it out. It goes through many extremes, to say the least. The Kavanaugh thing was something we wanted to get out because we were feeling it and knew that there wasn’t much of that on the album. So this is definitely kind of a personal, emotional album.”
Also not on the album is the cover of Queen’s classic “Don’t Stop Me Now,” recorded for a Silk ad campaign. It’s a genuinely thrilling take on the old standard: timely because of the recent Queen biopic plus the tours with Adam Lambert, but also exciting because of the injection of youthful, wild energy that The Regrettes add.
“We’re huge Queen fans,” Night says. “We actually did it for a commercial, and so when we got the call for that, we were like, ‘This is going to be so easy and fun because we love that song and are passionate about it already.’ ”
The Regrettes are preparing for a tour with Against Me!, and the band should be well-rested after they were forced to cancel a tour with Oakland indie-punks SWMRS because of some vocals issues for Night.
“I’m all good now,” she says. “It was really scary, but I’ll be OK. I’m just dealing with my shit. I’ve struggled with nodules and a lot of vocal issues, and had to cancel shows before. It’s a big concern when I start having flare-ups. My voice was really inflamed, and I think a big thing was we had just come off a six-week tour, that we had in-ears [custom-made monitors] the whole tour for the first time. That was such a big help for my voice, because you can hear yourself, you’re not pushing. Then the first show without in-ears in a long time, we pushed really hard. It’s not something to fuck with, and I’ve learned how extreme you need to be with it.”
Night says she’s never met the various members of Against Me!, but she’s inspired by singer Laura Jane Grace’s story. Above all, she’s excited because her dad introduced her to Against Me! when she was a kid — so she views these shows as a sort of “full circle” thing. As for the set, Night suggests that we’ll likely hear some new songs.
“A lot of fiery energy because we’re going to be so excited to be back up on stage, that’s for sure,” she says. “I actually have no idea if the Against Me! crowd will like us, but I’m ready to find out. We’re just gonna go for it.”
After that, there will be more touring. After all, this is only the beginning of the tour cycle in support of the new album. All the while, this excellent band will continue to evolve as they soak in the world around them and prepare for album number three.
On June 7th, we’ll be reissuing Sonic Youth’s ‘Battery Park, NYC: July 4, 2008’. Initially sold as a bonus item alongside the 2009 release of the band’s final album, ‘The Eternal’, the live recording will now be available on streaming services and as a stand-alone physical package for the first time ever. Culled from their show at Battery Park’s River To River Festival (and broadcast live on WFMU), the setlist spans the band’s 30-year career.
The live version of “Bull In The Heather” is now available
It’s out June 7 via Matador. The show was part of the free River to River Festival (and had The Feelies opening)
Called out by the Irish Times as “Ireland’s best new rock band” and named as an one of nme’s “100 essential new artists for 2019,” when i have fears is the debut album from Dublin, Ireland’s the Murder Capital.
Produced by Flood (pj harvey, new order, foals) the album features both singles from the band so far, “Feeling Fades” and “Green & Blue”, as well as the first studio recording of breakthrough track “More is Less”. an exercise in both darkness and light, “When I Have Fears” only serves to highlight the early ambition in the band’s sound. from the post-rock build and breakdowns of the two-part “Slowdance”, to the tender, bruised confessional of “OnTwisted Ground” and industrial pulse of closer “Love, Love, Love”, there’s a consistent intensity throughout that marks out the Murder Capital as a band arriving fully formed on their debut album. “surging like waves and creating the same nervous, edge-of-your-seat atmosphere that their live shows have been so well spoken of for…
beautiful chaos.” – neu pick of the day, diy “a brooding beat and a menacing bassline, the Murder Capital have delivered the goods.” – gigwise “not just a band primed to rip your head off, but to make you throw shapes.” – dork hype 2019 “furious, bellowing Irish punks who would beat you in a staring contest.”
Our debut album ‘When I Have Fears’ is out August 16th.
From the beginning of making this record together, the poem ‘When I Have Fears’ served not only as a structural pillar, but quickly became a set of ideals for us to live by.
Pre-order the album on Limited Edition Marbled Rust 12” Vinyl
On their third full-length ”Remembering The Rockets” (out 26th July via Tiny Engines), Strange Ranger continue to excel at translating the way intimacy can feel so overwhelmingly gigantic. With a dozen releases across their 10 years as a band, the Philly-via-Portland-via-Montana group, currently featuring Isaac Eiger (guitars, vocals), Fred Nixon (bass, piano, vocals), Nathan Tucker (drums), and Fiona Woodman (vocals), have traversed genres, moods, and textures while maintaining one important throughline: an exploration of closeness.
“Trying to close the distance between yourself and another person and wondering how much can really be done about that gap,” Eiger says. “Sometimes you don’t want to be close with others but you feel guilty, and sometimes you do but you can’t.”
Eiger, who writes the bulk of Strange Ranger’s lyrics, is a modern master of conveying the anxiety and uncertainty of growing older through a mixture of childhood nostalgia and interpersonal tidbits. There’s plenty of that on Remembering The Rockets, but after all of these years of singing about his own coming-of-age story, the album approaches the quandary of whether he’ll ever be able to impart that process—through which he’s reaped so much artistic joy and curiosity—onto someone else.
“So much suffering and horror is coming if we don’t seriously restructure our entire society, and I just really hope we get it together. I want to be a dad more than basically anything, and it’s unclear if that’d be an OK decision to make,” he says.
For a topic as severe as ecological collapse affecting his own parental aspirations—as well as other melancholy ruminations on loneliness, the passing of time, and the complications of emotional intimacy—Strange Ranger still ended up making the lushest, smoothest, and most pleasingly hypnotic album of their careers.
“After making Daymoon, I think Isaac and myself were both feeling pretty creatively exhausted with the rock band format,” Nixon says. “We wanted the feel of the next record to put you in a trance.”
Opener “Leona” is a celestial pop song with a springy bassline and a shimmering, magical synth effect that dusts over its punchy outro groove. “Nothing Else To Think About” is a bobbing sunset soundtrack with a drum sample that puffs and clacks behind its ASMR-inducing bassline. For “Beneath The Lights,” Eiger pulls out the drawly, prickly croon of a Daymoon ballad like “Most Perfect Gold of the Century” and then contorts it with warbling, Justin Vernon-esque auto-tune. Ambient interludes like “athens, ga” and “‘02” are void of vocals and “traditional” rock elements altogether.
“It was definitely a learning curve figuring out how to do some of the weirder stuff,” Eiger says. “We’ve been using keyboards for a while now, but before we made this record we got this old Japanese synthesizer [Korg M1] which has like a trillion sounds. So that was a totally different experience.”
“We really didn’t know what we were doing and probably stumbled our way into a bunch of sounds we wouldn’t be able to recreate if we tried,” Nixon adds.
Portland, OR producer Dylan M. Howe was an essential contributor in this regard. Most of the samples and electronic beats were designed with Howe’s assistance, and he helped the band navigate the archaic software of the Korg M1—which was used for nearly every synth sound on the album. For many of the songs, such as “Message To You”, which Fiona Woodman sings the entirety of, the only component the band had going into their home studio was the drum loop. From there, they experimented with different arrangements and benefitted from Nathan Tucker’s versatile drumming abilities to build that song, and many others, outward.
“I think we’ve always been attracted to music that you can nod your head to, and this time around I think we really tried to emphasize that,” Eiger says.
Tracks like “Pete’s Hill,” “Planes in Front of the Sun” and “Leona” lock into a pleasing breed of entrancing, rhythmic bliss. And they hit with maximum impact every time because they’re tastefully offset by a cheeky alt-country burner like “Ranch Style Home,” or a Lemonheads- esque cruiser like “Sunday.” But like all Strange Ranger albums, the band saved the most emotionally devastating songs for its finale.
“Living Free” and “Cold Hands Warm Heart” play like they’re in conversation with one another. The former is a synth-soaked reckoning with age (“all the years as blurry cars and trees / screaming right past me”) and purpose (“awkward angels in the snow / what if I just want a family?”). The latter is a sparse, two-and-a-half-minute piano ballad where Eiger acknowledges tepid hope as the only way forward. “Flickers of a world to come / here but lovelier than this one / see it rippling in the river,” he sings with a shaky intonation.
“The image of a rocket in the sky just feels very beautiful to me and full of possibility,” Eiger says. “If you’re someone who wants to have kids and you decide not to, that kinda feels like folding and just saying, “yeah everything is fucked, there is no future.” And why even live at that point? It sucks that ‘hope’ has—for good reason—become this cheesy, lame idea. But if you’ve got no hope, you’re completely fucked in a situation like this one.”
Strange Ranger “Remembering The Rockets” Out July 26th on Tiny Engines
Have you ever felt sad about the times you are living in? You may not always be able to work it out, but you can sprinkle a little sugar on your sadness with songs like these. A follow up collaboration between Mikey Young (Total Control / Eddy Suppression Ring) and Keith Abrahamsson (Head of A&R at Anthology Recordings) to their 2017 compilation “Follow The Sun, Sad About the Times”, at its core, is a set of North American 70s jammers.
With a hint (at times) of West Coast jangle, these tracks traverse the border between the power pop of the times and a late-night coke jam. You can also hear echoes of folk rock, soft rock, and even detect some psychedelic flashbacks. But despite the genre jumping, the atmosphere of Sad About The Times is always dominated by a haunted human voice.
These songs come in the wake of the psychedelic sixties; after the high-flying idealism had run its course and singer songwriters were ascendant. After the party, reality kicks in. They all could have been hits. Each with a different flavour, all subtly conveying universal emotions that are hard to describe but easy to feel. It features Jode, Hoover, Jim Spencer, Antonia Lamb, Hollins Ferry, Willow and more.
