The three members of Whenyoung (Aoife Power, Niall Burns and Andrew Flood) aren’t trying to fit in. They’ve never fitted in. With each other, however, their individual lifelong quests for acceptance are met. They found each other in a pub in their teens; the only pub where they belonged. They’ve flocked together since.
The confidence possessed by the band may sound easy but it’s a result of a lifetime of toil and dedication. The threesome aren’t new to this and don’t shy away from the time they’ve spent studying their craft. Whenyoung is a band born from the ashes of a previous iteration – Sisters. With the fresh start of this new name however, the stars seem to be aligning.
Wind back to the mid-2000s and Limerick, Ireland. There were three displaced teenagers yet to find their tribe. Costello’s Tavern was their oasis, their gateway; a pub with a jukebox that brought them together when they were too young to drink legally.Crucially the music they were playing on said jukebox was what Power was listening to: The Strokes, The Pixies, bands. Upon discovering Costello’s she met Burns and Flood soon after.
Power grew up playing music. Her father performed traditional Irish songs, she learned classical violin, moved onto guitar, and soon stopped aping Joni Mitchell. Burns was the black sheep, crushing his parents’ dreams of being a sporting hero after discovering The Strokes and picking up a six string. Flood was plodded in front of a piano as a kid but didn’t take to it. At 14, he got into drums after saving up for a kit. With everyone around him being fanatical about rap, he whiled away hours rummaging in HMV, and pouring over the NME.
After finishing college, the three would-be band mates decided that they needed to move somewhere bigger in order to grow themselves both personally and artistically. Following a stint in Dublin for Burns, the three of them all eventually found themselves in London and the formation of Sister came shortly after.
While the early shows may have been scrappy, grungy and lo-fi the core of the songs were there. Even though Sister started to gain a following in the local scene, the three band members felt they needed change to get to the next level. That change manifested in them adopting the name Whenyoung.
During the summer of 2018 the band settled in an East London studio with producer Alan O’Connell [The Big Pink, Klaxons] to record their debut ‘Reason’s to Dream’. Following their 2018 EP, they mined the ideas they’ve written over three years. It wasn’t easy, but none of the great debuts are.
The title is more about finding reasons to keep going in your life, for acceptance and happiness. Indeed in ‘Something Sweet’ the album ends on a note of warmth and love. It’s what they’ve found in each other, and in that connection they hope others will multiply. If Whenyoung can create a space for other misfits to find their soulmates, that’s more than they can dream for.
Out this Friday! Brand new limited single from Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever on Sub Pop Records.
After a landmark 12 months for Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, who released their debut album ‘Hope Downs’ to worldwide critical acclaim in June 2018, Sub Pop Records are excited to reveal new music from the Melbourne band in the form of single, ‘In The Capital’. The track features alongside a second A-side single, titled ‘Read My Mind’.
To celebrate the highly-anticipated arrival of new music, the band have announced extensive touring plans for the UK and Europe this summer. Fran Keaney describes how ‘In The Capital’ came together: “I first had the idea for the melody and some of the lyrics when I was swimming. It’s taken a while to finish the song, to make it feel like the initial feeling. I can’t neatly describe it, but something like connection despite distance. I was thinking about transience and water and death and big cities and fishing towns and moon river.”
To say 2018 was a big year for Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever is an understatement. ‘Hope Downs’ – which featured singles ‘Mainland’, ‘Talking Straight’, ‘An Air Conditioned Man’, ‘Time In Common’ and ‘Sister’s Jeans’ – was embraced by lovers of their early EPs ‘Talk Tight’ and ‘The French Press’ and new fans alike.
The record quickly became one of the most acclaimed albums of the year, appearing in many sought after Best Of 2018 lists, coming in at #3 on Mojo’s Album of The Year list (and was named Mojo’s Debut Album Of The Year), #2 on Uncut’s Albums Of The Year and many more. The band kicked off 2019 by being shortlisted for the prestigious AMP Award. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever also enjoyed tremendous support from the likes of triple j, Double J, Pitchfork, The Guardian, Paste Magazine, NME, Rolling Stone, BBC 6 Music, Stereogum, DIY and Q.
Meanwhile, the band’s renowned live show led to selling-out their mammoth ‘Hope Downs’ Australian tour, as well as sold-out performances in London, San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, Philadelphia and New York City. The huge touring schedule also included shows at the world’s biggest music festivals, from Coachella, The Great Escape, Primavera, and Shaky Knees to Lowlands, Pukkelpop, Green Man and Splendour In The Grass.
Johnny Lloyd has come a long way, along riskier roads, finding a plot of his own and starting to rebuild. In 2014, after two top 40 albums, world tours and support slots with Pixies and The Rolling Stones, Johnny disbanded the critically and commercially beloved Tribes. Taking the hazy pop sound he’d spearheaded with is bandmates, Johnny spent little in time taking it into darker, rougher territory. He founded a new musical home and friendships with Jamie T, Mike Crossey (The 1975, Hozier) and Hugo White (The Maccabees), who helped guide the recording of his first two solo EPs.
His debut EP ‘Dreamland’, released in 2016 by Xtra Mile Recordings and produced by Jamie T and Hugo White is a rousing but melancholic attempt to “find a new place in life” full of “new beginnings (and) realisations”. His journey continued on 2017’s Eden EP, which shows further depth to Johnny’s sound and intentions. But after almost 200 shows in support of his new songs, in the UK and Mexico, and with plans for a debut album well on their way, a new route presented itself.
In 2017, The Rolling Stones authuorised the production of The Quiet One, a new feature length documentary about founder member Bill Wyman. Johnny was honoured to be asked to write and record music for the film, which was later chosen for Sundance Selects and shown for audiences at Cannes. This deviation led to a year away from his own songs and instead producing music for television and film with over 1,000 uses of Johnny’s music on TV in 2017 alone. This included film trailers, the acclaimed serial-killer biopic My Friend Dahmer and even getting the chance to score his first full-length feature film, Rare Beasts, in 2018. As productive as he was in the last 12 months, and relishing his work, a lot had begun to change in Johnny’s life and his own music now needed to reflect that.
“I had all these songs by the end of 2018 that I’d been holding back from my film work. I knew there was something brewing but it all felt a little more personal than maybe I was used to in the past. A lot has changed in my life. I met someone special, and I’ve become a dad; my whole subject matter has changed. I wanted to make something more intimate and without the restraints of a band.”
Ensconced in a 10ft square bunker in north London, far from the bright lights of Hollywood, Johnny and producer Nathan Coen laid down just one law for the debut album.
“The only rule on the whole thing was: no more than three takes. I wanted it to be raw and have an element of risk to it. I love polished pop, but I’m not that.” For the finishing touches Johnny called in talented mates Frank Turner, Hugo White (The Maccabees) and Adam Prendergast of Harry Styles’s band.
It was a mature and rewarding decision. You can hear the intimacy and desire to convey Johnny’s personal renovations and revelations on the album: the record tackles growth, getting sober and becoming a father.
With the album set for release in early May 2019, and tours being booked for the UK, Europe and further afield, Johnny Lloyd is back with a renewed sense of direction, a sure and steadfast attitude that is echoed throughout the album.
Johnny Lloyd’s debut solo album out 3rd May 2019 on Xtra Mile Recordings.
Seven albums in and WhiteDenim still know how to rock. Their latest album, Side Effects, comes 11 years into a career that has kept their supercharged and wired guitar sound at the forefront of their music, More in line with the experimental, freewheeling spirit of their fan-favourite record Last Day of Summer than anything else they’ve done since, Side Effects is a record that captures the essence of the band’s full-throttle live shows.
White Denim is an Austin institution, but they’re the rare group to have emerged as a national act while simultaneously gigging around town. Their early efforts landed them a deal with Downtown Records, but after 2016’s Stiff they left the label, built their own studio (Radio Milk), and released two more albums in as many years. 2018’s Performance was their first effort at their own spot, and their first for the label City Slang. Like most White Denim albums this decade, this new iteration of the group revolved around core members James Petralli and Steve Terebecki.
Performance and the recently released Side Effects are a tandem of sorts, separated by about seven months. In an era when release schedules can so often be determined by everything but the music itself, White Denim have set up an infrastructure in which they dictate how their music enters the world. It’s a strikingly independent move from a rock band, and their story gives hope to artists: Weird, interesting bands can get to a place where they have their own studio named after their own song and still stand with dignity, intact. They’re no longer just an Austin band, but a way forward.
If you’re coming back to White Denim after a few years away, Side Effects most likely picks up exactly where you left off: a record showcasing a hugely energetic band bursting at the seams. And if you never checked out, then Side Effectsis instead a wholly rewarding record – one that celebrates every form of White Denim to date and sets the stage for a brand-new chapter.
Ride opened a fresh chapter with 2017’s ‘Weather Diaries’, a terrific album that found the shoegaze band re-igniting their essential creative chemistry. Produced by Erol Alkan – a long time advocate for the band – it was followed by a lengthy international tour, including some landmark shows.
Recently hinting that they were once again in the studio, Ride have now detailed plans for their next album. Once again produced by Erol Alkan, ‘This Is Not A Safe Place’ will be released on August 16th, through the band’s home Wichita Recordings.
New song ‘Future Love’ is the ideal comeback, a stunning, completely unguarded track that speaks of pure, unashamed optimism. Driven by the positive energy coursing through the band’s veins, this is pristine Ride, managing to recall their fine early work without emulating it.
Hannah Cohen will release her third album “Welcome Home” on 26th April via Bella Union Records.
“It was the beginning of September and NYC was in the midst of a big heat wave.” Cohen says of the track. “I was staying with my partner at the time and had locked myself in the bathroom to work on this song. It was very early in the morning, the air conditioner was buzzing away. At the time we were searching for our first apartment together, and had seen about 27 apartments in person. All were gross or out of our price range. It was definitely a catalyst for wanting to move out of the city – and it all came rushing at me. I really needed a change. Locked in a boiling hot bathroom, playing my nylon-string guitar, I realized that this is it… my life is crazy, it’s time to make a big move.”
Hannah Cohen has arrived home. From the title of her new album to the depth and beauty of the music, the Woodstock, NY-based singer-songwriter’s third album, “Welcome Home”, displays a new level of confidence and comfort with the many creative tools at her disposal. Cohen’s remarkably evocative voice is surrounded by dreamy, swooning incantations, from the rippling ‘This Is Your Life’ and the slow-burning, forthright statement of ‘All I Want,’ to the soul swagger of ‘Get in Line’ and dramatic vocal leaps of ‘Wasting My Time.’
With Welcome Home, “I don’t feel I have to cover up anything, or not be able to share,” Cohen says. “There’s less to interpret, I’m more visible. And as to reflecting on the past when things didn’t go well, I’ve left that behind. It was all worth it, to make my way to this point.”
Produced by Cohen’s partner Sam Owens, the producer/writer who performs as Sam Evian, the artist began developing the material that became Welcome Home in 2017. Taking her time with the songs, she wrapped herself in the fulfilling quiet of a new home, and a new creative partnership that supported finding a clarity in her writing and vocals. Many of the songs were written on an old, nylon-string guitar painted with Hawaiian scenes of beaches and palm trees (which can be heard on ‘This Is Your Life’), that, no matter the final arrangement, gives the songs a lighter touch, a warming glow that suffuses the whole album. Listeners may find echoes of folk and R&B, radiating with vocal-powered pop production, electronic accents, and bursts of pulsing guitar/bass/drums energy. Irresistible echoes of soul enchanters such as Carrie Cleveland (an early touchstone for Cohen and Evian), Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers and their friend and sometime collaborator Nick Hakim blend with the reflective shadings of singer/writer forebears such as Carole King and Harry Nilsson.
Welcome Home is almost brutally honest in its self-examination, as Cohen couches home truths in velvet-lush settings. As she explains, “A lot of the album is about checking in with reality and taking the wheel, being honest with myself and my intentions. Being transparent as much as possible. They’re about exploring why I’m here. And the songs question love – if it’s real or something else, finding love that’s healthy, mature and supportive.”
All of Cohen’s new material was crafted in Brooklyn except ‘Big House,’ which was written in an isolated stone farmhouse in upstate New York where they sometimes recorded, preserving the intimacy at the core of Welcome Home. The album was mostly tracked with a live rhythm section: bassist Brian Betancourt (from Evian’s live band) and drummer Vishal Nayak (Nick Hakim). Says Cohen, “We wanted to capture the essence of the song, quickly, and not toil over details for two years.”
That straightforward immediacy marked an important change in Cohen’s relationship with her music and the recording process. After growing up around professional musicians, she moved to New York from the Bay Area at 17, an intrepid adventurer who was drawn to New York’s singer-songwriter world. “New York became my world and my community, and formed me as a person, though I have never felt settled here until the last two years.” Her first two albums, Child Bride and Pleasure Boy, document the sound of a young artist finding her feet on a stage populated by established performers, a very public evolution toward the lived-in experience and command of Welcome Home. The desire to live on her own terms has recently led her to the less-crowded vistas of Woodstock, NY, a no-less iconic musical destination.
‘Old Bruiser’ documents that feeling of escape, specifically a west coast road trip (“Made it back to the city by daylight and we turned to each other as if to ask why /did we make something special just to go and leave it all behind?”). ‘Build Me Up’ also reflects Cohen’s desire to move: “Living in the city has such extreme effects on your body, your nervous system, the constant grind, living on top of people and never really having any true personal space. I am naturally a very sensitive person, I feel a lot of energy and people are really intense in NYC. I have been inspired by that energy but after fifteen years it became exhausting trying to keep up with the grind and hustle. I wanted a change of scenery and a new pace. It was hard to let go after putting so much time and work into building my life and community, and in a way I went from one extreme to another. But I felt I needed to make a big move to break free from all the noise. Welcome Home chronicles my last year in New York City before moving on. Onward and upwards.”
We’re pleased to announce the vinyl reissue of In Time: The Best of R.E.M.1988-2003. Spanning 1988’s “Green” to 2001’s “Reveal”, plus two previously unreleased tracks, the album charts the evolution of one of America’s most critically and popularly acclaimed rock bands. In addition to the wide reissue of In Time, a special translucent blue version of the 2-LP set will be available exclusively at Barnes & Noble.
Originally released in late 2003, In Time serves as an opportunity to reflect on the astonishing creative and cultural influence that R.E.M. offered during the height of their 30-year run together. One of the most revered groups to emerge from the American underground, singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry—who amicably retired from the band in 1997—helped originate college rock during the post-punk scene of the ’80s, and went on to become one of most popular and critically acclaimed bands in the world; their idiosyncratic blend of brash tunefulness, poetic lyrics, chiming guitars and evocative vocals served as a soundtrack to the cultural tide of the late ’80s and ’90s.
Available for the first time on vinyl in over 15 years, the album includes 18 hits, Out June 14th.
Pink Floyd’s “The Division Bell”, released in March 1994, became the band’s first album since 1975’s Wish You Were Here to reach No.1 in both the UK and US. Their 14th studio release also went multi-platinum and turned out to be a lone victory for prog rock. In October 1985, three years after Floyd’s The Final Cut, founder member/bass guitarist Roger Waters had took out a High Court application to try to prevent the Floyd name being used again. In December, he informed the group’s record company that he was leaving the band, and that Pink Floyd were no more.
Unfortunately for Waters, David Gilmour had no intention of laying Floyd to rest. “Dave absolutely saw red, and finally got it together to go back to work,” wrote drummer Nick Mason in his memoir, Inside Out. A year later, the Waters-less Pink Floyd made their debut with “A Momentary Lapse Of Reason”. The album had an arduous birth. Gilmour worked briefly with several outside songwriters, and the process was frequently interrupted by calls from lawyers tasked with defending the band’s decision to continue. Waters even tried to stop the new Floyd from touring. But his protests failed to halt the band.
A Momentary Lapse… was denounced by Waters as “a fair forgery”, but still it reached No.3 in Britain and America, and was promoted with a tour that turned Pink Floyd into the second highest grossing act of 1987. “I didn’t think it was the best Pink Floyd album ever made,” said Gilmour.
Rick Wright, who’d left the group under duress in 1979, had returned midway through the sessions, but wasn’t made a full-time member again. Instead, Wright’s name topped a list of 16 session musicians and backing singers deployed to help bring the band back from the dead.
The Division Bell should also be remembered for its music rather than the intra-band bickering that had blighted the previous nine years. But it proved that Floyd could still be a commercial success without Waters, the man who’d devised the concepts for The Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall. By spring, Gilmour had moved the operation to his houseboat-cum-studio, Astoria, on the Thames, and he brought in The Wall and A Momentary Lapse… co-producer Bob Ezrin. Having amassed around 65 of what Nick Mason described as “riffs, patterns and musical doodles”, “we had what we called ‘the big listen’,” explained Gilmour, “where everyone voted on each piece of music.”
The first steps towards making The Division Bell began in January 1993 with Gilmour, Mason and Wright jamming at the Floyd’s own Britannia Row Studios in North London. Before long, Guy Pratt, who’d played on the Momentary Lapse… tour, joined them. It was a dream come true for the bassist who, as a teenager, had watched Floyd play The Wall at Earls Court. “It was thrilling to know you were playing on a Pink Floyd record,” said Pratt, who recalled Gilmour gently instructing him to lose “90 per cent of the notes I was playing”.
Ideas were merged or discarded. But so much material was left over that the band briefly considered, then rejected, the idea of releasing some of it on a separate album, “including a set we dubbed ‘The Big Spliff’,” wrote Mason, which was, apparently “the kind of ambient mood music being adopted by bands like The Orb”.
The whittling-down process continued, but Floyd’s voting system was abandoned when the others discovered that Rick Wright was awarding his ideas the highest possible score, and everybody else’s the lowest. Part of the problem was that Wright still wasn’t a full Pink Floyd member: “It came very close to a point where I wasn’t going to do the album, because I didn’t feel that what we’d agreed was fair.” In the end, Wright was fully reinstated, and had a credit on four of the final album’s 11 tracks. joined by Guy Pratt and fellow touring Floyd musicians, guitarist Tim Renwick, percussionist Gary Wallis and keyboard player Jon Carin – entered Olympic Studios in Barnes, West London, and recorded a handful of new songs.
High Hopes was partly inspired by Gilmour’s childhood and adolescence in Cambridge. Its beautiful lap steel guitar solo evoked Shine On You Crazy Diamond, while composer Michael Kamen’s orchestral arrangement flashed back to the strings and woodwind he’d used on Comfortably Numb. In the meantime, Floyd dragged some of their vintage keyboards out of storage and sampled their sounds on Take It Back and Marooned. Rick Wright was delighted: “My influence can be heard on tracks like Marooned. Those were the kind of things that I gave the Floyd in the past and it was good that they were now getting used again.”
In fact, the whole album was full of familiar motifs. Dark Side… and Wish You Were Here saxophonist Dick Parry returned to the fold. But so too did Dark Side… mixing supervisor Chris Thomas, who helped oversee the final mix instead of Bob Ezrin. “That was disappointing,” understated the producer. On the final album, High Hopes’ themes of nostalgia and reflection were reprised in the Gilmour/Samson/Laird-Clowes composition Poles Apart. Its first verse was apparently inspired by Syd Barrett; its second by Roger Waters. What Bob Ezrin called “the broader concept” of The Division Bell was communication and the difficulties thereof: between friends, wives and lovers, and former bandmates.
The clues were there in titles such as Lost For Words and Keep Talking, the last of which sampled scientist Stephen Hawking’s voice. “It’s more of a wish that all problems can be solved through discussion than a belief,” said Gilmour, who was well aware of the irony considering Pink Floyd’s poor track record in communicating with each other.
However, The Division Bell also seemed to have a subtext: rebirth. On Wearing The Inside Out, Rick Wright cast himself as a man venturing back into the world after years of isolation. “There’s a lot of emotional honesty there,” said Ezrin. “Fans pick up on a sad and vulnerable side of Rick.” Wright wasn’t the only one being emotionally honest. Gilmour talked about ‘killing the past’ on Coming Back To Life. Many took this as a reference to embracing his relationship with Polly Samson (whom he’d marry in July ’94) and rejecting the hedonistic lifestyle he’d been enjoying for the past few years.
Warner Music Group in association with Pink Floyd Records is releasing a 25th anniversary edition of ‘The Division Bell’, the band’s 1994 multi-million selling album that included the Grammy Award winning track “Marooned” (Best Rock Instrumental Performance) on June 7th. This Limited Edition 25th anniversary edition will be available on translucent blue vinyl (echoing the original limited blue vinyl release in 1994).
‘The Division Bell’ was the last studio album to be recorded by the band: David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright. The album debuted at No 1 in the UK, the USA, Australia and New Zealand, staying at the top of the US charts for 4 weeks; it also went to No 1 in six other countries and, to date, has reached total album sales of over 12 million. The album was recorded by the band at Astoria and Britannia Row Studios with the majority of the lyrics being written by Polly Samson and David Gilmour. ‘The Division Bell’ contains Pink Floyd’s only Grammy-awarded track, the instrumental ‘Marooned’. A video for Marooned was made for the 20th Anniversary Immersion release of the album and has now had almost 25 million views
‘The Division Bell’ sleeve artwork was the first Pink Floyd image to be featured on a Royal Mail stamp, in an issue of ‘Classic Album Covers’. The iconic album artwork of the two huge metal heads in profile talking to each other (and in turn, creating a third forward-facing head) was provided by long-time Floyd collaborator Storm Thorgerson.
The album was remastered for the release in 2014 by James Guthrie, Joel Plante and Doug Sax at The Mastering Lab from the original analogue tapes. Bob Ezrin and David Gilmour produced the original album, with orchestral arrangements by the late Michael Kamen.
Track Listing: Disc 1 Side 1
Cluster One (Richard Wright, David Gilmour)
What Do You Want From Me (Music: David Gilmour, Richard Wright – Lyrics: Polly Samson, David Gilmour)
Poles Apart (Music: David Gilmour – Lyrics: Polly Samson, David Gilmour, Nick Laird-Clowes)
Disc 1 Side 2
Marooned (Richard Wright, David Gilmour)
A Great Day For Freedom (Music: David Gilmour – Lyrics: Polly Samson , David Gilmour)
Wearing The Inside Out (Music: Richard Wright – Lyrics: Anthony Moore)
Disc 2 Side 1
Take It Back (Music: David Gilmour, Bob Ezrin – Lyrics: Polly Samson, David Gilmour, Nick Laird-Clowes)
Coming Back To Life (David Gilmour)
Keep Talking (Music: David Gilmour, Richard Wright – Lyrics: Polly Samson, David Gilmour)
Disc 2 Side 2
Lost For Words (Music: David Gilmour – Lyrics: Polly Samson, David Gilmour)
High Hopes (Music: David Gilmour – Lyrics: Polly Samson, David Gilmour)
After a four year wait, Eels released their highly-anticipated new album “The Deconstruction” via E Works. “Here are 15 new Eels tracks that may or may not inspire, rock, or not rock you. The world is going nuts. But if you look for it, there is still great beauty to be found. Sometimes you don’t even have to look for it. Other times you have to try to make it yourself. And then there are times you have to tear something apart to find something beautiful inside.” Eels singer-songwriter E (Mark Oliver Everett).
EELS – “You Are The Shining Light” – from “THE Deconstruction”, EELS 2019 Tour starts April 21st.
Gang Of Four Release New Video/Single “Change The Locks” From their upcoming Album, the Pioneering post-punk band new single out on 26th March 2019. A standout cut from their forthcoming new album ‘Happy Now’ (19 April), ‘Change The Locks’ is a synth propelled, mutant funk shapeshifter.
Gang Of Four were formed in the punk rock fallout culture of late seventies Leeds – a place where art was a mirror and guitars were machine guns. Gang of Four tore up the template and made sense of the question marks thrown up by year zero.
They redesigned rock in the punk aftermath, taking the incendiary energy of the form and crisscrossing it with funk, stripping away the baggage of rock excess and creating a new stripped-down music that was full of agit energy, heavy grooves, shrapnel guitars and politically charged lyrics matching the fervour of the times. Swerving trad rock rhythms, the beats were invented from scratch and every instrument played a pivotal role in the sound in a non-hierarchical structure. In short, they came up with post punk.
As Gang Of Four prepare for the release of their latest album “Happy Now” this Friday, April 19th, 2019 via Gillmusic Ltd., they are releasing their new single and video “Change The Locks” to ramp up the excitement.
More recently, the band’s influence has become almost universal—now everybody talks about Gang of Four. From Franz Ferdinand to St Vincent, from Sleater Kinny and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem to Nine Inch Nails: today’s creators of angular rock music have GO4’s influence and imprint all over them. The band is reaching an urban audience with Frank Ocean sampling them on his latest album and Pharrell name-checking the band in his interviews.
Inevitably GO4 disbanded in 1984 but reformed later that decade, since then releasing a series of albums that emphatically demonstrate their capacity for invention and twisting energy. The line-up now includes Thomas McNeice—the bass player joined in 2008—and John ‘Gaoler’ Sterry, who has supplied vocals since 2011. The new album is full of subversive blasts of hook-heavy pop-inclined songs.
