Ben Kweller Returns After Near-Death Experience, After five years of unintended “hibernation,” indie rock icon Ben Kweller returns with some of the strongest music of his career. He didn’t go away just to go away. Instead, Kweller went on hiatus after being fifteen minutes away from death. “We almost died,” Kweller says. “Me, Lizzy, our two boys. We wouldn’t be here if Liz hadn’t woken us up that night.” Kweller refers to a trip to the mountains of New Mexico in 2013 when his family went on what should have been a winter wonderland vacation and instead resulted in acute carbon monoxide poisoning.
Now at last, he has a new record, which in addition to his good health, comes as a relief to Ben Kweller fans, who, for over 15 years, have endlessly sung along to his anthems and cried to his ballads. They know his gift for jumping through genres while remaining heartfelt and authentic. They also know that nostalgia and optimism were his trademarks long before his run-in with mortality. Now, with the forthcoming release of Circuit Boredom, we are reminded that a light really is at the end of the tunnel, we just have to listen for it.
Interpol have shared new track ‘The Weekend’ and announced the upcoming EP ‘A Fine Mess’. Check out all details . After the surprise release of the title track ‘A Fine Mess‘ back in January, now the NYC trio have announced the release of a five track EP in the run-up to their packed summer festival schedule. The latest offering comes with ‘The Weekend’, another new track following on from the dark and raucous mood of 2018’s acclaimed ‘Marauder‘.
Following their successful Australian tour, Interpol have released a new single.
“These are all upbeat rockers,” said frontman Paul Banks . “They’re not b-sides. They’re all pretty rich rock songs with big choruses. It’s all material that we can see being played in a club with people dancing. Sometimes when you turn on an Interpol record you expect people to not be dancing because it’s coming from a more pensive or melancholy place. This is a place rocking EP.”
Due for release on May 17th, the EP was recorded during recent downtime in Upstate New York with Dave Fridmann.
“We had the idea of the EP to be a separate batch of songs to be part of this whole campaign,” Banks said. “We’ve refined the material since then. It’s not like ‘Marauder songs on the EP’, it was always supposed to be a separate EP and a body of work in its own right. “It’s a good way to interact with fans these days. In hip-hop they put out mixtapes between records and it’s a good method. We’re engaged and active right now so it’s good to double down and turn the party up a notch.”
So with the band so engaged, will we hear more new material in the near future?
“I don’t know if we’re going to step into the world of doing a series of EPs,” Banks added. “I think it’s more likely that the next thing we do will be a full-length record, but who can say? We don’t actually have any concrete plans beyond this EP.” . Among the five new songs is ‘Real Life’, which was aired on the band’s ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’ 15th anniversary tour back in 2017. The band have a celebrated history of renewing old rarities and releasing them, however it sounds like their isn’t too much left in the vault.
“We might have exhausted the stores a little at this point,” Banks admitted. “I don’t hate the idea of putting out all the old material and cleaning out the archive to share that stuff, but I am more interested in new material.” As for the lyrics of the EP, Banks continued: “’Marauder’ was a little more reflective, and this one’s more about taking the party by the horns. Maybe the lyrics are a little devious and mischievous. There’s no shame to that.”
Interpol’s latest album ‘Marauder’ is out now on Matador Records.
The ultimate good-time band dish out another rollicking series of blistering bluesy stompers that emphasise their extraordinary tightness as musicians and maintain the white-knuckle energy of their live shows.
Less than a year after their last album Performance, the ever-prolific White Denim are back with their eighth record Side Effects. 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. Featuring a rotating cast of band members led by James Petralli and Steve Terebecki, these tracks draw on the sounds of different personnel to create a cohesive whole – the result being an album that’s as varied and vivacious as anything they’ve ever done.
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 Effects is instead a wholly rewarding record – one that celebrates every form of White Denim to date and sets the stage for a brand-new chapter.
Cate Le Bon’s upcoming album, “Rewards”. was written in near solitude, Rewards was concocted by, “playing the piano to yourself and singing into the night”, resulting in a record that has been suggested might just be Cate’s most personal to date.
The first evidence was presented this week in the shape of the frankly wonderful new single, Daylight Matters. The aforementioned piano is present throughout, yet almost slips into the background beneath pulses of synth and meandering guitar lines. The whole thing feels wonderfully close, almost to the point of claustrophobia, the lyrics laced with a question longing, where the repeated, “I love you”, is just a small part of a bigger story. There’s a particularly wonderful moment shortly before three minutes, where a multitude of Cate’s sing, “c’mon”, not in tight harmonies but in arresting, jarring contrast to one another, like you’re surrounded by multiple versions of her, each with their own interpretation of a moment. At once this feels like a bold next step, and a reminder of why Cate Le Bon’s music was already so special, now is the time to mark Rewards down as this year’s most anticipated new record.
Tacocat have surprised us with their fourth full length “This Mess Is A Place”. Sometimes, in the middle of what feels like complete chaos none of us have the ability to control, we need to take a minute, sit down, and press play. This Mess is a Place has what it takes to re-energise and set fire to the activist soul in anyone.
The rise of the band Tacocat might just be one of the year’s most surprising success stories. We knew we liked the band the minute we heard their 2016 album, “Lost Time”, we just didn’t know they had the sort of slick-pop that would propel them to the cusp of alternative stardom. The band are set to release their latest album, “This Mess Is a Place”, their first for Sub Pop Records, in May, and have this week shared the latest single from it, Hologram.
This Mess Is A Place is the band’s fourth album, and from what we’ve heard seems to be a giant leap forward, the scratchy punkier sound of earlier material giving way to an ebullient pop sound reminiscent of Diet Cig or Rilo Kiley. Hologram is the latest example, beneath a shimmering exterior the track details a discussion on power dynamics and how perceptions and reality aren’t always the same thing. At its heart it’s a song about stepping outside of the box the world tried to put you in, advising us all to not be held back by the limitations we think we possess, “just close your eyes and think about the Milky Way. Just remember if you can, power is a hologram”.
Tacocat are a band who seem to exist in potentially contradictory worlds, on the one hand there’s a bubble-gum punk band, four friends making music for the joy of doing it, on the other is a band facing up to the difficult world they seen in front of them, as vocalist Emily Noakes puts it, “we can examine some hard stuff, make fun of some evil stuff, feel some soft feelings, feel some rage feelings, feel some bitter-ass feelings, sift through memories, feel wavy-existential.
This Mess Is A Place is out May 3rd via Sub Pop Records.
Tim Baker has been filling venues as one-seventh of Hey Rosetta! for the last decade, but after the Newfoundland bandmates parted ways in fall 2017 the now-Toronto-based musician branched out on his own, releasing intimately performed and shot acoustic videos as part of The Side Door Sessions since October of last year. It all leads to his debut album, Forever Overhead, which holds 11 songs of original material, showing us that Baker’s voice rings out just as heart-wrenchingly on its own atop guitar and piano, particularly on a track like lead single “Dance” where he sings longingly for that titular dance (though a slow, slinky build in the second half brings some lightness to the heartache).
Baker writes nostalgically of his Newfoundland home (“’Cause no matter where I’m headed/ I’ll only end up where I been,” he sings on “All Hands”) and how those old haunts and ghosts can become a big part of your present (“Once a stranger to me/ but now you’re the song in my mouth,” he sings on “Spirit”). Forever Overhead is the singer-songwriter at his most vulnerable, one foot on the land that formed him and the other striding forward.
Shot in the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, nature is frozen in time, enclosed behind protective glass and two solitary characters exist in their work and in isolation from each other, until a beautiful moment. “For me this has always been a song sung from someone held apart – convalescing maybe, notes Tim “from someone dreaming of being alive and close to love and something important.” “Tim and I both grew up in Newfoundland,” says director Jordan Canning. “As teenagers we spent summer nights skipping stones on middle cove beach, driving up to Southside Hills to explore the cliffs, and playing spotlight in the woods, our flashlight beams scanning the trees for our friends. Nature was always within easy reach. Years later, we both find ourselves living in Toronto. Here, you can go days without stepping foot on a patch of grass. Everywhere you look there is concrete and steel and plastic and people. And when you look away it is usually to stare down at a phone or computer screen”
“Tell Me I Exist” and “Can You Find Her Place,” the first two singles from Lydia Ainsworth’s forthcoming album, Phantom Forest, reveal a mesmerizing and intricate soundscape that’s awash in emotional, social and environmental tension. Ainsworth, who possesses a masters in film scoring composition, interweaves electronic, orchestral and pop elements together, crafting songs that compel the listener closer while also resisting any perfunctory or cursory engagement. That’s not really a surprise given the concept of the record, which Ainsworth described via a press release as “a play taking place in Mother Nature’s vanishing home.” Ainsworth also sings from a multiplicity of perspectives throughout — hers, Mother Nature’s and that of a Greek chorus — deepening Phantom Forest’s dizzying complexity.
The most important day of the whole year is upon us. Okay, so it’s not exactly but Record Store Day is the closest thing we have to a national holiday in the independent record store biz, and it’s happening this Saturday, April 13th. The annual event, now in its 12th year, brings together independent record stores across the country and always churns out a fantastic selection of exclusives, special releases, reissues and oddities. The 2019 menu includes everything from deluxe box sets and legacy reissues to indie deep cuts and limited edition 7” singles. We examined this year’s list here among the pictures of records on the rack are some choice gems for this handy shopping guide. Now get out there and buy some music from your local record store.
Aretha Franklin: The Atlantic Singles 1967 (Atlantic)
No one could belt it like Aretha Franklin, and her passing last year broke the hearts of music fans far and wide. Her new 7” vinyl boxset, The Atlantic Singles 1967, collects Franklin’s five singles from 1967, including some of her most jaw-dropping hits like “Respect,” “A Natural Woman (You Make Me Feel Like)” and “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You).”
Bob Dylan: Blood On The Tracks – Original New York Test Pressing (Legacy) Blood On The Tracks is one classic record you should definitely own on vinyl, so what better time than Record Store Day to snag a copy? This particular edition, an exact replication of the test pressings that were printed a few months before the Dylan classic went wide and then later circulated and bootlegged, is hitting store shelves for the first time ever. So fire up your turntable, grab the tissues and give this classic breakup album some love.
The Charlatans: Some Friendly (Beggars Banquet) The Charlatans emerged at the height of the Madchester craze in the U.K., and their 1990 debut album, Some Friendly, blooms with groovy organ solos, fierce rhythms, ebullient guitars and harmonious vocals. Some Friendly has long been out of print and will receive a limited edition reissue by its original label Beggars Banquet.
The Flaming Lips: King’s Mouth: Music and Songs(Rhino/Warner Bros.)
Fellow impatient Lips fans, listen up: Rock’s resident weirdos are releasing their 15th studio album, a follow-up to 2017’s Oczy Mlody, this summer, but we can hear it early thanks to Record Store Day. But don’t dillydally on your way to your favorite indie record shop: This pressing was restricted to a slim 3600 units, so you’ll probably be fighting for your copy. Yoshimi battles the crate diggers part 1.
Jeff Buckley: In Transition (Legacy) Jeff Buckley’s lone studio album and classic singer/songwriter staple Grace celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. In Transition features seven unreleased studio performances from his first session for Columbia Records in 1991, many of them early versions of Grace tracks, including “Mojo Pin” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
Jeff Tweedy: Warmer (dBpm Records)
Last year, Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy released Warm, his first solo original album to date, and he described its songs as “some of the most direct, personal and autobiographical that I’ve ever written.” His new LP, WARMER, includes 10 unreleased tracks from the Warm sessions, and since it’s a vinyl-only exclusive via dBpm Records, you’ll have to be quick.
Julien Baker: “Red Door”/”Conversation Piece” (Matador)
With boygenius, her own solo work and the occasional additional side project, there’s no shortage of opportunities to purchase Julien Baker’s art. Here’s one more. The indie rock empress is back with her first new solo recordings since 2017’s Turn Out the Lights: two previously unreleased singles pressed on bright red vinyl the same color as my heart that skips a beat when I hear Baker’s earth-shattering lyrics. There should always be room for more JulienBaker in your record collection
Ramones: Live at the Palladium (Rhino/Warner Bros.)
On New Year’s Eve in 1979, The Ramones performed at The Palladium in New York City, and the show was released for the first time on CD last year as part of their 40th anniversary deluxe edition of Road to Ruin. This concert will be released on vinyl for the first time as Live at the Palladium, and it features some of punk’s most influential tracks in their explosive live form like “I Wanna Be Sedated,” “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker” and “Blitzkrieg Bop.”
Townes Van Zandt: The Best of Townes Van Zandt(Fat Possum Records)
There’s a few solid arguments against “best-of” assemblages (they’re just filler, moneymakers, end-of-career maneuvers to avoid selling out, etc., etc.), but every now and then, when the artist in question is no longer with us, I’ll happily throw my money at a legacy indulgence. And when the label is Fat Possum and the artist is Townes Van Zandt, the Texas troubadour who wrote some of the best folk and country songs ever, I’m even more keen to lay down some cash. If you’re a country fan with a record collection, you need a Townes Van Zandt on hand. Might as well make it one of the 2000 copies of this compilation being unleashed this weekend.
Van Morrison: Astral Weeks (Rhino/Warner Bros.) Astral Weeks gets cited as a seminal album as often as rain falls. It’s Van Morrison’s masterpiece and an undisputed classic among music fans. Four bonus tracks from the iconic album—“Beside You (Take 1),” “Madame George (Take 4),” “Ballerina (Long Version)” and “Slim Slow Rider (Long Version)”—were paired up and laid down on 10” vinyl for this Record Store Day exclusive. And there’s 9000 copies being let loose worldwide, so there’s a great chance you’ll go home with one if you so desire
Scottish Fiction and Last Night From Glasgow are proud to present ‘Magic 8’, the lead single from Annie Booth’s new EP ‘Spectral’.
Lead single ‘Magic 8’ showcases perfectly Booth’s lyrical frankness as she concedes “This is all I have to give to you and it’s nothing”, atop elegant acoustic guitar playing and building instrumentation; exposing herself and her shortcomings to the listener with a touching sincerity. It is a song which freely admits the writer does not have the answers; delving into the feeling of hopelessness and melancholy which permeates in all our lives, whether we admit it or not.
‘Spectral’, the EP from which ‘Magic 8’ is taken from, follows on from 2017’s triumphant debut album ‘An Unforgiving Light’, and is a far more intimate collection of songs. Working with acclaimed producer Chris McCrory (Catholic Action, Siobhan Wilson) ‘Spectral’ showcases bittersweet notions set against sparse and creeping instrumentation. Affecting and dense in subject matter, ‘Spectral’ traces Booth’s maturing development as a songwriter both musically and lyrically.
Released March 29th, 2019
Composed and arranged by Annie Booth.Vocals, acoustic guitar, keys, synths and additional electric guitar performed by Annie Booth.
Electric guitar, synths and monotron performed by Chris McCrory.
Debut album from new band led by Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace.
To say musician, author and activist Laura Jane Grace has had a defiant career would be the understatement of the year. Whether being accused of leaving the DIY punk scene to pursue a major label career over a decade ago, or courageously challenging people’s conceptions of gender identity with a bombshell Rolling Stone article, Grace has remained a daring and influential cultural figure in her over 20+ years of creating dynamic art across various mediums. Sure, she’s bound to worry some fans with her decision to press pause on Against Me! to release a more intimate singer-songwriter leaning solo album under the name Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers, but her artistic motivation cast her determination in steel. “In the back of my head I was thinking, ‘f**k all of you, I’m going to do this anyway,’” she says with a smile.
With this conviction came liberation, because few expectations equals total freedom. Indeed on the record’s opening cut, “China Beach,” Grace delivers a bold, lip-curled statement of intent: “Learn to trust yourself, no one else matters / Respect the source and always welcome failure.” And it’s in this spirit—with the help of Against Me! drummer Atom Willard and long-term AM! producer Marc Jacob Hudson on bass—that Bought to Rot, the debut album from Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers, came into existence.
Bought to Rot was written largely in motion—on tour, in Spain, Australia, Amsterdam hotel rooms, and some at home in Chicago. It’s a record scorched with honesty, unapologetically confessional, capturing many moments snipped from Grace’s life and stitched together in song. Although it’s a step and a twist away from Against Me!’s sonic blueprint, there’s still a kinetic punk energy that vibrates throughout. These compositions are looser, stripped, but with a melodic pop immediacy pushing to the fore. “I have my main gig, but I’m still doing this thing,” she continues. “It’s undeniable and it’s really good and here’s the proof … so what are you going to do with that?” Well, it has to go out into the world: via Bloodshot Records, the storied Chicago indie boasting a past & present roster that includes Ryan Adams, Neko Case, Murder by Death, Old 97’s and Justin Townes Earle.
The seeds of this project were initially sown when Grace, Hudson and Willard introduced the band on a small run of dates in 2016 that included Grace delivering impassioned readings of journal entries between stripped-down Against Me! songs, most of which were featured in her critically acclaimed memoir Tranny: Confessions Of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout. Coming off the cycle for Shape Shift With Me, Against Me!’s latest full-length studio album, and a North American arena tour with Green Day, Grace was asked to perform a Mountain Goats cover on the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, and it was then that she received a massive sense of renewed momentum overall.
With additional songs penned that felt more stand-alone than a proper Against Me! offering, Bought to Rot resulted in 14 gripping tracks detailing Grace’s fractured relationship with her adopted hometown of Chicago (“I Hate Chicago”), the act of interpersonal acceptance (“The Friendship Song”), all-consuming affection until our ultimate demise [“Apocalypse Now (& Later)”], complicated romance (“The Airplane Song”), and reconciling everything in the end. As a complete body of work, the album stands as the most musically diverse collection of songs Grace has written to date, and is what she affectionately calls her “Scorpio” record – redolent in sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll.
Additionally inspired in large part by Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever, the first album Grace ever owned, Bought to Rot finds her at the same age Tom Petty was when he created his classic solo debut. In light of his recent passing, Grace was even able to pay direct homage to him on the recording. “I bought a ’64 Fender Jaguar off Stan Lynch, drummer of the Heartbreakers, and I always like to think that maybe Petty had picked it up and strummed a couple chords on it,” she says. “I always liked the idea of having my fingers dance on the same fret board as my hero.”
There’s a refreshing sense of variety present on Bought to Rot, an album that features a vast array of musical textures and lyrics that read like separate short stories throughout. “My approach musically to the record was that I wanted it to feel like a mixtape,” Grace recently said “Like OK, you’ve got this Nirvana-like song, you’ve got a Cure song. It was musically freeing, in that way, to just be playing whatever was coming to me as I was writing and not having to think about it.” As such, “I Hate Chicago,” a tongue-in-cheek centerpiece to the album that has become a bit of a live favorite to Chicagoans and non-locals alike, finds Grace at her most wry and entertainingly venomous, lambasting the city’s sports teams and revered bands, its festivals and its unfriendly denizens over an Americana-angled jaunt.
Created at a breakneck pace, Bought to Rot is finally here and ready to be consumed & dissected: to be loved, to be hated. It’s an album propelled by a sense of restless, forward motion and the inherent need for Grace to continue evolving as an artist and person the only way she knows how. “I don’t want to write about these same things anymore,” she says. “I need some new sources of inspiration. And I don’t want to be negative. I want to write some positive, happy songs, and I wanted that to be inspired by positive, happy living, too.”
