Beechwood’s very first full-length release, “Trash Glamour”, was originally recorded in 2013 when Gordon Lawrence and Isa Tineo were still in their teens. The album was originally a cassette-only release and has been remastered and released on CD and Vinyl for the first time via Alive Naturalsound Records. Gordon shares the origins of this early effort, “Trash Glamour” was recorded with a single microphone in my parents’ basement when we were 17 and 18 years old. At the time we were obsessed with two albums in particular, Raw Power and Exile on Main St. I had this documentary on the making of Exile that we all sat down and watched together before starting the record. We were mesmerized. That was what a band making a record was supposed to be like.
That, to our teenage minds, was rock & roll. And so, we turned the basement into our version of Nellcôte. We surrounded ourselves with friends, girls, drugs, alcohol and the ideas flowed. I hardly ever remember leaving the basement, though I assume we must have eaten and slept at some point that summer. Things were still fresh at the time, grudges didn’t exist, and things (and substances) that eventually became problems were just being discovered. We had the sense that no one else was doing what we were doing at the time, that rock & roll had become soft with bands with names like “The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.” (Gimme a break.) And so, we made a loud, raw rock & roll record with little regard for “production quality.” We pushed our music and our minds into the red, and though it took ourselves almost three years to come down from what began with this record to eventually make Songs From The Land of Nod, none of us regret a thing”.
Foxygen have announced a brand new album. Titled ‘Seeing Other People’, the full-length is previewed by a lead single ‘Livin’ A Lie’, Arriving alongside a video directed by previous collaborator Alessandra Lichtenfeld, it was filmed in Calabasas and the band’s hometown of Westlake Village, California following the Woolsey wildfires.
“I remember a quote from [fellow band member Jonathan] Rado sticking with the press a few years ago about how we’d lived every rock’n’roll cliche in, about, one year,” Sam France explains in a statement. “Well, here’s the album about it. Another movie. I don’t know what’s next. But here’s a snapshot of it all.”
‘Seeing Other People’ was produced by Foxygen, mixed by Shawn Everett, and features drums by Jim Keltner. Following on from 2017’s ‘Hang’, its set for release on 26th April
Californian duo Foxygen has released Livin’ a Lie, which layers a myriad of instruments from synths to guitars and strings. The track is the first glimpse of “Seeing Other People”, their upcoming album due out 26th April. on Jagjaguwar Records
Quiet Signs sounds like a lost Paisley Underground classic. The delicate piano, flute, organ and string arrangements for Fare Thee Well and Poly Blue have a lush, chamber pop vim that work wonders around Jessica Pratts enchanting voice. The record’s B-side glows with an arresting late-night clarity especially “This Time Around.” A perfect late night soundtrack.
The singer/songwriter somehow brings a maximalist energy to a record so subdued you’ll refrain from speaking during its quivering 27 minutes, for fear of disturbing the peace. Quiet Signs is a convincing argument for simplicity. Jessica Pratt has a very, very restrained way of supplying strength and relief during our hectic moment. Her songs are so quiet they almost don’t even exist, but maybe that’s how we need to feel for just a moment—like we’re just air. These tracks aren’t immediately satisfactory. They emit tranquility only if you’re willing to devote your full attention—and perhaps repeated listens. In under 30 minutes and in just nine songs, Pratt produces a warm, bewitching alternate dimension—but not the kind you fall into in a nightmare or thriller. The universe she’s fashioned for herself is more paradisal.
Taken from the new album ‘Quiet Signs’ Out Now on Vinyl / CD / Digital via City Slang and Mexican Summer
Ex-Hex, the veteran Washington D.C. power-trio, released the second single from their forthcoming album, and it’s a riffy slice of glorious, focused pop. Ex Hex have released the music video for their new song “Tough Enough,” the opening track from their forthcoming album “It’s Real”, due out March 22nd from Merge Records. The riff-forward DIY sound from the Ex Hex trio in “Tough Enough” finds its match with the video’s fuzzed-out, basement-show setting and apocalyptic conflict. As they riff around its low-scale flash, it’s apparent that the power trio’s ability to utilize the noise around them is the true star of the video. The band explain in a statement that the single is “all about three-dimensional power chords interplaying with whammy dive bombs. It’s a song about turning on your tough switch and forging ahead through whatever storms are happening around you ’cause you have no choice.”
From the album It’s Real, out March 22nd, 2019 on Merge Records.
A long-loved love child of the 4AD-Domino constellation, heart throbbing Californian songwriter Cass McCombs rocks up to Anti- (sister label to Epitaph), continuing his streaking succession of albums with “Tip Of The Sphere”. Providing a ninth solo LP in total, this latest record keeps up with guitarry-and-garrish themes of Mangy Love (2016), however richly purporting melodic songs that paint wheatgrass imagery of stretching plains, distant cross roads, and beachside trails to the rivermouth. With fingerpicking expertise to reflect both John Fahey (and Chris Isaak in parts) jangly pianos from a far western saloon making their way into “Absentee”, alongside a pinch of Neil Young’s soul (“Prayer For Another Day’) . With flashes of Alan Vega and Martin Rev to be heard in “American Canyon Sutra” too, to more hippy Buddha Bar vibes in “Real Life” thanks to them tablas,
Tip Of The Sphere follows 2016’s Mangy Love, which was named a “Best Rock Album Of The Year” by Pitchfork. While most of McCombs albums have been pieced together in different studios over an extended period, Tip Of The Sphere was recorded quickly and with a strong sense of purpose at Shahzad Ismaily’s Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn. This new approach for McCombs brought his songs a raw immediacy and a special balance of compassion and experimentation with the intent of making a more consistent statement. The rock songs have more fervor, the ballads are more beautiful, the explorations more confident; the sounds of jazz and Latin music creep in through the back window. The thematic centerpiece, “Sleeping Volcanoes,” is a rousing, rock and roll number that uses a distinct lyrical approach to intensify the narrative. On the main refrain, a key phrase of the song is repeated continuously and taken through its possible meanings, almost like a jazz musician repeating a musical phrase through key and chord changes.
As described by McCombs, “Sleeping Volcanoes” is about “people passing each other on the sidewalk unaware of the emotional volatility they are brushing past, like a sleeping volcano that could erupt at any moment.” [Deluxe LP comes in an embossed cover and features three bonus tracks, a poster and a ‘Castillo de la Esfera’ created by fellow Northern California artist and contemporary Tahiti Pehrson as an homage to Brion Gysin’s dream machine. When the ‘Castillo de la Esfera’ is placed on top of the record player, and as the record is played (with or without a lightbulb cantilevered in the center), thoughts are encouraged to wander.
Small Houses is a Austin, TX based indie/folk project featuring the songs and poems of Flint, MI native JeremyQuentin. Artfully crafted finger-style guitar playing, and softly sung melodies describing the people, love, and homes of Quentin’s life. A long time favourite Small Houses aka singer-songwriter Jeremy Quentin is getting ready to release a new album “I Don’t Know What’s Safe” in January 2019. The magnificent lead single I Remember Me surfaced earlier this week with a gorgeous music video. Watch the video that was directed by Phillip Harder below and grap a name-your-price download of the single from his Bandcamp.
Memphis power pop cult hero and Big Star contemporary Van Duren is the subject of the new documentary “Waiting”, and Omnivore has the companion CD soundtrack! Featuring Van Duren favorites and previously unreleased tracks (including one recorded live at Ardent Studios in 1981 and one with Big Star’s Jody Stephens from 1975), the soundtrack boasts new liner notes from the artist. All tracks are original masters (no re-recordings). Look for Waiting – The Van Duren Story is out today on vinyl
“I’m not one of those people who dwells on the past very much” isn’t the first thing you expect to hear from a man whose 1978 debut album is at the center of a new documentary. “That was the strange part to me, to celebrate something that happened 40 years ago,” says Van Duren about Are You Serious?, the record that commands the undying affection of ’70s power pop obsessives, but has otherwise slipped between history’s cracks. Wade Jackson and Greg Carey’s film Waiting: The Van Duren Storyand its soundtrack album, however, aim to right that wrong.
In the first half of the ’70s, Duren was one of the most promising talents on the Memphis rock scene, along with power pop compatriots Big Star. He was even invited by Big Star drummer Jody Stephens to audition for the band after singer/guitarist Chris Bell’s departure, though the match was somewhat star-crossed. “It was a disaster,” Duren rather less diplomatically recalls. “I wasn’t a lead guitar player. Jody thought my vocal abilities and songwriting would really help the band in the direction he wanted to go. Meanwhile, they were cutting [dark, offbeat album] 3rd, which obviously had nothing to do with anything that I’d ever jump in on.”
Nevertheless, Duren seemingly never left Stephens’s mind. “When Big Star was kind of crumbling, he reached out to me and asked me if I wanted to do something,” remembers Duren. At Memphis’ legendary Ardent Studios, the pair cut demos of several Duren tunes. With famous admirers like Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham in his corner, Duren eventually cut a deal with a tiny label out of Connecticut and released his debut, Are You Serious?, in 1978.
The record introduced a man with a plaintive voice and an unerring knack for the almighty hook. The stomping riffs of “Chemical Fire,” the yearning piano balladry of “Waiting,” and the McCartney/Rundgren vibe of the pumping pop-rocker “Grow Yourself Up” reveal an artist already fully matured in his mid-20s, bouncing off the same basic musical touchstones as his Big Star buddies but processing his influences in an utterly personal way. Though it earned some great reviews, it pretty much sank into obscurity, and when the follow-up album was scuttled in 1980 due to acrimonious label relations, Duren’s promising career seemed to flame out.
“It was a very dark situation and it was very tough to get through that,” says Duren. At that point, he pretty much dropped below the radar of the wider world. Some three and a half decades later, Sydney singer/songwriter Wade Jackson and his friend Greg Carey discovered Are You Serious? by accident. “It was everything I love about music,” says Jackson. “I was completely hooked; within a week, that was all I was listening to. I heard Big Star in there, I heard Todd Rundgren, and McCartney of course, I also heard that Emitt Rhodes thing, and I just felt like it was exactly what I was looking for. And the delivery of the vocal, I think, is so genuine. There’s something about the desperate delivery that I love. It’s very real, in my opinion.”
Jackson and Carey were so flabbergasted they decided they had to tell Duren’s story in a documentary despite having zero film experience, learning as they went. “Being so naïve about how it all works is probably what got me through it,” Jackson says.
But Duren’s been burned enough to operate from a place of caution when people approach him about his music. “Every now and then people reach out to me on social media,” he says, “and I’m pretty wary of it because many times it doesn’t go well, for whatever reason.” Consequently, he remained guarded when first-time filmmakers Jackson and Carey first emailed him from Australia. “It took a couple of months for Van to want to chat with us on the phone,” confirms Jackson. Over time, though, the well-intentioned Aussies earned Duren’s trust, and came to Memphis to meet him.
They eventually learned that while Duren never earned national attention, he never quit recording and performing. In the ’80s he formed Good Question, earning regional renown. “We started in August of ’82 and the band ran for 17 years,” Duren says. They released two albums and had a local hit with “Jane.” “Good Question almost immediately became one of the most popular live bands around here,” Duren remembers. “We worked all the time. It was the first time in my entire career I worked enough to actually go in the black.”
After the band’s breakup in 1999, Duren kept working, releasing duo albums with fellow Memphian power pop hero Tommy Hoehn, as well as subsequent solo records and collaborations with others. “It was a real shock, to be honest,” says Jackson about learning of Duren’s post-’70s output. “It was great to hear that he’d never given up on writing tracks and releasing albums. We like to call it the music disease—once you’re struck with it, it’s there to stay.”
Hidden in plain sight, Duren paradoxically wasn’t even well-known enough to really be considered a cult hero. “In my experience,” he explains, “if you can rise to the level of what they call ‘obscure,’ then that’s some level of success. You do it because you feel compelled to do it, and it’s not because you’re trying to please anybody else.”
Jackson and Carey’s film is a compassionate portrait of Duren’s rocky road through the music business, and even the buzz over its first few festival appearances has already brought Duren more attention than he’s had in decades. Equally important is the release of the soundtrack album, containing early Duren gems, Good Question material, and even one of those Duren/Stephens demos.
Boutique reissue label Omnivore, renowned for its Big Star-related releases, turned out to be the perfect home for Duren’s music. “They did such a wonderful job,” Duren enthuses. “The mastering on that soundtrack album is phenomenal. Never in my wildest dreams would I think that those recordings would sound like that.”
Jackson and Carey helped facilitate not only the soundtrack’s release, but a publishing deal for Duren with Australia’s Native Tongue Publishing, as well. “It’s excellent for Greg and I,” says Jackson, “because we were so heads-down in this project we’d sometimes go, ‘Is the music as good as we think, or are we going crazy?’ Having a great label like Omnivore and a great publishing company like Native Tongue get behind it [we feel like], ‘Yeah, we’ve done the right thing.’”
The film’s sold-out premiere at the Indie Memphis Film Festival on November 3rd, 2018—complete with a five-minute standing ovation at the end—was a full-circle moment for Duren. “It was really heartwarming and very surprising to me,” he says. “After the showing we walked across to a different theater where we had set up for a live performance, and we did about a 45-minute set of songs from the film with a band, including my son on drums.”
Full theatrical releases for both Australia and the U.S. are in the works for the film. Duren’s future plans include recording new songs and taking his live show to audiences beyond his hometown. “I’m very grateful to Wade and Greg for finding me,” admits the once-wary songsmith, “because I wasn’t looking for this, I didn’t seek it out. That made it very pure to me, very honest. I’m grateful for that more than anything. Meanwhile, forward. There’s more to come, absolutely.”
Six new songs from Los Angeles-based Flat Worms, which features Tim Hellman, Justin Sullivan, and Will Ivy. The “Into The Iris” EP follows an LP on Castle Face Records (s/t, 2017). Filled with anxiety and angst, Flat Worm’s summon perseverance in an apocalyptic era, passing through decrepit strip malls and surreal headlines. These songs were recorded by Ty Segall in his home, and is now being offered on God? Records.
Charly Bliss have announced the release of their second full-length album “Young Enough”, due out May 10th on Barsuk Records. They’ve also shared a video for the album’s lead single “Capacity,” directed by Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast. Charly Bliss, a band who previously leaned punk-rock, made an invigorated return with a new song that sounds more like pop heaven than lo-fi garage purgatory.
“Capacity” has all of the band’s signature power-pop sound, but this time it appears to be pointed more towards major-key synths than the punk fervor of their debut record Guppy. The video for “Capacity” depicts the band members as robbers who have a falling out after completing a heist. Adam Kolodny served as director of photography for the video and Zauner edited it.
“Charly Bliss has always made great narrative music videos, so I wanted to stay in line with that tradition and take advantage of working with a band that are all such great, funny actors individually,” Zauner said of the video in a statement. “Eva had an amazing mood board she brought to the table with references to Paris, Texas, Five Easy Pieces and Badlands so it was important for us to showcase a warm, ‘70s color palette.”
“It was a dream come true to work with Adam and Michelle on this video,” said Charly Bliss vocalist Eva Hendricks. ”’Capacity’ is a song about wanting to kill your inner people-pleaser, and Michelle beautifully presented a parallel concept, which warns of the perils of getting swept up in other people’s bullshit.”
The announcement for Young Enough comes just two days after Charly Bliss replaced all their posts on Instagram with a video of a dramatically lit room with a drum loop playing overhead, prompting whispers of a forthcoming album. The post now appears to reference the “Capacity” video.
Young Enough will be the Brooklyn band’s first album since 2017’s critically acclaimed Guppy. They also released a new single in September 2018 titled “Heaven.” It appears that track won’t appear on the new album, though.
Winter can be tough. Staying indoors for three months (or longer, depending on your latitude) is already a drag, but it can be even worse when you’re searching for warm pockets of air in a drafty house. U.K. artist Rozi Plain fights off the chill on her new song, “Conditions,” the second single from her forthcoming album What A Boost (out April 5th on Memphis Industries).
While the idea for this song sprung from the cold, Plain actually laid down the original recording in sunny Los Angeles while playing bass on tour with This Is The Kit’s Kate Stables, one of her close friends. Plain and Stables share some sonic sensibilities—they both favor airy effects, looped drum beats and whimsical sounds, and they’re also both frequenters of the Bristol music scene. In addition to those collaborations, Plain is also a part of Justin Vernon’s and Aaron Dessner’s PEOPLE collective.
What A Boost is RoziPlain’s fifth solo effort, following 2016’s Friend of a Friend.“Conditions” follows previously released single “Symmetrical.” The new track is warm, pliable and colorful, even as Plain sings about more frigid forecasts. “When the conditions are right,” Plain sings, “It can be freezing at night.” Here’s what she said about the new tune:
This song is about hunting for drafts in a well insulated house. Searching for the rooftop without any frost on a freezing day. Wondering about the heating situation. Inside feelings. Outside feelings. We recorded the guitar and drums of this song in LA with Chris Cohen on a day off whilst on tour with This Is The Kit. And then spent the next year adding bits here and there. It was a song I tried to record before that needed a bit of a new prism applied to it. Maybe re-recording a song about minus freezing weather in the 35 degree Californian sun was just what it needed. Warm the place up a bit. Gerard Black (from Babe and François & the Atlas Mountains) added his synths in Glasgow and I added quite a bit of Jupiter (that I recently acquired) in London. Alabaster de Plumes saxophone appears right at the end.
Taken from Rozi Plain’s new album ‘What a Boost’ (out 05th April 2019),
