This is the second compilation in the Don’t Stop Now series. It is still an expression of love, anger, hope and protest. Let it serve as a reminder that the fight for justice is not over, that the celebration of diversity is essential to progress, that we must work together for what is fair and good. Can’t stop. Won’t stop. Don’t stop now.
This time around all of the proceeds from this compilation benefit RAICES (Refugee & Immigrant Center for Education & Legal Services)
They promote justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to under served immigrant children, families, and refugees in Texas.
This compilation is an expression of love, anger, hope and protest on inauguration day. Let it serve as a reminder that the fight for justice is not over, that the celebration of diversity is essential to progress, that we must work together for what is fair and good. Can’t stop. Won’t Stop. Don’t stop now.
All proceeds from this compilation benefit the American Civil Liberties Union, an organization that defends individual freedoms in the face of government abuse, including speech and religion, a woman’s right to choose, the right to due process, and citizens rights to privacy. Each dollar donated will help protect the people of the United States, especially those most vulnerable, from the reckless authority of a Trump presidency.
A second single from space travel rock ’n’ rollers Swervedriver has just entered the atmosphere. “Drone Lover” from the forthcoming January 25th release Future Ruins sails and soars while a conscious chorus comments on the depersonalized nature of 21st century techno-warfare. The video is a fitting grainy and distorted collage peppered with found footage, live clips and drone-cam visuals.
Check out the “Drone Lover” video below and Future Ruins album.
Current Band
Adam Franklin- Lead Vocals- Guitars
Jim Hartridge – Vox – Guitars
Mikey Jones – Drums and vibes
Mick Quinn – Bass
or
Ben Ellis – Bass
Swervedriver is a band formed in 1989 in Oxford, England. A new album Future Ruins is released in January 2019.
Back in July, The Leo Weekly published an interview with Jenny Lewis where she is quoted as saying “I’m actually finishing up a mix on my record this week.” So, unless The Leo Weekly is lying, this news comes straight from one of America’s most beautifully voiced mouths. Alert your appropriate Kleenex stockists: tears incoming.
From the new album, The Voyager, available everywhere now.
British rock band Groundhogs‘ second album, Blues Obituary, was recently reissued with a special limited colour vinyl edition with a die-cut sleeve available.
Issued in 1969, Blues Obituary saw the band slimmed to the classic three-piece line up of Tony TS McPhee on guitar, Pete Cruikshank on bass and Ken Pustelnik on drums.
50th Anniversary limited edition die cut sleeve with liner notes from Mojo’s Dave Henderson.
The second studio album from The Groundhogs, The beginning of their domination as the hardest working band on the circuit, a testament to their creativity as they re-tooled the blues into a neo-psyche groove. Breaking from their traditional influences, the first stepping stone for the power trio who would blossom with ‘Thank Christ For the Bomb’, ‘Split’ and ‘Who Will Save The World?’.
Inspired by a Yardbirds’ freak out, hearing authentic Indian drumming and the magic that existed between this legendary trio, ‘Blues Obituary’ is a juggernaut of riffs.
According to Tony in Zig Zag’s John Tobler’s sleevenotes to the 1987 re-issue of ‘Blues Obituary’ it was the BBC’s John Peel producer John Walters that forced the band’s hand. “He decided he hated the blues,” McPhee told Tobler, “We figured it was time to get away from it.” .“A deep excursion into musical depths further down than Canned Heat ever dared go.”
This is classic raw British blues-rock with a slightly prog edge and features a ‘juggernaut’ of riffs. The audio has been remastered and this comes with two bonus tracks; the mono single cut of ‘BDD’ plus the B-side of that single, a brilliant solo acoustic McPhee performance of ‘Gasoline’.
This limited blue vinyl edition features a special die-cut sleeve and comes with an inner sleeve with notes and a download card.
The Wild Things are a British rock band fronted by lead singer Sydney Rae White, star of the hit Netflix/BBC show ‘Uncle’ & blockbuster movie ‘American Assassin‘. The band do everything themselves because they have a clear, definitive idea of who they are. They’ve sold out venues such as the Lexington and Islington Academy, are Kerrang! Magazine’s ‘Ones To Watch’, were featured artists on BBC Introducing/Radio 1 and have been premiered in the music bible Clash Magazine.
Band Members
Syd, Cam, Rob, Pete
upcoming debut album, ‘You’re Really Something’.
London-based alt-rock four-piece, The Wild Things have released a stripped-back music video for ‘Better Off Alone’, the fourth track to be released from their upcoming debut album.
The song, which was released last week, is an acoustic heart-breaker about falling madly in love with the man of your dreams… And then losing him to the woman of his dreams.
The video shows siblings Sydney Rae White (vocals, guitar) and Cam White (bass, vocals) performing a stripped-back version of the track outside the studio where they recorded their debut album earlier this year.
The 12-track record ‘You’re Really Something’ will be released on 23 November via AWAL. The album was recorded in the basement of a castle in West London, produced by the band’s very own Cam White (bass, vocals), and engineered / mixed by Adrian Hall at London’s Metropolis Studios.
THE WILD THINGS ARE:
Sydney Rae White – vocals, guitar
Cam White – bass, vocals
Rob Kendrick – guitar, vocals
Pete Wheeler – drums
‘Better Off Alone’ by The Wild Things. out November 23rd.
Austin Crane is Valley Maker, a singer song-writer hailing from Seattle, USA. He will release his sophomore LP, Rhododendron, on October. 12th via Frenchkiss Records.
Following his previous single, “Light On The Ground,” Crane released another new single, album opener “A Couple Days.” The song was one of four tracks that he recorded alongside Chaz Bear of Toro y Moi whom he met back in college at the University of South Carolina. Bear produced the track and also contributed drums, bass, keyboards and backing vocals.
The song, which also has an accompanying video directed by Joseph Kolean, showcases Crane’s lush, textured folk vocals, spacious sound and melancholy backing vocals. His language might be metaphorical and rhetorical, but his tender voice and indie-rock songwriting are both immensely grounding.
The remainder of the album was produced by Trevor Spencer (Father John Misty, Fleet Foxes), and includes contributions from drummer James Barone (Beach House, Tennis), bassist Eli Thomson (Father John Misty), trumpeter Brandon Camarda, saxophonist Andrew Swanson and vocalist Amy Fitchette.
From the new Valley Maker record, Rhododendron – out October 12, 2018 on Frenchkiss Records.
Rhode Island’s Deer Tick have held the ‘most distinctive vocalist’ title for years thanks to their singer John J. McCauley’s raw and unruly voicebox. But now the band’s guitarist and drummer, Ian O’Neil and Dennis Ryan, are giving him a run for his money on this newly released track. Find it on Deer Tick’s upcoming compilation album, Mayonnaise, out February 1st via Partisan Records.
Deer Tick: undercutting expectations since 2004.
“I think a lot of my favorite artists have always done stuff like that,” Deer Tick front man John McCauley says from his home in Nashville, reflecting on his band’s love of unexpected mashups: tender lyrics layered over pissed off guitars; classical music flourishes delivered nearly naked and high. Deer Tick’s perfected it all, mostly as an outlier, revered by a legion of fans, respected by peers, but not part of any one scene. With their highly anticipated new project(s), the previous two albums released simultaneously titled Deer Tick Vol. 1 and Deer Tick Vol. 2, the crew from Rhode Island prove that their punk-roots rock has only gotten better with age.
McCauley, who is married to Vanessa Carlton and became a dad. The couple’s little girl is now two years old. For the first time ever, Deer Tick––are an all-consuming band known for constant touring and steady artistic output.
When the band came back together for their beloved after-party shows at the Newport Folk Festival, the reunion reminded them what they missed about creating with one another. “Playing that week with the guys made me really want to do it––it made everyone want to do it,” McCauley says. “So we started making some plans to go in the studio to reord agan.
Near the end of Reagan’s first term, the Western Massachusetts Hardcore scene coughed up an insanely shaped chunk called Dinosaur. Comprised of WMHC vets, the trio was a miasmic tornado of guitar noise, bad attitude and near-subliminal pop-based-shape-shifting. Through their existence, Dinosaur (amended to Dinosaur Jr. for legal reasons) defined a very specific, very aggressive set of oblique song-based responses to what was going on. Their one constant was the scalp-fryingly loud guitar and deeply buried vocals of J Mascis.
Sure, Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis isn’t reinventing the wheel with this latest release, but that’s because he invented the wheel. Where was your outrage when Thomas Edison refused to redesign the light bulb? Exactly. This here is the title track off his latest solo record of the same name, released just last week.
Like its predecessors, Elastic Days was recorded at J’s own Bisquiteen studio. Mascis does almost all his own stunts, although Ken Miauri (who also appeared on Tied to a Star) plays keyboards and there are a few guest vocal spots. These include old mates Pall Jenkins (Black Heart Procession), and Mark Mulcahy (Miracle Legion, etc.), as well as the newly added voice of Zoë Randell (Luluc) among others. But the show is mostly J’s and J’s alone.
He laughs when I tell him I’m surprised by how melodic his vocals seem to have gotten. Asked if that was intentional, he says, “No. I took some singing lessons and do vocal warm-ups now, but that was mostly just to keep from blowing out my vocal cords when Dino started touring again. The biggest difference with this record might have to do with the drums. I’d just got a new drum set I was really excited about. I don’t have too many drum outlets at the moment, so I played a lot more drums than I’d originally planned. I just kept playing. [laughs] I’d play the acoustic guitar parts then head right to the drums.”
Elastic Days brims with great moments. Epic hooks that snare you in surprisingly subtle ways, guitar textures that slide against each other like old lovers, and structures that range from a neo-power-ballad (“Web So Dense”) to jazzily-canted West Coasty post-psych (“Give It Off”) to a track that subliminally recalls the keyboard approach of Scott Thurston-era Stooges (“Drop Me”). The album plays out with a combination of holism and variety that is certain to set many brains ablaze.
J says he’ll be taking this album on the road later in the year. He’ll be playing by himself, but unlike other solo tours he says he’ll be standing up this time. “I used to just sit down and build a little fort around myself – amps, music stands, drinks stands, all that stuff. But I just realized it sounds better if the amps are higher up because I’m so used to playing with stacks. So I’ll stand this time.” I ask if it’s not pretty weird to stand alone on a big stage. “Yeah,” he says. “But it’s weird sitting down too.” Ha. Good point. One needs to be elastic. In all things.
There is plenty of drumming on the dozen songs on Elastic Days. But for those expecting the hallucinatory overload of Dinosaur Jr’s live attack, the gentleness of the approach here will draw easy comparisons to Neil Young’s binary approach to working solo versus working with Crazy Horse.
The most impressive thing about Jake Webb’s musical project, Methyl Ethel, is how consistent the quality of music is. Have you ever listened to a Methyl Ethel song you didn’t like? Think about it. Also, while you’re thinking, how ’bout the fact that no one’s ever seen Nicholas Cage and Marilyn Manson in the same room at the same time? Exactly. ‘Scream Whole’ is the first single off Methyl Ethel’s upcoming record, Triage, out Friday 15th February, 2019.
