San Francisco-based singer/songwriter Tim Cohen has long been a fixture of the city’s garage rock and psych rock revival scene as one of the minds behind The Fresh & Onlys and Magic Trick. Despite his already storied career over the past 20 years, his forthcoming sixth solo album, “You Are Still Here”, represents another step forward with his first solo album recorded in the studio. The result is a set of sounds that invites with a friendly psych folk sound but holds some wild instrumental breakdowns just beneath. Cohen has now returned with his latest single, “Bottom Feeders,” .
“Bottom Feeders” brings the anxious undercurrent of these songs to the forefront, opening on a wiry surf guitar line before the hypnotic refrain enters, bolstered by a psychedelic horn flourish. The driving pace hints back to Cohen’s garage rock roots, but the song holds onto a sense of trippy melody that is pure ‘60s psych rock. Both arresting and alluring, the song brings out both Cohen’s catchy melodies and acid-fried freak-outs in equal measure. The qualities that have made him such a fixture in the Bay Area are out in full force on his new record.
Cohen says of the song, “My flight out to Denver, where I plan to record my new album with James Barone, was delayed for six hours. I had eaten the weed edible, but sitting in the airport for so long began to drive nails into my brain. I decided I would use this anxiety to my benefit and write all the lyrics to the album. ‘Dead and Company,’ the rebranding of one of my favourite all-time bands (except with John Mayer), were doing shows at Red Rocks the next day and it turns out I was sharing a plane with many of their fans.”
“In a dark turn, I painted a picture of these people’s lives in my mind. I thought about what it used to mean to be a (Grateful) Dead head, squandering your life possessions and following the Dead to the end of the road. In this new world, following “Dead and Company” meant something entirely different. So I came up with the worst insult I could for people that pretend to be something they are clearly not: bottom feeders. People that feed on other peoples’ vision or opinion of them. The whole song was about deadheads flying first class to a show in Colorado.”
“I ended up recording those lyrics but scrapping the whole thing. I reassigned the song to a different idea and kept the title. The new lyrics which you hear are more about oblivion and self-awareness, nothing to do with bottom feeders per se. But I liked the title so I kept it.” Check out the song below and watch for You Are Still Here, coming March 26th via Bobo Integral.
Elena Tonra of Daughter resumes her Ex:Re moniker to present a reinterpretation of her debut solo album. “Ex:Re with 12 Ensemble”, released today, is a collaboration between Tonra, classical composer Josephine Stephenson and one of the UK’s leading string orchestras, 12 Ensemble. Originally released in 2018, Ex:Re (pronounced “Ex Ray” and meaning “regarding Ex”) laid bare Tonra’s unfiltered internal monologue after the end of a relationship. Containing her most personal lyrics to date and brought into being with the help of Stephenson and producer/drummer Fabian Prynn, Ex:Re struck a chord with the broken-hearted and brought closure to a chapter in Tonra’s life.
Ex:Re with 12 Ensemble reimagines and complements its predecessor. It was recorded by Fabian Prynn during performances at Kings Place (the multi-arts venue in London’s King’s Cross neighbourhood) on the 30th November 2019, where Tonra was joined onstage by Stephenson on piano and the 12-piece string orchestra, 12 Ensemble.
Josephine Stephenson, a celebrated composer, arranger and performer, was approached by Kings Place to curate an event for their “Venus Unwrapped” 2019 season. Stephenson saw space in the programming for a live performance that bridged the gap between the classical and non-classical worlds, and having recently been involved with Ex:Re, collaborating once more with Tonra made perfect sense.
Stephenson’s new arrangements of the original Ex:Re album into classical form strip back the songs, heightening the emotion and vulnerability of the lyrics. “Working with acoustic instruments was an opportunity to add subtle, yet tangible dynamic details to highlight Elena’s words. As the Ex:Re songs are often built from loops, I enjoyed exploring the multitude of possible variations and reinventions within these, adding counter-melodies and making small changes in harmony or voicing. After touring with the Ex:Re band for a year, I knew the songs inside out, and had already started expanding and orchestrating them in my head. I also felt fearless knowing I was writing for the 12 Ensemble, who are all exceptionally talented musicians and comfortable in all sorts of genres.“
Tonra and Stephenson found respite in the recordings months after the Kings Place performance. “We were mixing the record while concerts and events around the world were being cancelled and postponed, so it was really moving to listen to the audio over and over during that time. The sound of a room filled with people was, and is, something we were all greatly missing” says Tonra. Ex:Re with 12 Ensemble, mixed by Jonathan Lefèvre-Reich, warps the space between audience and performer. It places the listener in the centre of the music, surrounded by a semi-circular wall of string sounds, to recreate the experience of the performance from up close. “There is also some magic in there” says Tonra, “Jonathan added some beautiful moments of story-telling in the mix. On ‘New York’, for example, the strings suddenly feel as though they are dripping down the sides of your head.”
When Manchester, England-based band Pins’ original rhythm section decided to move on it left founding members Faith Vern and Lois MacDonald (plus Kyoko Swan) with a conundrum in terms of how to move things forwards. “We had to figure out a different way of making music without a traditional drummer,” explain Vern. “Lois was really getting into all the drum machines and synthesizers, so it was getting a little more electronic at that point anyway.”
The trio decided that rather than recruit new permanent members they’d work with a rotating cast of collaborators. It was a bold move but it certainly paid off as their third album Hot Slick is arguably their most cohesive work to date. The band sound bigger and brighter than ever and they have crafted an album that still maintains all the edginess that made PINS such an interesting proposition in the first place, but they’ve also expanded their sonic palette and taken it onto a sticky neon-lit dance floor.
“We wanted this album to be a bit more electronic but keep that dark energy in there,” explains Vern. “I think it’s certainly the first album we’ve done which you can dance to. The beauty of the set up now is it’s just the three of us at the core and we can bring in anyone else who wants to collaborate and people can come and go as they please. In that way, there’s a lot less pressure. And when we were writing the album our roles were flexible and interchangeable. So for example, Lois played the guitar on some tracks, I played on some, and Kyoko did. It was like if you’ve got a bass guitar next to you just pick it up. It was a lot looser in that we didn’t have assigned roles which made us much freer.”
After releasing their second album, Wild Nights, via Bella Union, Vern explains why the band decided to self-release again via their own Haus of Pins label. “When we were with Bella Union, creatively it was great, but financially it was a bit of a struggle,” she says. “That’s simply due to the nature of record contracts. Abbey and Simon [Raymonde], who run the label, were always hugely supportive. At the time we felt like we needed some additional support from the wider team there. Eventually, we felt perhaps we weren’t getting what we wanted out of things.”
After looking around to see what other deals might be on offer, the band weren’t overly impressed. Vern explains that most labels “were all about taking more off us than we were willing to give and we certainly didn’t want to give up creative control.”
PINS tested the waters by releasing their 2017 EP, Bad Thing, and 2017 single, “Serve the Rich,” on Haus of Pins. “We worked with Cargo records who took on aspects we didn’t know much about such as getting records pressed, storing them, and the distribution to record stores which hugely takes the pressure off,” Vern says.
And besides releasing their own music, when the band began the label back in 2012 they supported other emerging artists, releasing early recordings by the likes of Dream Wife, September Girls, Abjects, and Cheri Cheri Jaguar. Vern admits they wouldn’t be averse to exploring that aspect of the label again. “It would be nice to release more vinyl in the future and start releasing other artists. But let’s see how the land lies after all this corona shit is over!” she laughs. “I mean the music business was a struggle before this, but being a self-releasing band at least we can actually put our album out! I know other artists have been advised by their labels not to put anything out yet, but who knows what will happen?”
There really aren’t many bands like Really From, whose of mix emo, math rock, jazz and more is as distinct as it is seamless, and their sound varies from song to song too. This second single from their upcoming self-titled album has more of an ethereal art pop vibe than the first single, and both are great. Drawing on influences of jazz improvisation, minimalist composition, and punk rock ethos, the Boston-based band Really From dismiss traditional genre and formulae in favour of explorative, indie rock amalgamations. Since 2014, their ever-evolving sound has incorporated stylistic touchstones from math rock to ambient, exploring themes of place, self, and culture through a dialect entirely their own. Michi Tassey (keys, synth bass) and Chris Lee-Rodriguez (guitar) exchange vocal leads regularly, shifting perspectives and ranges as their songs cascade through varied musical worlds, refracting their thematic questions concerned with intergenerational trauma, tokenism, and immigrant parenthood. Trumpeter Matt Hull and drummer Sander Bryce often take on lead voices of their own, further reconfiguring traditional notions of genre and songwriting.
“Try Lingual,” the lead single from Really From’s self-titled and third album, sees the quartet at their most all-encompassing. Thematically, it’s an apt setting for exploring Lee-Rodriguez’s personal struggles with learning Spanish, and Tassey’s with Japanese, in order to better communicate with their families and communities. At first calm and collected, then brassy, chaotic, and disjointed, “Try Lingual” is wrought with the anxiety of struggling to keep up. Tassey and Lee-Rodriguez sing as foils to one another, as if to encourage the other to unlearn their self-blaming habits. Trumpeter Hull’s jazzy sensibility often sings in unison with his melodic counterparts, but when let loose between and around the beats, Hull’s calculated, eruptive wailing mirrors the eureka moments that abound when trying to learn a new language, as well reflecting the less conclusive and more challenging hurdles that come with learning a new tongue. Like a linguistic epiphany, new worlds are revealed. Previously impossible conversations become accessible. Yet the learning persists, and other doors remain to be opened.
Really From are especially adept at bending their somewhat unusual instrumentation of trumpet, keys, guitar, and drumset into both abstract and intentional forms. On the album’s second single, “Quirk,” a warm swell of synth welcomes listeners into a bouncing, odd-timed exploration of inherited trauma, qualities, and laughter. Underscored by JD Beck-like flourishes of drummer SanderBryce, the opening 5/8 groove builds unpredictably, but with a precise foundation for Lee-Rodriguez’s lyrical unpacking of intergenerational trauma. While “Quirk” might not offer definitive resolution to its raised questions, its lines are punctuated with poetic acceptance—“As you sow your seed / I’ll reap from everything that stays.” “Your father knew this / your mother did too / the fault’s not on them.”
Releases March 12th, 2021
Really From is Chris Lee-Rodriguez, Sander Bryce, Michi Tassey & Matt Hull Chris Lee-Rodriguez – Vocals, Electric Guitar, Classical Guitar Sander Bryce – Drum Set Michi Tassey – Vocals, Piano, Keyboard, Synth Bass (Tracks 1 and 7) Matt Hull – Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Trombone Sai Boddupalli – Sound Design, Programming, Synth Bass (Tracks 2, 4-6, 8), Bass Guitar (Track 3)
Hailing from Canada, King KhanUnlimited have filled this release with biting social insights (mostly about their southern neighbour) driven by some very analogue sounding punk rock that will take you back to the hey day of CBGB’s (think Ramones, Dead Boys even Blondie). For all that they have found a very appropriate home on the Australian based Bargain Bin Records. Featuring his majesty’s dream line up of Bordeaux’s finest rock‘n’roll lifers, The Magnetix and Fredovitch (from King Khan & The Shrines), King Khan Unlimited’s new slab of punk rock is chock full of stinging social critique delivered with wit and a wry smile.
Their first single “Pigment Of Your Imagination” tackles the complicated topic of pigment as related to the tidal wave of racism all over the world. “Pigment Of Your Imagination” also features Eamon Sandwith from The Chats professing his love for, uh, Shea Butter amongst other things… Opening the charge is “Bedwetter”, a very Ramones-esque lament to exactly that. Heavy bass and drums underpin this song and you can imagine how great this would be live. Second song Narcissist has the refrain “narcissist, you don’t exist” and could be a tribute to the now former president of the United States (even though they reference Napoleon throughout the song). “Trapped in your own illusion” is much like the aftermath of 45 leaving office. Megpie Eyes is equally Dead Boys and The Stooges, with a heavy blues undertone.
The title track “Opiate Them Asses” carries along in the same vein as Narcissist, with messages of people being blinded by media and online tropes. Then we step away from the somewhat socio-political messaging to Al Capones Symphallytic Fever Dream, a song referencing what Al Capone might have dreamt about (whiskey running?!?) and exploring the Capone mythology in their own way. Crime Don’t Pay seems like a deliberately ironic song to include after a song about Al Capone. This morphs into Foaming At The Mouth, it took me while to realise that this one actually sounds a lot like The Vapours, Turning Japanese, never the less a good fun song.
The second half of the album is less hook-you-in, but is still pretty solid and listenable. Modern Frankenstein, Do You Wanna Get Hurt and Kamikazi are all pretty solid efforts, but compared to the first 3 songs are exactly what they are – solid B-sides. Pigment of Your Imagination has some interesting and clever word play. Kamikazi is an ode to over doing it on the drink, then crashing and burning(they will fit into the Bargain Bin collective well).
The end song is Play Safe has some nice plinky-plonk piano and is the most ballad type song on the album.
“Opiate Them Asses” is a solid punk rock album. The songs where they are making a socio-political comment (perhaps where the bands passions lie) and that are underpinned by a great track are the strongest on the album. When the band settles in to just being a punk band singing about girls and beer the strengths taper off a bit (lyrically, the band are pretty clever almost through the whole album).
Opiate Them Asses is definitely a play through with the best songs being Bedwetter, Narcissist and Megpie Eyes, just don’t listen too hard to the second half and the whole thing will feel like its still all good fun the more you listen.
“WelcomeBackToMilk” is the studio album by Beth Jeans Houghton and the first for her under the project DuBlonde, released in the United Kingdom on 18th May 2015 by Mute Records. The album was written, composed, and performed by DuBlonde and produced by Bad Seed and Grinderman member Jim Sclavunos.
Du Blonde is not a persona or a character, it’s then 25 year old Beth Jeans Houghton ripping it up and starting again. Welcome Back To Milk is the Newcastle-born and sometimes Californian based singer’s second album, but her debut as Du Blonde, and it’s a complete reinvention: new name, new sound, new band, new attitude. Where 2012’s debut Yours Truly Cellophane Nose threw everything at a song, Welcome Back To Milk strips everything back and is one massive release of pent up aggression, captured perfectly by Jim Sclavunos. Heavy riffs, loud drums, vocal snarls contrast beautifully with more poignant balladry and tenderness that fans of Houghton’s previous work will recognise. Future Islands frontman Samuel T Herring also provides guest vocals on My Mind Is On My Mind. Our first taste of Houghton’s latest project is a confident and brilliantly delivered collection of songs. What she does next really is anyone’s guess – perhaps she doesn’t even know herself. Ultimately, though, I guess this complete lack of predictability is a big part of what makes Beth Jeans Houghton such a great artist.
This would appear to be Beth Jeans Houghton’s vision, from start to finish. She’s credited with song writing and vocals (obviously) but also with playing many of the instruments too. No small undertaking then. What you get is intelligent and cutting songcraft. The words (and the way they’re presented) have been honed and re- honed to perfection. There’s a fine intellect at work here. For me (and these things are always personal taste), the simpler arrangements worked best, just piano and voice. There’s a real intimacy and baring of the soul in this album, and it’s done with total honesty and conviction. After Beth Jeans Houghton’s debut album Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose’s release in 2012, she and the band toured extensively, performed at high-profile musical events, including Glastonbury, The Great Escape, Latitude and Bestival.
In November 2012, midway through recording the follow-up in Los Angeles with The Hooves of Destiny, the crisis broke out. “When I listened back to what we’d recorded, I didn’t see any of myself in it… None of it was angry, none of it was sad. I wasn’t being true to myself,” the singer said, speaking to The Observer. She broke up the band and ditched her name, opting for a different sound, described as “spiky, propulsive” and “exhilarating.” This drastic move had been preceded by a breakdown she had in the summer of 2012 in a Zurich hotel room, during a European tour. “I felt my head go. It was the scariest thing. It felt like my brain was melting,” Houghton remembered. After several months of dieting and meditating she completely recovered.
“This is a new sound, a new project. Du Blonde is a new incarnation and one step closer to assuming my ultimate form. Having freed myself from the rusty and bloody shackles of Beth JeansHoughton – both musically and spiritually – I felt it only right to step forth under a new name and let the rituals commence,” Houghton stated, explaining the moniker conversion. Asked what has prevented her from playing louder on Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose, Du Blonde said: “I think a lot of it had to do with the way I learnt how to write and play guitar. I taught myself, and therefore had no concept of time signatures and keys, so often my songs would turn out pretty experimental because, well, they were experiments… Due to the complex or odd nature of the songs I was writing, putting distortion on things just didn’t work. To make the best of a raw, overdriven sound, I needed to keep it simple, which is only something I learned once I had a better grasp on chord progressions and rhythms.
There aren’t many musicians in the country as creative and as interesting as her at this point in time, and “Welcome Back To Milk” represents another triumph in her weird and wonderful saga.“ So BJH ditched the hooves, went blonde and hitched her wagon to a brand new edgier sound. Good for her, so it seems. Sold to the fish in the corner on the chorus alone, with it’s epic drum/guitar mash-up, she’s got one hell of a vocal range that wallops a whole range of emotions into orbit.
Would recommend her new album Lung Bread for Daddy as well.
UK artist Du Blonde (aka Beth Jeans Houghton) will release new album “Homecoming” April 2nd, and the album features appearances from Garbage’s Shirley Manson and Ezra Furman. Here’s the first fizzy track Furman collab, a catchy rocker titled “I’m Glad That We Broke Up.” Due for release in April 2021, ‘Homecoming’ is the first record to be engineered, produced and self released by Du Blonde. Written and recorded over several sessions between Los Angeles, London and Newcastle, ‘Homecoming’ is a no holds barred collection of Garage, Glam and hard rock finery, featuring a couple of tear-your-hair-out slow saddies for good measure.
Du Blonde is back with this new album Homecoming and with it, her own record label, clothing brand and all-round art house Daemon T.V. Written, recorded and produced by Du Blonde , Homecoming is a refreshing taste of pop-grunge finery, featuring guests including Shirley Manson, Ezra Furman,Andy Bell (Ride/Oasis), The Farting Suffragettes, and members of Girl Ray and Tunng among others.
The album began as a few songs hashed out on a porch in LA in early 2020, and as Houghton’s desire to create something self-made and self-released merged with the then incoming pandemic. Admirers of Du Blonde’s previous two studio albums (2015’s Welcome Backto Milk and 2019’s Lung Bread for Daddy) might be surprised to find that Homecoming takes on the form of a pop record. The garage rock, grunge and metal guitar licks that have come to define Du Blonde are still there in spades, but as a whole the direction of the album is pop through and through. Houghton’s freak flag is still flying high however, a fact that’s no more apparent than on ‘Smoking Me Out’, a bizarre mash up of 80’s shock rock, metal and 60’s pop group harmonies.
This defiant and energetic attitude can be heard throughout Homecoming, whether writing about her medication (30mg of citalopram, once a day), her queerness on ‘I Can’t Help You There’ (“I’ve been a queen, I’ve been a king, and still I don’t fit in”), to the joyous and manic explosion of ‘Pull The Plug’ (“say that I’m deranged, but I’ve been feeling more myself than ever”), Houghton is nothing if not herself, full force and unapologetic in her approach to writing, playing and recording her music.
I’m Glad That We Broke Up (feat. Ezra Furman) · Du Blonde through Daemon T.V Released on: 2021-02-03
My new single “Have to Do For Now” was on NPR Music’s All Songs Considered this week
my new single. In case you missed it, I just released a new song called “Have To Do For Now”
Best Of Luck is one month old as of today! I learned so much in the process of making this record. From day one Ben Harper had my back. If he hadn’t showed up for me not only would I not have had a new record to share with you all, but I wouldn’t be out here again working across the country (and soon Europe) doing what I love night after night. Thanks Ben for your friendship and guidance. Thank you for the example you set for me to clean up my act, get sober, and get to work. This is just the start.
“Something In Return” (Live) by Christopher Paul Stelling The new album album ‘Best Of Luck,’ produced by Ben Harper, is available now
Jethro Tull’s entrance into the ’80s, simply titled A, is getting a reboot four decades after its original release. The album introduced a new sound and a new line-up, including Dave Pegg and Eddie Jobson (who features prominently on keyboards and violin). To celebrate, a new six-disc version of the album,A (A La Mode) 40th Anniversary Edition, will be released on April 16th. After their successful and eclectic trilogy of albums in the late ’70s – Songs From the Wood (1977), Heavy Horses (1978) and Stormwatch (1979) – Jethro Tull returned at the start of the new decades with not only a different mindset, but a different line up as well.
A was originally recorded solely by the band’s founder Ian Anderson. (The album’s title is derived from the initial tapes, labeled A for Anderson.) But after hearing the more modern, synthesizer-based sound, the group’s label, Chrysalis, decided to release the LP under the Jethro Tull name, noting that this was the direction it wanted the band to head in.
Only two Jethro Tull members play on the album: Anderson and guitarist Martin Barre. Keyboardist John Evan, organist David Palmer and drummer Barrie Barlow had already left the band following bassist John Glascock’s death. For A, the new lineup recruited Dave Pegg as the replacement bassist, Mark Craney on drums and guest performer Eddie Jobson (Roxy Music, Frank Zappa). Even though the album wasn’t a hit, the subsequent tour fared well with fans.
In addition to a relaunch of the original album, newly mixed by esteemed producer Steven Wilson, the three-CD, three-DVD anniversary collection will also feature previously unheard studio renditions, a remixed version of the 1981 Slipstream video collection and unreleased live recordings, including a full concert from the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena recorded in August 1980. The original album has been expanded with five unreleased tracks from the recording sessions, including a different take of the single “Working John, Working Joe”, an extended version of “Crossfire” and the outtake “Coruisk”.
A (A La Mode) 40th Anniversary Edition also includes a live recording from November 1980 of the band’s full concert at the LA Sports Arena. The performance mixed new A tracks (“Black Sunday, Batteries Not Included” and “Uniform”) with older hits, like “Aqualung, Heavy Horses” and “Songs From The Wood”. A few of these live tracks first appeared in 1981 on Slipstream, a video collection originally released on VHS and Laserdisc. The full Slipstream video, which made its DVD debut in 2004, is also included in this anniversary edition and has been newly remixed by Steven Wilson.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of Jethro Tull’s most radical musical departures, a 3CD/3DVD casebound book deluxe edition of A. Contents: – The original album and associated recordings remixed in DTS and Dolby AC 3, 5.1 Surround, and stereo 96/24 LPCM by Steven Wilson – A full concert from the LA Sports Arena recorded in August 1980 mixed by Steven Wilson in DTS and Dolby AC 3, 5.1 Surround, and stereo 96/24 LPCM – A flat transfer of the original 1980 master at 96/24 LPCM stereo – Five unreleased tracks from the recording sessions (including the unreleased track Coruisk) – A DVD of the Slipstream video remixed by Steven Wilson in DTS and Dolby AC 3, 5.1 Surround, and stereo 96/24 LPCM – A book filled with an extensive history of the album, track-by-track annotations by Ian Anderson, rare photographs and more.
Jethro Tull, ‘A’ (A La Mode) The 40th Anniversary Edition Track Listing Disc One: Original Album and Associated Tracks (Steven Wilson Stereo Remix) Disc Two: Live at the LA Sports Arena 1980 (Part 1) (Steven Wilson Stereo Remix) Disc Three: Live at the LA Sports Arena 1980 (Part 2) (Steven Wilson Stereo Remix)
New post-punk teenagers and latest Speedy Wunderground singings The Lounge Society hail from in and around the Pennine towns of Hebden Bridge and Todmorden in the Calder valley of West Yorkshire. There the rain falls two hundred days a year upon the moss-draped, post-industrial ruins, the clouds scud overhead at speed and up on the heathered moor-tops carrion crows hungrily peck at the skulls of dead sheep.
But down below, magical things are afoot. strongholds of independent-living, Todmorden, where the quartet cut their teeth, is known for its abundance of magic mushrooms and as the ufo-sighting capital of Britain, while four miles down the road, the steep-sided hippy idyll of Hebden Bridge has been called “a drug town with a tourist problem”. either way, this stretch of valley 25 miles from the centre of Manchester in which the band operate is the type of backwater that is attractive to outlaws of various varieties, as well as artists, writers and all-round miscreants for whom life in the city or the suburbs is just a little too straight. in Calderdale, culture is allowed to breathe.
More recently the valley has enjoyed a musical renaissance centred around the venues of the Trades club and the Golden Lion, a movement that some have glibly dubbed “the Calderfornia sound”, and which has recently spawned working men’s club and the Orielles….and now The Lounge Society. “growing up 5 minutes down the road from both venues has been hugely influential for us,” they say. “sneaking in the back door when we were 14 years old and having to keep our heads down in order to watch the House of Love or Peter Hook was the making of us.”
Like any musical movement worth its salt, it’s not one that the bands themselves might willingly admit to being a part of, yet there must be something in the water. for while their contemporaries deal in jangle pop and contemporary rave, The Lounge Society – who met at their local high school in nearby Mytholmroyd (otherwise famous as the birth-place of poet Ted Hughes) – explore something more raucous. it’s a sound shot through with the adrenalized and undeniable youthful surges that informed both proto- and post-punk, with the velvet underground, talking heads and Fat White Family cited as shared influences. on their debut ep “Silk For The Starving” there’s a rawness which belies a self-assured song writing slickness that is almost alarming for four teenagers.
in tracks such as ‘Cain’s Heresy’ and their pulsing, paranoid reverb-laden debut single ‘Generation Game’ (released as a limited edition seven-inch on Speedy Wunderground in march 2020) there’s a sense of the anthemic too. the latter track, with its “What Will the Us Do?” tag-line was bursting with so many ideas it was split over two sides of the same piece of vinyl. One reviewer remarked on it being a collision of beta band ambition, Fat Whites rabble-rousing and early Roxy Music sheen.
Little wonder they were spotted and swiftly signed to the UK’s coolest and best small indie label (an accolade Speedy Wunderground officially won at the aim awards) in late summer 2020. Speedy, less we forget, have already gifted the world with some of the best new bands of their generation: Black Midi, Squid, Warmduscher, Black Country New Road and others.
Recorded with producer Dan Carey (Kate Tempest, Bat for Lashes, Fontaines d.c.) as soon as covid-10 lockdown restrictions were lifted, “Silk For The Starving”crackles with the type of listless, nervous energy that comes when you’re teenager who has been denied all the simple pleasures in life, and you’ve been robbed of a precious summer that you’ll never get back.
‘Cains Heresy’ – Produced by Dan Carey Out February 18th at 6PM on Speedy Wunderground
‘Burn The Heather’ struts with brittle a certain ratio/tom club-style funk and takes its title from the annual local ritual burning of the moor-top heather by the rich rural landowners for their lucrative grouse-shoots (and which those down in the valley blame on causing frequent flooding), while also recycling a line from a Lawrence Ferlinghetti poem. “our lyrics are a call-to-arms for people who share our dismay at the dismal future being carved out for people like us,” the band explain. “we want each line to be a brick through the window of just the right people.”
The complex spikey prog-punk arrangements of ‘Television’ meanwhile, most recall the band for which the song is named, but with the type of ragged groove that Happy Mondays might have stuck on for hours in their early garage days. this is music that follows a strong north-west lineage whose roots reach deep into Manchester’s past, yet without ever once resorting to nostalgia. it’s future-facing. elsewhere there’s plenty of sardonic sloganeering akin to mark e. smith were he lost in the rolling news of twitter feeds that tell of corrupt presidents, useless prime ministers, race hate, rising debt, online trolls, empty celebrity culture, poisonous ideals and the general sense that the western world is in a tailspin freefall towards complete disintegration.
“There is an anger in the lyrics because we are angry, but we are angry at how fucked the world has become,” they say. “but our anger is not just speculative. we want to do our part in setting things right, little by little, and music is a tried and tested means of doing that.”
If this is the case then The Lounge Society are going down swinging with a glorious soundtrack that could only be made in the here and the now. “genocide makes for good tv!” yells Davey on ‘Television’, while ‘Cain’s Heresy’ tells of “the face of a nation – bloodied and bruised”. the ep’s raucous closer ‘Valley Bottom Fever’ depicts life in a “Lonely town with a lonely state of mind” and tackles the subject of the twisted mindset that takes hold when one doesn’t leave the sun-starved place in which they live often enough. in Calderdale they call it valley bottom fever.
The Lounge Society sing about what they know, then. make no mistake, this is the sound of young England: articulate, enraged and energised. and – perhaps crucially – highly danceable too. it should give hope to anyone who has lost faith in the future, because here the future is in safe hands.
The Lounge Society are: Cameron Davey (vocals/bass), Herbie May (guitar), Hani Paskin-Hussain (guitar) and Archie Dewis (drums).
The debut EP by The Lounge Society, ‘Silk For The Starving’, out June 18th on Speedy Wunderground Records.
The Fat Angel Sings 