Girlpool full-band transformation has illuminated its raw sound in deep and unexpected ways, as heard on last year’s Powerplant. In addition to “Picturesong” — a one-off single with Blood-Orange” Dev Hynes HarmonyTividad and Cleo Tucker have continued to explore different textures in self-released solo recordings, which provide clues for a pair of new Girlpool songs out now.
“Where You Sink” first appeared on Tividad’s Oove Is Rare as a quiet acoustic track, but here gets transformed into dream-pop at a clop-along drum-machine beat. The song coos sweetly as it puzzles over human desire. Tividad writes in a press release:
“Where You Sink” explores our fixations on characters in our lives and the projections we create. It explores our natural human desire to be made special by another. I wrote it when I found myself looking at one person from various angles (emotionally); I found them to be beautiful in toxic but charismatic ways. It’s about loving someone who you don’t really have the chance to get to know fully because their time is spent trying to get out of their head, further from reality. It explores the complications of trying to get close to someone who ultimately wants to be far from themselves.”
“Lucy’s,” likewise, also appeared on a solo recording — now deleted — from Cleo Tucker. Girlpool’s version turns inward with big, jagged, Polvo-style guitar chords as Tucker ponders “stubborn feelings from a past relationship”
I wrote “Lucy’s” a couple of years ago to sort through some droning thoughts about hope, distraction and love. “I swear I’ll be all right / Although (you) are in the sky,” continues to resonate. These lyrics distinguish a time when my partner would check out from our relationship. I reassured myself that even when they were not present, and I was, that I would be all right. I was hopeful that my partner would find resolve from their struggles, which stifled their capacity to provide the kind of care and attention that I needed. I practiced nurture, and I hoped that they would find the ambition that I saw in them.
Girlpool is an indie rock band from Los Angeles, California. Its members are Cleo Tucker (guitar, vocals) and Harmony Tividad (bass, vocals). Their self-titled debut EP was posted on their Bandcamp account in 2014, and re-released on Wichita Recordings later that year. The band released its debut album, Before the World Was Big, in 2015, also on Wichita Recordings. Their second album, Powerplant, was released in 2017, via Anti- Records. They added a drummer, Miles Wintner, on their Powerplant album.
Matt Piucci broke the news yesterday; for long-time fans of the Paisley Underground it called for an extended “wow”. The Bangles, The Dream Syndicate, The Rain Parade and The Three O’Clock had all convened (or re-convened) to record a set of each other’s songs. It’s kind of like Rainy Day II. Rainy Day being a compilation from back in the 80s of the same bands covering earlier songs that had influenced them.
At the dawn of the 80s these were new bands in Los Angeles forming the core of the small yet influential PaisleyUnderground scene. In 2013, the four ensembles got back together to share the bill at L.A.’s Fonda Theatre for a charity concert to benefit the non-profit Education Through Music. The show went so well and everybody had so much fun that Danny Benair (The Three O’Clock), Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate), and Vicki Peterson(The Bangles) started talking about doing some type of album to celebrate their Paisley Underground beginnings.
The idea quickly formed that each band would cover one song of the three’s. Plans were discussed but lingered. The project didn’t take off until Benair mentioned it to Yep Roc Records co-owner Glenn Dicker, who loved the idea. The four groups then got to work, resulting in the terrific twelve-song collection succinctly entitled 3 x 4: The Bangles, The Three O’Clock, The Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade which Yep Roc will issue on purple swirl vinyl double LP and CD for Black Friday Record Store Day (November 23rd, 2018) with a wider release (including digital formats) coming on January 11th, 2019.
The album’s dozen tracks represent a wonderful melding of the original rendition with the personality of the new interpretation. Rain Parade retain the wild sonic assault of the Dream Syndicate’s ‘When You Smile’ but add a twist by going acoustic on the chorus. The Bangles enlist an Indian percussionist to enhance the dreamy quality of Rain Parade’s ‘Talking In My Sleep’, while swapping guitars for the keyboards that were on The Three O’Clock’s original ‘Jet Pilot’.
Because these bands were, and remain, friends who started off performing together at the same time and places, 3 x 4 holds a more personal quality that most tribute projects don’t have. The tunes that each group chose to cover all had deep connections to them. These were their friends’ songs that they admired, that they saw played originally in tiny clubs, in studios, or at parties.
Michael Quericio (Salvation Army/Three O’Clock/Permanent Green Light) recalls, in the liner notes, of being shocked and awed when he first heard ‘Getting Out Of Hand’ by the then-still-named Bangs and Rain Parade’s ‘What She’s Done to Your Mind’ on the radio. Wynn, similarly, remembers how he was blown away when he listened to the first Salvation Army single after it came into the record store where he worked; he also admits to just how personal the Bangles’ ‘Hero Takes a Fall’ is to him.
Without giving away too many stories, the liner notes are packed with fond, and perhaps not so fond, remembrances from members of the four groups. They reveal the importance of backyard BBQs and KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer, as well as offering several different recollections about an ill-planned group trip to Catalina Island. Quercio and Benair both share their memories of being asked during an interview with the L.A. Weekly if there was a name for their collection of bands, and Quercio casually blurting out “Paisley Underground,” although no one had used that term before. British rock mags soon picked up on the phrase, however, and the name “Paisley Underground” got stuck on them, for better or worse.
Paisley Underground, in fact, wasn’t so much a musical genre as a small scene. The bands didn’t share a specific sound but rather similar musical sensibilities. They were all record geeks who were — as Steve Wynn says of the Salvation Army/Three O’Clock in the liner notes — “hip to the grooviest sound of the ’60s but at the same time had been informed by punk rock.” Taking elements of the Velvets’ drone, Sunshine Pop harmonies, British Psychedelia, and choice Nuggets pieces, each group mixed them in varying amounts to create their own distinct sound.
As Vicki Peterson relates in the liner notes: “We joke about it now, but it really is like we went to school together. Paisley High, Class of ’83. We were each a little different: diligent students and fuck-ups, eager newbies and experienced band veterans … but we all shared an anachronistic fascination for the music and culture of the 1960s. When we eventually found each other, in 1981 and ’82, we bonded together like social outcasts on the Quad”.
These grads of Paisley High, Class of ’83, all went on to enjoy long careers in music, and are still active today. TheThree O’Clock released several albums in the 80s for Frontier, I.R.S., and Prince’s Paisley Park labels. They reformed in 2013, with principal members Michael Quercio (vocals/bass),Louis Gutierrez (guitars) and DannyBenair (drums) along with keyboardist recruit Adam Merrin, to perform at the Coachella Music Festival. The Bangles enjoyed wide success on Columbia Records throughout the 80s with hits like ‘Manic Monday’, ‘Walk LikeAn Egyptian’, and ‘Eternal Flame’. Their 3 x 4 recordings feature a lineup consisting of all four original members, including bassist Annette Zilinskas.
Rain Parade made albums on Zippo and Island during the 80s before splintering.Matt Piucci spent time with Crazy Horse. David Roback formed Opal with Dream Syndicate’s enigmatic, Kendra Smith, before teaming up with Hope Sandoval in Mazzy Star (‘Fade Into You’ fame). Roback’s brother Steven founded Viva Saturn with fellow Rain Parader John Thoman in the 90s. Those two joined Piucci in reviving Rain Parade in 2012. Between 1982-89, Dream Syndicate put out a quartet of acclaimed albums. After years of solo or short-term group projects, Steve Wynn reconstituted Dream Syndicate in 2012 with original drummer Dennis Duck, long-time bassist Mark Walton, and guitarist Jason Victor.
3 x 4: The Bangles, The Three O’Clock, The Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade winds up not just celebrating these bands’ shared past but also celebrating how the musicians are today. As Steve Wynn puts it: “I’m glad we’ve kept this thing going. I’ll go on a limb here and say that we all like and respect and admire each other as much as we did back in 1982, maybe even more. We’ve lived lives and learned a few things and know how important and lucky it is when like-minded souls find each other and collide on something really exciting. It’s all still happening!”
CD Track List:
1. Getting Out Of Hand (The Bangles) – The Three O’Clock
2. That’s What You Always Say (The Dream Syndicate) – The Bangles
3. You Are My Friend (Rain Parade) – The Dream Syndicate
4. As Real As Real (The Three O’Clock) – Rain Parade
5. Tell Me When It’s Over (Dream Syndicate) – The Three O’Clock
6. When You Smile (The Dream Syndicate) – Rain Parade
7. Talking In My Sleep (Rain Parade) – The Bangles
8. Hero Takes A Fall (The Bangles) – The Dream Syndicate
9. Jet Fighter (The Three O’Clock) – The Bangles
10. Real World (The Bangles) – Rain Parade
11. What She’s Done To Your Mind (Rain Parade) – The Three O’Clock
12 She Turns To Flowers (The Three O’Clock) – The Dream Syndicate
On September 22nd, 1978, The Ramones unleashed their fourth album on the world: Road to Ruin. On September 21st of this year, almost forty years to the day, Rhino Records will reissue Road as part of the label’s ongoing series of Ramones box sets. It will arrive as a 3-CD/1-LP box set and a single-CD remaster of the original album.
For Road to Ruin, Dee Dee, Joey, and Johnny were joined for the first time by drummer Marky Ramone (who replaced founder Tommy Ramone, who’d left the ranks to focus on producing and writing for the band). The album introduced the now-classic “I Wanna Be Sedated,” which is just one of the tracks that will be heard in never-before-released versions on the 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition. Disc One of the box set has the remastered version of the original album mix along with a 2018 stripped-down “Road Revisited” remix crafted by original producer Ed Stasium. This remix is also included in the set on a 180-gram vinyl LP. CD 2 boasts period rough mixes of every album track as well as bonus material such as single versions, backing tracks, two outtakes (“I Walk Out” and “S.L.U.G.”), the 1988 “I Wanna Be Sedated” Ramones-on-45-Mega-Mix, and more. The third CD premieres a 1979 concert recording from the band’s homebase of New York, captured at the late, lamented Palladium and first broadcast on WNEW-FM.
The limited and numbered edition of 7,500 copies worldwide is packaged in a 12×12 hardcover book-style format. Author Roy Trakin, album cover artist John Holmstrom, and Stasium have all contributed essays to the booklet. Photos and rare artwork are also featured, including an alternate cover for the album.
Ready to celebrate the 40th anniversary of a punk classic? Road to Ruin: 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition is currently available
Ramones, Road to Ruin: 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Sire/Rhino, 2018)
Normally I’d say you’re setting yourself up for a very public and humiliating defeat by trying to cover the ever popular Rihanna, but there’s nothing normal ever about Cat Power. Chan Marshall has the voice of an angel with a pack-a-day habit, so whatever she sings sounds like some sort of badass divine intervention. Her cover of Rhianna’s 2012 hit ‘Stay’ is the second single off her new album, “Wanderer”, and it’s really something special. According to Chan, covering songs is a tradition that is “one of the highest compliments you can pay another artist. It’s one of the great traditions in American music and one of the true pleasures of music history.”
“Stay” features on ‘Wanderer’, the new album from Cat Power, out 5th October on Domino Record Co.
This December, Bloods are excited to hit the road and will be throwing their Summer kick off album parties in Melbourne and Sydney in celebration of their new release, ‘Feelings’!
Bloods have also shared the new video for ‘Talk’, a homage to the humble karaoke video.
“Those videos are a marvel of the modern film, the way they use the cheesiest stock footage and often are completely unrelated to the sentiment of the song. We’ve spent so many nights in a dingy room, singing along to the midi arrangements and stock footage of couples staring longingly at each other, or a dog running on the beach. We thought that this concept was perfect for ‘Talk’ because the song is already a contradiction within itself – it’s a song that sounds like the sunniest, poppiest song, but it is actually about being really upset with someone and asking yourself how you’re going to get through a really rough patch” Bloods lead singer MC says of the video.
Shot by Blood band members MC and Dirk the video for ‘Talk’ picks up where the love story that ‘Bug Eyes’ left off, featuring MC and indie rocks most iconic heart-throb, Al Grigg (Straight Arrows/Palms/Red Riders).
The band recently linked with Alcopop! Records to launch their new album, with ‘Strange Entertainment’ set to be unleashed on October 26th. With a huge UK tour planned, Kagoule aren’t holding back – confident in themselves, and their new material, they want to pursue every opportunity, every chance placed in front of them.
New single ‘It’s Not My Day’ is online now, and it actually owes a debt to the heavy period of touring that surrounded their debut album ‘Urth’.
A biting return, it pits the seismic force of the Nottingham trio’s live attack against incisive lyricism that engages at every turn. With ‘Strange Entertainment’ incoming we decided to link with Kagoule, to find out more about their single, the new album, and their upcoming tour.
So ‘It’s Not My Day’ was the beginning of ‘Strange Entertainment’. It’s hard to remember the exact moments that inspired a song but I think this song is about keeping it together in front of people or situations that intimidate you. There was lots of changes happening at that time and I needed to remind myself to face up to them.
Following the break-up of Americana standard-bearers Uncle Tupelo, singer-songwriter Jay Farrar and drummer Mike Heidorn recruited brothers Dave and Jim Boquist to form a new group – Son Volt – and signed to Warner Bros. The band’s third collection for the label, “Wide Swing Tremolo”, finds them leaning more toward the alternative side of alt-country,
From the vital drive of the opener with its distorted longing and its strained angst to the acoustic pulse of later tracks make this album a landmark in the now overpopulated landscape of country rock. The horror and fear that is all over “Jodel” gives way to the religious zealotry of Medicine Hat but redemption is found on the second half with the straight take on the country rocker that is Right On Through. If Question doesn’t get your foot tapping whilst making your head spin then you haven’t converted to the gospel of country and let me tell you, you’re missing out. Every generation an album arrives that signals a new direction and those who don’t see it will be left behind.
With energetic guitar rockers like “Straightface” and “Medicine Hat” practically jumping out of the speakers, even if Farrar’s enigmatic lyrics sometimes provide dark undercurrents. WIDE SWINGTREMOLO was the final studio album from Son Volt’s original line-up, and we’ll crank it up now to celebrate the set’s 20th anniversary.
Wide Swing Tremolo is a wide-open, rocking album with precious little of the overt country influences found on previous Son Volt works. Instead, this album is driven by R.E.M.-like arpeggio guitar riffs and muscular, warm rhythms. It’s a strong album.
Elvis Costello is a conceptual band-leader (The Attractions, The Confederates, The Imposters etc), and apparently innately turned his short stories ,lacerating tales of romantic frustrations, political expediency, hapless social climbing and all the rest into any form he wanted to. His first half-a-dozen records are almost concept albums, with Costello moving through genres as though they were time zones. Confident of his instincts and virtuosity, he has continued in this vein for more than 40 years, happy to dip in and out of styles and collaborate at will with Burt Bacharach on 1998’s Painted From Memory and Allen Toussaint on 2006’s The River In Reverse.
He’s been quiet of late, not helped by a recent cancer scare, which was an unnecessary interruption to his almost relentless touring schedule. Next month sees the release of a brand-new album, Called Look Now (probably because you should), it’s his first record he’s made with The Imposters since 2008 and his first new album since the well-reviewed 2013 Roots collaboration, Wise Up Ghost.
The last time Elvis Costello put out an album, he was backed by The Roots on 2013’s largely underrated and flat-out spectacular Wise Up Ghost! It saw the songwriter opening up his repertoire to a collaboration with hip hop’s most famous live band. Now five years later, Costello returns to the form that made him one of the most well-respected names in music. In tow, are The Imposters, a band whom he most recently recorded 2008’s Momofuku with, as well as legendary songwriter/pianist Burt Bacharach, a longtime collaborator of Costello’s who helped thread multiple tracks on the album. “I had all of the orchestrations and vocal parts in my head or on the page before we played a note,” the ever-methodical Costello said in a press release. And if latest single “Suspect My Tears,” is any indication, Look Now (out on Concord Records) promises more of Costello’s timeless lyricism through and through.
Costello says that he decided to make the record while touring last summer with the band, largely playing songs from his Imperial Bedroom album, and having spent a weekend with Look Now it’s easy to see the connection. The songs here are dense but ornate, complex but forthright, and every one of the 12 songs has a melody that you won’t be able to slip. Costello has been criticised in the last decade or so for failing to address his audience and by trying to distance himself from his past. And whether you subscribe to that or not, this new record is good enough to appeal to any Costello fan, regardless of when they joined his train.>There are co-writes with Bacharach, while one song – “Burnt Sugar Is So Bitter”, written with Carole King – sounds like the best thing that Steely Dan have written since Katy Lied.
“Unwanted Number” from the forthcoming album Look Now
Elvis Costello has released a new video for his ballad “Suspect My Tears,” off his forthcoming album Look Now, out October. 12yj on Concord Records.
The artistic new video features a tragic love story told via a black-and-white, animated storyboard, which introduces limited colors by its closing.
“Suspect My Tears” was recorded by Grammy-winning producer Sebastian Krys with The Imposters, who include Steve Nieve (keyboards), Davey Faragher (bass) and Pete Thomas (drums). The track is augmented by jazz-bassoonist Michael Rabinowitz, and vocalists Kitten Kuroi and Brianna Lee.
Look Now is the first album Costello has made with The Imposters since the 2008 release of Momofuku, and his first new album since his 2013 collaboration with The Roots, Wise Up Ghost.
Costello will kick off an extensive U.S. tour with The Imposters next month.
Wand are constantly on the move – if not writing or recording, they’re on tour in some country on some continent, heating up and burning down venues with their scorched-torch songs and inventive and propulsive take on rock. Earlier this year was the release of “Perfume” and a tour of the USA; come November, they head to Europe. In the meantime, they make stops at some of the finest radio stations that will host them, like they did last month at KEXP in Seattle. That session just went online today so all of us the world over can enjoy live Wand, right now, and whenever we want! Watch Wand rip it up in session at the KEXP Studios,.
Wand performing live in the KEXP studio. Recorded August 2nd, 2018.
Songs: High Rise White Cat The Gift Bee Karma Blue Cloud
Greta Van Fleet have released “Anthem,” a new song taken from their upcoming debut album “Anthem of the Peaceful Army”, which will be released on October. 19th.
The LP follows the two EPs that came out in 2017, and it wound up not being the album the band had expected it to be. “We had all these songs we wrote three to five years ago that we were just going to put on the album,” bassist Sam Kiszka said recently.
“It very quickly became all new material, so I’d say about three-quarters of the songs are songs we wrote in the studio. It just happened very quickly. We got everything done in two weeks. We were aching to make this album.”
The band has drawn comparisons to Led Zeppelin since its outset – but guitarist Jake Kiszka said they hadn’t been heavily influenced by the British icons. “I don’t think before we ever really realized, in a lot of senses, the similarities or the commonalities that we share with that group,” he explained.
“But I think that we’ve become more conscious of the similarities and I think we’ve taken some time to go back and almost identify with it,” he added. “‘Oh, It’s interesting, because there is a lot of those commonalities.’ Even if it exactly wasn’t an overwhelming influence of ours, it still was influential and we can certainly see it. But overall, it doesn’t really affect the writing of our music.”
Greta Van Fleet are currently on tour, with three U.S. dates remaining this month, followed by shows in Europe and the U.K.
