Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Laura Gibson has shared details of her new album, Goners, which will be released on 26th October via Barsuk Records.
The album explores themes of grief and loss and the first taste is the haunting and beautiful track Tenderness, an intimate and somewhat pensive fable that reflects, almost dreamlike, on how we project pain and lash out, holding on to each other’s trauma and sorrow.
“Certain men can smell a wound a room away, you are melancholy well, beauty only made you lonelier”
It’s lovely.
Taken from the upcoming album ‘Goners’ – 26.10.18 –
Art As Catharsis is proud to announce the release of Strings, a colourful four-track journey from the mind of Sydney based art-folk virtuoso Bonniesongs.
While drawing subtle influence from Jim Black’s improvised jazz record AlasNoAxis, Bonnie Stewart’s efforts on Strings sit closer to experimental folk. All in all, Strings bears similarities to Joanna Newsom’s fluttering melodies, Cat Power’s more stripped back songs or Carla Kihlstedt’s rich compositions.
Beyond these comparisons, Stewart is also neck-deep in the Australian indie scene – performing with the likes of Emma Davis, Alyx Dennison and many more.
Backed by collaborators Freya Schack-Arnott on Cello and Sascha Bota on Viola, Stewart’s composition dances between conventional and uninhibited. Through challenging modern conventions the Australian folk scene is oft beholden to, Strings in its entirety offers refreshing bursts of complexity and wonder. Stewart’s voice calls as clearly and distinctly as birdsong, while every instrument wonderfully accentuates its surroundings. For lovers of atmosphere, shifts in feeling and distinctively airy vocals, this one is for you.
Bonniesongs is Bonnie Stewart. Strings is a special collaboration with friends Freya and Sascha. Six days after their one-off performance as a trio, they made a recording of their experimental, textural and improvised variations on Bonnie’s songs.
Active since 2013, France’s Rose Mercie are finally releasing their first album in 2018, and it’s definitely been worth the wait!
Rose Mercie is, above all, the coming-together of Charlène, Inès, Louann and Michèle. The chemistry between these four musicians is incredible, and propels each song in a swarm of imagery whose
sweet bitterness infuses body and soul. Melancholic and moving, percussive and vocal, and shooting glances in the direction of an elsewhere which has never felt so close; a somewhere where Electrelane are dancing to the Shangri-Las and maybe the Raincoats.
One will find the taste for the tangents of La Ligne Claire (former group of Charlène and Inès who had a record on Bruit direct disques) mixed with a real song-writing talent and a particular care given to the voice. Indeed voices are the main instruments of this brilliant first record.
After a participation to the great motion picture “Avant la fin de l’été” (Before Summer Ends) of Maryam Goormaghtigh last year, Rose Mercie is now fully committed to defend its first album on stage in Europe as well as in North America, while keeping exciting side projects rolling (Belmont Witch, Charlene Darling, etc.). It’s the time of their lives, don’t miss it!
Released March 2, 2018
The Band are: Rose Mercie : Charlotte Kouklia, Inès Di Folco, Michèle Albertini, Louanne Djian
Patience AKA Roxanne Clifford, formerly of Veronica Falls. found time to direct this lo-fi new video from Sacred Paws. Sacred Paws are the duo of Rachel Aggs (also a member of Shopping/Trash Kit) and Eilidh Rodgers, who are based in London and Glasgow, although some 400 miles apart from one another. The pair are releasing a new single next week via Mogwai’s Rock Action Records, and have celebrated it by sharing their new video for their new single release “Everyday”.
Everyday is the first new material from Sacred Paws since last year’s excellent and accurately titled EP, Six Songs. Everyday is built around an infectious afro-beat guitar riff with complex rhythms and clever vocal harmonies . It would have made an excellent soundtrack to long summer evenings, I hope to hear a lot more from this talented twosome in the coming months.
The lo-fi video for ‘Everyday’ where you can often see the duo having a great time laughing – is an infectious addendum to an already catchy song.
Everyday/Rest is out October 21st via Rock Action Records.
Rachel Aggs and Eilidh Rodgers formed Sacred Paws while they were playing together in the indie pop band Golden Grrrls, then kept going after that band split. Despite living in London and Glasgow, respectively, the thrill they felt playing together was enough to make the distance traveled to play and record worth every boring minute on a train or bus. That thrill comes through loud and clear on their first album, the Afro-pop-inspired Strike a Match. Aggs’ jangling, spiraling guitar playing, her pulsing bass, and Rodgers‘ athletic drumming form the core of their sound, with the duo’s vocals floating over the top in unison, trading lines or in rich harmony.
They are clearly in deep debt to masters like Fela and off-kilter dance punks like Delta 5, and there’s plenty of indie pop sweetness in their vocal interplay, but none of that matters unless the listener is the grumpiest kind of stickler. The bubbling rhythms, sharp-as-a-punch hooks, and ace guitar playing and drumming help push the record past nostalgia to a very happy place; the absolute joy in the singing and playing makes musical trainspotting feel like a crime; and the songs are bright enough to fill even the gloomiest bedsit with an overpowering warmth. The occasional fuzzy synths and shimmering horns add even more sunshine to their already blazing core, making songs like “Nothing” and “Everyday” sound like the most peacefully happy music on earth. Even when Sacred Paws dial it back some and bring in a little melancholy, like on “Wet Graffiti,” they do it with gentle care and bouncy energy that fit perfectly with the uptempo, dancefloor-friendly tracks making up the bulk of the album. Aggs and Rodgers went through a lot of hard work to make Strike a Match, but the end result sounds effortless and feels as breezy and light as any pop music around. Strike a Match is a brilliant debut album with a solid emotional core that gives the instantly memorable songs gravity and keeps them from lifting off and floating away, instead anchoring them deep in listeners’ hearts and minds.
The title track of the debut album, out now on Rock Action Records.
Garage-punk raconteur Ron Gallo has shared the second single from his forthcoming album Stardust Birthday Party, due out October. 5th via New West.“Always Elsewhere” is an oddball odyssey of self-discovery: “Talking, talking / Never listening,” Gallo sings over post-punk guitar chromatics.”Always elsewhere / searching, searching.” In the song’s bridge, he launches into a verbose, new-age spiritual tirade, proclaiming that the meaning of life “is just to be alive.”
The songs on Stardust Birthday Party emerged from a period of soul-searching for Gallo. He describes the album as a “spiritual 180” from his wonderful debut album, Heavy Meta. In early 2018, following the hectic dissolution of a relationship, he booked a trip to California for a silent meditation retreat, where he found a path towards inner enlightenment. The album “is about human evolution,” Gallo said. “Specifically, one humans evolution: mine, RonGallo … It’s me dancing while destroying the person I thought I was, and hopefully forever.”
The video for “Always Elsewhere” makes his journey of self-discovery literal. It revolves around Gallo walking across the country and through various surreal set-pieces with a box labeled “SELF,” and features the sort of artfully odd imagery one would expect from him.
Gallo will be touring in support of Stardust Birthday Party for the rest of the year.
From the new album ‘Stardust Birthday Party,’ available October 5th.
Seattle-based singer-songwriter Austin Crane, aka Valley Maker, 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 10.12.18 on Frenchkiss Records
Soccer Mommy announced a new 7″ single. The single’s A-Side is a newly reworked version of “Henry,” a song that originally appeared on Soccer Mommy’s 2016 collection For Young Hearts. The B-Side is a cover of BruceSpringsteen’s “I’m On Fire,” a live show highlight that now has a long-awaited studio recording. The cover was previously only experienced live and has therefore been long-awaited.
“I wanted to make a version of ‘I’m On Fire’ that connected with the sadness of the song,” explains Allison. “I think that doing a more stripped down version allowed me to make something that feels emotionally raw.” the limited edition release “Red Smoke” 7″, is out October via Fat Possum Records,
The 7″ follows on the heels of her debut album, Clean, that has already received mid-year Best of 2018 nods from the likes of NPR, Rolling Stone, Billboard,Stereogum, Uproxx, Vinyl Me Please, all giving high praise for Soccer Mommy’s debut album, Clean.
“Clean is Allison’s excellent studio debut: a compact album of clear melodies, plainspoken lyrics, and the impossibly tangled logic of infatuation.” – Pitchfork(Best New Music, 8.4)
“Clean greatly expands the scope of Ms. Allison’s songs in both words and music… Both clear-eyed and passionate, she is growing up in public, unabashed.” –New York Times
“She combines mischief and bluntness in the manner of Liz Phair, and her voice has a quality like melting ice cream—sweet and appealingly messy, slipping around the pitch of a note.” – The New Yorker
“Soccer Mommy’s Clean is one of the best rock records of the 2018 so far” – The FADER (Gen F)
Our new studio album, “Evening Machines”, will be available October 5th! We recently released a second single, “Caves,” .
I wrote this song with my dear friend Ron Scott, from Austin. He came up to visit me, and we were wandering around the farm and going for these long walks through the hills around Colorado. Ron and I spend a lot of time being quiet. He’s one of those friends that reveres silence as much as I do. We share a similar world where we write from. Some songs are about a story, a conversation. This one is more about the places they can bring you. And that love for silence.
Our new song “Caves” is now available From the forthcoming album ‘Evening Machines‘
Chemicals, the first single from the new album “Evening Machines,” available October 5th.
Texas songwriter Molly Burch only released her stunning debut full-length, “Please Be Mine”, last year, but its follow-up is already slated for arrival.First Flowerpicks up right where its predecessor left off, its eleven tracks packed with whip-smart lyrical observations set to jazz-inflected, country-infused guitar pop; for a primer, digest the album’s lead single, the lilting “Wild.”
“To The Boys,” is the latest offering, is quintessential Burch, the contours of her smoky contralto dovetailing in conversation with a contemplative, wandering guitar line, a gently syncopated rhythm section in tow. brimming with a cool confidence, Burch subverts the generally accepted stereotypical portrayals of power, quipping “i don’t need to scream to get my point across / i don’t need to yell to know that i’m the boss,” her unabashed assuredness reverberating throughout the track.
Four kids from the Sydney & Melbourne. Bloods have been peddling their garage-punk-pop tunes since 2011, playing alongsidebands like Dum Dum Girls, Redd Kross, DZ Deathrays &more, A happy, upbeat, sunny album that reminds me of The Go-Go’s, The Courtneys and Beverly.
“Rambunctious and spunky… their rugged energy reminiscent of likeminded acts Diet Cig and Hinds.” – Consequence of Sound
“it’s hard not to be pretty instantly smitten by lead vocalist MC’s razor-sharp sass, buzzing guitars and a good dose of reverb” The Music
Feelings sees Bloods songs evolve from garage-punk fun to fully realised pop-punk anthems. The song-writing on Feelings is proof of a band that has grown together and learned to embraced their collective love of pop hooks and wall-of-sound distortion. Pushing themselves further than ever before, Feelings was written over a tumultuous eighteen month period and while lead singer MC was processing the end of a ten year relationship, which inevitably crept into so many of the songs that make up the record.
