If there’s one thing that Australia’s good at, it’s producing brilliant psych bands with very stupid names. From Methyl Ethel to King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, via the semi-questionable Tame Impala, the two go hand in glove.
The next pretenders to the crown come in the form of Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. Also ridiculous name and thus, predictably, but also very good band.
Though ‘Cornflake’ was actually given a low-key release over the pond a while ago, it’s now been given an all-guns-blazing reboot, complete with suitably acid-trip visuals by way of a proper introduction on these shores.
Full of big, overblown riffs and heady, woozy interludes, it’s both everything you want from a psych band and brilliantly worthy of a second piece of the pie.
Watch ‘Cornflake’ below and catch the band at their inaugural UK shows this autumn
Limited Edition High Visceral Pt 1 & Pt 2 Double Gatefold Vinyl – released 10th September 2018.
After playing their first show early last year in London, and going on to support Japanese Breakfast, Californian songwriter Maddy Myers, Danish guitarist Gustav Moltke along with Bristolian synthist George Godwin and London-based percussionist Alfie Webber – collectively known as Moon Panda – now launch their debut single ‘Rabbit’, released last Friday (June 29) via My Little Empire.
The now London/Brighton-based dream-spacepop outfit have an impressive first offering with ‘Rabbit’, a song inspired by a character formed in Heiko Julien’s collection of 21st century love poems, ‘I’m Ready To Die A Violent Death’. “Rabbit is about unhealthy love,” says Maddy Myers of the Cam Blackwood (Florence + the Machine, The Horrors)-produced track. “It’s someone so infatuated with their partner that they can’t end their tragic, dependent relationship. I wanted ‘Rabbit’ to feel quite hypnotic and have some edge. Like a predator lurking around.”
Her lyrics are sharp and perceptive behind the hypnotic, low-key instrumentation and Myers own bewitchingly fragile vocal overlay; as the song slowly builds, the listener is drawn a warren of electronic moods and subtle harmonies.
Clear your calendar for the rest of the day, because you’ll want to spend it with Michael Timmons. If you aren’t already familiar with this Scottish talent, he is of the finest emerging singer-songwriters around. And somehow, despite his remarkable talent, his debut LP, Bone Coloured,escaped our notice when it arrived earlier this year. Fortunately the single “Two Suns” is so captivating you’ll forget about time and space altogether.
Timmons is poised to become the next Jeff Buckley. The simplicity of “Two Suns” reminds you how powerful just a voice and a guitar can be. Tender and yearning one moment and soaring the next, Timmons’ vocals dazzle throughout. The final crescendo swell prompts a slow inhale of breath you’ll hold until the final notes. You won’t want to break the magical spell this song creates until the final notes fade. Only then you can emit a satisfied sigh before hitting play again and again.
A solo musician from Glasgow. Michael’s creates fragile music sustained by reverb laden finger-plucked electric guitar. Michael’s narrative drivenmusic has been described as ‘ethereal’ and ’emotional’.
Bone Coloured is out now from Gargleblast Records.
Ever so pleased to inform you that we are dropping a new record on September 14th!!! It is called ‘The Pact’. It is the longest we have ever gotten to spend making a record and we are so excited to release it. Here is the first track we have to share with you . It is called “Peach”.
The LA-by-way-of-New York power trio is a juggernaut of cannonball riffs and lyrical intrigue. They’ve got a new album on the way and its lead single “Peach” features frontwoman Leah Wellbaum leading up to the big chorus with after-school mad libs like this: “Silly sandbox, stupid scarecrow; Jack-o-lantern, chupacabra; sick menorah, candelabra.”
“I’m a very playful person,” the vocalist-guitarist tells us this week. “Childhood really appeals to me, the way one’s inner child can look at the world with curiosity, as opposed to the hardness of adults.” Wellbaum challenged herself with stream-of-consciousness, automatic writing exercises in the making of “Peach,” all the while cranking up funhouse-mirror guitars toward an absolute wrecker of a chorus.
Elsewhere on The Pact which istheir fourth LP since 2012 — you’ll find bruising blues-rock, surrealistic balladry and clouds of spastic saxophone and keyboards floating among the lightning hooks. It’s a weird record, but it’s also very catchy, pop sensibility out in the open. Wellbaum points out the myriad Pixies and Nirvana comparisons the band has gotten in the past; for The Pact, Slothrust teamed with producer Billy Bush, who’s probably best known for his extensive studio work with Garbage, beginning with 1998’s Version 2.0. Comparisons to Shirley Manson and company are more apt for Slothrust 4.0, as well as PJ Harvey and Fiona Apple, whom Wellbaum names as particular convention-shaking inspirations. After all, Slothrust is following a 2017 EP in which it covered Marcy Playground, Black Sabbath, Louis Armstrong, Britney Spears, The Turtles, Al Green and Sam Cooke. No one said they had to start making sense.
Alongside bassist Kyle Bann and drummer Will Gorin, Guitarist Vocalist Wellbaum is on a hot streak.
Official lyric video for “Peach” from the Slothrust album THE PACT, out September 14th. Dangerbird Records.
Self-proclaimed “cosmic American” band Wilder Maker are set to release their new record, Zion, July 13th via Northern Spy Records. The latest single “Impossible Summer” is swirling and soothing, like the cool breeze that cuts the oppressive feeling of an August afternoon in New York City. Frontman Gabriel Birnbaum wrote the song about a time when he was losing touch with reality. Though written by Birnbaum, “Impossible Summer” is sung by longtime collaborator Katie Von Schleicher, who breathes a poignant softness into the track. “I cannot explain that summer,” she sings. Their “Impossible Summer” will leave you scrambling to find any words at all. How often do you encounter a tune so inventive it sounds like Radiohead took a road trip with Joni Mitchell?
Wilder Maker once again defy genre stereotypes on their newest single. The Brooklyn-based indie outfit skirt the confines of the typical “folk” sound, so it’s not fair to apply that label without tacking on some hyphenated sub-genre qualifiers. Their previous track was well praised, the engrossing “Drunk Driver” also from their upcoming Zion album.
Then in March we reveled in the more psychedelic “Closer to God” that evoked both Tom Petty and Kurt Vile. Whether you call their sound “neo-folk” or “experimental folk-pop,”
Of the many thousands of bands within the indie folk scene, few (if any) display the creative brilliance of Wilder Maker. These musical chameleons offer plenty for all music fans to love.
Wilder Maker is comprised of: Gabriel Birnbaum (lyrics/instrumentation/vocals), Katie Von Schleicher (keys/vocals), Adam Brisbin (guitar/vocals), Nick Jost (bass/vocals), and Sean Mullins (drums/vocals)
Sugar Still Melts In The Rain is Sarah Mary Chadwicks 4th solo work. It was recorded and mixed by friend, musician and filmmaker Geoffrey O’Connor in Vanity Lair and Phaedra Studios in Melbourne. The album came together so quickly partly as a result of the duo’s commitment to efficiency and partly due to Sarah’s lack of attachment to the idea of “the perfect vocal take.” She knows she isn’t a virtuoso; tongue firmly in check, she is quick to reference those limitations mockingly. Yet, it’s within those boundaries that she thrives, disinterested in the perfect take in lieu of her best take – unique, somber and raw.
Fourth album release from Sarah Mary Chadwick ‘Sugar Still Melts In The Rain’. This pre-order comes with a limited edition art print by Sarah Mary Chadwick.
L.A. musician Sarah Tudzin makes fizzy, self-deprecating power pop under the moniker Illuminati Hotties. “Paying Off The Happiness,” like a few other unlikely rallying cries before it, plays off the very real, very troubling issue of financial insolvency among the millennial set with with a joyful sigh and shrug.
Despite the pluralized nom de guerre, illuminati hotties is the creative outlet of Sarah Tudzin – a producer and engineer hailing from the sprawl of Los Angeles. illuminati hotties has been lighting up stages across SoCal since Fall 2016 with playfully interweaving guitar lines, relentless rhythmic momentum, and strikingly self-aware vocals. At first listen, illuminati hotties is a sun-drenched, irreverent volley with the onset of adulthood, but as the listener dives deeper, they will find an earnest consideration of musical phrasing and deliberately crafted wordplay regarding the complexity of love, loss, and skateboarding. Lauded as local “tenderpunk pioneers,” illuminati hotties has perfected the blend of sweetness and ferocity, of celebration and despondency, in their debut album, Kiss Yr Frenemies.
With its chorus that swells before spilling over, “Patience” is a plea and an appreciation that demonstrates the dichotomy of virtue. It also highlights the duality of Illuminati Hotties, a playful project that balances heart-on-sleeve sentiments with levity and wit.
Sarah Tudzin is the project’s mastermind…She has a malleable writing style that feels ripe with potential, and she seems comfortable doing just about anything. The album’s lead single, “(You’re Better) Than Ever,” is a surf-pop shredder by way of Courtney Barnett, but its follow-up “Cuff” is a masterful blend of heavy-soft dynamics that shows off the many sides to this project. Tudzin’s songs vacillate between humorous and cutting with ferocity.
illuminati hotties “Kiss Yr Frenemies” out May 11, 2018 on Tiny Engines Records
Black Honey have never been shy when it comes to creating full technicolour landscapes and with their new offering – the opening track from their finally-announced debut album(!) – they really have upped the ante. Doused in Hollywood melodrama, ‘I Only Hurt The Ones I Love’ packs in swaggering guitars and crooning vocals from the off, with frontwoman Izzy B. Phillips taking on the role of our heartbroken but wickedly ambitious narrator once more. After the curveball that was their vocoder-drenched ‘Bad Friends’, this may be musically closer to the Black Honey that we’ve come to know and love through their early EPs, but if anything, it shows off their cinematic vision clearer than ever before.
Black Honey, the debut album released 21st September:
For a black metal band, Deafheaven’s sounds often feel light and effortless. The San Francisco rockers’ impressive blend of post-hardcore, screamo, and heavy metal achieves a surprisingly transcendent, almost revelatory quality, fueled by tight and aggressive rhythms and frontman George Clarke’s raw, guttural shrieks. Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, which follows 2015’s New Bermuda and 2013’s crossover hit Sunbather, is out July 13th via Anti-Records. Check out the track “Canary Yellow” which clocks in at over 12 minutes long. Opening with an airy and melodic vibe, the track soon explodes into perfectly controlled hard rock chaos.
Previewed by furious singles ‘Honeycomb’ and ‘Canary Yellow’, the record follows 2015’s ‘New Bermuda’ and comes ahead of a series of UK headline shows later in the year.
“Honeycomb” by Deafheaven from the album ‘Ordinary Corrupt Human Love,’ available July 13th
Absolutely one of the best recent albums out there. For me, these lyrics are filled with nostalgia and angst– I feel that anyone can relate to them in one way or another. Jeff caught everyone’s ear with We Cool?, blew everyone’s mind with Worry., and now he’s making us all look inward and think about what it really means to be a country with Post.
Jeff Rosenstock was an anxious kid who grew into an anxious adult and has also made a bunch of music along the way with a bunch of bands, most notably Bomb the Music Industry! who apparently pioneered giving shit away for free on the internet – or at least got some of the credit for it.
Now he plays with his bi-coastal band of rad musicians, mixing punk heart with diverse instrumentation and occasional accuracy.
The new record POST– was written in a snowy mountain dreamscape, recorded in a marathon session and finished moments before it was released on New Year’s Day. Most of it (like totally 51% minimum) was recorded live to tape, making the record a fiery distillation of Rosenstock’s high energy live shows that push the boundaries of dynamics in rock music.
Been looking forward to this for a while, we’re Finally Coming back to Europe!! And even better we’re bringing our good buddy CHRIS FARREN!! Tickets are on sale FRIDAY at jeffrosenstock.com so set your calendar alarm alert I don’t know how you people do things.
The Band
JOHN DEDOMENICI – BASS
JEFF ROSENSTOCK – VOCALS, GUITAR, KEYS, ETC.
MIKE HUGUENOR – GUITAR
KEVIN HIGUCHI – DRUMS
DAN POTTHAST – LAP STEEL
CHRIS FARREN – VOCALS ON 2, 6 & 10
LAURA STEVENSON – VOCALS ON 2, 6, 9 & 10
