Though many people are now familiar with James Alex’s work in the “play it loud and fast” punk band, Beach Slang, all along Alex has felt the songs he writes could possess more emotion when not buried underneath layers of distortion and reverb.
Enter: Quiet Slang. Making what Alex calls “chamber pop for outsiders,” he first experimented with re-imagining his music with only piano, cell0, and voice for an EP released this past fall. And now, the project’s debut full-length -“Everything Matters But No One Is Listening ” has officially arrived!.
In reflecting on this exciting new project, James Alex says: “If Beach Slang is me fawning over The Replacements, Quiet Slang is me head-over-heels for The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt.”
As one of the founding members of the noisy electronic group Holy Fuck, Brian Borcherdt has spent years making unhinged dance music and touring relentlessly as the band’s envelope-pushing sound developed. Behind the scenes, however, Borcherdt was writing songs of his own that branched out in dramatically different directions than his main gig. Dusted was born as an almost total antithesis to Holy Fuck’s bomb-dropping sound.
Standing alone with a guitar, and singing through a crackling guitar amp, Borcherdt’s solo songs were minimal, floating and wrapped in a soft but troubled haze. The room was held for a moment in that haze, a crowded chatty bar unexpectedly hushed by this strange ambience being shared for the first time. If Brian’s work in Holy Fuck represented a reckless night out, Dusted was the somber comedown the morning after.
Soon, a debut record, Total Dust, materialized and a live configuration of Dusted spent much of the next year on the road supporting Great Lake Swimmers, Perfume Genius and A Place To Bury Strangers. In addition to steady touring, Dusted also made a cameo on screen in Jean-Marc Vallée’s 2014 film Wild.
All the while, Borcherdt was constantly writing new material and working the new songs into the sets, ultimately ending up with an album’s worth of songs by the time tour was winding down. Though the band was still buzzing with the energy of playing live every night, they opted for a different approach when it came time to record the new songs. Rather than the loose, live energy that gelled on Total Dust, this time Dusted entered a studio and built their songs on quantized rhythms, overzealous overdubs, digital plug-ins and an entirely more polished production style.
“Looking back, it was probably the stupidest idea possible!,” Borcherdt said of the sessions, laughing at how lifeless they came out for a band that had been killing the same songs in front of audiences weeks before. While technically precise, something in the flawless tracks felt sterile.
“We just couldn’t find that haze.” Borcherdt said. Ultimately the sessions were scrapped and the band started again from scratch. Over the next stretch of months, progress on the album moved in fits and starts. The project re-assembled as a full band with Anna Edwards on guitar, Loel Campbell on drums, and (occassionally) Anna Ruddick on bass. Songs were pieced together in various studios whenever breaks in Brian’s increasingly busy schedule with Holy Fuck allowed. As if that wasn’t enough, he was also working on new sounds with DougMacGregor of The Constantines and Alex Edkins of Metz in their band LIDS, making his already hyperactive musical world that much busier.
In spite of all the variables that went into making the album, Blackout Summer is an amazingly consistent and emotionally focused statement. Each song creates its own world of texture and narrative, and all nine of these worlds interlock with the same strange, hazy emotion.
Album opener “Seasons” sets the tone for the album’s twilight glow with a protracted, dreamy unraveling of chiming guitar lines and wistful vocals, all building in a slow burn. A far cry from the overproduced first drafts of the album, this final version captures the band playing live in a cramped makeshift basement studio in Toronto, bringing a necessary human touch to a song about restlessly watching love turn cold.
Elsewhere, the wintery “Cut Corners” hangs solemnly before disintegrating into a wash of ghostly tape echoes. Conversely, upbeat lo-fi burners like “Backwoods Ritual” and “Dead Eyes” channel Dusted’s experimental energy into catchy guitar pop that feels undeniably alive, almost breathing.
Blackout Summer winds through floating ambience and dark, moody rockers, but every disparate moment somehow feels connected. The vibe is warm and intimate, but always from a distance. There’s a sense of searching that drifts throughout but is never communicated overtly. Dusted’s fuzzy landscapes, dream-like production and buzzing melodies all congeal, burying Borcherdt’s twisted take on pop under layers of that all-important haze.
“All I Am” is taken from Dusted’s sophomore album, Blackout Summer, out April 6th, 2018.
Dusted (Brian Borcherdt of Holy Fuck)debuted a brand new song this week from their upcoming album, Blackout Summer.
The atmospheric piece, titled “All I Am,” features guitar & harmonic vocals from Brian’s wife Anna Edwards-Borcherdt, which beautifully drive the song to its climactic close.
Consequence of Sound also detailed the inspiration for the track as part of their recurring Origins.
We are so very excited to announce our new record, ‘When I Think Of You In A Castle,‘ out April 20th on Polyvinyl Record Company. Stranger Things has been one of the favorite TV shows of 2017, and the show’s reformed hunk Steve Harrington is one of its best characters. And though his turn as Steve has made actor Joe Keery one of the show’s biggest rising stars, the native Chicagoan is still making time for his first love: Music. Before he linked up Stranger Things, Keery played guitar in burgeoning psych-rock outfit Post Animal, Keery won’t be joining the band as a full-time touring member, what with a third season of Stranger Things on the way and what’s no doubt a slew of studio meet-and-greets, but he does rear his floppy-haired head on the album’s lead single, “Ralphie”. The peppy, guitar-forward pop-rock song finds Keery trading vocals with bassist Dalton Allison,
We have been holding onto this for so very long and are completely eeking to share the first single, ‘“Ralphie” is taken from Post Animal’s debut full length, When I Think Of You In A Castle,
“I was wasting all my time on someone who didn’t know me,” Sophie Allison sings in the first verse of “Blossom (Wasting All My Time).” It’s the kind of thing you can’t remember if you realized in hindsight, or a part of you knew it all along—the subtle production and the warm strums of the acoustic guitar allowing your mind to drift. “Scorpio Rising” starts out sounding like an updated version of Big Star’s “Thirteen,” before taking a sudden turn when Allison’s young Romeo changes his mind and goes for a girl that In “Flaw,” the end is her fault, though she doesn’t want to believe it. “I choose to blame it all on you/’Cause I don’t like the truth,” she sings, her clear and unpolished voice fittingly going slightly flat.
Clean is the Debut album proper from Nashville based 20 year old Sophie Allison who records under the name Soccer Mommy. Following on from the critically acclaimed Collection, released in August. Clean was recorded by Gabe Wax (Deerhunter, War on Drugs, Beirut) in NYC and mixed by Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Perfume Genius, Aldous Harding). The album is a big step up production wise, and it’s the most grown up Allison has sounded to date. For fans of Liz Phair, Frankie Cosmos, Angel Olsen and Julia Jacklin.
Taken from the album, Clean, available on Fat Possum Records
The Zephyr Bones’ hazy, melodic, psychedelic rock flickers with memories that span the distance between their native Chile and their current home of Barcelona. “Secret Place” synthesizes their guitar oriented dream pop into their own unique brand of beach wave.
The Zephyr Bones’ hazy, melodic, psychedelic rock flickers with memories that span the distance that separates the native Chile of guitarists and vocalists Brian Silva and Jossip Tkalcic, and the band’s current base in Barcelona, Spain – which is also home to rhythm section, Marc López and Carlos Ramos. The songs on their debut album, Secret Place, share something very intimate and invite the listener to travel to their own secret places, filled with dreams and promises, hidden away from the hectic world and these troubling times. Secret Place synthesizes The Zephyr Bones’ guitar oriented dream pop
—which they have christened “beach wave”— recorded in their own Eclectic Echo Lab studio in Barcelona, and mastered by Victor Garcia.
The Zephyr Bones emerged in 2015 with their debut EP, Wishes/Fishes, on Spanish label La Castanya, earning them a showcase at Barcelona’s famed Primavera Sound. The video for “Weird Summer” was described as “hazy pop vibes like a hit of serotonin.” The band returned in 2016 with the Black Lips/Surrounded By Sunflowers 7” single, co-released worldwide between the New York label Other Music Recording Co. and La Castanya. DIY magazine featured The Zephyr Bones in a story on the Spanish underground rock scene, alongside Hinds and MOURN. In the past year the band have become a go-to support act for artists coming through Spain including Future Islands and Boogarins.
The Zephyr Bones might reside in Barcelona but the songs on Secret Place span the galaxy. The single “Juglar Child on the Carousel” is set on Mars, “Las Olas” on Neptune, and “September” is left to roast on the sun. Then again, “I’ve Lost My Dinosaur” seems to be set in a delirious dream state all of its own. The album opener “Hurricanes” sets the mood with the line, “your eyes on the sunset”, heading to an innocent place to escape the world and listen to the gentle whispering psychedelia. “Telephone” tells of a long distance love affair, while “Penny’s Week” is about fleeing from a relationship, spending a week skate boarding and fucking off. Caught between suspense and narcosis, The Zephyr Bones provide the coordinates to their favourite place. It’s not the place itself that is important but that it should be kept personal —it should be your own secret place, which can be anywhere, physical or non-physical— a place or a feeling that is kept close to heart. It could be special memories of love – with partners or friends, separated by bed sheets, miles or light years. All these are stored in the tracks on Secret Place, whether you hear them on Venus, Pluto, the Pacific, the Mediterranean coast, looking out at the sea from Chile, Barcelona, or your living room. Play the record and meet the band there.
The Zephyr Bones‘ debut “Secret Place” Released by La Castanya on LP+Mp3, CD, Cassette and Digital. Release Date: Nov 10th, 2017
Tracklist:
01. Hurricanes (0:00) 02. Penny’s Week (2:24) 03. Juglar Child on the Carousel (5:09) 04. Las Olas (7:51) 05. I’ve Lost my Dinosaur (10:35) 06. Secret Place (14:19) 07. Black Lips (17:23) 08. September (20:37) 09. Telephone (23:43) 10. The Arrow of Our Youth (27:10)
The Zephyr Bones, originally from Chile but now based in Barcelona, play lo-fi surf-rock that recalls hazy summer memories. The band recently released a new single, “The Arrow of Our Youth,” from their debut record Secret Place.
Are we really connected to the love of our lives? Is there an invisible thread that attaches us to our special someone? Judging by their new video, Barcelona-based quartet The Zephyr Bones think this to be a literal truth, and we see it brought to life thanks in part to one of the most beloved character actors of our time.
The band’s “The Arrow Of Our Youth” is a lovely piece of indie pop, about love lost, featuring pristine guitars, upbeat drums, and ghostly vocals. It’s one of the tracks featured on their debut album Secret Place, out via Spanish label La Castanya.
In the Èric Boadella-directed video, two estranged lovers stumble across a series of TV sets playing scenes from their bygone romance – flashbacks to the summer they first fell in love. In the end, they try to reconnect via the TV sets’ cables – literally. The clincher: the male lead is played by none other than Machete. Danny Trejo as the lead in a love story, with elements of magical realism? Sign us up for the feature-length version of “The Arrow Of Our Youth.”
Jossip Tkalcic, the vocalist and guitarist who wrote the lyrics of “The Arrow Of Our Youth,” says the song is about the influence that an intense love can have in our lives. “Sometimes an angel shoots an arrow whose impact can be massive and incurable. The arrow can slip in the clothes and injure fatally, can pierce walls and cross through the city at full speed.” Director Èric Boadella adds, “It’s inevitable to have romantic memories when listening to ‘The Arrow of Our Youth,’ and this music video recreates that connection in a literal way; without metaphors, connecting the protagonists with the summer they had to leave behind their first love.”
The Zephyr Bones have made waves in the Spanish underground in the past few years, and 2018 seems to be the year they will break internationally. With a little help from Danny Trejo, who knows how far they will go.
The Zephyr Bones – The Arrow of Our Youth Recorded Live: 3/6/2018 – Paste Studios – New York, NY
Nathaniel David Rateliff is an American singer and songwriter, based in Denver, whose influences are described as folk, Americana and vintage rhythm & bluesy.
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Nights Sweats make their long-awaited return with Tearing at the Seams, a joyous, big-hearted, staggering slice of rock ‘n’ soul music. Propelled by driving rhythms, blazing horn play, and Rateliff’s rowdy, soul-drenched vocals, Tearing at the Seam’s 12 cathartic tracks crackle with raw emotion and poignant intensity. From anguished sorrow to ecstatic heights, Rateliff’s expressive tenor is unvarnished and unforgettable, simmering on the record’s tender R&B ballads and howling on the born-again, nitro-fueled rave-ups.
“The first single from his forthcoming LP adds Southern-rock bite and weary longing to make for his most urgent song yet.” Rolling Stone proclaims of the song “You Worry Me.”
Brooklyn psych punks Acid Dad are set to deliver their highly anticipated debut full-length this Friday, March 9th, via Greenway Records.
New York City’sAcid Dad have quickly established themselves as one of the tightest, tireless, and most energetic bands in the Brooklyn scene. The group “boasts an electric sound that welcomes psychedelia, garage rock, and post punk in constantly varying doses, and a rock ‘n’ roll attitude that screams NYC late ’60s (and at times Manchester late ’80s)” writes The Deli Magazine. Their eponymous debut LP was engineered, mixed and co-produced by Jonathan Schenke (Parquet Courts, The Drums, The Men) and follows-up their well received 2016 EP Let’s Plan A Robbery.
The 11-tracks that finally made it onto the album Acid Dad are well worth the wait and effort. The band turns to influences as far ranging as Bob Dylan (“Die Hard”) and Archers of Loaf (“2Ci”) in surprising ways, creating songs that are as lyrically intriguing as they are musically enthralling. The band describe in one sentence the idea behind the song
“2Ci”: Post 6AM rave on a accidental synthetic overdose.
“Mr. Major”: Inspired by our indecipherable Russian delay unit and propaganda.
“Child”: A companion piece to anyone having just moved into a metropolis prison.
“Come Outside”: Arguably the most dad rock by way of Nassau Coliseum song on the record.
“Marine”: A sharp stoned march to the emergency room.
“Mistress”: Below freezing lab rat in a constricting relationship with another frozen lab rat twice its age.
“Bada Bing”: Hard hat striking, bull riding, sweaty little peach fuzzing teenage anthem.
“Mow My Lawn”: Being forced to mow your lawn on a Sunday.
“No Answer”: Cops!
“Dissin’”: Is this alternative country? I think so.
Acid Dad will support their debut with a large spring tour, including newly announced European dates for May.
Whether they’re droning into the haze of “Mow My Lawn” or storming towards freedom on “Mistress”, Acid Dad balance dynamic melodies and unhinged punk with such precision that you’ll never find yourself bored.
Los Angeles has often been described as a “dream factory” both a mecca where dreamers converge to pursue long-held aspirations, and a topography of hallucinogenic contradictions: enchanting tangerine sunsets diffused by smog, crystal-clutching spiritualists mingling with deep-pocketed narcissists, rows of scenic palms competing with garish billboards for commuters’ attention.
It was against this backdrop that the four members of La Luz–singer/guitarist Shana Cleveland, drummer Marian Li Pino, keyboardist Alice Sandahl, and bassist Lena Simon–conceived of Floating Features, the band’s third studio album. For this, their most ambitious release yet, La Luz consulted landscapes both physical and psychological.
Only La Luz could conjure up Floating Features’ Leone-on-LSD vibes, and the album finds the L.A. band at the height of their powers–golden rebels in a golden dream.
“California Finally” is the second single from La Luz’s Floating Features, out May 11th, 2018 on LP,
Band Members
Shana Cleveland – guitar
Marian Li Pino – drums
Alice Sandahl – keyboard
Lena Simon – bass
Debuting songs from their new album “There’s a Riot Going On”, On February 27th, Yo La Tengo performed an intimate show at the Brooklyn National Sawdust, happy to share footage of their full performance from that night. There’s a Riot Going On is due out March 16th via Matador Records. Check out Yo La Tengo’s tour date
A lot is made of Yo La Tengo’s love of the cover version. Sir Douglas Quintet. Sun Ra. The Rutles. The Parliaments. From 1990’s impeccable Fakebookthrough to 2015’s Stuff Like That There their knowledge and love the Hoboken indie-rock trio have for rock canon is as genuine as it is impeccably observed.
We know Yo La Tengo can sound like The Flamin’ Groovies, but, well, what do Yo La Tengo sound like? Only four non-covers albums since 2003 and their sound is as timeless/predictable (delete as applicable) as it was in their 90s heyday. With a knowing album title and a sound that is exactly as warm, textured, soothing, dreamy and downright Velvety as you’d expect, There’s A Riot Going On initially appears to be very much Yo La by numbers. Shades of Blue’s Velvets/Beach Boys paean to introspection, She May, She Might’s gauzy psych-lite, Polynesia #1’s twilight exotica that would fit snugly on 1997’s I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One; gorgeous, woozy numbers all but no surprises all the same. A whole album might not have been quite there – the band have happily described it as an “accident” – but when these jams were manipulated and added to drones, snippets, loops and pieces from unused film scores and sessions dating back as far as 2007, what would emerge was familiar yet wonderfully not.
Given the source material, There’s A Riot Going Onwas never going to be the sonic revolution that Sly & The Family Stone-referencing title might suggest, but it is an invitingly disparate sound collage that will seduce fanboys and newbies alike.
Yo La Tengo are still the critic’s favourite band with maybe too much of a thing .
Yo La Tengo play songs from There’s a Riot Going On Check out more shows from National Sawdust:
Setlist:
00:00 You Are Here 10:25 Forever 16:20 for you too 23:14 Shades of Blue 27:40 Let’s Do It Wrong 32:00 She May, She Might 39:30 Out of Pool 44:40 Ashes 51:00 Here You Are
