Cut Worms has announced his debut LP via the fine folks at Jagjaguwar Records before heading down to Austin for SXSW. The lead track below, Don’t Want To Say Goodbye, conjures up The Beatles in mind. It is a really well-done pop song when pop songs weren’t shit.
Midwestern-bred, NY-based Max Clarke, aka Cut Worms, was born with a knack for conjuring fine images and warm sounds with a curious underbelly. His songs crackle with the heat of a love-struck nostalgia: golden threads of storytelling woven together with a palpable Everly Brothers’ influence and 50s/60s naiveté. Sometimes, on Hollow Ground, Clarke presents impossibly lustful characters, sometimes brooding, while in other parts they fumble along, hopeful and painfully self-aware. His songwriting both evokes and explores the raw realm of youth, but channels it through the lens of someone more restrained, who’s been through it all before.
Hollow Ground was written in NY and Chicago, and recorded in NY, and also LA w/ Jonathan Rado. Clarke plays most of the instruments throughout, including guitars, bass, lap steel & keys.
Death and grief are universal, but on Boston band Vundabar’s Smell Smoke, these themes feel timelier than ever. In 2018, as each day in America offers a new and urgent political crisis, societal problems find ways to seep into our daily routines and private lives. For Brandon Hagen, the past few years have been impossibly difficult; while making music and touring with his busy and pretty successful rock band, Hagen found himself forced to care for a dying loved one. That unfortunately very real, and very relatable pain fueled Vundabar’s most recent release, a feverish collection of personal and political turmoil that highlights the many flaws of modern culture.
During their recent Paste studio session, Vundabar played three songs from the new album “Smell Smoke”, including deceptively jaunty album opener “Acetone.” In the track’s video, Hagen dances around a grave, but he’s the one eventually buried inside it. “Acetone,” about fake “bleached personas,” suggests the dark fate of someone who is detaching from reality. Other tracks like “Big Funny” tackles the controversial topic of American healthcare. “Hospital receipts, they make a coffin seem so cheap,” Hagen sings. “It’s just wild,” Hagen said “When we go to other countries that have really solid government programs for healthcare and art and everything… how don’t we have this yet? I don’t know.”
Vundabar – “Acetone” Recorded Live Version: 1/3/2018 – Paste Studios – New York, NY
Half Waif, the Brooklyn-based synth-pop trio made up of Nandi Rose Plunkett, Adan Carlo and Zack Levine, will release their Cascine Records debut on April 27th. The album is called Lavender and another track “Torches,” is an evocative and elemental balancing act between freedom and comfort.
“I know somewhere to my left is an undying coast / I think of it in the night when I know I need it most,” Plunkett sings, taking solace in the distant presence of vast and calming waters while she traverses a world of fire and blood. “I see the way the landscape burns / Upturned by the violence / Are these torches meant to fill the unending silence?” she wonders, her delicate voice complemented by a skittering beat and pulsing synths.
Plunkett says of the song: “Torches” opens with the terror of a world that burns, tempered by the cool reminder of an undying coast somewhere nearby. It then imagines what happens when that lit darkness reaches you before you can reach the water’s edge—when you come to feed off it, called by the scream of the open, endless road. It’s probably not surprising that I wrote this song in the days immediately after Trump’s election, driving through Texas on a stretch of highway.
Lavender was unveiled a month ago today, along with lead single “Keep It Out,” the track is a “spectral and beautiful” exploration of “isolation and longing” with “an elegant and minimal beat.” In other words, Plunkett and company are two for two. Half Waif recently expanded their spring tour, adding co-headlining dates with Hovvdy and support dates with Mitski, both wonderful combos.
Classic performance at the Boarding House, San Francisco from 16th September 1978. Includes the entire KSAN-FM broadcast. Digitally remastered for enhanced sound quality. Byrne’s unholy pact with loathing is primed, funked and punked for the stoically impassioned, but in contrast to the detached state of suburbia up front, the band party hard with a deep sense of funk and engaged complexity. The set draws from their debut album Talking Heads ’77‘ and the follow-up ‘More Songs About Buildings And Food’ taking it all to the flaming crescendo of ‘No Compassion’.
Filmed in 1999 at the San Francisco Fillmore, this opens up to an audio and visual montage of urban America, Tom’s problem has always been he makes it look all so easy. Nobody else does that jingle jangle with such skill, power, commitment and consistency.
The lights go up and the high grass dogs stroll onto the stage and blast into `Jammin’ Me’. using multiple cameras from a variety of angles to catch the band, interspersed with shots of impressed looking girls, using a quality sound mix throughout. Between songs they have added backstage and street shots of anonymous roadies, interjecting odd sound bites, wheeling crates up ramps and so on, all of sometimes breaks the flow of a great gig, The idea comes together when the film closes with the gear being loaded up, but this music really doesn’t need adorning.
The laconic stoner / polite Southern Gent Tom Petty fronting proceedings appears in good humour, on top form and to be clearly enjoying himself as he works his way through an assortment of acoustics, Teles and Flying V’s to present a selection from his impressive catalogue. We hear several tracks from the about-to-be-released Echo album (which underwhelmed the critics, it must be said), reworked acoustic versions of several gems (including a superb version of ‘Walls’ – much better than the original), and highlights from Wildflowers and Full Moon Fever. `Mary Jane’ particularly is a show stopper, after which Bo Diddley embellishes the primal strains of `Mona’, this is followed a more acoustic section including a bluegrassy `Lay Down My Guitar’, a great `Even The Losers’ to which TomPetty charmingly and repeatedly fluffs the opening lines – `act like you don’t know anything’s going on’, he drawls. After which the band – including Mick Cambell, Benmont Tench and the sorely missed Howie Epstein, abetted by Scott Thurston and Steve Ferrone – rock their way out.
High Grass Dogs: Filmed at The Fillmore in San Francisco, California on March 15th and 16th, 1999
The Heartbreakers Band:
Bass, Guitar, Vocals – Howie Epstein,
Drums – Steve Ferrone
Guitar, Vocals – Mike Campbell
Guitar, Vocals, Keyboards – Scott Thurston
Keyboards, Vocals – Benmont Tench
Vocals, Guitar – Tom Petty
Setlist:
0:04 “Intro / California” 2:12 “Jammin’ Me” 6:26 “Runnin’ Down A Dream” 11:14 “Swingin'” 18:05 “Breakdown” 23:33 “Listen To Her Heart” 27:02 “You Don’t Know How It Feels” 34:05 “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” 40:28 “Mona (Featuring Bo Diddley)” 46:20 “Lay Down My Old Guitar” 50:08 “Even The Losers” 53:54 “Walls” 57:00 “Angel Dream” 1:00:06 “Room At The Top” 1:05:44 “County Farm” 1:11:37 “You Wreck Me” 1:16:45 “I Don’t Wanna Fight” 1:19:35 “Free Fallin'”
Having reached the age of retirement this weekend, I’ve decided not to retire and instead play even more shows. I had a great birthday at home in Nashville with my friends and felines. We capped off the celebrations with an epic karaoke groove.
Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes, I love you all. I’m a dismal Brit in many ways, but I’m also I’m a chronic sentimentalist. Go Pisces! Wait ’til you see the silk fish shirt I bought to celebrate my 65th.
In May I’ll be playing solo and band dates in the UK. In June you’ll find me in Ireland and France. Full details on my website.
In other news, in 1982 I went to Norway and I never came back. The place has an empty ghostliness that entered my soul for life. My 2011 album “Tromsø, Kaptein” was released in Norway only as a loving tribute. I’m happy to say the album is now available in the US, UK and other countries by request. CDs are ready to be shipped and vinyl pre-orders will be sent out in April. I’ve been playing these songs live for quite a while, so you may have already heard “The Abyss”, “Old Man Weather” and “Light Blue Afternoon”.
By the by, my occasional collaborator and harmony singer Emma Swift has recorded a gorgeous version of Neil Young’s ‘Mellow My Mind”.
If you’re looking for something new to watch on tv, I can recommend “Electric Dreams”. I contributed a cover of Syd Barrett’s “Octopus” featuring Graham Coxon from Blur on lead guitar and harmonies. I was delighted to watch the episode it appears in and see Steve Buscemi apparently listening to it on repeat. Good on you, Steve! Good on you, Syd! .
It’s a nice rainy night here in Tennessee, so I am going to curl up with the cats and a new book. Don’t worry, I’m still addicted to social media and if you want to keep in touch, Peace, love, polka dots.
Robyn H x
From the new self titled record from Robyn Hitchcock – out now on Yep Roc Records
It’s a sad fact that whenever anyone goes to a gig, they run a very real risk of being assaulted, attacked, or harmed in some way. While it’s not a new trend, the modern age we live in allows for these heinous acts to receive greater attention, and thankfully allows for those responsible to be called out and brought to justice.
As we reported earlier this year, numerous artists, such as Melbourne’s Camp Cope, have joined the #ItTakesOne campaign, intended to make everyone more safe at gigs. Camp Cope’s end goal is obviously to see this behaviour stamped out completely, but the #ItTakesOne campaign’s first step is to ensure that environments exist in which this behaviour is not tolerated at all. With the rising popularity of the campaign, we’re becoming ever-closer to a point in which we will hopefully never have to hear about people being assaulted at gigs.
Wolf Alice have just finished up an Australian tour on the back of second album ‘Visions Of A Life’, and have now shared a new video for ‘Sadboy’.
But the four-piece seem to be getting in the spirit of Haloween in the new clip: it sees the band head to an extremely house party, and sees Ellie Rowsell getting into an extreme spot of bother.
Wolf Alice are set to play a host of summer festivals this year, including Reading & Leeds, Latitude, TRNSMT and more. They’re also set to support Foo Fighters on a handful of stadium dates.
“Sadboy” Wolf Alice Visions Of A Life. Available now
The Electric Prunes came together in Southern California during 1966 and soon became regarded as one of the seminal US psychedelic groups, thanks to the hit singles ‘I Had Too Much (To Dream Last Night)’ and ‘Get Me To The World On Time’.
Through their various incarnations, the Prunes recorded five albums for the Reprise label between 1967 and 1969 with legendary producer Dave Hassinger helping to create their unique and distinctive psychedelic sound.
Under the direction of composer and arranger David Axelrod, the Prunes helped pioneer the Religious Rock genre with the “Mass In F Minor” and “Release Of An Oath” LPs. This collection brings together their entire output for the very first time, including stereo and mono versions of their first three albums.
As the opening track on the compilation NUGGETS, “I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)” introduced many to garage rock; a few years before that seminal compilation, it helped introduce The Electric Prunes as the title track to their debut album The title is a pun on having “too much (alcohol) to drink”: its lyrics describe how the singer has woken from dreaming about an ex-lover. The 1967 Reprise collection also included the Seattle-to-Los Angeles transplants’ other Top 40 hit, “Get Me To The World On Time,” along with material by pro songwriters Annette Tucker and Nancy Mantz that showed the quintet were game for ballads (“Onie”) and novelties (“Tunerville Trolley”) as well as tough rockers. A half-century on, I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) still remains electrifying to this day.
At the time, the Electric Prunes comprised singer James Lowe, lead guitarist Ken Williams, rhythm guitarist James “Weasel” Spagnola, bassist Mark Tulin, and drummer Preston Ritter. The oscillating, reversed guitar which opens the song originated from the rehearsals at Leon Russell’s house, where Williams recorded with a 1958 Gibson Les Paul guitar with a Bigsby vibrato unit. According to Lowe,
“We were recording on a four-track, and just flipping the tape over and re-recording when we got to the end. Dave cued up a tape and didn’t hit ‘record,’ and the playback in the studio was way up: ear-shattering vibrating jet guitar. Ken had been shaking his Bigsby wiggle stick with some fuzztone and tremolo at the end of the tape. Forward it was cool. Backward it was amazing. I ran into the control room and said, ‘What was that?’ They didn’t have the monitors on so they hadn’t heard it.
Based on the strength of their first offering and the way they’ve carefully and credibly building their already strong fan foundations on the DIY circuit, Birmingham trio Table Scraps might not be hoovering up the crumbs from the feasts of others for too much longer.
As an outfit, they leave the distinct impression that they know exactly what they want and aren’t going to settle for anything less, even at this early juncture. Everything about them – from the aesthetics of the band, to their music videos and their self-produced output – feels considered and on-point. Their sludge-imbued garage punk undoubtedly owes a debt of gratitude to the likes of The Cramps and Turbonegro, but picks and chooses its influences carefully and smartly across a span of decades from the rock’n’roll history books.
There’s a culture around this trip of a record that’s hard to deny, one that’s steeped in the US traditions of Dinosaur Jr and the MTV explosion, but also borrows heavily from the UK garage rock scene of the Sixties and throws a dash of hometown heroes Sabbath into the mix for good measure. All this is of course a long-winded way of saying that Table Scraps ooze cool from every greasy pore of their video-store-stalking, leather-jacket-clad malcontent bodies.
‘Sick of Me’ is the first single from the new LP ‘Autonomy’ – Released Feb 23rd on Zen Ten.
