Julia Lucille’s second album “Chthonic” was released April 7th 2017 on Keeled Scales, and has been described as “a triumph” (GoldFlake Paint) and “Lucille’s most fully realized work yet” (Austin Monthly). She grew up in Menlo Park, California and graduated from Lewis and Clark College in 2010, where she majored in music. She currently lives in Austin, Texas.
“Part folk, part dream pop, part something else entirely, her music combines equal parts delicacy and foreboding with an impressive patience and emotional intensity […] concerned with the underworld, more specifically descending into as a mode of growth and rebirth (a la Persephone), and [showing] off the interplay between shadow and light that constitutes the record’s aesthetic.”
The Wooden Sky has begun on a new trail. The Canadian band has three albums of solid indie-roots rock under their belts, but with this fourth record they are shifting. The sweet sounds of roots and country are still there, influencing everything from the vocals to the chug of the melody, but there sound is deeper. “Our Hearts Were Young” shows the band growing and reaching for a larger sound.
With atmospheric, War on Drugs like guitars and a swirling atmosphere that feels more influenced by mood music like M83 than the roots of yore – The Wooden Sky is absolutely adding new touchstones to their repertoire, and we couldn’t be more excited to see where it goes. Check out the track above and be sure to grab their fourth album on Chelsea Records / Nevado Music.
Sara Renberg is a songwriter hailing from Portland and now based out of Pittsburgh. Having recently released her second album, Night Sands, on the excellent Antiquated Future Records, Sara has this week shared the album’s second single, and stand-out track, Elderly Lesbians.
Discussing Night Sands, Sara has suggested it’s a record about being, “thirty-two, gay and single”,the album muses on the theme of simultaneously fearing and craving intimacy. Jangly lackadaisical guitars drift atop lo-fi, cymbal heavy drum beats, all topped with Sara’s conversational vocal style. Lyrically it really shines, Sara walking the similarly mundane-surreal tight-rope perfected by the likes of Frankie Cosmos and The Mountain Goats as she comically recalls googling, “elderly lesbians to cheer myself up but all the results were porn”, before hitting straight to the emotional core with the repeated line, “I’m still not sure exactly what it means to be living in exile from old dreams”. A wry observer of the minutiae that make life both crushing and beautiful, Sara Renberg and her elderly lesbians are wonderful.
The second single from Sara Renberg’s sophomore album “Night Sands.” Out February 2nd, 2018 on Antiquated Future Records.
Marlon Williams recently released his new single “Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore” from the upcoming album Make Way For Loveset to be released early this year. This single is a duet with fellow NewZealand singer/songwriter Aldous Harding and it feels a lot like we have dipped our ears into their conversation. The two voices blend seamlessly as the title becomes a mantra between them in the chorus. This guitar-driven ballad is timeless and melancholy as it muses over themes of defeat and surrender.
Marlon Williams — “Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore” (with Aldous Harding) (Official Video) Album Make Way For Love available February 16th, 2018 on Dead Oceans
Typhoon is back with their fourth album, Offerings , which will also be their first album since 2013. The main man behind the band, Kyle Morton, has discussed how he’s interested in the loss of memory, both on the individual level and collectively as a society. “Rorschach,” the second track on the album, speaks to that theme (“How you gonna hold on to your memories?/ How you gonna hold on when you know that you can’t?”). Based on the track list, this album is sure to be a journey through the emotional phases of loss, with “Rorschach” marking a cathartic moment of frustration about the circumstances that you’ve been presented with.
“Rorschach” is off of Typhoon’s full-length album, Offerings, out now on Roll Call Records.
NE-HI are a band from Chicago. Upon the release of their latest full-length Offers, the band has been praised for their lively performances and healthy blend of punk with ’60’s garage rock. The setting was absolutely perfect for enjoying their music, in a small room at the London Hotel, a home studio operated by The Wild Honey Pie. Chicago’s NE-HI have come out of the basement for their second album, one that sees the band shaping their wiry garage rock sound for larger stages while still honing their musical personalities.
They performed special version of our favorite song off their new album: “Offers,” a song filled with driving guitar riffs and only two brief moments of vocals, and electrifying rock gem “Out of Reach.” Directors Erik Rojas and Joe Micho really captured their high-energy recording process with constantly shifting perspectives of each band member as they lose themselves in the music. Be sure to check out full-length album “Offers” which was released in February of 2017.
By any measure, 1967—the golden anniversary of which we will be celebrating all year long—was one amazing year for rock, pop and soul music. The year gave us not only The Beatles Sgt. Pepper but debut albums by The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, Pink Floyd and The Velvet Underground; dozens of landmark hit singles and albums; game-changing events like the Monterey Pop Festival and the deaths of Otis Redding and Beatles manager Brian Epstein; .
Rock was growing up in 1967: FM “underground” radio was starting to overtake AM Top 40, and music fans were being happily bombarded by a seemingly nonstop mix of pop singles—the Monkees were huge—as well as soul (Aretha Franklin, the Supremes) and the newly emerging psychedelic rock. A half-century later, most of it still holds up well.
In 1967, everyone wanted to be in a band! The following were all formed in 1967: Blood, Sweat & Tears, Blue Öyster Cult, Chicago, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Electric Flag, Fairport Convention, Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, The Hour Glass (with Duane and Gregg Allman), The J. Geils Band, Jethro Tull, Nazz (with Todd Rundgren), The Nice (with Keith Emerson), NRBQ, Procol Harum, REO Speedwagon, Santana, Sly and the Family Stone, Spirit, Status Quo, The Stooges (with Iggy Pop), T. Rex, Three Dog Night and Traffic!
Below is a timeline of the most significant events in the world of rock, pop and soul in 1967, including major album releases. We think you’ll agree that 1967 was rock ‘n’ roll heaven.
Major Rock Music Events of 1967
Jan. 4—The Doors’ self-titled debut album released
Jan. 9—The Monkees’ More of the Monkees released; The Young Rascals’ Collections album released
Jan. 14—The Human Be-In takes place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park: local rock bands, poets and other countercultural heroes mix it up with the city’s hippies. By the summer, so many youths will have arrived in San Francisco that the invasion became known as the “Summer of Love.”
Jan. 15—The Rolling Stones, appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show, ignore Ed’s demand that they change the key line in “Let’s Spend the Night Together” to “Let’s spend some time together”
Jan. 20—The Rolling Stones’ Between the Buttons album released
Jan. 23—Laura Nyro’s debut album, More Than a New Discovery, released; The Youngbloods’ self-titled debut album released; Linda Ronstadt and The Stone Poneys’ self-titled debut released
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Feb. 1—Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow album released
Feb. 6—The Byrds’ Younger Than Yesterday album released
Feb. 13—The Beatles release their “Penny Lane”/“Strawberry FieldsForever” single
Feb. 14—Aretha Franklin records “Respect”
Feb. 17—John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers’A Hard Road album released
Feb. ?—The Mamas and the Papas’ album Deliver released
March 6—The Temptations’ Live! album released
March 10—Cat Stevens’ Matthew and Son album released; Aretha Franklin’s I Never Loved a Man album released
March 12—The Velvet Underground’s debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, released
March 17—The Grateful Dead’s self-titled debut album released
March 18—Peter, Paul & Mary’s Album 1700 released
March 25—The Who and Cream both perform their first concerts in the United States, in New York. The two British bands are part of a weeklong series hosted by disc jockey Murray the K; also performing are Mitch Ryder, Wilson Pickett, The Blues Project and others
March ?—Donovan’s Mellow Yellow album released; Eric Burdon and the Animals’ Eric is Here album released
April 29—The Turtles’ Happy Together album released; Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” single released
April ?—Chuck Berry’s Golden Decade album released; Blues Magoos’ Electric Comic Book album released; The Electric Prunes’ self-titled debut released; Tim Hardin’s Tim Hardin 2 album released; Gordon Lightfoot’s The Way I Feel album released
May 1—Paul McCartney reveals that all four members of the Beatles have taken LSD; Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu at the Aladdin in Las Vegas
May 2—Capitol Records cancels the Beach Boys’unfinished Smile album
May 11— Country Joe and the Fish’s Electric Music for the Mind and Body album released
May 12—The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s debut album, Are You Experienced, released
May 15—Paul McCartney meets photographer Linda Eastman, later to become his wife
May 22—The Monkees’ Headquarters album released
May 26—The Mothers of Invention’s Absolutely Free album released
May ?—The Lovin’ Spoonful’s You’re a Big Boy Now soundtrack album released; the 5th Dimension’sUp, Up and Away album released
June 1—The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album released; David Bowie’s self-titled debut released; Elvis Presley’s Double Trouble album released
June 6—Moby Grape’s self-titled debut album released
June 10-11—The Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival takes place at Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, north of San Francisco, featuring Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, The Byrds and others
June 16-18—The Monterey Pop Festival takes place in Monterey, California. The landmark event features The Who, Simon and Garfunkel, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Ravi Shankar, Otis Redding, The Mamas and the Papas, Big Brother and the Holding Company (with Janis Joplin) and many others
June 19—Otis Redding records “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay”
June 23—Small Faces’ self-titled second album released in the U.K.
June 25—The Beatles perform “All You Need Is Love” for the Our World television special
June 26—The Rolling Stones’ Flowers album released
June 28—Florence Ballard is fired from the Supremes, replaced by Cindy Birdsong
June 29—Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are sentenced to jail for drugs (they later appeal successfully)
June ?—The Hollies’ Evolution album released; The Association’s Insight Out album released
July 10—The Bee Gees’ 1stalbum released
July 17—Jazz great John Coltrane dies at 40
July 18—Jimi Hendrix is thrown off the Monkees’ tour, for which he and the Experience had been the opening act (parents complained about his lewdness)
July 24—The Yardbirds’ Little Games album released
July 31—The Rascals’ Groovin’ album released
July ?—Canned Heat’s self-titled debut album released; Incredible String Band’s The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion album released; The Grass Roots’ Let’s Live for Today album released; The Beau Brummels’ Triangle album released
Aug. 27—Beatles manager Brian Epstein dies at 32; Stevie Wonder’s I Was Made to Love Her album released
Aug. 5—Pink Floyd’s debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, released
Aug. ?—Big Brother and the Holding Company’s self-titled debut album released; Tim Buckley’s Goodbye and Hello album released; Vanilla Fudge’s self-titled debut album released; Albert King’s Born Under a Bad Sign album released; James Brown’s Cold Sweat album released
Sept. 1—The Doors appear on The Ed Sullivan Show and Jim Morrison says the word “higher” during their performance of “Light My Fire,” against Sullivan’s demand not to; The Who smash their instruments on the Smothers Brothers’ TV show
Sept. 15—The Kinks’ Something Else By the Kinks album released
Sept. 18—The Beach Boys’ Smiley Smile album released
Sept. 25—The Doors’ Strange Days album released
Sept. ?—Van Morrison’s Blowin’ Your Mind album released; Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant album released; Chuck Berry’s Live at Fillmore Auditorium album released; Procol Harum’s self-titled debut album released; Captain Beefheart’s Safe as Milk album released; Eric Burdon and the Animals’ Winds of Change album released
Oct. 3—Woody Guthrie dies at 55
Oct. 18—Rolling Stone magazine premieres, with John Lennon on the cover
Oct. 27—Ten Years After’s self-titled debut album released
Oct. 30—Buffalo Springfield’s Buffalo Springfield Again album released
Oct. 31—Phil Ochs’ Pleasures of the Harbor album released
Oct. ?—Sly and the Family Stone’s A Whole New Thing album released; Sam and Dave’s Soul Men album released; Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band’s Gorilla album released; Judy Collins’ Wildflowers album released
Nov. 10—Moody Blues’ Days of Future Passed album released; Cream’s Disraeli Gears album released
Nov. 6—The Monkees’ Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones album released
Nov. 27—The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour album released
Nov. 30—Jefferson Airplane’s After Bathing at Baxter’s album released
Nov. ?—13th Floor Elevators’ Easter Everywhere album released; Love’s Forever Changes album released; Country Joe and the Fish’s I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die album released; The Chambers Brothers’ Time Has Come Today album released; The Amboy Dukes’ self-titled debut album released; The Hollies’ Butterfly album released
Dec. 1—The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Axis: Bold as Love album released
Dec. 5—The Beatles open the Apple Boutique in London
Dec. 8—The Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request album released
Dec. 9—Jim Morrison is arrested onstage in New Haven for inciting a riot
Dec. 15—The Who’s The Who Sell Out album released
Dec. 10—Otis Redding dies at 26 in a plane crash, along with members of the Bar-Kays
Dec. 18—The Beach Boys’ Wild Honey album released
Dec. 26—The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour film first broadcast
Dec. 27—Bob Dylan’s John Wesley Harding album released; Leonard Cohen’s Songs of Leonard Cohen album released
Dec. ?—Donovan’s A Gift From a Flower to a Garden album released; Dusty Springfield’s The Look of Love album released; Traffic’s Mr. Fantasy album released; Nilsson’s Pandemonium Shadow Show album released; Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw album released; Van Dyke Parks’ Song Cycle album released
Other albums released in 1967 (release dates unknown):
The Box Tops—The Letter/Neon Rainbow
Chocolate Watchband—No Way Out
Al Green—Back Up Train (his debut album)
Harpers Bizarre—Feelin’ Groovy
Richie Havens—Mixed Bag
Tommy James and the Shondells—I Think We’re Alone Now
John Mayall—The Blues Alone
The Nice—The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack
Paul Revere and the Raiders—Revolution!
Sam and Dave—Double Dynamite
The Sonics—Introducing the Sonics
Strawberry Alarm Clock—Incense and Peppermints
And finally, a small selection of the year’s hit singles.
The Association—“Windy” and “Never My Love”
The Beatles—“Penny Lane”/“Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Hello Goodbye”/“I Am the Walrus”
The Bee Gees—“The Lights Went Out In) Massachusetts”
The Box Tops—“The Letter”
Buffalo Springfield—“For What It’s Worth”
Petula Clark—“Don’t Sleep in the Subway”
Arthur Conley—“Sweet Soul Music”
The Spencer Davis Group—“Gimme Some Lovin’”
Donovan—“Mellow Yellow”
The Easybeats—“Friday on My Mind”
The Four Tops—“Bernadette”
Aretha Franklin—“Respect,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” and “Chain of Fools”
John Fred and his Playboy Band—“Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)”
The Hollies—“Carrie-Anne”
Jefferson Airplane—“Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit”
Gladys Knight and the Pips—“I Heard It Through the Grapevine”
Lulu—“To Sir With Love”
The Mamas and the Papas—“Creeque Alley” and “Dedicated to the One I Love”
Scott McKenzie”—“San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)”
The Monkees—“Pleasant Valley Sunday,” “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” and “Daydream Believer”
Van Morrison—“Brown Eyed Girl”
Procol Harum—“A Whiter Shade of Pale”
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles—“I Second That Emotion”
The Rolling Stones—“Let’s Spend the Night Together”/“Ruby Tuesday”
Sam and Dave—“Soul Man”
The Seekers—“Georgy Girl”
Nancy and Frank Sinatra—“Somethin’ Stupid”
Small Faces—“Itchycoo Park”
Strawberry Alarm Clock—“Incense and Peppermints”
The Supremes—“Love Is Here and Now You’re Gone,” “Reflections” and “The Happening”
The Turtles—“Happy Together”
Frankie Valli—“Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”
Dionne Warwick—“I Say a Little Prayer”
The Who—“I Can See for Miles,” “Happy Jack” and “Pictures of Lily”
Jackie Wilson—“Higher and Higher”
Stevie Wonder—“I Was Made to Love Her”
The Young Rascals—“Groovin’” and “How Can I Be Sure”
I can’t think of another album that sounds quite like The Salt Doll Went To Measure The Depth Of The Sea. Not in title, not in sound. there are the familiar song structures and vocal harmonies. We first heard this ensemble from nearby ProvidenceRhode Island signed to Nonesuch Records with a brilliant album about environmental decay called Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. That record was followed by Smart Flesh, after which they huddled back home to build a recording studio inside an old vaudevillian theater, birthing both an iconic art space and the album Eyeland.
In late June 2016, while on the road to play a show in Washington D.C., founding member Ben Knox Miller remembers the moment when everything changed for The Low Anthem. After a horrific auto crash “I remember looking at the burning van wrapped around a steel pole and knowing it was the end of Eyeland,” he wrote in an email. “I wasn’t hurt so I rented a box truck and packed up all our broken instruments and drove them from D.C. to Providence. That night I was reading Kay Larsen’s biography of John Cage, Where the Heart Beats, and came across the Salt Doll fable. I have found several versions of the Salt Doll story, but all basically tell the story of a doll that wants to know the ocean. The ocean says ‘come in.’ It puts its toe in, and knows something, but loses its toe. Puts its foot in, knows more, but loses its foot… and so on. I began to imagine its journey, and 16 days later the first version of [our new] album was written and recorded. (I had to wait for Jeff [Prystowsky] to recover, and together we rendered the final version.)”
The Salt Doll Went To Measure The Depth Of The Sea is a stark journey, made even starker by the odd percussion that haunted me during my initial listens. The spare percussion wasn’t drums, but it felt oddly familiar, like something I heard a lot as kid and as a teen. Ben Knox Miller solved the mystery for me.
“I don’t know what kind of headspace I was in for those 16 days,” he wrote. “I was alone. All of my regular instruments were destroyed (along with my bandmates). I had a parlor acoustic [guitar], a 64-key piano and a ’90s era DA-88 digital 8-track tape machine in my bedroom. I had been using it to record abstract instrumental tracks, produced by processing beats physically cut into the center loops of vinyl records. My turntable was running 24 hours a day and I set up a signal chain with crossovers and guitars pedals and electronic and physical filters, and the room was filled with continuous hypnotic sound.”
That was it: the sound of the inner grooves of a record going round and round and round as percussion. It’s quite brilliant given what feels to me like the circular nature of the tale told. Ben Knox Miller confirmed my suspicion.
“I think of the music as made of circles,” he wrote. “There is a safe sense of time (a constant feeling of return), but some of the space that is opened up is so bare as to be nearly uncomfortable. Amongst ourselves we call the sound ‘subtle energy circularism.’ A lot of the sounds on Salt Doll comes from tiny sources, like a chopstick scraping the rim of a brown paper bag or a record needle bouncing in a divot.”
Like I said. This is truly an album like no other.
The Low Anthem performs “In The Pepsi Moon” for The Crypt Sessions.
The Salt Doll Went To Measure The Depth Of The Sea comes out February. 23rd via Joyful Noise Recordings.
Death is cruelly indifferent, and no matter how expected or seemingly random it is, Palehound’s Ellen Kempner understands as much as anyone. In relatively close succession last year, the Boston-based songwriter faced the unforeseen death of a friend, and the passing of her grandmother, and was left reeling as a result. Palehound’s second full-length album, A Place I’ll Always Go, cannot help but be informed by these experiences. Channeling her grief into honest songs about mortality and the search for closure, the album reveals details from her personal life like never before.
Still, for all its rumination, this album gradually projects a flicker of light amid the darkness: During this same tumultuous time, Kempner found herself entering into her first healthy relationship. A Place I’ll Always Go grapples not only with the contradictory flood of emotions and guilt that arise when attempting to move on, but with the burgeoning excitement of new love. Recorded in late 2016 at Brooklyn’s Thump Studios with assistance from Gabe Wax (who also worked on Palehound’s superb 2015 album, Dry Food), A Place I’ll Always Gogalvanizes its bedroom confessionals with Kempner’s dexterous finger-plucked arpeggios and buzzy guitar melodies, and the propulsive rocking energy of drummer Jesse Weiss and bassist Larz Brogan. Palehound adds richer instrumental shadings on the album’s bookends: Palehound’s unflinching songs are also a celebration of life and embrace of love, and an empathetic reflection on how endings usually lead to beginnings.
“Carnations” is taken from Palehound’s latest album, A Place I’ll Always Go, out now.
“Must Be Nice,” the first single from Chicago band Varsity’s forthcoming album Parallel Person, has a title that comprises a double meaning. The title phrase is habitually “bandied around sarcastically,” says singer and keyboardist Stephanie Smith. But she says it can also be an ultimatum, as in: “I must be nice in order to be liked/noticed/not be considered a b****.”
The song itself is a catchy slice of indie-pop, the punchiness of which is undercut by Smith’s self-conscious lyrics: “I know I can’t cry in front of them / But if I could,” she trails off anxiously. Smith says the song was conceived of more as “a mood and the idea of repetition rather than a narrative or a complicated structure.” Propulsive bass and drums give the song an urgent feel, while intertwined keyboard and guitar riffs lend a surfy, eerie charm.
The video for “Must Be Nice,” by animator Shane Beam, reflects the song’s mood and cyclical nature. Beam “totally honed in on the repetition, psychedelic imagery and playful tone of this tune,” Smith says. “The resulting video highlighted themes and images that we hadn’t noticed before,” she says, “plus it made us laugh, which is always good in this economy!”
From our new record Parallel Person out 4/27 on Babe City Records.
