New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based singer/songwriter Sarah Mary Chadwick’s previous effort, 2020’s “Please Daddy”, if you were feeling fragile, you could almost insulate yourself from her painfully honest song writing style, training your focus only on, say, the soaring horns on “When Will Death Come,” the blues-rock boogie of “Let’s Fight,” or the wistfully jazzy flute of “The Heart and Its Double.” But there’s no hiding from the broken heart of Me and Ennui Are Friends, Baby—Chadwick fully embraces emotional catharsis, stripping her songs back to solo piano and vocals only, and you have no choice but to follow suit. Just as she worked wonders on a 147-year-old pipe organ for her 2019 record “The Queen Who Stole the Sky”, Chadwick crafts an album of untold power not in spite of her focus on one instrument, but because of it. With “Please Daddy’s” diffuse textures out of the equation, the songwriter can only take a fearless inventory of her interior turmoil, turning a truly harrowing series of events—after the deaths of her father and a close friend, and the dissolution of a long-term relationship, Chadwick attempted to take her own life in 2019, just weeks before the Ennui sessions began—into an album that will knock your heart on its ass.
Chadwick’s unusual vocal delivery and unsparing, darkly funny song writing combine to make Ennui’s stark sensibility unforgettable, and Chadwick never flinches, wondering of her struggles at one point, “Is it all for this song? / If it is, is that wrong?” It will take all of your inner fortitude to answer her.
‘Every Loser Needs A Mother’ is the first single to be lifted from Sarah Mary Chadwick’s forthcoming 7th LP ‘Me And Ennui Are Friends, Baby’ out February 5th 2021 via Ba Da Bing Records & Rice Is Nice Records.
Composed right before lock-down ensued, Spielbergs reunited with their debut album This Is Not the End producer, Tord Øverland Knudsen, for the song. And the new track is as eruptive as their previous works. With snarling guitars, fast-paced drumming, Lead singer and guitarist Mads Baklien explains the inspiration behind the track in a press release:
“I find myself looking back a lot. Looking back in regret, looking back in anger. It leads to nothing. So I’ve decided to look forward. But the only problem is I don’t know where the fuck I’m going. So I just keep doing what I’ve always done. Going nowhere.”
Spielberg’s: Noisy indie rockers on hold, “We were really well underway and have recorded a number of songs. Unfortunately, Corona and Mads’s abscess with subsequent fistula has made things stop completely. All of 2020 has only been an endless start-stop-stop situation. Admittedly, there is no shortage of songs, we just have to have the opportunity to gather at the rehearsal and in the studio so that we can finish things,” explains the Oslo trio Spielbergs. When we started playing together, we struggled to agree on what we should be called. Well into the recording process of what ended up as our first EP, we still had no band name. We had a song called the Spielbergs song (“Ghost Boy”) in which the songtitle was inspired by Spielberg’s “Close Encounter.”
So we have to prepare ourselves for even longer waits before we can get more delightful melodic noise rockers from the band that was nominated for the towering harmonies and energetic drive on their debut album “This is Not The End” in 2019. We’d love to know more of the musical heat and the bombastic tunes in the meeting points between indie, power pop and post-hardcore punk. In 2020.
Read more about frustrations over the year 2020, lack of interest in technical things and music equipment, about how the band was misunderstood by its American fans and about great musical freedom.
Norwegian power-pop trio Spielbergs combine the finest elements of Superchunk, Jimmy Eat World and Sonic Youth and bring them to life in a way that’s as fresh as it is nostalgic. Their debut should hold a grab-bag of punk-pop treasures recently reflected by single release ‘Five On It’.
Al Riggs is back today with the new single “American Pencil” off of his upcoming album “I Got A Big Electric Fan To Keep Me Cool While I Sleep” from the opening notes there is a sense that this song is going to be full of dread. Those guitar chords are full of doom, the organ that comes in is haunting, and the drums are powerful. Al’s thoughts on what an artist is in today’s world are biting and stick with you long after you’ve listened to the track.
There is a big, honking, humming box fan in the bedroom of our barely-insulated century-old Durham house. Like most meaningless noise, it is white.
Noisier than this fan are the earworms that pervade the space. They’re in the walls, the floorboards, and even the couch cushions. The earworms–let’s call them Strum, Kick, and Wail–nest in our second bedroom: a de facto recording studio. I try not to interrupt the work. But upon hearing the demos for piano-powered “America’s Pencil” and the rhythmically elusive “Emo Revival,” I kicked the door in and, wearing little more than a handful of shaving cream, proclaimed “that’s the hit!” But they knew that already.
Al speaking about the song: “This is a song about being delusional and in your twenties and thinking you’re discovering poetic bitterness for the very first time. You sort of make every single thing in your life interesting for the sake of hopefully putting it in a song one day. Eventually some people learn that no one really cares about the sandwich you ate or the girl at the bookstore with the cool hair, and then some people just write ‘Universal Themes’.”
Those we know and/or love are present and accounted for. A.C. Niver’s pure tones make “Wishing and Clapping” a Three Stooges-esque harmonic casserole while Chuck Johnson’s pedal-steel witchery makes “Blighted By the Light” as dreamlike and borderless as a Carolina Country Night. Neither queer nor country enough in their own right, Al booked two of the gayest fabric samples in the business Patrick “Lavender Country” Haggerty and Paisley Fields to plug up the holes in “Ragged But Right.”
Like shuffled pages from random chapters of a yet-to-be-finished novel about being an old queer married couple (in our 20s and 30s yet), the sonic scraps have been dropping clues to what was to come: I Got A Big Electric Fan to Keep Me Cool While I Sleep.
Nancy Brighton based is a one-man, psych-pop delight. The B3SCI Records signee channels the glam-rock swagger David Bowie in his recent five-track EP “Happy Oddities”, which spawned the seriously catchy single “Call Me On Your Telephone”. Nancy could well be my favourite new artist!.
Last year was not normal so why try be normal? Warping into psychedelia land from the ashes of Brighton band Tigercub, two EP’s in and he’s nailed it with a mini album that drags you into an Alice In Wonderland of wobbly warped sound that is weird and wonderful as fuck.
He explains…“7ft Blues is bi-polar”, Nancy explains. “The tracklist swings from suicidal, to cartoonishly happy, to self-deprecating, back to Alan Partridge pretentious (my spiritual home)… I think it’s a full portrait of me in that particular moment of my life, warts an’all. Before Nancy my main thing was writing songs for a rock band called Tigercub. In Tigercub I feel I had a tendency to hide my true self under a borrowed alt-rock, slacker introversion. It’s a pose that is easy to adopt and can easily trick you into a false sense of security when expressing yourself, wearing Kurt Cobain’s angst as a mask if you will. Striking out on my own has given me nowhere to look but inside, I think with 7ft Blues I’m really being myself, I’m actually talking about me now, what it’s like to be me, and I have never done that before, and it’s terrifying”.
He returned with a new song, the scuzzy foot-stomping “7 Foot Tall Post-Suicidal Feel Good Blues”, in November, followed up by the outstandingly brooding “Pleasure Pen”, further solidifying his status as an artist you need to be on board with. Detailing his cut, the enigmatic figure explained: “‘Pleasure Pen’ is based on the Sacher – Masoch novella Venus in Furs, it’s dark and dirty and needs to be listened to whilst engulfed in red light. Break out those assless chaps cos it’s about to get disgusting”.
“In the past I had an anxiety to make everything as immediate and explosive as possible, which I think is cool but being fearless in what you do and having courage in your convictions is way cooler”,said Nancy You can’t argue with that.
“Don’t Pass Me By” is back in Bolan territory, an amazingly written glam tune that has a killer chorus which floats in and out. A spine tingling piece of work full of fuzz and some great guitar work that has hints of Santana without the noodling bollocks. Class. Clic Clac is a speeded up lo-fi bit of madness with dark lyrics I presume are about suicide? I may be wrong. It’s a fuck off slab of pysch madness that resonates. Psycho Vision is an acid tinged slice of madness yet again. Insane whistling, loads of fucking about with that wobbling sounding. It like listening to glam rock when you’ve necked 100 mushies and having a 50/50 good/bad trip.
I keep thinking a clown’s gonna fucking jump me from behind the telly! Deathmarch ends the album in style. He’s defintely influenced by Mark Lanegan on this one. Funereal keyboards with some great guitars and dark lyrics of the end of your life. An excellent foreboding track that is dark yet sounds fuckin’ massive. A song that Lanegan would easily put his name on if he heard it.
Julien Baker’s solo debut, Sprained Ankle, was one of the most widely hailed works of 2015. The album, recorded by an 18-yearold and her friend in only a few days, was a bleak yet hopeful, intimate document of staggering experiences and grace, centered entirely around Baker’s voice, guitar, and unblinking honesty. The album appeared on year-end lists everywhere from NPR Music to New York Magazine’s Vulture.
For years, Baker and a group of close friends have performed as the band Forrister (formerly The Star Killers), but when college took her four hours away, her need to continue creating found an outlet through solo work. The intent was never to make these songs her main focus, yet the process proved to be startlingly cathartic. As each song came into shape, it became more apparent that Baker had genuinely deep, surprisingly dark stories to tell from her thus far short life . Tales of her experiences are staggering, and when set to her haunting guitar playing, the results are gut wrenching and heartfelt, relatable yet very personal. There’s something wonderfully hypnotizing about Baker gently confessing her soul with such tremendous honesty. Baker has met critical acclaim for her performances and song writing, described as emotively cathartic, as well as a fresh take on folk music. Her album Sprained Ankle has been described as featuring pared-back fragile songs, while Turn Out the Lights features more developed song structures while retaining the raw emotion of its predecessor
Baker has opened for artists including Death Cab for Cutie, Conor Oberst, The Decemberists, Belle & Sebastian, Paramore, The Front Bottoms, and Manchester Orchestra. Julien Baker won the hearts of music lovers right out of the gate with the startling intimacy and meticulous craftsmanship of her 2015 debut, Sprained Ankle. Her sophomore album from the following year, Turn Out the Lights, built on that with a somewhat more elaborate sound palette, recorded at Ardent Studios. Since then, her only release has been the 2018 EP by boygenius, a collaborative effort with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, and fans have been scanning the skies for any new solo work with great anticipation.
Now the wait is nearly over, with two new videos heralding the release of her third album, “Little Oblivions”, due out on February 26 via Matador Records.
In 2017 she was signed to Matador Records. In 2018, Baker formed the supergroup Boygenius with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, both with whom she had toured previously. The group released three songs in August of that year and subsequently announced an EP and accompanying tour. The EP, self-titled boygenius, was released on October 2018.
In 2020, Baker, alongside Boygenius bandmates Bridgers and Dacus, recorded background vocals for the Hayley Williams’ song “Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris” ahead of the release of Williams’ debut album, Petals for Armor.
“Sprained Ankle” (2015)
Julien Baker was a member of the band Forrister when she recorded a solo EP of songs that didn’t fit her band. Using her friend’s free studio time, she recorded demos, and she travelled to Richmond, Virginia, to record sparse versions of her songs. The songs were recorded quickly and released on Bandcamp as an EP – ‘Vessels’ and ‘Brittle Boned’ were added to the record later. While the arrangements are low-key, Baker’s songs often deal with big issues like addiction and faith. The stark sound works for Baker’s heartfelt songs, making them rawer and more poignant.
People quickly started to share the album, including a video version of her song, “Something” — shot in a Memphis parking garage by local filmmaker Breezy Lucia — but it wasn’t until Rhorer and 6131 contacted her about a record deal that she realized what was happening. On her new label’s advice, she took the record down from Bandcamp until it could be mastered and formally released.
Memphis, TN-based songwriter Julien Baker is the latest addition to the Matador Records roster. The 21-year-old’s devastating and vulnerable debut album, Sprained Ankle, which was originally released in 2015 and now gets re-released by Matador. The album was recorded at Spacebomb Studios, though Julien’s songs don’t share the down-home gloss of the other albums produced there. Instead of beefing up her honest tunes with rich layering like Natalie Prass or Matthew E. White, Baker pares her songs down to their simplest possible format: alone, singing and playing acoustic guitar directly into the microphone, sometimes in a single take. That decision resulted in a remarkable record, one full of beautiful, personal explorations revealed in stark intimacy. That choice makes a lot of sense for Baker’s voice, both in the literal and figurative sense. Rather than Prass’ sweet, soaring tones or White’s blue-eyed soul, Sprained Ankle is delivered in reedy whispers and chilled coos. Released just before she turned 20 years old, the record still sounds raw – not that her voice lacks control or power, but rather that the weariness of songs about death, breakups, and existential questioning are sung with incredible presence. They’re coming of age songs from someone still coming of age, the wounds still fresh, the big truths currently being revealed. There are the struggles of depression, drugs, loneliness, but the clear-eyed way she faces it all supersedes any platitude.
Sprained Ankle becomes more immersive the deeper it gets into the running list. Baker’s vocals take flight on ‘Rejoice’ – “I rejoice, and complain/I never know what to say/But I think there’s a god and he hears either way” is a great line. The keening electric guitar of ‘Vessels’ is a lovely accompaniment for Baker’s voice, while ‘Go Home’ is a cathartic closer, concluding with a piano version of modern hymn ‘In Christ Alone’. There’s great stuff at the start of the record too – the double-tracked vocals on tracks like ‘Good News’ are the only indication that these songs weren’t laid down in one sitting, while ‘Blacktop’ is typically confessional.
“Blacktop” the first track on her debut solo album, is a lonely song, maybe her loneliest, though it has some strong competition. When she asks, in the next verse, that some intervening divine, the same that saved her life, “come visit me in the back of an ambulance,” it is with the longing of something barely missed, rather than any certainty in her good fortune.
Sprained Ankle is a lovely debut, with Baker’s songs often immersive.
in 2016, Baker performed in an NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert, During that set she referenced a new song, “Sad Song #11”, which was later retitled “Funeral Pyre” and released as a single, with “Distant Solar Systems” as the b-side. Baker contributed the song “Decorated Lawns” to the Punk Talks winter compilation Jingle Yay, released in December.
Turn Out The Lights (2017)
Baker’s second album was recorded in a mere six days, with Baker handling most of the instruments, but it feels slick after the rawness of “Sprained Ankle”. There’s still no rhythm section, but Baker adds touches of violin, clarinet, and saxophone. It lacks the lo-fi intensity of Sprained Ankle, and the songs are less memorable, but it’s still a worthy follow-up.
With Turn Out the Lights, Baker returns to a much bigger stage, but with the same core of breath-taking vulnerability and resilience. From its opening moments when her chiming, evocative melody is accompanied by swells of strings “Turn Out the Lights” throws open the doors to the world without sacrificing the intimacy that has become a hallmark of her songs. This evolution from ‘Sprained Ankle’s intentionally spare production allows Baker — who is still the album’s sole producer and writer — greater scope and freedom. Strings and woodwinds now shade the corners of her compositions, and Baker takes to piano rather than guitar on several tracks, pushing the 21-yearold Baker’s work to cinematic heights of intensity.
Julien Baker releases her highly anticipated second album Turn Out The Lights via Matador Records. The album arrives nearly two years to the day after Baker’s debut LP, Sprained Ankle, which was widely acclaimed by outlets including The New York Times, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Noisey, and MOJO, among others. Recorded at the legendary Ardent Studios in Baker’s hometown of Memphis, TN, Turn Out The Lights expands upon the sound and vision of Sprained Ankle while retaining the haunting, confessional song writing style for which she has become known. Throughout the album, Baker reflects on experiences of her own and those closest to her, exploring the internal conflicts that wrestle inside us all: how we deal and cope with our struggles, and how it all impacts both ourselves and our relationships of all kinds. The result is a deeply empathetic album that embraces the greys and complex truths of humanity and mental health. Turn Out The Lights was written and produced by Baker.
The moment that comes closest to recapturing the intensity of Sprained Ankle is ‘Sour Breath’, with Baker screaming “The harder I swim, the faster I sink”. ‘Sour Breath’ is nestled between other lovely songs like ‘Appointments’ and the sparse piano of ‘Televangelist’ – Baker also plays organ on the latter. The second half is less memorable than the first, but ‘Hurt Less’ is lovely.
Turn Out The Lights suffers from sequel-itis a little, but it’s a fine record on its own terms.
Red Door (2019)
On the heels of her triumphant Matador debut Turn Out The Lights and the critically acclaimed collaborative EP ‘boygenius’, Julien Baker returns with her first new solo recordings in 18 months, “Red Door / Conversation Piece”, available exclusively for Record Store Day 2019. The 7”vinyl features the first studio recording of a fan favourite Red Door, previously only heard live, and a previously unreleased cut begun during the Turn Out The Lights sessions, 7″ – Limited Red Vinyl only.
Little Oblivions (2021)
With a new album, Little Oblivions, about to drop on Matador on February 26th, Julien Baker is surfacing more and more these days. It’s good to have her back. The Memphis native has gone from success to success simply by sticking to her unique blend of the cathartic confessional, from the intimate to the dramatic. Though her voice has always powerfully navigated both whispers and roaring melodies, it seems she’s grown into her range even more as the years have gone by. That was especially in evidence last night, when she led her band through “Faith Healer,” the album’s first single, on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
Baker’s third album is due in late February 2021, and it looks like it will include a rhythm section. “Little Oblivions” will be the third studio album by Julien Baker. Recorded in Memphis, TN, the record weaves together unflinching autobiography with assimilated experience and hard-won observations from the past few years, taking Baker’s capacity for storytelling to new heights. It also marks a sonic shift, with the songwriter’s intimate piano and guitar arrangements newly enriched by bass, drums, keyboards, banjo, and mandolin with nearly all of the instruments performed by Baker. “Faith Healer” was released in October, and portends a more ambitious approach to production than Turn Out the Lights. While that album filled in her sound more than her debut, it was still rather minimalist, for the most part. Now Baker brings us the sound of a rock band, albeit one still laced with all the introspection of her previous work.
Upon the release of “Faith Healer,” the artist released this statement: Put most simply, I think that ‘Faith Healer’ is a song about vices, both the obvious and the more insidious ways that they show up in the human experience. I started writing this song 2 years ago and it began as a very literal examination of addiction. For awhile, I only had the first verse, which is just a really candid confrontation of the cognitive dissonance a person who struggles with substance abuse can feel— the overwhelming evidence that this substance is harming you, and the counterintuitive but very real craving for the relief it provides. When I revisited the song I started thinking about the parallels between the escapism of substance abuse and the other various means of escapism that had occupied a similar, if less easily identifiable, space in my psyche.
Following on from 2018’s acclaimed ‘Actualisation’, ‘The Deep End’ builds upon the acid house influences of the former but ventures into many new paths. Hip hop, techno, drum ‘n’ bass and other ‘genres’ sneak into the creative palette whilst also staying true to the band mantra of throwing the rule book out of the window, as far as ‘genres’ or ‘boundaries’ are concerned.
The album was penned over the Spring of 2019 by Mark Emmerson (vocals/guitar/synths). Again, Roland 303/808 synths, bass and vocals were key tools for writing, whilst the Roland SH01a found its way onto the team sheet, as well as a sampler for the first time. Recording commenced in March 2019, the ethos being rehearsing and recording a track as soon as it was written with mixing taking place on each track shortly after. By July 2019 85% of the album was completed, the final track laid down in January 2020.
The album was again recorded at Whitewood Studios, Liverpool, with Rob Whiteley, the album produced alongside long-time collaborator Ross Halden (Ghost Town Studios, Leeds) with frontman Mark Emmerson.
Lead track ‘CHI-03’ gives the album its first sucker punch moment. A track born out of listening to late 80s hip hip records on loop before allowing the 303 to take on the co-lead vocal role alongside the addition of the sampler. A beat again designed to make people move, with enough Lucid sonics to stamp the band signature.
‘Leave Me In The Dark’ takes a 7 minute journey that taps into places the band have been before. No mean feat when that is a melting pot of dub, drum ‘n’ bass, jungle and enough raw power to know that this is a Lucid Dream track.
Side 2 kicks off with ‘Fight To Survive’. A beat belonging in 80s New York, keys more suited to the East Coast counterparts of the time, another statement. ‘It’s a campaign of hate, campaign of hate’.
‘Sunrise’ then takes the album on another tangent. The Lucid Dream tapped into acid house on ‘Actualisation’ but this track is acid/Balearic in its purest form. Another track that begs for communal celebration, when the opportunity permits. ‘High and Wild’ closes the album. The 9 minutes within don’t share the optimism and ‘highs’ displayed in the 35 minutes prior but doesn’t suffer any for it either. The most ‘conventional’ and only guitar based song on the album, this track won’t be found near a dance floor. More suited for the days after, when the highest highs bring the real lows.
The Lucid Dream are Mark Emmerson (vocals/guitars/programming), Wayne Jefferson (guitars/synths), Mike Denton (bass) and Luke Anderson (drums).
The Lucid Dream are rapidly becoming major players in an ever-increasingly crowded psych scene.. utterly seductive.’ The Quietus.
Taken from the forthcoming 5th album, ‘The Deep End’, to be released 2nd April 2021
Talking Heads’ 1980 song “Once in a Lifetime” is one of the most durable songs of its era, watch the video and see how it has held up to numerous interpretations — via remixes, covers, mash-ups, samples and live takes.
Released in 1980’s “Remain in Light”, “Once in a Lifetime” shows the growing influence that producer Brian Eno, was having over the group. David Byrne used his downtime to work with Brian Eno (who’d produced the previous two Talking Heads records) Eno had introduced them to the work of Fela Kuti when he first met the band in 1977, and the Afrobeat legend’s polyrhythms first made their way into their sound on 1979’s Fear of Music.
In addition, David Byrne’s speak-singing on the verses was inspired by field recordings of American preachers that Byrne was listening to while working on “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts,” a collaborative album with Eno that he was working on at the same time as “Remain in Light”. Those recordings also factored into the lyrics.
“Most of the words in ‘Once in a Lifetime’ come from evangelists I recorded off the radio while taking notes and picking up phrases I thought were interesting directions,” he said (via Songfacts). “Maybe I’m fascinated with the middle class because it seems so different from my life, so distant from what I do. I can’t imagine living like that.” Meanwhile, Weymouth and Frantz took a long holiday in the Caribbean, where they pondered the group’s future and soaked up musical influences that would set them in good stead. Feeling Byrne had become too controlling, they looked to redress the balance; rather than rely on their frontman bringing material to the group, Weymouth and Franz suggested they emulate the music that was exciting them – early hip-hop, Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat grooves, West African highlife pop – and embark upon jam sessions,
Frantz and Weymouth invited Harrison to their New York loft for informal jams, recorded on Frantz’s boombox. When it became apparent they had the beginnings of some promising tracks, they reached out to Byrne and Eno, both of whom had previously told Frantz they were not interested in making another Talking Heads record. Once the reluctant pair had been separately coaxed over and joined in, things began to get interesting. “By night time we took a break to listen back. You could hear all kinds of interesting parts germinating, mutating and evolving,” Frantz recalled. “There was no denying that Talking Heads still had a great chemistry going on and the beats were good.
One of those jams, a hypnotic and relentless instrumental called Right Start, might very well have been abandoned. Instead, it was worked up to become one of the best Talking Heads songs of all, the transcendent “Once In A Lifetime”.
Byrne expanded on its portrayal of a middle-class suburban man when he spoke with NPR in 2000. “We’re largely unconscious,” he said. “You know, we operate half awake or on autopilot and end up, whatever, with a house and family and job and everything else, and we haven’t really stopped to ask ourselves, ‘How did I get here?'”
Yet for all its fame, the song wasn’t even a hit. Although the original version reach No. 20 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart, it failed to make Billboard’s Hot 100. But its video was frequently shown on MTV in the network’s early days. Five years later, however, the live take from their concert film Stop Making Sense.
The 1980 Original Version – Talking Heads, “Once in a Lifetime” which received a single release on 2nd February 1981, was an obvious high point on the album that emerged from those sessions, 1981’s “Remain In Light”, the song’s video lodged it firmly in the public consciousness. Choregraphed by Toni Basil (of Hey Mickey fame, who also co-directed the promo clip with Byrne), the video featured a suited and bespectacled Byrne dancing like a possessed marionette, his moves inspired by archive footage of “preachers, evangelists, people in trances, African tribes, Japanese religious sects”.
Music Video Set to Scenes From David Bowie’s “The Man Who Fell to Earth”
Once it was picked up by MTV (which launched ten months after Remain In Light’s release), it became hailed as one of the best music videos of all time – a stark visual inseparable from the song.
1980 – Talking Heads Live Version
Talking Heads Live Wembley 1982 Once In A Lifetime
Byrne himself has suggested the song implores the listener to take stock of their lives. “We’re largely unconscious. You know, we operate half-awake or on autopilot and end up, whatever, with a house and family and job and everything else. We haven’t really stopped to ask ourselves, ‘How did I get here?’”
Tethers was produced by Andy Savours, whose catalogue includes records with Berman’s previous band and others such as My Bloody Valentine. The album also features Pains collaborators Jacob Sloan, Brian Alvarez, and Sarah Chihaya, plus Kyle Forester of Crystal Stilts and Woods.
Berman led the Pains of Being Pure at Heart for more than a decade, beginning in 2007. The band broke up in 2019, following the release of The Echo of Pleasure in 2017. Berman released Know Me More, his first EP as the Natvral, in 2018.
Kip Berman singer/songwriter of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart has begun recording and performing as The Natvral. Drawing inspiration from the lyrical folk rock of icons like Richard and Linda Thompson, Leonard Cohen and Ted Leo, this EP finds Kip channeling his lyricism with newfound intimacy and emotional candor. This venture is neither solo project nor side project, but rather a chance for Berman to create new music that connects in sound and substance to his present life. Since the recording of the last Pains record in 2016, The Echo of Pleasure, Berman has become a father and traded his beloved Brooklyn for the collegiate charms of Princeton, NJ.
“Why Don’t You Come Out Anymore?” is taken from The Natvral’s forthcoming LP, “Tethers” on Kanine / Dirty Bingo Records.
“Why Don’t You Come Out Anymore?” is taken from The Natvral’s forthcoming LP, “Tethers” on Kanine / Dirty Bingo Records.
Tethers was produced by Andy Savours, whose catalogue includes records with Berman’s previous band and others such as My Bloody Valentine. The album also features Pains collaborators Jacob Sloan, Brian Alvarez, and Sarah Chihaya, plus Kyle Forester of Crystal Stilts and Woods.
Berman led the Pains of Being Pure at Heart for more than a decade, beginning in 2007. The band broke up in 2019, following the release of The Echo of Pleasure in 2017. Berman released Know Me More, his first EP as the Natvral, in 2018.
Kip Berman singer/songwriter of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart has begun recording and performing as The Natvral. Drawing inspiration from the lyrical folk rock of icons like Richard and Linda Thompson, Leonard Cohen and Ted Leo, this EP finds Kip channeling his lyricism with newfound intimacy and emotional candor. This venture is neither solo project nor side project, but rather a chance for Berman to create new music that connects in sound and substance to his present life. Since the recording of the last Pains record in 2016, The Echo of Pleasure, Berman has become a father and traded his beloved Brooklyn for the collegiate charms of Princeton, NJ.
“Why Don’t You Come Out Anymore?” is taken from The Natvral’s forthcoming LP, “Tethers” on Kanine / Dirty Bingo Records.
Kip Berman, formerly of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, has announced his full-length debut from his solo project as The Natvral. The album is called “Tethers” and it’s out April 2nd on Kanine Records. Berman has also shared the first song from the album, “Why Don’t You Come Out Anymore?” .
“Why Don’t You Come Out Anymore?” is taken from The Natvral’s forthcoming LP, “Tethers” on Kanine / Dirty Bingo Records.
“Why Don’t You Come Out Anymore?” is taken from The Natvral’s forthcoming LP, “Tethers” on Kanine / Dirty Bingo Records.
Tethers was produced by Andy Savours, whose catalogue includes records with Berman’s previous band and others such as My Bloody Valentine. The album also features Pains collaborators Jacob Sloan, Brian Alvarez, and Sarah Chihaya, plus Kyle Forester of Crystal Stilts and Woods.
Berman led the Pains of Being Pure at Heart for more than a decade, beginning in 2007. The band broke up in 2019, following the release of The Echo of Pleasure in 2017. Berman released Know Me More, his first EP as the Natvral, in 2018.
Kip Berman singer/songwriter of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart has begun recording and performing as The Natvral. Drawing inspiration from the lyrical folk rock of icons like Richard and Linda Thompson, Leonard Cohen and Ted Leo, this EP finds Kip channeling his lyricism with newfound intimacy and emotional candor. This venture is neither solo project nor side project, but rather a chance for Berman to create new music that connects in sound and substance to his present life. Since the recording of the last Pains record in 2016, The Echo of Pleasure, Berman has become a father and traded his beloved Brooklyn for the collegiate charms of Princeton, NJ.
“Why Don’t You Come Out Anymore?” is taken from The Natvral’s forthcoming LP, “Tethers” on Kanine / Dirty Bingo Records.
In some ways, Murder Ballads is the record, Nick Cave was waiting to make his entire career. Death and violence have always haunted his music, even when he wasn’t explicitly singing about the subject. He sings about nothing but death in the most gruesome, shocking fashion. Divided between originals and covers, the record is awash in both morbid humour and sobering horror, as the Bad Seeds provide an appropriate backdrop for the carnage, alternating between blues, country, and lounge-jazz.”
On Murder Ballads, he sings about nothing but death in the most gruesome, shocking fashion. Divided between originals and covers, the record is awash in both morbid humour and sobering horror, as the Bad Seeds provide an appropriate backdrop for the carnage, alternating between blues, country, and lounge-jazz.
Nick Cave does have plenty of compositional talent though, and his baritone suits the sombre mood of the record superbly. To say that the album is only worth getting for its lyrics would definitely be selling it short. Cave’s vocals are superb, and he really gets into character as he spins his tales of death and murder. Instrumentally, the album is primarily driven by a standard outfit of piano, bass, drums and guitar, with the occasional inclusion of organs, horns, strings, accordions, gunshots and screams among other things. The songs are anything but standard rock n’ roll song, seemingly as much to traditional folk or blues songs as contemporary rock music. While the album may be extreme for some in places, there are some undeniably great songs. His duet with Kylie Minogue on ”Where the Wild Roses Grow” is a beautiful ballad, driven by a delicate string section, that most people can enjoy, and a definite highlight on the album. Nick Cave often uses female vocals to provide contrast to his sombre baritone. On ”Stagger Lee”, a slow, menacing song, driven by a muted guitar, a repeated bass riff, and the occasional ringing piano chord. Nick Cave sounds more menacing than ever, taking a traditional blues standard and turning into an extreme tale of violence, murder and rape.
Opening the affair is “Song for Joy,” a tale from a father who has witnessed his family’s death at the hands of serial killer. It is the most disturbing number on the record, lacking any of the gallows humour that balances out the other songs. Cave’s duets with Kylie Minogue (“Where the Wild Roses Grow”) and PJ Harvey (“Henry Lee”) are intriguing, but the true tours de force of the album are “Stagger Lee” and “O’Malley’s Bar.” Working from an obscure, vulgar variation on “Stagger Lee,” Cave increases the sordidness of the song, making Stagger an utterly irredeemable character. The original “O’Malley’s Bar” is even stronger, as he spins a bizarrely funny epic of one man’s slaughter of an entire bar. During “O’Malley’s Bar,” Cave and the Bad Seeds are at the height of their powers and the performances rank among the best they have ever recorded.
“Henry Lee’ by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds featuring P.J Harvey.
In some ways, Murder Ballads is the record, Nick Cave was waiting to make his entire career. Death and violence have always haunted his music, even when he wasn’t explicitly singing about the subject. He sings about nothing but death in the most gruesome, shocking fashion. Divided between originals and covers, the record is awash in both morbid humour and sobering horror, as the Bad Seeds provide an appropriate backdrop for the carnage, alternating between blues, country, and lounge-jazz.”
On Murder Ballads, he sings about nothing but death in the most gruesome, shocking fashion. Divided between originals and covers, the record is awash in both morbid humour and sobering horror, as the Bad Seeds provide an appropriate backdrop for the carnage, alternating between blues, country, and lounge-jazz.
Opening the affair is “Song for Joy,” a tale from a father who has witnessed his family’s death at the hands of serial killer. It is the most disturbing number on the record, lacking any of the gallows humour that balances out the other songs. Cave’s duets with Kylie Minogue (“Where the Wild Roses Grow”) and PJ Harvey (“Henry Lee”) are intriguing, but the true tours de force of the album are “Stagger Lee” and “O’Malley’s Bar.” Working from an obscure, vulgar variation on “Stagger Lee,” Cave increases the sordidness of the song, making Stagger an utterly irredeemable character. The original “O’Malley’s Bar” is even stronger, as he spins a bizarrely funny epic of one man’s slaughter of an entire bar. During “O’Malley’s Bar,” Cave and the Bad Seeds are at the height of their powers and the performances rank among the best they have ever recorded.
After this harrowing epic you can let out a sigh of relief. The closer is gentle, comforting, cover of Bob Dylan’s “Death Is Not The End”, a welcome change but out-of-place at the same time. The verses are song by Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Shane MacGowan, Kylie Minogue, Thomas Wylder, Anita Lane and Blixa Bargeld taking turn. The album might have ended on a stronger note with “O’Malley’s”, but that is up to personal opinion.
Murder Ballads is the ninth studio album by the Australian group Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, released by the record company Mute Records in February 1996.
In 1969, Jeff Beck recorded the album “Beck-Ola”, the second and final album with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood. Nicky Hopkins who was now a permanent member.
After the release of their previous album “Truth”, by the end of 1968 drummer Micky Waller was replaced by Tony Newman, as Jeff Beck wanted to take the music in a heavier direction and he viewed Waller as more of a finesse drummer. Pianist Nicky Hopkins, who had also played on Truth, was asked to join the band full-time for his work in the studio.
Recording sessions for the album took place over six days in April 1969 – the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 10th, 11th and 19th. Two covers of Elvis Presley tunes were chosen, “All Shook Up” and “Jailhouse Rock”, as well as “Girl From Mill Valley”, an instrumental by and prominently featuring Hopkins. The remaining four tracks consist of band originals, with the instrumental “Rice Pudding” ending the album dramatically cold. The album cover features a reproduction of Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte’s The Listening Room. On the back cover to the original vinyl issue, beside “Beck-Ola” is written the tag “Cosa Nostra”, Italian for “Our Thing”. When it was originally released in June 1969, “Beck-Ola”, the Jeff Beck Group’s second album, featured a famous sleeve note on its back cover: “Today, with all the hard competition in the music business, it’s almost impossible to come up with anything totally original. So we haven’t.
Following the sessions for this album, the Jeff Beck Group toured the United States. They were scheduled to play Woodstock and are listed on posters promoting the festival, but by then internal friction had reached the breaking point and both Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart were out of the band. Stewart and Wood would go on too form The Faces with members of the Small Faces in 1969, while Hopkins played Woodstock with Jefferson Airplane, joining Quicksilver Messenger Service, and toured the world with The Rolling Stones in 1971, 1972 and 1973.
Beck himself would be out of commission by December due to an automobile accident.
During 1967 the band released three singles in Europe and two in the United States, the first, “Hi Ho Silver Lining”, being the most successful, reaching No. 14 on the UK singles chart; it included the instrumental “Beck’s Bolero” as the B side, which had been recorded several months earlier. The line-up for that session included guitarist Jimmy Page on rhythm guitar, John Paul Jones on bass, Keith Moon on drums, and Nicky Hopkins on piano.
In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau was unimpressed by the album and facetiously remarked that Stewart and Beck had encouraged Hopkins’ overblown playing. At the time, Beck commented on the album cover the impossibility of coming up with anything original, and that Beck-Ola indeed was not. Although a short album at half an hour, along with its predecessor it is regarded as a seminal work of heavy metal due to its use of blues toward a hard rock approach and the squaring off of Beck’s guitar against Stewart’s vocals, and claims that it was duplicated the same year by Beck’s confederate Jimmy Page with his singer Robert Plant although in actual fact Zeppelin had been displaying such style since the summer of 1968.
On 10 October 2006, Legacy Recordings remastered and reissued the album for compact disc with four bonus tracks, all of which had been previously unreleased. Included were two early takes of the Presley covers, one done at Abbey Road Studios in January, a jam on “Sweet Little Angel” by B.B. King done the previous November with the Waller edition of the band, and a song intended as a single by producer Mickie Most but never issued
Ronnie Wood: Appeared on Beck-Ola and then quit to join The Faces with Rod Stewart. He went on to recording solo albums in 1974 starting with I’ve Got My Own Album To Do, Now Look (1975), Mahoney’s Last Stand (1976), and Gimme Some Neck (1979). He officially joined the Rolling Stones in 1976 and continues to record the odd solo album.
Rod Stewart: Sang on Beck-Ola and simultaneously pursued a solo career while joining The Faces with bass buddy Ron Wood. Recorded Rod Stewart (1969), Gasoline Alley (1970), Every Picture Tells A Story (1971) and Never A Dull Moment(1972) as a solo artist. As a member of The Faces, he recorded First Step (1970), Long Player (1971), A Nod’s As Good As A Wink… To A Blind Horse (1972), and the swan song, Ooh La La (1973). Became solo superstar; currently sells crooning compilations to grannies.
Nicky Hopkins: One of the most in-demand session men of the 1960s, Hopkins played with everyone from The Beatles, The Kinks and the Stones to Quicksilver Messenger Service, JeffersonAirplane and on his own solo albums. He died in 1994.
Mickey Waller: Played with many bands including Georgie Fame, Charlie Watts’ Rocket 88, recorded with Paul McCartney in the noughts, but died in 2008.
Jeff Beck moved on to his R&B period with the JBGII and a pair of albums titled Rough And Ready (1971) and Jeff Beck Group (1972). A studio album (1973) with ex-Vanilla Fudge rhythm section Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice called Beck, Bogert & Appice and a Japan-only live album release followed. In 1975, Jeff then entered the instrumental phase of his career with the wondrous Blow By Blow, followed by 1976’s Wired and 1977’s Jeff Beck With The Jan Hammer Group – Live! There And Back [1980], the shaky vocal/instrumental Flash [1985], and Guitar Shop [1989] formed the next group of releases. In 1992, Epic released the three-CD Beckology set. Jeff continues to record mainly guitar records to this day.
Beck-Ola stands as a prime example of late-’60s British blues-rock and one of Beck’s best records.
The Fat Angel Sings 