Built around a blunt, dead-simple guitar line, “Baby Luv” hits a different emotional note. She played solo, and her voice cracked a few times; the new studio version, adds some sheen, with quiet percussion and subtle synths, but the take is just as raw. There’s not much in the way of a melody or beat, allowing Yanya’s voice to be the focus, strained as she continually repeats “Do you like pain?” and “call me sometime” on the chorus. While the peculiar tunefulness of her timber and the bounce of her delivery remains, she explains that the song is about “suppressing your feelings and not being able to feel the normal things like joy and pain.”
Baby Luv by Nilüfer Yanya Out now via Blue Flowers/ATO Records.
Fascinating Broadcast Recording From The Legendary Time Fades Away Tour Comprising Jack Nitzsche, BenKeith, Tim Drummond and Kenny Buttrey, The Stray Gators had backed Neil Young on 1972 s Harvest, and would go on to do likewise on the tour during which its follow-up, Times Fade Away, was recorded live. Featuring previously unreleased cuts, until 2017 Time Fades Away remained the only Young album not released on CD, despite critical acclaim from most quarters. What would later become known as the Time Fades Away Tour began on 4th January 73 in Madison, Wisconsin; it was fraught from start to finish. Young would later describe it as one of the unhappiest times of his life and the worst tour of his career.
However, the show performed at Toronto s Maple Leaf Gardens on 15th January, recorded for live FM broadcast and now featured on this CD in its entirety, sounds far from chaotic and forms a fascinating document of a legendary tour from which a full performance has rarely been heard. This CD features a set list that includes five numbers from the Time Fades Away album (albeit in different versions to those included on the record that would appear in the shops in November 73) alongside a handful from Harvest and others from earlier LPs.
It’s been a year since Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith gave us Ears, the album that preceded her latest full-length offering The Kid. Not much breathing room whatsoever, we wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
The Kid is, as she described herself, “a journey from birth to death it’s about four stages of life through my interpretation of it. It’s all about remembering and forgetting your kid energy,” and will see Smith embarking on another US tour right after its launch. Four Tet has remixed a song off Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s new album The Kid. Listen to his rendition of “I Will Make Room for You” and check out the single’s artwork below. Four Tet recently released a new album of his own, titled New Energy.
Last year, Smith released two new albums: EARS and a collaborative project with Suzanne Ciani called Sunergy. Earlier this year, she also covered Sade’s “By Your Side.”
Although she has previously unveiled singles ‘To Follow & Lead’, ‘An Intention’, and ‘To Feel Your Best’, the full thing is now available now.
Hey there Port O’Brien fans. Did you get a chance to check out this mini-documentary on my life up on Kodiak Island in Alaska and the new Van William songs? Its been pretty amazing to see it spread so organically among people with Kodiak/Alaska/fishing roots and Port O’Brien fans. I appreciate all the sharing
Van here. I recently got back from my very last trip working on my dad’s boat up on Kodiak Island, Alaska. Saying goodbye to the amazing life up there has been devastating, but I wanted to share it with y’all. Port O’Brien has been a huge part of my life on Kodiak, from “Fisherman’s Son,” “Stuck On A Boat,” and “Sour Milk/Salt Water.” The new Van William songs are less specifically about that life, but are buried in the anxiety that comes from saying goodbye to it, and offer a retrospective of what it has meant to me. I am very proud and excited to share this short documentary about my life up in Alaska and the new Van William project.
Van William’s bleeding heart may be eternally affixed to his sleeve, but very few songwriters can make the therapeutics sound so fun. Known for the meticulous alt-pop song craft of his former acclaimed indie outfits, PortO’Brien and WATERS, Van William (nee Pierszalowski) offers an auspicious glimpse into a promising future.
Always the creative force that fueled his musical endeavors, William’s newfound independence allowed room to roam in fresh and exciting ways. The songs reflect the pain and disillusionment of lost love, have a dark, messy edge as William’s consistently dazzling melodies and stirring choruses carry the emotional subject matter to striking affect.
So many songs have taken on new meaning over the past nine months or so. Ask Van William about his song “Revolution” and he’ll tell you that it “started as a song about the anxieties of being in a relationship, where both people want to fix its broken parts, but disagree on the means,” but “became something else during and after the 2016 election.”
However, that original inspiration was the video’s guiding force, Van William told me. “Something simple and stark that followed a linear progression into the madness found in the waning days of a romantic relationship. I wanted the video to show the claustrophobic feeling that can form by sharing too much of each other’s lives and being unable to repair the damage from inside the walls of what was built together.” It’s an idea, he says, that came while binge-watching Ingmar Bergman films.
Director Grant James wrote to tell me that “‘Revolution’ is an emotional performance delivered by Van, as well as First Aid Kit’s Klara and Johanna Söderberg, within the confines of a black void. The focus was to compose moving portraits of the artists that express the meaning behind the lyrics of the song as the musicians go through an emotional journey individually and together. The result delivers a variety of raw and striking imagery that balances the fine line between high-fashion cinematography and keeping our subjects grounded in their own natural aesthetic and realism.”
Video Directed by Jonathan Chu. Featuring Laura Burhenn (The Mynabirds). “Never Had Enough of You” is off “The Revolution EP” out now.
The Revolution EP is the solo debut for Van William having been in previous bands WATERS and PortO’Brien. That EP will be out in September with a full length in 2018.
What did I miss? check out this playlist of the songs of – Van William, Van here. I made a Spotify playlist that features songs I’ve made through the years that I’m still proud of. It has songs from my new project Van William as well as WATERS and of course PORT O’BRIEN. Take a listen and see if there are any POB songs that you feel like have been woefully omitted’
Five and Dime
My Eyes Won’t Shut
Fisherman’s Son
Stuck On A Boat
I Woke Up Today (AWCDWS version)
Close the Lid
Sour Milk/Salt Water
Calm Me Down
My Will Is Good
Oslo Campfire
Ariel Pink’s 11th album release,Special Edition! The title makes a direct and heartfelt reference to a real-life Los AngelesBobbyJameson musician, long presumed dead, who resurfaced online in 2007 after 35 reclusive years to pen his autobiography and tragic life story. “His book and life resonated with me to such a degree,” Pink states, “that I felt a need to dedicate my latest record to him.” Dedicated to Bobby Jameson begins at the end and ends at the beginning. “We follow the protagonist through a battery of tests and milestones, the first of which sees him reborn into life out of death,” Pink explains, referencing the opening track “Time To Meet Your God.” “From there, he see-saws his way between the innocent love and the rock-solid edifice of childhood-worn trauma that together constitute his lifelong initiation into the realm of artifice and theatrical disposability.” This limited edition deluxe pressing features the 13 track album on black vinyl with bonus Non-Sequitur Segues picture disc, and 24″ x 36″ foldout poster, all housed in a translucent PVC sleeve.
Ariel Pink – I Wanna Be Young From the album Dedicated To Bobby Jameson Available now via Mexican Summer Records
“Bleeding Magenta” is the third album of New Candys, coming out on October 6th for the Fuzz Club Records.
The Venetian band, one of the most international realities that exist in Italy (judging also from the coming dates, between Italy, Germany, Poland, Denmark, England, Austria …).
The record will be released in vinyl, a media that is also served on the artistic side: “When we started writing Bleeding Magenta we considered vinyl support 12 as a creative stimulus,” the band says. “The limited minute that gives the first 33-lap side has forced us to skim the songs.”
Robert Plant has released an animated video to accompany his new track Bluebirds Over The Mountain. It’s lifted from the former Led Zeppelin vocalist’s upcoming studio album “Carry Fire”, which will arrive on October 13th via Nonesuch/Warner.
The track features guest vocals from Chrissie Hynde and follows the release of singles The May Queen and Bones Of Saints. Plant previously announced a 14-date UK tour for November and December.
Speaking about the follow-up to 2014’s Lullaby And… The Ceaseless Roar Plant said: “It’s about intention. I respect and relish my past works, but each time I feel the incentive to create new work, I must mix old with new. “Consequently, the whole impetus of the band has moved on its axis somewhat – the new sound and different space giving way to exciting and dramatic landscapes of mood, melody and instrumentation.”
Robert Plant performs “Bluebirds Over the Mountain,” with special guest Chrissie Hynde, from his 2017 album, “Carry Fire”, released 13th October.
Released in 1992, “US” is Peter Gabriel’s sixth studio album. It was released six years after the phenomenally successful So, was, at that time, arguably Peter’s mot personal record yet as he stepped into the confessional to explore and dissect many of the relationship issues he was then experiencing. But “US” is far from just being bleakly introspective featuring several songs that have gone on to be amongst the most cherished in the Gabriel songbook.
Singles taken from the album included “Digging in the Dirt”, “Steam”, “Blood of Eden” (an early version of the track was previously featured in the 1991 Wim Wenders film Until the End of the World), and “Kiss That Frog”. Promotional singles also included “Come Talk to Me” and “Secret World.”
On this album Gabriel explored the pain of recent personal problems; his failed first marriage, his relationship with actress Rosanna Arquette, and the growing distance between him and his first daughter.
The album was supported by the Secret World Live tour, named after its closing track, “Secret World”. The tour spawned a live album and a concert film. The album was also promoted through a first-of-its-kind interactive multimedia software released for Macintosh computers called Xplora1: Peter Gabriel’s Secret World, which featured several music videos from the album.
“Although US was not nearly as big a seller as So, I’m pleased that it is now getting better regarded, with hindsight, and I think it has some of my best songs on it.
Part of the idea of using US, other than the fact that it was another two-letter title which doesn’t give me huge room for variation, was the sense that there is a dividing line between ‘us’ and ‘them’. The further back you can push the dividing line, the less problems the world is going to have. The more people you feel compassion, sympathy and understanding for the better. It’s very easy to fall into a state of mind where you just put blame and responsibility on other people and you don’t connect with them. I know that my life works much better when I don’t do that.” ~ Peter Gabriel.
When Haim announced their return with a live video for new song ‘Right Now’, it saw the band team up with ‘There Will Be Blood’ director Paul Thomas Anderson.
The pair have once again teamed up with the director for a new short film called ‘Valentine’, a 14-minute film that shows the band in the studio performing tracks from new album ‘Something To Tell You’.
Filmed on location at Valentine Recording Studios, North Hollywood, CA November 3, 2016 Music video by HAIM performing “Something To Tell You,” “Nothing’s Wrong” & “Right Now”.
London trio Fever Dream are releasing their new album ‘Squid’ this Friday (29th September) via AC30, and we’ve got the first play of the latest of its tracks titled ‘Heads Will Roll’ .
‘Heads Will Roll’ is a swirling storm of a track, with barely contained reverb mixing with washed out vocals. Straddling the line between shoegaze and grunge, it’s an intoxicating blend.
The band are set to play an album launch show at the MOTH Club in London this Friday (29th September) to celebrate the release of ‘Squid’.
