Flyte are Will Taylor (vocals, lead guitar), Nick Hill (bass, vocals), Sam Berridge (keyboards, guitars, vocals) and Jon Supran (drums, vocals).
The band have spent the first months of 2017 in Australia putting the finishing touches to their debut album with ‘Courtney Barnett’ producer Burke Reid, a collaboration that delves deep into new sonic territory to create a modernist but timeless sound that revels in coming-of-age nostalgia, cinematic synth melodies and prolific storytelling themes of life, love and death.
Last year, vocalist Will Taylor and keys player Sam Berridge got drunk and uploaded a cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘River’ to their Facebook page. The slap-dash DIY charm and heart-wrenching voices started a Flyte-movement. Racking up over 1M streams, fans wanted more sessions, and Flyte began carefully curating covers in London landmarks with towering acoustics, earning a reputation for their trademark four-part harmonies, as well as their live sound.
Accomplished songwriters Will, Sam, Nick, and Jon have released a flurry of alternative-indie anthems including ‘We Are The Rain’, ‘Closer Together,’ and ‘Light Me Up’ over the past few years and have amassed over 1.5M Spotify streams. Evolving together as a band and great friends.
Music video by Flyte performing Victoria Falls. (C) 2017 Island Records
“The Weather” is taken from Pond’s new album “The Weather” Out on Marathon Artists on 5th May.
The band’s seventh album The Weather issued in May is soaking up acclaim, with a universally positive critical response. Hailed ‘The Hottest Band In The World’ by NME, the disc scooped four star reviews from Q and Mojo with Uncut stating ‘…like The Flaming Lips at their best… solid pop tunes and heartfelt existential concerns 8/10’.
Produced by Tame Impala mainman Kevin Parker, the two outfits share a long history with band members past and present switching between the two groups.
Emily Haines is back with “Choir of the Mind”, the Metric singer’s first release as her Soft Skeleton solo project in a decade.
That interval has particular resonance for Haines: Choir of the Mind, due September. 15th on Last GangRecords, comes 10 years after her Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton EP What Is Free to a Good Home?, which in turn stemmed from her 2006 LP Knives Don’t Have Your Back. Ten years before that, she released Cut in Half and Also Double under her own name.
“It’s funny, I believe in a way that my life has functioned in decades,” Haines says. “A lot of things aligned to make this seem like the time.” Her solo projects represent transitions in her life: her 1996 album came as she passed over the threshold of adulthood, while Knives Don’t Have Your Back emerged after the death of her father, the acclaimed poet Paul Haines. “On Knives, there were strings and horns, the mood was funereal, there were all these other players. On Choir of the Mind, there is still a fair bit of instrumentation, but I found myself filled with a desire to achieve as much as possible using little more than the contents of my mind and my voice, anchored by my hands on the piano, propelled by these rhythms I was making with my breathing, like a panic attack on the bottom with a lullaby on top.”
Haines’ vocals are definitely the focal point of Choir of the Mind. She used her voice to create spellbinding orchestrations for an effect that is subtle and ghostly on “Wounded,” lush on “Fatal Gift” and deeply powerful on “Legend of the Wild Horse,” which she calls her “soft anthem.” Haines’ voice is the only audible instrument on “Strangle All Romance,” and she creates mesmerizing layers that drift and swirl through the title track, which includes a spoken-word part adapted from a poem by the Indian mystic Sri Aurobindo.
Haines recorded Choir of the Mind over several weeks in September and October of 2016, more or less alone in Metric’s Toronto studio with a borrowed 9-foot grand piano built in 1850. Her longtime musical partner/Metric bandmate, James Shaw, helped flesh out the sonics with various instruments and rhythmic elements. (Shaw also mixed the album). Sparklehorse drummer Scott Minor, a member of the Soft Skeleton’s first incarnation, returned to perform on “Legend of the Wild Horse.” Haines says, “The writing and recording process was heightened and intensive, the two became one thing.”
In between solo releases, of course, Haines keeps plenty busy with Metric. Formed in 1998, the band has released six full-length albums and three EPs on its way to commanding arena-sized stages.
There’s a trace of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Little Tramp” in the way Courtney Marie Andrews struts her way through The Family Grocer in the new video for “Irene.” Her character works for a small-minded manager at a local grocery store in rural Washington state. Playful at heart, she is a constant disappointment to her employer, whose managerial responsibility seems to be consumed entirely by containing Andrews’ joie de vivre. Few characters could do justice to the irrepressible heart of this sweet, uplifting song — this one does.
“Irene” is the third track off Andrews’ “Honest Life”, released last year by the Pacific Northwestern songwriter. The song has an encouraging swagger that’s hard to resist, one that leaves a perfect space for Andrews‘ strong, swooping voice.
Andrews teamed up once again with director Josh Perrault, who has previously made videos for her songs . She wrote “Irene” for a friend who was going through a tough time — something that Andrews, who has been a hard-touring musician since age 16, surely knows something about.
“Irene is the little voice inside most of us, that says we aren’t good enough, or strong enough,” said Andrews. “It’s about shutting that voice off, while also accepting life’s inevitable struggles. It’s about coming to terms with who you are, and believing in that person.”
A new Mama Bird +Fat Possum Records pressing of ‘Honest Life’ will be in indie stores on September 15th on an exclusive coke-bottle green vinyl. Limited to 400 copies, it Includes a bonus 7″ of unreleased recordings!
Attention all you Ty Segall completists! Fiending for a limited variant to one of your favorite Ty rekkids? Newbury Comics has you covered with a very sick, very tasty ‘orange swirl’ variant to 2010’s “Melted”, undoubtedly one of Ty’s dirtiest, sludgiest headbangers in his vast catalog. And up to today, this one’s never gotten the limited vinyl treatment. If you like your rock and roll knee-deep in lofi fuzz and your lead singers inches from madness, then you need Melted in your collection NOW.
Ty Segall has accumulated a large hoard of fans and collectors, so don’t expect a pressing of 500 to last long, especially with an album like this one. Don’t sleep, .
• The remastered CD versions of the 11 classic original ELP albums (1970-94), with original sleeve artwork reproduced:
• EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER (1970)
• PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION (1971)
• TARKUS (1971)
• TRILOGY (1972)
• BRAIN SALAD SURGERY (1973)
• WELCOME BACK, MY FRIENDS, TO THE SHOW THAT NEVER ENDS (1974) (2CD)
• WORKS VOLUME 1 (1977) (2CD)
This lavishly packaged, super-deluxe, multi-component rigid box set showcases the immense musical talents of Keith Emerson, Greg Lake and Carl Palmer.
Fanfare contains a wealth of exciting ELP treasure, including: Triple vinyl LP of previously unreleased live audio, all the original album CDs (remastered versions), previously unreleased live CDs and BBC archive material, 5:1 album mixes audio blu ray, 7” singles, deluxe hardback photo-book with rare photos and extensive sleeve notes, reproduced original tour programmes and poster, enamel ELP pin badge.
Each Box will be numbered and every pre-order here will receive an exclusive bonus CD of the previously unreleased BLACK MOON – ROUGH ALBUM MIXES.
It’s been four years since Queens Of The Stone Age’s last album, “Like Clockwork”, wonderfully rewrote the rules on what a QOTSA album could and should be.
Now the band is back with a new record, “Villians” produced by Mark Ronson , Its full of synths, big rock beats and Josh Homme’s heavy-sweet vocals, Villains is not what you expect, which is what you should expect from them by now. The album is not released until August. 25th, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a taste of what it’s all about right now.
The First Single Is About JoshHomme’s Rocker Wife “The Way You Used to Do,” which roared out to announce Villains in June, kicks off with Homme’s honeyed vocal crooning, “When I first met her she was 17,” which would certainly be creepy coming from a 44-year-old Homme if it weren’t for the fact that he’s referring to the story of how he met his future wife. The story goes that 17-year-old Brody Dalle, then the front woman of an Aussie punk band, met 22-year-old Josh at Lollapalooza in 1996 where he was the touring guitarist for ScreamingTrees . They wouldn’t meet again for seven years, but she clearly left an impression. He, of course, went on to form Queens, and she would go on to the Distillers, and some really good solo work. They married in 2007 and have three kids.
Don’t let the name of Katie Von Schleicher’s newest album, “Shitty Hits”, put you off—the songs it contains are neither. Her music—a darker take on Americana that calls to mind Lee Hazlewood and Mazzy Star—should be hits in another world’s Top 40, no question, but they’re definitely not crap.
Range is key throughout Shitty Hits. One of the album’s quietest songs, “Mary,” is nestled at the heart of the album, and is immediately followed up with the big, easy-going swagger of “Life’s A Lie.” Other songs carefully invert expectations: “Paranoia” starts with bass and vocals only, suggesting a bleaker approach, but then shifts into a lovely, downright uplifting full arrangement and chorus before concluding with a big—but not ham-fisted ending. That makes the slow doom grind of “Nothing” hit harder, with growling tones underscoring its final two minutes, like a threat.
If the album has a standout track, it’s “Soon,” an intimate performance which showcases Von Schleicher’s precise creative control. You can hear that focus in the way gentle drum taps cut through the arrangement, the way the keyboards and guitars complement and echo each other, the way saxophone carefully emerges towards the end, and the way that ending is sudden, but not abrupt. It’s the work of someone who knows exactly what she wants, and has the vision and skill to realize it.
A notorious homebody, Chad VanGaalen is well known for rarely leaving his rickety house in Calgary, endlessly drawing, recording and making art. With Diaper Island, VanGaalen distills his approach, producing his most sonically cohesive album to date, and the closest thing he has done to a rock album.
Also a celebrated visual artist, VanGaalen is widely renowned for his illustration and animation work. As with his previous albums – Infiniheart, Skelliconnection and the Polaris short-listed Soft Airplane, VanGaalen illustrated all of the art for Diaper Island – and is in the midst of animating a music video as well. He has animated music videos for folks like J Mascis, Guster, and Holy Fuck, and his videos have been collectively viewed well over a million times on YouTube.
VanGaalen has been quietly building a catalogue of songs that invite listeners to gently explore his distinctive creativity. Diaper Island extends the adventure into deeper territory, tapping into VanGaalen’s lifeblood and mining the richness of his mind with sharper tools.
The Slider is the seventh studio album by the glam rock band T.Rex , released on 21st July 1972 by record label EMI . Two singles, “Telegram Sam” and “Metal Guru“, were released to promote the album. Bolan described the song “Metal Guru” as a “festival of life song”, and that he related “Metal Guru” to “all gods around… someone special, a godhead. I thought how god would be, he’d be all alone without a telephone” were released to promote the album. The album notes credit Ringo Starr with the front and back cover photographs. The photographs were taken the same day that Starr was filming the T. Rex documentary “Born To Boogie” on John Lennon’s estate, Tittenhurst Park . The two singles “Telegram Sam” which was released January 1972 and charted in the UK for twelve weeks and peaked at number 1. The second single was “Metal Guru” which was released in May 1972 and charted in the United Kingdom for fourteen weeks and peaking at number 1 too.
In 1969, Marc Bolan published a folio of poetry titled The Warlock of Love. By that point, the man born Mark Feld had already been the guitarist of mod-rock band John’s Children (for all of four months) before turning his attention to folk-rock duo Tyrannosaurus Rex. Together with bongo player Steve Peregrin Took, the group released albums with titles like My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair… But Now They’re Content to Wear Stars on Their BrowsandUnicorn. Bolan mostly sat cross-legged style on stage, strumming an acoustic guitar, singing with such heavy affect that his future producer Tony Visconti was certain he was French, not English. None of these endeavors turned him into a star. But the last line of that folio portended what was to come: “And now where once stood solid water/Stood the reptile king, Tyrannosaurus Rex, reborn and bopping.”
The very next year, Tyrannosaurus Rex was reborn. Bolan stood up, plugged in a Les Gibson, replaced Took with Mickey Finn, and began to enunciate each syllable with lip-smacking aplomb on the band’s first single as T. Rex. Propelled by handclaps and a strutting gamecock of a guitar lick, “Ride a White Swan” climbed up the UK charts to No. 2. T. Rex was bopping. So much so that The Warlock of Love sold over 40,000 copies, making Bolan a best-selling poet.
When T. Rex’s second single “Hot Love” shot straight to #1, Bolan dabbed some glitter on his cheekbones before a “Top of the Pops” performance. As Simon Reynolds recalled in Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, that performance was “the spark that ignited the glam explosion,” confessing himself to “being shaken by the sight and sound of Marc Bolan…that electric frizz of hair, the glitter-speckled cheeks…Marc seemed like a warlord from outer space.” With 1971’s Electric Warrior, T. Rex topped the charts and was poised to break in the U.S., where “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” reached the top 10. For a glorious, nearly two-year reign, England was caught up in what the music mags would call “T. Rextasy.”
On New Year’s Day in 1972: Marc Bolan signed a deal with EMI Records to release albums in the UK on his own ‘T. Rex Wax Co.‘ label; the first album to be issued under the arrangement came in July, with ‘The Slider’ (reissued in Nov. 2012 as a 40th anniversary deluxe box set edition
I love The Slider but I will be the first to admit that “Buick MacKane” was not the most exciting track for me on that album. However, this live performance of “Buick MacKane” from Musikladen is just so good . I’ve never seen Marc Bolan rock so hard! I’m thinking it’s because there’s no glossy Tony Visconti production to get in the way of that gorgeous loud Orange Cab speaker – now that’s what a Gold Top Les Paul should sound like! He almost reminds me a little of the sound of Black Sabbaths Tony Iommi . The band featuring Bill Legend, MickeyFinn, and Steve Currie are solid – this is peak Marc and T. Rex, right here!
“Buick MacKane” Live on Musikladen February 14th, 1973 , Musikladen was a German music TV series that aired from 1972 to 1984. There are tons of excellent clips from the show on YouTube.
