Today sees the release of Everything Is Forgotten, the new album by Australian band Methyl Ethel.
Those in the know back in Australia have been talking up Methyl Ethel for quite some time. Their home city of Perth has a way of breeding artists both talented — it’s given us Tame Impala, The Drones, and The Triffids, amongst others — and also somewhat odd. Methyl Ethel’s singer/mastermind Jake Webb definitely ticks both boxes. This is a polished, sparkling record that’s often startlingly radio-friendly — lead single “Ubu” is so catchy but it also comes with an undercurrent of strangeness.
Methyl Ethel’s second full-length, the record is a vivid, compelling and mysterious creature, all curvaceous pop nuggets and enigmatic currents. Written and recorded by Perth-based frontman Jake Webb, it was brought to life by acclaimed British producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Foals). The pair’s collaboration has infused Methyl Ethel’s shoegaze dream-pop palate with electronic and polyrhythmic flourishes, allowing Webb’s keening, gender-fluid vocals and searing poetry to take centre stage.
“A mind brimming with ideas and inspirations” – FasterLouder (9/10)
“One can only stand back and gawp at the strength of Webb’s songwriting here, the talent pouring from these tracks… a tight, exciting, stonker of an album.” – Loud & Quiet (8/10)
“By turns weighted and buoyant, half darkness and half shimmering light.” – DIY ****
Some bands aim for a grand, widescreen sound when they go into the studio, but the New Pornographers refuse to be satisfied with anything short of 3-D IMAX, with their songs accompanied by thundering drums, massive cascades of keyboards, towering vocal choruses, and chugging, percussive melodies that power it all. It would be easy for this band to sound absurdly ostentatious if it weren’t for the fact there’s a fiercely beating heart in the midst of their music, and at their best, this indie supergroup seems to be having a grand time constructing their walls of sound.
Brill Bruisers is the sixth studio album from Canadian indie rock band The New Pornographers. It was released in August 26th, 2014 . In describing the album, A.C Newman called it “a celebration record… After periods of difficulty, I am at a place where nothing in my life is dragging me down and the music reflects that.”
The first single from the album was “Brill Bruisers”, with the second single, “War on the East Coast”, The album was a shortlisted nominee for the Polaris Music Prize. Aspecial “Paint Splattered” limited edition of the album on vinyl was made available inclusing a 3d Poster and 3d Glasses .
The Title track from the new album on Matador Records from the collective band known as the NewPornographers, featuring Neko Case and Kathryn Calder ,”Brill Bruisers” is the bands album, they performed the song on the Late Show with David Letterman. A really joyous tune with harmonies and handclaps and a great synth refrain.
She’d been a New Yorker since moving to the city in 1967, aged 21. She had a child that she gave up for adoption, met and started a relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe – with whom she shared a room at the infamous Chelsea Hotel for some time – and she discovered the work of French symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud. She appeared in Warhol Superstar Jackie Curtis’s play Femme Fatale with Wayne County, and – for one night only – in Cowboy Mouth which she co-wrote with Sam Shepherd. She was considered for the role of lead vocalist in Blue Oyster Cult, but instead contributed lyrics to many of the band’s songs, and she started a relationship with BOC keyboardist Alan Lanier. She contributed articles to rock journals Rolling Stone and Creem. By 1974 she was performing rock music herself, initially with guitarist, bassist and rock archivist Lenny Kaye, and later with a full band comprising Kaye, Ivan Kral on guitar and bass, Jay Dee Daugherty on drums and Richard Sohl on piano. The group released the self-financed single ‘Hey Joe’/’Piss Factory’ the same year and in 1975 recorded their debut album “Horses” for the label to which they were by then signed, Arista; the album was released in December ’75 to near unanimous high praise. Two months later, on February 15th 1976, the group played at the Boarding House in San Francisco – a performance which was broadcast live on FM radio. This CD captures this concert in its entirety and illustrates perfectly the strange power of this pioneering band and its dynamic, talented and foresighted lead singer and main songwriter. 1976 was also the year that the United States of America celebrated 200 years of independence from the British Empire, a celebration that culminated on July 4th – the date in 1776 on which the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Whether or not this event had any impact or bearing on Patti Smith is not recorded.
A few months on from the arrival of her epic Horses album and Patti Smith is on stage in San Francisco. It is February 1976 and a seminal sonic storm is starting to soar. Bicentenary Blues released on Good Ship Funke has Patti display positive elements from her own catalogue but she honours those forces that helped shape this aural assault. That means that this performance CD originally recorded for FM Radio also has Smith cover tunes by the likes of The Who, Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones.
The sound quality is not always of a superior nature but there is no doubt the intentions are honourable. Smith is spearheading a new breed but these fresh faces are taking their lead from a series of rock n roll rebels in order to carve their own niche for a new generation. There are several highs and of particular impact is the reggae tinged self penned Redondo Beach (later to be covered by Morrissey) and the ferocious Free Money (which also became a Penetration favourite). However, a poetic interlude has the gig take its foot off the pedal before a barnstorming close of Gloria Part 1 & 2 plus My Generation.
To capture the mood of a potent past influencing a powerful present this work is a fine representation of a changing sonic landscape. Punk and its urban cry is a developing genre and on either side of the Atlantic there is major movement in the direction of dissent towards the establishment. This is a warts and all example of a spirit that was to alter the balance of order and send shockwaves amongst the hierarchy.
Psychedelic rock isn’t dead, or at least The Flaming Lips don’t think so. Last night, they pulled out all the stops in their enthusiastic performance of “There Should Be Unicorns” from their 2017 album Oczy Mlody. Frontman Wayne Coyne was mounted on a unicorn wearing angel wings, Steven Drozd wore a red cape and bassist Michael Ivins wore an Oklahoma City Thunder jersey, referring, of course, to the band’s hometown (“Do You Realize??” was once the official state rock song of Oklahoma, incidentally.)
With a psychedelic back-light and on-stage astronauts, the performance effectively circumvented the need for drug consumption to arrive at a hallucinatory experience. Still, though the band’s showmanship remained strong, critics might claim that this is only compensation for a weak album, at least compared to those of the band’s golden age. It’s worth wondering whether, by wholeheartedly sinking into psychedelic tropes, The Flaming Lips may be effectively losing touch with their overwhelming musical talent.
America’s wildest rock ‘n roll band ride onto the Late Show stage to perform a song off their new album ‘Oczy Mlody.’
The She’s have been playing together since elementary school. Their early music is a reflection of their social and musical lives colliding- coming out of a unique perspective for high school students having been tossed into the music industry at such a young age. Today, their songs develop into themes of nostalgia, the exploration of solitude, love, and heartache
An array of famous Big Star fans which includes members of R.E.M, Wilco and Yo La Tengo united to pay tribute to the group’s music in a new live film and album “Thank You, Friends: Big Star’s Third Live…and More”.
The 90-minute concert movie, which is scheduled to make its theatrical debut at this year’s SXSW Film Festival on March 16th, is just one part of a package that’s being made available April 21st in multiple configurations. In addition to the deluxe two-CD/Blu-ray package, which bundles the songs and film together with liner notes by esteemed critic Anthony DeCurtis and the dB’s member Chris Stamey, fans can also pick up an audio-only CD version.
Having recently made its worldwide premiere at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival, this concert film (plus 2-disc companion album) celebrates the musical legacy of one of rock’s most influential bands – Big Star – and their legendary THIRD album. Experience this classic of late ’70s power pop through a collective of immensely talented fans, who assembled at Glendale, CA’s ALEX Theatre in April 2016 to record and film an epic performance.
The fabled group’s sole surviving original member, Jody Stephens, heads an amazing cast, whose membership includes latter-day Big Star alumni Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer of the Posies, R.E.M’s Mike Mills, Let’s Active’s Mitch Easter, Chris Stamey of the dB’s, and others. Jeff Tweedy and Pat Sansone of Wilco, Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo, Robyn Hitchcock, Dan Wilson of Semisonic, Benmont Tench, Jessica Pratt, Brett Harris, Django Haskins, and Skylar Gudasz are among the guests who are joined by a full chamber orchestra helmed by the Kronos Quartet, performing scores created directly from the original multi-track tapes from Ardent Studios for this event. Carl Marsh, who wrote the original orchestrations, conducts.
A tribute gig that quickly came together in the wake of Big Star co-founder Alex Chilton’s untimely passing in 2010 and performed several times since ,the Thank You, Friends performance honors Chilton’s legacy in general as well as Big Star’s classic “Third” LP in particular. Filmed in April 2016 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, Calif., the set featured a lineup including a number of Big Star acolytes.
Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Pat Sansone joined the ensemble alongside Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo, RobynHitchcock Dan Wilson from Semisonic , and longtime Tom Petty sideman Benmont Tench and singer JessicaPratt,all supported by a full chamber orchestra led by the Kronos Quartet and conducted by Carl Marsh, the arranger responsible for putting together the album’s original orchestrations.
Thank You, Friends: Big Star’s Third Live…and More is available soon.
“Thank You Friends: Big Star’s THIRD Live…and More” celebrates the musical legacy of one of rock’s most influential bands –Big Star– and their legendary THIRD album. Experience this classic of late ’70s power pop through a collective of immensely talented fans, including members of Wilco, R.E.M., Yo La Tengo, and, of course, Big Star.
Lone Justice Lead singer Maria McKee: “Barely out of her teens, she comes on with a spitfire defiance and a repertoire of yelps, growls, and shouts that are the essence of country spunk.” Three decades later, This classic debut album Lone Justice still sounds like an astonishingly precocious debut for McKee, even if the band sometimes sets up obstacles for her to leap over (she always does), and the production tilts the whole enterprise toward mainstream rock (especially on Tom Petty’s “Ways To Be Wicked”, which could be an outtake from an ’80s Heartbreakers album like Long After Dark). No matter. From the moment she steps up to the mic on the opening phrases of “East Of Eden”, McKee is a dynamo in a lineage that includes singers like Wanda Jackson, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, and Linda Ronstadt when she was still in the Stone Poneys .
There the rousing Soap Soup and Salvation , playing the part of a save-my-land heroine on After The Flood, or trying to salvage a failing relationship on the touching ballad Don’t Toss Us Away (written by her brother Bryan MacLean, who was a member of the seminal L.A. band Love) , McKee never missteps. She can break the momentum of a line, slip out for a half-spoken interjection, then fall right back into the melody, and nothing seems to rattle her. From the moment they appeared on the club circuit, the buzz on Lone Justice spread cross-country rapidly, so anticipation was high for this first album, and for their animated live shows, which often would include a take on Lou Reed’sSweet Jane that was a twang-infused hybrid, punk-country with a touch of the Rolling Stones around the time of Let It Bleed . Lone Justice aren’t spoken about much these days; you wonder how big they might’ve gotten if there were such a thing as “Americana” in the mid-’80s. check out this live set in 1985 at the Ritz in New York City.
To anyone who has heard the music of Kikagaku Moyo, it should come as no surprise that the band’s origins lie in hours upon hours of late-night jamming, illuminated by nothing more than the geometric patterns playing behind the band’s eyelids, resulting in a natural, free-floating sound, as of-the-earth as it is intergalactic. It may be surprising that the band sharpened their improvisational skills by busking on the streets of their native Tokyo. It may be surprising that the band’s overall sound may owe as much or more to the Incredible String Band as it does to Acid Mother’s Temple.
But what’s perhaps most surprising about Forest of Lost Children, the band’s face-melting, recorded-ritual sophomore album, is how utterly centered and mature the band sounds, especially given their relatively short lifespan as a band. Boundless though they may be, Kikagaku Moyo here sound anything but lost, their child-like wonder manifested in a confident, courageous exploration of sound. Labels – psychedelic, folk, prog-rock, psychedelic-folk-mixed-with-prog-rock – do little to accurately reflect the spectrum of influences on display, let alone the more impactful realization of completeness in Kikagaku Moyo’s songs.
Easily one of the most shimmering crown-jewels in the rapidly expanding BBiB catalog, look for Kikagaku Moyo and Forest of Lost Children to be found taking shape in the expanded minds of listeners everywhere.
Just in time for Kikagaku Moyo’s 2017 US and EU tours in May and June respectively, we’ve got a beautiful fresh pressing in the works with a brand-new Bone & Black A-side/B-side “swirl” variant. And the cover art for this fourth pressing of FoLC will be printed on heavy duty reverse-board jackets. The band will have a few of these on tour, but likely to sell out.
In a partnership with Bar None Records, Lost Colony Music is thrilled to announce the release of R Stevie Moore & Jason Falkner “Make It Be” on Friday, March 10, 2017. The album was recorded at Rhetoric, in Hollywood CA by Jason Falkner. The grand majority of songs were composed by Moore with one by Falkner, one co-written by the pair, one co-written by Roger Ferguson. Then there’s a wonderful rendition of Huey Smith & The Clowns “Don’t You Just Know It.”
What happens when R. Stevie Moore and Jason Falkner get together to record, arrange, and mix R. Stevie’s songs? We get to hear an audacious realization of these songs’ full potential in an epic collaboration no one saw coming. Moore and Falkner burst through your door with “I H8 Ppl” and take you on a journey through rock, pop, and experimental textures. Anchors such as “Play My Self Some Music” and “Sincero Amore,” keep the effort focused, while guitar-only interludes and spoken word pieces push boundaries.
The New York Times dubbed R Stevie Moore a “lo-fi legend;” he has over 400 releases to his credit having started making music in 1968.
Jason Falkner is a power pop pioneer who started his career in the 80’s with The Three O’clock and is a founding member of Jellyfish. He has released numerous solo records and has worked with such greats as Beck, Air, Aimee Mann, Travis and Paul McCartney.
Moore and Falkner are legends on their own but, as Make It Be loudly announces, their voices, performances, and arrangements have always been a match made in heaven waiting to be realized here on earth.
You’re Not As ___As You Think, Sorority Noise’s third album, is set for release on March 17th via Triple Crown Records. The album, produced by Mike Sapone (Brand New, Taking Back Sunday), is an emotional bulldozer – an unfiltered, inward look at the last year of the band’s life that’s filled with intimate, visceral details yet remains universally relatable. But even amidst weighty subject matter, Sorority Noise want to give you a sense of resilience: “No matter what I feel, it’s going to be OK,” Boucher says. “Things are going to be tough, but it’s going to be fine in the end – and you have to keep going because you just have to. This is how it’s going to be. You’ve just got to do it.”
Forgettable, back on wax. Flower Girl Records has a new pressing available with updated art and a richer packaging. The limited-to-200 variant of the Collectors Club will go fast. First come first serve! flowergirlrecords.com
Sorority Noise – “A Better Sun” from the album You’re Not As ___________ As You Think out 17th March on Triple Crown Records
