At this point their longevity may be the most compelling aspect of this Great American Band, who several great albums back discovered their greatest subject—the small compromises and contradictions that comprise family life—and made dad rock a legitimate subgenre. On this deep-album cut from Wilco Schmilco, whose title borrows from Nilsson Schmilsson, Jeff Tweedy communicates with song titles, rewriting the great charity hit from the ‘80s as means to shirk a little responsibility.
Best known as a guitar player, Steve Gunn writes songs as road movies. “Ancient Jules,” like most of his tunes, is less about getting from Point A to Point B and more about enjoying the space in between, with a friend’s advice his only guide: “Figure it out, Jules would say.” Gunn is traveling without a destination, and those guitars trace routes on a map whose scale is 1:1.
From the Matador debut “Eyes On The Lines”
Coming up through the cloistered English folk scene, this north London duo have filled their repertoire with songs dating back centuries, but Overnight, their Rough Trade debut, is their first album to feature primarily originals. Clarke has been holding out, with a lyrical style as luminescent and melancholy as her voice. On “Nine Times Along” she describes the wax and wane of a relationship against the lunar cycle and the gentle current of Ben Walker’s elegant guitar-work, working from the timeless wisdom that time heals not all wounds.
While “Sea Of Noise”—the follow-up to their widely hailed debut, 2014 ‘s Half The City—doesn’t shirk from offering commentary on society’s failings, it doesn’t revel in them either. To the contrary, it attempts to rally its listeners to a higher calling where intelligence and inspiration take precedence over name-calling and accusations. Singer and frontman Paul Janeway exhorts his listeners to find that higher purpose that great music strives to attain. Like another of soul music’s revered roots, the rousing gospel sounds that gave congregations reason to look heavenward, St. Paul & The Broken Bones use their effusive, ecstatic revelry to rouse their audiences and encourage them to get caught up in a kind of aural delirium.
There’s a real soul music is named as such. It comes from the soul. It soothes the soul. And Birmingham, Ala.’s best octet St. Paul & The Broken Bones has soul for sure. Frontman Paul Janeway shimmies and prances in the most impressively flamboyant suits and shoes and climbs on drum kits and speakers too tall to crawl down from without assistance, all while delivering lines in a tenor/falsetto with religious-like fervor. But, as this is a band affair, The Broken Bones never fracture or falter. The horn section rings in all the right places. Bassist and co-founder Jesse Phillips stays right in step with drummer Andrew Lee. And lead guitarist Browan Lollar adds a rock ‘n’ roll touch in his solos that’s exclusive to the band’s live sets. When all forces combine, whether Janeway wails about broken hearts or civil rights, St. Paul & The Broken Bones reach a place in their audiences that can’t come from any place other than the soul.
This Birmingham, Alabama, soul act toggle the traits typically associated with men or women, with St. Paul Janeway (not actually canonized, but give it time) lending gospel testimony to the different ways we can rescue and support and, sadly, leave each other. When he declares, “I’ll be your woman,” it sounds like a monumental act of empathy and compassion, proving that soul music doesn’t need a revival with bands like the Broken Bones around.
The musical partnership between Hamilton Leithauser and Rostam Batmanglij began, as so many do, by disturbing the parental peace. The former lead singer for the Walkmen and former multi-instrumentalist from Vampire Weekend are both originally from the city of Washington, D.C., and they’d meet up when they went home for the holidays.
Leithauser, now based in Brooklyn, and Batmanglij, who was based in Brooklyn but now lives in Los Angeles, released their first collaborative album together, “I Had A Dream That You Were Mine” ,
Written and recorded from July 2014 to February 2016, the record pairs one of rock’s great voices with a pop auteur . The result are lush arrangements and doo-wop tropes Batmanglij toyed with on the last Vampire Weekend album and fills them with another charismatic vocalist from indie rock band The Walkmen, Hamilton Leithauser, who brings his smoky croon and elegantly rumpled lyrics.
The two first met in March 2008, when Vampire Weekend were in Atlanta to open for the Walkmen, Leithauser and Batmanglij didn’t start working on songs together until years later, beginning with “1959,” which turned out to be the final song on I Had a Dream That You Were Mine . Batmanglij ended up writing, producing, and performing on two tracks from Leithauser’s solo debut LP, 2014’s “Black Hours” (“Alexandra” and “I Retired”). “It was a progression from there,” Leithauser says. They recorded almost the whole album in Batmanglij’s home studio in Los Angeles making it the first LP cut there—except for the drums, played by the White Rabbits Stephen Patterson, which they did in an outside studio.
They decided to bill themselves by their names, rather than as another Hamilton Leithauser solo record that happened to be co-written and produced by Batmanglij “We wanted to put the record out in that way that both of our identities would be intact, said Batmanglij .
Everything Is a Lie follows on from their debut and yet again reaffirms the band as one of the most exciting and refreshing outfits in the wave of current shoegaze bands. It’s the mesmerising concoction of shoegaze, neo-psych and post-punk, delivered with a lethargic but hopeful restraint that is pinning the band at the top of the UKs fruitful ‘psych-gaze’ scene and Everything Is a Lie is certain to keep them sitting there comfortable for a while. ‘Everything Is a Lie’ could be plucked straight out of 1989, deeply indebted to Spacemen 3, Loop and My Bloody Valentine, it feels languorous and apathetic at times but frontman Thomas’s fragile yet hopeful croons drive it with an insatiable vigour from start to finish. Washed-out fuzz-encrusted guitars are underpinned by whirling bass-lines that Peter Hook would be proud of, if not envious. Hazy synths crash over you whilst thundering percussion locks the album into a deep psychedelic groove, hitting you square in the face like an immersive wall of noise.
The band described this LP as a statement, condemning the current state of the world and addressing the bleak hidden agendas of life, both in a political and personal sense. When asked to describe Everything Is a Lie the band pinned it as “the only honest thing you’ll hear in a world full of lies and hate. Imagine The Jesus and Mary Chain sharing a Lou Reed cake with The Brian Jonestown Massacre whilst Spacemen 3 stand and watch
“Woods have always been experts at distilling life epiphanies into compact chunks of psychedelic folk that exists just outside of any sort of tangible time or place. Maybe those epiphanies were buried under cassette manipulation or drum-and-drone freakouts, or maybe they were cloaked in Jeremy Earl’s lilting falsetto, but over the course of an impressive eight albums, Woods refined and drilled down their sound into City Sun Eater in the River of Light, their ninth LP and second recorded in a proper studio. It’s a dense record of rippling guitar, lush horns, and seductive, bustling anxiety about the state of the world. It’s still the Woods you recognize, only now they’re dabbling in zonked out Ethiopian jazz, pulling influence from the low key simmer of Brown Rice, and tapping into the weird dichotomy of making a home in a claustrophobic city that feels full of possibility even as it closes in on you. City Sun Eater in the River of Light is concise, powerful, anxious – barreling headlong into an uncertain, constantly shifting new world.” .Woods’ second album in a proper studio continues where “With Light..” left off with superb tunes, cool grooves (now funky and even jazzy) and their usual mellow 60’s vibe. There’s also a tangible reggae flavour here, which is a tasty addition to their template (all things transcendent) whilst The Song is still, of course, king. Really good record!
Working in the sweetly swinging tradition of Serge Gainsbourg and the yé-yé sound of the ’60s, the Limiñanas have a sound that blends sunny psychedelia with vintage pop. Based out of Perpignan, France, the group is composed of drummer and sometime vocalist Marie Limiñana and bassist, organist, and jack-of-all-trades Lionel Limiñana, as well as a host of guest vocalists including MU. With its combination of fuzzy organ, half-spoken/half-sung vocals, and vintage production, the band captures the sexy, ultra-hip sound of classic French pop. After releasing a series of singles, the duo released its self-titled debut in 2010 through the Chicago label Trouble in Mind. The band continued to crank out singles, and a second album, Crystal Anis, followed in the summer of 2012. After taking some time to revamp the Limiñanas‘ sound to introduce more elements of French and Italian soundtrack music, the duo returned quickly with its third album for Trouble in Mind. Costa Blanca was issued in late 2013. The band are now back with new relase “Malamore”.
Malamore is French psych-pop-rock at its finest. Progressive hooks, walking bass and spoken word passages. Never scared to rock a groove or stamp on that wah-wah. This is a varied and exciting collection that reads like a what’s-what of psych/folk/rock tropes, but at no point feels stifled or clichéd. Starry-eyed and swaying passages segue into droning distortion and chanted vocals. A Fulfilling and absorbing ride.
First impressions matter. Especially on a debut album. Time and attention-strapped listeners size up an artist within a song or two, then move on or delve in further. Fortunately, it only takes Margo Price about twenty-eight seconds to convince you that you’re hearing the arrival of a singular new talent. “Hands of Time,” the opener on Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, is an invitation, a mission statement and a starkly poetic summary of the 32-year old singer’s life, all in one knockout, self-penned punch. Easing in over a groove of sidestick, bass and atmospheric guitar, Price sings, “When I rolled out of town on the unpaved road, I was fifty-seven dollars from bein’ broke . . .” It has the feel of the first line of a great novel or opening scene in a classic film. There’s an expectancy, a brewing excitement. And as the song builds, strings rising around her, Price recalls hardships and heartaches – the loss of her family’s farm, the death of her child, problems with men and the bottle. There is no self-pity or over-emoting. Her voice has that alluring mix of vulnerability and resilience that was once the province of Loretta and Dolly. It is a tour-de-force performance that is vivid, deeply moving and all true.
From the honky tonk comeuppance of “About To Find Out,” to the rockabilly-charged “This Town Gets Around” to the weekend twang of “Hurtin’ (On The Bottle)”, Price adds fresh twists to classic Nashville country, with a sound that could’ve made hits in any decade. Meanwhile, the hard-hitting blues grooves of “Four Years of Chances” and “Tennessee Song” push the boundaries further west to Memphis (the album was recorded at the legendary Sun Studio).
Essentially the project of multi-instrumentalist and producer Demian Castellanos, The Oscillation was formed in London in 2006 with the release of the debut seven-inch and Rough Trade Records ‘single of the week’; ‘New Way To Feel’ on Bee And Smoke records. Drawing inspiration from The Cure, Loop, Can, The Durutti Column, PIL, Spacemen 3, Popol Vuh and Chrome, they’ve since gone on to release three critically acclaimed studio albums; ‘Out Of Phase’ (2007), ‘Veils’ (2011) and ‘From Tomorrow’ (2013). Over the last few years The Oscillation have also appeared on several highly rated compilation albums and provided remixes for the likes of Simian Mobile Disco, Telepathe, Nick Nicely and most recently the Fat White Family.
The new long player ‘Monographic’ sees the multi-talented Castellanos, who sings, play bass, guitars and synths on the album, joined by Valentina Magaletti on drums in what is without doubt the band’s most accomplished and outstanding set of songs to date.
The Oscillation are set to embark on several dates in the UK and Europe with a band line up that sees Demian Castellanos (guitar/vocals) and Valentina Magaletti (drums) joined by Tom Relleen (bass) and Cathy Lucas (keys).
The Third Sound’s new album Gospels of Degeneration shows a shift in style for the group, having toned down the shimmery psychedelia in favour of something a little cleaner. That’s not to say this is a barren sounding album at all, it’s still hypnotically layered with country-kissed reverb, and retains those itching guitar riffs that will keep whispering through your mind for hours after listening.
Founded by Icelandic frontman, Hakon Aðalsteinsson – an ex-member of Singapore Sling who are often hailed as founding members of the new psych sound – The Third Sound came into being in Rome in 2010 and have since relocated to Berlin. Since forming, The Third Sound have enjoyed the support of Anton Newcombe, who released their self-titled first album, on his label A Recordings, and chose the group to support his band The Brian Jonestown Massacre on tour in Europe. He also provided the studio for recording their second album The Third Sound of Destruction and Creation which was released on Fuzz Club in 2013. Most recently they’ve shared members with Anton Newcombe and Tess Parks’ band, which led to Parks’ appearance on the single “You Are Not Here” from this new album. What began as somewhat of a solo project by Aðalsteinsson, the new album sees The Third Sound stretching its definition with deeper levels of collaboration between band members and the influence of a new character in its story, the city of Berlin.
The group’s sound has been described as “ebbing between light and dark, dream and reality, pop and experimentalism” and “ranging from hypnotic soundscapes to tweaked out and fuzzed up numbers.” In a recent premiere on Clash Music they were described as “lynchpins of the psychedelic underground.”
I seriously thought I was listening to Swell Maps when Good Luck with That started playing. Really great melodic post-punk! Classified as “punk” but pure melody in the perfect way done so lovingly by these Kiwis. So looking forward to the full-length album. If I *had to* describe them I’d say feels like Viet Cong/Preoccupations meets the darker side of Cloud Nothings…
From Auckland, New Zealand’ s Trust Punks’ new album, Double Bind, aggressively consolidates their strengths as one of the most exhilarating young acts out there – blisteringly sharp, smart and spry. From the cold water surf of surging opener ‘ Paradise/angel-wire’ , the band is on a tear through an Australasia that’ s a precarious and nasty place for the young and the restless. Whether they’ re adopting the snarling id of suburban nationalists, or casting a harsh eye on the American way of life, incarceration and death (as on the incongruously sprightly ‘ Good Luck With That’ ) theirs is a serving of wit and fury in equal measure.
They’re also willing to turn the gaze on themselves, as bitter, discordant exorcisms give way to an unbearable sweetness. The stridency of Double Bind’s opening 1-2 leads into the poignant jolt of ‘The Reservoir’ , as Alexander Grant pleads“ I’m not bold enough”. On ‘Riding It Out’ , Joseph Thomas grips crippling depression by the horns and rides it over a grinding Krautrock beat. Grant’ s see-sawing melodies and Thomas’ s belting rasp are Double Bind’ s yin and yang – each a reminder of the challenging terrain post-punk was meant to stake out.
Double Bind ticks all the boxes. It’ s angry for all the same reasons you are, but it’ s also involving and intricate, a record to get lost in. And like the best records of its kind, it seeps into your brain, your feet, and your being.
Trust Punks are Paul Brown, Alexander Grant, Lliam Powell, Joseph Thomas and Maté Vella
Additional guitars and synthesiser by Lawrence Goodwin
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