Steve Buscemi’s Dreamy Eyes is an atmospheric indie pop band from Stockholm, Sweden. Our debut album ”Sweetie” is finally here! Thank you so much to all of you for supporting us through the years, listening to our songs, buying our records and merch and coming to our shows!
And a special thank you to our Master Producer Emil Aspegren for recording, mixing and mastering! And of course a big thank you to Axel and Sixten at Rama Lama Records for believing in us from the start!
Behind the odd name Steve Buscemi’s Dreamy Eyes is one of the two bands that have been with us from the very start (the other being Melby). The band’s first single “Desire” went straight into our hearts and the thoughts of starting a label became more concrete since we already knew the band members. The band formed in 2015 after bassist/vocalist Tilde tweeted out “Does anyone/anybody know someone who wants to play in a band together with a bassist and a singer that haven’t played in a band for a year and are dying of boredom?”. Guitarist/vocalist Elias Mahfoud responded and the rest is history. Their dynamic and dreamy indie pop have constantly been developing during the band’s career and even though we’ve seen them more times than we can count we never get tired of it. When lead vocalist Siri Sjöberg lifts one end of her synthesizer and bangs her head in her signature move, you know it’s time to party with Stevie B.
Siri Sjöberg (vocals, synth), Tilde Hansen (vocals, bass), Elias Mahfoud (vocals, guitar), Eric Boström Wallin (drums)
Dream-indie at its best” – Ja Ja Ja The sweetest indie-pop songs to back up the incredible name”– DIY” Swoops straight into the part of your brain that’ll never forget it” – The Line of Best Fit This highly likable four-piece blend indie noir with dramatic dream pop textures with almost effortless precision”– Record Collector Magazine
A collection of cover versions that 93MillionMilesFromTheSun have done over the years. Some have appeared on compilation albums, some on EPs and some are unreleased. Thanks to all the artists that have inspired us over the years. As stereotypical visions of people and places go, the good folks of Doncaster aren’t exactly at the top of the list when thoughts turn to embracing new, experimental music. Indeed, having spent the occasional stag night in DN1 and its dens of iniquity also known as night clubs, the nearest anyone could expect to come to encountering new music would be the “Indie half hour” in Seventh Heaven, where Oasis, The Enemy and Ocean Colour Scene are the so-called alternative. Thank heavens for small mercies then, as 93 Million Miles From The Sun to not only manage to dampen stereotypes, 93 Million Miles From The Sun’s extensive make-up is that not only do they express a desire to take their sonic experimentation one step further, but they also never lose sight of the fact that beneath all the reverb and delay lay actual songs that would sound just as affecting.
1. Velocity Girl – Primal Scream 2. Unfamiliar – Ride 3. Kaleidoscope – The Boo Radleys 4. Never Understand – The Jesus & Mary Chain 5. Slowdive – Slowdive 6. Reference – Exit Calm 7. Lounge Act – Nirvana 8. Christine – The House Of Love 9. Drive Blind – Ride 10. To The Sky – Maps 11. Star Roving – Slowdive 12. Fosters Van – The Boo Radleys 13. Killed By Death – Motorhead 14. Can’t Go Back – Primal Scream 15. In A Hole – The Jesus & Mary Chain 16. Falling Ashes… more
93MillionMilesFromTheSun are:- Nick Mainline (Guitars/Effects/Vocals), Kenno (Bass)Jase Burns (Drums/Effects))
released December 31st, 2020
Primal Scream, Ride, The Boo Radleys, JAMC, Slowdive, Exit Calm, Nirvana, The House Of Love, Maps, Motorhead, Lush, The Stone Roses and 93MillionMilesFromTheSun
A Powys trio whose free-spirited invention and exuberant intensity flows through experimental pop: hypnotic, exhilarating and defiantly unique. The Welsh band Islet return with the release of their long-awaited new album. “Eyelet” was recorded at home tucked away in the hills of rural Mid Wales. It took form the months following the birth of band members Emma and Mark DamanThomas’ second child and the death of fellow band member Alex Williams’ mother. Alex came to live with Emma and Mark, and the band enlisted Rob Jones (Pictish Trail, Charles Watson) to produce.
‘Caterpillar’ described by Emma as “a song for my unborn child”. It’s followed by syncopated lullaby ‘Good Grief’ with its haunting keyboard hook and icy percussion thawed by Emma’s yearning vocals about the quiet strength of generations of women. With nods towards Arthur Russell and Jenny Hval, ‘Geese’ is a mini symphony of driven electronica inspired by Welsh cultural theorist Raymond Williams’ novel People Of The Black Mountains.
Young Fathers inflected rhythm can be heard on ‘Radel 10’ that accompanies the multi-tracked variations of Emma and defiant lyrics that were inspired in part by The Good Immigrant – the landmark anthology of essays on race and immigration by BAME writers. Powys trio Islet‘s superlative third record Eyelet is coursing with perpetual motion and meditative depth of the undercurrents of water that flow through the Welsh hills of their home, elemental, hypnotic and spiritual, the cycle of life from birth to death.
“They invigorate the sense of life on the margins with this whirlwind of psychedelic pop” The Guardian
“Unhinged, euphoric, wonderful.” Pitchfork
“They create an ideology that fuels creativity” The Quietus
On December 4th, Atlanta punk rockers The Coathangers acknowledged an upcoming 15 year milestone for their previously out-of-print self-titled debut album by releasing a Deluxe Edition of the collection with Suicide Squeeze Records, featuring remastering of the tracks and bonus material. A timely and punchy music video has also been released for one the tracks, “Nestle in My Boobies”, drawn from footage of a sweaty live performance in 2011. Watching the video now definitely promotes a vicarious thrill, aware that no concert like that one could occur at this time, but that also highlights The Coathangers’ particular magic as a band, always conscious of the value of capturing specific, unique, moments in time in all their glory.
Coathangers singer/guitarist Julia Kugel recently discussed this reflective moment in time for The Coathangers, what life was like for them around the time of recording that first album, how they fit into the musical scene at the time in their hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, Oddly enough, we were planning on taking this year off.But we were so lucky to get to play that Coachella show with Blondie.Our only show of 2020 was the highlight of my fucking life, all of our lives!That’s pretty much 2020 in a nutshell, asking, “What the fuck?”But we hadn’t been home much in 12 or 13 years, so we were going to take some time off anyway.
we never called ourselves Punk, because that’s kind of un-Punk to do that!When people would shout at shows, “They’re not Punk!”, I would shout back, “I never said I was Punk Rock, bitch!”I think we’re Punk in attitude and inspired by it, but there was not a formula of sound that we tried to follow.Punk is fast, though, fast and short, and that shit’s awesome, it pumps you up!The best description we ever got was “Psycho-Pop”, so we called ourselves Psycho-Pop, No-Wave, and a bunch of others.We used to throw things out at people just to confuse them.
“Somewhere in far West Texas – ”a place where the dead outnumber the living” – the band Ak’chamelThe Giver Of Illness are fourth world post-colonial cultural cannibalists circumcising the foreskin of enlightenment. Throughout years they have designed a unique sound evoking a sort of haunting, deep psychedelic folk music. This is a fascinating journey through funeral folk, mystic, psychedelic rock, and so on, and so forth.”
First vinyl release of Ak’chamel after a prolific cassette discography, “The Totemist” marks a new direction for the mysterious group. Equipped with studio quality recordings and a (somewhat) lighter tone, opposed to the oppressively lo-fi sound the group is known for. Performing in homemade costumes and masks, they have played festivals in various cities around the U.S gaining international attention from Vice, The Wire, Tiny Mix Tapes, Consequence of Sound, and many more. They have amassed over 10 cassette albums and 1 VHS full length film.
This is a deep psychedelic-folk album with hints of mysticism, some of which was written and recorded in a ghost-town in the Chihuahuan Desert in far West Texas – a place where the dead outnumber the living. Various overdubs and field recordings were captured in the historic Terlingua cemetery : an ancient burial ground filled with small grottoes and graves made of sticks and stones. This being the final resting place for miners who succumbed from illnesses derived from the toxic rare-earth element known as mercury.
Ak’chamel, The Giver of Illness are fourth world post-colonial cultural cannibalists circumcising the foreskin of enlightenment. Performing in homemade costumes and masks, they have played festivals in various cities around the U.S gaining international attention from Vice, The Wire, Tiny Mix Tapes, Consequence of Sound, and many more. Enter the fourth world now !.
Barcelona’s Mourn. They’ve just dropped ‘This Feeling Is Disgusting’ and it’s a perfect indie rock banger – two-chord punk guitars, sweet/rageful vocals, jumpabout beat. “Self Worth”, out now via Captured Tracks, is the Barcelona trio’s fourth album, and it follows 2018’s Sopresa Familia, which was characterized by the seething anger Mourn felt after being manipulated by their previous record label. Self Worth is imbued with a similarly intoxicating vigour and celebration of each other, but it also has a cool confidence, and both melodic ease and intrigue. With an approach to rock and post-punk that’s both straightforward and unusual, Mourn remain one of the most underrated bands going.
Adversity does not incite the best feelings: frustration, anger, fear, anxiety – nothing unusual for today’s world. The members of Mourn know quite a bit about these setbacks, but a latent belief persists within: the negative will eventually become positive. It’s the belief of facing and overcoming a problem. To come out reinforced: the wonder of resilience. It’s the belief of what they are worth, whatever people say. It’s the name they chose for their new album: Self Worth.
And it’s precisely self-worth that took Mourn this far. Their journey was premature, with their self-titled debut album – released in 2014 when all the members were still minors – earning them widespread critical acclaim and devoted fans. They followed with two more: Ha, Ha, He (2016) and Sorpresa Familia (2018), and became intercontinental with tours in North America, Europe, and Japan. An indie dream come true for Jazz Rodríguez and Carla Pérez Vas, both born in 1996 in El Maresme, Catalonia, where the two became inseparable in high school. That bond remains today, and when their voices and guitars combine it is pure fire.
Of course, there were obstacles along the way: a local label with mismanaged finances and careless managers, and more recently, a line-up change with Antonio Postius no longer on the drums. The band isn’t the same as when they formed. The world isn’t either. Mourn grew up, and that’s evident in the songs that make up Self Worth. Their melodies – energetic and captivating – venture into less level grounds, and their lyrics show their newfound readiness to tackle issues of a different weight and size.
Self Worth began to take shape in the spring of last year. Back then, things weren’t going so well. “We were in a very bad moment; the group dynamics were no longer working with Antonio. We didn’t feel like we could write a record with him. It didn’t work. So in the end he left,” Jazz recalls. “I think his departure was something that had to happen. We no longer understood each other. And it got to the point where it wasn’t comfortable, either on tour or in rehearsals. So it was a very positive change. It gave us the peace of mind we needed,” Carla adds. In May, once freed from the “bad vibes”, Jazz and Carla took refuge for almost a week in a small house in the mountains, near the Pyrenees in France, to start projecting their next album. No phones, no internet. Just what they needed to write and record demos. New melodies, lyrics and guitar parts appeared, and with these first songs, they returned to Catalonia, where Leia Rodríguez – bassist and sister of Jazz – and Víctor Pelusa – the new drummer – were waiting. “We finished it with the four of us together, at the end of that summer,” Carla says. Jazz: “We’ve been able to enjoy the process of writing an album throughout the summer. In the past that could only happen under pressure.”
The track is from forthcoming album, “Self Worth”, out October 30th via Captured Tracks.
“The song is really about fear of the future, being anxious about what’s going to happen, not knowing if you’re going to be able to earn a living or not. It’s a really happy song, but one that represents being stressed out. The idea of “I don’t know if I’ll be able to afford an apartment any time soon, but hey, let’s dance and have fun!” That’s the concept behind it, and that’s what I was thinking about while writing the lyrics. I also thought about my parents, and everyone’s parents. They often have high expectations for you, or they want a certain lifestyle for you, and you don’t always agree with that. So you try so hard to do life your own way, but you’re super stressed out and you’re scared, and every now and then you think “Is it worth it?” In the end, I think it’s worth it.”
Official video for “This Feeling Is Disgusting”, from Mourn’s new album “Self Worth”
It only takes a few seconds of their single “In / Out” to realize that En Attendant Ana have something special. “Shred” isn’t a word you’d normally associate with jangle pop, but it can definitely be used to describe the chiming, pummeling riff that’s sprinkled throughout the Parisian band’s single. Margaux Bouchaudon’s vocals evoke Stereolab’s Lætitia Sadier and Alvvays’ Molly Rankin—she was practically genetically engineered to sing perfect, hyper-melodic dream pop. It would be unfair to dub them a dream pop outfit—they tap into avant-pop, post-punk and college rock with similar ease.
With their second album Juillet, they subvert listeners’ perception of them on nearly every track. “From My Bruise to an Island” is a soothing, horn-led ambient piece, “Flesh or Blood” is incisive post-punk at its best and “Words” drops a warped synth interlude alongside wailing brass. They approach familiarly blissful indie-pop (“Do You Understand?”) with as much care as they do their more complex, off-kilter moments. It’s rare to find such thoughtfulness in a record so unabashedly tuneful.
Taken from the Paris, FR quintet’s sophomore album “Juillet”, out January 24th, 2020 via Trouble In Mind Records
Nebraska songwriter David Nance returns to Trouble In Mind Records with his fifth (proper) studio album “Staunch Honey”, his follow-up to his acclaimed 2018 album “Peaced and Slightly Pulverized”. Returning to the home-recorded magic of his early albums, “Staunch Honey” was recorded entirely to tape by Nance himself at his Omaha home with the occasional assistance from his long time live bandmates Jim Schroeder & Kevin Donohue.
Guitar man David Nance continues his prodigious output of underground heartland rock with what might be his most accessible album yet. “Staunch Honey” sounds instantly timeless, but also as fresh and unique as any other rock album that came out this year. “My Love, The Dark and I” is probably the best union of Nance’s country-rock influences and his lo-fi aesthetic, without the confrontational squeal of his “Silver Wings” cover, but with just enough of a rough-hewn, homemade feel to please fans of Honey Radar or, well, Nance’s earlier, rougher records. Normally a White Light / White Heat kinda guy, “July Sunrise” and its loping guitar lines is more The Velvet Underground, but with Nance singing like Tony Joe White instead of Lou Reed. “Learn the Curve” is a slinky, bluesy vamp, while “If the Truth Shows Up” finishes the whole thing up with the stoned-out-of-its-mind psych chug of Endless Boogie. If you ever wanted to hear one of Dickey Betts’ almost saccharinely upbeat Allman Brothers songs turned into a smokey, hazy space journey, you’ll probably want to listen to “Gentle Traitor” which starts off with the colourful, chiming guitars of Betts songs like “Blue Sky” and “Jessica,” before drifting off into the cosmos. Nance has been keeping up the good fight for years now and with Staunch Honey, he might finally win over your rock ‘n’ roll uncle.
Many of the tunes on “Staunch Honey” feel like classics, but that’s because in Nance’s hands – they are. Not content to let the album go by without the rumble of guitar, “If The Truth Ever Shows Up” closes out the album. It’s an instrumental jam with Nance wrangling and riffing on a gut-punching guitar solo for 6-plus minutes that feels very much like the end credits to a long-lost midnight movie.
Some psychedelic albums reach a hypnotic end cheaply. But “Shadow Talk”, the second album from Chicago experimental five-piece Cafe Racer, reaches heady emotional and sonic heights, not by leaning on overused effects or sprinkling meaningless, abstract imagery, but by expecting more out of a song and its lyrics. Shadow Talk is all about finesse and dynamics—melodies cascade with subtlety and spark with a euphoric glow. They’re also masters of grooves both meditative and invigorating, and they experiment with foreground and background sounds in mind-numbing ways. It’s an extremely calming album until it isn’t—the guitar and synth fury on “Faces” is life-affirming, the guitar solo in “Exile” is painfully emotive and its subsequent outro track creates blistering, ambient havoc. It’s a moody, empathetic album, bolstered by repetition and the palpable scenes they create, whether that’s an imagined, heavenly gorge or the melancholy urban landscapes you traverse every day.
Cafe Racer continues Chicago’s long tradition of indie-rock / post-punk / whathaveyou, but with splashes of psych. Fluid but not overly studied. The debut album from Chicago five-piece Cafe Racer arrived in 2018 with Famous Dust, which artfully wobbles as much as it confidently struts. Their ability to make keyboard and guitar sounds bend, zigzag and squeal was already well-developed, so by the time they released their 2020 follow-up Shadow Talk, they were firing on all cylinders. With art rock, psych and krautrock as their backbone, they lock into immersive grooves, but even when a groove is dismantled or they’re building up to another one, Cafe Racer have a way of dazzling with subtle, snaking riffs and luscious vocals.
Written and Performed by Cafe Racer: Michael Santana, Adam Schubert, Rob McWilliams, Andrew Harper, and Elise Poirier. Saxophone on ‘Breathing’ performed by Spencer Ouellette.
We got our first glimpse of the forthcoming collaboration between Scottish singer/songwriter James Yorkston and Sweden’s genre-hopping Second Hand Orchestra last month, when they released the single “Struggle.” Now, with the album The Wide, Wide River just a month away, they’ve released a new single and video. “Ella Mary Leather” is an improbable-sounding name, but she was a real person – an English folk song collector of the early 20th century. Yorkston clearly likes the way the name sounds (“Ella Mary Leather I regret ya”), since the actual Leather is not the subject of the song. Instead we get a story of mixed emotions – most clearly, regret and nostalgia – and a tale driven by insistent piano and acoustic guitar, with just the right mix of emotions in the strings. “Ella Mary Leather” was a Herefordshire based folk song collector in the early 20th Century, but James Yorkston and The Second Hand Orchestra (JY and TSHO)’s song is not about her. Yorkston explains: “No, it’s not about Ella Mary Leather. I am just using her lyrical name as a mask, to protect the innocent…” Over a wealth of percussion, violin, nyckelharpa, Yorkston plays buoyant piano as he sings us a story about a friend from many years ago.
The video was shot in Stockholm; the album comes out on January 22nd. Watch for Yorkston and the band doing a remote live set for our Soundcheck series around that time. The Wide, Wide River is a soothing, warm and sublime listen, whilst also highlighting Yorkston’s skills for song writing, collaboration and as a musical conductor. The album takes in past loves, advancing age and friends, now gone, whilst also containing some of the most sanguine songs Yorkston has ever made.
James Yorkston & The Second Hand Orchestra – “Ella Mary Leather,” taken from forthcoming album ‘The Wide, Wide River,’ out 22nd January 2021 on Domino Record Co.
The Fat Angel Sings 