“Dreamstate” is Kelly Lee Owens fourth studio album. The new album will be her first released at new label home dh2 – a brand new electronic music imprint at renowned independent label Dirty Hit being spearheaded by George Daniel of The 1975. There’s an incredible feeling of freedom and escapism found throughout Kelly’s album “Dreamstate”, born from the experience of inner evolution in the aftermath of a break-up.
Yes, this is a ballad but it’s a very Kelly Lee Owens ballad, owing just a touch to her love of Cocteau Twins (and written with Chemical Brothers’ Tom Rowlands).
It’s the sound of a person letting loose and letting go while encouraging everyone else to do the same.“Dreamstate” is built on the foundations of collaboration, with producer-writer credits from Bicep, Tom Rowlands from The Chemical Brothers and George Daniel.
There’s a deluxe edition of Sleater-Kinney’s “Little Rope” out in November featuring a bonus disc of extra songs. Say the band: “‘This Time’ was the last song we wrote for the record and the last to get cut once we decided we preferred the evenness and succinctness of ten songs. About a person reaching the limits of denial, ‘This Time’ exists on the thematic edges of “Little Rope”, an album wrestling with loss and its aftermath.”
Sleater-Kinney released their eleventh studio album, “Little Rope” via Loma Vista Recordings. Recorded at Flora Recording and Playback in Portland, Oregon with Grammy-winning producer John Congleton, a powerfully honest and soul-baring album by one of modern rock’s most vital bands. “Little Rope” is one of the finest, most delicately layered records in Sleater-Kinney’s nearly 30-year career.
Beneath that are perhaps the most complex and subtle arrangements of any Sleater-Kinney record, and a lyrical and emotional compass pointed firmly in the direction of something both liberating and terrifying: the sense that the only way to gain control is to let it go.
Cindy is to release a new six song EP called “Swan Lake” via Tough LoveRecords. The title isn’t a nod to the folktale or ballet in any real way, but to the fact that it all has ended up in the collective imagination as an object, vaguely recognizable, a little suggestive, and mostly blank. Karina Gill, Cindy’s songwriter, likes to make use of that kind of resonance to connect sound and experience.
Listening to “Swan Lake”, I’m pretty sure that the EP is the perfect delivery vehicle for the hushed, gentle sounds of San Francisco band Cindy. At 17 minutes, you can absorb all they have to offer — delicately strummed guitars, laconic and warm melodies, the library-quiet vocals of songwriter/guitarist Karina Gill – while staying entranced and ready to hit play on the whole thing again. First song “All Weekend” is the standout but the vibes are so good you gladly stick around for another spin though all six songs. “Swan Lake” is a perfect little treasure.
The six songs on this EP continue the stripped-down habits of previous Cindy releases, while adding a few departures and left-turns. Cindy likes to work at the essentials and the elements here say exactly what’s needed. In other ways, these songs present a soft filigree that’s unusual for their recordings. Oli Lipton (Now, Violent Change) on guitar and Will Smith (Now) on bass play counterpoint melodies to Gill’s structures. Staizsh Rodrigues (Children Maybe Later, Almond Joy, Peace Frog) sings vocal harmonies that both offset and deepen Gill’s voice and delivery. There are playful drums by Mike Ramos (Tony Jay, Sad Eyed Beatniks) and coolly elaborate guitar lines from Stanley Martinez (Famous Mammals, Violent Change, Non Plus Temps).
Gill’s songs strike this balance too: almost nonchalant reporting tied up in unexpected knots. A ride in an elevator connects up with questions about peace and/or the nature of things; the title track wonders about associative thinking and associative feeling; “The Bell” is an account of one of those times when everything makes sense but you can’t explain it; and there’s the scene of a party viewed with admiration for how friends can love each other. As Gill herself says:
“People have told me that they can’t quite identify my influences. Me neither. The foundational layers of music of the past and my past have been metabolized like breakfast and turned into more me, sorry to say. But I experience the music of people I’m connected with and it impacts me in the moment. There’s the music I’m around – April Magazine, Sad Eyed Beatniks, Violent Change, Katsy Pline, collaborating with Mike on Flowertown – that I can feel a direct line from. Then there’s music that is being made far away but feels close, like Lewsberg, specifically, for this EP. “
The Smashing Times are back, and if “Mrs. Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys” doesn’t become your new favovrite, then you’re missing out on one of the freshest slices of MOD-infused indie pop this year. With a nod to Merseybeat and a wink to 60s revivalism, the Baltimore band delivers a jangly, shimmering sound that’s impossible to ignore.
Baltimore band The Smashing Times’ name and the title of their album doesn’t clue you in that they are extreme Anglophiles of a very specific variety, then the music should. With it’s jangly guitars, twee melodies, reverby DIY production, and faux British accents, “Mrs Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys” just oozes Carnaby Street, Beatles knockoffs, Village Green-era Kinks, Television Personalities (and Dan Treacy’s Whaam Records), Martin Newell’s Cleaners From Venus, pre-MBV Creation Records, ascots, and other UK signifiers. Decidedly mellow, The Smashing Times don’t go as far with the schtick as Mick Trouble, and neither are their songs as immediately hooky, but if you’ve read this far into this short review, I predict that A) you’re gonna like this, and B) you’ve already hit play.
The Smashing Times are a mainstay in the indie pop underground. The group mistrals the new modern life perfectly, the sharper world.
“Of course there are those, that this sound will be too ‘out there’ for. For such sorts there are an absolute plethora of The Byrds YouTube videos to feast your eyes upon.”
One of the best, most underrated bands of the original era, Medicine, are still at it and making amazing records that continue to fly under the radar. Their self-titled 11th album (and second of 2024) keeps the core of what Brad Laner, Jim Goodall and Julia Monreal do intact — Beach Boys melodies and harmonies paired with technicolor arrangements, wild studio sonic trickery and gonzo drumming — while shifting focus slightly.
The spotlight on “Medicine” is really on the vocals and drumming this time, with Monreal and Laner’s harmonies majorly warped with psychedelic effects and very high in the mix as Goodall’s drums crash in near-constant fill mode. It’s trippier that 2023’s “Silences”, though not quite as magical, but still worth your time. All the up-and-comers could learn a thing or two from the creativity found here.
released September 6th, 2024
Jim Goodall : drums, tapes, percussion, harmonica, ukelele Brad Laner : guitars, vocals, bass, modular synth, keyboards Julia Monreal : vocals, guitar, keyboard bass on 3 by Jim Garafolo
Former the Cure member Lol Tolhurst, former Siouxsie And The Banshees drummer Budgie, and veteran producer Jacknife Lee teamed up for an album called “Los Angeles” last year. Tolhurst and Budgie headed out on the road to promote it a few months back, a voyage that brought them to the KEXP studios in Seattle. In a session recorded on June 4th with Liam Hayden on bass, they performed a cover of the early Cure single “A Forest.” Tolhurst has a songwriting credit on “A Forest,” so maybe “cover” is not exactly the right word here. The point is these gothy post-punk veterans performed a gothy post-punk classic in a historically rainy West Coast locale
It’s a trip seeing Budgie playing drums, and the moody Blade Runner keyboards give it a different edge. It’s doesn’t have to be better, it has to be good. And it’s good. Lol is presenting similar very basic keyboards skills but we know he’s played drums and keyboards so often in the past, he’s just dumbed it down to give this interpretation of “A Forest”. Budgie working hard, maybe the bassist too low in mix. Really nice to see though, main thing for me is to see them fit and well and happy.
“This is not a project—it’s a band,” Stephen Malkmus has said of his new group with seasoned players Matt Sweeney (Chavez), Jim White (The Dirty Three), and Emmett Kelly (Ty Segall, Cairo Gang). “We’re all jazzed.” Listening to their debut album, it’s hard to argue with Malkmus. While all four had previously collaborated with other members of the group, The Hard Quartet marks the first time they’d collaborated as a unit. They say there was instant chemistry, though, and with three songwriters they had nearly an album’s worth of songs after the first week of playing together.
They wrote so many songs, in fact, that their debut is a double, but it’s one that sails by thanks to the variety and quality on display here.
Variety is really the key to “The Hard Quartet” Malkmus, Sweeney, and Kelly all bring songs to the group, each with a distinct but complementary style. All four are credited with the music but usually the lyrics are by the lead vocalist.
Malkmus delivers lots of memorable, very Malkmus’ lines (“Denim and door knobs that was our kink,” “Can you dredge emotion from me?”), a couple of his most Pavement-y songs since Pavement (“Thug Dynasty,” “Renegade”), at least three songs that reference rats, and one of his sweetest love songs ever (“Hey”). Sweeney, meanwhile, brings swagger on “Rio’s Song” and “It Suits You,” and folky choogle on “Jacked Existence” and “Killed by Death” which is one of the best songs on the album.
Kelly contributes two but they’re both great: the jangly, bittersweet “Our Hometown Boy,” and the dirgey “North of the Border.” As for White, who does let his Aussie accent fly, briefly, on “Action for the Military Boys,” he brings his dexterous, wide-range of skills behind the kit. It’s rare for him these days to play such a straight-ahead rock and this album make you glad someone is having him do it here. They are a cohesive unit, this Hard Quartet, a real, very good band, who hopefully will continue beyond this great record.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard on their last leg of their tour the band played a special acoustic set, and as soon as the Detroit show dropped on the Official Bootleggers’ series we knew we had to press it up. The acoustic Gizz sets almost prefer this version of “Theia” to the studio versions, “You Can Be Your Silhouette” sounds so good acoustically, and the tracks from “B741” as other notable highlights as well. However, it’s also funny to hear them attempt songs that don’t translate that well acoustically, While also allegedly being very drunk on stage, a very bold decision to play “Crumbling Castle/Fourth Color while wasted.
This bootleg album captures the first acoustic set of the 2024 tour in all its glory, pressed up on some sick tri-colour vinyl, each a different design over 3 LPs. Recorded Live at The Aretha Franklin Amphitheater, Detroit, MI, USA August 23rd, 2024.
Limited to 1000 Vinyl 3xLP Tri-Gatefolds featuring 18 acoustic tracks over three 12″ LP’s!, Each 12″ in a custom photo inner-sleeve A unique op art inner label for each 12″ This boot joins the Forest Hills 8xLP from the last leg of the tour.
In 2024, the long-thought-lost 16mm reels of Cameron Crowe’s first film ‘Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party’ . His directorial debut, has been unearthed from the archives, restored, and is getting a theatrical rerelease on October 17 & 20 at theatres across the country.
Now more than 40 years later, this cult classic, era-defining documentary has been fully restored and will make its debut on the big screen. Follow Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers in their ‘80s golden era of completing and touring ‘Long After Dark’, including the filming of the iconic “You Got Lucky” music video.
The documentary, which surrounded the making and release of the band’s 1982 album “Long After Dark”, only aired once on MTV. “Heartbreakers Beach Party” occupies a special place in my heart,” says Crowe. “Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers leaned into the making of the film with a kind of hilarious music-filled honesty that still feels fresh forty years later. It was also my first experience as a director. Thanks to Adria Petty and the Petty Estate, along with our co-filmmakers Danny Bramson, Phil Savenick, Doug Dowdle and Greg Mariotti, I’m so happy we’re bringing it back in all its reckless glory. The fact that it was yanked from MTV after only one airing at 2:00 a.m. just shows that it was indeed an outlandish feast for fans in all the best ways.
The restored version of “Heartbreakers Beach Party features footage of Petty and the band which didn’t make the original cut.
“The Shepperton Studios” 16mm film we originally bought 20 years ago at an estate sale auction, and the first SD transfer paid for by a small group of fans at the Meeksgenesis forum… This transfer was then used by the band for the official boxed sets. It has now been 10 years since the last time the film was transferred in HD and 50 years since Genesis were on the stage performing.
There is a lot of new technology, faster computers, larger/cheaper storage, etc. Thomas Manchon even interviewed the director Gerry Harrison and talked with sound engineer John Burns to get some background information on how the film was made. They rescanned the reels (both audio and video) and started the project from scratch to see where this could lead. Not only do 4K scanners make more resolution available, but the audio scanning technology has been greatly improved. The amount of work was immense, so we hope it was all worthwhile in the end. To my eyes the results are cleaner and clearer, with smoother motion, much better detail from the dark areas as well as the spotlights, more balanced colour and brightness throughout especially the effects of the ultraviolet, and much improved audio AI remixed by TM. Since this is the first time I scanned the film in 10 years, and the first time anyone has done this kind of detail work on it, I see it as the only true “remaster”.
The Genesis Museum in association with TM Productions and Thomas Manchon, proudly present: The Shepperton 50th Anniversary Remaster
Tracklist with introduction subtitles: 00:00 Watcher of the Skies 08:37 Dancing With The Moonlit Knight 17:41 I Know What I Like 23:09 The Musical Box Story 24:13 The Musical Box 34:47 Supper’s Ready Story 37:27 Supper’s Ready
The Fat Angel Sings 