For the last, but certainly not least, in a string of excellent singles from their 4th LP “VIVA HINDS”, the Spanish duo have teamed up with Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten on “Stranger,” a track that taps both artists’ most whimsical inclinations. A head-in-the-clouds indie pop rock ballad that rides on a heart-skipping beat, “Stranger” is cute without ever becoming cloying. Listening to the final chorus, you can almost picture Ana Perrote, Carlotta Cosials and Chatten singing to themselves on a screen split in thirds, each lost in their own heads, finding unexpected joy in loneliness and giving their daydreams room to breathe.
As the sixth Half Waif album, “See You at the Maypole”, is set to arrive next month, Nandi Rose has unveiled the project’s latest single: “The Museum.” As is custom for a Half Waif tune, it’s a sombre four minutes aimed at the passing of time and the sentimentality we all hold for what’s been lost. “The Museum” is a nostalgic song that doesn’t wash the past with inauthentic remembering. Rose is far more interested in a kind of recollection that comes from sharing “give it another year” with a loved one.
Our perpetual forward-motion does not cease its direction; drama and laughter are both habits, but it’s up to us to decide which one to kick. “I still go to the movies, and I think that it’s beautiful,” Rose sings. “Fake lights making everything look like glitter. And when I go to my high school, I see that the view has changed. All the apple trees they planted have finally grown up.”
the upcoming album ‘See You At The Maypole’, out on October 4, 2024
Produced with Mark Ralph, who previously worked with them on their 2013 album “Right Thoughts, RightWords, Right Action”, the album showcases Franz at their most immediate, upbeat and life-affirming, unashamedly going for the pop-jugular in classic Franz style.
The Scottish alt-rockers are returning with a new album, “The Human Fear”, and lead single “Audacious” is a triumphant call-to-action for both the listener and the band itself. It’s noisy and guitar-driven with a slight twee angle, calling back to the more theatrical and bold acts (think The Hives) of the 2000s indie era that Franz first found a home in. There’s a montage of sounds that play out in the track’s several arcs—from surfy and jangle guitar moments to a surprising piano ballad—and new drummer Audrey Tait brings a quick, peppy tempo to the song’s fast-paced stylistic shifts. “Audacious” is unflinching and brave—“There’s no one to save us, so just carry on,” singer Alex Kapranos declares, as the band steps into a new era filled with adrenaline and bravado.
Recorded at AYR studios in Scotland, the 11-songs on “The Human Fear” all allude to some deep-set human fears and how overcoming and accepting these fears drives and defines our lives.
Former member of Stanley Marsh 3′s Dynamite Museum, born and raised in The Children of God, Christopher Owens is an American song writer born in 1979.
On “This is My Guitar,” the third single from his forthcoming solo album “I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair,” The ex-Girls songwriter Christopher Owens talks of turning to his instrument during times of strife and isolation. As he continues to establish his newest era as a solo artist through shreds of airy jangle-pop, he finds solace and release in the music he’s creating. The chorus is a whispered wail, as Owens repeatedly begs: “Help me please.” Yet, the hopeful curve of “This is My Guitar” hints that this is one of the first steps in moving forward, telling the story of a musician piecing themselves back together by picking up the instrument they love, and using it as a baton that connects them to the rest of the world again.
Guitar hero Eric Clapton has announced the release of a new live album and concert film documenting the 2023 edition of his Crossroads Guitar Festival. The title, available in various configurations, including 4-CD/2-Blu-ray, 6-LP vinyl, 2-DVD (and streaming with Dolby ATMOS mix), arrives on November 29th, 2024, via Rhino.
Clapton hosted and curated the seventh installment of his festival on September 23rd and 24th, 2023, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. It notably marked the event’s return after a four-year break, selling out on both days. Once again, Clapton carefully assembled a powerhouse cohort of influential guitarists representing various eras and styles. The impressive lineup joining Clapton included Stephen Stills, Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clark Jr., Sheryl Crow, Eric Gales, H.E.R., Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Los Lobos, John Mayer, The Marcus King Band, Taj Mahal, Roger McGuinn, John McLaughlin, Santana, The Wallflowers, and many more. Bill Murray served as the evening’s Master of Ceremonies.
The two evenings’ sets rotated between blues staples, American Songbook classics, and generational rock ‘n’ roll anthems including “Layla,” “Eight Miles High,” “I Put a Spell On You,” and “I Shot the Sheriff.”
Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival continues a legacy of its own, beginning with the first iteration in New York in 1999 and carried through Dallas, TX in 2004, Bridgewater, IL in 2007 and 2010, New York in 2013, and Dallas, TX in 2019. As always, all profits benefited The Crossroads Centre Antigua, a treatment and education facility for chemically dependent persons founded by Clapton.
Nilüfer Yanya formally announces her new album “My Method Actor”, out September 13th on Ninja Tune. The news arrives alongside the release of her new single, the near-title track “Method Actor,” and follows her recent single “Like I Say (I runaway),” which the New York Times described as, “reveling in contrasting textures” and The FADER called, “a jolting return.” Putting herself in an unnamed character’s shoes, “Method Actor” portrays a mini-life story in under four minutes. The accompanying visualiser was shot in an old hotel in Benidorm, Spain and is a one take video capturing Nilüfer sitting down to share the song’s story.
“It feels like it’s still there — I just don’t know what it is,” Nilüfer Yanya tells me from her home in London, a hand grazing her forehead as her eyes sail to the top left corner of the Zoom window.
We’ve reached an ebb in an otherwise easy, volleying conversation, the subject of faith slipping between whatever words we toss its way.
Questions of faith and destiny have always lived in Yanya’s music, and never more so than on “My Method Actor,” her luxurious paint box of a third full-length album. In her previous work, faith was always misplaced, destiny a bright-red inevitability; a plummet from the skies or rapidly approaching car wreck. On “My Method Actor”, Yanya’s heart rate has slowed alongside her compositions — rather than a pulley dragging her over the cliff’s edge, belief in something more has become a potential guide rope.
“I hadn’t really grown up religious, but there’s been religion in my family. Like, my dad’s Muslim. My mom, she’s not practicing, but she’s Catholic,” Yanya explains. “So I feel like I’ve grown up around religion, but not really being part of anything. And I kind of felt disconnected, in that way of feeling like you don’t belong.”
She continues, “So it kind of makes sense, that maybe I’d crave a kind of… everyone else is doing this, what is it that I can do? And I think maybe it’s just trying to create your own sense of faith or belief in something. I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s a good idea.”
“I think a lot about what / I’m destined for / I’m dreaming of the end,” she sings on the shapeshifting “Made Out of Memory,” perhaps the cleanest summation of Yanya’s obsession with the forked path toward oblivion. As the climate catastrophe burns entire cities off the map and bombs wreak genocidal havoc, Yanya’s previously insular writing has cracked open, her firing synapses illuminating places far outside her own head.
“There are horrible things happening, and you have to keep believing and keep trying to challenge those things and make something good happen as a response,” she says.
If writing these songs is what Yanya is destined for — and if I’m destined to be here writing about them — it can be tough to square. How do you continue to create when creation feels so small in the face of material suffering, of apocalyptic enormity?
“It kind of feels more frivolous and less frivolous at the same time,” she says, laughing. “Like, it must mean something! But then it’s like, ‘Oh, of course it doesn’t mean anything,’ don’t be ridiculous.”
While Yanya is responsible for the melodies and lyrics on “My Method Actor”, the music was largely written by Yanya’s longtime creative partner and producer Will Archer. It’s a testament to the pair’s synergy that Yanya building her songs atop Archer’s compositions hasn’t discoloured her singular voice, though she says she sometimes gets hung up on the two’s evolving roles.
‘My Method Actor’, released September 13th, 2024 on Ninja Tune
The War on Drugs have steadily emerged as one of this century’s great rock and roll synthesists, removing the gaps between the underground and the mainstream, between the obtuse and the anthemic, making records that wrestle a fractured past into a unified and engrossing present. Led by Adam Granduciel, The New Yorker called them “the best American ‘rock’ band of this decade.”
Recorded on tour between February 2022 through December 2023 in America, UK, Europe and Australia, “Live Drugs Again” follows 2020’s “Live Drugs” and represents The War On Drugs at their ragged, righteous best. Bandleader Adam Granduciel comments, “Live Drugs Again” chronicles the evolution of these songs from the studio to stages all over the world; documenting our continued growth as a live band. This series ensures that these versions, and some of our favourite moments on stage, will live on.”
“Moon Mirror”, Nada Surf’s new record, has everything fans love and expect from them. Bittersweet anthems that begin quiet but explode into soaring harmonies? . Songs that are play-on-repeat heart punches?. Songs that are poetic and thought-provoking while also being absolute belt-at-the-top-of-your-voice-with-the-windows -down masterpieces? It’s all here.
For the past 30 years, Nada Surf has had the same core line-up: Matthew Caws, Daniel Lorca, and Ira Elliot. “Moon Mirror”, is their first for New West Records, was produced by the band and Ian Laughton at Rockfield Studios in Wales. For the recording, Matthew, Daniel, and Ira were joined by their friend and longtime keyboard player Louie Lino.
“Moon Mirror” is a thrilling and moving leap forward for Nada Surf. The songs on the album are true to the human experience—as meaningful and mysterious and sometimes absurd as it is. There’s love, yes, but also grief, deep loneliness, doubt, wonder, and hope. These are not the songs of a band in their 20s. There is hard-won wisdom here, and hard-won belief in possibility—the kind that comes from falling down and getting back up.
Matthew Caws – Vocals, Guitar Daniel Lorca – Bass Ira Elliot – Drums Louie Lino – Keyboards
“Feed My Release,” a new single and visualizer from “Below a Massive Dark Land”,her forthcoming second album. Naima says of the song, “‘Feed My Release’ is mostly about regret. It’s a simple song I thought wasn’t worth recording for a long time until I started singing it with violinist Oliver Hamilton, and his harmonies brought it to life. Then, Holly Whitaker joined along with her amazing voice, as well as Cassidy Hansen, Clem Appleby, and Meitar Wegman, adding their parts, and the song in its current form was born! It’s a very collaborative arrangement & recording; everyone’s contribution to it is really their own.”
“Below a Massive Dark Land “ will be available Friday, September 27th, 2024, worldwide through Sub Pop and Memorials of Distinction. “Below…” is the follow-up to “Giant Palm“, one of 2022’s most critically acclaimed debuts.
Naima’s previously announced international tour dates for the summer and autumn of 2024 to support “Below a Massive Dark Land” Friday, December 13th in Paris at La Boule Noire. Along the way, Naima will perform solo (September 8th-15th), as a duo with Oliver Hamilton (November 6th), and with a four-piece band (November 7th-December 13th).
“Feed My Release” by Naima Bock From the upcoming album ‘Below a Massive Dark Land,’ out September 27th on Sub Pop Records
The Fat Angel Sings 