“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
One of Mali’s most cherished and acclaimed bands, Songhoy Blues have today announced the release of their fourth album, “Héritage“. Released on Friday 17th January 2025,the 11-track album sees them reaching into the past to bring forward something more traditional, contemplative, soulful and unquestionably the band’s most transcendent release to date. It features some of Mali’s most renowned musicians & vocalists, including Afel Bocoum, Rokia Koné, Neba Solo, Madou Diabaté and more.
Talking about ‘Issa’, the first track to be taken from the album, Songhoy Blues shares:
“ISSA” means the river in the Songhoy language, to which we pay a vibrant tribute. This is why we are appealing for the river to be kept clean, for it to be known that it plays an important role in the lives of the people in the areas of fishing, agriculture and livestock farming. It is also used by living beings who also have the right to life, so let us avoid throwing toxic waste into the river because it covers a world for which we are the spokespeople. Water is the source of life for all species, so let’s keep our rivers clean. We are so thankful for the 2 rivers that flow through our country.
Thanks to you, Issa, for making many things in life possible.
“Héritage“, sees one of Mali’s most lauded groups move into a more acoustic & creative re-imagining of the “desert blues” style that has brought them global acclaim; it represents a marked contrast to the heavier sound of their prior album, and deeper exploration of their musical roots.
Charismatic, articulate and creative, the band burst onto the scene in 2013 with a powerful style and stage manner once described as “Timbuktu Punk”. Their music deals with issues of life and love in Mali, typically through the filter of five-note scales, rock rhythms, gritty vocals, and glittering guitar. While these elements remain present in their new album “Héritage“, they share the stage with more prominent & intimate grooves, sounds, instrumentation & vocal stylings from different ethnic traditions from around the country.
The Songhoy are an ethnicity living along the bend of the Niger river in northern Mali (their language is Songhai, hence the two spellings that are often used interchangeably) and Songhoy music is one of the backbones of the “desert blues” sound. With “Héritage“, Songhoy Blues pay tribute to some of the great musicians of the past, whose work continues to inspire them, giving “a big thank you to the ancestors who bequeathed works of art so that future generations could orient themselves’.
The experience of being in Bamako, an intensely musical city, with a melting pot of music, has led Songhoy Blues to rethink their own understanding of the concept of tradition. It does not come from one single source. “The mixing up of cultures didn’t begin today” comments lead guitarist Garba Touré. Migration and forced displacement also bring new perspectives to the notion of heritage in their music.
“Héritage” was recorded in the Remote Records Studio and Studio Moffou in Bamako, with co-producer Paul Chandler, and draws on the remarkable wealth of musical talent in the city. The album presents new compositions and reworkings of old classics. It is infused with the ethereal sounds of various traditional instruments, all in the hands of great Malian masters: kora (harp), soku (one-string fiddle), kamalengoni (8 string youth harp), flute, Senufo xylophone, and calabash percussion, plus guest vocalists.
Floating in and out are traces of takamba, the wondrous dance of the Tuareg; plus wassoulou music, Mande griot music, Senufo dance and more. Unexpectedly, a steel guitar wanders in, sounding eerily like the voice of the desert. All these tone colours are brilliantly woven into a rich tapestry which is both familiar and unexpected. All their songs have some element of social critique. “We are artists, we observe our society and we comment on it, giving advice and critiquing where necessary. This is our role.” says the guitarist Touré.
Nadia Reid returns with a new track, “Changed Unchained“, her first new music for four years and first for new label Chrysalis Records. Along with the track, Reid has announced details of a March 2025 headline tour of the UK and EU.
Joan Shelley returns with the “Mood Ring” EP is released by No Quarter on October 4th Shelley says the title track was inspired by: “the idea that heat and time are interlinked. That they tug and warp each other in space. I had read about block universe theory and it bothered me—if it were true, how do we really change anything? The song wove its own little message in response: this sense that all of us, our web of connections and the friction of our relationships, are the fuel that propels us through time… and that inevitably we are consumed by it. But what a spectacular thing to get a chance to ignite this vast, incomprehensible space with our lives. To have gotten an invitation to be here at all.”
releases October 4th, 2024
James Elkington – percussion, keys, bass, vocal harmony Nathan Salsburg – acoustic guitar, electric guitar Julia Purcell – harmonium Lou Krippenstapel – violin Jim Marlowe – Moog Joan Shelley – acoustic and nylon string guitars, baritone ukulele, kalimba, piano, vocal harmony
Among many highlights, Laura Barton profiles the remarkable redemption story of Christopher Owens, the former frontman with indie-rock classicists Girls, and whose new album “I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair” is one of my favourite records of the year so far. Elsewhere, I’m very happy to have found time to write a feature on psychedelic drone outsiders Spacemen 3, who according to one admirer, were nothing less than “the greatest English band of the late ’80s”. There’s more, of course – Van Morrison, Michael Kiwanuka, Peter Perrett as well as Steve Cropper, Suede, the Lijadu Sisters, Chuck Prophet and a rare meeting of minds between Gruff Rhys and Bill Ryder-Jones.
“No Name” happens to be the most straightforward rock & roll album Jack White has delivered in some time, a set of 13 tough guitar-based tunes with an abundance of swagger and a kick that melds the punky minimalism of the White Stripes with his well-documented obsession with Led Zeppelin. An enthusiastic return to the familiar, though it doesn’t play like a regression so much as an artist embracing their strengths and having a good time doing so.
‘No Name’ is the sixth studio album from Jack White, founding member of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather. True to his DIY roots, this record was recorded at White’s Third Man Studio throughout 2023 and 2024, and released by Third Man Records. Following the surprise limited release on blue vinyl at the start of August, standard CD and vinyl formats are officially released this week.
Jack White has shared a music video for his latest single, “That’s How I’m Feeling,” which is featured on his recent released album “No Name” (despite it being called “No Name,” it has a name, which is “No Name“—heady stuff!). The deceptively simple new track is built around a melodic bass line and guitar parts that dance around its steady undercurrent. “When I’m in my home, I need the strength to be alone,” White sings before the track goes boom and turns into a thrashy blues-rock banger.
White and his band have a number of new pop-ups occurring across the UK to supplement their tour dates in the area.
Moaning Lisa is composed of Charlie Versegi (singer/guitarist), Hayley Manwaring (singer/bassist) Ellen Chan (lead guitarist) and Hayden Fritzlaff (drummer). Renowned for creating an atmosphere entirely of their own, the band deftly combines a garage rock, grunge fantasy with ‘one massive, cosy,
Of the track, the band shares, “We wrote ‘Old Tape’ while working on new music at Danny’s studio in LA; we were discussing the loops we get stuck in, the rabbit holes our minds go down, even getting nerdy on epigenetics—the voices in our heads that might not be our own, and ultimately, how to quiet that noise and let it all go. We wanted to make something that was both driving and uplifting and no one does it better than The War on Drugs … so after building a landscape, we called our dear friend, Adam, to see if he’d lend his beautiful vocals and guitar. He graciously and enthusiastically accepted and it really brought the track to life. Produced and mixed by our longtime bandmate Dan Molad.”
“Old Tape” is filled with Lucius’ signature dream-pop sound and enticing harmonies and is the first preview of their forthcoming new studio album—slated for release in 2025. The track’s musical line-up includes Wolfe (vocals), Laessig (vocals, Juno 106), Granduciel (electric guitar, vocals), Molad (drums, rubber bridge guitar, electric guitar, bass, drum programming, moog matriarch, Juno 106, vocals), Peter Lalish (acoustic guitar, electric guitar) and Oliver Hill (piano, prophet 6).
Known for their electric live performances, Lucius will join The National and The War on Drugs on the road this fall, making stops at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium, Philadelphia’s TD Pavilion at the Mann, Toronto’s Budweiser Stage, Chicago’s United Center, Denver’s Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, Vancouver’s Rogers Arena and Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl among many others. See below for full tour itinerary.
The release of “Old Tape” adds to a notable series of years for Lucius following the release of 2022’s album, “Second Nature”. Produced by Brandi Carlile and Dave Cobb, the record was released to overwhelming acclaim with the Los Angeles Times praising, “dazzling…“Second Nature” mines an ’80s-pop sound with lush synths and sleek disco grooves under the women’s laser-guided vocals,” while Variety declared, “with “Second Nature“…they’re no longer 20 feet or even a couple of yards from stardom, but re-claiming the spotlight for themselves” and Relix proclaimed, “stunning…a 10-song, smart-pop masterpiece.”
Most recently, Lucius celebrated the 10-year-anniversary of their debut album, “Wildewoman“, with the release of “Wildewoman (The New Recordings)“—an expanded version of the record that features new versions of the 12 original tracks, including collaborations with friends Carlile, Marcus Mumford and Devon Gilfillian. In addition to their work as Lucius, Wolfe and Laessig are among the most sought-after vocalists in popular music. The pair are members of Joni Mitchell’s famed “Joni Jam” and have graced songs by dozens of contemporary and legendary artists alike including Carlile (with whom they earned three Grammy nominations), The War on Drugs, John Legend, The Killers, Harry Styles, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Black Pumas, Jeff Tweedy, Ozzy Osbourne and more.
