Bleachers, the musical project helmed by eight-time Grammy Award-winning musician/producer Jack Antonoff, debuted a new music video for the recent single, “Alma Mater.” It’s the second single so far from the band’s new self-titled album, which is scheduled for release on March 8th, 2024.
The new Bleachers album is described officially as expressly being “Jack Antonoff’s distinctly New Jersey take on the bizarre sensory contradictions of modern life, on his position in culture, and the things he cares about. Sonically, it’s sad, it’s joyful, it’s music for driving on the highway to, for crying to and for dancing to at weddings. There’s something reassuringly touchable and concrete about its sentiment: exist in crazy times but remember what counts.”
The video for the song, which was directed by Alex Lockett and finds Antonoff driving alone through a city at night:
“Alma Mater” is the second song from the new album that showcases Antonoff’s passionate songwriting and knack for epic, memorable anthems.
Noah Kahan made his debut on Saturday Night Live last night (December 2nd), performing ‘Dial Drunk’ and ‘Stick Season’ from his third album, “Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever)”. Watch a replay of the performance below.
Following the release of his sophomore album, Noah continued to write and record, unlocking a new level of himself as an artist and songwriter. Rife with fluttering guitar melodies, inviting vocals, and homey imagery of the Northeast on the verge of changing seasons, it represents a massive turning point for him. Kahan’s relationship with his career was altered, his conviction for storytelling and a pursuit of a more organic sound that aligned with the folk music of his upbringing had firmly arrived.
Back in June, Kahan released an expanded version of “Stick Season” featuring seven additional tracks, including a version of ‘Dial Drunk’ with Post Malone. Last month, he was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2024 Grammys.
In just two years, Brooklyn quintet Geese have exploded onto the scene with daring, auspicious rock ‘n’ roll that so many folks have become obsessed with. With an artillery of post-punk, stadium anthems and energetic, Y2K garage rock, Geese perfected a sound that is as meticulous as krautrock and as titanic as cowboy chords set ablaze by 10-foot-tall amplifiers. While their recent sophomore album, “3D Country”, Geese returned soon after with an EP of extra portions. The five songs on “4D Country“, which include a slightly re-imagined version of the OG title track, are all vignettes of a grandness that cannot—and could never be—contained within the confines of one singular album.
Geese are, all at once, vicious, theatrical, heartfelt and awing. Tunes like “Jesse” and “Art of War” capitalize on the experimental, seismic chaos the five-piece have perfected, while “Space Race” finds vocalist Cameron Winter going absolutely bonkers on the upswing. Predictable textures and tones are just not in the cards for Geese; every song they make is meant to put you in a tailspin.
Brooklyn 5-piece Geese have detailed their anticipated sophomore album “3D Country”, via PartisanRecords. Co-produced by the band and James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, Shame), the album’s 11 tracks are an explosion in both scope and vision for the group.
The new album “3D Country” out now on Partisan Records and Play It Again Sam:
I don’t think anyone was doubting it, but Beach House’s leftovers are, somehow, better than most folks’ first choices. After putting out their magnum opus “Once Twice Melody” last year, they couldn’t let 2023 ride through without placing some kind of imprint on it. Hence the release of “Become”, a collection of five outtakes from the “Once Twice Melody” sessions. They don’t arrive like demos, though, as Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally are just as moving, captivating and cosmic as ever. EP centerpiece “Holiday House” goes toe-to-toe with 95% of “Once Twice Melody“, while “Black Magic” is some of the best guitar-focused dream pop Beach House have ever made.
Of course, the duo doesn’t reinvent the wheel with “Become”. To be a Beach House appreciator is to understand that they are firmly in their own lane and are dominating the road ahead. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is a cliché for a reason, yet Legrand and Scally always seem to make it feel gorgeously fresh.
Four decades into their career, Yo La Tengo have such a sprawling and versatile discography that it’s no surprise their most beloved records, from 1997’s “I Can Feel The Heart Beating As One” to 2013’s “Fade”, are ones that make an effort to streamline their sound while eloquently fusing different styles. Aside from it being their first album of wholly new material since 2018’s “There’s a Riot Going On”, that’s another reason why “This Stupid World” feels like another pivotal moment in a career full of them. On paper, a lot of “This Stupid World” sounds doomful, or at least weathered by the passage of time. But more often than not, it’s a record that’s thrilling in its aliveness: “This stupid world, it’s killing me,” goes its enveloping mantra. “This stupid world is all we have.”
With its innate energy and some of the group’s strongest song writing in years, “This Stupid World” is the band’s heaviest and most immediate album in years. Back are the chugging bass line and feedback-laden theatrics that have made the trio such a beloved staple in the indie American fabric where they continue to defy rock and pop construction norms.
Ratboys’ 2020 LP “Printer’s Devil” marked the first time the group’s current line-up of Julia Steiner, DavidSagan, Sean Neumann, and Marcus Nuccio – wrote an album collaboratively from start to finish, though the entirety of their first headline tour was then cancelled due to COVID. Now for their fifth studio album, the Chicago band recruited producer Chris Walla, who helped realize the widescreen ambition of their tenderly infectious and heartfelt brand of so-called “post-country.” Though “The Window” deals with themes of grief and isolation, the music’s joyful aliveness radiates through not only the band’s tight performances but Steiner’s lyrics, whose unflinching honesty and immediacy spins the white noise of confusion into pure love. “I love this feeling,” she sings looking back on the band’s early days on ‘I Want You” (2010)’. “Burning all my blank CDs never meant so much to me.” In the present, it somehow still feels like the start of forever.
Ratboys “No Way” sounds immediately familiar, as though it’s a song I’ve known for 20+ years but haven’t heard in about 17 years. It’s brand new, but the “it all comes rushing back” happens anyway. I’m not sure what song or songs I’m trying to remember. Is it a particular chord change, something specific about the guitar tone, something about how it swings from loose and casual to emphatic and cathartic? The Ratboys are working firmly within genre here – indie rock with a little alt-country flair – so this kind of mild deja vu is par for the course. The charm of “No Way,” and certainly what makes it interesting beyond mere recognition, is in how the band sound very excited to have written this kind of song.
A song this catchy, a song this easy to click into emotionally, a song that sounds like it’d be fun to play for an audience who knows the words to the chorus. It’s a song that approaches a breakup from two valid positions at once, gracefully moving from befuddled shrug to bold declaration that this sort of thing won’t happen again, or at least with them.
The comeback album of multi-hyphenate Trevor Powers who performs under the moniker Youth Lagoon—was more than worth the wait. “Heaven Is a Junkyard” taps into a similar kind of emotional dream-state that “The Year of Hibernation” did 12 years ago and challenges the space that Powers’ own creativity can hold. Pushing the boundaries of experimental electronica and Americana singer/songwriting, Powers speaks generously of the place he was raised in. “Heaven Is a Junkyard” is a soulful, ambitious chapter for Youth Lagoon. While the singles were quiet novellas that sprawled with grace, the hidden gems on the album—like “Little Devil from the Country” and “Deep Red Sea”—tap into the wondrous energy that Youth Lagoon is synonymous with. “Heaven Is a Junkyard” is a necessary dossier of masculinity, brotherhood and birthright.
new single “The Sling” off of his new album, Heaven Is a Junkyard, out on Fat Possum June 9th.
