This year marks the 10th year anniversary of our first record, and our baby, “Days Are Gone”This record was a labour of love, with songs we’d been writing since high school in our living room. To celebrate, we made a special edition re-issue of our vinyl and cd that comes out September 29th. The pre sale is live NOW! Alsooo we will be playing the album front to back, top to bottom at some venue’s, The 2013 album will be re-released as a 2CD deluxe set and a 2LP edition pressed on transparent green vinyl. Both offer additional audio in the form demos and remixes which has been compiled by the band.
A first time to vinyl reissue treatment of Haims chart-topping debut album “Days Are Gone” (2013), in celebration of the 10th anniversary. Featuring the six singles, ‘Forever’, ‘Don’t Save Me’, ‘Falling’, ‘The Wire’, ‘If I Could Change Your Mind’ & ‘My Song 5’, the record hasn’t been reissued since its release in 2013. Housed in an entirely new package, the album features a track list compiled by the band of their favourite demos and remixes on transparent green vinyl. Also features an exclusive fold out poster.
Richard Jobson may be the only original member left standing in first wave Scottish post-punkers, the Skids’ line up. But almost 45 years on from the release of their debut album, “Sacred to Dance”, the band is again pumping out anthemic rockers in the same vein as when they first started out.
Original guitarist, Stuart Adamson is sadly long gone but Bruce Watson from Adamson’s post-Skids group, Big Country, has picked up the torch from his former band mate. “Open Your Eyes” and “Tidal Wave” particularly see him standing confidently in Adamson’s shoes, banging out the riffs and lending his voice to the football terrace choruses.
“Here We Go”, “How to be Free” and the title track – in fact, pretty much the whole album – are clearly cast from the same mould as the band’s anthemic singles “Working for the Yankee Dollar” and the magnificent “Into the Valley”, from their first go-round. But Jobson’s voice is also still in fine shape, Watson’s riffs are full of spirit and the rhythm section of Gil Allan and Nick Hernandez provide plenty of heft to keep things moving along.
Make no mistake, “Destination Düsseldorf” is filler-free and no pale imitation of past glories. In fact, fans from that time will be hard pushed to notice any distinct change in their sound from the late seventies. Even, “Things We’ve Seen”, a musical trip around Berlin, which has a substantial flavouring of Bowie’s Low album, is a reflection of that city in those days and tells tales of running into the Thin White Duke himself, Lou Reed, William Burroughs and other counter-cultural heroes. Not that there is anything wrong with that at all. After all, there are plenty of other parallels within wider society between then and now during these difficult days. And that is far more disconcerting.
Last Night From Glasgow Released on: 30th June 2023
“I Inside the Old Year Dying” , the latest release from PJ Harvey, For a while back there it looked like we had lost PJ Harvey to the realm of poetry, the documentary field trips to Kosovo and Afghanistan which inspired her previous album “The Hope Six Demolition Project” awakening new ways of writing and the following world tour draining her enthusiasm for music.
Last summer, she made her first Scottish appearance in years – at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, to promote a poetry collection conceived under the mentorship of Don Paterson. But a rekindling of her musical spirit was already underway and her first album in seven years is another creative volte-face, as Harvey switches from the macro concerns of “Let England Shake” and “The Hope Six Demolition Project” to a micro folk world drawn in archaic language with improvised arrangements and field recording embellishments from longtime collaborators Flood and John Parish.
On “I Inside the Old Year Dying”, Harvey uses the extremes of her vocal range – her haunting higher register and an androgynous alto – but it is what she is uttering that is most alluring and unsettling. Did she really just sing “speak your worldle to me” in the falsetto blues of Prayer at the Gate? It transpires that there are many more intriguing wordles where that came from – for example, “tree-tears” are leaves and “nuts” means “joy” (but also “testicles”).
Ancient rubs up against modern – the damsel protagonist of “Lwonesome Tonight” carries “in her satchel Pepsi fizz” – as Harvey draws on the folklore of her native Dorset and weaves in biblical, historical and Shakespearean references into a woozy bucolic landscape populated by a council of birds and a recurring character called Wyman Elvis.
There is plenty to unpick if you wish; alternatively, just follow Harvey in revelling in the sounds of words as much as the meaning and the joys of witchy blues she conjures. The stridently strummed acoustic guitar of the title track is something to hold on to, a breadcrumb trail back to previous work – the ethereal ambience of “White Chalk” being the closest relative to this intoxicating comeback from an artist always one step ahead.
Polly Jean Harvey – vocals, electric guitar John Parish – acoustic guitar, drums, vocals Cecil – keyboards, field recordings Colin Morgan – backing vocals
‘I Inside the Old I Dying’ is taken from the new album ‘I Inside the Old Year Dying’, out July 7th on Partisan Records:
“When I feel a connection to a song, when I love a song, when I start playing and feeling it enter my body, when I learn a song, it’ll come back out with my personality on it,” Juliana Hatfield explained during our 2018 interview with the prolific singer-songwriter-musician in conjunction with the release of her initial covers set “Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John”. Indeed, she also applied her unique personal stamp upon the songs of The Police for her second covers album “Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police” (2019) and now she’s vowed to do so once again with the discography of another iconic band.
Slated for release later this year on November 17th courtesy of American Laundromat Records as the follow-up to her 2021 studio album “Blood”, “Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO” finds her reimagining ten songs culled from Electric Light Orchestra’s classic oeuvre, including the lead offering “Don’t Bring Me Down” originally featured on the band’s 1979 “Discovery” LP.
“ELO songs were always coming on the radio when I was growing up,” Hatfield reflects in an official statement. “They were a reliable source of pleasure and fascination,” she explains. “With this album of covers I wanted to get my hands deep into some of the massive ‘70’s hits but I am also shining a light on some of the later work…My task was to try and break all the things down and reconstruct them subtly until they felt like mine.”
American Laundromat Records, Inc. Released on: 23rd May 2023
I’m so excited to share with you the vinyl for my new album!! I put a lot of love into the design and I’m so happy with how everything turned out. The Canadian version is made from 100% recycled material from the re-grind of other projects, so every record will be different and have a unique colour combo which I think is super cool. For the rest of the world, you can pre-order the sea foam green colour!
A little bit about “Fake Happy”…
I wrote this song about a relationship that drifted.. Over the years we grew apart and trying to maintain a connection had begun to feel uncomfortable. I think sometimes we cling (by we I mean ME) onto what’s left of friendships even if our values no longer align and we’ve changed as people. I don’t know if it’s a getting older thing but I’ve come to realize how important it is to focus my energy on the people who support me and are positive sources in my life.
So much love and hugs to Sean Sroka aka Ten Kills The Pack (producing this with me and putting in so much love and care to everything all the time), Graham Walsh (synth and engineer guru), Mike Brushey (drumming like a champ), Gavin Gardiner (engineering skillz), Matt Wiggins (mixing so beautifully), Joao Carvelho (mastering w care).
After three striking 10″ EP’s – Isle of Wight’sCoach Party unleash their debut album. It’s everything we hoped for and more. The production is crisp and clear whilst the playing is of a band that have spent the last few years playing hundreds of gigs / festivals and learning their craft.
Coach Party grew up on the Isle of Wight (“it’s only a matter of time until you meet pretty much everyone else on the Island,” says Eastwood) and eventually crossed paths as avid music fans – working in venues, playing together and meeting at the same gigs. Coach Party eventually formed after Eastwood and guitarist Steph Norris decided to start playing music together; quickly realising that there was something special about the pair’s songwriting and bond, guitarist Joe Perry and drummer Page joined the ranks.
The 10 tracks are upbeat and noisy guitar pop that hints at the debut Elastica album, The Breeders, The Big Moon and Nirvana. It really is that good. The British four-piece Coach Party shared a video for their song “What’s The Point in Life,” which is the latest release from their upcoming debut album, “Killjoy”.
The video for “What’s The Point in Life” depicts the band living in a fictional post-apocalyptic world as they croon lyrics of taking control of your life while embracing the more mundane, meaningless aspects of it. Of the song, drummer Guy Page says in a press release: “At the last minute, we set out to write an opening track for “Killjoy”, and ‘We’re All Gonna Die’ as it was initially named, was almost fully formed that afternoon. It’s really not a negative sentiment, but is more our way of saying that life is for living. So, do what you wanna do, we’ll do what we wanna do, and then everyone’s happy. We ultimately share the same fate, so make your life your own.”
Musically, Coach Party are inspired by a broad palate of artists, but always find themselves drawn back to Nirvana, Sonic Youth and The Strokes, and contemporary artists like Wolf Alice, The Big Moon and Tame Impala. Ultimately though, Coach Party’s primary drive to write and perform music comes from “the often entertaining struggle of real life.” The band still live and work on the Isle of Wight (Jess at a farm park, Guy in a music studio and Steph and Joe in cafes), and describe life on the island as going “through pretty distinct phases of being a great, and a really frustrating place to live.”
The band previously shared three other songs from “Killjoy” “Born Leader,” “All I Wanna Do Is Hate,” and “Micro Aggression.”
This LP is due out September 8th via Chess Club. The band also have some autumn tour dates coming up.
Nashville-based DIY punk outfit, Snõõper, have shared a Sean McGuirk-directed music video for their new song “Running,” which is the latest release from their new album, “Super Snõõper”, which came out this week via Third ManRecords. The band also have some summer and fall tour dates lined up. Check out Super Snõõper’s cover artwork, as well as upcoming performances.
Of the track “Running,” Tramel says in a press release: “‘Running’ was written deep in the pandemic when people began to feel hopeless and everything began to feel really scary. People felt out of control as we watched our country experience the consequences of an unjust system. Most days, all I could do was go for a long walk or run. I think sometimes that’s all anyone can do when things feel out of control. We can always get out of our minds and into our bodies. Move, breathe, jump, put one foot in front of the other.” The music video is an homage to 80s home workout videos, filtered through a kaleidoscopic lens.
The entirety of “Super Snõõper”was recorded at The Bomb Shelter in Nashville.
Snõõper are Blair Tramel (vocals), Connor Cummins (Guitar), Cam Sarrett (Drums), Happy Haugen (Bass), and Ian Teeple (guitar).
Formed in 2019, Lifeguard are Asher Case (bass, vocals), Isaac Lowenstein (drums, percussion), and KaiSlater (guitar, vocals). At its core, Lifeguard is a punk band. Their music is loud and energetic. It’s also, at its core, visceral and hypnotic. For the Chicago-based trio that can include repetition and blasts of speaker cone-shredding feedback.
Their songs adeptly balance melody and chaos, rhythm and drone. Hooks and noise are held to the same standard. Both have to stick. They’re a young band, but they’ve already found a place at the forefront of an important emerging music community in their hometown. They are quite prolific. In just three years, Lifeguard has put out a full-length, two EPs, and two 7” singles.
On July 7th, Matador Records will release ‘Crowd Can Talk / Dressed in Trenches’, a composite of two EPs by Lifeguard. ‘Crowd Can Talk’ was originally released in the summer of 2022 by Chicago label BornYesterday, while ‘Dressed in Trenches’ features five brand new and unreleased songs. ‘Crowd Can Talk / Dressed in Trenches’ will be made available on vinyl for the first time (A and B-sides of a 12”) and on CD.
“Crowd Can Talk” and “Dressed in Trenches” are closely related. They were recorded in separate sessions, but at the same studio (Electrical Audio) and with the same engineer (Mike Lust) and within the space of 12 months. Each finds the band refining its voice – honing songs that are succinct, hooky, and propulsive. There’s a newly disciplined attention to detail. Lifeguard write together through collaboration and improvisation, but they’ve learned to streamline their sound, to make each hook, beat, and gesture purposeful.
On each record, there are echoes of underground guitar bands from decades past. This is not record-collector music, though. It’s the product of a present-day community. Lifeguard are, first and foremost, a performing band and the songs are written to stand up in that moment.
“More than old records – before that, before anything – we’re influenced by live shows and people around us,” explains Slater. “The inspiration comes from playing shows with people and having that mind-blown moment of seeing some friend play at Schubas or Book Club,” adds Lowenstein. “It’s happening on these tiny little scales of seeing kids play live and [knowing] this is something new and interesting.”
Eliza Bagg leads a complex musical life: working as a classical opera singer, she has soloed with the New York Philharmonic, performed in Meredith Monk’s opera at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and toured Europe with the legendary John Zorn. While making her own music under the guise of art-pop solo act Lisel, she’s also collaborated as a vocalist with some of the most renowned experimental artists, including Ben Frost, esperanza spalding, Nico Muhly, Julianna Barwick, David Lang, Lyra Pramuk, Daniel Wohl, and Bryce Dessner, all while playing indie rock venues and lovably dingy basements. One day, it’s Lincoln Center or The Kitchen, the next it’s an outdoor LA ambient series. She was always torn between her two worlds, and it wasn’t until she began work on “Patterns for Auto-tuned Voices and Delay” that she discovered a way to merge them together.
“Patterns” comes out of Bagg’s experience as a vocalist singing Renaissance and Baroque music along with the work of modern-day minimalists like Steve Reich and Philip Glass. “I developed a vocal processing system that allowed me to change the idea of what my instrument is,” Bagg says of the album’s genesis, a system that combines her virtuosic singing with autotune and delay effects to create a melding of human and machine. After years of using her voice in highly specialized ways (as in singing the music of Caroline Shaw with Roomful of Teeth), Bagg wanted to explore what that level of vocal technicality can do when combined with technology. What results is a full spectrum sound journey through the potential of the human voice; the new Lisel album explores a world of singing that maintains melody as it pushes boundaries. “I rely on my body as an object and resonant instrument,” she says. “Now, what begins inside my body and continues on the computer is one process, and the ideas that result from it are my instrument.”
Sure, she’ll admit it. “I’m a sci-fi nerd,” she says, with a laugh. “I’m a Blade Runner and Battlestar person. I love things that explore how society interacts with machines.” Recently, her thoughts have focused on the hovering feeling of apocalypse along with the question of our own obsolescence. It was only a matter of time before she absorbed the capabilities of technology into her own music. Through experiments with Ableton, she realized she was making music that was more expressive of humanity, not less. “We are tempted to see rapid technological change as an impediment to the traditions that ground us. But I feel our connection to ancient forms can be amplified and transformed by this new reality, not lost.” Bagg says.
While making “Patterns”, she dove first into Renaissance polyphony and chant. The music of Hildegard von Bingen, Thomas Tallis, and Carlo Gesualdo is a familiar world to her. Starting with Renaissance and Medieval singing styles and idioms, she added processing and electronic world-building to bring out new, expressive qualities of those styles. From there, she improvised in these styles, fed the performances into Ableton, and incorporated modern day hyperpop (like SOPHIE) and ambient electric sounds and aesthetics – as she says, “I am going for a maximalist sound, but my sources of inspiration also include minimalists.” From Philip Glass to Charli XCX, Carl Stone to Grimes, “Patterns” makes radical connections. Yet, it was important for Bagg to maintain the spiritual origins of these vocal techniques. As she describes it, “The album uses layered singing as a pathway to spirituality, as it has been throughout history.” “Patterns for Auto-tuned Voices and Delay” stands within those traditions, using voices to transcend the cerebral and overwhelm the listener, all while evoking a unique set of references that span 500 years.
bar italia, is the London trio of Nina Cristante, Jezmi Tarik Fehmi and Sam Fenton, the band have announced details of their new album ‘Tracey Denim’, which will be released on CD on May 19th, and on LP on 8th September, on Matador Records.
‘Tracey Denim’ was recorded and produced by bar italia with mixing from Marta Salogni. It features the single “Nurse!” which was released in March to acclaim, and described as “a hypnotic post-punk ballad” (The Guardian) and “narcotically arresting” (Pitchfork).
bar italia play a headline UK tour in May, and have announced further UK tour dates for November. They also appear at festivals this summer including Primavera Sound Barcelona & Madrid, Latitude, Midi Festival and End Of The Road.
Over the last two years, bar italia have released two albums, an EP and several singles on Dean Blunt’s World Music label, leading to much word-of-mouth, sold out headline shows, and festival performances at Pitchfork Music Festival London, by:Larm, OUT.FEST, Le Guess Who?, and End Of The Road.
released May 19th, 2023
2023, bar italia under exclusive license to Matador Records
