Since beginning as the solo project of Rick Maguire, Pile has evolved into something increasingly hard to define. Ostensibly a post-hardcore band, Pile’s incorporated elements of folk, country and pop, and with their latest album “All Fiction”, more atmospheric art-rock territory that veers into the avant garde. Lead single “Loops” is heavier in its back end than its riffs, Maguire’s riffs more abstract and ambient, but the end result is something that feels heavy as fuck. And it’s strange moments of magic like this that make Pile such a thrilling band to keep up with.
From the album, “”All Fiction,”” out February 17th, 2023, via Exploding in Sound Records
Coming 10th February: the most live-sounding Yo La Tengo album in years, “This Stupid World”. Times have changed for Yo La Tengo as much as they have for everyone else. In the past, the band has often worked with outside producers and mixers. In their latest effort, the first full-length in five years, “This Stupid World” was created all by themselves. And their time-tested judgment is both sturdy enough to keep things to the band’s high standards, and nimble enough to make things new.
At the base of nearly every track is the trio playing all at once, giving everything a right-now feel. There’s an immediacy to the music, as if the distance between the first pass and the final product has become more direct. Available on standard black vinyl, CD and on limited blue vinyl.
Yo La Tengo have recorded some of the greatest albums in indie rock, as well as more recent atmospheric meditations on contemporary unrest. But when you get down to it, making great rock music is what they do best. “Fallout,” the lead single from their upcoming album “This Stupid World”, their 17th overall, is a prime example of that, balancing shoegazing layers of guitars with bittersweet melodies and a kind of warm density that’s become their signature.
Taken from the upcoming album ‘This Stupid World,’ out February 10th on Matador Records.
Debut album by secretive and enigmatic French band EggS. Their ranks recently swelled by the addition of Marguax and Camille from fellow Parisians En Atendant Ana, they race through a dozen tracks that could sit comfortably anywhere in the output of Sarah, Flying Nun, K or Postcard.
Like their influences The Television Personalities, they write chaotic yet beautiful songs that always sound on the brink of falling apart but somehow don’t. Born in Lockdown, and recorded deep in the Parisian suburbs across two rainy weekends in the Spring of 2022 , it glitches between jangly guitar and alto-sax quirkiness, while the boy/girl vocal interplay may appeal to fans of Martha or Eleventh Dream Day.
A joint release between UK label Prefect Records (run by Mark Dobson – ex Field Mice) and French label Howlin Banana. A collaboration formed out of necessity – given the pressing plant and import/export issues caused by the ongoing nightmare that is Brexit- this is a limited edition release.
Color Green are a cosmic rock ’n roll band comprised of Noah Kohll and Corey Madden. Their self-titled debut sees the duo blasting out of the gate at full strength. Equal parts fuzzy and twangy, the songs cull from many decades of the strange sounds of American music. Rambling rockers like “Ill Fitting Suit” and “Blizzed Out” are bookended by spacier numbers like “Bell of Silence” and “Verdolaga Dreams,” while others are a blissful hybrid (“Warbling Sky”). The common thread running through all of these songs is the unwavering devotion to the merits of classic songwriting. If Gram Parsons were alive today, he would be proud of these guys. The spirit of Gram with a healthy dash of Grateful Dead make a fine marriage with these cosmic country crusaders. And oh my I love that pedal steel guitar!.
This co-release between ORG Music and Aquarium Drunkard will be unleashed upon the world on 22/7/2022, available on LP, CD, and digitally. ColorGreen succeeds in mixing equal parts celestial and celebratory — an eight track collection of riffing grooves, satisfying harmonies, and skillful micro-jamming.
Vocals: Noah Kohll, Corey Madden, Ben Cook, Madelyn Strutz, James Matthew VII Guitars: Noah Kohll and Corey Madden Bass: Trevor Tallakson, Noah Kohll and Corey Madden Drums: Dave Ozinga and Noah Kohll Keyboards: Jonny Kosmo, Gracie Jackson, Noah Kohll and Corey Madden Saxophone: Gravy Flores Banjo: Madelyn Strutz Pedal Steel: Tim Ramsey
Straddling the European continent, The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness are Andrew Taylor, who resides in Edinburgh, and Gonzalo Marcos, who calls Madrid home. Adapting their name from the famously neurotic New Jersey group The Feelies—who used to categorically refuse to play in New York City—the Boys are comparatively chill. “You say that you miss me, but you know I don’t mind,” goes the opening track from their 2021 debut “Songs From Another Life“. There’s hardly an ounce of melancholy in their zestful, crisp compositions—a welcome break from despondency. These boys next door are onto better things (as far as I can see).
One of the best albums of February 2021. “From vocal harmonies and retro synth frills to an always-accessible blend of acoustic and electric guitars, The Boys paint from a familiar power-pop palette, but create something uniquely beautiful—not even these times of loss and isolation can take that away from us”
Télérama (France): “Songs from Another Life” est avant tout un album « feel good », telle la bande-son mélancolique d’une fin d’été ensoleillée. Par les temps qui courent, on en a besoin” (★★★/4)
Janglepophub (South Africa): “the most perfect voice in jangle/power-pop at present (sorry Teenage Fanclub fans!). Once again, a genuinely stunning album…as if there was ever any doubt it would be!!?”
El Periódico (Spain): “lo suyo tiene que ver con el pop sublime de los Byrds, Teenage Fanclub, Pernice Brothers y otros maestros del acorde brillante, la melodía memorable y las voces celestiales” (★★★★/5)
Raven Sings The Blues (USA): “The Boys are wrapping their heartache in a cavalcade of hooks that are rather hard to ignore as they flip through an alternate history radio station where Superdrag’s second LP got the praise it deserved, Teenage Fanclub topped everyone’s list over Nirvana in ’91 and Matthew Sweet kept on writing songs for Choo Choo Train rather than split solo. It’s a world where emotional honesty never quite went out of style and perfect pop simply meant that the chords got bigger and brighter”
Allmusic (USA): “12-string, retro-flavored power pop”
Powerpopaholic (USA): “Highly Recommended and a contender for my top 10 in 2021 list” (9/10)
Post-Trash (USA): “A brand new international pop overthrow is afoot and The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness are at the vanguard”
Alex Izenberg released 2022’s “I’m Not Here“, which is the third full-length album from Izenberg. A collection of beguiling love songs, tender heartache, despair and confusion, “I’m Not Here” lays Alex bare, heart on his sleeve, and serves as a peek into the mind of one of LA’s most enigmatic songwriters.
Like his debut, 2016’s homespun “Harlequin”, and its ambitious 2020 follow-up “Caravan Château”, Alex Izenberg’s new album “I’m Not Here” inhabits the shaggy, world-weary mode of artists like Harry Nilsson, John Lennon, Randy Newman, and Lou Reed.
With the help of producer Greg Hartunian, and swelling string and woodwind arrangements courtesy of Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth, Alex manages a paradoxical and visionary trick: he disappears completely while simultaneously revealing more of himself than ever before.
Alex Izenberg has released two new covers, Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle” and Fleet Foxes’ “I’m Not My Season” digitally. While both originals complement Izenberg’s 1970s style, he completely transforms these songs into his own, adding his classic eccentric twist.
On the first full moon of 2023, Peter releases the first new song from his forthcoming album “i/o”. Written and produced by Peter, “Panopticom” was recorded at Real World Studios in Wiltshire and The Beehive in London.
Peter Gabriel plans to release a new song from his upcoming album, “i/o”, every full moon. The singer released the first song from the album at midnight Friday. Titled “Panopticom,” the track features electronics from Brian Eno. “i/o”will mark Gabriel’s first album in more than a decade.
“Some of what I’m writing about this time is the idea that we seem incredibly capable of destroying the planet that gave us birth and that unless we find ways to reconnect ourselves to nature and to the natural world we are going to lose a lot,” Gabriel said in a statement on his website. “A simple way of thinking about where we fit into all of this is looking up at the sky … and the moon has always drawn me to it.”
The first track released “Panopticom” references an idea that Peter has been working on to initiate the creation of an infinitely expandable accessible data globe. The aim is to “allow the world to see itself better and understand more of what’s really going on”.
‘The first song is based on an idea I have been working on to initiate the creation of an infinitely expandable accessible data globe: “The Panopticom“. We are beginning to connect a like-minded group of people who might be able to bring this to life, to allow the world to see itself better and understand more of what’s really going on.’ -pg
Musically “Panopticom” drives along powered by the engine-room of long-time collaborators Tony Levin, David Rhodes and Manu Katché, underpinned by haunting electronics from Brian Eno. Additional backing vocals from Ríoghnach Connolly of TheBreath. The lyric is, in part, inspired by the extraordinary work of three groups, Forensic Architecture, Bellingcat and the Gabriel co-founded pioneering human rights organisation WITNESS.
Drums: Manu Katché Rhythm Programming: Peter Gabriel, Oli Jacobs, Richard Chappell Bass: Tony Levin Electric Guitar: David Rhodes Acoustic Guitar: Katie May Synths: Peter Gabriel Additional Synths: Oli Jacobs Bells and Haunting Synths: Brian Eno Backing Vocals: Peter Gabriel, David Rhodes, Ríoghnach Connolly Lead Vocals: Peter Gabriel
released January 6, 2023 Words and Music Peter Gabriel
Gabriel released two singles in 2016, “I’m Amazing” and “The Veil”, but his most recent album, “New Blood”, arrived in 2011, and included orchestral re-recordings of his older songs. In 2010, he released an LP of cover songs called “Scratch My Back”. His most recent album of original songs, “Up“, was released in 2002.
New music from ex Swimmer One / Seafieldroad singer-songwriter, now living in Outer Hebrides and signed to Wee Studio Records.
“Non Swimmers” brings together new solo versions of three songs by my old band Swimmer One. All are completely different from the originals. “But My Heart is Still Broken” is as much a sequel to “But My Heart is Broken” as it is a cover, with a mostly new lyric.
The EP is part of a broader celebration of the 20th anniversary of Swimmer One’s debut single, “We Just Make Music For Ourselves”. If you like it, please look out for Outliers, a 2023 Swimmer One compilation including the band’s first new music in over a decade. We’re also releasing remastered versions of Swimmer One’s two albums, “The Regional Variations” (from 2007) and “Dead Orchestras” (from 2010).
This EP is dedicated to everyone who’s struggling to stay afloat.
Over forty years ago, the music industry was officially in recession but that didn’t mean that the quality of the music itself had diminished. The late 1970s was a time of seismic change for popular music with punk’s year zero of 1977 fuelling the rise of Independent record labels and the major record labels struggling to keep pace as punk evolved into new wave.
There was also the disco phenomenon, which had reached its peak in music’s most schizophrenic year – 1978. In truth, 1979’s singles charts didn’t vary too much from the previous year. Despite the best efforts of disco haters such as Chicago disc jockey Steve Dahl, who blew up a crate of dance records in a “death of disco” stunt, the glitter ball sensation refused to go away, with some unlikely artists hitching a ride.
But, like the previous year, 1979 was all about the sheer diversity of the music on offer. And the singles charts offered ample evidence of that eclectic mix of styles, finding room for everyone from ska revivalists to rock dinosaurs, classic rock acts to post-punk pioneers as well as the original punk acts, while also offering a glimpse of the future with the first successful rap and synth pop records. It all made for a heady confection, one of the best years for the 45.
The Boomtown Rats – I Don’t Like Mondays
A hugely effective piano driven ballad inspired by the 1979 school shooting in San Diego when 16-year-old Brenda Spencer killed two adults and wounded eight children with the rifle her father had given her as a Christmas present. Her explanation: “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day” struck a chord with Bob Geldof and he composed the lyrics based around what he felt was a senseless act committed for a senseless reason. The song chimed with UK listeners as well and spent four weeks at number one, although whether that was due to sympathy over the tragic events or an empathy with that Monday morning feeling we all face from time to time, is open to question. Spencer is eligible for parole in August
Nick Lowe – Cruel to Be Kind
A co-write with Ian Gomm that dated back to both men’s time with seminal pub rockers Brinsley Schwatz was inspired by Harold Melvin & the Bluenote’s “The Love I Lost”. Lowe rerecorded the song for his excellent “Labour of Lust”album and it became an unexpected hit, reaching number 12 on both sides of the Atlantic. It shouldn’t really have been a surprise. With his trademark sweet and sour wordplay, “Cruel to Be Kind” is one of a handful of late 1970s classics from the venerable Lowe, one of the key figures of the era for British music.
Thin Lizzy – Waiting for an Alibi
After their debut hit in 1972 with “Whiskey in the Jar”, Thin Lizzy spent four long years during which they could barely get arrested. However, 1976’s “Jailbreak” album and attendant single “The Boys Are Back in Town” launched them back into the limelight and kick started a run of some of the best rock singles of the second half of the seventies. That they should do it in the face of the punk onslaught is probably testament to their slightly edgy image. “Waiting for an Alibi” finds the band at their commercial and artistic peak, twin lead guitars to the fore and Phil Lynott demonstrating all of his lyrical dexterity and natural rock star charisma.
XTC – Making Plans For Nigel
A typically quirky slice of art-pop from XTC which damned British Gas with faint praise in Colin Moulding’s autobiographical lyrics about parents mapping out a career for their offspring. British Gas was so chuffed to be name-checked in a top 20 hit that they wheeled out several employees called Nigel to rather reluctantly espouse the pleasures of working for the firm, but nevertheless, it’s still a great record from England’s answer to Talking Heads.
Joe Jackson – Is She Really Going Out With Him?
Classically trained Jackson came to prominence as part of the new-wave pack with this, his first single, even though it bombed when first released in 1978. It was rereleased when debut album“Look Sharp”took off, the title a canny nod to both the Damned’s “New Rose” and the Shangri-Las’ “Leader of the Pack”. The song’s perceptive and witty lyrics struck a chord with love-lorn males of a certain age who couldn’t fathom how certain guys got certain girls and was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, earning Jackson a Grammy nomination and kickstarting his varied and never less than interesting career.
Pink Floyd – Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)
The Floyd’s first UK single since 1967’s “See Emily Play” enjoyed a five-week run at number one and made for a rather unlikely Christmas number one. No doubt, buyers were attracted by the chorus sung by pupils of Islington Green School and the disco beat, but the message of the song, protesting against those who misuse power, was decidedly unfestive. Great David Gilmour guitar solo though.
The Pretenders – Brass in Pocket
Who would have guessed that spiky former NME scribe Chrissie Hynde possessed a voice of liquid gold and a natural songwriter’s gifts for melody and a catchy hook? The Pretenders had already lit up the singles charts earlier in the year with “Kid” and “Stop Your Sobbing”, but “Brass in Pocket” captured lightning in a bottle with Hynde’s sassy and seductive vocal inverting rock’s traditional male posturing with her dynamic band providing wonderfully assured backing. Released at the tail end of 1979, “Brass in Pocket” would eventually displace “Another Brick in the Wall” at the top of the charts in January the following year.
The Police – Message in a Bottle
It took the great British public a while to catch on to the Police. Early singles “Fall Out”, “So Lonely” and “Roxanne” bombed and “Can’t Stand Losing You” barely scraped into the top 50, despite this writer spending his hard-earned cash on it. However, in early 1979 “Roxanne” gained some success across the Atlantic and it was rereleased in the UK, reaching number 12, signalling the start of one of the great singles bands chart career. Pop-pickers finally recognised “Can’t Stand Losing You’s” gallows humour charm and ushered it to number two, but this was the song that really made them, a breathless metaphor laden adrenaline rush and the first of five superb number ones.
Sugarhill Gang – Rapper’s Delight
The first mainstream rap record was built on a sample of an equally influential record: Chic’s “Good Times”. It established the genre’s basic tropes and brought hip hop out from the New York underground scene, paving the way for much of what was to come. Perhaps buoyed by its perceived novelty value, “Rapper’s Delight” was surprisingly a bigger hit in the UK (No 3) than America, but the genie was out of the bottle.
Squeeze – Up the Junction
The point at which the great song-writing partnership of Glen Tilbrook and Chris Difford really hit their stride, a tragicomedy kitchen sink drama in three minutes. This timeless gem was Squeeze’s second successive number two, following “Cool For Cats”.
Michael Jackson – Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough
One of the great artist/producer partnerships starts here with the lead-off track from “Off the Wall”, Jackson’s first solo album with Quincy Jones after leaving Motown. This was the first song that Jackson had full creative control over, introducing his adult falsetto and signature vocal tics and the result was a gloriously funky floor filler which stormed the the charts, topping the Billboard Hot 100 and hitting number three in the UK, winning Jackson a Grammy in the process.
The Specials – Gangsters
Instant success for Jerry Dammers’ fledgling 2-Tone label with its first release which fused punk energy with 1960s Ska (notably Prince Buster’s “Al Capone”) into a sound that was both retro and fresh. “Gangsters” reached number six in the charts, a terrific eponymous debut album followed and soon, Madness, the Beat and others joined the label that changed the musical and cultural landscape of the time.
Tubeway Army – Are ‘Friends’ Electric
Former punk Gary Numan discovered the synthesiser and in one fell swoop briefly displaced Bowie as pop music’s most lovable alien. Drawing heavily on Bowie, Eno and Krautrock, Numan combined two different songs on an out of tune piano, added a repetitive but unforgettable riff and a flat monotone vocal, and somehow ended up at number one for four weeks with a record about robot prostitutes.
Blondie – Heart of Glass
“Heart of Glass” had been kicking around almost since Blondie were formed, but it’s amazing what a drum machine and synthesiser can do. A canny fusion of new wave and Euro-disco from the previous year’s “Parallel Lines” album sparked the Blondie juggernaut with the first of their five number ones, spending four weeks at the top, alienating their disco hating new wave peers in the process.
Elvis Costello – Oliver’s Army
Not for the first time, Costello proved himself the master of the Trojan Horse pop song with the glorious melody, Abbaesque piano and catchy singalong quality of “Oliver’s Army” allowing his views on major issues to infiltrate the nation’s living rooms. In this case, Costello had British imperialism and the Irish troubles in his sights and was typically uncompromising with the language he used. The result was one of Costello’s greatest songs and his biggest hit, spending three weeks at number two.
Chic – Good Times
Arguably the greatest disco record, endlessly sampled, hugely influential. The Chic hallmarks are all here: swirling strings, the much imitated bass line (listen to Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”), chucking guitar, and lustrous production. If this record doesn’t move you, check your pulse.
Gloria Gaynor – I Will Survive
Or is this the greatest disco record? Let’s settle for the greatest disco record not involving Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. It’s certainly the ultimate disco anthem, the ultimate female empowerment anthem and the ultimate LGBT anthem. A number one on both sides of the Atlantic, amazingly, given its iconic status, the potential of “I Will Survive” wasn’t originally recognised by Gaynor’s record label Polydor, which stuck it on the B side of her 1978 single “Substitute”. It wasn’t until club DJs starting playing “I Will Survive” that Polydor twigged and flipped the record and the rest as they say, is history.
Joy Division – Transmission
The stand alone single recorded before, but released after debut album “Unknown Pleasures”, is one of the great post-punk anthems. A pulsating bass line drives “Transmission”, Bernard Sumner’s piercing guitar lodges itself in your brain despite the best efforts of Stephen Morris’s pounding drums to knock it out again, and with Ian Curtis’s haunting, doom-laden delivery comes the realisation that the chorus “Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, to the radio” isn’t a command or an exhortation, it’s a warning.
The Jam – The Eton Rifles
As the year progressed, so did the Jam’s growing impetus as they began to establish themselves as one of the great singles bands, with every release a keenly anticipated event. After “Strange Town” and “When You’re Young”, and just when you thought it couldn’t get better, along came “The Eton Rifles”, a devastating critique of the British class system and social inequality which Paul Weller was inspired to write after viewing footage of Eton pupils jeering a Right to Work March. “Eton Rifles” became theJam’s first top 10 single, reaching number three and Weller had never sounded so articulate, so passionate, so witty, as he took his place in the canon of great English songwriters.
The Clash – London Calling
“I wanted it to sound like it was coming through fog over the Thames”, was how Joe Strummer described the anthemic title track from The Clash’s seminal third album. And it was the fear of the Thames flooding London that fuelled Strummer’s lyrics detailing a world hurtling towards the Apocalypse, (“The ice age is coming”, “The wheat is growin’ thin”). “London Calling” (the title references the BBC wartime World Service address) also reflects on the group’s internal struggles and the end of the punk rock era that the Clash embodied as they evolved into a great rock ‘n’ roll band. A momentous record, once heard never forgotten, the greatest Clash song, and the greatest single of 1979.
On their 4th full-length album (but 17th vinyl offering if you include previous 7”s and EPs) the Portland, OR band rediscover the beauty of firsts.
“A Colossal Waste of Light” marks the first time the band wrote songs remotely (“it ended up being fun & weird to send out a very simple version of a song and see who came back first with another part for it”, John Moen looks back), their first reunion at the Destination: Universe studio post-isolation, and their first batch of melodious new tunes since “The Accidental Falls”, the band’s 2020 project with poet, lyricist and Tim Buckley collaborator Larry Beckett (an extra-ordinary pairing that allowed Eyelids’ two frontmen/tunesmiths, Chris Slusarenko and John Moen, to find a new, multilayered appreciation for the art of songcraft).
“A Colossal Waste of Light”is the first Eyelids album to feature new bass player Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven, Monks of Doom). The artistry he brings to the songs is seasoned and fresh in equal measure. Alongside JonathanDrews’ expressive yet mysteriously ethereal guitar playing and Paulie Pulvirenti’s imaginative and powerful drumming, the finished LP is the perfect summation of Eyelids’ new and old ways of collaborating together.
“ACWOL frames Eyelids as one of today’s most compelling purveyors of lopsided guitar pop workouts and earworm- laden vocal melodies.”
Every track feels like its own journey and having songs from two songwriters at the top of their game makes for a most dynamic, immersive narrative as their songs follow one another throughout. As a whole, it’s thrilling, moving, mercurial, absorbing, soothing, and unmistakably Eyelids.
The Fat Angel Sings 