JEFF: Laura and I have known each other since we were teenagers skankin’ our buns off in the same VFW halls, church basements and high school auditoriums sorry. We’ve played in each others’ bands on-and-off throughout this marvelous millenium and under the immense stress of the music industry and oh boy, let’s not forget these difficult times, our friendship has not collapsed. It is strong, like a sicky thicky beam of steel!
LAURA: May I interject here and state for the record that I did not skank? I was merely a spectator. But I will agree that our friendship began strong and it remains very strong.
JEFF: Much like our friendship, Neil Young’s songs have existed for a long time – some would argue, they’ve existed for even longer. For a while, I knew I was supposed to like Neil Young but a lot of the “standards” admittedly are not for me*. Eventually I asked Laura and her husband Mike to get me started somewhere, and months later, I would spend nights traveling alone on tour with “After The Gold Rush” on repeat in my headphones, simultaneously allowing me to feel grounded and as if I was floating away.
As I dove deeper into his catalogue, more and more records of his would bookend my days – giving my band buds something chill to sleep to on a morning drive or slowing me down at night as I space out in front of my record player.
LAURA: I’m so glad Jeff finally got sucked in. For me, Neil Young was playing in my house for as long as I can remember. My favourite record being “Comes A Time” which I think for sure influenced my love of harmonizing. But it’s kind of a hard task to get someone to love something as much as you do when it’s just this thing you’ve always known and appreciated. I’m happy it worked!
JEFF: Seth from Polyvinyl has joked that I like “sad Neil” and I have claimed on multiple occasions that “I hate it when Neil rocks.” But I don’t. I love it when he does anything, because no matter what the project is it always feels honest and pure. He is a famous-as-fuck songwriter that could sell out a basketball arena at the drop of a hat even though he’s always sticking his middle fingers up at the world, his audience included. That’s the kinda shit we’re into.
LAURA: I think it’s just so different when he rocks. I get that the two are such opposite ends of the spectrum but they still have the same underlying emotional content. I feel like Jeff and myself, as songwriters who grew up in punk rock, have a similar thing, where you can be very sweet and beautiful, and then at times, kind of ugly and heavier, but it’s always the same voice and the same intention at the end of the day.
JEFF: Laura and I have been talking about doing a few EPs of Neil Young covers for years. It’s an excuse to have fun making music together and we both like fun and music in case you missed it. It’s also nice to hang out and create (sorry) instead of just talking about “oh my god did you hear what this stupid dipshit did on tour? I hope their band takes us out.” We finally both had time away from the road this summer, Laura heroically made the trip down to my apartment in Brooklyn a few times and we’d feverishly lay down a bunch of tracks. I like hearing Laura play guitar and she convinced me to sing quieter than I ever have. We had a few friends fill in some details and we quickly had this EP you’re listening to. I hope it’s not too long before we make another!.
Two best friends separated by a global pandemic, a couple years time, and the entirety of the continental United States reunite in a LA basement and what do you get? A New EP of Neil Young Covers, Of course!
.Ahead of their co-headline tour, Jeff Rosenstock and Laura Stevenson surprise release the follow-up to “Still Young“, their 2019 collection of Neil Young covers, with yet another collection of Neil Young covers, “Younger Still“. Did we mention Jeff Rosenstock and Laura Stevenson covered Neil Young… again?
The project features twists on classics ” Listen now and catch the duo on tour this winter playing the hits!
Following 2019’s “Still Young”, frequent collaborators and friends Jeff Rosenstock & Laura Stevenson have returned with “Younger Still”, their 2nd 4-song EP of Neil Young covers. This time, the duo put their spin on classics “Comes a Time,” and “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,” alongside deeper cuts like “Razor Love” and “Hey Babe.”
The duo originally started working on a new EP in 2019, recording two of its four songs in Rosenstock’s apartment in Brooklyn before moving to Los Angeles. As the events of 2020 & the global pandemic unfolded, the EP was never fully realized and both musicians focused on their respective solo projects. Rosenstock released the critically acclaimed album “No Dream” and not-critically-acclaimed 2020 “Dump” in 2020 and continued focusing on writing and recording music for the Emmy-nominated Cartoon Network series, Craig of the Creek. While across the country in NY, Stevenson meanwhile was busy as well. She gave birth to her first child and released her beautiful self-titled sixth album in 2021. Prior to this, Stevenson has been featured in outlets such as Pitchfork, SPIN, and NPR (Tiny Desk) and has toured with artists such as Lucy Dacus, The Hold Steady, and others.
As soon as both of their intense schedules allowed, Stevenson hopped on a plane in the summer of 2022 and the duo got back together at Rosenstock’s home in Los Angeles to record four different songs for a whole new EP in the basement. Rosenstock & Stevenson will be hitting the road for a handful of intimate shows together in November and December, playing Neil Young covers and selects from both of their vast catalogs.
“Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” is taken from Jeff Rosenstock & Laura Stevenson’s new Neil Young covers EP, “Younger Still”, out November 3rd, 2022 via Polyvinyl Records.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ legendary 20-night run in 1997 at The Fillmore in San Francisco will be the subject of a new deluxe box set. The title, “Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Live at The Fillmore 1997”, arrives November 25th, 2022, via Warner Records. The collection is available as a 4-CD or 6-LP deluxe edition, as well as on 2-CDs, and 3-LPs. Six of the shows were professionally recorded and the editions contain numerous previously unreleased performances. The 4-CD edition includes 58 tracks, 35 of which are covers. Much of the band’s well known repertoire such as “American Girl,” “You Don’t KnowHow It Feels” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream” is included, with often re-arranged and distinctive versions.
The band always enjoyed playing a choice selection of classic songs on their setlists and the new release offers plenty, paying tribute to the artists that Petty and the band had been influenced by. Highlights include the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” as well as spirited versions of “Louie Louie” and “Gloria,” plus “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” featuring guest Roger McGuinn, are among the set’s ample track listing.
Listen to the performances of Petty classics “Listen To Her Heart” and “I Want Back Down (acoustic),” as well as a rollicking cover of J.J. Cale’s “Call Me the Breeze,” below.
Tom Petty, was born October. 20th, 1950, was 47 years old at the time of the concerts. To put the timeline in perspective, Petty had released his great solo album, “Wildflowers”, in 1994 and the band had released the music for the feature film, “She’s the One”, in 1996. Of the concerts, Petty said, “We all feel this might be the highpoint of our time together as a group… It’s going to be hard to get us off this stage tonight.”
Since Petty’s death in October 2017, his Estate and bandmates have carefully mined his archives. 2018’s “An American Treasure” set which included “I Won’t Back Down” from the Fillmore run. 2020’s “Wildflowers & All the Rest” also featured music from those concerts. Multiple tracks also appeared on 2009’s The Live Anthology set. The new Fillmore set is a collaboration between the Estate and Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell.
The 4-CD set includes a 32-page booklet (with previously unseen photographs), three custom guitar picks, a replica All Access laminate, and an embroidered patch (“The Fillmore House Band” – a term that was bestowed on The Heartbreakers during the shows at the Fillmore).
The numerous covers include Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” J.J. Cale’s “Crazy Mama” and “Call Me the Breeze,” The Rolling Stones’ “Time is On My Side” and more from The Kinks, Everly Brothers, Bill Withers, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry and Booker T. & the M.G.’s. John Lee Hooker guests on “Boogie Chillen.”
Mike Campbell said, “Playing the Fillmore in 1997 for a month was one of my favorite experiences as a musician in my whole life. The band was on fire and we changed the set list every night. The room and the crowd was spiritual… AND… we got to play with some amazing guests. I will always remember those nights with joy and inspiration.”
NEIL YOUNG’s fourth solo album remains one of the most beloved in his catalogue and is dense with songs that have long-permeated radio waves. The 50th Anniversary Edition Harvest Box Sets will be released on the 2nd December on vinyl, CD and to stream, boasting the original album, three studio outtakes on CD/7” vinyl, an unreleased live 1971 BBC solo performance on CD, LP and DVD. The film “Harvest Time” is a previously unseen two-hour documentary filmed in 1971, documenting the “Harvest” sessions. Also included in the package is a hardbound book and fold-out poster. The vinyl box sets include a lithograph print. HARVEY KUBERNIK spills the beans with the help of some major-league key-players
According to the press release announcement, “fans of the record will receive a new glimpse into I through the two DVDs included in the box set. The first is “Harvest Time“, an unreleased two-hour film shot during the making of “Harvest”, with footage from Young’s Harvest Barn sessions in Northern California, recording sessions in Nashville and London.
The second is a film of the unreleased solo BBC Concert recorded on 23rd February, ’71. Also included are three unreleased tracks from the original “Harvest” sessions: ‘Bad Fog Of Loneliness’, ‘Journey Through The Past’, and ‘Dance Dance Dance’. Additionally, the hardbound book will include never-before-seen photos along with extensive liner notes by photographer Joel Bernstein.”
On 23rd February, ’71 at the BBC Television Centre in London, producer/director Stanley Dorfman filmed Neil Young for BBC’s In Concert. It was a pivotal UK small screen exposure for Young, who previewed some un-recorded material that would later surface on his epic ’72 album, “Harvest”.
Stanley Dorfman: “At the time I was co-producing/directing Top Of The Pops with a guy called Johnnie Stewart. We started it in ’64. Around ’68, I had the thought of having a show of singer-songwriters. And the first was with Leonard Cohen and Julie Felix. We then called them “BBC In Concerts” and the first one was with Randy Newman.
“When we started this thing, BBC2 had just gone colour. And the head of BBC2 was David Attenborough. And he liked folk music a lot. So I said, ‘Let’s do singer songwriters. Great.’ So, he sent me to California to find acts. And I met [David] Geffen and [Elliot] Roberts. It wasn’t a hard sell at all. The artists couldn’t get on television in England unless they had hit records. The reason Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and the others connected very strongly with the English audience was because they were folk music oriented. British love folk music. The Scottish, the Welsh, the Irish. Plus, Neil Young citing Bert Jansch and The Shadows in his interviews didn’t hurt.
“I loved the singer-songwriters of the time. To me they were the poets. Laura Nyro. Brilliant songs last forever. With all these acts, I never dictated what they should do anyway. They’d come over and we’d have a lunch and a chat. We had marvellous lighting and they lit these things like portraits.
“The other thing that I said to them before doing the program was that the editing would be very minimal. We had four cameras, five if you were lucky, no hand-held, so the only editing you would do was cut tunes out. Or put them in. So I told Neil and all the others, if they wanted to they could come to the editing room the next day and kind of decide how to structure the show. And they all liked doing that. Neil came. He was charming, lovely and delightful. Neil was not elusive in any of my dealings.”
In February ’71, Neil Young travelled to Nashville to tape The Johnny Cash Show. An ABC-TV national broadcast. Neil Young had a star turn on the Campus episode, performing ‘The Needle And The Damage Done’ and ‘Journey Through The Past’.
“One reason country music has expanded the way it has is that we haven’t let ourselves become locked into any category,” Johnny Cash assured me during a ’75 interview I conducted with him in Anaheim California for the now defunct Melody Maker.When I asked Johnny about his bold policy of booking established country artists and mixing relative new comers to his TV program artist lineup, he replied, “We do what we want.” Guesting around Young’s screen stint Cash spot were James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. Huddled around a microphone, these three blossoming talents gave a taste of the burgeoning singer-songwriter movement in rock.
While in Nashville Young took time to record some new material. Serendipity played its designated role as always; a chance encounter with an acquaintance of Elliot Roberts, veteran producer/engineer Elliot Mazer, introduced Neil to a new set of musicians who would influence his sound from this point on. With Mazer handling the console at Quadraphonic Studios, Young laid down the tracks for what would become “Harvest”, his biggest seller and, for many, his most enduring work. Elliot Mazer engineered and co-produced the Area Code 615 band. An album of highly respected Nashville session musicians, including Wayne Moss, David Briggs, Mac Gayden, Charlie McCoy, and Kenny Buttrey. (The BBC music program The Old Grey Whistle Test used their ‘Stone Fox Chase’ as the opening theme.)
Elliot Mazer: “I had a friend who smoked a lot of weed, which I wasn’t then, who played nothing but “After The Gold Rush” a lot. That was the first time I heard of Neil Young. I was interested in the voice. All of a sudden we read about Neil coming to Nashville to tape The Johnny Cash Show. I said, ‘We need to host a dinner.’ Neil, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and Tony JoeWhite attend, have dinner, and I get introduced to Neil. ‘You work with these Nashville guys. Can I get the studio tomorrow to mess around?’ ‘Sure.’ I moved a session to accommodate him. And called some musicians.’”
The future Stray Gators, a bunch of good ol’ boys covered all the musical bases: rascally Tim Drummond on bass, the timekeeper from Dylan’s immortal “Blonde on Blonde”, Kenny Buttrey, on silky smooth drums, pianist John Harris, guitar player Teddy Irwin and Ben Keith, Neil’s future right-hand-man on yowling steel guitar. They would set the table for their irascible leader on countless gigs and studio sessions. For now, it was time to bring in their first harvest, and they all knew it was something special.
Elliot Mazer: “I knew ‘Heart Of Gold’ was a hit when Neil played it. His songs are generally an overpowering feeling. Kenny, Drummond, Ben, Teddy and I are in the control room. Small space. Twelve feet by 20 feet. And Neil plays ‘Heart Of Gold’ and I look up and Kenny and I both at the same time put our fingers up as #1. We knew it. From then it was only a matter of time to get the thing done properly and out. Neil’s singing and playing on it was magnificent. His tempo was perfect. It was great. All we had to do was make sure we didn’t mess him up. I used a Neumann U67 or 87 microphone on his voice and rode his sound levels.
“Neil played ‘Old Man’ and sang it beautifully. I knew that was the take. I would know very early with Neil if it would be a take or not. I remember after that take, Neil came into the control room and saw Linda and James there and said, ‘Let’s record the backing vocals.’ And we did the backing vocals right in the control room. James played six-string banjo on it.”
Linda Ronstadt: “I sang in Nashville with Neil [at Quadraphonic]. We were doing The Johnny Cash Show and Neil was there. James Taylor was there. After we got finished with the TV show, Neil said, ‘I’m going to go record. Will you guys come along?’ So we recorded ‘Old Man’ and ‘Heart Of Gold’. It took all night long. We didn’t get there until midnight. It was just before dawn, we came out of there and it had begun to snow.
“I remember I had to be on my knees for most of the session because James and I were singing together. But James was so tall, he had to sit in a chair, then I’d have to bend over to sing, so I knelt on my knees. I could just reach the microphone. (laughs) James was bent over and I was kneeling. So I was really tired by the time we finished. Because it took hours. But we loved the music. It was so good. James was playing a banjo. Actually, it was a guitar with a banjo head on it with six strings. That’s James playing banjo that you hear on ‘Heart Of Gold’. Two of the most beautiful, poignant songs. Neil is just the best. He’s my favourite writer from that time. I was a huge Neil Young fan. We didn’t think in those terms about those songs having an impact. I just went, ‘This is the best thing I’ve ever heard. I wanna be on it.’ I was glad that I got to sing on it. I had sort of learned how to do or how Neil’s harmonies go by listening to them on the radio. (laughs). I was just glad to be part of it.”
Elliot Mazer: “Neil and Jack Nitzsche went to London and did ‘A Man Needs A Maid’ and ‘There’s A World’ live with The London Symphony. Neil recorded ‘The Needle And The Damage Done’ from a [30th January, ’71] concert at UCLA’s Royce Hall. We did other tracks that were taped with The Stray Gators in California inside a barn on Neil’s ranch. We used a mobile truck with a UREI tube mixer. ‘Words’, ‘Alabama’ and ‘Are You Ready For The Country’. Nitzsche was on these sessions.”
Finally released in March, ’72, “Harvest” raced to #1 a defining moment for Neil Young.
“More than anyone in rock ’n’ roll, Neil Young has the guts to be romantic… If ‘Heart Of Gold’ is an admission, ‘A Man NeedsA Maid’ is an outcry… “Harvest” also sounds better than any other Neil Young album.” – Jimm Cushing, University Of California Santa Cruz, The City On A Hill Press, 13th April, ’72.
Back in 2020, former Auteurs frontman Luke Haines and former R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck teamed for the excellent album “Beat Poetry for Survivalists”, and now they’ve announced a follow-up. The awesomely titled “All The Kids Are SuperBummed Out” is a double album, and will be out October 28th on Cherry Red Records.
Across all the 17 tracks, Haines and Buck attempt to find out why all the kids are super bummed out, in their own twisted, surrealist, acid-fried way. The album features regular Buck collaborators Scott McCaughey and Linda Pitmon, as well as Patti Smith Group’s Lenny Kaye.
Luke Haines would eventually make four albums with The Authors. They are all excellent albums, but “New Wave” stands out for me.
Luke Haines, together with former R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, shakes the excellent songs on All The Kids Are Super Bummed Out out of his sleeve again and does so again without compromise Luke Haines could have easily become one of the greatest in British music history, but before that the British musician, after the great albums of his band The Auteurs, just a bit too much what he wanted himself. Luke Haines’ solo work therefore perhaps had just a bit too many sharp edges, which were filed off a bit on the album he made two years ago with former R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, who has been involved in hobby projects in recent years. The collaboration between the British and the American musician gets this week a sequel to All The Kids Are Super Bummed Out, which contains songs that are as brilliant as they are uncompromising.
For more details on the album, Haines offers this:
There are mantraps at the bottom of the garden for falling fighter pilots. Richard Dadd’s dad saw it all; Richard Dadd murdered his dad (chanted the children) then hid in the maze. Marshall Applewhite was wearing a Guy Burgess mask and trading naked videos of Anthony Blunt. (Given to him by a passing gang of apes and angels) I tuned into the sound of North Korean cheerleaders being blasted out over the speakers on the outer perimeter of the maze and found my way to the sun dial, where I would bide my time doing drawings of the flying children until the helicopter arrived. I was finally bundled inside the cockpit by a Branch Davidian. ‘We are under constant aerial attack,’ said someone claiming to be a Brigadier. ‘No shit, Sherlock,’ I said, gazing up at the embassy roof. “Are you still a psychedelic sitar casual’? said the shrouded mourner, who had spent the last half century mourning Valentino. “I will let you know,’ I shot back, and carried on drawing the flying children.
You can listen to the delightfully demented rock n roll fever dream “Psychedelic Sitar Casual,” which references Boys from Brazil
Over the last ten years, The Lone Bellow has cast an indelible spell with their finespun songs of hard truth and redemptive beauty, faithfully delivered in hypnotic three-part harmony. In a departure from their past work with elite producers like Aaron Dessner of The National and eight-time Grammy-winner Dave Cobb, the Nashville-based trio struck out on their own for their album “Love Songs For Losers”, dreaming up a singular sound encompassing everything from arena-ready rock anthems to the gorgeously sprawling Americana tunes the band refers to as little redneck symphonies.
Though no stranger to delicate Americana heart-tugging music, on “Love Songs For Losers”, The Lone Bellow’s fifth LP and second in two years, the band once again traces scars of loneliness and hurt, but also offers some reflection on love and joy throughout making for one of their most eclectic albums yet, both musically and thematically.
The synth-heavy “Honey” – one of the album’s early singles, has all the hallmarks of The Lone Bellow, haunting but sweet vocals, delicate harmonies, and deeply informed lyrics.
But on the very next song, “Gold,” the band tackles opioid addiction and dying communities in first person – again relying heavily on synths, but for an entirely different vibe. Elsewhere, “I’m In Love,” is anchored by electric guitars and a triumphant chorus, while “Dreaming” is a soft, languid piano ballad, but both songs are equally impressive. “Caught Me Thinking,” an R&B-inspired track complete with horns, is one of the band’s most ambitious songs yet and is pulled off flawlessly.
While Zac Williams takes lead vocals on most tracks here, Kanene Donehey Pipkin, takes the mic on the dreamy “Cost Of Living”. Williams takes back lead vocals on “Unicorn,” a very public love letter to his wife who managed to recover from paralysis; “I was kind of thinking I could tell you my feelings, sit you down and wreck you with some words that are pretty, I could say ‘I love you’ but it’s such a bore, I think God made a unicorn”.
The Nashville based trio The Lone Bellow have shared another preview track from their upcoming album release, “Love Songs For Losers“. “Unicorn” is a beautiful new song that lead singer Zac Williams calls, “a stumbling, but honest love letter to my wife Stacy after her miraculous recovery from paralysis.”
“‘I was kind of thinking I could tell you my feelings / sit you down and wreck you with some words that are pretty / I could say I love you but it’s such a bore / I think God made a unicorn.’”
Throughout their lifespan as a band, The Lone Bellow have cast an indelible spell with their finespun songs of hard truth and unexpected beauty, frequently delivered in hypnotic three-part harmony. With “Love Songs for Losers”, they dreamt up a singular sound encompassing everything from arena-ready rock anthems to gorgeously sprawling Americana tunes. The result is an intimate meditation on the pain and joy and ineffable wonder of being human, at turns heartbreaking, irreverent, and sublimely transcendent.
After sketching the album’s 11 songs in a nearby church, the band holed up for eight weeks at Roy Orbison’s house on Old Hickory Lake along with long time bassist Jason Pipkin and drummer Julian Dorio.“Love Songs for Losers” also finds singer/multi-instrumentalist Kanene Donehey Pipkin taking the reins as vocal producer, expertly harnessing the rarefied vocal magic they’ve continually brought to stages around the world. The triumph of completing their first self-produced album marks the start of a thrilling new chapter in the band’s journey, newly emboldened to create without limits.
Though “Love Songs For Losers” has many of the familiar markings of the band, the album finds the trio at their most experimental, diverse in subjects and sound – all while still sounding very much like a Lone Bellow album.
“Love Songs For Losers!” is set to be released November 4th via Dualtone.
Nick Drake was the kind of musician other artists dream of being—and, in some ways, fear becoming. Largely unknown during his 26 years on this planet, Drake’s dark-yet-delicate music returned to public consciousness more than twenty-five years after his 1974 suicide, when the title track of his final record, “Pink Moon”(1972), was included in a dreamy 2000 Volkswagen commercial hawking the Cabrio convertible. Seventeen years later—and 50 years after “Pink Moon’s” release—a diverse cross-section of musicians are still citing Drake as an influence.
Every artist seems to have an album where they finally cut all the nerves and lay their bare soul out to the masses. For NickDrake, “Pink Moon“was his. And it is, without a doubt, one of the most honest albums from an artist struggling through their mental health issues. In listening to Nick’s two previous albums, he casts himself in the role of observer–watching and wondering about others. However, in “Pink Moon”, the tables turn: Nick is now the subject, and we, the listeners are the observers being held captive to his pleas for release from his suffering. I absolutely guarantee no other album will make you want to reach through your speakers and give the artist a long, comforting hug–as much as “Pink Moon” does.
In many ways, though his path was different than both of theirs, Drake was a kindred spirit to artists like Kurt Cobain and Elliott Smith (who also owes quite a bit of his spare, haunting sound to Drake). He was deeply in love with music, hungered for success, but, in many ways, shrank from the trappings of music stardom. As a result, he died “thinking he was a failure,” as his sister Gabrielle said in a 2015 interview.
Although today Drake’s fingerprints are all over popular music, when his records were first released, they hardly made a dent. Drake released two other albums before “Pink Moon”—”Five Leaves Left”(1969) and “Bryter Layter”(1971) —neither of which sold that well upon release. In fact, “Five Leaves Left” sold fewer than 3,000 copies during Drake’s lifetime, according to George Plasketes’ Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself: Essays on Debut Albums. Pink Moonfared about as well. The pensive British singer-songwriter’s downfall, in many ways, was due to his lack of confidence; he was not big on interviews and performances, a reticence that means there’s a dearth of live footage of Drake during his adult years.
“He sang away from the microphone, mumbled and whispered, all with a sense of precariousness and doom,” musician Brian Cullman recalls in the Trevor Dann’s Darker Than the Deepest Sea: The Search for Nick Drake. “It was like being at the bedside of a dying man who wants to tell you a secret, but who keeps changing his mind at the last minute.”
The album opens with the title track which is a short, sweet, and to the point song. In a spiritual sense, pink moons usually signify rebirth and a metamorphosis–as they are usually spotted in spring. Change of seasons is a motif that appears a lot in Nick’s work, seemingly fascinated by the cycle of life, death, and then rebirth. As such, it sets a good preview for the rest of the album.
“Pink Moon” gets us comfortable and settled in. However, “Place to Be” is where the emotional ride really starts. This song is a painfully beautiful ballad lamenting happier times, and an estrangement from a former self. Nick was at his creative and emotional height in the late sixties when he was attending Cambridge University. He surrounded himself with lots of friends, wrote lots of new songs, and was overall content with his place in the world. In this song, we see that Nick is recognizing he is no longer that happy, friendly figure. The lyrics are chilling and the melody is haunting.
The next highlight of the album is “Which Will”, a clear heartbreak song dwelling on rejection. Rejection from whom? It’s not exactly clear. A love interest? The music industry? The world? Though the song sounds peaceful and mellow–as most of Nick’s songs are–one can’t help but notice the restrained anger in his voice which certainly isn’t present in many other songs of his.
“Things Behind The Sun” is another song of restrained anger, and even paranoia about perceived manipulation and deceit–no doubt aimed at his producer, who still has a vivid memory of Nick angrily confronting him about his lack of success and insisting his producer had something to do with it. But the sad truth was, Nick’s music just wasn’t what the larger music press was into at the time. But the hurt from the rejection stung, and Nick wanted someone to blame. And that’s what we hear in this song. “WhichWill” questions the rejection, and “Things Behind the Sun” accuses those who reject. On its surface, the song is still mellow and quiet. But, digging into the lyrics, we see someone who is truly hurt and struggling to grasp their rejection.
“Parasite”–which transcends the aforementioned self-deprecation found in Nick’s previous works, and instead devolves it into pure and outright self-loathing. Nobody compares themselves to an unwanted, life-sucking entity that is hard to get rid of–unless they truly hate themselves. And this is what we see in the song. Definitely the darkest song on an already pretty dark album. But like all other Nick Drake songs, the melody is beautiful and you still can’t help but love it.
The album closes with “From The Morning”, a surprisingly uplifting song about hope, resurrection, change–however one wishes to interpret it. The song is made sad only by the fact that its lyrics “Now we rise, and we are everywhere” are inscribed on Nick’s tombstone. It ends the album on a bittersweet note: We know of the pain that lingered in the soul of the artist, but the songs serves to remind that even in our darkest moments, we can have hope. And I think while the world experiences collective trauma right now–that is exactly what we all need to hear.
The secret hidden in his voice, however, was enough to draw people near—both back in the ‘70s and today. As his sister says in , “I think to really love Nick, you have to love the mystery of him as well.” There was something about his weeping-willow voice and careful, poetic phrasing that initially captured the attention of his first producer, Joe Boyd—and that weaves its way through the musician’s first two records, verdant orchestral affairs featuring the talents of Richard Thompson (Fairport Convention), John Cale and Drake’s former schoolmate Robert Kirby, among others. And there was something, too, that stood more starkly in “Pink Moon”—a precursor to the now omnipresent bedroom recording—which was recorded over the span of two days and featured only Drake on guitar and a sole piano overdub on the title track.
Clocking in at a scant 28 minutes, the spare “Pink Moon” received the usual cadre of mixed reviews that denote a classic. Jerry Gilbert wrote in Melody Maker: “Maybe it’s time Mr. Drake stopped acting so mysteriously and started getting something properly organized for himself.” Al Clark of Time Out, however, wrote: “Those who have tried their hand at his material haven’t even scratched the surface yet,” going on to bemoan, “Nick Drake is likely to remain in the shadows, the private troubadour of those who have been fortunate enough to catch an earful of his exquisite 3 a.m. introversions.” Clark ended up being more right than he bargained for. After lapsing into a deep depression, Drake died of an overdose of antidepressants only two years after “Pink Moon’s” release.
released in the UK by Island Records on 25th February 1972
Fourteen years ago, four young Atlanta women picked up instruments without any prior musical experience or lofty aspirations and decided that they were going to start a band so that they could play a friend’s party. The house-show led to more shows around town, and the fiery live sets of this feisty new band known as The Coathangers begat a self-titled album. Recorded during a single graveyard shift at a local studio and mixed the following night, The Coathangers was a raw, rowdy, and revelrous affair. What it lacked in polish it made up for in its undeniable energy and charisma. “We didn’t think anyone was going to listen to it,” says vocalist/guitarist Julia Kugel. “We knew our friends in Atlanta would get it, but we didn’t think it was going to go anywhere. We were just excited to make a record.” Little did Kugel or her bandmates—vocalist/drummer Stephanie Luke, bassist/vocalist Meredith Franco, and keyboardist Candice Jones—know that their scrappy house show-anthems would catch on, prompting years of international tours, a slew of excellent LPs and singles, and, eventually, a deluxe remastered version of their boisterous, long out-of-print debut, The Coathangers.
The first thing the listener hears when the needle drops on The Coathangers is a sample of a man’s voice asking, “Why this record? Why should you listen to a full-scale discussion of the magic of thinking big?” Given the band’s modest initial aspirations, the soundbite was obviously tongue-in-cheek, and yet given the triumphs and accolades bestowed upon the band in the thirteen years since the album’s initial release, there is something a little prescient in that opening statement.
Revisiting the album in hindsight, it’s surprising to hear both how little has changed and how much The Coathangers have grown. On the one hand, the band has always been multi-faceted, able to switch from their rousing rockers like album opener “TonyaHarding” to caustic no-wave scorchers like “Don’t Touch My Shit!” to Americana-tinged pop songs like “Buckhead Betty.” This diversity stems from having multiple songwriters in the band who each brought their own tastes and styles to the group. “It’s cool too to see how genre-fluid we‘ve always been,” Kugel says. “We got labeled as punk, and that was cool because that set us up as being against something, going against the grain. But it’s always been a weird dynamic of different tastes, and it still ultimately comes across as a bunch of girls having fun.”
Fun is key. While the mash-up of approaches continues to be a part of the band’s repertoire, there is a reckless abandon and irreverence to The Coathangers that was dialled back on subsequent albums. We live in difficult times, and there is a spontaneity and carefree spirit on “The Coathangers” debut that is as invigorating and inspiring now as it was thirteen years ago. The band may have merely been a vehicle for having a good time, but in the process of making music they made a space for friendship and laughter, created an environment for people to be free and independent, and helped foster a sense of community in the Atlanta music scene.
“We were just brash and making fun of things,” Kugel says. “We weren’t thinking about lyrics. We weren’t thinking about the industry. There was no thought about ‘making it’ or how people were gonna perceive it.” Consequently, the album was treated more as a private conversation between friends, full of various in-jokes and frivolities that reflected the group’s insular audience and casual approach. “With this band I’ve felt like we have to speak for all woman-kind and as the records went on it became more and more at the forefront,
This was The Coathangers at their most spontaneous and unfiltered. From the deliciously fractured kiss-off garage rocker “Shut the Fuck Up” to the jubilantly nasty “Nestle in My Boobies,” there’s a wild, untamed heart at the center of every track on the album. It’s a record that celebrates being young, independent, and full of life.
Ultimately, the eponymous debut album by The Coathangers is a whirlwind ride of a band at the most frenzied, celebratory, and free moment of their existence. As a standalone record, it’s a brash and bawdy rocker sure to please anyone who likes their rock n’ roll sweaty and messy. As a piece in the band’s legacy, it’s an exhilarating reminder of the band’s youthful carefree beginnings. Suicide Squeeze Records is proud to offer up the deluxe version of “The Coathangers” to the world.
This latest version of the album includes the bonus tracks “Wife Eyes” from the “Hard Candy” EP and the title track from the “Never Wanted You” EP. “The Coathangers” will be available on vinyl featuring expanded artwork with an initial pressing of 1000 copies (500 on Confetti Crush Splatter Vinyl, 500 on Neon Strawberry Banana Pinwheel Vinyl).
If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust? . This is the crucial question at the core of Julia, Julia, the moniker for Julia Kugel, founding member of garage punk icons The Coathangers and the dream pop duo Soft Palms. On her first solo full-length album “Derealization”, Kugel shifts her focus from collaboration and band dynamics towards a singular artistic vision and private self-discovery. Steeped in the beguiling pop elements of her past work, “Derealization” is a meditative deep dive into the mind of a person struggling to understand a crumbling internal and external world. The album traverses a landscape of ethereal folk, atmospheric deconstructed pop, and dubbed-out country ballads, all centered around straight forward and direct lyrics. This juxtaposition of nebulousness and lucidity gives the album a sense of clarity emerging from the haze, an apt reflection of Kugel’s personal growth and journey toward self-acceptance.
“Derealization” is based on weaving the unreal, unsaid, and unknown into an undulating sonic fabric. Vocal layering and abstract instrumentation convey a blurred desperation to connect to an emotional and psychological focal point. Moody, dark, and sumptuous, the record is a flow chart of Julia Kugel coming into herself as an artist and songwriter. The album finds Julia playing almost all the instruments and taking her first stab at engineering at COMA, her and her husband’s home recording studio in Long Beach, CA.
“You know how touring musicians often speak of whether home is real or tour is real? Well, it can lead you to lose grasp on ‘reality,’ especially when touring is taken away and you are left to wonder if anything was ever real, including yourself. Like you we’re just playing a character,” Kugel says of her headspace leading up to the creation of “Derealization”. “Honestly, I kinda lost it, and through making this record I made peace with it and reconciled myself as a real person. I forgave myself and in turn forgave those around me. The song ‘Forgive Me’ is the apology I wanted to say and to hear. I wrote every song from that place and gained the confidence I was pretending to possess.”
This raw and personal approach to the lyrics is present throughout “Derealization”. On the opening track “I Want You,” Kugel creates a woozy sense of space with reverb-soaked drums and spaghetti western guitars while she lists off her desires for a mysterious “you.” Is she actually listing off her desires for herself?
For the people around her? As she repeats “do you feel it?” in the song’s chorus, it feels as if she’s conjuring a magical thread by which we are all connected, showing us how our desires are all the same. On “Fever In My Heart” the listener is treated to a lush, acoustic techno track detailing the exhilarating madness of an emotional breakdown. Simple truths percolate to the surface on “Words Don’t Mean Much,” as if clearing away the murk of platitudes and empty gestures. The journey continues on the detached and conflicted “Do It Or Don’t,” an alluring walk through the winding road of lonely choices.
The name for the project—Julia, Julia—is a look in the mirror, a reflection of what is hidden and unanswered, of what is real and what is transient. The experience of living life not as you planned it but as it unfolded, and the mysterious, magical pain that creates meaning. Suicide Squeeze Records is proud to offer up Julia, Julia’s “Derealization” to the world on September 30, 2022.
The Fat Angel Sings 