The Dollyrots are a female-fronted rock n’ roll band from California.The electric version of “Rather Be A Zombie”, which originally appears on our acoustic album “Love Songs, Werewolves, & Zombies”.
We decided to cut an electric version of “Rather Be A Zombie” for Halloween! we thought it’d be fun to hear it loud and electrified!
And yes, we had our kid put a bunny head on for the single art haha!
Happy Halloween!! Hope your tricks and treats are super fun 🙂
released October 29th, 2022 Performed by The Dollyrots
Liverpool four-piece Courting return with their much anticipated debut album “Guitar Music”. The new album comes on the heels of Courting’s 2021 debut EP ‘Grand National’, which saw them earn plaudits across a wide array of media for their boisterous whip smart lyrics and angular instrumentation. The release saw them land two singles on the BBC Radio 6 Playlist (including an A-list) as well as coverage in multiple end of year lists incl. NME 100, Dork Hype List 2022, Daily Star Ones to Watch 2021, DIY Hello 2021 and more…
Whilst the album follows closely on the back of the EP, the new material sees the band making a marked step in a new direction, exploring more dynamically expressive song writing than ever before.
If you were caught up in the instrumentation of Courting’s cheekily titled debut album, “Guitar Music”, unmindful of Sean Murphy-O’Neill’s charged lyrics, it would seem that he and his bandmates were running around London, partying, falling in love, having the time of their lives. But even their funniest songs have a dark underbelly, and on closer listen, “Guitar Music” is occupied with far thornier subjects: bodily autonomy as it relates to beauty standards and adulthood, and the way changing cityscapes can create tour routes for poverty porn.
“Guitar Music” was originally made as a “rock” album before producer James Dring helped rip it to shreds and put it back together. Album opener “Cosplay/Twin Cities” is the sound of a band who is annoyed at publications who label them a guitar band. It’s Courting’s abrasive and deceptive prelude: A lush melody and romantic strings are consumed by an earth-shattering bass, sinister glitches, and censor beeps.Courting aren’t afraid to pull the rug out beneath the listener. The cumulative effect makes these songs feel like tatters of unearthed time capsules that got mixed up in the same burial ground.
Since their 2019 debut single “Not Yr Man,” a satirical screed about masculinity norms, Courting have evolved beyond tight-fisted romps in the style of Parquet Courts or IDLES. There’s still plenty of pop culture shoutouts and nods to modern mundanity delivered in a deadpan voice, but at their best they feel less like provocations and more like world-building details—observations of a messy world contextualized with messy anxieties about growing up. “Famous” references luxury trends associated with self-care and upward mobility: “All of my friends are getting work done,” Murphy-O’Neill notes. “Fillers, facials, personal trainers/Calvin Klein collaborators/The American dream.” After imagining a now-scattered group of friends flying home to hang out and watch sports like the good ole days, Murphy-O’Neill cries, “Why’s everybody getting older?” Serrated guitars, short-circuiting background vocals, and Murphy-O’Neill’s searing tone create a sense of distrust and disgust while working through tumultuous changes.
The album’s longest song is a strange, alarming ode to falling in love with a robot influencer, “Uncanny Valley Forever” begins as the album’s quietest track, with an eerie sweetness reminiscent of a Smashing Pumpkins ballad. Garbled high-pitched speech staggers into softly plucked electric guitar, then Murphy-O’Neill begins to sing gently about the future’s infinite possibilities. He sounds like he’s in love, but something isn’t adding up:
“Every day she makes me laugh and I make her dinner/Although she can’t eat.” Soon, reality sets in and the division between humanity and technology appears like an exposed wire; it becomes unclear who’s the robot in this relationship as the song simpers from a guitar jam into a nearly indecipherable fried vocal outro.
From head-scratching to head-banging, Courting transform observations from our bizarre reality into vivid storytelling and ambitious song structure, all in an effort to push pop further into the future.
Prima Queen’s love story is one which cinema could only aspire to. An instant connection that was nearly missed. A divide of 4,000 miles and an Atlantic Ocean. An almost-marriage. A tour supporting The Big Moon, Dream Wife and Wet Leg, and six-figure streams. The magic of their ethereal, guitar-driven sound is built not on romantic love, but something immeasurably stronger: female friendship.
Louise Macphail and Kristin McFadden almost didn’t meet at all. Kristin travelled from her native Chicago to join the same course as Louise last minute in London, and as soon as she saw her perform in front of the class, Louise as good as musically proposed to her right there and then: “Will you be in my band?”
Armed with bassist Kitty Drummond, drummer Heledd Owen and an arsenal of demos, the band began to cut their teeth on the live circuit of South London, putting their songs to the test in the likes of Brixton tastemaker, The Windmill. The arrival of their 2019 debut single “Milk Teeth” was a statement of intent, with its mellow grooves and intimate, diaristic lyrics which unfurled their feelings in media res, steeped equally in storytelling and vibrant imagery.
After sparking a friendship with Juliette “Jules” Jackson and Fern Ford of Mercury Prize shortlisters, The Big Moon on tour, the pair volunteered to assist Prima Queen on the production of singles “Chew My Cheeks” and “Invisible Hand”, encouraging them to elevate their sound to new emotional and musical heights through experimentation.
It stands to reason that Prima Queen’s upcoming singles are their most adventurous and sensitive portrayals so far. “Eclipse” is an anthem of incredible tension and release about the way your first heartbreak is the hardest to recover from, and “Butter Knife” is a masterclass in spoken-word catharsis, exploring the deterioration of a loved one due to Alzheimer’s.
For Prima Queen, it’s these moments of shared intimacy in their music, entrusting closely guarded feelings, that creates a togetherness they love to feel with their audience: “Our songs mean so much to us, and it’s the best feeling in the whole world to see someone really belting out our lyrics at a show.” Resonance, above all else, is what Kristin and Louise are striving for.
Flavor Crystals and The Telescopes return for a soundtrack to the Danish film that was never made in 1991, “Under the Trees”.
Featuring lyrics and vocals by Stephen Lawrie (The Telescopes), Music by the Flavor Crystals additionally with Ricky Maymi (Brian Jonestown Massacre, Imaginary Friends), Peter Anderson (Ocean Blue), Jennie & Melissa Kalpin, Dave Gatchell (Selby Tigers), Anna Gordon (Sludge Party) and Erik Sexe.
Here’s the first video from the new Foam Giant album “Under The Trees”. On mpls ltd. There’s going to be a video for each track on the album, so in a way the film isn’t imaginary this time. This is the first track, “Billiken“. There is a Special Ltd edition metallic vinyl
Cover art by Robert Pollard released October 25th, 2022
The second album from London trio Moin has far more going for it than just that title. Joe Andrews, Tom Halstead (Raime / Blackest Ever Black) and their longtime collaborator Valentina Magaletti (Tomaga / Vanishing Twin) craft what their Bandcamp bio terms a “collage of the known and unknown,” their sometimes spartan, sometimes clamorous, but always atmospheric guitar rock employing repetition, samples and blank space to entrancing effect. Magaletti’s percussion clatters and races on “Melon”; guitar harmonics haunt “Hung Up”; vocal samples flicker across “Life Choices” like wind on water.
Got caught up in the moot! album, and i’ve been addicted to Moin since then. The incredible miscellaneous of sounds, the narrative of each song, it could translate itself into diferent short stories.
It’s the kind of record that reminds you how boundless rock music can be, and its creators tread this territory without batting an eye, balancing the energy of a band in a room with the imagination of a collective consciousness, exploring unmoored.
On Drugdealer’s latest, the grooves breeze by and make you wonder what decade you’re really in. Tracks like “Madison” and “Valentine” suggest a Steely Dan influence, both with the laid-back, yet lively guitar licks and the lyrics, emphasizing a romanticized but mysterious woman. As the fall chill deepens, this album works hard to recreate the feeling of sun on your face. It’s difficult to muster up any sort of anxieties in the balmy world of this LP.
Singer/songwriter Kate Bollinger’s vocals on “Pictures of You” arrive sweetly and just in time in the middle of the album, showing that the band truly understand the direction of their music, and who works best as a collaborating partner. Although the album does not expand far out of the funky relaxation it quickly settles into, the band carry it off effortlessly. Closing track “Posse Cut” best holds this easy groove, while vocals full of unexpected notes keep the listener under their spell.
“Madison,” the opening track on “Hiding in Plain Sight”, is the first song Collins wrote singing in this suggested range. His newfound confidence as a yarn-spinning vocalist in the gruff tenor tradition of Nick Lowe, or even Van Morrison, is readily apparent, with Conor “Catfish” Gallaher’s pedal steel adding a dusting of cosmic country to Collins’ down-hard love song.
When Collins wrote the would-be AM Gold hit, he was summoning an imaginary vision of a love that had eluded him in reality. The song focuses on an unknown figure he could idealize. “All the art I’ve made is related to this searching archetype,” Collins says. “I feel there’s no one way that people find love in their life. When I started to make this album, I noticed that all the lyrics dealt with this subject. On ‘Madison,’ the chorus goes ‘Hoping you’ll find a love/You’re one design of love.’ Then the next song I wrote went ‘Find someone to love…’ At that point, I pretty much knew where it was going. Sasha (my main musical partner) and I are both incredibly romantic. We’ve worked on multiple projects that are all based around this search for love.”
Tim Presley sings on the second song, “Baby,” and Collins had a clear role in mind for the California avant-rock mainstay. “I love White Fence so much, but I also wanted to hear Presley sing a song that sounded like an early ’60s sock hop band who had never tried drugs in their life.” Meanwhile, Kate Bollinger floats an effervescent lead vocal over the Rhodes-driven groove in “Pictures of You.” As usual, Collins wrangled a who’s who of background singers and instrumentalists to carry out Hiding in Plain Sight’s vision. Mainly, however, the record acts as a welcome showcase for Collins as an emboldened lead singer, a wayward bandleader who has found a way to love himself as a singer, songwriter and storyteller.
On “Hard Dreaming Man,” he looks back at a restless decade on the road through the rearview mirror. “Hard dreaming man/lemme tell you anything I know… I gotta go any place I can go,” he sings over a chorus of honky-tonk guitars you might hear wafting out of saloon doors. “The thing I actually do at a high level isn’t playing piano,” Collins says, “it’s telling stories. Our group of musicians, we all just really like to hang out and tell stories together.”
Drugdealer – “Pictures of You feat. Kate Bollinger” From the album ‘Hiding in Plain Sight’ out 28th October 2022
When Maya Bon and Ryan Albert met with their future label Double Double Whammy for the first time, they brought a collection of plump, homegrown tomatoes for the occasion. That pastoral touch mirrors what the duo accomplish in their music as Babehoven. As practitioners of homespun indie rock, there’s a picturesque quality to their work that renders each listen multi-sensory. The Babehoven sound has a cooling texture, a verdant visual, an organic taste. But over six EPs in four years, the duo presented diverse approaches to cultivating those sensations, including soft, frank rock on “Demonstrating Visible Differences in Height”, haunting tape manipulation on “Yellow Has a Pretty Good Reputation” and molasses-slow folk on “Sunk”. The duo combine each of these styles and more on “Light Moving Time”, their long-anticipated debut LP.
On “Light Moving Time”, Babehoven are not in a rush. Relaxed tempos are central to their discography.
Babehoven are Duster superfans and their shared preference for DIY recording gives the music its contemplative, hand-hewn texture. Their music rests at the intersection of the observant lyricism of Roy Orbison and the rhythmic creativity of Dear Nora. The resultant artifact is as crisp and pensive as the undulating Appalachian foothills.
It is a dream come true that I get to write songs and put them out there for folks to connect with. it’s a dream within a dream that @ryanalbertsound and I to get to record these songs together to expand and support them into their fullest forms. it’s even a wilder dream within all the dreams that we get to release these songs on our favourite label Double DoubleWhammy. we feel so grateful!
These songs were recorded in our bedroom in upstate New York during the icy, pensive, and beautiful months of winter 2022. Ryan and I holed up in our room and poured all of our love and attention into them. for Ryan, I feel too much gratitude to even know how to begin sharing. he cradles the songs I write and brings the most sensitive and expansive ear to each one.
Babehoven’s debut album ‘Light Moving Time’ available everywhere on LP/CD/digital October 28th, 2022 on Double Double Whammy
Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering stars in a horrific love story in the official video for “Grapevine,” her epic new road ballad from “And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow”. Beauty meets the beast in this visual tale which features a car crash, a humanoid with glowing red eyes, and a haunted grapevine graveyard. Who is this ominous figure, and what does it want with Natalie? Watch and find out in the “Grapevine” video, directed by Actual Objects.
“And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow” is out November 18th on Sub Pop Records. The second in a trilogy, this dystopian romance novel took a lot of dark juice to birth. Forged in fire as they say. I’m so relieved to finally share the opening track, “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody.” Listen on earbuds with an open soul, maybe you’ll get a creepy chest glow if you’re lucky It’s good to be Bach, I’ve missed all you dears immensely. You can pre-order, listen to the tunage and scope some tour dates on my website www.weyesblood.com.
Can’t wait to hear the new album? “And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow” out November 18th, 2022 on Sub Pop Records.
The Fat Angel Sings 