Scottish duo Poster Paints includes Frightened Rabbit guitarist Simon Liddell and singer-songwriter (and current Vaselines keyboardist) Carla J Easton they have just announced their debut album and this is the shimmering first single.
This year Poster Paints released a string of wonderful singles including gorgeous lead single ‘Falling Hard’. Marrying spiralling guitars of Simon Liddell with the husky, swooning vocal melodies of Carla J Easton, relentless and irresistible ‘FallingHard’ chased dreams all summer, in a soaring, lovelorn pop song.
It also contained the slowly unfolding majesty of ‘Never Saw It Coming‘ and the wistfully enveloping ‘Circus Moving On’ , each song taking us on a journey through bittersweet sorrow of parting and loss, juxtaposed with the joy of love. Culminating in the release of their wonderful self- debut album, wrapped with these themes and burnished by the sound of collaboration and Liddel’s distinctive guitars, it reflects a kind of sadness and darkness tinged with a hopeful flickering light that things will work out.
Poster Paints are Simon Liddell and Carla J Easton who have changed their way of working and embraced the “new normal” to make art. Their debut single ‘Number 1’ is an instant anthem. Teenage love, feeling invincible and long hot summers.
It’s the sound of two people exploring. Glasgow indie pop, dream pop and shoegaze – the bands they grew up listening to, and are passionate about.
Written by Simon Liddell / Carla J Easton, Released by Ernest Jenning Records / Olive Grove Records. Published by Domino Publishing Co.
Andrew Eaton Lewis, is a song writer known for his work in Seafieldroad and as a member of the band Swimmer One, who released a run of impressively sophisticated synth pop records. Last year he covered ‘Find the River’ in a stately fashion for the R.E.M. compilation. His new album “Tourism”, his first for Wee Studio Records, is a set of impressively evocative piano-led interconnected songs inspired by his move from Edinburgh to the Outer Hebrides.
“Tourism” is a collection of songs inspired by that life change – songs about crofts and sheep and dark skies and wild weather, about feeling like a tourist in someone else’s culture, about the ‘mainland’ becoming somewhere on the edge of your experience, about my past and my children’s future, and ultimately about whether we are all just tourists on Earth, on a brief visit from somewhere more permanent that we return to afterwards.
That sense of being out of place bleeds through each rich song suite, Eaton-Lewis’s voice possessing a wistfulness that sails from weathered to falsetto peaks. “The winters can feel endless/but there’s beauty in the darkness” he sings on the bittersweet opener and title track. While the song cycle of ‘A Guide to the Western World‘ and the superlative building ‘Vahalla‘ is riven with a yearning and melancholia that’s reminiscent of some of Nick Cave‘s early solo work. The sense of clarity here, of experiences lived and learnt, and the acknowledgement of the fragility of life makes, this is a record you should invest time in.
Vocals, piano, organ, synths, stamping, clapping: Andrew Eaton Lewis Guitars: Scott C Park Live drums: Keith Morrison, Scott C Park Produced by Keith Morrison at Wee Studio. Cover image by Andy Yearley. Cover design by Andrew Eaton Lewis and Scott C Park
New music from ex Swimmer One / Seafieldroad singer-songwriter, now living in Outer Hebrides and signed to Wee Studio Records.
Working with Iron and Wine and penning six solo albums in recent years, prolific artist Johanna Warren recently told Uncut Magazine as the pandemic hit she was faced with the choice, “up sticks from New York to Wales, to a place she had never been, to be with a person with whom she had spent all of two weeks. ‘Or move back in with my parents, and cry every day’.” Johanna Warren chose the former, packed up her bags and moved her life to a small mid-Wales town living in a homestead surrounded by sheep, foraging for herbs, and home-brewing, she divorced herself from the bustle, of the release and tour treadmill of the past three years.
Among the album’s of the year“Lessons for Mutants” is consumed with this change and metamorphosis, but also the imperfections of being human. It was recorded live to two inch tape capturing the performance of each song, taking you on a lyrical journey and shapeshifting through sounds from the scorched grunge of ‘Piscean Lover’ that’s about holding onto the life raft as everything crumbles around you ” “It’s alright, we’re not ok/ We burn out not to fade away.”she sings, to the raw delicacy of the piano flecked ‘tooth for a tooth’, its touching atmosphere woven with brutal bars which could have been played in a smoke filled 1940’s club and bears more than a passing resemblance to Cat Power.
“Thirst for power, hunger for fame/ Always was a junkie for pain,”sings Johanna Warren on the psych folk strum of ‘I’d Be Orange’.This exploration of masochistic ambition and artistic martyrdom shifts effortlessly from shuffling into an epic chorus line, that captures all the contradictions of the male ego and turns it into a universal moment of self-discovery: hoisted shoulder high on a wave of 60’s harmonies, textures and Warren’s elastic vocal, sitting somewhere between Sharon Van Ettenanthem and a love-inspired groove. It’s a superlative piece of songcraft.
“I think it’s a mistake to equate ‘perfection’ with flawlessness. To be human is to be perfectly flawed,” Johanna Warren observes while describing the joys of analogue recording. Her new LP “Lessons for Mutants” was tracked live with a band to two inch tape—a revelatory new way of working for Warren. “Tape forces you to commit to a performance, eccentricities and all. The little glitches and anomalies that we’re tempted to ‘correct’ are often what make a thing magical.”
Warren posses a voice of rich experience and clarity and song writing of depth on ‘Oaths’, she delivers an incredible, spine-tingling vocal performance as she cries to the heavens asking for the weight of sins to be lifted off our backs. As this outstanding torch ballad holds you transfixed in its revelry, pianos steeple and forge like the terrain of her home. It’s a stunning song.
Then there’s the spindling arpeggios and percussive shuffles of breakup ballad ‘Hi-Res‘ that scythes somewhere between the pointed lyricism of Big Thief and the bitter kiss-offs of Bob Dylan. “There’s this unspoken rule in modern music—modern life, really—that everything needs to be Auto-Tuned and ‘on the grid,’” Warren concludes. “This record is an act of resistance against that. There’s beauty and power in our aberrations, if we can embrace them.”
Haunting closer ‘Involvus‘ is riven with the tenuousness of human frailty and failure, the piano bars housing Warren’s meditative clarity as she muses on the ill-fated love story of Orpheus and Eurydice, fleeting, tragic and captivating, its a wonderful wave goodbye.
released October 7th, 2022
Music and lyrics by Johanna Warren
Johanna Warren – Guitars, vocals, piano, flute, organ, glockenspiel Raven Bush – Violin Mike Collins – Ooh la la las on Track 1 Chris St. Hilaire – Drums and bass on Tracks 6, 8, 9 Chris Jones – Drums, percussion, ooh la la las Tom Sansbury – Bass, synth, ooh la la las
Body Type‘s debut album, “Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising”, appears to have been largely overlooked in many end of year lists but their ability to imbue earworm melodies into kick ass groves, post rock/grunge/indie sounds is unmatched this year. The Australian single ‘Sex & Rage’ skitters on a bed of serrated riffing, kick-ass, quick-fire drum fills and the naggingly brilliant vocal dexterity of Sophie McComish consumes the doggerel of desire, angst, and euphoria in a hook-laden plea for exuberance and actual excitement in the face of boredom and stunted digital consumption.
‘The Brood’ jumps in feet first with frenetic rhythms and swaggering vocals as the band join hands and ask what’s your resistance to letting go?‘Buoyancy’ is urgent visceral and careers down the highway on a bed of body popping percussion, vocal sparring and fantastic choruses riven with cool as f#ck vocals, are you ready for lift off? .
Body Type‘s ‘Sex & Rage’ , lifted from their awesome debut album “Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising”, skitters on a bed of serrated-edged riffing, kick-ass, quick-fire drum fills. Riven with the nagging, brilliant vocal dexterity of Sophie McComish that consumes the doggerel of desire, angst, and euphoria in a hook-laden plea for exuberance and actual excitement in the face of boredom and stunted digital consumption. Australian group Body Type have the kind of artful melodic hooks of the Breeders, but all processed in a withering knowing delivery faintly redolent of early Courtney Barnett. But really they’re just Body Type and they’re bloody great!
Seattle rock outfit Thunderpussy teamed up with Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith for a thunderous new rock & roll ode to moms, “Powerhouse.” The track appeared on Thunderpussy’s EP, “Milk It”,“Powerhouse” opens with with a prickly mix of bass and guitar, anchored by a strong and steady drum beat from Smith. The song soon builds to a roar, with Thunderpussy frontwoman Molly Sides bellowing during the chorus, “She’s a lady, she’s a powerhouse/ She’s a storm with wings and she’ll take you out!”
“‘Powerhouse’ is a song for my mother,” Sides said. “It is an ode, an anthem to those who have been dealt a difficult hand in life but continue to persevere and push through. It’s a reminder that there are no limits, no boundaries for the strength and resilience of the feminine spirit. A spirit, a superpower that lives within us all. Pussy is Power.”
Milk It follows Thunderpussy’s 2018 self-titled debut, which was notably produced by Pearl Jam guitarist and avowed fan, Mike McCready (McCready also played guitar on album cut “Velvet Noose”). Following the release of Milk It, Thunderpussy will continue to work on their second album.
Naming Led Zeppelin, Def Leppard, and Aerosmith among their many musical influences, the all-female band Thunderpussy counted Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready among their early fans.
Their single “Speed Queen” (2018), which appropriately chugs throughout before kicking up to a heart-attack tempo at the end, was written as a quasi-love story between singer Molly Sides and guitarist Whitney Petty. Its echoey, ethereal vocals and crashing instrumentation give the song the big-spectacle feel of ’80s rock classics.
Along with their musical endeavors, Thunderpussy’s efforts to trademark their name got a boost from the Supreme Court this summer when it ruled that a federal ban on trademarking immoral or scandalous words was unconstitutional and violated the First Amendment (the case specifically involved the clothing brand Fuct). Thunderpussy are still awaiting approval from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and they have acknowledged that their copyright could be denied on other grounds.
Dirty Honey were still unsigned when self-released single “When I’m Gone” hit number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart in 2019. The song, which has racked up over 13 million streams on Spotify, introduced rock radio to a band that sounds a lot like their musical heroes, Guns N’ Roses, with a dash of Aerosmith, The Black Crowes, and even Led Zeppelin.
While the vocal similarities between lead singer Marc Labelle and Axl Rose are unmissable, Dirty Honey retains the essence of their influences rather than ripping them off, resulting in original-feeling grooves like “When I’m Gone”.
These Michigan retro-rock revivalists saw your “Led Zeppelin cosplay” jokes and raised you some strings. Everything about Greta Van Fleet’s second full-length is more expansive: the instrumentation, the song lengths, the budget, the fantasy-realm absurdity, the physical range of Josh Kiszka’s Valhalla-seeking shriek. Working with top-drawer producer Greg Kurstin (Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters, Adele), Greta Van Fleet leaned into their proggiest, heaviest instincts — jettisoning the dopey folk-rock detours (““You’re the One””) that bogged down stretches of their 2018 debut, “Anthem of the Peaceful Army”. They sound more natural in this cinematic space, allowing guitarist Jake Kiszka to orchestrate riffs on a bigger scale (like on epics “Age of Machine” and “The Weight of Dreams”). Sure, nothing about “The Battle of Garden’s Gate” is particularly original — but who cares? Few bands recycle the past with such flair and finesse.
In “Heat Above“, from the 2021 album “Battle at Garden’s Gate”, the band infamous for sounding too much like Led Zeppelin air some of their other classic rock influences, most notably those in the prog space. The save-the-worldism that was too sticky and blunt throughout their debut album, “Anthem of the Peaceful Army”(2018), is here polished into something glam, exultant, and deliciously over the top.
Their instrumentation will put you in mind of Rush, their presentation of Elton John, and their lyrics of The Guess Who on this years-in-the-making single that represents Greta Van Fleet at their best.
The Led Zep-lovin’ boys from Michigan blew away the Covid cobwebs, Is there anything more comforting to men of a certain vintage than the crunching guitars and wailing vocals of classic rock?
Not for me. This year, the genre transported me back to a musical era of sheer joy and wild, creative spirit; a time when musicians were as interested in letting the good times roll as saving the world. A time of bands like classic rock revivalists, Greta Van Fleet.
Nation Of Language mine the sounds of ’80s synth-pop and new wave to work through decidedly current feelings of listlessness and discontent, frontman Ian Devaney’s deep, rich baritone splitting the difference between your favorite post-punkers and the National’s chief brooder Matt Berninger. Every interlocking keyboard squiggle, every drum machine rhythm, every bass groove — they all come together perfectly in a mercilessly efficient hook delivery system that sounds like an old classic and feels like a new one.A retro modern classic. Perfect late-night dancing music.
originally released October 4th, 2016
Written by Nation of Language
Gemma Laurence is a indie folk artist from the coast of Maine, now based in Brooklyn. Her debut LP “Crooked Heart” came out in 2019, The American folkie Gemma Laurence makes a deep impression on her latest release “Lavender” with intimate and emotional folk songs and beautiful vocals, but also dares to colour outside the lines with special sounds
Gemma Laurence’s “Lavender” starts as a standard folk album with acoustic guitar, banjo and a beautiful voice, but as the album progresses, the American musician shows that she is not a standard folkie. Gemma Laurence’s voice is not only exceptionally beautiful, but she also interprets her personal songs with great feeling. Furthermore, in the often very atmospheric instrumentation she occasionally looks for adventure, making “Lavender” much more than the umpteenth folk album of the moment. The more I listen to it, the more impressive this album becomes. “Lavender” could just be one of the big surprises of 2022.
Behind the name Brimheim lies Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff. The Danish musician was born in the Faroe Islands, but now lives in Copenhagen. With can’t hate myself into a different shape Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff has delivered a very personal album. It is an album on which psychological problems are central, making Brimheim’s debut album a dark coloured album.
Brimheim is active in a genre in which it has been crowded in recent years and in which it is gradually becoming really overcrowded, but with “can’t hate myself into a different shape”, the Danish musician have made an above average good album. Brimheim impresses in several ways on her debut album.
The debut album of the Danish musician Brimheim it is an interesting album that can go along with the best within indie rock and indie pop. Also in 2022, piles of albums by young female singer-songwriters appeared again with a penchant for some melancholic indie pop and indie rock. Saturation is now firmly lurking, but it would be a shame if this were at the expense of the music of the Brimheim. The debut is now almost a year old, but can’t hate myself into a different shape is an album that still deserves all the attention. Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff’s alter ego has made a personal and dark album, but her songs can sound surprisingly accessible and at the same time stimulate the imagination. Special album.
To start with, I really like her vocals on the album. Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff sings mainly whisper-soft, but nevertheless brings a lot of variation to her vocals. Certainly in the somewhat supercooled passages, the vocals on can’t hate myself into a different shape are close to those of Phoebe Bridgers, but Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff can also sing a lot more powerfully and expressively and then has a clear sound of her own.
The beautiful voice is one of Brimheim’s strongest weapons, but as mentioned, there is more. Also musically can’t hate myself into a different shape is an interesting album. Brimheim’s music has the spatial and darkness that characterizes so many Scandinavian albums, but the copenhagen musician’s debut album is also an adventurous and versatile album.
Brimheim’s music is often relatively sobre and atmospheric, but a number of tracks on the album are much fuller. Brimheim’s song therefore covers the entire spectrum from Scandinavian ice princess music to the more exuberant indie pop and indie rock as it has been made a lot in recent years, especially in the United States.
