Brighton UK’s Piglet release the seven songs EP this week and here’s a sneak peak, “discreet,” and its music video. “best pal Toby Evans-Jesra made what I feel is a perfectly fitting accompaniment to the track without us even really discussing ideas,” says Piglet. “cant wait to release the rest of these songs , they’ve been through so many versions over the last couple years but I feel they really reached their final forms over this summer. This is the first release I’ve done where I’ve felt the songs were completely finished and the best I could make them , I hope they sound like that to you too :)”
London’s trio Pozi have previously made arresting music – using only drums, bass, violin and voice — that rubs you like sandpaper, or at least that bit of sand in an oyster that ends up a pearl. On “Slightly Shaking Cells,” their first new music in a year, they are flirting with a friendlier approach that you could call danceable in an early-’80s postpunk kind of way. (Think The Slits or even Tom Tom Club.) It’s still coming at you from Dutch angles, but the rhythms, bouncing in tandem with the violin and Rosa Brook’s vocals, is very enticing.
Pozi come steeped in the lineage of the very best weirdo British indie pop. The trio of drummer/vocalist Burroughs, violinist/vocalist Rosa Brook and bassist/vocalist Tom Jones have a skittish, restless, almost anxious energy. New track ‘Slightly Shaking Cells’ acknowledges the disappointment that comes with the realisation you are ageing, but counters this with the argument that time brings knowledge of your own mind. “This song is inspired by figures such as Boudica, Cleopatra and Xena the Warrior Princess, and the kind of immortality you can create through believing in your own strength.
The song then switches to someone admiring another person from afar, zooming into everyday existence away from matters of life and death.”
It’s wild to think that Gina Birch of The Raincoats is only just now releasing her first solo album at age 67. If this song is any indication, she’s been saving up a lot of good stuff over the last 40 years. “I Wish I Was You” has a distinct ’90s alt-rock energy that is amplified by Thurston Moore’s guitarwork. Birch brings her own unique style and voice, of course, and producer Youth help her make it soar with an irresistible chorus.
London-based Gina Birch began her storied career in music in 1977 when she formed the feminist punk band The Raincoats with fellow Hornsey School of Art student, Ana da Silva. Gina and Ana witnessed an early performance by The Slits and although neither of them knew how to play any instruments, they knew they had to start a band. Just months after they picked up their instruments they were on stage doing their thing around London and the UK in the fledgling and groundbreaking punk rock scene. The Raincoats quickly developed a large and loyal group of fans and supporters, among them Red Krayola, Swell Maps and Geoff Travis and his new record label, Rough Trade. The Raincoats went on to record 3 albums for Rough Trade that are frequently found on lists of the most important records of the punk rock era and are still name checked as influences by artists today.
Originally, The Raincoats broke up in 1984 but were talked into reforming in 1994 when Kurt Cobain asked them to go on tour in support of Nirvana (sadly, that never happened). With a renewed interest in the band led by Kurt and Kim Gordon, TheRaincoats records were reissued with liner notes by Kurt and Kim themselves. Worldwide tours and a brand new 4th album on DGC resulted in 1996. The Raincoats still perform today for special events and have started their own record label, We Three Records, to handle their back catalogue.
Gina is a respected painter, a celebrated filmmaker and video director (directing videos for The Libertines and New Order to name a few) and is a mother of 2 wonderful daughters. She has formed and fronted the band Dorothy and The Hangovers.
In September of 2021, Gina released her first ever solo single, “Feminist Song”, on Third Man Records in celebration of the opening of their brand new London location. In February of 2023, Third ManRecords will release Gina’s brand new and first ever solo full length album, “I Play My Bass Loud”, recorded by Martin “Youth” Glover from Killing Joke and featuring Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth.
Taken from Gina Birch’s album ‘I Play My Bass Loud’ (out 24th February 2023 on Third Man Records).
Fontaines D.C. return with their third record: “Skinty Fia”. Used colloquially as an expletive, the title roughly translates from the Irish language into English as “the damnation of the deer”; the spelling crassly anglicized, and its meaning diluted through generations. Part bittersweet romance, part darkly political triumph – the songs ultimately form a long-distance love letter, one that laments an increasingly privatized culture in danger of going the way of the extinct Irish giant deer.
Rising Irish stars Fontaines D.C. are all over the place after releasing their sublime third LP “Skinty Fia” recently, that went straight to the top of the UK Albums Chart.
After their unbridled introduction to the world with their five-star debut LP, the Fontaines slowed down for a couple of songs on their 2nd full length, and on the new one the overall atmosphere – musically and lyrically – is moony, mellow and pensive with frontmanGrian Chatten becoming a modern-day crooner who touches sensitive hearts, especially Irish ones as this album is about their Irish past/present/future identity in and outside (they never have been away for so long, for some many times) of their beloved country. It takes time to get used to their new approach. But I’m sure it will be worth it in the end.
The Guardian (British newspaper) says: “Their third album comes wrapped in a sleeve featuring a nervous-looking deer in the hallway of a home, its title derives from a Gaelic expression of exasperation, and it variously picks at topics of addiction, relationships and the notion of Irishness as viewed through the lens of the Irish diaspora… Skinty Fia feels more measured and reflective. It boasts few examples of their punky full-pelt approach. Its default rhythmic setting is slow; its guitars feel echoey and cavernous – even shoegaze-y on churning closer Nabokov – rather than urgent and in your face… They boldly embrace a state of confusion.”
Fontaines D.C. performs on Saturday Sessions. It’s been quite a ride for the post-punk band. They’re the first Irish act since U2 to be nominated for best rock album at the Grammy Awards. Their latest collection just debuted at No. 1 on the U.K. charts. For Saturday Sessions, Fontaines D.C. performs “Liberty Belle.”
The punk band’s third album homes in on the experience of being an Irish person living in England — and all the trials, tribulations, and culture clashes inherent in that reality. It’s also just a straight-ahead, powerful rock & roll record packed with James Joyce references, accordion (yes, really), and Nineties alternative angst. “’Skinty Fia’ is an expression that our drummer’s great auntie used to say,” the band’s Grian Chatten told Rolling Stone. “It sounds like mutation and doom and inevitability and all these things that I felt were congruous to my idea of Irishness abroad. … It’s just a completely new beast.
Big Thief are set to return in February with “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You”, their fifth studio album and their first full-length effort since 2019’s stunning pair “U.F.O.F” and “Two Hands“. Produced by James Krivchenka, the band’s drummer, the 20-song double LP was recorded in four distinct locations: Upstate New York, Topanga Canyon in California, the Arizona desert, and the Colorado mountains.
Big Thief have shared yet another single off their upcoming 20-track album Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, which is due to release on Feb. 11, 2022. The track is titled “Simulation Swarm” and has been performed by Big Thief at their live performances since they started touring back in September of 2021.
The track’s immediate bright sonic flow, thoughtful riffs and steady pace have placed it among the most beloved out of all the tracks Big Thief have shared thus far. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Adrianne Lenker talked about the inspiration behind the songs.
“I’ve been getting notes that the music has been helping people love and accept themselves in dark times, and to me, that right there is what I want to do,” Lenker shared. “I don’t want to get to a certain level in my career or be seen as this or that. I just want people to come back to themselves and be able to accept, love or forgive themselves more fully. I want my music to be a guide to people to get back closer to themselves — not to me.”
The release follows seven singles already shared off “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You”: “No Reason,” “Spud Infinity,” “Time Escaping,” “Change,” “Little Things,” “Sparrow,” and, “Certainty.”
The attempt to capture something deeper, wider, and full of mystery, points to the inherent spirit of Big Thief. Traces of this open-hearted, non-dogmatic faith can be felt through previous albums, but here on ‘Dragon New Warm MountainI Believe In You’ lives the strongest testament to its existence.
Big Thief swung big with their latest statement to the world: a double album, much like Wilco’s Cruel Country, that draws on the folk-rock-country comfort food the Grateful Dead cooked up with Workingman’s DeadandAmerican Beauty. The result is a (post-)pandemic banquet, from a band woodshedding at the top of their game. The styles are shifty, and the shagginess is deceptiveness — beneath ramshackle surfaces are meticulous constructs, earworm melodies, and undeniable grooves. Adrianne Lenker’s voice may be an acquired taste, with shades of idiosyncratic forebears like Karen Dalton, but it’s a marvelous one, and the way it blends with Buck Meek’s guitar demonstrates the magic that can happen between musicians after years of creating together. Sure, it’s an hour-twenty long — but halfway through the first song, you’ll be ready to take the rest of the day off.
The resulting album is shaping up to be exactly what Big Thief does best: a close-knit, meticulously detailed collection of emotive indie rock, created and collapsed entirely as a unit.
forthcoming album ‘Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You’, out February 11th via 4AD Records
The bones and sentiment of “That’s Where I Am” are pure classic VH1 adult contemporary but the arrangement is all blaring distorted bass, huge breakbeat drums, and guitar chords that sound like they’re being played on light switches. I think in its own way it would be bold enough for Maggie Rogers to unashamedly write something along the lines of “Unwritten,” but it’s even more interesting to take that song and push it into this loud, stomping musical territory. She’s basically taking a very inspirational sort of song and reinforcing it with an arrangement that makes it sound like this massive, unstoppable force. It’s a brilliant move for a song she deliberately wrote to convey a triumphant happy ending, and I love that it’s also merging a very femme sound with a very hyper-masculine sound in a way that feels far more natural and complementary than contradictory.
Rogers’ lyrics describe a peaceful feeling on the other side of years of romantic drama. There’s enough plot points here to fill out a pretty solid 90 minute rom-com, and even though the chorus is written from a place of acceptance and perspective, she still sings about the more fraught and confusing moments in way that honors those feelings. The part that really slays me is when she questions how much this guy’s ex knew about their profound connection – “Did she know that we were together somehow? / you never touched me, but I felt you everywhere.” It takes a lot for someone to write a thing like that and sing it in a way that doesn’t sound at all delusional, but she pulls it off.
It takes a combination of raw talent and deep introspection to birth an album like Maggie Rogers’“Surrender”. Full of collaborations with artists as varied as Rogers’ old pal Del Water Gap and late-night bandleader Jon Batiste, the album never settles on a direct muse, but flits between radio-friendly rock and early girl-power pop. While not quite as daring as its predecessor,”Heard It In a Past Life“, the album still delivers as an honest expression of the singer’s desire to be taken seriously as an artist. Perhaps Rogers said it best in “Anywhere With You,” one of the album’s breakout hits: “All I ever wanted is to make something fucking last.” This time around, she has.
For her sophomore record, Sasami went ahead and threw her first record’s sound out the window, opting for something searing and unapologetic. In Squeeze, the singer-songwriter emulates late ’90s rock, slasher metal, psych rock, and so much more in her dynamite rock opera. She transforms Daniel Johnston’s “Sorry Entertainer” into a full-on shredder, calling to something much deeper and fuelled by rage. Overall, Sasami rears full control over a work which could be unyielding and untamed in lesser skilled hands. Squeeze is a nu-metal triumph which offers a reprieve for women and members of the LGBTQ community who feel stifled by society’s parameters on confrontation, fury, and the ways we respond to oppression.
“Tried To Understand” feat. J Mascis out now on Domino Record co.
“Life can sure be fun/Imagine if I knew this when I was young,” indie rock’s most endearingly down-to-earth stoner guitar mystic offers near the opening of “Watch My Moves”. Vile remains our era’s great inheritor of the Neil Young/Meat Puppets/Dinosaur Jr. tradition of bending chords, spooling out hypnotic solos, and chilling with your demons until they start feeling like drinking buddies. Kurt noodles, he choogles, he burns and he blazes. He sings about jamming out at home in his underwear, and about listening to “Heart of Gold” while he waits to get on a plane, and about how playing his guitar makes him happy when he starts feeling bad. “Probably gonna be another long song,” he jokes on “Fo Sho.” In a world of immediate-gratification trash, this 73-minute anti-opus is one hell of an argument for taking the long way round to wherever the hell you may or may not eventually end up.
Just listened to the “Square Shells” EP after listening to this one, and Kurt has always been such a journeyman musician in tune with his craft and his influences… His attitude is one of deep appreciation. For music. For community. For family. For being. His music exists somewhere in-between the gritty mortality of the world, and a comfortable dream world re-imagined and personalized. Perhaps, this is what gives some of his tunes a nostalgic and hopeful quality. Kurt’s world is coming alive more and more with each new album, transforming from the lonely, wandering savant of Philadelphia to the beloved family man with collabs and projects under his belt (TWOD); it’s a playful and cozy existence that’s both inclusive and contagious. I really see him honing in onto his own self-assured wisdom with these new singles and videos, similar to the trajectory of “Wakin’ on a Pretty Daze“. Will this album be another shelter (mansion) from the world’s woes?.
Check out the new single “Mount Airy Hill (Way Gone)” by Kurt Vile off his new album (watch my moves).
Horsegirl broke out of the buzzing Chicago indie-rock scene this year with their own fresh sound. If you’re a fiend for guitars, Horsegirl deliver the clang you’ve been craving — their bang-up debut, “Versions of Modern Performance”, is a blast of top-notch six-string fuzz that brings a sly new twist to the grooves of Pavement, the Breeders, or the Pastels. These three Gen Z women might be too young to get into bars but they’ve got a wide-open future.
The band runs through some of the meatier cuts from their new album (as well as the fan fave “Ballroom Dance Scene”). Nora Cheng opens with her Fender Jaguar, tuned to open E, and then switches to her reliable Ibanez Roadstar II, while Penelope Lowenstein holds down the harmonic interplay and lower frequencies on her Squier Bass VI.
Horsegirl performing live in the KEXP studio. Recorded July 16th, 2022.
Songs: World of Pots and Pans Option 8 Ballroom Dance Scene Anti-glory
