“Heart Under“, Just Mustard’s second album and first for Partisan Records, is an album that asks you to forget what you know. At every turn, this remarkable record reconfigures and stretches the ideas and ambition of a rock band, and turns a year of lockdown and personal struggles into a breath taking artistic statement. Across its 10 tracks, the album presents a coherent style and ethos – those scything guitars, Katie’s magical vocals – but still incorporates a wide and untethered vision. There are brooding, atmospheric rock songs (“Still”, “In Shade”) and others that apply a lighter, dreamier touch (“Sore”, “Mirrors”), all tied together with impeccable instrumentation and a united vision. On “Wednesday”, the band played with dreamier soundscapes and production techniques, and “Heart Under” serves as the next stage of this development, with every instrument brilliantly pushed to its limit and every boundary of the band stretched.
“Thrillingly untraditional” – NME ★★★★★
“Masters of atmosphere” – Dork, ★★★★
“A striking, fantastically original work” – CLASH, 8/10
“Just Mustard are a band completely at one with their sound, and with “Heart Under” they have well and truly mastered the art of atmospheric rock.” – Loud and Quiet, 9/10
“Simultaneously ghostly and glorious, a wretched yet emancipatory tornado of distorted dissonance that places the band among the vanguard of the British Isles’ ever-crowded post-punk scene.” – Paste, 8.5/10
Newly-unearthed 8mm film footage of Led Zeppelin’s September 19th, 1970 evening show at New York’s Madison Square Garden is setting the internet ablaze, the newly-discovered footage capturing the second of two Led Zeppelin shows at the Garden on September 19th, 1970 is generating much excitement among Zeppelin aficionados.
Led Zeppelin performed two shows at the Manhattan arena that day, at 2pm and 8pm, with frontman Robert Plant paying tribute to guitar god Jimi Hendrix at the latter show, in acknowledgement of his death the previous day. LedZeppelin.com states that “the evening’s performance is widely considered one of their best ever.”
Which helps explain why a newly-unearthed reel of 8mm film capturing the band in full flight on the night in question is generating much excitement among Zeppelin fans.
Posted on YouTube by user ikhnaton yesterday (May 25th), the two minute 48 second clip features snippets of set opener “Immigrant Song”, which would emerge as the opening track on the band’s third album, released three weeks later, on October 5th, 1970, and the set’s second track “Heartbreaker”.
And comments under the clip suggest that Zeppelin fans are digging it. “Holy grail stuff right here” reads one comment, while user Simon Perry writes “Wow. These three minutes are more enjoyable than the Albert Hall footage.”
“It’s amazing to me how just under 3 minutes of fragmented Zeppelin footage is still better than any other band on the planet,” adds one.
Wilco shared a new song, “Tired of Taking It Out On You,” from their forthcoming double album “Cruel Country” (out May 27th), Hard times and conflicts bubble up on nearly every song, whether it’s the self-inflicted crises of “Ambulance” or the interpersonal struggles of “Tired of Taking it Out on You.” These themes are familiar ones in the Wilco songbook and they’re also ideally suited to be filtered through the country music stylings that pop up across the album.
“I’ve realized over the years that a lot of the songs I’ve written have worked as reminders to myself to pay attention to various things,” says Jeff Tweedy of Wilco’s new song. “Sometimes I think I’ve figured out how the world works in some small way, and I worry I’ll forget it if I don’t sing it back to myself occasionally. This song, I believe, is going to come in handy for just that purpose. I’m a person who needs to stay alert to how I’m treating others when I’m not feeling my best. And now that I mention it, when I look around, it seems like a lot of us have been taking things out on each other when we would be better served striving for understanding and empathy. I’m just trying to be honest with myself, and I guess I’m hoping if this song can help me focus on that, maybe someone else could find it useful in the same way.”
As for the tour, It kicks off August 12th in Cedar Rapids, and includes stops in Toronto, Montreal, New Haven, Fargo, Santa Fe, San Diego, Memphis, New Orleans, and more. There are no NYC shows at the moment, but Wilco did just play a five shows here celebrating the 20th anniversary of “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”. All dates are listed below.
In other news, Wilco have announced that their sets at the Solid Sound Festival this month will be available to livestream. Those include Friday, May 27th’s performance of “Cruel Country“, their May 28th performance and the May 29th “Jeff Tweedy & Friends” performance.
The dynamic Chicago rock band Wilco return’s with their 12th studio album, the first of its kind. “CruelCountry” is the band’s exploration of the genre they’ve often been defined by but, until now, never fully embraced. The double album features 21 Jeff Tweedy-penned tracks, made almost entirely of live takes, created with all six members together in The Loft for the first time since the 2011 release “The Whole Love”.
“I love my country stupid and cruel,” Jeff Tweedy sings on “Cruel Country,” the title track to Wilco’s 12th studio album. That line, and the song itself really, serves as a summation of the LP’s sound and purpose as the iconic band works more overtly classic country music themes into a sprawling album that attempts to make sense of life in this fractured country.
Wilco is Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Patrick Sansone, Nels Cline, Glenn Kotche and Mikael Jorgensen “Tired of Taking It Out On You” is from the forthcoming Wilco record “Cruel Country”.
Jeff Tweedy – vocals, acoustic guitar Glenn Kotche – drums, Tambourine John Stirratt – bass, vocals Nels Cline – lap steel Mike Jorgensen – organ, piano Patrick Sansone – electric and acoustic guitar, piano, vocals
It’s the desire to celebrate their sonic bounty that first got Oberst and the band excited about the idea of comprehensive reissues. But this wouldn’t be a Bright Eyes project if a moment devoted to appreciating the past weren’t turned into an opportunity to connect with the future. That’s where these nine companion EPs come in. Or as Oberst puts it, “the supplemental reading” for the primary reissues: One six-track EP per reissued album, each featuring five reworked songs from that album. “My thing was they had to sound different from the originals, we had to mess with them in a substantial way.”
Plus one cover that felt “of the era” in which that particular albums was made – a song that meant something to the band at the time. To help the EPs come alive in the fullest way, Bright Eyes called in lots of old friends, like Bridgers, M. Ward, and Welch and Rawlings, as well as new ones like Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee.
Fevers And Mirrors: A Companion
Bright Eyes are the Omaha, Nebraska based band consisting of Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nathaniel Walcott.
It’s the desire to celebrate their sonic bounty that first got Oberst and the band excited about the idea of comprehensive reissues. But this wouldn’t be a Bright Eyes project if a moment devoted to appreciating the past weren’t turned into an opportunity to connect with the future. That’s where the nine companion EPs come in. Or as Oberst puts it, “the supplemental reading” for the primary reissues:
One six-track EP per reissued album, each featuring five reworked songs from that album. “My thing was they had to sound different from the originals, we had to mess with them in a substantial way.” Plus one cover that felt “of the era” in which that particular albums was made – a song that meant something to the band at the time. To help the EPs come alive in the fullest way, Bright Eyes called in lots of old friends, like Phoebe Bridgers, M. Ward, and Welch and Rawlings, as well as new ones like Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee.
The revered band will reissue all nine of their studio albums as a ‘Companion’ series that gives Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis and Nathaniel Walcott a chance to revisit some of their earlier material and re-work it entirely – with the occasional addition of some talented friends. Each Companion EP also includes a cover version of an artist they found particularly inspiring at the time of the original recording. First to receive the Companion treatment on May 27th are Bright Eyes’ first three albums – “A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997”, “Letting Off The Happiness”, and “Fevers and Mirror”.
Over the course of five stellar albums, Papercuts’ Jason Quever has shown himself to be a top-notch song-writer and producer, equally at home with lush, baroque textures and more stripped-down arrangements. His skill in the studio has helped him build-up an enviable resume recording, producing and playing with artists including Luna, Beach House, Cass McCombs, Dean Wareham / Dean and Britta and Slumberland’s own The Mantles.
Papercuts’ new album “Parallel Universe Blues” reflects Quever’s recent move from long-time musical home San Francisco to Los Angeles and all of the searching and self-exploration that accompanies leaving your home, your friends and your scene. The sound is intimate and close, nicely balancing the sonic concerns of the last few Papercuts records.
The opening pair of songs “Mattress On TheFloor” and “Laughing Man” superbly sets the table for the rest of the album: perfect Spectorian pop songs echoed down through The Velvet Underground, LA’s Paisley Underground, Spiritualized and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Never sacrificing song-writing for atmospherics, “Parallel Universe Blues” is a superb addition to the Papercuts catalogue.
Here it is! Our new single “Bad Faith” ft. Mandy, Indiana is out right now. We can also finally share the news that this track is taken from our upcoming debut EP ‘On The Wrong Side Of History’, due for release on 15th July via Bad Vibrations Records.
As well as the standard vinyl on Bad Vibrations, Rough Trade are pressing a limited edition pink record that will come with a signed postcard. There are four individual designs to be had – each printed with one line of lyric from a track on the EP!. In dark, troubling times, maybe the most instantly gratifying solace one can seek is a wittily barbed diagnosis of the situation. “The fox has his den. The bee has his hive. The stoat … his stoat-hole,” Stewart Lee once remarked: “But only man chooses to make his nest in an investment opportunity.” Caustic retorts like this are what fuel the debut EP by dance-punk outfit Regressive Left, ‘On The Wrong Side of History’. For pervading through their dynamic and glitching music is a duty to report unflinchingly society’s ills. They are a staunchly political group, but far from your average po-faced by-numbers punk band. There is a gristly social commentary at the band’s core, but the songs themselves are characterised by a need to have fun, to find some kind of solace and escapism from the inevitable rapture.
Recorded over an intense 5-day spell with in-demand producer Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, MIA, Amyl and The Sniffers) in Sheffield, Regressive Left’s debut EP ‘On The Wrong Side of History’ was immortalised over a handful of 11am-1am sessions in his studio. In many ways it is a time capsule of the maelstrom of ideas that got the group to this point in the first place – the infuriating, bleak political climate, and the urge to find escapism from it – consigned to vinyl in one herculean effort. Taking influence from the booming post-punk, funk and disco scenes of New York, Regressive Left’s sound is stark and danceable. Angular guitar scratches meet dirty synth basslines, whilst Simon Tyrie’s Edwyn Collins croon is chased around by effervescent drums. The banal horror of life in Tory Britain expressed with sharp and dry wit, and then set to truly barnstorming and infectious dance music, the new EP arrives following a trio of acclaimed singles (‘Eternal Returns’, ‘Take the Hit’, ‘Cream Militia’), tours with the likes of Bodega and Folly Group, festival appearances at End of the Road, Latitude, Great Escape and Wide Awake, and a sold out headline at The Windmill.
Regressive Left – “Bad Faith” (ft. Mandy, Indiana). Taken from the debut EP “On The Wrong Side of History” out 15th July on Bad Vibrations:
Originally released in 2008 and unavailable on vinyl until now – “22 Dreams” is Paul Weller’s 9th studio album. The album features Oasis stars Noel Gallagher and Gem Archer as well as Steve Cradock (Ocean Colour Scene) and Blur guitarist Graham Coxon. At the time critics called it Wellers best album to date.
It was Weller’s ninth studio album was critically acclaimed, after what was arguably a dip in form during the early part of the new millennium.
The long-player topped the charts and amongst the formats at the time was a special 2CD deluxe edition (which featured bonus demos, instrumentals and the like) which, for a while, was much desired and changed hands for high prices on the resale market (more were eventually pressed, bursting that particular balloon).
It went straight into the number 1 spot in the UK album chart. The release comes as a 2LP the Gatefold sleeve. Includes a 12″ x 36″ b/w-poster with printed lyrics, track-list and credits on the back side + Includes an 8-page booklet titled “The Missing Dream AKA Dream # 22” by Simon Armitage.
“22 Dreams” was issued as a 2LP set in 2008.
“22 Dreams” is out on 22nd July 2022 via UMC/Island. It’s unclear what is happening to the 1998 “Modern Classics” compilation which was supposed to be issued on the same day as “22 Dreams“, with a 2LP set with a bonus LP – “Live Classics” – as recorded at Victoria Park, Hackney (on 8th August 1998)
Originally released in 2008 and hasn’t been reissued on vinyl until now – “22 Dreams” is Paul Weller’s 9th studio album.
Lord Huron have released the deluxe edition of their most recent album, “Long Lost”. It includes the song “Your Other Life” along with a French version, “Ton Autre Vie.” They have shared a technically innovative video for both songs which consists of two videos seamlessly blended together: one featuring frontman Ben Schneider performing “Your Other Life” and the other featuring vocalist Sarah Dugas performing “Ton Autre Vie.” A fader on the bottom of the screen lets the viewer control which version they are watching, and if the fader is placed in the middle, the two vocalists’ performances are merged together as if performing a duet.
In a press release, Schneider states: “We recorded ‘Your Other Life’ during the sessions for “Long Lost“, but it didn’t end up finding a place on the album. Not because I didn’t like the way the song turned out, but because I kept hearing it in my head as sung by a woman instead of myself. Also in French….
“So we called up Sarah Dugas and recorded it that way as well, not really knowing what we’d do with it, just seeing where it went. She did an amazing job, not just with the singing but also with the translation. Listening to them side by side, I felt like the songs were made stronger by their proximity to one another. It seemed to bolster the themes of the lyrics—leading a double life, having wildly different perspectives on a situation.
“I started thinking of ways to present the songs together and had the idea of being able to switch or fade between them in real time. Almost like switching between the two lives implied in the song. I thought including a visual element would make it even stronger. A cross-fadeable, double music video sounded pretty interesting.
“We got in touch with Adam Willis who’s done some videos with us before and he had the thought of doing it as two perspectives on the same situation. Kind of a Rashomon inspired idea. So, we rented an Elk’s lodge in the valley and shot it at the bar there in a day.
“We hadn’t really thought too much about whether or not this was all possible technically. Luckily our friend Lee Martin was able to help us make it all happen.”
After Duster’s expected third album, the band also delivers a fourth album and “Together” is another wonderful album that rubs up against the box of slowcore, but never quite fits The Californian band Duster released two beautiful but misunderstood albums at the end of the nineties and at the beginning of the current millennium. After that, nothing was lost from the band for a long time, until Duster showed up in 2019 with a particularly beautiful self-titled album. That album gets a sequel this week with “Together”. It’s an album that’s not miles away from its predecessors and like these predecessors, it intrigues hopelessly. Duster still makes dark and slowly dragging guitar music, which draws from many boxes, but does not fit into any box. It’s music that explodes occasionally, but is at its best when this just doesn’t happen.
The American band Duster debuted in 1998 with the album “Stratosphere”, on which influences from indie rock, slowcore, post-rock, noise rock and space rock were mixed with a bit of lo-fi and some psychedelics. The band from San Jose, California, returned in 2000 with the also home recorded and at least as fascinating “Contemporary Movement”, but despite a number of rave reviews, the band did not really move forward and the members of the band each decided to go their own way.
Ten years later after the disbanding of the first version of Duster, the Californian band slowly but surely gained cult status and started to itch again with the founders of the band, which eventually resulted in a third Duster album in 2019. On this self-titled album, the Californian band perfected its so special sound and delivered its best album to that point.
Now Duster returns with a fourth album and the production of the second edition of the band is in any case the same as that of the first edition. “Together” continues the line of the self-titled album from 2019, but it raises the bar even higher.
Duster has always incorporated influences from slowcore and those influences also play an important role on the fourth album of the Californian band. The tempo is low, the guitar lines are heavy and dark, the basses and drums deep and the vocals languid. Duster, however, never exactly fit into the slowcore box in the past and still doesn’t. All the influences I mentioned when describing the band’s first two albums also return on “Together“.
The band describes her new album with some humor and relativism: “Gather your loved ones, “Together” is here. Duster’s fourth album is a 13-song exploration of comfortable, interplanetary goth. A sonic vaseline of submerged guitars, solder-burned synths, and over-driven rhythm tracks. I know people say, ‘Oh Duster music so sad, we’ve even said it ourselves before, but it’s a lot more like absurdism than nihilism”. Personally, I think the weather is especially beautiful.
Duster makes intense music on her fourth album and that intensity is only increased by the slow tempo. The rhythm section of the band plays beautifully, but it is mainly the guitar work that provides Duster’s music with a special charge and a lot of beauty. Certainly the slowly dragging songs on the album impose themselves mercilessly, but even if the American band increases the tempo a bit, you can easily stay on top of things.
Duster’s oeuvre now covers almost 25 years, but in those 25 years not much has changed. The Californian band makes music that sounds familiar on the one hand and matches that of a number of other mainly American guitar bands, but Duster always sounds slightly different.
It has ensured that the band has never got much further than the cult status, but “Together” is also a beautiful guitar record full of adventure. It is a guitar record where, apart from an occasional outburst, the tempo does not want to get in and on which not much seems to happen, until the album grabs you and duster’s fourth album shows more and more beautiful and special. Let’s hope that this fascinating band sticks a fifth album to it and if possible soon too.
Smash cut to Kiwi Jr.’s third album, “Chopper”, overseen by trusted pilot Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs) on storied Sub Pop Records. Turning nocturnal with necks mock turtle, our Local Kiwi Jr. takes neon flight off the digital cliff – like The Monkees starring in Blade Runner; like Michael Mann directs Encino Man. Ten songs with synth shimmer, zen gongs with yard strimmer. The signs along the highway read “LESS BAR, MORE NOIR AHEAD.” Ah, those late summer, Joe Strummer, Home on the Range Rover Blues.
There’s a melancholy to all forms of flight, and the view out the “Chopper” is as hazy as it gets: mission-oriented, both stealth and self-realized. This album is decidedly (yet almost secretly) anti-patio-sunscreen-Beach Boys bachelor cruise sing-a-long. Sure, these songs let a little light through the blinds, but they sting insomnia, corrupt mayors, Kennedy Curses, sex tapes, and deer rifles. “Chopper” is the bird’s eye view of the big event – a real night time character of oil stain, film grain, search light, night flight. It is muscular and fragile; loud yet quiet: both an observer and somehow the observed spectacle itself.
What was slack in the slacker phase, got tauter, with lacquer glaze. Slick gloss, rightened wrongs; murdered boss, promoted pawns. With Boeckner transmitting high-voltage shocks upon every reach for a familiar instrument, Kiwi Jr. expands the palette with string machine song, synthesizered oblong, and Dentyne Classic Menthol vocals from area soprano Dorothea Paas (US Girls, Badge Epoch Ensemble) like the missing piece all along.
On August 12th, 2022, Kiwi Jr. will release “Chopper”, the group’s third album! The album, which features the lead single “Night Vision” along with highlights “Unspeakable Things,” “The Sound of Music” and “The Extra Sees the Film,” was recorded and produced in Toronto by Sub Pop labelmate Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Operators).
The “Night Vision” video was helmed by returning director Laura-Lynn Petrick (Kiwi Jr.’s “Waiting In Line,” also directed videos by Weyes Blood and Jessica Pratt).
Singer/guitarist Jeremy Gaudet offers this, “Before ‘Night Vision’ was 100% written, just the basic idea of it existing as a Kiwi Jr. song inspired us and set the tone for the record. A lot of the images in the lyrics are of teenagers driving around, trying to make plans, sharing the aux, putting their parents’ car in the ditch, etc. But the idea at the centre of the song is that of working up the nerve to make a big decision. Like a boxer getting pumped up before a fight.”
Kiwi Jr. brings the “Chopper” to a new space, demilitarizing the technology just like flasks, aviators, and cargo shorts. Graceful in the air above, but when the “Chopper” lands, there’s chaos on the ground. KiwiJr. shout, “Look Out!” When it gets close, it’ll blow the hat right off of your head.
KIWI JR. is Jeremy Gaudet vocals and guitar, Brian Murphy guitar, Mike Walker bass, Brohan Moore drums, and everybody played a little bit of keyboard.
From the album “CHOPPER” in stores on Sub Pop Records on August 12th, 2022
The Fat Angel Sings 