New Zealand did for jangle pop what Ireland did for shoegaze, or the Midwest did for emo. The “Dunedin sound,” coined by the 1982 Dunedin Double compilation EP, encompassed a certain subset of the country’s clattery pop bands, most of which were signed to the South Island’s foremost indie label, Flying Nun. This oceanic college rock profoundly informed the transatlantic bands that succeeded it. A case in point is Kiwi Jr., who named themselves in honour of their mood-board country (the “Jr.” suffix elevates things to a Mascis-approved cool).
Based in Toronto but hailing from Prince Edward Island, the four childhood friends released a flawless sophomore record, “Cooler Returns”, on Sub Pop Records last January, defined by very jangly open chords and Jeremy Gaudet’s detached delivery of learned lyrics. He straddles the bygone and the topical with musings on Toronto’s gentrification, turn-of-the-century baseball incidents, and election politics, while his surrogate bros harmonize around their 21st century Brian Wilson.
Despite being a snapshot of the pandemic-infused beginnings of this decade, “Cooler Returns” is truly a whole lot of fun.
The most intimate, raw and devastating ten songs of her career to date. An uncompromising and masterful lyricist, always willing to mine the depths of her own life experience, and singular in translating it into deeply personal, timeless songs. Now
Julia Jacklin has shared another single from her forthcoming album “Pre Pleasure”. It’s titled ‘Love, Try Not To Let Go’, and it comes paired with video shot by Nick Mckk and featuring a collaboration with visual artist Juliet Bryant. .
“Love, Try Not To Let Go’ was written one night during the recording period in my apartment in Montreal,” Jacklin explained in a statement. “It’s the first song I’ve ever written fully on piano. It’s the first time I’ve played piano on a record. I thought someone better would redo the take but we kept it so now I’m officially a pianist. We recorded it the next day. I made everyone watch the running scene from Rocky beforehand.”
“Pre Pleasure” comes out August 26th via Transgressive Records. It includes the previously released tracks ‘Lydia Wears a Cross’ and ‘I Was Neon’.
She & Him have announced their first tour of non-holiday material since 2013. This June, Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward will embark on the “Melt Away Tour: A Tribute to Brian Wilson.”
She and Him, the acclaimed twosome of M.Ward and Zooey Deschanel are known for the stylish arrangements, sophisticated interpretations, and sharply drawn originals they have perfected across their exceedingly fruitful six-album, 14-year collaboration. Now, with “Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson”, their seventh full-length release, the duo has crafted a love letter to 60’s-era Southern California-inspired pop that stands on its own as a defining musical achievement.
Produced by M.Ward and mixed by Tom Schick (Wilco, Norah Jones, Iron and Wine), “Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson” is the pair’s first in six years and features an abundance of smartly chosen Wilson / Beach Boys compositions, some universally beloved and others a little less familiar. All of them though, whether ingrained in your soul or hearing for the first time, share a flair for the dramatic. Ward and Deschanel bring their uncanny communal musical instincts to these pop-noir confections and re-imagine them for these times.
The inviting, twangy album opener, Brian Wilson and Mike Love’s “Darlin’,” (from the Beach Boys 1967 album “Wild Honey“) sets a high bar that She and Him meets throughout. The duo’s devoted take on “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” is especially revealing. Most wouldn’t consider touching the stone-cold classic, yet they lean into it with unabashed joy. Elsewhere, the band’s sublime version of Wilson’s mournful “Til I Die” is a three-minute and 22 second marvel. Deschanel’s spectacular vocal turn on the criminally overlooked Wilson solo cut “Melt Away” transforms the original’s lush, string-heavy treatment into a post-modern folk-pop gem. Other highlights include the surf-rock throwback “Do It Again,” featuring vocals from Brian Wilson himself (!) and the graceful “Please Let Me Wonder,” a long-treasured Wilson album cut. Finally, the Beach Boy’s timeless “Don’t Worry Baby” might be the album’s center piece and most affecting track. M.Ward’s earthy, laconic lead vocal layered over an exquisite arrangement feels organic and completely new – just like this album, a stunner in every way.
Performers
Zooey Deschanel – Vocals M. Ward – Guitar, keys, vocals, Brian Wilson – Vocals on “Do It Again”, Joey Spampinato – Bass, Paul Brainard – Pedal steel, trumpet, Jose Medeles – Drums, Mark Powers – Percussion, John Perrin – Drums on “Do It Again”
Fazerdaze – the project of singer-songwriter Amelia Murray has signed to section1, accompanying the announcement with a new single called ‘Come Apart’. It marks her first release in five years, following her 2017 debut record “Morningside“. Check out the new song below.
“‘Come Apart’ is an angsty surrender to growing apart from people in my life,” Murray explained in a press release. “I wrote this at a time when I wasn’t accepting that some of my closest relationships were just not working. I was contorting myself to fit others, doing everything I could to keep the relationships going instead of allowing them to be what they were; ending, done. I believe this song was a way for my subconscious to shout at me to surrender and to allow things in my life to come to an end.”
After completing her tour in support of Morningside at the end of 2018, Murray struggled to write due to a deep sense of burnout. “I lost a lot of confidence during that time and my sense-of-self really eroded,” she added. “Eventually, I had to surrender to the truth of the toxic situations I was finding myself in, both professionally and personally.
No longer being stoic and strong was the best thing I ever did for myself. Giving up on the people and things that weren’t working in my life was this big emotional release. I could finally put down this weight I was carrying. Ever since then, things have been flowing in my life again. I can hear my intuition, write songs and be creative again; I signed a record deal, I moved into my own place. It’s like the floodgates opened for good stuff coming back into my life.”
Bleach Lab have announced their signing to the Nettwerk Group, marking the news with the single ‘Take It Slow’. “‘Take It Slow’ is about finding your way and not wanting to rush through life without taking time to appreciate the view,” lead singer Jenna Kyle explained in a statement. “‘Trying to fit the space of a shape that you don’t know’, refers to not getting stuck as someone that you don’t recognise by losing sight of yourself. It is very much about being and living in the moment, being present and trying to let go of anxieties of everyday life whilst trying to view things more positively.”
Bleach Lab’s ‘Take It Slow’ follows two EPs from last year, “A Calm Sense of Surrounding” and “Nothing Feels Real”.
The Afghan Whigs have released the new song ‘A Line of Shots’, which is taken from their upcoming album “How Do You Burn?”. It’s the third single from the LP, following ‘The Getaway’ and ‘I’ll Make YouSee God’.The Afghan Whigs have announced their first studio album in five years “How Do You Burn?”, which is set for release on September 9th via Royal Cream/BMG.
“How Do You Burn?’”, will be their ninth album overall and following on from the brace of widely-acclaimed records they’ve made previously since re-grouping in 2012, ‘Do to the Beast’ (2014) and ‘In Spades’ (2017). ‘How Do You Burn?’ picks up the baton laid down by each of those records and runs it to the horizon.
For his supporting cast, Dulli called upon several serial collaborators including the late Mark Lanegan, who was a regular in Dulli’s Twilight Singers, a partner in The Gutter Twins and a close friend. Lanegan makes his Afghan Whigs debut singing backup vocals on two tracks. “It was Mark who named the album,” Dulli remarked.
Susan Marshall, who sang on the Whigs album 1965, returns to the fray for “Catch A Colt,” one of the album’s standout tracks, loose-limbed like ‘Some Girls’-era Rolling Stones and with the liquid polyrhythms of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Tusk’.
The multi-talented Van Hunt, who toured with the Whigs in 2012 and guested on ‘Do to the Beast’, brings his stacked-up, wall-of-sound vocals to both the plunging, voodoo-blues of ‘Jyja’ and the audacious ‘Take Me There’, transforming the latter, says Dulli, “into this feral gospel song. We sing really well together, but what Van does production-wise… it’s unrelenting.”
Then there’s Marcy Mays, lead vocalist on ‘My Curse’, the torch-song highlight of 1993’s seminal ‘Gentlemen’ album, reprising her role here on the celestial ‘Domino and Jimmy’, playing Stevie Nicks to Dulli’s Lindsey Buckingham. “I wrote that song with Marcy in mind,” says Dulli. “No-one sounds like her; she’s got an incredibly unique, emotional and evocative voice.”
The Afghan Whigs – Dulli, Curley, Nelson, Keeler and with Christopher Thorn now joining the band on guitar – will take ‘How Do You Burn?’ out on the road in 2022. Beyond that, says Dulli, their future is gloriously wide open.
“How Do You Burn?”, by The Afghan Whigs’ ninth album and first in five years, is due for release on September 9th via Royal Cream/BMG.
Hailing from Tallahassee, Florida, Pool Kids started out as the duo of guitarist and vocalist Christine Goodwyne and drummer Caden Clinton, who wrote the entirety of the band’s 2018 debut “Music toPractice Safe Sex To”. The LP, equal parts forceful and contemplative, caught the attention of Hayley Williams, who claimed it sounded like what Paramore “wished we sounded like in the early 2000s.” Now a four-piece adding Andy Anaya on guitar and Nicolette Alvarez on bass, Pool Kids have only grown since then, having toured with acts like the Wonder Years and Into It. Over It.
For their they teamed up with producer Mike Vernon Davis, polishing up their sound and dialling up the dynamics: Pool Kids balances technical virtuosity with tight hooks, explosive choruses and nuanced, evocative lyricism in a way that few bands can pull off with such infectious confidence. Emotionally and otherwise, it wasn’t an easy process: not just because the songs touch on childhood trauma and the dissolution of a long-term relationship – the ferocity of the music sweeps away any negativity that comes up – but because an actual flood hit the studio just days before the record was completed. Knowing that they powered through and managed to save Pool Kids only makes it more of a triumph.
Pool Kids is: Christine Goodwyne: Vocals, Guitar Andrew Anaya: Guitar Nicolette Alvarez: Bass Caden Clinton: Drums
“Arm’s Length” is taken from Pool Kids’ self titled album, out July 22nd, 2022.
Helen Ballentine aka Skullcrusher has announced her debut album “Quiet the Room” will be released October 14th via Secretly Canadian. the lead single ‘Whatever Fits Together’ is accompanied by a video by Silken Weinberg.
“I wrote ‘Whatever Fits Together’ while reflecting on my past and wondering how I might begin to explain it to someone,” Ballentine explained in a statement. “I viewed my younger self through a wash of emotions: anger, sadness, pity, confusion, all reaching for a kind of compassion. I tried to capture the contradictions that comprise my past and define who I am now. As I looked back, I saw my life in pieces: some moments blacked out, some extremely vivid, some leading nowhere. Through the song I attempt to piece it together in some non-linear form and accept my disparate story.”
Lead single “Whatever Fits Together,” out now alongside a music video, is Ballentine’s first release since her acclaimed 2021 EP “Storm in Summer”. “Whatever Fits Together” embeds Ballentine’s introspective, aching song writing in sonic depth and atmosphere, her delicate voice and bright acoustic chords awash in humming reverb. As a banjo arpeggio uplifts the instrumental, Ballentine reflects on choices forgone that therefore became choices made: “Went along with whatever / Thought I knew what I wanted / Never knew what I wanted.” Her plaintive delivery conveys all of the emotion wrapped up in the act of this accounting, as if she’s indicting and forgiving herself at once, simply through the act of attempting to understand. As the song finally falls to pieces, Ballentine chooses the present moment above all else, asking amid ethereal fragments of sound, “If we’re here, does it matter?”
Ensure you catch Skullcrusher at End Of The Road festival in September 2022.
“Quiet the Room” will follow 2020’s releases “Skullcrusher” EP and 2021’s “Storm in Summer” EP.
Miya Folcik’s first new music in three years is the sound of her capturing an end of the road moment. “You know that something needs to change, and for the first time, you’re willing to try anything,” she says in a statement. The road forward may be long, but you’re in good hands in Folick’s company.
Miya Folick has also released another new song called ‘Nothing to See’. Produced by Big Thief collaborator Andrew Sarlo, the track is the latest offering from her upcoming EP 2007, following ‘Oh God’ and ‘Ordinary’. It comes with an accompanying video directed by Noah Kentis.
“This song is about falling in love with someone emotionally unavailable,” Folick explained in a statement. “Someone whose feelings and desires were so obscured to me and themselves, that I had to become a detective. I studied their life for clues and tried to fit the role of the person I thought they’d like. Eventually we broke up, and I realized that I’d lost the plot on my own life. My body and personality and life were so populated by the interests of this person, that once they were gone, there was nothing left to see. But, to me, this song isn’t bleak. I think there’s power in being brave enough to say, ‘I was made a fool by you’.”
The “2007” EP arrives in September via Nettwerk. Released on Nettwerk Records (on behalf of Nettwerk Music Group)
Los Angeles band Local Natives have released two new songs: ‘Desert Snow’ and ‘Hourglass’. They mark the band’s first original material since 2020’s “Sour Lemon” EP. The double-A single arrives alongside the announcement of their first tour in 3 years, which kicks off late July at Osheaga Music & Arts Festival. “After the heartbreak and insanity of the past few years, when we finally got together to make music again, these songs reconnected and reignited us,” Local Natives commented in a statement.
“Desert Snow” was inspired by a Joshua Tree trip, this song is about the duality of vulnerability and strength and contains some of our favourite Local Natives lyrics:
This music got us through some really difficult times and reminded us how much joy we get out of playing music together. We couldn’t be more excited to share these songs and play them live on our first tour in two years!, The song “Hourglass” explores the difficulty of feeling divided and isolated from the people we love while knowing the time we have with them is finite. This music got us through some really difficult times and reminded us how much joy we get out of playing music together. We couldn’t be more excited to share these songs and play them live on our first tour in nearly 3 years!
Last year, Local Natives shared a covers EP featuring their take on songs by Roxy Music, Gerry Rafferty, Michael McDonald, and 10cc.
Our double A-side single, ‘Desert Snow’ & ‘Hourglass’ are out now!
