Zach Bryan has a brand new album, “American Heartbreak“, coming out next month (May 20th), his first major label studio album, a whopping 34 songs, and he’s still out here dropping new ones that aren’t even on it.
Written and performed by Zach along with Eddie Spear, Louie Nice and Read Connelly, “Late July” seems to find Zach in the midst of this new road warrior lifestyle that has overtaken him now that he’s a full time touring musician. But like all of our favourite artists, who trade time with their loved ones to come out and play shows for us, it takes a toll. And as great (and fun) as it is, most of the time, you’re just wishing you were on your way home. I’d say true love rips your heart out and puts it back together all in the same sentence or song. Here’s an album I wrote with pain, laughter, humility, love and honesty. I didn’t call it “American Heartbreak” after a tacky love story, but because we all face trials every day and put ourselves back together every single time regardless. Whether in relationships or jobs, our families, our dreams or our let downs, I just wrote the whole thing praying someone just might relate to a story or two.
Bryan has previously released singles from the new project, “From Austin” and the jam of the month right now, “Highway Boys”, with plans to release “Something In The Orange” before album release day, as well.
Belting Bronco Records under exclusive license to Warner Records, Inc.
Arcade Fire will play a surprise set at Coachella Festival on Friday. In revealing this weekend’s set times, Coachella slyly revealed the last-minute booking: Arcade Fire will perform an hour-long set at the Mojave Tent beginning at 6:45 p.m. — smack dab between previously announced performances from IDLES and Carly Rae Jepsen. After a two-year absence due to the pandemic, Coachella will finally return this weekend. The announced line-up is headlined by Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, The Weeknd, and Swedish House Mafia, and also promises Megan Thee Stallion, Phoebe Bridgers, Doja Cat, Danny Elfman, Run the Jewels, Maggie Rogers, and many more. You can find the weekend one set times below. It’s unclear whether Arcade Fire will also be appearing at weekend two of the festival.
It’ll mark Arcade Fire’s first time performing at Coachella since their headlining set in 2014. In the run-up to their new album “WE”, Arcade Fire have played a number of secret shows, including a pair of hometown gigs in New Orleans and a run of shows in New York City. Earlier today, they were announced to headline this summer’s Osheaga Festival in Montreal .
Typhoon is a band from Portland, OR. We’re pleased as punch to announce that we’ll be releasing a new EP/mini-album on April 15th, 2022 and there’s a new song out today!
The record is called “Underground Complex No. 1″ and it will the first in a series of concept records about shame and resentment. So, yeah, fun stuff. At least it’s not about death. Oh, wait, no – there’s some of that in there too. You can watch the lyric video for the first single – “New Wife” – right here, right now.
Another favourite of mine is the Portland, Ore. band Typhoon. They’re putting out a series of EPs about resentment and the first song we get to hear from it, “New Wife” is about a voicemail to an ex-wife that turns bitter.
SPOILER: The record is structured as a (slightly unusual) confession made by a (slightly unlikeable) character, in which he recounts the key humiliations of his life. This song particular song is about a voicemail he leaves for his ex-wife that very quickly goes sideways.
“New Wife” is the new single from Typhoon’s forthcoming EP “Underground Complex No. 1” (out April 15th, 2022) — the first in a series of records about resentment.
Kyle Morton – vocals / guitars / keys Shannon Steele – violin / vocals Alex Fitch – drums Toby Tanabe – bass Dave Hall – guitar Jordan Vale – trumpet Eric Stipe – trumpet Devin Gallagher – Kalimba
You heard it right friends! For the first time in a long while (thanks, supply chain!) we’ve got a fan favourite release, Modern Baseball’s “The Perfect Cast” EP back in stock, and on beautiful pink and cream coloured vinyl.
“The Waterboy Returns” Additional lyrics written by Cameron Boucher, Tambourine by Andrew Dole
“Alpha Kappa Fall Of Troy The Movie Part Deux (2 Disc Directors Cut)” originally released as “Alpha Kappa Fall Of Troy The Movie Part Deux” February 3rd, 2015 on “Strength In Weakness” via Lame-O Records
To Matt, we have been swooned by your creative ear. Thank you for all the hard work you put into this release; your imprint will forever give us a big ol’ smile. Thank you for making this something special.
Modern Baseball would like to thank: Lame-O Records; our families and friends.
Modern Baseball EP Album: The Perfect Cast Year: originally released in 2015
Tracks: 01. The Waterboy Returns [00:00] 02. Alpha Kappa Fall of Troy The Movie Part Deux (2 Disc Directors Cut) [02:42] 03. Infinity Exposed [05:36] 04. The Thrash Particle [07:45] 05. …And Beyond [11:08] 06. Revenge Of The Nameless Ranger [13:30]
This is such a juicy cover of Free’s classic that we had to share it. Guitars and beats are laid on just thick enough, and singer/lifelong Free fan Leo Robarts gives Rival Sons’ Jay Buchanan a run for his money, leaning into this rich, glam-soul stomp take on the original 1969 melody. As Leo explains, the idea sprung from a dream-like meeting with Rodgers backstage at Hyde Park, when he was singing with Queen. “Piers and I ended up in Paul’s trailer after the gig, and I started to sing “I’ll Be Creepin’ to him and he joined in! A dream come true.”
Performed by : (Sweet Crisis 2022) Leo Robarts, Piers Mortimer, Matt Duduryn, Joe Taylor, Dom Briggs-Fish.
“The missing link between Free and The Black Keys” Paul Elliott, Q Magazine / Mojo Magazine
“Some bands come out of the gate with a debut that flattens the competition” VIVE LE ROCK 8/10
‘Ever wondered how to bring out a debut album that will blow your mind and make you unable to stop playing it? The easy answer just dropped and Sweet Crisis are the solution to all your dreams. JACE MEDIA 10/10
Just when you start to believe there are overtold stories with nothing left to reveal, a director such as Todd Haynes comes along and explodes (in Warholian terms) the plastic inevitable. In telling the retread tale of how a New York poet/guitarist such as Lou Reed met a Welsh avant-classicist such as John Cale and so on, Haynes’ “The Velvet Underground” focuses on lesser publicized elements of how the drone-and-drug-filled sounds of The VU commenced.
Finding, however, that there was almost no live concert footage (unlike, say, Reed/Cale associates such as Bowie or Dylan, whose every move was captured on camera), Haynes—with a keen eye and historical curation for the Pop Art and the experimental film of the late-1950s and early-’60s—welcomed the mother of invention as his collaborator. Along with interviewing and dedicating his documentary to legendary NYC underground cineaste Jonas Mekas, “The Velvet Underground” features great elements of Warhol’s experimental films such as Empire, Sleep, and his Screen Test series, along with clips of color-saturated, avant-garde classics such as Scorpio Rising and Flaming Creatures so as to pen a visual homage to the 1960s film world. Closer to an art gallery exhibition than a typical rock-doc, Haynes’ VU film is a love letter to a scene, and not just a sound.
What the new Criterion Collection Blu-ray release adds—what you wanted the home media release to do from the start—beyond offering interview outtakes with Cale, Tucker, Mekas, and Factory actor and dancer Mary Woronov, is entire full versions of the avant-garde films excerpted in the movie, including those of Kenneth Anger and Jack Smith, along with Piero Heliczer’s Venus in Furs. There’s a real and formal cinematic magic to be found with this inclusion—dare I say, it’s now a work of art—something more awesome than just the vividly alive bites of A/V that Haynes teasingly flashes at you during his run at The Velvet Underground. Without exaggeration, Criterion just made the very best music documentary of our time better still, something worthy of both blinding white light and white heat.
Along with welcoming Maureen Tucker’s economic drumming and Sterling Morrison’s Gamelan guitar lines, and connecting with Andy Warhol and Factory minions such as Edie Sedgwick and Fellini-actress-turned-one-note-chanteuse Nico, Haynes leans into more personal stories of a young Reed—the pre-Stonewall queer poet/lyricist and his early coffeehouse days—and the student Cale. Because Cale is the only co-founder left alive (and radically active: his new album “Mercy” comes out in January), his is the lion’s share of real-time opinion. How things heated up—with almost no money—for the sake of their eponymous-titled debut, then broke down with Reed’s cattiness and provocation pushing Cale out of a band he helped create after VU’s outré and scarier second album “White Light/White Heat”.
This soundtrack is curated by the documentary’s director, Todd Haynes, and music supervisor Randall Poster. It includes well-known and rare tracks from the band as well as songs and performances that influenced The Velvet Underground, including the doo-wop of The Diablos, the ground breaking rock and roll of Bo Diddley, and the avant-garde compositions of La Monte Young. Its booklet also features exclusive liner notes by Haynes.
Featuring some of the band’s most well-known tracks, rarities and songs that influenced them, the soundtrack serves as the perfect introduction to the band and companion piece to the film and features such favourites as “Sunday Morning,” “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” “Pale Blue Eyes,” “I’m Waiting for The Man” and “Sweet Jane,” as well as the mono version of “Heroin” and the rare cut “Foggy Notion.” Also featured are live versions of “After Hours” and “Sister Ray,” Nico’s “Chelsea Girls,” and the tongue-in-cheek novelty song “The Ostrich” by The Primitives, an early band formed by Lou Reed and John Cale.
Recording the first Velvet Underground LP at Scepter Studios New York in April 1966. Sterling Morrison is playing a rare Jennings built Phantom Mark III which would have been gifted by Thomas Organ in the period prior to their Italian stock arriving – note the ‘Vox’ sticker on the body that was often applied to artist loan stock. John Cale’s JMI Phantom bass had this sticker too. Hard to be certain which tracks – if any – this guitar appeared on (Sterling also used Lou’s Gretsch and a Kent Copa 532). But listening to the record (and owning the same model Kent which has the destinctive tone clearly audible on ‘I’m WaitingFor The Man’) I’d put money on the Mk III or Sterlings Phantom VI being used on ‘Heroin’ behind Lou’s strummed Gretsch. Food for thought anyway.
“The Velvet Underground: A Documentary Film By Todd Haynes – Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack” collects a lot of the music that we hear and watch in the documentary. The set opens with the Velvet Underground’s classic “Venus In Furs” (from the fabulous and unparalleled 1967 debut album “The Velvet underground & Nico”). We then go back in time and get a number of older tracks which heavily influenced the band members, such as the delightful 1954 “The Wind” by the Diablos and later a scorching 1963 live track “Road Runner” by Bo Diddley. In between we get a 6 minute. experimental instrumental by the Theater of Eternal Music. Best of all, we get a rollicking “The Ostrich”, a 1964 single by the Primitives, a pre-VU band, fleshed out by several early VU track, all from the 1967 debut album, including an interesting “Heroin”, here from the original mono version from the album. And we even get a Nico solo track, the wonderful “Chelsea Girls”, from her 1967 debut solo album.
Side two opens with the 19+ minute live track “Sister Ray” (originally from the band’s second album “White Light/White Heat”). This live track was recorded in New York on April 30th, 1967 and the audio quality is not the greatest, but it’s obviously an important historical recording to have. I must admit, “Sister Ray” never was one of my favourite VU songs. “Pale Blue Eyes” (from the 1969 “The Velvet Underground” album) follows. We then get “Foggy Notion”, which first appeared on the “VU” outtakes album released in 1985, but this is the remixed version (from “The Velvet Underground 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition”). It is followed by and excellent “After Hours” live track (recorded on November 6th, 1969 in San Francisco). The last side is rounded out by the classic “Sweet jane” (from “Loaded”), “Ocean” (from the “VU” outtakes album), and lastly, one more track from the band’s 1967 debut album “All Tomorrow’s Parties”, which plays over the documentary’s closing credits.
If you are interested in a more comprehensive overview of the entire Velvet Underground, there are a number of compilations out there that will serve you better than this. The 2CD package comes with a 16 page booklet, including 2 page liner notes from Todd Haynes himself, but more importantly, the booklet also has detailed recording credits for all of the 16 songs.
As to the movie itself, this documentary is not your regular rock documentary. Instead, director Todd Haynes provides a subjective look at not just how the Velvet Underground came about, but more broadly what New York was like in the early/mid 1960s, including Andy Warhol’s The Factory and many other aspects. The amount of unseen footage and photos from that era is quite amazing. Bottom line: “The Velvet Underground”, both the soundtrack and the movie, is a winner for anyone who is a fan of VU or simply interested in understanding a slice of rock music history.
A Stunning documentary. I saw it at my local cinema on the big screen with the music very loud and detailed as so it should. Captures New York in the sixties, fast, split screen, interviews, live footage, Warhol etc. I was in a state of shell at the end, drained but exhilarated.
The roots of Naima Bock’s music are far reaching. Born in Glastonbury to a Brazilian father and a Greek mother, Naima spent her early childhood in Brazil before eventually returning to England and various homes in South-East London. This heritage combines with more recent pursuits in Naima’s music; from the Brazilian standards that the family would listen to driving to the beach, to the European folk traditions she tapped into on her own, and the pursuits that interest her today – studies in archaeology, work as a gardener, and walking the world’s great trails – Naima’s music draws from family, the earth and the handing down of music through generations.
Naima’s debut album “Giant Palm” is undoubtedly infused with the Brazilian music of her youth and regular family visits. She found inspiration in “the percussion, the melodies, chords – and particularly the poetic juxtaposition of tragedy and beauty held within the lyrics”. By the age of 15 Naima was embedded in the music scene of South-East London, slotting into a group of like-minded friends writing and playing music. This led to the creation of Goat Girl, the band she toured the world with playing bass and singing alongside her school friends. After six years, Naima decided to leave Goat Girl to try something new. In the intervening years she set up a gardening company and started a degree at University College London in archeology because, as she jokes, “I liked being near the ground”. During this time she was writing music, playing guitar, and learning violin. She was also introduced to producer and arranger Joel Burton through Josh Cohen and his label, Memorials of Distinction. Over the time he and Naima worked together, Joel’s burgeoning interest in Western Classical music, global folk music, experience in large scale arrangement and orchestration informed the collaborative process that eventually culminated in “Giant Palm”.
Naima had been writing songs for years without any strong idea of where to take them. However, over a gradual process of rehearsing and performing with Joel, the compositions began to settle into something more concrete. It wasn’t until restrictions began to ease post- lockdown that they were able to focus on getting the songs finished and recorded. Fortunately, Dan Carey of Speedy Wunderground offered his spare studio space in Streatham, in south east London, free of charge. Informed by a desire to create music that was considered and intentional, they spent the month leading up to the recording expanding the arrangements, to be performed by a large and varied group of musicians – with Joel scoring parts and recording the synth and electronic elements in advance. Once they managed to schedule slots for the more-than 30 musicians on the record – the expansive yet delicate arrangements were brought to life and captured with the help of engineer Syd Kemp.
Naima loves the collective voice of traditionals that belong to everyone. She’s recently found a home for this passion in her role in the ever-shifting line-up of South-London folk collective Broadside Hacks, but it’s long been a way for her to explore her own artistry. She learned to play guitar and violin through these songs, but she also found her voice in them. “All the other representations that I’d had of singing felt so unattainable” she recalls, but in folk music she found that singing can take on so many forms without the need to exactly replicate something. Here, qualities that make her voice unique were able to flourish. This is present all through her music, as well as a feeling of community and the sharing of ideas.
Written over the space of years, each of Naima’s songs represents a snapshot of a specific feeling, of brief moments in Naima’s life that make up a larger whole. “I never change lyrics” she says, “even if I don’t relate to them anymore, I related to them once which means someone else could, somewhere”. Whether that’s in the playful humour of ‘Campervan’, the peaceful exhale of ‘Giant Palm’ or in the darker moments like in the stark, self-critical honesty of ‘Every Morning’, whatever the form it’s always laid bare.
There’s also a feeling of clarity to the songs, which Naima largely credits to the fact that many of them were written while walking. She finds inspiration in the meditative and revealing nature of long walks with a fixed but far-off destination. “There’s a stripping away that takes place”, she says, the slowing of thoughts by the rhythm of walking is often to thank for the sharp focus of her lyrics. Be that during a period of three years where she would return to Spanish pilgrimage network Camino de Santiago for weeks at a time, or simple hours spent in the English countryside.
‘Giant Palm’ is the name of the song out today with a video, and it is also the name of my debut album that we are announcing today to come out on July 1st through Sub Pop Records / Memorials of Distinction.
We are announcing an in-store at Rough Trade East on the 1st of July for the album release. We are also playing a headline show at the Lexington in London on the 23rd of May.
“Giant Palm” by Naima Bock from the upcoming album ‘Giant Palm,’ out July 1st on Sub Pop Records.
The highest apex of psychedelia, be it art, music, drugs or literature, is to induce a prolonged consciousness shift that affects the consumer far beyond the time they were privy to the act. Moon Duo‘s third full-length LP, “Shadow of the Sun“, was written entirely during one of these evolving phases — a rare and uneasy rest period, devoid of the constant adrenaline of performing live and the stimulation of traveling through endless moving landscapes. This offered Moon Duo a new space to reflect on all of these previous experiences and cradle them while cultivating the album in the unfamiliar environment of a new dwelling; a dark Portland basement. It was from this stir-crazy fire that “Shadow of the Sun” was forged.
Evolving the sound of their first two full-length records, Mazes (2011) and Circles (2012), Moon Duo — Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada — have developed their ideas with the help of their newly acquired steam engine, Canadian drummer John Jeffrey (present on the band‘s last release, Live in Ravenna).
The unchartered rhythms and tones present on this record are reflective of Moon Duo’s strive for equilibrium in this aforementioned new environment. You can hear it is the result of months of wrangling with a profound feeling of being unsettled – there are off-kilter dance rhythms, repetitive, grinding riffs, cosmic trucker boogies and even an ecstatically pretty moment. Mixing with Jonas Verwijnen in Berlin, allowed for a creative catharsis and dissolved the album’s formal technique into a cool and paradoxically sane sound of confusion.
Moon Duo “Shadow of the Sun” Available on Sacred Bones Records
The Weather Station’s splendid six-song EP finds Tamara Lindeman moving from abject loneliness to impending marriage without ever becoming loud, fast or bothered. She possesses the unwavering patience of Bill Callahan’s later records, delivering every word and worry like she’s pondered it all into acceptance.
2014 EP from The Weather Station now available worldwide from Fat Possum. With brothers Cook from Bon Iver, Hiss Golden Messenger, Megafaun et al…
Fat Possum Records Originally Released on: 2014-10-14
Wet Leg—the British indie rock duo of Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers—have released their debut self-titled album. Much of the album was recorded in London before the band had played its first show. “I wanted to write fun songs, I didn’t want to indulge sad feelings too much, I wanted to write stuff that’s fun to listen to and fun to play,” Teasdale said of the album in a statement. “But then, the sad seeps through, as well.”
The magic trick of the Wet Leg roll out is that while the songs on their record were written around the same time, they were fed to us in a sequence that filled in the character of the band and made it look like real-time creative growth. They were introduced as inscrutable and mischievious weirdos with “Chaise Longue,” but as the songs came out the lyrical POV became more apparent – they’re writing songs about being young women who want to have a good time but keep running into all the odd and annoying ways a good time can be spoiled by other people. There’s a raw vulnerability in a lot of their songs that wasn’t apparent on the aloof and opaque “Chaise Longue” but the playfulness of that song carries over to even their most fraught heart-on-sleeve numbers, so it all clicks together nicely.
“Being In Love” hit me as an instant classic the moment I heard them play it at their show at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn in December. The lyrical conceit is simple but very strong – Rhian Teasdale is singing about a powerful and debilitating anxiety, but deciding that she doesn’t hate the feeling because it strongly resembles the feeling of falling in love. The song, which has an energy halfway between that of Wet Leg forebears Blondie and Elastica, really sells the crush feeling but the lyrics subvert the form by completely removing the romantic element. You could listen to it and make it about a person, but it would be missing the point.
Setlist : Chaise Longue 03:33 – Supermarket 06:45 – Wet Dream 09:09 – Oh No 11:41 – Too Late Now
The Fat Angel Sings 