A spellbinding take on one of the 90’s highwater records. Dark, dank, and enthralling. I might actually prefer some of these tracks to their originals, which as a huge R.E.M. fan is really saying something.
Back in 1989, the Go-Betweens supported R.E.M. on Tour. This sparkling, sun-dappled 2020 Australian cover album of “Out of Time” sounds like a shiny, happy marriage of the harmonies of the Go-Betweens and the alt rock of R.E.M.
Originally released via Turntable Kitchen’s Sounds Delicious vinyl series Quivers’ recorded a re-imagning of R.E.M.’s Out of Time (1991). We hope you like our re-imagining of the record and we hope Mike Mills doesn’t sue us (I had a dream he would, twice).
All tracks written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe. Turntable Kitchen has sorted the relevant license.
Quivers are: Sam Nicholson – sings, guitars Bella Quinlan – sings, bass, guitars Holly Thomas – sings, drums Michael Panton – sings, guitars.
Conceived by members of Yucky Duster and Public Practice following a move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, Le Pain makes retro, twee-oriented pop that toes the line between Stereolab and Jane Birkin. Enlisting the help of multi-instrumentalist Scott Rosenthal and bassist Alan Everhart, family members Madeline and Olivia Babuka Black have a knack for cheffing up sunny, bilingual music that wouldn’t sound out of place in a ’60s art film. Synths and guitar chords swirl atop crashed drums on the band’s track “Is That How You Want Me to Feel?”.
Chirpy lyrics shift between French and English, complementing the track’s stylish, mid-century charm. At once sexy, alluring, is the perfect cartoonish midsummer anthem to soundtrack your next drive to the beach.
Three Lobed Recordings label says: In mulling over their career, it’s staggering to realize that Sonic Youth not only delivered a healthy slab of releases as a unit but also have a myriad of shelved material still waiting for broader ears. While the group’s current Bandcamp abode lays out a generous amount of it, a bunch more has yet to surface. And it’s a massive mountain to chip away at in the sense of the group output alone; individual members’ projects are a whole other game, needless to say. “In/Out/In” ably delivers a new slab of mostly-unheard Sonic righteousness, with a scope on the post 2000-era band in specially zoned/exploratory regions.
Here’s taster In & Out. A ghostly trance-like jam, stirring and spooky, withKim Gordon wailing all over it andThurston Moore letting his guitar do the psychedelic talking.
“In/Out/In” reveals their last decade to be still heavy on the roll-tape and bug-out Sonic Youth. Not all recorded in one session but rather spread out over 2000-2010, the sequencing here is especially well thought out. Opening with the 2008 “Basement Contender” we get a super-unfiltered glimpse of the band at Kim and Thurston’s Northampton house creating a gentle springboard of Venusian choogle, with phased Lee lappings at cascading Thurston figures forming a simmering soundtrack. “Machine” offers another instrumental track from “The Eternal” sessions and is a steamy exercise in stop-start rhythmic grunt amidst a jungle of chiming and upward spiraling chord progressions. We’ve also got the extended score offering “Social Static” from the Chris Habib/Spencer Tunick film of the same name, draping white sheets of noise over your head then descending into a gauzy maw of car-alarm guitars and ambient-yet-disruptive turbulence that eventually subsides into a smoky coda. Two more tracks round out the set both culled from a Three Lobed box set of various artists from 2011 called “Not the Spaces You Know”, But Between Them”: “In & Out” quietly resembles Can in a cave with dripping stalactites of Kim’s wordless tone rumble and was recorded at a soundcheck in Pomona California and their home Hoboken turf in 2010. “Out & In” from 2000 was done in their late downtown NYC studio and serves to close out this LP’s last 12 minutes as a reminder of what they got up to with O’Rourke there. More gentle time shift chord framework erupts into molten fury three minutes in, before mutating into the sonic equivalent of a slowly collapsing star.
Casting an audio net over the entire instrumental/outtake oeuvre of Sonic Youth’s long history isn’t something easily committed to a single release without a doubt. Hearing these tracks in comparison to, say, 1986’s “Made In USA” material shows the massive leaps they took over the years. Whereas ’86 showed them freshly discovering their go-with-the-flow instrumental abilities for a soundtrack, their last decade showed them complementing the ambience with assured twists and turns that only came to be through their inimitable and rooted telepathy. That, plus the freedom to compose in more comfortable environs other than dank Ludlow Street rental spaces (hard to believe “Daydream Nation” was created in a claustrophobic practice basement) most assuredly was a component in their continued paths of discovery. Shifting on the drop of a dime from quiet/deep forays into full on noised-out Autobahn stomps with Steve Shelley at the wheel, they painted detailed and varied brush strokes and continually created organic sounds that undoubtedly carried the signature sound of the band, while ringing loud with their continual drive to free themselves from just that. Enjoy this capsule.
New album ‘Sunshine Rock’ out now on Merge Records. Wioth a World Tour which begins February 14th, The EP includesan acoustic version of “Divide and Conquer” that seems just as relevant today, if not even moreso, and fits with the themes on “Blue Hearts” perfectly. Bob Mould’s “The Ocean”, is a new digital EP featuring three solo acoustic live performances, is available now at all streaming services! Originally recorded for NPR’s World Café at Mould’s Granary Music home studio, “The Ocean” EP collects stripped-back versions of “The Ocean” and “Forecast of Rain” from “Blue Hearts“, as well as a striking rendition of the Hüsker Dü classic “Divide and Conquer.”
Following her eponymous debut album in 2019, Sasami Ashworth buttresses her reputation as one of music’s most talented polymaths with sophomore effort ‘Squeeze’. Featuring the wonderful single ‘Sorry Entertainer’, it takes in nu-metal, country, pop and folk and injects them with almost classical qualities.
Sasami Ashworth, aka SASAMI. On her sophomore LP “Squeeze“, the 31-year-old Los Angeles musician emulates her idols, mostly ditching the yearning shoegaze and dream-pop of her self-titled 2019 debut for metal, industrial and grunge. Through these newly loud and aggressive sounds.
Few albums this year had a bite as sharp as “Squeeze“, a thrashing, scowling project brilliantly executed after the classically trained artist and former Cherry Glazerr member Sasami decided to mess with stark metal sounds. The idea, she has said, was to barge into music too often thought of as the domain of white dudes: “The more I feel I’m made to be small, I just turn the amp up and my voice gets more aggressive.” But Sasami’s take is entirely her own thing. She’s singing or snarling, depending on the song, loading up tracks like the jagged opener “Skin a Rat” with so much chaotic, combustible energy, they throb long after they’ve ended.
Ashworth has also played synth in Cherry Glazerr and, in a couple of TV appearances she forges a space in which one can combine their own rage with hers and feel newly liberated through group catharsis, without inflicting any real-world violence. The maelstrom of distorted guitars and pounding percussion results in her best songs yet.
SASAMI – “Say It” from the forthcoming album ‘Squeeze’ out 25th February 2022 on Domino Record Co.
Having already taken by the music world by storm thanks to their 2015 debut, “The Positions”, 2017’s Go“Farther in Lightness” expanded upon the band’s grandiose musical vision and saw them anointed as one of the country’s most respected exports. Since then, it’s been five long years as fans have waited for a follow-up, with the first taste of their third record having begun to emerge last year.
Upon the release of “the angel of 8th ave.” on their “total serene” EP in July, Gang of Youths slowly gave their fans an indicator of what to expect. While frontman Dave Le’aupepe had previously teased a 2020 release for the record, with a focus on his father’s passing, the story began to slowly take shape as singles began to emerge and showcasing a more resonant, powerful, and emotional side of the group.
Seeing as we’ve already included four “angel in realtime“. singles in our weekly Best New Songs picks, including the most recent one just yesterday (February. 24th), it’s safe to say that we’re hyped for Gang of Youths’ third full-length release. The album is the Australian band’s first in five years, following 2017’s critically acclaimed “Go Farther in Lightness“, and comes after multiple versions of the album had already been scrapped, according to an interview the band did with NME. What we hear now finds frontman David Le’aupepe reaching for the ethereal; “Ah, there’s heaven in you now,” he repeats at the close of “the angel of 8th avenue” as a fittingly heavenly musical swell rises around him.
Even the darker lyrical moments are wrapped up in those moments of catharsis that feel otherworldly.
Twin brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh formed Bambara with childhood friend William Brookshire in 2007, making the move from their hometown of Athens, Georgia, to Brooklyn in 2011 and putting out compelling, often chilling blues-punk ever since. Now, they’ve returned with “Love on My Mind“, an EP that might be their most fully realized collection of songs to date.
Singles “Mythic Love” and “Birds” (one of our favorite songs from January) thrash through bodies on the subway platform, while tracks like “Point and Shoot” and “Slither in the Rain” slink down alleyways where only the whites of the eyes are visible. Equal parts sensual and spiritual, the EP captures the city’s icy cool, albeit from the perspective of whatever’s haunting the crumbling buildings and smoking sewers.
“Wash this filthy city from your skin with me / We’ll cut our hair and burn our things and leave by spring,” an angelic pair of voices echo all through the end of “Little Wars,” before we get swallowed up by the pavement again. It’s doubtful you’d ever leave if this was the soundtrack you’ll just have to check over your shoulder as you go.
“Dig What You Need” collects the best of the band’s two reformation albums, 2003’s “Get What YouNeed” and 2007’s “Dig Yourself Deep”. All tracks have been digitally remastered and remixed by PaulTipler, and all tracks are being released for the first time on vinyl!
Damian O’Neill notes…”So dig this: “Thrill Me / Oh Please / I’m Recommending Me / Dig Yourself Deep / Here Comes The Rain” all firm favourites on an Undertones set list these days, songs penned by John O¹Neill and Michael Bradley. So it’s a no brainer really that all these songs (and more) should finally be included on a best-of compilation taken from the two albums we’ve recorded with Paul McLoone. Even better is the fact we got producer/mixing maestro Paul Tipler to remix them with fresh ears and make them sound even better than the originals.
Add to that the wonderful packaging and sleeve design courtesy of Bruce and Mary from Arthole and lo and behold we have a sonically cohesive bunch of nuggets waiting to be rediscovered all over again. So dig this compilation my friends – you know you won¹t be disappointed”.
“Indie-rock band Peach Pit’s new album “From 2 to 3” infuses more organic and acoustic elements into Peach Pit’s signature-smooth sound, with many band members playing multiple instruments on the record such as tambourine, cowbell, harmonica, lap steel, and more. Lead singer Neil Smith says: “From 2 to 3″ is a collection of songs that were written late at night, alone in a small apartment with a hushed voice so as not to wake anyone … The guys and I and our long-time collaborator Lester also went on a road trip this summer and filmed some videos that we really feel capture the spirit of the music perfectly. We’re very excited about releasing new music; making records together is really one of the most fun things for us. But there’s nothing as exciting as the thought of playing live again.
It’s something obviously everyone has missed so much, going to concerts, hanging out with your buds. And for us it’s by far the best part of what we get to do. And things are looking up, baby! We can’t wait to see everyone in 2022.”
For a significant section of the music-loving public, a ‘Peel Session’ is a more definitive chronicle of an artist’s sound than a “proper” LP.
Particularly for acts who cut their teeth on the live circuit rather than in the booth, the radio-ready recordings on John Peel’s radio shows often found a good middle-ground between studio and stage. They mark not only a moment in time, but also something more ineffable, that strange alchemy which arrives when a group of musicians are asked to turn out their material with the usual chutzpah but without an audience to feed off. John Peel may no longer be on the air, but the ‘Peel Session’ and its derivatives remain an evergreen watermark.
What makes Come’s ‘Peel Sessions’ interesting is that this compilation is not only a demonstration of their chops live in-studio, but it also makes for a neat survey of a broader period in the band’s development. Formed by members from a variety of stellar acts from the East Coast of the USA (Codeine, Live Skull, more), it was no surprise that Come came out of the traps with a sound that put them right amongst the early 90s alt-rock scrum. They played with indie steez, sure, but there was enough chug and squall to their sound to nudge them towards noisier and no-wave-ier rock climates too.
The style was at once of its time yet also pushed out towards jagged fringes that many of their contemporaries didn’t dare explore, and Come had become one of the buzziest bands in the U.S. rock underground by the time they dropped 1992 debut LP ‘11:11’. ‘Peel Sessions’ focuses on the BBC recordings the band made around this time – the first quartet of tracks culled from a 1992 taping, the next four made a year later as Come geared up for sophomore drop ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’.
1992’s four track session is direct from their debut; but more mangled, strangled and abrasive. The follow-up set from a year later includes live favourite ‘Mercury Falls’ and ‘City Of Fun’ neither of which surfaced as studio recordings.
Come appear to have thrived in the immediacy of Maida Vale. While the albums either side of these sessions remain fine examples of what the band could do, they suffer a little from that slightly thin production style that one finds on some early-90s alt-rock. With the ‘Peel Sessions’, however, we encounter no such problems. These takes are ripped and raw, a perfect blend for a sound as ragged-edged as Come’s.
Vocalists Thalia Zedek and Chris Brokaw both benefit from going live and direct, albeit in different ways. Brokaw exudes leather-jacketed cool on The Only Ones cover ‘City Of Fun’, his incantation of “hey hey, what you say?” almost as chic as Lou Reed. Zadek backs him up on that track, and she serves similar flintiness when leading cuts like ‘Wrong Side’, but the moments when she rags her voice amid the grungy jank of ‘Dead Molly’ and ‘Sharon Vs Karen’ make for some of the record’s highest points.
The pair of ‘Peel Sessions’ here find Come in their element, a band riding the zeitgeist while simultaneously toying with it. They sound confident, assured, full of muscle and brio, and the chunky tapings bottle that energy fabulously well. However, perhaps the most interesting artefact on all of this LP is the one track which wasn’t recorded in London.
Closing cut ‘Clockface’ is a live capture made in 1991 in Come’s home city of Boston. Compared to the relative gloss of the BBC songs, this track sounds positively homely – you can hear audience chatter over the opening strains, and the presumably off-the-cuff circumstances of the recording make for a muddy sound which gives Come’s bluesy noise-rawk an intriguingly pinched quality. Particularly when ‘Clockface’ itself expands for its final section, the whole affair has a curious and beguiling intimacy about it.
“Peel Sessions” is an essential nine-track set catching Boston’s mighty Come at the peak of their powers. The collection includes two sessions recorded for John Peel in both 1992 and 1993, plus a previously unreleased live track ‘Clockface’ from 1991, unwrapping the blueprint of their sonic idealism. Raw, loud and live, exactly where the band’s dissonant blues noise rock originates.
Track List:
Side A, Dead Molly , Bell , William , Off To One Side (Peel Session, 1992)
Side B, Wrong Side , Sharen vs. Karen, Mercury Falls, City Of Fun (Peel Session, 1993) Added Track Clockface (Live in Boston, 1991)
The Fat Angel Sings 