Singer songwriter Naima Bock is sharing a new video for “Campervan,” directed by Cassidy Hansen, and a standout track from “Giant Palm”, her forthcoming full-length debut.
Naima says of the track, “Campervan” is another collaboration between myself and producer Joel Burton. This is a song about the falling apart of a relationship and the bleak impact that it seems to have on us as humans and the renewal that it can provide afterwards. We thought it would be fun to approach the song from a more tongue-in-cheek perspective; Joel’s arrangements draw on western cowboy nostalgia as well as orchestral influences such as ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’ by Joaquin Rodrigo and ‘Pure Imagination’ from the 1971 Willy Wonka film.
The process of writing the song was a joyful and creative one, turning something depressing into something that doesn’t take itself too seriously whilst preserving the poignancy and melodrama of heartache.”
Naima Bock’s international touring schedule in support of Giant Palm begins in June through to October.
The third album from the New Zealand quartet houses 12 jewels of tight, guitar-heavy songs that worm their way into your head, an incandescent collision of power-pop and skuzz.
With expert, The Beths wanted to make an album meant to be experienced live, for both the listeners and themselves. they wanted it to be fun — to hear, to play — in spite of the prickling anxiety throughout the lyrics, the fear of change and struggle to cope. Most of expert was recorded at guitarist Jonathan Pearce’s studio on Karangahape road in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa (Auckland, New Zealand) — and sometimes in the building’s cavernous stairwell at 1am — Toward the end of 2021, until they were interrupted by a four-month national lockdown. They traded notes remotely for months, song writing from afar and fleshing out the arrangements alone, the first time they’d written together in such a way. the following February, The Beths left the country for the first time in more than two years to tour across the USA, and simultaneously finish mixing the album on the road.
The latter half felt more collaborative, with everyone on-hand to trade notes in real time, until it all culminated in a chaotic three-day studio mad-dash in Los Angeles. there, “Expert In A Dying Field” finally became the record they were hearing in their heads. “Expert” is an extension of the same skuzzy palette the band has built across their catalogue, pop hooks embedded in incisive indie rock. the album’s title track “Expert In A Dying Field” introduces the thesis for the record: “how does it feel to be an “Expert In A Dying Field” how do you know it’s over when you can’t let go?” Stokes asks. “love is learned over time ‘til you’re an expert in a dying field.” the rest is a capsule of The Beths’ most electrifying and exciting output, a sonic spectrum: “your side” is a forlorn and sincere love song, emotive; while “Silence Is Golden,” with its propulsive drum line and stop-start staccato of a guitar line winding up and down, is one of the band’s sharpest and most driving. “Silence Is Golden” maintains The Beths’ bright power-pop and guitar-driven song structures.
There’s a palpable tension throughout the track, reinforced by the tight percussion and Elizabeth Stokes’ rapid repetition of “The sound, the sound, the sound, the sound, the sound, the sound, the sound, the sound.” The unbearable level of noise getting under her skin, she compares it to a “building to a jet plane engine / Building to 6 a.m. construction / It’s building and building and building until I can’t function at all.”
“When You Know You Know” skews a bit groovier, pure pop and a natural addition to the band’s live set. “Knees Deep” was written last minute, but yields one of the best guitar lines on “expert“. there’s a certain chaos across the 12 tracks, the palpable joy of playing music with long-time friends colliding with the raw nerves of pain. Stokes strings it all together through her singular song writing lens, earnest and self-effacing, zeroing in on the granules of doubt and how they snowball. did i do the wrong thing? or did you? and are we still good people at the end of it? she isn’t interested in villains, but instead interested in just telling the story. that insecurity and thoughtfulness, translated into universality and understanding, has been the guiding light of The Beths’ output since 2016. In the face of pain, there’s no dwelling on internal anguish – instead, through The Beths’ music, our shortcomings are met with acceptance. and “Expert in a Dying Field” is the most tactile that tenderness has been.
releases September 16th, 2022
The Beths: Elizabeth Stokes – Guitar, Vocal Jonathan Pearce – Guitar, Vocal, Keys Benjamin Sinclair – Bass, Vocal Tristan Deck – Drums, Vocal
All songs written by Elizabeth Stokes, except ‘Change In The Weather’ co-written by Jonathan Pearce
Aldous Harding has released the new song “Fever,” the second single from her forthcoming album “Warm Chris“. Harding made the video for “Fever” with Martin Sagadin.
Harding made “Warm Chris” with producer John Parish. It’s the follow-up to 2019’s “Designer” and it was released back in March via 4AD Records. The new record includes lead single “Lawn,” which also got a visual made by Harding and Sagadin. Quirky as anything, can’t get over this record! Every song is super unique in its own way.
An artist of rare calibre, Aldous Harding does more than sing; she conjures a singular intensity. The artist has announced details of “Warm Chris” her latest studio album, the follow-up to 2019’s acclaimed “Designer”.
For “Warm Chris”, the Aotearoa New Zealand musician reunited with producer John Parish, continuing a professional partnership that began in 2017 and has forged pivotal bodies of work (2017’s “Party” and the aforementioned “Designer”). All ten tracks were recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales, the album includes contributions from H. Hawkline, Seb Rochford, Gavin Fitzjohn, John and Hopey Parish and Jason Williamson (Sleaford Mods).
A beguiling, playful and wonderfully strange. Aldous continues to defy expectation. With the highlight The culmination of “Leathery Whip,” where a chorus of voices sing “Here comes life with his leathery whip”—an essential metaphor in Harding’s particular oeuvre
Read about Aldous Harding’s “Old Peel” in Pitchfork’s “The 8 Best Music Videos of June 2021.”
“Entering Heaven Alive” is the fifth studio solo album from Jack White, the founding member of the White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and the Dead Weather.
True to his diy roots, this record was recorded at White’s own Third Man Studio throughout 2021, mastered by Third Man mastering, and released by Third Man Records. Jack White has released “If I Die Tomorrow,” the brand-new single from White’s second album of 2022, “Entering Heaven Alive” (out July 22nd via Third Man Records). “If I Die Tomorrow” comes paired with a haunting new video directed by Brantley Gutierrez.
Additionally, White & Third Man Records have unveiled the limited edition vinyl variants for “Entering Heaven Alive” which are all available starting today. The vinyl variants include a ‘Detroit Denim’ independent record store exclusive version, ‘Tranquil Turquoise’ in the Third Man Records web store, ‘Heavenly Eclipse’ via Vinyl Me, Please, and a Barnes & Noble edition with an exclusive slip mat. Standard black vinyl, CD, limited edition
Jack White’s new song “If I Die Tomorrow” from the upcoming album “Entering Heaven Alive” out July 22nd, 2022.
By 1973, the Who had begun recording their “Quadrophenia” album, the rock opera about mod culture. The Quadrophenia tour started in Stoke on Trent in October ‘73 – the same month the record was released – but was immediately beset with sound and relationship problems.
Their US tour started on 20th November at the Cow Palace; a legendary show during which Keith Moon passed out, prompting Pete Townshend to ask the audience, “Can anyone play the drums? I mean somebody good.” The show was completed with audience member Scott Halpin behind Moon’s kit. The Who’s penultimate gig in the US during their ‘73 tour, was performed at the Spectrum in Philadelphia on December 4th. Playing a stunning concert which for many fans was the best show of the tour, the Who ripped through an extraordinary set, bookended by Who classics, but with a dynamic selection of numbers from “Quadrophenia” at its core.
The Who recorded live at The Spectrum in Philadelphia PA on 12/4/1973. Broadcast on the nationally syndicated King Biscuit Flower Hour on WXCD 94.7 Chicago and other stations nationwide. The Who: Pete Townshend – Guitar, Vocals; Roger Daltrey – Vocals, Harmonica; John Entwistle – Bass, Vocals; KeithMoon – Drums, Vocals
Richard Lewis: “A more complete version of this show is now in circulation and includes both “Punk and the Godfather” and “5:15″. “No Love Reign O’er Me“, yet which would complete the most likely setlist. However, after an 8 minute ovation the band returned to the stage for a 12 minute encore of “Naked Eye” I added the songs to setlist.
Bonny Light Horseman’s debut was a folk masterclass, re-imagining centuries-old standards with effortless grace and wonder. Those Grammy-nominated, list-topping songs not only suggested renewed possibilities for aging songbooks but also marked the arrival of a trio fully capable of reorienting the wider folk landscape. “Rolling Golden Holy” marks their return with preternatural beauty, charm, and imagination. This is a band working at the edge of modern folk. The band thrives in rendering fresh wisdom and insight from old models, whether scraps of ancient songs or the spark of entwined voices. Theirs is a space created for sharing, learning, risking, singing, and playing as one. The new album is the band’s testament to interdependence, partnership, and trust at a moment when we crave such connections so much. Anaïs Mitchell, Josh Kaufman and Eric D. Johnson as a trio fully appreciate what they have found in one another through Bonny Light Horseman; on “Rolling Golden Holy”, we get to live inside that magic, too.
From the upcoming album Rolling Golden Holy, out 7th Oct 2022 with 37d03d Records.
The iconic Pixies forged an influential path for alt-rock during their first era, while their post 2004 reunion has seen them alchemize more sophisticated dark arts – a return which has them add another three UK Top 10 albums to the three they achieved on their first run. Now as fired up as ever before, Pixies are readying the release their eighth studio album “Doggerel” via BMG, including lead single ‘There’s a Moon On’.
Doggerelis a mature yet visceral record of gruesome folk, ballroom pop and brutal rock, haunted by the ghosts of affairs and indulgences, driven wild by cosmic forces and envisioning digital afterlives where no God has provided one. And all the while, right there on the news, another distant storm approaches.
Official Lyric Video for There’s A Moon On by Pixies – from the new album Doggerel, out on September 30th.
When Martin Courtney was a teenager, he knew how to get lost. In the late ‘90s and early 2000s, there’s Martin, loaded into a car with friends. They’re navigating the suburban sprawl of New Jersey with no destination in mind. He and his friends would “get thoroughly confused and look for familiar green signs with arrows pointing to towns we’d heard of. We’d call them ‘magic signs,’” he says.
That’s the thing about magic: when you go looking for it, you start to see it everywhere. And you can hear it twinklingly throughout the ten songs on “Magic Sign“, the second solo album written, performed, & produced by the Real Estate songwriter. The album was recorded, mixed & co-produced by Rob Schnapf. Additional performers include Matt Barrick, Oliver Hill, Kacey Johansing, and Tim Ramsey
Real Estate band member Martin Courtney – “Sailboat” from the forthcoming album ‘Magic Sign’ out 24th June 2022 on Domino Record Co.
The best music reflects a wide-screen view of the world back at us, helping distill the universal into something far more personal. Since forming in Austin in 2004, The Black Angels have become standard-bearers for modern psych-rock that does exactly that, which is one of many reasons why the group’s new album, “Wilderness of Mirrors”, feels so aptly named. In the five years since the band’s prior album, “Death Song“, and the two-plus years spent working on “Wilderness of Mirrors”, pandemics, political tumult and the ongoing devastation of the environment have provided ample fodder for the BlackAngels’ signature sonic approach.
“Wilderness of Mirrors” expertly refines the Black Angels’ psychedelic rock attack alongside a host of intriguing sounds and textures. There are classic blasts of fuzzed-out guitars meant to simultaneously perk up the ears and jumpstart the mind, alongside melancholy, acoustic guitar-driven newfound experiments. Mellotron, strings, and other keyboards also play a more prominent role on “Wilderness of Mirrors” than ever before.
Even amidst these new experimentations, The Black Angels remain masterfully true to psych-rock forebears such as Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson, Arthur Lee and the members of the Velvet Underground, all of whom are namechecked on album highlight “The River.” “The Velvet Underground song ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ – that’s what every Black Angels album has been about,” says vocalist/bassist Alex Maas. “You can’t work out your struggles unless you bring them to the forefront and think about them. If we can all think about them, maybe we can help save ourselves.”
“El Jardin” now from our forthcoming album “Wilderness of Mirrors”:
