Just aged 16, Colorado-based guitarist/vocalist Demi Demitro came up with the novel concept of backing herself with not one but two drummers in a bluesy garage trio she dubbed The Velveteers. It’s taken the band six years to finally release its reverb-soaked debut, “Nightmare Daydream”, on Easy EyeSound, the label of Grammy-winning Black Keys anchor Dan Auerbach. It was produced (and partially co-written) by Auerbach in his Nashville studio, as well. Thinking about the nefarious, unforgiving music business, Demitro sighs, wondering how she managed to last this long.
“It’s just taken a lot of hard work and determination because there were so many times along the way where it felt super-hard and like things weren’t going to work out,” she confesses. There were some truly dark self-doubting days, she adds. “Where you’re getting screwed over or having people take advantage of you — I had all these gut feelings about certain people, and they weren’t good ones. But I was just starting out, and I didn’t trust myself or my instincts yet.”
While touching on recent rock history — think the bare-bones attack of the White Stripes backed by the twin-tribal barrage of vintage Adam and the Ants — The Velveteers are a unique proposition. They’re rooted in the tandem pulse of percussionists Baby Pottersmith and Jonny Fig, but flickering through the mysterious, rockabilly-tinted lens of the silent-film-star-resplendent Demitro, who snarls as mean as she strums on the buzzing pile-driver “Motel #27,” a punk-hyper “Beauty Queens,” and an ominous, self-explanatory “What a Smile Can Hide.”
It’s a lesson she’s learned well.
For as long as she can remember, Demitro wanted to sing and had no contingency career plan. It might have started through osmosis, she reckons — her father was an Elvis impersonator, and his late-night home studio just happened to be on the other side of her bedroom wall. “So I would go to sleep every night, and he would be recording these Elvis songs until 4:00 am,” she recalls. “And he would also sing lots of Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash — just all the classics. So I just grew up with all these influences in my head, and I already had most of those songs memorized.” Unlike dad, however, she’d rather stun Velveteers concertgoers with rumbling old Stooges chestnuts, like “Search and Destroy.”
By trial and contract-signing error, Demitro fine-tuned her industry-weasel detector.
“But I’m grateful that it happened,” she says. “Because it taught me a lot about what to watch out for, and to be more cautious about who I surround myself with.”
When she heard that Auerbach had been impressed by live footage he’d seen of her online and was summoning her to an Easy Eye Sound summit meeting in Nashville, she finally felt comfortable meeting a showbiz stranger. “I’m really good at trusting my gut feelings now, and with Dan, I sensed that this was going to be a wonderful experience, and that it was definitely the right thing to do,” she says, pleased with how Auerbach captured her sound via an arsenal of retro equipment, like a Vamp amp made famous by Marc Bolan. “So I just trusted that feeling and went with it.”
The new album ‘Nightmare Daydream,’ available from October 8th:
“We’ll Go Riding on the Hearses” (2018) was first a handmade tape release before being released on vinyl. It’s an album of songs written after singer Sam lost his brother, Tom, unexpectedly in a free-diving accident. It’s maybe an album about that, but also about trying to not think about that, and often comes back to ghosts, benders, water, and pissing in the snow. The album was recorded halfway up Mount Wellington/kunanyi by Anthony Rochester in just two days to not overthink it all, and celebrates the catharsis that comes from singing with friends. All my best friends are a little broken, all the best people are.–
“Pigeons” is a perfect pop song. Am in love with this sound which invokes so many bands of my youth – The Farm, Kitchens of Distinction, The Dream Academy – but transcends them and seeks the same wisdom and joy on their own unique path
Recorded in Hobart, Tasmania, by Anthony Rochester.
Released May 22nd, 2018
Quivers: Sam J Nicholson (songs, guitars, piano, harmonium). James Woodberry (bass, acoustic, sings). Michael Panton (guitars). Adam D’Andrea (drums, sings).
“We needed a sad Christmas song, didn’t we? In the ‘bah humbug’ of it all?” Joni Mitchell asked NPR in 2014 while talking about her melancholic Christmas staple, “River,” off her seminal 1971 album, “Blue“.
Now fifty years later, Mitchell has paired the break-up song, said to be about her relationship with Graham Nash, with a beautifully wistful animated video — the song’s first ever official one.
Created by director Matvey Rezanov and Skazka Studios, the “River” video uses animated watercolour painting to “capture the song’s lonesome mood while paying tribute to Mitchell’s prolific creativity as a painter,” as the press release described. Its black-and-white palette perfectly captures the feeling of holiday heartbreak, with the pops of colour at the very end signalling a small slice of hope.
Mitchell was also celebrated earlier this month at the 44th annual Kennedy Centre Honours, where Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard and jazz musician Herbie Hancock (an oft collaborator of Mitchell’s) paid tribute with an affecting cover of “Both Sides Now,” originally from the singer’s 1969 album, “Clouds“.
Mitchell’s box set, “Archives Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963-1967)”, has also recently been nominated for a 2022 Grammy Award for best historical album, marking her 17th Grammy nomination to date. Two nights before the Grammys take place, Mitchell will again be honoured, this time as MusiCares’ 2022 Person of the Year during a tribute at the Los Angeles Convention Centre on Jan. 29.
The animated watercolour painting lends the perfect melancholic mood to the untraditional Christmas song
At its core, the Live Archive series functions as an aural time machine, transporting us back to performances preserved in our memories or, better still, to shows only a few fortunate souls witnessed in person. Based on that criteria, C.W. Post College, December 12th, 1975 announces itself as an exemplar of the Archive series, placing us in the best seat in the house on Long Island to experience a stupefying performance by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the height of their circa 1975 powers.
After wrapping a four-date, European tour in November, the final month of 1975 saw Bruce play his first proper Canadian shows, return to major markets Boston and Philadelphia, and perform at small colleges and universities across the northeast. The C.W. Post concert (along with a show at Seton Hall in South Orange, NJ) was the closest gig to New York City. Judging by the rapturous audience response preserved by this recording, the Gotham fanbase made the trek to Long Island. With audio cabling laid through the auditorium leading to a truck parked outside, it was also clear to those in-the-know that the show was being recorded—one more catalyst for a heightened reaction.
The Archive series holds an embarrassment of riches from late 1975, including New Year’s Eve in Philly; the covers-laden, second London show in late November; and the conversion of Los Angeles at The Roxy in October, each noteworthy in its own way. Yet the C.W. Post performance stands out, somehow marvelously loose and inch-perfect tight at the same time. Tempos are zooming, the mood is celebratory, and if London and Los Angeles were about winning over new fans, C.W. Post aims to blow away the hardcores.
The same can be said today, as this is the Born to Run tour show you didn’t know you needed but unequivocally do. The 24-track, Plangent-Processed analog recording, newly mixed by Jon Altschiller, is 4K vivid, rich in both on-stage detail and event atmosphere.
We start in traditional 1975 tour fashion with the stark, piano-version of “Thunder Road,” a rollicking, pacey “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” and “Spirit in the Night.” Immediately, Stevie Van Zandt’s guitar work jumps to the fore, as he improvises atop familiar licks, adding appealing shading and variation throughout an evening where his playing is the first among equals.
“Lost in the Flood” benefits from the aforementioned looseness, as Bruce unwinds the tale a little differently, while the E Street enhance the drama, bursting forth after Bruce sings “Jimmy the Saint,” led by Van Zandt’s bending guitar note.
“She’s the One” opens on a long harmonica intro riding Stevie’s guitar-pedal prowess and Roy Bittan’s peerless piano. The band joins full force after the first verse and chorus, another moment of irresistible dynamics as the rhythm section makes their presence known through Garry Tallent’s deep bass and Max Weinberg’s big beat and splashing cymbal work. An outstanding version.
Following “Born to Run” comes the first-ever performance of The Animals’ “It’s My Life,” a cover that would become a cornerstone of Springsteen shows for the next 14 months.. As Brucebase writes, “In the 1987 BBC documentary Glory Days, Max Weinberg spoke about the premiere of ‘It’s My Life’ when he was asked if Bruce had ever launched into a song without telling the band what he was going to play. Max said that the band had never rehearsed the song before playing it in concert, but fortunately they all knew it.”
“It’s My Life” was not soundchecked at C.W. Post, yet out of thin air it begins, minus the familiar story intro. For the first minute or so, the band feels its way through, the arrangement deferential to the original but being E Streetized right before our ears. Confidence grows, and somewhere close to the middle of the song they realize, “We’ve got this.”
“It’s My Life” would go on to become a setlist staple for the next year and into early 1977. Its sentiment and the story-intro that developed around it set the stage for Bruce’s own “Independence Day.” In the 2000s, the band regularly assayed cover songs suggested by signs in the audience, but this isn’t a one-off—it’s the origin moment for one of the most significant cover versions Springsteen ever performed. Sure, any card-carrying member of the E Street Band knew The Animals’ original, but to drop “It’s My Life” in mid-set, seemingly unrehearsed as Weinberg claimed and the C.W. Post arrangement supports, is audacious, joyful, and thrilling to hear.
Be that as it may, Bruce wastes little time segueing into a sprinting “Saint in the City,” and again the E Street Band flexes their musical muscles all the way through to the breakneck conclusion. A passionate “Backstreets” ensues, and one can only marvel at the level of performance by each member of the band. The spotlight justly turns to them for a long “Kitty’s Back” showcase, which finds the E Street in fine form not only instrumentally but vocally, too.
“Jungleland,” “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” (including Roy leading a “Hernando’s Hideaway” vamp), and “Sandy” continue an exceptional evening, each rendered as good or better than its 1975 peak. Bruce’s famous cover of “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” follows. The C.W. Post performance was quickly mixed after the show and released to supportive radio stations on tape. In the early 1980s, it was officially released, first on Columbia’s In Harmony 2 children’s compilation and later as the b-side to “My Hometown.”
The new version proves to be virtually identical to the original, save for a charming mix change that lets us more clearly hear the band members’ distinct responses to Bruce’s intro, including Steve’s emphatic, “It’s Christmas Time”
The encore extends with a cracking “Detroit Medley” that starts with a bang and rides some awesome chugga-chugga guitar riffing from Van Zandt. The stage then clears, and Bruce moves to the piano for a scintillating solo performance of “For You,” dedicated to his then-girlfriend Karen Darvin. The solo “For You” is a high point in the London 11/24/75 Archive release as well, but each reading is unique, and the C.W. Post version is distinctly captivating.
The band returns, and as they get set, Roy does another “name that tune” vamp, this time on “Don’t Be Cruel.” Bruce tells the boisterous crowd, “You guys are nuts!” before counting in “Sha La La.” Once more, Van Zandt lays down a blazing guitar lead and Springsteen’s high-energy vocals reflect his mood, which carries through to the closing number, “Quarter to Three.” The audience response during the song is bananas, perhaps causing the first cracks in the Post Dome that would collapse under the weight of snow in January 1978.
“Quarter to Three” concludes—as it must—with Bruce declaring, “I’m just a prisoner… of rock and roll!” Of that there can be no doubt, vouched for by those fortunate enough to be at C.W. Post on that December night, or the rest of us reliving the experience through this sublime addition to the Archive series. Thanks To Erik Flanagan for The words
The Band:
Bruce Springsteen – Lead vocals, guitar, harmonica; Roy Bittan – Piano, backing vocal; Clarence Clemons – Tenor and baritone saxophones, percussion, backing vocal; Danny Federici – Organ, glockenspiel; Garry Tallent – Bass; Stevie Van Zandt – Guitar, backing vocal; Max Weinberg – Drums
This is the 3rd album from Brighton’s Hattie Cooke that confirms her metamorphosis into a glorious synth empress! a record soaked in the outer edges of pop music, full of dense textures held together by Hattie’s unique voice.
The Brighton born artist’s third album and debut release for Castles in Space opens up her sound by managing to find a balance between the introspective and the communal. it is an album that looks forward whilst acknowledging the creators past creating a work full of a nostalgia that also feels vitally current. initially conceived as a soundtrack album, during its creation, “Bliss Land” morphed into a beautiful set of personal songs born out of anticipation, excitement and anxiety. speaking about the themes of the albums, Hattie says: “it wasn’t until the album was finished that I realised what it was about. having recently graduated from university and people were beginning to take more notice of my music. I was excited about the possibilities of the future, but at the same time the immediate future had been put on hold due to the pandemic, so I was frustrated and anxious. and then whenever i think about the future, I can’t help but think about the past and where I’ve come from and what I’ve been through to get to that point. so in some ways it’s a reflective record and in other ways it’s a record full of anticipation. “One Foot Out The Door” is a track that really resonates with me – it’s about that liminal space between the past and the future when you’re on the threshold of something. I think that’s what the album is about, it’s about the in-between moments. “growing up on a small council estate on the outskirts of Brighton in a house that was full of music. Both my parents played guitar and my dad also bought and sold records for a living. I taught myself the guitar at around twelve and made plenty of music throughout my teens. at 17, I won a scholarship to study at the British Institute of Modern Music and continued writing and playing local shows. I also started to learn how to record and produce my own music on Garageband as a necessary alternative to going into an expensive recording studio. Garageband has some fantastic synth and electronic drum sounds and that’s when I became more interested in electronic music and music production. in 2015, Third Kind Records approached me after hearing my songs on a homemade demo cd that a friend had passed on. we released my debut album in 2016 and I’ve been making and releasing music ever since.” Hattie writes, records and produces all her own albums, however she is keen to express how others have helped shaped parts of Bliss Land: “the record isn’t a completely solo effort, I had people along the way to help shape this album into what it became, although I had complete artistic freedom to let the album grow into what it wanted to be. With invaluable help from Dom Keen who helped me mix the album.
“Bliss Land” is an album soaked in the outer edges of pop music making it a cohesive and beautiful album full of dense textures held together by Hattie’s unique voice. it’s an album that will undoubtedly chime with a cross section of audiences.
Under the RadarMagazineis proud to announce “Covers of Covers”, which is the magazine’s first ever album. In honour of it’s 20th anniversary they approached some of our their favourite musicians and asked them to cover any song by any artist who had been on the front or back cover of our print issue over the years. “Covers of Covers”is due out March 4th, 2022 via American Laundromat, Here are two of its tracks: Grandaddy’s cover of Metric’s “Blindness” and EMA’s cover of Modest Mouse’s “Trailer Trash.” The album also features Cassandra Jenkins, Alex Lahey, Peter Bjorn and John, Hatchie, Nation of Language, Cults, Kevin Drew, Black Belt Eagle Scout, Sondre Lerche, Girl Ray, Piroshka, Strand of Oaks, Oceanator, C Duncan, NZCA LINES, Ora the Molecule, James Yorkston, and Water From Your Eyes.
“Covers of Covers”will be available on CD and digitally, with cassette tape and vinyl releases in the works too. Visit www.alr-music.com to preorder the album. We are also donating $1.00 from every physical album sold and every full album download purchased to Sweet Relief Musicians Fund (www.sweetrelief.org), which “provides financial assistance to all types of career musicians and music industry workers who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability, or age-related problems.”
Grandaddy was on the cover of Under the Radar’s very first issue, way back in December 2001, which is why it was essential to have them take part in the compilation. Metric’s Emily Haines was one of several musicians to appear on the fold out cover of our “O Canada” Issue in 2005, appearing alongside members of fellow north of the border artists Broken Social Scene, Tegan and Sara, The Dears, The New Pornographers, Stars, and others. Grandaddy’s last album was 2017’s “Last Place”.
Grandaddy’s main creative force Jason Lytle had this to say about his cover: “Apparently my band Grandaddy was on the cover of issue #1 of Under the Radar and continued a cozy relationship with the mag so it seemed a no brainer to be involved with this “Covers of Covers” project. I thought it was a good idea in general too.
“I’m a big Metric fan. One time I drove from Bozeman Montana to Salt Lake City Utah (nine-hour drive) to see them play live. I don’t even like going to shows. That says a lot. I chose to cover the song ‘Blindness’ as it has been one of my favourite songs of theirs since I first heard it in 2009. I recorded and mixed it all in my garage and enjoyed treading that line of trying to emulate some of the original sounds and ‘feels’ but also make it mine for a bit and have a little fun with it.”
Modest Mouse first appeared on Under the Radar’s cover in 2007 in honour of “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank“. Frontman Isaac Brock was on the cover again for our 2008 Protest Issue, this time appearing with R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe. EMA is the project of Erika M. Anderson. Her last album was 2017’s “Exile in the Outer Ring“, released by City Slang.
Anderson had this to say about her Modest Mouse cover: “This song reminds me of a person I used to be in love with. We were teenage robo-buddies. We drove around on gravel roads, pulling over at abandoned barns and country cemeteries. We weren’t physical, except once when I started crying, gave them a kiss and then ran out of the car. Very dramatic. People used to say we were going to end up married and living like the ‘trailer trash’ couple in this song. It didn’t happen…”
When hatching plans to celebrate Under the Radar’s 20th anniversary I knew I wanted to go beyond just producing a special 20th anniversary issue. Despite two decades of writing about albums, one thing we’d never done is actually put one out ourselves. Thus I came upon the idea for “Covers of Covers“.
To pull all this off we have partnered with Joe Spadaro and his Connecticut-based record label American Laundromat. As well as releasing albums by Juliana Hatfield and Tanya Donelly, American Laundromat have a long history of producing amazing covers albums, including their tributes to Elliott Smith, The Cure, Neil Young, The Smiths, and the music of Wes Anderson films. They even put together a track-by-track tribute to the soundtrack to Alex Cox’s cult classic 1984 movie Repo Man. Without Joe’s help, “Covers of Covers” would still just be an idea in my head. He has the know-how to get an album mastered and manufactured, not to mention how to handle all the legal stuff. My Co-Publisher/wife Wendy Lynch Redfern then photographed and designed the album cover, which features a tower of all our print issues.
“Covers of Covers”Tracklist:
1. Grandaddy: “Blindness” (Metric) 2. Piroshka: “The Crystal Lake” (Grandaddy) 3. Peter Bjorn and John: “Songs of Love” (The Divine Comedy) 4. Cults: “Bourgeois” (Phoenix) 5. Nation of Language: “Stars and Sons” (Broken Social Scene) 6. Kevin Drew: “The Loose Ends Will Make Knots” (Stars) 7. Hatchie: “FUBT” (HAIM) 8. Sondre Lerche: “Townie” (Mitski) 9. C Duncan: “Acrobat” (Angel Olsen) 10. Cassandra Jenkins: “It’s You” (Animal Collective) 11. NZCA LINES: “Debra” (Beck) 12. Oceanator: “The Biggest Lie” (Elliott Smith) 13. Black Belt Eagle Scout: “Calculation Theme” (Metric) 14. Strand of Oaks: “’81” (Joanna Newsom) 15. Ora the Molecule: “The Fox in the Snow” (Belle and Sebastian) 16. Girl Ray: “Another Try” (HAIM) 17. James Yorkston: “Smoke Signals” (Phoebe Bridgers) 18. EMA: “Trailer Trash” (Modest Mouse) 19. Alex Lahey: “New York” (St. Vincent) 20. Water From Your Eyes: “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” (R.E.M.)
Purchase a copy of our just-announced 20th Anniversary Issue, our new double print issue, for an article on the making of “Covers of Covers”, including quotes from all 20 artists who recorded tracks for the album. The issue’s downloadable MP3 sampler also includes Piroshka’s cover of Grandaddy’s “The CrystalLake.”
You can preorder “Covers of Covers”here from American Laundromat and here from Bandcamp.
Captured in June of 2020, prior to L.A. opening back up, Ty Segall’s absolute incendiary one-man band session at Zebulon in Frogtown. The incredibly tight 30 minute performance finds Segall working up a strange alchemy against pre-recorded backing tracks, re-contextualizing seven nuggets from his catalogue. Zebulon, a live music venue, originally started in Brooklyn in 2003, and is now in Los Angeles.
Ty Segall musician took part in the Zebulon Sessions. Produced by Zebulon LA, the series is tailor-made for the COVID-19 era. In accordance with social distancing guidelines, the Zebulon Sessions showcase artists performing at the Los Angeles venue without an audience. The video of the California rocker’s far-too-brief, 30-minute electrifying solo set premiered Thursday night.
For his empty-room show, Ty displayed his artwork and played electric guitar accompanied by pre-recorded backing tracks. He kicked off his decade-spanning set with “Finger” and closed with “Love Fuzz.”Ty’s session, filmed by Brandon Kelly, Matt Doyle, Kevin Luna, and Brian Lee Hughes, is the seventh installment in the series. Other episodes feature Oh Sees’ Dan Rincon, Osees (John Dwyer and Tomas Dolas), Charles Moothart, Nico Turner, and Sub Pop recording artist Shannon Lay.
Ty released two singles he collaborated on with Wand frontman Cory Hanson, “She’s a Beam” and “MilkBird Flyer.” The duo recorded both songs five years ago and recently rediscovered them. They actually played “She’s a Beam” live during Ty’s 2015 solo acoustic tour. The pair donated 100% of the proceeds from the first week of track sales to Black Lives Matter LA.
Track List: 1. Finger 2. Squealer 3. Candy Sam 4. Warm Hands 5. You’re the Doctor 6. Taste 7. Fuzz
Ty has also appears on “Zebulon LA Live Recording Volume I“. A compilation of 15 live recordings, Ty’s contribution is a rendition of “Rain” he plays acoustic with Emmett Kelly and Ben Boye. Zebulon LA recorded all the songs at their Silver Lake locale. Also appearing on Zebulon’s compilation are Oh Sees. John Dwyer and his crew share a new song, “Terminal Jape,” which they recorded on March 21st, 2020. Other artists featured include The Entrance Band, William Tyler, and Terry Allen and the PandhandleMystery Band. You can review the track list below. The album is available for purchase on Bandcamp.
We don’t typically look to pop albums to answer our cultural moment, let alone to meet the soul hunger left in the wake of global catastrophe. But occasionally, an artist proves the form more malleable and capacious than we knew. With “Laurel Hell”, Mitski cements her reputation as an artist in possession of such power – capable of using her talent to perform the alchemy that turns our most savage and alienated experiences into the very elixir that cures them. Her critically beloved last album, “Be the Cowboy”, built on the breakout acclaim of 2016’s “Puberty 2” and launched her from cult favourite to indie star. She ascended amid a fever of national division, and the grind of touring and pitfalls of increased visibility influenced her music as much as her spirit.
Like the mountain laurels for this new album is named, public perception, like the intoxicating prism of the internet, can offer an alluring façade that obscures a deadly trap – one that tightens the more you struggle. Exhausted by this warped mirror, and our addiction to false binaries, she began writing songs that stripped away the masks and revealed the complex and often contradictory realities behind them. She wrote many of these songs during or before 2018, while the album finished mixing in May 2021. It is the longest span of time Mitski has ever spent on a record, and a process that concluded amid a radically changed world.
She recorded “Laurel Hell” with her long time producer Patrick Hyland throughout the isolation of a global pandemic, during which some of the songs “slowly took on new forms and meanings, like seed to flower.” Sometimes it’s hard to see the change when you’re the agent of it, but for the lucky rest of us, Mitski has written a soundtrack for transformation, a map to the place where vulnerability and resilience, sorrow and delight, error and transcendence can all sit within our humanity, can all be seen as worthy of acknowledgment, and ultimately, love.
new album “Laurel Hell” by Mitski out now on Dead Oceans Records.
The Fat Angel Sings 