Wild Pink’s sophomore album, 2018’s Yolk in the Fur, cemented their reputation for contemplative lyrics in the style of early Death Cab for Cutie melded with the surrealistic highway anthems of the War on Drugs. The New York band’s follow-up, “A Billion Little Lights”, enlists producer David Greenbaum—who’s won Grammys for his work on two Beck albums—as well as a host of guest musicians. Julia Steiner of Chicago’s Ratboys lends a lilting vocal harmony to breakup strummer “You Can Have It Back,” while “The Shining But Tropical” has a trippy majesty, like if Tame Impala remixed a vintage E Street Band outtake. Fittingly, frontman John Ross has said, “I wanted to have something very lush and just bigger than anything that I’d done before.
With this album, I really wanted to put a period to the sentence I started in 2017,” said Ross. “It was always my goal to make records that got increasingly bigger and more sweeping and cinematic. I feel like A Billion Little Lightsis really the third album of a trilogy. From here, I’ll make a pivot to exploring different sounds and ideas now that this project is, in a way, complete.”
Ross always wrote songs that felt skyward and sprawling, but he’s never quite approached the heights he scales on A Billion Little Lights.
Wild Pink’s new studio album A Billion Little Lights is their first for Royal Mountain Records. Frontman John Ross explores that dichotomy of finally achieving emotional security—of accepting the love and peace he deprived himself of in his twenties—while also feeling existentially smaller and more directionless than ever before. The record is a two-pronged triumph: an extraordinary reflection on the human condition presented through the sharpest, grandest, and most captivating songs Wild Pink have ever composed. A Billion Little Lights is Wild Pink’s third album, their first since 2018’s acclaimed Yolk in the Fur, and their debut on Royal Mountain Records. It’s also the Brooklyn trio’s most nuanced and consistently satisfying release yet, a collection of anthemic, Americana-infused rock songs that, more than ever, justify the band’s comparisons to The River-era Springsteen torchbearers like The War on Drugs.
Co-led by guitarist Violet Mayugba and singer Alexia Roditis, Sacramento punk band Destroy Boys debuted with the 2015 studio EP “Mom Jeans“. The band’s profile got an early boost when they were favourably mentioned in a 2016 Rolling Stone feature on Green Day. And by 2018 — around the time of the release of their second LP Make Room — the group had cultivated a loyal and growing base of followers. That support led to their pick as a fan-selected act to play the 2018 Noise Pop Festival.
While the pandemic sidelined Destroy Boys from live performance, it doesn’t seem to have blunted the group’s momentum. Now based in San Francisco, the band released two singles in 2020: “Fences” and “Honey I’m Home,” and this year they signed with Hopeless Records, cranking out three new singles. The first was a minute-long adrenaline blast called “Muzzle,” which earned nearly a million plays on Spotify alone. Released August. 4th, “Locker Room Bully” was accompanied by a new video and the news of a forthcoming full-length.
“Locker Room Bully” is timely and topical, exploring the consequences of misinformation spread via social media. But Roditis rages rather than ruminates on the subject, and the band — Roditis, Mayugba and drummer Narsai Malik provides instrumental muscle to match.
The most fascinating of this year’s trio of Destroy Boys singles is “Drink.” Released in June, the song displays impressive lyrical depth. On a casual listen, it sounds like a love song wrapped in a pop-punk arrangement. Closer inspection reveals that “Drink” is describing something closer to a love-hate relationship, and the subject of affection and revulsion is alcohol. It’s a candid, nuanced look at addiction. And right from the start, Roditis delivers a line full of self awareness: “I’m about to turn this confession to a smoke cloud,” they sing.
“I love some nuance,” laughs Roditis, the group’s primary lyricist who co-writes with Mayugba. “Things are always more complex than one opinion or another.” Roditis says they made a point of working multiple perspectives into the song. And while the tune explicitly mentions alcohol, booze is meant as a wider metaphor for anything that’s the focus of addiction. “Whatever you’re addicted to can be like a little sanctuary,” Roditis says. “But then you also feel like garbage for it.”
Destroy Boys puts thought into lyrics. “I really like to have an arc of some sort, so that there’s a change,” Roditis says. “The two perspectives — ‘She loves me / she loathes me’ and ‘something isn’t right / she holds me tight’ — that inner conflict is really important.” Roditis says in the case of “Drink,” a nuanced approach was the truthful one. And it’s one that — in Destroy Boys’ experience, at least isn’t often found in popular music. “I hadn’t heard a song that showed that, aside from Interpol’s ‘Read My Chemistry,’” Roditis says.
Destroy Boys’ music is the result of a collaborative creative process, though, and how a song eventually turns out might not closely resemble the form in which it began. “The original intention of the song was different,” says Mayugba. The song was more literal: “Drink understands me.” Changing that third “person” to a “she” not only made the metaphor less heavy-handed, it subtly introduced the idea of same-sex love. Even though that’s not what “Drink” is about either, the multilayered lyric ends up working on a number of levels.
The fact that it’s all contained in a dramatic, catchy melody doesn’t hurt a bit. Listeners who trill along to the “She really loves me” chorus may miss the song’s point entirely. And that’s OK: In Destroy Boys’ world, there’s room for messages and melodies. “Our band is a very lucky example of being able to do both simultaneously,” says Mayugba. “Everything that we write about is super important to us. And music is the way I communicate who I am; without it, I wouldn’t be able to function very well.”
Destroy Boys hasn’t released any music that’s overtly political. But at the same time Roditis subscribes to the personal-is-political philosophy. “What we’re trying to get to is life: interpreting being queer and being mad at the patriarchy and trauma,” they say. “That can all be seen as political. And I don’t really know what to do about that.”
But Roditis does in fact know what to do about that. “I hadn’t written an explicitly political song until recently,” they say. That song isn’t out yet. “But it’s a banger,” Roditis teases with a smile. “Writing about our own experiences can be seen as controversial by some people, but I think [music and politics] go hand in hand. Music is a vessel to communicate my thoughts on society.”
The upcoming “Open Mouth, Open Heart” promises to build on the catchy music and thoughtful lyrics of the albums, EPs and singles that preceded it. Due October 8th, the band’s third LP will be its first for Hopeless Records. Destroy Boys approached the prospect of a label change with caution. “I was really worried about a label trying to make us do something that we don’t want to do,” Roditis explains. “But it was clear that [Hopeless] wanted to give us a lot of creative control. And they haven’t tried to infringe upon our vision; they trust us as artists to know what we’re doing.”
Destroy Boys’ line up has changed over the years, with rhythm sections coming and going, but Roditis and Mayugba seem to have found the right mix with drummer Malik… and without a full-time bassist.
“I’ve had a lot of fun playing bass parts in the studio,” says Mayugba. And the idea of rotating bass players suits the band. “We get to play with all of our friends and bring them out on the road whenever we can,” Mayugba says.
With the kind of candor that characterizes Destroy Boys’ music, Roditis cuts straight to the heart of that subject: “Working with three people is easier than working with four!”
‘Open Mouth, Open Heart’ from Destroy Boys released October. 8th, Hopeless Records
For every singer-songwriter who traffics in hushed, poignant melodies and writes naked and self-effacing lyrics, the specter of Elliott Smith looms large. The dearly-departed poet laureate of beautiful and bedeviling ballads died nearly two decades ago, but his influence and impact can still be felt with every new troubadour who has the courage to air their shortcomings.
Taylor Vick, the Oakland-based artist who records as Boy Scouts, makes the same kind of melancholy and elegiac music that was Smith’s specialty. While there are traces of contemporary artists like Hand Habits, Cass McCombs, and Angel Olsen in Boy Scouts, the hauntingly direct and gorgeously composed songs that make up her upcoming album, “Wayfinder”, contain all the classic hallmarks of Smith above all else. While comparisons to Elliot Smith are made often and with a certain amount of recklessness, Vick is the rare artist who truly deserves those plaudits.
On the first single from Wayfinder, “That’s Life Honey,” Vick employs the same plinking piano movements that were the driving force behind Smith’s XO, and her breathy, cooed delivery is reminiscent of the late-night requiems found on“Either/Or”. Lyrically, Vick shares Smith’s brutally honest approach to song writing, lamenting on “That’s Life Honey,” that she’s the ”Master of inexplicable shame/Write it down to rewire my brain.” Throughout Wayfinder, which is being released on Friday through ANTI- Records, Vick is unafraid to tackle enormous, existential issues of life, death, belonging, doubt and acceptance.
Her latest single, “A Lot To Ask,” is a grooving acoustic number impelled by a soft bassline and Vick’s emotive vocals. The song is again riddled with painful introspection, as Vick admits that being herself is “a lot to ask.”
While Vick has obvious links to Smith, it’s important to note that she’s a formidable and unique artist who is crafting out her own memorable identity. A careful (and at times playful) crafter of lyrics, Vick has a way of capturing the wry nature of today’s times, when you can’t help but laugh at all of life’s follies. Wayfinderis the result of an ambitious singer-songwriter unafraid to pursue the highest peaks of her genre.
AC/DC return with a fifth video from “Power Up”, the nostalgic “Through The Mists Of Time“, the latest single to be issued from their hugely-successful 2020 comeback album “Power Up”. It’s the third video released this year from one of the best Album’s of 2020, following on from the January release of a promo clip for the album’s opening track “Realize“, and June’s performance video for “Witch’s Spell”.
Vocalist Brian Johnson previously said that the song gives him “goosebumps”. The singer also discussed “Through The Mists Of Time” in a November 2020 interview with Radio X. “Angus wrote the lyrics for that song,” said Johnson, “and I believe he captured everything about the early days when the band started, when rock and roll was just carefree, when nobody gave a flying thought about anything except just having a good time and playing. And all this lovely innocence was gone. And I think [the lyrics] encapsulated [the sentiment]. To tell you the truth, every time I hear it, I still get a goosebump, and it’s a tribute to Malcolm: Through The Mists Of Time. And it’s different. I don’t know if it’s different from anything we’ve done before, but it certainly stands apart.” “It’s just a ride through time, in a kind of way,” Angus Young said “It’s a bit of a journey.”
The Australian hard rock band’s 17th studio album, “Power Up” topped the charts in 21 countries following its release on November 13th 2020. The album is dedicated to the memory of Malcolm Young, AC/DC’s founding rhythm guitarist, who died in 2017.
“It’s just rock’n’roll, you know?,” Brian Johnson. “It’s a powerful thing. Everybody loves rock’n’roll. And by crikey the world needs it right now!”
“Weltschmerz” is a seductive and cinematic track that invokes shoegaze, goth rock and psych vibes driven by corrossive fuzzy guitars, clean chorused strings and a massive bassline which are led by the beats of dancing drums and tambourine plus some charming vocals.
The production crew is exactly the same from their previous album Trópicos, the British Producer Daniel Knowles on mixing (Amusement Parks on Fire/The Know), and the Italian producer Maurizio Baggio on mastering, known for his work with The Soft Moon and Holygram. The single will also contain two more alternative versions including a club remix and another more 90s oriented sound mastered by the Argentinian producer Nicolas Castello (NAX) .
“ Within Weltschmerz we escape from pain while dancing into the flames. “ – Patricio Temples
The art cover was made by the Canadian visual artist Teresa Lobos (Lagomorphosis). The clip was directed by Francisca Lynch (Spaceman Films) and it includes an intriguing performarce by Mary Kankava (Hellcatfairy) who is a well-known dark artist from Russia. “Weltschmerz” was released on October 1st via post-punk.com and it’s available on a Maxii single version only on our Bandcamp account.
Based in Austin, Texas, Hovvdy (pronounced “howdy”) is the writing and recording project of CharlieMartin and Will Taylor. The duo, both primarily drummers, first met in the fall of 2014 and quickly bonded over a love for quiet music. Within a few weeks, they had combined songs and began recording their first EP in bedrooms and family homes across Texas. By 2016 the two had committed to each others growth in song-writing and recording, resulting in their debut album Taster, originally released on Sports Day Records and reissued in 2017 by Double Double Whammy. Hovvdy has found a unique identity in rhythmic, down-tempo pop songs that are hopeful, yet melancholy; relatable, yet distinguishable. Hovvdy’s sophomore
Austin indie folk duo make their Grand Jury debut with True Love. Recorded over winter 2020 in Los Angeles with producer Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Bon Iver, etc.). This album is about growth and nostalgia. Both band members got married. One had a kid. They’ve found themselves individually away from the band, but settling into their most creatively fertile moment as a duo.
Releases October 1st, 2021
All songs performed by: Charlie Martin Will Taylor Ben Littlejohn Andrew Sarlo
In these tumultuous times, it’s easy to forget that our natural state isn’t meant to involve chronic anxiety, fear, depression, or boredom. We all could use a reminder that our default setting as human beings should be one of hope, wonder, and love. Death Valley Girls’ ongoing mission is to use their scorching blend of garage punk, communal music, fiery riffage, and desert psychedelia as a vehicle for reconfiguring our perception and tapping into the beauty of the human experience. On their latest single, “It’s All Really Kind of Amazing,” Death Valley Girls continue their mystical quest for transcending the mire of our modern reality with divine rock n’ roll mantras, goosebump-inducing hooks, and Bonnie Bloomgarden’s impassioned vocal performances. While the band built their reputation on sweat-drenched, electrically charged anthems, “It’s All Really Kind of Amazing” delves into their more recent penchant for LarrySchemel’s chiming guitar chords, Bloomgarden’s nimble electric piano lines, big choral hooks, and intoxicating layers of instrumentation. Further bolstered by Rikki Styxx on drums, Emily Retsas on bass, and the gang vocals of Little Ghost, Pickle, and Kelsey Whatever NBD, the newest entry into the DeathValley Girls songbook exudes the aura of a tight-knit collective in the throes of ecstasy.
“We are streams of eternal consciousness experiencing reality through our personal lens,” Bloomgarden says of the song’s intention. “And we have been programmed and have forgotten we are gods because of trauma, capitalism, and religion. So this song is a call to wake up! To remember you are magic! Abundance is the normal state… look for the signs from your guides and your higher self.” Death Valley Girls’ melding of classic, old-school AOR FM radio sound, modern sonics, and heady life-affirmations have never been as fully realized as they are on their latest cosmic hymn. Suicide SqueezeRecords is proud to release the digital single “It’s All Really Kind of Amazing” on September 28th, 2021.
Written & Performed by Death Valley Girls Bonnie Bloomgarden – vocals Larry Schemel – guitar Emily Retsas – bass Rikki Styxx – drums Little Ghost, Pickle, Kelsey Whatever NBD – gang vocals
Away back in June, the Australian psych-rock band Pond announced their new album titled “9“. We’ve already heard several songs from it, including “Pink Lunettes” “Amerca’s Cup” and “Toast” Today, they’re back with another.
Pond’s latest is called “Human Touch.” Here’s what frontman Nick Allbrook had to say about the song and its accompanying video:
One time a woman was smashing up a car outside my house, begging me to help her steal it. It was a lovely day. She was wired but sweet in a way. Her dog, Josie, was sitting in the passenger seat being very cute and fluffy. We talked for a good few hours in the sunny cul-de-sac and neither of us ended up committing grand theft auto. The music started with a grimy Casio loop Jay made, that we built the song around.
My original idea was to be dancing in the central business district of Perth, being thoroughly ignored by suits on their lunch break. Turns out me and Duncan Wright (Director) are both quivering Fremantle natives and terrified of the City. When Duncan saw a pretty sliver of morning sunlight in the West End we figured, stuff it, let’s do it there. Zero people is kind of the same thing as being ignored by lots of people, right? I need some human connection blah blah blah. It was super fun to make. We didn’t really have a strict plan and I overcame by anxiety about dancing in platform shoes to no music at 9am on a Tuesday morning like a kook.
Our new album “9” is right around the corner. For your chance to win one of 5 merch packs, follow us on Spotify, Pre-add the album on Apple Music, or Subscribe to our YouTube channel or Newsletter in the link provided below. You’ll get all the music, videos, and news as they come out, and you’ll also be the first to see behind-the-scenes footage of us making “9” delivered to your inbox the day the album is released.
9 is out 10/1 via Spinning Top Records. New single ‘Human Touch’ out September 1st. Taken from the forthcoming album ‘9’ out October 1st.
It is the Hull and Leeds-based band’s first new material since the release of their hugely acclaimed debut album, “Bedroom“, which was hailed as a latter-day shoegaze classic when it came out in July 2020 and ended up in several end of year lists, including a respectable number eight in Rough Trade’s.
Sounding not unlike the Low of Double Negative or Hey What deconstructing The Temptations’ ‘(I Know) I’m Losing You’, ‘Port’ is a much darker hued song; the distorted drones and beats eventually burst into life with frenzied guitar and howls of anguish.
“I think a lot of the music going forward will be a lot, not darker, but coming from a much deeper place than the first album,” explains singer and guitarist Ryan Smith, who points out the influence of Canadian indie-rockers Suuns and Portishead’s ‘Machine Gun’, which half explains the title, which also means ‘any port in a storm’, when someone will use anything for comfort when in a bad situation.
“‘Port’ was written at the height of addiction,” continues Ryan. “It comes from a place where you know you need to change but feel that you can’t. I wish I could come up with some profound meaning for what this track means, or what it is, but I’d just be lying. I was in a difficult place, and this was the end result.”
bdrmm have recently returned to the stage, playing to huge crowds at festivals including Latitude and End Of The Road. Following the conclusion of their much-delayed UK tour in November, they will head back into the studio to continue work on their second album.
“I think we’re looking to be delving more into soundscapes,” hints Ryan. “I am so excited to embrace the next chapter of bdrmm. It’s been a fucking tough ride, but one I never want to get off.”
Released on September 24th, 1991, the following year saw the Seattle grunge band head to Australia where their gigs became the stuff of legends. They headlined Big Day Out as well as playing The Palace in Melbourne (captured back then by triple j) and now, that Melbourne show is getting an official release as part of the 30th anniversary reissue of “Nevermind” Box Set. When Nirvana journeyed to Australia in 1992, they were on the verge of achieving celebrityhood. The year that grunge broke would still be a little way off and, for a relatively fresh band, the tour was a way to win new fans – whose minds would be colonised when “Smells Like Teen Spirit” ; expose fans to their songs and repertoire and, probably above all, have some fun. That also means that the group could take chances and try new things. Hence, one highlight of the show in Melbourne on February 1st, 1992 is the feedback-drenched jam (before NegativeCreep) during which Krist Novoselic recites poetry.
On the Australian leg of this tour, apart from Melbourne, Nirvana also played in Adelaide and Sydney. Melbourne was the last stop before the band took a press trip to $ingapore and then they played Tokyo and Osaka.
The set is Nirvana’s second night of a 3 night stint at the Palace in Melbourne, a date whose main distinction was that it was the only all ages show of the tour. Several songs were broadcast on the radio triple j that had surfaced many years ago and whetted traders’ appetites for the full show. This recording is unsurprisingly far and away the best sounding recording of the tour.
It is evident that the band is still struggling with their performances Kurt’s voice weak in parts, causing him to hold back on many of the songs, both “Lithium” and “Drain You” show clear evidence of this while on “Negative Creep” his voice sounds truly awful. Kurt even manages to screw up the riff to “School”.
The high points of this gig have mostly appeared on the broadcast JJJ made which unusually instead of focusing on the hits played the best performed songs of the set. “About A Girl, Lounge Act” and “Breed” are all executed well, as is “Lithium” (even though Kurt does forget to turn on his distortion pedal for one of the choruses!). “Love Buzz” features competency by Kurt on guitar as he makes some innovative flourishes that add a lot to the song.
The main centrepiece of the performance is a feedback jam during which Krist recites a couple of lines of improvised poetry.
This new reissue is really stuffed with exciting Nirvana content, featuring a total of 94 audio and video tracks (that’s almost too much Nirvana, almost). 70 of those tracks are also previously unreleased.
And it’s not just the Melbourne show that’s included: live concert footage from Amsterdam, California, Tokyo is also in the reissue. If that somehow wasn’t enough, two live albums are packed in, “Live at theParamount” (Seattle) and “Live at Reading”, which is a very famous gig indeed.
There’s the standard different bundles and formats to tickle your fancy, including the basic remastered version through to the imposing sounding Super Deluxe. The Super Deluxe is seriously overflowing with stuff and will be available in both vinyl and CD+Blu-ray (5 CDs plus Blu-ray – Live in Amsterdam, Netherlands complete concert video newly remastered audio & video in HD).
So once the reissues arrive on November 12th, you know what to buy for the Nirvana fan in your life for Christmas.
The Fat Angel Sings 