After Re-emerging recently, Gang of Youths have officially released ‘The Angel of 8th Ave’.
Self-produced and recorded in their own studio in Hackney, the single arrives with a Joel Barney-directed music video filmed in the Aussie band’s adopted town of Angel, Islington North London and meets all your charismatic, dancing Dave Le’aupepe needs.
Built on a surging tempo and gritty bassline ornamented with shiny acoustic strums, Le’aupepe says ‘The Angel of 8thAve’ was inspired by “falling in love, and finding a new life in a new city together.”
It’s at once an ode to the frontman’s wife and to the band’ relocation to the U.K after 2017 album Go Farther In Lightness made them one of Australia’s most celebrated bands. The track has the same electric indie rock grandiosity of that record, right down to the familiar way Le’aupepe stakes his romance in big poetics:
You called each of my sorrows by name, and a tide of tender mercies shook my body from the grave in the festival years of our makeshift parade, Through perpetual fall and immeasurable rain.
As far as comebacks go, ‘The Angel of 8th Ave’ plays it relatively safe. But don’t expect that to be entirely the case for Gang Of Youths’ next body of work.
“This is probably the only song that sounds anything like what we used to do, if I’m honest,” Dave Le’aupepe tells us
He confirms that a new project is coming “at some point in the next year or so” and that ‘The Angel of 8th Ave’ was written a few years ago and underwent “15 versions” before landing on what is “about as close to what people would have Gang of Youths as in 2017, when we did our last anything…”
“That’s probably by design. I think easing people who love what you’ve done into something that’s extremely different or could potentially polarise people is what we wanted to do with this track.”
TexanRoky Erickson was one of the true mind-blowing pioneers of psychedelic music. The original leader of the Austin-based 13th Floor Elevators formed in 1965, Erickson and band invented a brand new style of rock & roll, one that was slightly unhinged while it explored the consciousness-expanding influence of LSD on music. After three years, the group imploded with mental issues and legal challenges, ending with Erickson being incarcerated for several years in the Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Rusk, Texas. When he was released in the early ’70s the musician continued on his own trail, recording songs that had come to him in his far-flung cerebral wanderings. Erickson, who passed away May 31, 2019, is now celebrated on this 12-track tribute to one of the most original rockers ever.
The participants range the whole world of modern music, and each chose one of Erickson’s originals to stamp their own imprint on. They include Lucinda Williams, Billy F Gibbons, The Black Angels, Margo Price, Mosshart Sexton (Alison Mosshart & Charlie Sexton), Neko Case, Mark Lanegan & Lynn Castle, Jeff Tweedy, Gary Clark Jr & Eve Monsees, Ty Segall, Chelsea Wolfe, and Brogan Bentley. With the full support of the Roky Erickson estate, the album is produced by Bill Bentley, executive producer of the 1990 Roky Erickson tribute album Where The Pyramid Meets The Eye on Sire Records, with associate producers Matt Sullivan, co-founder/co-owner of Light in the Attic, and Wyatt Bentley.
The songs range from Erickson’s debut iconic original, “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” recorded when he was a member first in The Spades and then the 13th Floor Elevators during the early ‘60s in Austin, to some of Erickson’s later songs, like “If You Have Ghosts,” which heard him exploring some of the outer limits of the human psyche. Each new recording is a stunning modern take on the sound that Roky Erickson gave the world over a half-century of writing, recording and touring. No one has ever equalled those explorations.
This truly is the music of the spheres, as Erickson once sang about his sound, as seen through the eyes and ears of those who are united in their love and respect for a person who dedicated his life to rock & roll. Roky Erickson, through the trials and tribulations of a man both imbued with greatness and haunted by darkness, never quit in his quest to share with others what he heard and saw. As he sang on the 13th Floor Elevators last recording, “May the circle remain unbroken.”
Light In The Attic’s mission is simple: put out great music, wherever it may be found, however it may sound. It’s this dedication to music – first and foremost – that has already created a diverse and respected catalogue of releases. LITA’s commitment to quality, as well as its disdain for convention, has already produced instant classics.
This Is The Kit is the musical project of Kate Stables and whoever joins her. You thought you didn’t like the banjo but you were wrong pal. Listen as Kate rips forward with her hypnotic twang pattern and a voice of rare, unaffected beauty.
We have been working on a set of interpetations and versions of Off Off On songs (plus the odd cover). The first of these Off Off Oddities is revealed today. Jesse D Vernon’s Keep Going Desert Island Version is available everywhere
And while thinking about this song and doing tape delay experiments Jesse had the idea that he wanted to make a live performance walking along video of this song. So we dug out a battery powered amp and bunged it in a string bag and slung it over my shoulder and headed out into our neighbourhood to walk around and play the song. We did a few different takes and , as is the way with these things, in each take there were nice moments to be found. People passing by, funny noises in the back ground, a friend recognising us from their balcony, certain architectural coincidences that went nicely with the music… things like that. So we decided to edit all the takes together using our favourite bits and keeping the audio from each take. Jesse did an amazing job of editing it all together and then added some tape delayed string arrangements over the top. A kind of unexpected/unspoken atmosphere/presence. and here it is. a video of me walking around my neighbourhood where I’ve been all year. quite a rare thing for me as usually I’m on tour, so this video feels partly like it should be dedicated to the place and streets where i live and all the people who also live there and who have been getting through the past year or so as best they can.
Released June 1st, 2021 2021, Rough Trade Records Ltd
Garage punk trio Death Valley Girls have always held a place in my hear, especially “Street Venom” originally release in 2014 through Burger Records. The energy is on full force on this record which is their defining sound. They sound just as fuzzy, gritty and joyous, “creating a sound that was both riotous and transcendental, brimming with positivity even as it navigated dark melodies and rowdy riffs.”
Three variants exist, 200 being the “Eye of the Beholder” [SOLD OUT] which looks like a split colour splatter, 300 being “Full Moon Fever” which has a copper splatter mockup, and then 1500 which will go to retailers called “Satan’s Finger” which didn’t have a mockup. Grab them while you can.
With a name like Death Valley, one would assume early cartographers were actively deterring people from its boundaries. It’s now recognized as an ecosystem with its own unique beauty and wonder, though it’s not without its element of danger. That landscape is a fitting reference for LA’s blazing rock troupe Death Valley Girls, whose particular blend of garage punk, proto-metal, and communal music drapes an air of occult mystery and white-hot energy over an underlying celebration of life and vitality. Their 2020 album Under the Spell of Joy was the clearest distillation of the band’s ongoing mission—creating a sound that was both riotous and transcendental, brimming with positivity even as it navigated dark melodies and rowdy riffs. That said, Death Valley Girls felt fully realized the moment they appeared on the scene and never lost track of their initial daredevil energy. Their debut album, 2014’s Street Venom, was given only a modest roll-out consisting of a small run of cassettes, but the songs were so infectious that they continue to be staples in the band’s live set. For the first time, Street Venom is receiving its proper due with a Deluxe Edition courtesy of Suicide Squeeze Records.
+ [SOLD OUT] 200 ON EYE OF THE BEHOLDER VINYL (SUICIDE SQUEEZE RECORDS EXCLUSIVE)
+ 300 ON FULL MOON FEVER (SUICIDE SQUEEZE RECORDS EXCLUSIVE)
+ 1,500 ON SATAN’S FINGERPRINT (RETAIL ONLY)
+ LP INCLUDES 11×17 INSERT & DOWNLOAD CARD
+ INCLUDES IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD OF “SANITARIUM BLUES” (DELUXE EDITION)
Street Venom (Deluxe Edition) out July 30th, 2021, on Suicide Squeeze Records.
The Wipers was a indie rock band formed in Portland, Oregon in 1977 by guitarist Greg Sage alongside drummer SamHenry and bassist Dave Koupal. The group’s tight song structure and use of heavy distortion were hailed as extremely influential by numerous critics and musicians.
The Wipers formed in late 1978. Greg Sage said that the idea for the name came from when he worked at a movie theater that had a long hallway of glass that looked over the city of Portland, Oregon. One of his jobs was to clean the glass that would get cloudy from people waiting to enter the theatres. When wiping the glass with a large squeegee, the view of the city would become crystal clear. A “crystal clear view” was the idea he wanted to put into music. The Wipers and Greg Sage went on to record 12 albums and several EP’s. Greg’s original idea was to never tour or do interviews, to be mysterious and let listeners have their own ideas. This original idea was not as possible as he hoped, due to the demands of working in the music industry. Even though staying independent throughout his career there were certain rules in the music world he could not bend. Greg would go on to build some of the equipment used to record the albums creating their distinct sound.
Sage’s intense interest in music began with cutting records at home as an adolescent. “I was very lucky to have my own professional record cutting lathe when I was in 7th grade due to my father being involved in the broadcast industry. I would cut records for friends at school of songs off the radio and learned the art of record making long before learning to play music. I would spend countless hours studying the grooves I would cut under the microscope that was attached to the lathe and loved the way music looked, moved and modulated within the thin walls. I might have spent too much time studying music through a microscope because it gave me a completely different outlook on what music is and a totally opposite understanding of it as well. I got to the point that I needed to create and paint my own sounds and colours into the walls of these grooves.”
Inspired by Jimi Hendrix Sage soon picked up the guitar, and in 1969, at age 17, Sage founded The Wipers in Portland in 1977 along with drummer Henry and bassist Koupal, originally just as a recording project. The plan was to record 15 albums in 10 years without touring or promotion. Sage thought that the mystique built from the lack of playing traditional live would make people listen to their recordings much deeper with only their imagination to go by. He thought it would be easy to avoid press, shows, pictures and interviews. He looked at music as art rather than entertainment; he thought music was personal to the listener rather than a commodity.
“Better Off Dead”
The Wipers’ first single, “Better Off Dead”, was released in 1978 on Sage’s own label Trap Records. Sage wanted to make his own recordings and manufacture and run his own label without outside financing. In 1979, Sage approached several Portland punk bands (including Neo Boys, Sado-Nation and Stiphnoyds) and asked them to record singles for his new Trap label.
“Is This Real”
The Wipers first album, “Is This Real” was issued in January 1980 on Park Avenue Records, a label that the band hoped would gain them wider distribution. It was originally recorded on a 4-track in the band’s rehearsal studio, but the label insisted that the band use a professional studio. Once released, the album gained a large cult following, although the band was best known for their live shows around the Portland area.
Despite the relatively polished outcome, “Is This Real” remained the group’s rawest and most direct outing. It was full of Sage’s raging but agile guitars and what would become his trademark song writing style, dealing with extreme isolation, confusion, and frustration with an agitated sense of melody. 14 years after its release, Sub Pop picked up the record and reissued it without any involvement from Sage.
“Is This Real?” Raw, abrasive and hard-hitting, it’s come to be considered such a touchstone in Northwest punk/grunge history that Sub Pop reissued it (adding the three non-LP B-sides from Alien Boy) fourteen years later, after Nirvana covered not one, but two, of its songs.
Later in 1980, Park Avenue released the “Alien Boy” EP, consisting of the title track and three demo outtakes.
“Youth Of America”
With a new rhythm section of bassist Brad Davidson and drummer Brad Naish (ex-Stiphnoyds), Wipers recorded a second album for Park Avenue, the last for that label. “Youth Of America” released in 1981, contrasted with the short/fast punk songs of the time. According to Sage, this change of pace was a reaction against the punk trend of releasing short songs. The album was, according to Sage, not that well received in the United States at the time of its release, though it did fare better in Europe. Along with other Wipers records, Youth of America came to be acknowledged as an important album in the development of American underground and independent rock movements of the early 80s.
Youth of America shows much refinement and is highlighted by Sage’s weird guitar work on some long instrumental bridges. The title track is a simple, repetitive, colossal ten-minute monster, the Wipers’ ultimate effort. Over the Edge is as appealing, with some of Sage’s most memorable songs. The thick title track (later covered by Hole), plus the simmering “Doom Town” and the roaring “So Young” define the Wipers’ dense, methodical, chunky aggression, with heavy, cloudy guitar.
Sage took it upon himself to record and engineer everything by himself. The move paid off, resulting in a furiously spirited but brief LP full of extended passages that allowed Sage to flex his astounding skills on guitar without sounding like a showoff.
“Over The Edge”
The next album, “Over The Edge” issued in 1983 by Trap via Brain Eater Records, was the first Wipers record to gain significant attention. It was led by the song, “Romeo”, which had already been released the previous year as a 7″ single by Trap. The band then embarked on their first extensive tour, documented on the Wipers Tour 84 cassette-only live album, which was reissued by Enigma Records in 1985 as Wipers.
For 1982’s excellent “Over The Edge” the structures of the songs tightened, the pop sensibility hit full stride. As a result, “Romeo” and “Over the Edge” each sustained a fair amount of radio play in the U.S., thanks to a few stations that were developing play lists that would later be identified as alternative.
In 1985, Naish was replaced by Steve Plouf, and Enigma issued Sage’s first solo album, “Straight Ahead”
“Land Of the Lost” and “Follow Blind”, “The Circle”,
Signing to Enigma’s Restless Records division, Wipers released 1986’s “Land Of the Lost” featuring the song “Let Me Know”, used in the film Rivers Edge. “Land of the Lost” reveals no rust after a three-year layoff. “Way of Love” and “Nothing Left to Lose” are charging rockers fed by Sage’s fire-breathing string work, while “Just Say” shows a prettier side of his playing. It was followed by “Follow Blind” (1987) and “The Circle” (1988).
“Follow Blind” came out in 1987 and “The Circle” followed in 1988. Aside from some slight production nuances and the occasional dabbling with stylistic curveballs, the three studio albums between 1986 and 1988 more or less swam in the wake of the first three but are far from embarrassments.
Follow Blind backsteps a bit, with more hypnotic guitar. On the first moody Wipers LP, Brad Davidson’s prominent bass sets up subconscious undercurrents. The stunning title track and “Any Time You Find” mix Sage’s solo atmospherics with his thicker, repetitive style and are highly affecting.
The Circle‘s scorching opener, “I Want a Way,” and its tumultuous title track are red herrings for Wipers’ business as usual. The album actually includes one of the band’s rare, unabashed pop songs in “Time Marches On” and closes with the slow, sombre shudder of three completely different-sounding songs: “Goodbye Again,” “Be There” and “Blue & Red.” Beautiful.
Several alternative rockers became vocal about their admiration for Sage. The most notable was Kurt Cobain, whose band Nirvana covered Wipers songs and asked Sage to open for them on tours. Never wanting to be opportunistic and never wanting to draw attention to himself, Sage politely turned down the offers. Sage would also reason that the timing was never right, as he and Plouf had trouble securing a bassist who would be willing to learn over 100 songs and tour unglamorously to little fanfare. Sage himself was never a fan of touring; trudging through the States to promote records had been nothing but one nightmare after another, he never got a thrill from the attention that comes with being a frontman, and only a couple towns — specifically Boston and Chicago — were regularly supportive. Wipers did enjoy most of their touring success in Europe, where they were treated with much more respect and filled theatres holding a couple thousand fans.
In 1989, drummer Travis McNabb joined Wipers for a tour, during which Sage announced that the band was ending due to music business frustrations and the loss of their studio space. Sage then relocated to Arizona and Davidson left to move to London. After building a new recording studio in Arizona, Sage released a second solo album, 1991’s “Sacrifice For Love”.
The Best of Wipers and Greg Sage and CompleteRarities ’78–’90
Two compilations were released in this era: The Best of Wipers and Greg Sage in 1990 by Restless, and CompleteRarities ’78–’90 in 1993 by Germany’s True Believer Records. The latter included the first Wipers 7″, the B-side of the “Romeo” 7″, sampler contributions, and live material from 1986 and 1989.
In compiling the 1990 retrospective, Sage favoured his recent albums, but the collection includes such rarities as the band’s blistering 1978 debut single “Better Off Dead,” a long-forgotten compilation track and plenty of other goodies. A fine introduction
“Silver Sail” and “The Herd”
Sage restarted Wipers in 1993, rejoined by Plouf, releasing three additional albums as a duo: “Silver Sail” (1993) Reclaiming the Wipers name (and getting back drummer Steve Plouf) didn’t make Silver SailSage’s attempt to capitalize on his new-found prestige. Rather, with characteristic independence, Sage went even prettier, spacier and moodier than his previous work in order to get away from the public desire for him to rock out with his new crop of admirers.
A more deliberate pace allows Sage’s virtuoso playing extra opportunity to bob and weave, float and tickle, tease and torment; he introduces hints of quiet surf music, spaghetti westerns and other lonely, timeless sounds. Likewise, his spooky voice sounds unusually beautiful, especially on the crescendos of “Prisoner.” He finally lets loose with two vintage blasts, “Never Win” and “Silver Sail.”
“The Herd” (1996), Again recorded as a duo with Plouf, Sage’s tenth studio album, The Herd, swings his direction back around 180 degrees. He’s bringing the fire this time, as evidenced by the clangourous roar of the angry, anthemic “Psychic Vampire” and “The Herd.” The sterling pop melody of the bristlingly loud “Resist” conveys a strong anti-repression message; it’s as if the MC5 had never gone away. For a guy/band approaching the 20-year mark, these rocket-fuelled smashers sound every bit as dynamic and pushy as his earliest choleric days, only using more intricate chord patterns and playing. Both albums were on the Tim/Kerr label, and then “Power In One” (1999) on Sage’s own Zeno Records. The band then became inactive after 1999.
In 2001, Zeno released “The Wipers Box Set” which included the first three Wipers albums, which by that time had been long out-of-print, along with the songs from the “Alien Boy” EP and additional previously unreleased material. Jackpot Records and Sage later reissued “Is This Real?”, “Youth of America” and “Over the Edge” on vinyl.
Misunderstood, mistreated, underrated, and/or just plain unknown, Greg Sage should be mentioned in the first breaths about trailblazing guitarists and U.S. independent music of the ’80s and ’90s. Since forming his band, Wipers, in Portland, OR, in the late ’70s, Sage has been put through the ringer more than enough to justify his hermetic operating methods and attitude. While most of his devout fans consider it a travesty that his name isn’t as known as a contemporary like Bob Mould or even an unabashed fan-boy turned legend like Kurt Cobain or Sage would likely retort that it’s not for the notoriety that he began making music. Unlike most other musicians who gain inspiration and motivation from watching their favourite stars revel in popularity and idol worship.
The Albums:
Is This Real? (1980, Park Avenue Records)
Youth Of America (1981, Park Avenue Records)
Over The Edge (1983, Trap Records/Brain Eater Records)
The Independent Label Market is celebrating its 10th anniversary and 30th edition in London.
ILM started at Soho’s Berwick Street market in the summer of 2011. Since then, it has hosted 68 events across the globe and partnered with 600+ independent record labels from all over the UK, as well as Paris, Berlin, Bari, Barcelona, Rome, LA, Hamburg, Toronto, New York and LA.
Joe Daniel their founder said: “When we came up with the idea for an indie label market, we never imagined doing a second one, let alone another 10 years of events. The idea back in 2011 was to bring together our favourite labels to celebrate a particular kind of creativity and passion that you only find in the independent sector. The fact that we are here 10 years later is a huge credit to the community of labels who consistently find new and exciting ways to grow and adapt in a fast changing industry. We love the camaraderie and their tireless commitment to presenting the most envelope-pushing music around.”
The 2021 ILM Summer Market takes place on Saturday, July 10th at Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross with an all star crew of labels, including 4ADRecords, Bella Union, Brownswood, Caught by the River, Cherry Red Records, Erased Tapes, Fierce Panda, Fire/Earth, Full Time Hobby, Gare du Nord, Heavenly Recordings, Hyperdub, Late Night Tales, LEX, Matador, Memphis Industries, Moshi, Mukatsuku, One Little Independent Records, Partisan, Rough Trade ,Sonic Cathedral, Sunday Best, Upset The Rhythm, Whities/ad93 & many more.
Market stalls will offer limited editions, vinyl rarities and test pressings as well as exclusive label and band merchandise. The summer event will be sound tracked by ILM-curated DJ sets from artists and labels taking part on the day.
In 2021, the ILM Mentoring Scheme continues to work with Clue Records, and welcomes Sad Club Records to help support an artists experimenting with new techniques and blurring the boundaries between art, performance and music. The scheme promotes emerging artists from different genres to new audiences, by giving them and small independent labels a focused platform at ILM UK events.
Tori Amos “Under the Pink” entered the uk charts at No1, it’s regarded as one of Tori Amos most acclaimed albums, featuring in a number of ‘Best Albums of the 90s’ lists. On Tori’s second album, this is the place to start when talking about all her accomplishments. Under the Pink is an expertly orchestrated conflagration of wildly surreal note combinations accompanied by elegant piano (almost as an afterthought) and Tori’s ever-yearning voice. Under thePink is essentially an hour-long suite of dream sequences that transforms the listener into another dimension.
Charting at No4 in the singles chart, the lead single “Cornflake Girl” is one of several unforgettable singles featuring in the album, which also include god, past the mission, and pretty good year. The album was bpi certified platinum in 2007, and continues to be an album which draws interest to new and old fans alike.
Tori Amos’ second full-length solo effort has often been considered a transitional album, a building on the success of Little Earthquakes that enabled her to pursue increasingly more adventurous releases in later years. As such, it has been unfairly neglected when in fact it has as good a claim as any to be one of the strongest, and maybe even the strongest, record she has put out. Able to appeal to a mass audience without being shoehorned into the incipient “adult album alternative” format that sprang to life in the mid-1990s Amos combines some of her strongest melodies and lyrics with especially haunting and powerful arrangements to create an artistic success that stands on its own two feet. The best-known tracks are the two contemporaneous singles “God,” a wicked critique of the deity armed with a stiff, heavy funk-rock arrangement, and “Cornflake Girl,” a waltz-paced number with an unnerving whistle and stuttering vocal hook.
While both memorable, they’re actually among the weaker tracks when compared to some of the great numbers elsewhere on “Under The Pink” (other numbers that more openly misfire are “The Waitress,” a strident and slightly bizarre rant at such a figure, and “Yes, Anastasia,” which starts off nicely but runs a little too long). Opening number “Pretty Good Year” captures nostalgia and drama perfectly, a simple piano with light strings suddenly exploding into full orchestration before calming again. “Bells for Her” and “Icicle” both showcase what Amos can do with prepared piano, and “Past the Mission,” with Trent Reznor guesting on gentle, affecting backing vocals, shifts between loping country and a beautifully arranged chorus.
The secret winner, though, would have to be “Baker Baker,” just Amos and piano, detailing the story of a departed love and working its cooking metaphor in just the right way.
“Under The Pink” as a Limited-Edition Double Vinyl, Remastered at Half Speed for Superior Quality and Pressed on 180g Pink Vinyl
Happy 25th Anniversary to Tori Amos’ third studio album “Boys for Pele”, originally released in the UK January 22nd, 1996 and in the US January 23rd, 1996. I was lucky enough to see Tori Amos at Birmingham Town Hall
After seeing her performance it compelled me to relinquish my previously held aversion and embrace Amos’ music? Well, as I spent more time with her first three albums, I had a few epiphanies about their creator, revelations that would have been unthinkable for me a few years prior. First, Amos’ virtuoso piano playing is incredible and rivalled by only a select few. Second, she is one of the most iconoclastic, inventive and fearless songwriters I’ve ever heard, with lyrics that demand my (and your) rapt attention. And third, her songs are ripe with her own brave confessions and more broadly universal insights about the complexities of women’s psyches, hearts and souls. The latter proving valuable information for a young male listener like myself, who, at the time, was still trying to figure out what makes young women tick. In other words, I recognized that I could learn a helluva lot from Tori Amos.
When I first heard “Caught a Lite Sneeze” in the early days of 1996, I was all ears. And I loved what I heard. A few weeks after my discovery, Upon listening to the album a few times that day, I promptly returned to the store the following day and added Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink to my CD collection. And a new Tori Amos convert was born.
Of the albums that comprised Amos’ early career trilogy, the unorthodoxly crafted Boys for Pele still resonates the loudest for me. Recorded in a church in rural County Wicklow, Ireland, with additional sessions in a New Orleans studio, Boys for Pele is the first of her albums produced primarily by Amos herself. Though her signature stripped-down piano arrangements are still present, her third LP is noticeably more experimental, with multi-layered instrumentation, including several harpsichord-blessed compositions. “The thing I wanted from this album was freedom,” Amos confided to Irish music magazine Hot Press shortly after the album’s release. “I wanted to do things musically that I hadn’t done before.” Her ambition paid off, as the 18-track Boys for Pele proved a more sonically expansive song suite than its precursors, offering testament to Amos’ musical vision and versatility.
Even before pressing play on the disc for the first time, the most cursory of glances at the arresting album artwork signaled that Boys for Pele was a considerably more volatile record than her previous two efforts. The portrait of strength and sensuality, an emboldened Amos casts her piercing gaze toward the listener from a wooden rocking chair, naked and muddied leg draped over one of the chair’s arms, rifle resting across her lap, with a snake coiled by her foot and a dead rooster hanging behind her. A far cry from the innocuous Little Earthquakes cover, which shows Amos knelt inside a box with a miniature blue piano at her feet.
While some have interpreted the striking visual as a nod to “Me and a Gun”—her poignant account of her first-hand experience with rape that features on Little Earthquakes—the imagery more broadly signifies her state of mind throughout the recording process. Recorded in the wake of the dissolution of her romance with producer Eric Rosse, who co-produced her first two albums, the introspective Boys for Pele finds Amos looking deep within herself, casting her emotional demons aside, and ultimately reclaiming ownership of her identity. “This is about finding my fire,” she said to the Baltimore Sun. “This is about standing on my own.” She later explained that “As I wrote the songs for Boys for Pele, I started valuing myself through my own eyes, instead of valuing me through the eyes of others, like the press or a lover or whatever.” So while the album’s creation was an emotionally demanding one for Amos, it ultimately proved a therapeutic exercise for her.
The album’s title was inspired by her trip to Hawaii, during which she learned about the legend of Pele, the Goddess of Fire and Volcanoes. According to Hawaiian mythology, the powerful Pele was prone to raging fits of fury, and known to exact her vengeance by sacrificially tossing young boys into her volcanic flames. Though the theme of Amos—and women, in general— finding and seizing her inner fire pervades the album, the only direct reference to Pele appears in “Muhammad My Friend,” by way of the line “You’ve never seen fire until you’ve seen Pele blow.”
More broadly, and expanding upon the thematic foundations of Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink, Boys for Pele is predicated upon Amos’ deconstruction of patriarchal hegemony and masculinity, specifically within relationships and religion, and her assertion of female will in the face of interpersonal and institutionalized repression. At the risk of understatement, it’s an intense and empowering record. A complex collection of songs that demands the listener’s undivided attention and patience to decipher Amos’ metaphor-heavy lyrics and less intuitive, leftfield symbolism. But it’s also one of Amos’ most rewarding efforts across her prolific discography.
Ubiquitous throughout the 70-minute affair are the ghosts of Amos’ dissolved relationship, which naturally segue into her exploration of the broader conflict between the feminine and the masculine. Surfacing just two tracks in and arguably the album’s heaviest song, “Blood Roses” explores the darker side of love and the exploitation of women in its various physical, psychological and emotional forms. On the percussive, harpsichord-drenched first single “Caught aLite Sneeze,” Amos reflects that she “didn’t know our love was so small,” an obvious reference to the demise of her doomed relationship.
“Hey Jupiter” and “Doughnut Song” are both tender piano ballads, the former detailing the heartache of a love lost, the latter acknowledging the emptiness of a relationship and the fact that her lover has moved on. Appearing toward the end of the record, “In the Springtime of His Voodoo” and “Putting the Damage On” find Amos struggling to reconcile her profound feelings of loss and lingering affection for her former paramour.
The spiritual counterpart to “God” from Under the Pink, “Muhammad My Friend” challenges organized religion’s marginalization of women by turning the traditional male-dominated conception of God on its head, as Amos declares “It’s time to tell the world / We both know it was a girl / Back in Bethlehem.” A fictional tale of a woman caught between two worlds, “Little Amsterdam” takes on the American South’s centuries-old legacy of patriarchal domination perpetuated by racist whites.
A handful of standout songs diverge a bit from the album’s dominant themes, but they’re no less provocative. Falsely interpreted by some as an endorsement of the satanic or a veiled ode to Amos’ minister father, the lilting, lullaby-like “Father Lucifer” is actually about liberating one’s suppressed desires and embracing whatever your preferred vices may be, however taboo.
“Now, when I say Lucifer, I’m talking about the feelings that we hide from ourselves,” Amos explained during a 1996 radio interview . “Not something that’s twisted and evil, like during the Inquisition when they used Christianity to torture people. That’s Satanism. I had to go in this record when I was trying to find parts of myself that I had not let scream and dance and have a tear. I went to go visit Lucifer to get my talisman, which means my little magic key that took me to the places that I hadn’t let myself go. That’s really about having a little tango, a little dance, with Lucifer. The idea that Dark is not a scary thing if you go in there understanding there is a purity in Darkness.”
Though much of the world is more familiar with the propulsive, dancefloor-filling Armand Van Helden remix of “Professional Widow,” its original incarnation featured here is noteworthy for its much-debated allusions to none other than Courtney Love. According to widespread rumours the validity of which have yet to be proven, mind you Love played a not-so-insignificant part in the fracturing of Amos’ friendship with Trent Reznor. Believe what you will.
When Amos initially brought the finished album, admittedly devoid of any obvious radio-friendly hits beyond “Caught a Lite Sneeze,” to the executives at Atlantic Records, they were skeptical of its commercial potential. From their perspective, Boys for Pele represented a curveball of a record, relative to the more conventional and marketable Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink. But the album was certified platinum for surpassing one million in sales by August of 1996, an achievement that, as Amos chattedat a show in Boulder, CO later that year, “record companies, radio had fuck-all to do with.”
Sales figures and eggs on record execs’ faces aside, Boys for Pele is unequivocally the work of a brave, vital artist who has taken thrilling risks throughout her storied, nearly 30-plus-year solo recording career, in the spirit of preserving her creative freedom and adventurous approach to songcraft. Amos’ recorded repertoire is vast, comprised of 15 studio albums, a plethora of B-sides (some of which are among her strongest compositions), and a slew of official and bootlegged live recordings. And Boys for Pele is arguably the most powerful musical statement she has ever made.
Squirrel Flower, the moniker of Ella Williams, has announced her new album “Planet (i)”, due for release on 25th June! We couldn’t be happier to have new music from Ella so soon after the brilliant “I Was Born Swimming” was released last January. And what an album this is…
For now, we’re sharing the explosive single Hurt A Fly and its video directed by Ryan Schnackenberg. Ella has spoken a bit about the track’s meaning:
“‘Hurt A Fly’ is me embodying a persona of gaslighting, narcissistic soft-boy type shit. The classic ‘sorry I acted violently, I’m not mad that you got upset at me, wanna hang out next week?’. I wanted to see what it was like to be a character trying to skirt around accountability. It’s an angry and unhinged song, and for the video I wanted to be inside a bubble writhing around and trying to get out. A stranger filmed me practicing choreography at a public park, submitted it to a meme page making fun of ‘influencers,’ and the video got 1,000,000 views, which in my mind is perfect thematically.”
Planet (i) is the follow-up to 2020’s I Was Born Swimming, for which MOJO described her as “one of 2020’s most engaging new artists” and she was made a ‘One To Watch’ by The Observer.
Planet (i) is a world entirely of Williams’ making. The title came first to her as a joke: it’s her made-up name for the new planet people will inevitably settle and destroy after leaving Earth, as well as the universe imagined within her music. The record is a love letter to disaster in every form imaginable – these songs fully embrace a planet in ruin. Buoyed by her steadfast vision and propelled by her burning comet of a voice, Planet (i) is at once a refuge, an act of self-healing, and a musical reflection of Squirrel Flower’s inner and outer worlds.
Williams wrote most of the songs on Planet (i) before the COVID-19 pandemic, but disaster looms large in its DNA. Susceptible to head injuries having played a lot of sports in her youth, Williams received three concussions from 2019-2020. Amidst the chaos of touring internationally during her own healing process, she began weaving threads between her physical and personal sense of ruin and her lifelong fear of the elements: of being swept up by storms, floods, and the deep ocean. “To overcome my fear of disasters”, Williams says, “I had to embody them, to stare them down”. This journey of decay and healing is the lifeblood of Planet (i).
Once quarantine set in, Williams began to produce demos in her room, amassing a collection of more than 30 recordings. Feeling a sense of artistic synchronicity over international phone calls with producer Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Perfume Genius), and with newfound covid antibodies, Williams flew to Bristol, UK in the fall of 2020 to record Planet (i) at Chant’s studio, The Playpen. “We had this shared creative language”, she recalls, “and the recording process was, like my demo process, very sculptural. Instead of recording live with a full band, we built this record layer by layer, experimenting, taking risks”. While Williams
and Chant played most of the instruments on the record, Bristol drummer Matt Brown and Portishead’s Adrian Utley also joined their sessions. When Chant suggested the idea of backup vocals, Williams, whose voice had until now stood alone in her songs, enthusiastically enlisted friends and family to join her remotely with their voices and instruments; Tenci’s Jess Shoman, Tomberlin, Katy J. Pearson, Jemima Coulter, Brooke Bentham, and her brothers Nate and Jameson Williams, as well as her father Jesse.
The songs on Planet (i) are Squirrel Flower’s instruments for connection: with the people in her life, her collaborators, audiences, and ancestors; a lineage of artists whose spirits continue to inform her art. At the heart of this record is an insistence on connection and healing in the face of catastrophe.
On Planet (i), Squirrel Flower reveals a bright and uncompromising vision, confident in her powers of self-healing and growth. No matter what the disaster ahead of or within her looks like, and no matter how she shape-shifts to meet it, Squirrel Flower will always be a world of her own, a space-rock flying down the road in flames and flat tires.
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The Fat Angel Sings 