Valerie June has shared a new climactic, string-laden piano ballad from her upcoming album “The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers”. Valerie June’s voice is always great, but it really soars on this one. Produced by Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys, John Legend) and Valerie June, “The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers” is sweeping and ambitious with earthy R&B production and a touch of psychedelia amidst its astral folk-pop orchestration, the pair arrived at a sound that is elegant and endlessly surprising. At the center is June’s spellbinding vocals and infectious sense of wonder that finds the Brooklyn-via-Memphis artist narrating the often precarious journey to joyful possibility. The ethereal clip for “Why The Bright Stars Glow” embodies a dreamer’s aura as Valerie’s shimmering figure cuts against a night sky.
Conjuring a next-generation fusion of folk, soul, gospel, country and transcendental blues,The Moon and Stars, Prescriptions For Dreamers, Valerie June’s third full-length album for Fantasy Records is a deeply affecting work of genuine beauty and unassuming wonder.
“Why The Bright Stars Glow” from the album “The Moon And Stars:Prescriptions For Dreamers”,out March 12th, 2021 via Fantasy Records.
On Tuesday, Wild Pink shared a video for their new single “Pacific City.” It served as the fourth single from their new album, “A Billion Little Lights”, which came out today on Royal Mountain Records. Keith Pratt directed the video. For the past several months, John Ross has been building up to the release of his new album as Wild Pink, “A Billion Little Lights”. So far we’ve heard several songs from it,
Frontman John Ross speaks about the inspiration behind the new song in a press release: “‘Pacific City’ is named after the city in Oregon and I was watching Heat a lot while writing it. I wanted to write a few songs with a conventional song structure on this album and this was one of them—we spent a lot of time on the drum tones and used a Yamaha RX21 drum machine. The song is about time passing and realizing you’re not the same person you used to be.”
The band previously shared the songs “The Shining But Tropical,” “You Can Have It Back,” and “Oversharers Anonymous” from the album. Their last album, Yolk in the Fur, came out in 2018 on Tiny Engines.
Matt Berninger of The National released his debut solo album, “Serpentine Prison”, last October via Book, Berninger’s new imprint with Concord. Today he announced a new deluxe edition of the album that includes six extra bonus tracks (four covers and two originals) and shared one of those extra tracks, “Let It Be,” which is an original song and not a Beatles cover. This solemn retrospective track marks a new venture for the rock artist as he explores the development and evolution of a friendship. The deluxe edition of Berninger’s Serpentine Prison will be available on March 12th digitally and March 21th, physically. Featuring six bonus tracks, including “Let It Be” and an unnamed second original track Berninger has included covers of Eddie Floyd’s “Big Bird”,Morphine’s “In Spite Of Me,” Bettye Swan’s “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye” and the Velvet Underground’s “European Son”.
The deluxe edition is due out digitally March 12th.
Previously Berninger shared the album’s title track, “Serpentine Prison,” via a video for it. Then he shared another song from it, “Distant Axis,” via a video for it. Then he shared another song from it, “One More Second,”. Then he shared a remix of “One More Second” by Baltimore four-piece Future Islands. Booker T. Jones produced the album “Serpentine Prison”, with additional production by Sean O’Brien. In addition to the release of Serpentine Prison, 2020 saw Berninger collaborating with a whole host of industry talent, from Taylor Swift on her Evermore track “Coney Island” and Australian singer-songwriter Julia Stone on the St. Vincent– produced “We All Have,” which will feature on her upcoming album Sixty Summers. As well as joining forces with synth-pop outfit Future Islands for a remix of his single “One More Second.”
The album is dedicated to Berninger’s grandmother Elaine and his college professor Gordon Salchow.
The official lyric video for Matt Berninger “Let It Be”. “This is a new song about an old frenemy. Not Paul McCartney or Westerberg.” Taken from the deluxe edition of his 2020 solo debut album, “Serpentine Prison”.
Nearly three years on from that release (for Bernice a rapid turnaround by comparison to the seven-year gap between their 2011 debut and Puff), the band return with their third full-length, Eau de Bonjourno, out March 5th from Telephone Explosion and Figureeight records. It marks their first collaboration with producer Shahzad Ismaily, the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist who has worked with artists as varied as Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, John Zorn, and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. While their genre reconstruction remains distinctly Bernice,
Dann’s lyrics bring a newfound focus to storytelling in the present moment, compassionately meeting ourselves where we are, and finding joy in spaces that are familiar but ever changing.
Eau de Bonjourno, according to Dann, “openly plays with the shape of a pop song,” drawing on the band members’ backgrounds in jazz, subverting rhythmic formulas, and resting in grooves that sit just outside of predictable. Instead of letting instruments take extended solos, the tone is set on opener “Groove Elation” with brief blurts of synthesized sax, patient passages of space, or clusters of beats, tenderly held together by Dann and Williams’ intimate vocals. The album’s sound is experimental in its truest definition, chopped up like musique concrète and then delicately placed back together with the loving touch of a scrapbook collagist.
We Choose You a song about the impossible present and the necessary future. Featuring the brilliance of Matthew Pencer’s production/mixing, the elegance of jake shermanwooo ‘s vocoding, and as ever the boldness of recording & friendship.
New song & video shared today !! it’s called It’s Me, Robin the video was made by Sonia Beckwith and Thom Gill it feels like a real accurate reflection of where I’m at these days, which can often not be the case when releasing music / videos as it takes so much time between the making and the releasing. This one still buzzes in me. Our album will be out March 5th on Telephone Explosion Records
The upcoming arrival of our newest album, entitled “Eau De Bonjourno”, to be released March 5th 2021 on Telephone Explosion Records here in North America and on Figureight Records in the EU/UK.
The Band:
Robin Dann, Thom Gill, Dan Fortin. Felicity Williams, Phil Melanson,
San Francisco-based singer/songwriter Tim Cohen has long been a fixture of the city’s garage rock and psych rock revival scene as one of the minds behind The Fresh & Onlys and Magic Trick. Despite his already storied career over the past 20 years, his forthcoming sixth solo album, “You Are Still Here”, represents another step forward with his first solo album recorded in the studio. The result is a set of sounds that invites with a friendly psych folk sound but holds some wild instrumental breakdowns just beneath. Cohen has now returned with his latest single, “Bottom Feeders,” .
“Bottom Feeders” brings the anxious undercurrent of these songs to the forefront, opening on a wiry surf guitar line before the hypnotic refrain enters, bolstered by a psychedelic horn flourish. The driving pace hints back to Cohen’s garage rock roots, but the song holds onto a sense of trippy melody that is pure ‘60s psych rock. Both arresting and alluring, the song brings out both Cohen’s catchy melodies and acid-fried freak-outs in equal measure. The qualities that have made him such a fixture in the Bay Area are out in full force on his new record.
Cohen says of the song, “My flight out to Denver, where I plan to record my new album with James Barone, was delayed for six hours. I had eaten the weed edible, but sitting in the airport for so long began to drive nails into my brain. I decided I would use this anxiety to my benefit and write all the lyrics to the album. ‘Dead and Company,’ the rebranding of one of my favourite all-time bands (except with John Mayer), were doing shows at Red Rocks the next day and it turns out I was sharing a plane with many of their fans.”
“In a dark turn, I painted a picture of these people’s lives in my mind. I thought about what it used to mean to be a (Grateful) Dead head, squandering your life possessions and following the Dead to the end of the road. In this new world, following “Dead and Company” meant something entirely different. So I came up with the worst insult I could for people that pretend to be something they are clearly not: bottom feeders. People that feed on other peoples’ vision or opinion of them. The whole song was about deadheads flying first class to a show in Colorado.”
“I ended up recording those lyrics but scrapping the whole thing. I reassigned the song to a different idea and kept the title. The new lyrics which you hear are more about oblivion and self-awareness, nothing to do with bottom feeders per se. But I liked the title so I kept it.” Check out the song below and watch for You Are Still Here, coming March 26th via Bobo Integral.
Elena Tonra of Daughter resumes her Ex:Re moniker to present a reinterpretation of her debut solo album. “Ex:Re with 12 Ensemble”, released today, is a collaboration between Tonra, classical composer Josephine Stephenson and one of the UK’s leading string orchestras, 12 Ensemble. Originally released in 2018, Ex:Re (pronounced “Ex Ray” and meaning “regarding Ex”) laid bare Tonra’s unfiltered internal monologue after the end of a relationship. Containing her most personal lyrics to date and brought into being with the help of Stephenson and producer/drummer Fabian Prynn, Ex:Re struck a chord with the broken-hearted and brought closure to a chapter in Tonra’s life.
Ex:Re with 12 Ensemble reimagines and complements its predecessor. It was recorded by Fabian Prynn during performances at Kings Place (the multi-arts venue in London’s King’s Cross neighbourhood) on the 30th November 2019, where Tonra was joined onstage by Stephenson on piano and the 12-piece string orchestra, 12 Ensemble.
Josephine Stephenson, a celebrated composer, arranger and performer, was approached by Kings Place to curate an event for their “Venus Unwrapped” 2019 season. Stephenson saw space in the programming for a live performance that bridged the gap between the classical and non-classical worlds, and having recently been involved with Ex:Re, collaborating once more with Tonra made perfect sense.
Stephenson’s new arrangements of the original Ex:Re album into classical form strip back the songs, heightening the emotion and vulnerability of the lyrics. “Working with acoustic instruments was an opportunity to add subtle, yet tangible dynamic details to highlight Elena’s words. As the Ex:Re songs are often built from loops, I enjoyed exploring the multitude of possible variations and reinventions within these, adding counter-melodies and making small changes in harmony or voicing. After touring with the Ex:Re band for a year, I knew the songs inside out, and had already started expanding and orchestrating them in my head. I also felt fearless knowing I was writing for the 12 Ensemble, who are all exceptionally talented musicians and comfortable in all sorts of genres.“
Tonra and Stephenson found respite in the recordings months after the Kings Place performance. “We were mixing the record while concerts and events around the world were being cancelled and postponed, so it was really moving to listen to the audio over and over during that time. The sound of a room filled with people was, and is, something we were all greatly missing” says Tonra. Ex:Re with 12 Ensemble, mixed by Jonathan Lefèvre-Reich, warps the space between audience and performer. It places the listener in the centre of the music, surrounded by a semi-circular wall of string sounds, to recreate the experience of the performance from up close. “There is also some magic in there” says Tonra, “Jonathan added some beautiful moments of story-telling in the mix. On ‘New York’, for example, the strings suddenly feel as though they are dripping down the sides of your head.”
When Manchester, England-based band Pins’ original rhythm section decided to move on it left founding members Faith Vern and Lois MacDonald (plus Kyoko Swan) with a conundrum in terms of how to move things forwards. “We had to figure out a different way of making music without a traditional drummer,” explain Vern. “Lois was really getting into all the drum machines and synthesizers, so it was getting a little more electronic at that point anyway.”
The trio decided that rather than recruit new permanent members they’d work with a rotating cast of collaborators. It was a bold move but it certainly paid off as their third album Hot Slick is arguably their most cohesive work to date. The band sound bigger and brighter than ever and they have crafted an album that still maintains all the edginess that made PINS such an interesting proposition in the first place, but they’ve also expanded their sonic palette and taken it onto a sticky neon-lit dance floor.
“We wanted this album to be a bit more electronic but keep that dark energy in there,” explains Vern. “I think it’s certainly the first album we’ve done which you can dance to. The beauty of the set up now is it’s just the three of us at the core and we can bring in anyone else who wants to collaborate and people can come and go as they please. In that way, there’s a lot less pressure. And when we were writing the album our roles were flexible and interchangeable. So for example, Lois played the guitar on some tracks, I played on some, and Kyoko did. It was like if you’ve got a bass guitar next to you just pick it up. It was a lot looser in that we didn’t have assigned roles which made us much freer.”
After releasing their second album, Wild Nights, via Bella Union, Vern explains why the band decided to self-release again via their own Haus of Pins label. “When we were with Bella Union, creatively it was great, but financially it was a bit of a struggle,” she says. “That’s simply due to the nature of record contracts. Abbey and Simon [Raymonde], who run the label, were always hugely supportive. At the time we felt like we needed some additional support from the wider team there. Eventually, we felt perhaps we weren’t getting what we wanted out of things.”
After looking around to see what other deals might be on offer, the band weren’t overly impressed. Vern explains that most labels “were all about taking more off us than we were willing to give and we certainly didn’t want to give up creative control.”
PINS tested the waters by releasing their 2017 EP, Bad Thing, and 2017 single, “Serve the Rich,” on Haus of Pins. “We worked with Cargo records who took on aspects we didn’t know much about such as getting records pressed, storing them, and the distribution to record stores which hugely takes the pressure off,” Vern says.
And besides releasing their own music, when the band began the label back in 2012 they supported other emerging artists, releasing early recordings by the likes of Dream Wife, September Girls, Abjects, and Cheri Cheri Jaguar. Vern admits they wouldn’t be averse to exploring that aspect of the label again. “It would be nice to release more vinyl in the future and start releasing other artists. But let’s see how the land lies after all this corona shit is over!” she laughs. “I mean the music business was a struggle before this, but being a self-releasing band at least we can actually put our album out! I know other artists have been advised by their labels not to put anything out yet, but who knows what will happen?”
There really aren’t many bands like Really From, whose of mix emo, math rock, jazz and more is as distinct as it is seamless, and their sound varies from song to song too. This second single from their upcoming self-titled album has more of an ethereal art pop vibe than the first single, and both are great. Drawing on influences of jazz improvisation, minimalist composition, and punk rock ethos, the Boston-based band Really From dismiss traditional genre and formulae in favour of explorative, indie rock amalgamations. Since 2014, their ever-evolving sound has incorporated stylistic touchstones from math rock to ambient, exploring themes of place, self, and culture through a dialect entirely their own. Michi Tassey (keys, synth bass) and Chris Lee-Rodriguez (guitar) exchange vocal leads regularly, shifting perspectives and ranges as their songs cascade through varied musical worlds, refracting their thematic questions concerned with intergenerational trauma, tokenism, and immigrant parenthood. Trumpeter Matt Hull and drummer Sander Bryce often take on lead voices of their own, further reconfiguring traditional notions of genre and songwriting.
“Try Lingual,” the lead single from Really From’s self-titled and third album, sees the quartet at their most all-encompassing. Thematically, it’s an apt setting for exploring Lee-Rodriguez’s personal struggles with learning Spanish, and Tassey’s with Japanese, in order to better communicate with their families and communities. At first calm and collected, then brassy, chaotic, and disjointed, “Try Lingual” is wrought with the anxiety of struggling to keep up. Tassey and Lee-Rodriguez sing as foils to one another, as if to encourage the other to unlearn their self-blaming habits. Trumpeter Hull’s jazzy sensibility often sings in unison with his melodic counterparts, but when let loose between and around the beats, Hull’s calculated, eruptive wailing mirrors the eureka moments that abound when trying to learn a new language, as well reflecting the less conclusive and more challenging hurdles that come with learning a new tongue. Like a linguistic epiphany, new worlds are revealed. Previously impossible conversations become accessible. Yet the learning persists, and other doors remain to be opened.
Really From are especially adept at bending their somewhat unusual instrumentation of trumpet, keys, guitar, and drumset into both abstract and intentional forms. On the album’s second single, “Quirk,” a warm swell of synth welcomes listeners into a bouncing, odd-timed exploration of inherited trauma, qualities, and laughter. Underscored by JD Beck-like flourishes of drummer SanderBryce, the opening 5/8 groove builds unpredictably, but with a precise foundation for Lee-Rodriguez’s lyrical unpacking of intergenerational trauma. While “Quirk” might not offer definitive resolution to its raised questions, its lines are punctuated with poetic acceptance—“As you sow your seed / I’ll reap from everything that stays.” “Your father knew this / your mother did too / the fault’s not on them.”
Releases March 12th, 2021
Really From is Chris Lee-Rodriguez, Sander Bryce, Michi Tassey & Matt Hull Chris Lee-Rodriguez – Vocals, Electric Guitar, Classical Guitar Sander Bryce – Drum Set Michi Tassey – Vocals, Piano, Keyboard, Synth Bass (Tracks 1 and 7) Matt Hull – Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Trombone Sai Boddupalli – Sound Design, Programming, Synth Bass (Tracks 2, 4-6, 8), Bass Guitar (Track 3)
Bill Callahan and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy have continued their collaborative covers series, and this new one is a very special one. It’s of “The Wild Kindness” by the late singer songwriter David Berman‘s band Silver Jews, and guests on this one include none other than David’s wife and Silver Jews bandmate Cassie Berman on bass, along with David Pajo on guitar, Tony Crow on keyboards, and Brian Kotzur on drums, with additional vocals by Haley Fohr (Circuit des Yeux), Meg Baird, and Matt Sweeney. The Bills and Cassie sound great together, and they really do justice to the song while making it their own. Flags flying at full mast (forever!), Silver Jews are paraded through the party on the back of Cassie Berman’s reverent version of one of the late David Berman’s finest songs. Everybody sings — everybody! — and that includes you. And it’s you crying, not us! OK maybe us too…
Featuring: Bill Callahan, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Cassie Berman, Boneman the dog, David Grubbs, Bill MacKay, George Xylouris, Shelagh Hannan, Apollonia Xylouris, Fred Somsen, Sue Ng-Espada, Matt Kinsey, Tony Crow, Azita Youssefi, Caitlin Rose Mahoney, Cory Hanson, Brett Sova, David Pajo.
“The Wild Kindness” (feat. Cassie Berman) · Bill Callahan · Bonnie “Prince” BillyDrag City Records Released on: 2021-02-19
Hailing from Canada, King KhanUnlimited have filled this release with biting social insights (mostly about their southern neighbour) driven by some very analogue sounding punk rock that will take you back to the hey day of CBGB’s (think Ramones, Dead Boys even Blondie). For all that they have found a very appropriate home on the Australian based Bargain Bin Records. Featuring his majesty’s dream line up of Bordeaux’s finest rock‘n’roll lifers, The Magnetix and Fredovitch (from King Khan & The Shrines), King Khan Unlimited’s new slab of punk rock is chock full of stinging social critique delivered with wit and a wry smile.
Their first single “Pigment Of Your Imagination” tackles the complicated topic of pigment as related to the tidal wave of racism all over the world. “Pigment Of Your Imagination” also features Eamon Sandwith from The Chats professing his love for, uh, Shea Butter amongst other things… Opening the charge is “Bedwetter”, a very Ramones-esque lament to exactly that. Heavy bass and drums underpin this song and you can imagine how great this would be live. Second song Narcissist has the refrain “narcissist, you don’t exist” and could be a tribute to the now former president of the United States (even though they reference Napoleon throughout the song). “Trapped in your own illusion” is much like the aftermath of 45 leaving office. Megpie Eyes is equally Dead Boys and The Stooges, with a heavy blues undertone.
The title track “Opiate Them Asses” carries along in the same vein as Narcissist, with messages of people being blinded by media and online tropes. Then we step away from the somewhat socio-political messaging to Al Capones Symphallytic Fever Dream, a song referencing what Al Capone might have dreamt about (whiskey running?!?) and exploring the Capone mythology in their own way. Crime Don’t Pay seems like a deliberately ironic song to include after a song about Al Capone. This morphs into Foaming At The Mouth, it took me while to realise that this one actually sounds a lot like The Vapours, Turning Japanese, never the less a good fun song.
The second half of the album is less hook-you-in, but is still pretty solid and listenable. Modern Frankenstein, Do You Wanna Get Hurt and Kamikazi are all pretty solid efforts, but compared to the first 3 songs are exactly what they are – solid B-sides. Pigment of Your Imagination has some interesting and clever word play. Kamikazi is an ode to over doing it on the drink, then crashing and burning(they will fit into the Bargain Bin collective well).
The end song is Play Safe has some nice plinky-plonk piano and is the most ballad type song on the album.
“Opiate Them Asses” is a solid punk rock album. The songs where they are making a socio-political comment (perhaps where the bands passions lie) and that are underpinned by a great track are the strongest on the album. When the band settles in to just being a punk band singing about girls and beer the strengths taper off a bit (lyrically, the band are pretty clever almost through the whole album).
Opiate Them Asses is definitely a play through with the best songs being Bedwetter, Narcissist and Megpie Eyes, just don’t listen too hard to the second half and the whole thing will feel like its still all good fun the more you listen.
The Fat Angel Sings 