Grammy-nominated and band of the moment the psychedelic soul duo Black Pumas have joined forces with indie-pop outfit Lucious for an updated collaborative cover of The Kinks‘ “Strangers”. Released to streaming platforms on Thursday via ATO Records, the new cover also appears in the promo trailer for the forthcoming YouTube Originals documentary, Life In A Day 2020. The film premiered as part of the Sundance Film Festival recently.
“To me, ‘Strangers’ has a really interesting way of cutting through straight to the soul,” Black Pumas singer Eric Burton said in a press statement about the song, which The Kinks first released way back in 1970 on the band’s “Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One” album. “I had such a good time inhabiting this honest reflection on love lost and the triumph that is a resilient human spirit.”
In addition to the documentary trailer arriving Thursday, the band also shared an eight-minute behind-the-scenes featurette showing how their cover with Lucius came to be in the recording studio.
Black Pumas and Lucius have released a new cover of The Kinks classic “Strangers.”
Last year Flyte was good to us, giving us a handful of new songs teasing their long-awaited sophomore album (which we spoke to them about last fall), which they have formally announced is entitled This Is Really Going To Hurt and will be out April 9th via Islands Records.
The album, which was recorded in Los Angeles with collaborators Justin Raisen, Andrew Sarlo, and mixing engineer Ali Chant, is a lucid documentation of the bad breakup that lead singer Will Taylor’s endured, following the “ending of a relationship through the stages of grief and acceptance.” These were songs that Taylor shared when we saw them play at Berlin in September of 2019, so we excited to hear them now in their final form, as it’s an album that we can really use during this still very tough time.
Along with today’s announcement comes the release of the music video of new single “Under The Skin.” The track has that trademark song writing from Flyte, with a grandiose build that feels emotional, true, and completely cathartic. When Nick’s guitar enters, the song just runs off with your heart completely.
About the track Taylor explained; “Under the skin” is a build-up of tension. It warns of imminent chaos. An ode to a relationship that’s on the brink of destruction. I hope we never have to write a song like it again, it was a very dark time.
Find the music video for “Under The Skin” available to watch below.
Music video by Flyte performing Under The Skin (Live). You can pre-order special limited edition bundles of the album which includes a companion book that gives an insight into the making of the album.
Flyte, under exclusive licence to Island Records, a division of Universal Music Operations .
For singer-songwriter Madison Cunningham, the year 2020 seemed to be all lined up for her, until it wasn’t. And suddenly, instead of touring, all that was left was to stay at home and try to write. I was going to open for Mandy Moore. I was going to do, like, my first headlining tour, which would have been super fun. And that would have dropped me into playing a show at Madison Square Garden,
She explores this sense of loss and finding what’s truly important to her in her contribution to titled “Broken Harvest.” “It was interesting to figure out how to find myself in that again and to detach what it was that I was doing from success,” Cunningham says. “In retrospect, it was a really sweet thing, too — where I was getting to come back to square one, getting reacquainted with the reason that I first came into music and the reason that I fell in love with it.”
When NPR Morning Edition asked me to write a song around the theme “Dreams Deferred” for their Song Project Series, it resonated with me immediately. Not only as an artist but also as a person alive in 2020. A year that had us all cashing in our plan B’s like we could’ve never expected. To anyone with a dream, the feeling of being robbed of opportunity, growth, promise, or success, was annoyingly abrasive. And though it was collective, it was easy to think it was only happening to you.
So I wanted to touch on the idea that we’ve always had to face loss. We’ve always had to deal with death. We’ve always had to deal with failure, with all of those things. And it forced us all to look at not only the deeper illness, not just the symptoms, but just what’s most important in our lives and what we value most — and who are the people that we need to tell right here, now, that we love. So, that was where I got the line, “All things fade away.”
As fatalist as it sounds, it was a very hopeful idea to me, that we were literally born into this reality — we’re made to face this, so, we can get through it. That was my attempt at being somewhat hopeful on the heels of 2020.
Madison Cunningham spoke of dashed plans and how the imagery of “Broken Harvest” grew from revisiting a beloved old TV series. Hear the radio version at the audio link, and read on for an edited transcript.
The past year has been stuck on pause. Before the pandemic, time travelled on a superhighway at a million miles an hour, but since March, we’ve all been in a traffic jam. There have been plenty of huge challenges in that standstill, but the break from a consistent surge of momentum has actually been good in some respects. It’s been a chance to reflect and recognize that we’ve all been fooling ourselves as we speed through life seeking somewhere new. ‘Fits and Starts’ is a song about making the concept of time meaningless so that it feels okay to keep holding that pause button.” David McMillin, Fort Frances
21-year-old songwriter Meskerem Mees drew international attention with her first single “Joe”, and now she’s proving she’s a talent to watch with her new song “Seasons Shift”.
Mees enchants from the moment she opens her mouth, with an ethereal voice and cosmopolitan accent (she’s Belgian with Ethiopian roots). Alongside her friend the cellist Febe Lazou, she crafts gentle music out of turbulent emotions. “Seasons Shift” is more about a variable person than the changing weather, with lyrics that track differences over time. She sings of someone who “got serious in December/ Lonely in July, though you wouldn’t tell me why/ It might have been easier just to call me but you preferred to cry.” At first she seems to be sketching out a failed relationship, but as the song progresses, her concerns become metaphysical. “Seasons Shift” ends on a sombre note, though the melody is as sweet as ever: “Lord, Lord, Lord would you please set us free?/ If not inside our rotting graves forever we shall be/ All that’s left of you right next to all that’s left of me.”
Check out “Seasons Shift” below. Both that song and “Joe” are expected to appear on her as-yet untitled debut album, which is currently set for a November release.
Jenn Wasner launched Flock of Dimes, a solo project formed in 2011 to explore the more atmospheric side of pop. Flock ofDimes allows Wasner to experience more experimental recording techniques and song writing outside of the burgeoning success of her main musical outlet Wye Oak.
On her second full-length record, “Head of Roses”, Jenn Wasner follows a winding thread of intuition into the unknown and into healing, led by gut feelings and the near-spiritual experience of visceral songwriting. The result is a combination of Wasner’s ability to embrace new levels of vulnerability, honesty and openness, with the self-assuredness that comes with a decade-plus career as a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and prolific collaborator.
On the surface, the record is about heartbreak–but it is just as much about the many joys of connection. It’s about the search for intimacy, in all its wonder and complexity. And it’s about learning to accept the reality that hurting others, and being hurt in turn, is an inescapable part of being human. Making it has been, for me, part of a larger process of learning how to care for and forgive myself, with the hope that I can learn how to show up more fully for those I love the most. With so many existential crises looming, so many threats to our survival, so much fear and pain and misery–it’s a strange moment to be releasing music about love. But still the small dramas of our lives play out, and there is so much beauty to be found in them–even as existence itself becomes increasingly wilder and weirder and more terrifying.
It is my tendency to want to trivialize the things I make, but I do think music plays a part in helping our species to progress, in its way. I believe that music can help us learn to heal ourselves. It is a force that is capable of circumventing the barriers we create to connection–all the ways in which we hide from ourselves and others in order to avoid pain–so that, in learning to feel deeply, we can discover the parts of ourselves that are most in need of healing. I believe if we want to change the world, we have to start by understanding ourselves. It’s a cliche because it’s true, you know? The ways in which we relate to those around us send out reverberations far beyond ourselves.
If we cannot learn to love each other, to need others and be needed in turn–we are lost. If we cannot heal ourselves, we can’t care for each other. If we cannot accept and embrace each other in all of our infinite complexity, then we might not be a species worth saving. But I think that we are–or, at least, we could be.
I will tell you much more about the record (and the amazing people who helped make it) in due time. For now, thank you for listening with an open heart.
Gang Of Four have announced a release date for their limited-edition box set, “Gang Of Four: 77-81”, which was initially scheduled for release last year, but delayed due to production issues.
The brilliant, limited-edition box set gathers Gang Of Four’s influential early work – including “Entertainment!” and “Solid Gold” (both remastered from the original analogue tapes), an exclusive singles LP, and an exclusive double LP of the never officially released Live At American Indian Center 1980.
Additionally, the package includes two new badges, a C90 cassette tape compiling 26 never-before-issued outtakes, rarities and studio demos from Entertainment! and Solid Gold, and an epic 100-page, full-colour hardbound book. The book details the history and legacy of the original Gang Of Four with never-before-seen photos, contributions from surviving original band members, rare posters, ephemera, flyers, essays, artwork, liner notes and more. It also marks the first official publication of their lyrics.
Gang of Four was formed in Leeds in 1976 by bassist Dave Allen, drummer Hugo Burnham, guitarist Andy Gill, and singer Jon King. The band pioneered a style of music that inverted punk’s blunt and explosive energies — favouring tense rhythms, percussive guitars, and lyrics that traded in Marxist theory and situationism. They put every element of the traditional “rock band” format to question, from notions of harmony and rhythm to presentation and performance.
This original line-up of the band released two monumental albums, Entertainment! (1979) and Solid Gold (1981). A third, Songs Of The Free (1982), was recorded with bassist Sara Lee replacing Dave Allen. After Songs Of The Free, Burnham departed the band and Andy Gill and Jon King continued on to release Hard in 1983. After this release, the band broke up. In 2004, the original quartet reformed for tour dates and released Return The Gift (2005). Andy Gill died on 1st February 2020.
To mark the release of Gang Of Four 77-81, fans can watch a lyric video for the song “Damaged Goods”, as well as hearing the demo of the unreleased song, “Elevator”, which is included on the cassette in the box set.
Speaking about Elevator, Jon King said:
“Andy & I both lived in a shitty house in Leeds where we used to sing The Band or Muddy Waters songs, chugging disgusting homebrew beer that I fermented in a dustbin. We started writing songs – mostly homages to Dr. Feelgood or the Velvets – recording them on a crappy cassette player. Inspired by the New York scene and with UK punk rock on a thrilling rampage, Hugo, Gill, and I formed a band.
The first couple of gigs were those early songs and a fast Beatles cover. Dave joining us raised the bar. He was really good, and we quickly came up with new material we all wrote together, built on grooves from Dave & Hugo, over which Andy and I would improvise until we’d got somewhere. Elevator always worked well live. It was a keeper until it wasn’t. By the time we got into the Workhouse studio to record ‘Entertainment’, it was in the dumper. I’d forgotten ever writing it until it was dug up for the box set cassette. I like it: the jangly riff, propulsive rhythm, and dopey lyrics take me right back to the day.”
The post-punk legends’ first two albums – 1979’s Entertainment! and 1981’s Solid Gold – are remastered for this excellent four-disc set, which also includes a disc of singles from the four-year period covered. Also included: an unreleased concert, Live at the American Indian Center, recorded in San Francisco in May 1980. Almost everything you need by Gang of Four – who’ve re-formed and issued more albums over the years – can be found on 77-81.
The limited edition box set, Gang Of Four: 77-81 will be available on vinyl on 12th March, and on CD on 23rd April.
A new tribute album, The Problem Of Leisure: A Celebration Of Andy Gill And Gang Of Four, will be released in May via Gill Music and features contributions from Flea and John Frusciante, Warpaint, La Roux, and more.
Take It from the Man! is the third studio album by American psychedelic rock band The Brian Jonestown Massacre. After recording their shoegaze-influenced debut album Methodrone (1995) and releasing a collection of early recordings, Spacegirl & Other Favorites, the band took influence from 1960s British psychedelic garage rock and recorded Take it from the Man! from November 1995–February 1996.
After recording the entire album with an unnamed producer who scrapped the recordings, the band re-recorded the album on a minimal budget, mostly at Lifesource Studios in Emeryville, California with production from Psychic TV’s Larry Thrasher, whose usual “studio” approach was vetoed out by the band’s back-to-basics approach.
The album’s psychedelic garage rock has often been compared to the Rolling Stones. Released by Bomp! Records on May 28th, 1996, it is the first of three full-length albums released by the band in 1996, preceding Their Satanic Majesties’ Second Request and Thank God for Mental Illness. The album was released to critical acclaim, with journalists praising the exuding of its influences and spirit. AntonNewcombe has since named the album as one of his favourites by the band. The album has featured in several “best of” lists and has been cited by several musicians as an influence. “Straight Up and Down”, which is featured in two alternate versions on the album, later became the theme music for Boardwalk Empire.
According to the liner notes, “Take it from the Man!” was recorded “live” between November 1995 and February 1996 at Dance Home Studio and Larry Thrasher’s Lifesource Studios in Emeryville, California, with digital editing undertaken at Music Box, Hollywood. The band initially recorded Take it from the Man! with an unnamed producer who, in wanting to “get on board”, recorded the album and “chopped it up to make it like so perfect” and then requested 3% of the royalties, leading the band to “just [laugh] in his face.”
As a result, the producer, as Newcombe recalled it, “got so pissed and he said he was going to destroy the recording. I was like, ‘Fuck you dude. Then I’m gonna kick your ass the minute I see you on the street.’ He did end up destroying it but I let him off the hook as far as the violence.” With the band needing to re-record the album in its entirety, Larry Thrasher from Psychic TV became interested in the band and producing the album, and borrowed a recording studio, possibly belonging to the Counting Crows, for the band to record in, presumably his Lifesource Studios credited in the liner notes.
Newcombe stated that, with a line-up of Newcombe, Dean Taylor (guitar), Matt Hollywood (bass) and Brian Glaze (drums), the band showed up on the day of recording without guitarist Jeff Davies because “he was a junkie” and so Newcombe’s girlfriend Dawn played guitar instead. The album was recorded on a minimal budget. When the band turned up to the studio, they were surprised to find that Thrasher had “about sixteen microphones set up for the drums,” because the band preferred a stripped down studio approach; Newcombe stated that “I asked him, ‘What the hell is this?’ and he said, ‘Well, these are for the drums…’ and I was like, ‘We don’t need sixteen mics for the drums. Take all of these away. I’m gonna use three mics for the drums and we’re gonna record it live, all at once. We’re just gonna put all the guitar amps down the hallway, the drums will be in here, and we’ll put on headphones and we’ll just play our set.’
We record everything the same way, so that’s what we did and then at the end he whipped out all of these effects when mixing at his studio and I just asked him, ‘What are all of these for?’ and he said, ‘You can’t have it sound the same on every song’ and I’m like ‘Bullshit, that’s the charm of this,’ we just try and get a certain sound.” Newcombe noted that “Straight Up and Down” was mixed to cassette. The band were recording their follow up album Their Satanic Majesties’ Second Request (1996) concurrently with Take it from the Man!, although not in the same studio or with the same producer. Newcombe recalled “recording “Take It from the Man” in the day time and then recording Their Satanic Majesties’ Second Request in the night time.
I was doing them simultaneously. I would go and stay at this one studio and then take the train out to the other one so instead of being homeless I was going between these two studios and crashing on the couches and doing two, 18 song records at the same time. Released May 28th, 1996
An indie-rock quintet out of St. Petersburg, Fla., Snacking will release their new EP “Painted Gold” on February. 8th via Chillwavve Records. Lead single “Blacked Out on a Train” is a song of transition, taking liminal space—like the titular train car moving from a dark past to an uncertain future (“We’re leaving town alive / Without saying goodbye”), or the stylistic space between Minus the Bear-style math rock and emo revival—as its setting. Snacking show off effortlessly melodic guitars, forceful low end and emotionally complex lyricism, building “Blacked Out on a Train” up into an invigorating instrumental firestorm. “We chose ‘Blacked Out On A Train’ as the single because it’s a step in a different direction for us,” the band said upon the song’s premiere. “It’s more dissonant and hectic than anything we’ve written previously. We thought it would do a good job of attracting new listeners and hopefully surprise those who are already familiar with our prior material.”
Track List: 01. Blacked Out On A Train (0:00) 02. Crossword (2:59) 03. Edward (6:21) 04. Painted Gold (10:10)
Music from Sydney, Australia, Mere Women are back with a divine new offering song ‘Romantic Notions’ the title-track from their eagerly awaited fourth album due 5th March 2021 via Poison City Records. We are excited to premiere the song’s clip directed and lovingly crafted by the band, shot on the land of the Kuing-gai and Eora Peoples. Vocalist Amy Wilson gives us an insight into the track, We wrote the majority of the record at our place on the Hawkesbury River where three of us live. It’s a stunning spot right on the water, surrounded by national park. The record has soaked up this place over the writing process and as a result is more spacious and considered I think. Living here has made me feel like more of an outsider and this really comes through lyrically. As an album it’s dark and self-reflective but hopeful.
‘Romantic Notions’ the theme came from. It explores the idea that love can be used as a tool to control someone or can be used as a reason to make destructive life choices. As a band at that time we were inspired sonically by groups like TFS, White Hex and BAMBARA and wanting to create something that sounded sludgy and enveloping.
We were trying to create this sense of ‘becoming’ something new and leaving the old behind with the clip. It was filmed at our cottage and in the surrounding bushland by Flyn and Mac from the Band. Mac edited the clip and made the opening titles. Our friend Kim from White Lion Cosmetica got on board to do makeup and created this really cool monsteresque look that changes and grows throughout the clip. We’re so happy to be releasing again and getting back to playing music. Thanks for watching and listening to ‘Romantic Notions’ – it means a lot and we hope that you enjoy it.
.”W.Y.G” follows a trail of destruction left behind by family violence. It travels through distressing family resemblances and conflicting feelings of loving someone and hating them all at once”.
The Fat Angel Sings 