Started by boyhood friends Evan Westfall and Taylor Meier, CAAMP came to life in Athens, Ohio. Taylor began penning and playing original songs at coffee shops around Athens in 2013. Evan moved down a couple of years later and together in a hazy attic, enjoying light beers, they would find the heartfelt sound that became CAAMP. Since independently releasing their self-titled first record in 2016, they have climbed the Spotify charts, headlined the US, purchased denim jackets and added a bass- playing buddy, Matt Vinson– who also enjoys light beers and denim. With the upcoming release of their third album “By and By,” the Ohioan trio has high hopes and no reservations.
Just beginning to get into this band. So far I’m thinking a little bit of a Avett Brothers meets the Grateful Dead kind of vibe. Their most recent album is getting some play on the satellite radio station I listen Here’s a live performance of one of the songs I really like. Ohio boys making beautiful noise
Its a song that hits my emotions during this fall weather. The tender swaying of the guitars and vocals make this an easy-listen. I think the sound demonstrated in this single could make a great album.
‘From Exile’ is a reimagined stripped down version of The Menzingers 2019 release “Hello Exile’. ‘From Exile’ was recorded from the band’s respective homes while in isolation during COVID-19 stay at home orders.
The Menzingers were on tour in Australia when the world seemed to abruptly stop due to COVID-19, forcing the band to cut their tour short and make their way back to Philadelphia. “The live music industry vanished before our eyes, and just like that we were out of work like tens of millions of others,” notes singer/guitarists Greg Barnett. “As the weeks progressed the upcoming tours got rescheduled, then rescheduled again, then effectively cancelled. There were times when it all felt fatal. There’s no guide book on how to navigate being a working musician during a global pandemic, so we were left to make it up as we went along. We wanted to document and create in the moment, and though we couldn’t be in the same room together due to social distancing lockdowns, we got creative.”
Over the next few months, the band would re-record ‘Hello Exile’ from their separate locations. “We would track the songs from our own home studios, share the files via dropbox, and pray it all made sense when pieced back together. Initially, we planned for the album to be similar to our acoustic demo collection ‘On The Possible Past,’ but we quickly found out that this batch of songs benefited from more detailed arrangements,” adds Barnett. “We rewrote, and changed keys and melodies. We blended analogue and digital instruments in ways we never had before. We dug through old lyric notebooks and added additional verses. We got our dear friend Kayleigh Goldsworthy to play violin on two songs. No idea was off limits. Hell, I even convinced the band to let me play harmonica on a song (no small feat!). The recording process ran from mid-March till June, and upon completion we sent it over to our dear friend and close collaborator Will Yip to mix and master.”
Brandon Flowers and co. played classics and tracks from new album ‘Imploding The Mirage’ atop the Caesars Palace, The Killers performed a special live show from their hometown for Radio 2’s ‘Live At Home’ festival this weekend.
The band, who recently released their new album ‘Imploding The Mirage’, appeared from the roof of Caesars Palace in their native Las Vegas during the festival, which is being hosted by Trevor Nelson, Sara Cox and Zoe Ball.
“Out of the ordinary times, so we followed suit and jumped on the roof of Caesars Palace, Las Vegas to do what we do. Felt strangely natural!” the band said. Nile Rodgers & Chic and Craig David are among the other artists performing as part of the festival, which is being broadcast across TV, radio and online yesterday (September 12th) and today (13th) in lieu of the station’s Proms In The Park and Live in Hyde Park series, which were both cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis.
The Killers played ‘Caution’, ‘Human’, ‘When You Were Young’ on top of Caesars Palace.
Why We Love Them: We simply don’t deserve Haim. The world is far too broken to fully appreciate Women in Music Part III, the sister trio’s subtly spectacular third LP, which further establishes them as more than expert pop students-turned-teachers. Released in June, WIMPIII cuts to the center of a Fleetwood Mac and Sheryl Crow mix CD-R and extracts all its sun-kissed ‘70s soft-rock (“Don’t Wanna”), ‘90s California-pop (“Gasoline”) and a list of thrilling surprises — all courtesy of a band inadvertently shouldering a genre with their breezy brilliance. Though it isn’t just what the Haim ladies accomplish with their undervalued guitar, bass and drums that make them the year’s most vital band. It’s everything else; the psych-tinged Janet Jackson tribute that is “3 AM,” the pulsing exploration of “Now I’m in It,” which sounds like Savage Garden breathlessly dancing at a Robyn concert. Their song writing has only become more dauntless since Days Are Gone put them on the map and they help rock transcend its perceived limitations in 2020 without declining to rock altogether. We bow down to Danielle, Este and Alana, our three-headed summer girl.
These sisters had a hit a few years back and Iv’e always like their cool LA vibe but this album kicked it up a notch . This song is great but the whole album is worth a few hundred listens.
Finest Moment: Pick one: “Man from the Magazine,” a percussion-free middle finger to mansplaining journalists and their dumb-ass questions (“Do you make the same faces in bed?”) or the accidentally apt “I Know Alone,” whose opening line “Been a couple days since I’ve been out” has become a coronavirus quotable (despite being written months before the pandemic). Far too many people can relate to both
In 2017, the New York Times declared, “Rock’s not dead, it’s ruled by women.” Iterations of this thesis, equal parts tone-deaf and impressed with itself, have proliferated over the last several years, as the word “women” has been whittled down to a buzzword. Women have created complicated, vulnerable, muscular music since the dawn of rock, yet every few months, someone discovers it for the first time.
While there’s plenty of genre-hopping on Women in Music Pt. III—hip-hop, reggae, folk, heartland rock, and dance—HAIM has created an album that’s defined not just by exploration, but by their strong sense of individuality. Unlike the sparkling, thoroughly modern production of 2017’s Something to Tell You, this album’s scratchy drums, murky vocals, and subtle blending of acoustic and electronic elements sound ripped straight from an old vinyl. It’s darker, heavier fare for Haim, for sure—a summer party record for a troubled summer. Haim’s instincts to veer a little more left of the dial result in an album that strikes a deft balance between the experimental and the commercial, the moody and the uplifting. You’re unlikely to hear these songs on Kroger’s in-store playlist—on which 2017’s “Little of Your Love” seems to have become a permanent staple alongside the likes of “Eye of the Tiger” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)”—but these songs are riskier, and ultimately that much more rewarding.
The best album of the Haim sisters’ collective career is a smorgasbord of genres. From the R&B worship of “3AM” and “Gasoline” to the Paul Simon-referencing “Up From a Dream”—via “Man From the Magazine”‘s raw-edged raised eyebrow—the record broadens the band’s horizons while also holding onto the core pop-rock sensibility beloved by their fans. Establishing them even further as the current torchbearers of long-haired California guitar music, Women In Music Pt. III is the record that believers have long known HAIM had in them.
On Women In Music Pt. III, Haim poke fun at the trope and prove its validity. They drift from boundless joy into hazy dream states, skipping around the vibrant streets of LA and then going through the motions in a fog. WIMPIII’s sound is similarly layered; R&B slow jams, country crooners, and melodic indie-pop build on HAIM’s soft rock foundation. Some of the album’s best one-liners and biting salvos confront the experience of being othered by men — during interviews, booty calls, relationships — but there’s no mistaking who’s in control.
jason Isbell continued to stake his claim as Nashville’s most empathetic wordsmith with his seventh album. A slightly more subdued production than 2018’s stormy The Nashville Sound, the LP still cuts deep lyrically with ballads like “Only Children” and “Dreamsicle” — “New sneakers on a high school court/And you swore you’d be there,” he sings in the latter. The impassioned “Be Afraid” takes aim at silence in the wake of injustice, with Isbell proclaiming, “If your words add up to nothing, then you’re making a choice.” Isbell’s keen self-awareness has always been a core component of his work, and like the hard-fought sobriety he chronicled in “It Gets Easier,” he doesn’t always have the answers.
Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires have spent most of 2020 in their Nashville attic, playing half-improvised cover songs and telling charmingly rambling stories to their webcam. This isn’t how things were supposed to go. Isbell, along with Shires and the rest of his 400 Unit band, had just come out with Reunions, one more album of crowd-pleasing country-rockers and quietly devastating laments. They should be playing big outdoor amphitheaters, where they thrive. But maybe it’s better this way. This way, you can sob to yourself while hearing a wrenching fatherhood song like “Letting You Go” without worrying about anyone else in the crowd seeing you.
On “Reunions”, he is willing to keep pushing forward anyway. Reunions, the seventh studio album from Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit is a powerful and reflective release. Whereas the album was created on the heels of the anxiety caused by commercial and audience expectations, Reunions lacks any notes of trepidation. Rather, Isbell and the 400 Unit revel in strength and collectivity.
That album is fueled by explosive solos and back-and-forths, finding the musicians garnering inspiration in each other’s talents. This sense of unity is also channelled outward. “What’ve I Done to Help” ponders the role of the individual, especially as guilt and hopelessness seem so overpowering. More so, on “Be Afraid” he defends the use of his cultural platform and music to trumpet his political beliefs. For Isbell, the strength he demonstrates now is the result of his struggles. Contending with sobriety, parenthood, and childhood trauma, Isbell delivers his lyrics as a testament affirming that trials often lead to empowerment. The message is universal and a poignant rumination in 2020’s wake.
His winning streak continues. whether solo or with the fantastic 400 unit, Jason Isbell puts out fantastic music.
New Zealand trio The Beths channel their friendship into high-energy guitar pop with a smart lyrical bite. 2018 was their breakout year, beginning with signing to Carpark Records and Dew Process, before releasing the internationally acclaimed debut album “Future Me Hates Me”, which was heralded as one the stand-out music releases of that year. The Beths have toured relentlessly on the back of Future Me Hates Me, getting audiences hooked on their ebullient sound. After selling out shows across Australia, New Zealand, North America, the UK and Europe in 2018, the band are proving to be one of the most in-demand live acts on the planet.
We are really lucky and grateful that the four of us will be able to get together for this one and play as a full band. We’ll once again be announcing something new, playing some songs and having some yarns. It’ll be on Youtube this Mon/Tue, if you need time-zone assistance comment your location and i’ll help.
Artists like The Beths have been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Donations can be any amount of your choosing. If you have the means, your support would be much appreciated!. “Dying To Believe” is taken from The Beths’ forthcoming record, “Jump Rope Gazers”, out July 10, 2020 on Carpark Records.
Artists like The Beths have been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Donations can be any amount of your choosing. If you have the means, your support would be much appreciated! “I’m Not Getting Excited” is taken from The Beths’ forthcoming record, “Jump Rope Gazers”, out July 10, 2020 on Carpark Records.
We hope that if you join us you’ll consider donating to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, which protects and defends the human rights of Black Transgender people, or to Bail Funds.
Songs Featured in this Show:
3:49 i’m not getting excited
10:13 future me hates me
21:45 river run lvl 1
32:36 out of sight
41:33 if swearing makes you nervous cover your ears or something
42:16 idea/intent
THE BETHS ARE:
Elizabeth Stokes,
Jonathan Pearce,
Benjamin Sinclair,
Tristan Deck,
The singer and guitarist of Los Angeles based punk quintet SPANISH LOVE SONGS is referencing his band, but he could just as easily be talking about himself. Since forming in 2014, Spanish Love Songs certainly have been heard, from legions of underground audiences at The Fest and South By Southwest to outlets like NPR, who hailed the group’s 2018 album, “Schmaltz”, as a “wellspring of big ideas, bigger riffs and the biggest possible feelings about love, war, fear and existential crisis.”
“Schmaltz” was an album coloured by guilt and self-doubt, an insular collection of soul-searching songs that found the singer amplifying his grief while kicking back at a world that seemed to be doing its best to keep knocking him down. It was a cathartic album, one that admittedly took a lot of Slocum’s soul to create. (“I don’t want to be the band where each album is me complaining about myself for 40 minutes,” he says.)
So instead, Slocum decided to look outward for Spanish Love Songs’s third album, “Brave Faces Everyone”, released in February 2020 on the band’s new label, Pure Noise Records. Steeped in the same detail-rich storytelling of Bruce Springsteen, The Menzingers and Manchester Orchestra and filtered through the band’s sweat-soaked punk fervor, the songs on “Brave Faces Everyone” represent the situations Slocum and his bandmates — guitarist Kyle McAulay, bassist Trevor Dietrich, drummer Ruben Duarte and keyboardist Meredith Van Woert — experienced during 30-some weeks of rigorous touring during the “Schmaltz” album cycle.
These are character stories set in small-town America and anxious urban jungles alike, unfurling heart-breaking tales of addiction, depression, debt and death juxtaposed alongside looming societal bogeys like mass shootings, the opioid epidemic and climate change. They’re all at once personal vignettes and universal truths of life in the 2010s, the lines blurred between Slocum’s own experiences and those of his friends and acquaintances. Because, as he sings in “Beachfront Property,” “Every city’s the same/Doom and gloom under different names.” These are the things that affect us all.
But for all its emotional heft, Slocum doesn’t see “Brave Faces Everyone” as a pessimistic album. Rather, the album — produced by McAulay at Howard Benson’s West Valley Recording seeks to find balance between realism and optimism. It implores us to harbour less judgment and more empathy, to talk less and listen more. To understand that life never goes off the rails all at once. Rather, it’s a years-long series full of seemingly imperceptible events that snowball into life-altering issues like heroin addiction, mental illness or suicide. But just as things didn’t break overnight, happiness and redemption aren’t as simple as a flip of the switch. It’s a day-by-day, step-by-step climb we have to work to attain.
Ultimately, “Brave Faces Everyone” boldly declares that even though things might be bad, they’re not hopeless. On the appropriately named “Optimism,” Slocum sings, “Help me weather this high tide/But don’t take me out back and shoot me,” while the album-closing title track bears the album’s central thesis: “We were never broken/Life’s just very long.”
Ultimately, Spanish Love Songs are trying to break through that pessimism however they can. Sometimes that’s as simple as a hopeful lyric or soaring chorus to cut the tension in an otherwise weighty song, a brief respite that gives listeners a comforting melody to rally around.
“If you sing something loud enough and long enough,” Slocum muses, “hopefully people are able to find some peace in that.”
Experimenting with more traditional song structures and fewer forwardly caustic moments this time around haven’t dulled the band’s sound. If anything, they’ve accentuated the most important parts of it. When everything is loud and urgent, nothing is. But when Slocum’s voice swells to a roar on a song like “Generation Loss,” the undeniable power grabs you by the collar and forces you to pay attention — and that’s the difference between simply being heard and truly being understood.
It’s not every day you encounter a full-length album with only three tracks, This 38-minute debut LP from San Francisco Bay Area-based rock trio Terry Gross is a krautrock odyssey of epic proportions, and a sustained rock ‘n’ roll explosion you can’t help but move to. Guitarist and vocalist Phil Manley (Trans Am, Life Coach), bassist Donny Newenhouse and drummer Phil Becker co-own San Francisco’s El Studio together—it’s there they started jamming, primarily so as to put the studio itself through its paces, but one thing led to another, and the result is “Soft Opening”. Near-20-minute opener “Space Voyage Mission” is a roving, sci-fi-inspired motorik chug that speeds and slows like a workout for your ears, ending in a psychedelic bit of studio wizardry that sounds as if the song has narrowly escaped being sucked into a black hole. “Worm Gear,” too, is a like watching a flame flicker in slow-motion, with ever-shifting, serrated guitars atop Newenhouse and Becker’s pulsating, pounding low end.
Their loose, organic chemistry burgeoned into a deep camaraderie and a sound both expansive and exacting. The three experienced musicians crafted their first full-length album through the pure joy of playing together with no expectations. With the tapes rolling on their rehearsals, the band captures the exuberance of live performance and elevates those recordings through a deft use of the studio as their collective instrument. On their debut LP Soft Opening, Terry Gross channels their cosmic powers and considerable chops into a gleefully mesmerizing odyssey fit for an arena.
Closer and single “Specificity (Or What Have You)” is Terry Gross at their most accessible, but by then, you’ll have long since left the ground, riding “Soft Opening” into the stratosphere.
Specificity (Or What Have You) available now through Thrill Jockey Records
Peter and David Brewis have been releasing records as Field Music for over 15 years, and in that time a few things about their music has been constant: it’s all erudite and thoughtful, it’s all wonderfully melodic in a very “raised on Paul McCartney” way, and the music is performed and recorded with a clinical precision. Their best songs make the most of their raw skill and stoic formalism, and their more forgettable work strains against the limitations of their apparent repression and uptight musical inclinations.
“Orion on the Street” is definitely in the former category. It’s a song about death and mourning the loss of someone close, and it’s very much written from the “acceptance” stage of grief. The sorts of messy emotions that would characterize the other stages wouldn’t be the best fit for the Brewis aesthetic, but the brothers are exceptionally well suited to capture the graceful clarity of processing loss and seeing some beauty in someone moving on, even if you’re a bit agnostic on what actually comes next. A sparkly piano part and a very George Harrison-y lead guitar part are the most musically beautiful parts of the song, but the most lovely sentiment comes when they reckon with the notion of the afterlife: “Belief in further lives / separate, but true / if I thought you were anywhere / I would be there too.”
The band wrote: “Here’s the video for our new song Orion From The Street, put together by Peter and our multitasking guitar/synth/design whizzkid Kev. Cleadon Mill never looked so cosmic (except to those teens on shrooms back in the day)”.
A new, as yet unnamed album has also been announced for release later in the year.
Chapterhouse were a British shoegazing/alternative rock band from Reading, Berkshire, . Formed in 1987 by Andrew Sherriff and Stephen Patman, the band began performing alongside Spacemen 3. They released two albums entitled Whirlpool (1991) and Blood Music (1993). After the band split in 1994, Sherriff later formed Biocom. The group temporarily reformed in 2008 after being asked to join Ulrich Schnauss onstage to perform his cover version of their song “Love Forever” at the Truck Festival in Oxfordshire. The band finished the brief reunion with two gigs in London (2009–2010) and tours in North America and Japan in 2010.
Chapterhouse took the unusual step of rehearsing and gigging for well over a year before recording even a demo tape. Initially lumped in with the British acid rock genre, this became modified to shoegazing, despite early sojourns including supporting Spacemen 3. They were deemed to have joined fellow shoegazers such as Lush, Moose, Ride and Slowdive.
Bassist Jon Curtis left early on to study, being replaced by Russell Barrett . Chapterhouse signed to the newly formed Dedicated label, releasing a series of singles, including “Pearl”, which featured guest vocals by Rachel Goswell of Slowdive .
The band’s first album, “Whirlpool”, released in 1991, has been cited as one of the genre’s high points, but failed to capture a wider market In the same year, Chapterhouse also appeared in their home town Reading Festival immediately following Nirvana’s performance.
The band’s second album “Blood Music”, stylistically different, was released in 1993. Singles from the album, “She’s a Vision” and “We Are the Beautiful”, were relatively successful. Some copies of Blood Music included a bonus disc “retranslated” by Global Communication, called Pentamerous Metamorphosis that was withdrawn due to a sampling lawsuit, but later reissued in a slightly altered version.
The band then released no further new material other than a double album, Rownderbowt in 1996, compiling their singles, various B-sides, rarities and unreleased demos which featured Slowdive drummer Simon Scott. Sherriff went on to form Bio.com and Rowe went on to play guitar for Mojave 3. Bates formed Cuba and now plays in the British folktronica band Tunng, and Chapterhouse ceased for almost fifteen years.
The music of Chapterhouse was mostly out of print on CD until March 2006, when Cherry Red Records reissued the album Whirlpool with bonus tracks, and for the first time, lyrics.
The band played a version of “Love Forever” with Ulrich Schnauss on the Barn Stage at the 2008 edition of Truck Festival. In response to requests over the years, Chapterhouse played live at Club AC30’s Reverence show at the ICA in November 2009 along with Ulrich Schnauss and Kirsty Hawkshaw. This was preceded by a warm up show at the Luminaire in Kilburn. The band also played at The Scala in London March 2010, and undertook short tours of Japan in April 2010 and North America in May 2010. The North American tour had to be postponed due to the Icelandic ash cloud cancelling flights, stranding Patman in Japan. Chapterhouse rescheduled the North American tour for September and October 2010. No plans were made for any other shows and the band ended the brief reunion in 2010.
Since 1997, Sherriff has been working as a composer/sound designer for an Emmy Award-winning music production company Adelphoi Music. Patman and Bates joined him later in 2001.
The band comprised Andrew Sherriff (guitar/vocals), Stephen Patman (guitar/vocals), Simon Rowe (guitar), Jon Curtis (bass) and Ashley Bates (drums)
The Fat Angel Sings 