Low Cut Connie have released a new video for “Wild Ride,” a track off their latest album, Private Lives. The clip was directed by Sara Fox and pairs the slow-burning song with a sequence of equally smouldering and mysterious visuals. Throughout the clip, Low Cut Connie frontman Adam Weiner roams the streets of New York City while an unnamed woman waits at an empty bar, stares through stained glass at a subway stop, and then, at the end of the clip, lets out an anguished scream in the middle of a street. These sequences are interspersed with shots of grandiose platters of food and items (like telephones and sports trophies) lit on fire.
Adam Weiner, Philly’s patron saint of ass-shakers, let his ambitions run wild on his band’s Private Lives, a 17-song double album that somehow doesn’t drag. Like Low Cut Connie‘s live shows, it’s a sweaty — Weiner would say “schvitzin’” — listen, full of cathartic anthems (“Help Me”), gritty character studies (“Charyse”), and red-faced songs about fucking (“The Fuckin You Get for the Fuckin You Got”). The title track, a raucous collection of dirty secrets, and the piano ballad “Look What They Did” stand as the record’s yin and yang, with Weiner celebrating lovable freaks in the former and lamenting the abandonment of kids in the latter
“We shot this in Brooklyn. It was in the weeks just before quarantine began,” Weiner said in a statement. “There was a dark energy all around us. Sara Fox, the director, put together some fabulous imagery here.”
Low Cut Connie released Private Lives in October, marking the group’s sixth album and first double LP. “I’m obsessed with understanding people’s interior lives,” Weiner said of the record in a statement. “In order to explore that idea, I had to create a flow that went in and out of these characters’ private spheres. There had to be a push and pull between their external and internal worlds. I knew if I was going to pull that off, I was going to have to make a big album.”
“Wild Ride” by Low Cut Connie Music and lyrics by Adam Weiner From the double LP ‘Private Lives’
Muzz have announced details of a new EP, ‘Covers’. The four-track set, which sees the trio of Paul Banks, Josh Kaufman and Matt Barrick reimagine songs by Arthur Russell, Bob Dylan, MazzyStar and Tracy Chapman, will be released digitally on December 9th.
‘Covers’ is as much an illustration of the bands collective inspirations as it is a sonic testament to their expansive imagination and fluidity as a musical outfit, imbuing the singular classics with a sense of wonder and awe that come together to a short but powerfully holistic set.
Arthur Russell’s ‘Nobody Wants A Lonely Heart’ is deconstructed to its mesmerising foundations, with Banks‘ baritone gliding over Kaufman’s submerged piano and Barrick’s gentle shuffle. Bob Dylan’s ‘Girl From The North Country’ is recast in a cobweb of acoustic guitars, swooning slides and ghostly vocals that slow-burn to a mystical crescendo. Elsewhere, Banks’ invocation of Mazzy Star’s ‘Fade Into You’ is fraught with raw emotion, set to a backdrop of palpitating percussion and arching strings. Tracy Chapman’s ‘For You’ brings the set to a buoyant and moving close, punctuated by fluttering guitar runs, cinematic pads, and Banks’ soulful delivery.
“Nobody Wants a Lonely Heart” · Muzz under exclusive license to Matador Records
This morning we’re releasing the Jim-E Stack remix of Perfume Genius’ “Without You,” taken from the critically acclaimed album ‘Set My Heart On Fire Immediately’. Stack had previously collaborated with Perfume Genius and Empress Of on the single “When I’m With Him,” and also worked with artists including Bon Iver, Caroline Polachek, Haim and more. Stack said of the “Without You” remix, “to my ears a Perfume Genius album always embodies excellence, from the song-writing to the production to the mixing. Every word, note, and sound feels so purposeful while playing its role in each song and in the greater context of the album. I chose to remix ‘Without You,’ because something about it felt timeless and familiar but also grounded and confident. That gave me room to make a completely new instrumental around the vocal.” He went on to say, “even though Mike and I are friends and we’ve worked together in the past, I was admittedly intimidated by the task of remixing ‘Without You.’ Once I found a way to bring the song into my world, I started listening to the remix outside the studio and I knew I had done my thing. I just hoped Mike would want to listen to it too.
Perfume Genius’ new album ‘Set My Heart On Fire Immediately” is out now:
When Stephen Malkmus first arrived on the scene in the early Nineties, as frontman and prime creative force in Pavement, the area of music with which he was associated couldn’t really have been further from the techno-rave sounds of the day. Electronic dance music, then as now, was about posthuman precision, inorganic textures, and hyper-digital clarity. Whereas the lo-fi movement in underground rock championed a messthetic of sloppiness, rough edges, and raw warmth – a hundred exquisitely subtle shades of distortion and abrasion. “Imperfect sound forever” was the rallying cry for a micro-generation of slacker-minded dreamers and misfits.
For his third record in as many years, the sometimes Pavement frontman chills out, unplugs and delivers a record of stoner folk-inspired songs that are among his most direct, affecting to date. For a guy who’s been known for 30 years primarily as a musician who is, at times, too clever for his own good, Malkmus shows real heart here.
While associated with staunch indie rock snobbery, Stephen Malkmus has long dabbled in jam band territory, all the way back to Pavement’s final album, Terror Twilight. (Before? Maybe.) So when he announced Traditional Techniques, his third album in three years, as “stoner folk” it wasn’t really as much of a stretch as Matador may have wanted you to believe. At least not in that way. It is, however, his quietest, most introspective and straight-from-the-heart record he’s ever made.
To call Stephen Malkmus’ Traditional Techniques an “acoustic record” wouldn’t be inaccurate, but it doesn’t quite capture the sonic expanse of this midcareer gem. “ACC Kirtan,” “Xian Man,” and “Brainwashed” unfurl into psychedelic sprawl, while elsewhere Malkmus takes his 12-string toward country-rock, or classic folk, or surrounds it with woodwinds, drums, and string instruments from Africa and the Middle East. Traditional Techniques revels in the gray space between frank and enigmatic, whether exploring love and friendship, or in yarns about propane smugglers or the extremely online. “May the word be spread via cracked emoji,” Malkmus sings on “Shadowbanned” — it’s unclear what exactly that may mean, but like the best, inscrutable Malkmus lines, it rings true.
Stephen presents “Juliefuckingette,” an A-side-worthy B-side off of Traditional Techniques. Additionally, he announces a rescheduled North American tour (See below for the full dates).
As with Traditional Techniques, “Juliefuckingette” is new phase folk music for new phase folks. Malkmus’ wry lyricism unwinds over his 12-string acoustic guitar: “Abolish the fanfiction set // I don’t wanna clean up the logorrhea mess // It’s the last brand standing // You know you wanna kill it but you can’t kill that quite yet.”
Nashville-born indie rocker Sophie Allison reaches deep inside herself with her second album, Color Theory, building on the emotional honesty of her 2018 breakthrough, Clean. Born in 1997, Allison is a proudly Nineties-fueled songwriter, with a little Liz Phair in her guitar and just a touch of R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe in her vocals. (Not to mention the way she sings about “Night Swimming.”) Color Theory has some of the year’s loneliest songs, taking on depression, insecurity, and illness as she admits. Yet she always keeps you rooting for her to make it.
Bea Kristi, a.k.a. Beabadoobee, was still in her teens when she made this delightful guitar rom-com, the sound of a self-assured bedroom-pop singer-songwriter navigating her way into the outside world. The journey from bedroom-pop hero to bonafide rock star is completed in bruising fashion on the Londoner’s stunning debut album of anthemic slacker rock. Two years ago, Beabadobee released ‘Coffee’, a spindly tale recorded in her bedroom in London. Armed with an acoustic guitar and a love for lo-fi heroes Daniel Johnston and Elliot Smith, its lullaby melodies and sweet lyrics of devotion (“I like it when you hold me tight”) depicted an attempt to abate the roughest of hangovers. The results are fairly unremarkable, a tentative display of the diary entry song-writing the teenager was beginning to explore.
Earlier this year a remix by Canadian lo-fi artist Powfu – in which he samples the twee chorus, brought the song and 20-year-old Beatrice Kristi to a wider audience; it was played a reported 4.1 billion times in March 2020. But the mantra for Bea has changed. No longer satisfied with playing it understated or the idea that her voice should be subdued, she’s got the guitars plugged in, the drums heavy and the influences outrageously blatant.
The timing has been fortuitous. Finding inspiration in the home environment is now commonplace for the foreseeable future, but last year’s gnarly ‘Space Cadet’ EP saw her embrace her inner rock star beyond air guitaring in the bedroom mirror. The unashamed ‘I Wish I Was Stephen Malkmus’ saw her pay her dues to the Pavement frontman, while Sonic Youth got a stylistic look-in (though no name check) on ‘She Plays Bass’ and ‘Are You Sure’. A handful of headline shows – one had enough ticket requests to fill Brixton Academy, not the 150-capacity upstairs room of the London pub in which they were actually held – saw her capitalise on the hype, as did arena support slots with Dirty Hit label mates The 1975.
The songs from that period are frantic, untamed and all the better for it. But ‘Fake It Flowers’ is complete and polished in a way those songs just weren’t. What was once buoyed by unbridled enthusiasm is now mastered by Bea’s restraint she can be loud, but contemplative too. It’s a thrilling debut from Gen-Z’s newest guitar hero, for sure, but also a building block to a career beyond when the rock’n’roll antics wear off.
One of the album’s greatest triumphs is the fact that Bea’s duality rock star-slash-kitchy-introvert is displayed so explosively is the album’s greatest triumphs. Neither part cedes space to the other; the two sides of her persona stand confidently shoulder-to-shoulder, intimate melodies giving way to choruses that, in another time, would have enraptured the masses live in concert.
Opener ‘Care’ has a dreamy start but that lasts scarcely 20 seconds before a jackhammer of a chorus clatters in. That force similarly decimates ‘Dye It Red’, ‘Worth It’ and, most notably, ‘Charlie Brown’, where the ferocity of Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’ explodes with Bea’s own unbridled rage – it’s fierce enough to leave Snoopy a shaking, snivelling mess.
To her credit, she’s unafraid to embrace the cliche of being born in the wrong generation. Last year, Bea told NME quite bluntly that she “wants to live in the ‘90s” and why the hell not? The orchestral overtones to the Smashing Pumpkins-sized ‘Sorry’ hark back to a time when rock bands were unafraid of spaffing production budgets, while the grunge-pop chorus of ‘Together’ is Elastica sized chorus for a new generation. To pillage the past for inspiration is not uncommon, but few enjoy their joyride as much as Bea does.
The sonic evolution is bolstered by lyricism that traces her ability to communicate emotions bluntly largely about the ups and downs of romance. Spiteful ripostes run through ‘Further Away’ (“They say the moon’s far away but your brain’s further”), but the make-up on ‘Horen Sarrison’ is sweet in a way that only young love can be, as the lush sounds of Blur’s ‘The Universal’ swell in the background; “You are the smell of pavement after the rain / You are the last empty seat on a train”. On ‘Charlie Brown’ she confronts the periods of self-harm that she endured, towering above but never forgetting those days.
And there are nods to her early era, keeping things lo-fi on ‘Back To Mars’ – a continuation with her creative inspiration of outer-space – and ‘How Was Your Day’. While jarring when plonked next to anthemic rock, this establishes space to detail her song-writing evolution; it’s an ample reminder of the thrill of witnessing emerging artists hone their craft. The scribblings in the margins and on-the-fly adjustments sit proudly to the breakthroughs and failures. Eventually, a full picture of an artist emerges.
The leap from bedroom-dweller to teenage riot instigator has been a swift and fruitful one, and what could be considered derivative is genuine in every sense. Circumstance might dictate that bedroom songwriting is back on the cards for Bea as the slow crawl to the return of live shows continues, but there’s a rock-solid foundation for the years to come.
Even for a band dedicated to surprise, Son Lux‘s new single “Prophecy“ represents a notable departure from their usual fare. Yet the song’s bright energy and lilting feel bloom like an outgrowth of their ever-expanding practice, providing the clearest evidence to date of the band’s indebtedness to the J Dilla–D’Angelo nexus. The track is from ‘Tomorrows II,’ out December 4th via City Slang, the second album in a far-reaching three-volume body of work culminating in physical editions of all three volumes to be released together in 2021.
Featured on the track is vocalist Nina Moffitt, whose upbringing in church and gospel music instilled a fascination with the timbral range of layered voices. Inspired by electronic manipulation, she employs rounded whistle tones, fraying choral hums, and more to conjure a world of sound largely unexplored by the band until now.
On ‘Tomorrows’,Ryan Lott, Rafiq Bhatia, and Ian Chang train their sights on volatile principles: imbalance, disruption, collision, redefinition. But for all of its instability, ‘Tomorrows’ exploration of breaking points and sustained frictional places is ultimately in service of something rewarding and necessary: the act of questioning, challenging, tearing down and actively rebuilding one’s own identity.
Arriving at a time of considerable uncertainty in the world, ‘Tomorrows’is ambitious in scope and intent. Born of an active, intentional approach to shaping sound, the music reminds us of the necessity of questioning assumptions, and of sitting with the tension.
From the start, Son Lux has operated as something akin to a sonic test kitchen. The band strives to question deeply held assumptions about how music is made and re-construct it from a molecular level. What began as a solo project for founder Ryan Lott expanded in 2014, thanks to a kinship with Ian Chang and Rafiq Bhatia too strong to ignore. The trio strengthened their chemistry and honed their collective intuition while creating, releasing, and touring five recordings. A carefully cultivated musical language rooted in curiosity and balancing opposites largely eschews genre and structural conventions. And yet, the band remains audibly indebted to iconoclastic artists in soul, hip-hop, and experimental improvisation who themselves carved new paths forward. Distilling these varied influences, Son Lux searches for equilibrium of raw emotional intimacy and meticulous electronic constructions.
Taken from Son Lux – “Tomorrows II” – Available to stream and download December 4th via City Slang Records
The Notwist is returning with “Vertigo Days”, their first album in six years out January 29th on Morr Music. Markus Archer & co. has long been open-minded and exploratory, but their return marks a distinct combination of melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and drift work ballads, highlighted by international musical guests like Argentinian songwriter Juana Molina, American jazz artist Angel Bat Dawid, American multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay, and Saya of Japanese pop duo Tenniscoats.
Archer offers additional insight into the new album: “we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity.”
The Notwist has shared its experimental new single, “Where You Find Me,” a hypnotic keyboard intro sets the tone as a groovy and polished bassline pushes the song forward. Blanketed in restrained synth accompaniment, Archer croons with confident and persuasive inflection. Here, The Notwist dazzles as an indie rock architect bridging sonic qualities from indie scenes past and present mirroring Yo La Tengo to Stereolab.
Taken from “Vertigo Days” out on Morr Music January. 29th, 2021
Last year, the Drums released a new album, Brutalism, the second full-length after Johnny Pierce took the project solo in 2017. Last fall, he put out two new tracks billed as The Drums & Johnny Pierce, further blurring the lines between himself and his project, and today he’s back with a new single called “Nadia,” a rubbery extended meditation about finding control of your emotions that seems to take inspiration from the gymnastic feats of Nadia Comăneci.
“Nadia’ is a song about uncovering strength by confronting difficult truths,” Pierce said in a statement. “It’s about finally understanding your gifts by walking through fire. It’s about changing how you perceive yourself and the hand you’ve been dealt.” He continued:
This can only happen when you start honouring your emotions, rather than shutting them down. This shift towards true, healthy empowerment and self-love can only happen with discipline and daily practice. It is hard work. There are days that I feel like I’ve reached nirvana, and there are days that I still feel very unhappy. When you love yourself through and through, you learn to love all sides of yourself – the confident parts and the insecure parts – because they are all a part of you. Your vulnerability and emotional intelligence and sensitivity become your superpowers – the key to your invincibility.
It sums up 2020 music-wise to see Sea Girls’ frontman Henry Camamile walking around a deserted Brixton Academy in the newly released video for ‘This Is The End’, a track from the ‘Open Up Your Head’ era. After the release of their successful debut album ‘Open Up Your Head’ and standalone single ‘Accident Waiting To Happen’ earlier this year, Sea Girls are now looking to cap off 2020 with one final track.
Even more poignant is that the band filmed at the venue on the very day that they were actually due to play their biggest headline show there, and would have done but for the Big Covid crisis putting paid to everything.
Thankfully, and pandemics permitting, their 2020 aborted tour has now been rescheduled for next October.
The Fat Angel Sings 