Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real added to their Soundcheck Songs video performance series with a live cover of Neil Young‘s lengthy “Like An Inca”, which was shared on Thursday. The latest addition to the country-rock outfit’s ongoing studio series follows the first two videos where they covered Paul Simon‘s “Obvious Child” and Dire Straits‘ “Romeo and Juliet”. Though Young’s original recording clocks in at 9:46 minutes, Nelson and his Promise Of the Real band manage to stretch the song just a tad for their live studio version. The new video presents the band in their studio while also blending in some nature-inspired psychedelic visuals during the 11:30 minute performance.
Young’s “Like An Inca” appears on his 1982 album, Trans. Lukas Nelson & Promise Of The Real are certainly familiar with the tune as they’ve been Neil’s backing band since 2015. Neil dusted off the song with Promise of the Real for the first time since 1982 in 2016, as per Sugar Mountain. Lukas Nelson & POTR cover Lukas’s song choice of “Romeo and Juliet” by Dire Straits.
The Soundcheck Songs performance sees Micah Nelson — who is a member of Neil Young & POTR — on slide guitar. As per custom with the new series, the cover was chosen by a member of Promise of the Real, which this week was percussionist Tato Melgar.
Check Out the Platinum Disc for George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass in the background.
For much of 2020, Bandcamp has hosted the wonderful Bandcamp Friday initiative, which involved them waiving their share of the income they usually receive from sales on their platform on some Fridays, so artists ultimately come away from the transaction with more money. The endeavor has been a great success, but it looks like it’s coming to an end. In a recent post, Bandcamp noted they will “continue to hold Bandcamp Fridays on the first Friday of every month until the end of the year.” They haven’t publicly committed to continuing Bandcamp Fridays in 2021, so today’s, the last one of the year, is the final one that’s officially scheduled.
The silver lining is that Lucy Dacus is helping to send Bandcamp Fridays off (potentially) with a bang: Today, she shared a cover of Hinder’s 2006 classic “Lips Of An Angel.” Dacus’ rendition of the track, which she says she recorded “a few months ago,” eschews the raspy, post-grunge edge of the original version and turns it into more tranquil folk a la Dacus.
The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music’s Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It’s the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space. For her Tiny Desk (home) concert, Phoebe Bridgers chose the White House. OK, maybe it’s a green screen, but she and her team created a sweet mock-up of the Oval Office, with Phoebe performing behind a very special desk. It’s a far cry from the hotel bed in Austin we first filmed Phoebe on back in 2017, but her ambitions and talent run high. She played the Tiny Desk later that year and returned with newfound bandmates, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, as boygenius one year later.
But there was more to come when she surprised us all for a magical collaboration with her musical hero Conor Oberst as Better Oblivion Community Center just six months later. Phoebe and bandmates Marshall Vore on drums and Harrison Whitford on guitar perform three songs from her brilliant new album, “Punisher”. They open with “Kyoto,” a story song based on her first trip to Japan, followed with a sweet version of “Moon Song” and the sad details of loving someone who doesn’t love them self. And then comes the kicker, as Phoebe introduces herself with the words “I hope everybody’s enjoying their apocalypse,” as the band kicks into her surreal doomsday tune “I Know the End.” And what an end it is: The trio expands to an ensemble and a crowd-sourced chorus of fans — recording from bedrooms, cars, backyards and trampolines — lets out the kind of cathartic scream that has come to define 2020 for so many of us. Phoebe for President, 2020.
SET LIST “Kyoto” “Moon Song” “I Know The End”
MUSICIANSPhoebe Bridgers: vocals, guitar; Marshall Vore: drums, vocals; Harrison Whitford: guitar; Emily Retsas: bass; Nick White: keyboard; Odessa Jorgensen: violin
With nearly five decades and a wealth of recording experience between them, talk of a collaboration between Catherine Anne Davies and Bernard Butler is a mouth watering prospect to say the least. Indeed, their coming together didn’t just happen overnight. It’s actually been in the offing for a good 10 years now, but rather than just rush into things, they’ve taken their time and gradually honed, then built a collection of songs worthy of any great debut album. Which essentially this is, as pairings go.
Ironically, despite being conceived in 2010 then completed in 2014, “In Memory of My Feelings” only took 15 days to make. The biggest battle facing its creators was finding someone to release it, where music journalist cum label owner Pete Paphides duly obliged in making it the first “new” release on his Needle Mythology imprint, which up until now has solely put out reissues.
In Memory of My Feelings is a very personal record, particularly for Davies, who wrote all of the lyrics. Nevertheless, the meeting of minds between two very talented individuals means the arrangements veer from sparse, such as on opener and lead single “The Breakdown,” or the exquisitely tender “I Know” and despondent penultimate number “The Patron Saint of the Lost Cause,” to the more upbeat and up-tempo, rockier pieces like “Sabotage (Looks So Easy)” and “Judas,” where Butler’s signature guitar sound rises to the fore.
The sparse but stately opener, ‘The Breakdown’, explores the impact and aftershocks of the aggressive pursuit of wealth, reflecting on the life of a banker post-crash: “Do you make the money, or is the money making you?” Other destructive impulses, including the pressure to adhere to performative behaviours, are explored on the wonderfully energised ‘Sabotage (Looks So Easy)’. ‘The Patron Saint Of The Lost Cause’ fondly evokes some of the similarly alchemical results witnessed when Davies worked with the Manics on ‘Dylan And Caitlin’ for 2018’s ‘Resistance Is Futile’.
“Sabotage (Looks So Easy)” is the second single from the album ‘In Memory Of My Feelings’ which is released on September 18th, the album is the result of a one-off collaboration between Catherine Anne Davies (The Anchoress) and Bernard Butler. In contrast to the piano led end-of-days address The Breakdown, Sabotage is album’s emphatic guitar driven moment of celebratory catharsis. Of the song Catherine says, “Some people lift others up. They’re altruistic and constructive. Then there are the energy vampires who have perfected the art of destruction. It’s about toxic masculinity and I’m channelling my inner Patti Smith and Chrissie Hynde here to raise a middle finger to every man who played the victim when they were called out.”
Bernard Butler “Sabotage” was written when we reconvened a few years after anxiously writing the first set of songs, by which time I think we had both been trampled on a little … as is our style, without talking about it to each other, we consequently wanted to smash the room up a little and say ‘that’s enough now thanks.’’
Elsewhere, “The Waiting Game” could be a Manic Street Preachers outtake from the Resistance Is Futile sessions (if you’ve heard Davies’ contributions to that record you’ll understand where I’m coming from), while closer “F.O.H.” could be a distant relative of “P.S. Fuck You” off Davies’ alter ego The Anchoress’ 2016 long player Confessions of a Romance Novelist.
I’d also recommend the bonus seven-inch, which comes with the vinyl edition, if only for the heartfelt cover of Madonna’s “Live to Tell” that rivals the original for delivery and execution.
‘In Memory Of My Feelings’ is released on Needle Mythology; the label founded by music writer, author and broadcaster Pete Paphides and is the very first release of brand new music on the label. Limited edition formats include 2LP +7” w/ signed lyric sheet and gatefold replica CD with signed postcard available for a limited period exclusively via the Official store.
There are moments on Drunk Tank Pink where you almost have to reach for the sleeve to check this is the same band who made 2018’s Songs Of Praise. Such is the jump Shame have made from the riotous post-punk of their debut to the sprawling adventurism and twitching anxieties laid out here. The South Londoner’s blood and guts spirit, that wink and grin of devious charm, is still present, it’s just that it’s grown into something bigger, something deeper, more ambitious and unflinchingly honest.
The genius of Drunk Tank Pink is how these lyrical themes dovetail with the music. Opener Alphabet dissects the premise of performance over a siren call of nervous, jerking guitars, its chorus thrown out like a beer bottle across a mosh pit. Songs spin off and lurch into unexpected directions throughout here, be it March Day’s escalating aural panic attack or the shapeshifting darkness of Snow Day. There’s a Berlin era Bowie beauty to the lovelornHuman For A Minutewhile closer Station Wagon weaves from a downbeat mooch into a souring, soul- lifting climax in which Steen elevates himself beyond the clouds and into the heavens. Or at least that’s what it sounds like.
From the womb to the clouds (sort of), Shame are currently very much in the pink. At five-minutes-plus, shame come out with a pretty epic white-out on ‘Snow Day’, the latest track to be taken from their forthcoming second album ‘Drunk Tank Pink’, which is set to arrive on January 15th 2021 via Dead Oceans.
Charlie Steen’s sombre opening soon moves into familiar menacing territory, carried by Charlie Forbes‘ formidable drumming, and the sharp, post-punk guitar riffs which dig like ice picks, dictating the flow. Tense and propulsive, Steen’s lyrics dovetail with the music, from its reflective opening to the power of its highest points. “A lot of this album focuses on the subconscious and dreams,” explains Steen, “this song being the pivotal moment of these themes. A song about love that is lost and the comfort and displeasure that comes after you close your eyes, fall into sleep, and are forced to confront yourself.”
Alongside, the band have shared accompanying visuals featuring drone footage shot in the Scottish Borders – where the band wrote ‘Drunk Tank Pink’ – and the stark, snow-covered hills make a befitting backdrop for the atmospheric build of the track.
The band have also announced they will perform a live set from Rough Trade Records on January 14 2021.
“Snow Day” taken from shame’s new album ‘Drunk Tank Pink’, out 15 January 2021 on Dead OceansRecords.
Hannah Georgas has released a new version of one of her standout album tracks, ‘Pray It Away’. With her album ‘All That Emotion’ produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner, this new cut sees her team up with his bandmate Matt Berninger, who adds some lush vocals and a new depth to the song. “When Aaron and I were recording the album, we were working on ‘Pray It Away’ and he mentioned that it would be really great to have a male counterpart in the song. He said it would sound really nice and Matt’s name came up. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s really cool!’ We didn’t really act on it but when we were working on the record, Aaron asked if I’d be interested in opening some shows for The National and I ended up singing in their band.
“From that, I got to know Matt a little more. Some time after that, we reached out to Matt and asked if he’d be interested in trying to sing on it. He was up for it but then the pandemic hit, so everything was put on pause. He ended up going into the studio when things felt safe to do so and we finally made it happen.” “The song is about feeling dismissed for who you are and feeling like you are not accepted, but I feel like Matt brings this huge comfort to the song. It’s like two people thinking about praying it away but can’t: ‘I can’t pray it away’. He adds this comforting element to something quite difficult; it’s two people singing about the same thing and [uniting] in that. I really loved The National’s music and have such a lot of respect for them.
I hope this song brings comfort to those who have felt they have been dismissed for who they truly are. We’re living in a world that feels divided and it’s so important that we support each other, lift each other up and celebrate our differences.
Pray It Away by Hannah Georgas feat. Matt BerningerBeetle Bomb Music under exclusive license to Arts & Crafts / Brassland.
Andy Shauf has shared a new song “You Slipped Away,” It was a demo recorded during the sessions for his 2020 album The Neon Skyline. “You Slipped Away” is a sombre song filled with Shauf’s subtle-but-stunning layered harmonies.
“You Slipped Away’ was a song that I wrote shortly after moving to Toronto, right after I’d just moved into an apartment and had acquired an 80s Yamaha CP60 stage piano,” Shauf says. “This song was an attempt to write something that sounded like an old standard, using big general metaphors and universal themes.”
Few artists are storytellers as deft and disarmingly observational as Andy Shauf. The Toronto-based, Saskatchewan-raised musician’s songs unfold like short fiction: they’re densely layered with colourful characters and a rich emotional depth. The The Neon Skyline 11 interconnected tracks follow a simple plot: the narrator goes to his neighbourhood dive, finds out his ex is back in town, and she eventually shows up. While its overarching narrative is riveting, the real thrill of the album comes from how Shauf finds the humanity and humour in a typical night out and the ashes of a past relationship. For The Neon Skyline, Shauf chose to start each composition on guitar instead of his usual piano. Happy accidents like Shauf testing out a new spring reverb pedal and experimenting with tape machines forced him to simplify how he’d arrange the tracks. Over the course of a year-and-a-half, Shauf had ended up with almost 50 songs all about the same night at the bar.
“You Slipped Away” by Andy Shauf, available now Through Anti Records
Other Music was an influential and uncompromising New York City record store that was vital to the city’s early 2000s indie music scene. But when the store is forced to close its doors due to rent increases, the homogenization of urban culture, and the shift from CDs to downloadable and streaming music, a cultural landmark is lost. Through vibrant storytelling, the documentary captures the record store’s vital role in the musical and cultural life of the city, and highlights the artists whose careers it helped launch including Vampire Weekend, Animal Collective, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, William Basinski, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sharon Van Etten, Yo La Tengo and TV On The Radio.
Produced and Directed by Puloma Basu and Rob Hatch-Miller
Featuring: Tunde Adebimpe (TV On the Radio), William Basinski (composer), Panda Bear, Avey Tare & Geologist (Animal Collective), Matt Berninger (The National), Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai), James Chance (The Contortions), Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Benicio Del Toro (actor), Janeane Garofalo (comedian), Martin Gore (Depeche Mode), Daniel Kessler (Interpol), Ezra Koenig (Vampire Weekend), Mac McCaughan (Superchunk), Stephin Merritt (Magnetic Fields), Keigo Oyamada (Cornelius), JD Samson (Le Tigre), Jason Schwartzman (actor), Regina Spektor (singer/sonwriter), Dean Wareham (Galaxie 500/Luna) and more…
“Celebrates and immortalizes the culture of the record store.” -Jen Aswad, Variety
“a loving tribute…Other Music isn’t just a requiem or eulogy; the crate-digging spirit is infectious, and it’s impossible to watch the film without jotting down records and artists to track down and queue up”- Jason Bailey, The New York Times
The top five best-selling albums in the UK in 2004 came from Katie Melua, Maroon 5, Robbie Williams, Keane and, at the top, the Scissor Sisters, while the Christmas Number 1 was Band Aid 20. R.E.M. and George Michael released their worst albums, while almost everybody else decided it was time for a Greatest Hits. Within this rather variable landscape emerged one of the finest records of the last twenty years and an enduring favourite of mine: A Girl Called Eddy’s self-titled debut. Erin Moran’s first set, recorded with Richard Hawley, fused a New Jersey sensibility with the spacious atmospherics of Sheffield’s finest. It has hints of Bacharach and Aimee Mann, to name just a couple, but it stands alone, unique. And it often seemed that it would stand alone as the only album of her career, with rumoured follow-ups mentioned and forgotten at several points in the decade and a half that followed.
However, after news emerged at the end of 2019, January delivered ‘Been Around’. Given adoration of the debut, this was a must-listen and with it came a set of expectations so ridiculous it was almost impossible for those initial plays to be remotely objective.
The production is smoother, the songs more soulful and the whole thing rather bigger than its predecessor. The Bacharach swoon is still there, with lashings of Seventies guitar and AM radio horns. Working with Daniel Tashian, who was involved in Kacey Musgraves‘ wonderful ‘Golden Hour’, Moran has put together a record that offers hope in winter and exudes warmth from every note. Its sheen may catch you out if you approach in the claustrophobic chasm of exasperation that events in 2020 can initiate, seeming a little too plush for this world, but a more casual listen may quickly transform into a moment of delight.
From the neat “Girl, where you been?” that prefaces the opener onwards, it’s clear that there is a lightness at play. This is not the tortured outcome of sixteen years of perfectionism. In setting the scene, the title track explains that Moran has “been around enough to trace the years upon my face; this is the place I’m happy to be.” The highlight is ‘Jody’, a tribute to a departed friend which celebrates a life well-lived across a buoyant, soulful backdrop. The lyric “He liked to call me kid, I liked it when he did” captures something about their relationship that makes me well up each time I hear it. I’m not sure I can say how or why, but that’s sort of the point of music, right? It can do those things that mere words cannot. It is a confluence of different aspects of existence that – every now and then – cuts through everything else.
There’s plenty more to impress here, from the stark organ opening of‘Lucky Jack (20-1)’ to the stuttering rhythm of ‘Finest Actor’ that sounds like it belongs on ‘Painted From Memory’, Bacharach’s sublime 1998 collaboration with Elvis Costello. The artwork, however, is less triumphant, but this is a minor gripe.
While you might need to give it a few listens at different times and in different moods, ‘Been Around’ is an album which slowly but surely connects. It doesn’t sound like a follow-up to that striking debut, but then why would it?
Routine – is the collaborative project of musicians, songwriters and partners Annie Truscott and Melina Duterte – they will release its lush debut EP, “And Other Things”, this Friday, November 20th via Friends Of / Dead Oceans. Ahead of the EP’s release later this week, Routine shares a new song entitled “Calm and Collected” alongside a stunning music video filmed throughout Joshua Tree, where the EP was also written and recorded over the course of a month during the COVID-19 lockdown. The duo say, “We have both been wanting to collaborate with our good friend Eleanor for a while and the timing just lined up perfectly. Eleanor makes the most beautiful videos and we wanted something kind of dreamy and organic. When we scheduled the shoot in Joshua Tree, we didn’t realize that there would be a full moon. That definitely added a magical element to a project that already felt so special.”
Melina Duterte is a master of voice: Hers are dream pop songs that hint at a universe of her own creation. Recording as Jay Som since 2015, Duterte’s world of shy, swirling intimacies always contains a disarming ease, a sky-bent sparkle and a grounding indie-rock humility. In an era of burnout, the title track of her 2017 breakout, Everybody Works, remains a balm and an anthem. her latest project with Annie Truscott named Routine Listen to the album’s lead single “Cady Road”
Routine finds Truscott, who plays bass in Chastity Belt, and Duterte, the mastermind behind Jay Som, trying new roles. For And Other Things, Truscott wrote the bulk of the material and sings, while Duterte used the project as an opportunity to, in her words, “take the backseat,” as accompanist, producer, and engineer. The product of a cancelled tour that would have found the couple on the road together for the first time, And Other Things is a beautiful, collaborative outcome of an incredibly challenging time.
“Cady Road” the new song by Routine, out October 28th on Friends Of / Dead Oceans Records.
The Fat Angel Sings 