Cardiff-based post-punk quartet Panic Shack first burst onto the scene back in February with the snarling statement of intent, Who’s Got My Lighter? That was quickly followed by Jiu Jits-You, a song every bit as good as its title would suggest. Like both those tracks, their latest offering, I Don’t Really Like It, was produced by Tom Rees of Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard and released through local label, Clwb Creative Records.
Despite being short on words, “It’s literally 4 lines”, “I Don’t Really Like It” is not a song short on lyrical intent, as the band explain the track, “is for anyone who has felt spoken down to, patronised or ‘mansplained’ to“. Musically, it seems to channel the vibrant feminist-punk of Dream Nails, with a more angular, brooding quality reminiscent of fellow Welsh-wonders, Adwaith. The track starts off sedate, and then suddenly explodes into life as racing guitars compete with rapid drums to see who can propel the song forward with greater intensity. Panic Shack formed with the simple aim of doing it for themselves, “we just wanted to give it a go and have a bit of a laugh“, in making that sound so good they might just inspire others to do the same, they make you feel like a musical revolution isn’t just possible, it’s almost inevitable.
Panic Shack – ‘I Don’t Really Like It’ ,Clwb Creative Records
Hailing from what we’re reliably informed is a, “vibrant punk scene”, in Springfield, Illinois, Attic Salt first emerged back in 2017 with their self-titled debut album. The band have since toured relentlessly, both across the US and internationally, all the while working on the songs that would go on to form their second album, “Get Wise”. The album was released last week on Jump Start Records, and was recently previewed through stand-out track, “Fool 4 U“.
A song about, “having a crush on someone that you wish you didn’t and hoping you could just get over it”, Fool 4 U is a fabulous introduction to Attic Salt’s takes on bedroom pop-punk. The track buzzes by on a clatter of drums, chiming guitars and Alyssa Currie’s languid vocal tones, the whole thing comes across like the missing middle ground of Martha and Waxahatchee. While there’s nothing overly complex about the music Attic Salt make, there’s something wonderfully refreshing about this reminder of what can be done with a handful of chords, a catchy melody and a story to tell.
“Get Wise”is out now via Jump Start Recordsreleased September 25th, 2020
It’s been an odd few months for LA’s finest, “cry baby pop punk band”, Suzie True. When we last featured them back in July, they were all set for the August release of their debut album, “Saddest Girl At The Party”. Since then, after accusations of abuse against their former label, the band have put the whole thing on hold. That was until this week, when they shared a brand new single, “Bailey”, and confirmed their album, having found a new home in queer-owned label Get Better Records, will see the light of day in November.
As the band’s songwriter, Lexi McCoy recently explained, “the song was inspired by my friend Bailey…they were my first friend who was openly out, and they inspired me to come out as bi to my friends and family. They still actively inspire me to be creative, kind and the best version of myself I can be”. This tale of a powerfully loving friendship, manifests as a bristling, lo-fi punk banger, with a driving drum beat, wonderfully infectious bass-line and Lexi’s half-coo-half-snarl of a vocal that chimes out, “I swear you’re the only one who gets me, everyone else makes me think I’m crazy”.
A suitably heart-warming tale to accompany the fabulous news that despite its tribulations, Suzie True’s album will arrive into the world after all. This is only the start of their story, their first musical chapter, yet from what we’ve heard so far, Saddest Girl At The Party is already making us very happy.
Saddest Girl At The Partyis out November 27th via Get Better Records.
The title track of Phoebe Bridgers’ second album pokes fun at the oblivious fan who, at a concert, will linger at the merch table for too long. Bridgers knows she could easily fill the role, too. “If Elliott Smith were alive, I probably wouldn’t have been the most fun person for him to talk to,” she told The New Yorker. “So I wrote that as if I were the punisher.” The record is the folk singer’s follow-up to 2017’s “Stranger in the Alps”, and her first solo project since she recorded with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker as boygenius and dueted with Conor Oberst as Better Oblivion Community Center.
On “Moon Song,” one of many standout tracks on Phoebe Bridgers’ new album, Punisher, Bridgers sings, “We hate ‘Tears in Heaven,’ but it’s sad that his baby died/ We fought about John Lennon until I cried.” These lines illustrate one of this album’s greatest strengths—while many records are emotionally resonant but emotionally one-note, “Punisher” is always as complex as it is resonant, unsatisfied with easy answers. The couplet wrestles with the conflicted nature of relationships, both between the speaker and another person and between the speaker and music itself. Like much of the record, the song is simultaneously tender, darkly funny, and mournful.
It’s a lot to take in. And just as we’re processing the weight of these lines, Bridgers whisks us away into a vivid dream: “You’re singing at my birthday/ I’ve never seen you smiling so big/ It’s nautical themed/ And there’s something I’m supposed to say.” Punisher, richly produced and beautiful throughout—complete with lush guitars, synth textures, swelling strings, and 2000s indie-rock horns—is a joy to listen to, but it takes some time to truly sink its claws in, revealing the depth of its humour and sadness. Certain lines kept swirling around in my head after the third listen: the one about whether Elvis “believed songs could come true” off “Graceland Too” or the moment when Bridgers sings, “I’m not afraid of hard work” on “Garden Song,” the album’s lead single.
“Garden Song” may be the most familiar song to fans of Bridgers’ first record, Stranger in the Alps—its slow, stately pace, its guitar picking and ethereal atmosphere, and, most importantly, its lyrics, which create their own self-sustaining universe. Like a faded memory or a rear-view vision of childhood, it’s a world that is at once familiar and strange, a tale of wrong, ghosts, healing, and the work of making things, if not right, then more whole. Bridgers’ voice is joined on the chorus by Bridgers’ tour manager Jeroen Vrijhoef’s resonant bass vocals. Elsewhere on the record, we hear Conor Oberst on “Halloween” and “I Know the End,” Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus on “Graceland Too” and “I Know the End,” along with many others.
The record is a triumph of collaboration, but it is always guided by Bridgers’ vision. Punisher was co-produced by Bridgers this time aroundalongside Tony Berg and Ethan Gruska, who produced Stranger in the Alps—and at every point Punisher is more expansive than its predecessor, both in terms of its instrumentation and its songcraft. Classic Phoebe Bridgers slow-burners like “Garden Song” and “Halloween,” which recall her mostly downtempo debut, float alongside uptempo tracks like “Kyoto” and “I See You,” which reflect Bridgers’ fantastic indie rock collaborations, both as one-third of boygenius and one-half of Better Oblivion Community Center. The dynamic variation on Punisher is one of its greatest strengths. Although the downtempo tracks still set the tone, the addition of tracks like “Kyoto” keeps listeners on their toes.
Punisher, as punishing as it can be, is largely an affirming record. (Apparently, the title refers to the kind of fan who stays at the merch table way too long.) There’s an existential kind of determination to it, perhaps best embodied on “Chinese Satellite,” a moving meditation on doubt, faith, and loss: “Took a tour out to see the stars/ But they weren’t out tonight/ So I wished hard on a Chinese satellite/ I want to believe/ Instead I look at the sky and I feel nothing.” A classic story of spiritual desolation amid the disenchantment of modernity, perhaps. But when no star or God is forthcoming, artists latch on to what they see, forging their own spirituality, based on what symbols are available—in this case the satellite will have to do.
I tend to link the stubborn spirituality of this record, its determination to make beauty out of an ugly world, back to the album’s lead single, “Garden Song,” in particular to the line, “I’m not afraid of hard work,” as it relates to gardening, which is to say fostering life. The album’s closer, the shape-shifting “I Know the End” is as affirming as the apocalypse gets, beginning straightforwardly enough before settling into an incredibly cathartic build—complete with kick drums, horns, and screams—which busts the song wide open. It’s easily the most intense track on the album, but when all the instruments drop out and all that’s left is Bridgers’ voice, something between a death-metal scream and a low hiss, there’s a knowing playfulness to it. The humour that’s made her Twitter legendary often surfaces in Punisher’s heaviest moments, and maybe that’s part of what makes the album a source of hope rather than despair, for all its sorrow. In an interview with Amanda Petrusich in the lead-up to Punisher’s release, Bridgers joked, “Here’s my thing, for your emptiness.” Enjoy.
Dreaming doesn’t come easy these shadowed days, which is why Strange To Explain by Woods is such a welcome turning of new colours.
It presents an extended moment of sweet reflection for the 15-year-old band, bouncing back to earth as something hopeful and weird and resolute. After quickly recording and releasing 2017’s Love Is Love in response to the tumultuous events of their (and our) 2016, Jeremy Earl and company took their time with the follow-up. Parenthood arrived, as did a short song writing pause. The band went bicoastal when Jarvis Taveniere headed west. The result is an album that not only catches and holds and shares the light in yet another new way, but recognizes that there’s still light to be caught.
A bend beyond the last bend beyond, Woods keep on changing, thoughtfully and beautifully. The colours were always there, like trees blossoming just slightly differently each season, a synesthetic message coded in slow-motion. Recorded in Stinson Beach, the California enclave where the government once tracked one of the largest LSD rings in the world only to be questioned by the neighbours as agents prowled the woods, on Strange To Explain, the familiar jangling guitars recede to the background. John Andrews’s warm keyboards and twining Mellotron rise around Earl’s songs and dance across the chord changes like warm sunlight off the Pacific. The music feels a karmic landmass away from the creepiness of the uncanny valley.
Just dig into “Can’t Get Out” or “Fell So Hard” and it’s easy to spot the affable hooks and fuzzed-out bass and third-eye winks and fun harmonies that Woods have produced reliably since way back ‘round 2004 (which, in the buzz-buzz world of psych-pop really is a grand achievement). But listen carefully, too, to the sound of our (and their) world in transition, the ambient humming of spring peepers behind “Where Do You Go When You Dream.” Especially sink into the intention-setting opening trio of songs, emerging from (and shimmering inside) an atmosphere that could only be made by musicians who’ve been working together for nearly 20 years, as Earl and Taveniere have. It’s hardly a secret language, but you try verbalizing it.
Depending on where in the time-track one stands, it’s their 11th full length (not counting collaborations, split LPs, EPs, and singles), and the 99th release on Earl’s Woodsist label. By any standards, Strange To Explain is the work of a mature band, capable of both heavy atmospheric declarations like “Just To Fall Asleep” alongside extended-form pieces like the album-closing “Weekend Wind,” unfolding in layers of trumpet and vibraphone and ambient guitars and stereoscopic percussion.
For contemporary heads, it can be nearly a full-time job to filter out all the bad energy being blasted through nearly all media channels from every conceivable direction. But not all media channels. The benevolent, Mellotron-dabbed dream-sounds of Strange To Explain constitute some of the more welcome transmissions on these shores in a Venusian minute. They’re sure to brighten any desert solarium, LED-lit pod, portable Bucky-dome, eco-fit Airstream, or whatever other cozy dwelling your time-mind is currently occupying.
Carefree Theatre, Hard Boiled, and Hourly Haunts were all recorded together in early 2019.
We’ve donated a brand new song “New Direction” to a Bandcamp benefit download compilation which will be available today (Friday) only. “Good Music to Avert the Collapse of Democracy: Volume 2”, will raise money for Voting Rights Lab.
Surfer Blood frontman John Paul Pitts was on a mission to “write as many short pop songs as possible” on Carefree Theatre, their latest album, which clocks in at 35 minutes with eleven catchy tracks.
The album’s namesake is located in West Palm Beach, Florida, where Pitts spent his childhood. Due to financial issues, it became abandoned, demolished, and, eventually, replaced. The album doesn’t only embody the nostalgia he still feels for it, but it reckons with the idea of coming full circle. The group returned to South Florida to record Carefree Theatre, which is out now on Kanine Records.
In light of the release, Pitts broke down each song on the record for us. Read the stories that make up Carefree Theatre as you listen along, and watch the exclusive music video for “Parkland (Into the Silence)”
1. “Desert Island”
On the way home from a West Coast tour in 2018, Mikey and I stopped in LA for a weekend to see friends and celebrate his birthday. The last day we were there, our friend Greg Hansen took us by the studio he was working at to show us around. It was off of Mulholland Drive in a guest house that had once belonged to Mick Fleetwood. The room was a time capsule from the seventies, complete with wood paneling, shag rugs, and Mexican tile floors. How Greg became the custodian of this space is still a mystery, but it was full of amplifiers and microphones and completely ready for tracking.
After a few hours it was starting to get late. We’d managed to finish a couple of demos, and we decided it was probably a good stopping point. Greg started shutting down the equipment while Mikey was on the couch playing a riff I’d never heard before. I immediately had ideas for melodies and harmonies to go with it, so I asked if we had time to try one more song. Mikey plugged into an overdriven amp, and I got behind the drum set and recorded the demo in one take.
If we had more time, we may have written a bridge or something, but in hindsight I’m glad we didn’t. It’s better the way it is. Short, driving, and direct.
2. “Karen”
Inspired by the Wipers’ “Telepathic Love,” “Karen” is a new take on an idea I’ve been playing with, on and off, for years. It was originally supposed to be the companion song to “Fast Jabroni,” (track seven on Astro Coast) but I never finished it, and ended up shelving it for over a decade. After moving back home to Florida and re-evaluating my entire life, I decided it was time to revisit old material.
The lead vocals are intentionally sparse, repetitive, and vague. I thought it would be a nice juxtaposition to the terse and urgent guitar parts that are so close to sounding harsh. It also gave me the opportunity to play around with the idea of call and response. Mikey and Lindsey’s backup vocals have added so much to the live shows, I wanted to leave plenty of room for all of the “oohs” and “aahs” to fill out the space.
To me, “Karen” represents the call of music. My passion and favourite distraction. It sings to me in the shower and plays on repeat every night when I close my eyes. I love it so much, I decided to bring her to life in a song. I’d say more, but the mystery is half the fun when digging through a lyric sheet.
3. “Carefree Theatre”
I love playing drums. Even though I don’t currently own a kit, I take every opportunity I can to play (usually before our soundchecks, or after everyone else has left the practice space). I came up with this intro and thought it sounded like the Talking Heads. A simple pop beat with one or two tweaks that make it sound slightly off. I started to flesh out the parts and came up with the chord progression. I was listening to a lot of the Women self-titled record, and thought I would add an acoustic guitar to double the chords. I made sure to blow it out as much as possible by recording it through an overdrive pedal.
The verses were edgy in a good way, but it started to get taxing after a few minutes. I knew I wanted the chorus to be full and lush to contrast the staccato verses. What I didn’t know is that I would end up writing the biggest chorus on the entire record. The melody came immediately, and when I showed it to the band, Lindsey came up with that harmony that ties the whole song together.
The lyrics are about empathy and forgiveness. Even people who you’ve written off for years can surprise you. I won’t say who the song is about since she’s a public figure, but it’s someone who left a bad taste in my mouth for years. In the chaos of the past half-decade, she was thrown into a whirlpool of shit by virtue of having enough of a spine to not succumb to the cult mentality that’s infected so many of her peers. I found myself feeling her pain. We all need a little more mercy in our lives.
4. “Parkland (Into the Silence)”
On February 14, 2018 I was running on the treadmill at the gym with cable news running in the background. I had just moved back to Florida and was desperately looking for a reason to feel good about it.
That was when I saw on the news that there had been a shooting at a high school forty minutes south of my hometown. My heart ached for the victims and their families, but like so many Americans, I’ve become resigned to this particular kind of tragedy. I’m not proud of my cynicism, but it’s a callousness you develop when you live in a country where this is a weekly event.
In the days and weeks that followed, I watched the events closely. These high school kids were tearing up routine talking points we’ve heard a thousand times, refusing to be helpless, refusing to succumb to despair. In those moments I was so proud to be from this place. Even though we haven’t seen any meaningful legislation, these students were able to move the conversation into new territory. I never thought I’d see people wake up to the epidemic of gun violence in the U.S., but it feels like it’s on the tip of everyone’s tongue, and so much of that awareness is due to the resilience and optimism of these young Floridians. This song is a testament to their courage. They are truly inspiring and living proof that anything can be overcome.
5. “In the Tempest’s Eye”
I’ve always considered “Anchorage” (track nine on Astro Coast) to be Surfer Blood’s opus. It’s a long and moody one, but I like how it’s structured in movements rather than a narrow verse, chorus, bridge format. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing pop songs, and I’m very proud of how concise and focused the material on Carefree Theatre came out, but when I started writing this one, I wanted to give myself some more freedom.
It came together pretty quickly. I went to Mikey’s rehearsal spot alone one night and locked myself inside. I spent most of the night working on what would become the demo, setting up and recording each instrument frantically. I was listening to lots of Brian Eno and the Swirlies at the time, and was really focused on sonic texture. I basically spread out every single pedal I had and started experimenting. What came together was a lush soundscape with more layers than any of the other songs I was working on.
There is a second movement that, in my opinion, is more compelling than the first. There’s no question that this song wouldn’t be the same without its coda, putting it in the same category as past Surfer Blood songs like “Anchorage” and “Six Flags in F or G”—two of my favourites.
6. “In My Mind”
Here’s another song that we came up with in Mick Fleetwood’s guest house in LA. I had the idea pretty fleshed out already, and started with the rhythm guitars while Mikey put down the drum track. I love songs in triple meter and had this idea boiled down to it’s essence, leaving plenty of room for overdubs and lead guitars.
I was particularly inspired by the Clientele song “Rain” off of Suburban Light, my favourite record ever. Suburban Lightis absolutely drenched with otherworldly spring reverb. The guitar parts are deceptive and difficult, and the lyrics are poetry set to music. While all of the parts are excellent on their own, there’s something more to this record that’s hard to describe. Somehow it never fails to make me nostalgic and haunt me for hours afterward. I could spend a year imitating the different parts but never be able to capture that elusive yet unmistakable mood.
Like many of the songs on Carefree Theatre, this song was written immediately after a breakup, and is my way of trying to figure out what to do with all of the empty space in my life. It took me a while to process everything, and in hindsight I can see myself coming to terms with my new reality in the lyrics. I wouldn’t characterize Carefree Theatre as a breakup album, but there are more than a few breakup songs.
7. “Unconditional”
A lot of the songs on this record are breakup songs, but this one is the ultimate. There’s nothing that can prepare you for that feeling of betrayal when you hear that terrible news from your partner. Closing a chapter in your life is always painful, and it never happens as quickly as you wish it would. This song was my blank canvas, my chance to put everything into perspective.
I’ve always been inspired by Jay Reatard’s Blood Visions. We were lucky enough to play with him in 2009 before his untimely passing. There is always so much pain in his songs, from the lyrics to the melodies to the production. He always put everything on the line, especially on that record. I’ve been trying to imitate his style for years, but have never gotten there. This song came out somewhere between “My Shadow” and “This Charming Man”—the heartache that pushed me to write this song might be just beneath the surface, but it was with me every moment at the time.
Jim Wuest, our friend and organist, came in towards the end of the process to record some parts. As it turns out, a four-chord pop song is pretty easy for a world class organist. He played on a Hammond B3 through the leslie cabinet. It was so beautiful and timeless that I turned it up super loud in the mix (I usually bury the keyboard parts on our recordings). It gave the whole song a church-like feel, like an altar to wallowing in your own misery. Between the organ and Mikey’s super-technical lead guitar, this song ended up every bit as powerful as I had hoped it would be. I think it’s going to be a great addition to the set when we start touring again in 2021 (fingers crossed).
8. “Summer Trope”
The song “Summer Trope” is based on a demo I recorded in Oakland, CA during the winter of 2017. I was living in a tiny apartment with paper-thin walls and couldn’t record amps or drums the way I usually like to. Instead I was working on an iPad with headphones and singing into the internal microphone at the kitchen table. With any luck, these demos will never see the light of day. They’re honestly pretty whacky, but this one always stood out to me as a keeper.
I realized that I’d never made use of modulation effects like chorus and flanger. I had always associated them with nu-metal and cheesy prog bands until I heard the music of Cate Le Bon and Chris Cohen. They made me see that these effects could be tastefully harnessed in the right context. I built the song around a simple drum loop and forced myself to use an effects palette that would’ve normally made me very uncomfortable. I ended up with an eerie verse and a dramatic chorus that became the backbone of the song.
The lyrics are narrative, something else that doesn’t come naturally to me. It tells the story of a prisoner who breaks out of Alcatraz, only to be swallowed by a great white shark in the San Francisco Bay. Not the happiest of endings, but you have to admit, it’s very Surfer Blood.
I came up with the idea in a cab driving across the Bay Bridge. The driver mentioned something about how the city was trying to play down the presence of sharks in the bay. It’s hard not to be inspired by that view. Either way, I’m glad I tried stepping outside of my artistic comfort zone. “Summer Trope” sits nicely with the rest of the track listing, even though it takes a different path.
9. “Uneasy Rider”
Yo La Tengo is one of the most consistent and prolific bands of the past thirty years. I’ve been following them since high school and have always seen them as a guiding light. One of the things I love most, aside from the incredible song writing, is the way Ira and Georgia sing together: male and female vocals up-front singing unison leads.
Lindsey joined the band in 2015 and immediately began filling out our sound with her harmonies and backing vocals. While she’s featured all throughout Snowdonia, I realized that we’d never attempted a double lead. So when I sat down to write this song I was focused on an arrangement that would work for both of us.
I recorded the original demo for drum machine and synthesizer. It was pretty over-the-top and campy, but I was determined to make use of synths on one of these songs. Unfortunately the more synth tracks I added the stranger everything sounded. I ended up muting them all, with the exception of the keyboard bass, and recording guitar parts instead. Sometimes it’s better to play to your strengths.
10. “Dewar”
Anthony and Zach Dewar are identical twins from our hometown. Since a time before anyone can remember, they’ve been writing strange and beautiful songs. Thomas had been their good friend in high school and introduced them to me. I was immediately fascinated. In the fall of 2010 we decided to take them out on a Surfer Blood tour, and they showed up with a five-person backing band crammed in the backseat of their SUV (the band included a glockenspiel/theremin player).
They look and sound so much alike that I had a hard time telling them apart for weeks, when they harmonize together it sounds like a perfect overdub. I had the pleasure of watching them every night for a month. Their songs are epic, tell a story, and usually end up where you least expect them. When I started writing this seven-minute rock opera a decade later, I knew exactly who to channel.
Lyrically, this song is an ode to my father—a loving parent, a brilliant engineer, and a lifelong misanthrope. In 2017, I watched a movie about the Manhattan project and was struck by how much the actor playing Robert Oppenheimer reminded me of him. Unconsciously, I started creating this character who was a hybrid of both men, and the next day when I picked up my guitar the lyrics wouldn’t stop coming. I guess this song is my way of wrestling with ambition, disappointment, masculinity, etc., but the end guitar solo is my favorite.
11. “Rose Bowl”
A departure from the rest of the record, “Rose Bowl” started with a finger-picked progression on a classical guitar. I write with my nylon a lot, but it rarely becomes the backbone of an entire song. This time it felt right. It was simple and disarming like a lullaby. I recorded the two guitar parts and played them on loop while I came up with lyrics. At first I didn’t want to add drums or bass, I wanted to keep it just the two guitars and two vocal tracks, like an Elliott Smith song. It was so different from all of the other material that I figured we’d put it out as a B-side later.
I usually get nervous when I share new songs with the band, but that’s when they begin to really come to life. Sure enough, the rest of the instrumentation and Mikey and Lindsey’s backup parts took the song to a whole new level, not to mention the crazy guitar outro we recorded on a whim. By the time we were done we knew it had to go on the record.
The lyrics came easy. I wrote them in January 2018, during my last few weeks in California. My then-girlfriend and I had just spent the holidays with her family, and had gone to a tailgate party at the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day. Football isn’t my thing. I had no allegiance to either team and could care less about the outcome, but I’ll always cherish that experience: the barbecues in the back of pickup trucks, the drunk fans consoling each other, and the beautiful Pasadena weather.
Our relationship came to an end a few weeks later, closing an extended chapter in my life. It makes this song especially bittersweet for me, but it’s a reminder not to look back with regret or acrimony. Even if everything comes to an end, those moments were real.
The album “Carefree Theatre”, out September 25yh, 2020 on Kanine Records.
I like how The xx are taking their time these days and allow each other individual freedom in-between their records. It’s already been almost four years since their last album and it looks like we might have to wait a bit longer a follow-up. Following Jamie xx‘ ongoing on-and-off solo adventures singer Romy Madley Croft is now starting her own one and her first single is a surprising one. Well, not in terms of quality because she is one hell of a gifted songwriter and her sense for catchy pop hooks played a crucial part in the global success of her main band. Lifetimeis a euphoric dance pop anthem, an ode to the club, to the euphoria in celebrating music together with others in safe spaces. Needless to say Romy couldn’t have picked a worse/ better time to drop such an uplifting piece of music. It’s a bittersweet tribute everything we currently can’t celebrate due to the pandemic but also a much needed boost of energy to keep on fighting for moments of euphoria, even when things remain as uncertain as they do right now. Because they are the ones that make life liveable,
Romy Madley Croft of The XX has just released “Lifetime,” her first solo single. Croft revealed the song’s imminent arrival yesterday. Croft first announced the solo project back in April during an Instagram Live session: “For the past couple years I’ve been writing a lot of songs for other people, writing a lot of songs for myself. I ended up with all these songs so I’m going to release a solo album under my name,” she explained. “It’s just going to be under ‘Romy.’ I’m hopefully going to be releasing it soon. I have loads of songs and I feel excited to try something new.”
When pressed about the sound of her solo material, the singer said that clubbing was a big inspiration: “I guess one of the main inspirations and things that I love is club classics—Ibiza house, trance music, stuff that you can really dance to but also sing along to. What I realized was a lot of those club classics are big songs as well as just being fun to dance to.”
If there’s one positive take away from several months of quarantine, it’s the joy of reconnecting with friends (and bandmates) after all that time away. Fortunately, we were able to capture this glee when the four LA-based rockers in The Regrettes met up to celebrate the release of their new single “I Love Us.”
Spending the day with the band—who had all been tested before the meetup—we documented their trip from picking up lunch at Bloom & Plume in LA’s Filipinotown, to a picnic in Elysian Park, to band rehearsal at Balboa Recording Studio.
Last fall, LA garage pop act The Regrettes gave us an in-depth look at their most recent album How Do You Love?, which they’re following up today with a one-off single, “I Love Us,” recorded for the final season of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why. Nearly hitting the reset button on their established buzzy sound, the new single is a synth-heavy affair promising a step forward on future releases.
“‘I Love Us’ to me represents great change and growth for The Regrettes,” shares the band’s Lydia Night. “This song showcases the kinds of risks and genre bending I hope to accomplish moving forward with our third album… I’m so inspired by artists like Charli XCX, The 1975, St Vincent, Brockhampton, and much more however, never would let myself get a little weird by combining the elements from those artists that I love with the type of raw rock and power pop I normally write.”
Along with the song, the band is sharing an animated visual for the track, documenting an affectionate relationship between a young woman and a robot. I wonder if it’s a spoiler for 13RW.
Elvis Costello and The Attractions are releasing a new box set collection of their classic album, “Armed Forces” is the third studio album from Elvis Costello & The Attractions. Originally released January 1979 and produced by Nick Lowe. Key Songs: “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding?”, “Accidents Will Happen”, “Oliver’s Army” and “Green Shirt” Costello was 23 years old when he wrote and recorded the music for the album. After the previous Ryko and Rhino reissues, we now have the complete Armed Forces. This super deluxe edition was personally curated by Elvis Costello. The box fully embraces Barney Bubbles’ epic package art and features 9 pieces of vinyl, 7 custom notebooks containing updated liner notes from Costello (nearly 10,000 words total) and his handwritten lyrics from the era.
The complete Armed Forces explores the album across nine pieces of vinyl, collecting together b-sides, demos, outtakes, alt versions and 23 unreleased live recordings in a lavish box set to provide an illuminating picture of this revered record. Features new 2020 Remaster of original album to match sonic fidelity of 1979 UK pressing. Available November 6th via UMe
“By the time we got to ‘Armed Forces,’ we had the idea we wanted to make an actual studio record,” Costello recalls. “And that was our version of what a studio sounded like. We played cassettes in the station wagon driving around America for the first time, of the same four or five records round and around. Little wonder that became our language for that next record, things that we were listening to in that moment — including ABBA. We put aside the rock ’n’ roll, Small Faces/Rolling Stones references of ‘This Year’s Model’ and into it came the synthesizer, which came from those David Bowie and Iggy Pop records — ‘Station to Station,’ ‘Low,’ ‘Heroes,’ ‘The Idiot,’ ‘Lust for Life.’” Then, considering more stripped-down techno influences, he adds, “I don’t think we thought we were making a Giorgio Moroder record, but we liked the mechanistic sound of Kraftwerk, even if we weren’t going to make records that were that austere. I wanted the emotion in them.”
Guitar music figured in — barely. “Certainly ‘Party Girl’ has a reference to the Beatles, obviously in the arpeggio at the end. There are some Cheap Trick songs that sound like that too, though, and we loved Cheap Trick. So were we ripping off the Beatles, or were we just ‘Hey, Cheap Trick — I like them’?” He hears us chuckle at the idea he might’ve been influenced as much in the moment by Rick Nielsen as George Harrison. “You’re laughing,” he says, “but I’m deadly serious!”
Personally curated by Elvis Costello, The Complete Armed Forces is the definitive statement of the legendary songwriter and musician’s revered and essential 1979 album, featuring the classic hits “Accidents Will Happen,” “Green Shirt,” “Oliver’s Army” and “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding.” Leaving no musical stone unturned, no lyric notebook unrifled through and no detail left out, this new super deluxe edition vinyl box set is a thorough excavation of Costello’s vault from this metamorphic period of his early beginnings, painting as complete a picture as possible of the events that led to the making of the album, its creation, and the wild success that followed for him, and his band The Attractions, and ignited his career. Armed Forces is explored across nine pieces of vinyl (3 12-inch LPs, 3 10-inch LPs and 3 7-inch singles), including a new 2020 remaster of the album, B-sides, alternate versions and outtakes, demos, and a slew of live recordings – including 23 unreleased live tracks taken from three especially riotous concerts.
The notebooks offer fascinating insight into Costello’s songwriting process, showing the evolution from idea to finished work, while the liners detail the making of and stories behind the songs. The accompanying photos and memorabilia provide a vivid window into this exciting era. “Most of this record was written in hotel rooms or on a tour bus, scribbled in a notebook which rarely left my side or failing this, from fragments and phrases scrawled on paper cocktail napkins or hotel notepaper,” Costello writes in the liners. The comprehensive set also includes a print of the vintage grenade and gun poster and the four original postcards of each band member. Additionally, Costello commissioned acclaimed artist Todd Alcott to create pulp novel book covers of songs from Armed Forces starring himself as the protagonist in a variety of precarious situations.
Armed Forces has been newly remastered by Costello and mastering engineer Bob Ludwig from the original analogue tapes to match the sonic fidelity of the initial 1979 UK pressing. Striving for the utmost authenticity, they took care to match the feel and intention of the original mastering. “It sounds as close to the way it sounded to us in the studio as we could make it,” Costello recently revealed to MOJO. “That’s a beautiful thing.”
The album’s evolution is documented on the 10-inch, Sketches For Emotional Fascism A.K.A. Armed Forces, which assembles together B-sides, demos and alternate versions, making many of these songs available on vinyl for the first time in decades.
Costello and The Attractions live prowess is fully celebrated with several previously unreleased concert recordings that bookended the recording and release of the album. Along with selections from the band’s legendary 1978 Hollywood High show, the collection shows off what a powerful force of nature the band was with three additional shows including highlights from the notorious Riot At The Regent – Live In Sydney ’78 and a Christmas Eve concert at London’s Dominion Theatre that same year, presented here as Christmas In The Dominion – Live 24th December ’78. “Riot At The Regent is a souvenir from our days Down Under and a second snap-shot of the Attractions in action during six months either side of the recording of Armed Forces,” Costello pens. Continuing, “We played right up to Christmas Eve and certainly sound full of cheery spirit on ‘Christmas In The Dominion,’ playing a version of ‘No Dancing’ in an apparently spontaneous arrangement that sounds as if we had just heard Blondie’s ‘Heart Of Glass’ on the radio and decided to re-work my song with a similar approach before closing the stand with the same song with which we had opened it: ‘Peace Love & Understanding.’”
Costello’s full set at PinkPop in The Netherlands in 1979, titled Europe ’79 – Live At Pinkpop, is a thrilling concert that showcases the well-oiled band in fine form, exactly one year after their appearance at Hollywood High School, and sees them road testing songs that would end up on their follow up record, 1980’s Get Happy. All of the unreleased live recordings, taken from the original 2” multitracks, have been remixed by Costello’s longtime producer and mixer Sebastian Krys who recently mixed his forthcoming new album, Hey Clockface, and co-produced his 2018 GRAMMY® Award-winning album, Look Now.
Produced by Nick Lowe, Armed Forces was Elvis Costello’s third album and his second with The Attractions – Steve Nieve (keyboards), Bruce Thomas (bass) and Pete Thomas (drums) – following on from the immense success of their first effort, This Year’s Model. As a result, the songs for the album were written on the road while the band were on a non-stop tour where they were becoming tighter and tighter by the show. Moving away from the punk that inspired the previous record, Armed Forces, as Pitchfork wrote in their nearly perfect review of the album, “is extravagantly layered with dense instrumentation and rich, effusive textures,” adding “the production works to the record’s advantage, filling the songs out with bombastic power-pop arrangements and giving weight to their urgency.” At just 23 years old, the album cemented Costello’s legacy as one of the most gifted and articulate songwriters of his generation. Since it’s release it has only grown in popularity and stature, continually landing on best albums ever lists and finding new fans each year.
With The Complete Armed Forces, Costello has provided an exhaustive time capsule that lets us celebrate this timeless album and understand how it came to be.
The album receives a brand-new remaster from the original production master tapes with the sonic fidelity matching the original 1979 UK pressing. Along with Live selections from the Hollywood High show, there are 3 more concerts, 23 never released live songs including the full PinkPop Festival 1979 set and highlights from the notorious Riot at The Regent concert and the December 24, 1978 Dominion Theatre.
The set includes the vintage grenade and gun poster and the 4 original postcards of each band member. Costello commissioned acclaimed artist Todd Alcott to recreate pulp novel covers of to represent songs from Armed Forces featuring Costello as the star of the cover in precarious situations.
Back in August, Costello announced his next album ‘Hey Clockface’ which arrives on October 30th via ConcordRecordings.
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