The now renamed prolific Californian band Thee Oh Sees pulls way back on the prog-metal influences of recent efforts, trading much of that for dynamic, staccato avant-punk in the first half and easing into delicious psych rock in the second. Highlights: “Dreary Nonsense,” “If I Had My Way,” “Gong of Catastrophe” “In the swirling and undulant warm mud of jettisoned reels of magnetic tape, blurps up the fog of reinvention. Every night I would parley with my pilots and run and rerun the recordings. Right up until the moment sleep slips its veil over eyes and ears and you drift back without a sound. Protean Threat dream haze becomes Panther Rotate in the other dimension.
A companion LP of remixes, field recordings, and sonic experiments using all sounds generated by the him and crackle of the desert farm. “A second version of our Protean Threat if you will, but barely conspicuous in its relation. Forward, never straight! Sunrise, sunset. Two lives connected by a cosmic thread, One for your feet and one for your head. For fans of Thee Oh Sees, Oh Sees, OCS, The Oh Sees, Osees…etc etc etcetcetc…be well.” —John Dwyer
Bubbling up from the psychedelic tar pits of L.A., Frankie and the Witch Fingers have been a constant source of primordial groove for the better part of the last decade. Formed and incubated in Bloomington, IN before moving west to scrap with Los Angeles’ garage rock rabble, the band evolved from cavern-clawed echo merchants to architects of prog-infected psych epics that evoke a shift in reality. After a stretch on Chicago/LA flagship Permanent Records the band landed at yet another fabled enclave of garage and psychedelia – Brooklyn’s Greenway Records, now working in tandem with psych powerhouse LEVITATION and their label The Reverberation Appreciation Society, the groups latest effort is dually supported by a RAS / Greenway co-release.
After years of searching for the specific alchemy that would tear open the cosmos, they found the formula with the addition of Shaughnessy Starr on drums in the summer of 2018. They began a new cycle and tripped into tip-on double gatefold territory, flesh-ing out their lysergic impulses into a monolith of sound that closes in from all sides. The band reached new levels of grandiosity and utilized every minute to manifest their psych-soul Sabbath in four dimensions, spilling psychic blood on a populace ready and eagerly waiting. Yet, as expansive, inventive, and immersive as any studio album might be, the band is born for the stage. As their live prowess caught the ears of some legends in their own right, the band practically lived on the road last year with stints opening for Oh Sees, Cheap Trick and ZZ Top. Along the way the constant pulpit of the stage would form ZAM into a transformative experience while plotting their next permutation of space and time.
That transformation, Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters… (repeated infinitely,) rises like a Phoenix from the road tar, van exhaust, and ozone crackle of amps in heat. Once off the road it was recorded in just five blistering days. Though, while the tour may have hammered the album into shape and brought about a wind of change, those changes stretched to the band itself as well. In the wake of the tour the band’s longtime bassist Alex Bulli made his exit, with the majority of bass parts on the album being written and played by multi- instrumental magician Josh Menashe with occasional pitch in from songwriter Dylan Sizemore. Stripped to their core the band has created their most ambitious work to date, an album that takes the turbulence of ZAM and crafts it into a beast more insidious and singular than anything in their catalog.
Moving forward, the band has taken on new blood. Completing their lineup, Nikki Pickle (of Death Valley Girls) will join them working the new album out roadside on bass. A new horizon of Frankie and the Witch Fingers draws near and we’re all set to follow them into the unknown.
After five solo albums, Kansas City singer/songwriter Kevin Morby hasn’t missed a beat, and his sixth entry “Sundowner” continues that hot streak. Sundowner is perhaps less ambitious than his 2019 double album and spiritual escapade Oh My God, but any time Morby invites you on a lowly, dusty folk rock journey, you better get moving because it’s always worth it. If you’ve had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with Morby’s vocal, melodic and guitar quirks, you’ll find many of those here, along with his breath-taking intimacy and thoughtful pastoral tales.
Following 2019’s Oh My God, “a secular rock record consumed by religious imagery, a pop art exploration of deep anxiety, and his most interesting work yet” (The FADER), Sundowner is Morby’s “attempt to put the Middle American twilight — its beauty profound, though not always immediate — into sound.” This is represented in “Campfire,” a track that’s textured with distinct, twangy guitar licks and Morby’s compelling voice. The video, shot at Castle Rock in Kansas and directed by Johnny Eastlund & Dylan Isbell, features Morby and his partner, Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee). It’s deeply hued with beautiful, dusky skies and a cinematic quality.
The collection of new songs that would become Sundowner came together effortlessly as he did his best not to resist or refine the songs, but instead let them take shape all on their own. In his makeshift studio, Morby taught himself basic recording techniques. Because it had no heating or cooling elements, he was subjected to the elements – the warm and abstract summer and the icy Kansan winter. He worked largely on a four track Tascam model 424. “I wrote the entire album wearing headphones, hunched over the 424, letting my voice and guitar pass through the machine, getting lost in the warmth of the tape as if another version of myself was living on the inside, singing back at me,” says Morby. “I was mesmerized by the magic of the four track not only as a recording device, but also an instrument, and considered it my song writing partner throughout the whole process.”
Kevin Morby released two more songs from his forthcoming album Sundowner, due out October. 16th, this week. “Wander” is a strong blend of indie and country that would make for a perfect road-trip soundtrack. On the flip side, “Don’t Underestimate Midwest American Sun” is a lengthier, slightly more sombre track, but the calmer acoustic instrumentals make it just as enjoyable. ”’Don’t Underestimate Midwest American Sun’ is my favourite song off of the new album, and the one I’m most proud of,” Morby said. “I consider space to be a prominent instrument on the song – and here it is as important as anything else you hear on the track.
“Don’t Underestimate Midwest American Sun” the new song by Kevin Morby off ‘Sundowner’, out October 16th on Dead Oceans Records.
A few weeks back, Gulfer vocalist Joe Therrieault could be found hanging out in an apartment committing a “Heat Wave” (and all the people from that moment) to memory. The video for “Nature Kids”, the latest preview from the Montreal indie-punk band’s forthcoming eponymous effort, shows how those eternal summer feelings catching up with us here in autumntime weren’t just a fluke happening. It’s a source of energy that powers through the celebration rock riffs and puts Therrieault’s youth and the faces from it behind words he didn’t have back then. “Sun comes up when you’re around / Superstitious when we walk and I don’t wanna talk about it,” he sings.
William Mazzoleni directed its video – A sunlit glint in the forest filled with colour bombs and skateboarders from the Blacklisted brand.
“Nature Kids” is taken from Gulfer’s upcoming self-titled record, out on Topshelf Records and Royal Mountain Records on October 16th, 2020.
The one and only Laura Jane Grace (Against Me! Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers) has signed with us and announced her incredible new solo record “Stay Alive” streaming everywhere right now!
There’s so much we want to tell you about the record, but listen now and read what Laura herself has to say…
A short note from Laura Jane…“Hi, my name is Laura Jane Grace. This is my album. This album is about staying alive. Stay alive. Don’t die. Work hard. Fight back.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Laura Jane Grace had a panic attack, quit smoking weed, and decided to put out a record. Thursday, she dropped Stay Alive with little warning or preamble — a raw, unedited missive from lockdown.
“I just wanted to make a record and I wanted to make a record that was the antithesis of a Zoom call,” she says. “I wanted to record all analogue. I didn’t want to make any edits. I wanted to make something that matters from this period of time because all that shit like livestreams … I don’t mean to bash them, but they don’t create anything lasting, you know?”
This album is an entirely analogue recording. No computers were involved in the making of this album. These recordings were not edited together, these songs are documented performances. This album was written and recorded in Chicago, Illinois. I recorded this album with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio on the two days after the full moon of July 5th, 2020. The album was mixed in another two days time. Steve and I were the only two people in the studio. We both wore face masks and stayed 6 feet apart at all times. I only took my face mask off while singing. Please wear a face mask.
There are songs on this album about haunted swimming pools and burning churches. There are songs about mountains. There are songs about astral seas and dry lakes. There are songs about drinking espressos and eating croissants at the Bora Bora beach club in Marbella, Spain. There are songs about dirty rivers that smell like pee in Glasgow, Scotland. There are songs about Nelson Algren’s Neon Jungle and Simone de Beauvoir’s Mandarines. There are songs about petrified polymorphs and blood and thunder and LSD and laying on the grave of the Marchesa Luisa Casati while day dreaming of fabulous parties thrown 100 years ago and how the world has fallen apart before and how it is falling apart now and how if we’re lucky it will fall apart again someday long from now too. There are songs about all of that and more but really this record is about staying alive. Stay alive. Don’t die. Thank you for listening to my record. –LJG
Grace worked feverishly with Albini on the record; mostly masked, the two never saw each other’s faces. The producer’s reluctance to try too many takes suited Grace fine since she didn’t want anything to sound too over-cooked. The result is a fast-paced 14-song record with the fist-pumping old-school bravado of Against Me! (“So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Fuck Off”) mixed with almost painfully beautiful imagery (“The Swimming Pool Song,” in which Grace describes herself as a haunted pool).
Laura Jane Grace knocks it out of the park with this unexpected solo effort, in a time which we need artists like her. Even though I’ve been listening to her music for years I still find something refreshing in it, such as the track “Ice Cream Song” which has a twing of modern broadway, as well as the demo aesthetic of midi drums and intriguing vocal mastering on “So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, fuck off”. A definitive quarantine classic!
PS: this may technically be my first proper solo record but I can’t even tell anymore PSS: if at any point you refer to this album as an “acoustic album” my 6 string strumming ghost will haunt 10 generations of your family every night of their lives with bedroom busking from 11PM to 6AM 🙂 ”
As you’re frantically hitting that link, be sure to pre-order your physical copy on a limited UK/EU Starburst (Black/Blue/Purple) vinyl variant as well as black LP/CD and an exclusive t-shirt too.
Laura Jane Grace’s new album, Stay Alive, is available December 11th, 2020.
Shoegaze newbies Slow Pulp from Madison, Wisconsin The band are Emily Massey (vocals/guitar), Alexander Leeds (bass), Theodore Mathews (drums), and Henry Stoehr (guitar) – are gearing up to release their self-produced debut album, and have so far shared three standout singles in “At It Again”, “Idaho”, and last month’s “Falling Apart” .
This week they are sharing one more single from the upcoming record prior to its release, the soft and shimmering “Montana”.
Emily Massey says of the track:
“This song is about moving beyond defining myself in terms of my mental health. I’ve been working through this over the last couple of years and this song is a reflection of this process and where I am now. “Montana” was the first song we finished recording for the album. Henry’s early demo was kind of heavy and distorted, and when we went to play it together for the first time, it came out a lot slower and cleaner. Our friend Willie Christianson wrote and recorded the slide guitar and harmonica parts.”
A testament to hard-fought personal growth, “Moveys” is a remarkable debut album made in remarkable times, as Slow Pulp powered through health challenges, personal upheaval, and a pandemic. The songs on Moveys took shape while on tour with Alex G in 2019, after the band scrapped an album’s-worth of material following Massey’s diagnosis with Lyme disease and chronic Mono. The obstacles only continued from there, as Massey’s parents were soon after in a severe car crash…one week before COVID-19 shut the country down. Full of blistering energy and emotional catharsis, this compelling 10-track collection highlights the band’s resourcefulness and resilience to come together during unthinkable time.
“Montana” is taken from ‘Moveys’ – out October 09th on Winspear Recordings: Slide guitar and harmonica by Willie Christianson
Sadie Dupuis has had a hand in almost every creative aspect of the music industry—between playing in her indie rock band Speedy Ortiz, collaborating with Lizzo, running Wax Nine Records and combining music with advocacy, she’s done it all. Now, Dupuis is back with her first solo album since 2016’s Slugger under the moniker Sad13. The writing process for Dupuis’ new album Haunted Painting started after she witnessed an apparition at a Seattle art gallery, but she dives into ideas larger than her own haunting experiences. “What was it like to come of age in such a cruel place?” Dupuis sings on “The Crow.” The album leans on a loose horror theme, between the vampiric video for early single “Oops….!” and Dupuis presenting as a self-proclaimed “frontdemon.” Despite the concept, lyrics like those on “The Crow” feel aware of their place at this moment amid a tense political climate and months spent in pandemic isolation.
Directed & everything else by Elle Schneider Styled remotely by Lindsey Hartman Shot at Silver Sands Motel, Greenport, NY. Special thanks to Terry Keefe. “Ghost (of a Good Time)” from HauntedPainting, out September 25th, 2020
Palace Winter are from Copenhagen, Denmark, What they say? Dissonance is exactly what comes to mind when imagining the synthesizer pioneers breaking out in Townes van Zandt tunes, but for Palace Winter — perennial experts in genre alchemy — prove us wrong again. Instead, ‘The Deeper End (feat. Jason Lytle)’ has the same driving-through-the-desert-on-a-sunny-day feeling as many country-folk classics, despite the unusual juxtaposition.
“Think Kraftwerk playing a classic country song” says Carl Coleman (one half of Palace Winter alongside Casper Hesselager)
Why we love it? ‘The Deeper End’ is about a bad trip Carl Coleman experienced at some strange house party he went to with his sister but with its central refrain of “But you didn’t think that anyone could take it all away, And you didn’t think that you’d become the one you are today” he could equally be reflecting upon the current zeitgeist. Apparently this is the sound of throttled anxiety, skeletons in the closet, and psychedelic reckoning with cognitive dissonance for Palace Winter’s lead singer.
Palace Winter — perennial experts in genre alchemy — prove us wrong again. Instead, “The Deeper End (feat. Jason Lytle)” has the same driving-through-the-desert-on-a-sunny-day feeling as many country-folk classics, despite the unusual juxtaposition. Contributing a verse of his acclaimed vocals is Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle, perhaps playing the voice of reason to Coleman’s stark mycelial realizations. “There’s nothing more than this, I hate to let you know” he sings, continuing with more harsh truths and trippy pieces of advice. “Another you is waiting at the deeper end.”
‘The Deeper End’ is propelled along some dusty country road by the energy of Casper Hesselager’s church organ synth theme and the song’s gathering sense of dread is only leavened by the optimism afforded by Grandaddy’s lead singer Jason Lytle’s vocal interjection. ‘The Deeper End’ captures shadows and light to perfection.
The Danish/Australian duo Palace Winter share new single for “The Deeper End” ft. Jason Lytle. New album ‘… Keep Dreaming Buddy’ on 23rd October on Tambourhinoceros.
As long ago as couple years ago, the idiosyncratic UK four-piece Goat Girl released their promising self-titled debut album, and today they’re announcing its follow-up, which will be released next year. They once again teamed up with producer Dan Carey for the album, which is being introduced with lead single “Sad Cowboy,” which starts out as synthy and gliding and builds to something more rickety and off-kilter. “Sad Cowboy centres around the idea of losing a grip on reality and how often this can happen,” the band’s Clottie Cream” said in a statement. “When you’re within a world that constantly makes you feel as though your living out a really bad dream, disillusionment is inevitable.”
The South London outfit return with a brand new single, About the album as a whole, Rough Trade notes that it sees the group “veer away from the confrontational lyricism of their debut and indicates Goat Girl’s maturing perspectives in discussing the world’s injustices and social prejudices, using the music to explore global, humanitarian, environmental and mindful wellbeing.”
Official video by Goat Girl performing ‘Sad Cowboy’ – taken from forthcoming album ‘On All Fours’ the album (out 29th Jan 2021) via Rough Trade Records.
Mountain Man the trio of Amelia Meath, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, and Molly Sarlé—releases Mountain Man“Sings Simple Gifts”, the latest in its series of cover singles, featuring its version of the 1848 Shaker hymn, today. The digital single follows previous editions in the Mountain Man“Sings” series, which also includes the band’s versions of Kacey Musgraves’ “Slow Burn,”Wilco’s “You and I,” John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” and the Irving Berlin holiday classic “White Christmas.” Last month, Nonesuch released Mountain Man’s live album, Look at Me Don’t Look at Me, recorded in November 2018 at Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle.
“‘Simple Gifts’ is one of those incredible songs that transforms you while you sing it,” says the trio. “It’s like an incantation, and it was a joy to record.”
Our version of the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts” is out everywhere today. “Simple Gifts” is one of those incredible songs that transforms you while you sing it. It’s like an incantation, and it was a joy to record.
The Fat Angel Sings 