The Killers’ new album “Imploding The Mirage” comes out next week (8/21) via Island, and here’s another single from it. Like a few of the previous singles, it finds them churning out arena-sized heartland rock and sounding more refreshed than they have in years.
Kicking off like it’s a Crack Cloud tune, The Killers soon move into some big boy heartland rock by way of proper rock drum breakdown. Drama, drama, drama! Imploding The Mirage looks set to be a real corker for the heatwave, what with three juicy singles already out in the open. The Killers continue to walk the path towards a new kind of Fleetwood Mac-inspired pop with a brand new single ‘Dying Breed’. It’s the last taste of Imploding The Mirage, which arrives next week.
The Killers first unveiled plans for their new album back in March with the soaring ‘Caution’ – a summertime banger charged with a proper Lindsey Buckingham riff. Since then, they’ve also shared ‘My Own Soul’s Warning’.
2020 Island Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc. Released on: 2020-08-14
Bass, Guitar, Piano, Harmonica, Acoustic Guitar: Jonathan Rado
Synthesizer: Brandon Flowers
Drums: Ronnie Vannucci
Guitar: Mark Stoermer
First 200 lps are hand numbered, first come, first served.
Though their music has often been tied to the traditions of americana and american roots music, holy motors were formed in Tallinn, Estonia in 2013, when founding member Lauri Raus (songwriter and one of the band’s three guitarists) recruited Eliann Tulve, who was just 16 at the time, to join the band as songwriter and lead vocalist. With Tulve’s gorgeously foreboding vocals serving as a ballast for the guitar section’s “infinity-pool-style shimmer” the band quickly became as un-ignorable as they were inscrutable, rising from the ranks of eager supporting act (for low, at SXSW) to sought after headliner (at NYC underground-meets-above-ground mainstay berlin) in just a matter of days during their first unofficial tour of the us in 2018.
That same year marked the release of their critically acclaimed debut LP, slow sundown, on New York City’s equally enigmatic Wharf Cat Records, an album that garnered praise and airplay not just in the band’s native Estonia (where it won Tallinn’s music week award and a nomination for debut album of the year by the Estoniain music awards), but also via a battery of publications west of the baltic, including stereogum (album of the week), bandcamp (album of the day), and the uk’s diy mag . All this momentum went so far as to capture the attention of one of the band’s very own idols, Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, who approached them after seeing a live performance in Berlin and would go on to produce a handful of tracks for the band in 2019 as well as join them for their set at Switzerland’s festival nox orae during a summer itinerary dotted with european music festivals.
But rather than being blunted and worn down by the tumultuous forces of success, Holy Motors’ incongruence has instead grown all the more prevalent and endearing. They remain musicians from an ex-soviet country producing music that has been described as “cowboy dream-pop with a dark side,”, “shoegaze that sounds like the old west” , and like “a twang-filled soundtrack to… Cowboy melancholy”. The resulting mystique is an inalienable part of the band’s dna, stemming from the shared infatuation with the American west that the members developed waiting out Estonia’s long, grim winters with the warm company of American western films (Badlands and Paris, Texas amongst their favourites) and their instruments. What began as an innocent fascination evolved into a sincere embodiment of that dreamy, melancholy cowboy aura, both in their music and persona as a band.
Now, at 22 years old, Eliann Tulve resembles Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval, reincarnated as an Estonian cowgirl. She is enigmatic as ever but stands more firmly alongside co-songwriter Lauri Raus, the solidification of their roles perhaps accounting for the more hopeful turn their song writing has taken of late. Their new album “Horse”, which is due out on Wharf Cat Records on October 16th, finds the band acknowledging the Americana and rockabilly strands of their musical dna without sacrificing any of the otherworldly mystique that keeps them from neatly conforming to the shoegaze and dreampop labels often applied to their music.
From the album’s opening moments, songs like “Country Church,” with its major key and classic rhythm and blues guitarline, and “Midnight Cowboy,” which sounds like a lost Buddy Holly 45 played at 33 rpm, make it clear that Horse — even if it may not accomplish the impossible task of demystifying this band of ex-soviet cowboys — will at least show you that there’s more to them than the near-impenetrable darkness of their work to date may suggest. Although tracks like “Trouble” and “Endless Night” gravitate toward the ethereal production and existential subject matter of prior releases, repeat listens reveal complex compositions and an empathy that is central to this eight-song album.
As a whole, Horse stands as a warmer, more human counterpoint to 2018’s celestial slow sundown, and showcases Holy Motors as a hypnotic force that draws listeners in and leaves them wanting more. This effect, paired with their ability to write lyrics and music that resonate with a deeply relatable feeling of isolation, has resulted in an album built to connect with people from devoted shoegaze and western psychedelia fanatics to dreamer cowboys, driving through wide open country roads under the stars.
“Endless Night” is from the album ‘Horse’ out on 10/16.
Chicago’s Slow Pulp make an excellent early name for themselves this afternoon with their latest single ‘Falling Apart’. Now in their third year, the outfit are gearing up for the release of their debut album “Moveys”.
Fresh and cooling to the brain and body during one of the hottest weeks of the year, ‘Falling Apart’ abounds with soft touch guitars and the vaguest hint of violin.
It’s all pulled together by the relaxing vocal of Emily Massey: The wellworn calm that emanates from the tune is remarkable considering that in the past two years, Massey has struggled with Lyme’s disease and chronic Mono, then dealt with her parents being in a severe car crash – all in the global landscape of a pandemic.
“It became easier to stay numb, and create a facade that I was doing ok, than it was to release any type of healthy emotion for a long time. Luckily I did allow myself to have a full on breakdown induced by a stubbed toe and confusion over taxes, sometimes it’s the littlest things that finally get you” she said.
“Why don’t you go back to falling apart? You were so good at that,” Emily Massey of the Chicago-based band Slow Pulp sings. (The group will release its debut album, “Moveys,” on October. 9th.) The atmosphere around her — lush acoustic guitar, lightly brushed percussion and the lulling violin of frequent Alex G collaborator Molly Gemer
“Falling Apart” is taken from ‘Moveys’ – out Oct 09 on Winspear:
“Sun Racket’ is the brand new album from legendary Boston trio Throwing Muses, consisting of Kristin Hersh, David Narcizo and Bernard Georges.
The follow up to 2013’s ‘Purgatory/Paradise’ is an outpouring of modal guitars, reverbed shapes, echoey drums and driving bass set behind Kristin Hersh’s well-thumbed notebook of storylines. a ten-song opus of suitably wrought tales set against a wall of sound that’s at once calm and ethereal before building into glorious cacophonous crescendos. when Throwing Muses wrote their last album, they were shattered. Pieces were coming and going, elements repeating and charging the whole. “it sounded beautiful jumping around like that”. two-minute songs reappearing as twisted instrumentals or another song’s bridge.
They mimicked the effect live which kept them on their toes. whatever was happening was already over in other words. “Sun Racket’ is the opposite. it refused to do anything but sit still. it says, “sit here and deal”. “all it asked of us was to comingle two completely disparate sonic vocabularies: one heavy noise, the other delicate music box. turns out we didn’t have to do much. “Sun Racket’ knew what it was doing and pushed us aside, which is always best. after thirty years of playing together, we trust each other implicitly but we trust the music more” – Kristin Hersh and so, they continue. business unusual. “a ground-breaking band who changed the face of alternative music rather than follow the rule book.” Mxdwn “pioneers of the 80s/early 90s college rock sound” pitchfork “one of America’s finest guitar bands”..
Taken from the new album ‘Sun Racket’, out on Fire Records 4th September 2020.
The War On Drugs have remixed The Rolling Stones’ recently unearthed 1974 Jimmy Page collaboration “Scarlet,”. The track is a previously unreleased 1974 track featuring Jimmy Page that will feature on the upcoming deluxe reissue of Goats Head Soup.
Says The War On Drugs’ Adam Granduciel: “I just re-imagined the song as if I had Mick, Keith and Jimmy in the room with me. After messing with my Linn Drum for a bit, the song fell into this double time thing and I just went with it. I called my friend and bandmate, Dave Hartley, to fill out the bass on the new groove. Then I figured if I had Jimmy Page in the room I’d probably ask him to plug into my favourite rack flanger so that’s what I did. My friend Anthony LaMarca added some last minute percussion. I’m so honoured to have gotten to work on this especially since ‘Angie’ was probably the first ‘rock’ song that I asked to be played on repeat when I was really young. Hope you enjoy it!”
Welcome to Goats Head Soup 2020 — coming September 4th & featuring unheard tracks, demos, outtakes, live performances & more. You can listen to one of three unheard tracks – and pre-order the album across multiple formats, including expansive 4LP & 4CD boxsets. This classic album has been restored to its full glory with a new stereo album mix, sourced from the original session files:
Oceanator aka Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter/guitarist Elise Okusami, is releasing her debut album, “Things I Never Said”, on August 28th via her own Plastic Miracles label. She has shared a new song from it, “Heartbeat,” which is about the anxiety that comes from having a crush on someone.
Okusami had this to say about “Heartbeat” in a press release: “This song is loosely about having a crush, and both the grounding feeling and the anxiety that feeling brings. We recorded it all together like a live performance, and then I went back and added the lead guitars and the vocals. Guitar and vocals by me, bass Eva Lawitts (they), drums Aaron Silberstein (he).
Things I Never Said includes“A Crack in the World,”. Then we loved the album’s next single, the more synth-poppy “I Would Find You,”. Things I Never Said was originally due to come out on Tiny Engines, but then that label pretty much imploded after it was revealed that it was having difficulty making royalty payments to its artists, so Okusami is putting out the album on her own label instead. Although the British label Big Scary Monsters has just announced that they have signed Oceanator and will be releasing the album in the UK.
Jonsi and Liz Fraser…two great voices that sound great together. Jonsi of Iceland’s Sigur Rós is releasing his first solo album in 10 years, “Shiver”, on October 2nd via Krunk Records. Early this morning he shared another song from it, “Cannibal,” which features the unmistakable guest vocals of Elizabeth Fraser (formerly of Cocteau Twins). Jónsi co-directed the video with actor/director Giovanni Ribisi. Jónsi had this to say about the song in a press release: “When Sigur Rós was starting, we were always compared to Cocteau Twins and I really didn’t like that. I hated being compared to anybody. Then I got really into Cocteau Twins like two or three years ago. They’re so good. I now understood the comparison .
“Shiver” includes “Exhale,” a new song Jónsi shared in April via a video for the track he co-directed with Ribisi. When the album was announced, he shared another new song from it, “Swill,” via a Barnaby Roper-directed video for the track. Shiver also features guest vocals from Robyn and was co-produced by A. G. Cook (of PC Music).
It’s been 10 years since Jónsi’s last solo album, 2010’s debut solo album Go. Since then he’s kept busy, including contributing songs to the How to Train Your Dragon films and teaming up with Stockholm-based visual artist/electro-acoustic composer Carl Michael von Hausswolff as Dark Morph (the ambient project released a second album in May). Sigur Rós has also released two albums in that period, 2012’s Valtari and 2013’s Kveikur.
Rising UK-based singer-songwriter Holly Humberstone’s spellbinding debut EP is nothing short of pure perfection. “Falling Asleep At The Wheel” continues to prove the singers undeniable talent and skilful song writing abilities. At just 20 years old, Humberstone is carving her own path on her debut release.
Opening with her debut single Deep End, Humberstone opens up about her sisters challenges with depression and her undeniable commitment to being a supportive figure within her life. The honest and emotional track pairs warm guitar chords with a strikingly clear vocal performance. On the ethereal title track, Falling Asleep At The Wheel, navigates a one sided relationship. The song opens with upbeat piano chords before moving into haunting synth sounds over warped handclaps. Soul-baring and candid, ‘Falling Asleep At The Wheel’ is a deeply affecting collection of songs that solely document Humberstone’s own personal fears and emotions, but the power and grace of her sentiments are sure to resonate universally.
I wrote this song a while ago whilst still unsure of who I wanted to be and where I wanted to head musically. Writing this song was probably the first time I felt like I knew who I was within the music I was making. The track is about losing momentum and feeling like your emotions will slowly destroy the relationship you’re in and you altogether. I think the dark, wonky sonics define who I am musically, which is why Falling Asleep At The Wheel is such a milestone track for me, and has taught me so much about myself as a musician. We created the song at the house I grew up in, which is very old and falling apart, in the middle of the countryside. You can almost hear the weird sounds of the house within the track. It’s where I feel the most me and love that this is all coming from that one place.
Falling Asleep At The Wheel is a brilliant debut release. Comparable to music from Lorde and Billie Eilish, Humberstone exhibits a maturity that many of her pop predecessors worked away at for years before achieving. The emotional clarity paired with exciting and stirring sentimental production leaves you wanting more, but the honest and conversational six tracks are more than enough for the moment. Each listen brings new emotions, discovering lyrics you may have missed that hit you directly. Humberstone has exhibited poise and grace on her debut EP, creating an intimate atmosphere to share her innermost thoughts.
Dublin’s indie-rock band Pillow Queens have released another track from their upcoming album, “In Waiting”. Their new single Holy Show explores feelings of remorse when reflecting on past situations.
On the track, the band share: “‘Holy Show’ is a song that relays the feeling of regret and insecurity about past words spoken and actions taken, even when they’re ultimately meaningless. The song tries to articulate the heavy burden of being the only person who is concerned about the minute details of how you present yourself to the world.”
Pillow Queens continue their collaboration with director Kate Dolan, who previously directed Handsome Wife and Gay Girls. Of the project, Dolan shared: “Myself and the girls are all queer so when they asked me to direct something for ‘Holy Show’ we all felt it was time that we made a video that had some positive queer representation. There are often depictions of queer women in the media that really upset me. We are often observed through a male gaze by male directors. They are often hyper sexualised. We wanted to create something that really captured the joyful intimacy between queer women through a female gaze.”
With their Australian fanbase growing with each release, the bands debut album is set for release worldwide on September 25th. After four years of perfecting their craft and creating music, the album is a representation of the band members lives. The record is set to be an exploration of love, particularly self-love and queer-love. However, to do so, the record will also explore family, spirituality and politics.
The band formed in 2016 and released their debut EP, Calm Girls. The release captured the attention of Steve Lamacq who called the four piece “deceptively infectious, with sharp hooks and sharp nails”. Since then, they released their follow up EP, State of the State, and have played festivals across Europe.
There are three versions of the Jefferson Airplane’s debut LP, each with a dedicated mono and stereo mix. The “first” (and rarest) version is the 12-track uncensored version, which was originally released on August 15th, 1966. This version was quickly recalled and the track “Runnin’ Round This World” deleted off side 1 due to the line “the nights I’ve spent with you have been fantastic trips”. Very few of these original copies have survived, and they usually sell for an awful lot of money.
Jefferson Airplane “Takes Off” is the debut studio album by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in August 1966 as RCA Victor LSP-3584 (stereo) and LPM-3584 (mono). The personnel differs from the later “classic” line up: Signe Toly Anderson was iniatally the female vocalist and Skip Spence played drums. But both soon left the group—Spence in May 1966, Anderson in October and were replaced by Spencer Dryden and Grace Slick, respectively.
RCA executives found some of the lyrics too sexually suggestive. They had the band change the lyrics in “Let Me In” from “I gotta get in, you know where” to “You shut your door, now it ain’t fair”, and “Don’t tell me you want money” to “Don’t tell me it’s so funny”. In “Run Around” they had the end of the line “Blinded by colours come flashing from flowers that sway as you lay under me” altered to “…that sway as you stay here by me”. With “Runnin’ ‘Round This World” the executives insisted that “trips” in the line “The nights I’ve spent with you have been fantastic trips” referred to taking LSD, though the band insisted it was merely common slang. Even replacing the word “trips” with a guitar arpeggio did not placate RCA’s concerns with the line’s sexual connotations and refused its inclusion on the album, and the recording remained unreleased for the next eight years.
The “second” version to appear of this album happens to be exactly the same as the first version minus “Runnin’ Round This World”. However, these copies were also soon recalled, and two tracks replaced for the “Third”, final, and most commonly found version of the LP. The two tracks “Let Me In” (with lines “Oh let me in, I wanna be there/I gotta get in you know where” and “Don’t tell me you want money”) and “Run Around” (having “… that sway as you lay under me”) were re-recorded with censored lyrics.
The ”first” US pressing of the debut by Jefferson Airplane has three versions, released in both mono and stereo, the first two of which are extremely rare: 1) Six tracks on side A, the sixth being ”Runnin’ Round This World”. This contains the original versions of both ”Let Me In” (with the lyric ”Don’t tell me you want money”) and ”Run Around” (with the lyric ”That sway as you lay under me”). The backcover has no caption ”RE” in the top right hand corner.
2) Five tracks on side A, ”Runnin’ Round This World” is deleted. Still, the original versions of ”Let Me In” and ”Run Around” are included. The backcover does have the ”RE” caption.
3) Five tracks on side A. The re-recorded versions of ”Let Me In” and ”Run Around” are included with the offensive lyrics altered. Backcover identical to 2).
This second version has also become somewhat uncommon, and is discernible from the third version only by the etched matrix numbers or by listening to the record itself. Only the “third version” has been fully reissued on CD in both mixes, although a couple mediocre-sounding vinyl-sourced tracks appeared on the most recent remaster.
This transfer is from one of the 2nd version LPs (-12S / -3S) . I definitely prefer this original version, if for no other reason than it is clearly what the band intended to be released before they were censored by RCA Victor.
The album’s release drew little press attention at a time when mainstream newspapers did not normally cover rock releases and the rock press was yet in its infancy. Crawdaddy! magazine highlighted the album on the cover of its January 1967 issue, which included a three-page review by the magazine’s assistant editor, Tim Jurgens, who called the album “faulted” yet “the most important album of American rock” of 1966.
The Band:
Marty Balin – vocals, rhythm guitar
Signe Toly Anderson – vocals, percussion
Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar
Paul Kantner – rhythm guitar, vocals
Jack Casady – bass guitar
Skip Spence – drums
Spencer Dryden – drums (on “Go to Her,” alternate version of “And I Like It,” and alternate version of “Chauffeur Blues”)
