The Waterboys, one of the most creative, loved and literate bands of the last four decades, return this summer with their 14th studio album “Good Luck, Seeker” – coming just over one year after the release of the critically acclaimed album ‘Where The Action Is’. The first track to go live is the seven-minute mash-up manifesto ‘My Wanderings In The Weary Land’.
Is it psychedelic soul? Is it trance? Is it punk? Whatever it is, it’s the first taste of Good Luck, Seeker, which will be released on August 21st via Cooking Vinyl.
‘My Wanderings in the Weary Land’ is taken from the brand new album ‘Good Luck, Seeker’
Fuzz, the psych-rock project of Ty Segall, guitarist Charles Moothart, and bassist Chad Ubovich, have announced their first album in five years. Entitled suprisingly III, the eight-track affair is due out 23rd October through In The Red records.
“III” both active and reactive. Charles Moothart, Ty Segall and Chad Ubovich are Fuzz. Fuzz is three. and III has returned. songs for all, and music for one. III was recorded and mixed at united recording under the sonic lordship of Steve Albini. Keeping the focus on the live sounds of the band, the use of overdubs and studio tricks were kept to a minimum. Albini’s mastery in capturing sound gave the trio the ability to focus entirely on the playing while knowing the natural sounds would land. it takes the essential ingredients of “guitar-based music” and “rock and roll power trio” and puts them right out on the chopping block. it was a much more honest approach for the band. Three humans getting primitive, staying primitive. the goal was never to reinvent the wheel. sometimes it’s just about seeing how long one can hold on before getting thrown off. three points reflected in three mirrors; a pyramid of sonic destruction and psychic creation. Nothing people feed the roots while the freaks fly free in the treetops—blind to vines, eyes closed, stuck in spit, triumphing the returning of beginnings and ends returning while beginning to see the time collapse. Love is the only way to annihilate hate, and sketchy freaks live to bleed. all shades of colour, truth and lies,III is the pillar of unity and singularity. all is nothing, and only nothing can generate everything. log out, drop thought, turn up.
Speaking on Returning in a statement, Fuzz described the song as “an auditory meditation on the power of one and the different perspectives of one”, relating the song to the band’s long-awaited return.
“Whether it is the singular person looking inward, or a group of people coming together as a single unit. As the opening track of the record, it serves as a sort of mission statement or mantra for the album. Not only is it an echo of the return of Fuzz, but also a broader return to form – raw and empowered through vulnerability. In order to maintain a focus on the Fuzz’s live sound, Albini encouraged a minimum in overdubs and studio trickery.
This isn’t the first time that Segall and Albini have crossed paths, as the engineer also recorded Segall’s 2017 self-titled record. From the upcoming album “III”. Out 10/23/20 on In The Red Records. The third album the collaborative limbs of Ty Segall, Charles Moothart and Chad Ubovich as Fuzz. Strap in. To celebrate this ferocious release, we have produced a very limited, special edition on transparent green vinyl that includes a numbered A3 risograph poster, a custom petrol eggshell Fuzz sticker and guitar pick.
III by FUZZ is available for pre-order now through intheredrecords.com The trio have supplied a first taste of their latest album with the release of the single Returning .
We all have our idea of what would constitute a dream concert, and if you were a British teen in 1965 or an adult who happens to know where to find a good time machine—yours might go something like this: First, you’d book the Rolling Stones as one of your opening acts, performing some rhythm and blues favorites like Otis Redding’s “Pain in My Heart” and Solomon Burke’s “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”
For the second half of your fantasy concert, you’d get serious, bringing on the heavyweights: theSearchers, Them (featuring that dynamic singer Van Morrison, and the Animals, along with a couple of the best solo artists the U.K. has to offer: Dusty Springfield and the young folk singer from Scotland, called Donovan. And, of course, the Beatles, singing some of their recent hits like “I Feel Fine” and “Ticket to Ride” before closing out their five-song set with Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally.” And then you’d have the Kinks follow them, singing “You Really Got Me”
Well, if you were at London’s Wembley Empire Pool on April 11th, 1965, you could have witnessed that very concert, filled out with other current faves like Cilla Black, Freddie and the Dreamers , folk-rockers the Seekers , Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, and more.
Each year, beginning in 1953, the British music weekly NME (New Musical Express) polled its readers on the best of the year. The winners were then invited to perform for the people and, at the height of the British Invasion, that meant the Beatles, Stones, Animals, Kinks, etc. You might think that a concert featuring so many future classic rock acts would last for a week, but in those days it was all about running on stage, playing a few hits and beating a hasty retreat. The entire show—presented here in black and white, of course—took about two hours from start to finish.
Also included on the night live performances of the Moody Blues’ “Go Now,” Herman’s Hermits’ “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” the Stones’ “The Last Time,” Donovan’s “Catch the Wind” and Them’s “Here Comes the Night.”
You’d also invite some of the currently happening bands like the Moody Blues (who begin the concert), the soulful Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames and Herman’s Hermits.
The NME called it “the greatest pop show in the world” and who are we to argue. The 3 ½ hour show was witnessed by 10,000 fans at Wembley’s Empire Pool who saw The Animals, The Bachelors, Cilla Black, Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames, Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders, Freddie & The Dreamers, Herman’s Hermits, The Ivy League, Tom Jones, The Kinks, The Moody Blues,The Rockin’ Berries, The Rolling Stones, The Searchers, The Seekers, Sounds Incorporated, Dusty Springfield, Them & Twinkle.
The Beatles performed just five songs.
Tracklisting: SIDE ONE
1. I Feel Fine
2. She’s A Woman SIDE TWO
1. Baby’s In Black
2. Ticket To Ride
3. Long Tall Sally
In 1965 The Rolling Stones picked up NME awards for Best New Group, Best British R’n’B Group and Best New Disc Or TV Singer. They celebrated with a gig at the Wembley Empire Pool where their live prowess could clearly be heard, despite the screams of 10,000 highly-energized fans. “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love” was performed at a slower pace than usual and formed a medley with “Pain In My Heart. Around and Around” featured a pair of densely interwoven guitars whilst “The Last Time” benefited from distinctive Keith Richards on backing vocals.
Tracklisting: SIDE ONE
1 Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
2 Pain In My Heart SIDE TWO
1 Around And Around
2 The Last Time
The Experience’s first three releases were 45s on Track Records, the independent label owned by The Who managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp. All three reached the top ten of the UK pop charts in early 1967: “Hey Joe / Stone Free” made #6 in January, “Purple Haze” #3 in March and “The Wind Cries Mary” #6 in May. Naturally, their TV appearances at this time were largely vehicles for promoting these records but the most unusual broadcast we feature here is a studio session recorded for the experimental Dutch TV show Hoepla, where the band was encouraged to perform extended versions of their songs. Sound quality ranges from excellent (Dutch, French TV) to acceptable (UK TV). This album shows us just how good they sounded as they transition from psychedelic pop group to stadium rock band.
Side One
1 Foxy Lady
2 Purple Haze
3 Purple Haze
4 Wild Thing
5 The Wind Cries Mary
6 Hey Joe
Side Two
1 Hey Joe
2 Stone Free
3 Wild Thing
4 Stone Free
5 Like a Rolling Stone
6 Purple Haze
Ultravox’s 1980 album ‘Vienna’ album is reissued for its 40th anniversary as a massive 5CD+DVD box set with plenty of unreleased material and Steven Wilson 5.1 and stereo mixes! Vinyl formats also available Ultravox‘s 1980 album ’s Vienna album is to be reissued for its 40th anniversary as an extensive 5CD+DVD box set that includes a plethora of unreleased material and Steven Wilson stereo and 5.1 mixes. Vinyl formats also available. The album contains 4 UK Top 40 singles; All Stood Still, Passing Strangers and Sleepwalk (which is being issued on 12” for the first time as part of Record Store Day 2020) and the title track ‘Vienna’ which reached No.2 in the UK and Top 10 in seven countries around the world. The single went on to sell over half a million copies in the UK.
Produced by Conny Plank, the album was the band’s first for Chrysalis and the first to feature Midge Ure on lead vocals. It originally peaked at number three in the UK album chart, with its title track famously thwarted from reaching the top of the singles chart by that song by Joe Dolce. ‘All Stood Still’, the final of four singles followed ‘Vienna’ into the top ten in June 1981.
The six-disc box set features 66 tracks, 44 of which are previously unreleased recordings or mixes. It comprises the following
CD 1 – Original 1980 album (newly mastered from production tapes)
CD 2 – New Steven Wilson stereo mix of album and B-sides
CD 3 – A-sides, B-sides, 12-inch mixes and live tracks
CD 4 – Cassette rehearsals
CD 5 – Live from St. Albans 1980 (newly mixed)
DVD – 5.1 Steven Wilson mix (+ 24/96 hi-res stereo of new mixes) + B-sides. Also hi-res stereo of original album and original mixes of B-sides!
This 5CD+DVD comes packaged in a 12″ x 12″ rigid slipcase and includes a 20-page large format booklet featuring notes from the band, unseen photos from Midge Ure’s and Chris Cross’ personal collection, four A4 art prints.
There is also a half-speed mastered 2LP vinyl set that features the original album on the first LP and a bonus LP that includes a pick ‘n’ mix selection of single versions, B-sides and live cuts. It also features a US promo edit of ‘Vienna’, never commercially released, which is exclusive to this vinyl (i.e. not on the CD box).
The official Ultravox store also features an exclusive 4LP clear vinyl box set, which is the 2LP package plus ‘Live from St. Albans’ across two further LPs.
Vienna is reissued across all formats on 9th October 2020. The 5CD+DVD box and the 2LP are available via the SDE shop using this link or the buttons below. Other purchasing options in the widgets.
Future Islands‘ romantic synth sound scales new heights with “On the Water”, the Baltimore trio’s most ambitious and fully realized statement yet. Built around a song cycle exploring love, loss, and memory, their latest album finds the band continuing to deliver pounding rhythms, swelling melodies, and undeniable hooks – but finding new ways to probe inner space and tug at hearts.
Convening in March 2011 in Elizabeth City, NC’s historic, waterfront Andrew S. Sanders House, vocalist Samuel T. Herring, bassist William Cashion, and keyboardist Gerrit Welmers lived together in a space that served as both studio and sleeping quarters. The band used this tranquil retreat to refine their most reflective and mature batch of songs to date, adding new material in the process.
What emerged is a lush yet visceral album about two parallel journeys–one physical and one psychological. “On the Water’s” narrator offers enough detail that their story feels personal, yet open enough that any listener can inhabit each twist and emotional pang as their own.
Travelling on foot, we seek something – an exorcism, an epiphany, an ending. Memories wash across us as in life: non-linear, linked by emotional resonance rather than conventional chronology. And so, the pain of letting go channeled by “The Great Fire” collides with a moment’s fleeting serenity in the Eno-esque “Open”; the triumphant rallying cry “Give Us the Wind, “ despite its confident declaration of individual strength, remains a mile away from final chapter “Tybee Island.” It is there the song cycle ends, and what is discovered in “Tybee Island” will be as different as the lives lived by each person who finds their way to this album.
On the Water may unearth aural memories as well. The mind may flash upon our first encounters with New Order’s “Ceremony,” David Bowie’s “Heroes,” or The Cure’s Disintegration, memories which, are continually reborn and re-imagined in the context of the here and now. And as the song-cycle’s narrator comes to terms with his own memories, his singular journey collapses into the collective experience of album-closer “Grease.” It is here that the “I” of the nine previous songs collapses into the “we” of Future Islands, now singing the literal journey of the people who came together by the ocean to deliver these songs into our ears. Far from just a narrative trope, the ocean played an integral role in On the Water’s creation. The bulk of the album was recorded with waves pounding sand mere feet away. The album opens and closes with field recordings made by the band on a nearby dock, and one pivotal track, “Tybee Island,” began with vocals recorded on the beach (subsequently fleshed out in the studio with additional instrumentation).
The ocean inhabits every note of these songs. On the Water is an addictive ride that demands repeat listens, eagerly awaiting the test of time. To produce these results, Future Islands fleshed out its sound with the additions of cello, violin, marimba, and field recordings. As with their 2010 breakthrough album In Evening Air, On the Water was produced by frequent collaborator Chester Endersby Gwazda, perhaps best known as producer of Dan Deacon’s Bromst. Noted guests include Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, who provides vocals on “The Great Fire,” and Double Dagger’s Denny Bowen on live drums and additional percussion.
For all its undeniable weight, On the Water is not a sullen concept album. Every track on the record works both as a contribution to the whole and as a stand-alone pleasure, evident in the insistent throbs, addictive melodies, and stirring vocals of tracks like “Close to None,” “Balance,” and first single “Before the Bridge.”
Make no mistake, On the Water is a record that aims to both break your heart and heal your wounds.
Pink Floyd “BBC 1967”. Performing on four different dates in 1967, the year they released their first album, “Piper At The Gates Of Dawn” (1967), this is Pink Floyd at its best, psychedelic and raw. Their performance in May of that year, for the program “The Look Of The Week”, was probably the group’s first live video recording and includes incredible versions of “Pow R. Toc H.” and “Astronomy Domine”. Two more recordings for the Top Gear show, which featured London’s underground hipster scene, and one for “Tomorrow’s World” complete this incredible collection from the initial Floyd, including great versions of “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”, ” Flaming” and “Vegetable Man “. Essential live recordings of Pink Floyd during its greatest era! LP with limited edition splashes. Beautiful record to have, the quality of the pressing is surprisingly good, 45 rpm.
The BBC Sessions 1967
Tracks:
Pow R. Toc H. 0:36
Astronomy Domine 3:57
The Gnome 2:11
Scarecrow 2:07
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun 3:32
Matilda Mother 3:22
Flaming 2:37
Reaction In G 0:36
Green Onions 0:35
Instrumental 1:11
Vegetable Man 3:17
Scream Thy Last Scream 3:39
Pow R. Toc H. 4:22
Jugband Blues 3:51
After taking 2019 by the scruff of the neck and making it their own with some great festival appearances, as well as a blistering trajectory in 2020, Sea Girls have come out all guns blazing with their emotionally charged, deeply personal, hook laden debut album “Open Up Your Head” – on Polydor. Featuring fourteen doses of memorable jagged guitar-pop brilliance, the LP was produced by Larry Hibbitt in London. It is no surprise that Sea Girls are confidently clear in who they are. This assertive stance on just what their style is, and what type of songs they are drawn toward bringing to vinyl, resulting in a collection of tracks that can’t help but draw an abundance of refreshed appreciation from fans and critics alike. Each time I’ve seen this band they just bring joy.
‘Transplant’ has been described as “the most Sea Girls song ever”, and it does follow the band’s established hit-song formula. The lyrics are brutal; Henry Camamile sings “your heart changed, mine stayed the same”, and the line can’t help but hit home for numerous fans listening along. The group effortlessly relate to their audience throughout the record, having spent years getting to know them with exciting and vibrant live sets.
We can weave together a rough story line, and there’s a humour in the description of two people being on the phone and unable to really hear each other. However, the comical situation becomes heartbreaking; the song is essentially a goodbye, and an ode to collapsing communications. A euphoric chorus greets us after the fierce build up, with vocals and guitars woven together in a howling few lines that truly do epitomize the band’s thunderous, almost-pop sound.
‘Closer’, ‘Call Me Out’, and ‘Violet’ are some of the pre-existing tracks that have made it on to the album track list, and slot in brilliantly with the new material. ‘Do You Really Know’ is the perfect summer anthem, with a boppy melody underlying slightly darker lyrics.
Though known primarily for indie-pop, ‘Lie To Me’ shows a Sea Girls experimenting slightly with style; it’s almost Western in the vocal style and clapping melodies underpinning them. “I cut my teeth on something that I shouldn’t eat” is one of their best lines yet, and leads in to the candid exclamation, “I’m a baby”. ‘Forever’ soon follows, as the product of year of tweaking and precise labour. Sharp, galvanizing guitars crescendo and beautifully compliment the huge vocal strength. Something about the song is just inextricably mammoth; there’s an immensity to it that many aim for, and not many reach.
Keen to also open up their tracks to gentler tones, the group have penned ‘You Over Anyone’; a ballad telling a universally relatable love story. It doesn’t quite live up to ‘Daisy Daisy’ – a soft track from their 2017 “Call Me Out” EP, but it is hard to imagine that much will.
Sea Girls, released the stunning new animated visual for their latest single, ‘All I Want To Hear You Say’, which is lifted from their forthcoming debut album ‘Open Up Your Head’, out on August 14th.
The animated video, directed by acclaimed Korean-Swedish duo Tjoff Koong Studios (Tezo Kyungdon Lee and Magnus Lenneskog), takes the viewer on an emotional rollercoaster.
“When I wrote this song I was trying to channel some emotional highs and lows of the likes of Kurt Cobain,” says lead singer Henry Camamile. “Full of visual adrenalin, it builds with rushes of excitement and lack of control. Someone build a rollercoaster through the city and we’ll get on it.”
The animated video, directed by acclaimed Korean-Swedish duo Tjoff Koong Studios (Tezo Kyungdon Lee and Magnus Lenneskog), takes the viewer on an emotional rollercoaster.
“When I wrote this song I was trying to channel some emotional highs and lows of the likes of Kurt Cobain,” says lead singer Henry Camamile. “Full of visual adrenalin, it builds with rushes of excitement and lack of control. Someone build a rollercoaster through the city and we’ll get on it.”
With tracks such as this, you forget that the core concept to the album is a traumatic head injury. The effervescent tunes catch in your own head, and skillfully glaze over the darkness that grounds much of the lyrical content. You dance along, joining in with the rose-coloured illusion of the songs themselves.
‘Shake’ and ‘Moving On’ also revert back to Sea Girls’ raucous roots, with the expected blazing chorus’ near enough begging you to see them live and sing along. The latter track in particular ends the album on a triumphant note; the message of acceptance and optimism towards a projected progress is glaringly forefront. Henry’s vocals flare and spark with an immersive buoyancy: the entire track is lifted through melody and tone. We see a lighter, unburdened band close the collection.
Band Members:
Henry Camamile, Rory Young, Andrew Dawson & Oli Khan
The band have also announced a run of intimate in-store shows for November
“Sequins, lightning, fancy shoes, a disco ball,” sings on their first single “Skin Sparks,”musclling their punk-garage-glam-pop into existence like a tattooed rabbit from a diamond-studded hat. The Nashville duo, Sugar Fïtz, consisting of singer-songwriters Brianna Sage and Carrie Welling, is something like a magic trick—brash, bold and seemingly out of nowhere. But, of course, these two women are hardly newcomers. With a plethora of solo material, tours, studio work, and years of experience between them, the aim of their aesthetic could not be more precise.
Born out of collective frustration and a wellspring of angst, as well as deep, studied admiration of 80s pop and 70s punk, Sugar Fïtz write the kind of songs you can sing in the shower or scream at a show. “We wanted it to be fucking cool,” Welling says. “The perfect make-out-with-anyone jam,” Sage adds. Teaming up with label owners and producers Alex Dezen and Amber Bollinger, the audaciously low-fi soundtrack provides the perfect accompaniment to the groups riotous lyrics and razor-sharp harmonies (which were recorded remotely from quarantine into their smartphones, no less). Like a spiked collar around a love song, “Skin Sparks” isn’t aiming for subtly. It scratches and soothes, belts and whispers in equal measure, all while dragging you behind it on a leash. You’d think music like this would come with a safe word.
First single by Sugar Fïtz! Written by Brianna Sage & Carrie Welling, “Skin Sparks,” is the first single fromSugar Fïtz, will be released later this year fromPoor Man Records.
