Adelaide’s Bad//Dreems perform for the latest edition of Rolling Stone’s ‘In My Room’,Session presented in partnership with the folks at Green Beacon Beers.
Bad//Dreems have served up a handful of intimate tracks, with the South Aussie outfit performing from the beachside suburb of Grange for the latest edition of Rolling Stone’s ‘In My Room’, a series in which artists perform from home while in quarantine. Presented by Green Beacon, the second episode in this special weekly series sees frontman Ben Marwe and guitarist Ali Wells joined by Dan Appleby (formerly of Archers) on bass and Hugh Black (Neighbours, and formerly of Archers and West Thebarton) on drums as they sit in for the group’s other members, who are Isolating currently over in Victoria
Bad//Dreems are just the latest in a line-up of massive artists set to appear on Rolling Stone’s ‘In My Room’ series. With Cub Sport kicking off the series last week, special performances from Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and Lime Cordiale set to follow thanks to a partnership with Green Beacon. “Green Beacon loves music and proudly supports Aussie artists,” the Queensland brewery explained. “We’re thrilled to be able to take this to the next level by teaming up with Rolling Stone Australia.
Kicking things off with the debut live performance of “Cannonball” from 2019’s Doomsday Ballet, the group showcase the talent that has seen them become one of Australia’s most beloved rock bands.
“I like playing that song; it’s a favourite of mine,” Marwe admits following the performance of their recent album track. “But I didn’t know the chords of ‘Cannonball’, because the last time we played it was in the studio.”
Powering into a slick version of “Chills” from their 2013 EP Badlands, the quartet wrap up their three-song performance with a powerful rendition of The Boys Next Door’s “Shivers”, making the Rowland S. Howard-penned classic their own.
“I can’t see us really us going overseas or anything,” Marwe says of the band’s immediate future as a live band. “It’s going to be interesting, I think the goal would be to travel as much regionally as we can, and do as many regional shows as we can. It’ll be good, it might create a really healthy Australian music scene – not that there wasn’t one already.”
Bad//Dreems recently returned to our ears with the release of their latest single, “Desert Television”, which was recorded before their UK tour was sadly cut short. There’s currently no word as to when they’ll release more music, or when their cancelled regional tour of Australia will be rescheduled, but there’s no denying their status as one of Australian rock’s finest.
Originally released in 1999, “My Beauty” was the second solo album from Dexys/Dexys Midnight Runners’ lead singer Kevin Rowland. The album was mostly unfairly received by critics at the time, but in the years since has come to enjoy cult status. This reissue is the first time “My Beauty” has been available on vinyl and on CD with its originally intended track-listing.
“My Beauty” comprises twelve cover songs, personally chosen by Kevin and adapted to make the lyrics more directly reflective of his life. The result was an autobiographical concept record about his battle and recovery from addiction, and his own struggle with self-esteem, exemplified by his incredible version of George Benson / Whitney Houston classic ‘The Greatest Love Of All’.
Kevin’s choice of style for this record was men’s dresses – in stark contrast to the prevailing mood in the late 1990s of British lad rock. The cover design was a radical look for the time – silk dresses, stockings and make up, not cross-dressing but a look that was undoubtedly feminine. The album was released on Oasis’ label Creation, after Kevin was signed by Alan McGee (who loved Kevin’s new look and labelled it “punk rock”). However, “My Beauty” was to be the last record released before Creation folded and the chaos that surrounded the label meant they hadn’t secured approval for the cover of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Thunder Road’. Despite its flowing, elegant music, the album was viciously savaged by most critics, with some focussing on Kevin’s choice of attire rather than the quality of the music.
Now in 2020, on the album’s 21st birthday, the world has changed and it’s high time to re-evaluate this modern masterpiece. Only ever previously released on CD, “My Beauty” has been remastered by original co-producer (with Dexys stalwart Jim Paterson) Pete Schwier and Marco Migliari. Two new videos have been filmed. The first – for ‘Rag Doll’ – is mimed by a young man in make-up, dressed in a gender fluid way. It’s a look that has become rightly incorporated into modern society, and by the end of the video, it’s revealed the man is Kevin’s grandson Roo, importantly closing the circle on what has been a painful experience for Kevin.
Over time, some music critics have re-evaluated “My Beauty” as a lost classic. Kevin has lived through all of this, and it was a painful experience to be outcast and dismissed. Now that attitudes have changed, hopefully the music can finally reach the audience it deserves and Kevin can tell his story.
Kevin Rowland’s brand new video for his interpretation of Rag Doll. Taken from the forthcoming reissue of My Beauty, out September 2020 on Cherry Red Records. Video directed by Jack Satchell. Original VHS footage of Concrete and Clay video kindly supplied by Daniel Cooke.
First time on vinyl for this long-overlooked classic and is a Limited Edition pressing on baby pink vinyl.
Dana Gavanski is a singer/songwriter currently presiding residing in London.
As fierce as the inclement weather itself, the ethereal tones of Serbian-Canadian musician Dana Gavanski can stir a breeze and destroy like a storm. With her new covers EP Wind Songs Dana serendipitously brings focus back to her debut album, and shows an artist making the best of unfortunate circumstances and seeks comfort in the familiar strangers of her musical heroes.
The track list for Wind Songs will slowly be revealed over the coming months, kicking off with the official release of a cover teased back when Dana played her first session for Marc Riley on BBC 6 Music. “I Talk To The Wind” fit beautifully in Dana’s live shows around that time, and so when it came time for Dana to head back into the studio at the start of this year it became an obvious EP opener.
The record is a co-production between Dana, Toronto-based musician Sam Gleason, and Mike Lindsay of Tunng and Lump. While Sam helped Dana bring out the tunes, Mike’s input marked ‘the beginning of developing a sound that was closer to what I had in my head’. Though excited by the other elements of a song introduced during production, Dana and Mike were keen on ‘finding essential things, not overblowing, keeping things bare and letting the elements speak for themselves’. Not that the sheer variety of sounds and instruments didn’t overwhelm.
The album shapeshifted as it passed through the hands of Dana, Sam, and Mike, taking on different tastes, feelings, and visions. When Dana performed the songs with a band, they found new form again. She was intrigued by performers like David Bowie and Aldous Harding, who inhabit different personalities on stage, physically tuning themselves to their music. ‘
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s sophomore album Sideways To New Italy around the clock since it’s release earlier this month via Sub Pop Records. We even got to interview them about the record, The Melbourne, Australia five-piece Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever released a new album, Sideways to New Italy, earlier in the month . Now they have shared a video for the album’s “Cameo.” Nick Mckk directed the video, which starts with the band’s Fran Keaney singing the song under a lone spotlight and in a black turtleneck, before the whole band eventually appears.
“This is a love song. It’s about reaching through time portals,” says Keaney in a press release. “The lyrics were pieced together over about a year like a little puzzle. I found the first pieces in Rushworth, and the last pieces in Darwin.” As for the video, Keaney says that Mckk shares their “vision for the earnest and the absurd,” adding: “This is our first video to feature skivvies, a wall of cardboard boxes, and a human-powered rotating stage.”
Mckk had this to say about the video: “Fran had the idea to separate each body part playing, disembodied like the famous Queen artwork. I think it was Tom who really wanted to dress like Molloy, the cat burglar from The Simpsons. White sneakers, black pants and a turtleneck. I was very for this.
“Because I’m a fool and I don’t know how to work a gimbal (stabilizer), I ended up shooting a lot of the clip on rollerblades, which let me zoom around the spinning stage. Set Designer Grace Goodwin and I created the big bricks that the band could smash through, representing the disintegration of memory and the rebuilding of recollection. I mean, it was that for me, I can’t speak for the band!”
Sideways to New Italy is Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s sophomore album and the follow-up to 2018’s debut album, Hope Downs, also released via Sub Pop.
Sideways to New Italy also includes “Cars In Space,” a new song the band shared in February via a video for the track co-directed by fellow Aussie musician Julia Jacklin with her regular collaborator Nick Mckk. “Cars In Space” . When the album was announced they shared another new song from it, “She’s There,” via a video for the single. Then they shared the album’s third single, “Falling Thunder,” also via a video for the track. Then the band released a video of them performing early single “Angeline” remotely and separately from their homes (the song is not found on either of their albums, but was released as a single back in 2013). Then they shared one last pre-release single from it, “Cameo,” .
Then the band teamed up with fellow Australian Stella Donnelly to cover “Deeper Water,” a 1999 song by Melbourne’s Deadstar. They did so in an empty cricket stadium as part of the six-part Australian series State of Music, put together by the state of Victoria during the pandemic.
The band features singer/songwriter/guitarists Tom Russo, Joe White, and Fran Keaney, as well as bassist Joe Russo and drummer Marcel Tussie.
The album’s partial namesake, New Italy, is actually a village near New South Wales’ Northern Rivers, which is an area Tussie is from. A press release announcing the album described the town: “A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it pit-stop of a place with fewer than 200 residents, it was founded by Venetian immigrants in the late-1800s and now serves as something of a living monument to Italians’ contribution to Australia, with replica Roman statues dotted like souvenirs on the otherwise rural landscape.”
Keaney had this to say about the album in a previous press release: “I wanted to write songs that I could use as some sort of bedrock of hopefulness to stand on, something to be proud of. A lot of the songs on the new record are reaching forward and trying to imagine an idyll of home and love.”
In February 2019 Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever shared a new song, “In the Capital” released it as a 7-inch single via Sub Pop. The B-side, “Read My Mind,” was also shared in April 2019 via a video for the track , Neither song is featured on Sideways to New Italy.
The band celebrated father’s day with yet another clever music video, this time for one of the album’s (many) highlights, “Cameo.” It’s really well shot and does so much with a little, really highlighting the genius of the band even further for us.
There’s something special about an artist whose music reaches the full potential of a particular genre while also transcending it altogether. That can be said about Nirvana with grunge, Miles Davis with jazz, My Bloody Valentine with shoegaze and so on. One could also add Nation of Language to that list, with respect to new wave music.
The Brooklyn-based band, led by vocalist and songwriter Ian Devaney and featuring his wife Aidan Devaney on keys and Michael Sui-Poi on bass, unleashed their debut album Introduction, Presence last month, and it’s crowned them as the most exciting new synth-pop act in years. The band has been releasing invigorating, ’80s-indebted singles for about five years now—tracks like “I’ve Thought About Chicago” and “Reality” are undoubtedly direct descendents of Pet Shop Boys, A Flock of Seagulls and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, but there’s also a subtle glow that recalls 21st century anthemic indie rock à la Arcade Fire, The National and The Killers. While their decade-spanning influences can certainly be scavenged, their songs always sound bigger than them—Devaney’s songwriting feels essential and eternal.
It might not be the best time to release a highly-anticipated, highly-danceable album, but “Introduction, Presence” resonates in kitchens and cars just as well as it would in the animated bars of New York City. Ian Devaney is currently sitting by the bedroom window in his Brooklyn apartment, which overlooks an alley full of weeds that have grown far larger than normal. “It’s kind of sad actually,” Devaney says. “Over the last couple weeks, I’ve watched them grow from little tiny weeds into big bushes. It’s my little bit of nature.”
Like most of us, he’s feeling strange about the present circumstances, but his album release date was something to look forward to, and it also happened to be his 30th birthday. During quarantine, he’s been pinging between instruments, recording equipment, video games and books, which are all set up near him so he can simply “follow [his] spirit.”
It’s no secret that 1980s nostalgia has been prevalent in indie rock for years now. From Future Islands and Interpol to The 1975 and TOPS, countless bands from the last two decades have found success filtering their music through distinctly ’80s lenses. Still to this day, you can hardly swing a dead cat without hitting an indie band with one or more of these elements: interstellar synths, bass-driven songs, rich production and melodramatic vocals. To join these ranks is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, there’s a huge demand for music that sounds like it came from the era of big hair and goths, but on the other hand, it’s hard to stand out in such a saturated market—and even harder to make lasting, impactful songs that transcend its revivalist label. New York City band Nation of Language approach this weighty task with more grace and far better song writing chops than the vast majority of bands who attempt retro pastiches or something close to them. For starters, lead singer and songwriter Ian Devaney (formerly of Static Jacks) has a low-pitched, aching voice that just screams classic new wave, but more crucially, he has an ear for awe-inspiring melodies and synth lines that go above and beyond mere cinematic uplift. Nearly every one of his songs prompts a mental highlight reel of one’s own life, but without the stylish, candy-coated nostalgia that’s fetishized nowadays—it’s the profound kind that allows you to view yourself at your lowest and highest moments and see the beauty in having a finite amount of time to live.
Nation of Language formed in 2014, around the same time Devaney’s previous band, The Static Jacks, dissolved. The Static Jacks toured internationally and released two albums of garage rock-tinted indie-pop, and although Devaney hadn’t yet found his feet, you can hear his knack for song writing and budding interest in 1980s pop (see “Mercy Hallelujah” and “Katie Said”). With Nation of Language, Devaney didn’t start from scratch with hopes of becoming the next big buzz band—the group simply came from a place of musical experimentation.
“I didn’t think of it as ‘I’m starting a new band,’” Devaney says. “It was just an exploration of trying to write a different style song than I had been writing for years. Even after we had played a couple of shows, it wasn’t a very serious thing until Aidan joined the band. She’s a very ambitious person and wants to go out and play, and that made me believe in myself and the music more.”
While Devaney says making the music was quite a deliberate process, their debut album itself just sort of happened.
“‘Indignities’ has been out for a while, but when we recorded it, I didn’t so much think, ‘We’re piecing together an album,’” Devaney explains. “It was just like, ‘We’ve got enough money that we can go do this, so let’s get in there and make a song.’ I had a certain amount of unreleased material that felt like it lived so well with these things that we had released earlier that I was like, ‘Let’s just call this a bundle of our early works.’”
Introduction, Presence is satisfyingly 10-tracks-long, and it’s essentially a greatest hits album—excluding only the stirring early single “I’ve Thought About Chicago,” which was curiously left off the tracklist. Despite its compilation feel, it has mindful sequencing. The first half is exhilarating—almost like they wanted listeners to be fully impressed right from the jump. You can’t hear “Tournament” and “Rush & Fever” without imagining a crowd hanging on its every beat with their bodies intuitively swaying and eyes blissfully shut. Then comes the peak of this record’s poignant nostalgia, “September Again” and “On Division St,” followed by the rhythmic post-punk glory of “Indignities.” The latter half of the album is a bit more spacious and varies more in tempo and style, but it doesn’t conclude without one more life-affirming dancefloor filler, “The Wall & I.” It’s all packaged so thoughtfully, and it leaves you wanting more.
Devaney said he’s always striving to write something as good as LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends,” and you can hear nods to Brooklyn’s dance-punk gods and that wide-eyed NYC pulse rushing through nearly every song. However, he pushes back against the idea that Nation of Language are a distinctly New York City band. Yet, it’s still hard not to imagine Introduction, Presence as a soundtrack to the lives of New Yorkers who feel both uplifted and quashed by the mythology of the city.
“I think those are big brushes that I used to make the record—that hopeful melancholia thing,” Devaney says. “I think New York probably amplified that, but I think that’s maybe part of the reason I was drawn to live here in the first place—the hopeless, never-ending struggle aspect.”
Nation of Language sound refreshingly out of step with the gentrified Brooklyn scene’s trendy bedroom pop and tired art-punk acts, but they never felt a part of that world to begin with.
“We’re down south of Crown Heights and Lefferts Gardens, and so there’s this feeling of being in Brooklyn and a part of the action, but also very much separate from it,” Devaney says. “I think that’s probably good for me because if I lived right in the middle of everything, I might not leave myself the time to actually work on the music and just spend all my money hanging out with people. Just being in Brooklyn is a very important thing to me—just something about the fact that when you look around, it feels like people are pursuing something and striving for something. It’s inspirational and makes me want to get back to it.”
Devaney likes the primitive quality of early new wave, when artists were only just scratching the surface of the possibilities of synthesizer-based music. It wasn’t overly technical, but it still transmitted emotions in a way that was quite profound. When Devaney shifted from writing indie-pop tunes to new wave ones, he liked the idea of not fully knowing what he was doing, but he’s not worried about losing that charming novice quality that so many bands struggle to maintain beyond their first few records.
“There are so many different options out there for different ways of creating music using a synthesizer, that I think between that and the fact that I’m not very good at guitar or bass means that there will be that sort of beginners’ touch for quite a long time,” he says.
Their transcendent sounds intersect with a thematic brooding that’s an equally integral part of Nation of Language. Devaney gets rained on in the album’s opening scene (“And that’s fine / I’m wasting away / I took the long road home and it never paid off for me / But to feel the proof as I’m walking around the city / In a torrent of rain”) and later finds himself paralyzed by time on “September Again.” Later, he’s somehow still trudging forwards on “Automobile”: “In a landscape harsh and thick / Thick with the dreams that you never quite kicked / You carry on for a long time.” His lyrics are marked by a deep romanticism and an ever-shifting relationship to nostalgia, and it’s these universal struggles that make his songs so towering.The blurred image on their debut album cover is a bit enigmatic, but as Devaney explains it, it’s actually a perfect microcosm of Nation of Language.
“I thought about the fact that our live show is a very energetic and hectic thing, but still confined within the bounds of these very rigid drum machines,” Devaney says. “I found an old picture from a disposable camera from years ago and I don’t know exactly what it is. I think I was either trying to take a picture of something and someone moved in front of the camera or I was trying to take a picture of someone and they moved out of the way at the last second. But it’s certainly a person passing by.”
Just like this figure fading out of sight, Nation of Language are reaching for something that’s slipping away. They’re simultaneously crushed and enlivened by the past, present and future, and their songs sound scientifically engineered for beginning and end credits. As long as there’s a desire to reminisce or forget one’s memories altogether, Nation of Language are there to be the sublime soundtrack.
Pretenders – Live at The Paradise Theatre, Boston 1980. Reissue of promo-only Warner Bros.Music Show featuring new artwork including photos from the show. Forty years ago this month, Chrissie Hynde’sPretenders played Boston’s Paradise Rock Club — then known as the Paradise Theater Included for the first time in Pretenders this will be available on 1-LP Coloured vinyl for RSD 2020. Titled Live! At the Paradise Theater, Boston, 1980, the 11-song set was recorded March 23rd, 1980, and will be pressed on red “colour-in-colour” vinyl and will feature brand new artwork.
Now in its 12th year, Record Store Day falls in late August (delayed by coronavirus) this year. Head over to the recordstoreday.com and recordstoreday.co.uk websites to see full lists of exclusive, limited-run and “RSD First” releases along with participating record stores in the U.S. and the U.K., respectively.
Tracklisting:
Side One: 1.Space Invader, 2.The Wait, 3.Precious, 4.Kid, 5.Private Life, 6.Cuban Slide
Side Two: 1.Talk Of The Town, 2.Tattooed Love Boys, 3.Up The Neck, 4.Mystery Achievement, 5.Stop Your Sobbing.
It’s been more than a minute since we’ve gotten a full album from Manchester outfit Pins, but today they’ve revealed a May 29th release date for “Hot Slick”, their first since 2015’s brilliant Wild Nights. To go along with the news, the indie post-punk trio dropped the single “Ponytail,” .
“Ponytail” is glorious with its serpentine beat in front of singer Faith Vern cooing about being up all night with her hands in the air, high heels and guitar on while she whips her ponytail from side-to-side without a care in the world. The song is the third single from Hot Slick, following the record’s title track and exquisitely addictive “Bad Girls Forever,” both released last month.
“Have you ever had a bad day and instead of crawling into bed with a bucket of ice cream, you swipe your mouth with some lipstick, put your high heels on and go out to dance?” asks Vern. “That’s what ‘Ponytail’ is about.”
Though they’ve not released a full length in sometime, PINS haven’t been out of the spotlight entirely, dropping an EP here and single featuring Iggy Pop there, but have also been adjusting to the departure of their original rhythm section. Singer/guitarist Vern, along with guitarist Lois MacDonald and bassist Kyoko Swan, have been joined by a rotating cast of collaborators in the studio, including The Kills Jamie Hince and Nathan Saoudi of Fat White Family. The result is a bevy of strutting synth nods on Hot Slick to everyone from Soulwax and Suicide to New Order.
Braids have been taking the time and space necessary for little miracles to occur. Burrowed in their Montreal studio, the band has spent the better part of three years crafting “Shadow Offering”, their 4th album, due out in June 2020 via their new label home, Secret City. On Braids’ fourth album, Shadow Offering, the Montreal art-pop trio is at its cleanest and most refined. They teamed up with producer Chris Walla, who teases out the rockier side of their tunes, turning the group’s taut synth reveries into glistening and forceful songs that tackle topics like abuse and desire and self-hatred. Raphaelle Standell-Preston’s voice is dizzying; she presents her fears not as a persistent dull ache but as something that is going to rip her apart from the inside out.
Unlike previous albums, Braids decided to stay close to home for the recording of Shadow Offering. Taking over a spacious sound recording studio tucked in an old warehouse, the band were able to slow down and creatively rediscover themselves. “With this album, we wanted to give ourselves time to achieve a higher caliber of artistry and collaboration,” Tufts says. No longer riding the novelty of youth, the band deliberately took time to recommit to themselves and their craft, and channel new energy into their music. They wrote 40 songs. They went through their Saturn Returns. They learnt how to support one another better. They drank a lot of La Croix.
The band sketched and re-sketched new material for eighteen months before lucky circumstance found Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie) renting out space in their studio. The four began wandering into each others’ rooms, curious about each others’ projects. Typically opting for a private and insular creation process, the friendship between the four saw the band sharing their songs with Walla, and naturally resulted in Walla co-producing and engineering Shadow Offering. Pushing the band out of their comfort zone, he at once broke and unified the band’s dynamic, unearthing individual creative energy long buried over the years. With a new sense of confidence, listeners will find Braids at their most personal, unabashedly flexing through their new music.
Braids are a Montreal-based, three-piece band. Formed in 2007, they have solidified a decade-long reputation for theirmusical ingenuity and established themselves as one of Canada’s most acclaimed art rock bands. With Standell-Preston’s vocals as the pillar of their sound, Braids weave organic and electronic elements together amidst a lyrical landscape that is intimate and emotionally-immersive
Lush were an English rock band formed in London in 1987. The original line-up consisted of Miki Berenyi (vocals, guitar), Emma Anderson (vocals, guitar), Steve Rippon (bass) and Chris Acland (drums). Phil King replaced Rippon in 1991. They were one of the first bands to have been described with the “shoegazing” label. Following the death of Acland, the group disbanded in 1996.
The group reunited for a short time between 2015 and 2016 with Berenyi, Anderson, King and Justin Welch. They toured and recorded an EP of new material before permanently and amicably disbanding to focus on their own personal lives
The band formed in 1987 in London, initially named the Baby Machines (after a line in the Siouxsie and the Banshees song “Arabian Knights”), with a lineup of Meriel Barham (vocals), Emma Anderson (guitar, vocals), Berenyi (guitar, vocals), Steve Rippon (bass) and Chris Acland (drums). Their influences were diverse; they were inspired by the garage rock scene of the Nuggets series, Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Beach Boys and the Byrds.
Anderson and Berenyi had been school friends, having known each other since the early 1980s, and together published the Alphabet Soup fanzine. In 1986, Anderson joined the Rover Girls as bassist, and Berenyi joined the Bugs, also as a bass player. Neither band lasted long, and in 1987, they joined Barham and Acland in the Baby Machines. Rippon joined shortly thereafter, and the band members decided on a change of name to Lush, making their live debut at the Camden Falcon on 6th March 1988. Barham left the band and later joined Pale Saints. Berenyi then took on lead vocal duties.
Anderson said of the band’s beginnings: “We were kind of punk rock in one way. We did think, ‘Well, if they can do it, why the fuck can’t we?’ Basically, our idea was to have extremely loud guitars with much weaker vocals. And, really, the vocals were weaker due to nervousness – we’d always be going ‘Turn them down! Turn them down!'” Berenyi said, “We started by writing crappy riot grrl anthems… which was probably charming in a juvenile way. But there was a very rapid shift from the minute we started to write for records. The music, the lyrics became much more thoughtful and expressive, more important, really. I remember that change beginning when Emma wrote ‘Thoughtforms,’ it certainly made me think I needed to get my act together.
Scar, EPs and Spooky (1989–92)
In 1989, the band signed to 4AD Records and released their first recording Scar, a six-track mini-album. Critical praise for Scar and a popular live show quickly established Lush as one of the most written-about groups of the late 1980s/early 1990s UK indie scene. Anderson told Everett True in Melody Maker, “I remember when I couldn’t play, I wasn’t in a band, didn’t know anyone else who could play, and now we’ve got a record out on 4AD. I sometimes find it impossible to come to terms with what’s happening.”
Not long after, the British music press tagged them with the “shoegazing” label. The following year, the EPs Mad Love (produced by Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins) and Sweetness and Light (produced by Tim Friese-Greene) were released. All three releases were eventually combined into the Gala compilation album, which was produced mainly for the US and Japanese markets. The band recorded a live session for John Peel’s BBC Radio 1 show in 1990 and contributed a cover version of “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep” later that year to the anti-poll tax album Alvin Lives (In Leeds).
The band’s profile was raised by extensive touring, including an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival in June 1990 and tours of Japan in late 1990 and the US (with Ride) in the spring of 1991.
Preceded by the Black Spring EP issued in October 1991, Lush’s first full-length album of completely new material, “Spooky”, was released in January 1992. Again produced by Guthrie, Spooky featured a sound very similar to Guthrie’s band Cocteau Twins, with walls of sound and a great deal of guitar effects. Reviews were mixed and critics of the album held that Guthrie’s production brought the sound away from the band’s original creative vision, although it sold well, reaching No. 7 in the UK Albums Chart. The album was preceded by the band’s first UK top 40 single, “For Love”, which was partly re-recorded and remixed by Mark Freegard. He also produced the single’s B-sides: the original recording of “Starlust”, Wire cover “Outdoor Miner” and the only Lush track with lead vocals by Anderson, “Astronaut”. Gil Norton remixed “Superblast!” for the Japanese single release.
Rippon left the band after recording the “For Love” EP to concentrate on writing, though his book Cold Turkey Sandwich—a fictionalised chronicle of his time touring—was rejected by publishers. He was replaced by Phil King. During the summer of 1992, Lush toured America as part of the second edition of the Lollapalooza festival. Lush was added to the roster by Lollapalooza organiser Perry Farrell, the Jane’s Addiction/Porno for Pyros frontman, who personally requested Lush.
Split, Lovelife and break-up (1993–96)
Lush approached Bob Mould to produce their second album. The band stated that Mould was too busy to produce them, but Mould said in a Spin article that he backed out because “I kept picking the wrong girl’s songs… I had to get out before I broke up the band!” . The band found completing Split frustrating. It was recorded by Mike Hedges at Rockfield Studios in Wales. Then Hedges along with the band went to mix the recordings, first at Abbey Road Studios, and then at Hedges’ studio in Domfront, France. However, neither the band nor Ivo Watts-Russell of their label 4AD were satisfied with the sound; eventually Alan Moulder was hired to remix it. Unusually, the band released two EPs from the album (“Hypocrite” and “Desire Lines”) both on the same day (30th May 1994).[10] Neither single broke into the UK Top 40. Released on 13th June 1994, Split was less successful than Spooky.
One of several names quickly reeled off when talking of shoegaze’s original heyday, Lush developed a more punky and Britpop-oriented sound as the ‘90s progressed. For “Split” this album offers perhaps the best balance between the gazey roots of a scene spearheaded by Loveless, and Lush’s more caustic and angst-ridden direction to come. Released on the same day in 1994 as the ‘Hypocrite’ single, and taken from the Split album,
The band concentrated on the American market, on the advice of their management, but failed to make a breakthrough. A third EP from “Split”, planned for release in the autumn of 1994, was to have featured “Lovelife” as the lead track along with a version of “The Childcatcher” recorded during the “Split” sessions; but the release was shelved by management. This first version of “The Childcatcher” was released three times: on the Secret Tracks 2 free cassette included in the May 1994 issue of Select magazine, on the 4AD compilation All Virgos Are Mad and as part of the double 7″ compilation EP From Greer to Eternity, issued on Fierce Panda Records later that year.
They suffered further setbacks when tours of Japan and the UK were cancelled. They decided to break from their manager, Howard Gough, and begin work on a new album. However, the new management also prioritised achieving success in America.
Lovelife, the band’s third album, was released in March 1996. It was produced by Pete Bartlett, the band’s live engineer. Lovelife represented a change in production, with less reliance on heavy guitar effects. It became the biggest seller of their career, possibly as it was more in step with the contemporary Britpop style. Lovelife included the hit singles “Single Girl”, “Ladykillers” and “500 (Shake Baby Shake)”, and also featured a guest appearance by Jarvis Cocker of Pulp duetting with Berenyi on the song “Ciao!”.
Instead of capitalising on their success in the UK, the band’s management sent them on an ill-conceived American tour with the Gin Blossoms. With the band members feeling pressured and tired, Anderson discussed leaving. She stated she could not make another Lovelife but would rather make a smaller, more personal album. The other band members were amenable to this idea, with Berenyi, in particular, being keen to keep the band together.
In September 1996, the band played their last performance, prior to reuniting, in Japan. A month later, tragedy struck the band when drummer Acland died by hanging himself in his parents’ garden on 17th October. The band effectively went on an extended hiatus, officially announcing their break-up on 23rd February 1998.
Post-breakup (1998–2014) Berenyi went on to work as a production editor at two major magazine publishers. In 1998, Anderson formed a new group, Sing-Sing, with singer Lisa O’Neill. Sing-Sing released two full-length albums but in January 2008, announced they were disbanding. Anderson lived in Hastings and has held various jobs in the music business in management, PR, accountancy and at a booking agency. King played bass for the Jesus and Mary Chain and also worked for Uncut magazine as a picture researcher.
Reformation and second break-up (2015–2016)
In September 2015, the music press suggested a reunion might be planned after Anderson posted a cryptic “7 day.” message on social media and an official band website appeared. On 28th September, Lush announced their reunion on their Facebook page. The reunited band consists of Anderson, Berenyi and King with the addition of Justin Welch (Elastica) on drums, an old friend of Chris Acland.
We wish it could have been sooner but, for many years, it was just too painful to contemplate without Chris, and then all kinds of life-changing commitments made it impossible. Now, at last, the three of us are in the right place at the right time to play music together again.
To celebrate their return, 4AD released a limited red vinyl double LP of their compilation Ciao! Best of Lush on 7th November 2015, followed on 11th December by Chorus, a CD-only, 5-disc box set containing almost all of their released material along with a selection of rarities, radio sessions and demos. The record’s artwork has been reformatted to now become a gatefold LP and includes the original sleeve notes as written by Dominic Wills. First time on vinyl for this classic compilation from Lush. 18 tracks which demonstrate with considerable panache just what was great about Lush. ‘Ciao!’ takes on the band’s legacy in reverse order, showcasing the later pop punches like ‘Single Girl’, ‘Ladykillers’ and ‘500 (Shake Baby Shake) all taken from their amazing swan song ‘Lovelife’, before going onto explore the weighty themes and dense guitar textures of ‘Split’, working back to the Robin Guthrie produced ‘Spooky‘ to the early woozy harmonies of their 1989 mini-album ‘Scar’.
For Record Store Day 2016, 4AD released a limited edition 5-LP colour vinyl box set titled Origami, comprising Gala (clear vinyl), Spooky (silver vinyl), Split (red vinyl), Lovelife (pink vinyl) and the first vinyl release of the Canadian version of Topolino (yellow vinyl), with revised artwork by Chris Bigg. The UK/European version was packaged in a white cardboard “pizza box” emblazoned with three different Lush logos from the years 1990, 1994 and 1996.
Lush also announced a show at the Roundhouse in London on 6th May 2016, and later added a second date, 7th May 2016, after the first show sold out in six hours. They alluded to further dates in North America, their first tour in 20 years was announced.
On 15th April 2016. the band announced the release of the “Blind Spot” EP, the band’s first new material since 1996. It was produced by Jim Abbiss and Ladytron member Daniel Hunt.
On 18th October 2016, the band announced the departure of bassist King on their official website. On 15th November 2016, Lush issued a statement announcing that Michael Conroy of Modern English would play bass for the final show at Manchester Academy, and confirming the band would split after the show.
Origami is an LP boxset that contains the three Lush albums Spooky (1992), Split (1994) and Lovelife (1996) and their compilations Gala (1990) and Topolino (1996). All have been out of print since the nineties except Topolino, which has never before been available on vinyl.
Housed in a box designed by long-time associate and former v23 collaborator Chris Bigg, each album is pressed on a different colour of vinyl. Download codes for each album are included. As a surprise, a bonus download of ten of Emma and Miki’s Home Demos was also included.
It’s been a fantastic year for Lush. We received an incredible reception to our “Blind Spot” EP and the three beautiful career-spanning 4AD releases, sold out two Roundhouse shows, toured North America with great success and had a ball at our European festival appearances. It’s been wonderful to revisit our old music and to create new material. However, it is now time for us to return to our families and homes, and bring our time together as a band to a close. We offer heartfelt thanks to all our fans – this reunion would never have happened without your overwhelming support and dedication.
Piroshka (2018)
In September 2018, the formation of new band Piroshka was announced, a quartet including Berenyi, Welch, Conroy and former Moose member K.J. “Moose” McKillop. Their debut album, Brickbat, was released by Bella Union on 15th February 2019
Studio albums
Scar (mini-album) October 1989
Spooky January 1992
Split June 1994
Lovelife March 1996
EPs:
Mad Love February 1990
Sweetness and Light October 1990
“De-Luxe” March 1991
Black Spring October 1991
“Nothing Natural” October 1991
“For Love” December 1991
“Superblast!” February 1992
“Hypocrite” May 1994
“Desire Lines” May 1994
“Single Girl” January 1996
“Ladykillers” February 1996
“500 (Shake Baby Shake)” July 1996
Blind Spot April 2016
Live At KCRW – Morning Becomes Eclectic Cd Only
Band Members:
Miki Berenyi,
Emma Anderson,
Chris Acland,
Meriel Barham,
Steve Rippon,
Phil King,
Justin Welch,
Bright Eyes have been back with a few new songs of late and today we finally get the announcement that we’ve all been waiting for. Conor Oberst and co. are back with their brand new album (their first in 9 years), “Down In The Weeds Where The World Once Was”, which will be released on August 21st via Dead Oceans.
A lone pair of footsteps meanders down a street in Omaha, into the neighborhood bar and then into a near-imperceptible tangle of conversations – about wars, sleepless nights – a surrealist din pushing against the sound of ragtime. Then, as the background quiets, a line rings out clearly: “I think about how much people need – what they need right now is to feel like there’s something to look forward to. We have to hold on. We have to hold on.”Thus we enter the fitting, cacophonic introduction to Bright Eyes’ tenth studio album and first release since 2011. Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was is an enormous record caught in the profound in-between of grief and clarity – one arm wrestling its demons, the other gripping the hand of love, in spite of it.The end of Bright Eyes’ unofficial hiatus came naturally. Conor Oberst pitched the idea of getting the band back together during a 2017 Christmas party at Bright Eyes bandmate Nathaniel Walcott’s Los Angeles home. The two huddled in the bathroom and called Mike Mogis, who was Christmas shopping at an Omaha mall. Mogis immediately said yes. There was no specific catalyst for the trio, aside from finding comfort amidst a decade of brutal change. Sure, Why now? is the question, but for a project whose friendship is at the core, it was simply Why not?The resulting Bright Eyes album came together unlike any other of its predecessors. Down in the Weeds is Bright Eyes’ most collaborative, stemming from only one demo and written in stints in Omaha and in bits and pieces in Walcott’s Los Angeles home. Radically altering a writing process 25 years into a project seems daunting, but Oberst said there was no trepidation: “Our history and our friendship, and my trust level with them, is so complete and deep. And I wanted it to feel as much like a three-headed monster as possible.”
Along with the album announcement comes the release of the newest single “Mariana Trench,” which is another winning effort from the band who seems rejuvenated with a new lease of life here. The band is tapping into the fully formed songwriting that made us fall in love with them in the full place, while also flexing a new muscle at the very same time.
“Mariana Trench” is the next song by Bright Eyes off ‘Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was’ out August 21st on Dead Oceans.
