What happens when an abrasive rock trio trades guitars for synths, cranks up the beats and leans into the everyday anxieties of simply being a functioning human in the 21st century? The answer is Uneasy Laughter, the sensational second Sub Pop Records release from Los Angeles-based Moaning.
Vocalist/guitarist Sean Solomon, bassist/keyboardist Pascal Stevenson and drummer Andrew MacKelvie have been friends and co-conspirators amid the fertile L.A. DIY scene for more than a decade. They are also immersed in other creative pursuits — Solomon is a noted illustrator, art director and animator, while Stevenson and MacKelvie have played or worked behind the boards with acts such as Cherry Glazerr, Sasami and Surf Curse. On Uneasy Laughter, they’ve tackled challenges both personal and universal the only way they know how: by talking about how they’re feeling and channeling those emotions directly into their music.
Kikagaku Moyo started in the summer of 2012 busking on the streets of Tokyo. Though the band started as a free music collective, it quickly evolved into a tight group of multi-instrumentalists. Kikagaku Moyo call their sound psychedelic because it encompasses a broad spectrum of influence. Their music incorporates elements of classical Indian music, Krautrock, Traditional Folk, and 70s Rock. Most importantly their music is about freedom of the mind and body and building a bridge between the supernatural and the present. Improvisation is a key element to their sound.
Go & Tomo run their own record label Guruguru Brain currently based in Amsterdam. Guruguru Brain has released about 10 artists from Asia including Kikagaku Moyo since 2014.
Kikagaku Moyo’s new single “Gypsy Davey” b/w “Mushi Nu Uta” is available now on all streaming services and is a part of the latest edition of the iconic Sub PopSingles Club series.
Twin Peaks has one defining ethos and it’s to keep pushing. They’ve embraced change ever since their 2010 formation as high school friends making scrappy basement rock ‘n’ roll to now cementing their status as one of Chicago’s most essential bands.
Where their last LP, 2016’s Down In Heaven, and 2017’s Sweet ‘17 Singles compilation were adventurous and compelling updates on their youthfully raucous formula, their fourth album “Lookout Low” feels like a total revolution.
Already a well-oiled live unit, the band set on capturing the thrilling vibe of their shows. The five of them, guitarists Cadien Lake James and Clay Frankel, bassist Jack Dolan, multi-instrumentalist Colin Croom, and drummer Connor Brodner committed to work countless hours in their studio and practice space. The band had never attempted anything that daunting before, demoing 27 songs and relentlessly rehearsing them until they were satisfied. “We wanted to hold ourselves to practice almost every day and be tight to hone in on these songs,” says Dolan. Having the entire band in the same room so frequently allowed for new experiments. “This was the most collaborative it’s ever been for us. We wanted to try all the weird ideas and be as open as possible,” says Brodner.
Take lead single “Dance Through It.” What originally started as a demo the band jokingly claims evoked Sheryl Crow, it revealed itself when Croom suggested a drastic change in the rhythm section, infusing the arrangement with a gospel and soul-inflected swing. Because the band was willing to re-imagine the song from its original vision, the result is one of the most obvious highlights on Lookout Low. When James sings the track’s chorus, backed by gang vocal harmonies, it might be the catchiest hook Twin Peaks have ever written. “There’s no ringleader in how we write songs. Things would be a lot easier if there was one guy calling the shots but we really put an effort to make it work and make everyone happy,” says Frankel.
After whittling 27 songs down to just a handful, the band knew that the tracks deserved a more ambitious strategy that called for outside help. When legendary producer Ethan Johns showed interest, they took a leap and decamped to Monnow Valley Studio in Wales for three weeks.
“Twin Peaks are the best Rock and Roll band I’ve heard for a very long time,” said Johns. “Not only do they have something to say, they do it honestly, and with dedication and passion.”
The feeling was mutual. Twin Peaks knew and admired him for his work with Paul McCartney, Kings of Leon, and U2, “When we knew he cut everything live, it was intimidating but so exciting. We needed a challenge,” says James. At Monnow Valley, they thrived on the thrill of live recording, often just going with the magic of the original first take like on “Oh Mama” and the title track.
The life-affirming burst of adrenaline that Twin Peaks give their live show is their strongest asset, one that seeps into every facet of the LP. The songs are bursting with energy, like the spidery jam-minded opener “Casey’s Groove,” a mind-melder that is reassuring thanks to James’ inviting croon. Following the tracking, Twin Peaks recruited their Chicago comrades OHMME to sing backup vocals on seven of the 10 tracks. Cuts like “Under A Smile” transform with Macie Stewart and Sima Cunningham’s spectral harmonies.
Throughout the LP, Croom wrote horn arrangements that at times evokes the soulfulness of Allen Toussaint and the burly Americana of the E Street Band. The auxiliary percussion from drummer Kyle Davis expands the already breezy and spread out compositions. Though it’s obvious how locked in they were from just a casual listen, the band was so focused during the entire process that they rarely left the property’s countryside grounds.
What makes Lookout Low a triumph is how each individual member of the band upped their songwriting for the LP. The James-led opener stands as his most impressive offering yet in sheer confidence and experimentation while Dolan’s plaintive “Unfamiliar Sun” is possibly the album’s most affecting track, burrowing into self-reflection and hard truths. But for Croom, who joined the band following their 2014 sophomore LP Wild Onion, his contributions in “Laid In Gold” and “Ferry Song” showcase perhaps the biggest leap forward. For the latter, Croom left Chicago in Spring 2018 to spend a week writing in New Orleans. He stayed at Algiers Point, taking the ferry to the city each day. As the track hits its boiling point, Croom accesses a part of his vocal range he’s only hinted at in previous record. The LP closes with “Sunken II” a song Dolan had written for the band years ago. It’s a moment of resonance capping Lookout Low, a document of how much they’ve grown as friends and artists from their teenage beginnings. No band could come up with a full length so deliberate and seamless if not for having that singular bond that’s only grown tighter as their lives have changed. It’s a brotherhood, one that’s endured for almost a decade.
“Everyone’s having so much fun playing together as we’ve all grown and gotten better,” says James. Adds Dolan, “There’s something intangible about how our chemistry and friendship has evolved. We rely on each other so much.”
“Girl” is the second album from the North London band Girl Ray, via Moshi Moshi Records. Recorded at Electric Beach Studios in Margate with Ash Workman (Christine and the Queens, Metronomy), the album is a delightful, sun-kissed tribute to their love of pop and R&B.
It was Ariana Grande’s explosion into pop culture that kickstarted a new era for Girl Ray, as well as the realisation that their most-listened-to Spotify playlists contained pure pop music. When Poppy began experimenting with writing songs on a computer using keyboards, a collection of shimmering, foot-tapping, sparkling pop bangers poured out. With this new set of songs, Girl Ray have been brave enough to completely change their sound rather than play it safe, yet still remain unmistakably themselves – it’s Girl Ray, but with added synths.
If their debut, Earl Grey, was a hot cup of tea and a cuddle on the sofa,Girl is being in a cab with the windows down on the way to a beach bar for sundowners. It’s the excitement of Rihanna’s If It’s Lovin’ That You Want, combined with the eye-rolling, impenetrable sardonic humour of a girl gang. Among the grin-inducing, trepidatious and intensely courageous R&B-style tracks on the album, are also beautifully composed piano ballads steeped in the sadness and unrequited love that made Earl Grey feel like a knowing look from an old friend.
Girl is expertly-crafted pop, created by dedicated artists on a mission to make music for people to really enjoy. Music that doesn’t look to confuse or patronise. Music to fall in love to, to dance to. Songs you’d want to send to your friends. They have used the universal, happy medium of pop music to put across joyous, accessible messages of love, friendship and life to the world, like some of the best songwriters before them.
Alanis Morissette has released a new song called “Smiling,” It’s the second single from her upcoming album Such Pretty Forks in the Road, out May 1st.
On the morose yet ultimately uplifting track, Morissette reflects on her existence as a “bottom dweller,” dealing with the ups and downs of life as they come and mulling over personal failings. “This is my first wave of the white flag/This is the sound of me hitting bottom,” she sings. “This my surrender, if that’s what I call it/In the anatomy of my crash.” Rather than giving up, though, Morissette finds herself at peace with her imperfection.
Morissette originally co-wrote “Smiling” with Michael Farrell (Morrissey, Macy Gray) for the Broadway production Jagged Little Pill the Musical, inspired by Morissette’s classic 1995 album of the same name. She’s had some fun promoting the musical, disguising herself and busking on the subway with Jimmy Fallon in a recent Tonight Show segment.
To commemorate Jagged Little Pill‘s 25th anniversary — and in support of her new album — Morissette will be heading out on tour this summer, backed by fellow Nineties stalwarts Liz Phair and Garbage. On Friday, she announced a European leg of the tour, kicking off September 23rd in Copenhagen.
Anna Calvi is releasing a new album, “Hunted”, on March 6th via Domino Recordings. It is a new stripped down version of her 2018 album Hunterfeaturing various notable guest singers. On Monday she shared Hunted’s version of “Eden,” which features guest vocals from Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Calvi had this to say about the new track in a press release: “Charlotte Gainsbourg has taught me so much as a singer, in how the most quiet of utterances can be the most dramatic and powerful of all. When I was writing ‘Eden’ I had Charlotte’s voice in my head – there’s a secrecy and quiet power to this song that always made me think of her. It’s a dream come true to have collaborated with her.”
Previously Calvi had shared Hunted’s first single, a new version of “Don’t Beat the Girl Out of My Boy” that featured guest vocals from Courtney Barnett. Hunted also features Julia Holter and IDLES’ Joe Talbot.
Calvi had this to say about Hunted in a previous press release: “During a break from touring I went back and listened to the first recordings I ever made of Hunter. These recordings capture the very moment I first wrote these songs, and recorded them on my own, in my attic studio. I find something especially intimate about sharing these most private recordings with my favorite singers and asking them to lend their voices and artistic sensibility. Courtney Barnett is an amazing artist. Her voice and guitar playing together are mind blowing. Her ability to connect the profound to the smallest moments of human experience is the unique talent of a true artist.”
Hunter was Calvi’s third full-length album and the follow up to 2011’s Anna Calvi and 2013’s One Breath. It was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Last year Calvi shared an atmospheric new song, “You’re Not God,” that was done for the soundtrack of the Netflix/BBC show Peaky Blinders .
For the last 30 years, Greg Dulli, has been the frontman of The Afghan Whigs and The Twilight Singers, He has been the poet laureate of the bizarre whims and cruel tangents of desire. A foremost authority on the sell-your-soul rewards of carnal lust, the high voltage epiphanies of chemical enhancement, and the serotonin lows left in their wake. Therein lies “Random Desire”, the first solo album under Dulli’s own name, via Royal Cream / BMG.
The album opener. Pantomima, sets the tone from the sardonic taunts of the album’s first bars: desolation, come and get it. Random Desire started in the aftermath of the last Whigs record, 2017’s In Spades, which Pitchfork named one of the best rock records of the year, hailing it as a “heavy, menacing work of indie rock majesty…thrilling and unsettling.” Drummer Patrick Keeler was about to take a short sabbatical to record and tour with his other band, The Raconteurs. Dulli’s longtime collaborator, bassist John Curley went back to school, and there was the tragic death of the band’s guitarist, Dave Rosser. In response, Dulli returned to his teenage bedroom roots, finding musical inspiration via the model of one-man-band visionaries Prince and Todd Rundgren.
The Los Angeles-by-way-of-Hamilton Ohio native wrote nearly every part of the record from piano lines to drums to bass riffs. As always, the music came first and the lyrics were completed later. Recording and writing way stations included his home in Silver Lake, the village of Crestline high up in the mountains above San Bernardino, and New Orleans. But the bulk was finished amidst the arid beauty and stark isolation of Joshua Tree (at the studio of engineer Christopher Thorne). Dulli handled most instrumentation, but an all-star cast of characters appear across the track-listing including The Whigs’ guitarist Jon Skibic and multi-instrumentalist Rick G. Nelson, Mathias Schneeberger (Twilight Singers), pedal steel wizard, upright bassist, and physician Dr. Stephen Patt, and drummer Jon Theodore (Queens of the Stone Age, The Mars Volta).
Clocking in at a lean 37 minutes, Random Desire is a clinic put on by a veteran master operating at the height of his powers, offering evidence of the hard-fought and weary wisdom learned from setbacks and victories alike. A lucid, confident and self-assured document of the songs of experience, the perils of existence, and the possibilities that offer themselves anew with each breath. Another death and rebirth from an outlaw who has seen it all and somehow lived to tell.
With her strikingly beautiful voice and emotionally direct songwriting, Chloe has captured the attention of rapidly growing UK and US audiences. With the release of her singles ‘Asylum’, ‘Flaws’, ‘Oh You Are Not Well’ and ‘In The Middle Of The Night’, she has accumulated over 10 million plays on Spotify, as well as earning the praise and airtime of the likes of NPR Radio’s Bob Boilen and the BBC’s Steve Lamacq. She was named a 2019 BBC Introducing “One To Watch”
The songs on Chloe Foy’s just-released EP “Callous Copper” are each accompanied by a string quartet, and “Never Be The Same Again” is one assured and exquisite example of what you’ll find on it.
Next month she will be touring throughout England with the string section, and you can find out where she’ll be on her website.
“You said, do I have hope and I said I don’t… but I do,” riddles Hazel Wilde on the Newcastle band’s fourth album. Surveying the gathering storm, here’s an end-of-the-world address that finds stirring beauty and defiance in humanity’s final acts. To mark the occasion of our album coming out today we are sharing another live session video. ‘Swimming Lessons’ was recorded and filmed live at Blast Studios in Newcastle.
While the songs are Lanterns On The Lake’s’ leanest yet, fusing dreamy pop melodies with Paul Gregory’s soaring post-rock guitar, it’s Wilde’s lyrics that quicken the pulse. On Swimming Lessons, she marvels at “Vincent’s starry night with the colour drained”.
Blue Screen Beams laments mobile phone addiction, while lead single Every Atom is a potent shot of glorious romanticism.If we are sleepwalking towards apocalypse, Lanterns On The Lake are here to sing us out in style. “The waters are rising/ our leaders unhinged,” sighs Wilde in majestic 3/4 on Before They Excavate. “Let’s break out the good stuff and toast to the end.” .
The Spook Sessions: When It All Comes True Recorded live at Blast Studios, Newcastle Upon Tyne
When It All Comes True is taken from the album ‘Spook The Herd’ is now out in the world.
This album is an important one for us. We are extremely proud of it and we have been bowled over by the responses so far.Thanks, as always, for all the love and support you’ve given our music over the years. It means more than you could ever know. ‘Spook The Herd’ is available on lush 180g vinyl,
Band Members
Hazel Wilde, Paul Gregory, Ol Ketteringham, Bob Allan, Angela Chan
The Strokes will release their first new album in seven years on April 10th, “The New Abnormal” (Cult/RCA), and the latest preview of the record arrived this week in the form of the track “Bad Decisions,” a slick rocker built around an anthemic, New Order-esque guitar riff. The retro infomercial-style “Bad Decisions” video, directed by Andrew Donoho, sends The Strokes back to the ‘70s scene Julian Casablancas’ lyrics set (“Dropped down the lights, I’m sitting with you / Moscow 1972”), imagining a world in which anyone can order their own cloned iteration of the band, customizing The Strokes’ looks and personalities to fit their exact specifications.
The New Abnormal is the long awaited new album from The Strokes, and the band’s first album in seven years. TheNew Abnormal is The Strokes’ sixth studio album and was recorded at Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, California, with producer Rick Rubin.
The album’s cover artwork is a painting called ‘Bird on Money,’ by famed artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The Strokes are singer Julian Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr, bassist Nikolai Fraiture and drummer Fabrizio Moretti.
