Margaret Glaspy surprised fans with three new songs on a brand new EP called “Born Yesterday”. She describes it as a bookend to her debut album Emotions And Math — the stunning, 2016 full-length that launched her career, a world tour and landed on many top 10 lists for the year, including The Fat Angel Sings.
Margaret Glaspy spoke about these new songs, how they end one chapter of her life but also lead to the next adventure. “I was on the road so much — in a bus, in the van, on the train, in the cab — over these last two years, I had these few songs that I’d written. It didn’t feel like it was really the next record. It just felt pretty intuitive to release them as what I had accomplished since [Emotions And Math], which I’m very proud of. But it is hard to write on the road.”
Here is the brand new track St Marie Under Canon for you to listen to & enjoy – do let us know what you think. It’s taken from the new album “England Is A Garden”, out on 6th March – thank you to everyone who has pre-ordered it so far.
Those that have heard it suggest the new single puts them in mind of The Stones, Beatles, Velvets and Cornershop!.
Taken from the forthcoming Cornershop LP ‘England is a Garden’.
Alabama-based Americana group Pond Diver are sharing their debut EP “Flashbacks”. A recent single, “Racecar,” features clean guitar work and a horn section from the University of North Alabama, not far away from the band’s native Muscle Shoals, the legendary music city. The record itself was mixed and mastered locally by Chris Bethea (Penny and Sparrow) at Muscle Shoals Mastering.
“Over the Hill”Pond Diver Released on: 8th November.
The Byrds – 1965 – Founded in 1964 by Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark, the original Byrds also included Chris Hillman, Michael Clarke, and Crosby. The band, featuring McGuinn’s sublime, jangly, 12-string Rickenbacker and beautiful three-part harmonies was one of the most influential Rock bands of the era, and arguably with the Doors and Crosby, Stills and Nash, the three greatest American Rock groups of the 1960s. The original band recorded three albums: “Mr Tambourine Man,” (1965), Turn! Turn! Turn! (1966), and “Fifth Dimension,” (1966).
These albums contained some of Gene Clark’s finest compositions” “Set You Free This Time,” “Here Without You,”“She Don’t Care About Time,” and “Feel A Whole Lot Better.” He departed the band in 1966 followed by Crosby in 1967.
After an appearance with Stephen Stills at the Monterey Pop Festival, Crosby helped form the Rock super group Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1968.
The early Byrds albums are best known for their cover versions – their take on Dylan’s ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ launched their career, while their second album was named for Pete Seeger’s biblical ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ While Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, and Chris Hillman would write strong material for The Byrds later, the one Byrd who was an accomplished writer from the beginning was Gene Clark.
Due to group infighting in the band, Clark was limited to only three songs on their second album,Turn! Turn! Turn!This meant that the excellent‘She Don’t About Time’ was relegated to b-side status, backing the title track. It’s one of my favourite Clark songs for The Byrds. For me the song’s most startling feature is McGuinn’s lift of Bach’s ‘Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring’ for the guitar solo, and how seamlessly it fits in. The song inspired GeorgeHarrison to write The Beatles’ ‘If I Needed Someone’.
As a Byrds fan, it took me a while to get to Clark’s solo career, but it’s often excellent please check out the records like No Other and White Light both are very strong.
As a bonus feature, here’s another strong Byrds song that never made it onto a studio album. David Crosby’s non-album single ‘Lady Friend’ was released in 1967. It’s an interesting spin on The Byrds’ usual sound, with the harmonies and McGuinn guitar the group were known for, but also a brass arrangement. It failed on the charts, and was never included on a studio album.
Starting out as a recording project between Angus Lord, Claudia Serfaty and Stephanie Hughes, the germ of what would eventually become the Stroppies was formed around a kitchen table in Melbourne’s inner west early 2016. The initial idea was to create open ended music, collaged quickly and haphazardly together on a Tascam 4 track Portastudio that drew on stream of consciousness creativity and a DIY attitude a la Guided By Voices and The Great Unwashed. The desire to move beyond the pre programmed drum patterns available on their Casio Keyboard led to the addition of Rory Heane on drums and a more conventional band dynamic.
In Late 2016, Alex Macfarlane recorded the band in their lounge room direct to 4 track, capturing 7 songs that would become their 2017 self titled cassette tape debut. The songs were bounced back and forth from tape machine to computer to tape machine to computer again. In keeping with the bands initial aesthetic, dubs were laid over a 4 month period incrementally on different devices as members had babies, explored intercontinental love affairs and set up homes together. Since the release of the tape, Adam Hewwit has joined the group on third guitar as they settle down into exploring the new band dynamic and focus on their next recording project.
The Stroppies is composed of members of many Melbourne and UK bands (Claudia is originally from London) including Dick Diver, Primetime, Possible Humans, White Walls, Boomgates, The Stevens, See/Saw to name a few. They make modest, idiosyncratic pop songs that reward with repeated listening.
Kaya Wilkins—under the moniker Okay Kaya—is one of indie label Jagjaguwar’s freshest faces, but her latest single “Baby Little Tween” puts the new artist right at the level of her beloved labelmates Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen. The single is just one piece of her debut project on Jagjaguwar, Watch This Liquid Pour Itself, which shows Wilkins coming to terms with a former identity.
Album opener “Baby Little Tween” rests upon delicate, watery synths that cradle Wilkins’ half-whispered realizations. As the song picks up into a groove, she self-harmonizes, singing, “I used to be inspired / Used to feel something / I used to fight the feeling always let it win.” Sung through Wilkins’ multiple voices, these lyrical bridges between her two identities become even more apparent.
Baby Little Tween’ from ‘Watch This Liquid Pour Itself’ by Okay Kaya, available January 24th, 2020 on Jagjaguwar
East London trio False Heads. Today I highlight the amazing new single, “Rabbit Hole,” off their upcoming debut full-length album, It’s All There But You’re Dreaming, out March 13th. We have been following the band for just about five years now and it has been so much fun to watch their rise into the punk-rock stratosphere.
The new song is just another taste of the ass-kicking music you can expect from a band that has zeroed in on the rock n’ roll bullseye painted by the many outstanding bands that came before them and destroys the target. These guys have taken the sound of the past and restructured that tried-and-true UK punk we all know and love to create music that signifies the best of what the genre has to offer in the new decade.
False Heads are Luke Griffiths (vocals/guitar), Jake Elliott (bass) and Barney Nash (drums), and I have said it a thousand times my friends… these guys are real deal rock n’ roll!
Born in the flatlands of Texas and raised in the jungles of South America, Jonathan Seale was dubbed “Son of Cloud” as a child by the Yukpa indigenous tribe of Venezuela. His self-titled LP, ten years in the making, explores questions related to his own family tribes – both the ones inherited and the ones created by choice.
On his debut album, Jonathan Seale, who performs under the name Son of Cloud, writes an extended ode to love. As Allen Ginsberg or Walt Whitman before him, Seale comments on the state of the world through his personal lens – but at the end of the day, the eponymous album is a romantic album. The album’s opening track “How to Love You Today” sets the scene for a record that explores both beauty and difficulty.
Son of Cloud’s self-titled debut album (released April 12th, 2019 via Mason Jar Music).
It sometimes still amazes me the joyful noise that two individuals can make. Illiterate Light first grabbed my attention through pure energy then slowly and surely drew me in with a combination of influences that struck the exact right chords. “Sometimes Love Takes So Long,” but it’s usually worth it.
Small-town organic farmers turned major label rock stars, Illiterate Light revel in stretching boundaries and upending expectations on their self-titled Atlantic Records debut, mixing soaring indie rock, swirling psychedelia, and atmospheric folk into a captivating blend that at once calls to mind everything from Neil Young and My Morning Jacket to Fleet Foxes and Band of Horses.
Recorded with producers Adrian Olsen (Foxygen, Natalie Prass) and Vance Powell (Jack White, Kings Of Leon, Chris Stapleton), the record is blissful and ecstatic, with raw electric guitars, propulsive drums, and shimmering harmonies capturing the power of the band’s remarkable live shows, which find Jeff Gorman simultaneously playing guitar with his hands and synth bass with his feet while his musical partner, Jake Cochran, plays a standup drum kit.
Hailed as “a perfect addition to your summertime playlist” by NPR, the band honed in on their distinctive sound and identity over years of relentless touring, earning dates along the way with the likes of Shakey Graves, Rayland Baxter, Mt. Joy, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, and The Head and The Heart in addition to high-profile festival slots
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1336629-1547386637-9048.jpeg.jpg)
