A year ago, Melbourne musician Grace Cummings started playing her own songs armed with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a harmonica. She has since fascinated local Melbourne audiences as she sings simple and honest songs with a powerful recklessness. Within a year she has shared bills with the likes of J Mascis and Do Re Mi as well as a breakout performance Boogie Festival. Her very first collection of solo songs will be released by Flightless Records in late 2019.
Grace comments ,A little while ago I started playing my own songs and writing more and more of them.
I went over to Jesse Williams’ house and recorded a bunch of solo songs in an afternoon… These have become my first album.
I am lucky enough to have it put out by Flightless Records who are the absolute coolest. The album ‘Refuge Cove’ comes out November 1st.
Over a month after sharing “Best Laid Plans” from her sophomore album as Harmony Woods, Sofia Verbilla is rewarding our patience with one more single from “Make Yourself at Home” in the form of that track’s sequel, the equally heartfelt “Best Laid Plans II.” Where the former detailed the first cracks in a young relationship, the latter explores the tension that arises when this rift can no longer be ignored.
“This song is the culmination of all the angst and tension that has built up since the two characters have realized they may not be right for each other,” Verbilla explains. “Moments from the first ‘Best Laid Plans’ are echoed as the narrator realizes that giving into this infatuation early on was not the best idea. They genuinely care about the other person, and they want things to feel good again, but they ultimately attempt to postpone this fight because they know deep down it will lead to the end.”
“Months ago, I promised you / I would never dare to let us go to bed angry / Can you feel the resentment building?” sings someone who definitely listens to both boygenius and Paramore.
Kurt Vile exudes a casualness at the Tiny Desk in his style and body language that is so unlike most anxious artists who come to play behind my desk. Sure, he’s done this Tiny Desk thing before, with Courtney Barnett. But even then, I remember thinking that he’s got something else on his mind — and it made me laugh this time around when Kurt played his opening tune, “Bassackwards,” and sang these words: “I was on the beach but I was thinking about the bay / Got to the bay but by then I was far away.” That idea of being one place and thinking about another, for me, also connects to the way he plays guitar.
He seems distracted, yet the complex guitar lines he so nonchalantly plays, along with his musical mate Rob Laakso, are effortlessly beautiful and lyrical. After they played two new tunes from Kurt Vile’s latest record, “Bottle It In”, Kurt goes solo on an older, self-described “juvenile” song from long ago, recently revived during his Courtney Barnett collaboration last year. “Peeping Tomboy” has its own schizophrenic issues as Kurt sings, “I don’t wanna change but I don’t wanna stay the same / I don’t wanna go but I’m runnin’ / I don’t wanna work but I don’t wanna sit around / All day frownin’.” On the surface, it all can seem just chill. But there’s a lot of rumination in these songs — and even when he’s gazing into the overhead office lights, I think he got his mind on the stars and the world at large.
Set List: “Bassackwards” “Loading Zones” “Peeping Tomboy” Musicians Kurt Vile – vocals, guitar Rob Laakso – guitar
Kurt Vile released a new album, “Bottle It In”, back in October 2018 via Matador Records. Among our Top Albums for that year. Now he has announced some more tour dates. He has also covered The Rolling Stones’ “NoExpectations” in a session for Spotify, where he also performed his own “Loading Zones.”
Matador Records is now sharing a little behind-the-scenes info on the project in the form of a twenty-minute documentary detailing Vile’s experience leading up to its recording. Filmed in New York’s Catskill Mountains, (bottle back) follows Vile as he rehearses the songs that would appear on Bottle It In alongside Canadian alt-westerners The Sadies and guitarist/producer Matt Sweeney, as well as his band The Violators.
In addition to full-song footage of Vile playing through “Baby’s Arm,” “Bassackwards,” and “Check Baby,” (bottle) provides plenty of insight into the artist’s personal life and how he’s learned to balance raising a family with a prolific output of new music. “I basically would do a whole album cycle, then start a new record and go out again when the record was done,” he says at one point before swigging a beer. “I just get so deep into the record that I can’t stomach that ever again—I’ll puke. I just gotta live my life, make music in between everything else—family world, playing live, and otherwise. It’s just the way I live.”
You can watch the Ryan Scott–directed doc in its entirety below, and stream the new version of “Baby’s Arm”.
Bottle It In includes “Loading Zones,” a new song Vile shared in August 2018 via an amusing video for it, When the album was announced Vile shared the near 10-minute long “Bassackwards,” via a lyric video for the song. Then he shared another song from the album, “One Trick Ponies,” via a lyric video for the song. He also stopped by SiriusXM for a session covering Tom Petty’s “Learning to Fly” and perform “Bassackwards.”
Then he stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! to perform “Loading Zones.” He also shared a non-album track, “Timing Is Everything (And I’m Falling Behind),” which was an Amazon Original. Vile also performed another session for NPR Music to performing three songs as part of their Tiny Desk Concert series, where he did “Bassackwards,” “Loading Zones,” and “Peeping Tomboy.” Then he stopped by Late Night with Seth Meyers to perform the album’s “Yeah Bones.”
“Bottle It In” was the follow-up to 2015’s b’lieve i’m goin down…, although in 2017 Vile teamed up with CourtneyBarnett for a collaborative album, Lotta Sea Lice. Bottle It In was recorded over the course of two years in various cities (including Los Angeles, Brooklyn, and Portland), with various producers (including Rob Schnapf, Shawn Everett, and Rob Laakso, a member of his backing band The Violators). The majority of Bottle It Inwas recorded at Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with Peter Katis (Interpol, the National) engineering and producing. The album also features Cass McCombs, Kim Gordon, Mary Lattimore, Lucius, Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa, and Farmer Dave Scher.
“Carnage Bargain” would earn its stripes for being a million times better than a garage record has any right to be in 2019, but hooray for The Paranoyds for putting brains in front of bubblegum. The L.A. band are here to please with their house show-ready mix of glossy new wave and DIY garage punk, all delivered with the cheeky raised eyebrow of pre-Lilith fair alternative girl rock, every beautifully produced track going down like cold diet soda. But the band also consistently delight with how much thought they’ve put into their songs, and the chops they bring to their playing.
The Paranoyds offer up both glittery sunny California vibes and serious anti-consumerist messaging without putting their finger on the scale either way, and they do it without resorting to internet-speak or instantly dated cultural reference points. We’re all trying to be good citizens but sometimes you want to hide (“Bear”) and sometimes you’re just trying to do laundry in 103 degree heat, man (“Laundry.”) “Girlfriend Degree” lightly wheedles women who rely entirely on men—some people probably won’t think it’s funny or cool, but whatever—however the band nails it on “Courtney,” a rainbow-hued art pop ode to female economic freedom that sparkles as brightly as its protagonist.
October 25th marks the release of the latest in Omnivore’s ongoing Big Star series: an expanded reissue of the band’s 2005 album “In Space”. In four short years, Big Star created three cult classic albums. Their legend grew over the years, and in 1993 – nearly two decades after disbanding – Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens collaborated with The Posies’ Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow for a one-off performance.
This led to a well-received tour, which led to years of concert performances. A decade later, they surprised everybody with a new studio album, 2005’s In Space. The well-received 12-song set included ten new originals and two covers and was recorded in the fabled Ardent Studios, where Big Star began. The album was originally released on Ryko and received a limited vinyl run on DBK Works. Now, the album will return to vinyl on translucent blue wax and will be expanded on CD to the tune of six bonus tracks. Among them are five unissued demos and alternate mixes, plus the 2003 reunion track “Hot Thing,” previously available on the out-of-print Ryko comp, Big Star Story. The packaging will include notes from Supermegabot’s Jeff Rougvie, formerly of Ryko A&R, plus recollections from Jon Auer, Ken Stringfellow, Jody Stephens, engineer Adam Hill, and co-producer Jeff Powell (who also cut the new vinyl edition).
Released in 2005, Big Star’s reunion albumIn Spacehas been ignored by some fans, and derided by others. Now some 14 years on, Omnivore Recordings has decided to bring this album back into the spotlight for a much needed reappraisal.
In order to really get a handle on this album, I think it’s important to understand the context. After the group’s implosion in 1974 following the chaotic sessions that would eventually be released as the group’s third and final album, the group’s only two remaining members Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens would part ways. While each would remain involved in music, there seemed little hope that in spite of the cult that had begun to sprung up around the music of Big Star that a reunion would ever happen. That all changed in 1993.
Sporadic reunion gigs followed over the ensuing years. But, other than a one-off track, “Hot Thing,” that the lineup cut for a somewhat ill-fated tribute album,Big Star, Small World, in 1997 (eventually the track ended up making it’s debut on the out-of-print Ryko compilation Big Star Story when the company behind the tribute went belly up), at any rate no one expected a new album. So when the notoriously contrarian Chilton suggested the group record some new songs, I can imagine everyone including his bandmates were somewhat shocked.
Convening in Memphis at the legendary Ardent Studios where Big Star recorded their 1970’s recordings; the plan was to write and record a song a day. At the end of the day, In Spacefeatured 12 tracks (10 originals and 2 covers) with songwriting contributions from all members. I remember there was an almost immediate feeling of disappointment upon the albums’ release. Stringfellow later recalled: “The album was released in 2005 and a year later we found ourselves on the main stage of Primavera Sound, a prestigious music festival in Barcelona. Some 10,000 people in the crowd. Before we played ‘Hung Up on Summer’ Alex addressed the crowd: ‘Here’s a song from our latest album . . . you know, it totallybombed— just like the other ones! But don’t worry . . . 30 years from now you’ll be saying it’s the greatest thing ever!’”
In retrospect, I think perhaps we, as fans of the group might have been a bit harsh. Is it a record that scales to the heights that any of the first three Big Star albums do? The short answer is unfortunately, no. But that doesn’t mean the album doesn’t have some nice moments that do a great job of honoring the group’s prior work while pushing the group into some new sonic territory.In Spaceis a seriously frontloaded album with its first four tracks representing the best the album has to offer. Kicking off with “Dony,” a tune that boasts a crisp autumnal twin guitar groove with Chilton’s vocal delivery a sort of professor hulk amalgamation of all of his various personas from blue-eyed soul crooner, to lounge lizard to reluctant power pop icon. “Lady Sweet,” drizzles a little bit of daisy glaze on the proceedings that recall some ofRadio City‘s hazier moments, “Best Chance,” is classic Jody Stephens power pop optimism in the same mode as Big Star’s3rdstandout “For You.” While “Turn My Back on the Sun,” is a pitch perfect Beach Boys pastiche. Which makes perfect sense given Chilton’s affection for America’s band, and Big Star 2.0’s penchant for covering “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” live.
After those first four tracks (which would have made a killer EP on their own, mind you), let’s just say your results will vary based on your level of fandom and affection for some of Chilton’s more subversive impulses such as the disco romp, “Love Revolution,” or quirky covers of The Olympics’ “Mine Exclusively” and French baroque composer Georg Muffat’s “Aria, Largo.” While the jam oriented album closer “Makeover,” is a bit of a half-baked commentary on consumerism.
In some ways, it was impossible for Big Star to ever make an album equal to that untouchable trio of 1970’s releases. Those were different times, after all. The guys who recordedIn Spacewere different people in some cases literally, and other cases metaphorically. That doesn’t diminish some of the great music you might discover on here if you open your mind, and adjust your expectations a bit. It’s still Big Star, and although no one knew it at the time, this was their last time to shine.
Based on your current station in our technological age, Death Valley Girls’ fusion of feral proto-punk, ‘70s scuzz dirges, and third eye mysticism is either completely at odds with your worldview or utterly revelatory. Words like “retro” or “old school” convey a starry eyed nostalgia that do a disservice to the band’s harnessing of primal instrumentation and communal reverberations—if something in Death Valley Girls’ sound harkens to the past, it’s only in an attempt to dislodge us from the static of the present. That dedication to lifting the veil of modern illusions continues with their current single “Dream Cleaver”—a rousing anthem in praise of psychonaut and ethnobotonist Terrence McKenna, his research on “the spirit molecule” DMT, and the possibility of trans-dimensional travel. Lest one thinks that this is some blissed out cosmic ride on new age synth pads, be aware that “Dream Cleaver” is an unapologetic stone-cold rocker—an unabashed orgy of Farfisa organ hooks, Larry Schemels’ hypnotic and propulsive guitar chords, hallucinatory sax lines, and Bonnie Bloomgarden’s call-to-arms vocals. If you need to get elevated, take a three-minute dose of “Dream Cleaver”.
Quickly becoming one of the year’s break-out new acts, Dry Cleaning garnered near universal acclaim for their debut EP, “Sweet Princess”. Wasting no time, the band are set to return with their second offering, Boundary Road Snacks And Drinks, when both EPs are pressed together on a 12″ vinyl out later this month. This week the band have detailed a headline tour for early next year, alongside sharing brand new single, Viking Hair.
Viking Hair is a tribute to passing attraction, how romantic ideas can spring into your head even when the person is just a stranger with particularly good hair, “she’s beautiful she’s got Viking hair, she’s a tragic heroine, I’m in love”.
This tale is interwoven with the sort of stream of consciousness lyricism that’s quickly becoming the bands trademark; the words seem easily distracted from the songs central narrative, like a modern mind unable to focus entirely on any one thing. Musically, it’s built around repetitive angular guitar lines and clattering drums beats, coming across like the middle ground of Arab Strap and Wire. Alternatively, like the band themselves, you might just be reminded of line-dancing and decide to go and film a video at your local..
Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks is out October 25th
Ohio-based songwriter Ashley Rhodus, aka Wished Bone and her track, Hold Me. That was the first offering from Ashley’s upcoming album, “Sap Season”, and this week she’s shared the record’s second single, Trees We Couldn’t Tell The Size Of.
The track was inspired by a road trip through the Pacific Northwest, as Ashley explained, “I noticed that the trees lining the highway looked like they could be the size of the a mailbox or a car or a house all at once. This kind of scale trickery hits me often and in different ways”. This feeling seems to permeate the song, Ashley questioning the universe’s ability to make things feel both huge and minuscule, “am I the kind of girl you marry? Am I something temporary? Am I better inside of your memory?” Musically, it’s a delightfully hushed affair, all steady drum tick and gorgeous muted guitar strum, as Ashley’s vocal manages to simultaneously meld into the track and leap out from it in equal measure. It’s a track that continues to hone Wished Bones’ way with atmosphere, her ability to merge the mundane and the beautiful, intricate sketches of everyday living and enjoying wherever the journey will take her.
Ode To Joy. Featuring 11 new songs written and produced by Tweedy and recorded by Wilco at The Loft (Chicago, IL) in January 2019, Tweedy and Glenn Kotche were the launching pad from which most of the songs on Ode To Joy materialized – Kotche’s percussion propels the music forward while Tweedy’s measured words flesh out the cleared paths. As a result, the album is comprised of “really big, big folk songs, these monolithic, brutal structures that these delicate feelings are hung on,” notes Tweedy. Across the entire album, drums pound and plod with a steady one – two pulse, meant to mimic the movement of marching – a powerful act utilized on both sides of the authoritarian wall. There’s also a sense of comfort that comes with the rhythmic marching sound.
The album largely does away with conventional rock and folk song structures; instead, it embraces spare, impressionistic arrangements—often led by booming, elemental percussion—to create one of the moodiest and most haunting records in Wilco’s catalog, more movingly understated than the experimental Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and darker than the uptempo Americana of Sky Blue Sky. “For this record, we tried to intuit rock music pretending we hadn’t heard any…we’d tell each other what we wanted to hear,” Tweedy says. And while he is quick to acknowledge that the band didn’t exactly “reinvent rock music,” it does sound, to a certain degree, like they reinvented Wilco. As Ode to Joy makes clear, from the tense and restrained opening track “Bright Leaves”—which hangs glimmering sonic textures on thumping drums like ornaments on a Christmas tree—all the way through “An Empty Corner,” the mysterious heart-wrenching waltz that closes the album, Wilco have built nothing less than a world unto itself;
“Ode to Joy” – Wilco’s 11th studio album – will be released October. 4th, 2019 via dBpm Records. The album features 11 new songs written and produced by Jeff Tweedy and recorded by Wilco at The Loft (Chicago, IL) in January 2019. “Everyone Hides” is the second single from the forthcoming release.
