That’s the recurring sentiment Lætitia Tamko carried with her through the writing and recording of her second album under the Vagabon moniker. Her first, 2017’s Infinite Worlds, was an indie breakthrough that put her on the map, prompting Tamko to tour around the world and quit her job in electrical/computer engineering to pursue a career in music full-time. Tamko’s self-titled Nonesuch Records debut finds her in a state of creative expansion, leaning fully into some of the experimental instincts she flirted with on the previous album. This time around, she’s throwing genre to the wind. Vagabon is a vibrant culmination of influences, emotional landscapes, and moods; a colorful and masterful statement by an artist and producer stepping into her own.
Following her 2017 debut Infinite Worlds, Vagabon (aka Laetitia Tamko) became one of the most distinct voices in indie rock. Her husky alto is warm and unforgettable. Now add indie pop to that faction of genres. Her next album, a self-titled effort, breezes through synthy breakdowns and horn numbers with ease, never content to be just one thing. Tamko’s voice remains each song’s focal point, especially on the bouncing pop numbers, but the album as a whole feels most like a low-lit mood. Hypnotic and transportive, Vagabon feels even more like Tamko’s arrival than her warmly received debut.
Presently I have a very particular flag atop my fortress of music, and one of the stars on that flag belongs to Matthew Ryan. my favourite bands still are, artists like The Alarm, The Blasters, The Clash, Elvis Costello, Prince, The Replacements, The Smiths, Springsteen, U2, The Waterboys, X…while diverse in sound and presentation, each brought something to the fore in their work, an urgency, a commitment, a sense they were communing with like-minded souls in whose hearts their work would find homes. C.S. Lewis said, “we read to know we are not alone.” These bands served this same purpose. Their albums were, and still are comfort and company, necessity and sustenance.
Matthew Ryan continues to be one of the few artists creating great music out of our strange historical moment, struggling to provide us with understanding, catharsis, faith, hope, and beauty out of unsettling times. Now, he is releasing a new EP, Fallen Ash & Embers.
Now Springsteen of course reaches back to the Sixties, as this was when he began writing and performing with bands like The Castiles and Steel Mill, but these other artists so dear to my heart also reach back to this pivotal decade regardless of their age. The Sixties gave us a naïve and hopeful idea that rock music could change our lives, and the world, that it was worthy of our passion and devotion, that it was on par with any other art form – film, literature, photography, etc.
Which brings us to Matthew Ryan. It wasn’t enough that May Day, released in 1997, was a near-perfect debut, he covered The Waterboys’ “We Will Not Be Lovers.” His version packed all the wallop of the original, and I knew we would be fellow travelers. In the more than twenty years since May Day, Ryan has produced album after album of the kind of rock music we bastards of young were weaned on: earnest and honest, impassioned and propulsive, melodic and, above all else, thoughtful. In the context of a rock and roll song, perhaps this means some things hurt more than cars and girls? That the speech of the heart is inarticulate? More than two decades on Matthew Ryan continues to rock the Casbah.
The three-song EP is “inspired by the moment we’re in, but not tied to. It’s more interested in who we’ll be after this fever breaks.”
The first song on the EP asks the question “Are You the Matador?” The song came out of a poem Ryan wrote that he later matched to music written by Doug Lancio that Ryan describes as “Spanish noir.” Ryan explains that he offers the song of “inclusion” with “acknowledgement, affection, thanks and welcoming to Hispanic and Latino people, and their cultures.”
Ryan’s got a new maxi-single out, “On Our Death Day” (he says it’s not as dark as it sounds), which also includes a Leonard Cohen cover and B-Side, “And It’s Such a Drag” (there should always be a B-Side). He’s also got an ongoing electronica collaboration, Summer Kills, with Nashville neighbors Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson of Hammock , He just goes marching on. Hear his sound, hear his voice, he’s growing stronger… “There’s always a good fight and beauty available,” he says. “part of my mission has been to dismantle mythology and still be lit up by mystery.”
Stereo Embers Magazine
“And It’s Such A Drag (2019 Band Version)” was Performed by Doug Lancio, Kelley Looney, Matthew Ryan and Aaron “The A-Train” Smith
Fallen Ash & Embers will be released October 4th, 2019
Caroline Polachek (formerly of the band Chairlift) is releasing a new solo album, “Pang”, on October 18th via Columbia Records . This week she shared another song from the album, “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings.”
Previously Polachek shared three songs from Pang. “Ocean of Tears” and “Parachute” were shared when the album was announced, with “Ocean of Tears” making our Songs of the Week list in many blogging lists. Then she shared a video for “Ocean of Tears.” The album also includes the previously shared single “Door.”
For Pang Polachek has collaborated with producer/composer Danny L Harle. “Parachute” was the first song written for the album, with lyrics inspired by a dream Polachek had “in which she accepts her own death only to find herself saved,” as a press release puts it.
“It was an incredible moment, realizing that this melody we’d written was unintentionally re-telling a dream I’d been shaken by,” says Polachek in the press release. “I went home, re-drafted the words to fit, and came back to the studio at 1am to record the vocal the same day. And that’s the take we kept. From that moment on, Dan and I knew we had a lot more work to do together.”
Polachek adds: “‘Parachute’ is about the total trust that only comes with total emergency. Like a mayfly trying its wings for the first time over a large body of water full of hungry fish… and the wings work.”
“Ocean of Tears” was the last song written for the album. The song was written by Caroline Polachek, NateCampany, and Kyle Shearer and produced by Caroline Polachek, Danny L Harle, and Valley Girl, with additional production by A. G. Cook.
In the press release Polachek says, “‘Ocean of Tears’ is dedicated to the sharp pain of being in love with someone far away, and the maddening doubt that comes with it.”
She adds: “I’d really like someone to figure skate to this at the 2022 Winter Olympics.”
Pang will be Polachek’s first album released under her own name, although she did release, Arcadia, a solo album as Ramona Lisa, in 2014, as well as an instrumental Ramona Lisa album, Drawing the Target Around the Arrow in 2017. Chairlift announced in 2016 that they were splitting up and they played some final shows in 2017.
Half Moon Run’s newest single, “Flesh and Blood”, balances gorgeous harmonies with strikingly clean acoustic guitar and honest lyrics. The song is about learning to love someone and learning to accept love, both from yourself and others. The powerful song, from their upcoming album “A Blemish In The Great Light”, perfectly captures the band’s indie rock sound, with foot-tapping guitar and percussion as well as refreshing piano and guitar melodies. Half Moon Run a video to accompany Flesh and Blood on September 16th, which will showcase the band members’ relationships with each other and provide viewers a glimpse at the creative processes used to craft the song and album.
Half Moon Run’s new album, “A Blemish In The Great Light”,
Band Members
Devon Portielje, Conner Molander, Dylan Phillips, Isaac Symonds
Music Video for “Flesh and Blood” by Half Moon Run
On Friday, emerging singer-songwriter Katie Pruitt released a new single entitled “Expectations” as well as a corresponding music video. The single is the first off of Pruitt’s debut album coming from Rounder Records. While the details of the album haven’t been released, Pruitt has garnered enough buzz and excitement from her live shows and 2018’s OurVinyl Live EP that this name-yet-to-be-revealed record could be an electrifying debut.
The single demonstrates what Pruitt does best: blend indie rock, Americana and solid songwriting. With a sound that can almost be compared to Pinegrove meets Lori McKenna, “Expectations” is a feel good song that fits right into Pruitt’s canon of addressing human topics such as religion, mental health, and love. It’s hard not to feel a sense of relief when you hear Pruitt’s smooth voice exclaim:
“Some days I don’t know who to trust / In the rain my spirit starts to rust / she said ‘you’re being way too generous / with all the fucks you’re giving.’”
Katie Pruitt is the newest star of modern Americana. She grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta with a conservative family, attending Catholic school. “Expectations” carries us through her self-discovery away from home, as she comes to terms with her sexuality and navigates the transition to adulthood. “I wanted to be honest / I wanted to be brave,” she sings on the track, “Georgia,” “But if my grandmother knew / She would roll in her grave / And my father would scream / He’d scream out in rage / He did not want a daughter whose soul wasn’t saved.” The tension that defined her coming-of-age is translated perfectly into music; her voice glides with ease the tone of a lullaby to that of a rock song, while the band seems to hang on each word. It’s not often that you see a debut record that introduces an artist so perfectly both musically and personally; each song is purposeful and necessary to tell Pruitt’s story.
Katie Pruitt – Expectations from the forthcoming album “Expectations”, out 2/21/20 on Rounder Records
Ten years into the life of Quaker City Night Hawks, David Matsler and Sam Anderson had to stop and think about what they were doing. After three albums of fuzzed-out blues-rock, the last of which — 2016’s El Astronauta — was a sci-fi-themed concept record, Quaker City Night Hawks needed a new drummer and bassist. So they did what any self-respecting rock band would do: They got heavier — and weirder.
“We have a completely different set of weapons now and that opens so many doors for us,” says Anderson, who shares singing and guitar-playing duties with Matsler, from a hotel room in Wichita, Kansas. He’s sitting between Matsler and the band’s new drummer, Aaron Haynes, all three of whom are wearing sunglasses, even though the blinds are drawn behind them. “As many different genres as we touch on — as scatterbrained as we are — it’s going to get even worse. I’m excited about that.”
There are no overt themes on Quaker City Night Hawks latest LP, titled simply QCNH, other than that of a band that’s found its literal and metaphorical grooves. But the album, the band’s second with Nashville label Lightning Rod Records, is the Forth Worth, Texas, quartet’s most musically ambitious, scrubbing away the overdriven guitars of records past for a cleaner, rougher sound. There may be fewer UFO sightings, but Quaker City Night Hawks stretches into several spaced-out interludes. It even includes some honest-to-goodness ballads.
Those last two additions should come as no surprise for a pair of guys who got their start playing open-mic nights in Lubbock a decade and a half ago. “We were pulling our hair out on the songwriter circuit, getting paid in soup and coffee instead of cash,” remembers Anderson. He and Matsler eventually migrated east to Fort Worth, where, after playing in separate projects, they came together to form QCNH. “You do that songwriter stuff so long that you get this pent-up aggression where you just want to be fucking loud for a little bit and not care if people can talk over it — because they can’t,” says Anderson.
That, in essence, has been the band’s driving influence ever since. Getting started, however, meant learning how to stretch things out, with weekly residencies that lasted three or four hours at a time. Anderson remembers one particular “shithole” bar where they had one of their first recurring gigs. “We’d do two hour-and-a-half to two-hour sets with wet T-shirt contests and turtle races in between. They’d have 30-cent hurricanes,” he says, laughing and shaking his head. “We really got to test how badly we wanted to be in a rock & roll band at that point.”
Though Haynes, who also plays drums for the Texas Gentlemen, is new to the lineup since El Astronauta, he’s hardly new to QCNH. “I have a weird perspective because I was there when this band started,” he says, pointing out that he’d played with Anderson in a previous band. Not surprisingly, Haynes has slotted in with ease. “It’s fun to play drums in a slightly more primal way. Really, that’s how they were intended. The nuance of drums is great, but sometimes you just need to tell ’em what you’re thinking, and the one way to do that is to play hard, play heavy.”
Together with new bassist Maxwell Smith, Haynes has helped lock in a tight rhythm section on QCNH, one that swings as well as swaggers. As a point of reference, the new lineup reprises “Fox in the Henhouse,” originally the leadoff track to their second album, Honcho. Haynes’ fills and hi-hats are especially prominent on the sludgy “Hunter’s Moon,” but never is the new dynamic more apparent than on “Suit in the Back,” a souped-up boogie about the unglamorous side of being a touring band — i.e. getting busted for drugs. “That, for me, is the closest we’ve gotten to this dance-y, even disco-type thing, mixed with rock & roll,” says Anderson.
Life on the road pops up on a far different song, “Colorado,” a dreamlike ballad written by Matlser that weaves in and out of border crossings and desert wastelands, tinged by the enticing, far-off mirage of packing it all in and heading for California. Matlser stretches things out even further on the surreal “Elijah Ramsey,” a dystopian prog-rock epic that gets turned inside-out by its companion piece, the comparatively jagged “Grackle King,” which together form a 10-minute suite on the back end of the record.
Not that the band is about to retreat from the pure, unadulterated fun of making lots and lots of noise. If anything, they’re ready to double down, feeling all the more emboldened by their first trip to Europe, where they played in support of fellow Southern rockers Blackberry Smoke and will be returning later in the year. Playing overseas, they found audiences who weren’t so quick to compare them to ZZ Top or to call them Lynyrd Skynyrd lookalikes.
In All Weather is a new collection of songs, in which she goes it alone; musically, as this is her first solo record, and in her own life, laid bare and played out in the leave-it-all-behind-and-start-anew nature of the lyrics.
“Learning to sail in all weather, the line from which the album title comes, is what we are all trying to do,” Josienne explains. “To right ourselves when things feel turbulent and uncertain. How to correct your course and stay true to the things you believe and need and let all the rest go.” Fans of Josienne Clarke’s previous melancholic chamber-folk duo will recognise her uniquely sorrowful and jewel-like vocal style. But these new songs were sung and played by Josienne in the manner they’ve always been written; emotionally raw, immediate and unvarnished. Gone are the duo’s grandiose arrangements; Josienne accompanies herself on pared-back acoustic and electric guitar throughout. She’s joined on the record by experimental piano prodigy Elliott Galvin, innovative jazz drummer Dave Hamblett, celebrated Scottish harpist Mary Ann Kennedy and guitarist/bassist Sonny Johns (best known for his work with Fatoumata Diawara & Polar Bear) who co-produced the record with Josienne at Watercolour Studios in Fort William, Scotland.
Singer and songwriter, BBC Folk Award winner. Committed harbinger of melancholy. “Sings like a haunted angel”
Taken from Josienne Clarke’s forthcoming solo album ‘In All Weather’, out 8th November.
Everything Else Has Gone Wrong is the eagerly anticipated follow-up to the British band’s acclaimed number 1 charting, Mercury Music Prize nominated fourth album, So Long, See You Tomorrow released back in 2014.
The new album was largely recorded out in the US alongside Grammy Award winning producer John Congleton (St. Vincent / Sharon Van Etten / War on Drugs). It features the band’s euphoric new single, Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You).
Speaking of the record’s title, vocalist/guitarist Jack Steadman explains: “This is an album for anyone who’s ever turned to music in a time of need. It’s about the solace one can get from listening to music or playing music. For me personally it’s about the frustration of not being able to express myself to others, of leaving conversations feeling dissatisfied and misunderstood. Music’s the way I’m able to truly express myself”.
Bombay Bicycle Club have continued to grow, develop and evolve since the release of their debut album, I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose, back in 2009 when they signalled their arrival as young teenagers. Rarely in recent years has there been a British guitar band who have the craft and ability to avoid categorisation whilst uniting hundreds of thousands of fans across the globe. With an innate ear for melody and invention, the four-piece are a very welcome return to the fold just as British guitar music makes a timely renaissance.
Band Members
jack steadman – vocals, guitars
jamie maccoll – guitars
suren de saram – drums
ed nash – bass
Both Vinyl versions come with a Limited Print, Everything Else Has Gone Wrong, out 17th January 2020
Black Belt Eagle Scout – the project led by multi-instrumentalist Katherine Paul – announces her sophomore album, “At the Party With My Brown Friends”, is out now. At the Party With My Brown Friends is the follow up to Mother of My Children – “a compact reflection on loss, queer desire, and the endurance of sacred native traditions” (Pitchfork, Best Rock Albums of 2018). The album was inspired by the reciprocal love Paul has experienced in the last few years. Throughout, she conveys a sense of community and connection, dealing with love, desire, and friendship.
At the Party With My Brown Friends is a profound and understated forward-step. The squalling guitar anthems that shaped its predecessor are replaced by delicate vocals and soft keys, sentiments spoken and unspoken, presenting something shadowy and unsettling; a stirring of the waters. Paul recalls specific memories – an impromptu beach trip with her friend Haley Heynderickx, her eternal love for her mother, and leaving one love and desperately wanting to find another. The end result presents a captivating about-face that redefines Paul’s singular artistic vision
Black Belt Eagle Scout – My Heart Dreams Directed by Angel Two Bulls and Katherine Paul from the album At the Party With My Brown Friends Out August 30th, 2019!
I have for you today a live performance with lyrics of the title track of my upcoming record “Literally Main Street”! If you’ve had to hide who you are and how you feel, for reasons big or small, this song is for you. While we were shooting the “Ding Dong Scrambled Eggs” music video our director, Dan Fromhart, wanted to “grab something else” in the kitchen of the studio. He meant another look for the video, I thought he meant a whole bonus song. After we cleared up the confusion he was kind enough to indulge me and here we are. I’m really proud of the lyrics on this one so I wrote them out by hand and threw them up there—never thought my chicken scratch would be useful but I think the scrappiness suits this vibe. The album itself is literally called ‘Literally Main Street.’ It’s Anderson’s main street, his friends and loved ones, but the sentiments created can be found within any individual, sometimes in glimmers and other times in bounds.
I’ve talked at some length about this album exploring the town I grew up in, the characters I grew up with, and where life took them in the past 20 years or so. I think it’s only fair that one of those characters gets to be me :). There’s a lot of mystery and superstition around white lighters–smokers and stoners the world over seem to think they’re bad luck. This is in part because of a (I’m sure erroneous) rumor that famous musicians like Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain had them in their pockets when they died. As someone now firmly older than those folks I wanted to write a song about the trails and tribulations, but also the virtues and joys, of still grinding on your little band into your 30s. It’s a song about keeping the dream alive and keeping things that are precious to you at the center of your life despite the literal and figurative costs. However it manifests in your life, I hope you are all keeping the white lighter lit.
I’ve talked at some length about how this album explores the town I grew up in, the characters I grew up with, and where life took them in the past 20 years or so. I think it’s only fair that one of those characters gets to be me. There’s a lot of mystery and superstition around white lighters–smokers and stoners the world over seem to think they’re bad luck. This is in part because of a (I’m sure erroneous) rumor that famous musicians like Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain had them in their pockets when they died.
Sometimes the things that stick with us are not lightning quick and powerful, but slow wheeling, calculated and intricately placed. It may take a little longer to realize what’s in front of you, but with the right view, a slower and less predictable path reveals much more than you ever could have imagined.
Singer/songwriter Eric Anderson, the Idaho native who is the voice and mind behind Seattle-based band Cataldo, knows the potency of a slow building storm, and he knows exactly how to craft and release his own tempest — the most recent being his newest album ‘Literally Main Street,’ out September. 27th. And, like a bird above the storm, he reflects on things with a particularly unique view, perched far above but still with plain sight of everything below.
