In 2011, Vivian Girls were written off by the only indie music outlet that mattered. Of their third and thought-to-be final album Share the Joy (the band officially broke up in January 2014), Pitchfork wrote that it was “more admirable for its willingness to stretch than its execution.” They called singer and guitarist Cassie Ramone’s riffs “flat and stiff as dry spaghetti,” and declared that “there are an increasing number of bands beating Vivian Girls at their own game.” Prior to that dissertation, Pitchfork had awarded Vivian Girls’ self-titled debut album Best New Music and ranked it sixteenth on their 50 Best Albums of 2008 list.
Now, after a five-year break, Vivian Girls are back with one of this year’s most consistent rock records. From the opening bars on “Most of All,” the first track on new album Memory, it’s clear the band had nothing to prove at all. Memory picks up where the trio left off in 2011, drenching sweet, bubblegum melodies in distortion and reverb. This time, though, the band is tighter than ever. The lo-fi quality of their early records has been replaced by a slick studio polish. Bassist Katy Goodman says they wanted Memory to sound like “three people playing the songs as hard and fast as they could together, like a tight power trio.”
The dream-pop heavyweights Vivian Girls came out of the woodwork earlier this summer to announce their first new album in eight years. Memory marks the band’s first return to performing as a trio since parting ways in 2014, and welcomes back their core lineup of vocalist-bassist Katy Goodman, vocalist-guitarist Cassie Ramone and drummer Ali Koehler. Described as an album filled with personal reflections on toxic relationships, mental health struggles and accepting oneself, Memory captures a sense of desperation and longing and the “trademark mystery that set the band apart during its first incarnation,” per a press release.
The new album from Vivian Girls’ new full length album, Memory, out September 20th, 2019.
Moral Fibre and Hollow Thing the first two singles taken from the new album are out now! with a further single scheduled from album #2 – produced by Luke Smith (Foals, Everything Everything, Depeche Mode) and mixed by Claudius Mettendorfer (Parquet Courts, Yak, Weezer). A follow-up to LIFE’s successful, self-released debut ‘Popular Music’ which was included in Radio 1’s best albums of 2017.
A Picture Of Good Health’ – will be with you on the 20th of September & released on own label Afghan Moon in partnership with PIAS.
“this record is indispensable” – DIY (4.5/5)
“tightly wound guitars and lyrical zingers combine for maximum ’80s Peel session effect” – MOJO (4/5)
“it’s the album the Hull punks deserve” – Upset (4/5)
“a thunderous reminder of why guitar music is mankind’s greatest creation” – Dork (4/5)
“One of the only saving graces of the omnishambles of a time we live in is the emergence of bands that have something to be genuinely angry about. Few bands better epitomise that than LIFE” – NARC (4.5/5)
Molly Sarlé is one-third of the folk trio Mountain Man, but she steps into the spotlight on her first solo album, Karaoke Angel. Across its 10 tracks, she explores sexuality, vulnerability, self-determination, and the cathartic power of karaoke. She recorded the album with Sam Evian, who also produced the record, in Woodstock, New York.
Mountain Man are a very special band because not only are Molly Sarlé, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Meath great as a group, but they’re also all creators of other accomplished projects. Meath is one-half of synth-pop duo Sylvan Esso, Sauser-Monnig makes thoughtful folk music under the alias Daughter of Swords, and Sarlé writes stunning, roomy songs under her own name. Sarlé’s new album Karaoke Angel was written and recorded over the span of three years and as many places, from a trailer in Big Sur to home in North Carolina to a studio in Woodstock, N.Y.
The debut solo album from Sarlé (1/3 of Mountain Man) is finally here! Karaoke Angel is a cathartic intimate record with melodies that will stick in your head for days.Sarlé explores heavy topics like addiction, suicide, and sexuality with touches of humor and droves of empathy.
“Twisted” is from Molly Sarlé’s new album, Karaoke Angel, out 9.20.19 on Partisan Records.
The White Stripes played their final concert at the Snowden Grove Amphitheater in Southaven, Mississippi 12 years ago. Now, their full recorded performance is accessible for the first time ever, The White Stripes: Live in Mississippi is available to stream and download via Nugs.net, and it features the band’s 20-song set from July 31st, 2007, along with a four-song encore. Tracks include “Icky Thump,” “In the Cold, Cold Night,” “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” and more.
The White Stripes’ archivist and Third Man Records co-founder Ben Blackwell posted a statement on Nugs.net recalling the group’s final performance, and the moment he realized it would be their last. Find Blackwell’s full post along with the White Stripes’ hand-written setlist from the show here.
“I can’t even tell you how much it means for me to be here tonight…so I’m not even gonna bother”
–Jack White, July 31st, 2007
Not long after I walked offstage as the hired-gun drummer for opening act Dan Sartain, an assortment of crew and musicians and friends gathered together and took part in a celebratory, raise-the-glass toast, all led by Jack White to mark the end of the run of nine shows in the previous ten days.
As the crowd thinned, Meg White and I were the last ones left standing there. Apropos of nothing, cups in hand, not even in a conversation at that point, Meg said to me, “I think this is the last White Stripes show.” Confused, I responded “Well, yeah, last show of this leg of the tour.” She replied “No…I think this is the last White Stripes show ever” and slowly walked away. I was dumbfounded. I had no idea what she was talking about. I had no idea what she meant. I had no idea what to do. I looked around to see if anyone else heard what Meg had said, but I was all alone.
Within minutes, the band was onstage. The White Stripes had never played Mississippi prior to this performance and it’s clear the deep musical heritage of the state loomed large in Jack’s mind as he attacked the performance setlist-free.
“Stop Breaking Down” was an unexpected opening song. Despite being released in 1999, it had only opened a set once before, just three weeks earlier. The inspiration behind that first opening performance was the band headlining the Ottawa Bluesfest, being met with newspaper headlines that asked “Are the White Stripes bluesy enough to headline Bluesfest?” Seems as Jack’s intention of starting both these shows with the Robert Johnson classic was to leave no doubt to a skeptical homegrown audience of armchair connoisseurs or a lazy Canadian newspaper editor that the band was well-within their powers conveying the blues to the masses. All that was only further buoyed by Jack later throwing in an unexpected tease of another Robert Johnson song “Phonograph Blues” to assuredly placate the ghosts of the Mississippi Delta.
Inspired, one-of-a-kind takes on both “As Ugly As I Seem” and “Astro” now jump out to me as beautiful…each song’s last hurrah from the band that birthed them. Exploratory adventures the both of them, proving that no piece was ever finished or finalized or etched into stone. Rather, they were all living, creative works, changing and adapting over the years and begging to be recorded and shared and analyzed by all of you reading this right now.
Jack began the encore by himself, pouring every last drop of feeling and emotive vocal quiver into a solo offering of “300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues” that was achingly bare. The raw force behind it feels beyond naked…as if Jack had pulled back his own skin to reveal his truest, innermost thoughts, particularly when he changed the lyrics on the fly and sang…
“See there’s three women in my mind that know they have the answer, but they’re not letting go…
What else is new? I’m the only one that seems to care where I should go”
After re-listening to this show for the first time in ages, I feel like only now have I fully absorbed the enormity of that line. Frankly, it just hit me like a freight train to the chest. I was caught entirely off-guard. I couldn’t help but be moved to tears.
Moments like that make me feel this show is the audio manifestation of opposing, equally-powered forces clawing for control of my brain in an id-versus-ego battle of monumental proportions. On one end I’m mourning, absolutely fucking hurt that this huge presence in my life, my occasional reason for being, my family both by blood and by choice…just ceased to be. And yet at the other end, I am so goddamned lucky that the White Stripes ever existed at all…that people even paid attention, that the band was able to make a lucrative career out of their passion, out of art and that I had a side-stage seat to the entirety of their existence.
After the completion of a bombastic, career-defining version of “Death Letter”, Jack poignantly says “Son House, thank you for finally letting me come home.” House was a passive participant in this matter, having died in the band’s hometown of Detroit in 1988. But Jack’s comment has seemingly little to do with any physical structure…what he is saying is that Son House (and to a larger extent, blues music in general) provided both he and Meg with an avenue to pursue their artistic vision. In this sense, home is not spoken in the predominant, noun usage of the word to describe where one lives, but rather in a more colloquial, adverbial sense meaning ‘deep, to the heart.’
In short, the blues is home. The blues provides comfort, the blues provides center, the blues provides foundation. It provides a manner to express one’s feelings, both a connection to the past and a path through the future.
Ending the set with Leadbelly’s “Boll Weevil” and the singalong chorus repeating “he’s looking for a home” only further drives this point, well…home. The White Stripes were only able to become THE WHITE STRIPES because of the blues. Able to find their voices, to spread the word in a way that was seeming antithetical to two white kids born in Detroit in the 1970’s. Blues was the language, not chosen, but seemingly divined, to best communicate themselves, to express, to converse, to paint this masterpiece. Upon the completion of the set, with a backdrop of Who-like synth arpeggiations singing out into the night, Jack sincerely says the following…
“I can’t believe how long it has taken us to get here. Thanks for waiting. Thanks for coming. Thanks for buying our records. Thanks for buying a ticket. We love you very much. Thank you. God bless you Son House. God bless you Robert Johnson. Thank you so much.”
I can think of no better epilogue for Jack to punctuate the White Stripes last-ever live performance. Each thought a simple sentence that, upon closer inspection, opens up to a wider meaning…not just spoken to these folks in suburban Memphis on a Tuesday night. Rather, they speak to all their fans across the world. About the journey. About patience. About action. About appreciation. About presence. About gratitude. And ultimately, about the blues. Which is, arguably, all it was ever about.
In the intervening twelve years I’ve had countless conversations with Meg White. And I have never once, not for a moment, even considered asking her what was going through her head that night in Mississippi. To me, she has found her home and that is all that matters.
What would YOU do if half of your favorite band told you (and ONLY you) it would be their last show immediately prior to taking the stage?
The White Stripes recently also announced a 20th anniversary box set reissue of their self-titled debut.
Sub Pop Records is releasing “Morning in America”, a new 7-song EP of tracks recorded during the sessions for Mudhoney’s 2018 album, Digital Garbage (“…an astute, politically relevant and commendably fired-up garage punk belter of an LP,” – The Quietus). The tracks include “Let’s Kill Yourself Live Again” (an alternate version of the Digital Garbage stand-out “Kill Yourself Live,” and the bonus track for the Japanese CD version of that album), “One Bad Actor” (a new version of Mudhoney’s track on the limited-edition, and now very sold-out, SPF30 split 7” single w Hot Snakes), album outtakes “Snake Oil Charmer,” “Morning in America” and “Creeps Are Everywhere,” plus “Ensam I Natt” (“So Lonely Tonight,” a Leather Nun cover) and “Vortex of Lies” from a very limited EU tour 7″.
The songs were mixed at Johnny Sangster’s studio Crackle & Pop! The release of this EP coincides with Mudhoney’s fall 2019 US tour which finds the band playing the Ohana Festival in Dana Point, CA, and then Boston, Philadelphia, Durham, Atlanta, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and several other cities, ending on Oct 19th in Brooklyn, NY. See below for a full list of dates and supporting artists.
“Yeah, the world sucks. But 30 years in, Mudhoney does not.” [Digital Garbage] – Seattle Times
“They simply sound like a better, defter, maybe even snottier version of their younger selves on their 10th album.” [Digital Garbage] – Rolling Stone
“The Seattle scuzz-punk pioneers deliver a grave diagnosis of a festering societal condition.” [Digital Garbage] – Pitchfork
One Eleven Heavy’s brilliant second album “Desire Path” is a wry, occasionally biting, but always joyful celebration of human endurance and the ability to overcome. Nick Mitchell Maiato’s album opener, “Chickenshit”, deals with lazy acquiescence to attention-seekers. Pianist-cum-drummer Hans Chew’s first songwriting contribution to the band, “Fickle Wind”, externalizes the band’s raison d’etre by questioning society’s drive toward constant change. Meanwhile James Toth fires off image-laden witticisms about the unnecessary difficulty of human interaction in “Too Much, Too Much”, mocking fashion-conscious Marxists at the same time as he laughs at his own ‘cacti-withering row(s) with (his) old man.’ The musicianship is a step up from their raggedy, but already accomplished, debut, too. Desire Path is laced with lush three-part vocal harmonies and two-part harmonized guitar licks, recalling those classic Allman Bros runs at the same time as it recalls timeless classics by Hendrix, The Stones and, of course, The Dead. Second effort from this combo delivers bigger and better than the first. Great choogle-rock vibes built on great songs!
Sony’s Legacy Recordings continues the long running Bob Dylan‘Bootleg Series’ as they announce “Travelin’ Thru 1967-1969: The Bootleg Series vol 15” which revisits Dylan’s musical journeys to Nashville from 1967-1969, focusing on previously unavailable recordings session made with Johnny Cash and unreleased tracks from the John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline, and Self Portrait sessions.
Travelin’ Thru is simpler and more affordable than previous sets as it comes as a three disc package for both CD and vinyl.
Disc one of this set offers alternate versions of tracks from “John Wesley Harding”, the album Dylan recorded as a trio (himself, Charlie McCoy on bass and Kenneth Buttrey on drums) in late 1967 after his infamous motorcycle accident of the previous year. Amongst the unreleased material is a different version of All Along The Watch Tower. Nashville Skyline sessions offer an alternate of ‘Lay Lady Lay’ and a new song ‘Western Road’.
Discs two and three are centred around Dylan’s work with Johnny Cash, including Columbia Studio A sessions and on-stage performances at the Ryman Auditorium (May 1st, 1969) for the recording of the premiere episode of The Johnny Cash Show (originally broadcast on ABC-TV on June 7, 1969).
Disc Three features Self Portrait outtakes, including ‘Ring of Fire’ and ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ (recorded with guitarist Fred Cartertwo days after the Johnny Cash Show on 3 May) and closes with tracks recorded on 17th May 1970 with bluegrass banjo legend Earl Scruggsfor the PBS television special, “Earl Scruggs: His Family and Friends” (originally aired January 1971).
‘John Wesley Harding’ is still among my top two or three best Dylan albums. The album is so rich with imagery that each song feels like a little screenplay. This just might be the release that leads me to re-evaluate ‘Nashville Skyline’, I feel drawn to Dylan’s music during all its ‘phases’ I think that the whole Bootleg series has done more to elucidate Dylan’s genius than most of the original releases in their original form and time. When you consider albums like ‘Highway 61 Revisited’, ‘Blonde on Blonde’ or ‘Blood on The Tracks’, that says a lot about what he’s contributed and what’s still to be heard.
Travelin’ Thru 1967-1969: The Bootleg Series vol 15 will be released on 1st November 2019.
If you’re not sold based on album title alone allow us a moment to convince you of the genius of Howe Gelb’s latest. And indeed his work to date. Never a dull moment, in this lifetime he has flirted with flamenco, adventured into Americana and gone for it with gospel choirs. The result is a back catalogue packed with great ideas, and inspiration for more great ideas. Enter Giant Sand, where artist dons disguise and revisits his old classics to make them fresh and different. Here Gelb, or Giant Sand, takes on the second Gelb album, “The Ballad Of Thin Line Man”. First released in 1986, when New Hollywood was kicking Reaganite attitudes to the curb in favour of modern high plains drifters influenced by the preceding LSD decades, that same ethic is here, only louder and more urgent. A strange but familiar and abstract Americana, with roughness turned up to 11.
it’s a re recording of a 1986 album that never saw the light of day in USA distribution. here now entitled “Recounting the Ballads ( of Thin Line Men) “ with original drummer(s) Tommy Larkins for a most of it and Winston A Watson Jr. for a minute too. ( just the opposite of their involvement of the previous re recording on last year’s re do of “Returns to Valley of Rain”. This album also features good ol’ Thøger Tetens Lund on low frequency ( as he has provided for the last 15 years ) and Annie Dolan for a minute too. Plus special visitation by Paula Jean Brown. The album was co produced by Gabriel Sullivan and the beautiful cover is by Rosson Crow.
We will be touring on it in Europe ‘tween Nov. 9th – Dec. 8th. .. a kind of fare-thee-well escapade. hind sight being 2020, am looking forward to something else next year. Thank you all so severely mucho. – howe
She/Her/Hers. The band — who just released a brand new EP through Don Giovanni Records — is more than ready to bid farewell to boy bands on “Kill the Boy Band,” and it’s about time. The delightfully catchy pop punk tune tackles the fucked up continuance of all-male bands, and roars back at their continued dominance of tour lineups and industry favor. And thanks to the inclusion of horns, some unruly guitar noodling, and both shouted and spoken annoyance with “boy bands,” the single might be just enough to help you get through the remainder of this day. At the very least, it’s one helluva tune to dance, and shout, along to.
She/Her/Hers is Emma grrrl and sometimes friends. Sad grrrl pop-punk.
Gender is Boring. Kill The Boy Band
With Lizzy Goodman’s recent in-depth account of the life and death of Jonathan Fire*Eater—among many, many other tales of drama in NYC’s garage rock revival scene spanning the mid-’90s to the mid-’00s—many of us have become aware of just how influential the Stewart Lupton–led band was on the rebirth of palatable rock music in an era of perverted grunge and jaded nu metal. Despite giving rise to bands like The Strokes, Interpol, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs (and without Lupton, going on to form The Walkmen with Hamilton Leithauser), the group’s three years’ worth of music has regrettably gone virtually unheard in the present day.
As usual, this is where Jack White and Third Man Records come in, who’ll be restoring and re-releasing the band’s 1996 EP “Tremble Under Boom Lights” next month. In addition to the record’s five mostly unheard tracks, the package will include five more almost entirely unheard recordings, offering up the original EP’s opener “The Search for Cherry Red” ,which marks the first time ever it’s been made available digitally. It will also be the first time in over 20 years that it’s been pressed on vinyl.
The forthcoming reissue will feature five bonus cuts, including the previously unreleased ‘In the Head’, which is believed to be the last record Jonathan Fire*Eater ever recorded together before they disbanded in 1998. Third Man will also be dropping a book of the late Lupton’s poems, featuring intros from JFE and The Walkmen’s Walter Martin and The Kills’ Alison Mosshart.
Both items are out October 18 via Third Man Recordings.
