The debut album from Melbourne, Australia quintet Possible Humans has been a long-time coming. Since forming in 2012, the band (comprised of Samuel Tapper, Leon Cranswick, and the three Hewitt brothers; Steven, Adam, and Mark) have self-released a “live improv” cassette & a two-song 7-inch on Sydney’s Strange Pursuits label while periodically teasing a forthcoming full-length and burning up live venues across Australia. Resulting album“Everybody Split” was announced to arrive on April Fool’s Day of 2019 on ex-Twerps drummer Alex MacFarlane’s (very excellent) Hobbies Galore label. Thankfully, it wasn’t a prank & the edition of 200 LPs sold out in a flash. Trouble In Mind is proud to re-release Everybody Split worldwide in a more substantial pressing in hopes of getting this amazing album into everyone’s ears. The album reminds me of why I fell in love with that 80s/90s alt rock sound. Melodies are on point, hooks are plentiful and the guitars are warm and nicely distorted. All is as should be. Early GBV and REM fans, this is your jam
All five members have shared songwriting duties on “Everybody Split”, & the album’s nine tracks jangle and clang with that urgent, nervous energy felt in some of the best DIY/underground rock from the past three decades, R.E.M., Guided By Voices, Feelies et al, but also absolutely of the NOW, swooning with a smoothed, amber patina of melancholy and longing (see opener “Lung of the City”, or “Nomenclature Airspace”).
There’s a palpable crackle emanating from the tunes on Everybody Split, throwing sparks thru a myriad of interesting melodic/lyrical twists & turns, like the earworm riffage on “The Thumps”, that hotwire solo on “Aspiring To Be A Bloke” or the stutter stops / breakdown in the raging “Stinger”. Stick around for “Born Stoned”, the album’s undeniable highlight, packing its near-12 minutes with nods not only to the aforementioned R.E.M. & Feelies dark jangle, but also the smoke & velvet solos of Heyday-era Church or Blue Oyster Cult. Yes, it’s really that good. Everybody Split was recorded by MacFarlane himself & mastered by Oz-legend Mikey Young for maximum oomph.
released August 2nd, 2019
Possible Humans is: Leon Cranswick, Samuel Tapper, Steve Hewitt, Adam Hewitt and Mark Hewitt.
Taken from the Melbourne band’s debut album “Everybody Split”. released by Trouble In Mind Records on August 2nd, 2019
With Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter, Lake Street Dive, Langhorne Slim) at the production helm, Alio stretches well beyond FortFrances’ Americana roots to unlock the potential that’s been building for the past two years with louder guitars, jubilant horns and dueling rhythm sections.
Sun June are about to hit the road supporting Fruit Bats, Lucy Dacus and Liza Anne in the US. No new Europe dates are known right now, but let’s hope we’ll be able to get to see and hear one day. Now that would be a treat.
Though I’ve tried a few times, there’s an intangible magic to the work of Sun June that makes it incredibly difficult to capture in words. Like a drifting sense of longing found buried in the heat of summer, Laura Colwell’s voice has the ability to not only glow but linger, a fleeting memory half-remembered, a dream you can’t pinpoint, always slightly out-of-step with the world.
Sun June is Laura Colwell, Stephen Salisbury, Michael Bain, Justin Harris, and Sarah Schultz.
Just simply listen to everything that came out on the Austin-based record label Keeled Scales. You would like everything I mean Buck Meek, Twain, Katy Kirby; what’s not to like? And Sun June is another one of their gems: their fresh and captivating sound could be your next favourite band.
The Brooklyn rising star, Pearla, has released the second offering from her forthcoming debut EP,“Quilting & Other Activities”. A whimsical five-and-a-half minutes of pure folk-pop, “Quilting” is a beautiful tune, well worth your time.
This is another spectacular showcase of Pearla’s poignant songwriting, with the 22-year-old having this to say about the compelling track:
‘Quilting’ is about attachment and the addictive nature of comfort. It’s about coming out of a fog and facing yourself for the first time after spending too long wrapped up in others. For me, those first moments alone after the end of a relationship were unbearable, and I found myself reaching out arbitrarily just for the sake of having something to hold or something to do. The song is about me having this belief that I should be enough for myself, but not being able to fully realise it.
The Buoys are a band who know how to play their instruments but who also do not suck. A tricky balance, but they achieve it brilliantly. With the release of their debut EP ‘Soft Boy’ and a sophomore EP not too far off, all female Sydney 4-piece The Buoys have a lot to send to your ear holes by way of unrelenting fuzzy guitar tones.
Their bright power-pop songs are catchy, their energy on stage is fun and vibrant and, as mentioned, the musicality is first-class. No one is left disappointed.
Band Members
Hilary – Lead Guitar
Courtney – Bass
Tess – Drums
Zoe – Vocals/Guitar
It’s probably too late now to assign a Song of the Summer 2019, but “Bummer” makes for the perfect anthem to a long-anticipated crack-up in the waning days of August. Weezer-y guitars quickly make way for a desperate, shouted chorus, screeching guitars, and a breakdown I have literally considered writing home about if my parents had any idea what in Henry Rollins’ name slam dancing is.
“Bummer” by Save Face from the Save Face / Graduating Life Split, available 12th September.
Squid have fast become one of Britain’s most exciting new bands .Open the tabloids and it’s all avocado toast and selfie sticks, but there’s far more to millennial life than the papers would have you believe. Just ask Squid – the Brighton band whose breakout single ‘Houseplants’ has made them the unassuming spokespeople of young frustration.
A frantic, punky ode to the indecision and anger that drives the lives of British youth, ‘Houseplants’ has deservedly racked up radio play and near-universal praise. Atop an incessant, stomping beat, the five-piece’s drummer-vocalist Ollie Judge barks his way through oh-so-relatable topics with a rolling-eyed delivery: “We speak about our days, yeah, we speak about a raise / Everybody’s bored, we’re just too afraid to say,” he snarks, before turning his attention to the rise in houseplant ownership amongst the younger generations – often pinned as a replacement for children, pets, or other such responsibilities: “Houseplants, houseplants / We squeeze it at night, oh, we squeeze it so tight.”
Maybe one of the most hyped bands and deservedly so, in the country right now, partly due to their breakout single ‘Houseplants’, but mainly because of their unbelievably tight live show. It’s an exhilarating and breathtaking onslaught of funky basslines, intense vocals and zippy guitars. Miss them at your peril.
“It’s been really surprising, and we’ve felt so warm towards the people who’ve played it, or shown it to people, or heard it once and then come to shows,” says Ollie. “I was living in London without and money,” he says of its creation, “Getting paid pretty well, but then having to put over half my earnings into just having a house, and having to live on like £200 a month. I was very pissed off with the state of things,” he shrugs.
“It could be perceived to be quite a chaotic, shouty, fun song,” says percussionist and keyboardist Arthur Leadbetter, “but the subject matter is far from fun. And also, the music is hysterical.It’s what we’re all feeling.” Guitarist Louis Borlase agrees: “We were all working full-time, and we’d only have two, maybe three hours to get in a rehearsal space and write something. That urgency probably shaped the way it feels.”
Unusually for a song with quite so much radio love, ‘Houseplants’ is also undeniably weird. Completed by Laurie Nankivell on bass and brass, and second guitarist Anton Pearson, Squid’s breakout hit is a sprawling, hulking mass of gloopy sounds, dissonant guitar-work and Ollie’s throat-shredding yell, all capped off with a Pandora’s Box of odd percussion and electronic addition – as such, it’s the perfect introduction to the oddball band. Bonding over left-field bands like Neu! and This Heat, Squid’s love of the avant-garde was cemented from day dot. It’s their lyrical relatability which sets them apart from those groups, though. “I’ve definitely always liked bands which might be quite out-there instrumentally, but keep it all in one spot lyrically,” says Laurie. “I think keeping it accessible, but still weird, is definitely the goal,” says Ollie.
With those inspirational oddities in mind, it’s perhaps unsurprising that, their go-to producer Dan Carey (Black Midi, Kate Tempest) and the band opted not to cover the usual Live Lounge fodder. Instead, they took on experimental composer Steve Reich’s ‘Clapping Music’ – a poly-rhythmic piece designed, as the title suggests, to be performed anywhere, simply by whacking your hands together. Squid being Squid, though, have adapted it for their full-band set-up, horns and all. Oh, and they added lyrics, which are taken from an interview Reich did on the piece, years ago.
“I’ve always been aware of the piece, and always wanted to perform it with somebody – and then I saw the app,” grins Arthur, referencing an app designed specifically to help budding clappers nail ‘Clapping Music’’s odd rhythm. “It changed my… life, really,” ha adds, to a tableful of laughter. That app helped them through – or possibly contributed to – the madness of the band’s SXSW schedule in March, which saw them performing six shows in just five days, all across Austin, Texas. In between those shows, they’d collectively sit on the porch of their Air BnB, clapping away. “I think it contributed to the madness, definitely,” laughs Ollie.
Madness is where Squid thrive, in fairness. Their two singles to date, ‘Houseplants’ and last year’s ‘The Dial’, were recorded and released by Speedy Wunderground – the label-meets-studio-space of Dan Carey. Not content with the typical route of recording a new guitar band, Dan goes full bonkers with the recording process, insisting the bands play everything live, in a single day, in complete darkness, and filling the room with smoke and lasers. Your typical bedroom studio, this is not.
The combination of Carey and Squid seems like a match made in heaven. It all kicked off from a doting email from Ollie to the South London wunderkind producer (“I think I said, ‘Our recordings are shit, can you make them better?’” says Ollie, “We didn’t even email anyone else”), and has now culminated in Squid’s new EP to be the first non-single release on Speedy Wunderground.
Recording the EP over four days, rather than one, allowed for the bells, whistles and odd instrumentation that make Squid shine to really come into their own – particularly on a day in the studio they dubbed ‘Arthur Day’. “There were about 16 layers of cello,” Arthur laughs. “I actually really wanted a cigarette all day, but every time I’d finish tracking something, there’s another part that relied on me.”
“I always call percussion the ‘fish sauce’ of music,” says Arthur. “If you take the percussion out of a song, it’s never gonna sound the same. But the untrained palette won’t know what’s missing. I love Brazilian percussion instruments – my favourite percussion instruments are the ones that aren’t just percussion, but are also a rhythm,” he adds, citing the cuica, the berimbau and the güiro as particular favourites in his box of oddities.
“It’s quite experimental,” says Dan Carey of the record. “It’s all contained within accessible frameworks, but there’s a lot going on. Having a bit more time enabled us to go a bit deeper. And the fact we’re doing it for our label means we can do literally whatever we want.”
There’s some “real tender moments” on the record too, they tease. “Are the Yorkshire post-punks gonna like it?!” quips Ollie, to another table-wide laugh.
It’s a record that, with the band’s reputation for bolshy bangers like ‘Houseplants’ and ‘The Dial’ now firmly established, is sure to turn some heads. Squid are confident in their ability to push boundaries though.
“We formed over that love of ambient music, and jazz music, and stuff like that,” says Laurie, “and I think this EP’s the perfect blend – the punky, but the more thoughtful experimental music, too. I think it’s a good way of being – not influenced by any one scene too much; just doing the weird shit.”
Squid’s new EP will be released via Speedy Wunderground.
Craft Recordings has announced a Monster of a celebration for the 25th anniversary of R.E.M.’s ninth album. November 1st will see the arrival of “Monster” in various physical and digital formats, all newly remastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound.
Monster found the band branching out to explore new sonic avenues, with bolder, louder guitars, minimal overdubs, and spare arrangements supporting lyrics frequently sung from the POV of different characters. Bolstered by the success of the lead single “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?,” Monster entered the U.S. chart at No. 1, and the band promoted it with their first tour since 1989. “Bang and Blame” also became a U.S. top 20 chart entry, the band’s final such single to date.
After R.E.M.‘s departure from indie-adored IRS Records for the larger filed of Warner Brothers Records, the fear was that the band would be manipulated into producing more radio friendly hits. And while R.E.M. managed to do that, it was not at the cost of their fine lyrical and musical frontier. By the arrival of Monster, R.E.M. had further established themselves as a powerhouse of a band with multi-Platinum successes like Green (1988), Out of Time (1991), and the legendary Automatic for The People (1992).
Monster, released in 1994, delivered the hit single “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?”, as well as other more minor hits. Monster would also become the album that started an alienation from the more casual fans. All R.E.M. albums after Monster (there would be six more) were much less popular (although I never understood why).
In his liner notes, Perpetua offers that Monster “had no precedent in the band’s catalogue,” adding that R.E.M had “never been this distorted and dirty, or this glam or this flirty.” Peter Buck adds, “We were trying to feel like a different band…We wanted to get away from who we were.” Perpetua observes that “there’s no question that the characters on Monster are all dealing with obsession in some form or another, whether it’s the infatuated narrator of ‘Crush with Eyeliner,’ the lovelorn protagonist of ‘Strange Currencies,’ or the cackling supervillain in ‘I Took Your Name.’” As dark as some of the subject matter is, though, R.E.M. still infuses the songs with a dash of absurdity, irony and a humorous wink.”
Despite the enormous success of the 4x platinum album, producer Scott Litt was never fully happy with his finished mix. He states in the press release, “I had told the band through the years that if there was ever a chance to take another shot at mixing the album, I wanted to do it.” This anniversary edition has given him that opportunity, and he’s incorporated entirely different vocal takes and instrumental parts either buried in the original mix or completely absent from it.
On November 1st 2019, Craft Recordings will celebrate the album’s 25th Anniversary with a definitive 5CD/1BD Box that provides not only a newly remastered version of Monster but also a new Scott Litt-remixed version that sonically brings Stipe’s vocals to the front. The box will also include a collection of 15 previously unreleased demos, and the full 25-song performance from their June 3rd, 1995 show at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago that was opened by Luscious Jackson, spread over 2CDs. The Scott Litt-remixed album will be on a CD of its own. The Blu-ray will supply a high resolution Stereo version mix as well as a 5.1 Surround mix. The Road Movie film is included as are six music videos (“What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?”, “Crush With Eyeliner”, “Star 69”, “Strange Currencies”, “Tongue”, “Bang and Blame”). A stuffed book of notes, photos, interviews, and more is included.
For those interested in a less expansive option, an expanded edition of Monster offering the original album and the 2019 remix will also be available on two 180-gram vinyl LPs or two CDs, both featuring reimagined cover art by longtime R.E.M. designer Chris Bilheimer. The remastered album will also be available as a standalone 180-gram vinyl LP, with Bilheimer’s original Monster art.
Ashworth’s songwriting often presents itself as a lens through which the listener can see themselves, dissolving barriers between the artist and audience.
Sasami Ashworth’s debut solo offering is a sidestep away from her previous output with Cherry Glazerr and into the fog. It’s fuzzy and melancholic, with train-of-thought musings that feel both self-prescriptive and healing – a sonic processing of emotions with broader relevance and appeal. It poses singular questions of love and loss, finding solace in their universality: “Thought I was the only one/Turned out I was everyone.” Sasami – “Free (feat. Devendra Banhart)”, from the debut self-titled album, out now on Domino Records
SASAMI (Sasami Ashworth) has been making music in the Los Angeles area, in almost every way you can, for the last decade. From playing French horn in orchestras and studios and playing keys, bass, and guitar in local rock bands (Dirt Dress, Cherry Glazerr), to contributing vocals/string/horn arrangements to studio albums (Vagabon, Curtis Harding, Wild Nothing, Hand Habits, etc.) and producing on tracks for other respected artists (Soko), she has gained a reputation as an all-around musical badass.
She spent the previous two and a half years touring the world non-stop playing synths in the band Cherry Glazerr and is now taking a turn to focus on her own music.
The video for “Take Care” starts out pleasantly enough—Sasami wakes up in a rowboat floating across calm blue waters. As grainy shots of the artist lying in the boat flash by, the scene gives the impression of a vintage film memento. She sings the lines, “You don’t need my help anymore / I tried to show up at your door.” But soon enough, Sasami starts to let out some hostility, tagging a wall with black spray paint and then, well, beating the living hell out a car with a baseball bat. Finally, we see her lighting a shrine of personal effects on fire in the desert and screaming at the burning pyre.
“Take Care” features on a brand new digital 7” from SASAMI. SASAMI’s debut self-titled album is out now on Domino Recording Co.
“All We Want Anymore” has everything you’d want in a classic pop song—the dizzy, the dreamy and the grand. Stone brings bright vocal harmonies and everything but the kitchen sink—lush string arrangements, waves of rippled guitars, both happy-go-lucky and melancholy keyboards, distinctly vintage drums and horns that shout “hurrah” during the grand finale. It’s a must-hear for fans of the California pop songs of yesteryear and crushingly beautiful songs that play when the end credits roll.
Stone Irr is the product of a special kind of Midwestern religious folk. Just start with the name: what seems like anobvious pun was, in fact, an honest mistake, and as soon as Stone’s parents found out, they offered to take him to the Lafayette, Indiana courthouse and change it. He was already in middle school. True story.
Stone’s growth as an artist, songwriter, and arranger since his 2017 debut album ‘Sinner’ is obvious on the standout track “All We Want Anymore.” The song features a bright, Beatles-like melodic structure and a cascading finale of strings and horns that pushes Stone’s voice deep into the mix.
That voice, often multi-tracked with layers of harmonies, is Stone Irr’s defining quality. It floats through the record, at times whispered and ethereal and at others gritty and broken. Album art by William Schaff (Okkervil River, Songs: Ohia).
releases September 20, 2019,
All songs written and performed by Stone Irr
