This Is The Kit is the musical project of Kate Stables and whoever joins her. You thought you didn’t like the banjo but you were wrong pal. Listen as Kate rips forward with her hypnotic twang pattern and a voice of rare, unaffected beauty. This is the Kit is honest music. It’s how it really is! Honest and eager, that’s what makes it so beautiful.
This Is The Kit’s first studio album release was recorded in Italy and produced by John Parish. It was first released on Microbe records (France) in 2006
Recorded by Marco Tagliola and produced by John Parish in Italy 2006. Featuring Kate Stables – vocals, guitar and banjo; John Parish – drums; Julien Barbagalo – drums; Jamie Whitby Coles – drums; Jesse Morningstar – violin, guitar, vocals, percussion.
Pavement disbanded before the turn of the millennium. Still, the impact of the Stockton, Californian. band’s music still echoes, due to its independent ethos, occasional disregard for melody, and progressive view of art rock and punk. Even setting aside all the bands clearly influenced by Pavement, the group’s five-LP output makes them one of the most important alternative rock bands of the ‘90s. Here then are the best songs from indie rock legends, Pavement second album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.
“Unfair”
This is one of the angriest sounding Pavement songs. It’s one of the band’s variations on a theme of “Northern California rules / Southern California drools,” which likely exacerbates that ferocious guitar riff. Malkmus first rallies to, “burn the hills of Beverly!” before howling at his state’s southern residents, “I’m not your neighbour, you Bakersfield trash!”
“Elevate Me Later” Malkmus is an amazing guitarist, but some songs just stick out above others. On top of that, though, this is also one of Malkmus’ best vocal performances. And here on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, there’s something in the way his voice sounds in “Elevate Me Later” that is perfectly in sync with the tone of the instrumentation.
“Silence Kid” “Silence Kid” kicks off Pavement’s second album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. The sound of Crooked Rain is more polished and lusher than Slanted and Enchanted, and this is clear right from the start of “Silence Kid.” It squeals strangely and slowly during its intro, but kicks into high gear by the time the vocals start. Also, note that cowbell.
“Cut Your Hair”
If you only know one Pavement song, it’s probably this one. The closest thing Pavement ever got to a hit appeared on 1994’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, and was later featured in Beavis & Butthead and one of those campy Brady Bunch movies. The song seems to be about appearance mattering for musicians in terms of being popular and successful, but it’s Pavement so we can’t be entirely sure. The music video for Pavement’s “Cut Your Hair,” released in 1994, remains a ridiculous romp. In it, the gang pays a visit to the barbershop, each member costumed in their own low-budget getup—Scott Kannberg in a gorilla suit, Stephen Malkmus crowned a weepy king. It’s both utterly pointless and splendidly on-brand for the most chilled-out players in ’90s indie-rock. “Cut Your Hair” is a bad music video, but that’s why it’s so great. Pavement made indifference look impossibly cool.
“Gold Soundz”
The second single off Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain tops this list because it’s a rocker with a decidedly indie flavor. Although “Cut Your Hair” charted much better than “Gold Soundz,” the latter more fully encapsulates the essence of Pavement—messy but melodic, retro, yet still relevant. Plus, the lyrics include the phrase “quarantine the past,” which, of course, is the title of Pavement’s aforementioned greatest hits compilation. Therefore the song has to be great.
The album that elevated Pavement to a new level of slacker-rock stardom is turning 25 years old today. “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain” arrived on February. 14th, 1994, and alternative rock arguably hasn’t been the same since. The band’s more jittery debut, Slanted & Enchanted, had dropped two years earlier in 1992, but it was Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain—a record they made in some guy’s NYC apartment-slash-studio that broke the band. MTV played their awful music videos; people fell hard for their affably effortless songs like the aforementioned “Cut Your Hair,” the mindlessly nostalgic “Gold Soundz” and the quasi-country banger “Range Life.” Pavement had arrived.
After the band’s eventual break-up, but before their 2010 reunion, Malkmus went out on his own and started making music with his other band, The Jicks, plus a few solo endeavors.
Meg Duffy of Hand Habits wrote their forthcoming record as wildfires burned through Southern California. For an album about love and relationships, it’s a fitting setting; there’s something inherently destructive in making space within yourself to bring someone else in. the new track is premiering “What Lovers Do,” the newest single from Placeholder ( via Saddle Creek Records) and a lulling, frank revelation on the complexities of desire.
Over gentle guitar, Duffy muses about the attraction between lovers, describing it as “halfway with your hands into the fire of my desire.” As the song plays out, it’s clear the relationship isn’t a smooth one, and feels more like a series of games. But the draw between the two continues to feel magnetic, and Duffy nonetheless, sounds sweet and warm in the retelling.
“Hesitation, revelation, and repetition-aspects of the story you can identify easily, and must be the witness and the participant,” Duffy writes via email. “When the shame baton gets passed back and forth between parties, who is the fool? I could never claim to have a complete understanding.”
Through their first three albums, the group divined a signature style what Pitchfork described as “an expansive vision of rock ‘n’ roll, one that cherrypicks from various folk traditions: punk, rockabilly, blues, whatever they might have on hand or find in the trash.” The sound is a front-heavy, groovy, fire & brimstone punk-blues overlying a dynamic and metaphysical roots rock. On their fourth album “Human Question”, the Denver trio zooms out to a more vast and accessible stylistic and spiritual universe. The 38-minute thrill ride generates growth and cathartic self-reflection for audience and performer alike. If there was justice in this world, the Yawpers would be the savior that rock-n-roll didn’t know it was waiting for.
Following their critically acclaimed and meticulously plotted concept album Boy in a Well (set in World War I France, concerning a mother who abandoned her unwanted newborn), the Yawpers created Human Question with a contrasting immediacy. The album was written, rehearsed, and recorded over a two-month period with Reliable Recordings’ Alex Hall (Cactus Blossoms, JD McPherson) at Chicago’s renowned Electrical Audio. The band tracked live in one room, feeding off the collective energy and adding few overdubs. Through the new approach, ten songs connect with an organically linked attitude and style.
On Human Question,lead singer and guitarist Nate Cook writes his way out of trauma, rather than wallowing in it, as was his self-destructive formula in the past. “I wanted to take a crack at using these songs as therapy, really,” Cook said. “I think I’ve always been inclined to write more towards the dregs of my psyche, and explore my depressions and trauma, rather than describe a way out.” The self-reflection engages the band’s trademark dangerous, emotionally fraught choogle, and the listener is constantly kept on edge, not knowing when to brace for a bombastic impact or lean back and enjoy the ride.
The band skillfully balances that Jekyll and Hyde formula. In “Child of Mercy” guitarist Jesse Parmet revs the engines with a disintegrating blues guitar framework, backed by a breakneck beat by new drummer Alex Koshak. Eventually, the tune whips into a cyclone of distortion and Cook’s sustained falsetto, as he howls, “Won’t you please wake me up when the night is over.” For such a raw and kinetic sound, the Yawpers are never stuck in one gear for long. They deftly navigate shifting dynamics and moods, and if you squint your ears, the Sun Studios’ Million Dollar Quartet transmogrifies into the ghosts of Gun Club, Jon Spencer, and Bo Diddley.
“Dancing on my Knees” is the direction that Dan Auerbach could’ve taken Black Keys: raw yet poppy, outsider while mainstream, danceable while thought-provoking(lyrics include “It wasn’t what I asked for / But it’s exactly what I need / You’ve said there’s growth in agony / And we finally agree”). There are moments of blunt Stooges raw power (“Earn Your Heaven”), shaker rhythms behind ‘70s psychedelic rock(“Human Question”), and the salacious boogie of Zeppelin (“Forgiveness Through Pain”). Through it all, Human Question is impossible to confuse with anything else—it’s distinctly the Yawpers.
“Man As Ghost”, “Can’t Wait,” and “Where the Winters End” reveal a softer and contemplative side, blending touches of modern Americana and folk music. In these moments of sonic respite, Cook and company display their range through acoustic guitar strums, relaxed and aired-out tempos, and big yet dialed-in vocal runs. But, no song exhibits the band’s extended capabilities like “Carry Me,” a Gospel-soul burner that builds from hushed to impassioned, with the lead singer begging for salvation in full open-throated fervor by song’s end.
Human Question isn’t meant for the meek or casual listener. It will make you dance, mosh, sing along, and dig deep into your soul. Some people lament that rock-n-roll is dead. They just haven’t heard the Yawpers yet.
The Yawpers Are:
Nate Cook , Jesse Parmet , Alex Koshak
Originally just the bedroom project of songwriter Tilly Scantlebury, Lazy Day grew into a full band when her self-recorded Garageband tracks started taking off on Soundcloud and drawing attention from many quarters of the independent music press. After recruiting drummer Beni Evans, guitarist Liam Hoflay and Jonathan Coddington on bass, Scantlebury has continued to impress with a series of singles wrapped deep with emotion plus the EP ‘Ribbons’ which exhibited her wide spanning take on indie rock across a short succession of seven tracks.
Her latest release is new single ‘Double j’ which takes its kews from the 90’s alt rock the grew out of the grunge years and is an ode to her best mate.
“I wrote ‘Double j’ about my best friend and how she gets me through a lot. It feels really good to talk about her strength and all that it does for me, especially shouting about it in the big choruses. These are the happiest lyrics I’ve ever written, and I wanted the music to properly reflect that – to be a fierce celebration of friendship.” – Tilly Scantlebury
‘Double j’ will appear on the upcoming EP ‘Letters’ which was recorded with producer Steph Marziano (Radiohead, The Prodigy, Mumford & Sons) at Czar Street Studios in London and will be out on 22nd March via Lazy Day’s very own label Weird Cool Records.
We’re extremely excited to announce the release of our new single, “White Bird”, out today, 13th February.
This single has been taken from our 3rd album, “Morning Dancer”. Limited Edition “Morning Dancer” Prints are available. Matthew and The Atlas released the earlier track “Pyres”, which was the first track to be taken from the their third album, which is due for release on 10th May.
“Morning Dancer” is the third album from Matthew and the Atlas, the project led by British songwriter Matt Hegarty.
Across Hegarty’s first two LPs (‘Other Rivers’ and ‘Temple’) and the four stripped back EPs that preceded and followed them, he has traversed a range of musical territories from classic acoustic folk, to dramatic synth-laden electronica, and urgent guitar led alt-rock. The common thread has been a songwriting style that marries a subtle melodic sensibility with lyrics full of natural imagery and dark emotional heft – all delivered in his striking and distinctive vocal. In the process Hegarty has quietly built a major cult following in Europe and the US, which has seen Q magazine dub him the “British Bon Iver”.
As part of the Communion Records family (Matthew and The Atlas’ debut EP was the label’s first ever release) Hegarty toured his early releases extensively and internationally with the likes of Mumford and Sons, Bear’s Den, Civil Wars and others around Europe and the US. That early touring, and a passionate word-of-mouth fan base, has taken Hegarty’s music around the world and close to 100m streams across all his releases.
Armed with a collection of new songs in the second half of 2018, Hegarty found his way to Bristol based producer Ali Chant (Perfume Genius, Youth Lagoon, Gruff Rhys). They clicked immediately, and recorded and mixed Morning Dancer in an intensive six week stint, which saw Hegarty recording for the first time with his full five-piece touring band. The record has familiar elements – the energy and intensity of the live show, stripped and delicate confessional moments, and touches of the synth heavy drama that characterized his debut. To that mix, Chant and Hegarty have added flourishes of brass and woodwind and a playful looseness to the production and arrangements that takes the songs and Hegarty’s voice to a new place altogether.
‘White Bird’ taken from forthcoming album ‘Morning Dancer’.
Tucson, Arizona’s Matt Rendon has certainly done his homework. Over the course of 22 years and six albums as The Resonars (seven if you count the Butterscotch Cathedral album; a one-ff psychedelic magnum opus released in 2015) for labels like Get Hip & Burger Records, Rendon’s musical vision has remained unwavering; a paean to a lost-era of analog recording, whip-smart, dynamic songwriting, and soul-stirring anthems to ignite generations. “No Exit” is his latest album as The Resonars.
“No Exit” kicks off with the epic clang of “Louise Tonight”, which merges dive-bombing guitar licks and bombastic drumming, hinting at the controlled chaos of a modern day Townshend/Moon. Elsewhere, “The Man Who Does Nothing” evokes the shimmering harmonies of The Hollies atop a persistent backbeat, and tunes like “Before You’re Gone” “Beagle Theory” sidle up to a dreamy kiwi-jangle strong enough to make Martin Phillips jealous. Conversely, tunes like side two’s “All Those Hats” rages with an amphetamine-laced melodic tension reminiscent of The Buzzcocks or The Undertones. Rendon has consistently proven to have a knack for an everyman style of songwriting that doesn’t seem rote or tired, lacing his melodic vocal harmonies with that melancholic joy omnipresent in the best numbers by bands like The Beach Boys, Big Star or even Simon & Garfunkel’s pop hits.
Rendon typically handles all aspects of Resonars albums from the recording & engineering (at his own Midtown Island Studios) to the performance of every instrument, but for “No Exit” he employs the help of some friends & colleagues; Resonars live drummer Johnnie Rinehart plays on half the tunes, while sometimes live members Ricky Shimo and Travis Spillers play bass & sing (respectively) on two numbers. Despite being the first Resonars album in 5 years, Rendon shows no signs of stopping; He’s a rock & roll lifer, having been raised in a musical environment & osmosis thru older sibling’s rock fandom. Once it’s inside you there’s no escape. “No Exit”, if you will.
Like many important bands, Seattle quartet Versing got their start in college radio—Tacoma’s KUPS. The group’s main songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Daniel Salas served as alternative music director there, where he met guitarist Graham Baker, drummer Max Keyes, and bassist Kirby Lochner. Now Versing are poised to spread their coolly combustible brand of rock on those said airwaves…and beyond if the world knows what’s good for it.
Baker, Keyes, Lochner, and Salas have risen through Seattle’s competitive rock ecosphere with nonchalant élan. They cheekily titled a previous album Nirvana, but never mind the bleach: Versing isn’t emulating Sub Pop’s most famous artist. Rather, these four twenty-something aesthetes are forging an exciting sound that finds a golden mean between lustrous noise and ebullient melody.
Emerging from a stint as a drummer in a stoner-metal band, Salas formed Versing as a vehicle to vent obliquely about his political and social views with irony and humor. Populated with strange characters, his songs often double as “critiques of centrism and conservatism, from a leftist perspective. That’s a theme: committing to something or doing something that may be hard but is the better option. However, when I write politically, it’s more allegorical and can be interpreted beyond the political realm. I find that more interesting to write about than my personal life.”
That being said, the pell-mell, ostinato-laced “Renew,” which Salas says is his most hopeful song, has a personal message. “It’s about taking time to care for yourself—even when things are all weird and fucked up.” Meanwhile, the immersive, pummeling “Offering” evokes those twin pillars of 1988 rock: My Bloody Valentine’s Isn’t Anything and Pixies’ Surfer Rosa. “I just really enjoy that droning line of guitar feedback,” Salas says. “We use a lot of feedback on our songs, but I think that’s one of the more deliberately musical uses we’ve found for it. It’s sort of a fantastical song about traveling through a mystical portal to stop an encroaching force of evil, and the feedback is like the whirring sound the portal makes.”
Another fantastical song, “Tethered” is a low-key, Daydream Nation-esque anthem with plenty of dissonance and surging, distorted guitars, plus rhythms that drive piles. Salas explains that it’s “about how people are tied together,” figuratively. “It’s a reminder of the interconnectedness of humans, to people who make excuses for not doing the right thing” for the greater good of humanity.
With Versing, songwriting is obviously crucial, but much of the pleasure in 10000 comes from its guitar textures. They’re swarming, yet also spiky and agile. The funny thing is, Salas writes most of Versing’s songs on his unplugged Gibson guitar. “I like a more shambolic tone than something that sounds really clean and put together. I like there to be some screechiness to it—something that’s not right.”
Salas cites earlier purveyors of abstract rock music Cocteau Twins and Wire as major inspirations. Much of the rock that followed in the wake of 9/11, though, leaves him cold. “9/11 messed up a lot of things culturally, including music,” he says. “It engendered a deep social conservatism and nationalism that meant the chaotic and unpracticed sounds previously common in rock music had to go, in favor of tighter playing, more simplistic subject matter, and super clean production.”
Gently chiding the Seattle music scene’s self-seriousness while acknowledging Versing’s playfulness and irony, Salas says, “There’s a ‘let’s just fuck around and see what comes out,’ aspect of what we do, which I think is uncommon for Seattle bands.”
Versing’s freewheeling attitude has paradoxically resulted in 10000, an engrossing album that’s impossible to feel ambivalent about.
releases May 3rd, 2019
Sat, Feb 16th – The Sunflower Lounge , Birmingham United Kingdom
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