The Silver Field, is Coral Rose, her debut album, “Rooms”, out on Tim Burgess’s O Genesis Recordings that comes out this new year. Was recorded in Coral Rose’s bedroom using loops and layers generated by instruments such as the double bass, cello, guitar, mandolin, harmonium, harmonica and a bagpipe chanter, with her father’s old SPX-90 drenching the rich sounds in delays and reverts, Rooms is the introduction to the sound world of CoralRose and friends. A touching sound collage patching together voice, tapes, bass, strings, reeds, drums, small sounds, big sounds, sunlight, moonlight, a lot of water.
Rooms is a coming out album in queer sense, and Rose feels it shows her encountering herself as an adult and more specifically, a human being. Coral Rose explains, “This plays out through the metaphor of leaving a house behind – a house of the stuff that builds up around you as you grow up – leaving that behind to make your own decisions about how to live. The last track, ‘Rooms’, is just a little snippet but to me it’s a moment of looking back, seeing it all in a new light with a different perspective from outside, seeing all the feelings and meanings that were once so all-encompassing as something different – as just part of the landscape.” The Silver Field takes the field recording techniques and moves them inside housing them in a touching patchwork of the homespun and the barely awake, magical.
Coral Rose co-opted mates Cathy Lucas from Vanishing Twin and Kiran Bhatt from Red River Dialect and has for “Rooms” embraced an earthy recording process, weaving real tape loops among digital time lines for a texture that’s off-kilter but on point. The reel to reel player used was picked up for a mere pound at a car boot after Coral spoke to the kindred spirited seller about Daphne Oram, and if you really concentrate you can hear the ghosts in the machine, warm warps and pleasing wobbliness. Literally home spun genius, and following on from some inspired recent releases on O Genesis.
This effortlessly cool Sydney quartet offer everything we want from indie-rock in 2019: lush guitar melodies, a willingness to mix things up, and a readiness to sing about feelings with feeling. Last year, they released their anticipated debut EP:
Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard are the next cab on the rank from the Cardiff scene. Possessed of a playful take on the glam rock of the 1970s, led by Tom Rees and joined by Ed Rees on bass, Zac White on guitar and Ethan Hurst on drums. They are distilling the thrill of early Rolling Stones and T.Rex and stamping it with the Buzzard style and wit, their shows have elicited wild scenes in recent months.
Splicing the classicism with an individual wit, a cheeky grin, and an array of stone cold hip shaking rockin’ tunes. Having appeared on a split EP last year with Boy Azooga on cool Cardiff imprint Bubblewrap it marked Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard out as a coming force, now with their moniker trebled Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard and an album apparently in the can, they are certainly ones to watch this coming year.
Their debut single proper ‘Double Denim Hop’ confirms it. An ode inspired by the confidence inspired by wearing two pieces of denim, this urgent rock’n’roll splattered track is infused with effervescent energy that is somehow both redolent of the Sweet‘s Blockbuster and T.Rex‘s ‘Ride a White Swan’yet isn’t a boring homage to either. Reassuringly, Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard, this tune swaggers down the street with nifty guitar licks and vocal lip curls like the New York Dolls on their holidays, bursting into a super singalong chorus, far from pastiche this is utterly addictive, get up and dance now!
Angelo De Augustine writes and records music in Thousand Oaks, California — a suburb north of Los Angeles, where he grew up. His self-released debut album, “Spirals of Silence”, and 3-song EP follow-up, “How Past Begins”, earned praise from The FADER, Stereogum, Vogue, My Old Kentucky Blog, and more. His next project “Swim Inside The Moon”Written in the aftermath of a devastating breakup, Angelo De Augustine’s hushed journal of the stream-of-consciousness thoughts that fill the silence when a gaping hole opens up, revealing that there never really was anything else. De Augustine whispers intimately.
With so many bands flitting in and out of Melbourne, it can be hard to keep track of who’s worth listening to. Tiny Little Houses, a four-piece, self-described “whatever rock” band from Australia’s second-biggest city, cut through the noise. Aside from having a great title, their debut LP, Idiot Proverbs proves there’s more than just happy-go-lucky rock coming out of their home city. At times, Idiot Proverbs is downright self-deprecating: On the first track, the band compare themselves to a literal “Garbage Bin.” But the album examines poor self-confidence with a sense of humor, leaving the listener feeling more entertained than depressed.
Band Members
Caleb Karvountzis,
Mo Sullins,
Clancy Bond,
Al Yamin,
Tiny Little Houses “Idiot Proverbs” ℗ Ivy League Records Released on: 2018-01-12
How familiar does this song sound? Where have I heard it before? It’s seriously killing me. Someone please tell me where this song is from. It’s like Broken Bells meets OG Coldplay meets Snow Patrol covering Tame Impala. Jacksonville Florida has its list of noteworthy artists and musicians like any city does, however if you manage to dig a bit deeper you’ll find an entire thriving ecosystem of bands like when you used to turn over a stones behind your elementary school when you were a kid.
Amongst these many creative and talented groups is a band called Sea Cycles made up from the minds of Brian Squillace, Landon Paul, Josh Wessolowski and LindseyShante. Sea Cycles formed in late 2011 and released their brand of ambient synth pop via their debut and self released EP entitled ‘What We Came For’. After catching the attention of Other People Records, the band will release their debut LP ‘Ground & Air’ via the Los Angeles based independent label in the summer of 2015. Drawing positive comparisons to indie favorites such as Broken Social Scene, Yeasayer and M83, Sea Cycles has proven the timeless adage that a good band is a good band and there’s no arguing with that.
Whatever it is, I like it. It’s from Florida four-piece Sea Cycles, who’ll hopefully follow up this single release with a full-length album soon. Watch for this band.
Just 16-year-old Gabriella Dunn has just released the second single from her upcoming debut EP, “Lost In Translation”, and it’s a doozie. In ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse’, Gabriella explores her very personal mental health journey which ultimately culminated with a brief stay in a psychiatric ward. It’s a beautiful and honest song that’s bound to help a lot of young people going through issues similar to what she sings about here. Wishing everyone a mentally happy and healthy 2019.
In 1986, relations between Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were at an all-time low. The Rolling Stones were on hold while Jagger toured as a solo act behind his 1987 album Primitive Cool, and the two traded endless insults in the press.
So Keith Richards decided to do something he’d always held off on: form his own solo band. The X-Pensive Winos featured an eclectic crew including Waddy Wachtel (Warren Zevon, the Everly Brothers), drummer Steve Jordan (who played with Richards in the Chuck Berry tribute concert film Hail! Hail! Rock & Roll), bassist-drummer Charley Drayton and keyboardist Ivan Neville.
Recording outside Quebec, the chemistry was clear when they laid down the swaggering opener “Take it So Hard.” “I went back to the house going, ‘we’ve conquered Everest already?’ Wachtel said later. In his autobiography Life,Richards agreed. “There’s no way you can stand in front of the Winos without getting off. It’s a surefire high. It was so hot you could hardly believe it.”
The result was Talk is Cheap, an endearingly ragged classic considered by many fans the best Rolling Stones-related release of the last three decades. From the stomping open-G anthem “Take it So Hard” to the Memphis soul ballad “Make No Mistake,” it captures Richards nailing everything he’s good at – hear the throwback Sun-style in the rocker “I Could Have Stood You Up.”
To celebrate its 30th anniversary on March 29th, the album will finally be reissued as a huge box set that includes the album on CD and vinyl, six unreleased tracks from the sessions and an 80-page book featuring a new interview with Richards. There an even more extravagant “super deluxe” box set that comes in a case that replaces Richards’ guitar case made by the Fender Custom Shop.
“This album holds up,“ Richards said. “I’ve been listening to it and not through the mists of nostalgia either because it doesn’t affect me that way. This is more than the sum of its parts. I really admire it. We were having fun and you can hear it.”
Hospice turns 10 years old this year. Let that one sink into your old, shriveled hearts. The Antlers third and most beloved full-length album, “Hospice” opened our collective eyes to The Antlers’ achingly brittle anthems, a sound that could pierce the far-reaching souls of the festival grounds just as easily as the intimate bars and clubs. Peter Silberman’s vocals could morph from almost-inaudible whispers to thunderous falsettos, especially evident on tracks like Sylvia and Wake. These weren’t the kinds of tracks that you could put on in the background. They moved us emotionally, but more importantly, they reminded us of our mortality.
“We’ll be playing a limited number of acoustic shows to celebrate, too. But it will be a bit different this time as the core band now consists of Peter Silberman and drummer Michael Lerner longtime multi-instrumentalist, producer, and engineer Darby Cicci is no longer with the band.”
So far, the band have announced a host of shows, including five shows in the UK and Ireland.
“Though we’ve pared down for the time being, these shows will feature some old friends and guests, and together we’ll perform ‘Hospice’ in its entirety,” the band said.
“We’re truly looking forward to revisiting these old songs in a new light and seeing your friendly faces again. Your patience and support means so much.”
Now, does anyone have the original pressing? I was one of the many listeners who immediately went out to buy the vinyl when it came out in 2009 and, like all of those other buyers, was shocked at how horrid the sound quality was. No hyperboles here, that first and only pressing of Hospice is one of the worst-sounding records I have ever laid ears on. Today is the day for redemption, friends. Remastered and now on a double LP, our Hospice comes back home to rest. Grab the white vinyl from the band’s online store after the ‘buy’ link.
Hospice 10th Year Anniversary 2xLP
Newly remastered as a 2xLP and pressed on white vinyl, with deluxe artwork and packaging courtesy of the album’s original artist, Zan Goodman.
When Peter Silberman finished writing Hospice in the summer of 2008, he didn’t expect anyone to hear it.
A pretty big reputable label, according to him, got their hands on the record, his third under the name The Antlers following two self-released albums, soon after its completion. Silberman, then playing with a band for the first time—The Antlers were, for all intents and purposes, a solo act up until this point—booked a tour on his own, which included a show in the city where the unnamed label was based, hoping to sign their first record deal.
The show didn’t exactly go as planned and the imprint essentially lost all interest.
“I can’t say that we were great at the time either,” Silberman, the lead singer and lyricist of The Antlers, reminisces. “I wouldn’t blame them. We were hoping that was going to happen and it didn’t really have much of an audience. We thought it’d be our big break and it just didn’t materialize. At the top of the next year, I was just feeling like, ‘I need to get this record out somehow.’”
The product of an ultra-intense period of his life, Hospice is so personal of a record that Silberman never fully told the story about the abusive relationship the lyrics painstakingly describe through the guise of a hospice worker and a terminal female patient. While he initially pushed for a label to help promote the record, he never really assumed people would listen to it, that his deeply autobiographical stories, soundtracked by some of the most compelling whispers and crescendos in the history of indie rock, had an actual audience.
And initially, it didn’t.
“We assembled these CDs ourselves, these digi-packs, we put them together ourselves and printed them ourselves and burned all of these CD-Rs and we announced—maybe we sent out to our mailing list and sent out to MP3 blogs at the time because that’s how you did it back at the time in 2009—that we would put this out,” Silberman explains. “We were selling everything through PayPal, packing and shipping ourselves. It was a very DIY operation. I was still sending out to blog and press contacts I had myself and I was putting tours together.”
But then Hospice landed in the hands of Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton at NPR, and everything changed. Mind you, this was a period when music publications and blogs could still drive sales and create hype to a point that’s completely unheard of 10 years later. So when Hilton wrote, “Frontman Peter Silberman is only 23, but has produced one of the most beautiful and moving works I’ve heard in a long, long time. Just astonishing,” in a piece titled “2009 Already Better Than 2008” towards the end of February, 2009, it had a massive effect on The Antlers’ trajectory.
“NPR got very excited about it and posted about it in a way that brought a lot of people to our pre-orders and a lot of people started ordering the record and we started feeling like, ‘Oh wow, this kind of fell out of nowhere,’” Silberman says. “One after another, this started catching on and people started listening to it. We had at this point self released it and a few labels did come calling and I talked to them and we met with some folks and met with publicists and booking agents. We just hit the road and just stayed on the road while this was growing. It just continued to accelerate and we were rarely, if ever at home, and the shows were getting bigger. We entered into this new position. It really felt like word of mouth at the time. The people who liked it felt very strongly about it, and they felt like this was something that they really wanted other people to hear. There were plenty of people who were not into it who were like, ‘This is not my thing,’ but I think the people that liked it, it was an unusually strong bond they formed with it.”
Similar to how masses of people grew attached to the brutally honest lyrics of Scott Hutchison’s Frightened Rabbit across the Atlantic a year prior when The Midnight Organ Fight rapidly spread through a word-of-mouth campaign, The Antlers became a spiritual American counterpart of sorts as loads of listeners quickly latched onto the sweeping, complex, and authentically emotional themes of Hospice.
That sudden hype presented Silberman with a major challenge, one that influenced the trajectory for the rest of his career—how do you keep your sanity and privacy intact as your almost-too-honest work begins to gain traction? At what price does indie fame come with?
“I definitely took a step back after Hospice, and part of that was feeling what it was like to be that vulnerable in public, which wasn’t something that had really crossed my mind with any reality when I made Hospice because I didn’t really have an audience then,” Silberman says. “It wasn’t until Hospice caught on and there was an audience that I suddenly became aware of the kind of personal toll that laying yourself bare to a lot of people can take. I think that it was absolutely vital for what Hospice is and possibly how other people connected to it; it’s vital that it be as raw as it is and explicitly personal.”
That rawness Silberman mentions is what initially drew a passionate legion of fans to The Antlers’ shows, leading them to sell 13,000 copies of Hospice by October 9th, 2009, only two months following the re-issue by Frenchkiss. The label, alongside a handful of others, heard the loud chatter amongst the Brooklyn indie-rock community and quickly signed them to give the record a proper release. The Hospice album campaign, which initially began in disappointment at not partnering up with a label prior to the self-release, kept exponentially growing with a new partner in Frenchkiss, never peaking at any point throughout 2009.
“I think on a certain dimension, my dreams were coming true and not only were they coming true, but they were being surpassed really quickly,” Silberman remembers. “I set a pretty low bar for myself is what I came to realize as things began to actually take off. There was something really validating about that, going from no audience to kind of what felt like hysteria around that record at the time. It was very validating and it felt like it kind of turned that ugly situation that inspired the situation inside out. I think now is actually the happiest time of my life and what was happening back then was a succession of adrenaline rushes that felt really good, but were a total shock to my system and were invigorating but I wasn’t prepared for them. I came to lose myself in that excitement for a while until I burnt out on the other side of it.”
Though it wasn’t the highly personal nature of Hospice’s lyrics that contributed to that burn out—rather a combination of touring and the lifestyle that goes along with it—the sudden visibility and interest in the relationship that Silberman detailed throughout the record did push him to slightly sensor himself for future records, including its excellent follow up, Burst Apart, released in 2011.
“I think I became aware of the consequences of pulling details directly from your life and putting them in a story for the public to hear, for strangers to hear,” Silberman explains. “My approach to writing started to change. Throughout songs and albums that followed Hospice, there are specific references in there, but they’re kind of inside language for the people that they’re written about. I think I also became aware of the temptation to include a lot of really specific details and think that that makes for a good story. There were times where I tried that and found that it didn’t always call for that, that it didn’t necessarily make a song better, and that it didn’t necessarily make a story easier to understand. But with a story like Hospice, which is a lot about a kind of psychological fog and losing yourself and about the intricacies of a really dysfunctional relationship, I think the details are really important.”
Ten years later, The Antlers are currently in the midst of their first tour since 2015, giving Hospice the 10 year anniversary treatment, playing the album in full as a duo, this time just Silberman and percussionist Michael Lerner, following a deluxe edition re-issue to mark the occasion earlier this month. Hitting their original launching spot, Brooklyn, for two nights this weekend, Silberman has recently begun revisiting the album that sent him into the upper echelon of bands at the peak of the indie-rock era, noting how far removed he is from his mindset when he wrote the complex and vivid story.
“I’ve been surprised to find that when I’m listening to it, it’s not really putting me back in the events that brought it about—the relationship that the record is based on,” Silberman explains. “I’m just kind of getting a picture of where my mind was like at the time, the way that I was experiencing the world and the way that I was interpreting the things that were happening to me. It’s like reading old notebooks or something and it’s funny to be at a removed perspective from it now and to be able to see that you’re a long ways away from it. It’s occurring to me now that the chorus of ‘Bear’ kind of applies here, this simultaneous feeling during making the record where I felt that I was very old and I had lived a lot of life at that point. To look back 10 years later and say, ‘I was very young at the time when this happened’ and just having the benefit of some time, it just makes it a surreal experience.”
That chorus he refers to, “We’re too old / We’re not old at all,” breaking up a starkly minimalist song with an explosive refrain, feels just as uplifting as it did 10 years ago upon its release. While revisiting Hospice, a revolutionarily raw rallying cry that propelled Silberman and The Antlers to indie stardom, is no doubt as odd of an experience as he lets on, it’s also an interesting look back at how hype and word of mouth could push a band to unimaginable success. And 10 years later, Hospice is every bit as vital, emotional, and true as it was then, providing a gentle reminder why The Antlers reached the fame they did—owing completely to the story, the lyrics, and the instantly infectious melodies that drive the whole record, all leading up to one final falsetto scream.
Townes Van Zandt, has a previously unreleased collection of songs titled “Sky Blue” to be released via Fat Possum on the 7th March (which would have been his 75th birthday).
The recordings were made in early 1973 with the late Bill Hedgepeth, a journalist, musician, and most crucially a close friend of Townes Van Zandt. The singer-songwriter was splitting his time between Texas, Colorado, and a shack outside Franklin, Tennessee: an itinerant life that informed many of his most famous and beloved tunes. Throughout his life he would often return to Hedgepeth’s home studio in Atlanta, later with family in tow, to record, re-work, and experiment with new songs as well as some of his most iconic.
In addition to a handful of old favourites, Sky Blue also includes two new songs that have never been heard before “All I Need”and “Sky Blue”. There are early, raw versions of Pancho & Lefty and Rex’s Blues, covers of songs by Richard Dobson and Tom Paxton, a smoky version of Blue Ridge Mountain Blues and a scarred and scarring interpretation of Hills of Roane County, an East Tennessee murder ballad from the 1880s that was popularized by Tony Rice.
