On the heels of his Amazon ‘Produced By’ series, Simone Felice is releasing his powerful new song ‘Puppet.’
‘Produced By’ is a series of Amazon Original music developed to spotlight today’s community of producers. Simone Felice’s releases include music from Conor Oberst, The Felice Brothers, Phoebe Bridgers, and Wesley Schultz of the Lumineers.
Winter is finally here, which means the aphrodisiac aromas of christmassy spiced latte, wet leaves, and Christmas decorations are also in full swell in the stores. In a parallel sensory universe, listeners are cozying up with dense-yet-palatable guitar-driven rock songs—and that’s where Ian Sweet comes in.
The project of LA-based songwriter Jilian Medford have just released its second collection of such wooly rock songs, “Crush Crusher” and while Medford’s singing voice sometimes gets swallowed by her shred-woven Autumn sweater, the record’s audible lyrics tend to swirl around the topic of romantic interests. Neither a rueful breakup album nor a sappy meet-cute, Crusher is an intricate look at relationships in the past, present, and future tenses, channeling vague existentialism (“I never believed in dying / Until I met you”), gross-out poetry (“You’ll go, and I’ll get swallowed / By someone else’s spit”), and literal recollection (“Did I ever ask what you thought / About that day we fucked in the parking lot?”) under Medford’s pristine, bleacher-reaching guitar.
“Spit” is the second single from IAN SWEET’s 2018 album Crush Crusher.
Believe it or not, though, Ian Sweet isn’t the first artist to write songs about crushes.
The Clash’s ‘London Calling’ wasn’t the only shapeshifting punk record released in 1979. That honor also went to the Jam’s ‘Setting Sons.‘ The rabble-rousing “Girl on the Phone” and “Private Hell” are puncture-wound Britrock, while the surging standout “The Eton Rifles,” one of the Jam’s best songs, is a ferocious, biting piece of class commentary. Still, the graceful, strings-driven “Smithers-Jones” and the note-perfect, power-pop trifle “Thick as Thieves” reveal maturity and sophistication the Jam would soon embrace even more.
Having released four albums in two and a half years, The Jam had become one of the most prolific – and insightful – bands of the late 70s. By the time Setting Sons came out, on 16th November 1979, they had developed far beyond their initial punk/mod revivalist beginnings and were beginning to explore ever more ambitious themes in their work, with frontman Paul Weller stepping out as the new wave’s answer to The Kinks’ Ray Davies.
The only single to be released from the album, ‘The Eton Rifles’ recounted events of June 1978, when a fight erupted in Slough between Right To Work marchers and Eton pupils. Reaching No.3 in the UK – the group’s highest placement yet – it epitomised Weller’s knack for putting social commentary to catchy tunes. The song was initially part of a broader patchwork, as Weller had intended for Setting Sons to be a concept album of sorts, telling the story of three friends who, after having gone their separate ways and lived through a war, reunite only to discover how much they’ve changed. The concept didn’t survive to the end stages, yet the album remains a high-water mark in The Jam’s career.
Almost a year after Setting Sons was released the group were on stage at Newcastle City Hall, on 28 October 1980, showing fans how much they had changed in the preceding months. With their forthcoming album, Sound Affects, just a month away, The Jam tore through all but two of the then unknown songs (curiously leaving future classic ‘That’s Entertainment’ off the setlist), revealing the even more ambitious sonic palette they were working with. The album’s nods towards British psych and Weller’s beloved R&B rightly took the group to No.2 in the UK charts.
That Newcastle gig was recorded for posterity, offering fans an unparalleled insight into the band’s development at this crucial time in their career.
Paul McCartney has said that he wrote over 300 songs with his John Lennon and the immense influence their friendship had on McCartney is evident on two new unreleased versions of the Lennon-inspired track ‘Dear Friend’.
‘Dear Friend’ first appeared as the closing track on Paul McCartney And Wings’ debut album Wild Life in 1971, and now both a remastered version, and an intimate unreleased home recording are available as part of expansive deluxe reissue of the album (along with 1973’s Red Rose Speedway) out on 7th December.
McCartney reflected on the origins of the track in a statement, saying:
“With ‘Dear Friend’, that’s sort of me talking to John after we’d had all the sort of disputes about The Beatles break up. I find it very emotional when I listen to it now. I have to sort of choke it back. I remember when I heard the song recently, listening to the roughs [remastering works-in-progress] in the car.
And I thought, ‘Oh God’. That lyric: ‘Really truly, young and newly wed’. Listening to that was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s true!’ I’m trying to say to John, ‘Look, you know, it’s all cool. Have a glass of wine. Let’s be cool.’ And luckily, we did get it back together, which was like a great source of joy because it would have been terrible if he’d been killed as things were at that point and I’d never got to straighten it out with him. This was me reaching out. So, I think it’s very powerful in some very simple way. But it was certainly heartfelt.”
Recorded during McCartney’s sessions for Ram, ‘Dear Friend’ was a musical olive branch, extended to his once closest collaborator. The stripped-down track features only piano and vocals and reveals a beautifully vulnerable side of McCartney.
The recently unearthed track is just one of 25 bonus tracks that can be found on the newly expanded package of Wild Life. Along with the remastered album, it also features rough mixes, original single edits, B-sides, home recordings by McCartney and his wife Linda and other previously unreleased material. The DVD in the deluxe Wild Life package also includes rare footage of acoustic, home-video performances, rehearsals and more.
The deluxe reissues of Wild LifeandRed Rose Speedway are released on 7th December
The Lemon Twigs have released a video for “Never In My Arms, Always In My Heart,” off their most recent album Go To School, out now through 4AD. The video was directed by frontman Michael D’Addario, who also stars in the video, and Winston H. Case.
Go To School is a glam-inspired concept album about a chimpanzee raised as a human boy—no, seriously. That sort of free-wheeling fancy made the album one of the most effortlessly fun listens of the year, and “Never In My Arms” acts as the introduction to the world that the D’Addario brothers built for us.
It’s a bit jarring, then, that the video is so … depressing. That’s not to say it’s not fun, because it is, in a darkly ironic sort of way. But the story it tells is a far cry from the outlandish fantasy of a chimp in a human’s world. The video follows the trials and tribulations of a barfly couple and their (very publicly) dissolving relationship, It’s the sort of sad scene you might see unfolding at a local watering hole at 8 p.m. on a Wednesday.
“Brian and I played in a whole lot of Long Island bars growing up, and man, we met a lot of people like this,” Michael D’Addario says in a statement. “Sometimes the Long Island mothers would gossip and you’d hear a sad story like this one, and somebody would end up with a tattoo that said ‘Never In My Arms, Always In My Heart.’ A weekend in Hicksville.”
‘Never in My Arms, Always in My Heart‘ is taken from The Lemon Twigs‘ second album ‘Go to School’ out now on 4AD Records,
The Lemon Twigs will be touring throughout November, and will start up again in January of next year
Beach House have released a further music video for “Pay No Mind,” from their latest album 7. The video was directed by Michael Hirsch, and is made up of touring footage from 2015-2018. “We’ve been lucky to have friends join us on the road over the years,” the band said in a statement. “They’ve helped us stay sane through all the hard touring.”
“Pay No Mind” is perhaps the most romantic song off 7. Its gentle, lethargic chords feel like a prom-night waltz at the bottom of the sea, Victoria Legrand’s vocals shining down like fractal pillars of light. The video finds the small serenities in the chaos of touring—from the murmuring excitement of the crowd to the bliss of performance and the road the next day, the video finds solace in repetition.
Watch “Pay No Mind” below and check out the earler video and 7 standout track “Drunk in LA.” The video was directed by album co-producer Sonic Boom, who also remixed Beach House’s “Black Car.”
The video is the third from 7, following “Dark Spring” and “Black Car.” It features wobbly, watery animation of everything from liquid horses to fractal treetops, to a blacklight-infused stage play set.
The band said the idea came from Sonic Boom, aka Pete Kemper, while they were all out together at dinner and he “mentioned an idea for a video where the viewer is always looking up from the ground.” After complimenting him on the dreamlike nature of the video, “he wrote that it was essentially just a day in his life.”
Beach House just wrapped a sold-out North American tour, and will be embarking on a European tour this fall.
Watch the video for “Drunk in LA”
The legendary Dan Stuart songwriter, author and habitual expat currently residing in Mexico City. He was a founding member of Green on Red and Danny & Dusty in the 80’s before leaving the music business in 1995 for a decade and a half. His comeback solo record in 2012 has the same title as his 2014 false memoir: The Deliverance of Marlowe Billings, both available through Cadiz Music, London. That was followed by Marlowe’s Revenge recorded with Mexico City’s Twin Tones and released in 2016 through Cadiz Music in UK & Europe and on Fluff & Gravy Records in the Americas. The last of the trilogy, The Unfortunate Demise of Marlowe Billings, came out in July of 2018 along with a novel of the same name.
Have a look at Dan and Tom playing The Day William Holden Died and What You’re Laughing About.
Dan Stuart – vocals, guitar Tom Heyman – guitar
we’re celebrating Pillar Of Na by releasing this one-take live version of the title track. It was recorded by our friend and longtime videographer Jon Washington at Musicol Studios in Columbus. Musicol is Ohio’s oldest studio and also a vinyl pressing plant.
Pillar of Na is Saintseneca’s most ambitious album to date, with Little aiming to incorporate genre elements he’d rarely heard in folk. “I wanted to use the idiom of folk-rock, or whatever you want to call it, and to try to do something that had never been done before,” Little explains. “To reach way back, echoing ancient folk melodies, tie that into punk rock, and then push it into the future. I told Mike Mogis I wanted Violent Femmes meets the new Blade Runner soundtrack. I’m looking for the intersection between Kendrick Lamar and The Fairport Convention.”
Memory is the common thread running throughout the Columbus folk-punk band’s fourth album, Pillar of Na, arriving in August 31st via ANTI- Records. Following 2015’s critically lauded Such Things, the new album’s name is rooted in remembrance, referencing the Genesis story of Lot’s wife who looks back at a burning Sodom after God instructs her not to. She looks back, and God turns her into a pillar of salt. “Na,” meanwhile, is the chemical symbol for sodium. “Nah” is a passive refusal and the universal song word. It means nothing and stands for nothing. It is “as it is.”
“Pillar of Na” (Live) by Saintseneca from the album ‘Pillar of Na,’
The other big news is that our European tour starts next week in Oxford, England. It’ll be our first time over in 3 years and also our first time in places like Paris, so we’re majorly jazzed to be playing these songs for the first time in Europe.
Tour dates:
Nov 21: The Jericho Tavern – Oxford (UK)
Nov 22: Rabbit – Norwich (UK)
Nov 23: Hyde Park Book Club – Leeds (UK)
Nov 24: Broadcast – Glasgow (UK)
Nov 25: YES – Manchester (UK)
Nov 27: Sebright Arms – London (UK)
Mercury Rev is an American indie rock group that formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York. A band committed to experimentation and reinvention, their music has run the gambit from neo-psych and noise rock, lush pastoralism, and 4/4 electronica. In 1998 Mercury Rev delivered the unexpected, a hit album. Deserter’s Songs, the fourth studio long player from the New York-based band not only delivered three UK Top 40 singles, but also struck cultural pay dirt across the globe that still resonates today.
Fully cementing Mercury Rev’s rebirth as purveyors of a cosmic brand of the popular American songbook, Deserter’s Songs is an album of grandiose proportions. Merging jazz, folk, sweeping orchestration, and a dose of 60’s rock, the album was intended as the band’s swan song and therefore made with utter abandon. However, it became the band’s most acclaimed platter and remains one of the essential records of the past 25 years. Deserter’s Songs was released to huge worldwide acclaim and went on to be named album of the year in 1998 by NME, MOJO and many other publications, quickly propelling the legendary iconoclasts into living rooms worldwide and pioneered the launch of a new genre of music, heard today in bands like Arcade Fire and Beirut. Originally released on V2 Records, Deserter’s Songs was chosen as the first release on our new imprint, Modern Classics Recordings. Modern Classics’ Deserter’s Songs is the first LP reissue of this landmark album, long overdue if you ask us. Beautiful audio re-master comes courtesy of co-producer and original Mercury Rev member David Fridmann
Deserter’s Songs is at once a lullaby, a trip, and a triumph.”
-9.3/10 – Pitchfork (Top 100 Albums of the 1990’s)
“A modern classic.” – NME
Mercury Rev have announced the release of Bobbie Gentry’s The Delta Sweete Revisited, available 8th February via Bella Union. The album is a reimagining of Bobbie Gentry’s forgotten masterpiece and features an incredible cast list of guest vocalists including Norah Jones, Hope Sandoval, Beth Orton, Lucinda Williams, Rachel Goswell, Vashti Bunyan, Marissa Nadler, Susanne Sundfør, Phoebe Bridgers, Margo Price, Kaela Sinclair, Carice Van Houten and Laetitia Sadier. Mercury Rev have today shared the track “Sermon”, featuring Margo Price on vocals.
Bobbie Gentry’s The Delta Sweete Revisited is Mercury Rev’s committed and affectionate resurrection of an album that anticipated by three decades their own pivotal expedition through transcendental America, 1998’s Deserter’s Songs. From their recording lair in New York’s Catskill Mountains, the founding core of Jonathan Donahue and Grasshopper with Jesse Chandler (previously in the Texas group Midlake) honour Gentry’s creative triumph with spacious invention and hallucinatory flair. And they are not alone. Gentry’s stories and original resolve are brought to new vocal life and empowerment by a vocal cast of women from across modern rock and its alternative paths: among them, Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval; Laetitia Sadier, formerly of Stereolab; Marissa Nadler; Margo Price, the fiery new country star with a punk-rock heart; and Norway’s Susanne Sundfør, who cuts through “Tobacco Road” with arctic-Nico poise as the Rev’s trademark technicolor orchestration sweeps us towards the penultimate poignant love lorn wash of Beth Orton’s “Courtyard” and into the melancholy mystery of “Ode to Billie Joe” from America’s other grand southern belle Lucinda Williams.
On the 1968 LP, Gentry opened with a call to jubilant order, “Okolona River Bottom Band,” like she was leading a barn-dance union of the Rolling Stones and Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five. Norah Jones takes that entrance here with her own sultry command, like Sarah Vaughan at the head of a slow-blooming choir. In “Sermon,” Margo Price sings like a survivor through Mercury Rev’s explosion of colour and groove: a specialty throughout the band’s history as recently as 2015’s The Light in You going back through 1995’s See You on the Other Side.
Gentry is still very present in the changes. Her seesaw of pride and hurt in the melancholy blur of “Penduli Pendulum” is even more explicit with the seasoned intimacy of Vashti Bunyan set against the younger, brighter arc of Kaela Sinclair, now in the electronic project M83. And in “Courtyard,” a despairing finale of strings and guitar arpeggios on Gentry’s LP, Mercury Rev build a striking Delta Krautrock in which the English singer Beth Orton wanders, like Gentry, through a ruin of profound loss and treasured memory.
“Ode to Billie Joe” was not on the ‘68 Delta Sweete. But Mercury Rev go back to that dinner table with Lucinda Williams, and it is an inspired bond, calling up the ghosts and questions of a South still very much with us. Indeed, Gentry—who retired from recording and performing in the Seventies—reportedly lives only a couple hours’ drive from the bridge that made her famous, while the spirits she set loose in The Delta Sweete are as restless and compelling as they were 50 years ago.
Mercury Rev will on tour in the UK next month celebrating the 20th anniversary of their classic album Deserter’s Songs. Full Dates here.
Mercury Rev have announced the release of Bobbie Gentry’s The Delta Sweete Revisited, available 8th February 2019 via Bella Union.
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