Starting in Madison, WI as the musical culmination of a decade of friendship and playing in punk bands, Claire Nelson-Lifsonand Tyler Fassnacht (Fire Heads) began writing the first of Proud Parent’s jangly, garage infused pop tunes in Claire’s living room. Shortly thereafter Heather Sawyer (the Hussy) joined on drums and vocals, turning the songwriting duo into a trio, and they quickly garnered a devout following both locally and regionally, and gained a reputation throughout the midwest as a live power-pop force to be reckoned with. Now a full fledged four piece, originally with Alex Seraphin on bass and now with Maggie Denman, the band has established its own unique dynamic with three lead singers whose voices and songwriting stand strong individually, yet blend together with such comfort and ease that it is hard to imagine them apart.
After two live tapes (out on No Coast Records and Rare Plant) and a full length cassette Sharon Is Karen (also out on Rare Plant), Proud Parents is ready with their first self-titled LP on Dirtnap Records. This record also marks the first release in eighteen years by a band from the label’s hometown of Madison, WI.
Proud Parents begins and ends with a bang as the band blasts through a dozen tightly wound tunes full of infectious, harmony ladened choruses, ripping guitar solos and hooks for days as Claire, Heather and Tyler converse, support, and share lead vocal duties like passing around a bag of Halloween candy. The album, recorded and mixed by Bobby Hussy (the Hussy, Cave Curse, Fire Heads, TIT) at his own Hex Empire, is about self-reflection, jumping from saccharine adoration, to heartfelt confession. It touches on themes of isolation, be it intentional or otherwise, anxiety, loss and moving on, with each singer coming at the songs with their own distinct perspective, using humor, red herrings, pets and metaphors to mask the demons. The songs may deal with specific emotions both complex and straightforward, but as a whole Proud Parents stands as a testament to friendship, asking for help, and trying to get better.
The Ophelia’s formed back in their teenage years, when they grew tired of being the, “token-girl”, in various“dude-bands” in Cincinnati. They decided to see what happens if they took tokenism out of the picture; the result was an intriguing collision of styles, from Opera to Surf-Pop, and the birth of a band free from, “the expected censorship of being a sideperson.”
The Ophelia’s debut record, Almost, is out next month on Joyful Noise, and the quartet have this week shared new single, General Electric. The band’s lyrical content is an intriguing juxtaposition of ideas; part poised, assured confidence, part introspection and insecurity, a dissection of growing-up from songwriters right in the middle of the process. Musically, it’s equally intriguing, you can hear the sheer variety of the influences on show. Starting with a gentle buzz of keys and a warm meandering guitar, the propulsive double-time drums enter, before a melancholy, wistful vocal-line flutters into life, “I want to be just like the girls you like, I want to be what you fantasise.” As with acts like Adwaith or Neighbour Lady, the influences are familiar, yet hard to pin down, sounds you know and love reinvented into something entirely new and quietly wonderful.
Almost is out July 13th via Joyful Noise. Click HERE for more information on The Ophelias.
It’s been nearly a year since Arcade Fire released Everything Now, but 2018 seems like the right time to release a visual for the album’s centerpiece track “Chemistry.” “When times are really crazy and fucked up, you have to be able to rely on the absurd. It’s a valuable response to the insanity,” Win Butler explains over the phone before boarding a plane that will take him and his band to Europe to resume the Everything Now Continued Tour. “I think it’s confusing to people if we make something that’s not super serious. [But] one of the pieces of our catalog is, ‘Don’t take it too serious; it’s really light.’”
That ethos is at the heart of the track, as well as its video. Directed by Ray Tintori the clip tells the story of an animated cat (played by Tootie Tootz from Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce) and a dog who fall in love under…interesting circumstances.
Butler said about the visuals, and working with Tintori, and the band’s ever-evolving partnership with New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band, as well as why they don’t tour as much as other bands of their stature. Watch the “Chemistry” video, check out an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the recording of “Chemistry” in-studio in New Orleans. An alternate mix of “Chemistry,” from the 2017 album “Everything Now,” recorded live in the studio in New Orleans.
THIN LIPS have a new album ‘Chosen Family’ out July 27th on Lame-O! Recorded at The Headroom in Philadelphia by Thin Lips, mixed by Joe Reinhart with production help from Frances Quinlan comes the bands sophomore LP. The first song “A Song For Those Who Miss You All The Time” premiered yesterday
The band’s current lineup — siblings Chrissy and Mikey Tashjian and Kyle Pulley — have orbited each other for the last decade in Philadelphia, playing in bands and touring together. For two of them, being related by blood certainly helped. Their sophomore album, Chosen Family, is a testament to the connections they’ve forged over the years. It’s about carving out a community for yourself, and its cover art is stitched together with friends and members of the music scene that have come to be a part of this family.
Its lead single, “A Song For Those Who Miss You All The Time,” is about the loss of one of the family, more specifically the death of Tashjian’s younger brother. It’s an anthem for those that are left behind, and it turns the persistent ache into something jubilant. “I know no matter what that he’s not coming back anymore,” ChrissyTashjian sings, but she’s still left wondering dreaming of that missing piece: “We were together in my sleep/ I knew I recognized your face and you said you knew me.” It’s a heartbreaking song, but it’s wrapped up in one of the catchiest choruses that Thin Lips have ever made. “A Song For Those Who Miss You All The Time” is about living and thriving despite the loss, the feeling of missing someone but having to force yourself to keep going.
In 2018, Low as a band will turn twenty-five. Since 1993, Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker—the married couple whose heaven-and-earth harmonies have always held the band’s center—have pioneered a subgenre, shrugged off its strictures, recorded a Christmas classic, become a magnetic onstage force, and emerged as one of music’s most steadfast and vital vehicles for pulling light from our darkest emotional recesses. But Low will not commemorate its first quarter-century with mawkish nostalgia or safe runs through songbook favorites. Instead, in faithfully defiant fashion, Low will release its most brazen, abrasive (and, paradoxically, most empowering) album ever: Double Negative, an unflinching eleven-song quest through snarling static and shattering beats that somehow culminates in the brightest pop song of Low’s career.To make Double Negative, Low reenlisted B.J. Burton, the quietly energetic and adventurous producer who has made records with James Blake, Sylvan Esso, and The Tallest Man on Earth in recent years while working as one of the go-to figures at Bon Iver’s home studio, April Base. Burton recorded Low’s last album, 2015’s Ones and Sixes, at April Base, adding might to many of its beats and squelch and frisson beneath many of its melodies.
Featuring the music videos “Quorum” “Dancing and Blood” and “Fly” from Low’s upcoming album Double Negative (Release Date: September 14, 2018)
This time, though, Sparhawk, Parker, and bassist Steve Garrington knew they wanted to go further with Burton and his palette of sounds, to see what someone who is, as Sparhawk puts it, “a hip-hop guy” could truly do to their music. Rather than obsessively write and rehearse at home in Duluth, Minnesota, they would often head southeast to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, arriving with sketches and ideas that they would work on for days with Burton. Band and producer became collaborative cowriters, building the pieces up and breaking them down and building them again until their purpose and force felt clear. As the world outside seemed to slide deeper into instability, Low repeated this process for the better part of two years, pondering the results during tours and breaks at home. They considered not only how the fragments fit together but also how, in the United States of 2018, they functioned as statements and salves.
Double Negative is, indeed, a record perfectly and painfully suited for our time. Loud and contentious and commanding, Low fights for the world by fighting against it. It begins in pure bedlam, with a beat built from a loop of ruptured noise waging war against the paired voices of Sparhawk and Parker the moment they begin to sing during the massive “Quorum.” For forty minutes, they indulge the battle, trying to be heard amid the noisy grain, sometimes winning and sometimes being tossed toward oblivion. In spite of the mounting noise, Sparhawk and Parker still sing. Or maybe they sing because of the noise. For Low, has there ever really been a difference?.
Low. A band from Duluth, Minnesota, formed in 1993. Featuring Alan Sparhawk on vocals and guitar and MimiParker on vocals and drums and Steve Garrington on bass. Sparhawk and Parker are married with two children; they first met in fourth grade in rural Minnesota. Garrington is the latest addition to the band, longtime bassist ZakSally previously replaced original bassist John Nichols and Sally departed the group after the release of Great Destroyer.
Low released its first album, I Could Live in Hope, in 1994 (producer by Kramer) on Vernon Yard Records. Pegged as “slowcore,” due to the band’s minimalist soundscapes and the beautiful harmonies of Sparhawk and Parker, which stood in stark contrast to the era’s fascination with “grunge.” Low continued to work with varied producers and released a constant stream of critically acclaimed albums (e.g., Long Division, Curtain Hits the Cast, Things We Lost in the Fire), one-offs, collaborations and other miscellany, including a classic Christmas album, aptly titled Low Christmas. Throughout, Low have toured the world.
Legendary Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher died at the age of 47, as a result of a chest infection he picked up following a liver transplant. Gallagher sold over 30 million records and once auditioned for the Rolling Stones when Mick Taylor left the band in 1972.
The irreplaceable Irish blues-rock guitar virtuoso Rory Gallagher was a cruelly young 47 when he died after complications from a liver transplant on 14th June 1995. Rory Gallagher was born in Ballyshannon in County Donegal and raised in Cork. He began to whip up a storm with his guitar sorcery when he co-founded the trio Taste in 1966, when he was a mere 18. When they started to go international, a couple of years later, they won admiring glances from fans of Cream (for whose famed farewell Royal Albert Hall concert they opened) and Blind Faith, the short-lived supergroup on whose North American dates they also guested. Taste were celebrated with the release in August 2015 of the four-CD I’ll Rememberbox set.
Taste only lasted until 1970 themselves, but by then they had played at that year’s Isle of Wight Festival and made two studio albums. The second, On The Boards, was a top 20 success in the UK, and when Gallagher swiftly started recording in his own name under a new solo deal with Atlantic Records, he made the top 40 with his self-titled debut and a swift follow-up, Deuce, both in 1971.
They were the first in a long line of releases to win either silver or gold certification, and it’s appropriate that the sole Gallagher album to make the UK top ten was one on which his celebrated, his blistering style as a live performer was commemorated, on 1972’s Live In Europe. That also enjoyed by far his longest chart run, at 15 weeks. The next year, Blueprint gave Rory his initial US album chart appearance.
Never one to court fame for its own sake, Gallagher continued to enhance his awesome reputation with his prolific recording and touring for the rest of his life. His last studio album, his 11th, was 1990’s Fresh Evidence. He had plans to tour the record, release an EP and more besides, at the time of his death.
But it was always all about the music for Rory Gallagher. “Regardless of fashions there are still blues and rockabilly fans,” he told Chris Welch in Metal Hammer in one of his last interviews. “Certainly for a while, the press overlooked rootsy music [which] they thought was old fashioned and irrelevant.
“But what I’m trying to do,” he continued, “is create music that respects the roots, but is based on new material as opposed to just me doing old blues, acid rock standards all the time. That’s the key really, to update the music itself by hitting it on the head, and coming up with new chord changes and tunes.”
In the later years of his life Gallagher developed a phobia of flying. To overcome this he received a prescription for a powerful sedative. This medication, combined with his alcohol use resulted in severe liver damage. Despite this he continued touring. By the time of his final performance on 10th January 1995 in the Netherlands, he was visibly ill and the tour had to be cancelled. Gallagher was admitted to King’s College Hospital in London in March 1995, and it was only then that the extent of his ill-health became apparent: his liver was failing and the doctors determined that in spite of his young age a liver transplant was the only possible course of action. After 13 weeks in intensive care, while waiting to be transferred to a convalescent home, his health suddenly worsened when he contracted a staphylococcal (MRSA) infection, and he died on 14th June 1995, at the age of 47.
Danny Kirwan, the former guitarist of Fleetwood Mac who was with the band for several albums in the late ’60s and early ’70s, has passed away at the age of 68. Danny Kirwan played on Christine Perfect’s eponymous solo album in 1970 after she left Chicken Shack, but before she joined Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac later in the year, and subsequently married John McVie. Kirwan would contribute one song on the album “When You Say,”
He was a member of Fleetwood Mac from 1968-1972. Mick Fleetwood suggested Kirwan join the band in ’68 but there was some dissent among the other members (PeterGreen, Jeremy Spencer and McVie) but the 18-year old won the day. He worked wonderfully with Green lending rhythm guitar support to some of Green’s greatest compositions. Kirwan advanced quickly playing a major gig in Hyde Park in August with Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After and Fairport Convention, and then began a 50-date tour of the U.K. with the band. There was an ensuing New Year’s Eve show with the Who, Small Faces, Pink Floyd and the Troggs, and finally, in December 1968, he joined the band in New York for a 30-date U.S tour, including appearances at the Fillmore’s East and West. In 1969, he played at the Chess studios in Chicago with some legendary Blues artists including Buddy Guy and Otis Spann. The subsequent double album “Blues Jam at Chess,” (later retitled “Fleetwood Mac in Chicago,”), featured two of Kirwan’s songs.
He got his chance to contribute about half of the “Then Play On,” album (1970) splitting lead vocals with Green, while writing seven of the fourteen tracks. After Green departed the band in later that year, Kirwan and slide master Jeremy Spencer shared guitar and vocal duties on the “Kiln House,” (1970). Kirwan also played on “Future Games,” (1971), and “Bare Trees,” (1972), his final album with Fleetwood Mac. The pressures of travel and life on the road finally caught up with him, and he began drinking excessively and displaying open hostility toward the band. He was eventually sacked by Fleetwood who had seen enough. Kirwan recorded three solo albums later in the 1970s, but none was successful, and by the end of the ’70s he left the music industry altogether, another casualty who couldn’t control his demons. Yet he was a brilliant guitar player who will be remembered for his outstanding work with Fleetwood Mac.
When Mick Fleetwood heard the news he commented: “Today was greeted by the sad news of the passing of Danny Kirwan in London, England,” the note reads. “Danny was a huge force in our early years. His love for the Blues led him to being asked to join Fleetwood Mac in 1968, where he made his musical home for many years.”
Kirwan was still a teenager when he was asked to join Fleetwood Mac, and the guitarist stayed with the band until 1972. His work can be heard on the albums Then Play On, Blues Jam at Chess, Kiln House, Future Games and Bare Trees, along with a number of live an compilation releases. Kirwan was an influence on the group’s earlier blues days with co-founding guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer and contributed to their first UK #1 hit “Albatross.”
Danny was with the band from 1968 to 1972. Danny was still in the band for a while after Christine joined. He wasn’t an original member of the band; Jeremy Spencer was Peter Green’s original guitaring partner, and he remained for a while after Danny joined, but Danny very clearly helped take the band into new terrains. His work in tandem with Green was brilliant, and produced some of the early band’s finest moments. After Green left in 1970, Danny remained.
After being fired from Fleetwood Mac for alcoholism in 1972, Kirwan released a number of unsuccessful solo albums, but sadly by the end of the decade his mental health was deteriorating. He endured long periods of homelessness in the 80s and 90s. Mick Fleetwood asked Missing Persons to find him in 1993.
“Danny was a huge force in our early years,” Fleetwood has said on Facebook. “Danny’s true legacy, in my mind, will forever live on in the music he wrote and played so beautifully as a part of the foundation of Fleetwood Mac, that has now endured for over 50 years. Thank you Danny Kirwan. You shall forever be missed.”
Fleetwood Mac’s , Danny Kirwan, who was once the perfect foil for the band’s founding guitarist Peter Green, has sadly passed away at the age of 68.
Solo albums
Second Chapter (DJM 1975)
Midnight in San Juan (DJM 1976)
Danny Kirwan (DJM 1977 – US release of Midnight in San Juan)
Hello There Big Boy! (DJM 1979)
Ram Jam City (Mooncrest 2000 – recorded in the mid-1970s as demo tracks for the Second Chapter album)
Omni is an indie post-punk trio who write coarse, angular tunes meant to be jammed at full volume. They embody simplicity at its finest with every tone, riff and beat precisely dialed in to satisfy its specific contribution to the whole.
With Philip Frobos’ partially monotone voice coupled with Frankie Broyles’ skilled, wiry guitar sounds the band create a pit of tension. The sound is hardly ever rounded out, but if you are familiar with Omni, you’re well aware that they aren’t necessarily looking to fall in line with popular music trends. The authenticity of the trio makes the punchy chords and anxiety ridden basslines all the more digestible. Frobos attributes their sound to that of the New Wave genre, and it’s undeniably true, especially up close and in person.
Devotion is a stunning artistic about-face from revered Melbourne songwriter Laura Jean. Loved for her piercing, intimate, folk-based albums such as 2014’s Laura Jean and 2011’s A fool who’ll, Laura has worked with producer John Lee (Beaches, Lost Animal) to create an enveloping, deep pop album like nothing she has done before. Laura’s last self-titled album, recorded in the UK with John Parish (Perfume Genius, Aldous Harding, PJ Harvey) and featuring Jenny Hval on backing vocals, was a critical smash in Australia, shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize and nominated for two Age Music Victoria Awards.
The album lead to Australian and New Zealand tours with Aldous Harding and Marlon Williams, plus shows with Julianna Barwick, Jessica Pratt and more.
But soon Laura found herself tinkering with a 90s Kawai keyboard, enjoying its built-in drum rhythms and moody synth sounds. Laura began a series of shows performing with nothing but the keyboard, as the idea for her next album grew and developed. Devotion is an album about teenage obsession, coastal child- hood and vivid memory – universal themes filtered through Laura’s razor sharp lyrical focus. Initial influences for the record took in R’n’B, 80s adult contemporary pop and 70s disco, but the end result is transformed into something wholly other, full of depth, resonance and mystery.
Played entirely by Laura, John Lee and drummer Dave Williams (Augie March), Devotion is both contemporary and timeless.
About the album, Laura says: “Devotion is about how a lonely coastal childhood filters into a contemporary adult life built hundreds of miles away. I wrote this album for my mum, middle sister and myself as we were at that time – eccentric, romantically-unfulfilled teens and a stressed out single mum trying to have a love life. In those times we needed to hear songs that were loving and uplifting, about the reality of intimacy, longing, romantic risk and reward. The album is narrated by me in the present, a detached adult figure far away from home, but still driven by an inner fantasy world that is set on the beach where I grew up.”
New West Records is set to release Jason Isbell’s debut solo album, Sirens Of The Ditch, in a deluxe edition with four never-heard-before tracks from the original studio recordings.
Originally released in 2007, SirensOf The Ditch was met with critical acclaim upon its release calling it “…a gorgeously whiskey-soaked country-soul masterpiece,” American Songwriter declaring it, “…a decadent debut,” and Pitchfork stating that it was “…a strong debut full of the kind of confident, charismatic songwriting that just can’t be taught.” When Jason Isbell left Drive-By Truckers in 2007, his future was by no means secure: His time in the band had been marred by substance-abuse issues, and he wasn’t a known quantity as a solo artist after years spent sharing the spotlight with other songwriters. But when Isbell released Sirens of the Ditch that same year, it was clear that he’d been working from an almost bottomless well of talent and star potential.
Sirens’ forthcoming reissue features four previously unreleased studio tracks: “Racetrack Romeo,” “Crystal Clear” and two songs you can hear for the first time here. “The Assassin” is a Patterson Hood composition Isbell still plays in concert, while the churning original roots-rock ballad “Whisper” burns slowly and wearily. Notably, both fit seamlessly alongside the singer’s later songs about stumbling hard and finding saviors on the road to peace and redemption.
This new deluxe edition features four previously unreleased songs from the original sessions at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, bringing the new, expanded track listing to 15 total songs. NPR Music premiered two of the unreleased tracks today, including the Patterson Hood-penned “The Assassin,” which Isbell performs in concert to this day, and the track “Whisper.” The former Drive-By Truckers lead guitarist, album was released on July 10, 2007
After leaving Drive-By Truckers amicably in 2007, Isbell released Sirens of the Ditch on New West Records. Sirensof the Ditch was recorded at Fame Studios, where among the musicians helping to record the album was Patterson Hood of Isbell’s previous band Drive by Truckers and Spooner Oldham, famous for his work with Aretha Franklin and Neil Young among others . The first single from the album was, “Brand New Kind of Actress,” deals with the death of Lana Clarkson in Phil Spector’s mansion. Another single, “Dress Blues,” concerns the death of Corporal Matthew Conley, a US Marine from Isbell’s hometown who was killed in the Iraq War.
