iA band formed by Brent Rademaker of Beachwood Sparks and former Sparks drummer, Tom Sanford. The band includes Neal Casal (of Ryan Adams & The Cardinals) and Jason Soda on vocals and guitars, Kip Boardman (vocals, bass), with a guest appearance by Nelson Bragg (vocal harmonies).
The band is helmed by Beachwood Sparks‘ Brent Rademaker, and they released their sophomore album, Another Summer of Love, . But we need something for this summer, and that’s just what GospelbeacH is giving us. Their new song, “Dreamin’”, is from the recording sessions of Another Summer of Love, so it already has that summer vibe instilled within it. It’s a bright, warm invitation to chill.
Beachwood Sparks debuted in 2000, with a collection of songs on Sub Pop Records that couched the band in 1960s’ Laurel Canyon country-rock of The Byrds, and the cosmic country of Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers. With Rademaker at the helm of this new band, GospelbeacH continue to draw connections between the country-rock and pop on their debut album, Pacific Surf Line came out on October 9th 2017 on Alive Naturalsound Records.
D.C. foursome Priests have followed up 2017’s Nothing Feels Natural with a special treat for superfans: three new versions of “Suck,” a saxophone-laced lament about someone who, well, sucks. “How can you tell that I always mean to be mean when you’re not even listening?” reads one tell-tale line from the song. The band noted on Instagram that they originally wanted this six-and-a-half minute version of the song to close out the record, instead of the four-plus-minute version that ended up there. This extended play is a definitively funkier mix. But the real treat here is basically a wholly new song: “Suck” as remixed by Meg Remy of U.S. Girls. Remy slows down the whole track, giving it a chopped-and-screwed makeover. Katie Alice Greer’s vocals are several pitches lower, accented by a funky horn riff and a repetitive, hypnotic dance beat. It’s a perfect offering for late-night summer dance parties.
On the back of a triumphant UK tour and sold-out show at London’s Roundhouse, Car Seat Headrest has announced a live return to the UK in November for his biggest headline shows to date.
The four-date run will see the band performing in Cardiff, Nottingham and Manchester, culminating in a headline show at London’s O2 Brixton Academy on November 8, before continuing to further European dates.
The band will be bringing the expansive sound of their new album Twin Fantasy – a re-recorded, re-imagined version of Car Seat Headrest’s 2011 classic – to the stage, the band has expanded to a seven-piece, featuring two drummers, three guitarists, a bassist, and Will Toledo confidently stepping into centre stage as frontman.
Car Seat Headrest performing live in the KEXP studio. Recorded April 24th, 2018.
Songs: Uncontrollable Urge Fill In The Blank Sober To Death / Powderfinger Bodys
Nicki Bluhm has released the video for “Battlechain Rose,” one of the songs off her forthcoming album To Rise You Gotta Fall,out June 1st via Compass Records. The album grapples with the recent break-up of Bluhm’s marriage and her ensuing relocation to Nashville from San Francisco.
“Battlechain Rose,” co-written with Ryan Adams, was born out of a particular dark-night-of-the-soul experience. Here’s what Bluhm had to say about the tune’s genesis:
“Hoping to wake from a nightmare and realizing I had not yet found sleep, ‘Battlechain Rose’ came on a restless night when the wheels of my mind wouldn’t stop turning. Steeped in disbelief of my own reality, I could find no peace, only time to pass. I scribbled down my thoughts and visions on a scrap of paper upon the nightstand, and finally, the relief of sleep came.
I awoke the next morning with a pit in my stomach and the song still in my head. I spent all morning working on the melody when a mid-day call from a curious friend (Ryan Adams) came in. I showed him what I was working on and he liked it.
Unstoppable and oozing with creativity and excitement, he lent some beautiful imagery and phrasing and so was born a collaborative piece. What became is a delicate dance of telling hard truths and painful admissions, ‘an animal dangerous by nature, and but half-tamed by art.’ The words resonated with me so deeply and writing it allowed me to come to grips with what my life had become and helped me make some sense of the swirling emotions that ensued. It was the most unusual and crooked flower I’d ever seen grow, and so became the song of ‘Battlechain Rose.’”
It’s been a long time coming and I am proud to share that my record TO RISE YOU GOTTA FALL will be out on Compass Records Group! The last three years have been full of heartache, setbacks, blind turns, growth and unexpected beauty; a time of hurting and healing. Through it all I found that light always makes its way to even the darkest of places and this new collection of songs is proof of that. An array of emotions strung over an unexpectedly arduous time in my life when my entire world was turned upside down. These songs are the conversations I never got to have, the words I never had the chance to say, and the catharsis I wouldn’t have survived without.
We are all human, and as such we all suffer; music gives us relief, it gives us hope and makes us feel less alone. My greatest wish is that this collection of songs touches others going through those challenging times in their lives, whatever they may be. So keep your chin up my friends, after all, to rise you’ve got to fall. Check out the title track today! Sending out so much love. Xo
This is Tmrw’s annual All Years Leaving weekender returns to the Hare and Hounds this October…..We’re almost ready to release our full lineup this year,
We’ve big fans of Australian based Cloves ,with her two previous releases making waves the Melbourne-born songstress is finally back with new cut ‘Wasted Time’. Here is…WASTED TIME…I’m so proud of this record, for me this record is about that voice in your head that fucks with you, that makes you feel paranoid mid conversation with someone that maybe they hate you or maybe you’re boring them, and trying to understand why people want to stay around
It’s a timeless bluesy ballad that focuses down on Kaity Dunstan’s gloriously rich, booming vocals, and talks of the self-esteem issues and lapses in self-confidence that affect us all. And it has us all excited about the debut LP, ‘One Big Nothing’, which is promised for release later this summer.
London’sTeleman have long been favourites, and now the foursome have unveiled details of their third studio album; Family of Aliens, set for release in early September
To mark the occasion, they have offered another insight into their flourishing electronic-inspired sound, with new single Cactus. Flaunting the harmonious marriage of their classic pop sensibility accompanied by pulsating electronic undertones, the single is anchored by an unrelenting riff that crescendos to a cacophony of thrashing guitars and unbridled synth-sounds, bound by a palpitating, monotonous drum-loop. It’s danceable, psychedelic and completely infectious, burbles of synth and distorted guitar competing for space over the disco groove at its core.
The video ‘Cactus’. Directed by Prosper Pictures and Lone Taxidermists, it’s a warped Frankenstein tale that sees a mass of wires, cables, rubber gloves and god knows what else form itself into a gigantic half-dancing, half-flailing cactus monster. Set in what looks like the basement level of a car park and created using a mix of physical and digital animation the creature’s birth is a sight to behold with floating astroturf and strange amorphous blobs abound.
‘Cactus’ from Teleman’s forthcoming new album ‘Family of Aliens’
Olden Yolk is the collaborative songwriting project of multi-instrumentalist Shane Butler. The project initially functioned as a moniker for Butler to release one-offs and singles under while touring with Quilt, but over time morphed into his full-time pursuit. The result is a harmonious, melancholic, and mystical brand of low key alt-folk with quirky, abstract lyricism.
Band Members
Shane Butler – Vocals, Guitar, and Sampler
Caity Shaffer – Vocals, Keys, and Sampler
Jesse DeFrancesco – Guitar and Keys
Pete Wagner – Bass and Vocals
Dan Drohan – Drums
In 2011 in their hometown of Berlin, Gurr members Andreya andLaura were both doing North American Studies at the same university. “Laura used to walk around with a Joy Division tote back, and I had a Ramones one, so we became friends,” Andreya says, smiling through the webcam. “Then, a year later we went travelling through England for five weeks, and pretended we were in a band… but we didn’t have any songs! So when we came back we went to a practice room and wrote some.”
The sweet, easy nonchalance with which Andreya (who plays guitar in the band, while Laura’s on drums) tells me this story is a feeling that permeates a lot of their music. Gurr’s first album, In My Head, released two years ago, is a 30-minute collection of bright, raucous guitar pop. “Give me those big false eyes of wonder / Sticky kisses, a big jacket which we can hide under,” they sing in “Breathless”, their riffs pumped up and excitable, like a more polished Bratmobile. In another, “Rollerskate”, their harmonies are sugary and intertwined, but also sludgy, like Bikini Kill covering a 60s girl group. Whichever way you spin it, they’ve got a distinctly American flavour; the kind that comes from obsessing over the country’s rock heritage.
The track itself is glorious, all energetic garage punk riffs and guitar solos and hypnotic, circular vocals. But Gurr tell me it’s misleading in relation to what’s on the rest of their new album. “It gets quite sad after this,” Andreya says, “There’s more of a 90s, Breeders kind of vibe, with some of them even a bit Nirvana-ish, and some of the songs are a bit 60s psych-y, like Velvet Underground.” Laura explains how their new material also reflects a sense of instability, as they’ve recorded most of it in snatches on the road, or at studio sessions between festivals. “Doing music is the greatest thing in the world but it’s also the scariest,” she says, “Millennials can relate to that because we’re all having these weird working situations. That pops up in a lot of the songs.”
