Toronto’s Vypers released a new 4-song EP back in March and if you want the limited vinyl, you’d better act quick!, The four-track offering will be treated to a physical release on clear 10-inch vinyl via Fishbum Records.
Vypers play loud high energy psychedelic garage rock all enveloped in a wall of noise and plethora of hooks.
A couple of the tracks are previously released but no matter, “Mr. Girl” deserves to be played at least as much as “Despacito.” . Beyond that, you can also check out the new video for “My Girl.” It was shot on a ’90s camcorder and the band blew their $50 budget on “dollar store confetti guns and gin.” The results are exactly as fun as they sound.
With the recently released “Songs From the Land of Nod” garnering enthusiastic reviews across the board, Their sound is a classic, hot and sweaty, raw and nasty, rock and roll spirit, that commands the room with a real classic NYC sound Beechwood delivers the follow up, ”Inside The Flesh Hotel”. From two-minute pop perfection, to the sound of drug-induced nightmare psychoses, the trio’s music hits you where it hurts. Gordon Lawrence(guitar/vox), Isa Tineo (drums/vox) and Sid Simons (bass/vox) are drawing their rock n’roll line in the dirt, which side are you on?
“Inside The Flesh Hotel” is out June 8th
“Inside The Flesh Hotel” is out June 8th
Oozing with edgy cut-throat energy and cool, sleazy grace. – IT STARTS WITH A BRIMSTONE,
Authentic rock ‘n’ roll! – POWER OF POP
Brings the late ’60s into the ’00s. – GRUNGECAKE
A darkly shimmering rock ’n’ roll record of bruising timelessness. – THE VILLAGE VOICE
Recalls the best moments of the Zombies and Beach Boys. – POPMATTERS
Piece together the best of rock throughout the ages. – BUFFALO BLOG
It’s summer at last and with all this fresh energy transferring through the air, none is fresher than that of Wand the Los Angeles psych-rock band’s video for “Pure Romance.”
Both previously released singles from Perfume, Wand’s forthcoming 30-minute EP, show off the band’s range, from the hyperactive strobe-light-psych of the title track to the oh-so-pretty kaleidoscopic-pop of “The Gift.”“Pure Romance” features Wand in a floral strut that winds outward, reminiscent of The Left Banke’s fanciful baroque-pop minus the strings and French horns. “We both act very funny / The expressions that we hid,” Cory Hanson sings of timeless moments of desire, his voice hanging over guitars that interlock in and out of each other like new lovers. Within that span we’ve seen the line-up expand and evolve, as Wand enter a phase of maturation that must be seen to be believed. The sound, the energy, and the magic all held within Wand‘s orb are at full capacity – it’s a mesmerizing, super-sonic quake, are you ready for it?
Official music video for Wand’s “Pure Romance”, off of their Perfume EP. comes out May 25th via Drag City.
From London, Grace Lightman found her place as a member of psych crew The Hypnotic Eye, eventually leaving to pursue a solo career. However, with her she brought a pervasive lick of the blissed out, leftfield, expectation defying attitude that elevates her pop works. The result is tracks like Repair Repair and Fangs; retro, indulgent and deliciously sunkissed, like drinking pina coladas with Lana Del Rey at a sixties swingers party.
‘Fangs’, was her first release on new label Handsome Dad, takes heavy influence from the ’60s, yet there’s a probing mystery behind the track’s floaty vocals.
Appearing as the A-side of a new single alongside ‘Halloween Is Over’, there’s clearly a bloodthirsty attitude to Lightman’s latest twists and turns, and they’re simply irresistible. After all, she talks of an otherworldly alter-ego, the Silver Eater, and it all starts to make sense.
‘Fangs’/’Halloween Is Over’ comes out on Handsome Dad Records.
Sun June makes regret pop in Austin, Texas. Laura Colwell and Stephen Salisbury formed the band while working long hours in director Terrence Malick’s editing rooms, practicing in the office whenever Malick was out of town.
They worked with Dan Duszynski (Cross Record; Loma) and fellow Malick alum Will Patterson (Sleep Good) on their first set of demos before solidifying the current line up of Michael Bain on guitar, Sarah Schultz on drums, and Justin Harris on bass.
In 2017 they began working on Years with Evan Kaspar at Estuary Recording Facility, recording live to tape. TonyPresley of the Austin label Keeled Scales was living above the studio at the time, and first heard Sun June through the floorboards. He contacted the band soon after. Years is a we’ve-been-broken-up-a-long-time record. It looks back on failed relationships from a distance. But its ten songs are filled with warm sounds and catchy melodies. Laura’s vocals, Sarah’s harmonies, and Michael’s layered guitar lines float over simple and spacious structures.
‘Discotheque’ by Sun June From Years, debut LP, out June 15th, 2018 via Keeled Scales
After taking the world by storm fresh off the back of their self-titled debut EP in 2017, Middle Kids have dropped their stunning, highly anticipated debut full length Lost Friends.
The band have spent the last few months drumming up hype in the US, winning over crowds with their soaring sound on the stages of Jimmy Kimmel and headline sets across the country.
Lost Friendsis Middle Kids cementing their status as total indie-rock trailblazers – it’s the perfect melding of dream pop and soft rock, a combination pulled off with aplomb that showcases both a burning wisdom and youthful jubilance in their songwriting. Tracks like ‘Maryland’ and ‘Don’t Be Hiding’ prove the band’s knack for impeccable, subtle yet emotionally driven songwriting – think Fleetwood Mac meets Alvvays, it’s a modern take on classic tropes that have soundtracked many life-milestones for years. The guitar tones are warm and sentimental, frontwoman Hannah Joy’s vocal performance is powerfully vulnerable, all culminating in a radiant feast.
Joy stated last month that the album revolves around the themes of “hope and love”, coming in abundance on Lost Friends.
“In a time where a lot of division is growing, we want to be part of the conversation that unites people around certain ideas that are universal, like hope and love.”
Mikaela Davis is a young harpist, pianist, singer and songwriter who crafts sweet and salty songs that straddle the lines of folk and funk, AM rock and 80s pop experimentation. Mikaela had dreams of joining a symphony and studied classical harp at music conservatory, but after she began writing her own songs and touring them on school breaks her path changed course. Mikaela will make her full-length debut with ‘Delivery’ on Rounder Records July 13th, which was produced by John Congleton (St. Vincent, Future Islands, Angel Olsen, Alvvays). She is also about to embark on a nearly sold-out tour with Lake Street Dive beginning May 4. ‘Delivery’ is a thrilling adventure over 10 tracks: a sonic exploration that challenges what the harp can do, and one that details the sometimes arduous path to self-acceptance and feeling comfortable in your own skin.
Album opener and title track “Delivery” is a stunning entry point, a touch of gospel piano and plucked bass that bursts into a wall of sound. It begins with lyrics of disillusionment: “Well you know I tried prayin’ / tried to wish it all away / even tried to meditating / but the feeling stayed the same,” and shifts to a triumphant acceptance of steadfast love. As the album unfurls, it’s dabbed with synths, fuzzed out bass and guitar, harp cascades and ping-pong effects. Mikaela’s voice shines on top – a little raspy with a range that goes from whisper to wail.
Mikaela Davis – “Delivery” Debut album coming July 13th, 2018 on Rounder Records
New York band Wild Pink released one of 2017’s strongest debut albums with their self-titled effort, but frontman John Ross isn’t ready to take a break just yet: He released an ambient solo album as Eerie Gaits last year, and now Wild Pink is already back with their second album: The band just announced that Yolk In The Fur and the opening single “Lake Eerie,” a bright alt-country single that manages to work in some of the grunge edge found on their debut album, although it definitely doesn’t focus on it. Ross said of the track, “This song is about growing up and moving on and about the struggle to not get caught up in anything that doesn’t really matter. It’s also for the Western New Yorkers in my life.”
I was a fan of this indie band’s 2017 debut, which applied mid-tempo emo dynamics to John Ross’ autobiographical storytelling songs. On the forthcoming Yolk In The Fur (out July 20), Wild Pink gets expansive, playing invigorating wide-screen synth rock that recalls Ross’ classic-rock heroes like Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne. This nouveau heartland rock sensibility comes across most vividly in “Lake Erie,” which will surely go down as the year’s best War On Drugs song in a year without a new War On Drugs record.
Wild Pink“Yolk In The Fur” out July 2018 on Tiny Engines Records
Introducing Art School Girlfriend – the most recent signing to Paul Epworth’s record label, Wolf Tone (The Horrors, GlassAnimals). Formerly the lead singer in Wrexham’s dark and beautiful Deaf Club, Polly Mackey relocated to Margate, signed to Paul Epworth’s Wolf Tone label, and became Art School Girlfriend. While the tracks glitch and hum with an analogue meets electronic euphoria reminiscent of early The xx, still the same is her smoky and entirely intoxicating vocal, turning deeply introspective lyrics into captivating story lines.
Her music is atmospheric and stark in equal measure, exploring themes of lust, queer identity, infatuation and disillusionment.
In June, Edsel Records will issue“Brick – The Songs Of Ben Folds 1995–2012”, a huge 13CD box set that takes a detailed look at the output of American singer-songwriter Ben Folds.
It includes all four Ben Folds Five albums (including 2012’s comeback album, The Sound of the Life of the Mind), all of Folds’ solo albums (up until 2012), live recordings, b-sides and other bonus material.
In this new set the first album (1995’s Ben Folds Five) comes with five bonus tracks, while the second (Whatever and Ever Amen from ’97) features 19 extra tracks on a separate CD. The third album from the original era – The Unauthorised Biography of Reinhold Messner – also includes a two extra songs and a radio edit.
Ben’s first solo album, Rockin’ The Suburbswas issued in 2001 and is included here across two discs (with 14 bonus tracks) and 2005’s Songs For Silverman only includes a couple of bonus cuts, but this is because most of the extra material from this era can be found on disc nine of this set Songs For Goldfish (at the time bundled with Songs For Silverman and sold via Folds’ website).
Supersunnyspeedgraphiccompiles song from a trio of EPs – Sunny 16, Speed Graphic and Super D – and Folds’ final solo album Way To Normalis present and correct in both standard and Stems and Seeds variant (the latter sees the album re-ordered and remastered with much less compression).
In 2011, Ben Folds Five got back together to record their first album for 13 years. The Sound of the Life of The Mind completes this new Brick box set (which also features Ben Folds Live)
Brick – The Songs Of Ben Folds 1995–2012includes a 60 page booklet featuring a brand new interview with Paul Myers and comes in unique ‘brick’ packaging.
