Fronted by the enchanting Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, Lucius has drawn acclaim for their powerful songs showcasing taut hooks, along with their mesmerizing stage presence and bold visual aesthetics. The New York Times described Wolfe and Laessig’s vocals as being “especially gorgeous,” while Rolling Stone says Lucius is “powerful enough to knock you over.” Talented multi-instrumentalists Peter Lalish and Dan Molad round out the group.
The band has released a pair of albums to date : Wildewoman in 2013 and Good Grief in 2016, which landed on various best-of lists and elicited praise from The Times for its “sunshine-drenched pop” and “vocal harmonies carrying songs rich in melody.”They recently contributed the song “Million Dollar Secret” to one of the last episodes of the HBO show Girls and scored the soundtrack to the film Band Aid.
Wolfe and Laessig have become in-demand collaborators on their own – singing on albums for artists including John Legend, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, The War on Drugs, as well as Roger Waters’ most recent release, Is This the Life We Really Want? – and have toured as part of Roger Waters‘ band over the last few years.
“MADNESS our new song “Madness,” which started off as nothing more than a transcript of a dream before becoming the opening track on our previous album Good Grief
BORN AGAIN TEEN we’re creating a fan-sourced lyric video for our single “Born Again Teen. “Film what it means to YOU to be a “Born Again Teen” and be entered to win a signed vinyl test pressing of Good Grief
Record Store Day, taking place this year on April 21st, has published its annual list of exclusive vinyl releases. it’s the day when fans of the glorious vinyl record get together to share in their combined love for the format. Now, we know exactly what special releases will be unleashed for this year’s event. With musicians Run The Jewels serving as this year’s global ambassadors, there is set to be close to 500 exclusive releases this year, with limited-editions, box-sets, reissues, and even a few cassettes marking the occasions. Needless to say, there’s bound to be something for everyone, with The Flaming Lips, Mastodon, Eric Clapton, Wu-Tang Clan, Sublime, Sufjan Stevens, and The Cure also participating in this year’s festivities.
Some of the highlights include previously unreleased music from Led Zeppelin, Arcade Fire’s self-titled 2003 EP (released for the first time on vinyl), a new Courtney Barnett single, “City Looks Pretty”/”Sunday Roast,” featuring two songs from her forthcoming second album Tell Me How You Really Feel, and several DavidBowie releases, including a heavyweight 12” single of the previously unreleased demo “Let’s Dance.”
Other gems and rarities include Prince’s album 1999, pressed on vinyl for the first time since 1983, as well as new singles from Parquet Courts, The Voidz and First Aid Kit, a live album from The National and a compilation from The Cure with 16 new mixes by Robert Smith. Kevin Morby and Waxahatchee’s recent Jason Molina covers will also be released as an exclusive 7”, along with picture discs from the latest season of Showtime’s Twin Peaks and an exclusive live 7” featuring Fleet Foxes performing the title track from their latest, Crack-Up.
Sufjan Stevens has also announced a 10” Mystery Of Love EP featuring music from the Oscar-winning film Call Me By Your Name, which he recently performed at this year’s Oscars with St. Vincent, Moses Sumney and others.
The Cure / Torn Down 2LP picture disc , First time on vinyl for 16 new mixes by Robert Smith. Comes with die-cut gatefold sleeve and download code.
The Cure / Mixed Up 2LP picture disc, The Cure‘s remix album from 1990 pressed as a double LP picture disc. The Cure have a thing for picture discs on Record Store Day!
David Bowie 2LP coloured vinyl, David Bowie‘s debut on double red/blue vinyl. Features mono and stereo version. More Parlophone’s Bowie RSD .
David Sylvian / Dead Bees On A Cake 2LP white vinyl, David Sylvian‘s album from 1999 on white vinyl. Includes four non-album tracks.
Fleetwood Mac / The Alternate Tango In The Night black vinyl LP. The now traditional ‘alternate’ version of a Fleetwood Mac album taken from the CD in the box set and issued as standalone vinyl on RSD.
Jeff Buckley / Live at Sin-é 4LP vinyl. First time on vinyl for this live album. Massive quadruple vinyl with ‘deluxe packaing’.
Led Zeppelin / Rock and Roll 7″ yellow vinyl, Large-holed seven-inch with adaptor. Rock and Roll (Sunset Sound Mix) and B-side Friends (Olympic Studios Mix) are both previously unreleased.
Neil Young / Roxy: Tonight’s The Night Live 2LP vinyl, First official release of the live show at LA’s Roxy in 1973 (performed before the album was even released). Gatefold package with audio on three sides of vinyl with the fourth being an etched disc.
Small Faces / Lazy Sunday Afternoon(Early Mix) yellow seven-inch, Die-cut sleeved seven-inch features a previously unreleased version of the Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake title track on the B-side. The previews a forthcoming 3LP box set edition.
Lucky you! We have copies of this Japanese-only Instant Banquet CD Sampler left from The Safes’ recent tour of Japan. 20 big hits from the Hi-Vo catalog—some from long out-of-print singles. If you still fancy the compact disc, this one’s for you!
2. The Missing Souls “Gotta Have Your Loving” (2:55)
3. The Safes “Crystal Ball” (2:40)
4. Quitty & The Don’ts “Running Out of Time” (2:07)
5. Swamps “Hate Hate Hate” (2:42)
6. The Rebel Set “Trails!” (3:01)
7. The Improbables “Bad Vibrations” (2:39)
8. The Stents “Meet Mike Hate” (3:05)
9. Gorilla* “Oh Tonight”(2:17)
10. The Reverberations “The Way I Want You” (2:26)
11. The Fadeaways “Kicks & Chicks” (2:28)
12. Pow Wows “Hey Doctor” (4:37)
13. The Torments “The Creamer” (2:23)
14. The BellTowers “No Matter” (2:46)
15. The Beginner’s Mynd “Singing…
The official souvenir of Field Trip South! The Field Guide zine is a 12-page show guide impeccably designed by Hi-Vo and featuring all your faves: Groovy Movies, The Hall Monitors, Baby Shakes and more! 200 originally produced for the festival. This is all that’s left! Also included is a two song flexi-disk with The BellTowers and The Improbables ripping some fine garage psych.
The BellTowers recorded and mixed by Paul Mutchler The Improbables produced by Mike Kennedy and The Improbables. Recorded and mixed at Fairmount Funeral Sound Studios.
The Boston-based band Fiddlehead have one release to their name so far — 2014’s Out Of The Bloom EP — but next month they’ll put out their debut album, Springtime And Blind, via Run For Cover Records. “Lay Low” is the first single from that album, and it’s a fiery burst of rage and confusion about growing older. The album was written as a way for frontman Patrick Flynn to process the death of his father, and “Lay Low” looks at how sometimes the immensity and brevity of life can often feel like the same thing, and how that’s absolutely overwhelming. “Watch your friends go, see your hair grow/ Black to grey in a day and see yourself old,” Flynn screams. “It’s too much for me/ I gotta lay low.” The rest of the band pummels away at breakneck speed and never lets up.
The accompanying video for the track intercuts performance footage with stop-motion animation that plays out some fleeting childhood memories, with step-stools and towering parental figures and grainy video footage designed to make you feel small. The band’s guitarist Alex Henery also directed the video, and he had this to say about it:
When you think back to your childhood you can often feel overwhelmed by memories, overwhelmed by the amount of time that has passed and how you and those around you have changed. I wanted the video to be reflection of that chaos. Using stop motion seemed to be the best medium to show the rapid pace of life. I really wanted the video to be a mixed media piece and I was heavily influenced by the Alien Workshop skate videos, Memory screen in particular. I drove to middle of nowhere in western Massachusetts to buy the handmade doll house and then spent hours with the rest of the band painstakingly moving the figures to capture the frames. I knew it was going to take a lot of time to get all the animations but definitely feel like it was worth it seeing the final video.
Rock and roll is sort of my consolation prize for wanting to have been a writer,” says James Alex. It’s a humble admission from the frontman of Philadelphia’s Beach Slang, a fiery punk quartet whose raucous gigs often find the songwriter’s earnest lyrics bellowed back at him. Beach Slang’s “Play it loud, play it fast,” goes the mission statement that is the opening to “Future Mixtape For The Art Kids,” “Play me something that will always last.” Everything about Beach Slang is loud, from the guitars to its attitude to Alex’s weathered rasp.
Considering that, his newest project : Quiet Slang. As the name implies, Alex is embracing minimalism, smothering the fuzz in favor of a cello, a piano, and his voice. In October, Quiet Slang released We Were Babies & We Were Dirtbags, an EP comprised of two Beach Slang songs and two covers from The Replacements and Big Star. Consider it an introduction to what Alex calls “chamber pop for outsiders,” because it simply serves as prelude to Everything Matters But No One Is Listening, a collection of 10 Beach Slang covers that’s set to drop on May 18th.
The project’s seeds were planted just six months afterBeach Slang’s formation, when Alex was asked to a solo Tiny Desk Concert for NPR. “That was just me, my guitar and a clumsy excuse for charm. But, yeah, the response was beautifully unexpected and really nudged my thinking,” he says. “Even now, at almost every show we play somebody’s like, ‘I got turned onto your band from that NPR thing. You should make a record like that.’” A successful solo tour last year solidified the idea in Alex’s mind, but he says he wasn’t content to make a “campfire record,” elaborating that he “wanted it to have more weight than that.”
That’s when he turned to the project’s key influence: The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt. Merritt’s influence lent itself not only in his heartrending use of cello and piano via his work with the Fields, but also in one of his most famous lyrics. “Why do we keep shrieking/ When we mean soft things?” goes the final lines of “100,000 Fireflies.” “We should be whispering all the time.”
“That just always stuck with me,” Alex says, “how quiet can sometimes be more powerful.” He continues, “If BeachSlang is me fawning over The Replacements, Quiet Slang is me head-over-heels for Stephin Merritt.”
Alex linked up with longtime co-producer Dave Downham for the project, who worked with him in bringing on cellist Dan Delaney and pianist Keith Giosa. Rounding out the crew were Stacey Downham, Matt Weber, CharlieLowe and New Jersey quartet The Warhawks, who lent their voices to evoke what Alex describes as a “back alley choir.”
The songs that spoke first and foremost to Alex were songs that he feels never quite achieved the vision initially had for them: “Future Mixtape for the Art Kids” and “Warpaint,” both from 2016’s A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings.
“I was really proud of those things when I wrote them, but, once they left my home studio, something sort of slipped away. When they went loud, they never quite found the emotion I knew was tucked inside of them. For those two, specifically, I knew I wanted another crack.”
A good thing, too. “Future Mixtape For the Art Kids” is a rousing document of rebellion on A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings, but the subdued strings and soft piano of Quiet Slang reveal a love story among outsiders, a midnight connection in dim streets as beautiful as they are cruel. And while the gritted teeth of “Warpaint” remain in its quiet rendition, the empathy coursing through Alex’s call to strength and spirit here conquers his anger.
“Warpaint,” and the album itself, closes with the last verse being played in reverse, a choice that helps to further distinguish Beach Slang from Quiet Slang. If the former is concerned with living as presently as possible, the latter feels like a spiral of memory, an attempt to remember the rush through the bleary eyes of a hungover morning after. It’s the walk home after a night that you know you’ll never live again, and the confusing mess of triumph and melancholy that covers it.
“I wanted the record to end not with a word, but a feeling,” he says, “even if it’s uneasy or hopeful or whatever. Just some weight of feeling.”
Though a new Beach Slang record is next up on Alex’s docket, he’s open to the possibility of more Quiet Slang. The project’s sophomore release, he notes, would contain original songs. “I guess I wanted to chase reinterpretation first. I dug the challenge of it. But, yeah, Quiet Slang deserves its own voice.”
Regardless of its future, however, he hopes the project can convey one simple thing: “Tenderness. I suppose that sounds overly simplified. But, still, it makes it no less sincere. Look, I’m trying to soften the world a little bit—there’s worse ways to be remembered.”
Cut Worms has announced his debut LP via the fine folks at Jagjaguwar Records before heading down to Austin for SXSW. The lead track below, Don’t Want To Say Goodbye, conjures up The Beatles in mind. It is a really well-done pop song when pop songs weren’t shit.
Midwestern-bred, NY-based Max Clarke, aka Cut Worms, was born with a knack for conjuring fine images and warm sounds with a curious underbelly. His songs crackle with the heat of a love-struck nostalgia: golden threads of storytelling woven together with a palpable Everly Brothers’ influence and 50s/60s naiveté. Sometimes, on Hollow Ground, Clarke presents impossibly lustful characters, sometimes brooding, while in other parts they fumble along, hopeful and painfully self-aware. His songwriting both evokes and explores the raw realm of youth, but channels it through the lens of someone more restrained, who’s been through it all before.
Hollow Ground was written in NY and Chicago, and recorded in NY, and also LA w/ Jonathan Rado. Clarke plays most of the instruments throughout, including guitars, bass, lap steel & keys.
Soundwire was formed by Simon Court and Peter Moore in Swansea, UK, in 2011.
They are influenced by the likes of Spacemen 3, The Velvet Underground, Neu!, Death In Vegas, The Stooges, Jesus and Mary Chain, and My Bloody Valentine, amongst many others.
They have previously worked with Tim Holmes (formerly of Death In Vegas), and Thighpaulsandra from Spiritualized / Coil. They appeared on a number of releases from the now defunct psychedelic label, Northern Star Records, and they released a single ‘We Rise’ late last year.
Band Members
Simon Court – Vocals
Peter Moore – Guitar, Keyboards, Programming
Chris Davies – Guitar
David Jones – Bass Guitar
Philip Stanton – Drums, Percussion
Brits pop quartet Thyla have unveiled an infectious new single today, “I Was Biting”
The up-and-coming, Brighton-based group have flirted with many different genres on their impressive slate of singles thus far: “Pristine Dream” with dark pop and glimmers of post-punk, “Tell Each Other Lies” with gloomy dream-pop, and their newest offering “I Was Biting” is a dazzling indie-pop tune, but it still contains remnants of Thyla’s trademark brooding atmosphere and commanding presence. Thyla majestically blend glassy distorted guitar tone with driving rhythms and lilting ethereal melodies; front women Millie Duthie brings crystal like beauty to Thyla’s blend of dynamic alt-rock. Herself, Danny Southwell, and Dan Hole met at college in early 2015 and found instant musical companionship but it wasn’t until guitarist Mitch Duce joined, that the band found their sound.
The band’s magnetic frontwoman Millie Duthie sings of a desire to escape a world that revolves around capitalistic greed, and is constantly on the brink of imminent and monumental turmoil. (“I was biting the insides of my mouth / When I was trying to forget about / The dreams I’ve had,” she sings.)
Speaking about their new single, the band said: “I Was Biting” is about dystopian aspects of modern society and a discontent for it. We talk about a unanimous feeling of anxiety and a desire to live in a fictional state of our own dreams; to escape from the mundane routine and expectations of society.
Death and grief are universal, but on Boston band Vundabar’s Smell Smoke, these themes feel timelier than ever. In 2018, as each day in America offers a new and urgent political crisis, societal problems find ways to seep into our daily routines and private lives. For Brandon Hagen, the past few years have been impossibly difficult; while making music and touring with his busy and pretty successful rock band, Hagen found himself forced to care for a dying loved one. That unfortunately very real, and very relatable pain fueled Vundabar’s most recent release, a feverish collection of personal and political turmoil that highlights the many flaws of modern culture.
During their recent Paste studio session, Vundabar played three songs from the new album “Smell Smoke”, including deceptively jaunty album opener “Acetone.” In the track’s video, Hagen dances around a grave, but he’s the one eventually buried inside it. “Acetone,” about fake “bleached personas,” suggests the dark fate of someone who is detaching from reality. Other tracks like “Big Funny” tackles the controversial topic of American healthcare. “Hospital receipts, they make a coffin seem so cheap,” Hagen sings. “It’s just wild,” Hagen said “When we go to other countries that have really solid government programs for healthcare and art and everything… how don’t we have this yet? I don’t know.”
Vundabar – “Acetone” Recorded Live Version: 1/3/2018 – Paste Studios – New York, NY
