JADE BIRD – ” Lottery “

Posted: February 8, 2018 in MUSIC
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Jade Bird could have you fooled with her accent. Her Southern drawl translates well into her crystalline power ballad “Something American.” She’s so convincing  she could be mistaken for a Southerner. It’s also a testament to how well she blends into the Americana folk scene despite being a UK native.

Jade Bird is 20 years old but her passion for music has been embedded in her since she began playing piano at seven years old. Her mom gave birth to her at 20 as well, and Jade spent her formative years moving from place to place as an army child. While she doesn’t go into too much detail, she says she’s been in a lot of serious situations where she’s found comfort in the catharsis of music. “It’s very embedded in my experience,” she says. At 12, her parents divorced and she moved to Wales. Her mom found romance with a new partner who played guitar. “There was something quite magical about it,” she says of the instrument. She became immersed in songs her mom’s partner would play by Mazzy Star, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and Bob Dylan and eventually started writing songs herself. It became her gateway to Americana and country music.

Her education began at 14 with the now defunct Civil Wars. “I remember seeing them, and I lost my mind,” she exclaims. Their breakup still has an effect on her. “It really upsets me,” she says. But it was Chris Stapleton’s “You Should Probably Leave” that made her contemplate classic country songwriting, which led her to Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. She was attracted to their wry humor, but also how they overcame hardship, she says while citing Coal Miner’s Daughter. “I think I’ve always been inspired by country music stories, because these women have to find a way to work despite [country music] being conservative and white male-oriented,” she explains. “I’ve been hugely inspired by their struggles and how they weren’t given anything and it didn’t come easy.”

Despite her affinity for Americana and country music—something she showed off on her 2017 EP Something American—she’s found herself with some pop tendencies. She’s been compared to everyone from Stevie Nicks to Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick and Alanis Morissette. Needless to say it’s hard to pin Bird down. In January she released “Lottery,” which had pop undertones because of the albums that have influenced her, the ones she’s nostalgic for. “Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill is the one I always go back to,” she says fondly. But Bird doesn’t want to be boxed in genre labels. She wants to write piano ballads as much as she does Americana tracks and pop songs. “I always respected country music for its narrative and how it’s so solid, you can get the picture in your mind,” she explains. “I feel like song structure is a real ode to that emotion.” For Bird, that emotion stemmed from the breakdown of relationships in her life. Instead of falling out of love with her boyfriend, it was witnessing her parents and both sides of her grandparents split. Because it’s so intricately detailed with her experiences, her songwriting isn’t generic. “There’s not a line I think you can miss,” she says.

The emotional maturity found in her songwriting comes from having strong women in her life, like her mom who she refers to as her “best mate.” “We’re only 20 years apart, so I’ve always been treated like an adult in my life up until now,” she says. When Bird was very young and her dad was away in the army, her mom worked night shifts and babysat her during the day. Bird and her mom had to move them twice—something she credits her mom for doing all by herself. Her grandma also had a profound influence on her when Bird when she moved in with her in Wales—she witnessed her grandma move forward after her grandfather left her. It’s the women closest to her like her mom and grandma that have impacted the types of narratives she wants in her music. “I don’t really get inspired by landscapes that much, it’s all people,” she says of her inspiration. She aims to emulate and admire the women she grew up with in her craft. “I’ve been surrounded by incredibly strong women: incredibly, unapologetically strong women, and I guess that for me has just been the biggest inspiration,” she says. “It’s just been a total pleasure to grow up with my mom.”

Jade is hoping to get her debut album out this year or in early 2019. If all goes well she says, maybe she’d get Jack White to produce her next record.

The CARS – ” The Cars ” Classic Albums

Posted: February 8, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Cars’ 1978 self-titled debut, issued on the Elektra label, is a genuine rock classic. The band jokingly referred to the album as their “true greatest-hits album,” but it’s no exaggeration — all nine tracks are new wave/rock classics, still playing regulary on rock radio. Whereas most bands of the late ’70s embraced either punk/new wave or hard rock, the Cars were one of the first bands to do the unthinkable — merge the two styles together. Add to it bandleader/songwriter Ric Ocasek’s supreme pop sensibilities, One of the most popular new wave songs ever in america, “Just What I Needed,” is an obvious highlight, as are such familiar hits as “Good Times Roll,” “My Best Friend’s Girl,” and “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight.” But like most consummate rock albums, the lesser-known compositions are just as exhilarating: “Don’t Cha Stop,” “Bye Bye Love,” “All Mixed Up,” and “Moving in Stereo,” the latter featured as an instrumental during a steamy scene in the popular movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High. With flawless performances, songwriting, and production, the Cars’ debut remains one of rock’s all-time classics.

The Cars first album has been about four decades since they committed this effort to disc. It’s not a bad record; there are some songs I really like and Elliot Easton is an outstanding lead guitarist. The songs are basic rock songs disguised by cheeky but often nonsensical lyrics and heavy use of a decorative synthesizer. I say “decorative” because like so many bands in the late 70’s and 80’s, the synthesizer was used to make songs sound more important and cool than they really were. I don’t know who chose the track order, but opening with the weakest song on the album isn’t the best way to make new friends. “Good Times Roll” is hardly an original title, and the music hardly evokes good times. The chord structure is simple enough but the choice to use a declining pattern tends to make the song a downer, especially in contrast to the promise of the title. I suppose the dour chord pattern could be a statement of New Wave ironic chic , but if irony was the goal, one would think there would be some confirmation in the lyrics. But no, they’re just silly:

Let the good times roll
Let them knock you around
Let the good times roll
Let them make you a clown
Let them leave you up in the air
Let them brush your rock and roll hair
Let the good times roll

Ric Ocasek employs his soon-to-be-overused pouty vocal style to the point of irritation, and the harmonies used on the last line of the chorus are a pale imitation of Queen . The intrusion of synth-produced strings causes even more damage. When you have as natural an opening song as “Just What I Needed” in your possession, failing to place it in the lead spot is tantamount to criminal negligence.

While the opening is so Tommy James, “My Best Friend’s Girl” is at least a more coherent composition. We get to hear Elliot Easton’s lead guitar more clearly, and he gives a pretty impressive all-around performance on the fills and in the solo. Ocasek’s lead vocal isn’t much better, and his occasional Bolan-esque grunts lack sincerity and seem out of context. The harmonies here are stronger, and the rhythm section of Benjamin Orr and David Robinson keeps things moving at a nice pace. The song definitely encourages you to sing along, so overall I think “My Best Friend’s Girl” is a plus.

Then there’s “Just What I Needed,” a song on a much higher plane. The opening passage is fantastic, with its strong forward movement dramatized by single then double power chords that vanish in the seamless transition to the bass-and-drum drive of the first verse. Though I definitely would have whacked the synth and replaced it with more Elliot Easton, this sucker rocks so hard even the synth can’t kill it, and when Elliot gets his shot in the spotlight, he nails it with a perfectly-arranged solo that ends on an exciting upward run. Benjamin Orr’s lead vocal is outstanding, expressing the contradictory emotions of self-loathing and desire with just the right amount of tension:

I don’t mind you comin’ here
And wastin’ all my time
‘Cause when you’re standin’, oh so near
I kinda lose my mind
It’s not the perfume that you wear
It’s not the ribbons in your hair
And I don’t mind you comin’ here
And wastin’ all my time

The way to read the lyrics is as follows: the guy is lying in six of the eight lines. The only directly-spoken truth is “‘Cause when you’re standin’ oh so near/I kinda lose my mind.” All the other lines reflect the exact opposite of what he’s feeling. It is the perfume, it is the ribbons, and fuck yeah, he wants her to be there. The spot harmonies on “ribbons in your hair” are inspired and always give me the chills. As an exposition of male paralysis when overwhelmed by desire, there is no better song than “Just What I Needed,” and the fact that it kicks ass.

“I’m in Touch with Your World” is the most quirky song on the album, and I rather like quirky. Interestingly, the guitar duet establishes the beat, while the percussion instruments (drums, cymbals, bells and ratchet) make the whole thing sound like a mechanical fun house. Ric Ocasek’s vocal is shoved into deep background by the heavy reverb, adding to the mystery of the sound. Both the narrator and object of his one-sided conversation are virtual shut-ins who have created alternative realities through either psilocybin, science fiction or both, and so the message “I’m in touch with your world” is an attempt by Party A to encourage Party B to air his weird thoughts in a safe space. The closing lines, “It’s such a lovely way to go” could imply suicide but the music doesn’t communicate darkness—it’s “music for those whose inner compasses are out of calibration” or more conventionally, those whose cranial containers are “a few bricks shy of a load.”

We leave the introverts in their artificial cocoon and return to the equally complex world of sexual interaction with “Don’t Cha Stop.” Given my perpetually horny nature, one might think that I would love a song that opened with these lines:

Right here I’d like to melt inside of you
Right here you kiss is totally new
Right here your hands are soft and creamy
Right here your mouth is wet and dreamy

Wrong! Of all the songs on the album, “Don’t Cha Stop” is by far the most irritating, a song that turns sex into the aural equivalent of a Disney tune. The sickeningly sweet chorus sounds like it was written for pre-teens who have no idea what those funny feelings in the nether regions are all about

“Just What I Needed,” a song that exposes the moments of desperation experienced usually by those held in the thrall of mating season and gives them legitimacy as a natural step in the rite of passage. The narrator of “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight” is in a real bad way—so horny he has no problem being used, abused and lied to, and he’ll do it anywhere you like. Ric Ocasek finally finds some discipline and delivers a performance true to the character, and there’s more than enough excellent work from Elliott Easton throughout the song to make you forget the synthesizer had ever been invented. This album would have been a thousand times better had The Cars realized what a great lead guitar player they had and let him loose.

“Bye Bye Love” features another unoriginal title, another round of flanged guitar and really annoying synth fills that detract from a comparatively strong vocal from Ocasek. What I notice most in this piece is the outstanding drum work from David Robinson, but underneath all the college-level lyrics, this is really just another song that blames it all on the woman. It’s followed by the darker tones of “Moving in Stereo,” a song about failing to face reality that goes absolutely nowhere. We end our journey with “All Mixed Up,” an odd combination of medieval English folk and off-day Queen.

In the interest of supporting your right to hear both sides of the story, you can head over to AllMusic and read a glowing review of The Cars, where you will see the album described as “a genuine rock masterpiece” and that “all nine tracks are New Wave/rock classics.” What I hear is the sound of a band addicted to the latest toys to the point that they forgot about the real talent they possessed in their quest for trendiness.

thanks 50THIRDAND3RD interesting view

The CARS – ” Shake It Up / Heartbeat City ” Rhino Records Reissue

Posted: February 8, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Following expansions of The Cars’ Candy-O and Panorama, the classic New Wave group (one of this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees) will expand two more in their classic discography in the spring.

Rhino Records will release 1981’s Shake It Up and 1984’s Heartbeat City with rare and previously unreleased bonus tracks on March 30th. CD and double LP editions will be available, and will utilize the 2016 remasters overseen by co-lead singer Ric Ocasek as well as art direction overseen by drummer David Robinson. (For the box set The Elektra Years, Heartbeat City changed from a burgundy cover to white, in accordance with the group’s original vision; that design choice repeats here.) Ocasek and Robinson have also sat for new interviews for David Fricke’s liner notes for each title.

A total of 15 bonus tracks appear between both packages, from B-sides (“Breakaway,” from the Heartbeat City period), dance mixes (among the band’s only ones: the Top 20 hit “Hello Again”), a cover of The Nightcrawlers’ “The Little Black Egg” (the backing track of which was used for Bebe Buell’s covers EP) and the two exclusive tracks from the band’s seminal 1985 greatest hits set: the Top 10 smash “Tonight She Comes” and a remix of Shake It Up‘s “I’m Not the One.” Gems from the vault include early versions and demos of “Shake It Up,” “Since You’re Gone,” “Drive,” “Heartbeat City” and “Coming Up You,” later released on the group’s 1987 effort Door to Door.

Shake It Up and Heartbeat City continued the Boston quintet’s dominant turn from New Wave masters to pop-rock hitmakers. These albums, respectively produced by Roy Thomas Baker (his fourth consecutive collaboration with the group) and ascendant pop-rock craftsman Robert John “Mutt” Lange, contain The Cars’ biggest hits, including their first Top 10 track, “Shake It Up”; the power-pop gem “Since You’re Gone,” and bestsellers like “You Might Think” (remembered for its cutting-edge-at-the-time MTV video), “Magic” and the simmering ballad “Drive,” sung by the band’s late bassist Benjamin Orr and the band’s biggest hit.

 

The Cars / Heartbeat City and Shake It Up expanded editions

Spring is going to be pretty swell for The Cars, what with the band being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but for Cars fans, it’s going to be all about the SHAKE IT UP: EXPANDED EDITION and HEARTBEAT CITY: EXPANDED EDITION both releases. Due March 30th, each includes remastered versions of the original albums, rare and previously-unreleased bonus tracks, and illustrated booklets featuring new interviews with Ric Ocasek and David Robinson as well as liner notes by noted rock critic David Fricke. We know it’s going to be a long wait for March 30th to get here, but to help you endure the suffering, we’ve got something for you right now: the demo for the band’s HEARTBEAT CITY hit, “Drive.”

 

LUCY ROSE – ” Strangest Of Ways “

Posted: February 8, 2018 in MUSIC
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I’m very proud to present the music video I made recently for ‘Strangest Of Ways’.  says Lucy Rose, I thought long and hard about what sort of video I wanted to make to go with the song and for a long time I couldn’t think of anything. And then I remembered an e-mail that I received back in July 2017 when I was doing my worldwide cinema tour showing my documentary about my trip around Latin America.

The e-mail was from the father of a girl called Zoe who had come to my show. Instead of enjoying the documentary, Zoe had found it a hard watch as it made her think about all the things she wanted to do with her life but felt like she couldn’t because of her illnesses and disability.  The next time I saw Zoe was at my Bristol show in November and I asked her if she would be interested in being in my next music video and hopefully we could make something that would make her feel the complete opposite that she felt watching my Latin American documentary.

I asked her to choose a place she’s always wants to go and we would find the time to do it. Last week we boarded a plane and went on one hell of adventure together,

Official video for ‘Strangest Of Ways’ taken from the album ‘Something’s Changing’, out now –

NO AGE – ” Snares Like a Haircut “

Posted: February 8, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Don’t call it a comeback, but nearly five years after their last record, LA duo No Age has returned with its fifth full-length. Since 2005, guitarist Randy Randall and drummer/vocalist Dean Spunt have toyed with the idea and the definition of punk, always redefining it in terms of their sound but never wavering from the ethos underpinning it. With 2013’s An Object, for example, the pair physically made ten-thousand copies of the record themselves, despite the fact that it was being released on Sub Pop Records, a label more than capable of manufacturing those copies itself.

Of course, the world has changed a lot since then, and it seems that No Age are poised to confront it with these twelve songs. That said, this album doesn’t rage against the machine with visceral aplomb, but given that this is No Age, that’s perhaps not surprising. Instead, the pair provide a disturbing and unsettling soundtrack to reflect these disturbing and unsettling times—a fuzzy, fizzling backdrop to the chaos and trauma that surrounds us at the moment.

The record begins on a somewhat antagonistic note, with the rambunctious and frenzied surge of “Cruise Control.” But even in that rush of buzzsaw guitars and charged feedback, there’s an unavoidable warmth, one that both reflects but then transcends any problems at hand, be they personal or political or a combination of the two. This is the case for many of the rest of these songs—“Stuck in the Changer” is wistful but forceful, “Popper” doom-laden but also optimistic, and the instrumental title track a soothing flood of comfort. It’s both a non-song—an interlude, an afterthought—and the most important track on the record, offering, as it does, some time to reflect, a moment of near-meditative calm.

There is—as there always has been on No Age records—a sense of almost naïve innocence. This is a band continuing to make music the way it wants to make music with no concerns for how other people will perceive it, and that approach serves them just as well here. Because this is a record that—subtly, subconsciously—offers some kind of solace while also invoking the unnerving and disquieting times we live in. A song like “Sqashed,” for example, with its nod to The Velvet Underground, simultaneously puts you on edge and gets you through it. For better or worse, it’s the perfect backdrop to life in 2018, and for as long as we need it, this album will be here to help.

In certain musical circles, the word “accessible” is a death sentence, a Judas-esque betrayal. Or worse, a synonym for “sell-out.” For noise-punk veterans No Age, it means their best release in recent memory. With recurring choruses and a selection of guitar riffs you can actually hum, much of Snares Like a Haircut feels like a new era for Dean Spunt and Randy Randall, who got their start doing time at L.A.’s The Smell, a grotty, sweat-marinated touchstone of DIY legitimacy. “Cruise Control” signals this change, as the duo turn their churning, rumbling noise into an almost hooky(!) melody, and introducing the positive feeling of release that characterizes the album

Track from LP/CS/CD “Snares Like a Haircut”, released January 26, 2018 on Drag City Records.

MIEN – ” Earth Moon “

Posted: February 8, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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As reported before Rocket Recordings are extremely excited to be releasing the self-titled debut album by MIEN, the new four piece band comprised of The Black Angels’ Alex Maas, The Horrors’ Tom Furse, Elephant Stone’s Rishi Dhir and The Earlies’ John-Mark Lapham.
After revealing the video for their debut track Black Habit we are pleased to share with you the second track from the album which is called ‘Earth Moon’.
The single will be released on 6th March and will feature a killer remix of MIEN’s first single Black Habit by the ever great $hit and $hine. We will reveal this mighty slab of industrial psych shortly!

The press reactions to the band’s first single “Black Habit” has been overwhelming:
“Apocalyptic psych rock.” Pitchfork–
“MIEN is the line-up of your dreams.” Clash–
“Kaleidoscopic series of atmospheres and excursions.” Self Titled Mag

Elephant Stone

FRANKIE COSMOS – ” Being Alive “

Posted: February 8, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Our friend Daniel Martin hopped in the car on tour with us for a few days and brought his camera. Little did we know he would end up making this cool music video!! and making puppet versions of us!!.
We are very excited to announce the 2nd single from Vessel, a song called “Being Alive”. You may recognize this song because we’ve been playing it live for a while now, and also because I (Greta) released it as a demo many years ago. But this new recording is very different and special because it has David Maine, Lauren Martin, and Luke Pyenson playing bass, keys, and drums respectively, and David, Lauren, and our friend Anna McClellan sing on it too.

Frankie Cosmos is so great. Greta’s demos and her studio versions of songs can create two different experiences, and a lot of the time they show major growth in her musical talent.

Vessel (Release Date: March 30th, 2018) via Sub Pop Rccords

DAVID BYRNE – ” Everybody’s Coming To My House “

Posted: February 8, 2018 in MUSIC
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We brought you the most welcomed news that the mercurial David Byrne would be releasing some new solo material this year in the form of his new album ‘American Utopia‘.

David Byrne will release his first solo album since 2004 on March 9th, called American Utopia. He has made albums with Eno, St. Vincent and Karl Hyde, but it’s his first solo album. It’s produced by The xx cohort Rodaidh McDonald and features guests, Jack Peñate, Oneohtrix Point Never, Jam City and Thomas Bartlett,  and its choreographed live shows to come, Byrne has suggested are “the most ambitious show I’ve done since the shows that were filmed for Stop Making Sense.”

Talk about expectations. ‘Everybody’s Coming To My House’ is Byrne at his best – melding acoustic textures, brass and Afrobeat textures with his trademark pop songwriting.

The Ex-Talking Heads frontman added to this news with some details about his World Tour and a further track ‘Everybody’s Coming To My House’. He’s followed up these announcements with a brand new track which he debuted on Lauren Laverne’s BBC 6 Music show. New song ‘This Is That’ was a collaborative effort with Daniel Lopatin from Oneothrix Point Never adding value at every turn. The song speaks highly of what’s to come on American Utopia and sees Byrne in fine form.

KENDAL CALLING – Lowther Deer Park Kendal 26th-29th July 2018

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Kendal Calling 2018 revealed!

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SPORTS TEAM – ” Winter Nets ” EP

Posted: February 8, 2018 in MUSIC
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Alex Rice, is the frontman of the band Sports Team,  Sports Team’s live shows speak for themselves. Over the past year, whispers of their performances and the absolute imperative of needing to see Rice and his fellow mischief makers in the flesh have spread like a wildfire – one reminiscent of the sort of word-by-mouth that carried stories of the spectacles put on by Fat White Family or, more recently, Shame.

The band are a compelling live proposition, majestically coordinated yet slightly unhinged, with Rice’s performance elevated by an expressionless, mute key player. As for the music – so far one EP released in January, a year or so after their first London shows – think of the following: a potpourri of the famed dry wit of Stephen Malkmus; Haircut 100 without the brass instruments; a lottery ticket love child of the harmonic and songwriting abilities of Paul Heaton and Jarvis Cocker. Needless to say, Sports Team are in the mold of a gold-medal winner.

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The six-piece met when studying at Cambridge University a few years ago and don’t feel any shame in saying so. The scene in the university town was a strange one; devoid of regular gig nights, the group initially started out playing flat parties and university balls – sometimes finding themselves at the 6AM arse-end of bills that may have included Nero, Loyle Carner and Pendulum earlier in the night. Because their mates largely didn’t want to hear guitar music, Sports Team needed to bring something different. “We would make the show gag-heavy, tell a lot of jokes, dress quite stupid, have a lot of fake guitar solos or fights on stage,” Rice says,

The line-up back then was different. Members jostled for position; at one point they had four lead guitarists. It was, all in all, “a fucking shambles” according to bassist Oli Dewdney. But all six members loved what they were doing and post-university continued to make music in London, using a house that three of them rent in Harlesden as a base. “I don’t think any of us thought we were that great,” remembers Rice, going on to say how things kicked up a gear for them when they were scouted by a management company who convinced them to take things seriously and practice.

A year and several shows later and Sports Team caught the attention of Dave McCracken (Ian Brown, Depeche Mode, Florence & The Machine) who came on board to produce their debut EP Winter Nets. The record is enchanting, equal measures debauched and poetic – it sounds unlike anything you’ll have heard from a British band in years. “Camel Crew” has a little bit of The Pale Fountains about it, if The Pale Fountains ever wrote a chorus that packed a punch. Rice rolls his syllables on “Back to The Point” like a young Heaton pogoing around the microphone in his Housemartins era. These references might make the whole thing seem retrograde but Sports Team take from these influences and assimilate them into an overall new sound, placing them firmly in the Here and Now and as one of less than a finger-full of British bands doing something genuinely interesting.

Take lead single “Beverly Rose” and its video, which we’re premiering above. Shot in and around their Harlesden house, more than anything it’s just really fucking entertaining. Use your eyes and learn about that in full but know this: it includes a bath, the luxurious juice of a fried egg being squeezed from its previous casing and onto a plate and dance moves better than anything you’ve seen on Eurovision. It’s the element of intoxicating excitement, as songwriter Rob Knaggs will attest, that is what the band are all about. “There’s no money in guitar music,” he says. “The press isn’t really looking at it.

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Actually… It was quite funny, there was a recent piece where they called us ‘glam-theatrical,’ which we’re absolutely not, then tried to categorise us alongside this south London scene… saying ‘they hate their surroundings.’ Really? It’s the antithesis to lots of the miserable Fall knock-off stuff that’s going around at the moment, right?”

Debut EP ‘Winter Nets’ Coming Early 2018 | Nice Swan Records

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