MGMT’s first album in almost five years is close at hand, and the psych-rock duo have put out one more single ahead of the release of Little Dark Age this Friday, February.
New single “Me & Michael” is out now, along with a narrative-based music video from directors Joey Frank and Randy Lee Maitland. The song itself is a bright, synth-driven ode to a companion, built on sparkling guitars and keys straight out of the ‘80s. As the video observes, “It’s a hit song!” . The bizarre, yet charming “Me & Michael” video sees Andrew Van Wyngarden and Ben Goldwasser become successful musicians in an odd, cardboard universe, only to be exposed as plagiarists. A press release explains the clip as follows:
The video tells the story of MGMT being moved to steal a song written by Filipino band Truefaith, a theft leading to a rise of unprecedented success followed by an accusation of plagiarism and a crashing fall. When the band puts their heads together and decide to ask for forgiveness, they contact Truefaith—who are actually an established rock band from the Philippines and who recorded a version and video called “Ako at si Michael” for this little MGMT stunt. If you look around for influences, you will find Russian versions too.
Sure enough, Truefaith’s version of the song and its accompanying video went up on YouTube a few days ago.
“Me & Michael” follows three previous Little Dark Age singles, including its title track, “When You Die” and “Hand It Over.” The album will be MGMT’s first new release since their 2013 self-titled, which itself followed their Grammy-nominated 2007 debut Oracular Spectacular and their acclaimed 2010 followup Congratulations.
That push-and-pull, especially in relationships, has long been Donovan Woods’ stock in trade. As the lead track of his forthcoming album Both Ways, “Good Lover” unfolds with acoustic instruments and Woods’ quietly compelling delivery — not what a listener might expect from the title alone. The first song off Donovan Woods‘ highly-anticipated new album. “Both Ways” will be available April 20, 2018 via Meant Well.
Woods is also a notable Nashville songwriter .”There are very few writers who can make you laugh and break your heart in the same song.” No Depression noted that Woods’ style is “as fresh and captivating as any out there.”
In Both Ways, Woods shows the rare ability to distill complicated situations and emotions into songs that are intriguing and relatable. Perhaps the collection’s most beautiful song is “I Ain’t Ever Loved No One,” a duet with Rose Cousins. The song captures that moment of bringing someone home to meet the family, using it as a backdrop to the anxieties of falling in love. True to the album title, a listener could either imagine a happily-ever-after ending or hear it as an ode to the one that got away. In most cases, Woods prefers to leave lyrics open to interpretation.
As Both Ways progresses, radio-friendly songs like “I Live a Little Lie” and “Easy Street” employ a full-band sound to flesh out the sonic landscape. A number of the songs are guitar-driven, yet they stop short of full-blown rock ‘n’ roll. With his typically droll sense of humor, Woods notes, “I know that nobody likes rock music anymore. I don’t even really like it anymore.” But he says the more aggressive moments on Both Ways are inspired by camaraderie in the studio and on tour, as well as the pop and R&B music he heard growing up in Sarnia, Ontario, where he could pick up the radio stations out of Detroit.
Both Ways concludes with “Next Year,” one of five songs on the album he co-wrote in Nashville, where he has a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music. The poignant narrative follows a boy through adolescence and adulthood, where hopes and dreams are in a race against time. While the lyrics are drawn from Woods’ own life, the experiences are universal.
“The Worst Way” is the follow up single to Donovan Woods‘ critically-acclaimed full-length “Hard Settle, Ain’t Troubled.”
To celebrate his birthday, Dustin Payseur of Beach Fossils released a cover of Yung Lean’s “Agony,” and shot an impromptu video while “walking around in a haze,” as he phrases on Twitter, early this morning. The group transforms Lean’s version, adding layered instruments to the otherwise naked track. Payseur’s swoony arrangement basically transforms “Agony” into a really good Beach Fossils song and, oh no, suddenly we have all these feelings.
“Agony” originally appears on Yung Lean’s Stranger, with Lean stretching his voice over somber piano keys, conjuring up Beauty and the Beastimagery of dancing with candlesticks. For a group with roots the DIY scene, the cover might seem kind of weird on its face, but Payseur and his pals have always been voracious listeners. In addition to his robust collection of 80s UK hardcore, he and the band spent a fair amount of time around the release of their last album Somersault talking about how its patchwork construction was inspired by 90s rap and its production’s sample collagework. Also, for what its worth, sometime in the months since the release of Somersault they’ve apparently become friends with Post Malone after repeatedly @-ing him on twitter
It seems like kind of a given that one of my favourite music videos of the year so far would feature weird tarot-type cards, an array of pantsuits and a cult leader. In addition, it also accompanies a slice of low-key, sultry pop from London musician Nilüfer Yanya, so I’m not sure how any millennial human could resist.
The music video for “Thanks 4 Nothing,” Yanya’s latest single, is grainy and surreal, starring her as a person who may or may not be a charismatic cult leader, and lots of mid-century modern furnishings. It looks fantastic, and its lack of over-the-top drama compliments the mood of the track exactly; evocative rather than in-your-face, bubbling from beneath with a sense of power and pressure.
The impeccable taste on display here is yet another reason to keep an eye on this artist as she makes her inevitable ascent – and let’s face it, there probably won’t be a more understatedly zeitgeist-y visual than Nilüfer Yanya draped in a red dressing gown casting a hand over some magic cards this year.
We loved Suck The Blood From My Wound, the last single Ezra Furman shared from his much anticipated new long player Transangelic Exodus, which will be released on the 9th February on Bella Union Records.
Now we have his latest offering from the record, the jagged, agitated, and it must be said, spectacularly named “Maraschino-Red Dress $8.99 at Goodwill”.
Blind Boys of Alabama + Hiss Golden Messenger “When the Wall Comes Down” Luck Reunion Presents in Association with Titos Handmade Vodka, Lagunitas Brewing Company, and Stolen Whiskey
Present: The Luck Mansion Sessions 2017 at the Texas Consulate. In Sept 2017 Luck Reunion took over the Texas Consulate mansion in East Nashville creating an analogue studio space with the goal of inspiring collaboration. Artists were invited to perform live and record 2 songs as part of a series called the “luck mansion sessions”. We provided a house mixologist named “Floyd’, unlimited tape, and a production team to support. this is what happened…
Live at the wonderful Piece Hall, Halifax, Saturday 26th May 2018
FATHER JOHN MISTY
(Exclusive UK Headline show)
plus
very special guests EDWYN COLLINS
(Exclusive UK Appearance) FRIGHTENED RABBIT
HOOKWORMS
THE ORIELLES
Grammy award winning singer songwriter Father John Misty announces a UK exclusive headline show, at the Grade I listed and newly renovated Piece Hall in Halifax.
Father John Misty has enjoyed much critical acclaim following the release of his award-winning third album ‘Pure Comedy’, and he brings his charismatic live show to Halifax joined by a host of special guests. Recent live appearances include a headline performance at End of the Road Festival, and sold out UK tour in late 2017. This special event will be the only headline show in the UK taking place this Summer.
Best known for his tenure fronting the Scottish pop revivalists Orange Juice as well as his international solo hit “A Girl Like You,” singer Edwyn Collins joining Misty on the bill on Saturday 26th May.
Also announced today is Frightened Rabbit, who celebrated the 10 year anniversary of the release of the seminal album ‘Midnight Organ Fight’ at the end of 2017 with three special UK shows. They will bring their clever but purposefully naïve pop music to the beautiful backdrop of Piece Hall.
Following the release of their first new work in 3 years in album ‘Microshift’, our good friends and Leeds/ Halifax based psychedelic noise rock band Hookworms will add their signature sound of euphoric catharsis to this one of a kind bill.
Completing the line-up is one of the most exciting young bands in the country right now, Halifax’s fast-rising The Orielles. Having announced details of the release of their debut album, ‘Silver Dollar Moment’ on Heavenly Recordings, their sound is tinged by their influences from 90s alternative rock bands Sonic Youth and Pixies.
This is the first event of its kind to take place at the recently reopened 66,000 sq ft open air piazza Piece Hall, following a multi-million pound transformation.
Bad Music For Bad People is a sumptuous collection of 11 hits (“Human Fly” is represented) and B-sides that often serves as an introduction to the psychobilly legends’ swampy goo goo muck.
“Bad Music for Bad People” is the second compilation album of previously released material by the American garage punk band the Cramps. It was released in 1984 on I.R.S. Records and was seen by most fans as a cynical cash-in by the record label, following the departure of the band. Sounds, the now defunct UK music paper, gave the album a 5-star review but said, “Miles Copeland’s IRS label pick the carrion of their former label mates even cleaner by releasing a watered down version of the ...Off the Bone singles collection that was released in the UK.
Across 19 tracks in just 40 minutes, Goat Girl’s self-titled debut creates a half-fantasy world out of a very dirty, ugly city reality. In the group’s words: “Simply put, it’s an album that comes from growing up in London and the first hand experience of our city’s devolution. We wanted to think of it as this place seen not necessarily just through our eyes, but someone who can’t get past the abnormalities and strange happenings that exist in our city. We think this gives the freedom lyrically and musically to explore unspoken truths and emotions that we all as humans feel.”
Goat Girl belong to a burgeoning, close-knit south London scene, born in venues like The Windmill and including bands like Shame, Bat-Bike, Madonnatron, Horsey, Sorry, and many more. “We help each other – I put you on, you put me on – because we genuinely like each other’s music. We’d played gigs all over before but never really settled in a comfortable environment, which is what The Windmill is. It’s an important place for us, it was the first space that our music made sense to exist within. It’s a safe space where music is genuinely listened to and appreciated, and where laws and licensing haven’t reached over to ruin the venue.”
This live freedom enabled the band to think without constraints when it came to recording. Goat Girl enlisted producer Dan Carey (The Kills, Bat For Lashes, Franz Ferdinand) to help them capture their vision, set a goal to write and record a piece of music in a day in effort to capture that raw first-creation moment, and chose to record to tape. “We wanted it to have a similar expression to our live sets and so knew from the start that a tape-based approach would work for us. There’s less awareness of trying to achieve perfection as you can’t edit out mistakes and so you allow them to occur instead. It felt like a really relaxed and natural environment, and you can hear the comfortability in the energy of our sound. Recording to tape also meant that we were able to get the foundations of each song down very quickly, and there was a lot more thought put in to the pre-production of the album, as well as how we would allow the songs to flow in a cohesive manner from one to the next to create a story, rather than an album made up of singles.”
It’s a very English album — sharp-eyed observations like The Kinks, louche rage like The Slits — but it’s also full of swampy, swaggering guitars and singer Lottie’s filthy drawl. “It wasn’t exactly intentional to have this warped country sound, but I think that was initially what we were all drawn to and inspired by, bands that existed in a lo-fi, dissonant, scratchy context.” Each member brings a diverse range of influences and contributions, ranging from krautrock to bossa nova, jazz to blues. They resist being boxed in to an indie, guitar-based genre, and focused intensely on the layers and textures of each song as well as the different contexts they could sit within. “It seems all too easy to exist in that kind of world with the instrumentation of our band, and so now was our chance to transcend that feeling. The joy of working in Dan’s studio is that you’re surrounded by these possibilities to sound more electronic, with such a vast array of different analog synths and sounds to choose from…to be able to experiment and evolve with our music in the recording process has allowed us different possible future routes for our music to take.”
The result, Goat Girl, succeeds in conjuring a complete world all unto itself, and is arranged in segments — divided by improvised interludes — that offer glimpses of an even stranger parallel universe. With each song acting as its own story of sorts that features different settings and characters, listeners are transported therewithin. It’s dark yet cheeky, varied yet cohesive, and striking in its vision; this world is populated by creeps and liars, lovers, dreamers, and wonderful lunatics. Lead single “Cracker Drool” is at once jaunty and sinister, a foreboding tale full of swirling guitar, echoing vocals and synthetic drum hits that stumbles and gurgles straight into “Slowly Reclines,” an equally menacing and considerably heavier track. “Creep” is, predictably and grimly enough, inspired by actual events: Creep on the train / I really want to smash your head in. “You want to think you could stand up for yourself in that kind of situation,” says Lottie. “But then a lot of the time a quiet politeness takes over and you act like nothing has happened – even though in your head everything has happened. I think the purpose for a lot of the lyrics in the songs is to act out that power role that isn’t necessarily a truth, but the freedom of writing gives you that sense.”
On “Country Sleaze,” she sings about sex in a way that embraces visceral reality and defeats shame. “If you say you’re sexually free, as a woman, society still deems that a bad thing. But really it’s a beautiful thing to be confident in yourself – to know that you can have sex and it doesn’t have to mean anything and that doesn’t make you a bad person.” Ellie smiles: “That song is quite disgusting, in a good way. It’s not trying to be nice, it’s not a love song.” Goat Girl is altogether an album crafted with intention, and invites imaginations to run wild; it draws listeners in to its half-fantasy world from the slow fade, eerie instrumental intro “Salty Sounds,” to the gorgeous, unsettling closer “Tomorrow” –– a rendition of the song featured in Bugsy Malone — which ends with dawn-chorus birds and the feeling of new possibilities after a long and messy night.
