Jessica Jalbert was a member of the Canadian based Edmonton punks Tee-Tahs .That is in the past and this is her second album as Faith Healer. Try 😉 lives on the same planet of the Brewis brother’s Field Music. Combine Jallbert’s croon and her ability to write a good pop hook you have something special.
I think I’ve already listened through this album about ten times. Another outstanding release by Faith Healer. If you haven’t heard the previous Cosmic Troubles, go do it. Easily among the most underrated album of 2015.
After a handful of singles, Glasgow’s Spinning Coin finally deliver the goods in their debut long player. As you might expect it’s a combination of ramshackle Pastels like pop and good natured Teenage Fanclub guitar pop.
I highly recommend you all check out Spinning Coin. Sean Armstrong is one of the most prolific and creative songwriters I know – I recorded an early EP of theirs and they just finished their debut album with Edwyn Collins. It’s out soon on Geographic Records. Spinning Coin have determinedly, and with single-minded purpose, made their music heard: beautifully rough-hewn guitar pop that takes in frustration, escapism, but also gracefulness and splendour, in equal measure.
The five-piece now announce that their debut album “Permo” will be released on November 10th via The Pastels’ Domino imprint, Geographic Music.
The fourteen songs on Permo trace all kinds of terrain, though the overarching story might be that of a group looking for escapism, somehow and anyhow, in the midst of a social and cultural climate that’s closing down possibilities for difference and community.
Australian experimentalists King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard was arguably 2017’s most prolific band, releasing five full albums over the course of the year. There was the mind-melt Flying Microtonal Banana; the cyborg-narrated sci-fi trip Murder of the Universe; the yacht-rock/Brit-folk/jazz-fusion collab with Mild High Club, Sketches of Brunswick East; the psych-prog beast let loose for free use, Polygondwanaland; and now the groovy finale, Gumboot Soup, released just under the wire on December 31.
Even more impressive is the vast array of killer songs tucked among this quintet of curiosities. One of our favorites is Polygondwanaland’s final track, “The Fourth Colour,” a meandering yet propulsive groove built on dizzying, circular riffs, feverish drum fills, and a trippy vocal technique called hocketing, in which multiple vocalists sing alternating syllables.
“The Fourth Colour” itself refers to the phenomenon of tetrachromacy. The rare tetrachromat possesses four (instead of three) types of cone cells in the eye, meaning they have the ability to see millions of more colors than the average human. It’s perhaps the essence of psychedelia as we visually interpret it. For the band, it’s a gateway to divinity: “Third eye is free/I am not body/Tetrachromacy,” they chant, before their final words reveal all: “Now I am a god.” At this revelation, the instruments dissolve into a deep-space drone before resurfacing for one final bout of psych-rock delirium.
Marvellous indie trio Dream Wife, who delivered one of our favourite live sets of the year at Truck Festival have announced details of their much anticipated self-titled debut album. There are plenty of options to buy the record including a very special limited edition transparent vinyl with blood red splatter, a gatefold vinyl edition and CD and various bundles with signed novellas – check the pre-order options here.
They have also shared a new track, Let’s Make Out, which is another top notch track of catchy, feminist post punk swirl… with teeth!
Londoners Novella followed up their debut album Land with their new album Change of State. They recorded the new record on an old timey 1960’s 8 track for an authentic feel and worked with James Hoare – who you might know from the band Veronica Falls. The Proper Ornaments, Ultimate Painting,
Following the unveiling of album title track ‘Change of State‘ we’re giving you a first taste of ‘Thun’, a track that touches on birth and free movement.
‘Thun’ is the name of a place in Switzerland we visited on tour last year. It is incredibly beautiful but the journey there was the most terrifying experience we had on the trip, driving through snow, having to turn around and drive back on ourselves, driving on narrow roads on cliff edges, and ultimately having to cancel the show. The song tries to capture how we felt on this journey and actually emerged from a pretty natural 9 minute jam we recorded on our phone that we decide to come back to when we were finishing the album. The theme of the song explores the nature of borders and freedom of movement; the randomness of who this applies to and to whom it doesn’t.
Change of State sees Novella continuing on the same trajectory of their debut from 2015. Motorik beats, icy, layered vocals and clean sounding guitar riffs. This batch of songs is stronger and they approach the same quality that Broadcast reached on Tender Buttons.
Flat Worms which features former members of Dream Boys, Sic Alps and Thee Oh Sees hit the ground running on this pummelingly great record. Lead off song “Motorbike” sets the scene of this menacing record. They’re sound like a biker gang that digs Suicide, but thinks synths are for poseurs. One of the best albums of the year. Raging but with style, panache and tunes. This debut album of LA post-punk band featuring Will Ivy (Dream Boys, Wet Illustrated, Bridez), Justin Sullivan (Kevin Morby, The Babies) and Tim Hellman (Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Sic Alps). Flat Worms belt-sanded everyone with their 7-inch on Volar, and Castle Face is proud as new papas to present their debut album. The band continues their ride on a buzz-saw wave of feedback-tipped riffs into the middle distance, the smog-choked sunset receding in the rearview, with a thousand-yard dead pan stare surgically pinned to a high octane set of boredom-energized punk pistons.
This is an ear-ringing missive from the end of the cul-de-sac, a mirage wavering above a mid-sized American suburb at dusk, with the constellations bleached black by the sprawl. A little Wipers, a little Wire, and a lot of late-capitalist era anxious energy—Flat Worms scratch the itch quite nicely. Fans of classic SST / Homestead /Touch And Go Records will find much to love here.
Katie Alice Greer is the loudspeaker we’ve been begging for. The Priests frontwoman delivers every note throughout DC-based punk band’s excellent debut Nothing Feels Natural, with power, bravado and most importantly, authority. At one turn, Greer calls out an alpha-male lacking in self-awareness on “JJ”; on another, she delivers a feminist manifesto disguised as the quasi-Chomskian “Pink White House.” Operating on their own Sister Polygon Records label, Greer and Priests (also one of this year’s best live bands) are the next important female-fronted punk band in line (think Savages) to shatter the complacent patriarchy
“Love the One You’re With” is a song by folk rocker Stephen Stills. It was released as the lead single from his debut self-titled studio album in November 1970. The song, inspired by a remark Stills heard from musician BillyPreston, Stills then wrote the song after being inspired by the tag line — “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with” which was a frequent remark by the musician , Stills asked him for permission to use the line in a song and Preston agreed . It became his biggest hit single in early 1971. David Crosby and Graham Nash, Stills’ fellow members of Crosby, Stills & Nash, provide background vocals on the song. The song has been covered by a number of artists .
His conventional, blues-informed voice seems slight compared to the more distinct, upper register harmonies demonstrated by the rest of the vocal powerhouse. Despite demonstrating his immense songwriting talents both with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young and its predecessor Buffalo Springfield, the industrious Stills struggled to shake the inferiority complex saddled on him by others in the ‘70s.
Released via Atlantic Records, Stephen Stills debut solo album boasts a droolworthy list of players helping to bring Stills’ vision to life: Eric Clapton, Rita Coolidge, Mama Cass Elliot, Jimi Hendrix, Booker T. Jones, Ringo Starr. Crosby and Nash also appear and, given their joint contributions, polyamorous hit single “Love The One You’reWith” and the empowering Earth anthem “We Are Not Helpless” deserve consideration if not automatic inclusion in the CSN discographical canon. Bookending the album, both are big, bright, and beauteous pop imbued with all the exuberance of this period in music.
Kevin Morby has carved out a niche over the course of four solo albums as a generous songwriter and lyricist, a chronicler of details from city and rural life. Morby’s latest album, “City Music”, finds him reflecting on city landscapes and experiences, as well as old friends which take the form of ghosts. “Come to Me Now,” is emblematic of Morby’s gift of imbuing songs with an air of religiosity, using space and gaps to conjure images of spectral lovers and rotted city structures.
City Music was Morby’s first album recorded with his talented live band, which consists of amazing Meg Duffy (guitar), Justin Sullivan (drums), and Cyrus Gengras (bass). Recorded near Stinson Beach, California, and produced by the ubiquitous Richard Swift, the album greatly benefits from the symbiotic relationship between players and instruments. Duffy’s guitar, in particular, adds layers of texture and melody, ringing softly against Morby’s resonant voice. Though not as guitar-laden as the titular “City Music” or “Crybaby,” the guitar rings in and out of earshot acting as Morby’s past love, glistening organ and drums taking the track to its conclusion.
KEXP presents Kevin Morby performing “City Music” live at The Triple Door as part of KEXP’s VIP Club concert series. Recorded August 21, 2017.
Songs: City Music, Crybaby , 1234, Aboard My Train, Destroyer, I Have Been To The Mountain, Parade, Downtown’s Lights, Beautiful Strangers,
A superb album with a lot of various influences such as Sonic Youth, the Slits, the Fall, the Ramones and even the Gogo’s but I forget many others. Every song is a success and could be a hit if times were different.
Make a record. Break up. Release the record. This trio of women seemed to have it somewhat backwards, but their Wire inspired pop that scratches, rubs and soothes sometimes all at once makes for a winning record.
