Accompanying the announcement of her second studio album “Everybody Needs A Hero”, “The Hit” is a delicate yet intoxicating piece of indie rock. Orla Gartland finds herself so intertwined with her best friend that it feels supernatural: “It’s some kinda magic / Some voodoo doll shit / You get the cut and I feel the sting” she sings in communion with pulsating drums and a lush acoustic guitar. The confessional nature of Gartland’s songwriting feels extra conversational here, and, subsequently, uniquely authentic. “The Hit” is yet another indication that Gartland is presently at the top of her game.
Once again I am incredibly proud to be releasing this album via my own label, New Friends as an independent artist every risk you take is a trust fall back into your audience and man do I love you all for catching me every time
The fourth studio album by Soft Play (Aka Slaves) is a career-high that holds a sense of love and appreciation for the bond at the front and centre of the band.
The album is the band’s first back as a duo since releasing side projects, baby dave and larry pink thehuman. recorded over a year between the Tunbridge wells forum, Laurie’s garden studio, on tour, and finished at the libertine’s studio, the songs on ‘Heavy Jelly’ paint specific snapshots of the world around the band and amps up their sound and presence to something bolder and brighter than ever.
“For a good few years, it looked shaky as to whether U.K. duo Soft Play’s Isaac Holman and Laurie Vincent would ever be able to find their way forward to this moment. To say a lot has happened in the intervening years is an understatement: their friendship faltered, their creativity halted, they were rocked by grief and mental health issues, and when they did emerge, it was with side projects: Laurie’s Larry Pink The Human and Isaac’s Baby Dave. Step by step, however — via time, conversation, therapy and a positive new band identity — they got back on track. The result is “Heavy Jelly”, a product of the pair’s new sense of love and appreciation for their singular bond, which is both held front and centre and the defining inspiration behind what is clearly a new career high. Named after a Jiu-Jitsu instructor who told Laurie to act like ‘Heavy Jelly’ by means of explaining how much resistance to give in a demonstration, the turn of phrase also mirrors the duo’s worldview, “life is heavy, but it’s also funny.”
On the latest single from Hinds’ forthcoming album “Viva Hinds”, the Madrid based garage rock duo take unsparing yet surprisingly empathetic aim at a “local superstar” who’s lonely at the top. “Your mom and dad are paying all your bills / None of your friends will tell you how they really feel” Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote sing, reminding the star of their scene that they got what they wanted. The bright, syncopated chorus is deliciously bratty and snarky without sacrificing Hinds’ signature warmth and down-to-earth goofiness.
It’s a kiss-off to a clout-chaser who put their ego before their friendships and is now reaping all the rewards and the losses. Listening to a Hinds song often feels like a gossip session with your best friends that devolves into manic cry-laughing, and “Superstar” is yet another perfect encapsulation of their charm and effervescence.
Dummy is a rock band from Los Angeles comprised of Alex Ewell, Emma Maatman, Nathan O’Dell, and Joe Trainor. Their debut full-length “Mandatory Enjoyment” (Trouble in Mind) arrived in late 2021, becoming one of the year’s sleeper hits and garnering praise from Pitchfork, Stereogum, and more. Coming out of lockdown, the band spent two years touring in support of the record, and it is this transformational experience that pulses through “Free Energy”, the exhilarating follow-up to “Mandatory Enjoyment”.
The second entry from Los Angeles-based quartet Dummy’s new album “Free Energy” is a slippery, groove-infused propulsion through their avant-pop sound. “Nine Clean Nails” is driven by throbbing guitar riffs from Nathan O’Dell and Joe Trainor throughout, while Emma Maatman’s vocals effortlessly ride the crest of the melodic wave. “Unrelenting time / Left to my own devices / On a Saturday night / Expect another apathetic sigh,” Maatman sings, evoking the nihilism of the vaguely referenced, Trent Reznor-led group Nine Inch Nails with none of the ‘90s rockers’ industrial electronica.
Dummy only rely on influences from their own past, reviving their krautrock sound for this new single—deviating from the bubbly, fuzzed-out futurism of “Free Energy’s” lead single “Nullspace,” showcasing a confidence in the diversity emerging from their new sound.
From the new album “Free Energy” out September 6th, 2024 via Trouble In Mind Records
Jules Buckley brings together a selection of artists to join the BBC Symphony Orchestra for a unique celebration of Nick Drake, one of the great poets of the folk-rock movement who died half a century ago aged just 26.
There has never been an artist quite like Nick Drake, one of the great poets of the folk-rock movement. Fifty years on from his death at the age of just 26, the British singer-songwriter has found a new, cross-generational audience – many of them beguiled by his fragility and fatalism, his music’s mingling of the outwardly simple and the inwardly complex. For this tribute Prom, Jules Buckley brings together a selection of artists to join the BBC Symphony Orchestra for a unique celebration, with songs including ‘River Man’, ‘Cello Song’, ‘Time Has Told Me’ and ‘Northern Sky’.
This Proms concert was dedicated to the songs on the three albums that Nick Drake recorded in his short life. It was a fitting tribute to the legacy of his music, 50 years on from his death and a recognition of his now widely recognised status as a major songwriter, something that eluded him during his lifetime. It was also a brilliant example of how a series of songs originally recorded in small groups can be arranged for a large orchestral project.
Drake’s albums were well received critically, but were not successful commercially, and he died in relative obscurity. Since then he has become recognised by a huge multigenerational fan base, and many musicians now interpret his songs.
Certain of his songs have been taken up by jazz musicians, notably Brad Mehldau who has recorded “River Man” and “Things Behind The Sun”.Also, Nick Smart, head of jazz at the Royal Academy, has led a group featuring vocalist Christine Tobin performing arrangements of Drake’s songs. The group played Birmingham, and, as I recall, the mood of the music was quite dark, especially on “Black Eyed Dog”,the song about depression.
By contrast, the arrangements for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the interpretations by the guest artists often created a warmer joyful atmosphere, albeit with an underlying melancholy and with occasional moves into the darker songs from the “Pink Moon” album. Interestingly, “Black Eyed Dog” was not performed.
The vocalists were Olivia Chaney, Marika Hackman, Scott Matthews, BC Camplight, The Unthanks plus Drake’s sister Gabrielle Drake. In the first set each performed two songs, producing distinctive interpretations of the various songs. Olivia Chaney’s versions of “Hazey Jane 1” and “At The Chime of theCity Clock”, Marika Hackman’s version of “River Man” and The Unthanks’ interpretation of a song by Drake’s mother Molly Drake, “What A Song Can Do For You” all stood out. For this latter song, The Unthanks were joined by Gabrielle Drake who declaimed a poem by Molly Drake.
In the second set The Unthanks returned with Gabrielle Drake, this time performing Molly Drake’s “Set Me Free” and another of Molly Drake’s poems. In this set it was the two male singers that stood out, Scott Matthews performing “Northern Sky” and “From The Morning”,and BC Camplight performing “Place To Be” and “Saturday Sun”.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Jules Buckley, the orchestra’s Creative Artist in Association. Jules arranged “River Man”other arrangements were by Sam Gale, Jochen Neuffer, Tom Trapp, Kate St. John, Adrian Mcnally/Peter Riley and Simon Dobson.
To be released on October 25th the revered alternative/indie band will release its 10th proper full-length album, “The Night The Zombies Came”. For the new album recording sessions, the band returned to work with producer Tom Dalgety, who drummer David Lovering refers to as “a fifth Pixie” after producing 2016’s “Head Carrier”, 2019’s “Beneath the Eyrie” and 2022’s “Doggerel”.
Early on in the recording process at Guilford Sound studio in Vermont, the band noticed the new songs were dividing into two camps: what they came to call the “Dust Bowl Songs” – country-tinged, balladesque numbers such as ‘Primrose’ and ‘Mercy Me,’ and on the other side, the album’s furious punk numbers such as ‘You’re So Impatient’ and ‘Oyster Beds.’ Only ‘Jane (The Night the Zombies Came)’ keeps its feet in both camps — reminiscent of early ‘60s Phil Spector, the band hitting the sweet spot between mushy and abrasive, it’s a track that Black Francis allegedly likened to being chased by a swarm of bees.
The band’s first record since 2022’s “Doggerel” and the first with new bassist Emma Richardson (Band of Skulls) in the mix.
Pixies are Guitars, Vocals: Charles Thompson Background Vocals, Guitars: Joey Santiago Drums, Percussion, Background Vocals: David Lovering Background Vocals, Bass Guitar: Emma Richardson
More than 40 years after the release of their final album, The Police offer a massive expansion of their fifth studio effort, 1983’s blockbuster “Synchronicity“.
Released July 26th, the set will be available in multiple formats, each showcasing a wealth of rare studio and live bonus content. The centerpiece of the campaign is a 6 CD limited edition box set featuring B-sides and four discs of unreleased material, including demos, alternate mixes and takes, instrumentals, never-before-heard songs and a live concert from the “Synchronicity” tour. A 4LP box set will offer most of the B-sides and studio material on its bonus discs, and a D2C-exclusive coloured vinyl set will include that set’s first two LPs. A 2CD set will include the remastered album and all B-sides from the bigger CD box, and a limited edition picture disc will offer the original album with an alternate running order.
The set is billed in the official press announcement as being three years in the making, and it would appear it’s worth the wait for hardcore Police fans and completists. The B-sides disc includes every original studio and live non-album track released on the singles “Every Breath You Take,” “King of Pain” and “Synchronicity II,” including a rare alternate slow recording of “Outlandos d’Amour”(1978) favourite “Truth Hits Everybody,” the moody, Andy Summers-sung “Someone to Talk To,” the dreamy, eerie Sting compositions “I Burn for You” and “Once Upon a Daydream,” and even “Every Bomb You Make,” a version of the album’s signature hit rewritten and sung by Sting for the British comedy series Spitting Image. Making their CD debuts are six tracks from the band’s live set at The Omni in Atlanta in the fall of 1983, captured on the video The Synchronicity Concert; the rest of the set was issued on the 1995 package “Live!” Two “derangements” – multi-track reimaginings by drummer Stewart Copeland – will close out the B-sides assortment.
On the two studio discs are a treasure trove for die-hards: at least one, but often more, version of every track on the original album (including B-side “Murder by Numbers,” included on CD copies) in alternate form: Sting’s lo-fi demos, different mixes, alternate studio versions and even instrumentals. If that weren’t enough, there are seven songs and versions that never made the album: an early version of Summers’“Someone to Talk To” called “Goodbye Tomorrow,” a Copeland demo called “I’m Blind” that later was reworked into a cue from the drummer’s score to Francis Ford Coppola’s Rumble Fish, and even covers of Chuck Berry (“Rock and Roll Music”) and Eddie Cochran (“Three Steps to Heaven”).
A newly-presented live set closes out the box, taken from the group’s September 10th, 1983 set at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, CA (the penultimate gig of the first leg of the “Synchronicity” tour). As with other shows on this tour, the trio (as ever, Sting on bass and vocals, Summers on guitar and Copeland on drums) were augmented by backing vocalists Tessa Niles, DoletteMacDonald and Michelle Cobb, performing nearly every song from the album alongside most of their hits from the previous five years. The deluxe package is rounded out with a 62-page booklet featuring new liner notes from Jason Draper and unseen images and memorabilia.
The writing may have been on the wall for The Police when they decamped to AIR Studios in Montserrat for their fifth LP – the same studio they’d recorded penultimate album “Ghost in the Machine” (1981), with the same producer, Hugh Padgham. Tensions never ran low in the band, but felt higher than before, with the group recording parts in separate rooms and sticking mostly to Sting’s song writing and arrangements. (Summers got one track on the album, the demented “Mother,” and Copeland got the quirky “Miss Gradenko.”) Sting, exhausted from a painful divorce and a burgeoning acting career (he’d starred in the British thriller Brimstone and Treacle and featured his first solo recording on the soundtrack alongside several songs by The Police), turned out some of his most intensely psychological song writing, drawing from the writings of Carl Jung and Arther Koestler for some moody but exquisitely catchy tunes – far lighter on the group’s original reggae influences, but still fitting in the trio’s unique post-punk and New Wave sound.
Beyond songs like the sequencer-driven “Synchronicity I,” full-throated rocker “Synchronicity II,” the driving “King of Pain” and contemplative fare like “Wrapped Around Your Finger” and “Tea in the Sahara,” “Synchronicity” featured The Police’s signature tune. “Every Breath You Take” was a deceptive number: lyrics of romantic pain and paranoia masquerading as sincerity under the same soulful chord progression that powered Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me” and a hypnotic guitar lead by Summers. In the summer of ’83, The Police were the biggest they’d ever been thanks to that song, When the dust had settled, “Every Breath You Take” won a Grammy for Song of the Year and earned Sting that year’s Ivor Novello award for British songwriters, eventually becoming recognized by music publisher BMI as the single most-played song in radio history.
“Synchronicity” sold more than 8 million copies in America, was promoted by stylized music videos (including Godley & Creme’s well-known short for “Every Breath”) and gave The Police one last juggernaut tour, including a symbolic sell-out show at Shea Stadium, the same place The Beatles played nearly three decades prior. The trio used that highest of highs to essentially fade away at the height of fame (band tensions aside); they only recorded one more song (a controversial re-do of “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” for a 1986 greatest hits album) and played a handful of gigs that same year for Amnesty International, symbolically passing their instruments to the members of U2 during the final performance. They stayed apart until a massive one-off reunion tour in 2007 and 2008, and Summers and Copeland have documented the band in memoirs, concert tours, retrospectives and documentaries. Sting maintained pop stardom for several decades since, but has made clear that, at 72 (Copeland in 71 and Summers is 81), the trio may never work together again, but maintain friendly terms with each other. That delicate, well-earned relationship informs the creation of this box, and hopefully will do so for additional releases from the band’s archives!
The Grateful Dead & Bob Dylan Performed Three Sets Together, On This Day In 1987, Back in 1987, Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead teamed up for an unforgettable summer tour. Dylan had been coming off a series of unsuccessful releases, and first teamed up with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers for a tour. Dylan and the Dead would perform in both 1986 and 1987, though the July 1987 series would ultimately make its way onto the “Dylan & the Dead” live album releases.
While the live album was written off as underwhelming, there’s still a lot to love about the show on July 24th, 1987 at the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, CA. After two great sets of the Grateful Dead to get things going, it was the third set that featured the full collaboration between Dylan and Dead members. Jerry Garcia works his magic in the Dylan catalogue, and the rest of the band members give their all for the performance.
It’s a true testament to their musicianship to be able to support Dylan and his unique style, but this show sees the Dead really pulling together for the cause.
Fortunately, we have some taped audio to reflect back on this great performance.
Setlist: Grateful Dead & Bob Dylan | Oakland-Alameda Coliseum | Oakland, CA | 7/24/87
Set One: Funiculì, Funiculà, Jack Straw -> Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo, My Brother Esau, Friend Of The Devil, Me And My Uncle -> Big River, When Push Comes To Shove, Far From Me, Cassidy -> Deal Set Two: Hell In A Bucket -> Scarlet Begonias, Playing In The Band -> Drums -> Space -> Uncle John’s Band -> Dear Mr. Fantasy -> I Need A Miracle -> Bertha -> Sugar Magnolia Set Three: The Times They Are A-Changin’, Man Of Peace, Maggie’s Farm, I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight, I Want You, Highway Revisited, It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue, Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again, Ballad Of A Thin Man, Shelter From The Storm, Slow Train, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door Encore: Touch Of Grey, All Along The Watchtower
“Wish On The Bone’ is Why Bonnie’s sophomore LP and debut for Fire Talk. It’s untethered from any landscape or genre, propelled by this freedom and resulting in Why Bonnie’s most catchy, hopeful body of work to-date. Ranging from twangy country infused rock jams to more intimate and lo-fi arrangements, ‘Wish on the Bone’ is wide-eyed and waiting. It’s a coming of age film in which the protagonist rejects the forces that have tried, and failed, to shape her into something other than herself. It leaves you with a hard-fought sense of hope, which is among songwriter Blair Howerton’s greatest gifts. “You owe it to the people who are experiencing the worst to just keep pushing,” Howerton says. That’s the throughline of “Wish On The Bone”, a record that rewards with repeated listens.
Why Bonnie, the New York-based project of Blair Howerton, unveil the new single/visualizer “Rhyme or Reason” from their upcoming album “Wish on the Bone“, out August 30th on Fire Talk.
Neil Young, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Dave Matthews have announced the details of Farm Aid 2024. The annual charity concert will take place on Saturday, September 21st, 2024 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Young and Nelson, who both dealt will health issues in recent months, forcing the cancelation of tour dates, are slated to perform at Farm Aid 2024, as are fellow board members Mellencamp and Matthews.
The Farm Aid 2024 lineup also features Mavis Staples, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, LukasNelson with The Travelin’ McCourys, Charley Crockett, Joy Oladokun, Southern Avenue, Cassandra Lewis and Jesse Welles, with more artists to be announced. Last year’s edition of Farm Aid saw Bob Dylan play a surprise electric set with The Heartbreakers.
The Fat Angel Sings 