Mitski has created a mini epic in her country-inflected 7th LP. At times bombastic, at times breathily intimate, the record aches with grown-up, familiar heartbreaks and has an ability to slip between the heartfelt and the witty without ever losing its grip.
The album is full of the ache of the grown- up, seemingly mundane heartbreaks and joys that are often unsung but feel enormous. It’s a tiny epic. From the bottom of a glass, to a driveway slushy with memory and snow, to a freight train barreling through the Midwest, and all the way to the moon, it feels like everything, and everyone, is crying out, screaming in pain, arching towards love. Love is that inhospitable land, beckoning us and then rejecting us. To love this place — this earth, this America, this body — takes active work. It might be impossible.
The best things are.The album is full of the ache of the grown- up, seemingly mundane heartbreaks and joys that are often unsung but feel enormous. It’s a tiny epic. From the bottom of a glass, to a driveway slushy with memory and snow, to a freight train barreling through the Midwest, and all the way to the moon, it feels like everything, and everyone, is crying out, screaming in pain, arching towards love. Love is that inhospitable land, beckoning us and then rejecting us.
To love this place — this earth, this America, this body — takes active work. It might be impossible. The best things are.
When they’re not penning comics, Joanna Sternberg records songs fit for New York’s anti-folk era in the early 2000s, the scene that birthed the Moldy Peaches and Diane Cluck. Armed with an extensive compositional background from the New School, Sternberg turns their worries and daily battles — depression, suicidal ideation, self-hatred — into lo-fi folk jaunts. From piano ballad “My Angel” to the self-explanatory “This Is Not Who I Want To Be,” a painful transparency takes hold, and it lingers long into the night.
Sternberg has turned pain into beauty in the making of their second album, written during pandemic exile. Balancing raw emotion with meticulous craftsmanship, their warm voice soothes with disarming self-deprecation.
The Colorado-based indie-folk artist is a full-time farmer who sells vegetable seeds and grows various market crops on his three-acre farm, while also tending to a thriving musical career. As Isakov says, “music helped me get through some of the hardest times. I always write in regards to an entire record, trying to find the music that fits together as a whole piece.”
Isakov retains cult status on his first LP in five years. Intended as a lo-fi, crackly example of his craft, the end result is fuller in production & heart.
Dealing in clattering, angular garage-pop in the vein of Minutemen, The Replacements or the more accessible end of The Fall, South Wales-based The Bug Club deliver their magnum opus with “Rare Birds:Hour Of Song“. It’s an astonishing forty-seven tracks in length, many of them brief, spoken-word curios stitching together a loose ornithological narrative, and includes the singles ‘Marriage’ and ‘Short And Round’.
Sporting spoken-word storytelling, razor-toothed garage rock and delicately-assembled folk, the 47 tracks (all written in order of appearance) on The Bug Club’s latest album are an untainted burst of creativity with no backwards glances.
Pylon Reenactment Society is fronted by former Pylon front woman Vanessa Briscoe Hay, whose inimitable vocal textures and phrasing defined Pylon’s sound for most listeners. Pylon is considered to be one of the most influential bands at the beginnings of what would become known as the “Athens, GA music scene.” Over 30 years ago, Pylon, along with The B-52’s and R.E.M., were heavily featured in the original feature documentary, “Athens, GA: Inside/Out” propelling them into the international spotlight.
PRS formed in 2014 in what Hay thought would be one-off project for the group to perform for the event Art Rocks Athens. Since then, Pylon Reenactment Society has turned into a tight touring unit having performed at festivals and venues on both coasts and in the Southeast.
In addition to Hay, PRS is rounded out by Jason NeSmith (Casper & The Cookies) on guitar, Kay Stanton (Casper & The Cookies) on bass guitar and backing vocals, Damon Denton (Big Atomic) on keyboards, and Joe Rowe (The Glands) on drums. Pylon Reenactment Society released a 6-song EP, “Part Time Punks Session” on Henry Owings’ Chunklet Industries to rave reviews.
The two new original songs, “Messenger” and “Cliff Notes,” were recorded and mixed by NeSmith at his home studio; he mastered them at Chase Park Transduction. Adam Smith cut the acetate in Austin, Texas. The single is being pressed by Musicol in Ohio. “Messenger” is a mid tempo meditation on love, war and modern communication. “Cliff Notes” jumps in right in at breakneck speed. The lyrics mix silly dance moves with anti-racist admonitions for the precipice we find ourselves on today.
Hailing from the Central Coast of NSW, The Moving Stills bring an unpretentious charm to indie pop. Their sophomore album, ‘Wabi Sabi,’ reflects on personal and touring experiences, co-produced with Izaac Wilson. The album swings from upbeat celebrations of love, like “Drive Home” and “Best Friend,” to groove-based tracks such as “In Your City” and the title track.
Chronicling life on the road, “In Your City” reminisces about late-night drives and gigs.
Their down-to-earth energy extends to triple j’s Like A Version, where they covered Ladyhawke’s ‘My Delirium.’ Beyond the music, The Moving Stills unexpectedly went viral on TikTok in Feb 2022 with their cover of Tears For Fears’ ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World.’
“We wanted to keep the honesty there on this album, and write about our experiences and so we’ve been very open in expressing our feelings in these songs.”
Speaking about their debut album, the band shared, “We wanted to introduce new feelings and vibes, to those on our first record “Sunshine Corner“. Whilst maintaining a lot of the key elements of our previous tunes, we delved into making a spread of new flavours. With songs like “Drive Home”, “In Your City” and the title-track “Wabi Sabi”, we leaned into a more groove based feel.
Songs that you can immediately vibe out to. On the other hand, we had songs like “Volcano” and “Best Friend”, which showcases a more upbeat side to our sound. Definitely works well at gigs and on the dancefloor.”
Basking in the sun-soaked vibes of Western Sydney, The Sooks roll out their latest tune, ‘Never Gonna Go.’ This four-piece crew has teamed up with the wizard behind the boards, Jack Nigro, known for his work with Aussie heavyweights like Rum Jungle, DMAs, and Pacific Avenue.
The result? A feel-good, surf-rock gem that’s as easygoing as a lazy day at the beach. From the first strum, Nigro’s unmistakable touch is all over this track, weaving in that fuzzy, sun-soaked surf-rock goodness that he’s become known for. If The Sooks goal was to make a chorus that sticks to your brain like sand on sun-kissed skin, then they nailed it.
“This song is about a girl I saw at the beach a few months back. I was with some mates at the beach and I saw this really pretty girl. I didn’t have a guitar or anything but the song just seemed to write itself in my head. Naturally it has a really surf-rock, summer-pop kinda vibe, a contagious chorus that anyone can sing along to and a groovy riff. The first time we played the song at a show, the crowd was already singing along to the chorus by the end which is something we tried to go for. We really like the sing-alongy vibe of the chorus.” Keenan Fitzsimons
The theme is simple, sure. But that’s the beauty of it. The track’s all about massive singalong melodies and a production so bright it’s practically sunscreen for your ears.
Radio Free Alice, one of Australia’s most exciting young bands, As they gear up for the release of their self-titled debut EP on November 22nd, the 4-track compilation showcases the culmination of their year’s work, featuring hook-laden, up-tempo post-punk singles like ‘I Gotta (Fall In Love)’, ‘Look What You’ve Done’, ‘Paris Is Gone’, and the newest offering, ‘Waste Of Space’.
The EP solidifies Radio Free Alice’s status as one of Australia’s most exciting young bands. Radio Free Alice is a post-punk quartet from Melbourne/Naarm consisting of four 21-year-olds. Their music has a fresh and immediate angular sound with clean guitars, clever notes, melodic bass lines, urgent drumbeats, occasional sax, and operatic swagger, which sounds like it came from a New York art school rather than suburban Australia. The band’s influences include The Smiths, The Sunny Boys, Parquet Courts, Ought, and The Strokes.
Melbourne’s Radio Free Alice, a dynamic 5-piece at the forefront of a new wave of high-energy guitar rock.
One night in Sydney last week, The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s frontman, Anton Newcombe, left a lasting impression on Radio Free Alice’s band members with his parting words: “I can’t eat you, I can’t fuck you, so why the fuck would I come?” Hobbled over with tequila in hand after finishing their set at Newtown’s The Duke, Newcombe praised the band during their Sydney residency.
The chance encounter occurred as BJM played at a nearby venue. Despite the rejection of an invitation to their late set, Newcombe’s dry wit only added to the mystique surrounding him.
Long Island brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario have always been influenced almost exclusively by pre-1983 rock, and as they’ve grown up, they’ve put their own distinct stamp on those vinyl-era inspirations. A melancholy thread runs through their fourth album, and “New to Me” and “Born To Be Lonely” contemplate the pitfalls of old age with empathy and sensitivity. “Any Time of Day” has the soft rock sparkle of a lost AM gold classic, and “Still It’s Not Enough” could’ve been written on a Laurel Canyon porch in 1971. “Everything Harmony” is the Lemon Twigs’ prettiest album to date, but there’s also a Tom Verlaine edge in the nervy guitar solo at the conclusion of its most spirited rocker, “What You Were Doing.”
While they had no grand concept for“Everything Harmony”, both the D’Addarios felt a “palpable mood of defeat” prevailed while writing and recording it. “New To Me” was inspired by their shared experience with loved ones suffering from Alzheimer’s, “What You Were Doing” is dressed in the tortured jangle of vintage Big Star, while “Born To Be Lonely,” written after watching John Cassavetes’ Opening Night, deals with what Brian calls “the fragility that often comes with age.”
“Everything Harmony” is a unified song cycle born of shared blood and common purpose. With two musical heads being better than one, there’s no shortage of ideas to draw on. Their only impediments are time and the challenge of keeping up with their own prolific musical inspiration. “We share an intuition and tend to be influenced by one another,” says Brian, “so the lyrical ideas on this record tend to complement each other. Writing has never been the issue for us. It’s completing, editing and compiling that takes the time. We’re trapped in a web of songs!”
After dropping their killer full-length album earlier this year, The Lemon Twigs swung by Happy during their Aussie tour to lay down two tracks, “In My Head” and “Corner of My Eye.”
Their fourth studio album, “Everything Harmony,” featured catchy singles like ‘Corner Of My Eye,’ ‘Any Time Of Day,’ ‘In My Head,’ and ‘Every Day Is The Worst Day Of My Life.’ The album, cooked up entirely by the talented D’Addario brothers in New York and San Francisco’s Hyde Street Studios, is a total mood, filled with perfect pop and sophisticated acoustic-folk. Channeling the vibes of musical icons such as Simon & Garfunkel, Arthur Russell, and Moondog, The Lemon Twigs’ latest album seamlessly glides between soul-searching introspection and unadulterated, feel-good euphoria. While these legendary influences cast their shadows, this gem stands as a testament to the duo’s unique artistry—an entirely original work that might just be their magnum opus. Emerging as a standout in their discography, “Everything Harmony,” gives a unique glimpse into The Lemon Twigs’ creative genius. It’s not just another piece; it’s got that special something, showcasing the duo at the height of their artistic game.
In an exclusive Live From Happy session, the prodigiously-talented duo shared a live take of some tunes from their fourth studio album, “Everything Harmony “.
The Fat Angel Sings 