Molly Burch’s new album follows previously released singles, “Tattoo,” “Physical,” and “Unconditional” each of which demonstrate a vulnerable yet vibrant side of Burch’s matured skills as a singer-songwriter.
Having recently relocated to her hometown of Los Angeles, the beginnings of her latest album came together after Burch found her old diaries from age 13 and younger. Renowned for her captivating vocals and vivid depictions of love and loss, Molly takes on a new form in “Daydreamer”, focusing on the relationship she has with herself as well as the personal highs and lows that inform her self-identity.
“Daydreamer” boasts a sharper, much cleaner production approach and a bit more pop than Burch’s previous records, thanks to producer Jack Tatum. Molly shares, “I had worked with Jack before on our co-written song ‘Emotion’ that we put out in 2020.”
“When deciding who would produce “Daydreamer” I knew I wanted it to be Jack as soon as I started writing. We have similar taste and sensibilities and I look up to him so much.” There are Japanese city pop inspirations, horns, strings, and more ballads, with a throughline of Molly’s masterful, shimmering vocals taking center stage.
The result is music that feels stirring and sweeping, pulling in sounds and influences of the past, while also propelling Burch into a further development of herself as an artist.
They say long live the king and all, but nothing’s ever set in stone. A quarter of a century since his self-inflicted coronation, and self-released debut solo album, Kenny Anderson – DIY pop voyager, ancestral seaside home restorer, squeezebox lothario, Fife for lifer, diamond miner, hijacker of hearts, and the man also known as King Creosote – has released over 100 records (at a relatively conservative guess), collaborated with the likes of Jon Hopkins, KT Tunstall, Beta Band’s Lone Pigeon, and had his songs covered and performed by artists including Patti Smith and Simple Minds. He’s now got a new LP, despite or perhaps because of it all. It’s called “I DES”.
And no, it hasn’t bypassed a songwriter so buoyed by playful lyricism that the title of this latest release is an easy anagram of “Dies”. But bear a couple of things in mind: 1)“I DES” is a reference to KC’s key collaborator this time around – multi-instrumentalist and co-producer Derek O’Neill aka Des Lawson of Blantyre (2014’s From Scotland With Love, 2016’s Astronaut Meets Appleman); and 2) HRH King Creosote has been circling his demise for the entirety of his musakal life.
“I shan’t complain,” he rejoices on the album’s most uplifting hymn “Blue Marbled Elm Trees” – a new song also shared today – “I had the best time laughing with my girls / I had the best life offered up / By this blue marble or any alien world.”
With a suitably beautiful video (directed by Reuben Sutherland) to match, “Blue Marbled Elm Trees” reflects on life, death, the universe, art and love. Always the big stuff with Kenny.
Elsewhere on“I DES”, there are the previously released songs “Susie Mullen” and “Walter de la Nightmare”, as well as the 36-minute “Drone in B#”. The record’s kaleidoscopic musical terrain plots vibraphones, accordions, e-bows, samplers, ungulates, pipes, scratched records and wine glass-drones across its landscape. But there’s common ground in the wonder of the synthesiser – not to mention Anderson’s singular voice, and his roguish, roving, ever-evolving, gorgeous songs in the key of Fife.
While the record’s kaleidoscopic musical terrain plots vibraphones, accordions, e-bows, samplers, ungulates,
scratched records and wine glass-drones across its landscape, there’s common ground in the wonder of the synthesiser – not to mention Anderson’s singular voice, and his roguish, roving, ever-evolving, gorgeous songs in the key of Fife.
*On both vinyl formats, the 36-minute final track “Drone In B#” will come on a download card, on limited double-disc CD “Drone in B#” is on CD2.
“Axxess and Ace” stood to be Songs: Ohia’s third album release in 1999, Jason Molina is assisted by Geof Comings (Party Girls), Michael Krassner (The Lofty Pillars, Boxhead Ensemble, Edith Frost Band), JoeFerguson (Pinetop Seven), Dave Pavkovic (Boxhead Ensemble), Julie Liu (Rex) and Edith Frost.
This album was recorded by Krassner at his Truckstop Studios in Chicago. ‘Axxess and Ace’ flickers between Liu’s aching violin and Molina’s intensely personal lyrics quilting the worries and anxieties of the idea of imperfections. It is direct, in the way that love songs can be, recorded almost entirely live and first take.
It is direct, in the way that love songs can be, recorded almost entirely live and first take. The finished product is full of spontaneity and surprise for the listener to enjoy time and time again.
Marking the two year anniversary of the release of her critically acclaimed album ‘Valentine’, Snail Mail(Lindsey Jordan) will put out ‘Valentine Demos’ EP digitally on November 2nd. Consisting of four early stripped-down recordings of songs from the 2021 album including the previously shared “Adore You” (a working title for “Valentine”), it also features previously unreleased song “Easy Thing”.
Jordan says: “Without further ado, here are the demo versions of some of the songs that would become integral to the making of “Valentine”. A little over three years ago, holed up at my parents’ house in Maryland, with just a minilogue synth, an interface, a mic, and a guitar, I started working on writing my second full length record. I prefer some of the demos to what actually came out on the record because of how intimate and solitary the process was. You can kind of hear me crying in one of them. Maybe two actually haha.”
‘Valentine’, the second album from Snail Mail, was featured prominently in best of the year roundups from New York Times, Vogue, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker and many others. It was described as”… exquisite (…) dazzlingly sharp and passionate” (Pitchfork ‘Best New Music’),“remarkable second album (…) alive with such crackling and revelatory emotion”(The New York Times), “a truly satisfying album of 10 perfectly crafted tracks” (the i) and“doesn’t so much touch you as it does completely eviscerate you” (Crack). On release, ‘Valentine’ landed at #1 on the Billboard Emerging Artist Chart and #61 in the Billboard Top 200 in the US, and entered the Top 40 album charts in the UK and Australia.
the ‘Valentine’ (Demos) EP, out November 3rd on Matador Records
Because “Hold”, Jack Tatum’s fifth album under the moniker Wild Nothing, was writ- ten in the aftermath of new parenthood during the pandemic, it was probably in- evitable that it would be searching and existential music. But during the recording process, the artist known for synth-pop tastefulness used it as an opportunity to reach for a new sonic maximalism and wider set of influences. With contributions from longtime collaborator Jorge Elbrecht, Tommy Davidson of Beach Fossils and Hatchie’s Harriette Pilbeam, first single “Headlights On” features an acid house- worthy bass groove and breakbeat that prove Tatum is playing for the rafters.
Tatum produced the rest of the record on his own, partially out of necessity, due to the challenges of the pandemic. The songs were eventually brought to Adrian Olsen at Montrose Recording in Richmond to begin recording drums and filling in the gaps. While largely a product of isolation, “Hold” also reflects the things Tatum has learned from collaborators, both on previous records and during his acclaimed work with Japanese Breakfast and Molly Burch. The rest of the record was mixed by Geoff Swan, who listeners might know for his work with Caroline Polachek and Charli XCX. Swan put Tatum’s vocals high in the mix, and throughout the album, he embraces playful vocal processing like never before.
Tatum moved from Los Angeles back to his home state of Virginia about five years ago in search of a scaled-back lifestyle. The relatively suburban environment—and the occasional regret it inspired—proved to be great artistic fodder. It’s the para- dox of modern America—the suburbs are supposed to be stultifying to art, but they are so full of human desperation perfect for dramatizing. On “SuburbanSolutions”, he presents an anti-jingle with an acidly bright synthesizer melody, imploring you to sign on the dotted line, put your feet up, and embrace sweet oblivion.
Adding to the song’s menacing cheeriness is a chorus-sung bridge, made with as- sistance from Molly Burch and Tatum’s wife, Dana, It was loosely inspired by the classic Martika song “Toy Soldiers” and the long-ago pop craze for children’s choirs, and he embraces the trend’s less-than-stellar reputation. By design, “Hold” dwells in uncertainty and fear, but in a package that encourages meditation and a bit of fun. “In the face of the pandemic, I think being a parent really forced my hand,” Tatum said. “I felt that I had no other choice but to have a positive outlook on the world. Because if I were to give in at any moment and say, “Oh, everything is horrible,” then I’ll feel as if I’ve lost and I’ve given up on my son being able to thrive in this world.”
Wild Nothing new album ‘Hold’ out October 27th, 2023.
As the front person of celebrated indie band Cymbals Eat Guitars, guitarist and singer Joseph D’Agostino spent over a decade setting autobiographical, emotionally vivid lyrics against a backdrop of soaring and compositionally ambitious rock. After 4 critically acclaimed LPs that solidified D’Agostino’s reputation as a gifted songwriter, he chose to break from his long-term band and debut a new project: Empty Country. On 2020’s selftitled debut, D’Agostino’s storytelling lens shifted away from personal narrative and toward fiction; psychopaths, apparitions and deplorables populated a bleak and uncanny parallel version of American dystopia. Empty Country’s sprawling and sonically adventurous arrangements filled out by collaborating musicians including Rachel and Zoë Browne (Field Mouse), Kyle Gillbride (Swearin’), Zena Kay (Angel Olsen), and former CEG drummer Charlotte Anne Dole ranged from luminous jangle-pop to scorching emo-punk to narcotized Americana.
“Empty Country II”, the project’s 2nd full-length, is a thrilling expansion of that world. D’Agostino pushed himself to new places as a songwriter, crafting a collection of short stories set to music that grapple with the biggest questions now hanging over America gun violence, the addiction epidemic, and generational hopelessness among them. In 2020, he’d moved from Philadelphia to small-town New England to be closer to family, and his new locale, coupled with the dread of lockdown, inspired him to return to the haunted world from the first LP. “It’s pretty jarring to leave a city where you can safely assume you’re aligned with your neighbours on many political and social issues for somewhere more rural and conservative,” says D’Agostino, noting the Trump flags and Blue Lives Matter hood wraps that dot his new dirt road residence. Across the new album’s 9 tracks, D’Agostino introduces us to a bevy of characters: 3 generations of West Virginia clairvoyants, crushed by the weight of their secret knowledge; a group of drag queens and misfits in early ‘80s New York City; a pill mill doctor’s daughter who dabbles in necromancy; a convicted killer; a bullied kid injured and alone in the forest as night falls. Through the stories of these characters, “Empty Country II” delivers an engaging and deeply moving rumination on time, family, and the disintegration of America. Despite the stoicism of its storytelling, “Empty Country II” cuts the darkness with beauty, humour, and an earnest belief in the transcendent power of rock music.
It was recorded over 2 weeks at Fidelitorium, the renowned studio belonging to R.E.M. producer Mitch Easter. Legendary recording engineer John Agnello, whose previous collaborations with Cymbals Eat Guitars resulted in their 2014 high-water mark, “LOSE”, brought his trademark clarity and nuance to the process, helping “Empty Country II” crackle with a vital energy that imbues these stories with genuine lifeforce. Dole returned on drums for the record, her virtuosic performances lending raw power and immediacy; her twin brother Patrick joined on bass.
The group’s chemistry and deep personal history are palpable, allowing them to approach the record’s complex story with subtlety and dynamism. “FLA,” a gripping portrait of a queer tour boat pilot in the Florida Keys pining for their absent lover, was arranged from the ground so the group could incorporate Easter’s timpani. D’Agostino considers it a high point of his lengthy discography and lauds that song’s harmonica solo as “my favorite 30 seconds of music that I’ve ever been a part of.” “Empty Country II” also features some of D’Agostino’s most danceable songs like “David,” a tribute to D’Agostino’s late friend David Berman. Featuring a lyrical tapestry of Silver Jews references and surreally beautiful images, head-nodding Philly soul grooves collapse into cosmic freeform jazz-inspired sections, ornamented with inventive hand percussion, marimba flourishes, and toe-tapping piano chords.
On “Bootsie,” a runaway girl from West Virginia explores the crumbling, glorious 1980s New York City of Paris is Burning, finding community in a scene of drag queens who offer her a new way of thinking about what makes America and rock music great. Inverting the chorus of the Talking Heads’ “Heaven,” the lyrics of “Bootsie” celebrate the underdogs and misfits: “Hell is the place where everything happens / The band’s playing all the songs ever written at once / Shape the chaos, make your little story / Baby, this life’s perfect purgatory.”
Though “Empty Country II” is a record about the forces that drive Americans apart, it’s also imbued with empathic love and an understanding of what binds people to family and country in spite of the darknesses we encounter. The concept of a Great American Rock Album might scan as outdated in 2023, but with this sprawling and uncompromising epic, D’Agostino and Empty Country shatter ambivalence and confront the horrors with a community-minded sense of cautious optimism. “We may be staring into an abyss,” says D’Agostino. “But we’re all staring together.”
From the album, “Empty Country II”, released via Get Better Records/Tough Love on November 3rd 2023.
Brooklyn-based duo The Vacant Lots are dropping their new single ‘Evacuation’, the third to be lifted from their incoming ‘Interiors’ LP out October 13th on Fuzz ClubRecords. Arriving off the back of recent singles ‘Amnesia’ and ‘Damaged Goods’, ‘Evacuation’ sees a blistering disco-on-downers dance beat shot through with lacerating guitars and icy detached vocals.
The Vacant Lots’ Jared Artaud says of the track: “Evacuation2 is about internal conflicts and the duality of love and loss within a relationship. Looking inward and carving out the pain was a mantra for the whole album. You get this moment in time and space to translate complex feelings into the work. It cuts both ways. You’re creating something out of necessity that can also be shared with other people to inspire them or make them feel less alone. That’s what I’m after.”
Brian MacFadyen adds: “This track immediately resonated with both of us early on in the ‘trading demos’ phase of writing the record because of its primitive and raucous aesthetic. It taps into the original DNA of the band.”
“Sweet Sounds Of Heaven”, the second single from The Rolling Stones’ highly anticipated new studio album, “Hackney Diamonds”, is released physically on 13th October via Polydor Records. Featuring vocals by Lady Gaga, alongside Stevie Wonder on Fender Rhodes, Moog and piano.
The Rolling Stones promised some big-name special guest participation on their new album, “Hackney Diamonds, and they definitely have made good on that tease. The Stones debuted “Sweet Sounds of Heaven,” which finds Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood joined in the studio by Lady Gaga on vocals and Stevie Wonder on keys/piano.
Spanning nearly seven and a half minutes of slow-burning, gospel-influenced passion,
“Let us sing, let us scream / Let us stand proud / Let the old people still think they’re young,” sing Jagger and an exuberant Lady Gaga, pushing each other to a peak The New York Times
“Stevie is just so wonderful to watch.. he’s kind of playing all the different things, doing a moog here, real piano there, electric piano here, unbelievable stuff” Ronnie Wood
Limited edition 10″ single includes an etching on b-side.
Georgia-bred, Nashville-based, Grammy Award-nominated sister duo Larkin Poe have unveiled a new EP comprised of raw renditions of four of their most beloved songs titled “An Acoustic Companion”. In celebration of the release, multi-instrumentalists Rebecca and Megan Lovell decided to release the first song from the project–set to drop on October 5th via their own Tricki-Woo Records–”Bad Spell (Live Acoustic)” along with a video.
“Bad Spell” is found on Larkin Poe’s sixth studio album, “Blood Harmony”, which dropped in 2022. The fiery track stood out on the record, and the sister’s video of the acoustic performance of the song raised the curtain on the aspects of the song that made it do so.
“In our world, almost all of our songs start out ‘acoustic,’” Rebecca said, “with quiet beginnings at the kitchen table on an acoustic guitar. In recording “An Acoustic Companion“, we really enjoyed stripping a handful of our songs back down to their roots, and we hope folks will enjoy getting an earful of these songs as they originally came into being.”
“From the jump, ‘Bad Spell’ was intended to be a big, bad, swaggy rock song,” Megan added, “but we’ve found that there’s nothing more creatively freeing than challenging and burning down one’s own preconceived notions. We did just that in re-envisioning the arrangement for ‘Bad Spell’ and letting it bloom into new life.”
In the video, the Lovells sit side-by-side and seemingly effortlessly cast the song and caution out to sea with adroit guitar licks, boundless singing and tender slide guitar. Their communication is psychic and intuitive, likely resulting from playing styles that developed in harmony and evolved off itself.
“Songs contain multitudes. In recording “An Acoustic Companion“, we wanted to be able to let a handful of our songs shine in a different light than they have on previous albums,” “This introspective arrangement of ‘Bad Spell’ brings out different nuances of the song, and we love it.”
“An Acoustic Companion” will be available exclusively on limited edition 7” vinyl during Larkin Poe’s upcoming EU/UK headline tour, their biggest to date, or through pre-order via the band’s online stores. They’ll set out over the pond starting on October 6th at Trondheim, Norway’s Tapperiet Trondheim, followed by eagerly awaited shows in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, France, the U.K., the Netherlands, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, and Spain.
Welcome good people, it’s the harvest moon and time for our latest update and another new song from “i/o“. Peter’s on tour in North America, as many of you know, so this month’s update comes from the stage in Columbus, OH. Shout out to all our Ohioan readers!
This month we have the song “This Is Home“, and the first mix to be released is the Dark-Side Mix by Tchad Blake.
‘It’s a love song,’ says Peter. ‘It began with inspiration from some of the great Tamla Motown rhythm sections so we’re trying to recreate that in a modern way, complete with the tambourine and handclaps. The groove I like a lot, Tony Levin does a great bass part there.’
‘I did an unusual thing for me in that I tried doing this low voice / high voice thing, so you get this almost conversational voice at the beginning and the second part is a higher, more emotional voice. I thought that would be both intimate and emotive to put the two side by side.’
Though he doesn’t appear on the final track, some of the early brainstorming for what was to become “This Is Home” was done with the DJ and producer Skrillex; ‘I’d had a call from Skrillex, who’s a very talented musician, and I thought it would be interesting to see what he had in mind, so he came to my home studio and we sat down and talked and tried to evolve bits and pieces and it was mainly for this song. He was trying to encourage me to write a song about staying up all night in a night club and that sort of thing, but that’s not really my life so I made it more about family and home and I like it. Though we took the song in this other direction it was an interesting experience nonetheless, and I think it is good for me to be taken outside my normal comfort zone sometimes.’
“This Is Home” features contributions from a Swedish male voice choir called Orphei Drängar, as well as another orchestral arrangement from John Metcalfe; ‘I think it’s got a groove but unlike most pop songs that have a middle eight or bridge this has two and they are both quite different. The first one is atmospheric and dreamy and we have this amazing all male choir which comes in slowly into this dreamy, garden-like section. The choir, Orphei Drängar, are based in Sweden and I think they get a fantastic sound, it’s dark, stirring and emotional. The strings in the other middle section I really like, it’s quite catchy, poppy in a way. I think John picked up on what I was trying to go for there and did a beautiful job, as always.’
“This Is Home” comes with differing mix approaches from Tchad Blake (Dark-Side Mix), released here on the full moon 29th September, and also Mark ‘Spike’ Stent (Bright-Side Mix) and Hans-Martin Buff’s Atmos mix (In-Side Mix), to be released in mid-October.
The Fat Angel Sings 