“Twice Removed” was the second album by Canadian rock band Sloan, released on Geffen Records in 1994. The album took seven weeks and cost $120,000 to record. More melodic than their previous album, “Smeared”, Geffen gave the record little promotion because it defied the label’s commercially dominant grunge rock style of the time. The band and Geffen parted ways after “Twice Removed’s” release. After the band’s trouble with the label, they took time off from touring and writing and were broken up for a brief period. the album received a deluxe reissue on vinyl. This edition includes another three discs: one containing demo versions of the “Twice Removed” songs; another containing B-sides that were originally intended for the album but left off; and a 7-inch, 45 RPM disc containing songs that, in the words of guitarist Jay Ferguson, “didn’t really fit anywhere else in the package”. The release also includes a 12×12, 32-page colour booklet containing photos, interviews and other stories from the band’s members. The reissue was made available exclusively via the band’s website.
In celebration of the deluxe reissue of Sloan’s album “Twice Removed”,
When listening, it feels as though Frankie Cosmos, the musical project through which Greta Kline and her band have been releasing shyly impactful indie/pop for about a decade, knows you.
As though there is some cosmic emotional synchronization between the narratives expressed within the music, and the crushes, dogs, misfortunes, and happy inexplicability of your own life, Frankie Cosmos’ concise, even minimalistic lyricism and compositions cut through to the most earnest bits of you. Uncomplicated and without drawing too much attention, the group makes music quietly, but with a vulnerability and endearment that distinguishes them from their contemporaries within the often-too-mushy indie/pop scene.
Like diary entries, or impassioned love letters with strict word counts, Frankie Cosmos’ style is simple, direct, honest, and is comfortable not knowing exactly what that feeling is or why it is, as long as it is being felt and expressed. It is music that endears itself, exposes itself, and does its best for you.
“Clean Weird Prone” (Inner World Peace Deluxe) is an expanded edition of the band’s critically acclaimed 2022 album, “Inner World Peace”.
“Clean Weird Prone” includes the original 15-track “Inner World Peace” track-list, along with unreleased tracks, demos, and alternate versions of the album’s songs. Frankie Cosmos’s mastermind, Greta Kline, shares about this release:
Maybe it’s ego, maybe it’s an obsession with archiving, maybe it’s just for fun. But I have always had a bit of a focus on preserving the first way the song went. It’s hard for me to let go of my demos. These are some of the many seeds of the album. I wanted to share a sampling (I have about 5 times as much material) because “Inner World Peace” was a drawn-out and unique album process.
Since forming the band, I have always had tours breaking up writing and arranging time…until 2020. This was also the first album since “Zentropy” that I wrote without any release plan or hopes to tour. I think that freeness can be felt in the album and the demos.
My demo-ing process is extremely stripped down, and until 2020 I recorded my vocals straight into my computer mic or my earbud mic (track 5, “hey whatsup” is from that era). I can still carry my whole recording setup (sans instruments) in a tote bag. When I think about these recordings, I can physically place myself in a lot of them. Beds, floors, sometimes desks or tables. The internal and personal moment with the core of the song before it gets shared with bandmates* and producers and expanded into the butterfly. These are my cocoons!
*Actually, there are two of these that were made by bandmate Alex Bailey based on my first demo. By “shared with bandmates” I mean “brought into practice and worked on the arrangement together”!
the album, ‘Inner World Peace,’ out October 21st, 2022 on Sub Pop Records.
Body Maintenance are a post-punk band, but they don’t sound like Joy Division, they sound like Body Maintenance. The band started in 2017 and now it’s 2023, I’ve been in the band since 2018. We’ve always wanted to put out an album.
Hailing from Melbourne, Body Maintenance sounds like a band you would hear in a club in 1980s Manchester rather than at Melbourne’s The Curtin Hotel in 2023. While taking inspiration from the likes of Sisters of Mercy, The Sound and Echo and the Bunnymen, their sound is unique and unlike any other bands in the realm. In April released their debut album “Beside You”, the follow-up to their 2021 self-titled EP.
Zoe Mulcahy said, I think for bands that have been around for that long and don’t put anything out, there is a lot of pressure associated with that first big release.
That’s something that I think we’ve done well with, not letting that pressure get the best of us and overthink the songs too much, overdoing how it flows and what it means. I think because we write our own parts and come together as a group, we were all able to help make sure we wouldn’t psych ourselves out. Luckily the EP release took the weight of doing an LP.
“This six track EP merges melodic post-punk with elements of stark goth adversity. With nods to The Chameleons and Second Empire Justice era Blitz, these songs are evocative of the anxiously bleak yet anthemic sounds of early 80’s Manchester, delivered in a contemporary Australian context.”
‘Ends’ on the latest record, Riley wrote that himself before the band existed. In the original recording, he recorded it in his bedroom and dubbed the vocals over the top with the microphone of his headphones. A few of the other songs on “Beside You” were ideas that James, Riley or I had been bouncing around during lockdown. We would send them to the group and when we’d finally get the chance to get together, we would work on them and evolve them into what they eventually came to be. Usually, for most songs, there’s an initial idea that someone has that gets brought to the group and we’ll jam it and decide ‘let’s run that’, ‘let’s not run that’ and then everyone adds their own parts from there. There’s a lot of brainstorming at practice between us all but everyone is usually on the same page.
Listening to “Beside You”, you are taken on a journey beginning at the hard, fast and uplifting ‘Silver Yarns’ that makes you feel as if you can take on the world. Four songs in you are met with ‘Time Enough’ which brings you back to the sad reality of the world that we really live in. Isolating yet inspiring, aggressive yet intricate, their music is the perfect soundtrack to accompany a walk home or even a late-night drive.
The band consists of Riley Stafford on Vocals and Guitar, James Kane who is also on guitar, Nick Garth who plays the synth and bass and Zoe Mulcahy on the drums.
Wunderhorse is the alias of British musician Jacob Slater. Jacob fronted The Dead Pretties, a London band who arrived in a haze of hedonism and hype, bowing out before the dust had time to settle. Blink and you’d have missed them. Time-stamped yet timeless. If there’s any justice, he’ll soon be played out live in sticky basement rooms up and down the country, limbs everywhere, sweat dripping from the walls. An absolute mess, but what a beautiful one. The band’s debut record, 2022’s, “Cub”, was gritty and honest, brimming with reflections on heartache, self-exploration, and the strain of youth: relatable in ways you might wish it wasn’t. Stitching together the old and the new with snaking guitar licks, electrifying vocals, and magnetic bass lines, the drums acting as the backbone to a sizzling body of sound.
Wunderhorse is THE band right now. We’re totally obsessed – their fuzzy, warm, grunge rock-infused debut record ‘Cub’ is easily one of the best things we’ve heard in 2022 – and it’s just the beginning for this band. “Teal”, “Leader Of The Pack”, and “Girl Behind The Glass” are a good place to start. “Teal” is devastating track.
This new project arrives no less frenetically.“Teal” is a feral, romantic, visceral, chaotic and enchanting cacophony of sound that contradicts itself with each sleight of hand and change of chord. A rare, raw and assured talent, “Teal” is an urgent fever-dream of a number, tumbling downhill with the brakes off. Belligerent and unblinking. Arthouse indie-rock, but without the connotations. It’s one of those.
If this all sounds exciting that’s because it is. “Teal” is one of those tunes that has a rare ability to define the very moment in which its heard and forever associate itself with the memories long after. Time-stamped yet timeless. If there’s any justice, it’ll soon be played out live in sticky basement rooms up and down the country, limbs everywhere, sweat dripping from the walls. An absolute mess, but what a beautiful one.
“Cub” turns a year old in October. Jacob comments I think we all feel as a group that we’ve left it behind quite quickly, because there’s been a really long build up to writing and recording and releasing. We knew the songs so well by the time it came out. We’ve just recently done our next record, and those are the songs we’re really excited about now. We’re still playing some of the “Cub” stuff, but musically I feel like we’ve moved on from it.
Trust me when I say Wunderhorse are going to be a name you’ll hear a ton more about in the future.
Co-produced by the band and James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, Shame), “3d Country” the album’s 11 tracks are an explosion in both scope and vision for the group. On a practical level, Geese are still the group we were introduced to in 2021: one of New York City’s most promising young bands and voted Bright Young Things 2023 participants vocalist Cameron Winter, guitarist Gus Green, guitarist Foster Hudson, bassist Dom DiGesu, and drummer Max Bassin. But spiritually, Geese have returned as an entirely different prospect. ‘3D Country’ is the sound of a restless, adventurous band redefining themselves. With a lead up that included hypnotic and somewhat-misleading singles like, ‘Cowboy Nudes’, and ‘Mysterious Love’.Geese have so much fun making their art that it can be felt on the track, on the album, and live in front of you.
The singles, the themes, the videos, and the artwork, all appeared to be a misdirect; some suspicious and eclectic body that on their own seemed to point in any sarcastic direction. However, when placed within the body of the album, we see these bits and pieces aren’t disjointed so much as only every other piece of a puzzle that when placed in with the remaining pieces, take on a beautiful, funny, threatening, exciting, and highly-listenable form. The idea behind “3D Country” at first was to make it a lot longer. The first version was nine minutes long and started with this free wheeling, laid back, and then it starts to get really fucking intense. It had a lot of craziness in it,
The last single the band put out, ‘Cowboy Nudes’, sounds very easy going and a bit like 90’s Beck, but then I saw the music video, and now when I listen to that single, it sounds very sarcastic and maniacal and a bit threatening.
The song is an explosion in both scope and ambition for the band, as they hold a funhouse mirror up to the annals of rock while anchoring an album full of meditations on daily life in a world sliding out of view.
The new album from Geese will be out June 23rd. “3D Country” on Partisan Records and Play It Again Sam.
The first leg of the tour is now complete and though Peter played many of the songs from “i/o” during the tour this month’s release, The song “So Much“,only had a few outings.
Written and produced by Peter, “So Much” is ‘a simple song’, that features a string arrangement from John Metcalfe and contributions from Tony Levin on bass, David Rhodes on guitar and backing vocals from Peter’s daughter Melanie Gabriel. The song was recorded at Real World Studios, Bath, The Beehive and British Grove, London. This month, the first version you get to hear is the Dark-Side Mix, by Tchad Blake. It’s the seventh song released, which he’s been doing once each month in 2023
‘I was trying purposefully not to be clever with this. I wanted to get a very simple chorus but one which still had some substance to the harmony and melody. Something that was easy to digest but still had a bit of character to it. “So Much” is about mortality, getting old, all the bright, cheerful subjects, but I think when you get to my sort of age you either run away from mortality or you jump into it and try and live life to the full and that always seems to make a lot more sense to me. The countries that seem most alive are those that have death as part of their culture.’
As Peter goes on to explain, there’s a duality to the meaning of “So Much”, which is just as much about revelling in all the experiences and joyous distractions still to be had right now as it is about contemplating the future; ‘The reason I chose “So Much” as a title is because I’m addicted to new ideas and all sorts of projects. I get excited by things and want to jump around and do different things. I love being in a mess of so much! And yet it also means there’s just so much time, or whatever it is, available. Balancing them both is what the song is about.’
“So Much” is the seventh track to be taken from the album “i/o.” This is the Dark-Side Mix, by Tchad Blake.
A big, driving new one from Wolfgang Van Halen and friends now, as they hit the road for UK and Ireland dates with Def Leppard and Motley Crue. Almost seven minutes long but totally flab-free, “Take A Bow” is a stirring, catchy mini-epic of a song – all Alter Bridge-nodding hard rock with a spicy, game-raising solo from Wolfgang. “I feel the guitar solo is really special,” he says. “I played the solo on the original Frankenstein guitar and through Dad’s original Marshall head and one of the original cabinets. It’s straight up what he used on the earliest Van Halen records. It makes me happy to capture some of dad’s history on this song forever.”
Greta Van Fleet first caught the world’s attention with guitar-forward, energetic explorations of emotion with a noted appreciation for what came before. They’ve shown us some atmospheric textures lately, but on “The Falling Sky” Michigan’s classic wunderkinds rock out like 70s kings – like Led Zeppelin fronted by Jon Anderson, draped in velvet, wandering across desert dunes or similar far-out, photogenic setting. “An unwavering warrior carrying on the endless, eternal, and impossible battle for salvation; these were the elements of symbolism associated with this particular track,” explains guitarist Jake Kiszka. “In essence our fate is sealed, alike the stars that fall from the almighty heavens to the earth. This philosophy is carried through in the story of a bluesman, at the crossroads of the universe.”
That’s very much the case with the band‘s latest song, “The Falling Sky.” Debuted on Tuesday, the song previews “Starcatcher”, a new studio album due out July 21st, and showcases a snarling lead guitar lead paired with vocalist Josh Kiszka’s screeching howl of a voice:
“Farewell For Now,” another track shared recently and one that celebrates the relationship the band forges with its audience in the live setting:
“Starcatcher” was written and recorded by the band — Josh Kiszka, guitarist Jake Kiszka, bassist/keyboardist Sam Kizska and drummer Danny Wagner — produced by Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb and recorded at RCA Studios in Nashville.
The third single from “The Greater Wings”, Julie Byrne’s first LP in six years, is a solemn, orchestral piano ballad that fixtures her haunted, compelling voice front and center. Written while at an artist residency in Portugal, Byrne found inspiration in soundscapes of creaking docks and tidal flats. Though “Moonless” is a breakup song at its core, it’s also a coastal proclamation of queerness and autonomy. “I’d been learning you by heart / Voices rising through the smoke / Tables caving in / I found it there in the room with you / Whatever eternity is,” she sings, deftly and beautifully.
The first album in over six years from American songwriter Julie Byrne is a testament to patience and determination, the willingness to transform through the desolation of loss, the vitality of renewal, and the courage to rise, forever changed. For nearly a decade, Byrne has moved through the world as a characteristically private artist largely outside the public eye. A self-taught musician that has committed her life to her work, she now emerges from a deeply trying and generative period with the most powerful, lustrous, and life-affirming music of her career, “The Greater Wings”. While they hold the plasticity of grief and trauma, the songs are universally resonant, unbridled in their devotion and joy, held up by the love and alliance of a chosen family.
“My hope for “The Greater Wings” is that it lives as a love letter to my chosen family and as an expression of the depth of my commitment to our shared future. Being reshaped by grief also has me more aware of what death does not take from me. I commit that to heart, to words, to sound. Music is not bound to any kind of linear time, so in the capacity to record and speak to the future: this is what it felt like to me, when we were simultaneous, alive, occurring all at once. What it has felt like to go up against my edge and push, the love that has made it worth all this fight. These memories are my values, they belong with me.”
Byrne leans further into atmospheres both expansive and intimate; the lush, evocative songcraft flows between her signature fingerpicked guitar, synthesizer, and a newly adopted piano, made wider by flourishes of harp and strings. It is the transcendent sound of resource, of friendship that was never without romance, of loyalty that burns from within like a heart on fire, and the life force summoned in unrepeatable moments — raw, gorgeous, and wild.
The latest offering from ANOHNI and the Johnsons ahead of their anticipated next album My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross, “Sliver of Ice” is a slow-burning affair shouldered along by a flowing, soulful guitar and patient snare drum. Inspired by some of the last words that Lou Reed said to ANOHNI before he passed away in 2013, she opted to capture his explanation of how, in the final months of his life, the “simplest sensations had begun to feel almost rapturous.” “A carer had placed a shard of ice on his tongue one day and it was such a sweet and unbelievable feeling that it caused him to weep with gratitude,” she said in a press statement. There’s something genuinely indescribable about what kind of power and emotions ANOHNI’s most recent offerings conjure, but I can safely say that—just like lead single “It Must Change”— “Sliver of Ice” is delicate, beautiful and meticulous.
“Sliver Of Ice” by ANOHNI and the Johnsons from the upcoming album ‘My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross’, out July 7th on Secretly Canadian and Rough Trade.
