The Venus Fly Trap are a British alternative rock band founded in Northampton in the late 1980’s. Their eclectic style of alternative music blended post-punk with goth to form a dark psychedelic hybrid.
The band was formed by Alex Novak (vocals, formerly of Religious Overdose, Attrition, and The Tempest) and John Novak (guitar, vocals, formerly Where’s Lisse?), plus Tony Booker on bass guitar prior to their debut twelve-inch single ‘Morphine’ in March 1988.
The band decided to release a very interesting compilation, ‘Time Lapse’. It’s a selection of tracks collected from the albums “Dark Amour” “Zenith” and “Nemesis”, placed together as a possible alternative album in this alternate reality. “Time Lapse” used to refer to a method of filming, by taking a series of single pictures over a period of time and then putting them together to show the action happening quickly. Plot – Urban decay, on the concourse, escapism via drugs, machines choking the arteries. A Moscow apartment, economic refugees, the human menagerie. Zen and the art of vehicles, crucified by the highway, on the road to…Fallen statues in public parks, the prince of narcosis, to the sea of tranquility. T minus and counting, dedicated to all astronomers … keep watching the skies.
Second part (the first part 1989-1994 came out in 2021) is a selection of tracks collected from the albums “Dark Amour”, “Zenith” and “Nemesis”, placed together as a possible alternative album in this alternate reality.
Texas-bred singer/songwriter and Big Thief guitarist Buck Meek announces his new album, “Haunted Mountain”, out 25th August. His first release for 4AD, Meek also shares the lead single and title track, ‘Haunted Mountain’, a song co-written alongside his friend and long-time hero Jolie Holland.
Following his beloved 2021 album, “Two Saviors”, “Haunted Mountain” marks Meek’s third solo album. “Haunted Mountain” is about love and… something other. Something bigger than love, something that doesn’t challenge love exactly but stands in contrast to it. A soulfulness, or a soul-seeking fullness. Meek says that loves songs are the hardest write. “Not break-up songs, but an actual love song written in earnest? That is taboo now,” he says. “Sometimes it can feel like all the great love songs have already been written.”
Lead single ‘Haunted Mountain’ is anchored by sweet lyrics penned by Meek and Holland, who is also from Texas and shares co-writing credits on five of “Haunted Mountain’s” 11 songs. The first two verses and chorus of ‘Haunted Mountain’ were written by Holland as a love song to Mount Shasta in northern California, with the final verse written by Meek, together seeking reciprocity with nature. “It’s about being humbled by the thing you’re drawing power from only at which point an actual, fair relationship begins,” he says. Propelled by the pristine chemistry of his band, ‘Haunted Mountain’ is presented alongside a Riley Engemoen-directed video that captures the group’s in-studio magic.
560 miles from Meek’s hometown of Wimberly, TX, the Franklin Mountains – or more reverently named, Sierras de los Mansos – rise over the tops of the endless acres of pecan trees that surround Sonic Round in the border of Tornillo, where “Haunted Mountain” was recorded. The songs were written in mountains: by sold springs in the Serra de Estela of Portugal, on the submerged volcano of Milos in the Cyclades, Valle Onsernone in the Swiss Alps (where Haunted Mountain’s cover photo was taken), and the Santa Monica range where Meek now calls home – all where his new love was born.
On “Haunted Mountain”, love often assumes a natural form – crystal ball dew-drops, green rivers and grasses, tears bottled. Sometimes it becomes artificial – mood rings, earrings, a pair of jeans, motorcycles and spacecraft. Sometimes cosmic – “I fell into a black hole with the hot flux of hazel” (from ‘Paradise’). Love is a consciousness here, interacting with the lovers, greeting them, watching them sometimes, becoming them sometimes. It extends beyond romance, examining the inexhaustible bond between mother and sun, and asks – is love a form of magic? “When you are in love, it inhabits your environment, animates the inanimate, charging everything around you with a sense of meaning,” he says. “and not just new love; also love of many years.”
Since Buck’s self-titled full-length album, his band has remained consistent – Adam Brisbin (guitar), Austin Vaughn (drums), and Mat Davidson (pedal steel, bass on Buck Meek and “Two Saviors”). In the year or so leading up to recording “Haunted Mountain“, they were joined by Ken Woodward (bass) as well as Meek’s brother, Dylan, who joined them for the session on piano and synths. Produced by the band’s own Davidson, “Haunted Mountain” was recorded and mixed in two weeks by AdrianOlsen, who also performed the sound manipulation via modular synthesizer that can be heard throughout the album.
One intention was to make a hi-fi album that contrasted with the intentionally lo-fi approach of “Two Saviors”, while preserving the intimacy. Recorded live to two-inch tape, the group played together in one big room, with no headphones. In Davidson’s words, “the music here is an expression of a group. I asked for the job because I felt strongly that we shouldn’t bring in someone from outside the band. Otherwise, the only personal desire I had was that we be able to explore space, that we let the music open up and slow down in contrast to previous records – not in terms of tempo but rather overall movement, information between the beats.”
Meek believes that all of the great love songs have not been written yet. In between the lines of “Haunted Mountain”, we hear that love, in every form, is the creation of home, from within – forever leaving one to find another.
“You don’t want your stuff to vanish,” says Joe Pernice about the twenty-fifth anniversary reissue of “Overcome By Happiness”. “Not that I’m looking to get famous, but you need to connect with the world. There’s something that reaffirms your own life in that echo that comes back to you—even if it’s your own voice coming back.”
The story of “Overcome By Happiness” is one of great risk and greater payoff. It’s the story of a disgruntled country singer struggling to define himself against prevailing musical trends. It’s the story of a songwriter just finding his voice, an artist so desperate to express himself that he scrapped one band to form another, risking his record contract and arguably his career to put the sounds he heard in his head onto tape. It’s the story of a musician embracing the sounds of his childhood: AM easy listening, sophisticated chamber pop, baroque lounge music, Bread, the Carpenters, Bacharach, Manilow. It’s the story of a poet driving through Massachusetts in a rusted-out Bonneville with a wooden bumper.
This time has come for this story to be told on vinyl. Released 25 years later to the day, New West Records is proud to present the remastered 25th Anniversary Edition of “Overcome By Happiness” on vinyl.
The Players: Joe Pernice – Vocals, Guitars Thom Monahan – Bass, Vocals Michael Deming – Acoustic & Electric Pianos, Vocals Peyton Pinkerton – Guitars, Vocals Bob Pernice – Guitars, Vocals Aaron Sperske – Drum Kit, Tympanum, Percussion
The Orchestra: Anhared Stowe – Violin Christine Kolberger – Violin Katrina J. Smith – Viola Kathleen Shiano – Cello Susan Cavender Knapp – Harp Tim Atherton – First Trombone David Sporny – Second Trombone Peter McEachearn – Third Trombone Mike Jones – Flugelhorn
Nils Lofgren has provided musical backing for Neil Young at various times over the last half-century, and now Young is now returning the favour, singing on Lofgren’s new single, the tender love song “Nothin’s Easy (for Amy).”
Amy is Lofgren’s wife, Amy Aiello Lofgren, who co-produced the album that contains this song, the album “Mountains”. It’s due to be released July 21st, and Nils Lofgren has already released one single from it, “Ain’t the Truth Enough,” featuring Ringo Starr on drums.
In a press release, Nils described “Nothin’s Easy (for Amy)” this way: “An apocalyptic landscape, the lone tulip, left in the road. Walking hand in hand with my true love as compassion and common sense careen toward extinction. This ultimate gift and blessing demands hope. ‘We’re all drowning in the answers, best get movin’, God don’t row … as I walk the hurt in this world, nothin’s easy, ‘cept you.’ After 54 years singing with musical giant Neil Young, his haunted, weathered soul, completes this song. Of course, inspired by and written for Amy.”
Other guests on “Mountains” include the late David Crosby, jazz bassist Ron Carter, singer Cindy Mizelle and the Howard Gospel Choir.
Nils Lofgren is currently touring with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, whose next show takes place May 25th at the Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam.
One of the most successful British bands of the last 3 decades, Blur are back with their first new album in over 8 years: “The Ballad of Darren”. The album was produced by James Ford and recorded in Studio 13, London and Devon, and is the sound of a band at the very top of their game.
“The Ballad of Darren” is the band’s ninth studio album, their first since the chart-topping “The Magic Whip” in 2015, with artwork featuring an image by British photographer Martin Parr.
New album, “The Ballad of Darren”, out 21st July 2023.
“I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone” is Wednesday’s second full-length album & first as a full band. The Asheville, NC quintet (guitarist/vocalist Karly Hartzman, lead guitarist Daniel Gorham, pedal steel guitarist Xandy Chelmis, bassist Margo Schultz & drummer Alan Miller) maximizes the dark dissonance of a three guitar attack to highlight the emotionality of Hartzman’s bell-clear vocals & wisps of half-recalled memories & literary references that make up her lyrics. “I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone’s” eight songs meld elements of shoegaze, grunge, indie pop & southern American culture into a uniquely personal style of modern rock music that resonates with power & tenderness.
Wednesday began as a recording collaboration between Hartzman & Daniel during the winter of 2017, while both students at the University of North Carolina Asheville. While living on campus, the duo recorded a whimsical synth-pop LP entitled “Yep, Definitely”, influenced heavily by the album Reading, Writing and Arithmetic by English alternative rock group The Sundays (the inspiration for Wednesday’s own band name). The duo recruited Chelmis & Miller (along with original bassist Julien Melissas) to play a party at Karly’s sister’s house, & the full band had an instant chemistry that won over the small crowd. With the immediate support of Asheville’s underground music scene, Wednesday quickly became a local staple, appearing often at the band’s favorite Asheville venue, The Mothlight.
Schultz replaced Melissas on bass in time for Wednesday’s first tour, & the new line-up recorded a collaborative EP with fellow Ashevillian MJ Lenderman, 2018’s “How Do You Let Love into the Heart That Isn’t Split Wide Open”. The EP began Wednesday’s progression into darker instrumentation & lyrics, which continued on 2019’s Wednesday EP. After graduating from UNCA, Hartzman began writing the songs that would become Wednesday’s second full-length release, “I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone“. With the band contributing arrangements, the new songs placed more emphasis on the noise & dissonance of Chelmis’s lap steel & Gorham’s lead guitar.
The ever-darkening & deepening of Wednesdays’ sound on “I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone” owes a debt of influence to The Swirlies, Arthur Russell, Red House Painters, Tenniscoats, Ana Roxanne, Acetone, & their continued collaboration with MJ Lenderman (who lends backing vocals to the songs “Billboard” & “November”).
“I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone” was recorded at Hartzman’s home with engineering assistance from her roommate Colin Miller. The depth & clarity of the recordings balance the distorted volume of Wednesday’s live performances with the intimacy of Hartzman’s voice. Her words hold the center of the chaos, unobscured by the power of the band.
Hartzman describes her lyrics as “attempts to access old personal memories & do them justice through prose, with inspiration from the writings of Richard Brautigan, Flannery O’Connor, David Berman & Tom Robbins, & movies like Steel Magnolias.”
Our new single ‘Dust’ is out now across streaming platforms. It’s the first from our imminent 7-track EP ‘My Eyes, Brother!’, out in May on Nice Swan Records.
The music video for ‘Dust’ is the fault of Nomore Films, directed by Kyle McCarthy and Reuben Davies – please spin it until you’ve found all the hidden messages and absorbed the subtle sweetness of each shot.
we’ll see you on the road to commiserate for the next twelve days – tickets still available.
Opus Kink were formed in Brighton, England in 2018. Their blend of punk, jazz, sickly folk and rough country music is a unique prospect in the current musical landscape; their brass-led, darkly charged repertoire has garnered a growing cult reputation in Britain and overseas, largely due to a penchant for hectic, unpredictable live shows full of experimentation and grim theatre. A slew of lauded singles and an extended play in their formative period has laid the foundation for their latest EP, ‘My Eyes,Brother!’, which sees the group exploring yet harsher and more multi-faceted ground.
A very limited run of 150 red 12” vinyl copies of ‘My Eyes, Brother!’ is available now. When the red is gone it’s gone is gone is gone.
Brighton sextet Opus Kink release debut EP ‘Til The Stream Runs Dry via Nice Swan Records (Sports Team, Pip Blom, Fur, English Teacher). Partnering up with the cult indie label for their first extended release, the enigmatic collective – comprised of Angus Rogers, Sam Abbo, Fin Abbo, Jed Morgans, Jazz Pope and Jack Banjo Courtney – lend a blend a dizzying array of influences in their ever-evolving enigmatic style, producing an experimental patchwork of explosive material that’s consistently earned widespread plaudits since bursting onto the scene. With EP lead singles ‘I Love You, Baby’, ‘The Unrepentant Soldier’ and ‘Dog Stay Down’ attracting praise from all corners of the press landscape (NME, DIY, So Young, Dork, Clash, Gigwise), not to mention countless BBC 6 Music (Steve Lamacq, Lauran Laverne) spins, the six-piece are clearly primed for a busy summer. Having already ticked off live dates alongside label-mates Malady and Mandrake Handshake, in addition to a sold-out headliner at London’s legendary 100 Club last month, the band have a slew of festival appearances lined up in the months to come, as well as shows with Feet and Bull.
Detailing their EP, Opus Kink stated: “You may begin by dipping one stained and rancid toe, but you know that once those waters have been tasted there’s only one way to go – into the stream, away down the valley like flotsam and windfall. Here lie six songs of bad love, ill winds, possession, stagnation and earthly delights”.
Part experimental indie and part ‘70s soft rock, Califone’s first new record in three years finds creative force Tim Rutili reaching new levels of harmony, fragility, and confidence. Whether detailing aging goths retaining their identity through year-long spooky decorations (“Halloween”), an imagined conversation with an inbred monarch (“Habsburg Jaw”), or the conflicts between identity and technology (“Ox-Eye”), “Villagers” nine tracks spread out and luxuriates in the messy darkness of modern life. Like sitting in awe on the porch swing at the end of the world, Califone’s latest marvels at the edge of the universe spreading into the darkness of infinity.
Califone is an acclaimed musical project centered around Tim Rutili and a regular and rotating list of contributors. Formed out of the Chicago band Red Red Meat, they’ve been exploring the tension between experimental noise, acoustic texture, technology, humanity, cinematic images and microscopic poetry since 1998 with over a dozen albums of sleeper hits and enduring classics
Blur have announced their first new material in eight years. The Britpop legends – comprised of Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree – have shared the details of their ninth studio album “The Ballad of Darren“, which is set for release on 21st July 2023.
Speaking about the title “The Narcissist”, frontman Damon Albarn said: “I think the whole nature of being in a band… especially talking about yourself, having photographs taken… that’s all about yourself.
“Obviously there are deep practitioners of narcissism in the entertainment world, but it also applies to people like Putin, you know? It’s one of those kind of troubling aspects of modern life. There’s definitely mediations on modernity in the record for sure.”
Of the album title, Albarn says: “Darren is many people. It is directly one person. But do we want to spoil who Darren is yet? There’s a picture of Darren in the album. Not on the front cover. It was going to be but then we put it on the inner sleeve because it’s not the sort of attention Darren will want.”
On returning with new material, Albarn referenced the band’s forthcoming shows at Wembley Stadium, noting: ““What’s the point of doing all of this unless there’s something that represents in some way how we all feel now?” He claimed the album’s “purpose” was to reflect the band’s generation, but said: “I think also it has enough of the modern world in it to kind of be relatable to people younger as well.”
Bassist Alex James added: “The fact that we’ve made a record is a surprise to me… [but] looking back it’s what we actually do.”
The record, which is the follow’s 2015’s “The Magic Whip“,
