Wednesday are honest chroniclers of the Southern everyday, surveying a no-frills landscape of ashen Dairy Queens, run-over dogs, and pissed-on wallpaper. Their stories will make you laugh, wince, recoil, and reminisce. On “Chosen to Deserve,” the lead single from the Asheville band’s debut studio album, “Rat Saw God”, singer and guitarist Karly Hartzman details a messy adolescence full of fuck-ups and first times: skipping school, having sex in the back of an SUV, witnessing friends overdose on Benadryl.
“Now that it’s been awhile I’ll get around to telling’ you all my worst,” she informs a lover, not looking for absolution but just saying it like it is, “just so you know what you’ve been chosen to deserve.” Between the meandering, relaxed verses, the band takes it back to a slamming country guitar riff that’s part Drive-By Truckers, with whom the band toured with last year.
The accompanying Spencer Kelly–directed music video is an ode to down-home North Carolina, with home-video footage interspersed with newly-recorded scenes of the band in the neighborhood where Hartzman’s parents live: golf cart rides around the trailer park, geese swimming in the local pond, trips to the pool with the slide shaped like a frog’s tongue. Though in the last verse Hartzman confesses that she’s outgrown her teenage antics—“Now all the drugs are gettin kinda boring to me/Now everywhere is loneliness and it’s in everything”—the song still indicates fondness for the good ol’ days, surrounded by community.
“Chosen to Deserve” by Wednesday from the upcoming album ‘Rat Saw God’, out April 7th on Dead Oceans Records.
The lead single from the Asheville singer-songwriter’s upcoming album, “All of This Will End”, hits like a flaming missile to the heart. After dressing her disarmingly blunt musings up in Auto-Tuned synth-pop, swirling grunge, rumbling indie rock, and bittersweet funk on her 2021 breakthrough, “Any Shape You Take”, Singer songwriter Indigo De Souza, tries something new on “Younger & Dumber”: honest-to-goodness power balladry.
Think ’90s country-pop queen Faith Hill, but with a smaller budget and a bigger sense of inner turmoil. She started to write the song as a frank conversation with her flailing younger self and delivers every conflicted line as if her life depended on it. “You came to hurt me in all the right places/Made me somebody,” she ruminates, as sombre piano and acoustic guitar accentuate the ache. The song’s apex is both triumphant and destructive, and it’s followed by a guitar solo that seems primed to ascend to the stratosphere before fizzling out on the runway. Soul-baring catharsis has its costs, and De Souza is unafraid, launching a flaming missile at the heart.
Indigo De Souza – New Album: “All of This Will End” out April 28th on Saddle Creek Records
Toronto indie rockers Dilly Dally are splitting up. The band have revealed the news on Instagram (March 2), writing: “It’s time for us to move forward and continue our journeys separately.” The statement continues: “We wanted to say goodbye on a positive note. That’s why we are self-releasing two new songs today. Recorded close to home in Toronto, they came about naturally over the last year or so.”
The tracks—titled “Colour of Joy” and “Morning Light”—are available on Dilly Dally’s Bandcamp page.
We wanted to say goodbye on a positive note. That’s why we are self-releasing two new songs today. Recorded close to home in Toronto, they came about naturally over the last year or so.
For anyone who’s shown support in any way, from fans to friends to collaborators: We could not have accomplished what we did without each of you, and will be forever grateful. Xoxo
Dilly Dally formed in 2009, and released their debut full-length “Sore” in 2015. Their second and final LP “Heaven” arrived in 2018. The quartet featured singer/guitarist Enda Monks, guitarist Liz Ball, bassist Annie Jane Marie, and drummer Ben Reinhartz.
In addition to releasing two new songs, Dilly Dally have announced a farewell show. The concert will take place on May 27th at Toronto venue Lee’s Palace with guests Bad Waitress and Breeze.
“False Lankum” follows their 2019 breakthrough album “The Livelong Day”, which paved the way for critical and commercial success, earning them that year’s RTE Choice Music Prize (the Irish equivalent of the Album of the Year Grammy) and the #8 spot on NPR Music’s Best Albums of the Year list. Drawing on traditional folk songs, Lankum put their own dark, distinctive mark onto each, leaning into heavy drones and sonic distortion that imparts new intensity and beauty into each track. This record sees the band cement their breakout from the folk genre, creating bold, contemporary music that may be fashioned from traditional elements but is firmly new, sitting comfortably alongside Rough Trade labelmates like black midi and Gilla Band. “False Lankum” also features two original tracks, ‘Netta Perseus’ and ‘The Turn’, both penned by the group’s Daragh Lynch.
‘Go Dig My Grave’ was discovered by Lankum’s Radie Peat who learned the particular version on the album from the singing of Jean Ritchie, who recorded it in 1963 on the album “Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City“. It is a member of a family of songs which seem to be largely made up of what are known as ‘floating verses’, originally composed as stanzas of various different ballads, some of which date back as far as the 17th century.
“’Our interpretation of the traditional song “Go Dig My Grave” is one that centres around the emotion of grief – all-consuming, unbearable and absolute” explain Lankum, “A visceral physical reaction to something that the body and mind are almost incapable of processing. The second part of the song is inspired by the Irish tradition of keening (from the Irish caoineadh) – a traditional form of lament for the deceased.
Regarded by some as opening up ‘perilous channels of communication with the dead’, the practice came under severe censure from the catholic church in Ireland from the 17th century on.”
From the start, Dublin’s Lankum planned for “False Lankum”, their fourth record and third for Rough Trade, to feel like a complete piece – a progression and a journey for the listener. “We wanted to create more contrast on the record so the light parts would be almost spiritual and the dark parts would be incredibly dark, even horror inducing,” they explain. The album’s 12 tracks, composed of 10 traditional songs and two originals, show the four-piece using a new palate to colour their sound in an increasingly experimental way, alongside longtime producer John ‘Spud’ Murphy.
Our 4th album “False Lankum” will be released on Rough Trade Records the 24th of March 2023.
Bonny Doon have announced a new LP, “Let There Be Music”, their first for ANTI-Records. It’s set to arrive on June 16th, and it will include the previously released singles ‘Crooked Creek’ and ‘San Fransisco’. The announcement comes with the release of the new single ‘Naturally’, alongside a video filmed by Ian Rapnicki and Ben Collins.
The first release since the band’s pair of albums in 2017 and 2018 comes after guitar/vocalists Bill Lennox and Bobby Colombo joined Waxahatchee to play on her album “Saint Cloud” and join her on tour. Then the band was sidelined because of health—drummer Jake Kmiecik suffered complications from his Crohn’s disease and Colombo dealt with a brain injury and Lyme disease.
“‘Naturally’ is a song where the musical development really mirrored the lyrical content, specifically the idea of leaning into a situation and letting it develop organically, in this case that of a relationship,” the band’s Bill Lennox explained in a statement. “The song began as a slow ballad and worked better as a more uptempo thing, and a certain sentiment only made sense when translated to French. It speaks to those kind of unexpected surprises we encounter when we surrender to the flow of things.”
Bill Lennox: vocals, acoustic guitar Bobby Colombo: bass, electric guitar, electric piano, synths, piano, backing vocals Jake Kmiecik: drums, percussion Kyle Forester: piano
Produced by Bonny Doon and Brian Fox
New Album ‘Let There Be Music’ Out June 16th On Anti Records.
Thurston Moore has unveiled the second song from his forthcoming album — an electrifying new tune entitled ‘Isadora’; it is an ode to longtime muse Isadora Duncan. The track, out on his label The Daydream Library Series today, available on “Bandcamp Friday”, March 3rd, 2023 — comes from a session with Thurston’s London-based group, including bassist Deb Googe (My Bloody Valentine),guitarist James Sedwards (Nøught), percussionist Jem Doulton (Róisín Murphy), electronic music wizard Jon Leidecker (Negativland) with lyrics by London-based poet Radieux Radio.
‘Isadora’ is the second single from a forthcoming album and is accompanied by a music video featuring what Thurston has referred to as a “Sky Dance”. The video written & directed by Radieux Radio features American actress, musician, dancer & choreographer Sky Ferreira. “Sky is a talented friend who’s been spending time in London, and immediately understood the connection to this mysticism & music and sent through this magical digital diary for the song.
Sky’s insight into modern dance, including her love of Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham sparked off a conversation about Judson Theatre Group, Douglas Dunn, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Yvonne Rainer and other artists of performance and dance who bring the word ‘freedom’ to our minds and spirit.”
released March 3rd, 2023 guitarist/vocalist: Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) bassist: Deb Googe (My Bloody Valentine) guitarist: James Sedwards (Nøught) percussionist: Jem Doulton (Róisín Murphy) electronics: Jon Leidecker (Negativland) lyrics: Radieux Radio
In a world of endless, bottomless content, to find something that stands out from the crowd is a rare thing. But it’s something that 7ebra manage without breaking a sweat. Based in Malmö, twin sisters Inez and Ella Johansson deal in sparkling indie-rock that’s pretty without being soft, sweet without losing its edge and catchy without being cheap. With Inez on guitar and vocals and Ella on keys, organ and Mellotron, their minimal set-up makes a virtue of simplicity – with a sliver of guitar fuzz, and organ lines snaking around stark, striking vocals, augmented by shivering harmonies, they don’t need a lot to make music that’s colourful, kaleidoscopic, and effortlessly original.
7ebra debuted in 2022 with the double-single “I Have A Lot To Say”/ “If I Ask Her”, two helpings of psych-tinged, street-smart rock and roll, and the music scene around them wasn’t slow to notice. They opened for the Future Islands and the Dandy Warhols, were picked out by Apple Music’s Matt Wilkinson as a Hidden Gem of 2022 and were booked for prestigious showcases SXSW and Eurosonic.
With a packed schedule of shows across Europe and the UK already planned for 2023, their world looks set to get a lot bigger – something that their debut album “Bird Hour” makes certain. The record is a warm, elegant introduction to the sound 7ebra have crafted. The songs are full of personality and character, but also retain a little bit of enigma, a sense of keeping something secret to themselves. To unwrap that elusiveness is a daunting task, but one the listener can’t resist leaping into.
Ella and Inez’s parents played in bands as they were growing up, so picking up music was a natural thing for them. The origins of 7ebra start with Inez whiling away the hours playing guitar in her bedroom. “I learned by playing covers by myself in my room”, she says. “Ella didn’t do that as much, but we sometimes played and sang together, country songs”. Eventually she would start writing her own. Ella wasn’t involved originally (“we did play together a few times”, she says, “and it just went to shit [laughs]. We fought a lot”), and Inez was originally reluctant: “I was a bit unsure whether I wanted to be in a band with my sister. Because you get clumped together all the time, when you’re twins”. But Ella was keen to join, and eventually persuaded Inez to let her join for a show. It went – so well that producer Tore Johansson (The Cardigans, Franz Ferdinand), saw it and asked if they’d like to record with him. That changed things, says Ella: “It made us think there might be something in this music”. As a duo, 7ebra were in flight. “In the end, it’s kind of a nice thing too [being sisters in a band]”, Inez says. “It doesn’t bother me anymore. It just made sense to play together”.
On the album that they eventually came up with, the talent that caught Johansson’s eye is immediately obvious. Opener “Secretly Bad” has a way of walking along your nerves, an eerie echo of a hymn in Inez’s vocal backed by a swirl of woozy blend of guitars and organ. That’s followed up by “I Like To Pretend”, an easily charming song that has a sleepy brightness about it, like morning sunlight breaking through a window. They take a couple of different genres for a whirl on “Bird Hour” – they’re tense and snappy on “If I Ask Her”, breezy and cocky on “Lighter Better”, and there’s even a couple of droplets of blues and folk in the mix, in the raw intensity of the emotions in the slower songs, the vulnerability and aching of songs like “Lean” and “Stripey Horsey”. The record has a way of sweeping you along in its mood and tones, fuelled in part by the band’s use of repetition, sometimes fast and fevered, sometimes crawling and hypnotic.
The duo’s musical input blends perfectly, with Inez’s guitar and vocals forming the core, and Ella drawing in the detail with keys, organ, and harmonies, to really bring out the vivid nature of the songs. Indie rock that’s melodic and sweet, but with enough shadow mixed in to make it really compelling.
On “Bird Hour”, what strikes you first about 7ebra’s sound is how fully formed it is, how much they’ve carved out their own sonic territory, perfected by trial and error in the studio with Johansson. “Tore wanted us to try everything possible”, says Ella. “We had moments where things weren’t working. But that was necessary in order to find the good stuff”. 7ebra’s signature might be found in the deft way they deal with emotion – unafraid of being open, but a little too clever to make things too clear cut: “You can’t take yourself that seriously.
It’s too emotional to take it seriously, to start hating yourself. But at the same time, it is quite serious”, says Ella. Another trademark is the simplicity – a 7ebra song has just enough to make it work, and nothing more. “I think it was important for me that our voices were at the centre of the songs”, says Inez, “that all the little melodies have their place, and don’t get overwhelmed. With lyrics, I sometimes come up with something, and just feel ‘there’s no need to add more to this’. Sometimes a line works by itself. You don’t have to add a bunch of lyrics”. Finally, the album’s themes are ones that will resonate with most people that have set foot on this planet. “I guess it’s about trying to understand yourself, in relation to others. Just life. ‘Why am I not good at this, why is this thing happening to me, why is this thing so hard, why am I so stupid?’”, laughs Ella.
7ebra haven’t been around for very long – but a handful of songs and their fizzing live shows have stirred up the biggest buzz in Scandinavian music in quite a while. Their debut album justifies it all. It showcases the magic they’re capable of conjuring up, and hints at even more to come in the future. But from where they are right now, they’ve made something very special. “Bird Hour” takes all that promise and turns it into something concrete, in the form of one of the year’s best rock debuts.
Los Angeles band Starcrawler released their third full-length album, “She Said,” last September 2022. While touring in support of the album, Starcrawler visited The Current studio to chat with host Ayisha Jaffer and to play songs from the new album.
Starcrawler’s Autumn de Wilde and Henri Cash met in high school in Los Angeles. Both were disenchanted with school and wanted to be in a touring band. “We rehearsed every day after school because we wanted to make it really happen,” Cash recalls. “And it did.”
“We both really, really had the same drive,” de Wilde adds, “which is I think the most important thing in starting a band, is everyone has to be kind of on the same page.”
Last September, Starcrawler released She Said, their third full-length album. While touring in support of the album.
Watch video of the performances above, and listen to the full session with interview in the audio player above. You can also read an interview . Starcrawler share their origin story, and they also talk about how one of their songs can trace its roots to Phoebe Bridgers’ guitarist and — yikes! — a car accident.
watch a three-song performance by Starcrawler, recorded live in The Current studio.
So, just yesterday, February 28th, 2023, Cleopatra Records posted a bunch of videos on YouTube advertising a new JohnnyThunders release called “Finally Alone: The Sticks and Stones Tapes,” with a release date of March 1st, 2023
The moment when the New York Dolls hit the Big Apple’s teeming music scene in 1971/72 has been immortalized not only by filmmakers and music historians but also in the hearts and minds of every garage/punk rock music fan. For good reason too, the moment crystallized a monumental shift in American music, and proclaimed the rise of a young, charismatic guitarist/performer/songwriter whose impact would extend throughout the next two decades to come. His name was Johnny Thunders and a brand new CD box set, entitled “From The Beginning To The End”, chronicles his career, first his early rise to power with the pre-Dolls project Actress through a late ‘70s solo gig at Max’s Kansas City to his final recordings made just prior to his untimely death in 1991.
The real gem of the box set is the final disc, which features several ultra rare demo recordings that legions of Thunders’ collectors have prized for years. In his final days, as the years of hard and wild living had started to catch up, a cash-strapped Thunders made a deal with his then manager Jeff Grabow to whom Thunders was indebted. In exchange for money owed, Thunders gave Grabow a set of tapes that would constitute the final recorded output of one of rock music’s generational talents. Now, these recordings have been collected on “Finally Alone: The Sticks & Stones Tapes”, a title that nods towards Thunders’ first solo album “So Alone”, and made available in the box set..
Monster 3CD set of electrifying live performances and astonishing rare tracks from famed New York Doll founder and main Heartbreaker forever, the one and only Johnny Thunders!. The Heartbreakers, also known as Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers an American punk rock band, formed in New York City in May, 1975. The band spearheaded the first wave of punk rock.
This set includes some of Thunders’ very first recorded performances, with the Dolls predecessor, Actress, as well as some of his final recordings made shortly before his death in 1991!. Also includes several ultra rare demo recordings that legions of Thunders’ collectors have prized for years!
Each disc comes packaged in its own sleeve and a gorgeous full-colour 28-page booklet with loads of photos and liner notes by music journalist Dave Thompson!
Monster 3CD set of electrifying live performances and astonishing rare tracks from famed NY Doll founder and main Heartbreaker forever, the one and only Johnny Thunders!. This set includes some of Thunders’ very first recorded performances, with the Dolls predecessor, Actress, as well as some of his final recordings made shortly before his death in 1991!
The question is, with the exception of a new cover photo and slightly different title, whether this new release will be the same as the “Sticks and Stones” album first released in 1993, and most recently re-released by Cleopatra in 2018 as a double vinyl disc.
