The Natural Lines is the new project from Kingston NY-based indie singer/songwriter Matt Pond PA. For years now, Pond has kept up a prolific output, releasing over a dozen albums as Matt Pond PA in the past two decades. However, in 2017 he announced his intention to retire the moniker. The Natural Lines represents a natural evolution for Pond, one created at an intentional and meditative pace, with Pond refusing to rush his songwriting.
Pond teased the revival last year with an EP, “The First Five”, followed by another new single, ‘Monotony.”
The second song from our upcoming album is out today, “A Scene That Will Never Die”, along with an amazing animated video by Joy + Noelle!. From a true story. The scene starts with me at the end of my rope on the east coast. At this point in late summer, I sent a text message to the love of my life — before she was the love of my life — to see if she’d like to sleep under the stars. She was performing on the opposite coast and stopped mid-show to respond.
We did not go camping. But every ensuing message brought us closer and closer until we became an inseparable team.
Until recent years, it was out of character for me to be openly grateful. And further, to appreciate the virtues of modern technology. I was better at destroying phones than using them as a proper tool.
But I believe people — including me — are capable of change. We are capable of being better people. And I believe we are even capable of love.
Starbursts of guitar and cinematic synth melodies drive the song forward as Pond’s song writing builds up to a soaring high, tapping into a magnetic vein of instant indie joy. Meanwhile, his lyrics offer a heart warming confessional element to the track, bringing the sweet love story to life一“Because you stayed awake / Because you gave more than you had / Because you remained / Because you made mistakes / Because I made them too / And they brought us to this place.”
Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band are showcased over 12 tracks recorded live for radio and TV. The material is sourced from two 1968 sessions for John Peel plus a 1972 appearance on Beat Club and features tracks from four different Beefheart LPs. On the 12th April, in the middle of the European leg of the tour Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band stopped off at the Beat Club studios in Bremen to film a session for later transmission.
Beat Club tracks are excellent sound quality. For many years, a classic performance of “I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby” from German television show Beat Club in 1972, circulated among fans. Then in 2012 the full 29 minute performance was released on DVD by Gonzo Media as “The Lost Broadcasts” but very rapidly became unavailable again once more.
However, some of it is available to view on YouTube; the whole band are just incredible here and it’s hard not to be dumb struck by some of the vocals:
BBC tracks are recorded off air but are still thoroughly listenable. Comes with full credits and comprehensive sleeve notes.
Side One. 1. Yellow Brick Road 2. Abba Zabba 3. Sure ‘Nuff ‘n’ Yes I Do 4. Electricity 5. Beatle Bones ‘n’ Smokin’ Stones 6. Safe As Milk 7. Kandy Korn.
Side Two. 1. Trust Us 2. Steal Softly Thru Snow 3. Click Clack 4. Golden Birdies 5. I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby
‘It’s ok to play out of time’ Music toys with time. Or, maybe songs reflect back that time is always toying with us. The world of a song takes hold of us like an eternity to be lost in, with its repetitions and variations, but ultimately, as with everything else, it has a start and then ends. And there’s no place to lose time like San Francisco, where there are no seasons and all the seasons occur within one day; where the fog takes the space where your plans might have been; where there’s insane wealth all around and everyone you know and love is hanging on at the periphery and making art on any given Tuesday night. About Glenn Donaldson’s new record, “The Town That Cursed Your Name,” he says, “I realized as I was piecing it together that it’s a song cycle about trying to live while also feeling called to make music.” It’s a double life when it works and a deeper doubleness to mirror the Gemini nature of songs themselves. “The Town That Cursed Your Name” contemplates this problem with wryness, generosity, and the micro- and macroscopic realness Donaldson is known and loved for.
Whereas the 2022 collection “Summer at Land’s End” was a softer, gauzier world, “The Town That Cursed Your Name” is heavier, with fuzzed lines running through. “Leave It All Behind” starts out with an amorphous whine but quickly launches into something both supremely melodic and buzzing at the edges. “Here Comes the Lunar Hand” is an impressionist geometry that seems to capture the album’s themes without telling you how. Lyrically, Donaldson embraces the earnestness of his heroes Paul Westerberg and Grant McLennan. Sonically, late ’80s college rock is filtered through song-forward lo-fi acts like East River Pipe and “House of Tomorrow”-era Magnetic Fields. Like the images that accompany his releases – flowers and residential street scenes are pushed to the breaking point with color – Donaldson’s songs are at the same time dazzling and lurid, beautiful and burdened, not unlike life as a musician around here.
In the liner notes, Donaldson dedicates the record “to everyone who ever tried to start a band in the Bay.” There will be many knowing smiles at his title “Too Late For An Early Grave.” But, this dedication captures something else about the particular strain of sincerity that laces the city water supply – the front man around here is on stage under those lights evincing the fervor not of the pop star but of the biggest fan.
releases March 24th, 2023 “The Town That Cursed Your Name”, via Slumberland (North America/Japan) & Tough Love (R.O.W).
“Everyone’s hoping that nobody sees/all our little efforts at dignity”
This last line of the title track from Cindy’s fourth LP “Why Not Now? “works as a slogan for Karina Gill’s evolving musical vision. Her music is simple out of necessity and introverted in delivery, but the songs contain vivid worlds and are quietly ambitious. With this latest batch, Gill pulled the process of making Cindy music even more inward. “Some of these songs were first recorded as demos alone in my basement. I think that process set the tone for the record…Maybe it set up a kind of starkness,” she says.
Moving on from the fixed quartet that performed the first three albums, Gill worked alongside original keyboardist Aaron Diko to develop the songs and they enlisted players from the ever-blossoming SF pop scene to realise her minimalist vision — members of Flowertown, Telephone Numbers, April Magazine, Famous Mammals, and Sad Eyed Beatniks to name a few. The collective sounds fill out the record perfectly with John Cale-esque viola on ‘August’, lo-fi fairground organs, and a tasteful full-band sound that crops up throughout. ‘A Trumpet on a Hillside’ is the most triumphant Cindy has ever sounded, all ascending chords and a wedding march melody tumbling out of an old synth. Still, some of the best moments are Gill alone, as on ‘Playboy’, just naked guitar and voice, and when the forlorn whistling solo kicks in, it feels like the loneliest star is imploding in a distant galaxy.
While the dream-pop tag is probably still relevant, this isn’t algorithm-fed genre ambience. Gill’s vocal/lyrical presence can be as gently momentous as Leonard Cohen or as intellectually potent as any ’79-’80 Rough Trade post-punk. “In writing a song”, Gill says, ”all the disparate parts of being me momentarily correspond, like car alarms and party music momentarily matching beats.” Cindy’s “Why Not Now?” is that muffled street symphony inside a passing daydream.
releases April 1st, 2023
Cindy is Karina Gill, Aaron Diko, Mike Ramos, Charlie Ertola and Stanley Martinez. We’re based in San Francisco, California.
Taken from the album, “Why Not Now?”, out 14th April via Mt. St. Mtn (N.A.)/Tough LoveRecords (R.O.W).
Ulrika Spacek are delighted to announce long awaited third album ’Compact Trauma’ due for release 10th March. Recording of the album began at KEN in 2018 but following the loss of the band’s hub was completed in various locations across a 4 year period. The record stands as a next chapter, a culmination of new ideas and combined sound of the first two brother and sister records and the bands Suggestive Listening E.P.
Close to five years on from their last transmission, Ulrika Spacek resurface from self-imposed exile with their third album, “Compact Trauma”, a collection of songs that function as a chance treatise of sorts for our current collective condition. With a title like that arriving at this point in time, it’s tempting to interpret the record solely in the context of the global events of the past few years, but the roots of these ten songs arc back much further in time, charged with their own personalised internal damage.
Opening track, ‘The Sheer Drop’, begins with the line “Homerton is caving in”; ‘It Will Come Sometime’ describes a “liver like a lightbulb and swelling”; and Lounge Angst (an almost perfect description of those maddening lockdown days indoors) laments, ‘seems my friends grew up or left’. The fear and panic is palpable. The lyrics are matched to a soundtrack that oscillates between the febrile and the off-kilter, unconventional song structures and knotty arrangements either spinning the listener in unexpected directions or offering some kind of cathartic release. Take, as example, the aforementioned opener, ‘The Sheer Drop’. A wire-taut exercise in tension-and-release rendered in three parts, a whimsical synth opening giving way to characteristic chiming guitars before a nail biting coda sets its controls for the heart of the sun or the end of the world, whichever comes first. Either way, it’s a hell of a way to reintroduce yourself after a five year absence. ‘If The Wheels Are Coming Off, The Wheels Are Coming Off’ is equally instructive, a lacerating exposition of self-doubt that bursts into ecstatic release at its climax, demanding repeat listens, while ‘Stuck At The Door’ is an 11-minute Pacific North West-style epic that threatens, ‘the worst of it’s to come’. But it’s the title track that might be the true heartbeat of the record.
Either addressing itself or some unknown assailant, it begins by demanding that they “take your hands and your head off the table”, while spiralling around a breathless riff fuelled by an infectious anxious energy, before changing tact completely and shifting to a lullaby-like finale, concluding with the ominous thought, “compact trauma? Or full blown disaster? I’ll be back in an hour (Or so i think)”. It’s a fitting encapsulation of a highly complex record. They could have left it alone, but in coming back to what they knew, Ulrika Spacek found their best work yet.
releases March 10th, 2023
The LP available in 3 editions: Standard Compact Black, Colour in Colour transparent (Exclusive to indie stores) and Splattered transparent with extra 7” including two extra songs
Taken from the album, “Compact Trauma”, out 10th March via Tough Love Records.
In a world where the music industry can feel dauntingly cutthroat and competitive, finding kindred spirits can be a lifeline. That’s exactly what happened when Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, and Phoebe Bridgers crossed paths. As Baker explained in a recent press release, the three women were all at similar points in their lives and music careers and shared a deep appreciation for music that was authentic, vulnerable, and unapologetically raw.
There’s a sense of serendipity to the way they came together as if fate itself had orchestrated their meeting. But it was more than just happenstance that brought these three talented musicians together – it was a shared vision, a mutual understanding of what it means to create music that resonates deeply with listeners.
So far the trio have shared three singles, ‘$20’, ‘Emily I’m Sorry’ and ‘True Blue’, which were released upon the album’s announcement in January.
All three women are known for their soul-baring lyrics, heart-wrenching vocals, and fearless exploration of topics that many artists shy away from. They’re not afraid to lay themselves bare, to expose their deepest fears and insecurities in the hopes of connecting with others who may be going through similar struggles.
“the record” is the debut full length album from boygenius. Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus who formed Boygenius after booking a tour together, but the trio had subconsciously been in the works for longer than that. Through a series of tours and performances together, and chance encounters that led to friendships – including Bridgers’ and Dacus’ first in-person meeting backstage at a Philadelphia festival, greenroom hangouts that felt instantly comfortable and compatible, a couple of long email chains and even a secret handshake between Baker and Dacus – the lyrically and musically arresting singer-songwriters and kindred spirits got to know each other on their own terms.
In many ways, Baker, Dacus, and Bridgers represent a new wave of indie rock – one that’s less concerned with fitting into a particular genre or scene, and more focused on creating music that speaks to the complexities of the human experience. With their combined talents and unique perspectives, it’s no surprise that they’ve quickly become one of the most talked-about acts in recent years.
In 2018, Bridgers, Baker and Dacus discovered they would be touring together. What began as an idea to record a single to promote the tour morphed into six songs and, eventually, their debut self-titled EP.
Since releasing Boygenius’ debut EP in 2018, the trio have worked together on Bridgers’ song ‘Graceland Too’ from her 2020 album “Punisher”, and collaborated with Hayley Williams on the track ‘Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris’.
Tickets to both of Boygenius’ UK shows go on sale on March 3rd
Written by lead vocalist Haley Shea in collaboration with Mikhael Paskalev, Odd Martin Skålnes, and Simen Følstad Nielsen, the EP is a sonic journey that takes listeners on a wild ride through the highs and lows of the human experience. And with the help of live band members Tobias Maxwell Osland, Marie Moe, and Nils and Jørgen Nilsen, the songs take on an added depth and complexity that is sure to captivate audiences.
According to Shea, the EP is all about showcasing the band’s range and versatility. “We wanted this EP to show range, differences and to feel dynamic, open, and to continuously change as you listen to the whole thing,” she explains. “We want there to be room for Sløtface to change and develop for years to come, especially in its new collective form, and this EP is the first toe-dipping into exploring what that can sound like, and what mixing a bunch of different collaborators and working methods can result in.”
Written by Haley Margaret Shea and Mikhael Paskalev Performed by Sløtface
A testament to their ever-evolving sound, “AWAKE/ASLEEP” out now via Propeller Recordings / Virgin Music Australia features seven tracks that capture the band’s dynamic range and diverse approach to songwriting.
A previously unissued live 1971 concert from Stephen Stills’ first U.S. solo tour, including two guest appearances by DavidCrosby, is being released this spring. “Stephen Stills Live at Berkeley 1971” arrives on April 28th, 2023, via Omnivore Recordings, on CD and as a 2-LP set. The album captures a performance of Stills’ biggest solo hit, “Love the One You’re With,” which was the lead single from his debut self-titled 1970 studio album.
The live album draws from a pair of concerts held at the Berkeley Community Theatre in August. 20th-21st, 1971 as Stills embarked on his tour, opening each show with an intimate acoustic first set, and closing each night with a riveting electric set featuring the Memphis Horns. Crosby joins him on vocals and guitar for “You Don’t Have To Cry” and “The Lee Shore.” Days earlier, Stills had headlined the Forum in Los Angeles. He had released his second solo album in late June.
From the February announcement: These recordings find Stills at peak performance in both vocal delivery and musicianship, effortlessly incorporating alternate instrumentation on his instantly recognizable tracks, including a seamless medley of “49 Bye Byes” (from the Crosby, Stills & Nash album) and “For What It’s Worth” (from Buffalo Springfield) unexpectedly played on piano. Hand-picked by Stills from his personal archives, this album captures timeless and era defining performances.
Fans who were lucky enough to catch his historic debut trek, dubbed “The Memphis Horns Tour,” were treated to the balladeer, the raving troubadour, the acoustic bluesman, the soul driver, and by far the most passionate music maker. Backed by a loyal cast of friends, including his usual steady rhythm section–drummer Dallas Taylor and bassist Calvin “Fuzzy” Samuels–along with keyboardist Paul Harris, guitarist Steve Fromholz, and percussionist Joe Lala, these Northern California shows were one of the most unique and intimate stops on the tour.
London 1982. As the new romantic youthquake of 1981/1982 faded, and after what felt like a lifetime since punk’s last gasp, a tiny nightclub opened its doors in London’s Soho. Drawing to it a new generation of misfits and miscreants with a penchant for polyse*ual hedonism, for dressing up and showing out, The Batcave became the dark heart of alternative club culture, just like The Roxy and The Blitz before it.
Art school students, ex-punks and psychobillys, boys and girls, gays, straights, don’t-knows and don’t-cares, Camden and Kensington Market stallholders, professional squatters, kids on the dole, kids in bands, nocturnal music journalists, edgy fashionistas, androgynous randoms and even a smattering of bona fide popstars – from Nick Cave to Siouxsie Sioux, Marc Almond, Robert Smith, Kil*ing Joke and Sigue Sigue Sputnik. All were welcome to pile in, gawp at the hair, ripped, torn, bleached and rubberised fashions, and death-mask make-up and take in the dancefloor’s heady musical mix of beats-heavy post-punk pioneers, outsider icons like Wayne County and The Cramps, and a teetering pile of lusty glam rock singles from the likes of T. Rex and The Sweet.
The club even had its own house band, Specimen, fronted by charismatic and ghoulishly handsome frontman Olli Wisdom (RIP) as well as playing host to a slew of first-wave bands of what came to be known as “goth”. And it is with Specimen’sJon Klein (later, a Banshee, too) and keyboardist Jonny Sl*t (later founder of legendary club night Nag Nag Nag) along with Sophie Chery from another stalwart Batcave band, Sexbeat, who’ve worked with Demon in putting together this deluxe and definitive musical and visual accompaniment to a moment that sparked a global youth cult.
This 90-track 5CD Collection is the first of its kind. It captures both the fun and freedom of The Batcave and a revolutionary moment in time. It’s also the first to reflect the musical influences on the scene and how that scene pointed forwards. Above everything else, it’s a fascinating evocation of what you’d have actually heard had you stumbled into that sweaty, energetic dive between ’82 and ’84. With its very strong tracklisting, “Young Limbs Rise Again” includes music from just about everybody that mattered – from The Cure to Joy Division, from The Sisters Of Mercy to Sparks. Accompanying the 5CDs is a stunning 80-page hardback book, with an introduction from Kris Needs, packed with flyers, record sleeves, over 100 photographs, many previously unseen, and the full story of the club as told by the people who were there.
The Batcave’s liberating air of anything-goes creativity spawned, encouraged and hosted a new generation of bands while its fashion aesthetic – fishnets, rubber, leather, diamante, piercings, jewellery, and absolutely *anything* in black – seeped first into the wider alternative scene and then the mainstream in Britain before spreading its tentacles literally all around the world.
From Sydney to Mexico City to Paris to Brazil to Berlin – what came to be known as goth here in early-80s London, is arguably one of the UK’s greatest cultural exports. The goth aesthetic forged in those tiny west end dives has gone on to inform generation after generation of bands from Nine Inch Nails to Yungblud as well as walking fashion runways for Burberry, McQueen and Galiano and giving Hollywood a whole new dark palette to work with – from Tim Burton’s weird cinematic adventures to TV shows as diverse as BuffyThe Vampire Slayer and American Horror Story. That thing the kids still like? It all started HERE.
As Specimen’s Jonny Sl*t says – “It was a light bulb for all the freaks and people like myself who were from the sticks and wanted a bit more from life. Freaks, weirdos, se*ual deviants … There’s people around who’ll always be attracted by something shiny, glittering, exciting…It was more Gotham City than Aleister Crowley.”
When The Decemberists returned in 2015 from a nearly four-year sabbatical, one couldn’t help but wonder how the time off might impact their live show as they toured in support of “What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World”. Anyone who saw one of those shows in support of the new album, though, likely had any of their concerns satisfactorily allayed—if anything, the band has come back stronger than ever. Recognizing a fan base that has missed their shows since 2011, Colin Meloy and co. have been performing a unique array of deep cuts and favorites from all over the band’s catalogue, including individual tracks from “Picaresque”, “The Hazards of Love”, “The Crane Wife”, “Her Majesty” and more, while still finding time to introduce listeners to the new material. Meloy is in fine voice throughout and simply seems to be enjoying himself more than in the few years leading up to their break, suggesting that perhaps the time off did exactly what it was intended to do, rekindling the singer’s passion for performance.
The Decemberists had nothing to prove when they released their seventh album, “What A Terrible World, What A BeautifulWorld”, on January 20th, 2015. The Oregon-based folk-rock band, fronted by singer and go-to songwriter Colin Meloy, had amassed an acclaimed back catalogue of records dating back to 2002’s “Castaways And Cutouts”, earning a devoted following worldwide with their idiosyncratic brand of eloquent, literary lyrics and genre-crossing music.
The arty folk rock quintet from Portland, Oregon, have produced a surprisingly up-tempo collection of melodic pop songs, combined with their more classic storytelling lyrical inclinations. In the past darker tales (“The Crane Wife”) may have dominated, but here songwriter Colin Meloy leans toward the comic on “The Singer Addresses His Audience” and the celebration of sexual union that is “Philomena,” making this year’s model of The Decemberists its most commercially accessible yet.
Most of the songs for “What A Terrible World…” were written during the band’s hiatus after 2011’s “The King Is Dead”, and the recording process took on a free-form approach that relied heavily on collaboration. Meloy, along with guitarist Chris Funk, pianist (and multi-instrumentalist) Jenny Conlee, bass player Nate Query and drummer John Moen, simply gathered in the studio and let themselves play. “Often the band didn’t even hear my demos,” revealed Meloy adding that they “didn’t really know what songs we would be recording. We just showed up, all sat together in the room and I would throw some songs out there and we’d see what happened.”
Producer Tucker Martine saw that much of the album was tracked live, and Meloy has described the record as an enthusiastic reversion to old ways, after the pared-down joys of their roots-infused previous effort, “The King Is Dead”, which the singer had deemed “an exercise in restraint.”
While many of their previous releases were considered to be concept albums – such as 2006’s “The Crane Wife”, which draws upon the Japanese folktale tradition – “What A Terrible World…” was conceived as a radical change of pace. It was to be, as Meloy called it, “concept-free.” While there was no great unifying concept behind the album, a few similar themes echo throughout its 14 tracks. “What A Terrible World…’” title comes from a line in the penultimate song, “12/17/12,” written about the Sandy Hook school shooting. In the song, Meloy struggles to reconcile the monstrous evil in the world with his own personal state of satisfaction. This idea, of a binary world made up of both beauty and horror, can be seen under the surface of several other tracks.
“Cavalry Captain,” the jubilant second song on the album, evokes the famous Charge Of The Light Brigade, the fatal military maneuver that was immortalized in Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, finding, in this last life-ending stand, a sense of valor.
The lyrics to “Philomena” are some of the dirtiest The Decemberists have ever committed to record. With backing vocals from Rachel Flotard and Kelly Hogan, the short track juxtaposes a jaunty, 50s-influenced melody with metaphors for female genitalia and risqué lyrics about oral sex. The tone swerves back towards the mainstream for the following track, “Make You Better,” a moving, pop-ish ballad that was released as the album’s first single.
“What A Terrible World…” keeps some of the band’s more bookish pretensions in check, but they are allowed free rein on “Lake Song,” a self-parodic song written from the perspective of a spurned lover. “And you, all sibylline, reclining in your pew/You tattered me, you tethered me to you,” sings Meloy, indulging his fascination with language.
“Anti-Summersong” is an even more direct engagement with the Decemberists’ past – written as a response to (and rebuke of) some of their flightier seasonal songs, most notably “Summersong,” which featured on “The Crane Wife”. Meloy had also sung about summer in tracks like “July, July” and “June Hymn.” “Anti-Summersong” includes a sweeping string section and some fine harmonica playing from Meloy himself.
The album is full of other highlights, including the traditionally folky “Carolina Low,” the minor-key “Better Not Wake TheBaby” and the sea-shantyish “Easy Come, Easy Go.” But it is perhaps “What A Terrible World…’” final track, “A BeginningSong,” that resonates most deeply – a poetic, affirming reflection on some of the album’s themes. Listening to this, it is easy to believe that it truly is a beautiful world – all the more so for The Decemberists’ triumphant album.
