A month ago, Yeah Yeah Yeahs made a triumphant return with their fifth studio album and first release in nearly a decade, “Cool It Down”. While the record is steeped in elements of horror—born as it was as the result of the pandemic and all the anxieties that came flooding up to the surface during those early months—the track “Wolf” stands out as a worthy candidate for any Halloween playlist. Today they’re further building a case for the song’s spooky themes with an Allie Avital–directed music video that feels particularly seasonal due both to its subject matter and its star, who you may recognize from a recent TV series dealing in a very different kind of horror.
“When I heard the title of the song and description of the role were both ‘Wolf’ it was a full-body ‘yes,’” shared Severancestar Britt Lower, who becomes increasingly wolf-like as the new visual progresses. “To get to work on a story about a woman discovering the wild within and without was a dream. And to do so alongside legend Karen O…I mean, I’m speechless.”
On their first album in nine years, the Brooklyn post-punk trio give us the most open-hearted and deeply felt music of their career. They open with “Spitting Off the Edge of the World,” a song that’s every bit as towering as their classic ballad “Maps,” but this time the crisis isn’t romantic, it’s political, environmental, and generational. Then they proceed to dance the pain away on “Wolf” and “Fleez,” songs steeped in the arty New York grooves that have kept cool kids moving things forward since the 1970s. On the heartrending “Blacktop,” singer Karen O quotes Dylan Thomas over a Brian Eno synth drone. As she begs us to “hold on ’til the love is gone,” her words move through the music’s dark engulfing beauty like a faint message of hope in a sea of doubt and chaos.
“We were beside ourselves with excitement when Allie cast Brit as the lead in the video,” Karen O added of the collaboration. “YYYs are serious nerds for Severance—what luck when the stars align.”
from the album ‘Cool it Down’, out now on Secretly Canadian.
Two boys with guitars on their chests, stretching their song writing muscles and finding, to their delight, new possibilities at every run up the neck. This means trading vocal parts mid-song, then trading back again, modulating madly through rhythm changes, looking for a note in the harmony they’d never played or sung before. All in the service of locating the feelgood pop alchemy in a song in which no parts are repeated. laying it all down with a sweet solid state vibe.
“ w h a t e v e r h a p p e n e d t o ‘s h e’s a b e a m’! ? ! ” has been a question/passive-aggressive demand from Ty and Cory aficionados over the past few years. This is what happened. it went to heaven and lived a beautiful life there. this is the sound of it. guitars and harmonies. helium-coated keyboards. a celestial, steve millerish synth transformation. positivity. lightness. rock. epic. energetic. happy, headbanging days. ‘Milk Bird Flyer’ is a perfect other ‘a’ to pair with ‘she’s a beam’, hovering on a fade-in fanfare of gleaming guitar godness before shifting into a countryish tripper with cheerful psilo-sci-fi-bin lyrics to bend and stretch the ecstatic shuffle of the beat.
As with She’s A Beam’, Ty and Cory are floating so tight in the harmony that we’re like “ w h o’s w h o ? ” the pure sounds of yesterday are bright like a moment in time just waiting for its chance to exist, a nugget of potency landing right between the eyes in any era. turn it up and smile, smile, smile
“Milk Bird Flyer” · Ty Segall & Cory Hanson released on Drag City Records
Back in June, Sophie Allison, a.k.a. Soccer Mommy, released her third studio LP, “Sometimes, Forever”. The album was produced by Oneohtrix Point Never’s Daniel Lopatin, received resounding acclaim, and sent her even further into the stratosphere. Now, to celebrate this year’s Halloween, her favourite holiday period, Allison has released an alternate version of album highlight “Darkness Forever.” Officially titled “Darkness Forever (Sophie’s Version)” in homage to Taylor Swift, the song is presented in one of its earliest forms, a draft that didn’t make the final cut for the record.
Though the album version is already dark and distorted, the Halloween edition achieves a sound that’s even more underwater, foreboding, and climactic. “This version of ‘Darkness Forever’ is really exciting for me because it’s kind of what got me inspired to start working on the rest of the album,” Allison shared of the new release. “It felt new and fresh, and I had a lot of fun making it. When I was done with it, I felt very ready to work on more stuff for the record.”
The song originally appeared on Sophie Allison’s album “Sometimes, Forever” released back in June.
After a seven year absence with new material, Billy Idol has popped back and in a big way. His last album was 2014’s “King &Queen of the Underground” (which absolutely stellar) and then in 2021, he released an E.P. called ‘The Roadside’ which has one of his best songs ever called “Bitter Taste”. Almost exactly one year later in 2022, Billy released another E.P. and this one was called “The Cage” and is another 4 song set. This leads me to think that Billy might not be up for doing a full album, but if he wants to put out 4 new songs every year and with the caliber of these songs, count me in.
Billy Idol and his long time partner, Steve Stevens have crafted another batch of great songs with the help of famed producer, Butch Walker along with Tommy English and Zakk Cervini.
In an interview recently, I heard Billy talk about the fact that he was happy he somehow survived his drug induced rock & roll lifestyle because it has all been worth it. That worth it he is talk about is his granddaughter. He has seem to have found a new appreciation for life and that is reflected in his music and writing and I’m starting to think Billy is a fine wine because he keeps getting better with age!.
The opening track, “The Cage”, is basically about all the pent up energy everyone was feeling coming out of the Covid Lockdown. It felt like we were all in a cage and it was time to bust out. Written by Billy, Steven, Tommy and Joe Janiak. It is a high energy, punk rock song and Billy feels right at home on this track. If there is a Billy Idol sound…this is it and with Steve Stevens on guitar, there is no mistaken that sound. A perfect song to catch your attention and reel you in.
And if you think “The Cage” is the best song on the E.P., you’d be wrong. That belongs to the introspective “Running from the Ghost”. Lyrically, the song seems to be about Billy running from his demons all his life. He has seen some dark things in this life and his alcohol and drug addiction are a battle every day. The song starts off slow and then it explodes and the guitar work by Stevens is some of his best ever. That drum beat with it are powerful and engaging. It is a beast of a track and has such a mature and serious tone.
“Rebel Like You” with its fun motorcycle revving at the start. The electronic drum beat comes blaring in and Billy sings with umph and you can feel that snarl. The song has Billy on stage looking out in the audience and sees another woman dressed like him, but I’m not sure that is the gist of the story. I think the song is a shout out to his grand daughter and that she is a rebel just like him.
The last track is called “Miss Nobody” and it is an electronic, dance song. This one was produced by Butch Walker and co-written by Sam Hollander. It is a slick pop track about a down & out woman who still is kicking ass. It is not my favourite track on the album, but it has its merits as it is catchy and contagious and will get you moving. A little less on the guitars, but still feels like a Billy track.
UMC release “Zappa ’75: Zagreb / Ljubljana“, featuring the best performances of the Yugoslavian concerts sequenced in the exact order of the show’s setlist to present the crème da la crème from each night for the first time ever. Produced by Ahmet Zappa and Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers, the 27-track live album boasts nearly two and half hours of completely unreleased music and will be available on 2CD complete with a 32-page booklet filled with photos of the era and lineup by Gail Zappa and John Rudiak with insightful liner notes from Travers, an interview between him and recording engineer Davy Moire who recorded the show and worked with Zappa from 1975-78, plus a firsthand account and illustration from drummer Terry Bozzio.
Previously the only recording ever released from these concerts was a performance of “Black Napkins” from Ljubljana included on the 1996 release, Frank Zappa Plays The Music Of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute; the version of “Black Napkins” featured here is from Zagreb.
The details surrounding the concert’s recordings are unknown but somehow it was organized that the shows were semi-professionally recorded. Despite Zappa usually touring with his Scully ½” 4-track recorder that machine was not used and instead the Zagreb and Ljubljana shows were recorded on an obscure format of ½” 8-track. After painstakingly baking the tapes and running multiple passes, the tracks were successfully transferred and have all been re-mixed by Craig Parker Adams at Winslow Ct. Studios and mastered by John Polito at Audio Mechanics, who both also aided in restoring the audio as needed.
One notable exception is the track “San Ber’dino” from Ljubljana which somehow wasn’t captured on the 8-track master and so the line mix from Zappa’s Nagra tape was used. Zappa arrived in Yugoslavia on the heels of releasing “Bongo Fury”, his collaborative album with Captain Beefheart released in the October. While several songs from the record were included in the setlist, such as souped-up versions of “Advance Romance,” “Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy,” and “Muffin Man,” Zappa treated the audiences to songs from his then already expansive catalogue, from “I Ain’t Got No Heart,” “How Could I Be Such A Fool” and “I’m Not Satisfied” from The Mothers Of Invention’s 1966 debut, “Freak Out!”, and a three-song suite of songs from 1968’s “We’re Only In It For The Money” (“Lonely Little Girl,” “Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance,” “What’s The Ugliest Part Of Your Body?”) to 1973’s “Over-Nite Sensation” standouts “Camarillo Brillo,” “I’m The Slime,” and “Dirty Love,” plus tracks from 1974’s “Apostrophe (‘)” and 1975’s “One Size Fits All”.
One of the highlights of the album is the improvisational instrumental jams of the concert, specifically “Chunga’s Revenge” and “Zoot Allures,” which Zappa used as a palette to experiment with soloing and bounce new riffs off the band in real time.
Here we get to hear works in progress such as the embryonic versions of “Filthy Habits,” (1979’s Sleep Dirt), “Five-Five-Five” (1981’s “Shut Up And Play Yer Guitar“) and “Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station” (1976’s “Zoot Allures“).
In addition to experimenting with new ideas, Zappa also used the opportunity to preview more fully fleshed out compositions such as early versions of his signature songs, “Black Napkins” and “Zoot Allures,” which would end up on the album of the same name the following year.
This 2CD set, also available on digital and streaming platforms, combines performances from both shows, recorded live in Zagreb on November 21st and Ljubljana on November 22nd, 1975. This release showcases a rare band line-up of The Mothers, featuring Norma Bell on saxes and vocals. Re-mixed from the original 1/2” 8-track tape masters by Craig Parker Adams and mastered by John Polito, this historical set is the only multi-tracked document of this group in the Vault.
Frank Zappa’s autumn 1975 touring schedule brought him to two cities in Yugoslavia, marking the first and only time he played shows in that country.
It showcases a rare band line-up of The Mothers, featuring Norma Bell on saxes and vocals. Frank Zappa would discontinue using The Mothers name for good after the European and Australian leg in early 1976.
Re-mixed from the original 1/2” 8-track tape masters by Craig Parker Adams and mastered by John Polito, this historical set is the only multi-tracked document of this group in the Vault.
As a 20th-anniversary boxset expands the technicolour universe of THE FLAMING LIPS’ “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots”, Wayne Coyne reveals the real story of how his band of freaks inherited the Earth. “We just embraced it all, and did it our way,” learns Sam Richards, in the latest issue of Uncut magazine.
When Wayne Coyne answers our FaceTime call, he’s just leaving his local hardware store. Presumably he’s a valued customer – down the years, Coyne has personally constructed many of The Flaming Lips’ fantasy environments, from the 10-foot-tall chrome head installation that inspired “King’s Mouth” to the makeshift film sets around Oklahoma City where he filmed “Christmas On Mars“. “We don’t have a production company,” Coyne grins, still self-sufficient after all these years. “It’s just us weirdos, you know?”.
At 61, his creative spark remains undimmed. Having just painted a whole new series of covers for the upcoming deluxe reissue of “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots” It was Uncut’s Album Of The Year in 2002 – he reveals that he’s also halfway through creating a 300-page graphic novel telling the story of the album. The Lips have been touring hard all summer and the follow-up to 2020’s “American Head” is also beginning to occupy his thoughts. On top of it all, Coyne is now the father of two boys, Bloom (aged three) and Rex (six months). “I’m the luckiest dude who’s ever been alive, it’s just amazing,” he says. In fact, the whole family are about to drive to a festival that the Lips are headlining in Arkansas. “We take them everywhere as much as we can, that’s just our life.”
Coyne didn’t have any hesitations about introducing his children to the Lips’ travelling circus. “It’s not a bad thing to be around,” he insists. “I see cool people that are laughing and having a great time and using their enthusiasm and their energy. We have a great crew and everybody in the group is fun. You know, [playing live] shouldn’t have to be some serious, stressful thing where you have to take so many drugs to get through it. It’s fucking music, it’s amazing!”
And in a way, The Flaming Lips’ stage show, with its giant bubbles and inflatable unicorns, has become something of a psychedelic soft-play zone. “I can see that if you’re three, you could like it. And if you’re the right kind of 30-year-old you’d like it, and if you’re the right kind of 90-year-old you’d like it, so it’s great.” The same could be said of “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots” itself, a multi-hued 21st- century quasi-concept classic. It contains hummable anthems, universal sentiments and vaudeville songwriting tricks, but also makes room for trip-hop instrumentals and a Japanese experimental musician screaming. Twenty years on, it feels like the moment the Lips became part of the cultural firmament, allowing them to go on and do pretty much anything and everything they wanted.
It even bagged the band a Grammy – although as Coyne reminds us, they didn’t actually win the award for “Yoshimi…” as a whole, but for its blissed-out closing track, “Approaching Pavonis Mons By Balloon”, which triumphed in the Best Rock Instrumental category. “We only went to the Grammys because it’s absurd to sit there with Tony Bennett and Slash,” he laughs. “But once we won, all that changes. Suddenly, you’re not the weirdo in the room – you’re just in the room. Which is great. I mean, you don’t really want to just be doing the same thing, year after year after year. We’ve been around a long, long time. But luckily, every five or six years, it’s a little bit of a new world.”
The gorgeous “Sex, Drugs, Etc.” by Beach Weather sounded an instant hit in my ears. I’m certain I’ve listened to it over 100 times on Spotify! Interestingly, the song was originally recorded in 2016, and was featured on their debut EP “Chit Chat“. After releasing another EP “What a Drag”, the band went on hiatus as the three members – Nick Santino, Reeve Powers, and SeanSilverman – relocated to different cities and began working on their own solo projects.
They reunited late last year, and began recording their forthcoming debut album “Pineapple Sunrise”, featuring their single “Unlovable”, which dropped August 11th, their first release in five years. In the meantime, “Sex, Drugs, Etc.” went viral on TikTok, and started getting airplay on AltNation and alternative radio stations. I was immediately struck by the song’s dreamy melody, Nick’s captivating vocals and the beautiful harmonies, and it debuted on both the Billboard Alternative Airplay in early September.
Iggy Pop has unveiled a new single called “Frenzy.” The legendary punk rocker recorded the song with Chad Smith (of Red Hot Chili Peppers), Duff McKagan (of Guns N’ Roses), and producer Andrew Watt. Take a listen below.
“Frenzy” marks Iggy Pop’s debut release as part of a new label deal between Atlantic Records and Watt’s Gold Tooth Records. Watt is a pretty sought-after name these days after working with both pop stars (Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus) and rockstars (Ozzy Osbourne, Eddie Vedder).
Iggy discussed his new partnership with the producer in a statement that also included a tease of a new album. “I’m the guy with no shirt who rocks; Andrew and Gold Tooth get that, and we made a record together the old-fashioned way,” he said. “The players are guys I’ve known since they were kids and the music will beat the shit out of you. Have a great day.”
Iggy Pop’s last album was 2019’s “Free”. More recently, the punk veteran helped Danny Elfman remix his song “Kick Me,” and he honored Leonard Cohen with a cover of his song “You Want It Darker.” In 2023, he’ll headline the new festival Destination Chaos alongside Descendents, Parquet Courts, and more.
“Physical Thrills”, Silversun Pickups’ is the sixth studio album and the follow-up to 2019’s “Widow’s Weeds”, is produced by Butch Vig (Nirvana, Garbage, Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Foo Fighters) and mixed by Billy Bush. “Physical Thrills” spans through an eclectic mix of distorted synths, pop-tinged danceable tunes, pared-down ballads, and a collection of “dream shanties” melodies that are all interconnected with each other into a cohesive body of work. Features “Scared Together” and “Alone on a Hill.”
Cloud Nothings, Frankie Cosmos, Deerhoof, Charlotte Cornfield, Oceanator, Finom, Guerilla Toss, Mamalarky, and more have contributed to Sub Pop‘s new digital-only compilation “The Eleventh Hour: Songs for Climate Justice“. Filmmaker Adam McKay and podcaster producer Matt Dwyer curated the album, which also features previously unreleased music from Fake Fruit, Death Valley Girls, Shanon Lay, Ya Tseen, Kevin Devine, and others. Funds raised from the compilation will directly benefit Climate Emergency Fund, which supports nonviolent, disruptive climate activism.
Starting today, Oct. 28th you can now listen to “The Eleventh Hour: Songs for Climate Justice”. This digital-only charity compilation features previously unreleased music from Moby, Fake Fruit, Frankie Cosmos, Sonny & The Sunsets, Cloud Nothings, Ya Tseen, and more (See below for a full track listing.) Funds collected from this compilation will directly benefit Climate Emergency Fund, a (501c:3) that supports nonviolent, disruptive climate activism.
“The Eleventh Hour: Songs for Climate Justice” was curated by filmmaker Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up, The Big Short, Vice) and podcaster/producer Matt Dwyer (Conversations with Dwyer & Painting With John ) .
Listen to it below.
Adam McKay shared the following statement about the project:
This is a frightening moment we’re living through. The climate is warming at an increasingly dangerous pace and Governments and Businesses seem hell-bent on ignoring the problem. And it’s at exactly moments like this when we need inspired artists to interpret, express and F.S.U. Add in the fact that all of the proceeds go to the Climate Emergency Fund and support international civil disobedience and this is one hell of a good trouble-making album.
Play it loud. Play it soft. Released October 28th, 2022
