Smut are a band from Chicago, based around the song writing of Taylor Roebuck. Following the death of her sister in 2017, Taylor turned to writing to try and find a way through the “moment in which my life was destroyed permanently”. Stepping up to help her in her hour of need, her band mates ploughed on with making music to accompany her words, and in 2020 they released the acclaimed EP, “Power Fantasy”.
The band are now building towards the release of their new album, “How The Light Felt”, out this November via Bayonet Records. This week the band shared the record’s debut single, “After Silver Leaves”.
Written about a former toxic relationship, the song exists with almost deliberate contrasts, as Taylor explains, “the song sounds so happy, but I’m talking about driving someone to a hospital when they’ve overdosed. And having to detach myself and realize that maybe it’s not my job as a teenage girl to save some sad sack of a guy. I think a lot of young women will relate to that, unfortunately”. This dark tale is set to a soaring retro dream-pop backing, nodding to the likes of The Sundays as ice-cold vocals are drenched in glistening shoe-gazey guitars and shimmering New-Wave synth. “After Silver Leaves” feels like the perfect introduction to where Smut are right now.
Smut is Taylor Roebuck, Sam Ruschman, Andrew Min, Bell Cenower, Aidan O’Connor
“How The Light Felt” is out November 11th on Bayonet Records.
Long awaited new album from The House Of Love. The sequel to 2013’s “She Paints Words In Red”, “A State Of Grace” was written and recorded by the band’s lynchpin Guy Chadwick between COVID lockdowns.
Guy says: “It is the best set of songs I have written for years and the pandemic ironically gave me the time and space to develop and arrange the songs.” The album was recorded with a new line-up, originally put together for an American 30th Anniversary tour, now rescheduled for October. In the current line-up, Guy (lead vocals/guitar) is joined by Keith Osborne (lead guitar), Hugo Degenhardt (drums) and HarryOsborne (bass).
“A State Of Grace” is an eclectic collection of tracks, from the driving, grungy ‘Clouds’ to the eerie, atmospheric groove of ‘Sweet Loser’, the riffy powerful ballad ‘In My Mind’ and the folksy finale, ‘Just One More Song’. This is the first time the band’s recordings have featured instruments such as harp, pedal and lap steel guitar, banjo and violin, all adding to the unique guitar sounds we’ve come to know and love from The House of Love.
The album was recorded at Pett Sounds and mixed by Babe Rainbow’s Warne Livesey. Keeping it in the family, a promo 16mm video has been filmed by Guy’s nephew and Godson, George Moore-Chadwick.
Released on Cherry Red Records“The State Of Grace”, 16th September 2022.
Often labelled “the only band that mattered”, The Clash were largely seen as one of the pivotal players in the punk scene, with many saying that the aforementioned phrase, arriving when the group signed a major deal with CBS, was the signal for the genre’s demise.
Of course, The Clash would go on to have a career that transcended any subculture and, instead, helped to define an entire generation and beyond. However, like all world-conquering groups, they had to start somewhere.
A special moment for Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Heddon as they open up a 1977 show in Munich with their inflammatory jam ‘London’s Burning’. Watching the band in action, it’s easy to see how The Clash became the giants of anti-establishment music they were.
On October 4th, 1977, the crowd in Munich must have been a little wary of what they were about to witness. By this time, the term “punk” was being widely used by both British and US media, and the bands that had been born under the moniker were still just as happy to trash a stage and spit in your face as they were to sit and talk it out on a music TV show. It was a time when punk was becoming mainstream. It makes sense then that Strummer, clearly aware of the fading nature of such a fad-led term, proclaimed to the crowd: “This is rock and roll!”
The Clash had released their self-titled debut earlier that year and had gathered a good deal of great press for it. Even as early as their first record, The Clash set out their stall, It wasn’t all about attention-grabbing stunts but using one’s platform for good and moving the spotlight onto the societal issues that swirled around the entire globe.
“It’s fucking horrible,” Mick Jones proclaimed. “I never want to come back here again. It stinks.” While that’s no the best review of Munich, it did reflect the plight of many punk bands on the road outside of Britain. Punk had been widely accepted and accelerated in the UK. Having boasted the toast of the rock and roll set in the sixties, it was clear that London was happy to once again be in the musical limelight.
Paul Simonon shared a similarly guarded sentiment when he talked to Wolfgang Buld, who was filming the performance for his documentary “Punk in London”. “The police came around and dragged us out from the hotel,” explained to the bassist when noting Jones’ dissatisfaction. “We really want to like Germany. Well, I do, anyway.”
With such clear national divisions, one can’t help but make assumptions that the choice to open the evening’s proceedings with their song ‘London’s Burning’ was perhaps a little contrived. However, the reality is more likely that the song is a perfect opener. It powers out of the gate as soon as Strummer belts out the first lines of the song. It would lead the way for most of The Clash’s debut album to be played, closing the show with ‘Garageland’.
In the 18-minute clip, we not only get a sense of the kind of power The Clash had in their mist – with a hometown crowd or not – but we also get a reminder of just how incendiary their songs were and how deeply shocking their new sound would have been to such a naive audience.
Excerpt from the 1977 documentary “Punk in London.”
Tracks: 0:20 London’s Burning 2:25 Complete Control 4:15 Hate & War 6:39 Police & Thieves 11:05 The Prisoner 13:01 Janie Jones 15:03 Garageland (unavailable)
Dehd begin their autumn tour next week and as a reminder they’ve shared this mellow but very catchy new track that comes with a stylish video directed by the band’s Emily Kempf, and Kevin Veselka.
Upon arrival during the fraught summer of 2020, “Flower of Devotion” felt like Dehd’s necessary prescription for us all. That was, of course, a moment of unprecedented anxiety and uncertainty, when just contemplating the future could seem overly optimistic. But Dehd captured and shared the precarious balance between real life and real hope, a feat mirrored by instant pop melodies and infectious punk energy. The Chicago trio had the audacity to look ahead when many of us didn’t, to imagine improvement through mere existence. It was an album we needed. We need its follow-up, the triumphant “Blue Skies”, even more.
Dehd’s fourth album (and first for Fat Possum) is also the band’s second consecutive breakthrough, loaded with the most compelling, compulsive, and expansive songs of their career.
Through Dehd’s career, Jason Balla has been building his chops as a producer, so this was a chance to indulge and explore. Eric McGrady, meanwhile, considered how much more he could deliver as a drummer, adding layers to the thump of his past. And Emily, who admits that the process of making records has always been emotionally draining, focused on harnessing her indomitable energy, funnelling her power into these songs without being overpowered by them.
Dehd’s new song “Eggshells,” out on Fat Possum Records.
The latest single from Okkervil River’s Will Sheff’s debut solo album “Nothing Special” is “In The Thick OfIt,” a melancholy piano ballad featuring vocals from Cassandra Jenkins. “In the Thick of It” is a song about moments of grace right in the frenetic middle of things,” Will says. “I wrote it remotely with WillGraefe in a frantic flight out of L.A. to the desert. Zac Rae leads the charge on piano and I asked Cassandra Jenkins to sing the song along with me.
I had this big music video planned, but then everybody who was supposed to make the video got COVID. So I borrowed a camera and sang the song while walking my dog Larry through some of our favourite spots in the city. We had a great time and we only spent 200 dollars.”
Will Sheff’s upcoming album, ‘Nothing Special’, out October 7th
Austin psych greats The Black Angels release new double LP “Wilderness of Mirrors” on Friday and have shared one more preview before dropping the whole thing. “‘Empires Falling’ is a critical and reflective plea that examines humanity’s repetitive art of violent mass destruction,” say the band. “As we say in the chorus, “it’s history on repeat.” We are living in a “Wilderness Of Mirrors”, where it’s hard to tell what’s right from wrong, up from down, or the truth from lies as we navigate through these times where the fate of humanity is being refracted and reflected from one state of panic to another. The world is a “bleeding animal” and we are left exhausted, polarized, and “pleading from street to bloody street.”
The best music reflects a wide-screen view of the world back at us, helping distill the universal into something far more personal. Since forming in Austin in 2004, The Black Angels have become standard-bearers for modern psych-rock that does exactly that, which is one of many reasons why the group’s new album, “Wilderness of Mirrors”, feels so aptly named. In the five years since the band’s prior album, “Death Song“, and the two-plus years spent working on “Wilderness of Mirrors”, pandemics, political tumult and the ongoing devastation of the environment have provided ample fodder for the BlackAngels’ signature sonic approach.
“Wilderness of Mirrors” expertly refines the Black Angels’ psychedelic rock attack alongside a host of intriguing sounds and textures. There are classic blasts of fuzzed-out guitars meant to simultaneously perk up the ears and jumpstart the mind, alongside melancholy, acoustic guitar-driven newfound experiments. Mellotron, strings, and other keyboards also play a more prominent role on “Wilderness of Mirrors” than ever before.
Even amidst these new experimentations, The Black Angels remain masterfully true to psych-rock forebears such as Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson, Arthur Lee and the members of the Velvet Underground, all of whom are namechecked on album highlight “The River.” “The Velvet Underground song ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ – that’s what every Black Angels album has been about,” says vocalist/bassist Alex Maas. “You can’t work out your struggles unless you bring them to the forefront and think about them. If we can all think about them, maybe we can help save ourselves.”
History has proven, time and time again, that without a drastic metamorphosis from our leaders, politics, and ultimately ourselves… “
Without a brutal evaluation of their own becoming, TV Priest might have never made their second album. Heralded as the next big thing in post-punk, they were established as a bolshy, sharp-witted outfit, the kind that starts movements with their political ire. There was of course truth in that, but it was a suit that quickly felt heavy on its wearer’s shoulders, leaving little room for true vulnerability. “A lot of it did feel like I was being really careful and a bit at arm’s length,” says vocalist Charlie Drinkwater. “I think maybe I was not fully aware of the role I was taking. I had to take a step back and realize that what we were presenting was quite far away from the opinion of myself that I had. Now, I just want to be honest.”
“My Other People” maintains a strong sense of earth-rooted emotion, taking advantage of the opportunity to physically connect. Using “Saintless” (the closing song from Uppers) as something of a starting point, Drinkwater set about crafting lyrics that allowed him to articulate a deeper sense of personal truth, using music as a vessel to communicate with his bandmates about his depleting mental health. “Speaking very candidly, it was written at a time and a place where I was not, I would say, particularly well,” he says. “There was a lot of things that had happened to myself and my family that were quite troubling moments.
Despite that I do think the record has our most hopeful moments too; a lot of me trying to set myself reminders for living, just everyday sentiments to try and get myself out of the space I was in.”
“It was a bit of a moment for all of us where we realised that we can make something that, to us at least, feels truly beautiful,” agrees Bueth. “Brutality and frustration are only a part of that puzzle, and despite a lot of us feeling quite disconnected at the time, overwhelmingly beautiful things were also still happening.”
Our new single ‘It Was Beautiful’ is out everywhere now.
It’s a love song about the past, present, and future. A reminder that love is the most essential thing. The words came fast; it was recorded in a single session, the first song we wrote together after my family had gone through a difficult experience and I think you can hear that in the kind of melancholy euphoria that plays out as the song progresses. In some ways it’s a coda to the whole album; a reminder to guard your hope fiercely, and hold your loved ones close.
This tension between existential fear born from the constant uncertainties of life, and an affirmative, cathartic urge to seize the moment, is central to “My Other People“, a record that heals by providing space for recognition, a ground zero in which you’re welcome to stay awhile but which ultimately only leads up and out. For TV Priest, it is a follow-up that feels truly, properly them; free of bravado, unnecessary bluster or any audience pressure to commit solely to their original sound.
It’s been a month since we released ‘My Other People’ and we’ve found it very special to see how people have interpreted it and sat with the music . As a thanks we wanted to share some some of the things that went into the record. Nic has put together a digital scrap book of sorts that shows inspiration and lyrics ‘Notes On My Other People’ ’ https://www.myotherpeople.com/
UK musician and This is the Kit member and bassist Rozi Plain has announced a new album, “Prize”, will be released January 13th via Memphis Industries. The first single from the album, “Agreeing For Two,” features vocals from This is the Kit leader and bandmate Kate Stables (who also appears in the video), and saxophone from Alabaster DePlume. “This song was started when I spent a week on the Isle of Eigg writing new music,” Rozi says. “Mainly it’s thinking about how easy it can be to unknowingly make decisions on behalf of other people, thinking you might know what’s best or right for a situation where as maybe it’s just what was easiest for you.. I love the saxophone line that Alabaster DePlume added – brings a bit of his trademark heart and hopefulness.”
Video by Jack Barraclough Rozi says: It was so great to work with jack again for this video . I love his witty eye and resourceful attitude. I’d thought about a spinning platform and Jack had a friend who’d made one! We drove around some scorched heathland in Dartford and found a place to set up . Kate was the perfect up for it co-pilot and someone I can stare at in the face for a long time – it was a really lovely day !
we are also teaming up with @dinkededition and releasing a limited edition version with an alternative cover sleeve, a translucent streetlamp orange vinyl and a !!PROOFREAD!!PROOFREAD!! Rozi designed 2023 wall calendar.
Newly discovered Brighton metallic punk misfits Ditz played a bulldozing gig that blew my ears off. Last March they released their flabbergasting debut LP “The Great Regression“. A contender for album of the year. Their live wall-of-trash-and-crash sound breaks every law about decibels-levels. It’s beyond aural belief, but also scary, earth-shattering, and balls-and-brain-breaking, most of the time. Don’t you love it when you can feel music really physically as if your body gets electrocuted? I do. It makes me feel much livelier than just being alive.
The demonic guitar duo of Anton Mocock and Jack Looker produce an amount of kick-ass electricity that make roofs/walls of venues tremble. Their non-stop chainsaw riff blasts are very loud. The rhythm section of Sam Evans and Caleb Remnant batters with a bad-ass herculean vehemence. Perfect for an Armageddon type battle of bands.
Ditz are big fans ofFugazi, At The Drive-In, Metz, Flipper, Black Flagand other mean noise machines.
Last but not least there’s the psychotic vox and venue-filling presence of Cal Francis. He doesn’t really sing, he rants. He doesn’t look, he stares. He despises homophobes, I want to be who I am haters. capitalist criminals, and other related scum. He’s the bugaboo in Kate Moss disguise. He’s the perfect she-devil to front this perfect devilish band.
The 10-track album has been a long time coming – the five-piece first came together in Brighton at the end of 2015 and released their debut EP the following year. There have been a few line-up changes along the way, but they have been settled since their breakthrough tracks ‘Gayboy’, ‘Total 90’ and a cover of Peaches’ ‘Fuck The Pain Away’ in 2019, which prompted Joe Talbot from Idles to proclaim “DITZ are the best band in Brighton, if not the world”. Even though the various lockdowns slowed the band’s momentum for a while, they turned the situation to their advantage, using the downtime to fine-tune this incredible debut.
Abrasive but accessible, “The Great Regression” is set to be one of the most important British guitar debuts of 2022. First single ‘Ded Würst’ – a ferocious mix of Gilla Band, Foals and a lyric bemoaning the moral quandary of minimum-wage employment – unsurprisingly became an instant favourite of Steve Lamacq on BBC Radio 6 Music. Other highlights include ‘The Warden’, a song all about being too intense, ironically set to an intense backing somewhere between Deftones and Mogwai, and ‘I Am Kate Moss’, which, according to singer CalFrancis, is about “the separation between your visual and personal identities, particularly within the context of masculinity and femininity”.
“The actual definition of the dancefloor is something that has always fascinated us. It’s a space we express ourselves ultimately. However as huge Adam Curtis fans we’ve always been fascinated with origins and definitions. The complex relationships between subjects and the stories we are told to learn about them. When we started researching the history of the dancefloor and found that Thomas Edison was one of the first to film a dancefloor and that he monetized it in the way he did. We think of where we are at now and ask what have we really learned? That is the concept behind the film for “Love and Hate in a DifferentTime.” – Gabriels
Our debut album ‘Angels & Queens’ is a unique exploration of love and loss from each of our differing perspectives. We were planning to release our album in next year, but got the opportunity to collaborate with some of the most amazing people who initially were strangers, but within weeks became family in the most mind blowing process.
As the first part of the album was recorded, we knew we wanted to share it with you as soon as possible. Couldn’t be more excited to announce that “Angels & Queens – Part I” is coming September 30th, and Part II will follow in March.
