The extremely limited debut EP on So Young records from NYC’s Been Stellar. Been Stellar is what you get when you leave the youth alone in a metropolis; they grow up. They make noise. Their songs are formed and lived somewhere on Broadway, on Hester, on 34th, in Union Square, on the bridge, in the gutter, and under your shoe. The trivial street scenes lip sticked by well-loved decades are fully recognized in Been Stellar’s hail of guitar tones and insistent lyrical earnesty. Crackly, bright and distorted – stories of violence, love, and a new, un-glamorous, New York City.
NYC rockers Been Stellar take Larry Clark’s iconic cult movie as the basis for a scuzzy slacker anthem that opts out of trying to make sense of the world and, instead, embraces the chaos.
Following the release of mega single ‘Manhattan Youth’ last month, Been Stellar share their debut, self-titled EP this Friday.
The Brooklyn five-piece have been generating some serious heat in the UK and have just wrapped up their first UK headline tour, gathering what might go down in history as the coolest looking bunch of people ever recorded in one room for their headline show at The Windmill. They hit the road again in November, supporting Just Mustard around North America.
“Leader of the Pack” out now! It’s a classic angry betrayal song. I’m glad I wrote this when I was still a teenager, otherwise I would have probably calmed down before it came out of me. If you’re anything like us, you’ll have had that sensationally catchy riff from ‘Leader Of The Pack’ soundtracking everything from your morning Cheerios to your evening teeth clean for the last two weeks.
Just to make sure it’s firmly wedged in there, and have a watch of the lads rocking out in the track’s new video. Wunderhorse is the alias of British musician Jacob Slater, who fronted the Dead Pretties, a London band who arrived in a haze of hedonism and hype, bowing out before the dust had time to settle.
Blink and you’d have missed them. time-stamped yet timeless. if there’s any justice, he’ll soon be played out live in sticky basement rooms up and down the country, limbs everywhere, sweat dripping from the walls. an absolute mess, but what a beautiful one.
“Leader of the Pack / Butterflies” 7″ vinyl available now on the official store alongside CD/Vinyl & merch bundles of the debut album Cub, out September 16th.
Debut album ‘Cub’ comes out on September 16th. It’s been a long time coming and I’m looking forward to getting the songs out into the world.
Arny Margret proudly announced the release of her debut album,‘They Only Talk About The Weather’ , out October 21st. The gorgeous new single ‘sníglar’ is out now. With poetic proficiency and a knack for composing melodies that bury themselves deep into the subconscious, Arny writes of loneliness and existentialism with stark relatability. Musically she draws inspiration from folk and blues roots, utilising a less-is-more approach to convey openness, choosing to rely mostly on the delicate strumming of acoustics and her dulcet voice.
Arny Margret has spent the last year making waves, not only in her Icelandic hometown but across Europe and the US, touring extensively, supporting Leif Vollebekk, playing Reykjavik Calling, Iceland Airwaves and more. She released her anticipated debut EP to critical acclaim in February and now she’s proudly announced the release of her debut album, ‘They Only Talk About The Weather’ out October 21st.
‘They Only Talk About The Weather’ is an album of acute emotional exploration. It’s Arny’s coming-of-age journey, from writing in school, staring out of dorm room windows, being on the road, to today. With poetic proficiency and a knack for composing melodies that bury themselves deep into the subconscious, Arny writes of loneliness and existentialism with stark relatability. There’s a quiet confidence that comes from these tracks; crystal clear in their conception, completely honest, and masterfully arranged. She walks us through her relationships growing up and her realisations about other people as well as herself. We listen as she unpacks herself to a backdrop of vividly painted natural landscapes.
The album’s relationship with weather is noteworthy. Examining her surroundings is how Arny puts to words her feelings. The sparsely populated and confined Westfjord peninsula in north-western Iceland is its own character here, and the bitter but playful snow colours her deeply personal prose across the whole LP.
In this sense, “They Only Talk About The Weather” can be a warming comfort to those who need it most as ice forms outside and nights fall earlier in the evening. She tells us; “I like to use the weather, in one of my songs I even make it a person, I sing “I am blinded by the light of winter, but it comes and goes away, I don’t like her very much, you can’t depend on anything she’ll say”. Musically she draws inspiration from folk and blues roots, utilising a less-is-more approach to convey openness, choosing to rely mostly on the delicate strumming of acoustics and her dulcet voice. On two tracks, ‘Cold Aired Breeze’ and ‘Ties’, Arny plays with a full band for the first time on record, adding layers of shuffling drums, soaring lap steel and synth padding to emphasise impact. Elsewhere on the album minor flourishes reveal themselves constantly, rewarding repeat listens.
Taken from new album ‘they only talk about the weather’ out on October 21st One Little Independent Records
Indigo Sparke returns with her magnetic second full-length album “Hysteria“, recorded with producer Aaron Dessner (The National, Taylor Swift). It’s a huge and beautiful sweeping work, one that possesses a rare, reflective power. From the first few notes, in the first song, “Blue“, something chilling and captivating pierces straight into the listener’s chest. With harmonies reminiscent of the voices in our heads, she examines love, loss, grief, a newly realized rage, her history, dreams, and the emotional weather patterns surrounding those sensations: her words tell the stories, and the sounds act them out. It’s a diary built for big stages. “Hysteria” arrives just a year after her striking, minimalist debut, “Echo“. Here though, Sparke offers an expansive body of work—it’s a simultaneously nostalgic yet clear and complex collection that expands her sound and outlook.
While the world that Sparke inhabits is a rich tapestry of sound that pulls the listener into circular spaces of seemingly never ending minimalistic textures and harmonic suspensions, what’s most clearly on display is her voice and her song forms. Deceptively simple structures wind like labyrinths in a whirlwind of lyrical expression and vocal pageantry calling to mind the early works of PJ Harvey, Meredith Monk, and the like. These compositions are a warm invitation into her world.
Indigo Sparke – “Pressure In My Chest” From the album “Hysteria”, due out October 7th 2022, via SacredBones Records
The Big Pink have ended a six-year silence by unveiling a pair of new singles that picked up exactly where the group left off with “Empire Underground”EP, a continuation of the unique blend of heavy shoegaze, gothic pop, and Animal Collective–esque neo-psych (especially well-represented in Robbie Furze’s vocals recalling those of Panda Bear) established on their breakthrough 2009 album “A Brief History of Love”. they’re announcing that “No Angels” and “Love Spins” will appear on their third LP—and first in 10 years—titled “The Love That’s Ours“, which is out September 30 via Project Melody Music.
“Getting to this point has been one of the craziest journeys in my life,” Furze explained in a press statement. “I truly thought this day would never come. I got so lost, so confused, went down so many rabbit holes, at times running completely blind, so much so that I nearly lost everything that was ever important to me, everything I ever truly loved. This record symbolizes so much, it’s my flag on top of the summit. It shows that I finally understand what is truly important.”
Along with the news comes another new single called “Rage,” which despite its name is a softer sample of what’s to come than the rousing “Love Spins.” Co-written with Ryn Weaver after meeting the songwriter at a party and immediately forging a creative bond, the single is a level-headed look at the mutual rage both artists feel when facing the confusion of the modern world.
“She effortlessly comes up with these beautiful melodies, they just spill out of her, and her lyric writing is out of this world,” Furze shared of Weaver. “I would just sit there trying to keep up with this whirlwind of creativity. We would work long, long sessions, sometimes 12 to 18 hours, and she wouldn’t let us stop until the track was done. ‘Rage’ came from one of those sessions.”
“The Love That’s Ours” arrives September 30th via Project Melody Music.
Foals take a fresh, thrilling new direction on with their latest album “Life Is Yours”. Halfway through Foals’ jubilant new album, “Life Is Yours”, curling guitars combine with tumbling drums for the 36-second interlude “Summer Sky” and majestically, the British rock trio graze the sun. Unlike Icarus, however, the Yannis Philippakis–fronted band doesn’t fall to Earth, but rather melds one of the finest rock records of the summer. Thematically, it’s escapist, transportive and in rapture at life’s endless possibilities. It’s a record that’s perfectly in tune with the prevailing atmosphere of this moment in time – a life-affirming celebration as the world is reunited.
Foals have been around now for over 15 years, having released six previous albums, but they have perhaps not sounded as liberated and fun as they do on “Life Is Yours”. Boosted by Philippakis’s mighty vocal warble, the band which is currently rounded out by guitarist Jimmy Smith and drummer Jack Bevan celebrate life with a new record and consequently exude pure joy. Along with Philippakis, Bevan and Smith have been commanding listeners’ attention for almost 20 years, their previous album “Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost” from 2019 released as two parts and landing them a Mercury Prize nomination
“I actually met Yannis for an internet classified ad,” Bevan says “I posted an ad saying I was looking for a band because I had been in a few others, but they had sort of broken up. I posted this ad saying, ‘Drummer who likes Don Caballero, Boards of Canada, and Aphex Twin looking for someone to play with.’ This was long enough ago that Yannis responded to the ad and sent me a handmade tape cassette with all of his favourite musical influences.”
Philippakis, down to his dark eyes and thick beard, is certainly one of the most compelling frontmen out of the UK for a long-time fans of the band flocking to see perform for well over a decade now, the singer not only has a fiery timbre but a fierce persona. On stage, bent over his electric guitar and threshing on the strings, he emerges as a gentle beast. On record, he wears his emotions on his sleeve and lets the listener in. “Life is yours / Break away,” he sings on the opening title track off “Life Is Yours”, getting even the grouchiest listener to dance. “Life is yours / Your life awaits,” he then shouts and, in a fashion similar to that of David Byrne on Talking Heads’ iconic “Once in a Lifetime,” he jolts listeners awake.
Foals shows why they’re also infectiously joyful. On the album standout, “Crest of the Wave,” over winding guitars, Philippakis sings, “I promise I need ya,” and no matter the addressee, the “ya” he pleads with is really anyone’s lover and conveys the record’s broader theme of indestructible romance.
The deceptively sunny “2am” even sounds like an ode to the titular wee hour, that time late in the night when seemingly anything—maybe even sudden romance—can happen. As Philippakis sings, “I lost myself again,”
‘Life Is Yours’ immediately establishes its tone with the bright beam of optimism provided by its title track, its ambience and exuberance showing no sign of slowing down as it is followed by the two recent singles. There’s a unity to the sound, whether Foals are bouncing into the Balearic beats of ‘Looking High’, experimenting with West African guitar grooves on ‘Flutter’, or simply savouring the prospect of playing live together again within the dance dynamics of ‘The Sound’.
It’s also a consistently transportive experience, at times conjuring images of the Pacific Northwest or St. Lucia, at others directly set in the peppy nostalgia of the recent past. It all comes full circle with ‘Wild Green’, which simultaneously celebrates the rebirth of summer with an existential tinge that all beautiful moments are inevitably fleeting.
Ronboy singer songwriter based in Los Angeles, CA, released an EP “Velvet” which brings together a DIY indie energy with highly produced soundscapes. “Wake Up” is the band’s first single off of a gorgeous debut EP and it’s a tune that feels like a vision, a hazy feeling that follows you around all day. The song is immaculately crafted, with a carefully built arrangement that draws us in layer by layer until we’re surrendering ourselves to the waves of synths and honey-dipped reverb-y vocals. With a new single due “Always” is the next released track under Julia Laws’ moniker Ronboy following last year’s “Only a Broken Heart” plus collaboration with Matt Berninger (The National) and Resynator. Co-produced with Samuel Stewart (Lo Moon, Nightmare and the Cat), “Always” will be available on all streaming platforms June 24th, 2022.
Ronboy produces melancholy rock music with a similar soundscape to artists such as Sharon Van Etten, Wolf Alice, Fontaines D.C., Deep Sea Diver, Idles, Beck, and more. also for fans of the Weather Station.
Check out a live Recording of “Always” Produced and Mixed by Sterling Laws Directed and Edited by Julia Laws
production by Sterling Laws (Lo Moon, Kim Gordon, Matt Berninger, Liz Phair) Mixed by Mike Davis (Modest Mouse, Portugal the Man, The Head and The Heart, Lo Moon)
please give a listen to “Velvet” EP on bandcamp https://ronboy.bandcamp.com Its richness only adds to the general vibe of this track, described by Laws as “nostalgic and dreamy.”
Blondie has opened the floodgates of the past with their first-ever definitive collection, “Blondie: Against The Odds 1974-1982”, which will be out August 26th via UMe and The Numero Group. A collection of home recordings that have finally made it out of the band’s bedroom and into the public eye, their new song, “Mr. Sightseer,” serves as the B-side to a rare cover of The Doors’ “Moonlight Drive.”
In 1978, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein acquired a TEAC TCA-43 four-track reel-to-reel, giving them the freedom to pursue any musical whim they might have. “The lyric is not good at all,” Harry says of the track. “The song’s not too bad. It’s just a little simplistic. It didn’t ever get really developed or finished.”
The box set is a snapshot of the six years of work and two decades of material that was tucked away in Stein’s Woodstock barn. The release features 124 tracks and 36 previously unissued recordings, including the band’s first-ever basement studio session, outtakes, demos and alternate versions.
“Blondie: Against The Odds 1974-1982” also includes Blondie’s first six studio albums, which have been remastered from the original analogue tapes with vinyl cut at Abbey Road Studios. For a further glimpse into Blondies’ world, the box set includes liner notes by Erin Osmon, track-by-track commentary from all seven of the original band members, essays by producers Mike Chapman, Richard Gottehrer and KenShipley, a 120-page illustrated discography and hundreds of period photographs.
The box set is available in four formats, including a Super Deluxe Collectors’ Edition (10xLP, 1×7”, 1×10” in Red, White, and Black vinyl formats), plus Deluxe 4LP, Deluxe 8CD and 3CD editions.
Following the success of the three-disc compilation, ‘The Sun Shines Here’ (which documented the roots of Indie Pop from 1980-84), the prequel to “C86”, “C85” combines “name” bands with many obscurities making their debut on CD. Several acts on “C85” would eventually feature on that NME’s C86 collection: Primal Scream, The Wedding Present, the Mighty Lemon Drops, etc, who all had singles released in 1985.
Back in 1986, the NME’s latest mail-order cassette, C86, captured the latest trends in Indie music, inspired by the C81 tape from half a decade earlier. C86 became the NME’s best-selling compilation, selling an estimated 40,000 copies and eventually being re-issued on LP and cassette by Rough Trade the following year. Fast forward to 2014, the triple-CD edition celebrated the cult status of C86, which had come to embody a whole style of indie guitar music with 50 extra tracks.
“C85” bridges the gap between ‘The Sun Shines Here’ and ‘C86’, opening with undoubtedly the most vital British breakthrough band of that year in The Jesus & Mary Chain and closing with the debut from a band who’d have to wait several years for their chance, The Stone Roses. Along the way, we hear many key records by the likes of post-Undertones band That Petrol Emotion (their blistering debut ‘Keen’), The Woodentops, James, Del Amitri, The Housemartins (their debut ‘Flag Day’) and a then largely unknown Happy Mondays (again represented by their first single). Where discs one and two reflect the predominant indie pop sound with which “C86″ was most closely associated, disc 3 acknowledges the harder, more angular sounds of that era (encapsulated by the bands on the Ron Johnson label).
Alongside band biographies for every track is an introductory essay by one-time NME scribe Neil Taylor, the original co-compiler of “C86” and author of the book C86 And All That. In short, “C85” is essential for any fan of 80s independent music.
Released October 21st, 2022.
• 3CD collection pre-queling NME’s huge selling C86 compilation. • Featuring the best of the burgeoning indie scene from 1985. • Including tracks from The Jesus And Mary Chain, The Stone Roses, That Petrol Emotion, The Woodentops, James, Del Amitri, The Housemartins and many more.
The spiritual life ain’t all pious platitudes. This song is about how weird it gets, when you’re in love with the Source of Being and She’s not texting you back.
Ever since it hit me that I was never going to be loved and accepted on the scale of my pop star heroes, me and my bandmates have started to work on a different vision of pop, one more our own, one that gestures at the stranger truths of the human mind. Here we are in thrall to verbally adventurous nineties music like Bjork and Beck and the Silver Jews and them kinda non-linear geniuses.
As for the video by the amazing Haoyan of America, I basically told Haoyan a story I made up about a trans Joan of Arc narrowly avoiding her public execution, and then gave him free reign to do whatever he wanted with it, as long as Daphne Always (also seen in our recent “Forever in Sunset” video) played Joan. I adore the cracked brilliance of what came out.
Our new album ‘All Of Us Flames’ is out in Two weeks! Still time to pre-order the record and exclusive merch items from our store. Be warned, signed vinyl stock is running LOW!
