We’ve been waiting for this moment for so long, First Aid Kit have a new album “Palomino”, will be our fifth album is due out November 4th and our new single “Out Of My Head” will be out Friday August 12th. In the meantime the sisters have offered up their rendition of Don Henley’s enduring heartland rock classic, and they say, “We wanted to give this 80s classic a softer folkier touch. It’s been so much fun performing this live at our shows with everyone singing along. Hopefully it can be a sweet soundtrack to the rest of your summer.”
For the UK! Big tour news coming soon.
Columbia Records, a Division of Sony Music Entertainment Released on: 2022-07-29
This is it, the holdout from The Cure catalogue that we’ve all been waiting for “Wish”. On vinyl, for the first time in a very long time.
“Wish” released in April 1992 It was The Cure’s 9th studio album and reached Number 1 in the UK Album Chart on its release. It also reached Number 2 in the USA, where it was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Alternative Music Album category. The first single to be released from the album, “High” was released in March 1992 and reached #8 in the UK Singles chart, but the album is probably best known for the 2nd single, “Friday I’m In Love” which reached #6 in May 1992. The 3rd and final single from the album was “A Letter To Elise” which peaked at #28 in October 1992.
The demos from this new version include “Miss van Gogh” and “Now Is the Time.” The release will be available as a three-CD set, a double LP, and a single CD on October 7th when it will also be released digitally.
All remastered at Abbey Road by Robert Smith and Miles Showell. Plua a 3CD set mops up all the period bootleg and rare stuff you’ve been enjoying on inferior You-tube quality for the last 20 years (Lost Wishes, saucy instrumental takes) plus studio out-takes, live versions, single mixes. When Robert Smith does reissues, he does them properly.
The new edition of the band’s ninth album features refined versions of songs, newly remastered by Robert Smith and MilesShowell at Abbey Road Studios. In addition to the familiar material, the three-CD reissue contains one disc with 24 previously unreleased tracks by The Cure. “Wish” was released in 1992, following the best-selling trajectory of “Disintegration“. Talking with music critic Simon Reynolds in 1992, Robert Smith elaborated on the record’s concept. “In one sense, it’s me addressing myself. It’s about the personal sometimes fall into. On another level, it’s addressed to people who expect me to know things and have answers – fans, and on a personal level, certain individuals”.
The less-is-more axiom often holds true in the pursuit of the ideal deluxe reissue. This three-CD edition of The Cure’s follow-up to “Disintegration” doesn’t come stuffed to the gills with bonus material and yet it doesn’t leave the listener wanting for more. In fact, the new and expanded “Wish” provides a more-than-adequate sense of context for a landmark title in The Cure’s discography. On first glance, the choice not to add an entire live show might seem curious from a band that’s celebrated for its marathon-length live sets, but that’s arguably just as well. (Also, the 1993 live album “Show” turns 30 next year, so one presumes that any unearthed live recordings from this period might surface at that point.) The fact is, an exquisitely tasteful Abbey Road remaster and a heap of demos are enough—especially since they flatter and augment the original release rather nicely.
The 3CD Deluxe Edition : includes The Original 1992 album remastered by Robert Smith and Miles Showell at Abbey Road. Compiled and Expanded by Robert Smith
Disc One: “Demos”– All Previously Unreleased Versions 4 x 1990 Studio Vocal Demos (3 x Album Songs & 1 B-Side) 18 x 1991 Studio Instrumental Demos
Disc Two: The Original 1992 album remastered by Robert Smith
Disc Three: “Studio Out-Takes / 12” Remixes / Live Performances” 1 x 1992 Manor Studio Instrumental -Previously Unreleased 4 x ‘Lost Wishes’ ( 4 x Instrumental Demos / Mail Order-only Cassette release -First Time on CD 4 x 12” Single Mixes (Unavailable since 1992) 3 x Live tracks recorded at the Kilburn National, London in 1992 – Previously Unreleased
TO MARK THE RELEASE OF THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY REMASTER OF ‘WISH’ ON NOVEMBER 25TH, ROBERT WILL BE HOSTING A SPECIAL TIM’S TWITTER LISTENING PARTY. JOIN US ON THE DAY THE ALBUM IS RELEASED FROM 11PM GMT. USING THE HASHTAG #WISHLISTENINGPARTY
Echo Mars (she/her), Lu Racine (he/they), and Nathaniel van Osdol (they/them) formed Thus Love in 2018, but due to many pandemic-ridden setbacks, it’s likely this might be the first you’ve heard of the Brattleboro post-punk band. As three self-identifying trans artists seeking connection through communal creativity, it was music that offered them the freedom to express their shared lived experience. Signed to Captured Tracks in the spring of 2022, the band’s debut album“Memorial” arrives this October.
Although unmistakable is a nod to classic 80s cuts, “Memorial” is an infectious mix of experimental musicianship, powered by Thus Love’s unique sonic identity. The single “In Tandem”is an instant, charged post-punk hit, ear-pleasingly rhythmical and defiant in its character – at once music we want to hit repeat on. The architects of their own unbreakable bond, songs on the album explore dark, ugly and vulnerable themes, stories are told with profound honesty, all framed with hope and a will that love, ultimately, conquers.
Thus Love on Captured Tracks Released on: 2022-07-26
West Australian boogie masters Datura4 return with their highly anticipated fifth album “Neanderthal Jam“. Fronted by Dom Mariani of legendary Oz garage-rockers The Stems, “Neanderthal Jam” is packed with new tracks of psychedelicised blues and full-tilt heavy rock that were jammed out and recorded at their favourite south-west farmhouse studio. Having already released four acclaimed albums on Alive Naturalsound Records
Previous albums Demon Blues (2015),Hairy Mountain (2016), Blessed is the Boogie (2019) and West Coast Highway Cosmic (2020) —Neanderthal Jam sees Datura4 building upon and going beyond on another diverse collection of tastefully crafted songs.”
Suede are about to release a new album, “Autofiction”, on September 16th via BMG Records. The band shared its second single, “15 Again.” In a press release, frontman Brett Anderson describes it as “a song about falling in love with life for the first time.” Previously Suede had shared the album’s first track, “She Still Leads Me On,”.
The Britpop originators and survivors legally have to go by the name The London Suede in America, thanks to an American jazz singer also named Suede. Longtime collaborator Ed Buller, who has produced many of the band’s albums, including their first three, produced “Autofiction“. The album is first in many years and is the follow-up to 2018’s The Blue Hour.
Suede—Brett Anderson (vocals), Mat Osman (bass), Simon Gilbert (drums), Richard Oakes (guitars), and Neil Codling (keyboards)—began the album in a rehearsal studio in the Kings Cross area of London.
“Autofiction” is our punk record,” Anderson said in a previous press release. “No whistles and bells. Just the five of us in a room with all the glitches and fuck-ups revealed; the band themselves exposed in all their primal mess. “Autofiction” has a natural freshness, it’s where we want to be,” Anderson added.
“When we were rehearsing and writing this record it was this sheer, physical rush,” said Osman. “That thing where you’re hanging on for dear life.”
“She Still Leads Me On” is about Anderson’s mother and the lyrics to “Autofiction” as a whole were fuelled by Anderson’s two acclaimed autobiographies, 2018’s Coal Black Mornings and 2019’s Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn.
Suede initially broke-up in 2003 following the release of their poorly received fifth album, 2002’s “A New Morning“. They reformed in 2010 and made a full on comeback in 2013 with the release of “Bloodsports”, which was their first new album in over a decade and was very well-received by critics. That was followed by 2016’s “Night Thoughts” and 2018’s “The Blue Hour“. This makes “Autofiction” the band’s fourth album since reforming and ninth album overall (not counting 1997’s two-disc B-sides collection “Sci-Fi Lullabies“).
American multi-instrumentalist Noah Benjamin Lennox better know as Panda Bear and equally musical centipede Peter Kember aka Sonic Boom (co-founder of Spacemen 3) have worked together again.
Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) and Sonic Boom (Peter Kember) have teamed up to release their first joint album, “Reset”. The duo met via MySpace nearly a decade ago when Panda Bear gave a shout out to Sonic Boom’s former band, Spacemen 3, in the liner notes of his solo album “Person Pitch”. Kember messaged Lennox to express his gratitude, and they became fast friends. Since then, Sonic Boom has co-mixed a few Panda Bear albums, but after Kember moved to Portugal to be closer to Lennox, the pair decided to take their collaboration to the next level on “Reset“.
Their looping psych-pop demos began to take shape as lockdowns forced people into isolation, and the project provided them with an escape from the bleak reality in which the rest of the world was immersed. The result is an album rife with escapism, glittering synthesizers, and a Beach Boys influence obvious in the bells of “Go On” and the doo-wop vocals of “Edge of the Edge.” A record that provided a much-needed diversion from the dull day-to-day of life during a pandemic, it’s a nine-song cure for COVID seclusion.
And here’s the second bright-coloured taster, named “Edge Of The Edge“.
The result is a new album, titled “Reset“. It’s inspired by Kember’s collection of records from the ’50s and ’60s and comes out on 12th August.
Panda Bear & Sonic Boom – “Edge Of The Edge” from the album ‘Reset’ out 12th August 2022 on Domino Recording Co.
Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff has announced the release of his debut solo album, “Nothing Special”, which will be out on October 7th via ATO Records.Sheff has also shared a video for the album track “Estrangement Zone.” In a press release, Sheff elaborates on the new album: “When I was just a kid, I got caught up in the dream of being a rock and roll star. Like so many other young people, I fell in love with the idea of being called to this glorious path outside of ordinary life. And I ended up in a band with people who felt this same especially our brilliant drummer Travis Nelsen, who was like a brother to me.
We would trade tales of hilarious antics and outrageous excess and tragic death like they were almost scripture. Travis and I fell out painfully, and he died in the early weeks of lockdown. I think a big part of “Nothing Special” centres around grieving for him, grieving for everything my friends have lost, grieving for the rock and rock and roll myth, and trying to open my eyes to a more transcendent reality.”
“Nothing Special” features musical contributions from guitarist Will Graefe, bassist Benjamin Lazar Davis, Christian Lee Hutson, Dawes drummer Griffin Goldsmith, and Death Cab For Cutie pianist Zac Rae. The album also features guest vocals from Cassandra Jenkins and Eric D. Johnson of Fruit Bats and BonnyLight Horseman. It was engineered by John Congleton, Matt Linesch, and Marshall Vore.
On Wednesday, Brooklyn-based psych-rock quintet Gift announced the release of their debut album, “Momentary Presence”, which will be out on October 14th via Dedstrange Records. They also shared a video for the album’s lead single, “Gumball Garden.”
“I wrote this song way before most people knew what the word pandemic meant,” band leader TJ Freda says of “Gumball Garden” in a press release. “I had a dream in late 2019 where I woke up one day and there was nobody on earth. I was walking around looking for any forms of life to no avail. It was sad but also strangely peaceful. When the pandemic happened, this song took on a whole new meaning. We did wake up one day and the streets were empty. Everyone had gone away. This song is about finding peace in solitude.”
Brooklyn’s GIFT open the gates to a technicolour shoegazing fantasy island on “Gumball Garden,” the first single from their debut LP, “Momentary Presence”, due out October 14th, 2022 on Dedstrange. The psychedelic Brooklyn quintet splice together dank strains of psych, krautrock and dream pop to grow their own hybrid—one that according to Rolling Stone, is heady enough to “[open] a portal to another dimension.” Dipped in syrupy synths and topped with powdered fuzz riffs, “Gumball Garden” is a delectable confection of heavy neo-psychedelic euphoria.
debut LP, “Momentary Presence”, due out October 14th, 2022 on Dedstrange.
After making a name with her fierce 2019 debut “Beware of the Dogs“, Perth singer/songwriter StellaDonnelly turned inward. “I’m taken out to sea in the flood / Swimmer looking for the line,” she sings on “Flood’s” title track, a bittersweet beauty of a center piece about keeping one’s head above water while awash in the emotional tumult that tends to accompany such introspection.
Where “Beware of the Dogs” paired Donnelly’s emotionally explosive song writing with bright indie-pop sounds and only occasional solemnity, “Flood” flips that script, as if to bare Donnelly’s battered heart (“Is it a pipe dream to want my children / Never to wake up and hear a woman screaming?” she considers on “Morning Silence”) with a newfound sense of peace and acceptance.
“I do love observing human dynamics,” Donnelly said in a previous press release, in relation to “Lungs,” the album’s opening track. “Dynamics between old best friends, or dynamics between housemates, or a relationship where the two people are broken up and haven’t spoken in years. I like getting into the mind of someone who we’ve all been at some point.”
Donnelly wrote “Flood” on piano, rather than guitar, a major contributor to the record’s more stately approach—“You’re the bit that holds us all together,” she declares on “Move Me,” as if in tribute to the instrument. It’s a serious album from a serious song writing talent.
Donnelly had this to say about “How Was Your Day?” in a press release: “This is my attempt at building a song out of a very specific dynamic between two monogamously involved people. The verses are just excerpts from real conversations, fragments of what two people talk about when they both know they need to have a real talk but neither wants to be the one to bring it up. This song came out of lockdown and seeing a lot of friends break up or get married.”
Of the video, she says: “This video does a really good job of portraying how annoying I am! We shot it from opposite sides of the world which was a little bit stressful but a lot of fun.”
Australian singer/songwriter Stella Donnelly is releasing a new album, “Flood”, on August 26th via Secretly Canadian.
The third album from Chichester’s Traams is their first in seven years. on first listen it felt like it didn’t hit quite as hard as a traams album should (there are only live drums on two tracks & Stu Hopkins is also experimenting with softer vocal tones). on second listen it felt much more powerful. and by the third listen (& on every subsequent full blast indulgence), we’ve found ourselves totally immersed & completely obsessed. Though the band never officially broke up after the release of nine-minute behemoth ‘A House On Fire’ and the subsequent tour at the end of 2017, a break made sense to all three members. “I couldn’t really write, and I didn’t have the motivation to do anything musical. I’m pretty sure I didn’t pick up a guitar for 2 years,” vocalist and guitarist Stuart Hopkins reflects. “I was waiting for that feeling to come back.” In the intervening years, the band went their separate ways.
Joe Casey, the idiosyncratic frontman of past and future TRAAMS tourmates Protomartyr also makes an appearance on the album’s blistering centerpiece, ‘The Light At Night’. “I had this part where I was trying to sound like a preacher, or someone with unequivocal authority, delivering this ranting speech,” Stu says of his idea for the song, “and as much as I tried to get a good version of me doing it, it just wasn’t working. It just sounded like I was trying to be Joe.” What better conclusion, then, than to get the man himself involved? A speculative Instagram message followed, ending up in Casey writing a brilliantly vivid, chaotic verse to send the track towards oblivion. “Kill the body then the head dies,” he spits over and over at the end of the song in a crazed manner only Casey is capable of, adding some blood and guts to the album’s poise and guile.
In the protracted gap preceding the Sussex group’s difficult third record, drummer/multi-instrumentalist Adam Stock focused his energy on learning new instruments and acquiring new synthesizers. Coupled with the pandemic-mandated adherence to low-decibel experimentation due to the closure of rehearsal studios, “Personal Best” finds the group unreservedly embracing the electro-ambient sounds that imbued their earlier, though more stentorian, work.
“Before it’s always been obnoxiously loud,” frontperson Stu Hopkins noted in a press release. “All the things we’d usually relied upon bass and drums locking in, guitar feedback, shouted words—were no longer applicable in this new way of writing.” With this pared-down palette, the band reinvents itself while reinforcing the timelessness of their left-of-centre drone rock.
At the tail end of 2019 the urge to reconnect struck the band, and they headed to Brighton for some initial sessions in a similar way to previous records – guitar, bass, drums, vocals. This continued until the first lockdown happened. After having this initial momentum scuppered, work on ‘personal best’ began again in earnest in summer of 2020, when lockdown restrictions eased. The trio were allowed to meet up in a studio and rehearsal space cobbled together in Stu’s workplace in Chichester.
As a result, ‘Dry’ and ‘Comedown’ – the two songs that bookend the new album, written in those early Brighton sessions – are the only two to feature live drums, a previous staple of TRAAMS’ sound. “There was an element of me not wanting to play drums as much anyway, but lockdown made it happen as we just couldn’t get to a drum kit,” Adam Stock remembers. For a while, the idea was to write within the restraints they were set initially, before imagining full band sessions to flesh out the sound in a more traditional way later down the line.
Due to flats in close proximity and only being able to play and record at night, the band were forced to write music at a hushed volume. “We had to re-learn how to play together,” the frontman says. “It was really quiet and considered, whereas before it’s always been obnoxiously loud. All the things we’d usually relied upon – bass and drums locking in, guitar feedback, shouted words – were no longer applicable in this new way of writing. After our initial reservations, it was incredibly inspiring and freeing.”
