Sorry’s “Let the Lights On” is a literal banger. They’ve packed this danceable indie rock number full of klanging production, courtesy Portishead’s Adrian Utley, that sounds like they recorded in a kitchen supply store. No actual pots, pans or cheese graters were used, however, but they’ve cooked up a winning first taste from their second album, “Anywhere But Here”. “It’s a fun love song for the club,” say the band, but “Lights” is invitingly dark.
London once again features as a prominent character on Sorry’s second studio album, “Anywhere But Here”. ’If our first version of London in 925was innocent and fresh-faced, then this is rougher around the edges. It’s a much more haggard place,’ Louis says. Earwigged conversations, text messages, snatched speech recorded underground; the city’s discarded words fed into the lyrics which map the experience of urban life on a young and frustrated generation. Produced and recorded in Bristol, the result is an angular, acerbic, bittersweet triumph.
Sorry – “Let The Lights On” from the forthcoming album ‘Anywhere But Here’ out 7th October 2022 on DominoRecordings.
Kiwi Jr. have previewed their upcoming album “Chopper” with its latest single, ‘The Extra Sees The Film’,
“This song is quite literally a change of pace for us,” said the band’s Jeremy Gaudet said in a press release. “It’s more chill and a bit darker than previous Kiwi Jr. recordings. It’s a song about whether or not you’re the hero of your own story, or a smaller part of something bigger. It’s bragging that you’re in a movie and inviting all your friends and family, but when it screens, you’re barely an extra in it. A lot of our songs deal with reckoning, this one in particular. It’s what happens after you’ve told your story and the truth comes out later, and everything unravels. What qualifies something as jangle pop? The parameters, as with all great indie niches, are somewhat nebulous, and there are overlaps with dream pop, power pop, the slacker side of indie (e.g. Courtney Barnett), and even more recondite post-punk. We know this nostalgic, guitar-led music features literate, often forlorn lyricism with esoteric references (see Kiwi Jr.’s “Swimming Pool” about Brian Jones’ abnormal death). The song structures are typically short and snappy, the band names playful, and a handful of labels are behind the key releases, such as Slumberland, Sub Pop, and Tough Love.
Jangle is in the throes of a renaissance. The Bay Area is one locale boasting a bounty of anachronistic groups—The Reds, Pinks & Purples, The Umbrellas, and countless others that idle in Bandcamp’s jerkwater nooks. Toronto’s Kiwi Jr. and Ducks Ltd. are other notable forerunners. Both released extolled LPs in 2021 with a sound likewise indebted to New Zealand’s Flying Nun roster and the British indie acts featured on NME’s C86 compilation tapes. Speckling the rest of the continent and beyond are like-minded songwriters with similar sonic touchpoints, such as Chicago’s Dehd and Melbourne’s Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.
“Chopper” is set for release on August 12th via Sub Pop Records.
So far, Joyeria has charted his career in invisible ink. Always a shape shifter, never a genre chaser. He’s quit bands when their buzz was the buzziest, he’s released music under names even devotees could never remember how to spell and has insisted on building his backstory entirely with gaps in the narrative. He’s a maths-wiz, a crack chess player, a painter and Dad who smokes on the sly. Built like a hockey player, with a frame carved out by late nights and tour life – he is an imposing figure until you step into the presence of his gently voracious enthusiasm.
Joyeria announced his debut EP, “FIM“, which will be out October 14th via Speedy Wunderground. It was produced by label head Dan Carey. There’s a distinct Pavement. / Silver Jews vibe to Joyeria’s music which evident on new single “Colour Film.”
“Colour Film’ is about the mindless daily routine of being alive, what David Foster Wallace called ‘water,'” he says. “I apparently have the ability to choose how I feel or think as I participate in being alive just as I can choose how I feel and think when I explain songs which is to say at times, very uneasy. But this song is also about worry beads, American G.I.’s running fighter pilot drills over Mediterranean islands, stray cats, ice creams and falling rotten oranges. Like I said, I’m in a colour film, in fact we might all be.”
Over the course of six songs, a listener has room to luxuriate in electric confessions of fatigue, “Just let the dog eat from the table/ I lay in its spot catching some sleep.” And while the “FIM” (EP) never pretends to be positive and uplifting, it’s hard to shake the ecstatic thrill of Joyeria declaring: “There’s a wild joy I remember” — as if his voice is about to break its vessel. It’s too necessary a cry to be nostalgic. And if it sounds slightly insane, it is because it’s inspired.
Taken from the forthcoming ‘FIM EP’ – out digitally on 14th October 2022 & on 12” vinyl on 2nd December 2022 on Speedy Wunderground. Track produced by Dan Carey.
It’s been a helluva past few years and I’m glad to finally share a glimpse of what’s coming ahead. This is “Night Crawling,” featuring a video by Mickey Miles.
There was this period around mid-late 70s when David Bowie and I would run into each other in New York city. There was plenty of talk about getting some work done but of course we’d end up running the streets, sometimes until we couldn’t keep a thought in our heads, let alone actually get a song together! One night we managed to meet up for a benefit concert where I taught him a viola part so we could perform together. When I wrote “Night Crawling,” it was a reflective moment of particular times.
That kind of NYC that held art in its grip, strong enough to keep it safe and dangerous enough to keep it interesting. I always figured we’d have another go at the two of us recording together, this time without the interference of being perpetually off our heads! The thing about creating music is the ability to divine a thought or feeling even when reality says it’s a logical impossibility.
John Cale presents “Night Crawling,” his first new music since 2020 when he released the single, “Lazy Day,” and a taste of much more to come from Cale. He wrote “Night Crawling” with a nod to ’70s NYC pre-disco, recalling times when he and David Bowie would traverse the city at night.
There’s a peculiar power to Caution’s driving, art-y dream pop. From the bluesy shoegaze romp of “Red Rose” to lo-fi electro ripper “Hand That Looks Like Mine,” Caution delight with sticky pop melodies and a deluge of sonic scuff marks. Songs are bathed in blinking fuzz, hypnagogic reverb, and cool charm, and the duo’s shared lead vocals take things to the next level. NoraButton’s wispy voice floats through the air like dandelion seeds, and Cash Langdon’s voice brings an endearing coziness—but melt the two together, and you get wonderfully pillow harmonies.
The band’s debut album, “Arcola”, evokes Chapterhouse’s synth-y shoegaze and The Jesus and Mary Chain’s timeless noise-pop, showing off their keen ear for texture and dynamics.
Caution has a new music video for “Volatile”! Spliced together from footage of their Spring tour, the video captures the spirit of being on the road: gas stations, long drives, standing around, friends, cats, the occasional show.
And for all its focus on nailing pop hooks and building interesting sound worlds, they’re also skilled wielders of bold, steamy guitars—the confident bombast of ”Swerve” is just good dumb fun and the duel between the central chiming riff and meaty fuzz on “Calendar of Waiting Stress” is an explosive sensory experience.
Not much is known about the young Dutch band A fungus, though they seem to derive from the same Amsterdam guitar scene that spawned groups such as Personal Trainer, Global Charming and Canshaker Pi and centers around a studio called Erik’s House.
Their song writing ability and math-y post-hardcore chops, however, are quite clear. On their self-released debut album “It Already Does That”, they evoke the wide-ranging experimental tendencies of recent British bands like black midi and Caroline—folding in the math-y tempo shifts of the former and the spidery slow-core and post-rock of the latter—plus various ‘90s indie rock, emo and post-hardcore bands. Ideas may be flowing 100 miles a minute on this record, but this band does a convincing job of balancing their penchant for stop-starts and intricate guitar work with delicate, rewarding hooks.
“It Already Does That” is the work of a band who’s seemingly delighted by the thought of throwing listeners off their scent, with disintegrating guitar lines at the centre of everything they do, but their sensitive vocals are what really drives this album home. The taut vocals of “Health” that mirror its rollicking guitars are positively invigorating, and the tender vocals of “Mark’s Bag” are surprisingly singalong-worthy for an album this mercurial. That quiet noise rock. A loud timbre but a quiet volume. Everything is noise but so delicate too.
The Topshelf Records 2021-2022 Label Sampler! Free or PWYW with all proceeds going to National Network of Abortion funds.
This is the culmination of a year’s worth of work with and for artists that we’re so fortunate, excited, and thankful to be affiliated with. It’s been the most surreal of years, but has also been one of the strongest in terms of musical output that our label has ever had. Ty for supporting independent music!
released July 29th, 2022
Thank you to: Cool Original, Mal Devisa, supernowhere, Gulfer, Olivia Kaplan, Weatherday, Zenizen, Sweet Pill, Thanya Iyer, Bellows, Really From, Lunarette, Ratboys, Record Setter, Gregory Uhlmann, Elephant Gym, A Great Big Pile of Leaves, & Mid-Air Thief
Greta Kline has spent a few years living with her family and writing a mere 100 songs, turning her empathy anywhere from the navel to the moon, rendering it all warm, close and reflexively humorous. In music, everyone loves a teen sensation, but Kline has never been more fascinating than now, a decade into being one of the most prolific songwriters of her generation.
Meanwhile Frankie Cosmos, a rare, dwindling democratic entity called a band, had been on pandemic hiatus with no idea if they’d continue. In the openness of that uncertainty they met up, planning to hang out and play music together for the first time in nearly 500 days. There, whittling down the multitude of music to work with, they created “Inner World Peace”, a collection of Greta’s songs changed and sculpted by their time together. While Kline’s musical taste at the time was leaning toward aughts indie rock she’d loved as a teenager, keyboardist Lauren Martin and drummer Luke Pyenson cite “droning, meditation, repetition, clarity and intentionality,” as well as “‘70s folk and pop” as a reference for how they approached their parts. Bassist/guitarist Alex Bailey says that at the time he referred to it as their “ambient” or “psych” album. Somewhere between those textural elements and Kline’s penchant for concise pop, “Inner World Peace” finds its balance.
Instant centerpiece “One Year Stand” is a small snowglobe of intimacy recalling the softest moments of Yo La Tengo’s And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out. Lifted by Martin’s drones on Hammond organ and synthesizer, it could be played on repeat in a loop.
I like to think it’s obvious how Greta’s vocals were recorded: late at night as we all sat by in low light, transfixed as she sings “I’m not worried about the / rest of my life / because you are here today / I go back in time / I’m a cast iron.” The voices of Kline and Martin, who have sung together since middle school, blend seamlessly.
The first order of business upon setting up camp in Brooklyn’s Figure 8 studios was to project giant colourful slides the band had made for each track. Co-producing with Nate Mendelsohn, my Shitty Hits Recording partner, we aimed for FC’s aesthetic idiosyncrasies to shine. The mood board for “Magnetic Personality” has a neon green and black checkerboard, a screen capture of the game Street Fighter with “K.O.” in fat red letters, and a cover of Mad Magazine that says “Spy Vs. Spy! The Top Secret Files.” On tracks like “F.O.O.F.” (Freak Out On Friday), “Fragments” and “Aftershook,” the group are at their most psychedelic and playful, interjecting fuzz solos, bits of percussion, and other sonically adventurous ear candy. An internal logic strengthens everything, and in their proggiest moments, Frankie Cosmos are simply a one-take band who don’t miss. When on “Inner World Peace” they sound wildly, freshly different, it may just be that they’re coming deeper into their own.
Throughout the album there are plays on the notion of feeling seen or invisible, as in “Magnetic Personality” when Kline sings “ask me how I am and I won’t really say,” or in “One Year Stand” when she says “maybe I’m asking myself.” Kline emphasizes that this was her first group of songs in years that weren’t written while on tour, but rather with ample time on her hands. She reflects on past selves in “Abigail”
(“that version of myself I don’t want back”) and “Wayne” (“Like in first grade / I went by Wayne / I always had / another name”). If we’re alone, what becomes of the things we see? As in “Fruit Stand,” Kline asks “If it’s raining and I can’t feel it, is it raining?”
“Inner World Peace” excels in passing on the emotions it holds. When in the towering “Empty Head” Kline sings of wanting to let thoughts slide away, her voice is buoyed on a bed of synths and harmonium as tranquility abounds. When her thoughts become hurried and full of desire, so does the band, and she leaps from word to word as if unable to contain them all. As a group, they carry it all deftly, and with constant regard for Kline’s point of view.
Says Greta, “To me, the album is about perception. It’s about the question of “who am I?” and whether or not the answer matters. It’s about quantum time, the possibilities of invisible worlds. The album is about finding myself floating in a new context. A teenager again, living with my parents. An adult, choosing to live with my family in an act of love. Time propelled us forward, aged us, and also froze. If you don’t leave the house, who are you to the world? Can you take the person you discover there out with you?”
On “Nowhere LA” – LA as in Louisiana not Los Angeles, Why Bonnie‘s lead singer Blair Howerton uses a broken down car on an isolated road to describe a stalled relationship: “I know I walk fast, but my heart moves so slow.”
Blair offers: “Inspired by a true story of breaking down in the middle of nowhere Louisiana with an ex, this song is about looking at a relationship in the rear view mirror. Once you’re further away from a place, you can see it all more clearly and with a bit more understanding.”
“Why Bonnie: 90 In November” Though they’ve been rehearsing for this moment for some time, releasing EPs that skew towards indie pop since 2018, Why Bonnie appear fully formed on their debut album “90 in November“. Out via Austin-based Keeled Scales, their warm, twangy brand of indie rock feels right at home with that of their label-mates Sun June, Good Looks and Katy Kirby. The label’s recent, glorious run has seen them uplifting a unique rock scene that captures the simultaneously grounded, yet majestic nature of their home state—“90 in November” is just the latest entry. Why Bonnie’s named influences are acts like Sheryl Crow, The Replacements and Townes Van Zandt. With inspiration taken from all sides of rock music, it’s easy to see how they seamlessly straddle the lines between several genres themselves. They make indie rock, sure, but there’s an undeniable current of country music in there, as well as some nods to pop songwriting in their hooky, melodic execution. These disparate influences also bolster their music with a sense of familiarity.
“Nowhere, LA” is the final single before the August 19th album release and follows “Sailor Mouth,” “HotCar,“90 in November,” and “Galveston.”
