Since debuting in 2008, Titus Andronicus has been conditioning faithful listeners to always expect only the unexpected, consistently zigging where others would zag and maintaining a steadfast dedication to fearless ambition.
With “The Will To Live”, Titus Andronicus invite listeners on a journey from fear to faith, from anger to acceptance, from grief to gratitude, all chasing the mythical ideal of Ultimate Rock. Drawing on maximalist rock epics from Who’s Next to Hysteria, the band have crafted their richest, densest, and hardest-hitting album to date, matching the sprawl and scope of their most celebrated work while also streamlining their ambitious attack to greater effect than ever before.
“The Will to Live” was produced by Titus Andronicus singer-songwriter Patrick Stickles and award-winning Canadian producer Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Leonard Cohen, The Whole Nine Yards) at the latter’s hotel2tango recording studio in Montreal. “It may strike some as ironic we had to go to Canada to record our equivalent to Born in the USA,” says Stickles, “but the pursuit of Ultimate Rock knows no borders.”
The album comes packaged with gorgeous triple gatefold artwork by illustrious illustrator Nicole Rifkin.
Here’s the second taste of Single Mothers’ upcoming album “Everything You Need”. It finds them exploring a slightly calmer, more mid-tempo side, but frontman Drew Thomson still sounds as sneering as ever. A former gold prospector in a town called Swastika, Ontario, the 32-year-old Thomson—dark haired and doe-eyed, sometimes with a scraggly beard and sometimes without a front tooth—comes off like the most miserable person at the party in his lyrics.
Single Mothers’ earliest batch of songs, those which comprised their debut EP, were snotty, abrasive, and at times downright mean. Thomson shit-talked everyone around him for their choice of favourite drink, band, and author. He derided the girls who are “into Elliott Smith and getting to know everybody,” sung with the inflection of an eyeroll and the jackoff hand motion. With his rambling, sing-speak style of storytelling and venting, he carried himself like The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn, but with all traces of Midwestern charm lit ablaze.
Post-hardcore veteran Anthony Green (Circa Survive, Saosin, The Sound of Animals Fighting, etc) is a lifer who’s been putting out consistently great music for over two decades, and he’s not slowing down one bit. His upcoming solo album finds him going in a horn-fuelled indie/art rock direction, and it’s shaping up to be some of his best and most personal music yet.
My new song “Trading Doses” is out now. I wrote the melody for this song to an idea that I was working on with Skrillex. He ended up using the music for something else so I kept the melody and wrote the rest of the music while I was in Palm Springs. Keith, Tim, and I worked on the structure of this song and tried like 100 different structures until we found the one that felt and flowed the best. This song is a good example of how Keith Goodwin‘s production can turn a really simple idea into something that sounds really big.
After beginning as mastermind Kenny Becker’s noise-grunge project six-plus years ago, Goon has taken a psych-rock tack since their 2019 full-length “Heaven Is Humming.” The quartet got warm, woozy and way-out on February’s EP, “Paint By Numbers, Vol. 1,” on which Becker was backed by a new line-up: drummer Andy Polito, guitarist Dillon Peralta and bassist Tamara Simons.
Now comes “Angelnumber 1210,” a deep-thoughts psych-rocker if ever there was one. It’s the first single from Goon’s sophomore album, “Hour of Green Evening,” arriving July 15th. It was made with producer-engineer Phil Hartunian (who’s worked with the likes of Petey, Cobra Man and Mega Bog) and Alex Fischel of Spoon, who plays piano and synth on the album.
Of the single, Becker says, “My wife has always had a fondness for the number 1210, we always notice it when it pops up, and she even has it tattooed. I love being open to patterns and numbers like that. I don’t really believe that numbers have inherent prophetic meanings, but I do think they’re interesting and powerful in a way that kinda suggests some order behind the chaos of everything.”
Katie Neuhof (who’s worked with Illuminati Hotties) directs the video, which features Al Menne (Great Grandpa/Pickleboy).
To tie in with the 40th anniversary of the multi-platinum selling album, we present ‘Too-Rye-Ay, as it should have sounded’. Kevin Rowland was never happy with the final mix of the album, despite its huge commercial success. So with Helen O’Hara, and Pete Schwier they decided to mix it again. In recent interviews Kevin has stated: ‘The songs and performances are great, but I always felt the mixes could be better. The new edition of the landmark record, which will be out on October 14th through UMC.
Kevin Rowland was never happy with the final mix of the album, which was first released by MercuryRecords in July 1982, despite its huge commercial success.
It’s my most successful album, but it doesn’t sound as good as the others… This is the director’s cut and it’s how it should have sounded’. The album’s cover has also been re-modelled, using the preferred image from the ‘Come On Eileen’ single sleeve. I knew it wasn’t right, and asked the label for more money to do some more mixing. They said, no that’s it, the budget is spent. And I had to live with it. Of course, tracks like “…Eileen” and one or two others turned out great, but most of the album was not mixed to the standard it should’ve been, and not mixed to the standard the performances and songs deserved.”
“The thing that’s making me most happy currently, is the fact that we are now getting a chance to release the remixed radio edit of “Old”, as a single. It was considered as a single at the time and should’ve been released. This is another wrong we are righting and I’m really happy with the track. Jack Satchell, who has worked with us for a few years now, has shot a really good video to go with it.”
Producer Pete Schwier adds: “All the material on the remix is from the original recordings, nothing new has been added. Some of the arrangements were changed, for example: on “Plan B” we moved the brass to come in earlier and the ‘girl’ talking was replaced with Kevin’s, which he recorded at the time.
“On “Liars A to E” we brought the backing vocals down an octave in places, as Kevin felt they were too high and on “Until I Believe In My Soul”, we replaced the ‘penny whistle’ on the intro with Jim’s trombone, also recorded at the time. The remix itself was quite straightforward – trying to bring as much emotion as possible to the songs, and because technology has advanced so much a lot of pops, noises and artefacts that were on the original multi-tracks we were able to clean up.
“The brief was to create an alternative mix, keeping the spirit of the original recordings and shed new light on some of these great songs. I hope this has been achieved.”
This one came out as an authorized bootleg back in 1989, compiled from various radio performances, studio outtakes and live performances by our friend and archivist Pat Thomas. It’s long since been out of print but we have a digital version ready to download at our new Virtual Merch Table site on Bandamp along with our summer line of t-shirts.
The Dream Syndicate Originally released 1989
1. Slide Away (Studio demo, July 1985) 2. Daddy’s Girl (KXLU radio broadcast, August 1987) 3. If You Should Ever Need a Fool (KCRW radio broadcast, July 1988) 4. Whatever You Please (KCRW radio broadcast, December 1987) 5. Running From the Memory (Studio Demo, August 1987) 6. Cinnamon Girl (Studio recording, February 1987) 7. When You Smile (Live at Scorgie’s, Rochester, NY, July, 1985) 8. Witness (Live at The Stone, San Francisco, November, 1984) 9. Listen to the Lion/Tell Me When It’s Over (Live in London, March, 1987) 10. Halloween (Live at the I-Beam, San Francisco, December 1988) 11. John Coltrane Stereo Blues (Studio Outtake, 1983) 12. The Medicine Show (Live in San Francisco, December 1987) 13. The Under Assistant West Coast Promo Man (KCRW radio broadcast, July 1988) 14. Killing Time (KCRW radio broadcast, December 1987) 15. Closer (KCRW radio broadcast, December 1987)
Tim Bettinson makes as Vancouver Sleep Clinic beautifully full of sounding music full of lush arrangement, here and there some bombast or just stillness and always the special voice of the Australian musician. After some cursory listening I quickly put fallen “Paradise” by Vancouver Sleep Clinic aside, but somehow the album continued to attract my attention and rightly so. This Australian musician has delivered a particularly beautifully coloured and surprisingly versatile sounding album. Tim Bettinson’s songs all sound timeless, but at the same time they also have a special sound of their own, which is largely determined by the high vocals.
“Fallen Paradise” the third studio album by Vancouver Sleep Clinic, which is another project by Australian musician Tim Bettinson. The Brisbane musician’s previous two albums which were mostly compared to Bon Iver’s music.
Tim Bettinson recorded “Fallen Paradise” together with producer Charlie Perry, who provided the album with a nicely groomed sound. This is Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s third album is an album that can’t just be pigeonholed. “Fallen Paradise” is an album that is remarkably spatially sound, where you can choose both subdued and atmospheric sounds or a much richer coloured sound with lush arrangements.
It is a sound that is partly electronic and partly organically coloured and that is certainly of a special beauty when choosing dreamy sounds. It all fits beautifully with the special voice of Tim Bettinson, who achieves remarkably high notes in his lashings, but who can also sing languidly and sultry.
Also in terms of genre, Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s is not an album that you just put a label on. The Australian musician opts for ambient sounds in the most subdued moments, but just as easily makes sultry pop with an edge of R&B, the true strength of the album lies in the fascinating way in which the tension is built up and in the special atmosphere that Tim Bettinson creates in his music.
Southampton based band The Weekend Punks play surf Pop. Reverb on everything, distortion on most things. It’s “Fuzzed out reverbed guitar work atop some lo fi 90’s styled drumming, with some chilled back beachside style vocals” . Weekend Punks are an indie rock band with elements of punk contained within their music – they released a new EP back in November, titled “Weekend Punks”EP. I loved the new wave vibes of the EP and wanted to share it with the world – make sure you check the EP out
“The Theme From The Weekend Punks” is the first song on this three track EP, encapsulating their sound perfectly. Fuzzy surf rock guitar melodies are the name of the game here, with the track having a wonderfully upbeat melody and vocals .
“Backseat Driver” is the intermediary track, starting out a little slower than the previous song. The tempo soon ramps up with the introduction of the percussion, although the track does have quite a dreamy feel to it. The vocals have a sultry feel to them that slips and slides in between the music in a fabulous manner.
“Stay” is the final tune on this EP – I felt it had something of a garage rock vibe to it, in part due to the fuzzy guitars and drums that kick things off. The tempo is a little slower here than the other songs, but it sounds no less amazing. The backing vocals add a catchy element to proceedings, moving well with the lead vocals.
Written and recorded between Southampton (UK) and Reykjavik (Iceland), Weekend Punks play Surf Pop, but with relatively little experience of surf or sun. Reverb on everything, distortion on most things, and a nostalgia for places and times never visited.
Performed by: Matthew Bayford (Guitars) Rosie Blacher (Vocals) David Fletcher (Drums) Matthew Mead (Bass)
Back in 2016, we put out our first release ever – 3 songs quietly written over an informal period of time that came to be collectively known as “Big Sprout“. Mac and I were about 21 or 22 years old when we first started getting together with our buddy Nick Corson to jam these out. I don’t know if any of us can recall exactly what these songs were about; we mainly just wanted to play in a band and drink beer while avoiding as much responsibility as possible. It was an appropriate time to do so, even if our approach to life was emblematic of the anxieties we did not want to ultimately acknowledge.
Last April, we went into the studio with our buddy Ross Farbe to quickly record four new songs before my daughter’s due date a month later. Aptly named “Bigger Sprout”, these songs are the culmination of years of heavy drinking, partying, disassociation, jadedness, political discussions, and constant talks about moving somewhere else.
But unlike some of the things we talked about in our last two records, the driving force behind these songs was embracing change and new surroundings as a positive part of adulthood. Included in “Bigger Sprout” which features Hunter Keene on drums – are the three songs that constitute “Big Spout”. While the main catalyst to combine these 7 songs into one record was to give “Big Spout” the physical release it never received, there was the idea that the dichotomies in mood, tone, lyrical content, and intention would provide heavy contrast between both releases albeit reinforcing the idea that we are the same band. And that is fine.
So, thank you for listening and we hope you enjoy it. We hope to see you on the road soon.
released July 15th, 2022
Lawn is: Rui DeMagalhaes—Bass/Vocals Mac Folger—Guitar/Vocals
Songs created in the shadow of terror and loss, but that crackle and pop with defiance “Fear Fear” is a record made for agitating and dancing, for heart and soul, for here, now and tomorrow. It’s a record that explores juxtaposition; that of life and death, acceptance and isolation, environment and humanity, hope and despair, the real world and the digital world. That top to bottom rigour, the complete vision is what makes the second album from Working Men’s Club such a stunning and unique achievement.
Working Men’s Club simultaneously embody the terror that the world will implode at any second while celebrating the fact that we’ve made it to another day in this strange dystopia that we live in on their latest album, “Fear Fear”. A dark-wave record that isn’t afraid to dance on thin ice, it examines the precarious position we’re in with both dread and jubilation. The zapping, Kraftwerk-esque synthesizers and deadpan vocal delivery have an ‘80s retro-futuristic varnish.
Deeming it “a record made for agitating and dancing, for heart and soul, for here, now, and tomorrow,” Working Men’s Club fuses industrial beats with the human tendency to grapple with the existential question “Who are we and where are we headed?”
Their critically acclaimed self-titled debut album, released in summer 2020, was the sound of singer and songwriter Syd Minsky-Sargeant processing a teenage life in Todmorden in the Upper Calder Valley. He was 16 when he wrote some of those songs, now he is 20, he had to get up and out of the Valley. “The first album was mostly a personal documentation lyrically, this is a blur between personal and a third-person perspective of what was going on. “Fear Fear” documents the last two years. Yes, there is bleakness – but there is also hope and empathy. “I like the contrast of it being happy, uplifting music and really dark lyrics. It’s not a minimal record, certainly compared to the first one. That’s because there’s been a lot more going on that needed to be said.”
