Fonteyn—a.k.a. singer-songwriter Suzanne May, has a knack for crafting sepia-tone sunshine pop that shamelessly, satisfyingly evokes one of her idols: Carole King. But a new visual for “Girl on a Motorcycle”—directed by May and Julianne Brough edited by May—shows the UK-born, Salt Lake City–based musician embodying another legend: Marianne Faithfull.
“Girl on a Motorcycle’ is an homage to the 1968 film of the same name,” says May. “The song seeks to capture the quirky, ethereal tone of the film while at the same time give the feel of a motorcycle engine chugging along. The video is heavily inspired by the imagery of the film and the lead character, played by Marianne Faithfull, and her bewitching performance.”
In the original film, Faithfull’s character, Rebecca, ditches her husband via motorcycle to reconnect with a lover. For Fonteyn, the theme of freedom is paramount: “Girl, rebellion is the only thing that’s keeping you alive,” she sings in the track. “Girl, like a little mouse inside your cage until you ride.”
“Girl on a Motorcycle” is the third single off Fonteyn’s forthcoming EP “Trip the Light Fantastic”.
It was only meant to be one show. If you’ve been following the Pavement reunion, you’ve probably heard Stephen Malkmus—the band’s fetishized chanteur—temper the significance of reunion número dos. He’s right, of course. They agreed to a Spanish sojourn, Primavera Sound, in order to shoot the breeze with old friends (Yo La Tengo, Dinosaur Jr., and Kim Gordon were among the alternarock greats from the stacked line-up) and, as Malkmus half-joked before anything further was announced, “I’m staying in a hotel right across the street, and I have immediate entrance, and there’s beer on tap anywhere I walk, and everyone likes me and stuff.”
Asserting his trademark disinterest maintains self-preservation for both himself and his bandmates should the calls of “nostalgia bait” start to percolate. Thankfully, that’s not been the case. Indeed, unlike the perfunctory reunions of some of their peers , Pavement’s is off to an uncharacteristically auspicious start. “Originally we were going to play one show and then see if we fell in love again,” they told Primavera’s radio program, but with shows in 13 countries booked throughout the fall, it looks like the third iteration of Pavement gets the honeymoon that never was.
The “Harness Your Hopes” official music video, directed by Alex Ross Perry and starring Sophie Thatcher. “Harness Your Hopes” is featured on the upcoming re-issue of the ‘Spit on a Stranger’ EP, out April 8th on Matador Records.
The Mountain Goats continue to be highly prolific and consistently great. The indie folk vets’ latest LP was produced by Bully’s Alicia Bognanno, and band leader John Darnielle says, “I got this idea to write a bunch of songs where they were all up-tempo mini-action movies. Plots, characters, heists, hostages, questionable capers, getaway cars, all that stuff.” Sounds like a very Mountain Goats-y concept, and the recently released lead single finds the band’s trademark sound in great shape.
When I write an album that revolves around a theme, it usually takes two or three songs before I notice what’s going on. There’s always one song that becomes the ‘might as well dive all the way in’ song and on “Bleed Out” that song was “Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome,” written while watching a French action movie way past my normal bedtime. Once I had the chorus of this one I started asking myself the kinds of questions that usually end up shaping the album: What if I just wrote all the songs on guitar? What if I leaned into the up-tempo ones? In recent years I shy away from the fist-punch no-brakes anthemic style but here I figured, you know, no point just wading around in blood if I’m already in knee-deep.
“Training Montage” by the Mountain Goats from their new album ‘Bleed Out’ coming August 19th, 2022 on Merge Records.
Taken from the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, this fantastic clip of Campbell introducing U.S. TV audiences to a very english rock band “The Cream.” It took place on July 14th, 1968 when the then-32-year-old singer was the summertime host for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. It’s a show that’s perhaps most famous for the flash-bomb explosion that damages Pete Townsend’s hearing forever, but the Smothers Brothers have always featured musical turns. Buffalo Springfield, Donovan,The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Steppenwolf all guested on the show.
Cream (guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker) were promoting their third album and were no strangers to U.S. audiences either collectively or individually. The British classic rock supergroup’s 1966 debut, “Fresh Cream“, and then 1967 follow-up, “Disraeli Gears“, The latter included “Sunshine of Your Love,” which became a huge breakthrough hit when it was released as a single in January 1968.
The July 1968 double LP “Wheels of Fire” continued their commercial success. The second disc was a live album recorded in San Francisco earlier that year. The studio side included another huge hit, “White Room” which became their only Top 5 single.
In the broadcast, Campbell introduces “The three guys you are about to meet were at one time considered to be the finest studio musicians in England. They were considered the cream of the crop of their profession so they figured they were so much in demand that they started their own thing. Ladies and Gentlemen… The Cream!” Cream would break up just four months later.
The contrast of “Greetings” and “Barely” succinctly represents the overarching spirit of Gulfer, now in their tenth year as a band whose proclivities range from rousing punkish anthems to technical and exploratory indie rock. In its opening seconds, “Greetings” boasts inventive drumming and playfully intricate guitar to set the scene for a song that attempts to unpack the abundant contradictions and debaucheries that comprised our youth. There’s a hint of personal introspection in the lyrics, but singer/guitarist Vincent Ford avoids explicit resolution in favour of open-ended narration.
On “Barely” the band’s impressionistic side emerges with an upbeat, pithy composition bookended by droning atmospherics. Exploring the transactional nature of so many of our relationships, singer/guitarist Joe Therriault uses “Barely” to speak on attempts at reciprocity of kindness that ultimately fall short in our over-transactionalized world.
released July 15th, 2022
written by Gulfer: Vincent Ford Joseph Therriault David Mitchell Julien Daoust
A new limited edition Grateful Dead CD box set, “In And Out Of The Garden: Madison Square Garden ’81, ’82, ’83,” will showcase six previously unreleased concerts recorded at Madison Square Garden between 1981 and 1983.
Due to release September 23rd, “In And Out Of The Garden” will consist of a 17 CDs in a custom box featuring artwork by Dave Van Patten, with detailed liner notes by award-winning music journalist David Fricke exploring the band’s connection to New York City. The box set will be numbered and limited to 12,500, and a truncated three-CD version featuring just one concert from 3/9/81 will also be available along with digital downloads of both versions.
“As Jerry Garcia famously said, Madison Square Garden was ‘juiced.’ It had an energy unlike any other venue the Grateful Dead played, particularly of this size, owing to the symbiotic relationship between the Dead, the Dead Heads, and New York City itself, says Grateful Dead legacy manager and archivist DavidLemieux. “The Dead didn’t play the Garden until 1979, almost the midpoint of their performing career. but once they got rolling, they made it a home away from home, playing 10 shows in the next 15 years. These performances from 1981, 1982, and 1983 are six of the best the Dead played at the Garden, any of which could have been released on their own. We’re thrilled, though, to allow these six complementary shows to be housed together, each one its own story, its own event, but all contributing to the story that is the entirety of the Dead’s 52 show run at Madison Square Garden.”
The recording captures an under-appreciated era of ’80s Dead when the addition of keyboardist Brent Mydland added fuel to the band’s already blazing fire. Mydland’s powerful voice and spirited keyboard playing brought new energy to old songs like “The Wheel”, “Truckin’”, and “Eyes of The World” and inspired the band to break out long-neglected rarities like “Dupree’s Diamond Blues” and “Crazy Fingers”.
The concerts featured in the collection were recorded between the release of 1980’s “Go To Heaven” and 1987’s “In The Dark” during a time when the band continued to write and road-test new compositions. Four songs that would ultimately end up on “In The Dark” are featured on the recording, including “Touch Of Grey”, “Hell In A Bucket”, “Throwing Stones”, and “West L.A. Fadeaway”, plus the B-side, “My Brother Esau”. Get a taste of the upcoming archival release with audio of “Feel Like A Stranger” from March 9th, 1981. “Since its debut in 1980, ‘Feel Like A Stranger’ offered the Grateful Dead another song with plenty of room internally to stretch out,” Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux wrote. “By a year into its life, the song often went to nearly 10 minutes, and often opened shows. This rendition from March 9th, 1981 is driven with the controlled chaos that is the Grateful Dead at their best.”
“In And Out Of The Garden: Madison Square Garden ’81, ’82, ’83” was mastered by Jeffrey Norman and features newly restored and speed-corrected audio by Plangent Processes.
“In And Out Of The Garden: Madison Square Garden ’81, ’82, ’83″ Box Set
The EP see’s Sunflower Thieves exploring themes of self-discovery and growth, navigating and reflecting on the past as well as looking towards the future as they touch upon friendship, relationships, personal growth and loss along the way. All of which is delivered by the duo in their unique way as they release a body of work which is all at once warming, reflective, honest and authentic.
“We’ve both had a lot of change happen in our lives over the last few years, and this was a recurring theme throughout the writing sessions that birthed these songs. We touch on friendship, loss, relationship breakdowns, personal strength and growth. An additional overriding theme is collaboration – we have loved working with so many wonderful creative friends on videos and photos for each release”
Released April 22nd, 2022
Performers:
Amy Illingworth [vocals] Lily Sturt-Bolshaw [vocals, guitars, synths, samples, trumpet] Chris Milnes [guitars, samples] Jacob Cracknell [bass guitar] Lucy Revis [cello] Matt Hill [drums] Sam Griffiths [guitars, vocals] Sam Perry [vocals, guitars, synths] Tom Hammond [vocals, guitars, percussion]
The Afghan Whigs are set to release their first studio album in five years, “How Do You Burn?“, on 9th september. The Afghan Whigs’ ninth album, and first in five years, was made like a lot of recent records — remotely during lockdown. Adding to “How Do You Burn’s” mood, already darkened by the pandemic, elections and protests, is the spectre of the late Mark Lanegan who appears on two songs, and gave the album its title.
“How Do You Burn?” the ninth studio album from The Afghan Whigs, finds the band in peak form, making the most vaulting and thrilling music of their lives. the album is virile, ready-for-action, and finds frontman Greg Dulli as swaggering, enigmatic and darkly charismatic as ever, and singing up a storm. the album reaches corners of sound that, twenty-six years after the band’s inception, find them at an apex. referencing Warren Zevon, Prince, and Zeppelin all while plugging in to the soul and r&b influences that have always set them apart, The Afghan Whigs are at a precipice of greatness. says Dulli, “i’m beginning to see there are a million places we can go. i feel virile, ready for action, and i want to keep stalking greatness.”
“The Getaway” taken from the forthcoming album “How Do You Burn?” out 9/9/22.
“I thank God the day we met in the gross bar,” Hannah Merrick sings on “It’s Me and You, Kid,” the closing track on Liverpool duo King Hannah‘s excellent debut album. It’s a track that also serves as their origin story, detailing Merrick and guitarist Charlie Whittle’s first meeting, when they both worked as bartenders by night at the same watering hole. “It’s Me and You, Kid” is King Hannah in a nutshell: darkly sarcastic but utterly sincere, a great eye for details, and an even better ear for mood and atmosphere. “I’m Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me” is absolutely swimming in atmosphere, the kind that evokes if not a gross bar than a dingy club, probably near closing time, and definitely well past when you should be out. Whittle’s guitarwork is responsible for a lot of that. It hangs in the air like cigarette smoke on the songs, pure texture at times. You can almost smell it.
Merrick’s vocals are similarly smouldering and cool, all perfect for the bluesy music they make that usually stays at a low simmer but occasionally rips open into a rolling boil. Like 2019’s “Tell Me Your Mind and I’ll Tell You Mine” mini-LP, this is quiet music meant to be played loud, better to hear all the deft little touches. The devil is in the details and “I’m Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me” is sinful as it gets.
“I Know” is the new single from Chicago-based band Cusp available digitally on Fire Talk imprint OpenTab. The “jagged, propulsive, anxious music” of debut EP ‘Spill’ made them a buzzy band to watch in their prior home of Rochester, where the four piece’s angular and exploratory post punk made them impossible to categorize. “I Know” sees the band pivot to more straightforward but no less engaging rock music, with heavy guitar riffs juxtaposed with Bender’s melancholic drawl.
Making a home within their own niche between the resurgent emo scene and the blossoming creative sphere of Chicago, Cusp continue to craft their own fascinatingly temperamental sound.
“I Know” follows Open Tab’s string of launch singles including “song of the year contender” “I Am The Car” byFake Fruit, “Now It’s Gone” by Maria BC, “Asterisk” by Sub*T, “Televised” by headboy, and “All I Know” by Pedazo de Carne con Ojo. Highlighting one previously unreleased track from an artist monthly, each Open Tab release will also encapsulate a short Q&A profile and mix created by the artist. With an emphasis on new music, the imprint will lend itself as a discovery tool for listeners worldwide as well as an opportunity to give a platform to artists whose work Fire Talk is enthusiastic about.
