Preoccupations have announced a new album, “Arrangements“, and shared its first single, “Ricochet.” The band has also announced some fall tour dates.”Arrangements“is due out September 9th. In Canada Flemish Eye will be putting “Arrangements” out and the band will self-release it in America and the rest of the world.
“The lyrics are pretty conspicuous and self explanatory on this one, but it’s basically about the world blowing up and no one giving a shit,” says vocalist/songwriter Matthew Flegal in a press release, in regards to “Ricochet.”
“Arrangements“is the band’s fourth album (and their third under the name Preoccupations). It follows 2018’s amusingly titled “New Material”. Flegal, guitarist Danny Christiansen, and guitarist/keyboardist Scott Munro convened in 2019 at Munro’s Studio St. Zo in Montreal to start work on the album. Then drummer Mike Wallace joined in. COVID-19 derailed continued in-person work on the album, so the band finished the album remotely, with Munro recording at a makeshift studio he set up at his parents’ house. Graham Walsh (Holy Fuck) mixed “Arrangements“, and Mikey Young (Total Control) mastered it.
After completing a UK headline tour which included a triumphant four-night run at London’s Olympia in front of a combined audience of 40,000 people, Foals are set to take the sun-kissed sounds of their ‘Life Is Yours’ album to an array of major festivals this summer. As the June 17th release of ‘Life Is Yours’ approaches, Foals unveil their new single ‘2001’ elevates the disco and funk influences that permeate Foals’ recent tracks ‘Wake Me Up’, ‘2am’ and ‘Looking High’. Yannis Philippakis’s falsetto soars as high as the sky he references in the song’s opening lyrics, accompanied by a riff that bounces with groove and precision, and a popping P-funk bassline. While ‘2001’ finds Foals stepping boldly into the most electrifying example of their new sound, lyrically it’s pure reflection.
Yannis says, “‘2001’ feels like a postcard from the past. We moved to Brighton around that time, we were a young band, and there was the feeling of the first taste of independence. The moment you get those freedoms, you’re surrounded by temptation. The references to beachside candy and Brighton rock are symbols for drugs and hedonism. This was written in the depths of the pandemic winter, and there’s an escapist desire to break out from the feeling of being cooped up, both in terms of the pandemic and adolescence.”
The ‘2001’ video transports those themes to Costa Brava, Spain to place the song’s nostalgic ambience firmly in the here-and-now. Two young men lug their sofa from their apartment to soak up some rays on the beach. Other vignettes of coming-of-age experiences follow their every move, from the effortlessly cool group of young women who observe their struggle with nonchalant indifference to a couple kissing. When one of the men chews a sweet that everyone seems to be consumed by, his summer day takes on a new hallucinogenic edge.
The video’s modernist nostalgia is heightened by its aesthetic – a washed out palette and Polaroid-style framing. It was directed by ESTEBAN (Arca, Peggy Gou) for the creative production company CANADA.
‘2001’ was written by Foals – Yannis, Jack Bevan and Jimmy Smith. The track’s production is one of a number of songs on ‘Life Is Yours’ that benefit from an experimental approaching of mixing up different configurations of creative voices. On ‘2001’, production was led by A.K. Paul (co-founder of the Paul Institute with his brother Jai Paul) and John Hill (Cage The Elephant, Florence + The Machine), with co-production from Miles James. It was then mixed by the ten-time Grammy Award winner Manny Marroquin (Post Malone, Kanye West, Rihanna).
A portion of “Crest of the Wave” existed in 2011, and we had demoed it in Australia and just left it for years. But it was one of those songs which had always been at the back of our minds, like there was some unfinished business there. As we were playing around with it with some of the themes on this record, we cracked it open and really revelled in adding lots of layers to it in the studio. It’s another transportive song. It’s set in St. Lucia, which has always struck me as being very powerful visually, with the mountain plummeting into the sea.
‘Life Is Yours’ is available to pre-order HERE and is already in phenomenal demand – its beautifully realised zoetrope format sold-out its entire 5000 copy pressing in a matter of days. Another essential release for vinyl connoisseurs and Foals collectors comes with the long-awaited vinyl repress of their debut album ‘Antidotes’, which will be manufactured using recycled vinyl records – a process that ensures that each individual record is unique. Both ‘Life Is Yours’ and ‘Antidotes’ are also available as specially priced bundles.
Foals performed on ‘Later… with Jools Holland’ on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer on Saturday, June 11th. They will also play an array of key UK festival dates including headline sets at Latitude and Sounds of the City, plus Radio 1’s Big Weekend, Glastonbury and TRNSMT.
Los Angeles-based project Drugdealer shares the new single “Madison,” their first musical offering since their 2019 album “Raw Honey“. Led by frontman and primary songwriter Michael Collins, Drugdealer expands on their 1960s and 70s-inspired sonics with the new song, which features a newly discovered vocal range from Collins and pays homage to musicians like Van Morrison and Nick Lowe. The visuals paired with the track see Collins and friends riding around in their cream vintage Mercedes. “Madison” is the first taste of new music to come from Drugdealer in 2022.
Speaking about the new song, Collins says “Madison was the first song I wrote in the period after “Raw Honey“. I hadn’t been feeling very confident about my voice for a while, when a chance encounter with an older artist, Annette Peacock, happened. She helped change my perspective, and style. She told me I wasn’t singing in my correct range, to modulate it up. She was right and it shifted my perspective on singing.
“Madison” is the first time I felt like I was hearing what I really sounded like, after years of defaulting more towards numerous collaborators who I knew had their voices. It was pretty surreal and I’m really thankful for her advice.”
A throwback, Van Morrison-style anthem from LA-based band Drugdealer. “Madison” instantly feels like it could’ve been on the Anchorman soundtrack with its warm retro keys and harmonies. If you dig it, the band’s 2019 album “Raw Honey” is full of similar tunes.
“Madison” follows Drugdealer’s latest full-length album, Raw Honey, which Pitchfork described as “a pristine portrait of early-’70s AM radio” and includes the tracks “Honey,” featuring Weyes Blood and “Fools,” along with their 2016 debut album, “The End of Comedy“, which houses their hit track “Suddenly,” featuring Weyes Blood.
Check out “Madison” above and stay tuned for more from Drugdealer coming soon.
Brooklyn 5-piece Been Stellar cement their status as one of the best new bands around, with their new track ‘My Honesty’. A song about the search for authenticity in oneself, ‘My Honesty’ is the sound of a band seizing their own future and cutting through the tension.
With Steve Lamacq’s endorsement already under their belt (he made them one of his spotlight artists), Been Stellar embark on a UK and European tour this September.
Formed somewhere in the last five years, Been Stellar (Sam Slocum on vocals, Skyler St. Marx on guitar, Nando Dale on guitar, Nico Brunstein on bass, and Laila Wayans on drums) is our favourite new addition to the enticing coven of NYC post-punk bands interested in creating music that has the melody, vigour and rawness of the city. BeenStellar play stylish, confrontaonal indie rock. Coming together from around the globe to reside in Brooklyn, the 5 piece share their honest account of a city hyper-saturated with commercialism, consumerism, and aging cultural touchstones.
Indie folk/dream pop band The Deer have announced a new album, “The Beautiful Undead”, due September 9th via Keeled scales. Lead single “I Wouldn’t Recognize Me” is fuelled by a guitar melody that borrows more than a little from Neil Young’s “Hey Hey, My My,” and it’s a gorgeous, airy song that frontwoman Grace Rowland calls a letter to her younger self.
New single out now from The Deer’s new album “The Beautiful Undead” – out 9/9 on Keeled Scales!
Horsegirl are best friends. You don’t have to talk to the trio for more than five minutes to feel the warmth and strength of their bond, which crackles through every second of their debut full-length, “Versions of Modern Performance”. Penelope Lowenstein (guitar, vocals), Nora Cheng (guitar, vocals), and Gigi Reece (drums) do everything collectively, from song writing to trading vocal duties and swapping instruments to sound and visual art design. “We made [this album] knowing so fully what we were trying to do,” the band says. “We would never pursue something if one person wasn’t feeling good about it. But also, if someone thought something was good, chances are we all thought it was good.
”Versions of Modern Performance” was recorded with John Agnello (Kurt Vile, The Breeders, Dinosaur Jr.) at Electrical Audio. “It’s our debut bare-bones album in a Chicago institution with a producer who we feel like really respected what we were trying to do,” the band says.
Horsegirl expertly play with texture, shape, and shade across the record, showcasing their fondness for improvisation and experimentation. Opener “Anti-glory” is elastic and bright post-punk, while the guitars in instrumental interlude “Bog Bog 1” smear across the song’s canvas like watercolours. “Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty)” and “World of Pots and Pans” have rough, blown-out pop charm. “The Fall of Horsegirl” is all sharp edges and dark corners.
“The Gold Experience” was the first full-length Prince album to be credited to his unpronounceable symbol, (SYMBOL ICON), and was released at the most public, heated stage of his battle with the major label industrial complex. With the word “SLAVE” written on one cheek, Prince shined on the opulent ballads “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” and “Gold” and the defiant single “Eye Hate U,” and the album earned widespread critical acclaim. The Record Store Day re-release of “The Gold Experience” is an homage to the rare US-only promo version of the album that was released in 1995. The two-LP set is pressed onto translucent gold vinyl with a bonus suite of “Eye Hate U” remixes on Side D.
The Kinks – Waterloo Sunset
All tracks mono and remastered. This 55th anniversary release of the classic Kinks single features 6 tracks with artwork from the original French 1967 release.
The Who – Its Hard
It’s hard celebrates its 40th anniversary with a 2-LP expanded vinyl version, disc one a ½ speed master contains a re-mastered version of the album while disc two continues the rest of the album but also has a disc of rare and unreleased material.
Pearl Jam – Live on Two Legs
Originally released in 1998, Live On Two Legs documents that year’s US summer tour in support of the Yield album. Sixteen tracks on crystal clear vinyl, in double LP gatefold packaging.
Sandie Shaw – Hand In Glove
Originally released in 1984 and unavailable for almost 40 years, this was a collaboration between one of the most successful (UK) female stars of the ‘60s and indie darlings the Smiths, who were big fans.
It features three Morrissey/Marr originals on which Sandie is backed by Messrs Marr, Rourke and Joyce.
Peter Gabriel – Live In Blood
Recorded at the Hammersmith Apollo, London, 23rd & 24th March 2011 and originally released the following year, Live Blood is exactly what its name suggests – the live incarnation of Peter Gabriel’s New Blood project where he reworked a chunk of his back catalogue for a 46-piece orchestra. The album has been Half-Speed Remastered and cut to lacquers at 33RPM, across 3x heavyweight LPs, pressed on blood red vinyl.
The Heartbreakers – The LAMF Demo Sessions
The Heartbreakers (Johnny Thunders, Walter Lure, Billy Rath and Jerry Nolan) with four studio demo sessions from 1976 and 1977, compiled onto one album for the first time. Two sessions were recorded in 1976 in New York, including four tracks in their early incarnation with Richard Hell and later six tracks after Billy Rath had joined on bass. In London in 1977, they recorded one session just prior to signing with Track Records, and another after L.A.M.F. had been released, with The Clash’s Terry Chimes on drums replacing the newly departed Jerry Nolan.
Pressed on transparent magenta vinyl, it comes with a 12” poster of the Roberta Bayley cover photo, an outtake from the L.A.M.F. cover session, and an inner bag with Walter Lure interviewed by Johnny Thunders’ biographer Nina Antonia in 2005.
The album shows the development of the band building towards their classic 1977 ‘L.A.M.F.’ album (recently reissued with a newly found original master), and further points to the direction they would have gone had they not split up.
The Lightning Seeds return with a new studio album called “See You In The Stars” dur for release in October.
The 10-song collection features the first single, ‘Sunshine’, which you can preview below and also boasts a collaboration with Terry Hall who co-writes Emily Smiles (Hall co-penned, Jollification‘s ‘Lucky You’, you might recall). Two songs on the album – ‘Great To Be Alive’ and ‘Live To Love You’ – also saw Ian Broudie co-write with the Coral’s James Skelly.
The new album will be the first Seeds long-player since 2009’s Four Winds. Why’s it taken so long? Here’s what IanBroudie has to say: “I always think music’s like attack and defence in football –or like politics – or like life. It’s about balance, and achieving that is the challenge for me.”
“See You In The Stars” will be released on 14 October via BMG.
Jack White’s label Third Man Records has already put the final album by the White Stripes back in circulation through their subscription-only Vault Series, packaging the 2007 release with a double-LP set of demos and tracks from the same sessions. This new edition is just the original LP, as it was originally released on vinyl, right down to the sticker placed in such a spot that it needs to be cut through to access the actual records. It’s a cute little trick but will surely leave collectors drooling over whether they can safely peel it off without it tearing or whether cutting into the album’s resale value will be worth it. Whatever your feelings on the matter are, it’s great to have the ultimate statement by Jack and Meg White brought back to the format that serves their high-wattage garage blues antics best.
The White Stripes seemed to have wandered far afield of the nervy electric blues of their breakthrough album “Elephant” with 2005’s gloomy “Get Behind Me Satan“. Then came “Icky Thump”, their last blast of garage-band glory.
This return-to-form LP arrived on June 15th, 2007, It couldn’t have had less in common with “Get Behind Me Satan”, which sold about half as much as 2003’s “Elephant” – a platinum smash that featured “Seven Nation Army.” The experience seemed to have stung singer/guitarist Jack White, who developed a newfound appreciation for remaining true to one’s roots.
“I told someone that one of these new songs could be an old 45 of ours,” White admitted in a 2007 talk with the New York Times. “And they said, would you want the Beatles to have ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ on the White Album? And I said, yeah, I would love that — what would be wrong with that?”
With “Icky Thump”, White’s stinging guitar moved forward where pianos and light orchestral arrangements once were. Tough, blues-inflected songs replaced the quiet balladry that dominated Get Behind Me Satan.
Credit must also go to a year spent on the road with White’s other band, the Raconteurs. The time away seemed to have sharpened his riffs to a razor’s edge – even as it loosened him up. “Rag and Bone,” a talking-blues in the style of John Lee Hooker, boldly recalled the White Stripes‘ fizzy initial successes, while “Little Cream Soda” grew out of an on-stage improvisation.
“You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You’re Told)” howled with an open-hearted, country-soul rawness, while two tracks (“Prickly Thorn, but Sweetly Worn” and “St. Andrew”) featured a bagpipe. The White Stripes converted a video treatment by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry into a finished song (“I’m Slowly Turning Into You”), and even included a mariachi-driven cover of Patti Page’s “Conquest.”
“When it comes to the songs themselves, the songs are in charge – not me,” White told Reuters in 2007. “Take a song like ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told).’ That was pretty much a country song in my mind. If I really was in control I could have just said, ‘Hey, how dare you allow electric guitar and heavy organ on there,’ but I don’t do that. I let the song tell me what it wants.”
Recorded over three weeks with drummer Meg White in Nashville, “Icky Thump” also arrived as they made a seemingly uncomfortable shift to a major label. Hints came in the selection of “Conquest,” but also the subtext of this album’s gnarled title track – their first-ever Top 40 single. Both seemed to point to lingering trust issues for the White Stripes, those heroes of garage-rock outsider-dom. “Icky Thump” is “about people using other people,” White said in 2007. “The theme is ‘Who’s using who?'”
As with many bands who came before them, it seemed the White Stripes‘ long-awaited success simply created more pressure. “Icky Thump” scored a career-best but, like “Get Behind Me Satan“, that didn’t match the million-LP sales of “Elephant” or 2001’s “White Blood Cells“. An accompanying tour was cut short, with White citing Meg’s growing anxiety about performing, and the White Stripes went into an extended hiatus.
