“Radiate Like This” — Warpaint’s much-anticipated new record, not to mention their first in almost six years — arrives with its own very modern mythology intact, continuing the strange, brilliant, beautiful story of the band and quite neatly picking up where “Heads Up” left off. If the previous album was the coming of age, “Radiate Like This” presents Warpaint mk II in all their glory, a luminous coalescence of sound and vision which stubbornly belies its genesis, with the quartet of Kokal, Theresa Wayman, Stella Mozgawa and Jenny Lee Lindberg all recording their parts separately in various cities. “It’s the first time we’ve ever made an album like that, but in a weird way, it made us take our time with everything”, muses Kokal. “The process felt more meditative, less rushed.”
This new sense of quiet confidence can be heard all through the album, which pulsates with ideas, energy and — most crucially — gorgeous melodies. Listen on in wonder.”
Rough Trade Nottingham is very excited to present a live performance from Warpaint at Metronome. This unique event celebrates Warpaint’s much anticipated new record, not to mention their first in almost 6 years ‘Radiate Like This’ released May 6th via Virgin / Heirlooms. Performing 6th May , METRONOME Nottingham,
“Sharon Van Etten has always been the kind of artist who helps people make sense of the world around them, and her sixth album, “We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong“, concerns itself with how we feel, mourn, and reclaim our agency when we think the world — or at least, our world might be falling apart. How do we protect the things most precious to us from destructive forces beyond our control? How do we salvage something worthwhile when it seems all is lost? And if we can’t, or we don’t, have we loved as well as we could in the meantime?
Did we try hard enough? In considering these questions and her own vulnerability in the face of them, Van Etten creates a stunning meditation on how life’s changes can be both terrifying and transformative. “We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong” articulates the beauty and power that can be rescued from our wreckages.”
“Used To It” by Sharon Van Etten, out now on Jagjaguwar.
Lead by the three guitar attack and vocals of songwriters Tom Russo, Joe White and Fran Keaney, the Melbourne five piece are to release their highly anticipated third album ‘Endless Rooms’.
Often compared to bands like R.E.M, The Strokes, The Smiths and The War on Drugs, Rolling Blackouts are much loved by BBC Radio 6 Music and have wowed fans at festivals all over the world including Coachella and Primavera Sound as well as headlining the UK’s Deer Shed festival in 2019.
Praise for their second album ‘Sideways to New Italy’, released on the legendary American record label Sub Pop
‘Masterful Guitar Pop’ – NME, ‘The guitar album of the year – romantic and exhilarating’ – MOJO
Melbourne’s Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, which includes three singer/songwriter/guitarists, produced themselves for the first time for their third album. They call it, “Doing what we do best: chasing down songs in a room together.” Judging by the two songs released from it so far, that sounds about right.
“Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever return in 2022 with “Endless Rooms“, the quintet’s third album. Described by the band — Fran Keaney, Joe White, Marcel Tussie and brothers Tom Russo and Joe Russo — as them “Doing what we do best: chasing down songs in a room together”, “Endless Rooms” stands as a testament to the collaborative spirit and live power of RBCF. While initial ideas were traded online during long spells spent separated by lockdowns, the album was truly born during small windows of freedom in which the band would decamp to a mud-brick house in the bush around two hours north of Melbourne built by the extended Russo family in the 1970s.
There, its 12 tracks took shape, informed to such an extent by the acoustics and ambience of the rambling lakeside house that they decided to record the album there. The house also features on the album cover. For the first time, the band self-produced the record (alongside engineer, collaborator and old friend, Matt Duffy), creating their most naturalistic and expansive document yet. The result is a collection of songs permeated by the spirit of the place; punctuated by field recordings of rain, fire, birds, and wind. “It’s almost an anti-concept album,” say the band. “The ‘endless rooms’ of the title reflects our love of creating worlds in our songs. We treat each of them as a bare room to be built up with infinite possibilities.”
Rolling Blackouts C.F.’s forthcoming album ‘Endless Rooms’ (out May 6th).
Since their 2004 self-titled debut, Pink Mountaintops have supplied an outlet for the more arcane fascinations of Black Mountain frontman Stephen McBean. On “Peacock Pools” Pink Mountaintops’ first new music in eight years — the B.C. singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist shares 12 songs sparked from his magpie-like curiosity for a wild expanse of cultural artifacts: The sci-fi body horror of David Cronenberg, Disney Read-Along Records from the 1970s, early Pink Floyd and mid-career Gary Numan, John Carpenter movies, Ornette Coleman live videos, a 1991 essay on the cult of bodybuilding by postmodern feminist Camille Paglia.
Featuring counterculture icons like Steven McDonald of Redd Kross and Dale Crover of Melvins, “Peacock Pools” alchemizes those obsessions into a body of work with its own enchanting power, the sonic equivalent of falling down a thousand rabbit holes at once and landing somewhere gloriously strange.”
“Nervous Breakdown” is from Pink Mountaintops‘ upcoming album ‘Peacock Pools’.
The bands first recording since 2010’s “Croweology”, The Black Crowes celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the incredible year in music, 1972. The band covers 6 songs released in that year by The Temptations, The Rolling Stones, T-Rex, Rod Stewart, Little Feat and David Bowie. “The Black Crowes’ new covers collection 1972 is a tribute project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of some of the best rock ’n’ roll songs. “The year 1972 was a watershed moment, some of the greatest rock and roll songs ever made came out of that year. To get our band back together in the studio, it had to be a celebration of rock and roll,” said singer Chris Robinson. “This record is about love and devotion to something that makes us feel good. We hope that it makes fans around the world feel the same.” The album will feature covers of The Rolling Stones’ Rocks Off, Rod Stewart’s You Wear It Well, Little Feat’s Easy To Slip, The Slider by T-Rex, David Bowie‘s Moonage Daydreamand the aforementioned cover of The Temptations’Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone.”
The Black Crowes’ new EP titled 1972 includes covers of legendary cuts from the Rolling Stones, Temptations and Rod Stewart. The Police’s 1982 documentary film “Around the World” returns with restored picture and remastered audio, along with complete performances of four bonus songs.
Prolific songwriter Ty Segall has announced his next album, “Hello, Hi”. “The Harmonizer” follow-up arrives in July 22nd via Segall’s long time record label home Drag City. Segall predominantly self-recorded the album at his home in California. Now, he has shared the album’s title track.
Ty Segall issued “Harmonizer” last year. Earlier this year, the prolific rocker released his soundtrack for Whirlybird, a 2020 documentary from Matt Yoka. The film follows Zoey Tur and MarikaGerrard, founders of the Los Angeles News Service who captured iconic footage of the 1992 riots and O.J. Simpson’s car chase from a helicopter.
Title track from “Hello, Hi”, available on LP/CS/CD on July 22nd, 2022 from Drag City Records.
Parisian psych institution, La Femme, unleash a discography spanning set dripping in LSD and casual chic, transmitted from a smoky room in Normandy, France. The Session comes on the heels of their new LP, “Paradigmes“, and upcoming world tour.
“We have recorded this session in the country side of Normandy, France, an intimate set in a rustic old home. We played our most psyches track, according to the Levitation Sessions spirit, recorded by the fireplace in the darkest hours of the night.
The spirit of the Psych Fest was haunting the room, and so were psychedelic ghosts, they were living in every one of the musicians of the band. We were time traveling, the spirits of the 60s rising back from the dead. The track “Sphynx” was written during Austin Psych Fest 2014 in Austin, Texas, and we are pleased to bring it back home. Danser sous acide” – La Femme.
LA FEMME Sacha Got: Vocals, Guitar and Keyboards Marlon Magnée: Vocals, Keyboard and Tambourine Noe Delmas: Drums Nina Giangreco: Vocals and Tambourine Ysé Grospiron: Vocals and Keyboards Sam Lefèvre: Bass and Keyboards
The original “Oshin” tracklist plus a bonus LP with the “Oshin” demos and 2 live cuts recorded at SheaStadium in Brooklyn in 2011, including the previously unreleased track “Yuk” for it’s 10th anniversary of the first album “Oshin“, The band have put together a pretty comprehensive deluxe edition package for you. we have tons of old photos, lots of writing, a poster, and all new art hand-drawn and assembled by Parker Sprout in reference to the original collection of ephemera that inspired the album back in 2012. it is pressed on blue marbled vinyl and packaged with an LP of the original ‘Oshin’ demos as well as a few unreleased live songs recorded at Shea Stadium in 2011. we included some written reflections from the band members as well as one from Madeline Jones, the writer of the original ‘oshin’ poem, as well as some deep liner notes from Shaad D’Souza. this reissue is something we approached very thoughtfully and deliberately and are very happy with how it turned out. Housed in a craft paper wide-spine within a clear printed PVC sleeve. Includes: – 2xLP pressed on Blue Marble vinyl – DIIV Fuck The World poster – 24-pg retrospective booklet with photos, reflections from each band member and the writer of the original ‘Oshin’ poem, and new liners by Shaad D’Souza.
Several years ago I was very excited when a new reissue of the 1992 album by Swindon band XTC “Nonsuch” was released as a deluxe and expanded edition. The CD-plus-Blu-ray package was (and still is!) phenomenal, including new high resolution Stereo and Surround Sound remixes by Steven Wilson, instrumental-only mixes and high-quality transfers of the original mix as well as scores of out-takes, alternates and demos .
XTC had long toiled in unfair obscurity. They got as high as the U.K. Top 5 with 1982’s “English Settlement” after just missing the Top 40 with 1980’s “Black Sea“. But then XTC stopped performing in concert because of Andy Partridge’s crippling stage fright.
“When we were playing live, I felt as if we were howling out in the wilderness and no one was particularly listening,” Partridge told The Boston Globe in 1992. “You can stir into that discontent a big pinch of stage fright that got worse and worse. I think my subconscious was telling me, ‘Look, you don’t want to be doing this, so I’m going to make it difficult for you to do.'”
Meanwhile, they were still in litigation with an ex-manager. Partridge’s marriage was failing. They also still had to secure a drummer, since XTC stopped employing one when they left the road.
Is it any surprise that Partridge was hard at work completing a song called “The Disappointed”? “My marriage, my disappointment with that, is in there,” Partridge said in 2009. “I think the disappointment with the musical career, with not getting the recognition that I thought we were due, and certainly not getting the financial recompense that we were due, is in there. All that genuine disappointment filtered into this.”
XTC finally tabbed drummer Dave Mattacks of Fairport Convention and he, in turn, recommended GusDudgeon, a veteran producer who arrived with a resume including Elton John, David Bowie, Queen and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. (The latter convinced Partridge and coleader Colin Moulding.) Dudgeon also arrived with an overflowing briefcase of quirks – but XTC were too antsy to push back.
At this point, Partridge told Past Daily, he “would have done it with the window cleaner.” Things had taken so long to get going that Moulding and bandmate Dave Gregory were reportedly reduced to working at a car-rental store to stay afloat between royalty payments.
Mattacks walked into a situation that might have felt hermetically sealed, considering how long XTC had spent tinkering while all of this played out.
“Though it was challenging, it wasn’t difficult. The experience was enjoyable – great songs!” said Mattacks “Some drum parts were mine – ‘My Bird Performs,’ for example. Others had loosely defined demo drum-machine parts programmed by Andy, which I used as templates.”
Partridge liked what they ended up with, as XTC created a more orchestral, more thoughtful distillation of elements from their previous two albums – with a dash of their psychedelic the Dukes of Stratosphear side venture. It may have been determinedly uncommercial at times, but the album was shaping up to be something far more artistically honest than simply trying to create with an eye for the stage.
Partridge remained wary of losing artistic control, however, since something similar had happened the last time XTC worked with a well-known figure on 1986’s Todd Rundgren-produced Skylarking. So when Dudgeon suggested that they omit Partridge’s song “Rook,” it created a wound that never quite healed. Dudgeon later announced that he wanted to handle the final mixing of the LP himself, and Partridge simply refused. With tension rising, XTC fired him.
Only later did Partridge realize, even more appropriately, that “Nonsuch” was the name of an incredibly ornate palace built by Henry VIII atop an entire razed village.
There would be one final issue: The head of Virgin Records didn’t hear a hit. Partridge told Past Daily that he rejected the LP while demanding “12 Top 10 guaranteed singles.” The label executive eventually stepped down, but not before XTC again lost whatever momentum they’d managed. It had now been two long years since the Moulding-composed “King for a Day” became XTC’s most recent U.K. charting song
As great as that was, some of us were still a bit sad because the album “Nonsuch” was not yet reissued on vinyl. Not many of us have actually gotten our hands on one of the elusive UK vinyl pressings of “Nonsuch” which came out in limited quantities back when it was first released. It has become a very pricey collectors item.
Fast forward to the present, the album has finally been reissued on long playing vinyl records! I just received my pre-ordered copy of the brand new two-disc 200-gram version of “Nonsuch” and the results so far are excellent. Housed in a high-quality, thick cardboard double-disc gatefold package as opposed to the single-pocked design of the 1992 edition it features original cover artwork (it had been modified over the years in different CD editions around the world) and custom inner sleeves. The black vinyl discs are indeed thick, dark, dead quiet and perfectly centered so there are no complaints on that front. Arguably, this reissue is designed to be superior in every way to the 1992 original. I have no complaints at all really on this set!
Sonics-wise, it is curious as I am wondering if I am hearing more detail than even on the high resolution Blu-ray Disc version.
It has been interesting comparing this new vinyl pressing to the corresponding Stereo mix on the 2013 Blu-ray Disc version. Beyond that they are different playback formats with different processing, the new LP boasts new mastering separate from what went into making the 2013 versions on the Blu-ray.
This new vinyl version of “Nonsuch” indeed seems to have this other thing (if you will) going on which the Blu-ray doesn’t quite have… It is a bit odd to consider this conceptually as the album is a full digital recording to begin with… So “common sense” might make you think they would sound near identical. But as many of you know by now, there is nothing common about the processes of mixing and mastering an album for the digital universe as well as for vinyl release. There are so many variables.
A distinct difference I’m noticing is that there seems to be a greater depth perception and detailing on this lovely LP version.
For example I’m more clearly hearing different details I’d never really noticed before such as the teensy little birdy tweets on “My Bird Performs.” The trumpet playing in the background through much of that song sounds positioned quite distinctly in the right corner of an imagined stage I say “imagined” as this is a studio recording, so it was probably an overdub, not made with the band at the same time as the basic tracks on an actual performance stage. Curiously, the producer pans the trumpet more toward the left-centre for its solo, reminding the listener that this is a studio creation and not necessarily representative of an actual live performance (which I’m perfectly fine with, mind you, but I know its an issue for some audiophiles).
The decay on the shimmering splash cymbal in the initial measures of “Peter Pumpkinhead” is much larger and distinct than on the Blu-ray. Whatever is delivering this imaging, it’s impressive….
Of course some of you will ask if this release is “better” than the Blu-ray Disc version? I can’t say that because of the aforementioned variables. They are “Oranges and Lemons”, if you will.
In this instance, I’m noticing these differences comparing my vinyl.
My primary reason for owning the Blu-ray Disc is the wonderful 5.1 surround sound mix (which I listen to in my living room “home theater” area, on a separate playback system) and all the bonus goodies (and there are many there!). My primary reason for wanting the vinyl is to be able to enjoy exactly that special inexplicable something extra which comes from that playback medium’s experience.
Scientists and fans of “hard data” might look at it on paper and dismiss the vinyl format as inferior. But in this case I will side with the wizards of sonic alchemy, the mixdown and disc mastering engineers who possess seemingly secret magical powers most of us can’t comprehend to make the music contained on these flat black discs magically soar into the sonic cosmos.
Whatever it is, it works and even with its all-digital ’90s sheen, “Nonsuch” is ultimately a grand listening experience on the new vinyl reissue. And isn’t that all that matters?
