Early next year, Jethro Tull will release “The Zealot Gene“, their first studio album in over 18 years. The album began to take shape as early as 2017 and was intended to be released in 2020 before the pandemic intervened. The album is said to explore themes of Biblical storytelling, as Ian Anderson explains: “While I have a spot of genuine fondness for the pomp and fairytale story-telling of the Holy Book, I still feel the need to question and draw sometimes unholy parallels from the text. The good, the bad, and the downright ugly rear their heads throughout, but are punctuated with elements of love, respect, and tenderness.”
Looking back on the earth-shaking disruption of the Coronavirus pandemic… It was so sudden”, says Anderson. “Amidst the concerns and warnings of the scientific community and a few more enlightened politicians, we all retreated in disbelief to our homes to wait out the storm.”
You can preview ‘Shoshana Sleeping’ from the album
“The Zealot Gene” is available across a number of formats. The 2CD+blu-ray edition offers a bonus disc of demos and a blu-ray which features a 5.1 surround sound mix(by Jakko Jakszyk). Sleeve notes include an interview with Ian Anderson conducted by Tim Bowness.
The 2LP vinyl edition includes a large format art book and comes with a CD of the album, while a deluxe box set also contains the booklet along with three white vinyl LPs (one is exclusive and contains demos) along with two CDs and the 5.1 blu-ray. This also includes a turntable slipmat and a hand-numbered print.
Kelley Stoltz has shared “Umbrella,” a bonus track from the 20th anniversary expanded edition of his defining album “AntiqueGlow“, due November 19th, 2021 via Third Man Records. Stream the track HERE, and watch its accompanying video,
Limited-edition silver indie store exclusive vinyl and limited-edition “rainy nights” UK exclusive vinyl will be available on release day. Join Stoltz in celebrating the album’s release with a show at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall o
Third Man Records is proud to announce the 20th anniversary expanded edition of Kelley Stoltz’s defining album Antique Glow, Join Stoltz in celebrating the album’s release with a show at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall on November 19, featuring support from Vetiver and Almond Joy. Originally self-released in minuscule vinyl-only quantities in 2001, “AntiqueGlow” has served not only as a template for the length of Kelley Stoltz’s twenty-plus year career, but has also served as a compass for other Anglophile, TASCAM 388 home recording acolytes.
Original copies featured Stoltz’s clever, wry and fanciful hand-painted adornments overtop reclaimed thrift store LP jackets, ThirdMan’s release here utilizes some of those original unused images for a die-cut sleeve that ultimately gives the listener six different possible album covers. The songs are by-and-large masterpieces of bedroom pop magic. From the whispering “Here Comes the Sun”-adjacent acoustic underpinnings of album opener “Perpetual Night” through the fuzz-threaded leads of “Are You Electric?” Stoltz’s inspirations are impeccable and clear. Sixties Davies British Invasion through 80’s British Bunnymen post-punk, with appropriate off-shoots into West Coast American pop-psych, Velvets-indebted hooliganism and Drake/CSNY acoustic attenuations, the end result is pure joy.
On the expanded version, standout tracks previously relegated to an Australian tour-only CD (like the breathlessly cinematic “OldPictures”) see their first-ever vinyl and digital release while there’s an additional 10 songs from the Antique Glow-era seeing their first ever release in any format. The cutting room floor quality here is second-to-none, Stoltz clearly gifted with the curse of writing too many indelible songs, so the newly released “Too Beck” (originally cast off by Kelley because he thought “it sounded too much like Beck”) and “Umbrella” stand firm as some of the best, most timeless music Stoltz has ever released… a full two decades after he recorded them! With all instruments and vocals performed by Stoltz, the singularity of vision here is impeccably clear and executed.
About Kelley Stoltz: Born and raised in suburban Detroit, Kelley Stoltz hopped off to NYC in the mid-Nineties with the mild task of sorting fan mail for Jeff Buckley. There, Stoltz recorded his debut album The Past Was Faster, which was barely released before the label declared bankruptcy and all copies were locked away in a government warehouse. Kelley truly came into his own upon his arrival to San Francisco. Landing a job at the classic neighbourhood record store Grooves and hunkered down in his apartment in the Mission with his trusty Tascam 388. Playing all the instruments himself, the end result of Antique Glow was a DIY bedroom masterpiece. With the initial self-released vinyl pressing of 300 copies each featured a thrift store LP jacket hand-painted with some clever, wry or fanciful adornments by Stoltz himself, the record took on a life of its own…ultimately finding its way into the hands of John Peel and earning Kelley a record deal with Sub Pop. From there, Stoltz’s prodigious output has never wavered. Through the intervening 11 full-length solo albums and a wide smattering of singles, side-projects etc, not to mention various production duties and even a spell as hired-gun axeman for Kelley’s childhood heroes Echo and the Bunnymen.
It’s November 1971, and Elton John is everywhere. Three of his albums have appeared in U.S. record stores within the current calendar year, and as the year winds down, another arrives.“Madman Across the Water” is the boldest of the lot, seeking to be all things to all listeners as a display of confidence rather than overreach.
John’s eponymous second album (and stateside debut) was a substantial success a year earlier, followed in Europe by the country-leaning—and less commercial—”Tumbleweed Connection”, which would not reach the Atlantic’s west side for several months.
The soundtrack Friends fulfilled a pre-breakthrough commitment and soon disappeared, and the “live set 11-17-70″tried to grab a piece of the action bootleggers were getting with copies of the show’s initial radio broadcast. Three records, but none offering a real follow-through on his initial commercial success. Easy as it might be to justify in that context, a fourth album was a lot to ask the marketplace to digest, let alone support.
“Madman” reset what had become a scattershot career path. Packed with personality and infectious melodic energy, it expanded the variety and ambition of John’s material with complicated, bravura compositions unlike what anyone else offered, establishing the singular sonic identity that would become a trademark Elton John calling card for years to come.
“Madman” takes no chances with the listener’s affections; it isn’t two bars old when its first irresistible moment arrives, in the fluid piano trickle that lays the groundwork for “Tiny Dancer.” Welcoming and airy, it is a seminal pop contrivance, and the album’s greatest achievement. Gus Dudgeon’s production (with an arrangement by Paul Buckmaster) tastefully mixes the homespun with the formal, initially combining pop and country in a manner decades ahead of its time. The string section that emerges near the three-minute mark adds to that mix as it propels the song’s hook, a potent complement to the ascending drama of John’s piano line, and the final building block of an ingenious, gorgeous sonic assembly. The song fully defines John’s vocal prowess: lively, full of character and naturally theatrical, but not in a way that overpowers any moment. Level headed or outlandish, he is always convincing.
Enticing as its structure may be, its stature owes at least as much to lyricist Bernie Taupin. One of the best pieces ever written about life inside the music industry, it seamlessly combines romance and everyday charm. Full of details John sells with brio, it captures life on the road more evocatively in just over six minutes than “Almost Famous” did in a full-length film. “Tiny Dancer” represents the best of the John-Taupin partnership: lyrics built for enthusiastic delivery, and a performance that knocks them into the cheap seats. John is dynamite, Taupin his all-important fuse.
Despite its more fanciful nature, “Levon” shares similar qualities, starting with an inviting piano opening that heralds a rich melodic backdrop. John rides a grand, swelling chorus hook to its peak, still telling a story even when he’s shouting. The song would be a catchy, conventional rock number were its close powered by a guitar solo, but strings make for a more robust set piece, adding gravity and drama.
Anyone can cover “Tiny Dancer”—the composition possesses a universal appeal any competent vocalist can wrangle with appropriate conviction. “Levon,” on the other hand, is signature work. Offbeat and more than a little peculiar, the story of a balloon salesman and the son who wants out of their shared life requires someone who can handle the surreal with conviction, a quality John possesses in spades. Any cover is more echo than interpretation; everybody can tell that this is his song.
The earnest “Razor Face” seems straightforward enough, alloying electric guitar with a guest organ turn by Rick Wakeman to form a rock backbone, but it’s a restless piece. Toward its end, an unheralded accordion lands front and center for an extended solo, trading licks with an electric guitar through the playout. It’s an odd sort of sonic urgency, more like noodling than cohesive design.
The A-side closes with the title track, which nearly exceeds its boundaries. Its synthesizer-fattened design is something of a sonic yard sale, but orderly—not so much cluttered as intentionally overloaded. Almost too subtle to fit in, yet still decorative, is acoustic guitar gilding provided by Davey Johnstone, appearing on his first project with John in what would become a long and fruitful collaboration.
The set’s longest song, “Indian Sunset,” would be a more difficult sale today: a first-person narrative of a Native American staring down the end of his time. Forged with blustery sincerity and a touch of clunky imagery, there is nevertheless richness to its theatrical contemplations, fueling a social consciousness exercise appropriate to its time
Half a century later, it’s easy to forget a time before Elton John was embedded in popular culture and large pieces of his life were an open book. When “Madman” was new, John had not yet come out (first as bisexual, later as gay), so a key undercurrent of “All the Nasties” went undetected. Critics, particularly in England, had been rough on John, and he responded with a song that was a mixture of self-pity and defiance, wondering at its outset, “If it came to pass/That they should ask/What would I tell them.” At that point, no one knew. The song is defined by intensity; an amalgamation of a gospel invocation with an operatic choir swells toward the end, but never escapes melancholy.
In its wake, the stripped-down album closer “Goodbye” sounds lonely and lost. Likely unknown to John at the time, it also served as a wistful send-off to a method he had employed to that point in his career. With his next album, John would move toward band-driven recordings created outside of traditional studios, helping to narrow the gap between his studio and stage dynamics. Nevertheless, the language with which Madman was filled would rear its head frequently, with expanded vocabulary, in years to come. It would prove the first in a lengthy string of classic albums, a building block of a golden era in one of popular music’s great careers.
Chime School is the project of San Francisco musician Andy Pastalaniec. Endlessly charmed by 80s indie and its 60s forbearers (and any record with a 12-string guitar), Andy cut his teeth as a drummer with SLR labelmate Odd Hope in their early group Pink Films; later with shoegazers Cruel Summer, and currently with indiepop outfit Seablite. But it wasn’t until he was gifted a cassette 4-track portastudio “almost as a dare,” that he came out from behind the kit to write and record his own material.
Aptly named for its autodidact roots, Chime School pays homage to the formative jangle of The Byrds by way of early Primal Scream and The Springfields; the production and pop sensibility of the Biff Bang Pow and The Razorcuts; and the spirit of great singles labels like Creation, Postcard and Sarah. From the dreamy album opener “Wait Your Turn” to the driving jangle of “DeadSaturdays” and the lush, epic “Gone Too Fast” we can see that we’re in the presence of a very talented writer indeed, someone with a lifetime’s worth of pop fandom just waiting to burst out in song.
It’s challenging to take familiar musical forms and make them feel fresh and new, but Andy has tackled the task with aplomb on this assured debut. Featuring future classic singles like “It’s True” and “Taking Time To Tell You” it’s certain to catch the ears of indiepop fans, for sure, but will also be a balm for anyone in love with melodic, classic guitar pop.
Crake, are a self-described,“contemplative alt-folk quartet”, from Leeds, The band garnered attention both after heading out on an EU tour with Big Thief, as well as sharing a 7″ single via the ever-excellent Saddle Creek label. This week the band have announced a new partnership with Fika Recordings, as well as sharing the first fruits of that relationship, in the shape of their new single, “Lamb’s Tail”.
A set supporting Buck Meek in their native Brudenell Social Club led to the four-piece supporting Big Thief across the UK and the EU in 2019 at Meek’s behest. Last August, this culminated in a one off 7” with Big Thief’s former label, Saddle Creek. Now heralding a new relationship with Fika Recordings, ‘Lamb’s Tail’ is the first material since from the band made up of Rowan Sandle, Russel Searle, Rob Slater and Sarah Statham.
“Lamb’s Tail” is a song that seems to exist in a place of questioning, as vocalist Rowan Sandle explains, “when I was a kid and I was worried or anxious, I would leave it to the fates to tell me the outcome of whatever issue I was currently stuck on. I would ask my question to the ether and make up some rule to reveal to me my answer“. It’s a thought that came back to Rowan recently as she dealt with altogether more grown-up problems, both the insecurity of growing older while wanting children yet not knowing when, and the difficult process of learning to deal with grief. Here those adult themes are contrasted with the joys of forgetting about those things, embracing the simplicity of childhood rituals or the joy of meeting a cat, that her bandmate swore he previously taught to play the drums. If thematically this is a song of doubt, there’s also something questioning about the music, from the fabulous percussion that seems to gently lurch, pushing with one hand and pulling back with the other, to the meandering guitars, that seem almost absent-minded, as if guided by the heart more than the head.
At the centre of it all, as ever with Crake, is Rowan’s voice, an idiosyncratic calling card, her gently cracking voice delivering enigmatic imagery of nature and distraction, “it all dies, that ain’t nothing new, can we talk about pussy willow coming through? The cat who looks just like that kid you once knew, can we talk about anything to lighten up the mood?” As you get older it’s often tempting to wonder if you’ve already heard everything you’re going to love, to question whether there’s anything new or exciting out there left to discover. Then along comes a band like Crake and you realise just how naïve that thought truly is, you have to believe the best is always yet to come, you’ll only ever be proven wrong if you don’t.
LA singer, songwriter and bedroom producer Gracie Gray joined the Hand In Hive family in autumn 2021 with wholly infectious, dreamy indie number “alienlover”. The track is taken from her album anna, a record “about holding onto love for yourself through all of life’s changes. It looks at many huge shifts in a short period of time, and each track tries to make sense of how all relationships seem to fade, while promising to try in spite of it all.”
Hailing from Los Angeles, Gracie Gray first emerged back in 2019 with her self-released debut, Oregon In A Day. Two years on Gracie recently returned with the well-received single “Alienlover”, which received acclaim from the likes of GoldFlakePaint and The Line Of Best Fit, among others. The track was the first to be released from Gracie’s upcoming album, “anna”, which is out in February on her new label home, Hand In Hive. Ahead of that release today Gracie is premiering her new single, “dig”.
Discussing the track, Gracie has suggested dig is a song, “about loving someone because you believe in them, and tuning-out people that talk shit“. She recalls that it came from a time of feeling let down and needing to speak up for herself, “This song is it for me. It is the feeling that even one moment of holiness with someone else can cover a multitude of unanswered questions”. Musically, dig is a record of muted majesty, as what sounds like a Marimba emerges from the omnipresent buzz of synth, alongside layers of spectral vocals and rich tumbles of bassy-guitar. There’s a certain poignancy to Gracie’s words, as she stitches memories into place with the reality of the present, and ultimately reaches only the inconclusive, with the repeated closing line, “we’re spinning just a little bit”. A sparkling further example of just how exciting anna is shaping up to be, we’re two months away from 2022, yet Gracie Gray is already shaping up to be one of the year’s break-out stars.
“Dig” the new song by Gracie Gray from the album ‘anna’, out February 4th on Hand In Hive.
Kristine Leschper (formerly of the band Mothers) announced the release of her new album, “The Opening, or Closing of aDoor”, which will be out on March 4th, 2022 via ANTI-Records. Leschper also shared a self-directed video for the album’s lead single, “Ribbon.”
Leschper states in a press release: “I found myself wanting to explore love songs, and this is really the framework of The Opening, or Closing of a Door. ‘Ribbon’ is a love song that holds a certain tension—it is the taut line of attempting to read the intentions of another, built with imagery of opposing materialities: a knife meets a ribbon, asking for a kind of vulnerability. A suggestion of something new emerging at this intersection.”
She adds, regarding the video: “This was my first experience writing and directing a video, as well as designing and fabricating the set. I wanted to play with the perceived reality or unreality of a space, using an absolute economy of materials. When does an environment begin to lose its ‘realness’ and slip into the imaginary? There’s something interesting in the posturing of lip sync in music videos—I wanted to throw the microphone out of frame, as if to say: this is not a real performance, it is a performance of a performance, it’s pantomime! This is not a table, it is a painting of a table! Objects come and go, shifting between hard and soft, flat and dimensional, in a setting that provides little more than an abstraction of interior space.”
Leschper’s most recent studio album under the Mother moniker was “Render Another Ugly Method”, released in 2018 via ANTI-Records.
Though legendary noise rockers Sonic Youth have been finished since 2011, they’ve been consistently releasing archival material through Bandcamp. Two special releases, available Friday, feature shows from the band’s Washing Machineand Rather Rippedtours that benefit good causes: Fund Texas Choice and the Abortion Support Network, two organizations that have been fighting the state’s ban on abortion. “The enduring support from Lone Star state fans for SY warrants a favour returned specifically for this state’s fanbase,” the band said in a statement, “and in broader scope, Sonic Youth support a national and world community where abortion is embraced as health care and a human right.”
Lastly today, dropping on the much celebrated ‘Bandcamp Friday’, Sonic Youth have made two previously unreleased live albums available for $10 each. The albums, which are both absolutely killer, were recorded in Austin and Dallas in 1995 and 2006 respectively and are available on the S.Y. Bandcamp page. All proceeds go to Fund Texas Choice and the Abortion Support Network.
Sonic Youth Release Two Vintage Texas Concerts
In response to alarming restrictive legislative measures against the women of Texas (and increasingly elsewhere) seminal NYC leading musical lights Sonic Youth have announced plans for new releases on their Bandcamp and store to fundraise for Fund Texas Choice (fundtexaschoice.org) and the Abortion Support Network (www.asn.org.uk) on Friday, November 5th.
On that day, the band makes two vintage live sets available in full, from the Austin Music Hall, Austin, Texas from 1995 (on the post-Lollapallooza ‘Washing Machine’ tour), as well as a gig in Dallas at the Gypsy Tea Room (‘Rather Ripped’ tour) in 2006. These classic, previously unreleased shows go up for stream and download on November 5th, with 100% of their proceeds to support the two causes.
Also, three new Sonic t-shirt designs will be made available: two from Texan photographer/friend of the band/author of the recent ‘Texas Is the Reason’ book Pat Blashill , and a third tee featuring a variation of Richard Prince’s “Dude Ranch Nurse” artwork. The first Blashill tee features a photo from their Austin/Continental Club ’85 gig, the second features pro-femme lyrics from their song “Flower” coupled with various photos of assorted women from the 80’s Texan punk scene. Proceeds of both of these will benefit the causes as well
In its posthumous state, Sonic Youth have dedicated great energy in making previously unreleased sounds available to their fanbase. Historically, their trailblazing cross-country tours of back to the mid 80’s consolidated their independent/artistic stance with many formative Texan bands and artists, including the likes of the Butthole Surfers, Big Boys, Daniel Johnston, and MeatJoy. The enduring support from Lone Star state fans for SY warrants a favour returned specifically for this state’s fanbase, and in broader scope, Sonic Youth support a national and world community where abortion is embraced as health care and a human right.
Released November 5th, 2021
“In times like these it feels good to be able to take some action instead of being totally frustrated by the system” – Kim Gordon.
The building blocks of Civic’s sound are straightforward and no-nonsense, a winning formula blending garage rock, punk, and a bit of noisy alt-rock. But simplicity can feel revelatory again when it’s wielded with Civic’s ferocity. After releasing EPs for a couple years, the group roared out the gates with their debut Future Forecast earlier this year.
Over 12 songs, the band rarely lets up, with highlights like “Radiant Eye” and “Tell The Papers” tapping into a bracing, exhilarating, gratifying churn of guitars and snarled vocals.
So geeked to see new material from Civic. One of if not the best Australian bands ever. Catchy Rock and roll with definite Proto Punk edge and attitude(I mean the real Punk rock..
Tell The Papers was the second single off the debut album “Future Forecast” out on Flightless Records 26th of March, 2021
“Cookin’ is a visceral and violent snapshot of three agents of chaos who gleefully inflict destruction and terror wherever they go. They are personifications of the brutality of nature, the wrath of humanity, and the cruel unpredictability of reality. Havoc incarnate, they weave a path of wanton destruction and utter wastefulness throughout a sweaty, summer day in Los Angeles. The significance of moral values, of good and evil, are entirely human constructs; in nature it’s only kill or be killed – and leave the remains for someone else to clean up. The themes behind this song and video are a rumination on the ways in which we are carelessly laying waste to the resources we were gifted.
Nature is relentless, humans are destructive, and everything decays eventually. The planet doesn’t belong to us, we belong to the planet, and she’ll be here long after we’re gone.” – Frankie and the Witch Fingers
released on Greenway Records / The Reverberation Appreciation Society
