In honour of the label’s 10th anniversary, Double Double Whammy has announced a compilation with 14 DDW artists covering their labelmates. The Brooklyn indie label Double Double Whammy celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, and in honour of that, the label is releasing a compilation with 14 current and former DDW artists covering their labelmates. It’s called 10 Years of Double Double Whammy and it comes out on November 19th. The first two singles are Frankie Cosmos and Lomelda covering each other. Both sound great, as you can hear for yourself below.
The comp also features Mirah, Great Grandpa, Told Slant (ft. Florist), The Goodbye Party, Long Beard, Hovvdy, Gemma, 2nd Grade, label founder Mike Caridi’s project The Glow, and more.
Double Double Whammy was launched in 2011 by LVL UP members Mike Caridi and Dave Benton, the latter of whom parted ways with the label in 2016. Not long after that, DDW entered into a partnership with Polyvinyl Records, who “[offer] the resources of a well-respected and established label, while DoubleDouble Whammy retained complete control of the label.” In 2018, Mallory Hawkins joined the label’s staff.
From the Double Double Whammy 10th Anniversary Cover Compilation, available everywhere November 12th, 2021.
Bambara have announced “Love On My Mind”, a six-song mini-LP that will be out February 25th via Wharf Cat. If the start of the breakthrough for Bambara was the radically reimagined sound of 2018’s “Shadow On Everything” (dubbed by NPR a “western gothic opus”), then the moment it truly arrived was on the cinematically riotous noir-punk of 2020’s “Stray”. In the UK, buoyed by the enthusiasm of 6Music DJ Steve Lamacq (who called the band, “one of his favourite discoveries of the year”), the band rose sharply, immediately selling out shows across the country. Meanwhile, back in their native US, KEXP’s John Richards echoed the same sentiment. Things were set. In fact, tickets had just gone on sale for their biggest show to date, a 1500 cap headliner at London’s Electric Ballroom. Then…well, then same as for everyone. Shutdown, lockdown, hibernation, nothing. It was a hammer blow. But rather than rue their misfortune, the band desperately tried to turn it into a positive, immediately moving to try to make more, and they were determined better, music.
The result is the career-high ‘Love On My Mind’ – a six song mini-album, mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer that condenses all the energy and darkness that has made Bambara so compelling but rearranges them into something defiantly new. Not that getting there was easy. With the band’s core (twin brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh, the singer and drummer, and childhood friend William Brookshire, bass) scattered across the US, they remotely pieced together an EP but as soon as it was finished, they scrapped it. In their words, it felt “dishonest”. They were striving for something new and they hadn’t hit the mark.
Here’s the storming, smoky first single.
They realized they needed to change approach so at that point they decided to reconvene in New York. Finally, things started to take shape. By now, they had a better idea of where they wanted to head. They knew they wanted to include a couple of duets and enlisted the vocals of Bria Salmena (Orville Peck/Frigs) and Drew Citron (Public Practice). They also wanted to expand their sound palette so turned to Jason Disu and Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers) to add trombone and saxophone respectively. They recorded again, utilizing all these new elements, sampling their recordings as they went along, in the process manipulating the sounds across the EP.
The final result is something astonishing. Opening track, “Slither in the Rain,” all hissing high-hat and spectral synthlines, is a true statement of intent. It’s minimal and atmospheric, foregrounding Bateh’s raw vocals as he introduces one of ‘Love On My Mind’s main characters, years after the events of the album are over, a lonely man who throws bottles at airplanes and dances a two-step in the pattern of a figure-8. While Bateh has always been adept at character sketches, here we are introduced to a newfound vulnerability that runs true through the entire album and causes the songs to hit on a more human level. It’s a change he readily acknowledges. It all just contributes to the picture of something truly special. ‘Love on My Mind’ is another massive step forward for Bambara. This time though, absolutely nothing’s going to stop them following through on it.
Now that Speedy Ortiz are in the double digits, Sadie Dupuis decided it was time for the band to drop a special double LP, too. In honour of its 10th birthday, the Massachusetts-born band will release a compilation of early and previously unreleased tracks later this fall, re-sharing Dupuis’ early solo work from when Speedy Ortiz was still a fledgling solo project. Titled “The Death of Speedy Ortiz & Cop Kicker…Forever”, the digital collection drops November 12th, followed by the album’s physical release via Carpark Records on January 28th, 2022.
The 22-track album will include the entirety of Cop Kicker and The Death of Speedy Ortiz are both now a decade old as well as previously unheard songs, liner notes from Dupuis, and photos and journal scans from the earliest days of the project.
“I can’t claim Speedy as a solo project anymore I love working with the friends and bandmates who have played and recorded with me over the years and I’m glad I now have Sad13 as an outlet for my home-produced concoctions,” Dupuis says. “But I’m so proud of these 22 solo songs, which I put a lot of heart and time and sweat into in both 2011 and 2021, and it feels right to honour them by finally re-releasing them with Carpark (who I’ve worked with for pretty darn close to a decade, too) in a more widely listenable way.”
The album rollout begins (October 13th) with an updated version of “Cutco” and an accompanyingBlairWitch Project-inspired music video directed by Dupuis herself.
“Rewatching Blair Witch Project, I found the characters’ treatment of one another exemplary of the early 20s heedlessness I was venting about on ‘Cutco,’” Dupuis explains. “So with some help from my Speedy bandmates Andy Molholt and Audrey Zee Whitesides, we made a shot-for-shot homage to a ’90s horror classic with one delicious change to the formula.”
Here’s a second taste of Casper Skulls’ new album “Knows No Kindness”, and it’s another lovely sounding indie song, with some folk/country flourishes.
This is our second favourite song and third single from “Knows No Kindness” is out today! We love playing this one live so we made a performance video for it by Colin Medley with overlaid fall animations to celebrate its life! .If you missed yesterday’s story time post(scroll down), “The Mouth” is where the Sables and Spanish rivers meet. It’s a park that has a lot of legacy in my family and almost became a nuclear waste runoff due to some big dumb company trying to get in there before my relatives and friends of the family protested to stop it from happening.
I wanted to take a second to talk about the cover artwork for “Knows No Kindness” because the next two singles are more or less a diptych together and they both revolve around this photograph taken circa 1960 by Hal Cummings. In Massey, Ontario my grandmother Velma (she’s the one holding the “Massey No Nuke Country” sign), aunts, uncles and townsfolk there held a protest to stop A.E.C.L (a now defunct nuclear waste company) from creating a runoff into the Spanish and Sables Rivers there.
The group protested outside A.E.C.L’s temporary HQ and eventually ran them out of town and the run off never ended up happening. The Sables and Spanish Rivers meet at a point that is located in the heart of Massey also known as The Mouth Park. It’s a local favourite swimming hole that my grandmother used to take my aunts and uncles then years later my mother took me and my sister. We’re releasing the song “The Mouth” accompanied by a performance music video because it is our favourite song to play live with some appropriate fall inspired animations by Gaia Alari .
Music video by Casper Skulls performing “The Mouth”. Next Door Records
Joni Mitchell will make you yearn for people you’ve never met and places you’ve never been. “Archives Vol. 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971)“, the latest in her series of recordings from the vaults, will be out on October 29th. Brimming with unreleased content, it features a disc of home demos from 1967 and 1968, a live album from Le Hibou Coffee House in 1968 that was recorded by Jimi Hendrix, as well as recordings of two different BBC sessions from 1970, a recording of her 1969 appearance on The Dick Cavett Show, a live album from Carnegie Hall in 1969, and a few other various live recordings.
Mitchell shared the first song from the box, “The Dawntreader” from the 1968 concert that Hendrix recorded. Despite being almost five decades old, the set was just recently rediscovered. According to his diary entries, Hendrix was in attendance at her March 19th, 1968 show and decided to bring his tape recorder to capture the set. The result is a stripped-down performance of the track that tugs at your heartstrings. A gentle fuzz adds a half-remembered quality to the song as she plucks the guitar and her voice lingers over dreamy lyrics.
Listen to the previously unreleased live version of Joni Mitchell’s “The Dawntreader” recorded by Jimi Hendrix in 1968.
“The Dawntreader” will be released as part of ‘Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971)’ available October 29th. Pre-order the 5-CD or 10-LP set from JoniMitchell.com to receive an exclusive, limited edition 7” x 7” art print featuring a never-before-seen illustration by Mitchell from the era:
In a diary entry, Hendrix reportedly wrote, “went down to the little club to see Joni-fantastic girl with heaven words.” Even 50 years later, his description rings true, her angelic nature evident in the recording.
The second volume of Mitchell’s “Archives” series documents one of her most formative and productive eras: the three-year span between the release of her debut album, 1968’s “Song to a Seagull”, and 1971’s career milestone “Blue“. The five discs here chart her evolution through previously unreleased live recordings, demos, radio and TV broadcasts and studio outtakes. The result is an intimate portrait of a pioneering singer-songwriter finding her voice.
The second single from Brian Fallon’s upcoming album of hymns is a rendition of “Amazing Grace.” Though it’s unmistakably “Amazing Grace,” Brian turns it into a sombre indie song in the vein of Bon Iver or Bright Eyes.
I’m excited to announce that on November 5th I will be releasing an album of Hymns and Christmas songs called “Night Divine”. This is something I’ve always wanted to do, and this year, while at home in Quarantine, I decided to take on recording the whole thing myself! These are songs very near and dear to my heart, and are some of the very first songs I ever remember hearing. I’m very proud to share it with you all, and also I’m thrilled to have actually completed it!
Released on Lesser Known Records marketed and distributed by Thirty Tigers Released on: 2021-10-13
Nicole Atkins will release new album “Memphis Ice” on December 10th. It’s a soulful reimagining of last year’sItalian Ice and you can get a taste right now. “‘Promised Land’ is a song about losing your sense of self and finally having the courage to go find it again,” says Atkins. “Even if it meant losing people and places you loved. I wrote this song a long time ago. I was living in someone else’s dream and becoming a shadow. I’ve recorded this song a few times and it always felt too encumbered with a full production. When we went in to record Memphis Ice, I realized it was the perfect place and time to record ‘Promised Land.’ Raw and performative. Nothing to hide behind.”
Watch “Promised Land” recorded live at Memphis Magnetic Studios in Memphis, TN for the live album “Memphis Ice” out December 10th.
Snail Mail’s new album “Valentine” is due out November 5th via Matador Records , and the latest single is the synthy, distorted “Ben Franklin”. “I wanted to sonically and lyrically get out of my comfort zone with ‘Ben Franklin,'” Lindsey Jordan says. “It felt only right that the visual accompaniment should include dancing in front of a camera and holding a 10 foot snake close to my face.”
On her 2018 debut album “Lush”, seventeen-year-old Lindsey Jordan sang “I’m in full control / I’m not lost / Even when it’s love / Even when it’s not”. Her natural ability to be many things at once resonated with a lot of people. The contradiction of confidence and vulnerability, power and delicacy, had the impact of a wrecking ball when put to tape. It was an impressive and unequivocal career-making moment for Jordan.
On “Valentine”, her sophomore album Lindsey solidifies and defines this trajectory in a blaze of glory. In 10 songs, written over 2019-2020 by Jordan alone, we are taken on an adrenalizing odyssey of genuine originality in an era in which “indie” music has been reduced to gentle, homogenous pop composed mostly by ghostwriters. Made with careful precision, “Valentine” shows an artist who has chosen to take her time. The reference points are broad and psychically stirring, while the lyrics build masterfully on the foundation set by Jordan’s first record to deliver a deeper understanding of heartbreak.
On “Ben Franklin”, the second single of the album, Jordan sings “Moved on, but nothing feels true / Sometimes I hate her just for not being you / Post rehab I’ve been feeling so small / I miss your attention, I wish I could call”. It’s here that she mourns a lost love, conceding the true nature of a fleeting romantic tie-up and ultimately, referencing a stay in a recovery facility in Arizona. This 45-day interlude followed issues stemming from a young life colliding with sudden fame and success. Since she was not allowed to bring her instruments or recording equipment, Jordan began tabulating the new album arrangements on paper solely out of memory and imagination. It was after this choice to take radical action that “Valentine” really took its unique shape.
Jordan took her newfound sense of clarity and calm to Durham, North Carolina, along with the bones of a new album. Here she worked with Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee). For all the album’s vastness and gravity, it was in this small home studio that Jordan and Cook chipped away over the winter of early 2021 at co-producing a dynamic collection of genre-melding new songs, finishing it triumphantly in the spring. They were assisted by long time bandmates Ray Brown and Alex Bass, as well as engineer Alex Farrar, with a live string section added later at Spacebomb Studios in Richmond.
Leaning more heavily into samples and synthesizers, the album hinges on a handful of remarkably untraditional pop songs. The first few seconds of opener and title track ‘Valentine’ see whispered voice and eerie sci-fi synth erupt into a stadium-sized, endorphin-rush of a chorus that is an overwhelming statement of intent. “Ben Franklin”, “Forever (Sailing)” and “Madonna” take imaginative routes to the highest peaks of catchiness. Jordan has always sung with a depth of intensity and conviction, and the climactic pop moments on “Valentine” are delivered with such a tenet and a darkness and a beauty that’s noisy and guttural, taking on the singularity that usually comes from a veteran artist.
As captivating as the synth-driven songs are, it’s the more delicate moments like “Light Blue”, “c.et. al.” and “Mia” that distill the albums range and depth. “Baby blue, I’m so behind / Can’t make sense of the faces in and out of my life / Whirling above our daily routines / Both buried in problems, baby, honestly” Jordan sings on “c. et. al.” with a devastating certainty. These more ethereal, dextrously finger-picked folk songs peppered in throughout the album are nuanced in their vocal delivery and confident in their intricate arrangement. They come in like a breath of air, a moment to let the mind wander, but quickly drown the listener in their melodic alchemy and lyrical punch.
The album is rounded out radiantly by guitar-driven rock songs like “Automate”, “Glory” and “Headlock”. Reminiscent of Lush but with a marked tonal shift, Jordan again shows her prowess as a guitar player with chorus-y leads and rhythmic, wall-of-sound riffs. “Headlock” highlights this pivot with high-pitched dissonance and celestially affected lead parts – “Can’t go out I’m tethered to / Another world where we’re together / Are you lost in it too?”, she sings with grit and fatigue, building so poignantly on her sturdy foundation of out-and-out melancholy. On “Valentine”, we are taken 100 miles deeper into the world Jordan created with Lush, led through passageways and around dark corners, landing somewhere we never dreamed existed.
Today, in the wake of recording “Valentine”, Jordan is focused on trying to continue healing without slowing down. The album comes in the midst of so much growth, in the fertile soil of a harrowing bottom-out. On the heels of life-altering success, a painful breakup and 6 weeks in treatment, Jordan appears vibrant and sharp. “Mia, don’t cry / I love you forever / But I gotta grow up now / No I can’t keep holding onto you anymore” she sings on the album closer “Mia”. She sings softly but her voice cuts through like a hacksaw. The song is lamenting a lost love, saying a sombre goodbye, and it closes the door on a bitter cold season for Jordan. Leaving room for a long and storied path, “Valentine” is somehow a jolt and a lovebuzz all at once.
“Ben Franklin” is taken from the upcoming album ‘Valentine’ by Snail Mail, out November 5th on Matador Records.
Hand Habits will release their new album “Fun House” on October 22nd, and here’s one last early taste before the whole thing drops. “Clean Air” is an arresting, sweeping rock ballad featuring The War on Drugs‘ Dave Hartley on bass. “When writing songs for “Fun House”, I had become exhausted and bored by the idea of writing more songs out of blame, spite, or anger,” says Meg Duffy. “‘Clean Air’ is about finding clarity, leaning into acceptance, and acknowledging someone else’s experience as truth without blame or resentment, even when it differs from our own.”
The song comes with a gorgeously shot black and white video directed by V Haddad,
Excited to share my personal favourite track on “Fun House”, “No Difference”. With this song, I was trying to capture the cyclical essence of projection and how it can really block authentic connection. (….I think? Songs seem to change and develop lives of their own with time…my wish is that you project your own life experience onto the song and make it your own)This video is close to my heart, as the guy on the motorcycle happens to be my father, Dan Duffy. Everything just worked out that day. It was 4th of July, and Dad suggested going to his ‘spiritual place’ that has a panoramic view of the Mohawk valley. Filming the bike scenes was the first time I got on the back of the bike with him, and when I first saw this footage that V and Adam captured I was speechless.
It feels close to countless dreams I’ve had; aimlessly walking around but with a distinct yet intangible purpose, my dad is there.
Hand Habits – “Clean Air” from “Fun House” out October 22nd, 2021
Kevin Morby and Hamilton Leithauser embark on their co-headlining “Fall Mixer” North American tour this week, which will have them sharing a band and sharing the stage. Ahead of that they’ve released a collaborative single, “Virginia Beach.”
“I wanted to do a modern take on a dark country song which would transform into more of a dark dance groove,” says Hamilton. “I also wrote an entire vocal track over it but just didn’t think my voice was taking it anywhere new, so I sent the track to Kevin Morby. His voice sounds nothing like my own, and his songs usually have a very different structure than mine. I thought maybe he could take it in a new direction. He told me he wanted to write a traveling song, maybe mentioning some places people don’t sing about that much, and he sent me some lyrics. I loved it and wrote my ‘Virginia Beach’ lines right then and there, and sent them back to him.”
Adds Kevin, “Maybe it was being in one place for almost two years, or maybe it was the mysterious and kinetic energy of the composition, but I found myself compelled to write of all the bizarre yet beautiful corners of America one often overlooks that a touring musician inevitably finds themselves in while out on the road. The Paris Idahos and the Texarkanas. It was my attempt at evoking Cash and Dylans ‘Wanted Man’ or Barbara Keith’s ‘Detroit or Buffalo,’ or any of those other lost country and rock n roll songs that shout out cities off the beaten path. Cities that down-and-out characters race towards in an attempt to outrun themselves. Though of course – as the saying goes, no matter where you go, there you are.”
“Virginia Beach” the new song by Hamilton Leithauser & Kevin Morby, out now on Dead OceansRecords.
