Sun drenched shoegaze doesn’t come any finer than the sweet sound of Australian band Flyying Colours. The quintet includes (songwriter/vocalist) Brodie J Brümmer, (guitarist/vocalist) Gemma O’Connor, (bassist) Melanie Barbaro and (drummer) Andy Lloyd Russell who shot to global attention with the release of formidable first album Mindfullness.
Residing on the legendary label Club AC30, a home for the most innovative acts and always a sure sign of quality, Flyying Colours have now returned with “Fantasy Country” – their first album release in five years which has reawakened the band’s passion with fans and critics calling it their best work.
Schoolfriends Brodie J Brümmer and Gemma O’Connor formed the Brunswick based band Flyying Colours in 2011, and immediately set about establishing themselves on the Melbourne gig scene by playing wherever and whenever they could. First single “Wavygravy” was soon followed by an eponymously tired debut EP in 2013, both of which proved the arrival of something truly special which began to gain traction throughout the rest of Australia and beyond.
Australian four-piece Flyying Colours release their sophomore album; taking inspiration from the early 90s UK psych / shoegaze scene, “Fantasy Country” is rich in sonic texture and shimmering atmospherics with a heavy dose of melody. From the swooning, sludgy ‘Goodtimes’ and urgent noise-fest of ‘Big Mess’, to the gorgeous melodic pop of ‘OK’, Flyying Colours look to redefine noise within the context of pop music. Elsewhere, ‘It’s Real’ is perfect, summery dreampop while the crushingly loud ‘White Knuckles’ and chugging ‘Boarding Pass’ is a hazy, echo-laden spaced-out affair. Having released their critically acclaimed debut album “Mindfullness” in 2016, Flyying Colours have spent much of their time on the road with headline shows across the UK and Europe.
Touring with such prestigious names aspinkshinyultrablast as well as Johnny Marr, Brian Jonestown Massacre and A Place To Bury Strangers; the band developed both the talent and the audience appetite for the release of album Mindfullness which more than met expectations when it dropped in September of 2016. The enormous international reaction to a record which wrapped gorgeous melodies and harmonious vocals inside indie, shoegaze, and psyche prompted a huge rise in profile and established them as one of the coolest cult bands of the current generation.
Despite riding high from their instant success, fans had to wait five long years for another full-length record – but “Fantasy Country” once again proved why Flyying Colours are so special. Featuring the singles “Ok” and “Big Mess”, their second album is gloriously radiant and is a culmination of all of their experiences travelling and playing all around the world.
“This album was supposed to now be 6-12 months old. We take touring and supporting our music live pretty seriously so it would have been very difficult for us to put out this album during the early stages of the pandemic. We are very lucky to be in Australia right now where shows are starting up again, and we of course hope to be touring internationally again soon” said Brümmer.
Fortunately, the time to tour will soon be at hand as Flyying Colours have now announced select shows in support of their essential “Fantasy Country” album. Released via Club AC30 and Poison City Records
07/05Flyying Colours – The Chameleon, Nottingham
Taking “Fantasy Country” on tour, Flyying Colours will be heading to the UK during Spring 2022
This year sees the release of their highly anticipated new album “Which Way to Happy”.
When you’re trying to make it through tough times, you need a little light to find your way. That light blazes brightly on the alchemical second album from Penelope Isles, an album forged amid emotional upheaval and band changes. Setting the uncertainties of twentysomething life to alt-rock and psychedelic songs brimming with life, colour and feeling, Which Way to Happy emerges as a luminous victory for Jack and Lily Wolter, the siblings whose bond holds the band tight at its core. Produced by Jack and mixed by US alt-rock legend Dave Fridmann, the result is an intoxicating leap forward for the Brighton-based band, following the calling-card DIY smarts of their 2019 debut, “Until the Tide Creeps In“. Sometimes it swoons, sometimes it soars.
Sometimes it says it’s OK to not be OK. And sometimes it says it’s OK to look for the way to happy, too. Pitched between fertile coastal metaphors and winged melodies, intimate confessionals and expansive cosmic pop, deep sorrows and serene soul-pop pick-you-ups, it transforms “difficult second album” clichés into a thing of glorious contrasts: a second-album surge of up-close, heartfelt intimacies and expansive, experimental vision.
Their debut album “Until the Tide Creeps In” was produced by the band at the Bella Union studios in London and Brighton. They create dynamic blissed-out moments soaked in fuzz-noise waves – their songs fragile yet ferocious. Indie-psych currents and lustrous melodies blend with the siblings’ voices. To support the release they played over 150 shows all over the world,
Penelope Isles will be playing headline dates in support of “Which Way to Happy”. See Penelope Isles at the The Bodega, Nottingham Saturday 29th January 2022
Looking for the new sound of alternative rock? Black Country, New Road draw on a wide sphere of influences and have risen to become The most innovative and exciting British band of the new generation with stunning debut album “For the First Time“. The London-based post-punk band Black Country, New Road have announced their second album, following 2021’s “For the First Time”. “Ants From Up There” is out February 4th via Ninja Tune. They’ve also shared the first new song from the album: “Chaos Space Marine.”
“We threw in every idea anyone had with that song,” frontman Isaac Wood said in t a statement. “So the making of it was a really fast, whimsical approach—like throwing all the shit at the wall and just letting everything stick.”
Vocalist and guitarist Isaac Wood, saxophonist Lewis Evans, keyboardist May Kershaw, drummer Charlie Wayne, guitarist Luke Mark, bassist Tyler Hyde, and violinist Georgia Ellery comprise the band Black Country, New Road. The band’s debut was nominated for the 2021 Hyundai Mercury Prize. Following the release of celebrated debut album “For the First Time“; The London based experimental rockers have announced a series of exciting shows Black Country,New Road are set to go on tour next year.
“These guys have defied the odds to deliver a collection that’s all gold and no albatross.” – BBC Music
“The enigmatic London-based six-piece lay their flaws on the line in a jagged six-minute saunter of raw twists in course.” – The Line Of Best Fit
“Chaos Space Machine” off “Ants From Up There” released 4th February on Ninja Tune:
Cate Le Bon has announced her next record and shared its first single. Her sixth album is titled “Pompeii” and it’s out on February 4th via Mexican SummerRecords. The single is “Running Away,” and it comes with a music video directed by Casey Raymond and recorded in the Factory in Porth, Wales. Check out the visual, as well as Le Bon’s upcoming U.K tour dates, below.
“Pompeii” was written and recorded in a quagmire of unease. Solo. In a time warp. In a house I had a life in 15 years ago,” Cate Le Bon said in a statement. “I grappled with existence, resignation and faith. I felt culpable for the mess but it smacked hard of the collective guilt imposed by religion and original sin.”
The subtitle is: You will be forever connected to everything. Which, depending on the time of day, is as comforting as it is terrifying. The sense of finality has always been here. It seems strangely hopeful. Someone is playing with the focus lens. The world is on fire but the bins must go out on a Tuesday night. Political dissonance meets beauty regimes. I put a groove behind it for something to hold on to. The grief is in the saxophones.
Cate Le Bon has announced a US/UK/EU tour for 2022. Tickets are on sale this Friday at 10 AM localtime.Ticket + LP bundles are available for UK customers. All dates will be with Mega Bog.
03-14 Southampton, England – Engine Rooms 03-15 London, England – Hackney Empire 03-16 Manchester, England – Albert Hall 03-17 Glasgow, Scotland – SWG3 TV Studio 03-18 Belfast, Ireland – Empire Music Hall 03-19 Dublin, Ireland – The National Concert Hall 03-21 Liverpool, England – Arts Club 03-22 Leeds, England – Irish Centre 03-23 Birmingham, England – The Mill
Cate Le Bon released her fifth solo full-length Reward in 2019.
Cassandra Jenkins released her second album “An Overview on Phenomenal Nature” earlier this year. On November 19th, Her Record label Ba Da Bing Records will release a collection of alternate takes, outtakes, and a new song culled from that album’s sessions. It’s called, appropriately enough, “(An Overview on) An Overview on Phenomenal Nature”.
“An Overview on Phenomenal Nature” emerged from the blue earlier this year. With pandemic unknowns and political upheaval leaving most at frayed ends, the New York-born musician’s assuring voice and expansive fresh take on song-writing created a much needed reflective space for listeners worldwide. As 2021 comes to a close, Jenkins revisits those flowing textures and refrains with “(An Overview On) An Overview On Phenomenal Nature“, a collection of previously unreleased sonic sketches, initial run-throughs, demos, and sound recordings from the cutting room floor that provided the scaffolding for what became one of this year’s most critically acclaimed albums.
When Jenkins visited Josh Kaufman’s studio this summer, they opened up their original sessions to uncover the ideas that were shed in the creative process. The new collection, “(An Overview On) An Overview On Phenomenal Nature“, isn’t merely a retrospective; it acts as a clear-eyed addendum as well as a compelling origin story, coming to life as a subconscious companion to the original album.
First takes of “New Bikini” and “Hailey” are born from opposite starting points; while “New Bikini” began as an airy alto meander, “Hailey’s origins lie in an upbeat dance track. On “Crosshairs (Interlude),” Jenkins’ pitched vocal delivers a straight monotone, recasting the format as poetry with music highlighting her words, and “Ambiguous Norway (Instrumental)” lifts the ambient nature of the mournful song into glimmering waves. The demo version of “Michelangelo” contains alternate lyrics “I’m Michelangelo, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle,” a lost contrast to the later verse where Jenkins’ likens herself to the sculptor. On “Hard Drive (Security Guard),” we join Jenkins as she listens to a passionate museum guard whose promised “overview” of the exhibit on view builds into a monologue of observations on art, politics, feminism and the human condition. This candid interaction evolved into the cornerstone and title of Jenkins’ album.
Before they decided to make an album together, Jenkins brought Kaufman a song called “American Spirits.” The dusky ballad takes us to the Texas plains via a voicemail from the payphone of a county jail (“Ms. Cassandra”). Cassandra sings, “Time here burns through the sunsets / Like you and a pack of American Spirits” over warm instrumentation with a vocal delivery that reinforces Jenkins’ unwavering tenderness towards her subjects.
(An Overview On) An Overview On Phenomenal Nature bookends Cassandra Jenkins’ musical output this year with nuance, colouring in the corners, and giving us another window into her ever-expanding world of chance encounters, experiences, and sonic textures. They glimmer like the sun’s changing patterns on the wall as a new day gets going.
Releases November 19th, 2021
With performances by Matt Barrick, JT Bates, Eric Biondo, Stuart Bogie, Oliver Hill, Cassandra Jenkins, Josh Kaufman and Annie Nero.
We’re gearing up for Pip Blom’s new record, ‘Welcome Break’ due for release next month! We can’t wait.
Check out a brand new track ‘Different Tune’ ahead of the release. A softer, quieter track that is slow-building as well as intimate. Talking about the track Pip said:
“Different Tune really is the sentimental track on the record. The verses are pretty empty, and mostly revolve around the singing. So when the chorus hits the impact is even more. The trombone that’s slightly out of key in the chorus really strikes a chord for me. The bridge feels a bit like there’s a break through happening. As if there’s finally some sun after weeks of dark and rainy weather I hope this song can turn into an anthem. One can dream …”
“Different Tune” is taken from Pip Blom’s sophomore album “Welcome Break”.
“The Weekender”, our annual trip to London, is one of the best times of the year for The Hold Steady. These are always incredible shows in a place that is very special to us. And while we enjoyed the necessary virtual version in 2021, we are thrilled to announce the live and in person Weekender 2022. As always we will start with two nights at The Electric Ballroom, followed by a Sunday appearance at Moth Club.
The Soundcheck / Happy Hour will be happening for each Electric Ballroom show, we’ll be doing a pub quiz the afternoon of the Moth Club show, and a special The Hold Steady beer is brewing for the weekend.
We can’t wait to celebrate with you, and we hope you will join us!
Singer-songwriter David Crosby’s solo debut, “If I Could Only Remember My Name”, was dismissed by critics when it came out in 1971. Over the years, however, appreciation has grown for the album’s adventurous aesthetic, stacked harmonies and haunting lyrics about loss and confusion. Billed as Crosby’s solo debut, the album was anything but a one-man project. Instead, it was one of his most collaborative efforts, featuring an all-star cast of players that included members of the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Santana, along with Graham Nash, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and others.
“If I Could Only Remember My Name” has turned 50 years old earlier this year and Rhino Records is celebrating with a 2CD set that includes the album lovingly remastered from the original analogue tapes, accompanied by a bonus disc that features a dozen unreleased demos, outtakes, and alternative versions. The new remaster was overseen by original album engineer Stephen Barncard with restoration and speed correction using Plangent Processes. The liner notes that accompany the collection were written by Steve Silberman, co-author of Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads.
Many believe that the best art emerges from times of psychological struggle and/or philosophical unrest. That was the case in late 1970, when David Crosby recorded his first solo album, “If I Could Only Remember My Name”.
Crosby should have been riding high, mainly due to the enormous success of CSNY’s “Déjà Vu”album, which was released in March that year. Instead, he remained tormented by the sudden death of his girlfriend Christine Hinton, who was killed in a freak car accident on December.30th 1969.
His personal grief, alongside the unsettled feeling that fills you when a loved one passes before their time, became a key ingredient in the often amorphous, even eerie nature of the 1971 record.
The original nine songs (a 10th was added for the 2006 reissue and is also included here) reflected the pensive, melancholy mindset of Crosby at the time. These tracks were recorded at San Francisco’s famous Wally Heider studios, which was also the home to music created by most of the West Coast’s biggest acts.
Members of Santana, the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, along with friends Neil Young and Graham Nash, all contributed to the music; creating a loose all-star line-up that changed for each tune. Jerry Garcia, who swung by nightly, was a dependable presence; his distinctive, snaking guitar lines contribute deeply to the sessions’ overall dreamy vibe. “There’d be that grin, and then that look in the eyes, and this fascination with the music,” Crosby recalls. “Easy, not forced, graceful, fun, ever-present. It was a kindness, I’m pretty sure. Jerry never said that, never even implied it. Just, ‘Hey, I heard you were doing something. What are you doing? Let’s do something.”
From the opening ‘Music Is Love’, which emerged out of a jam and was later moulded into a song by Young and Nash, to the wordless, floating melody of the closing eight minutes of ‘I’d Swear There Was Somebody Here’, the disc sets a contemplative tone.
The latter track, which Crosby has said “It felt like Christine was there. I could feel her”, shifts from a ghostly moan to a lengthy and subtle improvisation, enhanced both by Garcia’s acoustic and electric playing.
Only the appropriately titled ‘Cowboy Movie’ shifts the proceedings into tougher territory.
It describes the dissolution of a gang of Old West thieves, narrated and often shouted by Crosby in a hoarse howl (he later explained it was about the tensions of his CSNY group), as Garcia’s stinging guitar and Phil Lesh’s rubbery bass craft an intensity that only ramps up over the song’s length.
The slowly surging electric beat, somewhat like the rhythm of ‘Almost Cut My Hair’, is the album’s longest and most propulsive moment.
Other lyric-free inclusions are ‘Tamalpais High (At About 3)’ and the self-explanatory ‘Song with No Words (Tree With NoLeaves)’, which punctuate other meditative, largely wistful fare, such as the lovely ‘Laughing’ and the elegant, heavenly autoharp that enhances ‘Traction in the Rain’. Crosby’s voice is never less than moving – always emotionally invested in the loosely structured, fluid material.
Initially dismissed by critics (Robert Christgau gave it a D- in a particularly scathing review), the singer/songwriter’s only solo stab for decades (his next came 19 drug-infested years later, of which he largely spent in prison) has gradually been elevated as a sort of freak-folk forerunner.
The reflective, mostly nebulous, even hazy approach is certainly not for everyone. But the meticulously remastered sound here emphasizes the music’s subtleties and the sense of camaraderie among the high-profile supporting musicians, all intent on helping Crosby craft music through this trying period.
Crosby followed up If I… with a series of generally well-regarded duo projects, working alongside and co-credited to GrahamNash. Their music was more structured but with less atmosphere and mystery, due to Nash’s pop-oriented compositions.
The 50th Anniversary Edition follows the established blueprint for many of these similarly lengthened packages. Like the expansive Déjà Vu from earlier this year, it adds mostly interesting demos and alternate takes.
Some, like the 10-minute ‘Cowboy Movie’ featuring Neil Young’s scorching guitar solo, have already been available, specifically on 2006’s lavish, expertly compiled three-disc Voyages. Others, such as an early acoustic, lyric-less ‘Dancer’ and ‘The Wall Song’, appeared on later Crosby-Nash releases.
A few, exemplified by the sweet, acoustic rumination ‘Coast Road’, would have made reasonable additions to the original, while the opening guitar and vocal of ‘Riff 1’ is a good example of Crosby searching for a melody as he hums along.
It’s pleasant but generally for hardcore fans. Unfortunately, at under an hour, the compilers had room but chose not to include any live versions. Also, 2006’s now out of print, expertly constructed 5.1 DVD audio remix, is MIA and would have been a logical inclusion.
David Crosby’s recent creative surge finds him rediscovering a muse some thought might have been lost forever, in a haze of drug and firearm legal issues throughout the decades since “If I Could Only Remember My Name” hit the shelves.
This reissue goes a long way to completing Crosby’s life and creative cycle that, now at 80 year of age, remains vibrant and shows no sign of slowing down soon.
Tracklist:
1. Music Is Love 2. Cowboy Movie 3. Tamalpais High (At About 3) 4. Laughing 5. What Are Their Names 6. Traction In The Rain 7. Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves) 8. Orleans 9. I’d Swear There Was Somebody Here
Bonus Track 10. Kids And Dogs
CD Two: Bonus Tracks
Demos 1. Riff 1 – Demo * 2. Tamalpais High (At About 3) – Demo * 3. Kids And Dogs – Demo * 4. The Wall Song – Demo * 5. Games – Demo * 6. Laughing – Demo * 7. Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves) – Demo 8. Where Will I Be – Demo *
Sessions 9. Cowboy Movie – Alternate Version * 10. Bach Mode – Pre-Critical Mass * 11. Coast Road * 12. Dancer * 13. Fugue *
Once a singer whose emphasis focused on pure pop of a decidedly whimsical variety, Harry Nilsson’s image became at least temporarily tainted after palling around with a bad boy Beatle. It’s not that Nilsson hadn’t shifted direction before. Ever since establishing himself with a pair of bona fide hits—“Everybody’s Talkin’” from the film Midnight Cowboy and his chart-topping remake of Badfinger’s “Without You”his career had seemed like it was on an upward roll.
Following 1970’s “Nilsson Sings Newman” a timely tribute to then-emerging singer/songwriter Randy Newman and his contributions to the soundtrack for The Point!, a cartoon short that attracted a cult adult following, he re-emerged with a series of albums that brought him a new, hipper following. “
Nilsson Schmilsson” and“Son of Schmilsson”showed considerable promise and gained airplay on FM radio, before being derailed by the decidedly schmaltzy“A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night” and the ill-advised attempt to reboot the horror movie genre with Ringo Starr’s film vehicle, Son of Dracula.
By 1974, Nilsson’s once-promising career was floundering and it would clearly take something significant to get him back on track. That need seemed to be filled when he began hanging with members of the new Hollywood rat pack, a group of boozing buddies affectionately referred to as the Hollywood Vampires and whose membership included John Lennon, Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, Alice Cooper and other assorted members of L.A.’s rock star elite. Lennon was a particularly strong presence; having temporarily parted with wife Yoko Ono and transplanting himself to the Left Coast, he began acting out his frustrations with new pal Nilsson in tow. The two did have a history; once asked to name their favourite American singer, the Beatles had given Nilsson that nod.
Produced by John Lennon during his infamous “Lost Weekend” period in 1974, “Pussy Cats” is often regarded as one of Nilsson’s weaker albums due to the fact that he lost his voice halfway through the recording of it. Keeping the news from Lennon out of fear he’d abandon the project, Nilsson forged ahead, recording a slew of rock n’ roll classics and engaging in revelry with a huge cast of backing musicians.
It felt only fitting, then, that Lennon would find a fit as the producer of Nilsson’s next album, originally titled Strange Pussies in a nod to their outlaw image, but later changed to Pussy Cats at the insistence of Nilsson’s record label, RCA, for its August 19th, 1974 release. Not surprisingly, the sessions attracted an eager cast of characters, among them guitarists Danny Kortchmar and Jesse Ed Davis, pedal steel player Sneaky Pete Kleinow, longtime Beatles associate Klaus Voormann on bass, Stones sax man Bobby Keys, drummers Starr, Moon and Jim Keltner, and any number of other studio insiders as well. The second night of recording brought two other big-name visitors, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, and a belated bootleg of mostly inconsequential jamming later emerged, aptly titled “A Toot and a Snore in ’74″.
Nilsson and company barely concealed the presence of drink and drugs the album cover alludes to the substance abuse by picturing children’s blocks showing the letters D and S precisely situated on either side of a rug, the word “drugs” being the operative implication. Somehow though, the formal recording sessions coalesced into a decent album, one that was half covers, half original songs, including one mellow ditty co-composed by Lennon and Nilsson in tandem, “Mucho Mungo/Mt. Elga,” a song with a mellow drift that prefigures Lennon’s “# 9 Dream,” which would appear on Lennon’s “Walls and Bridges” album later that same year.
While some of the Nilsson originals showed his promise as a newly liberated songwriter, particularly a cluster of songs on side one—“Don’t Forget Me,” “All My Life” and “Old Forgotten Soldier” as always, his true talent was realized in the efforts that found him interpreting the work of others. That’s especially true of his stirring version of the Jimmy Cliff classic “Many Rivers to Cross,” which finds him wailing with unfettered emotion and intensity.
So, too, Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” becomes a wild, unhinged ramble of a recording. To the contrary, the classic “Save the Last Dance for Me” is shared with a sentiment and sincerity that’s clearly illuminated throughout. What’s not immediately apparent is that the singer had ruptured his vocal cords, a fact he kept secret from Lennon so as not to force the project off the rails. The strain is evident on the pair of oldies the pair opted to include toward the end of the album, the raucous “Loop De Loop” and “Rock Around the Clock,” the latter of which finds Ringo, Moon and Keltner bashing away in tandem with ricochet rhythms.
Ultimately, Pussy Cats marks the final peak in Nilsson’s career. He continued making records, but never again would he make an album that boasted such notoriety. When he died of heart failure on January 15th, 1994, at the age of 52, his magnificent voice was sadly stilled forever.
