Brooklyn post-punk five-piece Geese announced their debut album, “Projector” and shared a new song from it, “Low Era” via a Fons Schiedon-directed video for the single, which has a bit of a Strokes vibe. Projectoris due out October 29th via Partisan/Play It Again Sam (with a physical release on December 3rd).
Projectorincludes the band’s auspicious debut single, “Disco” which came out in June and garnered acclaim from other outlets.
Geese’s members are recently out of high school. The band wrote, produced, and recorded Projectorduring their junior and senior years of high school at their home studio (which they call The Nest). Singer Cameron Winter wrote each song, which was then fleshed out by guitarist Gus Green, guitarist Foster Hudson, bassist Dom DiGesu, and drummer Max Bassin. Each song had to be recorded between the end of the school day and 10 p.m., which is when they’d start getting noise complaints from the neighbours. Dan Carey (Squid, black midi, Fontaines D.C.) then mixed Projector.
The band collectively had this to say about “Low Era” in a press release: “We had been trying to get everything to sound super heavy, creepy crawly, and complicated, really because that’s all we knew how to do. Four-on-the-floor songs like ‘Low Era’ had felt a little like poison to us for a while, until we consciously tried to challenge ourselves to write something more danceable. Once we stopped enforcing certain boundaries, it ended up working out without us expecting it to, and even ushered in this psychedelic 3-D element that ends up appearing throughout the album. We like the idea of confusing the listener a little, and trying to make every song a counteraction to the last, pinballing between catchy and complicated, fast and slow. ‘Low Era’ is one end of that spectrum, and ultimately broadened the scope of songs we thought we could make.”
Curiously alien, yet strangely familiar, the band’s debut album, Projector, is a product of five teenagers whose love of music touches every part of their lives: their restless anxiety about their futures, and their pent-up frustration with their present-a perspective all too familiar in today’s uncertain world. For fans of Television, The Strokes, Shame and The Feelies.
“Low Era” taken from the forthcoming album, Projector, out October 29th
Everyone has had a different experience of the last year and a half. While some of us sat at home, endlessly scrolling through Twitter and You Tube, others were releasing a near-constant stream of new music. And by ‘others’, I mean Will Gould. After the critical acclaim and soaring success of last summer’s Sex, Death & The Infinite Void, the band Creeper frontman gave some time to his latest goth-punk project Salem, with whom he has put out two EPs since last October. We spoke with him over the phone a few days before Creeper made the surprise announcement that they were back for more with their upcoming EP, “American Noir“. That’s an awful lot of productivity for such an unpredictable time, so my first question is a simple one: is he okay?
“No. No, I’m not,” Will jokes, quickly clarifying that although it’s a novel experience to be working quite so much, he has had a good time of it. “I’ve actually quite enjoyed the process of putting lots of releases out. It’s been a challenge [but] it’s been fun being creative. I’ve got to work with a lot of different people I wouldn’t typically have worked with because I would be on tour”.
American Noir acts as an epilogue to the story of Sex, Death & The Infinite Void, which Gould describes as a “really lavish love letter between Roe and Annabelle”. It isn’t a lockdown album, and while all the songs were recorded at the same time as the last album, they felt that now was the right time for them to see the light of day. “We’re coming back, the world is reopening and it’s the perfect time to be reborn in some degree. Something to christen this new era of live music” he says, “And I had this wonderful title!”.
One major difference between American Noir and Sex, Death & The Infinite Void is that the new EP features more of keyboardist Hannah Greenwood on vocals. She and Gould previously shared vocals on the Nick Cave/PJ Harvey style duet ‘Four Years Ago’. Here, she reprises the character of Annabelle on ‘Midnight’, ‘America at Night’, ‘Ghosts Over Calvary’ and ‘Damned and Doomed’. It turns out that Gould had done a lot of writing for her, and he gets particularly animated when he talks about seeing her flourish as a singer. “I’m very proud of her on this EP. I know she’s anxious about it coming out and it’s the first time that she’s been thrust into that position” he enthuses, “She’s always had the talent, so it’s cool to see her come out of her shell even more”.
Much of Creeper’s recent music revolves around religious imagery, perhaps unsurprisingly: Will Gould is a former Catholic school student. But what fascinates Gould the most is the contrasting relationship between faith and belief in the supernatural. “I’ve been fascinated by the idea that these things could be real; the blurring of fiction and reality is really interesting to me. Why we would take less seriously something that is I guess rooted in science like UFOs and UAPs, but we take more seriously a religious text from a long time ago that there’s not a lot of grounding in”. The result is an album that tells a classic story – a man sent from above who becomes a martyr for the sins of the people – interwoven with the supernatural imagery that defined his childhood.
He tells us about his childhood obsession with UFOs, searching the library for books he had seen advertised on TV: “I was, like, a little baby, looking for Alien Base, this hardback book!”. An X Files fan, perhaps? “When I was a kid I used to dress up as an FBI agent all the time and carry round a little badge I made for myself because of The X Files”.
Alongside the truth that may be out there, the band are heavily influenced by musical theatre – the campier the better. Gould is starting to see Creeper the same way he sees The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Shock Treatment and Little Shop of Horrors. “It’s too campy, it’s too over the top for some people, and I kind of relish that”, he admits. It’s not unthinkable that this era of Sex, Death & The Infinite Void and American Noir could hit the stage. Green Day and Meatloaf have seen their concept albums turned into stage sensations, so could Creeper be next? “It’s always been a dream to take it to the stage. But I wouldn’t want to sing it myself in that position, to be singing on a stage like that. But I like the idea of someone else doing the singing and being able to sit in the back and work on projects from behind the curtain a little more. That’s something I’d really like to do”. Always full of surprises, it wouldn’t come as a shock if Creeper moved into the world of theatre.
When Gould describes the band’s music, the words that most often come up are ‘camp’, ‘ridiculous’ and ‘silly’. But that doesn’t mean that Creeper are superficial. When they supported pop-punk acts over the years, they didn’t always gel with the crowd with their Rocky Horror numbers and dramatic ballads. But instead of trying to fit in, they forged their own path, one of magic and theatricality. “That’s the way the show is going and that’s the way I really want it to be. Something that when it comes to town, you know. Like when the Rocky Horror Picture Show comes to town. When I was a kid, very effeminate, very unsure of my sexuality, going to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, being able to dress up and go out and be whoever I was without being judged was such a powerful thing for me as a young man”.
It would be easy to think that Creeper had created their magnum opus with this era, but the truth is that they’re going to keep pushing forward, reaching new ambitious heights and plummeting “further and further down the ridiculous hole”. Maybe it is too campy and too over the top for some people. But for others, it might be everything you’ve ever needed.
In a world which seems to move at a million miles an hour, it’s easy to get lost in commotion and feel completely overwhelmed by it all. Coupled with things like toxic productivity or toxic positivity, we are constantly pulled in multiple directions and sometimes it can be hard to just be. One singer resisting society’s endless clamour is Oakland-based singer-songwriter Boy Scouts. An expert at swimming around in her feelings and honing in on the uncertainty of life, she dives headfirst into uncomfortable sensations of precariousness or pain, coming up for air gripping hauntingly beautiful music.
In her new meditative single, ‘Didn’t I’, Boy Scouts delves into existence itself; no question is too big or too small to escape her magnifying glass as she tries to make sense of her world. Opening with a gentle plodding piano melody, she instantly creates a warm place for her to unfold her findings, or lack thereof, as she slowly sings “I don’t have the answers / I have memories”. Stirring strings support her expressive voice as she wonders “maybe things are just as they seem”, meanwhile aching organs and steady guitars propel the song gently onwards.
Speaking on the single Boy Scouts pondered: “Why are we alive? Is there a point to any of this? Have I done this before? I was thinking about these questions like that, just playing with these ideas and being curious.” As the song progresses we get no closer to an answer to The Big Question, but that is the beauty of ‘Didn’t I’. Purposefully unhurried and measured vocals sit alongside equally leisurely instrumentation and we are all led into Boy Scouts’ slow-going world and given time to unwind. ‘Didn’t I’ certainly leaves us with more questions than answers but Boy Scouts’ affable vocals and soothing harmonies act like a balm to the anxieties which come hand in hand with being a person.
Boy Scouts will return soon with her new album, Wayfinder, in October. Named for how music has acted as her personal compass, the record sees Boy Scouts delve further into life’s big questions, and find gratitude in just being alive. It’s comforting to know that in our manic world, there are others who prefer to take a step back and just be. Maybe things really are just as they seem
“Didn’t I” by Boy Scouts from the album ‘Wayfinder’, available October 1st
When Brighton quartet Fur first began pricking up ears back in 2017, their early moves seemed imbued with more than a dash of good fortune. Without any big money campaign, that autumn’s jangling, sepia-tinged third single ‘If You Know That I’m Lonely’ went borderline viral on Youtube, amassing millions of streams over the following months; currently, it stands on more than 40 million plays across all platforms. But since then, the band – comprised of singer Murray, bassist Tav, guitarist Josh and drummer Flynn – have set about confirming that their early algorithmic victories were no fluke.
Breaking into the Asian market, building an increasingly strong community in their native UK and now heading into their debut album, Fur’s is a tale not of flukey success, but of playing the long game. What Fur have specialized in is their ability to mix the old and the new, to take a particularly nostalgic strain of lovelorn guitar music but make it sound fresh again. Whether it’s playing a Gibson SG, enlisting the skills of Mike Rowe (Oasis and Mick Jagger’s key’s player amongst other accolades), or falling down the White Rabbit hole of The Velvet Underground via The Strokes in a flurry of influential digestion, Fur, are unquestionably a contemporary act, writing contemporary songs, for tomorrow’s music explorers; an infinite balancing act between present relevancy, and the traditional rock n roll of which they themselves, look up to.
The record is produced by Theo Verney and mixed by Grammy winning engineer Caesar Edmunds (Queens of the Stone Age, Foals, St. Vincent).
While the Brighton group might easily be mistaken as a group of mods and rockers from the suede jackets and bootleg jeans, Fur is one of the biggest growing alt-indie bands in the UK. With a modern twist on rock and pop, their latest single ‘The Fine Line Of A Quiet Life’ highlights their talent to combine a steady upbeat bass with a fun and catchy set of lyrics.
While the sorrowful lyrics place a strong emphasis on self-reflection and understanding the milestone you are at in your life, the upbeat range in frontman Murray’s voice gives the song a cheerful edge. During the transition to the chorus, the change in pitch of Murray’s voice and guitar give the song potential to make it a summer anthem.
‘The Fine Line Of A Quiet Life’ is an amazing addition to the ever-growing alt-indie genre. Putting a twist on a classic type of rock song, Fur has demonstrated creativity in both their lyrics and pitch.
Nashville-based songwriter Madi Diaz’s new album ‘History Of A Feeling’ is out August 27th on ANTI Records. History Of A Feeling undeniably marks Diaz’s status as a first-rate songwriter, a craft she’s spent years refining. Across the album, Diaz cycles through the full spectrum of emotions as she comes to terms with the dissolution of a meaningful relationship. She plays the line between the personal and the general with dexterity: in Diaz’s hands, quiet moments of self-pity are transformed into grand meditations on heartbreak, and unwieldy knots of big existential feelings are smoothed out with a sense of clear-eyed precision.
Diaz started working on History Of A Feeling three years ago, before beginning collaborations with co-producer Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Bon Iver) with whom she worked closely to flesh out the album’s instrumentation. It’s a homecoming record of sorts that points to her Nashville song writing roots. Pulling from a range of folk, country and pop leanings, as much influenced by Patty Griffin and Lori McKenna as PJ Harvey and Kathleen Hanna, History Of A Feeling is comprised of the most direct and introspective songs Diaz has ever written.
Throughout, she seamlessly weaves a profound sense of intimacy and camaraderie as her lyrics are relatable to anyone who has experienced heartbreak and great change in some manner. These universals are shaded by the fact that the relationship breakdown Diaz is chronicling coincided with her former partner transitioning, a complex reckoning Diaz approaches with empathy, candor, and care. “The bulk of this music came from dealing with a kind of tsunami clash of compassion, both for my former partner while she was discovering a deeper part of her gender identity long hidden, and my own raw heartache over having lost the partner I knew,” Diaz says. “I felt so torn through the middle because half of me wanted to hold this person through such a major life event, one that is so beautiful and hard, and the other half felt lost—like I had lost myself in someone else’s story.” It was a sea change that reverberated and ricocheted in her reflections on their relationship and her own sense of self moving forward and her process of healing.
Rage, confusion, despair, self-deception, and introspection—Madi Diaz cycles through the full spectrum of emotions on History Of A Feeling, her debut on ANTI-Records. It’s an album that undeniably marks Diaz’s status as a first-rate songwriter, a craft she’s spent years refining, and one wherein Diaz establishes herself as an artist capable of distilling profound feelings with ease.
Girlpuppy is 22 year old Atlanta based singer-songwriter Becca Harvey. Either wanting to be Hannah Montana or Taylor Swift growing up, she is now making music that sounds nothing like her childhood influences. Following her first track For You and it’s success, she enlisted the help of of Marshall Vore (Phoebe Bridgers) to make her debut ep, coming soon.
Girlpuppy became Becca’s sole focus when the coronavirus pandemic forced her out of her job at an East Atlanta bakery. With an abundance of spare time on her hands, Becca found herself able to finish work on the tracks she had originally started putting together a year earlier. The result is the debut Girlpuppy EP, “Swan”, which was released last week via Royal Mountain Records.
“Swan” opens with Becca’s recent single, “Miniature Furniture“, a track named in honour of an art exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago and a summer spent hitting the road, burying the feelings of a difficult break-up in socialising, travelling and doing anything to avoid thinking about relationships. Musically, the track is a beautiful introduction to Girlpuppy’s sound, a fusion of languid indie-guitars and hazy dream-pop atmospheres, all serving as a backing to Becca’s beautifully unhurried vocal line. Elsewhere on the record Cheerleader is more a moody piece that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Phoebe Bridgers record, while the burbling electronic pulse of Hideout demonstrates the EPs impressive musical variety. Perhaps the finest moment is the EP’s penultimate track, As Much As I Can, “a love song to the people in my life that make unconditional love the most difficult“, set to a backing of rapid tumbling guitars in the vein of Amber Arcades or Alvvays. These are early days for Girlpuppy, a five-song EP that’s finding its place in the musical landscape, yet the potential is boundless, for Girlpuppy the future could take her as far as her imagination allows.
Musicians: Becca Harvey: vocals Marshall Vore: drums, acoustic guitar, keys Grace Repasky: bass, keys, harmony vocals, acoustic guitar Maggie Geeslin: electric guitar, lap steel Ruby Henley: synth Charlie Hickey: harmony vocals, piano, 12 string guitar, bass John Michael Young: 12 string guitar, electric guitar, bass Mason Stoops: lap steel, bass Cole Petersen: drums
If walls of noise clattering against lethargic bass and squalling feedback gets your blood pumping then have a listen to this album of sludgy shoegaze loveliness.
There are touches of Jesus & Mary Chain waves of sound, c86 atmosphere and young marble giants moods. what stands out more than the touch points though is the space the music inhabits – at once broad scope yet claustrophobic, it’s a masterpiece in creating the same haunted industrial space that early new order made so well. we’re hooked – this band are going to go far with a sound like this.
Just Mustard already garnered a ton of acclaim in their homeland upon the release of their debut album Wednesday, but it took a little longer for word of mouth to drift across the Atlantic. Fittingly, their best songs — like their latest single “Seven” — function like storms approaching off the sea. They exist in the eerie moment when you feel the air shift and tighten: Warped guitar screeches suggest destruction on the horizon, and Katie Ball’s ghostly vocals a siren song calling you into it.
Dundalk’s shoegaze champions Just Mustard are quietly amassing a stellar reputation for bewitching live performances. The band have enjoyed a surge in popularity since the release of “Wednesday” in 2018, which was nominated for the Choice Music Award. Subsequent releases, like ‘October’ in May, have seen the group further hone their shoegaze sound with elements of trip-hop and garage rock.
The Chicago based Post Animal takes us into an alternate-universe created at Sleeping Village. The gardens of distorted mirrors lend itself to the 70 minute psych-pop journey you’re about to embark on!
“We recorded this modern blend of our work, some old, some new, live at Sleeping Village in Chicago. The grass was truly greener on the inside. Brought to you by the source of creativity excelsior (ever upward)!” .
The Chicago quintet takes us into an alternate-universe created at Sleeping Village – a garden of distorted mirrors and a 70 minute psych-pop journey of swirling riffs and melody. In addition to the live performance film stream, the performance is being pressed on limited edition vinyl . Also available on screen printed posters signed by the band, limited edition cassettes, t-shirts, and tie dye tees! Get your hands on the good stuff at the link above.
Celebrating the return of Genesis and their 2021 / 2022 arena tour, “The Last Domino?” collection gathers together the band’s legendary hits with choice album cuts from across their stunning career. Having sold around 100 million albums to date, this new 4LP set represents the first time a career-encompassing Genesis collection has been made available on vinyl. The Last Domino? comes pressed on heavyweight vinyl housed in a hardback gatefold book-style package with rare and previously unseen images of the band.
Genesis is back touring. The legendary outfit featuring Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks, and Phil Collins is set to release best of collection “The Last Domino?”, It’s a new set of the band’s best-loved songs, including chart hits, deep cuts, and fan favourites. Available as a double-CD and a 4LP set, both editions are set for release on September 17th, 2021,in conjunction with the start of The Last Domino? Tour.
“And Then There Were Three” (1978) was the first album the band released as a three-piece and spawned the single “Follow You Follow Me,” which was their first U.K. top 10 and U.S. top 30 single and proved to be the start of huge commercial global success.
The albums Duke (1980), Abacab (1981), Genesis (1983), Invisible Touch (1986) and We Can’t Dance (1991) followed for the trio, alongside almost constant global stadium tours cementing the band as one of the most successful of all time.
Banks, Collins and Rutherford reunited again as a band in 2007 after almost 10 years for the “Turn It On Again Tour,” which went on to be one of the biggest grossing tours of the year playing sold-out stadiums around the world.
When The Last Domino? Tour was announced, it became one of the fastest selling of the year, with extra dates being added throughout the whole of the UK. It kicks off on September 20th, 2021, with two nights at the Birmingham Utilita Arena and a total of 16 arena shows across the UK, followed by an arena tour through North America – seewww.genesis-music.com for more details. The jaunt will mark the first Genesis tour in 14 years.
“The Last Domino?” is the perfect companion to the tour. Containing 27 songs selected with the band (and a majority of which will be performed at the shows), it’s a package that represents their incredible journey as one of rock’s true pioneering bands. The 4LP set is housed in a hardback gatefold book-style package, which includes rare and unseen images of the band from their archive and images of the rehearsals of The Last Domino? it is a package that represents their incredible journey as one of rock’s true pioneering bands through to their global dominating hits that has seen them play sold-out stadiums and arenas all over the world for decades.
Katie Crutchfield’s loose, delightful cover of Woody Guthrie’s “Talking Dust Bowl Blues” is perfectly unadorned — it plays like Crutchfield just picked up a guitar seconds before recording and decided to bust out a quick cover. Although she’s blessed with a fabulous voice, it feels great to hear Crutchfield in this cheeky, conversational mode, playing a song that connects Americana’s current generation with its most important forebearer.
Waxahatchee – Talking Dust Bowl Blues from the upcoming album ‘Home In This World: Woody Guthrie’s Dustbowl Ballads’
