SUN ATOMS – ” The Cat’s Eye ” feat The Black Angels’ Alex Maas

Posted: August 27, 2021 in MUSIC
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Sun Atoms is the debut solo project from Portland, Oregon’s Jsun Atoms (The Upsidedown, Daydream Machine). His 8-song album, “Let There Be Light“, will shine on October 1st via Little Cloud Records in the US and The Acid Test Recordings in Europe.

The LP was produced by The Dandy Warhols’ guitar pedal maestro Peter Holmström and mixed by London’s legendary Stephen Street (Blur, The Smiths, The Cranberries).

JSun Atoms spent the pandemic year in the studio with long time collaborator, Holmström, crafting the songs and sending files back and forth from London, Brooklyn, Austin, and Sacramento. The vision comes from the sun being at what is thought of as the centre of our solar system, but the sun, like other stars, is a ball of gas. At the centre of the ‘Sun,’ musical atoms under intense pressure from gravity undergo a process.

This album is the resulting amalgamation that combines psychedelic, darkwave, and post-modern pop, with some first-rate guest performances including the leader of Brooklyn’s The Vandelles, Jasno Swarez, producer Peter Holmström (Pete International Airport, The Dandy Warhols), Gregg Williams (Sheryl Crow, Blitzen Trapper), St. Louis beat boss drummer Bob Mild, and Sacramento punks Pets, to name a few.

The genres bend and blend from song to song through such luminary influences as Love and Rockets, Moon Duo, The Cure, Nick Cave, Spiritualized, and Leonard Cohen.

Album opener “The Cat’s Eye” is a kaleidoscopic collaboration with The Black Angels’ Alex Maas on captivatiing vocals and haunting Mellotron. The single also features The Vandelles’ Jasno Swarez adding an innovative third vocal line and guitar, and Sheryl Crow drummer Gregg Williams’ percussive flurries on hand drums and congas.

The storytelling video is from Rome, Italy’s award-winning filmmaker Susanna Della Sala. It unfurls like a graphic novel, following a young woman filled with curiousity about how the world works… or maybe about how the inner mind operates… Is her search one that is an outward journey or a voyage within the hidden psyche?

Jsun reveals some details about how the collaboration with The Black Angels’ Alex Maas came about, stating:
“Alex and I first met when our bands were supporting Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in 2007. Alex and Christian invited my band to Austin to play the debut Levitation Festival, as it used to be held the weekend prior to SXSW.”

“Alex and I hit it off and we played music at the Angels’ practice space after all the after parties, Alex allowed me to sleep in his giant closet space in his room each spring as we returned to play the following Levitation Festival, and the next three years of SXSW. It was a huge closet and it was dark during the day, which was perfect for recovering from all that Austin had to offer, especially playing the after parties with friends like The Warlocks and Spindrift that were also staying at the Black Angels house during those times.”

“We have continued to play many shows together. Alex and I have shared early versions of songs with each other over the years. When Alex sent me some mixes of his critically acclaimed solo album Luca, I reciprocated with some early Sun Atoms mixes and he replied that he loved “The Cat’s Eye” and had some ideas for it.”

“We were taking a break from mixing because Gorillaz were using Stephen Street’s studio in London and when we came back to mix, Alex had sent this beautiful vocal chorus which worked well with Pete’s “Here Come The Warm Jets” guitar freak out. Alex said that the song was begging for the Mellotron flute lead which definitely took the song to a new level.”

Cameos from: The Black Angels’ Alex Maas, The Vandelles’ Jasno Swarez

From the Sun Atoms LP, “Let There Be Light” Full album available from Little Cloud Records (USA) and The Acid Test Recordings (Europe).

ERIC CLAPTON – ” No Reason To Cry ” Released 27th August 1976

Posted: August 27, 2021 in MUSIC
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No Reason To Cry

Eric Clapton‘s fourth solo album “No Reason To Cry” was released on 27 August 1976. It stands as a record on which he continued to demonstrate his renewed motivation.

“I spend my time listening to people and being heavily influenced by them,” he told Sounds magazine as the album emerged. “Then it comes time to record and I go down to the studio, try something new and it comes out as me again.

That was exactly the way his legions of fans wanted it. The new album, which followed Eric’s triumphant, US chart-topping “461 Ocean Boulevard” set of 1974 and the following year’s “There’s One In Every Crowd“, was a celebration of both his refuelled creativity and some great musical relationships.

No Reason To Cry was recorded in March 1976 at The Band’s Shangri-La studios, and featured the revered Canadian-American group’s close involvement. Eric Clapton had already played in several history-making groups, but there was one he couldn’t quite break into: the Band. The guitarist even went so far as to visit the Band in Woodstock when he was playing with Cream in the late ’60s.” He inducted the Band into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. “I really sort of went there to ask if I could join the Band, only I didn’t have the guts to say it, I didn’t have the nerve. I just sort of sat there and watched these guys work.”

“No Reason to Cry” was a step away from the blues sound Clapton built his reputation on, but he was unbothered by what fans might think. And he was happy to have the Band along for the ride.

“I’d never really liked country music,” he said. “I always thought it was over-sentimental. This is when I was into being very aggressive and playing just straight blues. Country music was just sloppy. … But the Band bridged the gap. The Byrds got there quite early. But the Band gave it a bite that country music just didn’t seem to have before.”

But the Band’s incumbent guitarist, Robbie Robertson, could sense what Clapton was up to. “I remember Robbie saying, ‘We don’t jam … we just write and work,'”. But he got all five members of the group to help out on his fourth solo album, 1976’s “No Reason to Cry”.

Clapton lets his collaborators run free: A Rick Danko and Richard Manuel song, “Beautiful Thing,” opens the LP; another Danko co-write, this one with Clapton, shows up in “All Our Past Times.” “He was such a kind, lovely guy, and I admired him musically,” Robbie said of Clapton years later. “I thought he was so gifted.”

And where the Band was so was “Dylan dropped by and was just hanging out, living in a tent at the bottom of the garden. He would sneak into the studio to see what was going on.” Dylan offered a song, “Sign Language,” which he sings with Clapton; he also had “Seven Days,” which Clapton turned down but was eventually picked up by Ronnie Wood for his 1979 solo album, “Gimme Some Neck”.

“No Reason to Cry“, as producer Rob Fabroni remembered it, was very much a collective effort, with Clapton loosening the reins to try whatever those around him suggested.

All five members played on the record: Rick Danko and Richard Manuel wrote its relaxed opener, ‘Beautiful Thing,’ and Danko co-wrote the stirring ‘All Our Past Times’ with Clapton himself and added a fine vocal part. Then who should show up but Bob Dylan, not only to sing a duet with “Slowhand” but to donate a new, unrecorded composition of his as the vehicle, ‘Sign Language.’

Some of Eric’s British pals also featured strongly, with guitars by Ronnie Wood and keyboards by Georgie Fame. Other contributors included trusted confidants such as Yvonne Elliman, Billy Preston and Marcy Levy, later of course to find huge chart success of her own as one half of Shakespear’s Sister. Levy and Dick Sims wrote the album’s penultimate number, ‘Hungry.’ It’s an album with an admirably live “band” feel to it, no pun intended, and features some exceptional playing by Clapton, never better than on a brilliantly brooding version of Otis Rush’s ‘Double Trouble.’

No Reason… climbed to No. 8 in the UK, also reaching the top ten in Denmark and Holland and No. 15 in a sturdy 21-week stay on the American chart. Clapton was little concerned with hit singles at the time, but did achieve a No. 24 hit from the album with his own composition ‘Hello Old Friend.’

Commenting on the album’s rootsy feel in that Sounds interview, Clapton observed of his audience: “I don’t really think they want a heavy metal album. At least I hope they don’t cause they’re not gonna get it anymore. I’m past that kind of thing. I don’t think it lasts.”

FAIRPORT CONVENTION – ” A Tree With Roots ” The Songs Of Bob Dylan

Posted: August 27, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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At the very beginning of their career, the North London Fairport Convention were often mistaken for an American band. This was largely due to their penchant for cover versions of songs by US singer-songwriters, primarily Bob Dylan. A good reason for a 2018 compilation is that it marks the 50th Anniversary since the original 12-track ‘Basement Tapes’ acetate of Dylan arrived in London. It was from this white label that Fairport Convention got “Million Dollar Bash” and Fairport splinter group, Fotheringay, took “Too Much of Nothing”. Manfred Mann scored a hit with “The Mighty Quinn”, Julie Driscoll & Brian Auger, “This Wheel’s On Fire” and, lest we forget, The Tremelos “I Shall Be Released”.

This new compilation of vintage covers of Bob Dylan’s work by Fairport Convention and their friends, “A Tree With Roots — Fairport Convention And The Songs Of Bob Dylan“, will be released on Island on 3rd August. It comes just ahead of the 2018 edition of the band’s celebrated Cropredy Festival, which takes place this year from 9th-11th August with Fairport themselves in the traditional headlining slot.

In their early days, before they developed their own song writing, Fairport were much given to covering the work of Dylan, one of their prime influences. 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the American bard’s Basement Tapes acetate in London, from which the nascent English folk group took ‘Million Dollar Bash.’ It also offered up ‘Too Much Of Nothing’ to the Fairport splinter group Fotheringay.

Dylan was also responsible for Fairport’s one UK hit single, ‘Si Tu Dois Partir,’ their version of his ‘If You Gotta Go, Go Now’,’ written in 1964. It prompted an appearance by the band on Top Of The Pops and featured on their third album Unhalfbricking, spending two weeks at No. 21 on the UK singles chart.

That version is on A Tree With Roots along with such Dylan copyrights as ‘Lay Down Your Weary Tune,’ ‘I’ll Keep It With Mine’ and the more widely-celebrated ‘All Along The Watchtower’ and ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.’ Tracks by Fotheringay and Fairport’s former lead singer Sandy Denny are also included.

TURNSTILE – ” Fly Again “

Posted: August 27, 2021 in MUSIC
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Everyone is getting pretty excited about the forthcoming Turnstile album which arrives August 27th via Roadrunner Records. Turnstile graciously shared their last single from the previously released album “Fly Again” The track opens with a wistful piano that leads into their signature chugging guitars and frontman Brendan Yates’ spacey screams. Much like the other singles from that album, such as “Alien Love Call” and “Blackout”,”

“Fly Again” displays yet another facet of Turnstile’s genre-bending philosophy. Turnstile didn’t have grand aspirations when childhood friends Brendan Yates (frontman) and Brady Ebert (lead guitarist) formed the band in Burtonsville, Md., in 2010, with Fang, bassist Franz Lyons and guitarist Pat McCrory soon joining the fold. The group dominated Baltimore’s hardcore scene in the early 2010s and issued debut album Nonstop Feeling on Reaper Records in 2015, then jumped to Roadrunner for Time & Space, all the while refining its groove-laden brand of metalcore. Now the band’s crossover potential rests on that expansive sound: Glow On combines mosh-ready riffs and Yates’ caustic vocal jabs with disparate elements including piano lines (“Don’t Play”), cowbell (“Blackout”) and Mustard-esque beats (“Holiday”).

Can a hardcore punk band impact the U.S. mainstream in 2021? Turnstile may soon provide an answer: Ahead of its third album, “Glow On” , the Baltimore quintet has been steadily gaining buzz beyond the hard-rock community, thanks in part to enviable live bookings, new collaborations with Blood Orange mastermind Dev Hynes and recent social media shoutouts from Blink 182’s Tom DeLonge and Paramore’s Hayley Williams. (“This band has always been so cool and the new music smacksssssss me,” Williams said.)

The major cosigns coincide with an album that is both more ambitious and accessible than Turnstile’s 2018 Roadrunner debut, Time & Space, “We’ve never been this happy with how everything has turned out,” says drummer Daniel Fang. “I feel like a teenager putting out my first demo.”

Elektra Music Group senior vp Chris Brown adds that there’s a palpable excitement around the band within Warner Music Group. “People are coming out of the woodwork just talking about the record, wanting to see this band win.”

JESSICA’S BROTHER – ” Just Rain “

Posted: August 27, 2021 in MUSIC
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Jessica’s Brother formed back in 2016 when The Wave Pictures’ drummer Jonny Helm and bassist Charlie Higgs were working together in a framing business and realised they shared a similar passion for making music. Fate intervened from there, as the pair met songwriter Tom Charleston, whose sister Jessica lends the band their name. The result was the band’s warmly received eponymous debut album, which came out via Fika Recordings back in 2018.

Now three years on the band are building towards the November release of their second album, “Just Rain“, which was produced and engineered by Shuta Shinoda at Hackney Road Studios during the summer of 2020. The London three piece Jessica’s Brother, comprising songwriter Tom Charleston, The Wave Pictures’ Jonny Helm on drums and Charlie Higgs on bass.

The songs explore a relentless collision of melancholy and resilience alongside themes of comedy, agency, and hope

The title track lays this out with an opening burst of slacker rock as Tom reflects back over a passage of time that feels like persistent unrelenting rain. Vacillating between despair and defiance, we uncover the strength to shrug it off as “just rain”; after all, as the track draws to its conclusion “losing sight can be relieving”.

Ahead of the release this week Jessica’s Brother have shared the record’s opening and title track. Just Rain is a song that deals with the meeting point of melancholy and resilience, as a long-term relationship ends at a time when the world feels in great flux. Musically, it’s something of a departure from their more folk-tinged debut, as distorted guitars come crashing into earshot alongside the pulsing slacker-rock rhythms and Tom’s half-spoken vocal delivery as he sings, “you’ve been trying, I’ve been trying, our heads are holy in silence”. Living up to the song’s title, the music seems to come crashing down from above, like the clouds opening and pouring down upon the band as they question whether to run for shelter or let it all fall down, as the song reaches its lyrical end, “could be death, could be just teething, losing sight can be relieving”. This feels like a step forward for Jessica’s Brother, a band moving on without losing the initial glint in the eye that made them such an exciting prospect in the first place.

“Just Rain” is out November 26th via Fika Recordings.

GLOO – ” How Not To Be Happy “

Posted: August 27, 2021 in MUSIC
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Gloo’s 2019 debut “A Pathetic Youth” was easily one of the coolest albums of that year — and pretty much any other, when you get down to it. A riff-laced assault of grungy garage-punk and existential angst that doesn’t let up from beginning to end, it zaps you with the kind of lightning that just doesn’t strike twice.

But to their credit, the supremely sardonic Littlehampton, U.K. trio come pretty damn close on the hotly anticipated (at least in my house) followup “How Not To Be Happy“. Along with all the chunky Cobain-style riffs, speeding crash-bash beats and throat-shredding vocals you expect from songs with titles like I Can’t Hear Myself Think, Takes The Piss and No One Gives A Fuck, these cuts deliberately display the band’s musical evolution and ambitions, putting a greater emphasis on subversively poppy melodies, crisp performances and subtle arrangements. They might not be happy, but you certainly should be.

The product of their fading seaside-resort hometown of Littlehampton, Gloo speak for the timeless day-to-day toil and angst; a rhapsody to lives gone stale, the band’s pop-laced punk rock is the perfect soundtrack to those in need of a little 21st-century escapism.

Growing up in a place such as Littlehampton on England’s south coast, 20 miles east of Brighton and a world away from London’s bright lights, instils a certain appreciation for life’s simple things. But if we’re not here for a time, we might as well have a time, right? “How Not To Be Happy“, Gloo’s second full-length offering speaks of that in abundance: 10 tracks of escapism that reflect the drudgery of the everyday but seek to shrug it off over the course of a 30-minute blur of power-pop, post-grunge and punk rock. The album. was recorded with Jag Jago (The Maccabees, Jamie T, Max Raptor) across the summer of 2020, in between local lockdowns.”

MARISSA ANDERSON and WILLIAM TYLER – ” Lost Futures “

Posted: August 27, 2021 in MUSIC
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Guitarists Marisa Anderson and William Tyler distill deeply rooted and varied traditions into distinctive voices all their own. Anderson and Tyler are each unyielding in their desire to extend through those traditions and the confines of “guitar music” to craft music at once intimate and expansive, conversational and transcendent. The duo’s debut collaborative album tethers together their singular voices into unified narratives that glisten, drive, and sway.

The pair initially met at a tribute held in honour of David Berman in January 2020. William then travelled from his hometown in Nashville to Marisa’s hometown of Portland, Oregon to record Lost Futures. Tucker Martine produced the LP at his Flora Recording Studio facility.

William Tyler is a Nashville guitarist and composer. He spent years woodshedding and touring with Nashville groups like Lambchop and Silver Jews before breaking away to focus on his own version of instrumental guitar music.

Guitarists Marisa Anderson and William Tyler distill deeply rooted and varied traditions into distinctive voices all their own. Anderson and Tyler are each unyielding in their desire to extend through those traditions and the confines of “guitar music” to craft music at once intimate and expansive, conversational and transcendent. The duo’s debut collaborative album tethers together their singular voices into unified narratives that glisten, drive, and sway. On Lost Futures, Anderson and Tyler’s guitars dance through lush arrangements and pastoral duets serpentine and reverent.

The kindred musicians first collaborated in the days following a Portland show commemorating the life of the late David Berman. As Anderson tells it, “There was an obvious and immediate affinity musically and personally which led to the feeling that we should try and do something together, but in January of 2020, both of us had pretty full schedules so it was more of a vague idea to do something, someday… then COVID hit.” With tours sidelined and the increasing tensions of isolation, unrest and ecological disaster looming, the duo set to composing and collaborating remotely.

On “Lost Futures”, Anderson and Tyler’s guitars dance through lush arrangements and pastoral duets serpentine and reverent.

Released August 27th, 2021

Written and performed by Marisa Anderson and William Tyler
Produced by Marisa Anderson, Tucker Martine, and William Tyler

JOHN – ” Nocturnal Manoeuvres “

Posted: August 27, 2021 in MUSIC
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‘Nocturnal Manoeuvres’ is the third album from John Newton and Johnny Healey, known collectively as JOHN. Boasting the singles ‘Šibensko Powerhouse’ and ‘A Song For Those Who Speed In Built-Up Areas’, the group once again successfully capture their unparalleled live power on record, thanks in part to the production of trusted friend Wayne Adams.

Nocturnal Manoeuvres – the new album from JOHN – finds the duo expanding upon their celebrated idiosyncrasies once more. It sees them returning to their trusted producer Wayne Adams (who was behind the boards for both of their previous albums) knowing his success in capturing their presence as a live band. Realising the expansive quality of the resulting recordings, they then enlisted mastering engineer Sarah Register (Protomartyr, Future Islands, Chastity Belt) in order to deliver the sense of space that the varied track-list deserved.

The result is a towering, titanic body of work – one that moves easily between cinematic post-rock, elastic post-hardcore and pummelling noise rock. The new record is the follow-up to their second LP, 2019’s Out Here On The Fringes, which catapulted them into the Top 40 of the UK Independent Vinyl Chart, was featured as an Album of the Day on BBC 6Music with three successive playlisted singles, and saw the band hit the road with the likes of Idles, Metz and Mclusky.

Having established an international presence with a blistering KEXP live session and a month-long journey through Europe in support of Out Here On The Fringes, JOHN return to the live stage in 2021 with a mammoth run of UK and Irish dates throughout the autumn of this. As venues continue to reopen, it offers a captivating chance to catch a band who’ve built a devoted following through the sheer energy of their live show: a celebration of the primal intensity of the guitar-drums duo as a format and a monument to idiosyncrasy, which is exactly the sort of manifesto you could attach to “Nocturnal Manoeuvres” as a whole.

“Stadium Of No” continues the riot of clever hardcore that bludgeons the senses into submission with a mental shredding of sheer noise that thrills and ends abruptly with a bang. Newton says of the track: “In parallel to the recurring motif of twenty-four hour work that runs throughout the album’s track listing, stadiums appear as hopelessly redundant monuments when they’re empty – only activated by the bodies that inhabit them. The song’s a nod to the often-overwhelming conditions of our present: a stadium-like crowd of opinions trying to shout on top of one another.” There’s no getting out of here now.

UK garage punks JOHN land on Dinked with their exclusive record getting loaded up with a signed photo book and the first instalment of their new 7’’ record series.

JOHN their forthcoming album ‘Nocturnal Manoeuvres’ to be released on the 8th October 2021 in collaboration between Brace Yourself Records & Pets Care Records.

GOOD MORNING – ” Barnyard “

Posted: August 27, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Melbourne lo-fi rock duo Good Morning have built quite an impressive resume for themselves despite flying largely under the radar for much of their career. Melbourne’s slacker jangle pop outfit Good Morning join the Dinked series with their latest landing on exclusive wax with a poster insert.

The two high school friends have been making bright and breezy tunes together for almost a decade now, and ‘Barnyard’ hears them at their most melodic and attentive to the outside world. The pair recorded the album at Wilco’s Loft studio following a US tour, and is set for release in October.

They’ve had a consistent output of short albums, EPs and singles over the years, their song “Warned You” has become a veritable indie hit, and A$AP Rocky even sampled their song “Don’t Come Home Today” on his last album Testing. The duo’s new album “The Option” is largely devoid of the hazy psych trappings of their past, but it’s also their most sprawling and fully realized record to date.

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‘Barnyard’ sees Australian lo-fi slacker-indie duo Good Morning firmly settling into the laidback sound they brought us on 2019’s ‘Basketball Breakups’. This is an LP of off-kilter, gently strummed melodies and jangling lead guitar lines. Their influences come from the likes of Smog, Sebadoh, Pavement and the Flying Nun roster.
“The Option” includes 8 new rock songs by the band Good Morning.
Good Morning are played this time by Stefan Blair, John Considine, James Macleod & Liam Parsons.
released April 5th, 2019

based off the short film ‘cornerstone’ (2009) by Richard Ayoade taken from the album ‘The Option’ out now

PENELOPE ISLES – ” Iced Gems “

Posted: August 27, 2021 in MUSIC
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On Tuesday British sibling duo Penelope Isles (Lily and Jack Wolter) announced a new album “Which Way To Happy”, and shared a new song from it, “Iced Gems” via a video for the single. Which Way to Happy is due out November 5th via Bella Union Records.

Which Way to Happy is the band’s sophomore album and follows their debut album, “Until The Tide Creeps In”, released in 2019 also via Bella Union. Jack produced the album, which was mixed by Dave Fridmann. New backing band members Henry Nicholson, Joe Taylor, and Hannah Feenstra all contributed to the recording of Which Way to Happy, as did composer Fiona Brice.

As the pandemic took hold, Jack and Lily decamped to a cottage in Cornwall to begin writing and recording the album.

“We were there for about two or three months,” says Jack in a press release. “It was a tiny cottage and we all went a bit bonkers, and we drank far too much, and it spiralled a bit out of control. There were a lot of emotional evenings and realizations, which I think reflects in the songs. Writing and recording new music was a huge part of the recovery process for all of us.”

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.

The album includes the song “Sailing Still” a new song the band shared in July via a video directed by Jack and starring Lily. “Sailing Still” .

Earlier this year Lily (under her alter-ego KookieLou) sang guest vocals on the Lost Horizons song “Heart Of A Hummingbird”. “Iced Gems” is taken from the Penelope Isles album “Which Way To Happy” released 5th November 2021 via Bella Union:

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