Prior to last year, the last we heard from the brother/sister duo of Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger’s band FieryFurnaces was 2009’s“I’m Going Away”. After a long 11-year long hiatus, The Fiery Furnaces have returned last year with a new single “Down At the So and So on Somewhere” now they have announced some new live dates and digitally shared the song “The Fortune Teller’s Revenge,” which was originally the B-side of “Down at the So and So on Somewhere” when it was released on a 7-inch last year by Third Man Records.
Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger formed The Fiery Furnaces in New York City in 2000. Their debut album “Gallowsbird’s Bark” (Rough Trade Records) was released to critical acclaim in 2003. In the following seven years, they released eight more albums and toured extensively throughout North America, Europe, Australia and Japan. The band’s last performance was nearly a decade ago at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona. In the meantime Eleanor and Matthew have released eight solo albums, collectively.
The live dates happen this November and will be supported by comedian/musician Fred Armison.
“We’re very excited to be playing again, to get a chance to do new things with old stuff, or old things with new people,” the band collectively say in a press release. “And we’re very happy to have Fred opening the shows. We’ll be six on stage, joined by: Brian Betancourt, Noah Hecht, Emily Lee and Cameron Wisch.”
“The Fortune Teller’s Revenge” ·by The Fiery Furnaces ·Third Man Records Released on: 2021-08-25
Alexis Krauss and Derek E. Miller known as Sleigh Bells are releasing a new album, “Texis“, on September 10th via Mom + Pop Music. Now they have shared another new song from it, “Justine Go Genesis,” via a video for it. A press release says the song sounds like “the unexpected intersection of Metallica, Spice Girls, and ‘90s drum and bass.” Miller co-directed the video with Alex Ross Perry.
Previously Sleigh Bells shared the album’s first single, “Locust Laced”. “Texis” is the follow-up to 2016’s full-length album “Jessica Rabbit” and 2017’s mini-album/EP “Kid Kruschev”.
“We stopped worrying about whether or not we’re in or out of our comfort zone, or if we were being repetitive or formulaic,” said Miller in a previous press release.
Miller added: “The thing I’m most attracted to is the juxtaposition of happy and sad, melancholy and hope. A lot of this is about trying to hold on to a shred of optimism through sheer force of will, and I hope this music can give people some joyful energy and confidence.”
Most of all thank you to Alexis for an amazing performance, for believing in the treatment and running into a brick wall repeatedly. Our dancers Jasmine Sugar, Nadine Olmo, and Camila Arana smashed it, too We are both beyond ecstatic to kick everything off today. Thanks for listening and watching.
Shannon Lay has a new album, “Geist”, on October 8th via Sub Pop Records. Now she has shared its fourth single, “A Thread to Find,” via a video for it. Kai Macknight directed the video, which features in-the-studio footage.
Lay had this to say about the new song in a press release: “‘A Thread to Find’ is about finding pieces of yourself in unfamiliar places. It is about watching the people around you grow and evolve and admiring the chaos and the beauty of discovering new worlds within ourselves. It is recognizing the courage and strength in each other even in the face of great challenge. And it is a reminder for when you get lonely on your journey that we are in this together. You’re on your own but not alone.”
When Geistwas announced Lay shared two songs from it, “Awaken and Allow” and the title track “Geist” via a joint video.
The initial vocals and guitar for the album were recorded by Lay at Jarvis Tavinere of Woods’s studio. Then various others worked on the songs from there: multi-instrumentalists Ben Boye (Bonnie Prince Billy, Ty Segall) in Los Angeles and Devin Hoff (Sharon Van Etten, Cibo Matto) in New York, Sofia Arreguin (Wand) and Aaron Otheim (Heatwarmer, Mega Bog) added additional keys, and then Ty Segall did a guitar solo on “Shores.”
“A Thread to Find” from the album “Geist” (Release Date: October 8th, 2021)
Manchester, England-based dance-rock band W.H Lung were releasing a new album, “Vanities”, on September 3rd via Melodic, but they have pushed it back to October 8th due to COVID-19 and pressing plant issues. To tide fans over, they have shared the album’s third single, “Gd Tym,” which was shared via a video starring a drag queen named Dylan as she wanders a small town in Northern England. The band’s Joe Evans co-directed the video with Craig McLaughlin.
Evans had this to say about the video in a press release: “The ‘Gd Tym’ video sees a drag queen sweep like a flame through a town in need of a party. She moves through the scenes bringing fierceness and love, fulfilling her divine task, before disappearing back into the land.
“I wanted the video to celebrate the central message of the song which rejoices in dancing and freedom and expression. I knew it had to be drag. We were so blessed to work with the amazing Dylan who brought such an elegance, glamour and vitality to their performance.
“I was inspired to create moving photographs, equally by the music videos of Solange and the vibrant slice-of-life photography of Martin Parr. The beautiful work of Craig McLaughlin who co-directed and edited this video and Jamie Haigherty, our DP, was essential in bringing these worlds together.
“The video was shot in the Calder Valley, around Heptonstall and our previous home of Todmorden. These are the real-life people and places from the period of our lives that informed the writing of this album. It’s a real joy to be able to pay homage to this these people and this scenery and here too.”
Previously W.H. Lung sharedVanities’first single, “Pearl In The Palm”. Then came the album’s second single, “Showstopper”
Vanitiesis the band’s sophomore album, the follow-up to 2019’s Incidental Music. W.H. Lung’s main songwriters are Tom Sharkett and Joe Evans.
In a previous press release, Sharkett said that their hometown is integral to their sound. “Manchester is a very important part of this record,” he says. “The White Hotel, nights like Wet Play, seeing Gerd Janson DJ at the End of Year Riot (Electric Chair) and then discovering all the amazing stuff on his label Running Back. Then when we moved to Todmorden it was the same. Seeing Andrew Weatherall down the road from our flat at The Golden Lion—it just felt like an exciting time for us and I wanted to consume as much new music as possible.”
Evans said that the dancefloor is also an important component of the new album. “Vanities is a musical representation of what Tom and I crave the most now that it’s been taken away from us,” he said. “In simple terms, we love to dance and have both fallen deeper in love with the music that facilitates that. Because of this voracious appetite for new music and the experiences that come with that hunger, influences on the album are vast: the aforementioned Weatherall, Robyn, Todd Terje, Grauzone, Kelly Lee Owens, Helena Hauff and countless others.”
“Gd Tym”, from upcoming album “Vanities”, out October 8th on Melodic Records.
Chicago trio Dehd have shared a Lala Lala remix of their song “Desire,” originally featured on their sophomore album “Flower Of Devotion”. It is the latest offering from their forthcoming remix album, Flower of Devotion Remixed, which will be out on September 17th via Fire Talk. Listen to the Lala Lala remix of “Desire,”.
Vocalist and guitarist Jason Balla speaks about the collaboration with Lala Lala (aka Lillie West), stating in a press release: “Lillie from Lala Lala really cut this one down to just the vocals and built it back from there. The first time I heard it I was amazed at the intensity of the vocals, it was like hearing the song for the first time. I think sometimes there’s this impulse in music making that more equals intensity, but I’d say this remix is an argument against that kind of logic.”
West adds: “Dehd are some of my best friends and one of my favourite bands, and it was an honour to remix their song ‘Desire.’ Emily [Kempf]’s isolated vocals made me cry. I hope you dance.”
Upon the announcement of Flower of Devotion Remixedlast month, the band shared a remix of “Flying” by Physical Medium. The original Flower of Devotion was released last year on Fire Talk, and featured the singles “Flood” “Month” and “Ha Ha”. The band will be supporting Julien Baker on her forthcoming tour in October and November 2021.
‘Flower of Devotion’ was one of the most critically-heralded releases of the year, named Best New Music by Pitchfork who called the record “an effortless, elegantly rumpled strain of indie rock” and the album received further accolades from the FADER, Vice Noisey, Under the Radar, Variety and more. ‘Flower of Devotion Remixed’ sees Dehd surrounded by a myriad of close collaborators (Lala Lala, Protomartyr, Freak Heat Waves, and more) and points a shining spotlight on the Chicago music scene the band still calls home, staying true to the trio’s earnest melodies while creating an amorphous blend of experimentations in mutated indie pop that feels like a personal mixtape for the friends that know them best.
Releases September 17th, 2021
From Dehd’s “Flower Of Devotion Remixed “out September 17th on Fire Talk Records.
Of the many transformative moments that made JJ Shurbet realise that a whirlwind of touring life, addiction, and the pressures of internet stardom had been sucking her under, one particular therapy session stands out. “They didn’t allow us to bring instruments to rehab,” says the 20-year-old artist otherwise known as Scruffpuppie. “But within two weeks of being there, I found out that one of the counsellors had their own guitar – and I would beg him to bring it out so that I could play for everybody. I just wanted to be able to feel music again.”
As Shurbet relays this story they are about as far away from the memory as they could be. Calling from her bedroom in LA – where she moved from Wisconsin with the intention of feeling “more settled and free” after leaving treatment in September 2020 – she is bright-eyed and enthused when discussing her forthcoming project, set to be released via Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory label (where they will join the likes of artists Claud and Muna in January 2022.
Mired in relief and wonder, the new music charts Shurbet’s recovery from years of consistent drug abuse as they toggle between plucky emo stylings and hyper-pop with a deft hand. Even though she first arrived as an unpredictable, DIY-minded talent on YouTube as a covers artist before releasing 2018 Bandcamp collection ‘Zombie Boy’ and its follow-up ‘Never Coming Home’ the year after, it’s here where Shurbet sounds truly invigorated, particularly on lead single ‘Assignment Song’: “I’ll see you all another day/When we are cured and clean again”, she sings during over scratchy riffs its cloud-parting chorus.
“JJ’s writing is both referential of all the emo music I love, and yet, entirely new. I recognise the world I know in it,” Bridgers says. “It’s like she’s filtering everything through raw emotion, throwing some distortion on it all, and handing it back to us so we can feel something for a second.”
scruffpuppie/aka. JJ Shurbet, is a bedroom indie artist based out of of Appleton, Wisconsin
Enter on a cacophony of broken trumpets. Then thumbtacks and syringes, a faucet dripping eternally, all patient in their torment. Purgatory, this is. Liily frontman Dylan Nash imagines so, anyway; this is the Lovecraftian nightmare he created on ‘The Miracle of Race Wild’, a track from the Los Angeles band’s forthcoming debut album ‘TV Or Not TV’, out later this year.
“I always see people applauding themselves because they just need to applaud themselves, and I thought it would be interesting if they knew what an actual purgatory would be like,” says Nash. “I think it [would be] terrifying to be in a room of things that are not necessarily scary at face value, but just irritate the hell out of you.”
It’s telling that Nash envisions purgatory not as nothing at all, but everything at once. The band (Nash, drummer MaxxMorando, guitarist Sam De La Torre and bassist Charlie Anastasis) are all aged between 21 and 23; they’ve grown up amid the chaos and confusion of the internet age. Their frenzied, abrasive, kitchen-sink approach to rock’n’roll encapsulates that perfectly.
The four have been in each other’s orbit since they met at music school as kids, but Liily kicked off for real in 2016. They introduced themselves with 2019 EP ‘I Can Fool Anybody In This Town’,and after that they were on the road tirelessly. Rather than scuppering plans for their debut full-length, the pandemic actually enhanced it. “It made us all focus on improving our creative muscle, and it taught us a lot of valuable lessons about writing,” says Morando. They strove for more variety and dynamics in their song writing, while the intense parts became even more potent.
Meanwhile, lyrically, Nash became more intentional in focusing on the world around him instead of immediate personal feelings. “It’s important to be observant. I took things I’ve picked up on, everything I’ve seen over the past two years, regardless of what it is.” Unsurprising after the last few years, there’s an urgency to his words. Self-image and consumerism are approached on ‘Man Listening To Disc’, while the most direct reaction to society under the internet is ‘I Am Who I Think You Think I Am’, which satirises QAnon, and howls against the anxiety of an ultra-accelerated world.
The band also used the time to dive deeper into musical discovery. The album is equally inspired by Rage Against The Machine as it is Talking Heads, while flashes of electronic and jazz jostle for room too. “We made a conscious effort in the pursuit of finding new music,” says Nash. “Our whole concept is to listen to as much music as you can, and whatever you create out of that is what you should create.” It’s a signal of the streaming age, where discovery is so easy and constant that genre boundaries ultimately collapse.
In Liily’s eyes, rock music will thrive when it leaves behind categorisation. “I think it’s important that artists shouldn’t subscribe [to genre],” says Nash. “For any band that pushes the threshold, it’s either gonna do nothing or it’s gonna make major waves.” In their home country, they see a lack of kindred spirits mostly they look to envelope-pushing bands from this side of the pond, like Black Midi and Girl Band, for inspiration. “Rock tends to hold onto anything that’s passé,” Nash continues. “The bands that we really like that are technically rock are taking tropes and reversing them, and turning it upside down and flipping it inside out. That’s moving the genre forward.”
Developments in the LA underground rock scene last year also spoke to the darker side of the traditional rock mentality, when an enormous wave of misconduct allegations against Burger records and many of its affiliated artists. Liily grew up going to Burger shows, and some of the accusers are their friends.
“A lot of those old tropes [of rock and roll behaviour] are disgusting, and life-ruining, and cruel,” says Anastasis. Liily take seriously their responsibility to fans, particularly younger ones, and emphasise their commitment to safety at their shows. “Cause if we’re not making them feel safe, how safe are they gonna feel anywhere else? It’s really important,” says Nash.
When Liily get back on the road and get to work on a new album, which is already incubating they’re not interested in being rock stars. They’re just interested in growing creatively, and as human beings. “I think that’s the only goal that anybody that wants to make music should have,” Nash posts. While the world turns ever faster and the ride gets ever dizzier, there’ll be plenty of noise left for Liily to make.
Liily’s debut album ‘TV Or Not TV’ is out on October 22nd
In 2018, upon the release of their last album ‘Time & Space’, Turnstile “the new shape of punk to come,” a hardcore band intent on tearing down boundaries and disrupting rock music’s status quo. Three years on, as they release their third full-length record, ‘Glow On’, even the ‘punk’ term now feels too restrictive: this is an album that shuns almost any traditional categorisation, and is all the more thrilling for it.
While ‘Time & Space’ was produced by US rock and hardcore staple Will Yip, for ‘Glow On’ they’ve enlisted Mike Elizondo – Dr Dre’s prodigy who’s produced for Fiona Apple to co-produce the record with singer Brendon Yates. The band also team up with Blood Orange for a pair of collaborations. The first of these link-ups, ‘Alien Love Call’, is the album’s biggest step out, a beautiful slow jam defined by guitars swimming in reverb and that finishes with a predictably impactful spoken word segment from Dev Hynes. The album then closes with ‘Lonely Dezires’, a woozy punk song that sounds like putting Green Day through a My Bloody Valentine filter.
The furious, moshpit-inducing riffing of ‘Time & Space’ still has its place on ‘Glow On’, but its sparser inclusions make the heavy moments hit even harder than before. Single ‘Holiday’ is a joyous romp of celebration, while ‘T.L.C.’ (Turnstile Love Connection) sees the band at their relentless, frantic best, packing five different sections and a brain full of ideas into 100 seconds flat.
Another highlight, ‘Don’t Play’, opens with the sound of a pitched up vocal that playfully yelps “Yeeeeeeaaaah!” before a heavy-yet-funky groove commences, the voice reminiscent of a child gleefully anticipating some ensuing chaos. It makes the track’s title feel like a taunt. Later in the song, melodic piano makes an entrance in its chorus before a hardcore breakdown gives way to a hair metal guitar solo featuring, yes, bongos. Across the track, snare drums are replaced by drum machine sounds that evoke claps of thunder.
Elsewhere, ‘Underwater Boi’ channels the summery, washed-out indie wave of the early 2010s, while interlude ‘No Surprise’ sees bassist Franz Lyons showing off his low but melodic voice, the ying to Yates’ yelped yang. “I can sail with no direction,” Yates repeats over and over on ‘Holiday’, a highlight of an album that goes wherever it damn pleases, scorching a new path for others in their wake. Sometimes not knowing where you’re going next is the most exciting thing possible.
Pinegrove have shared the studio version of their new song “Orange,” which centers around governmental inaction with regard to climate change. The song’s release follows an acoustic live performance of the song which the band shared a week prior.
Frontman Evan Stephens Hall explains in a press release: “‘Orange,’ a waltz about the climate crisis, was written on the day in 2020 that the photos of Oregon’s eerie, bloodshot sky circulated the internet. The song tries to balance outrage at those preventing progress politicians elected in good faith to protect us who instead believe themselves celebrities with the ethereal, almost dissociative feeling of being alive at the end of history.
The mirage on offer by today’s political theatre does nothing to assuage our concerns as we watch where the money actually goes: the American military, one of the single greatest global sources of fossil fuel emissions. So for all who have on one hand heard the desperate scientific prognosis, and on the other seen the already-weak promises on the campaign trail traded in for endless wars—it’s tough not to lose heart.
“This isn’t a song trying to convince anyone that climate change is real. It’s for people horrified at the government’s inaction to what we can all see with our own eyes. As this summer progresses, breaking all sorts of records across the northern hemisphere, and the conclusion sinks further into our collective gut, it’s essential for people with a microphone to start shouting, and in whatever way we can to affirm community, to step in and help one another cope in the absence of our government, and take seriously the need to organize for a better world.”
Pinegrove’s most recent studio album, “Marigold”, was released last year via Rough TradeRecords.
Evan and the Gang come through with a wonderfully poignant song about our impending doom, wrapped in some of their most tasteful production, enchanting harmonies, and dynamic instrumentation yet
Released August 25th, 2021 2021, Pinegrove under exclusive license to Rough Trade Records Ltd
Ada Lea’s new album, “one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden”, is out September 24th.
“partner” is one of the stories that make up one hand on the steering wheel…As a whole, these tracks chart unavoidable growth that comes with experience. On one hand, it’s a collection of walking-paced, cathartic pop/folk songs, and on the other a book of heart-twisting, rear-view stories of city life. The album is set in Montreal and each song exists as a dot on a personal history map of the city where Levy grew up. The city exists as both the location of and a character in many of these songs.
Throughout “partner,” Lea sings as if she’s bright-eyed during a late night. Her narrative lyrics about an introspective evening unfurls over piano, synth, and a drum machine: “the cab lets me off at the diner // just for memory’s sake // and I sit at the same booth // with tears in my eyes // begging won’t you admit you’re giving up on me too quick.” Levy describes it as “a song about moving through a memory… an involuntary memory that steals up on you the night after a rager (which takes place the morning after the song ‘damn’).” The accompanying cinematic video, directed by Erica Orofino, features Levy as she moves through memories and the city.
Montreal’s Ada Lea (the moniker of Alexandra Levy) releases a new single/video, “partner,” from her forthcoming album, It’s the follow-up to previously-released singles “Damn” and “Hurt.”
Limited edition songbook bundle available for pre-order today.
Ada Lea – partner from one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden out September 24th on Saddle Creek and Next Door.
The resulting sounds range from classic, soft-rock beauty to intimate finger-picked folk passages and night-drive art-pop. And the textures are frequently surprising due to the collage of lo-fi and hi-fi sounds that tastefully decorate the album without ever clouding the heart-center of the song. Inspired by personal experience, daydreams, and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, the lyrics center storytelling on a bigger scale. The experience and emotions of a year are communicated through Levy’s vignettes of city life. Her prose is centered in its setting of the St Denis area of Montreal as it draws up memories from local haunts like Fameux, La Rockette, and Quai des Brumes in rearview reverie. Levy creates a balance through the album’s year by splitting her songs evenly into four seasons.
As a song of winter, opening track “damn,” kicks off the narrative with the events of a cursed New Year’s Eve party. The song feels timeless with an AM Gold groove and 70s studio sheen. The accompanying video, directed by Monse Muro, is beautiful. It features stunning and intimate choreography by Axelle “Ebony” Munezero and Brittney Canda. Some of the movements are elongated and smooth, while others are erratic and abrupt.
Whether to consider these songs fiction or memoir remains unknown. Levy says “Why would I try to write a story that’s not my own? What good would that do?” but on the other hand, she is quick to note the ways that language fails to describe reality, and how difficult this makes it to tell an actually true story. The poetic misuse of the word “sewing” in the album’s title serves as a nod to the limitations words provide. What does it mean to sew the garden? And how can we appreciate its carefully knit blooms when the rearview mirror is so full of car exhaust?
Alexandra Levy: vocals Harrison Whitford: guitar, piano, bass Marshall Vore: synth, drum machine Tasy Hudson: drums *a sincere thank you to the canada council for the arts and banff centre for arts and creativity for their continued support and trust in the creation of songs throughout the years*
