Brothers Anton and Christoph Hochheim latest project as Always You have a fantastic track “Have It Your Way” the Los Angeles band whose previous project Ablebody churned out sophisti-pop gems like “One Dime A Day” The brothers were also previously part of New York-based group The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, while Anton is also a member of Beach Fossils.
The track’s excellent music video, directed by Saoli Nash, is striking visually, capturing a series of ritualistic scenes as the brothers try to contact the “spirit” (played by Simran Jehani). “We wanted the video to be light-hearted and fun,” explains Anton, “while touching on the heavier subjects of nostalgia, memory, failed love and the scars it leaves on our conscious and subconscious minds.”
Fans of sophisti-pop in the vein of Prefab Sprout and Aztec Camera will easily fall for the project’s sound, evidenced by the immediate “Have It Your Way.” Suave vocals and jangly guitar flickers engage initially, driving to a replay-inducing hook — “and your temper said I don’t need for you to validate my life.” A brassy adornment in the closing moments plays with a stylish savviness, leading cohesively into one final hooky go-around. The brothers are today announcing details of their second album, “Bloom Off The Rose” via the crystalline-pop of their first single, “Black City Nights” which arrives with a video directed by Nathan Castiel.
The Hochheim brothers emerged as Ablebody via the dream breeze-driven “All My Everything” EP followed by the serene glam power-pop single “After Hours”, a precursor to the smart and sophisticated full-length debut Adult Contemporaries which found Ablebody earning critical acclaim from FADER, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, Dazed, DIY and more. Fast forward over the course of four years full of changes, romance, discovery, and more, the duo, now titled Always You, presents the much-anticipated follow-up. Bloom Off The Rose comes developed in Christoph’s apartment, on the road with Jerry Paper, The Pains and Beach Fossils, and features assists from bassist Jordan Sabolick with mixing/mastering provided by Kenny Gilmore (Weyes Blood, Julia Holter, Chris Cohen) and Josh Bonati (Mac Demarco, Wild Nothing, Slowdive). “The subject matter is life as vignettes,” Christoph describes, “Snapshots and stories of my relationships, mainly the one I’m just coming out of as viewed from different moments in our timeline, often projected imagined futures and mourning losses yet to come.”
Released July 16th, 2021
“Have It Your Way” and “Black City Nights” comes via the newly released album “Bloom Off The Rose”, was produced by Jerry Paper (aka Lucas Nathan)
Durham, NC-based band The Pinkerton Raid is building to the release of their upcoming fifth studio album, “The Highway Moves The World”, due out in 2022. Over four records the band has steadily pulled in influences from across the folk and Americana world, but has recently hinted towards a new indie rock turn with the swaggering style of their recent singles “Au Cheval” and “Cinnamon Sweet.” Now the band is sharing the video for their most recent single, “Lisbet Cries,” .
Vocalist and songwriter Jesse James DeConto most especially shines on “Lisbet Cries,” showing off his talents as an emotive storyteller. The band weaves an emotionally potent tale of grace and empathy, backed by winding guitar lines and a standout plaintive trumpet solo. Meanwhile, the accompanying animated video tells the song story in innocent storybook imagery, adding a new heart warming layer of meaning to the song.
Deconto explains of the song and video, “‘Lisbet Cries’ is a song that started with the experience of my sister, Suzanne ‘Elisabeth’. She would cry unconsolably through a lot of her young childhood. It seemed as if she felt the pain of the world more acutely than other people. She struggled for direction in her teens and early 20s, and eventually found her calling as a schoolteacher while volunteering with kids in developing overseas communities. Intense feelings about her own experience turned into powerful empathy and compassion for others.
With the video animation, I wanted to communicate this universal story and steer clear of the paternalistic sort of colonialism where white Americans are always taking care of somebody ‘weaker’. Indonesian animator Aldy Kusuma placed the story in a culturally vague setting with ethnically vague characters, trying to bring out the basic human story of feelings and suffering too big to get our arms around. It had been our old drummer Scott McFarlane’s idea to have a toy globe serve as the main character, pursued by Lisbet and her big feelings.”
Listen to the song and video and keep an eye out for more from “The Highway Moves The World“, coming In 2022.
STRAND of OAKS ” Jimi & Stan “
Posted: August 8, 2021 in MUSICTags: Strand of Oaks, Timothy Showalter
Strand Of Oaks (the project of Timothy Showalter) has shared a new song titled “Jimi & Stan.” It is the latest offering from his forthcoming album “In Heaven”, due out October 1st on Galacticana Records via Thirty Tigers. Listen below.
“Jimi & Stan,” like other songs on In Heaven, deals with grief and the loss of a loved one. Showalter explains in a press release the meaning behind the song: “My sweetest buddy/cat Stan sadly passed away. And the only way I could describe my love for him was imagining Stan and Jimi Hendrix hanging out in heaven together smiling and going to shows and having the best time.”
Very proud to share my new song “Jimi & Stan”. If you’ll allow me to get personal for a moment. Stan was my beloved cat. In 2018, Stan got cancer right around the time Sues mom was killed in a car accident. Our home was filled with immeasurable sadness. I believe Stan held on as long as he could just to be there for us until finally saying goodbye. In my grief I tried to imagine a Heaven that Stan so rightfully deserved. And that Heaven is Stan hanging out with Jimi Hendrix going to shows and having a warm spot to look at the galaxy. I wanted the song to be a joyous sendoff for my sweetest buddy. It’s also a song for all of us who have lost and can only dream that those that we love can live in our hearts forever. I cry every time I hear this song but I know it’s all from love. Thank you for listening and please call the people you love and hug your pets. I cherish you all.
Upon the announcement of In Heaven, Showalter had earlier shared the song “Galacticana” His previous album, “Erasureland” came out in 2019
The Doobie Brothers have announced the release of their 15th full-length album, titled “Liberté“. Produced and co-written by John Shanks (Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus), the album contains 12 new tracks by Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons and John McFee. It arrives October 1, 2021 via Universal Music. Pre-orders are not yet available.
The four-time Grammy Award winners and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2020 inductees have just released a special self-titled EP featuring four tracks from the upcoming album. Fans who previously purchased a ticket album bundle and redeemed a copy of The Doobie Brothers EP between December 2019 and November 2020, will receive their physical CD beginning Sept. 17.
The group’s reunion tour with Michael McDonald, originally scheduled for 2020, begins August 22nd in the States. The highly anticipated 49-city North American tour celebrates the 50th anniversary of the band’s founding with Johnston, McDonald, Simmons and McFee back on tour together for the first time in nearly 25 years.
The Doobie Brothers’ 15th album was produced and cowritten by John Shanks, who has previously worked with Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow and Miley Cyrus. “He’s a great producer, and we wrote together and that was fun and something different,” Simmons said. “He’s a great player, too, so we could stand toe to toe and work on things together, and see where we were going at any given time. He’s got his own approach and is super high energy, but not in a way that feels manic or anything.”
Micheal McDonald doesn’t appear on the new album.
Vocals, Electric Guitar: Tom Johnston, Percussion, Drums: Victor Indrizzo Vocalist: John Cowan, Joe LaPorta, Hammond B3, Wurlitzer electric piano, Piano, Synthesizer: Jeff Babko
With nearly 50 million albums sold worldwide, the Doobie Brothers have had five Top 10 singles, 16 Top 40 hits, three multi-Platinum albums, seven Platinum albums, and a rare Diamond record for their 1976 album, Best of the Doobies, representing 10 million sold.
It arrives October 1st, 2021 via Universal Music.
The Reverberation Appreciation Society is proud to announce the third entry of its Live at Levitation series with Glasgow legends Primal Scream
Primal Scream’s fusion of indie pop and dance broke down musical boundaries and changed the face of british pop music in the ’90s, helping to push dance and techno into the rock mainstream.
Their lasting influence is crystallized across nine tracks, on Primal Scream “Live at Levitation”. recorded in 2015 at levitation in front of underground rock fans from around the world, the album marks the next release in the Reverberation Appreciation Society’s “Live at Levitation” series, which captures key moments in psychedelic rock history and live music in Austin, Texas–pulled from Levitation’s extensive archives. amongst a line-up of classic levitation bands–Thee Oh Sees, Night Beats, and frontman Bobby Gillespie’s old band, the jesus and mary chain–the Primal Scream set shows the band’s undeniable creativity and unique place in the psych-rock canon, combining psychedelic garage rock, kaleidoscopic pop, and acid house to create a sound that’s simultaneously of its time and ahead of it. known for their explosive live sets, the recordings show why Primal Scream is still considered one of the preeminent Scottish rock groups,
Primal Scream’s fusion of indie pop and dance broke down musical boundaries and changed the face of British pop music in the ’90s, helping to push dance and techno into the rock mainstream. Their lasting influence is crystallized across nine tracks, on Primal Scream – Live At Levitation. Recorded at the 2015 edition of the Levitation festival, in front of underground rock fans from around the world, With the Mercury-prize winning band blasting through tracks off of 1991’s touchstone album, Screamadelica, its boogie-blues-influenced follow-up Give Out But Don’t Give Up, and the heavily electro-influenced cult favourite XTRMNTR.
The LP documents the UK legends’ LEVITATION 2015 performance and a career-spanning tracklist from Primal Scream’s catalogue – with 9 tracks pulling hits from landmark records Screamadelica, Give Out But Don’t Give Up, XTRMNTR and more.
Over the past three and a half decades, Primal Scream have embraced everything from psychedelic pop to degenerate rock’n’roll; euphoric rave to industrial gloom. They have made records with George Clinton and Kate Moss, invited Mani of the Stone Roses and Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine into the fold, survived narcotic oblivion, personal trauma and the death of beloved guitarist Robert “Throb” Young, and captured the mood of the nation several times over. Throughout it all, they have always sounded like Primal Scream. Primal Scream – Live at Levitation sees its release November 19th via The Reverberation Appreciation Society on vinyl and digital formats.
The LP has been given deluxe treatment, with six mind melting vinyl options. Two exclusive versions are being pressed and available via Rough Trade and U.S. record stores for the annual Ten Bands One Cause charity initiative, launching around National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, and benefitting Red Door Community where no one faces cancer alone. Additionally, two other limited edition versions are available through the Levitation webstore, along with two versions available exclusively in UK/EU retail stores.
Liam Kazar makes joyful rock songs so irresistible they feel timeless. Just ask Jeff Tweedy. “I love everything about Liam. His voice, his songs, the way he plays instruments, his smile, his cooking… Everything,” says Tweedy. ”Whenever I hear one of his songs for the first time I almost immediately start thinking to myself, ‘oh yeah! This song! I love this song.’ It’s a magic trick very few people can pull off: making something brand new sound like a cherished memory.” But on Kazar’s debut album “Due North”, out August 6th via Mare Records, the LP’s 10 tracks are full of so much charm, wit, and heart it can’t be a sleight of hand.
The Kansas City-based, Chicago-raised musician and acclaimed chef/founder of the Armenian pop-up restaurant Isfahan, describes the making of “Due North” as a personal revelation, where the more he wrote the more his songs showed what kind of artist he’s always wanted to be. While he’s consistently been a dream bandmate over the past several years, performing with artists like Tweedy, Steve Gunn, Daniel Johnston, and more, making his own songs presented a chance to finally find his own voice. But figuring out how to step out was a rewarding challenge. “This record kind of all stemmed from a conversation I had with Jeff,” says Kazar. “I showed him some of my earliest songs I was working on and he told me, ‘It sounds like you’re writing for the people in your bands, you’re not writing for yourself.’ He was completely right. I was not writing songs for myself.” With that needed insight, Kazar decided to start from scratch and write songs that felt like himself.
Single “Shoes Too Tight” was a clarifying moment for Kazar in this journey. Originally a slower acoustic ballad, Kazar slowly tinkered with a synth sound and happened upon the song’s bouncy chord progression. “That was probably the closest to an aha moment that I had of ‘Oh, this is me and this is what I’m into,’” says Kazar. The finished product is an undeniable jam with a swaggering exuberance that channels Richard Swift and David Bryne. Soon after, Kazar switched gears for the yearning and delicate “On a Spanish Dune” which showcased his emotional resonance as a writer. With lush synths and wistful acoustic guitars, he sings, “Everybody’s asking me / What you gonna do, gonna be / I couldn’t tell you if I tried / I’m just a poem with an open line.” Though completely different songs, Kazar used these two earliest offerings as guides for what would come next. “ Those two songs were my North Star that I was following for this album,” says Kazar. “This is what it sounds like when I write for me.”
“There were two words I had in my head during the making of this record, which was joyful and vulnerable,” says Kazar, citing Al Green’s 1978 The Belle Album as an LP that encapsulates such a feeling. “I was trying to talk about things that I’m scared about but acknowledging that I’m not that powerful and you can still be joyful in the face of your own insecurities.” Take album highlight “Frank Bacon,” where Kazar sings, “When you’re running uphill and swimming upstream / Nothing’s ever gonna be the way it seems.” Despite any lyrical uncertainty the track is bursting with life, especially in the monster groove from drummer Spencer Tweedy and bassist Lane Beckstrom. Elsewhere on “Nothing To You,” Kazar finds the sweet spot between indie rock jangle and subtle country twang as he sings, “I hope you don’t resent / The love between your hands.”
Along with Tweedy and Beckstrom, Kazar enlists keyboardist Dave Curtin (Woongi), co-producer James Elkington on pedal steel, as well as Ohmme and Andrew Sa on backing vocals. Opener “So Long Tomorrow” showcases the band’s chemistry, a winding jam full of playful and soulful instrumental flourishes. One of the last songs written for the album, it was recorded remotely in quarantine but despite the distance the band’s tight bond is obvious. “These songs totally blew me away the first time I heard them: they sound like David Bowie meets the Band,” says Mare Records co-founder Kevin Morby. Due North was mixed by Sam Evian at his Flying Cloud Recordings Studio in upstate New York. “Sam knew exactly what I’m trying to do with this record,” says Kazar. “He put the whole track listing together and really had a vision for the record that I needed at that time.”
Like most musicians, the pandemic threw Kazar for a loop, knocking out both his touring revenue and his part-time gigs as a bartender. With more than enough time in his Kansas City home, he decided to pursue his long time love of cooking by creating the restaurant, Isfahan. With recipes that honour his Armenian heritage and his family’s journey to the United States from Iran, Syria, and Lebanon, Kazar’s cooking has received press from Time Out Chicago and Eater. “In COVID, my mantra was to not have my heart broken about the future and be present,” says Kazar, explaining that ethos is one of the reasons why he named the LP Due North.
Though Due North is full of songs that act as a mirror to Kazar’s many talents, few sum it up as concisely as “No Time For Eternity.” On the track, he and Chicago country crooner Andrew Sa sing over wailing pedal steel, taking stock of the most important things in life: “Making time to live my life / Making time for you and me.” “The reality of my life is that when I come home, and I’m talking with my partner, maybe we had a bad day, but we still are laughing and having a good time with each other at the same time,” says Kazar. “I had to make music that expressed that part of me that’s a person who genuinely enjoys themselves.”
Released August 6th, 2021
Does it still count as keeping it simple if the one thing you’re trying to achieve is actually pretty complicated? Dummy’s music suggests that, actually, it does not. The Los Angeles band’s mission statement could fit on a bumper sticker – fuse avant-garde musical elements with the building blocks of guitar-based pop music – but its Tilt-A-Whirl execution on their debut album bleeds beyond those borders into something maximalist and wonkily thrilling.
Melding the driving momentum of krautrock with the textural mayhem of Can, the grubby eccentricity of the Velvets and the gilt-edged melodies of the Byrds, “Mandatory Enjoyment” follows up a brace of cassette releases by doing something different all the time. We caught up with band members Nate and Joe – who split guitar duties (Jazzmaster and Jaguar respectively) with vocals and keys – to pull at a few threads.
More goodies this year from the ranks of Trouble in Mind Records. The label announced this morning that they’ve up Los Angeles. pop combo Dummy. The band’s had a couple of well-received tapes out in the last couple of years and they make the jump to a debut LP blowing through the vernal psych-pop gardens that nurtured Broadcast, Vanishing Twin, and Stereolab while stumbling the noise pop alley for a tussle with Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters (the band, not the album) and Snapper.
The first cut from the album skews a bit more towards the psych-pop impulses, letting an effervescent beat push the song along while overdriven keys and silken vocals do the heavy lifting. The band is channelling their influences in a way that feels refreshing — a glorious head-on collision of pop and pummel that explodes with caffeinated colour. Mandatory Enjoyment is out October 22nd.
In contrast to blissed-out instrumentation, Dummy’s sardonic lyricism examines “the burden of modern life, consumerism, environmental collapse, alienation, and other anxieties born out of living in this absurd moment in history”. Interior design, marine pollution, the psychology of commercial architecture, and nuclear testing are all featured subjects. Dummy’s restless creativity keeps them moving ever-forward, continuously challenging themselves and pushing their sound into exciting and exhilarating places. This is – as the album title suggests – “Mandatory Enjoyment”.
Releases October 22nd, 2021
Dummy: Alex, Emma, Joe & Nathan.
Taken from the band’s debut full-length album “Mandatory Enjoyment”, out October 22nd, 2021 via Trouble In Mind Records
Lucinda Chua is a singer, songwriter, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist based in south London.
Primarily using her voice, a cello, and an array of effects units, Chua writes ambient pop songs that are intimate, atmospheric, and totally enchanting. whilst studying photography at University in Nottingham, Chua took an elective course in music production and the resulting experimental tracks she created and uploaded online caught the attention of U.S label Kranky. before long she was touring with Stars of the Lid as a cellist and string arranger and went on to release two albums with her first band Felix – all while barely into her 20s. after Felix broke up, Chua spent a few years in London exploring the city’s creative scene and began experimenting with the cello. Those explorations became her 2019 debut EP “Antidotes” which flitted between hushed song writing and expansive textural soundscapes and was released shortly before she joined FKA twigs’ live band for her Magdalene tour.
Earning praise from pitchfork, the guardian, dazed and gal-dem, “Antidotes” led to Chua participating in NTS Radio’s work in progress scheme as well as performing one-person shows across the UK and Europe including red bull music festival London, Mutek Barcelona, Tate modern and Somerset House. a sister release to “Antidotes 1“, “Antidotes 2” expands Chua’s unique sonic vocabulary, with subliminal textures that bleed into each other before fading away.
If “Antidotes 1” was Chua building the landscape and scenery for her music, then “Antidotes 2” is her living within it. some of the songs were written during the same period whilst others, like the EP opener ‘Until I Fall’, are brand new.
now on 4AD, with vinyl arriving 13th August
The debut album “Hair Of” due early 2022. EL Perro is a brand new band led by guitarist/vocalist/songwriter/producer Parker Griggs. The band’s sound contains elements that fans of his band Radio Moscow will recognize, but this is rock music with a new, fresh spin and feel. El Perro takes heavy psychedelic rock as a starting point and adds the additional instrumentation of a second guitar and a percussionist, pushing the music into more syncopated territory, spiced with Latin rhythms and hints of Funkadelic-style grooves. You could say that El Perro plays psychedelic funk rock, and you wouldn’t be wrong.
In late 2019, hungry to do something fresh, Parker Griggs decided to put together a five piece band, with members including former Radio Moscow drummer Lonnie Blanton, bassist Shawn Davis, and guitarist Holland Redd. With the addition of a percussionist the El Perro sound and style coalesced.
Taken from the album “Hair Of” on Alive Naturalsound records : http://www.alive-records.com
