Palehound (Ellen Kempner) and Jay Som (Melina Duterte) have joined forces for a new project, Bachelor, and shared their first single together via Polyvinyl, “Anything At All.” According to a press release, the two musicians began writing and recording together in pre-quarantine 2020, and they wrote, performed, and produced their new single entirely on their own.
“Anything At All” begins with sticky bass lines and steady cymbal hits, met with sparse moments of synth and clever lyrical imagery comparing a menacing adversary to a spider. Later, the track transitions into a swelling moment of head-bobbing instrumentation (in addition to a powerful guitar solo) while its infectious chorus rings out. The duo state in a press release: “We’re so excited to finally share this song with y’all and announce our new band! We’ve been dear friends and huge fans of each other for years and were lucky enough to get to work together in January 2020 before quarantine. We feel that ‘Anything At All’ is an even blend of our tastes and writing styles and to release it feels very hopeful and joyous to us.”
In related news, Palehound has a livestream event, a concert to commemorate the one-year anniversary of their cancelled US tour supporting Black Friday,
The last show Palehound played was at Cafe du Nord in San Francisco on March 11th 2020, halfway through a tour that felt like a blissful dream. Though news of the pandemic shone through our phones and the venue provided hand washing instructions to the lyrics of our songs, we had no idea that night would be the last time we’d play that setlist live. Since returning from tour, Ellen moved to upstate NY and started to work at a recording studio in Stanfordville NY called the Chicken Shack, owned and operated by Nick Kinsey. Back in October, we decided to make a video of us performing the set and decided to do it at the studio so we’d get a great recording of it. We’ve been sitting on it for a minute but it seems right to release it now around the year anniversary of our tour being cancelled. We really miss playing with each other and playing like for y’all and this feels like the closest we can get to that for now.
“Anything At All” is the debut single from Jay Som & Palehound’s new joint project, Bachelor, out now on Polyvinyl Records, Lucky Number, and Milk! Records.
Foxy Shazam are self-releasing their sixth album, “Burn”, via their new label EEE OOO AH, released last December. The distant and remote collaboration between the five-piece is an attempt to further evolve the band’s sound. Overall, Foxy Shazam is always a nice, modern addition to glam, hair rock, but Burn as a whole will not be a standout in Foxy Shazam’s discography. The album’s focus on psychedelic, wizardry metal is overused vs. a fun novelty. The album is bookended with the high notes of “Burn,” and “Dreamer,” at the start, and ending with “Suffering” and “The Rose.”
Full of promise, the Ohio classic rock outfit were expected to come back with a bang. Yet, sadly, in keeping with the tone of 2020, the band’s first album through their own label, Eee Ooo Ah, turns out to be underwhelming at best.
As the opening notes of title-track introduce the album, there’s a tingling of excitement in the air. The album revs up with undeniable potential as we sit and wait impatiently for a tidal wave of colossal riffs and unabashed rock ‘n’ roll energy to smack them in the face and then, finally… well, nothing. It’s hard to put a finger on it, but there’s something missing. The track, and subsequently the rest of the album, falls flat, and it’s a real shame. To give the album its due, it’s not without its moments. There are flashes of brilliance, such as the fun, funky ‘Doomed’ with its rolling drums and impressively fast-paced vocals, and the playful brass section in ‘In My Mind’. But, on the whole, ‘Burn’ feels like a tongue-in-cheek caricature of 80s glam rock and is more like something you’d hear on the ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ soundtrack than an album release in 2020.
A singer-songwriter known for his lyrical acumen and plaintive harmonica style. Paste Magazine wrote of his music: “Unless your surname is Dylan, Waits, Ritter or Prine, you could face-palm yourself to death trying to pen songs half as inspired”. This Singer-songwriter and all round good egg, Joe Pug will release a new album, “The Diving Sun” on the 19th March. The record began as a process of collecting archived session files for a B-sides album which morphed into an obsessive remix and finally became a full-on album process with entirely new songs. “The Diving Sun” brings together some lost gems from various studio sessions along with new songs recorded in quarantine
Another super track from the most excellent Joe Pug as a taster for long awaited follow up to the simply immense ‘The Flood in Colour’. The first single from Joe Pug’s forthcoming album “The Diving Sun” out March 19th, 2021 via Nation of Heat Records.
Laura has had a busy two years, releasing multiple EPs and the recent success of her 2020 single “Pandemonium“, which has reached 80,000 streams since May. She was named by the Irish Times as one of “10 Acts to See Before They Are Famous.”
Speaking about Days, Laura said it was “a step at confronting the nothingness routine that hit when I was out of work for 4 months. It’s repetitious, a choral of my own voice, my own thoughts, day in and day out. It’s the losing sense of time. It’s that limbo between Christmas and before New Year’s but in the middle of May. It’s all work and no play freneticism.” Her E.P “We, Myself and I” was a challenge she set for herself to confront the solitude and the directions in which that sent her mind.
Conceived and recorded in the Summer of 2020, it is not difficult to find the influence of the lockdown on “Days.” The pleasantly repetitive hook perfectly captures the Groundhog day-esque feeling that has characterised the last year for most of us. While particularly poignant for the current climate, I believe its relevancy will transcend this moment and time as the song ultimately feels hopeful rather than just listless. If you are a fan of Laura Marling, Gabrielle Aplin and Orla Gartland then you will love Laura. This will be the perfect song to play with a few drinks in the garden when the sun returns this summer!
To be sure to catch the release of new E.P “We, Myself and I” on 5th March,
The Who have announced expanded editions of their 1967 album, The Who Sell Out. The new releases include 2-CD and 2-LP sets, as well as a 7-disc Super Deluxe Edition composed of 5 CDs and two 7-inch singles. The latter features the album in both mono and stereo plus previously unheard Pete Townshend demos, studio sessions, outtakes, unheard jingles and more. All arrive April 23rd, 2021, via Geffen/UMe.
The box set also features nine posters*, replica ephemera, and an 80-page hardbound book with rare photos and new liner notes by Townshend. There are 112 tracks in all, 46 of which are previously unreleased. It also includes nine posters & inserts, including replicas of the 20″ x 30″ original Adrian George album poster, a gig poster from The City Hall, Newcastle, a SavilleTheatre show 8-page program, a business card for the Bag o’ Nails club, Kingly Street, a Who fan club photo of group, a flyer for Bath Pavilion concerts including The Who, a crack-back bumper sticker for Wonderful Radio London, Keith Moon’s Speakeasy Club membership card and a Who Fan Club newsletter.
From the February 26th announcement: The Who Sell Out was originally planned by Townshend and the band’s managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, as a loose concept album including jingles and commercials linking the songs stylized as a pirate radio broadcast. This concept was born out of necessity as their label and management wanted a new album and Townshend felt that he didn’t have enough songs.
The ground breaking original plan for Sell Out was to sell advertising space on the album but instead the band opted for writing their own jingles paying tribute to pirate radio stations and to parody an increasingly consumerist society. Pete Townshend demos of “Pictures of Lily,” “Kids! Do You Want Kids” and “Odorono” .
The homage to pop-art is evident in both the advertising jingles and the iconic sleeve design created by David King who was the art director at the Sunday Times, and Roger Law, who invented the Spitting Image TV show. The sleeve features four advertising images, taken by the renowned photographer David Montgomery, of each band member: Odorono deodorant (Pete Townshend), Medac spot cream (Keith Moon), Charles Atlas (John Entwistle) and Roger Daltrey and Heinz baked beans. The story goes that Daltrey caught pneumonia from sitting in the cold beans for too long.
“We were hoping to get free Jaguars,” said Townshend last year. “We got 50 free tins of baked beans!”
The Who‘s third album followed 1965’s My Generation (released in 1966 as The Who Sings My Generation in the U.S.) and 1966’s A Quick One (released in 1967 as Happy Jack in the U.S.). Those first two achieved top 5 sales in the U.K. Despite the band’s success on the singles chart, with five top 5 U.K. hits under their belts, The Who Sell Out peaked at just #13 there. It reached just #48 in America. The album’s “I Can See For Miles” made it to #10 in England and #9 in the U.S. It remains their biggest American pop hit.
The homage to pop-art is evident in both the advertising jingles and the iconic sleeve design created by David King who was the art director at the Sunday Times, and Roger Law, who invented the Spitting Image TV show. The sleeve features four advertising images, taken by the renowned photographer David Montgomery, of each band member: Odorono deodorant (Pete Townshend), Medac spot cream (Keith Moon), Charles Atlas (John Entwistle) and Roger Daltrey and Heinz baked beans. The story goes that Daltrey caught pneumonia from sitting in the cold beans for too long.
Those lackluster sales would change in May 1969 with the release of the rock opera, Tommy, a 2-LP set which reached #2 in the U.K. and #4 in the U.S.
A deluxe edition of The Who Sell Out was previously released in 2009
Australian five-piece Mt. Mountain will release their fourth album, ‘Centre’, on February 26th 2021 via London’s Fuzz Club Records. Hailing from Perth, Australia, Mt. Mountain deal in a sprawling, motorik psychedelic rock sound that journeys between tranquil, drone-like meditations and raucous, full-throttle wig-outs that’ll blow your mind as much as your speakers. Taking cues from Krautrock pioneers like Neu! and Can whilst existing in a similar world to contemporaries like Moon Duo, Kikagaku Moyo and Minami Deutsch, Mt. Mountain are formidable torchbearers of the minimal-is-maximal tradition.
Musically, the band’s sound is born out of long improvised jams so naturally much of the album was recorded live to capture the band at their most freewheeling. Growing up surrounded by religion but not a follower himself, Stephen Bailey (vocals/organ/flute) describes how, thematically, much of ‘Centre’ is a dissection of faith – both spiritual and secular – and his personal, often complicated relation to it: “The album for me, lyrically, is mostly about my experience of religion. It explores these concepts and the rules that were told to me from childhood to adulthood and my thoughts on my own connection to them. Similar themes arise between the tracks whether it be lyrically or structural, both a play on repetition and simplicity.”
With a number of EPs and singles and three albums behind them – their 2016 debut ‘Cosmos Terros’, 2017’s ‘Dust’ and 2018’s ‘Golden Rise’ – the Perth quintet have picked up a formidable reputation in their homeland and further afield, thanks especially to their wildly all-consuming live shows. Constantly touring across Australia with each release, they’ve also shared the stage with notable down-under comrades like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and ORB, as well as a long list of international heavy-hitters including Sleep, MONO, Thee Oh Sees, Acid Mothers Temple and Moon Duo.
Fuzz Club members will receive the deluxe vinyl as part of the February 2021 membership package. Deluxe Edition: Limited to 300 copies on 180g ultra-clear vinyl with white and black splatter, hand-numbered tip-on gatefold sleeve and polylined innersleeve, Standard Edition: Limited to 700 copes on 180g grey vinyl
Gracie and Rachel, the collaborative duo of keyboardist Gracie Coates and violinist Rachel Ruggles, have been praised by NPRto “make unforgettable, surprising music.” The duo’s new album “Hello Weakness, You make Me Strong” explores the depths of their emotional states and the walls we build up inside ourselves. It’s music to excavate our inner fears and help us find the empowerment from within. It’s been quite a year. Putting out a record in the midst of the world being shut down wasn’t what we had in mind, but it certainly has made us stronger. Thank you to each and every person who poured their hearts into bringing ‘Hello Weakness, You Make Me Strong’ to life with us. Thank you to our incredible label and management team who support this music with such fierce generosity. Mostly, thank YOU for taking our sounds into your sphere.
Piano-violin duo with boundary issues. New album ‘Hello Weakness, You Make Me Strong’ out on Righteous Babe Records.
“Gracie and Rachel make unforgettable, surprising music.” –Bob Boilen/NPR Music
Today we share a remix of our song “Speak” from our album ‘Hello Weakness, You Make Me Strong,’ by the ever-talented Future Generations. Thanks, Eddie, for putting your sweet spin on our sounds.
Lost tracks, hard to find versions, B-sides, remixes & more • 4CD or 2LP packages • 500-only limited editions with Kevin Cummins signed print. Demon Music will issue a new Britpop-era compilation curated by legendary music photographer Kevin Cummins called Caught Beneath The Landslide: The Other Side of Britpop and the ’90s.
Available as a four-CD set or a 2LP vinyl package, Caught Beneath The Landslide offers classic tracks, lost gems, live and alternate versions, B-sides and single edits from the Britpop era. Acts include Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Suede, Elastica, Radiohead, Lush, Supergrass, Menswear, Gene, The Auteurs, The Charlatans, Echobelly, Ash and Sleeper.
Kevin Cummins was chief photographer at the NME for more than a decade and was witness to – and documented the musical and cultural phenomenon in the first half of the ‘90s, that was variously tagged ‘Britpop’ or ‘Cool Britannia’. Now Kevin has compiled ‘Caught Beneath The Landslide: The Other Side of Britpop and the ‘90s’, brings together artists that topped the chart and set the agenda, some who were lauded one week and laughed at the next, and others who were just along for the ride. From an era of Lad’s mags and Girl Power, “football’s coming home” and chart battles making news headlines,
His photo-book While We Were Getting High: Britpop and the ‘90s, was published last year and now Kevin has compiled this companion collection. The four-CD package contains 71 tracks, which the 2LP vinyl set offers 26.
In-depth sleeve notes explore the bands, their influences and features contributions from producer Stephen Street, DJ Steve Lamacq, Johnny Dean (Menswear), Math Priest (Dodgy), Kevin Miles and Matt James (Gene) and Jaime Harding (Marion) and contain original photos from Kevin’s collection
Kevin Cummins says: “It was always my ambition to have a companion album to the book, a chance to enjoy the music of that era, music as timeless as the images. When I was selecting photos for my book, I took to Twitter to ask fans if certain bands could be considered part of the genre. Several musicians joined in to deny they were ever part of Britpop. The Manics were never considered part of the genre, nor Primal Scream, and much as I would have like to include them I chose not to. So it pleases me that we can feature both bands and many more in this collection, with its broader take on Indie music in ‘90s Britain.”
As well as the Amazon-exclusive 4CD set with signed print, Rough Trade in the UK have an exclusive 2LP black vinyl edition also with signed print. This is limited to 500, like the CD set. There is also a clear vinyl indies-only exclusive (also available at Rough Trade)
The four-CD set of “Caught Beneath The Landslide: The Other Side of Britpop and the ‘90s” is out on 30th April 2021, with the 2LP version following on 14th May.
Reissue on vinyl of the fifth PJ Harvey studio album “Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea”. Produced by PJ Harvey with Rob Ellis and Mick Harvey, and originally released in November 2000, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea features the singles ‘Good Fortune’, ‘A Place Called Home’ and ‘This Is Love’ and includes a duet with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke on ‘This Mess We’re In’. The album won the Mercury Music Prize in 2001. Reissue is faithful to the original recording and package, cutting by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering under the guidance of longtime PJ Harvey producer Head.
PJ Harvey’s “Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea” is the fifth studio album from the critically acclaimed artist, and it marked a dramatic shift from her previous two releases, To Bring You My Love(1995) and Is This Desire?(1998). The former was Harvey’s commercial breakthrough, which landed the album on several “Best of” lists in 1995 and the latter earned Harvey a GRAMMY nomination for Best Alternative Music Performance in 1998.
Stories From The City differs from the previous two albums in that it veers away from the blues influences of “To Bring You My Love” and the melancholy of “Is This Desire?.” Harvey paints a very vivid and sensual picture of life in New York City, and if she is indeed the protagonist in these songs, she was definitely living her best life at the time.
Ironically, the opening track is titled “Big Exit,” a raucous, upbeat tune that immediately lets us know this is going to be something much different than what we had come to expect from Harvey. Track 2, “Good Fortune,” is not only one of the best songs on the album, but it may be one of the best in her catalogue. Harvey seemingly summons the aura of Patti Smith and delivers a tale that examines the indescribable feeling one gets when they first start dating someone. She sings it in a way that brings you right there in that particular moment we’ve all felt at one time or another: “When we walked through / Little Italy / I saw my reflection / Come right off your face / I paint pictures /To remember / You’re too beautiful / To put into words / Like a gypsy / You dance in circles / All around me / And all over the world.”
“Good Fortune” has a thread that continues right through to the next track, “A Place Called Home.” As I listened to the song, it became apparent that this album is somewhat of a chronicle of a romance, and Harvey does not hold back, singing, “One day I know / We’ll find a place of hope / Just hold on to me / Just hold on to me / Walk tight one line / You’re wanted this time / There’s no one to blame / Just hold on to me.”
Harvey has shown vulnerability on her previous recordings, but on Stories From The City, there’s a beauty and joy that radiates throughout the entire album. The next two songs, “One Line” and “Beautiful Feeling,” bring the mood to a more tranquil place, with the latter being one of the darker yet gorgeous songs on the album (“And when I watch you move / And I can’t think straight / And I am silenced / And I can’t think straight / And it’s the best thing / It’s the best thing / The best thing / Such a beautiful feeling”).
The one song that does not have an overt reference to the album’s romantic theme is “The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore,” a song whose lyrical DNA reminds me of a Lou Reed song. The subject matter is definitely in his wheelhouse, as evoked through lines like “Speak to me of heroin and speed / Of genocide and suicide, of syphilis and greed / Speak to me the language of love / The language of violence, the language of the heart / This isn’t the first time I’ve asked for money or love / Heaven and earth don’t ever mean enough / Speak to me of heroin and speed / Just give me something I can believe.”
“This Mess We’re In,” along with the previously mentioned “Good Fortune,” ranks high on the list of Harvey’s best songs in her career. When I first listened to the track twenty years ago, I did not expect it to be a duet with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke singing its first lyrics. The pairing of Harvey and Yorke is sheer perfection, and “This Mess We’re In” made me want to hear more from them. Yorke also did backing vocals on “One Line” and “Beautiful Feeling,” but this one stands out amongst the three. The song is about two lovers whose affair is approaching its end and the conversation leading up to that point, with the duo echoing each other, “What were you wanting? (What was it you wanted?) / I just want to say (I just want to say) / Don’t ever change now baby (Don’t ever change) / And thank you / I don’t think we will meet again / And you must leave now / Before the sun rises over the skyscrapers / And the city landscape comes into being / Sweat on my skin / Oh, this mess we’re in.”
Additional highlights include “Kamikaze,” “This Is Love,” and the album send-off “We Float,” which, like the opening track “Big Exit” musically and lyrically takes the listener to an unexpected place (“We wanted to find love / We wanted success / Until nothing was enough / Until my middle name was excess / And somehow I lost touch / When you went out of sight / When you got lost into the city / Got lost into the night”).
Harvey has always incorporated sex within the thematic thrust of her albums, but with Stories From The City, it feels different from her previous output. Her inspiration had come from another place in her life. Harvey was living in Dorset, England at the time, but a couple of lengthy stays in New York influenced her writing. “New York certainly gave me a different kind of energy,” she explained in a 2000 interview. “I do think that has permeated to some of the music. I had long wanted to [live there]. I made a film with Hal Hartley in New York, and I realized at that time what an inspiring sort of place it felt to me. I can remember even when we were filming, I was writing songs, some of which ended up on this record. I just felt very inspired.”
As I sat down to write this retrospective, I listened to this album intending to play a few tracks at a time, but I often found myself settling in and letting the whole thing play. That’s what excellent albums tend to make you do. The deserving winner of the prestigious 2001 Mercury Prize, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea is an intense, loving, and beautiful valentine to a New York City that I miss dearly.
Happy 20th Anniversary to PJ Harvey’s fifth studio album “Stories From The City Stories From The Sea”, originally released October 23rd, 2000.
