Hand Drawn Dracula Records (HDD) is pleased to release the debut solo album, “On Arrival”, by Kyle Edward Connolly. An HDD alumni and Toronto music veteran, Kyle has released projects on the label as co-founder of Wish and The Seams as well as playing with Beliefs/Breeze, before joining Columbia / Sub Pop recording artist Orville Peck on bass for the ShowPony and Pony releases.
With tinges of Chris Cohen, Neil Young, and Gram Parsons/The Flying Burrito Brothers, Kyle has developed his own unique indie country rock style heard throughout “On Arrival”, and enlisted friends from TOPS, Darlene Shrugg, Milk Lines, and The Highest Order to perform on the album. Kyle recorded and finished his debut around a busy touring schedule, with some help on the production from long time bandmate/friend, Josh Korody (Dilly Dally, Tallies, Partner).
“On Arrival” is a spontaneous album trying to capture a feeling and moment in time. Recorded from the comforts of home in Toronto, periodically over the course of a year, using outdated and at best semi-functional recording equipment. Friends stopping by now and then, inevitably, would also participate even if it was just to capture a fleeting glimpse of an idea.
It’s an album that was also recorded in the middle of a years long tour (see Orville Peck). A rare few days off were spent in pre winter Berlin, getting down on tape what musical ideas I could with the help of some friends from Tel-Aviv. Sessions flew by through a cloudy haze with linguistic barriers and late night jazz.
After some time I collected the tapes off the shelf, brought them back to Toronto and sorted through the tracks. Finally finished off and mixed with long time friend and collaborator Josh Korody at Candle Recordings. A quick collection of songs, On Arrival. This for now, more to come.” – Kyle
The B-side – a cover of Mark Fry’s “The Witch” whose album “Dreaming with Alice” released in 1972 is a cult classic. The Chemistry Set have given the song a twist, with a Gregorian Chant intro, that is taken from The Bee Gee’s acid drenched 1967 song “Every Christian Lion-Hearted Soldier”. Mellotron flutes, Iranian Setar and Acoustic guitars abide, faithful to the original vibe but then heads into “Freak-out” territory a la “Interstellar Overdrive” meets The Red Krayola. which, even this early in the year, is going to rank this among everyone’s top singles of the year, a folky, spooky, haunted slice of occasionally Floydy psych (it’s that organ) that morphs so gently into a pounding freak out of the kind you wish every record sounded like. The Chemistry Set have always rated high on the Modern Psych-o-meter, but this time, they’ve hit the nail so hard on the head that a time machine could not make you happier.
Flip it over – and oh, what the hell, let’s pretend it’s a double a-side. Because “Paint Me a Dream” effectively picks up where “The Witch” left off, with the Set already sparking alchemical magic, but this time heading towards a shoe-gazey kind of Byrdsy sound, with guitars on stun and a dynamic guitar solo spilling fuzz all over the carpet. this is truly wonderful.
Brand new single from The Psychedelic Scientists – released 29th January on the Los Angeles “Hypnotic Bridge” label. Limited edition 7″ vinyl. Available in the UK –
Think of the Edgar Broughton Band and you immediately remember the hairy freak combo that emerged out of the tail end of psychedelia, to join Hawkwind and the Pink Fairies at the apex of the early 70s festival underground. Five albums cut for Harvest between 1969 (Wasa Wasa) and 1975 (Oora) contain some of the most dramatically out there rock of the age, and some of the most brilliantly conceived, as well – who else would medley the Shadows “Apache” with Captain Beefheart’s “Drop Out Boogie”?
Less feted are the albums that the band produced over the next seven years three studio sets and a live album to prove that even at the end of the decade, the Broughtons were a concert force to be reckoned with. Those records are the ones you’ll find here… Bandages (1975), Live Hits Harder! (1979), Parlez Vous English? (1979) and Superchip – the Final Silicone Solution (1982). And if you’re not familiar with them, let this be your introduction.
Bandages is the runt of the litter, recorded as the band struggled with both management problems and their new label… which just happened to be owned by their management. It definitely has its moments, but coming after the minor disappointment of Oora, it suggested that the band had reached the end of its tether. And so it had – the following year saw the Broughtons embark on their farewell tour.
A live album was planned, but it was three years before the tapes emerged as Live Hits Harder!, a savagely enjoyable collection even if, for Broughtons aficionados, it was recorded five years too late. Released only in Switzerland, it dribbled into the UK on import, and the story was over. Which means, nobody could have predicted what would happen next, as the band reformed at the end of 1978 and set to work on what can only be described as one of their masterpieces.
Parlez Vous English? was everything its most spirited predecessors are, but seen through a sheen that recognized all that had changed since the band was last in the studio, on record and in society. Released under the abbreviated name of the Broughtons, it’s an electrifying album, sharp and witty, demanding and demonstrative. The record did nothing chart wise, but it proved that the Broughtons were back.
And then they were gone again, vanishing for three years before re-emerging with the final album in this box, the conceptual Superchip.
Again the band had been paying attention to what was occurring outside of their studio. Synths burble and bleep all over, with the opening “Metal Storm” alone truly remarking upon the band’s former chaos. But it works. The lyrics are as crafty as ever, and Edgar’s always going to sound like Edgar, no matter what’s going on around him. And those are the elements that drag the electronics out of their then-customary roost in alienation and ice, to give Superchip an energy and an atmosphere that only John Foxx, of the contemporary wave of synth warriors, had even come close to capturing. It remains a joy.
It’s also the only album in the box to include a bonus track, the period b-side “the Virus,” but that’s barely a deficiency. Three of the four albums here demand a place in your collection, regardless of how many Broughton discs you already own; and the fourth (Bandages) will swiftly prove itself to be more than makeweight as well. Indeed, of all the early-mid seventies proggy favourites who persisted in making albums after punk scorched the ears… and that’s everyone from Caravan to ELP, from Genesis to Yes… the Broughtons truly were one of the precious few that were worth still listening to.
If there’s one good thing to be drawn from the music industry’s pandemic-led collapse, it’s the fact that a lot of artists have spent their enforced vacations making records that neither we nor they expected to hear. The fruits of those labours are now beginning to emerge, but few are so direct, and so utterly enjoyable, as TV Smith’s contribution.
Unequivocally titled, passionately performed and, as always, brilliantly lyric-ed (is that even a word?), “Lockdown Holiday” is effectively a concept album, tracing the course of both the pandemic and the UK authorities’ response to it. It builds, however, not out of simple observation, but also from Smith’s own first-hand encounter with the bug… picked up, ironically, on his way to one of the final shows he was able to play before it became prudent to stop altogether. “One sneeze in a service station, that’s where my calendar ends.”
The overall mood is acoustic, an atmosphere that always brings out the best in Smith – he plays guitar like he sings, his plectrum rushing to keep up with the lyrics that fall as fast from his mouth today as they ever did back in the days of the Adverts. Likewise, the shifts in emphasis which hit you as hard as a crate full of bass drums, as “The Lucky Ones” shifts from an account of his own Covid-fired sufferings to those of others who don’t have the luxury of a comfortable bed and hot running water to see them through their convalescence.
It’s not a feelgood album… some folk might even find it depressing; it’s bad enough that this bloody bug dominates the news and conversation, do we really need to singalong to songs about it? The difference is, Smith’s commentary is worth hearing (and singing along with); and, besides, the lessons that he draws from what we’ve been going through is applicable to a lot more than the pandemic.
Rather, it is the conditions in which the pandemic has flourished, social and cultural, that interest him the most, targets that shift from the government misinformation we’ve all heard about, to the fact that society in general has become so used to technology solving all our problems instantly that we don’t have a clue what to do about something that can’t be fixed with a quick Google search. But it can certainly be unfixed, if you believe most of what you read.
All of which makes things sound a lot more dour than they are – “Lockdown Holiday” itself might not have the most cheerful lyrics, but there are tunes here that will lock themselves into your brain first time, to go with the thoughts that will linger even longer. This should be included in the best new releases of 2020 (it was released at the end of November).
the TV Smith album “Lockdown Holiday,” release date November 27th. 2020
Back in the early ’70s, riding the wave of the England’s glam rock/glitter rock movement, Slade delivered a supersonic knockout punch of fist waving anthems that helped transform them into superstars in the U.K. and other territories. While Slade is best remembered for their trademark foot stomping stadium-sized rockers like “Mama Weer All Crazee Now,” “Cum On Feel the Noize,” “Gudbuy T’ Jane,” “Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me” and “Take Me Back ‘Ome,” the band’s versatility was evidenced by their ability to come up with a batch of consummately melodic jewels like the tour de force “How Does It Feel,” “Far Far Away,” “Everyday” and “Nobody’s Fool.”
A superb new book, The Noize: The Slade Discography, penned by Ian Edmundson and Chris Selby, is a long awaited chronicle of the band’s releases. What makes this more essential than a dry trainspotting guide to their robust catalogue is the painstaking detail supplied by the authors about each release, from their first hit “Coz I Luv You” to latter day smashes “”Run Runaway.” Beyond the meticulously curated discography details, each entry is crammed with information, description of the songs, relevant quotes from band members, reviews and more. Generously filled with hundreds of images of the band’s various releases, The Noize is a long overdue tome exhaustively examining the band’s rich and varied recording career.
Skating Polly is an American rock band formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 2009. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Kelli Mayo and Peyton Bighorse, who were 9 and 14 years old when the band formed. The band is noted for its members alternating instruments, childlike yet mature and poetic lyrics, melodic arrangements, rudimentary musicianship and an eclectic array of songs that vary in style from riot grrrl to piano-based indie pop.
After a jam session at the girls’ Halloween party. Their sophomore album, Lost Wonderfuls, was produced by Exene Cervenka of X and mixed by Kliph Scurlock of The Flaming Lips. “LostWonderfuls” was released in April, 2013. They are now on their third album, Fuzz Steilacoom, Raised on ‘70s punk and early-‘90s alt-rock, Mayo (age 13) and Bighorse (18) inspiration from artists as disparate as Johnny Cash, The Ramones, NWA, Nirvana, and Bikini Kill and saturate their own songs with a raw energy reminiscent of their musical heroes. Skating Polly takes a minimalist approach to song writing, with the two largely self-taught musicians (Bighorse plays guitar, Mayo plays a guitar/bass hybrid called a basitar, and both girls play drums and piano) crafting super-catchy melodies mainly by “messing around with our instruments and figuring out how to make cool noises,” according to Bighorse. But despite their stripped-down aesthetic brutally in-your-face, gut-wrenchingly tender, and irresistibly fun.
Along with earning the adoration of Cervenka (whom they befriended after attending one of the X singer’s 2010 solo shows and playing their demos on a cell phone), Skating Polly has found fans in Rosanne Cash and Sean Lennon, taken the stage with punk legends like Mike Watt, and opened up for such indie heavy-hitters as Deerhoof and Band of Horses. Tapping Mayo’s dad as their tour manager, the stepsisters typically hit the road with their entire family and optimize their travel time by making up songs on their ukulele.
Skating Polly also feature in the soundtrack for Viggo Mortensen’s movie “Falling” is out on Bandcamp, Itunes, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Google Play!!!
Skating Polly “Little Girl Blue and The Battle Envy” from their record “The Make It All Show”
On his fourth full-length, “Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!”, East Nashville country-to-not-country songwriter Aaron Lee Tasjan is as eager to flesh out the contours of his narrative as the exclamation points imply. Only a month into 2021 and we already have a strong contender for Album of the Year. Just a glorious sound – pop, Americana, psychedelia, it’s a little of everything.
For all of the album’s autobiographical tendencies (often taking shape in references to his bisexuality), Tasjan’s search for meaning is most satisfying when he adopts a hedonistic, albeit good-natured, nihilism. The faster the tempo, the glammier the synth, the brighter the key, the more room for pomp and panache, the more at home Tasjan sounds. This isn’t wholly surprising, given the rhinestone cowboy gallop of 2016’s “Silver Tears” and the enormous hooks trotted out in 2018’s “Karma For Cheap”—the latter’s “If Not Now When” and “The Truth Is So Hard To Believe” paraphrase Oasis in more ways than one. There are so many gems on this album! Up All Night was the first song birthed into the world, and I was immediately hooked. Aaron Lee Tasjan has reinvented himself previously, and expands into new territory yet again with sounds both novel and familiar.
Tasjan nails it on “Don’t Overthink It,” with its meaty bass, gossamer guitar line, and matter-of-fact “I know the bad is getting badder/ It doesn’t matter” message. He adopts a similar approach on lead single “Up All Night,” shot through with ‘80s Springsteen optimism and devil-may-care sparkle: “Broke up with my boyfriend/ To go out with my girlfriend/ Because love is like, love is like, love is like that.” So it is.
If the neon car he drives through the galaxy in the video for “Computer of Love” is any indication, Tasjan isn’t especially self-serious. But he’s susceptible to the self-titled trap of needing capital-S something to capital-S say. The album finishes with a trio of meandering ballads that feel meant to offer some positive personal resolution. “Now You Know,” the best of the three, manages a deft minor-key change with the old school tremolo of an electric organ. But Tasjan is at his best when he throws his hands up in gleeful and messy resignation, the kind of mentality befitting an album with this many exclamation points built in.
All songs written by Aaron Lee Tasjan
Released February 5th, 2021
Instruments & vocals by: Aaron Lee Tasjan, Tommy Scifres, Dylan Sevey. Gregory Lattimer, Keith Christopher, Fred Eltringham, Josh Kaler, Devon Ashley, Dom Billet, Jon Radford, Matt Rowlands,
Aerial East’s life as well as her new album “Try Harder”, released this week on Partisan Records (IDLES, Fontaines DC), is infused with a sense of disconnectedness and alienation. The daughter of a military family, East moved around a lot in her early years, including living in Germany for six years from the age of nine until fifteen. “We went to an American school and lived in American neighbourhoods,” she explains. “So I didn’t learn German or anything, it was a very small and isolated community, there were like 300 kids in my school. There weren’t any malls, any popular culture that we would get would come late! I was a teenager and I wanted to go to malls and see boys that weren’t the 150 boys that were available to me.”
Yet when it came time to leave Germany and move to Abilene in West Texas, she was initially hesitant: “When I lived in Germany and found out I was moving to Texas, I was like ‘oh no, guys with pickup trucks everywhere’, but it wasn’t really like that.” Her fondness for her time in West Texas soon becomes clear. “It was beautiful,” she says, smiling. “I learned how to drive there which is such a big deal, when you suddenly are so free. We drove around a lot – if you drive 30 minutes toward Buffalo Gap, you get to the middle of nowhere, you turn after the second gas station, you drive up this rocky hill and you get to this secret campsite that we used to go to. It was like that mostly, we’d just drive around and explore.”
It was being a musician that East only ever wanted to do – the alienated American in a foreign land, dreaming of the glitz and glamour of the pop stars from back home she would hear belatedly about. When she returned to the US, she did talent shows, she got professional voice lessons, she sung the national anthem at a major league baseball training game. East then lets out a surprise revelation: she also auditioned for American Idol. “It was in 2004,” she explained, somewhat shyly. “I didn’t get past the first round and my mum was really upset, it was more her dream than mine.”
Wanderlust and aimlessness provoked her move to New York aged eighteen but it was mostly inspired by am Abilene high school friend Katharine, who she sings about in the touching song of the same name on the album. “My best friend Katherine moved to New York to go to fashion school and be a model. My family was moving away from Texas and I was living with my ex boyfriend at the time and she needed a roommate and I just thought why not?” Katharine was the first person East shared her songs with and she insisted that East share them with others too. “She’s still an important figure in my life even though we haven’t seen each other in a while,” adds East.
Once I moved to New York City, I quickly met a bunch of artists and musicians who showed me that there was this other possibility.” Shortly after arriving in the big city, she also underwent a formative musical experience. “I saw Sharon Van Etten play in Brooklyn and it blew my mind and opened up my world,” she explains. It’s been a long time since we last heard from East. Her debut album Rooms was released back in 2016. “I had been working on this album pretty quickly after Rooms came out but not in a focused way until after I signed the deal with Partisan, which was around 2017 or 2018,” she explains. “It takes me a long time to write and record. I also did a full pendulum swing, I really wanted it to be different. I loved Rooms, I wanted it to be really big and orchestral and loungey but I wanted this record to be the opposite, very minimal, very quiet, very direct, very intentional.”
And Try Harder reflects this swing. Her lyrics are simple but meaningful, songs of heartbreak, coming-of-age, and the beauty of small things all whispered beautifully. It’s not surprising that it’s all so hushed and intimate when you realise that there are no drums behind her on the record, reflecting East’s anxious state when she was recording. Any accompanying instrumentation – swooning strings or wilting guitars – is sweetly minimal, delicately sparse. It all feels precise and intentional, and it allows the soft beauty of East’s spellbinding voice to suspend and transport the listener.
East is a very serious person; ponderous in reply and thoughtful with her answers. It feels authentic: she isn’t trying to put on any pretensions for the purposes of our conversation. East is also now 32, having had to wait patiently for her time, something that just doesn’t happen on such reality shows.
East shares with me a playlist of the songs that she listened to during the recording of Try Harder. Despite Spotify once informing her that the genre she most listened to was art pop, it’s indie folk that dominates: Angel Olsen, Big Thief, Cat Power, Julia Holter, and Jessica Pratt are some of the prominent names. It was a lesser-known Ethiopian artist that unexpectedly provided the biggest inspiration though. “I really wanted the album to sound like this solo piano album made by Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou (Ethiopiques, Vol. 21: “Emahoy (Piano Solo)”). I heard her at the restaurant I was working at. I became obsessed with it, it’s so beautiful and charming.
Texan characters – former flames and lost friends – and places – “San Angelo”, Abilene, Amarillo – populate the record. It was a sincere and pointed act, to portray a better side to the state. “Everything is so politicised now,” she sighs. “There’s shadow and light to that. I definitely did want to tell stories about people that my New York social bubble don’t have any idea about.
Perhaps this memorialisation is an act of necessity for East herself. Having lived in New York for so long now, this new sense of permanence is perhaps daunting for someone whose life was so aimless and itinerant before it. Remembering West Texas, then, becomes about acknowledging the temporality from which she emerged; a message to Katharine, to ex-partners, to the small towns that they won’t be forgotten.
Everything happens for a reason: Try Harder was supposed to come out last September but it was pushed back because of Covid. East, forever used to temporality and fragility, adapted as she’s always done. “I remember Jessica Pratt’s record (Quiet Signs) came out in January or February in 2019 and everyone I knew was listening to that record because those were the darkest days of the year and it’s such a pretty, introspective record. And I think that Try Harder is a good winter record so it actually feels better being released now.” In a time where many are locked in our homes, thinking of old and better times, East’s record, a remembrance of things past, is comforting, for both her and us.
“Katharine” from her new album, “Try Harder” is released on 12th February via Partisan Recordings.
Close on the heels of “Summerlong” (still in heavy rotation on our turntables), Ripley Johnson (Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo) adds another gem of an album of soon-to-be classics. Hop in your car, roll down your window – or pop in the earbuds and go on a hike. Most importantly, TURN UP THE VOLUME! These tunes are made for travels of the mind and body! Rich melodies, intimate vocals, elongated epic guitar solos and just a dash of country-rock twang, “Earth Trip” takes you to summers spent in the company of friends, and celebrates mediation, nature, space and stillness.
Rose City Band is celebrated guitarist Ripley Johnson. A prolific songwriter, Johnson started Rose City Band as an outlet nimble enough to match the pace of his writing as well as to explore song writing styles apart from Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo. Rose City Band allows him to follow his musical muses as they greet him and not be bound by the schedules of bandmates and demands of a touring group. On Earth Trip, Johnson colours songs with a country-rock twang and a melancholic, wistful undertone. Themes recur such as pining for summers spent in the company of friends to newer meditations on space, stillness and the splendour of the natural world. Johnson’s laid-back and classically West Coast songs communicate emotions entirely of the moment with both his lyrics, intimate vocal style as well as his elegant elongated guitar lines and astute use of counter-melodies on the pedal steel.
Earth Trip was written during the period of sudden shocks and drastic lifestyle changes of 2020, quite literally “called down off the road” as he sings in elegiac album opener “Silver Places”. Home for an extended period for the first time in years, he was able to reconnect with simple pleasures of home life: hikes in nature, bathing outside and waking with the dawn. Johnson found hope and healing in forming a more mindful relationship with the natural world, from the simple pleasures of tending a garden to sleeping out under the stars. “Lonely Places” in particular captures the sheer joy and freedom of losing oneself in nature, an ode to the wealth of natural beauty the west coast provides, as well as the importance of appreciating wild, open spaces. “In the Rain” seeks beauty and hope in life’s darker moments, while “Dawn Patrol” finds solace in the earth’s natural rhythms.
Recorded primarily at his home in Portland and mixed by Cooper Crain (Bitchin’ Bajas, Cave), the songs on “Earth Trip” make deft use of space through their lean arrangements, guest Barry Walker’s shimmering pedal steel, open and elongated guitar melodies, and upfront and intimate vocals. Johnson describes the arrangements this way; “I was trying to capture that feeling when you take psychedelics and they just start coming on – maybe objects start buzzing in the edges of your vision, you start seeing slight trails, maybe the characteristics of sound change subtly. But you’re not fully tripping yet. Cooper got the idea right away and his mix really captures that feeling.” Johnson’s lithe guitar playing treads an equally fine line between country and cosmic, melodies blooming into long reverb trails and solos evocative of radiant summer warmth.
Earth Trip’s message of interconnectedness with the environment expands on a long country music tradition that draws a symbiotic relationship between storyteller and the land, celebrating the beauty of the natural world without forgetting our responsibility to preserve it for future generations. It cements Johnson’s place as a musician and songwriter of inimitable skill.
“Earth Trip” is available in a few different merch packs – keep reading to learn more, there are only a super limited amount of The Rambler Pack available only to our newsletter subscribers: Rambler Pack includes: A tasty tote bag (back by popular demand), custom printed rolling papers, a sweet sticker, die cut jacket (picture window) with printing on the inside of the jacket (think on the beach, amigo…) as well as heavy stock inner jacket and a mail order exclusive Wood coloured vinyl.
Very happy to announce our new album, Earth Trip, coming out May 21st on Thrill Jockey Records
Limited edition “Rambler Pack”, which comes with the ltd-edition LP, tote bag, rolling papers and sticker, available on the Thrill Jockey website
Cocteau Twins, former CT bassist Simon Raymonde and Richie Thomas of Dif Juz are gearing up to release their second Lost Horizons albums, In Quiet Moments, on February 26th via Bella Union Records. It’s a double and packed with notable guest vocalists to help them achieve their cinematic vision. The terrific first half, which came out digitally back in November, features guest vocals from John Grant, Porridge Radio, Penelope Isles, former Midlake frontman Tim Smith and more, while Pt 2 features Marissa Nadler, Ural Thomas, The Innocence Mission’s Karen Peris, and more.
As you’d expect from two men who released records during the ’80s arty heyday of 4AD, the artwork is as important as the music itself. The packaging for the Deluxe Edtion vinyl of In Quiet Moments is especially lovely and comes on ocean blue and green vinyl, with a wide-spinned sleeve on uncoated/reverse board and is housed in a cool PVC outer sleeve with printed text. (There’s also a sticker, for those looking to cover logos on your laptop or decorating your fridge.) We’ve got a special edition in our store where the first 100 orders come with an art print postcard signed by Simon Raymonde.
While we wait for the whole thing to drop, you can listen toIn Quiet Moments Part 1 now along with the Marissa Nadler song, “Marie,” from Part 2:
