Philadelphia punks Mannequin Pussy’s made their best album yet with 2019’s Patience. They’ve hinted that their fourth is done now, too, tweeting that the new songs include “1 classic MP song. 1 pop song. 1 sad bitch bedroom song. 1 happy slut bad-bitch song. 1 Bear song. These songs make up our collective feelings over this stupid fucking year.” Producer Will Yip calls them “bonkers,” which has us all the more excited.
The cover art of Mannequin Pussy’s third album, “Patience”, is an apt illustration of what you’re about to hear. An old-school globe is aflame, setting the scene for the Philly punk band’s strongest effort to date—as well as one of the best (and most cathartic) punk albums of the year. The artwork springs to life especially on one of the record’s most delicate and simultaneously powerful tracks, “High Horse.” Vocalist/guitarist Marisa Dabice reaches into a crescendo while she belts, “Your world’s on fire, as I watch up from my high horse / Your world’s on fire, and I walk away.” The climactic moment in which Dabice exits an abusive relationship epitomizes the immense strength fueling Patience, and acts as a prelude of sorts to the message that supplies the project’s lifeblood: You are enough. “Who You Are” echoes that same sentiment, exploring how to quiet your inner critic (and how to say “screw you” to the systems that put this critic in your head in the first place). Unlearning harmful thought patterns is a challenge, but can ultimately set you free. Patienceis all about chasing that freedom—and more importantly, being patient with yourself in the process.
“High Horse” by Mannequin Pussy from the album ‘Patience,’ available now
Japanese Breakfast’sMichelle Zauner has informed her Twitter followers to expect her third album some point in 2021. Responding to post on social media relating to a feature by the publication about the most highly anticipated releases in 2021, Zauner quoted the tweet and added, “LP3 coming”. Japanese Breakfast has still yet officially announced the record, but it has been close to four-years since she shared her last full-length effort, 2017’s “Soft Sounds From Another Planet”.
Zauner didn’t release any music under the Japanese Breakfast moniker in 2020, the last time she shared music came in 2019 when she released a glorious cover Tears For Fears ‘Head Over Heels’ and a new track, titled ‘Essentially’. Her creative energy has been primarily spent writing her memoir “Crying in H Mart”. The book is based on Zauner’s 2018 New Yorker essay and is out in April.
In a press release, Zauner said: “My mother passed away almost six years ago and ever since, my life has felt folded in half, divided into a before and after her death, my identity and my family having been fractured in the wake of her loss. I’ve spent the past six years processing grief in the best way I knew how-through creative work. “I wrote two albums worth of material in an attempt to encapsulate all of that heavy darkness, confusion and loneliness, and then I spent another three years writing pages and pages to try and capture my mother’s brilliant character and spirit, what it was like to be raised by a Korean immigrant in a small west coast town with very little diversity, the intense shame I felt towards my mixed-race identity and how my embrace of Korean food and culture helped me come to terms with that upbringing, allowed me to reconnect with her memory.”
Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner is releasing her first book this year, Crying in H Mart, and after playing new songs on a May livestream, she’s confirmed that Japanese Breakfast’s third album in on the way, too. She said she wrote a lot of it on piano, and we’re eager to hear how that might influence the band’s dream pop sound. is releasing her first book this year, and after playing new songs on a May livestream, she’s confirmed that Japanese Breakfast’s third album in on the way, too. She said she wrote a lot of it on piano, and we’re eager to hear how that might influence the band’s dream pop sound.
2021 is gearing up to potentially be a huge one for Zauner as she expresses herself with these two formats as she releases a new album and her memoir, Crying in H Mart. Anticipation is rife as Zauner plans to make up for the relative silence from Japanese Breakfast over the last couple of years.
The first album in five years from Teenage Fanclub is also their first without bassist and vocalist Gerard Love. In his place, the group recruited Euros Childs of the Welsh band Gorky’s ZygoticMynci. “The whole process of making this album was very invigorating,” guitarist and vocalist Norman Blake said in a press release. After a 2018 vinyl reissue series put many of their iconic albums back in print, “Endless Arcade” looks to be another welcome reintroduction to Scotland’s power-pop giants. Losing a songwriter as good as Gerard Love, who bowed out of Teenage Fanclub in 2018, would be a blow to any band, but luckily TFC still have two other great singer/songwriters in Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley and now count former Belle & Sebastian’s David MacGowan as a member. Despite those major lineup shifts, TFC’s jangly, harmonious sound is likely to remain un-phased.
Even if we weren’t living through extraordinarily troubling times, there is nothing quite like a Teenage Fanclub album to assuage the mind, body and soul, and to reaffirm that all is not lost in this world.
Endless Arcade follows the band’s ninth album Here, released in 2016. It’s quintessential TFC: melodies are equal parts heart warming and heart aching; guitars chime and distort; keyboard lines mesh and spiral; harmony-coated choruses burst out like sun on a stormy day.
In the 1990s, the band crafted a magnetically heavy yet harmony-rich sound on classic albums such as Bandwagonesque and Grand Prix. This century, albums such as Shadows and Here have documented a more relaxed, less ‘Teenage’ Fanclub, reflecting the band’s stage in life and state of mind, which Endless Arcade slots perfectly alongside. The album walks a beautifully poised line between melancholic and uplifting, infused with simple truths. The importance of home, community and hope is entwined with more bittersweet, sometimes darker thoughts – insecurity, anxiety, loss.
Nearly three years after their self-titled debut, Goat Girl return with their sophomore record, “On All Fours”. In the time between albums, the London group have matured in their approach to music making; for On All Fours, the band collectively collaborated on song writing, often switching instruments and exploring new sonic territory. Lead singles “Sad Cowboy” and “The Crack” are exciting new examples of Goat Girl’s growth.
Goat Girl’s new album On All Fours was produced by Dan Carey (Kae Tempest, Black Midi and Franz Ferdinand) in South London in early 2020. This new record sees the band veer away from the confrontational lyricism of their debut and indicates Goat Girl’s maturing perspectives in discussing the world’s injustices and social prejudices, using the music to explore global, humanitarian, environmental and mindful well being. Goat Girl’s frequent use of sci-fi synthesisers, off-beat chord progressions, analogue drum machines, diverse vocal styles and distinct, gritty guitars fuse a musical language that expresses both former characteristics and newer developments of the band’s sound and vision On All Fours.
For their follow-up to their very good 2018 debut LP, UK group Goat Girl once again worked with producer Dan Carey. Where their first was a rough-and-ragged, guitar-centric record, though, On All Fours adds synthesizers to the mix which, on the singles shared so far, brings bounce to Goat Girl’s swaggering sound.
The Demo have perfectly captured the sunshine of Britpop, multi-part harmonies and all, in new single ‘Apart’. They pile on the summertime vibes elsewhere in their discography, drawing from the most melodic guitar licks of the 00s garage revival to create an altogether good vibe. ‘’Apart’ is arguably the band’s strongest release to date. Four minutes of soaring, shimmering guitars and suitably optimistic vocals, it’s a far cry from the grit and swagger of ‘How’ve We Ended Up (Here Again)’, and feels like The Demo taking a step in a more mature direction.’
It’s become increasingly clearer that Manchester needs a new breed of bands to look to. Thankfully, it being the city it is, there’s a plethora of acts vying for attention, and with acts like The Lathums shining a light onto Manchester’s grassroots, showing younger bands that is possible to make it, there couldn’t be a better time to be part of the city’s ever-burgeoning scene.
That’s where The Demo come in. A five-piece hailing from Middleton, The Demo peddle in an upbeat and ramshackle brand of indie-pop that feels equally as timely as it does timeless. Interestingly enough however, latest single ‘Apart’ is something of a departure from the rough and ready delivery of their earlier cuts, eschewing the colloquial indie-pop in favour of something that feels grander, more polished, and more transatlantic.
Indeed, sharing more in common with bands like REM than The Courteeners or The Pigeon Detectives, ‘Apart’ is arguably the band’s strongest release to date. More mature it may be, but ‘Apart’ still manages to harbour the youthful energy and exuberance that made their early recordings so appealing. And though it’s still early days for the five-piece, ‘Apart’ is very much another step closer to cracking it. A band you need to keep an eye on.
Upcoming single, ‘Apart’ out on Friday 27th November 2020.
Liverpool post-punkers Gen and the Degenerates have wasted no time in announcing live dates for 2021 and their audience will be as eager as them to share in the eccentric energy of their live shows. This, they say is only the beginning of their plans for the year – and we’ll be waiting to hear what else they have in store. Gen and the Degenerates have been causing a stir across Merseyside so far in 2019. Playfully aggressive and a message worth listening to, people are learning what the Degenerates knew all along: They’re destined for big things.
“If Gen and The Degenerates keep releasing music like ‘Cocaine’ and ‘Jesus Green’ then they will almost certainly be headlining big venues in the next year.”
Gen and The Degenerates are Infamous for their high energy, larger than life, live performances. Making a hobby of gate crashing the UK music scene, bringing with them their unique breed of blood and thunder rock n roll, they have appeared alongside Strange Bones , WSTR , Bang Bang Romeo , The Ninth Wave and many more.
A track about diving head first into a toxic relationship, despite knowing it’ll only end badly. Gen Degenerate throws caution to the wind as she sings, “you’re the kind of girl that I’d like to ruin my life…”.Littered with fluttering hooks to match the feelings of attraction, the song builds and builds towards a tense release. The melody is infectious as it wraps around Gen’s words. It’s fun, in your face and loud. Speaking about the song, Gen Degenerate said: “I wrote this song about an ex-girlfriend who I knew was going to be terrible for me but pursued anyway. “Even though she did ruin my life, I still love this song because it celebrates a flawed queer woman.
I don’t think the media and music industry uses its platform to celebrate them enough. As a flawed queer woman myself, I can verify that we’re fucking fantastic.” If Gen and the Degenerates keep producing songs like ‘Very Fast, Very Dangerous’, ‘Cocaine’ and ‘Jesus Green’, then it won’t be long before the media and the rest of the music industry celebrate the flawed queer woman and her degenerates.
Much like the ebbing away of these unprecedented times, 50 years ago, the music world was coming to terms with the end of an endemic fever that had changed the face of society. As the Fab Four scrambled to studios to release their break-up albums, the Kinks seized that large Beatle-sized hole to mock the very system that had taken them to those dizzying, and ultimately suffocating heights, in their 1970 album “Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Pt.1”, which has been re-released and remastered in a glossy deluxe format.
The Kinks were the contrarian’s choice in the 60s music scene, the swagger of Mick Jagger and the Jesus-like appeal of John Lennon meant that Ray Davies and co. found themselves dwarfed in the zeitgeist of their era. Far from nobodies nonetheless – such tracks as ‘You Really Got Me’, ‘Waterloo Sunset’ and ‘Sunny Afternoon’ belong in in the same pantheon as the ‘Hey Jude’s and ‘Angie’s of this world, but alas their popularity found itself dwarfed by the canonisation of their British Invasion counterparts.
“Lola” gave the Kinks an unexpected hit, and its crisp, muscular sound, pitched halfway between acoustic folk and hard rock, provided a new style for the band. However, the song only hinted at what its accompanying album, “Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One”, was all about. It didn’t matter that Ray Davies just had his first hit in years — he had suffered greatly at the hands of the music industry and he wanted to tell the story in song. Hence, Lola — a loose concept album about Ray Davies’ own psychosis and bitter feelings toward the music industry.
He never really delivers a cohesive story, but the record holds together because it’s one of his strongest sets of songs. Dave Davies contributes the lovely “Strangers” and the appropriately paranoid “Rats,” but this is truly Ray’s show, as he lashes out at ex-managers (the boisterous vaudevillian “The Moneygoround”), publishers (“Denmark Street”), TV and music journalists (the hard-hitting “Top of the Pops”), label executives (“Powerman”), and, hell, just society in general (“Apeman,” “Got to Be Free”). If his wit wasn’t sharp, the entire project would be insufferable, but the album is as funny as it is angry. Furthermore, he balances his bile with three of his best melancholy ballads: “This Time Tomorrow,” “A Long Way from Home,” and the anti-welfare and union “Get Back in Line,” which captures working-class angst better than any other rock song.
These tracks provide the spine for a wildly unfocused but nonetheless dazzling tour de force that reveals Ray’s artistic strengths and endearing character flaws in equal measure. [The 50th anniversary edition of Lola Vs Powerman is expanded by three discs filled with rarities that span the decades. The Kinks needed to cast a wide net for this 2020 reissue since Lola received a healthy double-disc expansion in 2014, one that unearthed the outtakes “Anytime” and “The Good Life,” which are both here in new mixes. “Anytime” also seeds the newly created “The Follower — Any Time 2020,” where new spoken word elements are interwoven with the original track. There’s a lot of this kind of thing on this 50th Anniversary Edition, including several “Ray’sKitchen Sink” tracks, which contain Ray Davies and his brother Dave discussing the album’s songs while music plays in the background.
A bunch of mono mixes and alternate takes, most previously reissued, are here along with an “Apeman” from Unplugged, selections from the Ray-starring production The Long Distance Piano Player, Ray singing “Lola” with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra, and a version of “A Long Way from Home” from Ray’s 2006 Austin City Limits.
Some of this is strange, much of it is good, and all the worthwhile cuts were on the 2014 set, so this is for the hardcore Kinks fan, the one who appreciates the oddities of the bonus material instead of cursing the absence of unheard music (which likely does not exist).] What makes this album one of the Kinks’ most peculiar is its scattergun genre usage: the opening track, ‘the Contenders’ exhibits this vision, with a slow percussion and jaunty acoustic guitar transitioning, without warning, into a hard-rock crescendo. Initially this breathes freshness an invigorating freshness, but as the album progresses, this indecisiveness and laid-back approach towards genre makes this album difficult to fall in love with. For example, a song like ‘Apeman’, which is such a strong single, falls flat because it is surrounded by a weak music-hall tribute in ‘the Moneygoround’ or weird George Formby pastiche “Denmark Street”. With Christmas approaching, see this album as a box of Celebrations songs like ‘Get Back in Line’ and ‘A Long Way from Home’ sit like a Bounty amongst the fantastic ‘Lola’ and ‘Rats’.
Thematically, Lola Versus Powerman, can be lumped together with Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here or Pulp’s This is Hardcore as it is an album with the clear, age-old message – the music business is called a business for a reason – to cripple and pornographise the artistic expression and freedom of musical creation for profit and growth. On ‘Powerman’, the band channel their disgust for the abusive relationship between executives, artists and their music while ‘Top of the Pops’ is a brilliant slapstick satire about the process of making a hit, with Davies evoking the forced enthusiasm of the industry in his vocal performance. In fact, it is a crippling indictment (and brilliant foresight) of the band that the quip “I might even end up a rock’n’roll god / It might just turn into a steady job” rings true today, with bona fide legends such as David Crosby having to sell their publishing rights for money. No industry revolution will never be started by this album however – Davies misses the mark by not making his message cohesive enough. It is no surprise that ‘Lola’ was the first song written off the album, as every song feels like an attempt to make an LP to surround the big hit. The exotic nature of the iconic steel guitar on that track spreads its tentacles through the album and eventually looms large over them, stifling the listener to enjoy them only moderately.
Ray Davies described his oeuvre as “a celebration of artistic freedom (including my own) and the right for anyone to be gender-free if one wishes” and the bonus tracks offer an insight not only to how the album was created, but how the band transported their complex product to the stage with some roaring live tracks. What is clear is that despite its somewhat disjointed nature, LolaVersus Powerman is still a vibrant expression of what the Kinks became so famous for: variety, innovation and joy.
Following their hugely successful second album ‘The Age Of Immunology’ (roundly raved over by The Line Of Best Fit, PopMatters, Pitchfork, Q, MOJO, The Quietus and Uncut) and one of Rough Trade, MOJO and Uncut’s albums of 2019. Fire Films announces the first in our ‘Baptism Of Fire’ series of live streams for 2021, beginning with the transcendent psychedelic pop of Vanishing Twin and brought to you via Noonchorus on 20th January.
Vanishing Twin present ‘Pensiero Magico’ (Magical Thinking), a surreal document of their live show, augmented for 2D in a one-hour live performance special. Vanishing Twin will explore all sides of its schizophrenic self, from hypnagogic jazz to quixotic squidge pop to peeling electronic thunder, all set in multiple monochromatic worlds. Viewers will have access to exclusive merchandise designed by the band for the event including screen-printed hoodies and t-shirts and will also be entered into a raffle to win one of two dubplates created for the performance.
Check out Vanishing Twin’s newly released show trailer, a production by Tentacle and recorded by Gareth Finnegan, for a taster of their arresting live show later this month. Our ‘Baptism Of Fire’ live series will bring special performances from Fire Records artists direct to your living room throughout the year
Cocktail umbrellas and chlorinated fantasies! It’s time to get cool in the pool with Vanishing Twin. “Fantastical soundscapes that are as welcoming as they are unusual.” All Music
At the emerging period of psychedelia, Vanilla Fudge started with an exemplary debut set that produced the classic track, “You Keep Me Hanging On”. This song was a claim to fame and legitimized the band going forward. Unfortunately, Vanilla Fudge never surpassed their debut in sales or hit singles, although a great cover of Donovan’s “Season of the Witch” was on the band’s second album. By 1970, Vanilla Fudge was finished after five albums.
The Vanilla Fudge story begins in 1967 when the producer and songwriter George “Shadow” Morton heard the band–then composed of vocalist-keyboardist Mark Stein, drummer Carmine Appice, guitarist Vinny Martell and bassist TimBogert performed the song that would become their signature tune, a slow and heavy cover of the 1966 Supremes hit “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” at The Action House in Long Island, New York. Morton quickly arranged for the group to record the song, which led to the band signing with Atlantic Records’ Atco imprint.
This time Vanilla Fudge scored a No#6 pop hit, Their self-titled debut album followed shortly thereafter and, virtually overnight, the band found itself headlining major bills on both coasts as the album reached No#6 on the sales chart. “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” was released as a single in July ’67 one year after the Supremes had took it to top spot, One year later, though a follow-up album was selling, the song was re-released as a single, and rose quickly up the chart.
Morton went on to produce the second and third Fudge albums, 1968’s The Beat Goes On and Renaissance, both of which continue their rise into the rock stratosphere. Soon, the band was touring with every major rock act, from Jimi Hendrix to Cream to Led Zeppelin, who remarkably had opened for Vanilla Fudge on their very first U.S. tour back in 1968 and early ’69.
After an exhaustive non-stop schedule between 1967 and 1970, the band went on hiatus as Bogert and Appice formed another classic rock band, Cactus. By 1972, the pair joined superstar guitarist Jeff Beck to form the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice. Their 1973 self-titled album included their cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” with Bogert singing lead.
Vanilla Fudge had numerous reunion albums and tours. A 2015 album, Spirit of ’67, featured original members Appice, Martell and Mark Stein, as well as bassist Pete Bremy replacing Bogert, who retired from touring in 2008.
Tim Bogert, who died of cancer. (January 13, 2021) Bogert was 76, he was the bass guitarist for the hard rock bands the Vanilla Fudge and Cactus, and later as part of a trio with Jeff Beck and Carmine Appice, The news was shared by Appice, his frequent bandmate and friend for over 50 years, on his Facebook page, calling Bogert “a one of a kind bass player.” Appice’s tribute continued. “He was as masterful at shredding as he was holding down a groove, and Tim introduced a new level of virtuosity into rock bass playing. No one played like Tim. He created bass solos that drove audiences to a frenzy every time he played one. And he played a different solo every night. He was the last of the legendary 60’s bass players.
“I loved Tim like a brother. He will be missed very much in my life. I will miss calling him, cracking jokes together, talking music and remembering the great times we had together, and how we created kick-ass music together.” reports that at the time of his death Bogert had been working with Beck and Appice on a live album project.
Audio specialists at Mobile Fidelity will do the classic Vanilla Fudge debut proud by reissuing the title on a limited edition 180g-weight 2LP package, newly remastered and pressed at 45RPM. Even better, MoFi will release a limited edition SACD of the album (with a CD layer allowing play in most CD players). The 2LP set is limited to 3000 copies, while the SACD edition is limited to 2000 copies. The sound is in Mono.
Folk-punk songwriter Chloë Glover didn’t get much chance to tour her excellent debut EP ‘Dark Matter’, as its release in March last year unfortunately coincided with…well, everything going to shit. The upside to this is that we still have plenty to look forward to from the Bournemouth native, whose live performances are every bit as brilliant as her recorded output. This EP is absolutely brilliant. Four songs passionately delivered.
