“Standing in the Doorway” was written and recorded during the making of Heart Like a Levee. I think I was trying to understand if and whether luck was related to my life at the time. I always liked this tune, but it didn’t seem to fit the emotional arc of that album for some reason. It also seemed like it could survive on its own, away from other songs that might give it context. Since Heart Like a Levee came out, a lot has changed in the world, of course. I’m currently writing this from the studio where we’re working on our next record and trying to live in this world with some kind of light. —M.C. Taylor
This song was recorded with the Spacebomb family—a collection of musicians with deep kinship and connection to Hiss Golden Messenger—in Richmond, Virginia, on February 7th, 2018. They love their families and friends in the same ways that I do mine. I was proud and honored to work with them on this song.
All proceeds from “Passing Clouds” and “Passing Clouds Dub” will benefit Everytown, a movement of Americans working together to end gun violence and build safer communities. I urge you to perform your own small actions of peace whenever and wherever you can. We can make the world we want to live in.
John Darnielle has written almost 600 songs now, and some of them are very sad, dealing with hard drugs and tragic ends,hurting yourself and others, sicknesses of both body and brain, off-brand alcohols. They are told in beautiful, unnerving, specific detail because he is a very good writer, and also some of them are just true stories about his own life.
Last month, my cover of “Riches and Wonders” with Jherek Bischoff was unleashed on the world via the podcast “I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats”. It’s receiving a lot of praise from Mountain Goats fans, which means a lot to me. Jherek and I churned out both the arrangement and recording in only a few days last summer, then recorded the podcast with John Darnielle and Joseph Fink a few days later. It’s been hard to keep the project a secret for all these months! Such a fun gig! And an honor.
You can listen to the song Here I am going to be extremely “tacky” and suggest that if you like the song enough that you think you’ll listen to it more than once, Please download it – Jherek and I receive a portion of the royalties, and I personally am insanely broke finishing up my epic music video and covers album without the help of a day job . Buying the song also supports the podcast. We are all busting our asses to make things, and I can speak for all of us when I say we appreciate your support.
Meanwhile, my covers album is taking forever , Although it’s Very close to completion – two more songs need a bit more mixing, and one of those songs is giving us a lot of hell, as it’s a pile of just Eliza voices, I’m open to input. I’m all ears – no pun intended). As a result, I’ve decided to release a song or two from the project as singles prior to completion and release of the album as a whole. Because not getting content out into the world regularly is making me feel completely insane. So keep your eyes’ n’ ears peeled for the first single, a cover of Rufus Wainwright’s “The Art Teacher”, another epic collaboration with Jherek Bischoff.
When you listen to Sylvan Esso singer and lyricist Amelia Meath talk about the band’s new album, “What Now”, you quickly learn how profoundly she’s motivated by love. There’s the love of magical sounds and the euphoria she feels when music “lifts you off the earth.” There’s the love for the audience, of connecting with and freeing them through song. And, especially for Meath, there’s the love of dance and of feeling the body (literally) become the music.
The release of What Now, we asked Meath to share some of the stories behind the new songs. She revealed a lot about what went into each track, but also reflected on the kinds of things that can keep her up at night, like whether being in a band matters when there’s more important work to do, how she’s sometimes sad when everything is awesome and how flagrant sexism in the music industry can ruin everything.
1. Sound
“Writing ‘Sound’ was one of the more relieving moments of creating What Now. Once it was finished we knew that it was the first track. It became a reassuring light post through what would become a rather intense and doubt-filled writing process. That opening sound is an old, half-broken Korg MS-20 being tuned by my voice. So much was wrapped up in that initial sound for us — the mission statement of our makeshift reverse-auto-tune, the combination of the two of us in a single sound, the idea of translating your humanity through a machine in the hopes of connecting with someone on the other side, it all feels contained in that moment. It functions as a statement of purpose and a love letter to the listener. ‘Here you go, we made this for you, let it take you away from your general day-to-day for a little while, let it lift you.'”
2. The Glow
“‘The Glow’ is about listening to The Microphones’ record The Glow Pt. 2, one of the first records that I really loved. Each track made my heartsick, high-schooler self feel less lonely and more safe. I used to listen to it on a Discman while I walked home from shows at The Middle East or TT The Bear’s in Cambridge MA. All of the people mentioned in the verses are people I went to high school with, whom I was completely in awe of — pretty much still am.
“Overall, it’s a song about being lifted off the earth by music — a feeling that I was so used to when I was 14 and which I am constantly reaching towards and trying to create as a musician. I miss it and I’m worried that it’s happening less and less. I want to give it to other people.”
3. Die Young
“I wanted to write a love song. There are so many of them that I tend to avoid directly writing about love. Poor love — its been compared to everything! But I wanted to get in the game, because I am in love and wanted to see if I could do it. So of course I write this bummer of a happy pop-dirge.”
4. Radio
“Lyrically, this is mostly me talking to myself. Hilariously enough this song is on the radio now, but at the time I was feeling an immense amount of pressure to write new songs for What Now even though we were still mid-cycle on our first record. Most of the song is spent accusing myself of trying to become a successful musician when there are so many other important things to be doing other than sucking up to the man, trying to get America to think you are cool. Also — getting on mainstream radio is like trying to join a secret society, particularly if you are female. Stations have literally come back to us saying that they already have ‘a female vocal’ in their playlist.
5. Kick Jump Twist
“This is about jumping through hoops trying to get people to love you. Be it practicing your dance moves and sexy face in the mirror, or prepping your audition for RuPaul’s Drag Race. It’s a song about how we perform our lives — and also, about being in a band and touring forever.”
6. Song
“My favorite manifestation of heartache is wanting to be a piece of music. As in, actually being so filled with emotion and energy that you leave your human body and transcend into pure melody. For real. That is what this tune is about, as well as the reality of being in love versus what love songs and rom-coms tell us love is like — how sometimes a song can make you feel more in love than the real thing. Or at least it gives you a moment to completely feel it, without distraction.”
7. Just Dancing
“I wanted to talk about how Tinder has made it possible to only go on first dates forever. How all of the sudden it is completely possible to be in control of how potential romantic partners see you. How if you wanted to, you could be your own most ideal version of yourself. But you would have to keep on changing who you were dating to keep that beginning of a relationship feeling. How you could live in this false image of yourself, reflected through your partners’ eyes, never landing.”
8. Signal
“It’s about life mimicking technology and technology mimicking life. Searching for truth and honesty in a sea of noise. How, despite all the changes to the ways we go about it, we all still want the same thing any human has ever wanted: to be, connect with other humans and feel understood.
9. Slack Jaw
“Everything is awesome — and I am still sad.”
10. Rewind
“This is about me watching scenes from movies over and over again when I was a kid, learning turns of phrases and dance moves, and how to be a person. The chorus is about repeated viewings on VHS — how when you are rewinding something the picture dims and when you press ‘play,’ the room floods with light again. It is about building your personality from media, and then slowly dismantling it to become an honest human and an amalgamation of your influences from family, friends, movies, music and idols.”
NC/DC superghouls Bat Fangs pick up where Roky & the Aliens blasted off– cranking acid-soaked 80s hard rock for the living and the dead. Making heady heavy music for third eyes and stiff upper lips, Betsy Wright (Ex Hex) shreds ‘n’ howls over Laura King’s (Flesh Wounds / Speed Stick) deep-thunder drums. Let the Bat Fangs sink in!
Ryan Adams drew from some potentially surprising sources while dreaming up the musical landscape for his next solo LP. The new record, released in November, has evolved beyond Adams’ initial description of an album inspired by the “sonic geography” of classic releases from Bruce Springsteen and the Smiths. In its place stands a set of songs whose recordings absorbed the strains of different artists on Adams’ iPod playlist.
“When I run, I listen to [an iPod] Nano that I have. I put all the AC/DC records on from back to front, or I’ll listen to the best of stuff from the ’80s: Springsteen, or [Bruce] Hornsby, and I’ll listen to what is going on there. I was listening to AC/DC’s Fly on the Wall,” he recalled, “and that’s when I realized what I had to do for the record.”
But if AC/DC inspired a new direction for the album, fans probably shouldn’t expect to hear that band’s stomping, monolithic crunch. In fact, it sounds like there’s a lot more going on in terms of production — including more intricate guitar arrangements inspired by ELO and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. “I was like, ‘Wow! I understand the multicolored guitar tone moments now. You can layer stuff. I really just learned a lot.””
Fueled by the maddening depression that comes from divorce, Ryan Adams did what he does best: He wrote about it. For 12 tracks, the shaggy singer-songwriter wrestles with his worst demons, reeking of pathos and abandon.
Not since Heartbreaker has Ryan Adams sounded this earnest. Every track beams with the kind of fragility you’d want from a denim lothario like Adams, but instead of wallowing in grief, these songs attempt to resolve it. They do.
To help him achieve all this, Adams turned to Grammy-winning producer Don Was, who he referred to in the interview as “Gandalf” and credited with helping him winnow down the “quite literally 80″ songs he had written for the record. Adams described the end result as an album that asks some “cool, big questions” without getting unwieldy.
“I think the challenge for me — the Everest peak, for me — is to tell this story in 11 songs, to tell this part of my life in 11 songs,” he added. “How do I make a real distinct record where anybody listens to it and says, ‘That’s the truth from beginning to end.’ So it’s like exercise. It sucks in the beginning. But then you get into it.”
Essential Tracks: “Doomsday”, “Anything I Say to You”, “To Be Without You”, and “Outbound Train”
Angel Olsen gave us My Woman, one of last year’s best albums, and she’s also got one of the best live shows going right now. Her voice is monstrous, her songs are amazing, and her visual presentation is absolutely on-point; I love the way all the members of her backing band wear matching suits and bolo ties.
“Special” always felt like a band song to me, something to lose track of ourselves in. It didn’t quite fit the rest of the record and was a major deciding factor on whether or not it would mean a double LP. The record came out and I kept thinking about the song and wanting to play it anyway.
My friend came to visit me for a week and I had all these grand ideas about how to make another video. But it’s been a long year of touring and videos and pressure to keep on being important or interesting.
So I woke up the next day and changed my mind, deciding it would be best to just capture the days we were hanging and to occasionally have the camera up. Those days were some of the hardest and also sweetest of the summer. We spent much of the time talking about the current state of affairs and how everyone has been going through tremendous change and having to make hard choices. Maybe it’s just this year, but it feels that we’re entering a new era, one that requires us to really pay more attention to the world and ourselves in it.
What I realized is that going through a hard time and talking about it with friends makes you feel your friendships and who you are, and sometimes it takes a weird year to recognize what you still have.
Watch the Video Below.
Phases is a collection of Olsen’s work culled from the past several years, including a number of never-before-released tracks. “Fly On Your Wall,” previously contributed to the Bandcamp-only, anti-Trump fundraiser Our First 100 Days, opens Phases, before seamlessly slipping into “Special,” a brand new song from the “MY WOMAN” recording sessions. Both “How Many Disasters” and “Sans” are first-time listens: home-recorded demos that have never been released, leaning heavily on Olsen’s arresting croon and lonesome guitar.
The b-sides compilation is both a testament to Olsen’s enormous musical range and a tidy compilation of tracks that have previously been elusive in one way or another. Balancing tenacity and tenderness, Phases acts as a deep-dive for longtime fans, as well as a fitting introduction to Olsen’s sprawling sonics for the uninitiated.
Angel Olsen – ’Special’ from Phases out November 10th, 2017 on Jagjaguwar Records
Flat Duo Jets – Wild Wild Love [2LP+10”] (first time on vinyl, 12” booklet will contain reprints from tour posters, flyers, concert tickets, live photos, limited to 800, indie-retail exclusive)
Flat Duo Jets was an American psychobilly band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Athens, Georgia. They were a major influence on several bands of the 1990s and 2000s, including The White Stripes. In interviews, Jack White has often acknowledged Dexter Romweber’s influence.
Let’s start with this. The Mountain Goats who are releasing a new album. It is, as any fan of the band will expect, a heartbreaking and heart reviving album about imperfect people described perfectly, with melodies that will stay with you for days. Ever-wonderful Mountain Goats return with a new album Goths, due out on 19th May .
It is a particularly appropriate/nostalgic title for those of us of a certain age who were in the thick of the original Goth movement, all black with purple hints, eyeliner and gloom all pervading and its capital in the heart of the north of England remembering bands like the Mission and Sisters Of Mercy.
It is summed up perfectly by the first single Andrew Eldritch Is Moving Back To Leeds, of which JohnDarnielle has to say of the undisputed godfather of Goth, “In the lyric, I imagine one of my teenage heroes, Andrew Eldritch, returning to the town where the band worked and played when they were young. His friends give him a hard time about ending up back where he started, but not because they’re mad: it’s good to see an old friend wearing the marks of time on his hands and face like well-loved tattoos. So shall it be in these times: your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions, and Andrew Eldritch, whose music has reached spirits in every corner of the globe, will move back to Leeds.”
John Darnielle: vocals, piano, Fender Rhodes
Peter Hughes: bass, vocals
Matt Douglas: woodwinds, vocals, additional keys
Jon Wurster: drums and percussion
After what seems like an uncharacteristically long silence, longstanding Wooden Wand has shared details of a new album, Clipper Ship, to be released on the 29th April.
The first taste from it is Mexican Coke, a typically understated, gently strummed and elegant folk song that reminds us all of what we’ve been missing . Lyrically there are few who can match his way with words – somehow managing in a few short turns of phrase to be genuinely thought provoking, reflective, poignant and occasionally slyly humorous. The evidence is all there in Mexican Coke – a subtle gem and a very welcome return.
In a world of guitar players, James “Wooden Wand” Toth remains first and foremost a songwriter and lyricist. “Clipper Ship”, however, presents a break in tradition: in attempting to emancipate himself from old habits, Toth wrote most of the songs on “Clipper Ship” ‘music first,’ adding lyrics later, a reversal of the tried and true method that has made him one of the most prolific and respected songwriters of his generation. The result is the most democratically-conceived, multi-layered, and musically sophisticated album in the vast Wooden Wand discography.
“Clipper Ship” is the first proper full-length Wooden Wand album since 2014. Performers include Darin Gray (On Fillmore, Dazzling Killmen, Jim O’Rourke, Tweedy, William Tyler, etc), Ryan Norris (Coupler, Lambchop), Glenn Kotche (On Fillmore, Wilco), Jim Becker (Califone, Iron & Wine), Nathan Salsburg (Joan Shelley), Kyle Hamlett (Lylas), Josh Wright & Seth Murphy (Bear Medicine), Luke Schneider (Margo Price, JEFF The Brotherhood, Natural Child, William Tyler, etc), Zak Riles (Watter, Grails), and Jim Elkington (Tweedy, Horse’s Ha, Richard Thompson, Steve Gunn).
The Fat Angel Sings 