The garage-rock revival led by the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys and The Libertines may be long gone, but this young band from Dublin are being including as one of the best new bands to see at this moment
Otherkin are a quartet that makes no-nonsense, two-to-three-minute garage rock/punk tracks born for rock radio. If this were 2004, they’d be gracing the cover of every rock zine. Otherkin released their mouth-watering debut album, OK, via Rubyworks last year, and hopefully 2018 is the year the ‘Kin play in the states. They’re in their true element when they play live, particularly frontman Luke Reilly, who’s one of the finest crowd-surfers you’ll ever see.
Following up the breakthrough is a tricky business. The easiest thing for John Moreland to do following the success of his 2015 album High On Tulsa Heat would have been to deliver a sequel-like rehash of the acoustic glories of that album. Instead he beefs things and takes a full-band approach on Big Bad Luv, which contains almost as many hooks as it does Moreland’s hard-earned kernels of truth.
You can sense the difference right off the bat with “Salisaw Blue,” which delivers some serious heartland crunch. “Ain’t We Gold” flirts with funk, while “It Don’t Suit Me (Like Before)” locates a chugging, Allman Brothers-style groove. Even mid-tempo numbers like “Lies I Chose To Believe” and “Amen, So Be It” find ways to engage the listener rhythmically as Moreland does his typically astute job with lyrics.
The feeling overall that you gather from these songs is that the difficult struggle undertaken by Moreland’s characters against the darker elements of life is absolutely worth it in the end.
Moreland does take a few moments here and there to go down the more harrowing roads of the previous album, as on “No Glory In Regret.” But even in that song, there’s somebody by his side to help him face his demons. On closing track “Latchkey Kid,” Moreland sings, “I don’t feel the need to prove myself no more.” Big Bad Luv benefits from that attitude, even as it proves this singer-songwriter hasn’t let down at all.
‘It Don’t Suit Me (Like Before)’ by John Moreland, from new album ‘Big Bad Luv’, released May 5th on 4AD Records
Dublin based ‘Grunge Pop’ band Otherkin wear the influences pretty obviously on their sleeves, vocalist DavidAnthonys swagger bares instant similarities to Julian Casablancas but writing them off as a Strokes rip-off would be unfair. Tight guitar riffs, catchy baselines and earworm choruses show skill and insight beyond their years.
This young band from Dublin doesn’t seem the slightest bit concerned. Otherkin are a quartet that makes no-nonsense, two-to-three-minute garage rock/punk tracks born for rock radio. If this were 2004, they’d be gracing the cover of every rock zine. Otherkin released their mouth-watering debut album, OK, via Rubyworks last year, and hopefully 2018 is the year the ‘Kin play in the states. They’re in their true element when they play live, particularly frontman Luke Reilly, who’s one of the finest crowd-surfers you’ll ever see.
Members: David Anthony / Luke Reilly / Rob Summons / Conor Andrew Wynne
Eskimeaux’s OK is easily my most played album of the year, next to the Courtney Barnett record. There’s lighthearted, almost childlike beauty in the way Gabrielle Smith puts words to song. Here are OK’s first lines:
In my dreams you’re a bathtub running,
You are warm and tender,
And bubbling,
Oh, you are cold and bristling and struggling
As an adopted child, Smith discovered that her biological father is Tlingit Eskimo; she describes the -eaux suffix as “just a playful jumble of letters that represents the way I record — a confusing layering of sounds that somehow coalesce into something simple.”
Smith has performed at the Tiny Desk before: She’s part of a New York art collective that includes Told Slant, Small Wonder and Bellows, and Bellows played here not too long ago. Some of the players in those bands sing with Smith in her final song — one of my favorite songs of the year — called “I Admit I’m Scared,” which ends with a few perfectly chosen words:
And if I had a dime for every time I’m freaking out,
We could fly around the world
Or just get out of your parents’ house,
Set List
“Folly” 00:00
“A Hug Too Long” 02:42
“I Admit I’m Scared” 05:25
Eskimeaux is the songwriting and production project of Gabrielle Smith. The live Eskimeaux band is Gabrielle Smith, OliverKalb, Felix Walworth, and Jack Greenleaf. Smith started using the moniker in 2007, releasing experimental and noise albums through 2010, and developing the sound over the years into the realm of more structured songwriting (2011’s “Two Mountains”), droney, dark EDM (2012’s “Eskimeaux”), and more recently, as evident in her new album, “O.K.” (to be released on Double Double Whammy), beat-driven and poetic bedroom pop. Eskimeaux is a founding member of The Epoch, a Brooklyn-based songwriting and art collective.
There’s a heart at the middle of Eskimeaux’s new record that refuses to stop beating. From the momentous swells of “The Thunder Answered Back” to the quiet contemplation of its closing track, Gabrielle Smith paints a clear picture: You need to be OK with not being OK. You need to accept that your emotions are legitimate — sometimes they’re beautiful, and sometimes they’re very, very not, but they are real. OK acts like a salve for an open wound. It acknowledges that it’s scary to be alone, and encourages you to find strength in the tremendous warmth of friendship
The Fat Angel Sings 