Dream pop artist Jay Som in the vein of Girls and Smith Westerns with lo-fi drum sound and jangly melodies in-tact. Currently signed with Polyvinyl who are also home to Beach Slang, she’s going to release a full length album next year and should win over avid indie collectors, The Singer finds herself neatly positioned in the Rough Trade recommends section.
Though Jay Som (aka Melina Duterte) has returned to the bedroom where she recorded her debut collection, Turn Into, it’s clear that the Oakland musician has grown in the time since. “The Bus Song,” the first single off her next record “Everybody Works” , is confident and compelling without surrendering any of the atmospheric ambiguity of the previous “Turn Into” . But this boldness does not arrive immediately; instead, “The Bus Song” begins with whispering vocals and similarly delicate guitars. As the track progresses, Duterte grows more assured and piles on intricate layers of trumpet, twinkling piano, and crashing drums, to create a lush conclusion. “The BusSong” displays Duterte’s ability to take one emotional concept—in this case, two friends sorting out their relationship—and stretch it into a vast network of sensations, conversations, and metaphors. Though her final plea (“Take time to figure it out/I’ll be the one who sticks around/And I just want you to need me/And I just want you to lead me”) soars away into the haze, her determination is unmistakeable.
Last year was the most thrilling year of my life and I’m grateful for everyone who took time out of their day to listen to my music.
Finally, I am so excited to announce the release of my new album “Everybody Works” – releasing on “Polyvinyl Records March 10th.
The Jay Som band will hit the road with The Courtney’s this Spring for SXSW and a full U.S. and Canada tour
Honest songwriting and insight beyond her years are at the core of Julia Jacklin’s debut album, Don’t Let the Kids Win. This Australian Sydney singer-songwriter’s lyrical prowess shines over understated guitar, making her exploration into the anxieties of growing older all the more compelling. ‘Don’t Let The Kids Win’ finds beauty in its universal truth. Its simplicity speaks louder than any metaphor ever could. Julia Jacklin’s structures centre around a rhetoric that encourages self-reflection, urging you to seek answers from the past that will eventually allow you to step into a unclouded and hopeful future. A wonderful album and one of the strongest releases this year she played a great set recently , So looking forward to her return early next year.
The Australian singer-songwriter’s rich vocals lead every track on her debut album “Don’t Let The Kids Win” to uncontested victory, without leaving a shred of evidence that this is her first time on the job. Instead, the album plays like it’s her 70th year on the rodeo circuit. It seems that in Jacklin, we’ve stumbled upon an artist who just gets it. Gets how to write and record a collection of songs that sway together in a perfect union of vintage and contemporary sound, how to creatively direct clever and visually stunning music videos, and today, how to sit down and pen a revealing track-by-track explanation of her brand new album. Anyway, the whole album is fucking incredible, and the fact that it’s the 24-year-old Australian’s debut record blows my mind.
Pool Party
I was still finishing the lyrics the night before we recorded it. I’d never really played it live so I wasn’t sure what I wanted it to sound like. We recorded it once completely differently, with a very different feel. I really liked it for the first couple of days but then was like ah this is a bit nuts. It was super-fast and drum heavy so it felt a little stressful. It’s about wanting someone in your life to get help if not for themselves then for you. Kind of inspired by the Girl Guide pool parties my family hosted when I was a kid.
Leadlight
This is one of my favourite songs and one of the first ones I wrote. Couldn’t really get it in the studio. Ben really helped out. I just remember mentioning something about how I heard a choir at the end and before I could say another word he was in there yelling his heart out into a microphone. It documents the tail end of a great relationship.
Coming of Age
It’s about hearing an artist you really like and then freaking out that you’ll never make anything anywhere near as good and no one will care about you or care about your music, you know the feeling. Then being like ah fuck it, just do it and see what happens. The heaviest the record gets I’d say.
Elizabeth
This song I wrote about a good friend of mine. Just about encouraging your friends to keep pushing with music, letting them know you’re there with them. One of my favourite recordings.
Motherland
This song nearly didn’t make the record. I don’t know why, l love it now and I love performing it. There was something missing in NZ and I didn’t really connect with it. But here it is! It’s about wondering if people I don’t know will ever come to my gigs and not my long suffering and completely amazing supportive family and friends.
LA Dream
I really love this song so of course it was super hard to record. I think I recorded this on the last day. I just had to get it down. Because it’s a live take it’s hard to ever feel super confident with the whole piece. I made Ben leave the studio, so it was just the dogs and me in there.
Small Talk
My dad resembles the actor Zach Braff and that was the springboard for this song. Real deep. I also just wanted to write a song with only 2 chords. Ben had some great visions for this track I think it was the first one we recorded over there. I was a bit nervous because Tom my drummer didn’t realise his passport was out of date so I had to get a session guy in to record it. He was so great though and brought something different to the recording.
Sweet Step
Hey what do you know, another song about not being heard and wondering if I ever will be! Come on Julia.
Same Airport, different man
This is where I get the bluesiest I probably ever will. Just a repetitive song about the issues that arise with mixing a love for travel and a love for loving people. Also how as I get older the less drama I need in relationships. That drama doesn’t mean it’s better.
Hay Plain
It was my first time driving back from Adelaide on my own. I had just gotten on to the Hay Plain and my petrol light went on. It was a scary but really beautiful drive. The sun was setting and I just think the Hay Plain is so spectacular. I wrote this song whilst driving, just singing away trying to distract myself from the looming empty tank situation.
Don’t Let The Kids Win
This was the last song I wrote for the album and it ended up being the title track. I think it sums up the theme of the record nicely and where I was in my life at the time. Doubting everything but a bit too tired to let it get to me too much. Just kind of going well…yeah I’m freaking out about getting older and running out of time but so is everyone! So just sing about it, move on and keep working.
Braid’s cover of “Next of Kin” by Alvvays appears on the Polyvinyl Plays Polyvinyl compilation – a 20-track covers album featuring Polyvinyl artists covering songs from other Polyvinyl artists, out November 25th, 2016.
Wampire’s cover of “Face To Face” by Jacco Gardner appears on the Polyvinyl Plays Polyvinyl compilation a 20-track covers album featuring Polyvinyl artists covering songs from other Polyvinyl artists, out November 25th, 2016.
Looking back on our 20-year existence, we’re proud to say that Polyvinyl has never been defined by a particular genre.
From early records that documented the Midwestern emo of American Football, Braid, and Rainer Maria to of Montreal’s mercurial mining of musical styles, Ida’s intimate harmonies, Joan of Arc’s sonic experimentation, STRFKR’s electro-pop, the raucous rock-and-roll of Japandroids and Beach Slang, etc. etc. there’s no predicting what a new Polyvinyl release will sound like — just that it’s something we love and think you will, too.
And so, to celebrate this diverse discography, we asked 20 members of the Polyvinyl family past and present to cover a song by one of their labelmates. Fittingly, this led to a slew of beloved tracks being re-imagined in a variety of new and surprising ways.
Owen (Mike Kinsella) lends his acoustic guitar picking to Rainer Maria’s electric siren call “Ears Ring,” Braid puts a math-y spin on the surf-inflected pop of Alvvays’ “Adult Diversion,” and Deerhoof covers Xiu Xiu in the style of White Reaper, because why the hell not?
The biggest question, though, was how to name such an eclectic collection of music.
The Aussie from the Blue Mountains is supporting the ace country-soul seven-piece Whitney on tour this autumn and her singles to date suggest her debut album will be just as perfectly formed as theirs. Not an album many would expect to see on an end-of-year list but it is there for a good reason. In a sea of solo artists laying down their songs and trying to impress – few make such a mark as Julia Jacklin. The Australian newcomer wrote the album in response to those around her growing-up and developing in life. Whether buying a home or moving abroad: Jacklin felt grounded and rootless by comparison. The songs address the need to make changes and the issue of age. The catchy single Coming of Age finds Jacklin tackling premature middle-age (Jacklin is twenty-five) and the necessity of making the most of time. The rest of Don’t Let the Kids Win is complex and diverse. The compositions are constantly agile, rich and unexpected – not what you’d expect from a debut album from someone entering the Indie-Rock milieu. Eccentric, charming and witty at times – various moments find Zach Braff cast as Jacklin’s dad and Catherine Deneuve as her mum – the shining star of the album is Jacklin’s voice. Quirky at various moments yet always heartfelt, spirited and beautiful. 2016 has seen many debuts and new artists emerge but few are as memorable as Julia Jacklin. The media and international radio have fallen for her music and no wonder: Don’t Let the Kids Win is a sensational album that deserves big big love.
“Leadlight” is taken from Julia Jacklin’s new album Don’t Let the Kids Win, out 10/07/16.
Julia Jacklin, the Australian folk-rock singer who’s been shooting to sudden fame this year, released a new song this week titled “Hay Plain.”
It’s the fourth single from Jacklin’s forthcoming debut album Don’t Let The Kids Win, and perhaps the best yet. The track follows Julia Jacklin as she contemplates her “new man” on a long drive, and it does so with a magnetic expansiveness. The song opens on dusty guitar strumming reminiscent of rolling wheels. Swirling layers of sound build slowly, evoking the power with which an enormous landscape—in this case a hay plain—overwhelms those who drive through it. Jacklin’s vocals are gentle one moment and forceful the next, with the unexpected shifts adding urgency to her words.
Julia Jacklin is currently on the North American segment of her international tour and preparing to release her album on October . 7th via Polyvinyl Records. She’s been working on these songs for years, but is finally committing to a full-time music career. Jacklin began studying music at age 10, when she decided that her tiny self had thus far been a useless deadweight in the world, unlike the illustrious child star Britney Spears. Spears inspired her to start taking voice lessons.
A decade and a half later, here we are. Jacklin is currently making her way around the world with Marlon Williams and Whitney, and may be coming to a city near you. But first, listen to “Hay Plain.”
La Sera have a new EP, Queens, that’s out Friday on the 30th September via Polyvinyl. The record concludes with a cover of Led Zeppelin classic “Whole Lotta Love,” a song that La Sera have been covering live for a long time. Katy Goodman and crew don’t mess with the original too much, but deliver with a whole lotta energy.
The cover makes its premiere in this post and you can listen, along with Queens‘ title track, below. La Sera’s tour with Springtime Carnivore (with whom Katy made a covers record of there favourite songs recently)
From the opening notes coming out of her mouth,I had to check out Julia Jacklin. The smooth veil of her voice is pulled across me and I don’t ever want her to stop. Her interpretation just lingers in the air, the words moving as if slow motion.
“I love you my darling, I do. But I can’t let possession make a fool of you.” Leadlight is the second single from Julia’s debut album Don’t Let The Kids Win, out October 7th, 2016 via Polyvinyl Records. This album sums up her ambitions and anxieties of being in her twenties and learning she can’t do everything she wanted with her life, becoming a musician and struggling but having no regrets with her choices. Memories of family and growing up with her sister and fast-forwarding to now and how fast everything just seems to happen.
“All my friends at this age are freaking out. Everyone’s constantly talking about being old. “Don’t Let The Kids Win” is saying yeah we’re getting older but it’s not so special. It’s not unique. Everyone has dealt with this and it’s going to keep feeling weird. So I’m freaking out about it too but that song is trying to convince myself: let’s live now and just be old when we’re old.”
Leadlight is the second single from Julia’s debut album Don’t Let The Kids Win – Out October 7th 2016
You might know Katy Goodman as the former bassist of Vivian Girls or as one half of the husband-and-wife indie rock duo La Sera, who coincidentally just announced a big North American tour. But you might not know that Goodman is also a huge fan of ‘70s and ‘80s punk and new wave and in a recent interview she professed her undying love for The Smiths.
Goodman has teamed up with fellow punk aficionado Greta Morgan of Springtime Carnivore to release a full album of punk and new wave covers, appropriately titled Take It, It’s Yours after lyrics heard in the great Replacements song “Bastards of Young”. The cool thing is, they’re not just sticking to covers that seem easy to pull off. The album kicks off with “Over The Edge” by Portland punk legends the Wipers and then covers territory ranging from DC hardcore (Bad Brains’ “Pay to Cum”) to Detroit proto-punk (The Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog”).
But nothing on this album is likely to beat Goodman and Morgan’s cover of the Misfits’ “Where Eagles Dare”. Originally a bass-heavy burner punctuated by Danzig’s guttural howl, the song has become something else entirely under their direction. As Morgan explains, “This is the song that inspired Take It, It’s Yours in the first place. We were goofing around singing it in my backyard and there was something powerful and interesting about hearing our voices harmonize such a traditionally aggressive song.”
She continues: “The Misfits are one of the punk bands I think of as being most influenced by girl groups of the ‘50s and ‘60s (the other being The Ramones), so somehow our voices really suited these melodies and the simple chord progression.”
Take It, It’s Yours drops August 26th on Polyvinyl Records. check out the album art and tracklist below.
Tracklist:
01. Over The Edge (Wipers)
02. Pay to Cum (Bad Brains)
03. Bastards of Young (The Replacements)
04. Sex Beat (The Gun Club)
05. Ever Fallen in Love (Buzzcocks)
06. Where Eagles Dare (The Misfits)
07. I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges)
08. In the City (The Jam)
09. Dreaming (Blondie)
10. Rebel Yell (Billy Idol)
The Fat Angel Sings 