Posts Tagged ‘Sub Pop Records’

FLOCK OF DIMES – ” One More Hour “

Posted: March 30, 2021 in MUSIC
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So happy to share one more song with you in advance of this Friday’s release—this one is called “One More Hour“. 

This song is about getting lost in a fantasy– of another life, of someone else, or of a different version of yourself. 

And it’s about the ways in which a combination of nostalgia and longing can make imagining the past or dreaming about the future so much more appealing than whatever present reality we happen to be inhabiting. It’s in our nature to make myths and tell stories about the events of our lives, and in doing so create a deeper meaning out of the most seemingly mundane events. 

But so often this interior projection can act as a distraction from presence—standing in the way of our ability to be awake to the fullness of our experience as it unfolds, making it difficult to see and appreciate the entire world of experience and sensation that’s right in front of our eyes. I’m paying attention now.

Flock of Dimes (aka Jenn Wasner) is sharing the official video for “One More Hour,” co-directed by Urzulka and Jenni Kaye.
 
“One More Hour’‘ is the final prerelease offering and highlight from Wasner’s second solo LP, “Head of Roses”, out this Friday, April 2nd worldwide on Sub Pop. It’s an album that showcases her ability to embrace new levels of vulnerability, honesty and openness, combined with the self-assuredness that comes with a decade-plus career as a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and prolific collaborator.
 
Shot in Austin, TX, the “One More Hour” video is an ode to internal conflict when re-evaluating a relationship. Says Wasner, “This song is about getting lost in a fantasy– of another life, of someone else, or of a different version of yourself. And it’s about the ways in which a combination of nostalgia and longing can make imagining the past or dreaming about the future so much more appealing than whatever present reality we happen to be inhabiting.   
 
“It’s in our nature to make myths and tell stories about the events of our lives, and in doing so create a deeper meaning out of the most seemingly mundane events. But so often this interior projection can act as a distraction from presence—standing in the way of our ability to be awake to the fullness of our experience as it unfolds, making it difficult to see and appreciate the entire world of experience and sensation that’s right in front of our eyes. I’m paying attention now.”

In my experience this is a lesson we have to keep learning over and over again–can I forgive myself for falling back into it? But there’s so much beauty to uncover in the process, and in meeting ourselves with compassion and grace, even—and especially!—when we lose sight of where we are.

It was a pleasure to work with Urzulka and Virgo House on this video, shot at Pace Bend park in Spicewood, TX. I’m so grateful to them and actor Lauren Nelson for the beautiful world they’ve created for this song, and for making me feel comfortable and at ease while perched precariously on these gorgeous limestone cliffs.

Thanks, as always, for listening, and I’m so excited for everyone to hear the album in its entirety in just a few more days. The album was produced by Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso) and Wasner at Betty’s in Chapel Hill, NC, engineered by Bella Blasko with additional engineering by Sanborn, mixed by Ari Picker and Blasko, and mastered by Huntley Miller. The album features appearances from guitarist Meg Duffy, Bon Iver’s Matt McCaughan, Wye Oak’s Andy Stack, and Landlady’s Adam Schatz. Head of Roses follows the release of Like So Much Desire, her acclaimed digital EP released June 2020 on Sub Pop.

Release Date: April 30th, 2021

FLOCK Of DIMES – ” Hard Way “

Posted: March 20, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner releases her new album as Flock of Dimes, “Head of Roses”, on April 2nd via Sub Pop, and the latest single is “Hard Way.” “Although I didn’t fully understand when I wrote it,” Jenn says, “Hard Way’ song is an example of the power of the subconscious mind to hide truths from ourselves that we’re not yet ready to see. When I wrote this song I was still in the throes of new love, and I thought I was writing a straightforward, earnest love song. But when I tried to record it, something about the tone of it was eerie, strange, a bit darker than I would have expected. It wasn’t until long after I wrote it that I became aware of its odd foreshadowing of what was to come — that something I intended to be bright and hopeful in the moment was floating on top of a deep current of unease.”

On her second full-length record as Flock of Dimes, Head of Roses, Jenn Wasner follows a winding thread of intuition into the unknown and into healing, led by gut feelings and the near-spiritual experience of visceral songwriting. The result is a combination of Wasner’s ability to embrace new levels of vulnerability, honesty and openness, with the self-assuredness that comes with a decade-plus career as a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and prolific collaborator.

Simply put, Head of Roses is a record about heartbreak, but from a dualistic perspective. It’s about the experience of having one’s heart broken and breaking someone else’s heart at the same time. But beyond that, it’s about having to reconcile the experience of one’s own pain with the understanding that it’s impossible to go through life without being the source of great pain for someone else. “Part of the journey for me has been learning to take responsibility for the parts of things that are mine, even when I’m in a lot of pain through some behaviour or action of someone else. If I’m expecting to be forgiven for the things I’ve done and the choices I’ve made and the mistakes that I’ve made, it would be incredibly cowardly and hypocritical to not also do the work that’s required to forgive others the pain they caused me.”

Showcasing the depth of Wasner’s songwriting capabilities and the complexity of her vision, Head of Roses calls upon her singular ability to create a fully-formed sonic universe via genre-bending amalgamation of songs and her poetic and gut punch lyrics. It’s the soundtrack of Wasner letting go – of control, of heartbreak, and of hiding who she is: “I think I’ve finally reached a point in my career where I feel comfortable enough with myself and what I do, that I’m able to relax into a certain simplicity or straight forwardness that I wasn’t comfortable with before.” Head of Roses puts Wasner’s seismically powerful voice front and centre. Those vocals help thread it all together — it’s a textured musicality, quilted together by intentionality and intuition.

‘Hard Way’ by Flock of Dimes from the album Head of Roses (Release Date: April 2nd, 2021 on Sub Pop Records.

FLOCK OF DIMES (JENN WASNER) – ” Two “

Posted: February 27, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Flock Of Dimes (the solo project of Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner) will release her new album “Head of Roses”, on April 2nd via Sub Pop Records. Here’s the first single. Her most recent solo project as Flock of Dimes was the EP Like So Much Desire, which also came out last year on Sub Pop. The video for her new single “Two.” The release coincides with an announcement by Wasner that her forthcoming album Head of Roses . Check out the Lola B. Pierson and Cricket Arrison-directed video for “Two,”. 

Directors Pierson and Arrison speak about the “Two” video in a press release: “The world of the video shows two humans during three consecutive days. One human lives her life from morning to night, the other from night to morning. In the middle of the day they meet and the next day begins. By exploring dichotomies (natural/artificial, day/night, everyday/majestic) the work points to the pain caused by categorization and the joy of unification.”

Wasner adds: “‘Two’ is about trying to find a kind of balance between independence and interdependence, and the multitudes within ourselves. It’s about trying to reconcile the desire to maintain a sense of personal autonomy and freedom with the need to connect deeply with others. And it’s about struggling to feel at home in a body, and learning how to accept that the projection of self that you show to others will always be incomplete. I made this video with an incredible team of generous and talented people, including some very dear old friends. I think what we made captures the spirit of the song perfectly—the sense of delight and wonder at the absurd beauty of everyday life, and the true moments of spontaneous joy that can erupt in those rare moments when you catch a glimpse of yourself the way others see you.”

Head of Roses was produced by Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso) and Wasner. which comes out on April 2nd via Sub Pop.

FLOCK OF DIMES – ” Head of Roses “

Posted: February 25, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner announces the second solo album under her alias Flock Of Dimes. A mature yet visceral songwriting experience about being on both the giving and receiving ends of heartbreak, ‘Head Of Roses’ is another demonstration of the talents of one of American indie-rock’s most consistently overlooked artists.

Flock of Dimes (aka Jenn Wasner) is sharing a new track titled “Price of Blue,” an unearthly new video filmed in black and white, co-directed by Wasner with Graham Tolbert. “Price of Blue” is a standout from Wasner’s second solo LP, “Head of Roses”, an album that showcases her ability to embrace new levels of vulnerability, honesty and openness, combined with the self-assuredness that comes with a decade-plus career as a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and prolific collaborator.
 
Of today’s release, Wasner says “This song is about trying, and failing, to connect. It’s about the ways in which, despite our best efforts, we misunderstand each other, and become so attached to stories that we’re unable to see the truth that’s right in front of us. And it’s about the invisible mark that another person can leave on your body, heart and mind long after their absence. It can be difficult to make sense of the memory of your experience when the reality on the surface is always shifting—when the story you’re telling, or the story you’ve been told, unravels, leaving you with a handful of pieces and no idea how they used to fit together.”

This song is about trying, and failing, to connect. It’s about the ways in which, despite our best efforts, we misunderstand each other, and become so attached to stories that we’re unable to see the truth that’s right in front of us. And it’s about the invisible mark that another person can leave on your body, heart and mind long after their absence. 
 
It can be difficult to make sense of the memory of your experience when the reality on the surface is always shifting—when the story you’re telling, or the story you’ve been told, unravels, leaving you with a handful of pieces and no idea how they used to fit together. There is more to a lost love than the sum of these pieces, just as a person is so much more than merely a collection of their physical parts. In both cases there is some essence, some spark of spirit that animates us, and gives us the sense that we are approaching the divine. But there is also, always, the shadow. The parts we do not see. The parts we do not acknowledge, and, as a result cannot learn to love, cannot heal. I wanted to make a video that contained all of these things—the love, the shadow, and the mark—and that’s what we tried to do here. 

Flock of Dimes’ “Head of Roses”, which features “Two,” and “Price of Blue,” along with “Hard Way,” and “One More Hour,”  on April 2nd, 2021, and on LP April 30th, 2021. The album was produced by Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso) and Wasner at Betty’s in Chapel Hill, NC,

The album features appearances from guitarist Meg Duffy, Bon Iver’s Matt McCaughan, Wye Oak’s Andy Stack, and Landlady’s Adam Schatz. “Head of Roses” follows the release of Like So Much Desire, her acclaimed digital EP released June 2020  Head of Roses is now available for pre-order through Sub Pop. 

‘Price of Blue’ by Flock of Dimes from the album Head of Roses (Release Date: April 2, 2021 on Sub pop Records,

LAEL NEALE – ” Acquainted With Night “

Posted: February 20, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Lael Neale directs and stars in the official video for “Acquainted With Night,” the title track from her new album, which is available worldwide from Sub Pop Records.  
Neale says: “‘Acquainted With Night’ is another homemade video that explores my complex relationship with technology. I am drawn to archaic machines, but that doesn’t mean I want to slip backwards into some idealized past. I’m more interested in stepping out of time entirely.”

Acquainted With Night features ten tracks, and includes the previously released standouts “Blue Vein,” “Every Star Shivers in the Dark,” “For No One For Now,” and the aforementioned title track. The album was composed and arranged by Neale, produced and mixed by Guy Blakeslee, and mastered by Chris Coady. Lael’s new album Acquainted With Night is a testament to this poetic devotion. Stripped of any extraneous word or sound, the songs are lit by Lael’s crystalline voice which lays on a lush bed of Omnichord. The collection touches on themes that have been thread into her work for years: isolation, mortality, yearning, and reaching ever toward the transcendent experience.

Lael grew up on a farm in rural Virginia, but for nearly 10 years called Los Angeles home. Those years were spent developing her song writing and performing in venues across the city, but the right way to record the songs proved more elusive. She says, “Every time I reached the end of recording, I felt the songs had been stripped of their vitality in the process of layering drums, bass, guitar, violin, and organ over them. They felt weighed down.”  

Acquainted With Night has seen international praise from the likes of MOJO, who in its 4-star review, raved, “Who knew the world was lacking a country-folk version of Broadcast until now?” France’s Télérama said, “Stripped of frills, young Lael Neale sings the starry nights of her native Virginia. With grace and grit. And the soul of an old bluesman. Lael Neale confirms her talent with an intense second album.” Meanwhile Uncut in its feature on Acquainted With Night, offered this, “A thing of shimmering beauty, led by Neale’s otherworldly voice with its shades of Vashti Bunyan and Julia Holter.”

Neale and producer Blakeslee, recently performed songs for Flood’s Magazine’s “Neighborhood Sessions,” who says, “The pair took turns filming each other perform their new tracks—appropriately shot with grainy, camcorder-esque quality—on a farm in the area where Neale grew up. The back-to-back solo guitar performances of Neale’s “Blue Vein” and Blakeslee’s album opener “Sometimes” prove just how much musical chemistry the two share together.  In a moment of illumination the solution presented itself: do the simple thing. In early 2019, in the midst of major transition, she acquired a new instrument, the omnichord, and began recording a deluge of songs. Guy Blakeslee, who had been an advocate for years, set up a cassette recorder in her bedroom and provided empathic guidance, subtle yet affecting accompaniment and engineering prowess. Limited to only 4-tracks and first takes, Lael had to surrender some of her perfectionism to deliver the songs in their essence.
 
Acquainted with Night is now available through Sub Pop Records. In the U.K., and in Europe will receive the album on white vinyl (while supplies last).

“Why We’re Excited: A little serendipity never hurt anyone, and it seems to be the very thing songwriter Lael Neale needed. In this case, that stroke of fortune was a friend loaning Neale an omnichord. That loan led the recent Sub Pop signee to tap into a wellspring of inspiration that directly led to her upcoming album, Acquainted with Night. With three singles, including the gorgeous “Blue Vein”, to judge from, we can only hope that Neale’s friend let her keep that omnichord. They’re a perfect match.” 

“The grandeur of the organ tones, joined by a tinny drum machine, give it a similar feel to Beach House’s more recent albums.”  [“Every Star Shivers in the Dark”] – Brooklyn Vegan

“Against a beat and organ based tones, Neale belts the vocals out like she’s singing to anyone who will listen. Her voice echoes like a ringing bell or alarm, the simplicity of the song’s structure works with her voice as the catalyst.”  [“Every Star Shivers in the Dark”] – Closed Captioned

“…Lael taps into something universal, city or country, that we all long for, connection…and if you find the time to listen to Lael’s music, you’ll find plenty to love as well.”[ “Every Star Shivers in the Dark”/“Five Things We Liked This Week”] – For the Rabbits

“An absorbing two-chord hymnal” [“Every Star Shivers in the Dark”] – Joyzine

“‘Every Star Shivers in the Dark’ is far more reflective in its delivery, there is an undeniably optimistic undertone and a dreaminess liberally sprinkled throughout. It brings a crescendo of twinkling key changes at the end of the track which linger long in the mind like the last rays of sunshine on the perfect Summer day.” – Still Listening

While Lael returned to her family farm in April 2020, Los Angeles is a player on this album, and “Every Star Shivers in the Dark” is an ode to the sprawling city, the outskirts of Eden. One can envision her walking from Dodgers Stadium to downtown, observing strangers and her own strangeness but determined to find communion with others. “Blue Vein” is her personal anthem, a Paul Revere piece that gallops through the town as a strident declamation. It is an amalgam of thoughts, concerns, and lessons as she nearly speaks the words, unmasked by flourishes, ensuring the meaning cuts through.

Normally a morning person, Lael recorded most of these songs in the darkening of the early evening, and so became Acquainted With Night.

“Neale impressed us with ‘Every Star Shivers In The Dark,’…she’s back with another new track, the entrancing “For No One For Now.’ Like Neale’s prior single, this one is minimal and reflective while maintaining a strong backbeat. But rather than build to a cathartic breakthrough, ‘For No One For Now’ lingers in the unresolved tension, less a song than an atmosphere to exist inside.” – Stereogum

“‘For No One For Now’ is deceptively simple and strangely haunting and hypnotic.” [#1/ “Song of the Week”] – Under the Radar<

HANNAH JADAGU – ” Think Too Much “

Posted: February 11, 2021 in MUSIC
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Sub Pop Records has signed Hannah Jadagu, an 18 year-old singer, songwriter, and producer from Mesquite, Texas, to release her music throughout the known universe. Her first release is the sprightly indie pop single “Think Too Much”. As for how the song was produced, the incredibly resourceful Jadagu recorded “Think Too Much” using her iPhone 7, an iRig, a microphone, guitar, and Garageband iOS, a process that has served her well throughout her young recording career.

“‘Think Too Much’ is the only song that I’d written with the intent of putting it on an EP,” Jadagu says. “Sonically, I was challenging myself to make a song that was high energy, fun, and a ‘bop,’ as I like to call it. At the time, I remember listening to a lot of Dayglow, Jean Dawson, and Winnetka Bowling League, and thinking to myself, ‘These people are making such catchy and fun songs without even trying.’ Then I thought to myself, ‘You’re really thinking too much.’ I asked all my friends what they thought about ‘too much,’ compiled their responses, chose some fun chords and rhythms inspired by Snail Mail and Phoenix, and went to work.”

She continues, “Essentially the song is a conversation with myself, as heard through the chants and the ‘kids voices,’ which is just my voice recorded in different pitches and tones. The lines ‘You’re just getting started, you’re the coolest I know’ were inspired by one of my favourite teachers in high school. She never actually taught me, but she was the young, cool teacher that would come into my leadership class, and we would bond over music and stylistic choices (Shout-out, Ms. Drillette). After letting go, and using a scrapped guitar demo I had, I was able to finally write and produce ‘the bop’.”

Sub Pop first became aware of Jadagu in early 2020 via her Soundcloud recordings “Unending” and “Pollen.” While growing up in the Dallas suburb, she began making music at home, as a fun and creative outlet. Bedroom pop artists like Her’s, Gus Dapperton, Yeek, and Sales served as inspiration, as did listening to mixtapes in the car that her mom made, while they drove around town.

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“When I was in elementary school, I would always finish my work early to play on the computers and use GarageBand on the early Macs,” Jadagu says. “That was my first glimpse into music production. Then, I gravitated towards percussion and school choirs, even joining the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas.”

The multitalented Jadagu currently resides in New York City, and is in her first year attending NYU. She will release her debut EP later this spring. Hannah is definitely just getting started, and we could not be more excited. 

Released February 11th, 2021, Sub Pop Records

FLOCK OF DIMES – ” Head Of Roses “

Posted: February 8, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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May be art

Jenn Wasner launched Flock of Dimes, a solo project formed in 2011 to explore the more atmospheric side of pop. Flock of Dimes allows Wasner to experience more experimental recording techniques and song writing outside of the burgeoning success of her main musical outlet Wye Oak.

On her second full-length record, “Head of Roses”, Jenn Wasner follows a winding thread of intuition into the unknown and into healing, led by gut feelings and the near-spiritual experience of visceral songwriting. The result is a combination of Wasner’s ability to embrace new levels of vulnerability, honesty and openness, with the self-assuredness that comes with a decade-plus career as a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and prolific collaborator.

On the surface, the record is about heartbreak–but it is just as much about the many joys of connection. It’s about the search for intimacy, in all its wonder and complexity. And it’s about learning to accept the reality that hurting others, and being hurt in turn, is an inescapable part of being human. Making it has been, for me, part of a larger process of learning how to care for and forgive myself, with the hope that I can learn how to show up more fully for those I love the most. With so many existential crises looming, so many threats to our survival, so much fear and pain and misery–it’s a strange moment to be releasing music about love. But still the small dramas of our lives play out, and there is so much beauty to be found in them–even as existence itself becomes increasingly wilder and weirder and more terrifying.

It is my tendency to want to trivialize the things I make, but I do think music plays a part in helping our species to progress, in its way. I believe that music can help us learn to heal ourselves. It is a force that is capable of circumventing the barriers we create to connection–all the ways in which we hide from ourselves and others in order to avoid pain–so that, in learning to feel deeply, we can discover the parts of ourselves that are most in need of healing. I believe if we want to change the world, we have to start by understanding ourselves. It’s a cliche because it’s true, you know? The ways in which we relate to those around us send out reverberations far beyond ourselves.

If we cannot learn to love each other, to need others and be needed in turn–we are lost. If we cannot heal ourselves, we can’t care for each other. If we cannot accept and embrace each other in all of our infinite complexity, then we might not be a species worth saving. But I think that we are–or, at least, we could be.

I will tell you much more about the record (and the amazing people who helped make it) in due time. For now, thank you for listening with an open heart.

releases April 2nd, 2021 
© 2021 Sub Pop Records

BULLY – ” Losing “

Posted: February 5, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Bully

For Alicia Bognanno, the onset of each tour begins with a familiar ritual. She gathers her 16 distortion pedals (yes, you read that right: 16) and begins a process of elimination – “a distortion off,” as she likes to call it. Starting with a batch of five, she narrows down the winning gritty, aggressive tone and repeats the procedure until just three are left standing. And, as always, her Greer Amps pedal is triumphant.

“For some reason in my head I’ll be like, ‘What if I’m not maximising my pedal tone.’ I hate myself for saying that, but it’s true.” She laughs. “It’s just such a waste of time. I go through it and every time it’s the same. What the fuck am I doing?”

I suggest it has therapeutic benefits. “Clearly it’s doing something for my mental health. So yeah, that’s my relationship with pedals. Maybe we leave that bit out,” she jokes. The singer and engineer behind gritty punk act Bully eases into conversation gently. I can sense we’re both a little anxious, which is oddly comforting. She eagerly offers up pictures of her “ginormous” nine-year-old dog that she lives alone with in Nashville.

We discuss everything from the excess of over-the-top dudes doing pedal demonstrations on Youtube – “there’s a guy noodling on like a blues guitar and you’re like, ‘What the fuck?’ Like, does this translate? … He’s got his foot up on his amp, and it’s like, ‘Okay we get it’,” she says between laughter, – to the need for the representation of friendship between teenage women in film.

“I think that’s why Ladybird was cool. There’s so much you need from [those friendships]. Like talking about getting your fucking period and what’s supposed to be normal,” she explains. The track ‘Focused’ was written about her best friend growing up. She reflects on what they went through as teens; how they confided in one another when they couldn’t speak with their families. “As culture we’re told to hide our tampons when we’re walking to the bathroom, you know what I’m saying? When you’re kids you’re so embarrassed. You’re constantly being shamed for it in middle school,” Bognanno explains.

She misses the depth of those youthful, devious and playful friendships. “Even just having sex when you’re young and being called a slut. I mean, guys don’t get that. Ever. That’s an award for them.” She wishes these dynamics were examined with a greater degree of wisdom in film. And in a way that is truly accessible, so you’re not trawling through the deepest, darkest corners of Rotten Tomatoes to find a story that’s told well.

Having grown up in a small town in Tennessee, Bognanno didn’t start playing guitar until she was 20 after moving to Nashville. She wasn’t raised in a musical family. In fact, she was only exposed to one local band growing up. “Playing music was not a thing,” she explains. She dabbled with piano at home, but found the instrument limiting. “I was really bad,” Bognanno says, comparing it to sounding like the soft and polished pop singer-songwriter, Sara Bareilles.

When she first picked up an electric guitar, her music started to translate into the gritty, high-velocity punk that it was destined to be. “I got my first SG when someone was like, ‘If you can fix this, you can have it.’ And it was just a soldering point in the input jack that was messed up, so I was like, ‘Perfect’,” she says.

She’s noted a sense of imposter syndrome in previous interviews. Asked if this feeling remains, she says it does, but Bognanno is thankful for the team behind Bully and their manager, Ryan Matteson. “[He’s] constantly just like, ‘You’re worth more than that’,” she explains. “I’m [consistently] just in this headspace where I’m like, somebody is going to say what I’m doing isn’t fair or that I don’t do deserve what I’m getting, which I do. I work my fucking ass off.”

Bully have been constantly on the move, having played at least 85 shows across the States, the UK and Europe,

Asked how guitarist Clayton Parker, bassist Reece Lazarus, and herself prevent burn out on tour, she explains, “We are really independent. I think when we’re touring around other bands they get confused, because we’ll just get to places and scatter … Everyone really likes their alone time.” Small acts of thoughtfulness helps to ease tension. “It’s like, don’t crack open a hard boiled egg in the van,” she says, laughing. “We went out to band dinner last night. It’s a lot of silence, but it’s good – it’s the thought that counts.”

Her songs have always been personal, and instilled with whatever anxieties were playing on her mind at the time of writing. However, after Trump’s election, she decided to be more outright. “The election in the states, whether or not it was intentional or subconscious, definitely affected everybody’s art,” she says. “It’s just built up the need to more vocal about everything in general.

“There was a lot of stuff that I kept more personal because I didn’t feel like I needed to talk about it, like my sexuality and stuff,” she explains. “I’ve brought it up this year because it’s just like, let’s just make a safe space for everybody … I think people are just searching for that connection a lot more.”

As for how she’ll connect with her audiences in the future, we’ll have to wait and see: Bully are currently working with five new songs, and Bognanno plans to start demoing fresh material from mid this month to September. “[Whether or not I’ll] think those songs are total garbage in five months is still up in the air.”

“Losing” is out now through Sub Pop Records

TV PRIEST – ” Decoration “

Posted: February 3, 2021 in MUSIC
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TV Priest signed to Sub Pop Records to release their debut album “Uppers” on February 5th. The album was originally set to be released through Hand In Hive this fall, but will now be released through their new label next year. The band has shared the album’s lead single “Decoration” alongside its music video. The new single follows the release of “This Island,” which is on the album as well as standalone singles “House of York” and “Runner Up.” 

TV Priest, are the London-based four-piece you need to get behind. Right now. No ifs, no buts. The childhood mates, led by frontman Charlie Drinkwater, only formed in 2019 but are already on a rapid ascent to the top with legendary label Sub Pop snapping them up earlier this year off the back of just four massive singles.

TV Priest was borne out of a need to create together once again, and brings with it a wealth of experience and exhaustion picked up in the band’s years of pursuing ‘real life’ and ‘real jobs’, something those teenagers never had. Last November, the band – vocalist Charlie Drinkwater, guitarist Alex Sprogis, bass and keys player Nic Smith and drummer Ed Kelland – played their first show, to a smattering of friends in what they describe as an “industrial freezer” in the warehouse district of Hackney Wick. “It was like the pub in Peep Show with a washing machine just in the middle…” Charlie laughs, remembering how they dodged Star Warsmemorabilia and deep fat fryers while making their first statement as a band.

Unsurprisingly, there isn’t a precedent for launching a band during a global pandemic, but among the general sense of anxiety and unease pervading everything at the moment, TV Priest’s entrance in April with the release of debut single House Of York – a searing examination of the Monarchy set over wiry post-punk and fronted by a Mark E. Smith-like mouthpiece – served as a breath of fresh air among the chaos, its anger and confusion making some kind of twisted sense to the nation’s fried brains

Debut single House of York put the monarchy in its sights and quickly made it to the BBC 6 Music airwaves thanks to its chaotic energy. Along with follow-up tracks This Island, Runner Up, Slideshow and Decoration were equality brilliant.

It’s the same continued global sense of anxiety that will greet the release of Uppers, and it’s an album that has a lot to say right now. Taking musical cues from post-punk stalwarts The Fall and Protomartyr as well as the mechanical, pulsating grooves of krautrock, it’s a record that moves with an untamed energy. Over the top of this rumbling musical machine is vocalist Charlie, a cuttingly funny, angry, confused, real frontman. Uppers sees TV Priest explicitly and outwardly trying to avoid narrowmindedness. Uppers sees TV Priest taking musical and personal risks, reaching outside of themselves and trying to make sense of this increasingly messy world. It’s a band and a record that couldn’t arrive at a more perfect time.

Debut album Uppers is scheduled for release in February 2021.

LAEL NEALE – ” Blue Vein “

Posted: January 21, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Singer/songwriter Lael Neale recently signed to Sub Pop Records, and she’ll release her new album “Acquainted With Night” on February 19th via the label. It features recent single “Every Star Shivers in the Dark” and the just-released “Blue Vein.” Like the previous single, it’s an Omnichord-fuelled offering of dream pop/psych folk that fans of Mazzy Star and Beach House should not sleep on. Acquainted With Night features ten tracks, and includes the previously released standouts “Every Star Shivers in the Dark” and “For No One For Now.”

Well…It is my great honour and thrill to announce I have signed with Sub Pop Records !!! In celebration, we are sharing my debut single and video “Every Star Shivers in the Dark”  which is available NOW everywhere, directed the video & the song was produced by Guy Blakeslee & was mastered by Chris Coady my excitement is beyond measure immense thanks to the good people of Sub Pop Records, Uncut calls the album, “A thing of shimmering beauty, led by Neale’s otherworldly voice with its shades of Vashti Bunyan and Julia Holter.”

“Blue Vein” is her personal anthem. A Paul Revere piece. Galloping through the town as a strident declamation. She offers this, “I wrote this song pre-Omnichord and it is the only recording I play guitar on. I wrote it around New Year’s Eve and it felt like a resolution.” Indeed, it is an amalgam of thoughts, concerns, and lessons as she nearly speaks the words, unmasked by flourishes, ensuring the meaning cuts through. In the final verse she states that, “some say the truth springs for reservoir seekers, but I think the truth sings to whoever listens” thereby establishing herself as the proverbial carrier pigeon delivering a message.

Lael returned to her family farm back in April 2020 and has taken advantage of the limitations imposed by this period. She re-discovered her Sony Handycam from high school and is using it to make impressionistic companion pieces to the songs she recorded in Los Angeles. She continues, “I am enjoying the strong contrast between the songs I wrote and recorded in California and the videos I am making for them in Virginia. It offers something unexpected.”

The lo-fi quality of the films certainly suits the tone of the album. Guy comments, “an idea that was floating around in our conversations before and during the process was ‘lost tapes’ – and I think these recordings feel like such an artifact – a sonic portrait of a season of a life, a sacred tape made in private by an artist at the peak of creative power and rediscovered by chance for the ages.”

“Blue Vein” by Lael Neale from her album Acquainted with Night (Release Date: 02/19/2021) Sub Pop Records.

Acquainted with Night

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