Posts Tagged ‘Wisconsin’

Zola Jesus signed to Sacred Bones in 2008. In the seven years that followed, she has released eight albums together (three LPstwo EPs, two 7”s, a CD-R, and even a DVD).  Zola Jesus’ Okovi: Additions LP offers a new angle on her 2017 album, Okovi. The collection pairs four previously unreleased songs from the Okovi sessions with four remixes by a diverse cast of artists.

Johnny Jewel turns “Ash to Bone” into a late-night cinematic torch song, Tri Angle composer Katie Gately’s “Siphon” is a dark choir of warping angels, black metal band Wolves in the Throne Room turn “Exhumed” makes the pounding industrial anthem even denser and heavier, and Toronto producer Joanne Pollock (formerly one half of Poemss with Venetian Snares’ Aaron Funk) makes “Soak” feel like an aching classical standard— until it starts warping in on itself and goes somewhere else entirely.

“The songs on Additions traverse a vast amount of sonic ground, but taken together, they cohere remarkably well as an album, all while serving to enrich the experience of Okovi.”

“These four new songs were intended to be on Okovi,” Nika Roza Danilova explains. “Each of them represents a snapshot of my journey in making the record, and are just as precious to me as the songs that made it onto the final track listing. The remixes are beloved in their own way, as most were born from organic circumstances, and have drawn the original songs into completely new atmospheres.”

Released April 6th, 2018

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The third full-length album from Wisconsin singer/songwriter S. Carey  finds him grounded comfortably in his skin, but still with one foot in the stream. More direct than ever, there is a wellspring of confidence in this new batch of songs that lays bare the intricacies of life while keeping its ideas uncomplicated.

Trained in jazz, Carey’s astute musicianship has never been in question nor taken for granted, and the execution of Hundred Acres‘ new ideas is seamless. He intentionally unburdened himself from a more complicated instrumentation palate for these ten songs, and, in effect, this modification to his approach brings the content of the work much closer to a living reality. By giving equal status to the indifference of nature and the concerns of a material world — while employing more pop-oriented structures a new balance is struck that creates something unique. This in turn provides equal status for the feeling that created each song, and the feeling each song creates. Almost impossibly, there is more air between the bars; Carey and his contributors sway like treetops in the wind, remaining flexible enough that they never threaten to break.

S. Carey“More I See” taken from ‘Hundred Acres,’ out February 23rd, 2018 on Jagjaguwar Records

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Field Report have been one of the most steadfast contributors to the Wisconsin music scene that birthed Bon Iver. (Head honcho Chris Porterfield played in DeYarmond Edison with Justin Vernon in the years before Vernon’s fateful cabin trip.) The band will return this year with third album Summertime Songs, and lead single “Never Look Back” signifies some subtle but significant changes in their approach. It’s the sort of hearty folk-rock we’ve come to expect from Porterfield, but also, is that a talkbox I hear on the bridge? Like the song says, we must plunge fearlessly into the future. OK, technically, the title does not refer to musical evolution, as Porterfield explains:

“Never Look Back” is about those people we find ourselves inexplicably drawn to and then entangled with. The narrator tries to give this other person the benefit of the doubt, because, hey, something about them was appealing in the beginning. But the constant drama and disappointment leads them to discover that if you can walk away from the car crash, you have to walk away. And never look back. It’s a celebration of self-preservation.​

‘Summertime Songs,’ out March 23rd:

Zola Jesus’ Okovi was forged from a depressive episode, the kind that forces you to reckon with your small place in this great, big universe and wonder whether or not your presence in it is needed. On the towering single “Siphon” Nika Roza Danilova wills a friend lost to suicide back to life, while “Remains” untangles the moments after someone dies over a skittering backbeat. That beat is impossibly heavy, as is all of the production on Okovi, and Danilova’s voice barrels forth with an unparalleled strength that dominates your brainspace and makes it near-impossible to do anything other than listen.

Zola Jesus signed to Sacred Bones in 2008. In the seven years that followed, we released eight albums together (three LPstwo EPs, two 7”s, a CD-R, and even a DVD). We discovered her via Myspace, which was the common A&R vehicle of the early- to mid-Aughts. Nika is the sole member of Zola Jesus. 

From ‘Okovi,’ out now on Sacred Bones Records.

One of the best things of following a local band is watching them grow; when you get to see the same artists play in your town every month, you can see their subtle evolution overtime. Trophy Dad has been one such band with unassumingly powerful indie rock the band is getting tighter every time  they set foot on stage. It’s rare to find a band that’s equal parts capable of making you jump around in a sweaty basement and contemplate alone on the bus, but Trophy Dad manages to find that line. Their latest single “Louis Sachar” released right at the beginning of the year and bumped them up on a list of bands to look out for this year. It’s both a musically well-oiled track and spot-on narrative of what it feels like to witness the male gaze: “I remember eating crackers as you watched her like a TV.” Singer Abby Sherman describes helpless frustration in the midst of pressure to keep cool: “don’t cause a scene, it’ll be alright” Their lyrical and and musical growth on top an already solid foundation of tracks combined with the promise of new music this year means you’ll wanna keep an eye out for them this year.

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We’ve had to wait a long time for anything new Foreign Fields, with the album ‘Take Cover’ arriving a full four years after the duo’s mesmerising debut album ‘Anywhere But Where I Am’. Shackled, somewhat, by varying personal problems, which included starting the whole process over again after initially completing the project, the resulting album is a decadent, emotive, and often stunning piece of pop music. The soft vocals that so pertinently shaped their back-catalogue remain a key component and, coupled with their new-found exploration of subtle electronica,combining Brian Holl’s gentle vocals and dappled guitar with Eric Hillman’s cinematic compositional instincts, they created the perfect score for the hours of dusk and dawn helped to craft a record that didn’t just feel like a natural growth, but one that raised the bar completely. From the restrained delicacy of “Dry”  to the expansive, astonishing sprawl of “Weeping Red Devil”, the album is a striking document of fighting the fears that consume so many of us and shaping it in to something lasting, inspiring, and completely meaningful.

Upon first listen the magic of Foreign Fields is still immediately present, but you will find your mind drifting back to the perfectly orchestrated musical moments that are carefully hidden for you throughout the course of the record.

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If there’s any possibility of finding a little gem hidden amongst fuzzed out hooks and fluttering melodies, then Milwaukee’s Filter Free Rodeo might be the treasure to find. The three piece are a primal, hard hitting post-punk outfit, who in the their own words create psychedelia-tinged scuzz pop.

Although things started back in 2011 a little more raw and angst-driven with the band’s first EP Filter Free Radio, it became something a little more refined with the sophomore release Parabolabola. EP number three Local Motives was given life in 2014, seeming to pick up a little more of the original rawness and upping the fuzz – check out Shag for proof, before a ripper of a tune in Wet Cigarette.

So after releasing a split cassette with the Rashita Joneses earlier in the year, Filter Free Rodeo have gone a little darker with their brand new track “Little Lord. The creative muse for this one comes from one of the longest unsolved murders in the US, and which is still being investigated in the band’s long time home of Waukesha, WI. Don’t let the creepy tale deter any intention of listening though, the tale has served its purpose well in sound.

Phil Hoge – Guitar, Vocals, Mix, Master
Evan Kotlowski – Bass
Jash Campbell – Drums
Matt Musil – Bass comp.

phox

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Phox from Wisconsin soulful Indie pop with an abundant energy and some strong songs with charismatic lead singer Monica Martin a new album coming 20th June,