Metz – BrooklynVegan

METZ and Gouge Away ripped up Bowery Ballroom (pics, review)

Andrew Sacher and Bill Pearis — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 14:59:29 +0000

METZ and Gouge Away are on tour together now, in support of their respective new albums Up On Gravity Hill (Sub Pop) and Deep Sage (Deathwish). The bands come from slightly different corners of the music world, but stylistically, they arrive at a pretty similar place, and it was a very good pairing. They both have an affection for noise rock, punk, and melody, and they both put on live shows that are entirely intense.

Gouge Away vocalist Christina Michelle expressed on stage that they were longtime fans of METZ and stoked to be on tour together, and they also seemed super grateful and excited to be playing to a packed house at Bowery Ballroom, a venue they last played in 2017 opening for Touché Amoré (“it felt like the biggest stage ever,” they tweeted). Gouge Away were technically opening this show but they felt like co-headliners, and a sizable portion of the crowd came ready to get rowdy and yell along. They played seven of the album’s 11 new songs (including the live debut of “Newtau”), plus three from 2018’s Burnt Sugar and their 2020 single “Consider,” and there wasn’t a single lull in the set. The band is a pure force, and Christina goes from airy singing to throat-destroying screams in a way that’s even more electrifying than the record… and that’s saying something. [A.S.]

playing ghost at bowery ballroom was special.
the only other time we played bowery was in 2017, opening for touche amore & single mothers & it felt like the biggest stage ever.
we timidly tried ghost out while we were still writing it. it’s so cool to see where its gone. pic.twitter.com/y96z5jvCNz
— Gouge Away (@gougeawayfl) April 21, 2024

METZ’s Up on Gravity Hill, their first album in four years, is a bit of a swerve for these noise-and-volume-forward Torontonians, and is their hookiest, most melodic batch of songs to date. They played most of the record on Friday, which came off even harder and more pummelling live, lifting the big choruses of “Entwined (Street Light Buzz)” and “99” to even greater heights. The album’s shoegazy moments, cranked to 10, came off like Isn’t Anything-era My Bloody Valentine (you could feel it in your chest), and the new songs also had the effect of elevating the rest of the set, which included a few songs from 2020’s caustic Atlas Vending. The band also dedicated a song near the end of their set to their friend Rick Froberg (Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes), who died last summer.

The crowd was amped up from the beginning and there was a pit going for most of the time with a few stage divers and crowd surfers throughout the night. METZ aren’t normally an encore band, and ended the show with the Twin Peaks theme blaring and the lights coming up, but the audience’s shouts of “METZ METZ METZ” brought them back out for first album ripper “Wet Blanket” to cap off a very fun, very loud night. [B.P.]

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Photos from the night by Amanda Hatfield are below.

Gouge Away (photo by Amanda Hatfield)

METZ (photo by Amanda Hatfield)

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Our Favorite Songs of the Week (playlist)

Bill Pearis — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 19:30:00 +0000

Between our daily coverage, our Notable Releases and Indie Basement columns, and our monthly punk and rap roundups, we post tons of new music all the time here on BrooklynVegan. In an effort to keep track of all the new music we’re excited about, we’ve been posting a new playlist each week with many of the songs we love that were (mostly) released that week.

This week’s playlist includes new music by Thursday, Gift, Bonny Light Horseman, Kate Davis, Idaho, Caribou, Trent Reznor / Atticus Ross / Boys Noize, Your Old Droog (ft. Method Man & Denzel Curry, prod. Madlib), Shabaka (ft. ELUCID), Beth Gibbons, Camera Obscura, Sour Widows, Thou, Doubt, METZ, FACS (Eurythmics Cover), Parsnip, Swiftumz, Goat Girl, O., Lame Drivers, and English Teacher.

Subscribe to the playlist and/or listen below…

BROOKLYNVEGAN WEEKLY PLAYLIST
Thursday – Application For Release From the Dream
Gift – Wish Me Away
Bonny Light Horseman – I Know You Know
Kate Davis – Cunty Bang Bang
Idaho – On Fire
Caribou – Honey
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Boys Noize – Challengers [MIXED]
Your Old Droog – DBZ (ft. Method Man & Denzel Curry, prod. Madlib)
Shabaka – Body To Inhabit (ft. ELUCID)
Beth Gibbons – Reaching Out
Camera Obscura – Liberty Print
Sour Widows – Cherish
Thou – I Feel Nothing When You Cry
Doubt – Delusion
METZ – Superior Mirage
FACS – Take Me To Your Heart (Eurythmics Cover)
Parsnip – The Babble
Swiftumz – Second Take
Goat Girl – Motorway
O. – 176
Lame Drivers – Become an Island
English Teacher – Sideboob

Indie Basement (4/12): the week in classic indie, college rock, more

Bill Pearis — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 15:21:01 +0000

I’m happy to say that this week’s slate of new album releases is a little more manageable than the last, but I still have six reviews, including the latest from METZ, The Reds Pinks & Purples, Kelley Stoltz, English Teacher, and more.

Over in Notable Releases, Andrew gives five new albums a spin Shabaka, Nia Archives, and more.

In other Basement-related news: Blur played their first US show in 9 years (a Coachella warm-up); Paul Weller announced his first North American tour in seven years; and Ride announced more tour dates (including a new NYC show). Also: Keith LeBlanc, RIP.

Head below for this week’s reviews…

ALBUM OF THE WEEK #1: METZ – Up On Gravity Hill (Sub Pop)
The Toronto trio trade anger for catharsis on their fifth and most welcoming album yet

After more than a decade of pummeled punk fueled by noise, bile, and sheer volume, Toronto trio METZ have let a little sunshine in on their fifth album. In the four years since 2020’s caustic Atlas Vending, singer/guitarist Alex Edkins released a downright poppy album as Weird Nightmare, collaborated with Holy Fuck’s Graham Walsh as Noble Rot and did some soundtrack work, and all of that seems to have seeped into METZ, though Edkins stresses that all their records are very much band efforts. “We’re at the point now where we feel really strong as a band and as musicians, and there is no second guessing our collective instincts. Allowing ourselves to branch out and work with other musicians has been a blessing and also continues to remind us that what we have, our musical bond, is very rare and really special.”

Up on Gravity Hill is METZ’s most melodic, nuanced record to date, packed with earworms that may still induce tinnitus. Edkins’ guitars remain shringy, Chris Slorach’s basslines are as flinty as ever and drummer Hayden Menzies still sounds like he’s trying to bash his kit through the floor, but there are big hooks at the heart of all these songs, from the insistent harmonies of “99,” to the massive sing-along chorus of “Entwined (Street Light Buzz),” the swirling miasma that is “Superior Mirage,” and the towering, anthemic “Light Your Way Home” that, mood-wise, is unlike anything they’ve ever done before. Even a song titled “Wound Tight,” which is an apt description for the band’s sound up to this point, has a pop center. That added use of melody and harmony has the effect of taking METZ further into (heavy) shoegaze territory. It’s a natural fit for these three, moving from anger to catharsis, not mellowing or maturing, but evolving.

Up On Gravity Hill by METZ

—

ALBUM OF THE WEEK #2: English Teacher – This Could Be Texas (Island)
This may be their debut album, but this Leeds, UK band sound like seasoned vets

When Leeds band English Teacher first garnered attention in North America it was for their single “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab” and between that title and the band’s name it seemed like they were the next in the line of talky British post-punk groups. If that’s what you’re expecting from their debut album well…you’ll get a bit of that. But, apart from being on the same label as Yard Act, they don’t have much in common with them, Dry Cleaning or IDLES. This Could Be Texas may be their first LP, but the band have been together since 2016 (formed at Leeds, University) and in many ways it represents that near decade of growth. I would say it feels more like a third album where you hear a band growing out of their original sound into something grander, where a few jagged post-punk numbers sit alongside sweeping, string-filled ballads and widescreen rock. The youthful spirit is still there, though. At the center is singer and keyboardist Lily Fontaine whose warm voice can handle both Life Without Buildings-style sprechgesang (the wonderful “Nearly Daffodils”) and belt-it-out numbers like the album’s gorgeous, orchestral title track.

Lily is maybe not comfortable with all styles, though. “Despite appearances, I haven’t got the voice for R&B,” she notes on “R&B,” one of the album’s talkier songs, adding, “Even though I’ve seen more Colour Shows than KEXP.” She’s addressing casual (and not-so-casual) racism in the music business, but Fontaine clearly has the voice for R&B too as “Best Tears of Your Life” and “Not Everyone Get to Go to Space” show. Fontaine is a brash lyricist, sometimes mixing personal and world politics within a single line, and brings the same touch to the album’s more romantic numbers. The rest of the band, who contribute to the musical side of the songs as well, are terrific players and more than able to roll with the range of styles on this uniformly strong batch of songs. With their debut out in the world now, showing so much range, the possibilities seem endless for where they go next.

This Could Be Texas by English Teacher

More: English Teacher told us about 10 songs that influenced This Could Be Texas.

—

The Reds Pinks & Purples – Unwishing Well (Slumberland)
More bummed-out bangers and sad smash hits from Glenn Donaldson’s mopey alter ego

“Two lovers entwined pass me by,” Morrissey sang in 1984, “and heaven knows I’m miserable now.” Glenn Donaldson sees the world through similar gloomy glasses, at least in his Reds, Pinks and Purples guise. There’s definitely some of The Smiths nucleotides in Donaldson’s DNA, from the light jangle of the guitars to RPP’s wordy song titles, but he’s carved out a very specific niche within this indiepop world. How so? A large percentage of his songs are about the music biz, stardom or lack thereof, and the youthful obsession of pop, all written from the perspective of a witty, cynical and failed wannabe popstar who maybe hasn’t left his house in a decade but churns out these musical missives on a daily basis. I see this as Donaldson playing a character but certainly some of his experiences in indie bands over the last 30 years inform his RPP songwriting. Unwishing Well is the project’s eighth album in five years, give or take a mini-LP, under this banner and it’s a noticeable bump up in fidelity, with cleaner sound, real drums on a few tracks, and slightly less reverb. His way with a fey melody, a grabby song title and bitter lyric is unwavering, though, and this album is full of mopey hits sure to please the Sarah Records, Go-Betweens and Smiths fan in your life. This one includes such hilariously snobby jams as: “What’s Going on with Ordinary People” (he and Bud in Repo Man share some opinions), “Your Worst Song is Your Greatest Hit,” “Nothing Between the Lines At All,” and the rare flicker of hope that is the spectral “Faith in Daydreaming Youth.” There seems to be no end to Donaldson’s nonchalant disdain, which hopefully means many more Reds Pinks & Purples albums.

Unwishing Well by The Reds, Pinks & Purples

—

Bodega – Our Brand Could Be Yr Life (Chrysalis)
Bodega rework songs from their 2015 debut as Bodega Bay, and add a few new ones, for another batch of ultra-catchy consumerism critiques

If the title of NYC band Bodega’s third album seems familiar — beyond its hat tipping/tweaking of Michael Azerrad’s punk tome — it’s because it was also the name of their 2015 album when they were called Bodega Bay. That record, all 33 songs of it, was recorded on GarageBand and is decidedly low-fi and shambolic, sonically, while no less laser-focused on consumer culture criticism via ultra-catchy songs than what they’d do on Bodega albums Endless Scroll and Broken Equipment. They’ve now re-recorded some of those songs with bigger production and higher fidelity and added a few new ones as well. (This is also their first album for the recently relaunched Chrysalis Records that was once home to The Specials, Jethro Tull and Sinead O’Connor and is now distributed by Secretly.) “It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for years,” says singer-guitarist Ben Hozie. “We thought of it like a director remaking one of their old films, like when Hitchcock remade The Man Who Knew Too Much, or when Yasujirō Ozu re-did The Story of Floating Weeds… When you’re older and better at your craft, you can revisit the same material but do different things with it.” Nearly a decade on since the original Brand, songs like “Tarkovsky,” “Bodega Bait,” and “Webster Hall” sound brand new with this sonic upgrade and new focus, which in some cases are wildly different from the originals. The lyrical themes, however, feel all the more relevant, which will certainly appeal more to longtime NYC residents who have a foot in indie/alternative culture, with its songs about annoying people at Webster Hall and references to ’00s-era Williamsburg. (The central ATM metaphor, from the album art down into the songs, has dated a bit in these days of tapping and Apple Pay, however). Meanwhile, new songs like “G.N.D. Deity” nestle in perfectly alongside the reworks. Dinging the new paint job just a little are the Siri-like interstitials between some songs that, while clever and make the record more of a grand statement, feel like unnecessary underlining of the songs’ themes, and after a few listens you may wish you could edit out. Otherwise this is a bit of welcome rebranding.

Our Brand Could Be Yr Life by BODEGA

—

Blue Bendy – So Medieval (The state51 Conspiracy)
Grandiose and theatrical art-rock debut from the same London scene as Black Country New Road and Squid

As opening lines go, “No sex, no mess, no second chance / the ceremonial setting fire to my underpants” might not quite be in “Call me Ishmael” territory, but Blue Bendy have your attention right from the start of their debut album, So Medieval. Birthed from the same South London scene that has given us Black Country New Road and Squid, this six-piece make ambitious, far-reaching art-rock that just dares a critic to sum them up in a few words. Arthur Nolan’s flowery lyrical style and florid vocals are Blue Bendy’s most distinctive element but the band rises and falls with Nolan in highly romantic fashion, often sounding like the music was written to fit the lyric, never worrying about traditional pop song forms, though they come close with “Sunny,” a 1:40 earworm that’s immediately followed by the epic and crashing, “Cloudy.” So Medieval is so grandiose at times I would not be surprised to learn it was originally intended as a ballet, and these songs are vivid enough to make you wish it actually was.

So Medieval by Blue Bendy

—

MELTS – Field Theory (Fuzz Club)
Electro-fueled gothy postpunk jams abound on this Dublin band’s second album

The second album from Dublin’s MELTS opens with an irresistible synthesizer hook, a bubbling arpeggiated riff that sounds like the promise of the ’80s. It’s so effervescent you expect the drum machine to kick with an electro-tom or rapid-fire handclaps but, no, here’s a real drum kit that snaps in and takes the song into more rock territory. That combo — synthpop stylings with real instruments — is always an appealing combo and MELTS deliver that all over Field Theory. This one has a decidedly more new wave approach than 2022’s Maelstrom which mixed in krautrock and psych elements; those things are still here, but the keyboard sounds are definitely more ’80s, with catchier songs that really suit frontman Eoin Kenny’s plaintive, post-punk howl. Along with dark bangers like “Figments” and “Altered,” MELTS are also good at moody atmospherics, as seen on “Shelter Of The Shade.” It’s the crack of those real drums, though, that make all the synths spark to life, and that make the listener think “hey I bet this band is really good live.”

Field Theory by MELTS

Looking for more? Browse the Indie Basement archives.

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Creation Records’ 21 Best Records

21. Biff Bang Pow! – Oblivion (1987)

Alan McGee wasn't just the head of Creation Records, he was also one its musical artists, involved in a few projects over the years, including Laughing Apple, Revolving Paint Dream and his longest-running group, Biff Bang Pow! that also featured, at various points, label co-founders Dick Green and Joe Foster, as well as Primal Scream's Andrew Innes. Oblivion, the second of two albums Biff Bang Pow! released in 1987, is the group's best record, full of the sort of jangly pastiche psychedelia you'd expect from a band that, like his label, were named after '60s beat group The Creation. McGee's a better songwriter than he is a singer but his fey vocal style works just fine on terrifically titled tracks like "A Girl Called Destruction," "The Only Colour in the World is Love" and "She's Got Diamonds in Her Hair." The band's other 1987 album, The Girl Who Runs the Beat Hotel, is worth checking out too and contains the band's best-ever single, the Andrew Innes-sung "Someone Stole My Wheels."

**20. Various Artists – Creation Soup Vol 1-5 (1990)**

Most people associate Creation Records with their '90s heyday of Oasis, Primal Scream, Ride, Super Furry Animals and My Bloody Valentine, but the label's first five years were full of singles from jangly, '60s-inspired bands who most people have probably never heard of, most of which were only released on 7". In 1990 Creation gathered them all up for a five volume CD set. McGee notes that "The first twenty came in hand folded sleeves which Joe Foster and I used to stay up and fold all night four or five times a week." They include great early singles by Primal Scream, Felt, The Loft, The Weather Prophets, The Jasmine Minks, The Pastels, House of Love, Biff Bang Pow!, The Bodines, and more. Noticeably absent from these, though, is the label's breakthrough -- The Jesus & Mary Chain's 1984 debut single "Upside Down" (due to rights issues). Creation Soup is still a fascinating look at the formative years of a label that would become an indie powerhouse.

**19. The Jesus & Mary Chain – Munki (1998)**

The Jesus and Mary Chain's 1984 debut single, "Upside Down," turned the UK indie scene upside down with its then-novel approach of taking a Phil Spector-eque pop song and wrapping it in pummeling noise and feedback. It also put Creation Records on the map, paving the way for House of Love, My Bloody Valentine, Ride and many more of the label's most famous groups. JAMC made the leap to Warner Bros immediately after this single but Creation founder Alan McGee stayed the band's manager, and JAMC quickly became alt-rock stars. By the late-'90s, though, Jim and William Reid felt chewed up and spit out by the music industry and weren't getting along with each other so well, either. If Warner had lost interest in the band after five albums, McGee had not, and welcomed the Reids back to Creation with open arms. Bookended by the supercatchy "I Love Rock N' Roll" and tinnitus-inducing "I Hate Rock N' Roll," the sprawling, 17-track Munki plays like a career retrospective, including buzzsaw pop, semi-acoustic numbers, duets with Hope Sandoval, and dissonant noise jams. Munki served as a great final word on the JAMC...till they reformed and made a new album 19 years later.

18. The Loft – One Round the Fair (1989) / The Weather Prophets – Diesel River (1988)

You can't really tell the story of Creation Records without including Peter Astor, the label's first shining star, who wrote charming, literate songs with his Television/VU-esque bands The Loft and The Weather Prophets. (The Loft's original name was The Living Room, which was also the name of Alan McGee's pre-Creation London club night; Astor changed it to avoid confusion.) Astor also had a face meant for magazine covers, as well as a fine if not exceptional Tom Verlaine-esque voice that probably kept his groups from crossing over into more mainstream success. Not that Creation Records' Alan McGee didn't try. The Loft broke up before making a full length record but their excellent singles "Why Does the Rain" (which Astor recorded with The Weather Prophets, too) and "Up the Hill and Down the Slope" are among Creation's best early singles and, along with the b-sides, make up compilation Once Round The Fair. Astor and Loft bandmate Dave Morgan formed The Weather Prophets who continued in much the same direction, releasing three albums that never quite captured the magic of the band's Creation singles, most of which are collected on Diesel River (though your best bet is 2004 best-of comp Blue Skies & Free-Rides).

17. Adorable – Against Perfection (1993)

Making their debut with the undeniable "Sunshine Smile," Adorable were initially lumped in with the shoegaze scene, because almost everything on Creation in 1992 was kinda shoegaze, but the band were closer in spirit to House of Love's textured, romantic pop than My Bloody Valentine or Swervedriver. They owed a lot to the Pixies and The Wedding Present, too, held Echo & The Bunnymen in the highest regard, and Fijalkowski had no shortage of big hooks and mile-wide choruses in his arsenal. Their debut album, Against Perfection, is one of the great, underrated UK indie records of the early '90s, jam-packed with memorable melodies, roaring/chiming guitars, clever/heartfelt lyrics and lots of swagger. The American release, via SBK records, betters the UK version by adding "Sunshine Smile" and another early single, "I'll Be Your Saint," alongside killer album cuts like "A to Fade In," "Homeboy," "Favorite Fallen Idol" and "Still Life."

**16. The Jazz Butcher – Fishcotheque (1988)**

With the Jazz Butcher's mid-'80s albums for Glass Records, which featured a band that included bassist (and ex Bauhaus member) David J, The Jazz Butcher (Pat Fish) had gained the reputation for whimsical indie a la Robyn Hitchcock. Signing to Creation, Pat started a new version of the group with collaborator Kizzy O'Callahan, intent on changing his image. That makeover began with 1988's Fishcotheque, one of his best albums that showed a new, more serious side to The Jazz Butcher. "I was keen to get as far away from all those 'w, words that had followed my group around," Fish wrote later of the album, "to make it as clear as I could that this was a rock & roll thing, not some 'eccentricity.' I had my shades and I had my fringed suede jacket and I had the Weather Prophets rhythm section." Witty without being wacky, Fishcotheque is loaded with great songs, including the punky "Looking for Lot 49," the wistful "Swell" and "The Next Move Sideways," terrific pop number "Let's Get it Wrong," and one of his best-ever songs, "Susie," which features Sonic Boom on feedback. Pat didn't entirely abandon his "w" side, though, which rears its head on "Living in a Village" and vegan rap song "The Best Way" (which isn't as kooky as it may seem).

15. Momus – The Tender Pervert (1988)

Named after the Greek god of satire and mockery, Momus (aka Scottish artist Nic Currie) was Creation's most idiosyncratic artist on record*, writing almost exclusively about sex and death but in a high-minded style that was likely to quote the bible or ancient literature, and playing in a style somewhere between Donovan and Jacques Brel. (Most eccentric in real life: Felt's Lawrence.) As the '80s went on, Currie would incorporate Pet Shop Boys-style synthpop into the Momus sound. The Tender Pervert was his first real flirtation with drum machines, and was a deeply twisted, angry record fueled by disgust with Margaret Thatcher's response to the AIDS crisis. "I'm so furious about this that I decide that, if gay people are not only dying but being gagged by the government while dying, it's up to straight people to promote homosexuality in their place," Currie wrote reflecting on the record. Momus is at the height of his witty, erudite powers here on tracks like "The Angels Are Voyeurs," "The Homosexual," "A Complete History of Sexual Jealousy (Parts 17-24)" and the elegant, complex "Bishonen." Currie is not wrong when he writes that The Tender Pervert is "my best and most definitive album" -- it's also the best place to start for this artist who is definitely an acquired taste.

**14. Swervedriver – Ejector Seat Reservation (1995)**

Swervedriver were one of the best groups of the original shoegaze era, but by 1995 interest in the genre in their home country (and label, Creation) had fully moved on to Britpop. Unlike some bands (Ride, Lush), Swervedriver stuck to their guitar pedals while trying to expand upon their sound with their third album, Ejector Seat Reservation. It was still heavy, but there was an equal emphasis on melody and maelstrom, adding elements of Bowie and Bolan to the mix, not to mention a string and horn section. It's Swervedriver's best album and loaded with memorable songs, including pile-driver "Bring Me the Head of the Fortune Teller," the poppy/heavy "The Other Jesus," elegant first single "Last Day on Earth," and soaring closing cut "To the Birds." Unfortunately there was no time to celebrate: Creation Records dropped Swervedriver the week after Ejector Seat Reservation was released and deleted the album from their catalog, making it for years the band's hardest-to-find album.

**13. Saint Etienne – Good Humor (1997)**

Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs formed Saint Etienne in 1990 as a way to mix their obsession with '60s and '70s pop, R&B, soul and reggae with the indie dance and rave culture that had taken over the UK at the time. They originally envisioned the group as having a different vocalist for every single, but that changed when they met Sarah Cracknell, and Saint Etienne became a trio. After three albums of sample-based dance pop, Saint Etienne changed course, and decamped to Malmo, Sweden to make a full-band album with Cardigans producer Tore Johannsen at his famed Tambourine Studios. Armed with a group of crack session musicians, Good Humor is unlike any other record in Saint Etienne's catalog before or since, working in elements of exotica, acid jazz and Beach Boys/Phil Spector wall of sound pop. While Saint Etienne's previous albums had been released by Heavenly Recordings through Creation, Good Humor was the first -- and last -- to be released by Creation proper. Singles "Sylvie" and "The Bad Photographer" were both Top 30 UK hits and Good Humor remains Saint Etienne's biggest seller in the US (where it was released by Sub Pop).

**12. The Boo Radleys – Giant Steps (1993)**

Liverpool band The Boo Radleys began as one of the noisiest of the '90s shoegazers, with some songs on their 1991 Creation debut, Everything's Alright Forever, sounding like a garbage truck in a rockslide. But deep down, guitarist Martin Carr was a lover of the classics -- The Beatles, Kinks and other late-'60s psychedelic pop -- and that side of him was ready to emerge. The watershed moment was the title track of 1992's Lazarus EP which took a roaring, anthemic melody and built it up slowly with an extended, dubbed-out intro. It's one of their best-ever tracks. "Lazarus" turned out to be the first taste of what would be their magnum opus -- the boundary pushing, Coltrane-referencing, appropriately named third album, Giant Steps. Noise and hazy effects still rang through songs like "I Hang Suspended," "Butterfly McQueen," "Rodney King - Song for Lenny Bruce" and "Take the Time Around," but nothing was obscuring the massive hooks Carr loaded the songs with. There were also just straight-up pop songs like "Wishin' I Was Skinny," "Barney and Me," and "If You Want it, Take It." It's a record that, in its own way, is every bit as ambitious as Screamadelica or Loveless, and one that opened Creation's door for Britpop's coming surge. "I felt that everything was moving towards this big pop thing," Carr says in David Cavanagh's The Creation Records Story. "Loads of bands -- young bands with guitars -- were getting into the charts. Blur were getting there. Suede were having hits. We didn’t sell that many records with Giant Steps but everyone was dying to see what we were going to do next." Next would net them a massive UK hit single -- 1995's "Wake Up Boo!" -- but Giant Steps is still their finest hour.

**11. Super Furry Animals – Radiator (1997)**

Oasis may have been Creation's biggest selling act of the '90s (by a mile) but, pound for pound, Super Furry Animals were probably the best. The band were proudly Welsh, not afraid to sing in their native tongue, and wildly creative, with a wide anarchic streak. Their terrific 1996 debut album, Fuzzy Logic, paid tribute to Welsh drug smuggler (and national hero) Howard Marks both on the cover art and on song "Hanging With Howard Marks," and the same year they released single "The Man Don't Give a Fuck" which sampled Steely Dan and held the record, at 50 utterances, for most "fucks" given in a song (till Insane Clown Posse's "Fuck the World" beat it in 1999). Just a year later, SFA were back with Radiator, a record that was leaps and bounds better than their debut, and where they went from being a lot of fun to one of the more consistently great, wildly creative bands of the era. (They still are.) Radiator incorporates Madchester-y shuffle ("Play it Cool," "The Placid Casual"), Bowie-style spacerock ("Demons," "Bass tuned to DEAD"), punk, and mutant pop ("Herman Loves Pauline") into a style that became distinctly their own.

**10. Slowdive – Souvlaki (1993)**

Influenced by the Cocteau Twins' ethereal style, not to mention The Jesus and Mary Chain and probably a fair amount of goth, Pink Floyd and prog, Slowdive didn’t really sound like any other group from the original shoegaze era, riding a massive wave of shimmering guitars that were at times so transformed by effects pedals, they resembled synthesizers. Like their early EPs, the band's debut album, Just for a Day, was hypnotic and sensuous, wrapping listeners in layer upon layer of gorgeous haze, but it was maybe a little lacking in focus and A-level material. Not a problem with their sophomore album that nestles memorable songs and a stronger rhythmic backbone into their signature aural cloudwork. Their best album to date, Souvlaki features some of their catchiest songs ("Alison," "When the Sun Hits," "40 Days") with muscular material like "Machine Gun," vivid trip-out "Yellow Melon" and two songs ( "Sing," "Here She Comes") featuring keyboards and treatments by Brian Eno. Best of all, though, is "Souvlaki Space Station" which takes their spiraling sound deep into dub territory. Never as popular at the time as their shoegaze contemporaries Ride or Lush, Slowdive's records have aged better than most things from the '90s, and the group have led one of the most satisfying second acts in recent memory.

**9. Teenage Fanclub – Grand Prix (1995)**

Teenage Fanclub's third album, Bandwagonesque, is one of the three pillars in Creation's 1991 crown (the other two are slightly higher up on this list), and an album that, along with Ride's Nowhere, helped the label realize its place as a home for classic guitar pop done in new and exciting ways, or at least by new and exciting groups. What Teenage Fanclub did wasn't exactly new -- they drank deep from the well of Big Star and Dinosaur Jr. -- but they did it very well and had three three talented singer-songwriters who had yet to reach their creative potential. That hit with 1995's Grand Prix that, to carry on the Formula One racing theme, had Norman Blake, Gerrard Love and Raymond McGinley firing on all cylinders, with such instant earworms as "Sparky's Dream," "Neil Jung," "Mellow Doubt," "Verisimilitude," and "Don't Look Back." The album was also released at the height of Britpop and pulled the Fannies into that orbit, even though they were never really part of that scene. While they may not equal Oasis in the ambition and swagger department, Grand Prix delivers just as many classics as (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, just in a more humble way.

**8. Sugar – Copper Blue (1992)**

Spoiler alert: this is the only American-made album on this list. Creation did release a few records by U.S. acts (Medicine, Guided by Voices, The Cramps) but not many, and most were more licensing deals than actual signings. But Bob Mould put together separate deals with Creation in the UK and Rykodisc in North America for his new band Sugar who rivaled MBV for being loudest-ever group on the label. With their roaring, punk-injected guitar pop sound, the trio (Mould, bassist David Barbe and drummer Malcolm Travis) were definitely a more natural fit with a label of noisemakers like Creation than Rykodisc (who were mainly known for being the first CD-only label). In any case, Sugar's classic debut album is one of 1992's best, and one of the greatest albums Creation Records released, with Mould's signature mix of rippers ("Changes," "A Good Idea") and pop songs ("Helpless," "If I Can't Change Your Mind") and even a little prog ("Hoover Dam"). Copper Blue was actually more of a hit across the pond first, reaching #10 in the UK album charts and with NME naming it the Best Album of 1992; the record really caught on with American alt-rock radio and MTV in 1993. Sugar burned bright and hot, releasing Beaster a mere six months later, yet flamed out during sessions for their second album. Still, Copper Blue remains one of Mould's best collection of songs.

**7. Felt – Forever Breathes the Lonely Word (1986)**

Led by the decidedly eccentric but frequently brilliant Lawrence Hayward who was prone to 2 AM vacuuming and still only goes by his first name, Felt set out to release 10 albums and 10 singles in 10 years -- "In and out in a decade," he put it. He accomplished his goal, making crystalline guitar pop that owed much to Tom Verlaine (and just a little to Bob Dylan) with two sharply defined eras of the band. Felt's first four albums were on Cherry Red and featured guitarist Maurice Deebank's distinctive arpeggiated guitar style; the second began with the group's move to Creation, with Deebank out and keyboardist Martin Duffy in, adding wonderful, rich organ to the band's sound. Forever Breathes the Lonely Word was Felt's first album for Creation and is Felt's masterwork, with shimmering production, Lawrence at his most lyrically romantic, and Duffy's brilliant playing all over it. It's just great song after great song, including "Rain of Crystal Spires," "Down But Not Out," "All The People I Like And Those That Are Dead," and "A Wave Crashed on the Rocks," being particular highlights. Creation's first great album.

**6. Ride – Nowhere (1990)**

Oxford's Ride released their debut album in 1990 and perfectly split Creation Records' two decades in existence down the middle. The band were clearly a product of the student indie scene that Creation was at the center of, owing much to House of Love, My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus & Mary Chain and early Primal Scream, but they were a half step generation younger, savvy, and ambitious. You could easily imagine songs like "Seagull" and "Kaleidoscope" being released with thinner production by the label just a couple years earlier, but Ride were not a group who just wanted to play to 150 people the rest of their lives. While undeniably part of the psychedelic shoegaze scene -- they remain of the genre's most iconic bands -- Andy Bell and Mark Gardner were great songwriters, too, and underneath Nowhere's beautiful murk, haze and feedback is some serious musicianship and craft. Nowhere owes as much to The Byrds as it does MBV and is loaded with great tunes, as can be heard on the undeniable classic "Vapour Trail" -- perhaps the greatest song to come out on Creation Records and not get released as a single. Ride would get more ambitious (and pop-savvy) on 1992's excellent Going Blank Again, and would make a grab for the Britpop ring on 1994's Carnival of Light, but Nowhere is the sound of a scene and a label at the dawn of the '90s.

**5. House of Love – House of Love (1988)**

While The Jesus & Mary Chain's "Upside Down" put Creation Records on the map, The House of Love's debut album was the first album released by the label that really registered shockwaves beyond the indie charts. Led by Guy Chadwick, whose deep voice matched his high cheekbones, House of Love had some of JAMC's squall but fed it through Chadwick's graceful songwriting and guitarist Terry Bickers' inventive playing. Opening salvo "Christine" is such a stunner, from the roaring guitars to the "Bah bah be dah dah" hook, if the rest of the album had been a dud it still might've made this list. But House of Love is all hits, from the dark, sexy cool of "Road" and "Hope" to the riff-heavy "Sulfur" and "Salome" to the ethereal grandeur of "Man to Child," and the album's second best song, "Love in a Car." The album was also as big an influence on the burgeoning shoegaze scene as My Bloody Valentine's Isn't Anything, and it's hard to imagine groups like Ride and Catherine Wheel existing without House of Love.

**4. Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)**

As Andy Bell of Ride, who would end up joining Oasis by the end of the '90s, told us, Oasis "were the band Creation had been waiting for, and I think the label was also exactly what the band needed." Oasis fit Creation head Alan McGee's rock n' roll ethos, ticking every box possible with a cup-runneth-over mix of attitude, razor-sharp wit, hedonistic joie-de-vivre and arrogance. It might've all been too much if Noel Gallagher wasn't a one-man hit factory, losing songs in the couch that were better than many bands wrote in their whole career. They were definitely the guitar band McGee had always wanted, turning out singles like his '60s and '70s heroes, but putting a fresh face on them just in time to lead in the new Britpop movement that pushed grunge out of the country much like the USA had done to the King's army some 200+ years before. While 1994's Definitely Maybe was a fantastic debut, Oasis managed to follow it up just a year later with an even better album, one of the best of 1995 and without a doubt the peak of Gallaghers' powers. (What's the Story) Morning Glory? even managed to be a hit in America, something a British rock band hadn't done in years. The album is filthy with classics, from singles like "Wonderwall," "Don't Look Back in Anger," "Champagne Supernova," and "Roll With It" to deep cuts like "Cast No Shadow," and "She's Electric." While Oasis stayed popular throughout their existence, creatively, it was diminishing returns after this -- but in 1995 the band could do no wrong.

**3. My Bloody Valentine – Isn’t Anything (1988)**

If Loveless was the sound of "how'd they do that?," Isn't Anything was the sound of "I wanna do that!" It's hard to imagine Ride, Swervedriver, The Boo Radleys or any of the rest of the soon-to-erupt shoegaze scene -- or half the indie rock of the '90s -- happening the way it did without the visceral impact of My Bloody Valentine's first album for Creation. Songs like "(When You Wake (You're Still in a Dream," "Feed Me With Your Kiss" and "Sueisfine" hit like a brick and sound like you've already been knocked senseless. Kevin Shield's glide guitar sound -- a unique mix of tuning and playing style -- was mysterious, instantly distinctive and deceptively attainable. The band used less effects pedals than most people thought. "The sound is purely physical," MBV Svengali Kevin Shields said at the time. "It's movement, a manual moving of the string: the short travel of he Jazzmaster and Jaguar tremolo that gives it that characteristic sort of upwards drone to the chord." My Bloody Valentine even managed to make acoustic guitars seem heavy ("Come Cupid") and the band's more ethereal tracks like "Lose My Breath" were aptly named. The album has a reputation for thin, tinny sonics, but Kevin Shields' all-analog 2018 remastered edition really shows what a gorgeous monster it is.

**2. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (1991)**

A record so monumentally important to popular music it's all but impossible to overstate its importance, Loveless is a bonafide classic. It's also a record that took forever and somewhere around £250,000 to complete, that nearly bankrupted Creation, forcing the label to drop the band shortly after Loveless' release, and sell 49% of its stake to Sony Music. ("Overdue" and "over budget," meanwhile, are words associated with the band to this day.) Even though countless artists have stolen from Kevin Shields' signature "glide guitar" style, what the band get from their instruments on Loveless still sounds like nothing else. The four dry snare hits that open the album do not prepare you for the sludgy, white-dwarf heavy riff of opener "Only Shallow," or when the song shifts into pure beauty and back again. Moments like that happen throughout Loveless, from the ethereal slipstream of "To Here Knows When" to the poppy indie rock of "When You Sleep," to the dreamy, danceable perfection of "Soon." So many rock critic cliches and adjectives were created -- and wore out their welcome -- with folks trying to describe Loveless, yet you can't not be in awe 30 years on. It nearly destroyed the label but has always stood as one of its finest moments.

**1. Primal Scream – Screamadelica (1991)**

Led by gangly, cocksure Bobby Gillespie (who was The Jesus & Mary Chain's original drummer and grew up with Creation boss Alan McGee), Primal Scream were Creation Records' longest-running band, having released their debut single, "All Fall Down" on the label in 1985, and XTRMNTR in 2000, the last album released by the label before it dissolved. Like McGee, Gillespie seemed to live and breathe rock n' roll and he and his bandmates, including the invaluable Andrew Innes, at times managed to stay cool purely on attitude while releasing less-than-stellar early records. Things for them changed, though, when they gave their lackluster, Stonesy single "I'm Losing More Than I Ever Had" to DJ Andrew Weatherall to remix. He took out almost all the vocals, threw a beat under it and added a sample of Peter Fonda From The Wild Angels yelling "We wanna be free to do what we wanna do! We wanna get loaded and we wanna have a good time!" Released in February 1990, "Loaded" was one of the cornerstones of the acid house/Madchester scene and forever changed Primal Scream's trajectory. They spent nearly two years on one continuous party, working with Weatherall, Jah Wobble, Stones producer Jimmy Miller -- whatever suited their fancy and vibe -- and releasing singles along the way which would eventually be collected as the era-defining Screamadelica. It shouldn't have worked, but that sense of freedom made it come together beautifully. "Instead of having two guitars, bass, drums, vocals... we destroyed that," Gillespie said in The Creation Records Story. "It was anything goes - synth, tabla, drum machine, no vocals, instrumentals, gospel singers, sitars. The whole range of anything goes noises and suddenly the band were freed. It was a much looser approach to making music. And then getting people like Andy and Hugo, and Alex Patterson and Thrash from The Orb, Jimmy Miller, Wobble, you know – these people, Messing with our music, taking it somewhere else, making it more interstellar, as far out as… It was incredible. The greatest time." You still feel that listening to Screamadelica, too.

16 New Songs Out Today

BrooklynVegan Staff — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 22:00:16 +0000

So many artists, so many songs, so little time. Each week we review a handful of new albums (of all genres), round up even more new music that we’d call “indie,” and talk about what metal is coming out. We post music news, track premieres, and more all day. We update a playlist weekly of some of our current favorite tracks. Here’s a daily roundup with a bunch of interesting, newly released songs in one place.

CAMERA OBSCURA – “LIBERTY PRINT”

“I like ‘Liberty Print’ because I think it’s the song that sounds most unlike anything we’ve done before,” Tracyanne Campbell says of the opening song on Camera Obscura’s first album in more than a decade. “It introduces a new direction. It sounds fresh and exciting, and it introduces Donna [Maciocia] on keys in a big way. It was important to us that if we were to have a new player, that she be allowed to make her own creative stamp on the songs.”

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THE LEMON TWIGS – “HOW CAN I LOVE HER MORE?”

“With “How Can I Love Her More?” we tried to bridge the gap between professional Brill Building writing and the more off-the-wall writing style of the post Sgt Pepper psychedelic scene,” say The Lemon Twigs’ Brian and Michael D’Addario of the latest single from their upcoming A Dream is All We Know. “There are a lot of musical ideas but it’s still a catchy pop song. We’re very excited for people to hear it!” There’s more than a little ’70s AM Gold on “How Can I Love Her More?” too.

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METZ – “SUPERIOR MIRAGE”

Toronto trio METZ release new album Up On Gravity Hill this week and here’s another example of the poppier — but still caustic — sound of the new album.

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CLAIRE ROUSAY – “LOVER’S SPIT PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND”

claire rousay’s new album sentiment comes out next week, and the latest single is the Broken Social Scene-referencing “lover’s spit plays in the background.” rousay says it’s “About my ego almost destroying a friendship one time. Success obsession and music “career” mentality will really bring the darkness out of people. Another apology song,” and BSS’ Kevin Drew calls it “A delicate ouija board of emotion for those who stay up too late.”

sentiment by claire rousay

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ALTIN GÜN – “VALLAHI YOK” / “KIRIK CAM”

Dutch group Altin Gün are back with a double-a-side single which also serves as a farewell to singer/keyboardist Merve Daşdemir who is leaving the band after their April and May club tour.

Vallahi Yok – Kırık Cam by Altin Gün

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LOUISA STANCIOFF – “ALICE”

“‘Alice’ is a whimsical celebration of being present and seeing the beauty that’s right in front of you,” Louisa Stancioff says the latest single off her debut album, When We Were Looking, which is out this Friday. “It’s the feeling of having a crush, of walking distractedly through a garden and forgetting to smell the roses along the way – then remembering, and forgetting all over again.”

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PORCHES – “RAG”

Aaron Maine’s new Porches single, “Rag,” is rougher around the edges than usual, while still maintaining a poppy center.

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MICK HARVEY – “WE HAD AN ISLAND” (FATAL SHORE COVER)

Former Bad Seeds member Mick Harvey has shared another song from his upcoming covers album Ways to Say Goodbye with this cover of Bruno Adams (Fatal Shore)’s “We Had an Island.”

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XASTHUR – “MESSENGER OF YOUR REFLECTION”

Xasthur has announced a new double album, Disharmonic Variations, due July 5 via Prophecy Productions. The first taste is the dark folk of “Messenger of Your Reflection.”

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ANNABEL – “WORLDVIEWS”

Ohio DIY vets Annabel have shared the title track of their first album in nine years, Worldviews, and it’s a catchy, driving dose of guitar rock.

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TARA JANE O’NEIL – “GLASS ISLAND”

Tara Jane O’Neil’s new album The Cool Cloud of Okayness is out later this month, and she’s shared another advance single,” lo-fi folk track “Glass Island.”

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MRCY – “R.L.M.”

UK soul duo MRCY have announced their debut project, Volume 1, due May 10 via Dead Oceans. Here’s the lush new single “R.L.M.”

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IDAHO – “ON FIRE”

LA slowcore vets Idaho have announced their first album in 13 years, Lapse, and you can read about the LP and lead single “On Fire” here.

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49 WINCHESTER – “YEARNIN’ FOR YOU”

Castlewood, Virginia country band 49 Winchester have announced a new album, Leavin’ This Holler, due 8/2 via New West Records. Read about new single “Yearnin’ For You” here.

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ME FIRST & THE GIMME GIMMES – “DANCING QUEEN” (ABBA COVER)

Punk rock all-covers supergroup Me First & The Gimme Gimmes recorded their new album at a quinceañera.

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COLA – “PALLOR TRICKS”

Canadian trio Cola, which features former Ought members Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy and US Girls drummer Evan Cartwright, have announced their second album, The Gloss, which will be out June 14 via Fire Talk. The band produced it themselves and new single “Pallor Tricks” dresses up a janglepop earworm in spiky guitars.

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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the New Songs archive

55 Albums We’re Anticipating for Spring 2024

Amanda Hatfield, Andrew Sacher and Bill Pearis — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 14:10:12 +0000

When the year began we posted about 86 albums we were anticipating in 2024, a bunch of which have since come out (and been reviewed in Notable Releases and Indie Basement, along with tons of others), and since then, we’ve learned about even more albums coming out this spring that we’re excited for. Now that the first quarter of 2024 is a wrap and spring is here, we’ve put together a list of 55 albums that we’re looking forward to that are coming out between April and June. Some of these also appeared on the list we made back in January, but most didn’t. And we kept things to albums with official release dates, but we’re still crossing our fingers that we learn more about long-teased stuff like Joanna Newsom, My Bloody Valentine, The Cure, Rihanna, Cardi B, Frank Ocean, Sky Ferreira, King Diamond / Mercyful Fate, etc sooner than later too.

Read on for the list, in alphabetical order, and let us know which albums you’re looking forward to this spring…

A Certain Ratio – It All Comes Down to This
due 4/19 via Mute

For their 13th album, the Manchester post-punk legends had the good luck of enlisting in-demand producer Dan Carey (Fontaines DC, Wet Leg, Black Midi, Slowthai), who helped Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson strip down ACR to its bones. It All Comes Down to This‘ title track is one of the group’s most immediate singles ever, so we’re hoping the rest of the album follows suit.

Alcest – Les Chants De L’Aurore
due 6/21 via Nuclear Blast

The atmospheric, post-rock and shoegaze-infused offshoot of black metal that’s sometimes known as “blackgaze” pretty much wouldn’t exist as we know it without Alcest, and they continue to find new ways to fuse together their various elements of beauty and fury. Judging by lead single “L’Envol,” new album Les Chants De L’Aurore will have plenty more of their usual greatness.

Amen Dunes – Death Jokes
due 5/10 via Sub Pop

It’s a lot of pressure to follow up a record as highly lauded as Amen Dunes’ Freedom, but six years later he’s ready to share Death Jokes with the world. While the singles released so far don’t stray too far from Freedom’s laptop Americana vibes, McMahon has incorporated into his songs samples culled from the far corners of YouTube – including “an interview with J Dilla, recordings from Type O Negative and Coil,” and “a lyre performance of the oldest written song in human history” – which could make for a very 2024 album.

Arab Strap – I’m totally fine with it don’t give a fuck anymore
due May 10 via Rock Action

Cantankerous Scottish duo Arab Strap may have already won Album Title of 2024 with I’m totally fine with it don’t give a fuck anymore , which is a sentiment many of us are struggling not to cave into these days. If there’s anyone who can make an album that lives up to that title it’s Aidan Moffat and Middleton, whose 2021 comeback album As Days Get Dark was one of our favorites of that year.

Bat For Lashes – The Dream of Delphi
due 5/31 via Mercury KX

Bat For Lashes’ Natasha Khan calls The Dream of Dephi a concept album about motherhood via “devotional love songs about the spirituality, ancestry and folklore,” and the swirling ambient art pop of the title track has us very intrigued to hear more.

Bernard Butler – Good Grief
due 5/31 via 355 Recordings

Former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler has stayed busy over the last two decades as a producer and collaborator (David McAlmont, The Libertines, Ben Watt, Jessie Buckley, more) but hasn’t released a solo album since 1999’s Friends and Lovers. Twenty-five years on, and we’ll get Good Grief, but don’t expect glam — first single “Camber Sands” is closer to Scott Walker than Bowie.

Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown
due 5/17 via Domino

Portishead’s Beth Gibbons signed a solo deal with Domino in 2013, and 11 years later she’s delivering her first album for the label, made with producer James Ford. Clearly anyone who spends a decade trying to figure out what a record is going to sound like probably isn’t going to deliver by-the-numbers trip hop. “I wanted to draw away from breakbeats and snares,” Beth says, “focusing on the woody fabric of timbres away from the sugary addiction of high frequencies that satisfy like sugar and salt.”

Camera Obscura – Look to the East, Look to the West
due 5/3 via Merge

It’s about time! Scottish indiepop royalty Camera Obscura are finally back with a new album, a mere 11 years since their last. Look to the East, Look to the West also finds them back on Merge Records, who released all their best albums, and they’ve worked once again with producer Jari Haapalainen, who worked on Let’s Get Out of This Country. First single “Big Love” is the kind of comeback you hope for, a terrific, twangy number that pays tribute to Waylon Jennings, Sandy Denny and prog band Scope all at the same time.

Candy – It’s Inside You
due 6/7 via Relapse

Candy are gearing up to return with their third LP, and first single “eXistenZ” is an 81-second fusion of metalcore, noise, and industrial that finds Candy sounding as brutally futuristic as ever. It’s a guest-filled album that features members of Angel Du$t, Fleshwater, Integrity, Trash Talk, and more.

Charli XCX – Brat
due 6/7 via Atlantic

Charli XCX has called her sixth LP “the album i’ve always wanted to make,” saying, “i was born to make dance music.. i came from the clubs.” The dancefloor-ready tracks she’s shared from it so far make a good case for that indeed.

Corridor – Mimi
due 4/26 via Sub Pop

For their first album in four years, Montreal’s Corridor are mixing things up. Working with co-producer Joojoo Ashworth during the pandemic, they’ve added more synthesizers this time to compliment the band’s signature swirling guitar interplay, and slowed the tempos down from breakneck to a merry clip. “For a long time, we identified as a guitar-oriented band, and the goal of making this whole record was trying to get away from that,” says vocalist/bassist Dominic Berthiaume. “We had to figure out how to make new songs without having the chance to play together.”

The Decemberists – As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again
due 6/14 via YABB Records

Over 20 years into their career, still nobody does it like The Decemberists, and they’re still insanely ambitious. Look no further than 19-minute single “Joan in the Garden” for proof of that.

DIIV – Frog in Boiling Water
due May 24 via Fantasy

It’s been a hard four years since DIIV’s last album, and working on Frog in Boiling Water “nearly broke the band.” The hard work seems to have paid off, though, as the singles from the record so far have been terrific, especially “Brown Paper Bag” a slow, sludgy, but soaring number that recalls the early ’90s where shoegaze and grunge rubbed elbows.

Dirty Three – Love Changes Everything
due 6/28 via Drag City

Warren Ellis, Mick Turner and Jim White are back as Dirty Three for their first album in 12 years. They recorded it in five days but spent a year with edits, resequencing, overdubs and mixing, to shape it into the finished product.

Dua Lipa – Radical Optmism
due 5/3 via Warner

Dua Lipa’s long-awaited followup to 2020’s world-conquering, endlessly-addictive Future Nostalgia arrives in May. Dua says she was inspired by the “history of psychedelia, trip hop, and Britpop” while making this one.

English Teacher – This Could Be Texas
due 4/12 via Island

For a band whose name and song titles — “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab” and “Albert Road” are two — scream BRITISH, they’ve chosen a very American title for their debut album. The music on This Could Be Texas aims to similarly defy expectation, mixing big pop and rock sounds alongside the sort of shouty post-punk their name all but promises.

Fat White Family – Forgiveness is Yours
due 4/26 via Domino

Fat White Family frontman Lias Saoudi says his band’s fourth album — and first in five years — is “about life as eternal contingency…about no longer suspecting, but knowing that this shit will never get any easier…in fact, it’s about to get a whole lot worse.” Luckily all this mopey subject matter comes wrapped in some decidedly upbeat, if weird, dance grooves.

Finom – Not God
due 5/24 via Joyful Noise

Finom, the Chicago duo of Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart who used to go by the name OHMME, made their latest avant-pop creation with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy at his The Loft Studio. He may have pushed them into slightly poppier directions this time, but these square pegs are still making wonderfully weird music that doesn’t sound quite like anyone else.

Foreign Hands – What’s Left Unsaid
due 6/21 via SharpTone

Foreign Hands are one of the most promising bands within the current 2000s-style metalcore revival, and both singles from their upcoming Will Putney-produced LP find them not just doing justice to that sound, but breathing new life into it.

Full of Hell – Coagulated Bliss
due 4/26 via Closed Casket Activities

Full of Hell said they started to “recognize that there was value in pop music” while making their recent collaborative albums with Nothing and The Body, and they bring that energy to Coagulated Bliss. From what we’ve heard so far, “pop” structure only makes this band’s grindy, metallic fury sound even heavier.

Gatecreeper – Dark Superstition
due 5/17 via Nuclear Blast

Phoenix death metal band Gatecreeper seem to be dipping their toes into ’90s Swedish melodeath with this new album, but still making it their own, and everything we’ve heard thus far is extremely promising.

Girl and Girl – Call a Doctor
due 5/24 via Sub Pop

Queensland, Australia’s Girl and Girl are blessed with a unique story that makes for an easy hook by music writers (frontman Kai James’ aunt is the band’s drummer) and a live show that backs up the hype. Having already taken their homeland by storm, Girl and Girl were a hit at this year’s SXSW with their update on mid-’00s guitar indie that’s loaded with big hooks, all making for a nice lead-up to their debut album.

Goat Girl – Below the Waste
due 6/7 via Rough Trade

After two records made with Dan Carey, London trio Goat Girl co–produced Below the Waste with John ‘Spud’ Murphy (Lankum, black midi). This album looks to be pretty different from those first two albums, too — first single “Ride Around” is a winning mix of pop and sludge. “I was listening to lots of Phillip Glass and Deerhoof,” says singer Lottie Pendlebury. That’s what we thought!

Hana Vu – Romanticism
due 5/3 via Ghostly International

Los Angeles artist Hana Vu says that with her second album, she’s trying “to succinctly crystallize how it feels to be young, but also to be deeply sad.” The first two singles, “Care” and “Hammer,” are striking, boldly realized indie rock and have us eager to hear the rest.

The Hope Conspiracy – Tools of Oppression / Rule by Deception
due 5/31 via Deathwish

Longevity and aging gracefully within hardcore is no easy task, but boundary-pushing hardcore vets The Hope Conspiracy know exactly how to pull it off. Their first album in 18 years is coming, and all the singles have found them sounding as fired-up as ever.

Ibibio Sound Machine – Pull the Rope
due 5/3 via Merge

After working with Hot Chip on 2022’s Electricity, London collective Ibibio Sound Machine turned to Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, M.I.A.) who co-produced Pull the Rope with bandleader Max Grunhard. The band say this album shifts “venues from the sunny buoyancy of a sunlit festival to a sweat-soaked, all-night dance club.”

Inter Arma – New Heaven
due 4/26 via Relapse

Following lineup changes and other delays, the wait for a new Inter Arma album will finally end this April. Their version of metal sounds as insane and impossible-to-pigeonhole as ever on the material they’ve released so far.

Iron & Wine – Light Verse
due 4/26 via Sub Pop

Sam Beam’s return for his first Iron & Wine album in seven years is looking extremely promising; so far we’ve heard the gorgeously ornamented folk of “You Never Know,” the Fiona Apple-featuring bluesy piano ballad “All in Good Time,” and the percussive “Anyone’s Game,” all of which have our hopes high.

Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch
due 5/3 via Mexican Summer

Jessica Pratt’s first album in five years is shaping up to a very special one. Lead single “Life Is” dips its toes into fleshed-out, ’60s-style pop balladry, while second single “World on a String” offers up more of the somber, bare-bones folk that Jessica is best known for. Both are great.

John Cale – POPtical Illusion
out 6/14 via DoubleSix/Domino

Unlike John Cale’s 2023 collab-heavy MERCY, the Velvet Underground co-founder made POPtical Illusion almost entirely by himself, with some help from longtime collaborator Nita Scott. First single “How We See the Light” finds him at 82 doing just fine on his own.

John Grant – The Art of the Lie
due 6/14 via Bella Union / [PIAS]

“This album is in part about the lies people espouse and the brokenness it breeds and how we are warped and deformed by these lies,” John Grant says of his sixth long-player. As usual he attacks such heavy subjects with cutting dark humor and some stately grooves, this time working with producer Ivor Guest, who has collaborated with everyone from Grace Jones and Bridget Fontaine to Beyoncé and Lana Del Rey.

Kamasi Washington – Fearless Movement
due 5/3 via Young

Jazz trailblazer Kamasi Washington’s new album features André 3000 on flute; vocals from George Clinton, BJ the Chicago Kid, D-Smoke, and Taj & Ras Austin of Coast Contra; and Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Patrice Quinn, Brandon Coleman, DJ Battlecat, and more. The eight-and-a-half minute single “Prologue” is as epic as you’d hope.

King Hannah – Big Swimmer
due 5/31 via City Slang

UK duo King Hannah made one of our favorite albums of 2022 with their debut LP, and for their follow-up Hannah Merrick and Craig Whittle have taken their signature ’90s-inspired sound (PJ Harvey, Mazzy Star, a dash of Portishead and Neil Young) and shined it up just a little. Or a lot, in the case of the album’s title track, which features backing vocals by Sharon Van Etten.

Knocked Loose – You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To
due 5/10 via Pure Noise

“On this album, we go the fastest we’ve ever gone; we go the scariest we’ve ever gone. We also go the catchiest and the most melodic that we’ve ever gone, and that’s the point,” guitarist/backing vocalist Isaac Hale says. “Instead of branching off into a specific direction, we want to encompass ALL directions.”

Kneecap – Fine Art
due 6/14 via Heavenly

Northern Irish rappers Kneecap have already conquered their home country with their mix of Irish and English rhymes, fiery politics, ’90s hip hop beats and a mile-wide hedonistic streak. Now they’re setting their sights on the rest of the world. That may first come via their Kneecap film, a highly enjoyable origin story where the band play themselves; the film won the Audience Award at Sundance this year. The other half of the one-two punch is their debut album, which features contributions from Fontaines DC’s Grian Chatten, Lankum’s Radie Peat, and more.

La Luz – News of the Universe
due 5/24 via Sub Pop

After four album on Hardly Art, Seattle surf-rock combo La Luz have moved up to parent label Sub Pop for News of The Universe, an album made with a new lineup and a bit of a new sound where keyboards get as much spotlight as twangy guitars. Shana Cleveland’s songwriting and La Luz’s harmonies remain at the center, however. The album was produced by Maryam Qudus (Spacemoth), who ended up joining the band full-time.

Les Savy Fav – OUI, LSF
due 5/14 via Frenchkiss / The Orchard

Who had “New Les Savy Fav Album” on their 2024 Bingo Card? “When we finished our last record [2010’s Root For Ruin], there was a sense that if we were going to do more, we wanted to do something more ambitious,” says frontman Tim Harrington. “I think it took us a while to even get in a space where that was possible.” The band, who are still mostly based in NYC, made it in Harrington’s Brooklyn attic, or as he describes it, a “freaky barn.” He adds, “The record grew organically — literally and figuratively.” We’re happy to report the band have not mellowed much.

Lip Critic – Hex Dealer
due 5/17 via Partisan

With elements of synthpunk, hip hop, and more, Lip Critic’s music and live shows are full of energy, and they’ve got some undeniable hooks in the mix too. They’ve been on the rise for good reason.

Marina Allen – Eight Pointed Star
due 6/7 via Fire

Singer-songwriter Marina Allen has drawn comparisons to a litany of ’70s folk and pop artists but Eight Pointed Star promises a more modern sound. She made it with producer Chris Cohen and it features contributions from Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy, Kacey Johansing and more. First single “Red Cloud” sounds like it only could’ve been made now, while still retaining Allen’s verdant, bucolic folk sound.

Mdou Moctar – Funeral for Justice
due 5/3 via Matador

“This album is really different for me,” says Mdou Moctar, who is the band’s namesake, singer, and guitarist of their new album Funeral for Justice. “Now the problems of terrorist violence are more serious in Africa. When the US and Europe came here, they said they’re going to help us, but what we see is really different. They never help us to find a solution.” Judging by the singles released so far, the music is as incendiary as the message.

Pallbearer – Mind Burns Alive
due 5/17 via Nuclear Blast

Pallbearer have always had a little prog in their doom metal, but they’ve never been as full-on progressive rock as they are on recent single “Where the Light Fades.” “I’m of the belief that true heaviness comes from emotional weight, and sometimes sheer bludgeoning isn’t the right approach to getting a feeling across,” says vocalist/guitarist Brett Campbell.

METZ – Up on Gravity Hill
due 4/12 via Sub Pop

While known for making a serious racket, Toronto noisemakers METZ are allowing more melody and nuance into their fifth album, which features contributions from Amber Webber of Black Mountain and composer/string arranger Owen Pallett. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of guitar squall to counterbalance the catchy tunes.

NxWorries – Why Lawd?
due 6/7 via Stones Throw

Anderson .Paak & Knxwledge are finally ready to release the long-awaited followup to their great 2016 debut album Yes Lawd!, and their retro-meets-futuristic hybrid of soul, funk, and rap is in fine form on the recent singles.

Pet Shop Boys – Nonetheless
due 4/26 via Parlophone Records

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe’s 15th Pet Shop Boys album was made with producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode), who challenged them to scale some of the arrangements back, while also adding strings. “Some of the record is quite heart-breaking, but we hope a lot of it is also uplifting,” Pet Shop Boys say. “It’s a record we’re very proud of.”

Phosphorescent – Revelator
due 4/5 via Verve

Phosphorescent (aka Matthew Houck) is finally ready to follow 2018’s great C’est La Vie with a new album, and his ethereal Americana sounds as great as ever on these lead singles.

Rapsody – Please Don’t Cry
due 5/17 via We Each Other/Jamla/Roc Nation

One of the most consistently great (and consistently underrated) rappers around is back. Rapsody’s upcoming 22-song album Please Don’t Cry features Erykah Badu, Lil Wayne, Baby Tate, Alex Isley, Phylicia Rashad, Keznamdi, and more, and some very strong singles.

SeeYouSpaceCowboy – Coup De Grâce
due 4/19 via Pure Noise

SeeYouSpaceCowboy are in their Panic! at the Disco era, but still within the context of being a heavy, chaotic post-hardcore band. The theatrical sass is off the charts.

We’ve got an exclusive neon pink vinyl variant of this one, limited to 250.

Shabaka – Perceive Its Beauty
due 4/12 via Impulse!

Between the aforementioned Kamasi Washington album and this Shabaka (Hutchings) album, it’s gonna be a good spring for mind-melting jazz. André 3000 is on this one too, as are Moses Sumney, Esperanza Spalding, Floating Points, ELUCID (of Armand Hammer), Brandee Younger, Laraaji, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Saul Williams, and more.

Shellac – To All Trains
due 5/17 via Touch and Go

Steve Albini, Bob Weston and Todd Trainer made their sixth Shellac album over multiple long weekends from 2017 – 2022, and it sounds like business as usual for these three: “this record will have no formal promotion. There will be no advertisements, no press or radio promotion, no e-promotion, no promotional or review copies, no promotional gimmick items, and otherwise no free lunch.” We would expect nothing less.

St. Vincent – All Born Screaming
due 4/26 via Virgin Music Group

St. Vincent seems to be getting back to the alien art pop vibes on All Born Screaming. In an interview with Mojo, she called the album “post-plague pop,” and said it “sounds urgent and psychotic, in equal parts the most caustic sound and also, I think, the most sonically blooming.”

The Story So Far – I Want To Disappear
due 6/21 via Pure Noise

Pop punk devotees The Story So Far began incorporating some atmospheric indie rock vibes on 2018’s Proper Dose, and the first two singles from I Want To Disappear find them continuing down their usual pop punk path and their more genre-defying one. Both are great.

We’ve got an exclusive orange crush & black butterfly vinyl variant of this one, limited to 500.

Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department
due 4/19 via Republic Records

We haven’t heard any music from Taylor Swift’s eleventh LP yet, but we know it’s sixteen tracks long plus a few bonus tracks, and features Post Malone (on “Fortnight”) and Florence + The Machine (on “Florida!!!”). Taylor announced it as she won her 13th Grammy in February, for Best Pop Vocal Album, and if the Midnights rollout in 2022 is anything to go by, its release will be an event.

All’s fair in love and poetry… New album THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. Out April 19 https://t.co/WdrCmvLHyA

: Beth Garrabrant pic.twitter.com/CCPhmSZ2UD

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) February 5, 2024

Ulcerate – Cutting the Throat of God
due 6/14 via Debemur Morti Productions

Ulcerate’s experimental approach to death metal is not easy to describe, but it’s very easy to love. On recent single “The Dawn Is Hollow,” they sound as masterful as ever.

Umbra Vitae – Light of Death
due 6/7 via Deathwish

In addition to fronting Converge, Jacob Bannon has a few other projects, and one of them is the death metal band Umbra Vitae, which also includes current and former members of The Red Chord, Twitching Tongues, Hatebreed, Uncle Acid, Job For A Cowboy, and more. Their 2020 debut LP Shadow of Life was a monster, and new single “Belief Is Obsolete” suggests this new LP will be one too.

Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us
due 4/5 via Columbia

After 2019’s summery Father of the Bride, Vampire Weekend seem to be getting back to something a little darker and more chaotic on Only God Was Above Us, and their hooks on singles like “Gen-X Cops” remain as sticky as ever.

Yaya Bey – Ten Fold
due 5/10 via Big Dada

Yaya Bey has been at the forefront of neo-soul these past few years, and the singles leading up to Ten Fold suggest she’s still at the top of her game, maybe getting even better.

Young Miko – Att.
due 4/5 via The Wave/Sony Latin

Puerto Rican rapper Young Miko has had one of the fastest rises in Latin pop in recent memory, and it’s easy to see why. She’s got a distinct voice, a ton of charisma, and her songs are purely infectious.

Our favorite songs of the week (playlist)

BrooklynVegan Staff — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 21:45:13 +0000

This week’s playlist includes new music by Two Shell x FKA twigs, Adrianne Lenker, Broadcast, Future x Metro Boomin (ft. Kendrick Lamar), Rosali, Elbow, Waxahatchee, Sierra Ferrell, Roc Marciano, Julia Holter, Spaced, Carpool, Barely Civil, Restorations, The Co Founder, Magazine Beach, Cloud Nothings, Fresh, The Story So Far, Hot Mulligan, Pallbearer, Ufomammut, Scarcity, Storefront Church, Warpaint, Shabaka (ft. Laraaji, André 3000, Floating Points, Esperanza Spalding, more) Shannon and the Clams, Pernice Brothers, FACS, The Reds Pinks & Purples, Russian Baths, Anna Prior (of Metronomy), Bill MacKay, Khruangbin, Metz (ft. Amber Webber of Black Mountain), Parsnip, Obey Cobra, John Grant, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Halo Maud, Klaus Johann Grobe, and The Gaslight Anthem.

Subscribe to the playlist and/or listen below…

BROOKLYNVEGAN WEEKLY PLAYLIST 3/22/2024
Two Shell & FKA twigs – Talk To Me
Adrianne Lenker – Donut Seam
Broadcast – Follow the Light
Future x Metro Boomin – Like That (ft. Kendrick Lamar)
Rosali – Change Is In the Form
Elbow – Knife Fight
Waxahatchee – Evil Spawn
Sierra Ferrell – American Dreaming
Roc Marciano – Gold Crossbow
Julia Holter – Talking to the Whisper
Spaced – Cosmic Groove
Carpool – I Hate Music
Barely Civil – Finding Time
Restorations – Field Recordings
The Co Founder – Shoes For Runners
Magazine Beach – Vacuum
Cloud Nothings – I’d Get Along
Fresh – Merch Girl
The Story So Far – Letterman
Hot Mulligan – Stickers of Brian
Pallbearer – Where the Light Fades
Ufomammut – Leeched
Scarcity – In the Basin of Alkaline Grief
Storefront Church – The High Room
Warpaint – Underneath
Shabaka – I’ll Do Whatever You Want (ft. Laraaji, André 3000, Floating Points, Esperanza Spalding, more)
Shannon and the Clams – Real or Magic
Pernice Brothers – The Purple Rain
FACS – North American Endless
The Reds Pinks & Purples – What’s Going On With Ordinary People?
Russian Baths – Split
Anna Prior (Metronomy) – Fall Back
Bill MacKay – Glow Drift
Khruangbin – Pon Pón
Metz – Light Your Way Home (ft. Amber Webber of Black Mountain)
Parsnip – Turn to Love
Obey Cobra – Ten of Wands
John Grant – It’s a Bitch
The Jesus and Mary Chain – The Eagles and the Beatles
Halo Maud – Iceberg
Klaus Johann Grobe – Getting Down to Adria
The Gaslight Anthem – Ocean Eyes (Billie Eilish cover)

27 New Songs Out Today

BrooklynVegan Staff — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 22:00:31 +0000

KHRUANGBIN – “PON PÓN”

Here’s another enjoyable, lightly funky jam from Khruangbin’s upcoming album A LA SALA.

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METZ – “LIGHT YOUR WAY HOME” FT AMBER WEBBER OF BLACK MOUNTAIN

“’Light Your Way Home’ is definitely one of our favorites from Up On Gravity Hill,” METZ’s Alex Edkins says of the new single from his band’s upcoming album. “I was listening to lots of Jesu and Low (as I do most winters) when writing this one. Lyrically, it’s about missing your loved ones to the point of losing your grip on reality. We distorted and added a mechanical slap back to the drums to create a wild and huge sound. I love how big we got the production on this one. It’s like nothing we’ve ever made before, sonically or lyrically. Amber Webber (Black Mountain, Lightning Dust) was so great to work with, and her voice just takes this song to another stratosphere. I think the video by Colin Medley perfectly captures the vibe and intent of the song.”

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CLAIRE ROUSAY – “IT COULD BE ANYTHING”

claire rousay calls “it could be anything” “the story of a lover out with someone else while you’re already involved with them… the anxiety that comes from sitting around knowing what could be happening with them while one is not there. Just sitting at home freakin’ out. Kinda a cheating song, kinda a jealousy song, kinda an apology.” It’s from her new album sentiment, out next month on Thrill Jockey.

sentiment by claire rousay

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EFTERKLANG – “GETTING REMINDERS” FT ZACH CONDON

Efterklang have shared this new single featuring Beirut’s Zach Condon to coincide with the release of their new documentary, Efterklang: The Makedonium Band. “To me, ‘Getting Reminders’ is a flash of light, a domino effect of feelings from a simple reminder, like a photo, a word, or when we encounter love, that suddenly sets our minds free,” says the band’s Casper Clausen. “In reality, I feel a dark and highly politicized force tearing us apart, across land and culture. I feel like reminding myself that there’s a landscape that lives beyond and between us all, where we are free to cross and meet one another.”

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JADE HAIRPINS – “UNRELIABLE”

Jonah Falco and Mike Haliechuk from Fucked Up have shared a new Jade Hairpins single ahead of their UK tour. Falco says “Unreliable” is “about living up to the ideals and expectations of an ever changing brain, will, body, and world.”

Unreliable by Jade Hairpins

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DESIRE – “DARKSIDE”

Desire has announced new album Games People Play which will be out later this year via Italian Do it Better. Details are still to come but the announcement comes with this new single. Desire says: “The song is about the invisible line we draw between our outer reality & our inner world. The darkside is a meatphor for the unmasked internal space that we rarely share with strangers. A secret realm that never sees the light of day. On the endless hunt for love, we crave a deeper connection that can only come with truth. The mirror sees you…on the darkside. Crash into the starlight.”

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TWO SHELL & FKA TWIGS – “TALK TO ME”

Two Shell and FKA twigs have teamed up for “Talk to Me,” which Two Shell led up to with what they describe as “a karaoke version and multiple iterations featuring vocal lines from recognisable voices” on Bandcamp (all of which are no longer available). This version with twigs’ vocals is an ecstatic electro-pop jam.

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BODEGA – “CULTURAL CONSUMER III”

“The ‘cultural consumer’ is a character who has become essential to my songwriting for BODEGA,” says Bodega’s Ben Hozie. “‘Cultural Consumer I’ was the first song I wrote where I feel like I found the songwriting voice for the band and the ‘cultural consumer’ showed up in the first BODEGA single ‘How Did This Happen?!’ in 2018. The cultural consumer is a middle class bohemian who is addicted to studying culture (both high art and pop culture) and is thus oppressed by it. In ‘Cultural Consumer III’ he has become a new ager who is blasting a killer curated playlist in his car on the way to the airport to fly to a meditation retreat in Taiwan. Despite all of his consuming and questing for self-help, unlike Bob Dylan, he has never once ‘gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.’ He is just buying crap.” Bodega’s new album, Our Brand Could Be Yr Life, will be out April 12 via Chrysalis.

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NO WINDOWS – “ZODIAC 13”

“This song is written about the isolation I felt as the winter months started, it is about friendships ending and changing and coming to terms with their being a constant doubt when it comes to people near to you,” Verity Slangen says of No Windows’ new single. “Lyrically this is the oldest song on the EP, and I was much more unsure of my feelings back then, it’s nice to have something to look back on and see how my writing has changed.” Point Nemo comes out in May on Fat Possum.

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CLOUD NOTHINGS – “I’D GET ALONG”

Nobody does big, slightly-off-kilter, hooky guitar rock quite like Cloud Nothings, and their upcoming LP Final Summer is shaping up to be another good one. Here’s the latest single, with a video featuring footage of the band’s killer live show.

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H. PRUZ – “DAWN”

Hannah Pruzinsky’s debut album as h. pruz, No Glory, is out on March 29 via Mtn Laurel Recording Co, and the latest single, “Dawn,” is bare-bones folk sweetened by piano, cello, and clarinet. “‘Dawn’ intends to capture that transition point between utter naive infatuation and falling into trusting a person,” Pruzinsky says. “That in-between ‘point’ of love seems to be more of a dragging ellipsis for me. I initially wanted to play with space and silence in this song to underline that, but then the instrumental chorus became just as full of longing and doubt as any words or space.”

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ONE STEP CLOSER – “GIANT’S DESPAIR”

One Step Closer have shared the second single from their upcoming album All You Embrace, and like lead single “Leap Years,” “Giant’s Despair” finds OSC branching out from their hardcore roots and going more into emo-grunge territory.

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MAGGIE ROGERS – “SICK OF DREAMING”

The easygoing “Sick of Dreaming” is the latest single from Maggie Rogers’ third album, Don’t Forget Me.

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DANA GAVANSKI – “SONG FOR RACHEL”

“Song for Rachel” is a gently thumping art pop song dedicated to Dana’s Gavanski childhood best friend who passed away in 2022. Her new album LATE SLAP comes out in April.

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ALENA SPANGER – “STEADY SONG”

Alena Spanger, formerly of Tiny Hazard, is releasing a new solo album, Fire Escape, due out this Friday (3/22) via Ruination Record Co. Ahead of that she’s shared “Steady Song,” a spare, fragile folk track.

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FRESH – “MERCH GIRL”

UK indie-punks Fresh will release a new EP, Merch Girl, on April 19 via Specialist Subject Records, and the just-released title track is a rippin’ anthem “about living in that space between wanting something and achieving something. It’s kind of a character song, about somebody that is involved in music – but not in the way that they want to be, and they’re frustrated by that.”

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SIERRA FERRELL – “AMERICAN DREAMING”

Sierra Ferrell’s new album Trail of Flowers comes out this Friday, and here’s one more single from it, a gripping indie-country song called “American Dreaming.”

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NECROT – “DRILL THE SKULL”

Oakland death metallers Necrot slow things down a bit with this chunky, riffy new taste of Lifeless Birth.

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FRAIL BODY – “HORIZON LINE”

Frail Body offer up some chaotic, fast-paced, punky screamo with the latest taste of Artificial Bouquet.

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CHRIS BROACH – “ROCK HAS A SHELF LIFE”

Braid’s Chris Broach returns to the guitar (and his own name) for a new series of singles and splits, the first of which is “Rock Has A Shelf Life.” Read more here.

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PARSNIP – “TURN TO LOVE”

Australian band Parsnip are gearing up to release new album Behold on April 26 and they’ve just released this harmony-laden, sweetly psychedelic new single from it, along with its very cool video directed by Alex McLaren. The band’s Paris Rebel Richens says: “Imagine what the world would be like if everyone stopped for a moment or two every day and fixed their attention on the heart. All anyone really wants is love. This song is a plea, for everything that you do in the outer, the most profound changes must be made within. It is not a weakness, if anything, choosing love is courageous and wise.”

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OBEY COBRA – “TEN OF WANDS”

Welsh heavy psych band Obey Cobra have signed with Rocket Recordings (home to GOAT, among others) who will release their second album, Mwg Drwg, on May 3. “The Mari Lwyd – a horse skeleton dressed in white sheets and adorned with ribbons – is a Welsh folkloric custom. In both history and the present day, for Wassail, the Mari Lwyd leads a procession, knocking on the doors of local houses trying to gain entry through song,” say the band of the story behind the album’s first single and video. “The people who live in the houses deny the Mari Lwyd from entering, again through song, and the two sides continue this call and response until either the householders eventually relent, and the Mari Lwyd is allowed in and given food and drink… Or must continue without on their journey. In the music video for ‘Ten of Wands’ we follow the Mari Lwyd. An outsider and outcast from the edges of the earth, wandering through historical spaces void of humans, eventually ending at the open sea. Ten of Wands tells of a reading and premonition, given to lead singer K Wood, taken with a pinch of salt.”

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LIGHTNING BUG — “OPUS”

Here’s the bewitching second single from Lightning Bug’s upcoming album No Paradise.

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A CERTAIN RATIO – “KEEP IT REAL”

“Keep It Real” comes packed with serious post-punk muscle. It’s from A Certain Ratio’s upcoming album It All Comes Down to This.

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THE DECEMBERISTS – “JOAN IN THE GARDEN”

This 19-minute songs about Joan of Arc closes The Decemberists’ new album As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again.

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JOHN GRANT – “IT’S A BITCH”

“It was a blast making this track which is just about having fun with words, synths and dope rhythms and bass lines and also making fun of post-COVID malaise,” says John Grant of the first single from his upcoming sixth studio album.

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MOBY – “DARK DAYS” FT LADY BLACKBIRD

It’s the first single from Moby’s forthcoming album always centered at night where every track is a collaboration.

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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the New Songs archive

Green Man Festival announces 2024 lineup

Bill Pearis — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 17:09:33 +0000

The 2024 edition of Green Man Festival happens August 15-18 at the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park in Brecon Beacons, Wales. The lineup was just revealed, and headlining this year will be Big Thief, Sampha, Jon Hopkins, and Sleaford Mods.

Also playing are The Jesus and Mary Chain, Explosions In The Sky, Arlo Parks, Black Country New Road, Ezra Collective, OSEES, Mount Kimbie, Devendra Banhart, This is the Kit, The Mary Wallopers, Mannequin Pussy, Nadine Shah, Fat White Family, Blonde Redhead, Julia Holter, Tinariwen, Omar Souleyman, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Beak>, Bar Italia, King Creosote, Blondshell, Bdrmm, Wednesday, Sheer Mag, METZ, Model/Actriz, Lonnie Holley, The Waeve (Graham Coxon & Rose Elinor Dougall), Pictish Trail, Jess Williamson, Parquet Courts’ A. Savage, The Tubs, and many more.

Green Man says more artists are still to be announced, and you can check out the lineup as it currently stands below.

GREEN MAN 2024 LINEUP
Big Thief
Sampha
Jon Hopkins
Sleaford Mods
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Explosions In The Sky
Arlo Parks
Black Country
New Road
Ezra Collective
Osees
Mount Kimbie
Devendra Banhart
This is the Kit
The Mary Wallopers
Nadine Shah
Fat White Family
Blonde Redhead
Julia Holter
Tinariwen
Johnny Flynn
Joy Orbison
Omar Souleyman
Max Cooper
John Maus
Hurray For The Riff Raff
Beak>
Bar Italia
King Creosote
Blondshell
Bdrmm
Wednesday
Sheer Mag
Metz
Model/Actriz
Ibibio Sound Machine
Nabihah Iqbal
Royel Otis
Mannequin Pussy
Lonnie Holley
Oracle Sisters
John Francis Flynn
Moonchild Sanelly
Lambrini Girls
Sofia Kourtesis (DJ)
Sherelle
Loraine James
JJUUJJUU
The Waeve
Pictish Trail
One Leg One Eye
Jess Williamson
A. Savage
Muireann Bradley
Ye Vagabonds
Personal Trainer
Das Koolies
Lime Garden
Hotline TNT
John
Lynks
Orions Belte
Fabiana Palladino |
N’famady Kouyaté
Islet
Blue Bendy
Annahstasia
Georgia Ruth
Fulu Miziki
Hannah Holland
Opus Kink
Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog
Tapir!
Brown Horse
MRCY
Malice K
Rachael Lavelle
The Tubs
Cerys Hafana
Pys Melyn
Marta Del Grandi
Gillie
Deptford Northern Soul Club
The Social
PRAH
Big Special
Borough Council
Brown Wimpenny
Getdown Services
Gia Ford
Humane The Moon
Lemoncello
Loose Articles
Man/Woman/Chainsaw
Maruja
No Windows
The New Eves
Shelf Lives
Slate
Ugly

Indie Basement: Best Songs & Albums of February 2024

Bill Pearis — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 14:12:30 +0000

Indie Basement is a weekly column on BrooklynVegan focusing on classic indie and alternative artists, “college rock,” and new and current acts who follow a similar path. There are reviews of new albums, reissues, box sets, books and sometimes movies and television shows. I’ve rounded up February’s best music, highlighting my favorite songs and albums, plus links to relevant features and news, a monthly playlist, and more.

The shortest month of the year was just a little longer than usual, 2024’s a leap year, and it felt just a little extra too as far as all the great music that came out in February. I picked 10 of my favorite songs to write about, including a couple veterans who haven’t released new music in over 10 years, new artists just starting out, and some great janglepop.

As far as February albums, I picked five this month but runner ups include MGMT’s Loss of Life, Grandaddy’s Blu Wav, OMNI’s Souvenir, Stereolab singer/guitarist Laetitia Sadier’s Rooting for Love, Chelsea Wolfe’s She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She, and Britpop vets Cast’s Love is the Call.

In addition to the reviews I made a playlist featuring all 10 Songs of the Month, tracks from my Albums of the Month (and runner-ups), plus everything else I liked in February. Listen to that (Spotify or TIDAL) and check out the rest of the Indie Basement February roundup below…

INDIE BASEMENT – BEST SONGS OF FEBRUARY 2024

Beth Gibbons – “Floating on a Moment”

Eleven years after signing a solo deal with Domino, Portishead’s Beth Gibbons is finally releasing an album. Worth the wait? Of course. Beth’s voice is as spine-tingling as ever, and the production is cinematic and surprising — who would’ve expected a children’s chorus? That’s a tricky high-wire move that Beth nimbly pulls off. (Too bad about the AI video, though.) When the harpsichord-flecked chorus kicks in, we are all floating.

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Cast – “The Rain That Falls”

Led by former La’s bassist John Power, Britpop vets Cast released their seventh album, Love is the Call, earlier this month and it’s the best thing they’ve done since their 1995 debut, All Change. It’s also their biggest hit since All Change, having debuted on the UK album charts in the Top 20. The whole thing’s terrific but “The Rain That Falls” is the standout, a signature slice of Cast power-pop that’s loaded with ringing guitars and wonderful harmonies on the perfect earworm chorus.

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Clothing – “Kingdom” (ft Amber Coffman)

Aakaash Israni (Dawn of Midi) and Ben Sterling (Cookies, Mobius Band) have been friends for over a decade but only recently started making music together in earnest. “Kingdom” is their debut single as Clothing and it features sultry vocals from onetime Dirty Projectors vocalist Amber Coffman. At first this sounds like it’s going to be cookie-cutter nu-R&B but then the beats and synths kick in and “Kingdom” takes off into intoxicating realms. There’s a great little moment where Amber’s “oooohs” drop and fade with the synths as if they’ve fallen into a bottomless pit, before bouncing back out. A great debut that sets a high standard for whatever’s next.

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Dent May & Jordana – “Coasting on Fumes”

Dent May really has a way with twisting a familiar phrase into new territory, especially when applied to romantic entanglements. (I’m a big fan of his 2017 single “Face Down in the Gutter of Your Love“) “Coasting on Fumes” makes the most of car metaphors — “heading nowhere fast / dangerously low on gas” — with help from fellow indiepop artist Jordana for this sweet piece of “love the one you’re with” janglepop that floats along a lightly melancholic breeze.

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En Attendant Ana – “Magical Lies”

One of my favorite bands of the last 10 years, Paris’ En Attendant Ana just keep getting better. Few bands have this much winsome charm backed up by serious chops and muscle. Their third album, Principia, was among my favorites of 2023 and they’ve already back with a 7″ via the Sub Pop Singles Club featuring two newly recorded songs (and not leftovers from the Principia sessions). “Magical Lies” is all jazzy chords and sunny horns but then in comes a hypnotic bassline that makes for an imagined team-up between The Cardigans and Stereolab.

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Four Tet – “Daydream Repeat”

What I like about Four Tet is that Keiran Hebben has aged so gracefully. Some of his contemporaries try to keep up with the kids, but he just does his own thing — even when it occasionally involves Fred again.. or Skrillex — and still makes it feel fresh. The perfectly titled “Daydream Repeat” sprinkles a minimal disco beat with a gossamer harp pattern that makes you wonder what he might do with a new staging of Swan Lake.

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Ibibio Sound Machine – “Got to Be Who U Are”

After working with Hot Chip on last year’s Electricity, London dance collective Ibibio Sound Machine collaborated with Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, M.I.A.) for their upcoming Pull the Rope. They say they’ve switched venues “from the sunny buoyancy of a sunlit festival to a sweat-soaked, all-night dance club.” There’s still plenty of light in “Got to Be Who U Are,” but it’s also a banger that plays like a mash-up of 1991, with house-style vocals atop backing that could be acid jazz if it left the jazz at home.

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Les Savy Fav – “Legendary Tippers”

I did not have “New Les Savy Fav Album” on my 2024 bingo card, don’t know about you, but I’m glad these guys are back. While they’ve played the the occasional show, this is is their first new music since 2010. They are all now well into their 40s but “Legendary Tippers” still sounds like a wild Williamsburg party, though like their old neighborhood, things have gone slightly upscale: “Our backstage passes come with opera glasses / We’ve got caviar in our mini bar.” Tim Harrington remains shirtless, though.

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METZ – “Entwined (Street Light Buzz)”

SHRRRRRING! This first single from Toronto band METZ’ first album in four years starts like a lot of their songs do, with a mutant, melty guitar riff. You brace yourself for what comes next, and while things do get loud — this is METZ, after all — they’ve also discovered discovered the joy of hooks and melody. “Entwined” is easily the catchiest METZ song ever and their use of dynamics here, along with the singalong chorus, just make the loud bits hit harder.

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Warpaint – “Common Blue”

Warpaint have always been chill, but they attain new levels of relaxed vibes on this excellent new single that finds them back on Rough Trade after one album on Virgin. (it’s also a celebration of their 20th anniversary as a band.) You could almost imagine this as one of the groovier Feist songs on Let It Die, but it’s also still totally a Warpaint song with their undeniable mild-meld chemistry sending this one off into the sunset.

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INDIE BASEMENT – BEST ALBUMS OF FEBRUARY 2024

IDLES – TANGK (Partisan)

TANGK‘s mix of melody, menace and heart that is the key to the album, which may win over people — like myself — who didn’t take to IDLES’ output through 2020’s Ultra Mono. Call it “Resistance as an Act of Joy,” this is their most accessible collection of songs to date, still with lots of bruising energy but also overflowing with heartfelt lyrics. The combo really works, and it’s probably no accident the album came out the same week as Valentine’s Day. IDLES hinted at this direction on 2021’s CRAWLER, a real chrysalis of album, but they emerge as a fully formed butterfly on TANGK. A Muhammed Ali type butterfly, mind you, that can still sting like a bee. [Full Review]

TANGK by IDLES

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Mary Timony – Untame the Tiger (Merge)

While Mary Timony has stayed musically busy since the late-’00s with Wild Flag and Ex Hex (and as a guitar teacher for the likes of Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan and other DC-area residents), new album Untame the Tiger is her first record under her own name in nearly two decades. This is a pandemic work and Mary had an especially rough last four years, losing both parents (and being their sole caregiver), and going through a bad romantic breakup. There’s a lot of well-traveled insight here, leavened just enough by well-placed dashes of cutting humor. Great music too. Mary is a skilled musician with a love of British folk and prog that can really be felt this time; Fairport Convention / Steeleye Span drummer Dave Mattacks plays on half the songs, and there’s a lot of chewy, interlocking guitar leads and modal drones that give things a very earthy feel. At the same time, these songs are still obviously coming from the same person who gave us ’90s classic, Dirt of Luck. Ex Hex are a lot of fun, and I look forward to their next record, but Untame the Tiger sticks to the ribs. [Full review]

Untame the Tiger by Mary Timony

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Ducks Ltd. – Harm’s Way (Carpark)

No other artist is currently doing more for the cause of janglepop than Toronto duo Ducks Ltd. Evan Lewis and Tom Mcgreevy have majored and minored in the genre, and are well-versed in classics from around the world — from Dunedin to Glasgow, Hoboken and beyond — and have used that knowledge to craft their own undeniable earworms. Harm’s Way doesn’t really mess with the formula of their 2021 album, Modern Fiction, but it’s improved upon in every way. [Full review]

Harm’s Way by Ducks Ltd.

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J Mascis – What Do We Do Now? (Sub Pop)

J Mascis is synonymous with loud guitars; playing with his band Dinosaur Jr., on stage he’s cocooned in Marshall stacks which is as iconic an image as any in indie rock today. The band are still making great records and are reliably solid live but, dare I say it, his solo records are more satisfying these days. His weary vocal style and melodic tendencies are not really different from what he did on You’re Living All Over Me back in 1986, but it all feels a little more at home against dusty acoustic guitars and piano. J had planned for his first solo album in five years to be totally acoustic but then he got the itch to play drums and add a few electric solos. Before long he was tapping his friends Ken Mauri to play piano and Matthew “Doc” Dunn for pedal steel. “I dunno why I did that exactly,” J admits, “but it’s just what happened.” What Do We Do Now? sounds as much like a “band” record as any by Dinosaur Jr. but this is one J, Lou and Murph would never make. I hope Dinosaur Jr. never break up again, but I’m glad Mascis gives us a record like this every few years. [Full review]

What Do We Do Now by J Mascis

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Real Estate – Daniel (Daniel)

Real Estate made their sixth album in Nashville with producer Daniel Tashian, who has worked with everyone from Burt Bacharach to Kacey Musgraves and whose own band, The Silver Seas, owed a lot to ’70s soft rock. On paper, with Tashian’s fondness for lush orchestration, you might expect him to take Real Estate out even further to sea than 2020’s The Main Thing, but Daniel feels more than anything like a distillation of everything the band has ever done to date. There are strings here, along with some keyboards, pedal steel and other shiny sonic baubles, but apart from the conga-powered “Freeze Brain” and the twangy “Victoria,” sung by bassist Alex Bleeker, these songs are as Real Estate-y as they get. Some say you can’t go home again but Real Estate make the trip seem effortless. [Full review]

Daniel by Real Estate

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Here’s a playlist featuring all 10 songs that were reviews, tracks from each of my albums of the month, plus all the other stuff I liked from February, in both Spotify and TIDAL form.

Looking for more? Browse the Indie Basement archives.

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Creation Records’ 21 Best Records