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While everyone is social distancing, closing ranks and donning masks while they shop, life can seem somewhat surreal to the senses. Yet, through all of the chaos, one thing is constant, music brings us together. Now, on the 40th Anniversary of the landmark, Los Angeles, and 35 years since the original band have released an album – X, one of the greatest Punk Rock bands in music history, releases ALPHABETLAND. The original foursome - Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom, and DJ Bonebrake have now made the album available for fans to purchase and by adapting to this moment, X continues to embody the same spirit they did when they began in 1977.
“When your heart is broken you think every song is about that. These songs were written in the last 18 months & it blows my mind how timely they are,” explained John Doe. “We all want our family, friends & fans to hear our records as soon as it's finished. This time we could do that. Thanks to Fat Possum & our audience.”
“When your heart is broken you think every song is about that. These songs were written in the last 18 months & it blows my mind how timely they are,” explained John Doe. “We all want our family, friends & fans to hear our records as soon as it's finished. This time we could do that. Thanks to Fat Possum & our audience.”
STAFF COMMENTS
says: Alphabetland is exactly what we need right now, rawkous good-natured punk-rock. Irreverent in places but as politically charged as you'd expect from some veterans of the scene. Brilliantly good fun, and as serious as it needs to be.FORMAT INFORMATION
Coloured LP Info: Indies only blue vinyl.
Blair Howerton started songwriting as a coping mechanism during her formative years. Her vivid lyricism has bloomed into the dazzling, full-band emotional release known as Why Bonnie. The band's Fat Possum Records debut EP Voice Box celebrates unhindered expression via beguiling, propulsive guitar pop. In a decisive step to start performing her backlogged material, Howerton moved back home to Texas after graduating college in 2015. In Austin, Howerton joined lifelong best friend Kendall Powell, who she met in preschool. Powells classical piano chops swapped to synth for the new project. Both active in the Austin scene, guitarist Sam Houdek and bassist Chance Williams later joined to complete the lineup. In 2018, the band emerged on petite indie outlet Sports Day Records with In Water. The EP eulogized Howertons older brother, who passed away years prior. Intimately bristling tracks explored the grieving process, introducing the groups uncanny ability to stir up huge catharsis in a seamless rise. Follow-up Nightgown expanded the effort, pulling lush Mazzy Star and Cranberries influences.
Embarking on their first DIY tour the same year, Why Bonnie quickly landed opening runs for the like-minded sounds of Snail Mail and Beach Fossils. The sum of those experiences culminates in the sweeping, layered rock sound of third EP Voice Box. Fuzzed-out guitars and crystalline vocals drive a tough-edged struggle in the space between suppression and artistic liberty. Howerton explains: It encapsulates a disconnect between my inner and outer world, and not being able to express myself authentically because of that. But, ultimately knowing I will crash and burn if I dont The intense effort isnt always pretty. The title track fumes with quiet wisdom, urging: I know it's easier to bury your uncertainties in a cloud of masculinity / Guess is the curse you bear to talk over me. Breeders-inspired Athlete endeavors self-doubt in a blistering metaphor of failed sportsmanship. Fiery No Caves rises to a forceful album finale, unleashing the full windswept power of Howertons vocals, padded by Houdek. Of the ending ascent, the lead singer decides about the freedom of realizing that you can't hide anymore. You have to put yourself out there.
Embarking on their first DIY tour the same year, Why Bonnie quickly landed opening runs for the like-minded sounds of Snail Mail and Beach Fossils. The sum of those experiences culminates in the sweeping, layered rock sound of third EP Voice Box. Fuzzed-out guitars and crystalline vocals drive a tough-edged struggle in the space between suppression and artistic liberty. Howerton explains: It encapsulates a disconnect between my inner and outer world, and not being able to express myself authentically because of that. But, ultimately knowing I will crash and burn if I dont The intense effort isnt always pretty. The title track fumes with quiet wisdom, urging: I know it's easier to bury your uncertainties in a cloud of masculinity / Guess is the curse you bear to talk over me. Breeders-inspired Athlete endeavors self-doubt in a blistering metaphor of failed sportsmanship. Fiery No Caves rises to a forceful album finale, unleashing the full windswept power of Howertons vocals, padded by Houdek. Of the ending ascent, the lead singer decides about the freedom of realizing that you can't hide anymore. You have to put yourself out there.
The full-length debut from Ellis, Born Again takes place in spaces both intimate and vast, ordinary and near-mythic: warm beds and lonely church pews, restless cities and desolate forests and the furthest reaches of the cosmos. Produced by Jake Aron (Snail Mail, Solange, Grizzly Bear) and recorded partly at Aron’s Brooklyn studio, Born Again arrives as the follow-up to Ellis’s debut EP The Fuzz—a self-released, self-produced effort that promptly led to a deal with Fat Possum Records. In a departure from the viscerally charged dream-pop of The Fuzz, Born Again unfolds with a mesmerizing subtlety, gracefully spotlighting Ellis’s unhurried melodies, starkly confessional lyrics, and the luminous vocal work she’s shown in opening for artists like Soccer Mommy and Alvvays.
"You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere is an unachievable promise,” says The Districts bandleader Rob Grote. “It’s about a dream for love to last forever and a yearning to postpone death. It is about wanting to escape everyday life while also craving time with one who’s present. It’s a plea to remain the same in the face of constant change, and the certainty of going nowhere fast.” Written after playing nearly 200 shows over two years in support of their 2017 album, Popular Manipulations, The Districts’ fourth full-length You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere almost never arrived.
As they began to contemplate a new album, Grote and his longtime bandmates Pat Cassidy (guitar), Connor Jacobus (bass), and Braden Lawrence (drums) faced a transitional period that was painful for both personal and professional reasons, and found themselves fatigued and disoriented as a group. Grote also felt dysphoric from the anxiety-provoking state of the world today, while facing a daily battle with the dire health problems of his beloved dog. The Districts were forced to rethink everything. “This album was written as an escape and as reassurance. I was falling in love with someone new and trying to juggle this desperate desire to escape with the need to show up in my life. It’s pretty damn hard to be present and completely checked out all at once,” Grote explains. “It felt like much of my world had reached such a pitch that all I could do was try to tune it out. I felt really uncertain about the future of the band and super detached from much of what I used to identify with, on a personal level and with our music. I was thinking, ‘Do I want to keep doing music?’ ‘Do I want to keep doing it in this context?’” Grote retreated to his bedroom and started writing with no objective other than to create. Free from expectations, and with an acoustic guitar, synthesizer, and drum machine at hand, he discovered a newfound creative freedom.
As they began to contemplate a new album, Grote and his longtime bandmates Pat Cassidy (guitar), Connor Jacobus (bass), and Braden Lawrence (drums) faced a transitional period that was painful for both personal and professional reasons, and found themselves fatigued and disoriented as a group. Grote also felt dysphoric from the anxiety-provoking state of the world today, while facing a daily battle with the dire health problems of his beloved dog. The Districts were forced to rethink everything. “This album was written as an escape and as reassurance. I was falling in love with someone new and trying to juggle this desperate desire to escape with the need to show up in my life. It’s pretty damn hard to be present and completely checked out all at once,” Grote explains. “It felt like much of my world had reached such a pitch that all I could do was try to tune it out. I felt really uncertain about the future of the band and super detached from much of what I used to identify with, on a personal level and with our music. I was thinking, ‘Do I want to keep doing music?’ ‘Do I want to keep doing it in this context?’” Grote retreated to his bedroom and started writing with no objective other than to create. Free from expectations, and with an acoustic guitar, synthesizer, and drum machine at hand, he discovered a newfound creative freedom.
First 12" pressing of The Districts critically acclaimed debut EP, first released in 2014. Included in addition to the original five tracks is a stirring BBC live session version of 'Silver Couplets', a live favourite that had only previously appeared on the band's self-released debut.
FORMAT INFORMATION
Ltd 12" Info: Limited edition orange vinyl.
Raw, soulful blues-rock from this duo from Akron, Ohio. This is the awesome second album (their first in the UK) from Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney. With a stripped back guitar, drums and vocal line up this is top notch blues, set apart by Auerbach's distinctive fuzz guitar. Recommended.
FORMAT INFORMATION
LP Info: 180g vinyl pressing.
Fantastic album from the acclaimed guitar and drum, Delta blues-infused rock duo from Akron, Ohio, The Black Keys. The album takes a few listens to get into - mainly down to the fact that the songs are, in general, quite understated rather than big catchy blues numbers, that grab you on first listen, but you're bored of within a week. You imagine that if Jack White could possibly get himself off the rock 'n' roll treadmill he'd love to kick back and make albums like this!!! A swaggering blues rock masterpiece!!
It’s been eight years since Bondy last released a record, and his distaste for the present day has intensified. But rather than avoid popular sounds, on Enderness he gathers and subverts modern tools to construct his indictment of the modern world. With an arsenal of synthesizers, drum machine, sparse electric guitar, and a skeptic’s pen, he builds a plodding dystopian story of living death stoked by internet anti-reality, big pharma conspiracy, and environmental apocalypse—aka 2019.
It’s existential dread as mid-tempo cradlesong, the music of our worst sleepless nights. “Stranger if you come/Know that much is broken/I forget the way/Surrender is spoken,” he sings on album standout “Images of Love,” bass pulses driving the caustic groove. On “Diamond Skull,” Bondy strings tragic and worrying subjects of popular obsession into a stream-of-consciousness phantasmagoria over a simple guitar riff, like Nick Cave on “Higgs Boson Blues.” Observations about white nationalism, spiritual charlatans, and hollow celebrity worship spill into internet speak: “OMG sea to sea/L-M-F-A-O,” he sings with a knowing wink. Like so many who simultaneously bemoan and fuel the simulation—tweets and grams as a form of self-flagellation—Bondy is both in on and imprisoned by the joke.
It’s existential dread as mid-tempo cradlesong, the music of our worst sleepless nights. “Stranger if you come/Know that much is broken/I forget the way/Surrender is spoken,” he sings on album standout “Images of Love,” bass pulses driving the caustic groove. On “Diamond Skull,” Bondy strings tragic and worrying subjects of popular obsession into a stream-of-consciousness phantasmagoria over a simple guitar riff, like Nick Cave on “Higgs Boson Blues.” Observations about white nationalism, spiritual charlatans, and hollow celebrity worship spill into internet speak: “OMG sea to sea/L-M-F-A-O,” he sings with a knowing wink. Like so many who simultaneously bemoan and fuel the simulation—tweets and grams as a form of self-flagellation—Bondy is both in on and imprisoned by the joke.
STAFF COMMENTS
says: A.A. Bondy have mastered the art of slow and simmeringly beautiful melodies. Warming saturated melodies and slowly unfurling progressive synthplay form a percussive but unhurried base to Bondy's haunting vocal drawl. Lovely stuff.
Fat Possum and Julian Casablancas' Cult Records are partnering to release NY Punks Surfbort record, "Friendship Music". Surfbort, a four-piece punk band from Brooklyn, New York made up of David Head, Alex Kilgore, Sean Powell and led by Dani Miller, channels inspiration from the 80’s punk scene to produce rousing, explosive music. Surfbort’s live experience is visceral and confrontational. Their feedback-strafed, guitar-shredding punk music says no to a digital age full of intolerance; they radiate love and friendship. All are welcome in the SURFBORT FREAK FAMILY! In the last three years they have supported acts such as The Dickies, Thee Oh Sees, Fat White Family, White Fang, Martin Rev, The Garden, Tijuana Panthers, The Mystery Lights, Tomorrows Tulips, Sunflower Bean, DIIV, GOGGS, The Dune Rats, Leftover Crack etc, Meatbodies, Ex-Cult, Hinds among others…
Unknown Mortal Orchestra (U.M.O.) was conceived as a home recording project by Ruban Nielson after spending years playing and touring in an award-winning New Zealand punk band (on the legendary Flying Nun label). The band broke up after re-locating to Portland, OR and Ruban was ready to move away from his nomadic past. His recordings as U.M.O., mainly created for his personal amusement, have now taken on a life of their own.
Ruban’s vision of creating “junkshop record collector pop” culminated in the creation of sprawling Beatles-esque guitar melodies over hammered out break-beats, spliced with an individual touch of gentle weirdness. The results deliver a surprisingly unified fusion of several influential elements - classic psychedelic rock, Krautrock rhythms and proto-hip hop beats – all interacting to create a cohesive album.
Though the songs were never intended to be performed live, the last six months has seen the project gather pace behind a wave of critical acclaim. A sold-out limited edition EP lead Ruban to construct a live band consisting of skilled producer Jake Portrait on bass and a brilliant teenage drummer named Julien Ehrlich.
Ruban’s vision of creating “junkshop record collector pop” culminated in the creation of sprawling Beatles-esque guitar melodies over hammered out break-beats, spliced with an individual touch of gentle weirdness. The results deliver a surprisingly unified fusion of several influential elements - classic psychedelic rock, Krautrock rhythms and proto-hip hop beats – all interacting to create a cohesive album.
Though the songs were never intended to be performed live, the last six months has seen the project gather pace behind a wave of critical acclaim. A sold-out limited edition EP lead Ruban to construct a live band consisting of skilled producer Jake Portrait on bass and a brilliant teenage drummer named Julien Ehrlich.
Reduced
THE PICCADILLY RECORDS ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2018.
PICCADILLY RECORDS EXCLUSIVE:
For a limited period only, buy either the vinyl or CD of 'Childqueen' and get a free 3 track 'Outtakes' CD bonus disc.
Kadhja Bonet’s second album, Childqueen is something of a Hero’s Quest. In the opening Procession, above a muted drummer’s march, an unseen oracle announces to you, the listener: “every morning is a chance to renew, a chance to renew.” This is your first clue, setting you upon a path not to treasure, nor a grail, nor even a long lost love, but highest of all, what Kadhja has christened the “childqueen,” that innermost self that you were truthfully and instinctively before the press of the world came crushing in.
As with her 2016 debut The Visitor, the songs on Childqueen are never casual, never ditties. Instead they invite us into a world not wholly our own, a half-mythical atmosphere where past and future meet in a parallel, yet faraway, present. The lyrics and melodic lines nudge us along a path of self-discovery— or act as breadcrumbs along her own path. Everything that you hear on Childqueen was written, played, produced, and even mixed by Kadhja, who has always produced all her own music, insisting on a total vision that is nearly as difficult to co-create as a dream. The result is a soundscape the listener sinks into, a sound that combines softer enchantments with an ever-listenable experimentalism, unplaceable in genre and decade from beginning to end.
PICCADILLY RECORDS EXCLUSIVE:
For a limited period only, buy either the vinyl or CD of 'Childqueen' and get a free 3 track 'Outtakes' CD bonus disc.
Kadhja Bonet’s second album, Childqueen is something of a Hero’s Quest. In the opening Procession, above a muted drummer’s march, an unseen oracle announces to you, the listener: “every morning is a chance to renew, a chance to renew.” This is your first clue, setting you upon a path not to treasure, nor a grail, nor even a long lost love, but highest of all, what Kadhja has christened the “childqueen,” that innermost self that you were truthfully and instinctively before the press of the world came crushing in.
As with her 2016 debut The Visitor, the songs on Childqueen are never casual, never ditties. Instead they invite us into a world not wholly our own, a half-mythical atmosphere where past and future meet in a parallel, yet faraway, present. The lyrics and melodic lines nudge us along a path of self-discovery— or act as breadcrumbs along her own path. Everything that you hear on Childqueen was written, played, produced, and even mixed by Kadhja, who has always produced all her own music, insisting on a total vision that is nearly as difficult to co-create as a dream. The result is a soundscape the listener sinks into, a sound that combines softer enchantments with an ever-listenable experimentalism, unplaceable in genre and decade from beginning to end.
FORMAT INFORMATION
Coloured LP Info: Limited coloured vinyl.
Following on from last years compilation “Collection”, Nashville based Sophie Allison aka Soccer Mommy now brings us her debut album proper. Produced by Gabe Wax (Deerhunter, War On Drugs, Beirut), the new album is a huge step up from her earlier bedroom recordings. The fuller sound works perfectly with Sophie’s finely crafted, bitter-sweet pop songs that have a world weary quality beyond her 20 years.
In many ways Insecure Men - the band led by the fiercely talented songwriter and musician Saul Adamczewski and his schoolmate and stabilising influence, Ben Romans-Hopcraft - are the polar opposite of the Fat White Family. Whereas sleaze-mired, country-influenced, drug-crazed garage punks the Fat Whites are a “celebration of everything that is wrong in life”, Insecure Men, who blend together exotica, easy listening, lounge and timeless pop music, are, by comparison at least, the last word in wholesomeness.
The band originally formed in 2015 in the cramped confines of The Queens Head pub, Stockwell, in the Fat White Family’s notorious South London ‘practice space’. Saul recorded all of the songs he wrote at The Queens Head onto tape at Sean Lennon’s studio in upstate New York. This tape, recorded on his own in a corridor onto an ancient Tascam while in a foul mood with his mates, essentially became Insecure Men’s self-titled debut album as more layers were dubbed over the top until nothing of the original demos remained.
Saul lists some of the influences on their sound, mentioning the exotica of Arthur Lyman, the early electronic pop of Perrey and Kingsley, the supreme smoothness of The Carpenters, the songwriting chops of Harry Nilsson and the hypnagogic uncanniness conjured up by David Lynch, describing what they do as “pretty music with a dark underbelly to it”.
Coloured LP includes MP3 Download Code.
The band originally formed in 2015 in the cramped confines of The Queens Head pub, Stockwell, in the Fat White Family’s notorious South London ‘practice space’. Saul recorded all of the songs he wrote at The Queens Head onto tape at Sean Lennon’s studio in upstate New York. This tape, recorded on his own in a corridor onto an ancient Tascam while in a foul mood with his mates, essentially became Insecure Men’s self-titled debut album as more layers were dubbed over the top until nothing of the original demos remained.
Saul lists some of the influences on their sound, mentioning the exotica of Arthur Lyman, the early electronic pop of Perrey and Kingsley, the supreme smoothness of The Carpenters, the songwriting chops of Harry Nilsson and the hypnagogic uncanniness conjured up by David Lynch, describing what they do as “pretty music with a dark underbelly to it”.
FORMAT INFORMATION
Coloured LP Info: Indies exclusive yellow coloured vinyl.Coloured LP includes MP3 Download Code.
The Districts are a band that never stops moving. Popular Manipulations is an accurate representation of how much Robby, Braden, Connor, and Pat have grown, individually and as one solid unit. They’ve fallen in love and had their hearts broken and put back together again. They’re not the young underage band anymore, they’ve stepped out of their comfort zone and have come face to face with things that are so much bigger than them.
Popular Manipulations is life in the present. The way Robby belts from the depths of his chest compliments Pat’s crooning guitar while Braden and Connor lock in with a rhythm section so thick you could slice it with a knife. The songs are so visceral and compelling they make you like you’re experiencing every emotion at once. You can wade through the lyrical themes of manipulation, possessiveness, and anxiety or float among their dark and dreamy arrangements. Each song stands alone on its own but the synergy between them as a whole is explosive
Popular Manipulations is life in the present. The way Robby belts from the depths of his chest compliments Pat’s crooning guitar while Braden and Connor lock in with a rhythm section so thick you could slice it with a knife. The songs are so visceral and compelling they make you like you’re experiencing every emotion at once. You can wade through the lyrical themes of manipulation, possessiveness, and anxiety or float among their dark and dreamy arrangements. Each song stands alone on its own but the synergy between them as a whole is explosive
STAFF COMMENTS
says: Soaring melancholic indie anthems are underpinned by a staggeringly precise rhythmic backbone of hammering percussion and rolling bass. Slightly grungy in places and brilliantly emotive and perfectly produced throughout. Brilliant stuff.
Communions are a four-piece from Copenhagen, made up of brothers Martin and Mads Rehof, Jacob van Deurs Formann and Frederik Lind Köppen.
‘Blue’ is Communions’ debut album, following a series of singles over the last two years. ‘Blue’ makes the most of everywhere Communions have been. Through all of this the stakes have changed but the sensitivity and craft with which the band takes risks has bloomed. An eloquence now shines through and you can take it or leave it.
Discarding some of the moodiness found in their previous recordings, ‘Blue’ tells us what was always natural to Communions. It’s about love and taking chances. It’s about trying something and it still doesn’t matter if there’s apprehension.
‘Blue’ is Communions’ debut album, following a series of singles over the last two years. ‘Blue’ makes the most of everywhere Communions have been. Through all of this the stakes have changed but the sensitivity and craft with which the band takes risks has bloomed. An eloquence now shines through and you can take it or leave it.
Discarding some of the moodiness found in their previous recordings, ‘Blue’ tells us what was always natural to Communions. It’s about love and taking chances. It’s about trying something and it still doesn’t matter if there’s apprehension.
FORMAT INFORMATION
Coloured LP Info: Exclusive blue smoke coloured vinyl available to independent retailers.
‘Goodbye Terrible Youth’ is the second album from St Louis-by-way-of-Scotland songwriter, Gary McClure.
Performing under the name American Wrestlers, Gary’s second record sees him taking bedroom recordings onto a bigger stage without sacrificing the intimacy that makes them so attractive.
If his self-titled album showed Gary’s knack for stringing together addictive guitar lines - the shimmer of shoegaze mixed with the emotional fist pump of power pop, ‘Goodbye Terrible Youth’ amplifies that energy with a roadtested band. Literally breaking out of the home studio - the Tascam mixer McClure had been recording on has fallen apart from overuse - he’s embraced a bigger sound and stage on ‘Goodbye Terrible Youth’, his rueful yet propulsive songwriting only becoming sharper.
“This [‘Amazing Grace’] is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard in 2016. All swirling guitars and plinking pianos, the song builds to a real moment of triumph. ‘I am waiting for that moment to arrive,’ Gary McClure sings, and then they hit you with those crunchy, soaring guitars, and you know it has” - USA Today
KEXP named ‘Amazing Grace’ their Song Of The Day, saying “When the guitar solo kicks in towards the final minute, it’s almost enough to make you pick up that matchbook and light the edge of that ever-expanding todo list on fire.”
Performing under the name American Wrestlers, Gary’s second record sees him taking bedroom recordings onto a bigger stage without sacrificing the intimacy that makes them so attractive.
If his self-titled album showed Gary’s knack for stringing together addictive guitar lines - the shimmer of shoegaze mixed with the emotional fist pump of power pop, ‘Goodbye Terrible Youth’ amplifies that energy with a roadtested band. Literally breaking out of the home studio - the Tascam mixer McClure had been recording on has fallen apart from overuse - he’s embraced a bigger sound and stage on ‘Goodbye Terrible Youth’, his rueful yet propulsive songwriting only becoming sharper.
“This [‘Amazing Grace’] is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard in 2016. All swirling guitars and plinking pianos, the song builds to a real moment of triumph. ‘I am waiting for that moment to arrive,’ Gary McClure sings, and then they hit you with those crunchy, soaring guitars, and you know it has” - USA Today
KEXP named ‘Amazing Grace’ their Song Of The Day, saying “When the guitar solo kicks in towards the final minute, it’s almost enough to make you pick up that matchbook and light the edge of that ever-expanding todo list on fire.”
‘Pearls To Swine’ maps Adam Torres’ complicated history as a songwriter and musician: it’s the sound of someone who discovered the value in his own devotion to music and how songs and writing are extensions of his own journey. He embeds his own folklore within his high-lonesome sounding, deeply felt and moving brand of folk music.
‘Pearls To Swine’ was recorded over eight days in January at Austin’s Cacophony Recorders, which overlooks the Colorado River valley. Working alongside co-producer and mixer Erik Wofford (Bill Callahan, Black Angels, M. Ward, Okkervil River), Torres chose the analogue route, recording and mixing directly to tape to allow for more finality and less overthought. This method in turn lends a natural, warm and almost magical realism atmosphere to the songs - like a high stakes live show captured in a fantastical setting.
The core rhythm was captured live and augmented by a few overdubs and Torres is joined on the album by the players in his band: Thor Harris (of Swans; on conga drums, vibraphone and percussion), Aisha Burns (violin) and Dailey Tolliver (bass / piano), with drum kit performances by Matthew Shepherd and Rodolfo Villareal III.
‘Pearls To Swine’ was recorded over eight days in January at Austin’s Cacophony Recorders, which overlooks the Colorado River valley. Working alongside co-producer and mixer Erik Wofford (Bill Callahan, Black Angels, M. Ward, Okkervil River), Torres chose the analogue route, recording and mixing directly to tape to allow for more finality and less overthought. This method in turn lends a natural, warm and almost magical realism atmosphere to the songs - like a high stakes live show captured in a fantastical setting.
The core rhythm was captured live and augmented by a few overdubs and Torres is joined on the album by the players in his band: Thor Harris (of Swans; on conga drums, vibraphone and percussion), Aisha Burns (violin) and Dailey Tolliver (bass / piano), with drum kit performances by Matthew Shepherd and Rodolfo Villareal III.
Yung frontman Mikkel Holm Silkjær is a Danish DIY figurehead who has left a catalogue of cassettes and selfproduced songs in his wake. Since he began to record music as a teenager (his father put him behind a drum set when he was four), slow hasn’t been his preferred speed. Writing and performing songs filled with gritty guitar and driving rhythms that snap like a live wire, he’s been busy channelling the electric drive of youth, creating brief, flashing sonic portraits of his life in Aarhus, the country’s gritty, industrial second city.
That makes the music on the reflective ‘A Youthful Dream’, the debut album from Yung, such a revelation. Angst makes space for wisdom, youthful exuberance begins channelling road-tested experience and a blur of basement shows and self-produced bromides becomes something more. Silkjær showcases a new degree of songwriting craft and sonic experimentation and a new perspective on everyday life and young adulthood.
That makes the music on the reflective ‘A Youthful Dream’, the debut album from Yung, such a revelation. Angst makes space for wisdom, youthful exuberance begins channelling road-tested experience and a blur of basement shows and self-produced bromides becomes something more. Silkjær showcases a new degree of songwriting craft and sonic experimentation and a new perspective on everyday life and young adulthood.
‘Get Gone’, the potent debut album by Shreveport, Louisiana natives Seratones, makes a strong case that this little-known corner of the state is fertile ground, musically speaking. AJ Haynes (vocals), Connor Davis (guitar), Adam Davis (bass) and Jesse Gabriel (drums) serve up a combination of Southern musicality, garage rock ferocity and general badassery.
Seratones’ music, created with collaborative songwriting and spontaneous creativity, is certainly their own, due perhaps in part to Shreveport’s unique sonic geography. The city sits at a nexus roughly equidistant from Memphis soul, Mississippi Delta Blues and New Orleans jazz, with Texas swing located just over the nearby state border. The band’s sound draws from those touch points and more, ranging from Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ to ‘Kind Of Blue’.
Seratones’ music, created with collaborative songwriting and spontaneous creativity, is certainly their own, due perhaps in part to Shreveport’s unique sonic geography. The city sits at a nexus roughly equidistant from Memphis soul, Mississippi Delta Blues and New Orleans jazz, with Texas swing located just over the nearby state border. The band’s sound draws from those touch points and more, ranging from Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ to ‘Kind Of Blue’.
Sunflower Bean find magic within friction. The New York trio’s full-length debut album, Human Ceremony [Fat Possum Records], emerges at the intersection of dreamy modern psychedelica and urgent fuzzed-out bliss. That push-and-pull colours the aural tapestry of these three musicians—Jacob Faber [drums], Julia Cumming [vocals/bass], and Nick Kivlen [vocals/guitars].
“Everything comes from a conflicting interest,” affirms Nick. “We love dream pop, but we also really love rock ‘n’ roll. It’s those two spectrums.”
“You’re allowed to obsess over Black Sabbath as well as The Cure,” adds Julia. “It’d be boring if everything was just one way or the other.”
That diversity defined the group’s approach since Nick and Jacob started jamming back in high school. They would hole up in Jacob’s Long Island basement for hours on end, channelling this vast cadre of influences. Julia’s addition would only expand that creative palette further in 2013. Through constant gigging around New York, Sunflower Bean sprouted into a sonic enigma, boasting a fiery musical call-and-response that serves as a centrepiece, giving the music what Jacob refers to as a “lyrical aspect” between the guitars, drums, and bass.
They transferred this multi-headed energy into their 2015 Independent EP, Show Me Your Seven Secrets. At the same time, this distinct alchemy enchanted ever-growing audiences live. By the time, they entered the studio for Human Ceremony, Sunflower Bean had a lively aural cauldron from which to draw.
They took the summer of 2015 off and retreated to Jacob’s basement to write together. Taking the ideas out of the basement, they hit a Brooklyn studio with producer Matt Molnar [Friends] and tracked eleven tunes in just seven days. Whereas the EP was recorded after Sunflower Bean played 100 shows in one year, Human Ceremony showed the band’s studio side with richer soundscapes, overdubs, and music that had yet to be debuted live.
On the lead track “Easier Said,” Julia’s delicate vocals glide over a lilting clean guitar that spirals off into a vibrant hum.
Sunflower Bean’s spell is cast on Human Ceremony.
“When you’re in a band, you always dream about the first record,” Julia concludes. “It’s that moment where you explore everything that’s been inspiring you.”
“Everything comes from a conflicting interest,” affirms Nick. “We love dream pop, but we also really love rock ‘n’ roll. It’s those two spectrums.”
“You’re allowed to obsess over Black Sabbath as well as The Cure,” adds Julia. “It’d be boring if everything was just one way or the other.”
That diversity defined the group’s approach since Nick and Jacob started jamming back in high school. They would hole up in Jacob’s Long Island basement for hours on end, channelling this vast cadre of influences. Julia’s addition would only expand that creative palette further in 2013. Through constant gigging around New York, Sunflower Bean sprouted into a sonic enigma, boasting a fiery musical call-and-response that serves as a centrepiece, giving the music what Jacob refers to as a “lyrical aspect” between the guitars, drums, and bass.
They transferred this multi-headed energy into their 2015 Independent EP, Show Me Your Seven Secrets. At the same time, this distinct alchemy enchanted ever-growing audiences live. By the time, they entered the studio for Human Ceremony, Sunflower Bean had a lively aural cauldron from which to draw.
They took the summer of 2015 off and retreated to Jacob’s basement to write together. Taking the ideas out of the basement, they hit a Brooklyn studio with producer Matt Molnar [Friends] and tracked eleven tunes in just seven days. Whereas the EP was recorded after Sunflower Bean played 100 shows in one year, Human Ceremony showed the band’s studio side with richer soundscapes, overdubs, and music that had yet to be debuted live.
On the lead track “Easier Said,” Julia’s delicate vocals glide over a lilting clean guitar that spirals off into a vibrant hum.
Sunflower Bean’s spell is cast on Human Ceremony.
“When you’re in a band, you always dream about the first record,” Julia concludes. “It’s that moment where you explore everything that’s been inspiring you.”
Under the moniker Los Angeles Police Department, Ryan Pollie makes the kind of homespun bedroom pop that excels in its quiet intimacy, while retaining its emotional weight under sparse instrumentation and soft delivery.
On his 11-track self-titled debut album (released September 2014) Pollie wrote and recorded each song in a day, allowing for small imperfections and spurts of urgency found throughout the record. It’s a creative process Pollie has now become accustomed to: “This project really changed an important misconception for me. It was that music that I was making, which wasn’t recorded in a studio with a band, was illegitimate or not real for some reason.”
These 11 tracks, pared down from 30 and recorded in a house in Hollywood, became personal anecdotes to a specific time and place: following a burgeoning relationship until its untimely end. At times shaken and hazy and at others affront with exhaustion, Pollie is able to weave a tapestry of pop songs that is the perfect distillation of where the project is currently at and where it could be taken in the future.
“The album’s first half represents as strong a collection of songs as will appear on any debut LP in 2014, maybe the best of its variety since the debut Youth Lagoon record” - Impose Magazine
“Gloriously arranged with a late-summer-light country rock haze” - Pitchfork
On his 11-track self-titled debut album (released September 2014) Pollie wrote and recorded each song in a day, allowing for small imperfections and spurts of urgency found throughout the record. It’s a creative process Pollie has now become accustomed to: “This project really changed an important misconception for me. It was that music that I was making, which wasn’t recorded in a studio with a band, was illegitimate or not real for some reason.”
These 11 tracks, pared down from 30 and recorded in a house in Hollywood, became personal anecdotes to a specific time and place: following a burgeoning relationship until its untimely end. At times shaken and hazy and at others affront with exhaustion, Pollie is able to weave a tapestry of pop songs that is the perfect distillation of where the project is currently at and where it could be taken in the future.
“The album’s first half represents as strong a collection of songs as will appear on any debut LP in 2014, maybe the best of its variety since the debut Youth Lagoon record” - Impose Magazine
“Gloriously arranged with a late-summer-light country rock haze” - Pitchfork
Katie Monks and Liz Ball started Dilly Dally in 2010 while living in a cockroach-infested apartment near Toronto’s Kensington Market. The two shared a love for dreamy guitars, weed and karaoke. Turning to good friends Corey Marshall (drums) and Michael Guiliani (bass), the four piece spent the next three years playing any bar or basement with a PA, building a solid fan-base in Toronto and sharing the stage with notable bands such as Born Ruffians and Tokyo Police Club.
By 2014 the band had recorded their first full length record with producers Leon Taheny (Owen Pallett, Austra, Dusted) and Josh Korody (Fucked Up, Beliefs, Greys) at Candle Studios in Toronto, capturing a collection of songs that had been written over the course of three years. The track ‘Next Gold’ was released independently as a single: “Katie Monks sings the way drunk people do at weddings - loudly, messily, and with absolute conviction. You can make out about five words total on ‘Next Gold’, the first track from Dilly Dally’s forthcoming debut, but the Toronto four-piece’s Pixies-style grunge pop is no less riveting for being incomprehensible.” - Pitchfork, May 2014
By 2014 the band had recorded their first full length record with producers Leon Taheny (Owen Pallett, Austra, Dusted) and Josh Korody (Fucked Up, Beliefs, Greys) at Candle Studios in Toronto, capturing a collection of songs that had been written over the course of three years. The track ‘Next Gold’ was released independently as a single: “Katie Monks sings the way drunk people do at weddings - loudly, messily, and with absolute conviction. You can make out about five words total on ‘Next Gold’, the first track from Dilly Dally’s forthcoming debut, but the Toronto four-piece’s Pixies-style grunge pop is no less riveting for being incomprehensible.” - Pitchfork, May 2014
Fat Possum are excited to announce the European release date of Jackson Scott’s debut album, ‘Melbourne’. The album is a refined bedroom pop record which pitches Jackson somewhere amidst the otherworldly stargazing of Sparklehorse and the determined singularity of Neutral Milk Hotel and Mellow Gold-era Beck.
Jackson Scott has developed out of a weird audacity; bending spoons with apocalyptic melodies, sugared with solipsistic textures. How did the world conceive this young cosmonaut? A college dropout with a 4-track and a one-track mind. A listener and a conceiver. His voice, whether pitched up or androgynous, speaks of a still life. But painting is meaningless, songs irrelevant, aura outdated if you are a revivalist. Jackson is not.
The upcoming debut ‘Melbourne’ - conspired it out of isolation, deprivation and hunger - shows we’re all alone together, sharing the same tragedies, ecstasies and phenomenon.
Jackson Scott has developed out of a weird audacity; bending spoons with apocalyptic melodies, sugared with solipsistic textures. How did the world conceive this young cosmonaut? A college dropout with a 4-track and a one-track mind. A listener and a conceiver. His voice, whether pitched up or androgynous, speaks of a still life. But painting is meaningless, songs irrelevant, aura outdated if you are a revivalist. Jackson is not.
The upcoming debut ‘Melbourne’ - conspired it out of isolation, deprivation and hunger - shows we’re all alone together, sharing the same tragedies, ecstasies and phenomenon.
For those not au fait with wrestling vernacular, the Swanton Bomb is a manoeuvre, popularized by the three-time world champion Jeff Hardy, that involves leaping off a top rope, flipping your body over and landing back-first upon your opponent. So what does it have to do with Swanton Bombs, the band? “Absolutely nothing,” concedes singer and guitarist Dominic McGuinness. “We just thought it was pretty cool.”
Their sound is a visceral, unvarnished blend of blues and punk, underpinned by rich narratives and resolute melodies, and informed by McGuinness and drummer Brendan Heaney’s admiration for The Clash, Television, The Ramones and Richard Hell along with the moody, blues-rock stylings of Randy Newman, Tom Waits and Nick Cave.
This limited edition two tracker on Fat Possum features "Wasteland", "Swanton Bombs Who's Asking".
Their sound is a visceral, unvarnished blend of blues and punk, underpinned by rich narratives and resolute melodies, and informed by McGuinness and drummer Brendan Heaney’s admiration for The Clash, Television, The Ramones and Richard Hell along with the moody, blues-rock stylings of Randy Newman, Tom Waits and Nick Cave.
This limited edition two tracker on Fat Possum features "Wasteland", "Swanton Bombs Who's Asking".
STAFF COMMENTS
says: Two more great slices of blues punk rock from this two piece. Limited edition on Fat Possum.
The @acrmcr street poster celebrating their new album ‘Loco’ which is out today isn’t far from the shop. Go and che… https://t.co/FtjJNE9yV5
Fri 25th - 4:05
Fri 25th - 4:05
Yes, we all wish she was here too. The vinyl has sold out and we’re expecting it to be delivered next week. The CD… https://t.co/vXTxBycQHn
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Fri 25th - 1:49
Last copies of this monstrous new dub LP, a genre-spanning masterpiece encompassing traditional and modern producti… https://t.co/2ovhNUn0pD
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