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Lucy Dacus is done thinking small. Two years after her 2016 debut, No Burden, won her unanimous acclaim as one of rock's most promising new voices, Dacus returns on March 2 with Historian, a remarkably assured 10-track statement of intent. "This is the album I needed to make," says Dacus, who views Historian as her definitive statement as a songwriter and musician. "Everything after this is a bonus."
Dacus and her band recorded the album in Nashville last March, re-teaming with No Burden producer Collin Pastore, and mixed it a few months later with A-list studio wizard John Congleton. The sound they created, with substantial input from multi-instrumentalist and live guitarist Jacob Blizard, is far richer and fuller than the debut — an outward flowering of dynamic, living, breathing rock and roll. Dacus' remarkable sense of melody and composition are the driving force throughout, giving Historian the immersive feel of an album made by an artist in full command of her powers.
Dacus and her band recorded the album in Nashville last March, re-teaming with No Burden producer Collin Pastore, and mixed it a few months later with A-list studio wizard John Congleton. The sound they created, with substantial input from multi-instrumentalist and live guitarist Jacob Blizard, is far richer and fuller than the debut — an outward flowering of dynamic, living, breathing rock and roll. Dacus' remarkable sense of melody and composition are the driving force throughout, giving Historian the immersive feel of an album made by an artist in full command of her powers.
STAFF COMMENTS
Millie says: Dacus' light Americana leanings of the superb No Burden are sidelined slightly for her grander, more expansive new outing, Historian. Though her smouldering guitar work and unmistakable voice are ever present, they are skillfully woven into an intricate and all-encompassing web of orchestration, grandeur and beauty. This is a stunner, and every bit the successful follow-up.FORMAT INFORMATION
Coloured LP Info: Indies exclusive clear vinyl.
Recorded in here-and-there studio spurts over the last two years, ‘2019’ is made up of originals and cover songs tied to specific holidays, each of which has dropped/will drop around their respective date: Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day (and Taurus season!), Independence Day, Springsteen’s Birthday (not an official holiday, though Chris Christie often took that day off, aaparently), Halloween, Christmas and New Year.
Lucy Dacus uses her gift as a songwriter to help understand and cope with the world around her, including making sense of national holidays, often more geared towards social media boasts and manufactured consumerism than authentic celebration. “What is going on,” she asks herself on these days, retreating from the heightened expectations of holidays to figure out what to make of them and to find her own meaning. “I’ve collected some songs from trying to answer that question,” she says, and “this EP seems like the right place to put them next to each other. These songs are self-contained, not indicative of a new direction, just a willingness to do something different and sometimes even out of character.”
Lucy Dacus uses her gift as a songwriter to help understand and cope with the world around her, including making sense of national holidays, often more geared towards social media boasts and manufactured consumerism than authentic celebration. “What is going on,” she asks herself on these days, retreating from the heightened expectations of holidays to figure out what to make of them and to find her own meaning. “I’ve collected some songs from trying to answer that question,” she says, and “this EP seems like the right place to put them next to each other. These songs are self-contained, not indicative of a new direction, just a willingness to do something different and sometimes even out of character.”
The classic sophomore LP, available in a limited white vinyl pressing and available for the first time ever as a coloured LP.
After two years of seemingly endless tours, the quartet returned in early 2004 to Peter Katis’s Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, Conn., to record their second album. They had already debuted a handful of songs earmarked for Antics on the road: “Length of Love,” “Narc,” “C’mere.” Meanwhile, having revisited – and reinvented– the material from Bright Lights night after night, they discovered new strengths. There was more room for experimentation in these songs, for toying with arrangements and intricacies of individual parts, than on their debut.
With Antics, Interpol has delivered a disc even more engaging than its celebrated predecessor, without sacrificing any of the depth that has made them such an important band for so many. The songs are at once catchier and more variegated, revealing themselves over time to a degree heard on few current releases, and nothing is ever obvious. Frontman Paul Banks describes, “A lot of time, there are specific topics or events that that inspire the songs, but it’s not explicit in my lyrics.“ Indeed, with Interpol, things are rarely what they seem.
After two years of seemingly endless tours, the quartet returned in early 2004 to Peter Katis’s Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, Conn., to record their second album. They had already debuted a handful of songs earmarked for Antics on the road: “Length of Love,” “Narc,” “C’mere.” Meanwhile, having revisited – and reinvented– the material from Bright Lights night after night, they discovered new strengths. There was more room for experimentation in these songs, for toying with arrangements and intricacies of individual parts, than on their debut.
With Antics, Interpol has delivered a disc even more engaging than its celebrated predecessor, without sacrificing any of the depth that has made them such an important band for so many. The songs are at once catchier and more variegated, revealing themselves over time to a degree heard on few current releases, and nothing is ever obvious. Frontman Paul Banks describes, “A lot of time, there are specific topics or events that that inspire the songs, but it’s not explicit in my lyrics.“ Indeed, with Interpol, things are rarely what they seem.
FORMAT INFORMATION
Coloured LP Info: Limited white vinyl.
Days of the Bagnold Summer began life as a 2012 award-winning graphic novel by Joff Winterhart, was turned into a feature film and the directorial debut of Simon Bird (The Inbetweeners, Friday Night Dinner), and is now a wonderful, rich, bittersweet, and warmly welcoming original soundtrack album by Belle and Sebastian on Matador Records.
The album features eleven brand new Belle and Sebastian songs, as well as re-recorded versions of classics 'Get Me Away From Here I'm Dying', originally appearing on 1996's If You’re Feeling Sinister, and ‘I Know Where The Summer Goes’, from 1998's This Is Just a Modern Rock Song EP.
The album features eleven brand new Belle and Sebastian songs, as well as re-recorded versions of classics 'Get Me Away From Here I'm Dying', originally appearing on 1996's If You’re Feeling Sinister, and ‘I Know Where The Summer Goes’, from 1998's This Is Just a Modern Rock Song EP.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Whether they're writing stand-alone albums, performing live or soundtracking, Belle And Sebastian have a pedigree that can't be denied. 'Days Of The Bagnold Summer' is in the latter camp, but works perfectly as a standalone album too, showcasing exactly why they're one of the most beloved bands on the indie circuit and have been for a great many years.
Available in its first pressing for Matador Records, Snail Mail’s debut EP “Habit” serves as a nascent example of Lindsey Jordan’s extraordinary talent as a songwriter, singer and guitarist. The seven song disc features the six original 2016 tracks as well as “The 2nd Most Beautiful Girl In The World,” penned by K Records Band Courtney Love and recorded by Snail Mail in 2018, available on record for the first time. The EP features a full-color cover as it had originally been designed, and has been remastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters.
The final Matador album from Dayton, Ohio’s legendary geniuses Guided By Voices which, at the time, was set to be their last ever. After twenty- odd years, twenty-odd line ups and twenty-odd albums, EPs, singles, triples, stolen bases, misdemeanour convictions and broken hearts, Dayton’s fortunate sons took a leave of absence only to re-emerge in 2010 at a certain label’s 21st birthday celebrations in Las Vegas. Back in print for the first time since 2008!
FORMAT INFORMATION
Coloured LP Info: Reissue on red translucent vinyl.
Spanning a career well into its third decade, Spoon returns with a ‘Best Of’compilation, ‘Everything Hits At Once: The Best of Spoon' In addition to the 12 fan-adored tracks making up this single LP, Spoon return with the bold new single “No Bullets Spent.” How many rock bands from the past 25 years could get away with a greatest-hits album? Spoon stand alone, with a career-spanning retrospective culled from all over their unique songbook. It’s a flawless compilation of their best-known, best-loved tunes, yet it’s still full of surprises—the only thing you could expect from a band that’s spent their whole career taking people by surprise.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: For a mindblowing nine albums worth of material, it's hard to collate a 'Best Of' that accurately represents a band who have consistently and reliably smashed it out of the park. There are none of the big hits here that I wouldn't expect to be here, The Underdog sounds every bit the proto punk-folk clanger it was back in 2007, 'I Turn My Camera Off' kicks things off and I honestly couldn't think of a better appetiser than that. This is a brilliantly diverse and essential summary of a great band at a ridiculously good price. Get on it!
Recorded at Battery Park NYC’s River to River Festival on July 4th 2008, this now classic Sonic Youth set features totemic live versions of career spanning tracks such as ‘The Sprawl’, ‘Schizophrenia’ and ‘Bull In The Heather’. Initially only available with preorders of 2009’s ‘The Eternal’, this incredible live document has been made available again on vinyl a decade after its original release.
Recorded during time spent in upstate New York with Dave Fridmann, the five songs that make up A Fine Mess gradually emerged as a body of work with a narrative and flow unto itself. The resulting set is a living, breathing postcard from the band to their fans as they tour the world throughout 2019, and a linear continuation of the visceral and contagious energy set loose with Marauder.
Echoing its title, the artwork for A Fine Mess is illustrated by a series of lost images, recovered from an abandoned police station in Detroit, MI. In a crumbling evidence room - amongst the rubble - an undeveloped roll of film, dated “1-20-96”, featured latent images of a breaking and entering scene, the rooms in chaos.
From the beguiling refrain of the title track, to the soulful topsy-turvy of ‘No Big Deal’, cathartic chorus of long sought-after live favourite ‘Real Life’, anthemic swell of ‘The Weekend’, and angular shades of ‘Thrones’, A Fine Mess is a bracing and distinct entry in Interpol’s oeuvre.
Echoing its title, the artwork for A Fine Mess is illustrated by a series of lost images, recovered from an abandoned police station in Detroit, MI. In a crumbling evidence room - amongst the rubble - an undeveloped roll of film, dated “1-20-96”, featured latent images of a breaking and entering scene, the rooms in chaos.
From the beguiling refrain of the title track, to the soulful topsy-turvy of ‘No Big Deal’, cathartic chorus of long sought-after live favourite ‘Real Life’, anthemic swell of ‘The Weekend’, and angular shades of ‘Thrones’, A Fine Mess is a bracing and distinct entry in Interpol’s oeuvre.
Long out of stock, now re-pressed and re-issued.
Produced by John Agnello and the band, ‘The Eternal’ not only marks Sonic Youth’s return to the independent label sphere (titles on their own SYR label excepted) after a long association with Geffen but, more importantly, it ranks as one of their more inspired efforts in a 28 year career.
Recorded through November and December of 2008 at the band’s Echo Canyon West studio in Hoboken, NJ, ‘The Eternal’ features many firsts for a Sonic Youth album, including a number of shared vocals between Kim, Thurston and Lee and the studio debut of former Pavement / Dustdevils bassist Mark Ibold, a member of Sonic Youth’s touring band for the past few years.
Produced by John Agnello and the band, ‘The Eternal’ not only marks Sonic Youth’s return to the independent label sphere (titles on their own SYR label excepted) after a long association with Geffen but, more importantly, it ranks as one of their more inspired efforts in a 28 year career.
Recorded through November and December of 2008 at the band’s Echo Canyon West studio in Hoboken, NJ, ‘The Eternal’ features many firsts for a Sonic Youth album, including a number of shared vocals between Kim, Thurston and Lee and the studio debut of former Pavement / Dustdevils bassist Mark Ibold, a member of Sonic Youth’s touring band for the past few years.
Snail Mail’s full-length debut album, Lush, is a debut for the record books — a refreshing marvel of songwriting and technical composition, that’s both cohesive and explosive — Her voice rises and falls with electricity throughout, spinning with bold excitement and new beginnings at every turn.
Lush feels at times like an emotional rollercoaster, only fitting for Jordan’s explosive, dynamic personality. Growing up in Baltimore suburb Ellicot City, Jordan began her classical guitar training at age five, and a decade later wrote her first audacious songs as Snail Mail. Around that time, Jordan started frequenting local shows in Baltimore, where she formed close friendships within the local scene, the impetus for her to form a band. By the time she was sixteen, she had already released her debut EP, Habit, on local punk label Sister Polygon Records.
Lush feels at times like an emotional rollercoaster, only fitting for Jordan’s explosive, dynamic personality. Growing up in Baltimore suburb Ellicot City, Jordan began her classical guitar training at age five, and a decade later wrote her first audacious songs as Snail Mail. Around that time, Jordan started frequenting local shows in Baltimore, where she formed close friendships within the local scene, the impetus for her to form a band. By the time she was sixteen, she had already released her debut EP, Habit, on local punk label Sister Polygon Records.
2018 marks the 25th anniversary of Liz Phair’s landmark Exile in Guyville album. On May 4th, Matador Records will reissue the album on vinyl and CD. Re-mastered by Emily Lazar at The Lodge, the album is set for a remembrance worthy of its greatness. In addition to the straight reissue, Matador is also releasing Girly-Sound To Guyville, an extensive vinyl box set to celebrate the anniversary.
Originally released in 1993, Exile In Guyville is a seminal album and a feminist landmark. Its legendary status has only grown over the years. It’s continually included in countless lists…Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest albums of all time + 100 best albums of the 90s, Pitchfork’s Top 100 albums of the 90s, etc. Numerous essays and think pieces have been written about it and the number of accolades piled on is endless.
Since the release of Exile in Guyville, Liz Phair has continued to defy expectation and break barriers. She has released five albums, and is currently working on a new one with Ryan Adams. She has also composed music for television shows and received awards for that work. In November, it was announced that she would be fulfilling a longtime dream to be an author, having received a two-book deal with Random House. Her first book will be called Horror Stories which focuses on “heartbreak, motherhood, and everything in between.
Originally released in 1993, Exile In Guyville is a seminal album and a feminist landmark. Its legendary status has only grown over the years. It’s continually included in countless lists…Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest albums of all time + 100 best albums of the 90s, Pitchfork’s Top 100 albums of the 90s, etc. Numerous essays and think pieces have been written about it and the number of accolades piled on is endless.
Since the release of Exile in Guyville, Liz Phair has continued to defy expectation and break barriers. She has released five albums, and is currently working on a new one with Ryan Adams. She has also composed music for television shows and received awards for that work. In November, it was announced that she would be fulfilling a longtime dream to be an author, having received a two-book deal with Random House. Her first book will be called Horror Stories which focuses on “heartbreak, motherhood, and everything in between.
FORMAT INFORMATION
2xLtd LP includes MP3 Download Code.
Harking back to their 1997 release of three consecutive EPs (Dog On Wheels, Lazy Line Painter Jane, and 3.. 6.. 9 Seconds Of Light), Belle and Sebastian have kicked of 2018 with three new EPs under the umbrella title How To Solve Our Human Problems. The EP trilogy culminates with this beautifully packaged limited edition vinyl box set containing all three EPs.
“The title Villains isn’t a political statement. It has nothing to do with Trump or any of that shit. It’s simply 1) a word that looks fantastic and 2) a comment on the three versions of every scenario: yours, mine and what actually happened… Everyone needs someone or something to rail against—their villain—same as it ever was. You can’t control that. The only thing you can really control is when you let go."—Joshua Homme
Hundreds of epic shows, memory lapses, unexplained injuries, one yearlong detour with Iggy Pop and multiple Grammy nominations later, Queens Of The Stone Age re-emerge from the desert newly scarred and somehow strangely prettier with lucky seventh album, Villains.
Produced by Mark Ronson and co-produced by Mark Rankin and mixed by Alan Moulder, Villains is the first full album offering from Queens Of The Stone Age since 2013’s …Like Clockwork gave the band its first #1 album in the U.S. Like the stunning artwork of returning illustrator Boneface, the sonic signatures of the line-up that took …Like Clockwork around the world and back are as unmistakable as ever, though coexisting with sufficient new twists to induce recurring double takes. As Homme himself puts it, “The most important aspect of making this record was redefining our sound, asking and answering the question 'what do we sound like now?' If you can’t make a great first record, you should just stop—but if you can make a great record but you keep making records and your sound doesn’t evolve, you become a parody of that original sound."
Of his role working within such a closed and confident ecosystem as Queens Of The Stone Age, Ronson says, "Queens are and have always been my favourite rock n roll band ever since I walked into Tower on Sunset and bought Rated R in the summer of 2000, so it was incredibly surreal to be welcomed into their secret, pirate clan—or the ‘jacuzzi’ as Josh likes to call it. There were moments during the making of the album in which I was aware I was watching my musical heroes craft something that was sure to become one of my moments on any Queens album. And to have some part in that felt like being in a dream--a very heavy, dark, wonderful dream.”
Long-time Queens cohort co-producer Mark Rankin added, "After the baptism of fire that was …Like Clockwork, I was excited to get into the studio again with the challenge of pushing the sound for this record, especially with the addition of Ronson into the creative mix… What we’ve made is forward looking yet unmistakably Queens."
Hundreds of epic shows, memory lapses, unexplained injuries, one yearlong detour with Iggy Pop and multiple Grammy nominations later, Queens Of The Stone Age re-emerge from the desert newly scarred and somehow strangely prettier with lucky seventh album, Villains.
Produced by Mark Ronson and co-produced by Mark Rankin and mixed by Alan Moulder, Villains is the first full album offering from Queens Of The Stone Age since 2013’s …Like Clockwork gave the band its first #1 album in the U.S. Like the stunning artwork of returning illustrator Boneface, the sonic signatures of the line-up that took …Like Clockwork around the world and back are as unmistakable as ever, though coexisting with sufficient new twists to induce recurring double takes. As Homme himself puts it, “The most important aspect of making this record was redefining our sound, asking and answering the question 'what do we sound like now?' If you can’t make a great first record, you should just stop—but if you can make a great record but you keep making records and your sound doesn’t evolve, you become a parody of that original sound."
Of his role working within such a closed and confident ecosystem as Queens Of The Stone Age, Ronson says, "Queens are and have always been my favourite rock n roll band ever since I walked into Tower on Sunset and bought Rated R in the summer of 2000, so it was incredibly surreal to be welcomed into their secret, pirate clan—or the ‘jacuzzi’ as Josh likes to call it. There were moments during the making of the album in which I was aware I was watching my musical heroes craft something that was sure to become one of my moments on any Queens album. And to have some part in that felt like being in a dream--a very heavy, dark, wonderful dream.”
Long-time Queens cohort co-producer Mark Rankin added, "After the baptism of fire that was …Like Clockwork, I was excited to get into the studio again with the challenge of pushing the sound for this record, especially with the addition of Ronson into the creative mix… What we’ve made is forward looking yet unmistakably Queens."
STAFF COMMENTS
Darryl says: ‘Villains’ finds the QOTSA boys in fine rockin’ form. Heavy sonic riffage with an added groove appeal too, no doubt courtesy of Mark Ronson in the producer’s chair.
Richmond, VA-based songwriter Lucy Dacus is the latest addition to the renowned Matador Records roster.
Lucy Dacus's No Burden is full of surprises—sharp lyrical observations, playful turns of musical phrase, hooks that'll embed themselves in your frontal lobe for days. But the most surprising thing about this album might be the fact that it's a debut; it has a keen sense of self about it, and it nearly glows from the self-possession held by the woman at its core.
The 21-year-old Dacus grew up in Richmond; she was adopted at a young age, an experience that informed her curious, openhearted songwriting. "When my parents were explaining what adoption was—which was very early on in my childhood—they always said that my birthmother thought I was worthwhile even though she couldn't be my mom," she says. "And so from essentially infancy, I was taught that life was innately worthwhile because a bunch of people had worked together to set me up with one.”
Dacus started playing around Richmond while in college, opening for local acts and eventually meeting Jacob Blizard, a guitarist who invited her to make a record for a college project of his. No Burden, which originally came out in February on the Richmond label EggHunt Records, opens with the forthright, almost brutally honest "I Don't Wanna Be Funny Anymore," the last song Dacus wrote before the album's day-long recording session at Starstruck Studios in Nashville. Dacus delivers scalpel-sharp observations about resisting pigeonholing over chunky guitars, ticking off ideals of femininity and youth until the track's not-quite-resolution.
These themes extend to the lyrics of songs like "Strange Torpedo," a whirling portrait of a friend whose "bunch of bad habits" who, Dacus sings, has "been falling for so long… [and hasn't] hit anything solid yet." "I've been that friend watching a loved one do what they know is bad for them and not understanding why," says Dacus. The song offers a simple message: "I love you, why don't you love you? You're the one in your body so you get to choose what to do with it, but if I were you I'd treat me differently.”
The rest of No Burden, which was produced by Collin Pastore, puts Dacus's voice center stage, allowing the glinting poetry of her lyrics to shine even more brightly. "Trust," which Dacus wrote in late 2013, showcases her alone with her guitar, her faint vibrato floating over strummed chords as she sings of self-redemption. And the diptych "Dream State…" and "…Familiar Place," which revolve around Dacus repeating "Without you, I am surely the last of our kind/ Without you, I am surely the last of my kind," capture disappointment and loss in a jaw-dropping way; the music trembles around her while her voice stays steady, anticipating whatever might come next.
No Burden is a forthright, disarmingly catchy statement. And while it's a sterling debut, it only hints at the potential possessed by this passionate, thoughtful young woman.
Lucy Dacus's No Burden is full of surprises—sharp lyrical observations, playful turns of musical phrase, hooks that'll embed themselves in your frontal lobe for days. But the most surprising thing about this album might be the fact that it's a debut; it has a keen sense of self about it, and it nearly glows from the self-possession held by the woman at its core.
The 21-year-old Dacus grew up in Richmond; she was adopted at a young age, an experience that informed her curious, openhearted songwriting. "When my parents were explaining what adoption was—which was very early on in my childhood—they always said that my birthmother thought I was worthwhile even though she couldn't be my mom," she says. "And so from essentially infancy, I was taught that life was innately worthwhile because a bunch of people had worked together to set me up with one.”
Dacus started playing around Richmond while in college, opening for local acts and eventually meeting Jacob Blizard, a guitarist who invited her to make a record for a college project of his. No Burden, which originally came out in February on the Richmond label EggHunt Records, opens with the forthright, almost brutally honest "I Don't Wanna Be Funny Anymore," the last song Dacus wrote before the album's day-long recording session at Starstruck Studios in Nashville. Dacus delivers scalpel-sharp observations about resisting pigeonholing over chunky guitars, ticking off ideals of femininity and youth until the track's not-quite-resolution.
These themes extend to the lyrics of songs like "Strange Torpedo," a whirling portrait of a friend whose "bunch of bad habits" who, Dacus sings, has "been falling for so long… [and hasn't] hit anything solid yet." "I've been that friend watching a loved one do what they know is bad for them and not understanding why," says Dacus. The song offers a simple message: "I love you, why don't you love you? You're the one in your body so you get to choose what to do with it, but if I were you I'd treat me differently.”
The rest of No Burden, which was produced by Collin Pastore, puts Dacus's voice center stage, allowing the glinting poetry of her lyrics to shine even more brightly. "Trust," which Dacus wrote in late 2013, showcases her alone with her guitar, her faint vibrato floating over strummed chords as she sings of self-redemption. And the diptych "Dream State…" and "…Familiar Place," which revolve around Dacus repeating "Without you, I am surely the last of our kind/ Without you, I am surely the last of my kind," capture disappointment and loss in a jaw-dropping way; the music trembles around her while her voice stays steady, anticipating whatever might come next.
No Burden is a forthright, disarmingly catchy statement. And while it's a sterling debut, it only hints at the potential possessed by this passionate, thoughtful young woman.
Teens of Denial is the thirteenth album in Car Seat Headrest’s (aka 23-year-old Will Toledo) oeuvre, second on Matador, and first to be recorded in a proper studio with a full band and producer (Steve Fisk).
On Denial, Toledo moves from bedroom pop to something approaching classic-rock grandeur and huge (if detailed and personal) narrative ambitions, with nods to the Cars, Pavement, Jonathan Richman, Wire, and William Onyeabor. By turns tender and caustic, empathetic and solipsistic, literary and vernacular, profound and profane, self-loathing and self-aggrandizing, he conjures a specifically 21st century mindset, a product of information overload, the loneliness it can foster, and the escape music can provide.
On Denial, Toledo moves from bedroom pop to something approaching classic-rock grandeur and huge (if detailed and personal) narrative ambitions, with nods to the Cars, Pavement, Jonathan Richman, Wire, and William Onyeabor. By turns tender and caustic, empathetic and solipsistic, literary and vernacular, profound and profane, self-loathing and self-aggrandizing, he conjures a specifically 21st century mindset, a product of information overload, the loneliness it can foster, and the escape music can provide.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Boisterous and catchy college-rock anthems with a nod to melancholic folk, skate-punk and everything in between. Teens of Denial is a further expansion of singer-songwriter Will Toledo's already extensive back catalogue. Exciting and heartfelt, and another fantastic outing for Car Seat Headrest.
Spoon’s classic ‘Gimme Fiction’ celebrates its 10th anniversary with a deluxe version released on Matador Records.
The reissue contains the original album newlyremastered by Howie Weinberg from the original tapes, a second disc with 12 previously unreleased demos from the era, a digital download of nine additional bonus tracks and a full colour book containing photos and an extensive oral history of the making of the album by The AV Club’s Sean O’Neal. The deluxe LP package also includes tipped sleeves, a 24” x 36” poster and a digital download of all songs.
‘Gimme Fiction’ dragged the sonic pointillism of ‘Kill The Moonlight’ further into dub-influenced weirdness as the increasingly confident Spoon went crazy in the studio, experimenting with everything from warped hip hop samples to horse whinnies. Whatever digging or strange alchemy had to go into it, they only produced more gold.
‘Gimme Fiction’ deserves special recognition as the album where Spoon took creative and stylistic quantum leaps that resulted in classics ‘I Turn My Camera On’, ‘The Beast And Dragon Adored’, ‘My Mathematical Mind’, ‘I Summon You’ and so many more. 10 years later, ‘Gimme Fiction’ gets the deluxe release it so richly deserves.
The reissue contains the original album newlyremastered by Howie Weinberg from the original tapes, a second disc with 12 previously unreleased demos from the era, a digital download of nine additional bonus tracks and a full colour book containing photos and an extensive oral history of the making of the album by The AV Club’s Sean O’Neal. The deluxe LP package also includes tipped sleeves, a 24” x 36” poster and a digital download of all songs.
‘Gimme Fiction’ dragged the sonic pointillism of ‘Kill The Moonlight’ further into dub-influenced weirdness as the increasingly confident Spoon went crazy in the studio, experimenting with everything from warped hip hop samples to horse whinnies. Whatever digging or strange alchemy had to go into it, they only produced more gold.
‘Gimme Fiction’ deserves special recognition as the album where Spoon took creative and stylistic quantum leaps that resulted in classics ‘I Turn My Camera On’, ‘The Beast And Dragon Adored’, ‘My Mathematical Mind’, ‘I Summon You’ and so many more. 10 years later, ‘Gimme Fiction’ gets the deluxe release it so richly deserves.
Matador Records are thrilled to announce the signing of Car Seat Headrest and the release of ‘Teens Of Style’, with ‘Teens Of Denial’ to follow soon after in 2016.
This prolific artist (also known as Will Toledo) comes to Matador having already crafted an 11-album catalogue of staggering depth, all self-released digitally, gaining him an obsessive following and over 25,000 downloads - all without the muscle of a manager, label, agent, or publicist - until now.
Car Seat Headrest began in 2010 in Will Toledo’s hometown of Leesburg, Virginia. Needing a place of solitude (and soundproofing) where he could record vocals undisturbed, a 17-year-old Toledo set up shop in the family car. Toledo’s catalogue is sharp, literary and culturally omnivorous as it touches upon youth and death, love and depression, drunken parties and 2nd Century theologian. Ever surprising, his lyrical imagery ranges from playful to sexually frank to sorrowful, often within the same song.
After relocating to the Seattle suburbs in 2014, Toledo assembled a line up with bassist Ethan Ives and drummer Andrew Katz. ‘Teens Of Style’ is the first Car Seat Headrest album recorded with a full band and the sound is vibrant and powerful with a wide stylistic range.
On ‘Teens Of Style’ Toledo has taken material from the first three years of the band’s existence and reworked it to generate some of the most realized arrangements to date. Drawing material from ‘3’ (2010), ‘My Back Is Killing Me Baby’ (2011) and ‘Monomania’ (2012), ‘Teens Of Style’ provides a concise overview of the band’s many sonic and emotional facets, with the songs ranging from electronic psychedelia to punky anthems to melancholic acoustic numbers.
The longest track on ‘Teens Of Style’, ‘Times To Die’ is just under seven minutes, applying breakbeat cut-ups and ‘Low Rider’ horns to a groove-driven neo-psych jam with lyrics about Judaism, Hinduism and the record business. Similarly, ‘Maud Gone’ is a wistful 60s-inspired pop number paying homage to Yeats’ unrequited love, while the intricate party track ‘Los Borrachos’ borrows its title from the Diego Velasquez painting.
Car Seat Headrest’s conceptual ambition and stunning songwriting has been apparent since its early days of laptop recording, the scale of Toledo’s vision going far beyond the constricting ‘lo-fi’ term. Now on his Matador Records debut we witness Toledo presenting his intricate ideas with more clarity and refinement than ever, delivering an enthralling collection of songs destined for wide acclaim.
“Toledo’s commitment to giving listeners a direct line to his inner monologue is the kind of thing that inspires hardcore fanhood - the ability to get lost in Toledo’s work is the entire point.” - Pitchfork
“Crazy impressive - catchy, thoughtful, and inventive” - Brooklyn Vegan
“A major new talent… his music is beguiling and easy to get lost in” - NME
This prolific artist (also known as Will Toledo) comes to Matador having already crafted an 11-album catalogue of staggering depth, all self-released digitally, gaining him an obsessive following and over 25,000 downloads - all without the muscle of a manager, label, agent, or publicist - until now.
Car Seat Headrest began in 2010 in Will Toledo’s hometown of Leesburg, Virginia. Needing a place of solitude (and soundproofing) where he could record vocals undisturbed, a 17-year-old Toledo set up shop in the family car. Toledo’s catalogue is sharp, literary and culturally omnivorous as it touches upon youth and death, love and depression, drunken parties and 2nd Century theologian. Ever surprising, his lyrical imagery ranges from playful to sexually frank to sorrowful, often within the same song.
After relocating to the Seattle suburbs in 2014, Toledo assembled a line up with bassist Ethan Ives and drummer Andrew Katz. ‘Teens Of Style’ is the first Car Seat Headrest album recorded with a full band and the sound is vibrant and powerful with a wide stylistic range.
On ‘Teens Of Style’ Toledo has taken material from the first three years of the band’s existence and reworked it to generate some of the most realized arrangements to date. Drawing material from ‘3’ (2010), ‘My Back Is Killing Me Baby’ (2011) and ‘Monomania’ (2012), ‘Teens Of Style’ provides a concise overview of the band’s many sonic and emotional facets, with the songs ranging from electronic psychedelia to punky anthems to melancholic acoustic numbers.
The longest track on ‘Teens Of Style’, ‘Times To Die’ is just under seven minutes, applying breakbeat cut-ups and ‘Low Rider’ horns to a groove-driven neo-psych jam with lyrics about Judaism, Hinduism and the record business. Similarly, ‘Maud Gone’ is a wistful 60s-inspired pop number paying homage to Yeats’ unrequited love, while the intricate party track ‘Los Borrachos’ borrows its title from the Diego Velasquez painting.
Car Seat Headrest’s conceptual ambition and stunning songwriting has been apparent since its early days of laptop recording, the scale of Toledo’s vision going far beyond the constricting ‘lo-fi’ term. Now on his Matador Records debut we witness Toledo presenting his intricate ideas with more clarity and refinement than ever, delivering an enthralling collection of songs destined for wide acclaim.
“Toledo’s commitment to giving listeners a direct line to his inner monologue is the kind of thing that inspires hardcore fanhood - the ability to get lost in Toledo’s work is the entire point.” - Pitchfork
“Crazy impressive - catchy, thoughtful, and inventive” - Brooklyn Vegan
“A major new talent… his music is beguiling and easy to get lost in” - NME
'b’lieve i'm goin down…' is Vile’s sixth album, and shows Kurt both deeply introspective and briskly self-assured. As longtime fan Kim Gordon wrote in her bio for the album: “Kurt does his own myth-making; a boy/man with an old soul voice in the age of digital everything becoming something else, which is why this focused, brilliantly clear and seemingly candid record is a breath of fresh air.
Recorded and mixed in a number of locations, including Los Angeles and Joshua tree, b’lieve i'm goin down… is a handshake across the country, east to west coast, thru the dustbowl history (“valley of ashes”) of woody honest strait forward talk Guthrie, and a cali canyon dead still nite floating in a nearly waterless landscape. The record is all air, weightless, bodyless, but grounded in convincing authenticity, in the best version of a singer songwriter upcycling.”
Recorded and mixed in a number of locations, including Los Angeles and Joshua tree, b’lieve i'm goin down… is a handshake across the country, east to west coast, thru the dustbowl history (“valley of ashes”) of woody honest strait forward talk Guthrie, and a cali canyon dead still nite floating in a nearly waterless landscape. The record is all air, weightless, bodyless, but grounded in convincing authenticity, in the best version of a singer songwriter upcycling.”
STAFF COMMENTS
Andy says: With a late night/early hours ruminative glow, KV brings more songs from his couch, and his most mellow, considered collection so far.
Breakup albums mark a turning point for a band: the moment when their sound completely changes and reaches a new level of emotional clarity. All that heartbreak and malaise condensed into any single record often makes for a defining piece of work, no matter the genre. The best records explore the nooks and crannies of sadness, learning it inside and out - celebrating it.
Ceremony's fifth studio album, The L-Shaped Man, uses singer Ross Farrar's recent breakup as a platform to explore loneliness and emotional weariness, but it is by no means a purely sad album. Rather than look inward, Farrar uses his experience to write about what it means to go through something heavy and come out the other side a different person.
In order to tell Farrar's story, Ceremony have almost completely stripped back the propulsive hardcore of their previous records, turning every angry outburst into simmering despair. "We've always tried to be minimalists in writing, even if it's loud or fast or abrasive," says lead guitarist Anthony Anzaldo. "It's really intense when I hear it. Not in a way where you turn everything up to ten. Things are so bare, you're holding this one note for so long and you don't now where it's going-to me, that's intensity." That intensity is apparent on "Exit Fears," the first full song on the record. It meticulously pairs Justin Davis' loping bassline, which pulls the track along, with Anzaldo's icy, minimal guitar work. It brings to mind some alternate version of Joy Division that hasn't quite lost all hope. It gets close to exploding, but instead plays the shadows, never quite rising above a nervous simmer.
"A lot of the content has to do with loss, and specifically the loss of someone who you care deeply about," Farrar says. "There is no way for you to go through something like this artistically and not have really strong emotions of loss and pain. There's not really any way to hide that." Farrar, for his part, is singing with a new kind of intensity, his baritone swooping and retreating from stressed angst to unsettling near-mutter as he sings, "You told your friends you were fine/ you thought you were fine too..." and later, "nothing is ever fine/ nothing ever feels right/ you have to tell yourself you tried." It's the first of many lyrically direct moments, and it should be hard to listen to, but Ceremony have so effortlessly nailed the sound of sadness that it feels great to live inside for awhile.
The sound is abetted by producer John Reis, who honed his sound in seminal bands like Rocket from the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, and Hot Snakes. Much of the gravelly aggression he experimented with in those bands is present on The L-Shaped Man.
There's a story behind the title too. "I was speaking to our driver Stephen while on tour," Farrar says. "We were talking about men in general and what shape they are...their body type. I said, 'I guess men are in the shape of an L. The torso is straight. Vertical. And then you have the little feet at the end.' There's this painter named Leslie Lerner who was living in San Francisco in the '70s and '80s and made these beautiful paintings. He died on my 21st birthday. A lot of the record is about the similarities in our ideas. In what we're trying to make. Things that have to do with love and losing love."
Ceremony's fifth studio album, The L-Shaped Man, uses singer Ross Farrar's recent breakup as a platform to explore loneliness and emotional weariness, but it is by no means a purely sad album. Rather than look inward, Farrar uses his experience to write about what it means to go through something heavy and come out the other side a different person.
In order to tell Farrar's story, Ceremony have almost completely stripped back the propulsive hardcore of their previous records, turning every angry outburst into simmering despair. "We've always tried to be minimalists in writing, even if it's loud or fast or abrasive," says lead guitarist Anthony Anzaldo. "It's really intense when I hear it. Not in a way where you turn everything up to ten. Things are so bare, you're holding this one note for so long and you don't now where it's going-to me, that's intensity." That intensity is apparent on "Exit Fears," the first full song on the record. It meticulously pairs Justin Davis' loping bassline, which pulls the track along, with Anzaldo's icy, minimal guitar work. It brings to mind some alternate version of Joy Division that hasn't quite lost all hope. It gets close to exploding, but instead plays the shadows, never quite rising above a nervous simmer.
"A lot of the content has to do with loss, and specifically the loss of someone who you care deeply about," Farrar says. "There is no way for you to go through something like this artistically and not have really strong emotions of loss and pain. There's not really any way to hide that." Farrar, for his part, is singing with a new kind of intensity, his baritone swooping and retreating from stressed angst to unsettling near-mutter as he sings, "You told your friends you were fine/ you thought you were fine too..." and later, "nothing is ever fine/ nothing ever feels right/ you have to tell yourself you tried." It's the first of many lyrically direct moments, and it should be hard to listen to, but Ceremony have so effortlessly nailed the sound of sadness that it feels great to live inside for awhile.
The sound is abetted by producer John Reis, who honed his sound in seminal bands like Rocket from the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, and Hot Snakes. Much of the gravelly aggression he experimented with in those bands is present on The L-Shaped Man.
There's a story behind the title too. "I was speaking to our driver Stephen while on tour," Farrar says. "We were talking about men in general and what shape they are...their body type. I said, 'I guess men are in the shape of an L. The torso is straight. Vertical. And then you have the little feet at the end.' There's this painter named Leslie Lerner who was living in San Francisco in the '70s and '80s and made these beautiful paintings. He died on my 21st birthday. A lot of the record is about the similarities in our ideas. In what we're trying to make. Things that have to do with love and losing love."
Recently, The Quietus published an interview with Stuart Murdoch and Richard Colburn which gives a hint of what to expect from "Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance". The album opens with “Nobody’s Empire,” which Stuart said “is absolutely the most personal [song] I’ve ever written.” About the beginnings of his lifelong struggle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome which led to his first forays into songwriting, it is easily one of his most musically and emotionally epic songs.
What it doesn’t indicate is how fun the album is. Produced and mixed at Maze Studios in Atlanta by Ben H. Allen III, best known for his work with Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective, and Raury, among others, the band – who have been listening to things like vintage Detroit techno and Giogio Moroder – have brought a dance-party element (and a disco song about Sylvia Plath) into their gorgeous tales of sensitive souls navigating a world gone awry. It is perhaps the most inspired and wide-reaching album Belle and Sebastian have ever made.
2xLP includes MP3 Download Code.
What it doesn’t indicate is how fun the album is. Produced and mixed at Maze Studios in Atlanta by Ben H. Allen III, best known for his work with Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective, and Raury, among others, the band – who have been listening to things like vintage Detroit techno and Giogio Moroder – have brought a dance-party element (and a disco song about Sylvia Plath) into their gorgeous tales of sensitive souls navigating a world gone awry. It is perhaps the most inspired and wide-reaching album Belle and Sebastian have ever made.
FORMAT INFORMATION
2xLP Info: Double LP with a gatefold sleeve.2xLP includes MP3 Download Code.
Recently, The Quietus published an interview with Stuart Murdoch and Richard Colburn which gives a hint of what to expect from "Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance". The album opens with “Nobody’s Empire,” which Stuart said “is absolutely the most personal [song] I’ve ever written.” About the beginnings of his lifelong struggle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome which led to his first forays into songwriting, it is easily one of his most musically and emotionally epic songs.
What it doesn’t indicate is how fun the album is. Produced and mixed at Maze Studios in Atlanta by Ben H. Allen III, best known for his work with Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective, and Raury, among others, the band – who have been listening to things like vintage Detroit techno and Giogio Moroder – have brought a dance-party element (and a disco song about Sylvia Plath) into their gorgeous tales of sensitive souls navigating a world gone awry. It is perhaps the most inspired and wide-reaching album Belle and Sebastian have ever made.
What it doesn’t indicate is how fun the album is. Produced and mixed at Maze Studios in Atlanta by Ben H. Allen III, best known for his work with Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective, and Raury, among others, the band – who have been listening to things like vintage Detroit techno and Giogio Moroder – have brought a dance-party element (and a disco song about Sylvia Plath) into their gorgeous tales of sensitive souls navigating a world gone awry. It is perhaps the most inspired and wide-reaching album Belle and Sebastian have ever made.
FORMAT INFORMATION
LP Box Set Info: Limited edition, quadruple LP in lidded box with download voucher and poster. Featuring two extended mixes and four bonus tracks, two of which are exclusive to this format.
Fucked Up are a punk band. They were a punk band when they started in Toronto more than a decade ago and they’ve remained a punk band even as they’ve ascended to career heights that their younger selves never could’ve imagined. But how do you remain a punk band when you’re on magazine covers, or sharing stadium stages with the Foo Fighters? How do you stay true to your 15-year-old self when you’ve got a career to maintain and families to support? Those are the questions that Fucked Up asks on ‘Glass Boys’ and they ask those questions in the form of a blazing, titanic, ultimately triumphant rock album.
The last two Fucked Up albums were sweeping, defining, monolithic gestures. On 2008’s ‘The Chemistry Of Common Life’ they tested hardcore’s capacity for stylistic innovation, for seven-minute songs and unconventional arrangements and they won Canada’s prestigious Polaris Music Prize in the process. With 2011’s ‘David Comes To Life’ they offered up a full-blown rock opera, coming with one larger-than-life hook after another and that made them even bigger and further away from the Toronto hardcore scene that nurtured them. ‘Glass Boys’ isn’t a retrenchment or a back-tobasics move - it’s too ambitious and complex for that - but after those last two albums it’s tight and concise and direct, an album of real and direct sentiment rather than artifice.
Musically, ‘Glass Boys’ carries echoes of some of the more ragged and adventurous bands from America’s punk past (Husker Du, Dinosaur Jr.) but it also has some of the anthemic charge of The Who and the guttural intensity of Negative Approach. Singer Damian Abraham still growls like a demon but he’s found more range and depth in his bark. Drummer Jonah Falco does something innovative on the album, adding two separate drum tracks, one of them in half-time, adding a psychedelic, disorienting feel.
The triple-guitar battalion of Mike Haliechuk, Ben Cook and Josh Zucker still builds symphonies out of feedback and powerchords but this time around there’s less emphasis on world-crushing riffs and more on world-creating textures. Bassist Sandy Miranda is now even more a part of that storm, her instrument blurring in with that overwhelming guitar roar.
If the album’s lyrics concern the quest to stay true to your younger self, the music pulls off the trick beautifully. ‘Echo Boomer’, like ‘Son The Father’ and ‘Let Her Rest’ before it, makes for a powerful album opener, a surge of catharsis that gives a strong idea of what's to come. ‘Sun Glass’ builds from acoustic strumming to bleary pummel and stays pretty the whole time. ‘DET’ has one of those world-annihilating choruses that demands a full-room singalong and the album-closing title track is a blast of epic catharsis as grand and forceful as anything this band has ever done. After two monumental concept-driven concept albums, Fucked Up have made another heartexpanding, life-affirming piece of work, and this time, they’ve done it by shooting straight from the heart.
The last two Fucked Up albums were sweeping, defining, monolithic gestures. On 2008’s ‘The Chemistry Of Common Life’ they tested hardcore’s capacity for stylistic innovation, for seven-minute songs and unconventional arrangements and they won Canada’s prestigious Polaris Music Prize in the process. With 2011’s ‘David Comes To Life’ they offered up a full-blown rock opera, coming with one larger-than-life hook after another and that made them even bigger and further away from the Toronto hardcore scene that nurtured them. ‘Glass Boys’ isn’t a retrenchment or a back-tobasics move - it’s too ambitious and complex for that - but after those last two albums it’s tight and concise and direct, an album of real and direct sentiment rather than artifice.
Musically, ‘Glass Boys’ carries echoes of some of the more ragged and adventurous bands from America’s punk past (Husker Du, Dinosaur Jr.) but it also has some of the anthemic charge of The Who and the guttural intensity of Negative Approach. Singer Damian Abraham still growls like a demon but he’s found more range and depth in his bark. Drummer Jonah Falco does something innovative on the album, adding two separate drum tracks, one of them in half-time, adding a psychedelic, disorienting feel.
The triple-guitar battalion of Mike Haliechuk, Ben Cook and Josh Zucker still builds symphonies out of feedback and powerchords but this time around there’s less emphasis on world-crushing riffs and more on world-creating textures. Bassist Sandy Miranda is now even more a part of that storm, her instrument blurring in with that overwhelming guitar roar.
If the album’s lyrics concern the quest to stay true to your younger self, the music pulls off the trick beautifully. ‘Echo Boomer’, like ‘Son The Father’ and ‘Let Her Rest’ before it, makes for a powerful album opener, a surge of catharsis that gives a strong idea of what's to come. ‘Sun Glass’ builds from acoustic strumming to bleary pummel and stays pretty the whole time. ‘DET’ has one of those world-annihilating choruses that demands a full-room singalong and the album-closing title track is a blast of epic catharsis as grand and forceful as anything this band has ever done. After two monumental concept-driven concept albums, Fucked Up have made another heartexpanding, life-affirming piece of work, and this time, they’ve done it by shooting straight from the heart.
3 12″ singles with a printed flat in a 4-box poly shower curtain display case. There’s metal grommets in the curtain if you’d prefer to display it on your wall (or, if you’re especially nuts, in your shower).
All versions are unreleased except the original version. Each 12″ pack comes with a download coupon with all the tracks plus the radio edit of “Ohm”.
There are only 20 copies of this for the UK so don't snooze if you want one!
All versions are unreleased except the original version. Each 12″ pack comes with a download coupon with all the tracks plus the radio edit of “Ohm”.
There are only 20 copies of this for the UK so don't snooze if you want one!
FORMAT INFORMATION
3xLtd 12" Info: This sold out as soon as we got it in, but someone who ordered it didn't collect it, so if you want this last copy, get your skates on!!
The highly anticipated debut from London’s Savages, an all-female four-piece who play music with scything energy and brutal power.
Recorded with Rodaidh McDonald (The xx), the album is an 11-track, 38-minute masterpiece. Limned in black and white but containing a swell of different emotions within its self-imposed strictures, the songs cover topics from masochism (“Hit Me”), urban dread (“City’s Full”), materialism, possessivenes and the experience of being a woman (“Husbands,” “I Am Here”). Every one is delivered with fierce conviction and concision.
They have cited a huge range of influences, including J.G. Ballard, the Gun Club, Silver Apples, Siouxsie, Wire, Black Sabbath, Mary Shelley and Kurt Vonnegut.
In the words of the band: “Savages are a self-affirming voice to help experience our girlfriends differently, our husbands, our jobs, our erotic life, and the place music occupies into our lives. Savages’ songs aim to remind us that human beings havenʼt evolved so much, that music can still be straight to the point, efficient and exciting.”
Recorded with Rodaidh McDonald (The xx), the album is an 11-track, 38-minute masterpiece. Limned in black and white but containing a swell of different emotions within its self-imposed strictures, the songs cover topics from masochism (“Hit Me”), urban dread (“City’s Full”), materialism, possessivenes and the experience of being a woman (“Husbands,” “I Am Here”). Every one is delivered with fierce conviction and concision.
They have cited a huge range of influences, including J.G. Ballard, the Gun Club, Silver Apples, Siouxsie, Wire, Black Sabbath, Mary Shelley and Kurt Vonnegut.
In the words of the band: “Savages are a self-affirming voice to help experience our girlfriends differently, our husbands, our jobs, our erotic life, and the place music occupies into our lives. Savages’ songs aim to remind us that human beings havenʼt evolved so much, that music can still be straight to the point, efficient and exciting.”
FORMAT INFORMATION
LP includes MP3 Download Code.
Five and a half minutes into ‘Was All Talk’, the third track off his new album Wakin On A Pretty Daze, Kurt Vile murmurs in his beatific, laconic burr, “Makin’ music is easy / Watch me”. If that sounds like an empty boast it’s likely you’ve just not listened to enough of Vile’s music yet, as the way Kurt’s songs fall into place suggests that his art is entirely and convincingly effortless. That these songs zero in on a hazy perfection with such laser-guided precision shows that behind this veneer of lackadaisical creativity, beavers a songwriter toiling hard to make music so beguilingly laid-back.
Kurt Vile (his real name) is one of ten children, born in 1980 and raised in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. As a teenager, his bluegrass-lovin’ father gifted him a banjo, when what Kurt truly craved was a guitar. So, with a ‘can do’ spirit that’s a boon to any independent musician, he simply played it as if it were a guitar. Along with his passion for the 4-track-toting titans of early 90’s indie-rock, Vile also harboured a love for classic rock of substance – Creedence, Tom Petty, Neil Young, artists with their roots in ‘Roots’, but with enough vision to carve out an Americana of their own. Within the footprints he was following, Vile began carving a path of his own, making an art of dipping from introspective mellow rambles, to sky-scraping anthems; eager to rock out, equally unafraid to sing low and sweet.
Fast-forward some years and with The Violators in tow (the Heartbreakers to his Tom Petty, if you will) barnstormers like ‘Freak Train’ from the full-length Childish Prodigy [2009] were contrasted with more reflective and sun-dappled tunes from his break-through album Smoke Ring For My Halo [2011], as Kurt quietly became one of the great American guitarists and songwriters of our time.
Wakin On A Pretty Daze, Vile’s fifth full-length, is an album that builds on all Kurt has done before, that makes sense of the supposedly contrary impulses of his previous work. Learning whilst ascending, he’s crafted an album that would have sounded great 30 years ago, sounds great today and will still sound great 30 years from now.
Realising he’s in no rush to prove anything to anyone, songs on Wakin On A Pretty Daze unfurl at their own extended and unhurried pace, but not a second of this loveliness is wasted or surplus. The likes of ‘Air Bud’, ‘Was All Talk’ and ‘Gold Tone’ could keep on ringing out, exploring every possible wrinkle in its chord sequences and expounding with wisdom on the simple pleasures of a beautiful day, for as long as Kurt could stand to play them. These aren’t jams; these are songs that glide as they unwind, with a natural charm that’s enough to convince you that, yes, for Kurt, Makin’ music is easy. So, seriously: Watch him.
Kurt Vile (his real name) is one of ten children, born in 1980 and raised in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. As a teenager, his bluegrass-lovin’ father gifted him a banjo, when what Kurt truly craved was a guitar. So, with a ‘can do’ spirit that’s a boon to any independent musician, he simply played it as if it were a guitar. Along with his passion for the 4-track-toting titans of early 90’s indie-rock, Vile also harboured a love for classic rock of substance – Creedence, Tom Petty, Neil Young, artists with their roots in ‘Roots’, but with enough vision to carve out an Americana of their own. Within the footprints he was following, Vile began carving a path of his own, making an art of dipping from introspective mellow rambles, to sky-scraping anthems; eager to rock out, equally unafraid to sing low and sweet.
Fast-forward some years and with The Violators in tow (the Heartbreakers to his Tom Petty, if you will) barnstormers like ‘Freak Train’ from the full-length Childish Prodigy [2009] were contrasted with more reflective and sun-dappled tunes from his break-through album Smoke Ring For My Halo [2011], as Kurt quietly became one of the great American guitarists and songwriters of our time.
Wakin On A Pretty Daze, Vile’s fifth full-length, is an album that builds on all Kurt has done before, that makes sense of the supposedly contrary impulses of his previous work. Learning whilst ascending, he’s crafted an album that would have sounded great 30 years ago, sounds great today and will still sound great 30 years from now.
Realising he’s in no rush to prove anything to anyone, songs on Wakin On A Pretty Daze unfurl at their own extended and unhurried pace, but not a second of this loveliness is wasted or surplus. The likes of ‘Air Bud’, ‘Was All Talk’ and ‘Gold Tone’ could keep on ringing out, exploring every possible wrinkle in its chord sequences and expounding with wisdom on the simple pleasures of a beautiful day, for as long as Kurt could stand to play them. These aren’t jams; these are songs that glide as they unwind, with a natural charm that’s enough to convince you that, yes, for Kurt, Makin’ music is easy. So, seriously: Watch him.
"Wowee Zowee", originally released by Matador in April 1995 on the eve of Pavement's infamous mud-bespattered mainstage appearance at Lollapalooza, began life as a controversial release. Fresh off the success of "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" with its chart topping Modern Rock hit "Cut Your Hair", the band went into the studio and came out with a deliberately chaotic and eclectic album that sounded nothing like its predecessor. With influences from the Groundhogs to the Frogs, Captain Beefheart to the more obscure mid- 80s central California hardcore bands featured on Maximum Rock'n'Roll comp "Not So Quiet On The Western Front", "Wowee Zowee" confused critics and alienated fans. How fantastic, then, that it went on to scan 122K copies and became many fans' fave Pavement album. A return to their pre- Crooked cacophony, the songs have a darkness that now seems appropriate, and with Bryce Goggin at the mixing desk, the production was the band's most rocking to date.
FORMAT INFORMATION
LP Info: US import double vinyl 120 gram edition, includes a free download code.
Originally released in 1994, this was Pavement's second album, and it signaled the end of Pavement seeing themselves as a recording experiment and the beginning of Pavement as a full time touring band. One of the casualties of this change was the eccentric and usually drunk drummer Gary Young (included here are eight tracks of pre-album Gary Young sessions), whom was replaced by Steve West who bought a greater stability to the line up. The new line up recorded "Crooked Rain Crooked Rain" in NYC, and it proved to be an instant indie classic, packed with superb tracks including singles such as the awesome "Cut Your Hair", "Range Life" and "Gold Soundz".
FORMAT INFORMATION
LP Info: US import 120 gram edition, includes a free download code.
Pavement's fourth proper LP seems to be a direct response to anyone who thought 1995's "Wowee Zowee" sealed a downward spiral from indie-pop heroes to incomprehensible, in-joke nonconformists. On "Brighten The Corners", the rock hero in Pavement re-emerges as the dominant stereotype, making the lyrical idiosyncrasies on which critics of the band like to harp into witty window-dressing. Nowhere is this dichotomy better heard than on the electrifying opener, "Stereo", which rages with anthemic power-chords and a rock-star chorus ('Hey! Listen to me! I'm on the stereo'), while also pondering the longest-standing mystery in rock, the voice of Rush singer Geddy Lee ('how did it get so high/I wonder if he speaks like an ordinary guy').
Musically, "Brighten The Corners" extends the rock tradition to the other side of Sonic Youth's dissonant discoveries while staying free of grunge's self-defeatist mentality. No longer a group of lo-fi pranksters, Pavement has tightened up into a mighty ensemble, able to jam like psychedelic maniacs (the closing "Fin") or fly by night like punks on speed ("Embassy Row"). Lyrically, Stephen Malkmus and co-conspirator Scott Kannberg (aka Spiral Stairs) have started questioning where they belong in a late-90s world seemingly devoid of secrets and mysteries. Their declarations present yet another yin-yang to the Pavement whole: Kannberg's answers seem to lie in emotional stability, Malkmus' in the never-ending search itself. These uncertainties of dealing with one's unrecognised worth play out like an Irvine Welsh novel: the chapters full of spunky glee, the ending steeped in melancholy.
FORMAT INFORMATION
LP Info: US import 120 gram edition, includes a free download code.
In 1992 "Slanted And Enchanted", arguably the first and best release of 90s 'slacker rock', felt like a compendium of all the very best post-punk moments from the previous fifteen years as well as a surprising new combination of wit, absurdism, noise and pop. All these years later, the album is still fresh, still exciting and still makes most of the competition sound derivative and lazy. So to summarise; still slanted, still enchanting.
FORMAT INFORMATION
LP Info: US import 120 gram edition, includes a free download code.
Kurt Vile has a way of tying time in knots. You can hear it on his new album "Smoke Ring For My Halo" from the get-go – the pinwheeling guitars and reaching atmospheres of "Baby’s Arms" are as strange as they are familiar: a demonstration of how Kurt can put worn methods and sounds through himself and end up with something that isn’t emotionally or sonically obvious. Instead we’re left with a record that contains traces of the past but doesn’t waste precious time in the now being reverent.
Once compared to Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty, Psychic TV and Animal Collective in the same review, Kurt can bring to mind anything from Suicide to Leo Kottke to My Bloody Valentine, Bob Seger, Nick Drake and Eastern ragas. Still, he pieces together these disparate elements so seamlessly and unpretentiously that such reference points are rendered pointless by the singularity of his sound. Kurt Vile might belong to a long lineage of classic American songwriters, but he’s the only one who’s alive and in his prime today.
This is the fourth time Kurt Vile has put an album’s worth of songs together and stuck a name on it, but in a sense "Smoke Ring For My Halo" is his first real album - every flinching guitar arpeggio and vocal wander was made to be here, made with this record in mind, to sit alongside another in situ and in sequence. It’s a record that is perfect for any given day during whatever season, to satisfy all moods in every possible scenario, be that first thing in the morning or last thing at night; today, tomorrow or five years from now.
Once compared to Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty, Psychic TV and Animal Collective in the same review, Kurt can bring to mind anything from Suicide to Leo Kottke to My Bloody Valentine, Bob Seger, Nick Drake and Eastern ragas. Still, he pieces together these disparate elements so seamlessly and unpretentiously that such reference points are rendered pointless by the singularity of his sound. Kurt Vile might belong to a long lineage of classic American songwriters, but he’s the only one who’s alive and in his prime today.
This is the fourth time Kurt Vile has put an album’s worth of songs together and stuck a name on it, but in a sense "Smoke Ring For My Halo" is his first real album - every flinching guitar arpeggio and vocal wander was made to be here, made with this record in mind, to sit alongside another in situ and in sequence. It’s a record that is perfect for any given day during whatever season, to satisfy all moods in every possible scenario, be that first thing in the morning or last thing at night; today, tomorrow or five years from now.
Reduced
A self-confessed musical sponge, Kurt Vile began to create and release a series of lo-fi home recordings that reflected his admiration of everything from delta blues and skiffle right through to the minimalist aggression of Suicide. "Childish Prodigy" was recorded by Philly-based engineer Jeff Zeigler and is a marked progression for the former guitarist of The War On Drugs. More diverse than its predecessor, the album is a rich tapestry of rock and folk moments drenched in echo and feedback. Glossier in production and yet still retaining his lo-fi sensibilities, "Childish Prodigy" bears echoes of Tom Petty, "Street Legal"-era Bob Dylan, Spacemen 3 and Skip Spence. With a voice that is intimate yet immediate, "Childish Prodigy" is a record that rewards the patient listener.
Sixty five plus minutes of breath-taking material recorded under smooth circumstances in lovely Nashville, TN. This one will without a doubt appeal to long time Yo La Tengo fans, considering the fact that this is their very best one yet. The really good thing, though, is that a lot of people who will buy this record will do so without knowing that it probably is the only TRULY GREAT record they will buy in their lives. Until the next one comes out, of course!!
While their colossal sonic achievements are well-documented, Yo La Tengo's ninth album is more "In A Silent Way" than "Interstellar Space": a quietly intense melange of pulsing beats, acoustic guitar strum, ringing vibraphone and organ washes. Add electric guitar buzzing underneath dreamy, nearly whispered vocals, and "ATNTIIO" is more mood swing than song cycle. Yo La Tengo have stripped away layers of electric guitar chaos from their sound. Is it so we can hear their voices? So they can hear each other? Whatever the reason, Georgia and Ira's most audible and distinctive vocal performances to date are genuinely intimate and affecting. The quieter settings allow other subtle details to emerge: guest Susie Ibarra's percussion on the first single, "Saturday," high close harmonies swelling in from nowhere, Hubley's delicate brushwork, the gorgeous shimmer of vibes and mellotron. Such are the gifts of Yo La Tengo. They are a pop band, but don't just write pop songs; they write what can only be described as Yo La Tengo songs. By not rocking out, Ira, Georgia and James have made a record which shows how tight-knit a musical unit the trio have become. They are like a three-cornered atom harnessing its energy to the point where blinding explosions are no longer necessary to emanate power.
STAFF COMMENTS
Darryl says: Their ninth album released back in 2000 saw Yo La Tengo peaking with gorgeous melancholy. An introspective, delicate and dreamy sound that shimmers along with shivery pulses and hushed vocals. Perfect for a moody winter night.
Sprawling, 28-song compilation of B-sides, outtakes, compilation tracks, soundtrack stuff hardly anyone heard, and live stuff spread over two discs (one of 'em all-instrumental) with extensive liner notes. For hardcore enthusiasts and neophytes just aching for a confusing introduction. Features material from 1988 up to 1995.
Once again moving the bar for 'what can be done in just one record', no two songs sound the same. There's everything from epic soundscapes to jaunty popsongs, to gorgeous love songs with a few rock'n'roll numbers thrown in. All delivered with humour, a smattering of falsetto and a huge dose of that unique Yo La Tengo charm.
Massive thank you to @state808 today who played a great set and signed a few copies of their new album ‘Transmissio… https://t.co/Ez3Cd7yuy4
Sat 12th - 7:11
Sat 12th - 7:11
Ready for National Album Day @AlbumDayUK Open from 10 - 6 today as usual. Follow the link to this week’s albums… https://t.co/8AzifY3uYo
Sat 12th - 8:07
Sat 12th - 8:07
Coinciding with @AlbumDayUK tomorrow we will be stocking a limited edition CD version of the new @Elbow ‘Giants of… https://t.co/nKy4UMvk8s
Fri 11th - 4:23
Fri 11th - 4:23
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