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Neva Dinova

Canary

    It’s a new chapter in the history of Neva Dinova. Although the band are beloved by many, they’ve never had the same name recognition as their Omaha-bred peers and collaborators like Bright Eyes and Cursive. However that’s likely to change with the band’s reinvigorating new full-length 'Canary', which features a new lineup, fresh perspective and a sound that’s more urgent than anything they’ve created in the past.

    From the fuzzed-out grandeur of 'Edge of Something' that kicks off the record through the electronica/hip-hop accents on album closer 'I Can See Further Now', the album sees Neva Dinova stepping out sonically and condensing their songs in powerful blasts of focused energy. As always, the unifying ingredient is Bellows’s distinctive baritone voice as he croons about existential dread, alienation, and hypocrisy – though offset with moments of levity and hopefulness. 'Love and Kindness' is a reference to the ongoing war in Gaza while 'Something To Lose' was inspired by the loss of Bellows’s beloved dog, Dragon. “That song is about the idea that maybe you’d rather never love anybody or anything because it’s just another thing to lose, and that really resonated with me at the time,” he says of the latter track.

    “When you’re involved in the arts there’s some expectation for you to be smart or know stuff and I don’t want to be that poser anymore,” he explains. There’s a liberation in that lack of pretense—and even when Bellows is musing about his own limitations in 'Near Me', there’s a beauty in the imperfections: The subtle buzzing of the amp, the finger noise on the strings and Bellows’s voice rising above all of it in a way that’s distinctly Neva Dinova.


    TRACK LISTING

    1. Edge Of Something
    2. Time To Shine
    3. Outside
    4. Lonely Heart
    5. Love And Kindness
    6. Your Funeral
    7. God Damn
    8. Never Let Go
    9. Something To Lose
    10. Near Me
    11. One More Mile
    12. I Can See Further Now

    Spirit Of The Beehive

    You’ll Have To Lose Something

      For the past decade, Spirit Of The Beehive have honed an aesthetic like no other. They’ve chopped up samples, chewed them up, spit them back out again, baby birded it. Across four albums and a smattering of EPs, Zack Schwartz, Corey Wichlin, and Rivka Ravede have fully solidified their stance as some of rock’s weirdest and best deconstructionists. 2018’s 'Hypnic Jerks' was a study in noise punk sampledelia. It was a breakthrough for the band. Frank Ocean became a fan, spinning “fell asleep with a vision,” on Blonded Radio. 2021’s ENTERTAINMENT DEATH, was nasty dream pop by way of K-Mart realism and hitting the channel search setting on an old TV set.

      Their last release, 2023’s 'i’m so lucky', explored the breakup between Schwartz and Ravede, setting the stage and emotional territory for the band’s fifth record, 'YOU’LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING'. This latest offering is the most crystallized version of the band’s aesthetic, a continued meditation on the end of relationships and the unsteadiness that follows. It is a meticulous, beautiful, and quietly heartbreaking collection of songs. More often than not, it sounds like listening to a walkman from inside of a hurricane, like the YouTube videos you’d watch in bed for 18 hours straight after you break your wrist from a skateboarding accident.

      The goal in making 'YOU’LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING' was to soften out some of the edges. “Less hard left turns,” says Wichlin. “We wanted to make something intentionally less antagonistic,” he jokes. In practice, this means the record has slightly fewer drastic arrangement changes, and it is more stripped down. Take 'I’VE BEEN EVIL', one of the newest songs on the record, as one such offering. It is straightforward in that its tempo is consistent, in that the song keeps us in the same place. It does not digress. It holds itself steady, with bleary-eyed guitars and hushed vocals. The song is weary, the song is a whisper. The utterance “I’ve been evil,” is like the shrug of a shoulder, a so what, ha ha.

      Less straightforward is the sublime 'LET THE VIRGIN DRIVE', a genuinely frightening pop track that anchors itself on fucked up Japanese City pop samples and a demented news clip of someone screaming. The song was originally written around the time the band was touring 'ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH', and took a few years to fully flesh itself out. It is like staring into the sun, like waking up in a body bag “It’s about unrequited love and making up a situation or whole life in your head,” says Schwartz of its thematic underpinning, “The other person finally ‘sees you’ and your ‘problems are solved,’ but they aren’t, really.” The song hiccups and warbles — you can hear the tape hiss, the instability, how it kind of feels like the whole song might get sucked into a black hole’s event horizon. “Heaven is a lie/cause you are earthly/and you’re alive,” Schwartz sings at the song’s outset.

      'YOU’LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING' is a record of provocations. It wants you to think it is just normal rock ‘n’ roll music. That it is purely pleasure oriented. But beneath these intentions is a collection of songs that are as complex as ever. The Ravede-led 'FOUND A BODY', is a downtempo smoke cloud of variegated synths. “Found a body,” she sings “No one can touch me.” 'SUN SWEPT THE EVENING RED', starts out disconcertingly chipper, before breaking down into an assault of sludged out guitars, auto-tuned vocals, a flurry of strings. Like all SPIRIT records, it is music made by three distinct voices, written independently and then assembled together. Despite being written all over the globe, with Ravede in Portugal and Schwartz and Wichlin back in Philadelphia, the trio arrived at the same themes: that of the brutality of coming to terms with reality, that of what it means to lie to protect yourself and your heart. Schwartz says he writes songs more or less in a stream of consciousness. The band listens to very little outside music when working. The result is a record that very much is its own world. Where chaos is carefully organised, where being able to ever actually chill out is totally illusory, a trick mirror.


      TRACK LISTING

      1. The Disruption (Featuring Mspaint)
      2. Stranger Alive
      3. The Cut Depicts The Cut
      4. Let The Virgin Drive
      5. Sorry Pore Injector
      6. Found A Body
      7. Sun Swept The Evening Red
      8. Something’s Ending
      9. I’ve Been Evil
      10. 1/500
      11. Duplicate Spotted
      12. Earth Kit

      The Faint

      Doom Abuse - 10th Anniversary Edition

        The Faint has always been perceived as a series of paradoxes: Nebraskans trafficking in electro pop anthems; a five-person outfit who insist on songwriting democracy; punk rockers laying down their guitars for a decidedly untypical kind of punk rock.

        Things that don’t make sense at first often make sense later. In the creation of art, when the process is left up to the subconscious mind, when there is no preconceived concept, patterns still always emerge. Themes and recurring images, blurred in the moment, later become clear.

        This is the case with The Faint’s sixth album 'Doom Abuse', an unexpected but also inevitable addition to their compellingly unusual catalog of music.


        TRACK LISTING

        1. Help In The Head
        2. Mental Radio
        3. Evil Voices
        4. Salt My Doom
        5. Animal Needs
        6. Loss Of Head
        7. Dress Code
        8. Scapegoat
        9. Your Stranger
        10. Lesson From The Darkness
        11. Unseen Hand
        12. Damage Control

        The Faint

        Fasciinatiion - 2024 Reissue

          The Faint has always been perceived as a series of paradoxes: Nebraskans trafficking in electro pop anthems; a five-person outfit who insist on songwriting democracy; punk rockers laying down their guitars for a decidedly untypical kind of punk rock.

          After touring tirelessly throughout the world on the heels of 2004’s Wet From Birth, the band returned to their native Omaha; renovating a building and creating a studio where they would write, record, and produce their fifth LP, Fasciinatiion, entirely on their own.

          With Fasciinatiion, The Faint gave the world the realest representation of themselves to date. Imbued equally with the musical instincts and perspectives of each band member, “It’s all The Faint,” lead singer Todd Fink explains. “There’s no outside anything. It’s exactly what five people in The Faint could agree on. Or come close.”.

          TRACK LISTING

          1. Get Seduced
          2. The Geeks Were Right
          3. Machine In The Ghost
          4. Fulcrum & Lever
          5. Psycho
          6. Mirror Error
          7. I Treat You Wrong
          8. Forever Growing Centipedes
          9. Fish In A Womb
          10. A Battle Hymn For Children

          Land Of Talk

          The EPs

            Land Of Talk emerged from the ethereal landscapes of mid-aughts Canadian indie rock with their 2006 debut Applause Cheer Boo Hiss. Led by Elizabeth Powell, they have spent the last 18 years carving their own path through the music scene, captivating audiences with their emotive soundscapes and raw vulnerability.

            The EPs brings 2009's Fun And Laughter and 2021's Calming Night Partner together on vinyl for the first time, combining two distinct chapters in Land of Talk's sonic journey while offering fans a unique perspective on the evolution of their sound.

            Fun And Laughter showcases the band's early experimentation with texture and tone. From the shimmering guitars of "May You Never," to the haunting melodies of "A Series Of Small Flames," each track exudes a sense of youthful energy and introspection.

            Calming Night Partner is an equally mesmerizing collection of songs that delves into themes of longing and redemption. With tracks like "Leave Life Alone," and "Something Will Be Said," the EP showcases Powell's continuing evolution as a songwriter and lyricist.

            This release represents more than just a collection of songs; they are a testament to the band's unwavering commitment to their craft and their unyielding passion for storytelling through music. As they continue to push the boundaries of their sound and forge new paths in the indie rock landscape, one thing remains certain: the echoes of Land of Talk will linger on, resonating in the hearts and minds of listeners for years to come.


            TRACK LISTING

            Fun And Laughter (Side A)
            1. Sixteen Asterisk
            2. May You Never
            3. As Me
            4. A Series Of Small Flames

            Calming Night Partner (Side B)
            5. Leave Life Alone
            6. Moment Feed
            7. Calming Night Partner
            8. Something Will Be Said

            Young Jesus

            The Fool

              John Rossiter (Young Jesus) had quit music to study permaculture and to work in landscapes and gardens. His last album, 'Shepherd Head', was too much time spent on the computer. Working with soil and plants gave him some life back. He said, “You know, when gardening, the right decision to make for the landscape is usually the one that is already happening. It just takes time to read what that is."

              So, John left the orchard to meet Shahzad Ismaily (Feist, Lou Reed, Arooj Aftab) for lunch. They instantly bonded, talking about improvisation, rhythm, the heart. On a lark, Shahzad invited John to New York.

              Songs started to form, songs about shame and grief, love and redemption. They came fast, a song a day for two weeks. It was different from past albums, which felt like years of hammering out lyrics and ideas. This one came in the wake of a long illness, where tunes came in a rush, as if they were physical, as if the body couldn’t heal without them. An almost involuntary outpouring, overrunning his usual self-consciousness.

              Rossiter had to sit and transcribe without judgment: let the ideas grow on their own. Shahzad was in LA one day when John sat down at the piano and played them for him. They decided to record them at Shahzad's Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn – these songs would blossom into Young Jesus’ album, 'The Fool'.

              Inner landscaping requires presence and bravery. It can get pretty dark and strange the deeper you walk into that jungle. And it’s from the absolute pits of that inner landscape that the truest music rises from.

              At the end of the last session, Rossiter and Alex Lappin sat down and drew tarot cards. John drew The Fool.


              TRACK LISTING

              1. Brenda & Diane
              2. Two Brothers
              3. Rabbit
              4. Rich
              5. Moonlight
              6. MOTY
              7. The Weasel
              8. Am I The Only One?
              9. Sunrise
              10. Dancer
              11. God's Plan

              Land Of Talk

              Performances

                Lizzie Powell has always been a risk-taker. As the creative force behind the influential Canadian outfit Land of Talk, the Montreal-based songwriter has over the past 15 years amassed a catalog of four unimpeachable albums that stretch the boundaries of indie rock. But Performances, their fifth LP, feels like a total reinvention: an unflinching statement from an artist who’s not afraid to say how they feel. Though it trades muscular guitar rock for understated piano, it’s still the most urgent, cathartic, and personal release of Powell’s career so far. “It's the weirdest, mightiest little record I've made since I used to write music on my four-track when I was 14,” says Powell. “I needed to make a love letter to my teenage self by being more vulnerable and doing all the production myself.” Here, they doggedly value their own intuition over anything else to make their most rewarding album yet. 

                Performances is a defiant and resonant blow against expectations and outside pressure. It’s an LP showcasing an artist without constraints and allowing themself to be radically honest. “The album title is very literal,” says Powell. “I'm performing what's in my brain but I'm tired of performing femininity for the music industry, femininity in my life, respectability, and vulnerability. I'm trying to grow out of these and break out of these roles in my life.” Powell’s fearlessness as a songwriter has already led to Land of Talk boasting an unmistakably essential discography but with this album, they find the perfect opportunity to give themself the grace to truly double down on their own vital sensibilities. They usher the songs every step of the way from demoing to producing, imbuing each track with immense care and unfiltered feeling. 

                “This is me reclaiming Land of Talk as it always has been,” says Powell. “Every record we've made has just been one step closer to me figuring out how I want to make a record myself. I might not ever make an album like this again, but I just felt like I owed it to myself to try.” 

                TRACK LISTING

                1. Intro (high Bright High)
                2. Your Beautiful Self
                3. Fluorescent Blood
                4. Marry It
                5. Rainbow Protection
                6. Clarinet Dance Jam
                7. Sitcom
                8. Semi-Precious
                9. August 13
                10. Pwintiques 

                Feeble Little Horse

                Girl With Fish

                  Pittsburgh, PA’s feeble little horse makes thrilling and wildly unpredictable songs that are a reflection of the joys that come with making music with your best friends. The band’s sophomore album was made focusing on intuition over intention: letting the magic of collaboration come first. “Anything that makes us laugh or puts a smile on our faces, we usually end up keeping in the songs,” explains drummer Jake Kelley. Across 11 self-recorded and self-produced tracks, the band careens from blissed-out pop to harsh noise, glitchy programmed drum beats, and off-kilter indie rock—sometimes all in one song. As a follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2021 debut Hayday, Girl with Fish, with its overwhelmingly inviting and emotionally resonant tracklist, is a document of four people trusting their instincts and most importantly each other.

                  TRACK LISTING

                  1. Freak
                  2. Tin Man
                  3. Steamroller
                  4. Heaven
                  5. Paces
                  6. Sweet
                  7. Slide
                  8. Healing
                  9. Pocket
                  10. Station
                  11. Heavy Water 

                  Indigo De Souza

                  All Of This Will End

                    Indigo De Souza announces her new album All of This Will End, the anticipated follow-up to her acclaimed 2021 breakthrough album Any Shape You Take. All of This Will End marks a warmer and unmistakably audacious era for her. It’s a statement about fearlessly moving forward from the past into a gratitude-filled present, feeling it all every step of the way, and choosing to embody loving awareness.

                    Across 11 songs, the album is a raw and radically optimistic work that grapples with mortality, the rejuvenation that community brings, and the importance of centering yourself now. These tracks come from the most resonant moments of her life: childhood memories, collecting herself in parking lots, the ecstatic trips spent wandering the Appalachian mountains and southern swamps with friends, and the times she had to stand up for herself. “All of This Will End feels more true to me than anything ever has,” she says.

                    TRACK LISTING

                    1. Time Back
                    2. You Can Be Mean
                    3. Losing
                    4. Wasting Your Time
                    5. Parking Lot
                    6. All Of This Will End
                    7. Smog
                    8. The Water
                    9. Always
                    10. Not My Body
                    11. Younger And Dumber

                    Feeble Little Horse

                    Hayday

                      Pittsburgh’s feeble little horse is a 4-piece band that writes intricately catchy, digitized noise pop songs. Formed by Sebastian Kinsler (guitar, production, vocals, bass) and Ryan Walchonski (guitar, vocals) in Ryan’s student apartment in South Oakland, PA in February 2021, the duo soon added Ryan’s roommate Jake Kelley on drums, and, inspired by a wave of creativity, the trio released their first EP – modern tourism, in May 2021, with artwork contributed by future member Lydia Slocum (vocals, bass).

                      After officially joining the band in June of that year as bassist and vocalist, Lydia added her own sweet vocals, rich melodies, and punchy lyrics to the band’s heady mix. From summer to fall of that year, the quartet played their first shows at DIY establishments across Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, gaining a word-of-mouth reputation as one of the most exciting new bands on the scene.

                      In October 2021 feeble little horse released their first full-length album, Hayday, via Julia’s War Recordings. Full of dense textures and exhilarating tension, the album’s eleven songs bristle with pent-up energy, the mood flipping between sweet noise-pop elements and more visceral discharges, the whole thing balanced on a knife-edge between the light and dark, the earnest and unhinged.

                      The band continues to expand and evolve in 2022, with new music on the horizon that looks set to redefine the band’s sound once again. Before that, however, comes a reissue of Hayday, in conjunction with Unstable – a record label started by the band. Available on vinyl for the first time, this reissue also features two bonus tracks: the previously unreleased "Dog Song 2" and a remix of "Termites" by Full Body 2. 

                      TRACK LISTING

                      1. Worth It (Intro)
                      2. Termites
                      3. Chores
                      4. Tricks
                      5. Too Much
                      6. Sherman's Last Ride
                      7. Picture
                      8. You Got It Babe
                      9. Kennedy
                      10. Drama Queen
                      11. Grace (Outro)
                      12. Dog Song 2*
                      13. Termites*

                      *Bonus Track 

                      DISQ

                      Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet

                        Though initially formed as an extension of the lifelong friendship between guitarist Isaac DeBroux-Slone and bassist Raina Bock, Disq has evolved into a far more egalitarian organization, as Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet finds guitarists Logan Severson and Shannon Conor splitting singing and songwriting duties with Debroux-Slone and Bock. Such an approach could have easily fallen into the trap of “satisfying everyone, pleasing no one,” but happily, the opposite is true. Disq has emerged a stronger band, more daring and more deant, ready to finish the job.

                        Wrangling a melange of styles such as this is no simple task, but Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet is held together by the powerful yet nimble rhythm section of Bock and drummer Stu Manley, whose muscular and hyperactive playing alternately keeps these adventurous compositions tethered firmly to the Earth and sends them soaring into stratosphere. Producer Matt Schuessler rarely lets a verse or chorus go by without adding some new sonic sparkle, keeping the arrangements an ever-shifting kaleidoscope of textures and moods. If there is a record in 2022 which squeezes more ideas into 41 minutes, then that record could surely only be the unlistenable mess that Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet avoids becoming so deftly.

                        Pushing play on Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet, it is easy to imagine that it is the year 1998, and your cool older sister has returned from her freshman year at college only to hand you the sort of mind-altering mixtape out of which lifelong rock fanatics are born. Though, things being how they are in the world today, the idea of nding “someplace quiet” feels like an increasingly remote possibility, and the act of imagining such a place does, indeed, feel more and more desperate. With Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet, Disq take a valiant stand against the temptation of complacency. As for that “someplace quiet?” It will have to wait... it's about to get loud in here. 

                        TRACK LISTING

                        01. Civilization Four
                        02. Prize Contest Life
                        03. Cujo Kiddies
                        04. This Time
                        05. The Curtain
                        06. The Hardest Part
                        07. If Only
                        08. Charley Chimp
                        09. Tightrope
                        10. (With Respect To) Loyal Serfs
                        11. Meant To Be
                        11. Hitting A Nail With A BB Gun

                        Desaparecidos

                        Read Music / Speak Spanish (Remastered)

                          “Oberst and company have effectively crafted a searing punk fueled half-hour funeral march for both small-town life and the days when you were more likely to hear the words mom and pop than multinational corporation. At the record's core, there is a sense of great disillusionment with watching the cold, calculated displacement of human interaction and community while the world tries to fill the void with money and chain stores.” - Tiny Mix Tapes

                          “Desaparecidos is like finding gold when you're looking for silver.” - Exclaim!


                          2022 finds us releasing the 20th Anniversary Edition of Desaparecidos' Read Music/Speak Spanish into a world in which the dread and disenfranchisement detailed throughout the album feel as pertinent today as they did then. The characters and settings may have changed, but the startling narrative has not.

                          In late 2001, Conor Oberst, Denver Dalley, Landon Hedges, Ian McElroy, and Matt Baum spent a week at Presto! Recording Studio in Lincoln, NE recording a punk album. That debut album, released in the post-9/11 fog of early 2002, screamed out observational commentary on urban development, the sacrifice of human value for the dollar bill, and the new American Dream in a way that felt distinctly out of sync with the hyper-patriotic atmosphere of peak G.W. Bush-era America.

                          The band toured, got a bit of attention, and then went their separate ways for a long spell. In the ensuing years, Read Music/Speak Spanish gained cult status and became one of the most beloved and meaningful documents of the era, capturing the alienation that those who had seen through the fog of war for $$$$ experienced at the time.

                          20 years on, those feelings are just as, if not more, relevant than they were in that moment. America has mutated into a new confused version of itself, in many ways unimaginable two decades ago. Yet, the fear and disgust voiced on Read Music/Speak Spanish now sound more prophetic than paranoid, making the album’s message as necessary as ever.


                          TRACK LISTING

                          01. Man And Wife, The Former (Financial Planning)
                          02. Mañana
                          03. Greater Omaha
                          04. Man And Wife, The Latter (Damaged Goods)
                          05. Mall Of America
                          06. The Happiest Place On Earth
                          07. Survival Of The Fittest / It's A Jungle Out There
                          08. $$$$
                          09. Hole In One

                          Tomberlin

                          I Don't Know Who Needs To Hear This....

                            Tomberlin is Sarah Beth Tomberlin, a pastor’s kid born in Florida, raised in rural Illinois. She wrote the majority of her debut, At Weddings (2018), while living at home. For a while after leaving home and church, she lived in Louisville, Kentucky. She worked a day job and kept writing songs. She posted some of these songs to Bandcamp, which led to her signing a record deal with Saddle Creek. It all happened fast: Less than a year after her first live show, she performed on Jimmy Kimmel and she ended up moving to L.A. which is where she wrote Projections (2020), her EP followup to At Weddings.

                            During the pandemic, Sarah Beth was all over the place, physically and mentally. Louisville. Los Angeles. Back home in Illinois for a bit. Brooklyn, where she’s now settled, she says. Brooklyn is also where her new album i don’t know who needs to hear this… was recorded, at Figure 8 studios over the course of two weeks, with producer and engineer Phil Weinrobe (who played a variety of instruments on the collection), and later mastered by Josh Bonati, also in Brooklyn.

                            “The theme of the record,” she explains, “is to examine, hold space, make an altar for the feelings.” Hold space: Tomberlin’s songs do it literally, making it heard space. Her full-length debut, At Weddings, was widely praised for the sparsity and delicacy of its instrumentation, especially in contrast with the emotional heft of her lyrics.

                            Here, the space feels larger and holier, built to echo. Pedal steel. Old acoustic guitars, freshly plucked. A drifting synthesizer. Chill, brushy percussion. Ambient, expansive clarinet and saxophone. Aleatory piano trills, a lot of piddling with the occasional splash. The looseness and wideness of the arrangements conveys a tender regard for their parts, as though each arpeggio, loop, scratch is a found shell or feather in the hand. Then there is the instrument of her voice, which has the endearing quality of being perfectly tuned but reluctantly played. “I’m not a singer,” she sings on “idkwntht.” “I’m just someone who’s guilty.

                            TRACK LISTING

                            01. Easy
                            02. Born Again Runner
                            03. Tap
                            04. Memory
                            05. Unsaid
                            06. Sunstruck
                            07. Collect Caller
                            08. Stoned
                            09. Happy Accident
                            10. Possessed
                            11. Idkwntht

                            Spirit Of The Beehive

                            The Door

                              Six months on from the release of their critically-acclaimed fourth album, Entertainment, Death, Philadelphia trio Spirit Of The Beehive closeout 2021 with brand new 7” The Door, comprising two previously-heard but never physically released songs in “The Door Is Open” and “The Door Is Closing”.

                              A special and limited release, 500 copies of the single have been pressed on cloudy teal vinyl. The 7” is led by “The Door Is Open”, a 2020 single that marked a new chapter for the band ahead of the release of Entertainment, Death. The song “continues to defy definition”, Stereogum said upon its initial release, before adding: “It’s amazing that they made such a short track feel like such a dreamy journey.”

                              It’s backed by “The Door Is Closing”, a bright and skewed gem of a track that was originally released earlier this year via Through The Soil, a charity compilation that benefited the NAMI COVID-19 Mental Health Support Fund.

                              Whether opened or closed, The Door is a bold reminder of Spirit Of The Beehive’s many layered and colourful ideas. It also ribbon-ties a brilliant 2021 for the band, one which saw Entertainment, Death labelled as “an intensely beautiful, intensely difficult record” by Pitchfork, a “sprawling odyssey of haunting dissonance and blissful euphoria” by Flood Magazine, and a "storm of sound with a deep humanity coming through” by Fader.

                              Hand Habits

                              Fun House

                                There is a moment halfway through Hand Habits’ Fun Houseat which musician Meg Duffy asks the question, “How many times must I rewind the tape?”It’s a fitting question planted squarely in the middle of a sonically adventurous record concerned largely with making sense and taking stock. How much time must we spend examining our own past in order to fully understand it? How can we safely acknowledge pain in order to release it and fully actualize who we are supposed to be? Buffeted by strings, synths, and a gently-shook tambourine, the aptly-titled track, “The Answer,” highlights the emotional engine at the heart of the record. “I know the answer,”Duffy sings, “Here’s what I hope to find - it’s always mine.”

                                Fun Houseis Duffy’s most ambitious Hand Habits album to date. Produced by Sasami Ashworth (SASAMI) and engineered by Kyle Thomas (King Tuff), the record was not intended as a reaction to the pandemic, but it was very much the result of taking a difficult, if much-needed, moment of pause. “When the pandemic happened, everything stopped,” recalls Duffy. “I had been touring consistently for five years, both on my own and playing in other people’s bands, so I wasn’t really writing a lot in between. It had been full pedal to the metal in terms of traveling and scheduling, which meant I really didn’t have a lot of time to think about how I felt or really check in with myself. Then, when the world basically stopped, it turned out to be the longest I’ve been alone in my entire life — without being in a relationship, without being on the road, without working myself to exhaustion — and the result was really like, holy shit. I slammed on the brakes and everything psychologically that I’d been pushing down and ignoring for the past few years suddenly flew to the foreground.”

                                What started out as a very personal reckoning eventually blossomed into a fruitful and convenient means of making new music. Grounded in LA and sharing a house with Ashworth and Thomas, who also runs a studio space in the building, Duffy began to flesh out the songs that would eventually become Fun House. Embold-ened by going into therapy and coaxed by Ashworth to push the songs into unexpected new shapes, the resulting music was more acutely personal and stylistically adventurous than anything they had attempted before. The new songs also became a prism through which Duffy could begin to self-actualize in a new way.

                                While Fun Houseshares some of the same hallmarks as previous Hand Habits releases —a kind of outré queer sensibility, a gentle sense of vulnerability — the record is a marked sonic departure from the often muted tones of 2019’s Placeholder and 2017’s Wildly Idle (Humble Before the Void). Instead, the tracks on Fun Housesparkle, moving in unexpected directions and eschewing any specific genre. Tracks like “Aquamarine” and “More than Love” package narratives about loss, romantic longing, and childhood trauma inside polished synth pop (“Suicide / Lost a life / Well then who am I? / Why can’t you talk about it?”) while “Gold Rust” and “Concrete and Feathers” have a ragged, Neil Young quality. Friend and collaborator Mike Hadreas (of Perfume Genius) contributes vocals on “No Difference” and “Just to Hear You,” making for one of the record’s most sanguine moments, his voice providing a perfect counterpoint to Duffy. The push/pull of styles, paired with songs that move deftly between the present and past, give the record a wildly diverse, hall of mirrors quality that befits its name. Where previous Hand Habits records could be fairly insular affairs, both in their creation and their execution, Fun Housefeels ebullient, lush, a fully-realized conversation.

                                TRACK LISTING

                                01. More Than Love 4:02
                                02. Aquamarine 4:15
                                03. Just To Hear You (feat. Perfume Genius) 2:53
                                04. No Difference 2:51
                                05. The Answer 2:04
                                06. Gold/Rust 3:58
                                07. Clean Air 3:08
                                08. Control 3:40
                                09. Concrete & Feathers 3:38
                                10. False Start 4:06
                                11. Graves 3:13

                                Ada Lea

                                One Hand On The Steering Wheel The Other Sewing A Garden

                                  one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden is the name of the second album by Canadian songwriter Alexandra Levy, publicly known by the moniker Ada Lea. On one hand, it’s a collection of walking-paced, cathartic pop/folk songs, on the other it’s a book of heart-twisting, rear-view stories of city life. Ada Lea has followed up the creative, indie-rock songcraft of her debut what we say in private with surprising arrangements and new perspectives. The album is set in Montreal and each song exists as a dot on a personal history map of the city where Levy grew up. Due on September 24th from Saddle Creek and Next Door Records in Canada, the physical record will be released alongside a map of song locations and a songbook with chords and lyrics, inspired by Levy’s love of real book standards.

                                  Levy penned and demoed this batch of songs in an artist residency in Banff, Alberta. After sorting and editing she made her way to Los Angeles to record with producer/engineer Marshall Vore (Phoebe Bridgers) who had previously worked on 2020’s woman, here E.P. After a long walk to the studio each morning, Levy spent her session days diving into the arrangements, playfully letting everything fall in place with complete trust for her collaborators. She notes “Marshall’s expertise and experience with drumming and songwriting was the perfect blend for what the songs needed. He was able to support me in a harmonic, lyrical, and rhythmic sense.” Other contributors that left a notable fingerprint on the soundscape include drummer Tasy Hudson, guitarist Harrison Whitford (of Phoebe Bridgers band), and mixing engineer Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett). Many songs came together with a blend of studio tracks and elements from the pre-recorded demos.

                                  The resulting sounds range from classic, soft-rock beauty to intimate finger-picked folk passages and night-drive art-pop. And the textures are frequently surprising due to the collage of lo-fi and hi-fi sounds that tastefully decorate the album without ever clouding the heart-center of the song. Tracks like “damn” and “oranges” feel timeless with their AM gold groove and 70’s studio sheen, while songs like “my love 4 u is real '', “salt spring” and “can’t stop me from dying” sound completely modern in their use of electronics, sound effects, and pitched vocals. In their subtle, sonic variety, all of the album’s songs flow together with ease into one big, romantic dream for Levy’s silken vocals to float above.

                                  Inspired by personal experience, daydreams, and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, the lyrics of one hand... center storytelling on a bigger scale. The experience and emotions of a year are communicated through Levy’s vignettes of city life. Her prose is centered in its setting of the St Denis area of Montreal as it draws up memories from local haunts like Fameux, La Rockette, and Quai des Brumes in rearview reverie. Levy creates a balance through the album’s year by splitting her songs evenly into four seasons. Opening track “damn”, as a song of winter, kicks off the narrative with the events of a cursed New Year’s Eve party. Immediately this timeline becomes jumbled into a Proustian haziness. The listener is then led through the heat-stricken, brain fog of Summer song, “can’t stop me from dying” and then into the autumnal romanticism of “oranges” before returning back to New Year’s on “partner,” which Levy describes as “a woozy late-night taxi blues reflection on moments when timing can be so right, yet so wrong…”. These collected stories as a whole chart the unavoidable growth that comes with experience. “All is forgiven in time. All is forgotten in time. And when the music stopped, I heard an answer” (from “my love 4 u is real”).

                                  Whether to consider these songs fiction or memoir remains unknown. On one hand, Levy says “Why would I try to write a story that’s not my own? What good would that do?” but on the other hand, she is quick to note the ways that language fails to describe reality, and how difficult this makes it to tell an actually true story. The poetic misuse of the word “sewing” in the album’s title serves as a nod to the limitations words provide. What does it mean to sew the garden? And how can we appreciate its carefully knit blooms when the rearview mirror is so full of car exhaust?

                                  STAFF COMMENTS

                                  Barry says: Ada Lea's new album is a wonderful mix of honest, hearfelt lyricism and psychedelic instrumentation, ranging from subtly swaying indie-pop to jagged punky drive. It's a beguiling and beautiful outing, and one that deserves to be heard.

                                  TRACK LISTING

                                  01. Damn 4:21
                                  02. Can't Stop Me From Dying 3:09
                                  03. Oranges 4:54
                                  04. Partner 3:45
                                  05. Saltspring 4:23
                                  06. And My Newness Spoke To Your Newness And It Was A Thing Of Endless 0:56
                                  07. My Love 4 U Is Real 4:31
                                  08. Backyard 2:56
                                  09. Writer In Ny 3:19
                                  10. Violence 4:26
                                  11. Hurt 3:31

                                  “Everything has to be said.” This is the conviction guiding Indigo De Souza’s sophomore album, Any Shape You Take. This dynamic record successfully creates a container for the full spectrum—pushing through and againstevery emotion: “I wanted this album to give a feeling of shifting with and embracing change. These songs camefrom a turbulent time when I was coming to self-love through many existential crises and shifts in perspective.”

                                  Faithful to its name, Any Shape You Take changes form to match the tenor of each story it tells. “The album titleis a nod to the many shapes I take musically. I don’t feel that I fully embody any particular genre—all of themusic just comes from the universe that is my ever-shifting brain/heart/world,” says Indigo. This sonic range isunified by Indigo’s strikingly confessional and effortless approach to songwriting, a signature first introduced inher debut, self-released LP, I Love My Mom. Written in quick succession, Indigo sees these two records ascompanion pieces, both distinct but in communion with each other: “Many of the songs on these two recordscame from the same season in my life and a certain version of myself which I feel much further from now.”

                                  Throughout Any Shape You Take, Indigo reflects on her relationships as she reckons with a deeper need toredefine how to fully inhabit spaces of love and connection.“It feels so important for me to see people throughchange. To accept people for the many shapes they take, whether those shapes fit into your life or not. Thisalbum is a reflection of that. I have undergone so much change in my life and I am so deeply grateful to thepeople who have seen me through it without judgment and without attachment to skins I’m shifting out of.”

                                  Growing up in a conservative small town in the mountains of North Carolina, Indigo started playing guitar when she was nine years old. “Music was a natural occurrence in my life. My dad is a bossa nova guitarist andsinger from Brazil and so I think I just had it in my blood from birth.” It wasn’t until moving to Asheville, NC that Indigo began to move into her current sound, developing a writing practice that feeds from the currents thatsurround her: “Sometimes it feels like I am soaking up the energies of people around me and making art from aspace that is more a collective body than just my own.”

                                  “I feel very much like a shape-shifter with my music, I’m always trying to embody a balance between the existential weight and the overflowing sense of love I feel in the world.” It is exactly this balance that Indigostrikes in her Saddle Creek debut, Any Shape You Take. A listening experience that gives back, as you shed andshape-shift along with her.

                                  TRACK LISTING

                                  01. 17
                                  02. Darker Than Death
                                  03. Die/Cry
                                  04. Pretty Pictures
                                  05. Real Pain
                                  06. Bad Dream
                                  07. Late Night Crawler
                                  08. Hold U
                                  09. Way Out
                                  10. Kill Me

                                  Indigo De Souza

                                  I Love My Mom

                                    Almost all records are a snapshot, a musical ribbon bow that documents a very specific moment in time or simply ties-off everything up to that point. Indigo De Souza’s I Love My Mom, her debut LP initially released in 2018, was the latter; a collection of the best songs she’d written in the few years that preceded it, recorded quickly and breathlessly and thrown out into the world.

                                    Consisting of ten songs, I Love My Mom feels both raw and unabashed. Indigo pulled a band together for the first time, and was quickly encouraged to commit her songs to tape. Recorded at her friend’s house, they played almost everything live in just a few days, and released the record naturally, with little fanfare. That the record quickly took on a life of its own, deeply resonating with those who heard it, is a testament to Indigo’s songwriting which took inspiration from the unique worlds created by Arthur Russel, Sparklehorse, The Microphones, as well as contemporaries such as LVL UP and Happyness.

                                    Two of the songs have racked up more than a million streams each on Spotify: “Take O Ur Pants” and “How I Get Myself Killed.” The former balances an often breezy lead vocal with gnarly undercurrents of guitar before the whole thing lets rip in its punchy chorus, while the latter, the album’s opening track, finds a different mood entirely, a slacker rock gem that repeats its chorus as a chest-beating mantra. Elsewhere, “Good Heart” furthers the dichotomy which sits at the record’s core, each moment of quiet introspection soon met by a cacophonous burst of energy.

                                    Indigo called the record I Love My Mom as a way of acknowledging the one person who’d believed in her work the most. Growing up in a conservative small town in North Carolina, Indigo struggled with bullying and being an outcast from a very early age, resulting in a crippling shyness that lasted throughout her teens. When her mom noticed her channeling these experiences into songwriting she encouraged the endeavor wholeheartedly, buying her a guitar and arranging lessons. By the age of 11 Indigo was writing her own songs. “Over time I realized that she had pushed me out of my shell completely, and performing became a thing that I naturally wanted to do,” Indigo says. “I couldn't have gotten to that point without her. It became one of the things that made me feel seen and safe.”

                                    At the age of 16, Indigo moved to Asheville and found it to be a place where unique qualities weren’t scorned but celebrated. “I was always different, and I was very aware of it. It was very difficult because I felt like people just didn’t want me there and I didn’t know why,” Indigo says of her childhood. “When I moved to Asheville I found that actually a lot of people were like me, and there are places that are so much more diverse. I realized that it was okay to be different.”

                                    In the sanctity of this exciting new town, Indigo leapt into her songwriting and began an empowering journey which would eventually lead her to the writing, recording, and self-releasing of her debut album - complete with its striking cover art which was painted by her mom; a nod to the person who played such a pivotal role in those preceding years.

                                    The album was released to immediate excitement in the local scene leading to repeated sold-out shows at the beloved Asheville venue The Mothlight. Indigo also began touring with her band, supporting the likes of Alex G and Beach Bunny. It was at one of these shows where Saddle Creek first witnessed her. The label signed Indigo soon after and will give I Love My Mom the full release it deserves - with the album pressed to vinyl for the first time in the summer of 2021 - ahead of a brand new LP a little further down the road.


                                    TRACK LISTING

                                    01. How I Get Myself Killed
                                    02. Take O Ur Pants
                                    03. Good Heart
                                    04. Smoke
                                    05. Sick In The Head
                                    06. What Are We Gonna Do Now
                                    07. Home Team
                                    08. Ghost
                                    09. The Sun Is Bad
                                    10. I Had To Get Out

                                    Spirit Of The Beehive

                                    Entertainment, Death

                                      Ever since Spirit Of The Beehive released their self-titled debut in 2014, they’ve developed a reputation for being your favourite band’s favourite band. Theirs is the music of immersion, of confrontation, the kind that makes a listener stop and wonder, “How are they even doing that?” And as the years wear on, that sense of bafflement has made room for Spirit Of The Beehive to quietly but steadily ascend, with their most recent album, 2018’s Hypnic Jerks, leaving them poised on the precipice of wider recognition.

                                      Spirit Of The Beehive now release their fourth album and Saddle Creek debut, Entertainment, Death. The album signals new chapters for the band on multiple fronts, being the first to feature their new three-piece lineup, as well as the first to be entirely self-recorded and produced. Guitarist/vocalist Zack Schwartz and bassist/vocalist Rivka Ravede are now joined by new member Corey Wichlin, a multi-instrumentalist who relocated from Chicago to the band’s home territory of Philadelphia last year. In the spring of 2020, the trio began to write their new album at a distance by emailing les back and forth. “The process of making this album was basically the exact opposite of our experience creating Hypnic Jerks,” Schwartz explains. “We had to record that in seven days, because that was the studio time we had, whereas Entertainment, Death was made over the course of three, four months.”

                                      An abundance of time wasn’t the only difference. Recording remotely offered the band an incentive to experiment with new possibilities for their sound, resulting in an album that is unlike any Spirit Of The Beehive has released before. Once the band finished recording and mixing the album digitally, they mastered it to tape, lending the collection a textured, dimensional quality. “We knew we wanted to use some new instrumental elements on this album,” Wichlin says. “We're not going fully electronic,” Schwartz adds, “But guitar, bass, drums just get kind of monotonous.” Though Entertainment, Death doesn’t cohere in a single, unifying theme, the band samples old obscure commercials throughout, many of which guided the process of writing a song instead of serving as an appendage. Schwartz describes his songwriting process as a stream-of-consciousness, while Ravede asserts that she doesn’t typically write vocal parts with any specific intention in mind. “When I write, the narrative usually doesn’t present itself until after the song is done. And even then, it depends on how the listener interprets the words,” she reflects. Regardless of how dreamlike Entertainment, Death’s lyrics can be, reality rears its head throughout Entertainment, Death. The album isn’t a metamorphosis, it’s simply the newest iteration of a longstanding project. “There’s a line in the Bee Gees documentary that I think applies to us. I’ll paraphrase: ‘We may not have always connected, but we always stuck around,’” Ravede says. Schwartz jumps in, “Entertainment, Death: we’re still here.”

                                      TRACK LISTING

                                      01. Entertainment
                                      02. There’s Nothing You Can Do
                                      03. Wrong Circle
                                      04. Bad Son
                                      05. Give Up Your Life
                                      06. Rapid & Complete Recovery
                                      07. The Server Is Immersed
                                      08. It Might Take Some Time
                                      09. Wake Up (In Rotation)
                                      10. I Suck The Devil’s Cock
                                      11. Death

                                      Quarter-Life Crisis

                                      Quarter Life Crisis

                                        The genesis of Ryan Hemsworth’s new project, Quarter-Life Crisis, can be traced all the way back to his childhood bedroom in Nova Scotia, where the producer spent the bulk of his high school years listening to emerging indie acts and playing guitar. Not loving the sound of his own voice and without a band, he eventually started making music on his laptop, which earned him accolades as he stepped out into electronic and club music scenes. His prolic output, paired with a voracious appetite for a wide range of genres and creation of his own label Secret Songs, has made Hemsworth a xture since he released his debut solo album, Guilt Trips, in 2013.

                                        But now, Hemsworth’s trying his hand at something unexpected that is nonetheless close to his heart and origin story as a musician. Quarter-Life Crisis is a collaboration with various artists who’ve come to prominence over the past couple of years , many of whom got their start playing scrappy DIY shows. “This project has me in the process of going back to when I was a kid when I’d sit down and play guitar for hours and come up with melodies and chords by just messing around,” Hemsworth says. “It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for ages.”

                                        The self-titled debut EP features contributions from Frances Quinlan (Hop Along), Meg Duy (Hand Habits), Charlie Martin (Hovvdy), Yohuna, and Claud. It showcases Hemsworth in a new phase of his career, one that is perhaps a bit less indebted to the nightclub dance oor. “It’s always been a goal to mix, like, 25% electronic sounds and 75% live indie rock sounds,” he says. Collaboration is paramount to Hemsworth’s process, and though he produced all of the instrumentation on the album, he left the lyrics and intention of the song up to the contributors. The resulting collection shapeshifts from track-to-track, taking on new personalities as it moves between. “I think of my music-making process as ‘sneaking in as a fan,’” Hemsworth says. “Quarter-Life Crisis is just another way for me to work with artists whose music I really enjoy and listen to all the time .”

                                        Though Hemsworth has been a working musician for a decade now, Quarter-Life Crisis has felt like a wholly new experience. He recorded the tracks using live instruments, which he doesn’t typically do, and for many of his collaborators the shift to performing without a band, or even an instrument in their hands, was unfamiliar. For Quinlan, who sings on the arresting “Postcard from Spain,” this was one of the only times she’s made music with someone outside of her circles. “Recording with Ryan ended up being a really freeing experience to focus solely on vocal melody, to play with where I could take what was already there, already strong on its own,” she said.

                                        Quinlan’s experience overlapped with that of the other contributors. Going into the studio almost as a session artist gave Duy the opportunity to alter their voice in a way they might not have considered with a Hand Habits song. “Meg asked me to make them sound like Travis Scott,” Hemsworth remembers, laughing. The hypnotic track, “Comfortable,” made Duy think about “AI and cyborgs” and “souls disassociating from bodies.” “I kind of just freestyled until a theme started to swim up,” they said. For Hovvdy’s Martin, this was his rst time ever writing lyrics to accompany another artist’s work. “It was really exciting to hear [Ryan] meet me in the middle style-wise. There are many hidden gems in the production of ‘Waterfall,’” Martin muses. “Lyrically the song explores a parallel I’ve been feeling lately: the diculty of understanding and being understood and how sometimes that struggle almost mirrors the state of the planet. It’s like a downward spiraling feedback loop where any optimism feels like a triumph.”

                                        Working with musicians who largely fall into the category of “indie” gave Hemsworth the opportunity to revisit some of the artists who inspired him to become a musician in the rst place. He cites bands like the Cardigans, Grandaddy, Bright Eyes, and Sparklehorse as being foundational to his writing process this time around. Quarter-Life Crisis a sharp turn away from his last project, 2019’s CIRCUS CIRCUS, which he made alongside the Japanese rap duo Yurufuwa Gang, but for Hemsworth, working in a wide array of genres and modes keeps him on his toes, and ultimately, keeps his career interesting. “Getting out of my comfort zone and bringing others into that process has always led to something really unique,” Hemsworth says. “As a producer, I really respond to other people’s ideas and whatever they can bring to a song. Being in a room with someone with a dierent outlook, or working remotely with them, I hopefully help facilitate something that feels new and exciting for both of us.”


                                        TRACK LISTING

                                        1. Waterfall (feat. Charlie Martin Of Hovvdy)
                                        2. Comfortable (feat. Hand Habits)
                                        3. Postcard From Spain (feat. Frances Quinlan)
                                        4. You & Me (feat. Claud)
                                        5. Fatigue
                                        6. Stars (feat. Yohuna)

                                        Crake

                                        Enough Salt (For All Dogs) / Gef

                                          Crake are an alt-folk four piece from the city of Leeds in northern England who write melodic and (sometimes) hopeful songs about ora, fauna, anxiety and the tough stu. Formed on the cusp of 2016/17 after a New Year’s Eve pact, Crake spent their rst couple of years playing locally with loose-line-up changes, self-releasing two EPs - 2017’s By the Slimemould and 2018’s The Politics of Lonely.

                                          Led by singer/guitarist Rowan Sandle, Crake blend shimmering alt-folk and indie-rock, featuring an increasing density of guitars, tape-loops and synth blankets. Their songs provide a more sonically reassuring but equally intimate bed for Sandle’s poetic lyrics.

                                          In late 2018 the band supported Big Thief ’s Buck Meek on the Leeds date of his solo tour, impressing the guitarist so much that he invited them along for Big Thief ’s forthcoming tour across the UK and Europe. Those three weeks spent travelling and playing with their musical heroes saw Crake go from a small, beloved act who’d barely left their hometown, to finding themselves with a legitimate fanbase of their own. Their third 3-track EP Dear Natalie was subsequently released in 2019, also marked by the addition of lead guitarist Russell Searle, joining Rob Slater on drums and Sarah Statham on bass. The EP was the sound of Crake nding their feet on a larger stage, both literally and guratively, with opening track ‘Glycerin’ shining a spotlight on Sandle’s ever-confessional words.

                                          Since the Big Thief tour and the Dear Natalie EP the band have focused solely on writing and demoing new music, assembling in garages, practice rooms and the beloved Greenmount Studios in Leeds (The Cribs, Pulled Apart By Horses) where drummer Rob Slater works. The results of this focused time away can be heard on Enough Salt (For All Dogs) b/w Gef, a brand new, two-track single which will be released on 7” vinyl via Saddle Creek’s ongoing Document Series.*  Exploring the depths of their sound while staying rooted in Rowan Sandle’s brilliant songwriting and captivating lyrics.

                                          TRACK LISTING

                                          1. Enough Salt (For All Dogs) 2:09
                                          2. Gef 3:12

                                          The Big Net

                                          Big Moon / Rufus

                                            Taking inspiration from the original concept behind the founding of Saddle Creek, as an attempt to highlight our home city through music and art, we began the Document Series in 2017. Each release featured in the Document Series is comprised of an exclusive record featuring unreleased music from artists outside of the label's roster, along with a specially curated zine created by the artist. The tenth installment in the series comes from New York based The Big Net.

                                            An exercise in simplicity, The Big Net is the musical project of Kevin Copeland (guitar, vocals) Andrew Emge (drums) and Logan Miley (bass). Attempting to maximize the emotive power of the trio, the band’s style drives down the highway somewhere between drone and country, folk and rock. With Corey Rubin on bass and secondary vocals, their first self-titled record explored more of those rock roots: recorded live in two days with minimal overdubs, trying to capture the freewheeling magnetism that can come alive in a room.

                                            Released as part of Saddle Creek’s Document Series, the band’s two new songs - "Big Moon" and “Rufus" - were recorded that same weekend. The idea of The Big Net is and has always been immediacy, letting that tangible thing in the air be itself and tuning into “song” at its most genuine. Both songs make good on those aspirations. “Big Moon” is quite literal. Written during a particularly lonely period in Copeland’s life, he would sing so that he could fall asleep and from that process the song seemed to “float in all at once.” “Sometimes all you have is yourself, and the moon, or a guitar, or a bed, or the ground under your feet, and that's ok. Those things will always hold you,” Kevin says of the song.

                                            Suitably, "Rufus" was tuned into to the same kind of frequency, pulled from the ether as if it had somehow always existed. “When our friend Corey was playing bass with us, most rehearsals before everyone’s gear was even set up; someone was off and everyone else would catch up,” Copeland says. “Somewhere in that soup, an idea would come through. I remember latching onto what became the verse of “Rufus” and, when Andrew and Corey were out getting some air, I just played it over and over and that melody seemed to float right in.”

                                            The band have just finished recording a new, more exploratory LP, again captured in a single room over two days. With Copeland as the primary songwriter, the group continues to interpret earnest emotion in song through their hypnotic and dynamic sensibilities. For now, though, we have this new 7” single; an exercise in vulnerability, in trusting your impulses, in the magic that can be found within.


                                            TRACK LISTING

                                            A1. Big Moon
                                            B1. Rufus 

                                            Frances Quinlan

                                            Likewise

                                              “We should try again to talk,” Frances Quinlan writes. It not just a lyric—it’s a suggestion, a warning, a plea, a wish. This request is woven throughout Likewise, her forthcoming solo album, amidst dramatically shifting motifs. Some are jubilant, some are dreamy and abstract, and a few are sinister, but within each dark void that Quinlan explores, there is a light peering back at her.

                                              Frances Quinlan has built an identity for herself over the past decade as the lead songwriter and front-woman of the Philadelphia-based band Hop Along, and her distinct voice is among the most recognizable and inimitable in music. While the band began as Quinlan's solo project (originally titled Hop Along, Queen Ansleis), Likewise (out January 31st on Saddle Creek) is Quinlan's debut under her own name. To make the record, she enlisted the virtuosic skills of her bandmate Joe Reinhart, and together they produced the album at his studio, The Headroom, recording in stints over the course of a year.

                                              With a renewed openness to explore different sounds, Quinlan supplements her typical guitar-based instrumentation with synthesizers, digital beats, harps, strings, and a wide variety of keyboards. The shifting and exploratory nature of these musical arrangements allow her lyrics and vocals—which have always been at the forefront of her music—to reach emotional depths like never before. Her vocal tones beckon a kaleidoscopic range of emotions across all nine songs on the album, from soft and ruminative to enraged and commanding; from conveying powerful messages to highlighting small, yet poignant, moments.

                                              Quinlan is a voyaging songwriter. Throughout Likewise, she confronts what confounds her in the hopes that she will come out on the other side with a better sense of what it is to be human. She presents listeners with a complicated, albeit spirited vision of what it could mean to truly engage with another person, to give a small piece of oneself over to someone else without expectation. Although such is likely to be a lifelong effort, these songs prove evident that light can still permeate from unsettling depths.

                                              TRACK LISTING

                                              1. Piltdown Man
                                              2. Your Reply
                                              3. Rare Thing
                                              4. Detroit Lake
                                              5. A Secret
                                              6. Went To LA
                                              7. Lean
                                              8. Now That I'm Back
                                              9. Carry The Zero

                                              Stef Chura

                                              Messes

                                                Stef Chura’s debut studio album, Messes, is born of her years of experience playing around the Michigan underground, setting up DIY shows in the area, and moving around the state. “Right when it starts to feel like home/It's time to go," she sings on its opening cut, 'Slow Motion', a twisty, dim-lit guitar pop song where she curls and stretches every word. There are worlds of emotion in the ways Chura pronounces phrases with twang and grit, alternatingly full of despair, playfulness, and abandon. Chura calls her music “emotional collage,” eschewing start-to-finish storylines in favour of writing intuitively about feelings, drawing from experiences and references related to a certain sentiment.

                                                Originally from Alpena, Michigan, Chura moved to the Ypsilanti area in 2009, where she began playing shows before ultimately moving to Detroit in 2012. Chura has been home-recording and self-releasing her songs for six years, playing bass in friends’ bands as well. With a trove of demos and 4-track home recordings, some of which she’d released on small runs of cassettes over the years, Chura says she wasn’t sure what to do with her life before heading into the studio. “One of my best friends passed away and I thought, what do I have to do before I die? I have to at least make one record.”

                                                She recorded the entire album with Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good To Me) throughout 2015. Thomas plays bass on most of the record, and a bit of guitar and drums. Drummer Ryan Clancy of Jamaican Queens and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. adds the bulk of the drums. Through intricate guitar work and warm, textured production, Messes finds her trying to make sense of life’s ups and downs. “It’s about emotional mess, not physical mess,” Chura says. “The title track is about knowing that you are going to do something the wrong way, but you’re doing it anyway because you want that experience. I’ve had to do a lot of things the wrong way in order to figure out how to live my life.”

                                                TRACK LISTING

                                                01. Slow Motion 2:07
                                                02. You 3:59
                                                03. Thin 2:09
                                                04. Human Being 3:17
                                                05. Faded Heart 2:59
                                                06. Spotted Gold 2:20
                                                07. Time To Go 2:50
                                                08. Messes 3:47
                                                09. On And Off For You 3:39
                                                10. Becoming Shadows 2:31
                                                11. Speeding Ticket 4:25

                                                Young Jesus

                                                Young Jesus

                                                  Young Jesus, an indie rock quartet from Los Angeles, looks to communicate the tensions between proximity and distance, chaos and order. On their upcoming record S/T, to be released by Saddle Creek, the band focuses on seemingly small moments in everyday life: phone calls with Mom, landscapes along the highway, crows in a tree. Yet with time these strange intimacies add up to a life. A life full of anxiety, confusion, sadness, joy, boredom, and ultimately wonder.

                                                  Young Jesus mixes the emotional intensity of bands like Slint, Pile, and Built To Spill with the quiet contemplation of Yo La Tengo, Mogwai, and Laughing Stock-era Talk Talk. They give themselves to moments of aggression and volume, balanced alongside near-silence.

                                                  Influenced by the writings of Donna Haraway, Timothy Morton, Wang An-Shih, Wang Wei, Joy Williams, and Marilynne Robinson, singer/songwriter John Rossiter hopes for a making-do with what we have, a sometimes wide-eyed learning process. Life may be too massive to grasp, but that does not mean we should shy away from it. Rather, Young Jesus tries to look toward the complexity and imperfection. “As ever, the questions Rossiter and co. raise are too big to expect any sort of clear answer, but Young Jesus offer a model of coping, a way to remain hopeful and human within their jaws” (Various Small Flames).

                                                  Rossiter states, “the ethos is to push each other to express things that are not common-- like ideas of love and trust within friendships-- through being extremely vulnerable and making mistakes. Hopefully those mistakes become framed as an important and necessary part of process. It's about communication between four people. Hopefully it is the sound of four very good friends who want to let other people into that space.” These may be small things, but observed with thought and care they come to make the world of Young Jesus

                                                  TRACK LISTING

                                                  1. Green 5:46
                                                  2. River 3:09
                                                  3. Eddy 6:25
                                                  4. Under 2:15
                                                  5. Desert 6:46
                                                  6. Feeling 9:49
                                                  7. Storm 12:42

                                                  Premium is the glistening debut album from New York-based Sam Evian. Sam describes the album as; “an analogue dream in a digital world.” Like flowing water, its cool surface entices and refreshes - then reveals hidden emotional depths. The sound of Premium recalls a sunbaked cassette of Pet Sounds or All Things Must Pass, composed with glowing guitar chords, aching pedal steel, Wurlitzers and iconic 20th-century synths. Inspired by the soulful classic sounds of Jackson Browne, Shuggie Otis, Sly and the Family Stone and The Band, as well as contemporary influences such as Cass McCombs, Broadcast, Cate Le Bon, and Chris Cohen, this is music meant for a close-up experience; spacious, dreamy, fun, and disarmingly open and honest.

                                                  The music came together quickly when Sam found himself in what he calls, “a premium set of circumstances.” An engineer and producer as well as in-demand guitarist, Sam befriended the founders of Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Studio, Eli Crews and the enigmatic and inspiring Shahzad Ismaily. After helping them to build and wire the studio, Sam explains how he found himself at the centre of a musical community; “I was surrounded by endlessly talented and fun musicians in a beautiful recording environment that I helped build. I felt confident and happy, so the music came together easily.”

                                                  That musical community included the group that recorded Premium. The album’s nine songs reflect the casual, relaxed atmosphere Sam created for himself at Figure 8, gathering his friends to record in o¬ff hours, capturing moments of o¬ffhand inspiration and laughter. There was Austin Vaughn on drums (Here We Go Magic, Luke Temple), a long-time friend from North Carolina School of the Arts, and Brian Betancourt on bass (Hospitality, Here We Go Magic, Luke Temple). They were joined by Michael Coleman on keys, a prolific player and producer, as well as being Figure 8’s studio manager. Pedal steel was provided by Dan Iead (Cass McCombs), and recorded at New York’s legendary Magic Shop studios in the days just before it closed. The tracks were some of the very last recordings in the room that had witnessed sessions by David Bowie, the Ramones, Blondie, Real Estate, Kurt Vile and generations of others. Other guest performers include vocalists Cassandra Jenkins and Hannah Cohen, Shahzad Ismaily, Eddie Barbash (the saxophonist on the Colbert show) and Steve Marion (aka Delicate Steve)


                                                  TRACK LISTING

                                                  1. Sleep Easy 4:19
                                                  2. Cactus 3:31
                                                  3. Dark Love 4:47
                                                  4. Big Car 3:30
                                                  5. Carolina 4:03
                                                  6. I Need A Man 3:20
                                                  7. Summer Running 3:24
                                                  8. Golden Skull 2:40
                                                  9. Tear 4:49

                                                  The Thermals

                                                  We Disappear

                                                    Produced by Chris Walla (formerly of Death Cab For Cutie), with whom the band has worked frequently, We Disappear was recorded in Portland at Kung Fu Bakery (The Shins, Tegan and Sara) and in Seattle, WA at The Hall of Justice (Nirvana, Mudhoney). The album – which will arrive ahead of the 10th anniversary of their acclaimed third LP The Body, The Blood, The Machine– is an authentic, dark, and deeply personal album couched in The Thermals’ trademark catchy and boundless pop/rock. The band examines technology, love, and death throughout: how separation in humanity can come through any of these avenues; how people try to outrun the demise of lives and relationships; how technology can isolate us and impact our relationships even as we completely – and willingly – assimilate ourselves into it (or go “Into The Code,” as the opening track suggests); and how we’ve begun to forego privacy for a feeling of immortality in order to not be ignored or forgotten.

                                                    Harris explains, “Technology, love and death are the three obsessions of the record. Our privacy used to be so important to us and now everything has changed - we freely off¬er once private information about relationships and reveal everything about our day-to-day lives. We’re trying to preserve our life digitally so when we’re gone people won’t forget us. We’re using technology to become immortal. You can even set up Facebook and Twitter accounts to continue updating after you die! We Disappear is about how humans fight the inevitable.

                                                    ”Harris’s heartfelt lyrics – which draw heavily from his own recent experiences in contrast to his earlier, mostly fictitious tales – are both complimented and contrasted by the music. The galloping anthem “Hey You” depicts a paranoid fantasy of fleeing from the Grim Reaper as he calls after you; the poppy, sing-along sadness of “My Heart Went Cold” plays on the double metaphor of the loss of love/life; and the surprisingly uplifting, soaring “Thinking Of You” is both a straight-forward love song and relationship eulogy. We Disappear is a walk through modern life and love, and despite its dark themes, The Thermals here deliver one of their most spirited, anthemic, and rousing releases to date.

                                                    The Mynabirds

                                                    Lovers Know

                                                      After touring the world as a member of the Postal Service in 2013, Laura Burhenn (The Mynabirds) took a year to get lost. She drove across the US twice, toured South Africa solo, made her first appearance in London (also solo), and trekked all over Europe with William Faulkner’s words ringing in her ears: “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” Finally she found herself in Los Angeles with a suitcase of songs to fill a whole new album. Lovers Know, The Mynabirds’ third full-length release, was produced by Bradley Hanan Carter (Black English) and recorded over a yearlong period in Los Angeles, Joshua Tree, Nashville, and Auckland, New Zealand.

                                                      It’s definitely new territory for Burhenn, forging into 80s, 90s and futuristic soundscapes, recalling Kate Bush, Sinead O’Connor, The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and even 90s hip hop and R&B. The album may be loaded with a fresh palette of new sounds (swarms of synths, gauzy electric guitars, and electronic drums), but her brooding, unmistakable voice leads the way. Lyrically this is her most personal and confessional work to date, and also her most accessible. Whereas her last album, GENERALS, watched from a wide angle to understand the world at a distance, Lovers Know pulls in close.

                                                      “There’s something about wandering the world over,” Laura says, “that makes you realize how similar we all are – everyone searching for something, so often the same thing: love. It may sound trite, but it’s true. Love – or the lack of it – is the thing we all have in common. It can destroy us. It can break us open and let the light in. And it’s also the thing that can make us sing.” Burhenn has released two previous albums as The Mynabirds on Saddle Creek, What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood (2010) and GENERALS (2012), both of which were produced by Richard Swift and met by critical acclaim.

                                                      TRACK LISTING

                                                      1. All My Heart 4:09
                                                      2. Believer 3:00
                                                      3. Semantics 4:20
                                                      4. Say Something 3:52
                                                      5. Orion 4:57
                                                      6. Velveteen 3:46
                                                      7. Shake Your Head Yes 3:54
                                                      8. Wildfire 3:12
                                                      9. Omaha 5:42
                                                      10. One Foot 3:18
                                                      11. Hanged Man 5:25
                                                      12. Last Time 5:19

                                                      Kludge idiosyncratically captures life as it exists in our weird almost future world of flying robots, cancer from food, cell phone wire taps, metadata, $7.25ish minimum wage and $15.50 an hour endless choice buffets. Yet, the album possesses that inherent sense of timelessness that exists in all great music. Thanks to its combination of addictively fetching rock ‘n’ roll and Daniel Pujol’s lyrical brilliance, the end result proves yet again that Daniel Pujol is, first and foremost, a songwriter.

                                                      Examining well-worn subjects like love, death, authenticity, identity, alienation and society, Pujol applies a filter completely his own and brings these ideas to a place they’ve never existed before. His words examine the world with his signature brand of skepticism, humor, idealism, and an unmistakable earnestness and sincerity. Lead single “Circles” perfectly illustrates this with lines like “Show me that your sacred heart’s the human kindness kind / Show me more than 3D printers drawing skulls and knives / Show me more than kleptocratic demagogue control/Show me that you ain’t a lizard, show you’ve got a soul.”

                                                      TRACK LISTING

                                                      1. Judas Booth
                                                      2. Manufactured Crisis Control
                                                      3. Pitch Black
                                                      4. Circles
                                                      5. Dark Haired Suitor
                                                      6. Post Grad
                                                      7. Sacred Harp BFK
                                                      8. No Words
                                                      9. Spooky Scary
                                                      10. Small World
                                                      11. Youniverse

                                                      Rural Alberta Advantage

                                                      Departing

                                                      After a breakthrough 2009 that saw them earn comparisons to Arcade Fire and Neutral Milk Hotel, capture SXSW buzz playing on a bill with Grizzly Bear, sell out a tour, sign to Saddle Creek, and score a ‘Breaking Out’ featuring in Spin Magazine, The Rural Alberta Advantage are poised to explode in 2011 with the "Departing".

                                                      With The Rural Alberta Advantage’s new album, the band further refines the exuberant guitar work; everything-on-the-table singing; songwriting full of conviction and detail; and majestic, keyboard-sprinkled arrangements that have won them so many fans. "Departing" strings together themes of small towns, Canadian fall and winter, breakup, and redemption and serves as a companion piece to their beloved debut album "Hometowns". Highlights include the affecting "North Star", the stark regret of "Tornado", and the storming, percussive surge of "Stamp", all of which vividly set the scene.

                                                      The group consists of singer/guitarist Nils Edenloff, also the chief writer in the group; Paul Banwatt, whose raucous percussion pushes the songs into overdrive; and multi-instrumental Amy Cole, who provides keys, percussion, and backing vocals. Edenloff grew up in rural Fort McMurray, Alberta, and draws on his experiences there in his songwriting.

                                                      TRACK LISTING

                                                      1. Two Lovers
                                                      2. The Breakup
                                                      3. Under The Knife
                                                      4. Muscle Relaxants
                                                      5. North Star
                                                      6. Stamp
                                                      7. Tornado ‘87
                                                      8. Barnes’ Yard
                                                      9. Coldest Days
                                                      10. Good Night

                                                      Two Gallants

                                                      Two Gallants

                                                        The eagerly anticipated follow up to 2006's "What The Toll Tells" is here. Two Gallants feel that this album so perfectly captures their sound that they could only name it "Two Gallants". Touring schedules that would break many lesser bands have helped the duo refine and hone their sound. Recorded by Alex Newport (At the Drive-In, The Locust) in Two Gallants home town of San Francisco, the bands electric side is in full effect after the well received "Scenery Of Farewell" EP from earlier in 2007.

                                                        Two Gallants

                                                        The Scenery Of Farewell

                                                          Known for their aggressive, electric live shows, Two Gallants have fostered a dual musical personality by occasionally recording and playing songs with a more stripped down sound. Following on from 2006's acclaimed "What The Toll Tells", the duo showcase this different side to their music on "The Scenery Of Farewell", a five track mini-LP. Since the bands extensive touring schedule left little time for proper rehearsals, some of these songs, that were always meant for an album, evolved in such places as sound checks and radio show appearances, where it was more conducive for them to be performed. This release will be followed by a full-length album by Two Gallants in September 2007.

                                                          Bright Eyes

                                                          Noise Floor

                                                            "Noise Floor" collects selected Bright Eyes singles, one-offs, unreleased tracks, collaborations and covers recorded between 1998 and 2005. Variously recorded to cassette four-track, minidisc, reel-to-reel tape machine, ADAT and computer, these songs trace Bright Eyes' evolution from basement project to band of international repute. Many of these gems previously lost to out-of-print obscurity are hereby resurrected.


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