Donning a decadent sound described by Resident Advisor as “dark disco meets EBM”, Dina Summer is a collaborative project formed of electro-punk band Frittenbude member Kalipo and dark-disco dj & producer duo Local Suicide.

Their previous work includes the critically acclaimed 2022 album ‘Rimini’, which offers a nostalgic dive into retro disco vibes, along with the 2021 EP 'Who Am I’ and 2024 EP ‘Hide & Seek’. They also contributed to Curses’ 'Next Wave Acid Punx’ compilation, participated in Purple Mag x radiooooo’s ‘2070’ project, and performed at Reeperbahn Festival's prestigious ‘Collide Session’.

With millions of streams and worldwide radio airplay, Dina Summer's music has earned spots on numerous Spotify and Apple Music editorial playlists and has been supported by DJs like Charlotte De Witte, The Hacker, Âme, Dixon, Joris Voorn, DJ Hell, Joyce Muniz, and Dubfire. Their releases have been covered by major publications such as Resident Advisor, DJ Mag, Mixmag, Groove, Spiegel Online, Musikexpress, Tsugi, ELLE, Penthouse and FAZE among others. The new album is a versatile collection of 11 tracks that delve into themes such as empowerment ('No More Tears' & 'Girls Gang'), outsiderhood ('Alien' & 'Zombie'), impermanence ('Promise' featuring Curses and Joshua Murphy), nostalgia ('Halkidiki'), and relationships ('Nothing To Hide' & 'Hypnotized'). While their debut album was characterized by its club-centric sound, drawing from Italo disco and '90s electro influences, this new release explores a richer palette of new wave, post-punk, and synth-pop.

TRACK LISTING

1. Girls Gang
2. Schall & Rauch
3. Nothing To Hide
4. Alien
5. Halkidiki
6. Promise Me Feat. Curses & Joshua Murphy
7. Hypnotized
8. Zombie
9. Disco Goth
10. FOMO
11. No More Tears

'Who Let The Dogs Out' is the debut album from Brighton based noise-punk duo Lambrini Girls. Recorded with Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox. with mixing by Seth Manchester (Mdou Moctar/ Battles / Model/Actriz), 'Who Let The Dogs Out' bottles everything wrong with the modern world and shakes it up. If peppering political songs with humour is like sticking a sparkler in some bread, then 'Who Let The Dogs Out' is like a fireworks display in the factory itself: strange, dangerous, exciting.

The album rips through a laundry list of social ills.Sirens blare over a heavy distorted bass and a live drum breakbeat. The band dance between upbeat pop-punk, dirty grunge tones and discordant post-punk. There’s even some noise-pop cheer for putting yourself first, whether it’s having an autistic meltdown or doing a poo at your mate’s house.

With instrumentals that inhale you like a Level 5 tornado and sentiments that make you want to kick the nearest door through, it’s a take-no-prisoners debut from one of the UK’s most fun and fearless bands.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Thrashing, groove-filled mayhem from the superb Lambrini Girls here, with their debut full-length transmission coming out of the gates with a roaring mix of indie, punk and rock and roll. Lyrically incendiary, instrumentally perfect and absolutely FULL of attitude. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bad Apple
2. Company Culture
3. Big Dick Energy
4. No Homo
5. Nothing Tastes As Good As It Feels
6. You’re Not From Around Here
7. Scarcity Is Fake (Communist Propaganda)
8. Filthy Rich Nepo Baby
9. Special Different
10. Love
11. Cuntology 101

Area Silenzio is eat-girls' debut record and it is both haunted and haunting. For the past four years, the French trio have been crafting their songs into little self-contained worlds with the patience of entomologists, taking them out all over the country and Europe to confront them with the wilderness of a live audience. The ten resulting tracks are a collection of electronic madrigals, groove-driven songs played on a mischievous multi-speed Victrola, ranging from languid dub drips to full-on drum machine cavalcades. Part no-wave disco rhythms, part post-punk throbbing basses, folk tunes and synthesizers in equal measures, with a perpetual attention to hooks and melodies.

One of the most significant girl groups ever formed, Spice Girls are nothing short of a British pop phenomenon. An undeniable addition to National Album Day’s roster of great British groups, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell, Mel B, Melanie C and Victoria Beckham initially made their mark with their self-titled debut album, 1996’s Spice. Featuring the smash singles ‘Wannabe’, ‘Say You’ll Be There’ and ‘2 Become 1’, it remains not only one of the best-selling albums of all time, but also the best-selling album by a girl group. This clear-vinyl reissue will spice up any fan’s record collection.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wannabe
2. Say You'll Be There
3. 2 Become 1
4. Love Thing
5. Last Time Lover
6. Mama
7. Who Do You Think You Are
8. Something Kinda Funny
9. Naked
10. If U Can't Dance

Straight off the back of his first live headline tour, 1-800 GIRLS continues his journey of binding genres through emotion with his debut EP ‘That’s Just How I Feel’ on Seb Wildblood’s label all my thoughts.

Mirroring his previous works, this four-track collection is a tapestry woven around themes of transformation and progression. Evolving with each production, this release is a strong statement of intent for how he means to go on.

The EP itself is made up of 4 scantily clad, lovestruck dance tracks that feel purpose built for the summer festival run. Proudly bearing all the hallmarks of a UK production, pitch vocals are inked onto the body of each track with detail and care. He demonstrates his ability to stir emotion with simplicity, and seasons each production with tastefully chosen found sound recordings.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Electrified and hooky bass-house hits from 1-800 Girls that should appeal to fans of Deadboy, Four Tet, Two Shell, Leon Vynehall, Sophie etc.

TRACK LISTING

A1. How I Feel
A2. Signal
B1. Like You Do
B2. Guy Salmon

Bona fide all-girl bands the Hairem, the Girls, the Debutantes, the Missfits, the Beat-Chics and the Ace Of Cups are stars of the show on this new vinyl volume in our ear-grabbing “Girls With Guitars” series, providing further confirmation that girls can do what the guys do.

This collection opens with ‘Get Away From Me’ by the mean-sounding Angels (probably not the ‘My Boyfriend’s Back’ group of that name), a slice of feisty she-rock recorded circa 1965 that remained on the shelf at Philadelphia’s Swan Records until Ace rescued it about 40 years later, and closes with ‘Glue’ by the Ace Of Cups, a hippy outfit raved about by Jimi Hendrix in a Melody Maker interview back in 1967.

Elsewhere, ballsy-voiced Joyce Harris (think Wanda Jackson meets Tina Turner) teams up with Texas bar band the Daylighters to tear the roof off ‘I Got My Mojo Working’, teenage ice skater Debbie Williams sings lead with male garage band the Unwritten Law, guitarist Chiyo fronts the Crescents on the instrumental ‘Pink Dominos’ and, well, you get the picture. Those so inclined can learn more about all the tracks on the swanky inner bag containing a picture-packed 3,000-word track commentary by series compiler Mick Patrick. 

TRACK LISTING

Side One
1. Get Away From Me - The Angels
2. The Hoochy Coo - The Fatimas
3. Ask Me - Debbie Williams & The Unwritten Law
4. Grave Digger - Unknown Group
5. Give Me Rhythm And Blues - The Mysteries
6. Bus Stop - The Hairem
7. Pink Dominos - Chiyo & The Crescents

Side Two
1. I Got My Mojo Working – Joyce Harris & The Daylighters
2. Chico's Girl - The Girls
3. If You Wanna Be Happy - The Debutantes
4. Dimples - The Missfits
5. Skinny Minnie - The Beat-Chics
6. Mary Had A Little Kiss - The Tomboys
7. Glue - The Ace Of Cups

Sea Girls come of age on their new album 'Midnight Butterflies' delivering on the promise of their first two Top 3 records

Since roaring onto the scene, the band has cemented themselves as one of British indie's most consistent and successful groups. The immediacy and carefree attitude are the driving motivations of this superb new release via the band's own independent label, Alt. Records. With creative collaborations including Matt Schwartz (YungBlud), Benjy Gibson (Fred Again), Kid Harpoon (Harry Styles) and The Nocturns (Mimi Webb), this record is for fans of guitar music who are not afraid of big hooks and massive choruses. The result is their first album without compromise, reflecting the joy and energy they brought to the scene with their debut 'Open Up Your Head' and hit songs like 'Call Me Out' and 'All I Want To Hear You Say'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Midnight Butterflies
2. I Want You To Know Me
3. Come Back To Me
4. Horror Movies
5. Does Only God Know That We're Lonely?
6. Scream And Shout 
7. Weekends And Workdays
8. Superman
9. First On My List
10. Young Strangers 
11. Polly
12. After Hours

After a hiatus of five years, The Pearlfishers, Glasgow’s finest, return with their ninth album for Marina – most probably their best and most immediate one so far.

Driven by main man David Scott’s exceptional songwriting and sophisticated arrangements, Making Tapes For Girls is a goldmine of pop gems – full of witty & colourful lyrics about the affirmative & healing power of music and pop escapism. 

The title track evokes memories of those days of compiling a C-30/60/90 for your loved one or secretly adored one: “I didn’t know how to say the right thing / So I left it to Joni and Paul...”. Those mix tapes that came straight from your heart & soul – “the nub of it, the truth of it, the ‘you’ of it.” It is another Pearlfishers classic in the vein of My Dad The Weatherfan and Even On A Sunday Afternoon and also David Scott’s nod to Terry Hall’s The Colour Field.

All of these 12 new tracks could have made it easily onto such a tape. Kisses On The Window is a very personal and straightforward love song, with a beautiful string quartet arrangement. Hold Out For A Mystic, most definitely the only song in pop history which references Henri Matisse and Billy Childish in the same line (“The Fauve and the Stuckist man”), is built around a cosmic ELO acoustic guitar sound, while Put The Baby In The Milk channels Carole King jumping through some harmony hoops à la Laura Nyro. We experience more name dropping in The Word Evangeline, a rumination on all songs featuring that name, from The Cocteau Twins to Emmylou Harris to Matthew Sweet. Yellow & The Lovehearts is a wonderful two part suite that takes us from full-on shiny pop to a glacial Simon & Garfunkel soundscape. We are even visiting a Fleetwood Mac-ish vibe in Until I Knew Happy – listen to that great cosmic country banjo solo which creates a fantastic widescreen sound! The super poppy We’re Gonna Make A Hit Record, Boy features the great line: “And we’ll sing it out for Judee Sill and Tony Bourdain”.

Oh yes. When The Sun Comes Back To The West Coast definitely lives up to its title – a return to the catchy Byrds harmonies of The Pearlfishers’ Marina debut The Strange Underworld Of The Tall Poppies.

Most of the album was recorded at La Chunky Studios in Glasgow where everything is vintage – from an old Ludwig kit, old Wurlitzer electric piano and Fender Rhodes keyboards to tons of vintage microphones and compressors. It made a big stamp on the overall sound to an album which is most probably the best one by The Pearlfishers yet.

TRACK LISTING

01. Making Tapes For Girls
02. Kisses On The Window
03. Hold Out For A Mystic
04. Put The Baby In The Milk
05. Until I Knew Happy
06. The Word Evangeline
07. We’re Gonna Make A Hit Record, Boy
08. Yellow & The Lovehearts
09. The Wild Lives
10. Protect The Heart That’s Beating
11. When The Sun Comes Back To The West Coast
12. Sweet Jenny Bluebelle

After two critically acclaimed albums (2020’s ‘Now Here’s An Echo From Your Future’ and 2022’s ‘The Rest Is Distraction’), and numerous mini-album, EP and single releases, London-based trio Girls In Synthesis return with their new statement; their third album ‘Sublimation’.

If you thought you knew GIS, think again… they have moved on and created a dark and intense, yet melodic, collection of songs; their take on an angular pop record. Opening song ‘Lights Out’ is split into two distinct sections; the opening a Barrett-esque vocal and guitar lament to sleep deprived anxiety which morphs, via a ‘Faust Tapes’ influenced freeform noise section, into a stomping, high intensity closing blitz.

Tracks such as ‘Deceit’, ‘We Are Here’ and ‘Picking Things Out Of The Air’ see the group at their most melodic to date, minimising some of the chaotic noise elements of their signature sound and bringing to the fore impassioned, soaring vocals and keys melodies. Their trademark, driving drums and bass foundation is particularly evident on songs ‘I Judge Myself’ and ‘Corrupting Memories’, but is counterbalanced by intense, early goth influenced keyboard lines, bringing influences from late 1970s/early 1980s into focus with the contemporary GIS intensity. Slow-burning tracks ‘I Was Never There’ and ‘The Prefix’ build up tension and atmosphere with sparse arrangements and circular, spiralling outros, while closer ‘A Damning Lesson’ sees the band return to their intense, bludgeoning wall of sound only to send it into a blur of echoing drum machine, reminiscent of the early work of Cabaret Voltaire.

Lyrically, GIS prove themselves head and shoulders above their contemporaries, leaving the pastiche sloganeering and lecturing to those wishing to preach to the converted, and reach inside to bring forth poetic and challenging analysis of the anxiety and emotional turmoil of self-reflection and human relationships. Booked in for extensive UK/EU touring throughout May and June, the band will be adapting their white-heat live show to bring subtlety and clarity to the new songs from ‘Sublimation’, losing none of their unique and intense performance in the process. Be ready…

TRACK LISTING

Lights Out
Deceit
Semblance Of Choice
We Are Here
Corrupting Memories
I Was Never There
Picking Things Out Of The Air
I Judge Myself
Subtle Differences
The Prefix
A Damning Lesson

Originally from Brighton, the two piece are Phoebe Lunny (Vocals/Guitar - she/they) and Lilly Macieira (Bass - she/they) plus drummer Banksy*. They’ve made a name for themselves through unforgettable live performances and support from the likes of Variety Magazine, BBC Radio 1, NME, The Line Of Best Fit, KEXP, Consequence, Evening Standard, CLASH, So Young, and recently covered Kerrang! Magazine alongside Sleater-Kinney, bagged a nomination for Rolling Stone UK’s Rising Stars Award, and even Iggy Pop is a fan.

TRACK LISTING

A1. God’s Country
B1. Body Of Mine

Back in print on white vinyl this November 3rd for the first time since 2003: ‘The New Romance’ by Pretty Girls Make Graves, the latest installment of Matador’s ongoing catalog series Revisionist History.

Pretty Girls Make Graves formed in Seattle in 2001, fused together out of the still glowing embers of nearly a dozen important groups. Andrea Zollo and Derek Fudesco had played together in Death Wish Kids and Area 51 along with Dann Gallucci, with whom Derek formed Murder City Devils. Shortly before the Murder City Devils called it quits, he and Andrea started Pretty Girls Make Graves with J. Clark (who was in Kill Sadie and Sharks Keep Moving) and Nick Dewitt and Nathan Thelen (both in Bee Hive Vaults).

Brilliantly produced by Phil Ek (Modest Mouse, Built To Spill, Les Savy Fav), ‘The New Romance’ magnifies Pretty Girls Make Graves’ songcraft and technical prowess while letting some air into their songs and keeping things in crisp focus. Every song on ‘The New Romance’ is an anthem, yet without traditional verses and choruses. Tension builds and shifts without conventional release, as moments of glassy beauty and rousing aggression trade sides.

TRACK LISTING

1. Something Bigger, Something Brighter
2. The Grandmother Wolf
3. Mr. Club
4. A Ll Medicated Geniuses
5. Blue Lights
6. Chemical, Chemical
7. 7
8. The Teeth Collector
9. Holy Names
10. The New Romance
11. This Is Our Emergency
12. A Certain Cemetery

After collaborating together for more than a decade, Jenny Hval and Håvard Volden released their first album under the Lost Girls moniker in 2021: Menneskekollektivet. The record received rave reviews, including a Best New Music mark at Pitchfork. In 2023 the duo releases their second album Selvutsletter. Like its predecessor, the album title is a made up Norwegian word, a word that almost exists. The band’s own translation of Selvutsletter is «self-effacer»: Someone who tries to erase themselves. Someone who is cleaning out themselves. Performing exorcism. Or perhaps just getting older, less interested in their own present self.

In 2022, Lost Girls were booked to perform a concert at Les Subsistances in Lyon, together with a few Norwegian performing arts groups performing their pieces. The band decided to use the opportunity to create all new material, and think of it as a coherent piece. Working in tandem, with Volden creating beats and wild sets of guitar chords and Hval restructuring the parts, creating melodies, words and adding more sounds, they started spiraling into unchartered territory of shorter, more concise and melodic songs than their debut LP Menneskekollektivet.

As the material developed, words already embedded in the chords, guitar sounds and rhythms began to dance around. Lyrics about cities after dark, music rituals and band practices of the 90s, and the early days of the internet began to take shape. These were Hval's own memories of her hometown and her obsession with creating music as a way of leaving it behind or even setting it on fire. Selvutsletter is, in that sense, about retracing Hval and Volden's steps back to how it felt to discover music, the intensely physical and communal experience of creating something. Certain tracks even go back further, to discover possible happenings in Norwegian towns and cities before any of us were born, using elements of faux folk singing.

Where Menneskekollektivet was about exploring club beats, and expanding and trying out structures, Selvutsletter is about disappearing in experiences. It combines the intuitive, late night feel of Lost Girls’ previous work with experimental rock music as its object. The result is more adventurous than nostalgic: A fiery, bilingual whirl of colors, words, vegetation and electricity.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. Timed Intervals
2. With The Other Hand
3. Ruins
4. Re-entering The City
5. World On Fire
Side B:
1. Jeg Slutter Meg Selv
2. June 1996
3. Seawhite

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Poison Girls "Hex" was first recorded and released in 1979. The recordings were produced by Penny Rimbaud and the band was led by vocalist Vi Subversa. Poison Girls came up on the punk wave, but Vi was obviously not your typical frontwoman. She was a 44-year-old mother, singing about life as a single parent. A unique and powerful voice both then and now. The album was recorded live in the studio, with precious few overdubs. This creates an immediacy and urgency to the performances. It bristles with the energy of anger, paranoia, hopelessness, helplessness, mental fragility and full-on anguish. Vi Subversa took no prisoners. The stunning gatefold sleeve contains new insightful liner notes by founding guitarist Richard Famous. In addition, an insert is included with complete song lyrics and rare archival band photos overseen by the Poison Girls bass player, Bernhardt Rebours. This vinyl format of ëHexí is a 2023 Record Store Day exclusive. It is an 8 song 12ì LP, to be played at 45 RPM, and pressed on Blood Red vinyl. This record, from 1979, was streets ahead of its time. Is it as important and relevant to 2023 as it was then? Listen and learn. (btw, the answer is yes)

Chartz were a short-lived Wolverhampton-based covers band who also performed original material written by founder members Bernadette (Berny) Cosgrove and Kevin Clark. During its short lifetime Chartz was a springboard for lead singer/guitarist Berny and keyboard player Kevin to showcase and develop their songs, following their originally working together to write and produce jingles. They wrote, arranged and produced this 12" Girls World in 1983 with lyrics "celebrating female strength and independence whilst loving and respecting their partner", says Kevin & Berny. Shortly after this they went on to win a Sony Songwriters of the Year award and moved to London to co-form Hard Times Productions, with the 1986 self-titled Hard Times LP leading to the single "Never Give Into Love" the year after for Supreme Records - and then came the exciting offer of a songwriting contract with Motown's publishing company in New York!

A 10-year spell in the Big Apple saw Berny's solo artist debuts on movie soundtracks "True Love" and Lonely In America", and, after increasingly lucrative publishing deals with the likes of Sony, EMI & Warner Chappell, she and Kevin were commissioned for songwriting projects with an exhaustive list of pop stars spanning from Matt Goss, Rick Astley and Des O'Connor to Gary Barlow, Sheena Easton, Gloria Gaynor, Jimmy Sommerville and countless others. Berny & Kevin also wrote and produced two platinum selling US number 1 albums with boy-band Dream Street, and their biggest song to date is the internatinal hit "Crush" by Jennifer Paige which has sold in excess of 12 million copies worldwide.

Berny & Kevin's illustrious career definitively went from "Chartz" to CHARTS, and here you are able to go back to where it started as we serve up the first ever vinyl reissue of "Girls World" (original copies of which change hands for over £100) with the extended instrumental and radio mix on the flip.

TRACK LISTING

1. Girls World (Extended Dance Mix)
2. Girls World (Extended Instrumental Dance Mix)
3. Girls World (Radio Mix)

For the better part of a decade, LA’s scrappy rock n’ roll mystics Death Valley Girls have used their music as a means of tapping into a communal cosmic energy. On albums like Glow In The Dark (2016), Darkness Rains (2018), and Under the Spell of Joy (2020) the band challenged the soul-crushing banality of modern society and celebrated “true magical in­nite potential” through a collage of scorching proto-punk riffs, earworm melodies, far-out lyrics, and lysergic auxiliary instrumentation. But on their latest album Islands in the Sky, Death Valley Girls’ songwriting mastermind Bonnie Bloomgarden uses the band’s anthemic revelries as a guidebook to spiritual healing and a roadmap for future incarnations of the self. And while these may be the loftiest aims of Death Valley Girls to date, the resulting music is also by far their most infectious and celebratory.

“Death Valley Girls are a gift to the world.” - Iggy Pop

“Harnessing the allure of the occult and the power of self-help, the Los Angeles garage rockers break free from their roots and ascend to the realm of spiritual psych-jazz rockestra.” - Pitchfork

“(Death Valley Girls) taps out of traditional songwriting and tune into a new spiritual consciousness…” - Spin

“An insistent Banshees like boom and groove.” - MOJO

TRACK LISTING

1. California Mountain Shake
2. Magic Powers
3. Islands In The Sky
4. Sunday
5. What Are The Odds
6. Journey To Dog Star
7. Say It Too
8. Watch The Sky
9. When I'm Free
10. All That Is Not Of Me
11. It's All Really Kind Of Amazing

Bless This Mess is the highly anticipated eighth album by U.S. Girls, the nom de plume of North American multi-disciplinary and experimental pop artist Meg Remy. A dynamic suite of dexterous melodies and a nuanced artistic response to the complexities of motherhood, Bless This Mess was crafted in tandem with the conception and birth of Remy’s twin boys. It expands the sonic and thematic palette of U.S. Girls, fusing the muses of funk, mythology, and the radical disorientation of joy into an electric tapestry of anthems, aches, and awakenings.

As Remy’s body changed so did her voice; her diaphragm lost breathing room, adjusting to the growing lives inside. Many takes on Bless This Mess were tracked with the babies in utero, or in her arms. (She even samples her breast pump on the album’s poetic closing cut, “Pump”). The resulting performances are suffused by the physicality of this journey: more blood, more feelings, the interwoven wonders, and wounds of procreation.

The ten songs on Bless This Mess were pieced together stem by stem with a vast cast of collaborators (Alex Frankel of Holy Ghost!, Marker Starling, Ryland Blackinton of Cobra Starship, Basia Bulat, Roger Manning Jr. of Jellyfish and Beck,) and audio engineers (Neal H Pogue, Ken Sluiter, Steve Chahley, Maximilian Turnbull). Long-time collaborator, husband, and co-parent Turnbull played a key role facilitating these fluid muses. The production throughout is exquisite, warm, and wood-panelled, framing the voice, keys, bass, and rhythms in heightened textural harmony.

TRACK LISTING

Only Daedalus
Just Space For Light
Screen Face
Futures Bet
So Typically Now
Bless This Mess
Tux (Your Body Fills Me, Boo)
R.I.P. Roy G. Biv
St. James Way
Pump

Rough Trade Records commemorate the 10th anniversary of Alabama Shakes’ internationally acclaimed debut album, Boys & Girls, with a two-disc deluxe edition.

Hailed as one of the best albums of 2012 by Rolling Stone and numerous other publications, Boys & Girls entered Billboard’s Independent Albums chart at No. 1. It went on to attain Platinum certification and earn the band multiple GRAMMY nominations. Lead single “Hold On" was voted the #1 Best Song of 2012 by Rolling Stone..

Repackaged in a foil-board gatefold jacket with new, unreleased photos, Boys & Girls 10 Year Anniversary Deluxe Edition contains the album’s original 11 songs plus an additional 11 tracks from the band’s explosive live performance on KCRW’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” which aired in the months leading up to the album’s release.

TRACK LISTING

Hold On
I Found You
Hang Loose
Rise To The Sun
You Ain't Alone
Goin' To The Party
Heartbreaker
Boys & Girls
Be Mine
I Ain't The Same
On Your Way

Hang Loose (Live At KCRW)
I Found You (Live At KCRW)
Be Mine (Live At KCRW)
I Ain’t The Same (Live At KCRW)
Mama (Live At KCRW)
Goin’ To The Party (Live At KCRW)
Hold On (Live At KCRW)
Boys & Girls (Live At KCRW)
Always Alright (Live At KCRW)
Rise To The Sun (Live At KCRW)
Heavy Chevy (Live At KCRW)

“Guerrilla Girls!”, Ace Records’ much-anticipated first release of 2023, takes us on a thrilling ride from punk’s mid-70s origins, via the left-field post-punk groups, jangly female combos, grunge bands and vigilante Riot Grrrls of the 80s and 90s, to the she-punk bands of recent years – a five-decade alternative to the macho hegemony of rock.

The collection highlights songs that emerged out of a dynamic underculture of female creative expression. What unites the featured artists is a healthy disregard for the way the music industry ties up its female performers into pretty, neo-liberal packages. From Patti Smith, universal mother of the punk movement, to the Bags, Bikini Kill and Skinny Girl Diet, this music is anti-A&R. Including lesser-known names such as San Francisco street punk Mary Monday and London-based experimentalists pragVec, it shows that, rather than being a few novelty bands existing on the margins, these performers represent a stronger, more three-dimensional version of the female experience.

Glorious resistance was on display in the first wave of UK female-fronted punk bands. Poly Styrene’s charged vocals on X-Ray Spex’s ‘Iama Poseur’, for instance, were a deliberate refusal to be a pretty punkette. With 15 year-old Lora Logic on saxophone, X-Ray Spex epitomised a fearless, self-defined agency that was at odds with the pastel shades and flowery, submissive Laura Ashley version of 1970s girlhood. By the early 80s, there was a hugely vibrant scene propelled by the diverse rhythms and voices of post-punk feminism. Lora Logic had left X-Ray Spex to form the interweaving textures of Essential Logic, the Mo-dettes mangled ska and off-kilter pop, and Birmingham band Au Pairs sliced political rigour into their lyrics and funky guitar work.

Some female artists took that elemental energy into pop, creating pop-punk with a twist. We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It!! made a statement on music technology and female power with a cheeky play on words. Their song ‘Rules And Regulations’ shows that what Guerrilla Girls do well is debunking – taking genres of popular song and turning them inside out – like the way the Pandoras and the Pussywillows would amp up the driving beat and high vocals of the 60s girl group style, and subvert it with a DIY garage element.

In its fanzine culture, use of montage and DIY music, 90s Riot Grrrl bands such as Bikini Kill and Bratmobile drew direct inspiration from 70s punk, articulated through the prism of Third Wave feminism. Too often, Riot Grrrl gigs were invaded by men intent on heckling “the enemy”. Liz Naylor, manager of British Riot Grrrl band Huggy Bear, says that their concerts became war zones. From the US grunge and Riot Grrrl scenes emerged more female instrumentalists, with bands such as L7 and Babes In Toyland proving that it was possible to recruit cutting-edge drummers, bass players and guitarists. Lori Barbero, whose relentless power drumming is a major element of Babes In Toyland, took the one instrument that has been a staple of male rock’n’roll and made it her muse.

In the 2000s a new generation of girl-punk bands drew on the Riot Grrrl underculture to form their own sound. London trio the Tuts refashioned C86, Riot Grrrl and lush dream pop on songs like the ironically titled ‘Let Go Of The Past’, while the Regrettes injected shots of ska and doo wop into their explosive West Coast pop-punk. What began with Patti Smith and 70s punk has grown into a vast, spikey infrastructure of girl music. Many take inspiration from their foremothers, like Skinny Girl Diet whose vigilante feminism and punk distortion has been championed in return by Viv Albertine of the Slits. As long as these female artists stay aware of their musical vision and what they are trying to express – in a sense, A&R themselves – the underculture will continue to grow and flower. And this “Guerrilla Girls!” compilation is a celebration of that power.

The back sleeve of the release features a scene-setting introductory essay by Lucy O’Brien (author of She Bop: The Definitive History Of Women In Popular Music). Each of the two discs come in a swanky inner bag containing a track commentary by compiler Mick Patrick (Ace Records’ long-serving champion of female artists of all persuasions) and exclusive interviews with many of the featured artists by Vim Renault and Lene Cortina (founders of the Punk Girl Diaries webzine).

TRACK LISTING

SIDE ONE
1. GLORIA: In Excelsis Deo / Gloria (Version) - Patti Smith
2. SURVIVE - The Bags
3. IAMA POSEUR - X-Ray Spex
4. I GAVE MY PUNK JACKET TO RICKIE - Mary Monday & The Bitches
5. I DIDN’T HAVE THE NERVE TO SAY NO - Blondie
6. YOU’RE A MILLION - The Raincoats
SIDE TWO
1. POPCORN BOY (WADDLE YA DO?) - Essential Logic
2. EXPERT - PragVEC
3. MY CHERRY IS IN SHERRY - Ludus
4. KRAY TWINS - Mo-Dettes
5. EARTHBEAT - The Slits
6. DAS AH RIOT - Bush Tetras
SIDE THREE
1. BITCHEN SUMMER (SPEEDWAY) - Bangles
2. SHAKEDOWN - Au Pairs
3. IT’S ABOUT TIME - The Pandoras
4. COME ON NOW - The Pussywillows
5. RULES AND REGULATIONS - We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It!!
6. HER JAZZ - Huggy Bear
7. BRUISE VIOLET - Babes In Toyland
SIDE FOUR
1. REBEL GIRL - Bikini Kill
2. PRETEND WE’RE DEAD - L7
3. WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU - Bratmobile
4. LET GO OF THE PAST - The Tuts
5. HOT - The Regrettes
6. SILVER SPOONS – Skinny Girl Diet

Experimental post-punk outfit Girls In Synthesis release the eagerly anticipated follow-up to 2020’s incendiary debut, ‘Now Here’s An Echo From Your Future’. Entitled ‘The Rest Is Distraction’, its mix of fractured guitar, crushing drums and bass, intense vocals and lyrical content - create as challenging a record as you will hear this year.

Formed in 2016, Girls In Synthesis are John Linger (bass / vocals), Jim Cubitt (guitar / keys) and Nicole Pinto (drums). The trio’s double a-sided debut single ‘The Mound’/’Disappear’ came out in the early part of 2017, and since then they have established themselves as the most forward thinking, viscerally challenging band around with unmissable live shows that continue to excite and astound in equal measure.

Recorded last year amidst the uncertainty of continuous lockdowns as a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic, ‘The Rest Is Distraction’ is far darker in content than its predecessor. Mainly exploring internal and mental struggles as opposed to external current affairs, it focuses on the claustrophobia of emotional anguish and continues to bravely delve into previously un-ventured topics. Featuring frequent collaborators funkcutter and Stanley Bad on horns and violin, respectively, two songs also see Eleni Poulou, ex-The Fall, on keyboards. The album was mixed by long-term collaborator Max Walker, and features stunning landscape photography by Bea Dewhurst. The album was mastered in France by Ayumu Matsuo.

Sonically atramentous and less one dimensional than the band’s debut, ‘The Rest Is Distraction’ takes its cues from ‘Join Hands’ era Siouxsie & The Banshees, Brainiac and Crass’ ‘Christ The Album’, among others. From the first crackle of electricity on the opening track, to the heart wrenching taped voice-recording on the final outro, this LP triumphantly retains every ounce of intensity and vitality that makes Girls In Synthesis the most captivating band to emerge from the UK DIY underground in recent years. Listeners will find ‘The Rest Is Distraction’ a challenging, yet ultimately cathartic listen. Prepare yourselves for a sonic cleansing, Girls In Synthesis style.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. It’s All Beginning To Change
2. Watch With Mother
3. Total Control
4. Swallowed Pill
5. Screaming
6. My Husband
Side B
1. Cottage Industry
2. Not As I Do
3. Lacking Bite
4. Your Prayers Have Changed
5. To A Fault

A band well and truly into their stride, Homesick sees Sea Girls, Henry Camamile, Rory Young, Andrew Dawson and Oli Khan, deliver thirteen measures of guitar driven pop brilliance including 2 bonus Deluxe tracks.

A deeply personal record, lead singer Henry Camamile returned to his childhood home in Lincolnshire at the wake of the pandemic, finding himself having to address and reflect on events from his past, both good and bad. A cathartic process, Henry leaves nothing to the imagination with his astute storytelling and candid lyrics. Delving into some of his darkest moments, the uplifting album comes as a sense of relief, a gratefulness for survival. Lyrically raw and packed to the brim with hooks, the band step into new realms with an added sense of maturity and a bigger ambitious sounding record.

Teaming long-term producer Larry Hibbitt with Grammy Award winning Producers Jacknife Lee, Jonny Coffer and Cass Lowe to co-produce the record, Henry reflects on the process: “Imagine us locked down in the studio in rainy Brixton working with the producers remotely on the album in California’s Topanga Canyon. That clashing of worlds is the sound of this record, the DNA. Making an album this way, remotely and 5000 miles apart, was a crazy idea and shouldn’t have worked, but it did”

Premiered by Arlo Parks as the ‘Hottest Record’ on BBC Radio 1 and debuted live on the band’s frenetic mainstage slot at Latitude Festival, the band drop the album’s first taste with the infectiously honest ‘Sick’.

“Sick is me listing things I’m pissed off with and feeling sorry for myself, it’s a growing up song where I realise I’m no longer a young child. It’s me in my bedroom at home ranting with my thoughts and going down the hole of being pissed” Henry said of the track. “I am sick of everything - from things I used to love through to things that feel vacuous, like consuming and buying. All these emotions are piling up and it's me just asking for a reset, a childish solution”

“It was a turning point in the writing for this album where the songs became about worrying for other people and how they were feeling. The pivot where I started writing clearly with a bigger perspective. I literally feel myself growing up throughout this song”

Sea Girls, one of the most exciting guitar bands to have emerged in recent times, are the torchbearers for the next wave. Delivering sing-along anthems for the masses, the band’s journey is well and truly on its way.

TRACK LISTING

CD & Vinyl Tracklist
Hometown
Sick
Lonely
Someone’s Daughter Someone’s Son
Sleeping With You
Paracetamol Blues
Again Again
Lucky
Higher
Cute Guys
Friends

Deluxe - Track Listing
HOMETOWN
SICK
LONELY
SOMEONE’S DAUGHTER SOMEONE’S SON
SLEEPING WITH YOU
PARACETAMOL BLUES
AGAIN AGAIN
LUCKY
HIGHER
CUTE GUYS
FRIENDS
WATCH YOUR STEP
I GOT YOU

Is there a better pairing of kindred spirits than a split seven-inch single featuring Le Butcherettes and Death Valley Girls? We're hard pressed to think of one. Sure, the interaction is fleeting, but damn is it satisfying.

We've got Le Butcherettes on side A taking on one of Death Valley Girls' most cosmic numbers, the kaleidoscopic centerpiece off Under the Spell of Joy album, "The Universe." Le Butcherettes' fearless and charismatic mastermind Teri Gender Bender takes the tune into even trippier territories, replicating the original song's sonic tapestry of synth, sax, and guitars with layer upon layer of vocals. Only the sparse accompaniment of acoustic guitar and modest percussion keeps the song from being fully a capella. It's a perfect interpretation of Death Valley Girls' communal and choral aims.

On side B, Death Valley Girls offer up a new tune - the deliciously ecstatic "When I'm Free." Like every great Death Valley Girls song, it's a celebration of life bolstered by fiery rock n' roll riffage, spiritual organ, dizzying sax, and Bonnie Bloomgarden's defiant and triumphant vocals. Suicide Squeeze Records is proud to offer up this meeting of mystical minds on vinyl and digital platforms on February 11, 2022.

The album opens with “Hypnagogia,” an ode to the space between sleep and wakefulness where we are open to other realms of consciousness. The song slowly builds along a steady pulse provided by bassist Pickle (Nicole Smith) and drummer Rikki Styxx. Tripped out saxophone bleats from guest player Gabe Flores swirl on top of the organ drones laid out by guest keyboardist Gregg Foreman. The band’s choral objectives for Under the Spell of Joy are established right off the bat, with Bonnie Bloomgarden’s melodic invocations bolstered by a choir, giving the album a rich and vibrant wall-of-sound aesthetic. The song ominously builds on its hypnotic foundation until it opens up into a raucous revelry at the four-minute mark.

The portentous simmer of the opening track yields to the ecstatic rocker “Hold My Hand,” where verses reminiscent of Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting For The Man” explode into big triumphant choruses. From there the band launches into the title track, which marries the griminess of The Stooges with an innocence provided by a children’s choir chanting the album’s primary mantra “under the spell of joy / under the spell of love.”

Death Valley Girls have always vacillated between lightness and darkness, and on “Bliss Out” they demonstrate their current exuberant focus with a patina-hued pop song driven by an irrepressibly buoyant organ line laid down by keyboardist The Kid (Laura Kelsey). A similar cosmic euphoria is obtained on “The Universe,” where alternating chords on the organ help elevate soaring saxophone and keyboard lines out beyond the stratosphere. If you’re looking for transcendental rock music, look no further.

“Death Valley Girls are a gift to the world.” Iggy Pop.

“If Charlie Spahn Ranch girls had formed a band that was part-Stooges, part-Bikini Kill, all groove, then they’d have sounded like this.” Classic Rock Magazine.

“A striking record, all brazen fury and bratty beats, something resembling hard rock before Sabbath” Noisey.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A ruthless, but melodic jaunt through snarling punk riffs, snapping percussion and fists-in-the-air groove from Death Valley Girls here. Expertly toeing the line between distorted drive and more thoughtful, slow numbers. Utterly essential, and a superb early morning blast.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hypnagogia
2. Hold My Hand
3. Under The Spell Of Joy
4. Bliss Out
5. Hey Dena
6. The Universe
7. It All Washes Away
8. Little Things
9. 10 Day Miracle Challenge
10. I’d Rather Be Dreaming
11. Dream Cleaver

Following a steady stream of ultra-limited 7” singles, that were collated together in 2019 for the ‘Pre/Post: A Collection 2016-2018’ on Louder Than War, the bands highly-anticipated debut album, by those that know, arrives with the first bitter taste of new single ‘Pressure’; one-minute-and-fifty-four seconds of screeching feedback, tribal drums and unbridled rage that is exactly the shot in the arm and the boot up the arse this nation, if not the world, needs right now. “In both music and lyrical content this song sets out to capture the unrelenting pressures of living in the modern world,” explains vocalist and guitarist Jim. “The pressures and expectations of which 'they' force upon you - with the apparent realisation that you will never be what they want you to be.

"Pressure, the twist of the gut, as one door opens another fucking shuts" Since forming in late 2016, Girls In Synthesis have quickly forged a fearsome reputation as one of the most exciting and volatile live acts in London. In equal parts frantic, considered, ear-splitting and melodic, the group take their cues from the early DIY punk and post-punk pioneers to keep everything in-house; artwork, videos, performances and recordings are created entirely by the group and their handful of trusted collaborators, under a bedrock of heavy, bludgeoning, dark, post-punk. ‘Now Here’s An Echo From Your Future’ is their first release for fabled experimental punk label Harbinger Sound and finds the band advancing their sound, making subtle but experimental shifts in texture and tone, helping to break free from the shackled straight-jacket of punk rock that, to be fair, never really held them down in the first place.

Across the album’s ten songs, Girls In Synthesis explore a wide range of sensations and sounds as the album detonates into life with opening track ‘Arterial Movements’ in a screeching flurry of over-driven guitar and hammering drums. The contrast between the slow, mesmerising look into aging and dying in ‘Human Frailty’ (‘The realisation that you cannot halt their impending death’), to the aggressive attack on the rise of the right-wing in ‘They’re Not Listening’ (‘The time-old tradition of the right wing accosting desperate working class people has returned’) shows a wide range of subjects and reactions aggressively tackled. Mental health in a fast-moving, unforgiving world, media control, the divide widening between the have and the have nots, the class divide, the blaming of the poor, NHAEFYF bristles with an unforgiving frustration and temper. The recording of NHAEFYF started at Rockit Studio, Hull in April 2019 during days off on the UK tour to promote the ‘Pre/Post’ compilation album. The Hull sessions were engineered by studio owner and local musician Sean Tomlinson. The remainder of the album was recorded and engineered by the band throughout summer 2019 in a large rehearsal room at Gun Factory studios, Homerton. Production and finishing touches were completed at GIS bassist John’s S.I.C.K Studio in Hither Green. The album was mixed by long-time band collaborator and engineer, Max Walker (currently studying at Abbey Road).

The album was mastered by Brett Shaw at 123 Studios, Peckham. In their few years of existence, fans and critics alike have been stunned by the bands pure visceral and punishing wall of sound, as well as applauding the groups way of making a GIS show an all-inclusive experience; playing from within the crowd to create a unique and awe-inspiring spectacle. Being hand-picked to support acts as diverse as Damo Suzuki, Slaves, Bad Breeding, Warmduscher and Wolf Alice has seen a widening of the groups fan base. Sold out headline shows across the UK have led to frantic and chaotic performances, and packed, sweaty venues, the word is getting out and spreading rapidly. Catch GIS while you can and witness the rise of one of the UK’s most original and unique underground bands.

TRACK LISTING

1/Arterial Movements
2/Pressure
3/The Images Agree
4/Scrapped
5/Human Frailty
6/They’re Not Listening
7/Cause For Concern
8/Coming Up For Air
9/Set Up To Fail
10/Tirades Of Hate And Fear

‘Girls Can Tell’, the third studio album from Spoon, originally released in 2001.

Newly recut from the original masters.

“A start-to-finish triumph” - Rolling Stone. 

‘Girls Can Tell’ is released as part of the Slay On Cue series, which will see the reissue of the band’s first eight records in original editions - Telephono (1996), Soft Effects EP (1996), A Series Of Sneaks (1998), Girls Can Tell (2001), Kill The Moonlight (2002), Gimme Fiction (2005), Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (2007) and Transference (2010).

“Some of these albums haven’t been available on vinyl or CD in years, and in some places they never actually came out,” says frontman Britt Daniel.

TRACK LISTING

Everything Hits At Once
Believing Is Art
Me And The Bean
Lines In The Suit
The Fitted Shirt
Anything You Want
Take A Walk
1020 AM
Take The Fifth
This Book Is A Movie
Chicago At Night

Heavy Light is the highly anticipated seventh album by U.S. Girls, the protean musical enterprise of multi-disciplinary artist Meg Remy. While Remy has been widely acclaimed for a panoply of closely observed character studies, on Heavy Light she turns inward, recounting personal narratives to create a deeply introspective about-face. The songs are an inquest into the melancholy flavour of hindsight, both personal and cultural. Remy makes this notion formally explicit with the inclusion of three re-worked, previously released songs: ‘Statehouse (It’s A Man’s World)’, ‘Red Ford Radio’, and ‘Overtime’, the latter of which is released today as Heavy Light’s lead single. Its companion video, which stars Andrea Nann of the Dreamwalker Dance Company, was created by Remy.

Heavy Light follows 2018’s internationally critically-acclaimed breakout album In A Poem Unlimited. Recently named one of the best albums of the decade by Pitchfork, it was lauded across the pond by the likes of The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Crack and Q magazine for being Remy’s most accessible record in her then decade-long career. Heavy Light is produced by Remy and was recorded live with 20 session musicians - including E Street Band saxophonist Jake Clemons - in Montreal’s acclaimed Hotel 2 Tango studio. Remy worked with co-writers Basia Bulat and Rich Morel to develop the core of Heavy Light, a set of songs conceived as a balance between orchestral percussion (as richly arranged by percussionist Ed Squires) and the human voice (conducted by Kritty Uranowski). The resulting album finds Remy casting herself as lead voice among a harmonious multitude, the singers of which lend not only their voices, but also share reflections on childhood experiences that are collaged into moving spoken word interludes throughout the album. The album is mixed by long-time collaborators Maximilian ‘Twig’ Turnbull, Steve Chahley and Tony Price.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Grooving, psychedelic riffs clash headfirst with Remy's singular vocal brilliance, soaring wonderfully atop thumping percussion and flickering synths. 'Heavy Light' tackles political matters and worldly experiences in a moving and enthralling way. Brilliant stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. 4 American Dollars
2. Overtime
3. IOU
4. Advice To Teenage Self
5. State House (It’s A Man’s World)
6. Born To Lose
7. And Yet It Moves / Y Se Mueve
8. The Most Hurtful Thing
9. Denise, Don’t Wait
10. Woodstock ‘99
11. The Color Of Your Childhood Bedroom
12. The Quiver To The Bomb
13. Red Ford Radio

Bat For Lashes - aka Natasha Khan - releases her fifth studio album, entitled Lost Girls, via AWAL Recordings.

Lost Girls is another brilliant full-length in Khan's incredible, acclaimed discography, mixing sounds she's always loved -- heavy bass lines, synth arpeggios, Iranian pop beats, cascading choruses -- with some of her finest songwriting to date. It's an album full of romance, an homage to Los Angeles, to being a kid in the 80's, to films that touched and changed her life.

Spanning 10 tracks, Lost Girls sees Khan dreaming up her own fully formed parallel universe, creating an off-kilter coming of age film in which gangs of marauding female bikers roam our streets, teenagers make out on car hoods and a powerful female energy casts spells and leave clues for us to follow.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Khan releases her most synthy outing yet, with the saturated vibe of 80's synth-pop perfectly complimenting her airy, enchanting vocals. Brilliantly produced and brilliantly written throughout, this is sure to go down as her best LP to this point, a dreamy triumph.

TRACK LISTING

1. Kids In The Dark
2. The Hunger
3. Feel For You
4. Desert Man
5. Jasmine
6. Vampires
7. So Good
8. Safe Tonight
9. Peach Sky
10. Mountains

From the new track’s opening “I Ain’t Your Baby,” the Nashville singer, songwriter, downtown scene slayer, and most-wanted fiddler signals a reclaimed confidence and bold evolution, telling women’s stories - including her own - that build on the strength of her “nervy” (NPR Music), 2017 Jack White-produced debut. Lillie Mae led a sequestered childhood touring in a motorhome with her musician parents, constricted by religious boundaries. In her adolescence she busked from RV parks to the Rio Grande, swept through Nashville clubs, and achieved Top 40 country status in her sibling group Jypsi, but on Other Girls, a new side of herself emerges with more to say than ever before. She embraces personal triumphs on “I Came For The Band (For Show),” breathes new perspective into “Terlingual Girl,” a song she wrote as a 19-year-old in the South-Texan desert, and professes brave truths as heard in “You’ve Got Other Girls for That.” After a vagabond past, crossing paths with hundreds of musicians, she limits the cast of Other Girls to just her brother, sister, and a few trusted collaborators. Lillie Mae will debut songs from Other Girls live this summer, as she supports the Raconteurs across the west coast. She will also join Robert Plant on tour, both opening for him and playing in his band. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Other girls is a brilliantly written mix of classic country chord structures and the slightly gloomy reverb and poignant minor key changes of modern folk, all brought together with deft production and a stunning vocal performance from Lillie Mae. Stunning stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. You've Got Other Girls For That
2. At Least Three In This Room
3. Some Gamble
4. Crisp & Cold
5. I Came For The Band (For Show)
6. Didn't I
7. Whole Blue Heart
8. Terlingua Girl
9. Love Dilly Love
10. How?
11. A Golden Year

Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz create candid music with deep emotional and personal resonance. The sisters, who record under the moniker Lily & Madeleine, boldly explore what it means to be women in the 21st Century and aren’t afraid to use their music to call out injustice or double standards. This fearless approach has permeated their three albums, which are full of insightful lyrics and thoughtful indie-pop.

With their fourth studio album, ‘Canterbury Girls’, named after Canterbury Park, located in their hometown of Indianapolis, the sisters are coming into their own as women and musicians. Using an eclectic playlist of songs as sonic inspirations - soul tunes and waltzes, as well as cuts from Midlake, ABBA and Nancy Wilson - Lily & Madeleine worked quickly, recording ‘Canterbury Girls’ in just 10 days.

Although the record contains plenty of Lily & Madeleine’s usual ornate music - including the languid ‘Analog Love’, on which twangy guitars curl around like a kite twisting in the wind - the album also finds the siblings exploring new sonic vistas. ‘Supernatural Sadness’ is an irresistible slice of bubbly, easy-going disco-pop; the urgent ‘Pachinko Song’ hews toward interstellar synth-pop with driving rhythms and ‘Can’t Help The Way I Feel’ is an effervescent, Motowninflected number.

Vocally, the sisters also take giant leaps forward. The dreamy waltz ‘Self Care’ is a rich, piano-heavy track on which their voices intertwine for soulful harmonies, while the meticulous ‘Just Do It’ has a throwback 70s R&B vibe. “This is the first record Lily and I have ever done where we have full control over all of the songwriting,” says Madeleine. “We did co-write with some people that we really love. But everything on this record is completely ours. I feel like I have full ownership over it, and that makes me feel very strong and independent.” With this growing self-confidence and musical poise, it’s clear that Lily & Madeleine are positioned for even greater things going forward.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Lil & Mads' last outing, 'Keep It Together' was a big hit in the shop, and their latest, 'Canterbury Girls' will surely meet the same reception. Slightly more upbeat this time around, we get an infectious smattering of neo-soul, shimmering synth-pop and even the odd inkling of classic-rock melodies and the ever-present addictive two-part harmonies we've come to know and love. Beautiful stuff.

TRACK LISTING

Self Care
Supernatural Sadness
Just Do It
Canterbury Girls
Bruises Pachinko Song
Circles
Can’t Help The Way I Feel
Analog Love
Go

Traversing influences that cross genre and era, the artistry of Hollie Fullbrook and her band spans delicate folk, lustrous dream pop. Production by David Lynch, Olympic Girls bring ebullient psychedelia to the album.

Building on the sparse minimalism and mesmerising songwriting of earlier releases, Olympic Girls comprises a taut and agile quiver of songs, dancing with explorative instrumentation and a pop sensibility that springs with life.

“How much would you be willing to give?” Fullbrook asks point-blank in first single ‘How Much’, ahead of woozily discordant strings and a stomping neopsychedelic rhythm. The lyric brims with imagery of supermarket breakdowns, lilos, snarks and silos while an anthemic guitar hook soars throughout. Not content to leave the song at a stable conclusion, a thumping ‘I am the Walrus’- esque bass outro propels the track boomerang-style back to a space of adroit experimentation.

“I’ve heard Olympic Girls, and I had to pick my jaw up off the floor”, wrote Grant Smithies. “Clustered around more introspective passages typical of confessional singer-songwriters are gnarlier phrases that give her work its buzzy voltage: arresting visual images, weird associations, daisy-chains of telling detail.”

“…an album confident in its vulnerability and luxuriating in a bigger sound.” - LOUD & QUIET (8/10).

“It’s a song that certainly leaves a mark, and suggests that seeing Tiny Ruins in their upcoming tour will be an undoubtedly memorable experience.” - THE 405. 

“a twilight piece of pared down indie pop” - CLASH.

TRACK LISTING

Olympic Girls
School Of Design
How Much
Sparklers
Holograms
Kore Waits In The Underworld
Bounty
One Million Flowers
My Love
Leda
Star, False, Fading
Cold Enough To Climb

Terry's second seven inch with three new songs exploring themes of patriarchy in politics, mass consumption versus lifestyle choices and the dating scene.

'8 Girls' is a pop nugget that references female politicians including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop, controversial leader of the One Nation party Pauline Hanson and Senators Penny Wong and Jacqui Lambie, who on the cover looks to be dressed as a sumo wrestler.

Divide Terry into four and you get Al Montfort (UV Race, Total Control, Dick Diver), Amy Hill (Constant Mongrel, School Of Radiant Living), Xanthe Waite (Mick Harvey Band) and Zephyr Pavey (Eastlink, Total Control, Russell Street Bombings).

Originally released on a short run by Aarght records in Australia, this version on transparent vinyl housed in a reverse board sleeve, limited to 400 copies!

2017 marks a decade of U.S. Girls, the protean musical enterprise of multi-disciplinary artist, Meg Remy. Today, Remy announces details of her sixth studio album In a Poem Unlimited, which will be released on 16th February 2018, plus the official video for a new U.S. Girls song, ‘Velvet 4 Sale’.

Remy’s second release for 4AD, which also includes her recently released single, ‘Mad As Hell’ – a clarion call for pacifism – was tracked in collaboration with Toronto-based instrumental collective the Cosmic Range, and features arrangements by long-time contributors Maxmilian Turnball and Louis Percival. The dizzying buffet of live grooves on In a Poem Unlimited represents an inversion of the dusty, sample-based minimal textures of Half Free, Remy’s euphoric 4AD debut. Steered into focus by Remy and mixer/co-producer Steve Chahley, Poem features disco employed as a protest vernacular (‘Mad As Hell’), as well as an unrelenting assault (‘Time’); moody, slow-burning funk (‘Velvet 4 Sale’ & ‘L-Over’) and earnest synth anthems ‘Rosebud’ and ‘Poem’, which form the album’s emotional core.

Poem features dark meditations reflecting charged atmospheres that directly precede and follow acts of violence. Many of the songs are character studies of women grappling with power; how to gain and exert it spiritually, as well as desperate strategies to mitigate its infliction. Remy also rallies against the public lies told by political and religious leaders, and more crucially, questions the lies we tell ourselves in order to survive. While U.S. Girls, denoting the plural, is no longer a misnomer, In A Poem Unlimited may be Remy’s most individually distilled protest to date.

Following ‘Mad As Hell’, Poem album opener ‘Velvet 4 Sale’ is released today. The song concerns a female narrator imploring another to buy a gun for protection, impressing that the only way to change men is for women to use violence. Remy says, “Men are lucky women (and children) have yet to take up arms. And although I hope this never happens and I completely disagree that violence is ever effective, this very idea was ripe for a song.”

The accompanying video explores the idea of acknowledgement as a form of retribution, a counterbalance more powerful than violence itself. Remy plays a police officer who discovers that a fellow cop who has beaten his wife will be left off the hook as a “professional courtesy”. By the power of her unrelenting gaze she banishes the abuser in the final images of this powerful and provocative video. This striking tableau representing the power of bearing witness ties back into the album’s underlying theme; that truth and acknowledgement are our most potent and corrosive weapons in the fight against repressive inequality. Remy’s work with this video (which she co-directed with Alex Kingsmill) and the album as a whole, illustrate and seek to inspire the taking up of these moral arms.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: This superb new outing from Meg Remy in her U.S Girls moniker sees snappy guitar falling under a landslide of heavy-rock power chords and scattered electronic elements, whilst still retaining all of it's cohesion and grace. More percussive numbers sit happily alongside the more folky, quiet pieces without skipping a beat.

TRACK LISTING

1. Velvet 4 Sale
2. Rage Of Plastics
3. Mad As Hell
4. Why Do I Lose My Voice When I Have Something To Say
5. Rosebud
6. Incidental Boogie
7. L-Over
8. Pearly Gates
9. Poem
10. Traviata
11. Time

U.S. Girls is Illinois-born, Toronto-based artist Meghan Remy. A captivating musical force, Meg has evolved from the raw, corrosive 4-track fidelity found on her early records to the more unabashed art-pop of recent works ‘U.S. Girls’ on KRAAK (2011) and ‘Gem’ (2012); the latter managing to “widen and universalise her music without losing a drop of what previously made it so special and personal” - Pitchfork.

‘Half Free’ is the next step in this impressive transformation, an honest and lyrically jarring exploration of emotions, drenched in a bath of raw beats and loops that have become the hallmark of her work with producer and frequent collaborator Onakabazien.

Other album guests include Slim Twig (DFA), Ben Cook (Fucked Up, Young Guv), Amanda Crist (Ice Cream) and Tony Price.

Featuring recent singles ‘Damn That Valley’ and ‘Woman’s Work’, ‘Half Free’ is Meg’s first album for 4AD. Again emerging as a vital voice among the noise, ‘Half Free’ is an enchanting document of life at the point when it feels most on its knife-edge.

“She’s the fast-rising exponent of luscious lo-fi DIY pop.” - The Guardian

“With each successive release, you’re never quite sure which Girl you’re going to get: the avant-pop deconstructionist, the 1960s traditionalist, the basement R&B diva.” - Pitchfork

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.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nobody's Empire
2. Allie
3. The Party Line
4. The Power Of Three
5. The Cat With The Cream
6. Enter Sylvia Plath
7. The Everlasting Muse
8. Perfect Couples
9. Ever Had A Little Faith?
10. Play For Today
11. The Book Of You
12. Today (This Army's For Peace)

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.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. The Party Line

Side 2
1. The Everlasting Muse
2. The Power Of Three
3. Today (This Army's For Peace)

Side 3
1. Enter Sylvia Plath

Side 4
1. Born To Act
2. Two Birds
3. Ever Had A Little Faith? (Extended Version)

Side 5
1. Play For Today

Side 6
1. Nobody's Empire
2. Piggy In The Middle
3. The Book Of You

Side 7
1. Perfect Couples (Extended Version)

Side 8
1. Allie
2. A Politician's Silence
3. The Cat With The Cream

Featuring girl group sounds, R&B, 50s and 60s teen pop and more, this is the latest in Croydon Municipal's forays into the Popcorn scene. With floor fillers, tear jerkers and rarities, some appearing on CD for the first time, this volume throws the spotlight on girl singers. It's a hugely enjoyable mix of 60s soul stars (Dee Dee Sharp, Baby Washington), classy 50s vocalists (Peggy King, Margaret Whiting) and even the sole, very rare 45 by pin-up actress Tuesday Weld. The perfect soundtrack for a sticky summer picnic.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Milk n Cookies are the stuff of legends – or would be legends.

Forming in the early 70s on Long Island, NY this power pop group was originally signed to Island Records and seemed destined for greatness. Yet through many cases of wrong place wrong time the band never managed to break. The core line up of the band was made up of Ian North, Justin Stauss, Sal Maida and Mike Ruiz and in their time they played classic NYC venues like CBGB’s & Max’s Kansas City and shared bills with everyone from Talking Heads to The Ramones.

The band have amassed a cult following influencing the likes of Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) and Debbie Harry (Blondie).

Consider this 7” a small taste of what’s to come from Captured Track’s deluxe 3xLP reissue.

Limited to 100 copies for the UK and Ireland.

Australia is in a full-on rock & roll renaissance right now, and charging to the front of the pack are Melbourne’s Woollen Kits.

‘Four Girls’ is the follow up to their self-titled debut LP on RIP Society and a continuation of the greatness of their Trouble In Mind debut 7” from summer 2012.

The new album finds the band in tip top form - confident and assured, with a suite of their best tunes to date. Songs herein deal with underlying longing or fantasy with individual truths and being fed up with people’s phoney concepts and ideals (which, guitarist Tom Hardisty says: “… in an effort to make themselves feel more deep and interesting to people, are actually creating a barrier between themselves and everyone else by only relating to others on a very one dimensional level”).

However, despite this frustration or sense of loss, there’s usually a positive spin on these themes. ‘Cheryl’ is a definite standout on the album, and offers listeners some of the truest lyrics ever put to song with “When you look good, you know you feel good, and when you feel good, you get sh*t done.”

‘Susannah’ is another instant head-bopper with its happy-tappy VU guitar strum and horn interplay. Tom, Tom and Leon have taken the two disparate voices of their debut album and forged a united delivery emphasizing the best of both songwriters’ strengths. It’s got the swagger and jangle of classic Flying Nun and the simplicity and directness of Beat Happening with a dash of late-80s underground rock.

For fans of Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Velvet Underground, Tronics, Beat Happening.

TRACK LISTING

Back To You
Cheryl
Sandra
Be You
So Cold
Susannah
Please
Shelley
All Sorts
On The Move

‘End Of Daze’ was recorded in 2011 and 2012 with Sune Rose Wagner of The Raveonettes and Dee Dee’s longtime producer Richard Gottehrer, whose track record includes the Brill Building, CBGB, and Sire Records.

‘End Of Daze’ offers a bracing, daring sonic example of an artist evolving in her understanding of the world.

‘End Of Daze’ flows from a pair of bombastic opening tracks, through the simmering, plaintive cover of Strawberry Switchblade’s ‘Trees And Flowers’, to the regretful ballad ‘Lord Knows’, in which Dee Dee’s voice remains rich yet crystalline, a gorgeous, toned instrument revealing an awareness of fear and misstep.

Closing the mini album is ‘Season In Hell’, a raucous and practically joyful closing of the book on past pains, and, perhaps more importantly, a looking forward (“Doesn't the dawn look divine?”) to the future.

This is it. The debut LP. Bratty, talky scuzzy rock. Grinding bass drives the Neanderthal rhythm section, which is dynamic and strut-inducing. Local Girls have supported Future Of The Left and they could be their annoying younger sister who you secretly love. Brixtonian misfits Local Girls have scar wounds such as a mini LP, and an EP which celebrated the holy matrimony of Kate and Wills (The Wedding Jitters EP). Now, their defining moment; Deluxe Kicks. Local Girls' vocalist, tells witty, edgy stories throughout Deluxe Kicks, and with her quirky but abrasive style she gets you hooked on her English anecdotes. Opener 'Yeah Roy' is a perfect example - repetitive and catchy, she forces you to sing the title back to her again and again. One minute rock-out, one minute sweat-out, 'Death From Above' is an onslaught of urgent and neck ranging guitar riffery. You get used to being teased with Local Girls - they easily skip from intricate hi-hat syncopation, straight into full on head banging bliss. And they do it again and again and it is FUN. Deluxe Kicks will steal your energy from your body - listen to it loud and with room enough to rock!

TRACK LISTING

1. Yeah Roy
2. Racist Tune
3. Jesus Complex Man
4. East London Dance Party
5. Three Men In A Boat
6. Twelve
7. Cuckoo
8. Nursery
9. Death From Abover
10. Twigs

Alabama Shakes – comprising vocalist/guitarist Brittany Howard, guitarist Heath Fogg, drummer Steve Johnson and bassist Zac Cockrell – began playing together when they were in high school. Ben Tanner assists on keyboards. 'Boys & Girls' was recorded at The Bomb Shelter in Nashville, TN. Produced and mixed by the band members, the album is a vibrant fusion of swampy dirty South rock, blues and soul delivered with punk rock fervour.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: The debut album and a real biggie!! Don't be put off the massive hype surrounding this band, this is top notch soul rock bringing to mind the likes of Afghan Whigs, early Kings of Leon and Muscle Shoals period Rolling Stones.

As the hypnotically serene breeze of summer finally locks into place across the land, the sophomore LP from the three hyper-talented Cleburne, TX teenagers known as Fungi Girls, sprouts up from the earth like an other-worldly fern-like vessel emerging from the desert, ready to seduce the innocent and beguile the non-believers with its powerfully delicate and cavernous sound. Wise beyond their years, both in song construction, and in their depth of influences, Fungi Girls have been carving out a reverberating and resilient groove that sucks you into their hazy world of lacing crystalline guitar line over thunderous bass rhythms, all wrapped in their inimitable vocal style, which clearly drives this band into their own realm of psychedelic pop mastery.

Needless to say, these small-town kids are doing something incredible with the wealth of music lying effortlessly at their fingertips, and forging their own unique sound and certain tension has become second nature on this new LP, which embraces a simple formula that works perfectly to distill the nuances of yesterday's overlooked visionaries into the perpetual sound of today. Not many bands can muster this type of atmospheric allure in these modern times of flash-in-the-pan hype and redundant indie rock drivel, yet Fungi Girls have found their voice on 'Some Easy Magic'. What we get is a clearly refined, yet, major step forward from their noise-pop saturated debut 12" that got the fire burning outside of their local confines last year.

The subdued textures they create can be staggering, proving this LP has straddled both the maturity and the purity of early 80s DIY pop, aligning jaggedly with early 90s underground influences from the darker side of Slumberland catalog, all connecting into a tightly-bound collection of songs that kill the pain, and slow the drain.

2nd release in a 4-record series promoting the Bruise Cruise. Each release will feature 2 artists performing on the Cruise and is limited to a one-time pressing of 800 copies (300 to Cruise attendees and 500 available to retail). See www.bruisecruisefestival.com for more information on the Bruise Cruise.

TRACK LISTING

Jacuzzi Boys ''Your Flags''

Vivian Girls ''Surfin' Away (demo)''

Released on Audio Eagle Records, owned by The Black Keys' Patrick Carney. "Perfect Cities" is the first album by Cleveland, Ohio's Other Girls. Recommended for fans of Band of Horses, the Walkmen, the National, and Sound Team. On songs like "Sleep A Year" and "The Facility," The Other Girls have managed to fuse the real life practicality and bottled romanticism of all great pop rock bands, from The Replacements to The Smiths - bands from cold, matter of fact places where romanticism is a valuable commodity, that when accessed, is more beautiful, poignant, and rarified than any other. It's on songs like "Hey Fella You Fell", the drifter, couch surfing nostalgia of young fathers who both accept and resist the everydayness of their lives translates into a danceable pop song that makes you want to scream at your fate and embrace your ugly world all at the same time.

We Rock Like Girls Don't are an electrifying DIY rock'n'roll duo from Glasgow and London. WRLGD have slimmed down to a duo without losing an ounce of the visceral ferocity which always made them such a compelling live band.

Self released 7" from this St Albans four piece who play spirited guitar tunes with a heavy dose of punk attitude.

Real Ones are the latest, and arguably greatest, export from the burgeoning conveyor belt of musical talent currently flowing from Bergen, Norway. You'll hear the zany joy of The Flaming Lips, the cocooning otherworldly warmth of alt-country lynchpins Wilco, with the universal thoughts and perspectives of The Band. Ultimately, you'll hear Real Ones, and that's one glorious world to find yourself floating in. 'Richly melodic, psychedelic-tinged pop' - The Guardian. 'Psychedelic folk-pop with nods to Wilco, Flaming Lips and The Band' - Clash.

Armrug are a cheeky three piece band specializing in sex-punk stoner-heavy indie rock'n'roll with a raw, playful energy - Like if Josh Homme joined Art Brut! The band have very kindly supplied us with some helpful pointers: There is no bassist - instead the guitars take turns in providing the low end which is always thic and dirty like the air in a busy basement brothel. They take their name from a really ruggy patch of hair on the singer's arm! Their songs are mainly about girls, etc.

Inspired by countless arguments with the other half about Playstations, football and expanding record collections "Girls Grow Up Faster Than Boys" deals with an undeniable fact in life. Uptempo acoustic guitar, maracas and a storytelling, tuneful vocal start things off. Catchy ear tickling guitar licks, sweet harmonies, glockenspiel and economic drumming create a vibe that underpins the message of the song. When the bright plucked bass opens the choruses you're most certainly hooked. Cheerful and breezy.

It's really a drag that hardcore died and all we have left is Some Girls, the non-self-proclaimed San Diegan supergroup featuring members of the Locust, Give Up The Ghost and Unbroken. Shredded concerts around the world have been in a dry-spell when it comes to brains and guts, so the band recorded an EP and named it "The DNA Will Have It's Say". Seven brutal and evil punk songs about sex, drugs, and guns, featuring Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's on the title track.

One of the best tracks from their excellent "The Young And The Hopeless" album. Contains "Girls And Boys", an acoustic version of "Riot Girl" and the video of "Girls And Boys" for PC.

Well orchestrated pop tunes from vocalist / multi instrumentalist Chris Adolf, incorporating a whole host of unusual instruments - marimbas, glockenspiel and even a musical saw!

By 1973 Caravan had moved away from their earlier style and this was one of their heaviest rock recordings thus far. Like all these Caravan reissues they have been remastered and feature extra bonus tracks.

New LP on Canadian label Sonic Unyon. One for fans of Get Up Kids, Promise Ring, Knapsack etc.