The Big Takeover Show with Jack Rabid: Recent Episodes
Jack Rabid
The Ultra Violets, an indie pop/rock quintet from Cornwall, feature Perran Nicholls (vocals, guitar), Marc Willoughby (lead guitar, vocals), Adam Knucky (bass), Stuart Morrall (keys, vocals), and Tyler Harris (drums). Formed in 2020, the band debuted with “ROMANCE” in April 2021, amassing thousands of streams and gaining airplay on Radio X and Amazing Radio. Their follow-up singles, “WATERGATE BAY,” & “SEX,” continued their ascent with “the latter being described by Illustrate Magazine as a “riveting rock anthem”.
Brooklyn-based alt-rock band Sub*T is thrilled to announce the release of their new single “Shed,” a standout track from their forthcoming EP, Spring Skin out June 20 on If This Then Records.
Since forming in 2022 The Savage Hearts have gone from strength to strength as a live act – festival appearances include * Sessions, Electric Picnic, Kaleidoscope, Howth Roots & Blues Festival and more, and the band have racked up several support slots with legendary acts such as The Boomtown Rats and The Undertones. Their debut single ‘Gang War’ released Feb 2024 shot to Number 1 on the Irish Download Chart the first week of release and the band is set to make its UK debut with shows at legendary venues the Dublin Castle and Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues* in July of this year.
With a fusion of raw energy and unapologetic satire, each track serves as a mirror reflecting the tumultuous landscape of contemporary America. Dive into the depths of alternative post-punk, where pulsating rhythms collide with piercing lyrics, beckoning you to confront the chaos with open ears and open minds. This is more than an album; it’s a manifesto for the disillusioned, a rallying cry for the restless souls seeking truth in the midst of the madness. Get ready to be shaken, stirred, and ultimately transformed by the sonic revolution that is Western Violence by VAZUM.
Hailing from Sligo county, Perry Blake has been dubbed one of music’s great untapped resources. Polydor UK released his debut album ‘Perry Blake’ in 1998 (with three singles chosen as ‘Singles of the Week’ on Jo Wiley BBC Radio 1), after which he moved to France. He achieved cult status there and across Europe, releasing a string of critically-acclaimed studio albums, a live album recorded at Cirque Royal Brussels with a full orchestra, as well as the soundtracks for ‘Presque Rien’ and ‘Trois Petites Filles’.
Trapt’s newest album (their eighth) The Fall has officially been released today after a year of releasing new songs each month!
The Portland, Oregon alt-rock heroes return with an adventurous new studio album and a live album including old favorites.
Award-winning rock band Attic Theory share a motivational message with their latest track, ‘Dare to Dream’. This powerful and emotionally charged song serves as a rallying cry for hope and resilience, inspiring listeners to overcome adversity and fearlessly pursue their dreams. ‘Dare to Dream’ signifies more than just a musical creation for Attic Theory’s frontman, Lewis Wright. Lewis explains, “The track represents a personal journey of perseverance. During a challenging period in my life, I faced an obstacle and underwent throat surgery. However, I refused to let these setbacks define me or hold me back from finishing our debut album.” Wright continues, “I believe the song reflects my determination to rise above adversity and encourages others to do the same.”
The Early Swerve is thrilled to announce the release of their latest single, “In a League of His Own,” available on all major streaming platforms starting June 19th. With a unique sound that fuses the spirit of the 1960s British invasion with vibrant Latin influences, The Early Swerve continues to innovate within the music scene, carving out their own genre dubbed Gangster-Folk/Nu-Skiffle.
In a Munich record store in 2018, John Beckmann, frontman for the Mortal Prophets, unearthed a mysterious acetate record bearing the name “Meine Liebe.” It had no artist, no musician’s name, only the haunting strains of German opera mingled with European electronica and new-wave echoes. Entranced by its wild and untamed beauty, Beckmann guessed it hailed from 1977. Yet despite his search, reaching out to historians of German Electronica, the creators of “Meine Liebe” remained shrouded in shadows. The enigma of the record sparked a fire in Beckmann. He vowed to revive and reimagine this lost musical artifact. He brought his discovery to David Sisko, a producer in New York City, and the project seized Sisko’s imagination too. Together, they journeyed to resurrect “Meine Liebe,” crafting a bold new EP.
The Stolen Moans is a female-fronted, Los Angeles, CA & Dublin, Ireland based and gloriously unhinged DIY trio.
Their new single, “Bard-Inspired, Treachery, Chaos & Heartbreak”, is a dynamic collision of punk rock ferocity and alt-pop melodies, that promises to reinvigorate your playlists with the perfect ‘Summer Revenge’ sing-a-long.
Fans of Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys, Royal Blood, Wolf Alice, and the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs will love the tracks atmospheric intro and drum-pounding energy, that takes you on a journey through betrayal and resilience.
“The songwriting took place very quickly with Time to Burn and the same with Dying To Smile. I think the excitement surrounding the band was simply the driving force for the fast output of music. I always loved punk and never thought it was dead or going to die out. The energy of the music is what keeps me young.”
Tidal Water is a dynamic band blending the rich heritage of rock with the spirited rhythms from ’60s until now, with elements of funk, punk, blues, rock and hints of jazz. Their debut album, Polarity, offers a musical odyssey from introspective ballads to explosive punkish anthems, tackling societal issues across a tapestry of sound that echoes six decades of musical evolution
Miles East has won himself a newfound global audience ahead of the release of his new record— Rolling Stone coverage, more than 300,000 streams for the album’s advance singles, and a fervent fanbase on five continents have fueled the eagerly-anticipated release of Between Lightning and Thunder, out June 7th on ECR Music Group.
“I was crashing at Simon’s house in Nashville during his 2019 book tour when one day, I woke up to this big novel of lyrics that he had written from a dream that he had earlier that morning.” -Joe X. Jiang
Rat Race is the band’s most intense and energetic music to date. The album moves between stoner rock, punk and post-hardcore. Through nine songs in a total of 18 minutes, the band explores several moods and styles. Songs like “Not Enough” and “Man on the Moon” coincide with the melodious focus track “Reasons”.
Federale’s sixth studio album, this record marks the band’s twentieth anniversary. Their most immersive and varied album to date, with do-it-all frontman Collin Hegna at the height of his powers, this is a tour-de-force road trip from psych rock to country duets, never straying too far from the spaghetti western roots that inspired the band many blood-moons ago. These musical homages involve a new lineup of well-known Portland rock-scene vets, including talents from The Dandy Warhols, The Shivas, Roselit Bone, Rogue Wave and Delines.
This week’s show, after a 1978 Saints slurp: brand new Chameleons, Bevis Frond, Blueboy, Paul Collins, Decemberists, Meatbodies, and Suburban Resistance, plus Tremeloes, Solomon Burke, Liverbirds, Tom T. Hall, Bo Diddley, Missing Links, and Master’s Apprentices; and R.I.P. The Selecter’s Arthur 'Gaps' Hendrickson (1951-2024) and Francoise Hardy (1944-2024)
Known for his work with the dark rock band Malice in Wonderland, Chris Wicked ventured into a solo career in 2021 with the release of his album Aleine. Featuring black metal legends such as Gaahl, Hoest, and Niklas Kvarforth, the album received critical acclaim and national radio play for its singles. Now, Chris Wicked is back with an atmospheric new single titled “Northern Heart.”
Matt and Holly met for the first time the day after Holly, moving from Indonesia, landed in Canada back in 2015 (August 22nd to be exact). Later that night, at the local Mississauga Krispy Kreme donut shop,the band was basically started over a dozen original glazed. After countless band “break-ups” and name changes, the name was settled and the rest is history.
“All In” is the 5th release from 80’s flavoured, energy-packed, indiepop pioneers Talk in Code on Regent Street Records. The song is up-tempo to great the crowd bouncing with a punch-the-air chorus made for festival crowds this summer! The band’s base stretches along the M4 corridor with deep roots in Reading, Swindon and beyond. Get behind a band on the rise, that’ve carved out a lane all of their own.
CS Hellmann is a Nashville based artist and songwriter. He started playing in bands when he was 16 in Ohio and toured professionally for most of his 20’s – opening for the likes of OneRepublic, Better Than Ezra, and The Academy Is.
He has played SXSW several times, sold out shows at The Metro in Chicago and Bogarts in Cincinnati and played every small club on the East Coast and Midwest.
Eddie Cohn is one of those rare artists where you never know what you’re going to hear next. An uptempo rock song like Pearl Jam, maybe a dreamy down tempo groove with lush strings that reminds you of Beck or an electronic dance song that could be played in the Los Angeles night clubs. Eddie is a self taught multi-instrumentalist, singer, producer, DJ and composer.
Red Tree Religion is a funky rock band coming from Pireas, Greece. Apart from the funky thing, their music also contains elements from noisy and classic rock, punk, and Greek traditional music.
Nearly fifty years after their supposed heyday, the Hollywood Stars still have plenty left in the tank.
Former Lives is a love letter to overdriven guitars, analog synthesizers, and arcane pop music started by Sean Joseph Klassen and his dog, Bruce Beagle. Some things never change is inevitable, the latest in a line of singles from Former Lives, is melancholy but blissful indie for dreamers that explores themes of isolation and perseverance through the vivid description of an asthma attack. The track’s evocative narrative and lush production make it a good fit for fans of nostalgic shoegaze, dream pop, and indie rock.
Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter roger weeks is thrilled to announce the release of his new single “MY OWN WAKE” along with its accompanying music video, co-directed by roger and Rose Betts
Bursting into Summer fresh off their Ubh Bhriste Irish tour and the March release of their single ‘Friends Like These’, Foot Squeaker strike while the sun is hot with their new single, ‘Pass It On’.
The song was written two years ago as (lead singer/guitarist) **Diarmuid’s eldest son turned eighteen. The idea of writing a song giving advice to your younger self brought ‘Pass It On’ to life very quickly. Simple effective advice; be yourself, stand tall, be kind, watch out for the disingenuous.
The Kiss That Took A Trip is an exotic artistic project that doesn’t sit right with the mainstream because of its unadulterated vision of music and creativity: a one-man-band, almost 100 % synthetic in its production, that feels comfortable exploring many alternative subgenres, operating in relative obscurity and now reaching its 18th year of existence.
For fans of Black Stone Cherry, Guns N Roses and Velvet Revolver – ‘Crushing Down’ invites you into a world where inner demons reign supreme and the struggle to break free feels insurmountable. With roaring guitars, growling bass, thunderous drums and fierce vocals, the band look to continue to carve their path in the rock scene with a single that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt the weight of the world bearing down upon them.
The Pulltops’ latest single, “Waiting Here,” is a compelling addition to the alternative rock scene. This track seamlessly blends funky guitar riffs with a rich synth bass, creating a unique soundscape that is both nostalgic and refreshingly modern.
Philly indie rockers CLOAKZ just shared “El Zero,” the first single from their upcoming Control Program LP, which is set for release in August, 2024.
Sundialer announces release of new self-titled album. Recorded in Ventura, CA and mixed/mastered by Christopher Colbert (the Walkmen, Pedro the Lion, Richard Swift) in Oregon,Sundialer is an exploration of the mystic; incorporating electronic and experimental elements with anthemic melodies and vibrating guitars. Single ‘Salvo’ introuces bendy brit-rock guitars over a bed of Beach Boys harmonies and roaring overdrive. ‘Heatseeker’ features chiming arpeggiated guitars over pulsing synths.
Marky Wildtype is a fully DIY independent songwriter/producer from Edinburgh. He’s been gigging and writing in bands for many years, and only ‘went solo’ a couple of years ago, recording an album of largely acoustic-based songs. The years since then have been… tumultuous to say the least, which has had the upside of being fruitful for writing. From this, he has recorded a new album, which has a much more developed sound than its predecessor, while keeping the focus on memorable hooks and layered harmonies. And when he says DIY, he truly means it having written, arranged, performed, recorded and mixed everything himself, at home.
It is that time of year again…the time when the city lets loose and forgets that winter will ever be a thing again! That’s right! It’s Pitchfork Music Festival time! This year, Pitchfork Music Festival boasts some big names like the energetic Black Pumas, the electrodance of Jamie XX, the hyper unpredictable 100 Gecs and the ultra famous indie darling Alanis Morissette. However, it is the smaller indie bands going on much earlier in the day that you won’t want to miss! Pitchfork has even created a special LGBTQ+ playlist making it a festival that welcomes everyone and has a little something music-wise for all of your diverse learning needs!
Here’s some of the recommendations:
Friday
Rosali plays the blue stage at 2:45pm has the perfect voice and guitar playing quality for some timeless folk songs with a fantastic live quality. This reviewer/photographer saw her with her band earlier this year at Chicago’s Empty Bottle play a fantastic energetic set with her band that brought both her older and new songs from 2024’s Bite Down an emphasized presence and richness!
Yaeji plays the red stage from 5:15-6. Her cute singing voice and upbeat vibes may make you forget about how complex the beats are. Don’t ignore the layered sounds and pay attention to be impressed. Yaeji also has a dynamic stage presence as this live video of “Raingurl” performed at the Sydney Opera House would suggest.
Calm but also creative, Amen Dunes goes on the blue stage from 5:15-6pm and will likely play a lower key dream pop with nice layers of sound and reassuring melodies.
Sudan Archives play the blue stage from 6:30-7:15pm. Brittney Denise Parks provides some warm yet complex beats with her elevated vocals and accomplished violin playing. This is likely to be one of the most remarkable sets of the day!
Saturday
Lifeguard open up the Green stage at 1pm so make sure to arrive early! They are one of Chicago’s most promising young talents and feature accomplished guitar based indie rock that proves energetic and satisfying!
Gentle, loving and honest, Kara Jackson opened up for Angel Olsen earlier this year and provided the audience with a genuine poetic quality. Jackson plays the green stage from 2:30-3:15pm. It might be possible to split up this time and catch a bit of Jackson and Hotline TNT, though there’s going to be some running required!
Dripping in a throwback alternative rock style, Hotline TNT Is perfect for a summer day filled with nostalgia and play the blue stage from 2:45-3:30pm. The Brooklyn based four piece just released their third album Cartwheel in November of last year and are guaranteed to make your summer afternoon even better!
Another Brooklyn based band, Water From Your Eyes play the blue stage right afterwords from 4-4:45pm and feature really unpredictable song adventures that will keep your mind guessing what will happen next! Their sound is engaging and unique and this live video shows they can keep up that dynamic energy live!
Sweeping Promises are one of this reviewer/photographer’s favorite bands to play the festival this weekend and make the blue stage on Saturday extra special. They play from 5:15-6pm and are not to be missed. The stage presence of Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug and playing between them never misses the mark and Mondal’s vocals are the perfect mix of garage rock and punk. This set will be exceptional!
It’s going to be time to make choices when masters De La Soul also start at the red stage. These hip hop legends could easily be headliners and it is a surprise they aren’t. Watch this recent live set on The Late Show to get a sense of their great personalities and how much they are still on top of their game!
Get ready to continue your fun at the blue stage with Bratmobile at 6:30pm! These punk rockers have been playing for 20 years and have an easily accessible fun sound that has likely inspired many other bands since their origin in 1994. This will be a very special appearance!
Sunday
Joana Sternberg opens up the red stage from 1:45-2:30 and possesses the type of genuine honesty that is disarming. If stripped down folk songs conveying a sense of gentleness in their guitar melodies is your thing, look no farther!
Nala Sinephro plays the blue stage from 2:45-3:30pm and has an ambient energy with scattered instrumentation that can be both warm and playful and give the sensation of floating. This will be perfect for a sunny summer afternoon under the shadw of one of those lovely trees or up front experiencing the moment with those you care about most!
Hailu Mergia plays mid day at the blue stage from 4:00-4:45pm. Originally from Ethiopia, he released his first album Tezeta in 1975! After taking a hiatus of over 30 years, 2018 brought this interesting composer with layers of melodic instrumentation back with 2018’s Lala Belu followed up with Yene Mircha from 2020. This will be a delightful treat to witness and dance to!
Jessica Pratt plays the green stage from 4:15-5:10pm so it may be possible to catch at least the later half of her set if you want to stay for the full Mergia set. Pratt has the kind of serenades combining vocals which feel simultaneously timeless and removed from time. In other words, you feel like you’ve heard the melodies somewhere before but can’t place it and the vocals don’t feel too far removed from human consciousness, too. And yet, finding the specific words for time and place seem relatively futile because technically these tracks are modern tracks even if your gut feeling says they have been around for decades.
Perhaps the most exciting performer of the entire music festival, Grandmaster Flash is now celebrating 50 years of history as one of the most influential musicians in the genre. If this live set is any guide, we’ll definitely be able to count on him to bring the energy and make for the most fun and memorable set of perhaps the whole weekend. Grandmaster Flash plays the red stage from 5:15-6pm so bring all your positive vibes for this legend!
NY’s Crumb plays the blue stage from 6:30-7:15pm and boasts some sweet ethereal indie pop with tinges of psychedelica that will have you relishing in every moment! 2024 brought the world the wonder of Amama and it will easily fill your heart with happiness!
View the full schedule with times here
You can still buy tickets here and see the full festival schedule here
Welcome to Love Ghost, a musical project which combines rock, grunge, metal, Emo and other genres. The songs tackle trauma and Mental Health challenges. Selected for Rockpalast (broadcast throughout Germany), they have played live on 4 continents. In Mexico, they have collaborated with artists including Adan Cruz, Santa RM, Dan Garcia, Ritorukai, Go Golden Junk, Wiplash, Blnko, ND Kobi, and upcoming songs with Rayben, and many others. They have gained co-signs from Rolling Stone Magazine, Playboy, TimeOut Mexico, and many others.
The Haunt is an American rock band from South Florida. The band consists of siblings, Anastasia Grace Haunt (lead vocals), and Maxamillion Haunt (vocals, guitar and production). The band first gained recognition after the success of their debut EP, The Haunt EP, in 2018 and subsequent tours with rock band, Palaye Royale.
Single Premiere: Chicago soul songwriter nicholas shares “loose leaf,” co-written with Marcus Darling and Steven Rutledge
Although born and raised in Rochester, NY, you seem to be part of the Philadelphia music scene these days. Can you tell me a bit about your musical journey that took you from one to the other?
Taylor Kelly: I stumbled upon Philly serendipitously. It was really never on my radar, and I had been living in Boston for five years [where I went to college]. I knew I wanted to leave Boston, but I didn’t want to go to New York, Los Angeles, or Nashville like everyone else that I went to Berklee with. My last roommate in Boston had met someone at a bus stop who happened to be from Philly, and they started a long-distance relationship. She then convinced me to take us on a road trip to Philly for a weekend (since I was the one with the car), and the rest is truly history.
I remember getting off the highway and entering South Philly and being mystified. I actually asked out loud, “Are we on Sesame Street?”. I’d never seen townhomes so short and close to one another, and it was so charming to me. When I got back to Boston after a weekend well spent in Philly, I found a job and a place to live and moved six months later. I just had a gut feeling (or maybe love at first sight), and I went with it.
You cite artists such as Hiatus Kaiyote, Butcher Brown, Victoria Monét, and others as influences. Can you tell me what you have learned from such artists and what they bring to your own creative process?
TK: It’s funny because the way that artists influence my music is truly so subconscious. There have been moments when I’m writing, and I’ll notice that something sounds like a part of another song or the chords sound like something that another artist might’ve written. It’s really amazing how much we absorb, and how much of what we do is a culmination of all the things we’ve absorbed. I really admire Victoria Monét’s silky vocals and catchy melodies and arrangements (I love that she always has trumpets on her songs!), and I’ve always been captivated by Hiatus Kaiyote’s really fresh and unique take on soul.
Going to school for jazz, I’ve always really been drawn to complex harmony but love a simple melody that anyone can sing. Butcher Brown is a new one for me as I’ve completely fallen in love with their newest release, ‘Solar Music.’ It’s everything I love about music – interesting production, hearty arrangements, intricate harmony, and undeniable groove. I actually really want to rerelease “Take Me” with a verse from “Tennishu” from Butcher Brown. I’M MANIFESTING!
The new single, “Take Me,” is a wonderfully understated piece with a gorgeous vibe. How do you capture such delicacy when recording?
TK: Why thank you. This song came out of me so organically, and I was in such a mood when I wrote it that I really didn’t want to mess with it. I could’ve changed the lyrics to the second verse so they were not the same as the first, but I didn’t. I could’ve added layers of background vocals or filled the space in the middle [where it’s just me and my producer Eoin being dumb and laughing in the studio], but I didn’t. I didn’t want the vibe to get lost and thought that I’d really lean into “less is more,” especially since I’d been listening to so much Butcher Brown and my favorite song off that record (“I Can Say To You”) is actually quite repetitive but grooves so hard that you don’t want it to end and the few lyrics in the hook are so powerful that you really don’t need any more.
I wanted to challenge myself to leave it as is and let the other musicians on the record interpret the space however they felt called to. I’m really proud of it but more proud of myself for letting it be and not trying to do too much (which I can struggle with because I always fear being too boring or not enough). This is the first track I’ve written and put out that made me realize that my music can sound however I want it to, and that’s really empowering.
With you singing, writing, and arranging all of the horn parts yourself, how much of you is in the song?
TK: While I wrote the song – the chords, lyrics, melody, and horn parts – I’m grateful to have musicians who really see me and hear what I’m trying to do and are able to texturize and colorize my songs in such a way that really takes them to a whole new dimension. I do feel this is the most hands-on I’ve ever been in the studio, and I was a co-producer on this whole project so there certainly is a lot of me in this, but it wouldn’t be what it is without the truly innovative and supremely talented Eoin Murphy, Logan Roth and Matt Keppler. I mean, Logan was literally plucking the strings of the piano in the studio, and no one told him to do that.
Can you tell me a bit about the players that you gathered to record this song?
TK: I love that there are so few musicians on this record, and they’re all people who are very close to me. Eoin Murphy, who’s on production, guitar, synth, and drums (what can’t he do?), is someone I’ve known for quite some time, but we didn’t start working together until the last couple of years, and it’s been a tremendous pleasure. Everything he does is so effortless, and it’s inspiring to watch him work.
Logan Roth (piano and aux synths) is hands down my favorite musician to play with and his first gig with me was doing Apartment Sessions with about 30 musicians in a South Philly rowhome back in 2018 so we go pretty far back. I’m always floored at how he’s able to make anyone’s music sound 1000 times better no matter the genre and despite his musical prowess, only plays what the music calls for – nothing more, nothing less.
Matt Keppler (bass) is someone I trust with my life, my co-pilot on my Up Up and Away tour back in 2019, and someone whose ideas I never ignore because they’re always great (and he always makes them known). It was really special to have him on this one because he’s taken a step back from music as he leaped into the videography world when the pandemic hit and has since toured with Jayden Smith, Willow Smith and NF. This is really a huge testament to the kind of musician and human he is – dedicated, devoted, hard-working, and proof that literally anything is possible if you set your mind to it. These are truly three of the most incredible musicians I’ve ever known. They have creativity, finesse, musical maturity, and such incredibly unique talent, but more importantly, they’re beautiful people, and I’m very grateful to call them my friends.
What can the listener expect from the forthcoming EP, The Spins, and is “Take Me” representative of what’s to follow?
TK: This EP is sonic whiplash. I think the project as a whole is cohesive, but there are definitely different vibes, moods, and tempos that really take you on a journey. “Take Me” is definitely the most understated on the EP, but the common denominator of all six songs is that I’m just trying to escape from the prison of my mind that’s filled with destructive, intrusive thoughts. Dark, yes, but we find ways to keep it light. This EP is me bearing all, and with that comes everything – joy, sorrow, anxiety, excitement, passion, and frustration. I hope you can feel it all.
And so where next for you musically and personally.
TK: This month has been a whirlwind while I’ve been finishing this record and booking a number of tour dates to support the release, which will begin in late July. The next single, “Fit In,” drops June 14th, and after that is the whole EP which releases on my 32nd birthday on July 19th, all on Head Bitch Music.
Once I get through this month (I plan to announce all my tour dates on May 31st), I am gonna allow myself to rest a bit, and then I’m taking a trip to Japan with my brother for two weeks at the end of June, which still feels like a dream. (It’ll hit me that it’s real when I’m in the airport.) I want this summer to be about moving toward joy – doing the things that I love that make me happy. I’m really excited to share this record with everyone and look forward to all the music-making and traveling this summer is going to bring. I hope you’ll follow along!
Thank you for taking the time to talk to me, and best of luck with everything.
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All photos by Sammy Braxton-Haney
Strolling onto the stage of San Francisco club, The Independent, to a swanky pre-recorded lounge tune, Leeds, U.K. band Yard Act start their June 4th set with “An Illusion”, from their new album, Where’s My Utopia? Considering what comes after the opener, An Illusion is a bit of a red herring with its Style Council-like soulful lilt and trading of male and female vocals. As soon as the song ends, lead vocalist James Smith quickly dispenses with all formality, and the band launches into “Dead Horse”, with all its jagged funk intact.
Before you know it, Yard Act have effortlessly rolled into “When the Laughter Stops” and the crowd is mad for it as Lauren Fitzpatrick and Daisy J.T. Smith step to the front of the stage for vocals and dancing.
On record and in their videos, Yard Act display a heady mix of Arctic Monkeys‘ drunk voice in your ear, Sleaford Mods‘ anger, Beck‘s non sequiturs and Pulp‘s nervy confessionals. Live, the sound is more muscular, and Smith’s smirk-encrusted face relaxes into a more affable “let’s get this party started” presentation. Watching James (and it is admittedly hard not to watch his arms akimbo, shape throwing) you get the feeling that the nerdy kid from high school has grown up and is having the last laugh as the ultra-cool front person for an au courant band.
The majority of tonight’s set is from the new record; “Petroleum” lopes along to an economical bass line that would not be out of place on a late-career Wire record, while Fizzy Fish moves to a herky-jerky rhythm with a post-punk lyrical collage of emotional damage. The single, We Make Hits, brings the intensity back up in the room. Its wordy teardown of the life of a post-punk UK band is spread out against a simple but catchy funk pattern and peaks with the lines “We just wanna have some fun before we’re sunk”.
Guitarist Sam Shipstone gives a throwback punk energy to “Witness” from their debut recording, while bassist Ryan Needham locks in with drummer Jay Russell to keep the dancing going with “Dream Job”. More than any other song from the new album, Dream Job highlights the tightness of the band’s rhythm section and tonight it pushes all the right buttons. Where’s My Utopia? might have been subtitled “We Have a Sampler and We Know How to Use it”, but tonight, samples are kept to a bare minimum and the band sounds like a cohesive, solid unit. Surely bigger venues beckon; what a treat to see them in the intimate setting of The Independent.
Two decades into their career, Blitzen Trapper’s written some of their best material on their new album, _100’s of 1000’s, Millions of Billions. Lead singer – and founding member – Eric Earley* discusses the freedom he feels these days to tap into early influences and revisit ideas from his earliest days of songwriting as well as how he manages his music career with the work that he does with Oregon’s homeless.
This week’s show, after a 1994 Lush lulling: brand new Jesus Lizard, Black Watch, Idaho, Steve Wynn, Alejandro Escovedo, GospelbeacH, and Matt Hunter & the Dusty Fates, plus Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Ringo Starr, John Renbourn, Augustus Pablo, Count Five, Chuck Berry, and Connie Smith; and a tribute set to Miki Berenyi and friends!
Alan Chapell is an 80’s and 90’s influenced singer/songwriter that prides himself on using small stories as a vehicle to paint broader messages about life. Storytelling drives both Chapell’s writing and his live show – drawing comparisons to Jonathan Richman and Elvis Costello. Streamed over 1.5 million times and counting, Chapell’s solo performances are gaining notoriety by the minute – having been invited to play with Gin Blossoms, Everclear, Lisa Loeb, 38 Special, Bighead Todd, Iron Butterfly, Flock of Seagulls and Jackopearce.
Beebee and the Bluebirds was founded by singer and guitarist Brynhildur Oddsdóttir in 2010 and they have been very active in the Icelandic music scene since. They have played various festivals, f.ex. Iceland Airwaves, Reykjavik Blues festival, Reykjavik Guitarama, where Brynhildur shared the stage with the legend Robben Ford. In 2019 they toured in Sweden with the swedish hammond player Andreas Hellkvist.
One Hand Up is the fourth full length release by guitarist/songwriter Karen Haglof. Like its predecessors, One Hand Up revolves around Haglof’s hard-hitting yet spry, stripped-down, playing and writing.
Introducing Brighton’s new Garage/Punk/Rock supergroup ‘No See Ums’. Featuring Phil and Nick from seminal psychedelic-prog band The Qwarks, and Jax Burley of Queer Punks the Daffodildos, No See Ums sound is a raw unadulterated view from the parapet of modern life. Relying on satire, innuendo, and wry humour, amid grinding guitars, punching bass, and thundering drums, No See Ums leave no stone unturned in sharing their views of modern society, the state of the nation, and the socio-political elite.
Following the release of their debut music video for previous single ‘The 90s’, Scotland based Indie 4-piece The Castros are set to release their latest single – ‘The Boys’. Originally written by frontman Brad Walker as a gimmick to himself following some writers block, the track became the first the band would complete together and a cult favourite from gig number 1.
We (GOLEM DANCE CULT) just released our video for “Feels Like Tuesday (Deja Vu)”. The song, which is from the album Legend of the Bleeding Heart (released exactly a year ago). has been described as “best example of the slight genre-bending the band does whilst also highlighting their surprising knack for emotionally adept lyrics” (Music is to Blame) or “the duo hit pop paydirt” (RPM Online) and feature a cello, a first for the band.
To follow on with “first”, for this video we collaborated with “start and stop animation” Melbourne artist “ithinkimightbeclay”. The result, directed by Klaus Karloff, is our own ghostly, Hammer movie vibe take on “Groundhog Day”.
The mesmerizing Copenhagen dream pop duo, BlackieBlueBird, is back with their highly anticipated fourth album, A Symphony of Shadows This latest release presents a fresh take on their beloved old songs, weaving together delicate torch songs with an innovative twist.
Tarantula Bill is a Denver based psych rock band that blends creamy vibes with the tonality of a space wizard jam sesh. Much of the magic comes out live, featuring 2 mops, one corporate sellout, and a guy from craigslist penetrating the ethereal plane with heavy riffs.
The brainchild of musician Bruno Sobral, Tsunamiz brings a genre-defying sound to the masses. Sonically energizing and infectious, his music traipses between rock, electronic and pop creating something unique and entirely Tsunamiz.
Marky Wildtype is an Edinburgh based songwriter/musician/producer who has been plying his trade and honing his craft under various guises for many years. Most recently, he has been providing the buzzsaw guitar backbone of the vibrant heavy-rock-meets-trad instrumental alt-folk band The Jig Show.
Today, LA space rock quartet Les Biches (lay-beesh) release the fourth video from their acclaimed LP The Mysteries—the mysterious and epic “Shikotsuko.” Conjuring elements of wall-of-sound alt-gazers such as Spiritualized or The Church with perhaps a touch of the reserved elegance of David Sylvian’s Japan, the track is a singular experience where night sounds give way to a deconstructed lullaby before descending into a crush of horns and guitars.
Recorded by Jörgen Wall (Jay-Jay Johanson, The Hellacopters) over three days at Stockholm’s Kapsylen Studio and mixed by Tom van Heesch8 (*Rammstein, Apocalyptica, Backyard Babies), this album was mastered by Svante Forsbäck / Chartmakers (Rammstein, Amaranthe, Ville Valo, The Rasmus, Apocalyptica). Ahead of the album’s release, Then Comes Silence released the singles ‘Like a Hammer’ and ‘Ride or Die’.
San Francisco post-punk outfit Octavian Winters has teamed up with Mark Pistel (Consolidate, Meat Beat Manifesto8) on their new two-track single. Out April 30 via *Stratis Capta Records, the A-side ‘Nebula’, which underscores the inevitable impermanence of all that is seen and unseen, known and unknown, is complemented by Pistel’s infectious pulsating remix of ‘Velveteen’.
This week’s show, after a ELO elegy: brand new Redd Kross, Michael Head, Torrey, Kelley Stoltz La Luz, Idaho, and Decemberists, plus Rolling Stones, Lloyd Price, Todd Rundgren, Kinks, Neil Young, Delroy Wilson, and Bonnie Guitar; and R.I.P. Duane Eddy (1938-2024), Electric Light Orchestra’ keyboardist Richard Tandy (1948-2024), and Pale Saints’ guitarist Graeme Naysmith (1967-2024)
90s emo/post-hardcore icon Jonah Matranga (Far, onelinedrawing) delves into his current musical ventures, including lending his distinctive vocals to UK band Sons of Alpha Centauri who recruited Matranga for their 2021 album, Push, and their new release, Pull.
The surge of neo-psych has been in full swing for a while now, and one would be remiss in ignoring Ty Segall’s rolel as one of the spearheads. Along with fellow conspirators like John Dwyer and the support of labels like In The Red and Burger, a particularly high octane strain of guitar-centric rock music has become fashionable again, at least in certain circles.
The band from when I saw it last (Psycho Las Vegas in 2021) has had a slight tweak; longtime friends Mikal Cronin and Emmet Kelly were familiar anchors on bass and guitar, while keyboardist Ben Boye joined ranks, and _Emotional Mugger_-era drummer Evan Burrows took over while Charlie Moothart is on the injured reserve list.
The basic template remains intact. Float some melodies that wouldn’t be viewed askance from Davies or Lennon, and bolt them onto riffs forged on anvils of the heaviest of metals, created in the shadows of the grimiest garage. Not that the path is a straight one all the time; the Emotional Mugger record sidled up right next to Booji Boy electro-weirdness and I still have occasional PTSD flashbacks of Segall flaying me with a fake umbilical cord.
The last two records after the bruising (in a good way) Freedom’s Goblin lost the plot for me and I drifted out of Segall’s orbit for a bit, but the gravitational pull of Three Bells is strong enough to bring me home. And for fans of that record, we got a solid two-thirds of it, Ty set up at his familiar 45 degree angle at far stage left and the rest of the band fanned out in a semi circle with Kelly at the far end. To underscore the new material, the show started with the first things songs. The title track took a little bit to get off simmer and into a rolling boil, and when it did the band locked in like some multi-limbed organism. “Void” took hold via Cronin’s throbbing and off kilter rhythm, Kelly’s fingerpicking style forming clear crystals of sound.
Segall paid direct homage to two of his loves in his life, his dog via “My Best Friend” (and at the merch table there were two just-painted pieces of his dog that Ty made), and the set closer “Denée” about his wife and co-creator. Using a vocal round, Boye leveraged the vintage sound of his Rhodes to great effect. Another song with an unexpected flourish included “Looking At You” that went from folk-era Zep into a Segall/Kelly cosmic guitar duel that could just about steal your face. A bit of a disappointment that nothing from my favorite record was included tonight, but a couple from Melted and “My Head Explodes” from Goodbye Bread (how has the title track not been picked up for an ad by Atkins is a mystery) showed some love to the older tunes.
Fellow Drag City label mates Sharpie Smile (fka as Kamikaze Palm Tree) took the stage first, and my overwhelming sensation wass “what is happening” and not in a good way. The band felt like AI engines in different foreign languages tried to construct songs with feed data of Cate Le Bon, The Slits, Dry Cleaning or Lithics and as AI has a particularly hard time remembering that most people only have five fingers per hand, the results were baffling.
Expect the feel of a Wim Wenders film with Bjork popping up to provide musical interludes. From darkness and loss, hangovers were left behind for the peace of sobriety for folktronica duo Victoria Bourne and Chris Harper. In the last year the duo became sober and bounced back from two close friends suicides and Victoria’s own depression. Confronted with so much existential angst. Last year became a springboard for change going back to their roots of electronica and acoustic sounds. “We’re doing what we love best, creating sad, romantic, cinematic music”
“This is our new digital hit single!” and Guided By Voices launched into “Serene King,” one of the catchiest songs from the guy who can’t help but churn those out by the double fistful. And so Bob Pollard addressed the very full Mr. Small’s, a building which used to function as a church but is now a rock club. The congregation just switched members, disciples and acolytes welcome alike but with a different purpose in mind, getting baptized in Miller Lite and celebrating the church of the high kick.
Pollard was particularly verbose tonight, feeling loose and in a good mood. “You don’t play a show like this in front of a great crowd without the goods. 30, 40 hits? We have 4000 hits! Who’s dick do you have to suck to get a hit? Well, Thurston (Moore) said hits are for squares.” prefaced “Game Of Pricks.” I can share his disappointment that so many of his songwriting gems didn’t find radio domination but the good news is that word of mouth is still a strong approach to building an audience, and the diehards of the crowd were singing along with arms draped around newcomers. All are welcome to planet Pollard.
Speaking of planets, he mentioned that “Planet Score” was the genesis for an actual record store based in St. Louis. “Dinosaur Jr. doesn’t have a record store named after a song of theirs. They should. But J would probably fill it with heavy metal.”
If there’s a criticism to be had, it wouldn’t lay with tonight’s show as the band was consistently tight and Pollard singing strongly. But for people who have seen multiple shows so far, the set list is rather rigid. In Nashville, Pollard mused about dropping “Volcano” from the set as there are only so many songs a band can play in a show, compounded severely when the creative element has recorded thousands. “Volcano” has remained in the set but “Back To The Lake” and “Instinct Dwelling” were casualties from previous shows this year. Like I said, a minor quibble but a shakeup to the core 9’0s material would be cool, even just a song or two.
With a name like The Gotobeds, it’s pretty obvious that this Pittsburgh four piece is a fan of Wire but their show had a lot more drive and energy, no doubt fueled by their desire to hold up their end of the bill in front of a hometown crowd. Bits of Mission Of Burma and Parquet Courts could be heard in their mix.
The adrenaline ended up breaking Eli Kasan’s Gibson Music Man, and as the set ended in chaos, a kick drum converted to step stool was also sacrificed to the gods. “We’re The Gotobeds and we’re from…. here. We have merch for sale over there. You can buy some or not. Actually if you buy some it will help me fix my guitar.”
The Pulltops is a Milwaukee based duo delivering a hooky mix of Indie Rock, Power Pop, and Album Rock. Drummer Mark Pierret and guitarist Tom Crowell were both eclectic record collectors, so they immediately clicked when they joined their first band together. While Mark always leaned heavier on old country and soul music, Tom drew stronger influences from the experimental and underground scene.
Emerging Irish Rockers Colm O’Mahony & The Hot Touches present their debut single “Damage”, available now on Spotify and all the major music services, with a companion video on YouTube. The full album is out soon.
There’s a palpable excitement surrounding New Jersey’s The Tide Bends. Their latest single “Glass Jaw” feels like the calm before the storm, hinting at something seismic on the horizon.
Life is full of “Desire Paths” and King In Yellow is cutting their desire path straight through the New York underground with every new single they release. Their new single desire paths is rooted in the conventional and the abstract.Twisting and squelching like a screaming fire. Dive in and let it overtake you.
As close as an overnight sensation as there is in 2024, Sydney, Australia’s Royel Otis is enamoring audiences around the globe with their brand of indie-pop guitar-rock. With a steady release of EPs that started in late 2021, and a full-length earlier this year, the duo’s built a following through airplay on satellite radio, additions to Spotify playlists, and videos on YouTube that have been viewed millions of times. Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic are in the midst of a sold-out club tour that will find them back in the U.S. later this year at venues double and triple the size of where they’re playing now.
The Shop Window has just released its third—and by far best—album. Building on a solid foundation of jangle-pop and shoegaze, along with superb harmonies characteristic of their prior albums, the band has pushed through a global pandemic with an epically rousing and rich double LP, ”Daysdream”.
Leah Callahan made DIY waves in the underground music scene starting as front woman for the bands Turkish Delight US, Betwixt & The Glass Set. She is set to release her 4th album this decade on April 29.
Dark Ice Balloons, the latest LP by Brooklyn indie/punk trio, Nihiloceros, premieres today exclusively on Big Takeover Magazine and available everywhere tomorrow via Totally Real Records. The follow up to their 2021 EP, Self Destroy, which garnered the band attention from fans and critics for its bleak take on the human condition, Dark Ice Balloons explores the places between the worlds of living and the dead. Both lyrically and sonically its a touch more hopeful than its predecessor, leaning away from standard pop elements in lieu of rich guitar textures and an intentionally uglier palette of sound.
The Silent Era are a London-based, alt.rock four-piece blending industrial, goth rock, shoegaze, and post-punk to create heavy, dreamy soundscapes, woven through with introspective lyrics which explore the darker side of human nature.
Vocalist Bri Macanas (Black Palms, The Midnight Vortex, Silhouettes), guitarist Chris Schwarten (Ghost Wives) and multi-instrumentalist but mostly bassist Nicolas Zappa (also Ghost Wives) started the band during the pandemic. They were later joined by drummer Jo Eiffes (Silhouettes, Perfect Flaws).
With a little bit of hybrid alternative Americana style, an abundance of emotive passion, and an undeniable level of quality lyricism, MatAre has crash landed to the scene in a new way.
Born and bred in Blackpool, and taking inspiration from a wide and eclectic pool of influences, Jekyll’s music is known for its expansive, melancholic soundscapes, dynamic mood shifts and visceral intensity.
NYC-based post-punk duo Frenchy and the Punk present ‘Hypnotized’, a seductive dance floor romp. This is the first taste of their eighth album Midnight Garden, released via EA Recordings, which follows their critically-acclaimed Zen Ghost album and Siouxsie tribute ‘Cities In Dust’.
Post-punk outfit Clone – a Brooklyn-based supergroup featuring members of The Veldt, Dead Leaf Echo, Namesake and Pilot to Gunner – announces their debut record CL. 1 and presents the lead track ‘Dividing Line’, a song about how Donald Trump tried to start a class war within the USA.
UK electro-goth post-punk band History Of Guns presents ‘No Longer Earthbound’, previewing their new Half Light album – their eighth record to date – to be released via the Liquid Len Recording Company. Serving up their unique meta-modernist Industrial sound, this song is about leaving the planet (through space travel, virtual reality or death) and about recalibrating our thoughts awayfrom our own problems and looking at a more global and cosmic picture.
The Star Prairie Project’s new album is a concept album dealing with the mysteries of the antediluvian secret priesthood known as The Shining Ones. Named after the priesthood, this is the group’s seventh studio album since they emerged out of nowhere in 2019.
Nestled in the fine territory between post-punk and shoegaze with a surf vibe, 9-Volt Velvet is made up of Mark Cross (lead vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion), Donnie Robertson (drums, percussion, keyboards) and Kevin Robinson (guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals).
Boulder Fields revolves around Scottish singer-songwriter Cam Fraser, formerly of Borrowed Books and 80s punk legends The Cateran8, who joined *Nirvana on the 1989 UK tour that broke the band, as well as touring or sharing the stage with The Proclaimers, Tad and Grant Hart (Husker Du).
This week’s show, after a 1970 Kinks karol: brand new The Rifles, Snuff, Blushing, Pernice Brothers, Black Watch, Matt Hunter & the Dusty Fates, and Party Battleship, plus The Zombies, Slickers, Gene Clark, Love Affair, Otis Redding, Hank Thompson, and Shirley Collins & Davy Graham; and R.I.P. Pale Saints’ guitarist Graeme Naysmith (1967-2024) and Moody Blues’ keyboardist Mike Pinder (1941-2024)
A thrilling melange of hammond organ, gospel-blues chorus, blues guitar licks, Eduard’ Shyfrin’s distinctive and authoritative bass voice and a driving rhythm, ‘Whiskey Blues’ compels the listener to seize the moment as it captures the need to overcome life’s difficulties.
“We have different days, sometimes difficult, sometimes gloomy. But we should go on! We should continue and overcome and move on. That’s the underlying motive of this song. It’s important,” says its writer.
Manchester indie rock psychonauts “The Speed Of Sound” presents their new album A Cornucopia: Minerva, their second album issued via Big Stir Records, along with the video for ‘The Great Acceleration’ – the second single from the album, following up ‘West Wind’.
Portland-based outfit Federale have announced they will release their new Reverb & Seduction album via Jealous Butcher Records in the summer. Ahead of this, these legendary songcrafters present the lead track ‘Heaven Forgive Me’, which features Alex Maas of The Black Angels on backing vocals.
Though it was the last night of their tour, Allah-Las still played an engaging albeit somewhat short set that left the crowd yearning for more.
John Kampouropoulos is a diverse performer and songwriter, telling stories from the present, the past and the future, all wrapped into a shell of different musical colours. Styles range from The Beatles and David Bowie, to Radiohead, Cornell, Travis, from 60’s pop to 2000’s indie.
As he prepares to tour with The Alarm and Jay Aston’s Gene Loves Jezebel, Belouis Some talks about his career renaissance
“I knew that by putting this together it would cement my place where Nothing deserves to be in the realm of this scene and this music. In the process of doing that, I’m able to complete this cross-generational thing and give the community something they deserve as well.” – Domenic Palermo
From California to Texas to New England, New Jersey native son Dean Harlem has in true troubadour fashion made America his home. Deep-rooted in Americana and classic country sounds, with a picking style that blends Townes Van Zandt and Justin Townes Earle, and with an honest, soulful voice, Harlem has distinguished himself as a young singer-songwriter to watch, with what Seacoast Online predicts, “a long, storied career” ahead of him. His debut release, 2019’s Asbury Park, paid homage to his New Jersey origins, even as it pointed to new songways and highways ahead as evidenced by his 2022 stand-alone single, “World Without Song,” that further cemented his songwriting acumen. Currently, he makes his home in Nashville with his second EP, Red Oak Hill, arriving summer ’24
Once freed from his role as the Keith Richards of scuzz rock, Rowland S. Howard was determined to forge a path with his own vision at the forefront.
Michael Isaak fuses dreamy indie pop with intimate acoustic folk on his journey through a world that is ever-changing and tragically beautiful. The Los Angeles native draws audiences into his deepest cerebral spaces, showcasing songwriting as a profound tool for healing.
Palm Ghosts shares two new releases, “Pulse,” from their forthcoming Escape EP, and a The Chameleons cover, with sales to benefit To Write Love On Her Arms.
With members split between New York and New Jersey, indie pop collective Gramercy Arms presents their fourth album ‘The Making Of The Making Of’, released via Montclair, NJ-based Magic Door Record Label, along with a new video for ‘Never Say Anything (Magic Door Session)’.
Gramercy Arms is a revolving collective of musicians and artists, masterminded by Dave Derby (The Dambuilders, Lloyd Cole) and producer Ray Ketchem (Guided by Voices, Luna, Elk City). Inspired by the artistic heyday of ‘70s and ‘80s New York, Gramercy Arms makes addictive indie pop – exquisite hook-laden melodies filled with lyrics that will have you floating back in time and remembering your favorite mistake.
Recorded live at SMOKE Jazz Club in 2023, Reverence stays the course of McPherson’s career, featuring performances that reveal his fealty to the old school bop sound.
Every song feels like an instant hit! Those are the words one can’t help but think when hearing all of the pop wonders flowing from Sydney’s darling duo. Royel Otis is made up of Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic who both sing and play Fender guitars at the front of the stage with some great interweaving of melodies and pedal effects. Live, they are also accompanied by both a drummer and a keyboard player with both a Moog and a Sequential Prophet-6 to make for some super prominent melody lines. Each song also contains multiple sing along hits and their young and energetic crowd was quite ready to dance, sing along, and even crowd surf to tracks that just make you feel good to listen to. At times, it felt more like a party than a concert!
In fact, it would be accurate to say that each of their tracks has multiple hooks in it and gives the listener and audience the sort of rush when you hear a chorus, only this last for the entire length of the song from start to finish. Likewise, their 60 minute set with a 10 minute encore felt like it was a rush of optimistic energy that didn’t have a dull moment, either. It was especially fun to see the band relish in seeing their adoring fans and even recognizing a fan who had traveled to see them multiple nights. Their audience echoed their enthusiasm and ate up even the minimal stage banter with glee. This was also the band’s first show in Chicago, which made the night seem even more special.
While Royel Otis has three EPS released the last three years, Pratts & Pain from February 2024 is their first full length but already shows a sense of accomplishment and promise with ear candy galore. In particular, “Heading for the Door,” “Adored,” “Velvet,” and “Fried Rice,” as well as “I Wanna Dance With You” and “Kool Aid” from their 2023 EP Sofa Kings are especially spectacular both live and on album. The crowd sang the loudest to the refrain of “Sofa King,” elevating the moment into a positive shared experience. Additionally, the band treated Chicago to two spectacular covers-Murder on the Dancefloor by Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Linger by The Cranberries.
Best of all, even though it was clearly a fun experience, it should be noted that you had the sense that you were seeing the beginning of something truly great and the potential to go even farther and have a very long career. Considering Royel Otis have so many songs that are instantly lovable and transcend a mere indie rock appeal, it’s no wonder why! This reviewer would also be remiss if it wasn’t mentioned how great their videos are so check out their YouTube channel here.
Royel Otis are touring North America right now before heading to Europe. See tour dates here
Setlist:
Actor, composer, singer-songwriter, dad. Co-founder of The Lobbyists. My latest release is “Mountain Song”, which I wrote while hiking with my then 9-month-old just after moving to Vermont. I hope it inspires you to go out hiking and to sing along with the chickadees.
Written, developed and recorded in a home studio in Los Angeles, desk lamps’ unique style of music builds on simple percussive rhythms with organic layers of vibrant guitar, desolate, orchestral synth and measured bass to evoke feelings of tension between anxiety and carefree release.
We are 2 Far Out, your own Swedish lovable douchebags. You can also call us “The Sucker For Heartaches Association”. We’re here to captivate your senses, to make you feel alive, and to remind you that you’re not alone in everything that life throws at you. Our music draws inspiration from the likes of Blink-182, Green Day, and Machine Gun Kelly, The songs tackle themes of love, heartbreak, self-discovery and the ups and downs of youth with authenticity and vulnerability.
Today’s premiere is a dreamy, melody-drenched number that pleasantly reminds us of Animal Collective.
Plenty of guitar bands these days attempt to revive the spirit of the nineties, when six-string noise ran strong and melodies were plentiful. To these ears, however, it seems like that kind of sonic maelstrom is best swirled by those who were there the first time around.
DEEP DIVE SPECIES were formed during (and basically because of) the 2020 lockdown in New York. One part of the duo is Vadim Militsin, an electronic scene veteran who stands behind numerous projects like AUTiSM, Logica Abstracta and Robotov-Millentrop. The other component of this unlikely mixture is Sergey Popovich, a guitarist and vocalist with a string of projects, like Vopli Vodoplyasova, famous in and beyond his native Ukraine, Hey! Lubo!, and the NY-based Goodswan.
A little over ten years ago, Public Enemy organized a tour called Hip-Hop Gods Tour Revue, where they took a handful of seminal acts from the early days of hip-hop and let the original generation enjoy those salad days once again, while bringing these acts to the forefront of a newer audience. While the clock didn’t get turned back quite that far, Roadrunner saw a trio of west coast ensembles who were crucial building blocks to the story of rap.
Be Real of Cypress Hill cut right to the chase of the impending weed holiday weekend – “Four twenty is every day!” With a DJ station comprised of a giant skull with a pot leaf on it, and later a giant inflatable skeleton evilly grinning and holding a big fattie, it was pretty clear that cannabinoids are no stranger to the blood streams of Cypress Hill.
Along with Sen Dog, the duo busted out some choice cuts from that era, and that kid I saw wearing a weathered Stüssy t shirt knew what was up; “Hand On The Pump” and “When The Shit Goes Down” and “I Ain’t Going Out Like That” hit just as hard thirty years later. Cypress Hill is known for their ‘let’s get high and party’ vibe and while they weren’t a gangsta rap outfit like NWA, you know that they saw more than their fair share of bad shit going down. The squiggly earworm synth line of “Insane In The Brain” triggered a flood of memories for a good chunk of the packed room, and Be Real did make a callout to the Beastie Boys, whom he thanked for believing in them early on and taking them out on the road for a tour that changed their career trajectory radically.
The night ended with all the acts on stage for what Be Real said was one of the greatest songs ever, a version of House Of Pain’s “Jump Around” that got the entire building shaking. With smoke emanating in plumes from all reaches of the room, I hope no one had to take a drug test the next day.
The Pharcyde didn’t get featured on the Judgement Night soundtrack that had hip-hop bands paired with various noise/punk bands (Cypress Hill had two collab songs on the record, one with Sonic Youth and the other with Pearl Jam!) but their sound was picked up early on by DJ Shadow who used a sample of their song “It’s Jigaboo Time” in “Entropy” that came out in 1993, just a year later. Both acts would pull from Quincy Jones for “Summer in the City”, with DJ Shadow teaming with Cut Chemist on “The Hard Sell” whereas The Pharcyde used it in “Passin’ Me By,” their most well-known song. The quartet did a good job with taking some super catchy but then pretty unknown samples and turning them into Pharcyde material. In the era of played out trap beats, I miss this.
Pharcyde:
I didn’t know anything about opener Souls of Mischief but they also had that pedigree of the time, and pushed out slammin’ beats while members took turns on the rhymes.
This week’s show, after Jim sings a 1996 Sloan slab: brand new Fontaines D.C., J. Robbins, Belle & Sebastian, TV Smith, Real Estate, F.O.D., and Armoires, plus Johnny Burnette, Buck Owens, Gandalf, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Scientist, Lewis Pruitt, and Louis Armstrong
We are The Margaret Hooligans: One woman (electric ukulele, lead vocals), one man (drums, teapot, back up vocals), forming one band that incorporates garage rock, funk, and soul to create a swirl of sloppy transcendence.
Two thirds of Boston 80’s post-punk band Native Tongue, Lee Leffler and Michael Frackleton comprise the psychedelic/alt rock/post-punk duo Dream of a Man in a Top Hat. After their well received EP and debut album, Dream of a Man in a Top Hat spent 2022 and 2023 releasing a series of singles (many appear on the Buzzy Beans compilation album).
heavy on the heart. is a melodic rock band fueled by the soul & drive of 4 misfits with nothing to lose. heavy on the heart. is Nikki Brady (vocals), Costas Themistocleous (guitar), Nick Kolokathis (drums) & Andrew Nicolae (bass).
Seven and Counting is a new, eight-piece band with 1st studio album to be released on March 30, 2024. Their sound is a kind of a mixture of styles and influences each and every one of us picked up “along the road”, from rock to country and blues and whatever falls between.
Katie Pruitt confronts self-doubt on Mantras, her confident sophomore album. Following the acclaimed Expectations, Pruitt embraces a fuller sound and a more honest lyrical style. This time around, with a full promotional push, she’s poised for a breakout.
J.J. Chamberlain, or John Chamberlain is a Singer, Guitarist and Songwriter. He is the main songwriter for the band Box Time and plays lead guitar for Love Barons. Based in York but frequently seen in London. John spent 2023 playing shows in York, London and Liverpool.
Having successfully crowdfunded, released, and toured five albums worldwide, including the critically acclaimed Libellus (2009) Tallulah Rendall is poised to release her latest single, “The Heart Sutra (with Choir),” from her latest album, Love Carries Me Home, produced by the acclaimed 3x Grammy Winning & 5 times Nominated Danton Supple, a record that is a testament to her artistic brilliance and showcases Rendall’s unique ability to craft melodies that mend and uplift the human heart.
NYC’s Big Bliss is back with a cracking outtake from their insanely good “Vital Return” LP released last September on Good Eye. Featuring Wallace May’s vocals (with BV’s from normal vocal frontman, Tim Race), the biting lyrics fit the snarling music perfectly.
Singer/keyboardist Martha Johnson (known for her work with Canadian art-pop outfit, Martha & The Muffins), has just released “Slow Emotion” under the Martha Johnson and Company moniker. The uplifting single brings awareness to Parkinson’s disease, which she’s had since 2000, and features an array of musicians who have PD as well.
Pop singer and songwriter Natalie K releases her eighth single, “Dance With Me,” a vibrant pop anthem meets neo-soul dance groove, inspired by an unforgettable night out in Los Angeles.
An experimental pop collective led by Andrew Grossman, Washington, D.C.’s The North Country has become synonymous with catchy indie-pop earworms and electrifying live performances. Their music delves into themes of digital fatigue, heartbreak, and socio-political critique aimed at the elite. With each song, The North Country challenges listeners to think critically while keeping them moving on the dance floor.
Psychedelic gaze-wave outfit Sun Atoms recently released a 7” vinyl featuring the new wave-inspired single ‘Ceiling Tiles’ and a unique fuzzed-out tribute to Leonard Cohen called ‘Tower of Song (in the key of JAMC)’. Mixed by iconic producer Jagz Kooner (Massive Attack, Primal Scream, Oasis, Garbage), it comes via the ever-growing label Little Cloud Records digitally, who are also putting out the band’s sophomore album this summer.
With members split between New York and New Jersey, indie pop collective Gramercy Arms presents their fourth album The Making Of The Making Of, released via Montclair, NJ-based Magic Door Record Label, along with a new video for ‘Never Say Anything (Magic Door Session)’.
Stripping her sound down from a quintet to a trio, the Madrid-born/NYC-based composer presents Perpetual Void, the next step in her creative arc.
Colin Woltmann, a singer-songwriter from Madison, Wisconsin currently living in Alabama, started playing guitar and writing songs almost 20 years before releasing his debut album, Brown Recluse, in 2021. Two years later he and Heath Fogg (of Alabama Shakes) formed Lake Nakoma and released their self-titled album. Woltmann has just released “The In-Betweens”, ahead of his new EP, Case of the Times, set for release in early 2024.
For Silent, Listening, he goes it alone, planting his own entry in ECM’s long line of classic solo piano records.
Signed to Metropolis Records, Stockholm alternative rock / post-punk trio Then Comes Silence has unleashed their seventh album Trickery. This time around, frontman Alex Svenson, drummer Jonas Fransson and guitarist Hugo Zombie worked with producer Jorgen Wall (Jay-Jay Johanson, The Hellacopters) and mixer Tom Van Heesch (Rammstein, Apocalyptica) – a capable team infusing extraordinary power in a collection of tracks that is ultimately about friendship, unity and a sense of belonging.
After three records released on various small labels, including her debut on the illustrious Siltbreeze label, Philadelphia-born Rosali Middleman built up enough momentum to catch the attention of Merge Records. A few months ago, Bite Down was released, its polarizing album cover hard to ignore.
I first caught her as a duo with Emily Robb when they opened for Hiss Golden Messenger and then a year later Dan Bejar tapped her and her full band as support for the Destroyer tour. Bejar lent some kind words on the hype sticker on the new record, and even a cursory listen reveals her deep talent as a songwriter. Unsurprisingly, the new record was the showcase for the evening, an economical dozen songs that also sprinkled in four from her previous record, No Medium.
Crammed onto the tiny stage of the Rockwell, Rosali had to lift her guitar neck up every time she swiveled around to corral the band’s energy. Anyone who’s a fan of Neil Young is familiar with “the lurch,” that moment when Shakey summons the power of the quartet and between physical movements and some sort of wizard telepathy, moves the unit into one unstoppable force.
David Nance is a pretty fucking good guitarist in his own right (and when fronting his own self-named band) but was nestled tightly in the pocket while playing bass; James Schroeder played his hollow body Epiphone like it was an extension of his arms and brain, instinctively weaving in and out, bringing dynamic peaks and scaling back when he needed to. The secret sauce was drummer Kevin Donahue (also a member of Nance’s band along with Schroeder), who had enough swing like Charlie Watts but could also bludgeon the kit like Bonzo as needed.
The new record doesn’t have quite as many of those simmer-to-boil-over moments, yielding instead to Rosali’s tempered song writing; “Bite Down” burbles along like a sparkling brook, and “My Kind” evokes a bit of SoCal-era Fleetwood Mac. Set closer “Bones” was when the teeth were bared, all four members bearing down and wringing the remaining energy from their instruments.
Rosali has recently relocated to North Carolina so perhaps it was no coincidence that Carrboro-based Verity Den hopped on as tour support for a few shows. The guitarists Mike Wallace and Trevor Reece were both part of Drag Sounds. The quartet was one of the better unknown bands I’ve seen this year, and while there were definitely some strong influences woven throughout their sound (Feelies, ’90s US shoegaze without slavish pedal worship, Television Personalities, Hospitality, Yo La Tengo, etc) they had their own definitive stamp on their sound. One to watch.
The Outers are a London based indie rock band. Their songs are characterised by a distinctive, up-tempo rhythm section supporting catchy guitar and vocal melodies. “We try to incorporate the vintage sound and subtle melodies of British pop, and the depth of Post Punk with the edge of electro pop to add a bit of a dance groove.”
The Silence Industry was formed in 2007-ish, possibly from the wreckage of other music projects and have released 12+ releases, most of which are available to download for free in some form online.
Vaguely gothy. Always diy. Always honest. Sometimes weird. Not always accessible. Guitars. Vocals. Electronics.
The Silence Industry was released music through Enough Records, Aenaos, Ekleipsi and others.
Annakye is a dynamic and promising band that burst onto the music scene end of 2021. Originally formed that year, the group saw a significant expansion in 2023 with the inclusion of talented singers Lucas and Camron. This addition brought a fresh energy and dimension to the band’s sound. Their breakthrough moment came in 2023 with the release of their single “Too Far South,” which soared to the impressive position of number one on the unsigned pop punk charts in the USA.
Indie rock trio Onceweresixty are back with the album Loco Sunset Boulevard / Ghetto Blast Noise Machine, created over a period of three years at Villa Albrizzi Marini, a magical place in the Venice countryside hills en route to the Alps. Having set up their studio on this 1400-villa property, owned by the Armenian Church, finally they can present this 8-track album (structured in two parts as a double EP).
“In a lot of ways, playing under my own name has made me more honest. There’s no gimmick or genre constraints – I just record songs that emerge from my head.” – R.E. Seraphin
This week’s show, after a 1966 Bee Gees belt: brand new Guided By Voices, Blushing, Pernice Brothers, Black Watch, Libertines (U.K.), Carina Messier, and Ride, plus Nina Simone, Chuck Berry, Dolly Parton, Guess Who, Nancy Sinatra, Jacob Miller, and Stan Ridgeway; and R.I.P. Clarence “Frogman” Henry (1937-2024) and Personality Crisis/SNFU/D.O.A./Subhumans drummer Jon Card (1960-2024)
Miles East’s “All Hands On Deck”— the third single from his forthcoming album Between Lightning and Thunder — arrives just as the artist has won a newfound audience: his first two singles have garnered nearly 250,000 streams and glowing press coverage on five continents. “You hope your music will resonate with those who listen to it,” says East. “But the response to this new music has honestly been beyond my wildest dreams.”
DEEP DIVE SPECIES were formed during (and basically because of) the 2020 lockdown in New York. One part of the duo is Vadim Militsin, an electronic scene veteran who stands behind numerous projects like AUTiSM, Logica Abstracta and Robotov-Millentrop. The other component of this unlikely mixture is Sergey Popovich, a guitarist and vocalist with a string of projects, like Vopli Vodoplyasova, famous in and beyond his native Ukraine, Hey! Lubo!, and the NY-based Goodswan.
Hailing from Berlin, Circolo Vizioso is made up of Tony Scafidi (guitar, bass, drum, hi-hat, vocals) and Paul Geigerzaehler (violin, snare drum, vocals). The band plays abrasive, groovy punk music that is influenced by the sound of 1990s New York, Chicago and Washington (i.e. Fugazi, Blonde Redhead and Sonic Youth), as well as the sound of early 80’s-90’s Eastern German and Eastern European punk bands like Dezerter8, *Sandow and Schleimkeim.
With two albums under their belt, Hello Emerson’s third release, To Keep Him Here, is the most personal to date. The entire album is about the nine days Sam Emerson Bodary’s dad, David, spent in the hospital following an accident in 2017 and the many different emotions the Bodary family went through while wait to see if David would recover.
The boys are back! Last year Guided By Voices held a triumphant two-day celebration in their hometown (well, Robert Pollard’s hometown anyway) of Dayton Ohio to celebrate 40 years of high kicks and beer chugs. After four shows the following month, the band took the rest of the year off to do what they do best – create new music. This would be the first live show since Nowhere To Go But Up came out, GBV’s third record of 2023 and along the way Pollard found the time to squeeze in a lo-fi EP he recorded with some local friends under the rubric of Rip Van Winkle and well as rousing Circus Devils from their six year slumber. And of course the endless product stream shows no signs of abating, with rumored records Saturn Room and Strut Of Kings (apparently shedding the previous working title of Gimme Green Heaven) in the works or perhaps already completed.
As hinted to in “Weed King”, Pollard has had little difficulty keeping his violent pace. Which creates a bit of an issue in the live setting. Last year or so the band started having opening acts again rather than doing a marathon set by themselves, and instead of average over 50 songs played, they’ve trimmed it back to a still fairly stupendous 40 or so. With the relentless creative stream in full effect, new songs played mean old songs are jettisoned.
But in a bit of a power move, the show started with a banger from the past, “My Impression Now,” the crowd instantly energized. The new stuff had to wait for the next song, with “For The Home” the first of a half-dozen played throughout their set. The mid-tempo carried across pretty much all of them, aside from the Who-like breakdown towards the end of “Jack Of Legs”; ditching the plodding “Stabbing At Fractions” (and the written set list with “Stabbing” gave me a jump scare, hoping that “Stabbing A Star” would make a rare appearance, having been shelved since 1997) for the more up tempo “Cruel For Rats” would have been a plus.
After finishing what Pollard said was his favorite song in the set, he made a wry comment of “That’s a long ways away from “Hey Aardvark.” Not denigrating the band’s legacy at all, just a reminder that the GBV of today is pretty far removed from what was happening 30-odd years ago. Of course, the band isn’t forgetting its heritage and they can’t leave the stage without at least a dozen or so classics from the Scat and Matador Records years. Rightly so, songs like “I Am A Scientist,” “Shocker In Gloomtown,” “Game Of Pricks,” “Tractor Rape Chain” et al – they are rightly venerated by old and new fans alike and can easily belong in any conversation about best rock songs from any time period.
But Pollard is equally energized by the current material, created with a lineup that’s been together longer than the classic Sprout/Mitchell/Demos/Fennell from the ’90s. To underscore this, he cranked out not one but three high kicks during “Romeo Surgeon.” It was made clear at GBV 40 he’s all about looking forward rather than glancing backwards, with no special guests from the band’s history coming out for a single song over the two nights. Tonight, the one special guest came out as the song written about and for underage rockers was finishing, Pollard’s daughter Erika beaming with a mix of pride and joy and Bob’s grandson shyly smiling at the side of the stage.
Speaking of under age rockers, “The Laughing Chimes” look like the ink on their high school diplomas is still wet. The quartet hails from nearby Athens OH and just recently put out a single on Slumberland (There are five left so act fast!). The Seurkamp brothers who comprise the rhythm section take the jangle of early R.E.M. and fuse it with strains of early ’80s Rough Trade and 4AD. It’s a good hybrid and will be interesting to see where they take it.
Mike Patton won some internet award for the broadest vocal range and he’s been at the forefront of some wild projects. Of course Faith No More is the highest profile gig in his quiver but the weirder side of the pond includes stints with avant-garde composer/sax player/sonic terrorist John Zorn (Hemophiliac; Painkiller; Moonchild) and the supergroup Fantômas who also features Mr. Bungle members Trevor Dunn and drummer extraordinaire Dave Lombardo. Along with founding member Trey Spruance, Patton and company decided to re-record their first demo tape and recruited Lombardo and Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian to join the fun.
The music over the PA before and after Battles was a constant stream of 70’s corny smooth yacht rock, with burnished chestnuts from America, Bread, Steely Dan, Looking Glass etc setting the scene. Faith No More famously did an unironic version of The Commodores “Easy” and the show opened with “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” the theme from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. So when the frenetic thrash of “Anarchy Up Your Ass,” “Eracist” and “Bungle Grind” gave way to a palate cleanser of 10CC’s “I’m Not In Love,” it was not a total surprise. How many bands juxtapose covers of Slayer > Seals and Croft > Siege > Spandau Ballet? I can think of exactly one.
Hopefully fans knew the deal and weren’t expecting material from Disco Volante or California and scanning the room the Patton geeks were definitely enjoying themselves. Hey, Bungle recorded three other demo tapes so maybe another tour or two of demo-only material might surface in the future. That would be totally on brand for Patton.
Battles is now down to a duo, with ex-Don Caballero guitarist Ian Williams still manning the six strings as well as keyboards, and hard hitting/high cymbal pioneer John Stanier still onboard as well. It’s not a total surprise that they got the call for tour support on this seven show stint, as Patton, Dunn and Stanier team up in Tomahawk, another supergroup. It’s a bit of a different sound from when Ty Braxton was singing but samplers do exist for such situations and occasionally Williams would trigger some vocals even though he nor Stanier had a microphone anywhere near them. Their disjointed electronic sound at times evoked a video game soundtrack with some fundamental coding flaws. Overall a good fit and the crowd was appreciative.
Portland-based music mavericks Sky Lions present their new album Inside The Circle, a nine-track offering that presents a powerful blend of post-punk with alternative and hard rock.
It’s likely no surprise that the title In Solitude, the latest album from bass clarinetist Steven Lugerner’s multi-faceted group SLUGish Ensemble, references the pandemic.
Portland duo Phosphene’s new record Transmute is a decisively excellent collection of fuzzy, dreamy indie pop songs.
“Zephyr is the most similar to my previous releases, dreamy and folky. It’s about when life takes a pause for you, and you realize that not only you need the rest, but it’s perhaps time to stop and reflect on all the changes, good and bad, that maybe you hadn’t noticed.” – Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of “Zephyr” by JJ Slater.
Afton Wolfe is a product of his home, Mississippi. It is the birthplace of at least 2 American art forms: country music and blues music. Meridian is the birthplace of Jimmy Rodgers, while the Mississippi Delta is the birthplace of the blues, and the first rock n’ roll notes ever played, according to some music historians, came from Hattiesburg. Afton also draws much of his style from nearby New Orleans.
London psychedelic pop artist Black Market Karma presents “The Sour Truth”, their long-awaited collaboration with legendary musician-producer Sonic Boom (aka Pete Kember) of Spacemen 3 and Spectrum fame. This single will be released on 10” vinyl and digitally via London boutique label Flower Power Records.
Old punks are still at it. The Damned continue to play vital shows (and release pretty good records still), the Rebellion Fest shows that loads of bands from the early days of punk rock are still burning that flame. While Billy Idol’s days of punk are long behind him, being an original member of Chelsea and then forming Generation X is still worth a few truckfuls of cred.
MTV helped launch a bunch of careers through a combination of the sound and the look of the performer and Idol rode that wave perfectly, a peroxided, lip-curled snarler who wrote really catchy songs. With his longtime sidekick/writing partner/guitarist Steve Stevens, Idol was clearly having a great time rolling through the songs that as he put it, made him a lucky man and very appreciative of his fans. The hits came fast right out of the gate, “Dancing With Myself” getting the crowd bopping early and “Flesh For Fantasy” featuring Idol with his back to us and peeling off his black leather jacket and vest to don a black shirt he didn’t bother buttoning up before turning back to address the crowd. Gotta say that for 67, Idol clearly has a pretty solid exercise routine.
Along with Stevens, Idol assembled a crack band with a local on drums who got a birthday cake after the encore, an animated bass player, a keyboardist, two other guitarist and two background singers. His songs aren’t that super ornate and to be honest had the 3rd guitarist’s amp stopped working I doubt anyone would have noticed, but the entire unit sounded crisp and clean.
One incongruity was the punk rock/“alternative” (whatever that means now, it did mean something in the ’80s) songs of Idol contrasted with Stevens’ bit in the spotlight. Stevens took over the stage to play a medley of some classic rock hits by Led Zeppelin and others, and later on in the set after the Gen X shout-along “One Hundred Punks” he played his biggest solo hit, the theme from Top Gun. A bit weird but somehow it all worked. The set ended with Idol teasing the crowd that they’d be pressed into backing vocals duty and of course everyone knew the “More More More” refrain from “Rebel Yell” without any prodding. The “Hot In The City” > “White Wedding” was a celebratory end to a really fun show. I hadn’t seen Idol in nearly 10 years and he still clearly enjoys playing his songs for an appreciative crowd, and singing them well.
Hailing from Australia, Alex Cameron took the stage with only a sampler and a sax player as support. “I bet you think we’re not very successful and so we don’t have a band but we like it this way,” Cameron quipped. Dancing about the stage in a leopard print tank top, he played a wry style of indie dance pop, punctuated with bursts of sax via Roy Molloy. Not the easiest gig to come in cold as a duo in front of a crowd who just wants to see Billy Idol but overall they fared okay.
This week’s show, after a 1979 Damned dirge: brand new New Model Army & Sinfonia Zeipzig, Plush Machine, Dewey Defeats Truman, Laughing Chimes, Feelies, Joy Formidable, and Bobby Sutliff, plus Buddy Holly, Ides of March, Kinks, Buck Owens, Joe Higgs, Grodes, and Fanny; and R.I.P. Goya Dress/Cinerama/Wedding Present drummer Simon Pearson (1969-2023), Died. Pretty singer Ron S. Peno (1955-2023), and Effigies singer John Kezdy (1959-2023)
Written at a crucial time, pianist Ben Winkelman’s sixth album Heartbeat captures an emotional whirlwind, with anticipation and dread mixing freely and productively.
Formed in late 2015, Brooklyn-based Big Bliss is back with ”Vital Return”. Composed during Covid and amidst an array of setbacks and challenges, their liberating newly released second LP brims with superbly crafted melancholic and intense tunes.
“Discovering Japan” and “Local Girls” singer-songwriter Graham Parker discusses his latest studio album, Last Chance to Learn the Twist
Kurt Jorgensen has been a long time band leader, releasing eight albums to date, while receiving the praise of fans and critics alike. The Minnesota Music Awards has presented Kurt with singer of the year, entertainer of the year, songwriter of the year, album of the year, and song of the year. Brianna Tagg-Jorgensen has played in a number of bands due to her multi instrumental talents. Being proficient at piano, guitar, and has been lucky enough to tour nationwide. Brianna has performed multiple times at South by Southwest and was the lead vocal on a track that was nominated for an Independent Music Award.
When it comes to the latest album from saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and his Red Lily Quartet, the title, quite frankly, says it all.
Last Chance to Learn the Twist is nothing so cliché as a return to form – it’s simply one of this veteran artist’s very best records.
Big Takeover is stoked to host the premiere of Lines by Soft Science. Ross Levine and Katie Haley took some time to offer a few lyrical, musical, or interesting insights about each of the songs.
Based in the New Jersey town of Secaucus, Clay Joule is a singer-songwriter who makes buoyant and uplifting soft rock music, characterised by his delicate vocal leads and backed up by warm organic instrumentation. His music always carries an important message and his latest release, “Keep On” is no exception – a dialogue and reminder about who is really in charge of our destiny.
Five of the best recordings from She’s Automatic, plus six new songs originally released as a digital EP of the same name, plus three live recordings.
Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of “You Do You”, the second single by Last Man Back, the new project from Alan O’Keeffe.
Loud, the duo’s fourth album, features Tim on six-string bass and baritone guitar and Susan on drums, relying on meaty riffs, no-frills songwriting, and the duo’s ragged-but-right harmonizing to carry the performances.
Bark is a drum set, a Fender 6-string bass, two voices and more hooks than Bill Dance keeps in his tackle box. Loud is their new album. Bark comprises the collaborative duo of Susan Bauer Lee (drums and vocals) and Tim Lee (Fender VI bass and vocals) based in Water Valley, Mississippi.
This week’s show, after a 1981 Effigies eulogy: brand new The Damned, Film School, Slowdive, Guest Directors, Soft Science, Salim Nourallah (with Marty Willson-Piper), and Baseball Project, plus Buckinghams, Shadows of Knight, Nancy Sinatra, Hugh Malcolm, Tammy Wynette, Peter & Gordon, and unreleased Replacements; and R.I.P. Effigies singer John Kezdy (1959-2023)
“Despechada means heartbroken or without your soul,” explained Ane Díaz about the title of her evocative new album, released June 9th via LaunchLeft. “It’s a very powerful word used for love affairs, but that’s also how I feel about losing my country.”
Chiaroscuro, is the latest EP from Maureen Toth, a collection of songs that live up to the titular idea of artistic use of light and shade. Championed by Women of Substance Radio, the inherent quality in Toth’s forthright material has drawn comparisons to Patty Griffin, Joni Mitchell, and Shelby Lynne.
Afton Wolfe is a product of his home, Mississippi. It is the birthplace of at least 2 American art forms: country music and blues music. Meridian is the birthplace of Jimmy Rodgers, while the Mississippi Delta is the birthplace of the blues, and the first rock n’ roll notes ever played, according to some music historians, came from Hattiesburg. Afton also draws much of his style from nearby New Orleans.
Electronic artist BlankFor.ms (Tyler Gilmore to the ‘rents) joins with jazz piano titan Jason Moran and hugely respected drummer Marcus Gilmore for Refract, an adventure in glitched-out improvisation.
Brazil-based sonic adventurers BIKE released their new album Arte Bruta earlier this year after a busy start to 2023 – the band has toured extensively, performed live on Seattle’s KEXP, played dozens of shows at SXSW and Treefort Music Fest, in addition to opening for The Brian Jonestown Massacre in their native city of São Paulo. We caught up with these Amazonian sonic ambassadors for a quick catch-up.
Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys are an art pop/alternative band based in Berlin. The group, fronted by South African born artist, Lucy Kruger, are known for creating music that is full of atmosphere and intensity. Their prolific output and memorable live shows have attracted attention from both audiences and critics alike.
Quiz Show is a continuation. After a quarter-century break, Chris Matthews, a founding member of legendary DC hardcore band Shudder To Think, picked-up his guitar and began to write songs again. Luckily he lives in the same town as Guided By Voices drummer Kevin March, who agreed to jam and write with Chris.
“A Million Miles” is the first song released from Broken, the latest release from Benjamin Jayne, a project that is sustained by Benjamin Wright out of Brattleboro, Vermont.
A first call bassist in both Chicago jazz and classical music, Christian Dillingham proves himself the kind of composer and bandleader who should also top lists with Cascades.
Let’s go back to the beginning. How did The Noise Who Runs come about?
It might be a perfect example of me being overly-self-effacing. Or wanting some feeble barrier between the project and me personally, a sliver of a degree of separation. I did an album as Ian Pickering in 2014 (Left Handed Tendencies, released in 2014), and I don’t like being Ian Pickering in that way. So I was always hoping to stumble across a name, particularly because, as a conscious decision, I’m always left hollow with names.
Song titles are easy – they write themselves or come along during the process. But a name to sum up everything you’re trying to do? That’s mostly gonna end up in dissatisfaction and settling on something and getting stuck with it. When something just lands on you and feels like it could never have been any different, those moments have a profound effect, and the name was like that – I knew it immediately. The Noise Who Runs was the very literal translation of a restaurant here in Lille – O Bruit Qui Cour – which means ‘gossip,’ tittle-tattle talk of the town stuff. It was a lightbulb moment when I asked what it meant and was told that it wouldn’t make sense in English. For me, it gives everything the project wants to say and wants to be in four simple words: The Noise Who Runs. Something’s beginning, and it’s not gonna be stopped. And we’re off.
Although Hartlepool is your hometown, The Noise Who Runs is largely the product of your time in France. What made you relocate, and how different has it been making music there rather than back home?
The shortest, most honest version is that I fell in love with a French girl and moved here to Lille to be with her. I wanted it and welcomed it purely for that reason alone – love’s the only reason you need, surely? But the level of disregard and contempt to which I believe people are subjected in the U.K. by our default conservative government, coupled with six years of austerity, then Brexit, made it a no-brainer. Obviously, it depended on me finding a job, but I moved at the end of July 2016, and I’ve never been out of work here since that September.
As regards making music, it’s no different, really. That’s kind of the Northern Star constant in my life – everything else can burn and fall to pieces, but songs get written and recorded, produced, and performed. It was nice, prior to the pandemic, to rehearse again; I’d become quite solitary and isolated musically in England since about 2006, to be honest.
That enjoyment of playing feeds back into the motivation to keep working on new stuff and making plans, reworking things, so I guess the main difference is that the process of making music and the reasons for making it has been refreshed and reinvigorated and, on the personal level, I feel happy and at home here.
And how did you meet your TNWR partner, Felipe Goes?
Felipe was just there at work one day, a new English teacher, and we got talking, and I learned that firstly, he was Brazilian and secondly, that he played the guitar – so win-win, really. And it began there, meeting up, playing songs, getting guitar parts recorded. We rehearsed live with a bass player throughout 2019, using loops and samples, before we decided on a real drummer. We did one rehearsal before Christmas; then, the pandemic shut all that down.
Preteretrospective is kind of a relaunch point where the project has been crystallized into its desired form by the restrictions of 2020 and 2021, all in very good ways. So it’s just me and Felipe, and the live thing will come together with the right people at the right time or just the two of us. I would expect us to do both those things – get a drummer and a bass player and do gigs where it’s just the two of us.
It is safe to say that your music has some very poignant messages, especially the singles “2poor2die” and “Takes a Long Cold Look and Then The Kitchen Sink.” In the case of the latter, how does it make you feel that a song you wrote 25 years ago is more relevant than ever?
Should it make me feel vindicated? That I’ve been right for a long time? On a small level, it probably does. But mostly, it feels like a tragedy that a song I wrote in 1996, the last year of a Tory government that’d been in power since I was eight, now precisely fits an even more disastrous and incompetent Tory government 27 years later.
As a song, it’s changed a lot – different chords and melody, brand new chorus, so it’s just the verse lyrics that remain intact. But even that points to two fundamental truths: the problems for the majority of people haven’t changed in the whole of human history, and the governments don’t and won’t ever help. I wonder why any working person in the U.K. would ever vote Tory again.
I’m not simply tory-bashing in that song, though. It’s all populist, culture warriors wankers who are putting us on the firing line, all politicians full-stop who are failing to meet any of the challenges of the 21st Century, resisting changes to the established status quo that would enable them to meet those challenges and happily making our lives increasingly harder and more miserable as they discuss our continued exploitation with every shady, scruffy motive sleazeball with a free lunch and an envelope of cash for them.
How did you begin working with Sneaker Pimps, and how did you come to be involved in Front Line Assembly?
Every single one of them forced me, against my will, due to some unpleasant skeleton in some random closet. I really didn’t want to, but I’m too polite to say no. You have to understand that Liam once locked me out of his dining room and refused to let me in unless I admitted that Father Christmas wasn’t real. I was about six years old. So Liam can get you to do anything. That last part is true. I’ve known Liam since the day I was born, and we started doing music stuff just before we were teenagers.
He made two albums when we were at school that I did some lyrics for, and when he, Chris, and Kelli were given the chance to make Becoming X, he sat me down and asked if I wanted to give the lyrics a go. And that was as simple as. With Front Line Assembly, Bill Leeb and I have a mutual friend who had suggested it a few times to both him and me and eventually hooked us up for a chat. He sent over two songs, and, like Sneakers, FLA music just breaks open the floodgates to the imagination. I did three more a year or so later, too. Hopefully, Bill might send something else my way soon. I just love writing lyrics, I love the process, and I love words.
I hear that you are also working on new Sneaker Pimps music and soon will be writing again for Front Line Assembly. Is it easy to decide what ideas end up in which project?
Well, with projects outside TNWR, I’m just the lyricist, so both Sneakers and FLA are sending me music. FLA, the tunes are usually just waiting for lyrics. Sneakers, it depends; sometimes, it’s a very raw outline of a song, and more frequently, it’s quite an advanced demo, but whatever stage it’s at, it’s always mesmerizing.
But where is everyone hearing this rumor? I’ve not heard the Front Line Assembly one (although I would love to do more stuff on their stuff; I loved working on the tracks I did), but the Sneakers one keeps cropping up. Working with Sneakers is like having B.O. – you’re always the last to know! But when asked, I’ll always be ready. And Front Line Assembly, too, Bill just has to ask.
What I know for sure is that there was a lot more material worked on during the making of Squaring The Circle than appeared on the actual album, and the writing process was spread over two years before it was released and kept going for a year afterward, getting more songs done. But what’s happening with them, and when? I have no idea at all.
Do you think music is still an important platform from which to engage and empower the masses, or has the potency of music as a force had its day?
Well, I guess we’ll see. I have no other reason to do it other than to empower the masses; I don’t really choose to do this other than I feel I have to, and even when I try and ignore it, it wins, hands-down, very quickly. Certainly, the potency of music hasn’t changed; arguably, the environment in which music is now consumed has made it harder for it to be as forceful as it was to have a growing impact, but that’s how it is, and we have to work with that.
On some level, there’s a degree of cynicism on both sides, artist, and audience – the audience, for the most part, wants to be cheered up from its misery, to escape, to lose itself, rather than identify on the bigger picture and find solidarity, inspiration, a soundtrack to fight to. To a certain extent, it doesn’t want to be lectured to by self-righteous entertainers who can only really make an impact and generate some reasonable money by agreeing to a sync for an advert or T.V. show, which can then be thrown back at them as ‘selling-out.’
To a greater extent, how many artists are actually writing about something that could empower the masses? And how many of them are gonna stand up and be counted rather than sit at home counting? Art has an overall purpose for me – to portray and challenge everything that’s wrong in the world and celebrate every victory to inspire the next one. I don’t like art for art’s sake.
Do you see The Noise Who Runs as a studio project, or are live shows a likelihood in the future?
I think both Felipe and I really want to get back onstage and start playing live with all the stuff we’ve done up to now and everything we’re about to do in the next few years. I would say, most realistically, in 2024. We’re gonna start proper rehearsals very soon, see what we can do with just the two of us, then we’re gonna call in the troops, well, a bass player and a drummer.
For me personally, I tend to see TNWR as my last will and testament, my final resting place – it represents my life’s work, and the aim is to have no song left unrecorded on the day I die. There’s a huge backlog of tracks because since I moved to France, I’ve written more prolifically than ever in my life. It’s kind of plateaued out now to maybe two ‘serious contender’ songs a month, but the list keeps growing, so in terms of what’s coming out of the studio in the future, we’re all set for a string of releases.
And where next for you personally and the band musically?
Well, my teaching at the university here is about to finish in September, so I just have to work from the afternoon until 8 pm for now. This is my peak time to step up the intensity on the recording side – vocals I always try and leave until I have longer to do them. For instruments, it’s easier – you just need to get it done, and you can snatch those moments regularly in the busiest schedule. But singing takes more of a mood and an atmosphere – I need to be alone and unhurried.
So I’ll be focusing on that, and for the band, post-PRETERETROSPECTIVE and a last single (with three new songs on), we have three releases earmarked – an E.P. for the summer, which is more electronic than anything so far, a mini-album in what we’re gonna call the ROGUE NOISE series, and finally a full album probably around Spring 2024. It might not be the same album I’m thinking of right now, which makes it all even more interesting that we’re at a stage where we could just choose to do something completely different and still keep on track with releasing new stuff as often as we can. We’re gonna win everyone over by slowly wearing them down through the sheer weight of material and force of lyrics.
Thank you for taking the time to chat with me, and best of luck with everything in the future.
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On a warm San Franciscan night, London, UK band, The Clientele, brought their shimmering and layered arpeggiated sound to the intimate setting of The Chapel. The August 20th show was in support of their new album, I Am Not There Anymore, their first full-length recording in 6 years.
Stripped clean of its studio embellishments (most notably a haunting string score), opener “Garden Eye Mantra” meanders along in a tipsy melancholic fashion until a sinister fuzz tone takes over the guitar and Alasdair MacLeon‘s plaintive vocals turn monotone and threatening. It’s a great opener that puts the crowd on notice that tonight will not be all gorgeous melodies and reflective ruminations. That being said, the next three songs, “We Could Walk Together”, “Claire’s Not Real”, and “Chalk Flowers” (the last two from the new record) deliver on the promise of dreamlike picked guitar lines enveloped in aching melodies. Chalk Flowers, in particular, finds MacLeon in a tender and confessional Dylanesque lyric style and delivery with the lines “I had no idea I’d be in bits and pieces, as I flowered through her skin, and she flowered through mine”.
Other highlights include “Lady Gray”, “I Dreamed of You Maria”, and “The Age of Miracles”. Dreamlike geographic locations are sprinkled liberally through many of the new songs (a doorway by the sea, a cornfield by the avenue, the fire lanes and the bridleways), often evoking pastoral settings. The emotional hangover of “Since K Got Over Me” was missed, however, the utterly mesmerizing “Bonfires on the Heath” more than made up for it. The wordless cooing that ends each verse is so emotive, so plaintive, that it needs its own warning – “caution, listening may cause spontaneous tears of longing”.
Lest the band give the impression of swoony, literate nerds, several times during the night, MacLeon channels Tom Verlaine and holds forth with some rankling guitar squall that jolts the audience, causing spontaneous applause. Bassist James Hornsey and drummer Mark Keen‘s playing is understated and delicate, all in the service of the song. Hornsey, in particular, is both sinewy and muscular; what a joy it must be to have such a solid, sympathetic rhythm section.
Bathed in a somber mix of indigo lights for most of the evening, when the band reaches the end of their set, it’s almost as if we awaken from a gorgeous dream. With three sets of encores, clearly, the crowd is in love with the rarely-seen trio. Of course, they save “Blue Over Blue”, from the new record, as a rousing encore; in another lifetime, this would have been the feel-good hit of the summer. The Clientele’s 60’s reverb-drenched, chiming guitar influences are all there, but they never stand in the way of the songs. The band embodies the inherent challenge of songwriting – namely, craftsmanship balanced with emotion. There are few that do it better than The Clientele.
This week’s show, after a 2022 Alvvays aria: brand new Hurry, Blur, Kristin Hersh, Death Cab For Cutie, Billy Bragg, Anton Barbeau, and Teenage Fanclub, plus Erma Franklin, Small Faces, Carl Smith, Derrick Morgan, Thunderclap Newman, MC5, and The Treniers
With a run of seasonal singles underway and a new album planned, it felt like the perfect time to sit down with Teni Rane again and find out about the new music music, her recent travels and the fascinating journey which has got her to where she is today.
The quartet’s sixth LP Olympico seethes with energy, while also evidencing the kind of refined craft great outfits earn over the course of careers.
Becca Mancari unpacks a lot of personal baggage on their third album, Left Hand, through a fantastical lens where the music speaks a rich language. It’s an evolution from their earliest recording days which found Mancari fitting into the Nashville singer-songwriter narrative. Mancari shares how the evolution took place, the themes of the album, and how shedding heavy topics has been a weight off their shoulders.
Leslie Vincent is a prolific songwriter and jazz vocalist. Equally at home singing the Great American Songbook, musical theater, and contemporary rock and pop, she has quickly become one of the most notable voices to emerge in the vibrant Minneapolis music scene, being hailed for her joy-filled performances and her “fun, human, beautiful interpretations”
Life always goes smoother with a little experience under your belt. That second rodeo duration will last a little longer before you’re tossed by the bull. And though this was the second edition of In Between Days, it wasn’t James Macdonald’s second time putting on a festival, as he was the main mover and shaker behind the Life Is Good festivals held down in Canton, MA.
But a new location and municipality to deal with always brings challenges and this year the fest moved far past the single day/eight band venture last year. Having Modest Mouse and Lord Huron as headliners certainly raised the overall profile as well. I hadn’t been to the inaugural event so I had no yardstick comparisons but this was a compact, low-key and well-run music festival. The grounds of Veteran’s Memorial Stadium, in Quincy about a 30 minute drive south of Boston was easy to get to, had ample parking nearby and the T stop wasn’t too far away either. Security was chill and people were laid back and concentrated on having fun rather than fighting crowds for the usual amenities.
There were plenty of food vendors, tons of porta-potties, a free water station, loads of vintage clothing vendors, an info center, and even a retro arcade tent in case you wanted to turn back the clock and see if you could repeat your personal best on Galaga, Pac-Man, or the Terminator pinball machine. The only constraint was no food on the stadium turf but you could hear the bands just fine from the perimeter as you chowed down a lamb gyro, lobster roll, jerk chicken rice bowl or some tasty BBQ from Hott Smoke. Full disclosure, I smashed all of those items and they were quite tasty.
The shade area wasn’t really needed on Saturday when it was mostly overcast but it was at near capacity on the cloudless Sunday; being behind the soundboard meant direct sight lines to the stage were not possible but a large video display helped make up for that. Pick your battles. The smaller stage was on the stage right side of the main one, and for the most part hosted local bands aside from the closer, with the requisite VIP area tucked over on the stage left side of the main one. The schedules were set so when one band ended, the other stage sprung into action pretty immediately. This was nice from a pacing perspective but on the other hand gave very little downtime for people to hang and chat with their friends (or make new ones), given the relative volume of the PAs.
The day started out w/ Gypsy Moths who might feel at home playing their local 99, and Paper Tigers who re-wrote John Darnielle’s “This Year” line in a much cornier way, as “We will survive if it’s the last thing we ever do.” They also had a line about Courtney killing Kurt; emo corn is a new genre perhaps? Carissa Johnson and her band played some sturdy pop-punk but it was Slothrust where a band first really made you pay attention.
Leah Wellbaum had that stage presence that comes from experience and tons of shows, just owning every inch of the stage while she shredded on her gold Jazzmaster. Will Gorin plus fill-in bassist Annie Hoffman from Weakened Friends (who also delivered a powerhouse set later that day) kinda defined ‘power trio.’ I’ve seen my share of powerful trios (ZZ Top, Hüsker Dü, Melvins, Sleep, Dinosaur Jr, Rush etc) so I’ll throttle my enthusiasm a bit but they really stood out and I’m glad to have finally seen them play. They are finishing some shows here before going on tour with The Front Bottoms for a swing through the heartland and South starting in October.
Fantastic Cat is a supergroup comprised of four singer/songwriters who also rotated on instruments; they had a pretty strong Jayhawks vibe and one song in particular sounded like a Jason Isbell outtake. I was actually surprised to see that not only Blitzen Trapper is still an active project but that all six original members are still together. They played their take on homespun Americana and the set ended with a trio grouped around a single microphone.
The big draw for most people were the last three bands, each of them delivering solid sets. Sunny Day Real Estate sparked back into action last year and while it’s not clear if they plan on adding to their discography, no new material was played. However, it was nice to see them play a varied set including four from their final record The Rising Tide; “Faces In Disguise” and “Killed By An Angel” were particular standouts, though Enigk skipped the falsetto part of “Faces In Disguise” and let the guitars take over that part. The Beths likely enjoyed the overcast, cooler day as compared to a few weeks ago when they played Newport Folk Festival and Elizabeth Stokes had a mild bout of heat exhaustion during their performance. They had plenty of fans cheering them on and made some new ones; the third time this year I’ve seen them and the best performance, driving their hook-laden songs home with plenty of oomph.
Modest Mouse closed out the night, the only band to have enough darkness for proper stage lighting. Isaac Brock and crew did the rounds last year to celebrate 20 years of The Lonesome Crowded West so only “Cowboy Dan” swung by to say hello. Brock and crew did a spectacular job of creating tension and release, and the lilting waltz tempo of “Dramamine” was a true highlight.
Sunday had a decidedly Americana bent that was punctuated by some well-crafted pop/punk via Mint Green, who also worked in a cover of “Creep.” Later that day frenetic banjoist Yoke Lore joined Minnesota’s bluegrass team of Trampled By Turtles for “Fake Plastic Trees,” and it occurred to me that for the younger generation, it’s like covering a song from The Beatles, a piece of the classic rock canon for that age demographic.
Delivering warm Blues sets that swung into the Rhythm end of the pool occasionally were Dwight & Nicole and Miko Marks who paid homage to a great one via her cover of a Mavis Staples song. Kat Wright was an unfortunate victim of sudden laryngitis but she braved a few songs while surrendering most vocal duties to her guitarist.
Pop duties were handled admirably by Allison Ponthier and Cautious Clay played a strong set that featured his sax and flute talents and really connected with the assembled crowd. His stage presence in particular gave off the impression that he and you have been good friends for a while and were enjoying catching up on each other’s adventures.
I saw Phantogram a couple of weeks ago when they were part of the Queens of the Stone Age tour and to be honest their set worked a bit better in the dark confines of the Cross Insurance Arena rather than the onset of gloaming over the Arbella Insurance stage.
Illiterate Light first landed on my radar when they played Newport Folk in 2019 and for a duo they sure make a lot of ruckus. I totally missed them at the Bike Stage at Folk this year, but luckily they were on this bill and didn’t disappoint. For just two of them, they get a rich, full sound and have a lot of fun on stage and sometimes off it too; at one point Jake ditched his position standing up behind the drums and did a quick lap through and around the crowd before hopping up back on stage. Recommended if you like early My Morning Jacket; listen to “Nuthin’s Fair” and judge for yourself. They even got a small mosh pit going during their impassioned cover of Neil Young’s “Vampire Blues.” Note to Croakies – there is a potential sponsorship available here to keep Jake’s sunglasses on his face.
The weekend wrapped out with a set from Lord Huron, another band I first saw at Newport Folk. Continuing on with the day’s take on American music forms, the band was perhaps the tightest crystallization on offer Sunday. Hailing from LA, they’ve taken lessons from classic cornerstones like The Byrds, CCR, Flying Burrito Brothers and Gram Parsons but also would likely be appreciated by fans of more contemporary influences such as The Jayhawks or Fleet Foxes. Casting a dark and moody setting, the core band of Ben Schneider, Miguel Briseño, Mark Barry and Tom Renaud was augmented to six members with the addition of touring musicians on keys/vocals (Misty Boyce) and additional guitar (Brandon Walters). A rousing set to end a successful weekend, I’ll see you in Quincy next year.
Following a modestly successful solo career, Ruarri Joseph took on a new challenge by formed the trio William the Conqueror which allowed him to dig into his influences and set a new course for his songwriting. The band’s latest Excuse Me While I Vanish is a warm and intoxicating journey that sounds both familiar and unique.
New Orleans-based alternative folk-rock artist Fred Abong presents his new album Fear Pageant – his seventh to date. Released via Seattle label Disc Drive, on this album, Abong upholds his reputation for creating music that is a blend of “ragged Replacements and lyric-driven Bob Dylan” and “Elliott Smith with balls”.
Nina de Vitry’s debut album, What You Feel Is Real, dances gracefully between elements of Americana, soul, and jazz. She has created a collection of songs that can make you cry, sing, and dance, all while encouraging you to consider your heart’s true desires.
My Violence is the nom de plume of Viennese chanteuse Silvia Ryder, formerly half of dreampop duo Sugarplum Fairies. Ryder recently announced the project’s forthcoming self-titled debut LP and now, she shares the record’s second single, “20,000 Dashboard Angels.”
I had last seen Pixies in November 2009 during the Doolittle 20th Anniversary week of shows at Hammerstein Ballroom, so it was great to see the current lineup last night at The Rooftop at Pier 17 close out the first of two sold-out NYC co-headlining shows with Modest Mouse with an engaging 25+ song set heavy with tracks from 2022 LP Doggerel and seminal alt-rock classics from their original ’80/‘90s 4AD incarnation (strangely, they played only one track from 1990 LP Bossanova) that introduced the world to the band’s strange brew of noisy/soft folk/punk/surf rock surf slathered in lead singer-songwriter Black Francis’s surrealist/apocalyptic lyrics with Biblical allusions sung in his flatline-to-freak-out voice and lead guitarist Joey Santiago’s grating angular riffs, a sound that continues to inspire many an indie band, most famously Nirvana and The Strokes (cf. the “Where Is My Mind?” riff infused in “Is This It”).
Setlist included:
“Where Is My Mind?”
“Gouge Away”
“Debaser”
“Isla De Encanta”
“Head On” (The Jesus & Mary Chain cover)
“Here Comes Your Man”
“Motorway to Roswell”
“Monkey Gone to Heaven”
“Wave Of Mutilation” (UK Surf)
“Nimrod’s Son”
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As late afternoon turned into dusk, it was my first time seeing Pacific-Northwest indie rock band Modest Mouse, who played immediately before one of their main sonic influences, Pixies, and performed a rousing set of ringing & cascading guitar riffs & march-rhythm-style downbeat outsider anthems from mainstay singer-songwriter Isaac Brock, with newer lead guitarist Simon O’Connor ably filling in on songs from Modest Mouse’s chart-topping 2007 LP We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank when guitar legend Johnny Marr was a member (wish they had played fave “Missed the Boat”) and other well-received tunes.
Setlist included:
“Dashboard”
“Float On”
“We Are Between”
“It’s All Nice On Ice Alright”
“Fire It Up”
“Back to the Middle”
“King Rat”
“Bukowski”
“The Whale Song”
“Trailer Trash”
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Atlanta, GA-bred singer-songwriter Cat Power played a short opening set, looking very cool despite the heat in her black velvet dress and singing with twangy soulful grace as she shared her modern folk-blues and her gift as an interpreter with covers of Kitty Wells & Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.”
Setlist included:
“The Greatest”
“Cross Bones Style”
“Manhattan”
“It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels (Kitty Wells cover of a J.D. Miller song)
“Mr. Tambourine Man” (Bob Dylan cover)
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Formed by singer Dave Jackson and bassist Becky Stringer in the golden years of northern English postpunk, the band is now back, joined by their original drummer Clive Thomas, along with guitarist Darren Brown, keyboardist Ethan Kyme.
“I always felt we were too Metal for the Punk fans and too rock & roll for Metal. We created our own world of sorts. With this new record, so much time passed, I was like ‘What? You need another one of these?’ This new record sounds hard but natural to me. We still love writing together and playing out,” said Kim McAuliffe.
This week’s show, after a 1968 John Lennon lullaby: brand new Baseball Project, Feeders, Ash, Joy Formidable, Bluebells, Grian Chatten, and The Damned, plus Marvin Gaye, Blues Magoos, Roy Drusky, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Youngbloods, Lee “Scratch” Perry”, and Nina Simone; and R.I.P. The Band’s Robbie Robertson (1943-2023)
For such a prolific duo, their output remains consistent and their songwriting as strong as ever. Answers Belie shows a growing maturity for the pair as well, as they do an outstanding job of the ever difficult task of capturing world issues in succinct yet profound ways.
San Francisco post-punk outfit Octavian Winters presents their new single ‘Undertow’, a dark propulsive offering underlining an aspect of separation from the world and the darkness that comes out of it – a sort of ominous current capable of pulling someone away from all hope. The accompanying video was directed, filmed, edited and produced by Jay Adams with design by Eric Olson and Steve Devaney.
Violinjazz Recordings, the label of acclaimed Grammy-nominated musician Jeremy Cohen, principal violinist and founder of Classical Crossover specialists Quartet San Francisco, has released Raymond Scott Reimagined, an unprecedented new collaboration teaming Quartet San Francisco with accomplished Grammy/Emmy Award-winning composer/producer/arranger Gordon Goodwin and revered Grammy-winning a cappella group Take 6.
“Good Love” is a powerful rock ‘n’ roll ode to love and empowerment that delves into the story of a girl who seemingly had it all.
Some people make an outsized difference in the world around them and then some do something so extraordinary that their efforts ripple far outside their typical circle, reaching millions of people. OK, it’s not like George Clinton found the cure for cancer, created a pollution-free energy source or beat Einstein to the Unified Field Theory but his influence in going from a doo-wop vocal group to fusing psychedelic rock with foundations of what would become funk and wrapping them in incisive social commentary was a big deal.
But he and his crew were not done, and Funkadelic morphed into Parliament; along with Bernie Worrell and Bootsy Collins a whole genre was born, an over the top joyous celebration of being black in a white nation. Trying to imagine hip-hop without the countless uses of samples from their songbook is a hard idea to wrap one’s head around.
Clinton still carries the torch, though longtime members Eddie Hazel and Garry Shider and Worrell have passed away, and Collins has retired from playing due to health issues. But Clinton has always had a giant stable on stage with him and Shider’s son Garrett as well as Clinton’s daughter Brandi (aka Scottie Clinton) are on board to lend their talents as the next generation, and Blackbyrd McKnight is still playing with Clinton twenty six years later.
His stated retirement was brief but at 82 who knows how much longer he’ll take the stage so you have enjoy it while you still can. And the show remains a wonderful, chaotic mish-mash of styles both visually and sonically. Of course the big hits like “Give Up The Funk” and “Flash Light” and “Atomic Dog” are gonna get played but some curveballs were tossed out to the appreciative crowd too (and for Boston anyway, a much more racially diverse one than is typical) like the instrumental cover of “I Am The Slime” by Frank Zappa and House of Pain’s “Jump Around.”
With a giant backdrop emblazoned with “One Nation Under A Groove,” Clinton got everyone rallied for one specific purpose – to have a good time. At least a dozen performers took turns as lead, either singing or playing, and the floor was one giant dance party. The keening, introspective guitar lines that Hazel created for “Maggot Brain” (and as oral history has it, Clinton told Hazel to play that song like he just learned his mother died) were expertly played by McKnight and interrupted the non-stop groove a bit for a truly majestic moment. Clinton didn’t bother paying tribute to past members, he kept his vision straight on the present – whatever that may hold.
Fishbone often get lumped into the ska pen but it’s not really the circle where that square fits neatly. The band never really got their due and was a wildly original mix of funk, rock, metal, jazz and yes, ska – perhaps smoothing out some bumps in the road that allowed Red Hot Chili Peppers or No Doubt a much steeper ascent. The band has been lead from its existence by wildly talented frontman Angelo Moore and the Fisher brothers. Though Philip left the drum seat a couple of years ago, his brother John still helms the bottom end, a baseball cap perched perilously askew over his dreadlocks. They do boast two-thirds of the original lineup though, with Dirty Kibbe on trumpet and vocals and Christopher Dowd swapping between singing, keyboards and trombone. Also of note is that taking Philip Fish’s spot at drums is John Steward who did a seven year run with the band in the early ’00s so there is definitely continuity here and not just a ragtag collection of musicians.
Moore barely stopped moving the entire night, only to hover over his theremin from time to time. “Estranged Fruit” kicked things off with a decidedly jaunty Cab Calloway-esque song whose song title gives some hints as to what the topic is, an unblinking look at minority oppression. “Bonin’ in the Boneyard” turned the clock back to the ’80s, a party song featuring slap bass by Fisher with a full-throated brass attack. During the latter stages of “Alcoholic” the band worked in strands of both “In A Gadda Da Vidi” and “Back In Black”- I can’t think of another band to make that weaving pattern. Still sharp and at the top of their game, Fishbone remains a singular band.
Tugging on heartstrings and bringing smiles to faces since 2020, your Minnesota neighbors, The International Treasures have been captivating audiences throughout the Midwest with their charismatic storytelling, sweet harmonies, and transcendent songs about the universal human condition
Margaret Glaspy took a simple approach to writing and recording her third album, Echo The Diamond, with many of the songs being written in 15 minutes and recorded as a trio using a first-take final philosophy. The result is an intimate sounding album that will play live just as it does on record.
In celebration of the arrival of his debut solo EP, Malick Koly unveils a music video for the project’s title track and final single, “Feel Bad Fest,” which he describes as a form of resolve to a recurring nightmare he used to have as a child.
Big Takeover is stoked to host the premiere of “Troubleland” by John P. Strohm (Blake Babies).
Rock royalty – and Ringo Starr’s son – Zak Starkey (Oasis, The Who) and his wife/band mate Sshh discuss the formation of the “fantastic” group Mantra of the Cosmos featuring members of the Happy Mondays, Ride, and The Fall and how chemistry is what drives creativity.
Manchester underground music icon Harry Stafford (Inca Babies) and US-based trash blues guitarist Marco Butcher present ‘Walk Among The Spectres’, the loaded first shot from their forthcoming album We Are The Perilous Men, coming this autumn via Black Lagoon Records.
Teni Rane is a Chattanooga, TN native. She grew up singing in the backseat of the car on the way to Charles & Myrtle’s Coffeehouse. Her lyrics capture common experiences and her vocal performance captivates people in every age range.
Her latest EP, Goldenrod is being released as a series of singles before being released next month.
Newport Folk Festival has always had a storied history, with plenty of remarkable events noted through its lifespan. Bob Dylan going electric is one of the key milestones of any festival, but James Taylor’s aborted set in ’69 due to the moon landing and Roger Waters’ appearance as a surprise and unannounced guest sitting in with John Prine was a moment for the ages. Last year Joni Mitchell shocked the world by playing her first full performance in over 20 years. How was festival head honcho Jay Sweet and company to top that?!
The answer is that they didn’t have to. The festival is a special event regardless of who happens to be on stage; it’s the collective family of both performers and audience set against the beautiful backdrop of Narragansett Bay that really shines year in and year out, and this year there were no shockers. There didn’t need to be any. Well, some Muppets made a re-appearance, does that count?
And so this year went. I guess the main surprise was the booking of pop chanteuse Lana Del Ray who brought a different crowd to the Fort Stage. Not to say that it was all Appalachian fiddle and mandolin music or raw blues; the fest has been pushing the boundaries for the last few years and amping up the volume here and there. Some returning fans might still have lingering tinnitus in their ears from Dinosaur Jr’s set last year. But don’t worry- J Mascis and his wall of amps didn’t cast some sort of sonic spell to ward off the true disciples of folk from the festival.
Waving this banner from on high was The Earls Of Leicester a combo of bluegrass musicians assembled specifically to play the music of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. Nickel Creek similarly carries that bluegrass torch but with a modern spin. Folk isn’t just an American construct either. Nanna from the Icelandic band Of Monsters And Men demonstrated her Scandinavian touch with a spell-binding set. Peter One hails from Côte d’Ivoire and sung gentle songs in French with just his acoustic guitar and a pedal steel player. While Los Lobos is certainly American, their Mexican heritage shines bright and clear in their songs (and it didn’t hurt to bring friends out to help, like Nels Cline, Neko Case and John McCauley)
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This isn’t to say that America can’t put their own spin on folk. Madison Cunningham won the Grammy this year for best folk artist and her guitar playing belies some influences that directly point to ’80s-era King Crimson. Billy Strings is likely the best flatpicker going today and can play a variety of music in whatever manner he wishes; it was a straight bluegrass set flecked with covers and traditional songs and played in an absolutely blazing manner. No wonder he is selling out multi-thousand venues.
It’s a fool’s errand to try to describe all the happenings from this weekend at The Fort so instead here is a recap of some of the highlights I was able to catch.
Eastern Medicine Singers
A loose collective of Wampanoag and other native tribes from northern Rhode Island, this drum circle has worked with Yonatan Gat of Monotonix for the last few years and this year the circle was widened to include Lee Ranaldo and Chris Pradvica of Swans, along with drummer Ignabu. Starting out with a ceremony and initial drumming with four members across from each other, the piece built as Gat, Ranaldo and Pravdica also lent percussion while two tribe members enacted a fight scene. They soon joined the circle, guitars were raised and the glorious chords of Link Wray’s “Rumble” thundered across the park grounds. They only played three songs, the latter reaching Swans-ish heights of repetition and power with the unit fully enraptured and acting as one, until a stage hand walked across the stage to give the ‘cut’ sign that their time was over. They might still be playing otherwise, and I’d certainly still be listening.
Mdou Moctar
The nation of Tuareg knows no internationally recognized boundaries and the culture of sub-Saharan warriors/musicians spans six African countries. Tinariwen was one of the first to gain Western exposure but Niger-based Mdou Moctar brings a whole new level of fire and passion to this blues-based rock music. Disarmingly charming and deceivingly wicked in his riffs, Moctar and company brought the Quad stage alive. The sad footnote to their performance was that when their tour ended after the next performance, Niger suffered a military coup and they were refugees from their homeland and unable to return. A successful fundraiser was launched to help them and their families through this crisis and it’s still active if you wish to donate.
Jason Isbell
Isbell has become a familiar face around Newport over the last several years, and this would be his fifth appearance in the last decade at the Fort. In addition to his notably wicked sense of humor and insight on Twitter he also makes some incredibly moving music and this year’s Weathervanes is among his best work. With Will Johnson joining his trusty 400 Unit band, after the stirring “Cover Me Up” Isbell played a huge chunk of the new record and damned did it sound good. “King Of Oklahoma” is a gripping tale about an unraveling life due to drug addiction and will be regarded as a classic in a decade or two; mark my words.
Remi Wolf
I knew nothing about Wolf before I saw this diminutive powerhouse take the stage and just own the Fort interior during her set at Quad Stage. Dropping F bombs like a NY cabbie, her joy was palpable and spread to her large band. A bit hip-hop, a bit pop, a whole bottle of non-stop energy.
Danielle Ponder
A voice that carried across the Sound and into Connecticut, Ponder and her ensemble set up a slow burn that elicited both the hallowed halls of a Baptist church and the darkened recesses of a New Orleans brothel. Have I mentioned her voice already? You certainly need to hear it for yourself as she channels every ounce of emotion through her larnyx. Bummed I missed her cover of “Creep” in the moment but we can all experience it here
Newport Folk Revue
Newport is always full of impromptu guest spots and this set that closed down the Quad Stage before Billy Strings took it all home at Fort Stage embodied the collective spirit and celebration of music, period. Not just folk, Robert Ellis, Beau Bedford and Phil Cook took the reins on songs from 1973 and let it rip. Songs from Herbie Hancock, George Harrison,Doobie Brothers, John Prine, Neil Young, Gladys Knight – all played with heart and soul with a huge ensemble of guests, including Muppet Floyd Pepper guesting on “Midnight Train To Georgia” with Valerie June. (Animal would lend drums to both My Morning Jacket and Goose, fittingly on their song “Animal”.) The set ended with a jammed stage much like the usual Fort Stage festival closer. This time it felt a bit more intimate, a bit more off the cuff, but with the same amount of joy. That’s Newport, folks.
More photos of the festival:
Maggie Rogers (with Sista Strings, My Morning Jacket and fans)
My Morning Jacket
James Taylor
Del Water Gap
Ron Gallo and Chiara D’Anzieri
Slaughter Beach Dog
The Beths
The Heavy Heavy
Thee Sacred Souls
Aimee Mann
Bartees Strange
Indigo De Souza
Goose
Jaime Wyatt
Orchestra Gold
Jon Batiste
The Backseat Lovers
John Oates
The Hold Steady
The Huntress and Holder of Hands
Dawn Landes
Black Opry Revue
Abraham Alexander
Gregory Alan Isakov
M Ward
Sumbuck
Fans at Newport Folk Fest
Cinematic indie rock band Beekeeper Spaceman’s self-titled debut LP (out Nov. 3) evokes a never-ending collision between bucolic bygones and the urban present.
Lovely Little Girls is an avant-rock band directed by artist Gregory Jacobsen and bassist Alex Perkolup. The new album Effusive Supreme is out August 18th on SKiN GRAFT Records with a tour planned for October 2023.
In the tradition of power-pop giants like Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads, and Matthew Sweet, the latest by Philly’s Hurry is a hook-filled album with vibrant vocals and catchy choruses. Singer/guitarist Matt Scottoline discusses his consistency with releasing music and shares the bands whose music is in his DNA.
“Our space looks to have people stay awhile, hang out, and learn about music they may have normally overlooked. We wanna make it a destination spot for vinyl and music enthusiasts and give back to the communities that have been so welcoming to us,” said Matt Friedman.
This week’s show, after a 1978 Saints salute: brand new New Model Army & Sinfonia Zeipzig, Cleaners From Venus, Slowdive, Guided By Voices, Turnsole, Hurry, and Pia Fraus, plus Pretty Things, Alton Ellis, Standells, Wailers (Tacoma), Ferlin Husky, Ventures, and Noel Coward
Oxford indie pop-rock outfit Jody and the Jerms have a summer surprise for the world – their new single ‘Liberation’, which was produced, mixed and mastered by Ride frontman Mark Gardener at his OX4 Sound studio near Oxford.
Bumpin Uglies is an American punk reggae band from Annapolis, Maryland whose music fas a blend of melody-driven, free-spirited blend of ska, reggae, and punk with a strong focus on lyrics and crowd-pleasing grooves. The new album Underdog: The Acoustic Sessions frames the band in a more stripped back but no less ferocious light.
R. RING return with a new video for “Cartoon Heart / Build Me a Question” off their latest LP, War Poems, We Rested (Don Giovanni).
“There’s nothin’ to save, and I know
You live ‘til you die”
Josh Homme has been through some shit. A bitter divorce and subsequent child custody battle that played out in public with damning accusations from both sides, two brushes with health-related issues, and the loss of a fellow bandmate and friend. And, a global pandemic as a dancing partner for much of this.
He sang Mark Lanegan’s part for “In The Fade” and it was one of the most emotional songs I’ve heard in a while, darkly cathartic but still hopeful that better days are ahead. (It didn’t hurt that it’s my favorite song of theirs and one I’d not heard them play before after seeing them play five shows, but still I doubt I was alone with my feelings).
Homme and company are riding a wave, that’s clear. As one of the progenitors of Desert Rock via his work in Kyuss, over the last twenty five years Queens have carved out a deep canyon of powerful and notable songs and in the process gained enough crossover appeal to play arenas. I bet John Garcia didn’t see that coming. After what I consider a slight dud in Villains the band rebounded with a really strong record and looked loose and joyful while going through some of it tonight. “I had no idea how amazing you guys would be. I don’t talk shit but you are amazing,” Homme addressed the crowd early on. It seems like half the song titles are fashioned after some sort of pun, including the title. “Paper Machete” was played by request after someone shouted out for it, and was clearly written about Brody Dalle, Homme’s ex-wife. “Tell the man to go fuck himself” was the introduction to “Made To Parade, a song about how corporations bleed their workers to the last drop.
To underscore how much I liked this set, even a couple of standards but kinda-past-their-welcome songs truly resonated with me tonight, the somewhat stilted funk of “Smooth Sailing” getting a bit slinkier and sexier, and “Make It Wit Chu” gaining new life with a reworked intro and the outro tacking on the Stones’ “Miss You” riff. The last time I saw Troy Van Leeuwen (tagged by Homme as the best-dressed man in rock) he was filling in for Captain Sensible on The Damned’s tour last year and his versatility is hard to overstate. Slide guitar, staccato bursts, equally at home with lead or rhythm duties – he’s Homme’s right hand man for a very good reason.
The rush of “In The Fade” didn’t let up, and no one could argue with the “Go With The Flow” > “A Song For The Dead” finishing touch as the band eschewed the theater of leaving the stage for an encore, just emptying the chamber of the gun with the bullets they had left. I’ve seen a lot of shows this year, including part of their set at Boston Calling earlier this year and tonight’s show was easily in the top 10.
Phantogram is essentially a duo of Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter but they brought on a couple of others for the live set, a drummer and a keyboard player who occasionally played guitar. High energy dance rock? Bedrock beats forged from the hip-hop crucible? Angelic vocals from the dream pop realm? The band is all of this and more, Barthel constantly stalking across the stage and Carter coolly laying down some mean riffs and lending vocals in the process. “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore” shared some DNA with Arctic Monkeys especially if you forget the keyboard part, and they celebrated the recent reissue of their debut record by ending with “When I’m Small,” a clear crowd pleaser.
The Armed have nothing if not confidence, the metadata in their band URL proclaiming them as the world’s greatest band. Loosely a collective that features some core members and some guests (Van Leeuwen being one of them on the last record, Ultrapop), the band is a ferocious beast on stage. Singers trade off, guitarists trade off, in the midst of dark clouds of brutal screamo, blue sky patches of synth work their way in. A quick rifling through the band’s collective record collection would be sure to include some Converge titles and it’s not surprising that both Ben Koller and Kurt Ballou contribute to 2021’s Ultrapop. Like their music, the physical presence of the band just ripples with strength and power; seriously, these people look like their day jobs are crossfit instructors. The perfect fuse to light to get things going tonight.
Two-Man Giant Squid is a prominent band in the fast rising Brooklyn post punk scene. Big Takeover sat down with the band and got the latest news on their upcoming projects.
British / North American post-punk outfit Tantrum Zentrum present their new single ‘Don’t Be A Fascist’, along with a new video that offers both clever animation, lyrics and flashes of despots, such as Mussolini, Nigel Farage and Vladimir Putin.
Well-timed and thematic given the crazy state of affairs in the world at the moment, this is the most unlikely love story ever – a song about falling head over heels… with a fascist!
The rise of The Mountain Goats is not a trajectory that I could have predicted. While it’s not as extreme as when The White Stripes went from recording on STFRI to jumping on a major label and were soon selling out buildings made for giant sporting events, the fact that John Darnielle went from a lo-fi folkie who put out records on Shrimper and Ajax to forming a band and selling out big clubs is quite the accomplishment.
And in the process he’s been prolific. Not quite Bob Pollard level of releases, but then again tonight’s show featured 25 songs from a whopping 15 different records. You can count on one hand the number of bands who could pull that off. Darnielle and co-horts Peter Hughes, Jon Wurster and Matt Douglas came out on stage knowing exactly where they were and it was one of the funniest opening scenes to a set I’ve seen in quite some time. At first I thought the drum pattern was Aerosmith’s “Back in the Saddle Again” but soon realized that it was “Lord Of The Thighs” that Darnielle was signing along with. Hat tip to Beantown, well done John.
A lot of the crowd likely didn’t know that Peter Hughes had roots in Massachusetts and his cousin Kyle got his 15 minutes of fame and then some by coming out to guest on saxophone for a few songs but not before Darnielle told us that he forgot he needed to pander a bit more and throw in a big Fenway Park welcome and some gratuitous Dunkin Donuts references. Never fear, Kyle got brought out again by popular demand later. Dude can play! Darnielle would later change the lyrics of “Source Decay” to include a Somerville PO box reference.
Darnielle has made his bones by writing songs and his lyrics are an integral part of the equation; when you’re a solo performer with an acoustic guitar you can’t really hide behind a distortion pedal and a booming rhythm section and his early career helped shape his output as he progressed. He’s a pretty established writer but oddly it was TikTok who really vaulted The Mountain Goats into a wider public view, when inexplicably “No Children” (a jaunty 3/4 song that is the darkest song ever about a crumbling divorce) became a social media phenomenon.
That the band clearly draws a community of people from all walks of life is a testament to how people digest, internalize and communicate music that speaks directly to them. Tonight showed the power of that community in a way that most bands strive for.
Ryley Walker is a modern day troubadour. He sings songs, expertly plays guitar and can adopt the role of court jester between songs as he’s tuning his guitar. I’d reckon that 30% of the entertainment value from his shows is directly linked to his stage banter. And trust me, this is no shade: this guy can RIP on guitar. The intricate finger play of “The Roundabout” finished, he started talking about coming up to this area as a 13 year old for a guitar summer camp and getting his ass kicked by metalheads.
I hope some of those heshers were in attendance to see and hear his prodigious talents during “On the Banks of the Old Kishwaukee.” I would think those dudes with Yngwie Malmsteen patches on their battle vests might need both hands to pick their lower mandible from the floor. Also mentioning Jamaica Plain’s White House (RIP) where freon huffers congregated, he then proclaimed his prodigious bladder capacity while only stopping once on the drive from his day job in NYC (noted his food-stained crocs as evidence); “Is Connecticut trying to kill me?” Always a total entertainment package, even if it seemed at times Walker pressed his chin to the guitar body in order to drown out the chatter from people around the room. Alas, the fate of opening bands.
The Clientele are patient; you won’t see them pushing through people to board a train or to jump the line at an event. They are mannered, but not docile. Alasdair MacLean and his tried and true rhythm section of James Hornsey and Mark Keen know how to play a perfect pop song at just the right pace and with just the right level of panache. It had been a whopping 16 years since I’ve seen the band play (not included is a show from Alasdair’s Amor De Dias project that followed the hiatus of his main band) and it was like putting on a comfy pair of slippers. They instantly felt just right, the passage of time not affecting them at all.
The band excels at crafting fragile pop songs that may appear as delicate as a lacewing but have the underlying strength of a strand of spider’s silk. One could easily drift off in their songs to envisioning a soft and gentle rain with the company of a hot mug of Earl Grey tea. Think of The Go-Betweens but with more precipitation.
As one does when supporting a new record, they played a fair bit of it and it stood shoulder to shoulder with their discography “We’re gonna try some new things tonight, as it’s the first night of the tour” intoned MacLean. When people cheered he cheekily noted to not be so sure quite yet. “Chalk Flowers” was an early standout and one that gleaned a bit more from the US folk sound than the UK; Keen was momentarily pulled from his drum kit duties to provide a twinkling keyboard melody line. The ending of “Garden Eye Mantra” added insistent chords that aren’t on the recorded version and was likely the most boisterous the trio got all night.
Sonically, MacLean isn’t all that close to Robyn Hitchcock but the similarities of their physical mannerisms was pretty strong, shut eyes with fluttering eyelids as the strings were delicately finger picked and the fret hand contorted to clamp down on strings. Another band that came to mind that I’d previously not connected the dots was Supreme Dicks, who were also experts in crafting melancholy but not depressing songs with lilting guitars and soft vocals. Come into The Clientele’s world, you’ll feel at home.
Baltimore’s The Smashing Times kicked off things, a sprightly band on K Records that also echoes the late 60s of London, less frenetic than The Who or early Kinks but there’s a lineage there for sure. Paul Krolian displayed a very economic and deft touch on the drums, as did Keen; together they likely set the record for least rack tom hits in a night.
With one foot in Toronto and the other in NYC8, indie rock power trio *ON is back with the new single ‘Make Me’, a song of frustration and wanting to recapture that euphoria. This is a cry for what once was… and then resolution and a peaceful acceptance of what is.
Released via Toronto-based imprint Indiestructable Records, this single sees the trio carry on the legacy of the band from which they were formed – 90’s Sire Records band Acid Test.
Mae Simpson has been shaking up the Minneapolis music scene ever since her band formed in 2017, performing on larger and larger stages to a growing base of loyal fans across the Midwest. Led by her powerful vocals, the seven-piece band brings audiences to their feet with driving horns and a drum and percussion duo
Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of “No Hesitation Wounds” by Andrew Adkins.
Caicos’ brand new single with lojii, “Subsequent Footprint,” explores how learning things that you never knew about yourself can compel life-altering changes that will ultimately leave you at more peace than you were before.
This week’s show, after a 1982 Rank & File rave: brand new Soft Science, Linda Lindas, Ash, Wilco, Baseball Project, Clientele, and Skull Practitioners, plus Dobie Gray, John Cale, Chantays, Johnny Wright (With Kitty Wells), Termites, Mamas & the Papas, and Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington
In “My Nature,” Singer Mali anticipates the devastating impact of natural disasters, such as the Canadian wildfires and the subsequent record-breaking temperatures that have now become a harsh reality.
Influences don’t always have to be other artists or bands. Activity’s Travis Johnson discusses some of non-obvious influences that contributed to the recipe of the band’s second album, Spirit in the Room.
Singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Ben Vaughn is releasing a new five-song EP titled Interpretations. And as the name suggests, this collection consists entirely of covers. Interpretations will be available for both digital download and streaming.
Chicagoland indie rocker Dolph Chaney presents the video for “Mr. Eli,” the first single from his forthcoming album.
hunter & wolfe has made their mark in the indie rock sphere with their uncanny ability to be at once tender and unquestionably vulnerable while maintaining a blithe sense of self-awareness that prevents their songs from crashing into overly emotional territory.
What makes for the perfect summer road trip song? We asked modern guitar pop musicians from Hurry, Dungeon of Skeletons, Tamar Berk, The Goods, The Summertimes, The Evening Sons, and Julez and the Rollerz.
Durham Indie Roots duo Viv & Riley’s new song, “How to Lose” is a melancholy tinged look at the intensity of young love.
“From a whisper to a wail, Kali Horse’s latest single ‘Long Fever’ is about losing your f**** mind.”
If you mention psychedelic rock to anyone and ask them to conjure which instrument instantly leaps to their mind, the answer of electric guitar is going to be uttered 99.53% of the time. Spacemen 3 certainly fit that mold, taking the thuggish Stooges attack and compressing it into a thick, dense sludge that stretched time and minds. Animal Collective took a different approach; yes there were guitars but they were de-emphasized over electronic loops and vocals that would weave and wend their way through the song. The joining of Panda Bear (aka Noah Lennox) and Sonic Boom (aka Sonic Boom) seems an unlikely one, a collision perhaps first set into motion when Animal Collective curated an All Tomorrow’s Parties event in 2011 and invited Spectrum to play.
Peter Kember is no stranger to using electronics as a main component to his music, either as his nom du stage or as Spectrum and even the most cursory listen to Forever Alien would confirm that. The two musicians set up far back from the stage and next to each other, Panda Bear taking the stage right position. The floor in front was pretty sparse aside from two wedge monitors that were more for the audience’s use than the performers and the backdrop behind them showed projections of writhing bodies and psychedelic landscapes throughout their set. Unsurprisingly their set was heavy on Reset, the recent collaboration and first to see Sonic Boom not just in providing recording and mixing duties.
Some of the songs are built using loops of ’50s and ’60s pop songs but the end product is unmistakably Bear/Boom, a mutant and improved version of Vampire Weekend had they listened to many hours of Silver Apples instead of Graceland, with Lennox’s pure and sweet Brian Wilson-esque vocals guiding the songs. Kember would occasionally pepper his electronic doodles, hand claps and vocals with a slide whistle.
The closer “Everything’s Been Leading To This” (and also the album closer) brought a heavier groove to the evening, as if Oneida decided to sit in on this one and put their shoulders behind the song. A generous five song encore of the two’s solo works brought a fitting end to the show.
I’d never heard of Braxe + Falcon before and was surprised to learn they’ve been in the DJ game for over twenty years. Their 2005 release The Upper Cuts landed on Pitchfork’s Best New Reissue list, and they got the crowd moving with some highly danceable beats and some free vodka shots. Santé!
Don Ryan is a singer/songwriter whose compositions are delectable cocktails of ageless beauty and gritty discord — a hypnotizing blend of classic Americana and gypsy jazz with a more modern, psychedelic-folk sound.
This week’s show, after a 1981 D.O.A. drill-down: brand new Slowdive, Hold Steady, Art Bergmann, Evening Sons, Cut Worms, Colored Lights, and Face to Face, plus The Seeds, Don Gibson, (Syd Barrett’s) Pink Floyd, Dave Berry, Carlton & the Shoes, The Pharaohs, and The Bee Gees covering The Beatles
“There ain’t no gold in them there hills. You gotta be really, really, really lucky to gain any ground. The music business, as it was, doesn’t really exist anymore. But that’s also very freeing because that means you can do whatever you want.”
Love Tractor’s song ‘Pretty’ is hypnotically repetitive, endlessly unfolding and developing (like an origami jumbo-jet), yet at journey’s end, ‘Pretty’ seamlessly ends up exactly where it started. The video premiering for the track today encapsulates this mind journey.
Joanna Pearl is a singer/songwriter with an undeniable passion for music that reflects in her dynamic vocal strength. Her true-to-life songwriting portrays the heart of a woman ranging from independence to vulnerability.
Guitarmy of One presents his latest adventurous offering ‘Soylent Seafoam Green’, the third single from his forthcoming crowdfunded album The Wave Files’. With the title and mood inspired by the 1970s cult sci-fi movie Soylent Green, this song mixes dark ominous guitar riffing with surf guitar swells and foreboding reverb drenched melodies.
Blending everything from punk to grunge to rock to doomy metal, Psycho Death Punk’s return with a new single “I Guess”
With a shortened name, the band responsible for the 1982 smash hit “Come On Eileen” has returned with The Feminine Divine, a narrative of sorts from founding member/lead singer Kevin Rowland. On this latest by Dexys, Rowland examines how masculinity shaped his early beliefs and how, as he’s gotten older – and wiser – those beliefs have changed.
Trans-Atlantic alternative neo-folk collective Lusitanian Ghosts presents their new single ‘Got Enough’. This is the third single from the chordophone collective, which is more of a world-music tinged mantra relative to their usual rock n roll alt-folk fare.
Groove Atlantic-O the new album from Stephen Jacques was engineered by Steve Albini (Nirvana, PJ Harvey, The Pixies) and Jason Narducy played Bass, Acoustic & Electric Guitars (Bob Mould, Superchunk, Robert Pollard, The Pretenders.) It’s compilation of love songs which salute the Atlantic or at least “look” to it for love and romance energy. “Dreams on Fire,” “Slept on a Ridge,” and “Queen Bee Gone” are just a smattering of the subjects Stephen takes on with gentle yet humorous care.
Hannah Connolly is a singer-songwriter originally from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, now living in Los Angeles, California. Her debut album From Where You Are was released in 2020, soon to be followed by her forthcoming second record, Shadowboxing.
Alternative-electronic artist Slighter presents his new album This Futile Engine, released via Brutal Resonance Records and Confusion Inc and to pave the way has dropped a second single from it, “Pulling Me Under.”
New Jersey art-rock collective Elk City announces that they will release their seventh album Undertow on September 22. Ahead of that, they present the voluminous consciousness-building lead track “Strong (You’re Not Alone)” , a swirling neo-psychedelic folk song baked in cult obsessiveness.
As Atlanta indie pop duo I Am a Rocketship move closer to the release of their new La Cruella album, they present the second single from this 10-track collection. “Gravity” is a breezy pop number that offers a more bare-bones sound than the band’s usual sample-driven and atmospheric-heavy style.
San Francisco-based artist E.G. Phillips presents the single ‘It Ain’t Good to Be in Love With You’, a jazzy affair that showcases the Tom Waits meets Nick Cave-esque facets of his confessional songwriting. This is the first taste of Phillips’ forthcoming ‘Outlaw The Dead’ EP, which was mixed by Chris McGrew and Billboard-charting producer Jaimeson Durr (Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Hope Sandoval).
The brand new single from dayaway (mem. CLAVVS), “ocean free,” is about bringing your problems to the beach and leaving them on the shore.
The great indie/post-punk, vibed-out Trailer Swift offers up a collection of the Top Ten albums that influenced their Boston-based indie rock sound.
Elisa Mammoliti is a singer with a soprano voice specializing in Musical Theatre, Pop, Jazz and Operetta. She speaks English, Italian and French.
Alternative rock / post-punk duo Para Lia once again please our earbuds with their new single ‘Yellow Rose’, along with its new video. Reflecting reverence of life, this melodic dreamy rock composition is the second taste of their album In Clash With The Zeitgeist, which is slated for release on August 25 via the Berlin label About Us Records.
Colorado-based artist Alien Gothic present their debut single ‘In The Night’, a song that stretches cosmic goth music into a whole new realm, combining all the elements the duo has been striving to integrate into the project in the four years since their inception.
This week’s show, after a small 1967 Dave Davies/Kinks warble: brand new Damned, Tubs, Tombstones in Their Eyes, Nyte Skye, Natvral, Star Collector, and Bedroom Eyes, plus Knickerbockers, Charley Pride, Gaylads, Wimple Winch, Fanny, Marty Robbins, and Pretty Things; and R.I.P. Tony Bennett (1926-2023)
New Jersey-based collective CR and The Nones presents ‘The Long Game’, the first single from The Ghosts Are Coming Home, the band’s second album and the first to be released via the Magic Door Record Label.
Oregon-based Colorado-raised artist Berkley presents “Pueblo Nights”, the first single from his debut full-length album Pueblo, forthcoming via Big Secret Records. Making sense of what remains of youth in adulthood – opportunity, regret, and empathy – is where Berkley stakes his claim among current Portland songwriters.
British indie pop artist Mike Gale presents his new single ‘Summer Be Gone’, the first offering from his forthcoming album Thanks for Always Waving (out September 8). Not your typical summer anthem, but a great offering of world / folk-inspired indie pop. The accompanying video was filmed in Suzhou, China by Matt Wallwork and features the artist Kimvi.
It was absolutely riveting to see Mdou Moctar headline the blue stage and close out the festival. The Tuareg style of music is filled with joy and is also riveting to watch because of the immense skill involved in the guitar fingerings. The stamina alone of those repetitive motions is quite awe inspiring. The music itself relies of a repetition of chord progressions that has a psychedelic and trance like impact with a solid backbone of drumming and vocals interspersed throughout. The textures of sound created only leave one wanting more even after hearing a very long song (typically their songs live ran around 10 minutes or more) featuring this progression. The band also looked like they were having fun on stage and that it was just their way of expressing the full extent of themselves. What a gift to end the festival with such a creative and fulfilling experience!
This reviewer needs to state that Kelela is a fantastic performer and it was unfortunate that her set overlapped so much with Mdou Moctar’s that only a couple of songs could be witnessed. However, it is highly recommended that you see this masterful human on tour if you can!
There’s no one quite like Lucretia Dalt. Elegant and a little eerie, her melodies follow you around like little ghosts, leaning on your shoulders and whispering soft Spanish syllables in your ears. It’s a unique pleasure and a bit of an acquired taste but highly enjoyable after your first couple of bites.
It’s pretty amazing what an incredible sound one can make with vocals, a live cello, occasional guitar, sampler, and synthesizer! Rachika Nayer delivered cerebral soundscapes reminiscent of a more feminine Sigur Rós for the film of your life and if the music doesn’t move you, it’s possible you just need to live a little longer.
It was a real treat to see four piece Palm from Philadelphia rescheduled today after yesterday’s weather related cancellation. Their live set definitely sounded even better than their recorded songs with the warped psychedelic chords drenched in guitar pedal effects and keyboard melodies featured very prominently. It felt like the songs were taken to a whole new level, which makes it such a sadness that the band is reportedly calling it quits. Even more ironically, their playing was just as tight as it needed to be with perfect timing of the vocal harmonies and instrumentation and with some wonderfully unique touches that seemed effortless for them. At one point, the band played a very engaging rift for an extended jam that felt hypnotic. They sounded like a band who had many albums and tours ahead of them for fans to cherish. Perhaps, they will reconsider.
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You could hear a pin drop as the crowd waited with bated breath for Big Thief to emerge on stage. The anticipation was in the air! Lead singer Adrianne Lenker sings every song as if it’s a personal story that has happened or is happening to her in that moment. At their best, Big Thief have a way of balancing delicate super intimate lyrics and making them fit into rock ballads. As the set went on, the band definitely seemed more comfortable with a bigger sound and an emotional rawness that resonated even with their fans farther back in the field. The climax happened towards the middle and then the band had some unfortunate technical issues before getting back on track. And, even in their quietest moments, as in “Sadness as a Gift” the crowd was very respectful while they softly sang the words along with Lenker with every second brimming with a majesty…
Natalie Laura Mering is a glamorous folk wonder. Every note she sings luscious and pulls you in. As time has gone on, Weyes Blood has grown even tighter with a spectacular stage presence. Mering herself has been spinning around in a floor length white dress with a heart that illuminates and echoes are own adoration. Weyes Blood can cheer you when you’re somber and comfort you at your most desolate but Mering also has a fun personality that is careful and kind. They are a good band to fall in love with! For a longer review, check out this coverage of their recent Riviera show.
Yaya Bey proved to be a beautiful way to come back to the festival after the weather delay with a deep soulful voice and some accompaniment on drums, keyboards, and five string bass that maneuvered the line between jazz and blues. Bey serenaded the crowd with ease and, at one point, joked about how she didn’t think she’d have to even “clock in” today because of the storm. She also had an interesting delivery at times, talking vs. singing as if relating life dramas to someone she knew well. At one point, she also told the crowd she was ready for the revolution to start and the importance of valuing time and money spent. She had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction too later on in her set but ran with it and made everyone laugh and love her all the more.Bey definitely succeeded in seducing some of the audience, who were elated her set was going ahead as planned! Her fans even joined her in a lovely call and response at one point.
After a lightning warning that canceled Palm’s set, it felt all the more exciting to see Black Belt Eagle Scout play. Since their Subterranean set, the guitar sound has become even more prominent and lead singer, Katherine Paul has more of a command of the stage as ever. She spoke less this time between songs about Native culture and her intrinsic bond with nature, which meant less of an intimate appeal. However, the set flowed well with a rigorous energy that suggested they could easily pull off a set on one of the larger stages. Perhaps, if they return in a future year this will be the case!
Four piece Chicago band Deeper were an excellent choice to start the day! With lead vocals from Nic Gohl reminiscent of a young Robert Smith and tight edgy garage rock accompaniment, their songs landed in a big way and it was clear from the larger then normal early crowd that they are becoming fast Chicago favorites.
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Alvvays has definitely mastered a sort of glee pop and it’s spectacular. As their fan base continues to grow, the band has shown definite mastery of their new songs from Blue Rev while making their older songs, especially from Antisocialites, all the more special. Their audience was a little tamer than at their most recent show at The Riv and there was less crowd surfing and more longing, which fit the band’s music perfectly! Lead singer Molly Rankin has a way of singing with such a sense of sincerity that make the songs all the more memorable.
Something happened between the time when Perfume Genius released Learning in 2010 and now, with their most recent release, 2022’s Ugly Season. The music is catchier than ever and features the drumming much more prominently live sure but even more so Michael Alden Hadreas has become so much more engaging live in a thrilling way. With long red gloves, he danced and writhed on the stage as if it were his very close friend. It was, in a word, dazzling!
Three piece Youth Lagoon returned to Pitchfork with new songs from Heaven is a Junkyard and adeptly skirted the line between pop music and folk songs so sensitive it made one wonder about the collective shared experience of something that felt so intimate that made strangers feel connected. After the second song, one of the fans by the barricade screamed a “yeah!” that seemed to shake the ground. Lead singer Trevor Powers talked about truly knowing himself and staring the devil in the face before “Trapeze Artist” and it felt like the lyrics were being sung to the most vulnerable among us, especially those of us who have Fear as our only daughter.
It all started with the sample “You’re all going to die down here!.” from “1%” off of Black Origami .Jlin seemed to be having the best time playing selections from Black Origami and Dark Energy mixing everything with perfect timing! The complexity of these masterpieces cannot be overlooked! The effect was cinematic in an auditory way and very impressive even if some may have found it too cerebral to dance to. Sometimes unpredictably can be very engaging indeed! Footwork champion, RP Boo also joined Jlin towards the end of the set.
This reviewer stepped over to Ric Wilson’s set for just a few minutes because of the major overlap with Perfume Genius’s set and it was pure joy! Wilson had the stage decked out in huge round mirrors and as usual featured an ensemble of instruments, including brass, and moved through space singing and dancing effortlessly. Wilson is the embodiment of positivity whether he’s singing or talking about the importance of eradicating racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia!
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Former R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills discusses his current band, the supergroup The Baseball Project
Hannah Connolly is a singer-songwriter originally from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, now living in Los Angeles, California. Her debut album From Where You Are was released in 2020, soon to be followed by her forthcoming second record, Shadowboxing.
SLW cc Watt, a collaboration between Samuel Locke Ward and Mike Matt, are releasing their innovative and compelling new album on July 21st via Kill Rock Stars. Hear it today first, exclusively at Big Takeover.
Minneapolis singer/songwriter Brynn Andre released her debut in 2010 chronicling the twenty-something dance between liberation and loneliness.
Her upcoming release goes deeper. Like a sequel, Honeymoon faces a woman’s next chapter, whispering: what happens after the honeymoon? The songs find Brynn married to the summer fling of her twenties, singing daunting questions like does my story matter and can unsung dreams come true?
Dutch singer-songwriter P.J.M. Bond releases Hemingway-inspired three-song EP release to coincide with the author’s birthday on July 21.
This week’s show, after a brief 1956 Chuck Berry refrain: brand new Soft Science, Rain Parade, Handsome Family, Silversun Pickups, Art Bergmann, John P. Strohm, and Cut Worms, plus Sanford Clark, Buddy Holly & The Crickets, Nina Simone, Little Richard, Dave Bartholomew, The Beatles, and Max Romeo
Kim Gordon recruits a crack all-female band and brings a level of urgency and ferocity to her recent solo material.
Aaron “Heatbox” Heaton (aka The One Man Entertainment System), personifies a true renaissance musical pioneer in his prime. With an already impressive decade plus career spanning multiple lanes of otherworldly creative mastery, he has now writen and produced a seminal work of musical comedy humble titled Hilarious & Epically Legendary.
Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of “Party for One” by Magic Al and Lou Hazel Ft. Amelia Meath.
Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament discusses Deaf Charlie, his new band with Fitz and the Tantrums drummer John Wicks
A lot of minimalistic lo-fi bedroom pop has emerged since 2020, for better or for worse, but Open Dream is a massive and challenging exploration of an artist pushing his own boundaries as well as a clear love letter to the possibilities of music.
Jeshua Marshall is a musical troubadour, with 18 years of experience writing, playing, singing and touring original music with Larry And His Flask and as a solo artist. He has performed in every state in the U.S., every province in Canada, 15 countries in Europe, and Palestine.
Frantic Hearts is a statement from a band not just pushing their musical boundaries, but the boundaries of rock music itself, without ever once becoming too theoretical or needlessly experimental. It’s a truly exciting album that continues to surprise regardless of how many times you listen.
You know what? I’m about to say it: We need Sparks now more than ever. With a lyrical voice that is in turn witty, observant, detached, self-referential, satiric, and above all, entirely their own, only the Mael brothers are adequately equipped to comment on the current times while simultaneously providing a much needed dose of escapism.
Mae Simpson has been shaking up the Minneapolis music scene ever since her band formed in 2017, performing on larger and larger stages to a growing base of loyal fans across the Midwest. Led by her powerful vocals, the seven-piece band brings audiences to their feet with driving horns and a drum and percussion duo.
Enjoy our world premiere of “Colors of Your Brian” on The Big Takeover, where James Sardone will lead you back home.
It definitely felt like what the band left their fans with was beyond the actual music but meaningful and positive representation.
Though Gov’t Mule is most comfortable on the road and playing in front of live audiences, their two most recent studio releases (2021’s Heavy Load Blues, 2023’s Peace … Like a River) are solid entries to the band’s catalog. Warren Haynes discusses how his brothers introduced him to music, how Gov’t Mule got started covering Pink Floyd, and the importance of continuously shaking up the setlist.
With her new E.P Texcentric now out and with a short tour of North Europe under her belt, it was the perfect time to sit down Marina Rocks to find out about those recent events, and what the future holds.
Feel the weight of Athens’ own Dim Watts on their new single “Open and Carry” out tomorrow (Cleft Music).
Led by acclaimed songwriter Michael Ferrier, Minneapolis folk rockers Fathom Lane return with their first album since 2017. In the Driftless is a poetic and nuanced blend of country, folk, pop, and rock with lyrics exploring themes of loss, isolation, addiction, discovery, and ultimately: redemption. Ferrier’s songs transport listeners across a variety of musical settings ranging from the open spaces of the Midwestern prairies, to the dark solitude of a hidden bedroom.
Covert Stations reawakens with a love letter to the INXS hit single “Never Tear Us Apart”.
Andy Ellis is a versatile and accomplished musician who has navigated various music landscapes throughout his career. His journey began in the mid-1990s in the vibrant Chicago music scene, where he honed his craft as a teenager. He then ventured into the alternative electronic music scene of late 90’s Southern California, with a touch of hip hop influences.
The puzzle pieces have fallen into place for Durham, North Carolina’s Fust. Having recorded in Drop of Sun Studios and signed with Dear Life Records, the band, led by Aaron Dowdy, has released one of the most compelling storytelling albums of 2023 and is getting noticed outside of Dowdy’s bedroom for the first time.
This week’s show, after a brief 1947 Roy Brown trill: brand new Teenage Fanclub, Lost Tapes, Baseball Project, Deadlights, Grian Chatten, Kristin Hersh, and The New Distractions, plus Manfred Mann, Freddie McKay, George Jones, David Bowie, Larry Williams, The Beatles, and Tom Jones & Jools Holland; and R.I.P. The Nerves’ Jack Lee (1952-2023), and The Groundhogs’ Tony McPhee, (1944-2023)
The long-awaited second album, Sweet Fatality from Minneapolis stalwarts, The Customers is finally out!
Look no further for your start to summer road trip feel good video from St. Louis musician Beth Bombara for her new track “Moment” taken from her forthcoming August 4 release It All Goes Up (Black Mesa Records).
Detroit band Protomartyr, touring their latest album, Formal Growth in the Desert, clanged and scowled their way through a 75-minute set at The Chapel in San Francisco on July 1st. With the bark of Mark E. Smith (The Fall) and the sneer of Chris Bailey (The Saints), lead singer Joe Casey brought a snarling intensity to the new material.
From the stop/start rhythm of “Make Way” to the drilling pace of “For Tomorrow”, Casey surveyed the landscape of 2023 and delivered his bleak report to a packed crowd. Fueled on an endless supply of cans of beer (some cleverly housed in his dark sport coat) the lead singer stared intently at the audience as if some of the song’s protagonists were hidden among the crowd.
Not until the band was well into the set did Casey’s icy facade begins to melt a little, as he leaned into the words of “Half Sister”, “Truth is the half-sister, that will not be forgotten, Truth is the half-sister, that will not forgive”. Guitarist Greg Ahee seemed to joust with Casey by plying him with razor-sharp twangs, staccato rhythms, and blasting chords.
And who is that, standing in shadows stage left, adding to the band’s visceral heft with distorted guitar strums, ethereal vocals, and keyboards? None other than Kelley Deal, a touring member since 2020.
During the entire set, a series of video projections played behind the band, often lighting Casey with bizarre patterns of light and color. The medical films, television test signals, driver education clips, and old-west movie scenes deliberately leave one feeling disoriented as if the band is driving through a stark musical landscape while a fever dream of memories plays in the background.
After a self-deprecating comment about being fat and bald, Casey rips into “Cowards Starve”, the words “I’m going out in style” sounding like a threat. Kelley Deal offers some perfectly melded slide guitar to “Polacriex Kid”, from the new release, and delivers a pillow of vocals to ease the jagged lyrics of “June 21”.
By the end of the show, Casey and the band seemed to have worked their way through the stark wilderness of their music and come out the other side with their souls intact. The crowd senses it and enthusiastically brings them back for a round of encores, including the propulsive “The Devil in His Youth”. Yes, it is a dark and scary world we go back to after the band ends, and Joe Casey provides the perfect libretto for our times.
A true artist and songwriter world-renowned for his prolific, heartfelt alt-rock love songs, Stephen Jacqueshas released ten albums to date, with his eleventh on the way. His Steve Albini produced music forms a body of work was culled from a lifetime of experiences, including those as an engineer, a Hollywood actor, a custom builder, and a TV host. “Slept on a Ridge” is his new single.
For his latest album The Great Escape, Stamey slips on the classic suit for the first time since 2015 – but adorns it with a bolo tie.
South African composer and songwriter Ashton Nyte (of The Awakening) returns with “Cinnamon,” the latest single off his forthcoming eighth solo album, described as “an ode to hope in the face of adversity”.
Nothing But Thieves guitarist/lyricist Joe Langridge-Brown discusses the band’s ambitious fourth album, Dead Club City
Teen Idle is set to blow out the candles to new single “Birthday Cake,” a cinematic indie rock slow-burner that The Big Takeover is premiering today ahead of its wider release this Friday via H1 Massive.
Photos by Sammy Haney
Last year Mosswood Meltdown, Oakland’s two-day punk rock hemorrhage hosted by kink king John Waters, felt like it had something to prove. It was the first year with the Mosswood moniker, rising out of the ashes of both the pandemic and the disastrous demise of Burger Records, long associates with Burger Boogaloo, the festival’s former name.
This year, Mosswood really seems to be out of the proverbial shadow of Burger, coming into its own. The lineup over the years had gotten progressively more non-straight, white, cis-male forward, seeming to actual focus more and more on the communities by whom the punk rock ethos probably built.
Oddly, if you check the Wikipedia pages for many of the bands playing you’ll find they are written out in the past tense, having broken up or simply fallen out of the public eye for so many years they were presumed dead. This was a “reunion show” for many of the bands including second-night headliners Gravy Train!!!! However, unlike most lineups where the bands are not regularly touring, Mosswood still had that electric spark of life to it . . . for the most part.
Lots of people told me that I was in for a treat with the 5.6.7.8.‘s, but I found their set to be wooden and canned. I was in the minority as there were several happy dancers tearing up the turf in front of the stage.
Tina and the Total Babes, , and Twompsax absolutely slaughtered with their performances. This was the penultimate show for Twompsax, and they sure did give us plenty of reasons to miss them. Another band that’s going to be in the past tense from now on.
The brightest gem of day one, though, was headliners Le Tigre. Cutting into their set with the noise panic that is “The the Empty,” Le Tigre shook a sun-dizzy, day-drunk audience back to life. Highlights of their set included the powerhouse “TKO” and cheerleader-esque anthem “Deceptacon.” Blissfully, their on-stage banter was free of the “Oh, man, we’re so old now!” yucks that seem to plague a lot of bands for whom popularity crested in the late nineties or before. They were cheerful as ever in their absolute hatred of the oppressive patriarchy and focused all their energy and music in that direction. Loved it.
If day one was campy, day two was absolute camp. Like, put up your tents and apply your bug spray because we are now in the deep wilderness known as Camp Campy. The crowd even seemed to take the assignment to be outrageous more seriously with a notable insurgence in coordinated outfits among friend groups, most of which had some delightful political bend to them. There were plenty of people like me dressed in tired old jeans, a band shirt, and Target sneakers, but there was also a healthy wave of people who had dressed to be seen.
The bands of the day matched the mood of the crowd. Snooper played a short but energetic set that started off with “Music for Spies,” one of their tightest songs. On the amphitheater stage, Mika Miko was also well-loved by the audience, getting plenty of feedback in the form of energetic crowd members clapping and snapping along. For a bunch of outcasts, they sure to join in when these bands put out the call.
Speaking of outsiders, I thought the weirdest thing I would see at Mosswood was the Teddy Bear Orchestra, I name that surprisingly held no irony. Large teddy puppets “played” instruments in the style of Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Players. High on antics, the show featured the release of a large Santa-hatted bear that seemed to practically crush some members of the crowd under its comically large size. However, this was, in fact, not the strangest part of the day.
J.J. FAD played a set that was mostly talk and very little music. They started off strong with “Blame it on the Muzik,” but they then lead the crowd into a strange dance party featuring only other people’s music. They did not interact with these songs at all, but simply replayed them. Things were looking up when they picked it back up and sang “Way Out.” However, they followed with “Supersonic,” and then just sort of ended the set. All in all, the set consisted surprisingly of very little J. J.J. FAD. It was still fun, but left me and I imagine others who were there to see them wanting more.
Earlier that day on the dame stage, The Avengers had played a fast set which kicked off with “Teenage Rebel.” The Linda Lindas joined them on stage for this for their first surprise appearance of the day. The Avengers were focused and lived up to their reputation. Houston sounded stronger than I’d heard her at some past performances, her voice definitely had more continuity this time.
The Lindas second appearance would come only one set later when they hopped on stage with Bratmobile to give a charmingly fangirl rendition of The Runaways’ “Cherry Bomb.” Bratmobile, a staple band for any 90s girl who wished she could afford to shop at Delia*s, was as snot-nosed an insufferably charming as ever. Can you outgrow being a brat? Well, I guess anti-tyranny does tend to keep a girl young at heart.
Again, though, the star of the lineup was the headliner. Gravy Train!!!! took the stage like a hurricane takes a coastline. They sucked us all up into this whirlwind of psycho-sexual queer panic joy that even I couldn’t deny felt good. I have a steadfast no-audience-participation rule and though I didn’t fully give into actual dancing, I did drop my absolute stoicism for a moment or two to tap my foot. Lead singer Chunx, a.k.a. Heather Jewett has this I’m-too-cute-for-planet-Earth thing going on, a real Tracy Tracy appeal. Everything she says and does seems to come with a little nudge-nudge and wink-wink to let you know she knows that she’s on a different plane of existence than the rest of us, too. Mosswood and its former incarnation Burger Boogaloo seem to have been building up to this adorable, big, gay dance party for years with Hunx and his Punx (members of Gravy Train!!!!) and Brontez Purnell (also of Gravy Train!!!!) performing in past years. It was worth the wait as their performance was explosive.
Mosswood didn’t have the same exact feel as in years past, but it remains true as ever to those living in the fringe that love it. See you next year, freaks.
Photo by James Johnson
EK: You guys have been together for almost 40 years. What has kept you going so long?
Jeff Kelly (JK): Being friends. The members of the Green Pajamas band have always been my closest friends, so it would often be about socializing as much as going and playing gigs. When we were younger, there were a lot of Green Pajama parties. The truth is, I like spending time drinking with these people as much as I do playing music with them so I think it’s friendship, in the end, that keeps such a diverse and opinionated bunch close together after so many years. Mainly because of COVID, I don’t see the band near as much as I used to, but whenever we do get together, it’s as if no time has passed at all, very much like family.
EK: When you started, we were in the midst of an explosion of psych music, and psych never really went away. Can you describe the feel of that time long ago compared to now?
JK: I recall the feel of that time as quite exciting. We were going to have go-go dancers and a sitar player! It was a lot of fun. But I guess it’s always a lot of fun to be young and in a band, isn’t it?
The “explosion” we knew was mostly coming from California. I had bought a couple of records by The Three O’clock and The Rain Parade that I liked a lot and when I met Joe Ross and we discovered that we were both into that kind of music, we thought it might be fun to make our own sort of version of that up here in Seattle. I don’t think it happened immediately. Joe had to talk me into the whole band thing. I finally said, “Okay, as long as I don’t have to rehearse!” So we actually did a bunch of gigs before we got the idea to write some new songs and record our cassette, ‘Summer of Lust. We called ourselves things like Felix The Cat Explodes and Spanking Naughty Teens, and we played songs like “Clash City Rockers” and “Little Red Corvette”. Later, when we started recording together, along with Karl Wilhelm, we decided on The Green Pajamas. That was one of the times Joe won the argument. I had wanted to be The Flying Nuns.
Of course, yes, psychedelic music is everywhere now, in all sorts of mini-genres of music — psych-this, psych-that, which is interesting. I love how diverse our choices of music are now. You can find just about anything you want to hear on Spotify. Just about anything you might imagine is on there somewhere if you can figure out the right words to search with. I’ve always loved a lot of different kinds of music. If you hear the cassette of Joe and me writing, “Kim the Waitress”, you can kind of tell I was thinking about Joy Division and Peter Hook while I was fooling around on the bass, as opposed to The Beatles or Rain Parade. But I’m sure there are multiple 10 or 12 hour playlists on there made up of any and every kind of psychedelia one might desire to hear. So there are some advantages to 2023 I guess!
EK: The industry has changed drastically over the many years you’ve been a band. What are your thoughts on these changes?
JK: When I hear the word “industry,” I can really only kinda look at you and blink. Because personally, the changes haven’t had a big effect on me as The Green Pajamas were never signed and then dropped by someone like EMI. Nobody has ever told me what kind of record I’m supposed to make. It sucks how little Spotify pays and it’s sad that Universal Music owns almost everything, but there are independent labels out there like Glitterbeat that seem to be doing fine and smaller labels like Green Monkey Records where it’s never been about money over art. People like Tom Dyer of Green Monkey, from the beginning, got involved in all of this because they loved their artists having freedom and making their art. That’s not to say that he wouldn’t love to have a few more bucks to allow a few more people, including himself, to make more art! And I think that one of the best things that has ever happened in the music world ever is Bandcamp. Being able to pay people directly for their art is wonderful. And bands and labels can make their own paths and priorities and find a happy and supportive audience without relying on some A&R asshole or anybody else telling them what to do. And the diversity of music is astonishing. I’ve come across some great stuff I wouldn’t have known about if not for Bandcamp.
EK: Beyond The Beatles, Byrds, Kinks, XTC, Neil Young, and even The Stones which I hear in some of your music, what are less obvious influences that inform your work?
JK: Music from the Middle East, Brazil, Portugal and Spain. Leonard Cohen’s older stuff, Classical music, Sinatra, and jazz from the 50s and 60s. A band from the 90s I still love called Curve. And a little bit of everything else sans most modern country, Christian rock, and death metal.
EK: Can you talk a little about your obvious love of The Beatles? What are your favorite recordings by them?
JK: I was one of those “different” kids. I didn’t care as much about going outside and playing softball as I did about sitting in my room alone and listening to the “Hello Goodbye”/”I Am The Walrus” single when I was 9 or 10 years old. I’ve tried to explain at times how it felt in those days to hear a new Beatles song come on the radio, especially when you get a song like, “I am the Walrus”. But it’s hard to put into words the way my stomach felt when I first heard those weird strings in the intro coming out of my little AM radio! And then that voice singing that crazy shit and everything else about it. We’re all so used to it now but nobody had done anything like that before, ever! That’s the funny thing about that time — they were the biggest pop group in the world while being very avant-garde at the same time! And there was a new song about every few months, always very different from the last thing and always exciting.
So, The Beatles were pretty much everything to me when I was that age. The first record my mom ever bought me was Yesterday and Today, which would have been 1966, and from that time on, when my sister got a new Beatles record, I got to get one too! Being a bit older than me, she had been in love with them from the start — the first Ed Sullivan appearance or whatever. So my favorites were from that point on – Revolver, Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour, right up until the end with Abbey Road.
EK: What made you want to join a band/create your own music to begin with?
JK: I remember the first time I thought about the idea was after watching The Beatles singing “Hello Goodbye” on Ed Sullivan. The next day, my friend, Ryan (who grew up to be the Ryan Styles on a big TV show called The Drew Carey Show) and myself made a band: Ryan Styles and the Electric Garbage Cans. We had found a toy electric guitar in a garbage can and made some toy drums and that was the band! A little while later, I’d gotten a real electric guitar for Christmas and another friend had a snare drum and we called ourselves Springwater Ferry. We would charge the even littler kids a nickel to come and see us perform in my basement. We taped one of those “shows” and you can hear an excerpt on the Forever For A Little While album just before “I Love the Way You Smile at Me”. A little boy named Stevie was introducing us: “Here come The Springwater Ferries!” That’s from 1970 or ‘71.
EK: Among your earlier releases, what would you say is your favorite, a high water creative mark for the band?
JK: Probably the “Kim the Waitress” single. Despite what seems to have become a common belief, I never ever said I hated that song. It’s the opposite, I think it’s one of the best songs I ever wrote. I just got tired of performing it live for various reasons. The last gig I played was an acoustic show at Tim’s Tavern. We were playing songs from my album Beneath the Stars, Above the River. I was at the bar waiting to get a beer before we started, chatting with the guy next to me and he said, ‘Oh, and by the way, I’m not going to request Kim.’ I smiled. But it occurred to me that it wasn’t just the Green Pajamas band that thought I despised the song, but some of the fans as well. Maybe it came from an interview on KEXP when we did a live thing and the host asked me why I disliked the song. Can’t remember how I answered now but I probably didn’t articulate my thoughts on the subject very well at the time. I think part of it was a little bit of a knee-jerk: I got so tired of talking about whether we were or we weren’t going to perform “Kim the Waitress” every time we picked up our instruments.
EK: What was your most creative period? It appears you put out a lot of material between 2000-2008.
JK: I might say ’97 up through the early 2000s. Strung Behind the Sun, Meagan’s Bed, Seven Fathoms Down and then, This Is Where We Disappear. Those albums were popular and got some good critical acclaim. There were also a few EPs. Plus Laura Weller and I did the Goblin Market album, Ghostland, and I did an album under my own name called Indiscretion. Joe and I worked together a lot on putting the first two together and Eric Lichter contributed some great songs, but I recorded most of that stuff myself while working a full time day job and helping raise our two kids. My wife and kids would go to bed and I’d pour a brandy and start recording. I remember almost falling asleep standing up one night while doing a tambourine part. And the band was also performing live a lot then, so, from my perspective, that was probably the most creative period! I figure Joe would probably say, Summer of Lust.
EK: How many incarnations of the band have you and Joe Ross been through?
JK: I guess four or five, depending how you look at it. Although Joe wasn’t in the band when we recorded Book of Hours.
EK: Can you describe the songwriting, recording, and production process, especially for your latest work? Did COVID get in the way or did you work over the Internet like some bands did?
Forever For A Little While by The Green Pajamas
JK: I’m always writing and recording, but several months into the pandemic I had the thought that it might be fun to go back and do an old fashioned Pajamas album along the lines of Strung Behind the Sun — a real psych-pop kind of thing. So we had a Zoom band meeting and I encouraged anyone who was interested to contribute something along those lines. That was, “Sunlight Might Weigh Even More” and Eric had a couple of songs and Joe wrote a new song for that one as well. Eric and Joe sent me demos over email and then recorded their guitar bits and vocals at home, then shared them with me via a file sharing website. Laura did that as well with her vocal back-up on “Hello Hello”. And it was the same process with the newest album, Forever for a Little While. They all did some basic tracks at home and then sent them to me to finish.
These days, when I decide to do a Green Pajamas record, I do purposely write what I imagine might be an appropriate Green Pajamas song as opposed to a Jeff Kelly song. There was a time in the 2000s when those lines were a lot more blurry and I just figured whatever I wrote was a Pajamas song. Now I’m more deliberate. Songs come about in a variety of ways: sometimes it starts with some minor obsession, a book, a painting, a photograph — anything that inspires you. I just finished a song inspired by some characters in a Chinese TV historical romance/drama called “The Long Ballad”! Sometimes it’s a good hook, sometimes a riff, sometimes a chord progression and melody. And sometimes all those things happen at once – I’m thinking about, “She’s Still Bewitching Me”.
As far as the production process, I often make it up as I go. Sometimes I have the idea for a string part or a setar riff right at the beginning, but often I will throw in all kinds of instruments and then start eliminating them. It might take a day or two for one song or a week or two to perfect another. Sometimes I finish a whole song, and decide to completely start over with a different arrangement or time signature. My wife Susanne gives me a lot of good input. If she thinks I can sing something better or write some better lyrics, she tells me and that is helpful. Everything is recorded at home using Logic Pro X .
EK: _What are your favorite songs on the new record, and can you give us background on those? Maybe you can tell us about “The Hidden Fortress” or “Princess Misa”.
JK: Sure, those are a couple of my favorites and they’re very much related to each other. They are both inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s film, The Hidden Fortress. Weeks and months after I finished watching that film, the princess’ face remained vivid in my mind. A lot of aspects of the movie did, which is kinda interesting as I don’t think it’s necessarily one of that director’s most popular or profound movies. Still, there is something that haunts you and a big part of that for me was the Princess Yuki character. I might have called the song “Princess Yuki” but when I Googled that, I found out there is some famous anime character called that. So I didn’t want to use that. I also found out that the actress that played the roll was called Misa Uehara and then remembered I had read that Kurosawa had, “hired her for her eyes”. So instead of a song about Princess Yuki, it became a sort of daydream about a guy wandering onto that old film set, into that black and white world, and finding Misa Uehara there sitting on one of those hills. So I imagined myself as that young guy and wondered what I might have to offer a princess: my notions, my potions, my castles of sand. And at the end, bemused, she disappears off into the misty film set.
“The Hidden Fortress” song is more or less of the same conceptually. A companion piece. I was thinking about walking into the world that was that film — and reliving some of the scenes, or maybe just the scenery, all of these years later. That was one of those quick recordings like “Bewitching Me” — everything came together right away — the setar part, the bendy strings. The opposite was true of “Princess Misa”. I did several versions of that. The first version which was going to be discarded got rather heavily edited into “Princess Misa 2”.
EK: ”Six Minutes in Heaven” is a definite high point, and the title alone makes me smile. It seems to speak of aging, something I totally understand.
JK: I’m happy you like that one! Yes, it is a little bit about getting old. It’s a bit like an old guy’s version of “Rattlesnake Kiss”, which I recorded in 1997 or ’98. You do sort of wake up one day in your 50’s and go, what the fuck? I got old! So, as an old guy, it’s a little harder to write a song all about having nasty sex, like “Rattlesnake Kiss”, and present it to people without some irony or at least a little bit different perspective. So, I guess that’s what that song is about: getting old in the time of the pandemic, trying to stay sane and still fit a little sex in amongst all the horror that we’re currently flailing about in.
EK: What attracts you to psychedelia? It has many variants, including shoegaze and dream pop, among others. Which elements of this genre do you enjoy the most?
JK: The most right now? Hmmm. You know, I almost like it most when it’s almost accidental. Or I guess I should say, less contrived. Like in traditional middle eastern music or some of the new middle eastern music that is rooted in that tradition. I’ve been listening to a lot of music from Lebanon, Iran, Turkey and that area of the world and, what we think of here in the West as “psychedelic sounding” is often built into the foundation of that music. There is a Persian/American band called Niyaz, which is a good example of what I’m talking about. I have a six hour playlist of middle eastern music on Spotify and there are so many great songs and artists that don’t get written about over here. No one I know has ever heard any of this stuff! So I was looking all over the Internet trying to find where I could buy Fairuz CDs for a decent price and I found this Lebanese deli in New York! It also wouldn’t be a stretch to say there are strong elements of what we think of as “psychedelic” in those cool North African guitar bands like Tamikrest and Tinariwen as well. Talk about “trance-like”!
EK: What are you guys listening to when not doing your own thing?
JK: I can’t speak for the other Green Pajamas members as I haven’t talked much about music (beyond our own recordings) with any of them for quite a while.
I’ve been listening to a lot of Asian music this year. Japanese artist, Haru Nemuri. For Tracy Hyde and Hitsujibungaku who are often sorta filed under Dream Pop. There’s a good Korean band called Say Sue Me and I like Hiperson from China. I’m also listening to some older Japanese stuff like Hako Yamizaki, Keiko Fuji, and the rock band, Les Rallizes Dénudés. There’s a great compilation from Death Is Not The End Records called Longing for the Shadow, which is all Japanese Ryūkōka recordings from the 1920s and ‘30s. And that’s barely the tip of the iceberg. I always get on these kicks. Fado, Flamenco, Persian music. One summer it was all Laura Nyro and the next summer, George Jones, which amused my family no end.
EK: How about books and films?
JK: These things often mirror the music I’m listening to. Favorite films I’ve recently seen: Decision to Leave, The Wild Goose Lake, the 2018 Long Days Journey Into Night, Black River by Masaki Kobayashi and everything from the Criterion Collection directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. I have a couple books bedside: _Strange Beasts of China and The Mermaid from Jeju* and I just read a collection of weird Japanese Tales.
EK: Are you touring behind this record, or are you done with that?
JK: Done with Green PJs live performances for now. Maybe in the future we’ll get together for something again. Some of the best memories of my life stem from gigs with the band. From the Terrastock Festivals to tiny taverns in Seattle, over the course of my life there have been some really unforgettable times and I’ve been able to experience the feeling that a lot of people won’t — the thrill of being on stage and you’re holding an instrument that can make a whole fucking bunch of noise and there’s an audience that is really into it, you know? There are moments you remember and I feel lucky in that regard. There is a job-like aspect of being in a band as well, but the process of rehearsing and performing music shouldn’t become mundane. In theory, you do a soulless day job so as to go out and have fun playing music afterwards.
We had a new live band with Laura singing and playing guitar and Eric playing drums with Phil Hirschi on cello and Kerry Fowler on bass called The Cats of Cádiz, which was a lot of fun! We were performing new songs which was exciting again! But after one really great gig, the virus hit and unfortunately, I’m a famous germaphobe so we haven’t got back together again since that time.
EK: Any last words for fans?
JK: I appreciate everyone who has supported The Green Pajamas over the years so very much. I have been fortunate to meet so many kind, interesting people across all of these years since we started doing this in 1984 and, because of things like Facebook, I’m still in contact with people around the world who first wrote letters and sent packages from before any of us envisioned the Internet happening. When I was a kid, it was all kinda about me, which I think might often be the case with young people. But as I’ve grown up, I realize so much of what I do is about the people who ppreciate this music.
It’s been a rough year or so but I’m hoping for a new Pajamas album for 2023 and maybe something under my own name as well, along with whatever I might release on my Bandcamp page.
Catch up with the band over on their Bandcamp page. Pick up their latest record over at Green Monkey Records.
Jeshua Marshall is the combination of all of his past influences to some degree or another, and following on from his lockdown released album, Shoot The Moon, his new single, “Water” infuses all of the muscle and melody, folk and fun, grace and groove into a gorgeous slice of upbeat soul-pop.
This week’s show, after a brief 1967 Love story: brand new Lovejoy, Marty Stuart, Successful Failures, Shana Cleveland, Guitarmy of One, Guided By Voices, and Willie Nelson, plus Paul McCartney, Dennis Brown, Jan & Dean, Françoise Hardy, Moody Blues, Bert Jansch, and Buck Owens; and R.I.P. Astrud Gilberto (1940-2023)
Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of “Running Through The Rain” by Star Collector.
Merit Maker is a music project that draws from a very wide range of punk rock sounds and subgenres. The music itself is influenced by various punk and similar genre bands. Crank up the stereo and blast these tunes.
Since 2016, Violent Magic Orchestra has been continuously uniting black-metal with electronic tendencies. With fury and pulsations, the band presents their newest single, ‘Supergaze’ (available now via Never Sleep). We’ve spoken to the members of VMO discussing identity, connecting metalheads and their upcoming LP.
The new cosmic-country album, You Know Who, by Athens, Georgia’s The Pink Stones is inspired by artists ranging from George Jones to Gram Parsons and features a very George-and-Tammy-style duet with Nikki Lane. Check out the things in Hunter Pinkston’s life that inspired the making of the new album.
With Torn still on board and the addition of keyboardist/electronics guru J. Peter Schwalm, with whom composer Thelen has worked on his Fractal Guitar projects and last year’s duo album _Transneptunian Planets*, Sonar takes on another of Thelen’s side hustles: composing for classical ensembles.
Special Friend release their second album Wait Until The Flames Come Rushing In via Skep Wax, Howlin’ Banana & Hidden Bay Records.
Indie rock artist Fred Abong presents ‘My Way’, the second singe from his forthcoming Fear Pageant album, slated for release in late summer via Seattle-based label Disc Drive. Earlier, Abong released the record’s lead track ‘Father’.
Modern London synthpop icon Rodney Cromwell (a.k.a. Adam Cresswell of 90s indie folk band Saloon and 2000s electronic duo Arthur & Martha) and Solemn Arcade have teamed up to present “Memory Box Solemn Arcade Revision”.
On hEARoes, the threesome eschews firepower (for the most part) for chamber music, as if they’re trying to make up new works for small classical ensembles.
UK Alt Pop act Fassine share new single ‘Drerty (Acid Drops)’ from their upcoming album Never to Heaven.
Indie rock outfit Beau Jennings & The Tigers present their new single ‘People in This Town’, out June 9 via Oklahoma-based record label Black Mesa Records. What starts as a scrappy ten seconds of scuffling and static emerges as a summer anthem from this Oklahoma band.
Texas roots-rocker Marina Rocks releases a new EP, _Texcentric-, a short, sharp and shockingly good collection of songs that take in established standards to the state of the world around her, and from chilled Americana to full-on rock swagger.
Like stepping back from an impressionist painting or staring at just the right depth at a Magic Eye poster, it took James Jackson Toth four years to wrap his head around the messages running through his first album under the banner of James & the Giants.
Regardless of what your favorite 70s band is, there is something in While We Were Making Plans for everyone, but The Splatter Pattern emerges with a fully formed, compelling artistic voice that is all their own.
This week’s show, after a lil 1971 Stones croon: brand new Slowdive, Desario, Flyying Colours, J. Robbins, Film School, Colored Lights, and Hurry, plus Graham Gouldman, Beau Brummels, Alton Ellis, Charlie Rich, The Jokers, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, and Pee Wee King; and R.I.P. Jack Lee (1952-2023)
Trans-Atlantic alternative neo-folk collective Lusitanian Ghosts present ‘Shameless’, a song about love, regret and reconciliation, which previews the band’s forthcoming Lusitanian Ghosts III album (out in autumn via European Phonographic). This is the second taste of their full-length album, following up the first life-affirming single ‘The Long Train’.
With a classic rock sound – and work ethic – in their DNA, Rival Sons has recently released the first of two albums planned for this year. Guitarist Scott Holiday discusses the band’s influence on artists like tour mates Greta Van Fleet and how they made the most out of the downtime caused by the pandemic.
Lonely Machines is back with Transducer, seven dark, vibey tracks ready for the business end of your summer parties.
Recreate is not blindly optimistic, but it is an infectious burst of compassion from a voice that is so needed in this moment.
Always You is a wonderful addition to the artist’s repertoire, and a testament to the continued importance of jazz pop.
“You cannot live in fear during creativity. There will sadly be people willing to cast you aside if you don’t fit their ideals or ethos but if your passion is organically expressed and you are creating with sincerity then you are doing the honest thing as a writer. I feel excited with this group and it’s the right time for me,” stated Smalley.
Dromedary Records is thrilled to announce Drom30, a weekend-long celebration of independent rock in the beautiful Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains of New York, on September 15, 16 and 17.
Atlanta-based atmospheric alt-pop duo I Am a Rocketship present their new single ‘Do You Feel Good’, a powerful introduction to their forthcoming album La Cruella, a collection of ten tracks about uncertainty, fear and dreams.
A mover and shaker in the fifties, jazz label Contemporary Records lured saxophone great Sonny Rollins from his home base in New York to Los Angeles to record with West Coast musicians.
King Analog remains compelling and exciting over the entire album, an often difficult feat for instrumentalists, and the artist emerges as a dynamically challenging force to be reckoned with right out of the gates.
The Blue Highways are a British rock band based in London. Formed in 2018 by brothers Jack, Callum and Theo, the band is known for its modern Indie/American Roots-inspired rock sound coupled with Callum’s narrative storytelling. Acclaimed as one of the most exciting upcoming acts in the U.K. music scene, The Blue Highways have recently released their new album Out on the Line to critical acclaim.
Brooklyn lounge-chill artist Roman Angelos and electronic producer Scott Solter (St. Vincent, Maps & Atlases, Spoon, Superchunk, The Mountain Goats). have released their collaborative record Supermarkets, Underwater via London label Happy Robots Records.
Four years after the last Swans album, Gira and crew finally return with The Beggar, another album of grim tidings and aspirational gloom.
Former Noah & The Whale guitarist Fred Abbott is inviting you into an immersive ‘ambisonic’ listening experience with his new ‘Fred Abbott & The Wild Unknown’ single & video for ‘Nothing Left’, out June 23rd via Lojinx.
Hopefully this tour is not the band’s swansong and Love and Rockets will continue to play live. At the risk of sounding too greedy, one can only dream that they will record another album as well.
Manhattan-based artist Nevaris presents his debut Reverberations album, a fruitful and soulful collaboration with legendary bassist-producer Bill Laswell. This instrumental recording combines dub, funk, Afro-Latin rhythms, turntablism and extended improvisation.
Bassist and composer Yosef Gutman Levitt continues his prolific ways with Soul Song, the first album on his new imprint of the same name.
Brazil-based sonic adventurers BIKE present the video for the live performance session, recently recorded at KEXP in Seattle and broadcast on Cheryl Waters’ Midday Show. The session includes select tracks from their new Arte Bruta album, released via Before Sunrise Records.
Formed in 2015 by Julito Cavalcante (guitar and vocals), Diego Xavier (guitar and voice), Daniel Fumega (drums) and João Gouvea (bass), BIKE’s trajectory has been one of impressive journeys – both sonically and geographically.
This week’s show, after a small 1969 Mann/Weil warble: brand new Ash, Damned, Triptides, Once For Kicks, Bird Streets, Clientele, and sparkle*jets U.K., plus The Beatles, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Slade, Leroy Van Dyke, Marvin Gaye, and Fotheringay; and a special set for: R.I.P. Cynthia Weil (1940-2023)
A coming-of-age album, Chuck Rock is the work of a group still growing, and it’s a fantastic snapshot of a moment in time, while the band purposely plays down the album’s remarkable merits at every corner.
High intensity seems to be the running theme of Zombie Telegram as Mallory expresses themselves unabashedly in an exposed, maudlin, and sometimes even violent manner, creating an extremely captivating, thrilling experience that continues to unfold with each listen.
ABBA’s 1973 debut album Ring Ring was the first of the Swedish pop phenomenon’s “golden eight.” For those with a sweet tooth, it’s a crafty pop confection.
Never Sleep is a fantastic expansion of Feder’s sound, offering a more vulnerable, introspective side of the artist, and it’s set to be released June 23rd.
Coming out of the other side of hell, Royal Thunder returns with a new focus – and a reunion with drummer Evan Diprima – on their fourth album, the aptly titled Rebuilding the Mountain. Singer/bassist Mlny Parsons, never one to dodge difficult subjects, opens up about her addictions and how she’s overcome them to focus on Royal Thunder.
After battling a few years of what friends believe to be self-inflicted agoraphobia, Joe Pugsley resurfaces with a cover of the classic Stiv Bators track “The Last Year”, from the epic 1980 record Disconnected.
It’s always seemed to be an intense thing for Royal Thunder to make music – the band’s albums practically glow with vivid emotion and acute conviction.
The gloomier side of artists like The Cure or the emotional intensity of Cocteau Twins are clear influences, while stylistically she is closer to musicians including Lana Del Rey and Cat Power.
Taylor Robert has toured the country with various bands as well as a solo artist, played out at notable venues in the Twin Cites, released a multitude of albums and EPs, working with MN legends like Michael Bland (Prince, Soul Asylum) and Ryan Liestman (Jonas Bros) in production and songwriting.
LA-based collective Beauty In Chaos has joined forces with Leeds-born vocalist Julian Shah-Tayler and drummer Pete Parada (Face To Face, The Offspring) on their new collaborative single ‘Kiss Me (Goodbye)’.
Since leaving the Bad Plus a few years ago, pianist Orrin Evans has simply gone from strength to strength, putting his prodigious talent at the keyboard to the service of strong tunes and surrounding himself with top-flight backing musicians along the way.
Life, the second LP from Paris ensemble The Salt Collective, continues in the same rich, fizzy vein of janglecrunch guitar pop as the band’s 2019 debut The Loneliness of Clouds, but with a twist.
Toronto-London collective The Flowers Of Hell have released their sixth album Keshakhtaran (their first in six years), as well as the first vinyl pressing of their Lou Reed-endorsed 2012 cult classic Odes album, now available directly from Rolling Heads , from other select UK stores, and on import.
The Nearly Deads” is a four-piece, featuring vocalist *Theresa Jeane, guitarist/bassist Steven Tobi, guitarist Javier Garza Jr. and drummer Josh Perrone, rocketed to stardom with the playful-yet-powerful “Never Look Back,” and its 10-million strong zombie-laced music video. The kinetic energy of the song provided an apt soundtrack to the exhilarating catharsis of out-running the walking dead, both literally and figuratively.
Pittsburgh DIY veterans Silver Car Crash are back with their latest full length masterpiece. Clangy and noisy in the best of ways, Silver Car Crash pushes the limits of contemporary rock on Shattered Shine.
Alternative-electronic artist Slighter presents his new single ‘Have No Fear’, an intense, moody and cinematic offering with traditional A-side and B-side versions, released via Confusion Inc. This is the first taste of his full-length album This Futile Engine, due out on July 21 via Brutal Resonance Records.
It is that time of the year again, Chicago! Pitchfork will gather some of the best bands from all sorts of music genres and places to make our summer truly great! Pitchfork has released the Set times for each day. As the years have gone by, Pitchfork has done a great job of curating a unique and diverse festival unlike any others in the country and this year is no exception! Tickets are still available to purchase here . Here are some of the top recommendations for bands to check out!
Friday, July 21st, 2023
The Smile
The most astounding headliner of the festival is on Friday. The Smile features both Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood from one of the most creative bands of all time, Radiohead. Radiohead, of course, play much larger festivals usually and it is absolutely thrilling to be this close to such geniuses. To add to the thrill, The Smile’s 2022 album A Light for Attracting Attention is a dystopian masterpiece that hooks the listener in from the start. Click here to see photos and read a review of The Smile’s Chicago show at the Riviera Theater by this reviewer. The Smile play 8:30-9:50 pm on the Green Stage.
Alvvays
Toronto’s Alvvays keeps getting better. With their third full length release Blue Rev, their live sets have become full of sugary pop hits filled with longing that somehow the recent crowd at The Riviera Theater was also able to crowd surf to! These Canadians have an engaging sense of timing and chord progressions that will make it impossible not to dance and sing along! Click here to see photos and read a review of their recent set at The Riviera Theater in Chicago by this reviewer. Alvvays plays the Red Stage from 7:25-8:25 pm.
Leikeli47
If indie rock isn’t your thing, Pitchfork still has you covered on Friday with the innovating hip hop artist Leikeli47 who has a very interesting stage presence and will close out the blue stage. Leikeli47 has a very engaging sense of rhythms and associated sounds to elevate the tracks. Her third release, 2022’s Shape Up has a great mix of cultural references and empowering lyrics. Catch her from 7:45-8:30 at the blue stage.
Perfume Genius
Michael Alden Hadreas is a versatile wonder and his 6 albums over the last three years have led the listener through a land of both the delicate, the pop sublime, and the turbulent with his latest 6th full length release, 2022’s Ugly Season being no exception. If it’s hard to figure out what to expect, perhaps it’s best to embrace the unexpected and realize whatever Hadreas performs for us, it will be a gift. Perfume Genius plays the Green Stage from 6:15-7:15pm.
Youth Lagoon
There is no one on Earth quite like lead singer Trevor Powers who is returning to Pitchfork Music Festival after resurrecting the band with the just released Heaven is a Junkyard. There is a gentleness and a genuineness both to Powers’s delivery and a sense of imagery that sets a story. This is music to treasure! Youth Lagoon plays the Green Stage on Friday from 4:15-5pm
Ric Wilson
Ric Wilson is pure joy and always performs with a kind of infectious energy. His hip hop has some nice disco influences but also is often accompanied by some bombastic percussion. Wilson is a musician who makes Chicago a great city and it will be fantastic to see him return to Pitchfork Music Festival. Ric Wilson plays the Blue Stage 6:30-7:15 pm.
Jlin
There is something about listening to Jlin that does some very interesting things to one’s temporal lobes. Jerrilynn Patton mixes sounds in such an unexpected way that would actually be incredibly jarring if it weren’t so perfect. Best of all in this reviewer’s opinion is her sonic masterpiece 2017’s Black Origami. It will make your auditory senses do a little parkour! Jlin plays the Blue stage 5:15-6pm.
Saturday, July 22cnd, 2023
Big Thief
It is quite a big deal that Big Thief is not only returning to Pitchfork Music Festival but headlining the big stage. The band skirts country and folk indie genres adeptly with a beautiful sincerity. Since playing the blue stage in 2018, Big Thief have only grown in their sound as well as live performance. 2022 saw their 6th release, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You which you can listen to on Bandcamp here. Big Thief closes out the Green stage from 8:30-9:50pm.
Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul
Hailing all the way from Ghent, Belgium, this duo creates weird and quirky music that is all their own. With floating vocals that make you question the kind of human you are as well as consider different political issues in the world, there’s also a lot of idiosyncratic and playful rhythms that make this duo’s sound very unique. Yet, the lyrics offer up an experience beyond entertainment and into the introspective. Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul headline the Blue stage from 7:45-8:30pm
Weyes Blood
You can still catch a little bit of Weyes Blood before heading over to the blue stage for Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul though this is a bit of a tough squeeze. If beautiful 70s tinged folk songs are your thing, Weyes Blood is the band for you! Lead singer Natalie Laura Mering has also really loosened up as time has gone on has the kind of stage presence where she dances with grace and makes the audience laugh. Her most recent album, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is a treasure! Read a review with photos of her most recent Chicago show by this reviewer at The Riviera Theater here Weyes Blood plays the Red stage from 7:25-8:25pm.
Julia Jacklin
Sydney’s Julia Jacklin asks “Am I going to lose myself again?” on the track “I Was Neon” from her third full length 2022’s Pre Pleasure yet her songs seem more realized that ever with a perfect mix of honesty in her lyrics and catchy chord progressions. They make you feel like she’d be a good person to spend an entire day with or just listening to her music. Even in her more stripped down tracks like “Too in Love to Die,” there’s always something very engaging about her voice and the way she reveals more with each lyric as the song goes on. Julia Jacklin plays the Blue stage from 5:15-6pm.
Vagabon
When Vagabon played Ptchfork Music Festival back in 2017, there was both a gentleness and a power. As time has gone on, Laetitia Tamko has created a sound that has more layers of complexity with nice hooks as well but has kept the same strong presence of grace. The two tracks available to listen to on her upcoming September 2023 release Sorry I haven’t Called should be incentive enough to fan to want to gather a little earlier on in the day to hear more! Vagabon plays the Blue stage from 4-4:45pm.
Black Belt Eagle Scout
Katherine Paul is an introspective human who loves nature and is a very deep feeling sort of songwriter. That doesn’t take away from her ability to craft melodies filled with just as much longing as there is guitar fuzz. This is important music to listen to but it’s also music that grows on you in a way that makes you realize you’re humming chord progressions under your breath without even realizing it, especially from her newest album The Land, the Water, the Sky. It was a wonderful experience to see her earlier this year and hear some of the stories behind some of these songs as well as to hear more about her culture and life experiences. Read a review with photos of Black Belt Eagle Scout’s last show in Chicago at the Subterranean by this reviewer here Her set is one well worth arriving early to the festival for! Black Belt Eagle Scout plays the Blue stage from 2:45-3:30pm.
Sunday, July 23rd, 2023
Mdou Moctar
Those who might be feeling a little more adventurous should definitely check out this Tuareg band from Niger whose psychedelic repetitive rhythms leads to a transformative experience in which you will most likely feel joy and dance in your elevated state. This is music that is to be treasured and one you won’t hear at other music festivals, which is what makes Pitchfork Music Festival indeed more interesting than the vast majority of festivals this summer! See Mdou Moctar close out the Blue stage 7:45-8:30pm.
Kelela
When Kelela headlined the Blue stage in 2019, one could easily see she was destined for greatness. After 6 years of being on hiatus, Kelela is back with her album Raven from February of this year and songs vary between the cerebral wonder that is “Washed Away” and the super upbeat and catchy “Happy Ending” that should be blasting from stereos all summer. Mixed in are songs like “On the Run” with deep beats and soulful singing. Considering her stellar new material and her striking stage presence, this Pitchfork performance promises to be impressive. Kelela plays the Red stage 7:25-8:25pm (Below is a photo of the crowd from her 2019 performance)
JPEGMAFIA
JPEGMAFIA is a fast paced adventure. Sure, Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks is technically human but his spontaneous feeling energy and perfectly timed rapid vocal delivery will make you wonder if he might be something beyond that. The samples and beats are always ambitious and the crowd energy will be infectious if this is anything like his Pitchfork appearance in 2019. Come a little before the headliners and see if you can keep up. JPEGMAFIA is playing the Green stage 4:15-5:10 pm.
Lucretia Dalt
Lucretia Dalt is an artist that may be a little baffling to some. This Colombian musician’s 6th album, ¡Ay!, was hailed as record of the year in 2022 by The Wire and, although it might sound a little moody and inaccessible at first, it’s worth a few listens to appreciate the creativity at work. As Dalt sings across the sometimes sparse melody lines in Spanish, you start to feel like the experimental quality is what makes it wholly memorable and unique. For those curious about what these sonic wonders might be like in a live setting, see this live video from Unsound 2022 Lucretia Dalt plays the Green stage from 2:30-3:15pm.
Rachika Nayar
It’s worth it to get to Union Park on Sunday early to hear the lush soundscapes of Rachika Nayar. Her 2022 release Heaven Come Crashing lives up to its name, offering the listener some epiphanies within layers of guitar pedal effects and ethereal vocals with climaxes that leave one feeling emotional and transformed. These songs have been called “epic” and “cinematic” for good reason and it should be riveting to hear them live. Nayar plays the Red stage at 1:45-2:25pm.
This week’s show, after a 1967 Buffalo Springfield belt: brand new Lovejoy, Chime School, Tombstones in Their Eyes, Live Skull, Daughter, Kristin Hersh, and Rufus Wainwright, plus The Beatles, Love, Delroy Wilson, Tornadoes, Carl Perkins, Jan & Dean, and Jerry Irby & His Texas Rangers; and R.I.P. Astrud Gilberto (1940-2023), The Nerves’ Jack Lee (1952-2023), The Groundhogs’ Tony McPhee, (1944-2013), and The Senders’ Phil Marcade (1954-2023)
Following the release of his long-awaited (and now critically acclaimed) album How To Love, we took some time to chat with Withered Hand – the nom de plume of Edinburgh-based singer-songwriter Dan Willson, who originally hails from London.
His first new music in nine years, and with nine tracks on offer, this record is released via Reveal Records. Here, Withered Hand continues to live up to his reputation as one of Scotland’s most gifted songwriters. He has garnered worldwide support and heavy airplay on tastemaker stations, including BBC 6 Music and Amazing Radio.
Canadian alternative pop artist Apricity presents her new single ‘Allison Wonderland’, a clever adrenaline-filled composition about imagining and seeking the type of relationship, love and companion you most want. A song that is, at the same time, a light forewarning about creating that perfect person in your mind.
Pioneering shoegazers The Veldt present “The Everlasting Gobstopper”, the first taste of their Illuminated 1989 album, the release of which has been anticipated for decades. Produced by Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie in autumn 1989 (and remastered by him in 2023), this record was intended to be the band’s first album. However, their label Capital Records shelved the recording (resulting in their debut Marigolds album being produced by Lincoln Fong of Moose).
Returning to Fishbone for the first time since getting off the tour bus in 1994, keyboardist Chris Dowd discusses what he’s been up to, why it was a good time to return to the band he helped form in 1979, the band’s new self-titled EP and what the future holds.
Smoke. It drifts in from a fog machine, and hovers over the guitars waiting on stage. DJ Juan G has just finished playing Fela Kuti, prior to the entrance of Tinariwen, and the anticipation is palpable in the sold-out UC Theater. The band last toured the United States in 2019 and the Berkeley crowd is anxious to see the Tuareg performers. When the lights dim, five members of the band slowly take to the stage, much like the clouds of smoke – unhurriedly and slightly hesitant.
The opening number, “Tahoultin Djegh Emedin”, ambles along at an unpretentious pace, Fender guitars stabbing at the rhythm and chanted vocals with the slightest hint of a groove, a groove that will be pursued all evening. The second number, “Idiyan Idohina”, comes across almost jaunty, and, ringed by the overhead lights, it marks the entrance of Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, much to the delight of the audience. Arguably the most recognizable member of the group, and looking like an elderly Jimi Hendrix, he joins his bandmates with minimal fuss.
A few minutes later, the tempo changes, and all eyes move to the other side of the stage where Alhassane Ag Alhabib begins an enthusiastic dance. Standing at the edge of the stage, like a cross between an evangelical preacher and a stage diver, his arms and legs moving in time to the music, Alhassane energizes the audience.
The third song, “Imidiwan Sadjdati”, brings the pace back to a more leisurely saunter, and thus, the template for the night has been established – slowly burnished numbers with deep group chants followed by songs with entrenched grooves highlighting majestically funky guitar riffs. “Arjghiyin”, from the new album, Amatssou, fails to ignite, but “Anemouhagh” and “Tidjit”, also from the new record, gather steam and finally deliver on the promise of the desert blues groove with the declamatory call and response lighting up the crowd; they may not understand the language, but the audience reacts to the force of what is being sung.
Tinariwen do not perform according to Western pop tropes – there is no lead singer acting as a focus, there are no clearly established guitar solos, and background vocals repeat the melody lines with no harmonic blandishment. The group’s musical interaction is the centerpiece, and this is what gently pulls the audience toward the fulcrum of each number. For Western ears, this takes some getting used to. When the blues are brought to the fore, such as the Chicago mid-50’s licks of “Imidiwan Mahitinam”, or the long slow laments of “Alghalam Tiglistarha”, they are reference points on a long journey, not destinations.
As the show draws to a close, more grit shows up in the guitar playing, almost as if the band has brought some of the Sahara Desert sand in their amplifiers. Occasionally the interplay of guitars reminds one of Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir locking in with each other. Tinawren rarely make eye contact with each other, their chants and groove-soaked guitar playing seem to be telekinetically shared between band members. Handclaps and only one percussionist are more than enough to keep the songs moving forward, though always at a measured pace. When Tinariwen finishes, the departing audience has smiles on their faces as they recognize the shared trip they have just completed.
Malice marks a major step forward, in both songwriting and production from previous releases, but most importantly it represents a fantastically cohesive statement from a band unequivocally finding their voice.
Big Takeover is stoked to host the premiere of Highway 61’s sophomore single & music video “Black Magic”.
Beggars Banquet continues its vinyl reissue series for Love and Rockets with round two: a pair of LPs that never quite found the cache of their predecessors.
Melodic indie / alternative rock duo Para Lia presents their single ‘Sunchild’, the first new music since announcing the duo has signed to Berlin-based About Us Records for their third album In Clash With The Zeitgeist (out on August 25). This driving, guitar-laden indie rock lead track is accompanied by a fun-filled nostalgic self-directed video.
If Not Now, When by Dakota 66 narrates the sentimental feelings of hope, love, friendship, and loss that lead singer J Gallagher has discovered throughout. This album sees Gallagher reassuringly usher the audience by candlelight through each emotionally-charged room as he nostalgically paces through the oaken floors and shifting walls that represent his life.
Buoyed by the passionate support of the ZombieNation, their global legion of fans, The Nearly Dead sophomore album We Are The Nearly Deads is the eagerly-anticipated follow-up to their critically-acclaimed EP, Revenge of The Nearly Deads.
In between official full-lengths, the group has continued to churn out anthem and earworms. Notable highlights include “Freakshow,” “My Evil Ways,” “Watch Your Back,” and their recent Unearthed Ep which eloquently reformulated five fan favorites with a vibey ethereal panache.
Following up the deeply personal Reconnected, an album that explored his Latin and Turkish heritage, trombonist Altin Sencalar opens the doors to the wider world on his third album In Good Standing.
Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago checks in to discuss the rhythm of touring, his current favorite Pixies merch, being a nostalgia act and recording far away from temptation.
Bassist Vicente Archer has a quarter of a century of sessions and sideperson gigs behind him – oddly (or not), Short Stories is his first album as a leader.
This week’s show, after a 2017 Alvvays refrain: brand new Lauds, Guided By Voices, Weird Nightmare, Tommy Stinson, Cut Worms, Handsome Family, and Salt Collective (with Matthew Caws), plus The Shangri-Las, Ike & Tina Turner Revue, Claude Gray, Donovan, Freddie McKay, Buffalo Springfield, and Moody Blues (Denny Laine)
Joanna Pearl’s “Love Her” is a new original single inspired by her trip down the unspoiled coast of Highway 1 in California and is themed with nature and humanity co-exsisting through respect and love. Co-written and produced by award-winning Daniel Martin, “Love Her” floats with a light groove, warm-vocals and is anchored by a melancholic cello played by Mai Bloomfield (Jason Mraz/Raining Jane).
The stellar new *Cowboy Junkies” record captures the band reflecting on death and loss, while firing on all cylinders and engaging listeners with their signature sound.
Big Takeover favorite Joe Pernice discusses the release of 1998’s Overcome by Happiness for the first time ever on vinyl, talks about some overlooked songs, and shares a story about the drunkest he’s ever been.
ARTIST IN EXILE: Having recently escaped Russia and settling in France, JoobieSeaz release “Close”, another incredible single, and the duo opens up in captivating Q&A about their journey, and the role that art and music has played in it.
Ahead of the late June release of his Songs from a Farmhouse EP, Rust Belt Americana artist Alan Getto has unveiled the single and accompanying music video for “Problems of the World” – a reflective folk tune about the duality of life.
Six years on from the masterful two-disk, one-song album Mirror Reaper, the duo returns with The Clandestine Gate.
PRIORS come at you with a fierce urgency, an aggressive authenticity, the sounds of a band from another time, on their latest release, Daffodil.
Mostly Trees is a 4-piece band from Minneapolis, known for their take on guitar driven rock that ranges from grunge to dream pop. Their new style is a stripped down version of their earlier work, realized after bonding over a modified version of the board game Sorry! Once they made up the rules, the possibilities were endless. With a heavy influence of guitar effects pedals, their new album Moon Dogs showcases a diverse range of sounds and instruments.
Hearkening back to the funky, R&B-heavy fusion of the early seventies – Herbie Hancock/Crusaders division – Golden Mean paint colorful portraits that promote accessibility over complexity for its own sake.
“Within our own humanity there is great heartache and misery but also great joy and comfort. There is nothing more humbling to me than the ferocious beauty we live amongst, including life and death.” Margo Timmins
Top TV score composer David Schwartz (Arrested Development, The Good Place, Northern Exposure++) and noted LA guitarist/singer/songwriter Julian Coryell (Alanis Morissette, Jewel, Leonard Cohen++) release their debut album as Vincent & Theo, Soul Smell June 2. The eponymous song, “Vincent & Theo” premiering here is the new single, out today.
Keturah Allgood was born and raised in the mountains of Western North Carolina. She is a soulful Americana artist who draws on her myriad of life experiences for inspiration. Her latest single, “Rosary Beads,” is out today.
In constant writing mode, John Treanor says the new Tombstones in Their Eyes album, Sea of Sorrow, contains the cream of the crop from demos he’s been collecting the last few years and that he’s already got another album ready to go. Learn more about band’s unique sound in this conversation.
From the evidence presented here, Boston’s Eddie Japan has never met a pop melody they didn’t like.
This week’s show, after a bite of 1957 “Little” Jimmy Dickens: brand new Damned, Black Watch, Pernice Brothers, Teenage Fanclub, Juliana Hatfield, Lucinda Williams, and Glazyhaze, plus The Beatles, George Jones, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Move, Sharon Little, Hugh Montenegro Orchestra, and Doc Cheatham & Nicholas Payton; and R.I.P. Tina Turner (1939-2023), Saints/Damned/Tank bassist Algy Ward (1959-2023), brief Beatles bassist Chas Newby (1941-2023), and Advision Studios engineer/producer Gerald Chavin
Drawing on influences from the likes of Blondie and The Ramones, Green Day and The Dollyrots, this tight-knit family unit uses humor and the power of music to push back on all the crap going on in the world. Bad Mary holds up a warped mirror to the current culture and reminds us that having fun is the best way to give yourself an escape from the craziness.
Not only has he just put out his memoir Easily Slip Into Another World, but he’s released his latest piece of music The Other One.
It’s as if Michael is sampling bits and pieces of the genre, a Whitman’s Sampler of rock ‘n’ roll, and Rocking Into Midnight succeeds wonderfully as a loving tribute in its own charmingly honest way.
Saturday’s Child is the latest release from Scott Zosel, a Minneapolis songwriter who works hard to exemplify the style and swagger of creative, edgy TC artists like Paul Westerberg, Prince, Dave Pirner, Gary Louris, Adam Levy, and others, who have successfully garnered national attention.
Making each other laugh is the driving force behind The Dirty Nil’s music, though the mix of punk rock and power metal is no joke from the Canadian trio. Singer Luke Bentham discusses the band’s songwriting process, what he likes about playing festivals, and how he was able to scam his way into a front row Buddy Guy ticket.
Ben Noble is a Minneapolis-based artist and producer. Noble’s serene, innocent melodies drift lithely along sonic textures that range from sleepy-time folk to intrusive, experimental hyper-synth scapes. Through any aural difference, the heart is the same: Noble wants to embody his truth and experiences in his music. His third album, Bitter Work is out today.
Sparks vocalist Russell Mael discusses his band’s legendary career, including their latest album, The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte
She Sees is as adventurous and exciting as any album the iconoclastic musician and composer has made.
After a self-imposed hiatus, Skaters front man Michael Ian Cummings has reemerged with a solo EP proving to himself and others that the passion is still there. Cummings shares some insight into the songs and discusses how the whole process has been cathartic.
Hidden gem from the frozen heart of Toronto La Faute releases debut dreamy folk album Blue Girl Nice Day.
Backed by guitarist Guilherme Monteiro, violinist Skye Steele, cellist Christopher Hoffman, bassist Michael Bates, and percussionists Mauro Refosco and Rogerio Boccato, Blake traverses all over the musical map here, incorporating bop, Brazil, tango, folk, and other influences into a distinctive blend all his own.
FRIDAY channels her creativity in each moment and brings a sense of nostalgic fun to each track. She’s recently released her first two singles: the grunged-out rock ballad “Dear God” and “I Do It For You,” a 60’s-bubblegum-pop-inspired earworm – showcasing Daddona’s chameleon-like range in music and beyond.
Brennan reaches into her personal experiences to pull out a general theme of hope throughout the five songs that manages to stay uplifting and optimistic without once becoming dangerously cloying.
The Ironsides have created a ’60s sounding, cinematic soundtrack to a film that doesn’t exist on their debut full-length for Colemine Records. Taking inspiration from a variety of sources, from soul to jazz to classical scores, The Ironsides discuss how the band formed, how their sound has evolved, and play a game with their song titles in this conversation.
Based in the New Jersey town of Secaucus, Clay Joule is a singer-songwriter who makes buoyant and uplifting soft rock music. Characterised by his poignant messaging and powerful, he crafts music which is genre-hopping and adventurous yet infectious and accessible.
The keyboardist from Johannesburg’s Mabuta, Bokani Dyer has more to say than can be confined to one outlet.
Gary Bamford is probably the first to admit that music is an outlet for the mental challenges that he faces in life. But then, isn’t that, though to a lesser degree for most, thankfully, the same for all of us? And hasn’t art and creativity always served such a purpose, as much about the act of creation as a catharsis as it is about the audience’s experience upon receiving it?
And so, Sinking, a suite of four tracks, has such struggles, thoughts, ideas and experiences woven around its sonic core. But unlike lyrical music, which uses words to take us by the hand and lead us to the creator’s desired conclusion, instrumental pieces such as this are less direct and more open to emotive interpretation. However the piece of music makes you feel, then that is the desired effect, even if the experience is different for each individual listener – especially if the experience is different for every individual listener. Any response is the proper response.
“Sinking – I” does the required groundwork, introducing us to the styles and sonic themes of the ep where space is as vital an element as the purposeful and poignant notes that break it, where restraint and understatement build atmosphere and anticipation, where less is, for want of a cliche, more. So much more.
And it is through these gentle elements and meditative ideas that Gary steers his piano compositions, occasionally embellished by additional tones and textures but, if done so, always sparingly. The second piece is built of slightly bolder playing, cocooned in a hazy hum of harmony but again as happy to allow additional sounds to pool and percolate in the spaces between fading notes and dying chords.
“Sinking – III” is so fragile in parts that it feels as if you are listening to sounds being carried to you on the wind, notes perhaps scattered in all directions on the breeze, where you are only experiencing a chance and random take on the music. A delicate piece indeed.
The fourth and final piece is also built more of air than artifice, a series of gossamer light notes and delicate chords, each a statement in their own right as much as they are stepping stones through a collective piece of music.
Meditative music indeed, music to muse on. And like a Buddhist Koan, asking questions that have no logical or direct answer, music as rhetoric, music aimed at bypassing the head and even the heart but which talks to the very soul of the listener.
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As the 101st release on his own Orenda label, Polarity serves to both sum up and advance his career thus far.
Portland, Oregon’s Last Giant are debuting their latest single, “Broken Wires,” off of their fourth full-length album, Monuments. Filled with monstrous guitar riffs, infectious melodies, and connective lyrics, they have honed their artistic vision and created their finest work to date.
This week’s show, after a small trill of 1998 Pernice Brothers: brand new Jeanines, Tombstones in Their Eyes, Savage Republic, SLIP~ons, Tommy Stinson’s Cowboys in the Campfire, Snuff, and Lavender Diamond (With Jim James), plus Mississippi John Hurt, Louis Armstrong, Rutles, Carl Smith, Bee Gees, Augustus Pablo, and Huey ‘Piano’ Smith & His Clowns; and R.I.P. Smiths’ bassist Andy Rourke (1964-2023)
To celebrate their tenth anniversary as a unit, pianist/composer Omer Klein, bassist Haggai Cohen-Milo, and drummer Amir Bresler threw themselves a birthday party, entitling it Life & Fire.
Dwight Twilley may not be as well known as some of the other acts that made up the springboard roster of Leon Russell’s Shelter Record Label – namely, Tom Petty, JJ Cale, and Russell himself – still, along with these musical stalwarts, he indeed defined what became known as the “Tulsa Sound.” (Although I will qualify that statement by saying that I am penning this from the other side of the Atlantic and so it may just be my British lack of musical education in such matters which has informed this statement.)
But if this specific, regional sound is defined by its blend of rock, blues, country, and soul influences, its exquisite song-crafting, a real sense of rhythm and groove, and an accessible, relaxed vocal style, then Dwight Twilley is everything you need to understand and appreciate it. And this latest collection of his work (which covers six original albums: “Tulsa,” “The Luck,” “47 Moons,” “Green Blimp,” “Soundtrack” and “Always”) is a beautiful sonic odyssey through his relatively recent works and a fine showcase of an artist at the peak of his powers.
And having painted Twilley into a sonic corner by slapping such a singular label on him, this album then kicks down the generic barricades and jumps numerous sonic boundaries to show us just how broad the Tulsa Sound was and, more importantly, just how far he pushed it.
“Could Be Love” kicks us off with its stomping groove, a song built on pop-aware infectiousness and rock drive, and it is such attractive opposites that feature throughout his work, making his songs home to a creative collision of sounds and styles. “A Little Less Love” is a shimmering, folky soundscape that rings out with a love of Beatle -esque cinematic pop, “No Place Like Home” is that perfect blend of raw rock ‘n’ roll muscle and sweet melody that bands such as the Georgia Satellites would have killed to have written and “Chanda” is ripe with the ’60s, pastoral-pop haze.
But Twilley loves to rock out, and he does it with the best of them, and you won’t find better blissful boogies or graceful grooviness than with songs like “ Better Watch Out,” “Let Her Dance,” and the glorious rock ‘n’ soul sensations of “Get Up.”
Reviewing retrospectives like this often feels like a full stop (or period, I believe, is the term for stateside readers) at the end of a sentence. But nothing could be further from the truth as Dwight Twilley is still very much a visible and important part of the current music scene. But with such a long and illustrious career, it pays to take a wonderfully nostalgic walk through past glories, and glories they very much are.
So whether you are looking for a gentle reminder of past times, exploring his music as a result of appreciating his more recent shows, a musical historian, power-pop completist, or, and this is the more likely option, just a fan of quality music, then this album is the place to start with this artist…before quickly picking up the rest of his back catalog…obviously!
Pony’s sophomore release, Velveteen, is one of the brightest, most sugary albums of the year. Sam Bielanski and Matty Morand discuss the freedom of writing songs that aren’t personal, how a Sopranos episode influenced lyrics, and gush over ’90s alt-rock artists like That Dog and Letters to Cleo.
Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of Video Premiere: “Running Through Chelsea” by Peter Daltrey.
With the new album from It’s Karma It’s Cool, Thrift Stone Troubadours out on 2nd June, I sat down with the always affable Jim Styring to delve deeper into the songs, their inspiration, song-writing in a broader sense and how It’s Karma It’s Cool get their songs from first thought to finished article.
Before we dive into the specifics of the tracks on the new album, can you tell me about some of the highs and lows of the process, who’s involved, and what is in store for the listener?
To be honest, there haven’t really been any lows with this album. It’s been an enjoyable experience from start to finish. The songs came together, and everything fell into place without any real struggle. We’ve loved being in the studio working on these new songs, and we’re looking forward to people hearing the album.
Martyn, Mikey and Danny have played their hearts out on this record. I know it’s a cliche, but genuine blood, sweat, and tears. They’ve presented me with some of the best music I’ve had to write to, and I hope, I think, I’ve risen to the challenge. We also have the legendary Peter Holsapple (REM, The dB’s) playing on three of the new songs, “Winter Coats,” “A Gentle Reminder,” and “City Kids,” so that’s very exciting for the band. We think it’s our strongest work to date and hope people will enjoy it as much as we’ve enjoyed making it. You can decide for yourself when it’s released on Friday 2nd June.
So, kicking off with “How Be You Be Blue?” this is a signature IKIC sound, warm, 60s-infused harmonies, a slight touch of psychedelia, plenty of power, and lots of pop vibes. How important is opening with the right song, and how long do you spend trying to get the correct running order for the albums?
I think an album’s opening song is always important; it needs to make a statement and grab people. We wanted a big pop song to open this record; it’s certainly a deliberate nod to The Beatles and the whole 60’s psychedelic sound. It’s just an uplifting, feel-good kind of thing; don’t wait till tomorrow. The time is now!
We always spend time working on the tracklist. If you do it wrong, an album can lose its energy, regardless of how good the songs are. It’s a similar process to putting a setlist together for a show; you want to take your listeners on a journey, so you have to pace it right if you want them all to still be there at the end.
“Warmer Climes” is a more hazy, sunshine sound. Do you ever set out to capture a mood or sensation in the music, or are they more like happy accidents that are more than the sum of their parts?
It can be both, really. Martyn had this guitar idea and asked if I could write something to it. I knew straight away it was a powerful piece of music, so I had to find words that reflected the mood and do it justice. It’s a little different, and that’s why I think it works so well. It’s actually about the famous Bigfoot Patterson and Gimlin sighting/film from the 1960s at Bluff Creek. I’d been watching a documentary about it, and the words just kind of came to me.
There are some great drums from Danny in there, almost tribal. I think the whole song paints a picture. We liked the idea of catching people off guard by putting it second on the album; you may be in for a few surprises this time round.
“Old Bones” features some excellent guitar work. It feels as if the band understands that solos only work if they are an integral part of the song rather than a bolted-on ego trip, which is how most people approach them. Is that a fair assessment?
That’s exactly it, Dave; everything should be working for the song. It’s not a solo project or a vehicle to promote a single musician. We’re four equal parts of a band, with the song being the most important thing. That’s not to say that Martyn, Mikey, and Danny aren’t gifted musicians, they are, but the song will always come first with IKIC.
“Winter Coats.” It’s a busy song, very layered and textured. How do you know when enough is going on in a song, and how do you avoid the risk of overloading a song with too many ideas?
We wanted a layered, almost folk-rock feel to this song and were lucky enough to have Peter Holsapple (REM, The dB’s) play mandolin on the track. It’s very easy to overload a song, especially when you’re producing it yourself. We normally start with a lot of stuff on there and take it away as we need. If you start to lose the main melody under the weight of all the instruments, it might be time to lose a few.
I love the lightness and buoyancy of “Jenni, We’re All Fighting Wars.” The lyrics have a bit of a back story; would you like to enlighten me?
It’s really about anyone who’s ever felt stuck or trapped in life and the situation they’re in; sometimes, you can’t see a way out. It’s saying as long as you keep dreaming and believing in yourself, you’ll get there. A lot of this album is about self-belief and trusting your heart. I didn’t realize it as I was writing the lyrics, but it’s definitely there in several of the songs. Jenni was a real person, but I changed her name. She did eventually get to where she wanted to be.
_“Broken Heart Foundations” sounds like an obvious single as soon as it starts. Do you always know which songs are singles and which are better left for the album buyer to discover?
It becomes obvious as they come together which ones will make good singles and work well on the radio. Same kind of thing as picking an album’s opener; it’s got to grab you and hold you for three and a half minutes. There are a lot of potential singles on this album, but that was the idea; we wanted every song to be strong enough to stand on its own. I’d asked Mikey to write a pop-punk kind of thing; he came back with what would become “Broken Heart Foundations” the same day, and by that evening, I had the finished lyrics.
Do Ghosts really Wear Jeans?
Yes, some do, for sure! It’s an all-out tribute to Bowie and that glam rock era, T. Rex, Mott The Hoople, etc. It’s asking where all the magic and mystery in rock and roll has gone. Where are all the new rock stars? The larger-than-life characters? The untouchables? Things have changed. Music’s changed. We know everything about everyone now, thanks to the internet. There is no mystery, no intrigue in rock and roll anymore; it’s all so easy come and easy go. The song’s asking Ziggy to reconsider and return to show us all how it’s done; one last encore.
“Vacations In A Taxi Cab” echoes a perky, early Beatles vibe; it’s time to talk about influences and how much the artists you admire guide the band when writing your own songs.
I guess any band will always be the sum of its influences, but we never set out to sound like anyone or deliberately fit a label; we just do what we do. When we get in the rehearsal studio, it really is like an IKIC creative bubble; we just get lost in writing for ourselves. If we write something that moves us or makes us feel a certain way, we figure it might resonate with someone else, too. Again, it’s about trusting and believing in what you’re doing. I couldn’t look an audience in the face and sing my lyrics if I didn’t believe every word I was singing.
I guess some of our influences will be obvious, we’ve already mentioned a few, but some won’t be as obvious; we throw everything into the Karma pot. And all ideas are welcome, regardless of who has them; we’ll try things; if they work, that’s great; if not, at least we gave them a go. We prefer people to tell us who they hear in our music rather than us spelling it out and making it all too easy.
“A Gentle Reminder” is also a great display of the jauntiness and the jangle that is inherent in your sound, a song written around the riffs and guitar rhythms. Let’s talk about the writing process. Do the riffs, the melodies, or the lyrics come first, or is there no set pattern?
Our songs normally start with a guitar idea that either Martyn or Mikey will send me. I’ll listen through and write to the ones that grab me, adding melodies and lyrics. We’ve released around 40 songs now, so it normally comes together pretty quickly; we’re all on the same page. We’ll take the ideas into the studio with our drummer, Danny, and work on the arrangements.
I have notebooks full of lyric ideas, so sometimes it’s a case of reworking existing ideas to fit guitar parts, but other times what they send over will inspire a brand new set of words. Peter Holsapple joins us again, adding some great keyboards and a 70s punk rock vibe.
“The Terms of Letting Go” and “Roll The Credits” are gentler numbers. Do you find it easier to write faster, more apparent groovers, or do the understated and restrained ones come easier? And what do you like about each form?
We enjoy writing both. I think an album needs a good mix; if it were all fast rock songs, by the 12th track, you’d be a little bored. We like to show that there’s more to us than just turning the guitars to 11, though Martyn and Mikey do that very well, too. It’s getting a balance across an album. Like I said earlier, you’re taking people on a journey; you want to make the trip as interesting and varied as possible. Sometimes it’s right to rock out, and sometimes it pays to calm it down a little and take a breath.
“City Kids” takes us out on a high; it is also a great example of dynamic ebbs and flows. Let’s discuss the power of building lulls and lows songs so that when it kicks back in, you can come back with plenty of punch.
“City Kids” was always going to be the album’s closer; there’s nowhere left to go after that song! We wanted it to build and explode and ebb and flow; it’s kind of a celebration, ‘you made it this far, but don’t ever forget where you came from.’ It’s almost like a movie within a song. There are some twists and turns in there, and you’re never quite sure where it’s taking you. The original demo was less than three minutes, Martyn worked his magic, and it became this thing much bigger than we’d initially imagined. Peter Holsapple adds his keyboards to this one again, and the whole thing comes in at just over seven and a half minutes!
Lastly, do you have any final thoughts on the new album? Obviously, it is your best to date, and obviously, you are right to be proud of it, but any insights and private thoughts you want to share about it and its birth?
Thank you, Dave. Yes, we believe it’s our strongest album to date, but I guess most bands will say their latest work is their best. I genuinely believe these are some of the strongest songs we’ve written and recorded. We’ve pushed our songwriting and taken a few chances with this one.
Our previous album, Homesick For Our Future Destinations did well for us, so we knew we had to up our game this time round, but I think we’ve succeeded with Thrift Store Troubadours.
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The threesome’s third LP together, Our Daily Bread keeps faith with the band’s prior explorations of spiritual and free jazz Lovano compositions.
Based in Chicago, The Bellwether Syndicate is William Faith (vox, guitars), Sarah Rose Faith (vox, guitars), Philly Peroxide (keyboards, percussion), Stevyn Grey (drums) and Corey Gorey (guitars). Formerly of seminal goth acts Christian Death, Mephisto Waltz and Shadow Project and co-founder of Faith & The Muse, William Faith moved from his native LA to Chicago in 2010, forming The Bellwether Syndicate with Sarah Rose Faith a.k.a. Scary Lady Sarah, one of the scene’s most eminent DJs and club promoters and host of Nocturna, the longest-running goth event in North America.
As might be discerned from the title, faith, family, and the enduring relevance of art are on Wilson’s mind.
More than half a lifetime in the making, Laura Fisher’s “Rose-Coloured Dream” is a worldly, distinct journey.
A revolving collective, Gramercy Arms is inspired by the artistic heyday of ‘70-80s New York. Their addictive indie pop features exquisite hook-laden melodies that are lyrically driven and rich on vocal-harmony, interspersed with elements of 60s sunshine pop and folk-rock. Deleted Scenes follows The Seasons of Love (2012) and Gramercy Arms (2008).
When it came to making In What Direction Are You Headed?, Farnsworth called on peers and younger players for a session that’s both traditionalist and postmodern.
There is an argument that listening to melancholy music can alleviate psychic pain through catharsis. However, others argue that this tactic is dangerous and will only make matters worse. Erik Sanden of the band Buttercup lived this experiment, first-hand. The result is the band’s new single, “Morrissey for Company.”
Emily Rose Epstein and her band The Rounders serve up country music in the tradition of George Jones, Patsy Cline, Waylon Jennings and Webb Pierce without looking too far into the past for inspiration. Their new singles “The Drifter” / “Nowhere To Go Part 1” introduce a new era.
Lit is a fantastic album that bridges genres and styles effortlessly, and it will easily appeal to both nitpicky blues heads and punk purists alike.
Since the release of their breakthrough debut LP Lotus Eaters in 2018, Norwegian outfit Outer Limit Lotus have stood as one of the more alluring names on the revived post-punk scene in recent years. Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of “Dazzling Darkness” by Outer Limit Lotus.
After a decade of nifty singles, Bay Area quartet the Ironsides finally gets around to making a full-length album.
Big Takeover is stoked to host the premiere of “I Wish I Was You” (Twin Tribes remix) by Creux Lies.
This week’s show, after a small snatch of Gordon Lightfoot: brand new Damned, Crocodiles, Wedding Present, Flyying Colours, 1984 Draft, Black Watch, and Mist Double, plus John Entwistle, Bettye Lavette, Mamas & the Papas, Wilson Pickett, Jimmie Davis, Brimstone, and Lloyd Price; and R.I.P Gordon Lightfoot (1938-2023)
The Big Takeover recently had the pleasure of interviewing Gandhur Savur, frontman of NJ rock band Scoville Unit. Scoville Unit recently released the music video for “Reasons” from their upcoming album See What Can Be.
Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of “I Always Hold On A Little Too Long” by El Valerie.
Saxophonist and NEA jazz master George Coleman has played with more luminaries than most of us have had hot dinners.
“I wanted the follow-up to Controlled Chaos to be exciting, new, and fresh, to take listeners to a new place and take myself somewhere new as an artist, too. We have some amazing collaborations on this album with incredible musicians, as well as the instrumental guitar music that first inspired me to play,” said Strauss.
Set to be released later this year, The Beach EP doesn’t rock the boat too much or aim to challenge the status quo, but in his own brilliantly hummable way, Harris offers a folksy, optimistic point of view that is desperately needed right now.
Without being flashy whatsoever, Rocky Roberts stands out as an important voice in classic country, and Pieces of Time has a beautifully timeless feeling.
Their names are Phil Pigeon, Jimmy Pigeon and Tommy Pigeon. They are English and the concept of their first album, Bird Brain Gang, is that they all wear pigeon masks. Musically, it flies higher than with the aforementioned birds: one thinks of the beautiful experimental England of the 70s, of no wave à la James Chance and even of kraut à la CAN period Damo Suzuki.
Savannah Conley’s debut album is an accurate portrayal of the trials and tribulations of a woman in her early 20s and all the emotions that are part of being that age. The Nashville born-and-raised songwriter discusses the album’s themes, working with collaborators, and musical friendships she’s made along the way.
A culmination of worldly music experiences, from going to his first rock shows as a teenager in Chicago to jamming with Motorhead’s Lemmy in L.A., have led Jonny Polonsky to his eighth album, Rise of the Rebel Angels, released on Loosegrooves Records, founded by Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard.
Dilly Dally Alley was formed with the intent of eternally seeking out the perfect groove, as well as repairing and re-embodying communal spaces that dissolved from the pandemic. The tunes from their debut album Make You Whole are meant to be interacted with live. Crowd games and raucous nonsense are all integral to the celebration of this music.
Singer/bassist Scott Allen has released his debut album, and after a along and entertaining run as a local musician and Twin Cities front of house sound engineer. Mixing sound for much of the last three decades, Scott’s had a front row seat/backstage pass to many thousands of great shows, cool bands and talented artists to draw inspiration from.
This week’s show, after no singing at all: brand new Eyelids, Black Nite Crash, Boo Radleys, Tombstones in Their Eyes, Robert Forster, National Honor Society, and Reds, Pinks & Purples, plus Heptones, Love, Johnny Cash, Billy Boy (Arnold), Kinks, Jackie Day, and Woody Guthrie
UK-France duo The Noise Who Runs present their Preteretrospective album, a 14-track offering sprung from the mind of Ian Pickering (of Sneaker Pimps and Front Line Assembly). Featuring songs from their first two EPs – curated and set in a more far-reaching context – along with six new, previously unreleased tracks.
Though not as prolific as, say, Robert Pollard or the late, great Paul K, Thomas Anderson writes more songs than most of us have had hot dinners.
Big Takeover is excited to host the video premiere from brand new SUPER 8 album HOOPLA – an accomplished psych-pop album full of harmonic hooks & symphonic surprises.
Good news! Big Takeover Issue #92 Spring 2023 with Sloan on the cover has nearly been completed and will be out shortly! But hurry to order—pre-orders and subscriptions are best/crucial! And they are much cheaper than ordering after we have to turn in our mailing list to the printer.
And it’s just in time for the perfect Father’s Day, other holiday, birthday, or other gift, even to yourself: Big Takeover Magazine subscriptions and back issues (like the big enchilada, complete set 1980-2023)! Plus Children’s sizes for our T-Shirts (to go with several Men’s and Women’s sizes) in three colors, as well as our Big Takeover Beer Cozies and (signed if you like) Color 30th Anniversary Festival Posters, or our CDs!
Kevin Bowe is a writer/producer/mixer/musician from Minneapolis. He has written songs on 3 platinum records and 2 Grammy winning albums working with Johnny Lang, The Replacements, Etta James, Joe Cocker, Paul Westerberg, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, 3 Dog Night, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Little Steven Van Zandt, Communist Daughter and John Mayall. His songs have been performed by Lucinda Williams and Bruce Springsteen.
NYC indie rock outfit Gramercy Arms presents “Fcked Up and Beautiful”, the third single from their acclaimed third album Deleted Scenes, released by New Jersey -based Magic Door Record Label8.
For this record, pianist Renee Rosnes, drummer Allison Miller, bassist Noriko Ueda, and trumpeter Ingrid Jensen welcome saxophonists Nicole Glover and Alexa Tarantino to the fold, though they’re so well integrated it feels like they’ve been there the whole time.
Roman Angelos is the nom de plume of Brooklyn-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Rich Bennett, developed as a vehicle to explore his obsession with library recordings of the 60’s and 70s, muzak and exotica. Exotic, dreamy, and wistful, this is the sound of a jazz sextet as channeled through synths and drum machines, creating a spacey feel.
Jennifer Harper’s music evokes a 1970s flower-child spirit with a fresh layer of uplifting pop. With her rich voice and intimate lyrics, it’s easy to fall in love with her contemplative, assured artistry.
New York-based band Nonstop To Cairo release their hook, horn, and riff-filled new album, KAI. This short, sharp and shockingly good seven-song set is fun yet intensely sincere and filled with heart and purpose. The songs feature all the right notes, ska, melody, hip-hop, funk and some harder punk moments.
For _DAY_*, Royston gets more specific, traversing twenty-four hours of quarantined pandemic time.
Stockholm based duo LOW-RES deliver uptempo pop tunes influenced by 90s ambient guitars and analog synthesizers with a slap of addictive Post-Punk earworms that set them apart from their peers.
Edinburgh* and Chicago* represent two points in your life, a long way apart in both miles and years. Can you tell me about the journey that took you from one to the other?
I left Edinburgh when I was 23; it was that point in a young person’s life where you often have to make decisions because you crave change and maybe want to break from a past; for me, it was an opportunity at the right time; I had been slogging it out with the Fini Tribe for the past eight years at that point, and something had to give; many bands were at these musical crossroads in the mid to late ’80s with studio tech and gear changing and evolving…well… we kind of hit an impasse, and it was sad.
I had made inroads into getting the band signed to Waxtrax, and, in doing that, I met Ministry, who were recording in London. I ended up hitting it off, and I was already a fan of the Revolting Cocks and Ministry; they were still very underground in the UK: so when I got asked to come over to Chicago and record, I jumped.
I didn’t move there immediately, but about a year later, Fini Tribe were basically living on top of each other, and we had struggled so much that the band split in two. Although that was heartbreaking, it was ultimately for the best.
The latest album, Eulogy to Christa: A Tribute to the Music and Mystique of Nico, is a fascinating concept. Why did you decide to play tribute to this beguiling artist, and how long have you been a fan of hers?
I first heard her via Cosey Fanni Tutti from Throbbing Gristle while visiting her in 1980. She played “Janitor of Lunacy” and “Le Petit Chevalier” from Desertshore. I was immediately enthralled; I had certainly heard the Velvets and had the _Banana album and loved it, but this was a different animal altogether. It was not completely foreign to me, I was young, 14, but I had already (obviously) been enjoying a steady diet of Throbbing Gristle and their ilk.
About a year later, Nico played at the Nite Club in Edinburgh, and I went. Seeing her with that harmonium singing “The End” was just spellbinding to me; she was beautiful, she sounded beautiful, and afterward, she signed my jacket and touched my face with her hand, and smiled (slightly).
Then she moved to Edinburgh! She was going out with Rab King, the singer from the local band The Scars (an excellent band), and we knew exactly where she lived: St Stephens Place in the Newtown/Stockbridge area. So my friends and I would wander around there, but we never saw her.
Was it always going to be a mix of covers and originals, or did plans change once you began working on the project?
No, it started as ten covers; I had already covered the song “You Forget to Answer” on my 2019 album Graveyard Sex, but I wanted to take a step further. Around that time, the book You Are Beautiful, and You Are Alone by Jennifer Otter Bickerdicke came out; I just devoured that!!!! I have read everything, articles and books about Nico, but nothing compares to this, so it was essential to me, and I have since become friends with the author, and she supplied the sleeve notes to the album.
Was there anything in particular that you learned about Nico as you got underneath the skin of her songs? Or did she remain as detached and full of mystique as ever?
I think you can read as much as you want, watch as many documentaries, etc., but yeah….You have to have a relationship with the songs; it’s easy and fun to do covers, and I love it, but when it came to this, I really had to step inside to know it; I am grateful to know the situations of the songs: from her bio, I knew where she was and what she was doing/taking at the time, but you have to attach a string to that and trace it back to her beginnings, then follow it back.
Buying a harmonium helped; it’s a very physical instrument; you are pushing air through it, it breathes, and you have to move in a rhythm with it while you sing; that opened her up to me a lot; it was a bit of a gateway into many of her songs. But you know there were other things too, like having walked the same streets as her, in either Manchester, London or Edinburgh, having stayed in squalor in London squats in the early ’80s, etc.
I also feel a weird kinship. She recorded only three songs for the Velvets, and it followed her forever, and these songs had to become part of her set; she did not like it. I feel the same way about my past. Ministry & The Cocks, that myth follows me around, the crazy stories of what crazy bastards we were, the drugs, etc.; however, it got me where I am, and I certainly don’t begrudge it; it’s a bit like an annoying roommate who won’t leave but still pays rent!
Was it hard to select the songs you wanted to cover, or were they always obvious choices in your mind?
Well, it was fairly easy. First of all, do the ones you know you can play!! But sadly, she has a pretty spartan back catalog….six albums!! And a couple of singles, so I knew I could do a great overview. I wanted to definitely do “Hanging Gardens,” which, had she lived, would probably have ended up on a solo album; as it happens, it’s from a live album of her last concert.
I also really wanted to do “Eulogy To Lenny Bruce” because it’s so beautiful… but choosing something from Desertshore was hard; I also knew I wanted to do the one-off single “Vegas/Saeta,” both amazing songs and very representative of her Manchester era.
How easy was it to write your own songs to fit in with the tone and style of the album as set by her songs? Did you need to do any research to inform this project, and if so, how did you do that?
Well, Jennifer’s book helped a LOT, but I have been a scholar of Reed/ Cale and The Velvets since I was a kid, so everything I wrote is very much based on pretty well-researched facts; any dialogue, of course, is fictional. I do love that music used to be so mythical; in my world, you know….the drag queen on the back of Lou Reed’s Transformer was Lou; of course, it is NOT, but that’s the myth that was passed around, pre-internet, so I think there is a lot of my own fantasy in there, I also throw in a lot of references as well to the music of Cale and Reed, sometimes they are lyrical, sometimes musical quotes, all hidden in plain sight.
Do you see this as just a one-off, or are there other iconic artists whose life and music you could see yourself exploring similarly?
This is the second album like this, the first being The Birthday Poems, which was based on the lives of the poet George Mackay Brown and his lover/muse Stella Cartwright; I love writing about real things using my language to bring them back to life.So yes, I will do more; I am actually starting to plan a Lou Reed album.
Sarah Morris’ fifth album of original material begins with an ending and ends with an introduction. In between, the songs eavesdrop on intimate conversations between partners, lovers, friends, and family. Produced by multi-instrumentalist Dave Mehling, and featuring long-time bandmates Thomas Nordlund, Andrew Foreman, and Lars-Erik Larson, Here’s To You sees Morris explore a more lush, celestial flavor as she sheds some of the country swagger she’s known for.
Melbourne-based synthwave artist Suburban Spell presents his new single “Bright Gold Cross”, the first taste of his forthcoming Falling Down EP, named such in direct reference to the long-term consequences of bad choices and giving into guilty pleasures.
With a background primarily, but not exclusively, entrenched in the hardcore metal world, Vadim Taver’s solo album allows the singer/guitarist to expand his horizons into a blissful neo-psychedelia wonderworld. Taver discusses the album’s recording, the artists he’s toured with, and explains what the “California Hustle” is all about.
Britain’s Lighterthief label has announced an exciting new project. The 3 Clubmen – a new project comprised of Andy Partridge, Jen Olive and Stu Rowe – will release their eponymous debut EP on June 30. The first taste is “Aviatrix,” an avant-pop delight offering a strange, seductive blend of experimental pop, jazz and sci-fi cinema excellence.
What’s more amazing – that heavy psychedelic blues rock is a style that never goes away, or that in the right hands it never gets old?
This week’s show, after a 1978 Adverts trill: brand new Damned, Wedding Present, Belle & Sebastian, Donovan’s Brain, Beach House, Gaz Coombes, and Green Pajamas, plus Linton Kwesi Johnson, Bonzo Dog Doo/Dah Band, Hank Williams Sr., Al Smith, The Loot, Jerry Cole & His Spacemen, and Billie Holiday; and R.I.P. Harry Belafonte (1927-2023)
Since 2019, FUTURE SOMEONE, the musical alias of NYC songwriter Kyle Walters, has been quietly releasing songs destined to be heard by a wider audience. Equal parts Arcade Fire, The 1975 and something else entirely, his music straddles feelings of heartbreak, nostalgia and hope, with a kind of swagger you can’t help moving in for a closer listen.
Nashville -based songwriter Tim Easton presents “Sliver of Light”, a song that lives in the category of powerlessness over the behavior of others. Literally inspired by a personal event and the thin line that exists between life and death, this single is released via Oklahoma -based Black Mesa Records.
Nordic prog rock outfit Pennies By The Pound present their new Nothingside album, released via the Lilith label. A collection of 10 tracks primarily in prog-rock territory, Nothingside is a concept album that takes the band’s music to a fantastic new realm beyond anything they’ve released before.
For We Sick, pianist deVon Russell Gray, saxophonist Nathan Hanson, and drummer Davu Seru recorded in an empty church across the street from the Minnesota State Capitol – a building surrounded by the National Guard due to the murder of George Floyd mere weeks before.
Yusuf / Cat Stevens shares his wishes and advice with England’s new monarch. “The major message of the song is, don’t forget that there’s One above you, and be careful to look out for those who are below you,” says Yusuf.
UK indie pop outfit Jody and the Jerms present their full-length album Wonder, released via JATJ Records and arriving on a wave of rave reviews and airplay for lead tracks “Started Something” and “Insatiable”.
Their third album to date, this new collection of 12 tracks was produced, mixed and mastered by RIDE frontman Mark Gardener at his OX4 Sound Studio in Oxfordshire. Loaded with a healthy dose of melodic crystallised indie pop that is heartfelt and honest, they present endearing jangle-pop songs that are both evocative and relatable.
Withered Hand is the nom de plume of Edinburgh-based singer-songwriter Dan Willson, who originally hails from London. On this album, Withered Hand continues to live up to his reputation as one of Scotland’s most gifted songwriters. He has garnered worldwide support and heavy airplay on tastemaker stations including BBC 6 Music and Amazing Radio.
“The first song I wrote for the record was ‘The Dandy of Suburbia,’ and it had a strong visual appeal, almost film-like, so I felt it could be the beginning of a larger story,” Eddie Japan vocalist and songwriter David Santos tells us. Ultimately, it’s a record about the consequences of one’s choices.”
With their catalog now being reissued on collector nerds’ catnip (AKA vinyl), the time is ripe for both newcomers and longtime fans to discover, or rediscover, their distinctive genius.
We are happy to premiere the sixth album from Italian psychedelic and acid rock pillars GIÖBIA, to be released this April 28th on Heavy Psych Sounds.
ECM steps up with the Luminessence series – vinyl reissues from the label’s vast catalog, both common classics and deep cut gems.
The Foreign Films’ sixth release guides the crafty Bill Majoros’ love of classic ‘60s/‘70s pop-rock toward the retro-futuristic ‘80s.
Austin, TX transgender and nonbinary quartet Transy Warhol streaming their breathtaking forthcoming debut album of hooky, arty punk rock.
The tenth album by The Declining Winter finds Richard Adams continuing to explore a meditative soundscape through a folktronica sound. Adams discusses his music-making process, the importance of settings in his songs, and how his day job inspires how he thinks about music.
Lionhaire is a British singer-songwriter born in U.K. but having spent her childhood in Paris. Growing up between the two countries has had an influence on her music, as she flips casually between the languages to tell her story. Now back in the U.K. based in London, you’ll find Lionhaire on stage in the big city writing, performing and conveying her feelings with her guitar and voice, a voice whose smooth vocals are already being compared to the likes of Lauryn Hill.
As indicated by the title, these performances come from Danish radio, and have not been heard since they were first broadcast in the sixties.
I recently caught up with Ben Jones from Constant Smiles to ask him about the new LP, ”Kenneth Anger” that came out in early March. The captivating album from Ben and his “collective” of band members flows with gorgeous indie dreampop/synth-pop.
This week’s show, after a 1973 Stooges refrain: brand new The Tubs, Eyelids, Successful Failures, Anderson Council, Tetsuians, Pam Risourié, Sadies, and Laveda; plus Pete Ham, Hollies, Big Bill Broonzy, Buck Owens, Rolling Stones, Larry Terry, Delroy Wilson and Louis Armstrong; and R.I.P. Mark Stewart of The Pop Group (1960-2023)
Welcome to Doc City is an exquisitely executed album, augmented by a cast of top session players, and the result is a listening experience that was clearly a labor of love for all involved.
It is safe to say that there is quite an eclectic collection of musicians in The Scooches. Can you tell me how the band came together?
Betina: The Scooches started with Nick asking me and a collection of top-notch NYC musicians to play country music for The Brooklyn Strawberry Festival. Then, our vision grew to “Scooch” together many genres and musicians from many different backgrounds. We have so many musical influences, and we love the diversity, tradition, and uniqueness this all brings to our creativity.
Nick: All of us Scooches just love to play music and hang together! Every rehearsal involves eating food and spending quality time together like a family. Miles Griffith is my brother from another; we attended college together, studying with Sir Roland Hanna and Jimmy Heath. So naturally, I want Miles to be part of my life’s musical life journey! Since Miles and I organically gel with Dr. David Pleasant’s unique and complex Gullah-Geechee rhythm concepts, we have been a part of each other’s bands for many years.
As a result, I hear their musical “voices” in Betina’s songs! Betina gives us a lot of artistic freedom, so The Scooches experience draws all of us and audiences to resonate and groove together, letting her original music breathe. Scooches’ Get Us Out Of Fearland fiddler Kenny Kosek joins us again on “Let’s Grow Our Roots Deep and True” and “I Broke The Egg,” plus keyboard player Art Hirahara lays organ down on “Leavin’.”
As my soulmate and wife, I enjoy writing with Betina and, more often, just adding to, orchestrating, and helping arrange what she composes on her own!
I also rhythmically resonate with drummer Harvey Wirht, especially after playing African music together in Malika Zarra’s band. Harvey and I groove together as one being!
More recent Scooches! Brooklyn rapper Ra$h Ca$h was a natural connection as we play together in Russell Hall’s band, Bessie & The Rainbow Kids. Bassist Russell Hall, tap dancer Michela Marino Lerman, drummer Ahmad Johnson, and bassists Hill Greene and Jennifer Vincent are also naturally featured Scooches guests on our new album, Lift You Up as their similar deep sense of rhythm, and groove, openness naturally connect us on a musical, spiritual level. My long-term music colleague and friend, Angela Workman, became a recent Scooch as my vision for this album called for her voice and kind spirit!
Given the cultural influences and musical range in your ranks, how much do you think this defines your sound?
Nick: Our eclectic and diverse cultural influences naturally define The Scooches’ sound 100%! However, even when we perform as our core trio or quartet, our diversity, and eclecticism can still be heard as our original music transcends through each of us. With the strength of Betina’s songs, I can still hear our diverse influences in my mind’s ear, even in their original voice-guitar incarnation.
Betina: Our musical and cultural influences within everyone in our band is what make us The Scooches. We Scooch together and create something truly unique, diverse, and exciting to us.
“Stop This Climate Change”, your current single, is a powerful call to arms and talks about our attitudes towards the issue. How much of a problem is this last obstacle?
Betina: I deeply believe our attitudes, this climate of denial, is the biggest obstacle to figuring out how we can change the destructive climate path we’re on. If we can’t all agree there is a problem, how can we come together and use all of our ingenuity to solve this climate change problem? We’ve got to stop this climate change!
Nick: Our attitudes need to align more so we can progress in a call to action. The opening of the original 1978 Superman with Jor-El’s (Superman’s biological father) being such a strong voice advocating to planet Krypton’s council the severity of Krypton’s climate change is such a powerful example of the ultimate fate when attitudes are not in alignment. However, I still have faith that humans can still make a difference as I advocate for more awareness through music, discussions, education, and call-to-action.
How much can one song make a difference to such significant issues?
Betina: Every single person who speaks up draws focus to the issue. Speaking up with a song can make a difference because music can touch us in a deeper way. We remember the music. We dance along. We feel the emotional connection within a song. I believe all art helps us express our concerns, dreams, and hopes and brings attention to the issues within the art.
Nick: I’m not sure how to measure it, but we can all agree that one song can lead to a conversation such as this, and I feel strongly that discussions and messages lead to more readers, growing to more listeners and expanding the message and energy outward to deeper and more robust connections, influences and influencers!
And the profits from the single are going to a worthy cause.
Betina: Yes, we are already donating to the Sierra Club personally, and a portion of the proceeds generated from the single will benefit the Sierra Club, the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the U.S., one whose purpose is to defend everyone’s right to a healthy world. We hope that people hear this and go out and donate on their own, too!
Nick: Actually, as independent freelance, professional musicians, we don’t know if a profit will be generated from this single, but regardless, we’ll continue to donate some of the proceeds to organizations such as Sierra Club. We also hope listeners will donate on their own to any organization they feel will help lower our carbon footprint.
We personally make a difference by purchasing solar panels, using compostable trash bags, using “Who Gives A Crap” toilet tissue (saving trees with more replenishable bamboo), traveling with our metal canteens (not plastic water bottles), composting our food scraps, recycling bottles, cans, cartons, paper, metals, trying to walk and use public transportation when possible.
Genres and labels are perhaps going out of fashion, but where do you fit in the musical landscape, and what are some of your musical influences?
Nick: I grew up with blues, jazz, and R&B artists such as Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, Willie Mae Thornton (Big Mama Thornton), Bessie Smith, Johnny Winter, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Jeff Beck, Ray Charles, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery, Stevie Wonder, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Sly & The Family Stone, Mandrill, Joe Cocker, Earth Wind & Fire, Buddy Holly, Linda Ronstadt and, of course, The Beatles to name a few.
In college, I got deep into African, Indian, Brazilian, and world music, studying with Pandit Samir Chatterjee and listening to and playing the music of Jobim, Gilberto Gil, Joao Gilberto, Mamady Keïta, Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar, Zakir Hussain, John MacLaughlin’s group Shakti, and many more. Plus, my time playing as a sideman with artists such as Malika Zarra, Deep Singh, Zeb Bangash, Jimmy McGriff, Jon Batiste, Russell Hall, Gordon Au, my dad, Rich Russo, my Uncle Mike, my childhood friend/soul brother, Charlie Koci, and many others influenced and shaped my sound.
Betina: I am deeply influenced by jazz, classical, Broadway, and 1960s folk artists. Joni Mitchell, Janis Ian, Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Jack Hardy, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbara Streisand, Nancy LaMott, and so much more.
A new album, _Lift You Up, is coming. What can we expect from that?_
Nick: As the driving force & producer, I have been listening to mixes and masters over and over again, falling more in love with The Scooches Lift You Up! It’s currently my driving music and my jam!
It’s such a diverse, eclectic album woven with ear-catching melodies, powerful lyrics, beautiful harmonies, and soulful, bluesy vocals!
Listeners can expect crafty songs and “feel good” grooves from reggae to banjo/fiddle-driven newgrass to sweet bossa-nova guitar to country resonator/slide to a 1920s influenced song supported by tap dancing and tenor banjo to organ-guitar driven R&B/Motown to tabla-infused rap to Gullah-Geechee protest voices to a spontaneously improvised Calypso jam!
Betina: On Lift You Up, the music is such a joyful and fierce expression of our relationships to the world, our communities, and to treating each other fairly. We bring our positive collaborative energy to issues such as refugees, gun violence, democracy, hatred, and the need to really talk, really listen to each other in order to love each other.
What does the future hold for The Scooches, and where would you like to go next musically?
Betina: I have so many songs; I’m introducing new songs to The Scooches all of the time. I’m thrilled with this album and can’t wait to record more, play more, and get our songs and messages out where they can do some good. I hope we’ll keep on lifting each other up musically, spiritually, and peacefully!
Nick: I’m all about the process and journey. I see The Scooches growing closer together as a family of musicians with more great hangs, powerful concerts, deep grooves, soulful improvisation, and music-making! I believe the law of attraction will lead us to more recording, more video shoots, continuing to travel, more performing art centers, theaters, both bigger and smaller intimate stages, and venues, more of a film and T.V. presence, and connecting with more warm-hearted fans and collaborators!
Thank you for taking the time to talk me through your wonderful musical world
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Normal Street continues the journey into the heart of American primitivism and the lowest of low-fi.
The Ladderman’s third album is easily their most ambitious and accomplished yet, and on Figures on Demand the group willingly throws themselves into the deep end, exploring uncharted territory with startling results.
Having been called “psych rock in its most pure and raw form”, it’s clear Oberon Rose is a band that is letting the music do the talking. Wherever the muse leads them, though, thought provoking lyrical image-ry and engaging melodic hooks are always at the forefront.
“North Carolina” indie pop outfit The Mystery Plan present their new album Haunted Organic Machines, released via American boutique label 10mm Omega Recordings. Their eighth full-length album and 13th major release to date, the band explores new, but familiar territory from spacey dance grooves to spooky, moody dream pop and thensome.
Hidden Gems, instead of being a mismatched hodgepodge, is the most concerted document of Merdinger’s fine songwriting ability so far, and it represents the pinnacle of a real maturing for the artist.
Composer and horn player Ben Wendel clearly has a grounding in jazz and classical traditions. But that doesn’t mean he’s stuck in the past, as his latest album All One suggests.
UK-France duo The Noise Who Runs present their latest single, “2poor2die” ahead of Preteretrospective, a 14-track offering sprung from the mind of Ian Pickering (of Sneaker Pimps and Front Line Assembly), which will featuring songs from their first two EPs – curated and set in a more far-reaching context – along with six new, previously unreleased tracks.
If you’re a trainspotter for either jazz or rock credits, you’re likely to have come across Rachel Eckroth’s name.
Alternative post-punk outfit The Bellwether Syndicate have released “Golden Age”, the final single from their Vestige & Vigil album, out on April 28 via Sett Records in North America and elsewhere via Nexilis Records / Schubert Music Europe.
A Thousand Times Brighter will appeal to fans of any number of genres from both sides of the classical/pop aisle, and the album will be released April 28th.
Let’s begin with a bit of background. How did you start in music, and what are some of your influences?
TaniA Kyllikki: There is a lot of talent in my family tree, from creative artwork to music and many other talents. God blessed me with the gift of music at birth, but what music has become for me is much more profound than I ever envisioned. I’ve witnessed and been through a lot of things a child shouldn’t ever be subjected to, and music has become my escape. This molded the kind of singer song-writer I am now. At the age of six, I heard my mother’s cries because my stepfather was again physically and emotionally abusing her or hitting our dog. I would hold my younger brother in my arms and assure him that everything would be alright, and I would silently say a prayer. My stepfather would also tell me I was unloved and unwanted, among other spiteful statements. My biological father walked away from me at birth and had no interest in being there for me.
I also felt like a part of me was missing due to the passing of my twin sister. We were both born early with heart defects; sadly, my twin didn’t make it past four months old. I was a sickly child; illnesses and regular hospital visits have been my life since I came into this world. Growing up when things calmed down from the dysfunctional environment of having an abusive stepfather. I would listen to my mother’s music, which included a huge variety of genres, including house music, pop music, R&B, classical music, and hip-hop. Their voices and lyrics spoke to me as if they were a member of my family or a close acquaintance; they became the warm safety net I needed to escape to. I would sing along with them and feel this overwhelming happiness inside.
Then I began writing my own songs, and later I sang in competitions; one took me to the 02 Arena in London, which was an amazing experience to be on a stage where legends who became my teachers and helped shape my own voice and songwriting, had performed. I was also the lead singer for my Church Choir. I’ve had a lot of exciting moments and opportunities offered to me in TV and other deals etc…, some of these I sadly missed out on due to lack of support in my personal life or health issues. I often feel like the lone ranger chasing my dream through all the deep mud, although this isn’t out of choice. It’s out of having no other option. But what has given me the strength to keep going is knowing that even though people have let me down, God has always walked with me every step of the way. He put this music in me for a reason, and I have never been one to give up when life knocks me down; I get back up, and I carry on, regardless of how tough the journey may be.
Hard work is not something I shy away from. What also uplifts me is having been fortunate to be complimented by some of the best of the best, that we call legends in the music business, for my voice and songwriting abilities, which means so much to me coming from them. As well as the hundreds of music reviews in magazines and blogs over these last three years have been nothing short of amazing, and I am so grateful to each and everyone who has shown me so much love and support. And now I am working on my second album.
It’s amazing to be professionally releasing songs that help others feel as though they are not alone. That’s what I love about music the most, how it can connect souls from all over the world and heal! There is no language barrier when it comes to music; it’s a movement every single person can relate with in one way or another. Music is such a powerful and amazing gift from God. So for me, in a nutshell, I was born to do music. The truth is, there is nothing else I would be doing than this,
And now, in 2023, we have the metaverse and other virtual realms that allow people to escape their reality and create their own. But music really had become my own musical metaverse when I was a little girl. With my hairbrush as my microphone and my teddy bears and dolls as my audience to escape the reality, I was suffering with. My creative mind was and still is my very own metaverse that I can now share with millions of people all around the world.
Although music styles constantly change, something in your voice echoes with an iconic sound, capturing everything from the nineties pop icons to 70s soul artists and even earlier. Is there a conscious influence at work here, or is this the natural evolution of your voice?
TaniA Kyllikki: It’s extraordinary how much of an impact music can have on your life. I’ve taken in a wide variety of musical styles and genres over the years. As a child, I had a profound and unforgettable experience listening to their music, and as a result, their impact is deeply ingrained in me. My singing ability has developed in a very organic way.
When I was a little girl, “At Last” by Etta James was the first song I ever learned to sing. I didn’t fully understand the lyrics at the time, but I still felt them deeply in some kind of way; I understood the depth of the song. I put my whole heart into every song I perform. Several artists have reached deep into my heart and helped me feel whole again. For me, music became an oasis of refuge, solace, and fulfillment. God has given me and others the ability to use music as an inspiration, and for that, I am eternally grateful.
There always seems to be a powerful message underpinning your songs. Are there any common themes or conversations that need to be brought to wider attention?
TaniA Kyllikki: There is a lot of darkness and pain in the world, but there is also a lot of love and light. There will always be material to be written that conveys a strong message. The inspiration for most, if not all, of my songs, comes from my life and the world around me. Topics addressed in my album Why Chapter One included abuse, false accusations, learning to love oneself, falling in love again, racial harmony, loss, and support for one another.
My compositions include narratives and messages that are primarily revealed through my lyrics. I take great pride in the fact that my music is a window into my soul. Having an impact on the lives of others is what it’s all about—giving people substance to feed their souls with something meaningful and fulfilling.
You have even addressed some of the heartaches in your life through song. How important was that as a process, and how much did you hope to help those who go through similar experiences?
TaniA Kyllikki: It was gratifying to be able to release some of the things that were weighing on my mind via music, it was therapeutic, and it brought healing to me on the inside that was long overdue. The process was like having a burden lifted off of my shoulders, and now I feel liberated from the sadness that I experienced in the past and ready for the next chapters in my life, both professionally and personally speaking.
I also hope that by addressing some of my problems in my songs, anyone else struggling with situations comparable to mine may find some relief in listening to my music.
Your producer, Rynellton, aka Garry D. Hairston, is also your fiancé. What are the benefits of working with your partner? And, are there any drawbacks in the workplace caused by knowing each other so intimately?
TaniA Kyllikki: Rynellton, aka Garry D. Hairston, and I have had a similar relationship with music since we were very young. We were born with it. At the age of ten, Garry was performing for a full Church service. But he’s not just gospel, just as he tells me repeatedly that my voice and songwriting have many layers, and he urges me to use them. Likewise, he possesses multiple strata. He can generate any genre of music with ease, and he really knows how to bring out the best in me.
When we met, our connection was so intense. And we share so many similarities that, at times, it is actually eerie. Lol … I believe that the reason it works so well and that we are able to bring out the best in each other is because we are both so in love with what we do and with each other. Additionally, I trust him with my life, and he trusts me with his. He is my soulmate, and I am his; despite the fact that this long distance has been onerous on our relationship when we are together, it is explosive. In actuality, we are creating this enchantment together even when we are apart.
Is there a standard process for your songwriting? Do lyrics come first or the melody? And where do you find the inspiration for the themes that run through your songs?
TaniA Kyllikki: Actually, there’s no standard process. There are times a melody comes and other times lyrics. It’s a good thing when they both arrive at the same time. Most of my inspiration comes from life experiences, whether good or bad.
I’ll put it like this. There is always a music box playing in my head, so song ideas never stop coming. With my new single, “In these eyes,” off my second upcoming album, Garry was in a creative mood, and so was I, so he went off and started creating new music. While he was doing that I had lyrics for a song I had in my head. Then when he shared the music, I couldn’t believe how well my lyrics fit what he came up with.
You have found your music championed by several high-profile artists, not least of all NeYo. How important is such an endorsement, or would you rather be seen making it yourself?
TaniA Kyllikki: I appreciate other artists acknowledging me and my music. That’s a good thing and an honor to have that support and respect from others. However, it’s most gratifying for me to know that I have the freedom to do what I want. I’m happiest being able to be me, unapologetically, and make my own decisions. Setting my own goals and achieving them is a whole other level of feeling complete and satisfied.
And finally, what does the future hold for you both as an artist and on the non-musical side of your life?
TaniA Kyllikki: As artists, we are constantly pushing and challenging one another to bring out the full potential that lies within us. Together, the sky is the limit for what we can accomplish, and that alone keeps us motivated and optimistic. We have enough music between us for many future single and album releases.
We are currently working on my second studio album, which is scheduled for release in 2024. We are both very enthusiastic about this album because Garry and I are bringing sounds to it that no one has ever heard from us before. The album’s first single, “In These Eyes,” will provide a sample of what’s to come. This summer, we are aiming for this single to be released. There are many new exciting things in the works for us, pushing for synchronization, etc., among other things. Health-wise, I’ve been prescribed additional medications for my heart and blood pressure, so my health remains a challenge, but it’s always been this way since birth for me.
I actually think it’s amazing I made it into my adult years. However, I exercise often and eat healthily, and my doctors keep a very close eye on me. I will also begin taking a stronger medication for my autoimmune disease, so hopefully, I’ll start having more energy soon. This is why myself, Garry, and our team have decided to release the album in 2024 rather than this year as was originally intended. This enables me to give my all. I know God has me covered.
Even though it’s always an uphill battle for us, Garry and I are extremely grateful to God for bringing us together and for our gifts and talents. Our ultimate goal is to live permanently on the same side of the world, to be married and to have a beautiful and blessed existence together, and to continue to bring you many more studio albums for the foreseeable future.
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Ahead of his much-anticipated How To Love album, UK folk-rock troubadour Withered Hand presents “Crippled Love”, along with a live acoustic set of this endearing song. This record – his first new music in nine years – will officially be released on April 28 via Reveal Records,
Toronto-London experimental pop/space rock collective The Flowers of Hell will soon release the first vinyl pressing of their cult classic Odes album via Space Age Recordings (whose tightly curated roster includes Spacemen 3, Spectrum, The Telescopes, and Acid Mothers Temple). Timed to occur on April 22nd for Record Store Day UK, this record will be available roughly two weeks later in North America and elsewhere. They’ve also released a video for their cover of Joy Division’s “Atmosphere” featuring vocalist Lisa Conway.
Bumpin Uglies spawned from an Annapolis, MD scene awash in musical history over a decade ago. They are rooted in East Coast ska, punk, and reggae, making their mark up and down the Eastern Seaboard. In the past ten years, Bumpin Uglies have worked to carve out their path by relentlessly touring, and releasing one album after another.
Drawing from the ranks of Warrior Soul and the City Kids for a tribute track to Eddie Van Helen, Meyer and friends created Trading Aces, knocking out enough songs for a debut LP in record time.
Chicago-based collective Evidence of a Struggle presents their debut single “Do’Oa”, a wonderful fusion of sounds that recall the works of Tortoise and 4AD artist Dif Juz all at once. This spring of creativity offers the first taste of the forthcoming eponymous album, scheduled for release on June 9.
Though best known as the guitarist for Sting for three decades, guitarist Dominic Miller has another, less bombastic side to him.
Rachael Blanche is a London based artist who splits her time between LA/Brisbane. She has, in recent years, teamed up with Stuart Stuart and they have been working together on her upcoming releases, her next single “Translator” is coming out on April 28th 2023.
Composer, lyricist, engineer, producer, instrumentalist: Mychael Gabriel has cosmic versatility and an entire ecosystem of talent. The Big Takeover had the pleasure of interviewing him about his recent music video release, “Sunday Afternoon”.
Hayden is back with his first new album in eight years, his ninth album overall, Are We Good, featuring collaborations with Feist and members of The National and Big Thief. We chat with the Canadian singer-songwriter about the making of the album, the collaborations, and a charity event he started that is very personal to his family.
UK indie pop artist Ruth Blake presents her new single “Not Your Angel”, rejecting the idea that our beauty lies only in our capacity to be angelic, beautiful and sweet. An antidote for that toxic ideology, Blake invites women to embrace their own fierceness.
Big Takeover is thrilled to host the premiere of “Unconditional Love In HiFi” by Miesha & The Spanks.
With a career spanning over four decades, drummer Dave Lombardo continues serving as an innovator. Best-known as Slayer co-founder, Lombardo has elevated his instrument by adding creative nuances within genres wrongfully dismissed as nothing more than simplistic and aggressive. Lombardo’s long-overdue solo debut, Rites of Percussion is an exercise in diversity and further reinforces his deserved reputation as one of the most sought-after musicians.
“This record is inspired by several players, from Tito Puente to John Bonham. Mike Patton turned me on to Puente’s Top Percussion album in ‘98 and the idea was to create a drum-only record. The idea of working to create a body of work solely dedicated to one instrument drove me but due to sometimes hectic schedules, it took a long time to get going with it,” said Lombardo.
Lombardo has always maintained a pact schedule and currently drums with Misfits, Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Cross, and Mr. Bungle. He recently completed a full tour with Testament. Lombardo still found the time to collaborate with Jazz saxophonist John Zorn, accepting another challenge to further push his creativity.
“I look up to Zorn because like Patton, he never creatively limits himself. Zorn is incredibly prolific and a very talented composer. Working with Patton, whom I also look up to, has been another incredible experience because he can create something beautiful and then turn around and write something aggressive yet melodic. Neither of them travels within boundaries,” said Lombardo.
Lombardo has easily navigated working with some of the most prolific, yet challenging frontmen, but he was quick to state he did not have negative experiences and instead, utilized every opportunity to learn invaluable lessons.
“One of the many valuable things I have learned from playing with so many people is to allow each individual to simply rise within the music and be themselves. I never run from a challenge and I like to work with innovators. Looking back, working with someone like Rick Rubin, he was fearless in his diversity! He worked with Slayer, Beastie Boys, and Run- DMC. He couldn’t be pigeonholed and I feel the same honor and happiness when playing with Patton,” he said.
Lombardo partnered with Patton in ‘98 to form Fantomas, which critics conveniently called a metal supergroup. Featuring Buzz Osborne and Trevor Dunn, they debuted with their self-titled record in ‘99. With Patton on vocals, nobody could be sure what they were going to get, but they knew it would be eclectic.
Lombardo and Patton teamed again and formed Dead Cross, a hardcore-based group that took the genre’s foundation but pushed boundaries in its execution. The California-based group debuted in 2017 and features elements of Thrash, but to pigeonhole the band with simple superlatives might be a disservice. Asked if Dead Cross would be a limited group, Lombardo happily stated he sees Dead Cross enjoying longevity.
“I love all the members and I absolutely see longevity with this group. I still love playing aggressive music and I feel we worked to create a natural sound for us but with originality outside hardcore parameters. Never limit yourself and begin writing in a way that only a certain genre will accept. Placing creative barriers to sound one way because that is historically how a genre sounded is selling yourself short. It feels good to allow other players to breathe and be themselves with this group,” said Lombardo. Dead Cross released II just last year.
As a former member and co-founder of the legendary group, Slayer, Lombardo’s diversity and continued output seems to have outpaced and eclipsed his initial legacy with the Thrash icons. Often cited as part of Metal’s ‘Big 4’, the group sustained a career spanning multiple decades, rather unprecedented for bands within the Thrash genre. Slayer was met with calls for boycotts and censorship throughout their career, but Lombardo reinforced the group’s unwavering ethos and commitment to music as they successfully worked past the resistance.
Slayer embarked on its farewell tour in 2018, which concluded in November 2019. Lombardo had departed the group multiple times throughout the years and finally in 2013, citing contract disputes. He did not participate in the group’s final tour but he did briefly reflect on his tenure.
“I am very proud of what I had done with them. I recorded my first record with them at 18 and I was only 21 when we did Reign In Blood. That gave me the drive and the motivation to continue creating bodies of music documenting my life while having fun doing it. I don’t harbor any negative feelings but once I cut the cord I don’t look back because it has been 10 years now. I’ve moved on and I’m creating other things that continue making me happy.”
For Lombardo, actively creating combats stagnation, something he vehemently opposes. During the height of the global pandemic, Lombardo utilized the time during imposed lockdowns to finally begin the solo project that first sparked his interest several years ago.
“If there is a silver lining to the pandemic for me, it was finally having the time to sit and focus on bringing that solo project idea to completion. It was the perfect storm and somehow, for the first time, I had all my gear with me! Nothing in storage across the states, or at another band’s rehearsal space. I had to stop and appreciate that! I was studying and dabbling with music software programs to learn how to record and educate myself on the various challenges of music engineering,” he said.
Lombardo added, “I never approached this project thinking that just because I have played drums for several years that it would be easy. You have to humble yourself and open yourself up to the challenges that come with learning something new.”
Lombardo’s excitement is refreshing. Despite playing a physically demanding instrument for decades, he never hesitates to share the positive rewards he gets from drumming nor sounds burdened by playing in several groups.
“No matter what genre you’re playing, no matter what gig, it comes down to this: Do you love what you’re doing? You have to be passionate and willing to play the shitty venues as much as you love and want to play the bigger venues. Love playing music at any level, if it’s kicking back in your living room and playing for your family or with friends in a garage. The key is personal happiness and if you don’t feel that, you will never fulfill your artistic goals,” he stated.
Rites of Percussion doesn’t serve as a platform for Lombardo to engage in self-indulgence, but more as another opportunity to share what continues driving him within another, body of work.
“Rick Rubin first taught me to never be afraid of creating something different. I have been playing for several years, but I have not recorded something like this before. I don’t see myself stopping any time soon. I joke that someone will have to wheel me to my drum throne. I understand it can be difficult to keep the momentum going but try to implement your passions and what you love in daily parts of your life,” said Lombardo.
In addition to collaborating with multiple groups, Lombardo has also engaged in several drum clinics. He stated he finds mentorship a positive reinforcement and a unique opportunity to not only share his extensive knowledge but become re-energized with the instrument that has enabled him to tour internationally and share his musical gifts. “Drumming is a part of my daily life and I love sharing that when I do clinics and mentor people. When I see them smile and say they learned something from me, it’s positive reinforcement but it also continues motivating me because I know something I loved creating is also meaningful to others,” concluded Lombardo.
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Ruston Kelly says the impetuous for his third full-length album, The Weakness, was to channel the energy of a live show and put it on record. Working for the first-time with an outside collaborator (Nate Mercereau), Kelly’s accomplished his goals as he pushes closer and closer to the mainstream spotlight.
“Stop This Climate Change” is a poetic and uplifting call to action fraught with cataclysmic imagery of fire, ice, flooding, and the desire for change. The lyric “We’ve got to stop this climate and change” refers to the climate of helplessness and denial that surrounds climate change. Vocalist/composer/lyricist/performer Betina Hershey wrote the song about interpersonal relationships with each other, but also with Mother Earth, because, collectively, the human race must stop denying climate change.
Like Minds, the latest album from saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, focuses on chemistry – particularly the chemistry between old friends and bandmates who’ve played together so often their interplay is beyond telepathic.
Trans-Atlantic alternative neo-folk collective Lusitanian Ghosts present “The Long Train”, engineered and mixed by Sebastian Muxfeldt (Elbow, Peter Doherty, Teenage Fanclub) at Clouds Hill Studios in Hamburg. This is the first single from the band’s forthcoming Lusitanian Ghosts III album, due out later this year via European Phonographic. The ‘Ghosts offer a brilliant taste of the sonic prism through which they present ancient sounds in the 21st Century.
Nordic prog rock outfit Pennies By The Pound present their new Nothingside album, released via the Lilith label. A collection of 10 tracks primarily in prog-rock territory, Nothingside is a concept album that takes the band’s music to a fantastic new realm beyond anything they’ve released before.
The founder of the great Outside In label, Nick Finzer has spent the last decade gracing the jazz racks with a plethora of interesting and exciting musicians.
Nashville indie rock duo VOLK’s new EP Stand the Test (out Apr. 28) delves into bluesy retro-futuristic dance punk, synthwave, new wave, and nostalgia-filled roller rink bangers.
Brazil-based sonic adventurers BIKE have released their new single ‘‘Filha Do Vento” (translation ‘Daughter of the Wind’) with its tense progress and syncopated rhythm. This is the second invigorating taster of their new album Arte Bruta scheduled for release on May 5 via Quadrado Mágico Records and Before Sunrise Records.
Clay Joule always has something vital to say and his latest song, “Drifters” is certainly no exception. Here he teams up with vocalist Elisa Mammoliti and Truwan Studio to create a song that is both fantastic to listen to in the moment but which will also raise awareness and ask crucial questions of the listener.
This week’s show, after a 1992 Sugar trill: brand new Damned, Eyelids, Tubs, Live Skull, Reds, Pinks & Purples, Tombstones in Their Eyes, Pia Fraus, and Shirley Collins; plus Bo Diddley, Paul McCartney, Sam & Dave, Jeannie Seeley, Jacob Miller, Marilyn Lodge, and Jimmy Durante & Frank Sinatra; and R.I.P. Sire Records’ Seymour Stein (1942-2023), Luscious Jackson’s Vivian Trimble (1963-2023), Leatherface’s Andrew Laing, and The Slits’ Ari Up’s mom/John Lydon’s wife Nora Maier Forster (1942-2023)
One thing that often gets overlooked by the punk and power pop heads that follow them is that the label also spotlights a style of blues- and roots-based rock & roll that’s fallen ever further out of fashion as the decades pass.
Every person goes to a show with different expectations and with a different purpose but what the talented Katherine Paul known as Black Belt Eagle Scout is able to do is meet people where they are. If you are searching for delicate lyrics and vocals, this band has you covered but if you also want an edge and bits of delicious guitar fuzz, that is covered too. If you were one of the packed crowd looking for a genuine connection with someone who loves humanity and nature, Katherine Paul can meet you there. She can show you her love of water and trees and make you realize how important these things are.
Finding the balance between the gentle and almost wispy sounding vocals to the building crescendos and soaring guitar progressions (as in the case of “Sedna” both live and on record) with a multitude of pedal effects would prove to be a challenge for any human but Black Belt Eagle Scout mastered this well. In fact, often the transformation from tenderness to an extraordinary vigor occurred in the same song. In an interview with Audia Music, Paul talks about how the band name represents strength and the highest one can go. To a newcomer hearing the name, one might think of an expert in nature who can do everything from starting a campfire and cooking meals with only ingredients from nature to building a gazebo as an Eagle Scout. At the same time, the Black Belt makes an impression of power and presence, of maintaining stamina in the face of oppression and surviving with the skill and strength of accomplished wisdom and appreciation of the Earth. What the band leaves you with is an experience just as wholesome as it is compelling.
It would be remiss not to mention that Katherine Paul’s songs were complimented well with the additional guitar playing of Claire Glass and the bass playing of Adobo who were also lovely to listen to opening up the evening of music. (Note-the photos included here of these musicians were from that opening set) Though Black Belt Eagle Scout has three studio album releases, Katherine Paul concentrated the most on the songs from the newest album The Land, the Water, the Sky from 2023. “Don’t Give Up,” “My Blood Runs Through This Land,” “Sedna,” “Fancy Dance,” and “On the River” were all highlights. Yet, there was also at times a feeling of an intimate conversation in the way that Paul introduced the songs, speaking about her father singing on “Spaces” and carving eagles, dedicating songs to Indigenous and LGBTQ+ communities, and talking about cedar trees watching her. It was easy to place each song in a time and place with just this bit of context and understanding both the inspiration and strong sense of being one human in this vast universe. It should also never be underestimated how much art and creative communities can change the world and music like Black Belt Eagle Scout makes a real difference, one album and show at a time.
In fact, talking about her songs seemed to increase Paul’s dynamic presence while she played them and her comfort level as well. It was as if being honest about her creativity, values, and emotions freed her up to move with a grace and light-hearted quality and to play with an ease that won over the packed crowd for the duration of the 75 minute long set. It’s also important to note that Black Belt Eagle Scout will be making another upcoming appearance in Chicago at Pitchfork Music Festival on Saturday July 22cnd so be sure to check closer to the festival for that time and stage announcement! For more tour dates in North America (including both Canada and the US), please see this tour dates list and don’t hesitate to purchase tickets. It is indeed a gift to get to experience these songs live and be in the presence of the wondrous Katherine Paul herself!
Swirling with R.E.M. —infused sparks, the powerful new single, “A Seat at the Table”, from NYC trio Big Bliss surges and uplifts musically while capturing the grim reality of daily gun violence in America.
Tom Maroon’s high-energy music combines rock, punk, and musical theater influences into a uniquely cinematic and lyric-focused style. He has produced and self-released two solo albums, playing every instrument on both records.
Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of “Brave New World” by Pete International Airport, founding member of The Dandy Warhols.
Shifting away from the electronic or ambient sounds of previous releases, The Earthly Frames have found a real home with folk, and although it’s unlikely they’ll linger here for long, one can only hope it’s a sound they return to in the future.
Black Market Karma are a London based band formed by Stan Belton. Mixing a bed of 60’s pop Guitars with broader flavours of Psychedelia and Fuzzed out tones, their sound has also incorporated touches of Folk, Blues, Traditional Indian Music, Hip Hop influenced Grooves and Electronica. With their 11th album, Friends in Noise, now out, I sat down with the main man to talk collaboration, the importance of lyrics and keeping the (alternative) sixties sonic dream alive.
NYC-based postpunk duo A Cloud of Ravens has released “Parable”, the final taster of their much anticipated Lost Hymns LP with a new video that is as foreboding as the lyrics. Recorded from spring to autumn 2021 and mastered by ACTORS’ Jason Corbett at his Jacknife Sound studio, this collection of 11 tracks will be released via Nexilis Records / Schubert Music Europe on April 28.
Both a brilliant bandleader and a consummate sideperson, saxophonist/composer Walter Smith III has been modestly making a mark in the jazz world for nearly twenty years.
The last two years have been fruitful for Michigander’s Jason Singer, from moving to Nashville to getting married to releasing a new EP. Singer fills us in on his move, what it was like working with outside collaborators for the first time, and his dreams for his upcoming tour.
Toronto-London based experimental group The Flowers Of Hell have announced that they will release their new album Keshakhtaran via UK cult label Space Age Recordings (home to Spacemen 3, as well as Spectrum, Chapterhouse, Acid Mothers Temple and The Telescopes). Ahead of this, they present “Foray Through Keshakhtaran”, the first taste of the trans-Atlantic group’s first studio album in six years.
As they gear up to release their new Heaving LP, Berlin-based Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys has joined with Metropolis Records for North America distribution as a result of a partnership agreement with Europe-based Unique Records, a division of Schubert Music Europe, Uniquely merging moody art pop, dark folk and delightful ambient noise, the group, South Africa-born artist Lucy Kruger leads the way in creating music that is full of atmosphere and intensity.
Blending everything from punk to grunge to rock to doomy metal, Psycho Death Punk’s eponymous debut album could just be the shot in the arm that the harder end of the music spectrum has been waiting for.
Everyone involved hits their marks with practiced ease and long-running passion, showing not only adventurous spirits but a deep-rooted chemistry.
The latest release from The Dears front man Murray A. Lightburn is Bacharach-ian in nature, the lush instrumentation providing the cushion for Lightburn’s crooner-like vocals. In this conversation, Lightburn discusses the songwriting process, shares his touring philosophy, and offers insight into the stunning album cover.
To follow up his debut album L.A. Source Codes, bassist and composer Will Lyle chose a different route than expected: he formed a band.
Big Takeover is stoked to host the premiere of dark and bluesy indie-folk hero Reese Van Riper’s latest single “Lights Camera Flames”.
A few years ago, Sam King from Get Dead and his graffiti crew were giving tattoos and making flash art to raise money to help rapper Ceschi Ramos while he was incarcerated. After his release, the two met at the Gilman Street Project in Berkeley, CA. They began recording songs together and soon after enlisted “Fat Mike” from NOFX as the group’s producer, and co-writer, as well as contributing his skillful musicianship to the tracks. Together, they formed the ground-breaking musical collective Codefendants. Their debut album This Is Crime Wave is out now via Fat Wreck imprint Bottles to the Ground.
As she’s honored with a She Rocks “Icon” award, legendary performer Judy Collins discusses her seven-decade career
At the end of the day, Cosmic Flute Rides Again is a great pop record that manages to stay interesting and exciting throughout the entire duration without once growing tired or repetitive.
Future Thunder Void is by far the band’s most cohesive and accomplished collection of songs yet, and represents a perfectly crystallized distillation of their ethos.
Formed in 2018 by Matthew McIntosh (guitar and vocals) and Beth Narducci (bass guitar), the Brooklyn -based duo emerged on the burgeoning dark music scene with a series of self-released offerings that garnered attention that led to their 2021 album Another Kind of Midnight. Now with a new album out and tour dates with some exciting names, it felt like the perfect time to sit down and talk to the duo.
American indie rock trio Quiz Show – involving members of legendary DC alternative rock band Shudder To Think, Guided By Voices and The Dambuilders – presents their eponymous debut album, released via Montclair, NJ -based Magic Door Record Label.
Drummer/keyboardist Peter Manheim has served admirably in the engine room of cross-genre artists like Resavoir and Tony Glausi, but finally steps out to showcase his own compositions.
Michigan singer/songwriter Jerome Forde echoes Elliott Smith and Townes Van Zandt on stunning debut single “Marigold”.
The long-awaited new full-length from London alt pop / indie rock outfit Rum Buffalo is a raucous and feverishly beautiful experience.
UK-France duo The Noise Who Runs has released the single “Takes a Long Cold Look and Then The Kitchen Sink” – the impossible, illegitimate child of solo album-era Syd Barrett and immediately post- Talking Heads David Byrne. The Bandcamp edition also features the B-side “More Beautiful Perhaps (LHT REMIX)”, created by Left Handed Tendencies (LHT).
Trumpeter/composer/multi-disciplinarian Rob Mazurek assembled the first version of the Exploding Star Orchestra in 2005, and has used the shapeshifting ensemble as a vehicle for whatever musical flights of fancy he deems necessary ever since.
If Greta Van Fleet is this generation’s Led Zeppelin, then Crown Lands is this generation’s Rush. Kevin Comeau shares how classic and prog rock from the ’70s inspired the band, from the way they write songs to how they arrange albums.
The result is a splendid mutation of avant-garde jazz and string quartet (duo?) sounds that nods to free jazz tradition, but comes off like no one’s vision but Laubrock’s own.
Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of “Dance on the Grave of Bobby Lee” by Bohannons.
A revolving collective, masterminded by Dave Derby (The Dambuilders, Lloyd Cole), Gramercy Arms is inspired by the artistic heyday of ‘70s and ‘80s-era New York City. They make addictive indie pop – exquisite hook-laden melodies filled with lyrics that will have you floating back in time, remembering your favorite mistake.
A leading light in experimental jazz, trumpeter/composer Wadada Leo Smith assembled a brand new band for Fire Illuminations, the latest album in his nearly half-century career.
The new single from Austin indie rock band The Western Civilization is a dark and beautiful ode to human resilience.
North Carolina indie pop outfit The Mystery Plan have released the single “Big Bliss”, previewing their forthcoming Haunted Organic Machines LP (their seventh full length album and 13th major release), to be released via American boutique label 10mm Omega Recordings.
Touted by Carlos Santana as “a work of supreme creativity”, Manhattan -based artist Nevaris has announced his forthcoming Reverberations LP, to be released this spring via celebrated boutique label M.O.D. Reloaded. Ahead of that, they present the lead track “Dub Sol”.
With two new releases, Bruce Licher and Independent Project Records continue their exploration of not only the deepest crevasses of their own archives, but the electronic, experimental underground of the American Southwest.
Scott Whiddon’s “I Can’t Remember the Things I Love” echoes a line that American poet Richard Wilbur wrote in 1956: “Love calls us to the things of this world.” Whiddon’s take is that there is a certain strangeness, a weird narrative trick, in making a list of things a character supposedly can’t remember.
Australian dream-pop band The Church returned to Chicago following a five-year absence, playing to a full house at Thalia Hall on Sunday. A selection of captivating new songs from The Hypnogogue honored the band’s celebrated sound while carrying it forward.
This week’s show, after a 1977 Weirdos warble: brand new Flyying Colours, Robert Forster, Naked Raygun, Bitter Defeat, Reds, Pinks & Purples, OFF!, Foam Giant, and Death Cab For Cutie; plus Fats Domino, Beatles, Bee Gees, Junior Byles, Howlin’ Wolf, Johnny Cash, Graham Nash, and Sandy Denny; and R.I.P. Weirdos guitarist Dix Denney (1957-2023)
The New Day Bends Light is a good example of what makes the twenty-first century’s contemporary big band scene so exciting.
With an anthemic chorus that begs for a crowd singalong, “Whatever”, the new track by The Alarm fits perfectly in their oeuvre of earnest and guitar-charged bangers. It’s a return to form for the band, recalling chiming classics like “68 Guns,” “Spirit of ‘76” and “Rescue Me.”
San Francisco noir-rockers The Tunnel reveal the music video for “Shudder,” the title track off their upcoming new album.
Just out March 10th, psych-shoegaze jangle merchants, Flyying Colours, have crafted a truly outstanding new LP. Their third album delivers 10 dreampop tunes with bite that will immerse and wash over you.
Future Strangers is the latest album from this SoCal guitar pop group, which means students of the style have a new batch of songs from John Andrew Frederick to emulate.
Splendor Never Dies is the debut release from Minneapolis -based December Friend, a new indie-rock project featuring songs written by Joel Leviton of Minneapolis band Circus of the West. December Friend was born out of the pandemic when Leviton reached out to friends Jeff Victor (Minneapolis -musician extraordinaire) and John Wlaysewski (of Brooklyn -based band Late Cambrian) asking if they wanted to collaborate on a new project.
The Scarlet Goodbye, labelled “the most unlikely mash-up in Minnesota music history”, is the creative combination of Daniel Murphy and Jeff Arundel. Their debut album, Hope’s Eternal is out now.
Liverpool’s The Room presents “Sleepless”, a song inspired by the modern-day phenomenon of internet addiction, social media and news junkies. Following lead track ‘The Drift”, this is the latest offering from their Restless Fate LP, the band’s first new recordings in 38 years.
Rising Liverpool four-piece Keyside have unveiled their retro-tinted new single, “Paris To Marseille”.
Sloan sets up a background of electronically altered sounds and rhythm tracks, then brings in his buddies to add melodies and lyrics.
Alternative post-punk outfit The Bellwether Syndicate present “We All Rise” (with video filmed by Sidney Strong), the third single from their Vestige & Vigil album, which will be released in late April via Sett Records in North America and elsewhere via Nexilis Records / Schubert Music Europe. A tale of hope and struggle, of inner-courage and rage for what could be… A powerhouse of a track, the reflective tone of the verse climaxes in the screaming industrial chorus, stirring both the heart and mind.
David James Allen lets time take its course in the video for his new country-soul single “Another Day Older.”
Italian pianist Margherita Fava clearly has no interest in being flashy for flash’s sake.
As well-versed in classical music as in jazz, pianist/composer Billy Childs has a touch at the keyboard like few others.
The Arcada Theatre was rocking with Angel classics and songs from forthcoming album Once Upon A Time.
Brazil-based sonic adventurers BIKE have announced that they will release their new album Arte Bruta on May 5 via Quadrado Mágico Records and Before Sunrise Records. Ahead of that, they preview “O Torto Santo”, the intriguing lead single from this psych-rock, post-Tropicalia, noise rock collection.
Sam Kogon’s new video for “All I Wanna Do” tells the story of an impossible love story between a mortal and a house spirit.
This week’s show, after a 1966 McCartney warble: brand new Eyelids, Black Watch, Live Skull, Lemon Twigs, Successful Failures, Peter Case, and Jim Corradi/Music Will; plus The Beatles, Larry Williams, Peter & Gordon, Shocking Blue, Rufus Thomas, Tammy Wynette, and Billie Holiday, and an interview With Jim Corradi, on singing at City Winery and Carnegie Hall this week!
Australian bassist Christopher Hale befriended Korean master percussionist Minyoung Woo ten years ago, and the pair have been learning from each other ever since.
With the single “Black Bricks” having already paved the way for the full EP, Alchemy is the sound of Will Lawton and the Alchemists setting the bar even higher, even by the standards of their already impressive musical benchmarks.
With NYC punks UNSANE about to head out on a massive tour, I caught up with Chris Spenser to find out all about their journey from th earliest days to where they are today, and more importantly, what keeps the band moving forward after all these years.
Having just passed the fiftieth anniversary of his career as an ECM recording artist, Ralph Towner settles in to make his latest statement.
Serving as a sort of adjunct release to last year’s forward step View With a Room, Julian Lage’s The Layers features songs recorded during the same sessions with the same musicians.
On their new single “Gale Winds”, NYC-based indie rock trio Otis Infrastructure ponders the darker side of love and connection over an upbeat, pop-inflected melody that calls to mind The Stone Roses, The Replacements, and Spoon.
Trumpeter Ralph Alessi is one of those major jazz figures who’s never quite hit the button of stardom, yet remains one of the most respected musicians in his field.
Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of Northwest of Hamuretto LP by Spirit Of Hamlet.
Pals due to the former’s renowned Alternative Guitar Summit, outsider guitarists Joel Harrison and Anthony Pirog have worked together for a few years now, and this is what their collaboration has led up to: The Great Mirage.
FRANKIIE announce sophomore LP, release new single “Garden” ut today with live performance music video.
After an 8-year hiatus, NYC rock mainstay Hooray For Earth is on the path to resurfacing with a brand new single, a cover of electronic duo Autechre’s “jatevee C.”
Calgary, Alberta’s classically-trained, award-winning Hickli possesses a beguiling voice that flabbergasts on first listen; though stylistically poles apart from Hickli’s solo side, Calgary art-rock/electro-pop quintet 36? is captivating in its own quirky way.
Ashlynn Malia Shares new single and video “from the moon – voice memo”, new EP out March 21st.
This week’s show, after a 2002 Electric Soft Parade warble: brand new Killing Joke, Gaz Coombes, Successful Failures, Susanna Hoffs, National Honor Society, New Pornographers, Robert Forster, and Sleaford Mods (with Perry Ferrell); plus Mamas & the Papas, Dennis Wilson, Bert Jansch, Badfinger, Big Joe Turner, David Crosby & Graham Nash, Willi Williams, and Webb Pierce
On a stage filled with illuminated elegance, Weyes Blood emerged to dazzle a sold out crowd with the type of lovely folk songs that harken to a different sort of time. These tracks have a beautiful melancholic feeling with exceptional melodies carried by creator and lead singer Natalie Laura Mering, who gives the self assured sense that she finds singing more natural than talking. Adding to the rich ambiance, Mering danced around in a floor length ball gown with a glorious ease throughout the 80 minute set
In his third and most rewarding solo record to date, Radiohead drummer Philip Selway has scored with “Strange Dance”. Blending artful orchestral arrangements and outstanding songwriting, he explores life’s deepest themes with candor and curiosity.
Vectralux have truly come into their own here, maturing as songwriters and hitting upon a sound all of their own.
After a six-year recording hiatus, Frankie Rose has returned with Love As Projection, an album full of ’80s post-punk, new wave pop bangers. The singer discusses the songwriting process, covering The Cure’s Seventeen Seconds album, and hustling on social media to promote music.
Portland’s Eyelids sound like they’ve mainlined several generations of tuneful power pop and college rock on their fifth studio album.
Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of Calamity, the new full-length album from emo-tinged indie rockers Plain Speak.
Led by guitarist Ryan El-Solh, Brooklyn trio Scree combines ambient jazz, Lebanese folk music, and atmospheric psychedelia into music for walking lonely nights through a desert landscape.
Forty years after the first release by The Church, founding member Steve Kilbey says, when talking about the band’s 26th album, The Hypnogogue, “Just when you thought you could write these guys off, we’re not going gently into the night. We’re going down screaming.”
Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of “hot blue summer”, the dreamy new single by dayaway.
This week’s show, after a small snatch-a 1960 Chuck Berry: brand new Fastbacks, Chime School, Telephone Numbers, Death Cab For Cutie, Salim Nourallah (with Marty Willson-Piper), Belle & Sebastian, and Graham Nash; plus The Beatles, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Marvin Gaye, Action, Pioneers, and Huey ‘Piano’ Smith & His Clowns (R.I.P.)
Brixton-hailing four-piece Baytrees have been crafting their unique blend of hip hop beats, funk rock riffs and catchy pop hooks since 2018. New single ‘Sunshine’ is a soulful, life-affirming story inspired by the sun and is a song about summer, as everything is just better when the sun is out.
Though Richmond, VA’s Barry reunited in 2019 for shows with Avail, the punk band he fronted from 1987-2007, he still releases quieter folk albums; this is his eighth studio LP since 2006.
“I desire things that are never there..” Pam Risourié is bringing something special to the genre. While it’s not unprecedented, it is somewhat rare: the power of a pop hook. Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of “High on a Wire”.
The new full-length from NYC alt lo-fi project Marcyline is a furious and moody thing of true beauty.
For Corridors, Scott strips things down to the minimum, employing saxophonist Walter Smith III and bassist Reuben Rogers in a chord-less trio.
With their parents’ CD collections serving as inspirations, the NYC trio Hello Mary, featuring two college students, has released one of the best ’90s-sounding alternative rock records of the year.
“It’s interesting looking back at just how long we have been playing despite not exactly striving for anything career-wise. Whatever we choose to write or work to take a new direction, it always ends up sounding like Mudhoney because that’s our sound and it’s who we are,” stated Arm.
Few composers in jazz and its adjacencies command as much respect as Vince Mendoza.Few composers in jazz and its adjacencies command as much respect as Vince Mendoza.
Patty & the Oh’s new album testifies to music’s power to create a sense of belonging while traveling eras and regionalities of sound.
Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of Something From Nothing by Chris Williams & Kid Reverie.
“I will likely keep doing this as long as I’m still breathing and discovering music that I enjoy and provided I continue to have the finances to do it.”
The digital-only March On isn’t so much a follow-up as an addendum, featuring music recorded during the March sessions that’s related to what made it on the album.
Guitarist Dave Stryker has been performing with organist Jared Gold and drummer McClenty Hunter for a dozen years. Oddly, Prime is their first full-length record as a trio.
Big Takeover is proud to host the exclusive song premiere of the late, great (and largely unknown) blues musician Fred Davis’ never-before heard track “Tell Me Pretty Baby” from 1969.
This week’s show, after a 1958 Huey “Piano” Smith tribute: brand new Lovejoy, Dot Dash, Black Watch, Eyelids, Shana Cleveland, Field School, Guided By Voices and an Autodidact Dreams world premier; plus Beatles, Temptations, Manfred Mann, Kinks, Paul Revere & the Raiders, June Carter, and Winston Samuels; and R.I.P. Huey “Piano” Smith (1934-2023)
“Have You Ever Been In Trouble” is the main single taken from legendary songwriter Peter Case’s 16th solo album Doctor Moan (out 3/31 via Sunset Blvd. Records). The album sees Case reinventing his sound with a piano driven recording versus his previous focus on guitar.
Though he’s established himself as one of Italy’s most important improvisational voices, clarinetist and saxophonist Gianluigi Trovesi has long kept one foot in the world of classical music.
“I know it’s early in the night but nice to meet you! What’s your name?” asked Elizabeth Stokes, lead singer of The Beths after a few songs in. Though the band sold out two nights at Thalia Hall easily well ahead of time, Stokes acted as if she was having a cozy conversation with a small group of friends. That’s sort of the best way to describe The Beths. Between their banter about “wiggling air” and escaping blizzards on the road, you get the sense that no matter how famous The Beths get, they will still be more than willing to have a zany conversation about what would be the best name for their giant stage fish. (They named it Malört which is a super savvy Chicago reference to a favorite imported drink!) It’s possible that some of their niceness and appeal is that lovable Kiwi sensibility but it still seems like the four piece isn’t just talented but is comprised of really good people.
Their music is much the same way. It’s as if their sincere intentions and friendly feelings come through in a catchy reassuring way. It’s a challenge not to smile the entire time. And although their banter between songs was at times amusing and silly, the four piece was at tight as ever. The Beths released their third full length album Expert in a Dying Field this past fall and it’s filled with the same great songs that have defined them consistently. Not surprisingly, they played several tracks from this new one including stellar songs: “I Want to Listen,” “Knees Deep” “Silence is Golden,” “Head in the Clouds,” “I Told You That I was Afraid” and “Your Side.”
Those newer songs mingled very well with older treasures, especially “Uptown Girl” and “Jump Rope Gazers.” “I’m Not Getting Excited” was energetic and especially perfect. The band’s live energy is truly fun with a dynamic presence but they are not without moments of depth as well. Even when the lyrics venture towards being honest and vulnerable, they somehow make it catchy and reassure the audience they’re still doing alright. At the same time, these more sentimental lulls give us a sense of the full range of moods for the people we’ve grown fond of and make them feel all the more relatable.
Stokes really opened up as the 80 minute set went on, dancing around the stage (in front of the giant hilarious fish named Malört) and having fun with her three band mates. She may have sung “You wouldn’t like me at all,” but everyone in the crowd surely disagreed with that sentiment. This is a band that makes playing songs look easy and have more fans not only enjoying their songs but truly appreciating no matter what is on their minds. They also followed up their main set with two incredible follow up tracks- “You are a Beam of Light” and “Little Death” leaving the crowd satisfied yet still wishing we could see them play every night. As they sang the lyrics “love is learned over time” (from “Expert in a Dying Field”) it was clear their fans are surely growing fonder with each album and tour.
Gareth Koch and Martin Kennedy have come together to make ”Music In The Afterlife” after collaborating separately with The Church’s Steve Kilbey. Playing to each other’s complementary strengths, the two have produced a magical new instrumental album that’s a much-needed salve for bleak and uncertain times.
Following 2008’s Crawler and 2009’s Dead Tongues, this punishing Cincinnati, OH post-punk trio put out a handful of split releases from 2010 to 2017; here finally is their third full-length.
Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys present “Heaving”, the title track and third single from their forthcoming Heaving album, following the recently-released lead tracks “Burning Building” and “Stereoscope”. The full-length album will be released in spring 2023 via Unique Records, a division of Schubert Music Europe.
UK-France electronic rock duo The Noise Who Runs presents “Beautiful Perhaps”, the anthemic first track from their imminent Preteretrospective LP, scheduled for release on April 7. This follows These Will Be Your Gods EP, released in January, and High Time in Lo-Fi, their third EP released in mid-2022.
Now in their fifth decade of existence, Australian rock icons The Church continue their evolution on their latest album The Hypnogogue.
Rising London indie pop gem Mari Dangerfield has released her album Love And Other Machines, a collection of 12 catchy synth-driven alternative pop tunes, on CD via Dimple Discs. She also presents a series of fun buoyant videos, including for the uber-catchy “Love Machine”, a song exploring how love can be a mechanical process.
With a sound based in bluegrass music, Rose’s Pawn Shop incorporates different elements (Americana, Country, Folk, Rock) to stand out among peers. Singer Paul Givant shares how his band is unique, why it took 8 years to release new music, where he draws lyrical inspiration, and which famous actor he’s been compared to in this conversation.
Based in the New Jersey town of Secaucus, Clay Joule is a singer-songwriter who makes buoyant and uplifting soft rock music, characterised by his delicate vocal leads and backed up by warm organic instrumentation. His music always carries an important message and his latest release, “O’dream” is no exception – a vital and informative call for support for the Ukrainian people.
Now nearly thirty-five years into their career, Australian improvisational trio the Necks still insist that their initial direction was correct: follow your own instincts and you’ll never go wrong.
American indie rock trio Quiz Show – involving members of legendary DC alternative rock band Shudder To Think, Guided By Voices and The Dambuilders – has released their new single “Sound of Kissing” a powerhouse preview of their eponymous debut album, due out March 17 via Montclair, NJ -based Magic Door Record Label.
Originally released in 1967, D.B. Shrier Emerges chronicles a burst of jazz with feeling that, oddly, became the musician’s only recorded statement.
Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of Portland, Maine indie-noir singer-songwriter Whitney Walker’s new single/video for “Love Keeps no Record of Wrongs” featuring Dana Colley (Morphine) on the bass clarinet.
Hendersonville, NC-based Robinson is a British ex-pat who played in Roger McGuinn’s touring band, and Woltil is a Tampa Bay, FL resident who fronts power-poppers The Ditchflowers; this is their second combined effort sharing lead vocals, following 2015’s Cycle.
The box set is a treasure for Zappaphiles, and the LPs are recommended for newer disciples who want to bridge the gap between the well-known Hot Rats and Apostrophe (‘) albums.
Alt-rock post-punk duo A Cloud of Ravens present a new veiled calling card for their forthcoming Lost Hymns LP, set for release on April 28 via Nexilis Records / Schubert Music Europe. With a hopeful eye towards the light, “Requiem For The Sun” is a rich frenetic jaunt through the multiple facets of darkness we are all so eager to leave.
Three young siblings from Minneapolis who deliver an energetic mix of indie rock and punk on their debut album ‘Sisu.’
At eighty years young, bassist Buster Williams has a long and storied history in jazz, playing with Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Sarah Vaughn, Chet Baker, Carmen McRae, Chick Corea, Dexter Gordon, Betty Carter, and far too many more to list.
Billy Tibbals releases another rock gem “The Best Day I Ever Had” to celebrate his new album Stay Teenage.
This week’s show, after a 1968 George Harrison suggestion: brand new Robert Forster, Ron Sexsmith, New Pornographers, Chatham Rise, Weyes Blood, Green Pajamas, and The Church; plus The Beatles, Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band, Henry Mancini, Kenny Lynch, Evie Sands, Burt & the Backbeats, and Jimmy Heap & the Melody Masters; and R.I.P. Burt Bacharach (1928-2023)
Though this is his first album as a leader, Zach Lober is no late bloomer – he’s had two decades of experiences as a sideperson and composer in the States and Europe.
Gramercy Arms is a revolving collective, masterminded by Dave Derby (The Dambuilders, Lloyd Cole). Inspired by the artistic heyday of ‘70s and ‘80s-era New York City, they make addictive indie pop – exquisite hook-laden melodies filled with lyrics that will have you floating back in time, remembering your favorite mistake.
Presented with careful intimacy, poolblood’s full-length debut, mole, succeeds on the strength of Maryam Said’s gripping delivery and aided by the help and support of producers Louie Short and Shamir as well as a number of Toronto indie rock musicians.
Pop-rock artist, Elite model, and the host of Popdust’s podcast, Demi Ramos made plenty of waves with her single, “Killer 4U,” a song about an imaginary romance in NYC, replete with sex, drugs, and rock and roll. She now releases “Just a Phase” featuring Garzi.
It’s not hype to say that the jazz scene in London is one of the most exciting musical movements happening in the twenty-first century.
‘STARLESS’ is the striking second single from Kety Fusco’s album ‘The Harp, Chapter I’, due for release on 3 March 2023. The composition of this piece was created with all the classical harp sounds recorded and catalogued by Kety Fusco in her sound library “Beyond The Harp, Extreme, Extended, Experimental”.
Indie pop outfit The Mystery Plan are back with their What A Day EP, a scrumptious dose of bliss-pop released via American boutique label 10mm Omega Recordings. This boisterous three-track offering highlights the lead track from the band’s forthcoming Haunted Organic Machines record – their seventh full length album and 13th major release.
Last seen as a leader with Countdown, an album of standards and covers, vibraphonist Simon Moullier makes his return to the racks with Isla.
UK indie pop outfit Jody and the Jerms are hot to trot with their new single ‘Started Something’, the first taste of their forthcoming full-length album ‘Wonder’, out in April via their own JATJ Records imprint.
“Tell Me Lies” is the first video taken from Swing Your Lanterns, a new solo offering from Ivan Julian who’s had a long and distinguished career as a provocative songwriter and one of New York City’s most distinctive guitar stylists, a reputation first established as a founder member of Richard Hell & The Voidoids.
UK indie rock troubadour Withered Hand presents his uplifting new single ‘Waking Up’, released on February 14 via Reveal Records, just in time for Valentine’s Day. The accompanying video was filmed on location in Portobello, Edinburgh by Juliana Capes.
A former member of Set Sail, High Morale, and Casual Vice, Brandon Hoogenboom discusses his debt solo album and how the Beach Boys served as an influence on his sunny, sandy soft rock sound.
Pianist Jean-Michel Pilc is well-known for eschewing setlists in performances, making up the program – and often the music – as he goes along, trusting in his sidepeople to follow.
His range of study encompasses everyone from Charlie Christian and Wes Montgomery to Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell, and it shows in both his performance and his compositions.
Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of “K-Style Circuit” by The Royal Arctic Institute.
This week’s show, after a 1967 Dusty Springfield/Bacharach trill: brand new Damned, Tubs, Black Watch, Tombstones in Their Eyes, Yo La Tengo, Bird Streets, and Guided By Voices; plus Beatles, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Monkees, Ennio Morricone, Kitty Wells, Hollies, and Petula Clark; and R.I.P. Burt Bacharach (1928-2023)
This week’s show, after a 1986 Billy Bragg refrain (for Barrett Strong): brand new Gaz Coombes, Sloan, Green Pajamas, Nyte Skye, Iggy Pop, Dot Dash, and Stargazer Lillies; plus Billy Preston, Ray Charles, Upsetters, Tom Lerher, Dovers, Bobby Helms, and Byrds; and R.I.P. Barrett Strong (1941-2023), Tom Verlaine (1949-2023), and David Crosby (1941-2023)
This week’s show, after a 1967 George Harrison remembrance: brand new Ron Sexsmith, Belle & Sebastian, Guided By Voices, Boo Radleys, Sleaford Mods, Primitives, and Lauds; plus Beatles, Ike & Tina Turner, Byrds, Tom Jones, Culture, Ruth Brown, and Frank Sinatra; and R.I.P. Tom Verlaine (1949-2023) and David Crosby (1941-2023)
This week’s show, after a 1967 David Crosby-era Byrds warble: brand new Flyying Colours, Superchunk, Nyte Skye, Gaz Coombes, Gulps, Goat, and Green Pajamas; plus Four Tops, Joan Baez, Red Foley, Woody Guthrie, Leo Graham, Odetta & Larry, and The Ventures; and special R.I.P. tribute, David Crosby (1941-2023)
This week’s show, after a 1965 Jeff Beck-era Yardbirds trill: brand new New Pornographers, Belle & Sebastian, Eyelids, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Shana Cleveland, and Alvvays; plus Beatles, Carole King, B.B. King, Music Explosion, Gene Vincent, Lefty Frizzell, and Les Paul & Mary Ford; and R.I.P. Jeff Beck (1944-2023), The Associates’ Alan Rankine (1958-2023), and Felt/Primal Scream’s Martin Duffy (1967-2022)
This week’s show, after a 1967 Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood homage: Part 2 of 2, Jack Rabid’s Top 50 LPs of 2022 Countdown Shows! The Exciting Conclusion! [Plus:10 Best Singles/EPs and 10 best Retrospective Old Releases, Too!] This Week: His Picks for 2022’s Best LPs 25 through 1 (and 2022’s Best EPs/Singles 7 through 1 and Retrospectives 7 through 1).
This week’s show, after another 1788 Robert Burns homage: Part 1 of 2, Jack Rabid’s Top 50 LPs of 2022 Countdown Shows! [Plus:10 Best Singles/EPs and 10 Best Retrospective Old Releases, Too!] This Week: His Picks for 2022’s Best LPs 50 through 26 (and 2022’s Best EPs/Singles 10 through 6 and Retrospectives 10 through 6).
This week’s show, after a 1947 Frank Loesser warble: brand new The Beths, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, House of Love, John Cale with Weyes Blood, Iggy Pop, and Annie Hamilton; plus Byrds, Eddie Cochran, Shocking Blue, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Hollies, John Barry, and George Jones & Tammy Wynette; and R.I.P. The Specials’ (etc.) singer Terry Hall, 1959-2022, age 63
This week’s show, after little Lemonheads-1996 trill: Andy Bell, Alvvays, Linda Lindas, Surf Rock is Dead, Tubs, and Motörhead; plus Procol Harum, Tom T Hall, Dennis Wilson, Dovers, Tom Lerher, Betty Everett, and Art Carney
This week’s show, after little Lemonheads-1996 trill: Andy Bell, Alvvays, Linda Lindas, Surf Rock is Dead, Tubs, and Motörhead; plus Procol Harum, Tom T Hall, Dennis Wilson, Dovers, Tom Lerher, Betty Everett, and Art Carney
This week’s show, after little Caroline plays a Beths song on piano: TV Smith & the Bored Teenagers, Nils, DIIV, Mercvrial, Love Burns, and Downstrokes; plus Little Richard, Mar-Keys, Beatles, Lulu, Smiley Lewis, Keith & Tex, and Bobby Bare (Sr.); and R.I.P. Stranglers’ drummer Jet Black (1938-2022), The Clean drummer Hamish Kilgour (1957-2022), and Stax Records founder/producer Jim Stewart (1930-2022)
This week’s show, after a 1989 Stone Roses butcher: brand new Iggy Pop, Dot Dash, I Was a King, Bitter Defeat, Bye Bye Blackbirds, Well Wishers, and Jack Skuller; plus Moody Blues, Belairs, John Holt, Webb Pierce, Curtis Mayfield, Monkees, The Smoke, and Wanda Jackson
This week’s show, after a 1979 Wire trill: brand new Lauds, Carina Messier, Alvvays, Black Nite Crash, Guest Directors, Beths, and Weyes Blood; plus Esquerita, Pete Townshend, Howlin’ Wolf, Creation, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Del Shannon, and Don Churchill & His Texas Mavericks; and R.I.P. Doctor Feelgood’s Wilko Johnson (1947-2022)
This week’s show, after a 1990 Chills trill: brand new The Nils, Sloan, Startographers, Jack Skuller, I Was a King, Buzzcocks, and Brian Eno (with Darla Eno); plus Pretty Things, Barrett Strong, Neil Young, Culture, Hank Locklin, Astrud Gilberto, and David Bow Wow (The Hee Bee Gee Bees)
This week’s show, after a new Beths warble: brand new Primitives, Bird Streets, Dazy, Alvvays, Beths, Laughing Chimes, and The Damned; plus Marvin Gaye, Poppy Family, Kiki Dee, Melodians, Pee Wee King, Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald, and Shirley Collins; and R.I.P. Public Image Ltd.’s Keith Levine (1957-2022), Hawkwind’s Nik Turner (1940-2022), and Low’s Mimi Parker (1967-2022)
This week’s show, after a 1968 Bee Gees weeper: brand new The House of Love, Wedding Present (with Amelia Fletcher), Sadies, Sansyou, Valery Trails, I Was a King, and Death Cab For Cutie; plus Arthur Alexander, Small Faces, Kitty Wells, Roscoe Holcomb, Beatles, Brinsley Scwartz, and The Goons
This week’s show, after a 1958 Chuck Willis/Jerry Lee Lewis melody: brand new Altin Gün, Party Battleship, Jack Skuller, Sloan, Robyn Hitchcock, Alvvays, and Beths; plus Wilson Pickett, Dusty Springfield, Tomorrow, The Choir, Buck Owens, Phil Ochs, and Groucho Marx; and R.I.P. Jerry Lee Lewis (1935-2022) and Dead Kennedys’ D.H. Peligro (1959-2022)
This week’s show, after a 1982 Descendents refrain: brand new Beatles, Sloan, I Was a King, Wet Leg, Black Nite Crash, Robert Forster, and Sadies; plus Pete Ham, Little Willie John, Hank Snow, Fats Domino, Electric Light Orchestra, Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians, and Blossom Dearie
This week’s show, after a 1989 House of Love warble: brand new The Nils, Astrid Williamson, Alvvays, Beths, Donovan’s Brain, Downstrokes, and Underbites; plus The Hollies, Ennio Morricone, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Jan & Dean, John Lennon, Willi Williams, and Al Hirt; and R.I.P. Loretta Lynn (1932-2022)
This week’s show, after a brief 1979 Dickies revisit: brand new Weyes Blood, Ron Sexsmith, Damned, Black Watch, Daniel Wylie, I Was a King, and Reds, Pinks and Purples; plus The Beatles, Easybeats, John Phillips, “Little” Jimmy Dickens, Merseys, Derrick Morgan, and Banana Splits; and R.I.P. Loretta Lynn (1932-2022), and Controllers/Flesh Eaters/Leaving Trains/Legal Weapon etc. drummer Karla Maddog
This week’s show, after a brief 1978 Clash homage: brand new Alvvays, Beths, Wedding Present, Salim Nourallah, Fontaines D.C., Blue Herons, John Doe, and Martin Courtney; plus Shangri-Las, Joe Higgs, Cilla Black, Buckinghams, Smokey Robinson, Jimmie Rodgers, and Mel Blanc; and R.I.P. Anton Fier (1956-2022)
This week’s show, after a 1965 Beatles outtake trill: brand new Alvvays, Sloan, Death Cab For Cutie, I Was a King, Jack Skuller, Bird Streets, Black Nite Crash, and The Underbites; plus Pretty Things, Dennis Brown, Bee Gees, Chuck Berry, Doug Dillard & Gene Clark, Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, and Bert Jansch; and R.I.P. Ramsey Lewis (1935-2022) and Pharoah Sanders (1940-2022)
This week’s show: a special “Show #400 Lookback”! with Swervedriver, Jet Black, Muffs, Idlewild, New Model Army, The Saints, Bevis Frond, Larry Williams, The Kinks, Prince Buster, George Jones, Mose Allison, Leonard Nimoy, Woody Guthrie, and more!
This week, after a short till of 1980 Wipers: brand new Suede, Buzzcocks, Sleepyhead, Sansyou, Maximo Park, Martin Courtney, and live Jimi Hendrix Experience, plus The Attack, Flying Burrito Brothers, Troggs, Billy Gentles, Leaves, Anne Briggs, and The Moody Blues.
This week, after a 1979 Damned snippet: brand new Black Watch, Cowsills, Robyn Hitchcock, Proper, Off!, Fancy Logs in History, and Beremy Jets, plus Rolling Stones, Patsy Cline, Count Five, Walker Brothers, Fats Domino, Ernie K. Doe, and Benny Spellman; and R.I.P. The Windbreakers’ Bobby Sutliff
This week, after Jim plays & sings 1996 Sloan: brand new Damned, Tony Molina, Black Nite Crash, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Valery Trails, Archers of Loaf, and Salim Nourallah, plus Shocking Blue, Esquerita, Nancy Sinatra, Lee Hazelwood, Johnny Fortune, The Family Dogg, and Maddox Brothers & Rose; plus a tribute to ’90s Halifax
This week, after Jim plays The Beths’ new single on piano: brand new Beths, Sloan, Death Cab For Cutie, Persian Leaps, A.M. Nice, American Darlings, and Graham Nash, plus Small Faces, Hank Williams (Sr.), David Bowie, Simon & Garfunkel, Prince Buster, Buffalo Springfield and Ogden Edsel
This week, after Caroline plays a Neutral Milk Hotel song on piano: brand new Alvvays, Newtown Neurotics, Reds, Pinks & Purples, Salim Nourallah, Buzzcocks, Sadies, and Grip Weeds, plus Los Shakers, Del Shannon, Beatles, George Morgan, Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks, Cat Stevens, and Pentangle; plus Toronto history tribute, and R.I.P Teenage Head’s Gord Lewis (1957-2022) and Motown legend Lamont Dozier (1941-2022)
This week, after Jim plays another Sloan song on piano in August: brand new Black Watch, Suede, Successful Failures, Off!, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Northern Portrait, and Goon, plus Magic Sam, Montage, Webb Pierce, Jeff Beck, Poppy Family, Neil Young, and Pentangle; plus Vancouver history tribute, and R.I.P The Seekers’ Judith Durham (1943-2022) and The Poppy Family’s Susan Jacks (1948-2022)
This week, after Jim plays Sloan on piano: brand new House of Love, Linda Lindas, Robyn Hitchcock, Interpol, Peel Dream Magazine, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, and Sadies, plus Joni Mitchell (with Brandi Carlile & friends), Ray Charles, Dave Clark Five, Johnny Burnett, Lefty Frizzell, Melodians, and Paul Revere & the Raiders; plus Portland, OR history tribute!
This week after a 2000 Death Cab ditty: brand new Archers of Loaf, Guided by Voices, Death Cab For Cutie, Cat SFX, Jeanines, Inflorescence, and Kramies, plus Bee Gees, Cilla Black, Roy Drusky & Pricilla Mitchell, Etta James, Big Youth, Sonics, and Jimi Hendrix Experience; and Seattle songs tribute!
This week: brand new Sloan, House of Love, Newtown Neurotics, Beths, Breathless, Fernweh, and Martin Courtney, plus The Kinks, Hank Snow, Byrds, Cryan Shames, Prince Buster, Peter & Gordon, and Asleep at the Wheel; and Elvis Presley songs tribute!
This week: brand new Alvvays, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Day Wave, Michael Head, Kids On a Crime Spree, Triptides, and Petrified Max, plus The Ikettes, P.P. Arnold, Hollies, Everly Brothers, Porter Wagoner, Paul Revere & the Raiders, and Shirelles
This week, after a little 1988 Steve Diggle/FOC: brand new Brian Jonestown Massacre, John Doe, Jeanines, Michael Head, Robin Guthrie, Interpol, and Don McGlashan, plus The La’s, Manfred Mann, Mary Wells, William Daniels, Nicky Thomas, Stonewall Jackson, and Henry Mancini; and R.I.P. Cathal Coughlan of Microdisney, Fatima Mansions, and Telefís (1960-2022)
This week, after a small 2009 Sloan refrain: brand new Martin Courtney, Buzzcocks, Breathless, Tony Molina, Lisa Mychols , Deflecting Gray, and Flasher, plus David Bowie, Fats Domino, Paul McCartney, Buckinghams, Booker T & the MGs, Jackie Edwards, and Ray Price
This week, after snatch of 1978 Rutles: brand new Guided by Voices, Beths, John Doe, Finnogun’s Wake, Michael Head & the Red Elastic Band, Spoon, and Desario, plus Beatles, Otis Rush, Johnny & Jonie Mosby, Freddie Fender, Modern Lovers, Larry Marshall & the Shadows, and Sophia Loren; and R.I.P. Alan White (1949-2022)
This week, after wee bit of 1970 John Entwistle/Who: brand new Martin Courtney, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Petrified Max, Jeanines, Belle & Sebastian, Superchunk, and Don McGlashan, plus Kinks, Hank Thompson, Chocolate Watchband, Laurel Aitken, Cryan Shames, Brinsley Schwarz, and Phil Ochs; and R.I. P. Julee Cruise (1956-2022)
This week, after a lil hit of 1980 Undertones: brand new Buzzcocks, Tony Molina, Say Sue Me, Michael Head & the Red Elastic Band, Dream Syndicate, Gulps, and Cathedral Ceilings, plus Sam Cooke, Delroy Wilson, Faron Young, Duane Eddy, Richard Thompson, Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein, and Louis Armstrong; and R.I. P. Ronnie Hawkins (1935-2022)
This week, after a slice of 1982 Zero Boys about guns: brand new Fontaines D.C., Belle & Sebastian, Shop Window, Dez Dare, Ex Norwegian, Graham Nash, and Harry Styles, plus Junior Murvin, Small Faces, Fairport Convention, Neil Young, Kongos, Simon & Garfunkel, and Tammy Wynette
This week, after a little bit of 1986 Lucy Show: brand new Tombstones in Their Eyes, Inflorescence, La Luz, Wilco, Don McGlashan, Wet Leg, and Lauds, plus Jan Howard, Bee Gees, Rutles, Graham Nash, Phil Phillips, Billy Strange, and Joe Lewis (Rupie Edwards)
This week, after a small slice of 1967 Hollies: brand new Michael Head & the Red Elastic Band, Belle & Sebastian, Linda Lindas, Death Cab For Cutie, Ex Norwegian, Ride, and Mercvrial, plus Dale Hawkins, Left Banke, Andy Anderson, Todd Rundgren, Del Reeves, Ray Charles, and Frank Sinatra & Elvis Presley
This week, after a snippet of 1977 Damned: brand new Blue Herons, Don McGlashan, Willie Nelson, Amy Winehouse, Silktail, Kids On a Crime Spree, and Cheap Star, plus The Equals, Chris Bell, Marvin Gaye, Beatles, Kinks, Bee Gees, and Hank Ballard & the Midnighters; and R.I.P Spinal Tap’s Ric Parnell and The Blessed/D Generation’s Howie Pyro
This week, after a nip of 1963 Cascades: brand new Wet Leg, Tombstones in Their Eyes, Linda Lindas, Martin Courtney, Sadies, Stars, and Mercvrial (with Terry Bickers), plus Helen Shapiro, Joe Cocker, Augustus Pablo, Nico, Tim Buckley, Paul McCartney, and Rory Storm & the Hurricanes; and R.I.P The Saints’ Chris Bailey (1956-2022)
This week, after a bit of 1980 Saints: brand new Jeanines, Savage Republic, Fontaines D.C., Don McGlashan, Neko Case, The Smile, and Hollie Cook, plus Gladys Knight & the Pips, Moody Blues, Ricky Nelson, Walker Brothers, Eddie Cochran, Ray Price, and The Miracles; and R.I.P The Saints’ Chris Bailey (1956-2022)
This week, a tribute The Saints’ Chris Bailey, 1956-2022, plus brand new Killing Joke, Loyal Seas, Interpol, Ex Norwegian, Belle & Sebastian, Elvis Costello, and Descendents, plus The Shadows, Donovan, (Syd Barrett’s) Pink Floyd, Dandy Livingstone, Yardbirds, Pee Wee King, and Ethel Merman; and R.I.P Bobby Rydell (1945-2022)
This week, after “a little [1974] Big Star”: brand new Wet Leg, Panda Riot, Graham Nash, Cheap Star, Teenage Fanclub, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, and Linda Lindas, plus The Byrds, Wilson Pickett, Gene Autry, Beau Brummels, Mad Professor, Johnny & the Hurricanes, and Frank Sinatra
This week, after a lil’ 1968 Who: brand new Jeanines, Don McGlashan, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Inflorescence, Bye Bye Blackbirds, Ex Norwegian, and Astrid Williamson, plus Lead Belly, Tammi Terrel, Vince Guaraldi, Bee Gees, Wailers, Bill Monroe, and Harry Nilsson
This week, after a small 1969 Kinks put-down: brand new Fontaines D.C., Magic Shoppe, Gentle Cycle, Maxïmo Park, Rodney Cromwell, Stellan Wahlström Drift Band, and Elvis Costello & the Imposters, plus Equals, Byron Lee & the Dragonaires, Syndicate of Sound, Hank Thompson, Len Barry, Pretty Things, and Gerry & the Pacemakers; and R.I.P. Sleepers/Tuxedomoon guitarist Michael Belfer (1959-2022)
This week, after Jim & Jack butcher a 1969 Beatles/John Lennon foreshadow: brand new GospelbeacH, Altin Gün, Guided by Voices, Reds, Pinks & Purples, Superchunk, Blushing, and Fleeting Joys, plus The Doors, Answers, Ink Spots, Smiley Lewis, Ferlin Husky, Upsetters, and The Merry Go-Round; and R.I.P. C.I.A./76% Uncertain drummer William Michael Knapp
This week, after a small 1967 Merry-Go-Round warble: brand new Michael Head & the Red Elastic Band, Chime School, Feeders, Lauds, Black Watch, Kids On a Crime Spree, and Astrid Williamson, plus The Eyes, The Crickets, Paul McCartney, Dandy Livingstone, Tom Lerher, Wynn Stewart; and Louis Armstrong & Oscar Peterson; and R.I.P. The Members’ singer Nicky Tesco (1956-2022), and NME/Vox writer and Alternative Ulster editor Gavin Martin (1961-2022)
This week, after a little 1984 R.E.M. refrain: brand new Belle & Sebastian, Pointed Sticks, Ex-Vöid, Wet Leg, Tracy Shedd, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, and Elvis Costello & the Imposters, plus Gladys Knight & the Pips, Link Wray, Junior Murvin, The Strangers, Ray Price, McGuinn, Clark & Hillman, and Groucho Marx; and R.I.P. Downliners Sect’s Don Craine (1945-2022)
This week, after a 1949 Ed McCurdy anti-war wish: brand new Cheap Star, Jeanines, Guided by Voices, Pineapples, Valery Trails, Haroula Rose, and Boo Radleys, plus Pretty Things, Nina Simone, Jeannie Seeley, Huey ‘Piano’ Smith & His Clowns, Howlin’ Wolf, Clarendonians, and Ted Taylor; and R.I.P. Procol Harum leader Gary Brooker (1945-2022), Wipers/Rats/Napalm Beach drummer Sam Henry (1956-2022), and Mark Lanegan (1964-2022)
This week, after a 1982 antiwar Damned refrain: brand new Stars, Kurt Vile, Elvis Costello & the Imposters, M. Ward, Fontaines D.C., Astrid Williamson, and Billy Bragg, plus Pretty Things, Bobby Bare (Sr.), Temptations, Merry Go-Round, Dusty Springfield, Linda Ronstadt, and Cab Calloway; and R.I.P. The Sadies' Dallas Good (1974-2022)
This week, after a 1967 Love extract!: brand new Killing Joke, Beths, Wet Leg, Superchunk, Spoon, Willie Nelson, and Sharon Van Etten, plus Howling Wolf, Manfred Mann, Eric Monty Morris, Beatles, 101ers, Hollies, and Xavier Cugat
This week, after a slice of 1973 David Bowie: brand new Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Cheap Star, Ex-Vöid, Parquet Courts, Linda Lindas, Successful Failures, and Carina Messier, plus Shangri-Las, Bob & Earl, Troggs, Connie Smith, Idle Race, Augustus Pablo, and The Hi-Numbers; and R.I.P. The Ventures’ Don Wilson (1933-2022)
This week, after a 1970 Neil Young refrain: brand new Hoodoo Gurus, Astrid Williamson, Kids On a Crime, Inflorescence, Papercuts, Feeders, and Citified, plus Carl Perkins, Roy Harper, Skeeter Davis, Bo Diddley, Ivy League, Wailers/Skatalites, and The Carter Family
This week, after a 1955 Dave Bartholomew/Smiley Lewis snippet: Brand new Beach House, Superchunk, Boo Radleys, Spoon, The Smile, Reds, Pinks and Purples, Dion, and Wet Leg, plus The Beatles, Ed McCurdy, Monkees, Lee Perry & the Upsetters, Billy Stewart, Goldie & the Gingerbreads, and Leroy Van Dyke; and R.I.P. Rough Trade and Elektra executive and 99 Records maven Terry Tolkin, age 62
This week, after a 1967 Zombies trill: Brand new Fontaines D.C., Guided by Voices, Linda Lindas, Astrid Williamson, Andy Bell, Kids On a Crime Spree and Billie Elish, plus The Kinks, [Nat] King Cole Trio, Pentangle, Bee Gees, Ernie K. Doe, Professor Longhair, and Grandpa Jones; and R.I.P. Marvelettes’ singer Wanda Young (1943-2021) and Ronettes singer Ronnie Spector (1943-2022)
This week, after a bitta The Move: The Annual Lookback Countdown, Part II of II!: One Song Each From Jack’s Picks For the 50 Best Albums of 2021, selections 25-1. (Plus one song each from five of 2021’s Best Singles/EPs and reissues, too.)
This week: The Annual Lookback Countdown, Part I of II!: One Song Each From Jack’s Picks For the 50 Best Albums of 2021, selections 50-26. (Plus one song each from five of 2021’s Best Singles/EPs and reissues, too.)
This week, after an annual year-end Neil Sedaka/Jo Ann Campbell trill: brand new Jetstream Pony, Donovan’s Brain, Naked Raygun, Linda Lindas, Chime School, Black Watch, and Listening Post, plus Billy Ward & His Dominoes, Prince Far I, Everly Brothers, Sparks, Carl Smith, Chuck Berry, Roger Miller, etc.
This week, after a small slice of Charles Brown holiday cheer: brand new Superchunk, Beach House, Pom Pom Squad (with Matthew Caws), Billy Bragg, Marty Stuart, Beaumonts, and Dewey Defeats Truman, plus Loretta Lynn, Oscar the Grouch, James Brown, Marlene Paul, Bill Monroe, Otis Redding, Cedric Bravo & Rico Rodriguez, etc.