I've been a music fan since my parents gave me a record player for Christmas when I was still in grade school. The first record I remember owning was "Sesame Street Disco." I've been a professional writer since 2004, but writing long before that. My first published work was in a middle school literary magazine and was a story about a zoo in which the animals could talk.
Today, Chanel Beads — the project of New York-based musician Shane Lavers — unveils the new single / video “Unifying Thought” from his anticipated debut album, Your Day Will Come, out today via Jagjaguwar.
Your Day Will Come marks Lavers’ arrival as a new force in experimental music. Throughout the album, Lavers captures the many contradictions of modern existence and the strange infiniteness of the digital world. Though he incorporates the scrappy sonics of post-punk, the gripping sentimentality of pop tunes, and the spectral artifice of electronic music, he blurs lines through unconventional song structures that build into transcendental climaxes. Throughout, Lavers weaves in contributions from singer-songwriter Maya McGrory and multi-instrumentalist Zachary Paul, who offer their own layers of feeling that add to the huge emotionality of the album.
Today’s single, “Unifying Thought,” showcases Chanel Beads singular use of clunky acoustic guitar, cinematic strings, and vocal harmonies as Laver sings “Focus on the love in your heart / I had a unifying thought / But I missed / Like the seasons that we lost.” The accompanying video, directed by Harleigh Shaw, showcases a day in the life of a young boy as he bikes his way through New York City.
Following their sold out record release show in New York City, Chanel Beads will open for Mount Kimbie on their May North American tour. Named one ofRolling Stone’s Best of SXSW, Chanel Beads’ live show is not to be missed — a full list of dates is below and tickets are on sale now.
Blushing — the Austin, TX-based band consisting of the double husband and wife pairs of Christina and Noe Carmona and Michelle and Jacob Soto — present a new single/video, “Slyce,” from their forthcoming album, Sugarcoat, out May 3rd via Kanine. Following singles “Tamagotchi” and “Seafoam,” “Slyce” shows Blushing at their most sonically experimental. The verses splash around elements of psych and shoegaze that rise towards an anthemic chorus. Lyrically, the song uses imagery of cuts and breaks to convey the damage that can be caused by engaging in toxic relationships, even when you just can’t help yourself.
The last song to be recorded during the Sugarcoat sessions, the band’s only option for recording was to utilize the Austin Community College recording studio where their producer and engineer Elliott Frazier happened to be a teacher. The recording sessions would occur during Frazier’s classroom time, so that meant the band performed and recorded in front of a classroom of kids and adults, all while Frazier explained to the class what he was doing at the console, incorporating it into his lessons. The track also features Christina’s dad Carlos Fernandez, a classical pianist who lends his piano playing talents over the song’s bridge.
Sugarcoat is the follow-up to two EPs, 2017’s Tether and 2018’s Weak, their self-titled debut, and 2022’s Possessions. They didn’t want to create an album where each song was made to fit into the same mold. Instead, they decided to run with each idea no matter which direction it was facing, resulting in an album that is somewhat of a sampler of the group’s collective influences. While there are certainly tracks immediately recognizable as “Blushing” songs, this album is where the band get to explore their love for expanding genres, from post-punk, psych-gaze, grunge-pop, indie-pop, slowcore, and beyond. Lyrically the album asks many questions, reaching out for someone to provide answers or for the answers to come from within. There is a lot of uncertainty in the world as well as personally. Getting older, questioning past decisions, and the constant unknown of the future.
On Sugarcoat, Blushing’s dynamism is on full display, flitting effortlessly from spacey psychedelia to twee pop jangle with finesse and panache. Having enlisted Elliot Frazier (Ringo Deathstarr) and Mark Gardener (Ride) for engineering, mixing, and mastering duties, Sugarcoat is a dense, reverb-laden exploration of alt-rock’s 40 year history that conjures up concord from chaos.
This summer, they’ll support Slater and Airiel across North America, along with headline dates in Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and more. Tickets are on sale now and a full list can be found below.
Blushing Tour Dates Thu. May 2 – Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas (album release show) Wed. May 15 – San Antonio, TX @ Vibes Underground * Thu. May 16 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada * Sat. May 18 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall * Sun. May 19 – McAllen, TX @ The Gremlin * Fri. June 14 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Resonant Head Sat. June 15 – Fayetteville, AR @ George’s Majestic Lounge Sun. June 16 – Nashville, TN @ 5 spot Tue. June 18 – Washington, DC @ Pie Shop % Wed. June 19 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s % Thu. June 20 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right % Fri. June 21 – Boston, MA @ Deep Cuts % Sat. June 22 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground % Sun. June 23 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz % Mon. June 24 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison % Wed. June 26 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr Smalls Funhouse % Thu. June 27 – Detroit, MI @ Small’s % Fri. June 28 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Sat. June 29 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas Mon. July 1 – Denver, CO @ Skylark Lounge Wed. July 3 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey Thu. July 4 – Portland, OR @ The Six Fri. July 5 – San Francisco, CA @ Kilowatt Sat. July 6 – Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan Lounge Sun. July 7 – Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge Mon. July 8 – El Paso, TX @ Rosewood Sun. Sept. 1 – Cambridge, UK @ Portland Arms ^ Mon. Sept. 2 – Leeds, UK @ Old Woollen ^ Tue. Sept. 3 – Glasgow, UK @ Room 2 ^ Wed. Sept. 4 – Stockton-on-Trees, UK @ Georgian Theatre ^ Thu. Sept. 5 – Manchester, UK @ The Deaf Institute ^ Fri. Sept. 6 – London, UK @ O2 Academy Islington ^ Sat. Sept. 7 – Brighton, UK @ Dust ^
I’m pretty sure “Dumb Waiters” (from their second excellent album Talk Talk Talk) was the first song I heard by The Psychedelic Furs. I remember seeing the video on MTV back in the early 1980s and my friend, Brian, and I laughing because we’d never heard of (to our small-town Midwestern ears) such an odd name for a band and such a strange sound. We also had no idea it wasn’t even their first single or album.
To baffle me more, I later learned that their 1980 self-titled debut album had two different versions – one released in the U.S. and the other in the band’s home U.K. Both albums included songs not on the other version, and both had a different order of tracks. Both are sharp post-punk records and worth finding in any version.
The one pictured above is the U.S. version, which opens with “India” – a whopper of a track that clocks in over six minutes, building on John Ashton‘s shoegaze guitar strumming and then bursting forth with Tim Butler‘s heavy bass hooks and Roger Morris‘ guitar. Richard Butler‘s vocals always have a sarcastic edge, but never so much that you don’t feel like you couldn’t have a pint with him at the pub. He uses similar themes across the album, such as stupidity, feeling useless, and dancing to escape all of it.
“Sister Europe” is a gorgeous track bordering on goth territory, but Duncan Kilburn‘s saxophone keeps it from becoming too morose – even though it’s a song about Richard Butler’s girlfriend leaving him to move to Italy. “Susan’s Strange” is one of the tracks not available on the original UK version of the album. It sounds a bit like the band stood behind drummer Vince Ely when they recorded it, as everything but the drums seems to be in another room while Ely is almost playing lead. It’s a neat effect.
“Fall” is a funky jam as Richard Butler sings about the banality of married life (“Marry me and be my wife. You can have me all your life. Parties for our stupid friends. Are the children really home?”). “We Love You” is an early slap at people with “Live Laugh Love” posters in their house, as Richard Butler calls out people who throw around the word “love” without giving it much thought. The whole track is a bright, fun jam that’s become a fan-favorite and a salute to the band’s fans.
“Soap Commercial” (which is the other track not available on the UK version…and is probably a post-punk band’s name by now) is about having products stuffed down our throats day and night by television…and they wrote it over forty years ago. Kilburn’s saxophone riffs on “Imitation of Christ” are great touches and always in the right amount, while Richard Butler takes down people using religion to justify foolishness.
“Pulse” is a great track with Tim Butler’s bass taking the lead and the whole band charging through it as Tim’s brother again takes on religious hypocrites. Ely’s beats on “Wedding Song” are so damn good that they’re almost distracting. You could drop them into a house music set without effort. Richard Butler almost raps on the track at one point. The closing track, “Flowers,” is a wild one about, I think, death and not mourning too much over those who didn’t bring much light to the world.
It’s a great debut, and many great singles would follow for the Furs on subsequent albums. Before they became known for “Pretty in Pink,” they were Angry in the Dark. They’ve lost none of their sharp wit either, and are still making good music today.
REZN – the Chicago-based band of Rob McWilliams (vocals, guitar), Phil Cangelosi (bass), Patrick Dunn (drums), and Spencer Ouellette (synth/saxophone) – announce their new album, Burden, out June 14thvia their new label Sargent House. In conjunction, they present its massive lead single/video, “Chasm.” Since their inception, REZN have mined the stark monochromatic depths of underground metal and fused them with the kaleidoscopic delights of psychedelia, prog rock, and shoegaze. With their latest album Burden, they plumb the deepest, bleakest trenches of their sound while retaining a lifeline into the cosmos. Staking a claim at the crossroads of the hazy dimensions of modern psych acts like Black Angels, the cavernous gloom and reverb-drenched guitar of bands like Spectral Voice, and the lurching low-end meditations of artists like OM, REZN have created Burden—an album of immense amp-worshipping weight and intoxicating instrumentation.
Burden was recorded simultaneously with their previous album Solace back in July 2021 at Earth Analog Studios in Tolono, IL by Matt Russell. Rather than release a double album, REZN divided the material into two separate records, each with its own distinct emotional timbre. Whereas Solace was meant to uplift and create a sense of narcotic dreaminess, Burden skews towards the themes of delirium, claustrophobia, and misery. Musically, Burden favors riffs over atmosphere, percussion over ether, dissonance over beauty, but there is still an undeniable cohesion between it and its predecessor. The marriage of brute force and sublime textures has always been a key tactic in REZN’s approach—a duality that may explain their touring history with fellow synesthesia-inducing metallurgists Elder and Russian Circles—but the spectrum of the band’s mercurial temperaments has never felt as clearly defined and fully explored as it does on Burden.
Burden’s artwork is a literal continuation of Solace’s landscape painting, showing the fiery depths at the foot of the mountain range. Even Burden’s most reserved moments feel like the calm before the storm, a gathering of momentum before the punishing closer and lead single “Chasm,” a megalithic weedian crusher further bolstered by a scorching guitar solo courtesy of Russian Circle’s Mike Sullivan. “We wrote ‘Chasm’ to depict the final phase of an existential descent, when you’re on the last few steps of the spiral staircase and realize there’s no going back,” says Rob McWilliams. “We wanted it to sound like walls closing in on all sides and you’re looking at the exit getting further and further away. Mike’s melodic finger-tapping style blurs the section into a kind of dizzying, infernal panic attack. In the final moment of the song you’re faced with the repetitive churning of a molten, fuzzed-out wall of sound that builds until the audio itself starts to singe and catch fire, then abruptly self destructs.”
As knowledgeable gear heads, experienced sound engineers, and seasoned DIY veterans, REZN were able to create an early body of work devoid of any sonic compromises in their speaker-rattling dirges and heady lysergic forays. Their four self-released albums—Let It Burn (2017), Calm Black Water (2018), Chaotic Divine (2020), and Solace (2023)—have all gone through multiple vinyl pressings without any distribution or retail presence, and the international underground heavy psych world has routinely selected the band for distinguished festival slots across North America and Europe. From their inception, REZN have been a fiercely independent band with a fully realized aesthetic and a fervent cult following. Now ready to take things even further, REZN have teamed up with Sargent House to release Burden unto the world.
This summer, REZN will tour across North America with Pallbearer. Following, they’ll tour in Europe with new label mates Russian Circles as well as performing at multiple festivals. A full list of dates can be found below and tickets are on sale now.
Today drummer, composer and founding member of Deerhoof Greg Saunier has announced his debut solo LP We Sang, Therefore We Were, out April 26th, 2024 via Joyful Noise Recordings. Out today is the lead single and video “Grow Like a Plant.”
That founding took place 30 years ago today. “It was 1994 and I was playing in a grunge band in San Francisco,” says Greg. “The two guitarists were literally living with members of the Melvins. Rob Fisk, the bass player, and I had been listening to an AMM CD at home and decided we wanted to give free improv a try. So we came to practice an hour early. That was Deerhoof’s first rehearsal. An hour later our two bandmates walked through the door with the bad news: Kurt Cobain had just been found dead.”
Despite the ominous start their band, Deerhoof has gradually gone on to achieve legendary status in the ears of many, releasing 19 strange and wonderful albums in the process. And during those 30 years, Greg has produced, mixed, composed, or played on hundreds of others (Discogs has him credited on over 300 albums). So it is remarkable that this is, in fact, his very first solo record. He sings and plays all the instruments, save for a few birds who join in now and again.
“When Satomi, Ed, John and I were chatting between shows in Austin in early December, they encouraged me to make a record on my own, as a way to cope with the restlessness I’ve been feeling,” says Greg. “It came together quick. Intrigued by the announcement that the new Rolling Stones record was going to sound ‘angry,’ I thought, ‘Good, I’m angry too.’ But when Hackney Diamonds turned out more like cotton candy than punk rock, I ironically went back to Nirvana: not just the clever melodies over massive distortion, but also that dark Cobain sarcasm which still resonates in this age of phony blue-check-washing of fascism.”
The lyrics, “on the familiar topic of interspecies absurdist operatic anti-Cartesian revolution,” are drawn from the text that spreads itself across front and back of the album cover. In this long poem Greg recasts White House spokespersons as “The Queen of the Night” fromThe Magic Flute, recasts The Queen of the Night as a mockingbird singing Mozart’s famous aria in an all-night battle for survival, and ultimately recasts the mockingbird as a campy drag artist taking pleasure in her own relentless, aggressive musicianship.
Just how relentless is Greg’s musicianship is something that even fans of his celebrated drumming may not have realized. It turns out Greg is an excellent guitarist and bassist, if a bit more rudimentary and slicing compared to his Deerhoof bandmates. He does play more angry guitar solos. We Sang, Therefore We Were’s self-production is shambling and anti-slick, the arrangements in a constant state of impatient agitation. Big-hit earwigs abound but are delivered in a delicate, whispery falsetto, tending towards three-part harmony, sometimes sounding almost like Deerhoof fronted by The Andrews Sisters. The hints of Mozartianeuphony that insinuate themselves here and there finally take over in an unexpected climax at the end, the drums breaking off into a laugh-or-cry orchestral outpouring that may be the rawest part of the album.
About “Grow Like a Plant” The album’s first single is indebted to Captain Beefheart’s “Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish,” and written in the octatonic scale made famous by Igor Stravinsky in Le Sacre de Printemps. Like all of We Sang, Therefore We Were, it is grief and anger delivered in code.
“Grow Like a Plant” “addresses that annoying quirk of the homosapien mind where it thinks it’s made of higher quality molecules than the rest of the universe,” according to Greg. “For millennia civilizations managed to temper this suicidal arrogance with ritual. Until 500 years ago, when a handful of self-appointed experts invented The Enlightenment, proposing that men can solve any problem given enough brooding and/or physical violence; that the cosmos is actually nothing but an inert blob of matter for us to buy and sell. What if this is all wrong? What if it’s humans who are really the mindless instinct-machines, competing for territory, food, and mates, and it’s the plant and animal kingdoms that secretly know how to think and have fun?”
Greg’s partner, poet Sophie Daws, is the creative director and performer of the “oner” video that accompanies “Grow Like a Plant.” “Just as the song doesn’t stay fixed (in one rhythm, one emotional register), I wanted the dance and my relationship to the camera/audience to shift constantly,” Sophie explains. “In our improvised noise project, New Mom, Greg and I often talk about shifting before any musical part has time to settle — before it registers as a ‘musical part.’ We aren’t trying to find a ‘groove’ in the sense of trying to hit one emotion or tone. Doing so would feel false. As soon as I felt myself trying to seduce the camera, a future audience, a hierarchy, I shifted focus. Sometimes the focus was inward (eyes closed). Sometimes it was outward (eye contact). Maybe sometimes it was on the joy and fun of Greg’s danceable song.”
Today, the legendary Scottish indie-pop band Camera Obscura releases the new single “Liberty Print” from their first new album in over ten years, Look to the East, Look to the West, out May 3rd on Merge Records. The group, led by guitarist and vocalist Tracyanne Campbell, have reunited with Jari Haapalainen, producer of the band’s 2006 album Let’s Get Out of This Country and 2009’s My Maudlin Career, and crafted an album that simultaneously recalls why longtime fans have ferociously loved them for decades while also being their most sophisticated effort to date.
The opening track to the album, “Liberty Print” shows off Camera Obscura’s uncanny dexterity in juxtaposing genres, moods, and emotions. Written about Campbell’s brother who died tragically at the age of 34, the track is an elegy that breaks itself open over a crushing synth line. A daringly constructed song, “Liberty Print” showcases Campbell’s command of lyrical narrative that allows space for grief within the structure of pop music. “I like ‘Liberty Print’ because I think it’s the song that sounds most unlike anything we’ve done before,” Campbell explains. “It introduces a new direction. It sounds fresh and exciting, and it introduces Donna [Maciocia] on keys in a big way. It was important to us that if we were to have a new player, that she be allowed to make her own creative stamp on the songs.”
Look to the East, Look to the West was the most hard-fought album of Camera Obscura’s career. Following the 2015 passing of founding keyboardist and friend Carey Lander, the band went into an extended hiatus. They remained in contact, but their status was uncertain until they announced their return, having been invited to perform as part of Belle & Sebastian’s 2019 Boaty Weekender cruise festival, along with a pair of sold-out warm-up shows in Glasgow. Donna Maciocia (keys and vocals) joined founding members Kenny McKeeve (guitar and vocals), Gavin Dunbar (bass), and Lee Thomson (drums and percussion) for those shows and has since become a regular songwriting partner of Campbell’s.
Recorded in the same room where Queen wrote “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Look to the East, Look to the West feels big, a widescreen reframing of Camera Obscura’s sound that, paradoxically, saw the band go back to basics—there are no string or brass arrangements, with more emphasis placed on piano, synthesizers, Hammond organ, and drum machines, and, perhaps most strikingly, the group have dropped the veil of reverb that characterized their previous albums. Look to the East, Look to the West is the sound of a band that has grown more confident in its sound and purpose than ever. It is Camera Obscura at their best and most evocative, an album that completely rearranges the listener’s emotional core, leaving them sad and exhilarated at the same time.
Numero Group announce Margo Guryan’sWords and Music, a 3xLP box set compiling the work of the late singer and songwriter, out June 7th, and unveils the set’s first offering, the inquisitive and trippy “Moon Ride,” which is her first known recording (1956). Witness to revolutions in jazz and pop, Guryan earned her place in the songwriting pantheon and then some. That she was largely unknown for decades is not the stuff of crushed dreams, but a result of her own choices and priorities. From humble beginnings to the peaks of her 1968 baroque pop masterpiece Take a Picture and the collected Demosto the recent viral ubiquity of “Why Do I Cry,”Words and Music captures the entirety of Guryan’s career, including 16 previously unreleased recordings and a 32-page booklet telling her whole story. The box set is produced by her stepson Jonathan Rosner,friend and historian Geoffrey Weiss, and Numero Group’s Douglas Mcgowan,Rob Sevier,and Ken Shipley.All of the tracks have been remastered by Jessica Thompson.
Guryan released just one album in her heyday: 1968’s Take A Picture. But, as she was disinterested in performing, touring, and promoting the work, the album went barely noticed at the time. Nevertheless, by the 1990s, the recordhad become a highly sought after cult favorite. Then, a new generation of listeners came to learn about her work when Take A Picture was reissued in 2000, followed shortly by the collected Demos, an incredible compilation of unearthed alternate takes and new-to-the-public songs that Margo supervised herself. Guryan’s life in the intervening years remained filled with music; she became a music teacher, kept writing songs, and cultivated friendships with a growing circle of acolytes.
Born in 1937 in New York City, Guryan began learning piano at age six before eventually enrolling at Boston University to study music. She spent much of her early career immersed in the jazz world, including working for Impulse! founder Creed Taylor, writing for jazz artists, and attending Lenox School of Jazz in Western Massachusetts, where she worked in an ensemble alongside fellow students Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry. Her peers were, at that very moment, exploding the consciousness of jazz. Margo, a then-recent graduate in composition, had once been told that the highest mode of education is perception. So she mostly lingered and listened. It was at Lenox where Margo became friends with her teacher, Max Roach, who in 1961 even asked Margo to pen the liner notes for his first Impulse! album.
Her early tunes were recorded by bebop pioneer Dizzy Gillespie, bossa nova icon Astrud Gilberto, the famed South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba, and folk hero Harry Belafonte. Jazz singers Anita O’Day and Carmen McRae all released takes on her material, as did pop singer Claudine Longetand folk-rock icon Mama Cass Elliot. “Sunday Morning,” Margo’s biggest hit, was first popularized by soft-rockers Spanky & Our Gang, followed by recordings from torch singer Julie London and country royalty Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry. In 1967, Billboard called Margo “one of the most sought-after writing talents in the music business.”
Rosner, her stepson, says, “I was introduced to Margo as a very little boy. She became my step-mom when I was three to be exact. From the moment I stepped foot into the apartment on 16th street in NYC where my dad [David Rosner] and Margo lived, I saw Margo in action – writing songs, the songs that would become the “Demos” – and playing Bach – rinse and repeat. At first, this was on a Wurlitzer, and then on a Blüthner. I was there to watch “The Hum” and “Timothy Gone” take shape, and she’d play me (on record and on the pianos) songs she’d written earlier. I loved them, and they were part of my life as a young person. But this music was almost like a family secret never to see the light of day – until it finally did. It’s hard to express how wonderful it is – and was to Margo – to see people embrace these songs – sing and play these songs and celebrate her body of work.”
The story of Margo Guryan is one of a woman who dug deep from an early age and was never afraid to change. With her keen feel for tone, phrasings, tension, presence, and lyrics that cut, her name today is synonymous with sophisticated songcraft and inimitable 1960s cool.Her ingenuity and technique set her in the tradition of chamber-pop icons like Brian Wilson and Burt Bacharach while the bittersweet candor in her depictions of womanhood suggest a middleground between Carole King’s pop-factory and singer-songwriter eras. But the understated rigor of Margo’s artistic voice is all her own.
There will also be a limited-edition variant of the box set that comes with a bonus 10″ of Margo’s Chopsticks Variations. This will be the first-ever vinyl pressing of that release.
Words and Music Tracklist: Side A 1. If I Lose (1956) 2. You Promised (1957) 3. The Wise Man Knows (1956) 4. The Morning Aer (1958) 5. Moon Ride (1956) 6. More Understanding Than a Man (1957) 7. More Understanding Than a Man (Instrumental) (1957) 8. There I Was (1957)
Side B 1. Kiss and Tell (1966) 2. Half-Way In Love (1966) 3. Goodbye July (1966) 4. Four Letter Words (1966) 5. Hurry on Home (1966) 6. I Ought to Stay Away From You (1966) 7. I Love (1967) 8. Under My Umbrella (1968) 9. I Don’t Intend to Spend Christmas Without You (1967)
Side C 1. Sunday Morning (1967) 2. Thoughts (1968) 3. Love Songs (1967) 4. Don’t Go Away (1967) 5. Take a Picture (1968) 6. Sun (1968) 7. What Can I Give You (1968) 8. Come to Me Slowly (1968)
Side D 1. The 8:17 Northbound Success Merry-Go-Round (1968) 2. Something’s Wrong with the Morning (1970) 3. Think of Rain (1967) 4. Can You Tell (1968) 5. Someone I Know (1968) 6. Love (1968)
Side E 1. Why Do I Cry (1968) 2. Spanky and Our Gang (1968) 3. Most of My Life (1971) 4. It’s Alright Now (1971) 5. Timothy Gone (1972) 6. The Hum (1974) 7. Please Believe Me (1974) 8. Yes I Am (1974)
Side F 1. I Think A lot About You (1972) 2. Iʼ’d Like to See the Bad Guys Win (1973) 3. Values (1974) 4. California Shake (1975) 5. Hold Me Dancin’ (1978) 6. Shine (1975) 7. Goodbye July (1966, recorded 2001)
Failure have long been fascinated with science fiction and how we’ll be living in the future (especially the one that’s already here). Their last full-length album, Wild Type Droid, refers to how we humans will be looked upon as wild types of androids and cyborgs in years to come. Robotics, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, space exploration, and, yes, music eventually will be so far advanced that what we have now will seem like it was created by people living on primitive plains.
“If everything’s true, then nothing is real. If nothing is true, then everything’s real,’ Ken Andrews sings on the album’s opener – “Water with Hands.” Right away, they start with a song that creates a sound only Failure seem capable of making: a combination of shoegaze, space rock, prog, and something indefinable that alters your perception. It’s not really psychedelia. It’s almost something alien.
Then along comes “Headstand” to lift you from the ground (“The simulation’s about to meet its maker.”). I can’t determine which causes more transcendence, Andrews’ bass, Greg Edwards‘ zero-gravity guitar work, or Kellii Scott‘s afterburner drumming. “A Lifetime of Joy” is almost a classic Failure “Segue” that bursts into another display of Scott’s excellent drumming on “Submarines” – a song about Andrews processing the COVID-19 pandemic (“I was so innocent before the plague…Can’t live in submarines forever.”) that crushes live.
“Bring Back the Sound” starts slow and a bit quiet, but it slowly builds the tension and fuzz around Andrews’ excellent vocal track on it. “Mercury Mouth” has Andrews angry at someone (possibly Donald Trump?) for distorting the truth and refusing to accept further deception (“You are a liar. Shut your mouth. There’s nothing silver about your tongue.”). The band crushes it, with Scott dropping some of his biggest fills on the album in it.
“Still undecided on the flight back from Seoul,” Andrew sings in the beginning of “Undecided,” instantly dropping us into a mystery. Why is he uncertain? And about what? It seems to be about a relationship, but not necessarily a romantic or sexual one – more one with himself and his relationship with the world, the rat race, and reconnecting with nature.
“Long Division” is the longest track on the album (five minutes-eleven seconds) and gets trippy the entire time. “We are hallucinations,” they sing on “Bad Translation.” This became the title of their live album and concert film, and it’s a concept Failure love to explore – Who are we, really? Where does technology end and humanity begin (or vice-versa)? “You cannot trust your senses,” they sing, “but you can let them go.” We don’t have to be inexorably linked to technology that only separates us. We can embrace what’s here and now.
The album closes with Edwards singing lead on the mostly acoustic “Half Moon.” It sounds melancholy at times and uplifting at others, distant at times and warm and fuzzy in certain moments.
The whole album is like that – bringing the coldness of space and loneliness and mixing it with the warmth of the sun and the strength found in presence and mindfulness. It’s cosmic and grounded, roaring and whispering, bright and dark.
If you were lucky enough to catch them, rave legendsOrbital are doing a limited tour throughout the U.S.: New York, Chicago, Miami, and two sets at this year’s Coachella Festival. That’s it. Somehow, the Chicago show wasn’t sold out (and was stunningly affordable), and I scored two tickets to see the lads.
Up first was a pretty cool DJ named Greg Haus, who put on a good set to get the crowd to the spacious floor and moving.
Haus spun for about an hour, and he was followed by Tone Ranger – who walked to the decks with a guitar over one shoulder. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, and it turned out to be a mix of house, ambient, and spaghetti western music. “I’m all in,” I told my girlfriend.
Orbital had a good, fun crowd by the time they came on stage. Opening with “Smiley” and moving onto hot tracks like “Where Is It Going?” and newer stuff like “Dirty Rat” featuring Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods.
“Satan” was an unexpected deep cut, “Halcyon On and On” was another great classic cut, and the whole crowd was jumping and moving by this point. The crowd, by the way, was a fun mix of people in their 20’s, partying Latinas, goths, senior citizens, and old school ravers like yours truly.
“Spicy,” with its Spice Girls samples, was a big hit, “Chime” was lovely live, and the encore, “Lush” was mind-altering.
It was a beautiful show that felt like a vintage 1990s rave. Seriously, it was like stepping out of a time machine and into a moment when everyone still loved each other and believed good times and an amazing future were still ahead.
I don’t know if you’re planning on going to Coachella this year, but don’t miss Orbital on either weekend if you’re there.
Blushing — the Austin, TX-based dream pop band consisting of the double husband and wife pairs of Christina and Noe Carmona and Michelle and Jacob Soto — present a new single/video, “Seafoam,” from their forthcoming album, Sugarcoat, out May 3rd via Kanine. Following lead single “Tamagotchi,” “Seafoam” is an intoxicating blend of post-punk, dark dream pop and nineties riot grrrl. It features former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder, who was able to record lead guitar during some down time while on tour with Smashing Pumpkins. His guitar is laser focused over a brooding bass line and sweet then scalding vocals, as Christina sings of the anger that comes with a dwindling romance. “While chatting after a Smashing Pumpkins concert one night, we made a joke about Jeff playing lead guitar on the next album,” says the band. “A few years later when Sugarcoat was being recorded we decided to see if Jeff would be interested in making the suggestion a reality. He enthusiastically accepted and later sent over a guitar track that flowed perfectly with ‘Seafoam.’”
Sugarcoat is the follow-up to two EPs, 2017’s Tether and 2018’s Weak, their self-titled debut, and 2022’s Possessions. They didn’t want to create an album where each song was made to fit into the same mold. Instead, they decided to run with each idea no matter which direction it was facing, resulting in an album that is somewhat of a sampler of the group’s collective influences. While there are certainly tracks immediately recognizable as “Blushing” songs, this album is where the band get to explore their love for expanding genres, from post-punk, psych-gaze, grunge-pop, indie-pop, slowcore, and beyond. Lyrically the album asks many questions, reaching out for someone to provide answers or for the answers to come from within. There is a lot of uncertainty in the world as well as personally. Getting older, questioning past decisions, and the constant unknown of the future.
On Sugarcoat, Blushing’s dynamism is on full display, flitting effortlessly from spacey psychedelia to twee pop jangle with finesse and panache. Having enlisted Elliot Frazier (Ringo Deathstarr) and Mark Gardener (Ride) for engineering, mixing, and mastering duties, Sugarcoat is a dense, reverb-laden exploration of alt-rock’s 40 year history that conjures up concord from chaos.
This summer, they’ll support Slater and Airiel across North America, along with headline dates in Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and more. Following, they’ll head over to the UK to play shows with Ringo Deathstarr. All dates can be found below.
Blushing Tour Dates (new dates in bold) Thu. May 2 – Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas (album release show) Wed. May 15 – San Antonio, TX @ Vibes Underground * Thu. May 16 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada * Sat. May 18 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall * Sun. May 19 – McAllen, TX @ The Gremlin * Fri. June 14 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Resonant Head Sat. June 15 – Fayetteville, AR @ George’s Majestic Lounge Sun. June 16 – Nashville, TN @ 5 spot Tue. June 18 – Washington, DC @ Pie Shop % Wed. June 19 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s % Thu. June 20 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right % Fri. June 21 – Boston, MA @ Deep Cuts % Sat. June 22 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground % Sun. June 23 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz % Mon. June 24 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison % Wed. June 26 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr Smalls Funhouse % Thu. June 27 – Detroit, MI @ Small’s % Fri. June 28 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Sat. June 29 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas Mon. July 1 – Denver, CO @ Skylark Lounge Wed. July 3 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey Thu. July 4 – Portland, OR @ The Six Fri. July 5 – San Francisco, CA @ Kilowatt Sat. July 6 – Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan Lounge Sun. July 7 – Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge Mon. July 8 – El Paso, TX @ Rosewood Sun. Sept. 1 – Cambridge, UK @ Portland Arms ^ Mon. Sept. 2 – Birmingham, UK @ Academy 3 ^ Tue. Sept. 3 – Leeds, UK @ Old Woollen ^ Wed. Sept. 4 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo ^ Thu. Sept. 5 – Manchester, UK @ The Deaf Institute ^ Fri. Sept. 6 – London, UK @ O2 Academy Islington ^ Sat. Sept. 7 – Brighton, UK @ Dust ^
