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 ^
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)
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 ^
Chicago’s Lollygagger are releasing a new single, “Found in the Dirt,” on April 12, 2024, which they describe as “an anti- and pro-religion song in the tradition of early Black Sabbath.”
The song has plenty of punk rage vocals from singer / guitarist Matt Muffin, heavy bass riffs from Kinsey Ring, frenetic drumming from Michael Sunnyicide , and, yes, introspective lyrics on mortality, the afterlife, and using religion to find peace instead of getting tied up in dogma and using it to push one’s personal or political agenda.
I think. I mean, it’s hard to pay attention to the lyrics when Lollygagger just shred for over three and a half minutes.
They’re having a release party for the single at Chicago’s Liar’s Club with Boybrain and AWEFUL along for the ride. Be there or be square!
Today, Brijean, the project of percussionist/singer-songwriter Brijean Murphy — the percussive heartbeat for live bands like Mitski, Poolside, and Toro y Moi — and multi-instrumentalist/producer Doug Stuart announce their new album Macro, out July 12th via Ghostly International, and share its lead single/visualizer “Workin’ On It.” “Workin’ On It” finds Brijean at their lightest and free. The track initially started as a living room jam then “Doug played the two-layered basslines over a loop of bongos, congas and a drum machine and the rest felt like it happened in a dream,” explains Murphy. While working late into the night and struggling with insomnia, she improvised her sleep-deprived lines, riffing on self-improvement and modern times, half-serious at first but something clicked in those small hours. Later she asked fans to send voice memos in exchange for art, and some of those got peppered into the soundbed. “That was a treat… Just getting to go through and hear all of these voices from around the world, an intimate and charming experience.” The track’s visualizer, directed by Bijan Berahimi, sees jump cuts of still photographs of the duo in tracksuits, complimenting the playful energy of the song.
Since their debut in 2019, Brijean has moved with ingenuity, fusing psych-pop abstraction with dancefloor sensibilities. Through the body and mind, rhythm and lyricism, they make sense of the worlds around and within; 2021’s Feelings celebrated self-reflection; 2022’s Angelo processed loss, coinciding with the duo’s first headlining tour, which doubled down on the material’s desire to move. Now, across the playful expanse of Macro, Brijean engages different sides of themselves, the paradox of being alive. They’ve leveled up to meet the complexities and harmonies of the human experience with their most dynamic songwriting yet. Colorful, collaborative, sophisticated, and deeply fun, the album animates a macrocosm with characters, moods, and points of view rooted in the notion that no feeling is final and the only way out is through.
Macro’s sequencing elicits an exploratory vibe with high-tempo peaks and breezy valleys in the psyche; astral drifts like “Euphoric Avenue” and “Roxy,” brush up against propulsive pop numbers like “Bang Bang Boom” and the breakbeat-bursts of “Breathe.” Brijean sees the record’s vast sonic spectrum in contrast to the expectations for their output — “we’re supposed to know the box that our art fits in, and then fully commit to it existing within that box,” adds Stuart. Take the closing pair of “Rollercoaster” and “Laura”; one a thrilling roller-disco anthem and the other a parade of heartfelt, flute-heavy indie-pop. Both are signature Brijean and offer an appropriate send-off; love, family, fantasy, pleasure, pain… the intention of Macro is not just to move through the ups and downs but to feel it all.
oday, Leeds, UK-based English Teacher – comprised of Lily Fontaine (vocals, rhythm guitar, synth), Douglas Frost (drums, piano, vocals), Nicholas Eden (bass) and Lewis Whiting (lead guitar) – announce a US tour in support of their debut album, This Could Be Texas, out April 12th via Island Records. Hailed by Time Magazine as “one of the decade’s most exciting new indie acts,” the tour will see the group’s first performances in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington, DC, alongside a return to New York City. All shows are on sale this Friday, March 29th at 10am local time.
This Could Be Texas, was produced and mixed by Marta Salogni (black midi, Depeche Mode, Björk) and represents the four songwriters’ sonic journeys thus far, with some tracks written at university in 2016-2019’s post-nest-fleeing nostalgia and others in the weeks before entering the studio. It bursts with intricate, math-rock leanings, literary references, and meticulously crafted melodies with lyrics that explore far-ranging themes including social issues, struggling to belong, mental health and science fiction. On several songs, Fontaine reflects on growing up as a mixed-race individual in a place “where many didn’t have understanding or even tolerance towards people who are different,” which only became more evident as she gained adulthood in the era of the Brexit referendum. “Sonically and lyrically, the album is about not being quite like one thing, nor quite like another,” Fontaine says, “existing in that space between being assigned a choice and completing it where anything is possible.” From their earliest days practicing in basements, to gigging at grassroots venues and more, This Could Be Texas provides a fitting reflection of English Teacher’s work to date.
Since the release of their Polyawkward EP (2022), English Teacher has toured with Parquet Courts and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, sold out all of their UK and EU headline dates as well as their debut New York City show at Elsewhere in Brooklyn, taped an excellent session with WFUV, and played Later . . . with Jools Holland. They’ve graced the cover of the NME, made TIME’s “Top 10 Best Songs of 2023,” and have been recognized by the likes of the New YorkTimes, The Guardian, FADER, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, and NYLON.
English Teacher Tour Dates (New Dates in Bold) Wed. May 8 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2 Thu. May 9 – Portsmouth, UK @ Wedgewood Rooms Fri. May 10 – Bristol, UK @ Thekla Sat. May 11 – Cardiff, UK @ Clwb lfor Bach Mon. May 13 – Oxford, UK @ The Bullingdon Wed. May 15 – Sheffield, UK @ The Foundry Thu. May 16 – Leeds, UK @ Irish Centre Fri. May 17 – Edinburgh, UK @ Mash House Sat. May 18 – Glasgow, UK @ King Tuts Tue. May 21 – Belfast, UK @ Ulster Sports Club Wed. May 22 – Dublin, UK @ Whelan’s Fri. May 24 – Manchester, UK @ Gorilla Sat. May 25 – Birmingham, UK @ Castle and Falcon Tue. May 28 – Nottingham, UK @ Rescue Rooms Wed. May 29 – London, UK @ Electric Brixton Sun. June 9 – Washington, DC @ The Atlantis Mon. June 10 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom Wed. June 12 – Boston, MA @ Sonia Fri. June 14 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry Sun. June 16 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas Tavern
