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.
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.
At first glance, you might think King Buffalo‘s Acheron is an EP. It only has four track on it, after all. Then you realize that the four tracks average about ten minutes each, making the album a full cosmic experience. Plus, the whole thing was recorded live in Howe Caverns in New York, giving the album a deeper feel of heaviness and heat.
The title track opens with blazing guitar work from Sean McVay that, as you can imagine, ignites the entire cavern system and probably awakened ancient mystics living in its deepest recesses. “Zephyr,” a song that seems to be about embracing a future that’s already here instead of dwelling on a past that was gone the moment it happened, soars about the cavern and your ears, like a bat gliding over a mountain stream.
“Shadows” is a gorgeous track elevated by Dan Reynolds synthesizer solo setting up McVay’s stalagmite-shaking guitar solo. It must’ve been deafening in that cavern when he played it. The closing track, “Cerberus,” is the crown jewel of the album, hitting hard in all the right spots and altering your mind-space in the others. Reynolds’ bass work is subtle yet stunning, and Scott Donaldson‘s drum work is so nimble that you can barely keep track of the number of fills he fits into one song.
It’s another fine piece in their excellent discography. King Buffalo doesn’t miss. Ever.
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
Today, John Cale announces his new album, POPtical Illusion, out June 14th via Double Six / Domino, and shares its lead single/video, “How We See The Light.” Despite the album’s playful title, Cale’s second album in just over a year still contains the same feelings of fierce and inquisitive rage that were present in Cale’s much-lauded 2023 album MERCY, “a deeply atmospheric collection about encroaching doom and the life-saving power of art and community” (Wall Street Journal). He remains angry, still incensed by the willful destruction that unchecked capitalists and unrepentant conmen have hoisted upon the wonders of this world and the goodness of its people. But this is not at all MERCY II, or some collection of castoffs, as throughout his career of more than six decades, Cale has never been much for repetition. His vanguard-shaping enthusiasms have shifted among ecstatic classicism and unbound rock, classic songcraft and electronic reimagination with proud restlessness. And so, on POPtical Illusion, he foregoes the illustrious cast to burrow mostly alone into mazes of synthesizers and samples, organs and pianos, with words that, as far as Cale goes, constitute a sort of swirling hope, a sage insistence that change is yet possible. Produced by Cale and longtime artistic partner Nita Scott in his Los Angeles studio, POPtical Illusion is the work of someone trying to turn toward the future – exactly as Cale always has.
Lead single, “How We See The Light,” is one of the most beautiful and redemptive tracks in Cale’s catalogue, featuring pulsing pianos shifting in and out of phase with steadfast drums, all while assorted whorls of noise billow in the background. Cale considers another relationship’s end and sees it not as a waste of time, but as a chance to learn, an opportunity to get to somewhere unexpected. “Can I close another chapter in the way we run our lives?” he sings, the curious curl of his voice suggesting this is the first time he’s ever asked that. “More decisive in the future, or deliberate in the end?” This longing is reflected in the song’s video, which presents Cale collaborating once again with Pepi Ginsberg, a director noted for “[adding] depth to an already unfathomable piece of art” (FADER) on their previous work together.
Cale has often said that something shifted inside his mind during the pandemic, realizing that, nearing 80, he was living and working through something that many of his past contemporaries weren’t. He wanted to document it. He wrote more than 80 songs in a period of a little over a year, collectively surveying the range of human experience in the process—humor bled into frustration, regret gave way to forgiveness, sadness tangled with surrealism. What’s more, Cale has never relegated himself to the old guard, to sitting on the sidelines and kvetching about modernity and the way things used to be done. The classically trained violist who studied with John Cage and Aaron Copland has long been a hip-hop zealot, especially the creative ways it wields technology to create multi-dimensional textures or build surprising melodies. POPtical Illusion synthesizes those emotions and enthusiasms into a dozen electronic playgrounds, Cale’s magisterial voice webbing across it all with puns and insights, grievances and quips, and some version of truth.
John Cale has always been a musician of the times, helping to usher in titanic shifts in sound and culture. The bleeding edge drones of his Sun Blindness Music opened the path to TheVelvet Underground. The frantic rock ofFear and Slow Dazzle, not to mention his production with Patti Smith and the Stooges, framed a half century of punk, post-punk, and art-rock to come. And his curiosity about the way electronics could be more than a gimmick in rock music served as an inspiration to an uncountable number of crucial scenes. Once again, on POPtical Illusion, Cale stands as a musician of these times. He looks at the orchestrated turmoil of recent history, furrows his brow in disgust, and then turns on his heels toward a future, even if he—like all of the rest of us, really—doesn’t know just what he’ll find or who exactly he’ll be there. He’s simply happy to be going toward it all.
POPtical Illusion will be available on 2xLP, CD, and digitally. The Domino Mart pink & mint vinyl 2xLP edition pressing of 1000 includes a 7″ featuring 2 exclusive tracks, and a POPitem – a limited edition illusionary twirling paper Objet.
Alessandro Stefana (“Asso”), the Italian composer, musician, and producer who has contributed to album’s by PJ Harvey, Mike Patton, and Calexico, amongst others, releases his self-titled sophomore album on May 17 via Ipecac Recordings.
A preview of the nine-song collection arrives with today’s release of the song, “The House” (ipecac.lnk.to/asso).
Throughout the album, Asso performs an eclectic array of instruments (ukelin, Marxophone, organ, pedal steel and baritone guitars, and more) and in varying genres, borrowing from rootsy folk and primitive blues to soundtracks, psychedelia, desert ballads and ambient explorations. Asso merges the past and present courtesy of the Smithsonian Folkways archives, adding Appalachian folk icon Roscoe Holcomb‘s vocals to freshly re-imagined versions of the revered singer/banjo player’s songs.
“It is a powerful and moving testimony to a bygone era,” Asso says of his addition of Holcomb’s vocals. “I have always been fascinated by the idea of mixing folk, a music so intimately linked to the land, with something that goes beyond the boundaries of the genre.”
Asso’s debut solo release, Poste e Telegrafi (2013), was dubbed “one of the most striking works you’ll hear from a young composer all year” by Pitchfork, and AllMusic who deemed it “an impressive debut.”
Legendary garage punks The Monsters will tour through Mexico and the US West Coast in late April through May, beginning their trek in Mexico City and concluding up the Pacific Coastline in Seattle. This string of shows is their first-ever tour through western America and marks the band’s return to the New World since their 2014 Midwestern tour anchored by a headlining appearance at the Muddy Roots Festival. In two, with the Swiss quartet, Slovenly Recordings founder Pete Menchetti will DJ punk, garage, and exotica 45s during the pre-show and after-parties.
It’s common to read names like Celtic Frost, LiLiPUT, and The Young Gods as pioneers of Switzerland’s fringe rock movements. However, The Monsters are justifiably well deserving to be included in this category due to their creation of an off-branch rock genre they dub “trash rock, a subgenre that’s influenced a whole new generation of underground punk groups since the band formed in 1986. This genre is a strange mix of rockabilly grooves fused with chainsaw-fury speed punk, and The Monsters have only become faster, funnier, and more furious with age with their proof on their recent album, You’re Class, I’m Trash, which saw release via Voodoo Rhythm Records, Slovenly Recordings, and Sounds of Subterrania.
The Monsters have performed on stages across the continents of North/South America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. Their first run across the West Coast holds special meaning for the quartet, with the band sharing their thoughts below.
The Monsters are a Garage-Trash band out of Switzerland. We’ve played almost everywhere in the world, from Tomsoe, Norway, above the Arctic Circle, down to Buenos Aires, Argentina. From Japan to Mexico and to unusual places like Vietnam, Sicily, and more. But we never played the US West Coast, although that’s where a lot of inspiration for what we do comes from. Time to change that, for good!
The Monsters have a long history with the West Coast of the USA. Jan – the drummer – was born in San Luis Obispo in the summer of love, and Beat-Man – the CEO – even has family in Los Angeles. It’s like coming home, and we wanna show what we do and present to you our Super-1-Riff-Rock’n’Roll-Boogie-Trash.
The Monsters were formed in Berne, Switzerland, and that’s as un-American as a town can be. From the very beginning, we were unsatisfied with the music scene in general, and spezialy the music scene in Switzerland. At first, we were against pop music. Now it’s the copycats, the bands living and celebrating the past. We can’t stand it and hate it today as much as we hated it yesterday.
But instead of complaining, we create new music, a new listening experience for you and your brain, and it will be so loud that we can’t hear you complaining about it.
That’s our goal; you’ve been warned. – Beat-Man, Janosh, Swan Lee, and Pumi.
House and techno music were in a weird spot as the 1990s were ending and a new century was beginning. People had been raving away through the nights and early mornings of the 1990s in anticipation of living in a future that would, of course, never truly arrive. How would techno evolve in this new world / era?
Green Velvet had a pretty good idea how: Mix a bit of industrial music with trance and house, don’t skimp on the partying, and take the new century as it comes, baby. He released the perfectly titled Whatever just as the new millennium launched, summing up everyone’s attitude after the spectre of the Y2K apocalypse turned out to be a Scooby-Doo-style faker.
Opening track “Genedefekt” is almost like the opening theme of a video game with its 16-bit bleeps, but the thumping bass and machine drums elevate to something with a bit of menace – not unlike how a lot of people envisioned the next century as it arrived. That arrival, and not knowing what was coming next, is summed up in GV’s big hit, “La La Land.” The catchy bass and gets in your head and won’t escape as GV sings, “I’ve been the one to party until the end. Looking for the after-party to begin.” Like a lot of us, GV was there dancing until the end of the previous century and hoping the next one would be an even better after-party.
Also like a lot of us, GV was wondering if he should reinvent himself, and even how to do so, in the new millennium. “Stranj” has him singing, “For the first time I’m starting to realize I need to come down from this high, and be that person my family wants me to be – a model citizen of society.” GV calls out people who try to sabotage his dreams, racists, haters, and people living in fear on “When?”, and gives them rapid, energetic beats to shake them out of their brain fog.
“Sleepwalking” is a salute to “the weird ones” (“not the cool kids”) who find solace in the night and self-harm. GV hopes they’ll realize “Hatin’ themselves doesn’t make them happy.” “Stop Lyin'” is, as the kids call it, a banger – and a classic one at that. The near-goth synth-bass is outstanding, and the industrial beats would do Nitzer Ebb proud…as would the following near-instrumental track, “Minimum Rage,” with its alarm clock sounds, throbbing beats, and sampled crowd chants. It instantly brings to mind visions of people in black rubber shirts dancing under strobe lighting.
“GAT (The Great American Tragedy)” has GV screaming “Do what you like if you feel right!” by the end of it. It’s a panicked, wild track boiling with anger at being told what to do from every angle all the time. “Waitin’ 4 the Day2End” is a slice of GV’s life as he goes down to the corner diner and starts his own daily grind…along with everyone else around him from the guy next to him, the “old friend hooked on heroin,” and a party promoter who appears to be in a lot of trouble. The album ends with “Dank” – a snapping, double-dutch beat song about smoking weed that turns into a bumping floor-filler just when you think it’s finished.
That’s how Green Velvet was going into the new millennium – reflective, angry, high, and aching to get the rest of us off our assess to create the future we wanted in the here and now.
Levitation France returns with another fun lineup of pyschedelia, shoegaze, rock, and even rap this year.
Sleaford Mods closes the two-day festival on Friday, May 24th. Upchuck will provide some wild punk rock for you, Sweeping Promises will bring the fuzz, and psych-rock giants Acid Mothers Temple will melt your mind.
Don’t miss Deap Vally on the 25th. This show is part of their final tour before they put up the guitar and drum sticks to be full-time moms. Another good duo, Ghostwoman, will be worth your time. Melts are a hot new band playing a cool mix of post-punk and electro. Lysistrata are a hungry, raw, French rock band that I’m sure will put on a blistering set in front of their countrymen. Hoover III play nice psychedelia, whereas Fat White Family play somewhat dangerous psychedelia. I hope they come tour the U.S. after this.
Tickets are on sale, and Angers is a lovely town. Plus, you’ll be in France before the Olympics, so get there before the rest of the world does!
Fake Youth Cult is actually Dutch artist Richard van Kruysdijk, who created his new EP, White Light / Black Noise, with minimal arrangements. “The concept behind the songs is: create one song a day with a minimal, mainly analogue setup. Just a few synths, some drum samples, a sequencer and GO!” – he says in the press release sent to me. The result is an impressive work that mixes dark techno with some punk, and one track is even meant for a ballet performance.
The trolling synth-bass of “Visitor” grabs your attention right away, and you feel like you’re about to enter a combat arena filled with menacing robots. “Scorched” is probably how the dance floor is left after it’s played, as it’s full of powerful synths and hot, crashing beats.
Then along comes “Messing,” which will become your new favorite industrial dance track. It hits all the right beats and notes, transporting you to dark clubs in places with leaky ceilings and sweaty people who may or may not be undead fiends. “Smear” roars right by you like an out-of-control truck hauling scrap metal.
“Management” starts off side B (if you’re hearing this on vinyl) with pulsing sounds that mimic a lover’s heartbeat in the throes of rapturous sex. The looped, echoing vocals of a woman saying, “I feel…I see…I touch…I need…More…” are alluring and haunting. “Pulsar,” the closing track, is the one made for a ballet performance. van Kruysdijk often collaborates with dance troupes, and this track, with its relentless kick drum and buzzing, ticking motor-like beats, must create quickened heart rates in the dancers and audience.
The whole EP is like that, really. It’s heart-racing. Brace yourself before you play it.
