Last month, Weeping Icon returned after a nearly three year absence to announce their Ocelli EP (out this Friday on Fire Talk). The EP was announced with a single called “Pigs, Shit & Trash“, their first new music since the 2019 release of their thrilling self-titled debut, which generated considerable excitement, earning praise from outlets like FADER, Stereogum, FLOOD, BrooklynVegan and Revolver, who made comparison to Sonic Youth while describing the track as “so sick“.
Today, Weeping Icon are sharing a second track from the three track EP ahead of its Friday release, a single entitled “Two Ways.”
“‘Two Ways’ is about people who want to appear virtuous in their public facing personality, but live a contradictory shadow life in which they do whatever they please, no matter how harmful their actions are to others,” explains Sara Fantry. “It’s told through the voice of a man named Todd (yes, that’s his real name!) who I encountered a few years back. He used a harmful term towards a woman he was angry with, then accepted a long explanatory talk from me, appeared to reflect, enthusiastically told me he’d appreciated me taking the time to educate him and agreed to change his behavior, and then immediately found that same woman and started calling her harmful sexist names without a moment between. I was truly in shock at how comfortable he was with his personality being stratified into two layers – the outward-facing kind, modern man, looking to learn from the necessarily rapid changes in society – and the sinister, selfish sadist beneath who believes in his own entitlement to act with impunity.”
“The video we made (directed by Rafeal Joson & Mike Andretti, all editing and effects by MikeVideopunk) explores the stratified personality of the daytime talkshow host, who wants to appear kind, empathetic and sincere to his viewers, while goading his guests into salacious fights for his own profit, regardless of the personal and public damage done to those guests. With some humor in there, we hope to hold a conversation around the shadow of nefarious intent that lurks below so many supposedly ethical personalities in our world.”
To mark the release of the EP the band will be playing at Alphaville this Friday, November 18th. Tickets can be purchased here.
Psychedelic-jam-rock-experimental group Circles Around The Sun have officially revealed the details of their fourth full-length studio album, Language, set to release this coming spring via Megaforce Records. The group – comprised of Adam MacDougall (keyboards & synths), Dan Horne (bass), Mark Levy (drums) and John Lee Shannon (guitar) – has released a new single alongside the announcement of the album. Listen to “Outer Boroughs” HERE.
As guitarist John Lee Shannon explains: “‘Outer Boroughs’ was initially composed when the track emerged from an impromptu jam in the studio around a four-chord sequence Adam was playing around with. Dan’s bassline is one of my favorites, and is unusual in that he initially heard the ‘1’ in a different place than intended, giving extra emphasis to the downbeat of the second measure.” He continues, “It’s a breezy groove that paints several landscapes in vivid color before departing into deep space for an extended middle jam. Originally titled ‘Ouroboros’ for its cyclical nature, it was later changed to “Outer Boroughs” for a bit of mondegreen and a nod to the greatest city in the world.”
On Language, Circles Around The Sun will traverse even deeper into the annals of outer-spacial dance grooves that first surfaced on 2020’s self-titled release. The new material finds them oscillating through hybrid strains of disco-funk, soul jazz and psychedelic rock, harnessing their stylistic lanes into a singular, intoxicating brew.
The four reconvened in the studio to lay down a record that offers a window into what and where Circles Around The Sun are today. Language is the sound of a rock band confidently writing the next chapter of their story. CATS is a unit brought closer and made stronger having persevered through unthinkable tragedy, weathering the stormy seas to continue onward and upward with humble grace and subtle swagger.
“There’s a bit of a different arc to Language. The first couple songs are gonna put you in a certain headspace, and then the party happens later on.” notes bassist Dan Horne.
Shop Language vinyl & other exclusive merchandise HERE. TRACKLIST 1. Third Sunrise Over Gliese 667 (6:24) 2. The Singularity (5:13) 3. Outer Boroughs (7:28) 4. Away Team (6:36) 5. Wobble (6:04) 6. Language (Album Mix with Mikaela Davis) (7:54)
The band continues their Language Tour, revealing dates to close out this year and more in 2023. Tickets go on sale this Friday, 11/11/22 at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern.
TOUR DATES Dec 29, 2022 – Roanoke, VA – 5 Points Music Sanctuary Dec 30, 2022 – Winston Salem, NC – The Ramkat Dec 31, 2022 – Richmond, VA – The National * Jan 20, 2023 – Albany, NY – Lark Hall Jan 21, 2023 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl Jan 22, 2023 – Ardmore, PA – Ardmore Music Hall Jan 25, 2023 – Pittsburgh, PA – Thunderbird Music Hall Jan 26, 2023 – Harrisburg, PA – XL Live Jan 27, 2023 – Asbury Park, NJ – Wonder Bar Jan 28, 2023 – Fairfield, CT – StageOne Jan 29, 2023 – Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair
Gloria de Oliveira and Dean Hurley share the video for “Eyes Within” from their new album, Oceans of Time (out now on Sacred Bones). The video – a “one woman operation” shot, directed, and edited by Oliveria – is a gorgeous accompaniment to her and Hurley’s evocative soundscape, featuring digital and Super 8 footage from an island in Brazil. It “reflects the introspective nature of the song, drawing inspiration from the diary-like approach to cinema of Agnés Varda, and her wandering female protagonists such as herself in her essayistic documentaries (‘The Beaches of Agnés’), or Sandrine Bonnaire in ‘Vagabond’ and Corinna Marchand in ‘Cléo from 5 to 7.’,” Oliveira says. “I also drew inspiration from the romanticism of Zeffirelli‘s 1960s version of Romeo & Juliet and the accompanying soundtrack by Nino Rota, the latter of which was also a reference point to Dean and me while we were working on the album.”
Watch “Eyes Within” With its impressionistic synths, shimmering guitars, and ethereal sonics, Oceans of Time at moments recalls the foundational dream pop of 4AD acts and early 90’s New Age pop. Frequent David Lynch collaborator Dean Hurley sets the tonal and sonic backdrop of each track on the album, lending a layered ether that envelops, frames and spotlights de Oliveira’s vocals. The album feels especially attuned to the connections between the physical and transcendental realms, and like the best dream pop, has a way of making the veil between two worlds feel just a little bit thinner. Oceans of Time is a key that has the power to release its listener from the handcuffs of reality, however briefly.
Growing out of a musical pen-pal style correspondence that took place over the course of a year, separated by the Atlantic Ocean, de Oliveira and Hurley passed thoughts and music back and forth that would eventually form their collaborative album Oceans of Time, all without ever meeting or speaking. The result is a sonic tapestry of that exchange: woven from conceptual threads of the celestial within, mortality and the realm beyond the stars. The duo’s partnership is an effortless merge, with the steady presence of de Oliveira’s vocals endowing the record with its sense of potency.
Throughout Oceans of Time, there is an innate understanding of how a lyric across a chordal color can sharpen an emotional truth. Much like a sunbeam that pierces a spiderweb to reveal its intricacy, de Oliveira’s lyrics and melody are purposely aimed in order to illuminate the truths deep within one’s self…a process that ties us all to the universal. The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, a professed influence, wrote about concepts of truth and faith in a way that illuminate the hidden depths of the soul amidst an individual’s earthly trials of experience. Much of this feeds into the album and threads its quilt of themes.
Today, Australian polymaths King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard unveil their new single/video, “Hate Dancin’,” taken from their forthcoming album Changes, out October 28th on KGLW. Following last week’s Laminated Denim– an album written specifically with their recent sold-out Marathon Shows at Red Rocks in mind – and Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava, Changes marks King Gizzard’s third and final album of October. Originally imagined as the group’s fifth album of 2017, Changes has ended up the sixth album King Gizzard will release in 2022 (rounded out by April’s double album, Omnium Gatherum, January’s Butterfly 3001 remix record, and March’s Made in Timeland, the latter of which was just surprised-released on DSPs for the first time). “Hate Dancin’” is a tight number, clocking in just above the 3-minute mark. “I started writing a song about how I hate dancing, but then I realized that I love dancing,”says Gizz frontman Stu Mackenzie. The accompanying video puts the band’s exquisite moves front and center.
For half a decade, the sextet has been haunted by one elusive conceptual project that had bested their every attempt (of which there had been several). They first conceived the album back in 2017, a busy year for the group. Within a mere twelve months, they recorded and released five albums of new material, but the band had intended to see out the year with a different album. That album was called Changes, and it’s finally arriving now. “I think of Changes as a song-cycle,” says band-member Stu Mackenzie. “Every song is built around this one chord progression – every track is like a variation on a theme. But I don’t know if we had the musical vocabulary yet to complete the idea at that time. We recorded some of it then, including the version of ‘Exploding Suns’ that’s on the finished album. But when the sessions were over, it just never felt done. It was like this idea that was in our heads, but we just couldn’t reach. We just didn’t know yet how to do what we wanted to do.”
The group abandoned Changes and instead prepared the beguiling Gumboot Soup (the last of five albums the band released in 2017), and were then quickly ensnared by about eight other outlandish ideas that sent them in infinite new directions. But the concept of Changes did not go gently into that good night. “We really have been tinkering with it since then,” Mackenzie adds.
“It’s not necessarily our most complex record, but every little piece and each sound you hear has been thought about a lot,” Mackenzie adds. Indeed, the album has gestated over a fitfully inventive five years. But the album has taught him that projects operate to their own schedules and are ready when they’re ready.
Good things come to those who wait, and the magnificent Changes is worth every one of the 2,628,000 minutes King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard invested in it. Soaked in the warm sonics of 70s R’n’B and guided by simple chord-changes that contain multitudes and rounding out another remarkable year for the group, Changes is a luminous, soft-pop marvel. Come lose yourself in its slow-cooked brilliance.
Currently in the middle of a largely sold-out U.S. tour, the band return to the U.K. and Europe for a run of shows in March 2023 which include two nights at the Brixton Academy in London. Full dates are listed below and tickets are on sale now.
Finally, read Stereogum’s recent Cover Story on the band, which dives headlong into their epic month and the history of the band as they continue their march towards world domination is the Greatest Rock Band on the Planet™.
TOUR DATES Fri. Oct. 21 – Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium % Sat. Oct. 22 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall * SOLD OUT Sun. Oct. 23 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem * SOLD OUT Mon. Oct. 24 – Asheville, NC @ Rabbit Rabbit * SOLD OUT Wed. Oct. 26 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern * SOLD OUT Thu. Oct. 27 – New Orleans, LA @ Orpheum Theater * SOLD OUT Fri. Oct. 28 – Austin, TX @ Levitation – Stubb’s * SOLD OUT Sat. Oct. 29 – Austin, TX @ Levitation – Stubb’s $ SOLD OUT Mon. Oct. 31 – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion # Wed. Nov. 2nd – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre # SOLD OUT Sat. Dec. 10 – St. Kilda, AUS @ The Palace Foreshore @ Thu. Dec. 29 – Tauranga, NZ @ Wharepai Domain Sat. Dec. 31 – Wanaka, NZ @ Rhythm & Alps Wed. Jan. 4 – Auckland, NZ @ The Matakana Country Park Fri. Jan. 6 – New Plymouth, NZ @ Bowl of Brooklands Thu. Mar. 2 – Paris, FR @ Zenith Fri. Mar. 3 – Amsterdam, NL @ Gashoulder Sat. Mar. 4 – Tilburg, NE @ 013 Mon. Mar. 6 – Malmo, SE @ Plan B Tue. Mar. 7 – Stockholm, SE @ Munchenbryggeriet Wed. Mar. 8 – Oslo, NE @ Sentrum Scene Thu. Mar. 9 – Copenhagen, DK @ Den Gra Hal Sat. Mar. 11 – Warsaw, PL @ Progesja Sun. Mar. 12 – Prague, CZ @ Lucerna Velky Sal Mon. Mar. 13 – Vienna, AT @ Gasometer Wed. Mar. 15 – Milan, IT @ Alcatraz Thu. Mar. 16 – Zurich, CH @ X-Tra Fri. Mar. 17 – Lausanne, CH @ Les Docks Sat. Mar. 18 – Wiesbaden, DE @ Schlachthof Mon. Mar. 20 – Brussels, DE @ Cirque Royale Wed. Mar. 22 – London,UK @ Brixton Academy Thu. Mar. 23 – London, UK @ Brixton Academy Thu. Mar. 30 – Sydney, AUS @ Big Top Luna Park Thu. Apr. 6 – Byron Bay, AUS @ Tivoli Fri. Apr. 7 – Byron Bay, AUS @ Byron Bay Bluesfest
* w/ Leah Senior % w/ black midi, Leah Senior $ w/ Tropical Fuck Storm, The Murlocs # w/ The Murlocs, Leah Senior @ w/ Stella Donnelly, CIVIC
Rattlesnake Venom Trip premieres “Dead Empire” video today atMetal Injection. The song and debut album were recorded by Micah Carli of Hawthorne Heights and mixed by Adam Dutkiewicz of Killswitch Engage.
Kevin Schindel, vocalist and guitarist for RVT shares “Dead Empire is about getting older and seeing that life has passed you by. Pouring all your time and effort into your work and realizing you don’t have anything to show for it at the end. The video is capturing you looking back at yourself with heavy judgment and wishing to change your outcome. If only you could warn yourself somehow.”
The song is catchy as much as it is windmilling worthy, and comes alongside a music video directed by Kyle Moore.”– Greg Kennelty, Metal Injection
Based out of Dayton, Ohio, the band formed in September of 2019. Rattlesnake Venom Trip is a heavy rock/metal band with a lot of variety, saluting to classic bands like early Metallica, Black Sabbath, Alice in Chains, to more modern bands like Queens of the Stone Age, Mastodon, and Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats. RVT‘s collective love of classic rock, heavy metal, and psychedelic music has helped craft a compilation of songs with a wide array of musical dynamics. With each track the band ventures into new territory, creating a unique landscape for listeners to explore.
Although Rattlesnake Venom Trip is a new band, its members are certainly not strangers to the road, the stage, or the recording studio. They each have a long history of playing in bands and releasing music over the years. Featuring members of the metalcore act Twelve Tribes, post metal outfit Mouth of the Architect, and stoner rock band Neon Warship, the band plans on continuing from where their previous projects left off and making their own mark in time. “We cannot wait to see where this new music takes us”, shares RVT.
Full length album Dead Empire iscoming tostreaming services on October 19, 2022!
Recorded at Popside Studio with Micah Carli of Hawthorne Heights
Mixed at Wicked Good Productions by Adam Dutkiewicz of Killswitch Engage
Dry Cleaning share a new single/video, “No Decent Shoes for Rain,” off their upcoming album Stumpwork, out October 21st on 4AD. Following the recently released “Gary Ashby,” the group takes a more somber turn on “No Decent Shoes for Rain.” It begins with Florence Shaw’s vocals coiled tightly over woozy guitar and minimal percussion: “my poor heart is breaking.” Shaw says about the track; “’No Decent Shoes for Rain’ is inspired by grief, grief over past relationships, grief for loved ones who have died, and all the things that come with that; loneliness, numbness, yearning, ruminating about the past.” It shows Dry Cleaning in a more pared back state, not seen in their previous discography. The video is made of footage of the band in the studio at Rockfield and on tour.
Stumpwork was made in the aftermath of the death of two very important people to the band; bassist Lewis Maynard’s mother, and guitarist Tom Dowse’s grandfather. Both were instrumental in the band’s development, both in encouragement and, in the case of Maynard’s mother, literally providing the band with a place to rehearse. Shaw’s lyrics explore not only loss and detachment but all the twists and turns, simple joys and minor gripes of human experience too. Ultimately, what emerges from it all is a subtle but assertive optimism, and a lesson in the value of curiosity. Stumpwork is a heady mix that is entirely the band’s own, distinguishing it from anything produced by their contemporaries.
This fall, Dry Cleaning will tour across Europe. Following, they’ll play in Australia, and then embark on a lengthy run in the US. Then, they’ll return to Europe. Tickets for all shows are on sale now and a full list of dates can be found below.
Today Porto-based harpist Angélica Salvi has announced details of her forthcoming album ‘Habitat’ for release on November 4th via Lovers & Lollypops.
Since releasing her debut record ‘Phantone’ in 2019, Salvi has worked across multiple projects, both solo and in collaborations in the fields of cinema, dance, theatre, photography and music, working with names such as Valentina Magaletti, Lafawndah, The Pyramids, Natural Information Society,Evan Parker and more.
On ‘Habitat’ she continues to deepen her sonic exploration across eight songs with the harp at the centre, supported by the use of real-time audio signal processing tools to create complex textural works – each one evoking a specific sensory memory.
Today she shares the brisk, breathlessly racing first single and accompanying video, “Crina”. “Crina” means mane or horsehair in Portuguese, and Salvi describes the song as “The feeling of riding a horse… A journey into the unknown.”
The accompanying video, directed by award-winning Portuguese filmmaker André Gil Mata, was inspired by the album’s cover. “He said he really enjoys to look at my hands when I play. He says it is like a dance” Salvi explains. “He imagined my hands mimetized with a natural habitat. I told him I was imagining a mimetic atmosphere in the whole album: with water, plants, sand… so he chose plants, moss and water.”
On ‘Habitat’, Angélica is inspired by the habitat of her own, and the way in which she relates to it in her daily life. Each of the songs is a sensory memory that can be relived over and over again, with changing nuances and subtleties. It’s a set of moments of interaction with the elements that are, or have been, part of her routine and are transformed or modified with her actions. Memories captured and reproduced infinitely through labyrinthine patterns and sound textures, ambiguous melodies and flourishing harmonies that fluctuate, coexist and interact with other beings or elements in their universe of minimal language.
The album was created and recorded in her home studio with the aim of being fully possible to reproduce and process the sound in real time, in the context of live music. On the album there is almost no post-production. All sounds that appear on it come out of the harp and the affiliated pedals.
Brooklyn-based GIFT unveils “Share The Present,” the new single from their forthcoming album, Momentary Presence, out October 14th on Dedstrange. Following previous singles “Feather” and “Gumball Garden,” “Share the Present” stays grounded with solid motorik riffs and airy 80s-inspired synths making a comfortable bed for bandleader TJ Freda’s gentle affirmations. Freda explains, “Sharing the present is being in the present moment. Not looking towards the future or dwelling on the past. Being present is the most important thing you can do when you are feeling down. ‘Don’t look back, you’ll fall down’ don’t dwell on the past of who you were. Look to the present moment and appreciate who you are and where you’re going.” This ethos is central to Momentary Presence, a chronicle of the plight to stay present, and a celebration of the eternal now.
Composed of Freda and his bandmates Jessica Gurewitz, Kallan Campbell, Justin Hrabovsky, and Cooper Naess, GIFT have a knack for conjuring soundscapes that are simultaneously turbulent and gorgeous. GIFT’s debut album, Momentary Presence, is a natural match for Dedstrange, the new label co-founded by Oliver Ackermann of New York City noise-rock and psychedelic legends A Place to Bury Strangers and Death by Audio. Inspired by Be Here Now, the 1971 spiritual guide and counterculture landmark by guru Ram Dass, Momentary Presence is a meditation on working through the anxiety and self doubt that we all, at one point, carry.
Momentary Presence introduces TJ Freda as a sorcerous and versatile home-recording engineer. GIFT’s full-length debut contains recordings that seem to tease something seismic coming around the corner, as well as dense, layered productions that feel complete, definitive, and impermeable. Can you open yourself up and appreciate it in its fullness – the ugliness and confusion as well as the beauty and joy? The members of GIFT believe you can. Together, they share the quest for perfect sound, harmony during times of trouble, and radical openness.
The news regarding Doctor Explosion’s first release after an extensive recording break was made over the Summer with the announcement of their forthcoming album Superioridad Moral. Now, a new single off the album, along with the tour dates coinciding with the record’s release, is the latest update from the garage maniac sons of Asturias!
January 10th, 2016, was the passing date of David Bowie. For some people, it’s a day when they remember where they were upon learning the news. Superioridad Moral’sthird single, “El Día Que David Bowie Murió” has Jorge Explosion recalling that day seven years later with the below quote.
January 10, 2016 – Circo Perrotti Studios, Gijón (ES) “David Bowie died a few hours ago, and three musicians decided to express their surprise and admiration. Thus was born “The Day David Bowie Died,” an ode to artistic immortality. In an improvised session full of sound savagery and Pop spontaneity, Doctor Explosión reflect on their own daily insignificance in the face of death with their atypical and personal Garage de Autor. Fuzz’s raging guitars and delicious vocal harmonies combine in this energetic hit that is already playing across the Atlantic, at number three of Bill Kelly’s Top 10 for Little Steven’s Underground Garage.”. – (Jorge Explosion: 2022)
“
El Día Que David Bowie Murió” is the latest single premiering off Superioridad Moral with videos for “Insatisfacción” and “Vestir De Mujer” already available and charting on Spotify.
With a new album, the band sports a new look. Expanding from their traditional trio into a quartet, the band is anchored by Jorge Explosion (vocals/guitar), César Crespo (guitar), and ex-Cooper players Conrado Martin (drums) and Dani Montero (bass). Six years in the making, Superioridad Moralis the first offering by Doctor Explosion since 2010’s Hablaban Con Frases Hechas. Writing and recording began at Jorge’s Estudios Circo Perrotti in Gijón, where Jorge has produced groups such as The Jackets, The Fleshtones, Messer Chups, Holly Golightly, and many others. For mastering, Jorge enlists the assistance of notable Abbey Road mastering engineer Frank Arkwright whose production credits include New Order, The Smiths, Joy Division, Oasis, and Arcade Fire, among others.
Superioridad Moral will be available on vinyl, CD, and all digital platforms on November 4th via Slovenly Recordings. Pre-orders for each format can be found here.
Superioridad Moral Tracklisting
1. “Insatisfacción” 2. “Vestir De Mujer” 3. “El Día Que David Bowie Murió” 4. “La Gente No Sabe Gastar” 5. “Grises” 6. “Apego Evitativo” 7. “La Polilla” 8. “Acidez” 9. “Mi Lista De Cosas Que Hacer” 10.”Paleto (They Call Me Country)”
“I’m aware of only half the picture. It comes down upon me like a heavy rain. The psycho Deli is out of mustard and all the Porn Stars won’t leave their homes. I’m out only to get myself, but don’t get in the way. The bugs which throw themselves at windows rarely get their say.” – Caleb Landry Jones
Award-winning actor and visual artist Caleb Landry Jones is a bonafide musical maverick, and today, announces his new album Gadzooks Vol. 2, out November 4th on Sacred Bones, with lead single/video, “Touchdown Yolk.” Following 2021’s Gadzooks Vol. 1, the “engaging affair of warped, carnivalesque psychedelia” (The AV Club), Jones’ third album is his most soothing and sublime collection to date. And while most artists don’t save some of the best music of their career for an album with Vol. 2 in the title, Jones is an artist for whom chronology is a slippery substance.
Recorded with Nic Jodoin in the famed Valentine Recording Studios, Gadzooks Vol. 2 was made alongside Jones’ The Mother Stone, hailed by Billboard as “a remarkable beast of a debut album.” The team invited a slew of heavy hitting musicians, including producer Drew Erickson, to the studio to contribute to the magic, and the resulting album sounds a bit like pink elephants in cowboy hats making ASMR — at least for the first 20 seconds before it seamlessly changes entirely.
One of Jones’s greatest musical gifts is his ability to cover a vast energetic and sonic landscape in a way with a wide array of instrumentation and vocal stylings over a wholly unique song structure, in a way that feels cohesive and euphoric. A driving number, “Touchdown Yolk” is Jones, who plays nearly every instrument on the track, at his catchiest, while still maintaining his enthralling and distinct charm. The accompanying video, which was co-created by Jones, Patrick Jones, Katya Zvereva, Natalia Zvereva, Lera Moiseeva, Jean-Stephane Sauvaire, Jacqueline Castel and Mitch Horowitz, collages handheld camcorder footage recorded around New York City, an irresistibly unsettling foray into the ever-expanding Gadzooks universe.
