Failure, the Los Angeles trio of Ken Andrews, Greg Edwards and Kellii Scott, have announced their first ever streaming concert film: “We Are Hallucinations.”
The concert film features a set list that spans the band’s six albums and captures the magic of Failure’s live performance.
The one-time only event debuts on Dec. 15 at 12:00 pm pacific/3:00 pm eastern/8:00 pm UK/9:00 pm EU, and remains available through Dec.18. Viewers have three full days from the time of purchase to watch the film at any time, and as often, as they would like. Tickets as well as a limited-edition commemorative poster, newly released vinyl variants for each of the band’s six albums, as well as various merch items, are available now via linktr.ee/failureband.
“This film is comprised of performances from our Summer 2022 Wild Type Droid tour of North America,” explains Greg Edwards. “It’s crazy that we have never made a concert film before, but I think this will really stand as a definitive document of the dynamic between the three of us on stage and the connection we have with our fans.”
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.
This year’s lineup for Levitation was stacked. Osees playing all four nights, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizardplaying twice, Slift coming in from France, The Jesus and Mary Chain coming in from the UK? Sign me up.
Day One (Thursday) started, as usual with a stop at Pelon’s for some Tex-Mex and then over to Stubb’s for the first three-band set we’d see over the weekend. Opening the festival for us were the post-punk trio Automatic, who had only improved since we’d seen them at Levitation France four months earlier. They also had some of the best sound mixing of the entire weekend.
Automatic
A lot of people loved Automatic’s set. We saw plenty of people carrying new Automatic tote bags and wearing new band shirts afterwards. Up next was Detroit’s Protomartyr delivering a powerful set of urgent post-punk. Afterwards, they announced a surprise show at the 13th Floor bar down the street the following night.
Protomartyr
The Stubb’s show ended with shoegaze giants The Jesus and Mary Chain, who, despite having problems with a distortion pedal, put on a good set of classics and new material to a loving crowd who thought they sounded great without the faulty pedal.
The Jesus and Mary Chain
That didn’t end our night, however. We walked over to Elysium for the sold-out show featuring Slift – the cosmic metal band from Toulouse, France. Anticipation was high for the set, and they did not disappoint. The raw power coming from them in the small venue was almost overpowering at some points. They were drenched with sweat by the end of the first song, as was most of the audience. It was the end of their U.S. tour and their first time in Austin, so they poured out all the gas in the tank they had left for the crowd. Theirs was the best set of the night.
Slift
It was a great way to open what would be a fun four days. Up next would be a return to Hotel Vegas for the first time in years, the sexiest set of the weekend, and a band I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see live.
Buffalo Daughter‘s 2021 album, We Are the Times, is a good time capsule of what was happening in the band’s lives, and all our lives, in the middle of a pandemic. The band declared that we had had adapt to the times we were in or be stuck in them forever.
“Music is the vitamin to live under. Too much pressure in quarantine,” they say at the beginning of the album on “Music.” Synth-bloops and heavy electro-bass pep us up for the times to come. In fact, “Times” is the next track, and it’s bumping dance track about adapting to circumstances beyond your control – so why worry about them? They state the obvious on “Global Warming Kills Us All,” and they state it with robotic voices, possibly to emulate our eventual A.I. overlords that take over the planet to save it from us.
“Life is long, life is short. I’m not sure what time we’re in. Should I stay, or should I go?” Whatever you do, “Don’t Punk Out,” they warn on this cool post-punk jam with sharp guitars and bright synths. “Loop” lands somewhere between electro and industrial. “ET (Densha)” brings in dubstep bass, but plays it slow to create a sense of dread and danger. On “Jazz,” they encourage us to open our hearts and minds in these weird times. People might need us as much as we need them. The album ends with the quirky “Everything Valley,” which encourages us to hold onto hope
It’s another good album from Buffalo Daughter that, like a lot of their stuff, is hard to classify, but that’s okay. It’s meant to lift your spirits a bit, so let it.
Written over the course of two years of turmoil, during which, among other things, she experienced the deaths of her father and of a friend, and the end of a relationship, Ruth Radelet‘s The Other Side EP has her emerging from shadows cast by bright southern California suns and the weight of grief to step forward into whatever the next moment will bring.
“Stranger” is a love letter / confession to Los Angeles, and how, according to Radelet’s liner notes, “…[it’s] about the feeling of always being on the outside looking in, of the city never fully opening its doors for me.” It brings to mind lonely midnight drives through brightly lit places jammed with people that still feel empty and hollow. Radelet’s lovely, haunting voice is perfect for a track like this, as are the soft, melancholy string instruments throughout it.
“Sometimes” is about the death of Radelet’s friend, and how she wishes she could go back in time, have a proper send-off for her or just wish the day away altogether. I’ve been there, Ms. Radelet. I’m still there in some ways. I hope this song doesn’t affect you, as that probably means you haven’t yet experienced a serious loss, but you’ll come back to this song when you need it.
“Is it easy to start over?” Radelet asks on “Crimes” – a song about how achieving success sometimes causes you to forget who you were before you were a success – and how sometimes that life was better and easier. It shimmers with synths and shoegaze guitar around Radelet’s hypnotizing vocals.
“Be Careful” is a song about treading carefully when it comes to finding new love after loss. The electro-percussion and bass in it almost sound backwards, like the rhythms propelling the song forward are taking two steps forward and one step back…much like Radelet in her lyrics (“I’m afraid of your touch. I might need you too much. What will it cost? Have I already lost?”).
The closer, “Youth,” is about Radelet looking back on her life after she meets a lover younger than her. She’s envious over how life hasn’t yet jaded him, and wonders about that time in her life. This is a bit difficult for me to fathom, as Radelet seems ageless in every photo I’ve seen of her or when I saw her live with her former band, The Chromatics. She’s susceptible to the same nostalgia and regret as all of us are, however, and her vocals are a soft ode to simpler times.
It’s a lovely EP from one of the loveliest voices in music for the last couple decades. It sticks with you after it’s done and one that you’ll float back to whenever you need it.
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.
Today, Los Angeles-based artist Ruth Radelet announces her debut EP, The Other Side, out October 7th. Today, she presents its lead single/video, the cinematic ballad “Stranger.” Best known for fronting the influential and beloved group Chromatics, Ruth solidifies her next chapter as a solo artist with The Other Side. Written over the course of two years and recorded with friend and producer Filip Nikolic (formerly of Poolside), The Other Side showcases Radelet’s timeless voice and classic take on songwriting.
Following the single “Crimes,” “her ethereal and poignant debut” (Gorilla vs. Bear), “Stranger” is a love letter to LA. The stark black-and-white video, directed by James Manson and shot on 16mm Kodak film by Freddie Whitman, features Ruth exploring the city alone. “Stranger” is about a specific kind of loneliness that I have only felt in Los Angeles. Although the song is very much about longing, it’s more about a place than a person,” she elaborates. “The lyric ‘I could never hold you in my hands’ is about the feeling of always being on the outside looking in, of the city never fully opening its doors to me.”
Exploring themes of love, death, and rebirth, “The Other Side represents a side of my personality as an artist that most people haven’t seen until now,” explains Radelet. “It also represents my coming out the other side of a traumatic experience, gathering what I could from ‘Before’ and figuring out how to exist ‘After.’ This record was forged in the fire of a transformative two-year period during which I lost almost everything, including my father who was a huge influence on me. Most of the songs were written just before I was caught up in a storm of big changes, and they were all finished just as life started to feel sweet again. It feels right to share some of the last chapter before moving into the next, and though it’s a melancholy record, for me The Other Side is a step into a bigger and brighter future.”
Radelet is a singer, songwriter, and musician with diverse influences ranging from Joni Mitchell to Frank Ocean. She has been performing and releasing music for over a decade since joining Chromatics in 2006 for their acclaimed album Night Drive released the following year. Chromatics’ music and aesthetic has notably been used in numerous films, television series, and fashion shows. The band appeared on screen in multiple episodes of David Lynch’sTwin Peaks: The Returnwhile Radelet was recently featured on a Chromatics’ 2020 remix of the Weeknd’s #1 hit single, “Blinding Lights.”
Last month, Hudson, NY-based band Babehoven announced their debut album, Light Moving Time, out October 28th on Double Double Whammy. Today, they present a new single/video, “Stand It.” There’s an incredible emotional intelligence across Light Moving Time, and this glows throughout “Stand It.” Maya Bon verbalizes an imperfect yet loving relationship that burns bright, but may no longer serve the people involved. Its sonics are coated with My Bloody Valentine’s wobbly shoegaze, as she sings: “I wish there’s something that I could say / I love you but I hate you anyway / I’d rather stand outside getting old / Then learn to love and let you go.” The glitchy, atmospheric accompanying video was made by Babehoven’s Ryan Albert.
“As time moves forward, I feel the fractures deeper: home, bonds, semblances of familial care that slip away from me,” says Bon. “‘Stand It’ is about trying to push through the challenges to be there for one another, to call out for support, to sift through the losses and find the humanity within the dysfunction.”
Watch Babehoven’s Video for “Stand It” Bon views light as one of life’s few fundamental truths. In times of pain, we often look to simple things we can rely on, and light is as reliable as they come. Light Moving Timerevolves around Bon’s view of life as a confusing, jarring, and kaleidoscopic experience filled with contradictions, loss, and change, so it’s no wonder Bon often looks to light — not so much for specific answers, but as a pillar of continuity and a marker of time. The album encompasses tributes to loved ones and the power of community, experiences of trauma, and explorations of changing relationships, with self-reflections scattered throughout. It’s less about how to deal with pain and more about how we all experience life as a simultaneously cruel, beautiful, and illogical beast — full of complex emotions and a perpetual sense of subjectivity that leaves us unsure of what’s real. But Bon is reassured by the fact that all of us are capable of generosity and a level of connection that’s impossible to articulate with words.
Bon has built a solid partnership with her Albert, her musical collaborator producer, over the last few years, releasing several EPs since 2018. On their full-length, songs alternate seamlessly across styles – some have the wispy ambient calm of a Liz Harris track, another contains the plucky indie-folk warmth of Hovvdy, and lead single “I’m On Your Team” falls somewhere between a flowy country song and an ‘80s power ballad. Light Moving Time rests on lyrics that zoom in and out, inviting listeners to bring their own experiences to these songs when her writing is more cryptic and stew in the moments when Bon presents her entire heart on a platter.
Just in time for its thirteenth anniversary, A Place to Bury Strangers will release a deluxe two-disc reissue of their excellent album Exploding Head on October 21, 2022.
The original album is fully remastered and will be available on limited edition transparent vinyl 2LP, transparent red 1LP and deluxe 2CD. The 2LP version is available exclusively via A Place To Bury Strangers merch stores and features second disc of rarities and remixes.
Watch the new video for previously unreleased ‘Take It All’ here:
The band will also be touring Spain and Asia this November!
As TAN COLOGNE head to Italy to kick off their European tour with a residency at Pescetrullo in Puglia, today they have shared a final pre-release track from their forthcoming new album ‘Earth Visions Of Water Spaces’, set for release on September 9th on Labrador Records.
Continuing the expansive, gravity-defying psychedelia on the New Mexico duo’s second album, latest single “Space In The Palms” shows a delicately brooding, woozy side to the record. The band comment: “Space in the Palms” is about a day we spent on a secluded beach in Baja Mexico where wild horses ran free and played in the waves and found relief from the sun under naturally formed palm huts. There was a small stone structure on the path to the beach that plants and elements had eroded and taken over. We eventually found the beach after many palm tree observations and mile marker searches. The beach was found off of a dirt road that descended from an old highway. It was like a treasure. This song is about that space. While recording guitars, we experienced a major lightning storm in New Mexico.”
Listening to the ethereal, spangled, psychedelic grandeur at the heart of ‘Earth Visions Of Water Spaces’, it feels appropriate that Tan Cologne reside and record amid the sparse, almost lunar landscapes of Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico. Their weightless songs appear to defy gravity, with the voices of Lauren Green and Marissa Macias floating in an empty sky while guitars shimmer on a distant horizon. That said, these same songs feel fluid, almost aqueous, their evolution unhurried as they ripple gracefully towards the skyline. It’s no surprise, therefore, to discover the album’s central theme, one highlighted by its name and more than a few of its song titles, because it’s inspired by something precious to all who live in such environments.
“We would like listeners to feel they are submerged within or near the presence of water,” the duo says. “The entire album is about water: droplets of water, atmospheric exchanges of water, and the transformation of Earth by and through water. We were drawn to this through finding shells within the desert landscape. We also read a story in the newspaper about a 300-million-year-old shark fossil found in the mountains in New Mexico thirty miles southwest of Albuquerque. There’s a lot to consider in reflecting on where the Earth’s path has been, and where and what it may be, water of course being the vital experience for existence.”
Green and Macias began recording their second album, the follow-up to 2020’s ‘Cave Vaults On The Moon In New Mexico’, in the summer of 2021 at their home, a relatively remote location. Swimming became an important daily ritual, as did gardening and visiting a nearby dry river bed, where they wrote recent single “Topaz Wave”, in whose video it can be seen. “The sides of the arroyo walls are shaped like curved waves,” they say, “reflecting the experience of tidal and earth transformation, and how the desert land was once ocean.”
The rest of each day was spent writing and recording. Tan Cologne are an entirely self-contained unit, responsible for every sound on the record, sharing vocal, guitar, lap steel, synths and percussion duties, with Green adding drums, bass, autoharp, and melodica and Macias keyboards as well as bouzouki, not to mention the artwork’s photography. At all times, however, their proximity to nature and the ferocity of its elements made its own crucial contribution to the record’s development. “The summers in New Mexico have major monsoons and lightning storms,” they explain. “Most of the recording was done during moody and wild weather in days full of contrast, from lightning storms to dust devils to snow. The album was created to tell stories of water on Earth, with all of its songs being reflections of past, present, and future civilisations.”
“The present and future being of Earth’s water and lands are an ever-present concern and prayer cycle for us,” they conclude. “The fires in the western United States are becoming omnipresent, and everything feels different and, at times, bleak. We hope humanity can shift to care for and heal our Mother Earth together.” ‘Earth Visions of Water Spaces’ is consequently the work of a band who’ve seen first-hand the crisis unfolding around us, and it’s a vivid, ingenious and aptly atmospheric reminder of what’s at stake. There’s really no excuse not to dive in.
‘Earth Visions Of Water Spaces’ will be released on September 9th via Labrador Records.
Tan Cologne live dates: September 2 – Pescetrullo (Artist residency performance) – Ostuni, Italy September 9 – Landet – Stockholm, Sweden September 10 – (Day) at Delicious Goldfish Records – Stockholm, Sweden September 10 – (Night) at Patricia (boat show) – Stockholm, Sweden September 13 – Kazimier Stockroom w/ Sunstack Jones – Liverpool, UK September 14 – Abbeydale Picture House w/ Bobby Lee – Sheffield, UK September 16 – The Betsey Trotwood – London, UK September 18 – La Pointe Lafayette – Paris, France
Keep your mind open.
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