Local Suicide make a second pass of the Alberto Melloni’s Red Siren which gained support and praise from the likes of Sean Johnston, Justin Wilson (No Strings Attached), Erol Alkan (Phantasy Sound), and Curses.
Berliners, Local Suicide return to the helm, offering up their hypnotic superpowers to concoct an alternative to their cobra wave anthem. This one’s entitled “Blood Red Siren” and will be released digitally through EPM on the 8th of April.
Keep your mind open.
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Blending words from Phillip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, Edgar Allan Poe, and other famous authors and thinkers with shoegaze, synthwave, and fuzz-rock, Alien Lizard‘s Lucid Dream Machinehas a perfect name for its effect on you.
The instrumental “Terminal” starts off the album sounding like it was recorded in a steel mill owned by My Bloody Valentine. “Lotus Eaters” is eastern-tinged psychedelia with guitars that sound like bees working in the aforementioned steel mill. “Obserwacja Obserwatora” is even trippier, bringing Brian Jonestown Massacre tracks to mind as it winds around you like a sexy snake.
“Los Naranjos” loops acoustic Spanish guitar riffs around synths that remind me of fog horns. I can relate to “Sympathy for the Luddite,” as I am a bit of one, and I love the dreamy, hazy vocals. They remind me of some Love & Rockets tunes with Daniel Ash‘s vocals. “Eyes Eye the I in You” is a smoky instrumental, and “The Bird” is a slow, almost languid, track that could’ve been a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club tune in a previous life.
“Romantyczność” takes you into a strange headspace with strange, droning guitar chords, and the closing track, “Wombat 9,” takes you out of that headspace and into a dreamspace for over seven minutes- thus, the title of this album. The whole thing is like a dream that leaves you thinking about it for the rest of the day.
This was my third time seeing Gary Numan live, and it was the smallest venue I’ve seen him in so far. It was good to see a crowd of people happy to be experiencing live music again, and even better to see Numan and his band having a good time on stage.
His opening act was the one-woman band I Speak Machine, who came out looking like a Black Widow assassin and throwing down a set of darkwave mixed with kabuki, opera, and industrial grind. One of the best parts of her set was watching the reactions of some in the audience who didn’t know what to make of her, and of her not giving a damn what people thought.
I Speak Machine belting out operatic vocals for a dumbfounded crowd.
Mr. Numan came out to an appreciative crowd and proceeded to belt out a loud, sometimes furious set that mixed classics with hot tracks from his last two albums, Savageand Intruder.
Gary Numan being a rock god.
It was great to see him and his four-piece band having a good time. There were many moments when they were smiling or laughing. You could tell they were excited to be on tour. Numan’s guitarist, Steve Harris, was all over the stage, often mixing shredding solos with performance art antics. I’m fairly certain he broke a string or two just a few songs into the set from playing so hard.
Numan and crew
It was a great set, with standouts like “The Promise,” “Films,” “Ghost Nation,” “Love Hurt Bleed,” “Bed of Thorns,” “My Name Is Ruin,” “A Prayer for the Unborn,” and “Are Friends ‘Electric’?” Catch him if you can. He’s having a blast right now, and so will you.
Thanks to the woman who let me snap this photo of the set list she scored.
AKP Recordings is excited to announce the expanded Milan (Deluxe) from Alister Fawnwoda, Suzanne Ciani, Greg Leisz to be released digitally on April 15th. Today the first single “Snow Ritual (feat. Ghost Marrow)” is available and features vocals from singer and multi-instrumentalist Aurielle Zeitler.
Listen to the new single HERE, and pre-save the digital release HERE.
The song opens with a mass of sparkling, effervescent synth arpeggios, flitting through the air like snowflakes. The lush, plaintive pedal steel undulations of Greg Leisz emerge and float past like clouds in the sky, billowing above the electronic crystalline mesh. Deep sub bass undertones rise up from beneath the earth, fortifying this imaginary sonic landscape. Aurielle Zeitler, under the moniker Ghost Marrow, contributes a wash of soft, tranquil vocal layers, imbuing the song with a wordless nostalgia. “On “Snow Ritual,” I wanted to join the “drifting by on a cloud” sensation of the beautiful performances by Greg and Suzanne.” says Zeitler. “I recorded two improvised vocal tracks using a delay/loop pedal in an attempt to contribute to the emotional immediacy that I hear in the song.”
Milan is a bracing and expansive collaboration between generations of musical adventurers. Conceived and led by Detroit-based producer and multi-instrumentalist Alister Fawnwoda, the project includes major contributions from legendary 5 time Grammy-nominated synthesizer pioneer Suzanne Ciani, and Grammy-winning pedal steel maestro Greg Leisz.
Intuitively tracing a slowly evolving journey through time, Milan is deep listening music reminiscent of some of the best work of Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, and Pauline Oliveros.
As Ghost Marrow, California singer and multi-instrumentalist Aurielle Zeitler created a space to process her ongoing struggle with a rare bone marrow disease that both inspired the Ghost Marrow moniker and sequestered her to prolonged periods of isolation and loneliness, feelings palpable in her music.
After several years of writing and touring with Sacramento-based doom/indie band Giant Squid, Zeitler embarked on her solo project and recorded the hauntingly transcendent Ghost Marrow (Untitled) in 2012 before presenting different facets of her artistry by making appearances on Tera Melos’ X-ed Out, Emma Ruth Rundle’s Marked For Death, and serving as touring lead guitarist for Chelsea Wolfe. In 2016, Zeitler returned to the Ghost Marrow project, expanding on the wistful sounds of Ghost Marrow with the dispiritedly tender and delicately interwoven Bunraku Warrior, and synth-driven single “Form-a” in 2020.
Zeitler currently lives and works as a high school therapist in Oakland, California and is finishing a new Ghost Marrow record in 2022.
Alister Fawnwoda melds an abundance of influences into a sound that is expansive, ambitious, and authentic to its core. With a creative practice that flows between painting, production, DJ’ing, and beyond, Alister is committed to exploring the boundaries of his talents and potential. Alister is persistently building his repertoire as he makes a name for himself as one of the most promising artists in the City of Detroit. For lovers of classic house, experimental ambient, and everything in between, Alister’s music presents the possibilities of creative exploration.
Today, International Anthem presents “Step on Step,”by the late Chicago producer, arranger, musician and composer Charles Stepney. Stepney died tragically in 1976, and his legacy includes essential behind-the-curtain work on world famous recordings by Rotary Connection, The Dells, Muddy Waters, Minnie Riperton, Ramsey Lewis, Earth, Wind & Fire, Terry Callier,and many many others. In his music – as producer, arranger, and composer – Stepney routinely transcended trend and convention. Much of Stepney’s work, including from his prolific days as a staff arranger at Chess Records in Chicago, employed prismatic horn and string arrangements (in some cases brought to life by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra). His arrangements – like the idiosyncratic underpinnings of “That’s The Way Of The World,” as recorded by Earth, Wind & Fire, “What Color Is Love” by Terry Callier, or “California Soul” by Marlena Shaw – are still squarely in our hearts nearly fifty years after their inception. His sound has been sampled countless times by artists such as A Tribe Called Quest, The Fugees, Kanye West, Jay-Z, D’Angelo, Gang Starr, and Jurassic 5. Yet all too many of us don’t know his name.
He was a genius relegated to the shadows, whose enigmatic lifeforce was snuffed out far too soon. However, his genius is being brought into brighter light by his three daughters, Eibur, Charlene, and Chanté Stepney, who have spent the greater part of their lives engaged in a quest to exalt their father’s legacy.
Today’s “Step On Step,” the first recording ever to be released under Stepney’s name, comes 3 days ahead of what would have been his 91st birthday. The song was recorded by Stepney to 4-track tape in the basement of his home, sometime in the late 1960s. It features Stepney layering his own performances on piano and vibraphone over a primitive drum machine. It is perhaps the most stripped down impression ever heard of Stepney, an artist known for his epic, orchestral arrangements.
This “Step on Step” single is just a beginning. There will be much more news and music to come from The Stepney Family together with International Anthem in 2022. #SummerOfStepney
Keep your mind open.
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Saluting the past and embracing the current moment, The Smithereens‘ 2011 album, 2011, is a nod to their classic 11 album and was their first album of all-original material since 1999’s God Save the Smithereens. It was a fine return to form with catchy hooks, heartfelt lyrics, and ample shredding.
Take the opener, “Sorry,” for example. Jim Babjak‘s powerful guitars come at you right away and Pat Dinizio‘s strong vocals about being both sad and angry about a breakup show he’d lost none of his chops. “One Look at You” is the opposite in terms of lyrical content, as Dinizio tells the story of swooning after once glance at a lady, but keeps up the snappy beats by Dennis Diken and solid bass work by Severo Jornacion. “A World of Our Own” is the kind of song that The Smithereens do so well – toe-tapping beats, lyrics about love, Beach Boys-like harmonies, and chugging garage rock guitars.
“Don’t listen to the things they say, you just take my hand and we’ll just keep on running,” Dinizio tells his lover on the solid, strong “Keep on Running.” The whole band is firing on all cylinders here, working in great union with each other as Babjak’s guitar seems to melt and solidify from one note to the next in his solo. “Rings on Her Fingers” could’ve been a Beau Brummels song in a previous life.
“As Long As You Are Near Me” has what I’d consider a “classic” Babjack guitar solo – somewhat bluesy, somewhat gritty, and all shredding (and Jornacion’s walking bass line sounds like it’s easy to play but is deceptively tricky once you examine it). “Bring Back the One I Love” has Dinizio lamenting a lover who left him. Jornacion’s bass takes front stage on “Nobody Lives Forever,” giving the song a pulse you can’t ignore.
The haunting “Goodnight Goodbye” has great vocals from the whole band and this almost doom metal pace to it that I love. It’s a standout on the record. “All the Same” displays the band’s love of the Mersey Beat sound. “Viennese Hangover” belongs in a romantic comedy that takes place in Austria. Diken’s drums are in fifth gear on “Turn It Around,” and the added tambourine and jingle bells only increase the punch. The closer, “What Went Wrong,” sends us off on a fast note like a hot rod not bothering to slow down after it crosses the finish line in a street race.
2011 showed that The Smithereens still had plenty of fire in them, and it still sounds good eleven years later.
Keep your mind open.
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How do you follow up releasing two records of house music, club beats, and dub tracks? If you’re Jon Hopkins, you do it by releasing Music for Psychedelic Therapy – a gorgeous record of ambient meditations that doesn’t have a single beat on it.
As Hopkins said in the liner notes from the press release I received for this album, “I feel I explored that particular sound (house and club music) as much as I could. Next, I wanted to make something that faced the opposite direction, something very far away from a cosmic party or a set of festival-ready bangers…Something looking inwards, something egoless, with no attempts made to ‘fit in.’ It felt like time for a total reset, to wait for music to appear from a different place.”
I don’t think I can put it better than that, and this album is already difficult to describe. It’s more of an experience than a record. “Welcome” sets you up for chakra alignment and to get you into your meditation space. After that follow three tracks called “Tayos Caves, Ecuador,” which put you into a cool, quiet place suitable for dreaming, sleeping, or the “total reset” he mentioned.
The entire record is a reset for whatever is bothering you at the time. “Love Flows Over Us in Prismatic Waves” feels like light hitting you through a window as you watch a rabbit bounce across your lawn. “Deep in the Glowing Heart” reflects the place we all hope to find and reside in at some point in our lives, hopefully in this plane and the next. These are the first two tracks of a thirty-five-minute uninterrupted journey that continues with the hopeful “Ascending, Dawn Sky,” the cosmic energy-tinged “Arriving,” and the beautiful, tear-inducing “Sit Around the Fire” – in which music is set to a recording of the spiritualist Ram Dass.
It’s a record that’s stunning with its simplicity and subtlety. Let it calm and warm you.
Today, Chicago trio Horsegirl announce their debut record, Versions of Modern Performance, out June 3rd on Matador, a summer tour, and present charged lead single/video, “Anti-glory.” Penelope Lowenstein (guitar, vocals), Nora Cheng (guitar, vocals), and Gigi Reece (drums) – the best friends comprising Horsegirl – do everything collectively, from songwriting to trading vocal duties and swapping instruments to sound and visual art design. The warmth and strength of their bond crackles through every second of their debut. With lyrics intentionally impressionistic and open-ended, and a sound that ranges with joy and enthusiasm across a range of styles, Versions of Modern Performance offers many pathways. Following last year’s one-off “Billy,” lead single “Anti-glory” is elastic and propulsive, entrancing listeners with a central call: “Dance / Dance / Dance / Dance / With me.” The accompanying video, directed by Erin Vassilopoulos, exudes confidence, putting Horsegirl front and center, their uncanny ability to layer sound on full display.
“We wrote Anti-glory almost by accident, while messing around with an old song during rehearsal. The song fell into place immediately, and looking back, we have no idea how we wrote it,” the band explains. “As always, this song and album are for Chicago, our friends, our friend’s bands, everyone who can play the guitar, and everyone who can’t play the guitar.” Watch Horsegirl’s Video for “Anti-glory”
The friendship of these three goes far beyond Horsegirl. Reece and Cheng, college freshmen, and Lowenstein, a high school senior, learned to play—and met—through the significant network of Chicago youth arts programs, and they have their own mini-rock underground, complete with zine distros, that they describe as somewhat separate from the “adult shows” that take place at bars and DIY spaces they don’t have access to. They’re exultant about their friends’ talent, noting that any of the bands from that scene could have been (or might still be!) plucked up the way they were.
Versions of Modern Performance was recorded with John Agnello (Kurt Vile, The Breeders, Dinosaur Jr.) at Chicago’s Electrical Audio. “It’s our debut bare-bones album in a Chicago institution with a producer who we feel like really respected what we were trying to do,” the band says. Across the record, Horsegirl expertly play with texture, shape and shade, showcasing their fondness for improvisation and experimentation. One can hear elements of the ‘80s and ‘90s independent music the band love so deeply and sincerely—the scuzzy melodicism of what used to be called “college rock,” the cool, bubbly space-age sheen of the ‘90s vamps on lounge and noir; the warm, noisy roar of shoegaze; the economical hooks and rhythms of post-punk. There’s even a bit of no wave mixed in for good measure. But as Horsegirl fuse all of this together, it feels not like a pastiche or a hacky retread but something as playful and unique as its predecessors. They’re best understood as part of a continuum, but they’re building something for themselves.
Horsegirl will tour North America this summer, playing their first ever shows in most cities across the country. This all kicks off with a special record release show at Thalia Hall in Chicago on Sunday, June 5th. Next week, Horsegirl head to SXSW before their debut performances in Philadelphia, Washington, DC and New York City. Full dates are listed below, and tickets for newly announced shows go on sale this Friday, March 11th at 10am local time. Watch Horsegirl’s Video for “Billy”
Horsegirl Tour Dates: (new shows in bold) Wed. March 16 – Austin, TX @ SXSW – FLOODfest @ Mohawk @ 2:00pm Wed. March 16 – Austin, TX @ SXSW – Roskilde Festival @ Cheer Up Charlie’s @ 10:00pm Thu. March 17 – Austin, TX @ SXSW – SX San Jose @ Hotel San Jose Thu. March 17 – Austin, TX @ SXSW – Gorilla vs. Bear x Luminelle @ Seven Grand @ 11:15pm Sat. March 19 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA Sun. March 20 – Washington, DC @ DC9 Tue. March 22 – Brooklyn, NY @ Market Hotel Sun. May 29 – Allston, MA @ Boston Calling Festival Sun. Jun. 5 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall (RECORD RELEASE SHOW) ^ Fri. Jun. 10 – Giessen, DE @ Stadt ohne Meer Sun. Jun. 12 – Mannheim, DE @ Maifield Derby Thu. Jun. 16 – Antwerp, BE @ Trix Bar Fri. Jun. 17 – Paris, FR @ Pop Up Du Label Sun. Jun. 19 – London, UK @ Paper Dress Vintage (EARLY SHOW) Sun. Jun. 19 – London, UK @ Paper Dress Vintage (LATE SHOW) Tue. Jun. 21 – Manchester, UK @ YES (Basement) Wed. Jun. 22 – London, UK @ Bermondsey Social Club Sun. Jun. 26 – Bristol, UK @ Rough Trade Bristol Tue. Jun. 28 – Cologne, DE @ Bumann & Sohn Wed. Jun. 29 – Berlin, DE @ Monarch Fri. Jul. 1 – Denmark, DE @ Roskilde Festival 2022 Sat. Jul. 2 – Hamburg, DE @ Molotow Upstairs Fri. Jul. 15 – Vancouver, BC @ Wise Hall * Sat. Jul. 16 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos * Sun. Jul. 17 – Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall * Tue. Jul. 19 – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop Thu. Jul. 21 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon * Fri. Jul. 22 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo * Sat. Jul. 23 – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room * Tue. Jul. 26 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line * Wed. Jul. 27 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon * Fri. Jul. 30 – Sat. Jul. 31 – Detroit, MI @ Mo Pop Festival Tue. Aug. 2 – Columbus, OH @ Rumba Cafe * Wed. Aug. 3 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop * Fri. Aug. 5 – Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground * Sat. Aug. 6 – Montreal, QC @ Petit Campus *
^ w/ Lifeguard, Friko, Post Office Winter * w/ Dummy
Keep your mind open.
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[Thanks to Jaycee and Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]
BODEGA, the Brooklyn post-punk outfit, has long been fascinated with technology and all its goods and ills. Their new album, Broken Equipment, references this many times, first in the album’s title. Broken gear is a source of worry, anguish, and / or rage in this day and age due to our over-dependence on technology. BODEGA knows this, and openly discuss how they, too, fall victim to these glitchy woes.
Opening track (and the first single released from the album), “Thrown,” has lead singer Ben Hozie singing about how he has a Bermuda Triangle within him that sucks him into situations where he’s not sure how he got there or how to get out (“I was thrown here by chance…I was targeted by big rock ads…”). “Doers” is a poke in the eye of tech-bros and people who think their moving and shaking is actually going to amount to something in the grand scheme (“Ten minutes planning my next ten minutes!”).
“Territorial Call of the Female” has Nikki Belfiglio taking on lead vocals, which always means you’re in for a treat. Belfiglio’s vocals are often a great mix of snarky and sweet, and this track about ladies sometimes unintentionally sabotaging each other is a great example. “NYC (Disambiguation)” takes a brutal, honest look at NYC’s history – warts and all. “Statuette on the Console” ups the punk in their post-punk, taking off like a hot rod from the green light in an illegal street race. Belfiglio embraces her love of Patti Smith, Wendy O. Williams, and Poly Styrene, and the guitar solo on it by Dan Ryan is top-notch.
“C.I.R.P.” takes a shot at media elitists (backed by a wicked bass line from Adam See). “Pillar on the Bridge of You” is a delightful love song Hozie wrote to Belfiglio in which he claims all he wants to do is support her. “I have so many things to offer,” Hozie sings on “How Can I Help YA?” – a song that seems to be about self-proclaimed influencers. Ryan unleashes another solid solo right in the middle of it. “No Blade of Grass,” influenced by the bleak (but excellent 1970 disaster film of the same name), has Hozie and Belfiglio singing about how we’re constantly pummeled by disasters both real and imagined, mainly to benefit those with more wealth than us (“We need strength and discipline…So, give more power to the rich, they say. Inequality, it is natural.”).
The band’s fondness for The Velvet Underground comes through on “All Past Lovers,” which has that cool, driving beat (provided by Tai Lee, who sizzles on the entire record, really) and almost-drone guitar that is hard to do without sounding like a damn mess. Hozie dreams of rest and escaping loneliness on “Seneca the Stoic.” The album ends with “After Jane,” an acoustic ode to Hozie’s mother – with whom he admits he had a rocky relationship at times, and that her battle with mental illness was one of the hardest challenges of their life together, but he acknowledges that he now can “channel your hurt when I sing my songs.”
Broken Equipment is another sharp record from a band that has taken critique and self-critique to Zen levels and can make you pogo while doing it.
Seth Walker has announced his eleventh album, I Hope I Know, will be released May 20 on Royal Potato Family. It’s the North Carolina-based singer/songwriter’s third studio collaboration with producer Jano Rix. Each song on the ten track collection shines with what many have come to love about Walker and his soulful Americana: diverse influences, contemplative lyrics, that signature blue tone on the guitar, and movement both geographic and spiritual. The album’s first single, “The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be” is out today (listen/share). Walker will support the album with a U.S. tour beginning in May.
I Hope I Know might best be described as Walker’s ’round-midnight album. Written in the midst of a breakup, relocating from his home in Nashville, TN to Asheville, NC, and the enduring mental struggles of the pandemic, it’s a beautiful reckoning with heartbreak, moving across states and coming to terms with the uncertainty of the future. Its tempos are slower and tonality darker than on previous work. In Walker’s words, he had to just “sit with it.” The music’s creation embodied trying and failing without forcing anything: not time, not the songwriting or its grooves, not a sense of control, not even his own healing. He credits the practice of “search and surrender,” a quest for new meaning in things he may never fully understand.
“This last year and a half has personally cracked me open. In many ways, for the first time, I’m observing myself and how I relate to the music, how I sit with the feeling, the emotion, my shadow and light,” explains Walker. “I have always been in this place of action, and finally, when all this happened, I found myself in a place of relinquishing—an active state of inaction.”
The first sessions for I Hope I Know began in 2019, but it wouldn’t be until the second half of 2020 when Walker would truly dive into the writing and recording process. Oliver Wood—Jano Rix’s bandmate in The Wood Brothers—cowrote three of the songs, as did Walker’s longtime songwriting partner Gary Nicholson, while Jarrod Dickenson also contributed to one song. Among the album’s highlights are “Why Do I Cry Anymore,” which asks unanswerable questions about recovering from heartbreak, ultimately coming to the conclusion that love is still worth it. “Remember Me” haunts with old jazz and blues, a falsetto vocal, arco acoustic bass and dusty drums. The title track came from the “Ho’oponopono Prayer,” a Hawaiian poem about forgiveness and reconciliation that his mother sent him, which translates as “I am sorry. Forgive me. Thank you. I love you.” Special guest Allison Russell adds vocal harmonies.
Three cover songs featured on the recording offer something familiar to hold onto—a tinge of nostalgia, minus the impulse to cling to the past. The Bobby Charles‘ song “Tennessee Blues” perfectly speaks to Walker moving from Nashville into the mountains of Asheville as he tried to “figure out what just happened, post break up.” Van Morrison‘s “Warm Love” is the perfect respite and breather. Bob Dylan‘s “Buckets of Rain” came spontaneously like a dream; Seth woke up one morning with the song in his head and quickly captured this rendition.
The follow up to Walker’s 2019 album, Are You Open?—which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Blues Album Chart—I Hope I Know is a distinct statement from the previous ten recordings in Walker’s discography. In its totality, the songs create a deep, but relatable journey, offering a beacon of light and ultimately safe haven, centered around the most precious of all gifts—Hope.
