oday, Egghunt Records releases “Teardrops” (parts 1 and 2), the new single from Rubblebucket. FLOOD has the premiere here, saying that “‘Teardrops’ is a rare duet from the band, with Tōth singing lead over the main riff while Traver sings harmonies in response.”
Just two months ago, Rubblebucket released “Abbreviation (Earth Worship Remix),” a collaboration with Grammy Award winner Kimbra –– and now “Teardrops,” a mellow breath of fresh air and a sort of breadth-widening for these heroes of indie-dance-pop.
“Teardrops,” the new super groovy mid-tempo lounger from Rubblebucket is an anthem about crying out all the emotions. It represents a new direction for the band, who Rolling Stone has called “the indie rock Miami Sound Machine.” In contrast to much of their previous high-energy indie-pop work, “Teardrops” could be the perfect soundtrack for lazing on the sundeck and wistfully letting your feelings move through you (“Take me so deep I become the rain”). “Teardrops” is a rare duet from the band, with Tōth singing lead over the main riff while Kalmia Traver answers in response over a sea of 808s, synths, hazy rhythm guitars and Afrobeat horn arrangements. While mood and tempo may be slightly subdued, the hooks are are strong as ever, as Paste once put it, “catchy enough to ass-kick Katy Perry off the pop charts (in a just world).”
One of the most compelling groups on the scene since the early 2010s, Rubblebucket’s seeds were sown when Kalmia Traver and Alex Toth, the group’s front persons, co-writers and co-producers, first began a friendship as jazz students at the University of Vermont. Soon after, they formed Rubblebucket, using the project to delve into pop, funk, dance and psychedelia; performances have spanned Bonnaroo to Glastonbury to their self-curated Dream Picnic Festival, and they’ve collaborated with kindred genre-blenders including Arcade Fire and Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears. Their latest full-length LP Earth Worship showcases intricately sparkling beats, hooky vocals, and irresistible melodic complexity—a celebration of togetherness, environmental curiosity, and the pleasure of doing what you love.
In a little over two weeks Drop Nineteens will release their first LP in 3 decades. Entitled Hard Light(out November 3rd on Wharf Cat Records), the album has been billed as a spiritual successor to the band’s watershed 1992 LP Delaware, and album that is considered one of the most influential shoegaze records ever released. It was announced with a single called “Scapa Flow” which Stereogum called “magnificent,” and appeared on Pitchfork’s “Most Anticipated Albums of The Fall” list, where they said that the band “have picked up right where they left off all those years ago” alongside further praise from outlets like FADER, Consequence, and BrooklynVegan.
Today, the band are sharing a final preview of the LP, a track called “The Price Was High.”
When Drop Nineteens disbanded in the mid 90s, Greg Ackell decided he would never make music again. He wouldn’t noodle around on a guitar in the basement. He wouldn’t get a group of friends together just to jam. He was done with music entirely. Following the release of the shoegaze masterpiece Delaware in 1992, and the intricate experimentations on National Coma in 1993, the group disbanded. They had a great run. They shared stages with Radiohead, Hole, Blur, PJ Harvey and Smashing Pumpkins. They went from being teenaged kids in Boston to mid-twenty-somethings with videos on MTV, sessions on the BBC, world tours and numerous festivals under their belt. So when Drop Nineteens ceased to be, Ackell felt content. He had the rest of his life in front of him to figure out what he wanted to do. Music was a closed chapter.
That was until 2021, when a friend from the band’s early days got Greg on the phone to suggest making some music together, just to see how it felt. Instead of shutting it down like he had been doing over the years, he decided to entertain the prospect. For the first time in nearly 30 years, he picked up a guitar with intent. He immediately called up Steve Zimmeran, the band’s bassist and fellow guitarist, and the two got writing. It felt effortless for Ackell, like he never stopped writing music. “We were off to the races,” he says, “But also the question came up: What does a modern Drop Nineteens song sound like?” Enter Hard Light, the band’s stunning third record. To quote Ackell, it’s the band’s proverbial follow up to Delaware, a modern Drop Nineteens record that is completely singular in its sound and vision. The first task in making Hard Light, was of course, getting the rest of the band back together. Drop Nineteens is an inherently collaborative project. Ackell writes the lyrics, and he works with band members Zimmerman, Paula Kelley, Motohiro Yasue, and Peter Koeplin to create the sonic world. The record came together over the course of a year, recording at a patchwork of studios all around the country: Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. When Kelley and Ackell first heard their vocals recorded together on the opus album closer “T”, the chemistry was undeniable. Making music together felt natural, fluid, exciting.
Hard Light is a romantic record in the literary sense. Beauty from longing; longing from beauty. You put the album on and want to be clad in a velvet dress sprawled across a fainting couch. You want to be holding someone’s hand while you sit back in the tall grass. The guitars are expansive and expressive as ever. Ackell and Kelley’s vocals are cool, crystalline, and luminous. “Gal” comes on like a dream. The vocals pour in when you least expect them, once in the middle, where Ackell delivers one of the strangest (and best) lyrics on the record, “And there were snakes/with cats at the wheel.” Hard Light’s first single, “Scapa Flow” is triumphant and an excellent example of what a modern day Drop Nineteens song sounds like. The guitars glide cloud-like, floor toms shuffle and rumble in the background, searching. Ackell and Kelley’s vocals are as toned as they are bound. Hard Light is every bit the ride that Delaware was, diverse in its sounds, with surprises at every turn. Drop Nineteens have brought clarity and cool in 2023 to the genre they helped create. A portrait of a band 30 years later, as talented and dedicated to their craft as ever. To put it more bluntly, they’re at the top of their game.
Drop Nineteens Hard Light is available for preorder HERE
Keep your mind open.
[Drop your e-mail address in the subscription box while you’re here.]
Since forming his Seattle-based outfit Brent Amaker and the Rodeo in 2005, Amaker has reveled in an idiosyncratic style that doesn’t fit into preordained categories. He’s a country singer whose band is known for dressing in matching black cowboy outfits, yet Amaker is more inspired by art-rock icons like Devo and David Bowie than the usual country mainstays. A Seattleite since 1997, he’s a Southerner by birth, yet Southern crowds are frequently puzzled by his ambitious stage show.
“When we tour Texas, they’re like, ‘What are you?’” Amaker says. “We’re cowboys, living the spirit of the West. We’re not really playing country music, but we’re playing cowboy music. ‘Western performance art’ is what I like to say.”
Amaker’s Western performance art achieves its fullest form on Philaphobia, a sly, heartsick collection that serves as Brent Amaker and the Rodeo’s first proper album in 10 years. Today it’s announced for a January 26th release on Seattle imprint Killroom Records. Throughout it, Amaker wrestles his demons and subverts frontier masculinity in his trademark baritone drawl (think Johnny Cash meets Matt Berninger) on tracks that span from rollicking motivational romps (“Take It by the Horns”) to criminal confessions (“Wanted”) to unlikely covers (Devo’s “Gut Feeling,” reimagined as a woozy twang breakdown).
It’s a spirited and boozy record, but don’t let the yeehaws and hollerin’ scattered throughout “Take My Heart,” the album’s first single, fool you: Philaphobia is a divorce album, steeped in that eternal country tradition of channeling heartbreak into gallows humor and cowboy laments. The bulk of the album was recorded in 2019, when Amaker was reeling from the end of his second marriage. The songs are among the best of his career, wrought with the steely-eyed recognition that love doesn’t always last.
On “Take my Heart,” he’s downtrodden but not defeated as he confronts his ex and fights for his dignity: “I will not let you take my heart,” he vows as his bandmates hoot and holler around the edges of the tune. “It’s about my ex-wife,” Amaker explains. “She gave me a lot of things, but she also crushed me, and I’m gonna survive and you can’t have my heart. I’ve still got it.”
“I’ve been married twice, and about five or six years ago, I divorced my second wife,” Amaker says of the record’s inspiration. “Philaphobia — with the Greek root word of PHILA being the feminine version instead of PHILO — is the fear of love, a fear of feminine love. That’s the theme, because I was going through something that was really intense. It’s a really intense time in my life. I was feeling heartbreak. I was feeling freedom. I was feeling excitement. I was feeling sadness. And I think that comes through.”
Throughout Philaphobia, Amaker turns the lemons of late-life bachelorhood into whip-cracking lemonade. Resilience is the guiding force on “Take It By the Horns,” a blast of a tune that boasts a rousing call-and-response refrain between Amaker and his band. On “Los Angeles,” the singer bids adieu to a relationship turned sour and plans a new life in a land of promise: “I’m moving to Los Angeles and leaving all the bickering behind,” Amaker croons over careening rhythms and cowpunk-flavored guitars. He wrote the song while his marriage was failing, but before it ended.
At the center of it all is “Gut Feeling,” a bizarro tribute to Amaker’s biggest influence, the New Wave icons who first piqued his interest in conceptual rock: Devo.
“When I was a little kid, I saw Devo on SNL,” he recalls. “I remember seeing them and saying to myself, ‘Is this real or is a skit?’ They became one of my favorite bands. I’m really into performance art and trying to create something that is consistent, so that every time somebody sees or hears us—like the Ramones or Devo—they know what it is.”
In his late 30s, after spending much of his younger life playing in rock bands, Amaker had an epiphany and decided to start a cowboy band. While Amaker and the Rodeo may not echo Devo in genre, their conceptual unity and insistence on matching stage uniforms is an homage to the Ohio legends. The Rodeo’s lineup shifts over time, but Amaker clings to a unified look: Whenever he brings a new cowboy into the fold, he takes them out to buy their cowboy hat and uniform (Wrancher polyester pants; black shirt; no colors allowed on any clothes, just solid black). When the group is on tour, they wear their cowboy uniforms 24/7.
And when they’re onstage, “performance art is at the heart of our shows,” Amaker explains, describing his elaborate James Brown-esque stage entrance; at a typical show, he walks onstage as the band plays an instrumental overture and somebody drapes a cape over him, then the cape comes off. “Just creating tension is what we try to do with our live performance. It’s fun and people are entertained.”
Indeed, Brent Amaker and the Rodeo have toured far and wide, performing everywhere from Europe to the Capitol Hill Block Party to a maximum-security prison in Belgium, where a riot nearly broke out at the end of the gig. Listeners may also encounter their music in needle-drop form; the group’s music has been noted for its evocative, cinematic textures and has been featured in television shows such as Weeds, Big Little Lies, Californication, and others.
“I think our music is intentionally cinematic,” Amaker says. “I like to write with a theme, and I like to shape my songwriting with visions.”
“When the Rodeo started, we were putting on costumes, outfits,” Amaker says. “But after we went out time after time, I didn’t feel comfortable if I didn’t have some pieces of the Rodeo on me. It became me. It’s not a costume anymore.”
Leeds quartet Yard Act announce their new album, Where’s My Utopia?, out March 1st on Republic Records, and present its lead single/video, “Dream Job.” Co-produced by Yard Act and Gorillaz member Remi Kabaka Jr., Where’s My Utopia? follows the band’s debut, 2022’s The Overload, and this year’s much-lauded single “The Trench Coat Museum.” Additionally, Yard Act unveil a 2024 tour of North America, Europe and the UK (including a hometown headline show at the 5,750 capacity Millennium Square Leeds). A full list of tour dates is below, including the November US run just around the corner. West Coast Summer 2024 dates go on sale Oct. 27th at 10am local time and all other shows are on sale now.
Since the release of The Overload, “a debut album bursting with character” (Uncut), Yard Act – frontman and vocalist James Smith, bassist Ryan Needham, guitarist Sam Shjipstone, and drummer Jay Russell — have become one of the most exciting indie success stories of this decade. They’ve ticked off previously unimaginable milestones ranging from landing at Number Two on the UK charts, UK (Later … with Jools Holland) and US (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon) television debuts, being shortlisted for the Mercury Prize, and a co-sign from Elton John who joined the band to guest on a reworking of The Overload album closer, “100% Endurance.” They’ve spent the past two years traversing the globe, playing festivals from Tokyo to Texas, and selling out tour after tour along the way.
While the band’s trajectory continued to shoot upwards, and the brotherly bond between the four band members strengthened, Smith and his wife welcomed their first child. This dueling sense of responsibility and ambition, guilt, love, drive and everything in between forms the narrative backbone of Yard Act’s brilliantly exploratory second album, Where’s My Utopia?
Lead single, “Dream Job,” “feels like an apt introduction to the themes explored on Where’s My Utopia? — though not all encompassing,” comments Smith. “In part, I was scrutinizing and mocking myself for being a moaning ungrateful little brat, whilst also trying to address how the music industry is this rather uncontrollable beast that hurtles forward unthinkingly and every single person involved in it plays their part. Myself included, obviously. As with pretty much everything else going through my head last year, trying to find the right time to articulate the complexity of emotions I was feeling and the severity to which I was feeling them couldn’t be found – or accommodated, so instead I tried to capture it in a pop song that lasts less than three minutes once the fog had cleared a bit. It’s good and bad. I’m still glad that everything that happened to me happened.”
The song is wryly upbeat, and lands like The Blockheads doing “Club Tropicana” — a not entirely believable thumbs up from the trenches. The “Dream Job” video was directed by James Slater, marking the band and director’s 7th collaboration (“with many more to come”).
Written in snapshots of time in the midst of touring, Where’s My Utopia? is a giant leap forward into broad and playful new sonic waters, sprinkled with strings, choirs, and voice-acting clips courtesy of comedian pals Nish Kumar, Rose Matafeo, and more. It was a communal four-way effort built on chemistry, familiarity and the trust to challenge and push each other creatively. “The main reason that ‘post-punk’ was the vehicle for Album One was because it was really affordable to do, but we always liked so much other music and this time we’ve had the confidence to embrace it,” James explains. Across the record, influences range from Fela Kuti to Ennio Moricone via Spiller’s ‘00s pop smash “Groovejet.”
It’s a celebratory palette upon which Smith allowed himself to reach lyrically deeper into himself than ever. Gone, largely, are the outward-facing character studies of yore, replaced with a set of songs that stare fully into the headlights of life, wrangling with the frontman’s own fears and foibles to create a sort of Promethean narrative – but with jokes. “You can commit to the idea that we’re just animals who eat and fuck and then we die, and that’s fine,” he suggests. “But for me, creativity always seems to be the best way of articulating the absolute minefield of what human existence is.”
Yard Act Tour Dates Thu. Nov. 2 – Reykjavik, IS @ Iceland Airwaves Sat. Nov. 4 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw Sun. Nov. 5 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts Mon. Nov. 6 – Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar Tue. Nov. 7 – Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall Thu. Nov. 9 – Nashville, TN @ The Basement East Fri. Nov. 10 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl Sat. Nov. 11 – New Orleans, LA @ Toulouse Theatre Tue. Nov. 14 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk Wed. Nov. 15 – Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum Art Company Fri. Nov. 17 – Mexico City, MX @ Corona Capital Festival Sat. Dec. 2 – Bangkok, TH @ Maho Rasop Festival Sun. Dec. 3 – Hong Kong, HK @ Clockenflap Festival Tue. Dec. 5 – Osaka, JP @ Shangri-la Thu. Dec. 7 – Tokyo, JP @ Club Quattro Wed. Mar. 13 – Norwich, UK @ The Nick Rayns LCR (UEA) Thu. Mar. 14 – Nottingham, UK @ Rock City Fri. Mar. 15 – Glasgow, UK @ O2 Academy Sat. Mar. 16 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo Sun. Mar. 17 – Newcastle, UK @ Northumbria University Tue. Mar. 19 – Belfast, UK @ Mandela Hall Wed. Mar. 20 – Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street Fri. Mar. 22 – Liverpool, UK @ Invisible Wind Factory Sat. Mar. 23 – Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy Mon. Mar. 25 – Brighton, UK @ The Dome Wed. Mar. 27 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo Thu. Apr. 4 – Nantes, FR @ Stereolux Fri. Apr. 5 – Paris, FR @ Cabaret Sauvage Sat. Apr. 6 – Bordeaux, FR @ Rock School Barbey Mon. Apr. 8 – Lisbon, PT @ LAV Tue. Apr. 9 – Madrid, ES @ Mon Thu. Apr. 11 – Barcelona, ES @ La 2 Fri. Apr. 12 – Lyon, FR @ Le Transbordeur Sat. Apr. 13 – Bologna, IT @ Locomotiv Club Sun. Apr. 14 – Milan, IT @ Santeria Toscana 31 Tue. Apr. 16 – Zurich, CH @ Mascotte Wed. Apr. 17 – Munich, DE @ Muffathalle Thu. Apr. 18 – Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg Sat. Apr. 20 – Stockholm, SE @ Slaktkyrkan Wed. Apr. 24 – Hamburg, DE @ Uebel & Gefährlich Thu. Apr. 25 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Main Hall Fri. Apr. 26 – Nijmegen, NL @ Doornroosje Sat. Apr. 27 – Cologne, DE @ Kantine Sun. Apr. 28 – Brussels, BE @ Les Nuits Botanique Thu. May 30 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern Fri. May 31 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent Theater Sat. Jun. 1 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s Mon. Jun. 3 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst Atrium Tue. Jun. 4 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent Thu. Jun. 6 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios Fri. Jun. 7 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre Sat. Jun. 8 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile Sat. Aug. 3 – Leeds, UK @ Millenium Square
Chaos master Dion Lunadon has announced his newest solo album, Systems Edge, due out November 14, 2023. To whet your appetite for it, he’s already released the first single, “I Walk Away.”
On top of that, the album is already available for pre-order on vinyl and “shockwave” vinyland he’s already announced a tour across Europe in the next two months.
Can’t make any of these gigs? Why not go see him in New York for the album’s release party, then?
I don’t know what’s in the water in Sweden nowadays, but it might be bringing people’s minds to higher states of consciousness and thus causing many of them to form cool bands – like Gothenburg’s psychedelic rockers Melody Fields and their new album 1901.
The album is full of stunning touches and haunting moments – not spooky, creepy haunting moments, mind you. The moments are almost like having groovy ghosts of a deceased psych-band who crashed their van on their European tour in 1969 and now hitch rides with travelers and get them into weird adventures. “Going Back” throws you back into the psychedelic era right away, making you wonder if Melody Fields has someone dropped you through a time portal.
“Jesus” is described by the band as “a profound experience that delves into the complexities of spirituality and personal connections, leaving an indelible mark on the listener’s consciousness. “Jesus” is not just a song; it’s a musical experience that transcends boundaries…” I can’t describe it better than that. The only thing I can add is that it reveals the band’s love of shoegaze and shows how that genre and psych-rock are pretty much brothers from another mother / sisters from another mister.
“It’s the end, and soon you will die,” they sing on “Rave On,” in which they join most of their fellow psych-rockers by melting your brain while performing a song about the inevitability of death…so why worry about it? Keep raving, dancing, and exploring.
In case you were wondering, why yes, Melody Fields likes synthwave as well, as evidenced on the instrumental “Mellanväsen” (“Middle Vase”). They take those synths and then pair them up with guitars that buzz like some kind of giant robotic hornet on the mostly instrumental “Transatlantic.” You probably could hear the guitars across the Atlantic if you cranked your speaker volume to the max. The band worked with Swedish psych-voodoo giants GOATon parts of the album (and Austin, Texas’ psych-groovers Holy Wave), and GOAT’s touches are immediately apparent on “Home at Last” – which hits you with all kinds of wild world sounds.
The heavy bass on “Indian MC” mixes well with the sitar-like guitar (or is that an actual sitar? It’s played so well that you can’t tell either way.) chords to evoke riding across Europe with a lover and no particular agenda apart from escaping workplace drudgery. “It takes two, and I want you. Now it’s time for you to choose,” they sing on “In Love” – which rocks hard and will probably make Black Rebel Motorcycle Club a bit envious when they hear it. It’s the kind of track that would make a good show opener because it’s an instant rocker that gets your attention and shakes the walls. The closing track, “Mayday,” sends the album out on a floating note with soft percussion and music box-like guitars (even if one of the music boxes is winding down and perhaps cursed).
1901 is one of the best psych-rock records I’ve heard so far this year, and Melody Fields is already planning to release another one, 1991, on November 10, 2023. Don’t miss either of them.
After a decade-long hiatus, Bristol-based shoegaze ensemble, The Fauns, have reemerged from their secret bunker with their first new music in ten years with new single “How Lost”, which is out now via Invada. The band have also announced their first live show since 2015 with a date at The Cavendish Arms in December.
The Fauns’ journey began in 2007, self-releasing their eponymous debut album in 2009, followed by the 2013 release of “Lights.” These two works garnered warm acclaim from both critics a fervent shoegaze-loving fanbase alike – rekindled by the return of My Bloody Valentine.
Reflecting on their earlier work, Michael Savage shares: “Listening back, the first album serves as a diary chronicling our evolution from utter novices in the recording process to becoming proficient. The second album signified a solidification of The Fauns sound. I try my best to remain partially idiotic about recording. The idiosyncrasy is part of our sound; we’re not aiming for excessive polish.”
Throughout the 2010s, the band toured relentlessly across Europe, sharing the stage with Creation label act The Telescopes for a number of shows. A European support tour with French doomgazers Alcest broadened The Fauns’ reach, and during this period they recorded sessions for Radio 6 and Xfm, even winning Steve Lamacq’s coveted Rebel Playlist accolade.
“How Lost” sees the band return led by three original members:Michael Savage, Alison Garner, and Guy Rhys Davies. In 2019, accomplished soundtrack composer Will Slater joined the band, catalyzing an intensified period of songwriting. The push and pull between Savage and Slater’s recording styles producing interesting and unique results. “How Lost” is taken from the band’s upcoming album, to be announced soon.
See The Fauns live: 7th December – The Cavendish Arms, London
Kirin J Callinan; Australian artist, actor, writer, provocateur and musician releases “Eternally Hateful“ a super-charged, 80’s synth-pop track with repeated bold ambivalent lyrics. To accompany the video Callinan shares a medieval-inspired torturous music video – watch here. ‘Eternally Hateful’ is yet another taste off Callinan’s upcoming fourth full length LP titled If I Could Sing. The last four years new music from Callinan has been much speculated and mythical, but after some ambiguity and delay “Eternally Hateful” is here with more music on the way and arguably this is his finest work yet.
When asked about the new single “Eternally Hateful” Kirin says: “Musically, it could not be more simple. Three chords. A. E. B. IV-I-V. Over n over n over again, eternally. Hate, on the other hand, is a far more complex idea. Distressing, tbh. Destructive. Embarrassing. But no more so than Love. A resentful rage, a bitter overflow, a pointed supervex; forged from hurt, seeping from a seething heart, desperate to heal, by any means available, finding validity in anger, making sense of its pain, thin air turn to rage, some other type of cage. “You don’t know what love means anyway… Eternally Hateful! I hate you. I love you. And so on and so forth.””
This video directed by Isaac Brown and shot in France at Château de Sarzay, Ferme La Lande and Château de Crozant, is everything Kirin is, entertaining, provocative and creates a swirling train of thoughts of the juxtaposition of that love / hate game making it the perfect accompanying video for this single. Is there a cameo by Mac DeMarco? The video adds to the recurring phenomenon that is a Kirin J Callinan music video and strikes a fine balance between vision, vulnerability, complete and utter absurdity, pure pathos and unadulterated joy and have gone on to be cited as references and influences for countless others.
“What you’re about to witness is by far the most ambitious video project I’ve ever had the dis-ease, dis-comfort & dis-gust to have ever been involved with.” Kirin shares of the video. “It’s all entirely real. All of it. And it’s a miracle that I’m still here, alive today. Not only did the shooting of Eternally Hateful involve showing up to locations that none of us had ever been, to shoot things none of us had ever shot, without permission nor any other lawful, moral or divine right to do so (a scenario I have had more than some experience with before, to be perfectly honest); it was Isaac’s vision and the nature of this specific shoot ~ it’s scope, it’s impossibility, and it’s high potential for disaster &/or death ~ that was the most insane, most intoxicating & most appealing aspect of the idea to begin with. I hope you are as engaged and inspired watching this clip as I was ~ literally & figuratively ~ pushed, pulled & all round tortured making it.”
Isaac Brown adds: “I’ve always wanted to torture Kirin, so when there was an opportunity to do it for real, on camera, I was over the moon. “Kirin J Callinan’s performance is the heartbeat of our cinematic masterpiece. It’s a pulse of intensity and emotion that makes every scene come alive. This was a dream shoot if your dreams are like mine – cloaked devils with goat heads tying you up, slitting your throat and setting you on fire. People will love it. Singing, dancing, and some questionable swordplay. There is something for everybody”
If I Could Sing, Kirin’s fourth full length body of work will be released via a new signing deal with Callinan’s own record label Worse Records and [PIAS]. “Kirin J Callinan is ecstatic to announce that WORSE Records and WORSE WORLD WIDE Industries Incorporated (“It can only get WORSE™) ~ in our second coming and new configuration since the label’s initial insemination and honest beginnings as the honorary off shoot of TERRIBLE RECORDS USA and the humble home away from home for Quebecois superstar Hubert Lenois, Australian icons JACK LADDER & The DREAMLANDERS, and the long forgotten, one hit wonderkids SECONDS FLAT ~ have now, with the wind in our sails and our sales though the roof, signed on for exclusive distribution with the world’s best distributor & unrivaled international music network, PIAS. Our debut collaboration with PIAS will indeed be the release o’ my, KIRIN J CALLINAN’S, long awaited & well overdue opus IF I COULD SING, with a slew o the worlds very WORSE artists to follow soon thereafter. I’m excited. Thank you for your patience. It only gets WORSE”.
To celebrate the release Kirin will be performing a one off special show in Perth at Mojo’s in Fremantle on December 2. Tickets will be going on sale today. For more information and tickets please visit this link here.
Kirin J Callinan, misunderstood by the masses but loved and revered by artists the world over and his niche, eclectic and growing fanbase alike, Kirin’s new work with “Eternally Hateful” is here and his much speculated fourth full length LP If I Could Sing is rumored to be released any minute now…
To say that Faithless‘ 1996 album, Sunday 8pm, was a monumental release at the time is a bit of an understatement. Everyone was clamoring for albums like this, for bands like Massive Attack and Portishead and, really, anything from the UK that sounded like those bands, and then Faithless comes along and proves that they weren’t a cookie cutter band in the molds of those other great bands, but one that had their own unique style that mixed ambient music, shoegaze, trip hop, dub, and, yes, spiritual music.
Consider Maxi Jazz‘s line of “Even sitting in the garden one can still get stung.” on “The Garden.” It’s a Zen reminder at the start of an album that will explore love, loss, loneliness, yearning, reunions, and separations. On “Bring My Family Back,” Jazz reminisces about working hard to get ahead and realizing, once he’s “made it” that he hasn’t really arrived at anything worthwhile. Again, more Zen.
Please check your pulse if the drums on “Hour of Need” don’t get you moving. It’s a delightful song about letting your lover know you’ll be there for them when they’re at their lowest. “Postcards” is an instant classic, with Jazz’s lyrics taken from postcards he sent home during the band’s U.S. tour. “Take the Long Way Home” isn’t a cover of the Supertramp classic (although that would be wild to hear), but rather a synth-laden dance floor classic with snappy hi-hat beats and sexy, thudding bass.
On “Why Go?”, the band sing about a lover who unexpectedly shows up and how it can be awkward to talk them into staying. Unlike, “She’s My Baby,” a wild song that has Jazz talking about his wild sex life with his gal. The only thing more sultry than the lyrics is the wicked beat throughout it. “God Is a DJ” was, and still is, another classic, with Faithless (rightfully) comparing raves and dance clubs to places of worship, fellowship, and healing. To further that symbolism, the next track is “Hem of His Garment” – which speaks of love as something to be worshipped and cherished. “Killer’s Lullaby” is another thumper, and the special edition of the album has a sharp remix by Nightmares on Wax to boot – as well as a Paul Van Dyk remix of “Bring My Family Back.”
Sunday 8pm is a classic of the mid-1990s house / rave scene that still sounds fresh today.
Shoegaze legends Slowdive decided they wanted to scale back the electronics and push more of the reverb-heavy guitars on their newest album, everything is alive. It’s a powerful decision, one made as two members of the band were grieving the loss of a parent in 2020 and trying to make sense of a world that pretty much went crazy for about two years. The album’s cover, depicting a shrouded woman in the middle of a labyrinth, captures everyone’s feelings during those years – but it also shows a way out of the maze. There was hope back then and even now.
The album starts, oddly enough, with some of the electronic beats that singer and guitarist Neil Halstead originally wanted to scale back on “shanty,” and you’re thinking, “Wait, is this going to be an electro record?” Then, the crunchy, roaring guitars step into the room and take over the whole space. “prayer remembered” is the kind of beautiful, floating track that Slowdive pull off seemingly without effort. It’s perfect for lonely drives, morning walks, lonely moments in your living room, still silences in the kitchen when you feel a ghost behind you…
Rachel Goswell‘s vocal sounds start “alife” with spooky atmospherics and then become bright and lovely during the chorus (as do the guitars from her and Halstead). “andalusia plays” ups the acoustic guitar and lets Nick Chaplin‘s bass simmer under Halstead’s vocals and lyrics about a memorable winter night. “kisses” blends shoegaze with synthwave to create a radio-friendly future hit.
“skin in the game” ups the vocal echo effects and the guitar reverb, resulting in an ethereal track that will make you drift out of your skin and up to the ceiling. “chained to a cloud” is aptly named, as the mostly instrumental track makes you feel like you’re drifting across the sky and seeing the landscape below you change as the world revolves and the sun cuts through the cloud to which you’re attached. Closing with the uplifting track entitled “the slab,” Slowdive take a phrase / object often associated with death (i.e., a body on a slab in a morgue) and make it something from which we can all rise – the slab of a bed tangled in sheets from unrestful sleep, the slab of a work desk, the slab of gray pavement during our work commute – we can rise from them and above them and remember that everything is alive. We are alive. We are part of everything, and that life, the life of the universe, really, is not only in us, but is created by us.
Thanks, Slowdive, for reminding us of this.
Keep your mind open.
[Dive into the subscription box while you’re here.]
