Nik Havert

Riding Easy Records announces the eleventh Brown Acid trip.

The forthcoming eleventh edition of the popular compilation series featuring long-lost vintage 60s-70s proto-metal and stoner rock singles, Brown Acid: The Eleventh Trip will be available October 31st, 2020. Today, Metal Injection shares the first single, “Diamond Lady” by Larry Lynn HERE. (Direct YouTube and Bandcamp.)
The Brown Acid series is curated by L.A. label RidingEasy Records and retailer/label Permanent Records. Read interviews with the series curators via Paste MagazineHERE and LA Weekly HERE.

About The Eleventh Trip:
This Trip opens with Adam Wind‘s “Something Else,” featuring groovy crooning and a very acid-damaged guitar riff that meanders across key signatures like it ain’t no thing. This 1969 single by the Tacoma, WA band predates grunge by 20 years, but the band’s heavy psych and murky tones are just the stuff Northwest heroes Mudhoney sought so fervently at their peak. Lead singer Leroy Bell‘s excessive vibrato gives the tune its charm, but the heavy breakdown in the middle is the real payoff.

Boston bruisers Grump return to the series with a previously unreleased dose of raw soul layered in greasy horns, plucky harmonized guitar leads and chirping organs on “I’ll Give You Love.” The track packs twice the punch of their cover of Elvis Presley‘s classic “Heartbreak Hotel” heard back on The Eighth Trip, itself a fan favorite.

Stevens Point, WI is the actual origin of Bagshot Row, a little-known band taking its name from a street in The Hobbit. However, they sound much less fantasy obsessed than their name suggests and more akin to Sugarloaf of “Green Eyed Lady” fame. Their swaggering “Turtle Wax Blues” of 1973 will put some extra hair on your feet and send you searching for this lone 45 single like a ring that possesses magical powers to control all of Middle Earth (or at least Middle America.)

Larry Lynn‘s “Diamond Lady” is the B-side to his 1970 single “Back On The Street Again.” Larry Leonard Ostricki adopted his stage name while performing with The Bonnevilles in the mid-1950s in Milwaukee, WI, and later with The Skunks. Larry Lynn’s eponymous band explored bluesy psychedelic rock from 1969 to 1978, only to reunite in 2009 and they still perform to this date.

Renaissance Fair take things in a very weird, very fun and undeniably heavy direction with an insanely distorted organ that sounds like a monstrous vacuum cleaner over dirge rhythms and growling vocals on their – we reiterate – weird 1968 track “In Wyrd.” Think if someone left a copy of The Doors‘ Strange Parade out to warp in the sun on a blown-out toy record player, and then visiting space creatures attempted to imitate what they’d heard.

Chicago, IL’s Zendik bring it all back down to Earth with their politically-charged 1970 firestorm “Mom’s Apple Pie Boy” which echoes the unabashed rage of The MC5 and anthemic sarcasm of CCR‘s “Fortunate Son.” The band’s only publicly released single “Is There No Peace” (previously heard on Brown Acid: The Sixth Trip) boasts the proto-punk refrain “God is dead!” This equally direct polemic was recorded during the same sessions, but unreleased until now.

The opening cowbell of Daybreak‘s kicked back 1977 rocker “Just Can’t Stay” affirms that the boogie is back on this swaggering nugget of FM-ready rock from San Mateo, CA. “Just Can’t Stay” closes the band’s lone 4-song EP, and the band delivered on the promise, vanishing into the ether shortly thereafter.

West Minist’r of Fort Dodge, IA make their desires clear on “I Want You” with an undeniably driving riff and particularly beefy sounding synth leads that would fit in fine on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. The song, originally released on Magic Records, is the B-side to “Sister Jane” and the band’s last of three singles issued between 1969 and 1975.

Debb Johnson of Saint Louis Park, MN is a BAND, not an individual member of the band. The 7-piece group featured a full horn section and three-part harmonies on their 1969 self-titled album. The backstory on their name is: three of the group’s seven members shared the last name Johnson, so they then took the first letters of the last names of the other four members and combined them into the word “debb.” The politically minded “Dancing In The Ruin” speaks a truth all-too-familiar to this day backed by a brand of wailing acid rock crossed with Buddy Miles‘ Expressway To Your Skull style funk.

Crazy Jerry sends us off on a high note with “Every Girl Gets One,” featuring crunching riffs, rollicking electric piano, stop ‘n’ start rhythms and a curious telephone call sounding like a creepy answer to the Big Bopper’s “Chantilly Lace.” Crazy Jerry is the alter-ego of guitarist Jerry Ciccone, who can also be heard on a few soul/funk and rock records from the 70s, including The Left Banke‘s second album. But here, Jerry is…well, simply crazy.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dave as US / THEM Group.]

Rewind Review: Brijean – Walkie Talkie (2019)

Blending Los Angeles jazz and funk with Detroit and Chicago jazz and funk with hip hop from both the west and north coasts, Brijean (Brijean Murphy – percussion and vocals, Doug Stuart – beats, synths) make moody dance music, trip hoppy meditations, and shiny summer grooves on their debut album Walkie Talkie.

Murphy’s opening percussion on “Like You Do” mixes so well with Stuart’s electro-grooves that it’s sometimes to tell where one ends and the other begins. “Fundi” seems to mix in conversations you’d overhear on a subway while Murphy sings about taking your time and lying low over Stuart’s space disco beats.

“Drive Slow” is perfect for such activity, especially when cruising along a beachside road or to or from a chillwave afterparty. The underlying hip hop synths are a great touch in it. “Time moves by so slow,” Murphy sings at the opening of the peppy “Show and Tell.” “Just let your body go, it’s easy.” She and Stuart encourage us to dance and forget our troubles, a crucial skill in this day and age. It’s a lovely track that will take you away to that ideal club in your mind, even if just for a little while.

The title track reminds me of some Thievery Corporation tracks with its electro-lounge grooves and feel-good dance beats. The closer, “Meet Me After Dark,” promises a cool afterparty for all of us somewhere in the future, which is actually the present, so celebrate now with Brijean’s sweet grooves, sexy bass, and toe-tapping beats.

Walkie Talkie is lovely. It’s a much-needed dose of sonic bliss in times of self-isolation and changing seasons. Don’t skip this one.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

The Well release “live in quarantine” video for “Sabbath.”

Austin trio The Well share a new “live in quarantine” video for “Sabbah” via Metal Injection from their powerful third album Death and Consolation. Watch and share “Sabbah” HERE. (Direct YouTube.)

The next night, on a small outdoor set, each band member filmed their respective video parts solo, joined only by TV’s Daniel as masked director and videographer. The scenes were then inter-woven together into a mesmerizing smokey psychedelic dreamscape using 3 cameras and projector lights to reconstruct the group experience. All said and done, this live version of “Sabbah” was recorded, mixed, shot and edited in a three day quarantine time turnaround, resulting in a unique and experimental piece of work that encapsulates the energy of The Well’s live performance, despite being surrounded by nothing but uncertainty and detachment in the world around them.

Death and Consolation is without a doubt a weighty album title. And, The Well is among the heaviest heavy psych bands in existence. So when we say that there’s even more darkness and intensity to the band’s third album than previous efforts, take heed. It’s a deep sea diving bell of enveloping heaviness and longing.
“This one is a little more personal,” says guitarist/vocalist Ian Graham. “2018 was a strange, dark year. A lot of change going on in my life, there was a lot of depression and coming out of it over the last year. I wanted to call this Death and Consolation, because in life that’s a constant.”

Sonically, Death and Consolation picks up where The Well — Graham, bassist/vocalist Lisa Alley and drummer Jason Sullivan — left off with their widely heralded 2016 RidingEasy album Pagan Science. The band once again recorded with longtime producer/engineer Chico Jones at Estuary Studio in 2018, who has turned the knobs for all three of their albums (Jones engineered the band’s debut album Samsara with producer Mark Deutrom [Melvins, Sunn0)))] in 2013.) Samsara, released late September 2014 was ranked the #1 debut album of 2014 by The Obelisk and Pagan Science among the Best of 2016 from the Doom Charts collective. Likewise, the band’s intense — some even say “possessed” — live performances have earned them featured slots at Austin’s Levitation Fest, as well as tours with Kadavar, All Them Witches, Black Tusk and more.

“This album might be a little less produced, because I didn’t want to push technical stuff as much,” Graham says. “I’m so scared of getting too complicated when getting better at guitar. This is still kind of punk rock.”

Death and Consolation is available on LP, CD and download, released April 26th, 2019 via RidingEasy Records. Orders are available HERE.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Yardsss’ “Cultus II” is a wild burst of drone rock.

Portland, OR band Yardsss — ethereal music brainchild of Southerly and Sndtrkr leader Krist Krueger — share the first track from their forthcoming new album Cultus today via TrebleZine. Hear and share “Cultus II” HERE. (Direct Bandcamp.)

The album is performed in the full trio lineup of the band, Paul Schaefer, Robin Levy, and Krist Krueger.

The first two Yardsss releases, the Foma EP (2013) and Granfalloons EP (2016) were masterpieces of sonic effluvium, walking the fine line between abrasive noise and gorgeous, sometimes cacophonous melody inviting comparisons to Swans, Glenn Branca, White Suns and Godspeed Y!BE. Later efforts like the collaborative 333 (2016) and musical stream-of-consciousness Epithets (2017) explore conceptual themes of text as well as lineup. With the newly solidified delineation of Yardsss’ varying entities, Krueger and interlopers are free to expand upon ideas as they arise without fear of confusing fans.

Krueger is best known for his work with Southerly, whose 2007 debut Storyteller and the Gossip Columnist was met to national critical acclaim. His collective-run label, SELF Group, began a major relaunching in late 2015, with new releases from like-minded outfits Southerly, Mothertapes, King Who, C^VES, Swansea, Scriptures, and more.

Cultus will be available on September 11, 2020 via SELF Group. Pre-orders are available HERE.

On The Web:
selfgroup.org/yardsss

facebook.com/Yardsss

twitter.com/Yardsss

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[Thanks to Dave at US / Them Group.]

Ela Minus encourages us to love the simple things with her new single – “El Cielo No Es De Nadie.”

Colombian musician Ela Minus announces her debut album, acts of rebellion, out October 23rd on Domino. Performed, produced and recorded entirely by herself, acts of rebellion is a complex manifesto on simplicity, a call to fight, to live, to be present. It’s a collection about the personal as political and embracing the beauty of tiny acts of revolution in our everyday lives. This ethos is clear in the dreamy, pulsing new single/video, “el cielo no es de nadie,” “an ode to little, constant, every day acts of love” sung in Ela’s native Spanish.

Following “they told us it was hard, but they were wrong” and “megapunk,” “el cielo no es de nadie” defies the idea that one grandiose act means more than little ones. The video, co-directed by Ela and Pepi Ginsberg, presents striking images of Ela’s machines as she moves throughout the stage and hallways of a club. It gives a feel of Ela’s visceral, intimate world and urges finding a deeper connection to those around you. “‘el cielo no es de nadie’ is about all the love I see in small, everyday acts. It’s an invitation to appreciate unheroic, but constant and meaningful actions,” says Ela. “The song’s title, ‘el cielo no es de nadie,’ refers to the phrase ‘I’ll give you the sky,’ a common expression used in Spanish when in love. In the song, I defy it: ‘you can’t give me the sky’ / it isn’t yours to give.”

Watch Ela Minus’ Video for “el cielo no es de nadie”

Before forging her path as a solo electronic artist, Ela was a drummer in a teenage hardcore band. She joined the band when she was just 12, performing with them for almost a decade. Ela then moved to the United States to attend Berklee College of Music, where she double-majored in jazz drumming and synthesizer design. This roving background instilled in her a belief that we all have the power to change things, and as she delved deeper into her work with synthesizers, she saw a clear connection between the freedom of the DIY scene she grew up in and club culture. “I deeply identify with club culture, and want to make music to dance to,” she says. “I also want to make songs in the more traditional sense, with melodies, lyrics, and singing. I want to make songs that stay with people through the years.” Using only hardware to perform, write and record, Ela creates complex, technical electronic music that exudes a warm vibrancy, along with a darker, almost celebratory understanding that our breaths aren’t infinite. Her sharp, coiled words are cathartic—due in part to her approach to writing them. “I always start writing by improvising alone,” she says. “Once I have some instrumentals I’m happy with, I intuitively grab the mic and sing a phrase with a melody in it. I always keep that initial phrase.”

On acts of rebellion, you sense the stories hidden in everyday things. You feel Ela’s personality and viewpoint; you sense her presence. The cover features a photo of her, most of her face obscured, but her eyes sharply focused. On acts of rebellion, she’s asking us to make contact not just with her, but also the people that inhabit our lives. She’s suggesting we leave our gadgets behind in favor of flesh-and-blood communities. She’s asking us to think, dance, and love, while she coaxes humanity from her hardware—machines that rattle and whirr alongside her and, in turn, make us feel more alive.

Ela is sharing DIY printable posters and projection art for fans to use and share as a means of embracing these tiny acts of revolution in our everyday lives. Please visit the participate section of elaminus.com to download the art.
Pre-order acts of rebellion

Watch the Video for “megapunk”

Watch the Video for “they told us it was hard, but they were wrong”

Listen to “they told us…” Remixes

acts of rebellion Tracklist
1.N19 5NF
2. they told us it was hard, but they were wrong.
3. el cielo no es de nadie
4. megapunk
5. pocket piano
6. dominique
7. let them have the internet
8. tony
9. do whatever you want, all the time.
10. Close (ft. Helado Negro)

Ela Minus Tour Dates:
Thu. Feb. 18 – Zurich, CH @ Bogen F
Fri. Feb. 19 – Paris, FR @ Boule Noire
Sat. Feb. 20 – Brussels, BE @ Rotonde
Sun. Feb. 21 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
Tue. Feb. 23 – Copenhagen, DK @ VEGA Ideal Bar
Wed. Feb. 24 – Hamburg, DE @ Turmzimmer
Thu. Feb. 25 – Berlin, DE @ Silent Green
Sat. Feb. 27 – Vienna, AT @ B72
Sun. Feb. 28 – Munich, DE @ Strom
Tue. March 2 – London, UK @ Electrowerkz
Wed. March 3 – Madrid, ES @ El Sol

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Rewind Review: Zeke – Hellbender (2018)

I don’t know why Seattle punk legends Zeke took fourteen years off between albums, but their last album, Hellbender, shows that they didn’t slow down during that time. If anything, they came back faster (the longest song on the album lasts one minute and fifty-one seconds), louder, and rowdier than when they took a break.

The opener, “All the Way,” has drums that pop like the SKS rifle on the album’s cover, snapping you awake no matter where you are. “Two Lane Blacktop” covers one of Zeke’s favorite topics – racing – and will make you stomp your gas pedal to the floor, even if you’re sitting at a desk, with it’s sizzling guitar solo and pursuit driving beats. “On the Road” (the aforementioned “long” song) covers similar ground and could be the score to a 1970’s car chase scene in which competing muscle cars plow through an empty brewery.

“Working Man” is so frantic that you imagine the title subject is hopped up on Red Bull and Mini-Thins as he speeds down a country road in his pickup so as not to be late, again, to his job at the mobile home factory. The title track is, somehow, even faster. Zeke excel at blistering pace tracks, and this album is full of them. “Hellbender” and “County Jail” each last under a minute.

The vocals on “Burn” sound like they’re yelled out of a sore throat, and I mean that in the best possible way. The drums on “Goin’ Down” hit so hard that you imagine at least five snare drum heads were broken during the record session. “White Wolf” is, I think, about some ghost wolf or the spirit of rock and roll or some cool art Zeke saw on the side of a customized Chevy van. It shreds, that’s for sure.

Speaking of unknown song meanings, I don’t know if “AR-15” is a salute to the firearm or a punk raging against gun violence. I’m fairly certain, however, that “Cougar Rock,” is about shagging older women. The guitar and drums breakdown on it is outstanding. “Devil’s Night” will get your body moving with its heart attack beats.

The last three songs on the album are more tracks about driving fast cars and blaring your horn so everyone else gets the hell out of the way. “Ride On” is a song perfect for that fire-shooting guitar guy from the last Mad Max movie. “Red Line” moves into the red on your speedometer within seconds of its opening and doesn’t let up for a full minute. “Big Rig” is suitable for smashing everything in sight harder than Kool-Aid Man breaking through a brick wall.

Zeke albums are so fast and wild that reviewing them is difficult. They’re more experiences than albums. You’re not the same once you hear one, and Hellbender will shake you up and leave you in the dust.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Calibro 35 – Sogni Di Gloria (2014)

Milano, Italy’s Calibro 35 make music for films that are either independent affairs or that never existed, but should. Their score to Sogni Di Gloria, however, is from an actual comedic film directed by John Snellinberg about two men named Giulio – one of Italian descent and the other of Chinese descent – living in Italy and trying to get by.

The score gets off to a fun start on “Maionese (Titoli de Testa)” with plenty of surf guitar to go around for everyone. “Tema dello Sbattezzato” brings in delightful organ to match the cool guitar licks. “Come un valzer” could fit right into a 1970’s Euro-crime film, and “Notturno” is the late night jazz of your dreams.

The organ chords on “Tema di Alice” bring to mind summer walks along a sunlit country road. “Tema dello Sbattezzato (Bolero)” is a nice reprise. The guitars on “Tema malinconico” take on a bit of a psychedelic touch with their surf tones. “La partita” is a fun race with groovy bass and super-spy synths. You might want to check your pulse if it doesn’t move you. The whistling on “Un rigors sbagliato” will remind you of many spaghetti western scores – something Calibro 35 do well.

The bass groove on “Lento dello Sbattezzato” is slick in its subtlety. “Come un tango” is fun, sexy, and mysterious all at the same time. More funky bass is prominent throughout “Sala da carte,” and I love that groovy 1960’s organ, too.

The score ends with reprises of “Tema dello Sbattezzato” and “Tema malinconico” before we’re treated to the lovely “Il tempo che non ho vissuto” – the only song with vocals on the record. They are, of course, in Italian, and, of course, beautiful.

I need to track down this film, and any that Calbro 35 have scored. If the films are half as good as the scores, they’ll be winners.

Keep your mind open.

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Ziemba releases “Harbor Me” from upcoming album due September 25th.

Ziemba — project of songwriter René Kladzyk — releases a new single/video, “Harbor Me, from her forthcoming album, True Romantic, out September 25th on Sister Polygon. Following lead singles “True Romantic” and “If I’m Being Honest,” synth-heavy “Harbor Me” was written and demoed while docked on the S.S. Vallejo, a haunted ferry in Sausalito, CA. where, Timothy Leary, Alan Watts, and Allen Ginsberg used to host their “Houseboat Summit.” The accompanying single-take video was filmed in downtown El Paso, just a few blocks from the Mexican border. It features Kladzyk and dancer Pablo Delgadillo-Espinoza, dancing throughout the night in empty streets.

“Vocals and nearly all synths were recorded on the boat, that first day that I wrote it,” says Kladzyk. “This song took me by surprise, it has an energy to it that I don’t entirely understand, and it doesn’t fully feel like it came from me. I guess that’s why I feel tempted to credit the boat itself as a co-author. I wanted the music video to have that same immediacy and visceral presence that the song has. It was exciting and fun and a little scary at times, dancing through the streets at night. We rehearsed over the course of two evenings until we got it right. I think ‘exciting, fun, a little scary’ is how I’d hope this song would be described, or at least is how I perceive it, so the video is fitting.”

WATCH ZIEMBA’S VIDEO FOR “HARBOR ME”

Following 2019’s ARDIS, a multisensory science fiction adventure, True Romantic is a radical shift in that it’s only one thing: a record. For True Romantic, Kladzyk’s vocal-and-piano driven songs were brought to life in the studio, her first time credited as a producer on every track. She worked with two different groups—one in NYC and one in DC—who hail from vastly different corners of the music world: co-producer Don Godwin (Too Free, Gauche, Clear Channel), and contributors including guitarist Mike Haldeman (Moses Sumney, Altopalo) and saxophonist Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers, Thee Reps, Modern Nature), producer/synthesist Kiri Stensby (Eartheater), and many others.

“I made this record because it felt good on a gut level,” Kladzyk explains. But it is no less ambitious than her previous work, it’s just that here, her intricate conceptual project seems to be processing the surreal experience of realizing you’re a person with feelings that you cannot ignore any longer. In a way, it also serves as a sort of meta commentary on the ways pop love propaganda has seeped its way into her subconscious ideas about romance and relationships, told through her own surreal study of the bombastic power ballad. True Romantic finds her channeling her childhood love of Celine Dion, referencing the 1998 romantic fairy tale drama Ever After, and singing lines pulled straight from her diary. In her own words, it’s about “sitting with really embarrassing feelings, and then giving myself a pep talk that it’s okay to do that.”
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “TRUE ROMANTIC”

LISTEN TO “IF I’M BEING HONEST”

PRE-ORDER TRUE ROMANTIC

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Hannah Georgas takes it “Easy” on her new single.

On September 4th Hannah Georgas who, over the years has been an active touring member of The National and Kathleen Edward’s backing band, will release her new LP All That Emotion on Brasslandand Arts & Crafts. Produced by Aaron Dessner, founding member of The National and producer of Taylor Swift’s latest LP folklore, the album has already attracted an enthusiastic critical response with the mesmeric lead single “Dreams,” the calmly enveloping “Just A Phase” and pre-announce singles “That Emotion” and “Same Mistakes,” earning praise from outlets like FADER, Stereogum, The Guardian, Uproxx, The Line of Best Fit, Clash, American Songwriter, BrooklynVegan,
Exclaim, Earmilk, World Cafe and Consequence of Sound who dubbed Georgas “a new generation’s Feist.”LISTEN:
to Hannah Georgas’ All That Emotion LP
Private Stream
[download available on request]

Today, Georgas is sharing her final single from the LP, a slow-burning synth pop gem entitled “Easy.” Introduced by pulsing arpeggiators and a subtle blend of electronic drums and organic percussion, the track builds towards a glittering crescendo, with Georgas’ weaving in and out of harmonized vocal parts as she chronicles a search for closure at the end of a relationship.

WATCH: Hannah Georgas’ “Easy” lyric video on YouTube

“I was going through a break up around the time that I wrote this song and I felt like I kept searching for some sort of closure or definitive ending to the relationship,” says Georgas. “I found myself feeling frustrated that I couldn’t communicate well with this person and whenever I tried to reach out I was left feeling more alone in the end. I was going through this hard time and it felt like they found it easy to let it go.”

——

Hannah Georgas began creating the album All That Emotion about a year after the release of her celebrated 2016 album For Evelyn —starting with an intensive process of writing and demoing songs in her Toronto apartment, and finishing with a month long retreat in Los Angeles. She began the record making process in the middle of 2018 when she traveled to Long Pond, the upstate New York studio & home of producer Aaron Dessner of The National.

“Before each session, I would make the long drive from Toronto to Hudson Valley in Upstate New York.” Says Hannah. “It was really special getting the opportunity to work in such a remote space with Aaron and Jon and I was always itching to get back whenever we had breaks. At the same time, I appreciated the space in between and coming back with fresh ears.” Hannah continues, “Aaron and I agreed the production needed to bring out the truth in my voice. During these sessions we musically found a new depth and, vocally, a delivery that was more raw and expressive, allowing the emotional texture of each song to shine through.”

The writing of the album found Hannah creating her most personal album to date. “All That Emotion’s album cover is an old family photo,” says Hannah. “I love the image because it captures this calm confidence. It looks like people are watching a performance and it seems like he’s diving in without a second thought. Similarly, I find that it parallels the approach needed within art. The calm confidence of expressing yourself without the thought of consequence, regardless of anyone watching.”

On the album, you’ll hear about bad habits and prayerful families—right and wrong love—mistakes and moving on—casual cruelty and most of all, change. Plotting the boundaries of where to place this music it’s emotionally fraught but warm & fuzzy. “An indie-minded avant-pop artist” was the Boston Globe’s formulation for her charms. Think of Fleetwood Mac meets The National; Kate Bush-sized passion with the earthiness of Cat Power or Aimee Mann. The album grows inside you and sticks to your insides. The songs are big tent anthems, rough at the edges but relatable.

Hannah continues: “I still have long conversations with my friends over the phone, talking about love and relationships, pain and heartbreak, our upbringings and the hardships that come along with that.” In an era of social media quips and hollow memes, maybe it’s this kind of one-on-one contact a form of communication worth getting back to?

“In this way, I get a lot of lyrical inspiration through the individuals I interact with in my everyday life,” she says. “Then music becomes the forum where I work out these feelings, embrace and express pain and love, joy and anger, frustration and fear and hope. It’s where I can be uncensored, not hold back, and say what I want to say. In that way, making music is a cathartic and cleansing process. It’s always the best feeling when someone tells me my music has helped them out in some way. That keeps me going.”

All That Emotion will be released September 4, 2020 on Arts & Crafts/Brassland. It is available for preorder here.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Tom at Hive Mind PR.]

Fenne Lily gets lost in the supermarket in her new single and video.

Dead Oceans’ newest signing, Bristol, UK-based Fenne Lily, presents a new single/video, “Solipsism,” from her forthcoming album, BREACH, out September 18th on Dead Oceans. It follows a string of previously released songs and videos – BREACH’s “Berlin” and “Alapathy” and standalone singles “To Be a Woman Pt. 2” and “Hypochondriac.” “Solipsism” is a hazy lo-fi rock number, written in an attempt to create “something that sounded cheerful, about something really not cheerful.” The song deals with the anxieties of a social media driven generation, “because everyone is sharing everything, and everyone’s comparing their lives to other people’s.” Fenne sighs her age of 21 (“one and twentyyyyy… ohhh”) over the strident surge of guitar fuzz, as she sings about the pressure to have more fun in her 20s, and the solipsism that keeps her awake. The accompanying video, directed by Tom Clover in partnership with the nonprofit organization Film Co, playfully points out some of these anxieties.

“A lot of situations make me uncomfortable — some parties, most dates, every time I’m stoned in the supermarket,” says Fenne. “‘Solipsism’ is a song about being comfortable with being uncomfortable and the freedom that comes with that. If you feel weird for long enough it becomes normal, and feeling anything is better than feeling nothing. I wanted this video to be a reflection of the scary thought that I’ll have to live with myself forever. It’s surreal to realise you’ll never live apart from someone you sometimes hate. Dad, if you’re reading this you killed it as shopper number 2.”

Clover comments, ““I asked Fenne what products she wanted to be and then worked backwards from there with the illustrators. Most of the references came from Asian Supermarket packaging – they are way more interesting. The most important thing was making sure that it reflected upon Fenne’s personality – there’s a bunch of details you might miss on the first watch!”
Watch Fenne Lily’s Video for “Solipsism”

BREACH is a diaristic, frequently sardonic record that deals with the mess and the catharsis of entering your 20s and finding peace while being alone. Although its subject matter is solitude, it sounds bigger and more intricate than Fenne’s debut, On Hold, and presents a newly upbeat and urgent streak to her songwriting. Throughout, Fenne “pitches her honeyed voice low amid martial drums, pellucid guitar, driving melody. Like Laura Marling covering The War On Drugs” (MOJO).

Fenne kicked off her Wednesday evening IG Live interview series, “The Bathtime Show,” last month. Guests thus far have included Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, Christian Lee Hutson, Matthew Maltese and SOAK. Keep an eye here for future guests joining Fenne in the tub (from afar).
Watch/Listen/Share:
“Alapathy” Video
“Berlin” Video
“Hypochondriac” Stream
“To Be A Woman Pt. 2” Stream

Pre-order BREACH

Fenne Lily Tour Dates:
Fri. April 30 – Brussels, BE @ Grand Salon
Sat. May 1 – Amsterdam, NL @ Bitterzoet
Mon. May 3 – Hamburg, DE @ Nochtspeicher
Tue. May 4 – Copenhagen, DK @ Ideal Bar
Thu. May 6 – Berlin, DE @ Frannz
Fri. May 7 – Munich, DE @ Mila
Sat. May 8 – Zurich, SE @ Exil
Sun. May 9 – Milan, IT @ Magnolia
Tue. May 11 – Frankfurt, DE @ Das Bett
Wed. May 12 – Paris, FR @ Le Pop Up
Mon. May 17 – Leicester, UK @ The Cookie
Tue. May 18 – Liverpool, UK @ Phase One
Wed. May 19 – Dublin, IE @ The Workman’s Club
Fri. May 21 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Sat. May 22 – Glasgow, UK @ King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
Sun. May 23 – Birmingham, UK @ Dead Wax
Tue. May 25 – Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute
Wed. May 26 – London, UK @ Omeara
Thu. May 27 – Cambridge, UK @ The Portland Arms
Fri. May 28 – Bristol, UK @ Thekla

Keep your mind open.

[Why not wander over to the subscription box while you’re here?]

[Thanks to Jessica and Brid at Pitch Perfect PR.]