Alt rock – 7th Level Music

Caroline Rose rip-roars with “Yip Yip Yow.”

For a decade-plus, Caroline Rose’s “Yip Yip Yow” has existed as an esoteric fan-favorite, performed at live shows to ravenous crowds, but never officially released. Today, Rose (they/she) finally unveils a recorded version of the song via SUCK Records, their new independent label. “I like to imagine this song being performed by four teenagers in a garage who are equally obsessed with The Gun Club and Britney Spears,” says Rose of the single. “Yip Yip Yow” effortlessly blends elements of psychobilly, pop, alt-country and rock — all tied together by Rose’s commanding, snappy vocals and biting lyrics. Produced by John Congleton, the theatrical track captures the loose, raucous energy that has made it an in-demand staple of their shows.

Reflecting on the song and its legacy, Rose says, “I wrote ‘Yip Yip Yow’ 10 years ago about feeling like I was born in the wrong time, in the wrong place and probably in the wrong body. 10 years later the only thing that’s different is I finally have a recording of it I like. I think what’s taken me so long to put it out is a fear of how simple and nonsensical it is, but now that’s a lot of what I listen to. I love to hear all the freaks making two minute songs about rejecting cultures they never really fit into and building their own little worlds instead.” “Yip Yip Yow” reinforces Rose’s singular artistic vision built upon reinvention, exploration and a penchant for the eccentric.

Watch the Video for Caroline Rose’s “Yip Yip Yow”

Watch Caroline Rose Perform “Yip Yip Yow” in 2015 NPR Tiny Desk Concert

Rose is a critically acclaimed, genre-defying artist and producer with a career built on reinvention, strong visual identity, and a deeply engaged fanbase. Across four studio albums – I Will Not Be Afraid, LONER, Superstar, and The Art of Forgetting – Rose has moved fluidly between alt-country, psychobilly, synth-pop, and experimental songwriting while maintaining a distinct voice and perspective.

The Art of Forgetting, released in 2023, marked a commercial and critical high point, earning a Grammy nomination for Best Recording Package with art direction by Rose. The album was praised by NPR Music, The New York Times, them., Paste, Stereogum and The Washington Post., who lauded the record as “confessional and cathartic, full of shimmery swells that match the lyrical mood.” Last year saw the release of year of the slug, a lo-fi project recorded entirely on an iPhone and distributed exclusively via Bandcamp with no traditional marketing or DSP support. With the launch of their own record label distributed by Redeye, SUCK Records, Caroline Rose is entering a fully independent phase of their career.

In July, Rose will host a series of pop-up shows built around independent spaces and zero ticketing fees for fans. Locations will only be announced to ticketholders on the week of each performance. In the fall, Caroline will support Modest Mouse on a series of dates across the U.S. and Canada. Tickets are available for purchase here.

Caroline Rose Tour Dates
Fri. July 10 – New York, NY @ TBA +
Sat. July 11 – Washington, DC @ TBA +
Sun. July 12 – Washington, DC @ TBA +
Tue. July 14 – Nashville, TN @ TBA +
Sat. July 25 – Minneapolis, MN @ TBA +
Sun. July 26 – Milwaukee, WI @ TBA +
Tue. July 28 – Chicago, IL (Early Show) @ TBA +
Tue. July 28 – Chicago, IL (Late Show) @ TBA +
Tue. Sept. 29 – Madison, WI @ The Sylvee*
Wed. Sept. 30 – Cleveland, OH @ Jacobs Pavilion*
Thu. Oct. 1 – Cincinnati, OH @ MegaCorp Pavilion Outdoor*
Fri. Oct. 2 – Grand Rapids, MI @ GLC Live at 20 Monroe*
Sun. Oct. 4 – Ottawa, ON @ HISTORY Ottawa*
Mon. Oct. 5 – Toronto, ON @ Meridian Hall*
Wed. Oct. 7 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner*
Thu. Oct. 8 – New York, NY @ The Rooftop at Pier 17*
Fri. Oct. 9 – Baltimore, MD @ Pier Six Pavilion*
Sat. Oct. 10 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Citizens Live at The Wylie*
Mon. Oct. 12 – Memphis, TN @ Satellite Music Hall*
Tue. Oct. 13 – New Orleans, LA @ The Fillmore New Orleans*
Thu. Oct. 15 – Austin, TX ACL @ Live at The Moody Theater*
Fri. Oct. 16 – Irving, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory*
Sat. Oct. 17 – San Antonio, TX @ Boeing Center at Tech Port*
Mon. Oct. 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ Financial Theatre*
Tue. Oct. 20 – Hollywood, CA @ Hollywood Palladium*
Thu. Oct. 22 – Avila Beach, CA @ Avila Beach Golf Resort*
Fri. Oct. 23 – Sacramento, CA @ Channel 24*

+ = Pop-up Show
* = w/ Modest Mouse

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

The Black Wizards get “Loose” with their newest single.

Today, The Black Wizards announce their new album ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’, set for release on September 4th via Hassle Records. Alongside the announcement, the band share new single “Loose”.

‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’ is named after the legal phrase used to describe uncontrollable circumstances, reflecting both the chaotic conditions surrounding the record’s creation and a sense of dark humour and defiance that runs through the album’s ten tracks.

The Porto-based trio of Joana Brito (guitar/vocals), José Gomes (bass/vocals) and Helena Peixoto (drums) present their fourth album and their first since 2019’s ‘Reflections’, marking a decisive break from their past. The doomy haze and sprawling stoner-rock tag that once followed the band has been stripped back in favour of something sharper and more poised, deftly traversing a wider sonic palette. These songs don’t lumber forward so much as lunge.

It’s a fresh take on their sound, embodied with the garage rock swagger and bluesy stomp of today’s new single “Loose”, which Joana describes as “a groovy wandering on anxiety thoughts and feeling trapped inside your own head.” She adds: “It’s about accepting those thought patterns and learning how to navigate through them. With everything happening right now in this cursed world, we ride the everyday struggles of 9-to-5 jobs, low pay, poor working conditions, and so on. While it can be difficult to keep up with all this, we wanted to make it a sharp song with a straight to the point chorus, but also release the tension on the verses, relying on the wobbly synth (it’s the first time we use a synthesizer in such highlight) and steady beat.”

“Loose” official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfM3liGboaY
Other ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’ links: http://blackwizards.ffm.to/force-majeure

There’s something knowingly tongue-in-cheek about a band called The Black Wizards naming their album after bureaucratic disaster terminology. That tension between absurdity and confrontation runs throughout the record itself: funny, sharp, politically charged and constantly pushing forward. Written as political landscapes across the world spiral into disarray, ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’ channels frustration and urgency without ever sinking into hopelessness. “The world is going the way that if you finish writing a song about something that deeply touches you, by the next day there is new shit happening,” says José.

While compiling lyrics for the record, front-woman Joana Brito had been reading books on politics, gender and toxic masculinity, including Grayson Perry’s The Descent of Man, and those ideas bleed through songs that take aim at hollow leadership, social tribalism and the performance of power. Recent single “Killing The Buzz”, released earlier this year on 7” single, in particular cuts through the noise with a sharp sense of humour, mocking political spectacle while refusing to surrender to it.

The recording process itself became its own exercise in chaos management. The band had originally planned to record in Sweden with Cooper Crain of CAVE and Bitchin Bajas, but after a sudden health emergency forced them to abandon the sessions and return to Portugal, they improvised. Instead, Crain flew from Chicago to Porto, where the band cut ten songs in just five intense days at Arda Recorders. Long hours, barely any breaks, constant pressure. They initially planned to record to tape, with Crain even flying over with reel-to-reel machines from the US, before technical problems forced a last-minute pivot to digital recording.

Still, the urgency works in the album’s favour. Nothing here feels overly polished or ironed flat. The rough edges remain intact, giving the record a volatile energy that mirrors the instability that inspired it. “It’s kinda nice to see imperfections these days when everything evolves into AI-based,” says Brito.

For all its anger, though, ‘Force Majeure & The Acts of God’ is ultimately driven by connection rather than nihilism. Long embedded within northern Portugal’s fiercely independent rock community, The Black Wizards remain committed to collaboration, grassroots creativity and building spaces for outsiders like themselves. “We want to encourage kids to get off their smartphones and pick up a guitar, paint, or just be creative,” says Brito. “We want to make the world a safer place for all the freaks like us.”

In the face of chaos, The Black Wizards choose movement, noise and each other. There’s magic in that.

The Black Wizards live dates:
26 June – Paimpol, FR – Paimpol in Rock Festival
27 June – Tours, FR – La Dérive #1
28 June – Manigod, FR – Namass Pamouss Festival
30 July – Guimarães, PT – L’Agosto Festival
7 August – Madrid, ES – Wurlitzer Ballroom
8 August – Benalua, ES – BenaRock Festival
2 October – Karlsruhe, DE – PsyKA Festival
3 October – Pratteln, CH – Up In Smoke Festival
30 October – Oviedo, ES – Lata de Zinc (w/ Death Valley Girls)
31 October – Bordeaux, FR – Deus Ex Machina
23 January – Vienna, AT – Dragged Into Bliss Festival

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Kate at Stereo Sanctity.]

You can’t take your ears off Tokyo Tea Room’s new single “Eyes Off You.”

Margate, UK’s Tokyo Tea Room create music inspired by human emotions, exploring themes of longing and the ephemeral nature of existence. Today, they release “Eyes Off You,” an atmospheric track about obsessive love. Written and produced by the band’s Daniel James Elliott, “Eyes Off You” captures the passion of desire through mesmerizing synth, guitar and dreamy vocals by Beth Dunn. True to their introspective universe, yet with a slightly more pop aesthetic, they transform vulnerability into something melodious and danceable.

On “Eyes Off You,” Tokyo Tea Room dive into the murky waters of obsessive love. Weaving a narrative around a love you can’t let go of, even when it hurts, they capture the fatalism of an impossible but all-consuming obsession, singing: “Can’t quit loving you like I was born to lose // Everything I do just leads me back to you.”

Watch the Video for Tokyo Tea Room’s “Eyes Off You”

Tokyo Tea Room is a timeless project whose message transcends the music itself. The band arouses passions and emotions, taking listeners on a journey within a tender, comforting bubble. Their debut album, No Rush, established them as one of the most compelling emerging acts in alternative music, resonating with a growing global audience. With millions of monthly listeners and a sold-out debut North American tour, the band are rapidly building momentum, particularly in the US, where their audience continues to expand. With new music on the horizon, Tokyo Tea Room are entering a defining new chapter, evolving their sound while staying rooted in the emotional depth that defines their work.

Tokyo Tea Room will return to North America this fall touring in support of forthcoming new music. A full list of dates are below and tickets are on sale now.

Tokyo Tea Room Tour Dates:
Thu. Sep 24 – Vancouver – Hollywood Theatre
Sat. Sep 26 – Seattle WA – Neumos
Mon. Sep 28 – San Francisco CA – Bimbo’s 365 Club
Wed. Sep 30 – Los Angeles CA – Teragram Ballroom
Fri. Oct 2 – San Diego CA – Quartyard
Sat. Oct 3 – Tucson AZ – Club Congress
Mon. Oct 5 – Austin TX – 29th St. Ballroom
Tue. Oct 6 – Houston TX – White Oak Music Hall
Wed. Oct 7 – Dallas TX – Club Dada (indoors)
Fri. Oct 9 – Atlanta GA – Terminal West
Sat. Oct 10 – Durham NC – Motorco Music Hall
Sun. Oct 11 – Washington DC – The Atlantis
Tue. Oct 13 – Brooklyn NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
Wed. Oct 14 – New York NY – Bowery Ballroom
Thu. Oct 15 – Boston MA – The Sinclair
Fri. Oct 16 – Montreal QB – Bar le Ritz
Sat. Oct 17 – Toronto ON – Mod Club
Mon. Oct 19 – Chicago IL – Lincoln Hall

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Growing Pains release their first new single since 2023 – “Swimming.”

Over the last year the Portland band Growing Pains have become one of the most buzzed about bands in the Pacific Northwest. Composed of Jack Havrilla, Kyle Kraft, Kalia Storer and Carl Taylor — the band began popping up on bills around when they were still teenagers, and in more recent times have toured up and down the West Coast while sharing stages with bands like MX Lonely, Alien Boy, Been Stellar, Water From Your Eyes, Beabadoobee and Dutch Interior.

Despite the recent buzz around the band, Growing Pains haven’t released any new music since a 2023 EP that came out while they were still in high school. Today, the band are announcing their signing to the label Photo Finish, and sharing their first single since that EP, a track called “Swimming.”

“Swimming” is as an immediate and streamlined guitar pop track with the melodic heft to read like a lost early oughts alternative radio hit. Recalling ’90s icons like Liz Phair and Julianna Hatfield as re-imagined by Joyce Manor, the single is an immensely promising first statement from an ambitious young band determined to meet their moment.

Storer says of the track: “This song is about the helpless feeling that comes from being romantically incompetent. I wrote it after going on a date and they put their arm around me and it felt wrong. I left and went to the airport to watch the planes fly and drink a beer on my truck. Then all of the words came to me—this was the night before our last day of recording.”

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Dion Lunadon to release “Rare Gems Volume One” this June.

Dion Lunadon has a habit of dropping crazy, wild records on a consistent basis and now he’s about to release Rare Gems Volume One.

The album is comprised of ten rare and unreleased studio tracks recorded between 2016 and 2026 and also features fan favorites, 1976 and When Will I Hold You Again.

The first single is the unreleased track, Dead Or Alive, which is already out for your listening pleasure.

Rare Gems Volume One is now available for pre-order. It will be available on 12” black vinyl and a very limited edition run of 2-tone liquid smoke vinyl, CD and digital download.

These bundle options are available through Dion’s Bandcamp page:

LIMITED EDITION 12” VINYL BUNDLE

Limited Edition 2-Tone Liquid Smoke Vinyl + Black Vinyl + Digital Download

DELUXE LIMITED EDITION 12” VINYL BUNDLE

Limited Edition 2-Tone Liquid Smoke Vinyl + Black Vinyl + Digital Download + Limited Screen Print ACID Blotter Art

TRACK LISTING

Dead Or Alive (Unreleased)

Crush (Unreleased)

1976 (Com/Broke 7” B-Side ICR-107)

I Owe You (Nothing) (Unreleased)

Head On (Unreleased)

When Will I Hold You Again (Bandcamp Only)

The Enemy (Talk-Action=Zero Comp. Volume One)

The City Is Ours (Talk-Action=Zero Comp. Volume Two)

Destroyer (Unreleased)

No Class (Unreleased)

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dion Lunadon!]

Review: American Sharks – Not Dead Yet

Austin, Texas’ American Sharks have returned after a five-year hiatus with a new rocker of an album titled Not Dead Yet for all of you out there figuring they were finished.

The opening title track takes off like someone stomping the gas pedal of a muscle car outfitted with flame throwers and machine guns. “Flowers for the Dead” (featuring a guitar solo by David Sullivan of Red Fang) has the flame throwers on that car burning down everything along a funeral procession while a dog growls and barks as they pass and toss an empty beer can at it. “Goodbye, my love, goodbye,” Roky Moon sings, preferring to send his dearly departed out on a high note.

“I saw a demon on my left. I saw a lizard on my right,” Moon says in the beginning of the absolutely slamming “Going Insane,” letting us know about weird visions he’s having both in and out of sleep while Aaron Echegaray goes bonkers on lead guitar. “Fuzz War” is suitably fuzzy for its title. “I need blood, I need something real,” Moon sings on “Give Me Blood.” His vocals become echoed and distorted as he tries to find anything concrete in the illusions in which he’s living.

“Bang Yer Head” (with solo Mike Derks of GWAR) is a fun classic metal track that you can imagine was a blast for them to record. Nick Cornetti goes wild with his snare hits, sounding like he went through several of them while playing it. Zach Blair of Rise Against stops in for his own guitar solo duty on “The Machine,” which almost reaches hair metal territory, and The Sword‘s “Kyle Schutt” unleashes a solo of his own on “Sunny Sunday,” an upbeat track with sad lyrics (“It ain’t been the same since you were last around…I’ll be sittin’ here waiting for you.”).

The album ends with “They Want Peace” featuring Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol‘s Leo Lydon not only contributing another guest guitar solo but also backing vocals. “Hey, man. I need water. Could you spare a little please?”, Lydon asks. They’re looking for compassion in a world that’s lacking it. It can also be allusion to the Southwest’s growing and dire water shortage issue.

The world’s not dead yet, and American Sharks are trying to tell us that we can do something about it. We don’t need to just roll over and die. We can keep banging our heads and rocking out and watching out for each other. Someone you know needs a boost. Crank this and wake them up.

Keep your mind open.

[I might go insane if you don’t subscribe.]

[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Francis of Delirium remind us “It’s a Beautiful Life” with her new single.

Francis of Delirium—the project of Luxembourg-based musician Jana Bahrich—announces her second album, Run, Run Pure Beauty, out May 29th via Dalliance Recordings, and releases the single/video, “It’s a Beautiful Life.” The epitome of a modern artist, Jana does most things herself, no matter how painstaking—writing, producing, directing, often handpainting t-shirts the day of shows when the band have run out of merch. This has given her band, Francis of Delirium, a unique identity, with her rock confessionals breathing a new life into the genre and her paintings creating a striking design aesthetic.

Francis of Delirium released their first single, “Quit F**king Around,” in 2020 as Jana was finishing high school. Shortly after its release, she signed to Dalliance Recordings and proceeded to release three EPs: All Change (2020), Wading (2021), and The Funhouse (2022). While the EPs fizzed with promise, the debut Francis of Delirium album, Lighthouse (2024), landed its punches. Seeking a more vulnerable and open sonic palette, Jana wove in pop elements to create anthems that celebrated heartbreak and love. Paste praised the album as “a rewarding experience that captures a talented, young artist at the crossroads between adolescence and adulthood,” and NME raved, “Bahrich’s choruses, almost every one, are lump-in-your-throat gorgeous.”

Produced by Jana and long time collaborator Chris Hewett, and mixed by Nicolas Vernhes (Deerhunter, Dirty Projectors, Silver Jews), Run, Run Pure Beauty continues in this vein, notably on the previously released, “Little Black Dress,” and today’s new single, “It’s a Beautiful Life.” The song immediately hits with an undeniable chorus and euphoric guitars. Lyrically, Jana is searching for beauty within, basing the song on vignettes snatched from moments away: “A coffee I had with a pianist who was about to play a Philip Glass piece at the Philharmonie in Berlin, watching a couple break up on a New York City park bench, walking past a choir rehearsing in a basement, and examining a loneliness that feels ingrained into daily life,” Jana says. “I’m not denying pain but trying to find the beauty alongside it.”

The song’s must-watch video, directed by Kiyan Agadjani, captures the eternal teen movie summer with aplomb. Of Agadjani, Jana says, “He sent me his short film Arman & Elisa and I was incredibly impressed. A year later, I went to him with an idea about gay basketball and he was in. We started referencing movies like Little Miss Sunshine, Space Jam and Juno and wrote a treatment about a rag tag team called ‘The Rats’ going up against a professional team, ‘The Giants’. The video ended up being about perseverance and connection, both on and off screen. We cast a lot of our friends, musicians, artists and filmmakers from Luxembourg and I’m still not totally sure how it happened, but it took us eight months to finish.”

Watch the Video for “It’s a Beautiful Life”

Live, Francis of Delirium are Jana (guitar and vocals), Jeff Hennico (bass), and Denis Schumacher (drums). Together, their brilliant quiet-loud dynamic and tight interplay elevate Jana’s songs. Over the last five years, they’ve headlined shows, played festivals, and toured across Europe and North America with the likes of Blondshell, The Districts, Horsegirl, Briston Maroney, Soccer Mommy, and Bôa, who they will support in Europe this spring.

Run, Run Pure Beauty is an excavation of hope in bleak times; its songs of discovery, despair, and perseverance ultimately serve as a mirror on its creator and is a brilliant next installment in the Francis of Delirium arc.

Pre-Order Run, Run Pure Beauty

Watch the Video for “Little Black Dress”

Francis of Delirium Tour Dates
Sat. April 18 – Paris, FR @ Élysée Montmartre *
Mon. April 20 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso *
Tue. April 21 – Hamburg, DE @ Uebel & Gefährlich *
Thu. April 23 – Ursus, PL @ Klub Progresja *
Fri. April 24 – Poznań, PL @ TAMA *
Sun. April 26 – Köln, DE @ Bürgerhaus Stollwerck *

* supporting Bôa

Keep your mind open.

[It’s a beautiful life when you subscribe.]

[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Jesca Hoop stirs up a “Big Storm” with her new single.

One month from today, Jesca Hoop will release her new LP Long Wave Home. The seventh solo album from the California-born, Manchester-based songwriter took shape amidst a period of both personal and geopolitical upheaval: a web of schisms that seemed to reflect one another as they unfolded. It is the first album Hoop produced by herself, and it marks both a fresh start and a deepening of her extensive, multifaceted discography.

In the past, Hoop had worked with a roster of seasoned, brilliant producers: John Parish (PJ Harvey, Tracy Chapman); Tony Berg (Taylor Swift, boygenius); and Blake Mills, (Fiona Apple, Alabama Shakes). Hoop learned from all of these partnerships. As she embarked on her seventh album, she was ready to apply that knowledge from the cockpit.

Hoop recorded Long Wave Home in studios around the United Kingdom. She asked her collaborator Jesse D. Vernon to arrange accompaniments for her songs, then set out in a camper van to meet session musicians and begin tracking. Her travels took her to The Shed in London, Empire Sound on the Isle of Wight, and J&J Studios in Bristol. Throughout the process, she worked closely with engineers Tim Thomas (Bright Eyes, British Sea Power) and Leo Abrahams (Belle & Sebastian, Frightened Rabbit) to foster the sound she envisioned for the album. Under her careful hand, a populous, dynamic sound emerged.

So far Hoop has released two singles from her new LP, “Caravan” and “Designer Citizen.” Today Hoop is announcing a new run of tour dates and sharing a third single from the record, a track called “Big Storm.”

Hoop says of the track:

“There was a moment, many years ago, when I was ready to ditch everything—everyone I knew and everything I was doing. I gave away all my possessions, keeping only the essentials. I sold my car. I bought a plane ticket. The plan was to leave without notice. Then the biggest storm in recent history blew my getaway plan to bits. It grounded all planes and halted travel. I was forced to face my life. Myself.

The storm taught me there is no cheat code for life—no easy way out. At the same time, my life—my happiness—is my responsibility. Mine and only mine.”

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Ed O’Brien releases title track from upcoming new solo album – “Blue Morpho.”

Ed O’Brien announces Blue Morpho, his absorbing, second solo album and first under his own name, out May 22nd via his new label home, Transgressive, and releases the title track.

O’Brien likes to quote the Kentucky poet and farmer Wendell Berry: “To know the dark, go dark.” That philosophy became both compass and catalyst for Blue Morpho – a deeply personal album produced by Paul Epworth (Paul McCartney, Adele), born from one of the most challenging periods of his life. Though he remains one of rock music’s most lauded guitarists, Blue Morpho finds O’Brien beginning anew, finally starting to figure out his approach. With its moments of hypnotic psych-folk, radiant guitars, beguiling trip-hop and luminous stillness, it reveals an artist moving beyond familiar structures and feels like a map of O’Brien navigating exciting other ways to listen, work and live. He steps into the dark, and emerges renewed, evident on the stunning and uplifting “Blue Morpho,” inspired by the healing effects of nature.

Watch the Video for “Blue Morpho”

In April 2020, after releasing his solo debut, Earth, under his initials, O’Brien almost immediately regretted waiting nearly a decade to record those songs while balancing his schedule with Radiohead. Some of its impulses had been lost in the gap, and there was only so much he could do to support it as the world confronted catastrophe. Later that year, O’Brien entered the deepest depression of his life. Encouraged by his wife to sit in the fire of his emotions, he began a daily ritual, immersing himself in the breathing and cold-exposure teachings of Wim Hof, then retreating into his small London studio, playing guitar for hours until his brain began to fray.

There were no directions or preconceptions; O’Brien was simply using his instrument to navigate 50 years of emotional trauma and turmoil that had finally rushed to the surface. Years ago, when O’Brien began writing songs, Thom Yorke had told him a secret key to the craft was being a good librarian – cataloguing ideas when they happened to find and revisit later. As O’Brien played now through his past, his spiritual connection to nature in the Welsh countryside and his beliefs in the possibility of healing, he kept a record of what he was making. Over the next four years, those moments evolved into Blue Morpho, his first album fully detached from past regrets.

A series of serendipitous encounters steadily led to Blue Morpho. After a chance connection through their children’s school, producer Epworth became a key collaborator, leading to focused sessions alongside engineer Riley MacIntyre in Wales where the album’s foundations took shape. Saxophonist and composer Shabaka Hutchings contributed flutes following discussions at Glastonbury about frequency and natural resonance. And in Estonia, O’Brien bonded with composer Tõnu Kõrvits over their admiration for the classicist Arvo Pärt; Kõrvits then arranged strings performed by the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. The album was completed between O’Brien’s studio in Wales and The Church Studios in London, a 200-year-old former sacred space whose atmosphere mirrors the record’s spiritual undercurrent. Sequencing assistance came from Flood, known for his work with U2, PJ Harvey, and Nine Inch Nails, and Ben Baptie handled mixing.

An accompanying short film, Blue Morpho: The Three Act Play, which premiered at SXSW yesterday, will be released alongside the album, with more details to follow.

Blue Morpho is available on CD, cassette, LP, indies exclusive Transfiguration Edition LP (orange vinyl) and artist store exclusive Flutter By Edition LP (cream vinyl). A limited edition blue 7″ of the “Blue Morpho” single is available as part of the LP album bundle on the artist store while stocks last.

Watch the Trailer for Blue Morpho: The Three Act Play

Pre-Order Blue Morpho

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Grab your surfboard and sunscreen for Motherhood’s new single – “Kyle Hangs Ten.”

It’s no secret that Motherhood loves surf music – they are Canada’s Evil Beach Boys, after all. But usually by the time they release a song, the original influences have been hidden under layers of subterfuge, with our attraction to play far outweighing our ability to stay put.

“With ‘Kyle Hangs Ten,’ we were trying to write the most surfy song we could without over-complicating a genre that, at it’s core, is just swaggy country music” explains the band. “Adam had a drum beat that we jammed over, eventually falling into a Miserlou-adjacent guitar melody and filling the rest with pastiches.”

When the band were preparing to record their latest LP, Thunder Perfect Mind, the band couldn’t agree on the proper tempo for the song, until Kyle Cunjak (co-producer of the album) suggested both speeding it up AND slowing it down, creating 2 songs with the same bones.

“In the end, the slow version (the spaghetti western “Kyle Hangs at Noon”) made the record and the fast version (“Kyle Hangs Ten”) didn’t,” explains the band, “but we still love the song. Kyle promised us he’d be able to hang 10 by the time this song comes out. If not, he hangs at noon.

March 28 – Boise, ID: Treefort Music Fest // tickets
April 18 – Fredericton, NB: The Cap
May 14/15 – Paris, FR: Supersonic’s Block Party // tickets
May 16 – Strasbourg, FR: Pelpass Festival // tickets
May 18 – Skofja Loka, SI: AKC Nama
May 19 – Budapest, HU: Szimpla Kert // FREE
May 20 – Pilsen, CZ: Mistni Borci
May 21 – Hamburg, DE: Deichdiele
May 22 – Frankfurt, DE: Dreikönigskeller
May 23 – The Hague, NL: Sniester // tickets

Keep your mind open.

[Catch a wave to the subscription box.]

[Thanks to Gabriel at Clandestine Label Services.]