Gus Baldwin is one of the hardest working dudes in the Austin, Texas music scene. When he’s not cranking out solo material, he’s often working with The Black Angels, or Christian Bland and The Revelators, or collaborating with Danny Blackwell of Night Beats, or he’s teaming up with his pals in The Sketch to create The Sketch album, and, since he’s so busy, he and his pals recorded it in one day.
Opening with “Part I,” “Part II,” and “Part III,” the album is raucous right out of the gate with guitars that sound like a battleship groaning as it collides with an iceberg. The album moves back and forth between garage punk and trash rock. The fourth track, “Itch,” is a wild punk barn-burner. “Steady on It” lands somewhere between Frankie and The Witch Fingers and Ty Segall, but with extra-funky bass for good measure.
“Luxury Television” teems with Osees-like intensity and mania as Baldwin sings “I got a strange addiction. Your hate is my prescription.” You don’t get much more punk than that. “Slacker’s Prom” and “(She’s Gone) Arigato” continue the punk fun, and the latter even brings in a bit of 50s-ish doo-wop on the backing vocals.
“What the Freaks Say” could fit right in on any college radio playlist, and by the end, “Sympathy for Sunday,” they go all-in on heavy psych-rock.
It’s a wild ride, and over before you know it. It’s also a good launch for Baldwin and The Sketch. They’ll be ones to watch in 2025.
Lord Huron returns with “Who Laughs Last?,” a new single featuring Academy Award nominated actress Kristen Stewart and an accompanying music video directed by Tony Wilson and starring Stewart. The band also announces a 2025 world tour, taking place after the upcoming Strange Trails 10th Anniversary run “Who Laughs Last?” marks the multiplatinum Los Angeles band’s first original release in two years, and also serves as the debut recording by Kristen Stewart [Spencer, Love Lies Bleeding]. “Who Laughs Last?” represents just the first piece of a sonic, aesthetic, and sensory puzzle meant to be assembled with care.
“Who Laughs Last?” finds Lord Huron evolving at lightspeed. With Stewart in the driver’s seat, they traverse a lonely and lost highway soundtracked by a rumbling palm-muted bass riff and a high octane beat. The groove picks up as samples of garbled news broadcasts echo in waves over strings. While she grips the wheel, Stewart’s poetic spoken word chills. At one point, she confesses that staring at an oncoming storm “made me feel something I never felt before…something between awestruck and horrified…I kept my eyes on the long white lines.” Turning on a dime, the momentum picks up and frontman Ben Schneider’s vocals take hold around a hard-hitting hook, “You don’t remember what I said, but you’ll remember what I did.” Starring Stewart,the accompanying visual evokes a Lynchian film noir on screen.
About the single, Schneider commented “I didn’t know Kristen previously but I’d been a big fan since seeing her work with Olivier Assayas, which my wife introduced me to. I kept hearing her voice when I was writing this song and just thought “what the hell, I’ll reach out and see,” thinking it was a long shot. But she said she was interested so we met up and hit it off talking about books, movies and music. She immediately got what I was going for and had great ideas to boot. She’s just a great person and so creative and open. She added a lot to the video concept as well. It was the kind of collaboration you dream of, honestly.”
“I’ve always loved the band and immediately sparked to the manic drift of the song and to the mood,” says Stewart. “I love when a song is something you can kind of seep into and imagine. Ben is the nicest, I was so into reading his words… there’s nothing like making new friends through projects like these that just crop up. Lucky stuff.”
Lord Huron’s 2025 world tour is the band’s biggest North American headline tour to date. The trek commences on July 18th and visits legendary venues, including Madison Square Garden in New York City, Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, and the Moody Center in Austin before concluding at Kia Forum in Los Angeles. Select dates will feature support from artists including Waxahatchee, Feist, Kevin Morby and more.
Prior, Lord Huron embarks on the previously announced Strange Trails 10thAnniversary Tour, beginning this May in Reno, NV, and includes their annual Red Rocks Amphitheatre dates. This very special run commemorates the 10th anniversary of the release of their album, Strange Trails, which featured the multi-platinum single “The Night We Met.” Artist presale tickets for newly announced dates begin Tuesday, January 28th at 1PM local time. General on-sale launches on Friday, January 31st at 10am local time. A full list of dates can be found below.
There will be more news from Lord Huron in the coming months.
Lord Huron Tour Dates (new dates in bold) Sat. April 26 – Charleston, NC @ Highwater Festival Thu. May 22 – Reno, NV @ The Grand Theatre at Grand Sierra Resort – SOLD OUT * Fri. May 23 – Boise, ID @ Outlaw Field at the Idaho Botanical Garden – SOLD OUT * Sun. May 25 – Missoula, MT @ KettleHouse Amphitheater – SOLD OUT * Mon. May 26 – Missoula, MT @ KettleHouse Amphitheater – SOLD OUT * Wed. May 28 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre – SOLD OUT * Thu. May 29 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre – SOLD OUT * Sat. May 31 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Sandy Amphitheater – SOLD OUT * Sun. June 1 – Denver, CO @ Outside Festival Fri. July 18 – Indianapolis, IN @ Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park ^ Sat. July 19 – Chicago, IL @ Fairgrounds at Salt Shed ^ Sun. July 20 – Chicago, IL @ Fairgrounds at Salt Shed ^ Tue. July 22 – Minneapolis, MN @ Armory % Wed. July 23 @ Milwaukee, WI Miller High Life Theatre % Fri. July 25 – Nashville, TN @ The Pinnacle % Sat. July 26 – Nashville, TN @ The Pinnacle % Sun. July 27 – Atlanta, GA @ Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park % Tue. July 29 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion # Wed. July 30 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden # Fri. Aug. 1- Philadelphia, PA @ TD Pavillion at The Mann % Sun. Aug. 3 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway % Tue. Aug. 5 – Raleigh, NC @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek % Thu. Aug. 7 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE Outdoors) @ Fri. Aug. 8 – Columbus, OH @ KEMBA Live! Outdoor @ Sat. Aug. 9 – Rochester Hills, MI @ Meadow Brook Amphitheatre @ Thu. Sept. 4 – Oslo, NO @ Sentrum Scene Fri. Sept. 5 – Stockholm, SE @ Annexet Sat. Sept. 6 – Copenhagen, DK @ Poolen Mon. Sept. 8 – Berlin, DE @ Tempodrom Tue. Sept. 9 – Warsaw, PL @ Stodola Wed. Sept. 10 – Vienna, AT @ Gasometer Thu. Sept. 11 – Zurich, CH @ Halle 622 Sat. Sept. 13 – Paris, FR @ L’Olympia Sun. Sept. 14 – Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg – Ronda Mon. Sept. 15 – Cologne, DE @ E-Werk Tue. Sept. 16 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique Thu. Sept. 18 – Bristol, UK @ Bristol Beacon Fri. Sept. 19 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo Sat. Sept. 20 – Glasgow, UK @ O2 Academy Glasgow Sun. Sept. 21 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo Manchester Wed. Oct. 15 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley ! Fri. Oct. 17 – Portland, OR @ Moda Center ! Sat. Oct. 18 – Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena ! Sun. Oct. 19 – Spokane, WA @ Spokane Pavilion ! Tue. Oct. 21 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Union Event Center ! Thu. Oct. 23 – Omaha, NE @ Steelhouse Omaha ! Fri. Oct. 24 – St. Louis, MO @ Chaifetz Arena ! Sat. Oct. 15 – Independence, MO @ Cable Dahmer Arena ! Mon. Oct. 27 – Irving, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory ! Wed. Oct. 29 – Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall ! Thu. Oct. 30 – Austin, TX @ Moody Center $ Sat. Nov. 1 – Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre $ Sun. Nov. 2 – Los Angeles, CA @ Kia Forum $
* with Molly Lewis ^ with Indigo De Souza % with Lee Fields # with Waxahatchee @ with S.G. Goodman ! with Kevin Morby $ with Feist
Today Guelph, Ontario hell-raisers Bonnie Trash share a new single and video, taken from their forthcoming new album, Mourning You, which is set for release on February 28th on Hand Drawn Dracula.
Mourning You finds Bonnie Trash, twins Emmalia & Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor, embracing a newfound sense of urgency. The album is, put bluntly, an album about death. Not death in the macabre, violent, or outrageous sense, but death as you or I might know it. A spectre lurking around the corner. Capricious, indiscriminate, and unexpected. Ordinary and all the more terrifying for it. Real. Fear in the eyes of a loved one about to die, and the fear in your eyes – staring back. This is sorrow not as a lingering bruise, but a gushing wound.
Following previous single, “Veil of Greed”, today they share the howling, urgent new track “Hellmouth“ – a song that evokes the gnarled claw of remorse gripping you in twilight’s terror. “I see you in my dreams every night,” Sarafina intones. Were it not for Emmalia’s blown-out Stratocaster, you might mistake those words for the chorus of an old doo-wop standard. The track launches off as a woozy siren song, before pummeling you with anthemic power chords for Sarafina’s self lacerating chorus: “Drag me to hell and back I go.”
“Every reminder of what once was, feels like a sharp sword” the band comment. “But, even in the darkest moments, there’s always a path towards love. Remembering the warmth of their smile, as you scrape your nails towards the surface…”
A lifelong project christened in 2017 with the release of Ezzelini’s Dead, the band’s debut EP which found the pair mining the Trevisan dialect and archaic Italian folklore of their heritage to grisly effect. Where their first full length, Malocchio (2022), shrouded Bonnie Trash’s nightmares in dusky dreamlike reverb, ‘Mourning You’ is vivid and immediate. Emboldened by the addition of Emma Howarth-Withers on bass and Dana Bellamy on drums – whose thunderous rhythms sharpened 2024’s My Love Remains the Same EP into a fine-edged blade – Mourning You is less a post-mortem fantasia than a sudden, swift dagger to the heart.
Sarafina, the band’s singer and lyricist, has described the album as being about “losing someone you love. It’s about the horrors of grief, haunting you every day.” Inspired, largely, by the passing of Nonna Maria – who provided interstitial narration across the band’s early work – it’s these intimate details which render the songs on Mourning You so devastating. The record explores love and grief as kindred spirits. Grief as love with nowhere to go. Love determined by the fear of its loss. A blood pact. A life for a life. The gnarled claw of remorse gripping you in twilight’s terror.
Though inspired by the shocking iconography of horror shows, slasher flicks, and psychological thrillers, Bonnie Trash turns cinematic tropes on their head. Rather than fashioning nightmares into reality, the band paints reality as a nightmare, rife with pain, suffering, and gothic theatre. Bonnie Trash understands that everyday atrocities haunt the periphery of our lives. A black cloud looming on the edge of our vision. Curses abound. You can’t ward them off. You’d best make an unholy racket.
Mourning You is out February 28, 2025 on Hand Drawn Dracula. In mourning, all is lost.
Bonnie Trash live dates: Feb 27 – Toronto, ON – Wavelength Winter Fest w/ The OBGMs, pHoenix Pagliacci, Cadence Weapon Mar 01 – Guelph, ON – ArtBar Mar 08 – Kitchener, ON – The Union
Slowdive‘s second album, Souvlaki (originally released in 1993), didn’t make much of a splash at first, but everyone pretty much now agrees that it was, and still is, a shoegaze classic.
“Alison” starts off the album in one of the best ways you can start a shoegaze record – with a song about a pretty girl and getting high. You’d think a song called “Machine Gun” would roll out the heavy walls of guitar feedback, but instead they up the hypnotic synths and let Rachel Goswell‘s morning mist vocals about succumbing to a flood come to the front.
It’s no secret that Goswell and Neil Halstead broke up not long before the band started the writing sessions for this album, and Halstead’s heartbreak is all over the album in his vocals, lyrics, and guitar work. He wrote “40 Days” while on a two-week break in Wales to come to terms with it. The song is a bit loose and jangly with Simon Scott‘s drums doing a little shuffle here and there.
“Sing” and “Here She Comes” were cowritten and produced by none other than Brian Eno. The band, and especially Halstead, wanted Eno to produce the whole record, but he declined. He contributes synths to “Sing,” a song about loneliness with Goswell’s vocals making you wonder if she was reconsidering the breakup. “Here She Comes” is about the hope of finding warmth in the arms of a lover, but knowing it could be a long winter before that happens.
“Souvlaki Space Station” is more psychedelia than shoegaze, and goes to show Slowdive can pull off either genre at will. Despite being one of their biggest hits among fans, bassist Nick Chaplin and guitarist ChristianSavill, didn’t think “When the Sun Hits” should be on the album. It hits all the “wall of sound” notes you want in a shoegaze track, and they’ve changed their mind on it since.
“Altogether” has Halstead watching Goswell from a distance, knowing things probably aren’t going much further between them, and the sad guitar work on it only emphasizes that belief. “Melon Yellow” continues this distancing (“So long. So long. It’s just a way to love you.”), with Halstead’s voice sounding far away and Scott’s drums almost mournful. The closing track, “Dagger,” is about, as Halstead put it, “a fucked-up relationship.” It, like many songs on the album, refer to Halstead watching Goswell as she sleeps, perhaps telling her what he couldn’t bring himself to say while she was awake and admitting “You know I am your dagger. You know I am your wound.”
It’s a heavy record, and not just from the sound. It’s gorgeous and sad, so, yeah, a shoegaze classic.
Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory release “Trouble,” the final pre-release single from their forthcoming self-titled debut album Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, out February 7th via Jagjaguwar. On the heels of the “ripping” and “mesmerizing” (FLOOD) “Southern Life (What It Must Be Like),” “Trouble” is a cascading, almost euphoric track characteristic of the mystical mix of electronics and analog textures found throughout the album. “Trouble” features Van Etten’s unmistakable vocals alongside melancholic synths by Teeny Lieberson and driving and melodic bass lines by Devra Hoff.
Van Etten explains, “’Trouble’ is about the idea of having to coexist with people you love who have opposing views, and not being able to share deep parts of yourself and your narrative based on someone else’s beliefs. It’s about when there’s that big part of you that someone who loves you can’t know because it’s not something they want to hear or are willing to learn about or understand, and those painful realizations when you choose to love and respect someone else’s needs over your own to salvage a relationship.”
The video for “Trouble” was shot and directed by Susu Laroche during the album’s recording sessions at Eurythmics’ former London studio, The Church.
From the off, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is sonically different from Van Etten’s previous work. Writing and recording in total collaboration with her band – Jorge Balbi, Hoff, and Lieberson – for the first time, Van Etten finds the freedom that comes by letting go. It’s somewhat terrifying, but also liberating. The result of that liberation is an exhilarating new dimension of sound and songwriting. The themes are timeless, classic Sharon – life and living, love and being loved – but the sounds are new, wholly realized and sharp as glass.
Reflecting on this new artistic frame of mind, Van Etten muses, “Sometimes it’s exciting, sometimes it’s scary, sometimes you feel stuck. It’s like every day feels a little different – just being at peace with whatever you’re feeling and whoever you are and how you relate to people in that moment. If I can just keep a sense of openness while knowing that my feelings change every day, that is all I can do right now. That and try to be the best person I can be while letting other people be who they are and not taking it personally and just being.”
Next month, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory will play three special shows leading into release week, including her first ever hometown headline show at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey on February 4th. Following a UK and European tour, the band will pick back up for a month of shows across North America in April and May. A full list of dates can be found below, and tickets are available here.
Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory Tour Dates Sat. Feb. 1 – Westerly, RI @ The United # Mon. Feb. 3 – Woodstock, NY @ Bearsville Theater # – SOLD OUT Tue. Feb. 4 – Asbury Park, NJ @ The Stone Pony – First Home State Headline Show # Fri. Feb. 28 – Oslo, NO @ Rockefeller * Sat. Mar. 1 – Stockholm, SE @ Fållan * Sun. Mar. 2 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega * Tue. Mar. 4 – Berlin, DE @ Astra Kulturhaus * Thu. Mar. 6 – Paris, FR @ Le Trianon * Fri. Mar. 7 – Antwerp, BE @ De Roma * Sat. Mar. 8 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso * Mon. Mar. 10 – London, UK @ Royal Albert Hall * Tue. Mar. 11 – Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall * Wed. Mar. 12 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom * Thu. Apr. 24 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern ^ Fri. Apr. 25 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl ^ Sat. Apr. 26 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel ^ Mon. Apr. 28 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club ^ Wed. Apr. 30 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer ^ Thu. May 1 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner ^ Fri. May 2 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel ^ Mon. May 5 – Detroit, MI @ Saint Andrew’s Hall ^ Tue. May 6 – Toronto, ON @ History ^ Thu. May 8 – Madison, WI @ The Sylvee ^ Fri. May 9 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed ^ Sat. May 10 – St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre ^ Mon. May 12 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre ^ Tue. May 13 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall ^ Thu. May 15 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile ^ Fri. May 16 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile ^ – SOLD OUT Sat. May 17 – Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre ^ Sun. May 18 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall ^ Wed. May 21 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern ^
# with She Keeps Bees * with special guest Nabihah Iqbal ^ with Love Spells
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Population II is a band dedicated to its disengagement, constantly working on refining their imposing, yet unpretentious sound. Composed of singer/drummer Pierre-Luc Gratton, guitarist/keyboardist Tristan Lacombe, and bassist Sébastien Provençal, the trio began recording a handful of independent releases that soon caught the attention of the independent label Castle Face Records, who released their debut À la Ô Terre in 2020, and in 2023 the band released their sophomore album Électrons libres du québec via Bonsound, which lead into a heavy period of touring in the US and Canada, including a run with OSEES.
The band delves into tasseomancy on their new single “Le thé est prêt” (French for “The tea is ready”), which arrives today to mark the announce of their new LP Maintenant Jamais, their third full-length album, which is due out on March 28th via Bonsound. The release also coincides with the start of a European tour, which includes shows in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK (full details of the tour dates can be found below).
A crisp, spellbinding intro sets the mood for the first song on Maintenant Jamais, Population II‘s third album. With the guidance of producer Dominic Vanchesteing (Marie Davidson, Chocolat, Peter Peter), the turbulence of the band’s previous releases is structured and refined. The result is a sophisticated rock album that surprises with its languorous grooves, as heard on Le thé est prêt, while staying true to the raw power for which the band is renowned, as demonstrated on vigorous tracks such as La Trippance and Rédemption naturelle.
The album follows with Prévisions, a song that ripples with finesse before abruptly transitioning into the instrumental number Macavélique rock. While Haut-fond and Cardinaux are true feats of elegant prog rock, Mariano (Jamais je ne t’oublierai) and Homme étoilé prove that Population II is also endowed with a profound melodic sensibility capable of creating catchy and explosive hooks. On this new album, the trio fine-tunes the distinctive style they’ve been developing for several years, thanks in part to a fusion of shared influences – from Soft Machine to MC5 to L’Infonie – but also to a rare complicity that can only blossom between such close friends. This creative chemistry is what makes the band’s complex songwriting seem so fluid and supple. Population II breaks through their previous sonic frontiers while staying true to their roots. Therein lies the achievement of Maintenant Jamais, to be released on March 28, 2025, via Bonsound.
Horsegirl — the New York-via-Chicago trio of best friends Nora Cheng, Penelope Lowenstein, and Gigi Reece — unveil the new single/video, “Switch Over,” from their upcoming second album, Phonetics On and On, out February 14th via Matador Records. Following previously released singles, “2468” and “Julie,” “Switch Over” feels almost motorik in its pulse as the track dances back and forth between Cheng and Lowenstein’s swapping vocals.
The “Switch Over” video was directed by Guy Kozak, who came to the band with the idea of switching on / off and doubling concepts. Uncanny in its concept, the video explores the concept of “band-watching-band,” with layered shots of the trio watching themselves perform in the same room.
Produced by Cate Le Bon and recorded at The Loft in Chicago, Horsegirl’s original and sonic home, Phonetics On and On is an exploration of the lines between pop, minimalism, and playful experimentation. With the help of Le Bon, Horsegirl expands into bright and clear sonic territories utilizing new tools, including violins, synths, and gamelan tiles, to bring this world to life. It’s an album to dance to, as Reece’s dancing drum melodies and Lowenstein’s bright guitar leads direct your attention to the band’s chemistry and mastery of form.
There’s a confident simplicity to the songwriting here. Horsegirl writes with an unanticipated honesty, leading us through scenes of girlhood and youth, as tenderness reverberates back and forth across the recording. You can see the love that comes with being a band of best friends. It’s a love that is ever-present in Phonetics On and On.
Horsegirl will play a record release show on February 22nd at the Metro in Chicago, and will tour the southeast and northeast in March with Free Range supporting, before touring the UK and Europe later in 2025. All tickets are on sale now and available here.
Horsegirl Tour Dates Sat. Feb. 22 – Chicago, IL @ Metro (Record Release Show) ^ Fri. Mar. 21 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church % Sat. Mar. 22 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat % Sun. Mar. 23 – Raleigh, NC @ Kings % Mon. Mar. 24 – Richmond, VA @ The Warehouse % Wed. Mar. 26 – Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom % Thu. Mar. 27 – Somerville, MA @ Arts at The Armory % Fri. Mar. 28 – Woodstock, NY @ Bearsville Theater % Sat. Mar. 29 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw % Sat. June 7 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound Tue. June 10 – Hamburg, DE @ Molotow Club Wed. June 11 – Berlin, DE @ Badehaus Szimpla Sat. June 14 – Porto, PT @ Primavera Sound Porto Mon. June 16 – Cologne, DE @ Bumann & Sohn Tue. June 17 – Antwerp, BE @ Trix Wed. June 18 – Paris, FR @ Petit Bain Fri. June 20 – London, UK @ Scala Sat. June 21 – Manchester, UK @ Band on the Wall Sun. June 22 – Glasgow, UK @ Mono Tue. June 24 – Dublin, IE @ The Workman’s Club Thu. June 26 – Bristol, UK @ Thekla
^ w/ Lifeguard & Answering Machines % w/ Free Range
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Slowdive were one of the best shoegaze bands to come out of the 1990s, but also one of the best-kept secrets in the genre for a while. I don’t know if I, or anyone, can explain this, because they’re widely praised among the genre’s enthusiasts and have been playing sold-out shows across the world since their comeback self-titled album released in 2017.
Just for a Day was their 1991 full-length debut, and it’s full of classic touches that make you realize how much they influenced many other bands. The opening somber notes of “Spanish Air” are as good as anything The Cure was making back then, and just as hypnotic. “Celia’s Dream” seems to be a love letter from Neil Halstead to the girl in the title as he sings about shadows drifting away from her, but also her drifting away from him.
“Catch the Breeze” was the lone single from the album, which makes sense when you consider the big, fuzzy wall of sound that hits you in the chorus. “Ballad of Sister Sue” sounds like it could’ve been recorded in an abandoned church with its echoing guitars, mysterious vocals, and distant drums. “Erik’s Song” ends side one of the album with ethereal, instrumental bliss.
Side two begins with “Waves” – a song about leaving a relationship and the freedom that can sometimes bring (“You’re knocking on the door I closed today, and everything looks brighter.”). Speaking of things being brighter, that’s the theme of, you guessed it, “Brighter” – a song about finding hope when things look dark and trusting that tomorrow can bring something better.
“The Sadman” has Rachel Goswell‘s astral plane voice telling us of a being who calls to us when our hearts are broken. Is it someone she knows? A mythical figure? A guy she met outside a gig who looked broken down but still tried to make her laugh? I don’t know, but this needs to be in a movie somewhere. The record ends with “Primal,” which might be the best pairing of Nick Chaplin (bass) and Simon Scott (drums) on the album. They snap and thump in perfect rhythm with each other and never overpower Halstead, Goswell, and Christian Savill. That’s not easy to do when those three are playing shoegaze riffs that grow and grow like a sunrise through rainclouds.
It’s a nice debut record that hinted at bigger things to come and is now considered a bit of a classic.
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Los Angeles based singer-songwriter Morgan Nagler, best known for her bands Whispertown and Supermoon, presents her first single under her own name, “Cradle The Pain.” With jaw-dropping melodies, lyrics that cut right to the heart, and her distinctively beautiful, plaintive howl, you’ll probably wonder how Nagler seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The thing is, she’s been hiding in plain sight for a minute now, waiting for the perfect moment to emerge from band names and behind-the-scenes co-writes with her truest musical statement yet.
Through a GRAMMY-nominated collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers, as well as with The Breeders, Haim, and Madi Diaz, Nagler has spent years honing her ability to craft tunes both heartbreaking and clever with and for other artists. She has become a hugely in-demand co-writer – someone an artist will call in when they really want to get to the core of a feeling.
Reminiscent of Breeders-esque fuzzed-out indie-rock with big, power-pop hooks, “Cradle The Pain” is a preview of Nagler’s next chapter. Produced by King Tuff’s Kyle Thomas, mixed by Alex Farrar (Wednesday, MJ Lenderman, Snail Mail) and featuring a stellar backing band including both Thomas and Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) on guitar, and Josh Adams (Cat Power, Weyes Blood, Tim Heidecker) on drums, “Cradle The Pain” displays Nagler’s poetic acumen, atop an instantly memorable melody. “I originally wrote this song as a sort of letter to one of my dear friends,” Nagler explains. “It’s funny how it’s often easier to cut to the core of truth when the message is disguised as being for somebody else. It has since taken on many new and personal meanings to me, currently serving as more of a mantra. I think we inherently know it’s all in our own hands, but the allure of not being accountable allows us to romanticize falling victim to the whims of fate. I am constantly needing the reminder that perspective truly is the key to life, and only we contain our own salvations. We have to just keep getting back on the saddle again and again. Cradle the pain, it’s all the same, it’s what you make of it.” The song’s accompanying video was directed by Christian Stavros and edited by David Checel.
Nagler will be sharing more music next year, and is putting finishing touches on an album. “This song is the first of a body of work I consider closest to home,” she says. “After spending my childhood as an actor taking on alternate personalities, my young adult days writing and touring in various indie projects, and the last several years writing with and for other artists, I’ve compiled a personal collection of songs alongside Kyle. They will be released under my name for the first time, which is appropriate as I feel pretty raw and more like myself than ever. So in many ways, regardless of a lifetime spent in the trenches of creativity, this feels like a debut.”
Venamoris, the heavy, brooding noir outfit who blend darkwave and metal, featuring Paula and Dave Lombardo, release their sophomore album, To Cross or To Burn, on Feb. 28 via Ipecac Recordings.
Alongside the album announcement, Venamoris unveil “Animal Magnetism,” a striking cover of Scorpions’ 1980 love song. The haunting rendition features a guest appearance from Dave’s former bandmate, Gary Holt (Exodus, Slayer). The song is accompanied by a Displaced/Replaced created video.
Dave reflects on the personal significance of including “Animal Magnetism” on To Cross or To Burn:
“The first rock concert I ever attended was on May 25, 1980, with Scorpions opening for Ted Nugent’s ‘Scream Dream’ tour. We (Slayer) had covered a couple Scorpions songs in the early years but I never would have thought of re-imagining one of their songs at that time. Now it seems like the most natural thing to do. I could hear Paula’s sultry voice, the song taking on a slightly industrial feel… and I could fully hear Gary Holt play this insane lead. It’s been incredible to see this idea come to life. To release this at the same time this iconic band celebrates 60 years is a perfect way for me to thank them for an inspiring first show in 1980 and for all that they have contributed since.”
The married duo teased To Cross or To Burn’s 2025 arrival with the 2024 singles “In The Shadows” and “Spiderweb,” which were praised for their unique sound – described by Consequence as “trip-hop style” fused with “the dark/folk metal of Emma Ruth Rundle and Chelsea Wolfe,” while Revolver has described the pair as “spellbinding.”
Paula, who wrote the album’s nine-original songs, offers insight into the album:
“To Cross or To Burn has taken us down a darker, very different path than our first album. There’s a confidence in this body of work. An overall vibe of heaviness that was unexpected. Verses of hard truths now bound in acceptance. The soul-searching continues.”
To Cross or To Burn is available for pre-order now with the collection available digitally, on CD and on both white and limited-edition red vinyl: https://venamoris.lnk.to/cross.
