Just in time for its thirteenth anniversary, A Place to Bury Strangers will release a deluxe two-disc reissue of their excellent album Exploding Head on October 21, 2022.
The original album is fully remastered and will be available on limited edition transparent vinyl 2LP, transparent red 1LP and deluxe 2CD. The 2LP version is available exclusively via A Place To Bury Strangers merch stores and features second disc of rarities and remixes.
Watch the new video for previously unreleased ‘Take It All’ here:
The band will also be touring Spain and Asia this November!
Austin trio Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol share the official video for the single “Heel” from their forthcoming album Doom Wop today via Revolver Magazine. Watch and share the fun-loving chaos HERE. (Direct YouTube.)
Invisible Oranges recently launched lead single “Shoo In” HERE. (Direct Bandcamp.)
RBBP kick off tour dates supporting King Buffalo in late September, followed by headlining shows across the US in October. Please see current dates below.
With their 5th studio release, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol is putting a name to the style of fuzzed out, overdriven, melodic, groovy music they have been making since 2016. In 9 concise, no bullshit songs, RBBP demonstrates their ability to blend the merciless low end of Leo Lydon’s 8-String guitar, Aaron Metzdorf’s masterful chordwork on the bass, and Sean St.Germain’s driving drumwork. Lydon and Metzdorf’s vocal melodies cut through the high frequencies to deliver fresh layers to the hooks that RBBP fans have come to love.
As the name implies, “Doom Wop” is a heavy, melody-driven, party metal album. With riffs as big and dumb as ever, and lyrics that stab at the worst members of society and ourselves (while keeping tongue firmly in cheek), listeners will find all the elements that make up the soul of RBBP on this record. “Doom Wop” will be available everywhere September 23rd.
Doom Wop will be available on CD and download on September 23rd, 2022. Vinyl LP release date TBD. Pre-orders are available HERE.
“The waiting is over! I mean When it comes to “drive-thru metal”, who needs waiters!?! With our debut album release we are about to “pop-up” all over the states for the first time in years! So head over for a triple decker helping of the cheese you need! on sale now!” – Ronald Osbourne
MAC SABBATH will return to the road this Fall to bring America another heaping helping of unhealthy – but irresistible – Drive-Thru Metal on the 2022 Pop-Up-Drive-Thru Tour, featuring special guests Speedealer, southern rock heavier and faster then anything this side of Motorhead and shoulders,and Lung, the electric cello and drums female duo, kicking off one heck of a party feast for the senses! A food fight to the death!
“MAC SABBATH will be popping up all over the States – just like in our debut release,” says the band’s perplexing clown faced frontman Ronald Osbourne. “Confusing the USA one more time!”
MAC SABBATH on tour:
09/27/22 Great American Music Hall – San Francisco, CA – with Speedealer and Lung – All Ages
09/28/22 Goldfield Trading – Sacramento, CA – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
09/30/22 Dante’s – Portland, OR – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
10/01/22 El Corazón – Seattle, WA – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
10/04/22 Urban Lounge – Salt Lake City, UT – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
10/06/22 WAVE – Wichita, KS – with Speedealer and Lung – All Ages
10/07/22 Knuckleheads – Kansas City, MO – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
10/08/22 Wooly’s – Des Moines, IA – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
10/09/22 Fine Line – Minneapolis, MN – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
10/11/22 Shank Hall – Milwaukee, WI – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
10/12/22 Afterlife Music Hall – Lombard, IL – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
10/13/22 Red Flag St. – Louis, MO – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
10/14/22 Elevation – Grand Rapids, MI – with Speedealer and Lung – All Ages
10/15/22 Magic Bag – Ferndale, MI – with Speedealer and Lung – 18+
10/18/22 HI-FI Indy & HI-FI Annex – Indianapolis, IN – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
10/19/22 Beachland Ballroom – Cleveland, OH – with Speedealer and Lung – All Ages
10/20/22 The Crafthouse Stage & Grill – Pittsburgh, PA – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
10/21/22 Brooklyn Bowl – Brooklyn, NY – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
10/23/22 Wall Street Theater – Norwalk, CT – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
10/26/22 The Foundry – Philadelphia, PA – with Speedealer and Lung – All Ages
10/27/22 Black Cat – Washington, DC – with Speedealer and Lung – All Ages
10/28/22 Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center – Harrisburg, PA – with Speedealer and Lung – All Ages
10/29/22 The Underground – Charlotte, NC – with Speedealer and Lung -All Ages
10/31/22 The Grey Eagle Asheville, NC – with Speedealer and Lung – All Ages
11/01/22 EXIT/IN – Nashville, TN – with Speedealer and Lung – 18+
11/03/22 The Charleston Pour House – Charleston, SC – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
11/04/22 42nd Street Tavern/Reggies – Wilmington, NC – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
11/05/22 Jack Rabbits Live – Jacksonville, FL – with Speedealer and Lung – All Ages
11/06/22 Tuffy’s Bottle Shop/Lounge/Music Box – Sanford, FL with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
11/08/22 Lafayette’s Music Room – Memphis, TN – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
11/09/22 Chelsea’s Cafe – Baton Rouge, LA – with Speedealer and Lung – 18+
11/10/22 Zony Mash Beer Project – New Orleans, LA – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
11/11/22 Come and Take It Live Austin, TX – with Speedealer and Lung – All Ages
11/12/22 Trees – Dallas, TX – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
11/14/22 Paper Tiger – San Antonio, TX – with Speedealer and Lung – 21+
11/15/22 RockHouse Bar & Grill – El Paso, TX – with Speedealer and Lung – All Ages
11/16/22 Meow Wolf – Santa Fe, NM – with Lung – 21+
11/18/22 Marquis Theater – Denver, CO – with Speedealer and Lung – All Ages
11/19/22 Mesa Theater – Grand Junction, CO – with Speedealer and Lung – All Ages
12/16/22 Vinnie’s Bar & Grill with TBA – Concord, CA – 21+
12/17/22 The Catalyst with TBA – Santa Cruz, CA 16+
Alex Lahey returns with a new single/video, “Congratulations,” the first taste in a long-awaited new chapter from Lahey, out today via Liberation Records. Marking her first new music since last year’s “Spike The Punch” and “On My Way” – the latter being the theme song for Sony Picture Animation’s Oscar-nominated The Mitchells vs The Machines, Netflix’s biggest animated release of all time – “Congratulations” is Lahey putting the focus back into her own project after a lengthy stint of collaborating with other artists as both a songwriter and producer. An examination of old relationships, “Congratulations” captures the all-too-familiar feeling of when your ex (or in Lahey’s cases, exes), move on and settle down. “Two of my exes got engaged within an improbably short space of time of one another. What are the odds? I couldn’t not write a song inspired by it.” The song itself features Lahey’s powerful alto and trademark confessional lyrics, all backed by stadium-ready guitar. The accompanying, “deeply unhinged” video (according to Lahey) was written by Lahey herself and co-directed by Jon Danovic. “It felt like the perfect time to execute a long standing concept I had of making out with myself on camera,” says Lahey. “Now both the song and the video feel like a message about choosing yourself over anyone else.”
Fresh off her tour with TheRegrettes, Lahey will head to the UK where she will open for Manchester Orchestra. Additionally, she will play headline shows across the UK and Australia where she’ll road test new material. A full list of dates can be found below and tickets for all shows are on sale now. Stay tuned for more Alex Lahey news in the coming months.
Alex Lahey Tour Dates:
Thu. Sep. 15 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Academy – SOLD OUT * Fri. Sep. 16 – London, UK @ O2 Forum Kentish Town – SOLD OUT * Sun. Sep. 18 – Bristol, UK @ The Louisiana Mon. Sep. 19 – Glasgow, UK @ Broadcast Tue. Sep. 20 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club Wed. Sep. 21 – London, UK @ Omeara Fri. Sep. 23 – Hamburg, DE @ Reeperbahn Festival 2022 Wed. Oct. 26 – Sydney, AU @ Oxford Art Factory Thu. Oct. 27 – Melbourne, AU @ The Corner Hotel Fri. Oct. 28 – Ballarat, AU @ Volta Sun. Oct. 30 – Wollongong, AU @ La La La’s Tue. Nov. 1 – Newstead, AU @ The Triffid Thu. Nov 3 – Adelaide, AU @ Fat Controller Fri. Nov. 4 – Canberra, AU @ ANU Kambri
* = opening for Manchester Orchestra
Keep your mind open.
[Congratulations on subscribing! Wait, you DID subscribe, right?]
NEU!, the legendary Krautrock duo of Michael Rother and the late Klaus Dinger, celebrate the 50th anniversary of their self-titled debut album with the NEU! 50! box set, out September 23rd via Grönland. NEU! 50! includes albums NEU!, NEU! 2!, and NEU! 75, plus the brand new NEU! Tribute Album, a NEU! stencil and booklet. As one of the great, belated success stories of rock music, NEU!’s influence continues to be internationally widespread. Since paving their own road ahead, they’ve created a model of forward propulsion away from conventional rock clichés. The NEU! Tribute Album shows how much there is for subsequent generations to unpack in NEU!, how much is buried, implied in their sound. It features reworkings and NEU!-inspired originals by Idles, Guerilla Toss, Stephen Morris (New Order, Joy Division) and Gabe Gurnsey (Factory Floor),Man Man, Mogwai, Alexis Taylor, and more, including today’s new remix of “Im Glück” by The National. In their remix, The National pull back and reveal the latent colors, rhythmic potentials and mental freeways of “Im Gluck.”
NEU! are a product of Düsseldorf, Germany, home to Kraftwerk’s Klingklang studios, as well as galleries, graphic designers and advertising agencies. Rother and Dinger drew on all of this and their impeccable musical training to create the overall concept of NEU!. They intended to create a previously unheard new music, aping the processes of commodification while remaining resolutely hostile to the commerciality of the music industry. Like other experimental bands of the late 60s and early 70s gathered under the Krautrock banner, NEU! were driven by a mixture of political and artistic imperatives to reject the clichés and conventions of orthodox, blues-based Anglo-American rock and create a music that was, formally, West German in origin.
Once upon a time the loudest, nastiest, speed-freaked trio in the land – the mightyMotörhead – decided that they needed an intro-film to come on stage to, so they could tour their brand-new album Iron Fist. Not for them some gentle promo video, for this was Motörhead in 1982 comprising the seminal three amigos line-up of Lemmy, Fast Eddie Clarke and Phil ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor.
What they produced has been buried in the mists of time, confined to dodgy bootleg VHS’s, but it’s a gory, brutal, hilariously OTT short movie directed by Nick Mead where knights are murdered and maidens are in distress. Shot in a Hertfordshire forest it features a medieval, battle-hardened band stomping around a darkened forest, fuelled by vodka and brandishing weapons, wearing horned helmets and looking fierce whilst punching the air with their Iron Fist!
Imagine a recklessly non-health-and-safety, amphetamine-nightmare, super low budget take on Monty Python and the Holy Grail and you’re halfway there.
And now, in honour of the 40th Anniversary of the album that inspired this piece of cinematic pastiche, the Iron Fist trailer has been re-discovered, digitised and officially released for the world’s viewing pleasure. Originally cut to Gustav Holst’s ominous ‘Mars, Bringer Of War’, it now features the previously unreleased instrumental demo ‘Ripsaw Teardown’ as its audio soundbed. It’s really quite something, and sets up the forthcoming release of the Iron Fist 40th Anniversary editions
Whilst the album was rudely dismissed by critics on release, it now reveals itself as a vital snapshot of the band at a crucial period. It followed the consecutive triumphs of Ace Of Spades and No Sleep Til Hammersmith, when the three-piece found themselves caught in the tornado of success, but in true Motörhead style, they careered into their next phase at such velocity it transcended logic or reason to become this trio’s final kamikaze joyride.
Forty years later,Iron Fist sounds like prime Motörhead with the gloves and seat-belts off. For sheer velocity, it could be fastest, most out-of-control of all their releases. To celebrate the anniversary it is being presented in new deluxe editions. There will be hardback book-packs in two CD and triple LP formats, featuring a hammer fist blow, remaster of the original album, previously unreleased demo bonus tracks and a full concert, originally broadcast on Radio Clyde from 18thMarch 1982. Plus the story of the album and many previously unseen photos. There’s also a limited edition, blue and black swirl of the original standalone album.
Death Valley Girls‘ third album has an interesting title – Darkness Rains. It’s not“Darkness Reigns,” as you might think if someone told you the name of the album. After all, DVG are known to be explorers of oddities, the unexplained, and things the prowl in shadows, but they chose “Rains” instead. Does it convey an image of environmental disaster, a heavy thunderstorm overpowering a bright summer sky, or impending death?
My guess is on the last one, as the album starts with the hard-hitting “More Dead” and flows right into the heavy fuzz of “(One Less Thing) Before I Die.” The latter reminds me that I need to keep de-cluttering my house and the trend of “Swedish death cleaning” that grows more popular each year. Why burden ourselves and our descendants with our crap? Why live a life unfulfilled? If you’ve seen DVG live or had the pleasure of meeting them, you’d know they were living in a way that would produce no regrets. They encourage us to do the same before darkness rains upon us, like we know it will but try to forget that it will.
“Disaster (Is What We’re After)” is great Stooges-style skronk meant to shake things up wherever you are, and “Unzip Your Forehead” is 60’s horror-psychedelia that makes me imagine Frankenstein’s monster opening the stitches on his square head and literally opening his mind. “Wear Black” could be the dress code for a DVG show. It also has these cool organ chords throughout it that make it hypnotizing (as does Larry Schemel‘s echoing guitar work).
“Abre Camino” is one of DVG’s biggest hits, and often the opener for their live sets. Each listen seems to unveil more layers you hadn’t heard before then, much like finding a book with strange scribbles and arcane symbols that reveal power messages to you after falling asleep. Laura Harris‘ drums hit hard on “Born Again and Again,” driving you to a near panic at one point. “Street Justice” is almost a punk rager with some of Bonnie Bloomgarden‘s most frantic vocals.
“Occupation: Ghost Writer” makes me want to write at least a short story based on the title. It has a dreamy quality to it, like a spirit floating around you while writing a blog post. “We’ll be together, somewhere forever,” they sing on “TV in Jail on Mars” – another song title that deserves an entire short story. The vocals repeat and echo like a trippy mantra or a broadcast from the red planet sent by things living deep within the canals there. It’s the sound of darkness raining down in a slow shower rather than a pounding torrent.
Darkness rains all over this record, but there are moments of sunlight that peek through the clouds to remind us that what lies beyond the veil is something we can’t comprehend, but shouldn’t fear.
London-based band Dry Cleaning announce their sophomore album, Stumpwork, out October 21st, and share the lead single/video, “Don’t Press Me.” Stumpwork is the follow-up to New Long Leg, their debut full-length and one of 2021’s best albums (a top 10 album of the year, according to The New York Times, Pitchfork, SPIN, The Atlantic, The Ringer, and more). The new album was inspired by a plethora of events, concepts and political debacles, be they represented in the icy mess of ambient elements reflecting a certain existential despair, or the surprising warmth in celebrating the lives of loved ones lost through the previous year. Surrealist lyrics are as ever at the forefront – but there is a sensitivity now to the themes of family, money, politics, self-deprecation and sensuality. Furious indie-pop anthems combine across the record with psych and prog influences, demonstrating the wealth of influences the band feed off and their deep musicality.
Clocking in at under 2 minutes, today’s “Don’t Press Me” is about the pleasure of gaming and the enjoyment of intense and short-lived guilt-free experiences. Vocalist Florence Shaw also says, “The words in the chorus came about because I was trying to write a song to sing to my own brain, ‘You are always fighting me / You are always stressing me out.’” Its animated video was created by Peter Millard, whose naïve depictions of the band is perfectly in sync with the song’s hooks and riffs.
Stumpwork follows New Long Leg, Dry Cleaning’s debut album that became a huge critical and commercial success, reaching #4 in the UK Album Charts and featuring in best-of-2021 polls across the board. Buoyed by its success, Nick Buxton (drums), Tom Dowse (guitar), Lewis Maynard (bass) and Florence Shaw (vocals) returned to rural Wales in late 2021, partnering once more with Parish and engineer Joe Jones. Working from a position of trust in the same studio and with the same team, imposter syndrome and anxiety was replaced by a fresh freedom and openness to explore beyond an already rangy sonic palette, a newfound confidence in their creative vision. A longer period in the studio afforded the time to experiment, improvise, play, and sharpen their table tennis skills. With the pressure of their debut album behind them, Dry Cleaning have crafted an ambitious and deeply rewarding new work that marks them out as one of the most intelligent and exciting acts to come out of the UK.
The album and single artwork were conceived and created by multi-disciplinary artists Rottingdean Bazaar and photographer Annie Collinge. James Theseus Buck and Luke Brooks of Rottingdean Bazaar first worked with Dry Cleaning directing the official video for “Scratchcard Lanyard” and as their creative partnership with the band continues to flourish, they have fashioned a brilliantly unique visual identity for Stumpwork.
Medicine Singers announce a fall headlining tour and present a live video of “Sunrise (Rumble),” a standout track from Medicine Singers , their self-titled debut album out now on Stone Tapes/ Joyful Noise Recordings.
Recently highlighted in a New York Times article as a group on the forefront of Native experimental music, the Medicine Singers’ groundbreaking debut LP acts as a guided tour de force of decades of musical genres influenced by Native American music, and their live show remains the stuff of legend. The Medicine Singers often set up in-the-round, and go into a trance-inducing set where the walls between band and spectator – as well as between psychedelic rock and shamanic chants – are blurred. Full dates are listed below and tickets are on sale tomorrow, Friday August 19th.
The Medicine Singers’ tour kicks off with a very special “immersive” performance on September 24 at Brooklyn’s Pioneer Works to celebrate the release of Medicine Singers and the launch of Stone Tapes, Yonatan Gat’s eclectic new label. The show will be opened by two site-specific duo performances from Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) & Hassan Ben Jafaar (Innov Gnawa) and Laraaji & Mamady Kouyate (Bembeya Jazz) performing inside the Charles Atlas video installation in Pioneer Works’ main hall, followed by a special Medicine Singers 10-piece band featuring jaimie branch, Thor Harris, Lee Ranaldo, Laraaji and Gat.
Half a decade after the spur-of-the-moment story of how the musicians first met and unraveled their sound on an unsuspecting audience during SXSW 2017 when Gat saw Eastern Medicine Singers play on the street and invited the band to spontaneously join his show – the collaboration between the musicians reaches a climax with this breathtaking debut album as Medicine Singers, helping pave the way to this year’s rising wave of Native contributions to experimental music – shining a spotlight on guest vocalists representing indigenous nations from outside of the Northeastern Woodland tribal area. “Where else can you get all these different native people singing together on an album?” bandleader Daryl Back Eagle Jamieson asked. “On this album you have east, west, north and south all coming together. That’s why we say it’s medicine.”
For Jamieson, this album is more than a collection of songs, it’s a vessel of culture, history and language; a symbol of the strength and creativity of the Eastern Algonquin people in contemporary American society. “I want to show people not only that our Indian culture is just as good as the rest of the culture that’s out there, but also that the two can exist together, side by side.”
Medicine Singers Tour Dates Sat. Sept. 24 – Brooklyn, NY @ Pioneer Works (RECORD RELEASE / STONE TAPES LABEL LAUNCH) * Wed. Sept. 28 – Troy, NY @ No Fun Thu. Sept. 29 – Montreal, QC @ Pop Montreal Fri. Sept. 30 – Toronto, ON @ Vashe ZDorov’ye Sat. Oct. 1 – Cleveland, OH @ Happy Dog West Sun. Oct. 2 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle Mon. Oct. 3 – Indianapolis, IN @ Square Cat Sat, Oct 8 – Washington, DC @ Down in the Reeds Festival
* w/ Lee Ranaldo & Hassan Ben Jafaar (Duo), Laraaji & Mamady Kourate (Duo)
Portland, OR synth-doom duo WHIMZ share the first single from their forthcoming album PM226 today via Metal Injection. Hear and share “AM2” HERE. (Direct Bandcamp.)
Sunny Faris (vocalist/bassist and founder of Blackwater Holylight) and Cam Spies (Night Heron) have been friends for years. Cam recorded the first BWHL record several years ago and they hadn’t had a chance to collaborate again, until 2021 when they decided to spend a day in the studio to see what emerged. The result was a seamless blending of their two projects: dark, synth heavy, austere doom-pop, with hauntingly beautiful vocal harmonies, and sexy bass lines.
Sunny’s characteristic voice is immediately recognizable from opening track “AM1”. Although it may at first seem confusing to hear her singing over low-end rich, heavy synthesizer and vintage drum machines, it quickly becomes apparent how perfectly suited her voice is for these songs. While the music evokes the icy, consumer excess bliss of mid- to late-80s synth pop, Sunny’s melancholic voice permeates like the angelic harmonies of Julie Cruise and Cocteau Twins.
The emotionally intense, melodically lush shoegazey doom of Blackwater Holylight’s widely hailed 2021 album Silence/Motion provides a good touchstone for WHIMZ, but Night Heron’s pawn shop deep collection of carefully curated retro synth instrumentation and Cam’s tasteful production also gives the album both its skeleton and a wealth of subtle and clever tones tucked neatly into each song.
Upon completing the 5-song, 26-minute album they decided to release it on Portland label Literal Gold Records, and assembled a live band which includes members of YOB and Spoon Benders joining Faris and Spies.
PM226 will be available on LP, CD and download on October 28th, 2022 via Literal Gold Records. Pre-orders are available HERE.
