New wave / No wave – Page 2

Levitation Austin 2025: Day Two recap

“This is gonna be a sweat-fest.”

Those were the first words I heard about Day Two of 2025’s Levitation Austin musical festival as I walked toward the entrance of the Palmer Event Center. Some guy said this to his pal as they steeled themselves for the day to come. The guy was right, as the bright sun was brutal at times — especially at the outdoor stage.

I started indoors, both to avoid the peak sun and to see Hooveriii put on a solid set of psych-rock that bordered on grunge rock a couple times (which was fine by me).

Hooveriii (pronounced “Hoover Three”, not “hoovery.”)

Many of us ventured out into the sun to see Dutch disco funkers Yīn-Yīn play for the first time anywhere in the United States. They had the afternoon crowd jumping and were having a great time despite not being used to such heat.

Yīn-Yīn getting their sweaty groove on, and on all of us.

I had time for a chicken shawarma wrap (possibly the best food bargain at the festival) and some ice cream before heading back to the outdoor stage to see Model / Actriz put on a blistering set of queercore post-punk with lead singer Cole Haden prowling through the crowd while his bandmates played tight, snappy beats and riffs. Guitarist Jack Wetmore knows not only how to play, but the right moments not to play — a skill overlooked by many.

Model / Actriz bringing more heat than the afternoon sun.

I took some more time to hydrate and get a full meal (It’s a marathon, not a sprint.) before heading back indoors to join the large crowd for The Brian Jonestown Massacre, who played to a happy crowd — many of whom (at least around me) hadn’t seen them before now. It was a good set, with only minor issue when, believe it or not, Anton Newcombe decided his microphone had too much reverb.

The Raveonettes were a welcome return to Levitation. I hadn’t seen them since 2013 when Levitation was still the Austin Psych Fest (which has returned in its own form). They still sound great and played classics and newer stuff.

The biggest show of the night, and for the entire festival for me, belonged to TV on the Radio. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see them, so their appearance at Levitation made the decision to fly here a no-brainer. They slayed it and had everyone jumping and moving. Their energy was infectious and immediate, and a great way to close the night.

TVOTR didn’t close my night, however. I was so wired after their set that I walked over a mile to Elysium to see Past Self and Urban Heat. I knew we were in for a treat when Past Self’s bassist started the show by playing his guitar with a bow. What followed was a mix of desert rock (They’re from Las Vegas, Nevada.), New Romanticism, and dark wave.

Past Self. Are they ghosts, musicians, past incarnations of you?

Urban Heat are local heroes who play aggressive shoegaze mixed with post-punk anger. It’s good stuff, and they seem destined for big things. They reminded me a bit of early TVOTR, which was fitting because I bumped into TVOTR’s guitarist / multi-instrumentalist Jaleel Bunton at their show and got to thank him for the great set.

Up next, psychedelia, indie rock, and a couple sets that might cause you to seek a chiropractor afterwards.

Keep your mind open.

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Levitation Austin 2025: Day Zero recap

I’m going to call the September 25, 2025 Thursday night late shows of Levitation Austin 2025 as “Day Zero” since the official festival doesn’t start until September 26th. “Day -1” would’ve been September 24th when you could’ve seen Mdou Moctar, Beach Fossils, Strange Lot, Water Damage and other good bands.

The main festival has a new home — the Palmer Event Center pretty much in the middle of the city, and only has the “pub crawl” events (shows at various venues downtown) at night. As usual, there’s always at least one good band playing the Thursday night before Levitation to entice you into coming to town early. This year, “Day Zero” had several: Warmduscher and Starjunk 95 among them, and I opted for two other shows out of six you could attend.

I first went to Stubb’s BBQ for what would be the only show I would attend there the whole weekend (which felt odd): Kumo 99, Martin Rev, and Boy Harsher.

Kumo 99 kicking off Levitation with a good start.

I’d only heard one song from Kumo 99 before coming to Austin, so I didn’t know what to expect apart from some electro music. What I got was electro plus synthwave plus Japanese vocal punk rock. I was impressed, and so were a lot of others judging by the size of the line at their merch booth after their set.

Martin Rev will hit you with a key-tar and then put you in the Sharpshooter.

Up next was the legendary Martin Rev — one half of synth / punk pioneers Suicide. He came out in ripped-up leather pants, a sleeveless shirt, and goggles suitable for alpine skiing or for Brett “Hitman” Hart cutting a professional wrestling promo. What followed was a weird, loud no wave noise set that left most of the audience (who didn’t realize who he was) baffled. Rev was hammerfisting his keyboard through most of the set, bludgeoning us with distorted din. He sampled Bon Jovi, ZZ Top, and The Trammps at various points while singing / talking with so much reverb in his microphone that one guy in front of me just yelled, “What are you saying?” during a brief break in the noise. Rev even did a bizarre cover of Sam the Sham & the Pharohs‘ “Wooly Bully” at one point. A woman next to me said, “I hope I can be that cool at (age) seventy-seven. I’m ready for bed by eight and he’s out here doing his thing.” That “thing” being not giving a damn what people think and giving them more of an experience than a performance.

Boy Harsher winning over the crowd at the first note.

The crowd (with a big goth and queer contingent. Hell yeah!) for Boy Harsher was huge by the time they took the stage. They played much the same set as when I saw them at Levitation France months earlier — packing in pulsing synthwave with great electro dance beats. I found out from the woman next to me that they’d played a DJ set from the back of a truck the previous day and had done a record signing at End of an Ear in Austin. That’s way cool.

Speaking of way cool things, I walked a half-block after Boy Harsher’s set to Elysium where I caught Johnny Jewel‘s great set of his film score and other music – which included a set from Drive, a salute to David Lynch, and even a different version of Chromatics‘ “Lady.” He played various clips from Lynch films, Twin Peaks, giallo films, and other oddities throughout it.

Up next, and closing out Day Zero, was one of Jewel’s many side projects — Desire. They played a long set of lovely synthwave and electro-dance tracks, mostly about wanting, finding, and / or losing love. The crowd loved them, and the trio work well together. They even played two New Order covers (“Bizarre Love Triangle” and “Blue Monday” – with Jewel on lead vocals for the second) and Taylor Dane‘s “Tell It to My Heart” — which was a natural fit for lead singer Megan Louise.

It was a late night, but worth it. There’s a lot of good synthwave at Levitation this year, and Day One will end with more…but first there will be a lot of metal.

Keep your mind open.

All right, all right! I’ll get on it…And you spelled my name wrong again, David!

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Review: Man…Or Astro-Man? – ROYGBIV (deluxe edition reissue)

As the story goes, Man…Or Astro-Man?‘s Brian “Birdstuff” Teasley send a demo of the band’s music to legendary BBC DJ John Peel along with a note telling him to never play it on air because they didn’t want to be discovered and then forgotten like so many other bands who had been played on his show.

The trick worked, because Peel came to love MOAM? so much that he invited them to play on his show over a dozen times between 1993 and 2000. Many of those recordings were released as a limited box set, ROYGBIV – which quickly sold out in 2024. Thankfully, a deluxe second edition of it was released this year.

It’s jam-packed with MOAM?’s signature sci-fi surf, launching with “Rocketship XL-3.” “Invasion of the Dragonmen” samples an old Spider-Man adventure record. “Nitrous Burnout” is a tribute to the dangerous world of outlaw racing. “Transmissions from Venus” is one of their heavier tracks and loaded with fuzz. “A Mouthful of Exhaust” is another fun one about the smash-up racing lifestyle.

“Sadie Hawkins Atom Bomb” pushes the bass to the front and takes on a slight rough edge. The theme from The Munsters has been a long-time favorite of surf bands everywhere, and MOAM?’s version is a wild stomper that’s over before you can catch your breath, and “Gargantua’s Last Stand” is as raucous as its titular monster. “Name of Numbers” and “Special Agent Conrad Uno” feature some of the wildest guitar on the entire collection.

“Time Bomb” and “Put Your Finger in the Socket” are punk-surf, with the latter having a dangerous growl throughout it. “________ (Classified)” brings in a Theremin for good measure. “Sferic Waves” gets a little bit into horror-rock territory (which is fine by me).

MOAM? play tribute to Mr. Peel on a couple tracks in the collection, the first being “Inside the Head of Mr. John Peel” – which makes you think Mr. Peel had constant drumming and surf guitar on his mind. “Inside the Atom” is as fast and wild as you’ll hope it will be. “24 Hours” slows things down, but not by much. What’s the “Maximum Radiation Level”? I don’t know, but it sounds like MOAM? reach it on the track. “U-Uranus” is one of the few tracks with vocals and it’s about the seventh planet from the Sun…for the most part.

The guitars on “Man Made from CO2” warp like something teetering on the rim of a black hole. “9-Volt” is another rare track with vocals and “Television Fission” is a blast of rocket fuel that burns out almost before you notice it’s happening. “Welcome to the Wicky Wacky World of John Peel (The Wayward Meteor)” is a great one, mixing funky guitars with weird sounds, solid surf bass, and surf-punk drums. “Lo Batt” reminds me of early Devo tracks with its mix of odd synths, punk riffs, robotic vocals, and snappy drums.

“The Miracle of Genuine Pyrex” has one of the goofiest names and some of the most metal riffs. “Jonathan Winters Frankenstein” is a fun poke at the Edgar Winter Group. It’s not a cover of their classic “Frankenstein,” but you can still hear the influence. “With Automatic Shut Off” and “Rovers” are a bit mellow, and “Bombora” is their version of a classic surf-rock ripper. “Max Q” has cryptic vocals hidden behind the fierce riffs and rolling drums. “Don’t Think What Jack” wraps up the music, but there are still four more tracks of Birdstuff reading excerpts from Phillip K. Dick‘s Through a Scanner Darkly. Why? Heck, why not by this point?

It’s a wild, fun collection that flies by you like, well, a rocket. Blast off with it.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dan from Discipline PR!]

Rewind Review: Kid Loco – Kid Loco Presents French Funk Experience (2010)

A compilation of twenty-two French disco and funk tracks from the 1970? Yes, please.

Kid Loco Presents French Funk Experience is loaded with gems you’d swear you heard in an obscure late night movie or while racing through a European airport – and a lot of these tracks are “library music” made for television and film. Take Bernard Estardy‘s killer “Gang Train” from 1972. The synth grooves are from 2072 and the drums are so tight you’d swear they were laid down by a drum machine and not a live human being…yet they are. Résonance‘s “OK Chicago” (1973) is loaded with sampled sirens, police radio chatter, and machine gun ricochets.

P.A. Dahan and Mat Camison break out the handclaps and the Hammond B-3 on “Pepper Drums” (1976). Estardy (who is all over this compilation either with his solo material or working with other artists) returns on the Doobie / Allman Brothers-like funk rocker “Vertigo Leitmotiv” from 1970. Trumpeter and band leader Pierre Dutour shows off his skill on 1974’s “Jungle Trumpet.”

Manu Dibango‘s “Africadelic” (1973) is a thrilling rush, and Pierre-Alain Dahan returns with Slim Pezin on the jaw-dropping, booty-shaking “Electronic Mutation” from 1976. Alain Goraguer‘s “Course de Ten” from 1973 wocka-wocka guitar riffs and “Le Baron” Estardy’s “Bongo Ring” from 1975 is, go figure, full of great hand percussion sounds. Sauveur Mallia, who played bass on Sid Vicious‘ cover of “My Way” no less, brings “All the Bass” and all the funk on this cut from 1979.

Speaking of bass, check out 1970’s “Indian Pop Bass” by Guy Pedersen with all it’s fat bass slaps, weird psych-flute notes, and prog-rock beats. The horn section on Big Jullien & His All Star‘s “Wake the Monster” from 1969 will knock you off your feet. Dahan and Camison’s “Long Playing Time” from 1976 has guitar in it that would make Steely Dan envious. Bernard Lubat‘s organ riffs on 1976’s “Aubergine Time” are outstanding. Ludovic Decosne and Pierre Daubresse‘s “Gloaming” from 1970 is delightfully fun and belongs in a Euro sex-comedy (if it’s not already in one).

Claude Engel gets all trippy with his guitar on the long version of “Belle Gueuse (A)” from 1972. The electric piano and bass on Raymond Guiot‘s “Basse Duetino” (1976) is so groovy you could almost put a turntable needle on it. André Ceccarelli‘s “Funk Number 2” (1970) is a perfect track for strutting / strolling at the club, and “Rythmiques Number 2” (1971) by Dahan is a quick beat drop you’ll want to sample in everything.

Tonio Rubio‘s “Red Medium” (1973) has slick guitar work, and even slicker organ grooves, throughout it. The prolific (over 10,000 tracks to his credit) Estardy comes back one more time for “Riviera Express” from 1973. The organ riffs on it are sometimes funky, sometimes freaky, and sometimes frightening. The compilation ends with 1973’s “Pepper Box” by The Peppers – who consist of Camison on keys, Dahan on drums, and Rubio on guitar. It’s a blast, full of great synth blasts, handclaps, and disco funk. Play it at every party.

This whole compilation is a great time and will cheer you up. You can’t help but groove to it. Blast it through your earbuds as you walk through Paris or down to the nearest boulangerie.

Keep your mind open.

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Shrunken Elvis presents new single – “An Odd Outlet.”

Shrunken Elvis is a Nashville-based trio born from long European drives, cold winter jam sessions, and a mutual love of genre-defying sound exploration. The group unites three seasoned musicians—Spencer Cullum, Sean Thompson, and Rich Ruth—each bringing a distinct musical background to a shared creative space that prizes intuition over ambition.

Cullum, a pedal steel guitarist originally from East London, has recorded with artists like Angel Olsen, Lambchop, Miranda Lambert, and Billy Strings, while also releasing two solo LPs of folk-psych compositions on UK label Full Time Hobby. Thompson, a Nashville native, emerged from the city’s DIY scene playing in his first band Gnarwhal, and later helping to form other bands including Promised Land Sound. He’s toured and recorded with Margo Price, Skyway Man, Erin Rae, and others. Known for his immersive solo project Rich Ruth (Third Man Records), Michael Ruth blends spiritual jazz, ambient, and synth-infused post-rock into meditative and expansive compositions.

Now all based in Nashville, the trio thrives within the city’s supportive and exploratory music community. That environment has allowed them to forge a path that veers from Music City’s more traditional output, offering space to experiment and innovate freely. You can hear the fruits beared from this path on the upcoming self-titled album Shrunken Elvis, announced today for a September 5th release via Western Vinyl. Pre-order the albumhere.

The stunning first single “An Old Outlet”is a track that zeros in on the junction point between genres such as kosmische, jazz fusion, electronic, and ambient — collective loves of the three members. Check it out on YouTube.

Recording their debut album presented a unique challenge: to preserve the energy of their live three-piece dynamic without over-cluttering the arrangements. Their goal wasn’t to make an instrumental album that highlights individual prowess on pedal steel or guitar—but rather to construct a musical terrain where all elements coexist, each voice contributing to something entirely new. Embracing a philosophy of “no goals, just ideas,” the group let the music unfold naturally.

Mixed by Jake Davis (William Tyler) and featuring cover art by UK psych-folk artist Max Kinghorn-Mills (Hollow Hand), the debut Shrunken Elvis record is music made without expectation—but full of purpose. It’s the music they’ve always wanted to make: immersive, intuitive, and deeply alive.

Shrunken Elvis’s music exists in a naive, open-ended state—unconcerned with outcome but guided by deeply honed instincts. Having spent much of their careers as side musicians, this project represents a rare opportunity to create purely for the sake of collaboration and curiosity. Influences range from Alice Coltrane, Michael Rother, and Pat Metheny to KLF, Ashra, and Can—along with visual and cinematic touchstones like ECM album art, Kurosawa, and Bergman. Ideas often emerged in old English pubs on tour and were carried into the studio with quiet urgency.

The group’s origins trace back to a 2022 European tour behind Cullum’s solo record. Long drives crammed into a VW Passat—traversing Germany, Belgium, Denmark, the UK, and Ireland—fostered a kind of creative incubator. With no fixed plans or agenda, the trio began crafting compositions using their compact tour setup of two guitars, pedal steel, and synths.

Their shared listening experiences on those journeys helped shape a collective sonic language, one that transitioned seamlessly into winter recording sessions back in Nashville. Gathered around a small fire heater in a shed studio, they captured that same spirit of spontaneity and collaboration in sound.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to George at Terrorbird Media.]

Sparks release new single and new tour dates.

Sparks, brothers Ron and Russell Mael, release “Drowned In A Sea Of Tears,” the new single from their upcoming album, MAD!, out May 23rd via Transgressive Records. Having recently added more dates to their European tour they now announce a North American tour in September, kicking off in Atlanta and wrapping in Los Angeles with stops along the way including Boston, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, and more. Tickets go on general sale Friday, April 11th at 10am local time. A full list of dates is below with tickets and further information available here.

On the heels of the “sweeping, theatrical breakup tune” (Stereogum) “JanSport Backpack,” “Drowned In A Sea Of Tears” is a minor key mini-tragedy about the perils of emotional continence, of the stiff upper lip, of keeping it all in. The protagonist keeps her emotional landscape guarded behind high walls, and the narrator is unable to be her saviour. Unusually, for a Sparks song, there is no punchline, no twist in the tale. The accompanying video is a visual theater piece about a woman succumbing to her tears of grief.

Watch the Video for “Drowned In A Sea Of Tears”
Despite the efforts of Edgar Wright’s superb 2021 documentary The Sparks Brothers, which introduced the duo to a wider audience than ever before, the exact creative dynamic between Ron and Russell Mael remains inscrutable, as mysterious and unknowable as their private lives.

The one thing we know for certain is that Ron Mael is one of our most acutely perceptive observers of social mores. In a different discipline – dramaturg, cartoonist, novelist, cineaste, chronicler – he’d be a Moliere, a Hogarth, a Fitzgerald, an Altman, a Swift. He just happens to work within the medium of popular song. His brother Russell Mael has the asset of a talent to put those observations across in a uniquely arresting manner, captivating as a frontman and gifted with a countertenor voice of extraordinary range. The alchemy between Ron on keys and Russell on vocals is simply what they do. And they’ve rarely done it better than on MAD!.

MAD! finds Ron and Russell examining cultural phenomena such as branded backpacks, tattoos, performative devotion (whether to a God, a lover, a celebrity or a sports team), the hegemony of banter, and the rise of influencers. The satire is never on-the-nose, always retaining enough ambiguity for the listener to fill in the blanks. And the exquisitely unusual lexicon (you won’t hear the word “epistemology” on many other albums this year) and cultural references leap out on every listen.

Musically there are nods to New Wave, Synthpop, Art Rock and Electronic Opera – all genres Sparks had hands in pioneering, or straight-up invented. When you hear echoes of other artists, from Air to Shostakovich, you remind yourself that they’re all people who Sparks influenced in the first place. (Well, maybe not Shostakovich.) Ultimately, however, MAD! is a modern record, which belongs in, and speaks to, the modern world. Which is all the more remarkable when you consider the vintage of its creators.

Further information on MAD! and background on Sparks is available here.

Pre-order MAD!

Listen to “JanSport Backpack”

Watch the Video for “Do Things My Own Way”

MAD! Tour Dates:
(New Dates in Bold)
Sun. June 8 – Kyoto, JP @ ROHM Theatre
Tue. June 10 – Osaka, JP @ Zepp Namba
Thu. June 12 – Fri. June 13 – Tokyo, JP @ EX Theater
Wed. June 18 – Thu. June 19 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
Sat. June 21 – Sun. June 22 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo
Tue. June 24 – Glasgow, UK @ Royal Concert Hall
Thu. June 26 – Haarlem, NL @ PHIL Haarlem
Sat. June 28 – Brussels, BE @ Cirque Royal
Mon. June 30 – Paris, FR @ La Salle Pleyel
Tue. July 1 – Cologne, DE @ Live Music Hall (venue upscale)
Thu. July 3 – Copenhagen, DK @ The Koncerthuset
Fri. July 4 – Stockholm, SE @ Grona Lund Tivoli
Sun. July 6 – Berlin, DE @ Uber Eats
Tue. July 8 – Milan, IT @ Teatro degli Arcimboldi
Sat. July 12 – Bilbao, ES @ Bilbao BBK
Tue. July 15 – Dublin, IE @ National Stadium
Wed. July 16 – Dublin, IE @ National Stadium
Fri. July 18 – Edinburgh, UK @ Edinburgh Playhouse
Sat. July 19 – Wolverhampton, UK @ The Halls
Fri. Sept. 5 – Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
Mon. Sept. 8 – Philadelphia, PA @ Keswick Theatre
Tue. Sept. 9 – Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre
Thu. Sept. 11 – Boston, MA @ Berklee Performance Center
Fri. Sept. 12 – Brooklyn, NY @ Kings Theatre
Sun. Sept. 14 – Columbus, OH @ The Athenaeum Theatre
Mon. Sept. 15 – Cleveland, OH @ TempleLive at Cleveland Masonic
Wed. Sept. 17 – Toronto, On @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Sat. Sept. 20 – St. Paul, MN @ Fitzgerald Theater
Tue. Sept. 23 – Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre
Wed. Sept. 24 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre
Fri. Sept. 26 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
Sat. Sept. 27 – San Francisco, CA @ Golden Gate Theatre
Mon. Sept. 29 – El Cajon, CA @ The Magnolia
Tue. Sept. 30 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre

Keep your mind open.

[I might drown in a sea of tears if you don’t subscribe.]

[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Anika – Abyss

Anika is fed up and, frankly, bored with the world right now. It can be a soulless place sometimes…and a soulless time in some places. It can feel like everything is teetering on the edge of the album’s title, Abyss. Recorded in just ten days with a live band, Anika pulls no punches and channels her confusion, frustration, and distrust into a powerful record.

“I’m tired of all this game-playing,” she sings on the opening track, “Hearsay” – a wicked track about media manipulation, romantic manipulation (“You’re telling me tales to get your own way.”), and the vicious divides a rumor mill can cause. The title track roars with Lawrence Goodwin‘s metal-cutting guitars and then Tomas Nochteff drops sexy, heavy bass on you. “Honey” is a tale of Anika walking away from a lover who has become too much like her. Is it a coincidence, then, that the next track is the Velvet Underground-like “Walk Away,” in which Anika admits, “The truth is that I’d rather be alone, than with you.” Don’t feel bad, though. Anika doesn’t have much feeling for anyone in this glossy fake world. It’s not just you. It’s everyone. She doesn’t even trust herself or believe that she wants to spend lonely nights in her house, or if she wants the world to burn up or not.

“Into the Fire” is another hypnotizing track that Anika does so well as she longs for someone to take her off this planet we’re destroying and to somewhere quiet for a change. On “Oxygen,” Anika lets us know that she’s interested in trying something new, in exploring dark places, in finding breath amid the choking clouds of noise and limitations being put on our methods of expression and even our own bodies. “Out of the Shadows” is a rocker, with Anika putting divisive politicians in their place using fierce words (“Full of opinions, full of hot air. Am I supposed to fall before you?”) and fiercer riffs.

“It’s a one-way ticket, and I’m not on it,” she sings on “One-Way Ticket” — a song about the growth of fascism (“This city didn’t learn the lessons from its past, making deals with the snakes and the sharks.”). She tries to warn us about the growth of idiocracy and screen addiction on “Last Song” with lyrics like, “The robots are ruling, the logic is drooling, dripping out your open mouth.” By the time we get to the last track, “Buttercups,” Anika is “thinking of the simpler days” and wishing she (and we) could escape from the unrelenting pressures of this age of constant stimulation. Wouldn’t it be nicer to just lounge in a field of flowers for a while?

Abyss is a powerful record with multiple layers, each one getting darker as you go deeper into it. Anika is mad right now, righteously mad, and she’s trying to pull us out of the darkness, even if only for a little while.

Keep your mind open.

[I’ll breathe easier if you subscribe.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Don’t “Walk Away” from Anika’s new single.

Anika — the British-born, Berlin-based musician Annika Henderson — releases the new single/video, “Walk Away,” from her new album, Abyss, out April 4th on Sacred Bones. Following the “righteously hypnotic” (Paste) lead single, “Hearsay,” “Walk Away” is a surprisingly jolly 90s alt-rock tinged track with blatantly honest lyrics: “The truth is I don’t really like myself/ And the truth is I don’t really like anyone else… Sometimes I know, life can just suck… And the truth is, I’d rather you just go to hell… And the truth is, I’d rather the whole world did as well.”

On the track, Henderson says: “This song is saying all the things I want to say but am too scared to say or that society doesn’t accept me to say. It is dealing with mental health – the state of poor mental health in these fucked up, divided, isolated, social media, war, pest, rise of the right times. It is the deconstruction of the feminine – of topics considered to be private realm.” As inspiration, Henderson cites “the reckless nature of 90s /2000s Hole / Courtney Love records – of not giving a shit – telling it how it is, not scared to offend, not scared to be cancelled. We have also lost the space for healthy debate, for difference of opinion, shutting down those we don’t agree with, removing them from our social networks.”

The song’s accompanying video directed by Laura Martinova was shot in an ex-brothel in Berlin and “plays with the socially constructed ideas of femininity, of sexuality, of sexual restriction and confronts them,” Henderson explains. “The character is quite sufficient by herself, sexually and socially liberated – and also a bit of a mess, destroying the prim and proper idea of how a good wifey should be. She is a hedonist, she lets herself go, she shows anger, she shows being drunk, she seems to enjoy dusting the pictures of the naked ladies very much, she is independent and breaking out of all the bars imposed by the patriarchy. The guy in the video never finds her, never even gets close, doesn’t in the slightest disrupt her life, he continues to look but she seems to always be a step ahead.”

Watch the video for “Walk Away”

Anika created Abyss out of the frustration, anger, and confusion she feels from existing in our contemporary world. Notably heavier than her previous releases, the 10-track Abyss feels raw, urgent, and fueled by strong emotions. Abyss was recorded live to tape at the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin (where the likes of Depeche Mode and David Bowie also recorded) in just a few days. Recording live and with minimal overdubs was an important decision, Anika stresses, in order to capture the raw immediacy of the album. As before, she wrote the songs herself, before fleshing them out with Martin Thulin of Exploded View, and then assembled a live band to join the pair in the studio – comprising of Andrea Belfi on drums, Tomas Nochteff on bass (Mueran Humanos) and Lawrence Goodwin (The Pleasure Majenta) on guitar, with studio engineering done by Nanni Johansson and Frida Claeson Johansson.

Watch the video for “Hearsay”

Pre-order Abyss

Anika Tour Dates:
Sun. Apr. 20 – Berlin, DE @ Volksbühne
Thu. Apr. 24 – Cologne, DE @ C/O Pop
Fri. Apr. 25 – Tourcoing, FR @ Le Grand Mix
Sun. Apr. 27 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
Mon. Apr. 28 – London, UK @ Omeara
Tue. Apr. 29 – Bristol, UK @ Strange Brew
Wed. Apr. 30 – Manchester, UK @ YES (Pink Room)
Thu. May 1 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Fri. May 2 – Belfast, UK @ Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival
Sat. May 3 – Dublin, IE @ Whelans
Mon. May 5 – Brighton, UK @ DUST
Tue. May 6 – Paris, FR @ Gonzai Night @ Petit Bain
Wed. May 7 – Strasbourg, FR @ La Grenze
Thu. May 8 – Düdingen, CH @ Bad Bonn
Fri. May 9 – Zürich, CH @ Bogen F
Sat. May 10 – Frankfurt, DE @ Mousonturm

Keep your mind open.

[Walk over to the subscription box.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Salem 66 to release new compilation of tracks out of print for decades.

Salem 66 were founded by Judy Grunwald, Beth Kaplan and Susan Merriam in Boston in 1982. A major part of a thriving Boston scene that produced bands like Mission of Burma and Dinosaur Jr (Dinosaur Jr’s first New York show was notably an opening slot for Salem 66 at Folk City), the band were ahead of their time.

They were one of the few women-led bands in their scene, and made their mark with an adventurous blend of arty post-punk (they notably covered Wire’s “Fragile”) and melodic pop. Between 1984 and 1990 they released one self-titled EP, 2 singles and 4 albums, 1985’s A Ripping Spin, 1987’s Frequency & Urgency, 1988’s Natural Disasters, National Treasures, and 1990’s Down The Primrose Path (produced by Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie who went on to produce Radiohead’s Pablo Honey and Hole’s Live Through This), all on the venerable New York imprint Homestead Records, label home to bands like Sonic Youth, Big Black and The Chills. The band earned comparisons to R.E.M., The Talking Heads and The Velvet Underground from The New York Times, and further praise from outlets like Rolling Stone, CREEM, and the Village Voice. They shared stages with The Replacements, Mission of Burma, the Go-Betweens, the Wipers, the Saints and the Raincoats, and toured across the country on multiple occasions, but despite their prominence in the ’80s, the Salem 66 catalog has been out of print for decades and their music has never been available on streaming.

Today, Don Giovanni Records are announcing a new compilation entitled SALT, and have made the band’s music available on all streaming services for the first time. To mark the announce the band are sharing a recently unearthed video for their song “Lucky Penny.”

Beth Kaplan says of the reissue:

“We were a long time putting together this re-release, and it has been a journey – from finding the pictures to not finding the master tapes, from writing up some thoughts to deciding which songs to include here. Judy and I picked the songs and it wasn’t easy. After exploring and rejecting more scientific methods, ultimately we decided to just highlight some of our favorites, or, the songs that felt the most like us. So what you see (or hear) here is not necessarily a representative sampling from all of the recordings but it does feel, to me, like a pretty good Salem 66 sampler. Like a cross-stitch. Or a Whitman’s Sampler.

“I hope you enjoy this record. If you were there with us, on the scene, whether in Boston or another town, I hope this brings you back to those youthful, passionate, perfectly imperfect days. If the band or the songs are new to you, or if you were born a generation or two after the fact, I hope you enjoy a glimpse at this sliver of a sliver of history.”

The band’s catalog is available on all streaming services now, and the SALT compilation will be available on June 6th via Don Giovanni.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Rewind Review: Iguana Death Cult – Echo Palace (2022)

Hailing from The Netherlands, Iguana Death Cult both blend and defy genres on their 2022 album Echo Palace.

Opening with funky post-punk on “Paper Straws,” IDC instantly reminded me of !!! with their quirky dance grooves and solid bass lines from Justin Boer. The title track brought some of Parquet Courts‘ groovier stuff to mind, and Tobias Opschoor‘s frenetic guitar riffs on it are great.

“Pushermen” is a good example of the band clicking together in the studio, as they wrote it in about an hour. It seems to be a song about escaping the constraints of the urban grind (“Living in a box of concrete, how do you keep occupied?…Maybe I’ll take you anywhere. Don’t believe the hype. Maybe I’ll take you anywhere. Freedom’s in the mind.”).

“Sunny Side Up” is a quirky garage rock track, not unlike early Devo, about how trying to make it through a typical day of work and the “superficial spectacle.” (“I’d give you all of my money if I could borrow some time.”). Benjamin Herman‘s guest saxophone solo on “Sensory Overload” is outstanding. “Conference to Conference” once again tackles the banality of the corporate life.

“I Just Want a House” is a great post-punk track with great back-and-forth vocals between Jeroen Reek and his bandmates as they pine for a simpler life away from the hustle and bustle (“I’ll admit I’m confused on how we even got here. Just want a house where I can lay back.”). “Oh No” is like a lit fuse racing toward a pound of dynamite. Boer’s bass borders on panic, and Reek blasts out trombone honks to inspire more wild dancing in the clubs.

“Rope a Dope” is a good example of Arjen van Opstal‘s “sounds easy but is deceptively difficult for others to place” drumming ability and the keen and subtle use of Jimmy de Kok‘s synthesizers. You realize that a lot of the tracks on Echo Palace wouldn’t sound right without them.

van Opstal’s hi-hat work is on-point on “Heaven in Disorder,” and I love the slight echo effect on Opschoor’s guitar in it – and the neat sense of menace in the last quarter of the song. The album ends with the garage / new wave (How did they mix those genres so well?) rocker “Radio Brainwave.” It’s a great way to wrap up the record.

I discovered IDC when I saw them open for Osees last October. They won over the crowd right away, and I’m keen to see where they go next.

Keep your mind open.

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