News – Page 44 – 7th Level Music

Tinariwen announce new album and tour.

Tinariwen—the Grammy-winning Tuareg band composed of founding members Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Touhami Ag Alhassane and Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni, plus bassist Eyadou Ag Leche, percussionist Said Ag Ayad and guitarist Elaga Ag Hamid—announce their new album, Amatssou, out May 19th on Wedge, and a US tour, marking the first time they will play stateside since 2019. In conjunction, Tinariwen share Amatssou’s lead single, “Tenere Den,” which pays homage to the Tuareg revolution in the Kel Adagh region of Mali. It’s accompanying video, directed by Alexis Jamet, features bright, textured animation to articulate the poignant lyrics.

Throughout Amatssou, the legendary collective’s ninth studio album, Tinariwen set out to explore the shared sensibilities between their trademark desert blues and the vibrant country music of rural America. Amatssou is Tamashek for “Beyond The Fear,” and it fits. Tinariwen have always been characterized by their fearlessness, single-handedly inventing a guitar style that has captured the world’s imagination. They call it ishumar or assouf (“nostalgia” in Tamashek). The rest of the world has come to know it as the Tuareg blues. It is music that is imbued with sorrow and longing but it’s also music to dance to, to forget our cares.

Including additional production by Daniel Lanois (Brian Eno, U2, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Peter Gabriel, Willie Nelson), Amatssou finds the band’s signature snaking guitar lines and hypnotic grooves seamlessly co-existing alongside banjos, fiddles and pedal steel. Thousands of miles of ocean may divide these two landscapes, but the links are as palpable as they are romantic. Lead single “Tenere Den” is a thrilling expansion on the classic sound Tinariwen invented.

Watch Tinariwen’s “Tenere Den” Video

The story of Amatssou began in 2021 when Jack White, a long-time fan of the group, invited Tinariwen to record at his private recording studio in Nashville. The band had initially planned to record with Lanois alongside a group of local country musicians, including Wes Corbett and Fats Kaplin, a regular collaborator of White’s. However, following a series of COVID and travel-related delays, Tinariwen found themselves unable to make the trip from Mali to the States. New plans were hastily drawn for Lanois to travel to Africa, but after further delays dealt by the pandemic, Tinariwen, Lanois, Corbett, and Kaplin were ultimately forced to work remotely.

With final plans eventually in place, Tinariwen made the decision to lay the groundwork for Amatssou in Djanet, an oasis in the desert of southern Algeria located in Tassili N’Ajjer National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its prehistoric cave art. Among the jagged rock outcrops and dramatic sandstone vistas, Tinariwen set up a makeshift studio inside a tent using borrowed equipment from the fellow Tuareg band, Imarhan.

Fortunately for Tinariwen, the integrity of Amatssou remained completely intact through its remote recording processes, with Lanois adding deft touches from his studio in Los Angeles, Corbett and Kaplin recording their parts from Nashville, and Kabyle percussionist Amar Chaoui recording his parts in Paris. Lanois’ haunting pedal steel and crystalline production add a soaring ambience to Tinariwen’s trance-like desert blues, with Kalpin contributing pedal steel, violin and banjo to six of the ten tracks.

For decades, Tinariwen have remained ambassadors for their people, a way of life in tune with the natural world that is under threat as never before. Though Tuareg culture is as old as that of ancient Greece or Rome, the songs of Amatssou speak to the current and often tough reality of Tuareg life today. Unsurprisingly, there are impassioned references to Mali’s ongoing political and social turmoil. Full of poetic allegory, the lyrics call for unity and freedom. There are songs of struggle and resistance with oblique references to the recent desperate political upheavals in Mali and the increasing power of the Salafists. Tinariwen’s message has never sounded more urgent and compelling than it does on Amatssou.

Beginning May 27th at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, Tinariwen’s US tour will see them bringing their cherished songs to cities including New York, Los Angeles, and more before they head overseas for a run of EU/UK dates. All shows are on-sale now with tickets available here.

Pre-order Amatssou by Tinariwen

Amatssou Tracklist:
1. Kek Algham
2. Tenere Den
3. Arajghiyine
4. Imzad (Interlude)
5. Tidjit
6. Jayche Atarak
7. Imidiwan Mahitinam
8. Ezlan
9. Anemouhagh
10. Iket Adjen
11. Nak Idnizdjam
12. Tinde (Outro)

Tinariwen Tour Dates
Sat. May 27 – Chicago, IL @ Old Town School of Folk Music
Tue. May 30 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
Wed. May 31 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox
Fri. June 2 – Berkeley, CA @ UC Theater
Sat. June 3 – Los Angeles, CA @ Fonda Theater
Mon. June 5 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
Tue. June 6 – Boston, MA @ Sinclair
Wed. June 7 – Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre
Sat. June 10 – Hilvarenbeek, NL @ Best Kept Secret Festival
Mon. June 12 – Rubigen, CH @ Muhle Hunziken
Wed. June 14 – Florence, IT @Ultravox
Thu. June 15 – Milan, IT @ Triennale Garden
Fri. June 16 – Turin, IT @ Hiroshima Mon Amour
Sun. June 18 – Dublin, IE @ Body & Soul Festival
Thu. June 22 – Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg
Sat. June 24 – Glastonbury, UK @ Glastonbury Festival
Mon. 26 – Lille, FR @ Splendid
Wed. June 28 – Paris, FR @ Salle Pleyel
Thu. June 29 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
Sat. July 1 – Roskilde, DK @ Roskilde Festival
Sun. July 2 – Stockholm, SE @ Slaktkyran
Tue. July 4 – Oslo, NO @ Rockefeller
Fri. July 7 – Bilbao, ES @ BBK Live Festival
Tue. July 11 – Arles, FR @ Les Suds Arles
Sat. July 15 – Bristol, UK @ SWX
Mon. July 17 – Glasgow, UK @ St Lukes
Wed. July 19 – Bermingham, UK @ Institute 2
Sat. July 22 – Cheshire, UK @ Bluedot Festival
Tue. 25 – Vigo, SP @ Terraceo Festival
Sat. July 29 – Luxey, FR @ Musicalarue Festival

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Poison Ruin get creepy with their new single, “Resurrection II.”

Poison Ruin have released their latest single “Resurrection II” – a cathartic tale of the undead rising to take revenge upon those who have unknowingly wronged them. It’s full revenge fantasy with melodic rocking, equally split between surf motifs and new wave of British Heavy heavy metal riffing.

Watch “Resurrection II” (Official Music Video) via YouTube
Listen / Share / Playlist Here

Evoking a rich tapestry of ice-caked forests, metaphoric peasant revolts and silent knights, Poison Ruin stab at the pulsing heart of what it means to live under the permanent midnight of contemporary life. Their forthcoming album Harvest gazes at the world with a sense of grave seriousness, its stare softened only by the alluring seduction of a dream world’s open-ended possibility. These songs move with a type of uncanny confidence, assembling an array of references to past styles and sensibilities that collapse in on one another, congealing into a truly unique sonic landscape.

With Harvest, Poison Ruin aligns their sonic palette to their godless, medieval-inflected aesthetic symbolism, creating a record which strikes with an assured sense of blackened harmony.

“I’ve always found fantasy tropes to be incredibly evocative,” vocalist/guitarist Mac Kennedy notes, “that said, even though they are a set of symbols that seem to speak to most people of our generation, they are often either apolitical or co-opted for incredibly backwards politics.”

With Harvest’s lyrics and imagery, Kennedy reworks fantasy imagery as a series of totems for the downtrodden, stripping it of its escapist tendencies and retooling it as a rich metaphor for the collective struggle over our shared reality: “Instead of knights in shining armor and dragons, it’s a peasant revolt,” he explains, “I’m all for protest songs, but with this band I’ve found that sometimes your message can reach a greater audience if you imbue it with a certain interactive, almost magical realist element.”

These are not superficial or self-aggrandizing political statements. Rather, Poison Ruin stares into the abyss of present-day life with a sober and empathetic outlook, portraying our cracked reality as a complex and difficult to parse miasma of competing desires.

Philadelphia’s Poison Ruin first emerged in April of 2020 with their eponymous EP, which was followed shortly by a second eponymous EP the following February, both self-released. While they share a certain affinity for rough-around-the-edges, lo-fidelity stones with their compatriots Devil Master and Sheer Mag, Poison Ruin wants things bleaker. The up-tempo guitar heroics of their first two EPs (which were collectively released as a S/T LP in February of 2021) have been dragged through the trenches, emerging as a heavy morass of breathless gloom. With Harvest, Poison Ruin have constructed a richly chilling fable out of modern living. Their tale is as lurid as it is seductive, as much a promising fantasy as it is a dreary portrait of reality itself.

Poison Ruin’s Relapse debut, Harvest was mastered by Arthur Rizk. It sees its release on April 14 alongside the reissue of their eponymous 2021 LP which has established the band as one of punk and the underground’s newest beloved treasures. Poison Ruin will tour extensively this year. They’re currently touring across the Southwest and hit SXSW next week, plus NYC and a hometown PHL release show. In April they head overseas for a full EU / UK run including a performance at Roadburn. See below for a full list of dates.

Pre-Save / Playlist Harvest on Digital Platforms Here
Pre-Order Harvest on Vinyl / CD Here
Pre-Order S/T on Vinyl / CD Here

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[Thanks to Bailey at Another Side!]

“Don’t Fade Away” from Beach Fossils’ new single.

Today, Beach Fossils announce Bunny, their first studio album since 2017, out June 2nd on Bayonet. In conjunction with today’s announcement, they present its lead single/video, “Don’t Fade Away.” Throughout the last fifteen years, Beach Fossils have steadily earned their stature as one of the most definitive and enduring bands of the 2010s New York underground, consistently reaching new listeners as their sound has grown from the DIY solo project of Dustin Payseur to an influential four-piece dream pop band, self-produced, self-managed and self-released. Bunny represents strength through vulnerability.

“Sharpening their fidelity and dream-pop instincts on every successive release” (INTERVIEW), Bunny continues the stunning evolution of Beach Fossils’ sound, pulling elements from the jangly melancholy of What a Pleasure EP (2011), the gritty, post-punk inspired tracks from Clash the Truth (2013), and the lush arrangements of Somersault (2017). Inspired by the psych-pop of early Verve and Spiritualized albums and perennial influences like the Cure, Wire, the Byrds, and the Velvet Underground, Bunny was produced and recorded by Payseur himself, with Lars Stalfors (St. Vincent, Soccer Mommy, Lil Peep) mixing. Payseur remarks that in creating this album, a bigger emphasis was made for stronger attunement to pop structure. “When I wrote the first record, there were no choruses; it was instrumental guitar parts in between verses. This is the first record where I’ve consciously thought about writing a chorus.” Throughout, he’s joined by core band members Tommy Davidson (guitar), Jack Doyle Smith (bass), and Anton Hochheim (drums).

From poignant words about a family member’s cancer battle and the joy of being a father, to small, but meaningful moments with friends, Bunny is the band’s most vivid, grounded and personal work to date. The songs reflect on depression, love, adventure, loss, mistakes, New York City, friendships coming and going — a mélange of granular pieces in the process of continuing to find yourself. Payseur’s collage-like lyrics communicate through tone and mood as much as narrative; New York poets like Frank O’Hara, Ted Berrigan, and Anne Waldman were on his desk, as was the Tao Te Ching.

Today’s single, “Don’t Fade Away,” is an instant earworm. The video, directed by Kevin Clark (Finneas, Flatbush Zombies), sees Payseur crooning across a beautiful array of late night backdrops, from elevator cabs to Los Angeles’ El Capitan Theater. Of the track, Payseur adds: “‘Don’t Fade Away’ is about missing old friends, being on tour, self-medicating, longing, anxiety, love, being an idiot, having fun, embracing your mistakes and keeping your spark.”

Watch “Don’t Fade Away”

Beach Fossils have sold-out concerts at venues including Brooklyn Steel in New York, The Wiltern in Los Angeles, Thalia Hall in Chicago, and beyond, and played Coachella, Bonnaroo, Primavera, and Post Malone’s Posty Fest. The band’s latest release, 2021’s The Other Side of Life: Piano Ballads, hit No. 3 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz Albums chart and the band recently cracked seven million monthly listeners total across all platforms. Bayonet Records is a genre-expansive independent label Payseur co-founded in 2014; it continues to serve as an incubator for a diverse roster of developing artists.

Pre-order Bunny

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“Make Way” for Protomartyr’s new single and album.

Today, Detroit post-punk band Protomartyr announce their new album, Formal Growth In The Desert, out June 2nd on Domino, and present its lead single/video, “Make Way.” Additionally, they announce 2023 North American and EU tour dates. Composed of vocalist Joe Casey, guitarist Greg Ahee, drummer Alex Leonard, and bassist Scott Davidson, Protomartyr have become synonymous with caustic, impressionistic assemblages of politics and poetry, the literal and oblique. Casey describes the underlying theme of Formal Growth In The Desert as a 12-song testament to “getting on with life,” even when it feels impossibly hard.

The moody lead single/video, “Make Way,” doubles as Formal Growth In The Desert’s opening track, with Casey beginning the record by facing tragedy head-on: “Welcome to the haunted earth // The living after life // Where we chose to forget // the years of the Hungry Knife.” The accompanying video, directed by Trevor Naud, is a striking cinematic feat. Of the video, Naud says: “There’s a deliberate through-line between the videos for ‘Make Way’ and 2020’s ‘Worm In Heaven.’ The two songs feel partnered with each other, so I wanted the videos to feel like they exist in the same world. There are layers of experiments happening–all within a closed environment. We don’t know what’s happened to the world outside, but there’s an undertone that things maybe aren’t quite right.”

Since their 2012 debut, No Passion All Technique, Protomartyr have mastered the art of evoking place: the grinding Midwest humility of their hometown, as well as the x-rayed elucidation of America that comes with their vantage. Though Casey did have a humbling experience staring at awe-inspiring Sonoran rock formations and reckoning with his own smallness in the scheme of things, the group’s sixth album is not necessarily a nod to the sandy expanses of the Southwest. Formal Growth In The Desert, recorded at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas, proves Detroit, too, is like a desert. “The desert is more of a metaphor or symbol” Casey says, “of emotional deserts, or a place or time that seems to lack life.”

On Formal Growth In The Desert, the desert brings an existential awareness that is ultimately internal. The “growth”came from a period of colossal transition for Casey, including the death of his mother, who struggled with Alzheimer’s for a decade and a half. Now 45, Casey had lived in the family home in northwest Detroit all his life. Immortalized in Protomartyr’s essential SPIN cover story, the neighborhood informed many of Protomartyr’s acclaimed albums, serving as a base through the band’s growth from scrappy punks to ones capable of touring the globe or bringing in the Breeder’s Kelley Deal as a touring member in 2020. In 2021, though, a rash of repeated break-ins signaled that it was time to finally move out.

Protomartyr’s music — more spacious and dynamic than ever — helped pull Casey up. “The band still being viable was very important to me,” Casey adds, “and it definitely lifted my spirits.” Having long served as Protomartyr’s unofficial musical director, guitarist Greg Ahee co-produced Formal Growth In The Desert alongside Jake Aron (Snail Mail, L’Rain). Ahee knew what Casey was going through and the challenges he’d been processing, and as Ahee was conceptualizing the music, he thought about how to make it all “like a narrative film.” Ahee explains, “I started to write at home on a piano and on a keyboard and then play along to short films, and watch how you can affect and heighten moods as you play.” The filmic sensibility is manifest in Casey’s storytelling, too, whether he’s critiquing ominous techno-capitalism or processing aging, the future, and the possibility of love.

In some sense, Formal Growth In The Desert is a testament to conflicting realities — the inevitability of loss, the necessity of finding joy through it and persisting — that come with living longer and continuing to create. It begins with pain but endures through it, cracking itself open into a gently-sweeping torrent of sound that is, for Protomartyr, totally new.

PRE-ORDER FORMAL GROWTH IN THE DESERT

PROTOMARTYR TOUR DATES (new dates in bold)
Sat. Mar. 11 – Columbus, OH @ Soupfest
Sun. Mar. 12 – Chattanooga, TN @ JJ’s Bohemia
Mon. Mar. 13 – New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa
Wed. Mar. 15 – Austin, TX @ SXSW- Laneway Official Showcase – Lucille
Thu. Mar. 16 – Austin, TX @ SXSW – Levitation Showcase – Hotel Vegas
Thu. Mar. 16 – Austin, TX @ SXSW – Brooklyn Vegan Showcase – Empire
Fri. Mar. 17 – Austin, TX @ SXSW – Third Man Showcase – 13th Floor
Sat. Mar. 18 – Dallas, TX @ Texas Theater
Mon. Mar. 20 – Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel
Tue. Mar. 21 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah
Wed. Mar. 22 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram
Fri. Mar. 24 – Bakersfield, CA @ Temblor Brewing
Sat. Mar. 25 – Reno, NV @ Holland Project
Sun. Mar. 26 – Boise, ID @ Treefort
Tue. Mar. 28 – Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive
Wed. Mar. 29 – Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
Thu. Mar. 30 – Davenport, IA @ Raccoon Motel
Fri. Mar. 31 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid Scheme
Tue. June 13 – Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
Wed. June 14 – Montreal, QC @ Fairmount
Fri. June 16 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Sat. June 17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
Tue. June 20 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
Wed. June 21 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
Thu. June 22 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
Fri. June 23 – Nashville, TN @ Blue Room
Sat. June 24 – St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway
Mon. June 26 – Oklahoma City, OK @ 89th Street
Tue. June 28 – Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole
Wed. June 29 – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room
Sat. July 1 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Sun. July 2 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Moe’s Alley
Wed. July 5 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
Thu. July 6 – Vancouver, BC @ Cobalt
Fri. July 7 – Seattle, WA @ Crocodile
Sat. July 8 – Spokane, WA @ Lucky You
Tue. July 11 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
Wed. July 12 – Madison, WI @ High Noon
Thu. July 13 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Sun. Aug. 6 – Frankfurt, DE @ Zoom
Mon. Aug. 7 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
Wed. Aug. 9 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2
Thu. Aug. 10 – Nottingham, UK @ Rescue Rooms
Fri. Aug. 11 – Cardiff, UK @ Clwb lfor Bach
Sat. Aug. 12 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Mon. Aug. 14 – Eindhoven, NL @ Effenaar
Tue. Aug. 15 – Hannover, DE @ Indiego Glocksee
Thu. Aug. 17 – Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen
Fri. Aug. 18 – Bodo, NO @ Parkenfestivalen
Sat. Aug. 19 – Trondheim, NE @ Pstereo
Thu. Oct. 26 – London, UK @ Electric Ballroom

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Eddie Chacon releases title track from upcoming album – “Sundown.”

Today, Eddie Chacon presents his new single/video, “Sundown,” from his forthcoming record Sundown, out March 31st via Stones Throw. The “Sundown” video, which documents the process of recording the album, was shot at 64 Sound Studios in Northeast LA by Brandon Bloom. Appearing in the video is John Carroll Kirby — who produced, co-wrote, and played keys on Sundown — as well as Logan Hone (flute and saxophones), Elizabeth Lea (trombone), Will Logan (drums), and David Leach (percussion). Following a string of previously shared singles — “Holy Hell,” “Step By Step” and “Comes And Goes” — “Sundown” is a song about “being humbled by how little time we have on this earth.” Only now, Chacon says, at his age (59) does he have the life experience and quiet confidence to sing about such a subject.

WATCH EDDIE CHACON’S “SUNDOWN” VIDEO

As one half of the duo Charles & Eddie, whose hit single “Would I Lie To You” was a chart-topper heard around the world, Eddie was a bona fide pop star. He deserted the music business following the band’s stratospheric success. Meeting John Carroll Kirby in 2019 was the catalyst for Eddie’s return to music, and together they made 2020’s Pleasure, Joy and Happiness. The album was intended as a swan song, but eddie felt reinvigorated by its word-of-mouth success. He says, “Sundown is the follow-up I never thought I would get to make.”

This month, Eddie Chacon heads out to Australia and New Zealand, followed by a headline show with John Carroll Kirby at Los Angeles’ Lodge Room and a series of shows in the UK and Europe. Full dates are listed below.

PRE-ORDER SUNDOWN

WATCH THE “HOLY HELL” VIDEO
WATCH THE “COMES AND GOES” VIDEO
WATCH THE “STEP BY STEP” VIDEO

EDDIE CHACON TOUR DATES
Sat. Mar. 18 – Auckland, NZ @ Beacon Festival *
Sat. Mar. 25 – Melbourne, AU @ Collingwood Yards *
Wed. Mar. 29 – Melbourne, AU @ Music Room (DJ Set)
Fri. Mar. 31 – Melbourne, AU @ The Night Cat (LP Launch) *
Sat. Apr. 1 – Sydney, AU @ The Ace Hotel *
Tue. Apr. 4 – Sydney, AU @ Phoenix Park *
Fri. Apr. 7 – Bali, ID @ Potato Head Beach Club *
Wed. Apr. 19 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room *
Tue. May 16 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
Wed. May 17 – London, UK @ KOKO
Thu. May 18 – Manchester, UK @ Band on the Wall
Sun. May 21 – Berlin, DE @ Frannz
Thu. May 25 – Dublin, IE @ Sugar Club
Sun. May 28 – London, UK @ Gala Festival *

* w/ John Carroll Kirby

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Ratboys send us a new single from “Black Earth, WI.”

Today, Chicago-based band Ratboys return with “Black Earth, WI,” a new single/video out today via Topshelf Records. This is their first new piece of music since 2021’s Happy Birthday, Ratboy and 2020’s beloved Printer’s Devil. Clocking in at eight-and-a-half minutes, “Black Earth, WI” is their most expansive and adventurous track to date. It opens with a country-tinged sound, and as the instrumentation swells, so does Julia Steiner’s voice: “Singin’ hey now // What was that sound // Lighting a match // Just to freak you out // Then on the other side // I saw fifty yellow lines // Pushing up against the window // And with one almighty lightning strike // The Great Lake rose up behind // Said, ‘Baby, you best turn around.’” The self-produced video is made of manipulated, found VHS storm chaser footage.

“We recorded ‘Black Earth, WI’ live off the floor in Seattle last year at the amazing Hall of Justice and it was our first time recording straight to tape,” says vocalist/guitarist Julia Steiner “We had to be conscious of how many takes we could fit onto a reel, but lucky for us, take two was the one.”

Watch Ratboy’s Video for “Black Earth, WI”

Stream “Black Earth, WI”

Ratboys is made of Julia Steiner (vocals/guitar), Dave Sagan (guitar), Marcus Nuccio (drums), and Sean Neumann (bass). The band will bring their vivacious live show to SXSW later this month. A list of all shows and confirmed showcases can be found below.

Ratboys Tour Dates
Sun. March 12 – St. Louis, MO @ Central Stage
Tue. March 14 – Austin, TX @ Cheer Up Charlie’s Indoors (High Road Touring Showcase) – 12:30AM
Wed. March 15 – Austin, TX @ Hotel San Jose (South by San Jose) – 3:00PM
Thu. March 16 – Austin, TX @ Cheer Up Charlie’s Outdoors (Topshelf Records Showcase) – 12:00AM
Fri. March 17 – Austin, TX @ The Ballroom (SmartPunk Showcase) – TBD
Thu. March 30 – Notre Dame, IN @ University of Notre Dame – Stepan Center
Sat. April 22 – Iowa City, IA @ Strauss Hall at Hancher

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[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Bodywash release “No Repair” ahead of their new album due this April.

Bodywash — the Montreal duo of Chris Steward and Rosie Long Decter — present their new single/video, “No Repair,” from their forthcoming album, I Held the Shape While I Could, out April 14th on Light Organ Records. Following lead single “Massif Central” and its “infinite heights” (FLOOD), “No Repair” swells with lap steel by Micah Flavin, evoking a melancholy waltz while Long Decter’s hummed vocals drift in and out of time. “Write it in handfuls of air,” she sings on the ballad, “you were there,” insisting on both absence and presence in the end. “No Repair” features Ryan White on percussion and was mixed by Jace Lasek (The Besnard Lakes) with Harris Newman mastering the track.

Long Decter explains: “In my early 20s I found myself in a disastrous love triangle—or what Chris took to calling my ‘bizarre love oblong.’ It was a mess of bad decisions and repressed queer longing and those things you chase because you hope they will prove you are real. I found myself writing repetitively about light and air and the absence of tactility. ‘No Repair’ came from the decision to let all that go; to try to lose the shape of it. I started writing it in 2019 and finished it with Chris in 2021, letting it simmer over two years of lockdown and sitting with myself. It feels strange and sweet to be releasing it at a time when I have a new sense of ground underneath me and someone to share that feeling with. The video, filmed in my living room (and briefly in an outdoor parking lot during -30 Celsius), puts some of those themes into a different context. Loneliness after a party transforms into a dismantling of things, and rearranging them somewhere else.”

Watch Bodywash’s “No Repair” Video

Over I Held the Shape While I Could’s twelve tracks, Steward and Long Decter reflect on their separate and shared experiences of losing a sense of place, the way something once solid can slip between your fingers, and their attempts to build something new from the fallout. As they prepared to release their 2019 debut Comforter, Long Decter and Steward both experienced alienating shifts in their personal lives, leading to a mutual sense of dislocation. They began writing new material that was darker, more experimental, and at the same time more invigorating than the soothing dream pop on Comforter. The resulting I Held the Shape While I Could is a record that lives in the sonics of decay and renewal: breaks that burst forth from a squall of fuzz guitars, drones that glitch and stutter like ice willing itself to thaw.

There are many places like home, and on I Held the Shape While I Could, home is a mutable thing; a location that is fixed until it isn’t. Across the record, Steward’s abstract guitars and Long Decter’s cascading vocals act as ambient throughlines, blurring the digital and organic, gesturing toward something intangible, just out of reach. Home is a process — the back and forth of guitar riffs and vocal hums, of files sent and received across the ocean. A world imagined and sculpted together.

Alongside I Held the Shape While I Could, Bodywash will release Take Form, a 30-page booklet that expands the world of the album. Designed by Yoon Rachel Nam (Desert Bloom, Cedric Noel), Take Formfeatures the complete album lyrics alongside poems, a short story, and guitar tabs by Long Decter and Steward, as well as art by Kristina Pedersen. This 50-copy limited run creates a new resonance for the recordings.

Pre-order Take Form

Bodywash Tour Dates
Fri. Mar. 17 – Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas (The Nothing Song SXSW 2023 Official Showcase – 9PM)
Sat. Mar. 25 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Fest – Neurolux
Tue. Mar. 28 – Portland, OR @ No Fun Bar *
Wed. Mar. 29 – Tacoma, WA @ Spanish Ballroom *
Fri. Mar. 31 – Seattle, WA @ Homegrown in the Basement *
Sat. Apr. 1 – Vancouver, BC @ 604 Studios *
Sun. Apr. 9 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
Mon. Apr. 10 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Wed. Apr. 12 – Toronto, ON @ Baby G +
Thu. Apr. 13 – Ottawa, ON @ Live on Elgin
Sat. Apr. 15 – Montreal, QC @ La Sotterenea +
Mon. Apr. 17 – Boston, MA @ O’Brien’s
Tue. Apr. 18 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fire
Fri. Apr. 21 – Manhattan, NY @ Berlin

* w/ Vox Rea
+ w/ Tallies

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Nuovo Testamento release new album, “Love Lines,” and tour dates.

Press Photo By Yvette Aispuro & Silvia Polmonari

Los Angeles / Bologna based trio, Nuovo Testamento, has taken over dance floors with their uniquely dark Italo disco-flavored pop hits in just a few years. Following the release of the coldwave cult hit Exposure EP back in 2019 (Avant! Records), their acclaimed full-length New Earth exploded onto the scene with its graceful 1980s-influenced club elements, contagious rhythms and a powerful punch of synth-pop. The release was widely considered across genres to be one of 2021’s best underground albums of the year.

Today they return with the release of their highly anticipated second LP, Love Lines, on which Nuovo Testamento continue to explore the light, the dark and exultant personal power in what will undoubtedly become an instant dance classic.

Love Lines is an album about proof of life and the joy of survival. Vibrant with Italo disco and Hi-NRG celebration, the record invokes a sense of motion in an often stagnant time and place. Inside the eight new tracks, rich synthesizers and driving percussion testify to the need for movement, connection and autonomy.

Produced by sound engineer Maurizio Baggio (Boy Harsher, The Soft Moon)with vocal recording by Riki, Love Lines is reminiscent of the work of Shep Pettibone, Chris Barbosa and serves as a reminder of the power of pop music.

Nuovo Testamento includes members of hardcore and dark punk royalty Tørsö, Horror Vacui, Crimson Scarlet and touring members of Sheer Mag. In May the trio hit the road on an extensive North American tour supporting Molchat Doma; see below for a full list of dates.

Love Lines is out today via Discoteca Italia – purchase here.

Nuovo Testamento Live Dates:

Mar 24: San Diego, CA – The Whistle Stop
Mar 26: Ft Collins, CO – The Coast
Mar 29: Milwaukee WI – X-Ray Arcade
Mar 30: Chicago, IL – Riviera Theater ~
Mar 31: Detroit, MI – St Andrews Hall ~
Apr 01: Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Hall ~
Apr 02: Montreal, QC – M Telus ~
Apr 04: Boston, MA – Roadrunner ~
Apr 06: Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer ~
Apr 07: New York, NY – Terminal 5 ~
Apr 08: Washington, DC – 9:30 Club ~
Apr 12: Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel ~
Apr 13: Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse ~
Apr 14: Orlando, FL – Plaza Live ~
Apr 15: Saint Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live ~
Apr 16: Ft Lauderdale, FL – Culture Room ~
Apr 19: Louisville, KY – Old Forester’s Paristown Hall ~
Apr 20: Nashville, TN – Eastside Bowl ~
Apr 21: St Louis, MO – The Factory ~
Apr 22: Kansas City, MO – The Truman ~
Apr 23: Oklahoma City, OK – Tower Theatre ~
Apr 25: New Orleans, LA – House of Blues ~
Apr 26: Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center ~
Apr 27: San Antonio, TX – The Aztec Theater ~
Apr 28: Austin, TX – Stubb’s Amphitheater ~
Apr 29: Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom ~
May 01: El Paso, TX – Lowbrow Palace ~
May 02: Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre ~
May 04: Denver, CO – Ogden Theater ~
May 06: Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot ~
May 09: Boise, ID – Knitting Factory Concert House ~
May 11: Vancouver, BC – Harbour Event Centre ~
May 12: Seattle, WA – Showbox Sodo ~
May 13: Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom ~
May 16: Santa Cruz, CA – Catalyst ~
May 17: San Francisco, CA – The Warfield ~
May 18: Los Angeles, CA – TBA ~
May 19: Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren ~

~ w/ Molchat Doma

Keep your mind open.

[Make a line for the subscription box while you’re here.]

[Thanks to Bailey at Another Side.]

Mandy, Indiana release first single, “Pinking Shears,” from their debut full-length album.

Mandy, Indiana “excel at making an impression” (FADER). Today, the Manchester-bred quartet announce their debut album, i’ve seen a way, out May 19th on Fire Talk Records. Recorded in caves, crypts and shopping malls, i’ve seen a way is everything at once: an exquisitely rendered debut, expertly twisting genre to channel the chaos of everyday life. Mandy, Indiana draw on a broad sonic palette of experimental noise and industrial electronics, with frontwoman Valentine Caulfield’s lyrics of fury and fairytales completing the band’s soundworld.

Lead single “Pinking Shears” is all rude swagger and rhythms that strut on metal legs, with Caulfield expressing (in her native French) frustration at the state of the world. She runs through the myriad of inequalities, everyday aggressions, and grievances that plague our existence in late stage capitalism.

Mandy, Indiana thrive in the unexpected, and their live sets have become a vehicle to explore the boundaries of tension and release. The accompanying “Pinking Shears” video, recorded in Manchester, captures their thrilling live performance. The band will make their long-awaited US live debut at SXSW.

Watch Mandy, Indiana’s “Pinking Shears” Video

Mandy, Indiana’s music is made from their place within the world, having formed out of the fertile Manchester scene and arriving fully-realized. The group initially came to fruition after Caulfield and guitarist/producer Scott Fair met sharing a bill with their former projects. Joined by Simon Catling (synth) and Alex Macdougall (drums), Mandy, Indiana have generated a sound that is once chaotic and precisely tuned. The “Berghain-ready” (them) early single “Injury Detail” was released to a wealth of critical praise from the likes of FADER (deeming the track a “Song You Need”), Stereogum (previously naming Mandy one of 2021’s “Best New Bands”) and Pitchfork, who hailed: “Mandy, Indiana have mastered the sound of mechanized violence.”

Their first recordings emerged around 2019, with a smattering of early singles released not long after, culminating in 2021’s acclaimed “…” EP, released via Fire Talk, which saw the band draw early cosigns including a Daniel Avery remix and support slots from Squid and Gilla Band. The latter’s Daniel Fox mixed several of the tracks on i’ve seen a way, alongside Robin Stewart of Giant Swan. Produced by the band’s own Fair, the album was mastered by indie stalwart Heba Kadry.

Unlikely off-site recording locations with novel acoustics were crucial to achieving i’ve seen a way’s unique sound, from recording screaming vocals in a Bristol mall to live drums in a West Country cave — the latter’s session cut short by literal spelunkers. Other sessions happened in Gothic crypts, where Mandy, Indiana’s physical bass frequencies and experiments with volume competed with underground roadworks in upsetting a yoga class above. i’ve seen a way is a manifesto for these moments of openness and disruption.

i’ve seen a way manipulates chance recording operations into percussive geometries, one where gnarled guitars sit in thickets of distortion and vocals spin knots of lyrical repetitions. Fair explains, “We wanted to alter textures, create clashes, and craft those moments when what you’re expecting to happen never comes.”

Pre-order i’ve seen a way

i’ve seen a way Tracklist
1. Love Theme (4K VHS)
2. Drag [Crashed]
3. Pinking Shears
4. Injury Detail
5. Mosaick
6. The Driving Rain (18)
7. 2 Stripe
8. Iron Maiden
9. Peach Fuzz
10. (ノ>ω<)ノ :。・:*:・゚’★,。・:*:♪・゚’☆ (Crystal Aura Redux)
11. Sensitivity Training

Mandy, Indiana Tour Dates
Wed. Mar. 1 – Manchester, UK @ Soup
Wed. Mar. 15 – Sun. Mar. 19 – Austin, TX @ SXSW
Mon. May 22 – Utrecht, NL @ Freaky Dancing
Fri. June 16 – Mannheim, DE @ Maifeld Derby
Sat. July 8 – Trencin, SK @ Pohoda
Sat. July 22 – Standon, UK @ Standon Calling
Sat. Aug. 5 – Katowice, PL @ OFF
Fri. Oct. 27 – Manchester, UK @ The White Hotel *
Sat. Oct. 28 – Glasgow, UK @ Hug & Print *
Sun. Oct. 29 – Newcastle, UK @ Zerox *
Wed. Nov. 1 – Bristol, UK @ Dareshack *
Thu. Nov. 2 – Brighton, UK @ Green Door Store *
Fri. Nov. 3 – London, UK @ Corsica Studios *
Sat. Nov. 4 – Nottingham, UK @ Bodega *

* = Headline Show

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe while you’re here.]

[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

French psych-rockers Decasia release two singles from “An Endless Feast for Hyenas” and announce a new tour.

DECASIA is a heavy psych rock trio who released its debut album “An Endless Feast for Hyenas” on last April. The band is coming up with an explosive cocktail mixing stoner, doom, psych rock and grunge. Inspired by what heavy rock scene does best (All Them Witches, Colour Haze, Elder…), DECASIA stands out with its own recipe. The band also has a really rock’n’roll energy, especially on stage where they offer supercharged and immersive shows.

This summer, the frenchies shot a music video in the middle of Auvergne’s countryside, not far from the barn where they recorded the album. The video features not one but two songs from the album : “Ilion” and outro “Hyenas At The Gates”. A clip shot in total DIY over 4 days in the countryside, written and directed by the band with the help of audiovisual students. Spoiler : a very special old car is featured in the music video 😉

Meanwhile, the band has just announced tour dates in France, Belgium and Germany from April 7 to 22. DECASIA will be playing at Hellfest, on Saturday June 17 (Valley Stage, 10am).

Gardez votre esprit ouvert.

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[Grâce à NRV.]