News – Page 80 – 7th Level Music

Chicago’s Pitchfork Music Festival returns September 10-12th.

The Pitchfork Music Festival will return to Chicago’s Union Park Friday, September 10 through Sunday, September 12. Today, the Festival announces the full 2021 lineup, including headliners Erykah Badu, St. Vincent, and Phoebe Bridgers.

The Festival opens on Friday with Phoebe Bridgers, Big Thief, Animal Collective, Yaeji, The Fiery Furnaces (their first show in over a decade), black midi, Hop Along, Kelly Lee Owens, Ela Minus, DEHD, The Soft Pink Truth, DJ Nate, Dogleg, and Armand Hammer.

Saturday features St. Vincent, Angel Olsen, Kim Gordon, Ty Segall & Freedom Band, Waxahatchee, Jay Electronica, Jamila Woods, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Faye Webster, Amaarae, Maxo Kream, Divino Niño, Bartees Strange, and Horsegirl.

On Sunday, the Festival hosts Erykah Badu, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Danny Brown, Cat Power, Andy Shauf, Caroline Polachek, Yves Tumor, The Weather Station, Mariah the Scientist, oso oso, KeiyaA, Special Interest, and Cassandra Jenkins.

For 15 years, the Pitchfork Music Festival has delivered an eclectic musical lineup, singular in its ability to place contemporary, cutting-edge acts alongside some of the most revered artists of our time. It’s this unique blend of discovery and tradition that makes the Pitchfork Music Festival stand out as one of the most celebrated weekends of the year.

“We are unbelievably excited to celebrate the return of live shows, our music community, and, most importantly, the artists and events crews who have made this year’s festival possible,” says editor in chief of Pitchfork, Puja Patel. “I know this will be a cathartic weekend for all of us, and that it lands right before the 25th anniversary of the publication makes it all the more special.”

Pitchfork Music Festival tickets are on sale now. Three-day passes are $195 and single-day passes are $90. The Pitchfork PLUS upgrade, including a range of exclusive amenities, is $385 for a three-day pass and $185 for a single-day pass. If the festival is postponed or rescheduled due to COVID-19, ticket buyers can keep their passes for the new dates or request a refund. More details are available here.

To ensure the health and safety of guests, artists, and staff, the Pitchfork Music Festival will adhere to the city of Chicago’s COVID-19 protocol, and will keep attendees updated as federal, state, and local regulations evolve. For the latest safety guidelines, visit Pitchfork Music Festival’s FAQ page, and follow @PitchforkFest on Instagram and Twitter.

COVID-19 regulations currently include:

● Attendees aged 12 and older will be required to provide proof of a COVID vaccination or a negative PCR test within the past 24 hours, each day of the festival. Visit the city of Chicago’s website for a list of local COVID-19 test providers (here), and vaccination providers (here).
● In accordance with current IDPH and CDPH guidelines, masks will be required throughout festival grounds. Masks may be removed when eating and drinking. Pitchfork is working closely with local health officials and will continue to update this policy as local guidelines become available.

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

FRIDAY
Phoebe Bridgers
Big Thief
Animal Collective
The Fiery Furnaces
Yaeji
black midi
Hop Along
Kelly Lee Owens
Ela Minus
DEHD
The Soft Pink Truth
DJ Nate
Dogleg
Armand Hammer

SATURDAY
St. Vincent
Angel Olsen
Kim Gordon
Ty Segall & Freedom Band
Waxahatchee
Jay Electronica
Jamila Woods
Georgia Anne Muldrow
Faye Webster
Amaarae
Maxo Kream
Divino Niño
Bartees Strange
Horsegirl

SUNDAY
Erykah Badu
Flying Lotus
Thundercat
Danny Brown
Cat Power
Andy Shauf
Caroline Polachek
Yves Tumor
The Weather Station
Mariah the Scientist
oso oso
KeiyaA
Special Interest
Cassandra Jenkins

For more information, including lineups, event news, and the latest updates, please visit PitchforkMusicFestival.com or facebook.com/pitchforkmusicfestival and follow Pitchfork Music Festival on Instagram and Twitter.

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Sam Gellaitry is a one-man “Duo” on his new single.

Scottish producer Sam Gellaitry announces his new EP, IV, out May 14th (digital) and June 11th(vinyl) via the new home to Sam’s own Viewfinder Recordings, FFRR Records/Parlophone, and shares the lead single/video, “Duo.” Between 2015 and 2017, Sam put out three EPs as a series – Escapism, Escapism II, and Escapism III. He’s always used instruments to convey voices – high pitched flute sounds to evoke falsetto sounds and female vocals, for example, or top lines made from melodics. But after taking a break for a few years since the release of his Escapism series, he decided the time was right to start singing on his own music. You can hear this for the first time on IV. Produced, written, vocalized, mixed and mastered by Sam, its name is a subtle nod to the Escapism trilogy and the work he’s released so far. More literally, it’s also called IV because it’s a collection of four songs and four emotions.

Born far away from key electronic music hubs like LA, Glasgow and London, Sam, now 24, grew up in Stirling – an old town in central Scotland that’s rich in medieval history and visually stunning views. Living here led Sam’s older brother to happy hardcore – a kind of hard dance music born from the UK and Europe’s breakbeat and rave scenes – which in turn lead to Sam learning to produce. YouTube granted unfettered access to the world’s electronic scenes, with the array of sounds pushing Sam to pick up production in his early teens. He dove into Daft Punk’s robotic space realm where looped up disco samples reigned supreme and LA producers Samiyam and Flying Lotus were early inspirations. But no matter the genre, one thing remained constant: the idea that music can take your imagination on a voyage through color, place and sound, via combinations of notes.

Sam views the world through palettes of vivid color. A C minor scale becomes purple, plum and grape. C-sharp minor is cool and blue. Night time is best evoked in dark F minor reds and D minor induces rich forest green. His music is a journey through experience, circumstance and surroundings, told through his impressive, synesthesia-informed knowledge of different musical tones. For him, songwriting and producing has always connected to a process of pairing and contrasting different tones – “using the notes to create different sensations – like tension or relief in your head.” In practice, this technique has seen him experiment with high definition club music, crisp hip hop production, dabs of orchestral instrumentation and more.

Lead single “Duo” hones in on the French house music Sam discovered in his early teens. It’s the first track ever that features his voice. Presented with high octane and eclectic visuals, the video directed by Ethan + Tom, transitions rapidly through a scene of animated and inverted clips of Sam before it takes a psychedelic-feeling thrill ride. “It feels like I’m dropping my first ever song. It’s a crazy feeling to go from hiding behind instrumentation to finally finding my voice. It’s super liberating being able to explore more refined soundscapes by using my vocals as the glue. I return to my roots with ‘Duo’ by venturing into a more funk oriented sonic and I’m going to continue to showcase all my past and present tastes that have brought me to this point musically.”

This new phase of Sam’s career is an embrace of his unparalleled and unadulterated passion for creativity. “I’m at an age now where I feel ready to talk and tell people what I’ve experienced in life. It’s perfect timing in that sense,” says Sam. “I’ve done three EPs. I’m at the point now where I’m like – I want all the smoke. Now I’m comfortable singing on my songs, I want to go back to each point in my musical journey and tap into it. I’m using the voice as my anchor, then tapping into other sonics that have influenced me.”

Watch “Duo” Video

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Jorja Chalmers releases “Bring Me Down” ahead of new album due May 28th.

Margate-based, Australian multi-instrumentalist Jorja Chalmers will release her new album ‘Midnight Train‘ on May 28th via Italians Do It Better. The first single from the record “Bring Me Down” is streaming online now.

Speaking about the first single “Bring Me Down”, Jorja said “It’s about the fragility of the perfect housewife.It’s basically about a woman that’s trying to be everything, and is cracking psychologically. It’s got a very haunting melody. There’s something there that’s a little bit beautiful and disturbing about it.”

The accompanying video is a piece of Lynchian performance art, an unsettling one-shot clip that shows a person on the edge. It’s all theatre however, Jorja Chalmers relishes in inhabiting a persona, one that may be entirely divorced from her own experiences. “There can be a healthy separation from using your creativity to make something that is almost like a duplicate of yourself, that you don’t necessarily associate with. If you make something dark, then it’s not necessarily your personality. It can be the opposite sometimes.”

Watch & listen to “Bring Me Down” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S3sZoiG20g

Jorja Chalmers enjoys a quiet life. The Australian born mother of two lives in Margate, the Kent coastal town that is turning into something of a cultural hub. Yet there’s another, shadow version of Jorja Chalmers, one that resides in a liminal realm; a saxophonist and composer, a brooding, vampiric, twilight soul who yearns for some sense of aesthetic transformation.

New album ‘Midnight Train’ comes close to severing the two. Constructed during the long winter lockdown, Jorja would put her kids to bed before closing the door in the spare room, building lengthy, undulating passages of cinematic terror, patching together European art-pop glamour with outsider electronics. It’s composed, intense, and challenging – but it’s also utterly exhilarating.

It’s not been a straight-forward path. Burned out following years of classical studies in her native Sydney, Jorja travelled half-way round the world looking for an escape. Settling for some ad hoc office jobs in London, she started kicking around in bands, playing saxophone for a friend’s new wave project. Someone from Bryan Ferry’s team spotted her at some flea-bit bar, and was infatuated – soon Jorja started touring the world with Roxy Music.

Jorja’s 2019 debut album ‘Human Again’ was sketched in hotel rooms across Europe and North America, ideas punched out on down-time between shows. This time round, however, things are a bit more defined. “A lot of those songs were one take jams, it was improvised. This is more refined,” Jorja insists. “It’s a natural progression, this second album. It feels more mature in that way.”

Mixed by Dean Hurley, David Lynch’s music engineer, ‘Midnight Train’ is a treasure trove of ideas. Indeed, it could well be the album Jorja had waited her entire life to make – aspects of minimalism sparked by a teenager who spent countless hours memorising Michael Nyman’s seminal film score for The Piano, set against cinematic electronics and swathes of huge, enveloping, classical dynamics.

“I want it to sound immersive, like it’s wrapping you in a blanket,” she says. Indeed, she cites Rachmaninoff’s epic work The Rock as a key touchstone on the new record. “It’s something that my parents used to blast out of their stereo when I was a kid. I heard it a million times. It’s strange to be hearing a song that is so dramatic when you’re that young. It’s a beautiful piece. It’s one of those things that leaves an imprint on you.”

At times, ‘Midnight Train’ gets very dark indeed. ‘Rabbit In The Headlights’ is a squirming piece of jet-black avant-pop, while ‘Boadicea’ is draped in the blood of the ancient British warrior queen. ‘The Wolves Of The Orangery’ was sculpted after a Roxy Music show in the Palace of Versailles, and it’s haunted by the oppression meted out to the servants, and the bloody revenge exhibited on the French regal classes. There’s light in those murky depths, however; take her brooding version of The Doors’ classic ‘Riders On The Storm’ – a blood-thirsty slice of dystopian electronics, it doubles as a salute to her father, who built himself colossal speakers to both entertain his daughter and terrify his neighbours.

A finessed, contoured vision of Jorja Chalmers’ undaunted creativity, ‘Midnight Train’ bristles with ideas. Breathy saxophone undulates on ‘Nightingale’, her homage to Yellow Magic Orchestra founder Haroumi Hosono, while mournful closer ‘Underwater Blood’ echoes the intensity of Goblin’s work on the Suspiria score, or even John Carpenter’s cinematic endeavours. “I grew up watching lots of movies. I was obsessed with the Terminator soundtrack. I remember hearing that for the first time, and just knowing my tastes were going to be changed forever.”

‘Midnight Train’ feels concise, sharpened, ready to pounce. Cannibalising her influences, Jorja Chalmers has been able to pursue her creative appetites to their most extreme. Yet even at its most challenging, her bold new album revels in the sheer joy of creation. “Making this album was really freeing,” she explains. “I loved writing this album. I always write in the same way, but I think that lockdown provided me with lesser distractions. Writing is such a personal thing for me – being in your little cave, and creating. That’s the beautiful moment for me.”

A solitary creation, a lockdown triumph, ‘Midnight Train’ is the moment Jorja Chalmers truly achieves transcendence.

Midnight Train track list:
1. Bring Me Down
2. I’ll Be Waiting
3. Rabbit In The Headlights
4. Boadicea
5. Love Me Tonight
6. Nightingale
7. Riders On The Storm
8. Rhapsody
9. The Poet
10. The Wolves Of The Orangery
11. On Such A Clear Day
12. Midnight Train
13. Underwater Blood

Links:
Jorja Chalmers Instagram
Italians Do It Better store
Italians Do It Better Instagram
Italians Do It Better Twitter

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[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity.]

Babehoven’s “Bad Week” is a good single.

Babehoven is the nomadic project of Topanga, CA-raised Maya Bon. Today, she announces her Nastavi, Calliope EP, out July 9th, and presents its lead single, “Bad Week.”

Nastavi, Calliope is the follow-up to Demonstrating Visible Difference of Height (2020) and Yellow Has a Pretty Good Reputation (2021). Nastavi, Calliope was built after a cascade of losses, and is a vessel into which Bon poured two years of heartache, humor, and rage, then growth. It’s largely motivated by reconnecting with her father in Croatia after being apart for 16 years, immersing herself in her ancestral culture, and the passing of the beloved family dog, Calliope. Throughout the EP, Bon untangles universal emotions through specific experiences, poignant writing, and a lacquered DIY aesthetic.

Since its inception in 2017 when Bon was a college student in Portland, OR, Babehoven has spanned geographies—Portland, Los Angeles, Philadelphia— and now, the tiny town of Arlington, VT, where Bon and collaborator Ryan Albert recorded the Nastavi, Calliope EP in their home studio. Their newfound home gave the duo the space and freedom to transform the EP’s seven tracks into lush, fully-formed compositions. After Bon drafts a new piece (typically with vocals and guitar), the two parse through the track and deconstruct its instrumentals, later adding new elements to replace/embellish the existing sound. In Bon’s words, “we try to dismantle and recreate the song, creating an open space for the song to morph and grow as we explore.” The resulting EP is an instrumental layer cake, stacking drums, then bass, then guitar and vocals, and finally gilding them with unconventional
elements like bowed guitars and the reverb of an 80s karaoke machine.

In the EP’s stunning opener “Bad Week,” Bon’s vocals reach out from beyond like a late night phone call from a friend. “It’s been a bad week for so many weeks now,” she sings, her voice glowing over strums of guitar and shuffling percussion. “This song is a hand reached inward to the swelling and amorphous cavities of grief,” says Bon. “As time keeps moving forward, I have found that it can feel as if the ‘bad days’ keep going, growing into ‘bad weeks,’ ‘bad years,’ into new levels of struggle that are hard to move through. Though this realization can feel staggering, it can also feel like an honest admission to self: these times are very hard and yet I want to move forward, I want to feel, I want to grow. ‘Bad Week’ is my attempt to commit to
myself in these feelings.”

Evocative of Arthur Russell’s Love is Overtaking Me or Julia Jacklin’s Crushing, Nastavi, Calliope balances meticulously between the universality of emotion and the particulars that crack you open, that you carry alone. There is no containing grief, or rendering it sensible, or arranging it neatly, but Nastavi, Calliope lets us gaze into a fragment of it like a broken mirror—a sharp,
incisive revelation.

Bon elaborates on the EP’s title: “’Nastavi’ means ‘keep going’ in Croatian, a language which carries a lot of weight for me. I am half Croatian and I often dreamt of what Croatia might be like as a child; it felt like a fictitious land, an inaccessible place where a piece of me lived, like a dismembered limb found itself on the Croatian shores. ‘Calliope,’ the name of my childhood dog, means ‘beautiful voice’ in Greek.
It is also the type of organ that is placed at the center of a merry go round to provide that very specific type of music. The cyclical movement of the merry go round provides another element that I enjoyed including in this EP title; pain is cyclical, experiences are cyclical, and in a way we are constantly exploring new terrain while carrying our body memories with us that seem to go round and round and round in our heads.” – Maya Bon

Listen to Babehoven’s “Bad Week”

Pre-order Nastavi, Calliope EP

Nastavi, Calliope EP Tracklist

Bad Week
Crossword
A Star
Annie’s Shoes
Orange Tree
Like Artists Making Offerings
Alt. Lena

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[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

French post-metal legends Year of No Light announce 20th anniversary box set.

Bordeaux, France post-metal sextet Year of No Light announce their forthcoming fifth studio album Consolamentum today, sharing the first single “Réalgar” via all DSPs. Hear and share “Réalgar” via Bandcamp, Spotify and YouTube.

Consolamentum is the band’s first album on Pelagic Records. To celebrate joining the label and Year of No Lights‘s 20th anniversary, they will release a limited edition deluxe wooden box set of the band’s entire discography, titled Mnemophobia on July 2nd. The handmade, hand-silkscreened wooden box features 12 vinyl LPs in 6 gatefold sleeves, exclusive colored vinyl variants, a slipmat, metal pin, patch and poster. For more information, see HERE.

Year of No Light’s lengthy, sprawling compositions of towering walls of guitars and sombre synths irradiate a sense of dire solemnity and spiritual gravity, and couldn’t be a more fitting soundtrack for such grim medieval scenarios. But there is also the element of absolution, regeneration, elevation, transcendence in the face of death. Consolamentum is dense, rich and lush and yet somehow feels starved and deprived.
It comes as no surprise that ever since the beginning of their career, the band have had an obsession for the fall of man and salvation through darkness. The term “consolamentum” describes the sacrament, the initiation ritual of the Catharic Church, which thrived in Southern Europe in the 12th – 14th Century – a ritual that brought eternal austereness and immersion in the Holy Spirit.

“There’s a thread running through all of our albums”, says the band, collectively “an exploration of the sensitive world that obeys a certain telos, first fantasized (“Nord”) and reverberated (“Ausserwelt”), then declaimed as a warning (“Tocsin”). The deeper we dig, the more the motifs we have to unveil appear to us. Yes, it’s a bit gnostic. This album is invoked after the Tocsin, it’s the epiphany of the Fall.”

With debut album Nord (2006) and sophomore release Ausserwelt (2010), the band madethemselves a name in the European avant-metal scene. Extensive tours of Europe, North America and Russia in 2013 and 2014, including two appearances at Roadburn festival, Hellfest and a spectacular performance in a 17th Century fortress in the Carpathian mountains introduced them to a broader and quickly growing international audience.

With their seminal 3rd album Tocsin, released in 2013, Year Of No Light reached the peak of their career thus far – a logical decision that Consolamentum was made with the same team again: recorded and mixed by Cyrille Gachet at Cryogene in Begles / Bordeaux, mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side.

“We wanted this album to sound as organic and analog as possible”, comments the band. “All tracks were recorded live. The goal was to have the most natural, warm and clean takes possible, to give volume to the dynamics of the songs. We aimed to have a production with a singular personality.”

For the adept listener, Consolamentum seems to be venturing deeper into the dark and claustrophobic spheres explored on Tocsin – but the band doesn’t conceive of the evolution of their music in a linear way, as it would be apparent from looking at their discography.

“It’s more a matter of sonic devotion. Music against modern times. Year Of No Light” is above all a praxis. We wanted intensity, trance, climax and threat, all of them embedded in a bipolar and mournful ethos.”

Consolamentum is huge, poignant, frightening, sublime, smothering and cathartic – and, much like Decibel Magazine says of its predecessor, it’s “audacious, memorable and supremely confident.”

Consolamentum will be available on 2xLP, CD and digital on July 2nd, 2021 via Pelagic Records. Preorders are available HERE.

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CHAI get bouncy on “Ping Pong” – one of the best singles of the year so far.

Japanese quartet CHAI present a new single/video, “PING PONG!,” from their forthcoming album, WINK, out May 21st on Sub Pop. The track is a laser beam ode to a social activity that CHAI love but cannot currently partake in. In Japan, CHAI would often play ping pong after visits to the public hot springs, called onsen. “PING PONG!” also features YMCK, who brought a gaming feel to the production, which CHAI wanted to match.“

CHAI elaborate: “We’re channeling our inner playful selves, challenging ourselves to fun, and bringing you that nostalgic-feel with this song! There’s just something about old video games that’s super cute, a little tacky, yet at the same time fancy. Something that you think is “old-school” but at the same time super refreshing. YMCK collaborated with us on this and created the ultimate 8bit World of CHAI!”

“The theme for PING PONG is exactly as is, ‘ping pong.’ In Japanese culture, there’s this routine where Hot Springs or ‘onsen’ and playing PING PONG go hand in hand.
When the four of us hit the hot springs, we always wear a Yukata (unlined Summer kimono), drink a cup of milk, and go right into some PING PONG! It’s very Japanese, something we don’t think exists overseas and that’s exactly what we want to share! You can hear it in the lyrics and you can feel it in the music video!”

YMCK adds: “It was our first time creating something from start to finish remotely but everything turned out amazing with each member’s character shining through!
Don’t miss this ever-so free and forever dancing world of CHAI! “
WATCH CHAI’S VIDEO FOR “PING PONG!”

CHAI is MANA (lead vocals and keys) and KANA (guitar), drummer YUNA, and bassist-lyricist YUUKI. Following the release of 2019’s PUNK, CHAI’s adventures took them around the world, playing their high-energy and buoyant shows. They took quarantine as an opportunity to shake up their process and bring their music somewhere thrillingly new. Rather than having maximalist recordings like in the past, CHAI instead focused on crafting the slightly-subtler and more introspective kinds of songs they enjoy listening to at home—where, for the first time, they recorded all of the music. WINK is also the first CHAI album to feature contributions from outside producers (Mndsgn, YMCK) as well as Ric Wilson. They draw R&B and hip-hop into their mix (Mac Miller, the Internet, and Brockhampton were on their minds) of dance-punk and pop-rock, all while remaining undeniably CHAI.
WATCH THE “NOBODY KNOWS WE’RE FUN” VIDEO

WATCH THE “MAYBE CHOCOLATE CHIPS” (FEAT. RIC WILSON) VIDEO

WATCH THE “ACTION” VIDEO

WATCH THE “DONUTS MIND IF I DO” VIDEO

WATCH THE “PLASTIC LOVE” VIDEO

PRE-ORDER WINK

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

black midi take it “Slow” (sort of) with their new single.

Today, black midi present a new single/video, “Slow,” from their forthcoming album, Cavalcade, out May 28th on Rough Trade. In conjunction, they announce a fall North American tour, plus a new KEXP interview and performance. A full circle moment for black midi, their first KEXP performance (live from Iceland Airwaves in 2019) is how many first experienced the band. Following lead single “John L,” “a zoomed-out optical illusion, making you question what you’re witnessing at every turn,” (Pitchfork, “Best New Track”) “Slow” is one of two Cavalcade songs fronted by bassist Cameron Picton. The music for “Slow” was written just before black midi’s February 2020 UK tour with the lyrics finalised when demos were recorded in June 2020. They tell the story of a young and idealistic revolutionary dreaming of a better world who ends up being shot in the national stadium after a coup d’état.

“The ‘Slow’ video was made to fit the oscillating dynamics of the song. Going from calm to chaos over and over again,” says director and animator Gustaf Holtenäs. “The video tells the story of a character who creates AI-generated worlds. To emphasize this, I let real AI’s generate a lot of the backgrounds in these worlds. So they are partly AI-generated, but It isn’t long before an AI could create the whole deal and create endless iterations of fantasy worlds. It can already create a random beautiful landscape painting in 1 second.”

Watch black midi’s Video for “Slow”

Cavalcade is a dynamic, hellacious, and inventive follow-up to black midi’s debut, Schlagenheim, one of 2019’s most widely-praised albums. Cavalcade scales beautiful new heights, pulling widely from a plethora of genres and influences, reaching ever upwards from an already lofty base of early achievements. black midi — Geordie Greep (guitar, primary vocals), Cameron Picton (bass, vocals), and Morgan Simpson (drums) — picture Cavalcade as a line of larger than life figures, from a cult leader fallen on hard times and an ancient corpse found in a diamond mine to legendary cabaret singer Marlene Dietrich, strolling seductively past them.
Watch New KEXP Session

Watch “John L” Video

Pre-order Cavalcade

Purchase “John L”/“Despair” 12”

black midi Tour Dates:
Mon. Oct. 4 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
Thu. Oct. 7 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre
Fri. Oct. 8 – San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
Sat. Oct. 9 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s
Mon. Oct. 11 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Cafe
Tue. Oct. 12 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall
Thu. Oct. 14 – Lakewood, OH @ Mahall’s
Fri. Oct. 15 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit
Sat. Oct. 15 – Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s
Mon. Oct. 18 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
Tue. Oct. 19 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
Thu. Oct. 21 – Baltimore, MD @ Union Brewery
Sat. Oct. 23 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle Tavern
Tue. Oct. 26 – Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
Wed. Oct. 27 – New Orleans, LA @ Republic
Fri. Oct. 29 – Austin, TX @ ??????????
Sat. Oct. 30 – Houston, TX @ The Secret Group

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Jess Cornelius releases haunting Peach Fuzz version of “Body Memory.”

Today, Los Angeles-based musician Jess Cornelius presents “Body Memory” (Peach Fuzz Version), with an accompanying video. It’s an alternative version of the original that appeared on Distance, her album released last year on Loantaka Records (which will see its UK release on May 14, 2021), and follows her recent cover of the Eagles’ “I Can’t Tell You Why.” While the original track is driven by a catchy electro-rhythm, the Peach Fuzz version is gorgeously stripped down. Cornelius’ voice is poignant over reverberating electric guitar, as she sings of the lasting emotions that stem from a miscarriage. Peels of guitar and muted percussion gently filter in as the song continues.

“I’d started playing the song for myself in a totally different way – on echoey guitar instead of keys, with a dreamy, melancholic mood, and wanted to record it as a sort of ‘part two’. It’s like a new cover of my own song, I guess. When I started recording the demo I ended up capturing all these distant sounds that got all distorted in the process: a nail gun, a baby, police sirens, which I kept in for the final recording. I added harpsichord, synth and drums, and Jarvis Taveniere added bass during the mixing. The rolling toms and shaker in the outro added this new little groove and moved the mood again. To me this almost feels like a new song; ‘I was my own woman once’ is now less defiant and more reflective, maybe even yearning.”

Cornelius and her partner filmed the video in the Sequoia National Forest in Northern California. “I had the idea for the visual for a while – this hyper-artificial neon outfit against a lush forest backdrop. I made the dress the night before the shoot, using some high-visibility fabric I’d been given years ago. But when we got out to the forest, about half of the trees were dead – killed off by drought and bark beetles exacerbated by rising temperatures. The video inadvertently became a sort of environmental lament – about a different kind of loss and love.”
Watch Jess Cornelius’ Video for “Body Memory” (Peach Fuzz Version)

Watch/Listen/Share:
Purchase Distance
Watch the “No Difference” Video
Watch the “Kitchen Floor” Video
Watch the “Body Memory” Video
Listen to “I Can’t Tell You Why” (Eagles’ Cover)

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[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Brijean shares Buscabulla’s remix of “Moody” from upcoming EP.

Earlier this year Oakland-based duo Brijean released Feelings, “an album that’s as soothing as it is grand” (Bandcamp). Today, Brijean announces the Feelings Remixes EP coming out August 13th on Ghostly International, and presents the “Moody (Buscabulla Remix).” In addition to the Buscabella remix, the EP extends the relaxed reverie of Feelings with contributions from Sam Gendel, DRAMA, and Rick Wade. Brijean Murphy and Doug Stuart’s deep roots in jazz, pop, electronic and Latin spheres inform the music they make as Brijean, and these influences are reflected in the diverse group of remixers they tapped for this project.

Puerto Rican synth-pop duo Buscabulla accentuate the percussive downtempo flair of “Moody.” Keeping Murphy’s stream-of-consciousness lyrics at the forefront, the polyrhythmic percussion is sparing and, well, moody. Sprinkles of subtle yelps, harp flutters, gauzy synths, and sinuous synth grooves give this rework a unique neo-tropicalia vibe. Murphy elaborates, “I first heard of Buscabulla from a club poster at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn. I was playing at that venue with a band I was touring with around the same time and fell in love with their music. They play with time signatures, levels and expression in an enveloping and inspiring way. They are insanely talented artists and I’m so so stoked to have their lush, experimental and moving touch on our song ‘Moody.’“

Buscabella adds, “We had plans to meet Brijean the next time we swung by San Francisco on tour before the pandemic hit. We love their vibe and doing this remix is as close as we can get to jamming together in the same place. We aimed to deconstruct the original and to explore the point where our separate influences converge. Fusing together the futuristic synthesized drums and bass with organic syncopated Caribbean percussion. Here’s to a jam in real life.”

Rhythm is the driving force of Feelings; each featured remix plays with that force, adding, subtracting, and altering percussive elements to build a range of sonic environments — true to Brijean’s mission of encouraging uninhibited imagination and new possibilities.
Stream “Moody (Buscabulla Remix)”

Feelings Remixes EP Tracklist:
1. “Moody (Buscabulla Remix)”
2. “Ocean (Sam Gendel Remix)”
3. “Hey Boy (DRAMA Remix)”
4. “Day Dreaming (Rick Wade Remix)”

Watch/Share/Listen:
“Wifi Beach” Video
“Hey Boy” Video
“Ocean” Video
“Day Dreaming” Video
“Moody” Stream
Purchase/Stream Feelings

Keep your mind open.

[I’ll be moody if you don’t subscribe.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Situation Chicago 2 compilation to benefit Chicago venues, their workers, and local artists.

Chicago-based nonprofit Quiet Pterodactyl announces Situation Chicago 2, a compilation out digitally on May 21st (physical copies will be available in July) benefiting Chicagoland musicians through the CIVL (Chicago Independent Venue League) SAVE Emergency Relief Fund, which provides need-based grants to furloughed staff, local artists and venues in the Chicagoland area. Situation 2 features Chicago bands and artists including Jeff Parker, Umphrey’s McGee feat. Béla Fleck, The Goddamn Gallows, V.V. Lightbody, Neptune’s Core, and more. Today, Quiet Pterodactyl shares two of its tracks, Jeff Parker’s “Slippin’ Into Darkness” (War Cover), and Robust’s “I Don’t Know Why,” with an accompanying video.

Listen to Jeff Parker’s “Slippin’ Into Darkness” (War Cover)

Watch Robust’s “I Don’t Know Why” Video

Annah Garrett of CIVL expands on the relief fund’s goal:

“The CIVL SAVE Emergency Relief Fund was designed specifically for staff and artists to bridge the gap between the closures that have wreaked havoc on Chicago’s live music ecosystem and its eventual resurgence. Local artists are in a unique situation because their touring calendars take months to plan and then travel. They will not bounce back at the same rate as venues. CIVL SAVE strives to support these folks during this precarious time. Situation Chicago 2 shines a spotlight on an array of talented local artists and their work, while raising funds for a large pool of their colleagues, who are still very much at the mercy of this virus.”

This is the second installation of the Situation Series, following last year’s Situation Chicago, which raised $35,000 for 25 local, independent music venues that have been shut down due to the COVID pandemic. With support from Dark Matter Coffee, Jeppson’s Malört, Nature’s Grace & Wellness, Red Bull, and Smashed Plastic, who have also locally pressed the Situation albums.

Pre-order Situation Chicago 2

Situation Chicago 2 Tracklist
Side 1
1. MIIRRORS – “Sinistry” (Live From Definitive Version)
2. Robust – “Don’t Know Why”
3. Fess Grandiose – “Keep The Rhythm Goin”
4. Umphrey’s McGee feat. Béla Fleck – “Great American”
5. The Imperial Boxmen – “Reduxion”
6. Jeff Parker – “Slippin’ Into Darkness”

Side 2
7. Neptune’s Core – “Drowning”
8. The Goddamn Gallows – “The Maker”
9. V.V. Lightbody – “Really Do Care”
10. Erin McDougald – “The Parting Glass”

Digital Bonus Tracks
1.Gramps the Vamp – “A Doomed Star”
2. HON3YBUN – “If And When It Ends”
3. The Avondale Ramblers – “One For The Ditch”
4. Adem Dalipi – “Through Another’s Eyes”

Learn More About The CIVL SAVE Emergency Relief Fund

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe.]

[Thanks to Jim at Pitch Perfect PR.]