Buffalo, NY quartet Alpha Hopper announce their forthcoming third album Alpha Hex Index will be released via Portland, OR label Hex Records on November 6th, 2020. Today the band shares the first single, “The Goods” via Echoes & Dust HERE. (Direct Bandcamp.)
“A bartender, a personal trainer, a graphic designer, and an immigration attorney walk into a practice space…”
Formed in Buffalo, New York in 2014, Alpha Hopper creates a frenetic stew of guitar-driven rock’n’roll with ingredients from punk, hardcore, noise rock, and no-wave. Their 3rd LP Alpha Hex Index shows them deeper than ever down their rabbit hole. Sassy, snotty vocals punctuating the ever growing wall of catchy, bizarre riffs and prison break drum beats. Dummy math, noise-rock for art-punk drop outs. For this album the band decided to record the effort themselves in their homes. Pandemic-related shelter in place recommendations caused some hiccups in being able to track the entire effort in a single block, and instead recording sessions were conducted in intervals when the members could safely get together and hash out their respective parts. Once they were satisfied with the mix they handed things over to engineer John Angelo (Gwar, Every Time I Die, Gas Chamber) to handle mastering duties.
Alpha Hex Index will be available on LP, CD and digital on November 20th, 2020.
Bleached – the Los Angeles-based duo of sisters Jessica and Jennifer Clavin – release an anthemic new single, “Stupid Boys.” It’s their first new material since Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough?, “one of the year’s best rock albums, and far more than a survival tale” (Billboard), released last year on Dead Oceans. “Stupid Boys” is pertinent to today’s female empowerment movement, as the Clavin sisters directly call out harmful behavior. Jennifer’s voice buzzes over Jessica’s bright guitar, as they both chant all too familiar tropes: “Try to rebound with my best friend // I saw you slide into her DM’s // Get a tattoo of my first name // cross it out and tell me I’m lame.”
“Making light of a dark situation has been a tool I’ve used to get through challenging times,” says Jennifer Clavin “Specifically, a way I’ve often honored my recovery is to tell my story through my lyrics – this time the subject is crazy ex-boyfriends. This started out as a jokey song, something light-hearted, meant to be danced to…or so I thought. After the most recent flood of ‘me too’ call outs around men in the music scene, I returned to this song and felt somewhat surprised, because the lyrics actually aren’t so light-hearted, and they directly refer back to experiences related to the reckoning we just saw go down. I don’t wanna keep dwelling on the past and all its fucked up-ness, but I also don’t wanna ignore it and brush it under the rug like it never happened. What I do believe is that life is about finding a balance between the dark and light, and if I want inner peace I have to allow the light in to absorb the dark. So maybe this song has changed shape, just like our understanding of things change over time, with perspective, and now it is both a vessel for some painful memories and a testament to growth and healing, and to me, that’s what music is for. I’m proud of this song for so many reasons, but most especially because it strikes that balance for me, and I hope for you too.”
FUZZ, the raw power trio comprised of Los Angeles-based Ty Segall (drums, vocals), Charles Moothart (guitar, vocals), and Chad Ubovich (bass, vocals), will release their new album and first in five years, III, on October 23rd via In The Red. Today, FUZZ release a new single, “Spit,” and its mind-bending stop motion video. Following lead single “Returning,” an auditory meditation on the power of one and the different perspectives of one, “Spit” is fierce with buzzing guitar licks and pummeling percussion. Its video, made by Moothart, reflects this intensity, with nightmarish characters spun from wire and trippy collages.
“‘Spit’ was written early in the process of working on III. When Ty and I first started working on this song, we didn’t know if it was even going to be a FUZZ song or not,” says Moothart. “We wanted to make a song that felt straight forward, but had a subtle tweak that over time gets more obvious. The verse riff almost feels like you’re falling asleep at the wheel then the chorus opens up with a melodic, but sharp riff that adds to the punch-drunk feeling of the verse.”
Moothart elaborates on the video: “I started doing stop motion as a quarantine experiment. I wanted to make experimental animation that I could try to make sound design for, and I ended up just making a FUZZ video. It was an extremely fun project to take on in this time. It was especially fun to open up for feedback and ask for direction so that I had to challenge myself to complete something that felt cohesive. I was honored when it became more clear that I had actually created something that the band wanted to stand behind from an aesthetic standpoint.”
The follow-up to 2015’s II, “an impressive double album made for headbanging and the cultivation of bad vibes” (NPR Music), III keeps the focus on the live sounds of the band. It was recorded and mixed at United Recording under the sonic lordship of Steve Albini, with minimal use of overdubs and studio tricks. Albini’s mastery in capturing sound gave FUZZ the ability to focus entirely on the playing while knowing the natural sounds would land. It takes the essential ingredients of “guitar based music” and “rock and roll power trio” and puts them right out on the chopping block. It was a much more honest approach for FUZZ — three humans getting primitive, staying primitive.
A pyramid of sonic destruction and psychic creation, all shades of color, truth and lies. III is the pillar of unity and singularity. Log out, drop thought, turn up. Listen to “Returning”
FUZZ Tour Dates: Thu. Dec. 3 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom Fri. Dec. 4 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom Sat. Dec. 5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom Fri. Jan. 22 – Sat. Jan. 23 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall Mon. Jan. 25 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom Tue. Jan. 26 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre Wed. Jan. 27 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre Fri. Jan. 29 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s Sat. Jan. 30 – Felton, CA @ Felton Music Hall Thu. Feb. 4 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall Fri. Feb. 5 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom Sat. Feb. 6 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall Sun. Feb. 7 – Montreal, QC @ La Tulipe Mon. Feb. 8 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair Wed. Feb. 10 – New York, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg Thu. Feb. 11 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom Fri. Feb. 12 – Baltimore, MD @ OttoBar Sat. Feb. 13 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts Sun. Feb. 14 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre Sat. March 13 – Istanbul, TR @ Zorlu Art Center Tue. March 16 – Nimes, FR @ Paloma Wed. March 17 – Barcelona, ES @ Upload Thu. March 18 – Madrid, ES @ BUT Sat. March 20 – Bilbao, ES @ Santana 27 Mon. March 22 – Biarritz, FR @ Atabal Wed. March 24 – Paris, FR @ Trabendo Thu. March 25 – Lille, FR @ Aeronef Fri. March 26 – Köln, DE @ Gebaude 9 Sat. March 27 – Berlin, DE @ Columbian Theater Tue. March 30 – Manchester, UK @ Gorilla Wed. March 31 – London, UK @ Electric Ballroom
Keep your mind open.
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Jesse Kivel shares a new single, “Northside,” from the forthcoming album, Infinite Jess, out November 13th on his own New Feelings label. Following “woozy and widescreen” (Brooklyn Vegan) lead single “William,” “Northside” pulses with a beat that echoes My Bloody Valentine’s “Soon,” minus the gauze. It builds worlds of melody, injected with love, depth and spirit, so much so that you need to sing that chorus back as loud as you can. ‘The Northside’ Jesse refers to is the neighborhood in Santa Monica locals know as ‘North of Montana.’ It’s an enclave for rich screenwriters, directors, actors and business folks, where they can build mini Xanadus for their families and live out an impossible West Coast fantasy that probably died in 1969, but carries on in the capitalistic glory of their Teslas, manicured lawns and renovated three story minimalist box homes.
“This song is a love letter to a time when music was brand new and limitless in my mind,” says Kivel. “As a kid, my brother and I would walk from our high school to Barnes and Noble and spend hours reading Q, NME, MOJO and all the other British music magazines. Our favorite group was Oasis, and we just wanted to be the Gallaghers. This song also nods to The Smashing Pumpkins, Primal Scream and Polaris who I also deeply connected with at the time.“
Infinite Jess puts more of him — the real Jesse, as man, father, son, brother — into the open world than ever seen, or heard, before. The whole album reads like an autobiography. So evocative. So instantly transportive. The music and pitch perfect arrangements — moody, playful, atmospheric, and unpredictable — are the vehicle for time travel and producer Joey Genetti, along with an immensely talented cast of some of the most dynamic technicians and stylists in LA’s contemporary music scene — Sam Wilkes, Jeff Brodsky, and Michael David — help infuse a rich, deeply felt sense of purpose and shape to every moment.
An anti-supergroup like no other! Wolfmanhattan Project, featuring Mick Collins (The Gories, The Dirtbombs), Kid Congo Powers (Gun Club, The Cramps, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds) and Bob Bert (Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Lydia Lunch) bring you a healthy dose of dark swampy voodoo with a uniqueness and immediacy that only a combination of this magnitude could deliver.
The new video for ‘Summer Forever’, taken from their forthcoming second album Summer Forever And Ever (coming in 2021) on In The Red Records was filmed in isolation and edited and directed by filmmaker Dylan Mars Greenberg, who, among her many films and music videos, won Best Animated Film at this year’s LA Punk Film Festival for the short film, ‘The Bathtub‘, (starring Bob Bert).
Partner have shared the video for one of their most anticipated songs and a natural queer anthem “Big Gay Hands.” A live favourite from the past 3 years, Big Gay Hands is the third single, from Partner’s Never Give Up (November 20th on You’ve Changed Records) the follow up to their break-out debut album, In Search of Lost Time.
“This song is about a wild night on the town filled with queer desire. It is an important song to us because it expresses a feeling we know is shared by many. There are a lot of songs out there about women’s bodies but this is the only song we know about big gay hands. This song is dedicated to the hotties and to those who love them.” – Partner
Never Give Up is Partner’s second full-length album, following 2017’s In Search of Lost Time. In the years since their first release, the band has developed their “post classic rock” sound, leaving behind 90s rock comparisons. The new album retains elements that will be familiar to Partner fans, such as guitar solos and humorous subject matter, but with more structurally adventurous songs and abstract lyrics. They have spent the last several years on tour with drummer Simone TB, and this is evident in the looser and more confident performances captured on the album. Never Give Up was recorded by Steve Chaley at Palace Sound in the summer of 2019.
The band described the process of making the album. “In October of 2018 we found ourselves in a dark and quiet rehearsal space. We were practicing for a two person show, the first one we had played in many years. We were at a crossroads as a band, and we had no idea what the future held. All we knew was that we were going to be making music together. We weren’t sure what this music would sound like or who would be playing it with us. And then the songs started to arrive. Some of them fully formed, like the first songs we wrote. It was as much a surprise to us as anyone else when we realized we had the beginnings of our second album.”
Not all the songs came so easily. Some took over a year to complete. Some taunted the band with their elusivity. Some forced Partner to rip them apart and build them back together more than once. Never Give Up was written in rehearsal spaces, in the band’s bedrooms, in a condo, in friends’ and strangers’ houses, Air BnBs, in a cafe and on Josee’s couch and in the studio, and in the booth. “We talked. We were honest with each other and honest with ourselves. Sometimes it was a lot. And when it got to be almost too much we would repeat to each other, first as a joke and then not as a joke at all, ‘never give up’.”
Adulkt Life, made of Huggy Bear’s Chris Rowley, Male Bonding’s John Arthur Webb and Kevin Hendrick, and drummer Sonny Barrett, announce their debut album, Book Of Curses, out November 6th on What’s Your Rupture? Today, they offer two new singles, “Stevie K” and “Taking Hits,” which follows the previously-released song “County Pride.”
Huggy Bear led the UK’s answer to riot grrrl, inspired by the “seismic shock” of witnessing a Nation of Ulysses performance together and galvanized by Bikini Kill drummer Tobi Vail’s germinal riot grrrl zine “Jigsaw.” In the 25 years since Chris Rowley played with iconic Huggy Bear, starting a new band hasn’t felt right. But after John Arthur Webb (Male Bonding), who Rowley met while picking up records at a Rough Trade shop, asked if he wanted to play music together it “suddenly it felt super exciting.” Within a year, Webb and Rowley befriended drummer Sonny Barrett, who worked at a different Rough Trade location and later offered to drum in Adulkt life. The Adulkt Life lineup was finalized when Webb enlisted his best friend and longtime collaborator, Kevin Hendrick (Middex) on bass.
For Rowley, Adulkt Life “felt like it could carry the weight of all the things I would want to culturally load into a band without having to compromise any of it.” That meant these songs—ecstatic buzzsaw guitars, blown-out poetry, the improvisatory energy of torrential art-punk drumming that reveals Sonny’s free-jazz interest—should reflect the conditions of his life as an older person. In 2020, Rowley is a 55-year-old father and longtime employee of a children’s charity. “You have to create a question and interrogate yourself,” he says, and so he poses inexhaustible ones: What is it to parent in a crumbling world? What does it mean to stay political as Earth burns, to keep loving music? How best to communicate the excitement and charge of possibility from “a whole different set of paradigms?” Adulkt Life inquires but offers no easy answers, instead instigating punk’s eternal invitation to see: “Wow, I should do something—make something, start a political party, just do something rather than not do something.”
The cut-and-paste word collages Rowley once shouted in Huggy Bear are as cool and thrilling as ever on Book Of Curses—with chiseled noise hooks expertly mixed by Webb and mastered by Total Control’s Mikey Young, fitting the “cold war bubblegum” aesthetic called out in the lyrics—but charged by the high-stakes of adulthood. “Taking Hits” is a rallying cry for those unable to cry. The explosive “Stevie K” is a “mythic hero/ine song” inspired by Nation of Ulysses guitarist Steve Kroner. In the 1990s, after Rowley and the other members of Huggy Bear saw Nation of Ulysses, “You couldn’t be a band and want to be anything less than the impact that had on us […] We wanted to shake everybody up.” Adulkt Life honors these impulses. Rowley expands on “Taking Hits” and “Stevie K”:
“‘Taking Hits’…I wanted to forge a battle hymn that would corral our beat down and punch drunk living situations into something transcendent, stronger of knees and able to stare out the haters.
It’s a synesthesia yarn synthesizing smelling salts, rubbing oils, cheerleading disgust, sugar and vitriol, like if the grifters got up early and went track training in the rain/confused east coast hard-core with all the floodlights on/jaws clamped like Dan Fante.
‘Stevie K’ was recorded in starvation conditions / prison yard style under the working title ‘Nation of Ulysses ruined my life’ as in ‘where do you take that logic to a limit?’ It’s a mod / art ballad for a catcher in the rye / no friends shake up steve k mythically emerging from field recordings, in love with the ruts staring at the rude boys a scream for hope / deliverance.”
LISTEN TO “STEVIE K” AND “TAKING HITS” Other songs, ablaze, explore lawlessness, authenticity, love, redemption, like fables of radicals across time and space: us versus them, defeat and resurrection, sax squall, noise blasts, visceral empathy for the vulnerable and disenfranchised. Rowley’s apocalyptic visions just happen to appear alongside bedtime stories. On Book Of Curses, punk means never surrendering your creativity or your curiosity. LISTEN TO “COUNTY PRIDE”
Montreal-based band SUUNS, comprised of Ben Shemie, Joe Yarmush, and Liam O’Neill, announce their new FICTION EP out October 30th via Joyful Noise Recordings, and share the lead single. “PRAY” was recorded during a hot Dallas summer in 2015 with John Congleton, originally for the band’s 2016 album Hold/Still. “It didn’t make the cut, probably because we loved it so much and thought we had an even better version of it in us,” says O’Neill. “We subsequently tried to record multiple versions of this song, none of which captured the unhinged energy of this live-off-the-floor performance. Discovering this lost jam and its power felt like a reminder to keep in the moment and to trust ourselves – you just have to keep moving forward.”
SUUNS are future-oriented. New sounds, new techniques, new ways of thinking; above all, new environments are the lifeblood of the band. And true to form, here on the FICTION EP, SUUNS are exploring fresh processes as a result of their current surroundings and global circumstances.
On the FICTION EP, new sounds and sonic directions are fashioned out of old. A year-long period of limited resources and contact inspired the band to reflect on the various environments in which they’ve created music over the years: to comb through their previous sounds and creative approaches, and fuse them together with new ideas, ultimately producing a sort of future/past alchemy. The FICTION EP is as much a project of curation as it is one of creation: sifting, re-imagining, and re-framing, sometimes completely disassembling and then building from the ground up. Each song is a live-off-the-floor recording that was then taken into isolation and re-worked.
As much as the FICTION EP is a project born of introspection and reflection, it’s equally one for which SUUNS sought inspiration from outside. Longtime friend of the band Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem In My Heart), bringing relentless claps and buzuks, leads SUUNS through “BREATHE,” while Amber Webber (Lightning Dust) sings a mournful siren song on the penultimate track, “DEATH.” Finally, the ghost of Frank Zappa lends the band his fervent societal diagnosis, as relevant today as it ever was, on “TROUBLE EVERY DAY.”
Zappa’s darkly prophetic message, repurposed from 1966 to meet our moment, is an apt referent. These dualities, confluences of past and future, of introspection and influence, are what defines the FICTION EP. Produced from old remnants, it is entirely new; done in relative isolation, and is also something of a live record. The songs have been meticulously reworked, and yet the entire collection feels deployed with hardly any reflection, done in one breath. It’s the sound of SUUNS regrouping, and then poised, and then driving towards the future.
The FICTION EP is the first preview of more new music to come in 2021. Stream “PRAY”: https://youtu.be/pY56vaNYCVE
AaronFrazer, the co-lead vocalist and drummer of Durand Jones & The Indications, debuts a new single/video, “Bad News,” via Dead Oceans / Easy EyeSound. The Brooklyn-based, Baltimore-raised songwriter – who previously released music as The Flying Stars of Brooklyn, NY – possesses a unique voice that’s both contemporary and timeless, which conveys a wide emotional palate and progressive worldview in the tradition of musical masterminds like Curtis Mayfield.
Produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, “Bad News,” is a song with a message in the key of Gil Scott-Heron. Recorded in Nashville with a crew of legendary session players — including members of the MemphisBoys (who played on Dusty Springfield’s “Son of A Preacher Man” and Aretha Franklin’s “You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman”), symphony percussionist SamBacco, and several members of the Daptone/BigCrownRecords universe, Frazer shows maturation and range with his new single, melding 70s soul with Auerbach’s particular sensibilities. “Aaron is just so incredibly gifted; to be so good at drums and sing like that at the same time. It just hit so hard,” says Auerbach, who reached out to Aaron immediately after hearing The Indications’ standout, “Is It Any Wonder.”“I love falsetto singing – there’s something so vulnerable about it,” Auerbach recalls.
A soul-jazz rumination on the tumultuous state of the earth, “Bad News” reflects on the ways we choose to tune out in the face of crises like homelessness and climate change. “I wrote ‘Bad News’ last November, originally as a song about climate change – a threat that feels so big, so existential, that sometimes it’s easier for us to just look away,” says Frazer. “But today, I think it’s taken on a new meaning. It’s become a song that gives voice to the things everybody is experiencing right now: isolation, and figuring out how to get through our daily life in the face of relentless bad news.”
The accompanying video for “Bad News”, directed by Julia Barrett-Mitchell, features Frazer and dancer NicoleJavanna Johnson, who physically interprets the song’s sound, her movements compelling and unyielding as she dances throughout Red Hook, Brooklyn.
“I had this concept for the Bad News video in my head for a while,” explains Frazer. “Dance has long been a way for people to express feelings that go unheard elsewhere. When I brought on my friend, director Julia Barrett Mitchell, she immediately understood the vibe and connected me to her longtime friend and former classmate, racial justice activist Nicole Johnson. I wanted to give Nicole, who is also a musician and educator, as much space as possible to interpret the song how she felt it. Nicole’s movements rise in intensity over the course of the video to express the rising urgency of the moment.”
Rhye – the project of Michael Milosh – releases a new slinky, R&B number “Helpless,” with an accompanying video directed by his partner Genevieve Medow-Jenkins. Following the recently released “Beautiful,” which “starts with a throb of strings before cohering around a sharp beat and muscular bass line, distantly echoing solo Bryan Ferry tracks from the early Eighties” (Rolling Stone), “Helpless” focuses on love in its most intimate and romantic form. With his distinct countertenor, Milosh chronicles the desire to “write a million love songs,” not as a grand gesture but an everyday promise. His voice glides over an euphonious blend of percussion, string arrangements, and a flurry of synths and keys.
Shot around their hometown of Los Angeles, the “Helpless” video champions the creative connection between Milosh and Medow-Jenkins. It features actress Conor Leslie, dancer, director and choreographer Fatima Robinson, and Fatima’s son Xuly Williams. “The video for ‘Helpless’ evokes our earliest memories of being young and dreaming up what love and joy could look like,” says Milosh. Medow-Jenkins adds: “Creating art like this video, made with our closest friends, has been the greatest joy of our quarantine. We hope it can inspire you to dream what love and joy can look like for your life now: through friendship, family, or a perfect stranger.” Watch Rhye’s “Helpless” Video
Recently, Milosh and Diplo collaborated on “XII,” a track off of Diplo’s first ever ambient album, MMXX. Originally only available via the Calm app, the album is out everywhere now. Additionally, Milosh has been performing livestreams as part of the LA based creative community Secular Sabbath, including Corona Sabbath with Diplo, as well as morning ambient performances and a sunrise serenade with Joseph August. Secular Sabbath initially focused on live ambient music events, but has expanded with a range of offerings.
Rhye Rescheduled Tour Dates: Tue. April 6 – Dublin, IE @ Academy Wed. April 7 – London, UK @ Roundhouse Fri. April 9 – Zurich, CH @ Kaufleuten Sat. April 10 – Munich, DE @ Technikum Mon. April 12 – Warsaw, PL @ Teatr Palladium Tue. April 13 – Berlin, DE @ Astra Wed. April 14 – Hamburg, DE @ Mojo Fri. April 16 – Stockholm, SE @ Berns Sat. April 17 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega Sun. April 18 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega Tue. April 20 – Cologne, DE @ Kantine Wed. April 21 – Rotterdam, NL @ Maassilo Thu. April 22 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg Sat. April 24 – Brussels, BE @ Cirque Royale Sun. April 25 – Paris, FR @ Casino de Paris
