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Category: Shoegaze
The Raveonettes to release full “anti-album” – “2016 Atomized.”
Last year the Raveonettes decided to create a “anti-album” by composing and releasing a new track digitally every month. These tracks have now been compiled into their new record – 2016 Atomized. It will be available April 21st for the first time as a complete collection.
A lot of the tracks on the record have a strong synth / electro feel instead of the psychedelic fuzz you’re used to on a Raveonettes records, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s good to hear them stretching out.
Keep your mind open.
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Flasher share upcoming shoegazey single.
FLASHER SHARE NEW SONG, “BURN BLUE,” OFF UPCOMING 7″
“WINNIE” B/W “BURN BLUE” OUT 5/5 ON SISTER POLYGON
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Slowdive’s first album in 22 years due out May 5th.
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Failure – Fantastic Planet: The Live Album
In 2016, rock legends Failure (Ken Andrews – guitar, bass, lead vocals, Greg Edwards – bass, guitar, synths, vocals, Kellii Scott – drums) played their masterpiece album, Fantastic Planet, on a 20th anniversary tour across the U.S. Sadly, I couldn’t make it to any of the shows, but getting a live album of one of the stops on the tour is a nice way to hear one of the best records of the 1990’s.
The album starts with the clockwork sounds (and sorrowful guitar) of “Saturday Savior.” The band immediately sounds like they haven’t lost a thing in 20 years. I instantly regretted having to work a full-time job upon hearing this, because work kept me from making one of the stops of this tour. “Sergeant Politeness” is one of the biggest rockers on Fantastic Planet, and this version is nothing short of a kick in the teeth.
The live album even includes the three instrumental segues between tracks. Failure wasn’t kidding when they said they’d play the album in its entirety. The first bridges the gap between “Sergeant Politeness” and “Smoking Umbrellas” – which has some of the biggest chorus vocals on the record. Andrews makes sure people out in the concession stand can hear him. “Pillowhead” has Scott going as wonderfully nuts on it as he did in 1996.
“Blank” is a beautiful piece of shoegaze that feels like a warm bath after a sprint workout from the previous two tracks. “Dirty Blue Balloons” is one of the many songs on the record about drugs (which were a large part of the band’s life back in 1996), and its heavy-hitting chorus makes it like the greatest Pixies track they never recorded. Edwards’ guitar solo on it is great.
“Solaris” is a bit of a mind trip, and almost sounds like a Yes track. “Pitiful” is another one of the rockers on the album. The chorus hits you like a left hook you didn’t see coming. “Leo,” which I’m fairly certain is about a guy freaking out after coming down from a high, is just as good as it was in 1996. It sounds just like when I saw them in 1997. “The Nurse Who Loved Me,” another song about dealing with drug addiction, is a crowd favorite and was one of their biggest hits (even the guys in Tool hold this song in reverence). The electric piano supporting the crowd’s vocals is great and the song builds to an uplifting power.
Failure is sometimes described as a “space rock” band, and “Another Space Song” is a good example of why that’s the case. It’s the sound of a derelict alien craft in orbit around the moon. It’s trippy, creepy, and one of the best tracks on the album. This song alone should’ve made Failure an even bigger success.
“Stuck on You” is Failure’s biggest hit without question, and it’s not hard to believe it once you hear it. It was the song that introduced me to them and made me drag my two friends to their 1997 Lollapalooza set. It’s a powerful song (about heroin, no less) with a chorus that bursts like a sunrise over a mountain and yet hits as heavy as many grunge classics from the same time.
It flows well into “Heliotropic,” which takes us back to outer space with Andrews’ heavy bass, Edwards’ great solo, and Scott’s third stage-rocket drumming. The album ends with “Daylight,” which itself starts with the clockwork sounds we hear at the beginning of the album. It’s a snake eating its tail. It’s hypnotic and dire (and, yes, about the lull of heroin). Andrews’ voice is slightly distorted and sounds slightly out of the room…until the chorus explodes and nearly knocks you out of your chair.
I, like most of us, had no idea the band was going through such a rough stretch when Fantastic Planet was made and released. We’re lucky none of them overdosed or gave up music. We’re lucky the record was released at all, considering their label at the time was put up for sale before Fantastic Planet was released. We’re lucky to have this live recording and, hopefully, new material from them in the future. It’s time to find this classic if you missed it in 1996.
Keep your mind open.
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VIVA PHX artist spotlight: Temples
British psych-rock four-piece Temples have a new album, Volcano, and are currently taking the U.S. by storm on their latest tour. Their last album, Sun Structures, is a lovely piece of psychedelia. I caught them at Levitation Austin a few years ago and was surprised by how heavy their set was. Seeing them at VIVA PHX will be my first time seeing them in a small venue, so I’m keen on hearing that surprising sound up close and personal.
Keep your mind open.
Ancient River – O.D.D.S. II
Psych-rock duo Ancient River (James Barreto – guitar and vocals, Alex Cordova – drums and synths) moved to Austin, Texas last year to fully embrace the psychedelic music scene there and the weird creative vibe of the place has led them to explore multiple music genres and play whatever they feel like playing. That freedom gives us O.D.D.S. II, a new album that collects tracks that don’t fit into one category.
The opener, “Welcome to the Underground,” is psychedelic guitars mixed with tribal drums and ghost-voice synths. “As I Am” is a wall-flattening rocker with Barreto and Cordova going for broke on their respective instruments, and Barreto not really giving a damn if you understand the lyrics.
“You Are They Light” is a groovy mix of hippie-psych and swirling shoegaze. It sounds like something the Beatles might’ve done on Rubber Soul if they’d eaten peyote before recording the album. They cut loose again on the appropriately named “Playground.” The guitars are as soaring as a kid on a swing and the drums are as bonkers as another kid on a merry-go-round.
“Let’s Open the Sky” is the track that is probably the closest to “classic” Ancient River (if you’ve heard all their material). It’s Barreto’s space-rock guitars and heavily reverbed vocals and Cordova’s Joy Division-influenced drumming assaulting you with walls of sound that come at you in all directions. I can’t wait to hear this one live. “Eleven” is a near chill-out instrumental, whereas “Russian Surf Party” is an instrumental for a movie score featuring hot Russian femme fatale vampires who spend their nights at the beach.
“Time for Giving” soars around your speakers like a comet and reminds me of some of Matthew Sweet’s early 1990’s work. “My Sonic Temple” refers to, I’m guessing, Barreto’s mind. It’s a wild ride of rolling cymbals and desert wind guitars and is probably the soundtrack to Ancient River’s recording sessions, let alone their walk down to the coffee shop.
Despite its name, “Last Song” isn’t the last song on the record. That is saved for “Star Boy.” “Last Song” is a slowly building mind trip that reminds me of sitting atop mountains in Tucson while a dust devil twirls miles away in the distance. “Star Boy” builds in a similar manner and sounds like something that was playing on Frank’s headset as he was floating away from the Discovery 1 in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
O.D.D.S. II is a good collection of psych-rock, space rock, and shoegaze that lets Ancient River stretch their muscles and cut loose. Get odd. You need to cut loose now and then.
Keep your mind open.
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Slowdive announces North American tour for May 2017.
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True Widow – Avvolgere
I had to research what the title of True Widow’s album Avvolgere means. It’s an Italian term that means to wrap up or wind around something. It’s appropriate, because this album wraps around your mind with a lot of good, dark shoegaze that changes the feel of the air around you.
“Back Shredder” starts the album, and I wonder if the song is about self-flagellation or being under the whip of a demanding boss, Dom / Domme, or both. The guitar is as heavy as the steps of a high-heeled boot into a dungeon, and the vocals sound like they were recorded in such a place. It’s a solid start. “Theurgist” refers to someone who practices theurgy (ritualistic magic with the intent of invoking gods to improve oneself). The bass is something that would make Peter Hook proud, and the vocals seem to indicate that the singer is trying to bring back an ex-lover more than invoke a god (or are they one and the same?).
Next is the cryptically titled “F.W.T.S.: L.T.M.” It’s pure shoegaze, with slow cymbal-driven beats and distorted riffs that carry the vocals like a leaf on a river that might turn into raging rapids at any moment. I’ve read that True Widow refers to their music as “stonergaze,” and that description is apt for “The Trapper and the Trapped.” Male and female vocals bounce off each other as the bass hits like a blunt axe and the drums pound out a funeral dirge.
“O.O.T.P.V.” is another cryptic title, but don’t worry about it because good heavens is this song fantastic. The way the guitars chug along and then break open the chorus (“I try to run away, but I can’t seem to run. There’s something in the way, and I’m too scared to look.” – An anthem for all of us trying to escape reality at one time or another.) will make you stop and pay attention. “Entheogen” is a term for any plant-based chemical substance you ingest to induce an altered state of consciousness for religious purposes. The title explains the sweat lodge-like sound of the guitar (which isn’t much different from some spaghetti western scores) and the mysterious lyrics. The sweat lodge drums come out in “To All That He Elong,” which is nothing but drums, acoustic guitar, and sad vocals. “Sante” (French for “health”) is has more heavy guitar and bass that reminds me of Hum tracks if Hum had a female lead singer. “Grey Erasure” reminds me of early Jesus and Mary Chain, and the closer, “What Finds Me,” is six minutes of heavy shoegaze mixed with a bit of doom rock sludge.
“Stonergaze” might be my new favorite musical genre, and I have True Widow to thank for introducing me to it. If you’re in the right mood, this is the album for you. If you’re not in the right mood, this album might put you there.
Keep your mind open.
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Dayluta Means Kindness – When You’re Young You’re Invincible
Texas psych / prog-rockers Dayluta Means Kindness have returned with another album of mind-altering instrumental cosmic rock – When You’re Young You’re Invincible.
After a brief, feedback-looped “Intro,” the band bursts forward with “Warzawa.” It’s loud, bright, and shimmering with layers upon layers of guitars before it drifts into a bass solo that reminds me of light rain before the whole thing launches like an eagle launching itself off a mountain peak.
The title track starts off with dreamy guitars that are the sounds your brain thinks it’s hearing when you see the sun reflected off a rippling lake. It blooms at about the 4:00 mark into a song that evokes the bravery of a kid jumping off a tire swing into that rippling lake for the first time.
After a brief “Segue,” DMK treats us to over ten minutes of dreamscape music on “Fort Lebanon.” It grows into something like a rolling thunderstorm across a meadow on a summer day. “Young Savagery and General Debauchery” could be, thematically, a companion piece to the title track. It doesn’t have a savage or debauched opening. It’s almost idyllic. Perhaps DMK is trying to tell the generation coming up behind them that cockiness, base pleasures, and ego are all fleeting things that hold us back from tranquility. The song transforms into a stunning piece of heavy prog-rock that never loses its shoegaze influences.
There’s an “Outro” that leaves us with a bit of a somber note, like we’re waking up from a cryptic dream. The whole record brings dreams to mind – dreams of the future and the past, mainly. It’s a dream worth having and worth exploring.
Keep your mind open.
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