Greg Saunier encourages us to “Grow Like a Plant” on his upcoming debut solo album – “We Sang, Therefore We Were.”

Photo by Sophie Daws

Today drummer, composer and founding member of Deerhoof Greg Saunier has announced his debut solo LP We Sang, Therefore We Were, out April 26th, 2024 via Joyful Noise Recordings. Out today is the lead single and video “Grow Like a Plant.”

That founding took place 30 years ago today. “It was 1994 and I was playing in a grunge band in San Francisco,” says Greg. “The two guitarists were literally living with members of the Melvins. Rob Fisk, the bass player, and I had been listening to an AMM CD at home and decided we wanted to give free improv a try. So we came to practice an hour early. That was Deerhoof’s first rehearsal. An hour later our two bandmates walked through the door with the bad news: Kurt Cobain had just been found dead.”

Despite the ominous start their band, Deerhoof has gradually gone on to achieve legendary status in the ears of many, releasing 19 strange and wonderful albums in the process. And during those 30 years, Greg has produced, mixed, composed, or played on hundreds of others (Discogs has him credited on over 300 albums). So it is remarkable that this is, in fact, his very first solo record. He sings and plays all the instruments, save for a few birds who join in now and again. 

“When Satomi, Ed, John and I were chatting between shows in Austin in early December, they encouraged me to make a record on my own, as a way to cope with the restlessness I’ve been feeling,” says Greg. “It came together quick. Intrigued by the announcement that the new Rolling Stones record was going to sound ‘angry,’ I thought, ‘Good, I’m angry too.’ But when Hackney Diamonds turned out more like cotton candy than punk rock, I ironically went back to Nirvana: not just the clever melodies over massive distortion, but also that dark Cobain sarcasm which still resonates in this age of phony blue-check-washing of fascism.”

The lyrics, “on the familiar topic of interspecies absurdist operatic anti-Cartesian revolution,” are drawn from the text that spreads itself across front and back of the album cover. In this long poem Greg recasts White House spokespersons as “The Queen of the Night” fromThe Magic Flute, recasts The Queen of the Night as a mockingbird singing Mozart’s famous aria in an all-night battle for survival, and ultimately recasts the mockingbird as a campy drag artist taking pleasure in her own relentless, aggressive musicianship.

Just how relentless is Greg’s musicianship is something that even fans of his celebrated drumming may not have realized. It turns out Greg is an excellent guitarist and bassist, if a bit more rudimentary and slicing compared to his Deerhoof bandmates. He does play more angry guitar solos. We Sang, Therefore We Were’s self-production is shambling and anti-slick, the arrangements in a constant state of impatient agitation. Big-hit earwigs abound but are delivered in a delicate, whispery falsetto, tending towards three-part harmony, sometimes sounding almost like Deerhoof fronted by The Andrews Sisters. The hints of Mozartian euphony that insinuate themselves here and there finally take over in an unexpected climax at the end, the drums breaking off into a laugh-or-cry orchestral outpouring that may be the rawest part of the album.

About “Grow Like a Plant”
The album’s first single is indebted to Captain Beefheart’s “Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish,” and written in the octatonic scale made famous by Igor Stravinsky in Le Sacre de Printemps. Like all of We Sang, Therefore We Were, it is grief and anger delivered in code.

“Grow Like a Plant” “addresses that annoying quirk of the homosapien mind where it thinks it’s made of higher quality molecules than the rest of the universe,” according to Greg. “For millennia civilizations managed to temper this suicidal arrogance with ritual. Until 500 years ago, when a handful of self-appointed experts invented The Enlightenment, proposing that men can solve any problem given enough brooding and/or physical violence; that the cosmos is actually nothing but an inert blob of matter for us to buy and sell. What if this is all wrong? What if it’s humans who are really the mindless instinct-machines, competing for territory, food, and mates, and it’s the plant and animal kingdoms that secretly know how to think and have fun?”

Greg’s partner, poet Sophie Daws, is the creative director and performer of the “oner” video that accompanies “Grow Like a Plant.” “Just as the song doesn’t stay fixed (in one rhythm, one emotional register), I wanted the dance and my relationship to the camera/audience to shift constantly,” Sophie explains. “In our improvised noise project, New Mom, Greg and I often talk about shifting before any musical part has time to settle — before it registers as a ‘musical part.’ We aren’t trying to find a ‘groove’ in the sense of trying to hit one emotion or tone. Doing so would feel false. As soon as I felt myself trying to seduce the camera, a future audience, a hierarchy, I shifted focus. Sometimes the focus was inward (eyes closed). Sometimes it was outward (eye contact). Maybe sometimes it was on the joy and fun of Greg’s danceable song.”

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jake at Joyful Noise Recordings.]

Camera Obscura release “Liberty Print,” the opening track to their first album in ten years.

Photo by Robert Perry

Today, the legendary Scottish indie-pop band Camera Obscura releases the new singleLiberty Print” from their first new album in over ten years, Look to the East, Look to the West, out May 3rd on Merge Records. The group, led by guitarist and vocalist Tracyanne Campbell, have reunited with Jari Haapalainen, producer of the band’s 2006 album Let’s Get Out of This Country and 2009’s My Maudlin Career, and crafted an album that simultaneously recalls why longtime fans have ferociously loved them for decades while also being their most sophisticated effort to date. 

The opening track to the album, “Liberty Print” shows off Camera Obscura’s uncanny dexterity in juxtaposing genres, moods, and emotions. Written about Campbell’s brother who died tragically at the age of 34, the track is an elegy that breaks itself open over a crushing synth line. A daringly constructed song, “Liberty Print” showcases Campbell’s command of lyrical narrative that allows space for grief within the structure of pop music. “I like ‘Liberty Print’ because I think it’s the song that sounds most unlike anything we’ve done before,” Campbell explains. “It introduces a new direction. It sounds fresh and exciting, and it introduces Donna [Maciocia] on keys in a big way. It was important to us that if we were to have a new player, that she be allowed to make her own creative stamp on the songs.”

Listen to Camera Obscura’s “Liberty Print”

Look to the East, Look to the West was the most hard-fought album of Camera Obscura’s career. Following the 2015 passing of founding keyboardist and friend Carey Lander, the band went into an extended hiatus. They remained in contact, but their status was uncertain until they announced their return, having been invited to perform as part of Belle & Sebastian’s 2019 Boaty Weekender cruise festival, along with a pair of sold-out warm-up shows in Glasgow. Donna Maciocia (keys and vocals) joined founding members Kenny McKeeve (guitar and vocals), Gavin Dunbar (bass), and Lee Thomson (drums and percussion) for those shows and has since become a regular songwriting partner of Campbell’s. 

Recorded in the same room where Queen wrote “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Look to the East, Look to the West feels big, a widescreen reframing of Camera Obscura’s sound that, paradoxically, saw the band go back to basics—there are no string or brass arrangements, with more emphasis placed on piano, synthesizers, Hammond organ, and drum machines, and, perhaps most strikingly, the group have dropped the veil of reverb that characterized their previous albums. Look to the East, Look to the West is the sound of a band that has grown more confident in its sound and purpose than ever. It is Camera Obscura at their best and most evocative, an album that completely rearranges the listener’s emotional core, leaving them sad and exhilarated at the same time. 

Pre-order Look to the East, Look to the West

Watch Camera Obscura’s “Big Love” Video

Listen to Camera Obscura’s “We’re Going to Make It in a Man’s World”

Camera Obscura Tour Dates:

Thu. May 2 – Hebden Bridge, UK @ The Trades Club

Sat. May 4 – Leeds, UK @ Stylus

Mon. May 6 – Manchester, UK @ Academy 2

Tue. May 7 – London, UK @ Koko

Thu. May 9 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2

Fri. May 10 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy 2

Sat. May 11 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom

Wed. May 29 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer

Thu. May 30 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club

Fri. May 31 – Montreal, QC @ Theatre Fairmont

Sat. Jun. 1 – Toronto, ON @ The Concert Hall

Mon. Jun. 3 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall

Tue. Jun. 4 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line

Fri. Jun. 7 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile

Sat. Jun. 8 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall

Mon. Jun. 10 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore

Tue. Jun. 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern

Wed. Jun. 12 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom

Fri. Jun. 14 – Dallas, TX @ Studio at the Factory

Sat. Jun. 15 – Austin, TX @ Scoot Inn

Mon. Jun. 17 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety

Tue. Jun. 18 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle

Wed. Jun. 19 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club

Thu. Jun. 20 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall

Sat. Jun. 22 – Mon. Jun. 24 – Mexico City, MX @ Foro Indie Rocks!

Fri. Aug. 2 – Sat. Aug. 3 – Glasgow, UK @ The Glasgow Weekender

Thu. Aug. 29 – Sun. Sept. 1 – Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival

Fri. Aug. 30 – Cardiff, UK @ Tramshed

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Numero Group to release box set of Margo Guryan’s unreleased recordings.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Jonathan Rosner

Numero Group announce Margo Guryan’s Words and Music, a 3xLP box set compiling the work of the late singer and songwriter, out June 7th, and unveils the set’s first offering, the inquisitive and trippy “Moon Ride,” which is her first known recording (1956). Witness to revolutions in jazz and pop, Guryan earned her place in the songwriting pantheon and then some. That she was largely unknown for decades is not the stuff of crushed dreams, but a result of her own choices and priorities. From humble beginnings to the peaks of her 1968 baroque pop masterpiece Take a Picture and the collected Demosto the recent viral ubiquity of “Why Do I Cry,” Words and Music captures the entirety of Guryan’s career, including 16 previously unreleased recordings and a 32-page booklet telling her whole story. The box set is produced by her stepson Jonathan Rosner,friend and historian Geoffrey Weiss, and Numero Group’s Douglas Mcgowan,Rob Sevier,and Ken Shipley.All of the tracks have been remastered by Jessica Thompson

Listen to “Moon Ride”

Guryan released just one album in her heyday: 1968’s Take A Picture. But, as she was disinterested in performing, touring, and promoting the work, the album went barely noticed at the time. Nevertheless, by the 1990s, the recordhad become a highly sought after cult favorite. Then, a new generation of listeners came to learn about her work when Take A Picture was reissued in 2000, followed shortly by the collected Demos, an incredible compilation of unearthed alternate takes and new-to-the-public songs that Margo supervised herself. Guryan’s life in the intervening years remained filled with music; she became a music teacher, kept writing songs, and cultivated friendships with a growing circle of acolytes. 

Born in 1937 in New York City, Guryan began learning piano at age six before eventually enrolling at Boston University to study music. She spent much of her early career immersed in the jazz world, including working for Impulse! founder Creed Taylor, writing for jazz artists, and attending Lenox School of Jazz in Western Massachusetts, where she worked in an ensemble alongside fellow students Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry. Her peers were, at that very moment, exploding the consciousness of jazz. Margo, a then-recent graduate in composition, had once been told that the highest mode of education is perception. So she mostly lingered and listened. It was at Lenox where Margo became friends with her teacher, Max Roach, who in 1961 even asked Margo to pen the liner notes for his first Impulse! album. 

Her early tunes were recorded by bebop pioneer Dizzy Gillespie, bossa nova icon Astrud Gilberto, the famed South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba, and folk hero Harry Belafonte. Jazz singers Anita O’Day and Carmen McRae all released takes on her material, as did pop singer Claudine Longetand folk-rock icon Mama Cass Elliot. “Sunday Morning,” Margo’s biggest hit, was first popularized by soft-rockers Spanky & Our Gang, followed by recordings from torch singer Julie London and country royalty Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry. In 1967, Billboard called Margo “one of the most sought-after writing talents in the music business.” 

Rosner, her stepson, says, “I was introduced to Margo as a very little boy. She became my step-mom when I was three to be exact. From the moment I stepped foot into the apartment on 16th street in NYC where my dad [David Rosner] and Margo lived, I saw Margo in action – writing songs,  the songs that would become the “Demos” – and playing Bach – rinse and repeat. At first, this was on a Wurlitzer, and then on a Blüthner. I was there to watch “The Hum” and “Timothy Gone” take shape, and she’d play me (on record and on the pianos) songs she’d written earlier. I loved them, and they were part of my life as a young person. But this music was almost like a family secret never to see the light of day – until it finally did. It’s hard to express how wonderful it is – and was to Margo – to see people embrace these songs – sing and play these songs and celebrate her body of work.” 

The story of Margo Guryan is one of a woman who dug deep from an early age and was never afraid to change. With her keen feel for tone, phrasings, tension, presence, and lyrics that cut, her name today is synonymous with sophisticated songcraft and inimitable 1960s cool.Her ingenuity and technique set her in the tradition of chamber-pop icons like Brian Wilson and Burt Bacharach while the bittersweet candor in her depictions of womanhood suggest a middleground between Carole King’s pop-factory and singer-songwriter eras. But the understated rigor of Margo’s artistic voice is all her own. 

There will also be a limited-edition variant of the box set that comes with a bonus 10″ of Margo’s Chopsticks Variations. This will be the first-ever vinyl pressing of that release.

Pre-order Words and Music

Words and Music Tracklist:
Side A
1. If I Lose (1956)
2. You Promised (1957)
3. The Wise Man Knows (1956)
4. The Morning Aer (1958)
5. Moon Ride (1956)
6. More Understanding Than a Man (1957)
7. More Understanding Than a Man (Instrumental) (1957)
8. There I Was (1957)
 
Side B
1. Kiss and Tell (1966)
2. Half-Way In Love (1966)
3. Goodbye July (1966)
4. Four Letter Words (1966)
5. Hurry on Home (1966)
6. I Ought to Stay Away From You (1966)
7. I Love (1967)
8. Under My Umbrella (1968)
9. I Don’t Intend to Spend Christmas Without You (1967)
 
Side C
1. Sunday Morning (1967)
2. Thoughts (1968)
3. Love Songs (1967)
4. Don’t Go Away (1967)
5. Take a Picture (1968)
6. Sun (1968)
7. What Can I Give You (1968)
8. Come to Me Slowly (1968)
 
Side D
1. The 8:17 Northbound Success Merry-Go-Round (1968)
2. Something’s Wrong with the Morning (1970)
3. Think of Rain (1967)
4. Can You Tell (1968)
5. Someone I Know (1968)
6. Love (1968)
 
Side E
1. Why Do I Cry (1968)
2. Spanky and Our Gang (1968)
3. Most of My Life (1971)
4. It’s Alright Now (1971)
5. Timothy Gone (1972)
6. The Hum (1974)
7. Please Believe Me (1974)
8. Yes I Am (1974)
 
Side F
1. I Think A lot About You (1972)
2. Iʼ’d Like to See the Bad Guys Win (1973)
3. Values (1974)
4. California Shake (1975)
5. Hold Me Dancin’ (1978)
6. Shine (1975)
7. Goodbye July (1966, recorded 2001)

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Yuri at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Rewind Review: Failure – Wild Type Droid (2021)

Failure have long been fascinated with science fiction and how we’ll be living in the future (especially the one that’s already here). Their last full-length album, Wild Type Droid, refers to how we humans will be looked upon as wild types of androids and cyborgs in years to come. Robotics, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, space exploration, and, yes, music eventually will be so far advanced that what we have now will seem like it was created by people living on primitive plains.

“If everything’s true, then nothing is real. If nothing is true, then everything’s real,’ Ken Andrews sings on the album’s opener – “Water with Hands.” Right away, they start with a song that creates a sound only Failure seem capable of making: a combination of shoegaze, space rock, prog, and something indefinable that alters your perception. It’s not really psychedelia. It’s almost something alien.

Then along comes “Headstand” to lift you from the ground (“The simulation’s about to meet its maker.”). I can’t determine which causes more transcendence, Andrews’ bass, Greg Edwards‘ zero-gravity guitar work, or Kellii Scott‘s afterburner drumming. “A Lifetime of Joy” is almost a classic Failure “Segue” that bursts into another display of Scott’s excellent drumming on “Submarines” – a song about Andrews processing the COVID-19 pandemic (“I was so innocent before the plague…Can’t live in submarines forever.”) that crushes live.

“Bring Back the Sound” starts slow and a bit quiet, but it slowly builds the tension and fuzz around Andrews’ excellent vocal track on it. “Mercury Mouth” has Andrews angry at someone (possibly Donald Trump?) for distorting the truth and refusing to accept further deception (“You are a liar. Shut your mouth. There’s nothing silver about your tongue.”). The band crushes it, with Scott dropping some of his biggest fills on the album in it.

“Still undecided on the flight back from Seoul,” Andrew sings in the beginning of “Undecided,” instantly dropping us into a mystery. Why is he uncertain? And about what? It seems to be about a relationship, but not necessarily a romantic or sexual one – more one with himself and his relationship with the world, the rat race, and reconnecting with nature.

“Long Division” is the longest track on the album (five minutes-eleven seconds) and gets trippy the entire time. “We are hallucinations,” they sing on “Bad Translation.” This became the title of their live album and concert film, and it’s a concept Failure love to explore – Who are we, really? Where does technology end and humanity begin (or vice-versa)? “You cannot trust your senses,” they sing, “but you can let them go.” We don’t have to be inexorably linked to technology that only separates us. We can embrace what’s here and now.

The album closes with Edwards singing lead on the mostly acoustic “Half Moon.” It sounds melancholy at times and uplifting at others, distant at times and warm and fuzzy in certain moments.

The whole album is like that – bringing the coldness of space and loneliness and mixing it with the warmth of the sun and the strength found in presence and mindfulness. It’s cosmic and grounded, roaring and whispering, bright and dark.

Keep your mind open.

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Live: Orbital, Tone Ranger, and Greg Haus – Radius, Chicago, IL – March 23, 2024

If you were lucky enough to catch them, rave legends Orbital are doing a limited tour throughout the U.S.: New York, Chicago, Miami, and two sets at this year’s Coachella Festival. That’s it. Somehow, the Chicago show wasn’t sold out (and was stunningly affordable), and I scored two tickets to see the lads.

Up first was a pretty cool DJ named Greg Haus, who put on a good set to get the crowd to the spacious floor and moving.

Haus spun for about an hour, and he was followed by Tone Ranger – who walked to the decks with a guitar over one shoulder. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, and it turned out to be a mix of house, ambient, and spaghetti western music. “I’m all in,” I told my girlfriend.

Orbital had a good, fun crowd by the time they came on stage. Opening with “Smiley” and moving onto hot tracks like “Where Is It Going?” and newer stuff like “Dirty Rat” featuring Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods.

“Satan” was an unexpected deep cut, “Halcyon On and On” was another great classic cut, and the whole crowd was jumping and moving by this point. The crowd, by the way, was a fun mix of people in their 20’s, partying Latinas, goths, senior citizens, and old school ravers like yours truly.

“Spicy,” with its Spice Girls samples, was a big hit, “Chime” was lovely live, and the encore, “Lush” was mind-altering.

It was a beautiful show that felt like a vintage 1990s rave. Seriously, it was like stepping out of a time machine and into a moment when everyone still loved each other and believed good times and an amazing future were still ahead.

I don’t know if you’re planning on going to Coachella this year, but don’t miss Orbital on either weekend if you’re there.

Keep your mind open.

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Blushing present another luscious single, “Seafoam,” ahead of new album due May 03rd.

Photo Credit: Meghan Bass

Blushing — the Austin, TX-based dream pop band consisting of the double husband and wife pairs of Christina and Noe Carmona and Michelle and Jacob Soto — present a new single/video, “Seafoam,” from their forthcoming album, Sugarcoat, out May 3rd via Kanine. Following lead single “Tamagotchi,” “Seafoam” is an intoxicating blend of post-punk, dark dream pop and nineties riot grrrl. It features former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder, who was able to record lead guitar during some down time while on tour with Smashing Pumpkins. His guitar is laser focused over a brooding bass line and sweet then scalding vocals, as Christina sings of the anger that comes with a dwindling romance. “While chatting after a Smashing Pumpkins concert one night, we made a joke about Jeff playing lead guitar on the next album,” says the band. “A few years later when Sugarcoat was being recorded we decided to see if Jeff would be interested in making the suggestion a reality. He enthusiastically accepted and later sent over a guitar track that flowed perfectly with ‘Seafoam.’”

 
Watch Blushing’s Video for “Seafoam”
 

Sugarcoat is the follow-up to two EPs, 2017’s Tether and 2018’s Weak, their self-titled debut, and 2022’s Possessions. They didn’t want to create an album where each song was made to fit into the same mold. Instead, they decided to run with each idea no matter which direction it was facing, resulting in an album that is somewhat of a sampler of the group’s collective influences. While there are certainly tracks immediately recognizable as “Blushing” songs, this album is where the band get to explore their love for expanding genres, from post-punk, psych-gaze, grunge-pop, indie-pop, slowcore, and beyond. Lyrically the album asks many questions, reaching out for someone to provide answers or for the answers to come from within. There is a lot of uncertainty in the world as well as personally. Getting older, questioning past decisions, and the constant unknown of the future.
 
On Sugarcoat, Blushing’s dynamism is on full display, flitting effortlessly from spacey psychedelia to twee pop jangle with finesse and panache. Having enlisted Elliot Frazier (Ringo Deathstarr) and Mark Gardener (Ride) for engineering, mixing, and mastering duties, Sugarcoat is a dense, reverb-laden exploration of alt-rock’s 40 year history that conjures up concord from chaos.
 
This summer, they’ll support Slater and Airiel across North America, along with headline dates in Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and more. Following, they’ll head over to the UK to play shows with Ringo Deathstarr. All dates can be found below. 

 
Watch Blushing’s Video for “Tamagotchi”
 
Pre-order Sugarcoat
 
Blushing Tour Dates (new dates in bold)
Thu. May 2 – Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas (album release show)
Wed. May 15 – San Antonio, TX @ Vibes Underground *
Thu. May 16 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada *
Sat. May 18 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall *
Sun. May 19 – McAllen, TX @ The Gremlin *
Fri. June 14 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Resonant Head
Sat. June 15 – Fayetteville, AR @ George’s Majestic Lounge
Sun. June 16 – Nashville, TN @ 5 spot
Tue. June 18 – Washington, DC @ Pie Shop %
Wed. June 19 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s %
Thu. June 20 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right %
Fri. June 21 – Boston, MA @ Deep Cuts %
Sat. June 22 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground %
Sun. June 23 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz %
Mon. June 24 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison %
Wed. June 26 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr Smalls Funhouse %
Thu. June 27 – Detroit, MI @ Small’s %
Fri. June 28 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland
Sat. June 29 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas
Mon. July 1 – Denver, CO @ Skylark Lounge
Wed. July 3 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
Thu. July 4 – Portland, OR @ The Six
Fri. July 5 – San Francisco, CA @ Kilowatt
Sat. July 6 – Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan Lounge
Sun. July 7 – Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge
Mon. July 8 – El Paso, TX @ Rosewood
Sun. Sept. 1 – Cambridge, UK @ Portland Arms ^
Mon. Sept. 2 – Birmingham, UK @ Academy 3 ^
Tue. Sept. 3 – Leeds, UK @ Old Woollen ^
Wed. Sept. 4 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo ^
Thu. Sept. 5 – Manchester, UK @ The Deaf Institute ^
Fri. Sept. 6 – London, UK @ O2 Academy Islington ^
Sat. Sept. 7 – Brighton, UK @ Dust ^

 
* = w/ Slater
%= w/ Airiel
^= w/ Ringo Deathstarr

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Chicago post-hardcore wackos Lollygagger, believe it or not, to release an introspective song about religion on April 12th.

Chicago’s Lollygagger are releasing a new single, “Found in the Dirt,” on April 12, 2024, which they describe as “an anti- and pro-religion song in the tradition of early Black Sabbath.”

The song has plenty of punk rage vocals from singer / guitarist Matt Muffin, heavy bass riffs from Kinsey Ring, frenetic drumming from Michael Sunnyicide , and, yes, introspective lyrics on mortality, the afterlife, and using religion to find peace instead of getting tied up in dogma and using it to push one’s personal or political agenda.

I think. I mean, it’s hard to pay attention to the lyrics when Lollygagger just shred for over three and a half minutes.

They’re having a release party for the single at Chicago’s Liar’s Club with Boybrain and AWEFUL along for the ride. Be there or be square!

Keep your mind open.

[Quit lollygagging and subscribe!]

[Thanks to Matt from Lollygagger!]

Brijean are “Workin’ on It” with their new single and upcoming album and tour.

Photo by Swanson Studio

Today, Brijean, the project of percussionist/singer-songwriter Brijean Murphy — the percussive heartbeat for live bands like Mitski, Poolside, and Toro y Moi — and multi-instrumentalist/producer Doug Stuart announce their new album Macro, out July 12th via Ghostly International, and share its lead single/visualizer Workin’ On It.”  “Workin’ On It” finds Brijean at their lightest and free. The track initially started as a living room jam then “Doug played the two-layered basslines over a loop of bongos, congas and a drum machine and the rest felt like it happened in a dream,” explains Murphy.  While working late into the night and struggling with insomnia, she improvised her sleep-deprived lines, riffing on self-improvement and modern times, half-serious at first but something clicked in those small hours. Later she asked fans to send voice memos in exchange for art, and some of those got peppered into the soundbed. “That was a treat… Just getting to go through and hear all of these voices from around the world, an intimate and charming experience.” The track’s visualizer, directed by Bijan Berahimi, sees jump cuts of still photographs of the duo in tracksuits, complimenting the playful energy of the song.

Watch the Visualizer For “Workin’ On It”

Since their debut in 2019, Brijean has moved with ingenuity, fusing psych-pop abstraction with dancefloor sensibilities. Through the body and mind, rhythm and lyricism, they make sense of the worlds around and within; 2021’s Feelings celebrated self-reflection; 2022’s Angelo processed loss, coinciding with the duo’s first headlining tour, which doubled down on the material’s desire to move. Now, across the playful expanse of Macro, Brijean engages different sides of themselves, the paradox of being alive. They’ve leveled up to meet the complexities and harmonies of the human experience with their most dynamic songwriting yet. Colorful, collaborative, sophisticated, and deeply fun, the album animates a macrocosm with characters, moods, and points of view rooted in the notion that no feeling is final and the only way out is through.

Macro’s sequencing elicits an exploratory vibe with high-tempo peaks and breezy valleys in the psyche; astral drifts like “Euphoric Avenue” and “Roxy,” brush up against propulsive pop numbers like “Bang Bang Boom” and the breakbeat-bursts of “Breathe.” Brijean sees the record’s vast sonic spectrum in contrast to the expectations for their output — “we’re supposed to know the box that our art fits in, and then fully commit to it existing within that box,” adds Stuart. Take the closing pair of “Rollercoaster” and “Laura”; one a thrilling roller-disco anthem and the other a parade of heartfelt, flute-heavy indie-pop. Both are signature Brijean and offer an appropriate send-off; love, family, fantasy, pleasure, pain… the intention of Macro is not just to move through the ups and downs but to feel it all.

Pre-order Macro

Macro Tracklist

01. Get Lost

02. Euphoric Avenue

03. Bang Bang Boom

04. After Life

05. Roxy Mountain

06. Breathe

07. Counting

08. Counting Sheep

09. Workin’ On It

10. Scenic Route

11. Roller Coaster

12. Laura

Brijean Tour Dates

Fri. Jul. 12 – Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village

Sat. Jul. 13 –  Detroit, MI @ El Club

Sun. Jul. 14 Toronto, ON Velvet Underground

Wed. Jul. 17 – Washington, DC @ Atlantis

Thu. Jul. 18 – New York, NY @ MHOW

Sat. Jul. 20 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s

Mon. Jul. 22 – Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle

Tue. Jul. 23 – Atlanta, GA @ Vinyl

Thu. Jul. 25 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall (Upstairs)

Fri. Jul. 26 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada

Sat. Jul. 27 – Austin, TX @ ACL Live at 3TEN

Fri. Aug. 2 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent

Sun. Aug. 4 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios

Tue. Aug. 6 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret

Wed. Aug. 7 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos

Fri. Aug. 9 – Boise, ID @ Neurolux

Sat. Aug. 10 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court

Mon. Aug. 12 – Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge

Thu. Aug. 15 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar

Fri. Aug. 16 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Rewind Review: King Buffalo – Acheron (2021)

At first glance, you might think King Buffalo‘s Acheron is an EP. It only has four track on it, after all. Then you realize that the four tracks average about ten minutes each, making the album a full cosmic experience. Plus, the whole thing was recorded live in Howe Caverns in New York, giving the album a deeper feel of heaviness and heat.

The title track opens with blazing guitar work from Sean McVay that, as you can imagine, ignites the entire cavern system and probably awakened ancient mystics living in its deepest recesses. “Zephyr,” a song that seems to be about embracing a future that’s already here instead of dwelling on a past that was gone the moment it happened, soars about the cavern and your ears, like a bat gliding over a mountain stream.

“Shadows” is a gorgeous track elevated by Dan Reynolds synthesizer solo setting up McVay’s stalagmite-shaking guitar solo. It must’ve been deafening in that cavern when he played it. The closing track, “Cerberus,” is the crown jewel of the album, hitting hard in all the right spots and altering your mind-space in the others. Reynolds’ bass work is subtle yet stunning, and Scott Donaldson‘s drum work is so nimble that you can barely keep track of the number of fills he fits into one song.

It’s another fine piece in their excellent discography. King Buffalo doesn’t miss. Ever.

Keep your mind open.

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