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Fat Hot – Self-titled
Garage rockers Jonathan Kahler and Gamble Scrantom make up the duo Fat Hot, and their self-titled album (currently only available on cassette or as a download, no less) is a fun, snarky, fuzzy treat.
Opening with “Boatman Love Song,” the album gets a rough surf rock sound going before unleashing reverbed vocals about found and lost love. “Ghost Drugs” is a fun little tune that seems to be about a spirit hoping to get some spirits from a young woman. The catchy “Bad Drink” continues the theme of substances that alter one’s state of mind as they sing about searching for a bad drink while lamenting the loss of a shoe.
“Krakken Me Up” returns to the earlier nautical theme and continues the Flat Duo Jets-like wall of blues rock Fat Hot seems to have mastered early in their career. “Sweet” is a slow burn about a one-night stand that might end up in danger, disaster, or both. It unloads around the 2:15 mark with a surprising fury before going back to a simmer for a little while. “Sour” is the longest track on the album, coming it at nearly six minutes, and it’s full of scorching guitar and drum fills that mix stoner metal with psychedelia.
“Harpy Woman” is the second reference to a mythological monster, and the seventh time Fat Hot unleashes blistering riffs and beats. “Shudder” brings up a common theme in blues-garage-psych-psychobilly tracks – the Devil. It’s a toe-tapper of a tune about impending death. The album ends with another salute to being a sad drunk – “Rye Smile.” The guitar work on it is deceptively tricky and the drum work switches on a dime at any given moment.
This is a fun record, and a pleasant discovery for me. It will be for you, too.
Keep your mind open.
[It would be phat and hot if you subscribed.]
Neko Case’s new single, “Hell-On,” is (as you would expect) wonderful.
One of the best singer-songwriters of our time, Neko Case, has unveiled the first single and title track from her upcoming album, Hell-On. It’s a lovely, haunting, and slightly quirky track highlighted by a cello backing Case’s distinctive voice and witty lyrics.
Hell-On is available for pre-order and is set for release on June 01, 2018. She’s also embarking on a U.S. tour with Ray Lamontagne beginning May 27th and ending July 10th.
This will surely be one of the best records of the year. Ms. Case always delivers.
Keep your mind open.
[Subscribe and updates will come to your updates faster than hell on wheels.]
All Them Witches – Lost and Found
In case you need some good news, Nashville psych / blues rockers All Them Witches have released a free EP available for download.
It’s four tracks of more haunting songs from the band. The opener, “Hares on the Mountain,” is an old English love song that practically summons the ghosts of dead soldiers from their unmarked graves with Allan Van Cleave‘s slightly menacing organ and Ben McLeod‘s drones and Celtic ghost guitar work. “Before the Beginning” is a slick Fleetwood Mac cover, and “Call Me Star” (from their excellent album Dying Surfer Meets His Maker) is a lovely display of Michael Parks‘ old soul / weary traveler vocals as his acoustic guitar and McLeod’s sparse psychedelic chords back him.
I love that the EP ends with a dub track (Yes, a dub track) – “Dub Passageways.” It gives drummer Robby Staebler a chance to cut loose with some wicked chops. It’s a dub version of “Open Passageways” (also from Dying Surfer Meets His Maker) and a nice look into another musical style that’s influenced All Them Witches.
Keep your mind open.
[Subscribe and I’ll haunt your e-mail inbox.]
Ladytron offers great PledgeMusic perks for their first album in seven years.
Electro / shoegaze quartet Ladytron are set to release their first album in seven years. The as yet untitled album will be out later this year, but the current single, “The Animals,” is already available.
Ladytron have started a PledgeMusic campaign for the album to celebrate the new album’s upcoming release, and it has some great perks. A CD of the new album signed by the band is just $25.00. There are big bundles of signed music and merchandise, handwritten lyric sheets, colored vinyl copies of the album, and you can even get your name listed in the album credits. Each pledge level comes with a digital download of the full album and an immediate download of “The Animals” and a remix of the track.
Get this stuff while you can.
Keep your mind open.
[I’ll be as happy as a puppy if you subscribe.]
Pitchfork Music Festival announces second round of 2018 lineup artists.
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Burger Boogaloo announces great lineup for 2018 festival.
BURGER BOOGALOO ANNOUNCES 2018 LINEUP
DEVO, THE DAMNED, LE SHOK, MUDHONEY, TRADITIONAL FOOLS, THE MUMMIES, JOHN WATERS, & MORE
JUNE 30TH & JULY 1ST IN OAKLAND’S MOSSWOOD PARK
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A Place to Bury Strangers unleash second single, “There’s Only One of Us,” from upcoming album – “Pinned.”
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DJ Koze’s new album is out May 4th, but you can hear “Illumination” from it now.
DJ Koze Shares New Single “Illumination” feat. Róisín Murphy
https://soundcloud.com/
https://soundcloud.com/
[Photo by Gepa Hinrichsen]
DJ Koze returns with his second single from knock knock, his forthcoming album on Pampa Records. “Illumination” follows the previously released “Seeing Aliens” and is the first knock knock track Koze has shared featuring vocals. The ever-unique Róisín Murphy becomes a cyborg funk diva on “Illumination.” “Working on a song together with Roísín is even better than not working at all,” says Koze. Listen below.
Listen to DJ Koze’s “Illumination” feat. Róisín Murphy:
https://soundcloud.com/
https://soundcloud.com/
Like all DJ Koze records, knock knock exists outside of trend and influence. In fact, knock knock is a step further beyond: absolutely every single thing here, from grooves to voices to handclaps, is otherworldly and unique. Which is not to say it is utter alien abstraction. There is still disco, there is still soul, there is still techno, there is still hip hop, there is still psychedelia – there are even wafts of easy listening, lost crackly thrift store record memories and indie rock – but though it may sound familiar, it never does what your brain thinks it’s going to do.And that’s what is crucial here. Koze is a world-maker. You don’t get to choose how you hear his music – you enter his world or you don’t, that’s it. And that’s why individual influences, whether it’s the trippy German techno that’s always rippled through his albums or the beat-scene abstract hip hop that he incorporated into his DJ-Kicks mix in 2015, are all but irrelevant. Though he’d never compare himself to anyone else, Koze only makes sense in the way that other world-builders do, from Bowie to Sun Ra, Outkast to Kate Bush. And Knock Knock is far and away his greatest statement of that. It’s an album that came together slowly and steadily, his working processes arcane and mysterious in their steady accumulation of sound and inspiration. It’s so complete and bursting with detail and consistency from every microsecond that you’d swear it was meticulously planned (but there was no master plan) to create a definitive artifact: the record itself decided when it was ready. And now it is ready, the most perfectly constructed portal into that other world, you had better be ready too!
Listen:
“Illumination” feat. Róisín Murphy – https://soundcloud.com/
“Seeing Aliens” – https://soundcloud.com/
“Illumination” feat. Róisín Murphy – https://soundcloud.com/
“Seeing Aliens” – https://soundcloud.com/
knock knock artwork
Pre-order knock knock:
http://www.pamparecords.com/
*Very Limited Box Edition availableDJ Koze Online:
https://www.facebook.com/
http://www.pamparecords.com/
https://soundcloud.com/
http://www.pamparecords.com/
*Very Limited Box Edition availableDJ Koze Online:
https://www.facebook.com/
http://www.pamparecords.com/
https://soundcloud.com/
Keep your mind open.
[Subscribe. It’ll be illuminating.]
Shopping U.S. tour is underway, and they’re celebrating by releasing a new single – “Suddenly Gone.”
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