Alt rock – Page 3 – 7th Level Music

Zooey Celeste shares the title track from his upcoming album – “Restless Thoughts.”

Today, Southern California-bred musician Zooey Celeste signs to ATO Records, announces his debut album, Restless Thoughts, out November 3rd, and presents the lead single/title track. Produced and recorded by acclaimed artist Nick Hakim at his Brooklyn studio, Restless Thoughts centers on Zooey’s hypnotic baritone vocals, often set against a strangely potent backdrop of sparse drum-machine beats and droney guitar tones. The result is a fully-realized soundscape, a darkly ethereal palette which Zooey classifies as astral-pop. Restless Thoughts takes its title from a song inspired by a particularly dramatic scene in Zooey’s novel, a metaphysical thriller narrated by the character of Zooey Celeste. “It’s a scene where the father of the protagonist has destroyed his marriage and left his daughter behind, and he’s going to meet his mistress and driving in a very suicidal headspace,” he explains. “He gets into a car accident, and two-thirds of the way into the song he’s floating above his body and watching as they’re trying to resuscitate him.”

Like many of the album’s songs, the gorgeously chilling track took shape in the throes of the novel-writing process. “I’d write a chapter and pick up my guitar and start writing songs based off the scenes I’d just finished,” says Zooey. “It’s funny because it’s the first time I’ve ever allowed myself to write from the perspective of a character, but it’s also the most authentic thing I’ve ever made in my life.”
Stream Zooey Celeste’s “Restless Thoughts”
Restless Thoughts is the real-life manifestation of its creator’s alter ego — an astral shaman responsible for leading the newly departed into the great beyond. After dreaming up the character of Zooey Celeste in a feverishly written novel he refers to as “somewhere between Quentin Tarantino and the Bhagavad Gita,” Zooey began working with longtime friend Nick Hakim (whose production credits also include Lil Yachty and Lianne La Havas) to create this ideal soundtrack for nocturnal driving, an immediate conduit for lasting transcendence. Alongside Hakim, Zooey enlisted a wide array of guest musicians to flesh out the sound of Restless Thoughts, including Unknown Mortal Orchestra bassist Jake Portrait, drummer Abe Rounds (Andrew Bird, Blake Mills, Devandra Banhart), and Columbian-Canadian singer/songwriter Tei Shi. Mastered by Heba Kadry (Ryuichi Sakamoto, Björk, Julianna Barwick), Restless Thoughts endlessly drifts between avant-punk and chamber-pop and lo-fi psychedelia, quickly drawing the listener into a sustained dream state.

Naming J.D. Salinger, Iggy Pop, and Tyler, the Creator among his inspirations, Zooey started writing songs at the age of eight after hearing The Beatles for the first time. Along with studying poetry and creative writing, he later took up guitar, piano, and harmonium and played in a series of indie-rock-leaning musical projects that ultimately proved unfulfilling. “We’d finish a show and it would be the best show we’d ever played, and I’d feel physically sick afterward,” he says. “People liking it made me feel bad, which is probably because I knew I wasn’t being my most authentic self.” After a seven-year stint in New York (where he first connected with Hakim), Zooey spent several years in Hawaii and devoted much of his time to surfing—an essential part of his life since early childhood. “I got addicted to surfing bigger waves at Sunset Beach on the North Shore and had a near-death experience where I went through a coral reef, and it changed my life in a lot of ways,” he says. “It took the air out of the wanderlust I’d felt for a long time, and brought me closer to the things I’d been running away from. Because of that, music went from being an escape to a base of reflection where I’m able to really sit with my emotions and process them and be totally honest with myself about what I want from life.”

With the release of Restless Thoughts, Zooey hopes to instill the audience with a similarly expanded sense of possibility. “Making this record showed me that if I’m not going beyond what the world has handed me as options, then I’m not being creative,” he says. “I went as far as I could with the process of self-exploration, and I felt fully supported in that—almost like everything was a little bit fated, or we were tapping into something in the ether. I’d love it if that inspired other people to go off and do whatever they feel compelled to do, and let themselves be completely entranced by it.”
Pre-order Restless Thoughts

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[Thanks to Jon-Carlo at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Parquet Courts’ A. Savage announces new album, tour, and single – “Elvis in the Army.”

Today, A. Savage, of the rock band Parquet Courts, announces his second solo album, Several Songs About Fire, out October 6th on Rough Trade Records. He also presents its lead single/video, “Elvis in the Army,” and expands his forthcoming tour. Produced by John Parish in Bristol, Several Songs About Fire is bolstered by the support of Jack Cooper (Modern Nature, Ultimate Painting) and Cate Le Bon, as well as members of Kamikaze Palm Tree & caroline. The end result is tantamount to psychic odyssey, with lead single “Elvis in the Army” placing us in asubterranean venue where the livid, ratifying cymbal raises the room’s blood pressure. “Elvis in the Army” follows the previously-shared “Thanksgiving Prayer” — “an intimate and intricate composition” (Consequence) — and is accompanied by a rousing music video shot in Paris and directed by Emile Moutaud.

Of the track, Savage adds: “We often describe ourselves in geographic terms. American, New Yorker — two terms that I’ve used to identify myself that have to do with being from or of a certain place. So ‘Elvis in the Army’ is a bit of an inventory of those labels. They have less to do with geography than we realize. Really we’re just talking about ourselves, then framing certain characteristics geographically. No matter where I live I’ll have an American psyche until the day I die, for better or for worse. I’ll always be of America. And I can’t imagine a time where New York doesn’t feel like home. But despite that, I’d rather not be associated with a place, at least for now.”

This fall, Savage will embark on a US tour, bringing his acclaimed live performance to a slew of cities, including Chicago, New York, Washington, DC and more, followed by a newly announced run of 2024 UK/EU dates, plus a string of West Coast dates next spring. A full list of dates is below, and tickets for newly announced dates are on sale Friday, August 25 @ 10am local time.

WATCH A. SAVAGE’S “ELVIS IN THE ARMY” VIDEO

Novelist Kathleen Alcott on Several Songs About Fire
~ ~

“I imagine myself playing these songs in a small club that is slowly burning,” Savage says of his new record. After more than a decade in New York, Savage left the city and the United States, marking his exit with a masterpiece of maturity and a worthy corollary to his first solo venture, 2017’s Thawing Dawn. “Fire is something you have to escape from, and in a way this album is about escaping from something. This album is a burning building, and these songs are things I’d leave behind to save myself.”

In its recording, too, Several Songs about Fire became as urgent and intuitive as a response to disaster. Produced by Parish on a 1” 16-track, the album was partially sculpted in the bucolic, nocturnal hush of rural England, where Savage and Cooper worked deep into the night, trying not to wake Cooper’s sleeping daughter. The intimacy of these tracks are refracted by the presence of some of Savage’s closest friends — among them Cate Le Bon — who listened to Savage work on what would become the album during a US tour in 2022. Featuring additional contributions from saxophonist Euan Hinshelwood (Cate Le Bon’s band), drummer Dylan Hadley (Kamikaze Palm Tree, White Fence), and violinist Magdalena McLean (caroline), Several Songs about Fire is a devotional study in tradition — and something all Savage’s own. “It was really special to see them come into existence and to then be in the studio working on them with him,” explains Le Bon of working toward Savage’s vision, rather than within a band. “The beautiful friction of shoulder to shoulder was replaced by something else.”

The record’s singular irreverence is stitched together by Savage’s outsize gifts as a lyricist and observer, a quality Parish calls “anemotional openness guarded by a laconic wit.” Worrying questions of wealth and poverty, self and other, Savage displays the poet’s gift of knowing when to narrate and when to vanish, leaving the listener to their own emotional privacy rather than instructing them how to feel through vertiginous inversions of instrumentation and lyrics. Influenced by the disparate vantage points of Sybille Baier and Townes Van Zandt, Savage joins a canon of songwriters whose project is a constantly dilating aperture and perspective.

In rendering the signage of laundromats and threats of debt collectors as glistering and totemic as the scope of mountains, rivers, seas, and skies, Savage finds hopes and curses in equal measure — inviting thelistener to consider a life in which attention is a religion, and thebody is the divine text. Like the survivor of exodus, Savage says: “I don’t really remember the process of writing. I just see the evidence of it when I reopen a notebook.” Several Songs About Fire stands as an act of nearly libidinal rebellion against a moment when so much of life is the blue light of screens. This is an album whose topic is no less than the sublime: the moments in which a sensory experience becomes aholiness or possession of its own, and the self floats above it.

PRE-ORDER SEVERAL SONGS ABOUT FIRE

WATCH THE “THANKSGIVING PRAYER” VIDEO

SEVERAL SONGS ABOUT FIRE TRACKLIST
1. Hurtin’ or Healed
2. Elvis in the Army
3. Le Grande Balloon
4. My my, My Dear
5. Riding Cobbles
6. Mountain Time
7. David’s Dead
8. Thanksgiving Prayer
9. My New Green Coat
10. Out Of Focus

A. SAVAGE TOUR DATES (NEW DATES IN BOLD)
Sat. Sep. 30 – Newport, Essex, UK @ Murmuration Festival
Fri. Oct. 20 – Portland, ME @ SPACE ^
Sat. Oct. 21 – Boston, MA @ Crystal Ballroom ^
Sun. Oct. 22 – Portsmouth, NH @ Press Room ^
Tue. Oct. 24 – Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground ^
Wed. Oct. 25 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Eccentric Cafe ^
Fri. Oct. 27 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle ^
Sat. Oct. 28 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club *
Sun. Oct. 29 – Milwaukee, WI @ Colectivo #
Mon. Oct. 30 – St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway %
Wed. Nov. 1 – Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups %
Thu. Nov. 2 – Louisville, KY @ Whirling Tiger %
Fri. Nov. 3 – Nashville, TN @ Third Man %
Sat. Nov. 4 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl %
Sun. Nov. 5 – Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle
Tue. Nov. 7 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle %
Thu. Nov. 9 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat %
Fri. Nov. 10 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian %
Sat. Nov. 11 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom %
Thu. Feb 08, 2024 – Manchester, UK @ Pink Room
Fri. Feb 09, 2024 – Dublin, Ireland @ Workmans Club
Sun. Feb 11, 2024 – Glasgow, UK @ Broadcast
Mon. Feb 12, 2024 – Bristol, UK @ Thekla
Wed. Feb 14, 2024 – London, UK @ The Garage
Thu. Feb 15, 2024 – Paris, France @ La Maroquinerie
Fri. Feb 16, 2024 – Brussels, Belgium @ Botanique Rotonde
Sun. Feb 18, 2024 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso Upstairs
Mon. Feb 19, 2024 – Cologne, Germany @ MTC Club
Wed. Feb 21, 2024 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Ideal Bar – Vega
Thu. Feb 22, 2024 – Berlin, Germany @ Privat Club
Fri. Apr 05, 2024 – Austin, TX @ The Far Out
Sun. Apr 07, 2024 – Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf
Tue. Apr 09, 2024 – Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
Wed. Apr 10, 2024 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s
Thu. Apr 11, 2024 – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room
Fri. Apr 12, 2024 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Teragram Ballroom
Sat. Apr 13, 2024 – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
Mon. Apr 15, 2024 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
Tue. Apr 16, 2024 – Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern

^ w/ Annie Hart
* w/ Cha Cha
# w/ Diet Lite
% w/ Sluice

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Live: The Beths and Disq – Bell’s Eccentric Café – Kalamazoo, MI – August 22, 2023

I had been trying to see The Beths for a couple years, but either I was always working when they were playing or their tour dates were nowhere near where I live, but lo and behold, they scheduled a date in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a mere one-and-half-hour drive from my house, at Bell’s Eccentric Café.

It turned out not only to be my first time seeing The Beths, but also the first show I saw at Bell’s beer garden stage. I’d been to multiple shows at Bell’s, but had never been in the garden and had no idea it was so spacious. I also didn’t realize that the town’s Metro train tracks ran behind the stage area, and neither did the band and a lot of other people, until two trains went past during The Beths’ set.

Not only was the size of the garden a delightful surprise, but so was the age range of the crowd. It was an all-ages show, and I saw people ranging from a boy who was barely thirteen to a man in his seventies there. A lot of people were sporting Beths t-shirts from previous tours, and the crowd clearly loved them and were happy they’d come all the way from New Zealand.

First up, however were Disq from Madison, Wisconsin. They played an energetic mix of noise rock, post punk, and no-wave and were having a great time. I didn’t get to see their whole set, thanks to road construction delaying me a bit, but what I saw and heard was loud and frantic.

The Beths came out in the dark, complete with a giant inflatable fish, and opened with the title track of their debut album Future Me Hates Me, and the crowd was instantly happy. The Beths are a fun band. Their love of playing, and their camaraderie, is immediately apparent, and that energy races through the audience.

They played a fun set, including fun hits like “Whatever” and “Dying to Believe,” secretly sad songs like “Expert in a Dying Field” and “Best Left,” and lovely love songs like “Your Side” and “When You Know You Know.”

“We love you!” was a common shout from the crowd, and The Beths returned the love for the whole set, and did a lot of shredding. It’s easy to focus on Elizabeth Stokes‘ lyrics and miss how well the whole band plays. They could easily cut a shoegaze album if they wanted – and I hope they do.

It was a fun night with nice late summer weather and good vibes all around thanks to The Beths bringing the love.

Keep your mind open.

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

[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Don’t pass over Art Feynman’s new single – “Passed Over.”

Art Feynman — the eccentric alter ego of accomplished visual artist and producer Luke Temple — presents the new single, “Passed Over,” from his forthcoming album, Be Good The Crazy Boys, out November 10th on Western Vinyl. “Passed Over” explores struggling with FOMO — “I’m ok to be passed over // Let them have it // I don’t care” — a narrative that would be relatable if the song didn’t sound so completely unhinged. Across a vast psychedelic palette, “Passed Over” features a robotic instrumental breakdown and an out-of-this-world saxophone performance from Nicole McCabe. Following the “synth-pop jam” (FLOOD) “All I Can Do” and the “breezy” (Brooklyn Vegan) “Desperately Free” — “Passed Over” is another thrilling glimpse at the tropical contours of Be Good The Crazy Boys. “It can be refreshing to decide to eat last, it’s stressful if you’re always needing to be at the front of the line,” explains Feynman.

Until now, Art Feynman has strictly been a solo act, a way for Temple to explore surprising sonic landscapes without the burdens of identity. Slightly twisted takes on Kosmische musik, worldbeat, and art pop can all be found scattered across the Art Feynman discography, but with Be Good The Crazy Boys, Feynman fully immerses himself into pools of collective madness. Unlike the first two Art Feynman albums, Be Good The Crazy Boys was recorded live in-studio with a full band. The result captures a spirit of restless anxiety, and recalls the most frenetic work by Talking Heads, or Oingo Boingo at their darkest.

“To me,” Temple explains, “there was a lot of energy that needed to be released as the result of living in isolation for 6 years. It also seems to speak to a general anxiety we’re all holding, but it’s expressed in a cathartic way.” It’s this acknowledgement of general anxiety that separates Feynman from the other fictional personas that have been cropping up in the music world lately. Feynman doesn’t sound suave, confident, or even heartbroken in these songs; it sounds like he’s on the verge of a panic attack.

With Be Good The Crazy Boys, Art Feynman proves to be more than just a character. He represents the part of the modern, collective consciousness that’s struggling to maintain balance in a toxic, chaotic world. In less skilled hands, that concept could result in a very somber listen. Fortunately, when Art Feynman gets his hands on the chaos of the modern age, it simply makes you want to dance.

Watch the “Desperately Free” Visualizer

Listen to “All I Can Do”

Pre-order Be Good The Crazy Boys

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t pass over the subscription box either.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Club Coma (self-titled)

Hailing from Austin, Texas and playing sold-out shows before they even released any music, Club Coma (Geoff Earle – synth, bass, and vocals, Scott Martin – guitar and vocals, and Aaron Perez – drums) play a neat mix of experimental rock, dance rock, and shoegaze on their debut, self-titled album.

Opener “Give Me a Chance” sounds like something Thundercat might cook up, and I’m sure he’ll be jealous that he didn’t create something so funky when he hears it. “The Mirror” has a bit of a dance-punk sound to it, and “New Cruelty” even adds goth-synth touches. “I’m frightened of my TV screen. I’m scared of the things it’ll do to me. I’m scared of the phone in my pocket. I keep checking, and I don’t know how to stop it,” Martin sings on “TV Screen.” Seriously, dude, we’re all with you on this (and the addictive beats of the song only help the imagery).

“I went through that bad shit, and now I’m immune,” they sing on “Immune,” an empowering track that has Perez knocking out a steady beat perfect for your bicycling playlist, Earle getting his groovy synth groove groovin’, and Martin reminding us that we’ve come through a lot in the past few years, and we can, and should, think of ourselves as bad asses from this day forward.

Their cover of The James Gang‘s “Collage” is sharp. They turn it into a synthwave stunner. “It hit me hard like a lightning bolt,” they sing at the start of “Anesthesia,” a song that might be about addiction, or it might be about, finally, getting a rest after all the stuff mentioned in “Immune.” The looping string section in it takes the track up a few notches. It’s a wild touch. “Keep It Together” gets dreamy for the final song, making you feel like the gentleman on the cover, an image of a modern Icarus, falling into the arms of people who seem happy to see him. You’re falling, or perhaps floating, into a calmer state in that club where being in a coma for a little while might do you good.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Ian Sweet presents your new favorite make-out song with “Your Spit.”

Today, IAN SWEET — the project of songwriter and pop auteur Jilian Medford — announces her new album, SUCKER, out November 3rd on Polyvinyl, and presents lead single/video, “Your Spit.” Perfectly merging Medford’s pop sensibilities with the widescreen indie rock that she first made her name on, SUCKER is both sumptuous and fully realized. Medford’s musical voice has only become more unique amidst an ever-growing field, and SUCKER is proof positive that — even with a considerable discography in her arsenal — Medford is just getting started.

Lead single “Your Spit” swerves and sways with a distinctly pop gait. Produced by Alex Craig (Binki, Claud) and Strange Ranger’s Isaac Eiger, “Your Spit” begins with blown-out synths and Medford’s ever-incisive lyrics. “Why don’t you kiss me like you mean it // Kiss me like you’re leaving // Your spit tastes different,” Medford sings, her voice shapeshifting from nonchalant yearning to a full-blown scream-along chorus. Of “Your Spit,” Medford adds; “‘Your Spit’ is about the joy and fear that surrounds new relationships. The excitement that’s also accompanied by doubt. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say the song is just mostly about making out.”

The accompanying “Your Spit” video — helmed by Insufficent Funds and directed by Brittany Reeber — sees Medford surrounded by a theater full of kissing couples, and features cameos from Saturday Night Live cast members Sarah Sherman (aka Sarah Squirm) and Martin Herlihy. Of the video, Reeber adds: “Jillian and I got together one day and had a complete mind meld on what the videos would be for the first two singles. The concept for ‘Your Spit’ comes straight from the energy of the song. It felt right to get kind of literal and visceral! The couples brought a whole new dimension to the video that I wasn’t even expecting, it’s flirty, but it’s also really tender and sweet. Grateful to all the brave kissers! We also knew we wanted the two videos to speak to each other in some way so there is a nod to the next vid in this one if you can catch it.”

WATCH IAN SWEET’S “YOUR SPIT” VIDEO

Work on SUCKER began in the fall of 2022; feeling newly untethered in the wake of a “COVID relationship” that had recently come to pass, Medford took a cross-country road trip from her L.A. home to an artist residency at The Outlier Inn. “I was feeling very stuck in L.A. and was trying to get comfortable with spending more time alone again,” she recalls about her hermetic confines, which included 24-hour studio access to create in an unfettered fashion. “I went there not knowing exactly what I wanted to do or make, but I knew I wanted to explore and get out of my comfort zone. I forced myself to make things on the spot, in the moment and not overthink it too much.”

Feeling inspired, Medford brought her demos to life with co-producers Craig and Eiger, along with mixing engineer Al Carlson (St. Vincent, Jessica Pratt), all of whom helped shape SUCKER into its current form —a record that reconciles Medford’s beginnings with where she’s landed at this current moment. “I revisited the reasons why I started playing music to begin with,” she explains. “I wanted to get more personal and showcase a more confident side musically and lyrically.”

SUCKER follows Medford’s 2021 breakthrough and Polyvinyl debut, Show Me How You Disappear, which chronicled her time spent in an intensive outpatient program that included six hours of group therapy a day. “Show Me How You Disappear was written during a really difficult period of my life after reckoning with a mental health crisis,” she explains. “I survived that very moment in my life through writing that record, and the extreme urgency to heal is reflected in the songwriting. With SUCKER, I felt more capable to take my time and experiment without being totally afraid of the outcome. It wasn’t life or death — it was just life, and I was lucky to be living it.”

PRE-ORDER SUCKER

SUCKER TRACKLIST
1. Bloody Knees
2. Smoking Again
3. Emergency Contact
4. Sucker
5. Comeback
6. Your Spit
7. Clean
8. FIGHT
9. Slowdance
10. Hard

IAN SWEET Tour Dates
Fri. Aug. 11 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre #
Sat. Aug. 12 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre #
Thu. Aug. 17 – Los Angeles, CA @ Skirball Cultural Center
Tue. Aug. 22 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere – Rooftop $
Thu. Nov. 9 – London, UK @ Pitchfork Music Festival London

# w/ Please Don’t Destroy
$ co-headline w/ Why Bonnie

Keep your mind open.

[It would be sweet if you subscribed.]

[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Courtney Barnett covers Chastity Belt on her new single.

Suicide Squeeze celebrates Chastity Belt with the latest in its split 7″ single series–a pair of covers by Friends of the Band and tourmates Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile. For this release, Kurt and Courtney each recorded a song from the band’s third album, 2017’s I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone, in their signature styles.
Today, you can listen to Side C for Courtney’s take on “Different Now,” where she pulls the song from its Pacific Northwest haze, leaves it out to dry in the middle of the desert, and wrings something almost joyous from the original’s ambiguity.
Side K is Kurt’s version of “This Time of Night,” on which he lovingly recreates the anxious interplay of Julia Shapiro and Lydia Lund’s guitars, stretching each note of the song’s fraught vocal melody to its breaking point. “This Time of Night” / “Different Now” will be available October 27 on vinyl and digital platforms, with a one-time vinyl pressing limited to 1500 (250 pink, 250 black, 1000 blue) copies.

On the track Courtney Barnett offers: “This song is so special to me. I remember when the album came out and I listened to ‘different now’ over and over, I thought they were singing directly to me. It’s a perfect piece of songwriting, I showed it to Kurt and he would always sing it to me on tour. I love Chastity Belt. I’m pretty sure we met in 2014 at a record store in Seattle, then we toured together in 2015 and we’ve been friends ever since.
I originally played it as a little folk acoustic version, then I asked Stella [Mozgawa] to program some drums and it turned into something a lot more fun. we tracked straight to the Tascam 388 and it was a real joy to make.”

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[Thanks to Andi at Terrorbird Media.]

Art Feynman is “Desperately Free” on his new single.

Today, Art Feynman — the recording alias of visual artist and producer Luke Temple — presents his new single, “Desperately Free,” from his forthcoming album, Be Good The Crazy Boys, out November 10th on Western Vinyl. Following lead single “All I Can Do,” “Desperately Free” keeps the grooves going, propelled by tropical-inflected percussion and infectious chants. “Something changed while I was sleeping,” the backing vocalists interject between Temple’s murmured incantations, “Somehow I feel different // as I go about my day.” Of “Desperately Free,” Temple adds: “I was thinking about the obsession with spiritual growth or with ‘curing’ death and the compensatory consequences that ensue as a result. We can’t cheat nature of which we are one and the same, she’ll find balance eventually.”

Watch Art Feynman’s “Desperately Free” Visualizer

Until now, Art Feynman has strictly been a solo act, a way for Temple to explore surprising sonic landscapes without the burdens of identity. Be Good The Crazy Boys was recorded live in-studio with a full band. The result captures a spirit of restless anxiety, and recalls the most frenetic work by Talking Heads, or Oingo Boingo at their darkest. “Sonically, I was inspired by records that were recorded at the late Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas such as Grace Jones’ ‘Private Life,’ Lizzy Mercier Descloux’s Mambo Nassau, and Talking Heads’ Remain in Light.” Despite these callbacks, Be Good The Crazy Boys remains firmly rooted in modern concerns, with songs about fearing the end of the world and struggling with FOMO — narratives that would be relatable if they didn’t sound so completely unhinged.

Slightly twisted takes on Kosmische musik, worldbeat, and art pop can be found scattered across the Art Feynman discography, but with Be Good The Crazy Boys, Temple fully immerses himself into pools of collective madness. With Be Good The Crazy Boys, Art Feynman proves to be more than just a character. He represents the part of the modern, collective consciousness that’s struggling to maintain balance in a toxic, chaotic world. In less skilled hands, that concept could result in a very somber listen. Fortunately, when Art Feynman gets his hands on the chaos of the modern age, it simply makes you want to dance.

Temple explains, “To me, there was a lot of energy that needed to be released as the result of living in isolation for six years. It also seems to speak to a general anxiety we’re all holding, but it’s expressed in a cathartic way.” It’s this acknowledgement of general anxiety that separates Feynman from the other fictional personas that have been cropping up in the music world lately. Feynman doesn’t sound suave, confident, or even heartbroken in these songs; it sounds like he’s on the verge of a panic attack.

Listen to “All I Can Do”

Pre-order Be Good The Crazy Boys

Keep your mind open.

[Be good and subscribe.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Rewind Review: Sugar – Copper Blue (1992)

It’s 1991 and Bob Mould has two solo albums under his belt after the break-up of Hüsker Dü. He’s a writing machine and is getting back to his punk roots after his Workboook album that was a bit subdued and full of folk influences. He’s not sure how his fans and the general public are going to react to the new material, however. It’s loud and raw, but also more melodic than his Hüsker Dü material. He hires David Barbe to play bass and Malcolm Travis to play drums for him and names the band Sugar after seeing a sugar packet at a diner (Free advertising at every diner and coffee shop in the world!). He and his bandmates then put down just ten of the many tracks Mould had written (the word is that he had around thirty) and the result becomes Copper Blue.

It turned out that Mould didn’t need to worry, as the album was a stunner and people were hungry for the sound he’d created in the early years of the grunge scene. The chugging, growling guitar chords at the start of “The Act We Act” were like manna from heaven for early 1990s radio stations eager to spin anything that vaguely sounded like Nirvana‘s Nevermind album (and Mould has openly spoken about how the success of Nevermind helped Copper Blue find an audience). “A Good Idea” is a roaring tale about twisted love and what it’s like to witness twisted love. Barbe’s bass thumps through the whole thing.

It flows right into “Changes” – a song about how nothing ever stays the same. “You can’t step into the same river twice,” as the saying goes, and “Changes” seems to reflect this as Mould sings about how he and his lover need to make serious adjustments to their relationship if it’s going to work. Mould’s chords on “Helpless” soar, as do his vocals about how hard he’s trying to help someone who is choosing to be helpless. Travis’ snare hits are like signal flares popping off to reflect Mould’s calls for help with the situation.

“Hoover Dam,” with its weird backwards synths, finds Mould in a strange place between madness and peace. The combination of his acoustic guitar with keyboard riffs is a nice one. ‘The Slim” has Mould grieving a lover after their death, and I can tell you that his lyrics are spot-on (“I felt your breath for a moment. I heard your voice for a moment. Then I looked back on my pillow. What you used to say, what we used to say.”). The guitars are almost manic, but they’re maintaining control. They’re managing it. It’s all you can do, really.

On the flip side of this, “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” has Mould trying to convince a lover that he’s going to be there no matter what, but they still won’t believe him despite all his efforts (“With all the crazy doubts you’ve got, I love you even still.”) “Fortune Teller” has that signature “Mould sound” of driving guitar chords backed by solid bass and drums and might be the closest to a Hüsker Dü track.

Mould’s lyrics in “Slick” use the imagery of a car crash (real or imagined?) to reflect his thoughts on his addictions, booze and love, and how they’re often the cause of his own harm. The fuzz on it is great, another metaphor for his roughed-up brain. The album ends with “Man on the Moon,” which has nothing to do with the R.E.M. song or the Jim Carey movie and everything to do with crushing riffs and rock anthem drums.

Copper Blue shook up the airwaves just when we needed it and probably made a lot of wanna-be grunge bands hang up their guitars. It’s a must-own if you’re a fan of Mould’s work.

Keep your mind open.

[I feel helpless when you don’t subscribe.]

The Beths to release a deluxe edition of “Expert in a Dying Field” on September 15, 2023.

The Beths — “one of the greatest indie-rock bands of their time” (Rolling Stone) — announce Expert In A Dying Field (Deluxe), out September 15th on Carpark Records, and present the new single, “I Told You That I Was Afraid (Acoustic).” Expert In A Dying Field (Deluxe) expands upon the brilliance of The Beths’ acclaimed 2022 album, “another collection of tunes that cements their status as one of the great guitar-pop bands of this present moment” (Stereogum), with three demos, two acoustic renditions, and the inclusion of previously shared standalone singles “A Real Thing” and “Watching The Credits.” The latter has already been deemed one of 2023’s best songs by Rolling Stone and Paste, who praised “Watching The Credits” as “a terrific, heat-seeking missile of glittering guitars and steadfast percussion work” that “speaks to how they endure as one of the most exciting rock bands in the world right now.”

Later this week, The Beths (and their beloved inflatable fish) will take to the U.K. for a string of select festivals and headline dates. Shortly after, they will return to North America for a full, almost entirely sold out tour including dates supporting The National, Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service. The Beths will also headline three nights at Los Angeles’ Lodge Room (surrounding their sold out show at the Hollywood Bowl supporting Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service), plus three nights at New York’s Music Hall of Williamsburg. Full dates are listed below and tickets are on sale now.

Listen to “I Told You That I Was Afraid (Acoustic)”

Expert In A Dying Field, the third studio album from The Beths, was released to a wealth of critical praise, and was named one of 2022’s best releases by the likes of Pitchfork, The Ringer, Stereogum and more. Surrounding its release, The Beths were profiled by Rolling Stone, Document Journal, The Big Takeover and more, and made their U.S. television debut on CBS Saturday Morning. The Beths are undeniably one of the most exciting indie rock bands to emerge in recent memory.

Pre-order Expert In A Dying Field (Deluxe)

Expert In A Dying Field (Deluxe) Tracklist

1. Expert In A Dying Field

2. Knees Deep

3. Silence Is Golden

4. Your Side

5. I Want To Listen

6. Head In The Clouds

7. Best Left

8. Change In The Weather

9. When You Know You Know

10. A Passing Rain

11. I Told You That I Was Afraid

12. 2am

13. I Told You That I Was Afraid (Acoustic)

14. When You Know You Know (Acoustic)

15. A Real Thing

16. Watching The Credits

17. Keep The Distance (Demo)

18. Expert In A Dying Field (Demo)

19. I Want To Listen (Demo)

20. 2am (Demo)

The Beths Tour Dates (New Dates In Bold):

Fri. July 14 – Utrecht, NL @ Ekko

Sat. July 15 – Rotterdam, NL @ Rotown

Sun. July 16 – Nijmegen, NL @ Valkhof Festival

Tue. July 18 – Liverpool, UK @ Hangar 34

Wed. July 19 – Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK @ Boiler Shop

Fri. July 21 – Southwold, UK @ Latitude Festival

Sat. July 22 – Steventon, UK @ Truck Festival

Sun. July 23 – Sheffield, UK @ Tramlines Festival

Fri. July 28 – Newport, RI @ Newport Folk Festival

Sat. July 29 – Omaha, NE @ Maha Festival

Tue. Aug. 1 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia * [SOLD OUT]

Wed. Aug. 2 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia *

Thu. Aug. 3 – New Haven, CT @ Westville Music Bowl *

Fri. Aug. 4 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr Smalls Theatre

Sat. Aug. 5 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom & Tavern [SOLD OUT]

Mon. Aug. 7 – Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore *

Tue. Aug. 8 – Madison, WI @ The Sylvee *

Wed. Aug. 9 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory *

Fri. Aug. 11 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom * [SOLD OUT]

Sat. Aug. 12 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom *

Tue. Aug. 15 – Nashville, TN @ Ascend Amphitheater *

Wed. Aug. 16 – Atlanta, GA @ Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park *

Thu. Aug. 17 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle [SOLD OUT]

Fri. Aug. 18 – Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage [SOLD OUT]

Sat. Aug. 19 – Quincy, MA @ In Between Days Festival

Mon. Aug. 21 – Cincinnati, OH @ Woodward Theater

Tue. Aug. 22 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell’s Eccentric Cafe

Thu. Aug. 24 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed #

Fri. Aug. 25 – Abiquiu, NM @ Ghost Ranch Festival ^

Sun. Aug. 27 – Seattle, WA @ THING

Sat. Sep. 30 – Austin, TX @ Germania Insurance Amphitheater ^

Sun. Oct. 1 – Grand Prairie, TX @ Texas Trust CU Theatre ^

Tue. Oct. 3 – Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre ^ [SOLD OUT]

Wed. Oct. 4 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas ^ [SOLD OUT]

Fri. Oct. 6 – Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena ^ [SOLD OUT]

Sat. Oct. 7 – Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena ^ [SOLD OUT]

Mon. Oct. 9 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre ^ [SOLD OUT]

Tue. Oct. 10 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre ^ [SOLD OUT]

Wed. Oct. 11 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre ^ [SOLD OUT]

Thu. Oct. 12 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room

Fri. Oct. 13 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl ^ [SOLD OUT]

Sat. Oct. 14 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room [SOLD OUT]

Sun. Oct. 15 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room

Tue. Oct. 17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

Wed. Oct. 18 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

Thu. Oct. 19 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg [SOLD OUT]

* w/ The National

^ w/ Death Cab For Cutie & The Postal Service

# w/ Beach Bunny

Watch The Beths’ Tiny Desk Concert

Watch The Beths on CBS Saturday Morning:

“Expert In A Dying Field”

“When You Know You Know”

“Your Side”

Purchase Expert In A Dying Field

Keep your mind open.

[Become an expert in the field of music news by subscribing.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]